Guess What! I'm In Romantic Prairie Magazine!

I just got my copy when i got home from work today

 and it will be out for sale any day now!

The magazine is beautiful!

and i'm not just saying that because i'm in it

It's so well done, 

gorgeous photos furniture and decor...

charming homes...

flowers... 

even the fonts are beautiful!

It's the perfect combination of the past and the present... 

taking the best from both 

I can't believe i'm in such an amazing magazine...

If  you had told me a year ago i would be featured in a magazine by FiFi O'Neill who was editor of my favorite magazine in the world 

"Romantic Country"

i would have said nuh uh!!!

anyway...here are some sneak peaks....

I hope it's ok to show these peeks...

everything about it is visually enticing...

my photos here are horrible quicky night shots of the magazine

the photos in the actual magazine are phenomenal

The article about me was very sweet

Look how it starts...

...wow...

 

see the name Kimberley McCole under the title

- she interviewed me, and i Love her-

she was so down to earth and sweet and easy to talk to

every time we interacted - 

she made me feel the most interesting special person ever...

Anyway, keep a look out for the magazine... it has a wonderful mix of updated prairie style,... simple rooms with clean lines and beautiful neutrals - 

lots of shabby wonderful in the best way- charming features and some other bloggers you might already know and love...

the end

Oh So Random... Photos of things around the house...

Just some photos on a rainy Sunday afternoon...

faux fleurs

a little clock

a new bush from the garden center with burgandy leaves and these tiny clusters of blooms

 ...so dainty and pretty...

a great dress i found at TJ Maxx... it's form fitting so it squeezes your fat in, sorta, look at that stomach!  geeeesh...

  i put a pink blouse on top of it...  

anyway, it's a great dress with gauzy fabric

see how pretty the fabric is...

the back of a little chair, with a raggedy little slip cover, i like this fabric...

cute little burlap covered glass vase thingy with a bee on it, from Marshalls, 

only $5.99!

Cowboy boots, and little vase from the thrift store...  you can still see the price on it!, 

I'm sooo tacky

Wonderful back lit vintage lace...  I love vintage lace

One of two pillowcases i won in a gave away from sweet Sissy,

at

  Sissy's Shabby Cottage....

"Pearly Gates"  rose... 

I think they named it well..

"Pearly Gates" in CinemaScope

hmmm.... looks like a painting idea to me....

Ruffles...

corner of the coffee table

view of pink geraniums, looking out the window....

and that's all i've got for now

hope ya'll are having a wonderful spring sunday!

...the end...

Pretty and Easy Birthday Cake, and GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Last blog post i told you guys about a really easy cake that looks so pretty and fancy...

Well... here it is!

It's my daughter's birthday today, and i made it for her... from scratch.... !

uhhh... well almost from scratch...

ok.... fine, it's not actually not from scratch at all

Duncan Hines Lemon Cake mix, and Duncan Hines creamy lemon icing...

 I did grow the pansies though~!`

just bake a bundt cake

ice it

put a little container for water in the middle

pluck some pansies and put them in the water 

and that's it

 My daughter is a trip, she immediately grabbed one  of the pansies off the cake and plopped it in her mouth and ate it right in front of me...

I don't know why she did that... 

i mean, it's ok to eat pansies

and,it's fine that she did

but i probably would have stuck my finger in the icing 

 one thing Ellie is not, is boring!

 When she was a kid, she ate a red ant and a black ant... she just wanted to try them

 She told me red ants are saltier...

I still have a residual eye twitch from her teenage years... 

But if i had to go into battle, she's the one i'd take with me!

This is her now...

she's pretty darn cute

and Loves animals

she has stopped traffic more than once saving a stray dog

She has lot's of boobs 

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Anyway on to the giveaway...

Soooo, the weirdest thing happened...

I received sooo many really sweet emails about the hydrangea painting giveaway..

it made me feel guilty that i can't do a painting for each one of you really sweet special friends...

One of them was from Lou Cinda @ Tattered Hydrangeas

She talked about how much she loved hydrangeas, and planted them in her yard, and carried them at her wedding... 

and i thought wouldn't it be funny if she won the giveaway...

anyway, i put all the names in my pink hat, and took a photo of it with "Bushy" (of course)

(you can see more about "bushy" in the previous post)

and then i took four names from the hat

and laid them on the counter

 and grabbed Mr. Fractured who was clueless about what was going on... and eating nachos

I asked him to draw a name from the four folded peices of paper

and he pulled out a name

and it was Lou Cinda @ Tattered Hydrangeas..!

That just kinda blew my mind

it's like it was meant to be

So Lou Cinda, yay for you! and send me your address! 

because you sure as heck were meant to have this painting!

 ...the end...

Good Bush Alert!

Hey my sweeties... I wanted to show you guys a great bush, that looks like a white hydrangea, but it's not... and it's blooming it's little bushy butt off right now...

here is a closeup with a cute little pink azalea...

here is me screwing around in "Picassa"... 

the same closeup with the effect "Cinemascope"

here it is when the blooms are new and a touch green

 

 here, a little more mature blooms, and white as can be

close up

same photo "Cinemascope"

(in Picassa)

 same photo with the "Ortonish" effect, just a little, all in Picassa

here it is in a tarnished little silver vase...

i bet you think i just showed you waaaaay too many photos of this bush

...but heck....

i could have also posed it with 
me sitting beside it drinking a beer

or in the afternoon light

or in the morning light..

or with Ted sitting next to it reading a book...
or with me sitting beside it painting my nails...
you're lucky i stopped when i did!

anyway, this is an awesome bush

and here is it's little bushy name

Things are BURSTING into BLOOM around here!

I think heaven must be like spring and smell like lilacs, and have little soft white flower petals from the cherry trees drifting down 

and  flowers blooming everywhere

Here is my little house with the pink door with "Bushy"and a pink azalea, and see that crazy old Lady Banks Rose blooming on the arbor!

Mr. Fractured attacked that with the clippers a couple of years ago...

He's really cute and sexy and i like and love him and all...

but NOT when he cuts up my rose!
He was in Big Trouble!

MEN AND CLIPPERS!

you have to keep a close eye on them when they have clippers in their hands, they are not to be left unsupervised in the garden!!!

you can see my "Believe" sign is all wonky and backwards
oops

Here is the same photo with a touch of the "Ortonish" effect in Picassa

i kinda like this effect, it makes things look sweet to me...

another view with a touch of the "Ortonish" effect

I don't know what that puddle in the driveway is,
probably some horrible thing leaking from my car

Ok, let's change the subject, 

you're probably thinking

 "thank god, 

"if she shows me another photo of that bush or shows the "Ortonish" effect again, i'm unfriending her"

Anyway...I moved the plates from the top of the mirror in the living room, to the sides, 

which  really makes more sense because it's a long wall, 

and that helped fill the side wall space

don't know why i didn't think of that before

this..... 
"ortinish effect" oops said it again!

versus this....

i didn't need more height over the mirror... i needed width !

can't resist showing a couple more  more photos from the garden

just look at this sweet lady

and these petunias survived the winter, and have burst into bloom again right along with the pansies...

I've never seen that happen...

and seeing those spring pansies reminds me...

do you know what's pretty?!

make a lemon bundt cake

and frost it with lemon icing

 in the center hole in the cake

put a shot glass with some water in it

(i have plenty of those, empty ones) 

 and then put little purpley blue and white and pale yellow pansies in it, or whatever color you have...

they are edible, so no problem with that

The colors of the pansies in the center of the cake with the pale yellow icing is so delightful and springy!

it will be the prettiest cake you'll ever see and so simple!

That's all for now, and no more pictures of "bushy" 

i promise

.... the end...

A 30 Minute Painting Just for Fun... and My First Giveaway !

 I wanted to do an easy easy easy, fun painting today...  i was inspired by a simple little heart painting on the 

"Simply Me" blog...

scroll down the post on the link, and you'll see it

she has this wonderful little painted heart, and i think she painted it

there's something about it that i just love

I bought a 2 canvas pack at Michaels for $7.99, and decided to be invested in not being invested in making anything perfect... 

it was fun...

and the pinkness inspired me to throw some pink at this other little hydrangea painting i had... the brush already had pink in it, so why not!

Here is my 30 minute painting... 

Ok,  it's so simple that a child could do it...

but, what the heck, ...i like it..., it was fun and easy, 

and i needed to do something that was was just simple creation

and you know what,... 

there is something just in the doing of it

in the letting go

in learning to play with the paint

in accepting it might look stupid and being ok with that

...that is spirit art for me right now...

it's hard for me to let go like that

If i hadn't just done it, 

that little heart might have never happened

I'm just sayin guys...

you can paint,

but if you don't

you will never have tried

you can paint a heart, just like i did

and like Tausha did

with your own colors

in your own way

try NOT to be perfect

it's hard!


Here are some photos of the $2.99 each brushes from Michaels i used..

colors used:
titanium white
raw umber
yellow ochre
ultramarine blue
cadmium red, (i think) it was a warm orangey red


anyway.... the lucky little hydrangeas that were close by watching,  got a little kiss of pink from the same brush...

The hydrangea painting is  16 x 20  

and guess what

It is my first giveaway!

If you'd like to win it, you'd have to be a friend/follower


and leave me a comment letting me know if it is a painting that would work for you


that's it !

 i'll put all the names in my pink hat and draw a winner
on April 15th, which is my daugher's birthday!

 ...the end...