Arf hisstery...

Sum uv yousz mite think that the ownly famuss cairn wuz Toto frum the Wizzerd uv Oz.  Think again, peepul.  Heerz a breef lessin in arf hisstery.  At the bugginning uv tiem, the wiled cairns roamded and roold the Scottish Hi Lands.  Affder they invayded and konkered Your Rope, there wuz cairns all over.

Leahnardoe Duh Vinchy had a cairn an he paynted her with that famuss Moana Leesa lady.  She gotz that smerky look on her fayce cuz she's the ownly lady in Iddally with a cairn.

 

Vinscent Van Go had three cairns who liekt to go out at nite with him wile he paynted.  This cairn reely liekt the eyerisses.  They wuz glad Vinscent leff there eerz aloan. 

Sum uther guy paynted Saynt Francis with cairns and sum uther anumulls.  See how the cairns iz the moast impourtant.  Saynt Francis sed so.

Clod Moanay liekt his cairn so mutch he paynted her with the watter lillees.

Affder cairns came to Amareika, some guy naymded Grant Wud paynted these ole peepul with there cairn.  See, there iz lotz uv famuss cairns.  Now yousz guys know all aboud it.

Martha Stewart...

loves honeybees, too!  I went to the Martha Blog this morning for my daily dose of look-what-you-could-accomplish-if-you-were-as-motivated-as-me from Martha and she had pictures of her farm in Bedford.  I guess we could all be so productive if we were gazillionaires with a staff of thousands, but she still makes me feel a little bit inadequate.  I'll get over it.

Ever have one of those days?

The kind of day where everything that can go wrong does?  It makes you just want to jump in the car and drive away - far, far away.

Yep, that's the kind of day I had.

ME Monday...

It's that time again - ME Monday - and we are linking to Vicki over at Cherry Chick to share a few Mary Engelbreit goodies and favorite things.  A few years ago, my friend Joanna sent me this ME address book in a surprise box of lots of ME things.  I love it - and it's pretty enough to leave out in plain sight!

Yes - I have about a million ME pens and pencils - and I keep my pencil basket way back on the other side of my desk so I'm the only one who can reach it.  I have clients who are known to make off with pens!  The pencils were an eBay find several years ago and I am down to three of each design.  Uh oh!

My bear isn't an ME treasure - but she's an ME fan, too - dressed in her sweet cherry dress and red sweater.  I had good intentions to be finished with the ME pillow covers I am making for the living room for today, but I got sidetracked ironing more fabric yesterday...  Oh well - next week!

Now we know...

the rest of the story...

Someone just slap me...

if I ever read another Patricia Cornwell book.  I've finished it, so now I can complain.  The woman is nuts.  Certifiably nuts - and she makes more money than God selling her overly technical, pedantic crime novels.  This dumb book brought back the preposterous wolfman of the French crime family that for some unknown reason had targeted Benton in the past - to such a degree that he faked his own death and left Kay hanging for six years.  Then the idiot married him anyway.  Marino sexually assaulted Kay in one of the last books and they're still friends - and Lucy is still operating outside the law while having an affair with the ADA in charge of the New York Sex Crimes unit.  I swear the plot was so convoluted - and I could just spit, it was so ridiculous.  It was so far-fetched it wasn't even entertaining.  There were so many peripheral characters that weren't remotely germane to the story - and maybe she intended them to be red herrings, but it sure didn't work out that way.  Cornwell always says that Scarpetta isn't her alter ego, but after reading this, I think that Scarpetta is her other personality.  Then I read this blurb that says Cornwell is encouraging her fans to go to Amazon.com and mark all negative reviews of her work as not helpful as she contends that these negative reviews are harming her sales.

Give me a break!

I had forgotten...

how dang much fabric I have!  I had washed all of it before putting it away for two reasons: it was stinky from being in storage and I have finally gotten on the pre-washing bandwagon.  I've been ironing for two days!  I had sorted out the fabric for the living room pillows days ago and then I lost my incentive just looking at the ironing board.  It's my own fault.  I tell you, I am getting to be a cheapskate in my old age.  No - I didn't buy a new ironing board.  I had one of those small ones, so when I was at WalMart, I got this cheap wooden TV tray table for $8 - cheaper than the ironing board - and figured I would just put my little portable ironing board on top of it when I needed to use it and then I could use the table for other stuff as needed.  It was a good plan - but what a pain in the butt.  I ironed the valance I made for the bathroom and by the time I was done, I wanted to throw the table and the ironing board out the window.  The ironing board kept slipping off the table - it was a very trying half hour or so.  The cheap iron, however, works great!  Yesterday, I broke down and ironed more of the fabric I had washed to put away and succeeded in not losing my temper.  Then inspiration struck!  I taped the ironing board to the little table and I ironed this big pile of fabric for my pillow cover project and then some.  It's not like I iron that often, but I like it.  It is actually relaxing and somehow strangely satisfying.  I know, I'm weird.  

As you can see, I still have more fabric to iron and put away - and my assistant is a big help!

At long last...

I know I should save this for ME Monday - and I should have had it done last Monday - but I have finally finished decorating the bathroom!  As you can see, the theme is Bloom Where You're Planted - my favorite!  I know, I know - all of Mary's illustrations qualify as my favorite...

The room was so blah - beige walls, white fixtures, barely pink tile in the shower - so I spiced it up with this ME print valance.  I'm really glad I went with the black background because it makes a nice contrast.  Ariela came by early this evening to put it up for me - I couldn't reach.  

And now for the best part:

I forgot to add the during photo!

Tom and Allen made me this lovely one-of-a-kind frame for my ugly mirror!  I had originally just asked for a painted white moulding frame - but Tom got creative and came up with this amazing finish that is the perfect transition from the brown granite of the vanity to the beige on the wall.  Isn't it pretty?  I am just thrilled with it!  And now I am wishing that I hadn't given away the stained glass three-light fixture from the bathroom at my house - it would look so much better than this ugly white and brushed nickel thing.  I wonder if Cari has put it to use in her house yet... hmmm, I'll have to ask.  I think the whole room came together quite nicely - but it wouldn't have been nearly as pretty with just a plain old white frame on the mirror.  Tom's designer frame is just the thing!  Thanks, guys!

Cards and books...

I've been a busy bee - I made my friend Madeline some note cards to send along with her funny thank-you card.  I even put my Cricut to use - one of these days I'll make something really spectacular with it!  I've only had it a year or so - sometimes gadgets elude me.  The Cricut and its design software is one of those gadgets - but I will master it one of these days...

As you can see by the stack of books on my table - I've had my nose in a book since last weekend.  I read the rest of Ford County Stories by John Grisham.  I think those short stories are some of his best work yet.  I also read Dying for Mercy by Mary Jane Clark - very suspenseful.  She's closing in on her former mother-in-law for the title of Queen of Suspense!  I'm in the middle of Patricia Cornwell's The Scarpetta Factor - and I am once again questioning why I even bother with her books any more.  Her plots just get more and more outlandish and I had forgotten how seriously sick I am of how perfect and noble she makes Kay out to be.  Lucy's angst is now just annoying, Benton is as big a jerk as he ever was and Marino - well, just when you think he can't get any more stereotypical detective on you - he's off and running on another cliched tangent.  I'd pass it along to Richard right now but I hate not finishing a book.  Besides, I have to finish it so I can complain about how excruciating reading it was.  I've only ever not finished two books in my life - both of them in the past year - imagine that!  It took me this long to figure out that it's really okay not to finish reading a book if you don't like it.  And I've been reading since I was four!

When a cookie crumbles...

it's been scientifically proven that most of the calories leak out.  But when your heart breaks, everything leaks out.  It takes a long time to get some of the stuff back - and some things you never can recover.  Hope is the hardest thing to hang on to - just when you think you've got it all together again, those tears you thought had dried up forever appear unbidden and wash the little bit of hope you had managed to put back away again. 

ME Monday...

This is one of my favorite ME illustrations - oh, who am I kidding?  They're all my favorites!

Have my nose buried in a book...

Hope you all have a great day!

Can't talk now...

We iz watchun The Dead Pool - the finul film in our Dirty Hairy Festavul...

Makeover teaser...

Guess what room we're working on...

I've come to the conclusion...

that over the past year I've been living my life thirty days at a time.  Worrying about paying rent, paying bills.  Instead of thinking, "Good - I don't have to worry about that for another month," I find myself thinking: "Okay, now I have another thirty days to worry about that."  Not productive.  Not conducive to accomplishing anything of substance.

I just can't do it any more.

Smart man, Abe Lincoln.  Shot in the head in a theater.  Terrible way to go.  No one is sure if Mrs. Lincoln enjoyed her evening or not.  So on the advice of our sixteenth President, I've decided to stop worrying.  Well, maybe not completely - but about things that really matter.  Like this guy here.

 Or the end of life as we know it.

Or other possible threats.

Eclectic film festival of sorts...

I've never really been a big Clint Eastwood fan.  My dad loved him - I must have seen Every Which Way But Loose a million times (okay, I'm exaggerating) - but I could never get past that Sondra Locke idiot and her stunning inability to act or sing.  After my dad died, I steered clear of Clint because he was one of those aging actors who simply could not learn that he needed to stop taking his clothes off on screen.  Alas, my husband loved Clint's movies: Pale Rider, High Plains Drifter, Heartbreak Ridge, The Outlaw Josey Wales - thank goodness I never had to sit through The Bridges of Madison County!  I will also admit that I thought Unforgiven was a comedy the first time I saw it.  Gene Hackman was a hoot!   To be fair, I have to admit that in recent years I've come to appreciate Mr. Eastwood's directorial skills and I decided to check out some of his early work.  We've been having a Dirty Harry film festival over the past couple of weeks - but dang it, I've gone and watched them out of order!  First we watched Dirty Harry - not bad - and he really does the whole "do you feel lucky" thing.  And it's funny.  Then we watched Magnum Force - which is the one where he says, "Go ahead, make my day."  Not too bad.  Then Sudden Impact, which actually comes after The Enforcer.  My mistake when I put them in the Netflix queue.  Sudden Impact has Sondra Locke as a revenge-motivated serial killer and she's not any better as a murderer than any other role she's ever played.  I am waiting to watch The Dead Pool until after The Enforcer.  All in all, Clint Eastwood is the only actor I can even imagine playing Harry Callahan - I don't know if it's because of all of the catchphrases he's made famous over the years or if it's the whole truth, justice and victims' rights thing he's got going on.  Sorry I've underestimated your acting talent all these years, Clint.

Was anyone else as sorry as I was to see Pushing Daisies cancelled?  I loved that show - Tim hated the narration - and I'd never seen most of the second season - until this week.  Thanks to Netflix and their seemingly never-ending supply of TV shows online, Petey and I watched the final episode last night while Aggie snoozed on the floor by my chair.  It sort of wrapped things up - but I still have some questions.  What was with the pocket watches?  What is Ned's last name?  Do Lily and Vivian make up?  Do Ned and Chuck's fathers come back?  Do they ever tell Olive about Ned's special power and that Chuck was once dead and is now alive again?  The show had such great visual appeal and perfect casting - and the narration was almost Dr. Seuss-like with all of the alliteration.  Wouldn't it make a great movie?