I can't believe I haven't posted since Wednesday! Since I joined this wonderful community, I have to hold myself back from over-posting, lest I lose the interest of my followers. Fortunately/ unfortunately there has been nothing monumental that is to blame for my absence. My days have simply been busy. Given the alternative (famine, flood, fire or pet catastrophe), I am grateful for plain, old "busy"! However, now that I'm comfortably seated, at my computer, that familiar urge to share every, mundane detail of my life is back. I sense this will be a multiple-post day, friends.
I absolutely have to start with a HUGE, public thank you to Margaret, The French Bear, for the amazing gifts she sent me for participating in her "Pay it Forward" event. I have been drooling over Margaret's creations ever since I was introduced to her blog via Monica's (The White Bench). When Margaret invited her readers to join in her "Pay it Forward", I was all over it :-) Not only do I LOVE the concept, but (not-so-secretly) I was so excited to have one of Margaret's beautiful creations for my very own. When the package arrived, a few days ago, I was beyond thrilled! Of course, everything was wrapped beautifully and I opened everything with great care.
***Note: I have learned, thanks to you ladies, how to practice a bit of patience when it comes to unwrapping gifts. Typically, I am a tear-into-it, get-to-the-good-stuff kind of girl!
Margaret made me the most lovely collage, combining elements that I never, in a million years, would have thought to put together: pale blue journal paper, speckled eggs, burgundy rose ribbon....simply (nothing simple about it, actually) stunning! I am so impressed by those of you who let your creative juices flow freely. I tend to be very one-dimensional when it comes to expressing myself creatively. Margaret also made me the sweetest "Welcome Spring" nesting box...yes, there is a nest with speckled eggs inside. Attention to details???? I've made four attempts to describe the intricacies of this piece (deleted them all, obviously), so I will rely on my pictures to illustrate what I cannot put into words. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you Margaret. Small words for the gratitude I feel!
I hope Beverly, at How Sweet the Sound, doesn't mind terribly that I'm "joining" her Pink Saturday extravaganza...in a roundabout way. Anyone who has been following my blog knows that this week has been insane for me. I never got a chance to sign up, with Beverly, properly, but felt the need to add my two pink cents. I will sign up for next week, to make it official.
In between tedious chores & trying to keep my mind off my puppy's surgery yesterday, I did squeeze in a few little projects...and they just happen to fit Pink Saturday. I decided the "wart eggs" (as my son aptly named them) were just not going to beautify, no matter what I did to them. Into the garbage they went and I started over.
"Simple, simple, simple", I kept reminding myself. I painted some blown-out eggs the lightest pink, then added a touch of shimmer with some glass sparkle. I plopped them in a ceramic bowl, added a few millinery flowers and that's the end of that!
It never dawned on me that I could change my sweet teddy bear's attire and the blue frock she has always worn was looking a bit off in my pink & white bedroom. I dug through some of my daughter's old baby clothes and found an adorable ensemble that now matches my bedding. Two minutes of creating a new hairbow and I think she's looking like a whole new girl!
My last show & tell required no work, at all. It is my collection of silver & crystal do-dads that sits on my dresser. The pretty pink & gold rose is one from my good friend, Monica, and is the perfect compliment to the other trinkets...don't you agree?
First and foremost, thank you ALL for the prayers and support r.e. my dad's health issues. It has helped more than you can imagine! I have a tendency, when life throws me a challenge, to keep a smile on my face so as not to burden others with my problems. The result is, I leave myself running around in my own head: which is one playground I should not be hanging out at, without a chaperone! A very wise friend often says: "A problem shared, is a problem halved". So true! Okay, back to coffee. Heidi has me on a roll with coffee left-over projects. While I was cleaning out my basement, last weekend, I came across boxes & boxes of blown eggs. I called my landlord to see if he wanted them for his kids (Easter projects). He laughed and told me his late Aunt Peg, in whose home I am living, would spend hours blowing out eggs from the farm, but (to his knowledge) she never did anything with them. Since my landlord still has easy access to all of the eggs he could ever use, courtesy of his 100+ chickens, he advised me to "toss them...they've probably been sitting down there for the last 15 years". Toss them, indeed! Into a bowl they went, with my left-over coffee (I really didn't need any more caffeine anyway) and they're now having a lovely bath du cafe! Because of their age, I think, some of them are turning a yummy speckled caramel, while others are transforming with a marbled pattern. I just love this kind of fun, (virtually) free project! I'd love to hear if you have any other uses for left-over coffee or similar projects!
