Little Ginger

Everyone should have that one special dog in their life. That amazing little four legged furry child that does no wrong in your eyes. Makes you laugh, keeps you on your toes and has the joy for waking up everyday and making a new friend. My little four legged replacement child was Ginger. She was all of that and more. Ginger never met a person or child she didn't like and before that person walked away they knew they met a friend for life. She had friends everywhere. From the ladies at the vets office to the drive through windows, everyone loved her.

You never had to guess how she was feeling. Ginger had no problems telling you. When hungry she would stare you straight in the eyes and give you a head bob. If that didn't work or you were trying to ignore her she would give you one of those nasty hair raising bitch barks. And if that didn't work she would do this crazy butt wiggle, back up and buck like a horse. She knew that would always get a laugh out of us and she would win. She would throw her head back and howl if I asked her where the kitty kitty or piggy piggy was. That never got old.

If you were leaving the house, Ginger always felt she should go. Once she realized that wasn't going to happen she would grab you around the ankles with her two front legs and and growl "How dare you leave me". In her world she was human and had the right to go everywhere. Car rides were heaven in her mind. Regardless if it was to the end of the driveway or across country.

Ginger even had this funny way to pee. She would balance up on her two front legs and walk as to not get  her back feet wet. Her favorite daily thing to do would be to stretch flat out as long as she could, lay really still with a dog cookie at the tip of her nose, trying to get the other dog to come after it so the race would be on. And if that didn't work she would walk up to her dog friend and poke it right in her face.

If there was negative side, she could be a bit needy. Okay a lot needy. She liked sleeping on your head or laying up on your chest to sleep. When she was a pup she would sit on my shoulder like a parrot when we were in the car.

Ginger never grasped the whole obedience training thing. I gave up after three different training session attempts. In her world she didn't really need to know how to sit or stay. It really never mattered anyway because she knew her boundaries and how far she could push them.

In the middle of the night if she had to go out she would bounce her little wet cold nose on mine to wake me up. Now mind you she had a doggy door but it was more fun to wake me up.

She brought life and humor to the house. Loving, needy and bratty. I miss her every day. I wouldn't change a single minute even though I feel cheated only having her seven short years. When they say only the good die young I wonder if that goes for dogs too.

She was buried in a handmade quilted blanket in one of her favorite places in the backyard. Over her grave hangs a big bouncy colorful butterfly chime for my little butterfly dog. Hopefully where ever she is, she is happy and teasing other dogs with her cookie. They say you can find your beloved dogs over the rainbow bridge. She was our rainbow. She brought all of the rainbow colors to our house and to anyone lucky enough to meet her.

Past Christmas's

For the past few years we decorate the Xmas tree in New Orleans Mardi Gras Style. This tree went up in my moms house. Since my daughter went to College and now lives there it was a way of bringing a bit of her home to ours for her yearly Xmas visits. She collected all the beads during the parades and would give them to me for our tree. I love how easy it is to drape beaded necklaces on the branches. So much easier than draping garland. We were lucky to finally find wonderful Fleur De Lis ornaments at Hobby Lobby after years of looking for them. This year we are going to New Orleans for Xmas so the ornaments were packed up and passed on to my daughter. We will not be decorating this year. I am looking forward to spending the holidays in a different location.

It is snowing today. Our first snow of the fall. It feels more like winter now. It made me think about the first couple years of my house. I actually had garland and bows. I don't bother to do this anymore. Sadly I don't bother putting up a tree either. My house is to small and why bother for one person. I do put up the tree at my moms with the exception of this year.

Morning Walks

On my morning walk, I decided to go up around the square to see if there were any pretty Christmas Windows. I came across these two windows in one of the antique stores. I was pretty impressed since usually they are just filled with miss matched junk. Possibly a new employee who has a bit of window dressing experience. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed the window display.

This window display was my favorite. I really liked the Tea Merchant sign hanging up.

As I came around the corner off the square this is the beautiful sunrise. I love early mornings. I seem to be the only one awake and it is as if those displays of beauty are just for me to see. The colors of the sky are the reason I take my camera in the mornings now. I cant tell you how many beautiful sunrises I missed photographing because I had no camera. Doesn't this sky look like it is on fire?

This was the view right next to the sky of fire. Such a contrast. As the mornings get colder I will be walking a bit less. I have my limits to freezing my face off. I am looking forward to walking some morning when we are having a light snow. (As long as I don't slip and fall on my bum. I am simply to old for that any more. I don't bounce well and it hurts!!)

Fall Clouds

I have been enjoying the fall sky in my early morning walks. One of these days when I figure out how to use my Photoshop program I hope to use them as backgrounds in future prints.

Fall in Central Park

Fall color in Central Park. The sky particularly beautiful this morning. I get a bit frustrated because it is so hard to really capture the colors of the clouds.

My little town has one of the lovely Carnegie Library's built with money donated from Andrew Carnegie. It has recently been restored and added on to. Across the street from the library is Central Park. The park has many beautiful trees, a fountain and large gazebo. It hosts many weddings and events through out the year. At the front of the park stands a bronze of Marlin Perkins. He was the man who hosted "Wild Kingdom" many years ago. When I was a child I would watch his adventures every Sunday night just before the Wonderful World of Disney would come on. Marlin Perkins birth place home is only a couple blocks from the park (and currently for sale).

Fall Color

The fall color was exceptionally beautiful this year. On my morning walks, I could not resist snapping the beauty I see. I walk very early and it is usually still dark but with time change the end of my walk when the sun starts coming up and the light hits the courthouse in a certain way. I love when the clouds turn pink and the sky is the color of turquoise. It is hard not to marvel and be full of gratitude. Sometimes I feel like the sky has painted itself just for me to see.

For the Love of Chocolate

My chocolate tool was adjustable so you can make different widths of chocolate wraps. This tool was made with food safe stainless steel.

You use a piece of acetate on the bottom, then put your stencil on top of the acetate, adjust your tool and just glide it down the stencil. It needs to set up before applying the second layer of chocolae over it. After both chocolates are added it needs to set up for a bit but it still needs to be pliable enough to be wrapped around your cake. Once the wrap is on I would put in the refrig to get it fully set up before removing the acetate. For this demo I actually used Chocolate Bark from the grocery store instead of real tempered chocolate. Tempered chocolate will come out look beautiful and shiney.

I love chocolate. I love cake. When I lived in Calif. there was this amazing bakery that used to do these chocolate wraps around there cakes. Well smoothing chocolate with a spatula might be easy for some but not for me. So one day I saw a chocolate pastry chef use this really great tool and I decided I could make my own only a smaller, better and much cheaper. So I played with the concept, drew up some plans of what I wanted and took the plans to a manufacturer and had 50 made. Yeah a lot of work just because I wanted one of these tools for myself. But it made smoothing chocolate for these wraps pretty darn quick. I then started playing around with the tool and found out I could stencil with white chocolate and go over it with dark chocolate. I took the tool to some cake shows and demoed and ended up selling them out. I was pretty darn happy about that. All for the love of playing with chocolate.

Passion Flowers & More

These flowers are so amazing. I am not sure what variety of Passion Flower Vine this is but the color is a bit different then the Passion Vines I have had in the past. I probably have over 200 buds on this plant right now. It seems to have liked the miracle grow and rain. At the moment it is taking over my kitchen window and porch floor.

I bought this plant while on vacation in Florida and planted it. I think it likes it's new spot. It is slowly taking over everything. It is considered an annual so it will die back this winter. In the past the passion flower vines have some how reseeded so I am hoping it will come back next year.

This is a new clematis I planted. It has hundreds on tiny little yellow lantern type flowers. Once the flowers are done I get the little fluffy after piece.

Autumn Sunset Roses are once again blooming. I love the messiness of this rose. Although I love the perfect Tea Roses I also just love the garden type rose as well.

Mom's 1890's Victorian.

Some sneak peaks inside my moms 1890's Victorian. The inside has pretty much been restored. All the original woodwork is still there and was never painted. It has three sets of pocket doors. The hardwoods were refinished a couple of years ago and the only room that is carpeted is the family room. The rooms are very spacious and the ceilings are 12'. It has two sets of staircases. The formal set by the front door and a back stair leading into the kitchen. There are four bedrooms upstairs and two full baths. Down stairs there is also a 3/4 bath.

In past posts there are photos of the outside and yard.

This angle shows the Parlour leading to the front door. This room moves right into the living room. There are two sets of Pocket doors.
This is the set of stairs as you come in the front door. Luckily no woodwork had ever been painted. If you go straight it leads you into the dining room. Immediately to your left is the Parlour.

The dining room is rather large. The window is basically bumped out a bit. The hand carved horse is all wood. I bought the horse at an auction in California before moving to Missouri. It is absolutely beautiful. She has hand carved roses carved on her hind end. Well call her Rosebud and my dad calls her Rosebutt. This area is in the main living area. The bay style window has the original woodwork.

Garden Flowers

There are many varieties of Clematis but these two different varieties take the prize.

Yellow Tree Peony.

Climbing Rose. Autumn Sunset.

Clemetis. I believe this is Belle of Woking. It is so beautiful.

Memory Board

A few years ago I was at a friends house and as I was leaving I spotted this interesting framed art on her wall. At closer look, I found it was filled with all kinds of little trinkets. I asked her what it was and she told me that it was little things her and her sister had collected when they were kids. I loved the idea and went home and made one of my own.

I had saved all these crazy little things over the years and just kept them either under the bed or in an old jewelry box in the closet. It was a lot of fun gluing these little things onto the glass. Nothing of importance or understanding to anyone else but me. It ranges from my diaper pin, a molar the tooth fairy never got, picture charms of my daughter, fools gold from Knott's Berry Farm and those round tokens that you used to get from these machines. They said your name and age. This says I was 7 years old!!

Mostly it consists of some very crazy earrings that I once wore. (Yikes! No wonder my ear lobes are down to my shoulders.) This little memory piece gives me a smile whenever I walk by it. I highly recommend everyone do this with their little bits of history. You sure can't enjoy them if they are sitting in a drawer, under the bed or in your closet now can you??

When You Are Having A So So Day.............

Play a game of Jacks!!!