Hi All! I'd like to ask you to please take a moment & visit the Country Lasses. A new blog creation thats the corroboration of several rural romantics. Great giveaways will soon be posted for some beautiful & whimsical items. How do I know? I am one of the lasses. A grouping of rural women have pulled our resources to bring you a blog that is sure to please with everything from country recipes to decorating ideas & more. We have a mix of talents that include upholstering~ interior decorating & design~ training of pets & care of livestock~ cleaning tips ~ sewing~ needle working~ carpentry and more all thoughtfully presented with lovely photos. There will be great give-aways and sale items offered monthly. You'll want to become a follower so as not to miss out!

Ever so humble.

My little purple cottage is small and humble but it's pure heaven to a kitty that has wandered off during 5 days of cold rainy weather. She will need a warm bath and a brushing for certain. She is exhausted and tattered and doesn't seem to mind that the sills need dusting and the bed linens need changed or that the old scuffed and scratched wood floor boards need polished. Recovering on the back of the couch in the meager sunshine~ all she knows is there is warm wool bedding ~ fresh clean water~ and a raw chicken egg cracked over her kibbles twice a week.
Welcome back Lilkins. We thought you were a "gone-er".

Confessions of a Madwoman

If you are wondering why all the random and choppy post I should come clean and confess~AADHD. Adult Attention Deficit & Hyperactive disorder. I've been trying to deal with this for O so long but my insomnia issues and rapidly flickering neurotransmitters only worsened after an auto accident at the age of 19 when I sustained a closed head injury among other things. I have been on medication and must say Adderall has helped immensely but throw another iron on the fire and *poof* ~it all goes up in smoke. In the past week I have had some problems with awakening from sleep unable to breathe & on one occasion passing out from it.
Now I am to undergo a battery of test on brain~heart~ and of course sleep apnea. My doctor suggested an inpatient hospital stay to which I declined. What to do with the farmette and what about time off work ? Now I wish I had done so. Lack of sleep has made it near impossible for me to drive to work or the gazillion test scheduled me. Now in addition to my existing sleep disorder there is the added anxiety that I will suffocate and die in my sleep. You my poor dearies also suffer the ill effects of it as I forge meaningless random blog posts at ungodly hours of the day and night 2ndary to exhaustion and pure fear of the thing I so desperately crave~SLEEP! Emotional support welcomed here.

the Vintage Fairy giveth.

I received a phone call from an old beau last night which really caught me off guard. He asked if I was still into antiques and such and wondered if I would like to accompany him to a rather large estate sale today. "Does a bear crap in the woods?!" I asked him with great zeal. He laughed and said "You haven't changed. I'll pick you up at 7am."
Having no idea what I might find and having very little "free" money to spend I decided to go for the manly company and perhaps I would stumble upon some inexpensive finds. Once there I quickly realized everything was out of my price range however my friend was buying up several boxes of war memorabilia . Good for him. When we arrived back to my home and went thru his purchases we came across these 3 charming vintage planters.
"Ohhhh how sweet!" I cooed. "Take them if you like" he said adding with smile "The Vintage Fairy always did find you no matter where you went." As you can see I've put them all to good use.

Purple cabbage & plaid blankets.

I brought up some purple cabbage from the cellar today and made some slaw and some "purple rice" with it. Cabbage is one of those things I just don't feel comfortable buying at the store and so I grow my own. The heads are much smaller but I know they are organic and I don't have to worry about pesticides nesting in between the tightly layered leaves.
It was cold and rainy so I headed out to do some thrifting and am thrilled with my finds. A gorgeous vintage still life of fruit in perfect colors to accent my TV room. The old mustard yellow worn frame looks great on the wall and the tabled fruit image more Thanksgiving-like than the large framed red roses water color that had graced the space before.
Next I was blessed to find 2 sweet old Shetland wool plaid blankets each in a different color and plaid. I adore plaid and love a tightly woven wool blanket for the winter. Again the colors go with my TV room and it's as if these items were purposely placed in my path by someone who knew my homes palette. So now here I am so comfy on my couch and wrapped in wool from chin to toe just munching on cole slaw and waiting for "The Office" to come one. Aren't I the lucky girl today?

Rambling

Today I put on my old walking shoes and walked 3 miles. Viv's fantastic progress has me feeling guilty about my own excess poundage. Then I spent over an hour picking up all the toys and cardboard boxes the dogs had drug outside for play. What a mess the yard was. Living like a HillBilly.

I took lots of photos of the dogs....well mostly the puppy.
Lordy you'd think it was a newborn baby or my first born! Someone please punch me hard if I make a move to breast feed her. Horrid sense of humor I have.
"The Picture of Innocence" that just a half an hour earlier shat on the kitchen floor. Oh well. Thats what forgiveness is for.
"U ScaReD the BisKiTs ouTTa Me MuM !!! Brogan dosen't like the camera ever since he was a pup and frightened by it's flash. His colorless eyes are sensitive.Dempsey is the guard dog. I guess he represents the white trash in me. His nickname is "junkyard". He is very bright loyal and a loving giant. Half Pitbull one quarter German Shepherd and one quarter Lab. He is a very dense muscular mass. No one but one one gets into the purple house without his permission.Riley had her first visit to the barn today and now I can't keep her away. She is now confined to the fenced area of the yard. She's just to tiny to protect herself from livestock. Bizarrely enough just a few days ago BF had a donkey break through the fence and kill a horse as well as injure another. Can you imagine??? I didnt know such a thing was possible.

Rainbow Harvest

I harvested some decorative corn from the garden and my simple mind dawdled over the splendor of the colorful kernels. Amazing. Like freshwater pearls. I would love to string these into jewelry. Any ideas? Hmm perhaps string them when they are fresh and then let them dry on the string?
I ran the dingos hard today~ even baby Riley. She had so much fun romping thru the fallen kaleidoscope of leaves and did well with keeping her nose to the ground despite the wet decaying debris. I'm training her for hunting and retrieving and she is catching on quick. Now all 3 beasts are scattered over the wood floor like "Pick Up Sticks" or "Pick Up Pups" I suppose. Like children~ I love them. Such is my empty nest syndrome.
Fresh brown eggs for both breakfast and lunch. Soft scrambled eggs seem to be about all my painfully swollen mouth can endure. I do wish these horrid ulcerations would heal along with the earache and hint of a sore throat that have had me teetering somewhere between "ill" and "well" for the past 9 days.
I've been drinking plenty of fluids ~downing vitamin C to the point of diarrhea ~ and munching on roasted garlic. So far the holistic combination has not cured me but rather keeping my friends at bay.

Boo babes

Boo ghoulfriends! A fun day for those who enjoy having the crap scared outta them! This morning I'll watch "the Haunting" on TCM. An oldie but nonetheless intense thriller & one of my favs.
In the evening my son~ myself & some friends will take an evening stroll through the village cemetery which dates back to the mid 1800's. It is amazing how very young people passed on back then and very few laid to rest there are over the age of 60.
The weathered & ragged headstones make for great photos and rubbings. Later a bunch of us will load up the old red truck and head over to Ohio for a midnight walk through what has been reported a "haunted" graveyard for 200 years. There is a small designated section of graves segregated for accused "witches". The year before last my brother in law snapped a very eerie photo of an apparent apparition near one of the graves. Chilling!
Well Dearies ~I hope you all have a fun & hair raising eve and that no bats poop on your head.

Mrs.BOOvier'

Meet Mrs.Boo-vier (pronounced like the French "Bouvier"). Shes the hit of Halloween here but I don't even have her re-capitated or displayed yet. A foam J-O-L head which I have rigged to sit atop the "neck" of my vintage dress form adorned in vintage fashions from her long flowing black cape & gown to her vintage hat. She along with 4 other such lighted heads will grace my front porch with very scary poise & haunting beauty. Each J-O-L wears a different hat. I'll have to post some photos later.
For now I am a bit of a slug & feeling under the weather. My mouth is full of ulcers and my sinuses like the relentless dull thick pounding of a locomotive going by. I have been occupying my time lying on the couch surviving on softly congealed farina and inhaling Vicks Vapor-rub. I must admit however~ I did push myself to drop into the Thrift store yesterday and found a colorful yo-yo quilt just the right size to sweeten my kitchen table. SMILE!
The trees are all but bare~ just a few straggling shreds of color~ and now we are left to view the harsh skeletal remains of Mother Nature. I always feel she has turned her back on me in late fall and winter and having handed down the edict of a "Time Out" makes me sit on a cold hard chair in the corner and stare at a dull gray wall for the next 5 months or so.
I've got plenty to do on my laptop today as far as business is concerned but for now it's a cozy combination of old family photos~ibuprofen~and warm puppy breath.
My brother & I at the victrola ~circa 1963.

Puppy Shots~the Musical !

Riley got her first set of puppy shots this morning and if you didn't know any better you'd think it were touch 'n' go. She was rather dramatic and played the victim all the way home. Once home she curled up in her lil' bed and has been snoozing. Ah the life of Riley. I made up these lame lyrics and sang to her all the way home. It's the only thing that kept her quiet and now I can't stop singing it.

Disclaimer: Please excuse the lowly vocals. I can't sing well on a good day but it is even harder to sing while drinking a Margarita and trying to control ones bladder while bending over and working a camera. Welcome to my life.You may want to turn your volume off.

The well balanced wacko.

We are at the peak of our colors here and taking a walk into our woods yesterday was visually like entering a burning building with all surroundings engulfed in red and orange. The only thing that kept the sizzling colors from consuming me was the view of the nearby waterfall and I happened upon some deer drinking from it's pool which made me feel as if I were in a magnificent Paluh painting. I try and spend as much time outdoors this time of year while at the same time avoiding an arrow through the head or some buck shot to the behind. I always wear my fluorescent orange camouflage (oxymoron but true ) to reduce my chances of accidentally being shot. If I am ever shot it will unquestionably have been on purpose.
I subscribe to the "Twonky" theory and therefore rarely watch any television (with exception to "The Office" once a week and an occasional Saturday afternoon of TCM). Aside from working it is primarily book reading~ cooking~ crafting~fostering homeless pets~volunteering in the community~gardening~ political research~philanthropic donations to the needy (within the means of my humble little income) ~philosophizing on men ~ caring for my little farm-ette of beasts and long walks in the woods.
My recent purchase of yet another dog will not only keep me physically and mentally challenged but sleep deprived as well while I attempt to domesticate the yelping chewing and incontinent little dear.
Of course those are all my strong positive points. On the addictive downside of my personality we have Thrift Store shopping~vintage junk collecting~ excessive red meat consumption~ blogging/blog following ~ fleeting exacerbations of 4 letter word use and imported beer drinking as well as a newly noted propensity toward pet hoarding (just joking I hope). I am the perfect balance of sick. Whats not to love?

A terrible accident.

I accidentally happened upon Golden Retriever puppies for sale today...
Dang it.

Nothing special.

Just another blogger ...
posting fall photos...
from their neighborhood.

Spooky Creepy Happy Fun

A Thug and his Dish.
Gangsters with guns. Flappers and Coppers. A Mayor and a Private Detective ~the Night Club Singer~ the Newsie~ the Speakeasy Owner. Someone is about to be murdered.
My son~Jem~ and his friends had their Halloween party Saturday night so they would be free to spend the 31st at a haunt in Pittsburgh. It was a murder mystery party set in a 1930's Speakeasy and everyone came dressed for the occasion. Big band records from the era were cranked out on the old record player and I was amazed at how much effort the young 'ins put into it. It was a real "whodunnit" and each person knew their character and their traits as a personality profile of who they were to portray was attached to their invitation. They really had to solve the mystery and no one knew until the end who the murderer was. Such clever kids.
I've been doing a bit of brushing up here in preparation for the onset of cold and even had my winter tires put on today.I plucked the last of the heirloom winter squash from the garden as it is predicted to be quite a frost tonight. (PG these are the beasts of a squash that will emerge from the seeds I'll be sending across the ocean to you.)
Some more spooky decorations went up on the porch and kitty tried on her Rooster costume...(rather against her will I should add). I think I'll be an alien again this year. It really seemed to jar the wits out of the village children last year. I so look forward to Halloween and scaring the creepy crap out of some candy craving kids.

Two in the kitchen

Nothing is as glorious as two women synchronized in the kitchen. I have fond memories of grandma and her mother~"Granny"~ working together in the summer kitchen in a ballet of sorts where they would seem to pirouette around one another in a graceful dance with the aromatic bonus of bubbling jams and spicy relishes. Years of performing the canning ritual as well as decades of holiday meals had joined the two women's souls in the kitchen to the point of where they could produce country culinary delights blindfolded. These memories make all the more comedic a recent and highly flawed attempt of my sister and I to mimic Grandma and Granny's success. There was no rhythm (other than our chosen background music "Hits of the 80's") nor grace and our awkwardness was so apparent even my young nephew who initially thought it would be a fun spectator sport darted out of the kitchen "before someone gets killed!"as he so kindly put it. Hot steam seemed to rise up from everywhere and the heady odor of "burnt" was a constant. The corn relish was watery and more like a weak soup. Hot chilies were an after thought that came all to soon and was the final ruination of our relish. The end product resembled something the only very destitute would have scrounged up during the heart of the Great Depression as such duress would be the only reason a person would allow our concoction to pass their lips. One would have to be starving or completely lack taste buds to eat it. The blueberry preserves weren't to bad but rather just bad enough and so were tossed out. To much acid somehow and a glob of it fell from the spoon and onto my canvas shoe where it practically ate a hole through to my sock. Scary to think what it would do to ones end trails should they actually eat it. A huge crock of hand picked blueberries wasted. It could have been the blaring music~ or typical giddiness when we get together~ the 2 glasses of wine we each had (don't recall Granny tipping anything but tea though Grandma was known to throw back a highball or two while cooking) or just the combination of our over zealousness and shear stupidity but whatever it was has snuffed out the desire of my sister and I to ever share a kitchen together. All that time and not a homemade goodie to place before our kin. Once again~ loved ones have been spared.