A new life mission!

Dear Gentle Readers, I am here at work and it is miserably slow.  I was thinking what could I do to possibly pass the time more enjoyably!  My first thought was to break out in song and show them a little soft shoe but that might embarrass my fellow employees and make them feel so inferior and talentless!  So I decided I would delight you and dazzle you with my sparkling whit and wisdom.  Oh lucky you!  Nothing particularly exciting going on at the Thicket that needs to be regaled in my unique perspective so I just may elegantly amble on about nothing!


I haven't stitched a drop since last weekend and this weekend might be rather thin in that department but we will see.  I am waiting on my "Forgive Quickly Kiss Slowly" to come.  I am anxious to start that and possibly begin that motto immediately in my own life!  I thought, why the heck do I need a special guy to employ that philosophy with?  So imagine this if you will..I am standing in line at the local hardware store, someone accidentally nudges me from behind and I turn around and it is very handsome man.  I quickly tell him I forgive him and I wrap my arms around him, bend him backwards and give him the best kiss of his life.  His wife and children standing next to him are not amused and as the cops hand cuff me and drag me off for assaulting with a deadly weapon (my kisses are deadly fabulous), they refuse to listen to my entreaties about my new life mission.

I love this little freebie and it can be found at: http://theprimitivehare.blogspot.com/

Stephanie has a wonderful sounding apple coffee cake recipe made in the crock pot.  You can find the recipe here: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/



These are really sweet and you can find the patterns here: http://stitchesandcatsohmy.blogspot.com/

Well these are all my mindless meanderings and if you hear not from me gentle readers for a while, please I will need a little bail money, I may be in the hoosegow.  So until then God Bless Us, Everyone!

PS:  Hello Orin and welcome to my Lilac Thicket.  We will talk at a later time about that forgiving and kissing thing!

What a sexy girlish girl wears.

Oh my we had a beautiful full moon last night!  There was a thin veil of clouds and they were flying across the moon like they were late for a very important appointment somewhere north of here.  This morning the sun is just now gracing us with his presence (I know the sun is a male because of his name, Sol).  There is a very steady wind out there and I can see the brown leaves in the pin oak tree gyrating like a million Tahitian dancers.  It sounds like a lovely huge wind chime in my very own back yard.

You may or may not recognize that lovely woman in the above picture.  It is Rita Hayworth and she is wearing a very sexy outfit.  The picture was in my Colette Patterns e-mail yesterday and she was talking about how do you dress, is it for comfort or is it for sex appeal or something else altogether.  I am definitely a girly girl and I love frilly, lacy, soft, satiny and it is those things that make me feel sexy.  It is the cute hair, the little bit of make-up I wear to make my eyes the first thing you notice, it is the soft, floral cologne I like to wear, it is the fit of the clothes I wear, that make me feel sexy.  For so long now I have not felt sexy nor desirable but along about last July when enough weight had come off and I was feeling so much better, I began to want to care about how I looked.  A dear friend whispered in my ear last week that she really enjoyed watching me develop this confidence, this attitude I now have.  Important to me was if it appeared in overt or in subtle ways and she said definitely subtle.  I don't ever want to be arrogant or what we called in my younger years "stuck up". I want to be quietly confident and cool and sexy.  For instance on Monday when I walked out of a shop and a fellow in a truck was flirting with me as he backed out of the parking place and almost hit the car waiting for his spot.  I was very cool and aloof, pretended not to notice, continued on my way to my car and then I laughed and laughed and I felt like a million bucks.

I am so excited about me and looking forward to enjoying my journey in life.  I was thinking about my wardrobe and what little pieces I would need to have in order to delight my girlish side.  First would be a sexy, silky camisole and maybe a lacy one, something to wear under a blouse with a pair of jeans.  This weekend I am going to find the fabric and I will keep you informed!  I mean gentle readers you are my most intimate girlfriends!  Yes I want to be sexy for someone and you know who that is?  Draw a little closer sisters, closer, a little closer because it is an intimate secret....ready?  Me!

I really like this spring time free design and you can capture it at:

http://martine290.over-blog.com/

This is a cute free design offered by Brookes Book Publishing!  It's called "Stupid Cupid", remember Lana & the Fontana's in the movie "Princess Diaries" sang the song "Stupid Cupid Stop Picking On Me".  Here is what that little booger looks like!  Snag him at: http://www.brookesbooks.com/CrossStitchFreebies.html

I did partake of a little nippy of the Stashahol 100 proof.  I ordered from 1-2-3 Stitch, Blackbird Designs "Pumpkin Farm", Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks "Imperial Heart" and then from Drawn Thread the January, February and March Calendar Covers.  My most favorite Stashahol though hasn't arrived, it is Lizzie Kate's "Forgive Quickly, Kiss Slowly"!  I hope to take her advise when I find the right kissable guy!

So all my lovelies, my girls, my posse, my most intimate readers, I will leave you for the moment but always remember, stay sexy, stay modest, stay Godly and above all stay blessed, everyone!

Big girl panties shouldn't wad!

One of the great things about losing weight is all the little perks, like having the tummy not rub up against the steering week, actually being able to tie one’s sneakers in the exact middle of the laces, bending over to pick up the candy bar wrapper that fell on the floor and then there is the joy of having your clothing get bigger and bigger until you actually look like a sad sack in them.  Well I had an epiphany at the Laundromat, I actually now had 7 (count ‘em seven) washing machines filled with clothing.  It used to be just 3!  Well now 2 of them were filled with my snickers!!!!  To my amazement I had 4 different sizes of snickers.  I had noticed that the larger sizes were creating a bit of a waddish situation, you’ve heard that saying “don’t get your panties in a wad”?  Well the bigger ones were feeling a bit on the waddish side.  So when I came home I sorted thru them and took the largest 2 sizes out of circulation, put them in a plastic grocery bag (see accompanying photo).   

When I was at work today I got to thinking about my girlish nature and even if I did put them in a plastic bag, when the snicker collection became thin because I was procrastinating a trip to the laundromat, I would dig those snickers out of my rag bag and wear them until I could make it up to wash more.  So what did my little mind come up with?  Well gentle readers…brace yourselves…I had a crotch cutting ceremony when I came home from work.  Yes I unknotted the bag and dumped them out (see accompanying photo)

and proceeded to cut all the crotches, sort of like a ribbon snipping ceremony, but for snickers. I snipped and snipped (see accompanying photo),

and before you know it all 16 pair were useless, unless I decide to go for the crotchless panty look (see accompanying photo) !  I can hear the gasps of horror, me in crotchless panties? That would be too horrible to even imagine!  Of course I wonder if this is what Victoria’s Secret had in mind for sexy intimate apparel…um-m-m, I think not!    

Then I gathered them all up and held them up and for one moment I thought I resembled a Native American holding the scalps of 16 white women instead of 16 pair of too large cotton drawers (see accompanying photo).  Now I will no longer be tempted by the big girl snickers!  Oh my gosh I am ingenious!

So now my gentle readers I have my rag bag full of useful cotton rags for my household chores, that is IF I decide to begin to DO household chores!  So my my gentle readers I will leave you with a bit of Lilac Thicket wisdom, if your panties get into a wad, snip the crotch!  God Bless us, everyone!

Happy Valentines Day!

May your Valentines Day be filled with love!

Life in the 12 item or less lane

With the warmer temps, the snow is melting quickly and I can't wait for it to disappear all together.  My thoughts have the definite flavor of warmer weather, chirping birds, children at play and even the dreaded sound of lawn mowers.  I finally got my car running after $124 for a new battery.  I didn't realize it was that old, it seems like only  3 years ago it was new.  I have my laundry all loaded into the trunk so I can get up to the laundromat early, like 7am and have it done by 8am.  I am in desperate need of clean snickers.

This weekend also consisted of the dreaded dog butt barbering.  Both my girls have such furry tushes that I have to trim the old keisters or ugly things could happen.  It is a joyful job, for them not me.  I definitely wouldn't want to allow someone with scissors snipping around my pride and joy!

I did get to the grocery store Friday late afternoon and everyone was there.  I am such a celebrity and all the public heard I was going to be up at the HyVee and wanted to get a glimpse of the famous one from the Lilac Thicket.  They were a bit disappointed that the cute hair wasn't going on but after a difficult week of no car, I was not in a cute hair frame of mind. 

I did stitch and stitch I did!  I am coming along even if the pic is sideways to allow an intimate and private look at my coming attraction of cute hair.  See the pin curls?  The above and the following 3 pics are with my web cam!  It is really cool and some of my best photos of me have been taken with it.  The only problem is they are show stuff mirror backwards. 

My brother called yesterday morning to remind me that he had forgotten my birthday.  Being the magnanimous person I am I told him that I was not upset because they had become passe since I had been privy to 54 of them.  He and Lillian, his lovely wife, had bought me a gift and so I went over to Mom's to meet them to receive said gift.  It is a lovely Scentsy® crock.  The little round badge has hearts on it and the color is a little more greenish blue  and I LOVE IT! 

They also gifted me two of the scent blocks, one in Sweet Pea and Vanilla and the other Lilac and Violet!  They both smell divine! 

Today was a laid back Sunday.  I stitched and watched some television as I stitched.  I took a nap and got my laundry together.  I am looking forward to this new week, with great spring like temperatures, a car that will start and therefore I can drive to work and just the thoughts of my Lilac Thicket bursting into a fragrant heaven in the not too distant future.  May God Bless all of us, everyone!



What once was lost, now is found

Good morning my gentle readers and the pickin's are slim here in the chilly snow covered Lilac Thicket.  The barest branches of our lovely boughs are aching to burst out in the tenderest of green leafs and the delicate and fragrant blossoms of our beloved lilacs.  Spring, we yearn for spring as surely as this girlish girl yearns for cute hair! 


We are 4 days from the love infused day of hearts and roses and chocolates.  I know here in the Thicket that we shall be devoid of all proclamations from male admirers!  So sad, but we have hopes of another Valentines Day when we will be swept up in passion and orgasmic delight! 

http://www.colettepatterns.com/blog

One of my most favorite blogs is Colette's Patterns. I get a daily e-mail from her with her newest blog entry and I have to say, I enjoy them immensely!  She has interesting posts about designers and their creations and I find that so fascinating.  Today's entry was about Edith Head, Hollywood Extraordinaire designer to the stars.  In this day's missive I learned she designed the wonderful party dress that Grace Kelly wore in my favorite movie "Rear Window".  I have absolutely loved that dress from the very first time I saw the movie.  Also Colette is a talented designer herself and she sells her patterns.  I am in love with her style.  Her patterns only go up to size 18 and that is a little to small for me at that time.  I do  promise you when I do get down to a size 18, I will definitely be purchasing a couple of her patterns!  I encourage you to take a look at her blog and if you sew you might want to take a look at her patterns!


I have found a couple of new sites with free cross stitch patterns that I really like.  Both are French blogs and the freebies there are magically delicious.
http://lacontesselepointdecroix.blogspot.com/search/label/schemi%20free
http://laurelinebroderie.com/boutique/gratuit.php
I will be adding both to my blog list on the right!  That way I will know when there is an update, isn't that the greatest?  Don't 'cha just love that feature on your Blogger bloggity blog blog?


Let me share with you a wonderful little story.  My father was in the Coast Guard and from 1970 to 1973 we lived in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Our next door neighbors were a wonderful couple Meg and Bob who became great friends with my Mom and Dad.  They had 3 children, Jeff, Lisa and Julie.  I used to babysit them.  Jeff and my brother Jeff were great friends and Lisa and Julie and I would play Barbie's or school out on the lanai (porch).  After we left, we lost contact with them.  Over the years my Mom and I would occasionally talk about our memories and wonder where and how they were.  So recently I searched Facebook and found several individuals by that last name and I sent messages.  About a week later I get a response from one of them, he was Meg and Bob's Jeff.  I was beyond thrilled.  He sent his mother my e-mail address and last night I got a wonderful e-mail from her.  I responded and sent her pics of us 38 years older.  One of the most wonderful thing about this world is our computers and the Internet, it makes so much possible today.  Over the past 38 years we all have lost so much but the joy in having one of those lost things, a fond relationship, returned to us is beyond words.


On that note we, the girlish residents of our Lilac Thicket send you, our gentle readers all the wonderful blessings God has to offer!  God Bless us Everyone!

The twit with the cute hair & blue refuse bags

That hole in the grey sky that kinda glows, it's the sun.  It is KOLD outside!  I know what you are going to say, cold is spelled with a "c"!  My response?  I can spell it anyway I want, I am the center of the universe and I can spell it anyway I want!  What the world should do is bow to everything that is me!  I am becoming twit-a-fied!  Heck if other people can be demanding and self serving, I can too!  I mean let me rant for 15 flipping minutes because there is no hyphen in my last name and dammit I want a hyphen there!  You are upset because the hyphen is missing?  I mean seriously gentle readers, a flippin' hyphen, oh my gosh stop the world and let me off.  Everyone whatever you are doing STOP!!!!!!!!  CPR on a code blue....STOP!!!!!!!!!!  Pouring water on a blazing home....STOP!!!!  Smoking that joint.....STOP!!!!!!!!!!  Declare a world wide emergency!!!!!!!!!  That last name is not hyphenated!!!!!! 

So in the excitement department of the Lilac Thicket it is garbage day.  And even our garbage bags are cute!  Everyone else in the neighborhood has black or white garbage bags, but here the refuse bags are blue!  Don't they look smashing against the white snow!  Ignore the broken snow shovel!  I know people drive by and admire the good taste of the residents of the Lilac Thicket!  "Oh my, she is SO stylish, and have you seen her cute hair?"

Look what I found in the gutter?  Sort of matches the dirty pile of snow on the side of the street.  

Well I am SO loved, truly I am blessed with such wonderful friends.  When I got to my desk at work yesterday, Queen Mum had a present for me.  She said she thought of me and purchased the above cookbook for me.  She thought it would add some variety to my diet.  It is a lovely cookbook.  I looked through it last evening and there are some great recipes.  All of them have 7 ingredients or less.  Here are some of the dishes I am going to have to try:

• Crab Fried Rice, page 119, oh my gosh, I love crab and in Fried Rice?  Need I say more?
• Garlicky Pork and Udon Bowl, page 110, sort of looks like Ramen
• Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps,  page 88
• Mediterranean Meatball Pitas, page 82, it calls for turkey meatballs but I think I would use beef
• Crunchy Asian Beef Slaw, page 66, rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, red cabbage, mint, roast beef and peanuts, doesn't that sound different and yummy!
• Linguine with Red Clam Sauce, page 55, I love linguine and clams
• Turkey-Bean Chili, page 48, cubed turkey, pinto beans, corn, tomatoes, it isn't a brothy chili
• Nacho Fondue, page 168, nacho cheese and tortilla chips
• Cheesy Sloppy Joes, page 158, this is the recipe pictured on the cover....YUM!
• Easy Pea Soup with Crab, page 150, this can be served hot or cold and uses frozen packages of peas

This is a fabulous collection of recipes and I will have to share my thoughts as I make these.  Thank you Dorothy, I love you SO much!

Don'cha love when you stumble onto some treasure that you purchased and put away for safe keeping and forgot about it?  I love Ladybugs!  I had purchased this last spring and fell in love with the happy, delightful style.  Of course this could be used for candy but you could also use it for little stitching stuff, beads, jewelry, a million things could be kept in it and bring you happiness and joy all year long. So now the question is, why did I put it away? 

My gentle readers, this twit-a-fied post is coming to an end.  I know you are weeping and separation anxiety is setting in.  My humble little twitty self, with the cute hair, must move on for the time being.  I will delight you again another day soon... from the depths of the Lilac Thicket, until then...God Bless us Everyone.

Get your filthy paws of my silky draw's

Good morning from the Lilac Thicket.  It is now 26° and the sky is overcast.  They are calling for, wait for it......SNOW!  1"-3" no less!  I mean I think we have had enough here in the Thicket!  Someone up there really is miffed with us.  I mean who could blame them, I just heard the rendition of the Star Bangled Banner as sung by some Hollywood Smut Queen at the Super Bowl, which I didn't watch.  I was watching David Tutera's My Fair Wedding!  I watched earlier the Ghost Hunter Marathon.  Okay, I did move off point but really that was embarrassing listening to that individual belt out our National Anthem and not even know the words.  I heard people making excuses but my thought is, don't you practice before you go out there, maybe have crib notes written on your hand, really she makes her living singing, ergo, a professional...at least "pro" maybe the proper term, if you get what I mean.  If you don't get what I mean that means you were born in 1999!  Okay I suppose it ticks me off that you get a singing porno queen to sing the National Anthem, that just seems wrong.  I don't listen to her music let alone watch her music videos as she bumps and grinds her way across a screen,  she is indecent and she doesn't care, so why should we care that we criticize her poor performance.  'nuff said.

So the poor quality photo above captures my progress on my ANN "A Christmas Tree".  I was so afraid that I was going to run out of fabric at the bottom but, yea... I didn't!  Still haven't decided to start with the beads yet.  I am dying to but am thinking about if I need to roll up the fabric on the Q-Snaps that the li'l beads could break under the clips.

So the most unusual sight awaited my blurry eyes as I opened curtains to peer out of my thicket this morning.  There was a herd of starlings on the roof of the house across from our beloved thicket.  They ringed the snow still on the roof and were I suppose eating/drinking the snow.  There were a couple of birds fighting in the gutter, making quite a racket.  It resembled my childhood kitchen table when my brothers and I squabbled over the last pancake!   

These were the snackie poo's that my Mommy (Hi Mommy, I love you) gave me for my birthday.  They are offered at Aldi's and they deserve 2 big thumbs up!  They are yum, yum, yummy!  There are 6 paks in a box 0.75 ounce each packet which has 90 calories.  I really like the Cinna-Swirl.  I am not sure how much they are but will definitely go up and stock up on them when I get paid. 

I did go up to Dollar General yesterday.  I got the cheap art that I mentioned in my last post.  The big white flower is 15" square and the 2 smaller framed pieces are 11" x13".  The mirror is 19" x 14".  The pictures are just cardboard the frames a light weight wood but I think they look richer than you would think.  I was careful to get the ones that weren't marred or bent.  The mirror and smaller pics were $6 and the larger pic was $8.  I want to hang them above the sofa. 

I spent about an hour in Dollar General.  They have some cute stuff.  I found a neat rich red wallet and a journal with a faux green leather cover.  I won't tell you I bought some silky drawers too!  So there are my treasures that I got yesterday and I am happy as a puppy with a bone.

So my wildly exciting life is about to become much MORE exciting...I get to go to work in t-minus 159 minutes...HOORAY!!!  So my gentle readers I am going to close and gently work myself out of my Lilac Thicket and enter this crazy thing we call civilization, well, the civil part might be overstating it.  God Bless Us, Everyone!

Oh Snap...cute hair!

Yup, I was feeling crummy yesterday so in the evening I washed and pin curled my hair while I waited for the Pizza Hut to deliver my medium pan crust meat lovers with mushrooms.  I felt rather bad because there was no path shovelled to the door, but I gave him a $10 tip so he didn't mind walking in the snow.  He was a cute young kid too!  The pizza was yummy! And the cute hair?  Well, a couple of fellows at the Hobby Lobby did a double take.  I pretend not to even notice or care but it sure does do a whole lot for my ego!  Okay, this is what happens to you when you get old, to have your glasses down at the end of your nose so you can read your computer screen, don't say you weren't warned!



Oh my mommy bought me the CUTEST rubber snow boots!  I love, love, love them!  The only way they could have been better would have been if they were pink plaid.  She also bought me a cool snow shovel that has an ergonomically correct handle.  I did get my car out the the drive yesterday and hit the Quik Trip for the nectar of the Greek Gods, Diet Pepsi!  It was just in the nick of time too because I was out!  No my gentle readers, it would have been down right ugly if I had run out.  I need, NEED my nectar, zero calorie of course!

So after an hour of primping this morning (vanity is alive and well in the thicket) I got dressed and talked with Mom (Hi Mommy!  I love my boots!).  I then was able to once again get out of the drive and I headed up to Hobby Lobby, armed with my 40% off coupon, after a quick trip by the postie roastie to mail the rent check!

Their silk flowers are 50% off and they had some lovely silk stems.  The pic above doesn't accurately portray the color, they are more of an antique rose, a dusty rose and then there is the antique cream rose and some lovely feathery things in antique cream.  I want to find a lovely container to put them in for my kitchen table.  I want to make a very simple patch quilt top of the antique rose/cream/green colors, to use as a table cloth for the table.  I want the same colors as the silk stems as I just bought.  I am going to take a petal off in an inconspicuous place to put in my notebook as I search for fabric for the quilt.  I want to get fabrics that go together well.

When I was picking out DMC floss I found this lovely variegated ball of cotton thread, I love the colors and I was thinking I have some Valentine and spring themed free designs that might work up well in these colors.  They are quite spring"ish". 

When I was up at Dollar General last week I saw a cute mirror with a antique gold frame and some framed art with the antique rose/gold colors that I like.  I want to go back and get them.  I think they were inexpensive, about $6 each.  When I was perusing Patterns On-Line dot com I saw the above design "Sunlight Blossoms" by the designer Moonlight Inspirations and I loved the colors but more so the style of the flowers reminded me of the mirror and framed art I saw at Dollar General.  Well 'nuf said, I purchased it.  I bought the DMC today for the design and again the colors in my picture are a bit off. But you get an idea. 

I went to look for sparkly things to attach to some hair combs and stumbled onto these initial pins.  I love the sparkly rhinestones and thought they would be girlish on my jeans jacket or even on my jean purse.  All I can say is "Girlishly Delicious"! 

I used my 40% off coupon on some 17"x17" faux q-snaps.  I am going to need those for my ANN "A Christmas Tree" as I get further along. 

So on my Night Owl Stitchers Yahoo Group, I will be stitchin' at 3 with many of my other stitchy poo friends.  I will be working on my Christmas tree.

The sun is out here in the Lilac Thicket today.  We may even reach above freezing, wouldn't that be magically delicious!  Bryan Busby is predicting more snow for next week, I just don't know what I am going to do with him now, threats seem not to intimidate him.  Okay, I guess I am going to have to break out the tough torture tools!  Enjoy your Saturday and from all the gentle girlish gals here in the Lilac Thicket...God bless us, everyone!

Blizzard of 2011

This is the height of the storm yesterday, late afternoon.  It was difficult to see because of the blowing snow.

This morning and you are seeing my front yard from my front door.  You can see my l'il old Honda drifted into the driveway. 

 You are looking north down Walnut.  The truck you see is parked in the street.  You can see furrows in the snow on the  street to the left of the truck.  The horizontal tracks you see are from my neighbor's driveway and his big truck.

This is from my front door looking across my yard and across the street.  You can again see the furrows in the snow in the street.  There has been virtuely no traffic down the street.   

This is my l'il Honda drifted in the driveway.  Thank you Bryan Busby, Channel 9 Meteorologist for this lovely forecast!  Someone best take his little graphic clicker away before I insert it so deeply he needs a protologist to remove it.

For the first time in history Interstate 70 is shut down between Lee's Summit (where the Lilac Thicket is hidden) and St. Louis, about 250 miles of highway.

Happy, happy February all my gentle readers!  From the Lilac Thicket, may God bless us, everyone!