New Beginnings...Welcome Back to School Display

I am ending the summer and trying to keep my head above water! Seems like I go through little periods in life when nothing much goes on and then "BAM"! It all happens at once. School has started for the teachers and that fact coupled with health issues has really messed with my blog writing. I know that's not a good thing, but there are just so many hours in a day.

I made a Welcome Back display for the high school library using old books "folded" to make bird houses. I began the display with this precious chalkboard flower pot I found at HOBLOB for $4!

Words can be written in chalk and erased just like a real chalk board.

I used gerber daisies and dictionaries to add to the "theme".

My library partner's father made this giant #2 pencil...can you tell where the tin can is? It's almost 5 feet tall and has a sharpened point ( pictured below).

Bringing in bird houses, small pots of yellow pencils and tissue paper added interest.

At Christmas, I plan to make the birdhouses into angels and use a vintage book and sheet music theme for the tree.

We have a library table in back of the desk so the dictionary theme continued there.

Ceramic rain boots (also on sale at the Hob for $4 each...they once were $19.99..yikes) were filled with the daisies and yellow pencils.

You know, cute, but $19.99? Really...

I generally do something a little more "grown up" but this year I thought a little whimsy (I detest that word) was in order!
Monday begins another year...oh, the promise of a new year...new boxes of crayons, shiny notebooks, no doodles anywhere...I love the feeling of "new" that comes with a fresh beginning.

Join me at Beverly's Pink Saturday!

And come by for the Saturday Nite Special!

Beginnings are good....

The Answer to Your Toilet Dilemma

I know, you don't want to hear my troubles...you've got your own. Right? Well, I just want to say I haven't blogged this week because of computer AND health issues. Both irritating as heck and at least the computer ones have been resolved. So here I am again...ready for the new school year to begin and I am flying (figuratively) around like a chicken with her head cut off...trying to do all the things that I should have done this summer, but didn't have the energy to do. Cleaning, etc.

We live in the country. Living "out" is different from living "in". I grew up "in" and didn't realize the many differences until I was "out" for about...maybe, a minute.

Ah, the joys of cows mooing...donkey's braying in the middle of the night...owls hooting...so dark you can see the stars like Christmas lights in the black sky. I digress...Our water is a community well system and is just chock full of minerals...sounds great until you have to clean up those left over mineral deposits! Today I had a two-fold mission...(after I battled my way through Wal Mart to buy grandchildren some school supplies...thought I might have to challenge one lady who got the last multi-pack of glue sticks, but she set them down and I snatched them up... quickly). My first mission was to clean the toilets of all mineral deposits and as I was standing upside down with my head in the toilet, I thought about you. I thought, "Maybe they don't know about the Pumie. I better alert them." So I am.

Now, I'm not trying to act like you don't know how to clean a toilet with mineral stains on it, but just in case, here's just the trick.

PLEASE, TEST THIS ON AN INCONSPICUOUS PLACE BEFORE PROCEEDING!
Read the directions!! And the cautions!!

Wet the little gray stick and start scrubbing away...I wear gloves...it just seems like the nice thing to do, considering. Scrub up under the rim and anywhere in the bowl that has those stains that WILL NOT come off, no matter how hard you try. They will with this thing. At Wal Mart the Pumie is just under two dollars, so as soon as I finish both toilets, into the trash it goes. Tlhe directions say you can rinse and re-use, but I'm not sure I'd want to scrub the grill with the same item I just scrubbed the toilet with...or visa versa. Mission I accomplished.

On to Mission II: Clean the stainless steel sink.

If you don't read my blogger friend Marty's blog, A Stroll Through Life...then you really must. She recently (In June, I think) gave directions for cleaning up your sink. Hers was much newer than mine...I wish mine was an undermount, but alas, it isn't...hers is. Mine is at least 18 years old and has been the recipient of many gallons of paint wash out water, Mod Podge, and even food..sometimes. So it is really dinged up and not pretty. It IS clean...just not pretty. (You know...like the blind date...she has a really good personality.) I deviated from Marty's instructions just a tad.

First, I cleaned it (WITH THE GRAIN OF THE STEEL) with a light hand and a heavy duty Scotch Brite Scour Pad. That took care of the Mod Podge. Be careful if you have a new sink...I would probably skip the step above. (Marty did NOT do this step.)

If you look closely you can see how much better the left side looks after just that one step.

I think it looks grand..and the ding to the left is probably where I dropped something that I shouldn't have been washing in the kitchen sink anyway. At least it's a clean ding.

Here's where I got fancy smancy....Bar Keepers Friend and a FINE Scotch Brite Pad.

I cut the pad in two pieces and after adding a little water to the sink surfaces, I sprinkled on some BKF (sparingly). Then (with the grain of the steel again), I rubbed it with the fine pad. After rinsing and wiping out all the water...I had a mighty fine looking sink.

Any questions about your sink or toilet?

I'm your girl,

New Days Ahead?

Sunrise is probably my favorite time of day. I am a morning person...I begin "fading" right after lunch. When #1 Grandson spends the night, we both rise about the same time. Since he was a little boy we've had "coffee" together before anyone else even thinks about waking.

There is something very promising about the start of a new day or a new year.

And so my last week of summer vacation begins...time for school.

This is my thirty first year to have begun preparations "to start school". (The hubster's 40th.) Thirty one times I've psyched myself up to start all over again...

Some years have been great, some not so great.

I've actually worked in the "work place" for 38 years. I took two years off when I had my son. Each and every time I've begun a new year, I've had high hopes.

Teaching is a lot like gardening...you plant, water, weed and tend. The only thing is that if that "flower" just won't bloom, you can't pull him (or her) out and throw her away...you KEEP tending. I think that's why I'm such a good nag at home...I'm tenacious, if nothing else.

I am contemplating ... no projects, no running around ... just thinking about what it'd be like to NOT be preparing for the new school year. I have friends who retired last year and this is their first "season" to NOT have to plan.

One said it felt weird, but nice.

Weird, but nice ... that's an amusing way to describe freedom from something you've done for so long. Ahhhh, the feeling of NOT having to punch someone else's time clock. My problem is that I am not very disciplined... if I don't have somebody else telling me what to do for eight hours a day... will I do anything productive? Will I stay in my gown sans makeup until three p.m.? Or will I bolt out of bed, early, ready to take on the day with the same enthusiasm I've mustered for the past thirty eight seasons?

Winding down your life is a little more disconcerting than I thought it would be. I've looked forward to this "season" for years ... now that's it's here ... I'm, er, apprehensive.

The unknown is, um, scary.

Sure don't want to be one of those people who everyone sits around and thinks...

"Will she EVER go?! Will she die at her desk?!"

But, yikes....what if nobody needs you anymore?

What on earth will you do for eight hours a day?
Just some contemplative thoughts for all the world to see.

Just watching the sunrise and thinking outloud,

Angela

"I Told You So" and Paul Michael's

Went to Paul Michael's today...the Monroe, LA one. Here are some things I found..the books above are really the boxes that open...lots of black and cream was featured...still loving the roosters that were scaped with the books.

Now, prepare yourself...the hubster almost had a fit...

"Why?!" Why, indeed...

I can just see this old wooden pitchfork in an autumn setting...can't you?

And then I spied them...

all three of them sitting in Alley Cats

(which is the part of Paul Michael's where all the unloved stuff is sent)...

today things were reduced to 1/2 of 1/2....love it!!

These mercury glass candleholders are HUGE!

They are beautiful and will make a wonderful centerpiece.

I purchased all three for less than what one would normally cost!

NOW That's what I'm talking about!!

Switch gears here...a before and after from this week...

This old folding chair used to sit in my grandmother's hallway by her phone..it was dark brown and had a dark green leather seat.

I painted it white years ago and the paint had begun to flake off.

Out with the Rustoleum Hammered Brown and let me introduce you to Miss Polka Dot!

My new "makeup" chair!

This post is a little like herding cats...but on the way to Monroe, the hubster and I were very involved in a deep discussion concerning the difference in "opinion" and "advice".

The more we discussed, the more my "opinion" shifted.

Let me let you in on our thoughts. This is a summary of our discussion.

1. Everyone can have an opinion (duh)...even if it's wrong.

2. Opinion based on fact can be extremely useful when giving good advice.

Opinions based on feelings are a little trickier.

3. Opinions are your own...like noses...everybody has one.

4. Advice can be good or bad.

Some advice is given based on faulty advice originally given to the advisor.

5. You don't necessarily have to have experienced something first hand to be an expert but it probably gives you a broader perspective if you have indeed had experience. (Ex. a cancer doctor doesn't have to have "had" cancer to treat his cancer stricken patients.)

6. You can learn from people who have failed at something just like you learn from a successful person...sometimes even better.

What started this discussion was the fact that I was recently asked by a younger friend how I always had the right answer to questions. (I chose to believe that she was asking that sincerely and not sarcastically)...my answer was that the answers came from life's lessons learned.

I didn't get where I am today by NOT listening and learning. "WHAT?!" Exactly WHERE are you, Miss Know It All? (That's what you are thinking, I'm sure.) Unfluff those feathers...by virtue of the fact that I've lived over six decades makes me further down the road than most of those I work with everyday. Just living longer doesn't necessarily make you smarter (but it should). What makes you smarter is listening to others, continually learning and growing and being able to discern good advice from poor advice. Personally, I like my advice served with a side order of personal experience.

Nothing's worse than the sentence, "I told you so". The reason these words cut so deeply is because based on someone else's life experience...advice was offered....you didn't follow it because in your opinion, it wasn't good or it wasn't what you wanted to hear at the moment and you made a poor decision.

If you really want advice, let it marinate for a while before throwing it out. Sometimes following advice when you really don't want to is like taking bad tasting medicine...it's awful for a short while but the results are good long term.

(I didn't sleep well last night and I'm sort of grumpy...can you tell?)

That's all from the soapbox today,

Come Visit the Summer Cloche Party!

A book can be a friend when everyone else is too busy for you...I love to read and because we are on the tail end of summer here in Mississippi, my grandchildren are busy trying to catch up on their assigned summer reading.

In order to gently remind them to "keep on keeping on"...I designed my entry in Marty's Cloche party around that theme...READ.

I hope you will join us and see all the cloche entries.
(Cloches are really glass domes that help plant seedlings get off to a good start in the garden, but you know decorators...they see the world in a different manner from your average Joe or Jane.) The glass cloches were yanked out of the garden and

have made their way to the spotlight INSIDE the home.

I tried all sorts of setups and finally settled on the one below.

I think it gets the message across in a simple way.

I don't have any "real" cloches, I use old clock domes, cheese keepers, etc.

just about anything that gives the effect.

My next purchase at Paul Michael's in Monroe, LA will be a glass cloche (if they have any left...they are really popular right now!)

My original thought was to use two clock domes...

but that became rather busy.

Simplifying the whole thing and eliminating the other dome, made it more to the point.

I love my little MIJ reader. I've had her for years.

And I treasure my old McGuffeys Readers.

I made the little uncovered books and added three chicken scratch pens.


We will have to wait and see if the little reader encourages MY little readers to press forward!!
It's hot as flugey here in the deep south...we had a little rain and now it's hot AND steamy!

Hope your week is off to a great start,