Bloomin' Sunday

Garlic and Lemon Balm by the back door above, Oregano in the front border below.

My wall of blackberries, with wild grapes growing that I can't get to, and below are the crab apples.

Show and Tell Friday- Nelson McCoy swan

I am doing swans again for Show and Tell Friday at Kelli's!

Another of my Favorite Swans, (I seem to have a lot of favorites!) this one is by Nelson McCoy and is my smallest McCoy swan. I really like the color of pink and the detail. She is more realistic than stylistic. Here is another picture, with two of the swans from last week for comparison.

Wordless Wednesday- Colby, Gabriel and Merlin

Deal of the Week- CVS 6-22

This weeks deal is the Total Toothpaste 4.0 oz that is on sale at CVS for 2.99. It is also giving back 2 ECB's and there are $1.50 printable coupons and also coupons in July's ALL YOU magazine at Walmart. You come out ahead .49 for each tube with coupon. The Soy Joy bars are buy 4 for $4 and get 4 ECB's and there are also coupons out for these, making them money makers. If you haven't gotten all the June monthly deals done, now is the time to do them. Remember that the limits went up to 4 for the mouth rinse and the toothbrushes. Have Fun!

Freecycle

Yeah for Freecycle! I put up a notice last night that I had books and womens clothing available.
Woke up this morning to several responses. I took the day off work to deal with this and the books are now all gone and I am waiting for someone to come by for the clothes! Yeah! It would have taken me I don't know how many trips loading up my little car to get rid of this stuff, and this way people who actually want it are getting it. Check out your local Freecycle!

YARD SALE

I was up at 5:00am yesterday, posting my yard sale signs, then back in the yard, setting everything up. By 2 pm I was done. Wore out. I put up a sign saying everything was free and went inside to take a shower.

I had piled most of the clothes onto 4 vinyl tableclothes on the ground; small, medium, large and extra large. Guess which pile saw the most action? Around noon two women pulled up and when I said all the clothes were .25 she started piling her arms with church clothes to take to their church pantry. I was happy to see them go! Just to make it easy on myself, and to clear out as much as possible, I priced all the books and clothes at .25 and still have too much left. There is a chance of rain this afternoon, so I can't just leave them out there with the "FREE" sign. Sigh.

Show and Tell Friday, smaller swans

I am doing swans again for Show and Tell Friday at Kelli's!

This is a smaller Niloak swan, and she has a chip out on the inside as you can see below. The smaller swan is unmarked.

This blue girl and most of the ones pictured here today would have been used as Napkin holders as I discussed earlier in the series. The one below has a lot of crazing and I have trouble reading the markings on the bottom.

I think it says that it was made in 1987, which doesn't make it very old so I think the crazing was part of the glazing process, not a result of aging.

Here is another napkin holder!

This one is a little larger than the others and I am showing both sides since it is asymetrical. Unmarked.

Visit more collections at Kelli's Show and Tell Friday.

First Week in Faner

Well, I am finishing up my first week in Faner, and find that I am getting my 10,000 steps in before noon. I walk over a mile and a half just opening up. This is a large concrete building, four floors and 3 connected wings. There is a Museum at the end pictured here, and the Student Center is off the far end. I get to park in the parking garage now, which means no scraping ice this winter and no over heated car this summer. I am wearing my MBT's and definitely noticing some difference in ease of movement. My knees are still popping though!

I was hoping to have a yard sale this week-end, but the weather forecast keeps bouncing around. Hope its cloudy but dry. More swans coming tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday- Tintangel '07

Navy size

I have been going through my "stuff" getting ready for a yard sale, hopefully next week-end if the weather holds out. I found my old Navy uniform, and gosh did it look small! The pants have a 24 inch waist, which means I was actually no larger than 23. I find that hard to believe!~ I think I was wearing a size 8 or 10, but they are smaller than today's 8 or 10. I weighed 117 at 5' 7" so I was thinner than I should have been. I need to dig out some pictures and scan them. I am finding all kinds of stuff I hadn't seen in years. My homecoming dress from senior year, homemade by Mom. Satin Japanese box with pajamas and slippers that Dad sent from Okinawa in 1962. Somewhere there is a picture of Denise and I in our Pajamas. I need to dig that out too.

When I find the pictures I will add them to this post.

Brush Swan- Show and Tell Fridays

See more Show and Tell posts at Kelli's!

This Brush Swan is old and has crazing which I really like. Marked 681, Brush pottery was at one time owned by Brush McCoy. The original company was started by a Brush, who then joined forces with the McCoy folks. Very similar colors and glazes. This is a fairly large swan. You can see the swans featured so far by clicking on SWANS in the Labels section to the right.

See more Show and Tell posts at Kelli's!

Wordless Wednesday- Mica at Mom's

Recycle that plastic!

Or better yet, don't buy anything in plastic. Yeah, like that is going to happen. I dropped off a big bag of plastic today and had to take a look in the book bin, just in case there was anything I needed in there. There wasn't. Just a bunch of textbooks. I have found unopened journals and old Sci-Fi in there before, so I have to look.
It was a nice day today, mid 80's and lot less humid after the thunderstorms rolled through last night. Not going to last though.
I had to fill up the tank with gas today, $3.92 a gallon. Glad I only have a 10 gallon tank, and get 28 miles to the gallon when I have to run the airconditioner. Else I might have hyperventilated.

Two more years of driving back and forth to work 5 days a week. That's all, just 2 years and 3 months. That's all, just 2 years 3 months and selling my house. That's all.

90's and humid, I think I'll read for awhile.

/

One of my favorite stops on my 50th birthday trip was this book store in Maine. The Big Chicken Barn Books and Antiques. We could have spent a heck of a lot more time there than we did. And money.

Swans for Show and Tell Friday

See more Show and Tell posts at Kelli's!

Here are some of my white swans, some with painted beaks and some without. The first three are unmarked and very different from one another, I like the lines of the largest one the best, but the one in front has a cheeky tilt to her head. She makes me smile.

This little girl was made in West Germany by Goebel. She is unglazed but has a painted beak, much of which has flaked off.

See more Show and Tell posts at Kelli's!

Forgotten Skills

I sold a Cashmere blend blazer today to someone in New York City. She had written offering me $5 less than what I was asking because she was going to have to pay some one at least $20 to hem up the sleeves for her because they were too long. When did we all forget how to sew? What things did your Mother do regularly that you would not have a clue how to do today?

I want to learn more about canning but I knit and crochet and my Mom never learned how. She did teach me to sew, and while I rarely whip out the machine these days, I can certainly hem or sew on a button! I look around at the world today and wonder what would happen if we did have to become more self-reliant for our day to day needs. I understand the economics of scale but the loss of independence is scary, since our dependence is not on one another in a community building sort of way, but on governments and monopolies who really don't care about our real needs.

We become convinced that these powers that be will always provide, but didn't we learn something from Katrina? Myanmar is taking very good care of their people, right? A little time now spent learning some forgotten skills might save us some trouble later.

Wordless Wednesday-Mom, Gabriel, her garden

Lumberjack Kate

I came home early today, and it was the first Tuesday of the month, siren testing time at 10:00. I haven't been around when that happens before. Freaks my youngsters out. Jean-Claude was on my lap, and he took off like a rocket. I will have to keep an eye on them if any other sirens go off.

I spent some time in the back yard forest today, chopping down volunteer maples, black walnuts, and some other fast growing thing. I had worked up a good sweat, came in to cool off and the power went off. I called my neighbor to make sure it wasn't just my house. I don't know how big a section of town was out, but my whole neighborhood was. My bedroom was still pretty cool, because the air had been on in there since I got home from work. I took a cool shower and just laid in bed. I started thinking that it might be kind of hard to get dressed for work in the dark, so got up and started getting things together while it was still light enough to see. It was out for a couple of hours, but all powered up now.

CVS- Mom and Denise

I got a phone call yesterday after Mom and Denise got home from their shopping. Denise was pretty proud of herself, because she got $99 worth of stuff for $6. Of course, those are CVS prices, and we frugal folks would never spend that much in the first place, but still, it was a great trip for them and I think enough of a kick to keep them at it. Denise used up some of her ECB's to buy some allergy meds for James, and Mom used up some of hers buying a hairdryer, but she has plenty left over for next weeks deals. They both finished out the June free with ECB deals and made good use of the last day for the 5 off of 15 coupon. I am down to $19 ECB's, so need to do some configuratin' myself!