New Additions to Booth #DDB at Treasure Hunt

This is where I began. The table takes up a lot of space in my booth. I seriously doubt it will sell, but it does a great job displaying my china. There is some water damage to the table. The leafs are gone. The rest of the set is also gone. I reupholstered the chairs in 1999. Not perfect, but I am leaving them for the buyer to change into something they like.

One of the dolls I added. She is very lovely. Had I bigger house, I might consider keeping all the dolls my mother collected over the years in her travels. My house is really too small for any collections. I am slowly getting some space iun the house. I need to find new homes for many things.

The booth now. I have not sold anything yet. Hopefully soon that will change. I have uploaded photos on Facebook and Instagram. I really do not know what else to do. I feel like my booth is visually pleasant. I have great items. My prices are lower than suggested. The items are in decent condition.

I actually have more than one person really needs. There has to be a point where five or six sets of china must go! I have at least five sets of fine china. I have four sets of regular dishes. My children are not really interested in inheriting a mountain of china.

While I love this pattern, I did not feel the need to buy the entire set online. There is another pattern by the same company that I would like more. Then again, if these do not sell I will just get the entire set of china! I will still have to find homes for the ones I currently have!

I have been told that the young do collect anything. That nobody does dinner parties. Nobody has cocktail parties. I miss those days. Had I any friends, there would be parties! Parties for Valentines and Superbowl. I would have parties just because. I hope this news is wrong. I hope peoplke are still social. Otherwise, I might as well just throw everything away because nobody wants them.

Welcome to 2022!

2021 was a challenging year for me personally. I did not travel anywhere! I now have my handicapped brother living with me. I do not want to expose him to COVID. We are double vaccinated but have not gotten the booster shot yet. I have been working on other things.

Motivating Signs

I am painting again! I have not done much, but more than I have in thirty years. Watercolors are my new thing right now. Adult coloring books are also really fun. (They do help reduce stress!) I made bookmarks for Roxy Sterling, an author at LLS, and a fellow blogger Stars Books and Teas. In addition to the bookmarks, I made tiny paintings with beach scenes for Roxy to give to her people with preorders on her books.

Halloween Bookmarks

At the moment The One-Eyed Wonderer and Harvey are not camping due to many personal reasons. I have acquired a fixer-upper Airstream. It needs lots of TLC, which will happen in the spring. I hope that one day our new addition will be on the roads! There are so many places that I still really want to visit.

Meet Harvey Junior

There are no photos of the foods I have been making! There are some things on my Instagram page and Facebook. I have discovered that I really am a decent cook despite what I have been told. Learning new recipes is really fun. I have been creating a weekly menu by themes instead of simple dinners. Everyone loved Italian nights. There is Taco Tuesday, but it is not limited to tacos only. I made an excellent taco soup one night. Cookbooks have been dusted off and put to use!

Treehinge

The house is also taking much of my time. It is getting better. I am proud of how things are going. Every year gets better and better. A dead tree was chopped down. I thought this looked hilarious! The dogs found them interesting. I need to organize my photos better and figure out where some are as well. I still need to do so much more around the house. A second bathroom would be awesome!

The Reading List has not been completed. I am planning on working on that as well. I cannot explain why I have not been doing anything. I barely read ninety books during 2021. I feel rather depressed and have little energy. Things have not gone my way. My oldest brother passed away a year ago and I have been processing the loss and dealing with caring for my other brother. 2022 feels like it will be better for all of us.

Writing Prompts: Things I Love About Myself

Write a list of the things you love about yourself. I chose this one because I know I can bring myself down a lot. I’m trying to be better about that. I have an inspirational muse behind that. She knows who she is. I love my sense of humor. Not everybody gets it. Sometimes that […]

Writing Prompts: Things I Love About Myself

Moving!

What an adventure!  It is something that I have done many times before, but I am now moving into my house!  My house was built in 1946.  It is not level.  I have had much repaired before I could get anything moved in.  There is still more that needs repair, but it will have to wait.

I love cute little, old houses!  (this is not my house, but one that I looked at)  I live near railroad tracks.  My daughter was a cranky baby and only the train would sooth her.  Now, the sound of the train is rather comforting to me.

When I decided to move this time, I had a total misunderstanding of the way things work.  Normally, I did not have much things to move and I moved them all in my car!  Living with family is completely different from finding your own place.

First, there was the house inspection.  There was some issues found.  I thought they were fine.  I had an electrician come out for an estimate.  That was for my own personal use, then the bank required an appraisal as well.  After all of that, the final closing could begin.  It was an interesting experience.  I do not want to go through that ever again.  I am happy here and plan to stay here until the very end.

This is my house now!  I am totally excited!  It is hard to believe that this is my house now.  I am not renting, I am not living with a boyfriend or relative, and I can say I own this house.

I have not been doing much reading or traveling.  I will be going to Savannah soon!  That’s another story!  I have been moving into the house, hired movers for the large furniture, rented a U-Haul truck for furniture at my boyfriend’s house and moved the smaller stuff in my car.

For now, I am going to focus on setting up the house.  There are things that are not working here that I really want to keep and there are other things that I need to bring here so that I can continue setting up my home.  Wish me luck!  As soon as I am finished with all of this moving and settling in, I will continue on the book list!

 

Hotels From Our Journeys

This has not been brought up, because I really had nothing to compare things to until this weekend in Savannah, Georgia.  I have really enjoyed camping in the RV and taking road trips in the car as well.  We recently had a road trip to California and another trip to Wisconsin before that.  The latest was Savannah, where we stayed in a four star hotel.

This is an abandoned gas station along Route 66.

We drove in the car to California, because it ended up cheaper than taking Harvey.  Flying would have been a hassle to end up renting a car as well.   We drove most of the Route 66 on Highway 40.  It was a beautiful scenic drive.  We did not stop much on the way to California, but took our time coming home.

There are many great hotels along the way from Georgia to California.  We picked the cheapest ones possible for our journey.  From a one star rating hotel to four stars, the hotel is not the journey.  The hotel is a place to sleep and shower.

We spent three days getting to California and spent a week there.  We were able to visit with family and do some sightseeing.  Our fourth trip to California in twelve years, we had lots of catching up to do while we were there.

The hotel we spent the most time in was California.  It is a historic hotel which has hosted movies, television shows as well as some music videos.  It was a great place to stay.  The other guests were super friendly and it was close to many restaurants.

The In and Out Burger is the one place we always just have to go when in California!  Nothing is better, I am sure everyone has their own special places for burgers in every state, but this is our California favorite.

Everyone should know what this is!  Amarillo, Texas hosts the Cadillac Ranch!  We had to stop and check this landmark out along Route 66.  It is rite of passage to leave your mark on the cars.

There will be much more from now on!  I promise to stop being lazy and I will no longer use these other sites that promise money but never deliver.  I know I have few readers, and I love the few that I have!  I am retired now, so things will change.

 

#cardinalsinpalermo

(Edited to Add)

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for tagging their photos with #cardinalsinpalermo.  I have reall appreciated all of their photos.  I am not going to include them for reasons of my own, one of permission among other reasons.  It was a great trip and educational for me.  The views were lovely and I really loved being there.

The above photo is of Larry and Paul.  We went separate flights, but ended up in Rome together!  Our next flight was to Palermo together.  So, we had a few moments to hang out and catch up with travel stories.

Going into Rome was much more pleasant the Paris, France.  We never left the airport and barely had enough time to catch our flight!  The terrorism in the world is real.  You can truly understand until you have experienced going through security in another country.  It is scary and nobody speaks your language.  You have not idea what is going on, just relying on hand signals all through the process.

The view from our villa we stayed at, AirB&B. Thank you Laura! We all stayed in a lovely villa in Mondello, Palermo. It was a great place to stay. We all enjoyed it very much. Conveniently located to Palermo and the beach, the villa offered a place to catch the bus or simply head to the beach.

Mondello Beach is the third most popular beach in the world!  There was people everywhere and everyday.  It was interesting looking at all the different people and what they wore to the beach.  Men wore Speedos that American men would hardly dare to think about.  All women wear skimpy bathing suits around the world, but the women seemed more glamorous and more mysterious.

For my sweetheart’s sixtieth birthday, the boys splurged on a private tour around the island in a yacht.  The crew was lovely and very entertaining.  Candied ginger helps with motion sickness, we learned.  The ginger also tastes good!  Jumping into the water also gets rid of sea sickness, the motion of the waves does not seem as bad while in the water.

The captain of Occhio Al Boma, which means eye on the boom, pointed out this lovely spot during our boat tour. It was Paul’s birthday present from his son Larry. We all enjoyed the tour very much and would do it again when we return to Palermo again. I’ll be continuing this story more later, maybe on Facebook.

Source: #cardinalsinpalermo

Closing a Chapter

 

Thursday, my mother’s house will go through closing. I could not afford it, even though I loved the house very much. It has been a cherished place by many, family and friends. Lots of memories that have been good and bad. My mother on her wedding day. she must have thought that life was great. The future was open for dreams and plans, having a family and a home for grandchildren. She never thought that her marriage would end after fourteen short years. She would raise four children all alone or that she would face the challenges that life threw at her.

Her children, many years ago! She had what most women usually want.

The happy divorcee! She was divorced longer than she was married and never did remarry after my father left. This was her house before cancer took her away from all of us. She lived her for almost twenty-six years. There will always be memories tied to this house.Whenever I see a stop sign, I think of how my mother, daughter and I would sit on the front porch watching everyone run the stop sign in front of her house. I wonder if the next owners will do the same thing one day. I only hope that they love the place as much as our family and friends have. I also hope that I made the right decision.

The last visitor! I don’t know where he came from, but I just had to get a few shots of this fella! As a note to the future owners, please keep all creatures welcome to pass through on their personal journey through life and learn from everything that life has to offer. Cherish every moment and take lots of photos every day.Maybe one day, I will love this house as much as mother’s. After creating memories with children and one day, grandchildren it will feel more like home than the house we live in.

Source: Closing a Chapter

Unloved Art

I created this piece based on a photo in a magazine.

I was in high school when I painted this.   I enjoyed it very much, and it is hanging in our dining room today.

 

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I was also in high school when I painted this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Over the years I have taken a break from painting. I was discouraged by some people’s comments about my work not being good enough for the art world. Twenty something odd years later, someone else saw some of my paintings and thought I am very good indeed.  I love birds and have painted many of birds over the years. I painted this one for my sister, who did not want it. I had painted this one for my mother, and this is what my sister just had to have. I love these birds, they are so graceful and amazing to watch fly, land or stand in the water.These are all the birds I have in my possession. I had many more that have been given away. I hope they have been kept, because they are only valuable when I am dead!

Source: Unloved Art

Introducing Harvey

I could call this art, bu I think I’ll stick to photography. It is easier. This was a cool shot which Harvey photo bombed. Looking down The front Artistically shot, looks like it was from the fifties. I do have many more photos, but I begin to feel like those people who constantly show pictures of their grandchildren, I’m losing attention with too much details!

Source: Introducing Harvey

High Falls State Park, Part Two

I have finally gotten the film back from the lab. It’s ok, not great. I am thinking about learning how to develop my own pictures. It looks easy online. I happen to love how some of these turned out! The ones who know me well will understand, while falling over this tree with my finger on the shutter button. My best double exposure so far. Behind our campsite was this part of the river. The river is peaceful. A lovely walk in the rain on a quiet morning. I think I’ll keep the camera, but learn to understand her better. It is said that every Diana F+ is slightly different than the other ones.

Source: High Falls State Park, Part Two