Theresa in MS

New free to use images on Flickr

2010-08-29T19:07:00.002-05:00

IMG_0006
Originally uploaded by Theresa in MS

Posted some new images on Flickr today. If you use them to create something I'd love to see what you came up with. I'll be glad to link it from here as well.

Heard from Blake (my Air Force son) yesterday. He found out where his first duty station will be. He said 'It's in the mountains'. I said 'OK'. He said 'of JAPAN'!!! I'm glad he'll be going somewhere he's always wanted to go but as his Mom it certainly causes me some concern. He's a grown-up now though and getting on with his life. I'm so proud of both my boys.

Cleaned up in my craft room today and can actually see the work-table. Now I have no excuse not to get in there and actually complete a project. Too many 'started' pieces with no finished items. With the first of the month coming up it's doubtful anything will be finished soon though. Will be too busy at work to have any energy left at night.

Enjoy the images and God Bless You!

A few photos to post

2010-07-24T23:59:00.000-05:00

Posting a few photos from Blake's Air Force Boot Camp graduation held earlier this month and then a couple from our grandson Sam's birthday party today. He's 2 and never stops moving :-) We all had a good time though and I bet he took a loooong nap when everyone left LOL

Blogger has me so confused on how to get the spacing to work out correctly when I post pictures. Sorry for the empty space haha
Have a wonderful weekend and God Bless You!

Yearly spider visitor

2010-07-22T18:27:00.000-05:00

This 8-legged creature has spun his/her web every year for the past few years at our house. I've never seen one like it before I noticed him/her here. Very large and colorful. The body itself is about 2 inches long and counting the legs, it's about 5 inches long. I'm not terribly scared of spiders but big ones do cause me some concern. My husband who really isn't scared of much of anything HATES spiders. No matter what size they are he would rather not deal with them.

All is well at our house but there's been too much going on to get any blogging done. Nelson and I went to San Antonio to see our youngest graduate from Air Force Basic Training. It was a wonderful experience and very emotional. I am so proud of him for sticking with it when I know it had to be the hardest thing he's had to do so far in his young life. He did have a rough time but he made it through. He's in his technical training now and then he'll get his first permanent duty station. And we have no idea where that will be. We're hoping for Little Rock, AR so he'll be close enough to come home or for us to visit fairly often.

I'm hoping I'll have a quiet weekend and have some fun in the craft room. I've also got some old photographs to go through and see if I can use them in some projects. My to-do list is so long I'll never get all of it accomplished.

God Bless You!

Quick post

2010-07-15T20:27:00.000-05:00

Popping in to prove I'm still around. All is well, just haven't felt like blogging anything lately. Been doing a little bit of everything, mainly housework. I got the below 'funny' in my email from my dear cousin Laverne and just wanted to share it here. Click on the image to see it full size. Enjoy :-)

#2 son has officially left home

2010-07-06T19:10:00.000-05:00

Our youngest, Blake, graduates from Air Force Basic Training this coming Friday in San Antonio, TX. He had some rough times with it and it was questionable for a while if he would actually graduate. But, he pulled it off and is so excited to be getting away from Lackland AFB and on to the next phase of his training. He's going into Intelligence and will be in schooling for that, also in Texas, for about 6 months. I am so proud of him and at the same time adjusting to ALL the kids being gone out on their own. It was questionable whether this youngest one would ever get out on his own but he's done it now. Bittersweet feeling, for sure.

When the oldest one left for Marine Basic Training, it was tough but the youngest was still home so it didn't hit quite as hard as this one leaving has. It's a huge change for him and one for me as well. I always call Blake my 'talker' because he and I could get into conversations about anything and everything under the sun. DH is not much of a talker but he may have to become more so now so I won't go nuts having no one to talk to LOL!

We had a quiet 4th of July. I turned a year older (quietly) and we mostly hung out at the house. We did go visit the grandkids who live here in MS and had a great time spending time with them and their parents. I am so lucky to have a loving daughter-in-law and step-daughter. They are both fantastic mothers and it shows in how their children behave.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday too. It was tough to get back in the swing of things at work this morning but I finally managed to get something done. Why do I always feel like I need a day off to get over the holiday? Lazy, I guess :-)

God Bless You!

North Carolina vacation

2010-06-21T19:46:00.000-05:00

Home from our trip to North Carolina to see Brad and his family. We had a great time and it was good to get back home too. We were blessed with good weather for our entire trip and only got caught in one traffic jam. That was in Atlanta, GA where it's expected to get held up. Only got stuck for about 45 minutes which is a short wait in that area. I'll post a few pics below:

Busy weekend

2010-05-30T21:15:00.000-05:00

Finally got a phone call from Blake. He says AF boot camp is going well. The recruits are all tired but getting into the groove of things. It was so good to hear from him, even if the phone call was limited to 5 minutes.

Husband and I had to make a trip to Lowe's today to get a new hot water heater. Ours was fried after just being worked on about a week ago. That repair was a total waste of money as it turns out. Apparently the heater had developed a leak that dripped onto the wiring and shorted it out. When we got in from our grocery buying trip, we both smelled a 'burning electrical' smell. God was certainly with us because it could have been alot worse. So now we have a new hot water heater and can't complain too much. The fried one lasted us 12 years.

Husband took me out riding around the countryside today so I could try out my new telephoto lens for my Canon Digital XT. I love this camera and the new lens is fantastic. I took a few shots just to get the feel of it. Some of these below are from a local garden center. Who knew they didn't 'allow' people to take photos of their flower inventory?! Now I know but I did get a few shots before I got 'warned'.

God Bless You and have a wonderful week!!

Finally have some pics to post

2010-05-21T22:39:00.000-05:00

Got busy today and snapped some pics in the yard. Most all my flowers have already bloomed and are past their prime but I managed to get a few nice shots. I am SO badly wanting a telephoto lens but do not know enough about them to know which one to buy. I'm going to do alot of research before buying anything. Here are some pics:

I guess I never noticed how beautiful a clover really is if you look at it up close. All those colors just work perfectly together.

Same thing with a dandelion. I don't think I'd ever examined one really closely until today. Amazing invention.

When I study things like clover and dandelions, anything in nature really, I can't imagine not believing in my Heavenly Father who created all this. Awesome!

This is a 'Therese' hydrangea. Of course, I had to have it when I saw the name :-) The blooms start out a light green and turn to white as seen below.

White 'Therese' hydrangea in early stages.

A Mr. Lincoln rose that's past its' prime bloom but still lovely.

A lollipop lily. I have a large number of these and will have to divide them this fall. Luckily I have a good deal of room to spread them out.

I also have 2 or 3 close friends who love flower gardening as much as I do. No shortage of people to trade flowers with around here.

Last image for today; a 'Happy Returns' Daylily. These were a happy surprise for me because they have multiplied well and bloom for months. We had a big rainstorm that beat everything up a bit but the yard still looks pretty good.

Very quiet at my house these days. Our youngest son joined the Air Force and is now at boot camp in Texas. I miss him terribly but am so proud he's chosen the military. I'm also excited about him getting on with his life after having trouble deciding what he wanted to do for a vocation. I hope he enjoys what he's chosen and makes a career of it. I definitely miss him and his older brother (in the Marines) but am very satisfied with how they've grown into responsible young men. I supposed I helped them along the way but it was definitely prayer that got us all through this far.

Have a wonderful weekend and God Bless You!

Still around...

2010-04-17T22:56:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I blogged last. Nelson's heart bypass surgery got us out of our regular routines and I guess I've yet to get back to 'normal'. Nelson is doing great. He's been back at work for about a month and has had no problems at all. He and I have been incredibly blessed with his recovery and the support we received from everyone.

My youngest son, Blake, has joined the U.S. Air Force and will be leaving for boot camp in mid-May so I've been spending a lot of time with him. Nelson and I are planning a short visit to see our 'Marine' son and his family in North Carolina.

Blake and I had a 'junking' afternoon. We visited 2 local treasure (read 'junk') shops but didn't find much of interest. I've got plenty of inspiration already in my craft room. I just need to make time to do something with it. Tomorrow will be mostly filled with laundry; tons of that waiting for me.

I'll post the latest pic I have of the 3 grandkids in North Carolina. Their mom is a photographer so I'm very spoiled to having fantastic shots of those three grands. I found this candid shot on their Mom's facebook page and I hope she doesn't mind that I'm borrowing it to show them off here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T14:11:00.000-06:00

No photos to share today. I know, this blog is getting so dull! Gotta work on that soon. So glad to have another Valentine's Day to share with my husband. Especially after his recent heart bypass surgery. We didn't even know he was 'sick' so the bypass caught us both totally off guard. I am so grateful for the way things worked out and we are both blessed to have him on the road to recovery. I thank God every single day for the gift of each day we're given to share with those we love. That's what Valentine's Day means to me and I try to live it every day.

We didn't get any of the snow that some in MS got this past Friday. Suits me fine. I don't like the icy aftermath of that snow. Yes, it's gorgeous at first and you can get some really cool pictures. Like Elizabeth at Last Door Down the Hall. She has some beautiful shots of snow in North Carolina. Go check them out. She's a fantastic photographer as well as a gifted mixed-media artist. Great person too.

Nelson and I went to visit the grandkids in Cleveland yesterday and we had a great time. Sam is growing like a weed and so funny. He adores his sister, Sara, and they get along so well. At least while we were there. I guess Sam's still too small for him to get on Sara's nerves too badly yet. That day will come though, no doubt about that. Nicole, their Mom, is such a great mother. I am so proud and filled with love for all our children, whether they're technically my step-children or the ones I carried in my own body. That's another thing I'm thankful for this Valentine's Day. Nelson and I have shared our children, and now their children without reservation. There's no greater gift to give your life partner than to share ALL of your loves and passions.

Now that Nelson's on the road to recovery it seems that I've come down with a cold/flu or something that's got me sneezing, coughing and generally feeling crappy. It started Saturday morning as soon as I got out of bed. Before I even got my houseshoes on I was sneezing. Those multiple sneezes that come out of nowhere. The ones that have our skittish dog running for cover. Then I heard Nelson doing the same thing. Oh No! Not him too. I cannot imagine how it feels to sneeze those violent sneezes when your breastbone was cut apart and literally wired back together less than 3 weeks ago. He says it doesn't hurt. It hurts me just to think about it. Anyways, he and I both are still sneezing but now I've started coughing as well. Seems I catch every blooming bug that goes around lately.

I am blogging this at the optimum stretch of the Day Quil tablets working. I thought that'd be a good time to update this blog and now I'm off to just read my list of blogs I follow. I hope all of you have a great week and don't catch any of the stomach virus or flu bugs floating around. Tell your Valentines you love them and God Bless You!

And now we're back home...again!

2010-02-09T20:35:00.000-06:00

Had a bit of trouble with an erratic heartbeat so Nelson had to go back into the hospital the same day we came home (the 1st time). We've been back home about a week and a half now and all is going relatively well. Still some problems with medications to work out but he's doing very well overall. Advice for anyone who faces heart bypass surgery or helping care for someone who has the surgery: this surgery affects your entire body and mind, not just your heart. I don't know how it does it but it does.

I am back working and he's recuperating at home for a few more weeks. I wish I could be with him 24/7 but that's just not feasible for us. He wouldn't want it anyway. He's very self-sufficient and does not want to be fussed over. Not the ideal patient but we've worked out a system that works. I don't smother him and he tries to show his appreciation for what we do for him.

I'm looking forward to life returning to normal and getting back to my regular blogging/visiting schedule. I'm having trouble focusing on anything other than Nelson's recovery at this point. He doesn't sleep well which affects my sleep too.

Enough rambling for tonight; thanks to everyone for all the prayers and good wishes. They really do mean so much to us. Have a great week and God Bless You!

Back home...again!

2010-02-02T21:18:00.001-06:00

A quick pop-in to post the latest on Nelson's recovery from heart bypass surgery. We came home this past Saturday. After only 4 or 5 hours, his heart rate accelerated and I took him to our local emergency room. His heart rate registered at 160 beats per minute. They ended up taking him back to Oxford by ambulance. He stayed until today and is now doing very well. His leg with the graft incisions is swollen but other than that, he feels good.

It's been a wild couple of weeks and on top of Nelson's health crisis, my youngest son joined the Air Force. He's been talking about it for awhile but I really figured he'd talk himself out of it. He didn't and actually signed and took the pledge yesterday (Monday). I am so proud of him and for him; I have always believed that a military career is a wonderful choice for a young man or woman. So now I have a Marine and an Airman in my list of achievements :-) I guess I'm a 'double military Mom' now haha

I'll be back blogging regularly soon. Hopefully I'll have some art to show too. It feels like I haven't touched my craft room in ages.

Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes. Nelson and I are so incredibly blessed to have family and friends who care enough to remember us in their prayers. We've been showered with love and offers of help from all around us. It's a humbling experience to know we've had an impact on so many lives. And in such a positive way.

God Bless You and have a wonderful week!!

Nelson now in regular room

2010-01-28T23:22:00.000-06:00

Nelson has moved out of ICU into a regular room and is doing so well. His pain has been very easily managed today. He even went 2 hours past the 'allowed' time tonight. He could have had a pain shot at 7 p.m. and didn't ask for it until 9 p.m. I take that as a good sign. I am so proud of how well he's handled everything so far. He had a really rough first night (last night) but has made a remarkable turn-around today. He said when they got the drain tube and packing out, it was the best pain relief he's ever felt.

He's been walking down the hall and even that was before the pain shot. He had to go find his favorite nurse that we met last weekend. Tonya is her name and she is working on the other side of this floor. Not one that we'll see much of while we're here. She's an LPN studying for her RN degree and she will make a top-notch employee at whatever she wants to do. She is caring, sympathetic and being very pretty doesn't hurt either haha

The quality of care at this hospital is fantastic. Everyone from every department has been very kind and caring. Room 344 could use some decor additions but otherwise, it's a great place LOL!

Thank you all for the prayers, support and love that you've shown us. I am overwhelmed by how many people have responded to my requests for prayers. My Facebook, email and cell phone have all gotten a good workout this week. I hate to see my cell phone text message bill. I have a limited plan because I rarely use the texting feature. This week, however, I've been on it several times a day and sending to several people at once. Wonder if Nelson's medical insurance will cover that? LOL

God Bless You and please continue to pray for us; prayer WORKS!

Bypass update-Day 2

2010-01-28T07:55:00.000-06:00

Nelson ended up having 5 bypasses. Ignorant me thought there were only 4 possibles so I definitely need to do some research on that. He's doing great now and they even pulled the breathing tube several hours early. He was 'over-breathing' on top of the respirator so they were able to get that tube out early. He says that tube is no fun at all.

I saw him about 1 hour ago (he's in ICU) and he's doing good. His pain is under control for the moment. They have him doing breathing exercises and he said he feels like he has a ton of bricks on his chest. He's still groggy but alert for the most part. He was able to tell me he loved me which, as you can imagine, made me feel TONS better. I hope they move him to a regular room by tomorrow morning... and if we're really lucky, later today.

I'll update later today. Thank you so much for your continued prayers. The support and encouragement we've received is so appreciated. I'll never be able to say thank you enough for what it's meant to me to feel so much love from so many people. God is truly good and is blessing us daily in so many ways.

Thanks again for everything and I'll be back later with any further news. God Bless You!!!

Quick update on Nelson's surgery

2010-01-25T20:13:00.000-06:00

Had a whirlwind weekend. Nelson had a heart cath scheduled for this past Friday. We 'thought' we'd be home Friday night either with a clean bill of health or with stents. Nope. He will be having bypass surgery this Wednesday, the 27th, at the Baptist Hospital in Oxford, Mississippi. A great heart doctor, Dr. Purden, and gifted surgeon, Dr. Deese, will be taking care of him. Of course, we're nervous and a little scared but our faith is unshakeable. God is good and is The Great Healer!

Nelson is not hurting at all. We're told he's an ideal candidate for this procedure since he's in such great health and has no heart damage from prior heart attacks.

He and I both ask for your prayers as we go through this next few weeks. I'll be in and out checking emails from time to time for the next week or so. I hope to be able to get online from the hospital but am not sure of that. We're definitely taking the laptop for him to have the DVD player at least.

I told Nelson he was only carrying 'MY' heart in his body anyway so he better get it repaired and keep it that way :-)

Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers. We appreciate them more than we're able to express. God Bless You!

Still here...

2010-01-18T20:24:00.000-06:00

Weekend was too short but my oldest son (my Marine) was here for a visit that we definitely enjoyed. My fibromyalgia was flaring a bit too much for me to get any fun stuff, i.e. art, done so that was a bummer. I just didn't have the energy to get much of anything done. The fatigue is slowly getting better but still have the stiff, achy feeling. Not the worst flare I've ever had and for that I'm thankful. I did go to the dr. today and get my meds going again. Anyway, enough of that.

Work has been really busy and we're glad of that. It was so slow in the car business for so long that this upswing has us very encouraged that the economy is on the mend.

My youngest son, Blake, is 25 years old and has not been able to find anything as far as a job goes and it's past time he was out on his own. He's thinking of joining the Air Force and we've done a lot of talking about that. I'm certainly not against it; I think any young person who feels led to join the military is serving a higher calling than many of us are ever called to do. Of course, I'm concerned about the chance for them to be in combat but when it's all said and done, I just want them to be happy and fulfilled in their life's choices.

Hopefully my next post will have proof that I really have been working in my craft room and have accomplished something besides a pretty good-looking background on a canvas board. Which is all I have now :-)

Have a great week and God Bless You

More free images from the Dumas book

2010-01-09T00:14:00.000-06:00

Still bitterly cold here in Mississippi but we're hanging in there. Got the gas logs blazing as well as the central heating unit. Got a small fan placed to pull heat from the logs to the other end of the house where I'm sitting now. One end of this house is just harder to heat or cool than the other end. And this end has the central unit in it. Oh well, I'm no engineer so I sure can't figure out that anomaly.

We had lots of snow today but none of it stuck to the ground. It was pretty coming down but I only saw it in momentary bits of time when I went to the front of the dealership for work reasons. The main office is in the middle area of the building where there are no windows. No wonder we get so cranky sometimes LOL!

Here are four more images from the Dumas book mentioned in a couple of posts back. Remember to click on the image here to bring it up in full-size. They are a little over 1 MB in size each. Have fun with them and if you create something using them, I'd love to see it. Stay warm and safe and God Bless You!

Mississippi Weather Update

2010-01-07T19:59:00.000-06:00

It's danged cold! My gosh, we are not used to prolonged periods of frigid temps like this. We've seen a few snowflakes around here and a little ice. As long as the ice doesn't bring down power lines and all the other horrible things it can bring I'm fine with the snow. But pipes are freezing all over town. Luckily we're old enough to know better and have prepared for that as best we can. There is a winter freeze warning and severe winter weather advisory in effect.

We have no neighbors that need us to check on them but sadly, there have been deaths in Mississippi due to the freezing temps. If any of you are dealing with cold weather (and most of us are) please, please check on any elderly neighbors or anyone else you can think of that might need it. Alot of people are just not equipped to handle weather like this.

No images to share tonight; I'm cuddled up staying warm and about to head for bed. Seems I'm an early-to-bed type more and more often lately. My plan for this cold weekend is to play in my craft room and post more of the images from the Dumas book.

Everyone stay safe and warm; God Bless You!

Free images 1 & 2 of Dumas' book illustrations

2010-01-02T21:38:00.000-06:00

Free for personal use. Scan of page from 'Works of Alexandre Dumas'. No copyright information available.

Free image of Dumas book cover

2010-01-02T20:07:00.001-06:00

This is the scanned cover of a book titled 'Works of Alexandre Dumas'. The book is falling apart and I will be tearing the pages out to use in collage work. I'm scanning the illustrations that are in the book as well and will share them on here as well. Not all at one time though; I'll space it out. It'll give me something to actually blog about rather than just rambling LOL!

I do not know any of the details regarding the publisher or the copyright information as the first few pages of the book are missing. I found this book in a local 'antique' (pronounced as 'junk') shop a while back. I LOVE going in there because you never know what you will find. I don't know how often they actually get anything different but they move things around often enough that I always 'see' something not yet discovered. For personal use only since the copyright info is unavailable. Or if you know more about it, please let me know and I'll post it here. I'll probably use the book covers someday when I decide to try my hand at an altered book. In the meantime, I'll be using the pages of text and the images for collage work. There are enough pages here to keep me busy for a long, long time haha! While flipping through the book tonight making sure I got all the illustrations, I decided it would be fun to just randomly choose a page spread and find a phrase that leaps out at me. Then create a collage around that. The first phrase that jumped at me is on pg. 237 'Excuse me, but there are some moments when I am half mad.' If that doesn't beg to be turned into artwork, I don't know what will! It describes me so well too :-)

We went shopping in Jackson yesterday and I found a few things at Hobby Lobby (of course). I LOVE Hobby Lobby's clearance racks. I never miss out on finding something there. Plus had a good selection of stamps on sale as well as their scrapbook paper. We went to a new shopping center that we'd heard about at Flowood. It's really nice and filled with interesting shops. Some weren't open for the New Year's Day holiday but most were. Nelson had LOTS of fun at Bass Pro Shop and bought mostly clothes rather than fishing goodies. Strange but true :-) And of course, I found a bookstore. This time it was Barnes & Noble at some fancy-schmancy shopping center north of Jackson. I told Nelson we didn't come close to looking like we belonged in that ritzy-looking place. Found out green money was all they really cared about anyway :-)

Enjoy using the image if you like and please let me know if you do. I'd love to see what you do with it. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and God Bless You!

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-01T02:00:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post to wish all of you a happy New Year. I hope 2010 is filled with blessings, love and laughter for you and your loved ones. My family is so blessed and we are grateful to our Lord for all the wonderful gifts He has seen fit to give us.

We are planning to go shopping later today and just enjoy being off work and spend time together. Hope your weekend is loaded with all good things!!!

God Bless You...

Treasured Gift

2009-12-28T18:54:00.002-06:00

I blogged last night about receiving the antique silver cake server that's been passed down to me from my maternal grandmother. I guess I was too lazy to get a photo of it so I'm including it with this post.Click on the picture to enlarge it so you can read the note; it is so sweet!

Had a good 1st day back at work after the holidays. The 'crud' is going around the office but I think I had my worst days with it last week. My supervisor, Debbie, felt lousy today. We tried to get her to go home starting at 1:00 but she's hard-headed and didn't leave til 4:30. Christy, if you read this you can fuss at your Mama!

I'm a devoted reader of James Patterson's Alex Cross novels. I just finished 'I, Alex Cross' and it is FANTASTIC! I've never read a Cross novel that was bad but this one is exceptionally good. I only wish Mr. Patterson wrote as fast as I read LOL! Here's a pic of the book below. If you like to read mystery novels, this will not disappoint you.

I usually wait and buy the paperbook editions but I wanted to read this one so much I splurged and bought the hardback. I read the books that I really like many, many times so I want to start getting them in hardback so they'll last forever. I've got quite a few books in my collection but 99% of them are paperback. Some of my favorites have been read a dozen times or more.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday and God Bless You!

My bustle is hustled out!

2009-12-27T17:30:00.002-06:00

All the Christmas get-togethers are done as of today. We all ate too much and got some great gifts. Most importantly, we spent loads of time with family and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. I didn't get many 'Christmas' photos but got some good pics of family that I'll share here. First one above is my sister, Annette and her husband, Gary.

Next is my brother, Jerry and his wife, Angela.

Then I HAVE to show the picture of my brother (above) with his first harvested deer. He's only been hunting for the last 2 or 3 years and he finally got a deer. A 6 point buck at that. He was so excited he was bubbling. He's got a fantastic fun-loving personality anyway and it was pure joy to see how excited he was to get his first deer. This next picture may be too graphic for some to view so consider yourselves warned. This is just a part of life in the South and Yes, we do eat the meat :-)

We don't go all out with gifts at Christmas anymore. The kids are grown so we give them money usually so they can choose what they want. Nelson got me a beautiful Elgin watch that I really needed. I had not had a 'good' watch in a long time and he did a fantastic job choosing which style to get me. My mom gave me a Swiffer Wet Jet that I'd been considering buying for myself. She loves hers and I'm hearing the same comment from other SWJ owners as well. I haven't tried it yet because my floors today needed much more than a Swiffer to be cleaned up. (They were pretty gross!) Nelson got them with the mop before our guests got here. My back doesn't let me do too much heavy cleaning so I'm usually the one dusting and putting clutter back in its place. He does the heavy stuff normally and lets me do the laundry. System works well for us :-)

My favorite gift this year is an antique cake server that my Mom passed down to me from my grandmother (Nanny). Mom said Nanny only had 2 pieces of real silver and Mom passed one of them to me. Mom presented it to me with the most beautiful note that explained the background of the piece along with a notation that she knows I will treasure it. She is SO right; I was immeasurably touched and grateful to receive something so precious.

Nelson and I had talked about getting a new flat panel television for our Christmas gift to each other. Now we're debating between the television and a new sofa/loveseat for the living room. The sofa we have is so soft that noone wants to sit on it because it's so hard to get up from haha And the two recliners in there are very old and look pretty tacky. They're comfortable and in good mechanical shape though. I doubt they're worth paying someone to recover them and I sure don't know how to do that. So now Nelson and I have to decide between the television or the furniture. We certainly don't NEED the tv and we could use nicer furniture for those times when we have guests. Decisions, decisions ;-)

I spent all day Saturday with my almost-14 year old niece, Kristina. She loves art and is beginning to dabble in collage which is my favorite thing to play with too. She and I spent several hours in Wal Mart yesterday looking at art supplies (and everything else in the store). I enjoyed spending time with her so much and hope we get to do it more regularly. I've had a cold since Christmas Eve and didn't feel much like playing with any of my art projects when I actually had a stretch of time that I could have. Thankfully the worst part of the cold was over before any of our get-togethers were scheduled. I just hope I didn't pass it on to everyone I came in contact with over the last few days.

Enough rambling. Christmas at our house was wonderful. We have all been blessed far more than we deserve and several family members made the comment this year that we are grateful for what we have and really couldn't think of another thing we actually need. We all know people who are dealing with critical illness or recent losses of loved ones at this time of year and our hearts and prayers go out to them.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with lots of love and laughter. God Bless You!

And the winner is.....

2009-12-16T19:11:00.000-06:00

It's been a good week so far. I haven't blogged much this week because all I could think about was the drawing to be held tonight for my box of goodies. I've been doing lots of reading and my new Somerset Studio magazine came in Monday so that has kept me occupied for many wonderful hours.

Our office Christmas party is coming up this Friday night and I'm looking forward to that. There will be alot of people there and we always have a great time. This year we're actually having it at our dealership rather than one of the others as in past years. The 'cook' responsible for the steaks works at our dealership so we get to host it. Fine with me; we won't have to go far to party.

This week started out with warm, almost hot, weather and it's now turned off really cold. This type of weather seems to keep people in this area sick with sinus infections or some other crud. Or maybe the sickness would be here regardless of the weather, who knows?!

I really don't have much to say and no pictures to post so this will be a short one. I feel like I'm forgetting something though.....hmmmmmm.....

OH! Did I not tell who the winner is?! *big smiles* I used random.org to select a number between 1 and 40 (that's how many possible winning entries I had to pick from). AND.....drumroll......

random.org chose......

#40 (can you believe it?! I don't have a screen print function so I can't show you *bummer*)

Well, #40 had been randomly assigned to......

Jeanette Janson!!!

I've been following her blog for a while and it is great so please hop over there and check it out. Congratulations to Jeanette!!

Thanks to everyone for participating. Stay tuned because I will be hosting more giveaways for sure; I have had so much fun getting stuff together for this one. And getting such wonderful participation has been great. I'm meeting new bloggers and I love doing that. There are so many great blogs out there. It's so easy for me to get so engrossed in visiting blogs that I lose all sense of time.

Have a great Thursday and God Bless You!

So happy and giveaway reminder

2009-12-11T21:54:00.000-06:00

I've had a great response to the blog giveaway so far and I am so glad. Now I know how these other blog owners feel when they get so many comments on their posts. That's my goal...to have an interesting enough blog that people feel led to comment on the posts. It's a thrill every time I check in and see another comment; love, love, love it!!!

To enter the giveaway to be held on December 16th, go here and comment. Read the post from December 9th to get the ins and outs of entering. Note that there's an opportunity to have your name entered more than once!

Great day today in cold Mississippi! I'm usually very hot-natured when at work; I'm the one with the desk fan blowing while the other girls are hugging their mini-heaters. Well, not today! I was cold ALL DAY LONG. What a change from my usual state. It was in the low 40's (Fahrenheit) outside today which isn't all that cold really. It's just a big dip in a short amount of time for this area and my bones couldn't shake the chill today.

I'm off all weekend and I am sooooo glad. I'm ready for an entire weekend to do some things around the house. Hopefully some of it will be fun stuff while I get caught up on laundry and *shudder* cleaning house. I wish I had the funds to hire a maid for one day a week. Of course, I'd wear myself out cleaning before she got here so she wouldn't see how bad it was LOL!!! Guess I'll save my maid money and just do it myself. One of these days :-)

My remarks about a messy craft room drew some sympathetic comments. Now we know we're not alone if our craft rooms are too stacked up to work in. Apparently it's a problem that plagues many of us. When I was working on the decorations for Mom & Dad's 50th wedding anniversary party a couple of months ago...I had to move the needed supplies to the dining room table so I'd have room to work. And you know what? Some of that stuff is STILL THERE *embarrassed giggle* I know; I'm hopeless.

It's just NOT FUN to clean up so I never finish the entire job once I do get started on it. I get sidetracked so easily...by the phone, the television, finding an embellishment or art supply I'm suddenly inspired by. Those sidetrack roads are just too numerous and call too loudly for me to ignore.

It's a good thing I'm married to the most patient man in the world. He's a true sweetheart and never complains about all the stuff. I do keep it out of his way for the most part. And if I ask him to help me clean up or get organized, he's always willing to tackle any job with me. I'm blessed and I know it!

Here's a picture of my father, Clyde aka Granddaddy B, when he was in the military many years ago. The resolution is too low for it to be used in any art pieces so please don't try...for looking only :-) I just want y'all to 'meet' my Daddy. Isn't he dreamy? LOL!! Mom said he was always told he looked like the movie star Tab Hunter.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to enter the giveaway at the original post from December 9th !!

God Bless You

100th Post Giveaway and New Blog Design

2009-12-09T21:19:00.006-06:00

So glad to be back in blogland! Well, I've been visiting blogs pretty regularly but wanted to post my official 100th blog post when the blog update was complete.

Susie Jefferson at http://1stfloorflatblogology.blogspot.com/ created this beautiful set of blogwear just for me. AND she corrected that horrible glitch that wouldn't let some people post comments. I LOVE and CRAVE comments so I was thrilled with that fix. Please go check out Susie's multiple blogs and see for yourself how great of a designer she is. She's got some great freebies and shares tons of blogger how-to's; so talented and SUPER to work with.

So...this is the official 100th blog post and as promised, I'm hosting a GIVEAWAY! I'll pick a winner using the random number generator thingy before midnight on Wednesday, December 16th which gives me a week to advertise the giveaway. I'd love to pick up some new blog buddies along the way but mainly I'm just glad to give back to the art community that's given me so much joy along with knowledge.The picture here shows just a PALTRY FEW of the goodies that the lucky winner will receive.

There's a box of decoupage sheets with a Victorian theme, a ready-to-alter photo frame with heart-shaped cutout for the photo, some mini-playing cards that are so CUTE, a brand new mini alphabet stamp set (never opened) and lots of other neat stuff and things that any artist can use (or use to barter with other artists). I've had so much fun tossing things in the box for this giveaway that I know I'll be having more giveaways in the future.

I saw on someone's blog that they'd hosted a 'clean up the craft room' giveaway. They basically cleaned up in their craft room and gave away some great stuff. I could definitely have AT LEAST one giveaway just to do that as is evidenced in the photo below.

So THIS is why I can never get anything done. I've been complaining that I don't have enough time but now y'all know the REAL reason...I can't get to my craft table for the STUFF!!! I have always been a packrat but since I've started making collages and artist trading cards, it's really become ridiculous! Anyway, as soon as I can clear off a space I'll be making some more stuff (and adding to another box for the next giveaway :-) I really could use more time though LOL

So, leave a comment on this post and your name will be assigned a number and added to the giveaway one time. If you become or are already a follower of this blog, your name will be assigned a different number and be added to the giveaway a 2nd time. If you post on your own blog about this giveaway and direct people to this post to enter themselves (and let me know where to find your referral post) I'll assign you a 3rd number for the giveaway. On giveaway day, I'll use http://random.org to choose one number and whomever has been assigned that number will be the winner! (Being my first giveaway, I sure hope everything goes as planned and I haven't forgotten anything LOL)

Thanks for reading my ramblings and for the sweet comments all of you have left. I am so blessed to have great family and friends, including blog friends. Y'all have a great Thursday and God Bless You!

2nd test - update

2009-12-01T15:23:00.002-06:00

Not an official post as I don't want it to count and ruin my 100th post giveaway LOL! Just letting everyone know I'm still around. Susie's still working on the blog re-design and I'll be back with good stuff when it's all done. Shouldn't be too long before all is back to normal. Have a great day

comments can be left on new posts now! (YAY and THANKS to Susie Jefferson!!!)

Still here

2009-11-25T20:22:00.020-06:00

I am still around but not much going on lately. I'm still working on the giveaway for my 100th post which will be the very next post I make (after this one :-) I am also having a custom blog designed and it will be revealed at my 100th blog post as well. I have the comment glitch that I've never been able to figure out so I have someone working on it while they design my new blog bling. Susie at 1st Floor Flat Blogology is working on the new design for me and I am so excited that I'll have my very own blog bling!

I also want to give some blog love to the customer service at Provocraft. I bought a Cricut machine a few months ago and when I got it home, the cartridge wasn't packed in the box. It had to have been an oversight at the factory because the box was sealed with tape with the Cricut logo printed on it. I contacted their customer service department, emailed them a copy of the receipt and they sent me the cartridge right away. Fantastic customer service and I will definitely give them more of my business.

Please bear with me as I get the new site design implemented and all the glitches worked out. I'll be back very soon with the actual giveaway announcement and photos of the goodies to be sent out to the winner.

My son is coming in to visit and to go deer hunting with my husband. I'm excited to see him; it's been a few months since he was home last. As a Marine currently stationed in North Carolina he doesn't make it home very often.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving or if it's not a holiday you celebrate, have a fantastic day! God Bless You

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. It sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. A Blogger 'glitch' that I won't have to put up with for too much longer, YAY!! :-) Just in case, my email is theresainms (at) hotmail (dot) com

Wonderful news about my husband

2009-11-19T20:50:00.009-06:00

After 42 years of smoking, he has officially quit! He hasn't had a cigarette in over 2 weeks and I am so proud of him. He is using the Chantix and it REALLY works. It's rather expensive but not as expensive as cigarettes would be for the same amount of time. AND there's a website he checks into every day plus he gets an automated phone call every night that's interactive. There's also a number he can call and talk to an actual person if he needs extra support. I'm so grateful he's quit and so very proud of him!

Well, I'm coming up on my 100th blog post and I'm getting the craft goodies together for a giveaway. Due to postage costs I'm not sure if I'll have to limit it to the continental United States or not. I've got friends all over the globe and I don't want to leave anyone out. I've got to think on that a bit more.

Before I sign off for tonight, here's a great site with some really good recipes. The link here is for Slow Cooker recipes but there are tons more recipes at this site too if you just look around. My aunt sent me this link and these dishes sound wonderful. I have a really good slow cooker that doesn't get used enough.

Have a great Friday/Saturday everyone!! God Bless You

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

Believe

2009-11-16T22:50:00.001-06:00

Believe
Originally uploaded by theresa_a

All rights reserved. Please do not copy, print or download, in whole or in part.

My very first posted ATC - this one was made as a gift for my lovely niece, Kristina. The lettering, viewfinder and all the borders are from a Tumblefish Studio collage sheet. The card background was 'polka-dotted' using brush tip markers.

Shopping trip with Mom and giveaway preliminaries

2009-11-14T23:25:00.006-06:00

Had a fantastic day with my Mom. I have to say she's my best friend and we never get tired of hanging out. We shopped a bit and talked a lot! She is retired and doesn't go too many places during the normal course of her days. She and I always have a great time no matter what we do.

I found 2 blouses and a pair of jeans that made their way home with me. Mom was more successful at resisting the 'buying bug'. I could've bought tons more but made myself stop by not going into any more stores haha I have been searching for some ankle boots that I like but have not yet found 'the perfect pair'. Oh well, I've got enough shoes already. More than enough if you listen to my husband.

I have done nothing artistic today other than view other people's work. I get so inspired by viewing blogs and flickr photostreams. There are some truly gifted artists out there and I am so glad they post their creations on the web.

I added a list of image freebie sites to my sidebar tonight. I will update the list as I find new sites as well but there's enough there already to give anyone several days of web time. I LOVE image freebies and the list I added tonight never disappoints. I hope you enjoy it and please leave some blog love comments for these selfless artists.

I am swiftly coming up on my 100th blog post and I am planning a giveaway. Not of digital images but of 'real' stuff that I've collected from here and there. This is a good way of doing something fun on my blog, giving back to my readers, hopefully stirring up more interest in my blog and the best part, cleaning some things out of my craft room LOL! I promise that the giveaway won't be just stuff I no longer want; it will have some cool things and be a sampling of more than one genre of craft products. No junk either (unless it's of the artistic variety) . More on the giveaway in the upcoming posts.

Have a great weekend and God Bless You!

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

Week 60 Crowabout Challenge

2009-11-13T20:53:00.003-06:00

week 60 crowabout collage
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

This week was a real struggle for me to come up with something to create. The images are great but the mojo just wasn't working. I've been working on this in fits and starts for 3 nights. I've changed my mind about being finished or not finished at least a dozen times. I now declare that it is officially finished! It's as good as it's gonna get.

I hope all the text is readable. I finally came up with the theme 'Fairytale Facts of Life'. The text above the wolf reads 'beware of cross dressing wolves with big lungs'. That's the extent of my humor for this piece haha

I am learning more and more as I participate in this challenge every week. The other ladies in the group are absolutely fantastic. The level of talent I'm surrounded with is incredible. I plan on learning more from them for a long, long time.

Long week this week and will be a longer one next week. My supervisor is on vacation, a well-deserved one, and I'll be handling some of her duties. I'll be resting up this weekend LOL!

Have a great weekend and God Bless You!

An award and a rant

2009-11-09T18:29:00.005-06:00

First for the good news, I won my very first blog award. Woo hoo!!
It's from Spyder's Corner which is a really nice place to visit so please check out her blog. As I read her blog, I imagine her speaking in an English accent (since she lives 'over there'). If you like, y'all can imagine me speaking in a slow 'suthern drawwwl' and it will give you an idea of my speaking voice.

Now for the rant. I know that we did without computers for many years. I vaguely remember keeping books without the aid of a computer. I remember updating receivable accounts by hand and sending out statements by hand. So how can it be that an entire car dealership is totally *screwed* if the computer goes down. Not even all the way down; just can't communicate with Ford. Internet works, main accounting software works but can't order parts, can't send financial statements, can't send warranty information for payment approval. This has been going on since Friday of last week.

Now, I'm the accounts payable/title clerk for this dealership. I am not nor have never been an IT person. The only qualification I have for being involved in this problem is that I have been using a computer for several years and I was the one who answered the phone when the calls started coming in. I could go on about that unfortunate happening but I won't. Not tonight anyway. I'm exhausted.

The best part of the afternoon was when our IT person made the mistake of walking into the office. I immediately (with absolutely no guilt) passed the phone to him. I mean, I'd been on the phone for TWO HOURS and all I'd determined was that the ISP technician and the router manufacturer technician were blaming it on each other's equipment. I actually could've kissed our IT guy, Brandon, when I saw him walk in if it wouldn't have scared him to death.

So, all that junk was to get you up to date since I haven't posted in quite a while. I really wanted to work on my piece for the Crowabout group tonight but am just too tired. Dancing With the Stars comes on tonight and normally hubby and I would watch that. I really don't think I'll last through all of it tonight though. My brain is just too blitzed to take in too much more information. I need to do something totally brainless. Like this blog post that I hope makes some sense.

I certainly hope y'all's day went better than mine. At least I can laugh about it now which is always a positive sign. Better to laugh than cry, right?!

Big hugs and much love to all!!

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

week 59 crowabout challenge

2009-11-02T20:25:00.002-06:00

week 59 crowabout challenge
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

My contribution to the Week 59 Crowabout Challenge at Flickr. Great group and I have so much fun creating these pieces. This is all digital. One day soon I'll actually create one with paper images. Right now though, digital is just too convenient :-) Happy Tuesday everyone!!

I won a Blog giveaway!!

2009-10-26T19:15:00.005-05:00

I am so excited! I actually won a blog giveaway at Tumblefish Studio. Marsha Jorgensen is the absolute greatest and I've sung her praises before. Here's the excerpt from the Marsha's announcement at her blog explaining the prize:

"There are more winners! For the rest of you, I have drawn six other names to complete my part of two very special prizes I won earlier this year. One from Terri of Pringle Hill and one from Cathy of Reflections of a Ramblin' Girl. Both of these talented ladies had a drawing to win a surprise piece of art sometime in the year after the drawing. The recipients of the prizes had to also promise to pay it forward and send three more pieces of art to three other people. So, the six of you listed below need to send me your addresses as well so that I can truly surprise you sometime in the next 12 months with a piece of art from little ol' me. You may receive a set of limited edition prints, several ATC's or a larger original piece - time will tell and you will just have to wait and see. I may contact you just before mailing so you know to look for it in your mailbox. Now, you were not given the opportunity to enter into this drawing and may not wish to participate by sending on three pieces yourself. In this case, I say you can fudge if you promise to do three random acts of kindness in whatever way you can, whether it is sending art or doing something special for someone who needs it. I leave it up to you."

Isn't that the coolest?! It's just what my motivation and inspiration needed; to be asked to 'pay it forward' by giving away 3 pieces of art or doing a random act of kindness for someone who needs it. I can hardly wait.

I'll soon have my 100th blog post and in blogland, that is a big deal. I'd been wondering how to mark the event and now I know. I'll come up with some way to choose a winner and be thinking of some sort of prize that will be worth winning. Maybe a collage or maybe a few vintage images from my stash. I'll try to think of what I'd like to be surprised with and do something along those lines.

It will be an honor to participate in my own giveaway; I've had so much help from selfless souls who have been so patient with my questions. If I can brighten someone's day for even 5 minutes I'll be delighted knowing I did even that. My family and I have been so blessed with good health and loyal family and friends; it's truly a privilege to simply be able to 'be nice' to someone just because I want to.

DH has 'the crud'. That's what we've always called it in our house; it covers a cold, flu, bronchitis, whatever we happen to have. This is his 2nd round with it and I certainly hope he kicks it soon. AND I hope I don't get it again; I'm getting over my mild case finally. I'm trying to stay away from him but that's kinda tough to do.

Well, I'm off to think of what I can do for my 1st giveaway and to mark my 100th blog post coming up very soon. Happy Tuesday!!

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

Not exactly a race fan yet, but...

2009-10-25T21:10:00.002-05:00

I did enjoy going to the race and having that experience. I may never do it again but I did have a good time. I really felt crappy the entire trip there; this cold that's hanging on. I was afraid a couple of times I was going to have to ask DH to stop and pull over for a while. I made it though and after getting outside and walking around some I felt alot better.

The race was loud, colorful, fast, dull at times, filled with a lot of wrecks, oh, did I saw LOUD!! I had earmuff type ear protectors and they helped a lot. Truth is, they were off more than on. Every 10 or so laps there would be a wreck so the next few laps would be fairly slow til they got the track cleaned off. DH's man, Kyle Busch, came in 2nd place and he was fairly happy with that. We didn't stay for the Bucky Covington concert afterward but headed on home.

Of course, I HAD to get him to take me to the bookstore when we went thru Southaven and just HAD to get two of my favorite Stampington magazines; got the newest Digital Studio and the latest Somerset Memories. I get Somerset Studio by subscription now so I got out of there with only two. I wanted to buy a couple more but held myself back. I wish we had a big bookstore in town but it may be a good thing that we don't. I probably couldn't resist.

DH is getting a cold now and I'm not totally over mine yet. I'm saying it's a cold because I don't want to call it the flu. I did miss work Wednesday and am definitely better but not well yet. Of course, sitting out in the grandstands at the race in the heat and then walking in a cool wind about a mile back to the vehicle probably didn't help. Ah well, we only live once. At least my back and fibro have been better.

Happy week!!

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

week 58 Crowabout challenge

2009-10-25T20:50:00.001-05:00

week 58 Crowabout ATC jpg
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

My 1st entry in Crowabout's Weekly Challenge at Flickr.com. This is my first time to join a challenge group and I thought about a lot of them before deciding I'd like this one. I've admired many of the artists who already participate for a long time. I hope I learn a lot just by being in closer proximity to these wonderful creative souls. My greatest wish is to grow and learn and create more and more and at a much more frequent pace.

A giveaway from Collage Visions

2009-10-23T22:59:00.004-05:00

If you like collage sheets then you've gotta check out this blog:

http://collagevisions.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-candy-chance-to-5-digital-collage.html

She has an Etsy shop with some fantastic digital collage sheets and she's got a contest going with the grand prize of 5 free collage sheets. I love looking at her blog and her sheets. Very inspiring. Check out this generous offer for yourself; good luck!!

Husband and I are going to the NASCAR race in Memphis tomorrow. It's a Nationwide series race (whatever that means). My first race and he is so excited about us going. I'm happy to be going to something that makes him happy; we'll leave it at that LOL!

Happy weekend!!

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

Party update

2009-10-19T23:01:00.006-05:00

The anniversary party was a big success; a good time was had by all. We had between 70 and 80 people and ALOT of food. I took over 100 pictures and DH got quite a few on his camera too. I did end up with a family photo; Mom and Dad and their 3 kids. I'm the oldest with a sister younger by 3 years and a brother 7 years younger than me.

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

Sisters - free for personal use vintage photo

2009-10-11T00:40:00.003-05:00

Here's a vintage photo from my personal collection. This is my sister and I. Photo taken around 1966, '67 or so. Free for personal use only; please do not add to a free or for-profit collage sheet and please do not offer 'as is'. A link back to me is appreciated. I'd love to see how you use it if you choose to.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend; I'm working on photos for the anniversary party for Mom and Dad that's coming up next Saturday. I can hardly believe it's only a week away now! Everything is pretty much set other than printing out photos to use for decorations on the tables. And of course, I've got to cook/assemble whatever food items I'm contributing to the feast. DH is a good cook and I may put my delegating hat on along with 'that look' and a big fat 'Please, baby' :-) Works almost every time LOL!

Have a blessed and safe Sunday!!

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

Freebie vintage image

2009-10-05T20:57:00.002-05:00

Second image of Martha Vance. Apparently she was not the owner of the old photo album I bought but she must have known the owner quite well. Enjoy this image with my compliments. I'd appreciate acknowledgment as the owner and would love to see how it's used. Have a great Tuesday!!

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

Free to use vintage image

2009-10-04T01:13:00.004-05:00

I bought an old photo album at a local antique/junk shop and it had several photos in it. I'll scan and share them here. This image is free to use in your art in any way you see fit. The note with the image states that her name is Martha Vance and it was taken in 1945. I'd appreciate credit for the image if used and I'd love to see what you do with it.

I cleaned and rearranged in my craft room all day today. It's finally to a point that I can actually work in there. I have way too much stuff. I'm tossing a bunch of stuff in a box that I plan to get rid of in one way or another.

Enjoy the image! God Bless You :-)

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. (A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

Dull days

2009-09-30T19:14:00.003-05:00

Nothing to blog about. No photos. Hope everyone enjoyed the hummingbird videos from the last day or so. They're still here drinking up the sugar water. We've had better luck making our own rather than the stuff you buy. The birds like our recipe better.

The weather has been gorgeous the last couple of days. I'd much rather have been outside, maybe in the boat fishing, than be at work behind a desk. I wish it could be this temperature year-round. I love it when it's cool at night, in the high 40's, and then gets to about 78 during the day. Perfect, perfect weather.

Maybe inspiration will strike and I'll have something fantastic to post next time. Anyway, life is great; go out and enjoy it!

Please click on the date/time to leave a comment. A Blogger 'glitch' :-)

Hummer video #2 - Sept 28, 2009

2009-09-28T21:37:00.001-05:00

Hummer video #2
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

Nelson's best video of tonight with alot of hummers playing around. They jump on each other's backs and push each other off the perches; just incredible footage. He's patient enough and stays on the back deck smoking enough that the hummers have gotten used to him being there. They're not scared of him at all and they let him get really close.

closeup #1 - Sept. 28, 2009

2009-09-28T21:34:00.001-05:00

closeup #1
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

Nelson took this photo tonight, along with some videos. The videos are really incredible. At least 20 birds and maybe more just buzzing around and knocking each other off the feeder perches. We love watching them!

A border freebie

2009-09-20T02:12:00.005-05:00

I have had so much fun visiting blogs and lifting freebies from sooo many talented people. Here is my first freebie that was personally created by me from start to finish. Just playing around with PSE and finding out just what it will do if you work at it long enough. I've still got a lot to learn about it but the process is certainly fascinating. Enjoy it with my compliments. Click on the image to upload the full size version. It's 2400x2400 pixels and 818 kb in size. I created these borders with ATC's or small canvases in mind; created on an 8x8 image. Please let me see what you create with it; that would really make my day for someone to actually use something I made :-)

Please click on the date/time and leave a comment. Some sort of blogger blooper. God Bless You!

New place for gorgeous digital collage sheets

2009-09-18T22:08:00.003-05:00

I could spend HOURS cruising through Itkupilli's shop blog . It is incredible and she is so very talented. Check out her site and see her fantastic images. Her imagination is far greater than mine.

Am looking forward more and more to my parents' 50th anniversary party next month. The invitations go out tomorrow if all works out as planned. Now to finish up the decorating elements and figure out what to have the cake 'say'. Not sure if there is proper etiquette for an anniversary party but we'll figure it out.

Super slow at work right now. Since the 'Cash for Clunkers' program has phased out, business has slowed down to a crawl. I hate to be at work and not be busy. The time just drags.

Running errands and getting hair cut and colored tomorrow. Then, hopefully, if I'm very lucky, I can FINALLY do some art stuff! It's been so long. Too long!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

If you don't see the link below to post a comment, please click on the date/time to go to this post's single page to leave a comment. A Blogger 'problem' that I can't seem to fix :-) Thanks for leaving a comment so I can come visit you and leave some blog love! God Bless You!

My first Blog Hop Contest

2009-09-15T22:28:00.004-05:00

I've never participated in a blog hop until now. I came across this one earlier today and thought it sounded like fun. Plus, I'm sure I'll find some new artists' blogs to visit. The blog hop rules are at Pro Marker Challenge so 'hop' over there and get started. Have a good time but I really hope I win because I could really, really use those markers. LOL!!

God Bless You!

Please click on the date/time to go to the single post page and leave a comment. Some sort of blogger thingy and I can't figure out how to fix it :-)

Monday again!

2009-09-14T20:16:00.004-05:00

Work was a drag today for some reason. Still having rainy weather and it has me in a weird mood. Just don't feel like doing much of anything. I did go to Mom's and we worked on the anniversary party stuff some more. She printed out the invitations and they look pretty good. We couldn't get them centered exactly which drives my anal-retentive side nuts! But they still look good and they'll get the job done.

Hope y'all had a better day and that tomorrow will be fantastic! I'll be posting much more interesting posts as soon as I get this party behind me. At least I intend to :-)

God bless you!!

Please click on the date/time to go to the single post page and leave a comment. Some sort of blogger thingy and I can't figure out how to fix it :-)

Rainy Sunday

2009-09-13T15:09:00.005-05:00

I'm working on Anniversary party stuff for next month and have no time to play with any of my art supplies. Unless it's for decorations for the party anyway. Today it's rainy and nasty outside so I'm working on pictures that I'll reprint and scatter along the tables in the reception hall. I'll sprinkle gold and black curly ribbon along with the photos to keep the decor simple but quietly elegant at the same time. Color theme is black and white with a few splashes of gold to tie in with the Golden anniversary theme.

Blake decided to stay at Ole Miss this weekend so it's been really quiet here at home. Guess the 'empty nest' syndrome should be kicking in about now haha

I'll share a picture that I really love. This is my parents in much younger years. I'm not even sure if it was before or after they'd married; probably after. I imagine I wasn't even a glimmer in their eyes at this point :-) I'm the oldest so it was less than 2 years after this was taken that I was born. I am pretty sure of that at least. I couldn't remember how to make the copyright symbol so it's not on here but I did post the copyright info. I really don't want to see this photo spread all over the web. I believe that run-down building on the left is an outhouse but I'm not entirely sure of that :-) I hope you enjoy it and it brings back happy memories for you too.

Who doesn't love a give-away?!!

2009-09-11T21:24:00.004-05:00

While reading through some of my favorite blogs tonight, I ran across the one at Carol Anne's Boutique. She's having a give-away and you've got to go check out the neat photos of goodies up for grabs. While you're there, look around and enjoy lots of cool eye candy!

Long, tiring day today and hoping for an easy morning at work tomorrow so I can catch up on some things. Said goodbye to a dear co-worker who left us this week. I had started feeling like S. was one of my own kids and it's hard to see him go. My prayers are with him as he goes on with his life; I wish him all the best.

My prayers are also with all those with loved ones who lost their lives on 9/11/01. What a tragic day for our country! I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. My oldest son is a Marine and it took me HOURS to get in touch with him that day. Perfectly understandable as the military was on standby to be ready for anything. But that doesn't matter when a 'Mama' wants to talk to her baby. Didn't matter to me at the time anyway. I am so proud of our service men and women who work selflessly to ensure our safety. That includes active military as well as any person in law enforcement or in public service. Love each and every one of you!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend!

My first Etsy order arrived!

2009-09-10T18:24:00.012-05:00

I ordered a print from Tumble Fish Studio a couple of days ago and it arrived today. It is gorgeous!!!! I absolutely love Marsha, the creator of all the wonderful art and owner of Tumble Fish Studio. She is beautiful, smart, witty and ultra-talented. I have admired her art since my first glimpse of it. I started following her blog and that's when I fell in love with her personality. Her art is my kind of quirky and every one of her pieces speaks to me in some fashion. It's very hard for me to choose just one piece to purchase but I had to start somewhere :-)

Please forgive the quality of the photo; I should have taken more time with it. I was trying to do too many things at one time, as usual. The print I ordered is the girl holding wings at the bottom of the stack. The text reads 'Just Imagine'. I love it!!! The other 4 images are postcards that Marsha threw in as a surprise freebie. I love them as much as the print and hate the thought of using them as actual postcards. I think I'll frame them as well; in a collage frame most likely.

Go check out Marsha's site at the links in the first paragraph. I can't imagine you'll be disappointed.

God Bless You

Having trouble sleeping

2009-09-10T00:09:00.014-05:00

I can't seem to get to sleep tonight so I've been surfing and reading blogs. I want to share a copy of an invitation I'm designing for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary party. I've got the front designed so far and haven't decided if this is the final version or not. I do like the way it's turning out though. My aunt and my sister voted that it doesn't need anything else. I did go in and add one more image after their approval came through. I've read several times that a basic design element is to always use an odd number of items. There are 5 vintage images used on top of the texture image to create this card.

I used a texture from flickr but I can't remember whose photostream I found it on. I apologize for that and will try to find the creator of the image to give proper credit. The images are all personal family heirlooms. I'm not entirely thrilled with the spacing of the text but I played with it a long time and this is the best view that doesn't cover up a vital part of an image. The size of the finished invitation is 5x7 inches it and will be sent as a postcard most likely. The particulars will be on the back of the card along with the address area. I use Photoshop Elements 5 to create everything.

I plan to use these same photos as well as others and create several 8x10 prints that will be displayed on a foamcore base and set on small easels around the reception hall.

Mom is so excited! (This is not a surprise party.) I know she's about to pop wanting to help with everything because she loves decorating and planning parties, etc. But, she's letting me and my brother and sister handle it. It's about a month away so we've got a lot to do in a short time. The invites will go out next week (one way or the other). I think we'll be sending out about 100 invitations. I just hope we haven't forgotten someone who'll be offended to be left out. It's very difficult to think back over 50 years of relationships to create a manageable invitation list. I have picked Mom's brain for menu ideas because she's done snack type foods for tons of events. I've done a few but always seem to fall back on the old standards of brownies or spinach dip haha

My husband was very impressed when I showed him the invitation sample. He couldn't believe I had used a computer to create something that looks like this. I guess I'd never showed him a finished image that had much manipulating in it other than repaired photos. I think I surprised him a bit with my 'creative ability'. I'm quick to tell him or anyone else that PSE 5 will do amazing things if I can just figure out how to get it to work right LOL!

Hope you are sleeping tonight (if it's time to sleep in your area of the globe). God Bless You

Shopping trip and have a safe, fun Labor Day weekend!

2009-09-05T21:22:00.012-05:00

Went shopping in Tupelo, MS today with Nelson and Blake and we had a great time. Went to Hobby Lobby and got everything on my wish list by way of some compromises. I had listed Caran d'Ache water soluble crayons but after seeing the price, I got a different brand instead :-) I'm just not artistically developed enough to justify (to myself) paying alot of money for supplies. Best find of the day was that they had rubber stamps (wood-handled variety) on sale at 50% off!! My definition of good news as I'd been wanting to add to my rubber stamp collection. I got 3 that I will definitely use and you will be seeing used in the future.

Of course, my favorite part of any shopping trip is the bookstore visit. And a jaunt to Tupelo nets not one, but 2, bookstores. There's a Books-a-Million 2 doors down from Hobby Lobby and there's a Barnes and Noble in the mall. Blake likes the bookstore as much as I do; he and I could happily spend HOURS, if not DAYS, exploring every corner of one. I really like used bookstores too. They're always a treasure trove of inspiration and creativity prompts.

We are off Monday for Labor Day and I am so glad to have a long weekend. I have so many things I want to get done. Blake is out of school Monday too and he and I will be competing for the laundry room Sunday and Monday. At least he does his own laundry and doesn't drag it home for me to take care of. He's loving Ole Miss; he says 'college is great, too bad classes get in the way'. I raised a smart-a**.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend and God Bless You

Free for use

2009-08-29T18:34:00.003-05:00

The image below is a close-up of three vintage products that I found at the junk shop. You are welcome to use this image for use in your artwork if you choose. I'd love to see what someone could create with this. I have some ideas myself but will have to jot down the idea for another time.

I'm working on addresses for Mom & Dad's anniversary party this weekend. I need to get a number for guests for my Aunt Kathleen as she's ordering the cake. Enough of my boring chat; here's the image:

Have a great weekend and God Bless You

Silent Secretary

2009-08-27T20:29:00.008-05:00

Here's a close-up view of one of my junk finds from this past weekend. It's called a silent secretary; really a daily planner. The book is dated for 1961 but it appears that the previous owner used it for 1964 and 1965. At first glance, entries are not in any particular order.

Below is a close-up of script inside the front cover. It seems the owner was describing symptoms of "intestinal gas, belching, bloating and flatulence". YUCK! I hope they found something to help :-)

What I found really cool about stumbling across this book is that I was born in 1961, the year the book was printed for. Neat, huh?! I love coincidences like that. Always makes me feel the presence of God even stronger. I know, I know, I have an off-center way of looking at things sometimes.

Hope you enjoyed the images; there will be more soon.

Have a great Friday and God Bless You!

Junk Finds

2009-08-26T20:40:00.006-05:00

Went junkin' last Saturday and found quite a few good items; all bought for less than $15! I can hardly wait to get some time to work on some ideas using these goodies. I'll post a big photo of all I got today and then post close-ups of individual items with detailed info in days to come.

Left to right: old newspapers, spools of thread (mostly wooden), old theater program, Father's Day card with personal message intact, metal bird, old report cards, vintage advertisement, a typed play [pageant] written in 1947, old tape measure, various product containers, bingo numbers and wooden checkers, wire egg cup (?), plastic baby ornament, spice rack.

I have found so many fantastic ideas and images on the web and now I want to give back to the web community as well. I also want to share some of my art too. I've done more collecting than creating lately and I want to change that.

My sister, brother and I are hosting a 50th anniversary party for my parents in October. That will keep me fully occupied until it's over and there probably won't be much time for creating. I hope to at least complete a few small items and get them posted. I've been putting it off for alot of reasons but I'm hoping if I get a few things completed and posted that it will unleash a torrent of creativity from me. Maybe this weekend I can get at least ONE thing done and posted :-)

Cash for Clunkers is over as far as anything we can do at this point. All we need now is for the gov't to issue some funds. Hopefully it won't be the nightmare some are predicting it will be. I'm just glad we're aren't as busy as we were. We've had a couple of days that we could actually get some 'normal' work done.

Nelson and I moved Blake into Ole Miss this past Sunday. I talked to him a few minutes tonight and he sounds so happy. He had found some guys to hang out with and had spent some time in 'The Grove' playing frisbee and just having a good time. I imagine he's got many more good times ahead. Especially since Ole Miss is known as 'the party school' LOL

Have a wonderful Thursday and God Bless You

Turning into my mother

2009-08-12T20:34:00.019-05:00

I have the best mother in the world; she's wise, loving, understanding and a true vision of grace and beauty. I don't mind that I look exactly like her and I can only hope and pray that I age as gracefully and kindly as she has. I catch myself saying things or thinking things and then immediately thinking 'Oops, guess I'm showing my age' or 'Gosh, that sounds like something Mom would say'.

The event that brought on all this introspection is the glut of sex-themed content on television. I mean, it's bad enough that most of the so-called 'acting' on television is centered on sex. When I say 'acting', I mean the actual programs that aren't REALITY TV. I watch tv to get AWAY from reality most of the time, not see more of it! :-)

Is it just me or doesn't it seem that 90% of the commercials are using sex to sell everything from deodorant to vehicles? I don't think I'm a prude and I TRY to be 'cool' and not too 'old school'. I guess I've finally hit the point, however, that I'm just tired of being constantly shown half-naked, sweaty people jumping at each other in a commercial to sell a simple product like blue jeans.

I often think of my grandchildren and wonder how much they'll actually be exposed to in their young lives? How much of what they see and accept as 'the norm' would have shocked my parents speechless if it were aired when I was a child? Even the so-called 'children's channels' are showing content that I really don't want my grandchildren exposed to.

I fear for my great-grandchildren. With all that is allowed to be shown on television today, it won't surprise me a bit if there is no such thing as privacy or respect for a couple's intimate lives during their lifetime. It is my belief that the more we are exposed to subjects that 'push the envelope', the more accepting we become of yet a little more than our parents were comfortable with. This is a continuous journey that inevitably will end badly. The line between public acts and private ones seems to be fading too quickly.

Just my opinion and rambling thoughts on this Wednesday evening. Have a wonderful Thursday and God Bless You.

Forgot to post my progress!

2009-08-10T21:07:00.004-05:00

How could I forget that? I weigh on Monday mornings and my 1st week I've lost 4 pounds. That's with no exercise (not proud of that fact). I have not been hungry and have snacked on low-fat munchies when I wanted something. This is definitely doable and I am so excited. I just want to stay motivated. Enjoying Jamie as my FIT buddy and posting my intentions and progress online will help too.

Since 'FIT' is a becoming theme for me and Jamie, maybe I need to start a free image habit too. I'll have to think about that since I don't have that many vintage images to post. Hmmm, wonder how I could manage something like that to keep the FIT theme going; maybe a free image on Thursdays? Something for me to think about and figure out if I want to work on.

Thanks for reading!

New friend

2009-08-10T20:44:00.010-05:00

It is so gratifying to find a new friend and when you connect with someone on the web, it's even more miraculous. If not for blogging and cruising artists' sites, I would not have 'met' Jamie at Art-e-ology. She is so sweet and she and I are now buddies! When I blogged about getting fit and healthy she contacted me and now we are encouraging each other and having such a great time getting to know each other. We live several states away from each other but that just gives us more to talk about. I can hardly wait to check my email now in hopes of finding something new from my friend. Ironically, a feature on her site is 'FIT' or 'Free Image Tuesday' and now she and I are getting 'fit' together; life is strange, huh? I love it!!

I've met several people over the years through the internet and am really blessed to be able to call them friends. I met Lynette from Australia and she and I have had many interesting conversations both by email and by phone. I always learn something from her; she's one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. I love her Aussie accent and she loves my Mississippi twang :-)

I met Aimee from Hawaii through a fibromyalgia website and she had a tremendous impact on my life. She introduced me to many sites that gave me the information necessary to educate myself about fibromyalgia. More importantly, she helped me learn how to live with the condition and also to work while handling the symptoms of fibro. I will always have a special spot in my life for her; she's given me more than she'll ever know. She and I have lost contact with each other over the years but I will never forget her.

There have been others that I've developed friendships with and really enjoyed our time we had together but have since lost contact. I think people come into our lives for specific reasons; some will continue on with us as we journey through life and others will impact us in great ways but not end up being life-long contacts. While I would love to stay in contact with everyone I've ever met and developed a friendly relationship with, it's just not feasible. Not for me anyway.

Life is so full and so widespread that it's inevitable that we lose touch with some of our acquaintances. I've always been the type to have a small circle of very close friends and lots of 'casual' friends. My best friend, or BFF, is Linda who lives pretty close. She and I used to get together quite often but lately it's been longer and longer between visits. She and I have been through ALOT together and I do not know where I'd be today without her love, friendship and most of all her wisdom. At first glance, she and I are so different but once you dig just a bit deeper we're very much alike. She and I have a 'date' to get together next weekend.

Jamie and I are just beginning our friendship journey together and I am so grateful that we found each other. She has already brought joy and sunshine into my days and we have more good things to look forward to in the days ahead. She and I are both doing well on our get healthy quest and her encouragement is precious to me.

Treasure your friends; there are some people who have none.

God Bless You!

Cash for Clunkers

2009-08-04T20:13:00.006-05:00

Oh my; I'm simply too tired to put into words how much work this government program to help car buyers has turned into. Cash for Clunkers is the program that the government came up with where if you trade in a gas guzzler for a new vehicle that gets better mileage, the government will allow you money towards that purchase. That's a very simplified description and of course there are a TON of hoops for the dealership to jump through since it's a government program. I'm sure it's a great deal for the buyer and we have sold quite a few vehicles but since I'm on the paperwork end of all these sales, it's had me in a bit of a 'tizzy' today haha!!

Just popping in to record my status with my 'Fit by 50' quest; so far so good. Yep, it's only been 3 days in all but that's 3 days that I was good rather than bad. I have not done any kind of exercise yet and with all that's going on at work, it may be a bit before I can. Stress of any kind, physical or mental, always hits me in my lower back. Guess that's where my weak spot is. After all the back problems I've had I'm not surprised. It sure does get old dealing with it though.

Actually I did have a great day and have been surfing a few blogs tonight. There is so much incredible talent out there; I'm just in awe of the beautiful art that's to be found on the web. I LOVE cruising around blogs I've heard about and then seeing what blogs they follow to find even more fabulous eye candy. Here's one I found tonight; hope you enjoy Nancy Baumiller's blog as much as I do.

Here's hoping you have a wonderful Wednesday and God Bless You!

OK, no more excuses!

2009-08-03T21:24:00.006-05:00

I am starting today, not tomorrow, but TODAY! I am going to eat healthy and get fit. I am going to lose weight and get in shape. I will be 50 in two years and I want very badly to be FIT BY 50!! I just want to feel better and do as much as I can to stay healthy. I have 5 beautiful grandchildren that I want to be around to watch them grow up. I want to see their grandchildren graduate! Ok, that may be pushing it but I do want to be healthy and feel better. I want to not be so tired all the time. So, wish me luck and pray for me. I'm sure praying for myself and all the others out there trying to get healthy.

I've been blog surfing alot lately and if you have any time at all, you've just gotta check out Tumblefish Studio. Marsha is the most amazing artist and just the sweetest lady! Her post from today has a giveaway listed at Val Zdero Art. I am going to add her to my 'follow' list because she makes jewelry and just the type I like too. Good luck in the giveaway (but I really want to be the one to win haha)

Have a great week and God Bless You!

This Quote Makes Me Think

2009-08-02T00:33:00.002-05:00

12 of {21}
Originally uploaded by fourfiftythree

I found this while cruising thru flickr and the quote is so powerful. Read it and really think about what it says. I want to write this down somewhere I can see it all the time; remind me to not over-stress about a situation. Just work it out. Pray about it.

Reminds me of another quote I picked up somewhere. Everything works out in the end or it's not yet the end.
That one's a real thinking prompt huh? I pondered on that one for a long time when I first heard it.

Like the Garth Brooks song 'Unanswered Prayers'. While our troubles, concerns, problems, what-have-you may not work out like we wanted or even like we thought, they still work out in some way or other eventually. Kinda makes it seem crazy to worry so much, doesn't it?

Just me rambling.

Has this ever happened to you?

2009-08-01T19:29:00.004-05:00

Yesterday and today have had some weird happenings. Someone called my office yesterday and when they gave me their name it startled me for a moment. She said her name is 'Theresa Boyette'. Well, that is my maiden name. I was actually struck speechless for a moment. (Rare occurrence) Before she hung up I told her of the coincidence and she and I both got a chuckle out of it.

Later last night I was reading one of the 'Ya Ya Sisterhood' novels and the name 'Boyette' is used for one of the background characters. This had me thinking if the name is actually of French heritage like I've heard from distant family members. Louisiana Cajun country is the setting for the Ya Ya novels so it's quite possible.

THEN TODAY, I was cruising some of my favorite blogs when I stumbled across someone with the last name 'Boyett' which is the spelling most of my family actually uses. We use the 'e' at the end because my Dad stumbled across his birth certificate when I was around 11 years old and he noticed that his name did indeed have an 'e' at the end; we ended up changing the spelling of our last name when I was almost a teenager. Enough to confuse anyone, huh? :-)

It's almost a deja vu feeling for me to run across an unusual name like that 3 times in just a short time; less than 48 hours. Not really deja vu but I don't know what other word would describe it. A definite coincidence or is it? I've had similar experiences before though not with my name. It makes me wonder if there's something God's trying to tell me or bring my attention to. I have been extra-sensitive to the little happenings today; trying to figure out if there's a message not immediately apparent.

I even felt my stomach flutter when I ran across the blog comment of the woman who shares my last name. I left a comment at her blog just to say hello and tell her of our shared name. Are we connected by a bloodline? Who knows. I just know it's not a very common name; not in this area at least. It's always been a name I'm proud of even though some of my relatives may not be the type you would drag around with you to show off to those you want to impress. LOL I'm sure there are relatives who feel the same about me :-)

Have a great weekend and God Bless You

Weird creatures

2009-08-01T19:22:00.006-05:00

I don't know if the South is the only habitat of these insects or if they thrive all over the place but these have got to be one of the strangest creatures on the face of this earth. It's extremely difficult to catch one in a position where I can actually get photos but we got lucky with this one. People probably walk right over or right by them most of the time because they look exactly like a stick. I'm posting two photos here; the first one shows my husband pointing out the back end of the bug and the other pic shows the antennae better.

Strange, huh? I don't know what their proper name is but we've always called them stick bugs.

Anyone else got pics of weird or strange creatures? I'd love to see them.

Grandkids are gone and it's too quiet!

2009-07-31T21:07:00.008-05:00

All the grandkid-lets left on Sunday and it's been so very quiet here this week. It's been rather slow at work til the last couple of days (Cash for Clunkers is CHAOS!). I've been reading blogs and envying others' way with words and their artistic abilities. Sitting in envy is not getting any crafting done at my own house either, let me tell you!

I'm reading the 'Ya-Ya' trilogy and I can't believe I've waited this long to read these books. They're wonderful! I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for Rebecca Wells' novels. My maiden name is even one of the names she uses in the 2nd book which makes me wonder if I am indeed of French heritage. I'd heard we were but noone in the family seemed to know for sure. At least noone I've ever talked with about it. Wonder if that's why I've always felt drawn to coastal Louisiana and the Cajun dialect has always held a fascination for me? If it weren't so blamed hot and humid down there I think I could be happy living down there in the N'awlins area. Not the Bourbon Street side of the city, but the old and decaying parts that reek of history and dark secrets.

I have to work tomorrow for half a day and then need to pick up some groceries. It's the 1st day of the month though which means the stores will be wild. AND to top everything off, it's no sales tax day on clothes and shoes. I don't remember ever having one of those before so that ought to be interesting. I really have no desire to fight crowds but I need to get food and STUFF.

I'm thinking of trying Alli, the fat-blocking drug that's FDA approved. I know without a doubt that if I'm taking that I will NOT over-indulge on fat because of the 'treatment effects' that may occur. They sound positively dreadful and definitely not something I want to experience while at work. I don't want to get graphic but if you want to know about Alli, go to myalli.com and read up on the program.

I have a treadmill that I haven't been on in ages which is inexcusable. It's sitting right here in the bedroom and has done nothing but accumulate dust for months, many months! Oh well, enough grousing. Before signing off I'll post some pics of the kids that were taken while they were here visiting.

Our youngest grandchild just turned 1 year old and we went to his birthday party this past weekend. Here are a couple of pics; one of Sam and one of his sister, Sara.

Found quotes I like

2009-07-24T23:39:00.005-05:00

Catching up on blogs I follow tonight and found a new one, Art and Inspirations . It's got some amazing photos and art featured there and is well worth checking out for yourself. She has some quotes listed that really caught my attention and are now floating around in my head searching for a place to land where they'll give the most inspiration and be remembered for more than a fleeting moment.

"It is not length of life, but depth of life." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God." ~Leo Buscaglia
"Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it." ~ Danny Kaye

I especially like that last one and would love to get some time to do exactly that; throw some paint (or glue, or colored pencil, etc.) around. I have been talking for so long about working in collage and mixed-media but have yet to put that 'talk' into action. It seems that every single moment is taken up with something that takes priority over my crafting. I should not let that happen so often; crafting and the act of creating something, anything, feeds my soul as well as my heart. Even if whatever I'm working on turns out horribly, I still feel gratified to have made the attempt.

DH (darling husband) and I now have 2 of the other grandkids with us; we traded Payton for his older brother and younger sister. Lance and Adelyn came late yesterday afternoon with their other great-grandparents and Payton went back home with them for the rest of the kids' stay here in MS. It's good that we live close enough to each other that we're able to do that; gives all us 'grands' and 'greats' the chance to visit with all the kids.

Lance is 6 and Adelyn is 3; both of them are much more active than their 5 year old brother Payton. These 2 definitely keep us on our toes but are so much fun to spend time with. We all went to Wal-Mart to buy groceries tonight and now I'm completely worn out. Work was not all that busy today but keeping up with those 2 younguns zapped what energy I had left. I wouldn't have it any other way.

My son and his wife, the kids' parents, will be back in MS tomorrow and will be leaving with all the kids sometime on Sunday. They'll be moving to North Carolina within the month so it will most likely be a long time before we see them again. Emails and phone calls will have to suffice for a while.

Well, enough rambling. Now I'm going back to catching up on blogs while 'Wall-E' plays in the background. Lance wanted to watch it as he falls asleep. I think this makes the 3rd time we've watched it since last night :-)

God Bless You and have a great weekend!

Important Notice

2009-07-22T19:19:00.001-05:00

zetti_piracy
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

Due to negative actions that a friend of mine experienced, she came up with this graphic to post on blogs, etc. of artists of all types. The link information that must be posted with the graphic is important too so if you'd like to use the graphic on your blog, please get the image and accompanying link information from this flickr site. The link if you want to cut and paste it into an email, etc. is http://www.flickr.com/groups/stopartpiracycampaign .

Take a look at the other images available at the flickr site too and remember that artists work very hard on their creations. Please don't take either the image or their ideas and claim them as your own. This is very important to anyone involved in the arts no matter what form their talents take.

I'm spending time with Payton tonight; we've watched a Thumbelina movie and are now watching Arthur and the Invisibles. These children's movies are much better than anything that's been on television lately.

God Bless and have a great evening!

Grandkids are wonderful!

2009-07-21T20:35:00.001-05:00

payton_laughing
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

This is our 5 year old grandson, Payton. He's staying with us for a few days while his parents look for housing in North Carolina, their next duty station for the Marine Corps.

Payton is so much fun to be around. He's always happy, always laughing. I'm certainly going to miss him, his older brother and younger sister when they're in NC rather than Alabama. NC is a much longer trip from Mississippi.

God Bless You

Granddaddy B and Addy

2009-07-20T20:34:00.001-05:00

Granddaddy B and Addy
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

This is a pic of my Dad and my granddaughter, Adelyn. I guess men and their 'girls' have a special bond because my Dad is a different person around his granddaughters and great-granddaughters. Addy is a delight; a very good child and easy to keep entertained.

Payton is staying with us this week and we are having so much fun. He and I are watching Spider-Man right now. Of course, I'm blogging at the same time and can handle both tasks simultaneously because I've seen Spider-Man so many times already. In fact, this copy is on VHS and I have the only VHS player in the house in my bedroom so that's where we are. Hard to believe anyone even watches anything on VHS anymore but here we are :-)

Payton's laughter is something I would pay any amount I could come up with to hear. It's infectious and one of the most beautiful sounds on this planet. All 5 of our grandchildren are extra-good kids; all of them are so very well-behaved. I guess most grandparents feel that way but we really have been very blessed. I thank God that our kids and grandkids are healthy and happy.

Work was great today; I got alot done and everyone was in a pretty good mood. I am so glad that I enjoy my job; I've worked at places that I really did not enjoy my co-workers or the atmosphere and it is a miserable experience.

Payton decided he was ready to go to bed so he's gone over to my Mom's house aka Grandma B. We're letting him sleep over there so he doesn't have to get up so early with us going in to work. Mom and Dad are retired and they love having him over there with him. He's so easy to see after that he's the easiest one for them to keep. His brother and sister are more 'lively' and harder for Mom and Dad to keep up with. Hard for this 'Nana' to keep up with too lol

God Bless and have a great Tuesday!!

Lance, Payton and Addy

2009-07-19T14:33:00.001-05:00

Lance, Payton and Addy
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

I actually took this photo about a week ago when the kids were here visiting. I'm just now getting around to downloading the pics off my camera and this was the best one of all 3 of them. These are my oldest son's kids and 3 of our 5 grandkids; Lance, Payton and Adelyn (Addy).

Payton is staying with us this week and we are thrilled to have him here for the week. He'll stay with my Mom and Dad during the day and when I get off work, he'll transfer across the road to my house.

I've been blowing bubbles, drawing, coloring, building with blocks and just generally having a great time since he got here. There's just nothing like waking up on a Sunday morning with one of those precious faces smiling at you. Those are memories nothing else can touch for the intensity of love I feel from and for this child of my child.

God Bless You

Found image (odd)

2009-07-12T02:21:00.002-05:00

Mastering the Modern Art of Texting
Originally uploaded by battyward

I saw this and it's just too good not to share. I'm one of those people who didn't think I'd ever use texting at all. Then, I decided the only time I'd use it would be to send short 'call me' type missives to my immediate family. As it's turned out, I'm actually using it to have short conversations with several different people and I'm sure I'll use it more and more in the future. It still bugs me though when there's someone walking around seemingly talking to themselves until I notice they have an earpiece clipped to their ear. I do not NOW or plan to EVER use my cell phone so often that I need a permanent receiver stuck to my head.

I should have been in bed a long time ago but my oldest son's here with three of the grandkids. Son and I have been watching 'Dark Knight' because he's never seen it. He's actually been watching the movie and I've been surfing flickr which is how I came across this leggy guy texting.

I'm looking forward to visiting more with the grandkids tomorrow before they leave headed back to Alabama. My son is a Marine and has just found out he'll be stationed in North Carolina next and they have to be there within a little over a month. I've gotta get in all the 'Nana' hugs and kisses I can before they get that far away.

Now, I think I actually will go to bed. God Bless You!

Quick Share

2009-07-12T00:19:00.002-05:00

spot_lily01p
Originally uploaded by theresaashmore

No blogging words tonight but I would like to share this image of a spotted lily. I took the photo in June but every time I see it I actually like it more. The blue sky against the brilliant orange of the lily is a really good contrasting combination for me. One of my photos that actually turned out better than I thought it would. Notice the spiderweb in lower left corner; we have some really strange spiders in our corner of the world. Maybe I'll get a pic of one of them and share it some time as well. Have a great weekend and God Bless You!

Thought to Ponder

2009-07-09T19:19:00.004-05:00

After last night's rambling blog post, I just happened to run across this saying today at Zettiology. 'Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy afternoon'. Hmmmmm, kinda fits the way I was feeling last night when I was talking about being restless. I love to create and do 'crafty' things but sometimes I'm just not in the mood to do anything or I just don't know what I want to do. That's really what I was feeling last night.

That link to Zettiology in the preceding paragraph is worth checking out for anyone interested in altered art, mixed-media collage or anything of that nature. It's also pretty cool to explore if you're just a bit 'off the beaten path' so to speak. Go check it out and you'll see what I mean. I love to cruise through there and let my imagination roam.

Anyways, today is better in that I'm not restless. I got plenty done at work today and am actually accomplishing some things at home this evening too. My oldest son called today and said he and the 3 kids will be here for a weekend visit sometime tomorrow evening. YAY!! I get to see 'my babies' as I call them. They're certainly not babies anymore but I guess I'll always feel that way about them. I'm sure I'll have some pics to share soon since I plan on giving my Canon Digital Rebel a workout while they're here.

I do have to work Saturday morning. In fact, I have to work the next 2 Saturdays for half a day. I'm kinda looking forward to next week though as I'll be filling in for someone who'll be on vacation and it will give me a chance to do something a little different for a bit. Probably weird for me to feel that way but I enjoy changing things up sometimes. I'm sure we'll be extra busy with one person being out but it sure makes the time go faster when you're busy. My supervisor and I work together extremely well anyway and I really enjoy when it's just she and I. We always have a good time while we get plenty done too.

I'm just not in the mood to rant about anything tonight since I'm in such a good mood with the grandkids expected :-) I'll end by saying this: I do think that Michael Jackson was a great entertainer and I do enjoy some of his music. However, I will be glad when the media isn't so full of details of his death, etc. I'm ready to let him rest in peace, as I sincerely pray that he is. Just my opinion.

God Bless You!

In the 'Old Days'

2009-07-08T19:53:00.006-05:00

What did we do before the internet? I can easily remember when I needed to know something I either had to look it up in the dictionary or encyclopedia or, better yet, find someone who knew the answer I was looking for. I spend way too much time online and am just sitting here wondering what I did in all these hours that I now spend surfing and reading blogs.

We should NEVER be bored, ya know? With all this information at our fingertips we should be ashamed if we ever find ourselves with 'nothing to do'. Yet, I (using 'I' here instead of 'we' to keep from stepping on someone's toes) do have times when I just want something to occupy my time but it's not a book or surfing the web. That's really ridiculous.

I guess now that I don't have small kids at home to occupy me and, thank God I don't have to work 2 jobs, that I'm bound to end up with blocks of time where I'm just restless. Don't get me wrong; I truly enjoy having my time to myself. Nelson's very self-sufficient and always has been. He does not have to have me right beside him all the time and I feel the same about him. We know where the other one is if we need them but we're perfectly capable of being by ourselves as well.

I'm not really complaining; just commenting on the fact that it's not necessarily a good thing that I've become so used to an 'instant' society. Where everything we could possibly want is more or less moments away. We rarely have to wait for anything anymore AND we more often than not get irritated if we DO have to wait. Not something I'm proud of, just something I had to vent about.

I know I switched from 'I' to 'we' but hey, I was in a hurry to get back to reading blogs :-)

God Bless and hope you are more patient than I am :-)

Happy Independence Day!

2009-07-03T20:14:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to wish everyone a happy and safe July 4th holiday. It's actually my birthday so I guess you could say that alot of people celebrate my birthday :-) Nelson and I plan to go shopping and out to eat, maybe catch a matinee of 'Transformers 2' since he wants to see it so badly. So, no cookouts or family get-togethers planned for our household on the 4th. Maybe later when it's cooled off some. It's just too blamed hot to be outside for very long!

Everyone stay safe and have fun!!

Hot and Quiet

2009-06-30T20:05:00.004-05:00

Nothing at all going on to blog about lately. It's too hot to do much of anything outside so I've been reading and surfing Flickr looking for good-looking textures and images to use in image manipulation. I've played around some with Photoshop Elements; still trying to get it down pat. I believe that PSE is one of those programs that I will forever be learning something if I continue to use it.

Nelson got some photos of a baby frog (below). We have an above-ground pool in our backyard that we haven't used for about 3 summers now. I've been trying to get Nelson to finish draining it and get rid of it but it's still there. Due to all that stagnant water, we're party central for the neighborhood frogs. Sooo, now we have zillions (okay, maybe not zillions but LOTS) of baby frogs. They must now be getting big enough to get out on their own. My co-worker tells me her granddaughter loves frogs so if Christy reads this, I can send Savvy some anytime you say :-)

God Bless!

Vintage images

2009-06-26T22:37:00.008-05:00

For anyone interested in viewing vintage images, I found a fantastic site. It's loaded with Victorian and Edwardian era images. So interesting to browse through and see all these old images. The site is www.cartes.freeuk.com and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I can easily spend hours there when I should really be doing something else.

It's so hot here that I cannot do much outside; I just can't stand this humidity and high temperature like I could when I was younger. I'm sure some of that is because I am so used to air conditioning but whatever the reason, I'm miserable when I'm outside when it's as hot as it's been lately.

I'm off this entire weekend and plan on relaxing, doing some laundry and I HOPE to work in the craft room and on some photos. My sister and I are planning a 50th anniversary party for our parents. It's not until October 2009 but it will be here before we know it, especially if I keep putting off working on it. I'm gathering images and ideas because we want it to be very special. My parents never ask for anything and I know this party will make both of them very happy. Lord knows they deserve it for staying married for 50 years and putting up with the 3 of us kids for almost that long.

Have a great weekend and hopefully I'll have some new photos to post here soon. God Bless You!

Various Pics

2009-06-22T19:29:00.011-05:00

I've been working in Photoshop Elements on photos that we've taken recently and thought I'd share some of them here. No real order to them so here goes:

Our youngest grandchild, Sam. Pic taken Father's Day 2009; isn't he a cutie?!

Sum & Substance Hosta bloom. These hostas get enormous!

A spotted lily that blooms in June for me. This is on a very tall stalk; about 4' tall.

Nelson and I went out riding around Carroll County, MS and found a ranch with a few buffalo. We were lucky enough to catch them right at the fence line so we could get a good shot of them. The biggest male was too fast for us to get a good shot of him; he scared me and Nelson both by running down towards us. Lucky we were on the OTHER side of the barbed wire fence!

An abandoned house in Carroll County, MS

I hope you enjoy the photos; I should work on plenty more that I have in my 'downloaded from camera' folder. I keep putting it off until I end up losing interest in working on the older photos. I admit it. I'm lazy when I'm at home. Work is so very busy right now and by the time I get home I'm just pooped. Too tired to think about doing any kind of 'work'. Plus it's so danged hot right now that I feel zapped of all energy all the time. I do NOT like summer; I'd much rather be cold than hot. Hot flashes have certainly cured me of complaining about the cold haha

Have a blessed week!!

Hummingbird Haven

2009-06-21T18:46:00.008-05:00

A few weeks ago our back deck was THE gathering place for neighborhood hummingbirds. Mom lives across the road and she commented that her hummers had suddenly disappeared. I told her I must have stolen them away with better food because we had a dozen or so dining at our place. Last summer was even better; at one time we counted 26 hummers hanging around at one time. We had two feeders up at that time and we could have used two more. Here's a photo of one of our hummers who was visiting about 2 weeks ago.

We also have alot of wasps who've taken up residence. Many more wasps than hummers, in fact. Our hummers seem to have taken off for more interesting locales. I haven't seen any in quite awhile. Nelson said he saw a single hummer last week but I think it may have been wishful thinking on his part. He absolutely LOVES hummingbirds and could sit for hours just watching them. He has a quiet, still nature anyway and he never tires of sitting perfectly still to see how close the hummers will get to him. He's had them get within inches of him and I've never seen him so delighted. Here's one more photo to share; this one of a wasp taking his meal along with the hummingbird.

Bit gets a Bath

2009-06-20T21:59:00.006-05:00

Our terrier mix recently got a bath and I got some photos of the process. She does not like a bath but she doesn't fight too bad. Nelson gets into the large garden tub with her to bathe her; that's the only way to get it done without pulling every muscle in your back. Little Bit is our only dog at the moment and she's more like a child than a pet. Blake calls her his 'little sister' because he says we spoil her terribly. I readily admit she gets alot of my attention; as far as I'm concerned she deserves it! She never talks back and is alot easier to deal with than the boys were when they were growing up. Bit is 12 now and it's hard to believe she's been with us that long.

Of course, after her bath it takes forever to get her dry because her fur is so thick. Then it takes major work to get the tub cleaned out due to all the dog hair and dirt caked in it. Bit races through the house and rubs all over the carpet to get dried off which leaves hair all over the carpet. She always smells so good though right after a bath and her fur is so silky. Of course, one trip outside and she smells like a dog again and her fur loses that shiny, silky look. We wait as long as we can and then do it all over again. I'm glad Nelson does it; I don't know if my back could handle it.

When it's warm we sometimes give her the bath outside on the back deck but she's been known to get away from us. She'll immediately run out in the grass and rub around in it trying to dry off. Trial and error has taught us it's easier to bathe her inside in the tub. At least that way, we can close the bathroom doors and keep her confined to that small space.

Busy, busy, busy

2009-06-17T20:28:00.006-05:00

Work has been so busy lately that I just have not had time to take any interesting photos or to post. There is nothing going on other than work so I don't have anything good to blog about. I will share a pic of my first double rainbow; I'd never seen one before and it really was spectacular. I hope you enjoy!

Good news

2009-06-05T18:45:00.006-05:00

Dad has been in the hospital for over a week and is finally home! Have not done much other than work and try to stay with him some so Mom could have a break. I am so grateful for the Lord's hand in healing Dad well enough for him to leave the hospital. We are so blessed by having wonderful friends and family who kept all of us in their prayers. God is so good!

Work has picked up tremendously over the last couple of weeks; more people are buying cars lately. I deal with the paperwork end of car sales and I have been so very busy. First week of the month is always hectic and this month is no exception. I enjoy my work so much and am so glad I have a job that I like with co-workers I care deeply for.

Nelson went to watch Sara play T-ball tonight in Cleveland and I stayed home because I have to work in the morning. I didn't want to come in late and then get up early for work. I've missed enough sleep this week and hope to get caught up on some of it tonight.

I intended to post these pics right after our vacation but life got crazy. This is a coondog graveyard in Alabama. We saw the sign on the highway and I HAD to check it out. Nelson had been before on one of his work trips to that area and it was well worth the longer than anticipated detour. I count this as one of the highlights of our trip to Alabama.

Back at work

2009-05-25T18:49:00.003-05:00

Felt good to get back in my routine today. Had a huge stack of paperwork that had piled up while I was out but that just makes me feel needed. Today's Brad's birthday; he's 27 years old. I called him and talked for a few minutes. He found out his re-enlistment did go through and he'll be going to a new MOS school shortly. He'll probably be in Pensacola, FL for 6 or 7 months.

I'm gonna post another pic that Jilly took of us while we were there visiting. It's definitely a candid shot but I love it because it's so natural. No real news to share for today anyway.

Great vacation!

2009-05-23T21:18:00.005-05:00

Had a great vacation this week and it's almost over. We head back to work on Monday, the 25th and I guess I'm ready. I'm ready to get back in a routine anyway. Ready to get back on my WW plan too. Gotta, gotta, gotta lose some of this weight so I can feel better.

Planning a 50th wedding anniversary party for Mom and Dad to be held this October. Getting pictures together for a montage and thinking of ideas on decorations and how to display the pics.

Visited the grands while we were off and we had so much fun. We visited the three in Huntsville, AL but didn't get to see the 2 in Cleveland this week. Maybe if rain holds off we can go tomorrow for a bit. We have had SO much rain this year that it's unbelievable.

Will post another of the pics that Jilly took of Nelson and myself. I really like this black and white one. I printed it out in 8x10 size, framed it and it's now on our fireplace mantel. It really is a good shot. Casual shots are so much more interesting than studio poses.

Garden Mode

2009-04-26T20:44:00.008-05:00

I guess I've hit my garden mode for 2009. While we don't need any new beds (since I have enough trouble taking care of the ones I already have), I am always on the lookout for something new to plant, especially if it's unusual. So far this year, we've stuck with the basics. One bed at the driveway needed foundation plants so we put in 6 small boxwoods. They're advertised to get 2' high x 4' wide and that should be perfect for that site. Nelson dug up my balloon flowers that were already in that bed. They had never spread the way I wanted them to and without cutting back a couple of times, they got so tall they flopped over; very unattractive. I did replant 3 of the balloon flowers and hope they'll do well in their new home. I put them in a bed with peonies; that bed needed some color after the peonies finish blooming anyway. The balloon flowers will have the front porch to lean on so the height shouldn't be a problem there.

We also planted a pin oak tree and then realized it's directly under our power lines to the house. It will have to be moved to another site; good thing we realized it early enough it hasn't rooted into its site yet. We'll move it and plant 3 new loropetalum shrubs one evening this week. I've now got to remember to water these new plantings every day until they get established.

A friend gave me a big box of white iris that I got finished planting today. Now to find something to go in the very middle of that bed; maybe a crepe myrtle bush or something similar.

I could talk plants forever; I never get tired of looking and planning. What we really need now in our yard are trees for shade. We've been very lucky and blessed in that most everything we've planted has done really well and our landscaping looks very nice (even if I do say so myself). I want to add more things with color; there is alot of green since the front of the house has several evergreen shrubs as foundation plants. While they look nice and add greatly to the overall look of the property, they look dull in my opinion. My peonies feed my craving for color but they don't bloom long enough.

I'll share some photos as I get them tweaked for the web, some are below. My clematis is absolutely breathtaking. I can get rather dull to listen to when I get started on flowers and plants. Enjoy the photos and have a great week!!

My new toy

2009-04-20T19:50:00.008-05:00

Though my new toy is much less expensive than Nelson's new truck, I think I'll have alot of fun with it anyway. I got a Wacom pen tablet to help with my digital photography tweaking and I got it set up tonight. I'll use it on the desktop PC rather than the laptop because of the room needed. My tv tray doesn't have enough room for the laptop AND the pen tablet lol. It will definitely take some practice to get proficient with the tablet but I think I will love it soon.

Busy day at work but my first day filling in for 'the boss' went fine. I didn't blow anything up and as far as I know, all went well. I hope the rest of this week is as smooth as today turned out to be.

Watching Dancing With the Stars and I don't know who my favorite is. I wanted Ty to do really well but Gils is probably my pick to win. He is so good and makes it look so easy. Melissa is great too; it's tough to choose. Glad I'm not a judge.

Nelson and I got to do some yard work before the rain started Saturday; I got a few plants thinned out to take to a friend. I hope to get some more thinning done later this week. One of the salesmen at work has been bringing in irises the last couple of weeks and they are so beautiful. He brought some yellow ones today that are absolutely breathtaking. I'm not really partial to the color yellow but they look so great mixed with other pastel colors. Now I'm wanting some yellow irises :-) It's a good thing I've got a big yard to plant things in.

Maybe next blog I'll have something really great to talk about. Or maybe I'll have some examples of the fantastic digital creations I'm sure to produce now that I have a pen tablet haha.

God Bless You

Men and their toys

2009-04-17T20:58:00.006-05:00

Nelson got his 'new' 2006 Tundra yesterday; he's thrilled with it. He says it's better than he expected. Working at a car dealership keeps me in contact with alot of 'experts' and those who've seen the Tundra say that we got a really good deal. It does ride very well and looks sharp too :-) Here's a photo of Nelson with his new toy:

I'm glad he's so happy with it and that he found one that turned out to be a good deal. He has been wanting a Tundra for a long time; he says this is his last truck purchase. We'll see about that though haha

For the past two days we have been so busy at work that it's been simply exhausting. All the strange, odd, off-the-wall requests and characters have popped up over the last couple of days. I get home so tired that I can barely think; it's not a physical fatigue but a mental one. I feel like my brain needs to 'defrag' and get a RAM extension. My supervisor is off next week and I'll be handling some of her duties as well as my own. She has been training me for about 3 weeks now on some of the more particular aspects of her job and I pray that I've learned it well enough to do her proud. She's the best supervisor and a fantastic teacher; she explains things well enough for me to catch on but she also lets me learn by doing it myself which is the best way for me to learn something.

My brother, Jerry, called tonight and we talked for a long time. He'll be here tomorrow with his family for a weekend visit. They'll be staying at Mom's tomorrow night; I'm looking forward to visiting with them. I've missed seeing my nephew and niece, Thomas and Kristina. I wish the weather outlook was more positive for a sunny weekend and nice temperatures. It's supposed to start raining after midnight tonight and go thru the entire weekend according to one forecast. Oh well, the plants need rain and I'll be glad when my peonies bloom in all their gaudy glory.

My clematis plant is covered in blooms now and a few irises have already bloomed or are blooming now. My peonies are loaded with buds and I fervently hope they don't get beaten down by a heavy rain so their blooms will be the show-stoppers that I know they can be. I absolutely LOVE my peonies; I call them my babies this time of year. I babied them the first couple of years after planting and it was well worth it. They're established now and are so gorgeous when they bloom. They'll be blooming soon if all goes well and I'll definitely post photos of them here.

Been facebooking some but not as much as when I first signed up on there. I just don't have the time to keep up with all the networking sites and have not even been to Twitter to see what all the buzz is about. My daughter-in-law sent me an email tonight asking me to 'twitter' but I haven't decided yet if I'll even try it. Between work and life in general, I feel like I've already got enough to keep up with.

We hope to see Sara and Sam this weekend, probably Sunday afternoon. I'd love to see the other 3 grandkids but we need longer than a weekend for a trip to Huntsville, AL. I'm glad they're there though and not still in Okinawa. I sure do miss seeing them; it's been several months now since we saw them.

I've rambled enough; will wish all of you a good evening and pray that God blesses you in all you do. Until next time...

Dad's New Toy

2009-04-11T15:07:00.006-05:00

Daddy got a new toy a few days ago; something he has wanted for a very long time. A John Deere riding lawnmower. It is very nice and I'm amazed at how quiet it is. Nelson said the steering handles just like power steering. Our Craftsman is great and we're happy with it but it doesn't steer quite that easily. And it's a lot louder. It works well though and it's paid for so I'm thrilled with it haha.

Nelson's Tacoma needs a new motor; if it's not one thing, it's another. That saying is sooooo very true. We just got a couple of items paid off and now it looks like we'll have to have another vehicle. Oh well, with the Lord's help we'll make it just fine.

I had to work half a day today and it was so slow; I only had three customers the entire morning. I'd much rather be busy so that the time goes faster.

We have no plans for Easter other than having lunch with Mom and Dad. I guess it will just be us with no grandkids. Nelson had to work today and we decided we'd just stay home this weekend rather than go visiting the grands. Weekends aren't long enough to go see the Alabama crew; we need to take a 4 day weekend and make a trip over there. I'd love to do that but there just aren't any weekends that work out that way.

Have a wonderful, blessed Easter!

New inspiration

2009-04-07T19:33:00.004-05:00

I got 2 CD's with vintage images to use for collage work, scrapbooking, ATC's, whatever you want to use them for. They each have over 1000 images and I already have tons of ideas that I'll probably never have the time to put into action. I just finished a really cute photo album/scrapbook that I gave as a gift to a friend expecting a daughter to be born in May. It turned out really well and of course, I forgot to get pictures before I gave it away. You'll just have to take my word for it; it is really cute :-)

Trivia question for the day: What Sesame Street character passes the time gabbing with his pet goldfish Dorothy?

Answer here

God Bless You

Movie Day

2009-04-04T21:57:00.009-05:00

I've watched several movies today while doing laundry and cruising YouTube for Photoshop Elements tutorial videos. It must have been Vin Diesel day on one of the channels because they showed 'A Man Apart', 'Pitch Black', 'The Pacifier' and 'The Fast and the Furious'. I didn't watch that last one but caught most of the others. I'd seen bits of all of them before but never had seen the entire movie. I really enjoyed most of them and was able to get all the laundry done too.

Nelson and I watched 'Quantum of Solace' tonight; the new James Bond movie just released on DVD. It was okay but not as good as some of the other Bond films in my opinion. I liked 'Casino Royale' much better.

My brother and his family are coming to Mom's tomorrow to visit for awhile and I'm looking forward to seeing all of them. It's been a while since we've had an extended visit. He actually dropped by my office Friday for a few minutes and brought me two John Deere caps I'd asked him to get for me. The caps have a logo showcasing JD's 100 year anniversary and are collectors' items. I got one for my boss, Cannon, and the other for Nelson.

I bought one of those Trivial Pursuit daily calendars when WalMart had them marked down to $1.00. I'll share some of the questions (and the answers) here to add something interesting to my blog. I should work harder to build up interest in my blogs and gain some readers. Just don't have time to do all I want to get done.

Saturday Trivia Question: What power did the Care Bears team up to deploy against bad feelings?

Click here for the answer.

Have a great weekend; God Bless You.

As earlier promised

2009-03-31T20:46:00.004-05:00

No real news but I do want to post two of the pics I took this past weekend. I am really enjoying my Canon digital SLR camera. I did notice that there are some spots on the lens so I guess it's time to find someone who can clean it for me. I never take the lens off so I can't figure out how the specks get in there. Oh well, that's one mystery I may never solve. Here are the pics, enjoy...

Surf City

2009-03-29T01:06:00.007-05:00

Surfing the web is what I've been doing for hours today. I did work on a paper craft project and got 4 pages out of a probable 10 that I'll be doing to complete this gift. I say probable 10 pages because the gift is a made from scratch scrapbook that I'm making for a friend and the number of pages is entirely up to me. I'm creating all the pages and the covers and am having a great time working on it. I'm such a perfectionist that it takes quite a bit of time to get a page I'm happy with. I'm leaving spaces for the recipient to add their own 4x6 photos. So far the book is coming together well and I'm very pleased with it. I hope my creative streak continues for awhile so I can get some other things completed as well.

The husband and I went out driving for a couple of hours today and saw some really beautiful springtime sights. I got some great shots that I hope to get posted here tomorrow when I have more time to do some tweaking on the images. There are a couple of photos that I saw when reviewing thru the camera's viewer that look extremely promising as possible 'framing' shots.

Found this site today and I've already added it to my favorites list. The blog is Mermaids of the Lake and they're offering a chocolate giveaway. It appears that they have giveaways on a fairly regular basis. Go check it out and good luck!

God Bless You

Back from the lazy!

2009-03-20T22:10:00.010-05:00

Haven't had anything to say so I haven't been saying it :-) Tonight I'm cruising the internet looking for freebie collage sheets to use in scrapbooking, atc's, etc. I've got several links to share here that you may find interesting if you're into any of that stuff. I'll just list them because they're all good and I really don't have a preference for one over the other yet:

1. Ewe-N-Me Printables blog

2. Art Freebies blog

3. Ten Two Studios

4. Altered Stuff Blog

5. Lorri's Blog

All of these have freebies and links to other sites with freebies. I love, love, love vintage images and am really interested in trying some altered art projects.

My first project now though is a themed photo album minus the photos. I want to gift someone with a handmade photo album for them to put their own photos into. I've got to find just the perfect album for that and I've gotta do it quickly.

I am off this weekend and Nelson and I hope to go bass fishing tomorrow afternoon. It's forecast to be around 68 degrees (Fahrenheit) so that should make for a really nice afternoon. I always take the camera with me when we go out like that. I'm always hoping for 'that perfect shot' and I have been lucky enough a few times to come close to it.

There is so much negativity on the news and surrounding us daily at this point in time. I just want to project positivity (is that a word?) and override some of the doom and gloom. I know this country is in serious shape but that is no reason to forget our many blessings and all the good that we tend to take for granted, is it?

I'm so grateful for my faith, my family, my job (really, really grateful for the job right now!) and all my wonderful, faithful friends and co-workers. I can always depend on someone I'm close to to make me laugh or at least smile. I hope I do the same for others.

One thing I'm extremely thankful for is that I still have both my parents living near me. I know that life is short and none of us are here forever; I have always been very close to both my parents and I really enjoy having them so close.

Wow, I had alot on my mind for someone who hasn't had much to say lately. I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!! God Bless You

Ready for the weekend!

2009-03-06T22:23:00.005-06:00

The weather is supposed to be nice for most of the weekend I think and I hope to get out and enjoy it. I have got some things to take care of inside as well; I want to organize closets and start pulling out spring and summer clothes. Part of me dreads going thru all the clothes from last year; I'm not looking forward to seeing how tight some of those clothes are.

Nelson plans on fishing most of the weekend probably and I may go with him for part of that too. Weekends just aren't long enough to do all we'd like to do, are they?

I'm just getting started on reading 'Fireproof'. I've heard so many good things about the movie and Mom has read the book and gave it a rave review. I have to be in the mood to read serious books or novels or I can't make myself finish them. There are times that all I want to read are 'fluff' books...books that let me escape reality and act as a tension reliever from normal, everyday life.

Nelson and I ate at Grand Palace, the local Chinese restaurant, tonight. It was very good; their buffet is really good. That is the first time we've eaten there in a long time but we both agree we'll be going more often.

Sorry for the utterly boring post; just wanted to check in since it's been awhile since I posted anything. I'll share a site I ran across that is somewhat interesting to me and hopefully to you as well. It's a site that showcases tattoos (something I do not have even one of). It's titled Rate My Ink and the title is exactly what the site lets you do. You can rate people's tattoos and some of the comments are pretty harsh. Take a peek here.

'The Reader'

2009-02-28T22:41:00.003-06:00

I just finished 'The Reader' by Bernhard Schlink. I enjoyed the book and it is one of those that make you think. I believe it is one book that I will remember for a long time. It brings up questions that provoke serious thought and could probably cause some heated discussions in certain circles. I would recommend it as a book that most readers would enjoy. Not all, but most. Now I'm reading 'fluff' books to cheer myself up a bit before taking on another serious read.

1st Chunky Book Project (photo heavy post)

2009-02-28T22:14:00.015-06:00

Here are photos of my 1st chunky book project. I made it for my work supervisor with some help from her daughter who provided the photos (thanks Christy!) The photos are large so may take a bit to load; I hope you think they're worth the wait. Click on the photos to see the entire image. I made more comments after the last of these 5 photos.

Sorry that last page is blurry; I didn't preview my photos too well before giving the book to Debbie.

Lesson #1 learned is that I really like flat embellishments for these books. They can still be 'puffy books' but will close easier. Lesson #2 learned is that I need to research which adhesives work best in particular situations.

I'd like now to make one of these type books for each of my 5 grandchildren. I think I'd best work in an 'assembly line' process for producing 5 at a time. I'll get all the photos together first, then all papers I want to use for all 5 books. I'd get all that put together and then add the embellishments I choose as a last step. I'd also like to work on different types of closures for books like that.

I really learned alot making this book and thorougly enjoyed creating something for Debbie. I thought it'd make a good 'brag book' to keep at work when someone asks about her granddaughter. Debbie does not have to be persuaded to talk about Savy; she's always glad to talk about her :-)

My brother and his wife and 2 of their kids are visiting at Mom's this weekend. Thomas just turned 5 years old and I make a few pics at his 'party'. He wanted a SpongeBob cake so that's what he got. Here are a couple of pics of Thomas Houston.

Have a great evening and God Bless You

Sleep does a body good

2009-02-26T19:35:00.002-06:00

Felt so much better today after resting well last night. Found a really neat retro site today with ads for toys. Tonka Trucks, Disney characters, Hot Wheels and many others can be found here in ads dating back several decades. Go take a look and enjoy...www.toyadz.com.

I will post pics of my secret project this weekend after I give it to the intended receiver tomorrow. It turned out pretty well; practice makes perfect as they say. So maybe the next one will be perfect LOL

Have a great Friday and God Bless You

Need sleep!

2009-02-25T18:30:00.004-06:00

I did not sleep well at all last night. I may have actually slept a total of 3.5 hours. Just could not get comfortable enough to go to sleep. I am headed to bed very soon to try and 'catch up'. No real news but I want to share a pic of my granddaughter, Addy. Her mom says Addy got bored and decided to work on a new hairstyle. God Bless Her and all of You :-)

Chiropractor to the Rescue?

2009-02-23T19:22:00.007-06:00

I had my initial consultation today with Dr. Morris, the chiropractor. I really like him. He's very down to earth and professional. He says the muscles in my neck area are very tense and spasming. Hopefully that is where my headaches are coming from. I go back to see him in a couple of days to find out what the recommended course of treatment is and decide if I want to get started with the adjustments.

We three women in the main part of the office have to juggle our appointments around each other's lunch times and appointments. It gets tough at times to do that but we manage it pretty well. Hopefully 2 of us won't ever be sick at the same time; that would be hard to work around. I bet we figure out a way to handle it though if it ever does happen. Most of us are the type to go in to work no matter what so we'd probably just warn everyone else away and keep right on plugging away.

I did get some work done on my photo project this weekend and was planning on finishing it tonight. I'm really achy after that chiro exam today though and just don't feel like working on anything. I guess the physical exam got the fibromyalgia aches intensified. I'm kicked back in the recliner typing this and the only body parts moving are my hands and fingers. That much I can handle at the moment. That photo project is turning out very nice though so I'll definitely share pics of it here when it's complete.

I am so incredibly blessed that I feel like I sound ungrateful when I talk or even think about how the fibro makes me feel. I have many more good days than bad ones and am so thankful for my life and all the people in it. There are so many people who are much worse off than I am; makes my petty pains not even register on the scale. I pray for those who deal with so much more than I do. God is the only reason I am able to work and deal with life on a daily basis with any degree of ease. I thank Him for his grace and mercy that He showers on me and my family.

I am so ready to see our grandkids; it's been far too long. Nelson said he'll be working all weekend so I guess we won't be seeing the rugrats this weekend either. I 'think' my brother and his family will be here this coming weekend for a visit and a mini-birthday party for Thomas Houston. He'll be 5 years old; so hard to believe. Bradley's middle child, Payton, will be 5 just a few days after T.H. All our babies are growing up far too fast.

We're watching 'House' and marveling at Hugh Laurie's talent. N and I absolutely LOVE this show. He's so viciously sarcastic but so funny at the same time that he ends up being one of those characters you love to hate.

Hope to get to sleep early and ease up some of these aching muscles. Have a great Tuesday and God Bless You