Plum Crazy

There is something that alot of people don't know about me. It's that I have a little bid of a wild side that comes out every now and then. Now, your definition of wild and my definition of wild could possibly be two entirely different things. I don't drink and party or get wild in that way. What I do is every now and then I like to listen to music, really loudly, especially when driving. This morning I drove Eddie's truck because he's taking my car to get the oil changed. There is something about driving a truck that just makes me feel different somehow. I don't know what it is. I can't put my finger on it. I love several things about his truck, but one in particular is that it has a CD player. I know that most cars and trucks these days have one that came as standard equipment, and that's really nothing new, but my car doesn't have one. Anyway, this morning when I got in the truck to drive to work, I put in my favorite Eric Clapton CD, put on my Plum Crazy hat, turned the volume up really loud, and drove in. Ok, that's about as wild as I get. But, it's fun, and I love to drive a cool vehicle and listen to music.

I have a secret desire to get a fun car, maybe a red convertible, put the top down and drive down the road, hair flying in the wind listening to some music that I love. Maybe "Born to Be Wild?" I don't know, something like that. It makes me feel free somehow. And rebellious. Yeah, that's it. Rebellious.

Aprons, Goblets, and Fresh Vegetables

I wanted to post pictures of some more aprons that I've made in the last couple of weeks. I seem to be addicted to these. They are so easy and so much fun to make. I love the fabrics and the coordinating rick rack.



One day this weekend I was sorting through some stuff in our shed and I found a box that had some drinking goblets in it that I had painted a couple of years ago. Joy! I knew I had these somewhere, but I couldn't remember where I had put them. I discovered that I have 6 of them, so I made room for them in the kitchen and now these will be well used from now on. I guess we must have been doing some cleaning at some point and they got boxed up and put into the shed. I've posted a picture of one of them. It is not a really good picture, but I hope you can see it. I used the Donna Dewberry method of painting on glass to make these. It's really easy. If I can do it, anybody can do it.


And, finally, we just had our first meal (or "mess" as we call it in the South) of Silver Queen Corn this past week. It was so pretty after I had shucked and cleaned it that I just had to take a picture. I had been craving fresh vegetables for a few weeks and this just hit the spot.

Evening Shadow

One night this week right before dark, I noticed the evening sun shining through my kitchen curtains and reflecting the design back onto my kitchen cabinets. I grabbed my digital camera and took several quick shots and this was the best one. I thought it was kind of cool looking.

Aprons

I'm not feeling well this evening. Could be something I ate, but it's some kind of stomach issue. Anyway, I did want to show you what I've been working on this weekend.

Lately, I've become nolstalgic watching old movies and old TV shows. I love the fashions and styles from the 1940's, 50's and 60's. I remember when women used to wear aprons. I don't think too many of them do anymore. I know my grandmother used to and I've seen aprons on women in ads from that era and also on the old favorite TV shows like Donna Reed, Father Knows Best, and Leave it to Beaver. Also, Andy Griffith. Aunt Bea always wore an apron when she was at home doing her housework and cooking.


Maybe it's the times now, being so different from back then. Back then alot of women did not work outside the home. But, they did work at home, and I think alot of them wore aprons. I actually briefly wore aprons back in the 80's. Recently I've been seeing a few pictures and websites where women have sewn aprons for sale or just for their own use. I've never tried to make one before, but I thought that even with my limited sewing skills, surely I can manage to crank one out. So, I found a pattern that I really like and this weekend I tried it. It was so much fun, in fact, that I decided to make two. Now, I'm working on a third one. And I may make more depending on how it goes and whether or not I get tired of this project. Eddie says I'm on a new kick. We'll he's right. I'm on this kick until I get tired of it and then I'll go to another "kick".

Keeping Up Appearances Outtakes (or bloopers)

Keeping Up Appearances is my favorite British comedy. I found a funny video on Youtube of the bloopers.

Super Freak

I don't know why, but I really like this commercial. It reminds me of myself when I'm listening to a song and singing it horribly offkey.

Yellow Box Flip Flops

This past weekend Eddie and I went to Spring Creek Retreat. It was a wonderful weekend with beautiful weather and since we've been getting lots of rain lately, the creek was up and sounding divine. While we were there, one of my friends from high school came and stayed a couple of days. She was wearing some of the cutest flip flops I've ever seen. I asked her about them and she said they were Yellow Box and that she got them at Belk. She said she loves them and has about 9 pair of them. Well, you know that the first thing I did after work yesterday was go to Belk. They're having a sale and all of my size was gone, except for one pair. It was the ones below. I bought them and I'm wearing them today and I love, love, love them. They are very comfortable and stylish looking. Last night I painted my toenails and I'm loving it.


There is another pair that I want, but they were out of it in my size. The sales associate said that they would be getting some more, hopefully this week, so she took my name and number and said she would call me when they come in. The next pair I want to buy are the ones below. By the way, the style of both of these sandals is called Dawn, and the color of the top ones are just Brown (I think) and the ones below are the Jellybean color. There are so many colors of these that it's overwhelming. I want them all, but of course that's not possible. Although, I can see myself getting about 3 pair of them before all is said and done.


I mentioned painting my toenails and buying these flip flops. I really did that for myself to lift my spirits. I've been having those intermittent heart palpitations or heart flutters that are associated with atrial fibrillation. It's not full blown AF, but I'm sure these are probably related, although my doctor hasn't said so. He said they are just extra heartbeats. He doesn't see to be overly concerned about them. He gave me a different bp medication which is supposed to lower my bp and help with the flutters too. It's really weird because I just went 2 weeks before we went to Spring Creek with hardly a flutter, and the second day we were there, I started having them more often and have been ever since. I'm trying to figure out what changed while I was at Spring Creek, but it seems there is really no rhyme or reason for when they happen. It's obviously something that a person can live with, but it's just so unnerving and really bums me out and makes me depressed. I've always thought of myself as an active person. Before all this happened, I was really thinking about trying to get myself back in good physical shape so that I could dance either ballroom dancing or just go to Jazzercise to get my dancing fix or even belly dancing just because I love dance so much. Now, I'm afraid to walk very far at a time for fear of having another AF episode or more heart palpitations. It really makes me depressed. I've been doing some research and have learned that there are procedures that can be done to cure this. Right now my doctor doesn't feel I'm ready for that. I'm just going to keep an eye on it and see how things go. I'm hoping that with losing excess weight, that I can get my bp down and help this condition. Three doctors have told me that losing weight would help, so that's my main focus right now. I really think they will only do the surgery as a last resort if these other things don't help. In the meantime, I just feel so limited in what I can physically do anymore, even though the doctors have all said I can walk or do whatever I want to do. I don't know why I feel so afraid to do things. One doctor even told me that he has patients who are in AF all the time and that they are on Coumadin. I really don't want to go on Coumadin if I can help it.

Anyway, enough of the depressing stuff. I was feeling really down yesterday when I went to look for these flip flops and I felt really good when I found a pair in my size. This morning I slipped my newly painted toenails in my new sandals and that gave me a lift that I really needed.

Just My Style

Lately I've been really nostalgic, thinking about my youth and high school and all the songs I used to listen to back then. One of my favorite groups when I was in junior high school was Gary Lewis and The Playboys. I recently bought a CD on Amazon and I listening to part of it on the way to work this morning. This is one of my favorite songs. There are so many of their songs that was my favorite, it's hard to choose just one.

Do you see the resemblance? He's Jerry Lewis's son.

Spring Fever

I decided to delete the 43 things test that I had posted here earlier because, for some reason, it was shifting all my information on the right side of my blog down to the bottom of the blog. I'm still not knowledgeable enough to know how to fix things like that, so I decided the easiest thing was to delete that particular post.

I do appreciate the comments on that post. I always read comments that people have made.

I haven't been doing much of anything crafty lately like knitting or anything like that. I think I have Spring Fever. Over the weekend we watched a couple of movies on Lifetime. One was called Love in Another Town made from the book by Barbara Taylor Bradford by the same title. The other movie was Perfect Romance. As far as I know it's not based on a book, just a Lifetime movie. They were both really good movies. Eddie and I watched them together. He's pretty good about watching "chick flicks" with me. It was good to spend the day together watching movies.

Here are a couple of Youtube trailers from the movies.

Just For Fun

Photo Fun

Here's the real thing.

Measuring Spoons

Today I discovered some whimsical, fun measuring spoons made by Ganz. I would love to have a set of these, but they are expensive and it's just not in my budget right now. I can look, though. Nothing wrong with "window shopping."

If you go to Google and do an image search for "Ganz measuring spoons" you will get lots of pictures. Here are a few.

Adriana Trigiani

I am so excited! Adriana Trigiani is one of my favorite authors. Yesterday I got a wonderful surprise in the mail. Her assistant sent me 2 of Adriani's books. One is her current one called Very Valentine and the other one is the cookbook that Adriana wrote about her family and has all kinds of recipes in it. Apparently, her assistant made a mistake and instead of sending me a DVD where Adriana talks about all of her books, she inadvertently sent me the two books instead. I emailed her and made sure she knew about the error. She said it was my lucky day and to keep the books or give them away or whatever I wanted to do with them. I've decided I'm going to donate them to the library where I work.

So, as a small token of my appreciation, I have decided that I'm going to send both Adriani and her assistant one each of my handmade knit scarves. I'll post pictures of the scarves in a later post.

All Cat Owners Should Watch This

A friend sent this link to me for a video that all cat owners should watch. This is exactly the way my cat, Heckle, would love to wake me up every morning if I would let him. This just cracks me up.

Daisy Cookies

I went to the bakery again yesterday and I posted a picture of the cookies I bought. I can't seem to resist these cookies. I don't know if it's the taste, the appearance or what. I have even tried my hand at decorating cookies and that came out ok, but not great, and the last batch of cookies I made I underbaked, so they tasted doughy and were not good at all. They were kind of pretty, though, and I had a great time cutting them out and decorating them. I just have to get the baking time down next time.


I've been knitting a vest pattern that I got from Patternworks. The pattern seems really easy so far. Just stockinette stitch mostly. I'm working on the back right now and it's really easy. Just 4 rows of garter stitch and then you start the stockinette stitch until it's as long as the pattern says or as long as you want it.

While making that, I took a short detour and made some House Helper cloths using this pattern. I forgot to make a picture of the dishcloths that I made, but I will take one this weekend and post it.

Valentine's Day

I had a wonderful Valentine's Day on Saturday. Eddie gave me a beautiful necklace and earring set with a Valentine card that moved me to tears, and one of our friends gave me a bud vase with 4 roses. It's so pretty.


I also made some Valentine cookies and decorated them. That was fun, but the cookies didn't taste very good. I think I underbaked them. Oh well, I still had fun and at least they were pretty, even if they didn't taste all that great.


The other thing I've been working on was inspired by a wonderful new blog that I've recently discovered. It's Warm Pie, Happy Home. If you get a chance, hop on over there and read some of her posts and look at all of her wonderful pictures. I love her farmhouse style, so I decided to make a plaque to hang in my kitchen that sort of is my version of a good old fashion, country kitchen.

Pussy Willow

I have become enamored of the Pussy Willow plant. I have heard of it before, but in all my 55 years I don't remember ever seeing it before this morning. This morning one of my coworkers brought in a bunch of branches of it that she had pruned from her plant. I immediately fell in love with it. It's just so pretty and exotic looking and I love the little furry buds. They are just Heaven to touch. What a stress reliever. It's almost as good as petting my cat, Heckle.

I have put several branches in a vase with some silk roses that I have in my office as well as a couple of smaller branches that I can touch when I feel stressed. I'm also taking several branches home to put into a dried flower arrangement that I have. In my kitchen I have the ceramic bottom of my grandmother's old butter churn that I put some Eucalyptus in. I want to add some of the Pussy Willow branches to it. I'm also going to try to root several branches. I did some research this morning on the Internet and I understand that you can either put them in water or moist soil. I think it's better to put them in soil, that way I can keep them inside until spring and them plant them outside.

Pussy Willow
(Yin liu, Salix sp.)
Since the Chinese like numerous blossoms on a branch, the many buds of the willow
make it a favorite flower for Chinese New Year. The fluffy white blossoms of the
pussy willow resemble silk, and they soon give forth young shoots the color of green jade. Chinese enjoy such signs of growth, which represent the coming of prosperity.

Cookies, Pajamas, and Soap

I just thought I would share a few pictures with you. The first one is of some Valentine cookies that I bought at a local bakery. I have a great sugar cookie recipe from my cousin, so I think I'm going to use it and try to make some of these pretty cookies.


The second picture is just one I took on a whim one evening. I really like my kitty cat pajamas, so I thought I would snap a picture.


The last picture is of some handmade soap that a coworker gave us for Christmas. The white soaps are some I made.

A Long Time

I know it's been so long since I've posted. It seems that we really scaled down our Christmas decorating this year. I really didn't feel like doing much after being in the hospital in September. I've been slowly regaining my strength, but never getting too confident in case I have another episode of AT.

Anyway, even though we didn't decorate this year, I was looking at my decorations from 2007 and I just had to share the photos. We went all out that year because my brother came to visit us for several days over the holidays. I had a good friend come and decorate my fireplace mantle and he did an excellent job.











I've recently discovered a wonderful blog Warm Pie, Happy Home. I love her simple, clean farmhouse style. I want to go through some things, clean out some things and just generally freshen up my house with this look. I love milk glass and I don't really have any. I have several white bud vases and other things, but I love the clean look of white.


I have several farmhouse projects in mind and when I get them organized I'll post some more pictures here. I hope you enjoyed my Christmas decorations from 2007.

Animusic

I recently discovered the most awesome thing I've ever seen. On my local PBS station one night they were doing a feature on Animusic. I just think it's cool. It's just downright hypnotic and relaxing to watch. I've included a video below of one of my favorites.

Animusic

The Homecoming

There are several Christmas movies I've been wanting to watch this year. It seems that I haven't had much time, but I'm going to make time. This will be my last week at work until January 5. Our school closes down for about 6 days and I have taken some extra time so I can get about 2 weeks over the Christmas holiday. Anyway, last night Eddie was gone to a meeting and I watched the Walton's movie The Homecoming. It's one of my favorite movies. I hope you get a chance to watch it too. Watch the movie trailer below.

The Homecoming