I love that picture, schoolhouse!! What a pretty cup and saucer! I hope you've gotten your car back by now and that it wasn't too expensive a fix!

I had lunch with a friend yesterday too. She is the wife of a guy I ride horses with and I have really enjoyed getting to know her. We both love antiques, ceramics and glass. She is semi-retired now and as a "hobby" she makes beautiful floral arrangements in lovely cups for the residents of a local nursing home when it is their birthday.

When I was shopping with her recently, I found a plate, cup and saucer with violets on it. I already have a teapot with violets that my late sister gave me many years ago. So when I found these new pieces, I asked my friend to do a floral arrangement for me. I love how it turned out and when these flowers need to be replaced I will have her do a silk arrangement so I can have it permanently. This is how it turned out.

Eld Tuesday totally escaped me and I am not even sure what I did. Well I do remember a friend dropped by. I passed on a side table to her to see if she could fix and use it. Still trying to send stuff away. Going to get really brutal about it when it warms up and I can work in the garage.

Schoolhouse Lovely cup and some thing I would probably do too with my cup while painting. Living dangerously.

Murrays Mom such a lovely flower arrangement in your violets cup.

I am back to working more on my mosaics while the weather allows me. I figure I missed out of a good two months of my artistic winter due to the abundance of snow. So now is my time to play and I am taking advantage of it.

Snow still deep on the ground but melting. I can see the cars going by the house out front now and my side window. A good thing.Nothing I can do out in the yard but wait for the snow to melt. A little too cold to comfortably work in the garage . Maybe more storms coming but so far they have been just missing us. River was way above flood stage at Weiser and again the car dealership had to move all the cars out and off the lot to higher ground. At this point the river is going back down. Up here as far as I know it did not reach flood stage.

Schoolhouse, I hope by now your car is repaired and you weren't billed excessively.

Murray, that's a nice way to remember your sister.

Shades, i hope the snow will continue to melt without any additional storms.

Tomorrow we might go as high as 63 (I'm in a NYC suburb)

I took pictures for findagrave yesterday. It was really nice considering it was the middle of February!

Today a friend and I went to Waterloo for something to do. Neither of us bought anything, Oh, wait, she bought a t-shirt at the consignment shop. And we ate Chinese. I didn't need supper. We had high hopes for the ReStore there but it didn't have anything we wanted. We're going north next time. Our last 2 trips there were a bust. The resale prices are getting high. I did see a t-shirt I liked at the tack store but it was over $20 and I didn't need it that bad.

A cold front is on the way and rain/snow by the end of the week.

murraysmom, are those flowers real? I have a ceramic basket with a handle that I keep thinking I'm going to plant violas in but I never do it. The center is about the size of a cup cake paper. Maybe a little smaller.

Hi all. I know I haven't been around in such a long time that you've probably forgotten me. Plus, I changed names to further confuse you. lol Thought I'd waste some my carefully saved up data and visit here again. I never thought I could miss unlimited internet so much. I'm about to have some Sleepytme Tea and hope it works. ;)

Marti who is no longer bound for the great state of MO.

good to 'see' you hey barn. you'll need to tell us (some how) why you're no longer bound to MO. is the house off too?

Welcome back!

We knew it was bound to happen. I could get 8.4 or 16.7 or something in between. 5.9 would be plenty. 2.9 would be better yet.

steph, we decided to stay here for several reasons. 1) dh's mother is here and wouldn't make the move easily, 2) my mother is about 7 hours away and not in the best of health. Hard enough to get to her now and even harder if we moved to MO. And she won't move 3) my dd in MO doesn't really like living there, hates her job and is itching to move away from her in-laws.

So we found some land last year and have started building our barndominiium not far from where we used to live. It's near a tiny town and I am comfortable driving to and from it and so far can still see well enough during the day and in light traffic to drive to a larger town for groceries.

Yep, got the car back this mid-morning (Thursday). Total was $1238. I used a $100 Visa Debit card which I had received in Sept. of 2016 from Chevrolet when I bought a set of new tires. Helped a little. I had asked before I drove in if I could use the card, the mistrust in me wondered if they jacked up the price by a $100 after I told them that! lol Oh well, sometimes a person's gotta do what you gotta do.

Beautiful day here today. I needed to relax when I got home so took a quick walk around the property to see what plants were coming up. Lots of crocus blooming now. The cats can't make up their minds if they want inside or outside. I keep jumping up and down to accommodate them. It does look like it will probably rain overnight though.

Later I had a pot of Earl Grey Supreme tea. I had thought about going outside with it somewhere in the sun but didn't.

Looking forward to summer when the table for under the apple tree is brought out. This is from the past, the wonderful Wind Rush yellow rose is gone now.

hey barn - I couldn't remember if the new build was to be in MO or not. maybe dd will move closer to you. it is good to stay near the moms. living by a small town will be great. my small town sort of burst into a bigger one - so sad. I go over there maybe once a week (or 2). Otherwise, I go to W which is in the other direction. can't do both in same day.

I quit driving at night several yrs back. and in rain (usually). no snow here so I don't have to deal with that. I really limit myself.

I went to the store yesterday and stopped at my tire man's place to see about 2 good used ones for the backend. He said they don't get many in that size anymore. newer cars don't use that size now I guess. I'll check with him Sat or 1st of next week. he recommended the guy next to him for my new used car. So, I went to the store and on my way back I swung into the car lot and gave them my 'wants' and price range. I left my name/number with them. I'm not in a big hurry tho. but, that really filled a need for me. A need NOT to have to drive to one of the bigger cities and massive traffic to look for and test drive a car. This guy is right on a road I drive often (or did). these days usually just once a week. And most of the day it isn't high traffic. So test driving a car will be a lot easier for me! And it's just down the road from my mechanic (less than 1/2 a mile), so he can pop down to check out anything that seems to be a 'fit' for me.

I'm recovering from a respiratory crud stuff. been sick with it for 5 or so days. a few days back I went to say something to the dog and some squeaky croak came out. that's better and the throat isn't sore anymore. I'm back on real food now too. but I'm still very tired. I think I took 2 naps today and I'm ready to crash for the night.

Desertsteph, I hope you get to feeling good again very soon. It always surprises me when something hits me like that. And I hope a good car finds its way to you when the time is right.

Imhappy, yes, those are real flowers. When they give up the ghost my friend will replace them with some silk (or just fake) flowers for a permanent arrangement.

Schoolhouse, yikes!! That is a chunk of change and I hope they didn't do something stinky like that to you. I love your picture of the table and chairs. What an inviting place that is!! :)

We had shortsleeves on and windows open yesterday and today it's back to down parkas!! It's flurrying right now. Crazy weather. Spring can't come soon enough.

Our last snow storm included a couple inches of exploded bean bag chair in between a bottom layer of ice and a top layer of snow. And lots of thunder and lightning snow. Weird! I rather liked the 40° we had been having. My snow was gone. Now I have it in abundance again.