A Long Time Ago...


I worked for a Cosmetic Dentist in Palm Springs, CA. He was, to say the least, eccentric. Eccentric and oh so smart. That man knew how to earn money. And, he knew how to train us to help him make that money. One of the things that I retained from my work years with him was this...

Every work day started in his office going over patients and procedures. There was a glass tower at the end of his huge glass conference table with three places on it. In those places were a bowl of wooden cherries, a statue of Venus de Milo, and a man made from nuts and bolts. Those three things were what he based his view of how to "live" life.

1. Life is a bowl of cherries

2. Look for the beauty in everything

3. Find humor in something every day.

So, here is the picture of my "humor". It's a Beanie Baby Mouse to remind me of this hysterical time with DAM. And, of course there was the following day. This little guy sits right on top of my computer monitor and makes me smile. I'll be telling more stories about my work "experience" there. It was pretty wild!

And these are the other pair of button baby shoes that I have. I love my little shoes and should probably start searching for more to add to the collection! That's a nickel beside them so you can get an idea of the size.

A few more things I love...


My hand carved wood duck decoy. I found him at a yard sale in CA. Couldn't bring myself to spend the money on it. A couple of days later I landed in the hospital and while I was there the Peddler tracked it down and bought it for me! As you can see I think he's been shot a few times. It gives him such personality!

The artist signed him, but I have no idea who this is.

This is another pencil sketch. The artist is Virgil Stephens. I had bought a sketch from him before and when I saw this one I knew I had to have it. He drew this the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center. He said it was how he dealt with everything he was seeing. Virgil even sent this to me before I paid for it. I was one of the first people to respond to him about wanting it and he said he needed to keep busy that day so off to the post office he went.


He drew some "hidden" images in this one but the only one I could find this morning was the flag in the mountain. Can you see it? I'll have to spend some time studying this again and find the others.

Off to work. Have a great day!

I thought I'd show you...


Some of the things around my house that I dearly love. These tiny baby button up shoes are my favorites. I have quite a few pairs, but these are my favorite. To get the perspective of their size, they're sitting on a ladies hankie. I wish these little shoes could talk, I'm sure they've seen alot.

This is my favorite pencil sketch. It's called "Dog Gentle" by Bill Anton. I saw this in an Antique Store in Northern AZ when we first started visiting. When we found out that it was definite that we were moving here Rick was sneaky and made a trip without me and got the picture as a house warming gift for me! So sweet.

This is a watercolor that I found at a swap meet in Victorville, CA. Again, it's the cowboy thing!

Watercolor and pencil are my favorite mediums for art. Something about how light they are, I've never really liked heavy oil.

That's all for tonight!

How did your morning start?

Mine started at 3:00 A.M. with this one barking. Well, not really barking, she sounded more like a trumpet. Why? Because this one gets up at that time. EVERYDAY. And gives the dogs a "cookie". Abi has decided that she needs to make an official announcement when that happens. I let it go and went back to sleep. I'll deal with that later.

This is what started at 6:30 A.M. It seems that the City of Mesa has no "noise law". It's now 7:45 A.M. and the jack hammering has finally stopped. Now it's time for the back hoe. What the hell are they doing? I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that they cleaned the sewer lines yesterday. They do that by blowing air through them. Except they forgot that our street only has a six inch line, not an eight inch line. The end result was sewer water blowing out of my toilet and all over the bathroom floor. Nice! I promise I won't be cranky today...repeat after me...I promise I won't be cranky today.

Hope your day started much quieter!

Bingo Card Swap...

Here's my card for the Mystic Paper Bingo Card swap. There have been some amazing cards turned in. Can't wait to get them all!

Had to share this...just ran across this quote and it made me stop and think...

If you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are overdressed.

- Kate Halverson

What do you think?

I'd like to introduce you to someone...

This is Catie, my youngest daughter. The youngest of our combined family in fact.
Catie has always been strong willed, and has always, in every instance, danced to her own tune. She's going to school in California so we really don't see her as much as we would like. Especially owning our own business doesn't let us get away much.


This is Adam her boyfriend. You can see by the uniform that he is a Marine.
That's right, I have two daughters and one is married to a man in the Army and Catie is dating a man in the Marines. Adam is deploying to Iraq soon and Catie is none to happy about it.

This is Catie and Adam in San Diego. They look happy and I'm happy for them!

We'll have to watch where this little romance goes. I'll keep you posted!

Wow, I sure have neglected my little blog....

I promise to make up for it. We have been so busy. Classes, orders coming in, visitors from all over the world, and local visitors that I never expected! Whew, what a week it has been and it's not over yet! Love it!