snow effect

we had our first snowflakes today

much to my dismay

give me 90 degrees at the beach

anyday

set another seat at the table

our thanksgiving table gets larger every year !

we are so very blessed to be surrounded by family.

i have my mom and dad,

3 sisters and 1 brother,

which gives me

3 brothers-in-law, 1 sister in law,

5 nieces, 4 nephews,

3 sons, 1 daughter-in-law

and 2 granddaughters

(so far !)

and oodles and oodles of significant others.

click for a better view

(other than one sister in georgia, carol- move home !)

we are all local and get together quite frequently.

the family just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

we get together every year with my mom's entire family

which is more fun that you can imagine.

we have four generations

here is my mother and my granddaughter, star,

which makes them both great,

get it...great grandma...great granddaughter

and my other granddaughter with my dad (great grandpap)
they are the oldest and the youngest in our immediate family

how lucky am I ??!!

we really are truly blessed.

so in this year,

where i have lost

my best friend,

a neighbor i grew up with,

my step grandson (dear joey)

and

I have watched way too many of my friends lose their parents,

i am reminded to cherish those i love

and in this busy time in my life,

make the time to spend with them.

so today, while our family is privileged to keep adding an extra seat at the table,

(that's you this year, bryan !)

and i am struggling to understand and appreciate the circle of life,

please, give the ones you love an extra hug for me.

witch hazel

here is a shelf in my bathroom.

i love anything old, so naturally i collect old toiletries.

they are so very interesting.

this is just a sampling of my goodies.

(you can click on the pic for a better look)

witch hazel in particular is fairly odd.

check out all the uses for this one item.

you can wash your hair with it

sooth your muscles,

rub your feet

and gargle with it.

yuck !

and it's bottled at the distellery !

go figure

just look at this list

and compare it to how many products

available to us today for all these different needs !

amazing !

what does that say about our habits now??

not sure.

new title pic

how's my new title pic???

i need to take a photoshop class !!

anyone know a good online one?

things have been crazy...trying to get ready for a show this weekend,

get the website up to date

and get photos ready for holiday advertising,

never, never enough time !

losing it...again

one thing you may not know about me is that

i tend to lose things...

lots of things...

all the time......

*

it is why i dont wear 'good jewelry'...(i'll tell you story about the diamond i accidently threw away another day)...it's why i wear the same ear rings all the time...never take them out....it's why i have a cheap cell phone......it's why i dont ever carry cash...it's why my purses all have a long strap to wrap around me....should i go on????

*

*

but today, i lost something i NEED....my glasses !

while on our lovely roadtrip, it was very sunny and i was wearing my script sunglasses....well...somewhere in our travels...

i lost my glasses !

now, i am a person who puts their glasses on

to go the bathroom at night....

meaning i CAN NOT SEE at all without them.

as i am in need of new ones anyway,

this would not be such a dilema...

i would embarrasingly get by with my shades

until i can get glasses made,

however, not so much...

*

tomorrow is a big family wedding.

it is in the big cathedral...fancy schmancy...

and i have no glassed to wear but my sunglasses.....

so...

what do you think????

*
wear the shades...

(cool as they are !! hot pink..oh yeah !!)

wear nothing and squint..

(really NOT an option without a cane and a seeing eye dog along)

or run out tomorrow and buy contacts

which i have not worn in years

so i know i will look like this

argh !!!!!!! and double argh !!!!!

i knew i should have gone for that lazer surgery !

follow up...i opted for contacts.............with granny reading glasses !!

and wow do i have a headache today !!!!

roadtrip.....smicksburg

today we took a day roadtrip up north to smicksburg, pa

this is totally amish country

first this we saw were my favorites !! SHEEP....i LOVE 'em.......


i learned a really funny thing about sheep....when you go up to them, they run away, BUT...then they turn and STARE at you....if you really LOOK in these pictures, you will see them all staring at me....very very strange




look at these ones, even the ones in the back, just cant help staring...too weird !



we stopped in all the gift stores of course....
but same old, same old,
(we do go to ALOT of gift shops in our travels)
but i did photograph a few things i liked

cool bird villla


strange chair

this chicken hated me.........

he turned and looked at me

and then went bizerk !!!

beautiful day and nice scenery

EVERY where

there were as many horses...

(some with buggies, some without )

parked as cars

and you could see signs like this

certainly never see that in the 'burg !!

i loved this house....i dont know what was more amusing,

the laundry on the front porch or the 'fridge there too.....
go figure???

more laundry..kinda liked this view

more gift shop stuff

junk shops too

never heard of this pop ??

this was some old 'mansion'

i just loved the juxtaposition of the old

'castle' type architecture along with

the TV antenna

(gees..it's 2009, get a dish already !)

this sign was in one of the shops...

i LOVED it..

might make one for my booth

"all unattended children will be given an expresso and a puppy"


liked this too !!

if you look close you can see the moon in this picture,

it was full most of this week and oh so awesome !

this was an amazing house built in the middle of really NOWHERE !

beautiful

OLD TRACTORS

REFURBISHED TRACTORS

more gift shop stuff

new, made to look old,

cool, but i still prefer

actual old

i'm making a sign like this for my booth too

wish we had seen more of the

"made in the USA'

type stuff

on the way home, we passed this lovely old school

it was called

THE NORMAL INSTITUTE !!!!!

built in 1905

i keep wondering if it was a school for 'normal' people,

or a school to learn how to BE normal???

all in all, a beautiful day weather-wise, gorgeous PA country side, nice amish ambiance

one strange thing though...the laws must be different there, nowhere had inside bathrooms...all the stores has outside port a johns or outhouses....??

what's up with that??!!!