Hey, it's PINK SATURDAY again! You won't find this stuff anywhere else☺

Boy, today is really going to be an unconnected, hodge-podge of goodies but I think all of them, in their own right, at pretty, interesting and fun! When you're done peeking over here, slide on over to Beverly's, HOW SWEET the SOUND. Over a hundred of the most creative blogs in cyberspace participate each week in PINK SATURDAY. This is something you don't want to miss☺

Starting off today with something I used at Easter time but just can't put away. I love it and it's staying! In fact, if JoAnn's has them again next year, I'll buy a few more. I just love this little goodie that is holding the fresh eggs in my fridge. Often I will plan on making something only to find out that I need to get to the store for more. Not any longer. I'll know what I have and won't be led down the garden path again...at least not by eggs, I won't☺

Picked this up at a garage sale a few years back for a dime. Another one of those things that is cute, funny, useful and worth more than a dime, at least to me. The one thing in my life that has changed is that I did finally begin my diet and so far...so good! It's been a few months and I've had great progress☺

Isn't this sweet? This baby quilt is entirely hand-sewn. Not a machine stitch to be found. Each of the adorable motifs is just precious, created with lovely hand-embroidery and so very reminiscent of times gone by...long ago, for sure. Every year our hospital axillary has a flea market to support our neo-natal unit. It's HUGE and something just about everyone in town waits for in June. Currently this lovely goodie is up for auction on ebay. Take a peek if you're interested.
Went by my Goodwill Store yesterday and found this vintage lamp, in PINK, no less, for...get this...$2.75. I'm at the point now where I don't know if I'll be able to buy retail for anything anymore other than appliances! First, you sure save in a thrift store and second, not everyone you know will have what you do in their home, especially if you ♥ vintage items. I'll be searching for just the right shade and when I find it you just might see this again, all decked out in it's new chapeau!
Last, I want to share something pretty and practical. A friend of mine painted this old picnic basket so that I could have a few of my handwork patterns close by and at the same time...keep out the pet hair! This is what she came up with and it not only looks so, so pretty sitting next to my reading chair, it is so very functional! There's another item, similar to this but just a little different I want to share with you next week. I especially enjoy the side handles so movement throughout the house is easy!

Well that's it for this week over here at my little home. Be sure to drop by Beverly's because there is a list of blogs you can visit created by some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet here in cyberspace. See you next week!

Why do we blog and why do we continue to blog and what do we receive as a result of our efforts?

No pretty pictures. No sweet songs. Nothing witty to read. But a question that has been popping back into my head over and over and over and over since reading several posts by women apologizing for their inadequate blog or blogging skills.

Over time I have read blogs where the women posted that they were taking a break from blogging due to the fact that they needed to "get on with life", "take time away from the computer", "spend more time with family", "spend more time outdoors", and the list goes on and on and on with a plethora of reasons or excuses as to why they weren't going to be around for a while. They felt as though their blog was pulling them into an abyss and they needed time to recover from the experience and to gather themselves once again.

I've also read blog entries where women have said that the stress of blogging was just becoming too much for them: trying to come up with interesting entries, pretty photos, things that others would like to read, shopping when they really didn't have anything they wanted to buy but they wanted to have an interesting blog entry...all in search of "comments" or reaching a higher numbers of visitors.

So, I've spend a couple of days looking at some of the more successful, if that's what you want to call them, blogs and also their longevity in the blogging world. Most, but not all, of those that have high numbers of visitors and oodles of comments are blogs that not only represent a hefty amount of time and talent but also represent the blogger's quest for sales of their wares, or income from the number of times a blogger will click on a link. I could post links to direct you to those blogs, but that is not the point of this post of mine. These blogging women are making money with the pretty photos and interesting chat that brings back their readers day after day after day. It's almost as though readers can't live without checking these particular blogs. We now have publications solely for the blogger. Publications that cost an arm and a leg and publications that present a bar that most bloggers will never be able to clear, even on their best day.

Most recently I read a pleading request by a blogger for forgiveness because she was going to take a break...she was worn out and she was weary of trying to please "her public" with witty and pretty blog entries. She was shopping, not for herself, but for others. One person who responded to the post was angry and accusing saying that the blogger had better get a grip on life and that it appeared she was a whiner looking for people to fawn over her and that life was rough and tough and that she had just better grow up.

What? Is this what we put ourselves out here for? To be abused with the written word when we open ourselves up to the extent that we are sorry for not providing "whatever" to people that we haven't even met and feel guilty if we don't perform to a particular standard?

Why do people blog, if not to make money as so many who make items for sale or those whose blogs exist to get more clicks and thus more checks from Google?

Is it because our society is so fast paced that we seek a connection with other human beings? Is it because we seek approval...approval that we don't receive from our friends and family? Is it because we want to leave something behind in cyberspace when we die? Is it to feed our egos and self-esteem? Why do we share so much of ourselves with people that we have never met? Do we feel alone in a house filled with people who don't communicate with us? Why do we show so much compassion to people that we have never met through our comments but barely give a sideways glance to the beggar that we pass on our way to work or to shop? Why do we post photos of our homes?

And, here I must comment: It appears that most who post a photo of their home are in the upper income level of our society. I don't see photos of homes that need their yard raked or the shutters painted or the garage door fixed. I only see homes that the average, middle class American can only dream about.

I blog because I love to write. I blog because I have always been someone who enjoys sharing. I blog to share something of myself with my family...thoughts that are important to me...things I want them to know when I am no longer on this planet. I blog because, at least right now, I have fun blogging.

But, when it becomes a chore or when people decide to become cruel to me through their comments or if I wring my hands over a blog entry wondering if it's pretty enough or good enough or interesting enough...then my blog will become an "invitation only" blog. Life is too short and too precious to spend time in worry over blog entries.

If you've stuck with me this long...reading my feelings today about blogging, thanks. Whether you agree with me or not, I respect your thoughts. But my question remains: Why do we or why do you or why does society blog and feel a need to do so?

Desperately seeking FROSTING! Please help me!

Years ago my mother would make a frosting for her cakes that had Crisco in it. The frosting would keep its shape, didn't get hard or crusty and, here the important part (at least to me) didn't taste sugary sweet. It tasted more like lightly sugared whipping cream. A bakery here in town used to use this frosting on their cakes and cuppy♥cakes. I would buy those goodies every chance I had when a birthday or other special event would roll around. My youngest son adored the frosting as much as his mother.

I thought I had hit pay-dirt when I found out that the bakery in question was going out of business. I new the baker, because I used to work as a desk clerk at her son's motel several years' back when I was going to college. I thought the prior relationship would give me a leg-up, at least I thought so. NO, NADA, NOPE. Even though she was going out of business, she just looked at me with a smirk and refused. I don't want to tell you what was going on in my head...not nice stuff, I'll tell ya. All I can say is that the top of her head would have hurt for days if I had lost control of my emotions.

So, here is my plea and I MEAN a plea. Do any of you have any idea what I'm talking about when it comes to this frosting? The recipe does have Crisco in it, it isn't sweet and holds its shape beautifully for decorating. I have other recipes (you should see all of my cookbooks) but nothing compares to what my mom would make in her little kitchen. When mother passed away the recipe was nowhere to be found. I called all of her friends and all of my relatives...nothing. I called my sister and she told me she remembered the frosting but she never asked for the recipe because she had another that she liked better...sigh.

I have sought out this recipe on the web, but there are literally millions of recipes for frosting out there that have Crisco as an ingredient to some extent. I have also spent hours on the Crisco web site. Now, you could say, start making batches of frosting and see what you come up with for taste. First, I don't have enough money to make millions of batches of frosting and second, if what I made was yucky I'd feel horrible tossing it into the trash...money is too hard to come by for so many folks these days and I am one of them☺

Call your neighbors. Talk to your baker. Ask your sister. Give your mother a call (she'd like that☺). I would so love to locate the recipe and so don't want to have to corner my former baker in a dark alley and scare the pants off her just to find out how she made that darned frosting. Besides, once I was jailed for the dark alley incident, I don't think they'd let me cook.

Oh, and the photo? Cute, huh? It's from a little Pink Princess Tea Parties cookbook I have written by Barbara Beery. You bake your cuppy♥cakes right in the little tea cups! Adorable! Yes, I know, I'm not a little kid, but it IS pink and I DO have a grand-daughter, ya know!

I ♥ Pink Saturday. Come on over & have some fun!

Pink Saturday is here again over at HOW SWEET the SOUND. Goodness, it seems like it's rolling around faster and faster. It better slow down a bit or I'll surely run out of pink goodies to share with you...on second thought, that'll never happen, not ever! But you knew that, didn't you?

This week I began on the second floor of my home in the master bedroom. Well, what-do-you-know, I've got myself another pink telephone. Who in the world would have guessed that, hehehe! This is the last one, though...sigh. The rest are all run-of-the-mill telephones, the kind that are boring and useful and utilitarian.

In the master bath is a very vintage baby planter with the most precious pink rose painted on the toe of the shoe. Naturally, I've placed pink Q-tips inside. Is there any other color? I-don't-think-so!

On a little shelf in the same room rests my mantra. Over my lifetime there have been plenty of instances when I've had to remind myself that I had just better "deal with it" and had no time to sit on the curb and cry. Good advice, especially in our country's present circumstances.

Popping back downstairs, I thought I'd share with you my two, pink scarves that I wear during the winter to keep me all cozy and warm when I'm outside shoveling the tons of snow we get in my neck of the woods. Believe it or not, it is finally warming up outside, so I can put these away with my ear muffs and mittens. Well, maybe not...looks a little iffy out there☺

A few weeks ago I shared with you a magazine holder in my kitchen that I had given a little shabby cottage make-over. This week I decided to photograph another of my projects that began as a 50 cent garage sale item and ended up adorned with roses and a bit of chippy, pink paint. It always amazes me what a little paint will do for something that was destined for the garbage truck. Re-cycle, re-use, re-purpose! This holds coasters on the little table by my reading chair.


Thanks so much for dropping by my blog so I could spend a little time with you. Don't forget to drop by HOW SWEET the SOUND to get all the links to the dozens and dozens of other great places to see mucho pink-a-licious offerings...just for you!

The most amazing & magical tidbit I've learned in nearly ALL of my life! I'm totally stunned...

Have you ever read something and all of a sudden a light goes off in your head? All of a sudden things look differently and brighter and make more sense? You walk a little lighter, sing a sweeter song and see your life in a whole, new light? Well, I'll tell ya. It isn't often I'm totally amazed and at the same time have been handed the solution to a problem I've had ever since I walked into my mother's kitchen to help!

For decades I have literally struggled and prayed and yes, cursed (however, gently) when it was time for me to wrap my leftovers. Begrudgingly I would grab the plastic wrap (Saran Wrap at my house) knowing that my war with this product was to begin again. I'd pull out enough to cover my bowl and then the whole, darned roll would pop out of the carton. In the next moment, what I had pulled out would get all tangled up, sticking to itself like super-glue gone bad. I'd feverishly try to smooth out the mess so I could pull what I needed over the toothed edge to set it free from the cursed roll that had slid off the counter and onto the floor. Sadly, often times the plastic wrap would win and I would plop whatever I could salvage of the way-ward, sticky film over my food and put away the box thinking, "There just HAS to be a better way to do this!"

Well, I am here to tell you that all along...all the time I was struggling...there WAS a better way and it was right before my eyes. Right there. Take a look, right there on each end of that darned box. There are little tabs that, with a little pressure, pop in and hold the roll in place. For crying out loud. I don't know about you, but I never looked and didn't know about that sweet, little addition to the box. It was there all the time, in plain sight, just waiting for me to find it and activate it's magical function...to hold in the roll!

If you are one of the smart ones who knew this all along, "Why didn't you tell me about those tabs so I wouldn't have had to wage war with Saran Wrap and been forced to make a mess for the past...uhm...lots of years?"

If you didn't know, I'm sharing my new knowledge with you, the masses that have suffered with me for decades or maybe just days if you are a new bride. Now, go into your pantry and pop the tabs on your Saran Wrap. Bet you won't be able to wait until tomorrow!

Cats ♥ YouTube and little kittens just as much as the rest of their family

Each morning, while I'm waking up and planning my day, I sit at the kitchen table reading the news and checking out my favorite blogs in Google Reader. Either Rosemary or Camille makes it to my lap wanting to cuddle and nap and get stroked (what better way to start a day, right?). Yesterday I posted here a little YouTube video of the sweetest kitten getting tickled and cuddled on its mommy's lap.

Today Camille made it to my lap first. Wanting to see the little kitty again, I slid over to my blog and what took place after that you see below. I've never seen Camille so focused on my computer screen before and she's spent many a morning on my lap. I kept playing the kitty video over and over timing how long it kept her attention. I was a little surprised to find out that Camille watched that little kitten for half an hour!

I had read about cats that like to watch television, guess they ♥ YouTube videos, too.

Keep in mind...she's on my lap while I'm taking these photos. My movement and the noise didn't distract her attention on that kitten for a moment. And, in case you wanna know, my camera is always on the kitchen table. You just never know when you'll have a cat on your lap watching YouTube☺