A Beach Story

Soon, within the next day or so, I'm going to show you some of the couture items I've been looking at on the internet. I've gathered about 320 photos of gorgeous couture from all over the net. I had been posting about 18 photos on each post and have cut back to 15 each post recently which should start about the middle of July. (I was thinking it was too much for y'all and it might become boring for you.) As I've said before, I schedule them out for weeks at a time. I like to keep ahead of the game. ;-) And I've started posting every 2 days instead of almost every day or at my whimsey. It was just getting to be a hassle because of things that are happening in my life at this moment in time. (Okay, I'm having surgery the middle of July and didn't want to say anything until it was over. But as you'll read in a post for July 10th, you'll understand why. I'll be fine, no cause for concern.)

Anyway, I'm going to post the couture blog posts in between. After viewing them and salivating, I thought it was kind of mean to not show them to all of you AND I just was lazy in not wanting to take the time to grab them, edit them in Photoshop, resize them pixel wise and them upload them to Photobucket and then make a blog post for them. That takes a LOT of time. I am thinking that I'll just post them with no stories or comments, just the photos, to save myself time. However, I've been known to change my mind. In other words, I can't shut up! While I am a very good listener, I'm a very good talker also. But, trust me, you will not want to miss seeing these gorgeous dresses and gowns. They are beyond belief. You'll see. I'll need a few days just to get them ready to post on my blog. You will absolutely not be disappointed. If you are, your money will be refunded. Cheerfully! :-)
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As I mentioned earlier in this post (I think), I'm not fond of the ocean. Here is the story.

One year when we were in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, hubs and I got tired of the pools at the hotel and decided to hit the beach and ocean. There were many people on the beach that day. He's brave and fearless of the ocean so he went in first on the small alcove of beach. I tiptoed in later. We went out to about my chest or neck area and when I had my back to the ocean, a huge wave came in and knocked me off my feet and tossed me around quite a bit. I truly couldn't tell which way was up. When people talk about this now I know exactly what they mean. I looked for light but couldn't see any. Finally, my face hit bottom sand and I knew then which way to go up to the surface. It scared me like nothing ever had before. You are truly disoriented as to direction. Don't think it can't happen to you because that's what I thought. I poo-pooed people that said that.

He helped me to the beach and many people were standing there to help in any way they could. I had wretched my back a bit and was tender for a while. He led me to the outdoor shower and I had so much sand in my bathing suit that I couldn't get it out even after we went home. In fact, I had sand coming out of you-know-where for weeks after that. Yep, it got into every crevice it could. This is not an exaggeration!

This is the hotel we stayed at there.

So I have a very healthy appreciation for the ocean now. I stay away from it as much as possible. ;-)
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This reminds me of Greece with the pretty white walls, sparkling water and abundance of flowers.

Somewhere in France or Spain probably, but I truly don’t know. Just from the stone walls, tiled roof and the shuttered windows, that would be my guess.

An elegant and inexpensive way to creative a bit of relief from the hot sun. Beautiful surroundings made cozy and private.

That curved wall gives the home a lot of character. Exquisitely private setting.

A small kitchen cabinet but arranged to add cuteness even without a lot of space. Having no doors just adds to a lovely display.

A tiny hideaway.

This homeowner/apartment dweller made use of a very tiny space to grow her herbs and have a breezy perch to sit.

If it’s pink it’s got my attention. Love the pink beadboard wall. The whole area reminds me of candy.

Another idea for old buckets and hanging tea lights.

Gift for a friend, perhaps?

Lucky homeowner who snagged this vintage beauty.

Going on vacation. ;-)

A beautiful pathway down to a beach.

Cute.

A back porch made happy!

Another quaint cottage.

Now this brings back memories of my grandmother’s house. We had an old glider like this when I visited her while growing up.

I’m betting Greece with the white-washed stone wall, bougainvillea, tiled roof and gorgeous blue sea.

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Linking up with WOW today.

An Ice Cream Story and Peaceful Shelters

About 15 years ago, a new giant grocery store came to the town we lived next to before moving here. It was one of the biggest grocery stores I'd ever seen and cannot for the life of me remember its name now, but I think it was a store out of Oregon or Washington or maybe the mid-west somewhere, but not known here in Idaho at all. Anyway, it had full service in it: regular foodstuffs, organic food, coffee bar with exotic coffees, a small place to buy and eat fresh sandwiches, a pizza place in it, a deli, huge vegetable/fruit selections, bulk food items and an ice cream parlor. It was the ice cream parlor that fascinated me. :-)

They made the ice cream right there in that little section. It was so cute with pink and white canopies surrounding it and the requisite pink and white chairs. So one day I asked if they'd make me a special ice cream. I'd buy it all, of course, if they could. The lady there said she'd give it a try and seemed happy to do it. I wanted piña colada ice cream and told her it was coconut and pineapple in an ice cream mixture. I left the basics to her but told her what I wanted in it. I love pineapple and coconut! Love it.

So she agreed and I gave her a couple of days and went back to the store. I asked her about it and she went into the back and brought it out. I sampled it as she was telling me, "I also put in banana for you." I hate bananas! Right then I knew I wasn't going to like it. Now, I was very specific in how I wanted it and I was willing to pay for the whole bucket/gallon or whatever it took, plus as a customer requesting something and willing to pay whatever price they wanted, I assumed she would have met my requirements as to ingredients. I was so disappointed. But it taught me a lesson: always be as specific as you can. I usually am to this day but I sometimes fail. This happens frequently with the hubs. I won't go into that because this story is about a disappointing ice cream mostly.

The store folded after a short while—perhaps two years at the most, if I'm remembering correctly, and it became a Home Depot. I always wondered why such a huge store came to a relatively small demographic area of Idaho and Oregon.

So, recently, we bought a small Cuisinart ice cream maker and made our first batch of just plain old vanilla, just to get a feel for the appliance. It came out fantastic. I'll now work on doing strawberry perhaps before I work my way up to pineapple/coconut piña colada. ;-)
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A place to dream.

Smell the roses or tulips in this case.

Pretty and neat bathroom organization. Is there any person alive who has only this much in their bathroom storage? My stuff in both our bathrooms could fill a ROOM all my itself!

An old colander kept or purchased at a garage sale and relegated to a new lot in life.

One of my favorite things: laundry drying on a line.

A place of repose and reflecting…with a cool lemonade drink.

A truly attractive vignette with its pink peony.

Pink lemonade with a swish of lime and a rose petal making a grand performance.

Be still my heart. Drool!

I know. If you see one more bathroom you’re going to retch. Well, I have a few more later so hang on tight. ☺

A patio wished for by many of us.

A wardrobe of clothing wished for by many of us! Maybe that’s the laundry. Hmmm?

Large colorful patio with plenty of spots to cool down.

A collection of dishes displayed to perfection. ;-)

Another cute “cottage” any of us would like.

Or maybe this one is to your liking.

Buckets of beautiful fresh flowers in front of cabinets.

Wishing you lots of eye candy today!

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My Adventures in Painting Roses and Other Fluff!

I am one who can poke fun at myself and not worry. I have a pretty good sense of self-worth so I can do this. I rarely care much what other people think of me. In other words, I’m pretty confident of my abilities. No, I’m not prideful, just confident. I know what I can do and what I cannot do. And there is much I cannot do. Trust me!

Anyway, today I’m going to tell you my adventures in trying to paint, in particular—roses. Please don’t laugh; it’s not funny that I am a total flop at painting.

I saw this image on the internet and it brought back memories of my pathetic attempt at trying to learn rose painting. While this painting doesn’t show frustration, which I felt, it shows the beginning of a beautiful painting. Mine never did. Sigh.

This is about as good as I ever got. You’d think I’d be embarrassed to show it, but nope, I’m proud of how far I had come before I decided I’d never be a rose painter.

Then I thought about painting bird nests. I wasn’t much better at that. However, these two paintings hang on my front porch. They may not be sellable but I sure as heck tried and I’m proud that I did.

Okay, here’s the story on this one.

I bought two folding wooden chairs for our patio out back and painted these roses on the back. One of the chairs broke and I wasn’t about to let my “art” go to waste as these roses were rather pretty. So I took the back piece off the chair to salvage the roses and they now hang in my laundry room.

This rose turned out pretty well so I made some decals out of them. My granddaughter wanted some to put on her place cards for her wedding dinner several years ago and we did. She loves me much you understand, so I think she was just being kind to me, but they were used and for that alone, I’m eternally grateful to her. Caroline is the other thing for which I’m grateful to her. ;-) And if you look at the URL at the top of your screen if you’re reading my blog, you’ll see I made it my avatar also. Pretty unique, huh?

Now, here you can see I’m truly NOT an artist by this little caricature I drew of me. It’s my place-holder. What is a place-holder you ask? Well, I work with templates. When I make one for a person to use, I color code them for text and photos. In other words, when they see red they put their text in there. When they see blue, they put the photos in that space where the html is. Makes it much easier for them when using the template. So my place holder is this little caricature of me. If that pops up, they know they need to change it to the photo they want instead of my photo. This is what I see all the time when I’m creating a blog post. If I see that little caricature, I know I need to change it to another photo. But this is in here to show you my creative endeavor. Stop laughing!

This is another shade of pink I really like. More of an orchid color, but beautiful.

Another sweet thatched cottage in the UK somewhere. I believe they are allowed in certain places in the U.S. as I’ve seen them, but I doubt many places would allow them. In Ireland, one of the B&Bs we stayed in didn’t allow me to use my blow dryer. You should have seen me. I got under the electric blanket and just started running my fingers vigorously through my hair until it dried. Turned out pretty dang good though!

Another stunning lamp for you. This is one I would like to copy on one of my lampshades, but I’m not sure I’ll do it any time soon.

Some really pretty lampshades here.

Love the feather trim around this one. Elegant. I would definitely buy this lamp.

Yes, these are the colors of my “Dream” house. While it’s not winter yet, I thought you’d like to see this gorgeous home now. Ooooooh, huge sigh.

Sweet little cart. I really like how they use it for decoration around their home.

Just eye candy to make you drool.

You can go and make some chocolate and pink macaroons now. ;-)

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