Blue Monday in September

Glad you could come by for Blue Monday today. I hope you all had a nice and relaxing weekend. I decided to go for a drive yesterday evening. That is something I just don't do anymore with gas prices as high as they are. I went out to our local recreation spot-Clinton Lake to try and catch the sunset. I will show you those pics later but I did get one with some blue in it too and here it is below.

My dear sister Nancy is always giving me fun vintage items she finds. She likes to go to auctions and tag sales and she often brings me something from them when she finds something she knows I will like. This item has pears in it and I love pear motifs and have them in my kitchen. My grandmother Marie had a pear tree in her backyard and she made wonderful pear butter from those delicious pears. Does anyone have a pear butter recipe? I would love to have one. Since my kitchen is pink and green and this is blue, I keep it in my bathroom instead(it is blue).



Yesterday I also went to our local antique mall to see what I could find. I didn't end up buying anything but I did find this very sweet Holly Hobby record player. I thought you all would enjoy it with it's blue horn and all. I have to admit it really tempted me even though I don't have any records at all.
I love what it said: Start each day on a happy note. I actually have a little portable record player in my basement that was my grandmothers. I used to take all my records over to grandma's house when I would visit her and she would listen to them with me.


Connie at Living Beautifully http://connie-livingbeautifully.blogspot.com/ did a post yesterday where she challanged her readers to do the same. I told Connie I accepted her challange so here goes:

7 Things I plan to do before I die:

1. Visit my friends in other countries-Indonesia, Malaysia, etc.

2. Learn how to draw and paint

3. Learn how to play an instrument

4. Get my home more organised so no one has too much to deal with when I die

5. Learn to fly

6. Do some short-term missions work

7. See my Neices/Nephew's get married and Have children(if they choose)

7 Things I can do:
1. Bake good bread
2. Drive stick shift
3. Make an excellent stir fry
4. Embroider
5. Make my neices and nephews laugh
6. Crochet
7. Find my way in strange city with a good map.

7 Things I can't do:
1. Jump on a pogo stick
2. Keep an indoor plant alive for more than a year
3.Hold a snake(I just don't want to!)
4. Go up to top of the John Hancock building in Chicago(did it once and almost fainted!)
5. Calculus
6. Sing(Wish I could!)
7. Play an instrument

7 things that attract me to my Mister:
I don't have a mister so what would attract me to one:
1. Christian
2. Kindness
3. Gentleness
4. Merciful/Forgiving
5. Tall
6. Creative
7. Intelligence

7 Celebrity Admirations:
1. Robert Duvall
2. Audrey Hepburn
3. Corrie Ten Boom(author)
4. C.S. Lewis ( author)
5. Whoever invented air conditioning
6. Ted Dekker(author)
7.Karla Nathan(artist)

7 Favorite Foods:
1. Salmon
2. Broccoli
3. Cheesecake
4. Meatloaf
5. Black Walnut Bread
6. Mint anything
7. Chocolate

Don't forget to go check out everybody else at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/. Thanks so much Sally for hosting this fun event!

I almost forgot-any comments left today count toward my giveaway! I will draw a name tomorrow and announce the winner on Wednesday.

Pink Skies and Pink Shabby

Glad you could stop by today-I hope you enjoy all the pink. Don't forget to stop by http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ to visit all the other ladies who are joining in the pink fun!

Below is a picture I took last Saturday( i think) evening when I looked outside and saw that the light seemed to be pink. I grabbed my camera and went out the door to see the sunset and this is what I saw-A beautiful pink sky with a rainbow.
On Thursday morning I got up early and took my camera with me to see what I could find. I meandered over to the Kansas River which is very close to where I live. The sun was just coming up and the fog was beginning to burn off. I think you can see how much I love the sky. When I was younger I lived in D.C. for two summers and that is what I missed the most besides family. I just couldn't see the sky there. I need it like I need air and water. Kansas has plenty of sky to see and I am grateful.
Below is a picture of , what else, my favorite store in town, Antiques Plus. It has a wonderful shabby chic corner and I just had to share it with all you Pink Ladies.

Last of all but not least of all(and I know, I know it isn't pink either) is part of my Halloween giveaway. My sister is contributing a sweet little bird in a black feather lined nest to the lucky winner. This little bird has fabulous taste as it has chosen to reside in a silver goblet. Smart bird!

If you want to know more about the giveaway-see my post from Blue Monday this week-there will be more items in the giveaway as well-You will see the rest of them by Monday next week. I will draw the winner on Tuesday and announce the name next Wednesday. Good Luck and have a blessed and Pink week!

Sweet pea Sue

Just thought I would share a few pics with you of delightful furry babies. A friend sent me the one below in an e-mail this week and I thought it was too cute not to share.



The one below is my cat Toby- He loves to come and sit on my lap when I am on the computer or sit on my hand! It is nice in winter but it does make surfing the net or blogging a bit more of a challange.



This one was in the e-mail my friend sent me-I wonder what that cat is thinking?


This last photo was my brother and my sister-in-law's kitty. His name was Alex. My sister-in -law, Anna got him before she met my brother. He was an exceptional cat. He actually talked!(He said Maw-Maw) Last week they had to put him to sleep because cancer had ravaged his little body. It was very hard on them. I took this picture of him Spring 2007 when I went out to see them(they live pretty far away from me). I got up early that morning before anyone else was up and went downstairs to sit and read. Alex crawled up in my lap and purred his little kitty heart out. I am glad I had my camera next to me.


I will see you all tomorrow for Pink Saturday! Have a blessed day!

Wonderful Wednesday

Welcome to Wonderful Wednesday! I hope your day is wonder filled. This is the first time I have ever done a Wednesday post(and a post without being linked to someone else's blog). I am actually doing this on Tuesday night(barely as it is 2 minutes till midnight) but I know I won't have any time in the a.m.. I thought I would share some pics of sunflowers I planted from seed in the backyard this year. I only watered them for a little while to get them to sprout and then I pretty much ignored them(my kind of gardening for sure ). I am really hoping they will reseed themselves for next year. I put in a few different kinds for some variety. Last week when I took the dogs out in the backyard I spotted a Monarch butterfly on one so I ran in to get my camera.




On this next one if you look real close you can see there are some different insects on these two-I think there is a bumblebee on one of them and I am not sure about the other one.
You can see my house in the background just a little bit-I like color and always wanted a yellow house so when I bought it 12 years ago that is what Ipainted it-Yellow with Periwinkle trim. That was before I fell in love with pink and green as a combo or I would probably have that for an outside color scheme. Most of my neigbors have subduded colors on the outside but when my house was white you never even noticed it was there(it is only 750 sq feet and has one big tree in the front yard that kind of obscures it).
I was hoping to show you a picture of the birds my sister is working on for the giveaway but she isn't quite done yet ... so the pic below is from an old orange crate that a friend owns and I am going to use for some halloween decorations. I will hopefully show you on Saturday how. Well thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday! I hear thunderstorms outside and my little Napoleon is turning himself inside out with worry about them.

Wedgewood Blue Monday

Welcome to Blue Monday at my place! Smiling Sal athttp://smilingsally.blogspot.com/ is hosting this event. Today I thought I would share something that reminds me of my mother-Her favorite color was Wedgewood Blue and when ever I see it I always think of her. My mother died at the end of March in 1995 when I was 31. It was a very hard year for me (and a few after that as well). When I saw this little vase it made me think of her so I took it home with me right away. I have used it for various things over the years but right now I have it on my drawing table to hold my paint brushes in. My drawing table doesn't get used as much as I would like it too. I keep telling myself it will be used for drawing more soon. I guess it is kind of a reminder of what I want to be, not necessarily what I am.

This is me and my mom about 6 months before she died in the fall of 1994. It is the last picture I have of her. She hated having her picture taken( so do I!) but for some reason she consented to this one. As you can see I look alot like her. I remember one day when I was walking home from high school and I passed a woman I had never seen on the street. After she passed me by she stopped, turned around and yelled back at me" I bet you are Mary Lee McCaffrey's daughter aren't you?" I replied yes I was to which she said" I went to high school with her. Say so and so says hi" so I did when I got home. I am very blessed to have a wonderful and I mean wonderful step-mom named Freda but I miss my mom every day. I look forward to seeing her again when it is time.
This next picture is of my dog Maddy Joy, who is my editor in chief and sometimes model. As you all know she has a real hunger for knowledge and loves to devour a good book(esp. one from the library). She is also a love sponge-Her theme song is the Betty Boop Song- I want to be loved by you, just you and nobody else but you. She is utterly convinced that God made her to be a lap dog, not a lab dog. She weighs 77 pounds(she put on the last 10 in 6 months since I got her!) but she thinks she is just the right size to crawl on to my lap and curl up. I have to confess I love it. I took a picture of her for the shades of inspiration group on Flickr.com when the colors that week were brown and light blue. It was difficult to convince her to sit still and let me drape the fabric around her but she did let me do it finally.
Well on Saturday I mentioned that today I would be announcing a giveaway so here goes! I have been doing some fun Halloween stuff lately so I thought I would give some of it away and my sister is going to help me by making some black and white birds for the giveaway- If you want to see the bird she made me just scroll down a little to an earlier Pink Saturday posting called A crafty pink Saturday. Anyone who comments on my blog between now and a week from tomorrow will be put in the drawing. I will draw the winner a week from tomorrow and announce it on the following day. Up till now I have mostly been posting on Monday and Saturday only but now I am going to add Wednesday to the mix. So for every time you comment (1 per posting) your name will be entered in the drawing-so you can have your name entered today, this wednesday, this saturday and next monday( that should increase your chances pretty good!) Below is a sneak peak at some of the stuff I will giving away. You will see more of it on Wednesday!
This is a little Halloween banner I made-below is a closeup of one of the kitties.
This is just a lovely sunset I took in my backyard a week ago. I thought it looked rather Halloweenish! Happy Blue Monday to you all!

Thanks for coming by my place today to help me celebrate Pink Saturday! Don't forget to visit Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.com/ and all the ladies listed that are participating today. I can't believe another week has gone by already but I guess it has! Hope you all have had a nice one. Below is an old green vintage rolling pin I keep with my placemats in a wire planter basket in my pink kitchen. I never liked my tiny 9X9 kitchen until I painted it pink-now I love it! The power of pink is amazing!









The second pic(for some reason I can't blow this up or delete it) is some cute pink flowers I took a pic of when my neices and I went out photo shooting.

The other day I caught my blogging staff all sleeping on the job! I got a picture of it so I could bring it up at the staff meeting later. I think I woke them up when I snapped the picture. Don't they all look guilty? They know they won't get raises this year!

This is my official spell checker-Gracie. She is the only one smart enough to always find a hidey hole when she is going to sleep on the job. She likes to sleep in my closet(and some other places I have not yet been able to discover-but I will!) She always manages to talk her way out of any situation though! I may have to give her a raise this year after all. Well have a good weekend-stop by Monday for Blue Monday. I will be announcing a giveaway that I will be having!

Welcome to Blue Monday! Today I thought I would share a picture I took a few weeks ago when my sister and I went for a drive in the country. It was a beautiful day unlike the past week but like today promises to be(but being Monday I will be inside-not out enjoying our sudden fall coolness). A gorgeous blue sky with pretty fluffy clouds with that wonderful late afternoon light.





The next picture I took at my favorite store in town(Antiques Plus). You never know what treasures you will find in there but you will always find something! I love the romatic pic below not to mention the pretty hydrangaes. It puts me in a good mood just seeing the blossoms on the tree.
Well thanks for stopping by- Don't forget to check out Smiling Sal and all the lovely ladies participating today. For a complete listing go to http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Happy Pink Saturday to one and all!

Happy Pink Saturday to one and all! I missed being able to participate last week due to computer problems but thankfully things are better this weekend. Last night I decided to share some pics with you that I took awhile back. The first one is of a flower in my back yard on a rather old fashioned bush called a rose of sharon. The ones I have are all volunteers and I have some pink bushes and some white ones. I love them(partly because they are volunteers) for the gorgeous abundant blooms and because my grandmothers used to have them in their gardens. I wish I inherited their green thumbs but I seem to have a furry thumb instead(as in cats and dogs tend to love me).

The second pic is of some fake roses I keep in my bedroom. I love the "pop" of the pink roses against the contrast of the cobalt walls. I keep them in a pitcher/bowl that my step-mother Freda made in a ceramics class before my father met her. Their anniversery is 9-22-00. She is a real blessing to our whole family. I'm not sure how she got stuck with all of us (but I sure am glad!)

The last pic I took when my neice Claire and I went out looking for rusty things a while back for the Shades of Inspiritation group I belong to on Flickr.com. Lots and lots of fun. It is just a little window box with some pink flowers doing their best to grow. I love the lace curtains the slightly delapidated charm of the house/business. It was hard to tell which it was.

Well thanks for stopping by today. Don't forget to see all the other nice ladies particapating today at Beverly's http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/. Have a great pink week. Susan

Apologies!

My computer went down last night so I am unable to participate today! I look forward to seeing you all next saturday(mabey monday for blue monday) we will see. Susan

Blue Monday

Hi There! Welcome to my first Blue Monday-Smiling Sal at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/ is hosting this fun event-Be sure to check out the other participants at her site today. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to share with you today because I was having mucho trouble uploading any pics but as soon as I walked into the next room it got over its shyness. Yeah! Below is a picture of a stained glass window in a friend's house. I thought it was a real beauty. Hard to be blue on a Monday when you wake up and see that! They live in Pennsylvania so I don't often get to see them. That does make me blue! Take care of yourselves and enjoy your Labor Day!