The Squirrels, Dogs and Snow

My sister has the biggest squirrels I have ever seen. I think they know all the best places to eat. I left for Chicago on Thanksgiving morning, what a great time to travel. there were no crowds and the plane was only 1/2 full. I travel on Tuesday to come home so maybe I will have the same blessings. This is Winston showing off for Aunt Mari. Charlie makes a jump for him and he jumps over to catch the ball. OVER AND OVER again. He is very well behaved and like a huge lap dog. I love big dogs that a leaners, he either leans or sits on your foot when he is close to you.

The most disgusting thing happened today!!! It Snowed, pretty to look at but I would much rather see it in a picture. 3-7 inches!!!!! Picture below is from Mom's window. (I really wish Mom would move to a warmer climate, visiting would be so much better.)

I will try to pop back later today I just wanted to post pictures.

I LOVE ARTFIRE

Newest Listing on www.ArtFire.com

Art fire seems like it will be a great venue. Support on there is amazing, so quick answering emails I actually feel important. Last night I signed up for the unlimited listings for $7.00 a month. That in turns gives me memership priviledges as far as the forums and postings. Posting is a dream, all done on one page with lots of picture options too. I am still feeling my way around, but found some cool things today. You can link an item to http://www.twitter.com/ then Artfire has the capabilities to tally how many hits you received from that URL.

I have some things listed on ArtFire that are from ETSY with good savings. Go and check my site http://www.whimsybymari.artfire.com/ .

If you decide to take the jump to ArtFire here is a link that gives me credit for you joining.

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=sevenforlife&afuid=3968

I would love to see you guys there. I already have Rachal from Wilmoth soaps there

I just signed up on ArtFire

Always looking for another outlet to showcase my jewelry. I have noticed a few forum posting on Etsy about WWW.artfire.com and yesterday took a look for myself. There is no listing fee and no sellers fees, HMM looking good so far. You can pay 7.00 a month for unlimited listings, that sounds pretty good too. So I opened up a shop on ArtFire last night. I posted what I had that I could duplicate in case I just happened to sell something on them at the same time. Take a few moments and look at my new shop let me know what you think.

WWW.WhimseyByMari.Artfire.com

Rachel stopped by today and we did my favorite thing. TRADE! I know have some wonderful Body Butter and soaps and Leah will have some beautiful earrings. I showed her Artfire too so maybe we both will be there.

Friday

Jacket Pull
Originally uploaded by whimsybymari

Just seeing if this will work from Flickr. You know me never able to let those little buttons be. I made this sweet jacket pull last week, I really like it. It has a heavy lobster clasp on it so it could be used on a charm bracelet or as an enhancer.

Tonight I went out to eat with Joni and then went to listen to hear son's band. They are a Christian Rock Band and were very good. I remember listening to Josh play in band when he was in High School.

Christmas Challenge

Corrine came up with the greatest Team Challenge, making a Christmas ornament. I wanted to make one that would represent my shop but was kinda stuck as to what to do. One day sitting at my messy work table these beads came into view. Well not all together I spied the hollow first then the flower and thought this might work. I played and fiddled most of the afternoon with this idea and am quite pleased with the results.

The sterling chains hold a combination of Swarovski and vintage crystals with seed beads. The first bead is a gorgeous hollow with scroll work echoing the bottom bead. The flower is the perfect top looks very Christmasy with the miliflori center and red petals. All were made by the talented Jill Symons. No really Jill you did make the flower!

It has to be listed in our shops, golly that was the hardest part. I really like this and I hope it doesn't sell. The moral of this whole story is I am glad my work area is a disaster cause I never would have seen any of these to make a finished piece. That is my story and I am sticking with it. Wonder if it will work on the rest of the house?

Me Nosey

So I have spent the day playing with the new computer. You know getting everything the way I like it so Dennis can change to the way he likes it. I loaded part of my pictures and had the wonderful idea that it would be the perfect time to organize them. The flash stick only had 1225 on it!!!!!! Yes to all of you, I did delete and put the all in folders the sad thing is I still have to do the external hard drive that has most of the pictures, how could I have this many pictures?? Let's just see how good my intentions are and how long I can keep organized.

I have gone on a trading frenzy on ETSY. Hey it is a great way to get things you want and not spend cash. I traded for a pair of fingerless gloves and stained glass and tiny Thank You cards and that is in just two days. My hands always get cold in the living room so I thought fingerless gloves would be such a cool idea. I let you know is they work.

The picture above is a picture of Maxie my nieces cat. Mary had taken this when I gave her my camera to use in July. I forgot I had the picture and i laughed when I saw it. It describes Maxie's personality to the tee. She is always into everything.

A new computer

What no pictures??

Yes that is correct, I have had a most disturbing weekend. Our computer crashed beyond repair on Saturday, it had been limping since Thursday. I had the sound mind to buy an external hard drive and saved my picture but just don't want to load them yet.

The sound card had been gone for every and it is odd to hear your computer again. Chat rooms have noise! I had forgotten that. This one came with a flat screen monitor so I am in heaven. Etsy has a whole new look.

Short post tonight there is a line for the computer!!

Another walk and Twitter

Today was a busy day for me, almost like I was working. I used to love Mondays at work because they flew by. Today was like that too. Physical Therapy was a bugger today. They are really working me to get the last hard movement out of me. During manipulation Guy had one arm on my arm and the other on the side of my rib cage pulling my shoulder. Holy Smokes is all I can say about that. Above is a new bracelet I used wire guardians on it, they are supposed to help the bracelet wear better.
Love these earrings, very simple but make a big statement. The color is so perfect for this years fashions. I listed a few new pieces today and even listed some silver charms I would like to find a new home for.

Dennis took me on a great walk today. It is deer season so we both had on blaze orange. I am really glad I had the camera so you guys can't see how great I look in blaze orange!! The weather was perfect in the 50's but sunny. We checked all the game cameras and worked on food plots too. Didn't see any wildlife, but Dennis showed me where the bobcat lives.

I joined Twitter this week. It is addicting and I don't even know what I am doing. It is like a chat room but a lot of times one sided cause you do not see what every one else types. It has increased views into my shop still no sales. I just drop by and leave a comment every once and awhile.

Friday Finds and A Walk in the Woods

Lunabudknits is a team member of mine on Bluegrass Etsy. I telling you her yarns make me want to learn to knit. The colors are just beautiful aren't they?
Take a look at her shop: www.Lunabudknits.etsy.com
This afternoon we went walking in the woods. The tree colors are not as pretty as usual due to the drought, but it was still pretty nice. Buster had a ball running through the leaves and smelling all the critters back there. The sun made the trees look like they were on fire. I picked up hickory nuts, if they are good I'll go back and get enough to make a pie.
This was taken while I was laying in the hammock. I thought the sky was such a beautiful shade of blue and the clouds were so wispy. Tomorrow morning is pancake breakfast an t the fire station. It is an annual tradition opening morning of deer season. I hope I can roll myself out of bed early.

Sweet Taters

This summer I discovered a sweet tater that should have been cooked a while ago. You know it had sprouted on me. I decided that I should try to plant it to see if it would grow. LOOK!!! It grew taters. Well OK I do see that most of them are not big, but Buster and I are pretty excited because we both love them.

This week I planted garlic bulbs. Dennis and I use a lot of garlic in cooking and I thought it would be cool to try to grow it. So me and my trusty army shovel planted it in one of my flower beds. I bet it was interesting to watch me one armed planting!!

This week I tried an interesting recipe with butternut squash. I cut the slender ends off, then peeled them. I then used a mandolin and sliced them. Chilled in ice water for 30 minutes, then drained and patted dry. In the deep fryer, I placed a sprig of both rosemary and thyme and cooked till they quit popping. Drain them. I then dropped in the squash pieces and fried till crisp. Put on paper towels, Sprinkled them with the herbs and kosher salt.

Gosh they were great. In fact Dennis said he didn't want any so I was eating them all. He finally tried one and it was a fight to the finish.

Remember tomorrow is my Friday Finds.

Birthdays and Hayrides

My camera has a night shot on it. I really never use it mostly cause I forget it is there. Tonight at Norm's I took a picture of the pond I thought it came out well. The pond is covered with geese, they make so much noise you can hardly talk over them. When we slept with the windows open a couple of weeks back they kept me up most of the night.

Here are some coming in to for the night. They feed in other fields and roost on Norm's at night. I still love to see them go into the roll right before they land. They talk and chatter as each new bunch comes in. There must have been over 100 tonight. I do forget how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place,

Here they are going off on the hayride. Oh you city guys really do not know what you are missing. I love to go on hayrides. I decided not to go this time scared of my shoulder so I stayed back with the old folks:((. We were all celebrating Norm, Rachal, Doug, Leah, and John's birthdays wow that was a hard song to sing!! We had chili, peanut butter, homemade pimento cheese that was wonderful. Then the best part Homemade Pumpkin Pie. Nothing like the first bite of a pumpkin pie. Thank you Kirky.