Jun14

Can you see my little gal pal?

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Happy Flag Day!

She’s almost at eye level in her nest in my butterfly bush. When she is alarmed, she flies to the back and up and out. I was a bit nervous when taking this (and three other shots) as the flash was going off and I didn’t want her to put my eye out.
We tried to get some tomatoes in the big garden yesterday(about 10 so far)-between showers that is. The new top soil seems to be helping a lot! The ground looks almost like ground coffee! The weather looks more promising today. I’m going to add a few mounds of fingerling potatoes to the other part of the garden too.
And I repotted this lovely orange Gerbera daisy and it presented me with a flower yesterday.
Orange Gerbera in Basket
I found the neat basket for $3 at the Goodwill.

My ‘lilies of the field’ are starting to bloom. They are indeed near the long part of our yard! I think I saw a ruffled yellow one too. This is a Asiatic lily:
Pink and White Lilies
There is a Daddy Longlegs on the one blossom there.
And last but not least, a small part of my fairy garden:
Part of the fairy garden
Some of my little figurines have lost a wing or look a bit worn, but they still look cute when the flowers and plants grown larger and they are hiding beneath them!

Jun11

Thursday Thunks

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1. What is your least favorite candy bar?
If you can call them candy bars-l think they are Mary Janes- the gooey molasses based ones-no chocolate and sticks to your teeth!
2. If I were to call you, what would you say?
Hi, do you have fun answering silly questions too?
3. What is your favorite type of leaf?
I love all the various leaves on coleus plants.
4. When was the last time you….
– had sex?
wouldn’t you like to know!
– swam in a lake?
don’t think I have, just a pond or two.
– went barefoot outside?
last night!
– ate peas?
within the last few weeks.
5. Since Father’s Day is right around the corner, tell us about the person that you are celebrating.
He was estranged from us all and has been deceased since Feb. 08. My son does look a bit like him, I don’t hold that against him, I just tell him not to act like he did.
6. Were you dropped on your head as a child?
Not that I was ever told.
7. How often do you clean your toilet?
Several times a week as it’s old…pulling for a new one!
8. Have you ever been sunburned?
Tell us about it.
Oh yes…lobster red…hurt like heck.
We were staying for a week down in Wildwood, NJ and I got burnt on the only sunny day. I suffered the rest of the time and it rained-no fun!
9. On average, how many hours a sleep do you get a night?
I never sleep straight through. I try to lay there at least 7-8 hours.
10 How many hours did you get last night?
The above, but I got up a lot-dang ice tea.
11. Take a picture of something. Post it.
IMG_5265
This is an altered key I made for a swap group on Flickr. The rhinestones and piece at the top were my from grandmother’s old jewelry. A friend sent the wings. It’s hard to see that I rubbed the key with a plum colored alcohol ink.
12. Are the bottom of your feet dirty?
No, but this time of the year that’s a possibility.
13. Do you know the names of every member of the family who lives next door to you? Yes-only two, but I know their son and his family too.
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We had beach-like weather today meaning it would drizzle a bit and then the sun would peek out and go in again. I mainly went through catalogs and old papers for recycling.
Here’s a cool thing-Sean and I went down to T*D Bank with a big bag of coins. You get to guess how much you think you have-I said to put in $110, and he by mistake typed in $111. Didn’t we have $111.88 and won a neat eyeglass case! : )
Made a good sweet and sour chicken dinner by Wanchai. I added Maraschino Cherries and baby carrots. It was better than take-out!
Did some art after dinner, including the above key.

Jun10

Funky thunderstorms and psychedelic sky

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Yesterday we got bombarded with pop-up thunderstorms, the first around 7 something in the morning. I slept through it as I had about 3 nights of insomnia and I guess my body couldn’t take it anymore. Later, when I was out planting a few annuals, the rumbles and darkening skies sent me in with Cosmo the kitty. He had himself situated under the big evergreen near where I was planting the flowers and was quite content, I hated to bother him. The dish*net guys came about 3 (to make Sean’s tv high def) and the young fellow was up on the roof when the rain was just coming down which made me nervous. After dinner, the sky turned all shades of pink, orange and fuchsia. Everyone local on Face*book was talking about it. Here’s photos taken with the flash on:
IMG_5248
IMG_5255
I worked on a few ATCs, one was with a ‘special technique’ by using gesso and rubber stamps:
IMG_5259
The background is a map. The ‘main design’ is suppose to be dark, like black. Looks like the sky influenced me doesn’t it, but I did these before it changed color.
I woke up today with a very red right eye. I am medicating it with drops that were prescribed for that exact eye a few months back. My head is kind of foggy, so I’m summing it up to allergies. Sean was suppose to get his eyes checked for new contacts, but we have new insurance which Wally World doesn’t accept, so we had to look elsewhere.
We may take a drive to K*Mart to look around. He’s been applying everywhere with no luck. I’m hoping my brother will send him in the right direction since he is a job recruiter (but medical, but he knows the ropes).

Jun8

Finally

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Finally got three bags of red mulch down today. I had to pick a day when it was 65% humidity. I did not feel too well when I came in, but after a cool shower, was more like my old self. I was fine sitting on the bag and dispersing the mulch, but as soon as I started dragging the bags around (I did two tonight and one last week), I became drenched in sweat and got a stomachache. The mulch really helps to protect the flowers and I can see a big difference in my Sweet William garden just in one week. I felt better later as I polished off the last Breyer’s vanilla dipped in chocolate bar-it says lower in fat on the box! : )
Earlier, I finally put together a graduation announcement card for Sean and was pleased how it came out (I used a 10 yr old card program):
gradcard
The inside is special too. I found a neat PSU Nittany Lion logo and a nice graduation announcement to gain inspiration from on the web.

I have strived for and accomplished
an important goal in my life
of which I am very proud

I, Sean M. C.
am pleased to announce
my Graduation from
The Pennsylvania State University
which took place on
on Friday, the fifteenth of May
Two thousand nine
Degree Achieved:
B.S. Geography
minor Climatology

And they are one-of-a-kind cards!
Oh-I got a trial from Sta*mps.com (which was a bugger to get working as I had to get our anti-virus software to accept it) and ordered personalized stamps with Sean’s grad photo on it-the one on the front of the card! They should be here in a few days.
I sent off a ton of mail today…one is going to South Korea in a Artist Trading Card swap to an Australian lady who lives there teaching English. You should have seen that address! I hope it gets there in good time. Can’t wait to see what she makes for me.
Swapping is fun!

Jun7

Photoshopping and Planting

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Two things I have been doing. Late last night I was working on a photo of me when I was about 6-7. It was taken for a contest for ‘cute kids’ way back when. Neither my brother or I won. Here’s the original-encased in plastic that was then bend. I had to use a filter over it to help with my forehead’s mark. I’m not totally happy with this-forgot my right arm and I just couldn’t get the forehead any better. But that is the correct color of the photo now.

DiBaz

to this:

DiBaz6

And one of my 3 siblings and me:

4kids

4kids4

Couldn’t help compare this to my pal Barbara’s kiddos as she has a big boy and a little boy with a boy and girl in the middle. Dave is 12.5 yrs older than Ken whereas Don and I were 1 yr and 8 days apart.

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Then I was potting up baby coleus my Flickr pal Joy had left at her house for me on Tuesday. I hope they grow nice and bushy!

IMG_5224

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Tonight I watched Kate Winslet’s Oscar winning performance with Sean. ‘The Reader’ was a wonderful movie, but does have nudity and sex in the first half hour…so if you want to rent it, I’d watch it with the over 21 crowd.

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I have to make something good for dinner today as for two meals yesterday we ate take-out. I am having ‘a visitor’ now every 3.5 weeks and it’s pulling me down. I’m hoping it will lead to longer times between-mom said she had this issue too. It ain’t easy girls.

Jun5

Show & Tell

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Tin I found at a flea market, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I asked the guys (hub and son) if they wanted to take a ride down Rt. 1 to Nottingham, PA. which is the home of Herr’s, the potato chip factory. I got Sean to go on the promise that we would go to the gift shop for some ‘fresh’ chips. Lo and behold, the factory was closed on weekends! Across the street is this big ol’ horse barn/turned flea market. Lots of junkie stuff, but I found this gorgeous detailed tin (probably cake or cookies were inside at one time) that I got for about $4 as the lady only charged me $5 for it and an orange carnival glass vase. The vase has some defects-it looks like a crack is in it, but it’s the finish, but I could picture marigolds in it. So that was bounty of that little weekend excursion. : )

Jun4

Thursday Thunks

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1. How many golf balls can fit inside a full sized school bus?
Not a good question as I have a water-logged, PMSing brain. At least 10K+, wouldn’t you think? Do you know?
2. Who decided the alphabet order?
Plato? Socrates? Must be earlier-but I forget where. I know that answer is in the recesses of my brain somewhere.
3. Why doesn’t McDonald’s sell hotdogs?
Because they are one of the first burger joints around and don’t want to ruin their lead in that market.
4. You go to a nice restaurant and they are offering free samples of cheese. You take a bite and it’s delicious. Then they tell you the cheese is processed with maggots in it which make the great texture and flavor. Do you vomit at the thought of maggots, think “oh well but no more”, or just ask for another sample?
Up chunk and storm out as maggots are not a food item. Sorta reminds me of the time we went to a fairly nice brick oven pizza restaurant (not the first time there) and a roach crawled across the table. We got free dessert.
5. Would you rather ride on a cloud or slide down a rainbow?
The cloud as it would be cooler and be like riding in a hot air balloon.
6. Do you know/care who Heidi & Spencer are?
Vaguely-know they honeymooned in Mexico at the height of the Swine Flu epidemic-showed them wearing masks while in their swimsuits. Know they are always posing with their hands all over each other.
7. Pass-I am not an infant.
8. Pie or cake?
Either! I like pies more in the summer with BBQ and of course Pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. Cake for birthdays.
9. Do you remember when MTV used to play music videos?
I remember loving MTV when it was a new cable station. Helped me get through my gallbladder removal recovery.
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It’s chilly here today and more rain is expected. Looks like my get together may get canceled. The one lady has a infant for a foster child and he just got a double ear infection yesterday. I’m glad the nice weather (ha) has just begun as we have all summer to see each other.