I got mail!

Here I go ruining my street cred by making this post. Wasn't it just a few days ago that I claimed, right here, that I'm not a constant consumer or "do" retail therapy? Well this is a relative one-off that I wanted to share plus it's not Gucci stuff, it's great starving artist pieces. Above is what came in the mail from Lilla of Vintage Treasures on Etsy...

...and here's the bag that was inside, beautiful right? I also got a package from sparlespunssupply's profile where the little pink bird cages and the plastic embellishments came from.

The third package was from Retro Cafe Art where the frozen Charlottes came from and the fab tiny frozen Charlotte ring. What bootie! Two for me, the rest for creating other things. It's over for now because Lent officially starts tomorrow and I'm giving up buying until I reach Texas. Jesus wants me to shop at Round Top, that's why He's sending me there.

With the wrapping paper from the purse, a sewing pattern, I collaged the above pair of shoes and embellished them and I'm going to call bookends. They are inspired from a pair that Sandra Evertson made for the One World One Heart giveaway. Don't compare them too harshly. She is after all, Sandra Evertson and I'm just me.

Close up of the "toe buckle"-not a great photo but the best I could do in short order. Thanks for looking.

Get off my lawn.

I'm so tired of winter. It seems to have dragged on and on this year. I hate winter anyway but can usually get through it better than this year it seems. I'm sure part of the problem is the New Year's trip I took to Texas where we were wearing short sleeves at times. Anyway on Sunday, after church, all I wanted to do was go to my childhood farm, get in the john boat with my book, and float in the tank in the warm sun reading for hours.

Instead we went to see Grand Torino. Have I ever mentioned (today) that I KISSED CLINT EASTWOOD ON THE LIPS? I think it's been long enough (about a month?) since I last reminded my readers of this event. I found this photo online which would have been taken around the time THE KISS took place, 1979 or so. I kept hearing good reviews about GT but for some reason had been hesitant. When I read Julia's review, I decided to go. We could see it was waining at the movies-only two showings a day in the small theaters, so we jumped. It's great, I highly recommend it. I never saw the Dirty Harry stuff but I know enough to know it's the older version of that character. Lots of growling...real growling. Good movie, great message. See it when you can. Good but hardly a john boat in the tank reading.

Very Nice Outing

We did another one of those touristy things last night that we've never done since we've lived here for over 12 years. Just like attending our first inauguration recently, in the back of my kooky mind I think this is a sign that our time in this area is coming to a close, albeit very slow. Sorry to my dear friends who keep me afloat here, but I still want to live in the cabin on our old farm outside of Bryan (that will almost certainly remain only in my head forever). BUT, to progress here...we went to The Ford's Theater last night to see the above play. Matt and I had never been there. Matt has that innate general interest in history like Paul but I have my own selective interests (like all my long-gone Swedish and otherwise ancestors I visit in Nebraska every November). The theater is one of those things I've wanted to see and it was worth the freezing cold walk from the tube to there in really high heels (RARE but I thought it was an appropriate occasion picturing valet parking not the tube-ha!). Right across the street, in case you're a Texan, or other foreigner like me and didn't know, is the house where Lincoln died. It's all so tragic and yet wonderfully preserved so that we can all get a feel, a touch, a view of the actual place where extreme history occurred-I like the tactile and visual part not the reading part. The theater has just been rehabbed and is beautiful. Of course, as much of what was original is still there but has been, of course, taken care of just as any important historical property. And the box, the box where he was shot, amazing. No one has ever sat in there since. President and Mrs. Obama were there Monday night for the same event; that added a cool vibe to the place also. The play was fabulous, dark, and moving. It's about what, theoretically went through Lincoln's head and dreams or alternately extreme lack of sleep during the Civil War and all the decisions and demons he had to live with during the time following soon after his son's death and leading up but ending before his last trip to the theater. It was amazing. So, all you friends who are way overdue for a trip out here to see your nation's capital and good friends from Texas and California, it's a good time to come...

KUDOS Beth!!!!!

Wow! A full page! Congrats Beth on this in Romantic Homes Magazine. I'm fortunate to know Beth from having worked with her at Bayberry Cove. She's so talented and fun and funny. Check her out at her blog here. I even have one of her fab pin cushions that she gifted to me during the Christmas season we worked together plus a couple of her other wonderful creations from her Etsy store. She's also a writer, really, check her out!

AND she got published in THIS magazine. I didn't know whether to read it or marry it (I've never seen the movie, just know the line). I wanted to lick every page but I was reading it at the shop so I controlled myself...didn't want to mess up the mag anyway. So RUN DON'T WALK (unless you're in a movie theater) to your nearest bookstore and pick it up; it's fab alone and then there's Beth!!!! HURRY!

Honesty Scrap Tagging

The rules for this award are... A) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. B) Show the 7 winners' names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing then that they were prized with "Honest Scrap", the nifty icon they can display proudly on their blog. C) List at least 10 honest things about yourself . Okay, I'm finally doing this... C) 1. I'm honest to the point of telling any stranger anything they ask about me. Obviously, if you've read this blog as long as you could stay awake, I don't hide much...maybe a little hiding between the lines. I'm an open book which some folks wish I would close occasionally. 2. I've recently had to tell my mom some things from my past that she never knew. Actually I didn't have to tell her, I chose to tell her so that we can remain as close as we've always been. She's kind of a Queen of Denial and there are a lot of things she doesn't want to know and didn't want to know in the past, so there's a time for everything. I choose to tell her only the things I think will bring us closer or explain things that would keep her from knowing what I'm going through at a particular time because, in the end, even if it's hard on her, she really does want to know because she really cares. She handles every single thing with grace-always has. And I'm very careful about how I tell her. 3. I know it sounds cliche but starting with 911, then the October sniper, then loosing my dad, it really hit me that life is just too short and can be too serious and tragic to not have fun and be silly and have as much fun and laugh as much as possible when appropriate...this can be a tricky for me to judge at times. I get misunderstood and offend folks often. I'm pretty used to the weird looks and just have to tell myself it's their bad that they didn't get the joke so they could have the laugh. 4. I'm hilarious if only to myself. And I don't care if no one else gets it or thinks I'm funny, I amuse myself and that's the main purpose for my humor...to entertain myself. I know, selfish, but it's honestly therapy for me. 5. I am not my hair. I am my hair. 6. One confession. When I hit that Mercedes recently I was hopped up on these: and Coca Cola. I'm not trying to sue Cutie Pie for untoward influence on my driving abilities but I don't think they helped me focus any. 7. I want to live in our family cabin in the country outside of Bryan, Texas more than anything. 8. Contrary to all the things I wish I had and could get, I am truly grateful for my life and blessings and try to remember to thank God often and not take anything for granted and be grateful. When I get my perspective on I realize that most people in the world would kill (and some do) to have what I do. 9. I still complain about the stupid things in life but I'm working on it...constantly. 10. Of all people, I honestly don't know why Julia picked me. She knows me well enough to know that if I perform a boo-boo and don't want to be caught, I truly think I could pass a lie detector test; I'll lie threw my teeth to the death and stick with the story to the grave. Once my story is made nothing will change it. And, being the dichotomy that I am, I'm very trustworthy, very honest...go figure... A. & B.) Here are the seven awardees (victims) of this...umm..."award"... 1. Mellie of Little Melfred's Studio 2. Aggie Linda of Linda Jo's Observations 3. Beth Holcome of Beth's Bagz 4. Maija of Maigirlz Madness 5. The Gilmore Girls 6. Oprah 7. Cindy at Junque Art Bueno suerte!!!!!