Another bargain?

If you are like me, you'll consider today's post another bargain. If, on the other hand you are like Wade, you'll see it as a waste of money. Either way, here it is.
We have a new store in town. It's a consignment/thrift shop. I hadn't been in there yet, so last Friday I stopped in on my lunch. A quick look through the store and I spotted something that looked quite interesting to me.

 I asked the owner if she could hold it for me and I would be back later.
After work the conversation with Wade went something like this:
Me: we have to stop at the thrift store
Wade: why?
Me: they're holding a sewing machine cabinet for me
Wade: you have a sewing machine cabinet, and yours you can drop it down inside, why would you want a different one.
Me: I didn't say I was putting my sewing machine in it
Wade: whatever

 Ok so this is a really bad, quick slap it on kind of paint job that someone did on this but I liked it. It caught my eye and it was only $12.00
It's now sitting in my son's old room which is in the process of becoming my second craft room.

Um, yes, those walls are red. Yes, those walls will be painted. I hate those walls.

This is just some stuff I threw on top of the sewing machine because I thought it looked pretty cute. I was attempting to be decorative which is something I'm not very good at.

I Ott to have light in my life

Saturday I made a trip to the craft store for some supplies that I needed. Wade had no desire to go with me so that meant that I was free to roam the isles to my hearts content. That is exactly what I did too. After finding what I needed I browsed for things I didn't need but might want.
I spotted a display of Ott lights that were on sale. I've been wanting one of those but haven't been willing to pay the price. Well, let me tell you that I found a $59.00 Ott light for $19.99. It went home with me.

And that my friends is why I Ott rather than ought, to have light in my life. Boy I love a bargain.

Time flies when you're having fun

Wow, here it is Tuesday already. Time sure does fly when you're having fun and sometimes even when you aren't.

The weekend flew by and so have the past couple days.
Saturday was rainy here but I was busy doing some things around the house and I managed to sneak in a little shopping trip. A post is coming on my incredible bargain.
Sunday we did our early morning errands to the grocery store. We went out to breakfast. We did yard work. We went to another concert in the park. Some time this week I'll post about that.
I've have something really exciting and a little scary coming up soon but I don't want to let the cat out of the bag on that one just yet.
Some time this week I have to come up with either a poll so you can vote or I need to make a decision myself on which quote or word to use on that picture of Duke.
Then to top all of that off, it's a three day weekend coming up that I'm sure is going to be a busy one.
If anyone has a spare day laying around could I use it. I need an extra two or three.

Have you seen my mom

Have any of you seen my mom? Do you know what she was doing all weekend and where she was?

She was home part of the time acting all busy busy and stuff. Her and dad went in car rides more than once on Sunday and I didn't get to go. Then she has the nerve to come home last night and fall asleep on the couch without even taking care of her blog.
She wanted me to give you a message today. She said to tell you that she'll be spending tonight catching up with emails, and blog reading. She also said to let you know that by the end of the week she will be making a decision on which fantabulous quote or word to use on that picture of me.
OK, I'm going back to working on that yummy chew stick mom gave me. You have a good night.

Playing with fill flash

I did a little experimenting with the fill flash on my camera. With the exception of a very slight adjustment to the lighting these are straight off of the camera.

On another note, I want to say that the suggestions I got in yesterdays post are fabulous. I'm having a really hard time deciding. I may have to put it up to a vote here and let you decide.

Asking for a little help from my friends

I just love the chance to play in Photoshop. Sometimes I like what I get and sometimes I don't but I always have fun.
I dug this picture out of an old file the other day

Now I know that this picture is no photographic wonder, but I like it. I said to myself, "Self, lets see if we can make this picture better" Of course I agreed and set out to tackle the job.

When I was finished it looked a little something like this 

Actually, it looked exactly like that but it really isn't finished. I wanted to put a quote or something on the left hand side. Now here's where you come in. Give me suggestions. It can be a quote, saying or just a single word. What would you put on this picture. Tell me in the comment section. If I choose your suggestion I'll send you a little prize. What that prize is I just don't know yet but it will be something.

How about one more look. Side by side, before and after

Who's pool is this anyway

Last weekend with all the nice weather we had, Duke got to enjoy the pool a little bit. He had a lot of fun on the raft. His favorite game is to get on the raft and then I splash the water and he tries to catch it.

When he had his fill and got out Wade took the opportunity to enjoy the raft for a while

Appears someone doesn't like this plan.

How about a compromise?

I don't know about Wade but Duke was satisfied with this arrangement.

Grocery shopping

What do you buy when you go to the grocery store? We went last Saturday and Wade bought burger, steaks, chops and chicken.
I had something else in mind.
Now I didn't intend to buy anything but when we got there they had all their plants reduced. I've been looking for a lilac bush so I asked the girl that was working outside if they had any. It was my lucky day, they did. Even better, they had two different kinds.  I opted for this one. Nice size and only $19.99

Happy as a clam I headed into the store to find Wade. He didn't stick around and wait for me, all he could think about was "shopping, get in get what you want and get out". He is so NOT a shopper.
As I was saying I headed into the store but just before I reached the door I spotted this.

Don't you just love the colors? Want to see the whole thing? Well of course you do. Here it is

The best part about this whole shopping trip was that when I went to the register my $19.99 lilac bush rang up as $14.99. Yeah me!!!

Made it

On a beautiful day (when I don't have to go to work) I find it fun to take some of my crafty stuff out on the deck and play.
Recently I took this out with me

When I was done playing I had this.

Just a little experiment that turned into a cute bracelet.
For anyone who crochet's here's how I did it.
I don't recall what size hook I used but it was a small one.
With 3 strands of crochet thread held together chain 45 (more or less depending on the size of your wrist). Then single crochet in each chain across, fasten off and weave in ends.
Attach ring to one end and clasp to the other. Sew a button in the center of bracelet with matching thread and you're done.
Now you've got a brand new cute bracelet for summer. Perfect considering today is the first day of this wonderful season.

Bloggers are the nicest people

In almost 3 years of blogging I have encountered the nicest people. People I have never met in person have become my friends.
One friend in particular did the sweetest thing the other day. I was visiting Helen's blog Let's Create and I commented how her friends must love getting cards from her. The next thing I knew she was asking for my address so she could send some to me.
This pretty little package arrived in the mail the other day

It contained two of her beautiful hand made cards.

Helen is one creative lady. You should see some of the things she makes.
Thanks again Helen. I loved the cards

Happy Father's Day

A post for all the dad's out there

In search of a blog post

All day long I've been trying to catch up on my reading and come up with something for tonight's post. Now I'm late but I have something.
I dug through folder after folder of pictures and settled on this one.

I opened it up in photoshop and made some adjustments and got this.

Then I noticed that the way the shadow was laying on the robin it looked like a blue stripe. An idea hit. I give you the most patriotic robin I have ever seen.

Brenda Photo Challenge (6-18) Playing

Hooray, it's Brenda Photo Challenge time again.
Boo, Hiss, Ann waited far too long to get her pictures. I swear I had ideas in my head and I meant to take those pictures but I waited far too long. I was going to do them last night but it was dark and cloudy and the light inside was just horrible.

Never fear though, I'm not skipping out on the challenge. I dug through the archives to bring you some of last  years pictures.
Playing is the theme this time around. Now, depending on what your interests are, just about anything could be considered playing.
How about role playing

You could be playing an instrument in a marching band.

Or maybe chess is your game.

Then there is one of my favorite ways of playing, when I'm not doing the crafty thing that is.

Wow, after looking at this picture I think I need a manicure.

If you would like to check out the rest of the entries just head on over to the Brenda Photo Challenge blog. You could also say hello to Brenda who has graciously taken over the challenge for Donna.  Thanks Brenda for keeping the challenges going. I would miss these things.

Now I'm off to go try and catch up with all the blog reading I'm behind on.

What I'm working on

Do you want to see what I've been working on lately? Too bad, I'm showing you anyway. You may recall the quilled necklaces I showed you before. I enjoyed doing those but came up with a new idea. Instead of doing the whole thing paper I decided to use a wood disc and glue the quilling to that.
Here's a picture of one of the older ones and the latest.

The first time I showed you the purple one it wasn't on a chain. Now I've put that one on a silver chain. The round one that I did before I put on a black cord and that one went to my friend Debbie.

I don't know about you but I like the idea of the wood disc a whole lot better. My biggest problem is I'm not real good at the jewelery part of it. I had no problem attaching the jump rings and the clasp to the chain. My original plan was to  just put a ring in the wood disc for the chain. Blan B went in to effect when I discovered that the hole was drilled too far away from the edge to do that. My problem came in when I had to wire the wood bead to the disc. I made that first little loop in the piece of wire, slid the wire through the bead then through the hole in the disc. Now to wrap the wire under the bead to hold it in place. I realized how uncoordinated I can be some times when I was doing this.

This final picture is the one I'm working on now. The beak does seem to be a little out of proportion but it's staying since it's already glued on.

The rest of the night I'm going to spend catching up on my emails, working on my necklace and a few little odds and ends that need taken care of. I'll catch up on all of your blogs tomorrow.

Will to survive

Do you remember me telling you a while back about having to do some weeding to keep Wade from mowing over one of my plants? I don't remember the name of the plant but I got it last year. It started to come back up and Wade mowed it over twice even though I had told him about it after the first time.
After I did the weeding he finally left it alone since he could tell where he needed to stop with the mower.

So the message for today is that even when you get mowed over keep on fighting.

Something to tweet about

Who needs Twitter, I've get plenty of tweets right in my own yard.
I did a little bird watching out my front window and these two were quite accommodating.

I also did a little bit of playing around with Photoshop

I think these two would look nice on a card

Oh Pool boy

The other day I mentioned that we had worked on the pool. We have a rather odd way of doing it but what can I say, we're odd.
We drain it and scrub it then refill it. Now this seems like a lot of work but I have never had a year where you take the cover off and it's crystal clear ready to go. With the pump we have it would take all summer to clean it up so we just drain and scrub.
By 4:00 p.m. Saturday I was a little on the pink side and felt like I had been wading in pond scum all afternoon but we were done and ready to start filling it back up. Duke had a hand in the work too. He couldn't stand the fact that both Wade and I were down in the pool without him. He stepped onto the ladder then jumped in. 

Needless to say, Duke is very happy that the pool is almost ready. He watched the hose and prayed for it to fill faster. Yes, we do fill it with the hose. It's actually cheaper than having water hauled in. 

Happy pool boy waiting for his first dip.

Now if we can just get that great big ball of sunshine to stay up there in the sky, the water might warm up enough that I'll join Duke.

All good things come to an end

Sunday evenings are always a bit sad. The weekend is over and it's back to work tomorrow. Why is it that those two days just seem to fly by?
My weekend isn't the only thing that didn't last long enough though
On June 4th I noticed that the peonies had bloomed, Not only are they beautiful but their scent is heavenly.

We had a pretty bad rain storm last week and by June 10th this is what my poor peonies looked like

So long my beauties. I'll see you again next year.

Randomness for Saturday

I trust that you are all enjoying your weekend. I have managed to cross a few things off my list of things to do.
Most of the day was eaten up by working on the pool. Duke better appreciate all that work.

Yesterday I got the following email:

Hi Ann,

I was browsing your website and saw many mentions about Westie dogs, I was curious if you might be interested in helping homeless Westie’s around the country? My name is Jeff Howard, and I work with Adopt-a-Pet.com. We help promote shelter dogs, and cats who need a loving home. Of course, naturally that means Westie’s too who are in a shelter looking for a forever home.

Now if I can direct your attention to the sidebar you will notice a rand new image. It's Duke's puplic service announcement with the link to Adopt-a-pet. Duke is all about helping those less fortunate than he is.

I managed to get photographic proof today that Duke is NOT deprived of his bacony yummies.

Still plenty of things I want to try and squeeze in to what's left of the day so that's as random as I'm going to get.

On your mark

Get set. GO!
That was the official start to my weekend. You're hearing it a little late since the gun went off at 2:30 this afternoon. Just consider this the instant replay.
So many things to do and only two short days to do it all.
Duke and I are going to nose around and see what our options are

Then we'll weed through those options and pick out the ones we want to do the most.

What that all boils down to is that I'll probably spend the weekend procrastinating and then come Monday be annoyed that I didn't get anything done.
At least I got the number one most important thing done today and that was calling my daughter Amanda to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Can you believe I have a daughter who is 28 years old? I know I can't