Talk about a relaxing day. I spent five hours in my cottage and created 31 more pendants! Once I get them finished, I'll take some photos and share them with you. Perhaps I should even start wearing them...duh!

Five hours of creative time today, Ben & Jerry's in front of me, Ghost Hunters tonight, and the summer has only just begun. Aaaaaaahhhhh. :)

'Morning. It's a gorgeous day here...mid 70s, a steady breeze, and absolutely NO humidity! My kind of day.

I'm heading out to my cottage to (hopefully) spend the day making more pendants. I made 25 the other day which still have to be fine-sanded and sealed; today I hope to create a whole new batch. Bob hung an old piece of barn-board on the wall for me with antique nails in it so that I can hang the finished pendants on it.

I tell you, this is getting more fun by the day. Now, if I can just figure out what I'm going to do with them when I'm finished, that is, if I ever decide I'm "finished".

♥Have a sparkly Wednesday. ♥

Good Monday morning to you. Today is my first official Monday of summer vacation and so far, so good. The weather is outrageously hot and humid though, which I DETEST; hence the a/c running at our house for about three weeks now. It could always be worse, I know.

Middle daughter and her best friend are on their first-ever road trip since last Thursday. They spent three nights at a campground in Cape May, NJ, and yesterday, they arrived at a campground in Virginia Beach which turned out to be not-so-great. The heat index was around 110 degrees, there were no electric/water hook-ups for tenters, you had to park your car and haul all of your stuff through the woods, and the ants were the size of June bugs. After driving five-plus hours and being hot as hell, the girls were "on the edge", as they say.

She called me almost in tears, but through the AAA guidebook and a little online searching, they are now comfortably ensconced in a Day's Inn which is also much closer to the boardwalk. Just a little life experience I guess...and a lesson in always having a back-up plan.

Here are a few of the 100+ photos I took of the "baby" graduating from high school a couple of weeks ago. Where does the time go?












Bob and Colleen, the "baby".







My girls and my mom.








My son and our granddaughter at the graduation ceremony. ♥♥





Throughout the years, we've always had the kids pose on these steps for their first day(s)of school! Here they are now, "all growed up". ♥♥♥

Raise your hand if...SCHOOL'S OUT!! And you took yourself, your Ben & Jerry's, your spoon, your book, and your "Do Not Disturb til August" sign out onto the back porch, where you promptly put your feet up on the railing and sat for two hours!!

Every Monday Java will post five "get to know you" questions that you can copy and paste into your own Monday post and we can all learn a little more about each and every one of us.

Being that I'm terribly and pathetically fairly lame at this copy/paste/linky stuff, I don't yet know how to set it up so that you can just click on Java's name and get to her blog. I will try and figure it out, though, because I think this is fun. :)

I got this from Coffee Slut's blog (I always feel so naughty saying that!), so you can go there because she has it all figured out!

Questions:

1. How many brother and sisters do you have?
My brother is nine years older and my sister
is six years younger than me.

2. What is your favorite thing to do?
You mean besides sitting on the dock and reading?

3. What countries have you visited?
The only other country I've been to was
Italy for a month with my Mom.

4. Are you a morning or a night person?
It kind of depends...I can be both, just
not late night (anymore!)

5. What's your favorite cereal?
Honey Nut Cheerios with cold, cold milk.

It's 2:20 in the afternoon on a Friday and I have a burning question. Should I get dressed?! HA! This "taking a personal day" is wonderful!!

I've actually accomplished quite a bit though, including those time-consuming phone calls and paperwork. I've also vacuumed the hell out of the house and polished furniture. Polished furniture you say?! Considering my 20 year old daughter said "what the heck are you doing?!"...I think that means it's been awhile since I last polished furniture. Whatever...it's done for this decade.

I've also watched the gazillion birds devour all of the bird seed in the feeder, I've gazed at all of the gardening I did yesterday, I've chatted with my mom, and I've had breakfast. What a full day! (Oh yeah, I caught the dog devouring a bird, but we'll just skip that for now. *gag*)

So, let's re-cap. So far today I've: vacuumed, polished, watched, gazed, chatted, eaten and just downright LOLLY-GAGGED! Thank heavens for personal days. :)

Hi friends. What a great day today. Why you ask? Because I took today and tomorrow off as "personal days" in order to get the yard and house ready for the triple graduation party we're having on Sunday, that's why.

Yes, I said triple graduation party...I know, it's insanity. BUT....my good friend Nina looooves to party plan and she's doing it all, from start to finish. All I have to do is watch the tent people set up the tent today and pretty-up the yard.

Today I spread seven bags of mulch, planted more flowers, weeded, weeded and weeded some more. The yard looks wonderful and I'll share some photos soon.

There are about 65-plus people supposedly coming! I've never done a party this size before, especially since we have a pretty teeny house, but I'm trusting that it will all go well. I'll keep you posted. Til then....as always...TGIF tomorrow!

Raise your hand if... your middle daughter and her bff are leaving for a 10-day road trip and today, while at Walmart, your contribution to the road trip was as follows: two whistles and a SNAKE BITE KIT! And they wonder why we go gray.

Oh my. My baby is now a high school graduate.  Today marks the beginning of a world filled with endless possibilities.  May this new road be smooth with few speed bumps and nothing but beauty along the way.

She made it home safely!! 

Raise your hand if…your baby girl is due home tomorrow morning at around 8:30 from one whole week away!  She left last Friday (with another family) for a cruise out of Boston to Bermuda and back.  She’s had a wonderful time, but enough is enough! 

We’ve talked to her a few times and hearing her little voice, knowing she was 2,000 miles away, has been really hard.  I know it’s my job to raise the children and give them their wings to fly, but I don’t wanna and you can’t make me!!  (Can you tell I’m not so good at the “letting go” part?)  I’ll be happy once she’s back here in the nest, safe and sound.

Weather

In honor of today’s outrageous weather, here are a few Vermont Proverbs “pearls of wisdom”.

“If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.”

“The swallows fly high, no rain in the sky; swallows skim the hay, rain the next day.”

“If cows lie down before noon, it will rain soon.”

We had tornado warnings all day today…the wind and rain came and went.  Then, once it all passed through, the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees.  Now, it’s chilly, and I like it. :)

 

Hi again and as always…

T.

G.

I.

F!!

I wanted to show you a few more of the Scrabble tile pendants I finished this week.  I like to call these my “Text-Talk Tiles”.  :)

These are glass tile pendants, but they’re a bit harder to see.  I couldn’t quite get the camera to show their true colors.  I still have to glue the bails on most of these and shine them up.

Not sure what I’m going to do with them, but maybe once the fall arrives, I’ll do a local craft fair.  I’ll do some holiday-themed styles…see what happens.  Either way, I’m having such fun with these little babies! :)

Hi there.  How is everyone?  I can’t wait ‘til summer vacation when I can visit you all every day! :)

Anyway, I just finished a bunch of pendants and wanted to share one with you.  This is for one of my bffs….whenever we’re kvetching about the craziness of the middle school kids, she’ll remind me that she believes aliens DO exist.  Proof?  The craziness we encounter every single day at work! This saying is one of her favorites…hence, a pendant. :)

Only 14 school days left!