August 24, 2013

Real MGCs !!!

So I'm officially on vacation for the next week & a half!!  

We don't really have a particular destination in mind, we're thinking to spend a couple days in Traverse City (the upper pinky finger region of the mitten) and then wandering south along Lake Michigan before coming back across the state home. 

I discovered, thanks to FindAGrave.com, that there are a total of 33 REAL Maple Grove Cemeteries in Michigan !!!  So hubby has agreed to add a couple of them into our travels.  YAY!!

Leetsville, Kalkaska County (100 graves)

 Empire, Leelanau County (619 graves)

 Hudson, Leelanau County (3823 graves)

 Keswick, Leelanau County (204 graves)
I can tell already this is going to be my favorite.  
I love the gate & all the above-ground stones!
It looks like there are some older (1890s) stones in there, 
but also very recent ones. 

Grawn, Grand Traverse County (718 graves)

This is gonna be fun!

August 20, 2013

Isn't everyone writing about HomeGoods?

Well, now so am I !!!

I've been to 2 different ones in the past week or so (I'm not counting the first time I went to the one & they barely had anything out)  I didn't get a whole lot of pics, just the things I thought were especially neat.  And of course the things that made it home with me.  :)

I wonder if each store gets different items?  Since the 2 stores had some of the same items, but also different things.  I like that their prices are fairly reasonable.  I'll include them with my pics. 

This is heavy and by the time I came out of the store, it looked like I'd been rubbing my face on it, by the amount of glitter on me.   
It's slightly smaller but thicker than a laptop computer. 
$9.99

 I was so undecided about this Hessian!  I'm still not sure where I'll put him, but I finally decided I'd totally regret it if I passed him up.  He's easily 14 inches tall. 
$12.99

 A candle that will NOT be burned.
$4.99

 This ginormous spider stayed at the store.  
He was neat, but I already have one of those big furry ones from Spirit, so no dice. 
I think he was $19.99

 I really liked this guy, too.  He was probably 3 1/2 feet tall and 
felt like he was made of plaster.  But at $60?  He stayed there. 
$59.99

 A crazy bejeweled spider above & below. 
$12.99


This was the sole purpose I went to HG in the first place!  Someone had posted 1000 pics on FaceBook from their shopping trip and I saw this.  I was tickled to grab the only one they had! 
$14.99

Hmm.  I do believe there is another store over not far from when I got to my Weight Watcher meetings.. I may have to drop in there Thursday!

August 14, 2013

Goodies

Wooo, I'm feeling fall in the air!  I had to shut the window last night, because it was so chilly! 

I took this at my sister's house Friday afternoon.  
This tree always changes early, tho.  
And my burning bush is starting to glow!

We went Sunday afternoon and drove to Sandusky, OH and spent the day Monday at Cedar Point.  We had a lot of fun!  On the way there, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for dinner and they had a lovely Halloween display!  The lady working the floor was laughing at me, since I had my hands clasped in front of my chest, grinning like an idiot as I walked around!    


 Damn, my pics suck! 


 This is similar to a hat she wore for dance last season, so I had her try it on. 

 Who is that masked girl?

 I'm bummed this one is blurry - the dueling hillbilly skeletons were great!


 But I fell in love with these guys!  How cute are they???  
The JOLs dangle and the base says' Heads Up"
Yes, they came home with me. 

So I've missed posting a couple things that I've picked up lately from the Salvation Armies (I don't remember which one - we have 3 nearby)

 I don't really have a use for the doll, but she came in this cool case.  
For $4, I can do something with her!

 Who uses this nasty stuff?  The tag says its marinade.  I'll pass.  
But I like the bottle, of course!  It's got a wood stopper.

 These I got at Garden Ridge.  The hands have sturdy wire posts so they can stick in the ground 
& the witch is on a stick.  I'll probably put her in a plant. 

 Not particularly scary, other than it implies snow - a snowman candle holder!
  
I needed a poison apple and this looked pretty neat.  
I have one of the glass cheese domes that I'll put it in.

here is me & my sweetie on the ferris wheel at Cedar Point.  

I am sitting here staring at the phone # for the wood recycling place down the road, but I am not letting myself call about pallets until I get my house clean.  Motivation!!

August 03, 2013

Yankee Candle goodies

Welllll, I don't really know what I was expecting when I went to the Boney Bunch Preview Party today.  I intentionally waited & got there at 10:30.  As we approached the store - there was no one outside & it wasn't terribly crowded inside.  I was slightly surprised & yet hopeful.

 Here is our store at Lakeside Mall. 

There was a girl dressed in a black dress & orange tights giving out drawing tickets at the door. 2 cashiers dressed like witches (and one in a seriously cute lacy one-shouldered dress) and the lady wrapping the items had a lovely red cape on.  And the manager is an extremely "fabulous" guy, if you catch what I'm saying - but hilarious beyond words.   Words cannot describe how he got everyone's attention for the 11 am drawing.  Funny!

The store is pretty small and wasn't decorated over the top or anything. They had a table with juice & cookies in the back and a lady up front from another store with samples of whatever they sold. They had the Halloween items set up on a couple displays in the center. They had no bride & groom couples, so I'm glad I ordered mine online - and also none of the Frankenstein & Brides.  Besides the drawing, they had a large jar from one of the candles filled with candy corn and you could write down your guess of how many corns were in there.

 That guy right there walked into the store at 10:57 and 
won the damn 11 am drawing! 

I am very happy with my prom king & queen.  

I thought I wanted the black cat with the arched back, 
but once I saw this, I was torn.
I don't regret getting him. 

So that's all I got from them.  There were a few other things that I liked, but didn't feel the need to purchase.  I really, really like the haunted house.....
but it's huge and I have no place to put it!  
:(

Since I was within the first 50 people to be there, I got a card with how to take care of their candles and also a bunch of mall coupons.   Woo.

Anyway, since we (Miss Angela went with me) were at the mall, we hit a few other stores & got home a lot sooner than I expected.  

At 1pm, I had to go check a siren - that's a radio geek thing where the county sets off the tornado / outdoor warning sirens and they want each one to be actually seen & heard & reported in - at least once each year. So once that was done - I had a map of 8 cemeteries plotted to go check out.

It worked out to be 6, since one was the most pitiful "war memorial" I'd ever seen.  And the other was nowhere to be found!  Google maps had the pin set in the middle of a road in a condo complex! 

A stone lion at the base of a flag pole.  Woo.  

It was an adventure finding all these cemeteries. One we drove past twice, since it was behind a grapevine-covered chain link fence & overgrown driveway (love those old ones like that!!). Another I almost mistook for someone's yard - all I saw were 2 stone benches.  There may have been 10 stones in there . Another was on a corner of 2 dirt roads with big new houses all around, but looked like the grass hadn't been mowed in 100 years. And there was no place to park - so my car was sitting on a good 40* angle - my door hit the dirt when I opened it! The other ones were larger, easy to find & pretty interesting to walk thru. 

I bribed Angel with ice cream to go with me.  She went thru the first 3 with me, then stayed in the car for the rest. She's not as interested in cemeteries as I am!

btw - I uploaded approximately 175 photos from Friday (3 cemeteries) and another 146 from today. I think my new camera got itself a good workout.  Yay!

August 01, 2013

YC Preview Party!



I'm sort of looking for ward to going to this, since I've never been to one before.  I asked about it at my local store and the one guy told me that is is a fun, crazy event and people line up outside before the store opens.
I don't know if I want to be there when it opens, but I will go sometime within the first couple hours.

I heard they have a prom king & queen, which I think I want.  And one of the black cats.  But other than that, I am open to whatever grabs me!  I don't feel the need to collect every single piece, just the ones I think are cute!

I finally got my new camera yesterday!  My old one crapped out right in the middle of Miss Angela's dance recital dress rehearsal.  I was pissed!!  Anyhoooo, I got a GE X2600.  Its a lot bigger than my last couple cameras, so I will be using the neckstrap faithfully!

And then to try it out - I have a Google map printed out with 3 cemeteries to go visit after work tomorrow and another with 6 to visit this weekend.  I'm looking forward to getting some neat shots.  It's funny that the first cemetery I thought of was this little tiny one that I've been to before, a couple years ago.  Then one of the others nearby there is HUGE!  I'll have to save some of these for Cemetery Tuesdays on this year's Countdown to Halloween.

What are your plans for the weekend?  Have you signed up for the Secret Reaper yet?