tiny turtle

↑ found this teeny tiny turtle in my driveway a couple years ago.  It was truly the size of a US quarter!  It may have grown up to look like this ↓

box turtle care LINK

Eastern and Western (USA) box turtle information

This is a fun weekly meme under the direction of Jenny Matlock.  You, too, can join in the fun!  This week our letter is "T."  Visit all the other wonderful entries HERE.






photos by me ©  2008

Dilapidated Barn

September, Bead Lake, Newport, Washington 

 

I'm linking up with Barn Charm, a Monday meme.  Come see other links and link up, too HERE!





photos by me ©  2008

Faerie Garden Fancies

Craftoholic Diana, otherwise-known-as Bunnykissd, is proprietress of the etsy shop Faerie Garden Fancies.  In her shop you will find all kinds of goodies to delight the imagination.  "My favorite materials to work with include but are not limited to paper, paint, glue, scissors, polymer clay, pencils, watercolors, camera, and computer."

Look at this cute Jolly S'more Man!

Diana also makes a variety of ACEOs like this one she calls Surprise. 

These black raspberry chocolate earrings come on this cute card.

If you want to know more about Diana, her life, her family, her interests, and her crafts, be sure to visit her blog Diary of a Crazy Rabbit Lady Too.  (If you have some books you'd like to recommend to her, please leave a comment here.)

Bunnykissd is the etsy blogger of the month.  Find out more about the etsy bloggers here.

photos © by bunnykissd 2010 and 2011

a special party

5 years cancer-free!   That was the occasion for the celebration in Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park.  My friends and I wanted to rejoice over a benchmark in the life of another special friend.  This was the perfect setting for a party. 

We created a vignette under the shade of a trio of trees, first by laying down a quilt "floor," then by setting a low table with linens.  Our seats were pillows.  Flowers, delicious home~made food, and mimosas completed the picture.  Next to each place was a keepsake vintage glass filled with soil and an angel wing begonia.

"Abracadabra" by Alexander Liberman

After our luncheon, we wandered through some of the beautiful 265 acres of meadows, rolling hills, woods, and gardens.  We enjoyed taking photos of the wonderful (world class) sculptures and gorgeous landscapes.

"Laocoon" by Alexander Liberman

We ended our celebration in another area of the park, with dessert cookies and tea.  a perfect day!

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, a non-profit organization located in SW Ohio, USA, was founded by Harry T. Wilks in 1996.  This park was touted as the "most beautiful natural setting of any art park in the country" by Atlantic Monthly.

"Our mission is the eventual establishment of a collection which will demonstrate the complete history of sculpture by mankind, making Pyramid Hill the only art park in the world working on the accomplishment. " 

LINKS:

◄ Pyramid Hill website

◄ interview with Wilks showing some of the lovely park lands and sculptures (4 minutes)

◄ 365 things to do in Cincinnati Day 187   

◄Alexander Liberman, Russian-American born in 1912, died 1999. article  and  obituary

This is a fun weekly meme under the direction of Jenny Matlock.  You, too, can join in the fun!  This week our letter is "S."  Visit all the other wonderful entries HERE.

photos by me ©  2007
PS:  It was a SURPRISE party! 
PPS:  Lest I give the wrong impression, this party was not for me. 

Winter

is so Wintery

cold

icy

blustery.

such a great time for

hanging out by the fire

napping with or without kitties (↑Earnest)

making lots of soup

learning a new craft

reading books, visiting with friends, snowboarding (son only), watching movies, playing games.

But also 

walking in the woods,

capturing nature on film, looking for animal tracks.

Winter, February to be exact, is my birthday, my wedding anniversary, and my son's birthday.  That gives us a reason to celebrate all month long...

and a wonderful excuse to get away to somewhere WARM! 

 

This post is for the etsy bloggers' team carnival which will be posted on Linda's blog, Pruitt Handcrafts on Monday, February 14th.

photos © by me 2008, 2009, and 2010

(Last photo is Prickly Pear Island in the Caribbean.)

an early love

(a very short and incomplete reading memoir)

There is no frigate like a book 

to take us lands away....

~Emily Dickinson

When I was a child, I was entranced with books, or perhaps it was the stories...

My mother would sit in the hallway between my bedroom and my brother's and read to us from the Bible and the wonderful Narnia stories.  (Pauline Baynes' illustrations are magical!)

Circus Time (a Little Golden Book--remember those?), a book I loved and still own.

◊ I used to read at night under the covers with a flashlight.  
◊ I remember trading Nancy Drew books with my neighbor girlfriends.  (I still have some of those books.)
◊ In one of the elementary grades we were required to read books from different genres.  I remember being enthralled with sea creatures and intrigued by Mary, Queen of Scots.  
◊ Did you ever have to make a diorama for a book report?  I remember making one for Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager.
I loved Dr. Seuss books, Curious George, and Babar.  and fairy tales.  Oh, and definitely Laura Ingalls Wilder.  And then there's Pooh of course! See?  There is just no stopping!

Please tell me a favorite childhood book and/or childhood reading memory in your comments. 

Books to the ceiling
Books to the sky
My piles of books are a mile high
How I love them
How I need them
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.

~Arnold Lobel 

This is a fun weekly meme under the direction of Jenny Matlock.  You, too, can join in the fun!  This week our letter is "R."  visit all the other wonderful entries HERE.

PS:  Check out this blog for wonderful children's book art and illustrators:  Children's/Fantasy Illustrations

photo © 2011; book art is also ©

Sail Away (#2)

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  
~Mark Twain 
 

It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand. 
~ Madeleine L'Engle

Down to the beach where the slow waves thunder -
The green curls over and the white falls under -
Boom! Boom! Boom! On the sun-bright sand....

And there I'd say to myself as I looked so lazily down at the sea,
There's nobody else in the world and the world was made for me. 

~A A Milne

What does sailing and the ocean have to do with the letter Q?  you ask.  Why Q stands for quotes, of course, of which there are 3!  Cold and snow and ice prevail in my world at present.  I am ready to dream and explore somewhere warm.  I'm ready to remove the props and discover rock. I'm ready to sail from the safe harbor and perceive how the world was made for for me.

This is a fun weekly meme, under the direction of Jenny Matlock.  This week, our letter is "Q."  Have some fun and come join HERE.  This is a great way to exercise your creative muscles AND you will be amazed at all the bloggy goodness to be found! 

 photos © by 2007 and 2008  all St. Maarten, NA