Nostalgia: Garbage Pail Kids

Posted by random olio

I was a child in the 1980’s. One of the things I enjoyed (I think with lots of other kids of that era) were Garbage Pail Kids. I had not thought of them in ages until I came across them on this website. You can order an iPhone case in the Garbage Pail Kid of your choice. I hear the cards are also making a comeback.

I remember my grandma saying: “Seriously, Tami those cards are raunchy. Why would you spend your money on such filth?” (said with a flair of disdain for the choices I made). I always laughed. She did not get it. Although, I do not think I ever was truly enamored with these cards, I think it was just the rage at the time. You purchased them, collected them, traded them, and eventually lost interest. I have to admit, looking at them now many years later, they are creative, but yes raunchy and a bit pointless. If you think about it, a kid collects a baseball card, because of the talent, batting average, and amazing career of a specific athlete (for the most part). What amazing intrigue is there with a Garbage Pail Kid?

It even looks like folks are paying quite a lot for these ‘raunchy’ cards. Ebay lists 22,919 results when you search: Garbage Pail Kids. Shocking. Well I got a few chuckles out of myself as I scrolled through to remind myself of the different cards. Although I could not for the life of me remember any of them. I am surprised that kids today would find them remotely interesting. They have so many other toys and games to interest them and keep them constantly plugged into technology. Is it just the gross factor?

Ah well, I am done contemplating the future of Leaky Lindsay and Drippy Dan.

Happy weekend to all!

Weekend Recap: Relaxed and grateful!

Posted by random olio

I had another good weekend. Chris is finally feeling better (he was out most of last week)! I love going to bed on Sunday night with the laundry done, fresh sheets on my bed, the house cleaned, and as much crossed off the list as possible. Yesterday we put a bunch of items on eBay to sell, and got through some things that have been on our list for weeks. It felt great to end the weekend with some relaxing time spent together. I got a couple of good runs in, and I feel ready to tackle the week ahead!

It made me think, how do others approach the end of their weekend and the changeover to a new week? How do you make sure you are relaxed and you get some rest before your week starts?

On Saturday, I was waiting for an elevator to go into a building for an appointment and I had this overwhelming sense of gratitude and appreciation for life. The thought that came to me was to not take any of this for granted. I then went over many large things in my life that I am grateful for – what a humbling experience.

Since it is Monday, and I had my humbling moment on Saturday, I wanted to share a bit of inspiration with you. I have included the quote from David’s blog here, but be sure to click to also see the great painting he included (Thank you, David Kanigan):

“You can be fully satisfied with where you are, understanding that you’re eternally evolving. When you get into that place of feeling appreciation of where you are and of who you are, and appreciation of what you are, and you accept that you are a never-ending, always unfolding Being, then you can stand in that delicate balance of being optimistic about what is to come, without being unhappy about where you stand. Find a way of eagerly anticipating future changes, while at the same time you are in love and satisfied with who, what, where and how you be.” —- Abraham

And a not so serious post from David. For those of you that do not click on the link it says:

“I do 5 sit-ups every morning. May not sound like much, but there’s only so many times you can hit the snooze button.”

Happy Monday!

Dukes of Hazzard + Big Wheels

Posted by random olio

What activities made you happy as a child? Could you list them right now? If so, do they bring a smile to your face? I started thinking about what made me happy as a kid this past weekend when I came across this picture of me on my Dukes of Hazzard Big Wheel.

me on my new Big Wheel

I LOVED Daisy Duke. She was just the epitome to me at the time of what I would now call a badass. We did not have a TV growing up, so I would live for the chance to watch Dukes of Hazzard at my grandma’s house each week. I remember a local store (I think it was called Zayre’s) had a photo signing by Daisy Duke herself. I do not remember if I actually got to meet her, but I was so proud of that photo with her signature. In my mind she was famous.

I also loved the Dukes of Hazzard theme song. Hey, I am from Indiana. You can take the girl out of Indiana, but you cannot take an Indiana childhood out of the girl. Enough said.

As you can tell from the above picture, I obviously loved my Big Wheel too. It looks like it is brand new and I do know that I am riding it in our living room (flip flops and all). Somethings do not change, I still check the temperature in April to see if I can wear my flip flops yet, and in October to see if I can continue to wear them or if I will freeze.

What I love most about this photo is the absolute glee and happiness on my face. This is my inspiration this week. That I can approach life today with as much excitement and joy as I did on my Big Wheel version of the General Lee.

Are you with me? What Big Wheel riding, Dukes of Hazzard moment of your childhood made you feel like a badass and you smiled from cheek to cheek?

Life size Barbie proportions

Posted by random olio

I was a Barbie girl. I did not really play with dolls, or horses (except My Little Pony), or cars, or trains. I played with Barbies. I had about 12 of them (not sure if that is normal or not). I had a light pink Barbie corvette, a townhouse with an elevator that went up and down with a string pulley (it was the 80’s). I had the Barbie salon where you could use wash their hair, and color it using special “markers” that washed out later. They do not tell you that you can color Barbie’s hair, but you should never cut it (Barbie will never look the same again). I had exercise Barbie, ballroom Barbie, wedding Barbie and wedding Ken, I had bikini Barbie (she got the haircut), and a slew of others I do not remember. All of these were gifts given over many birthdays, and they were dearly loved.

I was reminded of my Barbie memories after a conversation at work yesterday that originated from superheros dimensions to Barbie dimensions. We then found the following article about if Barbie was life-size what would she actually look like. (For those of you that do not click the link you are missing out, it is quite shocking). The article explains that Barbie would be 5 foot 9 inches, weight 110 pounds, wear a size 3 shoe, a 39″ bust, 18″ waist, and 33″ hips. Gulp. So if you still have not clicked the link, do so now.

What is funny about my experience with Barbies (for those of you with young little girls) is I think playing with them got a lot of the girly stuff out of my system. I have a lot of friends that purposely ban Barbie and other toys that do not lead to positive images of women. Then those are the only toys they want. I do not know what I’ll do when I have kids. There is a part of me that thinks that I will feel the same way, that it will just be a yuck feeling I will have about any toys that do not lead to a positive, strong view of women. Having said all that, I loved playing with my Barbies and would beg my sister to play with me. Now I am starting to think that being all girly when I was young has meant I am not as girly now. So maybe it was not such a bad thing.

Regardless of if I got it out of my system, did I know at that age that Barbie was not anatomically correct? Probably not. However, I do think Mattel should fix Barbie so that she is more normal/true to real woman size. Convincing Mattel should not be that hard right? Ha.

Have a great weekend! Hope the sun is shining..

Dance Naked!!

Posted by random olio

Happy Monday to everyone! How was your weekend? There is sun here in Portland which is making me a bit giddy, maybe because my iPhone says rain for the rest of the week. I had a full weekend. We spent much of Saturday running errands around town and Sunday cleaning. Yes, cleaning again. Due to the rain and slightly warmer temperatures, our house became the home of ants in many of our rooms. We are used to it, we have lived here a few years, and they always come out in armies this time of year. It always gets old chasing them down. Ants are ants, I do not mind them, what I do mind is when they are crawling on my counters, or get anywhere near my bed. So after chasing them around the house, we usually always clean a ton, in hopes that they will not come back, and maybe just to clear our head of all the ants we have seen.

In honor of giddiness, sun, and that it is now April, I wanted to encourage you to: DANCE NAKED this week!

framed print on our wall

I love this print. I purchased it at the Lake Oswego Art Festival a few years back and framed it. For a long time it was over my desk and I would look at it while I worked. Now it is in our hallway. It reminds me to not work so hard, to get up and dance to music, to play, be free and have fun! On occasion, I get right to the point and dance naked!

Go enjoy your day, be playful, and if you feel so inspired – then DANCE NAKED!