It's All About Me......

Many of you that visits on a regular basis inquired about my artistic abilities after I did the last fix~up to my blog. My interest in art came about when I was in the 4th grade. We had art classes at our little school once each week. We had an art teacher, but she traveled between the schools each week. One of our first art activities was to draw circles, squares, etc. The art teacher walked around the room and looked at what everyone had drawn. When she got to me she picked up my paper and commented on how perfect my circles were. From that day on I was hooked on drawing.
There for a while I spent a lot of time on these types of line drawing. They were quick and they were fun to do. I have sketches that I did in the 60's that are very fragile now. I probably should choose the best of them and put them in frames.

When I got married the first time I put away all of my art supplies and dedicated myself to being a wife and mother. I didn't see where I would have time to be those things and be able to put much of myself into my art as well.

Before Chris was born I would take Tersie to a nearby park and while she played I would sketch. It wasn't long before Tersie was asking for pencils and paper and she started drawing too. At 4 years old she was really very good. Everything she drew was recognizable.

I put things away again when Chris was little and when he started school I started painting . I gave away everything that I ever painted, except for 1 picture. Tersie has that painting hanging on her wall. It was a painting of her and Chris playing on the beach at San Onafre. I did take a few pictures of those paintings, but the glare from the flash takes a lot away from them.

We lived in Quakertown, PA for a few years. Unlike the California schools where they love to have parents involved in the schools, I found the Quakertown public schools not wanting parent involvement. Chris was really struggling so I took him out of the public school system and put him in Catholic school. My involvement in the Catholic school was on the weekends, where I taught the sacrament classes for the children who attended public schools. It was during this time that I found a job working at Center Line Mfg. They made the little plastic dealership stick ons advertising where you bought your vehicle from. My job there was in the art department designing these stick ons. The two you see above was two that I designed. I loved that job.

Something else that I loved was working with the children during Catholic Schools Week. I taught the lower grades the art of alphabet cartooning and the older children the basics of Calligraphy. When the photographer for the local newspaper took the picture of me, he also got a shot of a couple of children in the class. When he took the picture of Chris, he had no idea that he was my son. You can click on the clipping of Chris and it should enlarge enough to read what it says.






I have always kept some form of art in my life, be it knitting, counted cross stitch, crocheting, writing, etc. The list goes on and on. Since those days when my children were small I have owned my own business creating country and primitive crafts for country gift shops in the area. I designed and cut my own stencils for wall stenciling. I stenciled many homes when I was in my 40's, climbing around on ladders like a monkey...... In the picture above, the saltbox houses stenciled above the chair rail in Chris and Melody's living room, I designed and cut that stencil. I stenciled it on their wall as a birthday gift for Melody.



I discovered a whole new outlet for my love of art when I discovered the Internet. I have created six websites over the years. That included doing my own graphics work. Much of what I learned was through the help of Tersie. She took me by the hand and led me every step of the way at first. Now is that a loving daughter or what????



My artwork has been an outlet for me over the years. The best way to describe it is like the valve on a pressure cooker. I spent the better part of my teen years shut up in my bedroom either drawing, painting or writing poetry. I truly believe that is all that made it possible for me to survive living with an abusive father. Out of sight out of mind sort of thing. Then again my artwork helped me keep my sanity through a 30 year marriage that was filled with abusive words and deeds. At times in my life I have thought that I would like to use this gift that I have been given in the field of art therapy. It never happened though and at 59 I think it is a little late to follow that dream.

What is really great is that my life on the mountain ridge with JD and my children and grandchildren within driving distance, I no longer feel "The Need" to have art a part of my life. It is a part of my life now because I enjoy it.


Thank you Betty at Betty's This and That for honoring me with the Super Commenter Award.

I was also honored by Aisha and Steven at Holley Herald by being chosen as one of their featured Blogs.

I hope that you will find time to stop by these two blogs and drop a hello or two.

Here's hoping that your week is filled with love and happiness.

Bathing Suit Blues

I can't tell you how often I have struggled with stress or health issues and felt as if I was trapped in a dark pit with no way out of it. More times then not something happens, is said or I read something that brings a smile to my face. From that point on, the course of the entire day can change. I received the following story in an e-mail yesterday. With so many people planning their vacations, I thought it is a good time to post it to my blog. I have no idea who wrote it, but I can tell you it didn't just bring a smile to my face, it brightened the rest of my day. I hope it will do the same for you.

Beach Vacation

When I was a teen in the 1960s the bathing suit for the mature figure was boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered. They were built to hold back and uplift and they did a good job.

Today's stretch fabrics are designed for the prepubescent girl with a figure carved from a potato chip.

The mature woman has a choice...... she can either go up front to the maternity department and try on a floral suit with a skirt, coming away looking like a hippopotamus who escaped from Disney's Fantasia or she can wander around every run of the mill department store trying to make a sensible choice from what amounts to a designer range of florescent rubber bands.

What choice did I have? I wandered around, made my sensible choice and entered the chamber of horrors known as the fitting room.

The first thing I noticed was the extraordinary tensile strength of the stretch material. The Lycra used in bathing costumes was developed, I believe, by NASA to launch small rockets from a slingshot, which give the added bonus that if you manage to actually lever yourself into one, you are protected from shark attacks as any shark taking a swipe at your passing midriff would immediately suffer whiplash. I fought my way into the bathing suit, but as I twanged the shoulder strap in place, I gasped

in horror.... my boobs had disappeared!

Eventually, I found one boob cowering under my left armpit. It took awhile to find the other. At last I located it flattened beside my seventh rib.

The problem is that modern bathing suits have no bra cups. The mature woman is meant to wear her boobs spread across her chest like a speed bump. I realigned my speed bump and lurched toward the mirror to take a full view assessment.

The bathing suit fit alright, but unfortunately it only fit those bits of me willing to stay inside it. The rest of me oozed out rebelliously from top, bottom, and sides. I looked like a lump of play dough wearing undersized cling wrap.

As I tried to work out where all those extra bits had come from, the prepubescent sales girl popped her head through the curtain, 'Oh, there you are,' she said, admiring the bathing suit.

I replied that I wasn't so sure and asked what else she had to show me. I tried on a cream crinkled one that made me look like a lump of masking tape, and a floral two piece which gave the appearance of an over sized napkin in a serving ring.

I struggled into a pair of leopard skin bathers with ragged frills and came out looking like Tarzan's Jane, pregnant with triplets and having a rough day.

I tried on a black number with a midriff and looked like a jellyfish in mourning.

I tried on a bright pink pair with such a high cut leg I thought I would have to wax my eyebrows to wear them.

Finally, I found a suit that fit...a two-piece affair with a shorts style bottom and a loose blouse type top.

It was cheap, comfortable, and bulge friendly, so I bought it. My ridiculous search had a successful outcome, I figured. When I got home, I found a label which read .... 'Material might become transparent in water.'

So, if you happen to be on the beach or near any other body of water this year and I'm there too I'll be the one in cut off jeans and a shirt!

'Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.'

Connie at 'Over Good Ground' has requested prayers for her friend Karen who is having some health issues and is worried about the results.

Jeff at 'A Word In Edgewise' asked that we send up prayers for his Mother-in-law Maria, who was to go through surgery for the second time for breast cancer. This after the Doctors thinking they had gotten it all the first time. Please remember Jeff's wife Lisa as well. I know all too well that the loved ones of the cancer patients goes through their own private little hell.

Linds at 'Rocking Chair Reflections' has been ordered off of her feet for a while due to an injury to her knee. She has been bonding with her couch during this time.

Stacy at 'Living My Days In Hope' has been having some serious issues with her son. Please remember her family as they struggle with trying to find him the help that he needs.

Reva at 'Gifting Each Day' will be going to Denver for a medical procedure next week.

If I have forgotten anyone please know that it wasn't intentional. Hopefully you will stop by these blogs and offer some support and a few words of encouragement, as well as remember these special people in your prayers.

Yesterday morning we headed down the back side of the mountain as we had a few errands to run. When we finished about 4 PM we made a big circle and was met with this when we reached the bottom of the front side of the mountain. We were told that about 9 AM the loaded log truck in the picture either lost control of his truck or his brakes failed and it demolished the barn in the following picture. The driver was taken to the hospital. We haven't heard anything on his condition.

This barn usually houses a horse, but it had been turned out to pasture before the crash. There were two cows in the barn when the truck ran into it. They found one of the cows dead under the fallen barn. This is the second incident within a month due to the none stop logging that they are doing here on the mountain. The last one they felled a tree on the power lines causing a transformer to blow. We were out of electricity for around 12 hours. I think someone is trying to tell them something. What do you think?

Hope your day is exceptional!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Letters From Home

I received a special request from Kentucky Woman which I am passing along to everyone reading this. Below is a link from a Marines blog post. All that I ask, no more than what we all do every day. Please sit down and give maybe 10 minutes out of your day to write an e-mail to Marines who are in the Middle East. The same ones putting their lives on the line for each and everyone of us. No matter what your stand is on the war in Iraq, we all need to show our troops that we support them and are behind them all of the way. Just click here ->One Marine's View<- to get the info.

Thank you to Pea for the memento of Faerie Day. I hope if you haven't been to Pea's Corner before, that you will drop by and tell her hello. She'll make you feel right at home.

Before I close this post I want to share with you pictures of our new bird feeder that came to us from our friends Shirley and A.J. I think it is just about the best thing to come along since sliced bread. There is a mesh screen across the bottom of the seat that holds the seed. Shirley and A.J. came to visit last summer and they enjoyed watching our herds of birds while they were here. J.D. and A.J. worked together in Louisiana before they both retired. Great big thank yous for this wonderful gift that you made for us A.J. I might add the birds love it. They were perched on the swing filling their little tummies within 10 minutes of hanging it out. Now I am waiting for them to start singing, "Just A Swingin".

Have a great rest of the day! I've got a meat loaf to bake!! {{{yum}}}

Meaningful Monday

Black Pottery Typical of Oaxaca Area, Mexico, North America
An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.


At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.


Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.


After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. 'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'


The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?' 'That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.' 'For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'


Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.


SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!




I hadn't done a 'Meaningful Monday' for some time now and thought this one to be a good choice. I know it has been around the block more than a few times, but the message is one that we all need to be reminded of from time to time.