Monogram Collage

This was a fun project I did for Tami's birthday party.  
I gathered pictures of her and printed them in black and white.
Bought this letter "T" from Joanne's.
Spray painted it black.
Cut the pics to fit and decoupaged them to the "T".
Gave it another coat of decoupaged and voila!!

Yes, this is the #5. I was working on another project with the pictures (which didn't work out) and forgot to take a picture of just the pictures! Did I say the pictures enough times? 

Super easy, just time consuming with all the cutting and placing of the pictures.
I gave Tami the "T" as part of her gift. She's hanging it on her wall at home ;)

Thanks for visiting!

Birdies

I Love Birds!

They don't have to be spectacular looking either. I appreciate all of them (except pigeons, sorry).  Especially when they sing~

²⁵ “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? ²⁷ Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
Matthew 6:25&26


This little mama and papa bird serenaded us for hours up at the cabin one morning.  They graciously posed for me too. I'm not even sure what kind of bird they are, just cute! 
I've noticed that some of the plainest birds can make the prettiest music.


Thanks for visiting!

Happy Birthday Tami

We are "Mother-In-Laws" together but my favorite thing is that we are grandmothers, otherwise known as "The Mobbies" to our shared grandson Gregory. She's Mamo and I'm Bobbie so you get "Mobbie out of that!

Today is her birthday and I just want to say that I love her and appreciate our relationship.
Happy 50th Tam. You are precious to me.
xoxo

The Secret Village

I hadn't been to one of my favorite Mom & Pop stores, The Secret Village,  in a while but today I stopped in to say "hey" and what do ya know....

The cutest little measuring cups I have EV-A seen said "you know you gotta take us home".  I did.
I just had to share that with you ;)
Thanks for looking!

Sunflower Napkin Rings

I did a little project for my daughter-in-law's mama's b-day party.  She loves silk sunflowers so I made these napkin rings out of upholstery strapping, sunflowers and twine. Kinda cute for not too much time or $$  !!

My $17 Chair Re-Do

Remember my $17 fun find?

 So the process began....

 Lots of elbow grease, coughing and waving away the dust, yuck!
Black spray paint covers a multitude of sins.

Then a trick I learned from Pinterest. Spread Gesso on and then immediately wipe off with a soft cloth.
This is the finish you end up with...

You have to do a lot of buffing with your cloth to get it just right so go get a cup of coffee or a coke cause you'll need your strength! Ok, a candy bar then!
Here's the  upholstery fabric I chose...

Off to my friend Brenda to do the upholstery. I'm too chicken to take that part on.
I'll post a pic of the finished product when I get it back from her. So excited!

This is Love (something to ponder)

I

^{Roman 8:31-39 (The Message version)}
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: 

   They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. 
   We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Now THAT'S love!

Tommy at Saguaro Lake

Tommy's my oldest son. He's a professional bass fisherman so he steals away to fish as often as possible.
The other day he invited me to go. I love being on the lake...

It was a beautiful sunrise and the water was like glass.

Tommy had a lot of success . Caught quite a few large mouth bass.

This one was kinda feisty, fun to watch him reel it in.

I realized when we were loading the boat that I hadn't taken any pics of the landscaping, so I snapped this little beauty.
Gorgeous Saguaro Lake ;)
Thanks for the lovely day Tommy. Your mama loves these special times together!
xox

Happy 100th AZ. "The Little Red School House"

 Right in the heart of "Old Town Scottsdale" is the "Little Red School House".  It was school house, library, City Hall, Justice Court etc. in the early 1900's.

 I brought "my youngest", who has his father's gift of masonry.  He had to do his own inspection ;). 

He approved

Things sure have changed since then.
Scottsdale's Public Library today.

I love the architectural detail of the bird.  It's the sun shining through a cut-out in a detail in the roof.

Thanks for coming along with me today Nate!

I will post more of downtown Scottsdale soon. There's more cool stuff...

Thanks for visiting!

Conversation Art

Today I was pondering how hard it is for me to start a conversation these days.  I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and would rather listen more? I am turning into my mother in so many ways ;) Or if it's because I'm intimidated with personal insecurities or maybe it's the idea that it can actually be exhausting. 
Whatever it is I know how important it is to be able to converse well.
Everyone likes to communicate, especially us girls ;)  
I love going to a party or get-together and be able to talk to everyone.  Especially if there's kids! They're the most fun because they don't really care how perfect or put together you are, they're just happy that you're interested in them! Hmmmm.....maybe that should be a clue to us adults with how we are with each other?
Anyway, I was looking around the web for some thoughts on conversation and found a few fun conversation starters.
Try a few of these....


1. What do you wanna be when you grow up? (Use it with adults)
2. What did you want to do when you were 5?
3. What was the last really dumb thing you did?
4. What's the best gift you ever received?
5. What's the farthest you have ever traveled in a car? 
6. What's the grossest  food you ever tasted?
7. What's your favorite Dr. Suess book?
8. Who's your favorite Muppet?


If you want to have a little more serious conversation here's a few...


1. Where do you go for advice?
2. Where were you on  Sept. 11/01?
3. What habit are you most proud of breaking?


Above all else I think it's most important to let that person know you're truly interested in what they have to say. 
I like these wise quotes:


'Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk." 
Doug Larson


"A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something." 
Wilson Mizner

As always, thank you for visiting and I hope you were encouraged on this subject. 

I appreciate any comments or ideas you have on the subject.

Happy 100th Arizona!

I hope to learn more about my beautiful home, Arizona this year in honor of her 100th year.We are blessed to have a second home in Payson so I thought I would start here.
 We built our cabin a few years ago and  have spent many hours going back and forth from Phoenix to Payson on the usual "well worn path". 
Well last weekend my Sweetie wanted to golf at the Municipal Course in town and I didn't want to get stuck without a car for 4 hours so I drove him there. It was off my usual path so I paid close attention to the surrounding this time since I hadn't in the past other than once or twice before and all I can remember thinking was "where is there to shop?" .  I really noticed a few things on this particular day. This was clearly named "Main Street" for a reason.  It had to have been THE MAIN street way back when.  There were some really cool old, I mean, OLD buildings. I made a mental note to come back before we left that weekend to snap a few pics. 
This "Mud House" was just the coolest! I hope you can read the plaque.  

and now for "The Mansion" it mentions....

It also had a few "Rentals" available!

This next photo is a very old barn or industrial building of some sort. I LOVED this one! Such cool texture and had such a look of "I've got some stories to tell"

h

Who's this handsome guy?

It was a chilly day so we only had patience for a one more building.

 The Old School House

It is has been beautifully restored and obviously functioning.

Here are a few closeups of the building materials.

Look at the size of those block!

( He's a masonry contractor )

I have plans to go back an do a little more exploring. I would love to share it when I do so watch for more posts!

Thanks for visiting!