is this a good idea?

half animal hospital; half restaurant/pub

taters & unions

saw this handmade wooden potato and onion bin at the asheville goodwill today.

i can only assume some nice man (?) made it and engraved it in his woodworking shop about 50 years ago. when he brought it inside, did anybody notice the spelling mistake? did they tell him? it is phonetically correct, i'll give him that.

free shirts, spam, cheers to betsy

in an effort to keep this blog un-spammy, i started a new blog just for the vintage shirts i'm selling.

skippy haha vintage blog

it doesn't mean i'll never post here about shirts, or peanut butter stash safes, or whatever, but i'm going to try to keep them separate.

BUT the bloggers who so kindly took me up on the offer of free shirts in exchange for bloglove will be posted over there and here, because i think they're interesting.

without further ado, it's betsylife!

betsy is awesome. she will make you smile, smile, smile. in real life and on the internets.

she posts daily. super fresh recipes, some simple, some not. all with mouth-watering photos. she's full of tips on cooking and enjoying life in general. she's also an amazing painter. totally inspiring.

back when i lived in san diego, she was one of the most beautiful and creative t-shirt models around - always willing and able to go the distance for the shot, so help her jesus.

she's the first to take me up on the offer of free t-shirts for bloggers.

check out her post here.

thanks so much and cheers, betsy!

fluffy & barney

growing up, i wanted a dog.

my mom never had a dog and didn't want a dog. (this has changed!)

my brother was terrified of dogs after a golden retriever chased him on a soccer field and bit the winter pom pom hat off his head when he was 5.

no dog for me.

when i was 9, instead of a dog, i got a rabbit. he was a white albino with pink eyes and i named him fluffy.

he was cute at first, but as he got older he humped everybody's arms and he would jump in the air and pee, spraying everything. he pooped all over the place. you could hold him, but he would scratch with his claws and pee and poop on you, so he had to be wrapped in a towel.

he was a terrible pet.

as my love for fluffy waned, i stopped cleaning his hutch regularly. eventually my parents drew the line and i wrapped him in a towel and my dad drove me to selmer's pet land and took him inside and 'returned' him. that was the last i heard of fluffy.

i still wanted a dog, and i still was not getting a dog.

instead a little while later after promising i would clean the cage, i went back to selmer's pet land and got a light brown bunny with a white nose and tail.

it was a girl, i named her barney. she was much sweeter than fluffy. she didn't hump and scratch.

in 8th grade my friend erin and i did a science project on peta and testing on rabbits and we brought our rabbits (she had smokey a crazy gray dwarf) into school and they ran around the english classroom. that was the highlight of barney's life.

after a couple years, i started liking boys and stopped cleaning barney's cage. my aunt jojo and uncle tom arranged for barney to go to a farm in massachusetts where i believe she spent her golden years hopping in a pasture.

i still wanted a dog. as soon as i could get one, i got holden. i never stopped cleaning up after holden.

dogs are SO MUCH BETTER pets than rabbits!

standing offer for free t-shirts (while supplies last)

do you have a blog?

do you post more than 12 times a year?

do you like old t-shirts?

if you answered yes to all of those questions, and would like a *FREE* vintage t-shirt from the skippy haha vintage shop, pick one out and email me. i'll send it to you on the house if you promise to post a picture of the shirt with a link to the etsy shop.

i know blogging is a thankless job and i appreciate the time you take to entertain the faceless masses. 

*some restrictions apply: you're not getting the 1979 keith moon the kids are alright shirt from the who. or any shirt that's more than $30. probably. exceptions can be made on a case by case basis. i'm the judge of those cases.

epsom salt paw soak

nacho came rushing up to me, trying to jump in my lap, licking his paw and running in circles. after some bending and twisting i was able to see what looked like a giant zit in between his paw pads. he had licked it so much it was soaked and pink. he was limping and sad.

i dissolved some epsom salt in warm water and he put his paw in the bowl for a few minutes. i dried off his paw and put antibacterial ointment on the spot. i did this every 4 hours or so and by the next day it was a scab. the next day it was gone.

just a tip.

Dinner on the Kitchen Floor

Dinner on the Kitchen Floor, originally uploaded by NatalieMaynor.

i started a couple new 'groups' on flickr. people can add their photos and it's a mish mash collection from different families and times and places worldwide all with a common theme.

• "Spilled Food" (slideshow)

and

• "Sad Fans" (slideshow)

this is in addition to the one i started last fall "Eating while Driving" (slideshow)

fun with the internetZ!

light at the beginning

today isn't the end. it's friday. tomorrow isn't the beginning. it's saturday.

but in the spirit of new years, i will say i had a busy 2010.

i moved from charlotte back to asheville with my love.

holden killed himself. i didn't kill myself. it wasn't as hard as i anticipated. it never is.

my business was dissolved, and i started a new one.

i went to new york a couple times, and to florida a couple times, and to charleston, and to colorado. i hiked a lot. i swam in a mountain waterfall.

i became an aunt. to the cutest happiest little monkey in the world.

i didn't see as much live music as i would like, though i did see neil young and bob dylan and that might be enough right there.

i made my goal and posted more times here than i did in 2009.

i watched a lot of dog whisperer. keep moving forward is the secret. be calm and assertive. and move forward.

whatever you are doing tonight and tomorrow and the rest of your life, i hope you find peace and warmth and good people to share your time with. here's to positive momentum - cheers!

holiday advice from charles-pierre baudelaire

Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"

-Charles-Pierre Baudelaire

wine country

it's noon on a saturday.

you're in an SUV limo with 15 people you just met, going from winery to winery in temecula, california.

you start making out with one of the people in the back seat.

this is the reaction.

million dollar soup bowl idea

i would love to have soup bowls with spouts. then i could drink the soup dregs straight out of the bowl without spilling on myself or needing a bib.

you are free to take this idea and run, just please send me one.

selling vintage clothes

i am so excited to be selling vintage clothes online again.

i love everything about this job.

i love finding the clothes at goodwill. i think of it as treasure hunting and 'saving' them.

i love taking pictures of the clothes.

i love photoshopping people's heads on the mannequin.

i love getting them to people who will love to wear them. it feels good to wear your favorite clothes!

i started a store on etsy, as opposed to ebay or starting a site of my own. the fees are reasonable, i like how it looks, it's simple to add new shirts, they allow buyers to pay with checks, money orders, and cash, not just paypal, and they have a 'vacation mode' where i can close the shop for any amount of time and go away.

the top shelf from vintage vantage will eventually be listed in the etsy shop. as soon as the boxes arrive and i can list them.

i love working!

here's a link to the shop - skippy haha vintage on etsy

eating while driving

Faster Food, originally uploaded by FaceMePLS.

i started a group on flickr called "Eating while Driving" and there are 25 pictures added already from people all over the globe.

click to see: Eating while Driving

apple cider vinegar

i think apple cider vinegar is a miracle elixir.

i had a sore throat swollen gland the size of a golf ball and achy feeling starting wednesday night. i drank apple cider vinegar yesterday and today my throat is 95% perfect.

1-2 Tablespoons raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar
squeeze of honey
cup of hot water
mix and drink 2-4 times a day

as soon as i start to feel even the slightest twinge of getting sick i do this.

eat as much garlic (raw) as i can, along with local raw honey, ginger, and lemons. all day long i drink combinations of these 4 things mixed with hot water.

yesterday i got chicken noodle soup and added a few cloves of chopped raw garlic.

i squeeze lemon on everything.

i dip a q-tip in rubbing alcohol and clean my ears.

i haven't had a full blown cold or flu in 3 years. knock on wood. i get the swollen glands and kill the bugs with apple cider vinegar, and feel better in a day.

acv will also remove a wart. dip a q-tip in acv, cut off the end of the qtip and put it on the wart and cover it with a bandaid. air it out when you sleep, replace with a new acv qtip tip in the morning. within 3 days the wart will turn black. within a week it will fall off like a scab. poof! gone!

the forest glen inn

the forest glen inn was my house.

i was 9 years old and had been living in new york - huntington, long island, for about 2 years and we had many many visitors friends and family from rhode island stay in the guest room during that time.

it was mainly my grandparents - flops & drez - and the revens. 

i painted a wooden sign and put it in the driveway when guests were coming. i made that flyer on print shop and colored it in. i made comment sheets and did turndown service. this was the first comment sheet that i typed on my dad's old real typewriter.

drezza easter weekend 1986:

after this, i typed one and my dad brought it to work and made copies for me.

revens 1987:

at this point i seem to have charged my grandma for some lavender crap someone gave me: 

i never worked in a real hotel

meditation and mantra

"may loving kindness come upon all things"

instead of screaming inside my head about things out of my control that i don't want to do, i've tried to repeat this sentence.

"may loving kindness come upon all things"

i'm not great at it, but the more i do it the better it will work.

here's another one:

'I sit down and say, and I run all my friends and relatives and enemies one by one in this, without entertaining any angers or gratitudes or anything, and I say, like 'Japhy Ryder, equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha,' then I run on, say to 'David O. Selznick, equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha' though I don't use names like David O. Selznick, just people I know because when I say the words 'equally a coming Buddha' I want to be thinking of their eyes, like you take Morley, his blue eyes behind those glasses, when you think 'equally a coming Buddha' you think of those eyes and you really do suddenly see the true secret serenity and the truth of his coming Buddhahood. Then you think of your enemy's eyes.'

dharma bums jack kerouac

why pistachios were dyed red

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistachio

"The shell of the pistachio is naturally a beige color, but it is sometimes dyed red or green in commercial pistachios. Originally dye was applied by importers to hide stains on the shells caused when the nuts were picked by hand. Most pistachios are now picked by machine and the shells remain unstained, making dyeing unnecessary except to meet ingrained consumer expectations."

see, it's not my fault

Later born siblings were found to be more extroverted (sociable, outgoing), sentimental, forgiving and open to new experiences than their older siblings. First-borns were found to be more perfectionistic than their younger siblings.

from today's msnbc.com article "Sorry, kid, first-borns really are smarter."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38683279/

amazing instant mosquito bite cure

put a drop of lavender and tea tree oil on a mosquito bite as soon as it starts itching, and it will stop itching within 5 seconds and the next day it will be completely gone.
no more x'ing out bites with fingernails, scratching it making it worse, swollen red welts, blood, scabs, or scars. one drop of this stuff and it's gone.

i think i found a boyfriend for Drezza

he's 86, he eats salad, he's a doctor...and he's cute!

Scenes from a vegetarian restaurant