Fave Monday

Today's the day to choose a favorite from Etsy. I've been having browser troubles this last week so haven't saved many faves, but here's one I uploaded some time ago.

This is Helena and her Bird from Sycamore Moon Studios. I think the artistry is amazing.

Check out these other pics:

I've been busier'n a...

Barefoot boy on a red-ant bed! Lots of things to post about today, starting with:



The "Proximidade" award Claudia presented me with last week. It's a cool award--thank you, lady!--that focuses on one's proximity to others through blogland. Recipients supposedly have charming blogs. And I am honored that anyone would find mine so, especially someone like Claudia whose own blog is so charming.

I found this further explanation on the net:
"Blogs who receive this award are 'exceedingly charming' say its authors. This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I'm supposed to choose blogs of my own to honor, and I will, later. (Procrastination? What's that?)

Also, I learned this morning that I won a ring from Claudia's Etsy shop. Here's her post. Thank you, lady. I love your rings!

Yesterday was my sis's b'day. She's the grandmother of Jaden whom I posted about here, and she's come down to visit this weekend. Last night she spent with my SIL--we lost my brother to cancer last year and have all banded together to help my SIL through. Billie is especially being terrifical cuz she, who hates to call anyone on the phone, makes sure she calls Sunny twice a week. Billie says she can't be much use practically but she can make people laugh. (Jaden doesn't fall far from the tree! Nor did his mother.)

So, since my SIL, my sis Ginger, and I will be sharing our weekend guest, I thought I'd share pics of my guest bedroom, today being Saturday and my guest bedroom being mostly thrift-decorated.

I showed this art deco lamp on another post but here it is in its natural habitat.



And here's its residing place.



This chest was a gift from my MIL when Tom and I were first married. It had been painted many times by the time we got it and we painted it many times afterward. Twenty or so years ago, Tom told me that if I didn't get rid of it he'd put it out for trash pickup. Because it was a family piece, I lent it to my niece, who then lent it to Billie, who decided to strip it. She discovered first the tremendous grain pattern, then a lock with an 1880 patent date. At that point, I decided to take it back. I know; I'm horrible! I had it professionally refinished, and I've since used it--in various houses--in the entryway, then in the LR and finally, in this house, in the guest BR.

This is a pic of the bed. Sorry for the blurriness; I didn't break out my tripod this morning. The headboard Tom and I bought thirty years ago. Yeesh! I'm sure it'd look great painted, but yunno, I do love wood grain. The pillows all are thrift found, though not the doll. That was handmade by a very dear friend.



This bedside table was a thrift find as was the lamp. The small tray I bought new in England in 1976. I know; some of you weren't even a gleam in your daddy's eye back then. Can't see it too clearly, but below the table is a wagon in which I keep reading material. Never know when a guest might want a novel.





This is our honking analog tv. According to the guys who installed our satellite, this tv will outlast cockroaches! Anyway, the dresser we're using as a stand one of my sisters--Alice--bought ages ago. When she married her new hubby and moved into their new home, her MIL--a designer--suggested she perhaps not bring the dresser. I used it as a sofa table in my last house, but it makes a pretty good tv stand. (It also could probably use a coat of paint--see the patches I can't disguise?--but I think that adds to its charm.)



Lastly, my best ever trash to treasure:



After our much-loved Maine coon cat Murphy died in 2000, Tom and I couldn't bear to think of getting another cat. After about a year, I found myself enchanted by yellow kitties. I'd never had one. We weren't actually considering getting another; I just thought they were cute. Then, dinner at Ginger's and we heard yowls from outside. Ginge lives on the lake; a lot of people dump cats out there. Well, we lived on the lake too at the time, but not so many people dumped them on our road. Anyway, since she knew one of her cats was outside, Ginge went out to check. And found that her cat was protecting her territory against an invading yellow kitty. Max was around three, three and a half months old and he was scrawny and unfriendly. And we took him home. He now rules our house, as cats do.

Now, I have laundry to do. I've missed y'all!

Etsy Fave Monday

I love how Claudia of Cloud Nine Creations chooses an Etsy item to feature in her Friday blog so thought I'd do the same on Mondays. I love the whimsy of this pillow and the colors. It sorta kinda reminds me of MacKenzie-Childs.



The painted pillow comes from artzysusan. Check her out.

And this is me, signing out.

Thrift Saturday

I like how bloggers choose a day of the week to feature a particular subject. I choose today--Saturday--and thrifting. I don't do as much as I once did. I have far too much stuff as is and, while some I've met on the 'net can do very well selling large projects, my area and my talents preclude me. So I'll focus on past thriftings.

Today is the reading chair in my office. I picked it up at auction about oh, I dunno, maybe twelve, thirteen years ago. It was in a sad state but had an excellent frame. Apparently the previous owner had cats she couldn't control--as if any of us can--and the back upholstery was shredded. Since we'd already bought our lake house where we planned to retire, I decided to reupholster in denim. Didn't do it myself though I have upholstered much smaller projects. The upholsterer was dismayed by my choice of fabric, said it was obviously an expensive chair, but I prevailed. Though the denim has lightened in places, I still like the look of it.



The table, lamp, clock and monkey beside the chair were all thrifted too, though the clock maybe not so much thrifted as antiqued. I paid $45 for it more than thirty years ago, which was a fortune for me. But I totally fell in love with it and it was in that interim when I had no one to worry about but myself. I've never regretted it one single second. (That was also the only time I've ever traveled abroad. Never regretted that either, not one time in the three years it took me to pay for the trip.)

The lamp I found at a DAV thrift in Dallas--also a while back. (You might as well consider that said from now on, unless I specifically say different. *g*) The table was my first faux marble. Not a great job, though I thought it was at the time. Tom put on such a nice topcoat that though I marble far better now, I refuse to change it. The monkey, now he's a recent purchase. I got him at a Horchow Finale last summer, also in Dallas on one of our yearly visits to the area when I see my old shoppin' buddy. (She's not old; we've just been friends for a long time!) The monkey was $5, and since Linda has a monkey kinda theme in her MBR, she picked one up immediately. Me, I had to think about it. Eventually he convinced me.



And that's all, folks. I got chores to do.

P.S. I just learned I was included in a gorgeous Etsy treasury. Check it out here.

I've been tagged!

By Jean Elizabeth. Thanks, I think.

So here goes: seven random, maybe weird things. Most will be random, few weird.

One, I'm sorta, kinda middle of eleven children (five is sorta kinda).

Two, I and two of my sisters were published in romance back in the day. (My last book was out in '89; both of my sisters published into the 'nineties.)

Three, hmm, well, one of my bestest friends I met through writing in the late eighties and we've had weekly phone dates pretty much since then, but I never met her face to face until 2003.

Four, I'm a total eclectic in reading and movie/tv watching. I love Jane Austen and Doctor Who, Dick Francis and Will Smith. I rarely read fantasy but one of my fave authors is a lady I met on Mystery Writers Forum ages ago--Linnea Sinclair. Try her, you'll like her stuff!

Five, two of my sisters and I talk on the phone practically every morning and sorta kinda exercise by bluetooth.

Six, my sisters and I--six of us--go away every year for a weekend. This year we're planning on Eureka Springs AR.

And seven--gotta save the best for the last. I've been married twice but only had one husband. Even though, legally, we were divorced for four years, we were only apart for a year so we celebrate our original anniversary (our second was April Fool's Day; who wants to celebrate that?).

Now, for the tags: I'll start with my niece Amanda. Then my sister Daisy. Then Claudia. And Ange. Then there's Kobus who does a great trash to treasure blog. And Patti, a dear writing friend. And finally Maire.

Wow, that was an exercise. Now I think I have to comment on each of the blogs to let them know they've been tagged? Hey, it's ma first time.

Ten years ago...

I was saying goodbye to my old world. Early retirement brought me to the Texas hill country and a totally different life, which suddenly included the internet. I'd always shied away from it for fear I'd become obsessed. I am an obsessive personality!

And I did--become obsessed, that is. I found Mystery Writers Forum immediately. Couldn't find a better bunch of people. A group of us formed our own special circle; them I'm still in touch with, though sporadically.

I stayed with the forum until it closed several years ago, though at the end I wasn't as active as I once was. I don't know where everyone went from there; I'd become sort of disenchanted with writing and have since focused my efforts elsewhere. But yesterday I found Maire's blog and Kathy's. Maire--one of my special circle--is in Toronto and Kathy's somewhere in South Dakota (I think it's the South one). Both are old MWFers.

Gotta love the 'net!

And so it begins

I didn't start my moderate regimen yesterday. I know, it was the very first day in 2009, but it was also still the holidays, so I gave myself a break. Today, well, today, I begin. Everything...in moderation. And that means the internet too.

I've been working on several tassels and finally finished a few I think I'm happy enough with to post on Etsy. If I do post these, I'll be stretching it out over the next couple of days and working on a fourth that's almost complete.

It takes me a loong time to do tassels. Felting, not so much, but I'm waiting for supplies for that. So it's either tassels or pillows, both of which can be time-consuming.

I really like this first one, but I started with a purchased tassel, something I got at a sidewalk sale in Austin very inexpensively.



This is one I did at my sister's behest. My whimsical tassel now listed on Etsy has gotten a goodly number of views--no purchases, just views--so she thought I should try a MacKenzie-Childs approach. Didn't quite make it, but it lead me in a definite direction.



This last is my attempt at a Valentine tassel. I'm not sure I'm there yet either. May do another differently.



Have a great day!