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Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! Spread a little "love".
Friday, February 14, 2014
Valentine's Day Giveaway Winner
Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! Spread a little "love".
Monday, February 10, 2014
Swoon Worthy Rooms
This time of year when some of us are having cold, snowy, icy weather (which seems to feel like it will never end) it's hard to be cheerful and excited with at least 2 more months of winter to face. I love to look at colorful, bright, rooms with loads of color and whimsical artwork. I've selected a few in various styles, modern, traditional, and bohemian. I hope it will bring a bright spot in your day. So grab a cup of coffee and dream of warmer, sunnier weather coming soon. (We hope)
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| House to Home UK |
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| House to Home Co., UK While not very colorful, I found it very soothing and pretty to look at |
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| House to Home Co., UK |
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| House to Home Co., UK |
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| House to Home Co.,UK |
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| House to Home Co., UK |
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| House to Home Co., UK I'm not a fan of the color Citron, but I love the bird pillow and bohemian feel of this room |
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| House to Home Co., UK |
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| House to Home Co., UK |
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| House to Home Co., UK One of my Favorite room settings. |
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| House to Home Co., UK |
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Waterlogue
Hello everyone,
It seems that you can always find something new and interesting on Facebook. A couple of days ago, I found an image a friend on my page had posted using a technique called Waterlogue. It is an app designed specifically for IPhones and IPads. The cost is $2.99 US dollars and works great if you want to give your images taken with your phone a different look... like a painting.
I've had so much fun with this app, taking my photos and using this technique. I have also used my camera, downloading my images to my IPhone and using this technique. You can purchase it here: Waterlogue. There are several different kinds of finishes you can use for your photos...Natural, Bold, Luminous, Its Technical, Travelogue, Rainy, Illustration, Soaked, Shallow, Color Bloom, Fashionable, and Blotted. So many option's and you can load photos directly to your Instagram, Twitter, and Tumbir. I have selected some of my images shown with just my camera and how they look after applying Waterlogue.
So, these are some of the photos that I've used Waterlogue on. It's a fun app and with all the different types of finishes, you can spend a LOT of your time playing around with this. LOL
Have a great weekend!
It seems that you can always find something new and interesting on Facebook. A couple of days ago, I found an image a friend on my page had posted using a technique called Waterlogue. It is an app designed specifically for IPhones and IPads. The cost is $2.99 US dollars and works great if you want to give your images taken with your phone a different look... like a painting.
I've had so much fun with this app, taking my photos and using this technique. I have also used my camera, downloading my images to my IPhone and using this technique. You can purchase it here: Waterlogue. There are several different kinds of finishes you can use for your photos...Natural, Bold, Luminous, Its Technical, Travelogue, Rainy, Illustration, Soaked, Shallow, Color Bloom, Fashionable, and Blotted. So many option's and you can load photos directly to your Instagram, Twitter, and Tumbir. I have selected some of my images shown with just my camera and how they look after applying Waterlogue.
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| This is a photo I took of St. Andrews Bay yesterday |
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| This is the same image used with an app called Waterlogue |
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| Original Picture |
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| Original with Waterlogue Finish |
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| Original Picture |
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| Original With Waterlogue Finish |
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| Original Picture |
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| Original With Waterlogue Finish |
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| Original Picture |
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| Original With Waterlogue Finish |
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| Original Picture |
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| Original with Waterlogue Finish |
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| Original Picture |
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| Original with Waterlogue Finish |
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| Original Finish |
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| Image with Waterlogue Finish |
Have a great weekend!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Valentine's Day And a Giveaway
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way than this: where I does not exist nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
- Pablo Neruda, "Love Sonnet XVII"
The History of Valentine's Day
The origins of Valentine's Day trace back to the ancient Roman celebration of Lupercalia. Held on February 15, Lupercalia honored the gods Lupercus and Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.
In addition to a bountiful feast, Lupercalia festivities are purported to have included the pairing of young women and men. Men would draw women's names from a box, and each couple would be paired until next year's celebration.
While this pairing of couples set the tone for today's holiday, it wasn't called "Valentine's Day" until a priest named Valentine came along. Valentine, a romantic at heart, disobeyed Emperor Claudius II's decree that soldiers remain bachelors. Claudius handed down this decree believing that soldiers would be distracted and unable to concentrate on fighting if they were married or engaged. Valentine defied the emperor and secretly performed marriage ceremonies. As a result of his defiance, Valentine was put to death on February 14.
After Valentine's death, he was named a saint. As Christianity spread through Rome, the priests moved Lupercalia from February 15 to February 14 and renamed it St. Valentine's Day to honor Saint Valentine.
What's Cupid Got to Do with It?
According to Roman mythology, Cupid was the son of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Cupid was known to cause people to fall in love by shooting them with his magical arrows. But Cupid didn't just cause others to fall in love - he himself fell deeply in love.
As legend has it, Cupid fell in love with a mortal maiden named Psyche. Cupid married Psyche, but Venus, jealous of Psyche's beauty, forbade her daughter-in-law to look at Cupid. Psyche, of course, couldn't resist temptation and sneaked a peek at her handsome husband. As punishment, Venus demanded that she perform three hard tasks, the last of which caused Psyche's death.
Cupid brought Psyche back to life and the gods, moved by their love, granted Pysche immortality. Cupid thus represents the heart and Psyche the (struggles of the) human soul. (Info from Here)
In honor of Valentine's Day, I have selected some pretty cool red and white items to get you in the mood.
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| Pottery Barn |
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| West Elm |
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| Anthropologie |
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| A Bit of Whimsey (for a child's room or the little kid in all of us) I purchased this print adding to another print I already have to create a collage. Etsy (Poppy and Scout in Australia |
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| Emma Bridgewater |
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| J Crew |
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| J Crew |
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| J Crew |
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Two Unlikely Plumbers
First, it should be noted that through our 40 some odd years of marriage, we have owned several homes, mostly new but have had our share of "fixer uppers" that required us to try to learn and employ basic home repair skills. Anything significant usually had some expert assistance from professionals that we knew, and as a specific preface for this post, hubby would insist on noting that the only real plumbing he had done previously was in an old house we once renovated and the entire plumbing project was overseen and assisted by an excellent professional we knew who worked for the builder I was working for at the time.
In fact, hubby has usually held to the strict rule that any projects concerning plumbing and anything other than very basic electricity absolutely must be hired out! But, as human nature goes, sometimes we allow our sense of self-confidence and (usually false) sense of competence in an area to overrule our good common sense. This is what happened on our most recent visit with our daughter and her family in Texas over the holidays.
So, meet our two unlikely plumbers...Husband and Son-In-Law.
During a tour of their new house, (new to them, the house is about 10 years old), daughter had mentioned that their shower handle did not move beyond the halfway point and that the water was not very hot. We had exactly the same problem with our shower handle in our new shower in our rental in Florida. When the weather turned cold we also noticed our water was not very hot...almost cold. We contacted the owner who came over and said there was something that they put in new shower handles so that kids could not turn it past a certain point and scald themselves. Easy enough...just remove the handle and adjust the part that keeps the handle from moving to release hotter water. It seemed easy enough watching him do it and my hubby had "assisted" somewhat so he felt comfortable with what needed to be done.
So, when daughter mentioned that she had the same problem we told them what we learned and off marched husband and son-in-law to fix the problem. After reviewing the faucet, it appeared similar to the one we have in Florida that we just had adjusted. Daughter and son-in-law just recently purchased this home...their first one, in late October, and did not know where to turn off the water. This is a key point for the remainder of our tale!
So hubby and son-in-law Drew started the disassembly of the shower handle, easy to remove the center screw and the outer cover and decorative sleeve covering the central mechanism. Drew started to unscrew the bronze bushing that covered the center shaft and other components of the water control handle and water began to leak out from under this bushing. Hubby is pretty sure he started a sentence like "I think we need to turn the water off first..." but isn't sure he finished it before the bushing was loosened enough to slip off of the thread holding everything together and water was suddenly spewing from the handle's center shaft like a fire hydrant! The pressure of this stream blew components out into the shower stall and, without anything covering the drain, one of the small dime-sized springs was lost into this drain! The other spring was shot out into the center of the master bathroom but we didn't find this until the next day.
Well, bedlam ensued from this point. Both of our erstwhile plumbers were being sprayed with relatively cold water, the bathroom is getting soaked everywhere, our three year old granddaughter is becoming hysterical and crying that her daddy is going to DIE, our 1 1/2 year old grandson is just standing in the middle of this circus watching the show (I later get him to go upstairs with me so I can change his drenched clothing, everything below the waste was just soaked!) while Daughter and I are starting to grab towels and anything else we think useful to absorb the water. Drew yells "everything needs to go to higher ground!" and hubby is getting out of the shower to head out and look for a water shut-off. Hubby spent (wasted) nearly 10 minutes looking for a control in the bathroom itself, all shut-off valves were for toilets and sinks, nothing for the shower. So outside we go, soaking wet into the dark freezing night with a flashlight to look for a water shut-off valve!
Within a few minutes the plumbers find a water control valve outside near the sidewalk and Hubby begins to turn the faucet off while Drew is inside getting drenched (telling me "it's getting cold") still trying to stop the flow of water by putting the bushing back or something, anything! (a totally impossible task), Hubby is turning this valve for nearly 10 minutes or more without any effect on the water flow in the shower (which is still filling the bathroom with water, fortunately the central drain is taking a good deal of the water so it's not running out into the rest of the house, yet.). So hubby goes across the street to ask a neighbor if this is indeed the right shut-off valve and he is assured that it is (this neighbor is now on the "not to be trusted" list, he obviously didn't know what he was talking about, this valve turned out to be for the lawn sprinkler system!). So we work on this valve for nearly half an hour, hands freezing, mud from the yard all over our clothes, the valve continues to turn but we're not sure if it is actually closing, but, in one of our better decisions of the night, we have decided to call the city DPW in the meantime and eventually a truck shows up and the friendly young man hops out, goes to another area and lifts a metal plate off of the correct valve (that valve cover plate, clearly labeled "Water", was covered with trash bags full of leaves that hubby and I had raked up earlier), and within a few minutes he had used his special tool to turn this valve off and the water is finally stopped.
The remainder of this evening is spent trying to figure how we might put the control back together with the pieces we have found (not knowing at this point that we are missing a spring and also, in retrospect, not understanding exactly how the components needed to be replaced, there is in fact a set and critical order to the items, especially the rubber gaskets!).
So, to end this sorry tale, two days later we find a plumbing supply store with a good inventory, I've discovered a schematic of the fixtures for this shower on-line that help the "plumbers" understand and explain to the store salesman what is needed to fix this mess, and we are eventually able to restore the shower to it's proper configuration. This is after a few attempts to replace the parts with the rubber gaskets in the wrong order, a situation which leads to the faucet leaking behind the walls! We cleaned up water several times during these three days but Daughter and family now have a shower that allows them to run water as hot as they want and Drew has the valuable experience of knowing, like Hubby, that any additional plumbing projects should most likely be hired out! THE END ;-)
In fact, hubby has usually held to the strict rule that any projects concerning plumbing and anything other than very basic electricity absolutely must be hired out! But, as human nature goes, sometimes we allow our sense of self-confidence and (usually false) sense of competence in an area to overrule our good common sense. This is what happened on our most recent visit with our daughter and her family in Texas over the holidays.
So, meet our two unlikely plumbers...Husband and Son-In-Law.
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| Hubby "The Plumber" |
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| Son-In-Law, with grandkids Asher and Gemma |
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| A similar style and design shower faucet control |
So, when daughter mentioned that she had the same problem we told them what we learned and off marched husband and son-in-law to fix the problem. After reviewing the faucet, it appeared similar to the one we have in Florida that we just had adjusted. Daughter and son-in-law just recently purchased this home...their first one, in late October, and did not know where to turn off the water. This is a key point for the remainder of our tale!
So hubby and son-in-law Drew started the disassembly of the shower handle, easy to remove the center screw and the outer cover and decorative sleeve covering the central mechanism. Drew started to unscrew the bronze bushing that covered the center shaft and other components of the water control handle and water began to leak out from under this bushing. Hubby is pretty sure he started a sentence like "I think we need to turn the water off first..." but isn't sure he finished it before the bushing was loosened enough to slip off of the thread holding everything together and water was suddenly spewing from the handle's center shaft like a fire hydrant! The pressure of this stream blew components out into the shower stall and, without anything covering the drain, one of the small dime-sized springs was lost into this drain! The other spring was shot out into the center of the master bathroom but we didn't find this until the next day.
Well, bedlam ensued from this point. Both of our erstwhile plumbers were being sprayed with relatively cold water, the bathroom is getting soaked everywhere, our three year old granddaughter is becoming hysterical and crying that her daddy is going to DIE, our 1 1/2 year old grandson is just standing in the middle of this circus watching the show (I later get him to go upstairs with me so I can change his drenched clothing, everything below the waste was just soaked!) while Daughter and I are starting to grab towels and anything else we think useful to absorb the water. Drew yells "everything needs to go to higher ground!" and hubby is getting out of the shower to head out and look for a water shut-off. Hubby spent (wasted) nearly 10 minutes looking for a control in the bathroom itself, all shut-off valves were for toilets and sinks, nothing for the shower. So outside we go, soaking wet into the dark freezing night with a flashlight to look for a water shut-off valve!
Within a few minutes the plumbers find a water control valve outside near the sidewalk and Hubby begins to turn the faucet off while Drew is inside getting drenched (telling me "it's getting cold") still trying to stop the flow of water by putting the bushing back or something, anything! (a totally impossible task), Hubby is turning this valve for nearly 10 minutes or more without any effect on the water flow in the shower (which is still filling the bathroom with water, fortunately the central drain is taking a good deal of the water so it's not running out into the rest of the house, yet.). So hubby goes across the street to ask a neighbor if this is indeed the right shut-off valve and he is assured that it is (this neighbor is now on the "not to be trusted" list, he obviously didn't know what he was talking about, this valve turned out to be for the lawn sprinkler system!). So we work on this valve for nearly half an hour, hands freezing, mud from the yard all over our clothes, the valve continues to turn but we're not sure if it is actually closing, but, in one of our better decisions of the night, we have decided to call the city DPW in the meantime and eventually a truck shows up and the friendly young man hops out, goes to another area and lifts a metal plate off of the correct valve (that valve cover plate, clearly labeled "Water", was covered with trash bags full of leaves that hubby and I had raked up earlier), and within a few minutes he had used his special tool to turn this valve off and the water is finally stopped.
The remainder of this evening is spent trying to figure how we might put the control back together with the pieces we have found (not knowing at this point that we are missing a spring and also, in retrospect, not understanding exactly how the components needed to be replaced, there is in fact a set and critical order to the items, especially the rubber gaskets!).
So, to end this sorry tale, two days later we find a plumbing supply store with a good inventory, I've discovered a schematic of the fixtures for this shower on-line that help the "plumbers" understand and explain to the store salesman what is needed to fix this mess, and we are eventually able to restore the shower to it's proper configuration. This is after a few attempts to replace the parts with the rubber gaskets in the wrong order, a situation which leads to the faucet leaking behind the walls! We cleaned up water several times during these three days but Daughter and family now have a shower that allows them to run water as hot as they want and Drew has the valuable experience of knowing, like Hubby, that any additional plumbing projects should most likely be hired out! THE END ;-)
Monday, January 13, 2014
Christmas and Birthdays
Hello everyone,
Sorry I've been away for so long. It seems to take me longer and longer to get back into my "groove" each year after the holidays. We had a wonderful trip with daughter, son-in-law and grandkids.
This little guy had his thumb smashed in the door of the doctors office on New Years Eve while visiting the doctor for a fever and cough. They had to take him to Emergency Care and have his thumb nail removed. The poor little thing!! I felt so bad for him. When they returned home, he kept looking at his wrapped up thumb because it was getting in the way of him eating or picking up anything.
She is really good at putting puzzles together. I had a hard time finding the right pieces and where to place them but she sure didn't have any problems!! LOL It was so easy for her!!
As for Birthdays go, I am wishing my beautiful, smart and wonderful daughter a Happy Birthday on January 15. She is the "best mommy" ever and has grown into a very warm, caring and compassionate person. What parents wouldn't be proud of that!! We love you!!
Well, thats it for now. Hopefully, I will be better about posting now that we are back home.
Have a wonderful week everyone!!
Sorry I've been away for so long. It seems to take me longer and longer to get back into my "groove" each year after the holidays. We had a wonderful trip with daughter, son-in-law and grandkids.
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| Asher (16 months) |
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| Gemma (3) on the kitchen table putting a giant puzzle together |
She is really good at putting puzzles together. I had a hard time finding the right pieces and where to place them but she sure didn't have any problems!! LOL It was so easy for her!!
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| Daughter with son-in-law, and Gemma |
As for Birthdays go, I am wishing my beautiful, smart and wonderful daughter a Happy Birthday on January 15. She is the "best mommy" ever and has grown into a very warm, caring and compassionate person. What parents wouldn't be proud of that!! We love you!!
Well, thats it for now. Hopefully, I will be better about posting now that we are back home.
Have a wonderful week everyone!!
Sunday, December 15, 2013
The Velveteen Rabbit
With Christmas just around the corner and trying to jiggle all that comes with it, the gift wrapping, baking and tree decorating I found myself wishing I could find the time to sit down, prop up my feet and spend time remembering how exciting Christmas was for me as a child. That was such a magical time. I remember laying in my bed at night wondering if I had been a "good girl" and if I had, what Santa would bring. Usually Christmas brought fresh oranges, nuts, ribbon candy and a few toys. Coming from a large family of 9 children didn't bring a lot of gifts but still the excitement of Christmas and our school Christmas programs was exciting enough.
I never knew about the book The Velveteen Rabbit, written by Margery Williams as a child but after I had my own children, I found it at a bookstore and found it so enchanting and charming that I purchased it and read it to my daughter. As the years past I found myself also reading it to my grandchildren.
The Velveteen Rabbit is a timeless tale of friendship, love, acceptance and honesty. When the world seems uncertain, Margery Williams's classic story reminds all of us what really matters. The rabbit's journey through love and loneliness to become who he was really meant to be is a story that inspires us all on our own journey to Real." Amazon
I loved this book for what the "real message" was. My favorite part of the book was when The Velveteen Rabbit becomes unsure of his worth and if he should even be considered a toy and the answer he receives from his friend, the Skin Horse. "Real isn't how you are made...It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with but REALLY loves you, then you become real". I found this video narrated by Meryl Streep reading my favorite part and wanted to share it with you. If you haven't read or heard of the book, I hope that you will buy a copy and keep it with all your treasured books. It sends a wonderful message to not only children but to adults as well.
We will be heading to the Dallas/Ft Worth Texas area to spend Christmas with daughter and grandkids, Gemma and Asher so I won't be posting until after Christmas. I wanted to take this time to wish all of you who read my blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Your comments mean a great deal to me and I hope that the Christmas season brings you much joy, good will and happiness.
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