Ramblings 10/21/2013

I have over 12,000 photos on my Pinterest now with nothing but gorgeous images, or as I prefer to call them, Eye Candy, with many more to post on there. In a very short time period, there are now over 9,600 followers so you know there must be a lot to see. Just scoot on over and view it as I'll probably never get all of those images on this blog, especially since I'm now not posting as often. That may change but life right now is challenging me. Dieting being my number one priority. But service to others has been also challenging. I'll speak to that issue later.
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But first a few more stories about my precocious great-granddaughter as told to her mummy.

Miss C, as I call her, told her mummy these things the last week or two and we have no idea where these ramblings are coming from:

C. says J. [her baby sister] is the "little nutcracker in the moonlight of her heart" and she also told me that if I lie to her she will "poke out my eyeballs with a fish hook."

Heading into daycare today, some father is heading back out to his car as we enter and is singing a children's song to himself, fairly loud (and he is alone at this point just having dropped off his child). C. asks where "Steve" is going. I was about to ask if she knew the man, then looked back at him, realized he was wearing a shirt with large horizontal stripes of gray and green, and immediately realized she thought is was Steve from Blues Clues!

C. wants to buy her 87 year old great grandma a "real-life adult pony so she can gallop and ride" for her birthday.

My daughter thinks the birthmark on her hip is her cutey mark. [This has something to do with those Pony dolls.]

As we drove into work today, C. told me stories about living in Mexico as a child, where she swam in the ocean, went bowling, and "ate fairies with a little tomato on them sprinkled with parmesan." And then she was a pirate captain in the sea of Egypt who found a boy that wanted to be a pirate but he didn't know how to swim, so they had to take him to the Egypt swim school, but when they got there it was actually a house filled with gems that were booby trapped with nails and they all had to run away. This kid is nuts. ;-)


So we're thinking she possibly has a future as a writer or at least a great storyteller. But as her teachers tell her parents, and we can definitely affirm, she never, ever forgets a thing. This could spell trouble for us!
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Did you hear about the college professor holding a lecture on "Orchestrating Orgasms" lecture at a university? I doubt anyone needs a lecture on that. But to do it in a school/university setting I believe is appalling. What in the world is going on in our educational system today?
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I cut my index finger just before we went to Southern California a few weeks ago and it actually took off the tip of that finger. That'll teach me to not sharpen my butcher knife right before I intend to cut the meat off of a ham bone. Anyway, it bled practically non-stop for 2 days, requiring many band-aids and multiple ones for that finger. My hubby then said I used band-aids like my great-granddaughter. She absolutely loves putting band-aids on everyone regardless if they have a cut or not. I saw her mum, my granddaughter with band-aids all over her legs in a photo the other day and asked her about it. She said Miss C just kept wanting to put them on her and it's a cheap "toy" for her to play around with. My hubby said, "Your great-granddaughter is just like you, uses a lot of band-aids." I just stared at him.
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I love laundry hanging on a line but having a clothesline near this adorable porch makes it even cuter.

This is a gorgeous room in several colors of blue.

A cute kitchen dining area.

Don't you love those foreign soaps all done up in beautiful packaging?

And of course we can't get enough roses.....EVER!!

I do like this small home with a living room and dining area combined.

I love these laundry carts with gorgeous fabrics to hold the laundry. My double one has mesh bags on it but they're starting to rip apart. I plan on making new ones with gorgeous fabric for ours.

While it's a gorgeous room, I cannot see myself in a room like this. I'd never want to clean it for one thing. ;-)

A delightful, charming homey kitchen and dining room.

A beautiful home in France.

I love the colors in this room. Beautiful. And that sofa? Gorgeous!

A vision in white.

While I love this, it wouldn't be practical in this desert sun, plus we're surrounded by huge farms and the dust would be horrid to have this setting outside around here.

But of course, I'd love to have this on my front porch!

Life doesn't get any better than coconut in my opinion. :-)

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Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie. The Day the Blender Died.

Reminder about my Pinterest page. I now have almost 9,300 images on there that you won't see on here for a long time. Also, a reminder about the giveaway I'm going to have. It'll be on 6/12 so be sure and be here to check it out.
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This is a long post so be prepared.

Some people who read my laundry post emailed me with a homemade detergent recipe. I had read blogs extolling its frugality and effectiveness, but I'm lazy and didn't want to make it. Not all that stuff works well for some of us. Plus I have a year's supply of Tide. But, hey, I'm game to try it out if so many of you see results. So onto the shopping list went Fels Naptha, Washing Soda and 20 Mule Team borax. Hubs wondered why in the world it was on our shopping list and I told him and he remembered his mother using Fels Naptha and I remembered the same about my grandmother slicing it up into her round ringer washer and me helping her with it, so he was game for it. (Any conversation of this sort fondly recalls memories from his childhood and I have to listen to—get the pleasure of hearing him tell me the stories. That should have been my first clue. ;-)

So on one of our twice weekly visits to Wal Mart the items were purchased. I also read the instructions from one particular blogger that said it works really great and it was cheap. Cheap never enters into my shopping decisions. I've been thwarted more than a few times; no, make that more than a lot of times. I simply don't care if something is cheap or not if I want it. I know some of you understand that. Of course, I always watch the circular that a store here in town sends us for Pepsi so I can get 4 cases for the price of 3 cases. Other than that I don't care.

So I pulled out my blender to use as I don't use it much at all anymore. In fact, it's in a closet in our 4th bedroom. I use a food processor now for all things I have to make/cook. This is in lieu of eating out, which I prefer above all. Need I say more? No!

I cut the chunks into small pieces after setting the blender up. I took off the cap in the lid to drop small chunks in. Well, it went flying all over the kitchen. I immediately stopped. If you look very closely at the buttons, between the last white button on the left and the 14 Speed Blender on the right side, you'll still see bits of Fels Naptha. It was a mess, so I had to stop and clean up a bit.

At that point, I'd stop the blender when I dropped a new chunk in, put the cap back on and blended again. We're talking soap here so it was a bit waxy/clingy. That's when the blender started smoking—big time. I thought my kitchen was going up in flames. That brought about the ambivalent feeling of "do I let it happen and eat out for weeks" or "should I try to put out the fire and cook for the rest of my life." I had to stop and think about that one. Saving my house and the embarrassment of explaining to the firemen was the biggest consideration. (I've already had the police here with our security alarm going off and me not remembering the code or contact person. The policeman told me that's one and I only get 3 of these alerts before they start charging me for trips to my home. Sigh. But that's another story that I've probably posted about before on here and can't remember at this point.)

I then poured the 2 cups of the other 2 products into a bowl and emptied the blender stuff into it. I'd forgotten the smell of Fels Naptha from my youth. It isn't bad; it just isn't Tide's smell. I could get used to it I suppose. But it didn't blend as well as the instructions said it would. If I ever do this again—and that's pretty iffy at this point—I'll grate it with my grater that I was afraid I'd thrown out but found later in the day. (Due to the availability of cole slaw already chopped at the stores now, I refuse to grate another cabbage! In fact, most times I'll even buy the salad greens already chopped in their neat little bags. I'm all for someone else doing it for me.)

I'll let you know after a few times of washing how it does. I guess putting in the fabric softener will dull the smell a bit. The nice blogger said she'd gotten used to the smell. I doubt I could because I'm such a fanatic about good smells, especially in my home.
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Now, onto the second item of business here.

When we moved into this new house, there was a large mirror over our double sinks in our bathroom. I thought we needed more shelving over our sinks before we needed a huge mirror. So we took it down, gave it away and put in 2 medicine, or in my case, makeup chests instead. It worked fine but now I thought we needed more shelves in there as my counter was becoming crowded. I then saw this photo on the internet and asked him to make me one. That was a marriage-killer right there, let me tell you.

  My hubby has to get it perfect or try. It is NOT perfect but you'll see the photo down among the flowers below here. He drove me nuts. I wanted 4 shelves but he said he couldn't do it with our ceiling height and the light bar over our sinks. Fine. Adjust it. Then he had to go shopping for special lumber. Heaven forbid, he doesn't have we'll-use-this-sometime-in-the-future-lumber out in the garage or his shed. But off to Home Depot he went.

I wanted bars across it to hold items better. I didn't get them as he said it wasn't high enough between shelves to lift a bottle up and get it out. Then he wanted to spray paint it after he assembled it. I told him it would be easier to paint before assembling but he's his own man and did it his way. Is it perfect? No. But it's definitely better than having 3 mismatched shelves in that space, plus there's more surface to put things on.

I wanted them done in a timely manner. Riiiight. That'll never happen around here as he's involved in too many things. So my makeup and few random items sat on the countertop for several days before I made a deal with him. I offered to do a task for him one night while he installed the shelving. I have to say it's not what I expected but it'll do fine. He's such a good husband that I don't want to burst his bubble. And he is going to do a perfume shelf for me in our bedroom. That will have the cross-bar to keep my plethora of perfumes from falling. I've just about destroyed my dresser top from spilling perfumes and oils on top of it. I'd redo it but I just don't have the energy and it would take a lot to haul it outside to refinish and that's not going to happen—due to the energy problem, mine, not our natural resources.

This is the blender sitting on a small freezer in our garage. I put it there so the garbage can wouldn't catch fire as it was still smoking. He just happened to be walking in as I was taking the blender out to the garage. I told him what happened. He didn't even flinch. He knows me too well.

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This is the first peony of the season. Hubs sure can grow beautiful flowers.

One of our rose bushes. Sorry, he hasn't had time to weed them yet.

Another gorgeous rose. I usually only buy David Austin roses. They're very fragrant smelling and have performed magnificently for us in this hot summer desert.

It's very hard to have a favorite but this one is at the top of the list. Perhaps that's because I love pink and yellow above all other color combinations.

This is the shelf hubs made. Sigh. It actually looks pretty good there between the 2 medicine chests. We could only go so far in the width but lower than the 3 mismatched shelves we had there before. Plus the shelves are deeper so that worked out even better. You can see the birdcage I have hanging over our garden tub also.

Another peony, different day.

This is the little tin that I put the washing detergent in. I'll be sure and let you know how it works after several wash loads.

I'm rather chatty today, but this gorgeous blue in this hydrangea reminds me of a color of Jantzen sweaters that was called French Blue back in the late 50s and early 60s. I longed for a Jantzen sweater that other classmates had before I got mine. I didn't wish for much and rarely bared my feeling to my parents. I don't know why I didn't get one for a long time but when I did, it was a double-breasted cardigan in this color. It was gorgeous. I loved it. When I think about those lustings back in my teenage years, I have to chuckle. I am rarely envious of anything anymore that someone else has. Oh, I see the beauty in some things but I'm just glad I'm this old and alive, have beautiful kids, grandkids and gorgeous great granddaughters. I am truly blessed in this life.

I think this is a gorgeous home. I don't lust for it but I doubt I'd have turned it down when I was younger. Now? Too much yard and too many levels.

A delightful kitchen in aqua and white.

A shop somewhere that I'd love to go visit. I see a couple of things that tweak my interest.

Same with this shop. Notice the beautiful French doors to the entrance and the molding on that doorway. I could probably spend a long while in this shop.

A cheery dining room with a vintage table, chairs and red roses on the curtains. I like this room a lot.

Oooooh, I don't know where to begin on this porch. I want mine to be this pretty and relaxing. I say every year I'm going to do something with ours but I haven't so far. Maybe this will be the year I succumb to those desires and get my bum off the sofa and do something with our large porch. :-)

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Tidbit:
 I've always been interested in English since an early age. I loved English and majored in it in college. But I'm always seeking out the abuses of our language. That's why I find these little tidbits to pass on to you. I'm forever correcting someone's English and grammar, whether written or verbal. Sigh. It's a tough job but someone has to do it. Right, Claudia? ;-)

Just Deserts:
The phrase has its origins in the obsolete word 'desert', meaning that which one deserves. In use since at least the 1300s, it is commonly seen in print as just desserts, as in the sweet final course of a meal. It is pronounced this way, but the spelling is incorrect.
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Linking up with Pink Saturday, NMH
and SSS. 

A Marvelous Book to Read

I read an excellent book recently called Unbroken, a book about the survival, resilience and redemption of the human soul. I recommend it highly.

It was about Louis Zamperini and his capture during WWII. Hubs asked me to buy it as he had heard about it, so I did. It was a marvelous book. He's a history and military buff and I caught him being very emotional while reading the book. He told me I should read it and I did. I was in tears a lot. Zamperini gave up going to the 1940 Olympics to join the Marines and go to fight for his country.

Louis gets shot down along with everyone else in the plane he was flying in at the beginning of the war. He and two others get into 2 lifeboats. One man eventually dies in the lifeboat but Louis and his friend spend 47 days in the Pacific Ocean and are finally caught by the Japanese and spent two and a half years in captivity under the merciless opposing forces. I couldn't and wouldn't go into all the details but I'd like to offer a few details to you.

Now, this was during the 1940s so men were a bit smaller in weight than they are now. Louis weighed about 155 lbs. when he got into that rubber raft. When he was captured he weighed 67 lbs. You'll have to read how they survived by reading the book. And he was beaten just about every single day for two and a half years. Once the man in charge of the prisoners, a sadistic man, named Watanabe, had every single POW in the camp, hit Louis in the face as hard as they could. If Watanabe didn't think they hit him hard enough, he made them hit him again—hard—in the face. The soldiers kept count and they figure Louis was hit 220 times in the face in just that one day. He wasn't even recognizable.

But at the end of the war, Louis committed himself to the Lord through Billy Graham and tried to find the man to tell him he—Louis—had forgiven him. The man was contacted but refused to see Louis. It was an amazing book of courage, resilience, tragedy and forgiveness in this man's life. I recommend it highly, just to see how our POWs were treated and going against the Geneva Convention and killing them with all kinds of tortures and humiliating them by making them even eat the excrement of the animals. It is a powerful story and an absolutely astounding account of how they survived.
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Beautiful sunset plus I love bougainvillea and its fuchsia flowers. In Mexico, they put some on your bed at night along with chocolate of course.

Another living room I like. I've always been leery of putting shelves over a chair or sofa because of falling objects. I think this comes from the earthquakes we had in California and in Hawaii when we lived there.

A beautiful view from a living room is something I've always enjoyed. We can see our roses out front but with our large porch, not much else.

I love the pink plates under that lovely pitcher.

Okay, just how many people would want a bed around their swimming pool. It would be humid and smell like chlorine, but it sure makes for a pretty photo shoot.

This looks to be in a European country, but the verdigris faucet and that lovely handle would thrill me if I had it in my backyard.

Another beautiful porch with wispy sheer curtains blowing. What a lovely porch!

This looks to be some kind of resort as not many people could afford to do this to their yards. But wouldn't it be wonderful to visit this place?

I love the little cabinet and all the cute things she has put on its shelves.

A darling clutch purse.

While I love the color and the curtains, I'm not sure I'd want to live in a three-story house. No one could steal your laundry though. Prettily done however.

All kinds of fabric and ribbons.

My favorite pink colors in the fabrics and on the hydrangeas.

I'd take that gorgeous chair!

Yeah, yeah, a gorgeous hanging bed, but I'd be afraid hubby and I would come crashing down at some point. ;-)

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Tidbit:

James Dyson has invented a vacuum cleaner that can order its own spare parts.
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My Decorating Frenzy

I've been on a decorating frenzy for several months now but, truthfully, there is only so much decorating I can do to this house. It's our "forever/retirement" home and a smaller size so how much decorating can you do to 1800 s.f.? But I'll continue to do what I can as long as I can. I get tired of the same thing after 6 or 8 years and feel the need to update or, at least, move around some things. It will be less and less the older I get but it will be done.

But that brings me to blogs I see from time to time where the women are changing things every year or so. How do they do it? Are they that bored? Do they have unlimited funds? I don't see the need to do it every year or two. Seems wasteful to me. Also, are they never happy with what they have? I'm a happy person and love the things I do have. In our 52 years of marriage I have probably changed furniture maybe 8 times. That's with relocating to new places and homes. I don't think that's a lot. But to have the same house and change every couple of years just seems a waste to me. But I'm having to buy higher and higher sofas just to meet my butt at my age! I don't get up off the sofa as easily as I used to when I was 45. ;-)
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A darling spot on the side of a house for a relaxing nap.

More pots of pansies.

Love this idea of hanging stuff needed to hurry out the door very near.

Beautiful roses and hydrangeas.

A queenly bed. Love the bed linens.

Pretty evening purse.

Got any extra teacups? Here's how you can display them.

Clever way to put lights up.

Gorgeous French chair, luxurious sofa and a pail of roses.

A little wire basket to hold mail.

I just loved this photo when I saw it.

You can actually buy these shoes for kids. Look up Joy Folie and check out their cute designs.

Just a cozy corner in a bedroom.

Pretty handmade chenille pillows.

Yes, I love this lamp also!!

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Tidbit:

Our state is #1!
Continuing with the "N" states on what makes them #1 in the nation at. (Terrible grammar but I couldn't think of a better way to put it.)

Nebraska:
Livestock
Domestic violence

Nevada:
Gold mining
Home foreclosures

New Hampshire:
Lowest percentage of people living in poverty
Skin cancer rates for women

New Jersey:
Millionaires
Population density

New Mexico:
Lowest cancer rate
Children who drink alcohol

New York:
Charitable donations
Longest daily commute

North Carolina:
Most diverse population of salamanders
Lowest teacher salary

North Dakota:
Lowest rate of AIDS
Lowest rate of seat belt use


Sir Francis Bacon died of pneumonia. He was experimenting with freezing a chicken by stuffing it with snow.
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