Category Archives: blogging

Oct13

I’ve been tagged!

Posted on by
Standard

Sherry over at ‘If I could set myself free’ tagged me for this. I think I tell mostly about myself on my ‘Me’ page, so this may be hard.
# 1 These are the rules for this meme:
# 2  Link to the person who tagged you.
# 3 Post the rules on your blog.
# 4 Write six random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself.
# 5  Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
# 6 Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog.
# 7 Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

#1 All three of us, my husband, son and I had blonde hair when we were little. Bri had platinum blonde, Sean light blonde and me wheat blonde.

#2 I have my high school crush as a friend on Face Book. I’m sure he knows this, but I appreciate him accepting my invite. ; )

#3 Although I got ‘D’s in high school typing on those lovely manual typewriters, I can type great now thanks to using the computer keyboard since 1994.

#4 When we went to Orlando 3.5 yrs ago, I saw a tv guy heading for the outgoing flights (we had just landed) and I had a little conversation with him. If you are from Philly and watch Action News, you probably have heard of Don Polec. That is extremely brave for someone who use to be really shy.

#5 I met Brian at the wedding of my brother to his first cousin-like a soap opera! Everyone saw us chatting at MaryAnne’s mom’s house and almost clapped when Bri asked-do you want to go out sometime? My grandmom told him I was a ‘good cook’, like that would help. ; )

#6 My mom, older brother and I are the only left-handed people in 3 generations.

I tag: Carole, Jennifer, Lee, Barbara, Sharon and Tootie. Good luck ladies!

Sep25

Show and Tell #11

Posted on by
Standard

Stitching girl, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is one of the several porcelain dolls I have around my home. I got her at least 10+ years ago and she sits on top of my hunter green roll top desk in my living room (I forget her name). She is a stitching girl (opps-where is her needle!) She came with a little stitched piece that had a few letters of the alphabet stitched in it. I found the little basket of flowers I did several years ago and swapped it with the piece it came with.

Since I love cross stitching, she is very dear to me. She has gorgeous auburn ringlets. I love the little pinafore she is wearing too.

Behind her is one of our ‘Tree of Life’ prints. We have one for Brian’s birthday month-March and mine-November. We’ve had them for over 24 yrs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My mom is still here. She is staying in Sean’s room. Yesterday really wore her out and she napped for 2 hours during the afternoon. She’s not use to all the fresh air and 2 hours of walking. I made a pot roast for dinner and even roasted a butternut squash in a dish in oven along with the meat. I have her eating more. I know if I lived closer she would weigh about 20 more pounds. Brother #2 is suppose come out and get her on Saturday. He hasn’t been here in many years.

I’m proud of Sean for getting help writing summaries for very dry reading material. He usually sends me stuff to proof, but since it was over my head a lot, he got help on campus. He sent me his latest paper and it was very good, I didn’t touch it. Yes!

Sep10

All about shopping…

Posted on by
Standard

Sherry had some shopping questions on her blog yesterday. And may I say how cool it was to win a surprise from her! Thanks for letting me join the fun! I can’t wait to see what I get. : )
I’m a bargain shopper. The more percentage something is marked down, the more I want it! For example, I hit a 70% off sale at Peebles and got this big canvas of a rooster for my mom’s birthday for $3.00. I’m thinking I could buy the last couple of ones to recycle and do art on! They also have a limited edition Boyd’s bear named Peebles for about $8.00. (why are people putting *s in store’s names? Because of search engines? Like they would put in Pee*bles). Anyway, I think I’ll at least get a few more canvases.
1. Where is your favorite place to shop? Love stores like Tuesday Morning and T.J Maxx. Favorite dept. store is Kohls. Love all the craft stores, but Michaels takes the top place. Do not like grocery shopping unless I am buying ingredients for a special dish or am shopping at BJs Wholesale. And I love thrift stores and the Goodwill.

2. Would you rather shop on-line or in the stores? I like both. I utilize the internet more during the Christmas holidays. I do buy books throughout the year mainly through Amazon. And there is also eBay!

3. If you needed new undergarments, but you saw something that you didn’t really need, but just wanted, which would you buy?
I probably would! Underwear is so boring when you get to be my age.

4. What really annoys you about other shoppers?
People that don’t move out of a spot when they know you are trying to get by or want something in the area they are hogging. Those who talk on their blue rays and you think they are talking to you. Someone who picks up something you are about to pick up.

5. Have you ever got up to the checkout stand and had a ton of stuff in your cart and after they rang everything up you realized you didn’t have your money, check book, debit card, or credit cards? I usually have a few forms of payment. I have not had enough money, $5 or so, and have just taken a few things out of the cart so I wouldn’t have to use the debit card too.

6. If you buy something that isn’t necessary or something just for fun do you feel like you have to justify it to yourself or your partner? Not really unless it was pricey. I wish I could ‘just for fun’ buy a Ford Mariner. : )

7. Do you hide those unnecessary things for awhile and then later claim you’ve had them for a long time? No, that’s just silly. We discuss big purchases. And as I said, I usually hunt stuff down that’s on sale.

Have to do some food shopping later-oh joy!
I probably won’t be posting until late afternoon or so tomorrow as I will be getting mom from her surgery.
Has anyone else had allergy issues? They are saying it’s one of the worst seasons so far. I get the stuffy head, post nasal and then congestion in my chest.

Sep5

Show & Tell #8

Posted on by
Standard

This is my Barbie case from 1968 or so (I may have gotten it between 1968-1970)

Here are the ‘girls’ and guy(!) that were inside: one Barbie, three Francies, 2 Stacies and one Skipper. I believe Skipper was one of that last Mattel dolls I got. GI Joe is missing his hands. Not sure why he is in there, maybe my younger brother put him in there.

And here are some of the clothes. I thought I had more than this, but maybe they weren’t put away and got tossed. Remember, all these things are probably at least 40 years old!

I plan to clean them up a bit before I put them away today. I’ll pretend I’m 9 again. I need to think this way sometimes, don’t you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So I am a bit bummed as one of my favorite places to go online looks like it dissolved today. Tribe.net no longer has a web address. One of my friends there joined Facebook to find me. I have meet some awesome people there, some I know are friends for life. My good friends also have Flickr and Facebook accounts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And to save the best for last….look what Lee for Lake Stitcher sent me in the mail yesterday, a day I needed a bit of sunshine:

It’s a covered Altoid’s tin filled with chamomile tea because she knows my tummy acts up once in a while. I so appreciate the thoughtfulness from a fellow Pennsylvanian. She told me to keep my chin up in this interesting time of our life when parents and hormonal changes can bring you down. Thanks again Lee!

Have a great weekend!

Sep2

Small Talk

Posted on by
Standard

Since I joined Sherry’s party(see link————–>)
I don’t want to be a rude guest and only talk about daytrippin’ and eggplants. Here are a few questions that Sherry would like us to answer.
Questions:
What type of job do you have? Domestic Goddess, online sales for pocket change and hopefully a paid artist someday soon.
Where do you live? I’m about 35 miles outside of Philadelphia. I grew up about 12 miles from Philly.
Where do you do your crafts/art work? In the dining room at a desk I just set up.
What is your favorite daytime beverage? Water, green tea, any tea!
What is your favorite dessert? Brownies!
Do you watch soap opera’s and if you do what’s your favorite? No way! Can’t stand them. I use to watch ‘All My Children’ years ago. I decided that when my son was little, napping was better than watching tv in the afternoon.
What’s the last movie you saw in a movie theatre? ‘The Dark Knight’ with my son Sean.

I see a few of the Wizard of Oz swap gals are posing a sneak peek of projects. Mine is all finished and ready to mail to Irma. Here’s a tease:

Sep1

A little daytrippin’

Posted on by
Standard

I can’t believe it’s September already!

Bri and I went down to Dover, De today. It’s about 50 miles one way and takes an hour. Not much to see, just some marshy areas with egrets and I saw a whole family in one area. Every once in a while, there is a housing development. There are places I want to see and photograph like Lum’s Pond (about 20 miles away-we went there for a company picnic years ago) and Odessa (about 30, but they decorate the old homes for Christmas). I did take a photo of the St. George’s bridge:

This is over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canals (thus named) and taken at over 50 mph. The average speed limit on this stretch of road to Dover was 65 mph. That just seems to fast to us.

Hit a big sale at Atlantic Books warehouse-buy two, get one free. I shop the middle of the store where the bargain books are Bri tends to shop the perimeter where they aren’t on sale, but he was thinking the sale, though he picked out only two books that were over $20 each. Now I really have to love a book to pay that much. When we were checking out, I tossed one of my books in with his-got a $9.00 book for free. I guess we saved $25 on the total sale. I was very selective. I may sell a few of the ones I bought anyway.

We ate dinner at 3:30, having skipped lunch, at The Olive Garden-good parmesan crusted Talapia! Oh, I got a new postage scale at the Office Depot so I will know how much stuff over a pound will cost to ship. I can use click and ship now too!

It was nice to spend some time with Bri as he’s back to work tomorrow.

I’ve been going through links and adding some and taking some out. I think I have some awesome ones to share.

Aug28

Blogging anniversary #4 coming up!

Posted on by
Standard

I can’t believe it’s been 4 years already. The funny thing is we are doing almost the exact thing we did 4 years ago-going to Atlantic City and taking my mom. She is still bothered by sciatica, but takes meds for it.

Here’s my first post. : )

I’m gathering some goodies for you my faithful pals, who kept coming back and those who are also new to my rambling too! I hope you come back to say ‘hello’ now and then.

The goodies-two soft sculpture pumpkins (the larger one has sparkles);

Items I bought from my recent vacation which include: A box of James’ Salt Water taffy; a pumpkin tapestry style placement; a little Lucy look-alike figurine from the Lucy the Elephant attraction in Margate, NJ and a Lucy postcard and a nice bottle of tangerine and olive flower hair condition from Caesars Hotel (ok, the last one was free, but it is really nice).

Added some adorable mini Longwood Gardens cards to the booty!

Also made a special Atlantic City Art Trading Card! My mom gave me the jokers from her new set of playing cards and I used one as it has an Atlantic City scene on the back. You can take a ‘sneak peek’ on Flickr.

August 29th is the last day to try and win the goodies, so please leave a comment HERE. (Don’t be shy now). I must have a way to contact you, if I don’t, I’ll have to pick another winner.

I appreciate your patronage!!! : ) (sounds like a car commercial-doesn’t it?) I appreciate YOU!!!

Aug25

A little snow!

Posted on by
Standard

Surprise! Gotcha!!! I got a prize in the mail today from Flora of Bonehead Studios! I won her door prize and it’s simply adorable. Flora, you are so talented and I am honored to own a piece of your work. Isn’t he something? He’s a snowman on a wand with pretty ribbons. I got a lovely handmade card too.

Here’s the link to the Spooky Times Jingles blog for shopping.

Not too much is new, I just worked on some ATCs with the crushed flower backgrounds-after I went food shopping and making dinner.

My mom is having cataract surgery in the beginning of September. I’ll pick her up from that. Then she is having another eye procedure a few days after her birthday-probably a glaucoma thing. She should have had this done ages ago. Please keep her in your thoughts.

I’m getting itchy to go to Longwood Gardens again, so maybe tomorrow. I want to try to get down to the Italian water gardens this time as I seem to miss it or forget about it.

Aug22

Show & Tell #6

Posted on by
Standard

Holly Hobbie Embroidery, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Here’s one of my first ever completed needlework pieces that I did way back in 1976 when I was about 16 going on 17. As you can see, I used a film camera to photograph Miss Holly Hobbie. I think she’s pretty nicely done for a 16 yr old, though I believe I used 6 strands of floss where I should have used 3 to 4. Now she is hanging in my guest room, a yellow room. She wasn’t framed until 25 yrs or so after she was embroidered.

These are little Holly Hobbie plaques I found at a yard sale and thought they looked nice with my framed piece.

Aug14

Guess the Movie!

Posted on by
Standard

Found this on Mindy’s blog and thought it was a fun idea! It took me about 45 minutes to locate the quotes from a lot of my favorite movies, in no particular order. If you know any of them, please leave a guess in the comments. Mine are much easier than Mindy’s IMHO.
1.Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.
5. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.

#1 Life and death. Space and time. Fate and chance. Theses are the forces of the universe. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a man who has unlocked these mysteries. From the furthest corners of the world where the dark arts still hold sway he returns to us to demonstrate how nature’s laws may be bent. I give you …….

#2 In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the… Anyone? Anyone?… the Great Depression, passed the… Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?… raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something-d-o-o economics. “Voodoo” economics.

Ferris Bueller’s Day off-guessed by Jennifer

#3 My mother always said my sister, Satsu was like wood. As rooted to the earth as a sakura tree… But she told me I was like water… Water can carve its way through stone. And when trapped, water makes a new path.

Memoirs of a Geisha-guessed by Deborah

#4 All around this house I see the signs. My daughter looks but she does not see. This is a house that will break into pieces. It’s not too late. All my pains, my regrets, I will gather them together. My daughter will hear me calling, even though I’ve said no words. She will climb the stairs to find me. She will be scared because at first her eyes will see nothing. She will feel in her heart this place where she hides her fears. She will know I am waiting like a tiger in the trees, now ready to leap out and cut her spirit loose.

Joy Luck Club-guessed by Cindy

#5 it’s, uh… it’s capped with an elaborate headpiece in the shape of the sun with a crystal in the center. And what you did was, you take the staff to a special room in Tanis, a map room with a miniature of the city all laid out on the floor. And if you put the staff in a certain place at a certain time of day, the sun shone through here and made beam that came down on the floor here… and gave you the exact location of the Well of the Souls.

Raiders of the Lost Ark-guessed by Amy

#6 A scout has a certain look… Kit Carson, for example. You look like… a muleskinner!
Uh, General I don’t know anything about mules…
Lieutenant, it’s amazing how I can guess the profession of a man just by looking at him! Notice the bandy legs, the powerful arms. This man has spent years with mules. Isn’t that right?
Uh, yes sir!
Hire the muleskinner!

#7 Jeesh, all Bolivia can’t look like this.
How do you know? This might be the garden spot of the whole country. People may travel hundreds of miles just to get to this spot where we’re standing now. This might be the Atlantic City, New Jersey of all Bolivia for all you know.
Look, I know a lot more about Bolivia than you know about Atlantic City, New Jersey I can tell you that.
Aha! You do, huh? I was born there, I was born in New Jersey. Was brought up there, so…
You’re from the east? I didn’t know that.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid guessed by Amy

#8 I don’t have the right style for you do I?
No you don’t have the right style.
I’ll change.
No, don’t change. You’re your own girl, you have your own style.
But then I won’t have you. Why can’t I have you?
Because you push too hard, every damn minute. There’s no time to ever relax and enjoy living. Every things too serious to be so serious.
If I push too hard it’s because I want things to be better, I want us to be better, I want you to be better. Sure I make waves you have I mean you have to. And I’ll keep making them till your everything you should be and will be. You’ll never find anyone as good for you as I am, to believe in you as much as I do or to love you as much.

The Way We Were-guessed by Lee

#9 I wanted you. I wanted you desperately but I didn’t think you wanted me.
It seems we’ve been at cross purposes, doesn’t it? But it’s no use now. As long as there was Bonnie, there was a chance that we might be happy. I liked to think that Bonnie was you, a little girl again, before the war, and poverty had done things to you. She was so like you, and I could pet her, and spoil her, as I wanted to spoil you. But when she went, she took everything.

Gone with the Wind guessed by Jennifer

#10 Ring around the rosie, a pocket full of spears! Thought you were pretty foxy, didn’t you? Well! The last to go will see the first three go before her! And your mangy little dog, too!

The Wizard of Oz-guessed by Jennifer

#11 Were you scared in Vietnam?
Yes. Well, I-I don’t know. Sometimes it would stop raining long enough for the stars to come out… and then it was nice. It was like just before the sun goes to bed down on the bayou. There was always a million sparkles on the water… like that mountain lake. It was so clear, Jenny, it looked like there were two skies one on top of the other. And then in the desert, when the sun comes up, I couldn’t tell where heaven stopped and the earth began. It’s so beautiful.

Forrest Gump-guessed by Jennifer

#12 Well, yes, ma’am, I do… I mean, I got everything I need right here with me. I got air in my lungs, a few blank sheets of paper. I mean, I love waking up in the morning not knowing what’s gonna happen or, who I’m gonna meet, where I’m gonna wind up. Just the other night I was sleeping under a bridge and now here I am on the grandest ship in the world having champagne with you fine people. I figure life’s a gift and I don’t intend on wasting it. You don’t know what hand you’re gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you… to make each day count.

Titanic-guessed by Lee

#13 I always knew you were alive, I knew it. Everybody said that I had to let you go. I love you. You’re the love of my life.
I love you too, Kelly. More than you’ll ever know.

Castaway-guessed by Lee

#14 Are you suggesting that I killed my wife? Are you saying that I crushed her skull and that I shot her? How dare you! When I came home, there was a man in my house. I fought with this man. He had a mechanical arm. You find this man. You find this man.

The Fugitive-guessed by Jennifer

#15 For God’s sake, Chris! The whole world is watching. We can’t let him die in front of a live audience!
He was born in front of a live audience.

The Truman Show-guessed by Amy

Hints:

One was about a man over 100 telling his life story.

One was about magic.