Fumbling towards Fabuloso Friday

I know many of you are accustomed to receiving a lot of comments. I'm sure not. At all. I have my small posse teehee who have hung on through thick and thin (thank you thank you thank you, love you guys!) but I don't illicit much in the way of comments beyond my pals. Being a shy and introverted person, this is truly absolutely positively fine and I don't really hunger for more. At least, I didn't think I did???

Good gosh. My smile is a mile wide this morning. Because. As I write this, I've received comments from twelve new and lovely commenters. And added some followers. WAHOO! Fun fun fun. Thank you Vintage Thingie Thursday participants for all of your kind words. I look forward to joining in again in the days to come.



Anybody out there enjoy mystery books? One of the panels we saw last weekend at the Festival of Books, was one with mystery authors. The most exciting (for us) being Elizabeth George, author of the Inspector Lynley series. Perhaps you know her through the wonderful PBS series. So much fun to hear her (she was delightful), get to meet her and have her sign her latest book to us.

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
Elizabeth George online

There were two authors on the panel I hadn't hear of, or their mystery series before also. They sounded so entertaining, we picked up their first books in each of their series.

Susan Kandel

Lisa Lutz

Happy Whodunit Friday!

Vintage Thingie Thursday

There's still time to join in the fun at the Coloradolady, for Vintage Thingie Thursday! I'm so thankful for topics for blog posts as I seem to have run out of steam ... my mind is empty, devoid of ideas these days! I'm afraid even with a prompt, it's slim pickings.

Here's an adorable photo of my dad's mom when she was young, somewhere around 1900? (I should probably say that my blog banner is of my mother's family and the photo I included in today's post is from my father's family.) I've also included a fun needle booklet that I found in her things - the design on the booklet looks rather like something from the Arts and Crafts movement era??? There's an inch or two of green thread left in one of the needles, I wonder what she was making?!

Curio Cabinet REDnesday

When you're sad and blue and in need of a friend, teddy bears and other little preciousness, may make a little dent. These are crazy shots of my teddy bear collection and general knick knackiness, using my phone camera for Rednesday.

Thank you everyone, so very much, for your friendship and kind words!

So very sad ...

I left to do some errands this morning and came home to find a note saying my dear neighbor of nearly thirty years (October would have been thirty years) passed away last night.

SOB. I'm just one big crying puddle over here. Such a shock to the system - we had been told that he would be okay for a while yet, that he would have many good days still. He was active (a human dynamo into his nineties!) until his diagnosis a few weeks back. Thankfully we had seen Fred a few times during his hospital stay and we let him know how dear he was to us. We had plans to talk about tomato plants, etc. when he came home.

Oh dear.

I'm going to go curl up with a box kleenex for the rest of today ... thanks for listening ...

Festival of Books & Monday blog love

edited to add: I didn't know that today is Boobquake! How did I not hear about this?! To cut to the chase, some cleric in Iran said that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes (or something like that, I'm late to the controversy teehee!). If I'm understanding correctly, we are all supposed to show a bit of decolletage today, for the sake of science.
stumbled upon Boobquake on dsharp blog
directed to CBS News from dsharp blog
directed to creator of Boobquake experiment blog, Blag Hag from dsharp blog

Ladies, get out those wonder bras, certainly this call to action cannot go unanswered!!! bwahahhahahha



Helllooooooooo!

I've started a list of my Monday blog love links for myself, in the hopes that I won't include any that I previously had listed ... my chin dropped to the floor ... I've listed more than 850 blogs ... (that's just on Monday entries, doesn't include any other entries or my side bar). WOW! And there's no slowly down ... there are always more more more to be delighted by. :)

art and lemons
Beautiful Art
El Taller de Punto de Cruz de Maria
emma lamb
everyday musings
Flower Hill Farm
gretelies
Honey Girl Studio
Inking Pink
jessica swift
Julie Whitmore Pottery
Kard Krazy
La Fuji Mama
Novel Eats
Oia Santorini
One Tribe Gourmet
sea salt with food
un conte de campagne
Vita Lenta nel Bel Paese
What Anna Loves
Whisk Kid
Wish on a Whisker


We went to the (Los Angeles Times sponsored) Festival of Books at UCLA this Saturday and Sunday. Two days, one girl, one guy, tickets in hand to seven of the panels, twenty five+ authors, then book signings, walking walking walking, funky ankle, bum knee, one aching back and little nourishment on Day Two and we're still alive. WAHOO! This is the life!

Our Saturday panels:

"Water: The Past, Present and Future of our Most Precious Resource", with Thomas Curwen, Michael Hiltzik, Jenny Price, Steve Solomon and D.J. Waldie.
Article about panel from LA Times blog.

"America: In Hope or In Crisis?" with Patt Morrison, Mark Danner, John W. Dean and Tom Hayden.

"Haiti and Recovery From Disaster" with Davan Maharaj, Mark Danner, Rebecca Solnit and Amy Wilentz.
Article about the panel from LA Times blog.

Our Sunday panels:

"Does the American Economy Have a Future?" with Jan Wiener, Joyce Appleby, Roger Farmer, Steven Hill and Matt Miller.


"Bill McKibben in Conversation with Susan Salter Reynolds"
Bill McKibben, author/activist, is the creator of 350.org.
Article from LA Times blog.
Article, The Science of 350, the Most Important Number on the Planet by Bill McKibben at Treehugger.
350.org and 10:10 Global are partnering together to sponsor a Global Work Party on 10/10. (from their website, 10:10 is a global campaign to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in a year – starting in 2010.) Hoping everyone will participate!


"Watching the Detectives" with April Smith, Elizabeth George, Susan Kandel, Lisa Lutz and Stuart Woods.

"#Book: New Media Meets Publishing" with Carolyn Kellogg, Pablo Defendini, Dana Goodyear and Wil Wheaton.


And ... the exciting news to wake up to this morning ... Hugh Hefner has donated the remaining monies needed to save the land the Hollywood sign is on from crazy developers. (Do other states build luxury homes, hanging from the sides of their mountains??? In earthquake and mudslide country. Ay yi yi.)

Happy 40th Birthday Earth Day!

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
~Chief Seattle, 1855

(image from busy hands :: busy minds, found via The Crafty Crow)

There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves,
that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet.
~Brooke Medicine Eagle

(image from the decorated cookie, found via The Crafty Crow)

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt,
finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones, and good in everything.
~William Shakespeare

Rednesday

sweet wanderings

oh my gosh ... there are little sweetnesses out there in blogland that just tug at my heart ... here's a few today ...

so very loved

i must have some

mushroomy goodness

enchantment

GIVEAWAY WINNER and Monday Blog Love

and the winner is ...

Hi Lori! It's YOU! Congratulations! You da winnuh! ;) Please email your address to me at: sallyanniemagundy@gmail.com and I will get your lovely magazine off to you. Happy Monday!

Thanks everyone so much for entering and your sweet comments. I'm hoping to have another giveaway soon.



This is what happens when you're deprived of blog hopping due to your hubbies two week vacation. Binge blogging! I need an intervention and a 12 step group for this I think. bwahahahhahha

American Felt and Craft
An Accomplished Young Lady
Atalie Stitchers Blog
Be Creative Be Happy
Be-Stitched
Beadlust
Cherry's Jubilee
contemporary embroidery
Cozy Little House
Creative Thread
daily felt
edward and lilly
Eleanor Pigman
Fawn
fibrespace
Food & Cook
Food Republik
Freedom of Stitch
Gerdiary
Hendimedi
itch2stitch
Le blog de Sophie
Leanne's House
Made by Soraya
Midsummer Stitches
No Matter Where I Go
O Pistachio
Piggy's Cooking Journal
Primrose Design
Sarah Louisa Whittle
So Cozy
sow.sprout.bloom
Studiofelter
Sylvia's
Under the Tulip Tree
Were I So Besotted
Wood And Fabric
World of my dreams

Feeling bookish part deux

Book Club Girl

Book Girl's Nightstand

Books and Chocolate

Books at Home

Bookmark Collector

Bookride

Bookstack


Fun book stuff...

Jane Mount, paintings of what's on your bookshelf, found via Indie Fixx and Design Sponge.

Quotes about books/reading from Brainy Quote.

Quotes about books/reading from the Quote Garden

Antique books on Flickr

The Bookshelf Project on Flickr

Book Addicts on Flickr

Bookplates on Flickr

(on Flickr here)

(on Flickr here)

(on Flickr here)

Feeling bookish

(Charlotte Bronte)

Earlier this week I stumbled upon some fun that's afoot in blogland, the BronteAlong.
Info here at An Accomplished Young Lady and here at Yummy Goods. (also, scroll down and be sure and check out the Bronte related posts on the participants blogs that are listed)
Check out the related flickr account here.
Now I feel like putting on the tea kettle and curling up with Jane Eyre.

For Pam

Hi Pam!

Here's my stuff sniffle sniffle. I had forgotten that I had the creamer and sugar too. WAH! It's so cute. I looked on Replacements and I believe I've found the company name ... I had remembered it being something that began "Hu" and they have Hutschenreuther listed and I'm sure that's it. I only have photos because I tried to sell it on Ebay (with no luck).

Living on the Earth

(Oh! I just noticed my post count - this is my 226th post - wowie! And here I never thought I'd have a thing to say or stick to this blogging thing.)

and ...

(Don't forget to check out my fuzzy brain magazine giveaway on my April 12th post below!)


Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd which reminded me of one my favorite books, "Living on the Earth" by Alicia Bay Laurel. This charming book was written and illustrated by Alicia she was 19. (and I was a teenager when it came out - we always love the things of our growing up years the best, don't we?!) And guess what my fellow flower children?! Alicia has a blog! Here's my well loved copy (which sold for $3.95 when it came out!)...






I found some fun Earth Day craft ideas on the internet.

Ellen, of The Long Thread blog, has done a charming tutorial for the Alpha Mom site.
Plantable paper tutorial at Alphamom.
The Long Thread

Cassi, of The Crafty Crow, has listed multiple tutorials (from various sources) using recycled and repurposed items. (just keep scrolling down through all the fun stuff!) The Crafty Crow

I especially love these that Cassi has listed:

Recycle ribbon spools into display cubbies from Paper and Stitch.

Recycle magazines into a bowl from A Little Hut.

Recycle corks into stamps from Lil Blue Boo.

Rednesday

(Don't forget to check out my fuzzy brain magazine giveaway on my April 12th post below!)


Sheesh, I think my powers of observation must be nonexistent. How did I manage to miss Rednesday with all the blog hopping I have been doing for years?! Boggles the mind. Anyway, I finally noticed it today on Leslie's blog, Brookhollow Lane. Leslie references the blog, It's A Very Cherry World as the originator of all this fun.

(Not sure if this was my grandmother's or grandfather's souvenir from a 1913 dance? By the way this is not the lyrics to Row Row Row Your Boat - I'd never heard this before, too funny. )

(My mothers WWII ration cookbook from Swans Down Flour, published in 1942)

(My grandfather was in the Navy during WWI and spent time in France, this is one of the postcard booklets he purchased.)

(Matchbook from WWI, saved by my grandfather.)

(I found this darling - and unsigned - "mechanical" Christmas card in my mother's things. I'm not sure what year it's from??? Her scrapbook it was in had mostly things from the late 40's. I'm guessing she must have bought it for my brother to give my dad???)

I love my iPad Tuesday

(Don't forget to check out my fuzzy brain magazine giveaway on my April 12th post below!)

Waving hello to Valerie and Ellie - I'm wearing a big smile this morning after seeing you on my followers list. Thank you, that's so sweet of you!

Valerie (tempting me and inspiring me with the most divine desserts!) and Ellie (inspiring me with her creativity and heartfelt posts!) have lovely blogs to linger over.

You may visit Valerie at Une Gamine dans la Cuisine
You may visit Ellie at Ella's Edge

Little secret ... today is actually Wednesday when I'm posting this on my blog ... I was supposed to post this on Tuesday but I couldn't access our "Alice" that my husband bought on iTunes. ay yi yi, I can never remember our password. piffle paffle WAH! So today I found a snippet on You Tube of it. Okay, I do agree with the commenter that the poster of the video's version is like a children's book on crack. Lordy! Hold tight!



I am loving the iPad ... hubs, not so much. He's cranky because the signal isn't strong enough he says. Being a techno know-nothing, I don't notice a thing. It gets me where I want to go, in an instant and it's beautiful. I will truly go into mourning if he decides to return it. (I think he's suffering from buyers remorse, aren't you darling?)

Monday blog love & fuzzy brain giveaway

Helloooooooooo! Hubby returned to work today after his two week spring break. He's begun PT - sadly his knee is hurting more. Seems to me when I had my frozen shoulder that it hurt more when I began PT too. OUCHERS!

Gosh, I've missed you all! I have been peeking in of course but not had the time to really read what you've been up to. I look forward to catching up.

OH! I'm having a little giveaway. I bought two of the same magazine (15 smackers X two = dumb dodo head!) - my middle aged memory loss is your gain bwhahahhahhaha!

So ... I am gifting to you my extra copy of the current issue of "Where Women Create" ... you may already have it??? Gosh, I hope someone wants it! Stampington publishes the most wonderful of magazines. If you're not familiar with this series, it's jam packed with yummy photos and stories of well known artists divine creative work spaces and their artistic process.

Let's see I've never done this before ... hmmmm ... so to enter you must have an "active" blog - in other words, you must have posted entries on your blog, not just a blog address used to enter giveaways, okie dokie?

whisper whisper I am hoping to lure out some of you lurkers to come and say hello - wouldn't that be fun to meet new friends?!

Please post a hello on this thread and I will pick a winner next Monday morning, April 19th, say at 9 am, PST and announce it here.


On to Monday blog love ...

A Bird in the Hand
A Dickens of a Book Club
Aileen Clark Crafts
Art Spirit
craftinitalia
Fennel and Fern (I just checked the link, they are currently experiencing difficulty, try again later)
Hausfrau in Melbourne
Humble Pie Designs
In the Labyrinth
In This Life
Inspirational Tips, Techniques & Tutorials
Juicy Bits
Kathy Schmitz
Le petit monde de Rima
Lennun Tekeleet
Little Nest Studio
mach etwas
Moline
Moss Hill Studio
My Mothers Pearls
My Pink Tickles
Office Type
Once Upon A Pink Moon
Orts and Ends
Pink Roses
Quaint Handmade
Quilting with the past
Spagat
Stitch Sew Scrap
tapestries of nature
teapots teapots teapots
Time to Stitch
Up the creek crafts

every which way

Hellllooooooooo! Just running in and out to say hello. Hope this finds you all well and happy.

Yesterday was a very weird every which way Wednesday! We drove out to the valley for some errands and for some reason everything was whackadoo ... stores not opening until one o'clock on Wednesday's, our favorite restaurant deciding not to open for lunch this week, the winds were blowing so hard at the outdoor patio where we ended up eating that I think I ate more of my coif than my veggie burger and lastly, the computer company that fixed something for us was not used to people actually coming to them and picking up their stuff (sheesh, what a concept, huh?!), that they were kind of at a loss as to how to charge us for the repair. I guess the Accounts Payable person wasn't in. Ay yi yi. And of course the traffic was insane.

Our new mantra is "never leave the house" bwhahahhahahhahaha.

The good news is hubby's dad is fine ... turned out to be a low blood pressure episode and now he's home. They aren't doing anything currently about the blockage in his neck, which kind of freaks me out but what do I know.

The bad news is that my husband has a torn meniscus and will need physical therapy - fingers crossed that will do the trick and he won't need surgery please please please.

We're still on spring break over here so I'm not sure if I'll post before Monday. Wishing you all a great weekend if I don't check in before then!

Monday blog love

Seems it never rains in southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before
It never rains in California, but girl don't they warn ya
It pours, man it pours
{Albert Hammond}

It's pouring down here right now. So odd, or perhaps my old brain isn't remembering but I sure don't remember many rainy days in April here??? (The glorious unexpected warm days come to mind, but no rain.)

The roller coaster ride continues over here ... We received a call Saturday afternoon that my husbands father is in the hospital (in North Carolina) ... my father-in-law had fainted at work and they're trying to figure out what is going on. They said that he has only 20% opening in one of his arteries (or was it a vein???) but they don't think that is the only thing going on. Please think a good thought for him.

WAH!

The good news is hubby's knee is feeling a tad better. He's off getting his MRI right now ... he no longer needed his chauffeur teehee, so I'm able to catch up a wee bit with all of you.

Oh! I had such a time crunch doing my Easter cards that I never got a chance to show you them ... not my best effort WAH!

(Sally's 2010 Hoppy Easter card)

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter! We had a nice one, albeit a pretty quiet one. We were going to see a movie early but we just didn't get it together in time. (First we were going to go see "The Secret of Kells", then we were going to go see a documentary about Disney's animation comeback with "Beauty and the Beast", then we were going to go see "Alice" as it got later and later ... then we ran out of steam.)

So with that change in plans we had the time to get a yummy vegetarian Easter lunch from Native Foods - their Spring Wellington. YUM!

(image from Quarry Girl)

I think ours looked even yummier than this and it came with delicious asparagus and the most tasty lemon sauce (her photo seems to show broccoli instead of the asparagus we received). nummers! I want more!

We DVR'd "Love Comes Softly" and "Love's Enduring Promise" yesterday morning, recommended by adorable Alicia, of Posie Gets Cozy and plopped ourselves in front of the TV with our Easter luncheon and had a great time.

Then our dear family friends, Betty and Caroline, picked us up and we all had Easter dinner out with my dad, his girlfriend, my sister-in-law and my two nieces. It was a lovely low key kind of day, spent with friends and family.



A couple of weeks ago, I had fun going through old bookmarks and finding beloved blogs from way back when (when I first started reading blogs) and some how lost them to memory ... I am going to start including some of them as reminders to myself.

1st Floor Flat Freebies
a fairie tale of inspiration
A Note of Friendship
All the Small Things
Behind the Curtain
Biancas Welt
Fairysteps
frilyy frolic
Garden Mama
girlprinter
Handmade with love
Haust
Hilltop Hall
Humblearts
In This Life
Karen Michel
Karenika
Kim's Suitcase
Kristen Doran Designs
making time
my day
My Nifty Needle
My Own Sweet Thyme
My2Penn'orth
Natascha Rosenberg
Needleprint
Nostalgic Collage
Oodlekadoodle Primitives
Paper and Gluestix
Primarily Primitives
Queen Be Altered Needs
quilting Jeannet
Quinn Knits a Twisted Yarn
Sir Woodstock's World
Stamplicity
The Lonely Bean
The Needles Promise
Vintage + Goodness = Happiness
Vintage Stampers Freebees

The chicken or the egg?

A thousand apologies ... between hubby's knee injury and my allergies, I haven't gotten around to replying to your sweet and oh so appreciated comments - hoping to get back to saying hello and chatting with you all soon. Hubby will have an MRI on Monday to hopefully determine what's up with his knee or it may possibly even be his leg. Thankfully next week is still spring break and will provide some much needed time to recoup and regroup.

Wishing everyone a lovely Easter now if I don't post before then.

Pompom chicks from Fiona Carter.

Easy peasy Easter egg flowers from Good Housekeeping.
From some reason the link goes to the beginning of the craft set instead of directly to this one - this one is the second one in the set, so just click to go to number two.

(found via whipup)

Easter tree decor from Bird Crafts.

Make darling little chick egg cozies from Dollar Store Crafts.
They reference a link to BHG for the craft but it doesn't work for me - thankfully whipup linked to the group of Easter crafts it is part of. Unfortunately there are no patterns that I can find on the page. WAH! ARGH!
BHG Cheep Chic

Naturally dyed Easter eggs at Rosalind Creasy.

(found via whipup)
Darling spring birdie garland tutorial at Poppytalk.

The cutest knitted Easter eggs from Little Cotton Rabbits.