It's Finally Over!

It's finally over! NaBloPoMo no more!!! Joy let me use her badge she made for her blog. We're celebrating the finale of the month of posting. It was fun, but exhausting too. Time to get ready for Christmas around here. I hope to put up my Christmas tree tomorrow. I enjoyed all the new blogs I visited and the people I met and hope to still visit. Thanks to all who were my friends and readers.

Had A Bad Day

The camera don't lie....

Coffee Art (The Best Part of Waking Up)

She calls this "Creation of Coffee."


I found this wonderful artist on the news today.  Her name is Karen Eland and she paints with coffee.  You should check out her website.

She does beautiful expressionism (expresso) watercolors.  Very amusing because she likes

to add a cup of coffee somewhere in the painting.  Here is an example:

Her artwork is displayed in coffee houses all over the states. She has a gallery
displaying pieces that she sells for reasonable prices. I believe I shall be buying
this "Girl With a Pearl Earring."

The 12 Questions of Christmas Meme

Hootin'Anni created a Meme that she has invited us to use:
     "For the holiday season, I've started a meme. "The Twelve Questions of Christmas" If you'd like to participate, I'd be honored to have you join in the fun. If you'd like, you are welcomed to use the meme header graphic!"

1. Christmas is _Emmanuel_. [fill in the blank with ONE WORD]

2. In memories, what was the best part of your Christmases past?
Opening presents with my brothers and playing the games that we received.  

Drinking eggnog that Mom made.  Going to cut a tree with Dad and decorating it.
3. Was Santa ever good to you? [describe how and what]
For my fifth Christmas I received a Chatty Cathy doll.  Pretty cool.
4. Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or both?
When I was little, we opened on Christmas Eve, then my children we continued

this tradition until they got older and opened one present on Christmas Eve

and the rest on Christmas Day.  We were never early risers!
5. Is there something you make each and every year? [craft or recipe]
Pumpkin bread and I always buy a new ornament or two for the tree.
6. What is your favorite five[5] Christmas songs/hymns?
O Holy Night, Away in a Manger, Silent Night, Mary, Did you Know?, and

Breath of Heaven
7. Is there a new tradition for Christmas since your childhood days? 

When my children were little we always read the Christmas story out

of the Bible together.  We started a Christmas tradition of putting a new

bulb on a construction papar Advent Christmas tree that we put on the window.  There was

a biblical meaning to each ornament.  

8. Describe one of your Christmas trips. [whether it's across town or across country]
We always made trips to Grandparents houses, my mom's on Christmas eve

and my husband's mom on Christmas Day.  We all lived close.
9. Do you have a special Christmas outfit to wear for the day?
No.
10. Have YOU or any of your family members sat on Santa's lap?
My kids have.  They were afraid.  I haven't.  
11. What is/or will be on your Christmas tree this year?
A new pickle ornament.
12. Do you/or have you decorated your yard for Christmas?

We have decorated outdoors many times.  It's usually the front

door and bushes and posts.  The roof rarely gets decorated.

Ziggy-Internet

Don't you just love scanners? And Ziggy?

Hot Pink Beauty Berries!

I found this on Robin's blog and I decided to try the "15 words or less" poem.
This photo came from Laura.
Here is my entry for 15 words or less poem:


All hot and pink
What do I think?
You must be all
poisonous and stink.

I have a cactus plant that puts out a sort of beautiful bloom every year 

that I will find a picture of to show.  It is called a "dead meat" flower.

Its name says it all.  The first time I saw it, first I smelled it. I was 

walking by and wondered, "What is that dead smell?"  Then I saw

the flower, all pretty and pink and big.  A closer inspection revealed

the foul smell.  I looked up information on it and a cactus flower like this

smells bad to attract flies from miles around.  I have had several of these

flowers through the years and I sadly must break them off and take them

outside to attract flies there instead of inside my house!

I found a similar picture on the internet but my flower is much prettier

than this.

Don't Try This at Home! or on the Highway!

I went to visit my son yesterday at college.  It is about an hour drive, so I get on the turnpike.  The speed limit is 75 so I speed up to 80 mph to get past a few drivers and get in the clear.  After about 10 miles I hear a noisy car coming so I move over to the right lane to let them go by.  Instead of driving by, they seem to stay right beside me so I use my peripheal vision to glance over, thinking that is what they want me to do is to look at them.  I notice the driver's leg is out of his window and resting on the mirror.  I decide to speed up and keep away from them.  I look back in my rear view mirror and they are still in the passing lane cruising along with their foot on the outside mirror.  I am comtemplating the rest of the drive with them beside me and thinking how I wish they were not there for me to think about.  So......and this is the reason you should not drive with your leg outside of the car!!!  Good advice too.  I notice suddenly the little car is not in the lane anymore.  It is bouncing around on top of the grass in the center median!  The center median is made with a high spot in the middle (probably to discourage driving on it and to divert the oncoming traffic).  There that car is bouncing around in the center and with me viewing it backwards it is a crazy sight!  They managed to stay in the median and not turn over and they finally stopped.  I didn't stop because I was several miles ahead of them now and I could tell they didn't actually wreck.  But as I topped a hill, who did I meet?  (I had already slowed down to speed limit.)  A highway patrol.  Oh my gosh, just when you needed one?  What do you think they told the patrol man?  Oh, I was driving with my leg out the window and I lost control.  Would you give me a ticket?  :D  I think that young man might have learned his lesson for the day.  DO NOT DRIVE WITH YOUR LEG OUT THE WINDOW!!  It may be fun for awhile, but statistics are against you.  I felt so sorry for them though and certainly did not want their car to have a wreck just so they wouldn't be driving next to me all the way....  

Wordless Wednesday-Three Generations

Tagged by Nin

Earlier this month I was tagged by Nin at Peachy Hollow.
The Meme is to reveal eight random things about myself.
Probably not too hard to do, so here goes:

1. I roll little pieces of paper into cigarette type shapes.  It could be gum wrappers or paper straw covers or the paper napkin rings at restaurants, but if it's there, I must roll it.  It feels good to my fingers...that is my explanation and I'm sticking to it.  I will admit that I can control this behavior if I want to....
2. I have a boy's name and I spell it like a girl's name.  Now get this:  my mother has three little boys and can't wait for the fourth child to be a girl, so why did she give me a boy's name?  I really like my name though.  I just really like it to be spelled correctly, the girl way.  
3. I bite the inside of my bottom lip.  I cannot help it and I try my best not to.  Bad habit.
4. Sometimes I count the number of times that I do something or the number of things there are in an assortment.  I am not conpulsive about this, I just notice sometimes.  Like for instance, I like the number six for my childhood family, the number five for my immediate family.
5. I have always twiddled with my hair.  I make little braids in it and take them out over and over.  I just do this occasionally now and then, I used to be quite compulsive about it, but I have found better ways to occupy my time. :D
6. I can not stand to wear turtlenecks or for that matter collars or hoods.  Anything against my neck or the back of my neck bother me.  I need freedom!!  I love how turtlenecks look but I will stretch them out and pull on them constantly if I wear one.  
7. I mentioned this before, but I must wear sunglasses most of the time outdoors.  My eyes are just too sensitive, even if it is cloudy.
8. I almost died during my tubal ligation operation.  The anesthesiologist wasn't watching and I quit breathing through my nose and my tongue dropped down my throat.  They had to intubate me.  I woke up in the elevator after the surgery crying and wondering why my throat hurt so much when I had a surgery way down below it.  My throat hurt much worse than my incision.  The nurses told my husband later, "Oh, we almost lost her."  For a simple tubal?  Then later that night, a nurse who was supposed to be pushing on my uterus to make it contract, pushed very hard on my incision and made it open (which caused me much pain).  She said to me, "Hurts doesn't it?"  It did.  It hurt so much that I was speechless.  I didn't say anything to her.  Man, I wish I had!  

My Wish

This would be my wish for my three children. :D

Fun Monday

Fun Monday is being hosted this week by the terrific Blue Momma, who asked to see our unfinished projects (with pictures). Ha, you couldn't see them without pictures, now could you?

My first unfinished project is scrapbooking. I have bought the material but never got started. My daughter makes scrapbooks all the time for presents. She is good at it. I have a small project to do for my anniversary next year. I will be adding these cute little musical instruments to it. I need to find a rockin' guitar (Les Paul or Fender Stratocaster or even a Telecastor). I wonder if they make an acoustic guitar or a Paul Reed Smith? :D


The next project is to learn to draw and watercolor. I have always wanted to learn. I am thinking of taking a course so I can seriously learn next year. Notice I say "next year"?

My quilt, my quilt, my lovely, lovely quilt (think Alanis Morrisette). No, don't really think about her. I started this quilt about two years (give or take) but I never finished the binding on it. I haven't had the desire for some reason to do it. The binding has got me bound! I really need to finish it. I want to take it to someone and have them do it. That may be my answer.

My kitty has a nice new bed to sleep on now that Thanksgiving is over. I bought this bed for my daughter's room for she and her sister to sleep on while they were home. Now the kitty has it all to herself. She's happy except a little annoyed that I am putting this quilt on it to take a picture. She preferred the other quilt. :D

If you look at the above picture you can see the unfinished edges of the quilt.

Do you like the toile? I am a toile lover. Any color.

Next week Robinella will be hosting Fun Monday. Today check out Blue Momma for more Fun Monday unfinished projects.

Weekly Winners Sunday Meme

Here's all I got this week:

Cat fishing.

I am short on pictures this week.  I had a raccoon video

to post but I need to figure out how to edit and lighten

it up if possible. 

You can join this fun group by visiting
Lotus who created it.

Happy Aftermath

I should have taken some pictures of our Thanksgiving but I didn't.  I had so many more things to occupy my time, I didn't feel like it.  Sometimes, I think the camera interferes with company time.  I was cooking and then eating and then visiting.  Our only little one was Litsy who was two.  She was fun to play with.  My two brothers and families and my mom were here at my house.  My daughters and son were home from college.  We had a beautifully brined 23 lb. turkey which I lifted several times out of the oven to baste.  We had two different dressings, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn, green bean casserole, broccoli/cheese casserole, orange mandarin salad, Waldorf salad, cranberry sauce, rolls, and 5 different pies.  We had a good time and I showed my brother my blog.  :D  We even got a little snow in the evening!  

In The Arms of The Angel (City of Angel music video)

Good movie, fantastic song....

Haiku Friday-Black Friday

Hello Black Friday

Getting up very early

A shopper's delight

Sales person's nightmare

Getting up very early

Have to face the frenzied crowd

People rushing by

To long lines at the check-out

Jostling, bustling folks

Is it really worth

The time, trouble, and effort

To get the discount?

Retailers love it

Most employees deplore it

Shoppers adore it

Big Bird

Happy Thanksgiving!

~The best things are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you.~Robert Louis Stevenson



A mother asked her daughter, "Did you say your prayers last night?" The little girl answered, "Well, I got down on my knees and started to say them, and all of a sudden I thought, I bet God gets awfully tired of hearing the same old prayer over and over. So I crawled into bed and told Him the story of the three bears." taken from Humor Me by Barbara Johnson.


Hang in there! In just two days tomorrow will be yesterday. ~Barbara Johnson~
I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Simon and Garfunkel

My kids watched Mrs. Robinson tonight. They asked me if I ever saw it. Yeah, when it came out! :D

Wordless Wednesday-"Far Side" -Eat more "Chicken"

Ewwwwwww..............

Pensieve's Poetic License-November

Want this button?
Robin started a group called Pensieve's Poetic License. I joined to try out my creativeness. I have written a few poems before, not many, but I'm going to give it a try. Here are the rules:
So, ready to write your own? You have a week to complete it, but PLEASE don't make this more difficult than it is--Pensieve's Poetic License is intended to be a fun exercise in linguistic creativity! This month's theme is "Thanksgiving"; broad enough to go in a thousand directions, but remember, since PPL's motto is "No Rules. Just WRITE!" you're pretty much free to do as you please.

For the month of November we are to write a limerick for Thanksgiving.

RSVP

Thanksgiving can bring out the best

For those who are thankful and blest.

For those who have need

Are those we can feed.

We invite them to be our guest!

We wonder why God does not see

Cruelty, injustice, poverty.

Since the fall of man

Darkness is at hand.

That's why God has called you and me.

Please go over to Robin's for more poems.

Holiday Giveaway!

Hop on over to Lindsay's for a chance to win one of several prizes, including a free blogger template! She will be drawing a winner November 26th.

Fun Monday

Karisma is our hostess for Fun Monday this week. And, here's the task:

"I want you to take a trip down memory lane, and keep right on going, right back
to your childhood. And I want to hear "THAT STORY". You remember the one?
Yes, you do! The one your parents, siblings, extended family or friends, would
never let you forget, live down or get over!"


I've already told you about the two knocked out front teeth
here. This is my first grade picture. My permanent teeth
were coming in by then. My brothers and I had to ride a school bus every
day. We lived way out in the country on a dirt road. I had a few new friends
who lived out near me now that I was in the first grade. I joined a group at
church called "SunBeams". They were going to meet after school at my friend's
house a few miles from my house. We were riding home on the school bus
and my friend was telling me about the meeting. I knew that I needed to
tell my mom that I was going to go, but I thought it would be o.k. to give
my brother a message for my mom. I told my brother Kenny to tell mom
that I was going to "Sunbeams" at Gwendolyn's house. Kenny said to me,
"Will you bring me some?" and I said, "Yeah." Not knowing what he was
talking about, I got off the bus at her house. So Kenny goes home and
my mom asks,"Where's Terri?" He tells her that I am gone to get him some
sun beans. I guess he finally tells her that I am at my friend's house, but
the important part is the "sun beans". Do you know what they are? We
used to find sun beans all over the place out around our house. They
are black and smooth and you could rub them on a rock and they would get hot.
Then I guess you could "burn" someone by touching it to them. Doesn't
that sound like fun? My brothers thought so. Anyway, I must have gotten
home somehow and Kenny asked me, "Where are my sun beans?" I
didn't have any for him so he was a little mad at me. I tried to explain
that I went to SunBeams, not sun beans. Yes, I did get into trouble for
going somewhere without permission. All at the age of six.

Weekly Winners Sunday Meme

My daughter and her boyfriend at the Flaming Lips Alley Dedication.
They marched in Oklahoma City at night and Wayne of Flaming Lips
walked in his plastic ball. They carried lit tiki torches. There were
about 1000 skeletons. Anyway as many as the fire marshall would allow!
They had a blast! She sent me this picture.

The trees above and below are around our town.
Bradford pears and maples.

I took a trip to T-town.

Utica Square. Where Williams Sonoma is located.
This is the prettiest shopping center in T-town.

They even have phone booths from Great Britain!
These phone booths and these big clocks below are
located all over the square.

Our house from the beginning of the week.
The wind and the weather changed so quickly
that the leaves' colors turned and then began
to fall. The wind blew rather hard one day
and night.


The leaves they are a'changing.


I do love the crunchy sound that walking on fallen
leaves make. My husband raked and burned some
leaves today. See--we live in the country, you can
do that!



Kissa found a new place to lounge and hide.


I thought it was my bathroom haven.
But maybe it is hers now?
You can join this fun group by visiting
Lotus who created it.
We will be posting on Sundays our pictures
that we have taken the week before. There
is also a link in my sidebar. See8

Chris Tomlin - Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

John Newton (played by Albert Finney in Amazing Grace) wrote the words to one of the most beloved hymns of all time between 1760 and 1770, while working as an evangelical pastor. Son of the commander of a merchant ship, Newton was captain of a slave ship for many years, until he underwent a dramatic religious conversion while steering his vessel through a storm.

November Pay It Forward Book Exchange- 19 books up for grabs!

This is a project of Overwhelmed With Joy. Many books are up for grabs. There are lots of people participating in the giveaways each month. Go on over and check it out!
I have a book I will be giving away soon. It is Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.

Girl With a Pearl Earring

This was found here on the author, Tracy Chevalier's website about her book Girl With a Pearl Earring. I read the book a few years ago. I think it is very interesting to imagine the story behind the painting. Here is what Tracy says:

"Little is known about Vermeer. For a start, we don't know what he looked like. There are no confirmed images of him, though in one of his early works, The Procuress, a man looks out at the viewer from the edge of the scene, which in Dutch painting of the time was often the artist himself. In The Art of Painting a painter sits with his back to us. We don't know if it's meant to be Vermeer, but it gives us an idea of what an artist in his studio might have looked like.
The few known facts about Vermeer's life come from legal documents, of marriages and births and sales and debts. The son of innkeepers, he was born in 1632 in Delft, a town of about 25,000 people best known for its blue and white glazed earthenware. He spent all of his life there, though he may have done a six-year painting apprenticeship elsewhere, possibly in Amsterdam or Utrecht."


"In 1653 Vermeer converted to Catholicism and married Catharina Bolnes, a Catholic from a well-off bourgeois family. They had eleven surviving children. The family lived in the house of Maria Thins, Vermeer's mother-in-law, in an area off the main Market Square known as Papists' Corner because of the concentration of Catholics living there. Only 20% of the population were Catholic; the rest were Protestant. Catholics were tolerated but barred from municipal functions and required to worship privately. There were two "hidden" churches in Delft, one right next door to Maria Thins' house."


The book was made into a movie. I have watched the movie. Colin Firth plays Vermeer and Scarlett Johannson is Griet. Tracy Chevalier had this to say about the film.
"It was strange too to see that my scribbling had spawned a whole industry of Vermeer boffins - there were reproductions of Vermeers and other Dutch paintings tacked up everywhere in the production offices, and books strewn about that I myself had read for research. I confess it was rather gratifying to have Colin Firth elbow someone out of the way in the set canteen so that he could sit next to me at lunch and grill me about Vermeer. Someone else also turned to me in the canteen and said, 'Do you realise that your idea is paying all these people's wages for two months?' Yes, surreal it was."

Here is an excerpt from the book:
He got another of the lion-head chairs and set it close to his easel but sideways so it faced the window. "Sit here."
"What do you want, sir?" I asked, sitting. I was puzzled--we never sat together. I shivered, although I was not cold.
"Don't talk." He opened a shutter so that the light fell directly on my face. "Look out the window." He sat down in
his chair by the easel. I gazed at the New Church tower and swallowed. I could feel my jaw tightening and my eyes
widening. "Now look at me." I turned my head and looked at him over my left shoulder. His eyes locked with mine.
I could think of nothing except how their grey was like the inside of an oyster shell. He seemed to be waiting for
something. My face began to strain with the fear that I was not giving him what he wanted. "Griet," he said softly.
It was all he had to say. My eyes filled with tears I did not shed. I knew now. "Yes. Don't move."
He was going to paint me.

Housewarming for Juliebug and Tigger too

SCROLL DOWN FOR HOUSEWARMING GIFTS
UNDERNEATH THESE "OKLAHOMA" POSTS
NOVEMBER 16, 1907-2007
46th STATE!

"Flowers on the prairie where the JUNE bugs zoom"

John Schneider and Pam Dawber sing

Oklahoma, what a great state!

Oklahoma's 100th Birthday

The Oklahoma Statehood Stamp features a familiar landscape of an Oklahoma sunrise, with the sun rising from beyond a river flowing through a valley of high plains terrain. Stamp designer Mike Larsen, of Chickasaw ancestry, captures this tranquil Oklahoma scene. Also, the stamp pays homage to 1943 hit Broadway musical Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. with the caption, “Oh, what a beautiful mornin’…” The musical’s signature song doubles as Oklahoma’s state song.

OKLAHOMA!

Brand new state!
Brand new state, gonna treat you great!
Gonna give you barley, carrots and pertaters,
Pasture fer the cattle,
Spinach and termayters!
Flowers on the prarie where the June bugs zoom,
Plen'y of air and plen'y of room,
Plen'y of room to swing a rope!
Plen'y of heart and plen'y of hope.
Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma,
Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.
We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine,
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.
Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma,
Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.
We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine,
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.