Weather Report, Big Black Cat and the Bathroom Sink

The weather forecasters have been reporting that we are in the "dog days of summer"...which in Arizona means it's hot and muggy. When you walk out side of your air-conditioned house, it's like stepping into a sauna.

What is a big black cat to do to keep cool?

Stretch out on the cool ceramic tile away from the house traffic...

No...even better, curl up in a ball in the  bathroom sink. Now the big black cat can stay cool and inconvenience anyone wanting to wash their hands or brush their teeth...a happy, cool cat.

What do you do with a bunch of doilies?

I have been collecting doilies...

a lot of doilies...

a whole big bunch doilies...I enlisted friends and family in this search...

An older lady at one of the thrift stores I stop in a couple times a month while on my  search  calls me her "doily lady". She would ask me how many I had found...I have no clue, I had never counted. I just knew I was going to need a lot for all the project ideas I had. 

I finally got the time to work on a banner/garland for my Darling Daughter...

I hung the doily banner on the front window at my house to take these photos. The window in her house is much larger than mine, so I draped the ends on either side of my window, then pulled up on parts of it to create some swags.

I created scrunchy bows out of crinkled seem binding ribbon and placed one between each doily on the banner...

DD hung her  banner up on her window, looks pretty good. Now I need t come up with some other creative ideas for all those doilies...yes, I'm still collecting.

Happy 4th of July

Hooray for the red, white and blue!

Arizona Flower Fairies

It is that time of the year here in Arizona, when we hit in the neighborhood of 115 degrees or higher during the day. Which creates a real hardship on our “Flower Fairies”. 

In Arizona we can pretty much garden year round...except July, August, and most of September, then it gets a bit rough for any thing to grow, except weeds. During the rest of the year our flower fairies reside in among the flower and vegetable gardens.

In the winter while the rest of the country is freezing cold and up to their knees in snow...Arizona has beautiful gardens and the flower fairies are doing their happy dance.

 

Are you wondering where the Arizona Flower Fairies go to in the Summer...
 they hide out at the mall or the movies where they can use someone else Air Conditioning to keep cool, just like everyone else!

Once upon a time, dad was a Cowboy...

Back in the 20's and 30's Western movies were a big deal. Kids would save their pennies to catch a matinee with Buck Jones, Ken Maynard, Tom Mix and many other cowboy movie stars. These "horse operas" brought action and adventure to children and adults alike. The shows were full of riding, roping and of course a lot of shooting. 

When I was a kid, my dad told me stories of him going to the movies to see his cowboy heroes, one of his favorite was Hoot Gibson. Hoot was such a big movie star at the time he has his own “star” on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

As a teenage dad was a cowboy too...I don't think he ever moved a heard of cattle, but he did ride bucking broncs in the rodeo. And he was an "extra" in the 1952 movie "Half Breed". If you blinked you'd miss him.

So this cowboy card is for you dad...and all the Cowboys out there.

Lily of the Valley, Mr. Selfridge and black dresses...

I worked on this card while "Mr. Selfridge" was airing on PBS. The program had more story lines then a Soap Opera. The first couple of weeks I was having a hard time of keeping track of who was who at Selfridge's store...every one dressed in black...very professional. 

 The logo for the perfume line that Mr Selfridge had created for the store...that "anyone could afford" was Lily of the Valley. Probable a very abundant flower in the English country side...

Those delicate little white fragrant bell shaped flowers have a marvelous vintage look.

I wonder if you can still find the Lily of the Valley cologne at Selfridges in London...or do they only carry the modern designer brands?

Redford, Gatsby and 3D...

I hear the new "Great Gatsby" movie is suppose to be good. A friend of mine (with fantastic taste and a wonderful imagination...so she would know) says the movie is good and worth going to see. Oh by the way, she saw it in 3D. It's not that I'm doubting her, I just can't see any actor but Robert Redford playing Jay Gatsby.  Now there's a classic!

I love that era...the 1920's with the Art Deco design...and the stunning fashions.  The clothing was dazzling...Rayon dresses up to a ladies knees...how shocking!

  Hair was cut short and with a Marcel wave...what would their grandmothers say?

 The time of  "Gatsby"...the Roaring Twenty's, was pretty hot stuff...plenty of inspiration for a movie.