Don't Care

I recently came across a pair of white tights with little peach flowers on them. They reminded me of the ones my mother forced me to wear when I was a child. I wore them today with my sheer pale peach dress with the poofy sleeves. This dress is actually a vintage nightie I snagged at Goodwill. Throw a thin brown leather belt on it and *poof* it's a dress! Anyways, it was freezing today and it was the perfect semi-summer-only opportunity I will have to wear them before Autumn. I didn't have much to do today before work, but I couldn't bare to be alone. I overslept, drank a lot of coffee, forced a shower, overlooked the hair-falling-out situation, then told myself to dress up so I would feel better.

I drove down to my favorite thrift store where my favorite thrift store lady told me I hadn't been there in a month...A month? A MONTH!?!? Well...actually that sounds correct. Work, eat, sleep, repeat has been my life for the past month. I went in for some personal shopping time not really thinking about finding anything. I just wanted to lose myself in the discovery, in the racks, in the stories of the beautiful objects, in the conversations around me, in my comforting world of collected things. My favorite thrift store had doubled in volume of stuff in the last month. It was wonderful. There was a late 1960's wedding dress in the window. Before I had the chance to play dress up in it some old lady who runs a rental business snagged it up. I felt really angry about this. That dress would never belong to someone who it was meant for because she would now only rent it to some rich girl who has a taste for vintage clothing.

I went on to discover all clothes were 50% off (too much volume of stuff I suppose) and to my delight I found three dresses on the $1 rack. All different, all late 60's/early 70's, all mine. And then a vintage Samsonite blue stewardess bag, a red leather belt, a pair of 70's lace up boots, and an 80's poofy purple snow coat that perfectly matches my 80's snow pants. All for $9.70.

I left with my little treasures and headed to work to eat before I passed out. I sat down with my mini tuna sandwich when Josh began sweeping the lobby. I heard him laugh and connected it to the fact I was scarfing the sandwich down without breathing.

"I'm starving!" I said through bread, lettuce, and pickles.

"Yeah, I see that, but that's not what I'm laughing at."

"....what?"

"Your tights, you just don't care do you?"

"They have flowers on them!" I exclaimed in defense.

"Yeah...Only you can wear that kind of stuff and just wear it and not care. It's nice. You just don't care." then he walked off.

Josh is different. He is kind of slow, grew up in special classes, regarded as never going to make it high in life, but I love him. He doesn't always do well in social situation or in expressing himself, but when he said that to today I just felt so...me. He didn't me that I don't care in the sense of what people think or anything along those lines. He meant that I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid to be myself.

I express myself through clothing. I love that peach nightie dress because when I wear it I feel the exact way I felt when I would dress up in my grandmas' silking nighties and prance around her house all day long. I wear those tights with the little peach flowers on them because I can remember sitting in church on Sundays, after my mom had forced them on me, and counting the flowers until service was over. I wore those things to be comforted, because I just needed some sense of comfort today. And those kinds of emotions drive the way I dress.

It's how I express things that I don't...that I can't talk about in spoken words.

That is how I "don't care." That is how I am me.

Sunbeam Mixmaster Complete

It all started with a yellow Sunbeam Mixmaster model 1-7A circa 1981. It was $8, but without a bowl or beaters. I am relentless, though, so there began my journey to find all the pieces so that one day I would be whipping out cookie dough and cupcake batter as far as the eye could see!

What began as a simple ebay search turned into something much more. I thought it would be simple, seeing as how I found many bowls that matched. Little did I know what started out as a $5 bid would turn into me watching because fight to an ending bid of $45. For a bowl? Beaters, you ask? $0.99 ends in $36. You have got to be kidding me! I paid $8 for the whole machine! I began feeling really upset about this whole mixer business. I thought I was going to have to be close to a hundred into just to be able to use it. I might as well just put the machine in the kitchen as a piece of conversation and wait for someone to buy us a Kitchenaid Mixer at the wedding shower. Then again, I don't give up easily. No, I would find that bowl and beaters and I was most certainly not paying $45 for anything.

Three weeks ago I determined that I would comb every thrift store, yard sale, and flea market until I found them. Two Sundays ago I walked into Goodwill as soon as the door opened at 1pm to let Kasey try on a blazer I was going to buy him the week before. I searched every corner of the house ware section until I was going to give up for this trip and wait till next time when I looked up and in some random shelf was this:

I knew it was a Sunbeam bowl without even having to look at it twice. It was dirty and smudged with years of use...and...it...was...mine!!! I think I might have let out a little squeal as I took it down from the shelf and read the $2 price sticker. It was identical to the ones I had stalked on ebay and on old Sunbeam Mixmaster ads.

Fast forward to today where I stalked through two different libraries to acquire all of these:

What can I say? I'm having a John Green kind of week. And I have been meaning to read The Hunger Games for about two years. I'm really excited about jumping in now that Catching Fire and Mockingjay are already out.

Anyways, I didn't really go thrifting today for myself. Amber is directing her own show in a few weeks of Alice in Wonderland and we were in pursuit to fill a huge box full of plates, teacups, and random things for the show.

By chance I thought I would go through the silverware and look at all the beaters, yet again for the billionth time these last couple weeks. I honestly did not expect to find anything. But then...I did. Again they were the same style I had been seeing on ebay. The beaters have been hard to identify as the right ones because they are not made with any model numbers. It's basically and hit or miss game. I was hoping for a hit. I danced to the checkout counter to hand her all $2 of the purchase price.

"I really hope these fit my mixer I bought here the other week!"

She smiled and put them in a bag, "Well you just take these home and see if they fit and just bring them back or pay me later this week. I know you will; you're in here every other day."

I went home in a daze, dug the mixer out of the numerous rubber storage bins now living in the spare room that are full of stuff I have gotten the last couple months for the future home, and said a prayer as I paused to stick them in the slots. I then they clicked. It was the best sound in the world. It felt like when you zip up they dress you have been longing to buy and it just fits.

I ran with it to the kitchen, plugged it in, and jumped in place for a good five minutes as I watched it spin and listened to the motor sing sweet mixing sounds.

Even though these are actually the dough hooks, but I still plan on using them to make some serious cookies this week. I know without a doubt in my mind I will find the regular set of beaters soon. I am so thankful that I keep getting blessed with all these amazing finds. It feel so good to find something then actually be able to search and discover all these pieces they go with it too. I feel accomplished!

So it's complete, mostly. It's really nice to think of the family that owned the mixer and all the wonderful things they created with it over the years. And also the other family who owned the bowl and the other other family that owned the dough hooks. So many pieces from so many different places that have been put together to now be a part of mine and Kasey's home.

Thrifting = happiness.

“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.”

Audrey Hepburn is more than just style; she was an amazing human spirit. In honor of the handbag I found last night, which I named Audrey, I wanted to share my favorite quote from her.

So this weekend is the Historical Morganton Festival. After Kasey got out of class we made our way downtown. First off was Neely D's BBQ. Not only was the BBQ amazing, our plate came with the best hushpuppies I have ever eaten. Basically the festival is a time to pig out and not think about it the nest couple days. We got apple cider slushies from our favorite stand, Knob Creek Farms. I look forward to it every year. Simple things like an apple cider slushie or Thia chicken on a stick is just so good when you wait an entire year for it.

We walked around, fought against ourselves to buy food from every single stand, passed and spoke to everyone we knew, listened to crappy festival band music, and then watched Resident Evil: After Life. It wasn't has horrible as the third, but still not as good as the first two.

I went to the jewelry stand I have gotten a ring from every year for the last three years to add a new one to my collection. I was very disappointed to see they only had the same designs as last year. So no new ring for me. Onward to the other side of the block I found the Habitat Restore booth. I found a handmade coffee cup with a frog crafted on the inside of the lip that looked to be falling in with a look of sheer terror on it's clay glazed face. Kasey and I found this to be the most humorous thing with have seen in a while. I was about to buy it when out of the corner of my eye I saw a black clutch handbag in a box. I reached down and found this beauty:

It was a whopping $1.50. Judging from the style, inside liner, and chain clasps I am pretty sure it's from the 40's. So tonight I will be carrying this to Cabaret!