Ocean Sapphire...

Sarah's friend got a Siamese Fighting Fish(betta) a few weeks ago and she's been bugging us to get one too. I resisted because of the cats, but finally gave in today. He's GORGEOUS!! (click to see larger images)



I wish his irredescence showed up better in the photos. He's a dark blue with slightly lighter fins.


Here he is backlit, showing off his greenishness. You can see a few of my needle-felted balls behind his bowl too, an nice foil for his coloring.


This is the truest picture of his color.


We already had the bowl and red marbles, a perfect habitat for such a beauty. However, we will be looking for a bigger container. They do better in 1-2 gallon tanks, this one is probably a half gallon. Why yes, that is a C3PO standing in the corner!

In other news...

I'm taking time this weekend to go through a newish(acquired last year) old cookbook, Rodale's Naturally Great Foods Cookbook by Nancy Albright(published in 1977). Is it ever full of good stuff! Not just recipes but instructions on everything from making yogurt, sprouting sprouts, and even grinding flour from pumpkins! Wowza!!! There are soooo many recipes in it that I'm dying to try out, like Alfalfa Sprout Gazpacho, Avocado Banana Dressing, Grainburgers, Millet Meatloaf, Broccoli Timbales, Yogurt Cheese, Sourdough Rye Bread, and the list goes on and on and on!!! I'm also reading another goodie called Cooking Vegetables the Italian Way by Judith Barrett. Lotsa good stuff there too.

We are supposed to be taking the last bits of wallpaper down from the dining room tomorrow. The paint we've decided on is called Caramel Cream, a rich, bright orange. All the playing I've done at Valspar's online room painting thingie points to this color. I think it will be perfect.


I'm sure it looks garish on your monitor, kinda looks washed out on mine too. Trust me, its really a rich, goldish orange with depth and a nice warmth. In fact, if you'll scroll back up to the third picture of Ocean(his true color pic) and look directly above his tail you can see a felted ball of red, yellow, and orange. The orange in that picture is very close to the wall color. I can't wait to get it painted!!

Guess that's all the goings on for this weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to blog more next week. Having a working teen who is also very social is demanding more of my time than I ever thought possible!!

thrifted afghan pictures...

I just LOVE this afghan!! My mom's mom had one and I have always wondered where it went. I'm sure some cousin has it but mom thinks it may have been donated. No telling, that was well over 20 years ago. Anyway, I've never seen one in a thrift store til now and this is a beauty! There are several squares in need of shoring up with some matching yarn but that can wait til we get back home, it won't unravel before then. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, it was late at night and I've got no editing software on this computer.










(Nan kicking Bert's butt on bags of our salvaged wool)

Not the best shots but they'll do for now...

Because I'm BIZZY BIZZY BIZZZZZY!!! I have to make party mix, chocolate pie filling(more on that tomorrow), sew jingle bells on a shirt, mop, clean my room, etc., etc. Oh and haul kids to two different churches for their Wednesday night things...

But I snapped these pics this afternoon and wanted to get past the Shimmer post so here...


(Christmas mice that I got from a neighbor about 12 years ago)


(the top of our hutch, it looks much better in person, not so stark)


(the tree during daylight)


(the deer love the other pretties)


(I collected these Cherished Teddies ornaments years ago but it fizzled- I still love them though!)

Gotta run! Those jingle bells can't wait!

Sharing Ornaments....

Every ornament featured here, except the glass ones of course, was made by my mother over the last 35 years or so. She did the wooden painted ones when I was a little girl and the crosstitch ones not so long ago. I've got several more painted things, a Rabbit and Piglet, Little Red Riding Hood, Eyore, a mouse, etc. but I don't think I'll have time to take pictures of all of them!

We have a Christmas party for our homeschool group next week and then my parents will be here so I've got to get things done around the house, plus do some shopping!!!

Enjoy!





















and another quiz that fits...

Which Positive Quality Are You? Your Result: Faith   You are Faith. Faith is the belief in better things, in spite of the cynicism and doubt that swirls around us. Faith gives us strength; it inpsires us to move forward and follow our hearts. "Faith tells us what the senses do not."
Peace
Courage
Charity
Friendship
Love
Which Positive Quality Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

We're getting there....

Who knew it would take hours and hours to get the lights on a 12 foot tall tree? I was worn out after that activity so we are taking our time putting the ornaments on. Besides, I've got the kids' cold now. Sigh.

Doesn't it look better already?(sorry for dark photos, in my editing program they look just fine but blogger makes them much darker-at least on my monitor they are**edited** they are fine once the post is published so maybe its just the blogger uploader/previewer making them look dark)



Mark and I went to a wonderful Christmas party last night. There was enough food(and I mean good, real food) to feed 4 times the crowd we had(about 50). There was karaoke, a chinese present exchange(the one I brought got stolen twice-that was the limit), and a fire(on a table, not in the fireplace)! A groovy time was had by all. We came home and watched two rented movies, the new Indian Jones(very fun and fast moving) and The Happening(ohso lame).



Ryan had church this morning but we decided against Joe Muggs today. Mark and I went to his office to get a ladder for the tree doings. Then he took Ryan and friends to the mall for the afternoon, making it back in time for the Cowboys game of course.



We have misplaced our ornament hangers so I'm stealing them from my glass things that won't go on the tree due to certain kitties named Gyspy, Jasper and Tallulah. They are fascinated and have all been to the top of it already. We're hoping once the ornaments are on they'll get bored with it.

I am Channeling the Great Griswold...

(Clark Griswold)

Ye of little faith will behold a wondrous sight.


(the faithless)

Come check late Sunday afternoon to see the transformation!!


(it said 11 feet on the tag, our ceiling is 12 feet, someone got it wrong)

****edited: oops, I think our ceiling is only 11 feet, my bad.****


(we have it anchored to the wall in two places and the ceiling beam as well)

The Rearranger

I am not sleeping well with the bed under the window at all(we switched the dresser and bed spots a week or so ago). Our neighbor has a shop in his backyard with spotlights on it and they shine right into our bedroom! It is worse right at the curtains so its like I have a big green glowstick above my head as I sleep. Soooo, since the girls are not here and Mark and Ryan are working, I'm going to put on my rearranger cape and get after it! Of course I have to pick up a ton of stuff first.

The girls will have to clean out both piggie cages when they get here. All of a sudden, in the last 3-4 days, we've had a fly explosion! I'm thinking some animal must've died in the pool area or across the street or something. They tend to hang around the cages and the litterboxes so we've kept them poop-scooped every day since we noticed the problem.

I've got laundry going and have swept the kitchen and utility room. I hate sweeping almost as much as I hate ironing. Bleh. Now I need to figure out dinner and I'll have gotten a lot accomplished before noon!! YEAH ME!!! I'll grocery shop later today, we're out of most of my favorite things so I have to go. Mark's check was bigger than we expected, over a car payment bigger than usual, so I can really stock us up for the winter(including new curtains for the living room and maybe our bedroom!!!).

TGIF...

I'm following along with Jeanne at Backyard Neighbor again and posting my favorite photo(Friday's Favorite Photo is what she called it, I think).


(Sarah with Tom several Autumns ago)

In other news...

A friend of mine offered up a front door for free so we drove waaaay across town to look at it and will pick it up tomorrow. Its a brick red with about a 2/3 total length leaded glass insert. Just gorgeous! There are a few cosmetic things to fix(some glue runs and a loose molding) and we'll have to frame our door with a 1x2 or something because its 1.25 inches narrower than our current door. I can't wait to work on it and get it installed though, I've been pricing these kinds of doors for a while now and just couldn't see getting one, ever.

This friend has 4 chickens and a rooster so she handed us half a dozen blue, green, and brown eggs to take home. I think I shall scramble them in the morning. Yum!

We swung by and took Ryan's friend home and are just now back to the house. I'm about to start on my broccoli, zucchini, rice, and cheese casserole. Guess I need to get the rice going, I keep forgetting that part!!!

It has been a beautiful day today, very sunshiney with no wind and not too much heat. I'm hoping tomorrow we can spend time outdoors.

Felt Balls and Halloween...

A few days ago I found the perfect place to display my felt balls! This is an old Pepsi carrier that my parents had when I was a bitty girl. I remember it from waaaay back. The fuzzy thing on top is a crocheted bowl out of alpaca boucle and fun fur. Its about big enough for a racquetball to fit in and I use it for jewelry or change.







Now for today's happenings....


(last year's fall mantle)


(garland made from fabric leaves we found at Michael's)


(two packages made three garlands)


(I did this while painting with the girls, craft paint on construction paper with clear glitter)


(this year's fall/halloween mantle- the pumpkin/jack o'lantern is reversible)


(the girls couldn't resist this adorable owl)


(and, thanks to my bloggy friend Susan at Blackberry Creek for posting a picture of her little jack, my Jack now has a beautiful chapeau)

Cats, Crafts, Clutter, and More...

First, it is really hard to get anything done with this kind of cuteness going on. We are now wondering if Tallulah will end up being a normal Manx cat after all. Her diet of special easily digested kitten food with pumpkin seems to have done the trick as far as her "poops" are concerned. She has not had a problem in two weeks! And, AND!, she can move her tail now!!! We first thought that her nerves had not developed that far down along her spine because she seemed to have no feeling in her stump of a tail and was unable to move it. Yesterday she was raising it in response to being petting down the length of her back. Those of you with cats know the movement that I mean. We are hopeful that she's free of the genetic problems known as Manx Syndrome but it will probably be early next year before we know for sure.

Now. We are finally ready to get down to the business of painting the kitchen soffits and dining room walls. YEEEHAW!! So, in case you haven't followed my blog through my bedroom painting experience, I take forfreakinever to choose a paint color. And then I sometimes get it way wrong. This time though, this time I am not making a hasty decision. I want it to pop and sing but I don't want it to be garish. Which ones do yall like?



My favorite from this shot is the yellow between the rusty red and teal, on the left. It is also the same color that's in the third and forth photo. What is too funny is that each of my kids, at different times and all on their own, suggested that we do the walls in splotches of color just like these. It would look FANTASTIC if you want my opinion, but I don't think certain people would be terribly supportive.



My favorite from this next picture is the harvest gold that is next to the robin's egg blue and again to the extreme right. Unfortunately it looks terrible next to the countertops.





All three of these are great but my favorite is still the mustard yellow. We are probably going to do the kitchen soffits in the rust(a more burnt orange than this one).



I am continuing the decluttering from yesterday. We lazed a bit and I didn't get this finished last night. Actually we didn't cook our fajitas til 8pm and then Mark got a call to deliver something to a nursing home so he had to eat and run. And I just plain old DID NOT FEEL LIKE IT. There. So, it waits for me today. I'll empty all the baskets, boxes and suitcases and bag up what I don't want. Looking on top of the entertainment center, I just noticed almost a dozen more baskets to sort through. Yeah.







I did finish my wet felted balls but I'm not satisfied with these results at all. It didn't work very well the way I did it, they are way too lumpy and holey and lopsided. The first one, from a few weeks ago, was a ball that has been completely needle felted first and I got a perfectly round ball after wet felting. This time I basically draped the felting around and around and rolled it in my hands to form a loose ball. Then I needle felted enough to hold it together. I filled a bucket with hot water and dipped each ball into it, squirted it with dish soap and rolled the ball in my hands like playdoh. I'll stick with the original way I did it.

Ending this post on a high note... IT IS RAINING!!!! WOOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!