A beautiful weekend

Wow, What a beautiful weekend we had. My mom and Rick came to town and we went to a small victorian town nearby called Bellefonte. It has mansions and victorians from 1900. It is a very charming town. We took the guys to see one of our fevorite antique shops that is 3 levels with over 100 vendors. There is something for everyone. We all walked away with something, some of us more than others. :)

There was a jazz festival going on and the park was full of people listening to the music, feeding the fish and enjoying the warm sunny afternoon under the shade of the large oak trees.

We later cooked shish kabobs on the grill and played cards and sat in the backyard shooting the breeze. It was a very pleasant day. Today, they came for breakfast before heading back to MD and then Jack and I went shopping, washed both cars, vacuumed them out, windexed and armoralled everything and now we are beat! I came in and cooked dinner and threw in some laundry and here I am chatting to you. Tomorrow I will be so proud to drive my car and it will look so nice. We have been on two vacations within the past 4 weeks and you can well imagine, the sand and wrappers and such that were everywhere. Not anymore, though!

How did you spend your weekend?

Flock of Seagulls

I know I said I would post some pics from the family reunion but I have 300 plus that are downloading as we speak. Shwew...5 days and I go nuts with the camera.

This image was taken in New England along the coastline. We drove all the way up the coast and stopped wherever we felt like it, along the way. It was one of the most fun vacations we have ever taken. We were very fortunate to get really quaint places to stay and to be able to go at our own pace. It was not all planned out as most of our vacations are. We usually try to pack as much into the 10 days as we can, knowing it will be quite awhile before the next one and who knows when we will get to that locale again, you know.? So we go to bed late and get up early and whine about who is taking their shower first, hoping that we can be the last out of bed, but no my 23 yr. old ALWAYS wins! Darnit! Then we run through the day and start all over again the very next.

I am usually exhausted after one of our vacations. I drag myself out of bed fighting with my inner self to think of a good reason that I should stay home from work, but no I cannot possibly live with myself if I do that. I am not a liar or a cheat I tell myself but darnit I am TIRED!!! So off I go to let Chance out, make coffee and then into the shower. By the time I am out of the shower I am somewhat okay. I drag my rear into work toting a large travel mug of coffee and yawn my way through the day only to go home and get a second wind when alls I really wanted to do was go to sleep. Why is that? You are sleepy all day at work ...longing to take a nap and then BAM! you get a second wind on your way home. What's up with that?

Well the pictures are nearly done downloading so I guess I will pick through them and find some to share with you. I'm off to do just that. 'til tomorrow, Tammy

Sepia Prints

I just love to photograph vintage images such as this old brick building with handpainted lettering on its side. This image was taken in Greensboro, NC. Anyway, I changed it from color to sepia and I think it is fitting, don't you?

I am just back from Jacks family reunion in the Virginia mountains. We had 5 fun filled day. I will be posting some pics soon. Have to catch up on laundry as I have to go back to work tomorrow. Whoa is me...=) lol

Have a lovely evening. 'til tomorrow, Tammy

Latest project and whatnot

This little number was packaged up and shipped off to New Zealand to greet a new mom and her little guy. I wish I could travel to all of the places that my packages go. It would be wonderful. I have to say that etsy has been a wonderful venue for selling things to people in faraway places that I may never have come in contact with otherwise. It's so nice to create and have someone outside of your family or friends really appreciate it. I am off to Virginia for 5 days and then I hope to get buried in my little workshop and not come up for air until I have some fun things to list. We'll see how that goes. I always have the best of intentions and then voila life happens around me ad I get sucked up into the vortex and before I know it days, okay sometimes weeks even have gone by.

My little workshop looks like a tornado came through. Thank goodness I have a heavy drape across the doorway that I can pull closed when I am not in there. I wish I was like Samantha on Bewitched and could just wiggle my nose and ta- da everything would be back in it's place. But no, I am a mere mortal. sigh... I guess there are worse things in life.

I really should be packing but this is the first chance I have had to sit down all day and it is 8:30 pm. I did shop, make dinner and throw in a load of laundry after work, so that should count for something, right?

It has been so humid here! Yesterday I was stupid and wore jeans and a shirt with an undershirt to work and decided that we needed to sweep and pick up outside and nearly melted in the heat. Probably lost a pound just from the "perspiration" alone. =) I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Stay cool!

Happy Wednesday!

Wow, this week has flown by so far!
Well, 2 more days and then we are off to Virginia for my husbands family reunion. Should be fun with the kids tagging along and cousins and such.

These lovely daisies greeted me upon our return from vacation a little over a week ago. What a pleasant greeting it was. My whole garden is flourishing. I just love to see the seeds I sow turn into these big beautigul flowers. It is so rewarding.

I hope you are enjoying this summertime sunshine. I love it! It makes me happy!

Images of yesteryear

I found this children's book in my husbands family cottage. It dated back to 1909 and has some of the most wonderful images and stories. These were two of my favorites. I added the text layer on them after scanning them into the computer. The one of the little girl reminded me of a Get Well card and pardon the pun but it had to be written. The one with the children in the meadow picking flowers, made me think of a gift tag. It reads, I picked this for you. The magenta lettering

does not pop out as much as I would have liked for it to.

I just love childrens book illustrations. Sometimes the images bring back memories of my class sitting in the library and being read to by one of the nuns. I used to love the black and white images and find that I am still drawn to them. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed them.

Share your favorite summertime memories

Share with me some of your fondest summertime memories.

I have a few.

One is when I was 18 we floated down the Ichetucknee River in Florida with my then boyfriend, now husband and some of our friends and his brother and sister. That was so much fun. You could rent innertubes and then float down this wonderful river that has natural springs that are very cold. We would swing off of a vine into the water now and then. We placed a cooler in the middle of an extra innertube and enjoyed our lunch and beverages on the water. The river tubing took about 3 hours to go the full 6 miles. It was so relaxing and enjoyable.

When I was 5 and my mom used to make my brother and I "countries" (my brother named them that at age 4, he's 1 yr. younger than I). Basically a picnic on the steps with finger sandwiches, carrots and hot lemon pudding for dessert. Another is when I was maybe 14 and my cousins and brother and I would play flashlight tag at night and tell scary stories in the graveyard, trying to outspook the others. It was so much fun! Warped? Maybe, but that's what makes us so much fun to be with!

Tell me yours...

Sundays chores

This is how I spent my Sunday. Not too exciting but oh so necessary. It feels so good to have a nice clean house, okay well in my case main level. The basement is in turmoil as we are putting up drywall and everything is everywhere.

I always iron, do dishes, and scrub toilets with a smile on my face just like the lady in these images. lol Aaahh...I say nothing like a wonderful crease or a gleaming dish to boost your spirits.

I also worked on a custom journal for a new mom in New Zealand. She has a baby boy. Her friend orederd it for her. Sweet, huh?.

What did you do today?

Shwew...Glad that's over with

My alarm clock went off at 5 am this morning and I clicked snooze at least 2 times after that until the nagging began in my head. Do we really need to have this yard sale today? Of course we do, darn it. The stuff has become a permanent fixture on our front porch for 2 weeks now. Alright, alright, I struggle with myself in my mind. I'll go make some coffee. So when did our first customers show up, you ask. Well about 7:34 to be precise. We were ready at 6:30 amazingly. We were shooting for 7 am, so we did pretty darn good. Yes, I know I could have slept longer. Oh well. It is done. We only made $180. but that's okay. We still have plenty to put out for the next one. Yep, I said next one. We will probably have one in August when the college kids come back to campus. Of course it eluded us that today was the BIG art festival downtown. You know the one that everyone comes into our town for. mmm...mmm...mmm...silly us.

After we ran around pulling all of the yard sale signs down, (a pet peeve of mine is when a yard sale sign is up for a month or more after the yard sale is over and done) we treated ourselves to Dairy Queen. I had a peanut butter parfait with pecans instead and Jack had a twist cone. I am now here in the air conditioning debating cleaning the bathroom. Nah! I'm taking the rest of the day off. So what have you been up to this fine July day?

Well it was inevitable. Our basement needs to be finished off and therefore we need to find a new home for lots of furniture cast offs that have been dwelling there for some time waiting for a place to call their home. Our daughter decided to declutter her room and that meant getting rid of her tv/storage armoire, her bookcase, a bean bag chair, the storage chest and her desk and chair. Yeah, she now has a bed, dresser and nightstand in there. And a huge pile of books clothes and movies on her new found floor. My mother had lived with us for awhile and she left behind a desk and chair and a storage chest as well. Then there are the 4 stools mom bought for my front porch that we could not use and 2 counter stools I bought because they were too good of a bargain to pass up. Ahem...we have no counter for them. ;) And then there is an old wing chair that I fell in love with at a yard sale that makes you sit bolt upright, another pretty counter stool that was meant to live in the place where my antique rocking chair now lives. So you can see it is mostly furniture. It all is now on my covered front porch. So you can imagine what the neighbors are thinking. "Oh my". As Jeff Foxworthy once said," You might be a redneck if someone comes knocking on you're door to see if your having a yard sale and you're not. "

So I am off to make and post some signs so I can get up at the crack of dawn and spend a few hours being dickered with. My favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning! NOT! I would much rather be buying from a yard sale. Wish me luck!

Come take a 5 minute vacation with me

Come take a few minutes vacation with me. This is the view from our lounge chairs at the edge of the swimming pool. Okay, deep breath. Now imagine yourself lying there in the dappled sunlight coming through the palm fronds. Go on now. It's a heavenly day. A gentle breeze is making those palm fronds sway and rustle. Such a calming noise that you can doze off if you'd like. The sun is out and the sky is bright blue with white fluffy clouds. There is splashing and laughter in the distance. No need to get up, the lovely waitress will come by to collect and deliver our orders. Oh this is the life...There we are sipping our favorite frosty beverage and reading a delicious novel. What more could a girl ask for? Okay, maybe a cabana boy. Naaaahhh... Well maybe if we had our svelte bodies, again. lol

Don't you feel more relaxed, now? This was the only way for me to capture this beautiful day, for those days when I need a mini vacation or quick pick me up. Thanks for sharing it with me.

Hugs,

Tammy

Summer fun in Florida

We are baaack... What a wonderful holiday we had! Our family was all together. We swam, ate, drank, played at the amusement parks, water parks, beaches, arcades, miniature golf, and so on. It was so much fun!

We went to Sea World, Aquatica, Busch Gardens Tampa, Altamonte Springs to watch the fireworks, St. Augustines beaches, fort and historic shopping district. We were all over the place, but each day was a gem in and of itself. Moments to be treasured.

I took 310 photos so this is only a drop. The flowers and foliage all over Orlando is amazing! The money they must spend to keep up all of the gardens along every walkway and street has got to be phenominal. It is gorgeous. There were some amazing skies. Colors of pinks, blues, oranges and big puffy white clouds. So pretty. The alligator in the above shot had to have been at least 10-12 ft. long. He was mammoth. Looks like he has never missed a meal. Sea World was a good time and had some great shows and rides. The dolphin show was one of my favorites. My camera was not quick enough to capture everything that was going on but I did get about 20 to choose from. The large stone mask was about 8' tall carved into stone at a miniature golf course we went to. The place was amazing. Very fun. They had an alligator show at the golf place. Wierd, huh?.

Anyway, I am back and will be hunkering down in my little craft room to start creating some fun stuff. I got inspired while away and reenergized. I will be looking at each of your blogs to see what you have been up to these past 11 days. Can't wait. It's like a rich dessert. Oh, speaking of a rich dessert, we ate at this fantastic seafood restaurant right on the water called "the Conch House" and they had this key lime pie that had to have been 3" tall and made from scratch. It was so creamy and delicious! That was my first "real" bite of key lime pie. Yummmm! Now I need to make one. In my spare tie, of course. Okay, now I am off. See you!

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