Where There's Smoke.......

These pictures were taken from our deck. The smoke is from a huge fire five miles away and farther. It started in 'the hills' and burned over 1300 square acres/ burned down 13 houses and various out buildings and a very large picnic hiking preservation area.

Our niece and nephew were at the lake for the day and their parents had to evacuate their pets and save family photos. The fire burned right up to 200 ft from their house before the wind abruptly changed direction.

Two neighbor houses no longer exist. It stirred up all those old emotions from our house fire a few years ago. It also brings the California fires and other disaster areas to the forefront.

We are all so thankful that the kids and their house are safe and that there were no lives lost in the fire itself. My heart goes out to all of those every where that have endured overwhelming hardships.

It brings us to being thankful for our blessings...........and being able to endure the hardships that come our way.

I know first hand that we could not have gone through the emotional devastation of our own fire without our children and our friends. They stood by us and helped us and listened to all the tears and grief as we went through the rebuilding and replacing process.

If you know some one who is enduring a hardship of any measure right now, please reach out a helping hand. A simple hug and I care what can I do? goes miles in making someone feel better.

I hope today all of you are having good things happening and no hardships. I also want to thank all of you who have been here the last year to support, celebrate, and just share your lives with me.
God Bless all of you.

Meet 'Albie'!!!( please don't be alarmed)

Happy Belated Fourth of July to everyone! I hope the day/weekend was spent with family and friends making special memories!
Sarah was in town to visit with us for the weekend. Her new hubby is in Alaska fishing for the rest of the summer.
We spent the first part of the 4th visiting one of Sarah's best friends and her new daughter! Octavia joins 2 yr old big sister Avianna and is just as beautiful.

We shared lunch and I entertained Avi while Sarah cleaned the kitchen for Shalena.
Then we joined my family at my brother's for a very laid back afternoon.
The kids went swimming and we bbq'd and played horse shoes.

John was on call and worked most of the day but did get there in time to eat and visit. We were in bed before 10 that night. No fireworks for us!

Okay this is 'ALBIE' my caucasian/european female skull. I started an online forensic sculpting class last week and am so excited to really get into it. Our first assignment will be to sculpt a male skull. She will show us a picture at the end of the month to see how close we came to the 'real guy'.

Of course this a mold of a real skull---not an original. They are available but are like $1000.00! I don't anticipate having one any time soon or ever for that matter.
here is a side view of how lovely we look without our 'muscles and skin.'
ALbie comes with a few of her own vertebrae and ALL of her teeth.
This is the frontal view. We are studying the skull bones and muscles and their functions this week. We will start the actual sculpting process next week.
I will keep you updated as we go so you can see the development along with me.
see ya !!

A Community Garage Sale! So Fun!

This Past Saturday the guys were in a golf tournament so my friend Joan and I took off in my new rig to break her in 'just right." It had to be christened for garage saling. We went to a small farming community about an hour away. It was so fun. Lots of individual family sales as well as the grange.
On the way back home we stopped at a Barn Bazaar. I forgot my camera....but what a lot of booths, entertainment and food etc.
It was almost 100 but we were having so much fun we barely noticed.
I am still resting up from the outing.

I found these red and white enamel ware plates to go with my other pieces all from family. They were very reasonable. I hesitated and the lady came down $4 immediately!! I think they wanted to get out of the sun!!

These goodies were all 50 cents apiece!!! napkin holder, vintage sifter,
and princess house steamer.

these bed posts were only $2 for the lot and I know they will make something great for the yard.
I have always wanted a horse collar and had ideas to put a mirror inside. This one is pretty worn but was only $1. It will probably get a clock inside and it will hang on the deck. For some odd reason we ended up with a few horse shoes from John's great aunties. Now if we ever see any we pick them up. So the horse collar will go with that decor!!!
This was a favorite find at the grange sale. A trellis arch! I am going to paint it white and have john put it up in the front where I have two climbing roses that need something to grow up.
For another buck I got a box of misc stuff and here were 14 vintage chickies on little green twigs made in japan stamped on the bottom! Woo Hoo I was so excited.
These doilies were a dime each so I had to bring them home.
Bags of buttons for 25 cents each were a great find as well.
several bags had rhinestone buttons too!!
These are vintage prints and will be a december birthday gift for someone in my family.
This box was in the grange as well and for ten dollars I could have it.I have a penchant for collecting vintage christmas supplies to make my reproduction ornaments. I saw a few pieces on top of the box. So I grabbed it up and lo and behold................the entire box was FILLED with this vintage chenille rope garland in green and red.
It took me several hours to get it all untangled and put in other containers. This was THE BEST find of the entire day. I know it would fetch a lot on ebay but I have lots of ideas for it!!



boxes of fabric all vintage came home for $1 each. The fabric came in lengths from several yards to quarters and eighths. The lady was a quilter and said she would call me with more goodies in a few weeks.
These are all quilt pieces for the drunkard's path. I am not sure if it will make a full size quilt but I will take it out and look and if nothing else can use them for a small lap quilt, wall hanging or framed art.
I also was given tons of quilt templates because the lady 'liked me'.
She was a dear heart and was happy that I was so happy to find her stuff and take it home with me.
Now that I have a vehicle to drive and the weather is nice I am looking forward to the garage sales. I hope all of you have the the chance to get out and look for your treasures as well!!