patriotic ornie swap - from my partner to me

I had so much fun participating in Viv's Patriotic Ornie Swap! Today my package from my partner arrived in the mail YIPPIE YIPPIE YIPPIE! I felt like it was my birthday, I was so excited and couldn't wait to open it up. In fact I forgot to take photos of the box and do the slow unveiling, I was so excited. Thankfully I remembered before I removed my darling ornaments from their goodie bags.

My partner was Michelle (and her daughter, Ashley - they are a mom and daughter team who enjoy crafting together - how great is that?! Reminded me of my mom, we loved crafts and sewing too.) They enclosed a note that everything they crafted with was from an estate sale, which I just love.

Michelle and Ashley made me a trio (!!!) of the most adorable owlie ornaments, so precious. They each sit on the cutest perch - a red, white or blue, poker chip.

They also sent me the best patriotic decorative piece! So festive and fun, with the tinsel like fireworks going off. I love the vintage photo and there are so many added details - a Bingo card base, buttons, flags, a sparkly spangley ornament and shooting stars. 

Thank you so much Michelle and Ashley, I love my things and it was a pleasure to be your swap partner. 

Thank you so much Viv, for hosting this fun swap!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone!

georgie is feeling poorly today

Update June 24:  Thanks again so much for your continued care for our sweetie pie, George. His tummy is now doing fine. YIPPIE YIPPIE!  We did take him to see the Vet on Saturday - one of his back legs was acting wonky. Turns out to be old age of course, thankfully, the Vet said he isn't in any pain.

We did find out that I have fattened him up quite nicely, in fact, a few pounds too much. I was so thrilled that he was interested in food, I guess I was overly generous. Anyway, too many pounds on him is dangerous, with his blood clot and for his heart. So now George is on a diet.

We also had a blood panel done, since it's been more than six months and await the results of that.

Thanks again everyone! Happy Monday!



Update June 21: Thanks so much for your care, concern and kind comments over my sweetie pie Georgie. He seems to have just experienced some tummy upset episode (he has a very sensitive tummy!) and after a day and a half of anti-nausea meds, is feeling brighter. Yippie! Georgie wishes you all a very Happy First Day of Summer! He's hoping to get in some time in the sun and some ball playing today. And maybe a biscuit ... tummy willing ...



I've got a call into the Vet.  Poor Georgie has been sick to his tummy twice today.  Hopefully it's nothing, just one of those once-a-year doggie tummy upset things but I feel a sense of concern. He's also been doing some things that our Honey (that we lost in September) had been doing last year ... and I'm fearing that he's got mega-esophagus like Honey did or, something to do with his cancer, his blood clot, etc.  I'm a bundle of nerves over here.

He's done so well and been so happy-go-lucky that I've kind of put his very real serious condition in some far recess of my mind, closed and locked the door on it.  Been living on hope and denial.

He has been interested in his biscuits and his ball, so that's good news ...

patriotic ornie swap - for my partner

I joined Viv's Patriotic Ornie Swap - so much fun! I was partnered with Michelle of The Tattered Quilt Cottage.  She received her packaged yesterday and gave me the go ahead to show what I sent her. I love doing themes and I chose the Liberty Bell as my inspiration for my swap.

You can follow along and open the package with Michelle ...

Finally LOL!
Here's my patriotic ornie -
I needle felted for the very first time
and really enjoyed it.
Thanks Michelle, for being my (second ever) swap partner!
Thank you Viv for hosting this fun patriotic swap!

bing and grondahl seagull

I am trying (in vain, most days) to let go of much of the remaining things of my parents that I have hung onto the past two years plus, since my father passed away.  Our house is teeny tiny and was already filled to capacity --- now we are nearly buried underneath belongings.

{sigh} I inherited this lovely Danish china tea set from my mother. It had been given to her by a Danish friend, I'm pretty sure, sometime in the 1980's. It is beautiful, in mint condition, having never ever been used. How sad to think that blue was not my mother's color and so, although the gift was much appreciated, was never used or even displayed.

Last night, I had every intention of selling this set.  I asked my husband to bring in the box from the garage.  But as I unwrapped each piece this morning, I was struck by it's delicateness and details. It is not my style, I never would have sought it out. I am a lover of pink roses on china, after all.  (that being said, I was utterly besotted with another blue Danish beauty, Royal Copenhagen's, Blue Lace - it was an unrelenting obsession like no other for many years LOL)
 

Looking upon the charming shells on top of the sugar lid and the tea pot, I think I need to think on it a bit longer. Perhaps I will remove some of my too cute things and grant this more elegant and grown up grouping, a home in my curio cabinet.

I can't decide ... 

a car show and some yarn bombing

A couple of weekends ago we went to a fun little vintage car show at Farmers Market in Los Angeles. Well first we had breakfast there at our favorite spot, Loteria Grill.  Chilaquiles Verdes with fried eggs! nummers! 

We like to eat our breakfast leisurely and read the paper - there was a short column about an exhibit at the Craft and Folk Art Museum (just blocks from Farmers Market) - a yarn bombing exhibit. The local group had bombed the outside (don't worry, they bombed it with yarn and granny squares!) of the museum and I wanted to see it, so we drove over to see it after the car show.

Even the parking meter had been bombed ...

It was a fun and colorful day!

Joining in on the Rednesday fun at Cottage Sweet Cottage.

georgie the invincible

This is my Georgie. Georgie, the believer. Georgie, the dreamer. Georgie, the lover of love.

We adopted 12 year old George last year, along with his BFF Gracie, just a mere three weeks after losing our beloved Honey. 

Life being what it is, never a puller of punches --- two months after adopting George and Gracie, two months three weeks after losing Honey, we found out that George has inoperable cancer.  He was thought to only have three or four days to live. 

And yet, here we are, six months down the road, this very day ...

Happy as a lark!

He still has cancer of course and his now 13 year old legs are achy and wobbly but he loves to trot after his ball and scratch his long lanky body along the garage wall, dancing a little doggie jig and tossing his head as he turns at the end to begin another trip down the wall. 

He luxuriates in being loved and rubbed and hugged. I fear he must have only had a little love in his previous life, enough though that he is the sweetest of souls and enough so that he knew what he was missing and knew he had a doggie sized hole in his heart, that only a family could fill. 

This Georgie who wasn't interested in food when we got him (I coaxed him and fed him out of my hand), adores his chicken breast and rice meals that his new mommy makes him and perhaps even all his pills he takes twice a day, including a chemotherapy one, every other day.

Life is good when you believe and dare to dream and find love and a family.

Sharing A Favorite Thing on Saturdays with Claudia at Mockingbird Hill Cottage.

little bits of childhood

Little bits of childhood, lost and now found.

Oh! How I loved to play with my Barbie dolls growing up! My mom talked about giving my things to a younger cousin when I had outgrown them.  I think a little whimper came out of me, I loved them so. BFF's forever, my Barbie and me.

So I thought, even with my resistance, my mother had given them away long ago to my cousin in Missouri ... twelve years younger than I, to love.

So in 2011, when my dad passed away (my mother long before him in 1996 - and I never had the strength to go through the things in the house - my father and I lost in denial), my husband and I dug through the mountains of some fifty years of my parents belongings.

One day my husband found my Barbie wardrobe cases (three or four of them, there were!) and then a shoe box with these sad, lost little bits, that somehow hadn't made it back into their homes with the rest. Some things are Barbie, some things are Skipper and then, Skooter or Francie or someone???  All the important details have left my middle aged memory now.

They make me all smile-y again though ... 

Joining in the sweet Rednesday fun with Lillian at Cottage Sweet Cottage.