Puttin' Up the Harvest

Yes, three little jars, that's all for today.

Right-click to save. Free, safe clip art!

Candle Glow

First, a disturbing situation: My hair looks like Justin Bieber's.

Please grow, hair. Please grow quickly.

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I love candles. 

Here is my version of a lil' rustic candle graphic I found several years ago. I turned it into an animation. It's pretty rough-lookin'.

Remember, to have an animation "play" on yer bloggie, it must be "stored" or "hosted" someplace other than Blogger. That's their rule, not mine.

I put mine on Photobucket and call it up by its Photobucket address (URL). You can take this from here and also call it up from the Photobucket addy where I have it, if you don't have an account yerself. The accounts are free. It's such a learning experience, though. Sometimes I get tired of learning all the new stuff and would just like an easy way to do things!

School Daze, School Daze

Good old Golden Rule days.

Some parts of the country are starting up in about two weeks. Amazing!

Here are some images for both regular school and homeschool. 

Bee Glad It's Still Summer?

I have to rush the seasons. As a child, it was something to look forward to, a hope for a better tomorrow when my days were so sad.

When I employed as an editor, we worked many months in advance.

Moonlighting at a department store meant rushing the seasons, too. The brief amount I taught was always spent keying lessons to the seasons, to make it topical and more interesting to the students.

Now we are stacking boxes of Hallowe'en cards up for work, too.

But those who dwell in the cold climes get a worried shiver when thinking about autumn coming up so soon. It's not enough warm season, for them. So here's a lil' bee that is still enjoying the high temperatures.

Right-click to save. This is a "transparent" image. Meaning, your background will show around it.

Apple Time

I don't care what the calendar says. I'm ready for autumn. Have started settin' my various fake punkins and gourds out and bowls of real apples. No, no jack o'lanterns out yet -- I have some pride. I can wait until September 1.

Right-click to save or regular-click to get bigger first. One plain, one with wording. From a scrap of material.

Hysterics All Around

I have been battling a terrible computer virus, but my son stepped in and saved the day, working for hours to fix it, despite my constant meltdowns, screeching spells, and generally horrid behavior.

I got the virus by looking at one of my own creations -- one of the witch silhouettes I drew -- that was placed on a bad site by hackers. When people go to these sites to get "free clip art" their computers are infected. I went out of curiosity as to who was luring people in with a silly little witch. And thus began several days of hysteria, crying, etc.

I really despise hackers and scammers. At one point I was trying to open the bedroom window wide enough to THROW the computer out of it.

But it's really made me think about the whole blogging experience, the whole online experience. I am doing a lot of deep thinking. DEEP THINKING and some of it isn't very pleasant. Someone pass me an aspirin.

Here is a lil' sidebar decoration. I'm looking forward to autumn.

Ladies Getting Along Swimmingly

It's very hard to prepare a post when "Potholder Cat" keeps sitting on my mouse tablet. Yes, the cat so horrid he must be handled with oven mitts -- the long kind.

Here we have some ladies simply shockingly clad. What is the world coming to? Right-click to save.

Warning: 10X Mirrors Are Evil, and Another Shoe Boat

I was happier before I bought a super-magnifying mirror.

I didn't know I had a moustache.

I drooped around all morning after making this discovery, then decided to stop being an ingrate about losing my looks. But of course the moustache was removed, with many an "Ow!" and some rather foul language, I'm afraid.

Maybe I'll change my name from Ol' Western Gal to Holly the Fur-Faced Cowgirl.

Here are a couple more shoe-boats. Maybe that was what the original play was supposed to be called: "Shoe Boat." It was about a whole bunch of people living on a giant paddlewheel pump in Victorian times, and having to relace it and polish the leather and stuff. But someone went and messed up the letters and they had to change the play to reflect the misspelling, and "Show Boat" was born.

If the Shoe Floats

Surprisingly, there are quite a few old images of people floating in shoes.

They are mainly from advertising cards.

I toyed with the idea of having a blog that featured pictures and geographic locations of single, abandoned shoes.

I was so enthusiastic about it. Readers could send in their pictures of shoes. You know, those poor ol' shoes you see just sitting in the middle of the road. I always wonder how and why one shoe ended up in the road. Sometimes the shoe is pretty new. Fer awhile I was convinced that idea of the Abandoned Shoe Blog would generate so many clicks I'd be rich, rich, RICH! Now that I'm back (sort of) in my right mind, I realize, "No." Not a sensible idea at all. I hereby give said idea to anyone crazy enough to tackle it.

This gets huge when clicked. Wish the same would happen when I check my pitiful bank account online. *click* Ooooo, the decimal moved to the right!!! It's usually way over at the left!!!

Pretty Hummingbird

I've come down with a summer cold.

Here is a pretty hummingbird, from an old advertising card.

Both a blank one and one celebrating summer are below.

Right-click to save.

Precious Bobbing Pumpkins

I think I probably had these up about 3 years ago, on a previous bloggie. Or maybe it was just a couple of years ago. It all runs together. I've been doing this a long, long time now, measuring in "Internet Years."

Internet years are worse than dog years. 

Remember, for these to be animated on your blog, you need to "host" these at some place other than Blogger -- I think. It may be that Blogger has changed. I host my animations on Photobucket.com, which is a free site. You can go there and get the URL or just pick up the URL from here, if you want these. The bottom one isn't original at all. The top one used to be a different color and have no stem. I think the top one is really celebrating that fall is near. The bottom one isn't too sure about things, having heard tales about "carving pumpkins."

Yes, I have autumn on the brain. But certain other bloggers started it!!!

Eye of Newt, Butter of Beer

Oh, my my. Here we go with some very silly graphics.

Can you tell I have taken a break from my usual readings, and am, ridiculously, rereading the Harry Potter series?

I tell myself that I keep the books around in case I need kindling some winter's day.

Warning: Don't attempt to operate a broomstick after drinking.

Fireflies and Glow-worms

Here is a little jar with some fireflies.

Over at my snowiecat and snowiecats accounts on Photobucket [those are clickable links], I have some animated firefly jars, too, that I posted before. But they are more for autumn.

Don't fergit you can "pick up' and use anything in any of my albums. I was kind of surprised to see some good stuff in 'em.

Right-click to save. Please remember that to use an ANIMATED IMAGE, you can't just upload it to Blogger. You have to pull it from where it is hosted, such as Photobucket. You can link directly to my Photobucket account and use the URL from there to post the animation on yer own bloggie. I doubt the images will become so popular that I exceed my alloted space.

Flour Sack Finery

I am determined to make a long, sweeping skirt out of vintage flour sacks, if I can find some that aren't too rotten to hold the stitches. Or maybe just a sleeveless shell to wear.

I doubt I'll ever do it, though! Mayhap I'll try something simpler, such as making some fabric yoyos out of the sacking and sew them on something store-bought. I wish that like in scrapbooking, stores would sell "ready to decorate" dresses and such. Just plain Jane versions of things and then we could put doodads on them.

This is a redo of a previous "transparent" image fer bloggies. This one has different wording than before, and a hen.

Right-click to save, and Happy Sunday.

U-Pick Sign

I've seen some cute realistic signs on other bloggies by an artist -- a gentleman but the name escapes me.

Here is my lesser version.

Right-click to save. Happy weekend!

"Open" Sign

Here's a lil' sidebar doodad fer those wishing to encourage comments.

Right-click to save.

Not much planned fer the weekend, mainly cleaning. 

Who's got somethin' more interested planned???!!!

Oldies But Moldies

This lovely gal is holding a whole bouquet of summer loveliness. I cannot recall the artist off the top of my head, but I think it may be a Belgian artist of the 1800s. 

Along with the passe foods we were mentioning yesterday...PASSE HOUSEHOLD GOODS...Oh, you can still get these, but they aren't everyday-common like they were before...

Bellows

Garter belts

Detachable collars for men's shirts

Cufflinks

Matchsafes

Kerosene cans

Doorstops

Bug-spray atomizers that were pump-action

Parfum atomizers with the lil' rubber bulb

Greasepots (cooking grease poured into them)

Sawhorses

Hitching posts, of course

Flypaper

Rollers ("Rollers in your hair, shame on you! Rollers everywhere, shame on you!")

Ragbags

Those lil' coin purses you could pinch open -- coin purses in general!

Read This on An Empty Stomach

I was talking to my husband about things people used to eat, but you rarely hear of anymore.

We have become quite picky. Most of these "strange," abandoned items were protein sources. Once upon a time, it was not as plentiful. And sweets were rarer, too.

Do you remember foods that were once common but are now avoided? 

Some things have simply "gone out of fashion," I believe.

I am thinking of:

Liverwurst

Pate [Circa 1960s chic]

Caviar [See above]

Tongue

Brains [I could use some, but no]

Kidneys

Pigs' Feet [Faints]

Aspic

Horehound candy

Candy Sticks

Candied Figs [I love them still but eating the lil' bit of stem is disturbing]

Dates [They look like candied roaches to me]

Souffles [I remember a whipping for letting the front door slam]

Mousses

Poached Eggs [Queasy just thinking of it]
Milktoast
Pickled Eggs [floating eeriely in a giant jar of murky vinegar]

This gal, like me, watches her weight. Watches it go up, that is. Bet I'd lose weight on a diet of pigs' feet and candied dates.

I Spied Her

Yesterday was a trip to San Angelo, Texas, to see if we want to move there. There's two lakes there and a two branches of a very little river; you can live along the river (if you are a millionaire) or one of the lakes (more reasonable). I'm behind in my emails from just one lil' day away from the computer!

On the way, we saw thousands of tarantulas trying to cross the highway. They are on the move all over West Texas. All the rain has brought them out. I feel bad fer the poor things, the victims of the rushing cars. But then, I'm not scared of spiders. Never mind the fact that I showed my slip (and drawers, I'm afraid) to quite a few motorists at a rest stop. I wore a ground-sweeping skirt fer the trip and was trying to catch a lil' tiny toad I saw hoppin' along in the grass and suddenly thought I felt a spider sneaking up my skirt...oh my. A whirling dervish had nothin' on me, dearies, and I definitely gave myself a few bruises in my zeal to remove the [non-existent] spider.

Here is a vintage image of two ladies busy squishing spiders in the old days. Ah, I hope not! Thought it might be cute fer scrapbooking or bloggies. It gets much bigger when regular-clicked. Right-click any size to save.

Santy Flowers

I have a bid on these vintage cards over on Ebay. Don't know if I'll win, but here are digital versions of them.

I could not resist Santa coming out of a flower, mayhap a mum. And I need to think of Xmas due to the heat. I am baking out here, like the couch potato I am.

Also, fer those of us who like to make things fer Christmas, we have to start soon! This might get us going! Click them to make them larger. Right-click to save them.

More Christian Clip Art

Here we have a few more of the lil' Bible cards that were part of a lot sold on Ebay. 

Tomorrow, Christmas in July begins. Just warnin' ye, donkey frens!

Christian Clip Art and Cut Hours

Well m'little donkey frens, they done cut my hours by an entire day each and every week until October 1st. Wah! And no word from all the other jobs I've tried for...double wah!

Fer those who were wondering how my present husband puts up with my ex, I'll just say we've all known one another a long, long time now, and that the two of them are united by a love of mathematics and the deeply held belief that I am irritating. Imagine!

Here we have the first of several sets of lil' Bible cards. I was lucky to happen upon these lil' cards! Something fer my Christian frens! These feature bits of Bible sayings and antique graphics. Right-click to save.

Ding Dong the Meanie's Gone, and a Glamorous Sight

Yesterday late my ex-husband left, hooray!

Here is a glamorous lady, from a vintage advertising card or maybe just a keepsake postcard. The clip art gets much larger if regular-clicked, or use the smaller size fer a sidebar.

Summer Elf Clip Art

Some bloggie frens are experiencing a frightening heat wave.

I hope those in the unusual heat (as opposed to my area's expected heat) are staying as safe and cool as possible.

This lil' elf is unaffected by temperature extremes. He's dressed as a bee to enjoy summer. From a long-ago illustration.

NO RANT and A "Comment" Graphic

*sigh*

My frens, I was going to rant about my ex...but it suddenly struck me as wrong. Once upon a time I dearly loved him, more than I can express. Heck, I grew up with him, really -- and he was the one who left.

But I'm unable to blog surf due to him bein' on my computer all the durned time...got to jump on and put this post up, but that's it!

So I'll just put this altered bit of a "fashion plate" up from 1889 I believe it was. SO glad we don't dress like that anymore...I think it gets a bit bigger if you were to click it...made fer sidebars...

You Catch More Flies with Flycatchers Than You Do with Honey

I think these elegant birds are called flycatchers. I love to see vivid blue in nature, whether on flora or fauna. What looks tacky in a manmade item is never garish when designed and colored by nature!

Right-click to save. It gets bigger.

I am a very long-suffering donkey today. My son's dad is visiting him and sleeping in my computer room and using my computer and pushing my beads aside on the desk and eating up my vittles and criticizing the cats and just generally causing me to have a headache and the desire to throw things at him.

A Fascinating Post

The Fourth is over. I did get to light the smoke bombs and ran through the smoke.

I say "ran," but I guess hobbled is a more accurate -- but pesky -- term. I imagined I was running. About two years ago I got my son to go with me to help rescue a lil' kitten from a nearby alley. I had been "taming" him and wanted to try to catch him and get him home. So we went, and the kitty came up for the food, and I popped a pillowcase over him and started running for home.

I thought I was running. I kept panting out, "We got to hurry, he's making a hole in the pillowcase!" to my son, then noticed he was jog-walking. Backwards. Slowly jogging backwards, facing me and grinning, while I was running full speed forwards. That's when it really hit me: I'm old. A dead snail can outrun me.

By the way, the title of this post is supposed to be sardonic. No, dearies, that doesn't mean it has something to do with atomic sardines.

Here is a jar full of summer. I picked those polkadots right off the polkadot plant just fer this graphic. Ow! The stickers on that plant! Right-click to save.

Poparooni! It's Here

Happy Fourth!

Popping in

Well sweeties, this is another image taken from one of those old iron-on towel transfers, and altered a bit.

Tomorrow I am laying in a small supply of smoke bombs. Since it is raining and will rain through the Fourth, it will be safe for me to light a pack of six in the backyard. What I don't like about the variety packs is that some years the purple-colored one's smoke is really purple, but other years they fool you and the purple one's smoke is merely white.

A Fourth without a smoke bomb is just not a Fourth. Without that smoky gunpowder smell, the year does not seem complete.

One good thing about our fireworks ban on all firecrackers and airborne rockets is that you do not hear "pop-pop-pop" fer weeks before and after the Fourth, as I did in other locales. One of the dogs hates fireworks and is much calmer in Midland than the other places we've lived.

Sassafrassarassa and Other Grumblings

Hmph! Yesterday I went into work to find fifteen boxes of cards and party products waiting fer me. They had arrived Tuesday -- the day before I was told there was nothing to do and had six hours of work chopped right off my week.

When this recession is over, I think Hallmark is going to find it tough to hire workers willing to put up with their antics.

Here is a graphic of what I felt like doing after wrasslin' all those boxes. You likewise have felt like this, I'm sure! I love redwork and blackwork and this reminds me of it. It gets bigger when clicked.

Work Slowdown and An Old-Fashioned Placard

I was shocked to be informed that my job just shrank. As I was told after being hired, my hours depend on how much the store sells. When no cards or products are shipped, there is not very much to sell. And I get hours taken away...or days taken away...yesterday I had the entire day taken away.

I apply for other jobs constantly. But, no interviews, even, so far.

I think some parts of the country are faring well, and some not so well. I hear that where I live has "incredibly low" unemployment. That really isn't true. It is true that there are many people working part-time at very low hourly wages. But that isn't secure employment, or even full employment. Even jobs once thought of as secure are disappearing.

I'm back to plotting to move away...somewhere where I can have a much simpler life...dragging my son and husband and ancient dogs and four horrible cats with me, of course. Gosh, it is so hard to keep others afloat when yer skills are as poor as mine are. I can barely keep my own head above water...thinking about trying to live on a houseboat...oh dear, didn't I just say I couldn't keep my head above water? Bad if yer living on a boat, isn't it...since I can't manage The Middle Class Dream, maybe I should try for the Funky Weird Subsistence Dream. Or mayhap I'm just going crazy.

Definite unsettled vibe out there among many lately! I'm not the only one feeling kind of stir-crazy!