Endless Summer Creations

The beginning of Carl's Sonic Mania Diorama, depicting the Studiopolis World!  An idea that completely happened by chance.  I was down at the Goodwill when I saw two old fish tanks for $10 each.  One of them I'm using for a Christmas Diorama.  But the other one gets this cool life! Color pictures printed from the web Beginning of base with yellow and blue Legos "Kragled" into place 😀 Decorations from a Lego Friends set and pearly pebbles hot-glued into place as well ...and more to come!

Our faerie gardens grew...  

Our very first Big Dipper Halloween Pumpkin!  We love this! Make this or other amazing pumpkins with CountryLiving's 50 Seriously Spooky Pumpkin-Carving Ideas .

Our black pumpkin canvas.  Can't wait until the paint dries all the way so we can go to the next steps! 

Son and I made these gorgeous little gardens today in less than 10 minutes... 

Sometimes the question is not "Why do I want to accomplish this goal"?  Sometimes it's more like "Why shouldn't I just do whatever I feel like doing? Why do I want to bother myself with goals when I could just be relaxing instead?" You might then ask yourself, if I forget the goal what do I miss out on?  Am I ok with that?  Will I have regrets one day?  Which will cause me more stress - abandoning the goal or following through on it? What will my life look like next week, next month, next year if I do/don't accomplish the goal?  Sometimes when it's the desire for accomplishment that falters, it's the fear of loss that keeps you going. 

If "If I were an older man and met a younger woman I would have just wanted to be her friend I wouldn't have wanted to ruin her life" a haze of shock confusion and hurt descended upon her had it all been a mistake when they first met he even told her she should dance with the younger guys and because she didn't her life was ruined? if she danced with him night after night if his kindness washed over her in healing waves if he told her she wasn't crazy if he told her there was nothing wrong with her if she knew he would never leave her side if he called her out for being the jackass she was when she talked about giving up throwing all her dreams away believing the lies if he fulfilled every last vow if he should have been long gone but never quit her if he could always crack her up if that wacky humor still lived on through the Parkinson's if she knew the disease might take his body but never touch his love that none other could ever match if that's a rui...

By Joseph Jacobs John Dickson Batten [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Shelley and I were friends almost immediately.  However her father did not like me.  The only reason I can imagine is that my family was too poor for him and that he did not consider me fit to be around his daughter.  Despite how her father felt about me, the moments when he was away at work as a lawyer, and when Shelley and I were together were the thrill of my life.  We did everything for fun, it seemed like there was nothing we couldn't do, no fun that we couldn't have.    Her house was an entire wonderland within itself.  An enormous granite-walled mansion, there were four floors of enchanting adventure for us.  The first floor held a kitchen where we made all kinds of goodies, an adjacent playroom where we played house, Barbie, watched "It's A Living," "Silver Spoons," "Small Wonder," "Dukes of Hazzard," "Laverne & Shirley," two mag...

the air is brisker as I walk from the dorm with the rooster weathervane on top it's time for dinner; students swarm through quadruple doors smells of mashed potatoes and chicken drift through the halls what table awaits me down below? will Christine make my head hurt with laughter? afterwards, the gaiety continues in her room draped with Egyptian tapestries as she serves spiced teas and biscotti and Joni Mitchell hoots sweetly from the cheap tapedeck later, men join the women to seek Christine's wisdom she beckons them into her romantic visions in which lovers sacrifice their souls for the glory of those brief moments in the dark within this mysterious haven, I find myself emerge amid the satirical banter and uproarious laughter where everyone is suddenly sensuous and desirable and where faded roses always yield to the softness of new petals

Right now my son and I are reading Pax by Sara Pennypacker.  The chapter we read last night got me to thinking, how the character Vola says she didn't remember one single true thing about herself after she had left the military, after going to war and then coming out as a civilian. Has that ever happened to you?  Where you just lost yourself, forgotten when your core values are?  I have.  I've been in the military too but that's not where mine were really waylaid.  That didn't come until much later. Whenever I feel like I've forgotten what my core values are, I think back to my 16-year old self first.  After that would be my college self, where I began to come into my own and make choices as an adult for the first time.  I'm then refreshed as to my core truths, when I am my honest self - some of which are: 1) If you can't count on family and know they will always have your back, that's not a family. 2) So-called "love"...

he was just a simple Hoosier growing up amid the cornfields where everything made sense he loved the family cats and dogs in one picture he's looking down at his sweet dog while the others, unsmiling face the camera he would play ball all day sometimes Uncle Boob gave him his first fishing pole he'd sometimes leave a line floating while he went to church later he would discover golf read the whole Bible he didn't miss the snow when they came to Florida his life was simple a room full of books job on the golf course people lived and died there for the love of their game two weeks vacation every year when he'd do another golf and fish adventure then I came along never the woman he deserved watched his mom wished I could be like her beauty and kindness personified she did her duty to God her mind was to leave us before her body as it would be with her son never perfect but so full of love never to die in the middle of h...

People will tell you where they've gone They'll tell you where to go But till you get there yourself you never really know – Joni Mitchell, “Amelia” Long before the unemployment and economy crisis began, I never saw job security as a sure thing.  Maybe that’s because I began my legal career as a temp.  I grew accustomed to floating around, constantly experiencing different personalities and environments.  I somehow never entered a job envisioning it as my home for the next twenty or thirty years.  As a result of my rather nomadic career-style, I have had the benefit of learning from many different people.  My working life began when I was about eleven.  I would mow our huge lawn and my dad would then give me $30.00 for an hour of riding lessons.  I also worked down at the local food Co-op to earn “work credit” to earn discounts off grocery purchases, as any customer could do.  The work credit could then be sold to others and this p...