meandering introductions to things

I am making a serious effort to lose weight. I am, as my doctor told me at my last physical (a year ago), definitely obese. I've decided to reward myself for five pound increment losses with a trip to a thrift store. Five pounds down!

I found this yesterday. Isn't it cool. I think I will start signing off with verses from it. Makes me wish people still did autograph books. Maybe we all should send ours out round robin style and sign books for each other. ;)


My husband his mother both feel that room decor needs to be done thematically and so my MIL always wants to know what theme a room is when we move into a new place. We told her the Master bedroom and bathroom would be nautical. For the most part it is. I found this yesterday while shopping at Goodwill. It is painted on wood if you look closely you can see some scratches but I've fixed those already. I rubbed some burnt umber into them and they blend right in. This and the following image will be an anniversary gift for my husband. I will get the Japanese print reframed.


I was thrilled when I found this. It is reproduction of a painting by Shibata Zeshin a Japanese artist who lived from 1807-1891. It is titled Autumn Grasses. Hubby likes Asian art and this will look wonderful with the painted bamboo scroll that hangs on his side of the bed plus it will tie colors together. (Our style is definitely eclectic).

I took this out of the frame yesterday and boy - whoever owned it before was a heavy smoker. That smell just lingers. Ugh. After testing the surface, I wiped it off with a lightly dampened cloth - I removed lots of yellowish gunk. Ugh.



My Mom quilts. She prefers to make crib quilts, she makes them for all her grandchildren and for special others. This one is the one she made C when she was a baby.



K's quilt came in time for her third birthday. :)


My MIL likes to give lots of gifts and likes to receive gifts and insists that children be treated equally which in her minds means equal gifts even though it might be one child's birthday and not the other child's. So I try to keep little gifts about. I gave these to the girls while she was here, I bought them at a thrift store for two dollars a piece. The girls are adorable when they play with them.


Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that my Mom made for my girls. K's are on the left and C's are on the right. I like K's Ann for the pink and red color combo. However, C's Andy is special as Mom used buttons from my father's air force uniform on him.


Which leads me to the things that I've written this week. I can't believe how long it has been since I've written it is amazing how much company throws one's life out of order.

I am continue my exploration of fairy tale with a short bio of The Brothers Grimm.

Since I find them creepy and fascinating and I love to photograph them, I wrote an article on Webworms.

I wrote a book review on a book about St Patrick written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola (who for some reason I thought was a female and now discover is a male).

Finally, I wrote an article about Raggedy Ann.

As the years go by
And the pounds roll off
You'll grow up to be
A real show-off.

:)