And the *GLITTERY* Winners Are...

...But wait, a small anecdote to keep on you on the edges of your seats picking ants out of your pants... No, just kidding. I will get right to it. heeheehee

The 4 winners of an altered bottle of *glitter* are (drum rolling)
Anna
Margaret
Michelle B.
Nancy

Thanks everyone who stopped by and posted. It's always good to see old friends and I also met some wonderful new friends (hopefully?) through their links. I can't wait to do this again!

(((hugs)))

FREE *GLITTER* (in an altered bottle!)

I found one more little bottle to alter so now 4 winners will be chosen, instead of just 3. The chances of winning one of these little gems has increased! Leave a comment here (or my original glitter post below), by midnight tonight, to be entered in the drawing. I will announce the winners tomorrow! Hurry! Tell your glitter loving friends! Post or email a link to my blog so no one misses out.

My Hero!

I am very proud of my husband being a fireman. He doesn't earn a dime rushing to fires or responding to calls for "woman having trouble breathing", but his whole heart is into being a volenteer for our small town's local department. In the two years he has been with the department, the Corder Fire Protection District has become more professional and better trained, because of Sylmon's passion and seriousness for the job.

So this year for his birthday (a week ago today), we had to have a fireman themed party. He invited some of his buddies from the department and we had a backyard barbeque with smoked meat on the grill followed with a firefighter cake chaser. Happy Birthday, Honey!

Footnote: I didn't decorate the cake. It was done by the bakery at Buck's Country Mart in Higginsville. When I picked up the cake, the lady behind the counter said that Sylmon was one of the fireman who came to her house when her stove caught fire (leaking gas line). She was grateful for their fast, professional rescue and told me so. You gotta love small town life!

I AM STILL COLLECTING ENTRIES FOR MY *GLITTER* GIVEAWAY. CHECK OUT MY LAST POST. :)

BLOGGING ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY!

YES! Finally, the giveaway I promised! Three lucky winners will each be blessed with one, dimunitive, altered bottle of "Autumn Splendor". It is a fabulous gold glitter I found at my favorite local thrift store (so it might even be vintage!) that looks like shredded flecks of gold leaf. Leave a comment with your contact info and maybe YOU will be getting some Autumn Splendor in the mail next month! I am collecting names until Thursday (next week!) Email your glitter loving friends, post a link to my blog in your blog... spread the news. But leave a comment first. :) Everyone who loves a little sparkle in their life say, "hey!"

...Dear Old Golden Rule Days

Did you ever have a Big Chief tablet for your first day of school? I never did, although I had heard of them. Well, the other day I picked one up in near mint condition, along with wide ruled filler paper and some ledger papers. All were in their original wrappers. All were browned and yellowed from age and sun exposure. I could not resist! The Big Chief is my favorite. It was once red (the soft red of construction paper as seen by the tablet's inside front cover, protected from the sun), but has now faded to a salmon color. Its gold ink (border and highlights on the chief) still has a regal sheen. The tablet is priceless to me. Makes me think of a time before calculators, computers and videos were common in school. When having an AV presentation meant a film strip with students taking turns reading the narration under each picture or watching an old instructional movie with a warbling soundtrack. hahaha The smell of a freshly sharpened pencil takes me back to Pleasantview Elementary, where I started as a kindergartener.

My older kids started school this past Tuesday. Victoria is a middle schooler (6th grade here) and Seth is in third grade. Rebecca's first day of pre-school is this afternoon, even as I write. The silence in the house is music to my ears! I haven't forgotten my promise of a blog give away. This is my first opportunity to breathe (alone!) in forever. Patience, dear reader, patience. :)

One Year Anniversary

The kids are going back to school next week which reminds me that a year ago I started blogging about this time. With only Rebecca around, I had time for something extra. Well, Rebecca will be in preschool this year two afternoons a week, so maybe I will have even more time to myself and hopefully I won't squander those precious hours on housework!

I have a blog giveaway planned, but may have to get the kiddos off to school this year before I get to post about it. In the mean time, a little blurb about my faux birdhouse. It's purely decorative, but I did see a sparrow check it out once. I had picked up the birdhouse (complete with stake attached) from a road side "free" pile last fall and it wintered in my shed. The house has seen some weather and the stake is rickety, but I figured it would still make a nice cheery statement stuck into the corner of my garden's hog fencing. My garden is another story. I completely let it go this year so morning glories have overtaken most of the space, climbed over half of the fence and completely smothered my stawberry patch outside the fence. The sad thing is, that there is lots of gorgeous, leafy, vine, but very few flowers. I did harvest basil for pesto and cut some dill for pickles and now what remains in my jungle garden is a handful of volenteer tomatoes bravely thriving in the depths of the morning glory vine. I risk stepping on a garter snake every time I venture in to pick a few ripe (cherry) tomatoes! I am ready for my husband to do a controled burn on the patch. He is already threatening, nay planning, to dig under my garden and plant grass seed next year. We'll see about that!

Stay tuned for a blog giveaway!

Missionary Art

While rummaging in my studio (for what, I can't remember), I found this half started piece and decided *now* was the time to complete it. At least a year ago, my Vancouver, Canada friend, Deborah had sent me an envelope of block prints done on dictionary paper and other "odd" papers and I had started to tear and reassemble and then lost steam in the project. Today I noticed the addex (gazelle critter) on one of the dictionary pages so tore it out to add to this composition and then sewed the whole thing down on an old, yellowed greeting card (one of those non-profit solicitation cards you get in the mail). I added a piece of yarn I found on the floor (I hadn't vacuumed yet) and then serendipitiously, something resembling raffia was also laying around within grasp. Both were sewn down. I held the presser foot up a little on my sewing machine so I could float the card around like I was machine quilting. Very freeing!

Voila! A piece of art from the missions field.

Well, it could be.