Rambling again 4/24/2013

Reminding you again of my Pinterest page. I add new images several times a week, images that haven't appeared on here yet. There are now over 8,600 and more to come. I find searching for the images most relaxing, reading a book being my first choice, but I truly love looking for eye candy when I need a break from reading. So go over there and check it out. I know for a certainty you will not be disappointed. Promise!
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Simply a vignette of froufrou items. The file folders on the left are gorgeous. My daughter gave me a set of some gorgeous ones with roses and different flowers and strawberries on them but I haven't used them as I hate to waste them! I really should use them here on my desk. I'll show them to you in the next post. What good will they do me when I'm dead?!

This is a shelf that someone made out of a chair. Probably the bottom wasn't worth saving, but isn't that a cute idea?

I really like this little scene with a comfy reading chair, ottoman, sheep skin, blankets for warmth and a table for my book or drink.

I wonder what the neighbors think when they see this kind of setting. Frankly, I'd love seeing it in my neighbor's yard.

There is no way this is feasible in our dusty area. White? Yes, I'd love it but we get some neighbor's cats on our front porch sometimes and these would be so filthy I couldn't tolerate them. And I don't want to kill the neighbor's cats. Okay, okay, I don't want to hear it from the animal lovers; I'm just kidding, okay?!

I love the colors on this chair. It's a simply plain chair but the covering makes it jazzy. Gorgeous!

I have a friend in our ward who is Swedish descent and her daughter served a mission in Sweden. Whenever I see this kind of photo I think of her: bright white and blue. I have viewed a lot of Swedish or northern European blogs and the light in them is incredible. Probably the best photos I've seen are from those blogs.

This woman and I think a lot alike. I decorated my living room lamps with big faux roses all the way around. I absolutely love them and have gotten many compliments on them. Of course, some women in Idaho—most—don't get it but some do.

Okay, I want this chair but I don't know where it is so I can't steal it. I recently bought 2 French cane back chairs and redid them with chalk paint, feather boas, faux roses and ribbons. The other two chairs I have are solid oak and covered with chair covers I made several years ago. I wanted two chairs to match and two other chairs to match and they do. But I got to thinking about it and wanted another chair decorated also. I thought of looking for one in a thrift store and then remembered I had one that I recently put out on our front porch. It has a chicken wire seat that broke. Hubs made a seat out of plywood I can put on top of it and just make a ruffled seat cover for it like the two French chairs. So I shopped th' house as I've said many times before. I'll post photos when I'm done with it. It's white and shabby-ed up already and has roses decals on it so not much to do except make the seat usable. I'm so thrilled I thought of that.

When Miss Caroline, our great granddaughter was over the middle of March, we took her to see our friend's chicken coop. She was thrilled but her Dada wasn't too thrilled when we got back in his Denali. Somebody had chicken poo on their feet and it wasn't me. We never did find out who had it on their feet. But this chicken coop reminded me of that day. My friend's coop is adorable also, but she's not a shabby chic-type gal like this one is.

Truly, I did not find this photo until after I did a very similar thing with faux hydrangeas. I love mine in an old drawer I painted white in this post here.

I've decorated many birdhouses as I love having them around the house, giving them as gifts or giveaways and love decorating them. I use fabric on them as I'm not a very good painter. But I think this one is adorable.

I think I'll next look for a ladder to decorate like this. Oh, I have one but it's just 5 very narrow rungs and are not wide like this one.

I can't wait until our peonies bloom. I love the smell and lushness of them. I only wish they had a longer growing season.

I'm sure a lot of you would like to live like this, not me. I want as many neighbors around me as I can get. But I have to admit it's a beautiful setting.

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Tidbits:

Nabisco's 46-acre plant in Chicago is the world's largest—1500 people work there.
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Linking up with:
Pink Saturday
 

A Few Stories About San Diego

In the mid sixties we lived in San Diego. I loved San Diego. Hubs was a Marine drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot and used to come home with the weirdest stories. He and our son, who was also a Marine, would sit and tell stories in the later years and we would laugh and laugh together till tears rolled down our cheeks. It's really fun sitting and listening to those two talk about the Marines.

He came home with a story about the new recruits. When they would arrive they had to send every single thing on their body, except a wedding ring and a watch, home to their folks.

Hubs told me about young men arriving there on the bus without shoes even. Some had never even worn them. Some had never worn a belt. They were then immediately taken to have their heads shaved. He said once there was a kid with an open sore/cut on his head full of lice. There were other stories I'll have him tell me and post here again later, but that's the few I remember at this point. We're talking really "green" recruits, first time away from home.

He also came home one day with lice. Yes, lice! I discovered them on me one evening and since we had never had them even as children I didn't know what was crawling on me. Hubs, being a Marine and having been versed on those kinds of things as all military men are, knew immediately what those tiny things were. I was appalled and in shock and couldn't sleep that night. But the next day he went to the base and got medicine for both of us. We also stripped all the beds in the apartment and went to the laundromat that night. We figured he got them from the toilets at the base because we were both faithful to each other and, after checking our two kids, didn't find any on them but they weren't even school age then. He was much more careful after that.

But we lived across from MCRD and near a small Mexican take-out-type restaurant that sold taquitos for ten for a dollar. Actually, at that time we could get tacos at Tico's Tacos ten for a dollar also. But I'd run down there in the next block and buy them for me and the kids all the time.

That small house was backed by a huge hill with a retaining wall that came tumbling down in a terrific roar during some heavy rains one year. If my kids had been out there, they very likely would have been hurt at the least. It also sent a huge wood beam through our bedroom in the back of the house. The landlord lowered the rent for us but we had to find another place relatively soon. So we moved up to a house near Kensington. It was fun living in that house because it was bigger than any place we'd lived in previously in a real neighborhood and was close to Mission Valley, which was great shopping for us then, even if we were too poor to buy much.

One day my cousins and I decided to go downtown San Diego. We just wanted to window shop. We dressed in nice pants but a policeman stopped us downtown and told us pants were inappropriate for downtown! We were floored and embarrassed. San Diego is a tourist town with a Navy base and a Marine base in it. We couldn't believe the policeman. I think he might have been flirting but here I was a mother of two kids and didn't even think about someone flirting with us but it was inconceivable that we weren't dressed "appropriately" for a beach town. I imagine now they go into town in their bikinis with the way things have changed! We're going down there next year for a convention and I can't wait to see how things are. We were down there a few years ago at UC San Diego when our grandson was going to school there.
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This is an antique servants bell. I think it's beautiful.

A beautifully clean street somewhere in western Europe.

Glittery handmade flowers with jewelry in the centers.

Just a bit of froufrou today.

This looks like it was or is a porch by the looks of the walls but it's beautiful just as a living room also.

Cute idea for extra cups around the house.

Italian coastline.

More eye candy but actually real so you can eat it!

Lovely arrangement for a cookie party.

Another darling birdhouse.

I couldn't tell if these were fabric or edible but they're fantastic looking no matter what.

Another beautiful road in Europe somewhere.

I thought this was a decorated bottle but it's a jewel with more jewelry around it. Stunning. Maybe it's a pin.

Wish I had a sign like this for my front porch.

Just some romantic roses and peonies.

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Tidbit:
Conakry, Guinea, in West Africa, is the world's wettest capital city with over 12 feet of rain per year.
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Yeah, Yeah, Another Great-Grandma Brag

We were gone a week but we're home now. I'll have more on the trip to our granddaughter's house later; however, just let me say this. I take my laptop when traveling but this time I forgot my passwords for everything, including my Google Reader and my blog! I wasn't able to get in; I could only read it. That will never happen again! I have so many passwords that I couldn't possibly remember them all. I store them securely and I mean securely. Even the words themselves are coded. ;-) I trust no one when it comes to passwords. And, unlike most people, I don't have just one password for everything. My passwords cover 2 sheets of paper—single-spaced. Call me paranoid, but this happens when you get robbed three times. You learn to trust no one and nothing. :-)

And this is them while we were there.

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Remember, I'm the great grandmother here and it's my blog so every once in a while I have to feature th' girls. ;-) This is one of those times. Christmas picture taking. I cannot tell you how much joy these two little chicks bring to me and hubs.

We start with their first shot together. Notice Juliette looking warily at her big sister.

Now we see her starting to get in the spirit of things.

Now she's really groovin'.

Then she sticks out her tongue at her big sister, Caroline.

"I need my own show here, people!"

"Aaaah, nuts, Sis is stealing th' show from me."

"My big sis is so "out there!"

"Do I have to do this every single Christmas?"

"I think I'll take a nap now."

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Another gorgeous decorated bottle.

This would make a really great family room with all that seating.

You could make a wreath like this for Valentine's Day next easily with roses or peonies from the garden.

I like that large sink but I prefer my stainless steel one that's not so deep and back breaking.

Just beautiful linens.

Another birdhouse I found on the internet.

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Useless Information:
The Statue of Liberty's fingernails weight about 100 pounds apiece.
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Beyond The Pale

I was perusing the news on the internet the other day. We all know that one story can lead to another and that's what happened this day.

I clicked over to a UK site to read a story and saw another story on the site, with photos—uuugghhh. The story was about a nudist man opening a spa for nudists. That wasn't the disgusting part. The disgusting part was the news show had him and 3 others, another man and 2 women, on the television show. Nude. All of them. The women had a "paper daisy" pasted on the tip of the breast and they all had their hands in their laps, blocking view of the most private area, which didn't do much disguising.

Now, I have no problem with people who want to run around naked in their own homes or at designated camps, which are out of the sight of others, especially children, but to put them on television for any kid or adult to see goes beyond the pale in my book. Why would a program want to air something so disgusting? Don't dare tell me the human body isn't disgusting! I don't think it is. Displaying it for all to see certainly is though.

I have told friends for years things are going to get worse and they just did. How low can we go? I'm afraid it's not going to get better, but much, much worse. I hope they gave them towels to sit on while on the sofa because I doubt many would want to sit on it after they've been there.
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When I saw these rings I thought they were beautiful. Now we can have colors in our wedding rings.

Lovely lavender cup and saucer.

Yes, I truly love these old vintage sinks.

Lovely decorated cage.

Another gorgeous bottle.

Sweet brooch.

One of my favorite things: laundry drying on a line in the sun.

Darling center piece of bird nests with blue eggs.

Suitcase full of flowers.

Another cottage in the woods.

Romantic soaps.

Colorful window display of old pots with flowers in them.

Just what our roses look like this morning. We had snow last night.

A sweet pink restaurant along a quaint street somewhere in Europe.

Cuter than a button...pink button. ;-)

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Tidbit:In 1954, Brownie Wise was the first woman to appear on the cover of Businessweek. Who was Brownie Wise? A housewife who made Tupperware what it is today. She didn't invent it, just came up with the idea of home parties.
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