The masked ladies

I know I am too late for Mardi Gras, but thanks to the inspiration of Miss Lisa of http://indigobeads.blogspot.com here are my newest masked ladies. I owe Miss Bobbi of http://bobbianncook.blogspot.com/ for all the viewing of late night pictures to keep me focused! Both of these ladies have really inspired me to take up beaded embroidery...I think first I should read up and have found a great book from Miss Nicole at http://beadwright.blogspot.com/ now to order it and get started! Mean while I still have a doll house begging to be built...2 of them as a matter of fact! Pillows I want to make and the list goes on and on...so many "want to do" so little time. I honestly think if i started right now to finish all my ufo's and never wanted to learn or do anything else...I would still have to live to be 1234 yrs old to finish them all...ok maybe I exagerated ...a little...999 yrs old seems more realistic!!!

For now I must go clean up my mess...i don't think one more thing can be added to my kitchen table...can't wait for it to warm up so i can get my craft room done...right now it's in the deep freeze part of the house...or as it is more commonly known here...fridge #3. Hope you all have an awesome week. Before I go I do want to thank Miss Marie of http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/ for the pep talk yesterday...really needed it at the time it came...ok so I knew I would get most of you that have given me an award...since I don't have that many followers...I would only be giving it back to you all...thank you all for the awards and when I can remember to get Miss Bobbi to show me how I will add them!!! lol Big hugs to you all

A fairy tale cab

Once upon a time in a land far away, Prince Jordon was out on a traditional fox hunt. Suddenly his horse bucked and ran for the woods with the poor prince startled but hanging on for life. Running thru the woods the horse became more agitated by the branches from the trees poking and scratching him....so he ran faster deeper into the woods. Suddenly running upon a coiled snake, the horse reared back and thru the prince from his stead. Prince Jordon only remembered falling...when he hit his head on a boulder...blackness became his world. The hunting party searched the woods for hours...no trace of Prince Jordon could be found, so they made the long trek back to notify the King. A paupers son named Cordon happened across the limp body of the prince and took him home. Inside their hapless shack, the pauper family cared and nursed Prince Jordon back to health ...but he still had no memory of who he was. He only knew every time he looked at Cordon...he felt he was looking into a mirror. Cordon told him the story of how he was found in a basket by his family, but they knew he came from royalty from the blankets he was swaddled in were of pure silk. Upon hearing this story...Prince Jordon immediately remembered his past. After a heart felt good bye the Prince set off on the journey to return home...hoping to gain more information from his father the king...could this paupers son be his twin? How would he have gotten there and why? After many hours ride the Prince came to the kingdom gates...all were so happy to see him. Immediate plans for a party to celebrate Prince Jordon's return began. Forced to tell his son the truth the King admitted he did in fact sire 2 boys. Only wanting to give his kingdom to one he sacrificed and left the other babe on the doorsteps of paupers that were told in town to have no money but desired to have a child. The king felt his plan answered everything. The prince insisted Cordon be allowed back to his rightful place but the King refused. He knew nothing of this young man and being raised by paupers felt Cordon was beneath him and his plan once exposed to the kingdom would ruin him. The Prince decided he had to leave then and there. He would return to the pauper shack and let Cordon return to the kingdom in his place. He felt sure they could pull it off. As plans for the masquerade party came this gave Prince Jordon the perfect ruse for his brother to enter the kingdom. As night fell, Prince Jordon's costume arrived. Prince Jordon took the mask and cloak and slipped out and rode back to the shack. After telling his incredible story to Cordon, he told of his plan. Cordon reluctantly agreed and dressed in the cloak and mask rode back to the kingdom. Neither boy could have anticipated what lengths the King would go to to keep the kingdom from going to Jordon. The king had hired minions to go to the shack and kill all. After the deed was done they would return and let the king know. The party was in full hilt when the Prince came in. Cordon marveled at tables of any kind of food to be thought of. Beautiful girls bowing to him and flirting openly. The opulence of everything was over whelming. The smells intoxicating. He allowed himself to eat things he had never tasted and drink of wines he had never partaken. Then dance with all the lovely ladies of the kingdom...to smell their perfumes and touch their silky hair became too much. Cordon felt he must let the King know who he was and return to his life...this kind of excess was not for him. He waited as the king seemed to be in serious conversation with a group of men. Upon gaining the Kings attention he removed his mask and introduced his self to the king. The king stood in utter shock...he grabbed the mask from Cordon hand and wept openly into it...the king had just been informed by his group that all had perished in a fire at a paupers shack...killing his beloved Jordon. As he wept his tears of anguish he told Cordon of his horrible deed. Cordon grabbed the mask, fled the castle and rode to the rock that Prince Jordon had hit his head on. He lovingly placed the mask on the rock...and cried tears of a loss he didn't know he could feel. He shrieked to the moon and stars how unfair it had all been and slowly began his way to the burned out shack. Who knows if it was the moon or the stars or some Deity that heard his pain...but Cordons tears anchored the mask to the rock. That's all the search parties that were enlisted by the King could find of Cordon...just a mask on a rock...no one ever heard from Cordon again. The rock was brought back to the King...all wondering why it could not be removed. The rock with the mask was what was found in the kings bed the next day...he could not live with the pain he had caused and had ended his life. May I now present to you...the mask on the rock. ( sorry this story just had to be told!!! lol)

Tonight I honor my family

Tonight I will leave my porch lights on in honor and memory of the fallen miners in yesterdays tragedy in West Virginia. Last count was 25 perished, 21 injured and 4 still lost. Both of my Grandfathers were miners as well as my Father for short time and all of my uncles on both sides and many many cousins. It's a shame to me in this day and time men must go into a black pit of hell just to earn a living and not know if they will come home. Some of our family has lost their lives in the mines and only by the grace of God many more didn't. There were other injuries that lasted long after the mines. One Grandfather had all 8 fingers cut off both of his hands by a coal car whose line had broke. He used to tell us a bear ate them off...even without those fingers that he complained in later years ached...he gave the best hugs. He past away years later...mostly of black lung. I can remember being a little girl and having water ready for my uncles to wash up in when they came home...their faces so black with coal dust you almost didnt know who they were. Coal miners are a special breed...and their families need your prayers at this time. To those who lost their lives yesterday, to those who have lost their lives before...and to those who will go back in there...we love you, we so respect you and above all we pray for you.

Hoppy Easter

Yes we are hopping over here tonight. I have been ill for a couple days and treating poor husband who was sick as well. I am feeling better today so the food making must commence! The cupcakes are baked, the potatoes are cooked for potato salad, the eggs are going for deviled eggs, the pickled eggs are still pickling! lol. Tomorrow is my first Easter without my Mother...and since we moved into her home last July, this is the first Easter dinner that has been cooked in this house for 20 years. Mom always came to my house and ate. Or while my Granny was still alive we would all be in West Virginia for Easter. So many things have changed, but, as with the promise we are all given, spring renews. I will focus on the children that are here, grandson and be greatful for what I do have...not what I don't. I will say a silent prayer to my elders and visit with them in my memories in the morning...then I will see my precious grandson look for hidden eggs in our back yard, watch him get chocolate all over his new clothes, I will look around my Dining room table and see my husband...happy to be fed, my grown babies fight over the deviled eggs, talk to the children that can't be here and granddaughters that live out of state and think of what a blessed person I really am. From our home to yours...Happy Easter...happy memories and give thanks we are still here.

My privacy invaded

First let me apologize to those of you that may have gotten an email from ...it looked like me...but was in fact a pharmacy ad. Some how this beast invaded my computer generating almost 125 emails to my contact list to the letter "d". I am so furious...my virus ware did not detect it, nor did my firewalls prevent it. I contacted the pharmacy that was doing it and of course they argued with me that it was impossible, they didn't spam, maybe another company was doing it to ruin their reputation and the best was they were tired of dealing with me. I am still in awe that they would have the nerve to say that last part. So to those of you that got multiple emails from me yesterday ...i so apologize. I am waiting for the fraud dept. of my server to open so i can lodge a complaint. I have taken every measure being offered to me to prevent this from happening again. Funny...we rearely see tha bad side of this new information highway...til one of us are sideswiped. Thank you all for listening/reading this rant...it's not over....i plan to really get nasty if no help is offered from the fraud dept. Hope you all are having a better day than me!!!! lol

It's Spring in my kitchen

Yes the weather outside may tell a differant story...cold and looking like rain but on my kitchen table...spring has sprung with these daffy ladies. A long time ago, my friend Miss Bobbi from http://bobbianncook.blogspot.com/ kept telling me she had to go feed her pets on the computer...I kept thinking she was paying wayyy tooo much for buying food for her pets on the internet but said nothing..for a while. Finally it came out that it was a game she was playing and I joined and was hooked! We played this silly game til the weeeee hours of the morning, we formed a guild with other people playing and thus the Golden Daffodil Guild was born. We now have friends in Canada, England, Netherlands and all over the U.S. Those of you that know Miss Bobbi know of her illness and wayyy back in September the other daffies (as we now call ourselves) and I decided to have a greeting card go to each daffy and to other friends we have met along the way. This poor card just this last week finally made it home here to me, but the memories and love it will show her is impossible to measure. So in honor of my fellow daffies...and spring...here are a few of the daffy cabochons I have been working on. We will finally meet a few of our daffy sisters this May and Miss Bobbi has graciously offered to bead around these and we shall present them to all our daffies this year. I didn't try to paint them according to a person...they are each differant as we are all differant...but that one lil daffodil shows our sisterhood. I also think Bobbi and I have agreed these will be pins instead of necklaces. Miss Bobbi and I also have a big announcement maybe next week...gotta give ya time to get over the jelly-bean overload I am sure we all will be experiancing this weekend!!

Great buys and ironing

Look at my pretties that came from Miss Cathy at http://thefabulousfarmhouse.typepad.com/the_fabulous_farmhouse/

For some reason I can't link...nut behind the wheel I suppose. I ordered these shelves and liners for my mini house...whenever I get up and start building it. Thank you Miss Cathy....your service was fast, the items are beautiful and I am a happy mini camper! Any order you give to Miss Cathy in the month of March enters your name for a chance to win the cute little green shelf below in my give-aways section of this blog. She makes the cutest cookies, candies and cakes...and the mini peeps are just tooo cute! So please visit The Fabulous Farmhouse if you need mini things...just ask Miss Cathy if she can make it...shes a great person to work with.

Those flowers I made about a year ago...I am so happy they held up...poor things went thru a move and ended up in the bottom of a garbage bag with my serger on top of it....Needless to say I did not get professional movers! Take my advice...cheap help is not always the best help! When I seen my beloved grandmothers chest of drawers go down 12 carpeted steps those young men were in serious trouble. My granny must have rode it all the way down those steps because it stopped just short of going out the door to 4 concrete stairs. The chest survived...the young men lived to tell this story...I did not go to jail for harming them and thats why I am here to tell the story...body harm did come to my mind though!
I got alot of real life painting done today. My grandson has been on vacation with Mom and Dad this whole week so I have had to fill in some time. I was ironing (does anyone do that anymore?) some crocheted doilies to put back on the shelves I painted and thought of how easy I have it. I was ironing, washing a load of white clothes, listening to the radio waiting for the window sill paint to dry. I thought of my grandmother...as I so often do when ironing. Bless her heart..she loved putting out a pretty line of laundry. That was status back then. If you could correctly hang and have the brightest whites on that clothesline you were the Martha Stewart of that time. How those clothes stayed clean is a mystery to me as she lived in a coal camp with coal dust floating thru the air. Her clothes were washed in a wringer washer and rinsed in tubs filled with the magical bluing to make the whites whiter. When she moved to the big house I remember most how she hauled that laundry up about 15 concrete stairs built into the hillside and hung clothes up there on the hill managing not to step on a snake! I so miss my mountains of back home. I don't think any state is more precious than West Virginia to me. Maybe those beautiful mountains store my memories for me, maybe those green mountains are me and I am them...for whatever reason today as I ironed a tear slipped past my eyes. Realizing how easy I have it and how hard my precious granny had it...for one moment in time we were as one...ironing. Here's hoping you can have the joy of spending that one moment in time with you missed loved ones.