Friday, June 27, 2008

Ten Commandments for Pets



1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is
likely to be painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.

3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.

4. Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as
punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainments,
but I have only you.

5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand
your voice when speaking to me.

6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.

7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt
you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if
something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right
food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old
or weak.

9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.

10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say
you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything
is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

PINK FRIDAY TIME - Beach Cottage Decor


It's Pink Friday again at Make Mine Pink. This week's theme is "Beach Cottage".

Be sure to visit Cozy Cottage Gifts and Decor and all the other participating boutiques to find a special treasure for your beach cottage decor. Even if you don't own a beach cottage, perhaps a beach cottage vignette could bring a little "seaside" to your home! Our themed shopping event will make it easy for you to find beach cottage items.

Monday, June 23, 2008

It's another Show 'n Tell Monday!!!




Good morning!!! This past week I've been seeing red....no, I'm not angry, I'm painting everything in sight red! Sorta makes me think of that old Clint Eastwood movie where he painted the whole town red...LOL Anyway, red makes me feel good and I needed a lift so I bought a quart of "Red Hot" paint and got to painting. The desk and table will go in my B&M cottage shop when they are finished. I have the cubbies to an old rolltop desk that I am going to add to the top of the little desk (all painted red of course!), and I may do some altered art on the little round table. The red window is going to get "beached up" as one of my Pink Friday items this week....so be sure to check out my shop and all the others participating in Make Mine Pink's Pink Friday event this Friday, June 27th!

Summer Giveaway Winner!!!


Ladies and gentlemen.......we have a winner!!! EmelieNichole of Bunch of Scrap blog wrote the winning comment chose by random drawing by my dear husband. On top of being the lucky winner, EmilieNichole also wrote an entertaining comment so go back and take a look if you have a minute. :)

Thank you everyone for entering my giveaway and please check back often as I love doing giveaways!

Friday, June 20, 2008

It's Pink Friday!

It's Pink Friday again at Make Mine Pink. This week's theme is "An English Tea".

Be sure to visit Cozy Cottage Gifts and Decor and all the other participating boutiques to find a special treasure for your tea table! Our themed shopping event will make it easy for you to find tea-related items.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Another kind of blog tag......

I did a Google search just now and found a new blog tag.
This one goes like this:

1. Write the title to your own memoir using six words.
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who tagged you.
4. Tag five more blogs.

My memoir would be titled......"The Best is Yet to Come".

The five blogs I tag are:

1. Francie at The Scented Cottage
2. Jenn at Thrift Shop Romantic
3. Cathy at Treasured Heirlooms
4. Janet at Janet's Creative Pillows
5. Christine at Extra Sprinkles

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Today's the day! 2008 SUMMER GARDEN TOUR



Here are a few pictures from my country garden taken a couple of years ago. Be sure to visit Notes from a Cottage Industry to visit other bloggers participating in the summer tour today. The first picture is a coffee table I made in one of the sitting areas in our yard. It is an old chicken crate topped with a vintage tea kettle full of sweet petunias.





Azaleas, prairie sage and my angel birdfeeder.




Pots of herbs set on an old cast iron woodburning stove.











My angel garden full of pink primroses. The concrete angel was gift from my husband's family when my father passed away. The birdbath is an MIJ umbrella stand with the bowl from an old pitcher and bowl set placed on top. While the idea was good, we soon realized that we could only fill the bowl half full or the water was over the little birdies' heads.




This is part of the stone path we put in the "secret garden" behind our house. In the center is another garden angel among iris and chrysanthemums.




I started this Carolina jasmine from a little sprig and within a year it had covered the fence with its fragrant blossoms and pretty green vine. The flowers are actually bright yellow.





An old red wagon filled with pots of grape petunias and other blooming flowers.






I created this outdoor "picture" with an old window screen, some silk flowers and attached a row of hooks.


Here is my "flower bed". This was fun.....I painted an old cast iron bed and then filled it with iris and wild phlox.




Last of all, a trio of old metal lawn chairs.....perfect for sitting in the evening shade and sipping sweet tea or lemonade.

Coming soon......2008 SUMMER GARDEN TOUR

Tomorrow's the big day......I'm participating in the 2008 Summer Garden Tour that Tracey is hosting on her blog Notes from a Cottage Industry. If it's anything like her Virtual Christmas Home Tour you won't want to miss it! Check out Tracey's blog as well as the participating blogs for some summer garden inspiration. Hope to see you there!

It's summer! and time for a blog giveaway

The four o'clocks are almost three feet tall and blooming at our back door now so it must be summer! Leave me a comment saying what signals summer to you and you will be entered in my blog surprise giveaway. The lucky winner will be chosen next Sunday, June 22nd.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

It's almost Pink Friday again!


Be sure to visit Cozy Cottage Gifts and Decor as well as the other participating shops at Make Mine Pink tomorrow for this week's Pink Friday sale. Our theme this week is "Kitschy Kitchen Ideas" which should be lots of fun.....hope to see you there!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Movie Reviews


I forgot to mention earlier that while I've been visiting my mom we went out to the movies twice. Funny thing is, I never go to the movies unless I'm here visiting my mom....it's sort of a "girl thing" we do I guess. Last week we saw the new Indiana Jones movie which was noisy but very good....Harrison Ford hasn't lost a bit of his charm. Yesterday we saw the second Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, and it was also very good....and very noisy. Even if talking animals seem a bit strange to you, you will enjoy looking at Ben Barnes a.k.a. Prince Caspian!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Show and Tell Monday




This past week I worked on gifts for Father's Day. I decided to make some journals with a masculine theme and decided that sports definitely says "Dad" to some of the men in our lives. With that in mind I found papers with sports and outdoors themes and altered the covers of these journals. They can be used for daily journaling, keeping track of sports events, or just jotting down notes now and then. These journals are available now at Cozy Cottage Gifts and Decor.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Recipe of the.....ummmmm.....Week???

It's been a while since I've added a recipe.....sorry, but life seems to get in the way of my best intentions sometimes. This time I raided my Mom's recipe box....she clips lots of recipes and is much better about trying new recipes than I am, probably because she is very social and is always taking food somewhere! Today's recipe is one she printed from the Cooking Light website and sounds really good although I haven't tried it yet.

CASHEW CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICHES

1/4 c. fat-free sour cream
1 T. light mayonnaise
1/4 tsp. curry powder
2 c. chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 2 breasts)
1/3 c. chopped celery
2 T. chopped dry-roasted cashews
1 T. finely chopped green onions

Combine first three ingredients in a large bowl, stirring until well blended. Add chicken, celery, cashews, and green onions; stir well. Serve on your favorite bread.

Note: When I make this I will leave out the curry powder and maybe substitute ground rosemary, and also leave out the celery. Chopped apple might be a good replacement. I would serve this on croissants with a tossed salad on the side.

Happy eating!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

My Trip to SW Oklahoma.......so far


It all started last Sunday when I was leaving home in Arkansas for a short vacation with my mom in SW Oklahoma. I had driven 10 miles west and come into Paris (Arkansas) when a terrific storm hit. We had been expecting thunderstorms, but nothing like this! The wind was blowing so hard and it began raining so hard that I had to pull into an alley between two concrete and stone buildings for protection. My little dog Beau decided it was in his best interest to hide in the floorboard in the back seat. I sat in the blowing rain and watched milk crates and other debris float down the main street of Paris. Trees were blowing wildly while I sat there for about 10-15 minutes until the storm passed through. Since the B&M Cozy Cottage Gifts and Decor is located in Paris I decided it would be wise to make a detour and check on it before I left town. So I crept up the main street of Paris about two blocks and made the turn south down Elm Street and oh my goodness!!! what mess I found all the way up and down Elm Street. Street signs were blown over at their bases, wooden utility poles were leaning this way and that, huge old trees were split or uprooted and blown over. The front of one of the local restaurants was torn off and as I ventured farther down the street a power line was lying halfway across the street. At one point I had to back up because the water was too deep to drive through so I had to go around a couple of blocks and come back to Elm Street. Everywhere I looked there was evidence of the storm. When I finally made it to Cozy Cottage I was sooo relieved to see that other than alot of debris lying in the yard there appeared to be no real damage. My big trees still had all their branches intact, the roof looked okay, and even my shop sign was still standing in the front yard. I consider myself very lucky! I found out later that only a few blocks west the Chevrolet dealership got between $100,000 and $200,000 in damage from the storm. The photo is courtesy of the Paris Express and you can read more about the story by clicking on the link.

I checked the weather forecast and it sounded safe to travel on west toward Oklahoma so Beau and I headed out. Then just as we were entering Oklahoma City from I-40, out of absolutely NOWHERE a piece of 2x4 wood about 6 inches long hit my windshield. I still can't believe it didn't even leave a mark on the glass.....but at that point I was wondering if this trip might be doomed!!! We made a stop for dinner and a short visit with my oldest daughter and my grandsons in Oklahoma City. If you ever get a chance, stop and have the shrimp tostadas at San Marcos on North May in Oklahoma City....they are THE best!

After dinner Beau and I traveled on west for the last 2-1/2 hours of our trip which was pretty uneventful....thank goodness! We arrived at Mom's around 10pm and were both very happy to crawl into a comfy bed and go to sleep that night.


On Monday my brother and nephew came over and we drove up to the Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, Oklahoma. It's always a fun place to go because there are herds of buffalo and Texas longhorns grazing along the way. Our destination was a little town called Medicine Park where we wanted to eat dinner at the Old Plantation Restaurant located in a historic hotel. The food and service were great and we had a good time. Here is a picture I took of my mom, brother and nephew in front of the Old Plantation Restaurant.

Mom and I have been having a fun time shopping and eating out....I will have to go on a liquid diet for a month after I get back home!!! We've watched alot of HGTV and Dog Whisperer and taken lots of naps which has been sooo nice. Then on Thursday a storm hit here where she lives....I couldn't believe it! Once again, we were lucky and her house got virtually no damage, but we were without power for about ten hours. The temps have been in the high 90s and 100s so you can imagine that it was not very comfortable. But we found out later we were some of the lucky ones who got their power back first.....there are still people today (Saturday) without electricity and some without water in their homes. There was major damage mostly in the southeast and southwest parts of town but no deaths or casualties thank goodness. The winds were reported at 90 mph and turned over train cars, tore the top floor off of a motel and trees were lying in the streets everywhere. The local paper has a good report and slideshow of the damage if you want to take a look here. When our power did come back on, Mom's air conditioning unit wouldn't come on so we had to get an electrician to come out and luckily (again) he was able to repair it quickly so we got the house cooled off again pretty fast.

All in all, this has been quite an adventure......I'll be heading back home again in a few days and I'm crossing my fingers that the trip will be uneventful!

Friday, June 6, 2008

OOPS!

I didn't get to be a part of the Make Mine Pink "Father's Favorites" Pink Friday after all. I'm visiting my mom in SW Oklahoma and a tornado swept through yesterday evening and we were without power until today. We were lucky not to have any major damage here at her house but parts of the town look like a war zone. I am very thankful that we were spared the worst of it here at the house though. I do have a few items for Father's Day that I will list on my website later today or tomorrow in the Pink Friday category.

Thanks for visiting my blog,
Debbie

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Pink Friday is almost here again!


It's almost time for Pink Friday again at Make Mine Pink. This week we pay tribute to Favorite Fathers with our "Father Favorites" theme!

I will be listing a few special items just for dads in the Pink Friday category at Cozy Cottage Gifts and Decor. My "Father's Favorites" will be listed later this evening and will be available during the Pink Friday event tomorrow, June 6th. Be sure to visit all the other participating boutiques to find a special treasure for your favorite dad! Our themed shopping event will make it easy for you to find that special gift you've been searching for!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

SHOW AND TELL MONDAY



Here are a couple of things I've been working on over the past week. First, is an altered art bottle, Love Potion #9. I found the deco witch picture and just had to do something with it, hence the love potion. If you are in need of a love potion, or just want to spice up your decor a bit, I have this pretty bottle listed on my website. Just click here.


Next is a photo album I just finished for my mom's birthday. The album was ready-made, but I altered the front and back covers and added a vintage photo and button embellishment. I think she will be pleased with the gift.



Check back next week when I hope to have a really pretty pillow to show you. Here's a hint.....think Laura Ashley meets crinkled satin....oooh-la-la!
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