Cat House

BB-the-Dog, of whom there are numerous photos plastered all over this blog (because she's the only mammal in this house who semi-lets me take her picture), had a little visit to the doctor's today. She's OK, it was her yearly visit and something to do with a "package" I purchased last year that covers her vaccines and yet, I ended up paying extra for antibiotics that will clear up a little rash she's developed.

 *Surprise!

These are what greeted BB as we walked through the doors to the Vet...CATS! Baby cats. And the only good cat in BB's world is a cat that's racing for its life up and over a fence!

But darn it, these kitties were just too cute!

That white kitty was a hoot. Mischievous. Aggressive. Cheeky.


He wasn't having any lazing-around!

"I'm King of the World! And the doggie can't get me when I'm way up here!"

Look out! Whitey is right behind you and by the looks of it, you're about to be pushed of your perch!

 Or squeezed off.

Instagram. I love that app!

Just look at that pretty pink nose!

Good bye, little kitties. I really hope someone adopts all of you.

And don't let those dogs get you down.

And for goodness' sake, please don't tell any of your friends about how BB cried the entire time we were in the lobby, whining while she couldn't take her eyes off of you. She's never seen a cat-in-a-house.

You're enigmas.

And cute. Thanks for the fun.

Boating the St. John's River

Cruise Ship...I Think I'll Pass

Chillin'

J

Condos on the River

Jacksonville Landing

Pirate Ship

Curls....

 What a beautiful day!

I grew up on an island, but I never really thought twice about all the water. Boating wasn't such a big deal to the inlander Islanders...a boat was never on my radar.

Apparently, it's been on my husband's for many years and we're really enjoying our boat...

Though I no longer live on an island, we do live by lots and lots of water! Our home isn't far from the St. John's River, so we're able to enjoy the water, especially now that the weather is turning very warm.

 I love being out on the boat, especially with my two guys... my husband and our son. Today, we cruised along a part of the river we've never been before.

The water was calm and the sky was a beautiful blue, with gigantic puffy clouds. Basking under the warm sun was lovely and I must say, my farmer's tan is coming along quite nicely...don't be jealous!

We're looking forward to our next outing...

Why don't you join us?

19 years of saving.

How to spend a Sunday afternoon...I wanted to watch football, but necessity brought me to my senses and I spent the entire day cleaning my our room. Starting our Sunday with mass is essential, as is the coffee and the delicious BLT sandwich I had for breakfast at the Village Bakery. Mom and Dad joined us and we had a lovely time. We always have fun with the folks, laughing and teasing each other, Jason calling my mother "Mee-Maw." She doesn't like that name, which makes Jason enjoy calling her all the more. We came home and I decided I'd iron clothes, waiting for football to come on the Telly, at which point I'd commence cleaning my our room.

A-hem. What a job! It seems Jason and I can't part with anything, especially that which our son touched, read, wrote, or played with while growing up. I have a bin of pristine childrens' books, schoolwork, artwork, etc...how does one let go of all those memories? So we didn't. We just stashed everything and creatively stored it. But enough is enough, right? After all, the one-and-only child will probably just end up chucking it all when we die, so I might as well make his future a little easier once we're gone and hopefully in heaven.

 My pillow. Covered with a luscious flannel pillowcase, which belongs to Jonathan. But I took it, as I love the playful winter creatures and it's soft and comforting. It reminds me of "home," the great, white North. It is blizzard season, after all, and I'm missing it! Did you know I survived the Blizzard of '77?

And then there's this creature. She's a good old girl. The sweetest, most docile dog I have ever known. She doesn't know she's a canine and honestly, I don't have the heart to tell her differently. She apparently had an exhausting day watching me tackle the bedroom gremlins.

I'm wrapping up my day by watching football, sitting on the couch and chatting with my best friend, Jason. Discussing stuff...it's very nice and comfortable. I can't imagine spending my free time with anyone else but him.

Tuesday, I plan on continuing my quest to purge our home of "stuff." We're not hoarders and there's plenty of room to walk around...unless you're in my sewing room. If I'm not feeling particularly proud, I'll snap a picture of that mess and share it with you. Not that I'm particularly proud of how I trashed it at Christmas, but I'm going to forgive myself and vow to get that room cleaned up and convert it back to a bedroom. We need a space for visitors...right now, the only place we have is a dog bed that has been drooled upon by that lovely beast pictured above. We shall see how this all works out...

Perhaps all this purging has something to do with getting ready to turn 50...taking stock, simplifying, de-cluttering. On to the next stage, my senior- citizen-hood!

And I'm looking forward to all those discounts! And free coffee. Saving my McDonald's cup so that I can get free refills. At least, that's what I've heard...

creation in pink and green!

This is a happy and bright sunsuit for a little girl...which I don't have, but still, I thought it might be fun to make a sweet little summer outfit.

This is a view of the fun rhumba ruffles. Coochi-coochi! Name that entertainer!

I should have taken a photo of the front, dontcha think?

Details, details!

getting to the root of the matter.

Several years ago, I decided to take a quilting class. I loved every minute of it.

Above is only one of two quilt tops I've ever made. This is my favorite of the entire two.

It does, of course, need to be finished. I pulled it out of my closet last week and fell in love all over again with the French Country feel of the fabrics. The colors are incredibly amazing. Please overlook the errant threads and the fact that I didn't press this quilt prior to taking photos. I figured you'd forgive me for the wrinkles. On the quilt, not my face. Someday, I'll finish this lovely quilt!

In other news, my sewing room is still half cleaned. Half put-back-together. My plan for today, cleaning the destruction I created last week, was thwarted by an aching tooth. My tooth has been hurting for awhile and just this past Saturday morning, I finally called the dentist to make an appointment. In my vast dental experience, I self-diagnosed a probable cavity, or loose filling. 

Ha. I was wrong on both counts. My appointment was this morning and upon several x-rays and examination, the ever-charming and competent Dr. Martinez told me the pain I had been experiencing in my molar was due to a problem with my wisdom tooth and that it would, in fact, need to be extracted. In his usual jovial fashion, he assured me that he could pull the wisdom tooth, which had a crazy twisted root, right there in his office and that I wouldn't need to go to a specialist. "No problem...what's the worst that could happen?" he asked. At which point I burst out laughing (I know, that really wasn't very reassuring), he laughed, the nurse laughed and then we all got down to business. Within 2.38 minutes, the root popped and the tooth was soundly nestled within the dentist tongs. 

A little gauze, my instruction sheet and pain prescription (I have not take any!) and I was on my way. I've done some laundry and ironing, but am now ready to go nestle into the couch and read on my Kindle. Love my Kindle.

Hence, the whole reason I'm a lazy girl today. Not even an interesting blog post.

Check back for a giveaway sometime this week. Think "gift card."

Something that's fun and you can get yourself a little something...from me to you.

Now if you'll excuse me, Jane Eyre is calling...

It's time to rest my gums.

"hearting" these hearts!

I have an affliction...

Self-diagnosis: Craftoholic.

Symptoms: Once you see a creative, remarkable craft, you can't shake the image. It's all you think about. Perhaps for days. Weeks. Months.

This morning, I found this little tutorial over at Little Birdie Secrets, on how to make darling little note cards.

Thankfully, I had just about all the supplies needed already on hand.

All that was missing was the heart-punch and they're on sale at Joann's.

Here are the cards I made:

These are a lot of fun to make and has generated several ideas for alternative note-cards. 

Now I just need to get the old printer hooked up.

My mind is spinning ideas 'round and 'round...

Creativity: a curse and yet, a delight!

day for a sail.

Someone must've been a very good boy this year.

Because this showed up in our yard right before Christmas...

Because of the hustle and bustle of Christmas and the fact that it was fabulously freezing here in Florida, the poor husband wasn't able to take his new boat out for a ride. Until this weekend. We went out on Saturday and had a great time cruising the St. John's River.

Here is a little of what we saw...

 You can't see what's on the shore, but the photo reveals the color-scheme of the boat, without being obvious. Because I'm all about subtlety. The clouds threatened, but further on down the sun was shining.

Full speed ahead!

 Hello, bird! Sitting atop the sign that signifies I-don't-know-what.

Oh, and there's a bridge in the background. Hello, bridge!

 What's up, dock?

Just look at the trees...



The colors are like trees up North in the Fall.

Gorgeous!



This is a sad state of affairs...

This was to be an upscale condominium development...but the market crashed and it was never finished.

So much potential, so little capital.

We had a great day out on the river. It was perfect weather.

I'm looking forward to the next day that Lovey and I head out on the water...

And it's still winter!

beyond redneck and I love it!

I have a new favorite show.

Swamp People.

It's all about inter-personal relationships and how families work through issues of doubt and family resentment...NOT!

No, the show is about gator huntin' and how the patriarchs don't put up with no poutin' from their younguns!

No cowtowing or worrying about validating offspring's self-worth.

This is a show about testosterone and ammunition and blood and gore and jaws full of teeth!

Here's Troy, one of the characters on the show:



Troy is very endearing, the kind of guy you'd want to hang with.

But he's not, by far, one of the more colorful characters on the show.

My man Bruce, is...

How could you not love a man who feeds his faithful dog Little Debbie Zebra Cakes?

For a Little Debbie Zebra Cake, I'd go gator huntin' with Bruce!

Who would have ever thought that you'd find Little Debbie on the swampy bayous of Louisianna? 

thwarted by poultry!

How can you not love a gal who wears her bra on the outside of her outfit? 

What a fashion statement!

I'm using this kitschy picture for, the rubia.  Because she is a rubia!  She's sitting over in the right margin.  Click her and she'll escort you over to my web site. 

Speaking of my site, a few of you have asked about it and I'm so happy to tell you that we've experienced success in uploading it.  There was a little glitch, but MacGyver showed up and helped to figure out the problem.  Something about a missing FTP file...

It's going to take a few more weeks to get more items photographed and uploaded to the site, so please check back from time to time to see what's new in the store.

Speaking of new items, I mentioned that I'd have a photo ready for you today.  Once again, I seem to have missed my mark.  I never finished the purse.  Here's the story: I was done-in by chicken piccata.

The weather here in Jacksonville Sunday was, shall I say, like a grey overcast day in Buffalo.  I considered firing up the grill, but there was a risk getting caught in huge threatening tropical rain drops. So I decided to just make dinner easy and make old trusty chicken piccata. Just like Vosco used to make in the old country. 

As I was preparing to pour the wine into the skillet to join a pat of butter and freshly squeezed lemon juice, it seems my arm slipped and  I mistakenly spilled the wine into a lovely wine glass. What's a girl to do when that happens?  Naturally, I drank the spilled vino. 

And then to my utter horror and delight , I once again spilled the wine into my empty wine glass!

So what are the odds of spilling it a third time?  Yeah, you guessed it... 

I had tried to come in and sew in-between the bouts of spilling the wine, but it's really not a great idea to drink and sew.  There are laws against it... 

I am a law-abiding citizen, so I pulled over and parked myself on the couch.  Hence, the nap.

And lack of a finished purse...but soon, soon I will have a photo posted.

Unless I make chicken piccata again and spill the wine. 

somebody, stop me!

My name is Patti and I have an addciton...

...to these awesome little jewelery pouches!

Crikey!  I can't stop making them!

The the fabrics, the colors...

 There are more pouches, but just how many can I photograph and plop here on my blog?

I need some serious intervention.

Perhaps I should make an apron...?

ruffled, in Florida!

It's madness, I tell you!  A ruffled bag...

It'll be cute, but what a project!

The ruffles?  All made by hand.  No long basting stitch, no gathering, no dental floss.

Waiter...where's my drink?

big mouth!

While my big (oldest) brother Tom was here visiting, he requested a visit to MOSH, the local museum. To be honest, I'd been there at least a dozen times over the past twelve years and never found it to be all that interesting. And I like history. The science, not so much.

But strangely, this visit was different. Mom & Dad, Tom and I went to explore the Museum of Science and History together.

Our first exhibit was The Body Within. Sounds a little "sciencey" to me...

SCORE! No, this is amazing! Look, there's Grandma and Pa entering the exhibit, right through the mouth of a teenager. I know it's a teenager because like baby birds, their mouths are always open, waiting for their next feeding. Go, Mom and Dad! Get swallowed up in knowledge and explore the wonders within!

Interesting...a film about knee-replacement surgery and all the medical techniques. Intriguing, at least for three of us. Dad's already had three replacements, Mom is on deck for a new knee this Fall. Mom didn't want to stand and watch the blood and gore, hammering and sawing...can't say that I blame her. Ugh!

Here we have the lungs of a 79-year old male. I've decided to serve pickled lungs at Thanksgiving dinner this year. Care to join us?

You run into the nicest people at the museum! This guy was fairly nice, though I found him to be a little "thin-skinned." Some people just don't take constructive criticism very well.

And that, my friends, was the first stop on our museum tour. On which I made an interesting discovery of my own: the reason it was so enjoyable? NO KIDS! Ha, I was actually able to read the exhibits...mind boggling!

Thank you for tagging along.

Coming up: our voyage on the Currents of Time.

looks like we made it!

Only an uncle and aunt could pull this off...we just loved it!

I thought it an appropriate beginning to a week of chronicled graduation events, here at It's A Wonderful...

I have lots of photos to edit and narratives to tell, ending with a cool surprise by the Grad himself!

But today, today was spent with my big brother Tom, who is returning home to Brockport, NY tomorrow morning.

A perfect ending to a great and busy week!

public. Who can figure it out?

We headed down to RAM this past Saturday to sell some purses. "We" as in, Jason and I.

It was a very blustery day under that bridge! A study in futility on oh, so many fronts!

None of my new stuff sold. Go figure. They went for the purses that last year, didn't sell. That no one wanted. That got pushed, tossed aside, ridiculed and scorned.

Now what am I supposed to do with that?!

And these pretty bags? This year, they are the objects of derision, vitriol and diatribe.

Alas! The new designs shall prevail! Because we are going to have another go at RAM..."we" as in Jason and I.

Aren't we, Honey?