Blog backgrounds

www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ You have to check out this site if you want a free background for your blog. They have some wonderful selections and tutorials to help you do things such as create a signature for your posts, etc. Obviously I have not gotten that far, but I will. I happened on the site last night while searching for a photo, of all things. That's where I grabbed this background. I think it goes rather well with the banner that I had custom created, don't you?

I love to decorate and felt like my blog needed some help and lo and behold I found them. Woohoo! I know, I know. It's the littlest things in life that give me the greatest pleasure. I am simple to please, my husband always says. :)

Well, my lunch hour is over, so I am back to work. It is raining from tropical storm Fay and will for the next 4 days. I have a good book I am reading beckoning me to cuddle up on the couch and immerse myself, but no I cannot. Duty calls. sigh...REMINDER to self: Need to buy some lottery tickets.

Summer Joys...

When I think about my favorite things about summer, these things come to mind; snorkeling, lounging on the beach, hunting for seashells and sea glass by the seashore, sailing, fireflies, cookouts, the sound of june bugs, fishing, grasshoppers, dragonflies, fresh fruits and vegetables right out of the garden or from a roadside stand, fresh cut flowers, sunshine, shade, watermelon, vacations, porch swings, badminton, baseball games, fragrant flower gardens, the smell of suntan lotion, fresh squeezed lemonade, cold sand between your toes, swimming, water sports, going barefooted, screen doors, open windows, lazy days, etc, etc...

Summertime is happiness to me. I love sunshine and cooking light meals and listening to the waves roll in, seagulls squaking and children laughing and splashing. I love for a small vase to hold the fresh flowers from the garden that I planted from seed. I love to air out the house on those pleasant mornings and evenings when there is a gentle breeze. I don't want it to end.

September begins on Monday and school on Tuesday. I do love the fall as well but for very different reasons. I will share those at a later date. Meanwhile soak up the sunshine and the fresh smells of summer.

~Tammy

A warm welcome

Nothing beckons like a front porch, especially a wraparound porch. It offers shade on a hot sunny day, possibly with a pitcher of fresh ice cold lemonade, or sweet tea if you'd rather. A porch swing is even better. It's place to think, to comfort. Remember the wonderful times you had swinging while growing up. We all tens to swing our legs if we are sitting with them dangling over a wall. Wonder why that is? We tend to rock back and forth with babies or while holding pets, hmmm...movement is soothing. Flowers and plants surrounding the porch offer privacy and something pretty to look at. I like to take a good book out onto my front porch with a glass of wine. It is very relaxing. We also like to eat summer meals there. I have added candles and a candleabra for ambiance. My husband enjoys sitting in the rocker while reading the paper on Sunday mornings or enjoying a cold beverage after working in the yard, or grilling. The shade makes it feel at least 10 degrees cooler, than the direct sun. See the picture of the cottage above, my dream home. The white picket fence and all. It looks so fresh with the white trim against the lush greenery. I can see myself chatting with family and friends, enjoying a good book, reading the paper, having dinner or just swinging and listening to nature. How about you? What beckons you to come and enjoy?

Lovely Yellow Cottages

These lovely yellow cottages beckon me. They are sunny and happy looking. I would love to build one someday. It would be a cozy place to get away to or to retire in, don't you think? I would love to be near the beach and have a beautiful garden with a white picket fence and a gate at the entrance under an arbor. Then Chance, our maltese could run in the wind with his little legs hopping along. My grandchildren will want to come and visit so they can swing on the wooden swing hanging from a rather large old oak tree. Yes...I am dreaming, but today was a gray day so I need to cheer myself up. Hope I made you smile while I was at it. What would you envision for your perfect retreat?

Roller coasters and vintage fabrics

We are off to Cedar Point Friday for some amusement park fun! They have some super thrilling roller coasters if you like that sort of thing. I personally am a big chicken about heights. Only got that way after I hit 24. Weird, huh? Anyway, we will go there for a day and our daughter will bring a friend along, then the next couple of days we will go to the beach on Lake Eerie. I love the beach. The waves crashing in, the sound of seagulls, the sound of children laughing and splashing in the water. That is white noise to me. Very soothing.

Have you had some summer fun? Oh yeah, isn't this image adorable!? There is this great Australian site ( http://www.posie.com.au/) that offers all of these wonderful vintage inspired fabrics. They are tooo cute! Here are a few more:

Mixed Media Clocks

Old meets new. Much like my the furnishings in my home. It is fun to be able to incorporate a piece of the past with those of the present. Here there are vintage photos, an antique skeleton key, aged ephemera along with other newer fun elements all to create a cohesive feel. I am addicted to vintage letters, photos, linens and mixing bowls. They all make me feel cozy. Call me crazy but you can adopt a family member simply by picking up a vintage photo. Alot of them look far better than my real relatives. lol Just kidding. :) I love to see how nicely people once wrote. The penmanship was exquisite. It is curious how we have managed to depart from that. Vintage linens are so soft and have been lovingly kept in pristine condition, obviously by people unlike myself. To me not much is too precious to be used everyday. And as for the mixing bowls, they make me think of a warm cozy kitchen.

Vintage Charm

I took this image because I loved the fact that this fire alarm was still hanging on a pole in the middle of the town square in New England. It looked to be in proper working order from what I could tell but it looked ions old, so it drew me in. I love things with character. A bunch of things just ran through my head, like that's why I like my husbands face, etc. lol I digress. Anyway...

When visiting antique shops, I am most drawn to the ones that have a bunch of stuff scattered out the door and not all pristine. I like to find the treasures and the hunt is that much better when you feel like you found something that someone else may not have seen because they did not take the time to move a few things out of the way or off of the gem. :) I also like to clean it up myslef so I can be proud of it. lol. I know, but it makes me feel good when I can take a ratty old piece of furniture and turn it into a showstopper. Showstopper...show show stopper... Okay, that is part of the lyrics from some song I have heard with my teen in the car. Distractions, distractions. It's funny how a word or smell can make you think of a memory, song, someone special, etc. Geez, focus...I am all over the place in this post. Anyway, it feels very rewarding to make something of nothing, Not something of nothing, I mean something special out of something not so special. Yes, it's Friday evening and I think I need a glass of wine or something. Cheers! Tammy

Learning something new

Hello. It's Thursday and I was feeling creative, so I took this picture of one of my echinacea (purple coneflower) plants and played with the colors while editing. I just love all of the wonderful things you can do to alter photos. I just wish I had the time to dabble in it more. Wouldn't it be so much fun to take a week off of work and have that time to go to an art school or any type of hobby school (cooking, flying, landscaping,etc) and learn some new techniques. Just to be away from all of our daily demands and be abe to devote your time and energy doing whatever it is that you want to learn more about. My mother-in-law goes to an art school for a week at a time, once in awhile, in the mountains of NC. She always has the best time. My other mother-in-law , the first one is a step for my husband, goes to bed and breakfasts with friends to artisits colonies to learn new painting techniques. Oh to be retired, huh? I imagine I should be greatful to be young still. Yeah, I know, 41 is not exactly young, but I am young at heart, nonetheless, thank you very much.

If you could go to any type of school for one week, where would you go and to learn what? I am curious. Please share.

Nicholas and Dudley

Oh my gosh, look at these cuties! My mom came up after buying these two little fellows from an Amish family about 45 minutes from here. They are too cute! Each only about 10" long. To little snow balls. They are Maltese. Just like my little guy Chance. Mom and her husband love my little guy so much that they decided to get 2 of them. Their names are Nicholas and Dudley. That is my daughter holding them. She has been begging for aonther puppy but her dad says nomore pets and that is that. We are working on him. I've been looking at the humane society and the local SPCA, etc. Hopefully if we find something we cannot live without we can work our magic. Not sure though, he is a toughnut to crack sometimes. Oooohhhh...puppy breath. I just love it. It tickles my nose and reminds me of coffee. Have a lovely Thursday. Thank goodness Friday is just around the corner.

Family

Family is such a peculiar word. For each of us it conjures up different meanings and memories. Some great and some better off forgotten. What's that old adage You can pick your nose...no, that's not it, you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family. Yeah that's it. That's it.

This is my mom (the little girl with her hands tensed) and her parents. Now, my grandparents met in an orphanage in the early 1930's. They were born into large families and when times got tough they farmed the kids out and if there were no relatives to take them, they went to orphanages. That just seems so foreign to me. Not as in something that happens in foreign countries but just plain odd.

I cannot imagine having kids until I could no longer afford to keep them. How could a parent decide? Well, okay there's always a chance you could end up with a brat, but hey they usually grow out of it, right? lol It's just a phase. What about who eats the most or rolling the dice or who would be the toughest and able to handle it. I just can't fathom making that decision. I only have two but at times, I confess, I have thought about giving them back, only to find out that all sales were final. =) Just kidding! Uh...this models defective, can I get a new one? lol

Anyway, I came across this photo and it just got me to thinking about all that. Have a lovely weekend! I hope to be creating for my shop.