Famous for one minute each day

A couple of years ago, my youngest daughter and I, and half of the youth in our church, flew to Denver, Colorado for a National Fine Arts Festival. Our sign language group earned a “superior with honors”. All of the kids did really well and we were so proud of them, but that is another story.

One night, a couple of the girls posed for this picture on the address monument of a local building….. Remember the lyrics, “I wear my sunglasses at night”? Anyway, the picture turned out so cute and it fit right in with the 4:10 am time slot on the Human Clock, so we sent it in. You have to be up at 4 in the morning to see it. LOL But, they are famous for one minute everyday – how cool is that!

More Spring Flowers

We had a light rainfall this morning along with a little lightning and thundering. The storm moved off rather quickly, but it is still cloudy and damp outside.

I grabbed my camera and took these pictures right after it stopped raining. This beautiful dogwood sits all the way back behind our house next to the pond. It’s the only one we have and I look forward to seeing it bloom every year.




There is a little story to this Azalea bush. I planted it about 5 years ago and was just about to pull it up. Why, you ask. Well, It has never bloomed……until this year! I don’t know what took it so long to get happy, but I’m glad it finally did. It’s just beautiful!

The bush with the white flowers on it is always happy…. It blooms twice every year and is loaded with blossoms.

A Lasting Memorial

This is a picture of a collage shadowbox that my mom made and surprised me with for Christmas.

In fact, she made nine of them….

The picture in the center is of my grandmother who recently passed from this Earth into Glory. She was 98 years old. (I think she is 16 in the picture.) My mom collected pieces of her favorite jewelry, crocheted doilies made by her, all of her gloves and other little what-not’s, from her home, to create these beautiful memorials.

She made one for each of the grandchildren and each one is different. What a unique treasure!

Thank you mom! I love it and will keep it always.

I'm going to be in a movie!

Several weeks ago a friend, “conned” me into working as an extra in the movie “Comeback”, staring Ice Cube.

I don't know who took this picture, a friend sent it to me...... yes, the same one who got me involved in the first place....Yep, Cindy, I'm talkin' about you..... Just for the record. She got me to go, and then she didn't! Anyway, it was taken during down time between scenes. I am on the third row from the bottom, next to the fence, pink shirt, blond hair.

The film is based on a true story about a young girl from Illinois, who is a quarterback on a football team. Ice Cube, plays the part of her uncle and coach. It was a really interesting experience, watching how a single scene is filmed from a dozen different angles. The weather was perfect and I even got a little bit of a tan.

I was an extra as a football fan for the game. It took two days to film the game and I only remember seeing five downs, just filmed from lots of angles. We were all given props; pom-poms, coke cups, popcorn and such and then we jumped up and down like crazy on cue… It was really funny, because we weren’t allowed to make any noise…. Just pretend to be yelling. The scenes had dialog from the actors, so we had to be quiet. They are going to add the yelling in later. Crazy!

The set was fascinating. The Pop Warner game is set in Miami, Florida so, they brought in palm trees and planted them around the stadium and built up the beds with pineapple plants and sand. It really did look like we were in Miami.

I didn’t like the long days, though. I had to get up at 4:30am to drive to Shreveport and we weren’t finished until 6:30pm…. It took me almost a week to catch up with my sleep… But the food was GREAT! We were served buffet style and had snacks and drinks offered to us all through the day. I was very impressed with how organized everything was…… Also, a shout out to my two new friends – June and Sheila. They were tons of fun and I really enjoyed getting to know them. You’ll see us sitting together in the stands.

The movie is set to be released on July 25th, so watch for me in the stands during the "Big Game". I'll be wearing a pink shirt.

Easter Sunday

Yesterday was Easter Sunday…… I love Easter! The whole earth seems to love it, too. The air is warm, the flowers are blooming, the trees are putting out new leaves and the birds are singing. Children are all excited in their new Easter clothes and there seems to be a smile on every face. There is joy in the air! Jesus is alive! Praise God!

I hope that with all your feasting, egg hunts and shopping, you took some time for Jesus. He died, descended into the pit and rose again….. for you and for me. He loved us so much that He chose to take our place. Praise His Holy Name!

Jesus said, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death!” (Revelation 1:18)

The Best Scavenger Hunt I ever wrote!

I have had too much fun the past couple of days.

One of the girls in my daughters youth group had her 18th birthday. So, I spent Thursday and Friday writing a scavenger hunt for her surprise party.

She was totally surprised! And that scavenger hunt was the best one I have ever written! (I’ve written a lot of them!) With the kids being older, I got to make the clues really hard. Soooo fun! They had to have a flashlight, a camera or camera phone, a compass and a pen. The hunt started at 8 pm and ended at 10:30 pm.

I had those kids all over the parish! Lol I gave them my phone number as the “Hint Hot Line”, but they lost 200 points if they called. Only two teams called in and both of them were standing right next to the prize and just didn’t see it….. They were so mad to have lost those points :-)

There were 5 categories: Collect the letters, Photo gallery, Sounds shop, Trivia and the Bonus clues.

To collect the letters, they had to go to a dozen places looking for objects or words and collect one of the letters from it. Then they had to unscramble the letters in order to know where to meet at the end. (Starbucks)

Here is a sample: Find the bull’s eye, see the red and green dots. Look to your right…… Hola! Collect the 4th letter.

That was Target of course, but they had to stand in front of the entrance (green dot) and look across the interstate to see a local Mexican restaurant. One team totally missed that one.

For the Photo Gallery they had to take pictures of some crazy things…. Like the eye of the tiger, a street sign with the name of someone in the youth group on it, an alligator…. There are pictures of alligators all over the place, but one team went all the way to Bass Pro and took a picture of a real one. LOL They lost almost 40 minutes for that and it was only worth 100 points. LOL

They really got creative on the Sound Shop. Several teams went to a cop to get the sound of a siren. Only one team was able to get a whistling tea kettle…..They got 300points for it too!

Trivia was like a fill in the blank….In this town, Debbie sells insurance. What do the kids learn next door? Another one was; this church has a new chapel with pretty stained glass windows. How many down spouts does it take to keep the roof dry?

And then my favorite! I made four 1000 point bonus riddles. The theme of the party was Batman. So, I hid four pictures; Robin, Batman, Cat Woman and The Joker.

For the batman riddle the kids had to figure out that they needed to be at a shopping center in one town and from there they had to drive to the Post Office in another town. Once there, they had to find a sign that said children weren’t allowed to play in the parking lot. The team that found it took second place. Here is the clue.

Choo, Choo….. That’s where the cash is. But, somewhere in the region, you’ll find Steve. He’s right in the thick of things and with a donation. From his hanger he can see the eagles take flight. Follow the eagles to their eastern home and the site where no children play.

The choo,choo is a train on the top of a sign near the pizza house and there is a “Cash” Reality next door. Across the highway is a “Steve’s” cleaners in the Oak “Thicket” shopping center. It’s right next to the Goodwill Store. In the parking lot there is a “Regions” bank and next to that there are two priority mail boxes with “eagles” on the side.

The Robin one started with: “Holy Bat-burgers! That redhead has been hiding spies.” That took them to Wendy's.

The Riddler started with: What’s not at the beginning and surly not alive? This one was a little more tricky, but all of them found the dead end sign.

Now this one was the best! Cat Woman……this was so good.
I didn’t give them any clue as to where they were to go. It started with “Act dignified as you follow the kitty through the hedge.” The clue was about a page long and it meandered around trees and fountains and benches. I had them stop to lick their paws or scratch their ears……I would say things about the people around and at the end the kitty took a nap under a tree. Only two teams figured it out and they LOVED IT! It was in the cemetery.

What a treat for us all. I enjoyed writing it and the kids loved solving it.

Spring Daisy Ornament

Introducing my new ornament for spring

"Lazy Daisy"

I found the fabric for this ornament in the rement section... I don't know how I missed it before. The daisy is my favorite flower!

This charming lilac fabric is sprinkled with daisies and dusted with iridescent glitter.

For the bow, I used two ribbons; one is a shear iridescent lilac ribbon with a satin pattern. It’s just enough to pick up the shimmer on the fabric for that extra touch of sparkle. The other is a thin lilac satin ribbon. I added clusters of white Shasta Daisies and small leaves to the loops of the bow, giving it that freshness of spring…..I can’t wait!

Check my website for availability.

Snow on Friday

We almost NEVER get snow in Louisiana.

But last Friday, we certainly did... we had a blizzard! (Louisiana style) The snow came down in billions of thick, fat, flakes, sticking to the ground and trees, turning the landscape into a wonderland.

The kids ran out and made quick work of snowmen, snow angels and of course snowballs. LOL

It was simply beautiful, but very brief. By nightfall, it had all melted away, leaving behind only the memory and soggy mud.

This picture is of the drive that leads down to our house.