Misc Post: Twitter, Creative Memories & Dept. 56 New England Village

Last week I posted about signing up for Twitter.  So far I LOVE it.  And I periodically get notification that someone new is now "following me".  (I usually "follow back".)  Anyway, a French-speaking person is following me that I did not recognize, but I "followed back".  Not surprisingly, their tweets are all in French.  I took 6 years of French in school and I am finding it a fun challenge to try to translate the tweets.  I don't know if they speak English and know what I'm saying, but whatever!

In shocking scrapbooking news, I have discovered that the parent company of Creative Memories has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy!!  (Now some of you scrapbookers may "pooh pooh" Creative Memories all you want, but it works for me, and I'm happy, and that's all that matters - right??)  I am going to seriously be devestated if Creative Memories is not able to recover from this - I LOVE their products and I LOVE LOVE LOVE going to the crops my local consultants have - it's a really fun time to get some scrapbooking done and have a night out with the ladies.  It's cheaper than therapy and probably more effective!  I really don't know what I'll do if Creative Memories gets dragged down by the bankruptcy of their parent company (Antioch I believe) - I'm so spoiled with all their matching paper and embellishments and the ease of getting supplies - I live kind of far form other scrapbooking stores!  Keeping fingers crossed for Creative Memories....

Lastly, I set up my small but growing "New England Village" (Dept. 56).  This is the first year it's on a table of it's own in my piano room.  It's still a bit sparse, but I put a big lake in the middle and a couple of small mountains to try to "fill it up" a bit.  DH buys me a piece (or two or accessories) each year.  It is DEFINITELY my most favorite decorating job of the holidays!  I love coming up with a new "plan" each year.  I'm an artist at heart, so this is right up my alley.  I don't know what DH is going to get me this year.  I usually pick out a few "suggestions", but really, I'd be happy with any new additions.  And I'm not stuck on everything being from New England Village - I'm okay with mixing and matching...  One thing that I picked out, but that is from a different village - I think it's from the Snow Village - is the Yuengling Tavern, isn't it cool??

 

   

I've kind of always wanted something like this (Sledding Hill):

 

While searching for the sledding hill, I saw the "Gondola" - pretty neat, huh??

  And I found this too, it's called "Winter Sled Ride":

And this struck me as a cute accesory - they call it "Log Pile":

 And isn't this cute?:

But truly, I know I'll love whatever DH gets, all the houses and accessories are beautiful, there's nothing I wouldn't like!

I'll post pics soon of my little village.  And from Thanksgiving at our house.  And from our trip to cut down a Christmas tree on Friday.  And the Christmas tree which we already put up and decorated....  Right now I'M TOO TIRED!!!!!!  :-)

The end.

Have You Seen "It Takes A Thief"

Have you ever seen that show?  I was at a scrapbooking crop the other day and a good friend of mine was talking about that show and totally freaking us all out.  (This is AFTER another friend of mine's neighbor was robbed just a couple of months ago.)  Keep in mind, I live in a little upstate suburbia where normally the worst crime is littering.  But it makes you realize that you can't be too trusting.

Anyway, this "thief show" is about a couple of reformed thieves who show how they break into houses.  It's positively frightening.  Before we had our home security system installed, we used to think that our dog offered some protection, but you know what the thieves do?  They bring dog biscuits.  So much for a ferocious dog protecting our house.  You would not believe the tricks they use to easily break into people's houses - sometimes even when they're HOME!  I'm sure glad we have a security system already in place!

My good friend went so far as to have a home security system installed in her house too.  She had ADT come in and do hers, and she was telling us she now calls her home, "The Fortress".  ADT is definitely one of the most popular providers of security systems where I live, and they have a very professional and comprehensive system, depending on what you want to get.

 

  

When I went to their website, I was amazed at all they have to offer.  You know how we're planning on building that little Adirondack cabin?  Well they even have something called "Low Temperature Monitoring" to notify you of dangerously low temperatures in your home (which is sure something to worry about in those sub-zero north country winters!) so you'll be alerted BEFORE your pipes freeze!  Very cool.

  

ADT has a good special going right now - it's only $99 for installation (with mail in rebate) when you sign an agreement for ADT monthly monitoring.  It's a better deal than we got - worth checking out.

  

Don't have your holidays ruined by some jerk looking to break in and steal all your carefully chosen and budgeted gifts!  And don't ever watch "It Takes a Thief" - you'll never sleep soundly again!  Heh....

  

   

Out Cutting Down the Christmas Tree

(This is a pic from the farm we went to last year.)

Thanksgiving recap and photos from our visit to the tree farm coming soon!

The end.

I Am Thankful

For my family, who is awesome (this totally includes, in-laws, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.!!)

  

My friends, I have THE best.  You know who you are.

 

For my pets, Basil, Q-ee and Tex, who bring me such love and joy

 

 

   

That DH has a good job

  

For a roof over our heads

   

For the money to buy the food and whatnot to host Thanksgiving

   

That I am healthy and therefore could do all that horrible cleaning beforehand

   

That my bangs are past their worst stage of growing out and I can actually style my hair again

   

For the church we're attending, it is GREAT.  A huge blessing to me.

   

That we have good vehicles to drive (dang I love my truck!)

   

That gas prices are down!!!!!!!

   

For our little piece of property with lake rights in the Adirondacks

 

    

For all of You, my readers.  Truly.  Writing this blog and getting to know you has been more rewarding than I could ever have imagined.  I never even knew the enjoyment of writing before this!  Thank you so much for your friendship, visits and comments - I really appreciate them all, I really do.

  

That He chose me.  "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." John 15:16

    

And from me, to all of you, Happy Thanksgiving.

  

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:  The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.  Numbers 6:24-26

    

The end. 

 

This is What I Keep Telling Myself...

When my family comes over for Thanksgiving, if they find any dirty spots I missed in my cleaning frenzy, they will still love me.  I'm sure of it.
 

The end.
  

Have You Heard of CMF Direct?

(This is NOT a paid post.)

If you're a blogger or an advertiser, do yourself a favor and read on...

From their website:
CMF Direct is a directory allowing potential advertisers to search blogs based upon category and country of origin. In addition, you can search based upon ad size, and publishers that sell ads directly, or through Entrecard, CMF ADS, Project Wonderful, OIO Publisher, or some other means.

Features:

• Upload your own 125x125 card to represent your site. (30 kb max, .jpg, .gif, .png supported)
• Describe what your site is about.
• Add keywords that best describe your website.
• List the available methods potential advertisers can purchase advertising.
• Visit the FAQ for further information

    
I joined this network and the forums too - why don't you take a look?  (If you're an Entrecarder, you'll see a lot of familiar faces, and if you're not an Entrecarder, well then you'll find a great new group of fellow bloggers.)

    

CMF Direct

CMF Forums

  
You're welcome.  :-)
   
The End.
   

Thanksgiving Menu

(I have been cleaning and cleaning.  I am so tired of cleaning.)
 
We're having 15 people.
Here's what I'm planning (yes, I'm assuming you care):
 
Appetizers:

Vegetables and Dip
Cheese and crackers and pepperoni
Chips and french onion dip
Jalapeno poppers
Mozzarella sticks and sauce
Spinach and cheese hot pastry
Cheese doodles
Mixed nuts
  
Meal:
  
Turkey
Gravy
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Corn
Rolls and butter
Macaroni and Cheese
Turnip (not Turnip of Power Turnip, just plain turnip)
Cranberry sauce
"Mom's" Cranberry sauce (it's made with jello and some other stuff, it's really good, like "jazzed up" cranberry sauce)
Sweet potato dish (the one with the marshmallows on top)
 
Drinks:
  
Wine, Beer, Soda and Seltzer
  
Dessert:
  
Apple pie
Chocolate pudding pie
Banana Bread
Strawberry trifle
Pumpkin Pie
Ferraro Rocher candies
Bailey's Irish Cream candies
  
Did I forget anything???
  
The end.
  

How About Thanksgiving by Candlelight?

First of all, most of you guessed correctly - my invention was for getting cobwebs up by the ceiling.  Secondly, I LOVED all the clever names you came up for my invention!  In fact, there were so many great ones, I'm going to give linky love (and/or fame and glory) to those who offered a name for my invention.  However, I promised for the best answer I would also add their link to my blogroll, and after much thought, I decided this was my favorite, and most appropriate name for my new invention:
  

 

 The Thrifter

Named by Michelle Gartner of  

One of a Kind Wisconsin

  

(And that is indeed a "swiffer" cloth rubber banded onto the top of a sturdy yardstick we have.)

  

But I have to share the others too, they're great!

  

The Web Wipe by Mary Ruby of Mother No's Best

    

The Nook-Cleaner by desperateblogger of Manna from Heaven

   

The Web Whacker by Carol

   

The Smoosh (if you're going to use it to kill bugs) 

by Anne of Small Town Mommy

   

The Dust & Measure (Accomplish 2 tasks with just 1 tool!) by Lynne of The Sewing Mom

    

Handy Dandy Duster Buster by Cedar of Adirondack View
   
and

   

Kevin even provided a name for two different models, 

one for men - The Webinator, and for women - The Foof Away

  
So the whole reason for the cleaning is not surprisingly, because we're having a house full of company for Thanksgiving.  So of course as I am moving about my house, I suddenly see 3,000 places that need cleaning.  Everything from black residue from the hinges on our doors, to dog hair in places I couldn't imagine, to crap on the white face-outs of our staircase that you see right when you walk in the front door... The list goes on and on of all these little places I don't normally think to clean that somehow I suddenly notice when company is coming.  Gah!
   
So I go to thinking, maybe this year we should start a new tradition.  How about "Thanksgiving by Candlelight"?  That would save me soooooooooooooo much cleaning if it were nice and dark and no one could see my dirt!  I could give everyone their own Garmin GPS and tell them, "Ok, the turkey is at these coordinates, the bathroom is at these coordinates, the pumpkin pie is at these coordinates..."
  
That's what I dread about Thanksgiving - it's not the cooking or the dishes, it's finding and cleaning all those sneaky dirty spots!
  
Thanksgiving is an AWESOME holiday, but is there one thing YOU dread about Thanksgiving?  Is it the 4 hour car trip to the second cousin's house?  It is green bean casserole?  Digging the neck and gizzards out of the turkey?  Tell me!
  
The end, but not really - I want to hear what you have to say!

My Invention

Because I'm a frugal sort of gal, today when I discovered I was in need of an item that I did not have, instead of running to the store and buying it, I went into my secret lab and invented this:
  

  

Whoever can guess what I used this for, and comes up with the best name for my new invention gets link love and added to my blogroll* until the end of the year (or longer, I'm forgetful).  Or if you don't have a website you can just have fame and glory.  Get your guess in by 9am Friday morning and keep your guesses clean...

 
The end.
     
*Link must be family friendly.

Great Idea of What to do With all Those Forwarded Email Jokes!

Now this is COOL!

 

     
There is a new website called forwardOn.com.  If you find that people are complaining to you for forwarding on those funny emails (jokes, pictures, videos), you can send them to forwardOn.com!  ForwardOn wants them, and offers REWARDS for them.  HOW COOL IS THAT?
  
The website is free, and get this - you can get reward points every time your submissions are viewed by forwardOn users!  I looked at the rewards and they are really cool things like Amazon gift cards, iTunes gift cards, Shell gas cards or you can even donate to charity!
   
The website is so easy to use, I just can't believe no one has ever thought of this before - a repository for funny emails!  We can let them use up their space storing it!  We can let them test all those attachments for viruses and stuff! 
 
When you have a minute, you GOTTA go to forwardOn.com and click on a few of the featured emails on the front page.  I totally almost peed my pants this morning.

Here are a few that I was laughing over:   
Men Are Crazy Even When They Are Broadcasting the News
Obama Celebrating
BiPartisan Dance Contest
Train Passing Through a Market in Thailand
Those good 'ol LOL Cats

Don't say I didn't warn you!
   
The end.
   

I'm Going to Try Twitter

Click here to follow me

   
(I can't imagine I'm going to have time to keep up with yet another thing, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway.)
   
In case you're unfamiliar with Twitter, from Wikipedia:
   
"Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.  Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as TwitterFon, Twitterrific, Feedalizr or Facebook."

   
As you can imagine my "following" and "followers" list is very small right now - I need more people to follow to get a better idea of what Twitter is all about.  If you use Twitter and want to follow me, I'll follow you... You can click the link above, or I put one in my sidebar.  Or if you don't use Twitter, go sign up and try it out like me!  We can figure it out together... :-)
  
I don't know if this is going to be better than sliced bread, or the best diet pill, or what, but it seems like fun, huh? 
   
I'm hoping it'll be "Twitterlicious"!  :-)
  
The end.
  

My Recessive Math Gene and LL Bean Rant

 

My DD's lollipops, sorted by color and flavor

   

We had our parent teacher conference on Friday, and we are very blessed because we don't have to stress out before we go - DD always gets a glowing report.  In fact, sorry for this mommy brag, but this year she's excelling in math even more than usual (she's almost 10).  She's always been good at math, and even as a toddler she loved to sort things.  Even now when she opens a package of fruit snacks, she'll make a chart out of them.  It's funny.  I stink at math, by the way.  It's DH she gets her math skills from.  Or they jumped a generation from my Dad to DD - he was a CPA of all things.  I must have a recessive math gene or something.  

  

In other news, I am very annoyed with LL Bean.  I mean, I LOVE them.  I have been a customer of theirs for soooo long.  Many moons.  And have you ever looked at their sale/outlet items?  Some GREAT deals to be had!  But lately it's been very hard to be their customer.  I try to buy things, and they're sold out.  Like, the very DAY I get the catalog.  A couple of weeks ago I was trying to buy stuff for DD (I went online the very afternoon I got the catalog, mind you) and still couldn't get what I wanted.  Shortages with the kids' clothes has been a chronic problem for years now.  I can't tell you how many times I've picked out an outfit and go to place it in the cart, and one of the items is sold out, or so far on backorder it's not worth it.  I chatted with customer service to complain, but as excellent as their customer service is, they couldn't exactly wave a magic wand and make the tights I wanted that were "sold out" that matched the dress I wanted, appear.  Then this afternoon I spent like 45 minutes choosing a fleece jacket for myself only to discover once I'd made my choice that ALL sizes of the color I wanted were on backorder until JANUARY.  I need a coat NOW - not in January!

So, tonight I bought DD's Christmas outfit and a few other things from Lands End for the first time.  I mean, I like Lands End too, but I like LL Bean better.  

  

Note to LL Bean: I can't buy stuff if you don't have it to sell to me...it shouldn't be so hard to be your customer!  :-(

   

The end.

 

I'm Way Behind on The Whole Soup Thing

 

 I'm a soup-newbie.  This is what I've been eating, and liking it!  (After it's cooked of course!)

(It's uncooked Campbell's Split Pea with Bacon)

  

I never really liked soup much until recently.  For some reason now I suddenly like soup.  A lot!  But I've missed out on almost 40 years of eating soup.  There's a whole new "soup world" out there, unexplored!  One soup that I have eaten in the past is New England Clam Chowder, but, I get that in restaurants, and when it's good it's awesome, when it's not very good, it's really disappointing.

  

There must be lots of great soups out there, even soup recipes!  Can you share with me your favorite soup, or soup recipe?  I'm way behind on the whole soup-eating thing!

  

The end, but not really - I want to hear what you have to say!

    

I Admit it, We Were A Pain in the Butt

(This is NOT a paid post.)

When we bought our Adirondack property, I admit, at times, we must have driven our agent cah-RAZY!  We didn't mean to.  We just wanted to take our time and make sure we had all the information to make a smart decision.  (Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?)  :-P

Well, if you are ever in the market for real estate in Lake George, or Bolton Landing or the Adirondack park, you could not possibly find a better agent than the agent we had - Rachel Zuckerman.

Rachel Zuckerman, Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker

I'm telling you, besides putting up with us (which is an amazing talent in itself), this woman knows every nook and cranny of that area.  When she took us out to look at properties, not only did she know all about the real estate itself, but she could spout off the history of the area, interesting tidbits about the town or village, and I think she personally knows half the people up there too!  And, after a long day of looking at properties, she can tell you the best place to grab a bite to eat, or stay.  Bonus!

One of the times we went up to look at property it was right around our anniversary, and not only did she give us a GREAT suggestion of where to eat, she gave us the phone number from her cell phone, the name of the person to ask for to make a reservation, and she even told us to ask for a seat by the windows that overlook a beautiful rushing river!  (If you're curious, here's where she sent us: The Grist Mill, it was great!)

Here's a link to her profile and her page at Coldwell Banker - Rachel Zuckerman, Realtor, Adirondack and Lake George Property.  Even if you're just curious you can do a search in the left hand column to see what kind of properties are available.  Don't say I didn't warn you though - it's beautiful up there!  :-)

And of course she's everything you want a realtor to be - honest, conscientious, knowledgeable, professional yet friendly and easy to talk to.  We are SO thankful to have found her - buying or selling real estate can be stressful enough as it is, she made it much less painful.

So if all my talk about the Adirondacks is making you want to take off for the mountains, get in touch with Rachel Zuckerman and she'll find you a good spot!  :-D

My name is Carole, and I approve this message.
(Sorry, I know the elections are over! :-)

The end.
 
 

Wordless Wednesday: Our Newest "Nature Trail" American Girl Scene

What Are the Adirondacks, Anyway?

Photo taken by Jeanne D., Constantia, NY from www.visitadirondacks.com

    

I know I've mentioned the Adirondacks quite a bit lately, ESPECIALLY since buying our little piece of property there, and it didn't dawn on me until recently that some of you probably don't know much, if anything, about the Adirondacks.

  

From the Adirondack Park Agency website (www.apa.state.ny.us):

    

"The Adirondack Park was created in 1892 by the State of New York amid concerns for the water and timber resources of the region. Today the Park is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, greater in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined. The boundary of the Park encompasses approximately 6 million acres, nearly half of which belongs to all the people of New York State and is constitutionally protected to remain “forever wild” forest preserve. The remaining half of the Park is private land which includes settlements, farms, timber lands, businesses, homes, and camps."

They've already had snow this fall!  

From Tails and Trails of Northern NY 

      

There are also quite a few "tourist" areas like Lake Placid (where the winter olympics have been hosted twice) and Lake George Village.  There are restaurants where you can get anything from German food to Bar-b-que, and sports from parasailing in summer to snowshoeing in winter, and shopping from Oakley watches to rustic furniture.

But head out of the villages and you can find lots of quiet, undisturbed, stunningly beautiful places with breathtaking scenery and wildlife.

 

 

From thebackpacker.com  

This is a view from the top of Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in the Adirondacks.

And no, that is not us! :-)

Can ya TELL why we love it there??  :-)

Oh, and hey, a couple of Adirondack blogs I like:

Adirondack View
Along the Ausable

The end.
 

How Basil Kitty Stays Warm

 

   

To keep heating costs down this winter, I'll be wearing my $8 Garage Sale Weekend wool, knee-length sweater, and we'll keep old Basilcat warm in DH's hood!  I'm not sure what possessed me to put her in there, but I thought she wasn't going to be too happy about it.  However, to my surprise, she was purring the whole time she was in his hood, it was so cute!

  

I kinda wanted to try putting "fat boy" Q-ee kitty in there, but I just don't think 14lbs of big bad kitty would have fit!

  

  

The end.

 

Why It's a Wooly Bear!

My favorite guess was a "fuzzy wuzzy" for what it was!

It is, in fact, commonly known as a Wooly Bear caterpillar.  There is a scientific name of course which I could Google and easily find out, but it's not cute and no one around here calls them by their scientific name anyway.  Everyone calls them Wooly Bears.  And in case you didn't know, the Wooly Bear caterpillar is rumored to predict the severity of the coming winter.  However, that is probably untrue.  But it's fun to believe!  :-)

Here's an amusing article from the Farmer's Almanac about the beloved caterpillar.  In the late fall they're all over the place where I live, and they're large enough to be seen on the road when you're driving along.  Of course I always try to avoid them!  I mowed the lawn for the last time about a week ago and I moved three of them off my driveway into the woods for safety.  I'm not big on picking up creepy crawly things, but these are darn cute, and yes, quite fuzzy wuzzy.  When you pick them up they get scared and curl up into a little ball.  If you wait a minute, they get their courage up and then they'll stretch back out and tickle your hand with all those little tiny footsteps. 

On another note, I posted a bit back that I was going to work on our family genealogy.  Well I got Family Tree Maker and it's become like a sickness.  Like some have an addiction to shoes or bottle caps or Harley parts, now I can't stop searching about my family.  I can't stop.  It's like, "Well, let me just try one more search here...", or, "let me just search for this one other name...".  I don't have a subscription to Ancestry.com (which has a lot of info but you have to pay), so that is at least limiting me!  Or it's making it worse.  I'm not sure which... My side of the family is from eastern Europe, so that makes it challenging I think, but very interesting.  The borders have changed so many times I don't even always know what country to search under!
  

The end.
 

Do You Know What This Furry Guy is?

 

  

And according to some, this little guy is a predictor of something....do you know what it is?

  

The end.

Oh Why Do I Let It Pile Up?

 

No, it's not what you think.  That's not dirty laundry.  Oh no, it's CLEAN laundry.  I don't let the dirty stuff pile up - oh no sir!  But clean laudry?  Piling that up is my specialty, as you can see.  Look at how tall that far pile is!

   

I have no trouble washing, drying and folding the laundry.  It is even pre-sorted into baskets for each family member.  My washer and dryer are even upstairs, so our bedrooms are but footsteps away.  

  

Why, I wonder, don't I just take that last step and PUT IT AWAY?!?

  

Do you want to know why those piles are especially tall this week?  

  

It's because I NEVER PUT AWAY LAST WEEK'S CLEAN LAUNDRY!  D'oh!

       

(Wow, now that I look at my hallway, it looks so plain, doesn't it?  Maybe I need to put up some pictures or home theater sconces or something to jazz it up!)

  

So now that I've shared one of my many embarrassing shortcomings, what silly little chore do you hate and often leave undone?  Leave the cap off the toothpaste?  Hate to put the new roll of toilet paper on?  Never clean out the coffeepot?  

  

C'mon, fess up and make me feel better!

  

The end, but not really - I want to hear what you have to say!

 

I'm Handing Out Link Love Left and Right

I started blogging in March, and over time my readership has grown and I want to take a moment to first of all thank ALL my readers for coming to visit me.  It's no fun to write a blog no one reads, so I truly appreciate each one of you!  :-)

But now some special thanks!  First, in case you didn't notice, I put a "Top Commenters" gadget in the sidebar, and I want to give out shout outs to my Top Commenters:

Krissy

Rebecca - Freaky Frugalite

Glitzen - Saddlepotatoes

Jude - Mature Not Senile

Nessa - Nessa's Place

Doll Clothes Gal - Emily Rose American Girl Doll Clothes, Accessories and Furniture

The Empty Envelope

John Kosakowski - Hot Rods in the Hudson Valley

Mags - Maggie Moo Talks 2 U

Lux - A White Cat Luxor

I also recently added the ability to "Follow This Blog" and as a thank you to my first 16 18 followers (two more snuck in on me at the last minute, what a nice surprise!), I'm going to give you guys shout-outs too!

elf_fu

The Empty Envelope

Jamie@Just Add Laughter

Sandra Carvalho - Love in my Veins

Nessa's Place

Carol

Lucky Lady

Angie Atkinson - In Pursuit of Fulfillment

Scrapcandy.com

Julie@Cool Mom Guide

Designing Hilary - 57 Design Studio

Cameron A. - From the Lone Wolf's Mind

AK Mom - What's Baking?

Krissy

Red Balloon

Mama Flo

Maid Marian's Refuge

Holy Cuteness

And of course my list would not be complete if I didn't also give my appreciation to my top Entrecard Droppers as well - thank you very much for your dedicated dropping and visiting!

Picture to People

The Junk Drawer

Turnip of Power | Social Networking

Technically Easy

Chica and Pumuckl - 2 Egyptian Cats in Germany

MJG's Rambling Thoughts

More Than Sew So

My gypsygoods

WindMill on the Hill

Alteredevents

If you need some new blogs to read, please check out some of these links I've shared today - I am truly flattered at the quality blogs that comment, visit and drop on me! 

Thank you everyone,
Love, Carole

The end.

P.S.  If I listed your name but no link, it's because I didn't see a link to an active blog - but if you have one, just let me know and I'll add your link.

Wordless Wednesday: That's Moocow's Husband, Bo

Finally, What We Did After the Missile Silo and Geocaching in the Adirondacks

Well, the last time we were at our property, we saw that a tree had fallen, almost completely blocking off the parking spaces and even extending a tiny bit into the road.  So, DH brought along his chain saw figuring we could stop in at our property on the way home, and clear out the fallen tree.
 

This is all the wood we brought back which is now stacked up by our existing wood pile at our home.

   

Well, as usual, we spent a little too much time geocaching, and by the time we got to our property it was getting close to dusk.  So we ended up rushing to cut up as much of the tree as possible and load what we could into the truck.  Now luckily, even though we were rushing, DH didn't make any bad mistakes like cutting off any human limbs with the chainsaw, however, I ended up hurting my back I think because I was rushing so much to load the wood in the truck.  I wasn't using the slow and steady method - I was pretty much tugging on the wood and giving it the heave-ho with all my might and hoping for the best.  Fortunately, I didn't strain my back too badly, it only hurt a bit for a few days.
  
While we were running around clearing the wood, I set DD to the task of gathering more "doo-dads" to make some sort of memento of our property to remind us of it over the loooooong cold winter.  She got a lot of cool stuff, even some fungus.  Which of course was a bonus because then on the way home she could say, "there is a fungus among-us"!  Ha ha.  Anyway, now check out all the doo-dads I have!
    

 

That black thing in the upper right hand corner is Texdog's black nose getting some sniffs.

  

So, for those of you who read about my quandry of what to make out of my doo-dads (quandry here), DH read your ideas and asked me what a shadow box is.  After I explained, he said, "Well we have something like that right in our sunroom."  The light bulb went on.  Yes!  We have a coffee table in there with a glass top that can come off, and you can put things inside it.  Right now we have sand and seashells, but we can empty that out and make it into a big shadow box and use the doo-dads!  Why on earth did I not think of this??

  

Here's a pic of the coffee table as it is now

 

  

 I'll be sure to take a pic when we put our doo-dads in it!  Thanks for the great idea!

  

The end.

 

I Rarely Enter Any Blog Contests, But This One I Can't Resist

Turnip from Turnip of Power's social networking blog is having a contest with some great prizes.  (You can read about Turnip's Social Networking Contest here.) 

Me, I'm hoping for the t-shirt.

You, you should go there for the really honest and thorough posts about everything from social networking, to marketing, to Entrecard, to tips and tricks - it's absolutely worth a visit.  This site is in my list of blogs to visit daily.

Plus, it's a turnip!  It's cool.  It's hot.  And I approve this message.

The end.
 

Postponing the Telling of the last Part of our Adirondack Trip

DD has the stomach flu.
 
No time for blogging.
 
The end.
 

Run! Run!

I just saw a giant turkey run across our backyard.  I think he knows Thanksgiving is near!  :-)
 
The end.