Fall In Vermont

I visited my brother in Vermont in early October. It was the peak of the Fall foliage and I loved every minute of my trip. My brother was a spectacular host, the weather was crisp and clear and I just cannot remember the last time I had such a wonderful vacation. I have lots and lots of pictures to share, but will first share some colorful clips from our visit to The Vermont Country Store, located in Weston, Vermont, a three hour ride from my brothers home in Glover, Vermont. They do a superb job of decorating for the season.

Living in South Florida, I don't get to see the vibrant colors of the Fall season. I really enjoyed the trees and the whole atmosphere. The people were very nice, peaceful and content. I came away with an inner peace and a new appreciation for the life my brother leads. I can't explain it, but it was such a different feeling from my tropical paradise.

While the Fall is beautiful, this is what he has ready for the cold winter ahead.

He feels comfortable that this will be enough wood for his wood burning stove. Oh my! I cannot imagine. South Florida colors aren't too bad either. This is more my style . . .

But I do think Fall in Vermont would be a great annual tradition!

Roy G. Biv

I recently participated in a fun swap entitled, "Roy G. Biv" - which is a rainbow swap. We could use any theme we wanted with the only criteria being that each piece predominately reflect one of each color of the rainbow, a.k.a., Roy G. Biv - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. I felt like I wanted my seven pieces to all be the same size, so I cut 4x4 squares from nice watercolor paper. The theme I chose was Mona Lisa. I love that painting and I wanted to show how different she could look when highlighted by distinctive colors.

The background of each card was a super-fun process I learned from my art buddy, Suzanne. We put several sheets of crumpled-up white tissue paper on white plastic kitchen garbage bags on the patio. We spritzed each with water to dampen the tissue. We filled little paper cups with some Golden Fluid Acryllic paints in various colors and splattered two or three colors randomly over the tissue. We let dry overnight. This is the result.

I've been dying to use these papers and I was thrilled with the way my Mona Lisa cards came out.

Red Hot . . .

Orange you glad I didn't say banana . . .

Walkin' on sunshine . . .

Green with envy . . .

The deep blue sea . . .

Her eyes were as blue as the sea . . .

Purple with a purpose . . .

I wish I could've kept them. I love the way they turned out. Guess I have to make more!!

Hope

When I first started blogging in April 2008, I had a long summation "About Me". I love to read the words others use to define themselves. How do we see ourselves? What makes us happy? Sad? What are we good at, or bad at?

I work in Human Resources. I have seen many different types of people, some at their best, some at their worst. I have learned through the years that we are ingrained to be a certain type of person - not that we are incapable of change, as anything is possible with determination, motivation and hope. I think it all goes hand-in-hand. When we are determined, we are motivated and we have hope. We can never lose hope, lest we lose our motivation and determination.

My "About Me" now reads, "By the grace of God, I am what I am". When I was in high school, when it was time to prepare the yearbooks, all seniors were given a form to complete for what they wanted written about them. Many were so prolific, listing all of their activities and accomplishments during their four year high school tenure. One girl, named Beth, was short, sweet and concise. She wrote, "By the grace of God, I am what I am". Those words made such an impression on me so many years ago and continue to this day.

I have learned that I cannot make myself into what someone may want me to be. I can only fulfill my own expectations. We walk our path alone, but I cherish the moments I spend with those I hold close to my heart. I try to always look at the positive because I like it better that way. I always believe the best in anyone I come into contact with because they deserve it.

I have hope. I believe that everything will have an outcome amd whether we like it or not, it is the path we were meant to follow. Our destiny. A beautiful place to be.

How would you define yourself?

Treasures

When I was a little girl, I couldn't wait to grow up and have a house of my own. I always loved all of my mother's treasures and started at an early age to collect treasures of my own. I couldn't wait to buy furniture, dishes, pots and pans and all of the other items necessary to make up a home.

When I was in high school, my best friend, Nancy, and I could go on for hours about the apartment we would get when high school was over. We would decorate it in our favorite colors, hers in shades of green, mine in sunshine yellow. Nancy got married right out of high school and I was so envious when I visited the home she set up with her new husband.

At 25, I finally moved out of my parents house, much to their dismay, and got my own apartment. I had hand-me-downs from wherever I could get them and slowly replaced things with items of my own choosing as money allowed. I got married shortly thereafter and was so happy to finally set up a real home with all of my own things. I spent years accumulating the treasures that made my heart sing. I would always love to just sit in one of my rooms and look around at all of my beautiful things and how nice something looked here or there. Through the years, it was such a sense of accomplishment to be able to acquire things that I had spent years longing for.

I've always had a penchant for dishes. I love changing out the dishes in my china cabinet for the seasons. I love my sets of dishes for Spring, Halloween and Christmas and other assorted patterns thrown in between. I love my placemats, chargers and napkin rings. I love my collections of Santa's, books and bric-a-brac. I am now content with all that I have and am more selective about the things I choose to acquire. Never thought I'd see the day!

My mother no longer lives in her own home, though it is still there, fully stocked. My mother-in-law passed away in May 2009. Both of these influential women in my life spent many years of their lives acquiring their own treasures. When life goes on, our treasures remain as somewhat of a memorable part of what we loved and held dear. Treasures are just objects and certainly not worthy of fretting over, but they are what they are and I am overwhelmed with the treasures of lives well-lived and loved but now these treasures are distant traces of days gone by.

So, what to do with all of these treasures? Women's treasures. Can you just imagine? I am sentimental, but I have my own treasures. My children will want their own treasures. We are all distinct human beings with our own thought processes, wants, desires and treasures that are significant of the road we each have travelled. It's somewhat difficult to discard some things that were so important to the most special women in my life.

Why can some people just toss and others treasure?

Altered Book Club

Any opportunity to do something fun and creative is just up my alley. I am having a ball with the local Altered Book Club I'm doing now. We have just completed the six month mark which means we are half way through. It has been such fun. Each participant selected a theme for their book and each book goes around the group, giving each of us an opportunity to do our interpretation in a two-page spread.

In September, the book I worked on was Mythical Creatures. I had a really hard time with that book because I am not into mythical creatures. I fretted practically the whole month and was really agitated the night before pouring over the internet trying to find an image that moved me. Finally the morning of our meeting I found an image I could work with and this is what I did.

My husband and children are Irish, so once I found this image, I was thrilled that I could create something that reflected their heritage. I liked that the image was black and white and an Olde World-type image, rather than some of the cuter leprachaun's we often see for St. Patrick's Day.


In October, the book I had to work on was "Recipes". I knew right from the day I got this book, exactly which recipe I would include to capture a Fall theme. I have the best recipe for Caramel Dip. I never knew anyone that did not like this dip. It's great this time of year with all of the yummy apples available. Pretzels would be a good choice also. Doesn't this look good?

Well, you may not think it looks too good, but you really must try it. Easy peasy! All you need is an 8oz package of cream cheese, one cup of light brown sugar and one teaspoon of vanilla. Mix until smooth and creamy and serve with tart apples. Trust me. You will love it!

This is the spread I did for the book.

For an added treat, I brought Caramel Dip and apple slices with me to our Altered Book Club meeting. Everyone loved it and I know you will too. Try it. It's a great Thanksgiving appetizer. Can't wait for you to try it!!

NaBloPoMo

Huh? That's short for "National Blog Posting Month". On a whim, I've decided to join Sandy for NaBloPoMo. I've tried this before, unsuccessfully. I'm not even sure I have the right attitude now, but I'm up for a challenge so I'm going for it!



The idea of NaBloPoMo is to post something every day for a month. Only bloggers can participate. Generally each month there is a theme, but I think November is the big annual event and this year there is no theme. I think I like that. So today, Day One of NaBloPoMo, I am writing about participation. Will I be successful? Will I be able to think of enlightening, riveting snippets of information to keep myself going? Will anyone read what I am writing?



This is for me. This is to spark my creativity in the written form. I love my artistic creativity. I've always loved my written creativity. I just love expressing myself in ways other than talking. Anyone that knows me, knows I've got that down pat! Here goes. NaBloPoMo for November 2010.

Halloween Fat Book

I recently participated in one of the most wonderful swaps. I belong to a Yahoo group called, "Altered stART". They had a Halloween Fat Book swap where each participant had to make 15 Halloween fat book pages, send them all to the swap hostess in California, who then took took the pages and made them into a wonderful book for each of us. Another member made tombstone name tags for each of us and the books were bound with fun, colorful ribbons and sent back to us. I was amazed at the creativity and had to share. Aren't these pages amazing?

This was such a fun project! It was a great conversation piece!

Today is my brother's 59th birthday. What a treat for my mother!! I recently spent a nice long weekend with my brother at his home in Vermont. I have some incredible pictures to share, as I was there at the peak for Fall Foliage. It was amazing. Happy Birthday Dan!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!!

Torso Tags

I belong to a great group on Yahoo, "Art For The Creative Mind". There are such fun challenges that I just cannot resist. I did over-commit myself recently and had to get all hands on deck to help me meet deadlines, but it was still fun. We have a sassy woman as our leader of this group and she continually comes up with many great swaps for us to participate in. The torso tag was to be a Halloween theme and we needed to create two tags for our partner. I was really pleased with my tags and my partner was too. Yay!

Here is the front of my favorite torso tag.

The back . . .

My second favorite torso tag front . . .

And the back . . .

They were fun to make.

In another Yahoo group I belong to, "Altered stART", I participated in two Halloween swaps. I must share the finished products with you. Fantastic. Superb. Amazing. That will be another post, probably right before Halloween. The talented group of people in this world inspire me so!

How Sweet It Is

In my neighborhood, there are many Gardenia bushes. I love the smell of Gardenias and I love walking past these bushes and smelling their sweet aroma. On Friday I noticed yellow "caution" tape surrounding one of the bushes. Upon closer inspection, this is what I found.

What's that? You can't really make out what I'm trying to show you. Here, let me give you a closer look . . .

Or, how about this . . .


When I was a little girl, my next door neighbor used to raise bees. He would look like a martian in his beekeeping garb. I remember getting my share of bee stings as a little girl. All the neighborhood kids did. We learned to stay away when the bees were being tended to. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this, though. Definitely a unique photo opportunity that I had to share. Amazing.

One To Go

Rachel came home with school pictures. We are pleased with the way they turned out. She selected the purple background. I like the way it looks.

Rachel is a junior in high school this year. I can't believe her school years are almost over. She can't wait. It's been such fun raising my children. It has truly been the most rewarding experience of my life. I must admit, though, I'm a little sad it's almost over. I've had such fun . . . most of the time. But what really threw me for a loop was the pleasure Rachel got out of closing the circle of her school pictures. Only one more picture to go.

She stood back with pride to look at her photo frame next to Logan's.

Such a sense of accomplishment she had to see how far she's come.

Yes, I guess I feel that way too.

Flowers for Boss' Day

I was pleasantly surprised last Friday with this pretty flower arrangement.

Karen, my Human Resources Coordinator, gave me these flowers for Boss' Day. I'm not real into these newly fabricated holidays, but I was so very touched to receive these flowers. They still look beautiful, almost a week later. Thanks Karen!!

The Twists and Turns of Life

A little over two years ago, I posted about my sister moving right next door to me. It has been an amazing time having my baby sister so close. We shared many dinners together with our children. She talked me into joining the gym. We enjoyed many moments at the glorious beach talking as when we were children sharing our hopes and dreams. But life happens and things change and what we once thought could be so special, so righteous, so endless, actually does come to a close.

My dear baby sister got married. She was swept off her feet by a man from Tennessee. I resented him at first, taking my sister away from me. But the love in her eyes, the peace in her soul, the contentment in her heart is all I could ever want for her. They are moving back to Tennessee before the sun goes down again.

When I think of the overwhelming excitement I felt as I watched the truck pull down the street with all of my sisters worldly possessions in June of 2008, I could barely contain myself. I knew we had so much fun ahead of us, so much time to bond and rekindle the closeness we always had. How many sisters get the opportunity to live right next door to each other, to share as adults all of life's moments, to sit and while away the hours as we watch and listen to our children growing up together. These are life's precious moments. These are the times we will always remember. These are the memories that we etch deep into our soul, never to be abandoned.

While I know that my sisters move back to Tennessee is the best move for her, and while I will forever cherish the times we were blessed with, and while time and distance will never sever our bond, my tears fall and my heart breaks.