It's Still the Holiday Season

And what better way to celebrate than with snowman cupcakes. Aren't these gorgeous?? Now, I am dieting, so I won't be munching on these yummies, but these are so cute I get a sugar rush just looking at them. Check out all the amazing Holiday Cupcakes at http://www.bakerella.com/

Have a great week y'all!!!

Merry Christmas

We had a WHITE CHRISTMAS!! Our first here in Texas. And we have been here over 30 years. Hope your holiday was happy.

Brand New Kitchen

Well- since the stove top and the oven died in the same week - I went to Home Depot to order me one kitchen to go. In less than a month I have the new one ready to go. I am still in the process of deciding what stays and what goes (junk drawers are soooo full after so many years!!) but here are some before and after shots.





Okay so the drawers need to be put back in and the wall oven area now holds a wall oven and a microwave instead of a double wall oven. So I have some staining to do there over the bare wood they used to build up the area. I still have work to do. But I am loving it.

Skinny Weight Watcher's Recipes

http://weight-watchers-points-recipes.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

Oh my gosh- delicious looking and yummy sounding recipes for the lighter side of life. Enjoy!!

A Yard Sale Near You

Okay I read about this in the AARP bulletin. I pulled up the yard sales for this weekend and a couple look very promising!!

When you are ready to go to garage sales -- check it out. Enter your town and how far you are willing to drive and the date!! It is that easy!!

http://www.yardsaletreasuremap.com/

Let me know what treasures you find!!

Ever Been RE-GIFTED??

Here are some rules to keep in mind if you have a penchant to re-gift--

Good Advice for the Potential Regifter

You can regift something only if it meets the following criteria, says Jodi R.R. Smith, author of From Clueless to Class Act: Manners for the Modern Woman ($10, amazon.com).

• It is new and has never been opened.
• It’s something you would have bought for the person anyway.
• The original giver and the new recipient don’t know each other at all.
• You’ve completely rewrapped it.

The only exception to the above? “If you’re giving an heirloom that you know the recipient will love,” says Smith.

Wise advice!!

Happy Friday the 13th.

Shopping the Friday After Thanksgiving

You know what's coming just around the bend? Christmas!! I found this website that lists the Black Friday ads as they become available. And some are ALREADY available!!
http://www.black-friday.net/

Love This Web Site

http://pleasedress.me/random

Mr. Magic takes a beating!!

Magic must have gotten into a fight cuz he has great big bite marks on his left shoulder. So that required a trip to the vet! :-(

I keep telling him, "When you are out there in the big bad world, you gotta keep your opinions to yourself, my man." But he won't listen. The last time I had him at the vet for fight wound was in June.

The vet tells me since he is 8 years old he is considered 'an old cat.' I told her our last cat lived to 15 and we have another one at home (Luna) that is 12 - so Magic is hardly 'old.' The vet told me that the life span of an outdoor cat (or indoor/outdoor in this case) is 2 years!!! What??? I guess that between cars on the road and feline leukemia, cats who spend time outdoors have some obstacles to overcome.

We must be doing something right here in our little corner of the world.

So Magic got a shot of antibiotics and some blood work done, which proved he is healthy! YES!!!

Some scrapbook pages

All from our wonderful times in Ocean City Maryland at Castle in the Sand. You can double click on the image to see it in a larger format.

Yummy Food

So I bought the yummiest bread at Market Street the other day. It is a black pepper and parmesan bread. It is so, so, so, so yummy. If you get a chance to try it out- GO FOR IT!!

Last week I made a spinach artichoke dip. Do you know what is in this dip? All the good stuff. Mayo, more parmesan cheese, sour creme and, of course, spinach and artichokes.

But, seriously, I can't eat all that dip by myself. So I froze some. Never done that. We'll see in a week or two how it thaws.

So I enjoyed it as a dip. Then the next day I made toast and put it on toast. Then I made a baked potato and used a bunch on that. THEN I mixed it in some alfredo sauce to thin it a bit and put it over bowtie pasta with PINE NUTS. (I love pine nuts)

What will I do with the rest tomorrow? Any suggestions?

b.

RV Dreams

We went to the RV show this past weekend. Saw one we really liked. Not a 5th wheel, just a trailer but the kitchen was in the front at the point that pulls right behind your truck (or whatever) and I really liked it. It was a kitchen in the round with two big windows there.

George even asked me if I thought I could give up the house to live on the road full time. I don't know. I would like a smaller place, less yard, but I always thought we would have a home base. He was looking at the $75000 RV's. He is a dreamer.

But at the RV show we met a lady that told us about a website called rvdreams that is written by a couple that lives on the road full time. One of the forums is 'what to expect emotionally as you give up your house to live on the road' which is exactly the kind of info you hope for when making a big decision.

Any way, that is years down the line. I have been scrapbooking and hanging out. Lovin' life.

Love you all.

Hello World!!

The most exciting thing going on today is that the weather is cool!! Yesterday and today it is the same temperature range here, in Dallas, as it is where my loved ones are in Pittsburgh PA and Buffalo NY. 70's. Lovely.

My cats are tearing around the house chasing each other. The cool weather brings out the nascar in them!!

Yesterday I had a scary couple of hours when I could not get a hold of Megan. Texted her at 11am, at 2pm and at 3pm. Then started calling and only got her voice mail. Her phone was off but I didn't know that. I almost jumped in the car to drive an hour to check up on her. Seems her new work wants their employees to turn their phones off when at work and Megan just forgot to turn hers back on the night before. No worries. But I had myself worked up into a frenzy.

Out the window went all my peace. Dear Lord please remind me to turn to You when I fall off the peace wagon!! My Dear Lord is always there for me. I just have to remember Him. And thanks to my dear, dear friend Maria for her calming words. She is so wonderful to me.

I also want to give a shout out to my dear daughter-in-law Tess. Check out her blog at http://cozylittlecave.blogspot.com/ Not only is her's a most wonderful blog, but also check out her blog roll of her favorite blogs. There are some of the most wonderful design blogs there. I have loved cruising around the web following her favorite blogs. Good stuff there.

Then follow her blog to her etsy shop. What whimsical, bright, endearing paintings she has there. And she must be selling some too. I was waiting for payday to roll around again to purchase a couple and they have disappeared off her shop!! Those who tarry there will lose out!!

Love and Peace to fill your day.
B.

Awesome on at least four differentlevels. - Home - Sprague Lab - Digital and Hybrid Scrapbooking + .

Awesome on at least four differentlevels. - Home - Sprague Lab - Digital and Hybrid Scrapbooking + .

Check out this short vimeo!! Don't you, like, hate it- when people, like, can't articulate, you know?

Some of Dad's paintings

So Mom allowed Kathy and I to go through what she had left of Dad's paintings. Because I was traveling by plane I could not take as many as I wanted. Kathy took the bulk of what was left. And God bless her for doing so. Anything that we didn't want was going to end up in the trash because Mom is paring down her possessions in anticipation of selling her house and moving into a smaller place.

What I was really struck by was the growth in Dad's painting abilities from when he started in the early 70's at the age of 55 or so. There was one painting of Marty that was quite simplistic and obviously one of his beginner paintings. The thing is, I don't remember Dad's early work. I always thought he was as good as the paintings you see posted here. I am so glad Mom saved all these paintings all these years and I am happy to have the few that I do.

Now Mom saved one in particular for me. The one of Dad with the Zenner Street kitchen in the background. Which I am very happy she did save it for me. It means a lot to me that she hadn't let that one go when she was giving the others away to Marty, Sandy and Mike. That she did that for me is a sweetness I will always treasure. But that is the one Marty said he really wanted so I am going to send it to him.

After I returned home and pulled out all my paintings I have from Dad I found I had one that he did of himself already. The one I already had is the top one in this posting.

If you compare the one with the Zenner Street background one with the other one of Dad that I have posted here you can see the huge leap in his skill level.

All self taught. And late in life. Proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks!!!

God Bless you Dad. Marty- heads up, there's one coming in the mail.

Back from Vacation

More on the vacation later. Right now I am plowing through my emails. I have one here from ChristianityTodayMovies.com. It is a great site and gives good reviews of all the movies that come out. Today's email has a really cool application on it. It's called RunPee.com. Here it is.

You can click on the list of movies at the left and it gives you the time line of the movie and tells you where you can go 'run and pee' with out missing much in the movie. Not only that but it tells you what you'll miss while your gone!!

Check it out just for fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UE3CNu_rtY

cut and paste this video link- it will surprise you and brighten your day.

Rock guitar pioneer Les Paul dies

Les Paul's guitars were played by stars like Sir Paul McCartney Les Paul, whose pioneering electric guitars were used by a legion of rock stars, has died at the age of 94. Mr Paul died from complications of pneumonia in New York, according to Gibson, the firm that sold his guitars. He is credited with developing one of the first solid-body electric guitars, which went on sale in 1952 and contributed to the birth of rock. He also developed other influential recording innovations such as multi-track recording and overdubbing. And he was credited with inventing the eight-track tape recorder. U2 guitarist The Edge, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Guns N' Roses star Slash and The Who's Pete Townshend are among those closely associated with the Les Paul sound. Slash described him as "an exceptionally brilliant man". Read more at - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8200385.stm

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to me!! And George of course. 30 years today.

Okay so I found this website that recommends art for you based on a few quick little art quizzes. Very fun. Here is my gallery- http://www.artquiver.com/my-gallery

I know I should list the name of the art and artist. Please forgive me. But my blogger techniques are not very good. Seriously - I am happy to get these to post on my blog.

So in order from left to right - above- are:
Lisa Mishler MyVision 2009
Patch Somerville Mirrored 2008
Ken Macaire Continuity 2004

Any way - what fun!!

Hello Thursday!!

So Beautiful outside. If I could move faster than the speeding mosquitoes I would go for a walk!! But, alas, I am too sweet. The mosquitoes love me.

2 New Layouts

Now - I know you all don't want to see each and every layout that I do- but TOO BAD!! So far I am so pleased that I want to show them off. Plus I am just plain excited that I am getting things done!!

You will notice these two layouts in the post below. I have added to them. Tell me what you think. Improved?
Enjoy. Comments welcome!!

Psalm 138

" ^1-3 Thank you! Everything in me says "Thank you!"
Angels listen as I sing my thanks.
I kneel in worship facing your holy temple
and say it again: "Thank you!"
Thank you for your love,
thank you for your faithfulness;
Most holy is your name,
most holy is your Word.
The moment I called out, you stepped in;
you made my life large with strength.

^4-6 When they hear what you have to say, God,
all earth's kings will say "Thank you."
They'll sing of what you've done:
"How great the glory of God!"
And here's why: God, high above, sees far below;
no matter the distance, he knows everything about us."

Praise the Lord for He has done marvelous things.

Scrapbook Pages done in June 2009!!!

Catching up.

Tess and Jesse were here from Saturday night and left at 8:30 Sunday morning. Their new puppy is so cute. They are traveling with the puppy and the chinchilla. The chinchilla never has to come out of its cage. But apparently we wore out the puppy Saturday night and it slept all during the ride on Sunday only to be frisky when they were ready for bed Sunday night. Oh well. Puppies are like babies. Especially this one. If it was running around the house, and I mean running, and it stopped to look for Tess or Jesse and didn't see one of them she would start to whine till one of them appeared. Her name is Pepper and she is really attached to Tess and Jesse. She is so funny running. She is a dachshund and so long that the front runs ahead and the back end swings from side to side as if trying to catch up to the front end. So funny.

The temperature is high enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. I bet when they used to have slate sidewalks you really could fry an egg in 100+ temps.

I went down today and got my house appraisal lowered from $133,000 to $114,000. The guy at the appraisal office said they raised everybody's across the board to collect more tax money. If too many people go down to get there's lowered to what they really should be then they'll just raise the tax rate. But he says it hasn't been busy there so not that many people have caught sight of the raise in their taxes yet. We could not get more than $90,000 for our house right now if I tried to sell it. But I couldn't get the appraisal any lower unless I scheduled a formal hearing and I don't have the stomach for that.

This week end I made brisket, spinach and artichoke dip, apple crisp and brownies. Yum.

Housework

My theory of housework is, if the item doesn't multiply,
smell, catch fire or block refrigerator door, let it be.
No one else cares, why should you? Erma Bombeck

Amen Sister Erma!!

When we had our house on the market it was a chore to keep it up every day. A chore to keep the house ready for prospective buyers. And they always wanted to come at dinner time which makes sense because that was when they were off work and out house hunting.

So I cleaned up, maybe twice a day. We had to vamoose during the dinner hours. Ate a lot of take out. Even got to the point of parking in the car a few doors down from our house, running the AC of course and eating our Sonic burgers watching and waiting.

I LOVED HAVING THE HOUSE SO CLEAN ALL THE TIME. A whole summer of clear counters, swept up cat hair, newspapers going right in the trash, dishes instantly washed and put away.

But that was then, this is now. Now I live in a constant state of disarray. I do not take the time or the energy to keep my house in SUPER GREAT order, just regular order. Clean enough that the health department would not shut us down were they to visit.

But here is the kicker. If I am just a little bit emotionally off my game, a little bit stressed, worried or depressed, my regular house cleaning goes out the window and the clutter takes over.

So I am so pleased to find Erma Bombeck's quote at the beginning of this post. What freedom.

When I was a young mother I went to my Aunt Mary's house to visit. My Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill had 8 children, lived on a working dairy farm, and held part time jobs. And I noticed the dust bunnies frolicking around the edges of the formal dining room floor.

They made me love my Aunt all the more. Here was a women that was always emotionally there for me. Always celebrated me. Always laughed at my jokes, a rip roaring laugh. She would tell it like it was and keep on smiling. And she had dust bunnies.

I asked my mother if the dust bunnies were new or if they were always there. Mom said they were always there, I was just too young to notice.

Wow.

The freedom those bunnies granted me.
To live to love people, to drop everything when they arrived and put on a pot of coffee.
To NOT CARE about the condition of my house, but to care about the condition of heart of whomever was sitting with me.
To open my heart as well as my home.



My Aunt Mary. She is deceased but her love- lives on.

Just To Keep My Chin Up

I said in my last blog that I was overwhelmed by the daunting task in front of me. So I went back to a scrapbook I did for my wonderful daughter Megan. I gave it to her after she graduated high school. It gives me courage. Yes I can plow through these boxes of photos and memorabilia and make pretty pages. I am able. I will do it. Here are some of the pages from Megan's scrapbook.

A Daunting Task

Well I have taken on the overwhelming project of getting all my photos, memorabilia, kids school papers, souvenirs, greeting cards and the like put in an orderly fashion in anticipation of scrapbooking it all!!! Yikes. It felt like a good idea when I started in January. Well it has taken a few months to empty closets, drawers, old photo albums and coat pockets to get everything out so I could organize it. Here are the pictures of what I have organized it into. Actually it is all this plus 2 more boxes and my computer file of about 1500 images. Am I crazy or what? ;-) Don't answer that.

You get a little peak of my scraproom too. I promise to add more of my scraproom when I figure out where I am going to store all these boxes while I am working on the project. You can see that the craft table is bowing from the weight of the boxes so I am headed back in there to unload the table before it crumbles and undoes all my hard work.

Be The Match

I just joined 'Be The Match' online for bone marrow donation. It is FREE now until June 23rd, 2009 or when the funding for the freebies runs out. You fill out the form online and they send you a kit so you can swab the inside of your cheek. Swab your cheek- you could save a life!!!

http://www.marrow.org/

Worry

Oh how I can worry.

When I was growing up I convinced myself that the more I worried about something the better it would turn out for me. It only took a couple of things working out, for me to be CONVINCED that I had hit on the secret to life!!

I exercised my worry and turned it into an art form. All the while turning myself into an anxious mess.

I am in the throws of worry today. I have worries swirling around and compounding each other.

So I turn to Bible Gateway.com to get a dose of the Word of God. Which is my healer.

Matthew Henry's commentary on the verse in Matthew 6:28-30 on the lillies of the field.

"There is scarcely any sin against which our Lord Jesus more warns his disciples, than disquieting, distracting, distrustful cares about the things of this life. This often insnares the poor as much as the love of wealth does the rich. But there is a carefulness about temporal things which is a duty, though we must not carry these lawful cares too far. Take no thought for your life. Not about the length of it; but refer it to God to lengthen or shorten it as he pleases; our times are in his hand, and they are in a good hand.

Not about the comforts of this life; but leave it to God to make it bitter or sweet as he pleases. Food and raiment God has promised, therefore we may expect them. Take no thought for the morrow, for the time to come. Be not anxious for the future, how you shall live next year, or when you are old, or what you shall leave behind you. As we must not boast of tomorrow, so we must not care for to-morrow, or the events of it. God has given us life, and has given us the body. And what can he not do for us, who did that? If we take care about our souls and for eternity, which are more than the body and its life, we may leave it to God to provide for us food and raiment, which are less.

Improve this as an encouragement to trust in God. We must reconcile ourselves to our worldly estate, as we do to our stature. We cannot alter the disposals of Providence, therefore we must submit and resign ourselves to them. Thoughtfulness for our souls is the best cure of thoughtfulness for the world.

Seek first the kingdom of God, and make religion your business: say not that this is the way to starve; no, it is the way to be well provided for, even in this world. The conclusion of the whole matter is, that it is the will and command of the Lord Jesus, that by daily prayers we may get strength to bear us up under our daily troubles, and to arm us against the temptations that attend them, and then let none of these things move us.

Happy are those who take the Lord for their God, and make full proof of it by trusting themselves wholly to his wise disposal. Let thy Spirit convince us of sin in the want of this disposition, and take away the worldliness of our hearts."

Doesn't that bring you peace. He will care for the big and little things. He loves us. He put me in the relationships which I cherish and He will see to it that they are taken care of if my focus is on His provision.

Thank you Lord for moving ahead of me and providing me with all that you say I need. Which is enough to live a life for Your glory and for the good of others.

Thoughtfulness of the soul will replace thoughtfulness of the heart. In other words, when worrying- get to the word. Feed the soul.

Peace out.

That's 3 1/2 hours of my life I won't ever get back.

George and I went to a 'vacation ownership' presentation Sunday. We actually went because they promised that once we sat through the presentation we would get a free trip to Vegas, 2 Rangers tickets, a $25 gift card to Salt Grass and a $40 American Express gift card.

To be fair, we did get all that. And the girl who told us about the resorts was nice, young and quite a talker, but nice. You could tell that she was quite 'goth' in her day to day life but had toned it down for work. The resorts were almost all in Texas, and I don't know about you, but sometimes you just gotta party outside of Texas, know what I mean?

Any way, the first price we were quoted was like $3800 down and $450 a month for 3 years. But we were not biting, after all, we still have one in college and a leaky roof waiting repair. So the second guy comes along and he has sympathy for us and he is going to work with us. The price comes down to $1250 down payment and $300 a month. What a pal. Can you believe they dropped it that much the first go round? Like, excuse me, would we have been stupid for buying in at the first price or what?

Then, once we firmly but ever so politely turn him down, we get the 'closer', the third guy. He tries to get us to sign to $85 a month for a year for a two night stay at one of their local resorts. The $85 being put in a escrow so we could apply it to a down payment next year when things are looking brighter and we are ready to purchase. The third guy was mean. Practically calling us stupid for not handing over our credit card. Finally I put my foot down and he stormed off telling us to follow him.

We got our prizes and headed off to Walmart for groceries. But, seriously, we were grumpy. We felt like we had been beaten up. And we missed lunch.

I had never heard of 'vacation ownership.' I googled it when we got home and it seems there are several companies out there. And lo and behold, they have resorts OUTSIDE the state of Texas. Ha. A friend tells me tonight that her parents had purchased one once and they eventually gave it up because they couldn't get the weeks they wanted at the resorts they wanted. That would be a nightmare.

Oh, the next nightmare waiting to happen - I have jury duty tomorrow. But I am taking a book and packing snacks.

Peace, out.

LUNCH!!!

I just put a quiche in the oven. The bottom of the pie crust (Pillsbury) I covered with cheddar cheese. Then I put some crumbled up cooked bacon, fresh chopped spinach, asparagus, and mozzarella cheese. Then I added the eggs and milk, salt and pepper. I put a little cilantro on top. It's just a 'whatever is in the fridge' type of quiche. Now I have to wait 45 minutes for it to be done. Bummer!! I am hungry now!! Oh look- here it is!! Ready to cool down and be eaten. Yum.