N is for Nubby and nice and noooooooo.....

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!  That's what this guy seems to be saying...Kandra made this.

                                           See this little guy...his name is Nubby Buddy...He

                                           has a little nub for a tail...and these are newly bloomed

                                           roses in my front yard....love em...and I finally planted my window box.

L is for Linda,, Life, Lake City, MN

                                                                             L is for Linda...that's my name.  My Dad named me after an old girlfriend he dated when he was stationed in the Phillipine Island during the Korean War.  At my work there are 4 Linda's. :)...I took a photo of the above blocks when I visited my hometown of Lake City Minnesota a few years ago.

This I snapped when I visited the Hogel Zoo in SLC...There's a whole boardwalk of engraved names of donators to the Zoo. Below is Lake Pepin, in Lake City, Minnesota where I grew up.  It's not really a lake, but a wide part of the Mississippi River.  I kept going off the road when I was driving, just looking at how pretty it was, so finally I stopped to take some pictures.  This is the birthplace of waterskiing by the way...

I am reading a great book called "StoryCatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story." by Christina Baldwin.  She writes about how we should preserve our own stories through journal writing, or scrapbooking, or on movies and ,of course, blogging!..everybody has a story and if we knew their story we would probably be more understanding of them.  I have been doing art journaling for a few years now...I love the visualness of it.  Yesterday I was watercoloring little basic zoo animals, a gnome farmer, some handdrawn witches that my talented mom drew, and a wizard (I love Harry Potter stuff).

This is part of a scrapbook page I did, scraplifting for my favorite scrapper, Ali Edwards....

K is for King's Bookstore, Kandra, Kenzie, Karlie,Kitty

Darla the Kitty

Karlie and Nicole

Kandra

Kandra a few years ago..

K is for Kitty...this is Darla, she's Queen of the Lab (anyone watch Bones?)...K is for Karlie, who found the kitty when it was tiny...this is Karlie, in the Kitchen (on the left )with friend, Nicole...at Karlie's birthday party  last year..    K is also for Kings Bookshop in Salt Lake City.. 

K is also for Kenzie...Who couragously passed a Kidney stone in the ER yesterday!!!

..

J is for Jolly, Jar

This jolly little fellow was made by Kandra...her own design, used faux black leather, red cordroy, white felt for the teeth...a skull nipple...I love it!   She made it for a former boyfriend ...I am kinda glad they broke up so she got custody!!  And below is a close up of another doll....she does have an Etsy store (I will post the address next time....J is also for Jar...as in my jar of ribbon below, sitting in one of the cubbies of my Ikea Expedite bookcases(notice my little peeps)..I have 3 of those bookcases in my little scrapbook room...makes me happy!

I is for Independence, Interesting, Icky

When the kids were little we had a family tradition of participating in the Freedom Festival  Children's parade , always held the Saturday before the big Independance Day parade.  One year I had a friend, Marlene, make me a little Uncle Sam costume for Mario...He slept through the parade but did get his photo published in the Freedom Festival Magazine the following year.  His top hat I made out of left over material , covering an oatmeal box.  At the end of the little parade everybody got popsicles. 

I is for interesting....or icky....this was drawn by Karlie, who likes to do human faces...this does remind me when I worked in a nursing home many years ago and I had this little old man, Earnie,who had to take his glass eyeball out every so often to clean it....!

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

H is also for Heat, Hair and more Harry Potter

It's so cold out!  The puppies love to sit in front of the portable heater or fireplace and get warm.  Anybody want a puppy?  And this pile of hair belonged to Mario.  Kandra will be sending it to soak up oil spills or Locks of love....

And here's a Harry Potter Christmas tree complete with a slitherin' snake that I got from DI....and my man. Dumbledore, keeps guard in the living room...hope you all have a happy hey day hee hee.....

H is for Harry Potter, Hogle Zoo

How I love Harry....I remember when the first book came out, I just loved the idea of wizarding school!  And every year in the fall I am secretly dissappointed that I didn't get an owl post to be accepted into Hogwarts!   Here's my HP shrine, just full of stuff like, movie ticket stubs from the HP movies, owls, dragons, a stag patronus, unicorns, trading cards, wizards and witches....I have it at the front entrance of my home on a black bench along with a lot of candles and stuff...I am also working on 2 HP quilts and some artwork of Hogwarts....more later since I am in my studio in the basement and it is cold here!!!!   P.s....I took a picture of the owl at Hogle Zoo, through glass...

G is for Green

This is part of a scrapbook page that I did for my son because he liked the color green...I love doing collages like this.  I've done pinks, oranges and blues and creams....I like the color of green,,,the color of life.

F is for Fabric, Farm, Family

Here is my green patch of stripes/strips....the 2nd from the left and at the end on right are the only fabrics on this piece! The rest is scrapbook patterned paper, an envelope from my mom , vocabulary words torn from an old children's reading book and some tissue paper with glitter on it.  I love fabric though!  I have an extensive dots only collection....  I will post the "dotty " quilt after I get it all quilted. 

Here's little Marilyn playing in my puff quilt project.  My sis Janette and I have been working on this...she cut out individual squares (alot from my dot stash) stuff each individual tiny pillow and sew them together. The old vintage puff quilt that I got off Ebay was done this way.

F is for Farm....Here is the barn of my sister Roni and her family have in Minnesota.  We had a little farm on Vinegar Hill in Minnesota when I was a little girl ...I used to help Dad milk cows.

F is for Family....Here is a group family photo of all my siblings and me, last April at Dad's memorial....we hadn't been all together in one place for about 20 years.  Hey everybody!  Love ya's!  Today be on the look out for delights in your life that begin with the letter F.......

E is for Eating,Elf

I love the chicken salad from Bajio's ....with black beans and a wheat tortilla....I subscribe to a fantastic magazine called "Seeing the Everyday" and the topics that they talked about in the latest issue is Eating... They did some research..."The simple act of gathering together each evening to share food and conversation, to reconnect with each other, appears to have far reaching effects.  Children from families who frequently eat dinner together 

1. get better grades in school
2. feel less stressed
3. are less bored
4. and are less likely to be involved in substance abuse."

ELF  I found this little elf at an antique store for a dollar.

So have a delightful day and sit down and eat together!

D is for Dip, dogs, Dad, doll

DIP...LINDA'S DELISHIOUS CREAM CHEESE/COTTAGE CHEESE CHIP/VEGGIE DIP....I make this occassionally to bring to work.  I double the recipe (yes, over 3 lbs. of dip) and it dissappears so fast!  One of my nurse friend's,Catherine, stated "I could just drink this stuff!" in her cute little southern accent.:)

Dog...

DANTE Is my little black chihuahua.  One year for my birthday my daughter Kandra made me a vinyl image of him to put on the back of the car.

DAD... my cute little dad here with me and sister Sandy a few months before he passed away.  It would have been his 81 and a half years birthday yesterday! Happy ,happy, DAD!

C is for collections, cat, chair, colors, candy....

 CANDY..and COLORS.....My sis Janette made some yummy suckers with valentine hearts in the center to sell on her Etsy.com store.  The CROCHETED afghan I found at DI for $8...washed it up and the flowers "bloomed".  I love having colors all around.

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COLLECTIONS...Back in the 70's I collected all things hippo....now days it's books, owls, old orange quilts, and My Little Ponies.....oh, and Harry Potter stuff!  I have books, everywhere.  I had someone build some bookshelves around the fireplace, plus I have shelves in the basement, in my room, and some old lawyer bookcase with glass doors that I got for $25 at Deseret Industries (thrift store).  I put a bunch of books on the fireplace mantal, too.   I am probably going to buy a Barnes and Noble Nook but I will still have all my hard copy eyecandy books to look at.  I 've got books about books:  Living with Books by Alan Powers, Decorating with Books by Marie Hueston, and At Home with Books :How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries by Estelle Ellis....Amazon Books is my favorite website ever!!!!  A lot of the books I buy used on that site.   I should have been a librarian....

CAT , CHAIR....this rocking chair used to be a drabby green color...I had it reupholstered in a micro fiber orange...another DI find for about $20!  I won't say how much it cost to reupholster though!  The orange and white blanket also DI...Darla the cat is a found object as a kitten....I call her "Darla the Hut".      Hope you all find some delightful "C" things to be grateful for in your day today.  And be mindful of "D" things for next time.

B is for blog,bird, blue, brother,Bolivia

Hello, here, are some things I love that start with the letter, B...BIRD....found this cute peacock at an after Christmas sale and put it on my vintage Ebay puff quilt.

BLOG...Here is a photo of the Artful Blogging magazine.  Marilyn is yawning here.

BROTHER and friend, BRIAN ...we met at BAJIO'S for lunch today. I had the usual, lime chicken salad with blackbeans...yum! Dennis, on the right , is visiting from Denver.  Brian(left) is going to BYU.  He was on a mission in Memphis, where he met Dennis (at his navy job).  I love the mosiac countertop that the restaurant has.