What A Difference A Year Makes

About a year ago I had dreams of a well-organized craft room with a place to sew and a table to craft. Shelves neatly labeled to hold all my fabric, paper, and fluffing stuff. Of course, a big comfy chair in the corner to sit in while I hand sew or flip through books for inspiration is a must. All contained in a bright sunny room with a big oak tree right out the window. That dream bubble burst last year when my sons moved back home from out west. The studio became a boys room instead.
Well, last week my oldest son moved back west to Lake Tahoe so to keep from crying I worked my rear end off cleaning the upstairs like it's never been cleaned before.

Trash cans filled up and closets and drawers emptied. Blinds, windows, walls, and doors got the scrubbing of their lives. Furniture got polished and curtains got washed. Now I've got a clean slate to start up that dream again.

Wish List

The wish list is the best part of shopping on the internet. You can browse through

beautiful linens and soaps, books and shoes, and then

just add whatever you like to the wishlist.

Ideally , your fairy godmother will check your list from time to time and put all those goodies your heart desires

under your pillow about once a month.

Happy Pink Saturday!!!!!

back to Beverly

Hope For Baseball Fans

Purgatory for baseball fans is that no-man's land between the Superbowl and March 1. If you're anywhere above the 33 parallel it's probably grey and wet and cold just so you won't forget how much you miss baseball. The only thing on TV is figure skating and bowling.......which are fine sports......they're just not played on a grassy field with the sun shining and shouts of "Cold beer!" ringing in your ears.



So when March finally rolls around, Spring Training warms the hearts of baseball fans everywhere. In places like Tampa, Fort Myers, and Clearwater hope springs eternal.




Fans can watch their favorite teams in stadiums that hold 6,000 instead of 50,000. In the breezy atmosphere, people from New York, Texas, and Colorado form an instant bond in the stands as they talk about who got traded to which team and other fine points of the game.




The Boys of Summer are more playful and relaxed in the spring. They holler and gesture across the diamond to their friends in the other dugout about going to the beach or dinner that night. Jokes and big smiles are shared with teammates and officials as they catch up on news from the off season. There are hardened veterans and fresh-faced rookies pitching the ball around, stretching, and running sprints before the game and giving each other pointers during the it. Some are on their way out while new ones are anxious to move up to the rarefied air of the majors.


It all comes together in a perfect afternoon when the baseball fan can breathe easy knowing that the season is almost here.

Who Needs Coloring Books

Why you should never leave your child alone with a dog.

Shop With A Purpose

Last year, a friend of my sister's endured a nightmare you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Her husband and the father of their six children (youngest was a newborn) was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 30 years in jail. She was completely unaware of the secret life he was living until the FBI showed her some of their evidence. She lost their beautiful family home, cars, and everything of value she had but was able to get by at first on donations from my sister's church, her church, family, and friends. She has been relying on the compassion of friends and walking in faith knowing that Christ has been with her every step of the way. Recently, an opportunity opened up for her to start an Ebay store and she has had early success with it. She's not making enough money to completely support her family, but it's a real boost for a stay at home mom who didn't have a career. Please go to Asher's Bunch Boutique add it to your "favorites" and pick up a little something with the assurance that you're helping a family get back on it's feet. Asher and his brothers and sisters thank you.

Grandmother Envy

I'm in an in-between season of my life....not an everyday mom and not a grandmother. My grown kids are great. They're responsible, hardworking, kind adults who just happen to be light years away from a marriage frame of mind. I'm good with that, but I have lots of friends who are becoming new grandparents with lots of cute photos to share. That also means baby showers and shopping for tiny, cute little
baby shoes and >
socks and clothes. Now, I'm not bitter....oh no.....that's not grandparent envy you detect in my tone. It's just all those
darling pink polka dotted dresses hanging on the rack,

going to waste, when they could be put to good use dressing up a baby girl in my family. That's okay....I can be patient. It's got to happen sooner or later. Right?

Okay, back to Pink Saturday with Beverly!

Valentine Joy!

Valentine's Day in Georgia brought a rainy day, but sunshine in all the hearts of this house. You can't beat handmade construction paper cards with lots of sequins and hearts glued on to make a fabulous St. Valentine's Day.
I'm visiting my sister, her six children, and six month old Boxador in Kennesaw Georgia this week. We've been to the park, eaten lunch at the Varsity, had a 40th birthday party for my sister and played Bunko with some neighborhood ladies. Today I head up to Hartwell to visit with Mom and Dad for a few days. Not looking forward to getting on 285 then 85 north on a rainy Saturday. I appreciate all prayers for safe travel.

Pirate Invasion

Every February in Tampa, pirates invade and take over the city. A fully rigged pirate ship sails into the bay with cannons firing to find a flotilla of citizen's boats trying to defend their town. But the pirates are always the victors and are joined by the citizens of Tampa in a festival called Gasparilla which is celebrated with parades, beads, coins, and Krewes in period costumes. Even children get in on the act with the Children's Parade. Little league baseball teams, soccer teams, ballet classes, gymnastic classes, and scout groups become little pirates and march through the streets of Ybor City. A night parade and fireworks take place about a week after the Invasion. Revelers fill the streets of Ybor City to snag as many strands of colorful beads as they can. There are bands performing after the floats have passed by to keep the party going late into the night.

The Invasion is Saturday, February 7 this year. Come on down!

Super Bowl Decorations

My daughter Emily was given the opportunity to decorate the room for a Super Bowl brunch at a local restaurant on Sunday. Being a supportive Mom, I was more than happy to give her a hand. We did some trial arrangements last weekend and came up with one that featured the team colors from the Cardinals and the Steelers and the blues and greens that the Super Bowl committee used in the official logo.
Red Gerber's and gold Peruvian lilies took care of the team colors. Blue hydrangeas, green spider mums and orchids covered the logo colors, and palms and aspidistra reflected the tropical locale of this year's game. All this was to be arranged in tall trumpet shaped vases.


Happy with her plan, Emily ordered her flowers, bought the vases and put everything out of her mind until time to get the work done.Then one little phone call on Thursday afternoon changed her attitude toward the whole project. Her friend at the restaurant called to tell her that along with all the other high profile guests at the brunch would be someone who might cast a very critical eye on the decorations. Martha would be there!
Emily immediately burst into tears, not of sorrow, but the kind you get when someone larger than life, who you've admired all your life suddenly is right there in front of you. She called me full of questions about whether or not she was up to decorating a room where the queen of home sciences would be brunching. I told her she couldn't out-martha Martha, so just stick with her fantastic plan and make it beautiful the Emily way.


After the initial shock she regained her confidence and got to work on Saturday. The arrangements got done on my dining room table then put in crates.Thank goodness it was a cold night in Tampa because when it was all loaded in my truck, our garage was like a giant refrigerator thanks to the rare freeze.
Sunday morning we set out bright and early with my truck so loaded that I couldn't see out the back or right side window. Don't try this at home, kids! Since it was early on a Sunday morning and I was following Emily in her car, we got there in one piece.

We unloaded and brought everything in through the busy kitchen and the balloon folks came about an hour later and worked their magic.
One last touch was a cylinder vase filled with little bright colored footballs, Super Bowl pennants, and blue plumes and peacock feathers for the hors d'oeuvres table.
Festive Super Bowl decor Emily-style!

UPDATE: Here's Martha's blog entry from her SuperBowl visit. Some of the pictures are from the brunch.

Trippingly Off The Tongue

Some words are just plain fun to say. Ricky Gervais has said many times that his favorites are "ng" words such as flange and whinge. There is something satisfying about words with a strong "g". Effulgent, burgeoning, and pugnacious are fun to say and coincidentally also describe Mr. Gervais. However, an old friend absolutely hated the word fig and compelled all in her presence to refrain from uttering it.
There are people who love words that end with an "eee" sound like serendipity, flucidity, and conviviality, but there's something a little too cutesy about them for me. They sound like they came right out a of a romance novel that sports especially flowery cover art.
Some words just make your face feel nice like moist and boisterous. That "oi" sound puckers up your lips like a kiss. Speaking of kisses, saying prunes makes you look like you're blowing a kiss and mouthing the word colorful to someone looks like you're saying, "I love you!"
And if it's a pleasing pout you're looking for instead of a pucker, try capsule, nodule, or podule.....anything ending in "ule". It seems the "u" sound gives the face a good workout in any form. Ukulele, uvula, and universe do the trick, too.
Plant names are my favorites. I love to get a chance to say sultana and clematis. How wonderful is penstemon? Or digitalis? Syringa and Hydrangea get back to the "ng" sounds, but verbena, verbascum, and veronica are like a little party in your mouth.

Room 101

George Orwell famously created the Ministry of Love's Room 101 in his prophetic novel 1984, where citizens were threatened with their worst fears as a form of torture. He reportedly named the chamber after a conference room at the BBC where he had to sit through endless meetings. Room 101 has evolved to represent pet peeves and bug-a-bears that irritates us daily. If only there were a real place to banish these annoyances, we could all live perfectly happy lives. Some things are already there like rude people, cancer, poverty, and prejudice, but what else could we send away forever?
There are three things I would gladly banish to Room 101. First, toasters.

In fact most small electric appliances I could easily do without. The year I was married, HotDoggers and popcorn poppers were all the rage. We got five of each as gifts and I couldn't return them fast enough.

Next would be sideline reporters at football games. Is it hard hitting reporting to ask the coach as he's running off the field what his game plan will be in the second half?
Or if he will be putting in the player that was suspended from starting the game? No, big waste of time.

And lastly, I would banish static electricity to Room 101.
Every time I get zapped on the car door or refrigerators in the grocery store it takes every ounce of self control to hold in the blue streak of cuss words that want to come out of my mouth. Static electricity; what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Huh!