Happy Things This Week!!!

Wow! This has been a great week, despite the fact that my PayPal account was wiped out. It's all been restored now, though and just in time to buy up these awesome glass goodies from "Luigi Cattelan", who is here doing a trunk show from Murano, Italy. I can't wait to get started working on things when I get back from my vacation with these:

Whatever I make with them, I can tell you right now, will be hard to part with. He had so many wonderful things, that I had a hard time picking these out. So, I'm giving you a "jump start" on picking your favorites, of which I'm sure they'll be many.

So, after the Murano glass trunk show, we went over to "The Duck Pond" for live music from our dear friends Jerry & Suzanne {The Moon Shine Babies},
who were opening for "Grayson Capps"
And it was amazing! Right to the left of this post, you can see a little tid=bit of some of his music. Of course, he also has a MySpace, so you can check him out there, too. He wrote & sang several songs for the movie "Love Song For Bobby Long", including the title track, which starred John Travolta & Scarlett Johansson. And, he's from New Orleans!!! Can you believe that I moved all the way from Louisiana to North Carolina to hear an amazing New Orleans band! Hurricane Katrina also forced him to move to Nashville. He did write a great song about New Orleans, so please check it out. But, the best part of the night was the fact that my two favorite guys were there:
And then when I went to bring leftovers down to the farm, I was greeted by this little gal:
...and she is as sweet as pie! And lastly, I *guess* I'm happy about these:Mung beans & brown rice with cream of mushroom soup! It wasn't *that bad*, but I'm anxious to see how fast the toxins leave my body :) I'll keep you posted on that outcome! I'm actully just trying them today, since we are heading out on our vacation this Sunday. So, I'll have to wait until we return to really get started on the Mung bean *kick*.

So tonight is the 4th Friday Gallery walk & Live after 5 street party/concert. I'll blog about it tomorrow and let you know how fun it was. In the meantime, Happy Friday!!! Count your blessings and may they always be many :)

xxoo & peace always ~ Kathy

"He that can have patience can have what he will" ~ Benjamin Franklin

Save The Whales.....

....Thank you "dashboard" Jesus! We had a hard time deciding if this was actually a Whale, or a Parana! In any event, it was awesome & so was the "Purple Party"!!!

I went to a Murano Glass Trunk show today! All the glass was made by artist "Luigi Cattelan" and his brother, Mario, both from Murano, Italy. He comes here once a year and does a trunk show at the bead shop in Brevard. It was amazing! I got some gorgeous things.....so keep your eye out for new things from me after I get back from my vacation :)

Happy Wednesday ~ xx00 & peace always ~ Kathy

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." ~ Vincent van Gogh

I'm "Hacked"...

...I tend to get very frustrated when things don't go perfectly {like they should}. But, after almost a year of literally "fighting" with my computer I think it's finally stepped up to the daily challenge of *me*. I got it back yesterday and it seems to be working really, really, really well! Keep your fingers crossed. But, in the meantime, my PayPal account was "hacked" and all of my money was sent to some Porn sites, which is always my favorite past-time {RIGHT!}. Urrrgggghhhh ~ it will take up to 72 hours to get my funds back into my account, so they tell me @ PayPal. I spent most of the morning on the phone with them yesterday trying to get it all straightened out. I had to change my password, my security questions, etc. But at least they were actually very nice about it all and certainly could tell right away that this was not a purchase I would have made, especially since I've been a PayPal member since 2001! I told the lady that unless it's a payment to some Etsy shop, a site that sells beads, or *Target*, they could probably safely assume it was not a purchase I made *hee hee*. So needless to say, I've been a little "crabby" lately. But tonight I'm going to a "Purple Party" over @ Paula & Mike's,

so I should be back to my old self again real soon! Besides, Jack will be there!!!!Happy Tuesday!!! xxoo & peace always ~ Kathy

"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next." ~ Gilda Radner

Simple Things....

...our little cherry tree was just bursting with cherries and we couldn't wait for them to get ripe enough to pick. The branches were so heavy with cherries that the tree was literally almost doubled over:and then....over night, they were gone in a flash! All because of this little gal:

...and the fact that it was broad daylight and we were all {Ozzy & Lita, too} watching her out of the window, didn't even seem to bother her in the least. She just munched away on the last dangling cherries and then trotted off into the forest, after turning and posing long enough for me to take her picture. So now I'm down to a couple of strawberries, 2 peach trees, 8 blueberry trees {that I'm sure will be "picked over" soon enough} and an herb garden that is totally out of control. So we just threw in the towel and went on a hike. Like I've said before, it's the little things that count the most anyway. And at least our fruit trees are benefiting somebody, if not us...I'm not that crazy about cherries anyway :O)We hiked up to "Wintergreen Falls" in Dupont Forest and it was absolutely gorgeous and just what I needed to "de-stress", after almost two weeks of waiting for my computer to be fixed. If you want to see all of our pictures, you can click on Wayne and it will take you to "Flickr" ~ enjoy. There were also some gorgeous bright orange wildflowers growing up there, too:
I hope you had a wonderful week! Happy Friday!!!

xxoo & peace always ~ Kathy

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy" ~ Anne Frank

Happy Things.....

I've been really missing all of my friends lately, so I spent most of the day yesterday yacking on the phone to some of them. And it looks like three, possibly four are coming to visit me within the next couple of months ~ *yay*. And Charlie, this INCLUDES YOU!!!! Now I'm not promising giant mushrooms to sit under, but there will be plenty of them growing in the forest by then...

...that is, of course, if we EVER get any rain. I even watered Henry's {the rat snake that lives under my porch} hole a little bit yesterday, since the last time I saw him he was covered in dirt and I'm sure he appreciated the much needed bath. And speaking of baths, Ozzy & Lita both got one, as well. Now they are all fluffed out, fuzzy & smelling goooooood.
Another thing I miss about Louisiana are these awesome little backyard friends:

I just love these little lizards.....you can actually buy them here in Pet stores for $6.99! Can you believe that! Anyway,Charlie, perhaps you can pack up a hand full and bring them up here with you. I'm sure they would love the summer here, but I'm not so sure they would fair the winter, unfortunately. But at least I have like a gazillion pictures of them :) And speaking of pictures, I fixed a necklace for my neighbor, Mark Carter, who is an amazing artist and he traded me one of his collage prints:I can't wait to get it framed & hung up in my studio. And on that note, I hope everybody is doing wonderful & having a Happy *hump day*! I'm off for a walk :)

xoo & peace always ~ Kathy

"The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied." ~ Lucretius

Friends....Old & New Again...

...we spent Father's Day visiting one of Wayne's old friends from the Navy and his family.

They were on a nuclear submarine together when they were young and we found out when we moved here that Randall and his wife, Joy, lived only about 45 minutes away. They have a wonderful place up on top of a mountain and trains actually run all the way around them. It was pretty awesome:
and they have a great swimming hole, to boot!
all in all, it was a wonderful day! And after the last train rounded the bin, we drove home and enjoyed the rest of the evening with Ozzy & Lita!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Happy Monday *yay* Music Night Monday, my favorite day of the week!

xxoo & peace always ~ Kathy

"Why worry? Look at all the the things we have and be happy. I can be happy just sitting on a mountain." ~ Araceli Segarra {mountain climber who reached the peak of Everest}

Objects in mirror....

...are closer than they appear! Ozzy's favorite position in the car! We went on an awesome hike today up the "Art Loeb Trail" to "Black Balsam Knob". It was a gorgeous hike & a beautiful day! Click on Ozzy's picture to see all of our photos from the hike!

Happy Friday the 13th! xxoo & peace always ~ Kathy

"The window of my soul I throw Wide open to the sun." ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Babies, Books & Broccoli Cornbread.....

....it's official! I'm a Grandmother {as close as I'll ever be, anyway}. My step-daughter, Paulette, gave birth to her first child - a beautiful little boy named Hunter Elliot:

Isn't he the sweetest!!! I can't wait to go see him and kiss him and spoil him. It seems as though Broc {my son} has really stepped up to the plate and loves being an uncle. Actually, Hunter looks like Broc a little and they are not even "blood kin". And just look at that little chin - it's perfect! And everybody is doing just fine.

We went to a "Local Farmers" thing-a-majogie @ Poppies and there were several speakers there, local grown food, local farmers and several people discussing the current status of the economy and the benefits of buying "local". One of the books they were pushing was this:
It's a book about a family that for one whole year only bought & ate local grown food. It's almost like pretending you're an animal. For instance, you'll eat strawberries when they are in season & pumpkins when they are in season. Unlike animals, we as humans are so used to being able to eat whatever we want, whenever we want, that the whole idea of not being able to do that just seems preposterous to us. But if we step back and look at "the big picture", it just may be a way of life we need to start thinking about and getting used to. Eventually the prices of food will be so high, or rationed to a point that we may not be able to afford such luxuries as "choices". Just yesterday, I was limited to the amount of rice I could purchase. Believe me, we're not going to start growing our own food *yet*, but we are trying to buy more local and readily available produce, meats, cheeses & other "local" things. So, we feel like it's a good start. And I'll let you know more about the book when I finish reading it.
This past Monday night was Rainbow's birthday!!! So the hit of the night was the awesome birthday cake that her husband & kids made for her *Happy Birthday Rainbow*. But before the cake was cut, everybody munched on some awesome homemade chili that Mark & Theresa made and my Broccoli Cornbread that is always a hit. By the time I remembered that I wanted to take a picture of it for my blog post, it was all gone. So, as requested {Kaye, you'll love this}, here's the recipe ~ enjoy:

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 stick of butter or margarine - melted {I always use real butter}
8 oz. of Mexican Velveeta cheese, melted
1 cup of chopped onions
1 can of "Mexicorn" - drained
1 box of frozen chopped broccoli, thawed & squeezed dry
6 oz. of small curd cottage cheese
1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl....and then pour into an un-greased 9x12 baking dish. Bake in pre-heated oven @ 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes, or until toothpick stuck in middle comes out clean and top is nice & brown.Believe me, if you want a "crowd pleaser" this is it!

Well, my sick little computer should be all well with *new* guts tomorrow. $325+ later, it needed a new mother board & processor, which is what I thought it probably needed. But now, I've kinda gotten used to my little laptop again and am so happy I have it for back-up. That's the reason I try not to use it, unless I have to. So with that being said, I guess I should finish up things I need to do and then shut it down for the night. I hope you are all having a wonderful week & trying to stay *cool*. Wayne is busy putting ceiling fans in every room! Lucky for me, he started with my studio and my fan even has a light dimmer & a remote! I'm one lucky girl, for sure :)

xx00 & peace always ~ Kathy

"Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired" ~ Robert Frost

Worrying Makes Me More Creative :)

The longer I wait to hear from the computer guru, the more I worry that something terrible is wrong with my PC. But instead of worrying about it too much, I made this instead:

And this:And this:
And these:And now I'm going to make some more things and then I have to bake some Mexican/Broccoli Cornbread to bring to "Music Monday" tonight! I hope your week has started off good.

Happy Monday!! xxoo & peace always ~ Kathy

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible." ~ Jonathan Swift

I'm On A Roll....

I got up early and started making things....I guess my ill computer has inspired me, since it's not here for me to dwell over. Be looking for some new, awesome things in the shop this evening & tomorrow - I'm stoked!

Happy Sunday!! xxoo & peace ~ Kathy

Computers Suck!!! {at least not knowing how to fix them, that is}

Shroomies from my yard J

Hello everybody! You’re probably wondering what the heck happened to me! Well, my computer {PC} decided that it was tired of working. So, after spending three days trying to fix it myself, I finally took it to the repair man today. I hope there is “hope” for it. He seems to think so, since it will still boot up at least. So, I’m using my trusty & rusty laptop, which seems so small and compact compared to my monstrosity of a PC. At least I have a brand new hard drive {300 gig, which should last me the rest of my life}, so I’ll let Mr. Computer man build me a new machine with it and keep my old “box”. My Mom {sweetheart that she is} is sending me a 19 inch flat screen monitor that came with her new computer. I guess she decided {or my step-dad did} that she needed more like a 30 inch flat screen! So all in all, I should be having a *new* computer this time next week! *Yay* - Unfortunately I don’t have “Office Enterprise” on this laptop, so I can’t type my blog posts with it, which is just sooooooo much easier. I’m typing this with Microsoft Office 2003 and then I’m going to save it as an HTML file and then copy and paste to my blog post! Wow, sounds like a lot of *steps*, but I’m used to it as of lately.

This is a new necklace I made today, once I gave up on trying to fix my computer myself. It’s made with one of Susan’s Washi Paper Metal Dog Tag pendants and it’s just awesome. Of course, you know where to find it, if you want to see it closer.

Anyway, I just wanted to drop in and let you know that I’m still alive and well. I hope you are all having a super weekend! I’ll be back soon.

Xxoo ~ Kathy

Special People…

Gosh, it's amazing to me that only after living here for 6 months that we can *literally* fill up our house with friends on a Monday night! Yes, Monday! So we hosted Music Monday again and had a wonderful turn out – about 30 people! And one of the best parts about it is that ALL of the food was eaten! *Yay* ~ it only took about 15 minutes to throw the dishes in the dishwasher. I think it took Wayne longer to carry out all of the beer & wine bottles to the recycle bin this morning. And to top everything off, Rainbow & Jeff {who is an amazing drummer/musician} brought this wonderful homemade apple pie:

It just don't get anymore *American* than that, complete with a heart in the center! Unless, of course you include this awesome homemade humus from Jerry & Suzanne {Moon Shine Babies}:

Yummy ~ I could have just eaten it with a spoon. And my little turtle from Nick {The Duckpond Pottery} was chock full of flowers & herbs from the garden:

But the cutest thing of all were these precious diaper covers that little Jack {The Duckpond Potter's little baby} was wearing:

Nick & Jen always have little Jack dressed soooo cute. He's always sporting the latest fashions in handmade, mostly organic, clothes, shoes & diapers. They wouldn't hear of putting Pampers on his little butt. After all, remember the saying "Give A Hoot, Don't Pollute" {hee hee}.

Now Nick & Jen's pottery shop is right on the banks of the "French Broad River" and all summer long they host a slew of musicians who happen to be coming through this way, in what's been named "Duck Pond @ Dusk"
The events start up again this Thursday evening with "R.I.S.E. (Rising Appalachia)" – a group of 2 sisters {Chloe & Leah} that are pretty popular and very entertaining. I'll blog more on them after the show.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week so far. Before I go, I just have to share this awesome little yard art/bubble wand mermaid that my sweetest little friend in the whole world, Paula {Purple Bus Studios} made. I think it's just the most clever thing ever. And the world could use more bubbles, after all:

Off to make something new & enjoy the rest of the day ~ Hope you are all having a wonderful Tuesday!!!

Xxoo & peace always ~ Kathy

A "blue" daisy that I found yesterday when we took Ozzy & Lita to "Fawn Lake"

"In this world, artists are joyous. Unpredictability is the life of their paintings, their music, their novels, their creations. They delight in events not forecasted, happenings without explanation, retrospective." – Alan Lightman

Time Flies….

…I can't believe it's already June 1^st! And it has been 4 days since I posted my last blog entry {sorry}. I had a small show @
"Poppies Market" Friday evening and then yesterday there was music there, with food demonstrations and wine tasting {wouldn't miss that for the world}. Our friends Jerry & Suzanne {The Moon Shine Babies} played music, lots of our friends showed up and we had a great time. The fun continues today, as a matter of fact, with acoustical piano music and Fish Taco's! My favorite!!!! If you've never tried Fish Taco's, I encourage the undertaking. Poppies is a gourmet organic & fresh market, so all of the food is just so wonderful, colorful and flavorful:

It's rainy & overcast right now {the perfect lighting for jewelry photography}, so I better get busy and make a few new things for the shop, since this little necklace is starting to get lonely:

The gorgeous glass pendant was made by our good friend Mike Green. His wife, Paula, makes awesome jewelry and wonderful bubble wands. Please do check out her Etsy shop when you get a chance, by clicking right here.

Off to make a few things before it's time to go munch on Fish Taco's! ~ Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!!!

Xxoo & peace always ~ Kathy

Today's "Women's Lip" quote is on politics:

"As far as the men who are running for president are concerned, they aren't even people I would date." – Nora Ephron