Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tinkerbelle

Here's a shot of Tinkerbelle modeling one of my creations. She is just the cutest little Georgia peach! Tink lives with her two sons and I understand that she rules the roost - as it should be. Enjoy your new dress Tinkerbelle!



Sunday, August 29, 2010

What I Made Today

A retro purse! It was sooooo easy. Didn't save much over buying one at the party store but this one is much more authentic. I even refrained from making a cell phone pocket inside; however, I did sew a velcro closure for security. Guess I am still in that Woodstock frame of mind. Actually, working on our Hallloween costumes - this year I am NOT going to be down to the wire, lol.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Clever - Brugo Mug


Ok, let me start by saying that I am NOT posting this just so I enter a drawing for a free coffee mug. I am doing this post because I truly believe this coffee travel mug has a very clever design - it has a small cooling area for cooling & sipping really hot coffee. Click here to see the description of the product and learn how to enter the drawing if you like. The link will take you to another blog which has a link to the factory if you really want a lot of info :)
Pictured is my favorite color of the assortment. There are 12 others to choose from. I've had lots of travel mugs in my day and even I am impressed. Gosh, I remember when travel mugs had a W I D E bottom with rubber to keep from sliding off the dash. That was well before they were sculpted to fit in a beverage holder.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

A Random Thursday

I discovered a website from reading the Parade magazine in the Sunday paper. The website features attractions and oddities and is called Roadside America This is a website where you can find the largest frying pan in the world or the largest ball of yarn like in the movie "Michael" (which I loved, by the way). Anyway, I have decided to take the time and photograph and blog about attractions, oddities, and vernacular art in my own community.

Here's my first entry - a fisherman at the restaurant "Crab Shack" on Gandy Blvd in St. Petersburg. To me it is a fish and chip restaurant and it is the type of place where you might have to share a picnic table with other diners. Go Rays.


I'm racking up the miles and getting closer to that 100,000 mark. I should have a contest on EXACTLY what day and time I will reachthe mark! Humm............


Finally, the beautiful Katie Scarlet O'Rattie model the dress that I made for her. Isn't she lovely?

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Almost


I've had some late model cars but I don't think I've ever had one long enough to roll over the 100,00 mile mark. My fear is that I won't be paying attention and will miss the actual roll over. LOL - I'm easy to entertain. Oh, this is the odometer from my 2000 Buick Century.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

South Pacific

Watching the musical South Pacific from Lincoln Center on our local PBS channel (WUSF). I believe they may be showing it every Wednesday so if you like Broadway musicals, be sure to watch it.




Sunday, August 15, 2010

Green Thumb Sunday and Woofstock

I have this small fascination with palm fronds. I really dislike throwing them away as debris. Normally I let them stay on the plant as long as possible so that the plant (did you know palms are not a tree at all but are in the grass family?) can replenish nutrients from the old fronds; however, sometimes you just have to remove one . Weaving a few strands together was all I could think of. I did look online and people do some fancy stuff but don't think I am up to that.

Now, different subject. August 15th - 18th is the anniversary of that famous concert Woodstock. In honor my doggies are dressing up for a Woofstock celebration. I was busy sewing outfits for them to wear.

Daisey in her peace and love dress. She's normally such a good model as I try to measure each peace agaisnt her for fit but today she wasn't having it so I;m lucky it fit so well. You can see Woody in the background (click for larger image) before I convinced him to wear clothes - he was going with the nekked Woofstockers wearing only beads, a peace symbol, and a smile.


Eddie was happy to model his fringed vest.....especially with Jerry holding a treat to get his attention!


And, finally Woody in his fringed vest made of faux suede. Well, we gotta go get in the VW van so, until next time, have a groovy time.

Peace!



Since they weren't the most cooperative of models today, here is a group shot of my handiwork. I spent hours on their costumes and they were only willing to wear them for a couple of minutes. Downer dude.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Cousins, Cousins, and more Cousins



Today proves to be a cousin-packed day and I am very excited. A bit rushed perhaps, but excited indeed. The photos above are some special packaging of a birthday present but I am getting ahead of my story.

After my hair appointment this morning (I need to get moving instead of blogging, lol) I am meeting my first cousin Linda from Chicago for lunch. Her mother and my dad were brother and sister. They were very close and lived across the street from each as young adults and parents until Aunt Barbara Jean's untimely death. Linda and I lived together a short while in second grade when we were both staying at my Grandma Manning's house. Then later, in junior high and high school, we lived in the same area and would spend the night with each other. I've always felt a special bond with Linda and am very happy that she is visiting. I know she made my Dad very happy partially because she is an extension of a sister he missed but also because she is a very nice person.

Most of the rest of the day is devoted to Sarah and the celebration of her 5th birthday. Gee, I wonder what it is like to be 5 years old? Think of all the things you know nothing about such as a mortgage, retirement funds, medical copays.......... Sarah has been in my blog several times and is my first cousin twice removed, her mother Erica is my first cousin once removed, and her grandmother Lea is my first cousin but enough of that.

Erica is having a kid party for Sarah this afternoon and then we (the moms, me and jerry) are meeting Lea, my first cousin once removed Sonja (who is also Lea's daughter and Erica's cousin so Sarah's Aunt) will be over from Lakeland, and of course Sarah & Erica. Now that you more about my genealogy than you cared to know!

So the hat boxes.......I got Sarah a cowboy hat and a princess dress for her birthday. I knew I wanted to get a hat box for the hat because a) it would be an interesting presentation and b) probably the only way it would survive in a 5 year olds closet. I was just about out of time looking and was about to go the way of gift bags when I found these beautiful hat boxes at JoAnn's.

I was at the checkout line when I saw these two beautiful pink hat boxes, two different sizes just like I wanted, on the front clearance area! I quickly snatched them up and ran back for a couple spools of ribbon to tie them up. they turned out exactly as I had pictured with the exception of that septor/wand thing. The princess dress, which is beautiful and hopefully I will get a photo of her in it, came with a crown and that thing. The thing is too long for the hat box so I had to put it on top. Believe it or not, the hat boxes ended up costing little more than a couple gift bags with tissue paper and ribbon but I think they look a whole lot better. Ooooh, note to self - charge digital camera.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Contest Hints

OK...I understand that my contest is too hard. So, here comes two really BIG clues:

1) There are only two cities represented here (I said "more than one" in the original post)

2) The are only two states represented and they are Washington and California.

OK now, give it a try!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

As Promised - A Contest

OK, here is the contest......tell me where EACH of these Victorian beauties is located (city & state). Don't worry, it's not impossible. Not only am I going to give you three clues, but with a little detective work you can figure it out even if you have never been anywhere near these house.

Clue 1 - there is more than one state pictured here
Clue 2 - there is more than one decade of photos pictured
Clue 3 - there is more than one Bed & Breakfast shown

House A


House B


House C


House D


House E


House F


House G


House H


House I


House J


House K


House L

OK, I will try to resist and not post for a few days so that this one remains at the top. Two points for each house identified and a bonus point if you can provide a new (within the last five years) photo of the house now.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Nighttime Gardening

When we first moved to Florida from Alaska I was excited to work in the garden (bought Florida gardening books from Amazon.com as soon as I knew we were moving) but I hadn't adjusted to the climate and it seemed too hot during the way. My fix was to garden at night! Well we are having a hot summer this year, as many of you are, so I am back to night gardening. Makes it hard for photos but here's a little glimpse of my orchids tonight.








Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Sunday Night Scallops

Tonight we were lucky enough to have Alaska scallops for dinner. A friend in Kodiak sent them to us and this is the first of 4 scallops meals we will enjoy thanks to Kathleen. They were sooooo good.

For starters, this batch was simply seasoned and seared. Not sure how we will prepare the remaining 3 packets. I pared the scallops with another tomato pie and steamed asaparagus. You really gotta try the tomato pie from a couple posts back.

Green Thumb Sunday - My Garden Has Sole

Back in the seventies, when I was in high school, a girl that I knew planted a teeny palm in a ceramic boot. I loved plants at the time, especially succulents, but they were hard to come by since there were no garden centers and mass merchants where I lived like there are today. Plus mostly what I could afford were small plants meant for terrariums...remember those?

Anyway, for all these years (and there have been LOTS of years) I have thought about planting succulents in real shoes. My blogger friend Cinde has a shoe garden she calls "garden of lost soles" and has inspired me to finally use that idea that's been in the back of mind for far too long.
So.....a few succulents.....

Some potting medium...........

And, the star of the shoe, er show................


Fill the toe areas with a little moss........

Add some sole, er soil.....................

Stick in a succulent...............

And this is what you get!

These shoes already look better and all they have is potting medium!

Add a couple trailing succulents in these....................

These bowling shoes were working shoes in their first life....now they have a new job!

After I got home from the thrift shop with the shoes I was a little disappointed to realize these were terra cotta colored and may not look like real shoes :(

Once filled they REALLY looked like shoe shaped clay pots. Bummer...

Water them down and they look MUCH better :)

My little collection. Now what to do with them. I considered grouping them all together but decided to incorporate them into my bromeliad borders since there are some sparse areas. The beauty of these is that they can easily be moved if I changed my mind - much different than planting something in the ground.

Stylish pumps...........


Bowling anyone?..............

Baby boots......................

I don't even know what to call these things other than ugly.
Thanks Cinde for inspiring me! Keep up the good work on your blog - I love it.