Top of the Mornin' to you!

Have yourself a wonderful day!

Junk drawer finds

I have started doing some Spring cleaning. My studio is beyond full and I just MUST do something about it!

Dear diary . . .

Margaret Goudie wrote this diary when she was 21 years old - almost 100 years ago She was a good hearted, well rounded young lady from Iowa.

This morning, I awoke to find that RioRita had included Margaret's diary in her treasury list. Thanks! Be sure to check out her shop. She makes beautiful jewelry near the Mediterranean Sea. How delightful!

15 hearts in 3 days

I listed this locker basket less than 3 days ago and it already has 15 hearts. How about that? I picked them up when I went to the Dallas market. I could only get a handful of them because we had to park several blocks away in a parking garage. They would make wonderful storage bins.

Mrs. Butterworths, I love you!

You never had syrup so good . . . oh, Mrs. Butterworths! I love you!

My friend, Betty paints up Mrs. Butterworths bottles into some adorable display pieces. I really admire her talent. She uses patterns created by Cindy Trombley and paints them with amazing detail. I think Cindy would be proud of Betty's work. My favorite is one that she did up as a teacher. You can see it here.

Catch a Mrs. Butterworths retro-mercial on Utube. Enjoy!

Laurie sent goodies!

This interesting package was waiting for me when I returned from my trip to Dallas. I arrived from Laurie of Loudlife. A while back, I had entered a haiku-writing contest and she awarded me with these wonderful, fun goodies. It felt like Christmas morning.

These items are very inspiring. I can't wait to put them in something! Thanks so much, Laurie!!

A tisket, a tasket, a cool wire basket

I remember these baskets from the days when I would take the boys to the company swimming pool for an afternoon of diving and Marco Polo. I'd lug towels and sunscreen, extra clothes and shower shoes and sometimes an extra friend or two. I was secretly thankful that the pool didn't allow toys. If they did, I would look like the opening shot to that sitcom, "Yes, Dear". These baskets were quite handy. It kept us from having things strewn all over the place. Now this basket can organize all kinds of cool stuff. Maybe that ever-growing stack of Somerset Studio magazines . . .

Wow! 2009!

Wow! 2009! How am I going to get used to writing 2009 when it hardly seems like 2008 was around that long? Of course, since parts of 2008 were very difficult, I am kinda glad to see it go. I am hoping that 2009 is full of blessings for all of us.

Mele Kalikimaka

I would like to wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy your families and be thoughtful of why we celebrate. Mele Kalikimaka me ka hauoli makahiki hou! God bless you!

Emergency Surgery

On Wednesday, we took our oldest son to the Emergency Room. He had been throwing up and now had a horrible pain on his side. At least he finally had the classic symptoms of appendicitis. The poor guy had been getting horribly sick every couple of months for the last year. Of course, his doctor had no idea why (we are switching doctors for more reasons that just this one).

Unfortunately for our wallet, the ER we took him to did not have a surgical unit so they had to transport him by ambulance to another hospital. Fortunately for us, it was a wonderful hospital. He received excellent care there. We were a little taken aback, however, when they told us that his surgeon was Dr. Dye. We didn't know at the time how it was spelled. We just knew how it sounded. He proved to be excellent.

Stephen is quite sore, but feeling much better. His surgery was done laproscopically which will leave him with hardly any scarring and he will never have appenicitis ever again.

Stephen was in the hospital from Wednesday to Saturday. I came home exhausted. In fact, I was so pooped that I didn't get all my groceries put away last night which included the big old chicken that I was planning to turn into chicken and dumplin's tonight. Guess I will be heading back to the store . . .