Wednesday, January 29, 2014

time to fetch the donuts

what happens when there are 3 inches of snow on the ground, the roads are still not plowed, and your dogs have cabin fever?



snow party! fiesta de snow!



frosty whiskers!


powder pounce!

time to make the donuts

what happens when there are 3 inches of snow on the ground, the roads have not been plowed or sanded, but the court has not gotten itself together enough to declare whether it's open or closed?



you put on your suit and hike up the driveway and go to work! behold asheville's most dedicated bankruptcy lawyer.

pointing out the trail of footprints made overnight by small rodents.


Monday, January 27, 2014

carnival fantasy

i spent last week on a cruise ship in the atlantic ocean going between south carolina and the bahamas.


charleston is only 3 and a half hours from asheville. the cruise left at 5 pm on monday, so we drove down monday morning and got on the ship. no airports, no hotels. easy breezy!

i have never been on a cruise before. it was not exactly like the love boat, but it wasn't too over the top cheesy either.  it was a lot like woodloch pines, but on a ship.  lots of activities available, but nothing was mandatory.


 there were over 2000 people on the ship. if you're looking for relatively agreeable, polite passengers, i recommend a ship leaving from charleston as opposed to one from south florida and/or new jersey. it seemed like 99% of our boat was from NC, SC, or Kentucky. They blessed their food before eating, but did not bless out cruise ship staff.  Good trade.


here they are learning the 'thriller' dance

 the weather in asheville last week was snowy and sub freezing. the weather in the bahamas was 72 and sunny.

we got off the boat in nassau and went to a resort nearby- site of many james bond movies. they try to keep the riff raff (us) out, but our cabbie lied and said we were staying there and snuck us through the gate and we went to the spa to sign up for a couples massage. it was all very uncomfortable. we were chased out of a hammock in a deserted park while waiting. we drank the world's loneliest un-garnished bloody mary in a fantastically beautiful but soulless heartless silent bar.


we weren't supposed to be there, and everybody knew it. i was happy to see it and happy to leave it.

after a peek at the vegas-disney spectacle of the atlantis, we found a sweet spot at the other end of the island called traveller's rest.

people were nice! they spoke to us! and wanted to take our money! it was glorious!



they even gave us a bonus fritter. they are serious about their conch down there. delicious giant clams.




the next day, the ship stopped in freeport. we took a cab to the reef golf course at the grand lucayan and kevin played golf. it was very beautiful and relaxed. the course was in pretty dang good shape and greens fees were reasonable. he was the second person out at 9 AM and did not wait for a shot, done in about 2.5 hours. it was lovely.



the ship left the bahamas at 5pm on thursday and we had a 'fun day at sea' friday, arriving back in charleston at the crack of dawn on saturday. the carnival staff were great - friendly and diligent. they cleaned our room 2 times a day. all of the common areas were constantly being maintained - scrubbed, painted, re-tiled. twice i saw them RECARPETING somebody's room. i guess when there's an accident, instead of cleaning the carpet, they pull it up and replace it. it may not be the greenest method, but it definitely seemed clean. 

 one fun, quirky thing about carnival is they make 'towel creations' - twist towels into animal shapes. i thought this was extremely funny and wanted to buy the instruction book. kevin wasn't so amused, and so we didn't get the book. if anybody is looking for birthday present ideas for me, i would like this book.

all in all, it was a great escape for 5 days, and i would definitely do it again. 


Wednesday, January 08, 2014

deeeeep freeeeeze

the swannanoa river is bigger than a creek. with this week's polar vortex bringing sub-zero (really) temperatures to asheville, the river froze over in parts.

there's a platform of ice along the bank.

thankfully today is back up into the balmy upper 30's and the ice is now chunking and flowing downstream.

many people were without power and many have burst pipes and flooding. we had a burst-scare yesterday afternoon when i turned the kitchen cold water faucet and nothing came out. frozen pipe! all other faucets in the house worked, so we knew it wasn't a main pipe, but the kitchen sink happens to be located DIRECTLY over my 1200 precious heirlooms (vintage clothing) stored on shelves. i strongly considered buying dozens of plastic bins and moving hundreds of pounds of clothing upstairs, just in case. for over 24 hours the pipe was frozen, but i just kept a sharp lookout/listen out and this afternoon it thawed. no burst, no flood, thank you baby jesus!

pouncey has two balls!

Thursday, January 02, 2014

hola 2014



2013 was a good year for me. and for skippy haha vintage! i really enjoy selling on etsy, it is user friendly and the seller fees are reasonable. everything continues to move in the right direction as time goes by - more views, favorites, and sales. 

a few major highlights of the last year: 

i opened a skippy haha vintage t-shirt shop on defunkd.com vintage t-shirt collective. dozens of sellers post hundreds of authentic vintage t-shirts all in one convenient location.  jimmy j does a fantastic job of keeping the site fresh and functional. there's a funny, informative blog and an interactive forum - lovers of true vintage t-shirts can get lost for hours on this site.

in 2013 i taught myself to sew. more accurately, i reacquainted myself with the sewing i learned in mrs mcdonald's 7th grade home ec class. though that was sewing with a machine, and now i've been sewing like betsy ross.  seams. buttons. burnholes. a 2 foot dog nail rip in a duvet cover. it has opened up a whole new world of vintage for me! instead of passing on things, or reducing prices for missing buttons, i repair them and sell for full price. win-win!

last but not least, i mentored a sweet, funny, kind woman in etsy selling. she went from being a young mother/goodwill junkie/semi-hoarder to a professional 20+ etsy seller in a couple short months.  after hundreds of emails and text messages back and forth about shipping and keywords and photos and customer service, check her out: robin egg surprise - i am totally proud of helping allison get her wings!


i hope everybody is off to a great start in 2014 - can't wait to see what treasures the next 12 months bring!