You Know It's Time to Buy a New Sand Turtle When...

Your old one can't even hold his head up, his shell is dusty and faded and he loses sand every time you move him.  

I've been on the lookout for a replacement and Lady Luck was with me today.  

I know, I know.  I swore I wouldn't by stuff off the street again after this sad incident, but today when I stopped at a stoplight, I looked over and saw a row of fabric sand turtles looking back at me.  Their glued-on sequin eyes caught my eyes.  It was meant to be.

Luckily I had some cash with me and I purchased 4 of these beauties on the spot.  The transaction was swift and nobody even honked at me.  (That was really lucky.)

I promise I haven't lost touch with my Mini Bazaar senses.  I know these are not cute or fashionable for the home, but they are very functional.  We always have the windows and sliding door open so we can get a little breeze through the apartment.  When the breeze catches the bedroom doors just right, they SLAM shut with an amazing force.  Remember this other sad incident?

Anyway, to prevent the doors from slamming or from having to use canned goods as door stops, I bought 4 little sand turtle buddies today and I'm pretty excited about my purchases. 

 Door stop turtles rock! 

(That's especially for you, Becca, since you are the one that thought the cans of peaches and pumpkin as door stops were a little tacky and weird.) 

P. S.  

I just noticed the my new turtle has lost his sequin eye.  I'll have to see if I can find it, and in case you are wondering, yes, that is a fabric yo-yo on the top on its head for a hat.  I guess the little fella has style after all.

Another P. S.  

These little guys are a little too heavy to be packing home on a plane, so you can all relax.  I won't be bringing you any for souvenirs or gifts.

One More P. S. 

 Maybe I should have titled this post "You Know You've Been Away from Mini Bazaar Too Long When You Buy A Turtle Door Stop." 

 That's kind of a long title though.

Wrapping up Christmas 2010

I realize these are not the best pictures, but they are the best I have so I am going to post them.  I also realize that Christmas 2010 is sooooo over, but I did start this post just after Christmas if that is worth anything. 

The picture above is of a choir from our stake that performed at a local mall.  They positioned themselves between the up and down escalators and sang beautifully.  It really sounded nice in the open space and put us in a Christmas mood just a few days before Christmas.

They put up a big fabric tree every year in a little park in the center of a roundabout that is on our beaten path.  Every year it is a slightly different style.  They have been quite impressive. 

Hiper was way into creating trees out of their products this year.  Here is a tree created from boxes of candy.

Here is one created out of bottles of green olives.

Here is the Coca Cola tree in progress.  This tree building looked like risky business to me, but in an all out effort to celebrate the season and sell more Coke, it had to be done.

The Quaker oatmeal tree, 

the wine or champagne or some other alcoholic beverage tree,

and last, but not least, the tree of canned corn and peas.

My favorite tree this year was one they had outside one of the malls.  It was covered with lighted toy trains, wreaths and stockings all on a huge metal frame.  We thought the rope light-wrapped palm tree was cool too.  

Apologies again for photography that is on the minus side of the scale of good photography. I think I either need to take better pictures or quit blogging.