A peak of FruFru Friday

Just a little something to remind you that I will be a part of Connie's FruFru Friday and hope you go and join. It will be fun to see what every one creates, be a flower or even a greeting card because I have frufrued a few of those with beads. You can check the link on my sidebar. Hope lots will join in.

Gene Simmons Military Tribute

Too often we forget our troops and what they stand for and this is just an example of their off time. I appreciate all the performers who go there and let the troops for just a moment have a little recreation in their lives and let us not forget what they are doing for us. This also goes to the spouses and families of all our troops fighting for our freedom.God Bless them all. My husband was a Marine and is a Marine, as they say "Once a Marine, always a Marine". I am proud of his service and the things he did to help the troops. He was a company clerk who sent every thing from band aids to tanks and a little beer every now and then. Thank a soldier when you see them-we need to let them know we support them.

I have been on bedrest

Oh I know it's only July, but I am getting antsy already about Christmas. I know Halloween comes first and I do plan on doing a little bit of decorating, but come Halloween night, I will pack up Halloween and start pulling out Christmas. I don't really decorate for Thanksgiving, because I give thanks each and every day, the Good Lord gives me.

I have been on bed rest. I'll be having an EKG to see if I had angina or a small little tic. I had to take 2 nitros and prayed that the 3rd would not have to be taken, because that ER time and I did not want to go to the hospital. Luckily, the vise grip, that's what it felt like, went away. I know it wasn't a panic attack because I was sleeping peacefully with good dreams and awoke to what felt like someone sitting on my chest and having a vise grip that kept tightening. So I have not gotten ready for Connie's first Friday FruFru Day, but will be there next week. I already have something in mind to frufru up, so hoping my plans go as planned.

I have been visiting blogs that I haven't been to in a while and it was great seeing all the nice work and thrift buys everyone has been doing and finding. I did find something very useful at Goodwill to be used in my shop, but I don't have my camera with me, so it will have to wait. I hope you are not getting soaked like we are. It has slowed down clearing the space for my new storage/closet/sitting room for now. Trees have been dug up, vines cut back to dig up and now are all in pots waiting to be transplanted to another location. Now onto the sod that has to come up for the footings for the room. I am rather excited to see things moving along and Al said it would probably only take him 3 days to frame it up, then the riping or should I say cutting out walls in my bedroom that will lead into the room. We have solid walls and not one piece of sheet rock in our house, so it's pretty sturdy and has with stood 3 bad hurricanes.

Well going watch the news, then maybe redo my address book. It's looking pretty shabby these days, so I bought a new one, which will probably be recovered to fit my fancy. Have a great day. Love and hugs, Pat

Things I finally finished and still working on

I have put off projects far too long and these little benches jused to be green and oak, but since they go in my future sitting room I thought I would make them pink and white. I have several bears that I may use and have to choose only one to sit on top and I think I will take my country bear and dress her in pink lace with some frufru on her and her baby.

This was an ugly green color and I liked it, so gave it a nice coat of paint and will decorate it with small ivy vines and put a few little things on it.

This was a real bargain for $1.99 and it just needed some sanding and painting, so now I have a nice little storage shelf with a message board or pictures.

These are my dream letters that I have had for a while so I found some old wallpaper and cut and decoupaged the letters on and now I will add some pearls and embellishments so they are a little dreamier.

I found this old tarnished tray and the cute little fairy at Goodwill, so now it needs something else on it, and that's where my mind went blank, so guess I will be staring at it for a while.

My very first attempt at a ribbon rose and I put a pretty pearl in the middle for the stamin. Not too shabby for a first.

Now this one is my second and hope to do more of them for embellishments on bigger projects. Just need to sew the bottome so it stays in place and it might find it's way on the tray or on a hat for my bear. Opinions are always welcomed. I hope you ejoyed seeing my latest projects. I may end up with too much pink stuff but I can always give them away. I missed my 500th post, so I need to get things started for a giveaway. I have some pink things ready to go and I just may make a pink journal to add to the giveaway and a bookmark. My craft room is a little messy, but now I find I work better with things on the table that I can see, so it's full  of pink ribbon, buttons and some frufru things.

Please pray for the gulf coast that Bonnie stays a small tropical storm. You never know what these things can do and it's path so far is for the eastern part of the state, so we are out of danger, but I feel for the people along the gulf because Bonnie could push more oil ashore. Love and hugs, Pat   TGIF

Thursday Thrift finds revisited

I couldn't wait to see how the pictures would look so here are the after pictures and I like them much better. See before shots in post below.

Thursday Thrift finds

I had some extra bucks before the month ran out and Al said to go to Goodwill for some shopping therapy-lol. I found this old jewelry box to go with a couple of othes I found and is in good shape. The little pink glass umbrella will be cute in my bathroom for guest soap and for $.39 who could pass up a birdhouse.

I have always loved seeing all the beautiful roses on blogs and I just couldn't pass this picture up, but I can't make up my mine if I should paint it white since it is going in my bedroom.Any comments would be welcome. I am tending towards the white, because most of my accessories are in a pewter color and not much gold in my room.

I used to cross stitch and couldn't pass up this beautifully done piece of work. I did repaint the matte because it was blue and the pink will be perfect---another paint job for the frame unless I find with a really vintage look to it.

Anne Geddes is a miracle artist and just the smiles from all those babies will make me smile in the morning when I brush my teeth. They have enough pink that they will be okay.

I love thrifting and we found a new place to stop near my son's house and just from my car window, I should have stopped, but will be visiting soon---bills come first always and I usually wait until the end of the month to thrift shop or the 1st of the month. I have been putting a little savings aside for my closet and things have started already. I have lots of plants that have to be replanted now that they are up from the ground and in pots. My little gazebo will be coming down because it is in the way. I put the layout on graph paper and I realized just how big my closet and sitting area will be. My closet will be 8x8 and the sittin are will be 12x8. The piers that it will sit on are there and Al is going order all the wood for the frame and base. We are using treated wood since living in the south, termites are a problem so besides the flashing on the piers, we are using treated wood for the entire project. Estimated cost without labor (hubby is the laborer) is around $1,200--not too bad.Now that doesn't cover the cost of finishing the inside,which right now is not our worry.We just want to clear out my craft room before my children get her for Christmas. I will still have the small craft room to work in, so that is off limits to them.

Well speaking of craft rooms, I am going turn the air on and do some crafting today. My brother went out of town, so it's quiet here and I want to take advantage of it. Have a great day. Love, hugs, and prayers, Pat

Prayers needed for my friend Joyce

I hope you will all join me in prayer for Joyce at http://thesecretgardner.blogspot.com/
She is in the hospital and may need surgery. She is a very sweet person and I am going to meet her in the Holiday Season at the Hallmark shop she works at. Check out her blog for more details. Love, Hugs, and Prayers. Pat

No pictures today

Well I am at home resting and crafting. I'm working on squash books and organizing things a little. My children are coming home for Christmas and to say I am excited is an understatement.  My daughter is happy that I will come to Crowley for Christmas because she said my childhood home is not hers and she wants us here. So the gingerbreads will be flying out on Halloween night. I need to start early so I can get everything just right. The rest of the house will be minimal as I don't want to clutter everything up, but the dining room will be filled with snowmen and I think I will do a mixed tree in the living room with many of our Hallmark ornaments. I am only going to use my small pink tree this year---hopefully next year will be different. If I had my way, it would stay out all year, but dusting tiny ornaments is not my cup of tea and I can only stand to do it once a year when I pack them up. Soft old toothbrushes are great to use to get in the nooks and crannies.

Well we are all praying the the cap on the well doesn't crack somewhere else and now they are saying, they may have to open it up and let some of the oil out again to relieve the pressure on the cap. We can't find the shrimp we usually buy and I'm sure everyone had the same idea I had, stock up, but I was too late. Not sure I want to buy from a fisherman, even if there are no traces of oil on them--it's the methane gas that scares me.  They admitted they waited too long to bring in the Whale from Thailand and had the President listened, the oil might have been cleaned up faster. At this rate, the guy this morning on the news, said it could take about 9 months to clean it up. I'll believe it when I see it for myself.

Well enough bad negativity. I'm happy today and want to stay that way. Nothing and no one can take that away from me. I'm hoping to have another giveaway soon as I said I would. Thank goodness summer has just begun. So off to gather up some pink things for altering. Have a great weekend. We have rain for the entire weekend, so maybe things will cool off. Better go water my house plants that don't get rain before they wilt and die. Love and hugs, Pat

My craft booth at the Rice Festival

I think I made the pictures too small, so I hope you click on them to see a bigger picture. I won Best Decorated Booth that year and we thought because it was right after 911, that people would not come out, but this was my best show ever. As you can see, I was very over weight and the last picture of the inside show that same year, I lost almost 40 lbs on the grapefruit diet---eat 1/2 grapefruit after a meal. I can no longer do that because of my meds, but I have, happy to say,kept the weight off.

With the exception of the large angels, Al and I made everything for this show. My booth was 10X20 and I had things inside and outside of my booth. I miss doing the shows, but the country things have sort of died out and I am in too much pain to stand or sit for 12 hours and that's not counting setting up the booth, then packing everything away for the Christms show in  December.

Here I am one year later with 40 llbs gone---walking 5 miles a day and eating my grapefruit after my meals or for a snack.

This is my hubby who did a lot of work for me and did a lot of the painting. I like him better without the beard, but he likes it, so I don't say anything. Today he said he has a gift for me and I can't imagine what it could be. Maybe he won the lottery and didn't tell me. The suspense is killing me and my brother knows what it is. I pray he is not bringing a kitten because I have finally given up on that idea. I can barely pay for my medicine,much less take care of a cat. I hope you enjoy My Christmas in July, sort of, because I had a lot of Christmas things for the craft show and can you believe, I have none of these things left, except a few that I wanted ----gingerbreads of course. Have a happy day and smile,you might just make someone feel special. Love and hugs, Pat

Bridal Party

Stephanie, these are the ones I am sending to you except the flower girl shown is mine. Yours is in a package. I have so many little Madamn Alexander dolls that I collect for my granddaughter and she didn't need these, so they will be mailed to you. If anyone needs any Wizard of Oz, please let me know. I have quite a few of them. Hugs, Pat

More wedding pictures of us

We did not have a lot of pictures taken, but here are 3 more of us alone. I have one with my 2 children, but not sure what I did with that one. They didn't know that Al was not their biological father until the ages of 4 and 6. My daughter cried because she thought she was losing her "daddy", but we told her that he loved her so much that she was his daughter and would always be her daddy. I thought that was too young to tell them, but the social worker who was in charge with the adoption said it had to be done. She even spoke with them in private about how they felt about Al, their daddy. My little girl cried all day until her daddy returned from work and assured her he was not going to leave her ever. The adoption process was as ugly as a bad divorce, on the part of their dads. She has met her biological dad, but my son has no intention of ever wanting to meet him. How does a man reject his first born and never want to see him is beyoung my comprehension!!!! But it's his lost because my son is a better man because of Al. He is also keeping his half brother and sister from getting to know him and that bothers my son.

Al's friends wanted him to smash the cake in my face, but I had already warned him, that I would not like that at all and he was a gentlemen about it. They called him a woose for not doing it. I think even with an informal wedding, it's not good etiquette to do such things. We will be married 39 years come November and we are getting back together soon. We still have a few things to work out and hopefully by January, I will be back with him, So please keep us in your prayers.

I had to show you this funny picture from my Senior year. I hated the way they wanted me to look like I was pushing a wheel barrow. Silly, but I had to say with the photographer. My mom made the dress I am wearing as she made most of my clothes and she was a very good seamtress. That is one I wish I still had. It was a pale mint green with white collar and cuffs.

                                                          My brother's dog died, but luckily, we found a man who knew him and he gave his yellow lab to him and my brother is doing so much better having a best friend again. His name is Rocky and although he is not pure breed, he is more lab than anything. Robert had a hard life, but worked while disabled for a very long time,because he can't sit still. I've been doing my best to make sure he eats and takes care of himself. I haven't seen him this happy in a very long time. Needless to say, he is lucky to be alive, because he was being over medicated and was like a drunk all the time and was in a wheel chair and now he is free from that and walking most of the time without his walker. He can even run now, but with the brace, he reminds me of Forrest Gump when he was running.

                                                             Have a wonderful day all of you sweet bloggers. Love and hugs, Pat

My Little(big) cottage

Today, I thought I would share with you, the little cottage we live in. The floor plans were from Sears and we called them shotgun homes because if you stood at the front of the house and you could shoot straight through to the back of the house. These are very popular in New Orleans and I fell in love with this one. We could have bought a new home with all modern things, but before this house was painted, it was horrible both inside and out. I will find the pictures of the before and after of the inside for another post.
                                            Click on pictures for a larger view. The house looks small but it is not.

This is what it looks like today, except for needing a new paint job and some new siding in spots. The closed in Porch was my craft shop for several years, then became a nursery for my grandson, and now it is a storage space for all my seasonal decorations.

This was once a worn out old shed and we spent a lot of money making a play house for my grandchildren, only to have our neighbors with a tree filled with termites. Since it had ceiling tiles, linoleum floors and bead and board walls, we never noticed the termites until it had eaten from inside to out, so it is no longer a part of our yard.

I made little walk ways with a mold that I bought and did all this before my surgeries in 2001. I had just about finished the entire landscaping when I got sick and I have not been able to work in it again. God has taken over and I am thankful every day that I used plants that don't need a lot of care.

The little square gazebo is overflowing now with vines and it is so pretty and fragrant when they bloom. The fench is covered in creeping jenny and is so cool to see other plants hanging from the fench.

this is the inside of the gazebo and at night it was always pretty to be lite up with lights and just sit and relax.

this is my side yard which is being cleared out for my storage room on the side of the window. Behind the arbor was a lattice filled with Confederate Jasmine, but was dug up a few weeks ago and planted next to my front porch. Still have lots to move and luckily the arbor is now gone, but the vine is just growing on the picket fench.

This is a before picture and I say that because after all the stenciling, we closed in the patio and made me a craft room and we have had nothing but problems since Lili struck, then Rita did more damage, so I had to move everything into my extra bedroom, which hopefully soon will be my pink frufru bedroom.

I told you I didn't live in a mansion, but my little cottage was my dream and all I have to do now is make a bigger craft room( the correct way) and I'll have my bedroom back. I am praying this will all happen before Christmas or very soon after. I know the addition will have to wait until we get our income tax refund but February is a good time to work-it's cool and he is going to take a weeks vacation to get it done.I hope you enjoyed seeing my little cottage. Love and hugs, Pat

FruFru crafting

What does one do when the doctor tells you to take it easy. Well I go into my messy craft room and pull out projects that needed to be finish, but I couldn't find enough things to really frufru up my birdhouse. It's still a work in progress, but at least you can see how far I have gotten with it. My inspiration came from Connie at Living Beautifully and she does some super great things that I thought I would give it a try. At first I was just going to paint and decoupage, but I went a little further than that. I have a cute white bird to put on the perch and a few more things like flowers. I have a round top one that I want to start working on but have put all the things away for the 4th of July bar b cue that we are having tomorrow. Wishing you all a Happy 4Th with your families. Honest opinions are always welcome. Love and hugs, Pat

Finally found my "Flower Child" wedding photo

I finally found one of my wedding pictures and as you can see, I had a "flower child" wedding, even though I was 23 years old. Those were the days of bell bottom pants and mini skirts, but my dress was knee length. This was taken in our trailer after we went to the Justice of the Peace. When we had our marriage blessed in the Catholic Church, I have no idea what happened to those pictures, but I wore a simple dress, then we went home for a little family get together. Al look like a gangster is this suit and I always laugh when I see it, but having a simple wedding lasted longer than any of our friends. All 7 of our best friends had big weddings and have all divorced since then.

I had my epidural yesterday, and I am feeling a little drunk today and want to eat everything in sight because of the steroids. I have to watch my sugar intake because of the diabetes---steroids make your sugar level rise.

We have been having rain every day since Alex started in the Gulf. Oil is worse than ever and you could see it in the waves as they broke on shore. It will be decades before the beaches are safe to go into the water and I for one, am not going into it until I know it is safe to go in the water.

Not much else going on. Just waiting to find out when my surgery will take place. I never knew neurosurgeons were so booked that you had to wait forever, but that is how things stand for now. I hope you all have a great day. It is dark and gloomy here today and I am supposed to rest for a couple of days, but I can drive starting tonight and that is a good thing as Al will be coming this afternoon, so I can go and pick up a few things I need. Love and Hugs, Pat