Pink Lightning!

Noli got new tennis shoes. Pink. Sparkly beads on them. Fancy, schmancy silver shoelaces. 

And they light up, front and back!

She came in the door pointing her toes and stamping her shoes so they would light. 

Showed them off to me. Showed them off to Papa. 

Thought she was the coolest thing in town : )

So we went in the closet to take a picture. Didn't work so we went in the bathroom. 

PINK LIGHTNING!!!

Oh yeah, we're cool.

Linking Noli's pink lightning shoes to Pink Saturday!  Hop on over and visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. You'll find lots of pink goodness there!

♥♥

Is It Fall Already?

Halloween is right around the corner and even though I don't decorate for that anymore, I do add a bit of fall goodness here and there. I've got to get my fall storage box out of the shed and get going with it!

In the meantime, I'll share a few fall and Halloween themed items from my shop. I must admit, I got kind of candy corn crazy!

Felted candy corn coasters. 

The goblet belonged to my grandmother who died when my mother was fifteen. 

I'm so glad to have two of these goblets!

This was fun to make, and hooray! it sold!

A little one is going to have it for her very first official Halloween! 

I had to include it here because of the candy corn!!

No candy corn here but I guess you could put a bunch of it INSIDE the bag!!

And a candy corn cozie for your fave canned beverage! 

And last, but not least, a witchy candy jar!
(She ate all the candy corn....)

Uh, did I mention Candy Corn?

Linking my fall goodies to the EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival -- one of the questions posed is about what you have in your shop, and what plans you have, for Halloween. Click on the link and find some more!

♥♥

Zoom! Zoom!

Back in the late seventies, my hubby bought a new motorcycle. He had owned several, but this one was special. It was the epitome of motorcycles at the time. It was fast. It had this neat new fairing. It was this sweet silvery-blue color. It looked innocent, but it was hiding its true self.

It was a Kawasaki Z1-R


I don't know if you know anything about motorcycles, but this thing could move!!

We were living in Colorado at the time and it was really fun to take the beast out for rides through the beauty that is Colorado in the spring. But then came winter. Our Fiat developed an illness and needed some part that couldn't be delivered until the snow was gone. Green Grasshopper (the Fiat -- don't you name your cars?) was buried under the snow. Poor Grasshopper, just a mound in the snow. 

So the beast was our mode of transportation all that winter. What was a fun ride looking at flowers and trees became an ordeal to get to work. We lived in Avon, seven miles from Vail, and we both worked in Vail..... as night auditors, working from 11 pm to 7 am so as to be ski bums during the day.  And let me tell you, it's COLD on the back of a motorcycle driving through the mountains for seven miles every night.  I can't imagine what it was like to be the driver!! We wore a couple pairs of socks, long underwear, T-shirt, long sleeve pullover, sweaters, ski jackets, jeans. Hat under the helmet. Ski gloves. Boots. Man, it was freezing!!

Poor Grasshopper didn't make it though the winter. When spring came the poor thing just wouldn't start anymore, ever. So hubby bought an old Ford truck for $25.00 (honestly!). It was awful. So back to the beast until we bought another car. Green. But a Buick.

We both had Z1-R T-shirts -- we were so cute with the motorcycle on the back! 

This shirt was mine. He wore his until it wore out, but I didn't wear mine as much so it lasted the test of time. It got stored away for years until one day my daughter discovered it. So she has been wearing it and wearing it out! 

See the holes in the motorcycle just under the seat? She doesn't care. 

But it sure does bring back memories when she wears it! 

Outasight!

So, in remembrance of The Beast, my Z word for AlphabeThursday is Zoom Zoom for the lovely Kawasaki Z1-R!!  Zip on over to Jenny's for some more Z's.

♥♥

p.s. (motorcycle photo from ebay - my pics are in some box somewhere.....) 

Love and Smiles for Kids

Have you visited any new websites that you'd like to introduce us to? Everyone likes to find new places to visit!


That's one of the questions posed by Deb of The Storybeader for the current EtsyBloggers blog carnival. 


The sites that I am going to introduce are not really new -- but may be new to you.

Love Quilts is made up of a group of very talented, hard working and loving women who stitch and sew cross-stitch blocks into quilts for kids who have life-long or life-threatening illnesses.

As a stitcher, you can sign up for a certain child, or for "Charlotte's Kids" both of which have themes and deadlines. Or you can send in as many "any child" blocks as you'd like. These have basically any theme and no deadline! The stitchers are from all over the US and there are also Love Quilt groups in other countries.

It is very gratifying to stitch for Love Quilts. I've been involved for a long time - I think since 1999! 

I do remember how I started.....I used to work in a Hallmark shop and a shopper was looking for cow greeting cards. I was helping her and we got to talking. She was getting the cards to send to a young girl with a terminal illness and who loved cows -- through a site called "Make a Child Smile."  Anyway, Love Quilts was listed on that site and I knew I had found my place!

Which brings me to my second site to tell you about -- Make a Child Smile (MACS). You send encouraging cards (through snail mail because kids love to get mail!) to kids with life-threatening illnesses -- you can send one or as many as you like, and to however many children as you like. You can send little gifts if you choose, and they always post the names of any siblings so you can remember them too! 


So even if you cannot cross-stitch, you can still bring happiness to a sick child through MACS! Both are such worthy organizations and bring smiles to so many kids. If you look around both the sites, you will see the stories of the kids -- some will definitely make you cry, but your heart will grow and your life will be touched.


From the MACS site:


When life's problems seem overwhelming, it helps to look around and see what other people are coping with. You may consider yourself far more blessed than you imagined. 
~Author Unknown




♥♥

What's that Wet Stuff Falling From the Sky?

Raindrops
So many raindrops
It feels like raindrops
Falling from my eyes...

For some reason, every time I water skied, that song by David Cassidy ran through my head.

But this isn't about skiing, it's about raindrops! At least I assume they are raindrops......after all, we haven't seen them since May. I think I've forgotten what that wet stuff looks like!

can you see the little splashes?

It's been a banner summer of droughts, signs posted with watering curfews, dead and dying shrubs and trees. With triple digit temperatures all over Texas, it's been the hottest summer yet. My area around Dallas set a record of 70 days of 100 degrees and above. That broke the record set in 1980 -- the summer I was pregnant with my firstborn!

So it was really gratifying to hear rain on the roof when I woke up this morning! And it's continuing -- a light, soft rain; the kind that soaks in and does some good.

Praise the Lord and pass the umbrellas!!

♥♥

Yellow Roses

My dearest aunt was so talented. She hooked rugs, crocheted, painted with watercolors and oils. She also painted china. That always intrigued me -- it was so beautiful with such gentle colors. I remember going to her china painting guild with her and admiring all the gorgeous pieces.

Yellow is my favorite color for roses and I had always loved this plate, so when she asked me which of her pieces I wanted, I immediately chose the yellow roses plate! I am beyond thrilled to have this, and other pieces that she painted. They are on display in my home and every time I look at them, I remember my dear aunt.

 She painted it in 1970 on a Noritake china plate. The little scroll work on the plate's edge is part of the plate's design.

A close-up of the roses. 

So, it is only fitting that my Y word for AlphabeThursday is Yellow, for Yellow Roses! Go on over to Jenny's for some more Y's!




♥♥

Pink on a Denmark Beach

I have a thing for rocks. I don't keep a huge collection or anything, but I have some sitting around that are special in one way or another -- where they were found, the shape, the color.

The summer before I began my senior year in high school (no, you're not getting any idea of the year! Let's just say it was a looong time ago...) my brother invited me to visit for part of the summer. He had accepted a research position with Unilever, which is the parent company of Lever Brothers, and had just moved to Holland. And invited me to visit!!

So off I went, on my first flight by the way, to Europe! Alone!

Anyway, back to the rocks....

My brother had several conferences to attend that summer, which was great for me since it took us to several countries we might not have visited otherwise. One was in Copenhagen, Denmark which is an absolutely fantastic place!

Photo of Rocky Denmark Beach

In one of our treks around the area, we went to a beach, the likes of which I had never before seen! I was used to the sandy beaches of Florida and Louisiana's Gulf Coast. THIS beach was full of boulders! BOULDERS! Huge! You could climb on them and see for miles! So, of course, I had to bring a couple of rocks home.

The gray one looks like those boulders, only on a much, much smaller scale! I love the smoothness of it.

And the pink one! I love it -- love, love, love it! It's kind of a coral pink with bits of gray and has little sparkles in it. It's hard to see in photos, but the whiter areas are almost glass-like with the sparkles.

These two rocks sit on bookshelves now, and remind me daily of that wonderful trip that my big brother so graciously offered me. A peek at more of the world than a young girl had ever seen. What memories!

Linking to Pink Saturday - check out other pinks here!

♥♥

There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!

Not bird, nor plane, nor even frog -- just little 'ole me, Underdog.

Remember Underdog, aka Shoeshine Boy, the Superman-like dog cartoon? Oh yeah, had to watch Underdog!

Noli and I checked out the Underdog movie (which happily had a cartoon from the original TV show included) and she went totally berserk! Watched it two times in a row, then played Underdog for days!

We couldn't find a red T-shirt so a white one had to do! Never mind that it had flowers around the neck -- Underdog is a very confident dog and is not afraid to show his feminine side! I had some stick-on felt and cut out a big U and stuck it on. Blue towel for the cape and, drum roll please, introducing......

UNDERDOG NOLI

Only she pronounced it "Wonderdog" -- I got the biggest kick out of that! 

Here's Underdog aka Wonderdog saving the day!

And here's Underdog stalking the bad guy.....

After a day of saving the good and fighting the bad, Underdog is a tired puppy....

Linking Underdog to Alphab-Thursday over at Jenny Matlock

♥♥

Jumping in Fall Leaves

I was just thinking about how the weather has taken a slight (very slight but, oh well) turn toward fall and how fun it is to jump in piles of freshly raked piles of leaves. Well, I don't really jump in them anymore, but I remember how my kids loved to and how a certain granddaughter does too!

Here are some awesome Etsy leaves!

This is what we'll all be doing soon enough! Autumn Fall Landscape Watercolor Print by WatercolorsByMuren

Welcome your friends, neighbors and family! Fall Door Wreath by The Privileged Door.

Can you believe this is a gourd? Beautiful! Handpainted Gourd Bowl by Nat's Kreations.

Decorate your mantel or drape over a banister -- and I totally love these leaves in a doorway! Fall Leaves Felt Garland by The Clever Life (who, by the way, lives in my hometown of Baton Rouge, LA!)


♥♥ THIS JUST IN!! Hilary from The Clever Life is generously offering a discount in her shop for my readers! Just put the code MAGNOLIABLOG at checkout and you'll get 10% off!!. And she's got some really cute things in her shop! Thank you, Hilary! ♥♥

I'm loving these napkin rings! They're hand cut out of salt dough, painted and dried. Fabulous on your Thanksgiving table or any autumn gathering! Thanksgiving Napkin Rings by Cookie Dough Creations.

I love this ceramic leaf bowl -- the crystals in the glaze pop as the piece is fired and create their own pattern! Beautiful! Fall Leaf Dish by Mia Sorella.

    

And just because I couldn't resist....

Leaf Noli!! 

She made a picture for Daddy from leaves gathered from our yard. This was taken in November 2009 so she's almost four at the time.  Cuteness!

   

So be sure to jump in piles of freshly raked leaves when it's time!!

♥♥♥