late last week i received my prize for winning the junior society blog contest. i knew i was getting a bag, but i had no idea that it was going to be packaged with other cute stuff!

there is a coloring page, crayons, a note on a cute post card and a magnet! plus the bag was wrapped up in that red tissue paper and sealed with a sticker and ribbon. it all made me very happy.

here is the bag, hanging on our fancy-pants new dining room light:

it is such a good size and sturdy. i have already taken it out shopping. thanks, silly wagon!

when tom got home from work he brought in the mail and handed me a plain little package. inside was a prize from another blog contest! two wins in the same day.

i had forgotten that i signed up for the indie fixx mailing list which got me entered into the anniversary contest. as it turns out, i was chosen randomly and sent a little envelope of fun colorful stuff:

there are hair doo-dads, stationery, a pin, a super cute magnet and coupons to some interesting indie shops.
thanks, indie fixx!

two things i have learned from today’s events:
1 - i may be reading way too many blogs
2 - i should have played the lottery today

i’m a winner!
i read and enjoy the blog, junior society, all the time. i recently de-lurked to leave a comment and was rewarded with an email this morning telling me that i was one of the randomly chosen comments to win this cute little bag from the silly wagon:

hooray! i do love a good tote bag.

junior society not only offers me prizes and lovely things to look at, it also offers me education. for example, it was in this post that i found out that my childhood playthings are considered “classic” and “old-school.” emphasis on the word “old.” sigh.

i’m off to check the mailbox!

when you are out and about tag sale-ing on a saturday morning, you can’t not support your local chapter of the roller derby league, right?

it was a tag sale/fundraiser/bake sale. we bought a few random things, watched everyone skate around, and got recruited:

we have been needing one more bookshelf to hold the rest of our unpacked books and also a place to store our albums. so we have been keeping an eye out for both as we traveled through local yard tag sales.

when we came across an old record player shelving unit for $5 a few weekends ago we just couldn’t pass it up. it would be perfect for both records and books! it is good and solid (read: heavy) and is perfectly sized for its intended wall space. it was a little beat up, scratched up, but i remembered this post on ugly agnes’ blog. we figured some old english couldn’t hurt, and maybe it would shine it up a bit.

when we got to the hardware store, i was shocked. “seven dollars?!? and for such a tiny bottle!?! the shelving unit is over 4 feet tall, and we only paid five bucks for it, how many bottles of this stuff are we going to need?” i whined wondered. tom calmed me down and claimed that you only need to use a tiny bit. he even claimed that his mom has probably been using the same bottle of old english since he was little (and you know how many wooden chairs she has adopted and shined up) i was skeptical, but slapped down the cash and went to work on the shelf.

well, let me tell you old english,

i am sorry i ever doubted you. the transformation was amazing and i only used up about a half inch of the bottle’s content. and i polished the entire thing.

i now have plans to old english the entire house. hand me a rag and let me loose.

while going through a big pile of knitting needles, i came across this little message:

is that a warning or a selling point?