Sep14

Keep Life Simple and some Autumnal decor

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As usual, when I tidy up my papers, I get some ideas for my collages. I had recently clipped a tourist guide for Ireland and saved the awesome cliff and ocean photo. Not knowing what to do next, I happened upon a postcard booklet of Gustav Dore and chose this lady who looked like she was looking over the cliff. I picked ‘Keep Life Simple’ as she was enjoying the view over the cliff. I found out I used an engraving with ‘purgatory’ in the name! No, this doesn’t now change the meaning of the card!
Also, here is my dining room table with some new things added. I got out my table cloth with the autumn colors. I had bought the new cloth napkins from a flea market and they are from Anthropolgie, as are the mushroom s&p that Brian gave me a few years ago. The sandwich plates and pine cone bowls are from The Christmas Tree Shoppe-$1.99 each and they are nicely made. Bri gave me some flowers yesterday and I added them to an acorn lidded piece. The fireplace has some sunflowers across it, but I’m still working on it. Please ignore the messiness in the sofa area, things are being sorted out to put away. I’ll miss the summer seashells and things.

Autumnal Decorated Dining Table
Autumnal Decorated Dining Table
Sean and I will hopefully take my mom somewhere for an early birthday gift, though he is having a lot to say about the place in Lancaster with the craft warehouse. He took off from work as he thought we were headed to the beach, but that’s a long drive. Hope he thinks about what his grandmom would like first and not himself.

Sep13

Garden Helpers & Meatless Mondays

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I like my collage for today as it is all about ‘working’ outside in the gardens. The children are from a 1936 reader that my mom could have used back then as she was 6 yrs old that year. The book is in such great shape, I decided to only scan some of the photos and not to cut it up.
It’s so great to dig through my art and paper stuff each day, but I need to do some major tidying. Everytime I try to tidy, I get ideas for new collages. This is #18! I really haven’t been stumped yet-let’s see how I do on #156.
Sir Paul McCartney and his daughters were on a leaflet we received at the concert about trying to go meatless one day a week, so why not on Mondays? I did eat a leftover half of prime rib sandwich for lunch, but our dinner was totally meatless. I did a Strata with Artisan bread, tomato, parsley,feta, onion and eggs-very delicious.
Strata with parsley, onion and tomato
Our salad was Arugula with white beans, red pepper and handmade lemony dressing. I got a new cookbook at The Christmas*Tree Shoppe from Food & Wine magazine. They had several editions. They review 25 cookbooks from that particular year and include several recipes from each.The ones we had were in the first few chapters!
Sean and I are taking my mom to Lancaster (that’s if she shows up as she said she’d sleep over at her brother’s and drive over). Originally we were thinking Atlantic City, but that’s 90 miles or so and it’s expensive down there. Plus we had her there on our vacation in ’08 and ’09. We can take her to the Smorgesbord. If we actually were taking her on the 23rd, she’d get a free dinner-rats. I think it will be a nice change of scenery for her too.

Sep12

A walk around Kennett Square PA’s 25th Mushroom Festival

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It was an overcast, but not so warm day today. Sean and I went up to the next town over and got a large sampling of ‘fair’ food to bring home. We saw that Aetna and Food Network were sponsors and heard Bobby Flay had been there (after looking at the story about this, I believe this wasn’t so). Today lovely Oklahoma native Sunny Anderson from the Food Network Show ‘Cooking for Real’ was there. She was very sweet to meet.
Sean got a big frosty mug of cream (vanilla) soda that you could get ‘free’ refills on. I know he wanted one last year, but the price and the bees were bad. It was still pricey, but it was a huge drink and he brought the mug home.
The food haul-two cups of mushroom soup (for me) from Longwood Gardens. They forgot to give me a mushroom shaped cookie I paid for. I figure I am going to LG for free now and we had to park far away or I’d go get it. Got a springroll from Talula’s Table (the chef had been on Martha Stewart) which had a nice amount of lemon grass in it. We also got a noodle and mushroom dish that Sean took with him to work and he ate a huge sausage sandwich for lunch! It’s all about the food, baby!
Since we parked down a street with century old homes, I snapped a few shots of them to share.

Sep11

Mamma Mia I Love Pizza

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Got yet another collage uploaded with a few minutes to spare. I had these realistic stickers which were too big for my little Art trading cards. Hey, I did over 2 weeks of cards already!
Spent the evening with some old friends. I found Cindy on FB a month or so again and she was sweet enough to invite us to dinner. Bri use to work with her husband. They have a rambunctious mixed breed pooch who tried to be friendly with us. We got to see their oldest daughter who we hadn’t seen since she was about 10! It’s nice to be with other couples once in a while.

Sep11

Photo Hunt-Anniversary

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Nine years ago-September 11, 2001-Andrew Card leaned down to President GW Bush to tell him some shocking news-‘America is under attack’. The look on Bush’s face tells it all.
So on this anniversary-here are two American flags and one for Pennsylvania, photographed at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philly-July 2010. Living in this state with those planes overhead that day was not a pleasant memory. The plane meant for the White House went down not too far from where Sean went to college, though he was a Freshman in high school at the time around here. I will be thinking about all the people who lost their lives that day, including the captain (WTC) who lived in the same area as the school district where my family attended/s.

Sep10

Sing Your Own Song

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Your Own Song 4" x 4" Collage, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I just finished my collage up around 10 tonight! Had a rough night sleeping as my neck was hurting me and waking me up when I turned over to the right. I have used heat and ice today-it only seems to hurt when I lay down these last few nights. I was able to go out for a few hours with my thoughtful son to a couple of select stores down in nearby Delaware. One of them was Michael’s. They have some awesome bins in the front with $1 items. See the birdcage-a $1 rubber stamp. We also ate at a brick oven pizza joint.
We watched ‘Stand Up 2 Cancer’ which aired on all the major stations tonight. I know a number of cancer survivors-one of my best friends from community college, another FB friend who went to the same college and my uncle who survived prostate cancer from about 1997 and is 87 yrs young now. He lost his stepdaughter this year from pancreatic cancer. If you know me from 3 years ago, I had a breast biopsy which proved benign. I urge all ladies to get mammograms. Mine were microcalifications-so I couldn’t feel them. My scar finally smoothed down, but it’s a constant reminder of that time. Next on the agenda-a colonoscopy. Bri has one April 09 and it’s my turn.
Have a pleasant weekend! Lots of things going on plus the 25th Annual Mushroom Festival in the next town over Kennett Square. We may attend that on Sunday. We are going to dinner at some old friends’ home-found the wife on FB! : )

Sep9

Good Walking Day

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Good Witch 4" x 4" Collage, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

The scent of fall (plus spent mushroom dirt-ugh) was in the air today as Sean and I went to the park-for the second time this week for me! Don’t faint! I’ve walked over a mile in two days. We have a lovely park (and I was going to bring my camera and forgot) a few miles away. Sean use to run on the h.s. track, but now that school is in session, he’s gone back to the park. He’s doing 3/4 mile, but stops a few times. I really try not to stop on my 1/2 mile. I did feel better today-not as achy.
I decided to do Glinda today. Who doesn’t love Glinda with her big pink bubble and equal bubblegum pink gown? I also loved her crown! I knew the movie was old when I was a kid (at least 25 yrs or so when I first saw it) and I couldn’t believe she would have a crown that looked plastic like my toys-lol. Did you not love her voice, rather high and Munchkin-like?
I thought my handmade paper made a great bubble!
Here is a comparsion of the two cards-I didn’t use the first as a reference, but used the same swirls and the homemade paper in different colors.

Comparsion of the two witch collage

Sep8

Different Plans

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Bad Witch 4" x 4" Collage, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

My mom decided to try and switch her hearing aide appt to another town closer to my uncle’s house. The man who adjusts them was too busy to call her back. I do believe there is road construction right outside of Kennett, so maybe that was for the best.
Instead, I mailed off the Harvest Angel I made to jolly old England and a neat architecture design book from the last century to my oldest nephew, the interior designer. Mom had given it to me, but it had David’s name written all over it.
I went grocery shopping, so nice and quiet with the kids back in school.
I hope you like my ‘Bad Witch’ collage from one of my favorite movies, ‘The Wizard of Oz’. the witch and wording are from a scratch pad I bought from Current Stationery a few years back. Maybe I’ll use the other end and do the ‘good witch’ tomorrow. It’s based on the tornado scene at the beginning of the movie.

Please let me know if you want to try a few of the seeds I harvested from the previous post.

Sep8

Let There Bee Harmony

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Bee Harmony 4" x 4" Collage, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I did make this on Tuesday! I was over on e*Bay listing a few things on the last day of free insertion of auctions right before midnight!
Harmony is a good word to use because I did call my mom yesterday and she was okay. I explained the power of positive thinking. Crossing fingers there! She will be out in this area today to get her hearing aides adjusted. It was a good time to call. She asked if I had received a card and it came yesterday. Cute kitty card, but she just picked up where she left off on the phone. Moms are pieces of work. Wait! I’m a mom too.
I love these beehive stickers and that was the focus of this collage. The background is Fairytale type paper. I have seen more bees this year in the gardens, but many more butterflies.
Brian is going up the turnpike to gorgeous Bucks County today for a class/meeting. He rarely cares about his wardrobe and was scampering around earlier looking for nice slacks. He says all the legs on his pants are too wide, but he isn’t tall and wears a 40 inch waist. Anyone know of pants tailored to fit different body types better? I feel bad for him, but the wider pant legs (which I won’t play with, meaning sewing the seams)don’t look that bad. Almost all my slacks have had to be turned up over the years.