SOME FUN STUFF

Halloween 2011 will go down in history as one of my all time favorites!

It started out with a big fire at the pit to discuss what we would do

Friar Brian comes out of solitude to make home made pretzels

and they are yummy indeed!

I am "Holly Venneman at the Farmer's Market" and this person next to me is the person in charge of scaring all older children who knock on our door!

our treat bowl also comes with some tricks...a few wrinkly avocados and some sprouting turnips!

This sweet group was just too nice to scare....but we did scare a few believe me!

some very funny stuff!

twin sons of a different mother

grrrrr!

THE CRINOLINE SLIPPER

Time has passed and so many things are not the same as they were...so let me see if I can put this in the right order.

First came the little blonde girl...giggly, smart, and a bit later...prissy

and then came the floral party dress with a crinoline slipper underneath

to wear to tea parties and church

and then came the passage of time

and soon after that came Poppy's wicker trunk that came from B's Babboo's house

and in it went all the things I couldn't bear to part with all the time thinking someday I would be a Poppy and I would have a trunk that would hold tight all the things I couldn't bear to part with...

and in went this pretty floral flirty tea party dress...

and then came this little blonde girl...giggly, smart, and right now prissy...

and on the day she needed a costume to wear to school she went upstairs to Poppy's Dress Up Trunk

and for the first time in a very long time...

out came the floral party dress with a crinoline slipper underneath...

and then came a tightening in the chest (heart area) and a lump in the throat and a tear on the cheek

as the party dress....just as it was the day it was placed in the trunk so long ago....

popped out

with a big black afro...

and then came the laughter just at the exact moment that I knew it would someday...maybe not today..but someday...only it was

today

SOMETHING ABOUT THIS

makes me want to pray

TA DA

Meet my beer fridge and white wine chiller

It would be pretty fancy if it were not in the garage

Seasonal jello shots!  These are spooks, bats, and pumpkins!  For trick or TREAT!

chilled glasses for every occasion

bff's six pack case emptied and filled on a regular basis..here she put it here it will remain!

hmmmm....some one has been here!

love those double dirty martinis...tee many martoonies

and special beer for special friends...

now...where is that bottle of Kate Spade!

FOR THE LITTLE BOY WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE

OUT with the OLD

IN with the NEW

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 822

HIPPIE OR CHIC?

My old soul lives in the foot hills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  I have been coming here since I was 14 and think I am the luckiest person in the world to be just a five hour drive from a place the entire world puts on their bucket list to visit.  And visit it I do...we do....at least once a year if not more.

The question remains....Sante Fe?  Or Taos?

Sante Fe is...

sophisticated

dressy

chic

trendy

arsty

foody

and much more touristy

I remember when baby peep was young, we pretended to talk in a foreign language as we walked the cobbled streets.  We were not out of the ordinary...there are as many languages spoken as smells drift in the crisp air.

The history and art is amazing and very inspiring.

But me (and others) seem to find our comfort just a few miles north

Where the sky is brilliant blue in contrast to the adobe dwellings

Taos is....

hippie

lost in time

quaint

colorful

earthy

and for some reason I just prefer it...anything goes

God lives here and so do the souls of many who are still alive...like me

I yearn

TIME TO MAKE THE DONUTS

This table has had a long good life. 

It came into mine quite randomly as I found it while delivering a birthday present to my future hubby.

It was in a depot...in a town nearby...in very bad condition...and the only item of furniture in the whole place.

I was wearing my birthday suit, his tie, and my black high-top Converse All Stars...which would later become my wedding shoes.

At that time I was tan, skinny...and obviously brave (and let's not forget about 15 years younger).

One of my favorite things he said to me was "Time to make the donuts" which just means you have to get up early and go to work.  After that...we began to say to each other..."Timing is Everything".

And it is...and that's why I went back to fetch this table and paint it for him for his birthday.

It has clocks and "timing is everything" is painted on the top of it.

This table has lived in a train station, 4 houses on Barkley Street, a B&B and an art gallery.

It was a nomad table...but not anymore.

It lives here...in our wine cellar...and while moving it there, I was reminded that underneath are the words.....

"I want to rock your gypsy soul"

Happy Birthday table...Happy Birthday 822...and to you too man of my dreams, light of my world and rocker of my gypsy soul!

CANTON FIRST MONDAY

Is like the craziest thing in the world to go to!  8 hour drive, no room in the inn, hundreds of thousands of chubby women shopping with carts such as these....filled and over-filled with the latest most trendy junque.

The first thing we bought, however (and I do consider myself to be chubby just for the record) was this wonderful cart.  You could rent them for $25 an hour or buy them for $35.  Hello.  I might be homeless someday and this could come in handy. 

It also has the nice feature of holding your--ahem...drinkipoo....as all homeless folk seem to regard as the number one must have on your cart.

Have I mentioned that owls are IN?  I mean it people..they are HOT!

As we shopped up and down Hwy 64, after we got tired of smelling the ducks and turtles in Dog Town,  we found lots of great bargains.

We were told these were worth over $2500 and of course I believe it.  We bought them anyway...for our outdoor fireplace...when we get one and no...we didn't pay $2500...it was bargain day!

Also very trendy this season are neutral cowhide rugs.  I have been on the ebay search for months and this was the 2nd purchase of the day.  OOOOOO!!!!

Leave it to me to always always seek out old linens...cannot wait to iron these up for a crisp white bed!

Skeleton key anyone?  With a very cute dangle?  Not sure where I will put this but I have been thinking lots about it!

and precious hubbalub always buys me a treasure...this is a very pretty shell and pearl necklace from

one of those cute little shops I could barely fit in. 

It was a great trip...quite unexpected...the very best kind...spur of the moment...crap buying days...

in Canton! 

As annoyed as I was with all those ladies bumping into me from behind with those carts, I must admit, I bumped a few butts myself...just for the fun of it.

Hey...that's how things go down in Canton!

MOMMY ISSUES

I can remember when I was in ninth grade that horrible awful feeling of my P.E. clothes tumbling in the dryer at 8 AM on Monday morning.

Then:  Good grief mother of mine who cares so little about me that you can't even get my P.E. clothes washed in decent time.  Do you not think it's embarrassing enough that I am in P.E. in the first place?  Are you really THAT busy that I am forced to wear damp P.E. clothes in 3rd period?

10 Years Later: Mom, I realize you had 5 kids and given the fact that we all had the same black glasses that made us look like Clark Kent, I would assume we all had P.E. clothes tumbling in the dryer at 8 AM on Monday morning.  So...it wasn't just bad form toward me....we all suffered through it and made it just fine.

Now:  Good grief you twit and spoiled rotten brat!  You were in the ninth grade and your mother was doing your laundry?  And there were five kids and you weren't helping out better than that?  And you really cared if you were in P.E.?

Dear Mommy,
Thank you for doing my P.E. clothes all the times you did them.  And thank you for letting me get contacts so I didn't have to look just like my brothers.

Mommy issue solved.

REARRANGING SOAP

...is almost as relaxing and fulfilling as rearranging art.

you know how you get a new picture or chair or something and you have to rearrange everything around it?

this new little soap is the catalyst...

I love soap and my peep knows it...she brought me this sussy back from her birthday trip to wine country...

for my new guest bathroom!

so...during my insomnia last night, rather than just sit in the dark, I came downstairs to sit in my bathroom and got to arranging my soap

all soap in this bathroom is just for fragrance

and looks

if you really want to get clean you will have to grab the real soap basket that will be under the vanity..

in a very cute basket I might add

no....all this stuff is NOT going on the vanity...but some of it will...that's why I have to plan ahead on the soap

on this table?  with the airplane plant that bff gave me in a glass jar that I gave her full of hyacinth blooms last spring? 

I love double gift giving!

and soap!

all new soaps will look so beautiful with the new hex tile

and the new elegant carerra shower

I have to admit...insomnia was kind of fun last night...and productive...

thanks peep!

TO MY FRIEND LOY

No tour dates are currently scheduled for Neil Diamond at this time, but as soon as you feel much better I will personally write him a letter and ask for him to sing Sweet Caroline for you..in concert somewhere near to where you live...I hope OKC! 

And I will also request all the other songs that I know for a fact you know all the words to and sing out loud every chance you get...he needs to sing those too.

I am wishing and hoping and praying that your better than ever heart you will have by this time tomorrow will let you keep up with me in the you know what category (beer drinking in the morning) and that your sweet wife will have some time to shop and purchase while she is in Ohio.

Best and love to you both for sure...from home!

DIGIN UP BONES

can you say G.R.O.S.S.

to my bff Nan, aka nanner

I found you a little something in my driveway that I do believe you asked me for

I sincerely hope this is a kitten and not a baby squirrel that was eaten alive by the vultures that hover above my head

If this is from an owl, all is forgiven because I like owls don't you know?

but....

if this is a baby squirrel eaten alive by one of those dang black protected vultures..then

somebody better watch out..there will be more than clapping going on at this house!

Nan...please let me know of the findings of your autopsy asap

my bb gun is loaded

and

cocked