Thanks for the treat, Cookie!

My precious and very dear friend Cookie of Curds and Whey has gifted me with a neat award. Ain't it purtiful? I think it is an awesome thing to be recognized by a others, even when you haven't done anything special. Thanks Cookie for loving me for what and who I am. Just plain old ME!


Rules for this award go something like this: (and if you can't adhere - it's ok... you STILL get the award!)

1)You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and also contribution to the blogging community, not matter what language.
2)Each award has to have the name of the author and link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
3)Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.
4)The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "arte y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin to this award.

To pass this on to some other wonderful bloggers I would be very lost without - for their content, personality and friendship I am giving my non revocable seal of approval to:

Robin of Bird in Hand Primitives
Betty of She Sews Pretty
Karen of Sew Primitive
Donna of Made in Heaven
Jenna Louise of Quilt Crazy Gal

These folks always leave me wanting more of their gracious talent and energy. I also thank the good Lord each day that they have gifted me with their friendship. So, here you go gals! Come and get it and pay it forward.

What a difference a day makes

I am sure everyone has heard the adage that a watched pot never boils. I'm a pot watcher. Yep. Once spring arrives and little snippets of green begins to peek out everywhere, I am watching them. One of the things I always keep an eye on are my fruit trees and bushes. We have had a rough few seasons, being so very dry. Last year, we had barely an apple, blackberry or blueberry. We actually let the birds and squirrel eat what they could. We took our lumps with no real sweets from our garden, thankful that we were able to share with the little birds that give us so much satisfaction. Even the fat squirrels had a good time on the apple tree. So, when things started to bud out this year, Luscious and I held our breath and promised not to watch. Just take a peek now and then.
It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Once a pot watcher, always a pot watcher.
Imagine my surprise when I went out to the back garden this evening to check for any fresh squash, zucchini and cukes - I saw ripe blackberries!
Just two days ago, this pot watcher observed and made digital confirmation of this:

One solitary ripe blackberry. I didn't even coo or whisper sweet things to Luscious. He has a bit of high blood and it isn't good to get him worked up too suddenly. Makes his head spin. (And I thought it was me that was making his head spin! oh, that's another story . . .) You see, his passion is blackberries. When he was a young boy, he and his sisters would skip school and pick buckets of wild blackberries. They knew that they would get a whuppin'. They made a pack not to tell their Ma. Problem is, being blackberry lovers, they ate most of the bucket. And they forgot to wash the evidence of the juice from their faces. I am certain they had seeds in their teeth as well.
Momma Lorraine, well, she didn't believe in sparing the rod, but she just couldn't bring herself to whup them because Luscious pleaded their case stating how they were hungry for her cobbler. What a sweet talker. Yep, he still can sweet talk and he still loves his blackberries. Look what he picked tonight:



I take a picture of his hands full of blackberries every year. I think we are going to have a nice crop of them. He picked enough for a decent cobbler.

I am now trying not to watch the blueberries. Or the apples. I watched the strawberries - the deer are better at that than I am.

Good Monday Morning!

I betcha you thought I forgot about posting the name of a blogging winner! Kinda, sorta, but not really. We finally got some good rain late last night. I never miss a chance to dance in the rain and then what is better than sleeping with the rain coming down?
So, a wee bit late in posting this but here goes:

The winners are:

Tina of The Artful Life
&
Cora of Nelia's Place

Ladies, I will be sending you an email or leave a message on your blogs.

Thanks to everyone for participating with me. I will have one more giveaway next week. Keep your eyes open and send all your friends to register.

Now for another shameless plug. I have a few new auctions up on ebay. A very primitive black dolly and another hopelessly homely witchy. Both are uniquely made by me and I can say that I had a boatload of fun creating them.
Go and check them out here.
I am also creating one more witch that is really going to be a doozy. She is being created using clay over a gourd and a cloth body. A really different Vintage Primitives Gourd Head Folk® Original!

I normally would reserve this for a BCC Forward but thought I might actually reach more
women this way for this cause. I did receive this as a forward actually. If you have a blog, please consider posting this. At the very least forward it.
Thanks!!!

From a nurse:
I'll never forget the look in my
patients' eyes when I had to tell them they had to go home with the
drains, new exercises and no breast. I remember begging the Doctors to
keep these women in the hospital longer, only to hear that they would,
but their hands were tied by the insurance companies. So there I sat
with my patients, giving them the instructions they needed to take care
of themselves, knowing full well they didn't grasp half of what I was
saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened look spoke louder than
the quiet 'Thank You' they muttered. A mastectomy is when a w oman 's
breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. If
you know anyone who has had a Mastectomy, you may know that there is a
lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to
make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance
to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.

It takes 2 seconds to do this and is
very important. Please take the time and do it! Please send this to
everyone in your address book. If there was ever a time when our voices
and choices should be heard, this is one of those times.

If you're receiving this, it's because I
think you will take the 30 seconds to vote on this issue and send it on
to others you know who will do the same. There's a bill called the
Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance
companies to cove r a minimum 48 -hour hospital stay for patients
undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through'
Mastectomy where women are forced to go home just a few hours after
surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from
anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on
their Web page with a petition drive to show support. Last year over
half the House signed on. PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the
web site below. You need not give more than your name, state, and zip
code.

click here

Tasha Tudor

I read yesterday that Tasha Tudor has passed away. She lived a long and fulfilling life, leaving this world a gentle reminder that less is enough. I always admired her from the time I was a small child, enjoying the illustrations she created. As an adult, I was encouraged to live more simply. She was an icon to the world of those who enjoyed the primitive folk art, decorating and life style.
May the Lord embrace her with a welcoming, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
To read her memory page set up by her family, click on this link:
Tasha Tudor

Good Evening!
It has been a wonderful day here in my little corner of the world. The sun was shining, the humidity was lower than usual . . .
Family get together to celebrate Father’s Day at my folks house. Food was plentiful and the company was fine. I knew ahead of time that my sister in law was bringing macaroni salad – so, I knew what I wouldn’t be putting on my plate. I smiled inwardly watching the huge bowl of it being eaten by everyone but me. It did look tempting . . . haven’t you always heard that looks can be deceiving?
I had my Daddy pull a few names from the giveaway list.
They are :
Karen of Just Plain and Simply Me
&
Amy of Abundant Curiosities
Congratulations ladies! Check your emails!!

A new listing!

The heat here in NC is making me feel quite witchy! Let's think forward to the cool days of Autumn. Mmmm, brisk evenings, pumpkins with candles, apple cider . . .

Come on over to My ebay and check her out! She was a fun creation to work on. Looks like she belongs in any given family!

Two Winners for Today!

Two folks have had their name picked out of a
basket today! The lucky two are:

Sherry Meyer
and
Joan of Portland Granny!

One will receive the vintage hanky and one will receive the handpainted magnet pictured below:

I will be doing another giveaway next Sunday. Be sure you sign the blog for the giveaway and thanks for putting my Blogging Giveaway on your blog!
Joan and Sherry, check your emails!

Blogging Giveaway!

Because it is my Blogging Anniversary month, I am going to be having a few drawings. The caveat here is that I would like for you to take my little banner and post it on your blog with a link back to mine.
Now for my regular readers, you know that I am totally spastic. My rechargeable batteries finally died while taking pics of my garden and I have yet to buy new ones. This is not because I didn't remember to put it on a to do list. It is because, when I have been out, I have
a. forgotten the list
b. forgotten where I placed the list.

So, if you will kindly link the banner back to me AND then let me know, your name will go into a drawing for some great handmade and vintage goodies.

Sounds like a plan to me. Happy Blogaversary to me!!

I am updating this blog right now! I ran down to Mom's and borrowed her digital. Whew, now for the run back down to her house and off to work I go! Look at all these fun things you get in a drawing for! Loads of treats for everyone!

In this pictureabove, you can see three giveaways:
a topsy-turvy doll, a mini sewing caddy and
a hand of friendship

These are some yummy vintage hand embroidered coasters!

Lovely *old*Hankie and hand painted magnet.

Grab the banner, tell your best buds. Let the party start NOW! Everyone who signs a comment qualifies!

O M G !!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh My Goodness!
Well, how could I forget my blog-aversary! I have been planning and planning on what I could do for it and it just slipped past me. You know the usual junk that goes on in my life . . . You dont?
Let's take a stroll through my day, today.


Woke up, drank a cuppa coffee without realizing I was really awake. Sent out hundreds of newsletters for The Humble Arts, peeked around a few of my groups. Made a half decent breakfast for Luscious and I. Went across the road to take care of my grand dog, Sundance, while my son is out of town.

Sounds so ordinary so far, right? In my average day, I always discover I am a magnet for something or other.
Let's continue.
I worked out in the yard with hubs. Lots of cutting and tugging on shrubbery that had become unrecognizable because of Virginia Creeper and Grape Ivy. Got side tracked and made a few wreaths to dry out on the fence. Hubs left to go get us some bombs for the house since fleas have started to manifest. While he was gone, I sat under the big oak out back. It is my favorite tree. Looking at the makeshift table between the benches, I noticed a cup full of sunflower seeds I had left soaking. Those really need to get sown today.
Being up a few hours by now, I made a fresh pot of Joe. Going back to my spot under the tree, I get up every few minutes to grab a handful of weeds that are encroaching . While pulling up some weeds, I see that my red hot poker at the edge of the woods is starting to bloom! Wee Dawgies! A first bloomer for me! Running over to admire it, I then noticed that the ground hog is back. He is trying to get into the veggie garden ~ Larry's rabbit wire has done the trick of keeping him out temporarily.
Remembering my coffee, I go and sit back down. The blasted huge black birds are trying to scavenge my compost pile. I reach for my cup and take a big gulp of the now cooled coffee. Only it isn't coffee. It is sunflower seeds in nasty water. Unfortunately, before I could spew them all out, I swallowed a few.
Luscious comes home and we begin the bombing process. Dinah Kitty is in her little carrier crying her displeasure.
Duke the basset bomb is sleeping under the blueberry bushes.

Once we get the bombs off, we get back to yard work. So much fun. By now, it is 90 degrees. With every reach upward, I am assaulted by my own body. I assured Luscious that we didn't need to bomb. I could have lifted my pits and killed every living thing in the house. Or at least caught a few like fly paper.

Since the house is being bombed, we decided it was a good time to wash the dog. The water felt so good, I had to squirt Luscious down and he, being a turn about is fair play kind of guy, hosed me down. Kind of fun to have your own wet t shirt contest in the back yard. Duke was not amused.
Just as we were drying the hound off, a sudden boom of thunder and down came the rain. Ready or not, we run into the house.
After we open windows and get dry, I check in on my group and hip hip hooray have had several sales today.
I knew that there was something I was supposed to be doing special today, but do you think that between drinking sunflower seeds, being overwhelmed by B.O. and having fun in the back yard with hubs that I could remember it was my BLOG aversary!
heckfire shoot! I didn't even check my blog stuff until I sat down a few minutes ago. Some kind soul left me a comment saying Happy Blogaversary. They are automatically entered into my big giveaway!

Okay, you are now assured that I have a very disorganized mind. But I am always a party to myself. Good thing I understand me. It all makes perfect sense to me.

I will plan something and have a wonderful belated anniversary party this week. Lots of bells and whistles. Be sure and check back and be sure to tell your buddies. I will be having some giveaways - everyone likes free!

Now for that long awaited shower.