Why is this dog wearing a chain and padlock around its neck?
This dog was playing with another dog in the parking lot at work as hubs and I left for lunch today. It was not a very big dog, maybe 30 pounds or so, and the chain was big. It looked to be a Pit Bull mix and the other one, who seemed to be wearing an actual collar, looked like a Beagle mix with a smidge of Basset Hound. Both dogs came right up to us when we whistled and were only too happy for us to love on them for a couple minutes.
Of course my mind jumps to dogfighting and assumes that this chain is evidence that this dog is being trained to make its owner money, because that is something that I have learned recently does happen in our area. I just don't understand how someone could treat an animal with so little respect. Gabby of Sweetest Pea recently talked about her soft spot for animals, and I could identify. It really hurts to think of animals who suffer at the hands of those they should trust to care for them. This type of activity happens when the rest of us do nothing; please check out the Humane Society's website to find out if there is anything you can do to help prevent animal abuse in your area.
Maybe this dog's owner simply thought it would be cool to replace this sweet pup's collar and tag with a chain and padlock. Again I ask, why?
Happy Pink Saturday! Beverly has a round up of all the bloggers participating, so go check out more Saturday pinkness.
In April 2008 I visited New York City for the first time for a very short weekend business trip. My colleague and I arrived early on Friday so that we could squeeze in a few hours of sightseeing, and walking down 5th Avenue to make our lunch reservation at Gramercy Tavern (absolutely delicious, can't WAIT to go there again), we stumbled upon Madison Square Park just across the street from the Flatiron Building. And we found these lovely trees in bloom:
Huge branches of light pink blossoms were hanging right over the sidewalk, so we both had to stop and take pictures.
This picture doesn't show it, but the sunlight coming through the branches was SO beautiful...I had one of those moments when I am so full of whatever beautiful thing I'm looking at and so happy to be alive.
Just around the corner from Gramercy Tavern we wandered into this florist shop. They had so many interesting and gorgeous flowers and, to their credit, they had their bases covered with some amazing pink blooms.
A peony, maybe?
Are these ranunculus? Whatever they are, they are gorgeous!
This will be the 3rd year that I will have a Mother's Day brunch to honor my mom. I say "will have" because this year it hasn't happened yet. We spent Sunday with the hub's mom, and Mother's Day Part Deux will be this Friday.
Two years ago I made all the food, packed it in an elaborate system of insulated bags with cold packs and hoped it would make it through church (I was helping with the children's service, so I couldn't skip it) and the 35 minute drive to my parents' house. It did! And it was delicious. I took much of the menu from Food Network's suggested Mother's Day Menu 2007: Strawberry Bellinis, Fresh Fruit and Mint Salad, Orange Glazed Blueberry Scones, Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Frittata, green salad using lettuce hubs grew, maybe roasted asparagus (can't remember...) and I think there was a dessert, but I don't remember what it was...in any case Mom felt very special which was the point of the whole thing.
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So this past year I thought, "Why not run that play again!" except this time I worked it out for Mom to come to me...it was a huge endeavor to transport all the food, and thankfully she didn't mind making the hour drive if it meant she didn't have to cook, wash the dishes, or wait in line for 2 hours at her favorite restaurant.
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I had recently discovered Tracy's delightful blog Notes on a Cottage Industry, and I just loved all of her tablescapes and cute banners, so I set out to do something really cute a la Tracy for my mom.
I set the table and printed the menu and place cards the night before, because I knew having the table ready would be a great comfort when I was freaking out trying to get all the food done (not to mention all the last minute house cleaning) the next day. Pretty much I dealt with the food and hubs scurried around getting the house all squared away: THANK YOU, BABE!
My inspirations were two pink scrapbook papers from the Martha Stewart collection at Michael's: a cream and light pink toile and a sparkly, deep pink. From those I pulled together a pink, white and silver table color scheme punctuated with plenty of sparkly glass. I used a plain white table cloth and white plates as the backdrop. The bouquet of gorgeous pink tulips (Mom's favorites) at the top of this post was the main attraction with candlesticks, silver Christmas ornaments (use what you got!), silver votive cups and a collection of vintage pearl and rhinestone earrings providing the rest of the table decoration. I rummaged through my jewelry to find several bracelets that fit the color scheme to serve as napkin rings and put placecards printed on that gorgeous sparkly pink paper at each place.
Chicken Sausage (although I think I used turkey instead of chicken...)
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Strawberry Salad Ring (It's actually called Strawberry Mold...and I just couldn't type that on my beautiful toile menu card. And of course I decided at the last minute to make it in a square dish instead of the ring, and no way was I reprinting that menu card :) )
Chocolate Mousse
Cause I'm mean and want to show you pictures that will make you drool, take a look at the French Toast Casserole.
Oh, yeah...it was even better than it looks. It's a Paula Deen recipe, so you can be sure it is going to be sinfully good. After it was all said and done the dish was scraped CLEAN.
The final touch on the whole shebang was this cuuuuuute (if I do say so myself) "Mother O' Mine" banner fashioned after one that Tracy made for her mom. I alternated the two inspiration papers and strung the letters on a black ribbon.
Mom loved her event! She is just about the most gracious guest you will ever find, and she oohed and aahed over everything and just made me feel so good. We two plus Dad, brother and hubs had a great time eating some great food (thank you, Food Network!) and celebrating our mom/mom-in-law/wife.
Linda at A Swap For All Seasons has such fun swap themes, and I was so excited to participate in the Vintage Spring Sweetness Swap she organized recently. Thrifty Homemaker Angela was my partner, and she absolutely spoiled me!
She sent a box stuffed full of sweet spring goodies: candy (chocolate, marshmallows and Chick-O-Sticks), vintage goodies (detail below), lace ribbons, spring tags and sticky notes, Easter ornaments and a potpourri sachet.
Love the little vintage towel, saucer and postcard!
Angela, thank you for such a great box of surprises!
Here's what I sent Angela:
Vintage homemaking magazines, pink Peeps (Peeps have been around since the 50's, so they fit the vintage theme quite nicely), vintage spring-themed playing cards, a vintage hand towel from the Etsy shop Lilly's Cottage, an ornament that looked quite vintage to me and a spring banner I made for Angela. Our challenge this time was to try not to spend more than $10 and I had such fun searching for just the right items that I thought Angela would enjoy while sticking as close as I could to the swap parameters (total spent, vintage, spring).
Angela mentioned that she likes vintage homemaking magazines, so I thought she would enjoy these magazines from the 70's and the old farm cook book.
I found these vintage playing cards in the Etsy shop Frivolous Whimsy...and they were so cute I almost kept them :)
I am pretty proud of this banner; is that vain? I really enjoy making these, and I hope it adds some spring sweetness to Angela's home.
Linda had several drawings for cute spring-y vintage items for those of us in the swap and look who got the very last one!
I can't wait to find just the right use for this little charm.
Thank you, Linda, for a great swap and thank you, Angela, for my wonderful goodies!
I did it again! Jump-out-of-airplane #2 happened on Saturday, May 2 at about 5 pm. Aaaiiiii, it was FUN!!!!!!
Here's the video!
When my feet were back on the ground after my first jump in November I knew I wanted to jump again, and I couldn't pass up the chance to buy my second jump at 50% off original price if paid for before I left the drop zone that day. Those skydiving people are crafty ones.
It was imperative to jump before hot, humid summer arrived. I don't like to sweat and there would be nothing but sweating going on were I to be wearing that long-sleeved jumpsuit on pretty much any day in June, July, August, September or even late May for that matter, thus May 2 was chosen. My friend Jill, who has wanted to go skydiving since she was 16, was very excited to accompany me for her first jump...jumping with a friend is so fun!!
I did notice that in the weeks leading up to May 2 I felt oddly nervous when I thought about jumping for a second time. I got to the point where I avoided thinking about it. I don't like to feel nervous...it can lead to sweating. I started checking the weather about 10 days out: scattered thunderstorms for Chester, SC. Oh no! Except the closer the day came the more I noticed a tiny little part of me that thought, "Maybe they'll have to cancel and reschedule...", a tiny traitorous part that actually sort of hoped for a reprieve to give me some time to work out my nerves. The weekend arrived and so did Jill (bearing lemon cake, bless her heart! Jill, you come back anytime now, y'hear!) and I started to think about all the fun things Jill and I could do with our day when we wouldn't have to make the drive to and from Chester, PLUS Jill could come back for another visit the weekend of the rescheduled skydive...perfect!
The morning of the EVENT weather.com was calling for storms to start at 3 pm in Chester...we were scheduled to jump between 4 and 5 pm. It didn't look good/it looked great! (dang traitor in my head) Maggie, the very sweet woman at Skydive Carolina who talked to me every time I called to ask what the weather verdict was, finally admitted that they couldn't be sure what the weather would do, and it was our call...and darn Jill and her excited yet rational self...she pointed out that this could just as easily happen again when we rescheduled the jump, thus we should take our chances and go. Sigh, ok, here we go.
Don't you know the sky was sunny and blue with puffy clouds floating lazily along when we got to the drop zone around 1 pm. At one point during the afternoon there was one ominous looking dark cloud that hung around for about 15 minutes and then drifted away. I began to realize that I wasn't going to be getting out of anything...except for an airplane at approximately 14,000 feet. I was so nervous! And I still have no idea why! I had no worries about anything bad happening, so I really don't know what my deal was. My tandem instructor did tell me later that it was common for people to be more nervous about their second dive. Ok, so I'm not a lone weenie at least; there are lots of weenies sort of like me!
We hung out and watched several plane loads go up: I was nervous. We sat around and watched a team practice their freefall formations before going up: I was nervous. We watched people repack parachutes: I was nervous. We watched the "you can't sue us if you die" video and went through the training with Chuck, my instructor from my last jump: I was nervous. We suited up and I met Robert West my tandem instructor for this jump: He was so nice! I was still nervous.
Oh and remember how that small suit didn't work out for me last time? Um, the medium suit was MIGHTY SNUG this time...sigh...so, eating too much + not exercising enough really does have the effect they say, huh. Well, I'm working on that now. (I should say I'm relying heavily on God to help me work on that now and stick to it. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! (And so can you if you let God help! Grab a Bible and read Phillipians chapter 4, verse 13)) We got on the plane, and BOY WAS I NERVOUS.
Even my hair looks nervous.
Honestly I don't remember the last time I have been so swamped with fear. I was praying as hard as I could and just deciding that I wasn't going to let the fear overwhelm me. It was a struggle, and I clung to God the whole time. I watched my altimeter on the way up so I'd be prepared when the instruction came to put my little diving hat on and get ready. We goofed around for the video, got all hooked up and suddenly that plane door was sliding up and people were falling out left and right...on purpose...and my turn was coming.
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My goal for this jump was to keep my eyes open during freefall, and I was determined to follow through. I even paid for another video plus still pictures to encourage me to make the expense worthwhile. That's why I got them...not because I love to see myself in pictures or anything (haha...ha, ok, that was sarcasm). So I was thinking, "Keep your eyes open keep your eyes open, Kimberly, YOU HAVE TO KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!"
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I did actually help with the scooting down the bench this time (as opposed to last time when I wasn't actively resisting, but I sure wasn't helping Chuck get us closer to that gaping hole in the side of plane), but only because I was practicing wearing my big girl panties. Oh, look, there's my dear friend there by the door about to--oh, there she went...we're at the door, Robert says, "Ready, And, Arch!" and out we go. And I am staring at Terry my video flyer with all my might. And my eyes are open! And it is AMAZING! I am immediately really excited and proud of myself and trying to take it all in and mug for the camera, and did I mention I was proud of myself? These big girl panties sort of fit, don't they! (And that is no comment on my slightly too-snug, size medium jump suit)
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My only issue this time is that I can't figure out how to breathe with all the wind in my face...so I'm gulping like a fish the whole time. If you watched the video you may have noticed this strange behavior. Gulping results in pictures like this:
Yeah, not cute. But that just means that I have goals for next time! (That and my atrocious form...arms were supposed to be bent 90 degrees, not straight in front of me Superman-style, and I was supposed to arch so that my legs were pushed up behind me, not dangling down in front) Terry offered the mid freefall spin just as video man Pete did last time, but I wasn't ready for that yet, so you can see me in the video try to let him know a couple times I'm not up for the spinning. This gesturing resulted in pictures like this:
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But gorgeous pictures skillfully taken of me making horrid, unflattering faces aside, THE JUMP WAS AMAZING! Keeping one's eyes open adds SO MUCH to the experience! Duh, right?? Makes sense...I was absolutely overwhelmed by the sight of the clouds and the sky and the ground and the tiny trees and Terry falling right with me, and the loud rush of wind. So overwhelmed and absorbed that I forgot all about checking my altimeter at any point. In the plane Robert had showed me the rip cord attached to me and said, "If you get scared or you see that we are at 3 or 4000 feet and I haven't opened the chute, you pull this", and I said, "Ok!" I am very glad Robert was awake and on the job because I was having such a good time I didn't think anything about how many thousand feet up we were at any given moment.
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Once he pulled the chute and we slowed down I couldn't help but yell, I was SO excited about the amazing freefall. Bless Robert's heart, he's trying to do his parachute thing and I'm all, "OH MY GOSH THAT WAS AMAZING! WHOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOW! THAT WAS AMAZING!" I was so full of the amazing thing we had done I just couldn't keep it in. He said it was a great jump as we had been stable (falling on our stomachs) from the very start without any flips or rolls. Cool! I like to think I helped with that in some way. I didn't, but I still like to think that.
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The canopy ride was of course absolutely fun and amazing; I could even see Jill and Chuck below and in front of us. The wind was right for Jill and Chuck to do a stand-up landing while Robert and I scooted to a very soft sit-down stop. Jill has actually written up her experience here, so you can see what it was like from her perspective.
What an amazing adventure it was. It was SO much fun to share this experience with a friend, and I can't WAIT for my next jump!
Happy Pink Saturday! Doesn't Beverly do a wonderful job hosting this event? Thank you, Beverly!
Hubs brought in the first rose of the year off of one of our rose bushes yesterday.
And how to describe the scent...light and sweetly citrus like fresh lemonade. How blessed we are that the right plant + sun + soil + water results in such beauty.
I feel a need to share some of the situations in which I've found myself during the course of my life. Maybe I need to clear my conscience. Mainly I hope to make you laugh. In any case here we begin one of those stories.
Hubs and I had been involved with a community organization that helps animals (I'm leaving all names out to protect the innocent) for about 4 months when the group received word that, through an unfortunate turn of events, a herd of goats in a neighboring town found themselves with no caretakers. They had broken through their fence and periodically wandered around the neighborhood wreaking havoc, and I guess eating things that didn't belong to them. Our group was led to believe that the town would appreciate our help with the goats. We decided to see what we could do, and hubs actually located a family, we'll call them Dave and Leeane, with pasture land who would be glad to have a free herd of goats. We told the family where to find the goats; they borrowed a trailer and met one of our group members at the site one morning a day or so later (a Wednesday I believe and the day before Valentine's 2008) and between them got 14 of the 30 or so goats loaded up with the idea to drop them off and return for the rest of the herd. That's great! We were so excited to have helped so quickly!
Evidently when Dave returned later in the morning for the rest of the goats some person stopped to talk to him; the details of this are fuzzy, but whatever happened it kicked off a day full of more entertainment than strictly necessary. Just after lunch I received a call at work that there were policemen waiting for Dave and he was told if the 14 STOLEN (!!!) goats were not returned by 5 pm that day he would be LOCKED UP! I should stop here and say that I was highly suspicious of the lock-up story, but had no way to get to the bottom of things before the 5 pm deadline (I was at work for goodness' sake). Later I heard from a different source that some member of the police department lived down the road, noticed the trailer go by, and dropped by to inform Dave that these particular goats were wrapped up in a probate court case and could not legally be removed from the premises. Supposedly this guy was off duty and just informing Dave of the facts of the situation...which wasn't quite the SWAT team scenario I was first given, but who knows what really happened. In any case it turned out that our group had been misled as these goats had not actually been eligible for assistance. Antics ensue.
I felt strongly that hubs and I needed to help Dave and family get those first 14 goats returned since we were the reason they knew about the goats in the first place. Just shove the lot in the trailer one more time and dump them back in their field, right? Wrong. I guess Dave in his panicked state imprudently shared the story with the owner of the trailer who, fearing some sort of trouble for himself through indirect involvement, decided his trailer had best stay safe at home with him. Now needed: one trailer.
I have lived in small town South Carolina my whole life, so you might assume I know something about livestock. The sum total of my involvement with farm animals consists of driving past pastures containing horses and cows and goats (and maybe rolling down the window to moo at a cow every now and then. Don't lie, you've done it). I hope to own some goats and chickens one day, but at the moment the approximately 160 pounds of dogs running around my yard is as close as I get to the barn yard. I don't have a trailer, and I don't know anybody who has a trailer. I called any and everyone I could think of. I called our local farm supply store to ask if they knew of trailer rental places and was told "No..." in a tone that suggested the employee felt there was something wrong with my brain function. What was I thinking asking the farm store if they knew where to find some farm equipment?!?!
I was at the end of my ideas, so I called hubs (who had taken the day off work) and said, "I can't find a trailer anywhere; what are we going to do..." And my man came up with it: U-Haul. So simple, so unexpected, yet...it just might work! When he said that magic word all worry went out of my head. Hubs can do anything, so I knew once he settled on a plan our lock-up fears were over.
Crisis management team Hubs and Co. sprang into action. I called various members of our group to see if anyone could help us return the "stolen" property. I called Dave and Leeane to coordinate when we would arrive (hubs and I had to plan around the play practice we had immediately after work. We were Auntie Em and Uncle Henry in our community theater's production of The Wizard of Oz...we may not be farmers, but we play some on stage...God has a sense of humor, people). Hubs secured the truck. Yes, truck. 14 ft moving truck to be specific. I wondered if we could fit 14 goats in the truck...I felt royally stupid later when I saw the goats and realized that even though these were BIG goats we could have fit about 50 of them in there.
