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Recent Entries to this Blog
Can't believe I haven't written a blog entry in two years
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toni's Blog
Thrift Store find with a story
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:47 pm The only Mel Brooks movie that Randy and I both enjoy is Young Frankenstein and there are a couple of lines in that movie that I love and giggle at every time I hear or think them. I also love the line from Gene Hackman...."an incredibly large mute" and "damn your eyes" line from Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman's response of "Too late". Oh, let's face it I like it all. Several years ago I found a pair of wall sconces at a garage sale. I really had no idea where to put them but something told me they would be needed someday. Fast forward to 2005 when the re-construction was completed on this room and we were building the 'incredibly large' bookcase together....for some unknown reason the bookcase in that movie came to mind and the line....."Put the candle back" that Terri Garr's character said when trapped behind the bookcase came to mind also. We had the sconces and the movie therefore 'it would work'. Randy recorded that line on a tiny battery powered recorder, put it in one of the sconces and mounted them on either end of the bookcase. Right end of bookcase 
Eight feet away from the first one is the candle sconce on the left end of the bookcase. When the candle is lifted out of the sconce you hear Terri Garr's voice saying "Put ze candle back" 
These door knockers (two of yesterdays finds) will be attached to the front door after they and the door have been repainted. If you have seen the movie, you will come up with the appropriate lines from the movie to go with these....if you haven't, you really should it is a funny movie. 
This blog entry has been viewed 779 times
My passion for thrift stores continues
Category: Thrift Store Finds | Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:23 pm The space available for storing thrift store finds is becoming quite limited now. Thankfully most of the things are smallish so I think I have room for two more months of collecting then spring had better arrive or even the paths thru the rooms will be filled in. Adorable table that will go out on the front porch area when I rearrange things out there. 
The obelisk will remain in parts in the box until spring, this one is like the second from the left, I am thinking it would be perfect for a Morning Glory vine. 
The bottomless birdhouse will become a plant protector to keep squirrels from digging it up. I also have been collecting several wire basket type things to use in the same way. The flower thing in the middle is a candle holder but I think it will look good just sitting out in the garden somewhere. And the fancy bracket thing was only 50 cents and I know I can find someplace for it someday. 
To a non-gardener this would appear to be a pasta drying rack. 
But with willow sticks replacing the dowels and sitting on the buffet in the kitchen it will be an herb drying rack this summer 
I have a couple of other things but I think they each need their own blog entry. This blog entry has been viewed 796 times
Guess what I found??
Category: Puttering Around The House | Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:09 pm My desk top!! It had been missing for quite some time now, buried under stacks of 'file this', 'do we need to keep this', 'what the heck is this for' and 'doesn't have a place to be so it will be here for now'. My project for January has been to get papers, books, print outs of knitting and other craft ideas and all sorts of other stuff organized. Got my craft room done right after the first of the year, then other stuff realized that my room had some empty space not doing nuthin' but sitting there unused so almost overnight stuff started moving in. But I have almost gotten that under control again. Yesterday I started on my desk, the basket filled of papers to be filed and the filing cabinet drawers that were so messy we could never find anything and going thru a box of receipts that had been boxed and stored when the room was damaged...forgot we had these, surprise. Speaking of when this room was damaged (the story of which is told in blog entry titled On July 18, 2005...long story)....after the reconstruction, we had the builders leave us the old paneling and we finished out the inside of a storage closet at the back of this room. There had been a very difficult to reach shelf about 18" from the ceiling on one side, we took that down and realized it was a hollowcore door 18" wide and just under 6' long (the kind used where our water heater is). I painted the door brown and then picked out pictures of wild flowers that I liked, traced them onto the door and painted them, then covered the top with a piece of clear vinyl. It is mounted on top of a wood file cabinet and an old printer stand. Everything we already had except the file cabinet and we found that at...where else but our favorite thrift store. 
This blog entry has been viewed 714 times
Dashing Thru the Snow
Category: Puttering Around The House | Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:01 pm Slip Sliding Away.....Walking in a Winter Wonderland... I know there are many other song titles and first lines I could use for this but in case you haven't figured it out IT IS SNOWING HERE Okay, the actual snowfall has stopped for now, but we did get some before I got up, there is still sleet falling and there is supposed to be more snow/sleet combination all day. We were not expected to get any of this since the major part of the system was well to the south of us....and it still is, there are areas 4-6 hours drive south of us that have several inches of snow on the ground. From the front porch, my car and the houses across the street....while I was out there the youngest boy who lives in the house across the street with no snow on the front yard because of the huge Live Oak tree, went running across his backyard yelling "All Right" and started jumping on their trampoline. 
The backyard, since there is a thick layer of ice under the pretty stuff I didn't want to walk out in the yard and take a chance of falling..... 
I am hoping my plants in pots (three lavenders, three Rue and two Fennel) are okay after the thaw. I had every intention of bringing them in before the cold weather arrived, but we were gone all day Friday when the rain started and when we got home the rain was coming down an inch every 30 minutes and they were overflowing and heavy by then anyway. Then by Saturday morning when the rain slowed down, the water in the pots was frozen solid. What is above the ground is still green, I will just have to wait until the temp goes above freezing to see what happens. This blog entry has been viewed 754 times
Well that wasn't part of my plan
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:56 pm aka it isn't pointy anymore aka just to protect the baby plant This hollyhock came up outside what I refer to as my first bed a couple of years ago. It survived the summer of 2005, 2006 it not only survived it was covered with cute little purple and white striped blooms. It even survived the freeze and snow we had in November.I was out there today cleaning up debris and stuff. Cutting back things that had recently started their hibernation or just died and noticed that this hollyhock was putting out new green. 
I figured such perserverance deserved to be honored so I expanded the bed to include it. Then while I was at it I took the expansion all the way around the curved end of the bed, it used to come to a pointy end but now it is a more gently curve. 
This blog entry has been viewed 735 times
Been "Thriftin" again
Category: Thrift Store Finds | Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:39 pm We had not been to our favorite thrift store since well before the holidays so yesterday we went. I found some doo-dads for places in the garden, nothing much but I will post picture when they are in their places. But this table was stuck in the backroom where they keep the not so pretty furniture and things. I love that room, it is where I have found the neatest things. It is homemade and well used, there is a circle stain from a glass and stains from spilled liquids and the bottom of the legs are water stained possibly from the floor being mopped around it. The cut out design was made using a router so it isn't really old, but the rustic look is what I love. 
This blog entry has been viewed 744 times
Dadgum weeds
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:36 pm I sure thought I would have a few months before I had to start weeding the beds again. Nooooo, these weeds have become immune to cold temps and the days of 50 -65 degree temps are contributing to their growth spurts too. My youngest grandson wanted to take a tour of the garden this afternoon. Out of the yard he was picking dandelion flowers for me and the wishing puffs for himself. He did offer to help me pull weeds out the garden area but then got sidetracked adding sticks to his growing collection and by the puppy next door wanting some attention. When we took them to lunch before going to the HalfPriced Book store, he found a lemon seed from the lemon Amanda had in her glass of iced tea and brought it to me so I could plant it. I need to get a pretty pot and next Tuesday evening when they are over for a while he and I will plant it.......and hope it grows. Think I will buy a lemon at the store and plant several seeds so we might have a better chance of one sprouting. It is supposed to be rainy both Wed and Thurs, but maybe I can get out back for a while and get caught up out there. This blog entry has been viewed 792 times
Row, Row, Row your boat
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 1:20 am gently thru my yard. The rain started a little before noon and has stopped a few times but never for more than 20 minutes at a time. Most of the time the rain is nice, gentle rain then there are the waves of bucketsfull hitting the roof. Those waves usually last about 15 minutes. If we were getting constant waves like that it would be really bad around here. With mostly gentle rainfall the really large rain gauge out back only shows just under 2 inches. The path from the backdoor to about 15 feet into the yard is under roughly 3 inches of water, I have not been able to get out into the rest of the yard to check things out but I am sure the gnomes are building rafts for thier escape. I guess if we had crawdads here there would be some of those crawdad chimneys out there too. There was a tornado on the ground about 3 hours south of me and we are under tornado watches until after 8. Two tornado warnings about an hour south of us. There was a tornado warning that caused some stress out at DFW Internation Airport. A tornado watch means that weather conditions are ripe for the formation of a funnel cloud. A tornado warning means one has been spotted either in the clouds or on the ground. This is weather we should have been getting in the spring not in December. But since we do not get much real winter, we have had tornadoes year round...there really is no tornado season down here. The rain had let up here for about 10 minutes then just now the lightening got really bright and the rain is back. Supposed to last all night with some of the heaviest rain coming overnight. This blog entry has been viewed 733 times
Bees and Buds and Blooms...Oh, My
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:33 pm Just checking the garden yesterday and found not only new life but some perennials still hanging on and one in bloom again. The Iris bulbs I moved a couple of months ago have stayed strong and even the baby bulbs have pushed green leaves above ground now. The Snapdragons are not only doing great after the freezes we have had but are putting out new growth. The Yarrow, Lavender and Fall Asters are still green and growing. The Mealy Sage died back with the first few nights of freezing temps but they have started putting out new growth at ground level, same thing with the Lemon Balm. The Lipstick Autumn Sage never went dormant, neither did the White Autumn Sage. Several of the Hollyhock plants are still green and hardy. There are two small Black Eyed Susan plants just laying around waiting for more sunshine. The Fig tree is setting leaf buds too. The mini-yellow Rose is still green and strong. The Hyacinths started pushing up in November and are getting pretty tall. The Daffodils are starting to push up too. The Snowdrops are coming up. The Rue and Fennel I potted up in October are still alive and the Rue is actually growing. The really huge Tuscan Blue Rosemary is blooming again. Several stems almost covered in small blue flowers. That has brought the bees out of hiding too. There isn't much in the way of spring type colors but there is still a lot of green around. This blog entry has been viewed 804 times
Christmas Eve for my family, 2006
Category: Puttering Around The House | Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2006 5:54 am We slept in this morning, the weather was very overcast and pretty chilly. Since the shopping and wrapping was done, the baking was complete and all I needed to make was the fudge that Lisa and Amanda like, we were able to just take it easy. One of the traditions we started a very few years ago, this day is for resting up from the preparations and getting ourselves ready for the fun and mayhem of Christmas morning with the grandsons. The forecast had been for possible sprinkles off and on during the day but about 11 a.m. a slow and steady rain began. It is now almost midnight and the rain is still falling at the same slow, steady pace. Really a nice cold soaker. In fact the rain fall has been so slow that in the last 12 hours there is only 1/2" of rain in the really large rain gauge out back. We left a little after 1 this afternoon for lunch at Luby's Cafeteria. Surprisingly it wasn't very crowded in the dining room but the take-out section was pretty busy, lots of women decided that Christmas dinner should come from there instead of their own oven....smart women I say. After lunch we headed for Dunn Brother's coffee shop for a relaxing couple of hours. Randy had his laptop, Amanda had art supplies and I had some knitting. A little before 5p.m. we left there for the movie theater. Saw Night at the Museum at the IMAX theater, really cute movie and even tho seeing it in that format is not a requirement for enjoying the movie, there were parts when the almost 3-D effects were really something. It is a cute movie and I highly recommend it if you get the chance. The movie was over about 7 and we headed home. I got the fudge made and dishwashing caught up. We let Amanda open one of her gifts on Christmas eve and after that we watched some of the older childrens holiday specials that we have on tape and DVD. The opening of one gift on Christmas eve started when my brother and I were little. My parents eloped on christmas eve 1944 and when they could afford to give each other anniversary gifts they started letting my brother and I open one small gift too so we wouldn't feel left out. One set of grandparents (our Daddy's Dad and step Mom) never bothered to keep track of how old we were or what we were interested in so their presents were usually things like new wallets or fingernail clipper sets or boxes of handkerchiefs and when you are between the ages of 6-14, those are not exciting gifts ....soooooo those were the gifts we chose to open on Christmas eve. The tradition continued for both my girls and Lisa has continued it with her boys, but the gifts have gotten better. My girls got new nightgowns that night, Lisa's boys get new pjs and a book. I do miss the excitement of Santa and waiting for sleep to overtake the super anxious child so Santa could get busy setting things out. But at the same time we have a new tradition and at our age this one suits us to a "T" This blog entry has been viewed 727 times
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