stuff, stuff, and more stuff

I've been busy creating just for my sake - I am giving myself til the first and then it is back to the norm.

This clipboard is called "Great Expectations" (gee - imagine that)...the quote says: "I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her."

The photos are sweet - all featuring flowers. I love the one on the top right - it has an old shed and hollyhocks and a little girl - reminds me of my maternal great-grandmother's place - the old 'garage' and the hollyhocks.

The lower-left has a image of a seventeen year cicada. The mirror came out of an old accessories suitcase (I bought at Goodwill recently) - it was one that had elastic straps to hold a mirror (which had no frame on it).



This clipboard is called Doll - the middle photo had the name Doll scribbled on the top. The top photo is humorous to me - the images in the wall are apparently old fashion images (say Godey's or something).

I ripped a definition of Doll into the collage - the definition reads: "a toy in human form"



I love the background on this one - it is painted lace - I painted the clipboard and then laid the lace on it and painted it down in several colors and then pulled the lace off.

I am very happy with this one in spite of the mishap - I accidently spilled half a bottle of glue on it. I used a wet sponge brush and sponged, and sponged, and sponged away. The tea bag says "Fortune favors the brave" I have an old book lining with some quotes on it that I want to slip into the library card pouch when it dries.



These silhouettes of the girls are for my MIL for Mother's Day. I had fun with them. I love the frames - I would have not distressed them except one of them had some sort of green oxidation going on so I painted and sanded...(thrift store frames - what else do you do?)




BTW anybody want a clipboard? I will trade you for something - (I would love dozens and dozens of cardboard egg cartons (I am in the midst of a massive paper mache project) and I can always do clip boards or beads or...let me know...

I am also willing to give away - Intelligent Design or I'll Fly Away which you can see here: Design - is the big Sun and Fly Away has a big musical bird.

Wendy has snagged 'I'll Fly Away; and Christine has requested 'Great Expectations'

for UP

I saw this across the way from the Post Office yesterday - it was in the side yard of an assisted living facility...I thought he was pretty cool...

o pioneers

My 'big' gift for the girls this year was a pair of dress-up costumes. We have the first three unabridged audio books of the Little House Series and C loves them and so I made the girls prairie girl costumes. I decided to do this at the beginning of December so most of my free time this month was taken up in making their costumes and wrapping endless gifts (just when you think everything is wrapped - but hooray - I put away the gift wrap today). I must say, I am extremely pleased with the costumes. C wears hers every waking moment that we allow her to. Both girls have bonnets but K isn't too keen on wearing her's.

more tricks from a two-year-old

My dear friend from Scotland, Toppy, sent K this pacifier (or as they are called in our house, pipe).



K loves it. It was her new favorite pipe. But...

This afternoon when the girls were supposed to be napping, there was a tremendous racket coming from K's room. I decided to let her bang around for awhile before I went in to remind her what she was supposed to be doing. I went downstairs and found C up and going to the bathroom. She asked me what I was doing. She said I was so loud that she couldn't sleep and she had even tried counting sheep. I said it wasn't me, it was K and decided maybe I should look in on K. I found her in the corner behind the nightstand, she had taken the cover of the heat duct and was shoving her pipes down the ducting. I pulled out all the ones I could reach...unfortunately, I think the buckteeth must have gone down the pipe - as I can't find them anymore.

silent night, holy night

All is calm, all is bright








it takes just such a night to make this sort of frosted beauty.

a close up of the new cornea

Hubby had a corneal transplant in August. In his last visit they removed four of the stitches. Isn't the eye fascinating (I can also see where the term gross might apply). You can see the stitches and if you look carefully you can even see the edges between his eye and his gift lens.

two angels

We bought this angel yesterday at Goodwill. They had their Christmas items on sale for 75 percent off. The shape behind her is the false window in the kitchen.



A tree top angel that my Mom crocheted for us when we first got married. Last night C decided the angels name was Mick. Behind it is a huge clock that hangs on the wall.

will the snow last?

the water poured off the roof today...

bear with me as photos are my thing at the moment...

the remains of a sunflower



a shivery cold succulent...

so I have a two-year-old, you see...

Last night, while I was getting K ready for bed, C found a 'Where's Waldo' style book on the Nutcracker Ballet. So Dad showed her what to do. He got out two magnifying glasses and he and C were happily searching for the nutcracker when K went out to look for a book to read. She decided to help look and confiscated Dad's magnifying glass. They were having a great time so we let them look for awhile. Then I made the parental ultimatum. Time to read. K would not leave and pick a book. Finally after many efforts we told her she had to go to bed without reading or singing. The first time I tried to lay her down she was out of the room before I got the cover. The second time I lay her down she raced me to the door. I managed to close it before she got out.

Keep in mind that K is destructo child in the bedroom and so we have it safety locked from the inside so she can't breakout at night. She stood and yelled through the crack in the door and shook the knob for fifteen minutes before she crawled into bed and subsided into sobs for mommy before she fell asleep. I went in after she quieted and she was out.

It must have worn her out for she slept in about an hour and a half past normal. I finally went in to check on her and all she had done is roll over since I last looked at her.

These are photos of the girls doing some more searching this morning.




So when she finally woke up, we went outside as big sis had been playing out there for more than an hour. We hadn't been outside more than five minutes when she had to take her mittens off. I told her as soon as she complained her hands were cold we had to go in.



She is my tactile kid. She can't stand not being able to feel things. She can't stand being cold (she is generally hot). We went inside less than five minutes after she took off her mittens.

a thought about my photography

What you see in my photos is for the most part my world. A huge part of the inanimate objects are from my house and yard. And of course my family figures huge in my photographs too. However, never make the mistake of assuming I know everyone in the photos. The post I did about a week ago includes many people I don't know - people from parties, Sea World, Disneyland, the Zoo, where-ever I happen to be as I take the camera everywhere.

What you see in my photos is the world as I see it.

What that means is that my pictures aren't accurate or real. They are my perspective based on the coordinates of my life when the shutter closes. I am alway standing at the intersection of my actual footing on the planet and the course of my heart. All you ever get is a view from that solitary point in the split second it takes to press a button.

wet, wet, snow

The blue spruce. We used to have three of these giants in our front yard. One came down in the severe autumn storms of 2005. A second one is tipped and we haven't done a thing about it. This is the healthiest although if one gets down on the ground and looks carefully, one realizes this one was almost lost too. The trees are hazards as they block the view when we try to exit our drive but I would hate to see the last two go as the birds love them.



Swing set in the backyard, isn't it cool how the snow is sliding off?



Some ornamental grass along the edge of my perennial bed (wish I had more of those (perennial beds that is)).



Dried out basil seed - I love basil seed pods so interesting!!



The weirdness of our life. Our dog actually has an over-sized litter box so to speak. We do not give her the luxury of running out the door and using our entire yard. The leaves below hang on the variegated dogwood bushes that run along the back of Willow's area as we call it (Willow being our half-naked 10 1/2 year old greyhound). They are over-photographed in the extreme - but the graceful lines in the winter and fall and the tonality in the spring and summer...what crazy photographer could resist.

oh, the weather outside is frightful

and I am so excited!!

It started out as rain about 10:30 this morning, then changed to this sleet. I took these photos around 1:00.







About an hour after I took the drippy photos, this started.





Oh, a note for Sissy, the bud in yesterday's photo is actually the leaf bud on my Zone 3, winter hardy magnolia.

And a note for Julie H. - I took a photos of the succulent again today with the snow on it but it was just bad - too difficult to make out the subject.

no snow

I wandered around the yard for a few minutes at lunch and wished it would snow.

spicy

I use many spices and herbs in my cooking and baking.





As you can tell, I like Penzey's - the quality of their spices is superb and their customer service is second to none.

I have more spices in the freezer that I use larger quantities of more freqently - none of these duplicate the stuff in the cupboard - the jars are old peanut butter jars. :)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Banana Bread

Another recipe modified by me. I used strawberries that I dehydrated this summer.




2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup chopped pecans
1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 8-oz. pkg. reduced-fat cream cheese
½ cup butter,
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 slightly beaten eggs
1/2 cup dried strawberries crushed

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease bottom and sides of 2 of two loaf pans; set aside. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. In a large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on high speed for 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup of the brown sugar, the 2 eggs, and vanilla; beat until combined. Add dry mixture and mashed banana alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until combined. Stir in pecans. In a medium bowl beat cream cheese, remaining egg, and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on medium speed until almost smooth. Stir in strawberries.

Pour one-fourth of the banana batter into each loaf pan. Spoon one-fourth of the cream cheese mixture over each loaf. Using a spatula, cut through the batter to marble. Repeat the two layers as above, but do not marble. Bake about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.

a book thing

Here is the majority of the girls books. I don't dare guess how many books are on these shelves. Thankfully, most of them are gifts or were bought by mom for under a dollar a piece at my favorite thrift store "Bible's for Missions." All the shiny spines are Little Golden Books - both me and the girls love them.



The books in the round basket next to the girls' tree and nativity are the kids' Christmas books (there is also a selection of adult books) that get put out at Christmas. The wooden box below contains the more factual or encyclopedic books that belong to the girls



These are what remain of the board books. K doesn't like reading board books anymore but I am holding onto them because C was the same way at K's age and she did return to the board books, so I have held onto the best ones. I don't think I will ever get rid of the Sandra Boyntons the whole family - even hubby loves them.



These are the audio books that the girls listen too. The whole family is addicted to them. My hubby really likes "Charlotte's Web" as read by EB White and he loves all the Pooh stories even after having listened to them a million times, one can find himself chuckling over Milne's characterizations. Hubby also likes the Little House books that we have - they are read by Cherry Jones and he likes her as a female narrator Shelly Frasier and Rebecca Burns who narrate a number of the stories grate on him.



There is also a bag of cheap paperback books in the car. And a collection of beautiful nursery rhyme and prayer books in C's room.

Both the girls love to read. I started reading to C when she was six weeks old (Jim Trelease has a great book about reading to children that will inspire you - there are many wonderful anecdotal stories in it). When she was around nine months I could read to her for an hour and a half at a time. That waned as she became more active but she still loves to read and listen - especially in the car.

I felt bad about K because although I started reading to her as soon as we came home, she never got as much reading as C. But she loves to read every bit as much as C.

Well that does it for the kids' books. (Except for the small but growing collection of juvenile books - when I am at a thrift store favorites from when I was an avid young reader, I pick them up and save them).

There are three bookshelves of books belonging to hubby and myself. One shelf is moderate sized and was handmade (pegged and glued) by my maternal grandfather as a wedding present for us - it hides in the corner by my sewing machine. Then there is the hand made one that I found at Bible's for Missions for less than $20.00. It is a bit smaller and could stand being refinished by it is solid wood and well made and that counts for something as I can't stand fake backs and cheap shelves. And then there is a barrister bookcase in our bedroom bought new for us by my MIL. It has 'the nicest' books in it. All the shelves are crammed full.

Books live on more than shelves in our home. One of my drawers in our bureau has my Bibles and other Bible Study materials in it (and it is full). There is a very tall stack on the bureau too. Then there is the trunk that has mostly garden and bird books with a few other topics thrown in. Oh and then there is the row on the top of a dresser drawer (serves as storage) behind my sewing table - that is mostly craft books and cookbooks. Speaking of cookbooks there is a cupboard in the kitchen containing my most frequently referenced books and my binder of recipes). I think that is most of my book hideouts. Oh, I forgot the bread box that has small format hardcovers and paperbacks in it.

You can blame my parents. My sister A and I discussed this and later my sister B asked me about it too. We children do not recall Mom and Dad reading to us although a few quips by Mom and Dad and the fact that we are all avid readers assures us that they must have. By the time we started reading we must have cut ourselves off from them reading to us.

There were rows of shelves in the upstairs hallway with books of our house - lots of Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, Sci Fi, and Grace Livingston Hill. I still have favorite Zane Grey books.

My Dad worked as a City Maintenance man for a small town of 400 and would often bring boxes of books home that he found in the trash. Another perk was the City Hall shared building space with the Library and the librarian was quite easy on us and our borrowing. She enjoyed my Dad and would let us borrow without checking books out. (In fact, years later, Mom gave her one of my all time best photos of my Dad because she cried when she saw it because she then realized why she so liked my Dad - he reminded her of her brother who was gone).

The downside of being avid readers was that both A and I would permanently borrow books from the school library. I had guilt about that for years.

In High School, I was fortunate to have a teacher who pushed me to excel and would encourage me to read worthwhile literature. In college, I majored in English - my interest being literature not writing.

So there you have it. We like books.