MARCH 31st - A NEW NATIONAL HOLIDAY?

I have chores to do today and all I want to do is play. Give me a little freedom and it opens up pandora's box. Maybe we should have a new holiday-if you survived the month of March with it's stormy weather-March 31st get's to be a free day with out any chores, obligations or appointments-okay I think I will start the new holiday today and go play-well at least for a little part of the day!

POSSIBILITIES

Today is a day of possibilities. I have no appointments, no demands on my time-just wide open spaces to fill with what I want to do. I am leaning toward wandering to see where it may take me. Doesn't that sound like fun!

Oh my gosh-I ran into Debbie from My Shabby Roses at Monticello, [she is a blogger expert in my book] and I told her about my new goal of embedding pictures with my narratives. She quickly assessed my problem [like the wizard] and gently and nicely told me about the image button on the posting page. Not only did she tell me what to do, she went home and looked up the exact image button and came back to give me it's exact location on the posting page so I could absolutely not get confused. Thank you MUCHO Debbie for the help! So this is my test to see if I can follow her directions. PS Debbie-I pushed all of the other buttons to see what they did as well.

THE NIKON

Every day is a learning day-especially with this blog! I did get the Nikon uploaded into the computer-a few cord problems-but I figured it out in the end. My son has the cord at his house, so I used the Canon cord to up load and it worked. The only trouble is that the pictures got up loaded into Adobe Photoshop Album and it is a new program for me-so until I figure out how to use it, the pictures I have taken on it are being held captive by a computer and camera that are smarter than me! Now one might say-upload the pictures again and choose a program that you know-good idea-except in my limited wisdom, I erased them from the Nikon. So if I want these pictures-I learn the new program.

I have added new pictures from the Canon digital point and shoot and maybe-I should just stick with that camera as I seem to know how to do it-that is if I keep the battery charged! Enjoy the new pictures! My next goal is to learn how to embed the pictures under each narrative. Good luck with that one-Diana. Remember yesterday when you added to the blog roll -you somehow erased the entire list and had to do it all over again. Well as I say-each day is a learning day-I wonder what I will learn today?

GARDEN PARTY

It's March-but my mind keeps hoping that any day now, I will wake up and find myself immersed in warm, sunny weather! But alas-it is still March. So my mind is wandering around thinking about the up and coming garden show at Monticello Antique Marketplace in April and like any gardener nearing planting season-my mind is racing with possibilities and the heart beats just a bit faster thinking about what spring might bring to us.

On the other hand the golfing maven, formerly known as Donna, is thinking golf and gardening. She and her husband got the golf bug last year and there is no stopping their desire to get good enough to play along with Tiger Woods. They are hoping that this will happen in the near future. They even played yesterday in the rain, hail and she says sun. Well, I am off to start putting my thoughts into action for the garden show and then Donna and I are off to Monticello this afternoon to replenish and fluff. Be back soon.

THE BARN SALE

What a fun day we had at the Queen of Tarte Sale. The weather was great, the food was great and the shoppers were fabulous. If you did not make this sale-it would be so worth your time to go to the next one. The shoppers hauled out fabulous finds, especially from Cindy, Queen of Tarte and Joe and Jermonne from Barn House. They have a great knack of finding furniture , artifacts, and rusty, funky, unique finds! Natalie of Sparrow made the most wonderful homemade chocolate cake with 7 minute boiled frosting. It was to die for-it brought back so many memories from our childhood as that was our choice of birthday cake for most of our growing up years! Way to go Natalie-I am sure I ate at least enough to gain a pound today! Well, the wizard has called me to dinner so I must go for now.

Oh my gosh we have had so much fun this week at Tarte Land. We love the barn and all that Cindy has done with it to make it a shopping adventure. If you have an hour or two tomorrow-this adventure to Queen of Tarte and 4 Friends sale will be well worth it. It is really easy to find! If I can find it anyone can! One of the things I love the most are the farm animals that roam the property during the day [they will be behind fences during the sale]-I am a cowgirl at heart!
Well we are off to the Barn to finish up-hope to see you at the Sale.

QUEEN OF TARTE

YEAH! Donna and I are off to find the Queen of Tarte Barn in Oregon City this morning. We are going to join her for the 4 Friends Sale this up and coming Saturday. It will be so much fun! We are looking forward to seeing old friends and an immersion into creativity with the wonderful work that Cindy and her friends do at their sales. So we are off to the Queen of Tarte adventure.

THE LAWN DRESS

I was lucky enough to get some wonderful, old cream and white clothes this weekend at an estate sale. On closer inspection at home, of course, I always find surprises about the treasures that I did not see in the thrill of the moment when finding them. As was the case with the beautiful linen lawn dress. It was in wonderful condition except for the stains under the arms. Clearly deodorant products were not available at the time this dress was worn. So in my efforts to try and at least fade the stains, I began filling the laundry tub with water, put Dawn and Tide on the stains and went to brush my teeth before leaving for an estate sale. It's a busy morning-TOO busy-I forgot the water was running. Sigh-not what I really said! I yelled for the Wizard and between the two of us it took 40 minutes to clean up the water. It went all over the floor, into the cupboard and into the drawers, down to the furnace room and into boxes, athletic equipment and other stuff. Well, the good news is that I got some spring cleaning done. I learned to put the linen in a tub inside of the sink so that particular problem does not happen again and I got to the estate sale and still found more treasures. The dress is soaking and after I finish the last load of towels from the cleanup-she will go into the delicate cycle for her final wash and hopefully to a new and beautiful life.

MONTICELLO

We spent the afternoon spiffing up our Monticello spaces and adding new treasures. Donna did a beautiful job as usual with display! The good part about all the work we did for EXPO is that there were left over goodies to add to Monticello which gave us extra time to shop other wonderful dealer spaces yesterday.

I have spent 2 nights learning to crop photos from the Nikon so new pictures are about to arrive. The Wizard has to show me how to download the Nikon into the computer, so once that happens-new pictures! I do now know how to do it on the Canon. I took the Canon to EXPO, but it would have helped if I had checked the battery before trying to take pictures-you guessed it-dead. For those who know me, I was true to form-this is so Diana!

IS SHE DIANA OR DONNA

We had a blast at EXPO, but am thankful it is done until July and life can get back to it's regular pace-busy-but not in the fastest lane! We continue to confuse old and new customers about which twin they are talking to. It never fails to amaze the both of us that we must be somewhat of a novelty. How many antique twins do you see doing antiques? My guess is not many! We are so proud of ourselves, we loaded and unloaded all of our stuff in record time and we had daylight and no rain or snow to boot! How much better can that be in the month of March?

Vicki Wooten, [many of you know her from her past work at Monticello Antique Marketplace], was a tremendous help before and during the show-we could not have done it so smoothly with out her expertise! We were also able to brag to many folks about her work that is currently in, "How Women Create", published by Somerset Studios. We are so proud of the work that Vicki Wooten and her partner Beth do with their creative spirits. As soon as I figure out how to do links they will be the first to be added. Thanks Vicki for all of you help and support!

Well it is off to walk the dogs-the snow has almost melted. Be back soon!

POOPED

We're pooped! Two days down and one more to go for the March EXPO Show. We have had so much fun seeing old friends and dealers as well as welcoming new customers! I just wish sometimes that I was 20 years younger with energy to spare instead of bemoaning my aching bones and tired feet.

We've had a good sale and are thankful for our loyal followers and of course new customers. We did our best to help bust the recession by offering lots of affordable goodies. Well it's off to an early bedtime as we spring ahead and loose that precious hour of sleep-at least for me. Goodnight

Well the next to hardest part in doing the expo show is done. We are moved in and only got rained on during the unpacking. We had some sun during the loading into the truck and cars-not to bad for the 5th of March!

We brought lots of smalls and items under $20.00. We are trying to do our part in fighting off the recession with fun things to tickle and please that won't hurt the bottom line too much.

I have a few more things to price and pack up tonight so I will say goodnight and am sure to dream of antiques.

We are both looking forward to seeing old friends and the many wonderful dealers who are a part of the show. I am going to put the camera in the car as soon as I sign off so we can take some pictures of the fun to share.

EXPO

Well we are in the crunch time zone in preparation of the March 6 th, EXPO show. No matter that we say each show will be more organized than the last and it won't get down to the last minute in pricing, tagging, cleaning, packing and bundling-here we are again with too much to do and to little time to do it. I have at least four days of work in the "treasures" piled in the garage for only two days worth of time left. I guess the only zen thing to do is to do what is possible in those two days and let the rest be. Easier said than done!

So I am off to work in the garage. Pictures to come.