It all started with this magical package... I received three gift certificates to my favorite store in the world, Randolph Mercantile, in Moberly. I hoarded them all through the summer, waiting for the fall merchandise to be put out... And it is.... These goodies came home with me today...

I dunno.. a little velvet bag.. I'll show you the back in another post... and where I put it...

Aren't these tea towels just so very cute? I love them...

Didn't I get a bunch of goodies? I would NEVER have spent all this on myself, but ... what's a girl to do with THREE gift certificates?

The Potions sign is going on my medicine cabinet... Wait until you see my Fall Bathroom decor... I have an addiction: fall stuff... My son is bringing over some of my boxes of Harvest Decoration on Sunday... Stay tuned.

I promise to wait just a tidge bit longer, but it's difficult... August is a beautiful month, and I don't want to rob it of its glory BUT... I just have a passion for the prims of Fall...

THE STORE.....

This is only one little section of this most beautiful store!! Autumn! Magical. I went out with friends today, and they said I lit up like a Christmas Tree in there... I love this store; I love the girls who work there; and I love the magical goodies they carry!

The girls said this is their second order of quilted Halloween things... and it isn't even August yet!!! So, see... I'm not alone in my purchases...

I bought two squares. I'll try to post the rest of my things some time soon.. This isn't quite everything!

Have a lovely weekend!

Hal-yay-yoo-yah!!!

Today "Mommy's Girl," by Marie Osmand came to live with us. I got her as an "End of Radiation" gift for Mama.. Today was really rainy, dark, --- perfect for staying home and cuddling down with a great book, (of course a card project), and some tv later. Mom was relieved, too. She has some really upsetting post-radiation skin trauma, but the staff assured her it would get better in about two weeks. Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer please. Have a fun week.

Just because

Sunday morning I heard a little rustling on Mom's front porch, so I quietly tiptoed to the window on her screen door. On her porch was Elmira Groundhog, pretty as you please. She stood proud and tall and peered into a little green flower wagon. Then she mosied over to check out the artificial red geranium in Mom's 20 gallon crock. I think she sensed she was being watched because she froze for a few minutes. I decided to knock, and after about five different times, she went under the little wagon to see if I'd go away... Brazen Elmira. Finally, I opened the door, and she ambled off the porch grumbling about the "tresspasser" she had to put up with... Oh, my... and I blamed the bunnies for our geranium loss... Nope. Think it was Elmira, don't you?

Another couple of cards for today... Just because... I'm GLITTER happy!

Thinking of you. . .

My Metamorphosis Monday Post... Check out more at Susan's Blog, Between Naps on the Porch. (There are no "before" pictures since I didn't have anything to start with... except a red suitcase full of messy papers....

Well, as promised, the first fruits of my new passion!!! Don't think Mr. Hall (of Hallmark Division) will be calling me any time soon. If he paid me by the hour, I'd be rich... by the card? Not so much. After watching numerous mesmerizing YouTube videos about the cricut, about scrapbooking, about the whole "cult" that IS scrapbooking, I was totally intimidated. Thus my first 30 projects were trashed... not quite 3o, but a LOT! I haven't been as lost in my happy place for years... I am definitely in the alpha zone when I'm glittering... I feel as if I am about six, and I have been given that wonderful, fragrant new box of crayons with the sharpener by my grandfather... a new artist's pad in college.... a can of stripper and a quart of paint in my early homemaking days...

This is F.U.N.!!!!!!!!!

Finally today I decided to really TRY! I am amazed, envious, and truly appreciative of the rooms and boxes and myriads of little doodads and tools, crimpers, and folio pockets these girls have... Some of the videos showed whole rooms dedicated to scrapping. I honestly had NO idea... Don't get me wrong. I'm not making fun or knocking it. Creating these two tiny notecards with layers, layers, glitter, and stamps.... it took longer than I want to admit... I didn't have the little clear blocks for my stamps I bought... Who knew they weren't complete? I think I improvised deliciously... I used a clear, flat glass candle lid... It works beautifully... I didn't have colors of stamp ink... only cocoa and tulip... So I used magic markers.... Anyway, these are done, and I'm contemplating who will get these... The envelopes match... oh my... I'm wondering if there will be recovery and twelve step programs for this addiction?????? "Stamping up" tm wings at convalescent homes???

One more treatment tomorrow for Mom if she can't talk them out of it... Honestly, these last four have been X-tremely painful... :-(

Happy End of Summer to me...

Okay... so I've been contemplating a HUGE purchase, did the math, contacted the banks, even visited the Dealers who sell the objects I was considering... Yeah. I thought it sounded like a doable thing... I was actually considering buying a little home to put in my mom's front field. Then I did the connection of the heart to the brain thing.. (sometimes a mistake?)... I don't want a new home. I'm fine, I guess, right here. I can't afford a new home plus the one I have over the hill. If I bought this thing, I would be HUGELY in debt for the next 30 years... HUGELY... a bigger payment than I have ever made for anything... every month... every thirty days... Never could I retire, never breathe without knowing I wouldn't be out of debt until age 85... So, goodbye little green house. I don't think I'll really miss you long. I really couldn't have helped my mom out as much from her front field as I think I do right here...

And today I bought myself a big big... big toy. I bit the bullet and got myself a Cricut Expression~!!!!! If you've ever stayed up late, you've seen the infomercial, and you've wanted one. I know you have? haha? Really!??? You haven't? aw... Well, I have been coveting it all year, so today Wally World offered it to me, along with a couple of print cartridges... Whew! Still not a house payment, though! not even one of the 360 I would have had to make. The bank would have more than doubled its money... and with this cricut, I can create limitless fun.. All teachers should never be without it... and best of all, it's easy!!! (WE SHALL SEE!!!) Hugs.. If I make anything, I'll be sure and show it to you! (The goblet is plastic and new, too.. and that's diet coke in case you were worried!) Don't ask me what the watch is for.

We gave Chance another Chance... and it was awesome!

You're in for a treat. Another day trip following our morning in Columbia.

Where could we be headed?

It's sure inviting....

Notice the vintage dress in the upstairs window?

We decided to take a quick trip back to Centralia to check out Chance Gardens one last time. In an earlier post I showed some photos of it, but the rose garden was not in bloom yet. Well, what a good idea! Today, it was floribunda in action! Each rose has a little name stake, and Mom was out there memorizing names of roses that were especially huge, red, and beautiful. It lacked only a little bench where we could sit and enjoy.. The benches are pretty far on cobblestone for a walker!!! We also circled the enclosed garden again and got some more shots of that beautiful space. Enjoy the pretty florals! I'm glad I woke up and remembered to slip fresh batteries in my trusty camera!!

WE hooked up with Outdoor Wednesdays HERE

We won't tell her we caught her in the roses!!!!

Hope you enjoyed this as much as we did!!!!

What shall I post about?

Summer daze... I have been reading on several of my favorite blogs about blogger's block! I think that's funny since I have also felt a bit "blocked" lately. I have stuff to post about, but sometimes it just isn't all that upbeat, if you get the hint! I love this wreath on my door, and it has inspired me to get some paint next time I'm in town and do a makeover on the door to my room. Mom gave me the okay... which is always nice. Although, there was a time, as that commercial goes, when I was undisputed queen of my castle, and I wouldn't have had to ask permission of anyone! Is it all that important to be queen? Nah.. not really. Does it sometimes feel like it? Yeah, I admit. Some days I want to rip out curtains, paint over paneling, tear every single cupboard out and reorganize... I did this often at home, and more often than not, I didn't love the changes I'd made... but it was always a work in progress, a labor of love.

Mom received this lovely Jadeite looking cup of summer posies from her sweet niece today. We met at Steak and Shake in Columbia for lunch since Mom is on Radiation trip number 21.... Only four more! and My cousin's daughter in love is confined to a hospital pre-natal ward for nine weeks flat on her back to avoid preterm labor and delivery... wow... that would be a LONG nine weeks! But so worth it if it holds out for that baby boy they are cherishing. My morning views... a lot of this... I am humbled, gratified, and struck by the love I see in action at this Cancer Clinic. So many middle-aged "boys" and "girls" like me are hovering about their parents, who are on walkers, in wheel chairs, on three-footed canes... We are squiring them into the clinic for their treatments and biding our morning in the parking lots, the leatherette waiting room, the driveways... hoping and praying for recoveries, for healing, for cures, for remissions... just as our parents once transported our anxious little, cranky hot bodies to ballgames, music lessons, and playdates... Life has a way of coming full circle, but the borders blur, the motives intensify, and the stakes go up. I found it easier to be selfless when my little man was in the passenger seat and I sat for hours while he batted his way through little league...

My summer is winding down--- much less than a month until summer yields to teacher workshops, to book orders, to students seated in classrooms prepared or not... The usual question: "Have you had a good summer?" I hear it over and over ALREADY. Have I? I have. I have been to one summer dinner in honor of a friend's birthday... on my own. We had taco salads, sat on a screened-in porch, and relaxed the night away until dusk.

Otherwise, Mom and I have buddied it up going to treatments and scouring the countryside on Saturdays for beautiful flowers. I blog. I read. I watch tv's summer offerings late at night... I've studied Esther with Beth Moore, and I've planned to glitter a whole lot of pretty cards and postcards with tons of glitter from my stash. I think I've had what can only be termed a "sweet summer." I tolerate the care and watering of flowers a teeny bit more and I have been blessed with cool temperate climate.. How about you? Have you had a good summer? I am blessed, and I know it... I truly do.

A little drive

Today before we stopped for lunch Mom and I drove through some lovely wooded countryside. We saw some beautiful homes, some fine Amish farms, and of course, pretty flowers.

We also noted that an old country church near Clark will be leaving us soon. I hate to see old country churches go. Although this one was right in the middle of Amish country, it wasn't an Amish church. The gatework and iron fencing is beautiful and old.

This neat farm earth contact home has stellar flowers! I believe a very ambitious young couple lives here!

I loved the window boxes on this little farm shed.

We had to cross a scary-looking one lane bridge to get into these woods... Mom was peering over the edge.. She abhors water of any level... I used to adore a long walk in the woods. I loved whistling for my two collies, Jingles and Tinkerbell... We loped off through the fields and spent the rest of the day moseying along the creekbeds... I lived in a fairy tale all my early days... Sometimes I was the princess, captured by the spell of some Wicked thing... usually a product of Norwegian fairy tale concoction. I loved those wild tales from the Norse....

Fields of hay were ricked with really unusual little stacks or bundles... So orderly and prim.

Horses everywhere... working, trotting fast with milk carts... Farmers were scurrying around all the side roads with their teams and buggies.

I love the look of all their red barns... so well painted and beloved....

Our breezy temperature is 71 degrees today. Heaven's smile for a weary earth... I love this kind of day... What's my project going to be today?

She's a CaLICO Kitty

More from Bighugelabs.com --- a new cool site (to me). This is my Sally, who lives with my son. Isn't that cool? I would totally love a fabric with this print... I'm tempting you. You're going to want to try this...

Bighugelabs.com

Wow.... as if any of us had time to just lose!!! Lost in the fun of "coloring" and "playing." Kind of like when we were kids and we were told to put up the chalk... and hours later we had created a sidewalk masterpiece... Go to bighugelabs.com and have a blast with your digital photos... Seriously... It could be addictive...