Happy Leap Day!

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates Gioachino Rossini, great Italian composer born on leap day 1792. Rossini died in 1868, which made him 18 at the time of his death. Question my math?

I just found out in a discussion with my trivia man husband that the leap day is skipped in 3 of every four century years. There was a leap day in 2000, but not in 1700, 1800 or 1900. Which means Rossini’s second birthday was skipped. Since there was no leap day in 1900 either, he’d be 53 today.

I read in Canada’s National Post, “It takes the Earth about 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds to orbit the sun, so (almost) every four years, a day is added to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons. Occasionally, the calendar will leap the leap day to adjust for the fact that the extra time isn’t exactly six hours per year. ” The link will take you to the page. It has some interesting facts and a couple points of giggles. I think it’s pretty cool!

I still have a little bit of a froggy throat…but my silly punny self is feeling a little better today! After a good night’s rest I woke up a little better, but I’m still a tad congested and a dull pain in my throat. And it’s been raining, like crazy! Gotta love this insane winter!

I have a White Tornado board on Pinterest. I pin everything I want to purchase or make as part of the White Tornado project. It’s more productive than adding more bracelets to the “My Style” board…although I still do a lot of that too. Club Pandora re-obsesses me every month. I want wallpaper for my desktop that’s a mound of decadent chocolate with a green, gold and silver Pandora bracelet draped over it. Ahhh….

But I digress; this isn’t about chocolate or Pandora. I was talking about White Tornado, organizing and accessiblizing! My mission last night was locating salad plates that go with my Corelle set. I love my dishes! They are plain smooth beige Corelle.

I have the salt and pepper shaker, gravy boat and cream pitcher and sugar bowl that match the beige. The accents are in the Forever Yours pattern

I have the tea kettle, crock pot, oven bowls and a few other accent pieces in that pattern. The description says the hearts are pink, but it’s a very peachy pink that matches my peach and light sage green kitchen theme well! So I thought maybe if I can’t find the plain beige salad plates, I’d get the beige-based plates in the Forever Yours pattern, which I did find...for $10 each. I kinda wish I’d kept Grandma’s salad plates. They were plain white and matched her brown-trimmed white Corelle.  I could have lived with plain white to have the right size plates. I just never got the salad plates 20-some years ago when I bought the dishes and the plain beige was readily available. I have a search out for the plain beige ones with a replacement/search company online, but I might do some inspecting to see if I can culminate the money for the Forever Yours salad plates and be done with it.

When the dream kitchen becomes a real kitchen, the salad plates will match great, and in the meantime, they’re in the cupboard when not in use anyway.


I have several things on my undecorated plate today, so before I go, let’s check out the Wednesday Hodge Podge hosted by Joyce at From This Side of the Pond.

1. The Hodgepodge falls on the last day of February this year, a leap year. How will you spend that extra day?

I don’t know that it’s any different. I’m going to scrap a few pages, get through at least two more boxes in the future woman-cave and drink lots of tea to try to get my throat back to normal!




2. What has recently required a leap of faith on your part?

Starting my MS meds. The one I take has a reduced heart rate, kidney infections and optical damage as possible side effects. I was thoroughly tested before I was prescribed the drug, but it was still scary. I’m glad I did it. I feel a lot better now and no side effects that I can feel.



3. We're one week into the season of Lent...are you marking these 40 days in some way? Giving something up or adding something extra to normal life? How's it going so far?

Lent is supposed to be a time of sacrifice and I kinda lost my desire to really discuss it when I realized how much was spent on fish dinners on Fridays in the name of religious observation. The idea of Lent was created to encourage the wealthier to sacrifice their expensive meat habits and eat fish and support the poorer fishermen. In the true spirit of lent, give or volunteer to the less fortunate and pass on the lobster. Have a hamburger on Friday and support the minimum wage workers at McDonald’s.



4. When was the last time you sat beside a fire?

Assuming that my Christmas Video Fireplace doesn’t count, probably the fireplace at home in Michigan before I moved. That’s been over 5 years ago now.




5. Surf and Turf is on the menu. Do you order as is or do you ask for just the surf (lobster), just the turf (steak), or a menu so you can select another option?

Lobster is fine, just anything that doesn't taste like steak!



6. If you could have any television program back, not in reruns but in new episodes, what program would you choose?


Cold Squad, Canadian cold case program I watched on Sleuth.


7. They say an elephant never forgets. These days would you say your memory is more like an elephant or a gnat?

Oh, I have a decent memory, more like an elephant for sure.



8. Insert your own random thought here.

I think today the next White Tornado boxes are mine! Progress!!

Hey, Where’d The Sun Go?

I did a few things today, but I mostly rested and drank lots of fluids. But the sore throat and stuffiness still lingers. I have a cup of Gypsy Cold Care tea. It tastes good and it’s very soothing. I crawled up on the bed with a blanket and tread for a while after I showered this morning. I read a few blogs, did a scrapbook page and recently fed the kitty kids. I feel like a bum because I really had planned on doing more White Tornado upstairs today. Bleh.

Is this a rare glimpse into my dark side? Well, grouchy me mutters to the surface when I’m not feeling well. I won’t say “sick,” not yet. I need to keep drinking tea and broth. I’m out of coke, which is my usual throat remedy when it’s cold or allergies. I use regular coke and heat a cup in the microwave for 60 seconds. I know that sounds weird, but it works for me, the sweet warm and a massaging tickle of warm bubbles feels great. In a bit I’m going to see if the remedy works the same with Diet Coke with Splenda. I’m not big on WW medicinal points. David’s bringing me home comfort pretzels. That will work better for me!

My pamper-my-stuffy-self day made me late for Tell Me Tuesday! But it’s still Tuesday, even if it’s already dark!

So here is the prompt for today:

What three words would you use to describe the last three months of your life?

At the end of the next three months, what three words do you hope to be able to use to describe your life at that point?

I’ve been taking the wonderful medication that’s made me feel like my old self for three months now, so my there words would be vibrant, ambitious and relieved.

Had you asked me that same question 3 months ago, it would have been fatigued, frustrated and scared.

Three months from now, in May, when I’ll be making purchases and having furniture assembled.  I want to be happy, industrious and satisfied in a better organized and more accessible home!

I can’t encourage enough to come join us for Tell Me Tuesday hosted by Suzanne at The Coloradolady! It’s thought-provoking and may just introduce you to a part of yourself you haven’t really gotten to know!

Internet is a must have for a small biz

Thanks to Lemuel Craft

When I think about how new the internet is it kind of freaks me out just a little bit. I can remember back when I was a kid my family had an IBM PS1 computer at the desk in our kitchen. Windows wasn’t even a huge thing back then and if you wanted to run a program there was always a c:/ involved. We had something on the computer called Prodigy, which was a very early version of the internet. Then of course came America Online, which revolutionized how Americans used the internet. Now days everyone has internet with the at all times on their smart phones. When you think back to the days before having access to the internet it is hard to imagine how we did anything. How did we get directions to somewhere we had never been? How did we keep track of credit transactions at our businesses? How did we look up the greatest restaurant in the area? Now no business can survive without the internet. If you are a small business owner in the market for T1 connection check out t1.xo.com.

Googrrrrr

Happy Tuesday everyone! To be honest, today is a day I NEEDED to have my morning coffee in my Good Morning mug to remind me!

Okay, it’s not really so bad, I just woke up stuffy and with a tiny bit sore throat. And then Google, Oh Google!

Blogger, BlogSpot, is a Google property. Yes, the people who thought it would be a good idea to put all of my actual files for my photos for everything Google on the brand new addition to their family so that if you cleared things to unclutter the brand new community, you killed all the images in your blog and that’s why I’m still missing a year’s worth of images, is responsible for all the blunders in the world of BlogSpot too.

Let’s start with what it doesn’t do. I am currently migrating away from Google Friend Connect. We all know by now that after tomorrow, GFC will no longer be available to non-Blogger readers, who do follow Blogger blogs. That means those readers have lost the reader they’ve been using and it means that those of us who blog at BlogSpot are potentially losing followers too. I have 74 followers. I have no idea how many will be left on Thursday morning. Thanks, Google!

What makes me nuts is I don’t know for how much longer we’ll have Google Friend Connect as part of our blogging dashboard for the BlogSpot blogs either. And does it really matter? For 2 blogs in particular that I follow, I find out they are posting after I get concerned that they haven’t posted in a while. I just don’t know it because GFC has AGAIN mysteriously deleted them from my blog list. Infuriating.

I’ve done some looking around. I did sign up for Linky followers. You can see that list in the right column. I look at it as a new mug rack for my Information Superhighway coffee shop. The biggest problem I have with Linky as a reader, is it’s so new and not really funded that it doesn’t auto update. If I don’t go to my Linky account and enter in a new post every time I post, followers aren’t alerted. I post once, sometimes twice, a day during the week as well as the White Tornado project and the big scrapbooking project with deadlines looming. Posting that I blogged to Linky every time I post means a blog or two won’t be read or commented on by me. I’m often catching up a day or two as is because of my full days right now. So, if you follow The Chronicles of Nani with the Linky Reader, I will try to update to the most current post when I can, but if it’s been more than 2 days since I posted according to Linky, try me again. There’s probably something new!

As for a blog reader for me, I’m using Bloglines. The biggest pain is that I have to migrate all the blogs I read one at a time, but it’s a quick process to add. If you want to try Bloglines, it’s free to sign up. I use the extension for Firefox which enables me to one click add to my reader. It all takes some figuring out, but once you get the initial set up done, it’s very user friendly, updates automatically and thus far, hasn’t deleted any of the blogs I follow from my reader list. I can read the blog entries from my reader, or click the title to go to the blog itself so I can leave comments. I set this up and use it for free. So far I like it a lot.

Next point of Googrrrr is Capcha. Oh, I hated the type in an incoherent mumbo jumbo of letters to verify your comment before, which is why readers have NEVER had to do that to leave a comment here. I’m not the world’s greatest typist, okay I’m not much of a typist at all, letters that don’t naturally go together in English, or at least French or Italian, mess with my head and that messes with my typing hands. I have to stop and type one letter at a time. Yeesh! Now Google has changed all that. Instead of one group of unrelated gibberish, we get TWO! One may or may not be a word and the other is all warped against a background that makes it unreadable. I know there has been uproar about it. The kicker; if you didn’t have those silly characters turned off in the old dashboard interface, there is no button to opt out of using them that I could find in the new one. Kelly sent me an email asking for help because when she changed layout templates on her blog, Coffee Cup Crafts and Christianity, it automatically gave her the Capcha “protection.” It’s protection from people leaving comments because they get so frustrated with the little game to leave a comment that they don’t.

A few thoughts and tips on the Capcha gibberish. First, the only way I found to get rid of it on the new interface is switch back to the old interface, click the gear in the upper right of the dashboard and select “Old Blogger Interface.” Then click settings and the comments tab. Click “no” for comment verification, then save settings at the bottom. Then return to the dashboard and click “try new Blogger Interface.” If anyone knows how to turn Capcha off in the new Blogger Interface, please leave a comment. You won’t have to type in gibberish to do so.

Google’s filter for spam/bot messages in comments is good. I get very few spam comments because I approve of all my comments before I post them. Originally that was so I could be sure there were no comments on sponsored posts that bash my sponsors or use the post as a free space to advertise a competing product. As I’ve said before, I’ll post anything that respectfully disagrees with ME, but if you’re “dissing” my sponsors, you’re threatening my coffee!  But when I have things in my spam folder, I go in and check them and they're usually right about me not wanting it on my blog.

When choosing between Capcha garbage, approving all comments or taking a chance that the spam filter is working, I will offer this one thing; Capcha doesn’t work. I know I don’t type well. There are plenty of times that I have to retype the password to start my own computer. So I started wondering why I so seldom had to retype the Capcha codes. I’m bent over with my nose in the screen trying to discern what a letter in black on a scratchy black background is and I’m always right! Humph. I tried typing in a few letters that I was sure of wrong, simple “errors” like hitting a g when I knew the letter was h. The comment still posted! I tried it another time using three errors. The comment still posted. I tried making 3 or 4 errors with letter that were nowhere near the correct ones. It still posts. I finally had to retype when I hit all wrong keys, but the right number of characters. That didn’t work. So, I will offer that as irritating as Capcha is, don’t stress; you only have to kinda be right. It does make Capcha look like a bit of a FAIL though, doesn’t it?

I know a lot of people have vowed to not leave a comment when they have to enter a Capcha code. I don’t blame them. It goes back to the limited blog reading and commenting time and the extra time deciphering the code could be spent reading another blog and commenting without the code. I’ll still leave comments with a Capcha code now that I know what a joke it is for blog “security” of any kind. I’m just sure glad my bank’s website is pickier about security.

---PHEW---

Boy I feel a lot better now! Oh, I still have the stuffies and a mildly sore throat, but stabbing Google with a cyber-pitchfork helped.

Barn Charm

If you’re only here to see the barn, thanks for stopping by, but I do hope you’ll consider reading the Capcha rant and suggestions. I know a lot of the barns I visit have the Capcha codes to leave a comment and like I said, I know a lot of people who won’t leave a comment if they have to enter codes to do it.

Isn’t this barn a beauty? It’s in Ottawa County, Ohio, near the Ottawa County Bicentennial barn on State Route 2. I love the rich colors! It looks so dressed up!


See more barns at Tricia’s Barn Charm at Bluff Area Daily.

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Monday Mug Shot

 Toledo Walleye Hockey

 
This was actually one of my Christmas gifts last year. David thought I needed a Walleye mug to support our minor league hockey t3eam in Toledo to go with my Mud Hens mug. It made good sense to support both our minor league baseball team and hockey team, but there was one little oddity. I’ve seen the Hens play baseball more times than I can fount at both the old and new stadium. I’d seen the Toledo hockey team once at home in the old arena and once on the road in Dayton. They were the Storm then. I’d never seen the Walleye play!

That was until yesterday (Sunday February 26.) I’d gotten an email from the Northwestern Ohio Chapter of the National MS Society offering a free ticket to me and $5 tickets for my immediate family members to the Toledo Walleye game on February 26, the MS Awareness game. The event included t-shirts, luncheon and a raffle ticket for a gift card to the team shop. We didn’t win the raffle, which is okay because I already had the mug


During lunch the kids, all right and the adults too, were entertained by a slew of mascots from the “Mascot Mania” festivities. Spike, the Walleye mascot, made an appearance at the end of lunch, just before he left to put his skates on for the game. Paws, the Detroit Tigers’ mascot was there, as were the Mud Hens’ mascots, Muddy and Muddonna. Clementine, The News Hound, from our local newspaper, The Toledo Blade, was also in mascot attendance as well as favorite Toledoan "zooperstars," Jamie Farrmadillo, Jim Flealand and Kitty Holmes. It was a pretty cool event.

After lunch we went up the elevator to the main floor and fo8und our seats. I break here to say that, as a person of wheels, I LOVE new arenas with family/accessible rest rooms! I think of places where the handicap stalls really don’t have room for a wheelchair and a person in them and I just love those rooms where you wheel in, have room to turn around and lock the door and maneuver however you need to use the facilities. The diaper changing table is on a wall with enough room for a Mom or Dad to change a diaper without being pressed up against the opposite wall and to safely have an older brother or sister in the room instead of outside the stall. And if you leave the changing table down, it doesn’t decapitate the next person using a wheelchair when they come in. Yay Huntington Center and all the awesome new arenas! They have family restrooms at all the newer ball parks I’ve been to as well!

Back to our seat…

The NMSS group took up a full section, including the top wheelchair row. Sadly, I’m not the only one with MS who uses wheels at events. I did feel bad for David, though. I was the only one in a manual chair. David pushes so I can save my arms for things like the bathroom! But a power chair or scooter, in addition to being very expensive, also takes refitting one vehicle or another to transport it; another expense. Even from the top row, we had a great view.

The game started with the announcing of the starting lineup. Spike skated trough the mouth of a giant inflatable walleye head with a walleye flag. Then the members of the staring lineup came through as they were announced followed by the charge of the rest of the team. After the inflatable walleye was taken off the ice and the national anthem was sung, play began.

Then play stopped. The firs6t “fight” happened seconds into the game. I’m not a big hockey fan because of the “fighting.” I was a professional wrestling fan. That’s where you go if you’re hockey skills are lacking, but you handle the fight scripts well. I saw a few real fights when I was a kid. At least they seemed real to me then, nowhere near as fake as hockey fighting is now. I watched two guys hug each other and take pansy-punches at each other’s shoulders, trying to make it look like a hit in the head, but they missed by a Hulk Hogan’s rookie year mile. Maybe it’s the other way around. If you can’t cut it in professional wrestling, you learn how to skate.

I know, I know, a lot of people go to see the “fights.” I played hockey as a kid. I want to see a well-played game. The saddest thing is, when they weren’t fighting, there was some skill. The unfortunate part of that was it was mostly Cincinnati Cyclones really showing off hockey skills. That’s not to say that there weren’t some pretty Walleye plays, but the Cyclones’ passing game is pretty! The third period seemed to go so fast! The Walleye carried a 5-1 lead into the last period and barely escaped with a 5-4 win! But they did win after a few games losing streak, it was nice to be there for that.

So that was my first Walleye game. It was a fun event and I’ll no doubt go again, but not likely until after I’ve been to a countless few Mud Hens games first.

Monday Already?

It seemed like a short weekend, even though I took both Saturday and Sunday off of the White Tornado, so it really wasn’t sort. Maybe it just seems short because I’m short on David time. He’s got a model railroad session next weekend, so he switched around some days and has a three day weekend coming. That means yesterday was his weekend for last week! I’m getting back to work today too.

While I’m finishing up my coffee, I’ll get this week’s Meet Me On Monday posted. The Mug Shot will be during afternoon break!

1. What was the first live concert you ever attended?
2. What colors look best on you?
3. What is one thing about you that most people wouldn't know?
4. Who would you call to be bailed out of jail?
5. What do you think is the greatest invention of your lifetime and why?



1. What was the first live concert you ever attended?

Kiss and Cheap Trick at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan. July 13, 1979




2. What colors look best on you?

I hope green. I have a ton of green blouses and sweaters. I know it makes my green eyes just glow when I wear green or blue.



3. What is one thing about you that most people wouldn't know?

I’m a pretty open book, there’s not much that’s “secret.” Like any optimist, sad moods are rare, but when I do feel depressed, it’s REALLY depressed.


4. Who would you call to be bailed out of jail?

Depends what I was in for! :) Probably David, but then I’d have some ‘splaining to do!
.


5. What do you think is the greatest invention of your lifetime and why?

Personal computer, yes way greater than smart phones, because no one has ever gotten distracted and killed someone trying drive while blogging on their PC.

Sentimental Saturday

Me and Mom 1999

Yesterday was another productive, although tiring afternoon/evening in the White Tornado world. I got another chunk sorted and cleared in the future woman cave that turned up some wonderful things. I went through a grandma box and a Mums box.

Before I go further, I want to clear up a source of confusion. I realize that what’s simple for me can be very messy to try to read and I’m sorry. But don’t we all do that from time to time? Things that have just “always been” don’t seem to need clarification. My brain says if I made a distinction once, it’s already overkill. That would be true if I was writing in my private journal and didn’t expect anyone to ever read it. Even my private journals I do want read after I’m gone. They are all my secrets that might make insightful, helpful or entertaining reading 60 years or so from now by my nieces, grand nieces and nephews, and greats and so on.

Grandma, Mums and Mom 1945

Anyway, the distinction issue. The other day when I mentioned women in my blog who were here before me, I spoke of “Mom.” “Grandma,” “Mums” and “Grammy.” Those are four different women. It gets more confusing because if I talk about Tori and Rina the names are different for each one. SO the round up goes like this:

I am Nani, nicknamed that by my mother and in 1994 it was intended that I’d be “Aunt Nani” to my nieces. Well, they never called me Aunt Nani, I am Nana, pronounced /NAH-nah/. They are 17 now and I’m still Nana, so I don’t think that’s changing.

When I speak of “Mom” on my blog, I speak of my mother, Janet. Truth there is I didn’t call her “Mom,” I called her “Fluff” pronounced /Floof/. That was a private nickname and to my friends and other family members I still referred to her as Mom. To the Niecii, she was “Grams”

My first communion with Noni and Grandma 1973

Now is where it starts to get a little more complicated. Being the oldest is so cool because you get to name everyone. I had very distinct differences in the names so I could keep them sorted out when I was very young. My grandmother, Wonda, was “Grandma.” She got to keep the American English Grandma because my paternal grandmother, Rosa, was Noni. Oldest grandkid, I got to choose to call my nonna, Noni and all of my cousins followed suit. The girls never got to meet Noni, so they know her as “Noni” or “Dad and Nana’s Noni” Grandma to them was “Grammy.”

Grandma and Tori 2005

Grandma with Rina 2007

We’ll skip a generation for a moment. This is a huge source of confusion. My nieces and I share a wonderful treasure in that we all knew our great and great-great grandmothers long enough to remember them! They called their great-grandmother, Wonda, “Grammy.” I called my great-great-grandmother, also Wonda, also “Grammy,” and their great-great grandmother, Opal, “Great-Grammy.”

I actually have just one vivid memory of Grammy whom I didn’t see very often, but I did a few times. She passed when I was 9. I have lots of pictures and things she wrote on, touched and some of her quilts, but the memory I hold is just a simple saying hello when I was about 5 or 6. It’s just at a family gathering, I made a point of finding her to say hello. I just remember saying “Hello Grammy!” and she said “Hello Honey,” with a smile. We hugged and kissed and that’s the memory. Small, but special because I don’t remember anything else from that family gathering except that it was summer and outdoors at a relative’s home in the country.

Mums and Grandma 2000

Back to the original timeline. My great-grandmother, Opal, was “Mums.” She’d originally been “Mom-mom.” which is what my mother called her, but I eventually shortened it to Mums. I was very close to my great-grandmother. I remember spending the day with her from time to time when I was little. We lived about an hour apart then, so it was a big, just us, holiday for me. When we were building our house that was just a mile away from her we lived with her for a year and we shared a room. Mums snored, shake the rafters loud. I think that’s why I don’t even notice when David snores; it’s actually a comforting sound to me. Once I started driving, I never missed a Tuesday coffee at her house. I was in my 20s, she in her 80s, the first time I heard her say, “Sometimes I feel a little old.” She also told me, “But a spoon of ice cream makes that go away!”

Some of the real treasures I found in the box from Mums’ things that I went through yesterday include a diary that starts on January 1, 1944, which is the year my grandparents eloped. There are lots of very old photos. Three identical photos of a baby in an old brown cardboard fold over frame. There’s nothing written on any of those, but I have a hunch it might be Donald, the older brother Grandma never met because he died from pneumonia before she was born. I think that’s part of why Mums and I became so close. I was hospitalized with pneumonia when I was 2. Mom had told me that Mums was terrified when I got sick and the happiest of the whole family when I came home.

Here is one of the wonderful treasures:

Mums 5 years old

This says “Opal, taken 1912” on the back. She turned 6 in December of that year. What really struck me was that if I’d dressed Rina up and taken her picture in black and white when she was 5, it’d look like they were sisters. Mums is definitely where the eyes come from, those sultry eyes that Grandma had, I have and Rina has. But Grandma and Rina work them, without trying. I’ve got the same eyes, but I’ve never been sexy. All the older pictures of Mums, they’re just pretty eyes, not sexy. Grandma and Rina got the tools and the natural talent. Mums and I appear to have gotten gypped in the sex appeal department. Oh well. Who needs sexy? There’s still ice cream!

On the top of the box were some more current photos. I recognized those as the ones Mums kept on her buffet. She kept every post card I sent her when I travelled, and if I went to the zoo, I sent a post card, and some photos. She used to show off the picture of the production truck I drove for sports and the George Bush presidential rally photo from 1992 to friends and family when they visited. She kept this picture on the buffet too:

Me and Mums 1985

That’s us on New Year’s Day 1985. I kept the same photo framed in my living room. Her buffet is now my buffet and if you visited that same table we used to sit at for our Tuesday coffee, you’d see Tori and Rina’s senior pictures displayed. The buffest still boasts about the women of the current generation.

So that’s the nomenclature of the women in my family you hear me speak of from time to time, especially if I’m talking about my vintage treasures or the origination of some of my quirks.

Five Question Yesterday

I read Five Question Friday, hosted by Mama M at My Little Life, on several blogs yesterday and the questions this week are very cool! Since the Linky stays up for the weekend, I thought I’d give it a whirl. This could be a meme I start adding on Saturdays when I’m home. We’ll see!





1. What's your favorite way to spend down time (alone or with a significant other)?

Down time? hehe… Okay, since I do need break time when I’m physically working on something, we’ll call break-time, or break days sometimes, my down-time.

Alone time, I read or scrapbook. I don’t think of meditation and reflection as down time because that’s something I make a point of having time for.

With significant others, like my husband, nieces and friends, it’d be a movie with David or coffee/dessert. David and I have plenty of talk-time and we do talk about things that aren’t household/relationship things. With Rina and Tori and with my close friends, male and female, coffee is all about communication, keeping our relationships strong by keeping our souls bared to each other. And yes, that’s something that is scheduled from time to time too, but it’s scheduled to make sure there’s a break from “priorities.”


2. Are you the kind of person that wants things more as soon as you know you can't have it? 

 I don’t think so. There are things that I really want that I never was able to have, yet. I call those dreams or goals. But if you mean did I “wanted him as soon as he was engaged,” or something like that, no. There’s never been anything I didn’t get or take that I’ve regretted for more than a day.


3. If you were given $1000 to spend on yourself, what would you buy?

Everything on my IKEA and Amazon wish lists to move the White Tornado up about 2 months!


4. Do you ever go out to eat by yourself?

When I travel alone it’s stop at a restaurant or eat fast food behind the wheel and get no break from the road. Besides, I like having some me time where I have no distractions and can enjoy a meal, read and relax with nothing to clean up afterwards! When I went to physical therapy sessions, Cracker Barrel was right across the parking lot and I stopped for lunch after therapy once a week as a treat to myself.

I may not as much now because eating out entails using the wheelchair and I need help with that. I can take the chair out of my backseat, but after wheeling myself in, having lunch and wheeling back out, I need help to put it back in. But I suppose in the summer as long as the weather is decent, I might stop at Cracker Barrel in the afternoon, when it’s not so busy, with the walker. Putting the walker back in the car is easier. We’ll see.


5. What company would you want to do a blog review for?

Assuming there is free product for doing the review, I think IKEA. If I don’t get that $1000, I wouldn’t mind that chunk of my planned spending taken care of for me!

Follow Friday Four Fill-Ins

Every Friday Hilary at Feeling Beachie hosts the Follow Friday Four Fill-Ins.  It’s a quick and fun meme to challenge your thoughts to squeeze into the spaces of the week’s statements and compare them with other who often have a very different view of what fits!

This week’s statements:


1.       I never ___ on a ____
2.       ___ is my favorite holiday
3.       I think my ___ is/are ___.
4.       When there is a ___ I ___.

1.       I never substitute the healthier alternatives on a holiday recipe.  Christmas cookies and cakes are meant to have real butter and cream in them.

2.       Opening Day is my favorite holiday.  Really, it’s whichever holiday that I really celebrate is next.  (Opening Day, David’s Birthday, My Birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Our Anniversary, Christmas, Valentine’s Day)

3.       I think my face is not aged enough for my gray hair yet.

4.       When there is a snow day I want to hibernate!

Come on over the Feeling Beachie and see whose brain yours matches or not!

Treasured Re-Find

1956 May Birthday Angel Bell

NAPCO S1307E

This was from my great-grandmother’s home. I liked it for several reasons. First, her dress is peach and I could just imagine seeing her on a trinket shelf in my dream kitchen. Second, it’s dated 1956 and definitely has the look of that time and it whispered to my love of household vintage things. Third, and this was a biggie, it wasn’t Mums’ taste. She like the modern look and had a lot of oriental-influenced knick-knacks. Also, her birthday was in December and this is a May figurine. I love a good mystery.

This re-find is part of the good of the White Tornado project. She was wrapped up in my boxes from Michigan. As the White Tornado is officially in the future woman cave now, there are boxes from Grandma, which include boxes from Mums that Grandma didn’t go through, and boxes of my own. I had the little bell from Mums’ house that I planned to research and get the story, or as much as I can, about how it was that this girl was in my great-grandmother’s house and then promise her a decorative home in my living room in Michigan to eventually be a sweet decor piece in the dream kitchen. She lived on a shelf in my Michigan living room for 4 years and was carefully wrapped and packed up to come with me when I moved to Toledo. Well, she lived the next 5 years carefully wrapped in that box in the storage area of our home!

You can see where the wings were connected.

She is a 1956 angel bell made by NAPCO, the National Potteries Corporation. The wings are no longer there, they must have broken off sometime between 1956 and 1992 because I never saw her with wings. NAPCO began production of glass and ceramic collectibles in 1938 and was at its peak popularity in the 50s and 60s.

My May girl has the appropriate transfer mark to be a real NAPCO piece, so she is the “real deal.” NAPCO was based in Cleveland and the products were made in Japan. Now it starts to sound like a piece Mums would have bought, except that the old fashioned girl in the frilly dress just didn’t seem like Mums. Had it been a slender Japanese woman in a kimono holding an exotic flower, I never would have questioned it being in my great grandmother’s house. I had to put together the last piece of the puzzle.

That last piece wasn’t difficult. In the maternal side of the family, the custom is that when going through an estate, items that were gifts are first offered to the person who gave them. I own things that aren’t so much my taste the same way. I have a Virgin Mary night light because I asked for it from Noni’s house. I’d given it to her as a Christmas present years before. On Mom’s side of the family, you don’t have to ask, it’s automatically offered. It represents a connection between you and the person who passed. As I said, the NAPCO brand was Mums’ taste, but not the figurine and there was still the December birthday and a May bell. Her mother was born May 9, 1885. It was a gift that Mums gave Grammy and when Grammy passed in 1975, it was offered back to her.

I’ll call my wingless angel Wonda, that’s my great-great-grandmother’s name. Grandma, also Wonda, with an o not an a, was named after her. Now that I traced the puzzle back and have a reasonable history for her, Wonda is an even more meaningful piece of my family history!

See more treasures and mysteries solved at Vintage Thingie Thursday at The Coloradolady!

Photoblog Wednesday

First Crocus Buds

February 18, 2012

Maybe the Groundhog was right about "early spring"after all?

Wednesday Hodge Podge

Welcome to Wednesday. I’m joining Joyce from From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodge Podge again!

1.February 22nd is National Be Humble Day...what makes you proud? What keeps you humble?

I think my scrapbooking makes me proud. It’s not just that as the years have passed since I started digital scrapbooking I’ve gotten better at it, but it's me, the things I’ve done, my people and the silly things I scrap that make me happy, proud of all that I’ve accomplished and earned in my life.

No question that MS humbles me. I’ve had to earn to do many things differently, most significantly, I’ve learned how to ask for help and accept it graciously.


2. Where is the catch-all (aka dumping ground) in your house?

Um, kinda embarrassed, but the purpose of The White Tornado project is because the answer to that question has been “yes” for too long.


3. Do you make it a point to visit State/National Parks when you travel or even in your own hometown? What's your favorite?

When I lived in Michigan I was just a couple miles away from Maybury State Park and I was there about 4 or 5 days a week average. They had wonderful and peaceful walking paths, paved and rugged. I walked every day, at least a mile. I knew those woods well! In the winter I used my stationary bike for exercise, but it was nothing like the mental break of a walk in the park.

Grandma and I went to Tawas Point State Park for a picnic at least once every time when I visited her, except in the winter.


4. How would you define honor?

Honor is respect, dignity. You honor people by giving it and when you receive it, you’ve earned honor.


5. Angel's food or Devil's food-which cake do you prefer?

Where’s the chocolate in Angel Food cake? Paraphrasing Billy Joel, “I’d rather dine with the sinners than diet with the saints.”


6. What's the most recent road trip you've taken? Where did you go and how many hours did you spend in the car? Do you like to zoom to your destination without stopping or leisurely wind your way there with stops along the way? What is your car snack of choice?

Connecticut for Christmas with David’s family. He estimates that it’s about 10 hours each way. We meander, big time! We stop to photograph trains, barns and other things that strike our fancy. My car snack of choice is pretzels.


7. Recent headlines told how a preschool child in NC had their packed lunch from home taken away and a school lunch substituted by a school inspector who deemed the homemade lunch unhealthy. Reportedly the parent was then billed for the school lunch (chicken nugget meal) although an update to the story says the parent was not billed. The inspector was conducting a routine inspection of the classroom-he/she was not there solely to peek in the lunchboxes. The packed lunch contained a turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple juice box, a bag of chips, and a banana. You can read the story here. Your thoughts?

From the story:

“The state guidelines require that one serving of meat, one serving of grains, one serving of dairy, and two servings of fruits or vegetables are provided with each meal.”

“children who ate in the cafeteria on Wednesday were served a lunch that consisted of fish sticks, corn, peaches, potatoes, and a small carton of milk.”

“(the) girl’s lunch — which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips — ‘did not meet USDA guidelines.’”

Mom’s lunch:
turkey & cheese sandwich – protein, dairy, carbohydrate (grains? it didn’t say what kind of bread)
banana – fruit
apple juice box – fruit or at least a percentage of fruit (many juice boxes aren’t 100% juice)
potato chips – a treat which in moderation (like one lunch sized bag or chips) is fine

The school lunch on Wednesday:
Fish sticks - protein under breading and fat
corn – carbohydrate (NOT a vegetable or whole grain)
peaches – fruit
potatoes – carbohydrate (NOT a vegetable or whole grain)
milk – dairy

Aside from a recipe for forming habits that can result in obesity and diabetes, the state is lacking in a fruit or vegetable. The peaches are probably canned in syrup too.


Conclusion – the girl’s mother should be teaching the school board some classes about nutrition.

I would be livid if it was my kid, especially since all she ate was 3 fried chicken nuggets instead of the healthier lunch I packed her. If the school boards and government are going to raise our kids for us, they damn well better first prove they are capable. This North Carolina school - FAIL!


8. Insert your own random thought here.

It was snowing this morning. I asked David to pull the shade on the front window. What I don’t see doesn’t hurt me, right?

Everything

I’m posting later than usual today, so that means all of my Tuesday stuff gets to share a blog entry!

I have started going through boxes and piles in what will be the woman cave today. The woman cave will be in the room that used to be “the office” when David and I were both on the older desktop computers. David’s actual desk is in the basement. It needed brought upstairs, but it was not a job he could do on his own, so his “desk” was the door to the room on top of two stacks of totes he had old clothes in. When I first moved in, my Mac and I were in the corner next to the door-desk on my card table. Later my desk moved in when my furniture was moved from Michigan. It was cozy, but it worked.

What made it cozier was that my banker boxes, all of my office and craft supplies from Michigan, lined the wall opposite the door-knob desk waiting for shelving units to be assembled. I bought 2 shelving units to start. One I assembled and put in the “train room,” which was the guest room, but all of David’s model railroad stuff lived there. That shelf freed all my photo albums and scrapbooks from boxes and gave them someplace to live. Assembling the other shelf for the office had to be done in a particular order. David’s real desk had to come upstairs and be switched out for the door knob desk to make enough room to assemble the shelves and move the banker boxes to place the unit. That unit is the one in the kitchen annex now and I still need more units! LOL

But where claiming the room as my woman cave becomes more of a challenge is that since the laptops moved in and allowed the desktops to catch some dust, Grandma passed and a half year was spent cleaning out her house and settling her estate, that put more boxes added to the old office which became a storage room, my MS symptoms blossomed and took a year of running around from doctor to doctor to figure out what that was and start to treat it and the office/storage room sat untouched. Last year, just before Christmas we heard a loud boom coming from upstairs. Something fell. After locating both cats to make sure they were okay, David went upstairs. He came back and told me “you don’t want to look at it.” After years of supporting the desktop computer and the peripheral supplies and accessories, one of the clothing totes holding it all up gave up. It cracked, collapsed and slid the entire contents of the door top onto the floor blocking passage to my desk! Miraculously, nothing, except the one tote, was broken. Even a glass candy dish survived the fall!

So, as I embark on sorting my way back into the room, because right now I couldn’t access the Mac if I really needed to, I have those original banker boxes of supplies, the rest of the boxes from Grandma’s and everything that fell off the doorknob desk. I did take some before photos. I’ll want to scrap this whole thing after I finish and earn my superwoman cape!

As of this morning I have access to the room’s closet again. I’ve also decided where the shelving unit for the M&Ms collectibles will go. Eye on the prize, I can’t wait until that collection can be displayed again!

Tell Me Tuesday

Once again this week, I’m joining Suzanne at The Coloradolady for Tell Me Tuesday. This one was harder to think about than write about! This week’s prompt:

What is the most unique thing you own?

First off as people are all unique, I think every collection is unique. I could say my mug collection because although it’s not unique to collect mugs, the specific mugs in that collection are unique to anyone else’s collection. I have other things that are probably pretty common, but the story behind them is unique. So I’m going to show you one of my very special and unique because of the story things.

I just unwrapped this from one of my one storage boxes:

Anchor Hocking Apple Jar

These jars were a promotion at Dunkin Donuts. I did some looking to see if I could get help to remember the year, but it seems the apple jar is pretty unique after all! I guess that’s not super surprising. When I started unwrapping it, I remembered what it was and the fun story that goes with it, and I said a little prayer that it wasn’t broken. The glass is thin and it has a valuable and fragile feel when you pick it up. Perhaps they are unique, or at least rare to still exist.

It was a Christmas promotion that Anchor Hocking co-oped with Dunkin Donuts in the 80’s. In going through my memory banks, I think the three years Anchor Hocking and Dunkin Donuts did the glass canisters were 1984, 85 and 86. I own all three canisters and the apple was the first one. I think I remember that it was before I was 18 and that was part of the tease in the story.

As I’ve credited many times before, Dunkin Donuts was and still is the place where I hang out with my friends in Novi, Michigan. Anita worked the counters in the evenings during the week then. Her kids are my age, so she and Mom were peers and Mom was in on the joke too.

When the posters were up all over the store promoting the deal for Christmas that you could purchase an Anchor Hocking Apple Jar filled with Dunkin Munchkins, I was intrigued. I thought the jar was really cool, but a little pricier than my part time job could afford after gas and gifts for others. I asked Anita “What’s Anchor Hocking was and what do you do with the jar to help you anchor hock?”

I did know that Anchor Hocking was the brand. I didn’t know why it was a big deal that it was an Anchor Hocking jar. But, as was natural for me at the time, and still is, I was being silly. Anita joined in.

Addressing my Mom, “you never had 'the talk?'”

I realized they were ganging up on me. Scotty and John were there too and they just loved it when I got zapped. So I asked Anita if she was going to tell me what Anchor Hocking is and how one anchor hocks.

She told me, “You’ll find out on your wedding night.”

Our collective joke that Christmas was anchor hocking the verb! I’ve been married for three years and I still don’t know how to anchor hock!


Now, if you don’t think my apple jar is unique, please leave a comment telling me how to anchor hock!

Join us to tell us about your most unique things at Tell Me Tuesday at The Coloradolady!

Barn Charm

Morenci, Michigan

I got this green-roofed barn on March 26, 2006, while railfanning in the Motherland.

See more fabulous barns at Tricia’s Barn Charm at Bluff Area Daily.

Blog Carry-Out Meals, Not So Filling

So I took a break because I was hungry, but you know how I am with breaks, I have to sometimes take a break from my break. That is once I tackle the stairs and get to the kitchen, I have to sit for a few before I actually make lunch. No problem there, that’s why my computer is set up on the table right by the entry to the kitchen. I can read a couple blogs and then move on to the kitchen when my legs are ready.

Well, I sat down and read Glo’s blog where she mentions Cream of Potato Soup. Then on Suzanne’s blog there is a recipe for drop biscuits (with photo!). Tummy was complaining that it was feeling what Eyes were looking at. Finally, I stopped at Joy’s blog where there was a vignette that had the most beautiful chocolate chip cookie in it! I’m telling you, Brain was full! Tummy, notsomuch.

I did read and download the last parts of this month’s scrapbook kit from Su’s blog and Edna’s blog. Edna was talking about her trials with Murphy. He and his laws are not among my favorites either. Edna, I hope your day’s gotten much better, because I think I picked up a cyber-hitchhiker at your place!


Yesterday afternoon, I took out a bowl of stuffed pepper soup from the freezer and put it on the counter to thaw for a few hours so it would finish thawing in the fridge overnight. If I just put it in the fridge without partial thawing it, it takes 2 days to thaw. So after my tummy finally convinced my brain it didn’t get all the stuff I looked at, I went in to get the soup out of the fridge to heat it up. But… There was no soup in the fridge!

I turned around and looked on the counter in horror. Did I forget to put it in the fridge? If it spent all night and half of today on the counter, surely it was spoiled. But there was no soup on the counter. Then I opened the freezer door.

David and I have an agreement about making each other stop and listen when it’s important. I talk a lot, so does he; I think it’s for room noise because if the TV is on, it’s often muted. No one takes any offense if the other isn’t listening unless the “this is important” is spoken. I never thought the “this is important” was necessary for a “while you’re going downstairs” request!

I asked, “While you’re going downstairs, can you take the 2 stuffed pepper soups out of the freezer in the kitchen and trade them for a minestrone from the deep freeze?”

He said, “Sure.”

Never trust that you were heard when the response is a one-worder.

When I opened up the freezer, all three stuffed pepper soups, including the one I’d put out to thaw, were in it. It seems all he actually got was “Put stuffed pepper soup in freezer.”

::sigh::

So now, the stuffed pepper soup is on the counter to partial thaw and be lunch tomorrow. I had Parmesan oatmeal (recipe idea from the web, very tasty) with some crunchy romaine and carrots as sides. It was good, Tummy was sated, but Taste buds had something different in mind!

I’m enjoying a cup of afternoon coffee, regular coffee with a tablespoon of brown sugar and freshly ground cinnamon. M-Mmm! (Completely within my 2-points for a drink limit)


I noticed last week, reading friends’ blogs, that the torch of Meet Me on Monday had been picked up again, YAY! Thank you to Acting Balanced for starting it back up!

This week's questions:
1. What is your favorite kind of soup?
2. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?
3. What is your least favorite TV program?
4. If you were to write a book about yourself, what would you name it?
5. What 3 places that are on your bucket list to visit?




1. What is your favorite kind of soup?

Just one? I love soup, I mean I really LOVE soup!

Both Noni and Mom could make stellar soup from scratch or leftovers, out of anything! I have that influence from both sides of my family and I’m so happy that I inherited that double whammy talent! I make no apologies for my pride in my own soups. The freezer currently holds 2-serving bowls of minestrone and stuffed pepper soup. I just finished my last bowl of fall harvest veggie soup a couple weeks ago. The next soup is going to be a milled roasted vegetable soup…unless some new inspiration strikes my fancy!

Restaurant soups, I love the Stuffed Pepper soup at Eat’n Park and Cheesy Tomato at Cracker Barrel.

Canned soups, NEVER Progrosso! I always doctor the canned soups up a little, but I don’t change the Campbell’s Harvest Orange Tomato! (I just always have it on hand for a quick meal!)


2. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.


3. What is your least favorite TV program?

I don’t watch a ton of TV, so I really only tune in when a program I like is on, it’s usually off otherwise. I will give that I’ve seen, because others like it, and HATE with an untold passion America’s Funniest Home Videos. I see nothing funny about people falling, failing or doing stupid things in front of or with kids.


4. If you were to write a book about yourself, what would you name it?

Um, The Chronicles of Nani. :)


5. What 3 places that is on your bucket list to visit?

I don’t do the Bucket List thing. I refuse to assign myself an expiration date! So, I’ll say that San Antonio, Texas and Hawaii, all of it. As for #3, the very first thing I’d put on my “bucket list” is immortality, so I have some time to think about it.

Links:

Glo Sews

The Coloradolady

A Vintage Green

Free Spirit

Miss Edna’s Place

Acting Balanced

Monday Mug Shot

  The Red Cabooses
Whitefish, Montana

In October 2007, David and I went on a train trip to Montana for Altamont Weekend, a railfan weekend near Columbus Day. We flew in to Washington and rented a car to drive the rest of the way to Essex, Montana and the Izaak Walton Inn. Our first morning in Montana, we just HAD to go to The Red Caboose for breakfast! The Red Caboose was a 24/7 diner on the main street of town built into a caboose! You couldn’t miss it when you drove through town!

The interior had a rustic feel and all sorts of train décor. There was even a B&O light switch plate in the ladies room. There were just railroad details everywhere! It was just a perfect breakfast stop for us! We’d decided to have breakfast there the night before, so we made a point of waking up earlier.

 Ladies room light switch

The menu offered several railroad named dishes, which made my decision rough! Usually, a themed restaurant will serve in specialty with an appropriate name and in the spirit of things, I always get that dish. When we ate on Amtrak, I had the dish named after one of the trains that was easy. But at The Red Caboose, where their breakfast specialty was hash browns or home fries loaded with breakfast tasties, there were several railroad ways to have breakfast! I chose the Switchman breakfast; spicy breakfast sausage, onions, bell peppers and mushrooms over hash browns with cheese. YUM! It still sounds like an awesome breakfast!

We stopped again on the way back through Whitefish for lunch and to buy my coffee mug and a shirt for David. It was a memorable and very good breakfast!

 Update!

Just this very month, The Red Caboose has reopened under new owners after renovation. It’s a frozen yogurt and coffee bar now! They didn’t change the landmark outside, but I think we need to go back and see what it’s like now! Um, frozen yogurt and coffee? Yes, we definitely NEED to go back and check it out!

Saturday Second Chance?

Hehehe…It’s my do-over this morning since I blogly missed Friday! Oh, I read and commented. I just didn’t post anything new. But I am here and all is okay. I was just in some non-cyber world things that pulled me away.

Since the Linky for it is still up, and it is for a few days yet so you could join in too, I get a second chance to post my Friday Fill-Ins! Every Friday Hilary at Feeling Beachie does four statements with blanks to fill in. Simple enough, you fill in as much or as little as you like, post, link, visit! And if you have a full Friday, you can still post on Saturday!

This week’s statements:
1. Sometimes I ____
2. I ___ high school
3. Deciding what to ___________________________ before I ___________________ is such a pain sometimes
4. _________________is my favorite_________________


My Fill-Ins

1.Sometimes I wish I could have just one day where I could physically do what I could just 5 years ago to get a big chunk of my White Tornado Project done. But then I’d want it until the project was done so I could construct my own bookcases and move the heavy stuff.


2. I was a total rebel in high school. I was great at bending the rules enough that the principal would go nuts. He couldn’t do anything because he never caught me actually breaking a rule. I was an Honor Roll student, which infuriated him even more and at one time I actually cited Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and told him I was only practicing what I was taught in school.

3. Deciding what to pack before I go away for the weekend is such a pain sometimes

4. A bracelet is my favorite accessory.

Awards, For Me?

I mentioned a couple blogs ago about Tere having shared a couple of blog awards with me. I haven’t gotten any blog awards in a while. Maybe that’s because I don’t really have a place to display them. Well it looks like I figured out how to get the edge of the White Tornado to hit The Chronicles of Nani too! On the bottom of the blog I installed a trophy case. I wish obtaining and installing shelving at home was that easy!


Earlier this week Tere from Tere’s (Never Quite “Normal”) World gave me two awards! Thank you SO much, Tere!


First I’ll show off the One Lovely Blog Award!

The One Lovely Blog Award rules are:

1. Link back to the one who gave you this award.

2. Pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers.

3. Follow the person who sent it to you.

The second award is Kreative Blogger Award

Kreative Blogger Award Rules:

1. Link back to the one who gave you this award

2. Share 10 random facts about yourself

3. Pass the award on to 6 other people

4. Follow the person’s blog who sent you it

Here are my 10 Random Nani truths:

1. My favorite alcoholic drink is a Mai-Tai.

2. I love soup! (Just made a big pot of stuffed Pepper Soup today)

3. I’ve been using French’s Honey Mustard on things a lot lately

4. I can come up with a crazy explanation for almost anything and make it almost sound logical.

5. My first car was blue, every one since then has been red. The next one will be red too.

6. I never wanted to get married. David changed my mind, but it wasn’t easy!

7. I didn’t have a wedding and I didn’t go to the commencement ceremony for high school or college. I’m not into the pageantry, just the prize.

8. I’m behind on some things and need a serious scrap day – no cleaning, no internet!

9. I love the smell of steak and can’t stand the taste while I hate the smell of fudge cooking and LOVE the taste.

10. I have such a hard time coming up with random facts that are interesting.

Now I’m going to bend the rules a little bit. I always do that. It’s me channeling my inner teenager. Tere and I have some friends in common who may already have the awards and may have already done the random things and I have some friends who have full schedules and I’m not going to dictate how they use their blog time. But just the same, even if you have these awards already and even if you don’t have the time to list 10 random things, believe me it took me a little thinking time to be so random, I want to recognize you and link up to your fabulous blogs. So consider this a set of awards, because I’m passing them both on to my list, with no strings. If you have the time and want to list 10 random things, I’ll be there to read and comment but you don't at all have to do it.

Here are the awards recipients, 15 stellar blogs that I read every morning with my first cup of coffee:

1. Miss Edna’s Place - A great blog to visit for morning coffee or a visit any time of day! Edna is a fabulous photographer and also generously shares some great digital scrapbooking supplies!

2. Free Spirit – Su is Edna’s partner on the monthly scrap kits, they do great work together! Su recently revamped her entire blog, beautifully, and it’s easier than ever to read up and follow what’s going on in her world!

3. A Vintage Green - Joy does some fabulous work arranging her décor and an incredible job creating vignettes to show it off. You’ll see fine things in great arrangements at her blog.

4. The Coloradolady - I first started reading Suzanne’s blog as a fan of Vintage Thingie Thursday which she hosts. I also got involved in the Secret Santa Soiree which she took over last year. I truly enjoyed that and will definitely sign up again this year! Now she started Tell Me Tuesday, which is a fun meme and one that really gets you thinking. I love it!

5. Linda’s Bee Hive - Linda was my “Secret Santee” last year and I loved getting to know her through her blog! She does fabulous quilting and wonderful handmade gifts for her family and friends. Right now, I’m getting lots of tips on organization following her while she’s working on her craft room!

6. Marti’s Musings - I know Marti already has these awards, but I have to tip MY hat to her too. I thoroughly enjoy reading her personal history stories and her sense of humor and creative & snarky way of expressing many things is just too awesome not to read every day!

7. This and That - I enjoy reading about Flora’s travels and sights! She also does some great cooking and crafts. Most recently check out the peanuts!

8. My Texas Cats - Kaline asked me to make sure I included this one. No, Kaline insisted I do. She has been following Millie and Sam for a few weeks and says she has so much in common with them including that they call it by different names but enjoy chewing the same plant!

9. Here in Texas - Carla is Millie and Sam’s human Mom. She and I both talk about our furbabies and our flowers. Of course, she’s in Texas, so she talks about flowers longer than I do!

10. Empty Nest - Empty Nester is a Mom of four adult daughters who is exploring the nuances and possibilities of the nest she and her Hubby share. Her blog among other things is an awesome source for tasty gluten-free recipes!

11. Life According To Amanda - Amanda is a transplanted Ohioan grad school student in Mississippi. She does great posts about faith and the confusion, okay confusing for me, of a post about healthy snacks followed by a recipe for Nutella Caramel Corn. YUM big time to both – see where my confusion is?


12. Glo Sews - Glo has fabulous tips on sewing and some awesome non-sew crafts as well! Her posts often make me want to start sewing again!

13. Auntie M. Designs - Auntie M. Designs started, as most scrapbook designers do, with full free kits. Her kits are great and the topics are things that you really do scrapbook, things that happen for real, like babies and farmers markets and I have some fantastic frames in laptops and phone she did. She has a store now, but she still has freebies on her blog that complement her kits!

14. Just Breathe - Debby posts some great recipes and food ideas, realistically combining satisfying tastes with healthy diet-consciousness. She also has a sister-blog to Just Breathe that highlights ornaments on her bountiful Christmas tree! That’s given me some scrapbooking ideas for the ornaments on our tree!

15. Coffee Cup Crafts and Christianity - Kelly is my best friend and like a sister to me! I’m proud to say that I helped her get her blog started right here in this very dining room. (I use the laptop, so you’ll just have to trust that I’m in the dining room) She combines messages about her faith with posts about crafting, decorating and her stories about her world as a Mom and Grandma! It’s a “work in progress” but it’s progressing well!