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shameless

The following acquisitions exceed the requirements for thriftiness. Everything in this post was free. I'm shameless.

I participate in my local freecycle, both giving and receiving items. (Check the website for your local network. You need a Yahoo! account to participate.) Lately I've been receiving more than I've been giving but I have given a lot in the past. Two weeks ago we picked up this happy little setup:


It came with six hermit crabs and their sundry accoutrement. Here's a group photo, featuring (from left to right) Xander, Grover, Obi-Wan, Mr. Crabs (large yellow/orange shell in the back), Weenie (Obi-Wan's best bud), and Clone.

Grover and Obi-Wan are by far the most active. Xander comes out on occasion, but the others are more reclusive. They've visited the preschool twice already. And once Jack and I built a block maze for them.


Grover makes a break for it.


I've been crafting a bit lately, with a particular obsession for collage and assemblage, especially shrines and altars. These 18 cigar boxes I picked up from a man across town are begging to be gussied up.



Like I said, I'm shameless. I didn't get these steely Revolutionaries at a thrift store. I didn't get them through freecycle. I dug them out of a dumpster. I was so thrilled to find them I'm not even embarrassed by their origins.


Lord Percival here came out of the same dumpster. A different revolution, perhaps? I like to imagine him speaking in an exagerated English accent: "My dear fellow, how do you enjoy the weather this day? Shall we have crumpets and cucumber finger sandwiches at tea time? One lump or two?" Jack said, "Is that a girl?" When I told him no, Lord Percival is a man, Jack laughed with delight and said, "That's funny! He's a girl AND a man." Which reminded me of so many things, not the least of which is the striking resemblance Lord Percival bears to my paternal grandmother.

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