Una Paloma Blanca

I was putzing around in my garden the other day and suddenly this little guy showed up. It was a little startling that he didn't seem to be the least bit afraid of me and he just kept pecking around in the soil while I watched him. I thought for sure that he would fly away when I stood up to go get the camera but he didn't seem to mind a bit. When I came back, he continued to hop around, eat bugs, and all in all, pay no attention to me whatsovever.

I asked The Husby later if he thought it was some kind of omen or something. He just looks at me when I say stuff like that.

There she is.....

.....Miss America. My new peony I just bought the other day.

Score!

I went to a couple of estate sales on Saturday and managed to glom onto some pretty good stuff. After leaving the house at 6:45 a.m. for the first one I was disappointed to have to leave empty handed. It was a bust. But there was another one that didn't open until 8:00 so I waited it out and it wasn't bad. When I first got there I thought I had hit paydirt right at the front door. I pounced onto a pile of stuff only to be told in a rather frosty tone, "Lady, that's my stuff that I just bought!" Well, how was I supposed to know? Slightly miffed, I entered the barn figuring that she had gotten all the good stuff. But I did get these great little wooden game pieces and a bunch of beads, a few old unmatched screwback earrings, little paper flowers, beads and whatnot. And the tiara! It will be perfect for Mozelle (my vintage mannequin I have stashed out in my Flower House). And the best part? It all cost me a whopping $1.85! Yay!

Estate sales are always a little troubling to me, however. I can't help but think that someday people will be going through all my things, turning them over, contemplating them, wondering why I kept this thing or another. Here will be a bunch of little inconsequential items to most folks, but to me they were the salt shaker I used ever since I bought it in the 1970's, the funny little ceramic apple container that was used for packets of Equal, the miniature glass mug the toothpicks were in, various handmade potholders and all that kind of thing. To a person who never spent any time in my home, they're just stuff. But to me, even though I didn't give them much thought, they made up the texture of my home. I'm sure my daughter will keep a few of them, but a person has to let go of some of those things. So maybe she will keep the salt shaker in her cupboard and when she takes it out to salt the water for pasta, she'll think of me.

A little help from my friends

Here's Buster lending a helping hand while I was trying to sort my collection of buttons. Well, maybe not helping so much but he definitely had to get in on the action. Anytime I have my stuff spread out on the floor he has to check it out and roll around in it as much as possible. You know, just to make sure he was involved in some small way. I don't know how it works, but he will awake from the deepest sleep just so he can insert himself into one of my projects.

For the Margarita Making Challenged

This is all you need. I haven't decided if I'm going to devote a fair amount of space on the blog to endorsing products that don't necessarily add to "art"ie., papers, paints, etc. But I do think this could lubricate a bad case of artist's block so I think it qualifies, anyhow.

So without any further ado, dispense with your frou-frou margarita recipes, blenders and specialty ring container of salt. You get one of these On the Border frozen margarita mix thingies, throw in about 3/4 bottle of tequila, stick it in the freezer for about a day, pour some coarse kosher salt in a small flat bottomed bowl, run the rim of your glass around the slush in the bucket, salt it up reeeeal good, and fill 'er up.

If you follow the directions on the bucket and use an entire 24 oz. bottle of tequila, you may find yourself on your lips after only one drink. On the other hand, half a bottle just does not cut it. These are "a thousand times better" than just about any margarita out there, my friends. One notable exception: the margaritas at Aqui in Willow Glen, California. You can expect to hear more about Aqui over the lifetime of this blog. It is just my all time favorite place to eat (and imbibe margaritas).

So sayeth the Queen of Margaritas.

Buttonmania

This is what I've been doing the past couple of days. I have scads of old buttons and I've racked my brain trying to come up with a way to use them all. This is what I came up with and this is the first one of eight tags I have made using some of them. When I get a dozen or so finished, I will open my Etsy store along with some jewelry I made last week, plus a whole bunch of other stuff I have been working on.

A gentle reminder from The Bustmeister

I had promised The Cat that I would post his photo in my blog. Well, I guess he got tired of waiting for me because while I was at my computer he jumped up into my lap. Just a friendly little reminder! Thanks for the claws in my thighs, Buster. And all 20 pounds of you! He is not a small cat.

There's a story on how Buster came to live with us. About 2 and a half years ago when we moved all our stuff from California into our old house back in the Pacific Northwest I was putzing around the kitchen and feeling kind of blue. I couldn't help but think about my old kitty Pookie who had made the trip to California with us six years before. She was almost 12 years old then and had never really become an indoor cat, despite some efforts to convert her. She had a habit of sitting at the back sliding glass door just looking in. If I opened the door to let her in, she invariably ran off. She just liked to LOOK in, not BE in.

Anyway, she had just died about five months prior to our move back to the old house and I was really missing her a lot. Then all of a sudden, literally as I was thinking of her, I heard a very distinct meow at the sliding glass door. Well, I was positive I was going nuts and I wouldn't even part the drape to see what was out there. Then I heard it again, this time a little more insistent. So I looked and here was this huge yellow striped cat. I opened the door and he strolled in as if he owned the place. He rubbed up against my legs and oh, man, I fell for him right then.

I assumed that he was either a stray or that he had been left behind by our last tenant. I called the property management company that we had employed and asked them about the cat. They checked with the last tenant and called back to say that he definitely was not hers. So, even though he didn't appear to have missed any meals, I figured he was a stray. I named him Buster and he settled right in to making himself at home.

Well, about two months later, I was walking a friend's dog that I was taking care of one day and there was Buster looking out at me from the window of another house one street over from our house!

He continued to come and go, and the day before I had to leave to go overseas for what I thought would only be four months at the most (turned out to be over 2 years but that is another story) I could see that Buster's eye was bothering him and it appeared that there was blood inside. So I took him to that other house, found out that he definitely belonged to that household and his name was Tigger.

Well, I had to go home a year later to file my income tax return and guess who showed up the very first day I was home? Buster was pretty ticked off at me at first. He came inside but turned his back to me for several hours but decided he was over it eventually. Then I left again for a year and it was the same scenario all over again when I returned.

When we finally moved back for good he again settled in with us some but stayed more and more all the time. Many phone calls between us and the neighbors ensued and we took him home a number of times and they came and picked him up and this went on like this for months. Finally, he just would not stay at their house any longer. I think it was because they had acquired three large hunting dogs. Just a guess, but hey.

A couple of weeks ago the neighbor lady brought me the remainder of Buster's food and said they had gotten a new kitten and well, I guess Buster is kinda/sorta officially mine. And we're pretty happy about that.