want THIS:

Love Returns Necklace

Available on here Etsy.

I have these earrings, and they are exquisite. They are laser cut black acrylic, and super-lightweight. Stunning.

One that satisfies...

my artistic needs.



Funny how un-puNk Sid & Nancy is in French, c'est vrai, oui?

Still, my dad reads my blog and this scene has the c-word, and I'd like to keep him innocent, so here's to losing things in translation.

Through a windscreen, buggily:

One of the cool things about going for a drive of a weekend in Texas is every so often, you'll see something like this Jordan Almond Mint green Ford pickup.

I've always been partial to a Chevy, but this is one Ford I'd deign to drive. What a beauty!

Hopefully you can get an idea of the grandeur of this truck despite the bug-smeared windscreen. Apparently I drove through a plague of gutty bugs sometime recently. Ew.

To a sweet darling boy...

Happy birthday!

No more kings.

What a capital idea.
May it be thus.

A Grand Day Out

Saturday I had bidness to attend in Decatur, so it was a lovely excuse to meet my dear friend Holly on the square at Sweetie Pie's Ribeyes. The Decatur Courthouse can be seen for miles and miles, and I found a spot on the square to park right next to Hols' fab convertible in front of one of the local shops.

Sweetie Pie's has chicken fried ribeye steaks. Om nom nom. Their gravy is a lot like my Gramma Bertie's, too, so that's mighty high praise. A large group came in and was seated at the table next to ours and the gentleman next to Holly started a conversation and we proceeded to cut up with him on and off as we ate our lunch. At one point, he said to Holly "I know you can cook, but [looking at me] you, can you cook?" He held his hands up all dainty-like, as if he didn't want to get them dirty. I said "I'm a superb cook. Why would you say that?" And Holly enthused "she is an excellent cook" and he said "well, you just look like you expect someone else to cook for you." I was gobsmacked. I LOVE getting my hands into dough or getting them covered in yummy garlicky smells or just messing around, preparing food. I revel in that. Later on I remarked a bit indignantly to Holly that he should have said such a thing, and Holly took what was obviously great delight in saying "well, you ARE a princess," and then she nearly laughed her head off.

Well.

Anyhoo, we went to all the local shops and we saw some lovely bracelets with lots of sparklies on, and I cooed over them a bit, but decided to behave. Then whaddayaknow if Holly didn't turn around a buy a lovely raft of them for me. I was squeeing! She said she'd never seen anyone get so excited over a little thing like that, but I think they're awfully pretty. :) Thanks, Hols! I've worn them every day since. :)

As the afternoon waned, all sorts of classic cars started arriving and backing into the parking spaces around the square. Nearly every small town with a classic courthouse (100+ years old) in Texas will have a classic car rally at some point in the year. They back into the spots and put their hoods up for passersby to admire. There's a festival atmosphere and very often a dance on Saturday evening on such weekends. It's really a quite grand tradition. Since we got there early, the square wasn't coned-off to newer models, so here's Miss LouLou's pert rear end making the only appearance she'll ever make at a classic car rally. The show started about 4pm, and we cleared out about 15 til, relinquishing our spaces to grand beauties from the great American automotive age.

Driving home I watched this rain cone for about an hour before I crossed the wet roadway in its wake. It was massive and breathtaking. I've seen those alot out here. Good stuff.

All in all, it was a grand day out. :)

Happy Labor Day, y'all!

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: Cutest pencil sharpener EVAR!

Throw the ball. Throw it naow.
Intensity con carne.

This is the cutest pencil sharpener ever. As you turn the pencil, the little puppehs wiggle around and get their breakast noms. KEWT!

My blood is boiling.

A newspaper decided to print a photo of a mortally wounded young Marine in Afghanistan. Emboldened, many other newspapers took up that ball and ran with it.

The Wheeling, W.Va., Intelligencer ran the photo inside and an editorial explaining why it did "after hours of debate."

They defended their choice thusly:

"Too often, we fear, some Americans see only the statistics, the casualty counts released by the Department of Defense," the newspaper wrote. "We believe it is important for all of us to understand that behind the numbers are real men and women, sometimes making the ultimate sacrifice, for us."

No matter how how preoccupied or stressed out or caught up in my personal moment, no day passes in which I don't think of our uniformed men and women at home and abroad and thank God for their service and for the service of those who have come before. We are indebted to them. I am sick of the arrogance of the folks at newspapers and news networks who think they are the only ones who get it, that they are the only ones with a sense of gravity about what is going on in the world and what our men and women in uniform face on our behalf.

How shameful for a news organization to be so disrespectful as to publish this photo in defiance of the wishes of the family of the young man therein.

No, in fact. They don't get it at all. Call me cynical, but I think this is a ploy to diffuse and de-fuse the rancor many are voicing for what our legislators have been doing at home. Doubly shameful, I think.

This is why readership of newspapers is plummeting.

Farting in the library.

Have I got shoes for you...

If you like heels but find most of them insufferable to wear, you may want to try some from Sofft, like these luscious patent leather babies. I confess I want a pair in every color, but I may just settle for one. These shoes are engineered for comfort, they support well without feeling orthopaedic, and they look amazingly cute in the process-- no small feat for heels. I've a couple pair of Sofft I felt were well worth the investment at $100, so these for 69.90 are quite the bargain, imho. I've been wearing both pair of my Sofft tango heels for about 3 years now. That's a fair bit of staying power, considering what staples they've been of my shoe wardrobe.

Sofft Carma Mary Jane pump

Then there's these little deadlies from Nanette Lepore. Even at the super cut-rate price of $232.90, I confess they are not in my price range these days. Ah, but to know such shoes exist!

Keep your kids home September 8.

Adolf Hitler Quotes:
"He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future."
“When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.”

Guess who will be addressing our nation's children in public schools on September 8th?

Better option: home schooling.

Busier than a one-armed paper-hanger...

I've been painting inside the house every day, and it's coming along.

Something special is brewing and I hope to have news very soon.

Puppehs are fine as frogs and hares and bring soft, bouncy joy to every day of my life.

One more bit of good news is they are having a sale over at mypetchicken.com. I wish I could have chickens, but teh puppehs would do to baby chickens what they do to my poor, innocent socks. Longer post tomorrow. :)

More from the "this will make you grin" department:

I totally want a tractor now. :P

daily commute.

The crispness in the air has been wondrously lovely, of late. The sun made a great blushing show of rising on Monday morning, and I had a great day at work. I kept my energy up, slurped down my iced tea as I answered lots of calls from customers. One lady said very nice things and asked to speak to my supervisor to commend me on a job well done. That was heartening, and I really didn't see it coming. Then I found out that I've advanced through the second of 5 steps. I was surprised, really. You can get used to feeling like you're not doing well at something. The courtesy thing comes naturally. The part I find challenging is the labyrinthine body of info I have to stand at the ready to regurgitate to customers. I'm getting better, but I've had moments I thought I never would. Last week was like a whole week of Mondays. This monday felt more like a Thursday. :P

Would you believe I haven't caught a single fish this year, in a legal sense? One of Tole's kids asked me to hold their fishing pole for a second, and that was the instant a little perch decided to leap on their hook. I harbour no delusions-- I didn't catch that fish. Well, the hunting/fishing license in Texas goes from Sept 1 - Aug 31. Went fishing Monday night and the only bites I got were where the bug spray missed. So there-- my first year with an actual fishing license and I didn't catch a one. *shrug* So they call it fishing and not catching, eh? I get it.