We'll Have A Cup

Here is my shortened version of a pretty teatime image from long ago. I like that lil' footstool the girl on the left is using. Only one slice of cake is gone. Someone has willpower.

Right-click to save any image.

A Very Strong Lady

And what have we here? A woman with extreme strength hidden under that ungainly driving coat.

She is lifting that heavy pumpkin with ease. Mayhap she has a future in a grocery store produce department, or it's a diet pumpkin -- you know, "lite."

Exasperated Angel

No, not me, dearies. Although the "exasperated" part of the blog title often applies, the other part does not!

This is such a charming vintage picture of a little angel who looks a bit exasperated.

It looks to me that she could be used in many situations!

Mayhap she is dismayed at your blog's lack of comments?

Or that something didn't turn out well?

Or that she has to watch over goof-balls all the time?

Or that the rose seems to be a bit tired?

Whatever it is her expression says to you, she sure is cute!

A Prediction and Time for Autumn Clipart

A vibe has passed through my noggin.

EARLY DEEP SNOWFALL through much of the country. WAY EARLY. A blizzard. Dipping down, down, down into the continent. 

People's eyes will be as big as saucers. People's saucers will be as big as eyes -- no, scratch that last one.

And here we have my version of a prim clock I saw for sale. I must tell ye gals and guys that they are stocking and about to open those seasonal Hallowe'en stores here -- the ones where they go into empty storefronts (and we have plenty of them) and put up tons of costumes and decorative items and party goods. The regular party store is tossing luau items faster than you can say "punkin pie" and filling the shelves with fall items.

Tag Yer It and More Gloomy Blog Talk

And here we have a small tag welcoming autumn.

Before I slip into my Ol' Gloom and Doom mode, the giveaway winner!!! It's someone very lovely indeed -- CYNDI/Frstyfolk of ByLightOfMoon!

I would like to weigh in on my assertion yesterday that blogging is a form of communication that is on the way out. But I don't wish to hurt feelings, either, and a full expression of my perceptions would likely do that.

I think Anvilcloud is very much onto something with his comment: "Perhaps you're right, but I wonder if with FB etc it's just the purely social aspect that is dwindling. Maybe content-based and/or creative blogs will continue to flourish. Who's to know?" [Apologies to Anvilcloud for any embarrassment associated with being associated with any of my thoughts.]

Yes, I think a few content-based blogs will remain -- as team-based mega-blogs hidden behind a single public persona, like a digital version of Betty Crocker. I write for one, you know. Of course, I know you didn't know. But I ghostwrite quite a bit. For a made-up person. I do his blog posts. It's a bit underhanded of me, yes. Several people are writing for this made-up person.

As for the creative blogs -- I have my doubts as to their longevity. There's only so much poetry and so many artsy photos a person can stand without picking up bad habits, like the Jack Daniels bottle.

And I realize that many bloggers/blog readers are at a very different place than I am, in terms of years spent doing it, and also that others blog for different reasons than I do. This is a wonderful situation where everyone is right, no matter their opinion [crosses fingers under computer desk].

As I have maintained through half a dozen years of running daily blogs under as many personas -- if you are happy with the experience, it is a success, for you.

For me olde self, my path will undoubtedly diverge in the not-too-distant future, or so the vibes say. And you know how trusty my vibes are. I truly live by them. But that's my path, and has no bearing upon any other bloggers' paths.

A Sea-Change and A See, Change!

DON'T FERGIT THE GIVEAWAY, SEE YESTERDAY'S POST. A comment today also enters you -- okay to "double dip" lol. 



All fashions pass, whether they be fashions in literature, dress, decor, food -- what have you.

Choral music, caroling, bowling leagues, badmiton, croquet on summer evenings, galas, clapping chalk erasers, molded gelatin desserts, aluminum Christmas trees, convertibles, pickled pigs' feet, poetry, essays, dial phones, corn-shucking parties, girls in pigtails, African violets on the windowsill, bow ties, big families. All once staples of a middle-class life; now, just memories, in great part.

And, blogs.

I've been blogging many, many years, under many different personas. And every year summers were slow, but the "feel" of the blogging world was different. It was just a temporary slow-down. This past year, I detected a vibe that wasn't there before: Blogs are dying. Considered passe. The worm has turned. It's no one's fault. It just is. 

I'm my usual "cheerful" self today, m'dears. 

IF the idea of blogs dying out distresses you, consider whether it is just part of the ebb and flow of life. Or, consider taking action to boost bloggies -- interaction is the lifeblood of blogging. But I'm not sure any infusion of energy can help at this point.

I've been lucky, myself. But I feel it all coming to a grinding halt. Just something to ponder.

Giveaway and Your Ticket Fer Fall

You can't get into autumn unless you have your ticket.

And you can "use" these tickets to enter the giveaway! Just leave any comment, but if you feel like chattin' a bit TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE AUTUMN FOOD! Like candy corn, or punkin pie or cranberry sauce or, in my case, all of it.

Giveaway is a 2010 "Halloween Food, Fun and Crafts" recipe booklet and a package of 8 Hallowe'en cards from last year that I just found stuck way back in the back of a shelf and boss said I could keep -- too late to scan them out fer credit to the company -- "Get rid of 'em," she said...

I don't know when I'll pick the winner -- I pick a name out of the hat -- you can enter on this post every day till I do...the recipes are really amazing in the booklet...

Right-click to save. The tickets are not my original idea. I saw it elsewhere. Ol' copycat.

Autumn Roses Calling Card

This is just a redo of a Victorian calling card -- now in autumn colors.

I have a giveaway ready but am rushed, rushed, rushed with learning the new job. Not enough paid hours for the actual amount of work, as is typical these days, I'm afraid.

Almost Cider Time

Actually, dearies, I think it IS cider time, in some locales! I love it any time of year -- but when that chill is in the air and leaves are turning and crows are cawing, that's when it's just extra-delightful to sit with a mug of hot cider!

I make a "Wassail" out of apple cider with a can of jellied cranberries melted in it -- drink it with a clove stuck in yer mouth between cheek and gum, like yer chewing tobaccy -- it's awfully good...

A few years back I got the idea that chewing tobacco must be tasty -- snuck a piece of so-called black cherry and tried it -- four hours later I was still laying on the porch, sicker than a dog. Husband just would come out and look and shake his head. A couple of times he threw some water on me and once I'm pretty sure I heard a laugh but it didn't much help. Sometimes I think I ain't quite right.

Here's a kitty, from an old napkin someone was smart enough to save back in the 50's.

A Certain Famous Card Company has issued several cards concerning "hard times" and "coping in a tough economy" and "aren't times difficult" and "no one has a job."

Really, is someone going to buy these cards? If you have no job, you don't want to spend money on a card! And if you're the recipient of an "I'm sorry for you" card, flipping it over and seeing that it ran the person $3.50 isn't likely to improve yer mood!

Tee hee.

Here's an apple.

Sidebar Doodad

I saw a pretty, pastel type of doodad on another bloggie, and created my own (cover yer ears) autumnish version.

Right-click to save. It's a transparent-type image.

Some folks were wondering why I don't just edit the "publish date" when something loads out of order on my bloggie. It always happens that it's something that I probably really shouldn't have been publishing anyway, so I head that karmic hint and just throw it out. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Updated to INCLUDE the danged image!!! *laff*

Double Dang It

I had a heart-wrending post all about my miserable childhood ready for today, and danged if it didn't load out of sequence and have to be deleted. It was a guaranteed sympathy-getter and everything. Poor raggedy me of long ago, getting whipped and wearing one threadbare skirt fer years. Etc etc.

Alas, I not in the mood of rewrite it. So I'll just post the picture that went with it -- a lovely vintage work by a talented artist of the past.

Help Make It An Early Fall

Honestly, if all of ye would just go outside and bang on a tin pie plate with a bent mixing spoon and holler "Here, fall fall fall! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere, fall fall fall" maybe the autumn winds would hear you and hurry on down. For best results, use a pie pan that you baked a pumpkin or apple pie in before, allrighty? Honeys, just try it! I'm desperate.

This woman wants autumn, and she wants it now, and she's going to wear fall leaves in her hair in August whether anyone likes it or not. Don't mess with her, she's got that bulldog jaw that means trouble. I would pay good money fer a nose like that, by the way. Trying to tape mine up with that white tape at night is not getting me anywhere. Just making my nose sticky with adhesive residue. My do-it-yourself dermabrasion didn't work too well, either, but at some point I think the skin will start healing.

And here's a nice autumn postcard that was, remarkably, originally a Christmas card. Click it and it will go to postcard size.

Hey Teacher, Leaf Those Kids Alone

From a vintage postcard entitled "Autumn Leaves Are Falling," an altered version to fit on a website. The original version is also included for those into that scrapbookin' life. Click the lower one to enlarge.

I know ye get sick of my weather-wondering, dearies, but this year is just so strange. I'm uneasy. The morning glories should just be beginning to bloom, but they are already done. The cicadas are singing such mournful dirges that I want to weep -- and they should have been singing a month ago.

Will it be a severe winter? I think so.

By the by, as to my predictions, woke up with a start the other night and felt there was a large earthquake going on somewheres, so quickly grabbed the Blackberry and wrote my thought in the Memo Pad app. And had "proof" to show my husband when he asked the next morning if I had predicted the earthquake that had, indeed, happened during the night. But I'm also predicting a HUGE quake, like an 8.0, and the discovery of a new faultline system. I feel the huge quake may be in the Alaska area.

The Queen of Sheave-ah

Kindly direct yer attention to the top of both sidebars. Amazing strawberry corn fer sale from a prim bloggie fren and a hollyhock seed giveaway from another bloggie fren. That pup made from crysanthemums is from Japan. I'm going to try it this fall.

From a vintage photographic postcard, a young woman dons a classic robe and strikes a pose while bringing in the sheaves.

Right-click to save.

Real wheat is quite interesting. Where I lived in the Pacific Northwest, bald eagles would walk along behind the threshers and gorge themselves on the lil' mice scampering in panic. A bald eagle is an extremely large bird, larger than you'd think if you hadn't seen 'em up close. With brilliant yellow talons and beaks. Their feet are much larger than a man's hand. And they are almost as tall as a kindergartner.

Gyp Graphic Fer Monday

Oh, what a gyp.

You clicked all the way over here fer a teeny scarecrow? 

Somebody ought to report this to the Blog Police! Except I got my rear-end covered -- I warned ye right there in the title.

Happy Monday, donkey and bloggie frens!

Now who was asking the other day about Ol' Fatty Lumpkin in Lord ofthe Rings? That's the very wise pony that Tom Bombadil lent the hobbits as they walked towards Bree. The human mind is a very strange sieve, catching some things and yet letting important facts slip through.

Pumpkins A La Carte?

Here we have a lil' gal and a cart full of artificial pumpkins.

Alas, I do believe the porch pumpkin I reported was artifical, because it was on its side today and moving a bit in the breeze. I don't think a real pumpkin would be moving?

However, there were real deceased mice around my porch this morning, likely victims of Potholder Kitty. Or mayhap they expired due to the heat. I felt like laying on the floor meself. Over 100 degrees for weeks, and more to come.

Right-click to save.

Ol' Fatty Lumpkin

Today we have both a blank version and a "Happy Autumn" version of a vintage postcard.

Regular-click them to enlarge. Or keep them this smaller size. Right-click when ready to save the image on yer own computer.

I'm shocked to report that I have seen a pumpkin appear on a porch already. But I love it. I like to detour out of my way just to drive by it. Wonder where they found it? Mayhap they grew it. I have nicknamed it "Ol' Fatty Pumpkin" in honor of the rotund pony in Lord of the Rings called Fatty Lumpkin.

Indian Corn

I'm on a jag involving Indian Corn. How I love it.

This weekend, I'm going to be making and putting up an "Indian Corn" necklace fer a giveaway! Just a brass-n-glass interpretation of the real thang. My poor previous giveaway winners are waitin' -- because I'm waitin' on a paycheck so I can mail 'em off.

Been feeling lower than a toad's butt a-settin' in a mud puddle. Sometimes I feel kind of downhearted and foolish in life. I was sad enough to get myself a big bowl of Froot Loops and was eating it while reading the last Harry Potter. And what do you know, but several moths flew out of the cereal. ARGH. I had already eaten quite a bit! But what the hey. I was scared to look too closely at the few Froot Loops left. Scared something might be moving in them or swimming in the milk. 

Here's some Indian Corn in an image. I have a very interesting recipe that I'll be posting closer to Hallowe'en and it makes an "Indian Corn" snack. In the meantime, get yerselves a big bag of those M-and-M pretzels and eat them while you wait. They are incredible.

Free Image of Some Sort

Don't ask me, dearies. I'm bushed. Running all around getting ready fer that rotten job I just got. Running to the notary, running to the fax place, running to the drug-test place, where a desperate-looking young man asked me if I could spare a cup of urine.

Did any of ye happen to see the list of the 12 worst cities in terms of personal income dropping between 2008 and now?

MIDLAND was the very worst of all. Three times as bad as any of the other top eleven! But I knew it, despite the many denials here. The store shelves are getting empty, people aren't buying anyway, and there's a peculiar feeling of gloom. Traffic is lighter. Restaurants closing right and left. National chains pulling out. All the want ads fitting onto 1/4 of a page in the paper, which has gone up to $2. So many being forced into part-time work when even fulltime work isn't paying enough. Hundreds of houses going up for sale while hundreds of apartments are being built and standing empty.

But some wealthy nut is building a gated community with a fake river meandering through it. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Now you see why I jumped at this job, although it's truly a bad job. 

Here's an elegant gal. Flapper, by the looks of her.

A Harvest and the Harvest of a Job

Halloo dearies.

I just got offered a new job -- another merchandising/inventory job, but this one involves a giant territory and lots of driving. Combined with the Hallmark job, it will equal a fulltime job and then some. No benefits, of course. In these troubled times, I took what I could get. 

Now I am on the fence as whether or not to carry a gun in the car. My flail, of course, will go with me, but you have to be within flailin' range to knock someone on the head with a large wooden spoon. The spoon/spatula is HUGE. But it's just for close combat. I will be driving long, lonesome roads. I'm back to that argument with myself as to whether it's better to be shot than to shoot. I think I am safe in saying "What a crazy world."

Here we have a harvest depiction from long ago. Wish I could jump into these old images! But I might refuse to come back to the present day.

Right-click to save.

Elegant Autumn Gal

Oh, here I am in an old illustration.

Tee hee.

This elegant gal strikes a lovely pose near a ripening pumpkin.

Right-click to save. Regular-click to make it enlarge first. From a vintage illustration, altered a bit.

Rushy Rushy Fall

Ha! I don't care. It's too hot to care. I WANT to rush fall. I want cool air! I want that sparkly feeling! 

School Is Just Around the Corner

It's that time of year. My son registered for fall classes -- they start in two weeks!

I never have remembered whatever it was I forgot yesterday. *sigh* I have made progress, though: It was a two-word item. Whatever it was, it had two words to it. 

Right-click to save this vintage image.

"I Can't Remember," Said with a Flourish

I'm thinking of something. Rather, I'm trying to think of something. I thought of something during the night, right when I was falling asleep. I said it firmly to myself three times. "I will remember now," I said. I can remember that. But now, I can't remember what it was. Something from the past I wanted to mention on the bloggie, and see if anyone else remembered it, too.

Here are two scroll pumpkins. I noticed at the store that a lot of the fall decor features pumpkins with flourishes incised or painted on them.

As I predicted, tons of turquoise-touched punkins on display. And lilac paired with black. My beloved chartreuse is not present this year, but next year, I have no doubt it will burst upon the scene.

Shockingly Adding Ads, and Winners

Argh! What I just "hate" about giveaways is reaching in the bowl and pulling out just one winner.

It gets me nervous, and it disrupts the karmic flow on the bloggie. So I got my son to pick two winners. It's not great, but it's a bit better! I'd wish I could make everyone a necklace. I got a lot of valuable advice in those comments.

AkasaWolfSong and Miss Peach, send me yer addy and I will send along an Autumn Jumble Necklace to you. My email addy is in my profile.

I have loads of beads coming that I ordered very quickly when a BIG OL' GOOGLE ADSENSE check came my way, and am going to keep forcing offering the Jumbles for giveaways up thru Christmas. World domination through jewelry!

You will notice ads on my bloggie now. Yes, over on the sidebar. Some will remember the big fit I had when Google was sneaking around looking at where visitors went, through the ads somehow. But they have a way to opt out of that now. I have tried to put the "filter" in place so that tacky ads will not be shown, but it's taking awhile to work. My apologies fer sticking ads on here, but Google did change their settings so I can now place them without letting Google "follow" you around like it loves to do. And I cannot resist the money. BEAD MONEY. I am weak, donkey frens. Very weak. BEADS are my weakness.

This is from a vintage card. Right-click to save. Altered a bit. Gets bigger when regular-clicked, or can be placed a sidebar and "shrunk to fit."

Vintage Bookmarks

This pair of bookmarks were originally issued by a church. I think they'd be pretty printed and cut out. But with printer ink sky-high, you may have to do as I do and simply enjoy them on-screen!

Right-click to save.

Getting Hired Sight Unseen

Thank'ee, thank'ee all who gave advice about the necklaces! I will tell you, I was a bit down lately, and the nice advice surely helped me perk up!!!

I'll pick the winner tonight -- but will post the name on Friday because all night tonight I am going to be doing a set-up fer a "roadshow" -- $140!!! -- woo hoo, now I can get MORE beads...somebody out of California hired me, and I go set up an elaborate display at a store while it's closed (spooky!), take pictures, and text it to them...in two weeks I go take it down...

The hiring, schematics to follow, chat, etc all took place online. The people in California found my name on the NARMS site and contacted me. This modern world is very strange. One thing good about the rough end of merchandising is that they don't care what you look like. They don't care if yer a gray-haired plump lady. They just want someone reliable to show up and work hard. I am not going to let my back stop me. Money is money and aspirin is cheap.

The lady in this vintage graphic is inspiring me to walk more. Look at that tiny waist.

Giveaway: Jumble Necklace

I can't stand the thought of missing a day. What I was going to post today, posted yesterday, "on an accident."

The Autumn Jumble is the prize for answering yesterday's question I posed.

So go see yesterday's post! And answer over there.

Here is a pretty autumn path. 

New Necklaces - Giveaway - and A Ladybug Photo

PRETEND THIS IS UP ON TUESDAY, PUT THE WRONG DATE ON IT AND IT LOADED EARLY!!!

Fer those hangin' on to summer (in August! Fer shame!), here's a ladybug who came out to get a drink of water. Scroll down fer it. No, that's not rain. Just me watering these poor thirsty plants.

Fer the giveaway, you are about to find out that there's no free lunch, even on this bloggie. Nope, nothin' free. You have to WORK fer this giveaway.

OPINIONS NEEDED. Prize is the necklace below.

Wondering: It would sure be easier fer me to make a "type" of necklace and just show SAMPLE PICTURES of SEVERAL of them in each color class. It would save me a heap of money and save the buyers a heap of money, too, because if I were free to use this-or-that bead here-or-there, I could quickly and easily make these brass-n-glass Jumble Necklaces. In various colors.

I love making these. I'm addicted to them. Someone bought one RIGHT OFF MY NECK yesterday. It had a lil' Jack O'Lantern bead on it. Tee hee. Rush, rush, come on autumn!!!

I love these necklaces because it's a way to get beads I have hoarded for decades OUT of the beadbox and into the world. I have been keeping beads fer pure greediness on my part and karma-wise, it was no good. The beads were bummed. Now, they're happy.

QUESTION: Do you think it could work to show several examples, and the buyer knows they will get a creation that is VERY VERY SIMILAR to the ones shown, but not one of the exact ones shown?

Kindly give yer opinion to enter. I was going to sell these fer around $20. Each necklace features at least a few spendy beads, some Czech beads, maybe some metalized lucite, a freshwater pearl mayhap, and some vintage beads, too. On some I will make several dollars, but on others I won't make as much, depending on which bead ends up where.

This one is around 27" long and hangs a nice way down but not too far. Autumn colors with a few grape or purple beads fer contrast.

An Early Fall, At Least On the Blog

I pulled my back out, donkey frens. Pulled it some crazy way, prolly by hauling a box onto the forklift. It's amazing how hard it is to get anything done, with a hurt back. 

So I'm late gettin' a giveaway ready. Hopefully, by tomorrow. Somethin' rather interesting, I think, in the offing.

Here's an autumn leaf, to the delight, mayhap, of my season-rushing kindred spirits, and to the disgust of the summer fans.

I have been trying to catch a vibe about whether or not it will be an early fall, and what the winter will be like. I just now had a vision of ice and snow and rock-frozen ground and blizzards. Hmm.

Stamping My Feet For Fall

August already.

Here's a wee owl on a fake postage stamp. Put a zero after the "5" and you'll have the new cost of mailing a letter soon.

Right-click to save.