A Box Full of Hopes and Dreams

I know you are all excited to hear about my adventures with Cindy this weekend!

All I can say right now (due to tiredness, and this blasted tooth-yes...still an issue!) is..

*deer in headlights*

I've been left speechless by the women that I met this week.

I've been left speechless by the person that is Cindy of Cottage Instincts.

Never before have I been in a room full of more generous, gracious,

stylish, lovely, brave, inspiring women.

I'm so inspired!

I'll probably be spending the better part of this week sharing tidbits of it all, bit by bit.

Cindy is also sharing some on her blog too.

Today I just wanted to show you this.

Baby chicks.

My darling neighbor Danielle just got a box of 25 in the mail last week.

Help me Rhonda, look at that little one looking right at the camera.

It's going to be almost impossible not to get more babies this spring.

Seeing a box full of baby chickens reminds me so much of life.

New life.

New hopes.

New dreams.

New inspirations and aspirations.

We need to nurture our hopes and dreams.

Sometimes they need to be put under a heat lamp and carefully monitored.

Oftentimes, they need to be singled out and focused upon individually.

Sadly, sometimes despite our best efforts, tragic things happen.

The raccoons and hawks of life steal our dreams.

Sometimes our hopes vanish without a trace.

Thankfully, sometimes they grow to be what they were meant to be.

Spring is coming.

I pray that you nurture your hopes and dreams.

I hope that you find people and places that inspire you.

I really hope you get some baby chickens. :-D

Preparations

Another cold, snowy day here in NW Indiana.

At least the sun is shining though!

I can't believe how it lifts the spirits.

I took these photos from my office window this morning.

Today is not any ordinary day though. As I sit and type this, that darling Cindy from Cottage Instincts in en route.

I hope she likes what we are having for supper tonight.

I still can't chew too well.

My whole head is hurting.

Even my hair is hurts.

This can't be normal.

Nothing says 'welcome' like fresh, hot bread.

I rarely, and I do mean rarely have 'overnight' guests.

I get weird.

I worry alot.

I vacuumed twice today.

It's like you start seeing your house for the first time, or something.

All of the sudden, I want to redecorate the entire joint.

I'm going to force, er, I mean ask her if she'd like to take a nice hot bubble bath.

I bought some 'localish' wine. I don't know if she drinks or not, but I hope she does.

She might not notice all the ladybug carcasses trapped in the windows if she partakes a bit.

Her bed is all fresh and ready, and perfumed with linen spray.

Her towels are ready.

I picked up some books at the library I thought she might enjoy, in case she can't sleep.

Some of the chocolate cloaked cookies and truffles await.

My first attempt at truffles....I wasn't too pleased.

Again, this is where the wine will come in handy.

Tomorrow morning we'll get up and head to a little blogging get together in Illinois.

I wish I could tell you more about it, but I can't, cause I don't know much about it!

I'm going to meet 20 people that I don't know.

I haven't had the time to visit their blogs.

Maybe I should drink some wine too.

My Creepy Valentine

Ok, so I'm sitting here getting ready to pop my first Xanax of the day.

'Tis Dentist day again.

I have to leave in thirty minutes, to go to the grocery store before my 3pm appointment. (My week has been all catty-wompus, schedule-wise).

I don't want to start something I can't finish.

So I Google.

I so love Google.

'Creepy Vintage Valentine's' yielded these gems:

A timely Valentine, given the fact that I'm on the way to the dentist. I momentarily pondered printing it out for Dr. Dimples.

Is this redneck a man or a woman? Either way it's a bit creepy.

A bit?

What kind of barnyard genetic mutant is this?

Has it been shot between the eyes??

It should be.

I can't think of a comment for this one.

Dear JenJen, I hope this doesn't prompt you to use your potty mouth.

This is the Valentine that I got this year.

Oh dear Lord.

Last creepy Valentine...I promise, cause how can you top some mad love from a feral cat?

I can't help myself, but I do believe this is the end of them.....

I just find them SO funny, and creepy, and interesting.

I love Google.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Fill Your Cans!

Behold the difference between drizzling (above)

and glopping (below)

This is such an educational blog.

A great can filler would be these delicious Chocolate Raspberry (yes Shannan, raspberry) Cookies. It's a Paula Deen recipe, ya'll. Get it here. It's got two sticks of butta!

What do you do when you totally thought you had a small heart shaped cookie cutter, and you find out that you don't?

You improvise.

You talk yourself into thinking that it's totally ok to have round shortbread cookies on Valentine's Day.

They do NOT look like Ritz crackers....stop saying that.

These cookies are incredibly, unbelievably good.

Besides, round cookies fit the can better, so there.

After baking them, I cloaked them in chocolate.

That's right. I said cloaked.

You can find the recipe for this at Epicurious.com.

I found these very quick and easy to make.

I filled my can very simply, just using tissue paper, and putting the cookies in cellophane bags. I had a really long 'to do list' today and I didn't have the mental energy to do something more creative, but I'm sure you'll come up with something much better.

You might want to hand your Valentine this card.

I'm sure it'd go over super great.

This one is especially popular this year.

Remember the evil Howdy Doody card from yesterday's post?

I think this might top it.

I Got a Can, and I Got a Plan

Valentine's Day has always been hit or miss for me. I have good intentions, but usually it fizzles by the time the day gets here. This year, for some reason, I'm all up in Valentine's face.

Craftin', cookin' and lovin'.

I think I should make this a new tradition.

'Valentime's Day' is a real holiday.

Here's a great little craft that you can make in a heartbeat.

Best thing about it, it uses what you'd otherwise throw away!

I've been saving cans for a while now, cause I just hate to throw them away. I usually bake bread in them, but I think this is a great idea.

Imagine the possibilities if you would.

You could do these for all of the holidays!

Endless ideas, I tell you.

I just painted the cans with some acrylic paint. Spray paint would have been awesome, but I haven't nary.

I gave the cans about three coats, allowing them to dry in between coats. While they were drying, I searched out some vintagy Valentines online, by using Google images.

I searched 'Vintage Valentine Postcards'

At the bottom of this post, I have them so you can cut and paste if you'd like!

I had to scale them somewhat with the printer options to make them the right size.

Then I decoupaged them on. I like the word 'decoupage'.

Somehow I didn't get a photo of me doing that, but ya'll know it's just smearing some glue on the back of paper right?

After the decoupage dried, I gave all the cans a coat of satin spray. I glittered a couple of them.

I think I might sand the edges lightly of the ones I didn't glitter, just to age them a little more.

I feel so crafty.

What to do with them now?

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what I'm going to fill them with!

Here's some of the cute little vintage Valentine's I found:

Awwwww......so cute!

Adorableness.

I really liked this one, but didn't use it. There's just 'something' about it that I really like.

This one ended up being my favorite on a pink can. Very vintagy and frosty looking.

This one just flat cracked me up.

Cupid's Message. Really? What message does roasting someone's heart over an open fire send?

A rather haunting Valentine.

Cuteness.

The freakiest Valentine I've ever seen.

I'd break up with whomever sent me this one!

Did Ya Miss Me?

I'm still here!

As you all know by now....

The Colt's lost.

Fifi is a Saint's fan. Can you believe it?

Must be that French thing she's got going on.

She actually had money on the game.

The girls had a little Superbowl party last night.

Helen wanted both teams to win.

I had to explain to her that football didn't work that way.

They REALLY got a kick out of the Denny's commercials. You should have heard them cackling. Scarlett seemed a little concerned and pulled me to the side, saying...'this doesn't apply to US does it?'

So I haven't blogged in three days.

Why does that seem like an eternity for some reason!?

My reason for not blogging:

I'm tired.

and

I'm obsessed with miniatures.

Let's talk about the miniatures first, shall we?

Refill your coffee cups, or go get another Diet Coke girls, this could be a long post.

Here's a back view of the dollhouse. Please notice where this beast is sitting.

On my coffee table.

I like to work on it whilst I watch TV. I'm rather embarrassed to say that I'm excited about TV this week. It's a good excuse to work on the dollhouse, PLUS, the Bachelor comes on tonight, and it's the hometown visits.....AND Ellen is finally on Idol tomorrow night. This is big time entertainment in my household. I've also discovered a show called "American Pickers". I'm in love. Two guys traipse the country looking for old dilapidated barns and find cool old stuff.

The livingoom floors and walls are done. I'm not sure what I'm doing with the ceiling yet.

I found some long thin popsicle sticks at Hobby Lobby, cut them into thirds and glued them stick by stick on the floor in a random pattern, and then stained it. Cost $2. I think it looks pretty stinking good.

See that little doorknob? I can't stand it.

I bought that little pie safe for the kitchen, thinking I'd paint it and antique it up, but there isn't going to be room in the kitchen.

I've started working on one of the bedrooms. I love this wallpaper. It's blue. I have NOTHING blue in my 'real' house, so I'm really loving it in the dollhouse. I don't know why I'm doing wainscoting in the bedroom. I love it, but it feels wrong to me. Oh well, it's stuck on there now!

I'm making a wire bed to look just like my bed. You can see the design I drew out on the paper. Scaled perfectly 1:12.

I've decided to eliminate the staircases in the house. They will just take up too much room, I think. I might regret this decision.

Ok.

Now the tired part.

Do you ever get tired? So tired that you just don't realize that you are tired, and you try and try to keep going, but you can't and then you get mad that you can't and you get cranky, and you type big long run on sentences trying to describe how you feel, but you just can't quite describe it?

That was me on Friday and Saturday.

At first I thought it was Vicodin withdrawals. I really enjoyed the Vicodin. Nothing hurt. At my age, something is always hurting.

I imagined being addicted to Vicodin, washing them down with Mountain Dews and Twinkies, smoking King Size Kool cigarettes and living in the 'Appalacha' Mountains.

Ya, I was that tired.

I would come to the computer to blog and I would just hear crickets.

I had nothin'.

Friday, after school, I took a three hour nap and read this:

It might have been a mistake.

I'm so intrigued by the local food movement.

Being an all or nothing personality, of course now I want to do it, 100%.

Shall I never eat an orange again?

With knowledge comes responsibility.

Did I want to know that the chicken I buy at the store is raised that way?

Did I want to feel guilty about the fossil fuel used to bring me my fresh greens in February?

Do I spend the $6 a gallon on local milk?

How good is good enough?

Is it good enough that I raise all the food I can and preserve it?

Is it good enough that I bring my own bags to the store?

Is it good enough that I support the farmers markets?

Is it good enough that I've managed to consolidate trips to town to the bare minimum?

Is it good enough that we eat in 95% of the time?

Is it good enough?

I get mentally exhausted thinking about it.

Saturday, I made a brave attempt to conquer things, and scrubbed floors on my hands and knees, attempted to warp my loom, worked on the dollhouse, and tried to think about redecorating some in the real house.

Glenco looked at me, with a big fat cold sore on my lip, and said:

'Your run down, you need to rest'.

Poppycock.

I kept pushing and pushing, til about 2pm, I started thinking something was wrong with me.

I started navel gazing.

Am I depressed? No, I don't think so...I haven't lost any interest in my hobbies...that would be a sure sign.

Why do I feel this way?

Did the infection in my tooth spread to my body?

Am I gonna DIE!?

Glenco looked at me again, and said:

"You need a cheeseburger and a nap, you never stop Jayme"

Poppycock.

By 4pm, I'm googling symptoms of how I feel.

My mind just never stops ding dang it.

Have I possibly gone mad?

That's it.

I'm 'mad'. In the worst sense.

I've not slept well.

I lie in bed wondering why bacon isn't on the 'Superfoods' list, and try to remember all the names of the girls on the Bachelor, and plan my veggie garden, etc., etc. I re-join and quit Weight Watchers fourteen times mentally, and write the most wonderful blog posts you ever read.

I toss, I turn.

I'm gonna 'snap out of it' tomorrow, I promise myself.

Sunday breaks dawn, fresh and anew.

We drove to Lafayette, Indiana and I met the most wonderful gal.

Well, I'd 'met' her before here, in blogland, but I got to meet her 'for real'.

Leslie.

She has a blog here.

Isn't she just lovely?

Her home was as lovely as she was.

She's a gal after my own heart. Check out her menus!

She has quite a vintage tin collection (Jen, I thought of you immediately!)

Look how she has these Valentine tins displayed...

We had a nice, easy visit. She and her husband are an absolute delight.

I fear I talked her head off.

I do that when I'm a little nervous.

After we left Leslie's house, we went to an old diner, that had been featured on Guy Fieri's

"Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'.

It's called Triple XXX in Lafayette, Indiana.

Get your mind out of the gutter! That was the name of the rootbeer they serve.

Taking Glenco's advice, I had a big fat cheeseburger.

We got home just in time for the Superbowl coin toss.

Seems that Glenco was right.

I just needed some rest and a cheeseburger.

I hate it when he's right.

I've got my mojo back girls!

I have lots of fun Valentine goodies to share with you this week.

Start saving your cans.

The 28oz cans are the best......