Spice Girl!

I heart vintage spice jar sets! Above are my favorite set! Don bought me these years ago! (There's also a Cinnamon; I was trying to take a close-up & didn't realize he didn't make the photo.) These little spicy chefs hang in our kitchen.....and right below hang these vintage white and yellow ones: I've had these for so long, I don't remember where I got them, which is unusual for me! I also love pansies and these have yellow & burgundy pansies on them!

Scenic Tyler, Texas

Went to Tyler, Texas this past Spring '08 for a little weekend get-away. The scenery was amazing! We love old homes, so of course we had to drive around and look at all the historic houses, which were so beautiful.

We had the good fortune of being there during the Azalea trails----something we had not planned--we were just pleasantly surprised!!!

The azaleas were gorgeous, but so was the other landscaping! In spite of everything else we did while in Tyler, I think we had the most fun driving around looking at the beautiful homes and yards! And I wanted to share my photos with you......

TESTING FLICKR PHOTOS

vintage blue green pin, originally uploaded by pk studio.

Love vintage jewelry, especially pins!

I've been researching how to get larger photos on my blog and read that if you use Flickr, it will automatically bring it over to your blog in a larger size. So, I'm trying it here. It certainly is larger than my other photos. I noticed when you double-click on the photo, it now takes you to Flickr, which I haven't noticed on other people's blogs. (Is that good or bad?) It was very easy to do & even let me write the text in Flickr, then I went into my blog to adjust the text size/color. I noticed it put the photo name and my Flickr name under the photo. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks for any help; as you can see, I'm new to blogging! Hope everyone's been having a great weekend!

FIREWORKS!

Fireworks at the spectacular Las Colinas 4th of July display! We had a great family get-together last night at my brother's apartment, including a cake & gifts for Jordan, who just turned 18. Gloria called from Colorado to tell us all hello! We then moved the party outside for the fireworks. Thanks, Keith, for the fun party! I took the "squiggly" picture shown first and Dad took the rest of the photos. Thanks, Dad!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Edited 7/5/08 to add: By the way, I meant to mention that this cute patriotic display is at Mom & Dad's house.

Childhood Dreams

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." --Randy Pausch

I seem to always be in the process of reading several books---fortunately, most of them good. A good inspirational/motivational book I read earlier this year was the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. In case you haven't heard of it yet, it is written by a professor who gave his students a "last lecture" as some professors do, only he is expecting this to really be his "last" lecture because he is terminally ill. (As of right now, he's still alive.) It was all about living, not dying and titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". The lecture was video-taped and ended up on YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo ) and became extremely popular, so popular that Diane Sawyer interviewed him for an ABC news special. He wrote this book: not only about the lecture, about fulfilling childhood dreams and helping others with their dreams, but also about life lessons he's passing on to his children and others. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a long article on him and on what has grown to become a phenomenon. This was a really good book, one that you want to keep reading and not put down. I especially liked learning about Alice, http://www.alice.org/ , a novel idea: educational software which makes learning computer programming fun; I also liked the stories about the Disney salt and pepper shakers. My favorite story would have to be the one about his really creative use of Girl Scout Thin Mints, which I thought was such a great idea (I won't tell you what it is in case you haven't read the book yet!); he really is clever. Before I finished the book, I told a friend that I was surprised because I thought it was going to be one of those books that I'd be crying all the way through it but I hadn't teared up at all---but of course I spoke too soon.....at the very end I had to break out the tissues! This is definitely a book worth reading!

Congratulations, Jordan!

Double-click to enlarge photo of banner I made above, using various scrapbook papers.

We're so proud of our niece, Jordan, who's graduating this week from high school! You go, girl!