Angels

Have you ever needed an angel? Do you believe that there are angels all around us all the time? I do. And I feel that they are trying to make themselves know to me. Sometimes unexplainable things happen that leave you wondering why. When those things happen I choose to believe that the angels did it. For instance, I walked through my house one morning and the light in the computer room wasn’t on, but when I walked by later it was on then. How? I don’t know. And when Don was taking apart the piano the strings would pluck all by themselves at different times. Angels? And twice Sadie has stood at the foot of my bed staring off into space and emitting a soft growl and bark just like she is seeing someone there in the hallway. I know for sure that angels are around when my dad opened a bottle of wine for us when my sisters were visiting. I’m on the lookout all the time for signs from my angels. Have you heard from yours?

At Disney

Saturday random thoughts

Five Things

Five things I was doing this week when I wasn’t blogging:

1. Aerobics. I have joined a cardio class at the YMCA and exercise on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Now I have never been one who sweats or gets that “high” that I’ve heard about but I do know that I have to keep my body in motion or it’s going to seize up like an old engine that hasn’t been run in a while. There are times when I watch the clock and can’t wait for the hour to be over and other times I imagine myself with a headband and cute leotards singing “I want to get physical”.

2. Rummage Sale digging. There have been two church rummage sales in the last week. Even though I swear that I don’t need a thing it’s still fun to dig around in those piles and find a hidden treasure. Today  it was a cute little poppy pin.




3. Reading.  I like to find time to read sometime during the day. Currently I’m reading a new Alex Delaware novel by Jonathan Kellerman I also caught up on my magazines. I had received a new Oprah and Southern Lady. I feel I qualify as a southern lady since I was born in Georgia.


4. Organizing. Don’t think I’m crazy but I’m always looking for solutions to make things a work better for me. Recently I found something at Walmart that has made my life a little easier. You  know how it is hard to find things in a small refrigerator? We are limited in space in our kitchen so our fridge has to be small. Every time I need something from the back I have to pull out four things to get to it. But now look what I’ve found.

Trays. They are made out of soft plastic and just fit the depth of my refrigerator. Now when I want something all I have to do is pull out the tray and I have access to the very back. And as a bonus feature the glass shelf of the fridge won’t get dirty.


5. Letting go.  I am making an all out effort to downsize my house by letting go of some thing that I have had for awhile and don’t really need anymore. Even though sometimes this is hard for me I know that the reward of having less will be worth it. This “bean” pot I have had for a long time. I used it as a decorative item for many years, especially when my house was decorated with a country theme. But as I move it yearly from place to place it dawned on me that I had outgrown it. The cute hand painted little box was a gift from my mother. It’s sentimental so I’ve kept it, but now I think I can finally let it go too.

Age Test

Who could forget Green Stamps? My mom and her three girlfriends would go every week to the grocery stores. First they would eat lunch out. Then tackle the groceries for the week at the A&P. They delighted in saving the green stamps which you had to lick and stick in a special book. When you had gathered many books you could choose something from the catalog. I don’t remember the prizes she got, but I do remember her letting me lick the stamps and put them in the album.  Does anyone out there remember green stamps too?

Bedroom

This is a picture of the new and improved spare bedroom. For those of you who do not know this bedroom was up until yesterday the home of a large (let me repeat that, LARGE) old fashioned player piano. It took residence in the back bedroom when we made room for a hot tub in the place it was sitting. Unfortunately it was not working and despite Don’s best effort in piano repair it refused to play correctly. So this week it was hacked to pieces and removed from this room. I am happy to have the space back again.

Just planning

Ok, just one more month and a few days and it will be June. Here in western Pennsylvania we have a short summer so we have to make the most of it. So I’ve made a list of the things I want to do this summer.
1. Go on a picnic. I say that every year, but never actually get around to doing it. So this summer I’m going to get out the picnic basket, fix a nice lunch, and go to a nearby park and have a great time.
2. Eat outdoors more. I love to dine al fresco and plan on using my outdoor space more for eating.
3. Have more fires. Last year we didn’t stay out in the evenings around the fire unless we had company. Then the long forks came out for s’mores.
4. Entertain more. I love having people over to the house in the summertime to enjoy the courtyard in the daytime or evening.
5. Mix it up. This summer I’d like to expand my horizons by visiting someplace new or going somewhere to see friends that I have promised forever.
6. Sit on my porch swing and read. This is always a must.
7. Continue organizing. This time actually take things and have a sale.
8. Do the things I love..the movies, visiting friends, going for ice cream, walking Sadie.
9. Dig out the watercolors and paint.
10. Relax and breathe.

Signs of spring

As I travel across blogland it becomes ever more evident that Spring comes early to some and to others like us folks in Bradford it arrives much later. For instance, we had snow flakes coming down this morning. I know, it’s almost the end of April and it’s hard for you southern people to believe that it can be that cold. It is only 34 degrees out right now and I don’t know how but the tulips, and hyacinths have survived. While other places are planting their summer flowers we must wait until our last frost..which is usually after Memorial Day. And our first frost in the fall is around Labor Day. So you can see we have a short summer and a short growing season. But that doesn’t mean we squeeze every bit of summer in we can. Maybe we appreciate it more than others.

Do you know what this is?

This one will really date you if you remembered that this is the dimmer/bright floor switch. Those were the days. My dad loved his cars. I think he got it from his father who would walk to work rather than park his car in the railroad lot for fear of it getting dirty. I remember the aqua blue and white Chevy, the one with the large gull wings on the back,






and the Oldsmobile Toronado which was the first one we had with air conditioning. And the first one I got a speeding ticket driving.





And who could forget the Jeep Wagoneer?

In those days a car was a car! Each manufacturer prided itself on it’s distinct look. You could tell the year of the car by it’s headlights or body shape.

Do you remember your parent’s cars?

The Dixie Swim Club

What a delightful day I had. This morning I drove five of my fellow Kinzua Kuties to Cambridge Springs to the Riverside Dinner Theater to see the Dixie Swim Club. Five southern women, whose friendships began many years ago on their colelge swim team, set aside a long weekend every August to recharge those relationships.  Free from husbands, kids  and jobs, they meet at the same beach cottage on north Carolina’s outer Banks to catch up, laugh, and meddle in each other’s lives. The five actresses had us rolling with laughter at their quips and crying right along with them when they went to dump their friend’s ashes from the martini shaker in the ocean.

Playing with Picmonkey again

Here’s something that you might have not seen in awhile. It’s the table in my front entryway. I painted the wall and then hand stenciled the fleur de lies. The yellow lighted orchids were from a greenhouse/nursery in Hamburg, NY called Lockwoods. The bird candle holder is from Colonial Candles.

Snow in April

 

What strange weather we have had this year. Today it snowed and the temperatures are hovering at 32 degrees. Just last Monday it was 81. We are due to get a big snowstorm but so far today it has just covered the ground and melted. Tomorrow our Kinzua Kuties group is planning on traveling south of Erie to go to the Riverside Dinner Theater to see The Dixie Swim Club. We are hoping that the roads stay clear since we’ve been looking forward to this for awhile.

Picmonkey

On a rainy Sunday when the weather turns to a cold 37 degrees what’s a girl to do?  Play on the computer, of course. Today I found a delightful photo editing program called Picmonkey. Do give it a try. It’s free and fun. Just load your photo and try out all the different effects. Here are my results. The little glass vase is a purchase from the church rummage sale. Isn’t it darling?
 

A LITTLE NOSTALGIA

How many of you out there recognize these? When I was a teenager going to the drive in was so  much fun and a typical date. You pulled into the drive in theater before dark, adjusted your car on the little mound for the best view, and paid a visit to the snack bar for your popcorn and pop. I remember Don and I seeing the romantic movie “A Summer Place” with Troy Dohahue (a teenage heartthrob). After we were married and had kids we took them to the drive in to see “Star Wars” (the original and first). Just as the first scene came on..you remember the one with the battle in full force and Princess Leia running to C3PO..anyway, it started to rain and thunder and lightening. We just put on the windshield wipers and continued to watch. The rain made us seem like we were in the middle of the movie ourselves.
   My first drive in that I remember was when I was a child and my parents took me to see “Singing in the Rain”. I remember there was a playground down in front of the screen. Boy just seeing those speakers sure does bring back a lot of memories. What do you remember about a drive in?

A girl’s trip

We live in a pretty small town. The shopping..well, it’s not real good. So we travel about a half an hour into New York State to a bigger town (still not a BIG town) to shop. I had a few Kohl’s cash bucks that I needed to redeem by Saturday so my two girlfriends and I went to Olean. We ate lunch at Wendy’s. I love their apple, walnut, blue cheese, cranberry salad. Then I returned some books at the Olean library and found a lot of new ones to read. Next I went to Kohl’s where I ended up with a cuff bracelet and a pair of silver earrings. It was a quick trip, but always fun with my friends.

A little French

Two of my favorite things..tulips and tower. I have an affinity to all things Eiffel. And French writing. I wish I could speak French because I love the sound of the language. I know it’s never to late in life to learn something new, but I feel at this stage I could learn French but not being able to practice speaking it consistently I would quickly lose it. It reminds me of a book by Maeve Binchy.

Maeve Binchy can always be counted on to spin an involving tale about ordinary people that brings out the extraordinary in everyone. In Evening Class, Binchy zooms in on the working-class of Dublin. Schoolteacher Aidan Dunne organizes an evening class in Italian with the help of Nora O'Donoghue, an Irishwoman returning home after 26 years in Sicily. When the somewhat squashed-by-life denizens of the surrounding neighborhood take the unexpected step of enrolling in the class, they find their lives transformed.

Binchy tells her story from the viewpoints of eight different characters and rewards both them and her readers with happy endings after the requisite rocky road. Reading a novel by Maeve Binchy is like catching up with old friends--you know everything will turn out fine in the end, but you're still interested in how things get that way.

I wish I had a group like that to help me with my French and then plan a trip to France to practice. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Sadie on vacation

Sadie also had a little vacation. My friend Linda volunteered to keep her for a week so I wouldn’t have to put her in a kennel. Linda lives just up the road and took Sadie to her house. And what did Sadie do on her vacation?
She looked out Linda’s sliding glass door at the squirrels and chipmunks that were used to having the place all to themselves.
Being a Jack Russell terrier (or terrorizer as I like to call her) she has very strong hunting instincts. She will become obsessed easily and can sit in front of a window for hours.
Things up in trees delight her.
She knows she can’t reach them, but that doesn’t stop her from watching.
Still watching and waiting.  Sadie had a wonderful time at Linda’s. Thank you Linda for taking such good care of her.