Sep21

Domestic Dianne

Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 by Dianne

I decided to go help my mom a bit yesterday. She seemed like she needed me to come down and I did. I can’t do any yard work there as she has a bad mosquito problem. There must be a ton of stuff filled with water around in hidden places. I got out of the van and one landed on me!

So I did half the kitchen. She is rearranging cabinets, but what I saw, didn’t work. I tried to put all the tomato based items on one shelf, then separated the fruits and veggies. For some reason she has a spider problem in her cabinets. I am not a spider fan and was scared to put my hands in them as I saw little egg sacks. I had to get the broom first. I also went through her spices. For someone who has so much of everything (like 7 cans of tuna), she was trying to hold on to open jars of spices (no lids) and outdated items. I really think her time in that house is limited. I wish she’d just let me help as much as I can.

For some reason she took boxes from her basement and but them outside and never brought them in again. She said she was sorting them out, but water got in them and ruined books, yarn and Christmas ornaments. I think her reasoning skills are affected a bunch from her pain meds.

We did go out to dinner to Bennigan’s where she had steak and I had salmon. I’m thinking of the Omega 3 factor since Bri and I are getting our bloodwork done on Tuesday morning. I sure hope my triglycerides are lower. I am trying to take the flaxseed oil capsules a few times a week too.

I cleaned in my kitchen today. I wiped down shelves and the top of the frig-ugh! And I also wiped out the garden window and rearranged the plants. You have to be somewhat of a contortionist to get to the glass shelf and the deep part, but it looks so nice now.

And here are a few ATCs I’ve been working on lately.

Today, a friend in California sent me her little collage book to add to. I was flattered.

Have a great weekend!

Sep20

CONTEST IS OVER

Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 by Dianne

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Take heed oh weary yellow squash counters! The yellow squash looks pretty beat (and dead) so I think our contest is over. Please go here and leave a comment (please leave me some way of contacting you-blog,etc. as one comment there doesn’t have any). Only one guess per blogger please. I will see if anyone came close or was right on the money when the guesses are checked. Try not to guess what someone else has guessed. The comments section will close on Sunday at midnight.

If you guess correctly, I will cross stitch you a special prize!

Sep19

Mandevilla

Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 by Dianne

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My own flowers! I am happy that these bloomed. And to think the nursery was trying to sell them for about $20 each and was tossing them out. See what a little TLC can do?

I have no idea if I can save these from year to year. It wouldn’t hurt if I brought them in before the frost. I have to designate a place for my bring in plants. Where I had them in the past year-well between the heat and too much sun, I didn’t have much left by March.
Later Bri and I are taking Cosmo kitty to the vet. I refuse to go alone. It’s hard enough to get him in the cat carrier as it is. He’s been such an affectionate fellow too. Last night he was so content to be on my lap. Hope he doesn’t hate me tonight!

Sep18

The best therapy

Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 by Dianne

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The favorite of the 67 I took:

I lasted an hour, but I did a ton of walking. It’s the first time I felt relaxed in a long time. I wasn’t ever really alone. People said ‘hello’ or made comments about things. There is an outdoor train set up featuring Thomas the Train and the little ones were going ga ga!
I bought myself some nasturtium seeds and a little boxed display of speckled eggs-so cute. Watch for a slide show and a video!

Sep18

So I’m thinking

Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 by Dianne

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It would be a nice day to go to Longwood Gardens and use up some of that pass I bought in January. I’ve been there only twice this year. Bad girl! I was going to walk for exercise around this scenic area and get snap happy with the camera. That doesn’t mean I can’t go every week now until the end of the year or until the pass runs out. And I don’t have to stay 4 hours. I could stay 1/2 hour. The thing for me is going alone. I know, I thought this out. I was hoping there was a walking group there and I need to look into that. Most of the people I know around here are acquaintances. Believe me, I tried for BFF with some people who turned out to be jerks. It’s easier with acquaintances. I have my family to think about first anyway.

Thanks for the 10 or so visitors to my neighborhood yesterday. I actually thought of adding more photos, but those who know me, know I have tons of photos in flickr(see side bar). Speaking of Longwood Gardens, I have a slideshow of that at slide.com (if you go there, click ‘original view’). And over in Vodpod is a little movie of my yard. I haven’t made any new movies lately. I have to think about what to make a movie of. Maybe I should take two cameras with me to LG!

So my private caller didn’t call back…yet. It’s almost noon. I’m thinking it’s an organization that is always calling here for money(who have called again and again) and I do believe they had a private number. The day isn’t over yet, but I am not going to fret about it.

I’m trying out flax seed capsules for my triglycerides. I need to get them checked out as it’s been 14 months since my last bloodwork was done. I read that salmon and fish oil is better and it helped Bri. I really dislike burping the fishy taste. My pal at tribe.net said there is another type of fish oil that isn’t as burpy. I’d rather eat salmon! Blackened salmon cajun style-yum!

Update of the college guy-he sent me his first paper to proof read about surveillance. I think he had trouble writing two pages about that. He mentioned where he worked-there was a camera pointed on the registers at all times-where he spent most of his time at Big Lots. He also mentioned the web cams he has seen around the beach resorts and NYC. He got his second goody package from me yesterday which included two boxes of individually wrapped ‘Wet Ones’. He said he wouldn’t mind having some of those. ; )

Sep17

Welcome to my Neighborhood

Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007 by Dianne

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I thought I’d play along. I don’t have the great photos that Pea and her pal Kathleen Marie (and others) have and some of mine are from last year. We have lived in SE Pennsylvania and in this house for 21 years now. We have watched a lot of cornfields give way to housing developments, especially across the road and around the corner. Our road just gets busier and busier, though you do look like you are on a country road-it’s just a thoroughfare to get the two supermarkets (and shopping centers) about a mile away from here.

It’s really hard to stop and take photos on my busy back road. I live on the west end of the road and these were taken last week on the east end where there is more scenery:

Around this same area, the movie ‘The Village’ was filmed a few years ago.

Along our road, which stretches many miles, there are also mushroom houses as that’s the main industry around these parts. You can check out more photos from our outing last weekend.

So this is my house and side yard. You aren’t seeing the family room windows(left) or two of the three bedroom windows (right).

That is my new front window, installed May, 2006. Bri added the brick sidewalk about 12 or so years ago.

This is one of the Chestnut trees that I don’t care for as they are so messy throughout the year. I have 3 round gardens further back. The nearest garden has irises, the dinner plate hibiscus and hollyhock and is surrounded by little round box hedges. To the right of that (not shown) is a small rose bed I added last fall. Just recently, something made a snack of all the buds! The next garden back is my ‘seed’ garden where I plant sunflowers, cosmos and zinnias. You see that grape arbor? It gets full of sticky wild roses and the grapes are diseased. I want to tear it down and add an array of different color azaleas there. We have an old tractor tire garden where Bri mainly plants hot peppers. Beyond that is the veggie patch. I noticed that the apple tree that fell down a few weeks ago looks pretty good in this photo. We have a lot of yard that is just a grassy extension.

I may be adding more photos, who knows?

We live closer to ‘the next town’ then we do our actual mailing address town, so I feel more of a bond with ‘that’ town. Bri also works on the main street of that town now. I like the town a lot. My maternal great grandfather lived there for a year and he always talked about KS fondly. And we have Longwood Gardens about 8 minutes away! Philadelphia is about 35 miles away and we don’t venture there at often. Down the road about five miles, is the turn off toward Wilmington, DE. That is a beautiful road. And we go to Wilmington a little more often then we go to Philly.

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Here’s something completely different. I was home all day until 4 pm and ran down to the grocery store. Bri and I went out to grab a quick dinner. I picked up the phone to look at the caller ID around 8:30 and some ‘private caller’ had called here at 4:22 and didn’t say anything. I had just scheduled a vet visit for the kitty and a mammogram, so maybe one of them was calling back. But I had also been to the gyn and had a test done. Of course I got nervous. I went online and it said it takes up to 3 weeks to get the results for a pap. I couldn’t help but think about that. I guess they will call tomorrow.

Sep16

Say it ain’t so

Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007 by Dianne

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That I am still pulling weeds in the middle of September! Usually by now I say the heck with it. I have to admit that I did the front area where people look as they pass the house. I filled up two garden carts with weeds, mostly those long grasses. Now my pretty blue and peach salvia are making a nice show. I promise a photo. I gave up weeding after an hour as my back was hurting. I am also pleased with my ‘trash grabs’; remember when Sean and I went to the nursery a few months back and the lady gave me plants she was tossing? They both are blooming-pink and white trumpet flowers-one is the Mandevilla and the other is very similar, but the leaves are a bit different.

When I came in I decided to make the gown for my ‘Mommy paper doll’. My friend gave me the body template and I used the photo of my mom when she was about 20. I assembled the body with brads and painted it too. The dress is made from some of the scrap paper I got in the mail yesterday. Her belt and shoes were made from a band from a candy box. Her belt and bag have butterfly accents. I think she looks like she is ready to go to the Emmys (you all are getting a sneak peek)!

And here’s her journal with her initials and the first page that I did for her:

I worked on my ’57 Thunderbird (Love Quilts) while watching the Emmys. It was in ‘the round’ and I felt bad for winners like James Spader who said they were the ‘worst seats he ever had’. I was glad Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy won. It was neat to see some of the cast from ‘Roots’ which was a miniseries 30 yrs ago when I graduated from high school. I didn’t know that Edward Albert, Jr (Butterflies are Free) had passed away last September-the ‘In Memorium’ showed his picture. I looked him up and he was only 55 and had lung cancer. His dad had passed on in ’06 at 96! Eddie Jr took care of his dad for 10 yrs. I liked both of them a lot.

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We went to church this morning as we thought Father M needed help as the ‘main’ usher was in a car accident last week in Virginia. We had heard he bruised or broke his ribs, but he was in the hospital. We have known Chris and his family for at least 10 years and when we saw him standing there today, well I just had to give him a hug! I think I surprised him! Later he told Bri that the rear axle on his Ford Explorer had broken when he was going about 55 mph! He rolled over at least 2-3 times and doesn’t remember anything except waking up when the paramedics were talking to him. I think he’s one lucky guy!

Sep15

Found this neat place-part 2

Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 by Dianne

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I was looking for a journal for my mom as a birthday gift. It had to have blank pages and if it had handmade paper, the better. So I looked in about 4 different places locally, nothing. I got online and found: Creative Papers Online and it’s really awesome! The journal is exactly what I was looking for-even nicer. I ordered handmade papers too-they’re huge-I didn’t look at the size, but they’re about 3’x3′. AND, you must order the HALF price ($4.64) 1/2 pound of super scrap assortment. They should take the word scrap out of there as it’s gorgeous paper-perfect for art projects. I’d say there are 20 pieces of 10″ x 10″ (around that). All colors and textures. I was ga ga!! To get to where you order ‘the scraps’, you have to put something in your basket and proceed to check out. It will take you to a page and ask if you want to add the assortment to your order-check it off!!!

A lady from the company called and asked if I wanted to sub some paper for another, which I did. On the order form she included a note that said she hoped my mom enjoyed the journal as much as I do.(edited from a note I left for my crafting pals).

Sep15

Found this neat place

Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 by Dianne

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Frazy.com lets you search for your favorite books, music and movies so you can make a neat table like this. These aren’t all of James Taylor’s lps, but a nice sampling of them. I have my list of movies up on Myspace-the link is in my sidebar.

I’m still working on the Photo Hunt about plastic. I think I’ll just point you down to that plastic college ID of yours truly!
Got up a little late as I didn’t get to sleep until after 2 am. Driving sometimes does that to me since I am over alert (a good thing, when I am on the road).
I happened upon ‘Meerkat Manor’ on Animal Planet-what funny little creatures. I know the producers, etc. don’t want to disturb the balance of nature, but how can they let the little babies die from starvation? I was hoping they take them back to a animal rescue, if there is one out there.

Sep14

90 odd miles

Posted on Friday, September 14, 2007 by Dianne

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I put about that on the van these last three days. Yesterday I went back to the gyn and had a ‘newbie’ midwife. She was really sweet and explained ‘everything’ she was going to do before she did it. I felt young again! She’s the one that called the doc upstairs the day before as the baby she was delivering had an erratic heart rate.

I’m pleased to say I’ve sold a few things on eBay these last few weeks. I packaged them up and off they went across the states and across the county! A guy near here bought a Herman Munster Halloween mask.

I went down to see my mom today and she was not herself at all. She spent two hours Thursday using the weedwacker and she was just loaded with mosquito bites! She treated me to my favorite lunch (chicken salad club) up the road and I enjoyed that. We ventured to JoAnn’s where I left two of my finished cross stitched pieces for framing. I got 50% off, but it was still very expensive. I’ve only had one piece of my work framed all these years, and it was an embroidery I did of Holly Hobbie when I was 16. I guess I’m due for a treat. My mom did pay for one of them. They should be ready in a few weeks.

I came home earlier as mom had been feeling poorly in JoAnn’s and needed to lay down as she felt a migraine coming on. I think I’m going to have to go clean at her place once a week as I didn’t like what I saw. ~~Decorating~~, I mean helping out at my uncle’s house is too much for her. She runs away from her own mess. I’m concerned with her driving skills too as she got too close to a barrier at a gas station and put a nice dent in her car. I had done almost the same kind of thing years ago at McDonald’s with one of their barriers. My kitty Jade had a seizure and I was upset about that (left her at the vets) and wasn’t careful enough at the drive-thru.

I wanted to tell you about an elderly gentlemen that I think everyone overheard the other night in the restaurant where we had dinner. He was with a young guy, late teens. He was one of the founders of the New Bolton Center where Barbaro the horse was treated last year. He talked and talked and had a sharp memory. When he said he graduated from high school in 1937, I figured he was 88 (correct?)! Wow. I was impressed.

Have a great weekend!