Fun Mail Day~~

My friend Elaine understands the importance of great mail. She knows how to display her mail in a way that will let the recipient know that something wonderful is inside and causes my heart to leap every time I see something from her.

Today was a great mail day. No frills packaging but so much fun inside. Top picture is of goodies I received from a ephemera swap. All the way from Australia. The second picture is of fabric I ordered on-line. The sender sent me a post card and said I could pick up fabric any time I want...she's in Beaverton. Yippee!!

New Favorite Color~~

Since high school my favorite color has been purple. Not any more. I now LOVE turquoise. I grew up with every shade of turquoise and peach always in our living room decor. I never even saw the color. It was just a color my mom decorated with.

I joined a photo swap and one of the photos I need to take is of my favorite color. I had lots of fun gathering turquoise from around the house.

• I have about 8 bulb vases. Two are turquoise.
• Thread, paint and binding tape in my favorite color.
• Rooster, rocket ship and egg are from my miniature collection.
• I'm doing a tag swap.
• Turquoise beads I found at as-is. Long cylinder style.
• New earrings with rust and turquoise.
• I have some old bottles. One is my new favorite color.
• Paper weight with a turquoise flower.
• A glass net ball? Don't know what it's called.
• An old glass telephone 'thingy'. I'm sure that's it's official name.
• A pitcher behind the tag with turquoise and other jewel colors.
• Felt tree with turquoise french knots that I made a couple of months ago.

I have lots of turquoise around the house and didn't put it all in. Maybe I've liked turquoise all along and didn't know it. Now that I look around, no purple any where. Hmmm??

Does it Count?

I have a collection of pitchers and I have a collection of miniatures. I don't have a particular style that I'm looking for or name brand and they don't have to be cheap or expensive. I just buy what happens to appeal to me and if it's inexpensive-great! If it's too expensive, I just look and don't touch or buy. I have received many of these items as gifts and that's fun too. It's heart warming to know that someone knew what I was interested in and thought of me when they were picking out the pitcher or miniature.

My husband is an upholsterer for a company that upholsters for restaurants. He owned his own custom upholstery shop in CA but he only does that on the side in OR. He started bringing home bouncy balls that he would find behind or underneath the booths. I don't know what it is about them but I'm really drawn to these colorful bouncy balls. Some are solid, some are sparkly, some are psychedelic and some seem translucent while others are opaque. There are big ones but mostly small ones and I keep them in an clear vase in my living room. Not exactly what would be considered home decor but I love seeing them so I keep them out. Last night he found 14!!!

Do you think bouncy balls count as a collection?

Snow Bird~~

An ATC for a lottery with the theme of Snow Bird.

Swapping~~

I love to swap. It's like having a pen pal but instead of writing to discover commonalities, you send each other art in various forms. There are ATC's (artist trading cards), quilties (miniature quilts usually no bigger than 12" x 18" and usually no smaller than 8"x10"), collages of any size, tags, charms, paper dolls, ornaments, pin cushions and whatever you can imagine can and has been traded.

My latest swap was with a family in VA. It's focused on the kids of each household and we were matched with Olivia. She's going to be five years old and we had a great time putting a care package together. We received a list of her likes and a nice email from her mom about her personality and character.

Maya and Ben didn't really get into the crafting piece of it but I had a great time. However they did enjoy going through their things to send Olivia what they weren't using any more. In fact Ben started pulling out every thing that he was too old for. I had to go through the pile because some of it was too worn. I did appreciate they weren't stingy with their stuff and were in a giving spirit to someone they didn't even know.

We sent a panda bear pillow case I made and a stenciled panda bear cap I made. Oh did I mention she liked panda bears? The kids picked out three books each that they don't read anymore, a stuffed animal and a toy where you use a magnifying glass to find pictures of what the game says to look for. We added some lollipops, bubble gum (she likes those too) and Maya drew her a picture and wrote her a letter.

Now on to a Collage Goodies Swap, a Photo Scavenger Hunt II - (with a TWIST) swap, a MAY Birthday Swap Extravaganza swap and a bird tag swap that I've joined. Also going to be doing a bookmark swap with a local friend. Join in if you'd like. The more the merrier. I've never made or swapped bookmarks before. It will be fun.

No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti~~~

I don't consider myself a romantic. I don't hope for jewelry, chocolates, poems or flowers. (Okay, I always love to get flowers) I'm a simple person who is very content with simple pleasures. (Thus the title of this site) I am totally happy with needle nose pliers, socks or a kitchen appliance over any fluff.

You won't see me wearing lace, ruffles or shiny baubles. I like them on other people and enjoy looking at them but I don't feel the draw for me. Before I knew myself I tried to like the fluffy, girly things. I've even bought them. I have pictures to prove I tried but I think the pictures were taken on the only occasion I ever used those purchases. They continually went untouched.

I do love to hold hands or have some sort of contact with my husband when we're in each others presence. We've been married for 26 years and my heart still does a little leap when I hear him walk through the door and I enjoy just being near him. We don't dash off for weekend get aways and rarely go out but we do check in with each other on a regular basis and I'm content with our relationship.

Recently we were making phone contact while I was at work when out of no where he said, "No puedo vivir sin ti". He's speaks Spanish and I don't so I had to ask him what he had said. He said it means, "I don't want to live without you". Now I just told you I don't consider myself a romantic but when he said that, I went all mushy. I asked him to say it several more times. I liked hearing him say it. He's a keeper.

I still don't consider myself a romantic but maybe I could be persuaded to be. Happy Valentines Day!

(The picture is made by Miz Carla whom I did a swap with. I like her art.)

Oh Mother~~

My bosses boss said it's dangerous to be part of our department because there's a lot of illness going amongst extended family members. One husband with a blood clot, one boyfriend with back problems, another boyfriend with some sort of lung thing going on and all within the last week or so. Daily it seems like someone is going down.

Then Maya has had an extended illness since December 28th. Last Thursday she had an ultrasound to check out her kidney's and still has a weekly order to have lab work done but she really is feeling so much better. Last week was her first really good week so what happens? ....Ben came home Thursday with some sort of 12 hour stomach bug. Today Maya came home with the stomach bug. We spent the night taking care of her stomach needs. Oh mother~~~

I told one of my co-workers, the curse continues. When will the madness stop? Even though I'm tired mentally, emotionally and physically I'm thankful that my children love me and waaaant me when it comes to being comforted in their time of need. It's a blessing to know they think that having me near is all they need to feel better. As long as I'm near, all is well. How can I complain? I'm the mom and they love me. Life is good.

Domestic Goddess~~~

I love a clean house but I don't like to clean... but I clean. I love to eat but I don't like to cook... but I cook. I love looking at home decor magazines but I'm not good at decorating... but I attempt to decorate. I love to garden but I'm not very successful at it... but I garden. I love great pictures that people take but my attempts fall far from what I envision... but I still take pictures. I have grand illusions of being a great mom but then reality sets in... but I still try. I love to bake and I'm pretty good at it so I bake.

Don't know what they're Called~~

I did a swap with Heather because I wanted to try something new but I didn't think I'd be so enchanted by a 1" square. I don't even know what they're called. A '1 incher'/'inchie''/'1" square' ?? Does it matter? I put a small magnet on the back. I had been carrying around this roll of magnet for at least 15 years and I still have plenty left to create another 50? Ha! Oh the possibilites~~ ( I need a new camera so my pictures are better. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the user)