~ may all your WISHES come true on this RED friday!

I gotta tell ya, it’s been raining cats & dogs!  I’m not complaining.  I actually truly enjoy rain.  I love the sound and the smell and the dark shadows it casts in the house.  I love being home…doing my thang…when it’s raining!

But this is getting serious.  Since I was up at 2AM changing the battery in the smoke detector…don’t get me started…I began thinking I best get started gathering my TWO’s.  I wanna be ready when Noah swings by later!

I think it’s important to pack light.  Which I’ve never done in my entire life, but I’m gonna give it a shot.  And I think I’ll take the things that I simply can’t live without.  Yeah.  That sounds like a good idea.

I’m a little perturbed about this TWO thing *rule*.  I tried calling Noah and got a recording…something about “English or Spanish” and press “1″ for this and “2″ for that.  I hung up.  Then I started wondering if that was a Noah rule or a God rule?  uh-huh.

Will there be a bag limit or weight limit and how many ounces of liquid can I take, what about my laptop, I need to tell someone I prefer a window seat (are there window seats on a rather large boat?) and will I have to do a body scan to get on the Ark?  Is it a deal breaker if I only have ONE of something?

Was it Noah that started all these nightmare-ish travel rules?  I’m beginning to wonder…

Here are a few *necessities* I’ve gathered so far…

…have lip gloss, will travel…

i would feel completely lost without a Louis Vuitton…or two…

that reminds that TWO totes are essential…the pink one Tricia gave me and the white one that red.neck girl, Robelyn, made…

does that mean only TWO outfits…huh…then it’s gotta be…

ahh, the silver lining…i’ll only need TWO of these…

i think my friend Mindy would agree to take these…for holding…ummm…stuff…

i don’t go anywhere without these…but wait…is it ONE pair or TWO slippers?

Man.  This is hard! 

Well anyway, gotta run…it’s raining again and there’s more gathering to do!  What are you packing for your stay on the Ark?

As is so often the case, when I took on my latest *project* (ahem) I went into it with a false sense of self-confidence!  Words like: glass, flux, exacto-knife, soldering iron, cutter, grinder, breaker pliers, tips, electricity and Janet do not belong in the same conversation!  And if they ever are…run for cover!  Okay, you’ve been warned!

Against my better judgement, I took a stained glass class a few years ago.  Wanna talk about a fish outta water!  I wanted to learn how to make picture charms.  I signed up and every Thursday night for six (grueling) weeks I was taught more than I ever wanted to know about stained glass!

But in the end, I learned how to make charms and I’ve been lovingly making them from that day to this!  I was in the stained glass store the other day restocking my glass supply and stumbled across a book that was heavy on inspiration and short on instruction!  UH-OH.  It’s fine.  I don’t need a lot of instruction…really, I’d rather muddle through it and figure it out myself!

I’m one of those people that would take the 9000 parts to a swingset and a week to put it together without once glancing in the general direction of the instructions!  Nevermind that I could read the instructions and put it together in a day!  In my world, that’s entirely beside the point!

Armed with my stained glass skills, my short attention span and my construction savvy…wait, I have no construction savvy…well then, armed with my stained glass skills and my short attention spam I set out to make glass houses!  I threw the first one away.  Literally.  And took the second one apart three times before I got it the way I wanted it…far from perfect!  Just like me!

Goodness knows I have not one ounce of spare time right now prepping for Marburger, but once I set my mind to something there’s just not a whole lotta stoppin’ me!  Currently, I am just shy of a full blown neighborhood…more like a village…a small village.  I’ve managed to complete five houses!

I have named them “Hallelujah Houses” because every time I finish one I am confident I have witnessed a miracle!

Of course, they would not be ME if I didn’t include my love of words!  Are you sufficiently curious?  Prepare to be impressed…well anyway, I am!

this is the Texas house…thus the bling and, of course, the words “heavenly place”!

every village needs a French house!  (hopefully the words are *nice*!)

this one from the pages of an Organic Chemistry book!

no village is complete without a Church…in the group picture the other side has the dangling turquoise cross!

the first one i made with sheets of music!

the Texas and French houses and the Church!

I don’t know if anyone else will like them, but me and my imagination have had a great time building these little glass houses!  btw…the tallest one is about 4″ and I added glass and rock feet to turn the *quirky* up just a notch! 

I am my happiest…when I’m in my zone…lost in my messy space…creating!

I can’t quit talkin’ about the big *adventure* that I went on with my friend Tricia this summer!  We played blog games and Marsha was the winner of all those treasures we collected along the way!

Here are a few pics of her box of goodies just before I sealed it and got that happy mail on its way!

Wanna know what’s in those packages?  You’ll have to hop over to Marsha’s blog and see her pictures!

You could be a winner too!  Just leave a comment and I’ll enter your name in the SweetTalk Thanksgiving Package give-away!

Good Gosh!  September 1st…is it possible?  YES.IT.IS.

No worries, I’m on board!  Marburger Farm opens September 28 and I’m a pricing-packing fool!  The sleepless nights have started as I get so-so excited!  A place where creativity flows!  And so many friends I can’t wait to see!  Theresa’s blog party!  oh my stars!

As usual, I’m getting ahead of myself!  First, a winner has been picked and that winner is ANGELA!  She stopped over during the big *adventure* this summer and played blog games! 

It paid off!  Angela will be receiving a SweetTalk Halloween Package in the mail!  Oh how I love hap-hap-happy mail!  Congrats Angela and thanks so much for hanging out on my blog!

up  next…the September give-away!  A SweetTalk Thanksgiving Package!

BURIED - IN – JUNK!

After getting home from the big *adventure* it took me a few days to recover!  Coming down from a shopping-high is far worse than coming down from a sugar-high!  phew!

Once I got my feet under me…I dove in!  Here are a few pictures of the abyss…ahem, the dining room!  I have a workroom upstairs, but I couldn’t fit all this JUNK any one place! 

plan of attack…upstairs with the Ironstone and downstairs with everything else!

Some of the Ironstone and boy don’t I just love it when I have like-a gazillion butterpats to price!

My little helper, cookie-cat, and the fabulous motel blanket that started all that sneezing!

I’ve managed to work my way through most of it!  I bet you can even see me smiling!

Don’t forget…last chance to leave a comment to be entered in the SweetTalk Halloween Package give-away!  A winner will be picked…tomorrow!  So…hurry…leave a comment!

But I have permanence issues!  There.  I said it!

That’s why there’s no wallpaper in my house!  I figured the second that glue dried I’d be sick-to-death of it!  It’s also why I’ve never owned a RED car!

Weeks of contemplating a major purchase…RED CAR swimming in my head…visualizing myself in a RED CAR…does my wardrobe match a RED CAR…how long will I LOVE a RED CAR?  It’s too much!

I simply have no ability to commit to something like that.  Something that I’m stuck with for a long period of time.  Something that’s expensive to replace.

Hey, this is the *wisdom* part of the aging process!  Just one of the invaluable things I’ve learned about myself!  uh-huh.

I was looking through pics from the yard sale *adventure* and stumbled across this one…

It’s not just a RED CAR…it’s a PINTO!  holy moly!

I just gotta tell you about my friend Shelley!  She was one of my bff’s in high school and her parents bought a green Pinto in 1977.  Now, we didn’t exactly think that a Pinto was a hot car…why they didn’t buy a baby-blue Camaro…to this day…defies logic!

But, nevertheless, when you’re sixteen and you need wheels you are not one bit picky!  So green Pinto it was!

On a typical night out we would head for the neighborhood Church’s Fried Chicken for a large Dr. Pepper.  Not because the DP was anything to get excited about, but because the ice was that shaved ice and we loved to crunch ice!

Back in those days…man I feel old (sometimes)…the official drink holder was between your legs!  That left Shelley to manage the driving duties + shift gears + hold her drink + be on the lookout for boys + look cute doing it ALL!

These two girls put their blonde heads together and came up with a plan…I actually worked the gear shift from the passenger seat!  That freed Shelley up to perform her other duties exceptionally and, really, my only job was to hang on to my drink and look for boys…well…I was happy to help!  We made a great team!

As if one green Pinto wasn’t enough, Shelley’s parents liked the first one so much, they bought another one!  The exact same color only it was a Pinto Station Wagon!  o.m.g.

I think I have finally come down from the high of shopping for double-digit days!  Not sayin’ I like it, just sayin’!

I am, however, buried alive in the bottomless-pit-of-pricing! 

I don’t care what anybody says…this is the fun part…right.

In very disturbing news…I immediately rushed cookie-cat to the
Vet thinking she was coming down with a cold…yes it’s possible…only to discover that every time she lays on the fabulous, vintage pinky-peachy motel blanket (in the middle of the abyss) she sneezes her little furry head off!

How in the world did I end up with a cat that’s allergic to JUNK?  thud.

RED FRIDAY, oh how I’ve missed you!  Once again combining
my love of words with my love of the great minds that put them together!

Tricia and I put together a montage of our BIG yard sale *adventure*!  Hidden some where in the video is the name of the give-away winner! 

watch closely…..

Game #5 was a little tricky!  I said “NO” to all of it!

It’s a stumper…but…the doll hutch (as much as I wanted it) was literally the first stop!  Hard to pull the trigger on a hundred-spot right out of the gate! 

Y’all didn’t think I was serious about that barrel bar, didya?  That’s even a little crazy for me and I’m pretty darn crazy!  I think Debbie got it right…if I had been shopping for my brother it would have been a YES!  And I loved the point Sherry made…it would have been a space eater in Mighty, she knows me too well!

The band hats…man…I struggled!  But that’s the kinda thing I totally heart and no one on this earth would ever buy from me!

The shabby stool…what was not to love?   But there was no room in it to make a few dollars!

The elf…another struggle, but kinda the same as the band hats, so I passed on him too!

Since no one got it totally right…and since I’m in charge of the RULES…for everyone that said *NO* on the barrel bar you get THREE, everyone else gets one!

I’d like to say a gigantic THANKS to everyone for playing!  Tricia and I sat up til the wee hours most every night to get our posts up!  We giggled lots and wondered who would stop by and what your guesses would be!

It has meant the WORLD to us!

You can continue to comment through Wednesday!  Someone WILL have a lucky Friday the 13th!  We will be doing a special post to announce the WINNER! 

And, whether you knew it or not, every time you commented you were also entered in the SweetTalk Halloween Package give-away!  I’ll be picking a winner for that later this month!  So keep those comments coming!

It’s one heck-of-a-lucky month!

I can’t end without a coupla more Fun-Fun-FUNNY signs!

in case you can’t see it too well, it says: hollow for don or arlene

yes, folks, that’s “hollow”!  say it in your bestest twang!

seriously!  even i’m at a loss for words…

In closing this big *adventure* I have to say thanks from the bottom of my Texas-sized-heart to my sweet friend Tricia…btw…be sure to check out her post…she and her bald guy ROCK!  They are gracious, generous and a ton-o-fun! 

I am so blessed to know them and each of you!  It’s been a benefit of blogging I never anticipated! 

me and the bald guy!

me and precious tricia…this morning…our teary-eyed good-bye!

Jane-T signing off on the big *adventure* of twentyten!