Blog Award

WOW!!!! This is my first award! I feel extremely humbled that someone looks to me for inspiration. Thank you, Erin! Please visit Erin at http://craftytexanstidbits.blogspot.com/.

She is an EXTREMELY talented artist!

I need to pass this on & I'm not sure if I know how....so bear with me.

Here are the rules for the awards:

1.Accept the award by posting the picture along with a link to the names of the people who gave you the award.
2.Pass along the award to 15 bloggers who inspire you and leave them a comment letting them know so.

I'm not sure if I know 15 bloggers yet, but the ones I love are:

Erin at http://craftytexanstidbits.blogspot.com/

Teri at http://themidnightartist.blogspot.com/

Beth at http://barnowlstudio.blogspot.com/

Dawn at http://the-feathered-nest.blogspot.com/

Everyone have a great day!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day.....it means so much to so many. My grandfather, my husband, & my brother have all been in the military. None have seen action. For that I am thankful. For those that have.....I AM THANKFUL!!! So many have given their lives for what we believe in. To those families, I am so sorry for your loss, but celebrate the bravery & honor that your loved ones possessed. Below is something my husband wrote several years ago in honor of Memorial Day. I hope you enjoy.


IN REMEMBRANCE


I began to meditate on the meaning of Memorial Day which will be remembered soon. The date may appear to some as just another day on the calendar; however, the significance of this day is contained in the sacrifices made by the men and women of this nation. The tombstones of American military service personnel scattered throughout the world stand as silent witnesses to this fact. This letter is dedicated to those both dead and alive. Your display of character, courage, and heroism on behalf of your country is unparalleled and second to none.

Although the years have gone by and time may cloud the focus of your deeds, I am compelled to read about and remember the places you have served. There were many theaters of war, but a few particularly stand out in my mind. “Bloody Ridge” on an island named Guadalcanal where 1600 men were lost. Iwo Jima, that after 26 days of heavy fighting, the enemy was overcome at a loss of 6800 dead. Anzio, with a German victory at hand, the weather cleared and the tide of battle was reversed. These scenes would be repeated again and again at Omaha Beach, Cassino, and a conflict called “The Battle of the Bulge”.

Korea, a small frozen country, may be forgotten by some, but not by me. I have read with amazement, the accounts of places like Inchon. After 40 days of hand to hand combat, your spirit could not be broken. At Chosin Reservoir, outnumbered 8 to 1 in subzero temperatures, you fought your way out of the trap set by the enemy. Finally, at Heartbreak Ridge and Pork Chop Hill, you refused to be overrun by an experienced army. The war may be forgotten, but you are not. You were very young and green; however, you became a force to be reckoned with as the conflict continued.

The places you have gone are numerous. I watched with tears in my eyes at the horror that Vietnam had become. Young men doing their jobs at places like the Ia Drang Valley, Hue, during the TET Offensive, and Khe Sanh during the enemy’s 70 day siege.

I have read and heard the complaints and charges made against you. They are untrue. You are American and you are mine. If it were possible to change the way in which you were treated when you came home, I would do it. You have a special place in my heart.

There have been and will be other places that you will be sent to serve. It would be wise for all Americans to reflect on this day and give thanks for those that have gone on behalf of this nation. Personally, I cannot begin to thank you and your families for the sacrifices you have made. The freedom that I enjoy today is a direct result of what you did yesterday. You are not forgotten and with a great love for you, I say “THANK YOU”!

Herb Gossett – MM1(SS)

Pages - Again

Good morning, all! Sorry, it's been awhile since I last posted, but this sister's been busy! This is my busiest time at work & have been doing a lot of overtime. But I have a job that I love & I thank God every day that I do & He allows me to continue in it!

Here is another Page. It is called Star Island. It has all the islands that make up the Isles of Shoals that are located off the coast of New Hampshire. This is where Celia Thaxter lived & created some of the most beautiful works of art. One of her artist friends, Childe Hassam, would visit her there. It is one of the most beautiful, serene, religious places I've ever been. The sea glass & china pieces that are attached on the page are actually pieces I found on the shore of Star Island when I was walking around there.

This is one of the most magical places I've ever been. I will post more on the place later. I've got so many wonderful photos to share. If you ever have the chance to go, I heartily encourage you to do so! It will change you!

Enjoy your day that the Lord has given you!

DEVASTATION

Good Friday was not so good for my family. We had to go check out the damage that a fire caused at my dad's farm the night before......he is devastated!

Although he didn't live on the farm, my grandparents house was there & the barn that my grandpa had built was there. They are both now gone. Totally gutted!! Nothing salvageable.

The good news is that all of the cattle are safe!! A neighbor was able to get them to a different pasture. The water pump was burned so my dad will have to find another water source for them ASAP. The gates, corrals, cattle chute were all saved!! Another good piece of news! There is one line of fencing that will need to be replaced, but my dad had planned on doing that anyway. So all in all, God was good! No one was hurt!! But the pain of seeing my grandparents hard work in ashes will stay with us for a long time!

Here is my Dad, my son, Jeremy, my brother-in-law, Gid, & my cousin, Tyler making sure the cattle had something to eat.

It was so weird! The cab of the tractor was totally destroyed, but the John Deere green paint wasn't touched!

They are looking for hot spots. There were a few that they had to put out.

My son, Jeremy, sitting on the steps of the house. I have a picture of him & his brother & cousin sitting on this porch when they were little.

This is a miracle!! My grandpa's faithful companion, Sam (a beautiful German Shepard) is buried under this stand of trees. If you'll look closely, it was not touched!! There is a ring around the trees where the fire stopped!

We are all sad for the loss of those possessions, but we are also thankful that God spared so much!

I am.....

I am a consultant with a scrapbooking company called Close To My Heart. I have never really been into scrapbooking, but I LOVE to create things with paper! I have so much paper & I feel RICH when I look at it all! I make cards, collages,.....whatever I can think of.

Anyway, Close To My Heart (CTMH) has a "Constant Campaign" each month & for April, they have a new kit that I got to try out. I kinda like it! Here is my version of their kit. I was trying for "artsy" feel......hmmmmm.

Here are the individual pages. I found the most amazing photo place online. It's called Picnik.com. You can do some fabulous things with your photos!!

I hope you have a wonderful, blessed day, my friends!!

Pages - Things I Love

This page means a lot to me. It expresses the most important things in life to me. I took pieces of material & sort of "quilted" them together with a rustic style stitch. The color is not very good, but all of the material pieces are green or have have green in them. I've also added some beads & other embellishments to the material pieces.





The back of the "quilt" says "to strive for perfection is idiotic. Who wants to be perfect?" Some people might say they want to be perfect. But in my eyes, only God is perfect. And that's the way it should be.

Pages & a little WW

This is my Poppy Page. It is in honor of my artist friend, Linda. She adores poppies & Celia Thaxter had poppies all in her garden! The green cloth that I used was Linda's mother's. I've cross-stitched for many years & I thought this would be perfect for one of my pages.

This is the back of the Poppy Page. It says "sunshine", "flowers", "fresh", & "green". This really means a lot to me since I worked for Linda as a floral designer for 6 years. Working with fresh flowers every day was such a pleasure, but hard on the feet! I learned so much from her! She is such an amazing person!

This is a close-up of the front of the page. The cut-outs of the poppies were actually a photo I took at Celia's garden when I visited Star Island in 2005.

As a side note, as of Monday night, I've lost 26 lbs.!!!! I am so excited!!! I've already talked to my WW leader & told her that when I meet goal, I want to become a leader! I will meet goal!

Sandy, DQ & the cemetary

What a day! We had to take Sandy, our precious doggy, to the vet this morning. She has a lump in her groin area. They stuck a needle in it & drew some cells. They will send those off to Washington to be tested to see if it's cancerous. I covet your prayers! I can't stand the thought of something bad happening to this precious little soul.

As a treat, we then took Sandy to the next town & went to have lunch at Dairy Queen!! She so loves to go bye-bye! We sat out in the truck & had hamburgers & french fries! (yes, I stayed up with my points. Doing great!)

Then on the way home, we stopped by the cemetary where my mother & grandparents are buried. It's been a while since I've been there, but it was a lovely day to stop. There were some iris plants in bloom & the birds were singing. I sure miss my mommy! It was pretty neat, though. My brother's new brother-in-law has been researching our family history. I found a couple of my family's graves while I was there. Cemetaries are not so scary. A lot of history & love buried there.

It's been a good day, all in all. Hopefully, we'll know about Sandy next week.

Pages 3 & RAIN!

Good morning, friends!!!! I am sitting in my computer room/Christmas tree room/just look outside at the birds room!!!! It has been raining for the last 4 days & I LOVE IT!!!! Everything is all wet & shiny & ready for the sun to come out so it can pop out of the ground! Our potatoes & radishes are loving this!

Here is the 3rd installment of Pages. The tags are copper-ish metal tags that I found at our local book store. They are "hanging" off of a twig I took out of our back yard. I kinda like it!

Pages 2

Well, here is the next page in the Pages journey. At the time I did my pages, I thought I only had a couple of months to work with. And knowing the calliber of my friends' artwork, I was in a panic to do something as equally AWESOME. I don't consider my work awesome by any means, but as I started doing each one, I felt more comfortable in that I was doing what made me happy & not what they would think of it. Some of these pages are not as WOW as I'd like them, but I'm pleased with the end results.

Isn't that what it's all about?

Close-up Self Image page.

Back view of Self Image page. It says, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

Pages

Pages.....where do I start? I have a wonderful group of artist friends that are such an inspiration to me & I believe, each other. They are all totally different from me. And that's why I love them so!

Two years ago, we all decided that we would do a group project; even though we all lived far apart from each other! Well, 3 of us live in the same town, but the other 2 are in New Hampshire & New Mexico. We each chose a color & this color would be what we did our own pages in. Different shades of each color. Each page would be 8x14 ( yeah, if you're a scrapper like me, you know that most of the wonderful papers come 12 x 12). We would each do 10 pages & when we met up again, we'd all bring our pages & divide them up amongst ourselves so that we would all have a part of each other. We were also to create a port folio to hold these pages in....yeah, I haven't done mine yet! Oh well!

So, I'd like to share my pages with you. My color is GREEN. There are other colors mixed in & all different shades of green. The other colors chosen by my friends are RED, BROWN, ORANGE, & WHITE. I can't wait until we're all together again!

Here is my first page. This page is on Celia Thaxter - author, poet, artist, gardener. My old boss & mentor introduced her to me. She lived on an island off the coast of New Hampshire in the late 1800's. I actually got to go to the islands (Star Island) & visit the site where her home was & where her garden still thrives today. I cannot explain the joy I felt standing there. My old boss & I just cried. It was a magical trip! I invite you to Google Celia & Star Island. I think you might just find an old friend!

Giveaway!!

Here is a wonderful giveaway for you to enter! Theresa from time-worn interiors is having a 100th post giveaway. Here is the link to get to her page.
http://cottagegardens-theresa-smith.blogspot.com/2009/02/100-post-giveaway.html

Look at the beautiful goodies she is giving away!

My Funny Valentine

Happy late Valentine's to everyone!

It was a wonderful time at my house this Valentine's Day. It was nice for my husband & I to be off together. I love spending time with my honey. Even if he is working out in the yard or feeding the birds, I love to stand at the window & watch him. He soothes my soul.

Friday night, I had an open crop at my house. I rush in from work to get the craft room ready & when I turned the corner, I saw a pot of blooming tulips right in the middle of the table! Sitting beside it was a box of Premium Mint M&M's (if you haven't tried these, you're really missing out on some chocolatey goodness!) & a funny little card. He just doesn't do this. I usually get a card & we go out to eat. It touched my heart so much that he went outside of his box for me.

Wishing you lots of love & happiness!

Mother

My Director's mother went to be with the Lord last night. She was 90 years old & had lived a full life. It was tough seeing a man that can make me laugh & turn around & make me want to quit my job, so subdued. My heart goes out to him & his family.

It has brought to mind the death of my own beautiful mother. She was only 39 when she went home to be with the Lord. I was 21 & with a baby. The devastation I felt at that time still hits me hard. She was the backbone of our family & her smile lit up the room when she walked in. Her singing could make Angels weep from the sheer beauty of her voice. I have felt my mother with me at times. It is so comforting to know that I can still feel her presence at times. But there have been times when I have felt her absence so keenly that it brought me to my knees. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her & wish for her guidance & to hear her sweet voice.

All of this to say that if you are still blessed with the presence of your mom, give her a hug & tell her how much you love her. You never know when it will be the last time.

Mom, I love you!

Roller Coaster

I have been on an emotional roller coaster ride today! My boss totally ticked me off today & then I get this text from my 25 year old son....."I think something's wrong with me....I've been coughing up blood all day...."

After I picked myself up off the floor, I called him & he said he thought it was his tonsils. So after he got off work, I picked him up & yes, he looked like he had swallowed a golf ball & it had lodged in his left tonsil. The poor guy could barely talk.

The doctor took one look at his throat & pronounced it Strep. That, I can deal with!!!!

On a happier note......I went & weighed in tonight. I've lost another 2.6 lbs. for a total of 12!!!!!

I think I need to go lay down.......

Less of Me

I

Thank you, Beth, for the sweet comments about my photography. Sometimes I can see things in my mind, but they don't always come about! You asked about my diet. It's funny you mention that word. At Weight Watchers tonight, our leader asked us what "diet" meant. Here are the definitions that were tossed out.....

.....a four letter word ( really bad!), deprivation, DIE with a T., it has a beginning & and an ending, etc. So I'm choosing NOT to use the word "diet" & instead, I'm using my new eating "lifestyle". Because for me, it has to be a lifestyle. I can't stop. But anyway, in answer to your question, I've lost another 1.6 lbs. for a total of 9.4 (last week I gave you a wrong total. Should've been 7.8). So thank you all for the well wishes on my eating journey. I feel good & positive!

Girl Trip

My sister came down this weekend & we drove to Hico, Texas. Hico is a small, rustic town approximately 2 - 2 1/2 hours southwest of Dallas. It boasts the fact that Billy the Kid lived & died there & they celebrate that fact with a yearly festival, I believe.

They have a wonderful antique store called Homestead. It has the most eclectic, wonderful, unusual antiques & treasures that I've ever seen! The original store is in Fredricksburg, Texas.
Now THAT'S a town to go shopping in!

I hope Dawn from The Feathered Nest doesn't mind that I'm using her idea to show you some of the goodies I purchased while we were in Hico.

We also visited Room No. 5 & Sugar Moon. These are wonderful stores to visit if you get a chance. Here are a couple of other treasures I found. Not quite sure what I'll do with them yet, but they please me just looking at them!

Monday Night Weigh-in

Well, it's that time again....Monday night weigh-in at Weight Watchers. I was a little nervous because my sister had come down for the weekend & we ate out nearly every meal. But I was very cautious in what I ordered & it paid off. I've lost another 2 lbs for a total of 7. Little steps, little steps. I keep telling myself that. I can do this!

Tracy's Box

This is a Memory Keeper box from Close To My Heart that I embellished for my sister's birthday. The inside has 4.25 x 5.50 cards, 2.5 x 3.5 cards, 3 x 3 cards, a notebook & matching pen. It was definitely a labor of love! I love getting different elements together & creating something with it! The paper I used is called Notebook from Close To My Heart.

My Name is Karen & I'm a Food Addict!

It's true! I LOVE food! I love to cook it, look at it, & especially EAT IT! That is why I am in the
condition I am in today! BUT! I have joined Weight Watchers (WW) & the YMCA (Y) & Monday night when I weighed in, I had lost 5 lbs! You may be asking why I am telling you this....well, I figure that the more people I tell, the more reason I will have to be accountable!

But I do have to say that part of my weight problem was due to the fact that I was born into it! LOL! My sweet grandmother (Nanaw), on my mother's side, probably weighed 350 lbs. She made the BEST potato salad (see, food again)!! And she gave the best hugs! Now, on the other hand, my grandpa (Pa), was as thin as a rail! There is a children's rhyme that comes to mind when I think of those two. "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean." But, my Pa could play the harmonica like nobody's business! One of my favorite songs that he would play was "Shenendoah". He had a laugh that would put a smile on anyone's face!

So, anyway, that was a small intro to my family. I LOVE my family!

A Big Thank You

To my friend, Tammy Jo, for coming over & putting the pop-out player on my blog!! I LOVE
music & it's as much a part of my creating as the elements themselves. Music speaks to me & gives me such a sense of peace. Have you ever heard lyrics to a song or just a melody so beautiful that it brought tears to your eyes? When you do, you never forget that moment or the music. I always have music playing when I create. Try it!

Sandy

Well, I just got back from taking my precious little dog to the vet. She had a lacerated third eyelid. OUCH!!!! But they didn't have anything small enough to suture the laceration so they had to cut the piece off. She was such a trooper! But it just reminded me of how those wee souls have such unconditional love for their owners. It doesn't matter how much I mess up, she is always at the door with those big, brown eyes of hers welcoming me home. She is my little angel!

What do I do now?

Well, thanks to Dawn at The Feathered Nest, I now have my own blog!! Thanks, Dawn!

The question now is....what do I do now???? I have this awesome blog in my mind that I want to create for people to come to & feel like they've come home! I want it to be funny, charming, witty, etc. Can I create that? Time will tell!