Random Thoughts Before Christmas

I've been thinking randomly today as I bake cookies and some thoughts come to my mind. Yeah, it's dangerous for me to be doing cooking. All sorts of things come to mind!! Hahhh.......
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An outstanding woman or man will take loss graciously; a truly great outstanding woman or man will take a WIN graciously. I've done both at times and smiled and actually meant it even through the hurt.
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Sometimes it pays to "whine" and sometimes it doesn't. The secret is to know which is which.
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Does it truly matter if the cookies you're giving to friends at holidays are baked from scratch or from the store bought dough? The love still is there when you give them to your loved ones and they can still "smell" the love.
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I think of our Savior much of the time during these holidays. I wonder if he's happy with us forgetting the real reason and how it must make Him sad for some of us to not know Him at all. What's wrong with telling your kids that Christmas will be a bit less this year because of the economy? My parents did it and hubs' parents did it and a lot of other parents have done it years ago. But today it isn't just "keeping up" with the Jones', it's trying to "pass" the Jones'. Let's live within our income and see how much happier we are. The only thing that goes in that box that takes us out of this world is our bodies. Everything else stays here except for our families. I'm just grateful they give me a set of clothes and don't bury me in the nude like I came into this world! Frightening thought, huh? ;-)
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There isn't an ex-football player alive that doesn't live on ibuprofen or some form of pain killers! I wonder if it was worth all the money they make to live the majority of their lives like that. It wouldn't be for me. I know a man who would give all he has to have his health back and he's very serious when he says that.
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I think the worst job would have to be secret service agent. They're prepared to "take a bullet" for someone they're perhaps not in awe of. That must be true love. But then I'd "take a bullet" for Love Bunny in a heartbeat. Oh, wait a minute, maybe there is one worst job - proctologist.
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Why don't they food companies list all the "spices" on the labels? It just says "spices" but there may be a "spice" that someone is allergic to. (Egads, another sentence ending in a preposition!)
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Airlines now ask the passengers on the plane if there is anyone allergic to peanuts. If one person out of 300 says yes then they don't pass out the snacks. Makes one wonder why they simply don't switch to pretzels or cheezits, which are a lot cheaper. And what happened to all those people who were allergic to peanuts before they started asking the question? Hmmmm??? Here the majority truly is the minority.
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And now for the "eye candy" if you'd care to even call it that!! Hahhh..... Pictures of me as a child.

My cousin and me on our "new" car in California in the early 40s. I'm sitting on the tire well.

I always seem to have the same scowl on my face in all my photos.

Okay, they caught me with a smile this time! ;-)

Back to the scowl. My baby sister and brother in Texas in the 50s.


That silly smile again in a school photo somewhere in the 40s.
At a very early age I detested having my picture taken. "Get that camera outta this face!!!"

Living in Hawaii in the 40s. Aren't those quonset huts just the "shabbiest" thing going?!?!?!
Hope you enjoyed the trip down "Nostalgia Lane" today........

The Pink Painted House

My greatest treasure is hubby. He gives me license to do as I darn well please. Whatever I want to do is just fine with him 99.9% of the time. Well, there is the occasional "I wish you wouldn't do that", but they are very few and very far between. When I said I wanted to paint the house pink, fine with him. So these are the first photos of the living room, kitchen and dining area for you to see.

I feel like I'm living in a confectionery store now. I absolutely love and adore it! How can a simple color make such a difference in a room and in a mood? Yesssss, it truly does. It just lifts my spirits up. As most of you know who've seen this blog before, I recently did my office/painting room and my sewing/craft room in a vibrant pink. This time for the main areas of the house I went a shade lighter. I did it this way.

A trip to Home Depot and looking at their samples got me thinking about a paler pink than the other two rooms simply because if I changed any furnishings in the living room it might be a tad hard to "coordinate" things with the wall color if it was too bright pink. So I picked a color I love, Behr's candy tuft, and had them make me up a quart with 1/2 the colorant in it. When I came home and painted it on several walls to test it, it seemed more lavender because the only colorant in it was magenta. Magenta has blueish tones to it. So I picked another color, Behr's cupid arrow. It had different colorants in it and after getting them to put in 1/2 the colorant again, that color seemed perfect after I came home and painted patches on different walls again and lived with it for a couple of days. The paint stores will do anything you want. You don't have to accept just their "colors." Then I bought 5 gallons to start the painting. It was definitely pink but not "in your face" pink, which I really like anyway, but wanted something softer in the main rooms and hallways.

Then there is the concern of getting the "pink" to show properly on different monitors. These past 3 weeks I've been on my laptop and notice huge differences between it and the desktop and huge monitor in my office. So I tried to pick settings that show it accurately. Impossible, chicks!! The closet I can describe it is "a tad more than light pink but definitely pink." I'm loving it.

I also decided that I had put too much stuff on the old beige-y walls to try and obliterate the color with the frou-frou, so this time I "scaled" down a bit - scaled down is a relative term here. I "reassigned" things to different places! ;-) Case in point - the living room. I brought the shutters I painted white from the dining area into the plant shelf in the living room. I like it much better here than in the dining area.

Notice the uncluttered look in that area now. Something here, just less "fluff" and the pink shows quite well. I brought in a picture that my brother and his wife gave me from the living room and put it on the right side of that entry.

I also brought the leather chair from the family room into the living room. It looks much better in there than in the shabby chic style family room. I prefer my living room a tad more formal than the family room.

The archway separating the living room and the dining area is only about 4" wide and being from California, I don't want anything up there that can kill me if it falls so I've had these little blocks of wood that I put little roses decals on and put the up there for a little bit of pizzazz.

Yesssssssss, the train limited edition prints still went up there to satisfy hubs but I put the pink suitcases back up there to "feminize" it a bit and only one suitcase did I leave in its original vintage state. But by the white door is probably the most accurate of the color of the walls I could get on THIS monitor. Yours will appear differently probably. That hallway on the left is still the beige-y color. The painter's wife went into labor and he had to leave! I'm soooo excited for them, but not sure when he'll be back to finish the hallways. You can see he prepped by putting up tape and can definitely see the color difference from the walls in the room to the wall on the other side of that archway.

Another view of the dining side of the archway and the wall to the right of that plant on the living room side is the wall in the hallway that still has the original color on it. See how much brighter and cleaner it looks. Squeeeeeeeeeal. I love it, chicks!!!

To be continued.................

Christmas Exchange

I did a Christmas exchange with a group of women.

Beautiful vintage sugar bowl which she turned into a pin cushion. I shall display it gladly. Beautiful!
Can you tell I'm taking pictures on top of all the drop cloths in the dining room, kitchen and living room??? Hah......

This soap has the most wonderful and fragrant smell! I put it in my guest bath to fragrance up "le bain"!!

Okay, these chocolate covered peanuts didn't last out the day........uuhhhh, actually, they didn't last our the 1/2 hour! Painter and I split them. Darling magnet for my fridge. My fridge only has beautiful things on it. Roses and frou-frou calendars. There is also some wild huckleberry tea. Huckleberries grow wild out here in the west. Delicious.

And a sweet note from a simply lovely lady who does exquisite mosaics. And you should see this chickadee's house in Wyoming!!!!! Wooooooeeee, it's really something. She's a girly girl like me........;-)

My World of Treasures

Welcome to Cielo's World of Treasures Party. Go visit all the women who are participating in this wonderful party. Lots of beauty, treasures and eye candy. I want to thank that chickee, Cielo, profusely for all the work she has done on this one. It is a major undertaking when holding one of these events. Thank you, sweetpea!!!
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I am truly blessed with many treasures. My family is my greatest treasure with hubs #1 on the list, of course. My kids rate right up there just after their father. But for treasured "things" it would have to be several things. First would have to be a spongeware bowl I purchased at Macy's many years ago. I love this bowl so much that I'd try to find it to carry out if a disaster occurred in my home. I've never been one to wear much jewelry and have given a lot of it to our kids because they'll inherit it one day anyway. But occasionally I'll get something from the women in my ebay group. I once admired a bracelet from Katie and she sent it to me. I have an exquisite charm from Sharon - a teeny tiny hand painted roses charm. A teacup hand painted ornament from Rhea is very special to me as they hang on my chandelier to remind me of her.


The next treasures are roses. I adore them and collect many different kinds. I've been given ceramic roses. I've bought paper roses, ceramic roses, silk roses and a rubbery kind of rose that looks exactly like the real thing! I've also made clay roses. Take a look at some today.

Katie's bracelet and a bird nest with roses that I've tried my hand at painting.

Little jar lids I've painted on.

Spongeware bowl I cherish.

My very first hand painted roses. Pretty sad but I love them as they are my first.

A coffee filter rose I made. These are labor intensive and will make more some day.

Another bird nest I painted for sale but no one bought it. Their loss! I like it!!!

Some mulberry tree roses I bought and will craft with them soon........

These are a kind of rubbery paper rose but you cannot tell them from the real thing. Simply gorgeous.

Silk ribbon ones I made for my lamp shade.

More silk roses that look and feel absolutely real - just like the real thing!

A satin rose I made for a curtain tie up.

Another ribbon rose made from a polka dot ribbon that I use as a tie up.

Same thing again, but used 2 different ribbon colors. Used as a tie up for a lace curtain.

Paper roses for a lamp shade.

Exquisite little hand painted charm given to me by a friend, Sharon.

Being Home #6

As I've said before I love puttering sometimes. Just relaxes me and there is no set thing to do. I simply go around the house and pick "something" that will just be a mindless activity. Recently I just wanted to make some pretty covers for some chair seats I bought this past summer for some wooden folding chairs.

These are the result of that day's activity

I decided to organize my sewing supplies. First, I'll take a magnet to the carpet to seek all the ones I've dropped and haven't found yet by stepping on them. Trust me, this absolutely happens. I don't know how my feet haven't found them after lying around and since I wear only socks around the house, it's a miracle I haven't stepped on more than I actually have. Here you see my old pin cushion that I've had for 30 years or so. I have one even older than this one but I can't use it much because it's tearing apart and I've taped it to hold everything in it! Sentimental value....... I keep everything I need handy on the right of little blue desk.

Then I'll take all the needles on this newer pin cushion and thread them all so I can just pick up another needle and not have to stop to thread one. I know, I know, I'm OCD about this but it's the only way I can function properly. It just works for me. I have 2 little cardboard box drawers that I've had for probably 25 years and they're still holding up well. They sit right next to the sewing table to hold other miscellaneous sewing items.

Yes, I've tried newer sewing baskets but I keep getting rid of them and using this one I bought over 40 years ago. I just can't find anything I like better than this old plastic one. Is that pathetic or what?!

I go through the sewing box every once in a while and rethread all the bobbins, dust it out a bit and get them all ready so I don't have to stop and do it in the midst of sewing something. I hate interruptions!

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There is so much talk these days about bad customer service that I thought I'd share this story with all of you. It gives you hope!

Recently I started having a bit of a problem with my computer. In august it just wasn't working properly and as all women know, we may not know what is wrong with it, we just know it isn't functioning properly—i.e. the family car.

I put it in the shop and they couldn't find anything wrong with it at that time but the beginning of november it did the same thing. I took it back to the computer store on november 14th after backing up with my external hard drive. I also told them to back it up there before working on it. It kept having to be restarted several times during the day and I suspected "kernel panics" and sure enough it was. Now, this computer is 4 years old and had never ever really caused me any stress. So after much talking with the tech and calling the manufacturer I'm getting a new $2800.00 computer from them!! I'm so excited I could cry. Yes, that machine had been out of warranty for 3 years and they are paying for all the repair work being done on the old one and sending me the absolutely latest model with much more speed and memory and just the top of the line computer. Now THAT'S customer service, chicks! I've been a loyal customer of theirs for years and will never go anywhere else. I've never been kept waiting for long periods of time and they are the most courteous and knowledgeable people with which I've ever had the pleasure of discussing the issue. Just extraordinary customer service.

My new keyboard of only 2 months sits lonely waiting for the new computer. I'll now have 2 keyboards as the new one comes with a keyboard. I've missed it greatly but I have 5 computers and 3 laptops, which I've been on for almost 3 weeks and it's driving me crazy to not have my huge monitor but I'll be fine by the end of next week. I love my computers, chicks!! I'd rather read a computer book than just about anything other than a mystery. ;-)