Remember the Fallen, and Perm Advice

Banner Haus News and Musings

Memorial Day Greetings. 

Never forget those who have fallen while serving our country. I grew up still referring to this as "Decoration Day." Today, few bother decorating the graves of fallen veterans. And it's a damned shame. Whether war is right or wrong, just or unjust, take a look at those graves. Most of the fallen lived but a few scant years before being drafted or volunteering for service. PROUDLY they served, BRAVELY they died.

Some folks have "expanded" Memorial Day to include honoring all who have passed. But Memorial Day is fer those who died while in military service. Veterans' Day is fer honoring all veterans, past and present. We had All Soul's Day fer honoring all dead, where I come from.

GONE, NEVER FORGOTTEN.

On a much-less important subject, yet one that can cause hysteria, concerning perms: M'dears, if you've ever gotten a perm and it messed up yer hair, and you then cut your hair short and were cryin' yer lil' donkey eyes out: STOP.

There's no need to cut yer hair. Think about the chemical processes of a perm. What does a perm do? It realigns the bonds of the hair. Dissolves, reconnects. Specifically, the double bonds, the di-sulfides, are unlinked, then relinked. That's why a perm stinks. SULFIDES loose.

Donkey frens, just get another box of perm solutions. Put the one that dissolves the bonds on yer hair, then comb straight. Keep combing it through. Once it's straight, put on the solution that reconnects the bonds. Comb straight again. The hair is realigned, straight. No need to go chopping it off.

Memorial Day Clip Art

Here's but a few of the vintage images concerning Memorial Day.

Perm-anently Predicting

Banner Haus News and Musings

My big prediction, based on a vibe just received: PERMS are coming back -- like the ones of the 1980s. 

I don't pick and choose these vibes. If I could, I would try to catch the one that tells what the winning lottery numbers would be. 

Free Vintage Image

Here we have a darling painting of a lil' boy who is not happy about that bee. Right-click to save. I'm particularly happy about this image because so few artists would treat the subject of black children seriously and carictatures were much too common.

Cordially Yers

Banner Haus News and Musings

The squash bugs that I keep tipping over the fence are evidently finding their way back to my tiny Hubbard squash plants quite quickly. I think it's time to take them across the alley and tip them into the neighbor's yard. That isn't as devious as it seems -- they don't grow anything over there and don't venture out into the backyard at all, being very elderly. They used to gather and distribute apricots from their trees, but let them fall to ruin. Now the fruit just falls onto the ground, much to the delight of wasps and bees, who have their own version of "homebrew" when that happens. I likewise heap my fallen pears in the compost corner, and soon it smells like I'm working on some version of moonshine out there.

Which reminds me! I'm going to make cordial again this year, fer medicinal purposes. You know my paranoid worry about disasters happening...well, I want to be prepared fer them, with an ample supply of cordial. Might have to take a bullet out of someone, like in one of the old Westerns. So I'll need a shot of somethin' before tackling that...oh wait, I think the PATIENT is supposed to take a tumbler of liquor before being "quacked on."

Free Vintage Advertising Image

Here is a very strange flavor fer candy. This is the THIRD kind of candy I've seen that had violets as the flavoring. I used to make candied violets fer cupcake and fruit salad decorations. Mayhap they might be good fer a cordial?

Bee Yerselves

Banner Haus News and Musings

Oh, I'm irked at myself! I get images ready fer this bloggie, then forget which folder, which drive even, where they're stored. Wah! Then I have to do a search: "Search all .png files modified within the last week." Oh, THERE they are! Stored in the Christmas08 folder, of course! 

I must stop this image hoarding. I have already "caught and released" thousands of images. I don't have to get the idea that if I don't hang onto these images, they'll be lost forever. I'm going to make myself upload them to Flickr or Photobucket, and then wipe my external disks clean! I will do it!

Buzzing About - Free Vintage Bee Clip Art

Here, taken from an old bookplate, are some nice bees. At least I think they are bees. Don't they look a bit fly-like? 

We have an interesting fly here that is marked like a bee and likes to sip nectar, too. Or maybe it's munching pollen. It is busy around the blossoms, regardless. I like that lil' fly!

Ungratefully Impatient, and A Country Graphic

Banner Haus News and Musings

I am too impatient now. If a website takes more than a second to load, I am already peeved at "the wait."

I used to go into work, turn on the computer, go make two big pots of coffee, get the coffee, and mosey back to my office before the danged thing was even ready. And it had a tiny lil' gray and white screen, too. Later, I had an amber and dark green-gray screen that made me feel like it was autumn year 'round. Had a big ol' trackball, too, and liked it way better than any mouse, even though it weighed about the same as a brick. Did my own programming back then. Now the world is at my fingertips and I chomp at the bit ridiculously if I have to wait more than a moment for incredibly sophisticated code to load. But I am betting other donkey frens are likewise impatient!

Free Country Clip Art

Here is a version of my lil' country graphic, this time with strawberries. It is a "transparent" graphic. Remember that to make a transparent graphic seem to just "float" on yer webpage, you will likely have to go in and mess with the HTML/XHTML code to remove yer borders. But it's easy! Or, if you have a solid color behind the graphic, you can just match yer border color to yer background or sidebar color and take the easy way out.

Mouthwatermelon

Banner Haus News and Musings

Last year I never did get a watermelon. The price was crazy. This year seems worse! Maybe when they are more in season they will go back to being affordable. 

I did figure out one way to get watermelon. When we went out to the Asian Buffet, there was watermelon cut up in the salad area! And the WHOLE MEAL was less than the cost of just a watermelon at the grocery!

Free Watermelon Image

Here are a couple of watermelon slices. If only the price were real!

Right-click to save any graphic.

Hear, Kitty

Banner Haus News and Musings

The tailless squirrel seems to be flourishing. Indeed, he has "lived to tell the tale of the tail." Today I put graham crackers and stale pecans out, and he was having quite a feast among all the doves. Everyone cleared out when the big jays came to look over the vittles, but they didn't seem interested and soon flew off to take turns dive-bombing my tiniest cat. They'd better watch it, because he is most fierce for his size.

Quote

"The smallest feline is a masterpiece."

    ~Leonardo da Vinci

Free Vintage Cat on Phone Clip Art

My son cannot recall such phones as these in his lifetime. He thinks a "slider" phone is ancient.

Right-click to save this small size. Regular-click to make it get bigger, then save the larger size with a right-click.

Victory Gardens

Banner Haus News and Musings

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

WWII was so terrible, and yet those I have spoken with who lived through the Depression and the war said those were actually the happier days of their lives, hard as they were. Things mattered, they said. Little things, things within most people's reach. Thriftiness, making do. Growing some foods in a garden. Now, a person is likely to be sued by a neighbor who might not like the sight of corn tassels in yer yard. Strange times.

Meant to put up a post about using picnik.com, but lightning put the quietus on that for now. Got to just slap up something I have ready.

Free Vintage War World II Image!

Here is a Victory Garden poster. Click it to make it larger. Not only did my mother's folks have a Victory Garden, but they, like most of their city neighbors, had a lil' milk cow and some chickens. Many had milk goats, too. 

More Fairies and A Possible Ice Age

Banner Haus News and Musings

Lil' donkey frens, one of the "vibes" I get says we might be heading into an ice age! A very rapid-onset one, not the kind that takes eons to start up. I was a high-strung child and have been very big-eyed about the possibility of an ice age fer a long time, ever since reading about the mini-ice-age that occurred during the Middle Ages. 

It's so hot here that I'm not sure why an ice age is popping into my tiny mind. 

Lit Quote

I liked this poem by Robert Frost, but it was considered too racy fer high school due to the word "desire" in it. And yet there were books in the library that were flat-out mature in content. I don't think the librarians had any idea of the things they had on the shelves.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. 

Free Vintage Fairy Image Clip Art!

I think mayhap the same artist who painted the dewdrop fairy of a few days ago also painted this one. Two versions are here, both clickable fer larger images to load.

Don't fergit there are FREE ONLINE TOOLS you can use to add type to any image! Use picnik.com or photobucket.com and add wording, special effects, etc. 

 

Pity Party Is Over! Tee Hee

Banner Haus News and Musings

Well, if there's one lesson I truly learn over and over, it's that my bloggie frens are smarter than this ol' dame. Gosh, the comments that were attempted to be snuck onto other posts -- the emails -- even a phone call. Sheesh! All because I had to go get myself in a tore-up fit yesterday.

I am just tottering around today. I think bloggie fren Pattie was very wise to refer me to the Sermon on the Mount to straighten my lil' mind out. Those of all faiths ought to read that sermon, it puts heart into a person. Of course, Pattie is the lady artist who glued a doll head onto a salt shaker and added dragonfly wings to it and turned it into a necklace, so let's take her with a grain of salt from that shaker...lol...ha ha you know I like my bloggie frens, like to tease 'em most of all...her work appears in galleries and in international magazines, too...

This chump (or SCHMUCK, as bloggie fren Doris so helpfully added to the list, thank'ee Doris...) says, "Happy Saturday!"

Free Vintage Decal Image - Click 'n' Save

Here we have a fine rooster and his sweet consort. Oh, those natural colors. I know green chickens are quite common [on Mars, maybe]. Regular-click it to get a MUCH bigger pic to load. I'm hooked on these vintage decals. Most of the packages had 29-cent tags on them!

Decals from Long Ago and I Am A Chump

Banner Haus News and Musings

I was called into work very early, unfortunately to go to the Walmart card aisle, not the Walgreens one...I cannot stand venturing into Walmart. The "associates" here are simply vicious -- impatient and cruel to the elderly, the mentally disabled, and the frail. Yesterday I thought I would just blow a fuse. I was so angry I cried. That's a very dangerous sign in me. Tears of rage. In fact, it's so painful what I witnessed in several instances that I am not going to burden anyone's heart by telling of it, other than it would shred yer hearts. I did speak up because I'd rather look a fool than let evil pass unchallenged. Fer all the good it does.

You lil' gals might think I'm just happy-go-lucky, but when I venture out, my heart bleeds. I'd like to live in a stone castle with a big moat, and gather the meek around me, keep 'em safe and give them their full humanity, and pull up the drawbridge and shut the meanness out. Have a lot of flowers and lil' 3-legged dogs in there, and blind cats no one wants, and a few ol' donkeys, too, and some chickens that were facing the boiling pot, and some crawdads, and -- well, you get the idea.

Which brings me to another thing! My confidence is very shaken. Really, I must learn the same lesson over and over and over again. And the lesson is that I am weak and I am foolish. I need to accept it. But I've been basking in the attention of this blog and my former blogs. Yes, I was. Then I stepped outside myself and my lil' foolishness just looked so pitiful. Posting this and that chit-chat, ugh. Others post when they have something interesting to say. I find the lil' crumbs of life so interesting that I just post too much.  I don't know if I accept that it's okay to love even the crumbs of life, or if I ought to feel ashamed to have such a meager lil' world. I will just say that I am typically considered a "chump" and a "loser." It usually doesn't concern me, but it preys on my mind lately. And then I think, well, what if I'm a chump and a loser? So what? 

But it gets me worried that I portray myself as a non-chump. 

Well who knows what the heck is going on in my mind! I am not going to put the comments on this particular post because I don't want to extract kind words from my bloggie frens. I am just not in a good way lately.

Vintage Decals fer Yer Clicking Pleasure!

Here are some vintage decals. I love them. These are from the Meyercord company, I believe. They made loads of them, including those that were fuzzy, fer nurseries.

Dream On -- Pretty Vintage Clip Art

Banner Haus News and Musings

Nothing amusing to-day, m'dears! Just keepin' on keepin' on. And some days that's enough and plenty!

Free Vintage Image

Ah, what a dream. A hammock, a good book, lovely shoes, a well-behaved dog fer company (we'll overlook the fact he's a-settin' on the table), and somewhere to the right of the scene, a large cake.

Right-click to save this smaller size; regular click to let a postcard-sized image load.

Now You Be Sweet

Banner Haus News and Musings

Just slappin' this one up. My nerves are jangling because we just had to change an area devoted to Festive Gift Bags (Feminine) into the new Teen Birthday Cards area, Serious and Humorous Split. Before this, we had only three cards especially for teens, and none of the grandmas could ever find them unassisted. Gosh, these grandmas STUFF the cards with money, evidently.

And, we are redoing the kids' cards into a special Kid Zone area. This mainly consists of putting up a sign that says "Kid Zone" and switching all the girls' cards into the boys' cards area, and vice versa. Don't ask me what this is supposed to accomplish! I think there is far too much mingling already. Is it any accident that I always find the Miley Cyrus card snuggling up against the Spiderman card?

Well, I'm glad for the upheaval in a way. It gets boring when I have all the cards memorized. "Oh, the Bakugan It Is Time card goes HERE...G-Force Special Day goes HERE...Dora the Explorer You Are 3 goes HERE...To A Special Granddaughter Glitter Kitty Wearing Crown goes HERE..."

Quote

My grandmother is over eighty and still doesn't need glasses.  Drinks right out of the bottle.  

    ~Henny Youngman

Free Image of Vintage Bee

I'm pretty sure this is a bee. Once again, some European Paper Wasps have built a nest on the front porch, this time hanging down in the middle of the door frame. One wasp is always guarding the nest, so we can't get it down and move it. It crawls up and guards the little "stem" that the nest hangs from when it sees me coming with the hemostats. Guess I have to put our "Beware of Wasps" sign back up. Between the wasps and the harvester ants, the front porch is a very unwelcoming place.

Hey Dollface - A Somewhat Heartfelt Post Fer Once

Banner Haus News and Musings

This is something I have meant to say many times in the past months: I enjoy reading yer comments, and think deeply about some of them, laugh at some of them, and shake my head wonderingly at some of them. Some fly high above this ol' donkey's ears! 

The blog world is strange. I worry when the "regulars" don't post something, even though I say "DRAT" when it's just a grandkid post (tee hee), and I fret when my favorite pests disappear, but realize it's the nature of the blog world. 

But I try to never fergit that thar's HUMANS on the other side of the screen. Except in my case, of course. I'm a space alien taking notes all about earth in the guise of a lil' donkey.

Just wanted to say all that. 

Free Blog Images

Here is a lil' homemade image fer grins and a vintage one fer beauty. The bells get bigger when clicked.

Slight Rantlet and A Lil' Betsy Ross

Banner Haus News and Musings

How about this, dearies? A little early fer autumn?

I can understand putting out harvest colors in materials and yarns fer quilters and needleworkers...putting out small autumn decorative items fer those who make lil' scenes and dollhouses...maybe even setting out a few papier mache jack o'lanterns fer those who like to paint them...BUT A STORE PUTTING OUT THOUSANDS of autumn WREATHS and SWAGS and PUNKINS and SCARECROWS and orange and black candles and SIGNS ALREADY MADE??? 

Yes, donkey frens, our Hobby Lobby has pulled down the summery stuff, like watermelon signs and Fourth of July, and put up aisles and aisles of harvest items. Got dizzy just lookin' at it all.

This lil' donkey would like to give someone a good kick! Now, I rush the seasons, I know that. But really, Hallowe'en in May is just ranklin' my ol' nerves something awful. Everybody knows Hallowe'en starts in JULY.

Hmph.

Free Vintage Image

Well, I need something to wash those punkins out of my eyes, so here is a lil' patriotic gal and a garden cart.

The Power of Water and the Rest of the Monograms

Banner Haus News and Musings

Sadly, during these storms in Midland, we had people swept into ditches or low areas in their cars and they drowned. I wish people would listen carefully to the public service ads on the radio: "Turn around, don't drown." 

But those ads don't take into account that many times, people are trying to get to their responsibilities. They have to hurry to work, or home, or daycare, or their elderly parents' home. They are running an errand for a sick friend, or buying milk and bread for dinner, or taking their pet to the vet. They don't feel they can just turn around. It's so very sad.

We don't have sewers for rainwater here. Instead, the streets are made to have the water run down them, into sunken parks and a large ditch. The result is flooding whenever it rains, and unnecessary deaths. Midland wants to pretend it is still a town of 10,000. It is ten times that now.  It "has no money" for sewers, but evidently endless money for sports stadiums.

The world is very beautiful, and very hard.

Free C. Klein Monogram Images

Here are the last of the pretty watercolor rose graphics painted by C. Klein in the early 1900s. I have added letters to turn them into monograms.

Right-click to save. Regular-click to enlarge. Either size can be saved. And the size of the graphic can be altered in any of the online editing programs, such as at photobucket.com or picnik.com.

Storming!

Banner Haus News and Musings

I am slapping this post up between hail storms. I've never seen anything like this storm, and I've lived in stormy places. Two days ago I predicted a tornado would come to Midland. Sure enough, we had one touch down today, near the hospital. 

Our warning sirens are like lil' warbling baby birdies. I could barely hear them above the storm's ruckus!

Our street flooded and I thought I saw a lil' baby squirrel bobbing in the water. The poor thing! I could see it trying to get a breath, only to be battered by hailstones! So of course I had to run out with a broom to save it. 

Donkey dearies, it was a PINECONE. But poor ol' me got hit by hail. The broom was no protection. 

Free C. Klein Watercolor Monograms

Here's more of the monograms. If you click them, they will get larger. Save either size, if you like.

Greedy for Beads -- and More Rose Monograms

Banner Haus News and Musings

I have almost finished my first brass necklace. I made one, was really unhappy with it, and took it apart to use in the making of another one. I have a tendency to hoard beads, and to make these "dangle drop" flower necklaces, you have to be willing to use a good amount of lovely beads. I hope to get a picture of it up for tomorrow's post! 

That's one thing about using vintage beads: Sometimes, when they are gone, they're gone. When you live in the middle of nowhere, it's hard to find good beads at estate sales. 

The internet is a big help, but I do get greedy-minded about some of the older beads, especially the lovely chartreuse ones.

Free C. Klein Altered Rose Monograms

Here are a few more of the Rose Monograms. They get bigger if you click them.

Impossible That It's Thursday and Monograms

Banner Haus News and Musings

Somehow, I have been caught in a time eddy. Yesterday, surely it was Monday, and now I am supposed to believe that after what feels like only one day, it is Thursday. I want my other two days! Where did they go?

Yesterday at work there was a Hallmark box that was about the size of a dorm refrigerator. I was glad, because we really need a lot of cards and bows and party supplies. One side of the aisle looks bare and it is very disturbing. I tore into the box, only to find it contained a single item, a pack of Toy Story II paper plates. So not only do we have a time warp going on, but some sort of black hole, too, that is sucking up the cards and supplies and spitting them out into a parallel universe. Glitter is flying everywhere. If we get invaded by angry aliens, it's all Hallmark's fault. "Six bucks for a CARD? We must destroy that evil civilization!"

Free Altered C. Klein Images -  Monograms

Here we have the beginning of some monograms. Whenever I get rattled about what to post, I slap up monograms and relax, because it takes four days to post them all. Four days where I can just sit back and relax...ahhhhh...just go blog hop..."O hai, just stopping by, because my posting is all taken care of for the next four days! Not to brag or anything!"

If you click them, they enlarge.