What's growing best in your garden this year? I would have to say the vines and moss rose and portulaca, in this heat, are thriving in my yard.
Sabtu, 31 Juli 2010
What's growing best in your garden this year? I would have to say the vines and moss rose and portulaca, in this heat, are thriving in my yard.
Jumat, 30 Juli 2010
CSN $100 Gift Certificate Winner
The Random Generator has picked a winner for the CSN $100 gift certificate. Random.org chose #99 out of 117. The winner is Pat at Gypsy Heart. Congratulations, Pat!
Pat, please send me your email address.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Kamis, 29 Juli 2010
Welcome Wagon Friday 7/30/10
Chateau de Fleurs is Christie Repasy's blog. She's known for her lovely paintings of roses. She also loves decorating. She recently moved to a home in the country, her "chateau de fleurs," where she now has a studio/shop in her home. She also has a vintage marketplace in her yard every three months.
Air Kiss is Lara's blog. She loves decorating, styling and interiors. French-Nordic interiors is one of her real loves, as well as timeworn French Provencal style. She enjoys hunting for vintage treasures that have lovely time worn patina.
On The House is by the author of Magpie's Nest. She is an artist, wife, mom, animal lover, gardener and book addict, to name just some of her interests. On The House - Free Images From The Magpie's Nest, is a blog of free images for us to use. Love that!
Get your basket of neighborly goodies together. (Cookies or brownies would be a nice "welcome to our blogging neighborhood" gift. Sit down with an iced coffee or tea and enjoy these beautiful sites!
Note: Comments have been turned off for this post.
Rabu, 28 Juli 2010
CSN $100 Gift Certificate Giveaway
So leave a comment on this post, and I shall use the random generator to choose a winner on Friday. Once the winner is chosen, CSN will email them a one-time-use $100 gift certificate. For US and Canada readers only. (Sorry, I don't make the rules.)
Good luck to all!
Selasa, 27 Juli 2010
Simple Pretty Things
There are so many simple things that are pretty. I like to walk around and enjoy them in all their simplicity.
I spent much of yesterday cleaning out the gardens. The monster hyacinth bean vines and sweet potato vines will take over in a matter of days if you don't cut them back.
In the fall, when the hyacinth bean vine has died back, I will take the dried bean pods and save them to plant next year. I have already had three years out of one packet of seeds.
The angels trumpet bloom, fully open.
Can water in a bird bath be considered pretty? I think so, when the overhead trees are reflected in its depths.
Cookie cutters that remind me of childhood days making sugar cookies with my girls.
A tabletop display next to my day calendar...
Desktop items...
The simple things we dream about and accumulate that makes us happy...
Color makes me happy.
Plant a garden, Water your soul. You can brighten your day with the simplest of things. And nourish your spirit at the same time.
Senin, 26 Juli 2010
Update: New Stat Page In Blogger
There are several newsworthy items in Blogger. First, you can now go straight to Design, as you see above, to get to your Gadgets. After they added the new Designer Templates, you had to go in the back door for awhile, by going through New Post. But I noticed this weekend that that had changed. So much simpler!
Also...
We now have Stats. No more having to use an alternate site for checking your statistics. Just click on Stats.
This is the Overview page, below. You can check what your stats are in real time. Then there's Last Day, Last Week, Last Month, and All Time.
So if you click on Now...
That is what you'll see.
You can check your stats by Posts.
You can check by Traffic Sources...
And you can check your Audience. Below are Page views by Countries.
So in real time you can see what countries your readers are currently visiting from.
And then you can check out Page Views by Browsers.
I'm having a lot of fun with Blogger right now. I enjoy the new design templates and the versatility they've given us. And now the functionality of having our statistics right there on our blogger format. And free is good too!
Note: I noticed with this post that Preview is no longer at the top of the page. It's now at the bottom next to Publish Post, Save Now, and then you will see Preview. And when you Preview, there will be a Preview line across the top left of your page to let you know you're in Preview mode. So I guess there's lots of things going on over at Blogger.
Update note: Many of you commented that you don't have Stats on your blog. Someone thankfully commented that you need to go to Dashboard. Scroll to the bottom and find Blogger in Draft. Click to make it your default Dashboard. Then you should have the Stats tab. Let me know if this does not work.
Jumat, 23 Juli 2010
Lazy Days Of Late July
The hyacinth bean vines are beginning to bloom. Yesterday I saw a hummingbird buzz in and sit at the very top of this one. It was emerald green and gauzy wings in the sunlight as it flew away into the depths of the stone garden.
The day unwinds before me, an open tablet for the most part.
I love the silence, the peacefulness, of the normal humming that is one's house.
I am so tuned in to the sound of the air conditioning coming on and going off. The whisper sounds of the ceiling fans.
The angel's trumpet blooms are slowly opening. Every year I think of them as women's long skirts. The dainty edges swirling as the lady dances.
There is a heartbeat to the hot dog days of summer. A season marching forward toward the cooling respite of fall.
Technorati Tags: Summer 2010,gardening
Kamis, 22 Juli 2010
Welcome Wagon Friday 7/22/10
It's time for Welcome Wagon Friday. Bake some banana bread and put your lipstick on. Let's go greet some new neighbors.
Lakehouse is Debbie's blog. She lives at Houghton Lake, Michigan. Debbie loves going to flea markets, antique, and junk shops. She especially loves vintage linens. She uses them to make pillows, curtains, chair pads, etc. She also enjoys working in her cottage garden.
Seeing The Potential is Jeralee's blog. She is a freelance harpist, and teaches harp and piano. She likes to garden, knit, crochet, and hit the thrift stores and garage sales. She also likes to refurbish her finds. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Secret Garden Cottage is Jojeana's blog. She lives in Porterville, California. She loves antiquing, old architecture, gardening, and decorating her home in the shabby chic, chippy paint cottage style.
I'm going to get some chores done and then put my visiting hat on. And head on over to visit these gals and settle in for some good reading with a big glass of iced tea.
I'm turning off comments so you can go visiting right away.
Happy weekend, everyone!
Technorati Tags: Friday Featured Blogs,Welcome Wagon Friday
Selasa, 20 Juli 2010
Coppell Mayor's Life Unravels
It is the sort of thing for which there will be lots of controversy, many theories, and few answers.
People around these parts are still reeling from the news that a Dallas-area mayor last week killed her 19 year old, college-bound daughter, and then herself, in a tragedy born of tragedy.
Jayne Peters, 55, was the Mayor of the city of Coppell, a city outside Dallas. She was a former software developer. And since 2008, a widow. But apparently finances were getting away from her. She had apparently spun so many elaborate and convoluted lies that her life was completely out of control by June 12.
It is said that Peters was left with virtually no financial resources after her husband died. The Rev. Dennis Wilkinson said, "They had spent money for his treatment and surgeries and experimental stuff that they did to try and save him." Her position as mayor was an unpaid position. She did contract software development work, but it wasn't a fulltime job. She also received financial help from the church. But many people who knew her well said she kept much of this private.
She had given her only child, Corinne, a brand new Hyundai for graduation. One has to wonder if Corinne suspected it was a rental car. Friends and neighbors had been under the impression that Peters bought the car for her daughter.
Corinne was bound for the University of Texas this fall, and on her way to orientation. Or so she thought. Her mother told her she'd taken care of all the details for registration. Yet UT say they have no paperwork for Corinne Peters. Friends say Corinne truly believed she had been accepted to UT.
Lies built on lies apparently led Jayne Peters to leave notes in various places about her nearly 4000 square foot home, and outside on the door to warn first responders. She had allegedly been using city credit cards to pay personal bills. Her home had been up for auction and foreclosure several times over the past year. Yet no one knew of this spiraling out of control. Sadly, no one seemed to know.
Corinne could be seen about town in UT tee shirts. Her life was just beginning. After losing her father to cancer in 2008, she was about to embark on a new adventure toward adulthood. Friends say that Corinne wasn't known as the best driver among her fellow classmates. They often teased her because she made a ritual of kissing her fingers and touching the dashboard of her car when she came to a yellow light.
The teen confessed to friends her worries about leaving her mom behind when she left home for college.
Corinne was found fatally shot in the laundry room downstairs, while her mother's body was upstairs. One note was found on a kitchen island, next to her late father's cremated remains. There were notes pertaining to the pets remaining in the home. The two dogs were to be kept together and given to relatives, or "put down," wrote Mayor Peters. "Please ask my family to take care of the pets."
She listed the other pets individually. "There are four cats. Mystic, the black cat, 9 years old. Sassy, Siamese, 11 years old. Snowflake, Siamese, 11 years old. Reno, brown Abyssinian, 6 years old."
Corinne's parents had bought her a Hyundai Sonata around her 16th birthday. But just after Donald Peters died in 2008 of colon cancer, she wrecked the car. Until recently she had been driving one of the family cars. Then she showed up with what friends said was a new car - the 2011 Hyundai Sonata.
The Hyundai had been taken back to the car rental agency before the business opened.
The last time anyone saw Peters was 12:30 p.m. that afternoon. She was walking south on MacArthur.
The typed note on the front door read: "To our first responders: Here is the key for the front door. I am so very sorry for what you are about to discover. Please forgive me. Jayne"
Mayor Jayne Peters seemed happy at the local July 4th parade, handing out candy along the parade route. Shaking hands and talking to constituents. Yet inwardly she had to be deeply troubled that the bank had tried to foreclose on her $422,780 home where they had lived for the past 17 years. As recently as February and March of 2010. She was in debt to her homeowners association who put liens on her home on three different occasions.
Mayor Jayne Peters always reached out to new neighbors. She was the one to organize the annual Halloween party. Corinne Peters was a member of the drill team, a 2010 Coppell High School graduate.
A neighbor who Corinne had babysat for the previous week said there was no indication of anything wrong at the house. But Corinne was upset that she had to cancel two different orientations to college because her mother was sick.
They say Corinne's passion was dance. One friend said, "She had the best technique on the team. Beautiful pointed feet, and leaps and turns. Everything about her dancing was flawless."
"DNR, please do not resuscitate under any circumstances," read another note.
On the morning of the shooting, Corinne was seen at 6 a.m. loading up a vehicle in front of the home. Minutes later, Mayor Jayne Peters was seen unloading the car.
"Please, please, please, no funeral. No memorial - just cremate us both," said yet another note.
The city manager discovered the two bodies on Thursday evening after the mayor failed to appear at a scheduled Council meeting.
It has been said that when women use a gun as a means to commit suicide, it shows they mean business. Corinne Peters was methodical in her actions. In her notes and her last deeds. It was her last piece of business.
Once I wrote an in-depth article about a 14 year old girl who committed suicide. She was angry because her father told her she could no longer see a boy she had been dating.
She came into the room where he sat one evening, and simply said, "Dad, do you want to see a trick?"
When he looked up, she held a gun up to her head and pulled the trigger.
Life, over just like that in a split second. So many conundrums to how such decisions are made. And no possibility of going back to alter plans.
Minggu, 18 Juli 2010
This & That & A Clyde Update
I haven't gotten piddly done this weekend. It's hot outside and my body seems to have geared into neutral. I feel like a slug on tranquilizers.
Many of you asked the name of the painter who did the painting just above my computer. The one below is not my painting, but one I found online, minus the frame. Mine is at the frame shop, as of yesterday. I'm having it properly dry mounted, matted and framed with a lovely distressed blue frame called indigo.
I couldn't identify the painter for you, since the name was mostly covered up by the frame. I had a feeling it was a Monet copy. And I was right. So for those of you who would like to look for it online, it is actually The Beach At Adresse. Mine will be back on the wall in 3-4 weeks.
I am relieved to say that Clyde is getting back to his old self, somewhat. He misses Bonnie, as we all do. But now he has finally gone back into the guest room, which was their territory. Which he has refused to set foot in since Bonnie inexplicably went missing a couple of months ago. Poor baby. When I see him in there alone, I just want to cry for him.
I spent much of the weekend toying with my blog colors and banner. I was missing my signature reds. So I at least got that much accomplished.
I have to cut the various sweet potato vines back every few days, or I wouldn't have room to walk through the yard.
The hyacinth bean vine has covered up most everything around it now, including the old vintage watering can underneath.
And the other day I found that it was growing up through one of my chairs on the pavilion.
Summer for us here in East Texas has pretty much come to the point where we go out when we have to, and stare at our gardens from the comfort of indoor air conditioning the rest of the time. Just a fact of life in this hot climate.
Our time to enjoy the outdoors commences again in what the rest of you probably consider the fall season. For us here it is merely less hot, and a very brief prelude to winter. Such that it is.
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