Fought the new "Black Friday" crowd and found these...

I found these great looking coasters at Anthropologie. I'm not going to use them as coasters; instead they'll be admired as 4" squares of beautiful art!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

This is what I spent Christmas Eve doing; making my hubby, Thumb Print cookies. This is all that is left after I baked 2 dozen. Scratch that, 2 dozen minus 1...the dog stole one right off the cookie sheet before I could put them in the oven! Damn dog.

I guess I should be happy that this is all he wants for Christmas, after 34 years together, he still just wants his cookies!

So, Merry Christmas honey, to bad they'll be gone before noon on Christmas Day. The poor guy won't see another batch of these cookies for a whole year; you'd think he'd savour them for longer than just 12 hours!

My little sun catchers...

This is sooo cute! They follow the sun around the table every morning.

It's such a ritual for us, oh I mean me, every morning I have to move the chairs from under the table so they can fit. Maggie (the weim), is the one that comes and finds me, starts to paw at me until I come to move the chairs so she can be with Margo (the whippet) & Max (the cat).

Maggie can't quite take the sun as long as Margo & Max.

Style, functionality and priced right...now you're talking!

What is this you're wondering? Where have I seen that design before? Get ready! TA-DA!

I found this great reusable bag at Target and when this thing is opened; it turns into a huge 15" x 16.5" x 8" gusseted bag! They also have one that when folded, is the size of a clutch style purse.

I've been on the fence about this whole reusable bag thing. Yeah, yeah I get the "green" thing! I've watched more and more people coming into the stores lately with their wad of bags. I say, show me some style and a way to refold them when you're not using them and I'll give them a whirl.

Target must have read my mind or maybe they knew I was from a set of parents that believed, a place for everything and everything in its place!

These bags are like crazy origami, they fold into something completely different than what they started out as.( yeah, it looks like a purse!)

You just may see me at my grocery store with my cute little red folded bags and when I get to the checkout, and they ask, "would you like plastic?" I'll be like, Bam!, "no these, please!" They'll say, "wow, how cool!" I'll just say, "I know".

here a doodle, hair a doodle, everywhere a doodle...

A friend of mine emailed me a copy of her "doodle". She said this is what she does while on the phone! It's wild, I call it Spaghetti doodle!

I'll admit I doodle too, but I only make circles that I then turn into little flowers. Kinda boring in comparison.

Now this wonderful tea towel I would love to have, unfortunately she is sold out! The artist's name is Camilla Engman.

I was at a recent art festival and there it was, an entire booth of doodle! The artists work was a little more than I could afford all except for this tiny 3" vase. I knew I had to have my very own spaghetti doodle!

So, here's the question; if you're drawing while on the phone, is it only doodling and yet if you sale your doodle is it then called art?

Maybe, I'll commission my friend to do her spaghetti doodle and turn it into my art! Hmm!

OMG...I Love you!

Where's Maggie?

Maggie, my Weimaraner, seems to blend in to all the browns. Her and her sister, Margo, always try and follow the sun on the dining room floor in the a.m. to stay warm.

Maggie suffers from that, "me and only me" syndrome. She'll sit on Margo or our cat, Max, if they are sitting with us on the couch like they're not even there. No, I didn't teach her that!

Where did you learn to use analogies?

OK, I just heard one of the cruelest things I've heard in a really long time. I must be getting old and have been out of the game for too long.

When did we start teaching our kids to use analogies to let people down? Do they think this hurts less because they gave them a letter and an explanation?

My sister told me today, that her daughter (which is in junior high) received a letter from a friend explaining why she doesn't want to be friends with her anymore!
Here's part of the letter:

Dear Caitlyn,
Friendship is like a soccer game; right now you've been in the game too long, it's time for you to sit on the sidelines. It's time to bring my other friends in the game... but I still Love you.

Are you kidding me? When I was growing up, we just said, "I don't want to talk to you anymore or I don't like you anymore or just, Go home!"

I could be wrong; there could be something to this analogy thing! nah!

Lets talk coffee...

Love the Starbucks; hate the price & lack of convenience. There's only one in a three town radius of me; it's at the local Target.


My choice of "poison" is a tall decaf non-fat latte (yeah, I know, what a whimpy coffee!) but, I feel like I'm in a Seinfeld episode, you know the one,"The Soup Nazi", I don't want to stand there with a line behind me and give some long worded coffee order.




The coffee makers I have at home are (I'm the only coffee drinker in our house) , Mister Coffee, Senseo, but I'm thinking about getting the new Kreuig that makes the single cup. My Senseo makes individual cups with the foam, but your choices are few. With the new Kreuig you can choose between coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.







So...what do you think? Do you have one of these and is it worth all the recent hype? Let me know.

Great Black Friday finds...

...on Thanksgiving it is my tradition and I know many of yours; to sit down go through all the sales flyer's to map out the "Black Friday" game plan.

Since my son is grown and all my family live in other states, I thought for the first time in my life, it's my "Black Friday" run, so with hubby in tow there were only 2 things I wanted to get (I think he was happy about that; he likes to shop on Christmas Eve).

1) My Yankee candle "Mistletoe" scent. Bed Bath and Beyond had them on sale 20% off , I also had a coupon for an extra 20%! I have artificial trees, so I've got to get that Christmas tree smell from somewhere!

2) The best book ever! "The Night before Christmas" , I found it at our local Books-a-Million. This is no ordinary Christmas book, you've got to read the reviews on this wonderful book. It's so full of letters, snowflakes, cards, pop ups, pull outs, etc..

I can see this as a table book for the holidays! If you have young children or grandchildren; this would be something they'd always remember. I took a few photo's of the book.

...and to all a good night!

This was an 8 dishtowel, 3 dishcloth kinda Thanksgiving!

This was what I would call an "average" dirty towel kinda holiday for me, it'll definitely make its own load of wash!

This year my hubby offered to help with the dinner, here's the conversation:

hubby: "want me to help?"

me: "huh?, what?"

hubby: "what do you need me to do?"

me: "what do you want to do?"

hubby: "anything you want."

OK, by this time I knew he was serious, so I said you can clean the turkey.

hubby: "OK, how do you do that?" (keep in mind; 34 years with this man!)

me: "I'll show you and then you can also make the stuffing"

hubby: "OK, how do you do that?"

Are you getting the picture yet? Needless to say; I had to show him every little step.



He complimented himself over the turkey, stuffing and the mashed potatoes. Yes, I let him make the mashed potatoes too. ( don't tell him, but they were a little dry)


Truly, it was a great time, just the two of us.


These are my last 2 towels, (Sana Print Dishtowels) , I'm glad I didn't have to use them; they're new (I love the retro look). I got them at my favorite store, Crate & Barrel. They're on sale for only $2.95. Not a bad price for a little bit of style.

What I'm thankful for on this Thanksgiving...

...to have been able to eat off these dishes from Thanksgivings past.

These were the dishes we would use at both Thanksgiving and Christmas for many years of my life. My mom bought them from her local grocery store a few pieces at a time over 35 years ago.

The tradition was the same, Dad would get them down from the attic each holiday, wash and dry each piece by hand (Dad didn't believe in dishwashers; well he kinda did, us!) But this chore was his and his alone.

My mother passed away in 2000, the rest of my family is out West and up North, but these wonderful dishes are down South with me.

So, to all my family and friends, Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey "butt" head...now that's just plain rude!

Have you ever walked up on something like this?

I didn't notice it getting out of my car, but getting back in, I looked down and there it was...

Who ever you are, the world is not you trashcan! Cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate, which is a biodegradable resistant material.

Let me tell you what I think I know about you "butt" head.

1) You're probably female (white butts)

2) You want to get your money's worth (smoking them to the end)

3) You probably had to do without something and bitched you had no money! (with over 40 butts there; that's almost $10.00!)

4) You probably forced a child or two to breathe in that toxic second hand smoke!

The world thanks you, I thank you!

Generation "Smug"?

Well...finally we're starting to talk about a very big social issue that affects us all.

My child is 30 yrs. old (OMG! that makes me really old!), so when I listen to parents of children nowadays ask in true bewilderment, "why is this happening? I don't understand".

Hey, raising my son wasn't a "bed of roses" it was more like a "bed of nails", but I always was aware I would someday send him into the world of adulthood. My most overused line to him was; "life isn't fair, suck it up!"

Here's a rather simple explanation. Thank you so much Dr. Keith Ablow!

...with "Turkey" dishtowels in hand

I was at the mall the other day, the "US" type (upscale), I always park in front of the entrance to Crate&Barrel that way I can check out one of my favorite stores, twice!

It was on my way back through...there they were, in the window display, my Turkey Dishtowels with a "sale" sign under them reading $6.95 for 2!

They spoke to me. Have you ever had something in a store speak to you? Well, I have, and they did! I walked in that store and went straight over to the window display, got my set of "Turkey" dishtowels, turned on my heels to leave and noticed people looking at the display from the outside, for just a split second I thought... "that's right, I designed this window display and not just the display...the "Turkey" dishtowels too!"



The attraction for me wasn't just the "Turkey"or even the earthy colors of the towels (which I love earth tones), it was the print itself that made me have to have them. The print looked like a gorgeous illustration drawn by the likes of Charley Harper. He calls his style "minimal realism".

I was so excited I bought another set of towels for my new daughter-in-law. I tried to get a couple of closeup views to show just how detailed they are.

Now, you know I'll never use them!

This is what I kept...

These are the ones I got. My friend took the black/white giraffes.

I gotta tell you...when I walked into her home, no matter which way my head turned, it was Crazy Giraffe City! Giraffes in one form or another everywhere! There were giraffe wine holders, statues, stuffed giraffes, ornaments, and on and on and on. But, the largest Giraffe gift was a statue of 2 giraffes at least 5' tall!




It was her 85th birthday. So, I guess the question on everyones mind; what do you get someone that has everything? GIRAFFES!!

There's very little I don't like Chattin' about...

I took a trip today to Anthropologie to by a gift for a friend. I found a set of Giraffe Measuring Spoons. I couldn't decide which color (multi or black/white), so I bought both (I'll keep the one she doesn't want).


I see that I wasn't the only one that really liked these. Here's a pic from: blackwhitebliss.blogspot.com