A March Monday

Hello there!

And we're right back around to the freshness of a brand-new week, not to mention, a brand-new month!! Here we go again ... zawhooshing through another year!

I don't have a card today, just so you know in case you want to click right off, but I should have one for tomorrow. Life has kept me busy away from the Playhouse the last few days. I met my former work friends for lunch on Thursday that ended up lasting six hours! Six women, six hours, that's not really long enough when you think about it! Then Friday I had an unexpected occasion to help out a friend that took several hours.  And on Saturday we had the unexpected pleasure of joining the kidlets for a day in the City at the Exploratorium.

I didn't want you to think the hamster pummeled me to death, so I thought I would pop in with some photos of our Saturday outing, which was captured on film ~ oh, hahaha! I said that to a friend recently and we had a good laugh. Film! How old am I??

Enjoy!

 The rain clouds parted to reveal a glorious day!

Coit Tower

 The entrance to the Exploratorium.
The twins are peeking over the circle rim on the left.
That's me on the right with the Mister
reflected in the glass behind me. Very arty!

 Family fun. The Exploratorium is just what the name implies.
We used to take Dan there when he was the age his twins are,
so it's very special for all of us.

 Autographing their artwork from the pendulum art machine.

 A sculpture made completely from parts of DOLLS!
You're thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?" aren't you?!

 Me and the Mister.
Awww.

~~~

New Friends Corner

In between bouts of much-needed rain, I had a lovely visitor come to the door of the Playhouse! 

It's my pleasure to introduce you to Petra of Creative Cards. Petra lives in South Africa and she participates in many wonderful hobbies besides her card artistry: running, scrapbooking, cooking, baking, sewing, and knitting! I mean, WOW, I need a nap after just typing that! I think you will enjoy your visits to Petra and I know she will appreciate the encouragement you give her!

Welcome, Petra, and thank you for joining us!

~~~

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS!* 

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor!

This week promises to be another busy one, and I'm really sorry if I haven't been around to see you. I hope to be able to do that soon!!

  

 

*Life Is Too Short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

Click CTL + Home.
Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
Click Comments and the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!

Potted Pretties and Putterings

Happy Tuesday Hello!

No card today.  You can click off, no worries.

I'm undergoing a recreation of my system for storing dies, so the Playhouse is no place for making cards until that project is finished.  More on that on tomorrow's WOYWW.

BTW, interesting word recreation.  It can be read as REcreation, a new creation or as RECreation, as in "on holiday" or otherwise having fun.  Perhaps it should be pronounced the same way for both meanings, just REcreation.  After all, when we are taking a break from work, on holiday, or at play, are we not REcreating our spirits and refueling our tanks so we are more creative and productive when we return to our labors? 

A lot of "re" words are confusing to me, why the "re" is there, I mean.  Take relax, for instance.

Husband:  "I'm going to the den to relax."

Wife:  "Didn't you lax earlier today?"

Forty years doing crossword puzzles and reading dictionaries and the Saurus can make you a bit of a nutball.

I was nurtured by nature yesterday working for hours in the garden.  After telling you I would take "before" and "after" pictures, I took only one "before" picture, then simply got to work getting rid of all the bug-infested germaniums and repotting new plants.   I found out from Mister that he never did like the germaniums.  He could have said something before now.

I'm not going to say a word about the weather in tribute to my UKelele friends who have been long-suffering with no summer sun, and my Mid and Eastern USA family and friends who are wilting from too much sun.

The only "before" of the poorly germaniums.

The "after."  I've got my fingers crossed that these Cape Fuchsia plants will make it.  It's so hard to find flowering shade-loving plants.  This particular Cape Fuchsia is 'Funfare Wine.'  I'll let you know how it turns out, the wine I mean.  I kept that one germanium on the right of the froggie birdbath because it doesn't seem too infested. 

I'll do collage pictures of the other flowers, maybe save a little Blogger memory. 

I discovered one of my dahlia in bloom:

And here are Miss Alainie:

I'm so thrilled to welcome a new follower today!  Please visit All Occasions Cards, Papers and More and say hello to Irene!  Thank you, Irene!

~~~

The other day at the post office I was standing in line in front of two young mothers with toddlers.  They were quite openly commiserating with each other about the problems in their marital sex lives.  Their grandmothers would have been mortified.  In their day, one didn't even ask another about their dinner plans (and certainly not in public!) as that would have been considered too personal.  I wasn't mortified, but I was mesmerized.  I was at the front of the line and, for once in my life, hoping the guy at the window would take his time. 

Then I heard one woman say:  "Well, you know, a while back I heard somewhere, probably on Oprah, or maybe Dr. Oz, but anyway, they say that the largest sex organ is the one between your ears, not the one between your legs."

I had to quickly take my package and leave the building when the other young woman responded,

"Your nose?"

Enjoy!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

No Reason and a Plethora of Photos

I've practiced my little speech all morning until I'm sick of myself, so I'm just doing a "ain't no reason" post to get my mind off tonight, take a little break.  I went outside between rain showers and took some photos.  I love how flowers capture the teardrops of sweet rain in their petals.  I will post them in My Photos, but I'll put a couple here:

And check out this budding ranunculus and the hairy leaves.  Looks like my chin.

And finally, shut up!  How can these be for real?  Stunning artistry!

I also noticed the twins left behind some Easter remnants:

And I enjoyed a bowl of my ham and vegie soup.  I always make enough soup for a family of 27.  I can't help myself.  So Mister took half of it over to my friend, Shirley, where it was much appreciated.  She said, before she tasted it.  It's hard to adequately spice such a big pot of soup, so I tried something new this time.  I added a packet of Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix.  Uh, huh!  Oh, yeah!  Just the ticket!

I'm happy to welcome Jeanne who has joined as a follower!  And, oh, look, after I posted, I noticed that Sally B popped on as a follower, too!  Thank you, thank you ~ I appreciate that very much!

No one caught the mistyped word yesterday.  It was "sentitment."  Hard to catch that one, huh?!  I should start an Old Typist's Dictionary of New Words.  And before someone asks, "Grandma, have you heard about 'spell check'?" - yes, I have heard about spell check, smarty pants.  I just think it's sort of fun not to use it.  Wait 'til you try tryping at this age.  See what I mean?

Please enjoy ~ and, as always, thank you for stopping by!   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave me a comment!

CAS-ual Fridays CFC#47 "Let The Hunt Begin"

Happy Day-Before-Easter!

There may not be a lot of you browsing the posts today.  I took a day off myself yesterday from posting to attend to Various and Sundry holiday preparations.  But I did get a chance to visit other beautiful posts and last night I made a card for the CAS-ual Fridays guest designer challenge, which is:

The fantastic sponsor this week is:

and the challenge is to make clean and simple projects featuring something you'd find in an Easter Basket.

Naturally, there are lots of Easter basket entries and mine is no exception:

I made the embossed eggs once before a few challenges back.  I used the PTI egg die and embossed the eggs in white using an egg rubber stamp (details below).  They are very shiny and glistening in person.  I seem to have a proclivity for whacky perspective.  This time it is giant eggs, compared to the size of the basket and the bow is too itty-bitty.  OTOH, what if it's an itty-bitty basket?  Then the bow is just right and I'm just stuffing normal-size eggs into a wee space.  Interesting what the eye sees.

My best Easter basket goodie is my 50th follower!  I'm so thrilled to have JenW join! I'm a HUGE fan of her work. You should check her out for inspiration!

Happy Easter/Passover holidays to all!  More pictures and general rambling follow. No offense if you click off here.

~~~

I thought some of you vintage ladies may be amused by my discovery yesterday.  My discovery was by no means unique or original, just personal to me for the first time.  I did my grocery shopping and then spent the rest of the day Spring cleaning.  I have to admit I enjoy getting in the household crevices once a year.  One of the minute cleaning chores is baseboards.  I love baseboards and no one could have been happier five years ago when I had nice wide beveled whipped-cream-white baseboards put in.  But, as the years have gone by and gravity gets heavier, to be down on my haunches, I mean bottom, cleaning the bast baseboards is not so satisfying, even though they do look freshly painted and brand new after my labors.

I scooted where possible, but when I had to get up, it hit me that I was moving like an infant just learning to stand, as such:  place both hands on the floor palms down, roll off the bottom onto the knees, make loud woofing noise like hippo, propel bottom straight up into the air, sharply inhale, and push off with hands.  Titter* and flail and wobble, grasp the wall or closest furniture.  Steady now.  Go.  I'm sure I'm not the first person to realize that this is the first step in the physical decline known as "the circle of life."  Next will be drooling, then diapers, then gibberish.  Oh, wait ...

(*the result of TWO [typing while old].  The author intended to type "teeter."  She finds that she does not titter (giggle) in the midst of hoisting her carriage.  That would result in unwanted, um, dampness.)

Lastly, I wanted to show you these beautiful deep pink calla lilies I got:

And this intriguing beauty is an Aquilegia called "Origami Blue & White."

They look like gourmet desserts you could just eat with a spoon!

Please enjoy ~ and, as always, thank you for stopping by!   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave me a comment!

Paper:  PTI white, unknown BP
Stamps:  Mostly Animals: "Karen's Basket" (839-S9)
  and "Assorted Easter Eggs" (1213-A3)
Ink:  SU Crumb Cake and Marvy markers
Embossing Powder: Imprintz white
Cuttlebug/PTI Easter egg die
Ribbon: unknown, very last scrap (sob)