Wrought Iron Chandelier

Update on Blogging Tutorial by clicking and go to the end of the Tutorial to see some new updates. You won't be sorry you read it but you CAN be sorry you don't. It's up to you.
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Hubby finally found this chandelier up in the garage attic. I bought it on a trip to Pennsylvania in the late 80s to visit his parents. Our son, daughter-in-law and grandson went with us. We toured the countryside one day because I wanted to visit a shop I had read about in a magazine. We found it and purchased several things and she graciously shipped them back for us. It was quite a unique experience and I truly loved it. I bought 2 of these and sold one on eBay for a song. But when I went to the Post Office to ship it, the shipping was going to be $100.00! I almost cried so the postal clerk looked at it again, remeasured and a couple of inches miraculously dropped off! (Now, from looking at this you can imagine what the packaging looked like as Love Bunny had to cup up boxes to make its own box. It truly looked like a space ship and got the most awesome stares in the Post Office that day. Hubs said no way was he going to the P.O. with it. He's such a sadist!) Then it was about $35.00 and off it went. I would have had to refund her money and tell her what happened. It worked out well all the way around and I was saved the embarrassment so I'm happy. But no way would I sell this one after that experience.

So I've decided to paint it white to go with the look of our house now. What do you think? Now for the froufrou-ing of it.

Okay, and now I have the candles in it but I've been so busy with a couple of other projects that I haven't froufrou-ed it up any further than this. And this is the safest place to keep it at this point. Soon!
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Because Froufrou Counts!

I am going to start a Froufrou Friday on my blog. If you'd like to participate, just let me know. All you have to do is show something sweet, decorative and/or froufrou around your house or something you are working on. I think it'll be fun. I'll give the details in a few days. We'll start in July on a friday. I'll certainly let you know in a few days.
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By now you should know my philosophy: Roses in every yard and froufrou in every house. Uh huh!! :-) So with the sweet letter I got from my letter swap pal in Ireland and the letter written on beautiful roses scrapbooking paper I made this in remembrance of her letter. Isn't it sweet? Nuuuuu, this will never be in a giveaway; it's MINE.

Bottom is the paper she sent; top is a tiny scrap I had laying around here. I added all the trim of roses, garland, bows and I made a little door with a pearl door knob.

It was sort of funny but as I sprayed glue on the little rooftop of the birdhouse, the writing showed though. After I put the german glass glitter on though it dried and the writing was gone. I thought it would have been neat to see the writing through it. Alas, but no. Her paper is on each side.

The paper wasn't big enough to cover the back so I used a piece I had here.

The roof is her paper also.

Kathleen, thank you so very, very much for that lovely paper. I truly loved it.
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Roses Again and Some Random Thoughts for Pink Saturday 6/26/2010

Welcome once again to Beverly of How Sweet The Sound and Pink Saturday.
This past week I visited with Shirley of Shirley's World and Jenn of Whinenroses. Visit with them and tell them I sent you.
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Can you stand to look at more roses in my garden? I certainly hope so because I love looking at them. ;-) It's also a pleasure to be able to share them with you all.

This will be the 2nd year for this hosta and it thrives in this spot under my office window.

Our pathetic little rhododendron is finally starting to show some growth. It's been quite a struggle for it but maybe it'll survive.

A David Austen rose. My favorites.

I'm shocked by how gorgeous this is this year. The bush has dozens on it at the moment. Very prolific!

Aren't they simply magnificent?

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Random Thoughts:

I hear people on a regular basis say that actions they take don't hurt anyone but themselves. Wrong! In this world your actions affect everyone around you: family, friends, school mates. Selfish people consider themselves only; unselfish people consider others when they make unpopular decisions. Don't think I am wrong in this. It's very true. A ripple in the water travels the ocean, my friends.
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The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
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If a guy tells you that if you love him, you'll "submit" to him then your answer should be: if you love me you wouldn't ask. Tried and true, chicks, tried and true. You have this on excellent authority. Me! If he loves you, he'd marry you. If not, he doesn't think much of you.
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Why is it that home always looks so good to us when we return from our travels? Home is comfort, familiarity and serenity. I love it when we hit the California or Washington state line because I know we're almost to our kids house or our grandkids' house, but when we are on our return trip, it's our own home for which we're longing. "Being home" is the secret.
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Stephanie's Wedding Party and Bloggerette Sorority Debut!

It's time for Stephanie of Angelic Accents Wedding Party! Go over there and visit her and all the other participants to see their weddings.

Love Bunny and I got married back in the early 60s and we're still together regardless of what a nag I am. See, miracles DO happen, chicks. But I've since learned to treat him like a sweetheart and lover that he truly is. My best friend. I can go to him with anything and he'll tell me to either "suck it up, Connie" or "change your attitude." He brings me back to reality. When he calls me Connie and not Hon, I know I'm in trouble. ^0^

We had a small wedding in my home with just a few friends and relatives. Not an eloquent or gorgeous dress, just a white embroidered street length dress. But a few years ago I asked him what he remembered most about our wedding day, which was actually at night, and he said, "I remember how beautiful you were coming down that staircase in that white dress." How could I not love this man. I have no apparent beauty, just a heightened sense of humor and a lovely smile, which is usually on this old face. I'd known him only 4 months (do NOT try this or Dr. Laura will yell at ya!) and we knew we wanted to get married. We had very few pictures taken and went on a honeymoon to Pennsylvania to meet his parents—me—not him. I'd never met them before we were married.

On our honeymoon he locked the keys in our old Chevy and the next morning we had to break the window to get in and resume our travels. He was red-faced about that.

So here are 2 of our wedding photos. Can you believe those eyebrows? I've learned to pluck!

He has beautiful hands. Me? I tended to chew my nails. I don't anymore but I still can't grow nails well. ;-)

But since the lack of official photos I thought I'd share some of us through the years, and since we just celebrated an anniversary, I thought you'd get a chuckle. Why do the Mexican tour guides always put these silly hats on men? We went to Mexico a LOT before we moved here.

I always, ALWAYS have a book to read.

I told you I have a LOT of hair. I cut some of it out of the top of the photo also.

A Christmas with the 2 oldest grandchildren in 1986 probably.

Another wedding photo—I can't locate the photo, but have this newspaper announcement framed. I'm pitiful I know.—I have of this handsome young couple. ;-) Isn't he caauuuute?

Before I met him he had a lively, party lifestyle; can you tell? I've corrected that about him. Hah.

Can you see why I love this man so much? He was willing to fight for his country and is the finest example of a MAN I can think of today.

He even let his first granchild brush that afro hairstyle! Her newborn baby looks just like her in this photo from 30 years ago.

They truly don't come any more patient than this man. ;-)

He still looks like the man I married many years ago...less hair, of course!

This is us in the late late 60s in San Jose. Still s**y after all these years.

My wish for any of you newlyweds would be for you to have this kind of sweet man cherish the ground you walk on for all the years you are married to him and that it would be long and fruitful. He once told me that his aim in life was to make me happy. How could you NOT love a man like that?
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The Bloggerette Sorority Party

Okay, for the second part of this post. Karen at Some Days Are Diamonds has started a blogger sister sorority. One rule is that you have to take the image and make something out of it. Being the computer person that I am, I decided to do something digitally with my Photoshop.

Another rule is that we have to take a photo of ourselves with the project we made. I'm here to tell you, and you shall see in the photos below, that I tried. I really tried. (Evidence is posted below to support my case.) So showing you how I messed up trying to get my photo in the mirror, you'll understand why I had to do 2 photos to support my claim that I really did try. So, in the end, it ended up being 2 photos plus my goofs. And, yes, there is a cut on my lip from my No!No! I used earlier in the week. *Sigh*... Sometimes it doesn't pay to get out of bed!


See, I told ya so!


Here it looks like I need to clean my guest bath mirror.
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Something I Whipped Up a Few Days Ago!

I was just messing around the other day and thought about how I could do something I saw and how hard it would be. I thought I'd do it on a small scale though. Let's take a peek at what's going on. Hmmmmmm, can you guess what it might be?

And yes, those are roses Love Bunny just snipped from our rose garden this morning. BTW, this post is scheduled ahead of time as most of my posts are. It's rare that I'd do one the same day. I like the freedom of preparing ahead of time and going back and looking at them again and again. [By the way, I checked and found that there isn't a word such as preschedule in my Merriam New World Dictionary or the online dictionary Merrian-Webster or my dictionary widget on my iMac Dashboard, so in following my own advice I'll either use something else or make up a "blogger" word: preschedule. I choose to use it as a new addition to the blogger world. I could say preparing ahead of time as I did above, but it takes a lot more room to say that. Forgive me, but I had to let you know I'm not ignorant of words. ;-)] Also, I composed this post on 6/22/2010.

Stop looking at the rose, chicks, look at the "other stuff" in the photo!

Is it taking shape in your mind yet or did you know from the first photo what it was?

Voilà, it's a froufrou-ed umbrella! Oh, it's a small one but just as cute as a regular size one. I may do a large one but I'll definitely do it differently. First of all, I'll make a pattern. It was definitely a pain in the tush to just guess and then snip the fabric.

I wanted to collapse it but since I wrapped ribbon around the handle I couldn't do it to show you. Hmmph, that ribbon just might come off!

Okay, I couldn't stand not collapsing it and showing you how cute it is, so here is after I removed the ribbon.




Of course, I had to ask Love Bunny to go get me some roses, but no matter; he did it. Aren't they lovely?

The big pale pinkish one on the left has the most delicious scent. Actually, they all smell wonderful but the scent is very different on each one. I love the variety of fragrances on each one though.
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