Beautiful Butterflies?

In my small herb garden, there is a large curly leaf parsley plant and guess what's gobbling it up?
Word has it that this interesting thing will form a cacoon and hatch into a beautiful black butterfly. I would love to see that -- probably enjoy that more than eating the parsley myself!

What happens in Vegas....

I've been in Las Vegas on business but I did have a little bit of fun sight seeing and seeing the fantastic Cirque du Soleil LOVE show. Staying at the Wynn was especially delightful and something I would never do if it weren't for the conference I attended. I had no desire to go to LV but now that I've seen a little bit of it, I would love to go back!Here are a few other photos from the hotel and the strip:

Send Josh a card!

There's all sorts of info on the net about Josh Adkins and his quest to receive more get well cards than anyone....ever. I hope it's true and that my humble contribution makes it way to him. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. If you have a moment, maybe you'd like to send him a card, too.

UFOs

UFOs - that's Unfinished Objects in 'crafters' terms and do I have a lot of 'em. I decided to finally tackle this one for my "ME" bathroom -- the only place I can now have my Mary Engelbreit collection. I spray painted an old wicker trash basket that I think was a shower gift from marriage #1 in 1979 and then sewed a little liner for it. It does feel good to finally get another thing off of my mental list. I'll post pics of the whole room once I finish the towels - LOL!

Bailee needs a haircut...

...say the word 'brush' in any context/sentence and she takes off. She hates to be brushed and obviously, we don't fight her too much on that. It's easier to just give her a haircut. Wheatens do not shed so you have to b-r-u-s-h often (that was me spelling the 'word').

Another way to listen to music?

Just like everything else in this world, there's a bazillion ways to put music on your blog. Give my new version a try -- it doesn't start right up when you enter my blog (which some folks might think is a blessing given my music selection). Click on Finetune over on the right (you might have to click twice) and it starts right up. There are 45 different songs....a wide variety (after you listen to one, you can go forward and backward...you'd have to really be bored so much so that you'd spend that much time visiting my humble blog). OK, back to creating....some ART. Enjoy!

So what if he's out for the season...

...I can always admire the scenery.

Two years and another box emptied!

Besides shopping for clothes for a business trip to Las Vegas, creating a little art and cleaning up tiny liquor bottles, we pulled out another box from the basement and headed for the stained glass repair shop. The glass is something John purchased about in Gaitlenburg, TN (another 30 years ago!). It didn't have a frame or way to hang it. The repair shop confirmed what the seller had told John when he bought it. It's about 130 years old, from England and came from a big shipment of stained glass pieces that were shipped to the US after being salvaged from a big demolition. We hung it in the kitchen window...it's almost the perfect size. The hanging glass piece next to it is also an antique that was hanging in our old house. Funny how finally getting it hung makes me feel like we're really moved in now. Our old house had many more places to hang things, nooks and crannies, but it still looks good in our new kitchen. Labor day is really going to be a day of rest now!

Slide Mount Book Prototype

My buddy Tesse and I agreed to a little swap of a slide mount book. Before I jumped in to make one for her, I decided to make a prototype and see how it would actually work. I made the slide mounts using my little wizard die cut, used pics from a catalog and put it together with rings (that I found in the bead aisle at Hobby Lobby -- see, I told you I would be addicted to beads!). I'm thinking of a Halloween theme for my next one. It's fun to work in this tiny format.

Spooky Moon

The excessive heat and smog was good for only one thing----making the moon look so unusual and spooky. Reminds me that my favorite season is coming soon. Bring it on!

Feels good to empty more moving boxes!

We saw this cabinet in an unfinished furniture store and I just knew it was the perfect thing for our foyer. I didn't know what we'd put in it but I knew we had something. How about a 30 year old liquor collection that John had from his business traveling days? Fabulous idea, John! Two boxes of little dusty bottles and a few hours later, the bottles are finally in a cute little home. It was fun to remember the travels and talk about the possibility of a really fun party should we ever want to really "tie one on" one night. These unopened little babies are organized by type and can you believe they all fit in the cabinet with room at the bottom for a modest shot glass collection. Some things are just meant to be!

Hooked on Beads

I saw a very expensive bracelet in a catalog that I liked. I just know I can get hooked on beads so I've tried to stay out of the bead shops and bead aisles at Michaels and Hobby Lobby, etc. But I wanted the catalog bracelet so bad and figured I could make something similar. The colorful bracelet in the bottom of the pic is my creation. The pink one is for Mom -- she saw mine and wanted one made from beads of her own choosing. Yep, this bead stuff is addicting. Ok, back to paper and ink. Ü

Remember Me - Celtic Tenors

Pause my music over there on the right and take a listen to my favorite Irishmen. The quality of the video is not good but the audio is worth repeating here. Enjoy!