The Story of The Urns

A while back I mentioned the urns that sit on my front porch and alluded to the story behind how I came to acquire them. Now, you probably think I forgot about that, didn't you? Come on, admit it, you did, didn't you?? Nuuuuuuu, just had other things to post and had to squeeze this one in, chickadees.

Several years ago I was on the County Board of Guardians for my county. We didn't have too many clients but we each took our share. I got a lady who we'll call Gertrude.

Gertrude was a sweet, feisty old lady who came from Europe. Her family lived on her land in a trailer home a distance behind her home. She resisted going into an assisted living home for a long time but it got to the point where there was no choice. (This is always a hard choice for the court appointed guardians also! Her daughter and son-in-law didn't want to do anything but live on the property -rent free! - and wait for her to........well, you get the idea.) We put her in it for her own safety, but let me say now that after a little while you could not have gotten her out of that assisted living home. She loved it and I knew the owners as they were my neighbors and one of the small town's doctors. Lovely place; caring staff.

Anyway, we had to go through all her belongs and do something with them and the house. Trust me, this isn't easy. (I'll never be a guardian for anyone again!) So we did. On a trip out to her country home I noticed those old concrete urns and inquired about them. They were just going to throw them out so I asked if I could have them or pay for them. I was told they weren't worth anything and to just take them.

So one afternoon I decided to go out and pick them up. Those things weigh a TON! I could barely lift them into the truck. There were 5 of them! (Also I have faux painted them since then giving them a "verdigris patina" of looking old.) It was a large country lot and I got out of the car in the front of the house and proceeded to load each one into the trunk of my car - all 5 of them. Going around to the back of the house to check on things, I saw the daughter's trailer and some dogs back there. I didn't realize there were DOGS back there. Well, they started barking and running toward me! You have never ever in your life seen a chick haul her buns outta someplace so fast as I did that day!!! I ran around to the front, slammed the trunk of the car, opened the car door and jumped in the driver's seat just in the nick of time!!!!!!! (One urn broke that day and 2 more broke through the years.) I thought I was going to have a heart attack or be an "afternoon snack" for sure. They acted vicious, let me tell you! Didn't know, but didn't take the chance. ;-)

I resigned quickly thereafter from the board figuring I probably wouldn't get a 2nd chance to out run hungry dogs. :-)

~*~

I'm really getting behind in awards so here's another one to me from thefarmchick. She always has some scrumptious recipe from her farm kitchen and she truly is a farmer's wife. She's also very cute! ;-) Thank you kindly, my sweet chick.
The Rules for the Smile Award are as follows:
1. The recipient must link back to the awards creator (It's right on the award) (And I apologize but I simply CANNOT read the creator of this award on the icon!)
2. You must post these rules if you receive the award.
3. You must choose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself.
4. You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award (see below.)
5. You must post the characteristics of a recipient.
6. You must create a post sharing your win with others.
7. You must thank your giver.
Characteristics for the Smile Award:1. Must display a cheerful attitude. (not necessarily at all times--we are all human).
2. Must love one another.
3. Must make mistakes.
4. Must learn from others.
5. Must be a positive contributor to blog world.
6. Must love life.
7. Must love kids.
***

So my recipients are:

1. Katie of rosebreezeboutique because Katie has just recently become a grandmother and is now experiencing the joys of that. She's a "spark" on the landscape of life.

2. Lorena of rosechicfriends because she absolutely adores kids.

3. Bertie of auntmayscottage because she is always in motion and is a tiny little whirlwind!

4. Alaura of cottagerose because she just sounds like she is always cheery and I love her name.....quite unusual. Very alluring! ;-) :-)

5. Joyce of justifiedjourney because she's Rachel's mother and any mother that could produce a child the caliber of Rachel is allll riiiiiight in my book! That is one awesome little 14 yr old chickadee! I'd love to adopt her as my granddaughter but Mandy might be a bit jealous since she is my only granddaughter among the 3 boys! Hah.....

Where Bloggers Create Sunday

Brenda at thebrendablog has invited us all to share our spot where we create. This is a scary thought! Hah.... But I'm game for anything as most of you know so here is my tiny spot of my own where I spend most of the day if I'm not sewing or crafting, which is another room but nonetheless scary. ;-)

I enter each day through this magical "portal" which has decal roses on the door. My view as I enter the door from the hallway. I have a wonderful window seat that is the front of my home and I can keep watch, but truthfully, I'm so busy usually that I'm not a person that keeps watch out of that window. ;-)

The view across from me as I type this. As you can see if you look closely, I "practice" different paint colors behind that door. Yeah, yeah, I'll get the room painted some time in the next couple of years. :-)

Proceeding to the left around the room this is a far view of the area where I do a lot of photoshoots. There are pictures on the wall of things chicks have painted and given me or I have purchased and there is even one picture of a bird nest I painted! I am not an artist but I give it a try to satisfy a need in me to be creative. I use the term "paint" verrrry loosely here. That's my computer screen on my desk in the near part. My computer is called Max. The green frog sitting on top of my Apple Cinema Display watches over me and goes with me in the car when we travel to keep an "eye" on Love Bunny's driving. I'm not the "back seat driver", Frog is!! This is entirely true; I'm not making it up. He sits on the dashboard until such time as I gently lift him up and stick his little bug-eyed green face into hubs' face and warns him to slow down that his "eye" is on him. His actual words are "I've got my EYEEEE on YUUUUU!"

Oooooops, sorry, that's Frog's back side. Now he's embarrassed......sigh...... But that's the front of my romantic cottage style desk. It's quite big and heeeeeavvvvyy. Wooooooeeeee, can't move it around very much.

View here is looking directly at me and what is behind me - bulletin boards, "fluff" and shelves with little cottage houses I collect. That's my iSight webcam sitting on top of my monitor.

Going further left around the room that's a closet. Duh!!!!!! I keep those doors closed always for a reason. I can't stand viewing its innards!

A little bookshelf that stores personal items and my "computer" books. I'm a techie and love computers. The clock was given to us on our 40th anniversary by my son.

Inside the closet. Lower half. Packing and postal supplies. Storage boxes with ephemera, bank statements and such items in them. There is rarely anything in my home that isn't useful or beautiful and pleasing to the eye, including storage boxes.

The very top of that closet with our old phones (Ya never know when a phone will disappear in this house; I lost one in here and never have yet found it! Thus we keep them for a little while.) An extra monitor also. I wanted to donate it to DI but hubs says he can use it in the office so it'll go there soon. If my monitor ever goes out I'm toast, I tell ya! :-(

My wireless printer/scanner/fax/copier. The plain printer cart underneath is covered with a cover I made because it's one of those cheap carts and hides all the papers I use underneath.

Back of the chair I'm in most of the time doing computer stuff. I found a gorgeous chair cover for it and just love it. That's my monitor, keyboard, and other essentials.

Front view of chair cover. Love Bunny made me a plywood mat because the plastic ones are always cracking on this carpet. He painted it bright candy apple red because that was the only can of paint he had enough of. You can barely see Max, my computer, peeking his head through to the left of the desk. He's such a showoff!!! Hah....

Full fiew of that lovely chair cover.

Now, this might not look like much to you but the blue dress is one of mine when I was a baby over 60 some years ago. The white one is one of my doll dresses. The Hawaiian outfit was one I got when I lived in Hawaii in the middle 1940s. It was for a mardi gras that they were having when we first arrived there to live for 2 years. Still fits, too!!!! Laughing uproariously!!!! Gotcha, huh?!!?!

Closeup of my little houses I've collected from all over and from when we were in Ireland.

Close up of what's behind me at this very moment.

My personal files and yes, they are pink and lavender. Just about everything in this house is colored, even my stapler and my staples are blue, red and green. I'm not kidddddding............

My window seat with the books I'm trying to get rid of and sell on my selling blog. I'm going to put them all at half the price on there now so you might want to look. It'll take me a while to do this but it's going to be the price as soon as I can do it. The window seat pad was made by me. It was my first attempt so I used inexpensive fabric but since I'LL NEVER EVER DO IT AGAIN, it stays!!!!! It is pretty fabric though.

Photo shoot area up close with all the stuff I just emptied out of a vintage drawer that I was going to sell but changed my mind and am frou frou-ing it up to put in my family room as a shelf/shadow box or something like that. I'll show you when I've finished with it. This area changes frequently with my whims!! ;-) The postal scale on the left sits on a "dumpster diving" find from my neighbor who was moving. I have no clue how I'll fix it up yet so it's just plain now.

My desk close up with all my daily essentials. My JBL speakers called The Creature are on the left and looks like a ghost or something like that. They put out powerful music on my iTunes though.

The little thing on the lower right is my external hard drive backing up all my files without me even doing a thing. You chicks DO back up, don't you?!??!! You'd better!!

And that's it, my sweet little chickees. My favorite spot in the whole house, the place where I blog. I hope you've enjoyed the tour through my tiny office space. It's not very big but then we're retired seniors and don't want a big house to take care of. Moving from 5,000 s.f. to this 1800 s.f. has been a blessing for us. We are truly blessed!

Thank you so much for dropping by and letting you into my "private spot" and as you can see I'm very much an "everyday chick" in an "everyday space"! It's been a real pleasure hosting this tour for you. Donations are accepted at the small drop box by the door!!! ;-)
~*~

I've received several awards lately and it's very hard for me to keep up with them, but I do so appreciate you all who have given me awards. So I'll share one with you now.

This one is from Gina over at catnipinnprimitives. She's correct in that we don't share similar styles in our decorating but hers is cozy. Plus she's real close to me out here in the west. ;-)
I now have to name 7 blogs and why I love their blogs so much.

1. Rhea at sweetnshabbyroses. I truly believe her pictures are among the best I've ever seen on the blogs. Must be that Las Vegas sun! She and I share a love of many things and she knows exactly what I mean because we talk a LOT!

2. Shannon at Paint Mine Pink because, again, of the photos. Must be that AUSSIE sunshine! LOL And I love her items and the sweet way she has of giving her son a "tea party" when he comes home from school

3. Fitty at fittyspinkyrosecottage because she lives on the other side of the world from me but she lives in a romantic cottage in Asia. How much more special can it get to have someone with such a huge difference in geography live like we do here? She's a little doll!

4. Stephanie of angelicaccents because she and I "share" a true southern belle of a mom! How can this be, you ask??? Well, we've just adopted each other because Steph and I are "sisters" on a group together and we share each other's lives on a regular basis.

5. Ronda Ray Juniper of antiquecottagerose not just because she paints the most exquisite antique rose windows but mostly because she has a Mac computer! We Mac users have to stick together. But her painting is unbelievable!!

6. Kelly of rosevinecottage because she has a camper she has decorated in the shabby style and I could look at it all day. I truly WILL decorate our little popup camper the best way I can in emulating hers. Alas, though, I'll never come up to her standards. *Sigh*.............

7. Cami at camillefano because quite simply she touches my heart with her musings. Plus she got a painting for $2 and I lust for it!! She takes a great deal of time to raise her children when she could be out in the world making big buckarinos but she chose to stay home with the Princess and her brother. I admire that immensely. Cami reads "thinkers" books and I read trashy espionage, mystery and once in a while will pick a "thinker" book. Sometimes though the most "thinking" I can handle is Erma Bombeck and a blind date with Walter Brennan! Yeah, yeah, I read Robert Bork and David Horowitz, but I love seeing the bad guys get caught and burned!!! LOL ;-) My all time favorite book was Lonesome Dove though. I think that book is an American Classic!
~*~

I think you've had enough of me for one day though. Tata, my sweet chicks!!

Pink Saturday 8/23/08

Here it is again - Pink Saturday. Last week there were 80 participants and that's good. I, however, never did get around to visiting all of them and for that I'm very sorry. That's just a lot of surfing and I simply didn't have time with all the other things in life.

I have favorite bloggers I visit. Some just because they may need a lift that day. Some because I simply like reading what they write. Some because of the "eye candy" it provides and we ALLLLL know how I feel about "eye candy"! ;-) Some because I have a history with them and they make my day and make me happy - my ebay group. :-) Some because someone said, "Connie, you're gonna love this blogger so go see her." Well, I've whittled my favs down to about 120 now. Yep, that's just the ones I visit pretty regularly. I have a feeling I'm going to have to "whittle" some more. But I definitely try and visit as many as I can. I may not leave a comment if it doesn't particularly warrant a comment but most times I do.

Now, part of why I blog is to help all you chicks make your homes beautiful. That can involve many, many things - from having a loving home to having a comfortable home people like to visit for the "comfortableness" to simply making "all things beautiful" in the home. (Messy teenagers excepted here!) So let's look at how you can have gorgeous containers out of some "mundane" things.

Old pickle, olive and marshmallow creme jars are what I've done to make these lovely jars. Spray the lids, add roses to the tops if you desire, add some decoupage of your kitchen or whatever you desire (I always do roses.) - and this can even be pix of the munchkins(!) - and then start putting "stuff" in them. I've combined things in these jars and still have to add more stuff to a couple of them, but I'm putting nails, screws, picture holders, etc. in one of them. The other has just snippets of ribbon, fringe, just anything that adds color to it or that you can think of that you'd use everyday and want to be handy while "pizzazzing" up the place. So don't throw those jars out; put them to good use, chickees!

My little wall pocket where I put papers until I'm ready to file them.

My packing supplies! Yep, I will occasionally send out something in these pink envelopes. They sure do get noticed when someone pulls them out of the mailbox!

This is a faux rose and you've seen it many, many times over in my photos but it is the most realistic rose I've ever seen in silk. It has fooled just about everyone who has seen them in my home. It is truly exquisite and I was lucky enough to buy all that the store had of these. I have them all over the house. I've never seen them again anywhere. :-(

Since it is "pink saturday" I thought I'd show off this "pink" coupon I got. I've obliterated some of it so it can't be copied and taken advantage of, but not many "coupons" come in PINK! :-)

Steal of the day..........uhhhh, I mean my "best deal" of the day. These sheets were $7.99 each and the pillow cases were 2 for $3.99!!!!!!!! Squeeeeeeeal!! Now, I'm not needing sheets at the moment but I simply could NOT pass these up. They are high-end decorator sheets and pillow cases. PLEASE enlarge the pix to view the tone-on-tone loveliness of these beauties. Just so gorgeous and SOFT!

I have been waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning lately because I'm so jazzed with energy. (My ebay group is starting to worry! Hah) But I'm fine, just so much to do I need to start early. ;-) Anyway, I got up and started making a pillow for the popup trailer Love Bunny just got. (Yes, it will be frou frou-y and I'm working on it!) I have this quilt that I finally cut into and made this darling little pillow to take camping. The quilt is double sided so one side of the pillow is one pattern and the other side of the pillow is the other rose pattern. Came out quite cute I think. The one in the background is a bed pillow that just may get to travel to the campgrounds also. ;-)

A cute little card someone gave me last year. Pink mice chicks having a cup of tea.

I made this polka dot rose to put on this little letter holder about 5 years ago. It is on a paper holder for a wall next to a desk. It has specialty rose papers in it also. Now I've learned there is a blog called the Polka Dot Rose! Cute.

A sweet tag given to me last year for my birthday which is coming up next friday the 29th!! Yippeeeee...........

Okay, little chicks, get busy and make your home gorgeous - no matter what your style. I've given you enough "hints" for this day..............

Coming Soon!!

Coming soon to a blog near you!! Ask Rhea what this is all about, chickees.... ;-)

A Bit More Formal Country

Oooops, sorry, Vickie, it was Salado, Texas. I knew it ended in an "O"!!!
My friend, Vickie, just opened her website and has lots of lovely things to sell. She also has a little shop in Plano, Texas, if you're ever in that area. You'll have to go and ask her where it is though. I'm not familiar with that area.
~*~

Yes, this is definitely country. It reminds me of an english country home - while country, just a tad more formality to it. I truly love this style of decorating. My preference is for my living room to be a little more formal while still romantic with lots of roses around it. I love the "old world" charm of this style. And I've always loved the rich reds in living rooms.

The bedrooms are gorgeous; however, I prefer them light, airy and more romantic, but these are definitely stunning.

Sofas should always be comfortable before anything else. My back cushions are downy-like in their cushiness also. My back screams at anything else! I've had them restuffed to achieve that elegant luxuriousness. Love them. The one below looks very tempting.

We will always have lovers of blue. I love this color. I don't think I would want it in my living room to this extent though. However, yes, this is one gorgeous room with the antique looking chest and tables. Country in its finest form.

~*~

Last night at about 9:30 or 9:45 pm the doorbell rang. Now, hubs is still in Orlando so I didn't answer the door because it was so late AND I had forgotten to turn on the porch light. It rang twice but I just sat there kinda frozen. Know what I mean??? So anyway I told him about it this morning when we talked on the phone and he said I could have looked out the peephole. I said nuuuuuuuu, it was dark! He said you could probably have seen out there anyway and now I wouldn't know who it was. WHO IT WAS??!?!?! I wouldn't have opened it to anybody anyway that late! No self-respecting person would ring my doorbell that late at night with good intentions and since my aged body/legs prevents me from running faster than a "crook" I passed on that one. ;-)

So this afternoon I called our next door neighbor and asked if it was him. They're a young couple with 2 toddlers. He said it wasn't him but it was the police. I asked why the police would come so late. (About a week ago this young couple had all the windows broken out of a car they keep in the driveway instead of putting it in the garage. It is NOW put into the garage at night.) Anyway, the plainclothes officers came around late to ask questions. Kinda weird to me, neighbor too because he was bathing the 2 toddlers to put to bed. But it is what it is. Apparently this happened to about 40 cars that night but only his in our neighborhood. Sad that kids (probably) have to resort to this sort of vandalism to get their kicks. Just makes me sad that I can't even feel safe in my own home or neighborhood anymore. And I live in one of the least crime ridden states and in a nice neighborhood.

So hubs gets home tomorrow and said that the Sunshine State lost its reputation this week. He didn't see the sun once while in Florida and it rained every single day. Next year the convention will be in Phoenix. Okay, Arizona, get ready for rain!!!!!! :-)