More Prizes!!!

I love prizes and I know you do to. This prize giveaway is sponsored by my friend Nancy Malay of Vintage Whimsy & Folk Art Originals (a.k.a. The Christmas Lady & The Cottontail Collection). Drop on by her blog at http://nancymalay.blogspot.com and enter to win her Easter Basket Giveaway....I already did!

Prizes!!

My friend, Sylvia, of Sylvia Anderson is having a giveaway for visitors to her blog who post a comment on her Sneak Peek & Valentine Giveaway post. How easy is that? You get to read a wonderful blog and if you take the time to leave a comment, you might even win a prize!

Visit her blog at www.sylviaanderson.blogspot.com. MY comment is already posted! ;)

Have a great day! I look forward to posting some pics and updates on my new projects in the next day or so....in the meantime, good luck in the prize drawing!

Productivity!

Busy weekend for me! Organized and finished setting up my studio, almost done with the website (THANK GOODNESS!!) and I'm working on a forgotten passion - Painting! Will share some pics of what I'm working on soon! In the meantime, here's the studio:
















IS THAT A FULL MOON OUTSIDE THE STUDIO WINDOW??

Sneek Peek....

Visit the TDIPT Mercantile at http://www.tdiptmercantile.com/ for the 15th of the month update. Here's a sneek peek at one of my offerings for this month. Get over there fast! These goodies go QUICK!

Happy 1/11

Here's just another example of why 111 isn't just an ordinary number at our house. Oh! And by the way...it's 11:11 pm on 1/11....Tootles

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A little girl went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet. She poured the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes.Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall's Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door. She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention, but he was too busy at this moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting sound she could muster. No good. Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the glass counter. That did it! "And what do you want?" the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. "I'm talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven't seen in ages," he said without waiting for a reply to his question "Well, I want to talk to you about my brother," Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone. "He's really, really sick.and I want to buy a miracle.""I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist. "His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?""We don't sell miracles here, little girl. I'm sorry but I can't help you," the pharmacist said, softening a little "Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn't enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs."The pharmacist's brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does your brother need?" " I don't know," Tess replied with her eyes welling up. "I just know he's really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy can't pay for it, so I want to use my money.""How much do you have?" asked the man from Chicago "One dollar and eleven cents," Tess answered barely audibly."And it's all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to." "Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven cents---the exact price of a miracle for little brothers. "He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the miracle you need." That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed free of charge and it wasn't long! until Andrew was home again and doing well. Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had led them to this place. "That surgery," her Mom whispered. "was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?"Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost...one dollar and eleven cents....plus the faith of a little child.

Real Ghost Stories - Part 3

When I was in high school I had to get up at 6 am in order to be in school by the time the bell rang at 8:05. It was always so hard to get up. My mom must have had to get herself up 30 minutes earlier in order to get me out of bed on time considering how many times she had to "wake" me up.

One morning I actually woke up all by myself. No alarm clock. No mom. But there was something even more peculiar about this. I could see daylight peeking in through the room darkening shade. Most definitely odd. But just before I could process what this meant, my mom burst into my room - "You're Late, YOU'RE LATE!" Having not fully awoken, I believe something worse must be going on because my mom has on her best panicky voice. I fly out of bed to find that it is, in fact, nearly 9 am! No wonder I was conscious all on my own.

As I began to get ready my mom came in all out of breath. Apparently she had woken up and noticed the light coming in the windows, too. At that point, she KNEW I was late without needing a clock to tell her. But being as "together" as she was she had to know why the alarm hadn't gone off that morning - she always diligently set it. Upon closer inspection she noticed the alarm clock was off - completely - NO power. We have power in the rest of the house. Why doesn't the alarm clock? It's important to know that this particular alarm clock resided on top of my mom's solid oak dresser - about 5 ft from her bed - something impossible for the only two people (small women) in house to move. As it turned, out the clock had been unplugged. Now this may not seem odd at all but you must know that the clock had been plugged into the wall behind the dresser. One of those situations where the back of the furniture bends the cord because it' so close to the wall. So close to the wall, in fact, that you have to move the furniture in order unplug or plug something in behind it. Somehow this clock had been unplugged in the middle of the night - just 5ft from where my mother was sleeping. There was no evidence that the dresser had been moved. We had to wait for my brother to come over and move the dresser to get the clock plugged back in.....

I've often wondered what that unplugged clock saved me from....

A Real Ghost Story ~ Part 2

Thank you reader Craig for pointing me to a good read. (http://www.signfromlovedone.com/) It has prompted me to continue with the telling of my true ghost stories....believe 'em or not!

This is a two for one kind of deal.

First, as many of my readers know, my mom passed away in March of '07 very suddenly and practically in my arms. It was a tragic and devastating loss. My heart still aches for her. We were very close.

She always had this quirk about the numbers 111 or 1111 in sequence. She never could decide if they scared her or not but she always noticed when the clock read 1:11 or 11:11 or any other place these numbers were in sequence. She often thought something would happen on the dates 1/11 or 11/11 or at the time. Nothing ever did. She didn't obsess about it - just something she always noticed. Of course, she noticed so much that she finally had me noticing, too!

She had been staying at my home when she passed. Just hours after her death I travel the 75 miles to her home - my childhood home - in a daze. As I walked down the hall passed the guest room I noticed that the clock was blinking as though it had been unplugged or as if the power had gone out. And, of course, it was blinking 1:11.

A few months passed and by then I'd lost two more members of my family - my great aunt and uncle. They were like my second set of grandparents - my mom had been very close to them. On a day just after my great-aunt's passing the family had gathered at their home to claim belongings near and dear to them. A few of us stuck around chatting after the others had gone home. I had just told them about my experience with the clock at mom's house on the day she passed and we continued to sit and reminisce. One of my cousins had gone to the restroom just after I finished my story. Moments later we heard her yelling my name - she was in tears. By the time we could get to her she was sobbing and out of breath. Only when she calmed down was she able to tell us what had happened. Upon leaving the bathroom she had looked at her watch. Having a long drive ahead of her to return home she wanted to check the time. Her watch battery had died at some point that day. It had gone unnoticed until this point. One of the hands had stopped on 1 and the other on 11.

I wouldn't call my self someone who searches for signs - I believe without them. But I don't need any convincing that there are, indeed, signs. Earlier that day at my great-aunt's home I had been secretly frustrated by certain family members who had been behaving as though they were shopping through my great aunt's & uncle's home. Taking things just to take them....hording! I was extremely aggravated. I held my tongue but thought immediately of my great-aunt. She was a firecracker - all 100 lbs of her. I was busy imagining what she'd be saying if she were present when I heard a crash. A glass - something - had fallen on the brick mantle and shattered in a thousand pieces. It sent these two family members running...all the while saying somethings about 'signs'. And there I stood giggling through tears. The funniest thing is we'd been in that house all day. It had been well "inventoried" and most of the possessions had been cleared out. And though we looked diligently to determine what had broken, we could not find a single item missing. All I have to say is - Touche' Aunt Tee!

Resolutions.....Smesolutions

Do any of you really do that to yourselves? Swear you won't and know you will. It's setting myself up for failure so I just don't. Of course you could be one of those slightly subhuman types who makes a resolution and actually sticks to it. Take my husband for example: One year he decides he won't eat a fastfood hamburger - so he doesn't. I don't care much for fast food - I CAN resist it but not if I tell myself I can't have it. Then I'll just want it more....even if I wouldn't have wanted in the first place. And my husband the fitness instructor, martial artist, 5th degree black belt - WHY does he even want to cut out fastfood hamburgers? He doesn't need to. He works out like 23 hours a day...

And then one year it was no sodas for a year....again, I couldn't care less about sodas. I know that that would send some of you into a tailspin - no soda for a year - but I don't care about it. You know another thing I don't care about? Ice cream. I like it, don't get me wrong but I don't have to have it. But do you know what would happen if I told myself I couldn't have it? Yep! You got it! I'd be a varitable ice cream eating machine within the first 24 hours. And THAT'S something I don't care about. No wonder I can't stop shoving the chocolate cake in my face. That is definately something I care about. Mmmmm chocolate!!

Now that doesn't mean I won't lose weight this year. Get back on track. Get into shape. I have to...I'm quite sure they don't make conventional beds any bigger than the one we have now and I've just moved into a new house with a garden tub where my thighs are currently in no danger of touching the sides when I sit down to take a bath! But I'll be darn if I'm going to tell myself just because it's a New Year that I must accomplish X or give up Y. I know that it won't work so why do that to myself? Besides I can tell myself that July or April if I want to!

I wish you all the best of luck with whatever your resolutions may be and I salute those of you who chose not to make them....Now, if you'll excuse me, the treadmill is calling and I'm burping chocolate.....

SLACKER!!!!!

Okay.....so admittedly I dropped the ball on the continuation of my ghost story installment. Thank you to everyone who left a comment. Comments always make it more fun and certainly more worth it. Perhaps I'll pick up the ball and finally finished up the ghost stories....how does "Ghost Stories in January" sound? Has a nice ring to it doesn't it??

I'm happy to stay that later this week I will actually take a plunge into 21st century technology when my stop using dial-up and take on broadband! I might actually be able to blog AND finish up website....AT THE SAME TIME! Wait! It is still the 21st century, isn't it??

Here's to the New Year & NO SLACKING!