Of all the places.........

Today my husband and I were taking one customary drives to pick up cars (we have a small used car dealership) that were purchased at auction and decided we were hungry. It was just a bit past 1 in the afternoon and we hadn't had lunch yet.  We decided to get a sandwich at one of our favorite places and as it turned out a bunch of motorcycle gang type guys were also eating there. 
   Now, I don't have anything against bikers, as I have been known to ride bikes myself and had a Harley for awhile.  We still have an Indian. But it was the general type of biker that we didn't feel like enjoying our lunch with. Anyway, we decided we wanted a nice peaceful lunch and a wonderful park was nearby, so we took our sandwiches to go style and headed to the park.
   This is a huge park, and I will admit that I haven't spent alot of time there, but we were having a terrible time trying to locate a picnic table, and I don't keep a blanket in the trunk to spread on the ground for a picnic.  It seems that this huge park, which has a number of shelters, only has picnic table in shelters. All we wanted was a single table or quiet bench in a shady spot some where.  All of the shelters were taken up by family reunions.

 

I guess there aren't any, so we pulled into a parking lot that absolutely no one was using, pulled under a nice tree, had the windows down and started to enjoy our great sandwiches, when all of a sudden this old beat up pick up truck pulls in right in front of us, nose to nose with us! I mean, not 3 feet away! Out jumps this woman who is screaming and cussing into her cell phone at some guy ( you could tell by the conversation)  and carrying  on like there's nobody else around.  A teenage girl is in the car, with a total look of boredom, as I am sure she has been through this drama before, just biding her time, while Momma makes a complete horses behind ( I've never been one to use the usual term) of herself.  My husband says "I don't think she needs the phone. He could hear her without it".  She hangs up, picks up, and is at it again, hangs up, picks up.......Well you get the picture.  We actually found it to be quite an entertaining show. We finished our sandwiches and headed out  to finish our errand. As we were leaving I thanked my husband for the nice peaceful lunch, giggle.  His reply: a  screaming " You're #!*#ing  welcome!" LOL    

"Of all the places in all the world" come to mind, doesn't it?

Sneeky little creatures

When I went outside the other morning to water the plants, I found that some little critter had gotten to the rocker in the gazebo.

 

The critter sure did a number on the cushion.  Now, I am not really all that upset about it.  The fabric is really faded from what used to be a bright, cheery pink and green floral print.  It is very tired and I had planned on starting to look for something new to put on it.  It looked so bad that I couldn't stand it and I didn't want to take the time to go on the "great search", so I hit the scrap boxes and found something I felt would pass for the summer. Less than an hour later and voila!  New cushion!  Thank goodness I had extra foam on hand! 

 

 

 I am sure it, too, will fade by the end of the year, but then I can flip it over and get next summer out of it, assuming Critter doesn't take another go at it.

 

 

Less is More , Except at Christmas

Christmas time is the only time you can go all out and overboard with your decorating .More is more.

You can't have too many lights and ornaments on the tree. Three or four kinds of garland is not too much. If you cover the tree and can't see one bit of green, well, ok. Have at it!  Enjoy the explosion of glitz and glitter. It's the holidays!!!!!

Great Expectations

 

 

 I love to read, and I especially love Charles Dickens.   One of my favorite stories of all time is "Great Expectations" and all the imagery the story commands. Given the opportunity, I couldn't resist putting my own touch to the imagery by doing a piece in miniature



"Miss Havisham's house....dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred."

"....draped table with guilded looking glass,... a fine lady's dressing table... in an arm chair....sat the strangest lady I had ever seen."

"... dressed in rich materials-satins and lace, and silks all of white... everything which ought to be white  long ago, and had lost it's luster... the bride had withered like the dress and the flowers..."

Use a Handkerchief

As a small child, if one or my siblings or myself would get all snotty and congested we would hear Mom yell "use a handkerchief !", from the other side of the house, room or whatever, even before that sleeve could be thought of.  Now days it's a tissue and the days of always having a pretty hanky are gone, except for one of my dear friends.  She collects  pretty hankys from the past. Beautiful, colorful, sometimes white, sometimes lacy handkerchiefs.  She has so many stored in those wonderful drawers that scrapbookers use for their papers, that the stack is as high as I am tall. We put a few to use in her kitchen window.

Window big and small

 

 

 

 

Making draperies has been a big part of my life for a very long time.  Making miniature draperies is also something I really love to do.   Here are examples of one "real size" window treatment and some custom miniature treatments I have had the pleasure to do, as well as a rug and bed treatment.

I'm here again!

It's hard to believe it's been sooooo long since I last posted. Much has been going on. Moved my business location, twice. Added 2 new grandbabies to the family and a son-in-law, lost a huge amount of weight, grew a garden, redecorated a couple of rooms at home, not to mention for clients! And had the occasional chance to work on some miniatures. One project that I totally enjoyed doing was the restoration of a dollhouse that belonged to my daughter's friend as a child. She had given it to me years ago, since she knew how much I enjoyed them. Well it was fun, and restored for the specific purpose of returning it to her for her own little girl to play with. She was VERY pleasantly suprised. She said she had forgotten about the doll house and she was so happy to have it back.