Men in little white coats are stalking me....

And They're coming to take me away Ha Ha
They're coming to take me away ho ho he he ha ha
To the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time and I'll be happy to see those nice men in their clean white coats
They're coming to take me away Ha Ha
To the happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds and basket weavers who sit and smile and twiddle thier thumbs and toes
They're coming to take me away Ha Ha Ha

OK, I am just going to say it...I have a hoarding, cluttered, creative mind.  Day and night I am making plans for things I want to create.  It's distracting and it's a sickness.  At work, I think about the clothing I want to sew and the elements like the ruffles, ribbons, buttons, beading, puffed sleeves, gathered waist and fancy threads.  In my dreams... I awake from a dream with positive wonder and the bizarre ideas I must remember.  When I look at the thrift shop I see inspiration everywhere, from flowers, to patterns on china, to jewelry, crocheted doilies and even the clothing other women are wearing.  To me the world is one huge idea catalog!  My home is littered with things I have purchased and forgotten.  When I rediscover them I think, what did I buy this for?  Or I buy something and store it away, only to buy it again!


Let's not even talk about the Internet and all of these wonderful bloggers who actually are creative and finish what they start!  Oh my gosh, my computer files are full of ideas I have borrowed and recipes that I would love to try!  What is the matter with me?  Give me something to stop this madness, this sickness, this terminal epidemic I am being tortured with!


So as an example of how cluttered my mind is, look at the above picture.  It is my old kitchen table that was moved to my happy room.  See the clutter, OK, it's some of my jewelry, I sit down there in the morning to get ready for work and fuss with my face (make-up) and futz around with what earrings and bracelets to wear.  Plus the Professor likes to stack crap on there that he deems mine that he finds on the sofa, dining room table or in the mail box.  We won't mention he has a lair filled with his crap behind the sofa table where I get to trip over it when I want to open or close the drapes, oh no, my stuff can't sit in the front room but his can...okay, that was a vent.  My table is cluttered and chaotic and is the perfect metaphor for my mind.

So this morning I straightened it all up and we can identify a couple of elements of my sickness. Buttons!  I love buttons!  The buttons in the above picture were rescued at the thrift shop.  They will go in my button box.  I love having cute hair, in fact at work if I don't have a cute element in my hair, I disappoint.  I made the above hair combs with net flowers from the wedding aisle at Hobby Lobby.  Now the pin...

Isn't it darling?  It is an angel made out of a spoon and clip on earrings.  Honestly, I bought these from someone, I don't remember who but I gave them as gifts and I forgot I had this until I found a box BEHIND my dresser!  Sickness!!!!!!!!!

Now the aforementioned cute hair sickness.   I love flowers and ribbons and such for my hair.  I have bought a few but they can be expensive so I have made many.  When I would come home from work they would be strewn about the Professor's pristine home cluttering up his decor of early American rat hole in the corner behind the sofa table....so I claimed a dog leash and hung it on the wall and clipped all my beautiful hair accessories to it. But to take this mental illness to a new level...

lovely plastic flower pin bought at the Thrift Shop was begging to be converted into hair bling!  Yes it's a bit heavier and gives me a headache but it is perfect in my hair and what girly girl wouldn't mind a headache, it's so little to pay for thrilling tresses to delight all!

Now here is a look at an ongoing compulsion.  My top that I want to design, well this morning I lined them all up the fabric I want to use on the back of the love seat.  I draped some rescued lace from the thrift shop on top of them. The fabric second from the left, the brownish rose colored fabric I want to be the semi fitting bodice.  The  rest in the picture above and below, I want to make a panel from each for the body of the blouse.

See the cream colored fabric with the little roses which is second from the right?  It's a bed sheet, I have two of them that were gleaned at the Thrift Shop for 2 dolla' each, they are full size!  Yes, inspiration everywhere my friends.  Let's not mention the yards and yards of lace I have from the Thrift Shop.  I want to take a different length of each and lay it down over where the panels meet on the body.  Yes, I do get closer every day to actually making this designer piece and maybe in 8 years I will actually have it finished!  I am sick, sick, sick!

Now for another example of madness, like you need to hear one as I am sure you all have the inkling of the level of my illness, is the dress I bought for 5 dolla at the Thrift Shop yesterday.  The fabric is sheer, the skirt is approximately 2 full yards.  The bodice has a cute pin tuck front.  I want to use the pin tuck front with the buttons to create a small hand bag.  The skirt I want to make a strapless top, with elastic casing at the bust and I think a ruffle, like a Goddess dress, but just a blouse!  I am shrieking here with the possibilities...someone stop me quick before I hurt myself!

See...even the objects on my desk are surprised at my lunacy!  God Bless and may all your obsessions be just as delicious as mine here in the folds of the Lilac Thicket.

Who 'dat?

It has been a long, hot and dry summer here in the Lilac Thicket.  I have been away from the blog for quite a while.  There is no one reason for my absence, other then life. 


The Professor did a wonderful thing a few weeks ago, he bought me beautiful flowers.  He had walked up to our Farmer's Market and brought home vegetables, homemade bread and a bunch of flowers that included gladiolas, Gerber daisies and a lovely stem of this lacy looking green fern.  I have the pictures now to enjoy as the flowers dried up.

The secluded Thickets all over are parched and brown.  Many trees are dropping their leaves and the farmer's crops are bad.  I found life in pictures of various flowers I have come across, like these knock out roses in Independence.

Our family has spent way too much time at our local hospital.  Brother 2 had his appendix rupture as the surgeon was removing them and then they couldn't stop his bleeding.  He ended going home for a couple of days and returning with a horrible huge abscess from tummy to back.  14 days in the hospital!  It was not fun for any of us, but he is going back to work on Monday.  Praise the Lord!

Mom ended up in the hospital this past Sunday when she couldn't breath.  She did the right thing by going to the emergency room.  She did the wrong thing by not calling any of us until the next morning.  She went home late on Monday with lots of medication to treat her severe bronchitis. 


On a lovely note she had the prettiest Hydrangea bush.  They were spectacularly colored blooms.

Last month down the street was a hibiscus bush with blooms as big as my face!  I had never seen those flowers with such huge blooms.  Of course I needed pictures.

This is a lovely bar stool that the Professor and I bought at the Thrift Shop for three dolla'!  I love it.


My schedule at work has changed and I am now off on Fridays and Saturdays so we miss the Monday half price sales.  That being said, the Thrift Shop is still my favorite place to haunt.

I fell in love with this lovely swing for sale up at my favorite HyVee.  Being a poor soul, I could only sit on it and ponder all the joy and peace I could enjoy resting in it at the Lilac Thicket.  It was gone the next day and I hoped someone had thoughtfully dropped it off at the Lilac Thicket, but alas...no!

I had mentioned in a post some months back that I had broke out the sewing machine.  I had made a really cute sun dress but it is too small and I became discouraged.  I have the dress hanging in the closet for the day when I lose enough weight to wear it.  I did start my inspiration book with a lovely pink blingy journal someone gave me.

I am filling it with swatches of some of the fabric in my stash and ideas of...

girlishly delicious elements and designs I like for my future creative endeavors.  I love ruffles and flowers!

Inspired by a t-shirt I saw being worn by a woman on television, I want to create my own blouse with fabric I have pulled in my own collection.  I envision a camisole style with a strip of one fabric around the bust and  then strips of different prints as the body.  I would like to overlay different lace pieces I have where the seams of the strips lay, down the entire seam.  I want a collar like this:

The tutorial is here: http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2010/07/gardens-at-dusk-tank-tutorial.html

It has been too hot to do much cooking or baking.  Our little Thicket is only about 850 square feet so it quickly heats up.  It isn't too hot though to collect yummy sounding recipes.  I found a wonderful sale of locally grown zucchini which I shredded and froze for wonderful future bread.

I have been feeling super for the past couple of months.  I have lost some weight and I have been taking green coffee beans, just 2 with each meal and I have been losing weight even though I haven't changed what I eat.  The girls at work are doing this and some have lost and some haven't.  It was worth a try and it seems to be working for me.  I have a doctor appointment Monday so I will find out just how much I lost since March.

Mom gave me her tread mill.  I wanted it to walk, it really isn't like walking down the street, it is harder, I must be doing something wrong.


Well my dearest readers that is what is happening here, just simple life! Stay happy, Stay Blessed!  God Bless!

Delight filled days

Warmer then normal spring days are being enjoyed by the residents of the Lilac Thicket.  Wonderful sights, smells and sounds await us at every turn.  The gorgeous flowers, the smell of fresh cut grass and the sounds of the birds singing in the mornings makes one feel blessed to be alive.

Princess Wiggle Wiggle had her third birthday.  Bless her widdle heart she didn't feel good.  We found out later that day she has an ear infection.  Her great great auntie threw her an awesome Dora the Explorer birthday party.  The whole family came together and celebrated the gift of 3 whole years that this beautiful little girl has graced our lives. 

Princess happened to be born on the same date as her Grandma MeMe (my SIL), so we celebrated her birthday too.  I made SIL's gift, well gussied it up anyway.  I took 2 kitchen towels and added bright and springy borders and ruffles to them.  They turned out really cute and I want to make some for my Mom and me too!

I cooked a chuck roast today with potatoes, onions, carrots and peas.  Boy it was yummy and there are plenty of left overs so I will enjoy lunch at work with them.

Professor has been busy mowing, cleaning and hanging the new blue insulated curtains which look nice. They help cut out the heat from the western sunset which will really help cut down on our energy bills. 

Our 13 year old Rosie slipped on the one step from the garage into the kitchen.  She went down hard and hurt herself.  I am going to give her the Vetprofen twice a day for the next couple of days.  Of course her sight is not as good as it was, but as long as she has more good days then bad we can put off what we know will happen someday.

How is it that you have a dog you never really wanted in the first place and yet you fall in love with them and they become your heart.  I have cried so many tears in that old girl's fur and I have told her my greatest joys and my most embarrassing secrets and she still loves me.  The love of a dog, I never really wanted has given me love and joy and purpose when I perhaps didn't deserve it or appreciate it.  Oh my Rosie Kate, you own such a huge part of my heart and you always will.

Well it is time for bed for all good girlish girls and so I think I will close, crawl into bed to dream of lilacs and warm puppy fur.  God Bless Us Everyone.

"...tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty..."  Henry David Thoreau

Oh spring, we welcome you with joy and open arms.  How I adore all the spring blossoms.

Azaleas with many shades of pink...my favorite color! 

Red buds springing out on what will be new branches. 

And then my beloved lilacs, just beginning to open and they still smell like heaven. 

Some sweet smelling flower that sprung up in Mom's yard.  I know the pictures just don't do justice to the true beauty but they sustain me in the long, cold barren days of winter.

We had barely finished putting away groceries from our trip to the HyVee when Mom called and asked if the Professor might come over a dig a couple of holes for her new azalea plants.  We obliged and the Professor dug several holes until Mom decided where the exact perfect spot was!  My dear husband was the model of patience and understanding.  



Mom pointed out with exasperation, a squirrel had taken over the wren house.  He now lives in the box and enjoys his southern exposure.  He did renovate by chewing a very small entrance into one that accommodated his girth.

The Professor was delighted that some of the sushi survived the winter in Mom's pond. The day after we got married last June we went and bought her 15 small feeder goldfish for her pond. A neighborhood cat had fished out all of her last bunch. So you can see, just barely the 3 gold fish in the center of the picture. They are named Sushi 1 through 3. Professor also spotted Blackie, the one black one that we bought too. Black is smiling here, it's just hard to spot him in the pic.

So this morning, I asked my Caribbean Prince if he wanted to go to the grocery with me.  He wrinkled his whole face and said no, so I got dressed and grabbed my keys and went to give him a kiss.  He was in the bathroom fussing with his hair.  He likes to pat it down with a piece of paper, I frankly can't tell a difference with the before and after image but okay.  So I said good bye and he asked me why I was leaving without him.

There is one aisle that I love up at my HyVee.  They always have such girlish delights that warm my heart.  Most of the time, they are way to rich for my pocket book but I enjoy looking.  I loved the floral wreath and it would look splendid on my front door, but I didn't want to pay $48!

There was the sweetest tea pot and tea cup and saucer with violets on them.  I couldn't find a price tag but I sure did love them. 

Two weeks ago I saw a love seat in the Thrift Shop that I fell in L-O-V-E with.  It was $45 and I knew I would love it for my Happy Room.  I passed it by.  This past Monday Professor and I went to the Thrift Shop to look for a nice television stand for Brother 1's new flat screen.  We found a really nice one, black with side shelves and smoked glass doors with shelves behind them.  We paid $12.50!  Well, Professor asks if the love seat was still there.  It was, we bought it $22.50! 

We weren't sure how to get it home, it definitely wouldn't fit in the Civic, so I took the cushions and the arm doilies and one of the pillows.  I didn't want them to sell it again and since we have 3 days to pick it up we told them we had to find someone to help us. 

I'll be darned if they didn't give the Professor a hard time when he went back to get it.  They HAD tried to sell it again but couldn't since the seat cushions were gone and the volunteers who sold it to us hadn't done their job right which caused all the problems.  I was at work when my beloved tried to claim our find and my Mom went up there and read the management the riot act.  My love seat is NOW ensconced happily in my Happy Room where my rear end is firmly planted most of the time.

I am going to make some baked ziti for dinner tonight.  That sounds so yummy.  I made fried rice on Monday, I used up the last of the soy sauce.  As we were sitting down to eat, I told my dear and darling husband, I had used the last of the soy sauce and wished he had told me we needed some when I was at the grocery earlier.  Moments later he gets up and is rummaging through the cupboards..."Hon, where's the soy sauce?"  Clearly he hangs on my every word.

Please take time to smell the flowers where you, my bosom friends, dwell.  I pray your Thickets are as lovely, refreshing and soul restoring as the Professor's and mine.  God Bless Us Everyone!

Pinch my ginger buns....please!

Spring is busting out all over the Lilac Thicket.  The Professor was excited about the "yellow flowers" that were blooming in the front yard amongst the chaos of dried leaves from last autumn.  It is wonderful to see the forsythia, red bud, Bradford pear and all the other yummy trees and bushes budding out.

It's hard to tell from this picture but storm clouds are gathering and we may get some rain today.  I love spring storms.  Oh and I even have had the air conditioner running.  I know it's early but I hate sweating glistening in the heat.  And it has been hot..near 80°.

So Tuesday was my sister, Princess Jujubead's birthday.  Wednesday was her husband's birthday.  So later today Professor and I will mosey over there to deliver birthday presents. Better late then never, right?

Last weekend Professor got bit by the baking bug and he made "ginger buns".  They are a barely sweet treat his mother used to make in Guyana.  Mind you we had no recipe but he made them from memory.  We had to go to the grocery to get fresh coconut and fresh ginger to make them.  Professor was all aglow because he dazzling and delighting many women throughout the store as his wife waited up at the front of the store for a half hour.  I saw him on the produce aisle with a circle of women around him as he instructed them on the purchasing of good fresh coconut.  He tried to bluff me and tell me that a little old man in a wheel chair was there asking the questions...my eyesight isn't that bad...there weren't any men there.

My review of his "ginger buns", they were okay, not sweet enough for my taste but my mom really liked them.  She said they were like scones. 

 I had enough of the cheap Teflon pans I bought 10 months ago.  I didn't like that we were eating Teflon that chipped off during cooking or cleaning.  Not only that but they rusted if they were put away a bit wet.  Which lead to the ruination of several of my kitchen towels which the Professor used to oil and wipe out the pans when they came from the cupboard.  So I bought a cheap set of stainless steel pans.  They had metal handles and I made handle covers out of a terry cloth towel I bought cheaply at the Thrift Shop.  Okay, catch your breath, that actually IS a table cloth covering the dining room table!

Yes gentle readers, I broke out my sewing machine!  Now pick up your jaw off the floor...I have been stitching also! I have actually stitched more then the picture reflects...amazing aren't I!

So at the Thrift Shop I found this 80's style necklace with pretty pastel colored beads.  Now I don't like it as a necklace but I am going to restring as a couple of stretchy bracelets.  The earrings are sweet and I really like them.  I wore them to work already.  I thought they could also be used as charms in a needlework piece.  The necklace was $2.50 and the earrings $1.50.

April was a little miffed with me because I hadn't taken a picture of her lately, let alone share it with her ardent admirers on the blog.  She wants you to know she has lost a lot of weight and she is looking very svelte these days.

And last but not least.... I came home from work yesterday to a very excited Professor.  He dragged me into the Happy Room to show me he had "discovered" that my web cam program puts special effects into the pictures it takes.  I was horrified to discover, the man I married is a 100% poser!  Yes gangsta poser Professor.  Please I beg of you, don't spread my shame around!

Well my dearest kindred readers, that is about all from my side of the Thicket. So until we visit again may your spring be lovely and your life blessed!