NOW IT IS TIME TO SAY GOOD-BY.....

Two weeks ago we had to say good-by to our wonderful dog, Rowdy.  She wasn't feeling well on a Monday morning, but seemed to feel better that afternoon. On Sunday, she was chewing on some wood kindling that we had by the fireplace.  She always loved to chew on those little sticks, they were from our yard, so we just let her chew away.  So I was afraid that on Monday when she didn't feel well that maybe she had some type of blockage due to the stick. We talked to the vet and they suggested we watch her.  She had no problems going to the bathroom and ate her dinner just fine. Tuesday she was a little slow but ate and went out like usual. Wednesday she was pretty much back to normal, sitting by the chew bone jar and barking until we gave her one!! BUT all of a sudden on Thursday night she just lay by her water bowl, which was not at all usual!!  I stayed up with her until about 1:30am, then she wanted to go upstairs.  She always slept on our bed.  It took her a little while to get up the stairs.  I felt so sorry for her, she just kept looking at me with her sweet face, I knew she was sick.  Friday morning we called the Vet and took her in around 7:30.  They just kept her until they had a chance to check her out.  We were afraid that it was that stick and worried that she might have to have surgery.  We NEVER even thought it would be so bad!!!!  As it turns out, she had some tumors on her spleen that kept bleeding out and filling the cavities around her organs. Apparently, they bleed and then the body absorbs them, then they bleed again.  That is why she felt bad and then seemed better.   It might have been going on for a couple weeks.  Sometimes at night she could not jump up on the bed.  Our bed is a high Colonial 4 Poster,  so we thought she was just starting to get older.  She would put her front paws on the bed and wait for one of us to lift her back and put her on the bed.  I kept saying that she had gained weight and maybe that was why she couldn't jump up.  So her larger that usual body was due to the bleeding out.  They said that they could do surgery but she still would only have about 2 months longer to live.  It was so sad, here we were sniffing and trying not to out right bawl.  Even the Vet cried.  She was Rowdy's vet from the very beginning and also took care of her 9 puppies:)  It was such a shock.  We just didn't want to bring her home and have her suffer.  So we said good-by.  The hardest thing we have had to do in a long time!!

This is the first time in a very long time that we only have one animal:)  We usually have at least 2 dogs and a few cats:)  We are thinking about getting another Golden, but the Vet said that the tumors that Rowdy had is not unusual in that breed and usually happen around their 9th-10th year.  Rowdy was only 9 1/2.  She did have tumors on her body that we had removed. So I guess she was just prone to them.  Poor ole Charlie seems a little lost.  He is used to having her to boss around:) They played all the time!  He has never been without her!

I guess with our pets we just have to love them as long as possible and always remember the love they gave us!

This was her favorite chair and her most comfortable position!!! We laughed at her all the time!!

This is my favorite picture!  Charlie is one of her puppies that we kept!  I am so glad that we did, he is really sweet!!!

So go out today and kiss a dog!!

IT IS SO HARD TO CRACK A WOODEN EGG.........

For years and years my friends and I have painted eggs!  Wooden, paper mache', and real!!  Aging is the most fun part to me.  Sooooooo I have buried some wooden eggs in the front yard!  My thoughts are that they will get wet and dry and wet and dry, then crack! This works pretty well EXCEPT.....When you can't find them all!! I love it when they crack just a little, just enough to look old:)   I KNOW  that I "planted" 6, but I can only find 4!! I am pretty sure the squirrels aren't interested in them, so I will keep digging around!

Here are some of the wooden eggs:

  These are some of my favorites, the cracks don't show

                                           up too well.  

These are some of the real ones that I did years ago!  They still look good!  I think that I had these on last year too.

                                           They are darker than they appear in this picture.

These were done with some weeds from the yard and rubber bands.  Just wet the egg a little and place the weed on, then cover with panty hose tightly. I left them in the dye for quite a while.  The dye is onion skins and tumeric.  You can use about anything including regular dyes.  I didn't blow out these eggs.  I read some history of the Pysanky eggs (Ukrainian Easter Eggs) and they didn't blow them out.  I decided to try it and I think it works great!  I have had them since about 1994.  I store them in an old egg crate and when I first take them out I can smell a slight odor, but once out in the air it goes away.  I think that they are stronger too. 

Well I am off to dig in the yard some more to try to find my missing wooden eggs!

Have a Happy day !!!!!!!!!!!

YOU KNOW IT IS JANUARY WHEN.....

WHEN I  drag out all of the dried stuff!  

For years I have dried those little pineapples that I used to find at a store here.  The were really easy,  probably because they are so small.  I have also tried in vain to dry the regular sized pineapples since I can no longer find the little ones!  Each year I add to the dried collection:)  THIS year I was successful in drying the regular pineapples.  I found directions on the internet that works great!  Dan at yesterday once more here on blog spot!  He is at 

Dan-yesterdayoncemore.blogspot.com 

Check out his site!

Here are a few pictures of them.

These are some clove studded pears.

Nothing goes to waste around here, I either dry it or stick cloves in it:)  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  At least I feel like I tried! LOL

There is just something about the color that I love! It is so natural and wintery!

OK ~~~~  GET OUT THERE AND STICK CLOVES IN SOMETHING!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

2013...REALLY????

I just can't believe that it is 2013!!!! 

How in the world did that happen!  Every new year I think that I am going to buckle down and get back to my real self:)  You know, lose weight, get organized!  I suppose I have forgotten what that is. Thank you menopause:)  So now I am looking for inspiration and trying to get the house organized! LOL I only want to needle punch, paint, xstitch....ANYTHING but organizing the house!!! 

Thanks to my friend Susan who gave me an old oar which I was able to use to organize the baskets!
Shhoooo that was hard work:0)  Glad that is done!!!

OK ~ good Work!  Now I can do just a little punching, after all that really needs to be finished! AND after all.......TOMMORRA IS ANOTHA DAY! 
  THANK YOU SCARLETT O'HARA

MOVED TO TEARS

How often are we actually  moved to tears?  Well I am a lot these days, but I blame that on hormones:) LOL

A simple kindness makes me teary eyed!  I had that wonderful experience just yesterday!!! 

SOOO here I am sick with a really bad cold, trying to get some decorating done.  I worked awhile, sat awhile, felt better, worked some more, but still didn't get that much done!!! All that time, I am listening to the Army Navy game, where my husband was and I was supposed to be but felt too bad to go!  In the distance I can hear cannon fire from the re-enactment of the Battle of Fredericksburg.  Those two sounds were so strange together.  I put the TV on mute and listened to the sounds of the civil war.  I was thinking that this is how it felt for the people in town that stayed in their homes during the war.  That must have been so scary to them especially since it is the beginning of the Christmas Season when they probably expected to hear Christmas Carols instead.  Since I was basically feeling sorry for myself, I kept saying to myself  "Self just think how lucky you are that you have never had to face such a horrible challenge such as a war practically in your own backyard.  You have NO RIGHT to be sad at all!!!  While I know that is true, I still felt a little sad, probably because I felt a lot sick too:)  It was late afternoon and I can hear the mailman coming, I looked outside and he was binging a box and the mail to the door.  Now I am thinking what in the world did I order that I forgot about.  I opened the door and we talked for a bit, then I went inside to go through the mail.  First I looked at the box, the return address was Pat Gaddy!!!  I was a little confused thinking that I KNOW if I had ordered from Pat and Don that there is NO WAY I would forget that!!!  SOOOOO I opened that box and in there was a beautiful painting!!  NOTHING could have better!!!

This is a very bad picture of me, but it shows the wonderful painting from Pat!!!
I am sure some of you have been to Pat and Don's site, Olde Bittersweet Farm on picturetrail, if you haven't you need to go right now:)
Pat and I love the works of Rufus Porter, a New England Artist from the 1800's.  Some of you might know his work too. This is a painting she did and sent it to me!  I just couldn't believe my eyes, especially since I had tears streaming down my poor wrinkled face :)  This is a true act of kindness!
I instantly felt better! and immediately looked around for the perfect place to hang it so that I can see it everyday!!!
This is where it ended up:

This is just above a pie safe in the tavern room and I can clearly see it!!  I will look at it every day and smile a big smile!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH PAT!!

I hope that someday I will be able to make someone else have a happy day like mine was.  I will think on it!

I will think of this as my own "Christmas Story" one of kindness and caring.

What is your story?  I hope it is wonderful!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR UN-FARMHOUSE TO YOUR HOME!!!

HELLO FALL!!!!

SOOOOO......  Even though I am a little late,   OK a LOT late  I am still very happy for Fall to finally arrive here in our little spot in VA.

I have been away in GA with my family!  It was soooo great!!  My Mom turned 80, I look closer to 80 than she does,  so we went to Baton Rouge to visit my mom's oldest friend Ella.  They are so cute, it was just as if they just had coffee under Ella's huge tree next door to my parents in Atlanta just yesterday!!!   We ate our brains out!! Ella is the BEST cajun cook in the world! :)  Also her wonderful son and daughters came with wonderful food, we hardly left the table.  I loved every minute of it!  

When we got back to my Mom's, it was time to work on my niece's wedding.  She worked on it for a whole year and it was sooo beautiful!! I got to help with the little final arrangements, tying bows on things and stuffing popcorn in bags and  little loose end things.  We had our nails done and laughed for at least 3 weeks worth! Shoo I had to come back to VA to get some rest.  I miss them so much, I tried to get all of them to move to VA with me, but no way that's happening LOL   I also had the chance to have lunch with about 16 of my high school friends, I haven't seen them in 43 years!  I enjoyed it so much!  I was never able to come to any class reunions. 

OH I DO GO ON!!!  

BUT seriously, friends are so important in our lives.  I don't have a friend like my Mom's Ella, but I do have lots of wonderful friends.  Some of them are "Cyber Friends",  like y'all !  Even though we live in a town with lots of history,  it seems there are just a few of us prim decorators left. Maybe Prim and History don't really go together. We do have lots of great antique stores so there are a few kindred spirits around.   I find myself shopping on ebay a lot, mostly to get a feel for prices and whats selling.  It is one way to do that without driving all over the place just looking :) Now I don't know about y'all, but when it comes to antiques I have ZERO self control!!  I bought a few things from an ebay seller, Lyn Kay Shoppe, that I loved!  She is the one that told be about picturetrail, check her site out at www.picturetrail.com/lynkayshoppe.  I fell in love with it!  I was so excited to see so many wonderful houses!  I started mine, www.picturetrail/tansyanniestudio, but my house is nothing compared to some of my "friends" houses!  Anyway to finally get to my point,  I have "met" sooooo many wonderful friends! People that I actually have things in common with and understand that wonderful feel of something very primitive and not perfect.   I look forward to checking on them almost everyday:)  The blogs are fun too.  It is if they are my next door neighbors!  Go to my "friends" album to see all of the wonderful homes!

I seem to have missed fall decorating, so I plan to jump right on over to Christmas! :0)

Here are a few pictures of my fast fall decorating:)  I LOVE real things from nature, especially things I can stick cloves into!  Look for the pear with cloves:)

 This adorable little treen plate is from Olde Bittersweet Farm.  It was made my Pat and Don Gaddy! Check them out on picturetrail!  They design and make wonderful things!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A DAY LATE

The Picture above was taken from the financial district in NYC near the site of where the towers once stood.

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I have had a hard time with blogger lately!  Also finding the time to settle down enough to write

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Here I am, a whole day late!  

I thought I would share my "9-11" story.  I know that we all remember exactly where we were on that sad, sad day.

So my 9-11 story actually started the weekend before.  You see, I went to an antique store that weekend!  It is located about an hour and  a half from home.  There was an adorable print that I really wanted, but I was trying to be oh so practical!  SOOOOO I decided that I really didn't need it.  I went home and that print just kept nagging me! Does that ever happen to you?   I decided that I would just HAVE to go get it!!!  So on Tuesday it was a beautiful clear and cool day!  The first cool day in a long time!  I said to myself..... Self go on down and get that print!:)

I started out early that day, about 8:15.  I was rolling down the road, windows open, enjoying the wonderful cool weather, in the anticipation about whether the print was still there or not, singing to my favorite country music station.  There was an interruption by the DJ that said a plane had just hit one of the towers.  As a flight attendant, I flew through there a lot.  I thought  OH NO!! It is a wonder that hasn't happened before, thinking that it was probably a small plane with a disoriented pilot.   I  listened to hear more.  I was about 15 minutes from the Antique Store when the DJ said that another plane hit the other tower!!!!  I was stunned!!   My first thought was WE are at WAR!!!!   When I got to the store it was just opening and mostly empty.  I heard their radio say that a plane hit the Pentagon! All I could think was to get home as fast and I could!  I did decide to run find the print that I came so far to get!  (was that wrong? I felt guilty for doing something fun at such a horrible time) Anyway I left the store and  my fear turned to anger!!!  I walked into the house and immediately put out every American Flag we had!!!  I know that others felt the same because soon almost all the houses in the neighborhood had their flags flying!!

I came back into the house just as the phone rang, it was my Husband in Hawaii.  He was still an active duty Marine at that time.   He didn't know what had happened, I told him and he turned on his TV and said "I gotta go!! Love you!

As it turned out, originally he was to be at the Pentagon that day but the trip to Hawaii came up so he sent a staff  from his office, some civilians and some military to attend the meeting that was  planned.  Now Husband George decided to go to GA to visit his Mom and fly out to Hawaii from Atlanta!  If he had flown out of DC he would have been on the flight that hit the pentagon!  He flew on that flight often.

His staff at the Pentagon were all safe as the meeting was at the opposite end from the crash, thank goodness!  I have never experienced such a feeling.  The trains that we usually hear were quite.  My Husband was stuck in Hawaii and our daughter was at school under a lock down (she teaches music).

  Everything was eerily quite, even the phone didn't ring, no one could get through.  That night thankfully our daughter got home and I was able to get in touch with the other kids.  All we could hear was the sound of helicopters flying to DC from nearby Military Bases!  It sounded like the soundtrack for an episode of MASH!!

 Such a sad scary time.

When I finally unwrapped the print a few days later it said "Innocence" on the bottom!  I wondered if there would ever be innocence in the world again.  I look at that print every day and remember.

This is the print.

 

As I write this today I am watching CNN hearing about the horrible attack on our Embassy in Libya.  I am more interested than ever since our son left yesterday for the middle east with a 50 man unit, on their way to a Navy base.  They are a team of Marines that are "first responders" to help secure areas such as that Embassy.  We don't know if he will be sent there or not.

Please pray for all of our service members and for our country!