meet our new family member.....

zoEy-ELla.

she has certainly spiced up our lives.

my mom fell head-over-heels in love with her..

so last night, she went and purchased zoeY's sister.

she named her chLOe.

get it?

chlOe and zoEy.

they look like twins.

happy tuesday night...

i'm watching the duggar's.

the only christian-themed show on prime time.

well of course you have to remember the birds this fall.  and, so i freshened up our patio-bird habitat, with pumpkins and peanut butter smothered bagels!

the birds are loving it and we're loving the free entertainment!

 time to pull out the pumpkin seeds from our oven and pour a glass of cider!

CHECK BACK TOMORROW... AND I'LL SHOW YOU OUR NEW PUPPY... ZOeY eLla.

just popping in here, late sunday night to show you the latest hippy-dolls, that i recycled.

i made both, from 100% recycled material and bling.

i've had really swell luck, selling them.

$20.

finger's crossed.. these girls will be a quick flip, too!

can you see the vintage beaded earrings?

happy sunday night!

smile, wink, nod.

flea market find!

on my kitchen window sill, you would find....

this banged-up-seen-better-days head vase.

there's a chip right down in front... sort of near the cleavage.  i plan to epoxy a vintage rhinestone to it.

i know it's worth nothing.  it cost me just as much.

but, she makes me happy.

and that's what it's all about!

what's on your kitchen windowsill?

(hi jamie.. thank you for always leaving such pleasant comments.  i appreciate the time you and other commenter's take!)



i just can't stop reading this book!

a product of the public school system myself... i learned thismuch about history. if anything at all.  i'm dead serious.  as an adult, i find myself pretty passionate about the topic.  books like this, break the past down simply and with much flavor! 

 this book is juicy and thought-provoking.

get your hands on a copy!
it's a quick read.

wink.



dinner:  homemade turnip-onion-rice soup

movie:  the girl with the dragon tattoo

wearing: pink polar fleece pull-over

and paper-doll print pajama bottoms

crafting:  vintage jewelry 

recent retail purchase from walmart:  rhinestone hair clips and movie star mascara

sweet tooth snack:  sugar wafer cookies

last in the garden:  carrots, potato's, leeks, apples, turnips and beets

can't wait until friday!

the day we bring our new puppy "zoe-ella" home!

changes, addictions and dinner.

my new addiction.

on-line scabble on pogo.

join.

then we can play together!

other things on friday:

gluten-free cashew chicken for dinner... excellent and thank god for leftovers!

rainy. windy. barely a leaf left on our trees.

 seasonal outside street markets are over for the season.  which means, i won't have to roll out of bed, insert a drip caffeine i.v. into my arm and drive in the wee hours for set-ups.

my work at the mansion is gearing up for the holiday season... i missed working there this summer.  thankfully, the owners really work with me and permit me to take time off when i need it. 

one week from today... we get our new puppy.

zoey.  but we're calling her zoey-ella.

say it fast.

zoey-ella.

has a good ring to it, don't you think?

i'm thinking of doing live blog-casts.  now and then. 

what do you think?  i mean, the louis armstrong music would have to go.  but it's time for that anyway.

so, my faithful blog readers.... watch and see... sometime soon... i'll be talking to you live.  well, kind of.

wink.

two friday's a month, i teach an art class. 

 i thought you might like to take a peak at the artwork, the students did.

"Styrofoam head art"

when finished, i required the students to adorn their parents car antenna's with their art projects!  without hesitating, the students ran at my demand, wink.

and , oh.... i am ever so demanding.  'nother wink.

the parking lot, looked like a field of metal and art heads.

it was a grand sight to see, indeed!~

i am more then impressed, with this project.

13 students. completed projects. listening to johnny cash church hymn's, all in less then an hour.

exhale.

friday night.

bbq chicken on the grill.

oven fries.

flopped on the couch..

immensely enjoying the movie,

"walk the line."

what a love story.

smile, wink, nod.

wordless wednesday.

my mom gave me a kindle for my birthday.

how nice is that?  wink.

tonight, i downloaded my first free book, "maid to match."  i am so dog-gone passionate about mansions, estates and castles... that this should be a good read for me.  smile. i've posted a little blurb about the book below.... 

From the day she arrives at the Biltmore, Tillie Reese is dazzled--by the riches of the Vanderbilts and by Mack Danvers, a mountain man turned footman. When Tillie is enlisted to help tame Mack's rugged behavior by tutoring him in the ways of refined society, the resulting sparks threaten Tillie's efforts to be chosen as Edith Vanderbilt's lady's maid. But the stakes rise even higher when Mack and Tillie become entangled in a cover-up at the town orphanage. They could both lose their jobs...and their hearts.

oh, and i'm still struggling through the literary and potato peel society...  i humbly admit, for me... it's a tough book to follow.  

by the way, if you or someone you know has a kindle... check out my sidebar, off to the right.... there is a link to free kindle books. 

happy reading!

do you have a carbon monoxide detector?

thankfully, we do.

and it saved my life yesterday.

while canning more spaghetti sauce, i got busy with my aunt on the phone...  chatting in detail and at great lengths.  i was stretched out on the couch, chatting away... while the canning pots on the gas range heated up.  or so i thought.

i heard an alarm.  thought it was our smoke detector.  didn't smell smoke, and continued chatting, thinking it was probably our battery dying out.  it continued to beep.

after a significant amount of time... i couldn't take the beeping and discovered it was our carbon monoxide detector, screaming relentlessly to me.  and warning me to get fresh air.

did that.

and probably explains the faint headache i acquired.

i sure would of been mad, if i died on my birthday. 

smile, wink, nod.

zoey!

look who's getting a new puppy!

cartwheels and back flips!

we are!

4:00 sunday, found us at our breeder's, choosing and meeting our new lhasa apso!

it was a super tough decision.  i mean seriously... how can one be any cuter then the other?

the determining factor, was the one little female, who kept crawling and loving on my son, tommie.

if i had a mansion and a wheel barrow full of money... they'd all be mine!

we named her:  zoey

she'll be coming home at the end of october.

she needs to be with her mom until 9 weeks of age.

i love her.

waiting for me all along........



  today, while working at a farmer's market in the thumb of michigan..., hold up your right hand, palm facing you... and look at the very center tip of your thumb.  that's exactly where i was, today. 

  while there, i was talking to a lovely lady who was telling me about this "just absolutely wonderful book!" she went on an on... picture her little arms flying with details about it... and her sister, nodding, feverishly in agreement... inserting comments like, "it's really good or you should read it!!"  both shuffled away.... reiterating, "the Guernsey literary and the potato peel society!" 

i was being kind enough... promised that i'd try to get my hands on it... and honestly thought, there is no way, i'll remember a title like that~

i didn't think about the conversation again. 
at all.

4 hours later, en route home, i decided to stop off at this pathetic little thrift shop,  which never, ever has anything, remotely exciting.  well, unless you count old hair curlers, house dresses, and bullet-proof polyester pull-on kelly green dress slacks and donated hospital socks, that God only knows the story behind those!

after vowing never to stop at the dive again, i found myself clicking the lock on my car twice not once and sauntered inside.

betcha know where this story is going, right?

between a stack of reader's digest hardcovers, with no jacket covers, there it was. 
waiting for me. 
smiling at me.

the Guernsey literary  and potato peel society. 
in paperback.
.55 cents. 

i smiled.

it rode home next to me, in the passenger's seat.

coincidence?  i think not.

smile, wink, nod.

i found a really good deal on sky lanterns!

so, i stocked up.

we've launched a couple of these beauties!

and, beautiful, they are!

hot pink and vibrant orange!

very soon, we'll be having a homeschool teen night in our backyard... and i plan to launch, another. 

don't you think the kids will love it?

me, too!

wink.

look who came to visit!

just like clockwork, every september.... we have a family of sandhill cranes who take up residence in our backyard!  they'll be here until the end of october!

they've arrived two weeks and one day earlier, then last year.  i wonder if they're just happy to be back in our yard or do they know we're in for an early winter?

which by the way... it's woolly bear mania, at our home.

such a spectacular sight...  sandhill crane's in flight!

have you ever heard the sound a sandhill crane makes?  distinct, that's for sure. 

click here:  sand hill crane voice!

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

today, i was able to preserve 4 pints of raspberry-honey jam!

beeee-bopping home, happily!

well now, what do you think my answer was, when a family friend called and told me to "come and pick her pears?"

a resounding.... yes!

beeee-bopping home happily, with 10 gallons of those little gems... i prepared and canned them.

we like light syrup the best.

this was an all day project.

but one things for sure, i know we will be satisfied, once the snow flies and we pop off the lid!

i appreciate this blessing!

what sort of things have you been blessed with lately?

friday, found me saying... "okay, sure... i'll come over and pick wild grapes to make jelly," to my friend, melanie.

first of all and most importantly... welch's jelly has nothing on us, self-sustaining chicks!

even if it was the hottest day of the year... we trudged  down the dirt road  (me in my wellington's... because i'm afraid of snakes and in my mind, i think wellie's protect me better!!), dove in the thick bramble and picked.

i of course, wasn't as brave and adventurous as melanie... i sort of kind of stayed on the dirt road and she would toss the wild vines to me... and i gingerly plucked them.

it was a beautiful way to spend a friday.

thanks be to god, for good friends and natural resources~

smile, wink, nod.

p.s.  no pictures of the jelly... it was still being processed, when i left.

it's rednesday!

so, i've been wanting to play along on:  it's a very cherry world... and today i am!

what's new in my world: red?!

a new-to-me pair of red leather mary jane's!  found at the thrift shop.  $6.  did i ever tell you how much i love mary janes?  well, i'm telling you now sisters...

i adore them!

yesterday, i canned strawberry-honey syrup. 

the recipe called for sugar.  i played detective, and figured out how to replace sugar with honey.

hence, the name:  strawberry-honey syrup.

my kitchen smelled heavenly.

with brad being celiac... we eat a lot of pancakes, won't this topping add a smile, when the snow flies?

cutest blog i've seen in a real long time?

it's a very cherry world. 

click on the name and enjoy!

smile, wink, nod!

"i'll just sew a little hippy-pillow." said i, to my kale, chard, cabbage: both green and purple, and my garlic that needs plucked and processed. they nodded and agreed to stay grounded.  with orange handled scissors in hand, i gingerly started chopping up fabrics... sewing recycled cloth into  personality.  i even hummed  sang grateful dead's, touch of grey... real low, under my breath! 
smile, wink, nod!