buttons I sent

Now that my Button Swap partner has gotten her buttons, I can now show you what I sent her.


As I mentioned in my previous blog, SuzQ is my partner. She sent me all kinds of cool buttons. I've already made three things so far, and still have several buttons left.


I wanted to send her a special button...one that would remind her of Louisiana, but I had no luck. I looked EVERYWHERE for a fleur de lis button. I even had my daughter who lives in South Louisiana look, and she couldn't find anything either. So......I made one. We have a very nice fabric store here, one that you would go to when redecorating. I bought some fabric with fleur de lis all over, and made this button.

I think I might have to make me one too. Isn't it pretty?

The next button I chose was actually three buttons put together to make a flower.

It really isn't a big deal, as I got these buttons from Walmart. They actually have all colors, and I just love them. I new my partner would like them too, so in it went with the fleur de lis button.

Again, these aren't anything spectacular, but I like them. I have actually made some flowers out of buttons I have like these.

I've had this button for sometime. Not exactly where it came from, but it has a woody/lacy feel to it.

These are some antique buttons I found locally at Antique Alley.

Then at the last minute, I threw these gold buttons in. The one on the top is an anchor if you can't tell.

Well, there you have it. Now let's see what she does with these buttons...

Got My Button Swap!

Buttons! I have fallen in love with BUTTONS! So much in fact, that I have joined a button swap!


Cindy Wimmer is our host, and she has paired me up with SuzQ. I really enjoyed talking with my partner, she's a Florida girl too!  After talking to her, I knew exactly what I wanted to send, BUT, had no luck in finding it, so I had to make her one. I'm not sure if she has gotten her buttons, so I won't spoil the surprise.  I will, though share what she sent to me. They just came the other day!

She sent me quite a stash. Sorry it's kinda blurry, but you can see the abolone on the bottom left, and next to it is a gold button. On the top row you can see stripes and two other really cool buttons.

She also sent me some silver buttons

and some black buttons.

The small one has mica in it, the one on the right is etched, the top one is sparkly (I think she said that was her fav).

Here's my favorite. The funny thing is, my daughter just got married this past June, and she used yellow and turquoise butterflies in all her flowers and decorations. I blogged about it here and here.

Quite the stash would you say?

When I took them out, I looked over each one very carefully, and then let them sit for a day, and then made something. Then I let them set another day, and today, I made something else with three of them. I have ideas for the butterfly rolling in my head. Will have let that simmer awhile though...

Tickling the Ivories

Over the Easter holiday, I had all my kidos home. It was really nice having them all here. The only thing that would have made it better is if my husband could have made it.


We really didn't do much. My daughter and her husband brought a BOATLOAD of laundry to do, so while it washed, we baked cookies, played games, and listened to her play the piano.

All of my children were given the opportunity to take piano lessons. They all played for several years. Seemed like once they hit high school, they lost interest. Ashley was the only one that stayed with it. I love hearing her play.

I remember when I was a little girl, I always wanted to learn to play. I begged my mom for lesson. Every year we went to Colorado to visit my family. We drove for three days to get there and stayed for about three weeks. We stayed with my grandparents, and they had an old piano. I remember banging on that thing, actually, I tried picking out songs. I was successful in picking out some songs. To this day, I can remember figuring out how to play My Country 'Tis of Thee. I can still play it...one finger, that is. Before the time came that we had to make the long trek back to Florida, we would get Grandma to play. She could only play one song, but boy, could she ever play it. I loved watching my tiny little grandma sit down and attack that piano. The song she played was Chopsticks (the full version).
And boy, did she ever get into it!

Ashley reminds me a lot of my grandmother when she plays, she too attacks that keyboard. She takes full control!

I am so grateful that we were able to have this piano. When the kids were young, we really wanted to get a piano, but just could not afford one. When Miles was about seven years old, our church was getting ready to do some major updating and renovating (the building). A lot of the stuff in the building was being auctioned in a silent auction. Among the tables, books, and other furniture were two pianos. We put in a bid and got one! Immediately, Miles and Ashley began to take lessons.  

We had just started home schooling, and a friend of mine from church had quit teaching piano lessons because she wanted to have time with her children when they got home from school. We worked it out where she would teach Miles and Ashley during the day. I was so happy about that. 

Well, anyway, we now have a piano that pretty much just sits there, unless Ashley comes to visit. Every once in awhile, one of the boys walks over, sits down, and plays a little something, but for the most part, the piano is just collecting dust. I told Ashley some time ago, that since she was the only one that stuck with the lessons, that piano belongs to her. Someday....she will have it. But until they are done with school and not moving around every ten seconds like college students do, the piano will rest in our home.

Piccadilly

We moved to Florida in August of 1967. It was practically on my eighth birthday. Seemed like we always moved around my birthday.


I remember when we first went down to Florida, it was very, well, primitive. Moving from Huntsville, Alabama where everyone had brick, two story houses, it was so weird to see one story pink or green cinder block homes. I thought, "oh, wow, are we going to live in a pink house?" You really don't see much of that today. Most of the homes are stucco or brick.


It wasn't until a few years after we moved to Florida that a new concept was being built on the island (Merritt Island). A mall!  At the time we weren't quite sure about it. Soon we had the Merritt Square Mall, with all kinds of stuff; theaters, a pet shop, stores for all our shopping needs, and restaurants were under one roof. One particular restaurant we came to love was the Piccadilly. The Piccadilly was a cafeteria style restaurant. It became our favorite place to eat. Until the age of 12, I would get a Satellite plate. I was able to pick a meat and two sides. I usually got fried fish, mashed potatoes (no gravy), and macaroni and cheese. Oooooh boy! Do they EVER have good macaroni and cheese!!!! Then I could get a roll, a drink and a piece of pie. Because their pies were so good and inexpensive, this was the only place we were allowed to get dessert.  As an adult, I always get their veggie plate--fried okra, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, no gravy, a raised roll, and water. 


Until a couple of years ago, my mom and dad use to frequent the Piccadilly quite often; like every day. For about $15, my parents could BOTH eat!!! This included their drinks, rolls, veggies, main dish and dessert and tip! Can't beat that!


Sadly, our Piccadilly days in Florida have come to a close. After over 40 years, they closed all the restaurants in Central Florida. Luckily, we still have them here in Louisiana. My oldest son and I just went there the other day. I said to him, "Do you realized this maybe the last time we ever eat at a Piccadilly?" That really makes me sad. Until we moved to Louisiana, the only times that the kids and I would go to the Piccadilly was when we went to visit my family. Those days are gone, and now that we are moving, no more Piccadilly. :( 

why does the media think they have the right to tell us what a perfect body is?

I’ve been so busy lately, that I have barely had time to sit down. I finally found the time to watch the news and wow, did something ever spark my interest…Ashely Judd!

Since I had kids coming home from sport practices and the phone kept ringing off the hook, I had to pause the TV so I could listen with REAL intent (once everything settled down). Evidently, Ashley was ridiculed about her “puffy face.”  Rumor had it that because she had a “puffy face” she had had “work done.” According to Ashley, she had been sick for some time, and was put on steroids. I know from experience, that steroids will make your face puffy.  Ms. Judd is 43 years old, and has beautiful, nearly flawless skin, again, because of this, she was accused of having “work done.”

The one thing that got me was when someone called her a cow because she had gained some weight and went from a size 2/4 to a 6/8. It was mentioned that she was being lazy, and if she didn’t watch it, her husband would be looking for someone else. Okay, people, since when is a 6/8 considered fat? By the way, she is said to be 5’7″ tall.

Our society has gotten way out of hand about everyone’s looks. It really sickens me. It pretty much has always gone on though. I grew up in the 70′s in Florida. I am naturally a very fair blonde, and even though I spent many hours outside at the pool or on the beach, I was not able to get as dark as most of my friends who were of Italian or Native American decent. I was always teased and made fun of for being so “white.” I hated my skin and have always been very embarrassed about it; even to this day.

I grew up dancing, and in the 80′s while in college, I majored in dance. I was quite small, yet muscular at the time; 5’4″ and 105 lbs soaking wet. I can remember that dancers at the time were expected to be very thin, and have extremely low body fat. We were checked periodically to make sure we were below what is now known to be a very unhealthy body fat percentile. I know many of my dance friends had poor body image (including myself). Fortunately, I never turned to bulimic or anorexic practices, but I knew quite a few dancers that did. To this day, I have a poor body image. Yes, I am heavier than I should be. I am 52 and have birthed four children, and I do exercise 5 days a week. Between having the children and now menopause, I have had a hard time with my weight. I feel enormous even though I wear a size 8. Even when I was at a size 4 I felt fat, and I know this has a lot to do with what society feels we should look like.

Just the other day, I was reading an article about how the fashion industry airbrushes. They showed three models all in white bikinis. One looked horrible, almost like a walking skeleton. One of them looked pretty good, but she was considered a plus size. I was shocked. If she’s a plus size, I guess that makes me morbidly obese.

While many Americans are gaining way too much weight, which leads to health problems and other negative issues, I feel that the media may be adding to the problem by how they portray the “perfect” woman. News bulletin…there is NO SUCH THING as a perfect anybody…male or female!

Moving Right Along...

We've been married for almost 29 years! Wow, that sounds like a long time, but boy, how the time has flown. Four children later, we are about to become empty nesters, and I'm really having a hard time with that. I have enjoyed our children so much!  We just have one more left, and he will be a Senior in high school this next year.

As I look back on the years, I realized we were quite the busy family! We moved every three to five years. Because we moved so often, we were able to meet all kinds of people and live in different parts of the United States. I often wondered what it would have been like to stay in one place for 20 or 30 years. A lot of my friends have stayed in the same place forever, and they wonder how we were able to move so much.

Just the other day, my 22 year old, married daughter made a comment that I had to chuckle at. Her and her new husband of nine months were talking about where they would like to live after he finishes Physical Therapy school. Unlike my daughter, her husband lived in the same house for 19 years before he left for a two year mission in Chile. They would like to stay in one place and build up a good clientele (with a wellness center they would like to open up after he finishes school); which means not picking up and moving every few years.  Realizing this, my daughter said to me she thought that would be weird; to stay in one place for 20 or so years. I guess that would be kind of strange to her.  I told her there are some really good things about staying in one place.

Even though I have pretty much enjoyed moving around, seeing new places, meeting new people, and learning new culture, I have also often wondered, what it would have been like to stay put. Many times, I caught myself daydreaming about living in one place and seeing my children with friends they have known all their lives; growing up with these children since birth, listening to them reminiscing about things that happened in kindergarten or grade school, etc.  Sometimes I sit back and listen to others talking about their childhood with each other, hearing that, "Ha ha, hey, do you remember when we were in the 2nd grade when..." and then seeing my kids just sitting there looking at them with a blank look. But soon, these same kids will turn to my children and ask them something like, "Hey what's it like to live somewhere where they....." My children then brighten up and start talking about whatever it was they were asked, while their friends say something like, "Oh, cool!"

My husband is from Tennessee and I am from Florida. After we got married, we lived a year in Utah. Then we moved to Tennessee (where our first two children were born) and stayed there for five years, then it was off to Alabama. Three years later we were headed to North Carolina (our third and forth children were born there) where we stayed for five years. Arkansas was our next home for three years. Indiana would be our next place of residence--just over 5 years. We are now living in Louisiana. This August it will be five years. Not sure if we will make it that long, as my husband started his new job in Kentucky almost seven months ago. I'm still in Louisiana trying to sell our house.  As you can see, it is that three to five year thing we seem to do (no we are not military). Kentucky is going to be great, since we will only be a couple of hours from his family in Tennessee.  Hopefully this time, we will be staying in one place; at least until we retire. Then maybe we can head to Florida, to be with my family, and all the Snowbirds...

BEAD SOUP IS SERVED!

Let me refresh your memory on some of the beads I got.

You can read all about it here

Cyndi sent me all kinds of fun stuff

Including this gorgeous necklace for me to enjoy wearing right away.

Here is what I came up with

First I came up with these fun earrings. I added the copper 

fleur de lis. They are very popular here in Louisiana!

Then I let the beads simmer for a few days and came up with this

A memory wire bracelet! I added some bling in the form of crystals.

Then I made one more piece.

Not a very good picture, but it matches the earrings. It is a pin, but I think I may change it into a pendant. 

So there it is...my Bead Soup (non blog hop)