Friday, February 26, 2010

Who Put These Things Here, Anyway?


Well, actually, I put these particular stones here on my kitchen counter.

(The little green thing has numbers on it and the little stone replicas have corresponding numbers on the bottom to tell me where to place them.)

I got this at Barnes and Noble in the sale bin. only $7 and some cents.

I have a plan for it and I shall show it off when I am finished.

I have been among these actual, herculean stones in England, and the size of them along with the knowledge of the millenia they have spent in this obviously premeditated array, caused my hair to stand on end.

Who did this!? There are several hypotheses, but one thing is known. The monolithic stones did not come from near-by. Some one transported them to their present location.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Who Loves the Sweet Potato Queens?


Me. That's who.
So of course my sister and I had to go here when we visited the state where I drew my first breath. I SO wish I could be BFF's with Jill Connor Brown.

I have added the picture above because I learned a shocking thing yesterday! Not everyone has read the SPQ books.

Oh! I envy y'all so much because you have SUCH a treat coming to you!

I was reading the chapter about southern obituaries to my sister while we were driving up the mountain to Tahoe and she almost drove off the road! This is sometimes not that big of a deal but this time it would have been.

Hie thee to the book store and fetch yourself one of these book!

YOU will want to be BFF's with her too!

Monday, February 22, 2010

It's Moth Season!



This is Joe right before he knocked over the lamp, scattered books, and spilled my Adult Beverage. He just can NOT allow killer moths in our home.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

ARE YOU KIDDING???

See Chari over at Happy to Design to join in on the FORTY-FOURTH re run party!





Do I use Mod Podge??
Have you forgotten the shoes?







Remember these?

Mod Podge.











See this? I decoupaged gold paper on it.
Using?
Mod Podge.

I made the top in my clay class.

The stool that it is sitting on is MP as well!









All of these bowls?


You Guessed it,

Mod Podge







This project and all of the above have been shown before. Actually if you go through my blog you will see that I am a decoupage dependent soul. My son thinks I need an intervention.

Friday, February 19, 2010

She Doesn't Like Old People

In Folsom California, they serve lunch at the Senior Center. We want Mom and her hub, Ray, (both 84 years old) to go there and take advantage of it. They could eat a meal and socialize. Ray could trade WWII stories with the other vets there..

Mom says, "NO! There are old people there and they would probably want to talk to me about SEWING, or even CANNING!"

So I made her this button to wear and said I'd go with them next week when I'm there.
She still said NO!!

Guess I'll have to tie her up.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

See? I Don't Always Set My Table With Paper Plates and Plastic Spoons

Oh, Well. This table doesn't have any plates on it so we'll never know, will we?
Happy VD everyone. I always make a heart shaped dinner for the day.
I talked to my sister earlier and she is making heart shaped crab cakes today. I am not sure what I am making yet so I'll just show you...
Stuff I made before.
I leave you with this; If love is blind, then why is lingerie so popular?

Friday, February 12, 2010

The Dog That Was Supposed To Be

This is Butler, sitting on Uncle John's lap.

The Butler Story
Early in the spring of 2006, Butler, the over-bred, half-feral, half crazy, (but 100% love), miniature Australian Shepherd went roaming and didn’t come home to sleep in Rob’s bed as he always did. Rob, my son, was in Utah on business. Jenny, who was staying at Rob's house, called for Butler and looked for him frantically.
The next day Richard and I joined the search for him. We drove up and down the road, checking the ditches on each side. Jenny made flyers and put them on all of the mailboxes by the road and on the bulletin board at the General Store.
I called the near-by veterinarians’ offices and told them if someone brought him in wounded to call us and to do whatever they needed to keep him alive. Our vet’s receptionist said, “Is that the one that no one can get near?”

Yes, that would be Butler.

He was skittish, to say the least.
I called the wonderful, loving neighbors, who came to our sides when Leigh, my 34 year old daughter-in-law died suddenly. (See my other blog, "Leigh-Nothing Lasts For Long")
They, like Richard and I, couldn’t stand the idea of Rob having to deal with another loss and promised to do what they could do to find the little guy.

Butler was suspicious of almost all humans. He didn’t allow anyone to pet him except the two people who raised him. After he lost his “mommy,” he slowly began to let a few people get closer to him. He came to me, across three pastures, when he heard the gunshots of hunters and skeet shooters. He would cower in my arms and vibrate in fear. Recently when he sensed that he was destined for a bath, he ran to me for salvation.

When Jenny came into his life he easily trusted her. When Whitney came to work with Rob, she found herself doing much of her work on the computer with Butler in her lap. Perhaps he was trying all of the females in his world to see if any of us could replace Leigh.

As the days passed we began to give up hope.

It snowed.
We almost hoped he was dead so he wouldn’t be out there in the freezing snow all lost and afraid and hungry and cold. We knew he would never let anyone catch him. We knew he would not go to anyone else’s home.

It snowed again.

We would not be seeing him any more. Something got him. We saw a mountain lion one Sunday evening. It was down by the creek. They say there are a lot of those around here. Butler thought he was big. He chased anything that ran.
No, we would not see him again.

We thought.

Late one warm spring afternoon, Jenny and her son Jordan were in the garden preparing it for planting. They heard a bark from far away. They knew it was Butler. They looked at the hill across the creek and called Butler’s name. Another bark! Jenny thought she saw the white fur on his throat and chest.
“Jordan! Go get the binoculars!” Jenny said, as she kept her eyes on the tiny spot of white.
She looked through the binoculars and saw Butler. They ran to the bridge that crosses Cow Creek, and started up the mountain. Jenny sent Jordan back to call us. She had the foresight to grab a flash light, and she reasoned that if she became lost in the woods across the creek, she would shine the light to let us know where she was.
She had on sandals and cropped pants, but she knew she was not coming back without Butler. She climbed through the blackberry bushes even though they were slashing her bare calves. At one point a limb stuck in her eye, leaving a red gash on her eyeball. She kept climbing. The girl is a hero.
By the time Richard and I found her, she and Jordan were coming down Whitmore Road on the ATV, and she had Butler in her arms. We wept at the sight.
He was a skeleton covered with fur and ticks, but he was alive.
He had been gone for fifteen days.

We called our veterinarian, and he said he’d wait for us at the clinic, where Butler spent the night getting nourished, pampered, and checked for any permanent abnormalities.
Rob got a flight home immediately.

Butler, the Bionic Dog, is as good as new now, but he doesn’t wander the way he did before.
Heck, he doesn’t let Rob out of his sight, and he loves his new mommy, Jenny.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Photo courtesy of USA Today jsyk
You can certainly tell who the top twelve will be by how much time they spend hyping them, can't you?Except for that bridge jumping girl from the hills. No one is going to keep her down on the farm after her trip on the "areoplane to HOLLYWOOD!"

(I always wonder how those people who did all that celebratory jumping around, feel when they see the grunginess of Hollywood.)

Did you hear the way that one guy did "Straight Up"? Wow! He was great. AI is my guilty pleasure. I didn't watch it at all the first two years. Then the third year I discovered how funny the tryouts can be. I love Funny, so I watched only the tryouts for a couple of years. My granddaughter and I were watching when William Hung sang "She Bang" and our heads ripped around to look at each other in stunned silence. Then we laughed for about two weeks.

Then I moved to BFE so I began watching the whole thing.

Furthermore, I look forward to it.

Furthermore again, I mourn when it is over for the season.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Bummer Lamb

Lexie meets the baby lamb.
Did you know...
That a baby lamb that has been shunned by its mother is called a bummer. Can this be where
the phrase, "What a bummer" comes from? This baby is five days old and has
the good fortune to get to come live with my daughter-in-love and her family. His name is
Lemmiwinks and he has his own Pampers. Lexie loves him! She thinks he is a member of her species!
"Followed her to school one day which was against the rules."

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Grammys 2010




> Grammies 2010
> …or as Steven Colbert called it,
> “The show where performers exercise their most precious right; the right to congratulate each other.”
>
> Sunday night’s show was the best Grammy show I have seen in years. (ie, not much rap displays, and lots of Agreeing With Me.)
>
> Mr. Colbert announced the Song of the Year, (Single Ladies) by reading it from his iPad, which he pulled from inside his jacket. I have been amused by parodies of Beyonce’s video of Single Ladies, most notably by Justin Timberlake who, along with two members of the SNL cast, dressed in black tights and four-inch heels and did the Single Ladies dance. Hilarious.
>
> Beyonce put on a Show with a capital “S!” She had about forty dancing storm troopers, and great, elaborate costumes. She sang, If I Were a Boy and then slipped in a bit of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know,” (or as we call it in my family, “The Cross-eyed Bear Song.”) It may be the angriest song ever performed.
>
> As an old (-er) lady, I could be Pink’s oldest fan. I also like Lady GaGa. They showed their awesome talent Sunday night.
>
> Pink performed soaking wet acrobatics in the air, while singing, I might add!
>
> Lady GaGa can sing! She can play the piano and sing at the same time, which never ceases to amaze me. She performed with another one of my favorite divas, Elton John, and they brought out the best in each other.
>
> Both Pink and Lady GaGa make Cher look conservative. That’s not easy to do.
>
> My favorite songwriter, Leonard Cohen, won a Lifetime Achievement Award. So did Loretta Lynn. I never thought I’d mention these two people in the same paragraph.
>
> Zac Brown won the best new artist. I hadn’t heard of any of the other people they were up against. (The “Ting Tings?”)
>
> The Black Eyed Peas performed. They do the best work out songs. Put them on your ipod and go work out. Work out for me, too, because I am busy. Other good workout tunes are Blame it on the A-A-Alcohol, Footloose, and Use Somebody. (I am good at choosing work out songs, just not at working out.)
>
> There were great performances by Lady Antebellum, The Kings of Leon, Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks, Andre Bocelli and Mary J. Blige. Every performance was great, but the best of the best was the Michael Jackson 3-D performance, and I didn’t even have any 3-D glasses. If you missed it, you must Google it! I don’t care what Michael (did with the Jesus Juice,) (may or may not have done,) (was accused of doing) he knew how to put on a show. That boy could sing and dance!
>
> Stevie Nicks was not the only old rocker featured on Sunday night’s show. We got to see Jon Bon Jovi, Neil Young, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, and Leon Russell. Anyone remember Mad Dogs and Englishmen? Leon lived across the street from our friends in Tulsa. What a partier!
>
> The entire show was impressively grandiose. I loved every minute of it, even the rap performances. (Did I just write those words?)
>