A Quick Bit of Conversation

{image from sun_star_n_moon}

First off, it tickled me to pieces that more than a few of you participated in the recent sidebar poll. Thanks! We should do that again sometime. 

Second, you might have noticed the lack of QueSara entries on your reader. Have you? From the very beginning, Laura has never gotten my updates, and due to the number of followers vs the number of comments, I'm thinking that happens to you too! It's really bugging me, and I can't get a scrap of help from the Blogger people, so...

I'm thinking of changing hosts. To SquareSpace maybe. Or a fresh new Blogger. What do you think?

Anywhoo, it's high time for a giveaway round these here parts. More about that when we get back from the beach. 

7 Days/7 Outfits

Rosh Hashanah goal: to put effort into dressing femininely every day.

This was how my first week went.

Sunday

Chunky knit sweater, thrifted

Belt, Tanner Outlet?

Denim skirt, Gap

Boots, Belks?

Accessory, turquoise bracelet/ring 

Agenda: "Prop Assistant" at ActuallyLaura's SC photoshoot 

Wearability: ****

This top is SO comfortable. Never a big fan of handknit clothing, I now want to copy the pattern and make five. Or six. I think that the beaded bracelet wound into a ring may be my new statement piece too. 

Monday

Teal plaid dress, Target

Knit v-neck, ?

Belt, Belks

Canvas ballet flats, Teva (<3!)

Accessory: that bracelet/ring again

Agenda: ?

Wearability: ****

First time "remixing" this dress as a skirt/blouse.

Tuesday

Pink tank, Jockey

Blue striped shirt, Bitten

Capris, Belks?

Rain boots

Accessory: brass layered necklace, AE

Agenda: warm rainy day at home, walking dogs

Wearability: ***

Weird outfit. Also, new shampoo making my hair unmanageable.

Wednesday

Gray square-neck blouse, thrifted

Striped vest, inherited

Khaki skirt, Bullwinkles

Brown mules, Belks

Agenda: grocery shopping

Wearability: **

One of the blah-est outfits I have ever worn. People were unusually pleasant to me this day though. Perhaps because I looked homeless?

Thursday

White tank, Belks

White sweater, Gap

Khaki capris, 

Purple flipflops, Old Navy

Agenda: helping transport Belle-the-Doberman 

Wearability: ***

Yeah, didn't plan for Belle's transport, but notice! Picture taken afterwards and no major damage! That doggie is a sweetheart.

Friday

Magenta tank, Eddie Bauer?

Pink cropped sweater, Old Navy

Western-inspired belt, ?

Denim skirt, Eddie Bauer?

Sandals, SAS

Agenda: DMV road test, household chores

Wearability: ****

While not entirely flattering to my shape, this outfit felt pretty to wear!

Saturday

Black tee, AE

Floral dress, Belks

Jeans, Eddie Bauer

Tennis shoes, Lands End

Agenda: Nephew's jungle themed 1st b-day party

Wearability: **

I must love him or something. I wish this dress were more wearable, because the artwork on it is just my cup of tea! Japanese primroses, anyone? Next time, if there is a next time, colorful tee a MUST.

Vote for Little Bitsy!

Hey guys! Time for a doggy promo. Would you like to help dogs like Charley (the Shepherd I posted about yesterday)? Sometimes all it takes is a click...

VOTE BITSY CUTEST DOG!

 

"Friends and Family,

My fellow REALTORS with Steve Owen and Associates are helping us raise money in order to receive funds to create a non-profit organization to further help our efforts in animal rescue. This will allow us to have fund raisers, accept donations that are tax deductible for the donors, to apply for grant money, to pull animals from the shelters and do so much more to help our abused, thrown away, neglected, abandoned, unloved, sick animals. It will be called the Charlie Powers Memorial Animal Rescue in honor of my father who loved and cared for animals his entire life and taught me to do the same by his example.It has been a labor of love for me to rescue and help the animals for almost 50 years.

Please take a few seconds each day to click on the following link and vote for Little Bitsy. You will only have to register to vote the first time. You can vote everyday. Each new week begins on Sunday and continues until end of October. Let's help her win so she can help the other dogs and cats that have not yet been rescued.

If you would like to make a donation to assist with the estimated cost of $3,000 to create our non profit status, please make your checks (if we raise more than needed for 5013c, all donations will be used for welfare and rescue of the animals) out to:

Charlie Powers Memorial Animal Rescue
% Evelyn Bridges
226 Panther Gap Road
Brevard, NC 28712"

(She's already in the top 30! Let's help Bitsy get to the TOP!)

PosieDork

I admit it. I'm a Posie Gets Cozy dork. Aren't you? Gorgeous Oregon, scrumptious stories, delicious photographs, lovable CloverMeadow the Corgi, recipes to die for - all spread with a delightful array of handicraft goodness and vintage homeyness. (Yes, that is a word. Apparently. Safari didn't correct me!)  She has a perfect way of putting things that I can only aspire to reach one day... There are always so many comments on her blog that I always feel a little shy, throwing in my two cents. But I did, the other day, because Laura and I saw an apron in a movie that reminded us of hers.... 

Imagine my absolute bliss when I spied THIS on my blog guest list:

From www.rosylittlethings.typepad.com? From Portland, OR? And on a Mac?? That has GOT to be Alicia Paulson herself!!! A Posie spotting! On my blog!

So, thank you for visiting, Alicia. I hope that you saw something that you liked. I'm so glad you came - it made my day. :)

Heart: Stolen

Sometimes one of the shelter dogs just steals your heart.... This fluffy old German Shepherd gets to me this week. He has a touch of old 'arthur' and paws the size of baseballs. It doesn't help that he takes treats and has a bark like my old Collie-girl. We call him Charley. 

Mountain State Fair 2009

{We rode the ferris wheel!! Not sure if I took this picture or not...Laura, Daddy and I kept trading the camera back and forth. Yes, even at the tippity-top. Don't you love the colors?}

{View from the ferris wheel! The grounds didn't look nearly as crowded as they felt and the mountains suddenly took center stage.}

{My three favorite parts of the fair are... 1: the cut flowers.}

{Especially this gorgeous shell pink dahlia touched with amethyst.} 

{2: the food. The apple lady has the most wonderful fritters!}

{Next door to the apple lady is the maple sugar cotton candy stand. Yes. Maple Sugar Cotton Candy. It's like dying and going to heaven!}

{And most of all...3: the animals have always been a fair highlight for me! This picture is by Actually Laura. My intentions were to go Roz Wound Up style and take leisurely sketches of the piglets and Brahman bulls - even had sketchpad in tote - but the whole big fair experience swept me away!}

So do you have a fair? Is it a state thing, a county thing...or a strange regional-pretending-to-be-state thing like ours? Does it have llamas? What's your favorite fair food? And did you get to see the human cannonball?  (We missed him by a flash!)

Knotted Hobo Bags

Inspired by the breezy, colorful bags I've seen tossed over the shoulder of every teenage fashionista in town, I set out in search of a tutorial to make my own. The one I found from LivingCreatively was just what I was looking for! My appreciate for all things versatile made this right up my alley. No seams! No cutting! And when you're through, a perfectly usable scarf still intact. I knotted up four in a jiffy.

Hobo Bag Tutorial

{My favorite! Scarf from Tzinus.}

{A pareo makes an odd shape.}

{Smaller, I think the way the pattern  made a border on this one is cool.}

{ Second favorite - itty bitty bandanna bag with chunky nautical chain necklace as handle. <3!}

Being from delicate fabrics, they all fall rather limp when put to use, but I surely see myself taking one or two of these along when we visit the beach next month! Next month? Goodness, is it autumn already?

{Behold Anthropologie's one oh-so-similar!)

Are you watching?

(I haven't played with photoshop in forever! You can tell - everything is quite pale. ;)

Beware of Cake-Eaters

More US History goodness. The very real Anti Flirt Club (1923) was "composed of young women and girls who have been embarrassed by men in automobiles and on street corners."

Anti- Flirt Club Code of Guidance:

1. Don't flirt: those who flirt in haste oft repent in leisure.
2. Don't accept rides from flirting motorists—they don't invite you in to save you a walk.
3. Don't use your eyes for ogling—they were made for worthier purposes.
4. Don't go out with men you don't know—they may be married, and you may be in for a hair-pulling match.
5. Don't wink—a flutter of one eye may cause a tear in the other.
6. Don't smile at flirtatious strangers—save them for people you know.
7. Don't annex all the men you can get—by flirting with many, you may lose out on the one.
8. Don't fall for the slick, dandified cake eater—the unpolished gold of a real man is worth more than the gloss of a lounge lizard.
9. Don't let elderly men with an eye to a flirtation pat you on the shoulder and take a fatherly interest in you. Those are usually the kind who want to forget they are fathers.
10. Don't ignore the man you are sure of while you flirt with another. When you return to the first one you may find him gone.

Amusing, yes, but I do tip my hat to these ladies. 

Dear Diary...

{Never underestimate the tag art from a can of peanuts -

this is probably one of my new favorite journal pages....}

I've been a journaler for a long time and have the shelves full of tattered bindings to prove it, but it's always been a struggle for me to get beyond a shallow ramble when I write... This blog series at A Holy Experience encouraged me lately and I thought I'd share. 

It's funny how each time I sit down to write, trying hard to listen for my Redeemer's voice, the Jason Mraz song 'Lucky' plays through my head! 

". . .Do you hear me? I'm talking to you

Across the water, across the deep blue ocean

Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying.

Boy I hear you in my dreams

I feel your whisper across the sea

I keep you with me in my heart

You make it easier when life gets hard. . ."

He's there.

5 Lovely Things

{Loving this illustrator and her vintage fashion sense.}

{Do peek at the botanical background/image on this illustrator's site!}

"The Leopard of Little Breezes yawned up and further off from the rooftops of Omaha, Nebraska, to which September did not even wave good-bye. One ought not to judge her: all children are Heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb high trees and say shocking things and leap so very high grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one. But, as in their reading and arithmetic and drawing, different children proceed at different speeds. (It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.) "

- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Cathrynne M. Valente

{One day, Laura and I are going to go on a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang tour 

- especially to the very real Cobstone Mill. }

{Are these paperdolls by Breezy Tulip and Emily Rose not the sweetest things?}

Also, you may have noticed a new poll in the sidebar. Now you can put your 2 cents in on what this blog should post about next! (Highly useful to indecisive characters such as myself...)

Where Beth Skwarecki Writes

"I'm a freelance writer by profession (nonfiction - mainly science writing) and I've just moved into a new house, where I have the best office ever. Feels like I'm in a little cabin in the woods.

The desk is an old kitchen table that is big enough for not just my laptop, but any papers or notebooks I care to work from. Cubbies and drawers built into the walls hold my office supplies, reference books, and spare notebooks (I'm a notebook junkie). There's also a couch to lounge in for a change of pace."

Just spied this on the Nanowrimo blog. Isn't it yummy? I love the cabinets inset into the wall - they're practically invisible!

Bucket Bike Giveaway

Now imagine the library books, farmer's market muffins and cut flowers I could tote in that!

Check out the weekly (yes, weekly!) Madsen giveaway HERE.

What would you do with such a cool bike?

Veggielove

The beautiful fluffy puppies that I just posted about have parvo and since we're worried about one, I'm up on night duty - Annie shift. 

Bear with me as I distract myself here.

{I wish these pretty little oriental eggplants tasted as good as they look. They're akin to kosher squid substitute IMHO!}

{My favorite part.}

{A FoodNetwork recipe, Giada I think, for eggplant with goat cheese and fresh basil. Balsamic vinegar makes it very fragrant!}