I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I am really hoping that it isn't a train :-)

Everyone has their things that they are thankful for this year and I have a whole list of them.. but the one thing that I am most thankful for, is my daughter.. It has been a long hard year for both of us and I am so grateful that things didn't end up worse...

Heather is the light of my life and the reason I breathe... She has given me the most wonderful gift of a grandson who only reinforces my love for my children.. I love all my children equally but Heather had an especially tough year and here is to hoping that next year is better...

I love you Heather Nicole.. Thank you for picking me to be your mom...

Dresser and chest of drawers project day two

Well with less than 10 hours invested, sans the hardware, I am done with the dresser.. The chocolate pudding color is perfect and I am thinking old school, white hardware.. what do you think? The chest of drawers begins tomorrow...

Dresser and Chest of drawers project

Well the grandson is in need of some furniture and times are tight. Lucky for me I found this very nice lady, Jana, on Facebook's people 2 people who had a dresser and chest of drawers she wanted gone.. We worked out a trade for one of my rosaries and off we went this morning to pick it up... It is an older set but it was salvageable..

I brought it home and put it out on the patio and got to work.. The further I got into the project the worse it got.. Turns out it was veneered and not well at that.. The kids had stuck stickers all over it and the color was horrid.. Now I am by no means a carpenter but I know water damage when I see it and the end of the dresser had been damaged pretty severely. But being technically free, who can complain right?

I wound up stripping the veneer completely off of the dresser. The bf is cutting pieces to replace the damaged ones and I have sanded down all of it.. All in one day.. Phew, I am tired... The daughter wanted a brown color, so I went with Olympic primer and paint, all in one, Chocolate Pudding color.. I will get new shiny hardware and I think the set is going to look really good when I am done.. Turns out this is an old Sears brand of furniture from the 50's.. That makes it older than me LOL...

I will keep taking pictures through the project, but being on a time schedule, I hope to be done this week.. Here are a few pictures of the works in progress.

Some days just suck..

Normally I wouldn't use a title quite so pessimistic, but today is different..

For 10 years I have worked at a job that I truly love, am very good at, and for a company that I love. I have also been lucky enough to have a boss that I respect and admired. I admired her for her strength, her intelligence, her drive, her dedication, and most of all, her patience... with me, with everyone.

We have known for years that she was sick. No one knew exactly with what, but whatever it was, it was bad and not getting better. A couple of months ago, she went home one day and never came back. We knew it was just a matter of time. No one talked about it. She would have hated that. It was just that unspoken thing..

Debbie was one of those women that you wouldn't dare approach and ask about it or offer assistance too because of it. She wouldn't have told you and/or taken it.. Very private. Very strong. Even when you knew she was struggling to get through the day or just to walk to her car. We all hurt for her and we waited. We waited for today.

Today, Debbie doesn't hurt anymore. Today, Debbie doesn't have to be the strongest one, anymore.

So yeah, some days just suck.

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Simply Designing: Giveaway

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@Simply Designing is giving away a Cake Pop Maker! Go enter to win!"

I really am a lucky person...

I have always had a lucky streak and this month has been good.. I not only won concert tickets from a local radio station, I just found out that I won this contest: Under the table and dreaming.....


I picked the Garden Blooms pattern... Whew heww... Thank you Stephanie.. I love your blog..

I will be blogging more as time goes on, I just have to get caught up first lol...

Well it's official...

The house has been sold and I am not the least bit unhappy about that... Oh I know I should be but I am not. I haven't lost one bit of sleep and I can assure you, I won't look back on this as anything but a learning experience.. I pity the poor person who purchased it though.. it is gonna cost them a chunk to repair everything that I couldn't...

Now it is time to make some other decisions in my life.. none that I can speak of on here yet.. It might jinx me in some fashion LOL....

I will certainly let everyone know once the plans are in place... :-) wish me luck!

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Daily Ponderables...

Have you ever had one of those days that, no matter how hard you tried, the day just sucked anyway? Yep, that's today for me...

It wasn't but a couple of weeks ago that we lost a co-worker.. Tom, head of our catalog marketing. He and his wife Rebecca have more talent in their little fingers than anyone I will ever have the privilege to meet (http://rebeccazook.blogspot.com). Took the wind out of our sails...

Now today we lost another. A man that I had a great deal of respect for. A man who could cuss you and charm you all in the same breath.. Most people here were scared of Larry, he headed the finance end of our corporate office. At least those downstairs here (us peons) were anyway.. I never was. The first time he yelled at me, I gave it right back too him.. he just smiled. We never got cross ways again. After Larry had his stroke a few years back, it slowed him down physically but not mentally. He could pull numbers right off the top of his head and they were the right numbers...We were always leaving at the same time and we would joke about having a foot race... He always won by the way :-)

Larry put off retiring. He wanted to wait until his wife was old enough to draw her benefits and then they would retire together. He never got that far. He literally worked right up until he died. He was waving at us girls just yesterday, as he was driving out of the parking lot.

I learned a lot from Larry, maybe we will just call this another lesson learned. Maybe the most important lesson. I, for one, refuse to work right up until the end. Enjoy what you have, when you can. Never, ever put off your own happiness. Things will take care of themselves if you just have a little faith. If you get your ducks in a row, before it's "your time"... you will be fine. You might not be Bill Gates wealthy, but if your bills are paid and you have a roof and food... what the hell more could you want?

Wait... damnit! That is the same life lesson I learned from my daddy (miss you and love you lots)..!

Life is too damn short to work yourself to death or to be unhappy.

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Daily Ponderings

Well it's official.. I finally got moved in to the boyfriends house. Of course moved in doesn't mean unpacked lol... Bless his heart. We are both independent and have been on our own for a while but he is adjusting well LOL...

Now I can spend my evenings getting everything unpacked and get my work area reorganized.. Maybe then I can sit down at get some work done. It is driving me NUTS!

Temps are climbing and the humidity is dropping so the grass fire threat is getting worse. Got some big uglies burning out in West Texas and in the Panhandle.. Sure hate to see the Summer get here. I hate the 100+ temps. I hate the electric bills that go with them lol... Gonna have to get a swimming pool at this rate :-)

The grandson now has two bottom teeth.. he is the greatest thing in the world. He is the happiest, funniest baby. He loves his Papa and everyone else ceases to exist when he is around lol... Sometimes I think the only reason he loves me is access to Papa :-) (not really)

My daddy would have been 74 years old this year. His birthday was Sunday the 10th. He sure would have loved his grand babies.. I sure am sorry that he didn't get to be here for them. My memories of growing up with the rest of my family is one of my greatest treasures. I hope it is for Caleb too when he gets grown...

I finally got quite a few rosaries done and even a few necklaces and "auto" rosaries.. you know, the kind that hang from the rear view mirror? I will have a few more pieces done before the show. I am working on some domino size pendants and some new earrings to add to the inventory...

Well it is time to go back from lunch.. talk to you next time!

Daily ponderings...

A few years ago I was blessed with winning a trip to Japan from EK Chain, one of our vendors. There was 16 of us all total and not a one of us spoke the language. The flight over was great. We had Japanese flight attendants who were the best in the industry. The service we received while in country, was the best I have ever experienced. Tipping is not permitted. On our last day there, I was speaking with the manager of the Imperial Hotel. I asked him why it was frowned upon. He stated, "Excellent service should be expected, not bought". I thought that was a pretty good answer.

We spent a week touring the chain factory and sight seeing. I was both amazed and disappointed. Of course I went thinking that what I would experience would be Japan of my history and school books. That Japan doesn't exist. Not in the manner in which we were taught anyway. What I did find was an incorporation of everything old, historic, and beautiful into a thoroughly modern economy that wants so desperately to be American. I was so surprised at the number of "American" businesses, IE.. The Hard Rock, 7/11, McDonalds, and so on...

I would dare say that 90% of the country does not speak anything but Japanese, contrary to what we have been taught. I think that the much younger generation might very well be bilingual, but the typical adult is not. We were lucky enough to have two wonderful young ladies that were bilingual as tour guides and they took us to some of the neatest, off the beaten path places..

We did discover that the "old school" Japanese businesses don't want Americans to come in. We found this out because we were trying to find a restaurant that served dumplings. As we came in with our guides, they kept waving "NO" and trying to hold the door for us to leave.  At first I was offended until I found out the reason. They don't like it because they don't speak English and are worried that a miscommunication would cause offense. See, Japanese people will not approach you or even speak to you, at all, unless you speak to them first and that is considered rude behaviour, to engage someone you don't know, in conversation. They won't even look you in the eye as they are afraid to encourage conversation.

The architecture was so neat to see.. you would see old, traditional Japanese structures, literally incorporated into the facade of new, modern, glass and steel buildings. Rather than destroy the old, they would just attach the new, right to it.

We stayed a couple of nights in a traditional Japanese, sleep on the bamboo mats, on the floor, hotel. Complete with the public bath (which I declined to try) and the beautiful gardens. I was worried that my 40+ year old bones weren't going to take sleeping on the floor as well as they used too. I have to admit I was impressed. I don't know if there is a secret to those mats but that was some good sleep.

On our trip we stopped in this little mountain town. I never got the name, I am sure I couldn't pronounce it even if I did. This town was literally built up the side of this mountain. Narrow, curving roadways, that led straight up the mountain and into the clouds. It was green, clean, and stunning. I bought a few things while we were there and we then headed off to Motegi for the Moto GP Race and the Honda Museum.

We spent the rest of the morning admiring Mr. Honda's legacy. The Honda Museum was the most interesting place.

Exhibited at the entrance of the Honda Collection Hall is this bicycle equipped with an auxiliary engine made from a small, remodeled unit that had served as a power generator for an old no. 6 military radio transmitter (October 1946). This engine marked the origin of Honda Motor, the start of a dream. "Yume," the character for "dream" in Japanese that is seen etched on the glass, is in founder Soichiro Honda's own writing. Honda's dreams were always grand, and in that spirit, he boldly took up the challenges before him.

I only made one purchase there. I purchased a Sterling Silver pin for my vest. It is the Yume, referred to in the picture above. That pin is my treasure, it signifies MY dreams.

It appears that a very large number of the things that I had the great privilege to see, may no longer exist. See, thanks to Mother Nature, it appears that the area from just North of Tokyo up to Sendai, has been obliterated. I am sure the Honda Museum still stands and that Motegi, the Twin Ring Moto GP track is still there but they did sustain some serious damage. That little mountain town, I cannot imagine survived the horrendous earthquake. I hope it did but I somehow doubt it. The amount of devastation that took place just astounds the mind.

We flew back on American Airlines with American flight attendants.. I have to say that the service coming back, SUCKED.. big time. Absolute night and day from their Japanese counterparts.

I am certain that the wonderful people of Japan will pull through this. They have survived utter devastation before. I know that I admire their hard work and tenacity. I admire the fact that they are not screaming for the rest of the world to come save them, even though we are trying. But I also know that they have a lifetime of hard work and sadness to get through.

Daily ponderings..

I have no idea where I got this need to create things. Sometimes it drives me nuts to have to do other things, like work lol... Even at work I am putting together ideas. This year the Fort Worth Art Goggle is May 14th, so I am scrambling, trying to get product made, working on new ideas, and trying to get moved at the same time...

After a long, hard Winter, I have the money to get caught up on my mortgage, but it appears that they don't want my money.. I cannot get ANYONE from Flagstar Bank to call me back. Not that I really WANT to keep that damn house but I was going to do the right thing, get caught up, let the kids live there for a few years, then sell it when the market rebounded better...

Looks like I may be putting the kids in an apartment and mailing the keys back after all. That might work out to my advantage anyway though... I will have Caleb around the corner. We will be close if we are needed.

Of course this all depends on what they find.. ugh I hate moving.

Ahhh... another day in paradise..

Just a shame we aren't all there right?? lol.....

After a weekend with the stomach flu, I have decided that being sick SUCKS...! I have also come to the decision that there are certain people in this world that were not graced with manners and common sense.. I have a few co-workers that are of the mind that demanding something will get them assistance faster or that waiting until the last minute to do something will prompt me to help them faster...... Not with me it doesn't. 

A lack of planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part.

I hate moving... trying to organize the kids moving in and me moving out is a cluster... Starting to make yard sales piles and donation piles.. Not enough room for everything... Gotta take the motorcycle down to the boyfriends so he can get it inspected and out of the way... Still trying to get product made for the Art Goggle in May. Have some rosaries done and starting some jewelry.. just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day :-)

I will get some pictures up.. when I create that 25th and 26th hour...

New projects on the way...

I have been behind on keeping up with this because I am getting things settled.. Heather, Josh, and Caleb have been living here with me for a time and now they are taking over the house. I will be moving in with the boyfriend and with the price of gas, will be riding the motorcycle ALOT...

I have quite a few rosaries and necklace ideas that I will be posting on here and getting ready for the Art Goggle of Fort Worth in April..