Jamie Danford

Macy's "Thank a Mom Movement"

Mother's Day is just a little over a week away, and I've already made my gift list known to Big Dave and Miss Priss (an indoor grill, a portable casserole dish/warmer, and if not either of those two things, then maybe just getting my house cleaned by my two favorite people.)

And now that we've talked about ME, let me bring your attention the original purpose of this post... Macy's has this beautiful idea of donating $5 to charity (up to $400,000) when you use their Facebook link to send a FREE e-card to your favorite mommy.

 

You can customize it with your own photos, or just send the stock card.  It's super simple.  I already did it and chose The American Heart Association's 'Go Red for Women' as the charity for the $5 to go to because goodness knows we need to protect our mommies, grandmommies (and ourselves) from heart disease, and as I've watched my mom struggle with chronic hypertension I've grown very aware of how fragile our loved ones are.

So, if you're feelin' frisky, head on over to Macy's Facebook page and check it out.  ;)

Noteworthy...

Things are slow around Dhuland this week... after our busy Easter break, it's nice to have the house to myself and get things cleaned up.  I've only got a handful of noteworthy things to chat about today, so let's see what's happening...

After weeks of rabid anticipation, the sugar snap peas have released their bounty with gusto...

I've got quarts and quarts of our delicious little friends... yum!

Just a few minutes in the microwave, a dash of salt and voila... better than boiled peanuts in my book.  DeLISH!

 

The hens are back to laying on a daily basis again after their week or two helter skelter egg production.  Were they on strike?  Just saving up?  Having a case of Spring Fever?  I dunno.  But several days ago Big Dave accidentally left them out in the garden and they flew over the fence which used to be no big deal because they were relatively safe in our yard.  However with the addition of Shady, who happens to be a BIRD DOG, things have gotten a bit more precarious for our feathered frauleins.  Add to the mix, our neighbor's dog Sugar who'd come over to play with Shady, and you've got yourself a chicken chasin', feather flingin' broo ha ha.  Big Dave and our neighbor managed to save the chickens from peril after dashing through the forest in chase of the dogs who were in chase of the chickens (you still following?)  and ever since, what do you know... we've gotten eggs.

Guess they learned their lesson eh?  No eggs equals chicken Nazis.  End of story.

 

And in other noteworthy news, Shady...

 ... and Scooter...

 ...have taken quadripedal contortionism to new heights. 

And I finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins...

 
Which may I just say, COMPLETELY ROCKED MY SOCKS OFF!!!! If you haven't read this series, stop what you are doing, go immediately to Amazon.com and order it.  You cannot afford to live another day without it. 

And with that, I will bid you adieu... I must journey to the outdoors where the wind is whipping in over the marsh hard enough to blow the gnats and skeets away, and a thirty foot wall of azalea bushes is waiting for me to give it a better hair day with my trusty loppers. 

;)

Beach day!

The wee tots talked me into taking them to Tybee today, and even though I'm fried like a pork rind, I am glad we did it.

 
(Gratuitous cleavage shot.)

And even though the waves were huge...

 

...and the temperature was Heavenly, and people behind me had good music playing, and my book is pretty cool, my favorite part of Tybee time was watching these two...

 

...{very} hesitantly begin the ever so important adolescent process better known as 'strutting their stuff.'  
Man, I wish I could take a time machine back to 1985, and give myself a really good talking to.  I'd tell myself to LOVE every minute of it, and REMEMBER the feeling of walking on the beach, giggling at boys, splashing in the ocean and catching the perfect tan.  And if I could've bottled up the energy and the beauty and the carefree splendiferousness of it all I would've.

 
Little girl, you've got the world on a silver platter.  What are you gonna do?

;)

 

Easter memories...

 
My sweet girl and I celebrated our risen saviour this morning at WBUMC.  I cried, got goosebumps and laughed out loud.  It was a beautiful worship service.

Then it was time for the hunt...

 
 

And Big Dave came home from his hunting trip during the Easter egg hunt...

 
And now I am a happy girl.

We ate a yummilicious din din at our neighbors' house and relaxed by the pool with Cupcake wine while the kids splashed and shrieked in the sunshine.

It was a beautiful Easter, I couldn't have asked for more... and I hope that your day was as filled with love as mine. 

And tomorrow?  The beach... ahhhhhhh.......

;)

Some things never go out of style...

 
...and dying Easter eggs would be one of those things. 

It definitely has appeal for this thirteen year old in particular. Of course a Tye Dye coloring kit makes things a bit more interesting...

 

 

Happy Easter peeps, hope your day is filled with praise and family and love and chocolate bunnies.

;)

A bit more show and tell...

I found a pile of layouts that never made it to the ol' bloggy, so I thought I'd throw 'em on here...

 

I can't believe it's been two years since Big Dave and Miss Priss brought home that cardboard box of fluffy chickies.  Wow.

 

 
 
 
 
Love this monster paper... and the 3-d embellies are from last year's K&Company Halloween line.  Ah, a fun way to use up my excessive stash of Halloween stuff on a non-Halloween layout.  Yum!

Alrighty... hoping to get a few more layouts finished soon and will definitely share. ;)

A BIG day for my baby girl...

 
Miss Priss had a beautiful day at church... she was baptised and 'confirmed' as a member of the Methodist church (more specifically, White Bluff United Methodist.)

 
It's kind of a big deal.  ;)

There were twelve girls in her Confirmation class, which was an intensive ten week series of workshops and classes focusing on what it means to be a Christian and a Methodist. 

I'm so freakin' happy for her, and it was a very emotional morning for me.  Not only was she confirmed in the same church that I was, but she was baptized in the same exact spot where I knelt beside my Dad when I was ten years old to receive my own baptism with him before he died a few months later.

 
Our girl...

 

She made the decision to show the world her faith by her baptism... so we bought her this ring...

 

...inscribed with, "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7.) 

I'm so thankful for today... God, You are good (all the time.)

;)

Penthouse overhaul (God help me...)

It's time. 

I've been dreading it for months.

The Penthouse needs an overhaul.

{Shudder}

When we moved into this little piece of Heaven I call my dream house, the Penthouse was pristine...

The walls were naked, the floors uncluttered by bags and boxes and trash, the tables clean and unblemished.

Now after MUCH use, the Penthouse looks like this...

 
We've added a third table for Sid, along with a lovely collection of Ouzo bottles and Cricute robots, photos, trash, too much paper and embellies, and of course the occasional dog turd.

 
I mean LOOK at this... it's madness.  Who can feel creative in this kind of slop? 

 
There are totes and containers everywhere... long forgotten half competed layouts, preplanned pages, leftovers from completed pages, and stickers, chipboard, felt, epoxy, transparencies, buttons, brads, photo corners, fibers, ribbon, cardstock, print papers, and flowers...

Did I mention it's absolute madness?  Okay, just checking.

So today I began cleaning, organizing, and most importantly... PURGING.

I've got scrap crap that's been hanging around since I closed Savannah Scrapbooking over THREE years ago (can you believe it's been that long???)  And I've just finally gotten to the point where I can say, 'If I haven't used it since then, I may as well chunk it.'

So I spent all day Friday sorting through my stuff and assembling a humongo bag of scrap supplies to get rid of.  (Anybody have any ideas?  Should I donate it somewhere or try to sell it?)

My plan is to get rid of anything that doesn't inspire me... I mean, why keep it if it doesn't make sense to use it on one of my layouts? 

Another aspect of my Penthouse overhaul is that I've found dozens... probably hundreds of layouts that need to be put into albums.  Ever since I closed the store, I've just created stuff and then put it in a pile.  The result?

 
A two foot tall tower of completed layouts needing homes.

{Yikes}

I  have a feeling I know what I'll be doing in my spare time in the near future.  Luckily, I stocked up  on albums while I still had the store... I should be good to go.

So... I managed to clean out the corner of doom and collect all the stray layouts.  Next up, the table (my side, not Kristine's... she's on her own.)

I'm feeling energized, and can't wait to get 'er done.  Maybe one more day, and I'll be done.

Inhale, exhale...

I'm pretty sure this Penthouse overhaul would qualify for an HGTV show!

Gearin' up for a good read...

I love gifts.

No really... I LOVE GIFTS.

And if that gift happens to be a book, then I'm even more happily pleased.

So, imagine how uberdeeduberdee excited I was when I went to let my neighbor's dog out this afternoon (because these are the things you do when  you're unemployed and love your neighbor) and found this on top of the kennel...

 

Weeeeeeeeeee!!  I've been chompin' at the old proverbial bit to read these since so many of my cyber buddies have recommended them. 

 
And since I just finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, I was able to start this trilogy immediately.  (I'm on page 61, and it's already SO good!)

So, I've got The Hunger Games by my side, and I'm listening to The Tortilla Curtain in the car, which is ridiculously good too.  Plus I'm making a lot of progress on my own rag I mean, novel.  LOTS of words going in and out around here. 

No wonder I've been dreaming like a maniac lately.  My imagination is on OVERLOAD.

But have no fear, I still managed to plant a couple dozen annuals in my new flowerbed and mulch it with pine bark nuggets, plus pick up all the Spanish moss and mow. And looky what's happening in the garden...

 
There's peas in them there pods!  Oh my mouth is already watering.

So... anything growing in your garden?  And anybody reading anything terrific?  Do tell!

More showsie tellsie...

I've got some MAJOR excitement happening here in Dhuland... three momentous things have happened to me in the past two days.  It's true.

1.) I ate a dutch chocolate BACON cupcake. 

2.) My hottie neighbor (who happens to be where I got the cupcake from) allowed me to stuff my DRY CLEAN ONLY kingsized comforter into her oversized washer and dryer.  And it DID NOT shrink to the size of a postage stamp.  (I told you this was some MAJOR excitement.) 

So now my bedroom doesn't smell like a giant dog bed (otherwise known as Dog-Ass-Frito-Funk.)

And last but not least.... drumroll please....

3.) I painted BEHIND my refrigerator. Uh huh, that's right folks... no more cream curd paint peeking out from around the sides of the fridge.

Now that's some dog diggity excitement isn't it????  Heck, and I didn't even talk about the bags of mulch I bought at Walmart or the fact that I've come to the bitter realization that wasps are somehow or another sneaking into my home.  (Fireplace?  A/C vent? Cat door?) 

Or that Big Dave got so excited about shooting a turkey that he snapped a photo of it with his phone, and then proceeded to leave said phone on his tailgate, drive off and discover that it had been run over by a dump truck.  (Why is there a dump truck in the forest?  Hmm... interesting question.  I do not know.) 

And then the phone STILL worked, but the screen was busted.  AND THEN it fell out of his holster and was lost forever in the great wide world of the DiLane Wildlife Management Area.  The end.

So... {total change of subject} ... let's have some scrapbook show and tell shall we?  (I'll call this the 'two-pager' edition.)

 

I used the old Heidi Swapp acrylic paint for the brown letters...

 

And this was the last one I did on pina colada night (you can kinda tell...)

 
And this is one of Kristine's (who we've now decided is the master of cramming five gozillion photos on a two page spread and STILL have room for embellishments)...

 
And then a nice streamlined one from Deiha...

 

Okay... I'm off to muster up some more excitement around here and give you a few minutes to get your heart rate back to normal.  Woooooweeee... I can only imagine what will happen next.

Clean the bathrooms?

Wipe the fingerprints off the tv? 

Download the new song by The Cars?

 

Stay tuned for another ACTION PACKED post!