Thursday, December 22, 2011

Thrift Store Pickings

It's been a busy holiday season and I haven't finished any reviews.

Since my last post about my new etsy store This Charming Man Cave, I've been making the rounds of the local thrift shops looking for things to put in my store.  Here's a picture of some of my most recent finds:


The first thing I found was a Budweiser vest jacket from the 80's and the two Vogue Picture Records that were released sometime between May of 1946 and April of 1947.  I had no idea what the records were worth, but they were 49 cents a piece, which turned out to be a hell of a deal.  They look amazing, and both play fantastically well.

My favorite of the two records is labeled Vogue Picture Record R731 and features Marion Mann singing Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea on one side and You Took Advantage of Me on the other.  Here's a closer look at the fantastic artwork:


The other prize of the day, was a Minnesota Northstars Starter jacket.  I haven't seen one in this style before, but I found the same jacket selling on ebay for over $200!

Not a bad outing.  I even got myself a little gift that left my wife's eyes rolling - The Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit edition.  Only $3.99.


Now I just need to get some of these items listed.

Monday, December 12, 2011

This Charming Man Cave


I've been inspired by my wife and her success on etsy to start my own store.  Partly from a gentle nudge by her, partly because I thought it would make a good companion to my half.com site.  I'd talked about starting an etsy site, and with her encouragement I did.  I've already gone to garage sales and thrift stores with her, and have an eye for things that are a little different than what she sells at her store.  When we were talking last week, she came up with the catchy name of my store, This Charming Man Cave.

The motto of my store is, Strong enough for a woman, but made for a man.  I'll be focusing on vintage things guys would like, but that doesn't mean women wouldn't like them either.  Right now I just have a couple of things listed for sale, but soon I will be adding a bunch of records, shoes, clothes, and several curios.

Here is the first thing I listed.  A 1940's Rita Hayworth film studio head shot:



Come on over and check out my site This Charming Man Cave

While you're at it check out Regan's site Regan's Brain

Thursday, December 1, 2011

NaNoWriMo Winner!


 I finally did it, and with an hour to spare.  The third time was definitely the charm, and things were looking a little iffy for awhile.  I was about 5,800 words down going into the final day, but somehow rallied late and finished faster than I thought I would.

Now what?  To be honest, though I finished NaNoWriMo, my novel is only 2/3rd's of the way to its own goal line.  I figure if I crank out about 1,000 words a day, I should be able to hang up the first draft of this novel before Christmas.  What a gift that would be to myself.  I know that a first draft is a lumpy and awkward pile of shit that needs to be dug through to find the gold hidden inside.  It will take numerous rewrites, extra drafts, and a lot of cutting and stitching to get this thing to a place where it would be readable to other eyes than my own.

Regardless of all that is in front of me in this novel, I was pretty damn excited to have gotten across that finish line.  Some celebration was in order.  I rewarded myself with a bottle of Crispin Stagger Lee rye whiskey cask aged cider, a slice of lemon poppy seed cake, and hunkering down on the couch with my wife and watching my new favorite show, American Horror Story.

I will let you know how things go, but in the meantime, I found a great blog post by Chuck Wendig that enlightened me as to where I go after a first draft here.