Author Archives: Dianne

About Dianne

Domestic goddess, wife, mom, gardener, paper and collage artist, geocacher, local traveler, cross stitcher, baker, crafter, Facebooker, blogger, decorator and photographer.

Mar16

Photo Hunt-Play

Posted on Friday, March 16, 2012 by Dianne

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Shirley Temple at Play-1935, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is a sweetly illustrated book about Shirley Temple from 1935. This wasn’t my mom’s book, but she was about 4 or 5 when this came out. She preferred grown-up paper dolls to baby dolls. This is amply named for the hunt!
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My family needs a lot of positive vibes sent our way as Brian lost his job today. It’s sad as he’s held it down for over 14 yrs old and it’s a week before his 55th birthday. He will try to figure out what he’d like to do, but of course he may have to take what he can get. All three of us would like to find employment now (with Sean it’s a better job).

Mar14

So be careful

Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 by Dianne

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I’m sure a lot of you have heard about the debates about using Pinterest and copyright issues. They ‘basically’ own the photos you put up. They can do with them as they please, even sell them. I get a bit nervous using other’s photos and make sure the original link to the blog or source is connected to the image. I’m not as worried about recipes. If a person has a blog, they should consider that their images may be used. I’m not one to water mark every single photo. I have all my photos on Flickr which makes them copyrighted-did you know? I use about 95% of my own images on this blog. I noticed some pals use a lot of people’s photos to explain a topic, etc. Just be careful…someone may get unhappy. I’ve been asked if my images could be used and most times I say yes. The one exception was an android or iPhone travel app. I think a little compensation would have been nice and I said no.

Mar12

When I’m 64-birthday greetings to JT

Posted on Monday, March 12, 2012 by Dianne

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Happy Birthday James Taylor! Wow, 64, it can’t be? But by his schedule, he never slows down! Glad to have been in his company 5 times over the years. Thanks for the music!

Mar12

Crafty weekend

Posted on Monday, March 12, 2012 by Dianne

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I signed up for some more Swap-bot swaps and pulled out my papers and things to work on 3 Artist trading cards for that. Then I decided to play around with some ideas and use a few items I purchased at Tinsel Trading Company up in New York. This is a sampling of what I did and I’ll show you many of them up close:

The daylight savings had us a bit off yesterday…a 11:15 am breakfast (let’s call it brunch) and then the other meals were more on time. We had delicious Trader Joe’s organic tomato soup and Kaukauna cheese on crackers for lunch. Best ever. Also had Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken, rice and sauteed spinach, and a Blue Moon beer. ; )

More later….

Mar10

Photo Hunt-Symbolic

Posted on Saturday, March 10, 2012 by Dianne

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Pilgrim Statue, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Oh, I have plenty of ‘symbolic’ statue photos!

This one, the Pilgrim statue was taking in Plymouth County, Massachusetts back in the fall of 1984. My fairly new hubby and I went on a driving trip to New England. Never been back, but want to! And it’s a film camera print-gasp!

My newest is of George Clymer who is down in Philadelphia near Independence Hall.

He signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution! This is a wee dark as it was dusky. We were about to take a ghost tour of Olde City Philadelphia which was neat!

Mar8

Took a little walk in the wind

Posted on Thursday, March 8, 2012 by Dianne

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Well I was up in air as to what to do today as it was a bit breezy, but warm. Longwood Gardens is having their orchid displays until the end of March, so I decided to go for walk and some photo taking. I renewed my membership for the year which went up $5, but they also give you two free tickets for your guests. It pays for itself after about four times.

Here are some of my favorite shots:

What you see when you enter the one end of the conservatory

A very tame squirrel. I had fun editing this for a friend

White columns of orchids

Begonias and Aechmea

Amazing Stargazer lilies

One of my favorite flowers-Blue Poppies

Hanging orchids and an archway

A trained Nectarine tree with blooms

Yellow butterfly bushes that smelled like exotic honey.

A moth-like orchid the Calathea

Take it from the Longwood gardeners-how to prune a rose bush-many only had one or two main stems!

Mother of Thousands plant

I’ve been taking Olive leaf capsules for my blood pressure (think it is helping-thanks Dr. Oz). Here is an Olive tree

There are more photos in Flickr-just click on a photo above.

Mar6

Ahola to the Philly Flower Show

Posted on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 by Dianne

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It was crowded beyond crowded at the Philadelphia Flower Show on Tuesday-must have been the bus crowd as the average age was 65+. We usually go on a Sunday and on a train and doing so we can usually get closer to the exhibits. My middle brother drove and took the long way in because of Sean’s GPS. It was nice to go with my brother as our relationship had been rocky for a while. When we got down to the city, we parked in Chinatown and Sean and I went into a restaurant to use their bathrooms. We said we’d be back and we did go back.
Sean and I decided to go to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch as it was going on to 1:30 as it was. Mom and her friend Jim went into the show and my brother went in another direction. That would be the only time we would see them all until we left at 5:30.

It was also crowded. We got premade tuna wraps and a soda and there was no place to sit down inside. We sat in a little park area and ate. There was this neat mosaic structure.

When we went back in the convention center (which was expanded) we looked up and saw empty tables on the next level. There was also a restaurant in the middle of the flower show. It was $18 for three courses. No one in our party ate there.

So we saw the cool ocean exhibit first and then the waterfall exhibit which was packed. It had music and an interesting light show. It was also hard to photograph.

The orchids were abundant at the show. These were at the base of the waterfall:

The surfboard table was rather unique:

I love these colors together. The butterflies were a nice addition

These were unique too-from the Vancouver, BC area

A hammock is required for Hawaii!

Hawaiian Anthuriums

It wouldn’t be the flower show without a Azalea or Daffodil display:

The Bonsai were very lovely:

A canoe garden:

This nursery is a few towns over from my mom. Not sure what the significant of the piled up stones is. It took up a lot of space and wasn’t colorful.

Here’s something for Pinterest for sure!

The gardens in this display were very lush:

Near the end, my photos got a bit blurry. I had the ISO set high and maybe near the competitor’s plants it was bright enough to have it lower.
And here’s the restaurant where we ate. Sean didn’t care for his meal as they added green peas to his old standby of Shrimp and Cashew nuts. He never liked peas. They said that the original thing he ordered, Baby shrimp and Macadamia nuts was seasonal. I think they didn’t have a jar of them maybe? The food was good.

I bought only a few things, “Jade” roses for $5, the real lei and a bouquet of dried flowers which I don’t have in a vase yet. Pretty!

I’ve got plans already for Brian’s birthday weekend down in Elkton, MD. in a few weeks!

Mar3

Photo Hunt Drop and Loud

Posted on Saturday, March 3, 2012 by Dianne

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Close up hummingbird fountain, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Catching up on a few hunts. I love how I caught the water drop(s) in action in this shot.

And a family tradition is to light up and smoke out the neighborhood on the 4th of July with noisy firecrackers. They whistle, pop and bang-so very loud!

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I heard back from the DNA testing place. They said the test is not for ancestry, that is a totally different test. My friend told me that DNA goes back 1,000 of years. Our ancestors all migrated from about 4 major continents if I’m not mistaken-Asia, Russia, Europe and Africa. My grandmom’s dad was probably born in Sweden or Denmark. That is very close to Russia, so I am sure the ancestors migrated and settled in Sweden. I was surprised to see Ireland as being second, but again-they could have started there and moved to England. I believe my maternal gr-grandmother’s heritage is Irish. I didn’t see a connection to South America, but there were a few from the Middle East and Africa-some small country and Eqypt. Sean said this peaks his interest in learning about ancestors and where they migrated. I think he was seeing maps in his head.

Mar1

Solemn Sunday in NYC

Posted on Thursday, March 1, 2012 by Dianne

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The last day we were in NYC, Sean left to go to his meeting before us. We then all met up at St. Patrick’s Cathedral where we went to mass like we did almost 5 years ago when we attended Karin’s wedding.

This was taken the night before:

It was a nice service and not as long as our church services here! We then decided to head over to Central Park and Strawberry Fields to see the Imagine plaque in memory of John Lennon, the Beatle who was killed across the street outside of his home, the Dakota building.

Brian on the left there, our biggest Beatles fan:

The Dakota:

What pretty sights here! I can just ‘imagine’ how pretty it is in the summertime. We’d like to see it all green and lush too. I believe Sean said it had over 800 acres here.

For it being a brisk day, there were still a lot of people milling around.
Our next ‘must see’ place was the new WTC Memorial which was in lower Manhattan. We had timed tickets for it. Sean paid for the almost $20 taxi ride as Central Park was on his ‘wish list’ of places to see, so that’s why we went. I am really glad we did though.
When we got to the memorial area, we were a bit confused as to where to go as they had fences with blue signs all around the area (lots of construction here). We went down one way, though the signs had arrows pointing the other. I saw other people walking the wrong way. We got in the line, which moved quickly, but they have a security check point where we had to put our coat and belongings through the x-ray machine! I believe our tickets were checked 3 times. With all the walking, etc. and no lunch, I has a bit light-headed going in the memorial area-so I was keeping my head up, believe me as it was hard to go in there. It was quite a place to see-such large flowing squares of waterfalls where the twin towers use to go. You start to read the names, but then you start seeing names like ‘Sean’ and you can’t read them anymore.

This is the museum under construction

I read that the remains of about half the victims will be placed somewhere in the museum as they couldn’t be identified.

I happen to look up Vanessa’s name and read a little bit about her. Her mom is a writer who said 3 days before Bin Laden was killed, an angel fell off her table and the wings ‘perfectly’ broke off the back of the piece. She feels her daughter earned her wings then.
We only stayed about 20 minutes or so. We stopped to hear an excellent guide say how the letters are chiseled out to make the names, so something is missing, like the people here. The falling water is like ocean tears. He stood near a tree that survived the attacks, it was being nursed back to health and had wires, etc. to train the branches. It may have been a sweet gum tree. I had no desire to have my picture taken here, though Sean did and his face told it all. We nodded to the police officers standing near the exit to pay our respects to their deceased brothers and sisters in uniform.
We found a little place to eat a block down from here, after we had gone through the gift shop. We bought pens, a wristband and a ‘gold’ sweet gumball tree leaf to symbolize the trees they will be planting in this area. Most of the money goes to the memorial. They had moving videos playing and items like a wallet from a victim with his lucky $2 in it as he asked his fiance to marry him, it being the second time for both.
The restaurant was near the Freedom Tower

I believe they said a floor a week goes up. I heard there is also a Subway Sandwich shop a floor or two below that follows the workers up so they have a place to grab lunch or a drink.
The restaurant was nice with Picasso like painting and the shine from the Freedom tower coming in through the window

I ‘check in’ at the different places we go to with the phone app ‘FourSquare’ and this restaurant had a link to another NY app and we got $20 off. Too bad they didn’t take any off the price of beverages. I tell the guys to get water, but they don’t listen. They made me peppermint tea as I was chilled to the bone.
So we walked up a few blocks-it was about 4:30 and not one taxi was stopping. When we thought we had one, the guy asked where we were going and we said 42nd and he shook his head. The young woman said we should have just climbed in as they aren’t allowed to refuse passengers. After 20 minutes or so, a taxi did stop as he was headed in the direction we needed to go. A few times the 3 of us were squeezed in a Ford Escape taxi. We gave him a good tip for helping. He said that time of day the shifts change so they won’t stop that much.
We had a busy 3 days and saw a lot of neat things and we’d go back again! The more you go, the more you can find your way around. Not driving was a good idea. The bus was convenient as were the taxis.
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I got a Connect My DNA kit from a LivingSocial.com offer as I thought it would be fun to see the distribution of my DNA. I knew I was English, Danish, Swedish, German, French and Irish. They send you the cotton swabs on sticks to collect DNA off the inside of your cheeks and you send it back in an envelope with a barcode on it. I remembered to look last night and low and behold, they must have messed up or mixed me up with someone else as I am not, Russian, or mostly Irish or Syrian! I wrote to them this morning and let them know I know my heritage from genealogies from both sides of my family. I’d like a re-test for the money I spent. We don’t have one Russian that I know of in my family.
I guess I’m off to go shopping with my mom soon. The above info made my mind wonder a lot last night until I told myself it just couldn’t be true for goodness sake. : )
Last but my least:
Our view going home Sunday night:

Feb29

Oh, I could hide ‘neath the wings…

Posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012 by Dianne

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Back in the summer of 1967, when I was 7 and my brother was 6, we headed down to a cottage in Cape May, NJ to spend the week. It didn’t happen often that we got to stay anywhere that long, but my Uncle Don happen to know the owner and it was called “Brownies Cottage”. I remember driving down in the Rambler and sitting in the backseat with my brothers while the song ‘Windy’ played every 5 minutes. My brother Ken was a baby and I bet he was sitting on my mom’s lap! And we probably weren’t in seat belts. That’s how things changed. Glad we made it through! Anyway, my brother Dave was 13 and into the Beatles and reel to reel tape recorders. What Don and I were into were these:

For a nickel you could get a package of Monkees Trading Cards! We looked everywhere for them to get all the ones we needed. We rather do that then sit on the beach! We also hung up their photos on the wall of the cottage and then at home. So as little children we loved the Monkees and Davy Jones was a big favorite. I’m so sorry to hear he passed away today at only 66. At one time he lived in Pennsylvania, but the reports of his death said he was living in Hollywood, Florida. They just said on Access Hollywood he had a clean bill of health a month ago and had the heart of a 17 year old. Perhaps he had an infection or something. I am so happy he and The Monkees gave us and so many people a funny program to watch and neat songs to sing along with when we were kids. Davy loved horses and at one time he trained to be a jockey. I had downloaded ‘Daydream Believer’ just a few weeks ago on my iPad ‘magic piano and I’m pretty sure I bought the Monkees Greatest hits CD a few months ago (or almost bought it!)

Oh my goodness, just came from Facebook, and my friend Lisa, who lives further north in PA than me, has a cheek to cheek photo of herself and Davy! I asked her where it was taken…