Aug10

A desk with a view

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This was all yesterday:

Since Bri and I were flying solo (Sean made a day trip to a Delaware Beach), we got moving on my craft area. I’m not saying everything is honky dorie yet, but things are in place. It has a great view of the overgrown butterfly bush and the butterflies that have been visiting there. Lots of dust and sorting. Uggha. So my ‘antique’ Shaker desk is now under my dining room window. It’s painted a funky blue-will have to do something with the paint. It’s ‘sister’ desk was stripped somewhat by me and use to hold the microwave in the kitchen. We made the switcher-roo between the blue and the wood (blue was in the guest room, the wood in the basement). We had to put our teak tea cart in the basement for now-hated to, no room up here. I may offer it to a family member, but it’s not in the best of shape. May end up getting rid of it in the long run. It served it’s purpose. Just taking all the crap stuff off the dining room table and moving it to the desk a big difference. That’s my plan. I really need a super cute storage unit with drawers. The plastic boxes look ugly. When I get it a bit more tidied up, I’ll post a photo.

Sean got home around 7-it was really crowded down in Delaware. They tried Rehoboth first, no parking whatsoever-ended up down the road in Dewey. I was glad to have found a coupon for buy one, get one free at a popular pizza place down there for $10. Mentally I’m taking the $10 of the price of the $35 coupon book. I usually get my money’s worth out of it. : ) Sean has sunburn only on one upper arm. It was probably the way he was sitting on the beach. We go to Atlantic City in a week. Just saw where a guy fell off the escalator where we will be staying (he was sitting on the arm and got killed-geez).

I hope you got to see the opening ceremony of the Olympics-what a techno fabulous show! My mom called me to see if I had it on as she was so impressed by it all. Terrible about the Americans hurt (killed) there.

Sorry to hear about the passing of Bernie Mac-just his facial expressions made you laugh.

Better go to bed soon as we need to go to church tomorrow. I hope my sinuses will forgive me for all the dust I inhaled today.

One of my latest creations-she’s eating glitter-opps:
Hope ATC

Don’t the jewels look real-they’re stickers! The lady is from a Victorian inspired catalog. The painting they offer of her is called a ‘yard long’ as she’s 36″ long. I wanted to try some new rubber stamps too.

Aug9

Photo Hunt-Dark

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This reminds me of the Olympic opening ceremony last night-all the gorgeous colors in the dark!

Hmmm….most of my dark photos deal with Christmastime. This is one of my favorite nighttime photos of the fountain and light show at Longwood Gardens (it has saved me in the hunt more than you know, though I may have used this one before-I forget). The stars were hanging from the trees and I was actually behind where the people were sitting to view the show. Christmas music was playing too.

It’s going to be a pleasant day today. Sean is going to the beach for a daytrip with some pals. I hope he has a great time!

Aug8

Show & Tell #4

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I wanted to say that it’s been nice to meet many new bloggers through Kelli’s Show & Tell. I have been so impressed by all the terrific blogs I’ve seen over the last few weeks. There are many interesting people out there and you are all special. Nice to meet you!

Today, here is my late Grandmom Ruth’s little Martha Washington cabinet that I have in my family room with mostly my cross stitch and crochet supplies tucked inside it’s little drawers and bin like sides.

I know, there’s so much on top of it! Carol from A Garden of Stitches made me the little ‘Stick it Here’ pincushion and Barbara from Mainly Stitching made the pillow top pin cushion. I made the framed pieces you see-the Big Bee, Little Bee on top of the cabinet and the little stitching girl on the wall. I have some cute thread spool garland draped around the walled piece. I am dying to get some new window treatments there. The little cabinet sat in the hallway in mom’s house (my grandmom lived with us, it was her house too) and it was rather neglected and lost it’s pretty shine. I actually saw a similar one at Chadds Fords Day and it was polished and preserved nicely.

Here’s what’s on top closer up:

I found the little stitching girl at a flea market-it’s a pin cushion too. My dear late friend Charlotte gave me the book leaning against the wall there. I should show you the gorgeous box there too with copies of vintage sewing items that my friend Barb from Colorado gave me. It’s really neat.

Aug7

Bulk item happy

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Sean and I did head for BJs Wholesale Club in the afternoon. Those places always overwhelm me! We took around a calculator and we were watching what we spent. I had to use the restroom and when I came back, Sean had messed up the running total! The items don’t have prices on them, the signs are the only indicator of what the prices are. We were very selective. We’ll be splitting some stuff, but he’ll have a good array of snacks and breakfast cereals to last him until he comes home and we go again. He got a huge Phillies towel for $15. It will be great for him to toss in the wash and not have tons of towels to worry about.

We ate in a Chili’s where Sean and I shared nachos and he had shrimp fajitas and I had the little burgers, two I saved for Bri.

Sean had to have car repair and it was expensive. He is planning a day trip with a pal or two to one of the Delaware beaches, and of course he is going back to PSU in a little over 2 weeks! I don’t know where this summer went. Of course I’ll miss him, but now he has an apartment and we could take the inflatable mattress up and spend the weekend with him sometime. We haven’t made our minds up if we are going with him this time.

I got a few cross stitch magazines at a Barnes & Noble. I got the one with the DaVinci lady that I admired a few weeks ago. I think I’ll kit her up! Got the JCS Xmas ornament preview issue and Cross stitch and Needleworks for the Halloween design from Mirabilia.

As luck has it, my uncle’s neighbor is a retired chiropractor and his son is a practicing one! And he’s right in the same complex as my dentist, eye doctor and GP! I’ll call to see if they take our insurance. My shoulder blade is better, but I’m getting a flash of tingling that goes around to the front after I’ve been sitting a while like in a car. What I’ve read, it sounds like a pinched nerve. It doesn’t bother me when I am sleeping-yet.

Mom’s friend Jim went in a rehab (I think) center near the main line of Philly today. His brother-in-law will be coming to help clear out his room and ‘tons’ of stuff at mom’s house. My #2 bro has been really testy and wants to hire a company to clean out some part of mom’s house. He complains about me not doing cleaning and sorting down there. This isn’t exactly the time of year I do that-I’ve got a big yard to tend! I did try to make an art corner in my dining area and got laid up with my shoulder. I still want to do this. Waiting for someone to move a table in there for me. I may not even like the chosen table.

Think I’ll go drool over the cross stitch magazines. : )

I’d love to go to Longwood Gardens tomorrow, but carrying the camera and it’s case may be pushing it. Walking isn’t really a problem. It’s lifting and sitting too long that bothers me. And you know if you have anything that is ‘off’, it effects your entire self.

Aug6

Art and cooking

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Different ideas same background ATCs, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I was looking through stuff as I sorted last week. This week seems to be a bust because of my back issues. The sore spots like to move around, but Advil and the heating pad are my pals. It doesn’t bother my rest, just when I am sitting a lot which isn’t good.
I found a really neat page in a landscape catalog we picked up at the Philadelphia Flower show this year. These are what I made from the one page-all these cards’ backgrounds! I know, my imagination tends to run wild. I loved her eyes in the one image of Clara Bow, so they became the focus of the card. The other lady card is indeed Clara Bow again. She was gorgeous in my opinion.

The Michelangelo prophets are from a Dover Publications sticker book. I used both Isaiah and Jeremiah on my cards then did a google search to find out that Isaiah literally put the fear of God in people and Jeremiah was know as ‘the broken hearted’ prophet. Interesting!
Here is what we had for dinner last night called Frittata Al Tonno.
Frittata Al Tonno
Found it on the Chicken of the Sea website. I wanted to use tuna, and it also has eggs (of course), zucchini, onion, basil and tomatoes-mostly fresh from our garden. The secret was to cover the pan and steam the eggs for about 5 minutes. Both guys asked if it was quiche!
And speaking of eating-on the opposite end of the spectrum, our cute little mop top and bottom moths are cannibals! I found a completely bare stem of milkweed and there was only bits and pieces of a bunch of the critters left on it. Not saying a bird or two didn’t get to them. But I am sure I haven’t seen too many of the moths around.

My mom has loved paperdolls since she’s been a little girl and has collected Tom Tierney (also from Dover Pubs) for many years. Look what Mr. Tierney just came up with, no surprise to me. I’m thinking their clothes can’t be too exciting, maybe Senator Obama’s?

And three cute little girls-two fairly famous-you know who they are (belong to B and A):

and a little girl I found on etsy-on her mom Adrianne’s store:

I photoshopped this a bit. As you can see, I live vicariously through those who have daughters. : ) I’m still hoping for a granddaughter or two someday.

Sean and I are off to BJs Wholesale Club tomorrow. I broke down and bought a membership there. Dangerous-big quantities of things-must buy-!!!!

Aug5

Look that this mop top!

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And mop bottom too! LOL

milkweed tussock moth caterpillar on the wrong plant to have a snack, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I always wondered what these caterpillars were. A little google search lead me to the correct page-they are Milkweed Tussock Moths. They are kinda pretty with their silvery wings when they turn into moths.

And of course they seem like they this area of PA. They have devoured the milkweed which I save for the Monarch! Hopefully the Monarchs got their fill of the tender milkweed they prefer.

Went to the dentist and they got kinda quiet. Without x-rays, he found 5 small cavities in my front teeth, but they can wait until the insurance turns over in January. He gave me a special paste I have to apply before bed to help my aging, barely holding in there teeth (so I exaggerate-seems many of my family members are good at that lately!) My dilemmas!!

Kudos to my friend Karin for landing a great job as a Culinary instructor at a Vo-tech school! She just graduated in December from culinary school and had a job with sporadic hours, so she is happy to get this one.
Jim needs another operation to fix his nose. I am so sick about wondering about how he hurt himself so badly.

Aug3

The Dark Knight

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Sean wanted to see The Dark Knight for a few weeks now. Seems most of his pals had seen it and raved about it (young 20s raving about a movie isn’t going to be a movie a late 40s is necessarily going to want to see). I was kinda hoping Brian would step up and go with him, but good ol’ ma with her bad back sat for 2 1/2 hours of gravelly voices, things exploding and moving too fast and watching Heath Ledger give the performance of his short lifetime. He probably had to dig really deep to pull out the scariness of The Joker. He scared me good! Christian Bale is a great Batman, but this really was Heath’s movie.

I could not believe a couple had their two little girls, I’d say 3 and 2 to see that movie! They walked around a lot, but it was way too graphic and loud for them. The scariest movie Sean saw as a 3 yr old was ‘The Little Mermaid’.

We ate at a Red Robin restaurant which was good. Sean said the burgers rivaled Ruby’s Diner. I had some fried shrimp and fries which were good.

I am still suffering off and on with my right back shoulder blade area. Certain seating bothers me more, and the computer chair is one of them. I have a little pillow behind me. I also broke down and took an Advil which tends to be rough on my tummy.

So that was my day.

Bri’s worked his tail off in the yard over the last few days. Yesterday he trimmed the forsythia and today he cut the grass and did a little weed whacking until the cord ran out. Not sure how to wind it back on as I never did on this newer one before. It looks nice out there.

Hopefully I’ll get the art table set up this week.

Aug2

Photo Hunt-Clouds

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Sunset at Longwood with topiaries, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This was taken in early January, 06 at my favorite photo spot, Longwood Gardens. I don’t take that many sky or cloud photos, but I think this turned out pretty good. The silhouettes are topiaries.



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Aug2

Friend hurt

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My mom and her boarder Jim went to the movies tonight. When they came home, he went back out in the dark to get something out of the car and fell down hard and injured his head and face very badly. They had to call ‘911’ and an ambulance came. My brother said there was a lot of blood on mom’s patio and some other graphic things about his injury that I won’t post, but he’ll need to be stitched up quite a bit. We don’t know if he lost teeth, etc. Earlier this year, my brother put in paver stepping stones and one was a bit loose. But he also lined them with biggish rocks on each side. I don’t know if this is where he went down, but there is insignificant light in that area. I was against the rocks from the first time I saw them and can not move them out of the way myself. Could you keep Jim in your thoughts and prayers? He is just short of 62 and is a good Christian man who almost died as a boy. He just helped Sean with a paper on the Vietnam era. We’ve know him for years and years, so we are all upset about him. I will probably go down to my hometown tomorrow.

Update 12:11 pm Sat-Jim had to have plastic surgery and had his nose reconstructed. He said the worst part was putting the needles in his nose. Not sure if he can come back to mom’s as she can’t take care of him properly. I didn’t go down as my #2 bro is helping mom out.

My older brother went to his friend’s funeral today. Bob requested that everyone wear a Hawaiian shirt, I guess he liked to wear them.