• Blog

    A second look: Favorite things

    SecondlookI almost missed Second on the 2nd for the second time….that’s a lot of seconds! Fortunately I happened to look at the calendar a little bit ago. Did I mention that this summer is getting away from me?!?!

    This post is from October 2009…take a look

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    I recently got to take home this lawyers bookcase that belonged to my paternal Grandpa. I’ve always loved the cabinet. As a child, it sat in our guest room. It was filled with shells my mom had collected from her travels.


    I had something a little different in mind. I’ve filled it with my art and some of my favorite things that had been packed away until now.


    Recognize the bowl? It’s my handmade paper bowl. It’s the perfect size for some favorite rocks and my mom’s arrowhead collection.


    This may look familiar. I use this is my avatar in Google.


    This clock was one of first altered pieces. The swirl on top was hand carved by my husband’s Grandmother. She is an amazing artist.


    This was also a piece I made very early on in my artistic journey. It was my very first assemblage. The butterfly inside is another carving by Grandma Rose.


    My Road Trip book always makes me smile. This was my second round robin altered book. It took the better part of a year to make it’s way around the country before returning to me full of fun artwork.


    The bookcase is ever changing in it’s contents. I love to rearrange decorative elements in my house and am often drawn to using something totally unexpected for the space. I think it drives my husband a bit crazy at times. He’ll just give me that “ok…if you really think that looks good” look.

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    These are still some of my favorite things. The lawyers bookcase resides in a different spot and is slightly over loaded but I love it!

  • Blog - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: tour edition

    Welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday. Come with me for a little walk around the yard today. You won’t believe how huge the tomatoes are!! FYI…picture heavy post

    We’ll start were we left off last week. The former playset.

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    The sand box has been removed and all that’s left are some bare spots in need of a load of dirt and grass seed.

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    I got a little carried away with flowers this year but I’m really enjoying them.

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    Of course many of them are perennials which suits me perfectly.

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    Here’s one of the crazy horseradish plants along with some tiny cucumber plants. Only one survived the transplant to out doors after our strange spring. I just replanted some seeds. It remains to be seen if they ever get big enough to produce.

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    Here’s the same deck box garden from a different angle. Those are my yellow pear tomatoes.

    Remember where they started this year??

    plant vigil

    Hey look…there’s the playset in the background.

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    And we can’t forget the obligatory beverage for T stands for Tuesday. Ice water for the humid afternoon we had while taking these photos. Heavy rain early in the day gave way to a sticky afternoon.

    Continuing my backward progression around the house we come to this sad bucket of dirt.

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    There are seeds in there…I set it in the sun hoping they’d germinate. If not I’ll throw something else in there…perhaps some daisy seeds for a splash of texture and color.

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    The big garden or shed garden or perhaps deer feeding station.

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    Some things are doing wonderful like my peppers and a rouge carrot.  My beans not so much. I’ve replanted seeds twice now after only a handful came up.

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    The herbs I transplanted from a Trader Joe’s herb pot are getting really big.  Behind them is the other horseradish plant we inherited.

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    I have beef steak tomatoes in this garden…nice thick stems and blossoms. Hooray!

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    One of my Egyptian Walking Onions is starting to look real interesting. I inherited these with the horseradish.

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    Not surprisingly the clover is looking fantastic. *grin*

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    I picked up these great hanging pots at Walgreen’s of all places. I couldn’t pass them up for the price.

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    The front walk pots aren’t looking the best this year. I was a little late in planting them.

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    I do really like these ones though. I picked up with watering can half filled with dirt at a garage sale this spring for $2. It’s a nice edition to my eclectic bunch.

    It wouldn’t be Tuesday without a full to-do list  for me. I’ll be around to visit my T companions at some point…have patience.

    What are you doing today?

  • Blog

    T Tuesday: disaster edition

    T stands for Tuesday_200As always on Tuesday…I’m linking up with T stands for Tuesday where we share a virtual beverage and talk about whatever comes to mind. IMG_0202

    This week I was hoping to share all kinds of fun things that I had created with you like my new journal

    But instead I have a tale. A true story from Sunday.

    So grab your cuppa and sit a spell.

    Sunday morning I put a turkey in the oven…one of the four I purchased when they were on sale at Thanksgiving.  It looked and smelled delightful when I pulled it out of the oven. It was perfectly cooked…I had out done myself on this one.

    Mini-me was helping with all the sides. We had gravy heating on the stove while I was carving the turkey. She was heating green beans in the microwave and making instant mashed potatoes ( I know…but those are the kind she loves and since she was making them). The plastic splatter cover from the microwave was set over a burner…that was never on…and when we turned around it had melted in and was on fire.

    I quickly grabbed the plastic and tossed it into the sink at which time the melted plastic on the burner continued to flame even higher.  I made a judgement call and grabbed the fire extinguisher and shot it. Only then did I realize that horrendous mess we had.

    I threw open windows, the smoke alarm was going off. Mini-me was in tears in her room. Our entire meal had to be thrown away due to the toxic nature of the chemical flame retardant.

    On the bright side…my kitchen is the cleanest it’s been since we moved in thanks to Mr. G. He is a cleaning master. I took the kids out to eat (since I had thrown away our food) after getting everything off the counters cleaned up while he cleaned up the rest including taking apart the stove to get all the chemicals out from the nooks and crannies.

    How’s that for excitement!?!?

    He jokingly told me next time I wanted him to clean,  to just ask. 🙂

    Today I’m staying home watching the freezing rain and snow fall outside. It’s going to be a skating rink out there.

    What are you doing today?