It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!

I've been such a bad blogger.  I've been so busy, as I'm sure so many of us are right now.  I did want to post some pictures of what Christmas looks like at our house right now.

Animals of YouTube sing "Deck the Halls"

I made another round pillow this week to give to a very good friend for Christmas.  I hope she's not reading my blog, or else it won't be a surpise.  LOL  I made it in green and decided to embellish it this time with leaves, and I added a small pearl to the center of each flower.  I think it just adds something to the pillow.  I also added leaves to my pink pillow.  Now, I have to make some more of these pillows to keep for myself.  I just love them because the round shape is so unique and Victorian looking.

Last week our Christmas cactus at work started blooming.  I had been meaning to take my camera to work so I could get a picture of it and this morning I finally remembered to bring my camera.

Another Christmas Doily

After I made the first Christmas doily, I decided that I needed another one, so I made another one, but in a different pattern.  I've made this one before in another color.  I thought it would be pretty to put under a candle or something like that during the holidays.  I'm pleased with the way it came out.

I ran across this picture tonight of a supper we had back in the summer.  It just looked so pretty that I took a picture of it.  That night we had friend salmon patties with homemade tartar sauce, fresh sliced tomatoes, green beans, fresh fried squash and cornbread.  It was delicious!  I must be getting hungry again because I want to make this meal again.  I won't have the fresh tomatoes or the fresh squash, but I have some store bought squash in the frig, so maybe I will make this meal tomorrow.

Round Crochet Cushion

For the past couple of weeks I've been crocheting again.  I made the Christmas doily and then I made another Christmas doily (photo to come later), and now I've made a round crochet cushion.  I've been seeing these in blogland and I think they are so vintage looking.  This is my first one and I was trying to decide whether to put leaves on it or not.  I may still do that, but for now, this is what it looks like.

Christmas Doily

Lately, I haven't been much interested in doing anything crafty.  But, I saw this pretty doily in the current issue of Crochet World magazine and decided to try it.  I'm loving it.  It really came out pretty, but after I finished it I noticed some discolorations in the red thread I used.  And I'm REALLY aggravated about that.  It's not as obvious as it is in the photo, so I'm hoping no one will notice.  I don't have any idea how to get the discolorations out, so if anyone has any ideas, I'm open for any and all suggestions.

Art Featuring Women

The other day I talked about art featuring women and that my dad had taught me when I was small to draw a woman's body and face.  I actually just doodled around the came up with a face, but I already had the basic body.  There is nothing exciting about any of these, but I found some that I had drawn awhile back and thought I would post them.

You can see from these drawings that I was just doodling and basically having fun.  I do want to make more art, though.  I really like to draw the upper body best because then I don't have to worry about arms and legs and shoes.  So, I'll probably practice that.

Flower Ink Pens and Art Featuring Women

Lately, I've been doing some "Fall" cleaning and I haven't really been interested in doing anything crafty. I guess after seeing all the UFO's I have and the stuff I've bought to do something with and then never did anything with them, must have had an influence on that.  I do have a couple of new interests, though.

One is flower ink pens. That's ink pens that have a pretty silk flower on top. I just started seeing these in the last couple of months at different stores and workshops that I've been to.  It's a small thing, but it makes me happy to work my crossword puzzles, write in my journal, and do the writing I do at work with a pretty ink pen.  It's a good way to dress up those boring old black pens that you have at work and at home. A new Joann's opened up last week near where I live, and when I went for the first time they had a table set up for customers to sign up for prizes.  They were using these cute pens and I asked one of the sales associates about them.  She said they made them using silk flowers and floral tape. What you do is you go and buy some ink pens that have the removable top (not the kind that click), buy some inexpensive silk flowers, and some tape to attach the flower to the pen. I will say that I tried the floral tape and I didn't like it. It was too sticky and didn't seem like it would hold very well. I guess floral tape was suggested because it was green and would look like a flower stem. I had seen some made here at work using just black electrical tape and it looks fine. It does a much better job and it accomplished what I wanted so I decided to use that.  I also read that some folks used colored duct tape.  That would work too, I guess, if you can find colored duct tape.  I try to find supplies that are easy to find.  I hate having to order supplies online and pay shipping.  I want something that easy to find in the stores.  I made several of these pens for work and home.  If you decide to do this, I'll warn you, they don't take many supplies, they are a snap to make and are very addicting.

You need some silk flowers (Walmart or Dollar Store), floral tape or electrical tape (also Walmart) and some ink pens with the removable top (Walmart).

Here are the ones I made.  They look really pretty in a coffee cup when you are not using them.

The other thing that has recently rekindled my interest is art that depicts women.  When I was a little girl, my dad taught me how to draw a woman's body and head, etc.  Now that I'm an adult, I've used that to draw a few women in various dresses, gowns, etc.  I recently found an Etsy store that has some beautiful paintings of women on pillows, eyeglass cases, tote bags, and more.  I am so inspired by this artist.  The Etsy store is here.  There is also another Etsy store that my good friend, Linda has where she has her Girlfriend Art for sale.  I am very inspired by this artist as well.  Her Etsy store is here.  I want to take some ideas from both of these artists, plus my own experience and see if I can create some art featuring women.

My photography class ended a couple of weeks ago.  I'm glad I took it, but I was a little disappointed.  It was a condensed version of the class.  In other words, we combined a whole semester into about 4 weeks.  I was hoping that we would do more projects with maybe field trips and stuff like that, but all we did was bring in photos that we had made and looked at them and critiqued each other's work.  The class didn't really tell me how to use my camera to make better pictures.  I guess I was just hoping for more.  The good news is that my new Canon DSLR camera is working now and I love it.  You can see some of the photos I've taken with it if you go to my Photography blog here.  I am very inexperienced at this, but I have really enjoyed taking photos and plan on taking some more soon.  I hope to get some photos of the leaves turning in our area soon.

Biblioburro: The Donkey Library

My husband Eddie and I met while we were both working on the Bookmobile at our public library. We used to take the Bookmobile into all kinds of diverse areas of our city. It was very important to us to make sure that the children who were truly interested in these areas, were able to check books out. This video was of interest to us because of the way that they deliver the books to the children there. We had a nice, air conditioned bookmobile trailer that was about 36 feet in length. Very portable, although it took some preparation to get it moved and set up. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to transport books by donkey. This is an amazing thing, but I have to admit that I'm feeling a little sorry for the donkey.

Flower Picture

I am so excited! Now that my camera is finally working I went outside this morning and just took some random shots to check it out, make sure it was working correctly and to make sure that the focus is correct, etc. I took this picture of a little bitty flower that is in a planter on my back deck. Once I cropped it, I was amazed at the detail. I think I'm going to love this camera.

New Camera

After all the worrying about my camera, for some reason it started magically working today. Yay! I'm really happy about that and I hope it lasts. I don't know why is wasn't working before, but I'm pretty sure that it is my inexperience rather than anything being wrong with the camera. My first photography class is tomorrow and I'm really excited and looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to learning how to take better pictures, learning about composition and taking more artistic looking photos. I brought my camera to work today with the intention of taking it by a camera shop after work to see if they could tell me what was wrong, but after it started working, I took a few pictures around my office.

Peaches

This week Eddie found some really nice peaches on the mountain. Last night he canned them and they are so pretty in the jars. I love peaches. It's one of the few fruits I really like. I've never really been a fruit person. I just don't eat fruit, don't really like it all that well, plus given a choice between a fruit and another type of sweet, I will usually pick the sweet. And this should all be the other way around. I've gained some weight this summer. Not something I'm proud of and certainly something I need to work on. I'm sitting here right now feeling fat and bloated. I'm just sick of it, so I'm going to have to work on losing this extra weight. It's not good for me and makes me feel miserable. I just have to figure out a healthy way to do it that I can live with from now on. I think that's part of my problem. I haven't been able to find a way to do it that I can adopt as a lifestyle change. I'm afraid my diet needs a major overhaul. Trying to lose weight is really hard because someone is always telling you that you have to give up something that you love in order to lose weight and keep it off. And what's worse, if I feel like I have to give it up for good that just makes me want it even worse.

I've decided to take a photography class this semester at the community college where I work. Since I work there I can take it for free. I bought a Canon Rebel XS camera on eBay. It was a deluxe kit, brand new and it included the carrying case, camera body, 18-55 lens, picture card, I can't even remember everything that came with it. I'm really dumb right now because I have no clue how to focus. I couldn't get it to take photos in the auto mode, which should be the easiet thing to do with any camera. All you do is point and shoot. Not so with this one. I guess there are some settings or something mysterious that I need to learn. I hope I can figure this out. I hope my camera is not a lemon. Maybe it's me that's the lemon since I can't figure this out. I'll be sure to let you know how this goes.

By the way, the picture above was taken with my trusty FinePix camera that's just a regular point and shoot. If all else fails, I'll use it for my class, but it doesn't have as many options for shooting flowers and landscapes and stuff like that.

Costume Designer for PBS Film Dolley Madison

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

You can watch Dolley Madison online at this link.

Ponds Cold Cream

I've been reading an interesting book called Summer at Tiffany by Majorie Hart. I bought it awhile back because I thought it looked interesting. It really is interesting. It's about 2 girlfriends who go to New York for the summer and get jobs at Tiffany's. It's about their experiences and it talks about all the movie stars they saw come into Tiffany's. There was Judy Garland and Vincente Minelli when they got married and Marlene Dietrich. I'm sure there are more, but I'm only halfway through the book. I want to rush through it because I can't wait to read the next thing, but at the same time I want to take my time reading it because I don't want it to end. It's actually a true story written in a fiction format.

There is one thing in the book that got me started thinking about Pond's Cold Cream. There is a scene in the book where one of the girls was trying on an engagement ring and she says "I'm engaged!" like the glamorous model in the magazine ad: She's engaged, she's lovely, she uses Pond's. So then that got me to looking for the ad, which I found and then reading about Pond's Cold Cream.


That led me to finding this vintage video on Youtube about how to remove makeup with Ponds. I've never tried it, but I just might. My skin is oily, though, so I'm not sure I should use it, but I think there is a Pond's Cold Cream for oily skin called Pond's Refreshing Cream. Everyone has talked about their mothers and grandmothers using it all their lives and what soft, smooth skin they all had. I need soft smooth skin really badly. My skin is badly damaged with scars from childhood chicken pox and teenage acne. Plus, I have big pores. I might think about trying the Pond's and see what happens.

I'm Gonna Sit Right Down

I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and
Write Myself a Letter


I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe it came from you.
I'm gonna write words oh, so sweet
They're gonna knock me off of my feet,
A lot of kisses on the bottom,
I'll be glad I got 'em.

I'm gonna smile and say,
"I hope you're feeling better,"
And close with love, the way that you do.
I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe it came from you.

I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe that it came from you.
I'm gonna write words oh, so sweet, yeah!

Lotta kisses on the bottom,
I'll be glad I got 'em.
I'm gonna smile and say,
"I hope you're feeling better,"
And close with love, the way that you do.

I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe it came from you...


I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe it came,
Make believe that it came from you!

Painted Mailbox

I've been wanting to repaint our old mailbox for a long time. It had belonged to Eddie's uncle and when he moved to go to a nursing home, he gave it to us. It was really old and peeling paint. Eddie got some paint and painted it black and he asked me to paint some flowers on it. With all the hot, humid weather we've been having it's really hard to find a good time to do something like this without sweating to death. This morning was so cool and wonderful that I decided to go ahead and paint it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a quiet morning and all I could hear while I was painting was the sound of a rooster crowing in the distance. Music to my ears. The following pictures are the result:

Horsin' Around

I am very excited about a new project. Where I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee there is a carousel horse carving school just right up the street from where I live. It used to be closer to downtown Chattanooga and every time we would ride by there I would see those neat looking carved horses in the windows and think, "Gee, I would love to make one of those." I didn't realize they had moved and, to be honest, I had forgotten all about it. So, the other day I stumbled on their website again, and thought, I really want to try that. So, I called and talked to the instructor, who is a nice Christian man named Bud Ellis. I went by the school this week and he took me on a tour and showed me around, gave me an idea of the kind of horse and the size that I would be carving. He specializes in helping people like me who are wondering or doubtful if they can really do this thing. Apparently they can under his tutelage because he's taught lots of folks to carve a horse, people who have never held a chisel in their lives. Men and women both. Students at his school carved all the horses for the carousel that is at Coolidge Park in Chattanooga and also the endangered species animals that are on a carousel at the Chattanooga Zoo. So, I've decided that I'm going to try it. He told me that they are in the process of planning a carousel in Kingston, Tn and that they need volunteers to carve the horses for it. He said that he already has 6 volunteers to carve them, but they need 33 horses, what they call Jumpers. They are the ones that go up and down on the carousel. The best thing is all the wonderful experience, but also you pay your fee for one year of instruction and then once the carousel is built, you will be paid twice your money back. I don't care about the being paid back part, even though that's a wonderful benefit. But, I'm really excited about having something that I created on something as big as a carousel which will one day be very valuable and also something I feel I can leave to others for them to enjoy. I decided to put this on my bucket list. I think it's the very first thing I've put on it. Or my twenty wishes list or whatever you want to call it. I think about Twenty Wishes when I think of the book by the same title by Debbie Macomber.

I think I have decided which horse I want to carve. It's not the one below, but the one I want to carve is very similar to it.


I've also added a few more pictures of the horses that are on the carousel at Coolidge Park in Chattanoga, TN.

Pink Flamingo

Back in the spring I was at a store, I don't remember which one, and saw these cute pink flamingos. I think it was only $2 or $3. I thought it was cute and bought it. Eddie put it out for me today.


I remember when we used to make fun of the pink flamingos as being outdated a few years back. This was in about 1998. I guess they are coming back. I like them. I also have a pair of capris with the pink flamingos on them.


Someone said to me the other day that I was not afraid of color. I don't remember what I was wearing, but I must have had on several different colors. I was also carrying my bright pink purse.


No, I'm not afraid of color. The more color the better.

Memories and Hydrangeas

Tonight Eddie tilled a spot for us to plant some flowers. He had mentioned from time to time that he was using my dad's old garden tiller. I just never paid attention until tonight when Eddie was talking about how much better this tiller is than the new one he bought a few years back. I got to really looking at the tiller and I'll be doggoned if it's not the one that my daddy had me using when I used to help him till our garden when I was a little girl. Eddie said my daddy told him that this was the only tiller he had ever had. After looking at it I realized he was right. This really brings the memories flooding back. I can't remember the year he bought it, but he told Eddie he bought it back in the 60's at Western Auto. Gee, that's a long time ago.



And my hydrangeas are so pretty right now.

Moon River

I love the song Moon River. Here is Audrey Hepburn singing it in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Flowers

Eddie has been on a flower planting frenzy. I wanted to share some of the pictures that I took this afternoon. I have some more, but for some reason Blogger wouldn't load up the last few. So, here are some of them. I'll try to post some more tomorrow.

Audrey Hepburn

I've been thinking about Audrey Hepburn today. I love her movies and recently watched Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's on Turner Classic Movies. I have Breakfast at Tiffany's in my collection, but it was on and I just watched it anyway. I can never watch these movies too many times. I never get tired of them.

I went to Youtube and found this series of interviews with her son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer. He has also written a book that I would love to read titled Audrey Hepburn, an Elegant Spirit. Here are the links to the Youtube interviews:

Pillowcases

I wanted to share some pictures of what I've been working on lately. I've been making pillowcases. These are so easy and so much fun. What got me started was the American Patchwork and Quilting 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge. This web site has all the information and some patterns too. What I didn't like was the fact that the pillowcases have raw edges on the inside, so I found a Youtube video of how to make one with nice, finished edges on the inside.



For more detailed written instructions for how to do this, go to Robin Gallagher's website.

The only thing I did differently was to sew a decorative stitch along the edges of the small trim. I think that little extra touch adds a certain elegance to the pillowcase. I wanted to make some pillowcases to give to two of my nieces for Christmas. The first one is a cute flower and butterfly print.



The next one is a cute Tinkerbell print.


And the last two are from some fabric I found in the discount fabric bin at my Hobby Lobby. I'm thinking that I might keep these two for myself.



I also bought some pretty cowgirl and cowboy fabric. Those are going to be really cute too. Then I bought some more floral fabric to make some more. I'll post more pictures when I finish those. I think I'm hooked. For now, anyway, until my next obsession.