My last two River Scene ATC's...

I'll be sending these off tomorrow for the River Scenes swap. I really enjoyed making these and they're kind of hard to give up, but I hope somebody else likes them. :) I may have to make copies for myself!

It was a crazy weekend at the deli. Two gals quit and the rest of us just had to work harder. But we survived! Tomorrow is an early day and then Tuesday is a day off.
Y'all have a good week. Vaya con Dios!

Afternoon break...

This is what I'm doing...coffee, cookies and my favorite version of Pride and Prejudice.

Oh, I probably won't watch all four hours of P&P. Then again, I might! (Note to self: It's more like 6 hours. Watched 'em all. I should have remembered. I've only watched this maybe four times before!)

I've been to town to do errands and I weeded the garden. A beautiful day off! Hope you're enjoying your day.

Shalom, friends!

Books and a movie...

I don't mind telling you, I worked HARD today! I got to work at 7 and worked putting the salad bar together. That's a 2-3 hour job in itself. Then about 9:30 we noticed the lady who's supposed to fry chicken hadn't shown up. So, I leaped into action and began frying chicken. I did that until 1:00 when the evening shift folks showed up, at which time I delegated frying to one of them. I then hurried to finish my salad bar duties, which include refilling buckets full of food needed to do the  salad bar tomorrow, and did a ton of dishes to help the evening gals who would be short some help, too. My muscles are so sore! So, tonight I'm watching a movie and fixing myself something yummy to eat.

I've received two books in the mail in the last couple of days and I got a free movie rental because our store installed a new movie rental "box". (An employee perk.)

I started reading The Pace of a Hen today, and I'm loving it! The Big House just arrived today. Tomorrow's a day off and I have some things I need to get done, but I plan to rest as much as I can.

Pom, there is a mysterious pink envelope winging its way to your house. It has something to do with these objects.

Mysterious indeed!

 

Now to get down to some serious relaxing! Shalom, fine people. :)

Beverley Nichols anyone?

I just purchased Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols. I looked at the first few pages via Amazon, and I love his writing style. I had never heard of him before, but came across his name in Gladys Taber's Stillmeadow Calendar. Most of his books cost a little more than I'm used to paying, but I got the last really cheap copy of this one. He looks like a real gem of an English author! Much of his writing is fiction based on country life in England and involves a lot of gardening and such. Check him out! :)  (I have to admit, I don't usually care for the authors that GT recommends, but this one I think I'll love.)

Off to church with dear daughter and grands shortly! Hoping you all have a peaceful Sunday.

A productive Saturday...in the best kind of way!

Not productive as in working really hard, though I did take Millie the lawn mower out for a spin. That only lasted about half an hour, but I'm glad I finished up the front yard.

Millie resting in the back yard. I may yet mow some more if the weather holds.

Look who came to visit this morning! This was taken out my back door window.



Mama was a little nervous, but they stayed around for quite a while. I would freeze in place each time she looked up. She never caught on, heh, heh, heh...



I'm thinking this is her yearling buck child. He has little velvet antlers. Awwww...

So, I did my first plein air painting session! Here's what I packed to take along.

I made a little "clipboard" using a small piece of wood and a rubber band. I'm working in one of the little accordion journals and it's hard to hold onto while working! This worked pretty well.



This is what's on  the other side of my little piece of wood. It's a little vacation Bible school project my daughter made about 20 years ago. Wasn't she CUUUUUTE? It's got a coat of Mod Podge on it, so I don't think I'll hurt it. Fun to have her along!

The old vintage Pelikan paint box.



An instant lemonade container for water. The lid is deep enough to use for a separate container for brush cleaning. The cap is one my mom gave me years ago. It's from The Center in Brazosport, Texas, where she took some art classes. It's special.

Everything, including my cell phone fit into the fanny pack...just barely! I had to carry the water container.



See the pile of dead trees on the right? I was sitting under a tree just to the left of it. I could see my dad's old cabin in the woods from there. I found a old round piece of firewood to sit on.

 

I guess I can't judge the merits of plein air painting on my first try, but I found it a little uncomfortable and inconvenient! I did it sort of rustic-ly, so that may be the problem. No chair, no place to set things except on the ground. Kind of hot outside. Oh well, it was a unique experience and I'm glad I gave it a try. :)

I'm off to explore other possibilities on my day off! Y'all have fun!

Mist and rainbows...

This morning started out very foggy...

I was actually in my car headed down the driveway when I saw the scene above and had to run back in the house for my camera! :)

 

If I hadn't needed to leave early for work I might have missed all of this!

 

It's sunny out this evening. (Home from work! Weekend off!) But I looked out and saw rain falling and glistening in the sun. A large cloud was passing overhead and going east. I almost missed this!

 I'm making some little accordion fold journals. I got the idea from Cathy Johnson's YouTube videos. These are kind of small, but I'm just figuring out how to do it, so these are experimental. :)

 I'm using some of my old quilt fabric on the covers. The large book is adding some weight to compress one of the journals.

It's fun to finally think of something to do with all of this charming old material.

 

So, I'm off to make a late supper and maybe fool around with these little journals some more. I also want to work on more ATC's for the River Scenes swap. Here are the first two I made:

Hope you all have a pleasant evening. I'll probably be around to check up on you. ;)

Shalom!

Of clouds and books, and other things...

Books, books, books! Can't get enough of them! I just ordered The Big House. Gretchen Joanna's review of the book has piqued my curiosity.

I also ordered this book on my Kindle. I have a couple of his writing books and they look good, though they're still waiting in line to be read!

I love taking pictures of beautiful cloud formations. So here goes!

We've had lots of good weather for cloud watching. ;0
I've been playing with my new Prismacolor pencils, but I got frustrated trying to find the ones I wanted. I made this ingenious tray for them. It's actually the top from a plastic tote! Works great!

My favorite time of day is when the sun is low in the sky and shadows are long.

 

I'm enjoying Gladys Taber's Stillmeadow Calendar. I think her writing is special to me because she, too, is living alone and is making the best of things. Her life was very creative and full. It's inspiring to glean ideas from her books. She has mastered the art of contentment, which is something we all need.
I still have several hours of my evening in which to do some art and read. Tomorrow is a day off and a big day for me. I have an appointment with the USDA lady to see about qualifying for a loan to buy my little farm. I'd love to stay here. I think it's a good spot for a life of contemplation. But wherever the Lord leads me, there I can find contentment. His will be done! :)

Blessings on your week!

Getting acquainted with GT...

After reading about so many of you enjoying Gladys Taber's books I went over to Amazon to see what they had to offer. They had such a great selection of her books that I bought several! These two have arrived already. Fast service!

I'm reading this one now, mostly on breaks at work. But it's more fun to read at home where it's peaceful. :)

 

It was cloudy and cool when I got home from work today. Just starting to sprinkle, but I took a few photos. This is my backyard. You can see on the right where my yard ends and the "meadow" begins. (Taller grass.) My kids took down all of the pasture fence, so now I call it a meadow.

Sumacs give me lots of privacy. The Heartland Trail is just on the other side of these sumacs, but you wouldn't know it.

My little Prairie Smoke flowers are back! May they continue to bloom and multiply! I think they're so cool!

I was going to say these were Tansy, but no. I'm not sure of the name, but Tansy is more of a little button shaped flower.

Very tall sumac in the background.

 The view of my house while standing by the sumac bushes.

 I'm one of the few people in the civilized world who actually plant box elder trees on purpose!

The little light green plant in the lower right part of the picture is another box elder. I like them because they grow very fast. I haven't had a problem with box elder bugs.

My very slow growing garden. We've had a lot of cool, rainy weather, which seems to be slowing the growth of my garden. I suppose we'll have a burst of heat soon and it will take off.

I thought this little whirly-bird's spinning tail might scare off some bunnies and deer. Unfortunately, it takes quite a gust to get it to spin! I bought a pink one for Audrey and Hazel. I'll plant it in their yard the next time I'm there.

There are some sunflowers and peas growing around the cream separator.

 More peas...

 My cute old watering can...

 and some petunias peaking out from the cream separator.

 This was taken a couple of days ago when it was much sunnier. I had just rearranged the living room furniture. I like it this way. It's nice to sit on the couch and blog and the swivel chair by the window gives me a good view of the back yard.

It's doing a bit of thundering and lightning-ing outside. I think I'll work on an ATC or two. I haven't been doing much of that lately. It was a hectic day at work today, so I'll kick back and relax for a while.

May God's blessings and peace surround you all!