tonight finds me resting my legs on the couch and watching, all about eve, starring bette davis and marilyn monroe.
i am head over heels in love with the scenery, the ornate antiques, the fashions... including the hair styles ... and for sure the jewelry.  oh!  the jewelry!  if it was up to me... i would of chose to be born in the 40's or 50's. 
kitchy sweet!

here's a snap of my beautiful mom and me.. in 1966.  we loved shopping, even then!

******

i don't like to complain, here on my blog.  but today i am. 

my blog = i'm allowed to whine!

i suffer from restless leg syndrome.

always have.

but, it's become increasingly worse.

the only relief i can find is to continuously move around.  walk around, treadmill, stretching and standing.  the prickling.  the tingling and the spontaneous leg jerking is exhausting.  this morning i awoke at 5 am, with a dull throbbing pain, down both sides of my legs. the worse thing about it is, trying to sleep with my husband.  the spontaneous leg-jerking happens about every 40 seconds during my sleep... which makes sleeping with me insane.  hence, he opts for the couch.  speaking of couch, the other night, i fell asleep on the couch and he and my son watched my legs jerk around and flip in the air.  (think of a fish flipping).  i know there are so many people who would trade places with me... in the big scale of things:  japan, libya, Israel, terminal illnesses and financial ruins..  i do know it's nothing serious.. it is hereditary (thanks dad!), but imagine, always being tired and having your two biggest muscles aching 24/7. 

i popped two aleve and now i wait. 

standing up, of course.

smile, wink, nod.

ooooooh-la-la!

this is the most scrumptious salad, i've had in a long, long time!  my mom introduced it to me.  it's called a BLT salad.  you serve it with crackers! 

here's the very simple recipe:

a couple of roma tomatoes diced up

scallions diced up  (chop up as many as you wish... we love them, so i add lots!)

1 bag of turkey or bacon bits...

(the good stuff, not imitation)

mix into mayo.  we used heart smart and just eye-balled it... maybe a cupful? 

use as much or as few of these ingredients to suit your taste!

YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS ONE!

smile, wink, nod!

flea market finds!

at the flea market on sunday, i just couldn't pass up these cute little dishes!

i especially love the tiny legs on this one!

 and i for sure, couldn't pass up this splendid cake plate.  complete with age cracks and without any chips.

i would bet the lady who owned this plate, made the best chocolate birthday cakes for her family and it was a special tradition to use this plate!  (never mind me.... i love making stories up about my new treasures!)



total splurge?

8 quarters.

in my last post, i mentioned stock piling in these economic hard times.  i thought i'd pass along a couple of good items, which work very well and are from the dollar tree.

laundry soap

and

dish soap

(big whopping 50 oz.)!

do tell.. what items on-the-cheap, work well for you?

happiness today is:

beautiful snow falling
 delicious farmer's casserole
 a new bottle of pantene hair conditioner
new homeschool curriculum success
2 miles on the treadmill
a new hot pink work-out top
plugging into our church's podcast
listening to our governor,
rick snyder on t.v.
finding a great deal on reynold's wrap and stock-piling it!
netflix dvd about george westinghouse


*************

according to glenn beck, we should be stockpiling food, etc.  have you started to?  if you are... what items are you tucking away? 

you're invited to take a little peek at friday night's murder mystery....  i wrote the script, "who killed little larry leprechaun?  click here... and yes, that is me, trying to figure out what's under his kilt?!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/photo.php?fbid=175022095878767&set=a.175020595878917.33445.124680764246234&theater

just a beautiful day, today in michigan.

replaced my snow boots, with wellingtons and took a little-bitty spring walk, around the yard.

why look down...

it's my rhubarb plant

saying, "happy spring," to me!

watching rhubarb grow... is indeed, pretty special.  no, seriously... it is!



looks like someone was hungry... and kept the food chain rolling...



i almost stepped on this rabbit foot.

i'm guessing a hawk dropped it.

recycled mittens

last weekend, i enjoyed a slumber party at mom's, with my aunts, mom and cousin. 

we had a big-time blast making these wool mittens.  they're recycled out of old wool sweaters and fleece. 

we had baked spaghetti, ratatolli, salad and fresh bakery rolls.  red wine, too!

this is me and my big cousin.  if i've said it once, i'll say it again... she has been voted one of ten top ob/gyns in metro-detroit. (proud, my family is!) she is also a breast cancer survivor... do those self-exams girls!  she did, and saved her life at age 35!  she knitted those gorgeous socks she has on, too!  one more little bit of brag on her.... her creative-mind-blowing son, is attending his 2nd year at NYU film school.  i'm sure someday i will be walking the red carpet with him.  he promised me.

so blessed i am, to have such a good, good family and great friends.  no one is as lucky as me.  wink and nod.

catching my breath at the mansion, last night. 

just had too much fun this weekend!

girls slumber party with my mom, aunts and cousin (pics coming soon!)  a sewing marathon, several games of scrabble (i lost them all!), too much really great food, belly-laughing until our tummies hurt, staying up well into the next day... and feeling blessed to be among such magnificent, energetic and amazingly creative women!

exhaling briefly, i turned around, with a 1-hour window, and dressed, drove and worked at the mansion.  celebrated with a mardi gras murder mystery.  first time for me... i've never celebrated mardi gras in my life.  have you?

this morning, rise and shine and worked at the flea market.  i've never known tired, as i've felt today.  just a really good tired, is all. 

 smile, wink, nod. 

p.s.  i finished, "the beach house," by jane green.  the last quarter of the book was well done.  still though... i'm smitten with historical fiction.  next up.... atlas shrugged. 

homemade bbq chicken pizza

kohls for new blue jeans for tommie-boy

wrestled with my boy until i surrendered giggling  ordered switched on schoolhouse yes, you read that right watched a movie on the nyc firefighters of 9/11 (salute them)baked fabulous gluten-free strawberry bread (with almonds, oooh-la-la!) peroxided my hair found this cute snap of a dog-paper doll above, ooooh.... and welcome new smile, wink, nod followers... i'm not too good at commenting back... but i sure thrive on yours (forgive me and keep reading, anyway), so what's with my 13 year old boy rolling his eyes at me every time i say something? 

can someone out there send me patience?

smile, wink, nod.

am i asking too much?

i'd love to find one of these chandeliers.

here's a little homemade meme for tuesday night:

what i'm reading: 

the beach house by jane green

(this is chick-lit at it's best... i wouldn't call it great literature at all. it's light and fluffy and lacks a climax. unless the ending is spectacular, which i am expecting, since it was on the new york times bestsellers.)

what i'm creating:

i'm currently writing a murder mystery for a st. patrick's day party, at the mansion. the party calls for 10 parts. 

what i ate for dinner:

white chicken chili with lots of cumin.

smile, wink, nod!

what i'm wearing:

jeans, thermal with a  blinged up, banged up, brown tank top over it, a necklace my friend rhonda gave me, hair in messed up pony tail.  brown eyeshadow.

what i'm watching:

the real alexander the great.  through netflix.  and so my question is...  why wasn't alexander the great content with being the ruler of persia?  did he have to go for china, too?  alexander the great a.k.a the big dog daddy. winner takes it all.

what i'm listening to:

sunday's church sermon from our church... lapeer community church.  you can listen too, click here: lcc  then click on the play button above the download button (scroll down a bit). non-denominational and uplifting!

time to make the boys a bowl of popcorn and crawl under a warm blanket or two.

happy tuesday.

i'm not primitive rug hooking, nearly as much as i'd like to.  if i could, i'd like about 5 more hours added to my day.

quite sometime ago, i started primitive rug hooking this project... completely with pantyhose. 

remember all of those tacky colored panty hose we used to wear in the 1980's?

those are the kind i'm talking about.

it took me a long, long time to completely finish this chair pad...not because it's hard or tedious, rather... the whole lack of time-thing.  exhale. i did it!

and i love it.

and now, i'm itching to do another!

on the windowsill



something cute to look
at while i do dishes....
a mini wine bottle
with sweet babies breath,
sits on my windowsill.
sometimes, it's the little
things that make me smile.



recycled sweater

 

 oh!  the fun you can have with a recycled sweater!  today, i cut-off the sleeves to a fisherman's knit sweater, whipped stitched the top (the part which was cut/opposite from the cuff).... and slid the wool sleeves onto my legs! 

then, after seeing this on recycled sweater (see my side bar for the link), i made an accent pillow!  i'm thinking of replacing the brown buttons with either pearl or rhinestones.

 here's another snap of my homemade legwarmers... and they really are warm!  my feet look a little pathetic and sad in this picture!

oh... and here's the back of the sweater-pillow.

did you know, way back when... on the east coast, wives of fisherman used to hand knit these beautiful sweaters, we now call fisherman's sweaters?  each family had their "own" pattern.  why?  because.... if a family member was lost at sea, they would be able to identify their loved one by the knit of the sweater.  i just love history like that, don't you?