The Duke

Hello everybody. It's Dukey Day on mom's blog. Mom said I was supposed to post this at 7:00 p.m. but I'm a dog and no one ever taught me how to tell time. Dad always says he has to watch wheel at seven and he's not watching it anymore so I think I'm late.
Last Saturday the sun was shining and it was so warm that mom and I went outside with her camera. I don't usually sit very still for her but she bought me a new bone to play with so I gave her a break.

I bet you can't see me in the bottom picture because I scrunched way down and hid in the grass.

See you all next time

Thanks a million

Today's post is full of thanks. That does seem fitting seeing as how Thanksgiving is just a week away.
To start with I must thank some wonderful people for thinking of me when they were passing on some awards.

First off from Katherine at The Queen Speaks who honored me with the "One lovely blog" award. I have to say that I just love visiting Katherine's blog. There are times when I'm reading her posts that I almost feel like her words could have come from my own mouth. OK so maybe she puts it all together a little better than I do but at least I think the same way she does. If you aren't familiar with her blog, I recommend that you go visit her. Thanks again Katherine. You're the best.


The best blog award came to me this time from two different people. First I received it from Kim at Scrappin Life I just found Kim's blog not too long ago. Right off the bat I knew I liked it. She's one talented lady that's for sure. Thanks so much for thinking of me Kim.

I also received this one from Vanilla Seven and I'm sure you all know that blog. If you don't, you better get over there right now. The photography on that blog is astounding. I can only hope that some day I can do half as well. Aside from the great photos it's just one of those blogs were you just always feel welcome and right at home. Thank you very much Vanilla Seven for including me in your list of recipients.


I'm not going to follow the rules this time around because I just recently passed both of these on but anyone who stops by here is welcome to grab either award. I love you all.

Now I also need to thank one more person and that would be Roschelle from Inconsequential logic Roschelle recently had a contest giveaway on her blog and guess who won? Yep I sure did. I won "The everything blogging book". Thank you so much Roschelle, I was so excited.

If you haven't stopped by to visit these bloggers yet today, why not pop in on them and say hello.

Win an HP TouchSmart 600 Computer

That's right. You could win of these bad boys for yourself. I Read about it first on Mike's Blog Marketing tips and I can't pass this one up. But because I love you all so much I want you to have a chance too.

Jolly Mom will be doing this great giveaway starting next Monday November 23. You can either wait until then to go check it out, but why wait. If you go now you can get in some extra entries by blogging about it and adding a banner about it. You'll see mine over to the right.

I won't keep you any longer because I know you are dieing to get over there so the link to the post you'll want to read is here

Show and tell

First off I should say sorry for all the pictures but I had to show it all.

When we got to Volant it was a little early so we had some time to kill before the shops opened. Just our luck we saw a sign advertising a craft sale. We almost didn't stop because it was in someones house but then we decided why not. This woman had her garage set up with all kinds of great stuff and the prices could NOT be beat.

This was a little ornament that I bought for 50 cents.

Found these battery operated tea lights in one of the Volant shops

This I bought at the craft sale that lady was having. I left the price tag on her so you could see how much I paid for her

Yep that says $5.00

This I found in one of the Volant shops. I just loved it. They had it in two different sizes. I bought the bigger one. This will fit right in to the collection of snowmen that I have

After I paid for Frosty's magic hat we discovered that we had totally missed the upstairs of this shop. Well we couldn't miss a thing so up the stairs we went. After looking around back to the register to pay for this great find.

I did bring home one other thing that I really hadn't bargained for.

Yep, that's a hole in the knee of the best pair of jeans I own. No, it wasn't there when I left home. We were walking along having a great time and I wasn't paying attention to the fact that Volant does not have the most even sidewalks. Next thing I knew I was picking myself up off the ground. At least I saved the camera. I ended up with a ruined pair of jeans and a scraped up knee. It didn't seem too bad at the time but boy was it sore the next day. Apparently a fall to the ground requires the use of several muscles that I must not use frequently enough, because I'm also quite sore in a couple other places....lol Ah but it was all worth it.

Have a great night

Volant Village Shops

My shopping trip yesterday was to Volant which is located in Pennsylvania half way between Erie and Pittsburgh. I heard about this place over a year ago and have been wanting to go but Wade being the shopping enthusiast that he ISN'T I knew that I wouldn't be able to thoroughly enjoy it unless I found someone else to go with me. My day finally came, I found someone who was equally as thrilled as I was about checking the place out. VICTORY IS MINE!

When we arrived we were greeted by this friendly little fellow. He was sunning himself on a picnic table and I had to get a shot of him. I found out from someone else who I saw later taking his picture that he's a regular and hangs out at one of the shops which is actually a huge barn. How cool is that? Later while we were shopping in the barn this guy was also doing a little browsing.


Here are just a few of the pictures that I took while walking through the town. I love this place. I want to go back.


My favorite picture from the day has to be this one. This sign just cracked me up


I did buy several things but I'm going to keep you in suspense until tomorrow. I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of my purchases yet.

Blogus Interuptus

Please hear what I am not saying

Originally, I had intended to post the typical light hearted, nonsense type post that you most likely have become accustomed to finding here. However, in the course of my travels today, I stumbled upon something that I must share with you instead.
Please hear what I am not saying is the title of one of the best poems I have ever read. It was written by Charles C. Finn in September 1966. The author handed it out to his students when he was beginning his career as a high school teacher. Over the years, this poem, has made an incredible journey. The websites home page dubs this as "a poem with a life of it's own".
I encourage you to stop by and read this poem for yourself. I assure you that you won't be sorry. While there you may want to also read the stories of the poems journey.
If you do read Please hear what I am not saying I would love to know what you thought of it. In my opinion this is a poem that is about all of us at some point in our life.