Midori by the Sea -- WOYWW 382

Happy Wednesday Lovely. Join us at What's-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday.

What is a desk anyway? It's the place where you are camped out getting something done, creating, pondering, browsing...all of the above. Right? So while I couldn't...sadly...camp out by the sea, I made my desk, at least for an hour, by a big fountain. This is why they call this thing a Midori traveler's notebook. It travels, with lots-o-notebooks inside! I was doodling things into my planner, and listing things in my listbook and having a happy ole time in a world surrounded by iphones.

I have to say though, there's really nothing wrong with being on your phone. It connects you with the world! Being able to check on my business, my family, and my friends remotely--amazing. But I also need pretty paper and stitching time.

It's good to get away from your regular desk sometimes, especially when the weather is gorgeous. I also have to share, I've made it, finally, to the first floor of the cross-stitch dollhouse. Woo hoo!

Four rooms to go before the end of the year. This is the start of the living room. The last room to stitch will be the garage. My nephews will love that I'm cross-stitching a car!

I leave you with the other sight I see everywhere right now. It's pumpkin time in the Ozarks! And I need those mums in my life. Have a beautiful week.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

♥Why You Should Dance Every Day♥

I started going to a new church recently. Love this church. Anyway, each Sunday we happened to sit in front of a beautiful elderly lady sitting alone. There was something just, I don't know, sparkly about her. I was very drawn to her and she always noticed us each week and let us know that she looked forward to seeing us the next Sunday. Her husband sang in the choir, so she sat alone until he joined her in the service.

One Sunday he sang special music, and she was so proud. She patted me on the shoulder to tell me, several times during the service, that he was going to sing.

The next Sunday I told her what a great job he did, and that I too used to sing in a choir. She remembered this and mentioned it the next time I saw her.

I was thinking about her this week and looking forward to seeing her sparkling little face. She's a tiny thing. But then I found out that last Sunday, after she took my hand and I told her goodbye and told her to have a beautiful day, she had fallen later that day and broke her hip. She died this week from complications of that fall.

I was completely shocked that someone so special was gone so quickly after I met her. But then, from people that know her well, I found out so many amazing things about her. First, she had extreme dementia. I thought she might, but, she remembered my husband and I week after week. Then I learned she used to jitterbug, and did it so well she won contests. I knew there was something special about her, because I love dancing, and dancers and all of it. She had a dancer's heart. I knew it.

While I can't share all the personal things in her life, like how she even served in the war in a special way, it amazes me because I didn't even need to know any of it to see her sparkling, shining beautiful spirit. It all just came through loud and clear in her eyes and her smile and I now know I had the privilege of meeting an amazing, talented, brave woman for the last few weeks of her time here on the planet. This was some special timing, because I almost missed her.

I know there's no wheelchair with her now in her heavenly realm, and she is jitterbugging to her heart's content. So, I will keep dancing, while I can, at all, even if it's in the kitchen to the radio. You hear that Justin Timberlake? Old ladies like me dance to your music, because it's good for the soul, it's important, and now's the time to take a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance. Right Edith?

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Dance 

All I Need Is Coffee and Cross-Stitch...WOYWW 381

Happy Wednesday Lovely!

Visit a bunch of random Wednesday desks from crafters all over the world right here at What's-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday. Madam Julia just keeps this party going week after week...even if she's having brain surgery, literally, and we just let her because 1-We're nosy about desks 2-We have friends across the planet we would have never known existed if it weren't for Julia so...3-The global crafting community becomes like living in a little crafty village when you come to this blog party. It just makes your week brighter. Somebody needs to make a movie about us! I'll write the screenplay Julia!

I loved stitching the second floor sunroom--so cute

Anyhoo...my desk is coffee and cross-stitch. See...I knew it...this is why I don't do big cross-stitch projects anymore because they take over my life at some point and then I'm not doing other things I wanted to get to. I've barely finished the August room in the dollhouse, and now I'm finally on the first floor! BUT...and that's a big but (not mine)...I need to get into production mode for the Christmas craft sale things I want to make. I'm like a craft hamster on a wheel.  Oooh...that reminds me of when darling daughter was little and we had hamsters and were told we were buying two females and one day I opened the top of their cage and there were 12 hamster babies that looked like little aliens! Pardon my reminiscing. Good times at our house.

Swing over to the left and here's my busy box which holds things that would normally scatter everywhere, and on top is the cross-stitch and my DMC floss. I had just unhooped it after finishing the third and second floors.

See that cute little zipper bag? I need to stitch about a dozen more of those!

And I have to share the cutest wooden stamps I got in the Target dollar spot. A set of four stamps for a buck...I love them!

One of these Wednesdays I'm going to do one of my "complete desk tours" and make it to every desk in the WOYWW village! Will it be this week? We'll see.

Have a beautiful day.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

A look at the whole second and third floor done! Wrinkled and stained from dragging it with me everywhere.

Brown Sugar Breakfast Cake - Just Add Coffee and a Smile

I'll admit it. We like this cake for breakfast as much as any coffee cake, thus the name. Oh so good with a warm mug of coffee! But it is suitable as dessert after dinner, birthday cake, even a groom's cake. It's so easy to make, and besides, I promised my crafty peeps this week during our weekly craft desk blog hop that I'd post it. So here's the recipe--ripped out of some magazine long ago and tweaked over time.

Brown Sugar Breakfast Cake
 INGREDIENTS
**********
4 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup water
any yellow cake mix
1 small package vanilla instant pudding
1 cup packed brown sugar
powdered sugar to sprinkle on top later

DIRECTIONS
Put all the ingredients in your mixer, mix on slow and then mix well on medium for two minutes. Grease a bundt pan and pour the mix in. Bake for one hour at 350 degrees. Let the cake cool in the pan for twenty minutes, loosen the sides and and invert it onto a cooling rack to completely cool. Sprinkle the top generously with powdered sugar. Yum!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch 

 
 

WOYWW 380--Oh dear she's having her cake and eating it too

YES. That's cake on my desk with my coffee in the morning light. Oh dear. Has it come to this? I'm so busy I have to eat cake for breakfast? Well, twist my arm. Because it's brown sugar cake, and it's pretty good for breakfast! (Let me know if you'd like me to post the recipe--very easy.)
Anyhoo. Happy What's-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday lovelies. It's number 380! And Julia's planning a crop. Wish I could cross the pond and go. *sigh* I'd drop everything.

second floor sunroom

I'm cross-stitching, getting the dollhouse caught up--I wanted to stitch a room a month this year and I'm almost done with the August room. Woo hoo! (Hello, it's September) See, this is why I don't do large patterns anymore--they take a year. But I dearly love this dollhouse. 
I actually have a dollhouse, and I've decorated it with patterned paper on the walls--meant for scrapbooking--I've stamped in it and on it, and I even have furniture from my childhood in it, so it's pretty special to me, and I couldn't pass up this cross-stitch house. Hey, here's a link to when I blogged about my dollhouse and you can see if you fancy it. I created a craft room in it--so it's not for a little girl, it's for me!
The Scrapbook Dollhouse Project

And this photo is for Jan and Julia because they know how I am rubbish at crochet and everything turns into a circle! But I found a youtuber who finally taught me what I was doing, and I made a headband. Woo hoo!

So see why I eat cake in the morning? I need lots of energy to cross-stitch, crochet, and do the business of daily life. I also like to find time to write, and I may be joining choir soon.

Oh dear.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

Cuppa Washi

Reminder: Your self-worth has nothing to do with your bank account. It has nothing to do with the size of your house, how big your crafty stash is, or carrying a designer bag.

Crossbody from Charming Charlie

Speaking of bags--I'm a bag lover--a bag is a bag is a bag. In fact, lately, I really prefer the gorgeous variety and well-made bags at amazingly thrifty prices at Charming Charlie. Beautiful colors, vegan leather and gorgeous hardware that stays shiny for a long time. Shiny! And my favorite tote bag? The one my friend Jan made for me! She lives across the ocean, and made the cutest ever tote bag from fabric that makes me feel like it's spring.

All that being said, I am on a no-spend until Christmas shopping time. One of the things that makes me happy is shopping my own closet, shopping my own stash, and looking at things in a whole new way. Like this cuppa washi I created.

That was a stack of washi I got for less than three bucks at TJMaxx and instead of putting it on a ring, like I usually do, I displayed it on my desk in a cup--very handy as I use washi for everything. Cuppa washi for me....love it. My friend Susan used to own a pottery painting shop, and my daughter and I loved to go there, pick out a piece of pottery and sit and paint. I also went to a few girl parties there where we relaxed, brought appetizers, chatted and painted. So fun. When Susan was moving and selling the business, she gave me a couple of things that she herself, a very talented artist, had painted, and one of them was this lemonade cup. I've now had it for years. You can find new inspiration and new ways to display things from all kinds of things around your house and having a few sentimental things on your desk that bring back happy times is delightful. You don't have to go buy something.

Shop your stash, rearrange, and reinspire yourself.

Rings of wash in my beautiful box.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch