TMTA Monday

This week, the challenge over at TMTA is to make an ATC featuring something made of stone. The background photo on my ATC is part of a stone grave marker that I found one day while strolling through Dry Creek Cemetery in Eagle, Idaho. I was looking at the picture and noticing that some of the fingers on one hand were chipped and broken; since the hands were clasped, symbolizing some kind of relationship, whether it be of friends or lovers, I thought of the caption "broken promises" and added that to the card. This was a fun card to make!

Sunday Funnies

This is one of my favorite moments from I Love Lucy; it still holds up after all these years, and is pretty darned funny!

Kristin over at Retro Cafe Art is having a giveaway! Click here to see her post about this event and to see her lovely art piece--AND click on my sidebar link to the Retro Cafe Art website to see wonderful things you can order for your artwork--it's a virtual candy store and such a fun, fun site to visit!

10 Great Inventions

Just found out about an interesting website, Ten on Tuesday from Jean at Bluebirds. . . check it out if you have time. This week's theme is to make a list of 10 inventions that have made life easier, and it doesn't matter when they were invented. I haven't seen anyone's list except for Jean's yet, and hers is a GREAT list! For me, these inventions were significant (and are in no particular order):

1) The Polio Vaccine
2) Television
3) Flat Irons (can't live without mine!)
4) Airplanes
5) The Printing Press
6) Lawn Mowers
7) Indoor Plumbing
8) Electricity
9) Rescue Inhalers for Asthma
10) The Dishwasher

(As my mom always says, "God Bless the man who invented the dishwasher!") Actually, I just found out that it was a WOMAN who invented the dishwasher, Josephine Cochran. (Makes sense, doesn't it?) She introduced her new invention at the 1893 World's Fair, but it actually didn't catch on until the 1950s!

"That's the Ticket!"

My Grandmother used to say, "That's the ticket!" whenever we kids got something right. I loved it when she said that! She was a great, great lady. This week's TMTA challenge is to create an ATC with a ticket. This is my little contribution for today!

The Sunday Funnies

When I was a kid, one of the local TV stations in Los Angeles used to run old Laurel and Hardy films on Saturday morning. I loved these guys! This one is short, but pretty funny--enjoy your weekend!

Garden 'Tour for a Cure' ~ Part 2

Female Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Please click the "Tour" blog banner up on the right side of my blog for a look at many wonderful gardens this week! Yesterday I posted a few photos of flowers from my garden in Eagle, Idaho; today here are a few photos of some of the backyard birds that have come to visit. Click on the individual photos for a much closer look at these beautiful creatures! From the time I was little, I have loved wild birds. My parents had a little mountain cabin in the southern California mountains when I was growing up, and my dad always had feeders out for the squirrels and birds. I remember taking many trips with him up to the little general store and helping him scoop bird seed and crushed peanuts into bags to take back to the cabin. We'd lay peanuts out on the porch railing for the squirrels and often, the stellar blue jays would swoop down and steal them. I discovered that, if I threw a peanut up high, a blue jay would catch it in mid air. This was a fun game for me. Wherever I've lived as an adult, I've made sure I've had bird feeders so our little friends would have a place to feel welcome. My favorites are the hummingbirds. My parents just loved those birds and we always had them come and drink from the little bottles hanging from our patio cover rafters when I was a child. Ah, sweet memories . . .

Female and Male Housefinches


Male Yellow-headed Blackbird


Male House Sparrow, Mourning Dove


Black-chinned Hummingbird


Male American Goldfinch


Black billed Magpie


Hummingbird drinking from my Butterfly Bush

Garden Tour Week! Part 1-Flowers

Hosted by Sweet Annee,"Tour for a Cure" is a look at some wonderful gardens this week, while calling attention to the serious issue of trying to conquer breast cancer. (Click on the Tour for a Cure banner on the right side of my blog for a closer look at this, and down further, there is a blue badge with a pink ribbon that you can click to contribute to breast cancer research for free.) As I've noted before, I'm sort of living in "limbo" right now, and I don't know what my garden at my home in Idaho looks like because I haven't been there in 5 (egads!) months. We have a neighbor boy mowing our lawns and I'm told that the yards look great, so I have to trust that all is okay there. I have many photos of my flowers and the birds that always visited our yard every spring and summer, so I thought I'd share a few from last year and the year before.

TMTA - "Hands"

The challenge for TMTA this week is to make an ATC featuring the idea of "hands" and it was stated on their website, "In my opinion, hands always are a fantastic and compelling motive . ." I think that's so true! Our hands can say so much about us, whether we use them to craft, to gesture, to caress a child's face, or to offer a hand to help someone who's fallen. We have so many uses and expressions for our hands! In this old photo of silent film star Theda Bara, my eyes were drawn to her hand and the way she's holding it; it looks so elegant. I thought this would fit the challenge.

"Fathers Know Best~ and Sunday Funnies"

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all dads everywhere!
(and in loving memory to my own wonderful dad and all the dads who are in heaven, as well); thinking of some of the wonderful sitcoms of the past featuring dads, here's a funny clip from "Leave it to Beaver"--it's cute; I thought the take on women was especially amusing--enjoy!

"Tag, I'm It"

Photo courtesy of Vintage Stamper

Well, it seems as though I've been "tagged" by my friend Patti of Treasure Barn, and since I haven't done this before, I will try my best.

The Rules of the Tag Game: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Well, I don't think of myself as all that interesting, but here goes:

1. I am painfully shy. Long ago, when I was in high school, as I slowly made friends, people would tell me they were surprised I was such a nice person; they'd thought I was "stuck up" because I didn't talk to or look at people.

2. I am a magazine addict, (although my "habit" is currently under control).

3. I once roller-skated across the Golden Gate Bridge with one of my girlfriends. We made it to the other end, 1.7 miles later, on the old shoe skates that had metal wheels!

4. I absolutely HATE watermelon and I don't know why, but I wouldn't even let my kids chew watermelon-flavored gum when they were growing up because I couldn't stand the smell of it.

5. My hair is naturally curly, but I flat-iron it to make it straight. Most people who have only seen me with straight hair are very surprised when they see me if I let it dry naturally.

6. I am really good at teaching dogs to do tricks!

7. I started college at the age of 39 and graduated with a B.A. in English, summa cum laude, while raising 4 kids alone and holding down a part-time job. (I'm not bragging; I just couldn't think of anything else for number 7!)

Here's the list of ladies I'm passing this on to:

Myrna of More than Heirlooms
Jean of Bluebirds Living in the Meadow
Heather of Creative Solace
Louise of Kard Krazy
BJ of Sweet Nothings
Jen of The Cottage Nest
Faith of Faith's Vintage Vanity

Whew! That was a lot of work! Have a very lucky Friday the 13th, everyone!

Another Happy Birthday

We've had lots of birthdays in our family lately, with more to come . . . but today belongs to my sister, Jill; HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, my sweet sister. Thank you for being such a wonderful sister, friend, and always an attentive, loving, and helpful daughter to our mom. Besides being such a great sister to me, I admire you for being such a terrific wife and mother. Although you are younger, I look up to you and am always inspired by your honesty, work ethic, and above all, your intelligence and honor. I love you and hope you have a happy, happy day, full of fun and fond memories to keep. PS--This little card is for you, and is on it's way to you along with your birthday presents! PPS--The card looks better in person--some of the shine and glitter doesn't show up in the photo . . . you can click on it and get a better look. Happy Birthday!

"Running Around in Circles"

For TMTA Monday, this week the theme is to incorporate something "round" into your little card~it can be anything, as long as it's round. Soooo, in between helping my daughter paint my granddaughter's bedroom, going to mail my son's birthday gift, going out and shopping for my sister's birthday present, and looking for a job, (whew!) I feel like I'm running around in circles today. Here's my ATC . . . oops--now I see that I should have written "dancing" instead of "going" on the card because of the ballerina dress, but, oh well; it would be nice not to have this silly condition of OCD because NOW I'm going to worry about that the rest of the day. Guess I'll have to let go of this one--I'm too tired to re-do it! Have a great week, everyone!

"The Sunday Funnies"

When I was a little girl, my mother taught me a lot of silly songs and silly rhymes and sayings, which I in turn, passed on to my children, and then my grandchildren. One of the silly sayings started out, "Mellow greetings, Yookie Dookie! You remind me of a man . . ." That was one of my favorite silly things to say; I taught it to my kids, and my grandchildren always giggle when they're saying it with me. Several years ago, I was watching an old movie on TNT, "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer," with Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and a beautiful 19 year-old Shirley Temple, and I was so surprised to hear Cary Grant saying it in the movie! I had never known that this is where my mom learned it when she was young! Enjoy . . . and have a great Sunday!

"Taking a Break with Helen"

Well, I thought I'd better take a break from actually making some art versus thinking about making some art, and leave a post on here . . . I find that, although I wanted this to be mostly a blog for my artwork, I haven't done much of that lately. My blog has gone in several different directions, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I've been so busy with grandchildren and family, and I have all of my art supplies in boxes in my daughter's bedroom closet, with really nowhere to spread them out. Since we STILL haven't sold our home in Idaho, (which is just the way the market is there, unfortunately), we're sort of "vagabonds" right now. I haven't worked since we moved here at the end of January, and I need to get busy and look for a job so we can move into an apartment. My daughter doesn't want us to leave, and paying rent to her is helping her, as she's a single mom, but I feel that 4 months is much longer than we originally planned to stay--and going from a 2900 square-foot home to basically, only a bedroom and bathroom that we can call our own, has been hard. I am truly grateful that she's opened her home to us, but I think we need our own space, and she and her little girl need to have the house to themselves, no matter how much they protest.

I found this cabinet card photo in a little antique shop when I spent that lovely afternoon with Myrna, and anyone's welcome to use the image. There is a name written on the back of the card: it looks like "Helen Nippert Pulleon" to me. Maybe it was she who sported the original "bowl cut" ~ at any rate, she was a cutie!

A Hidden Danger - Warning for Parents

I grew up in Southern California, where my sisters and I learned to swim early and swam a lot when we were growing up. After raising kids who took swimming lessons and swam not only in pools, but in rivers and creeks, and often went waterskiing in lakes, (as we lived in the Pacific Northwest), I thought I knew all the rules of water safety. Not so, apparently. Tonight, on MSN, I just read about a little boy who died over an hour after getting out of a swimming pool and walking home with his mother--he died of "dry drowning." Such a tragedy! I had never, ever heard of this before, and, because there are warning signs and children can be saved if this is caught early enough, I think all parents, grandparents, and anyone else who cares for children, especially during the summer months, should be informed. If you're interested, you can read about it here--the news article lists the signs to be aware of. Since there are so many moms and grandmas writing the blogs I'm fond of visiting, I thought I'd try to get the word out.

Thank You, Thank You!

Today I had a surprise waiting for me in my mailbox! Sweet Faith of Faith's Vintage Vanity sent me these lovely vintage treasures; I was the lucky person who won her very first giveaway! I've not won many things in my life, and it was a sweet surprise when she notified me. I'm so grateful to her for the lovely earrings, pair of vintage gloves, needle threader, beautiful old lipstick holder, and the wonderful buttons and lacy, star-shaped doily. Thank you, Faith, so very much! I will have fun thinking of all the things I can do with these lovely gifts. You're a sweetheart!

TMTA Challenge - "Towers"

I chose the Eiffel Tower for this TMTA challenge, not only because it's a famous landmark, but because, especially after studying French in college, I've always wanted to go there, and it seems like it would be such a romantic and interesting place. That doesn't sound very original, I know, but it's what I thought of . . .

The Sunday Funnies

Harvey Korman ~ 1927-2008


The world has lost a great funnyman; you were very much loved by so many, Mr. Korman. I know you're up in Heaven now, making the angels laugh.