Friday, May 25, 2007

Collage Jars


This is my inspiration for a new project. My mother bought me a huge, beautiful jar for Easter, and I intend to fill it with all kinds of lovely snippets from my grandmother's trunk, my other gramma's boxes, and just here and there throughout my little house. I can already see it in my mind, but I need to start collecting and then assemble. I'm not going for exactly the same look, but the same aura. i have little tintypes of Civil War soldiers in my family, little frozen Charlotte dollies, and lots of lace and script notes, etc. I'm going to put it on my dresser when finished. I'm wondering if my jar is too big and if this one has some kind of a center fake stuffing. I just tonight noticed these are several jars. Drat! Mine is huge!!! This is a lot of stuff, and a lot invisible in the center???? Who knows. Enjoy the Memorial Weekend!




Good Money. . .

There. I've gone loco! Let me tell you about my torrid affair with Victoria magazine. Once upon a time my mother subscribed to it for a few years. When she finished an issue, she gave it to me to read. I was kind of expected to give it back to her to send on to antoher friend and another relative after that. I begged to be the last person on the list so I could keep them... Finally for a couple of years, I was. I kept them.... Then enter Flylady, Clean Sweep, and some of those minimalist magazines. Yeah... I hated myself and my clutter, so naturally I attacked the one thing that I thought capsulated my clutter: my poor magazines. I cut out some photos, saved a few spreads in the good Lord knows what folder (still unfound), and sent the rest to the dump. My Victorias!!! I have read so many blogs with women saying things like, "Who would ever get rid of a Victoria? What kind of woman would do that?" etc. and I shyly have looked away from the computer.
Well, this is the week that ate the momey at our house. Tuesday I had to buy new glasses for the second time since February (why? Because my first doctor was a charlatan, a jerk, and a cheat and a liar about the refund when he MISDIAGNOSES what has been wrong... another tale and not fun). Wednesday I had to buy groceries and had been puttingt it off so long it was astronomical. Thursday I had to buy a new hot water heater. (The old one had some kind of dip valve disintegration that was ruining my shower, washer, and my dishwasher... yuck). So, bereft of my August paycheck (which schools entrust to teachers in May. Why?) I was browsing on Ebay. I found these lovelly Victoria lots at about 20.00 each for over fifty issues each. I was estatic.. However, I didn't get them for that lovely price. Oh, no... I sat right here in my nightie and bid 66 dollars EACH on the lots... But they are mine! 110 issues of Victoria magazine. Did Iever mention I'm a bit excessive at times? It was one of the first things I thought of after my little morning devotion (which I still am going to do, Lord!).... Any way you slice it, it's a great deal with each issue only about $1.75. Looks like they span from 1994-1998 or something like that. Any words of solace and "you go girl" type comments would be welcome!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Geraniums and Cats

You know, nothing says summer quite like a lovely old geranium with a lazy old cat asleep under the edges of the leaves. My grandfather's favorite flower, the geranium is something our family always has on decks, patios, hanging around the eaves. This photo was taken at Strawberry Hill Nursery in Columbia. Wow... what a place. If I had unlmited funds and a gardener, I'd go absolutely crazy there. Today is my third day of summer vacation. On Monday, I did ZERO. On Tuesday I went to Columbia to the optometrist. Then my son treated me to dinner out at Macaroni Grill, a wonderful little Italian restaurant. I had the Pollo Mardra (skinny chicken), with grilled broccoli and asparagus... Wow.... Yum.



Today I spent the morning at my new (old) school trying to figure out which textbooks for what class. I have acquired the title and duties of curriculum director for secondary.... Sounds formidable, huh? I thought I'd get busy, but think I've devoted enough of my third day to that kind of thing.



Now I plan to watch Beth Moore taped on Life Today, put away some more boxes of stuff from school, sort through my clothes and make a huge pile for the Sheltered Workshop, and clean out 1/4 of my closet. We shall see.... I need to eliminate some stuff and get a grip on all this clutter. The blogs I see that I love and the people I admire have already done this and are on the "other side" of clutter. I eliminated some about three years ago, but I wasn't ruthless.... I must develop that quality in order to live serenely and smoothly.

Monday, May 14, 2007


Happy Mother's Day! It was a great day, despite the sad events of the previous nights. Thankfully, my very ill father has had some good days and is home doing really well for a while. My mom, on a walker, felt like having us over for lunch. It was a little KFC affair, but of course, she had to add some home made things like baked beans, crescent rolls, and strawberry shortcake. She gave us all gifts, and we exhanged little goodies and generally partied all day. My son did little chores, mowed their lawn, and had fun. My mom is quite a lady. She seems small, but she is one of those matriarch type women who is very strong willed and very much in control. I love this picture because although my mother would have fainted dead away to have me NAKED outdoors, she and I used to go out, lie on a blanket with our cat named Sally (my cat is again named that) and dream through a summer noon hour. Busy as we always were, she often found time to just have a good time with me. I suspect she had more fun when I was old enough to help her hang out laundry on a line in the summer sun or plunge with a long stick into the churning waters of our wringer washer to help the whites bob about in the Tide water a bit more. Wringer wash, wring, rinse once, wring again, rinse again, wring out one last time.... little flat boards of clothing so very compact and ready to be hung.... Really satisfying and fun for a young thing like me....

Saturday, May 12, 2007


"There's got to be a morning after" was a popular song when I was younger. I think it was a song written for the disaster movie, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. This is that morning after for some very dear friends of our family. A young girl has passed away last night. She was the young sister of one of my son's very best friends. Such sadness, such an end to dreams, to hopes, to plans. I will forever think of the inscription on a tombstone in my cemetery, "Many hopes lie buried here." Amen. My son hasn't come home yet from the night. He spent it not with his friend although he called me to send someone. No, my son was already involved spending time with a young woman who had just given birth in diffcult situations. She was in the hopsital, had a beautiful daughter, and then spent the night in surgery and in danger of losing her young life, too. What a night. I am so sad right now. Young people hurt so differently, so hopelessly. There seems no way through it for them, so they move out of their own picture. So crushing. I thank God for his loving arms because where would I go when I hurt like this -----without Him?