I Am So Grateful For All of You! And you, and YOU!!! Weird word, you.

I have been a busy little worker bee, but that's no excuse to be silent on blog about some amazing, wonderful, and generous Bloggers and Instagramers that have sent me some cool loot recently (or a while ago)! I have thanked everyone in one way or another either through messages, Instagram posts, or other means, but I feel the need to thank everyone formally here on the good old blog. I don't have all the pictures of all the amazing goodies I received on hand, but I will update this post and flood it with images little by little. I don't want to put off thanking everyone until I have every picture ready to go. 

Be sure to follow the links below and give all these wonderful people a follow!

Thank you Brian Farrel, AKA The Trash Man, for the awesome LEGO minifigs and bricks, as well as a sweet vintage Mother Alien sticker (I made it into a magnet!)! Brian also sent me yet another great package including several PEZ dispensers loaded inside a big blue Frankenstein head, a great Plastic Man post card, and more!!!

Thank you Derek, AKA The Goodwill Geek, for the extremely generous box o' LEGO bricks and the other sci-fi awesomeness! There are some great pieces in there, and I used one to customize my LEGO Shelob, she looks fantastic!  

Thank you Tamsyn, AKA @legostorybr on Instagram for the fun LEGO package from Brazil! She even sent me a package previous that was lost in the mail and sent me a second package to make up for it! Thank you so much, I don't deserve it!

Thank you Deidre, AKA @trollsdolls on Instagram, for some great Madball and Wacky Packages goodness. If you find any homeless trolls send them her way, she will take good care of them!

Thank you John, Lord of Robot Monster Space Super Hero, for your kind donation of BootLEGO minifigs, a speedy wind-up eyeball, and more. It came out of the blue and really made my day! I still need to edit the first episode of Mason's Toy World featuring everything John sent. I really need to get on that!!

Thank you James Mooney, AKA @darthmoondog on Instagram, for the sweet trade! My Battle Beasts collection has grown exponentially and I really like the extras as well!

Thank you Sir Brian Lapsley, keeper of Awake Oh Sleeper, for the amazing Loot Grate loot, cards, toys, and art work! I was blown away by the most recent package, and continue to be blown away by Brian's care packages, I'm starting to loss count! What a generous soul, I appreciate your kindness!

Thank you Nicole, AKA @nicolesiebenhausen (Sister of Laura of Boobobby) for the great Yuletide trade and kind CthuLEGO donation!

Man, I'm spoiled! Thank you again everyone! I think i remembered to thank everyone that I haven't thank on the blog here. If I forgot someone chastise me in the comments below. THANK YOU!!!

The Toy Cave: Before and After (I'm back!)

Since I've decided to come back into full activity here at DI Treasures, I thought it appropriate for me to reveal to you my Toy Cave. Now not every toy is on display, but I finally got everything all tidied up and looking beautiful, so I hope you enjoy the tour!

(It also so happens that this goes hand in hand with the current League Of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment "'Shelf' Expression"! So, I'm gonna combine the two. Yeah, I do that a lot. It's all good though, right?)

BEFORE:

Not so pretty.

AFTER:

Fun new shelf.

I found the perfect weapons for Frogacuda.

Added a new Raisin to the band.

A colorful bunch, always ready for a fight.

With the Retro Duo Portable I can play all my NES and SNES carts on the go! My old school Nintendo collection is growing again little by little as I spot great deals at the DI.

Here's the old desk drawer shelf  display I found a while back.

Another new shelf, also a cheap DI grab. I really like this style of metal shelf.

Lunar City, slowly growing. (I just want to thank The Trash Man, The Goodwill Geek, and Miss M for their LEGO contributions! You are all so generous and I just want to let you know I haven't forgotten! There will be thank you posts in your honor soon!

Duplo Moon Bug

Monchichi anyone?

Well, I hope you enjoyed my "shelf" expression. If you're still hungry for more then go check out these beautiful shelves:

Nerdy Life Of Mine

Revenge Of The Toy Box

Cool and Collected

Stunt Zombie

Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks

Midnight Monster Spook Show

Erik Johnson Illustrator

Primordial Badgers Media Hoard

G.I. Jigsaw

Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool

The Nerd Nook

Wandering Mind

AEIOU and Sometimes Why

Nerd Lunch

The Neighborhood Archive

Happy Haunted Sunshine House

Super Powered Fiction

Of Beards And Men

I've had beards on the brain lately and that eventually led to a beard on my face. Not the grizzliest of beards mind you, my facial hair has always been a bit odd. Half of my facial hair is blonde, despite my dark brown head of hair. I never could grow a decent beard, though I did grow the nappiest goatee you ever did see during the tail end of my senior year in high school. I've always been a bit like my fictitious hero, Napoleon Dynamite. I was always super jealous of anyone in high school that could grow a nice beard or mustache. I totally have beard envy.

LUCKY! (Source)

Jared Hess (Director and Co-Writer of Napoleon Dynamite) with actor Jon Heder

(Source)

From soul patch...

(Source)

...too full on beard! His wife, Jerusha, co-writer of all the Hess films, seems pretty thrilled about Jared's awesome beard!

On another note, I really like what Peter Jackson has done with the dwarves in The Hobbit movies. Each dwarf has a unique look with a unique beard to boot; proving that you don't need a huge honkin' 3 foot long beard to be considered a true dwarf. All you need is, at the very least, a few sprigs of facial hair. I may not have the fullest of beards, but by Jove, it's a beard fit for a dwarf!

(Source)

When I first read The Hobbit I couldn't tell Nili from Gili, or Bofur from Gofur for that matter. In my mind's eye they were all just a bunch of dwarves, all with the standard dwarfy beard. They're pretty much identical in the original cartoon as well. No donut beard experiment going on here.

Since my wife isn't the biggest fan of my new facial plumage, I'm afraid it'll just have to go. Soon I'll be back to my baby face self again and I can expect to be called "buddy", "hey kid", "young man" and I've even been called "sweetheart" and "little one". Please, never ever refer to a grown man with such terms! Unless that man is your husband or boyfriend these terms are just downright hurtful!

  "it's like kissing a bush!"

         

My sister Percie was recently wed to a wonderful bearded man. He's quite the musician, so be sure to check out Rob's band L'Anarchriste and their latest album "Giant" on Kickstarter!

Laura of Boo Bobby suggested I catalogue some portraits with my toys before the beard goes down the sink and is lost forever. What a grand idea! 

 Shave that face, human scum!

       

Real men take care of there own, beard or no beard.

The beard came off and I went just mustache for a day!

It's not a hotdog mirror, but it's close enough.

The lip brow

The walrus

Bearded Blogger Greats:
Cal
The Geek
The Nerd
The Trash Man
Lord of all Little Weirdos
Laura's Hubby of Boo Bobby (that kinda rhymes!)

If I didn't mention your blog then I don't know whether or not you or one you love has a beard. Throw in a link below and I'll add you to the Bearded Blogger Greats! Mustaches count!

Sunday Reflections: Christmas Miracles

In front, from left to right: Sargent Slaughter, Alpine, and Ace as the 3 wise men. Playmobil figures as Joseph and Mary. LEGO Frodo Baggins as baby Jesus. Dinosaur as an oxen. Arthur Dent and white ninja as shepherds.

In back, from left to right: Shrek as a shepherd and Donkey as a donkey. Ralph Bakshi's Balrog as the angelic messenger.

Christmas is a time of miracles, big and small. The miracle of the Christ Child, The Son of God, our Lord and Savior. 

 6 For unto us a ^achild is ^bborn, unto us a ^cson is given: and the^dgovernment shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, ^eCounsellor, The ^fmighty ^gGod, The ^heverlastingFather, The Prince of ⁱPeace.

 7 Of the increase of his ^agovernment and peace there shall be no^bend, upon the throne of ^cDavid, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with ^djustice from henceforth even for ever. The ^ezeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

(Isaiah 9:6-7)

We would do well to recognize miracles in our lives, even the little ones. For example, we often take for granted the miracle of electricity and natural gas. Something as simple as that is something to be truly grateful for, especially during the holidays. I for one am grateful for the miracle of life! Ava is our little miracle baby and we love and cherish her so much! Derek, the Goodwill Geek, relates a Christmas miracle he experienced from his Christmas past. You HAVE to read it, it's amazing and it warmed my heart! Click HERE for the wonderful Geekmas miracle.

What miracles have you experienced in your life? Do miracles still really happen today? This Christmas I hope you experience your own miracle. And remember, don't discount the small miracles in your life, because when you think about it they really are a great blessing from our loving Heavenly Father.

UPDATE

The miracles just keep rolling in! Check out Laura's miracle over at Boo Bobby!