Making Changes . . . Perhaps

Hey, hey!
Been quite awhile since my last post and that is for a few different reasons: 1) Got hung up on wanting to make my posts 'perfect'; i.e., excellent pictures, witty writing, blah, blah, blah, and 2) Was caught up in holiday happenings in December and went into a creative/physical/mental slump in January and early February. So with that said, I'm going to take tiny, tentative steps toward making this blog less of a chore and more of an opportunity to record daily (but I certainly won't bore you daily! ;) ) happenings and thoughts about my endeavors in creating, gardening, cooking, reading, etc., etc. It'll be more of a record for me I think to help inspire me onward!
After all, here I am nearing 65 years old and not too much documented about what those years have held. Wouldn't it be nice to take perhaps a memory-a-day sort of approach to getting those years down . . . not a book but something that I can look at if I'm lucky enough to see my 80th or 90th year. And perhaps something that would interest at least my grandchildren who I count very much as my own.
OK. So I don't want to get all maudlin here. On to something that has occurred very recently that makes me quite happy indeed. That is, the addition of this lovely garden shed in the backyard.

The cool thing is that we settled on getting it built  on Friday, the 14th (ooh! my Valentine's present!), the builders came out last Thursday morning, and it was DONE Thursday evening by sundown! This photo was taken Friday morning, the 21st as it was too dark to take a decent photo Thursday. Thank you Wright Sheds for this speedily built, quality shed! 

In other news, I've discovered and embraced this cookbook:

Oh, my! This woman has inspired me to "get in the kitchen with Dinah" in a big way! Ree Drummond is her name and cooking wonderful country food is her game. My friend Judy gave me this book for my birthday (actually got it on Christmas Day as she, like me, forgets things - my birthday was December 7th) and after reading through it I dove in feet first in January and have, to date, made 21 of the recipes and found that only two were less than delicious (and I chalk that up to my goof-up). My sweet husband is very happy that I've made such good friends with this Pioneer Woman!

Actually, this brings up a rather funny coincidence (one of those memories coming up here) . . . back in the day when I was a kid I wore my hair in a "messy" bun (this was before "messy" hair was stylish) and my loving older sisters dubbed me the "old Pah-neer woman!" In fact, the name stuck for some time and I have a cookbook, The Country Mothers Cookbook, given to me for my birthday in 1991 by my second oldest sister with the inscription, "Happy Birthday to the 'Old Pah-neer Woman' with love . . ." So, here I am again, sans messy bun, cooking country food with another Pioneer Woman. Incidentally, the Country Mothers Cookbook has been well-used by me over the last (ack!) 23 years and is a delightful read too.

Back to things that are inspiring me to blog and also crawl out of the slumpy hole I've been in creatively are some younger, very talented bloggers who also happen to be funny and who scrapbook and create amazing things with papery stuff. (They each do other things too but what drew me to each of their blogs was their paper crafting.) First of all Shimelle Laine who not only is a Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket but also has some rather awesome on-line classes about scrapping and all things pretty paper, is a huge inspiration for me. I've taken eight of her classes offered through her blog and three of her classes offered at Two Peas. I also follow her Glitter Girl series there and loved her 4X6 Photo Love series in 2011. Then there is Julie Kirk with her often hilarious delivery and truly crafty paper creations. Julie also has an Etsy shop where she sells "Unique creative supplies with a history...and a future." Like Shimelle, she also has classes available like Push-up Bra Blogging  (told you she was hilarious!). A third blogger who I found through Shimelle's blog (she was a guest) is Ashli Oliver at Purple Mailbox. She is absolutely adorable and just flat has fun with her paper crafting. 

With all of this to MOVE me, I'd better start producing! 

Must say goodnight, take out my contact lenses, and go to dreamland.

Ta!