Such a pretty scene to capture with our first winter blanket of snow. This was taken by Brian.
Dec27
Category Archives: Brian
Nov20
Home messy home
It took Brian several hours to install our new microwave. When we opened the box, I realized why it was a good price-the one we picked up was another Samsung model. I was a bit peeved. There’s also a dent on one side that we didn’t make. When Bri went to put in the vent cover, the vents are on the top, not pointed to the front like illustrated in the installation booklet. I do plan to call for the above problems (plus the fan is really loud). I paid for a special warranty, so maybe they will take a look at it. I also took photos of the dent and incorrect vent. My kitchen needs a good tidying up too.
While Bri was struggling with the blasted machine, I made my collage cards. I went through my scrap box and came up with these. The mansion behind the lady with the guitar stated under photo that it was the Mississippi Governor’s mansion-not sure if it’s the current one or not, but it’s so pretty.
I started with the Chinese paper for this one and went from there.
Earlier Brian and I stopped at the church bazaar and bought a big box of mushrooms and a lovely quilted piece from a young lady-Cate, who is actually our neighbor. I told her I’d give her some publicity as she’s made many beautiful pieces and isn’t charging that much for them. I bought an octangular Thanksgiving piece for the middle of my round table for only $10. I will add the photo soon.
I am kicking around with knitting. I bought some pom-pom yarn for $2.50 at Michael’s and got one of their free direction leaflets. Well I couldn’t get it at all and decided to look at the wrapper on the yarn and it said to knit twice between the pom-poms. That worked! Earlier I picked up the needle the wrong way and off went the stitches. I had to undo about 5″ or more! What a pain.
And last but not least, Brian went earlier to pick up the nice firm sofa cushions-it’s like a new sofa! I plan to stuff the back cushions myself in the corners where they are a bit unstuffed-the Michael’s was out of stuffing! I’m glad I had this done-saving our backs. When my mom complained how flat the cushions were, I listened as she is such a thin little thing.
Nov18
Fresh air helps one’s creativity
It was so nice to walk around at Longwood Gardens that I got two cards made for today. A lady had sent me the vintage zodiac design and I love the night sky and had fun!
Then I decided to do a winter themed one. I thought these little children looked like they were watching it snow through a window. I used vintage mica flakes for snow on the windowsill and around the collage.
For my ‘big’ day, Sean will take me out to lunch and Brian for dinner. No calories on your birthday, correct?
Oct30
300 to go!
Here are my collages for Friday and Saturday-I’m up to #65, so I have 300 to go! (Yikes!) The angel was found in a collection of angel statue postcards. The background was shiny and I roughed it up a bit. I added a few phrases for good luck.
The gentleman one was mostly from my scrapbook page that could separate in long pieces. I added the man’s head, the cityscape and trumpet.
As of this morning, my uncle was still in the ICU. Mom said he had a tube up his nose. He’s a fighter!
Brian did some yard work mostly with the leaf bagger until it started to clog up on him. He put a lot of stuff (more like jammed it) in the shed, but he (we) need to clean up a little more. It was sunny but chilly today.
Oct17
A bit behind-will be playing catch up
On Friday Sean took me to get my driver’s license photo done about 18 miles away. After that, we headed down a road and before you knew it, we were in Lancaster! Such gorgeous countryside and the leaves are just starting to change. We passed a narrow, but long field on the stretch of Rt. 30 we were on and the Amish were harvesting pumpkins. Sean said the sign said they were only $1. : )
We mainly went to a few stores in a new shopping center. A Christmas Tree Shoppe had just opened and it was jam packed. Then we went to a Kohl’s next door where I found some slacks that fit so well I bought them in gray and black! When we were checking out, a pregnant Amish lady was there with her two little girls, a sight you don’t see too often. I guess as long as they aren’t using the electric, it’s ok to do a little shopping. It looked like the mom was buying those polar fleece blankets. The children were just staring, so they weren’t use to being in a modern store like that. I admire their spirit and duty, but I am sure it would make more sense to just get with the times. Those buggies can’t be safe to travel in on the busy roads in that area. The children were a bit odd looking, I hate to say that, but I am sure cousins are marrying cousins. Anyway, we went across the street and had a nice Fuddruckers burger and then went to the Gap store where Sean picked out a couple of things for his birthday on the 24th when he will be 24! Can’t believe that.
So I didn’t do my collage yet for Friday or Saturday or as a matter of fact for today either but the day is still young!
Saturday night we met up with some of my former classmates a few towns over. We had some cancel out because of the Phillies play-offs which was on at the bar/restaurant we went anyway. There was a young crowd, Sean likes to go here and we ran into him and his friend when we leaving. When I saw my two pals both named John D., I got a double bear hugs. : ) I hadn’t seen the one John for about 23 yrs. We went out to an outdoor area which wasn’t that cold and it was pleasant to chat until they turned on the surround sound and we couldn’t hear each other. We even asked if the speaker could be turned down which they didn’t do. Our lady pals showed up a bit later and we only stayed another hour which was torture on our ears. It was nice to see those who showed up.
I got up this morning and made breakfast and then felt a piece come out of my tooth that was just repaired. It is feeling a bit rough, so I need to get it checked out. Probably the dentist fooling with it caused it to become weak in other areas. I hope it’s a freebie repair.
Off to the grocery store soon-lucky me. It gets harder to go the older I get!
Oct12
Thee and Thou went to the PARen Faire!
Around 4 or so on Saturday we kind of wound up in Manheim at the Penna. Renaissance Faire. Years ago, not sure if it was right after we were married, but I think so, Brian and I went and it was nothing like it is now. It’s almost like a Disney theme park! And let’s not get into the costumed people. I think many were visitors. Brian reminisced about the 1960s for some reason. : )
We saw a sword swallower, a juggler (with fire too) and his partner who did a routine on silks (not sure of the proper term). We were tempted to get food, but Sean had visions of The Olive Garden, so we only got lemonade and iced tea.
Here are some photos:
Pretty garden area near the mansion and entrance
Tribal Circus featuring Shelli. She has a toddler-look at the tummy!
“The Abbey” sold books and paper things. You know I bought a few things.
A Sword Swallower!
When in Pennsylvania-you have to have a place that sells cheesesteaks!
Brian and Sean in front of the Pirate ship
You could get an elephant ride-we all would break his back. ; (
We didn’t get to see the human chess game
I was taunted by the dungeon guard! No thanks buddy, not into seeing how people were tortured-plus not for $2 either!
And finally-
A cute set I wouldn’t have minded having, but I got to pose with it
We got stuck in weekend traffic in Lancaster and saw at least 50 people waiting to eat outside of the Olive Garden. We turned toward Strasberg and ended up at Hershey’s Farm and had a buffet dinner around 8:15. Not as planned, but good food.
Oct12
Whirlwind Saturday
I promised a post about our almost 12 hour daytrip through almost central Pennsylvania. It’s a little late, so I may start it and finish it off in a few hours.
The first part of the trip was to York, PA. which is about 1.5 hours away (known as the ‘factory tour capital of the world’-Harley Davidson has one during the week). I wanted to attend a rubber stamping/paper crafts show. Here are a few photos from a great vendor and artist-Stampland. The man sitting over on the right took a shine to me and said he’d vote for my ATCs in the contest. Alas, I don’t think I won as I didn’t get any email. One of the other vendors said it’s better to come on Sunday as you have a better chance of winning, but they were all put in a binder, so I hope mine would have stood out. The theme was ‘O Christmas Tree’. I don’t even know if I’m getting them back
Here’s some of the wonderful stamps and techniques from Stampland:
I had been dropped off for a few hours. I gave Sean the address as Brian and him don’t know their way around York. I did quite a bit of shopping too:
I was of course looking for unusual stamps. They are quite pricey. I like detailed ones the best and can’t wait to use this one:
I traded three original ATCs and got some ‘cookie cutter’ ones’-they made all of the same ones to trade.
We got to see lots of pretty farms like this:
(taken out of the car window)
I have wanted to see Bube’s Brewery in Mount Joy since I read about it on the web. It has catacombs. We arrived too early to eat and Sean didn’t want to go back after our next stop. We went down these steep steps, very hard on the feet and knees:
This is about 30 feet underground!
I thought of Zoey and how she would like to eat in the catacombs with just candlelight. A friend had been here and told me on Facebook that the food is delivered by pulleys as the kitchen is far away. Maybe someday we’ll venture back
there as the menu looked good!
So I was disappointed we didn’t stay at Bube’s longer (which is pronounced-well someone told me boo-bees). I had helped myself to a flyer about the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire and we saw it was 12 miles going closer to home, so we went. I think I will post about that in a few hours.
Aug9
What’s wrong with this ATC?
And why do I have to do another one?
It was a Geisha girl theme and we were to add an Asian symbol and a fan-opps-I added the ‘pearl’. The problem, as someone commented on Flickr, was that the symbols I so carefully stamped and embossed are Chinese and of course Geisha girls are Japanese! Geez. And one of my favorite movies is ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’. I even carefully glued the gold thread around there. Back to work!
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Lazy weekend…read, started a design as a birthday gift, but the future recipient is being a little nasty to me for some unknown reason. I call to see how she is and she asks what I want. I don’t think that’s nice. I bet you guessed who I mean.
Brian trimmed the hedges along the front of the house plus the forsythia near the road. Our hedges on the right were nibbled by deer during the big snow and now they are brown with a bit of green-like an Obama chia pet! (ha ha-and I’m not being unappropriate, there are Obama chia pets). : )
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Wally World is giving Sean some lousy hours until 10-10:30 at night. He’s going to ask to only do that a few times a month. He doesn’t go in until 2:30, but still that time of night is very boring. He may have lead from his uncle-he needs to get that squared away.
Aug6
Sir Paul…it will be an honor!
The other night Brian was listening to CDs. That always helps to lighten his mood and he acts like his old self as he is relaxing and not worrying about anything. 9 out of 10 times he’ll put on some ‘Wings’ for me which he did that night. I then remembered that Sir Paul will be in Philly sometime in the future. I went online and it’s the 14th of this month. I asked if we could go and Brian said ‘YES’! Woo hoo! The good tickets are all gone, and we really couldn’t afford them anyway. The ones I got are extreme stage right, but not really high up. And if there are big screens, that will be neat too. And who is to say we won’t take a little walk to see him closer? I was just at the venue with my friend to see James Taylor and Carole King. The worse part will be the parking, but there is no Phillies game that night, so it should be better than the last time I was there.
Brian’s gone to most concerts over the years to see performers I like. The last time he went to one he really ‘got into’ was Hall & Oates in the early 80s (I love H&O too). I’m going to bring my camera in my purse again.
Talk about crossing something off your bucket list. Can’t wait! I had a hard time getting to sleep last night.
PS-My older brother Dave is a huge Beatles fan and has the same bass Paul is holding above.
Jul26
Do we look hot?
Do we look hot?, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
Gee, didn’t realize how red I was. I had had a hat on and then the wind starting blowing before the rain came. I had my trusty mist/fan bottle with me (I saw another lady with one too). That was a godsend!
Collages & Creative Goodness 