Time out...

Taking a little break... be back soon.

Have a great weekend!

On the fence?

Can you believe my boss gave this sorry looking thing to a guy at work for a call blitz prize? Ugh! I am not even going to guess what he was thinking.....
Anyway my co-worker knows I like to re-purpose country stuff and he was kind enough to give it to me.

This was a pretty easy re-do. A little white paint... a doily... and a nest.



Ta-da!

I hung it in my office. I think it is a soft touch compared to all of the black.

Book Review ~ To Kill A Mocking Bird

Goodness! Can I tell you!? We had some awesome discussion time at book club with this one. Talk about life lessons and wonderful story telling!!! You should read it if you haven't, and read it again if you have.

2 BIG FAT thumbs up!

Even more fascinating is the author, Harper Lee. She never interviews about the book, never wrote another book, and Dill in the story is actually Truman Capote.
Interesting! Huh?

For our next meeting, which will be in August...
How about some Russian Lit?

As always, I hope you will join in and let me know what you thought.

The 4th of July

Happy Independence Day!


Just in case you forgot.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

-John Hancock

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:

Samuel Chase,William Paca, Charles, Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe, Richard henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrisno, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Another Pretty Movie

Watched this last night! Loved it again!
Such a pretty, pretty movie and full of history.

Wouldn't my new necklace fit in?

My new, pretty, shiny, bauble... Isn't it cute! Looks kinda price-ee right? Like something you would pick up at a sweet little boutique...

But wait! It was only $10.90 at Winsor. Sweet Daughter and I were shopping in the mall and she wanted to pop in. This is one of those stores that I call Baby Doll Stores, because everything in there looks like it would fit a baby doll! Actually these stores are great for accessories. Everything is priced for a teenager budget. So sometimes ya find a treasure!

Tonight?

We're watching the rest of the story!

Pretty Glasses

Just thought I would share a super bargain that I got! They were at Goodwill for .99 cents each. Fostoria! Can you believe it? Four water goblets and 2 little sherbets.
Ya just never know what your gonna find!

The Gost and Mrs. Muir

I do love me an old movie now and then...
Have you ever seen this sweet movie? I watched it for the first time last week.

I loved it! It is a true cottage movie. If you can, catch it on TMC ... It will be letter box and you can see the whole picture.

Poor Mrs. Muir... She loved her cottage so much. If you have seen it, then you know that a cragy, old ghost of a sea captain fills her head with ideas about what else? A salty, old sea captain. So she writes a book about him and it becomes a smashing success. This is how she keeps her lovely sea side cottage. But other things go on, like life. So you will have to watch it and see.

I wonder if she would have a blog now a days?

I'm being Rushed!

Have you seen this around the web?

Won't you join us?

Well ... I'll let you in on a secret... There is a new Sorority.
Today is initiation into the Sisterhood. I just love that. I missed out on the whole sorority thing, so this is very fun to me.

It is open to all, you just have to follow a few simple rules. Click on the button above and see. Truly simple.

Now for Rush!

We are asked to do something creative with this is the cute sisterfriend image...

This is what I did with it. I made a digital scrapbook page.

This one I framed. If you like the the image, and want to use it, please feel free to take it.

But I still wanted to make something else.... After all I have been looking at all those creative spaces from the Where Bloggers Create Party for the last week. SO my inspiration was bubbling over. I needed a Mod Podge fix! So I pulled out all of my stuff (my craft room is now back to normal...he he he) and got to working.

It seemed to me, even though I have never been in a sorority, that everything has very deep meaning when you make stuff for your sister. (hmmm ... will we have bigs and littles???)

So I added my embellishments very thoughtfully...

*The key: Because dreaming big is the key to success!

*The Eiffel Tower: Because all sisters strive for their own self assured chic-ness. Just like the French!

*The Queen of Hearts: Because all Blogging Sisters take loving care of each other. Only leaving honestly encouraging words that edify not criticize.

*The Rose: Because each and everyone is just as beautiful as the other, but still unique in it's own way.

*The Bling: Because all sisters shine and because Some Days are Diamonds!

Thank you Karen! This is just the funnest thing ever! Please click the button above
or the link to go see the sisters!

Now for the very clever part...
I have to provide a picture of myself with my creation. You'll have to grant me a little grace here because I am very camera shy.

But just for my sisters...

Boop! There I am!

See you at the next chapter meeting.

Where Bloggers Create II

Hello! I am so glad your here. I have to tell you that I took A LOT of pictures. So get a cup of coffee... Or plan on a second trip and come back again and look some more.

Okay... Those were the basic shots so that you can get an idea of the space. The pictures that follow are the details..... Lots of details!

My craft table... where I scrap book, sew and whatever...

My desk... where I pay bills and sometimes blog...

I love nooks and crannies...

Inspirational reading...

My painted desk....

and bench to match...

Do you love cigar boxes? I do... I love to use them for storage.

A place to stop and think... The skirt on my craft table and this chair are a
full size bed skirt that I bought at Good will.

Thank you for joining in on the tour. Midge says that she is always available for consultations. She only excepts payment in Skip Jack Tuna. (fancyfeast)
She is a great supervisor and motivator!

A big Thank You to Karen at My Desert Cottage for hosting this HUGE (and I mean HUGE) party. She put so much work into it. Make sure you zip over to her blog and take a gander at the long list of participants.

Have a great weekend!