The trees in this puzzle were a challenge, to say the least. Many is the day that Don could hear me cursing as I tried to figure out what piece went where. But….I finally finished it on Wednesday. Central Park in Autumn. And because it is an autumn theme, I got it for a deep discount. It’s done. I survived the trees. And today, I’ll take it apart and box it up. It may be time to shift to oil painting. Since I have only one spot in which to paint or put together a puzzle, the puzzles will have to cease – at least, temporarily. I don’t necessarily feel inspired to paint, though I do keep gettin ..read more

First of all, I apologize for not responding to your comments on dreams. I promise I will, but we’ve been busy working outside, as well as mowing, and Don woke me up in the middle of the night making strange noises and I never got back to sleep. On top of all of that, there’s something else wrong with Don’s car and we don’t have the money to fix any of it at the moment. Oh, I could go on with this list, because there’s much more, but this is enough ‘poor me’ for today. So. I’m sleep deprived and slightly pissed off at Don, even though he didn’t know he was making the noises. He felt so bad ab ..read more

Lilac buds! But there are not nearly as many as last year. Lilacs need lots of winter cold and, though we had a stretch of very cold weather in January, it was warmer than usual this year. It was nice to have the warmer temperatures, but there’s a price to pay. The crabapple by the catalpa is in full bloom. The daffodils are lovely. The forsythia is very full this year and very yellow, as well. Yesterday was a bizarre day. I worked outside in the morning. I was digging up an invasive plant – I swear this entire spring will be spent doing this, it’s endless – and then I came in because my back ..read more

Tons of rain yesterday and then the wind came. It’s still a little windy out there and, though we were supposed to have no rain today, we might have some this morning. Don just went out to work on the trails, where he has been raking and cleaning things up. I’ll wait to see if it rains around 10 am. If it does, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get some work done. Dear little Imogen. I hadn’t pulled her off the shelf in a while, so I remedied that the other day. She was one of my first Blythes. The third, I believe. She arrived at the house just before I took off for 6 weeks in Brooklyn whe ..read more

Thank you for your kind responses on Monday. Life can be wonderful, but very difficult, as well. On Monday, I received a package in the mail from my cousin Eileen and her husband. In it were two egg cups chosen from several they discovered in an antique shop in Mississippi. These are the cups I chose. On the left, a dragron. This is a single egg cup and it is Royal Stafford English Bone China. On the right, a Peter Rabbit egg cup from Wedgwood. It’s a bucket style egg cup. The Beatrix Potter line of egg cups are still readily available, but for some reason I had never purchased one. There ar ..read more

A photo of the daffodils at our little library, taken when we were in the midst of our walk yesterday. This is a day when my stress level is high, my friends, so I’m going to make this brief. Thank you for understanding. Enjoy your day and the eclipse. Stay safe. Happy Monday.   ..read more

We’ve ignored Monty far too long. It’s high time I post a photo of him. We found him in a little shop not long after we moved to New York. We were quite taken with the expression on his face. Several Christmases ago, I added the “necklace.” And there it has stayed. Well, we had an earthquake yesterday. Apparently. We didn’t feel it. Nothing. At first I thought that maybe it was concentrated in NJ, PA, and NYC. Not here. But later in the day I saw the FB page for my little town and it seems like EVERYONE who lives here felt it. As did a friend in Woodstock, which is north of us, and friends ac ..read more

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day, so I took a few pictures. Unfortunately, both Don and I were under the weather, so we basically did nothing all day long. We’re due for lots of rain over the next four days – that’s depressing – and a bit of snow on Wednesday night. It will be gone the next morning. But I did get outside on Saturday to do some much needed pruning of some of the bushes. There’s more to be done, but frankly, I was tuckered out. I have to get back in my ‘working outdoors’ shape! Robins visited the birdbath, some critter has been chomping on my day lilies (grrr!) and there’s lots ..read more

Today, the last of the pre-Easter posts with some photos of my putz sheep and spun cotton rabbits: Starting from the left… This mantel shelf is too long to get in one shot. I could do it, but you wouldn’t be able to get any details on the sheep. So I do it in sections. The sheep wearing a “Vignettes or Bust” sign was a gift from dear Lori, the owner of Vignettes in San Diego. It was a complete surprise. The sheep on the left was a gift from dear Judy. I think I missed the one on the right, we only see the hind end. Sorry! Next…this section includes The Lamb with the Party Hat, the symbol of ..read more

It’s Good Friday and I have to get my car inspected this morning. The deadline is on Sunday, so I’m cutting it close. Don’s car has been repaired and, after the inspection, I’ll drive him to the mechanic’s to pick it up. We won’t talk about the amount of the check he’ll be writing. Sigh. It’s been gray for the past several days – very hard to get good photos. Will we ever see the sun? The fabric eggs must be highlighted at this time of year right? I love them in this Fiesta compote. Don had to move the apples for an apple pie elsewhere, as I had reserved the compote for this display. Another ..read more