Sucksalotplunker Floral Designs

I was inspired by Maryann at Domestically Speaking to use something basket-y for my front door wreath.  She found hers at an antique store, so I went to my neighborhood antique store and found this picnic basket purse. . .  thing-y.

There are no during pictures because I lovingly refer to myself as a floral "plunker" but this time it just wouldn't plunk right so I cut up the floral bush and tried to put them in individually in a design kind of thing-y.  As I looked at all those individual flowers laying there on the table I thought, "oh sh.. I mean,  um oh no!!!  Yea that's what I was thinking, but then I remembered a floral design/Christmas tree decorating professional tell to put it in triangles (on the Christmas decorations) that's just a little ditty from me to you.

Anyway, so I started out with a plan and put them in best I could.  But it just kind of looked like a badly plunked floral design, so this morning I decided that I was a "sucksalot" floral designer.  And then decided that if I ever opened up a floral design store it would be called sucksalotplunker floral designs.

but then I hung it on the door stepped back and WHAT!!!  To my suprise it looked okay.

So I ran back upstairs and plunked a greenery bush and fall leaf garland and

 Later I came back and moved that little orange berry looking thingy up into the flowers, it was better.

I've been eye spying some great looking pumpkins, they would look great on both sides of the door.  Next.


Linking with some fun blog partied at - 
All Thingz Related 

Today's Creative Blog 


Trendy Treehouse

See ya.

Salty Sister Cooks

I have been wanting to try this cake for eons.  Well maybe not eons, days and days.  A friend gave me this recipe for Coconut Pecan Cake.   I have to say it is super fast and super easy to make.  And super moist. . . and super good.

The recipe is:  1 pkg. Butter Pecan Cake mix
                        1 pkg. Coconut  Instant Pudding mix
                        1 tub Coconut Pecan frosting
                        1 cup water
                        2/3 cup oil
                        4 eggs

Mix cake mix and instant pudding (dry) then add the water, oil, eggs and frosting.  Bake at 350 for 45 - 60 minutes in a greased and lightly floured bundt pan.  Mine took 55 minutes.

I let it cool for four minutes, that is, four football minutes.  Yeah Cowboys!!

add a little whipped topping, so good, so rich.  

I better take the rest of this next door.

See ya.

Linking with All Thingz Related. 

 I love these girls.

Feeling Crafty

Thank you for coming by please check out all the great projects at Susan's Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday.

and


All Thingz Related

The Saga of the Sweetheart and The Chicken Dancer

We showed cattle at the New Mexico State Fair over the weekend

His idea of lunch was a snowcone ours was corn dogs and hot dogs, I mean it was a fair.

Just one look into his eyes and you can see that he is the sweetheart.

I asked him who is the heart for?

My Momma.

Awe.

If you have ever shown animals at fairs you know that it can be a lot of work but for a very imaginative seven year old, it can be . . . well you'll see.

  First he found the zip ties and made the heart for Mom, then he kept adding them on and  decided it was a crown or a hat or I'm not sure what he was calling it.  

And then . . .

. . . it became tail feathers and he became "the chicken dancer".

What follows is surely State Fair History!  Surely.

What's up with this guy in the orange shirt, he never cracked a smile, never look Tyler's way, nothing.

Curious. Anyway on with the show.

On the front of the bucket is a sign that says, "will dance for chicken change".  People actually gave and they earned $27.00 which they donated to the FFA for a charity that they were sponsoring.  He drew quite the crowd, some people just camped out to watch him and some brought friends back around to see him.

He had a lot of stamina and determination, I think he was at for well over an hour.  Kaden played out early but not Tyler, he worked it.

And that is the saga of the state fair chicken dancers.

Going Deeper

Caution! You are about to enter into deep territory here. Please proceed, I'm just feeling deeply these days. Some days I'm introspective and some days I'm . . . lazy and just don't want to write it all out.

I've been thinking a lot about love these days. About the love I have for my family. About the love I have for my husband. Which by the way grows more and more every day. It's been almost a year since he was diagnosed with cancer and praise God we are walking cancer free! Yea!!!!!!

The experience has opened my eyes and I feel that I finally really understand "don't sweat the small stuff" and the ever popular "It's all small stuff". That took long enough.

I'm not perfect here, mind you, I still behave in patterns that I have always behaved in. But I see it now and that's the beginning. Like when my honey ask me an innocent question and I hear something totally different. That's when I snap and say something defensive and then I look at him for his defensive answer and there I see it, shock. Then I realize I've done it again and say, "you didn't say it the way I heard it did you"?

He loves me, that's all I can say about that and he knows me, so when I react like that he knows, I don't always listen well but I will see it.

Ever since the song that Brandon Heath put out, "Give Me Your Eyes" I have been asking God to open my eyes to see things they way He sees them. I have a heightened sense of awareness, since cancer walked into our lives, of just how much I love living and how much I want to live and love others. Not just live, but live well and not in the world's standard but in God's. And, seeing through spiritual eyes, I see just how far I have to go.

God is faithful to answer prayers and He is showing me the state my heart is in and sometimes I am shocked and sickened by what I see. I am thankful that God is showing me these lightening fast reactions, because they are in my heart and they are the truth before the learned behavior sets in.

They are the thoughts that whisper by in my initial reaction to others who are different from me, different race, different social or economic status, different place in life. They are so strong that I react immediately to them often losing the moment forever to make a positive difference in that person's life - to just show kind eyes toward them. To not have these thoughts that exalt myself over another person. I hate those thoughts!

I'm not really talking about something extraordinary, just make eye contact. I don't like it when I look away to quickly.

It takes knowing they these deeply rooted thoughts are there before I can replace them with God's Word.

Hebrews 4:12, 13 - For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thought and attitudes of the heart. 13. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Whoa. It's not play time people, it's get right with God time. We never know what tomorrow will bring or even the next minute. Love while there is still time.

My friend Judy, (her grand babies started calling her mama Juju - now we all do), reminds us "that it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance". Romans 2:4 Another friend told me once that "the fruit of rejection is anger" and mama juju alway says, "hurting people hurt people."

1John 4:19, we love because He first loved us. 1Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. And I can't close with out leaving you with The Message version of 1Peter 4:8 Most of all, love each other as if your life depeneded on it. Love makes up for practically anything.

Sigh, I love love.

See ya.

Brett Farve

We had this Jack Russell Terrier named Brett Farve. He was really my step son's dog but he became everybody's dog. He was the best mouser I have ever known. He didn't like kitties either.

So lately he started going down to the gate and getting out on the highway. I should clarify he wasn't technically on the highway he was in the bar ditch hunting by the highway. One day my husband was at the back of the ranch and he gets this phone call from a woman who said she was from California. She was driving by and saw Brett Farve on the highway and picked him up. She asked my husband what do you want me to do? He says well put him out, he'll go back to the house.

Well she didn't like that solution very much at all. But RS was working and couldn't come up to get the dog besides he knew leave him alone he'll go back to the house.

After a few days everyone around the ranch realized that we haven't seen Brett Farve in a while and started looking for him. Rickey and I were on our way to South Dakota when they called and asked is he had gotten in the cattle trailer and was going with us. We checked and sure enough he wasn't there.

Best we can tell the lady from California took him home with her.

She doesn't know what she has on her hands. I hope she doesn't have a kitty or a fluffy white dog. Brett doesn't like those. And he is lightning fast. It will be over before she even knows it's coming.

There is a difference with animals that live in the country and that are free to hunt. Some breeds can hunt themselves to far away and get lost, like Labrador retrievers or other hunting dogs. It's because they get their nose to the ground and just go. But Brett he was a different kind of guy.

We have three households here and a couple of barns. He could stay at any one of the houses and he like to hang out in the barns cause that's where the mice and the snakes were. We also show cattle and he liked to stay with them too. They lead a pretty pampered life.

You can't keep a dog like that couped up. He's used to hunting and checking things out.

We keep wondering if the lady from California is sorry that she took our dog and if her neighborhood will ever be the same.

And if there are any kittens left.

See ya.

Giving the Barn it's Due

So yesterday I posted about our weekend in South Dakota and I got a little deep about September 11, so I wanted to give the barn and our friends their due.

This barn was existing on the ranch when they bought the property and they have restored her to be a place to gather and fellowship with friends and family.

The metal on the roof is new but the siding is the original siding that they painted.

On the interior they had to put in new floors, love the diagonal direction of the wood.

In the pictures that follow I was stuck with the gray and brown color pallet of the room. I just thought it was so "in".

I love how they used found objects and hung them all over. Pictured here is the new wood floor and stairs.

Love the small antlers, again so in however these are real.

I loved this coffee grinder. I don't want to use it but I would love to have it.

A little self portrait, I really loved this corner.

Sweet Sammie Sue, she was everybody's friend but just look at her, who can resist?

Let's Roll

September 11th 2010 we spent the day at our friends ranch to honor and celebrate the day and our friendships both old and new, but we can never forget what happened on this day nine years ago.

Never.

Like most Americans we can each tell you where we were, what we were doing, how we felt and still feel about the events that took place in New York City, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.

It changed me personally and profoundly but mostly, about my faith. I watched in horror and unbelief the events of that morning and realized that if I was going to be attacked for my faith then my faith needed to be real and authentically lived out.

I was saved and baptized as a young girl of about 12 yrs old (don't know for sure, I don't think it was written down) but after that, I seem to live through a long season of drifting away and then walking in sin. At the age of 28 I gave my life to the Lord.

Alone in my living room, I prayed the sinner's prayer with Pat Robertson on TV. That may sound strange but that is how it happened. I was desperately seeking God and in faith I prayed. The following Saturday while making the bed I remember just desperately wanting to be forgiven for all that I had done in my life and I literally fell on my knees and cried out loud to God "help me". During this time I used to stand in the line at the grocery store and watch the other women there. I realized that the women I admired looked nothing like me. They were neatly dress, their hair was fixed, they were confident and happy. None of them looked like they had a dirty house at home. I, on the other hand, was a wrinkled disheveled mess, my hair a mess, the kids were a mess and the house was a huge mess!

On that Saturday morning, after I had been on my knees for a while, I got up dried my tears and went on about my day. I can distinctly remember how my mind seemed to be screaming at me, you can't do this, you will never be loved, you can never be . . . you fill in the blanks - but my heart seemed restful and at peace. I realize now that God was quieting my mind and changing my heart.

I made more mistakes through the years and I was still looking for a church to call home. If you had known me during this time you would not have thought of me as a Christian. I was uneducated on the Word of God.

During the summer of 2001, I found a bible study called Breaking Free written by Beth Moore. I boldly and uncharacteristically for me, asked if I could join the group doing this study. The lady I asked said, "if you will do all the homework and come, you can join us".

I did that homework. I dug into the Word like never before. A couple of times when I had to miss the weekly meetings she let me borrow the videos to watch at home. It was during these times that the Holy Spirit washed me the most. There was just something about being at home and alone, I was free to cry as hard and as long as I needed to, that set me free and to finally understand - no believe that not only could God forgive me but that He did forgive me and that I needed to forgive myself.

See I had asked God for forgiveness many many times in the past but I never believed that I could really be forgiven and I could never forgive myself. It was during this study in the summer of 2001 that God's truth broke through all my shame and I was finally set free from the chains that had been bound around me since the summer of my 16th year.

In October of that same year just after 9/11 I attended a walk to Emmaus, there I realized that Jesus was not something too far away for me to reach out and grab a hold of. He is Holy, He is high and lifted up but He is not unapproachable. His Word is true, His promises are true and He is Truth.

I pray each day that I live a life worthy of the One who died for me and that I show everyone who I meet the love that has set me free and can and will do the same for them. Some plant, some water, and some harvest. You never know what the Holy Spirit is doing in someones life and just how close they are to turning their lives over to God or maybe running from Him a little longer, a little farther or forever.

I can never forget where I came from and I will never forget the God who set me free, who hides me in the shadow of His wings, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, whose peace surpasses understanding, whose voice calls out my name, who set my feet on solid rock and who promises to never leave me or forsake me. His name is Emmanuel - God with us. He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, Alpha and Omega. He is the Ancient of Days and He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is the Name above all Names. He is Jesus.

And that is what September the 11th 2001 means to me.

Edited to remove the barn pictures to their own post . .

Mini Blog Break and Partial Post

I tried to put up a beautiful post today about the decor and the African sunsets BUT blogger was not cooperating and time is up.

We are on our way to South Dakota to go to a barn raising and dance. That should make for some amazing photos. Our friends re-built his Granddad's old barn into their get-away home. I can't wait to see it.

Until then here is a partial post of what I did get downloaded.

See ya next week.