White Wednesday

I've decided to join the white Wednesday group so I can keep my blog updated. This will force me to post at least once a week on my blog. The first looks like a shell, but it's a budding flower that I took from my neighbors tree.

This is a fish on the bottom step of another neighbor. She has plants that go all the way up her stairway. Every day I walk past this fish I'll call White Wanda.

This is a rose bush from another neighbors front porch. You can see my flash in the window.

This is a Manet painting from the 1800's. I'm reading a book called "Luncheon of The Boating Party" by Susan Vreeland. It's about Renoir and his friends. She brings to life one of his painting and a personality to all the people in the painting (not the one above, Manet is also painter in Paris). I'm not sure the name on this painting, but she's in white.

Another painting by Manet (not to be confused with Monet) This one is called The Balcony. It fits the White Wednesday theme.

Sometimes the hands have to create

I'm not very good at keeping up on my posting to this blog. I'll have to really try harder.
Today I made some hand pins for Halloween. The skeleton Hands I bought for $1.00 at the dollar store and the pin attachment I also bought at the dollar store 6 for $1.00. The buttons, string, ribbons, lace and material are all scrapes I would normally trash. I started with plain and each time I made a new one I added more stuff. I think they came out so cute. I just love them.

A few month ago I got painting bug and painted a sign for my mom to hang in her yard. This is the second sign I've done for her the first one said country garden and she gave it to her sister to put in her garden. So this time I put my mother's name on the sign so she can't give it away.

Engagement Party

This weekend I went with my daughter to her friends engagement/birthday party. She did not know till a few days before her birthday that she would be engaged. He proposed while on a camping trip pointing with his finger to the north star. The ring was on the end of his finger and she totally missed it searching for the north star. Was a fun party with parents children and grandchildren.The finger pointer is the guy with the tongs in his hands,the navy t-shirt and the phone thingy in his ear. His fiance is the girl in the whit pants and the step counter on her arm. The back yard is very big and the patio is in the very back of the yard. She gets in a lot of steps just in the back yard. His mother is in the red shirt and her mother has not yet arrived.

This is the finger pointers best friend. He has been married for many years already. That is his daughter coming to help her grandma out of the hammock. She's having trouble getting up. It's the knees they don't work the same when you hit senior status.She gets a little more help from the sister of the future bride. The best friend is hanging on to the hammock, because he plans to take a nap and wants no one else to claim his very comfortable bed. He's planing to rock himself to sleep in the swing.

More party guests. The girl in the black has just announced that she is pregnant and very excited to start a family. She is a little bit in fantasy land, believing that she will be able to have this baby and continue to travel without any problems. She also plans to go back to work as soon as the baby is born. By the way, she's having a girl.

The girl in the over sized t-shirt is my daughter and now the only one in the group who has not gotten married or started a family. I may never know what it will be like to be a grandma. She is still on the fence about children. My answer to that is "Tick, Tick, Tick"

This is the tallest sun flower in the back yard. It must be 10' tall. The happy couple will have plenty to eat this summer. There are tomato plants, peach trees, grapes, berries, mint, onions, potato's and corn growing in the yard. I really miss not having a yard.

AmVets, Estate Sales & Goodwill

I decided to share a few of my thrifty finds from some of my weekend outings. I love to do Estate sales on Sunday's because they are usually 1/2 price on what ever is left. The bench above I go at the Amvet around the corner from our Condo for $2.95. It had glitter glue and stickers on it. I peeled (yes it peels ) off the glitter glue and removed the stickers, did a light sanding and it now sits in my bathroom. I just love it the way it is, but will someday paint it.

The bucket that holds my magazines is an ice cream tub purchases months ago. When the ice cream was gone I saved the bucket and discovered it works perfect for my mag's in the bathroom.

The glass topper I purchased for a $1.00 at Salvation Army as well as the candle holder, also $1.00. I turned both pieces upside down and the picture below is what I got.

It makes a perfect small candy dish and I didn't even have to glue it to the base. There was a hole in the bottom of the candle holder and the glass fit it perfectly.

The birds I purchased at an Estate sale for $3.00, the letter was $1.00 at Target, the tea light holders are from Ikea $.99 cents for 4 and the shelf I bought about 9 years ago for $13.00. I have two shelves and I put them in my bathroom above the towel rack. I love the look. Now I have to find some new towels.

I've been gone so long

I didn't think it would be so hard to keep up with this blog, but it is. Lately I have been so consumed with the Casey Anthony case that I have spent all my spare time reading all the documents that have been made public. I just can't imagine any thing but a guilty verdict.

Her parents must have a book deal. It's the only explanation I can see for their public display for standing behind their daughter and not wanting justice for their grand-daughter.

A day at the park

Today I went to Grape Day Park in Escondido CA. I stumbled upon the park while I was searching another area looking for clues for something else entirely. But, I had my camera and saw the park and decided to stop and take a look.

This is the Old Santa Fe Depot from the 1890's, that was moved from its original location to the park to keep it from being demolished. Inside the Depot they had an old telegraph that you could still use, and upstairs was the old freight room with a huge scale on the floor for weighing all freight that would go on the train.

This is the first library in the town of Escondido from the 1890's. It was also moved to the park and preserved. Inside the Library was a display of clothing, shoes, and hundreds of pictures of families who lived in the town of Escondido. They had lots of Fairs. The Grape day fair was a beggie. Back then this was wine country and most farmers grew grapes.

This was an old train from around 1910 - 1920. The train only went to OceanSide Ca. You could not take the train directly to San Diego. You still can't. You have to take the train to OceanSide get off and take another train to San Diego.

Both sides of the train would be full of seats just like these. The nice thing about the seats is that if you had a group of four, you could slide the back rest forward and face your group. Each seat moved like this. I wish seats today still did this.

This is the mail room on the train. The person in the mail room would pick up the mail while the train was still moving from a hook and dump it on the table. From there he would sort the mail in the cubes by cities that the train would stop in.

This was the Black Smiths shop that is still a working Black Smiths shop. They were giving classes in the one with the door open

This was a barn from the 1800's, but it was locked and there was not an option to see inside.

This was a Residence from town that was saved. It was a two story three bedroom home with a family of 10 living inside. Eight Children (4 boys and 4 girls ) a Pastor and his wife. The furnishings were not original to the house, but were period appropriate. The staircase was much smaller than today's staircase. I was no more than two feet wide. There was a balcony upstairs off one of the bedrooms, but was no more than three feet by three feet. French doors opened to this balcony, maybe it was a smoking porch, thats about all you could do out there.

Family

Several years ago I sent a pillow like the one above to my 85 year old aunt who is in a nursing home. She is in the back row second on the left. My mother is in the back row on the right (just 18 years old). My grand mother and grand father are seated and they had those thirteen children. This Christmas my aunt ask me if I would make a pillow for all the siblings in this picture. This one is the sixth pillow that I have made. I use all different material and different lace on each picture. I love the vintage look each pillow has and my aunt gets owww's and awwww's from every one in the nursing home.

I need it yesterday

My Daughter tells me the night before that she needs an apron to take with her to a New Years Eve. outing. Nothing like a last minute notice to put together something that would be presentable for a stranger and fast and easy to make. Four hours later I came up with this blue and pink apron from vintage fabric. I think it came out pretty good.