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I admit we’ve driven by this place a time or two.
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Without realizing it was a Maine landmark.
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You can’t beat that for one stop shopping.
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Wedding gowns next to the camouflage?
I suppose I should be glad the wedding gowns aren’t made from camo.
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That’s one happy customer.
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I’ve always been attracted to steampunk. Equal parts creativity and recycling, you never know what kind of design you’ll find. And then there’s the sheer weirdo factor. Who doesn’t love that?
So when Facebook popped up with some Etsy suggestions I was intrigued.
Until I saw the prices.
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Damn.
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Punk be pricey.
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And Lord knows I love a good ray gun as well as the next girl…
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But I could hear my checkbook screaming no! from across the room.
Or maybe that was my husband.
Tough call.
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They also can’t spell possibilities correctly, but you get the idea.
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Some things naturally go together. Cookies and milk? Of course. Macaroni and cheese? You know it. Gin and tonic? I’ll bring the limes, cheers!
But fast food and shoes?
No.
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Clearly Madison Avenue was on a 6 martini lunch that day.
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And if that’s not stupid enough?
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Crocs – Ugliest. Shoe. Ever.
And I live in Maine, home of the L.L. Bean boot.
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KFC Crocs?
For the love of God, why.
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On our drive home from the mountains the other day, I got lucky.
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I finally found a man cave appropriate crate for my albums! No, I’d never heard of Holihan Brewers but neither did I care.
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They existed.
They brewed beer in Massachusetts.
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And that was good enough for me.
Okay, the crate wasn’t in the best of shape….
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But after a lot of elbow grease, scrubbing and oiling…
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It didn’t look half bad.
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And then there were three.
I’ll need at least 3 (probably 4, possibly 5) more.
I wonder if I’ll live that long?
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My husband heard about a large flea market in Fryeburg , Maine… and since the 90 minute drive did not deter him, over to the western part of the state we went.
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There was indeed a flea market, but that’s the only good thing I can say about it. Yes, there were a few antiques scattered here and there… but mostly it was tacky new merchandise. Like this:
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Clearly Barbie has reached menopause age.
It was hot as hell that day with no breeze whatsoever and that made me cranky. The only thing that made me smile?
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Martian chauffeurs.
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After a few fruitless hours of my husband searching for treasure and me searching for shade, we left empty handed. And since it was well past lunchtime and I’d worked up a terrible thirst.. there was only one place to go. The penultimate brew pub.
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If you don’t know where it is, you’ll never find it… tucked away down a narrow wooded residential road, alongside a golf course in a quiet town near the border of New Hampshire called Lovell .
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The barn is the pub, and there’s outdoor seating as well.
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If you’ve never heard of Ebenezer’s? Good. That means more beer for me.
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But if you live in New England, chances are you know this award winning shrine to suds. A visit there never disappoints.
To be continued….
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If you know anything about Guinness, you’ll know they had a fabulous ad campaign back in the day.
Their first ad was published in 1794, their first tagline introduced in 1929. In the early 20th century, doctors thought the brew had medicinal properties and promoted strength. Until the 1950’s Irish mothers were told to drink Guinness after giving birth because of its iron content. Guinness is good for you! remained the slogan until a random trip to the circus drew inspiration from the performing zoo animals.
It’s these advertisements that became synonymous with the brand, and this collection of vintage coasters I found at an antique store.
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The perfect addition to the Barn Mahal man cave bar.
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There were even a few Christmas themed ads.
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And if you recognized the famous toucan on the bottom right….
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It might be because our original poster was one of the first things we ever hung in the man cave.
🙂
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Because sometimes you have to suck it up, be embarrassed and buy the tackiest item in the store.
I think I’ve mentioned my husband has an old friend who… how shall we say… has a rather low brow sense of humor. And when we run across lewd, rude and crude items while shopping? He always comes to mind.
So when we spotted this nut cracker on our recent antique excursion, we knew we had to buy it.
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Carved out of wood and shaped like a woman’s legs…
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It’s surely every man’s worst nightmare.
And look…
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It’s anatomically correct.
🤣
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As if all the weirdo products aren’t bad enough, now Facebook wants to dress me.
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At first glance I thought that was a skirt.
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Do I want to walk around furred and feathered?
I do not.
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Gender neutral? How about plain hideous.
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I despise Crocs and have never worn one. Adding a flashlight to the toe will not change my mind.
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I’m picturing me trying to get in (or out) of this dress after a few martinis. It’s not a pretty picture..
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While my husband doesn’t like those crafty, shabby chic types of antique stores… he does love the kind I hate.
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The ones with massive piles of disorganized, rusted and abandoned crap that are more suited to a trash pile.
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Veritable junk yards is what they are… kitchen sink and bathroom tub included.
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But he happily pokes around, just knowing there’s a buried treasure there somewhere.
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Thankfully he didn’t find any here.
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Though he did give that industrial bread rack a hard look.
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I can always tell when my husband isn’t going to like an antique store.
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You know the type…. filled with shabby chic and crafty things. He cruises through those stores quickly and rarely enjoys himself,
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Until he turned a corner in this one and saw the shredded wheat crate he’d just purchased for $25…
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(Yes, he collects wooden yard sticks. Don’t ask.) ….was selling for $125.
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Then? He was a fan.
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And chuckled at a few things.
Especially the creative way the owners of this old schoolhouse decided to deal with their roof leak.
New shingles? Not exactly.
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Indoor guttering.
Odd… but you have to admit, it is interesting.
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River's world..... 