Click on the image to see the transformation!
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Soon and Very Soon….
April 30th, 2013
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Today’s Desktop
March 21st, 2013
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Happy Birthday, Chawn!
February 28th, 2013
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Homestead
February 23rd, 2013I was going through some old photos and found one of the house where I grew up. We moved in when I was four and I lived there until I got married. Dad took this picture the day he closed escrow. I wish now I had a picture of what it looked like when they sold it 30 years later.
Dad made it an orchard with every fruit tree that will grow in this climate. He planted gardens and shade trees, built outbuildings, he even put in a pink Italian marble (salvaged from the old Rock Island depot) patio out back.
It’s hard not to live in the past when you have so many good memories attached to it….)
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Meet Little!
February 23rd, 2013
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Update to ‘Sublime Ramblings’
February 21st, 2013I’ve added lots of subpages to the ‘Images’ page with photos old and new. Just click on the symbol next to ‘Images’ on the menu and select your preference from the list. Happy Viewing!
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Holiday Fun
November 29th, 2012One of the “Any Ol’ Time” challenges being offered at the PSP Art Studio is to create a party image. I chose Christmas Eve.
When I was a child, my family would attend Christmas Eve services at our church. Then we would come back home and have some wonderful dessert that my mother made. Then we would prepare and set out Santa’s snack and scamper off to bed to await his arrival. It would have seemed reasonable to cut a slice for Santa, right? Instead, our mother would have us set out a tin of Kipper Snacks and a huge glass of milk. She would assure us that Santa was really going to enjoy it. We always thought that was odd, as all of our friends set out cookies or cake with the milk.
But when we woke up and came running down the stairs to see what Santa brought us, the first thing we noticed, even before the presents, was the empty sardine tin and milk glass. About the same time that we were beginning to think that maybe Santa wasn’t real, we became aware that our dad loved Kipper Snacks with milk and ate that regularly. Hmmmm….
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A New Home For This Little Beauty
November 16th, 2012This pretty little vintage Hall casserole is going to its new home in Michigan. It’s too late for you to buy it but don’t worry, Vintage Treasures has many more lovely items for sale. Visit us today and find something that is just right for your vintage home!
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I’m In The Christmas Mood!
November 10th, 2012Here’s a sampling of what I’ve been making lately. I just love the holidays and all the beautiful decorations. I’ve had my house decorated for a few weeks and have lots of Christmas-scented candles and potpourri going so it’s pretty festive and cozy here. Of course, I had to make some beautiful ornaments for my ‘virtual home’ as well! They’re all mousedrawn by me using Paint Shop Pro. If you have a copy of the software come on over to our PSP Art Studio and show us what you’re making these days!
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The Latest Challenge at Psp Art Studio
October 27th, 2012The Team offered this object as the challenge idea:

Challenge 4 Object
Here’s my two creations:
If you want to be the next winner (although it’s not all about winning, it’s fun no matter what) there’s only a couple of things that you have to do: Come on over to PSP Art Studio and register. It’s easy and it’s free! Then submit an entry in the Challenge Studio. If you follow the instructions given on the challenge and give it your best creative design, you may just be the next winner. That’s it!
And you want to win one of our coveted awards don’t you? We thought so….
Hope to see you soon!!
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Patty’s First Kill
September 29th, 2012Patty’s a mix of German Shepherd and Beagle and I didn’t think either breed was a vermin hunter but she has been displaying this trait since about 3 months old. She’s two now and she’s finally honed that skill. We appreciate it, Baby. Shrews are descructive! Now I ask you, does this angel look like a cold-blooded killer? Atta girl!!
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PSP Art Studio’s Second Challenge
September 25th, 2012The object for the challenge is a dingbat font. I made a perfume bottle stopper out of it! I used Filter Forge for the glasswork and Paint Shop Pro for everything else.
Get your copy of Corel’s Paint Shop Pro (you can get some versions of it at Amazon so cheap it’s almost free!) and come on over to the PSP Art Studio now–we’re waiting for you!
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PSP Art Studio’s First Challenge Winner
September 15th, 2012It’s me! My glass “Number 1″ perfume bottle won. And here’s my award:
If you have a copy of Corel’s Paint Shop Pro and you’re not afraid to use it, come on over to PSP Art Studio today and join us. You might win one of our coveted awards…. Oh, and make new friends and have some fun!!
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A Dream Come True
September 2nd, 2012It’s been a dream of mine for a long time to have my own Paint Shop Pro Art Forum. I am now the proud owner of the PSP Art Studio. And to my good fortune, my mentor/guru Donna has agreed to co-host.
We had our Grand Opening today and announced our first challenge: Create something using the number “1″. Here’s my entry, I created it using PSP vX and Filter Forge:
Beginner or advanced in PSP, we invite you to join us. You’ll have a great time learning and sharing tools and tips! Oh, and maybe make some new friends, too!
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After Sixteen Years…
September 1st, 2012…a slightly different, yet oh so much fresher, look!
I hated the ceiling fixture almost from the day I bought it, but it was very expensive so I had to bite the bullet and live with it. The curtains: What the hell was I thinking? I know that you can mix patterns as long as the scale of the print is about the same size. So why did I do it this way? I don’t know.
So I got on line and ordered the curtains from Country Curtains. Then I got on line and ordered the vintage reproduction schoolhouse shades and sockets from Rejuvenation.
Talk about fabulous customer service from both places. First of all the ordering couldn’t have gone smoother because their websites are user-friendly and their phone numbers are highly visible. I got stuck a little on both (only because I couldn’t decide on some points and wasn’t sure about measuring) and got the answers from live people, no robots!
Okay, these things can happen. I noticed that after I hung the new curtains over the kicthen sink one was about 2 inches longer than the other. One phone call to Country Curtains and they said, “Keep the defective ones up until you receive a new pair. When you receive your new curtains send them back to us and we’ll credit the shipping to your card. Our people will hand-pick a pair and measure them to make sure they match perfectly before we send them out.”
After the ceiling shades were hung and illuminated one looked like it had dust in it. I took it down and swiped my hand in it to see how dirty is was. It wasn’t dust, it was overspray or something. I inspected the other one and found it to be smooth and glossy inside. The phone call to Rejuvenation: We’re sending you a UPS call tag to your email address. Box it up and send it back to us at our expense. But keep it up until your replacement comes. We’re shipping you a new one today and we will inspect it before we send it out.”
Can you beat this? I don’t think so. Hope you send them your future business for all your curtain and lighting needs. You won’t regret it!
Oh, and do I love the bright, fresh look? Heck yeah!!
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Name That Bird!
July 2nd, 2012
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He’s Out on His Own!
June 5th, 2012
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The Last House Finch is Getting Ready to Leave
June 5th, 2012The nest started out with six eggs: Five house finch and one cowbird. The last bird, a house finch, will be leaving any minute. The cowbird left a day or two ago and I didn’t see it leave. The other four eggs, what happened to them? Well, one rolled out onto my chair (Mama Finch or cowbird ejected?) and I sat on it. I wouldn’t have done that if I would have seen it…. Thankfully, there was no embryo, just yolk, so I cleaned it up. I do not know what happened to the other three. They weren’t on the porch floor or on my chair. Does the mother carry them out into the yard? I don’t know. It’s been fun watching them this spring but will I be glad to get this poop mess cleaned up. It always stains the porch siding so I’ll be out there for some time scrubbing and disinfecting. I’ll probably throw the ivy away and get some new. It’s just too hard to clean and frankly I just don’t want to!
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After Decades in My Cedar Chest…
June 2nd, 2012…I finally got around to doing something with my baptism dress. My grandmother crocheted it many, many, many years ago. Sometime in my 30′s she passed it on to me. I guess she thought I was mature enough to take care of it.
I had it in my cedar chest and it lay there undisturbed for, yes, many, many, many years. I took it to the framer six weeks ago and I just picked it up this morning. I asked him to frame it backwards so the buttons would show. They are not fancy or valuable, but my grandmother chose them and, well, they are very, very, very old.
I’m wearing the dress in the photo and I want you to pay particular attention to my bangs. We weren’t a wealthy family, especially back then and it was a big deal to have professional photos done. So on this most auspicious day, who cut my bangs just before we left for the studio? My dad! And who let him? My mom! I can laugh about it now. Actually I laughed about it my whole life, because back then I was too young to know how ridiculous I looked!
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Special Delivery!
May 26th, 2012A special delivery came today. What could it be?
The new bistro set is here! Our other chairs and table were about 10 years old. We were having trouble finding good replacement cushions, but the big problem was the chairs were at railing height. It doesn’t sound like a big problem but if you wanted to see something in the street or yard, you either had to stand up or scootch down and look through the balusters. And a huge problem: I couldn’t see the birds at the feeders!
So we decided on a balcony-height set. It will take some getting used to, because of all the drawbacks of the old set there was one plus: We felt kind of hidden on the front porch. Now we’re kind of “on display” at this height. Oh well, it’s pretty, clean-looking, and opens up the porch.
I also painted the porch floor a couple of weeks ago. It used to be (was supposed to be!) terra cotta but turned out to be a very pink salmon. I can’t believe that we lived with that color for years. Now it’s a soft sage.
It’s a lovely litle spot to watch the bird feeders again….
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It Must Be Five O’Clock…
May 19th, 2012
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Most Likely a Cowbird…
May 17th, 2012…due to the cherry-red mouth. It supposedly serves as better target for the mother bringing food to the brood. Also, it was the first to hatch. Both of these traits enables it to have a better chance of survival. There’s a good possiblilty that the baby house finches won’t make it, but what am I to do? I’ll leave it to God. (Forgive the blurry pictures, I was standing on my tiptoes and I had to make a quick shot as Mother was scolding me from the tree.)
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They’re Back and Ready to Nest
May 14th, 2012I captured this pair of goldfinches today and they are in their breeding colors so we should be seeing babies in a few weeks! I love to see these little guys in the yard and not just because they are the state bird. They are colorful, boisterous and just liven up the landscape! They have been trying to fly into the picture window all morning but they are smarter than most birds; they know something’s there and don’t crash into the glass, they just flutter up to it, hover a little and then fly back to the tree. Sweet birds!!
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A Perfect Mother’s Day
May 14th, 2012It was a truly magical day. The temperature was mild, in the mid-70′s, the sky was a perfect blue without a single cloud and there was only the hint of an occasional breeze. Melissa and the kids brought me a begonia and a sun-loving New Guinea Impatien which she planted on the berm.
The grandkids were perfect (I know all grandparents think that of their’s but it’s really true in my case!) With a little refresher course on planting, I turned them loose on the beds and they did great. It was so much fun to watch them try to do it just right.
They were particularly interested in a couple of visitors:
We grilled brats for dinner and had a good time at the table. We ended the day just laying around, watching TV and enjoying each other’s company. I’m starting a petition that there be more than one Mother’s Day a year. This day was just too good not to have more!
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