help.

Things I overheard the 16-yr-old son saying to his
friend today on the phone:

"What we really need is a steam roller . . ."

"A controlled fire would work . . ."

Did I even WANT to stick around to hear more?

That would be a resounding NO. Just kept on walking,
thank you very much.

Later:

"Mom, I'm going to Devin's, okay?"

"Sure, but no controlled fires."

"Oh, don't worry, they won't be controlled."

He's soooo very funny . . .

Now seriously, does anyone have any recommendations for
dial-up internet? Please? Help? Anyone?

theme Thursday challenge

Theme Thursday challenge.

angel ATC for Faye

Polished stone background technique, Altered Pages
image, vintage crocheted trim, metal finding, organdy
ribbon, tiny gold bead, distress inked edges.

inchie challenge

Stumbled across an inchie challenge site today while
blog hopping:
Nancy's Small World of Inchies and Twinchies.

It's a challenge blog, and the theme this week is
Me and My Pet:



This is an inchie--the image is from Altered Pages, and the
background papers are Basic Grey. The feather is from a
guinea hen.

Thank you for the challenge, Nancy, I really like your site!!

i love this woman!!

Do you know her? Her name is Victoria Stilwell, and
she definitely knows her stuff.

We've never had a dog who would run away from me.
Naughty Jimmy, on the other hand, when he had something
he knew/thought he shouldn't (i.e., DH's leather slippers,
a dead squirrel, etc.) would tear off a mile a minute in
the opposite direction. Thus, the Naughty.

When we were on vacation, we would crash in front of the
TVs in the evening. We do not have cable, or satellite,
here at home (nope, never have--one of my mommy rules),
so Miss Victoria and her dog training show on Animal
Planet was an immediate hit with the DD and I, as we were
trying to train that Jimmy.

Like any good homeschool mom, I'd already hit up the library
for 20 or so books about dog training, but they did NOT
address the issues with which we were concerned. Namely,
how to get a puppy to quit eating nasty stuff, how to get a
puppy to not run away with said nasty stuff . . .

ANYWAY, we learned the "trade" technique from Victoria,
and honestly, after maybe 5 minutes of training, Naughty
Nasty Jimmy is now just Jimmy! First, he brought me the
safety goggles. Then, a leather work glove. I assumed
that these things probably weren't all that exciting for
him, so I was interested to see if the "trade" would
work on something really juicy and disgusting.

It worked, perhaps a little too well--he traded his
bone (actually three bones, still jointed together,
quite a find!) for a dog cookie. This wasn't TOO nasty,
but the dead and decomposing mole, that was the final test,
and Jimmy passed. He actually brought the little nasty
to me from out of the yard and dropped it at my feet!

Thank you, Victoria!

Now, if we could just teach him to do laundry . . .

my daughter's dog.

"If I could pick out any dog I wanted, it would probably be a cat."

some things I've (re)learned the last few weeks--

1. REAPPLY that sunscreen.

2. Keep a fire extinguisher handy.

3. If you're patient enough (or go away for a week), your
garden really WILL grow. (The basil plants are thriving--
guess who's having pesto tonight?? AND the tomato plants
are blooming!!)

4. Don't drink a double espresso mixed with a regular
coffee directly prior to working on an art-type
project. (Lola, that would probably also apply to
cutting out a pattern . . .)



The kicker is that I sent this in as part of a kit at
Altered Pages.
Sorry about that, Jacki!

5. We really need faster intraweb in this house.
I miss visiting all my imaginary friends.

*sigh*

Will be at the shop tomorrow, so am going to try
to steal some company time on the computer.

But we're not really a company.

So that makes it okay, right?

See you tomorrow!!

:)

serendipity

Here is a story for you.

Once upon a time, my friend the Contessa told me
she had been published in a magazine or two.

"Well, doesn't that sound like fun?" I thought.

So, I submitted some things here:


and they were published like this:


(a little bit closer now . . .)


I feel like a very happy dork.

A dork, because all the other pieces in this issue
are so much more interesting than mine.

But a very happy dork none-the-less, because there
are my little French girls, and fairy, for all to see.

See?

(Don't you love happy endings?)

:)

wisteria

This is what dd sees when she looks out of her bedroom window.
It's wisteria, hanging over the deck.


Here's what it looks like from on the deck. Unfortunately
for you, it is impossible to translate the wonderful scent . . .


. . . or the sound of the bumbles buzzing in it! It's
quite a noise, let me assure you. They're very benign,
however--we've never been stung by a bumble in all our
10 years here.

anything new blooming with you?

Here is our new volunteer puppy, Jimmy.
AKA Little Jimmy,
Nasty Jimmy,
Naughty Jimmy, and
Little Jimmy Dickens.


These smell wonderful!


These are some type of peony, a woody shrub, a
beautiful, prolific bloomer at our house.

Pics courtesy of the dd.

one more, as per her request:

Maggie up a tree. Maggie the Cat.
This cat is very much the dd's. In the World
According to Maggie, we exist only to do her
bidding.

Come to think of it, Jimmy is the only one of
our pets whose name is not have some type of
literary allusion.

I don't think he'll notice.