Seattle Picker Meets Striker the Sock Critter

Every watch that show, American Pickers?
http://www.history.com/shows/american-pickers

It's on the History Channel, so you know it's good. These two guys drive around the country stopping at housed that have a lot of junk, er, ah....I mean a treasure trove of Americana, rusting in their yards. The guys "pick" through it and buy the, ummmm....fabulous artifacts. Then they take it back to their shop in Iowa were a gothy-take-no-crap girl behind the counter awaits. She turns around and re-sells it at a profit. Everyone wins!!

It's Aaron's favorite show.

As it turns out there's an gentleman of a certain age out here in Seattle who's been making jewelery for his entire life time. He's decided to turn his sights more to wood working and was selling all his jewelery supplies and tools. I say, "was" because Aaron saw the advertisement about a week ago.

It all started out simple enough, Aaron yells from the other room, "Honey, I'm going to take a little money out and go see this guy...okay?" As if I would ever say 'no' it's quickly follow-up with, "You buy a lot of shoes..." With that he's reminded me...I haven't bought any shoes for fall!! Completely distracted, I ask myself just what I've been doing with Labor Day so close...I can't wear sandals much longer... Um? I decide I better answer Aaron, "Great! Have fun!" Meanwhile, I log onto the laptop and bought myself "a few things" to help "freshen up" the fall wardrobe. No need to go into details here. The important thing is that Aaron visits "the guy" and comes home completely thrilled with his purchase. What was it? Mmm? No idea. I just know it made my honey happy.

A few days later, he's still talking about all the stuff at the old guy's shop. He starts telling his friends. Then he tells me he's going to go get a few more things. No worries there, I figure. Then as he's getting ready, "Hey, think I can borrow your debit card...I don't think I can take enough money out with just one card." Dear lord!! I've clearly not been keeping up with my end of the shoe deal. I hand over my card and Aaron heads out on his adventure. While he's out, I thumb through a catalog...searching for the perfect pair of boots.

His trip didn't take long. A couple of hours later the most happy hubby in the world returned home- my very own American Picker.



He tried to show me all his newly "picked" loot, but all he could say, "there's a box of stuff...and another box of stuff....not sure what's in this one but it's a big box of stuff..."

I had planned to borrow the car this week but my seat was occupied by a kiln. What could I do? Check this out.... Aaron loves this whachamacallit:


He's spent the rest of the week and all day Saturday unloading, cataloging, and photographing all of these amazing items. Look out Craigslist....

Meet Striker
This is my latest sock critter. I call him Striker but he's also known as "slugg-a-sorous" --- I'm not sure what name suits him.

Here he is, on the left.


Front view of his slug-like face:


Side view of this stegosaurus-like back:


We also had the kids here for a little Camp A2 --- totally great time with them! We just glad they still like to come over. They missed the ice cream social, so we were sure to recreate it for them in the kitchen. It was good times...



And finally, our lone dahlia for this season. It just wasn't very warm or sunny and the dahlias didn't really bloom. We're thinking of bringing them inside with a plant light so maybe they'll bloom by December. You can always hope.