A very muddy game

Last weekend my daughter Maddie's soccer team had their first real muddy game. The field was so thick with mud that the ball would stop dead in it's track after a powerful kick. They were thoroughly drenched but they were enjoying it.

I never played any organized sports in school. As an adult I played a few years on a volleyball team. Women's and mixed. It was such a blast and I think had I done sports is school, I would of been pretty good. So that is a thing that I now regret I didn't do.

Collage

A while ago I was sifting through some items I saved from my son Dylan's 10th grade English class. I came across a poem assignment he did so I used it in a collage. The picture on the collage is of my maternal grandmother holding my mother in Germany around 1930. I forgot who the others were. The other child may be my Aunty Hanne.

Here is the poem my son wrote which is on the bottom left of the collage in transparency:

A Personal Poem

this daylight cannot compare
to the moon's silver stare
but i'll still be here
when the twilight comes

the trees will continue to sway
because the wind is at play
and it will continue to cheer
when the twilight comes

i can still hear the voices
as the sky rejoices
and sheds a peaceful tear
when the twilight comes

as we lay here tonight
it will be your turn to recite
and make it incere
when the twilight comes

Barn House Season Finale

Saturday was the season finale for Barn House. It was to say the least incredible. Of course. Nothing these guys do is any less. Cindy of "Queen of Tarte" was their special guest/vendor. You can see her touches throughout the barn. Natalie of "Vintage Sparrow" (ok, I have to learn how to make these a link to their blogs!!) was there as were others. I was in my absolute glory buying like crazy.

The barn had been tranformed into a forest filled to the brim with had to have beauties. Everywhere I looked I saw something I just simply couldn't do without. Alas the winning lotto ticket was not mine so I had to refrain.

Halloween is around the corner!

I love Halloween.

Last year I had a Halloween party for my daughter & her soccer team. I wasn't going to have another as it takes a bit of time pulling together all the decorations & to do something different this year than last years. A few projects going on but I think I am getting the itch as it approaches. I think I will make some plaster like ghosts out of sheets to float from the trees and have some eery (sp?)uplighting. We already put all the purple lights through the wisteria on the front porch with some figures hanging from them as well. The boxwoods are draped with orange lights & in the dark they look like pumpkins. A few ghouls in the yard. I still have the interior to do and the party favors and the music and food and...oh all the screaming crazy girls! It will be fun.

First picture is a part of a painting I have by Laurie Meseroll. One of many Halloween paintings by her I have. She is my fave.

Barn House in August 2008

Here are some much delayed pictures of the Barnhouse event in August. I think it was on the 22nd.

Yesterday on Barn House's blog, Jermonne talks about getting caught on his deck in limited attire. It made me laugh and reminded me of a similar incident in our home.

About 3 weeks ago, Josh, my son's friend who has been staying with us for the summer, woke up to get ready for work. Much to his & my husband Ron's surprise Josh caught him eating his breakfast,a piece of chicken, over the sink in his tighty whiteys. Poor Josh, that no doubt will be etched in his mind forever. And a lesson for my husband to put some pants on.

Blush

I love the color pink yet I hardly have any of it in my home. I am working on changing that as soon as I get done with the other gazillion projects I have going on right now.

I want to paint our living room in the Spring from "Coco" to "Roman Ruins". It's a frenchy gray. At Barnhouse last weekend I purchased 2 pink dupioni pillows made by "Worthy Goods" and some ironstone from "Sparrow". So pink, gray, creamy white and some gilded things is what I am aiming for. The furniture I currently have is Ikea's white slipcovered "Ektorp". I LOVE it. It's so inexpensive that I have 3 sets of white slipcovers just in case. I recently discovered that they now offer the slipcovers in PINK!

Last days of Summer

Where has the summer gone? These pictures taken last month of Madeleine and the other of her, her cousin Carlie and Maddie's friend since kindergarten.

Madeleine and Carlie are more like sisters than cousins. They are 6 months apart and since birth have always been together. They laugh so much and it's hilarious when they are arguing. Their arguments only last minutes and they are back to giggling again.

My friend Gretchen mentioned how much Madeleine looks like Charlotte Gainsbourg (sp?). I have to agree. I have been looking at pictures of her and there is a strong resemblance. My poor darling, she couldn't sleep tonight because she said she kept thinking of sad things. I asked her what kind of sad things and she replied about people dying. She once cried that she was sad that she was the youngest as that meant she would be alive longer and didn't want all of us to die. Breaks my heart. She is our youngest. Our very much wanted surprise baby. My children are 27, 24, 19 and Maddie 10. She is all of our pride and joy and each one of my children spoil her and treat as the princess she is. She has such a good heart. All my children do. Who could ask for more.

More Barn House

Barn House Fleamarket

Saturday was another Barn House event. It was, as always, spectacular!

When Ludmil and Linda of "Willow Nest" fleamarket fame moved to Texas, I thought who could possibly come close to filling that void. Well, I do believe Joe and Jermonne have. They create that same magic atmosphere that was at Willow Nest. They also imppecably choose just the right vendors to compliment their flair.

Saturday's guest vendors were Sparrow, Worthy Goods, Little Byrd and Second Childhood Girlfriends. I wanted everything of course. At these events you can't think about your options or wonder if what you want will fit anywhere. You have to grab before it's gone. When the gate's open the rush of like minded women (and a man here & there) are like sharks in a feeding frenzy. I quickly forgot about my sisters and friend that came along with me. To each his own and I was in a state of bliss.

I came away with a nice cache of goods. I am a very happy gal in need of a bigger home.

Another TTV

TTV

I have been wanting to learn TTV (Through the Viewfinder) but just haven't yet. I have done some reading on it & got a viewfinder camera on Ebay but it's on the long list of things to do. This month though in the new "Memories" magazine is a tutorial on how to do a digital TTV. So this picture and the one below of Maddie are my first one's. Not bad. Maybe I should blur it more around the edges.

Madeleine

I have been away far too long. I wish I had the time to do everything I would love to do. Today may be a day when I can. I finished working on the yard early so here is one picture I worked on. It's an older image of my youngest, Madeleine. I think it's when she was 6, so that makes it about 4 years ago.

Mary's Little Lamb

Couldn't resist....last picture of lambs or any farm animals for a bit. Until I can find some new ones. There has to be some cows out in Fife. I don't know if my district manager had farm animals in mind for our website to depict us fine state workers. Ha.

We do have a great view of Mt. Rainier from work but the last several days it's either been clouded or hazy. Then maybe I can photoshop Barney Fife climbing Mt. Rainier & see if she notices. Hee hee.

Speaking of work, it's 2:36 and I have to get up at 5. Arrrghh. I hate it when I have insomnia or in tonight, fall asleep for an hour 1/2 only to be woken up by something & for the life of me can't stop thinking or worrying about stuff that keeps popping in my head. I took 1/2 of a sleepy pill and I think it's beginning to work. I won't get up in time but oh well.

Watson't Nursery in Puyallup

Fushia baskets are abound at my favorite place to garden shop, Watson's Nursery in Puyallup WA.

There were these huge incredible baskets everywhere. Plants, shrub, trees, all ready and waiting for someone to take them home. Alas, I walked away with sugar snap pea plants and my favorite candles by Root, the Ginger Patchouli scent. Yum. Fingers crossed that 3 of these lovely beauties will be mine for mother's day for my front porch. I hope, I hope, I hope.

Baaaaa

And here are the sheep that live down the road from goat. When we drove into the small driveway with a ricketty fence simply held together by a thin wire, they all came running up to the fence no doubt thinking I had something good for them. They hung out a few minutes more to give us an opportunity to dig something out of the car for them and then slowly one by one walked away. I want sheep now too.

Maddie and the Goat

One day on my way back to work from lunch we spotted a very large goat standing so proudly on top of a dog igloo. I asked my friend Lee to slow down and I rolled down the window to make a goat sound. I don't know why I feel the need to speak animal when I see one but I do. Then this goat understanding my goat speak leapt from the igloo & perched herself almost upright on the fence. I didn't have the nerve to get out of the car to find out if she would take my fingers off and we were late getting back to work.

So on Sunday I ask Ron if we could drive around Fife for some photo opportunities because I am on a committy for our webpage and was asked to find some lovely sites in and around Fife instead of what we currently had. A picture of Barney Fife. Now I thought that that was pretty funny but our district manager thought perhaps it gave an impression that we child support collecting folks maybe like Barney...bumbling, never get it right, etc etc. I said to me it shows that we had a great sense of humor and we don't take ourselves too seriously. Guess who got out voted. So off the 3 of us (Ron, Maddie (quite reluctantly) and I) went off to Fife. I myself looking at farm animals and I remembered that goat. We drove past the house slowly, I rolled down the window, made my noise and sure as heck she came running up to the fence. We got out and after talking to her to get a feel if she was a good goat or a nasty goat the good goat won. I slowly began touching her and after my finger not being taken off I was hooked. She kept pressing in me with her horns for more. Maddie finally got the courage to come over & give it a try. This is the picture when the goat got up on her hind legs & stood almost upright to take a closer look at Maddie. The goat has her tongue sticking out if you click on the picture for a large view. She was just so much fun and I was noticing that she was kept in the front yard. I couldn't see any food or water for her but she seemed healthy. I also noticed in the yard.....no poop! My yard with my 2 Yorkie Poms make bigger poo piles then this goat did. So now I am working on my Ron for a goat. And maybe some sheep too from further down the road. He said maybe but I am thinking he's blowing me off.

It's a wonderful life

This is Princess. We adopted her from Linda and Ludmil Markov of Willow Nest along with Sister.

She is enjoying the sunshine in our living room. My cats life is something I wouldn't mind having a few days a month. Just laying around cleaning yourself and basking in sunshine. Get up now and then to eat, get a few human strokes in and it's all good. Princess is especially docile. She's very slow in her moving and I don't think there is an ounce of preditor in her. What is so funny is watching her trot. She doesn't run, she trots and when she does her belly flab swishes from side to side. I have never seen anything like that in a cat. It almost swishes so hard that it looks like it's going to slap her sides. Quite funny.

Rampart auction part 3 is tomorrow. Hoping I win the bid on the companion cabinet. Only thing is with that cabinet. Steve, the deceased owner, had written a few gentlmen's names and numbers on it in premanent ink. I guess he didn't want to loose those numbers. How to get it off without having to paint it all. I will have to google to see if it's possible.

The Rampart Auction

Yeah!!! I got the one thing at the auction I wanted. The bead board cabinet! Now to get it home by Wednesday. Haven't told Ron yet. I will wait til the last minute. Ha.

The second auction at Rampart in Tacoma was held today. A couple weeks ago I went to the first one in hopes of winning a spiral staircase. I couldn't stay and figured I would be outbid anyway. It went for a song but I am sure had I been bidding too it would of gone more for anyway. That's what I tell myself over and over again.

So today was par deux of the sale. There were so much things, stuff, junk, etc. Steve, the gentleman who passed away and owned, amassed some wonderful collections of NW memorabillia, old bar games (Pak Man, Destroyer, etc) vintage posters, art deco things, and on and on. Next week will be the final phase. The first auction was of the store items. The one today & next week was of all there was in his loft which is above Rampart. Next week I hope to get the other piece that goes with this one. We'll see. Saw Linda aka Lulu and Virginia there too. They are so much fun to with an auction with. They have a good eye and we have not competed on anything that we each wanted. Yet. Come to think of it, I see the same faces at these auctions each time. A gentleman that comes to these for the Tacoma Library NW Room. He was thrilled when he won an old ledger of the first Tacoma Public Utilites clients. It was cool.

Our reward

Gretchen, her dogs Ursa and Cowboy and my Ron. Ron is talking beer with Gretchen. No doubt talking about his favorite type, IPAs. Our reward for dealing with some "amazing" folks during the garage sale.

It's a strange crowd that wakes up at the crack of dawn to arrive 30 minutes before the sale begins. Then you have the few that will talk you down on any price that may be on the item. Even if it's a deal of the century, they still want it for less. I am not like that. I rarely ever ask if they would take something less than what it's priced for. I figure I am getting a deal already.
Then there are some that take the price stickers off in hopes that you would give them an even lesser amount than what was on there. Geez, just pay the measly sticker price.

Then there are the old folks that come in. They warm my heart. They have a story to tell to anyone that wants to listen. I love to listen to them. One woman who had to speak with one of those speach things held up to her throat was so sweet. She bought Gretchen's old rattan crib/swing that her parents had her in. This woman must of been 75 and sweet as can be. She had to go home to get one of her sons to help her get it home. That is when she told me she had 9 sons. Oh, and 6 girls. Wow!! Can you imagine that household? When I was 13 I had wanted a huge family like that too. I am glad I stayed at 4 although I still wish I could have just one more. 5 is a good number.