Ahoy, me hearties!

We be wishin' you a jolly good International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

(Also: this is QueSara's 50th post! Woohoo!)

Soul Journaling pt. 3

Day 14 - 15 of Soul Journaling.

Hello from our little house! (I still haven't gotten around to giving Mama and I new heads...)


The whole family. (Help! I think I've fallen and can't get up! And my feet are in Eli's face. Whoops!)

Mama and Daddy with Bebe being a bad jumpy puppy. Since Daddy's outfit seems to need explaining... he is wearing a straw-colored cable sweater vest, a blue plaid shirt, and brown cords or khakis (I can't decide). He owns none of the above. At least I let him keep his base-ball cap and tennis shoes! :D

We three girls + The Dog.

Laura and her "zoo".

Woohoo! I made it back to the house first!

We're all snug in our home-sweet-home.

Good night!

Beautiful Blue: Around The House

Perhaps I was too harsh saying "I hate blue." These next few posts are to prove to myself what a really lovely color blue is...

Beautiful blue is the sky, yesterday.

Beautiful blue is the little ship of forget-me-nots on my sidebar. (Over there -->)

Beautiful blue are our bathroom tiles. (Seriously! They're perfect. I could gush on for decades about how bright, cheerful and utterly relaxing these tiles are. In fact, I probably will. Future children, prepare yourselves.)

Beautiful blue is my inkwell from Stonewall Jackson's gift store. Or rather...the gift store that is in his house these days.

Beautiful blue is this bag, waiting on the bed for a rush to the delivery room. (The New Nephew Countdown begins!)


Beautiful blue are these pillowcases.


Beautiful (barely) blue is this flea market chandelier.


REMEMBER - ActuallyLaura's free blog giveaway ends tomorrow!

A Secret Project

Coming together bit by bit. You'll see it soon! Sometime after Mr. Nephew makes his appearance next week.

According to...

BEST OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY

You're a CREATOR

Key Words: Nonconforming, Impulsive, Expressive, Romantic, Intuitive, Sensitive, and Emotional

These original types place a high value on aesthetic qualities and have a great need for self-expression. They enjoy working independently, being creative, using their imagination, and constantly learning something new. Fields of interest are art, drama, music, and writing or places where they can express, assemble, or implement creative ideas.

CREATOR OCCUPATIONS
Suggested careers are Advertising Executive, Architect, Web Designer, Creative Director, Public Relations, Fine or Commercial Artist, Interior Decorator, Lawyer, Librarian, Musician, Reporter, Art Teacher, Broadcaster, Technical Writer, English Teacher, Architect, Photographer, Medical Illustrator, Corporate Trainer, Author, Editor, Landscape Architect, Exhibit Builder, and Package Designer.

CREATOR WORKPLACES
Consider workplaces where you can create and improve beauty and aesthetic qualities. Unstructured, flexible organizations that allow self-expression work best with your free-spirited nature.

Suggested Creator workplaces are advertising, public relations, and interior decorating firms; artistic studios, theaters and concert halls; institutions that teach crafts, universities, music, and dance schools. Other workplaces to consider are art institutes, museums, libraries, and galleries.

2nd BEST OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY

You're a SOCIAL MANAGER

Key Words: Tactful, Cooperative, Generous, Understanding, Insightful, Friendly, and Cheerful

This very social type enjoys working in groups, sharing responsibili

ties, and being the center of attention. Fields of interest are instructing, helping, nurturing, care giving and instructing-especially young people. They discuss and consider feelings in order to solve problems, lead, direct, persuade, guide, organize and enlighten others.

(vintage illustrations from flickr.com)

So my own version of the author/mother in The Railway Children should fit fine! :D

Cotton Candy Camels

First off, Maple Sugar Cotton Candy is delicious!

Natural,
no flavorings,
no colorings
and...fresh made.

Yummy!

This little camel in the petting zoo had similar affection for the carrot slices I was feeding him/her. Such soft, fuzzy lips they have! Loved that little topknot.


More camel love. Those things are TALL, you know? I had fun. I think Laura got a tad sea-sick. ;) (Get it? A camel is the "ship of the desert"?)

A Puzzle Of A Family

I've been making my family of paper dolls for day 14 of Soul Journaling. Had to trace and cut out all the pieces twice, since the first time I did them out of plain copier paper. Whoops! Watercolor paper is much nicer. At least this way I can fit all the bits together and know I'm not wasting any! We're all much too big and Mama and I need head-makeovers, but we can do that. The pets turned out C-U-T-E. It's just not fair. ;D

Be back soon with more pictures!

News From The Rainy "Yarden"

Loving these early September colors.

Postscript: I hope you who read this don't mind the small mountains of blurry garden pics. I'm nowhere near a top-notch photographer, but I do love taking pictures of my flowers! :) I'm going to eat a peach now. Mmm...I want to live on a peach farm one day. And go out shooting pictures on dewy mornings. Oh yeah....

News From The "Yarden"

The cosmos are tall, fluffy and blooming! Not prolifically, as you can see, but they make me happy. I'm really fond of the feathery foliage too.



Fringing around them (everywhere that I didn't scratch up for seeds - what else could we be missing?) are these vivid red cardinal flowers. I'm guessing, but it sounds right. Checking...yes, that's the right name. And no wonder lobelia kept coming to mind! The Latin name is Lobelia cardinalis.

More crazy spider/surprise lilies, this time in red with seriously fancy stamens going on.

That's all for now! Just don't forget about Actually Laura's Free Blog Makeover!

County Fair Roses

This is our first fall in a new county in a loooong while. It's fair week here and we spent Sunday evening exploring our new autumn playground. Besides the sparkly rides, the Brahman bull, the llamas, the baby goats, the boxing kangaroos...I loved the roses.

A whole towering booth of roses!

In coke bottles. The whole area smelled sweet. I hovered there for a solid ten minutes, trying to take in the beauty of each blossom, feeling a little weak at the knees. Roses do that to me. 

Miniature arrangements are cute too. As are mushroom displays, which I forgot to get a picture of.

I had a caramel apple! (Looking slightly Nimmish here...)

And ate it while admiring the Redwood Log House. Now there's a cozy trailer for you!

A Hot Weather Song

I copied this crazy little poem into my journal way back in '02. Every hot, muggy day from June to early September, it's on my mind.


A hot weather song

I feel so exceedingly lazy
I neglect what I oughn't to should!
My notion of work is so hazy
That I couldn't to toil if I would!

I feel so exceedingly silly
That I say all I shouldn't to ought!
And mind is as frail as a lily's
It would break with the weight of a thought.

- Don Marquis (author of those Archy and Mehitible books)

Hehe! Oh, how I like it. That said, it is rainy today. Making everything cool enough, but h-u-m-i-d!

DON'T FORGET ABOUT LAURA'S GIVEAWAY!

See you soon!

Soul Journaling 2

Continuing to follow the prompts from Sarah Whitmire's blog, Caspiana.

Days 7 & 8

I was not too perky about this idea of taping all over the page. So...industrial, grungy. We have dozens of rolls of blue painters tape left over, masking tape large and small - I even found some stretchy black electrical tape in Daddy's toolbox. Thank you, Daddy! (Later discovered silver duct tape. Shucks - it would've been nice!) Once I took white paint and dashed a few lines of blue and brown over the pages, they took on a decidedly denim air. And I like that! Still seems more of a background though. Maybe more instructions come later.

Day 9

The "inchies" page got a makeover. I liked it better before. The recommended matte medium might have made the pictures more receptive to paint. It's hard to make things look like one lovely mass when corners are flopping up every whichaway.  ;)

Day 10, 11 & 12

Fun, fun, fun! The pocket-house had me stumped for days (journaler's block?) until a paper doily fell out of some boxes we were unpacking. My little house just HAD to have a paper doily roof. From there, it all turned autumn-yummy. Complete with a neighbor's knitted door. (Heart!) That was a happy accident. Also, my jumping ahead got me a little confused, which explains more "Mansfield Park" pages behind everything. Ah, well. 

Since I'm doing 'Soul Journaling' long after the original publishing date and allow myself to peek just one or two days ahead...I hear rumors of paper dolls in the brown paper pocket. Prepare yourselves. 

_____________________________

Things I'm Learning To Not Believe:

1. I hate blue.
2. I hate clutter.
   

These pages beg to differ. 

The Way To A Girl's Heart

(image from mrsblandings)

"The room in which we were expected to sit was a stiffly-furnished, ugly apartment; but that in which we did sit was what Mr. Holbrooks called the counting-house, when he paid his labourers their weekly wages at a great desk near the door. The rest of the pretty sitting-room -- looking into the orchard, and all covered over with dancing tree-shadows -- was filled with books. They lay on the ground, they covered the walls, they strewed the table. He was evidently half ashamed and half proud of his extravagances in this respect. They were all kinds -- poetry and wild weird tales prevailing. He evidently chose his books in accordance with his own tastes, not because such and such were classical or established favorites."

"'Ah!' he said, 'we farmers ought not to have much time for reading; yet somehow one can't help it.'"

- Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

For another spectacular man's library, read The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun. George Bonifield Mountclemens, the art critic, has a den worthy of, well, Mr. Mountclemens. Unearthly comfortable armchairs, culture-cluttered red walls and carpet, a Siamese cat and a kitchen where everything is well-made. 

"I got daisies...in green pastures."

This song is stuck in my head.

(as taken through a window screen. Adds texture, eh? ;) )

Days can be sunny,
With never a sigh ;
Don't need what money can buy.
Birds in the tree sing
Their dayful of song,
Why shouldn't we sing along ?
I'm chipper all the day,
Happy with my lot.
How do I get that way ?
Look at what I've got :


I got rhythm
I got music
I got my man/girl
Who could ask for anything more ?
I got daisies
In green pastures,
I got my man/girl
Who could ask for anything more ?
Ol'Man Trouble,
I don't mind him.
You won't find him
'Round my door.
I got starlight,
I got sweet dreams,
I got my man/girl,
Who could ask for anything more ?
Who could ask for anything more ?

- George and Ira Gershwin

What I've Been Up To:

Working on my next project for the English Gardening School's distance course:


(I love how smart and architect-y the tracing paper looks. Even rolled up in a pot on my bedside bookshelf - gotta have one of those, you know.)


Wandering around Kirtsy: (cute! Design & Style, 'specially)

Playing with Picnik: (which explains all the little corners)

And doing a few other little things you'll be getting a peek of soon. :)

Ciao!

Laura's Giving Away Pretties!!

My amazing and talented sister (Actually Laura) is giving away a free customized blog design to celebrate her 50th post!! Go there - now! I just know you'll love her stuff!

(Please excuse all the exclamation marks. I'm excited to see what happens with this, and wouldn't mind a little fall decorating myself!)

THE END

(screencap shamelessly stolen from my sister's 366 stash)

And that was that. 

Mission Verse Novel completed and now on to other things. What else can we accomplish? I'd like to do another one children's fairy tale style, with rhymes that roll off your tongue. Later. Right now, I'm cuddling with a cute pup, listening to the Singing in the Rain soundtrack in the other room and dreaming up half a dozen circular garden themes inspired by our Sunday drive.

See you later!