Monday, August 31, 2009

Nice Day For a Picnic!


We started out this morning after breakfast with planting seeds in a little clay pot with Paige and put them on the porch to grow and keep watered. Then I painted her toenails blue and massaged her feet with lotion which she loved. Then she was so sweet. She wanted to put lotion on my feet and massage them. :)

Then I packed us a picnic lunch and we headed out for Shakespeare Park for a picnic. We spread a blanket under a shade tree by the water and were in the middle of our picnic when I spotted across the other side of the water a young lady with a nice-looking camera taking photos and pointing our way. I really didn't think very much about it, just thinking it was someone like me enjoying the beautiful weather and taking photos at this beautiful park. In fact, it even crossed my mind that I hated that we were in her way and she might be trying to get a good landscape photo. In just a few minutes, she walked over to us ( a pretty good little walk ) and asked if she could have our names explaining that she was with the local paper and just taking photos of people enjoying the beautiful weather in different locations around the city. So I told her our names and she asked where we were from and I told her. Then we had a wonderful conversation about mother/daughter relationships, photography, Photoshop, and a lot of different subjects.

Paige was just in the paper a few weeks ago and now I wonder if this one will be in the paper one day this week or maybe even tomorrow. I checked the website when I got home and nothing had been posted for the day. I'll check again tonight and tomorrow.

After the park, we went to Books A Million and enjoyed reading a few books and Paige played with the big train set and looked at a few toys. Then we went next door to the pet store and looked around.

It was a wonderful day. We enjoyed the weather and our activities. Paige took a nap on the way home and on the couch after we got home which gave me time to finish our dinner and we ate with her daddy and sent her mother a plate. Paw Paw is eating now. It was a full day and, again, I am so tired but it is a good tired feeling like I helped people who appreciated it.

I do have to say that these vitamins I'm taking are doing wonders for me. I have so much more energy and a better and more positive outlook on life. I am so thankful I found out about them.

Oh, and by the way, the photo above is of Paige at the Shakespeare Park, a beautiful, beautiful place.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Isn't It A Lovely Ride?


About a week ago, I decided to go back to my very first post of this year and read it. It was really a strange sensation reading it. I felt the very same excitement as I did that day beginning this blog and something very new for me. If you want to read it, go here to read it again. I love James Taylor's words - sliding down and gliding down, try not to try too hard, it's just a lovely ride.

I think I've been trying too hard lately and worried about a lot of things I had no control over. But I guess that's just the human condition. I did the best I could and didn't expect the unexpected. Who know what the rest of this year that I turned 60 will hold?

I love the photo above. I think it illustrates the lyrics to the song. Here is Paige, with a cast on her arm, and she's just holding both arms high up in the sky, sliding down and gliding down. She's trying not to try too hard and just having a lovely ride. :)

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Feline College Kitties


I just went through a long post about these kitties and blogger didn't accept it. I don't know what went wrong and it's after 1 am here so I'm going to shorten this post.


These cats were feline college buddies. The one in the top photo that you see the best is Rudi, my youngest daughter's cat, that she nursed and saved his life. He was found as an orphan. She even got up during the night while she was going to nursing school to feed him.

The next picture, bottom one, was my oldest daughter's cat. She was rescued, too, and almost died in the very beginning. When my daughter got married, her husband was allergic to cats so we got her. She is a hunter. She caught a hummingbird once. That's how fast she is.

We love them both even though we had just gotten a new dog and cat and didn't expect to have any more pets - just a dog and a cat. :) But these two new additions have made our life interesting and more loving. We love our pets, one dog and 3 cats!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Strange Photo!


Is this not the strangest photo you've ever seen?!? ha!

I went to help my daughter today. She's been a little under the weather and I helped her clean out her room she's trying to make into an office so it can be painted and refurbished. The walls have already been primed and we cleaned it up enough so that the baseboard can be finished and we can paint.

While we were cleaning and going through things in there, we came across a couple of cameras. One was a digital camera that used the same card as mine and since my daughter's digital camera used a different type card, she gave it to me. Naturally, curiosity was getting the best of me so almost as soon as I got home (after I unloaded the car), I put this card into the computer and there were 27 pics on there. Some were from a cruise they went on back in 2005 and this particular photo above was the strangest-looking photo! I don't know what happened but it reminds me of one of those children's books where you have three columns and you can change the top, middle and bottom to get a different picture. haha! The rest of the photos were ok.

We got a lot accomplished and I'm tired but it's a good tired of knowing that I helped someone today and they appreciated it. :)

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Sentimental


Why in the world would I post a picture of this old dishpan on my blog? This was the very last thing that I lovingly brought home from my mother's house. All the family had already pored over all of her "things" and had carefully chosen what they wanted to keep. I think we all did this over and over. Some of us even brought things home and would take them back again. Then my sister-in-law had a yard sale and included some of Mama's "things" in it. Some of them sold. Some didn't. Then we called a mission to come get some things. Then Habitat for Humanity. Some things were taken to the curb for garbage pick-up. When all was gone, my brother and I were looking in her old shed in her back yard to see if anything was left and there was this old dishpan. Nobody wanted it. I looked at it and memories came flooding back of seeing that old dishpan in my mother's hands for different reasons. I slowly bent over and picked it up and just gave my brother this look that he completely understood (and I'm sure my sisters would, too) and said, "I can't leave this here. I'm taking this home to shell peas in or something." He just gave me an understanding smile and shook his head as if to say, "go ahead. I understand."

Today I spent the whole day in my kitchen cleaning out and rearranging which gave me such a sense of accomplishment. The last thing I did in the kitchen tonight was give that old dishpan a good scrubbing with a feeling that I was so glad that I kept it. My husband and I will put it to good use. Mama would be so proud. :) She did not like to waste anything and liked to put things to good use. We will Mama. You'll be proud of us.

I looked up the word sentimental in the dictionary before I decided to post this. My dictionary gives the definition as: easily affected by emotions such as love, sympathy, sadness, etc., often in a way that seems silly to other people. That's me! It may seem silly to some other people to keep that old dishpan but I guess I'm just sentimental. :)

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Busy Day


It doesn't look like much but it took a long time! My day started with freezing okra from the Farmer's Market. It was a labor of love because I only like okra breaded and fried (or maybe you could bake it? I'll have to check into that!) but my husband loves it boiled and now my grandchild does so I froze it in the whole pods. Anyway, that's done.

Next my husband starts complaining about not being able to find a lid for a certain "Tupperware" container so I pull out all those type containers and start trying to match the tops. I have about 50% success. ha! It's all still sitting on the counter. I left. I took him with me and went to Target to shop. That was more fun. Then we went to an hour and a half choir practice, came home to eat and I've been on the computer watching TV. The tupperware is still on the counter. I'll tackle it tomorrow.

I'm trying to do a little cleaning out for a yard sale, hopefully in the fall, as I go everyday anyway. So I just looked at it as an opportunity to clean out for the yard sale instead of getting upset about the complaining. Now he's complaining that the counters are full of tupperware. ha! Can't win. But I will stay positive and will finish that little job tomorrow morning.

I also enjoyed talking to one of my mother's sisters and packaged up some goodies to send her that I know she'll enjoy.

It doesn't sound like a lot but the day's gone. They sure do go by fast nowadays. As I said in my very first post, you might as well enjoy the ride, right? Thank you, James Taylor!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Paw Paw Day, Ducks in a Row, and Composition Mistakes


Today was "Paw Paw Day"! We had Paige today and had our day planned. First thing in the morning, we played golf and, of course, Paw Paw was everything. Then we had lunch and went to get my mother-in-law to help her with some banking and then on to the park to play and feed the ducks. She would not let anyone do anything for her or with her except Paw Paw. It was so funny. But we had a wonderful time.

Here are my "ducks in a row"! ha! I didn't realize they were in a row like this until I imported them onto the computer and looked at them. I took probably a half dozen shots of these cute little baby ducks and as I was looking at them tonight, I realized it all was just point and shoot and wanted to point out a couple of mistakes. Paige really brought my attention to this one above. She wanted to see the pictures I took of the ducks and when she saw this one, she said, "you cut the Mama's tail off, Bear Bear"! And I did! But I do love the three little ducks in a row!

Here's the second mistake I found. Since I was shooting in a hurry and not paying attention to any details or composition or anything, I saw this mistake later. You can see the shadow of my head reflected in the water. Of course, with today's cropping tools, etc., a duck or two could be cropped into an ok photo.

Another "fresh", positive day!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Fresh Outlook!


It's been WAY too long since I've posted and I am really mad at myself for this because I made a commitment to do this every day of this year. But what's done is done.

Today I took a fresh outlook, I hope, for the year. I really didn't sleep very well last night and had weird dreams but I got up early and decided to walk. The weather was great today. It felt like Fall!

After my walk (which did wonders for me), I got Paige and we headed to the drug store to get some new vitamins I'm going to try. She was a little too whiny in the drugstore but I just still tried to keep my positive, fresh outlook and just decided she was that way because it was first thing in the morning.

After the drug store, we went to the bank to get cash to spend later on in the day and to Wal-Mart to get a picture CD with index prints made. I kept telling her I had a surprise for her later in the day and she seemed to be excited about it.

We finally got to the surprise. We went to the Farmer's Market and bought the fresh food pictured above. She loved it. It was a different kind of shopping and she loved smelling the food and talking about what it was and how you cook it, etc.

So we had a feast tonight for supper. We had fresh green beans (which she helped me snap), fresh corn on the cob, fresh cucumber slices, fresh sliced tomatoes from our garden, and fresh peaches for dessert with vanilla ice cream on top! Yum! I bought okra to freeze and my husband loves it boiled or fried. I don't like it boiled but he boiled some for himself and tried it on her and she ate about 7 pieces of boiled okra plus beets! She loved it! I don't like beets either. I bought the zucchini squash to make zucchini bread. Maybe I can do that tomorrow when I freeze the okra.

So we did have a fresh day and I'm hoping tomorrow will be just as fresh!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Our Beautiful Sunsets!


We enjoy the most beautiful sunsets here. A couple of nights ago, I was in the kitchen working and looked out the back window and saw this. I grabbed my camera with no tripod and took a chance that it would show up in the camera the way it really looked. Sometimes it just turns out too dark but I got lucky this time!

Gosh, this is beautiful!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sharing Beauty of the Season


This rose is a Betty Prior rose. My youngest daughter gave it to me a few years ago and it always flourishes. In fact, it needs cutting back right now because if is SO full of blooms that have finished blooming. I caught this one in beautiful bloom. The color is just wonderful. When a bloom from this rose is open completely, it looks like a dogwood blossom.

These next four photos are from the four Knockout Roses we have in our backyard. They are constantly blooming and so easy to take care of. I love the color of these, too.


I just love the combination of the sun setting behind these blooms and how the colors "shine" through the blossoms. Knockout really does describe this rose!




Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I Think I've Turned a Corner!


Yesterday I felt like I had sort of "turned a corner", or at least a little corner. I did go upstairs to my sewing room and start organizing things I got from my mother's house that I wanted for my sewing room and cleaning up in there so I can get started with my hobby again. I had a lot of things to wash and the denim quilt above was one thing I washed and put it outside on my screened-in porch to air dry.

After my mother died and my brother and two sisters and I started talking about the things we wanted to keep of hers, the quilt pictured above was the first thing that came to my mind. This quilt is about 45 years old. I really didn't know what kind of shape it was in or even if it was finished but it is finished. There are places that have worn or frayed or stitches have come loose, etc. and it is very primitive in design but the reason I love this old quilt and wanted it so badly is because of the good memories it brings to me.

I think I was about 15 years old when my mother and I worked on this quilt together. It was her idea. She just wanted to cut up old jeans of ours into these little squares and do some sort of design on each square, then join them together into a quilt. I hadn't done any kind of sewing much at that time. I did take what they called home economics in high school and hated it but I think this was after we worked on this quilt. My mother at that time owned a Merle Norman Cosmetics store and we would work on this quilt there when times were slack. I just have such fond memories of doing this with my mother. Then she put it together. I think she must have zigzagged around each square and then crocheted them all together. I don't know when she had time to do this because she worked all day and had four children at the time, the youngest being probably around two years old. She was just amazing at the things she accomplished!


Here's a close-up of one of the squares that I did. You can see how childish my stitches were but I was so proud of those stitches and that design. We made up all of our designs. We didn't have a pattern of any kind. This was all made up in our minds and we just used whatever scraps of materials that we could find. I remember my mother praising everything that I did. She was building self esteem and love of sewing with me as well as a bond.

Here's one of her blocks. There is one little place by the 3 on the right that's frayed from just age but you can see the difference in her stitches and mine above. I wonder how she chose the time, 3 o'clock? Maybe because that's when I got out of school and rode the school bus to her place of business every afternoon to help her until closing time? This quilt is full of memories and I love it.

Monday, August 10, 2009

More Beauties


Some golfing buddies of my husband gave us a bush two years or so ago called Bridal Wreath. I'm not a gardener and had never heard of it. We planted it out back by the pool in a corner and it just stayed green, I think, the first year. Then it bloomed the next year with these beautiful white blooms all over. If I remember right, it only bloomed during the spring.

Well, last week I was just outside taking photos of all the pretty flowers around and I thought I saw a bloom on this bush and here it is August! As I looked closer, I found about three blooms so I just had to get a photo.

Isn't it beautiful? Does look like a bride, doesn't it? And I don't know why it's blooming now but I sure did enjoy it while it lasted. Thank you Raymond and Shirley. :-)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

This Bud's For You!


I think I like rosebuds better than the open rose. I don't know why.

So here are a few shots of rosebuds from my backyard.

What a beauty to behold!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Looking Under Skirts?


Have you ever "looked under skirts" of flowers? My husband planted these zinnias a couple of months ago, I guess, and we've enjoyed all these wonderful colors! I love zinnias but these did not grow as I'm accustomed to seeing zinnias grow. He planted the seeds in a big round rather shallow pot and when they grew, they "weeped" over like a fern. Unusual but rather pretty. Above is a yellow one.

And here is a pretty orange one. Has anyone else seen zinnias weep instead of standing tall?

Friday, August 7, 2009

Still Counting!


Here are some wooden spools that I found at my mother's house. I was really amazed at how many I found. I knew she had some but thought just a few. There are around 45!! (I seem to be counting things lately - Barbies last night and wooden spools today! ha!)

Last night as my husband and I were watching a movie, I took the thread off all 45 spools! Then right before I went to bed, I googled wooden spool crafts and found all kinds of things you can do with them, some I would do and some I wouldn't dare.

But I think they look pretty just sitting in this old bowl of my mother's on her old tea cart. What do you think? Any ideas?

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Twuly, Twuly, Twuly Outwageous


Here she is - Barbie!! This morning I got up and went in the attic of our garage to get some empty boxes to use to pack things for the LAST DAY at my mother's house. As I was looking around, I saw this box labeled on top - BARBIES. I was in a hurry and didn't have time to check and see if there really were Barbie dolls in there and decided I would check when I got home.

When I got home tonight, I went upstairs in the garage and brought that box down. In the box were 22 Barbies, 2 Barbie little sisters, 5 Kens, and four dolls called Jem dolls.

Both of my girls just absolutely loved playing with Barbies but my oldest daughter especially loved those Jem dolls. One was blonde, one had purple hair, one had hot pink hair, and one had bright blue hair. They were in a band and the one song I remember was a song that said they were truly, truly, truly outrageous. Erin substituted a W sound for all R sounds at that age so she would sing that song as twuly outwageous and it was SO cute!

Now that I'm through at my mother's, I'm wanting to go through boxes up in our garage and see what I can find.

Pictured above is the only Barbie that was completely dressed right down to her little white high heel shoes.

Here's a close-up of the Barbie above. I wanted you to see that she has on heart earrings!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Rock n Roll!!!!!


Oh, Paw Paw, I want to be a rock star!!!! What a little groupie!



Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Our Mushroom Garden


I think this is the biggest mushroom garden we've ever had! I love it and just had to photograph it. My sister was visiting while this little garden popped up and her photos are much better than mine, I think. I hope she posts them on FB.

Just playing around with color on this one. It looks like sunshine bathing them in light. I tried to make a psychedelic look but just couldn't get it. Fun!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Feeling Like Cinderella!


I feel like Cinderella trying to get this post in before the clock strikes midnight but I don't think I made it! ha!

I love this photo. We spent this past weekend in Nashville. Erin really does a great job at finding us girls something different and fun to do every time. This is just one of the fun things we saw and did this trip. We went to a park called Dragon Park (I think she said that's just what the locals call it - I don't know the "official" name). But it had a huge dragon made completely from mosaics and it was beautiful to look at and photograph. I just love all the color.

They also had slides, a big sandbox way up high (I was just told about that. I didn't actually see this.), a seesaw that looked like a ladybug but I didn't photograph it. It was a nice day weather wise to do this.

Afterwards we went to a popsicle place that was fantastic. I had a cantaloupe popsicle that tasted just like fresh canteloupe. There's more to post about this trip to Nashville which I will do tomorrow.

But I don't think I made it under midnight so two posts may show the same date. Oh well. . .