SIGNS

Sometimes it just seems like I am on a

and I just try to go along with things

and just when I think everything is going along  fine I hit a

so I just have to

and before too long,I know that things will be looking

Tiny Treasures and Today's Weather!

Last Thursday I went to another Estate Sale and now that I have a van, I thought I could "load it up"!

Of course all I found was some tiny little treasures. I got some stuff from the garage - old table legs, a chisel, an old birdhouse that was falling apart, some garden tools, a tiny sander that may or may not work but was only $1.00 and some old cigar boxes. I also found some wire, I love wire, I'm going to use it some day for something.

 I am usually in the company of elderly men who are picking through trays of odds and ends, jars full of nails and screws, and whatever can be found on the dusty workbenches. The men are in the garage and the basements and the women are in the bedrooms shaking out the linens looking for holes or stains or in the kitchen turning over plates and dishes to see the makers. Sometimes I'll see that another woman is sifting through the garage and I'll think - "Oh crap! She's looking for garden stuff! I've got competition!", that being said, I missed out on a cool tall stool and a strange umbrella birdfeeder!
Oh well.
 In the basement I found some adorable little chairs, 2 are at the top of this post and here is another.

So, it was another good treasure hunt day!

When I returned home, I spent the whole afternoon working out in my backyard. The weather was in the high 60's and I raked leaves and scooped doggie poop and basically worked on trying to get ready for spring and eventually planting!

Then  I woke up this morning and there was snow AGAIN! AAAHHHHH!!!!!

On one of my favorite blogs - http://junkerjane.blogspot.com/  Catherine had posted a photo of her beautiful tree that she sees out of her kitchen window. (Lucky Girl) so I decided to post a pic of MY kitchen window view....ugh! Snow! Oh! If you haven't been to Junker's blog, then you are really missing out. She has this crazy fantastic artistic mind and comes up with just the absolutely coolest creations! You have to see her Monsters! Many have tried to imitate her but she is always coloring WAY outside of the lines and running circles around everyone else. Check her out! Seriously I don't think the girl ever sleeps!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Well, I thought an Irish Setter would be appropriate. This is Riley! MY favorite boarding client!
I took some photos of him with the intention of doing a painting of him...which I WILL do, someday.
St. Patricks used to be my second favorite holiday. (Halloween being #1 of course!) I no longer go out and celebrate. Now that I am older (OLD) I just don't (CAN"T) deal with the hangover problem the next day.
But back in those days, I'd join my friends (mostly Irish Catholics) at one of the local Irish spots (BAR) and celebrated the holiday on March 17th! The actual day. Who cared if it was in the middle of the week!

This year, the big celebrations in town were held on Saturday the 13th! Because that is so much more convenient!
This is one of MY major pet peeves. I argue about this with some of my family and friends all the time!
WHAT exactly is the pet peeve? - I say that you can't just change EVERYTHING to make it more convenient! I think that people need to get their birthday calls, cards and gifts ON their BIRTHDAY!
Not the next weekend or WHENEVER! I don't think you should celebrate Christmas in January. (unless someone is very ill or was off in a war!) I even heard that some people wanted to change Halloween to the last Saturday in October! WHAT!!!! It HAS to be October 31st.
At the risk of sounding ancient and just plain cranky, I think that our lives have become entirely TOO convenient! Nobody wants to take a moment and slow down. I am very guilty of ALWAYS multi-tasking and doing everything I can online to save time and cash but sometimes you have to STOP and say - "Hey, TODAY was the day YOU were born, let's stop and celebrate! Or Hey, today's St. Paddy's! Let's have a wee bit of that Irish whiskey.
So, am I making too big of a deal out of all this?  Let me know if you think I need to just chill out.
I just think that we lose the magic of the day if we have to schedule it to a more convenient time.

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!

TODAY!

CUPCAKE!

I got my Cupcake from Sassy Jennifer aka  http://sassypackrat.blogspot.com/ !
She was having a Giveaway to celebrate 110 readers. (She is way past that number now) and her Random Generator picked my number!  Wahoo! I feel like it's Christmas around here again! I've been blessed with such wonderful creations lately! Thank You Sassy! I adore it!
Sassy Jennifer creates the cutest - Cupcakes, Penquins, Owls and other beautiful things!  She has a serious addiction for this guy named Dr. Who (someday I'm going to find that program and watch it and find out who this Dr. guy is!  LOL!) anyway - She is just the sweetest person. She writes helpful instruction posts and funny posts and she's always so upbeat and happy.
To top it off, she has this adorable little Chihuahua named Carmelita - "Lita" and her little black kitty "Binks"!
Can't get any better than that in my book! LOL! Thanks so much Sassy! I Love it!

I thought I had lost Twinkle!

I've written about Twinkle before. My little Chihuahua who was given to me by the Humane Society after she had been abused. Now she's a happy little dog. She plays all day with the other little ones but her Best friend is Blue. She always waits for him to lay down so that she can climb up on him. Blue only lets her do this, everyone else gets the curled lip, like "don't even THINK about it"! The above photo is one of many that I have of the Two of them. (The dog-patterned upholstered estate sale couch is no longer with us, it was destroyed by some BAD kitties) anyway, the other day I could not find Twinkle! I looked everywhere! They always say that you find whatever you lost in the very last place you look...well yeah! I mean why would you keep looking AFTER you find it! So, I looked everywhere and finally I looked behind me!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

I'm Sorry! I had to do it!

I was just hysterically laughing when I happen to find this photo!

Bye Bye Blue Bug!

Is it wrong to love an inanimate object?! Maybe love isn't the right word. But...
A couple of years ago, just before a Major birthday, I took a big leap and decided to mark the upcoming event by buying a VW New Beetle. I had a good reliable car that was almost paid off but I hated driving it!
It wasn't big enough to get anything into it and it wasn't any FUN!

So on the particular day, after a sad stressful day at work, I bought the Bug.

It was blue of course, because, well you know why...because of BLUE! I loved driving that car! With the sunroof open and the wind blowing in our hair! Blue would lean back and stick his nose out of the top (most dogs use a window, but not him) and feel the breeze on his face. When the top was closed, he would have to hunch up a bit, but he sat in the passenger seat like a person. I even got a bumper sticker that read "No, He's NOT a Pony, he's a Great Dane Mix"  because so many people would pull up next to us and yell "What kind a DOG is THAT!" or sometimes "Hey, You need a Bigger Car".
Then on days when I went to Estate sales, I had people helping me WEDGE everything from a couch to a potting bench into the back. Yeah, it did kinda hang out but I would hang little "flags" and bungee it up tight and drive REAL slow. But to be honest..it was a drag in the winter, it was so low to the ground. And then if anything went wrong with it, well none of the local mechanics had the proper tools and it was SO expensive to get repaired. Sigh.....
Then a couple of days ago it started doing this thing like it wasn't in gear and shifting, and it's Not a manual stick! It's an automatic!!!  I was told it was the transmission which means $$$$$$$, like maybe 3 thousand of them! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
SO! Good-bye little Bug! It was fun while it lasted!
I traded it in for a..... Minivan! I can't believe I'm driving a VAN! (Not that there's anything wrong with a van, but...) Anyway, it's White! Like....Blue!
And Hey!  I can get him and the WHOLE gang into it and my Estate Sale and thrift store finds.

(Well maybe, if I can afford anything now!)

Blogger Friends are the BEST!!!

I am so truly grateful for all the wonderful friends I have made by blogging! I can have a stressful day at work and then sit down and read some great blogs, have a good laugh (or shed a tear sometimes) and escape to a place where there are people who share the same interests. I love being inspired and awed by all the cool creations and I am constantly blown away by the fantastic ART. One of my favorite artists is Denise from
 http://oddimagination.blogspot.com/
 she creates some of the coolest work! A lot of the time she will recycle a lightbulb or a bottle as the armature. Everytime she posts a picture of her latest work, I just stare at it and wish that I could TOUCH it. Her work has such texture and something about the "roundness" of it just really gets to me! I always want to reach out and hold it in my hand. Well, Guess what this Sweetheart did! She sent me a KITTY FISH of my very own!
I arrived at work this morning and her package had arrived. I was so excited opening it up! a KITTY!
I adore it! I went around the clinic,where I work, and showed it off to everyone. They all oh'd and ah'd and ran their finger over it to FEEL it! LOL! I told you!  Her art work just makes you Touch it!
Everyone kept telling me how lucky I am, and they are right.....I AM so Lucky!
Thanks So Much Denise!

Of course the Cheshire Cat....

was one of the characters from "Alice in Wonderland" that I loved. And the MadHatter and the crazy Rabbit. But I have to admit that my MOST favorite was the big Monster Dog! Hey, I can't help it, I'm just a sucker for misunderstood dogs! Anyway, the movie was Fantastic! I haven't been to the theater for a very long time. I usually wait for the DVD, but I knew this HAD to be seen on the big screen. I tried to get a good picture of one of the main characters (without the usher/police busting me) but nothing turned except this one and it's not very good. Both my sister and I agreed that we needed to see it again because there was so much to look at and take in. I now have a new word "muchness"! I need to find my MUCHNESS! GO to the movie, you'll love it!

uhhhhh.....er..aaaaa...

I got nothin'
I didn't create a darn thing all week.
It started out with me feeling very ill (much better now) and here it is ...Friday.
I was glad to see the temps rise to the 40's until I got home and saw my backyard.....
a lot of the snow has melted, only to reveal "poopy landmines"! That's my backyard - poop and mud.
I stand at the backdoor armed with a stack of towels to wipe dirty paw-feet.
Ugh! I guess I'd rather have the snow! ...What a complainer I am! (If this is all I have to complain about, well then, I'm lucky!)
I thought about taking a picture but that would just be mean, maybe you are having a "snack " or "beverage" as you read this and it's just not pretty. So I'm posting a photo of last years snapdragons that I had planted at the end of the driveway. They did very well there even though they were "sprinkled" several times a day by Tiger the schnauzer. Tiger belongs to the elderly lady on the corner who walks him at all hours because he "doesn't like to go in his own yard"........well..bye for now, I think I'll have a beverage!