ISO A BIBLE

Do you have lots of bibles around your home?

it would not be hard to find a bible in my house

This is Mr. PV's bible that he had in school...it has been read well over the years...I love how it looks and smells

This is the bible my dad gave my mother on their wedding day

one of the sweetest things I've ever seen

This is the children's bible that's mixed in with all the toys under the coffee table that I hope will be read to all the littles over the years in our home

This is the bible I read...and it has an interesting history

the glasses and the book cover belonged to my grandmother

this bible belonged to my ex-husband....I gently covered his name with an address label

I wanted it because it belonged to Grace for a while and it has her little 5th grade handwriting in it

it has her grandmother's handwriting in it...and I adore her...it has been read, hauled around, thumbed through, written in, highlighted and cried over...for many many years now

~*~

Grace (text):  Abdon Ponce's (murdered his mother and her boyfriend last week) wife was ISO a bible on Perryton Pickers

Me:  What? (I am surprised that someone would be ISO a bible...aren't they everywhere?)

Grace:  I mean of all the family there's not a bible?  I think she looks sweet, they have 3 tiny boys

Me:  Do you feel called?

Grace: yes, from moment one

This is my miracle jar...when I have a miracle occur or an answered prayer...I jot it down and put it in this jar.  On this day that Grace felt a calling to contact the mother involved in this horrible tragedy in our community...it occurred to me as I wrote down the date and our texts back and forth...that...

miracles happen all around us 

but what if

sometimes

WE...might be the miracle that happens to others

ISO

God's Words

LIDIA

LIDIA BISTIANICH

do you  know

LIDIA?

our local PBS station brought her to Amarillo

and Mr. PV is the president of her Fan Club

Spearman Chapter

He rarely uses a cook book, but has quite a collection of them

Barnes and Noble had 1 left on the night of the event we attended at Public House

it was a wine pairing with recipes taken from her newest cook book

the gastro students at Palo Duro High cooked four dishes under the direction of

Chef Brent Lancour

yes....of course you know this is our kind of event!!!  

she did not cook

but rather flittered about the crowd and spoke of how she became involved in cooking and 

how she loves the US...she was a refugee as a child and her story is so compelling

Mr. PV now has a signed cookbook from her...I think she added my name in there because she liked that I asked a question about her cooking in her 12 gold bracelets...a gift that she rarely removes.

I like that.

what fun the evening was

her mother is 95 and what I love the best about watching Lidia is how she honors her mother and how much fun they still have cooking and tasting the food they cook and sipping the perfect wine ...the show is filmed in her house. 

I like that.

on a worse note...it seems as though each day I think I'm going to write a post,

either something happy or sad keeps me from it....

prayers for Paris for sure!

Usually we live in a quiet peaceful little town where we worry about things such as am I blocking isle 3 at the grocery store visiting with JoJo too long...

this week we had a double homicide...

read HERE (scroll down a bit if you are interested)...and one normal November Friday 13 morning ended up with this young man giving chase to the murderer who he had NO IDEA was one, until this crash happened...

HE WAS OK!!!!  

but came back to his house to find a dead body in the car that was left behind.

whoa....

Lidia....Homicide...

pura vida

TALENT OR CREATIVITY

Mr. PV and I got into an interesting conversation yesterday

the topic was

TALENT vs. CREATIVITY

What exactly is the difference?

I'm really not sure I know the answer to this and would love your input

we were talking about our kids and all the stuff they were doing

which took me back to my very talented mother

I was telling him the story of the time she put on a one man style show

she invited several very pretty models that were her friends and like a tailor

took their measurements.  From that, she alone created 80 one of a kind outfits and had a style show to raise money for a charity.

That is talent!

her hands and mind have always been and still are her greatest asset

she creates different things now as her heritage has become so much a part of who she is today

so...our entire family creates and they inspire me every day

Grace has an 8 year old and an 8 month old

she is a project manager on a very large energy contract

for our community she is in charge of Bountiful Baskets and teaches Sunday School

she will soon open her new store

Yellow Bird Boutique

where she and her hubby make things like this

He has a degree in electrical construction

in order to marry her, he had to move here and works in the wind energy world

he climbs these towers on a daily basis

brave for sure and then comes home to a garage full of things waiting to be painted or built

This one...he has started his own little side company in oil and gas leak detection

his sweet wife just finished her real estate license

and last but far from least 

my little Dove Feather works for Texas Tech Health Science Center

and her man is a head coach.

They are deep into the Dave Ramsey phenom and

besides their regular jobs, she recently finished her master's and he will begin his after Christmas

They paint furniture in their garage...they bought one can of turquoise paint and buy old furniture on Craig's List.  

Buy a dresser on Friday, paint it on Saturday, sell it on Sunday.

And in the summer CMB could lay back and relax but instead he works for a corporate mowing service.

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and once again it comes down to 

talent or creativity

all I know is this person right here is one heck of an example of 

just getting in there and doing it.

Want a farm table?  Then put on your building shorts and build one.

in the mix of talent or creativity, I believe I have discovered one thing

that brings it all together... 

the one thing that determines the success of all the things we endeavor

and that one thing is ambition.

raw, pure, simple, humble

AMBITION

so if you feel you are lacking in the field of talent/creativity

not to worry...the world is your canvas and the strokes belong to you 

it's not your mind that rules but your heart

in the talented/creative world of advertising, one of my very favorites is this one

JUST. DO.IT.

IF NOT WHY NOT?

Do watch commercials and grade them on their effectiveness?

Why I do I do not  know, but I do.

One such commercial that has struck me so funny lately is the 

Reagor Dykes Auto Group

Bart Reagor played football at Texas Tech and while he might have been a great player and now a great car salesmen...he's not much of an actor...but he tries so hard and that's the thing I like best about him.

In his latest over animated commercial, he asks if you are pumped about your car...do you go out and look at it and feel like you can't wait to jump in it and drive it?  If not...WHY NOT?

I think this is how we should feel about the place we live

I have lived in many a fixer upper--8 to be exact--

homes that began quite humbly, including this one

but no matter what house I was living in and working on, there was only one thing that it had to be and that thing was

CUTE

today, I live in the house that I will live in forever

and I am pretty pumped about that

I look at it a lot from all angles

I never hesitate to enjoy that hard work that we have put into it

TEAM PURA VIDA

Mr. P.V. mows his grass, with a push mower, once a week

I wash the windows, on a ladder, myself

I feed the roses epsom salt mixed in water often

my nails are proof

and when it's fall, I find big pumpkins and use flicker bulbs

we celebrate

and think about the kids who drive by and wish they could live here when they grow up

just like I did when I was 8

I consider it a privilege to clean the muck out of my fountain 

I consider it a privilege for Mr. PV to do that too when it's his turn

you can't see my comfy chair, but I sit here often

with a glass of wine and wait on the butterflies to eat my parsley

yes, I am pumped about my house

but I was pumped about each one of them while I was there

if you're not pumped?  

WHY NOT?

just a little bit of seed...

GET PUMPED!

VELVET PUMPKINS

I might always be late to the trend 

but 

that has no effect on my obsession with it!

This year it is the 

VELVET PUMPKIN!

via pinterest

probably what started it all for us...

TO.DIE.FOR.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I wanted one hundred the first time I ever laid eyes on them

but I am also on the cheap side and wasn't willing to pay that much money for them

so I decided to wait until Hobby Lobby carried them

which is one year before Wal-Mart

and this year? neither!

it was going to be up to me to figure this thing out because 

unlike some trends

they are so beautiful they will never go away

and I don't care who has them as long as I do!

My first realization...it's all about the fabric

SILK VELVET

so I ordered some odd colors in fat quarters, robbed my toiletries of dental floss and bought some cheap rice at the grocery store

I knew I was on to something obsessive because if I know anybody I know me

and I love to blend my loves....peacock velvet meet my pumpkin pattern

I happen to have a teeny pumpkin patch so I robbed the stems and then realized I would be needing more....hello eBay!  

first came the experiment with some leftover fabric

I know...you like them too don't you?  

basking in the morning sun

what I really wanted initially was some for my pink dining/music room

PINK  VELVET PUMPKINS

that's all

I just kept having enough left over fabric to make just one more little one

and gosh before I knew it....I had oodles of pink velvet pumpkins

to go with

this gorgeoso blown glass beauty

and then I saw the shades of purples and lavenders

that go so nicely with my paisley tablecloth

wondering if I should fill my copper pot with them?

and then I just about forgot that moment I ordered another fat quarter in midnight blue and she had back surgery and didn't ship in time so she sent me two to be nice and well....

maybe a few blue ones here?

good grief!!!

and wouldn't ya know it?  Market Street in Amarillo 

CAME THROUGH!!!  

and so I bought some in 

what?  ORANGE?  

and I'm embarrassed to show you the lime green ones!

but they look lovely with these!

and let's not forget silver...yes...silver and pumpkins are two pumps in a kin patch for sure

I think silver silk velvet would be gaudy don't you?

NOT