Pink Saturday 3/12/2011

Welcome to Pink Saturday once again. I was absent last week because I was simply feeling blah. We all know that happens once in a while so I just go with it and hibernate with a good book. However, to view all the participants go to Beverly and visit with them all. I think you'll be delighted and inspired both. Just click on her logo below.
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While pink and yellow is my favorite color combination, pink and green is up there with another color combination of which I like to dress. I'll wear pink and green a great deal of the time. It's not my most flattering color combination. Rose pink is the color of which I can see really makes me shine. I never realized it until I made a dress of rose raw silk once and while never thinking of myself as beautiful, I just glowed in that color. That is my most flattering color—rose pink. The shirt below is a close match to what I'm talking about. Just a tad lighter than that.

I like wearing 2 shirts together mainly because the pink one is a tank top and I don't wear sleeveless things unless I have something over it. I'm very modest. So this can work well for me.

I loved this box when I saw it a couple of years ago. Lime isn't exactly a color I'd go for but when paired with this fuchsia pink I couldn't resist it. It holds special papers inside of it.

And while no green here, it is a photo of Miss Caroline taken last week, and she's my favorite eye candy. Our little blue-eyed Guatemalan chica. ;-)

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Let's have a few Random Thoughts today:

In church last sunday, a very beautiful young, long-haired blonde woman and new mother was talking about her testimony of the Gospel and the kindness the ward had shown her being new in the ward. She's from Canada and married an American but loves it here. She said something about worrying about her wrinkles. I had to chuckle because I saw not a one wrinkle in that gorgeous smooth face and even lamented that I have crow's feet older than her! Precious...
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"Good" is a soft assessment of a situation. I prefer the "real deal" when talking about the situation.
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In light of some things happening in my life recently I've decided that testosterone should be a controlled substance. ;-)
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Is it only me or are there others that think Hugh Hefner is a pathetic joke? Reading about his "engagement(!)" recently is so sad even my hubby shook his head. Now, this man has rarely ever had his picture in any clothes other than his pajamas, has several young women "available" in his mansion, which is a pigsty from all reports, acts like the world gushes at his every word and marries girls young enough to be his granddaughters. Does he realize how foolish and pathetic that makes him? If he didn't have millions of dollars no one would look twice at the fool!
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Funny how washing dishes around this home is just a matter of who turns on the dishwasher now.
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Someone recently told me to not worry so much. "Yeah, I'll get right on that." ;-)
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Have you ever listened to someone whose sense of words drowned in sense of self. Well, trust me, I have...and probably have been guilty a time or two of committing the crime myself.
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I'm Back with Some More Thoughts

I've been taking some time off to prioritize some things in my life, but I'm sure you've heard this before from other bloggers. Well, it is absolutely true. I've had other things pressing on my mind for a while and decided to just stay off blogging for several days to get things set straight in my mind. I suspect we all do it once in a while. All bloggers I mean. ;-)

I've been doing a lot of reading as that is probably my first passion. Then a friend of mine has been gently pressuring me to do more genealogy than I have done. I've also learned how to bake a loaf of edible bread; however, it's crumbly. Though not very pretty, it is still delicious. So I know now that I can bake it if necessary.

I've also decided to do an exercise routine and walk several times a week to get out of the house. I'm now understanding why older people want to stay in most of the time. I'm getting the same way. And that's mostly due to the fact that I rarely shop anymore except for food. I just don't need anything for this house and wish some of you lived close so I could give you things: pretty crafts I've made, ottomans, tables, desks, etc. I'm having separation issues and would love to know they were going to a loving house instead of Goodwill or Deseret Industries. ;-)

Also there was a break-in in our neighborhood. A young mother had returned from taking her child to school and walked in on a man in her home. That scared me so we immediately called an alarm company and had a burglar alarm installed within 2 days. We had one when we lived in California because we were robbed twice, but the 2nd time we walked in on the 2 men and they attacked us. I don't take chances anymore. Crime is coming even to smaller towns. I prefer a neighborhood because I can scream or phone and get help quicker than living out on acreage. If I'm in the house the system is armed. I'm taking no chances anymore. Plus after living through 2 burglaries I'm as security conscious as anyone can get. Times are changing dramatically and quickly in the world.

This is meant to be a scary post, just an alert to be aware. So now I'll show you some eye candy to make it worth your while visiting with me.

While I've posted these old shoes I couldn't throw out before, I thought some of you may have not seen them so here they are again. I redid them with Mod Podge and paper, lace, paper roses, pearls, feathers, birds and buttons. They now adorn my faux fireplace in our family room.

This lovely little pitcher sits on an old drawer I found and shabbied up with decoupage and decals. I love shabby chic romantic.

The garland of dyed coffee filters I have over the archway into our family room. I took them down and put up a bunting I made. Now I'm not sure where I'm going to hang them or whether I should just make some coffee filter roses and give them away. Hmmmmm......

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Getting Ready for the Future

Hubby and I have discussed it and decided we needed to make some changes around the house and about our current lifestyle. For one thing we need more storage for food and essentials. This came about after our trip to the grocery store and gas station last week and this week. We're astounded how much prices are climbing. Since we subscribe to some financial newsletters, we believe it's not going to end anytime soon. So, taking the advice our church has espoused for many, many years, we're upping storage on essentials items.

Now, I've been on a trend to spend less and that's truly not been hard for me. I'm spending nothing on frivolous things at all. Okay, the Italian lessons were a splurge but that's it. Our focus is on staying healthy and being able to help others if the need arises. Plus we've learned that in our neighborhood there have been some home invasions (and we live in a nice neighborhood) and that's scary for me. If you don't believe me, just look around at what's happening in the world today. Nooooo, I am not pessimistic (in fact, I'm very optimistic about the future); I'm just being realistic.

Gina Cooper's blog CatNapInnPrimitives will also be showing her fantastic stash of food and emergency supplies. Go see what she's done!

So I spent part of today loading hundreds of yards of fabric into boxes for storage in our garage attic. We cleared off one shelf at a time and put the fabric in the hallway. Then we took the food from a closet and put it on the shelves that previously had held fabric. My craft and sewing room is a luxury, food is not. It's essential. We have a ways to go but here's how it looks so far.

Perishable food goes inside. Paper items, soap, detergent, dehydrated foods and cleaning supplies go in the garage. Water is stored in garage also. A friend went to the cannery today and bought two 25#lbs. of hot cocoa. Each one two months ago was 23.10 but today she paid 33.50 for each. That's a 45% increase in just 2 months. I'm telling you that you need to get more food for your family because it is going sky high and be unavailable in some places soon probably.

This isn't even all of it. We had more spread around the house and in our pantry,

Several more shelves to go.

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Learning to Bake Bread and Some Random Thoughts

Okay, so I don't know how to bake bread. This is absolutely true. I've never baked a loaf of bread the normal way, and even in my bread machine, which I've used about 5 times in 15 years, I've never baked a decent loaf of bread. It just doesn't rise. The taste might be okay but it's almost the height of a cake when I get through with it. I had 2 break machines because my kids are always giving me things like that until I put my foot down and said we have enough. Don't buy us anything else unless we can eat it. So we got Omaha steaks and hams for a while.

Anyway, I thought it was time to dabble in bread making once again since supermarket prices are going out of sight. We don't eat a lot of bread. We love it; it's just that we don't NEED to eat a lot of bread! So I got a bread recipe from a friend of mine and was on the phone all morning asking how to do this or that. And since I keep my house at 68° all year round, I had to turn up the thermostat to 70° thinking that might have been the problem, although, I'm stymied as to how that could be. I think 68° is just fine.

I used powdered eggs since we have them in our food storage and used them recently in a cake. No problem. Cake turned out well, so in order to save Love Bunny's fresh eggs for him I used the powdered ones.

You will notice I'm using a very antique Pyrex bowl that used to be my mother's before she gave it to me. So this bowl is at least 60 years old. I love it and it's the oldest bowl I have.

After mixing the ingredients I let the dough rise until it doubled, or until I thought it was double. I then put them in my bread pans and stuck them in the oven. I tidied up and then called my friend, and she just happened to mention that I had to let them rise in the bread pans. Ooooops! This was after they'd been in the oven for 8 minutes, so she told me to quickly remove them and let it rise until it was just about to the top of the pan and then back them. So far, so good.

Ta-da!! My very first loaves of bread making it by hand, kneading, etc. So they ain't perfect, adjust! I think I'm gonna like this.

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A redhead is a blonde with poor impulse control.
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If your son or daughter tells you, he/she is just a friend, it usually isn't.
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Forbearance isn't one of my virtues. I'm working on it though...slowly.
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I'm sorry to bring this up, but most employee's dress codes now just scream "fashion mistake". When I started in the work field we couldn't even wear pants unless it was a pants suit that the top and bottom matched. I never, ever in my life went to work looking like most sales clerks now. In fact, I don't even go around my house looking like they look now! Dress appropriately, ladies and gents.
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When tasks cannot be partitioned because of sequential constraints, the application of more effort has no effect on the schedule. The bearing of child takes 9 months, no matter how many women are assigned.
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I remember the little things people tell me about their likes and dislikes. I have to be in order to be a gracious hostess. One person might not like spicy things or a certain food so I never serve it to them. I'm very conscientious about that. I truly try to be accommodating to their whims. I leave blankets around in case they're cold in my home so they can cover up. The bathrooms are stocked with extra toothbrushes and nice body washes and shampoos just for their use. I also have things on hand they might prefer if I'm informed of their choices ahead of time. In other words, I truly listen to people. I then store it in my brain for further use. I don't like it when people aren't comfortable in my home. Listen to people and what they are telling you. It helps a lot.
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My Disappointment Tale

I mentioned in the last post about a disappointment. Well, I'm here to tell you about it today.

But first a bit of eye candy for you. I don't like just reading print with no photos so I always share something pretty to show you. But Caroline wasn't ready to skype with me tonight or send me any pix, so you're stuck with a couple of things I found in a magazine. ;-) These pix speak of love and renewal. Isn't this memory board pretty? I have several around my house.

This one reminds me that spring is just a couple of weeks away and we can get little flowers to pot in a few weeks also. Now, wouldn't these little jars tied with pretty hankies and wrapped with wire to hang from the patio look just adorable? I'll be making some of these for sure.

Well, these two old geezers aren't very pretty but they are me and Love Bunny about 25 years ago. And yes, he still wears silly/goofy hats. This one looks like it's too big for his head but someone gave it to him and he wore it. I've since thrown it away.

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Remember when I said I ordered an Italian Version of Rosetta Stone. It arrived Thursday and I opened it up. There were several desks with it, actually a LOT! The first one is the application disk to load on and then you can load the disks with the various levels of the language as you progress. I loaded the first, but when I started the Italian language disks they wouldn't load. I called the company and got a man in India who was well spoken, but he couldn't figure out some things as I told him and after a few minutes put me in touch with his superior in the U.S. That lady asked me a few questions and I answered and she said I had a pirated version and couldn't help me. It came from Beijing, China. Nothing I can do. I though I was on Rosetta Stone website but it was a "discount Rosetta Stone" site that had nothing to do with Rosetta Stone except pirate their software and not work for me at least. $188.00! I was miffed and am filing a dispute with Paypal to try to recuperate my money. But truly I'd like to keep and and use it to learn another language - Italian. So now I'm warning you to be sure you are on the actual website when you are wanting to purchase something. I feel like a fool for falling for something like this. I'm usually very astute with things like this. The website looked like Rosetta Stone and when I googled RS at first to find Rosetta Stone, it was one of the first websites to come up so my suspicions weren't raised. So if I can be fooled, you can be fooled also. So be very careful, my friends.
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Pink Saturday 2/26/2011

Welcome to my Pink Saturday post again. To visit all the participants, go to Beverly's blog by clicking on the logo below.
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I've been busy and had a big disappointment, which I'll go into detail about in another blog post, so I'm scrambling today to find pink to share again with you.

This is a little bird cage I bought and shabby froufrou-ed up. I simply put some faux grass and tiny birds in there with tiny roses that aren't quite visible to you and then hung it with pink curling ribbon, which is tremendously cheap and quite decorative in the house.

This little painting was for sale on ebay and didn't sell. I can't remember the name of the artist now but I contacted her later and asked if it was still for sale. She said that she'd just give it to me! She included the darling frame and the picture and didn't even charge me for postage. The generosity of some people still astounds me. What a charming woman she is. I just love this little teacup picture and its frame. I am a truly blessed chick and most grateful to her for this gift.

I love this little cottage print and can't remember where it came from, but isn't it cute?

While these crystal stemware glasses aren't pink, the paper in the background is. I used it to line the back of our humble china cabinet when we moved into this house 6 years ago. I also trimmed the edges by tacking snippets of vintage lace onto the shelves. I don't get rid of any lace if there is a possible use for it. And these was.

Just a closeup of a few different patterns of our crystal.

These 2 glasses were bought at a neighbor's yard sale when they died. They were both very close to us and died with days of each other. Hubby went over because I couldn't bear to go through their things. He bought these 2 crystal goblets and they are the thinnest and most delicate goblets I've ever held. I am extremely careful with them when we use and then wash them. All by hand, of course.

Love Bunny isn't necessarily a romantic guy but while shopping last week he suggested we buy some of these $5 bouquet of flowers. I didn't disagree of course. Sweet of him.

These two knobs are ones my daughter gave me several years ago. I'd like to make some like them but I'm just being lazy lately so it'll have to wait until I feel like it. I have no clue what I'd do with them, but the pursuit would be as sweet as the rose knobs I think.

I finally added a bit of white trim around the bottom of this lamp shade and got roses almost around the whole thing. I've run out of these particular paper roses and won't be able to finish until I get more. Very hard to find also.

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Just a few more rooms to drool over. Imagine your little princess in this room. Heck, I'd take it for myself and put in a queen size bed and get rid of the toys...maybe. ;-) These are all Ethan Allen rooms.

And for your little heroes, this darling bedroom that would probably take him into his teens.

Oh my stars, be still my heart! On second thought, I'd probably prefer this one with the nook off the master suite. Is this not gorgeous?

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A Serious/ Sirius Problem and iPhone

First of all, the eye candy. :-) Miss Caroline walking around the island counter top in her mummy's kitchen with her new shoes on. This is absolutely her most favorite thing to do, and you'd better have shoes on your feet when she's doing this or serious consequences will follow—to your feet!

She's getting a lot more hair and is such a happy baby.

A few days ago hubs and I (okay, so it was me, not him) decided we wanted Sirius radio. Last summer when our truck was in the shop for repairs we were given a rental car—a Hyundai—and since we had planned on going back to California to visit our daughter and son, we used the Hyundai to travel there. It was a Sonata and had Sirius radio in it. I fell in love. It was so nice going across the Idaho, Oregon, Nevada desert with a radio that sounded great all the way across that I decided I wanted to get one. So small feat as you'll see.

Remember, we have had no television in this house for about 25 years so we have no idea how they even work now. Clueless! I'm computer literate, not television, DVR, Tivo, cable or anything about televisions. I can't even turn one on now because both my kids have remotes to control everything in one remote and they're somehow connected to other things in their houses also. Truly, I don't even know how to turn it on, much less switch channels.

So after a call to Best Buy to ask about Sirius XM radios and how they work, we set off to buy one. Little did we know. We've now made 4 trips to Best Buy (to buy and return certain things because the advice from 4 different people was scattered, to say the least!) and one to Wal Mart to get this set-up to work. So far it's been a couple of hundred dollars just so I can listen to some programs we don't get here locally anymore. This is what the actual radio looks like, very tiny.

Here it is with the Dock and speakers for it. We could have played it through one of the 5 radios in this house but NONE of them has an audio input on it. They're only maybe 10 years old, the oldest one, but not one of them would work for it so we had to get the Dock for it. This will also transfer to the car when we travel. Great sound. I'm really loving it.

Love Bunny has wanted an iPhone for several years but we decided to wait for the iPhone 4. At first, I couldn't justify the extra money for the Verizon data package and just about decided to get an iPod for him, but he is the king of this domain and works hard for us, so I surprised him with this last week. I bought it, brought it home and stuck it in my desk drawer and called him in here to "help me figure something out" (a ruse, of course) and then, as he sat down, I said, "With your new iPhone." He thought I said iPod as that was what he was thinking in his head, and when I corrected him and said it was an iPhone I thought he was going to lose it. He was so happy and just beamed and thanked me. Now, I get to watch him download Apps all night long onto it. Such fun. Sigh.....

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