This is how good God is

Last Saturday afternoon, my husband called me to the backyard to see this little blue parakeet, who obviously had gotten lost from his home.  

It was cold and I was PANICKED.  'Oh, Lord, please please please please please don't let that little guy freeze to death please please please please or let us catch him please please please please.'  

I ran into the house and posted in the lost and found section of Craigslist 'There's a blue parakeet in my backyard.  If your's, you've got out come ASAP!!!!!!!'

Saturday night was going to be in the 20s, temperature-wise, and I didn't dare hope that the little bird made it.

But make it he did.  (I later learned that the color of the nose indicates he's a she.)  Later on Sunday there was a big-ish snow storm, and again I was pleading with God, 'Please please please...'  

And the little bird was in the yard EVERY DAY THIS WEEK, even though the temperatures at night have gone into the teens.  

I'm still hoping to catch her, because I have a friend who has birds and is willing to give her a home.

Thus far, she's hanging with the sparrows I feed, and they seem to accept her.

Last week's finds

Some neat finds last week, including, but not limited to...

What I found Monday at Philly AIDS Thrift:

two large pieces of Gaston Y Daniela's AWESOME and oh so Fortuny / Venetian fabric, entitled Las Esfinges (i.e. The Sphinxes)

  

 Then this nifty 1970s novelty print of old-timey architecture and new-timey cartoon of

a travelers checks window

And THREE Lefton bunny rabbits

And a nifty vintage T-shirt for the hip hipster type

Then on Wednesday (I think it was Wednesday) I was at the Sal on Torresdale Avenue and got: 

History's widest vintage purse by Ingber

I got some other stuff, too.  A vegetarian cookbook (the hubs and I are all about that now), and one other thing which I don't remember.

Friday I went to the Sal up on Route 1, and got:

three old skinny ties

A very pretty shabby chic wooden tray

Ivy Spivington and Lester examining the very pretty shabby chic tray.

 And a cotton blouse with a print of beets AND little beet-shaped buttons.

This fits me and I might keep it.

the Tuesday Song of the Week

I don't like having back-to-back Tuesday Songs of the Week. 

It makes it look like I'm not working hard enough for you, my audience.

This week, though, I'm giving myself a pass because my kitchen got a little renovation, and in order for the renovation to commence, practically all the kitchen ended up in my living room.

I realize this is a plane wreck, but it looks a great deal like my living room at the moment.

So my living room and, by extension, my life and business are a MESS, and therefore I have to pay more attention to that this week, especially since when tripping over a significant part of the chaos, I almost fell onto Lester.

He's just chilling atop my desk.  He's perfectly fine.

Anyhoo, you're getting not a song, but a hilarious (if you're from the City of Bothersome Love) riff on Christmas songs sung in the local accent.  

the Tuesday Song of the Week

Welcome to the first Tuesday Song of the Week that I don't actually like.

'I Will Follow Him' - Little Peggy March

or as I refer to it 'The Stalking Song.'

I wanted something where the singer sounds the tiniest bit unhinged, as Ms. March does towards the end of the song.

Why?

Because I am being driven freaking INSANE by the inescapable and unhackable Christmas music that every single retail outlet insists on torturing the public with at this time of year.

The last straw was last evening at the supermarket where some light of singing ability songstress was piped through the sound system with her breathy version of 'Simply Having a Wonderful' yada yada.  I honestly thought that the top of my head would come off.  

I get that marketers will swear long and loud that fostering 'the Christmas spirit' among the sheeple will reap rich rewards for their clients, but as for me, it makes me LESS likely to buy anything I don't actually need.  

favoritism

I love Etsy.

I really do.

However, what I don't love is the following.

Above is a huge bee I took a photo of on the day that happened to be my second wedding anniversary.

I favorite bees.

There are what are called 'teams' on Etsy, which are groups of like-minded and/or like-merchandise-selling vendors.  I'm a member of a bunch of vintage stuff-related teams.

Similar to the above, but not really, if you can follow that in any way.

Some of the teams insist that you 'favorite' your fellow team members' stuff.  I think it has something to do with exposure, but...   

I LOVE Grant Wood's landscapes.  If he was alive and on Etsy today, I'd favorite all his stuff.

the exposure I'm getting is just among other people in the team.  What this exposure leads to is not sales, but tons and tons of favorites in my feed.  

When this first started happening, I thought, 'Ooh, people like my stuff.'  Then I started to recognize user names, and even though DipsyDan favorited every single thing I posted, he was not forthcoming with purchases.  Nor were ChrissieandAshley who seemed to be similarly awed with my stuff.  Fast forward to now, and I'm familiar with dozens of user names, all favoriting stuff they've barely even looked at, let alone gone to the listing of.

If I sincerely like something, think it's interesting, whatever, I favorite it.  Otherwise, I don't.  Nothing personal.

I'd love to post "If you're not interested enough in one of my items to actually look at the listing, please don't favorite it.  Otherwise, all you're doing is clumping up my feed."

I realize most of you have no idea what I'm talking about, but maybe some Etsy-er will see this, and get what I'm saying.

vintage Christmas gifts for dog people

We have some barkingly awesome retro for the dog lover:

vintage Christmas gifts for cat people

I gotcher cat stuff right hyar, I do.

(My hubs sometimes talks to me in this seethingly cornpone accent that would make even Junior Samples roll his eyes.)

Anyway, cats...