Category Archives: recommend

Jun20

Crafty stuff for your consideration

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I was watching Kathy Griffin’s show last night and ‘For your consideration’ is what her new CD is called as she wants a Grammy. She’s so funny and a bit of a potty mouth. Have you ever seen her home out in LA? It’s really fabulous.

Anyway, from my humble little ranch house in the mushroom country of PA. I am listing items on eBay and etsy. Mainly craft books and kits. It’s a hopeless plug, but I see it helps with a lady whose blog I read.  My prices are really good too-I swear! If you live outside of the US, I’ll consider you too-but shipping books is pretty high. Check out this gorgeous Mary Englebreit book!

Even the cover is wonderful. It’s all about her and her life and art-lots of art!

And look at this series of art instruction books from North Light:

They are being sold under one auction on etsy. I have some more craft books there too.

Thanks for looking!

(Bri’s car is costing almost $400, so I need my own spending moola-lol)

May6

I had to say…

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(thanks Borat!)

When I saw this garden on The Martha Stewart Show today!

It’s a knot garden and something I would like to make-maybe not so large.

One of the owners, Dennis Schrader of Landcraft Environments Nurseries was on and I hope you go to the link and view the rest of photos. I’m fortunate to have a few places where their retail produces are sold within 5-15 miles of me. I was at the one place on Friday ($$$), so wondering about the other place which is a yearly exhibitor at the Philadelphia Flower Show.
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My Uncle Don fell coming out of his bathroom yesterday. He struggled for 2 hours to get up, but couldn’t. His neighbor tried too and ended up calling an ambulance. He’s very sore and tired. My mom and I worry about him so. We wish he had pushed his ‘Life Alert’ button sooner!

Apr25

Tip toe through the tulips part 2

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I did get to Longwood Gardens this afternoon! What a site to behold! The tulips, snapdragons, Painted Daisies, Columbine, etc, etc are fabulous.Here is the link to my Flickr slideshow. I sure hope heaven looks like this:

And these sea of white, which I got to see planted last fall:

Bulbs ready to plant

And I never venture that much to the lake part, and it’s so serene. (Something in this shot will be my Photo Hunt tomorrow!)

At the one end are the Italian Water Gardens, but I didn’t photograph them today because I was looking for this:

One of the new tree houses! I did go inside, but didn’t shrink down the photos, but watch for them in my Flickr sideshow. It’s all wood and pretty diamond style lattice windows.

Then I was looking for the other tree house and felt very small and alone:

This is the meadow and you aren’t seeing the entire area!

So I had a nice work out because the other tree house was down the path more. I didn’t add photos of it because they are rather dark.

I will leave you with some Columbine that was planted around a fountain:

I did buy some seeds, a drawing book and some Brandywine potpourri!

Apr10

Awesome stitching issue

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I try not to buy too many cross stitching magazines, but I saw the May issue of Cross-stitch & Needlework and just had to have it! It’s loaded with 15 floral designs. I really love the quartet of tulips on the cover. There’s a sweet Noah’s Garden by Gail Bussi that looks like a quick stitch. I found the posy plate liners different and unusual. I’d just hope no one would soil them with food. Of course you have to use clear plates to see the pretty posies. Jane Greenoff did a salute to Claude Monet, so you know that’s lovely.

I like Fran Ortmeyer’s story on the last page. She says, ‘Handmade gifts are not just thread and material, but pieces of the person who made them.’ It that not true? She goes on about what to do with her stash when she passes-good question! And also how calming stitching is to her, like pulling the needle away from you releases negative tension. I think she’s right. Good read.

Get the magazine!

I also bought the Cross stitch and beading magazine (that’s it for the magazines for a while!) for the cute monkey designs. They are all balancing in different ways on buttons. : ) I thought they’d make sweet gifts.

Apr5

A new obsession

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Yeah, see my blogroll and look down at #6-thanks to my childhood friend Chris, I joined Facebook last night and have been playing with it off and on from late last night until now! We didn’t have internet access until around 2-3.

I decided that the mosquitoes had all moved in and were getting cozy in my water features, the pond and waterlily garden, so I went out and hooked up the one pump for the waterlilies-nothing-no whirl, dead. Then Bri came out and took it apart and it started to work. Finally. Then it was a terrible task with the pond. We couldn’t get the pump to sit flat so Bri bailed out all the nasty water, I got it situated and it started to work. He had to disassemble that one too and now I can report, clean water and a nice splashing fountain! It wasn’t really warm, but we didn’t have jackets on. I heard my mom had her menfolk cleaning up around her yard today-gets me off the hook a bit! I like to do her lamp post garden though.

I haven’t taken vitamins for two days now and my tummy seems calmed down. I really hope the ones I get for sensitive tummies will be okay. If not, I told Bri we’ll be eating lots of salads and produce. I’m hoping the blood work will be ok, didn’t hear anything after 3 days…so far.

Back to Facebook-it’s actually a fun place! If you want to join, be sure to click my link and hook up with me there.

Mar26

Movies!

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I bit the bullet and went into the video store yesterday. Why was this such a hard thing for me to do? Sean usually picks out the flicks and if I’m interested, I watch too. Let’s say I don’t watch everything he likes. So Tuesday, I wanted to get ‘Atonement’ and also got ‘Enchanted’ and ‘Becoming Jane’! I watched Enchanted (yes, it’s Disney) because I think Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey are cute as buttons. There I said it! I enjoyed it-the characters, the costumes, NYC, the songs, you name it! There were a few scenes I wondered about, but all in all, fun!

Amy and Patrick

Later, after ‘Dancing with the Stars’, I watched ‘Atonement’. For some reason, I pegged one of the main characters, James McAvoy as resembling my late father as a young man. It was set before war time in 1935 and then after the war had begun in England and France. Bri was looking up info about the setting. The English accents were a bit thick, but again, great characters, etc.

James MacAvoy and Keira Knightly

I think I’ll make this a weekly event as long as tv is so boring and Sean isn’t here. That way I can rent the ‘chick flicks’. : )

Mar21

Reading mojo

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Thanks to Annemarie for bringing up ‘mojo’ a bit ago. I do see my mojo in various lights, so to speak. Sometimes I love cross stitching, sometimes I can’t get through a line on the chart in an hour. So lately I haven’t had any reading mojo. I tried a few books, got bored or didn’t understand them (a Nicholas Sparks book and the book Wicked), so I just stopped reading. Altogether. Not me at all.

When Sean and I were in Walmart last week, I went down the magazine and book aisle and ‘The Five People You Meet in Heaven’ stood out like a beacon to me for some reason. I bought it and it sat around until the beginning of this week. I started reading and it’s really good so far! Hooray! Mitch Abbom is a very visual writer and there are some twists that I am liking. So I am recommending this like one of my favorite authors Amy Tan did.

Here is my little strawberry punch needle I made last night. I made it a flip lid for this 4″ basket. I think the loops are bigger as it’s a looser weave fabric. The pattern for the strawberry came from a rubber stamp. Punch needle basket

Feeling better. Only liking Pringles (they have the mini ones and they aren’t greasy, just crisp) and rice cakes. I hope I get my appetite back before Easter.