Thursday Portrait

Many of you have already seen this photo that Mr Ratburn took in our orchard. The skirt is one of my best selling items in my Etsy shop. It is fun to make, thankfully!
One of my favorite ETSY fine artists asked me if she could paint this picture and of course I said yes, and here it is! (click to biggen)

Summer Smiles by AlisaPaints.etsy.com

Didn't it just come out lovely? Alisa wanted to brighten up the apple trees because they were bare when the photo was shot and looked sort of Halloween hauntish, so she added the blossoms which I think look really wonderful.
So if you click on this link, you will get to Alisa's blog which is fun because you can see many of her works in progress, as well as finished artwork. But for serious purchase, you should check out her ETSY shop, which I have generously linked in this posting.
And here are some more of her original paintings and prints.

A Gift From The Sea


Shine

Stargazer


Sunbather

Artist retains all copyrights to above images. click all to biggen.

You all have heard me promoting ETSY before, and that's because for gifting, for clothing, for housewares, for soaps and lotions and many other wonderful things, you do not ever need to go to the mall again! Enough said.

Have a lovely day!

Cat On A Hot Tinum, Rubber or erm, Vinyl Roof

Uh oh!

Well perhaps, I'll just enjoy the sunset until I can figure out how to get down....sigh...

Happy Tuesday to you all. I know I'm not much of a blogger lately. I just don't have much to report. Sewing, cleaning, and all that end of the year stuff. Seems like every day there's another permission slip to be signed and returned to school with a check attached, a costume to make, a dessert to bake, a plane ticket to buy, a dress to sew, a bathroom to clean, an empty refridgerator needing to be filled, a cat to deskunk, a car to debird poop! I'm telling you, I'm working my arse off around here!
Much to the unhappiness of my two other family members, today, Memorial Day, was a day set aside to remember the piles of junk that have been accumulating in the corners of our house, especially in the salon de Little Rita. You know, that is the problem with a small house, stuff just gets pushed into the corners because there is nowhere else to put it, and before you know it, you've got stuff lined up three layers thick along the walls. So it's 5 pm and we have just finished the cleaning! Argh!
At least we have our lovely washer and dryer and I am happy to report, that is working out swell! It is so awesome to spill spaghetti sauce on your pants and be able to just walk out back to the "laundry camp" and wash those pants before the stain sets! Not to mention, we have been cleaning out our clothing because now that we have that washer and dryer we don't need to have so many clothes. I am loving it! Now, I have noticed that white stuff doesn't get as clean here as in the laundromat in town, probably due to the lack of chlorine in our water and goodness knows whats in the bottom of that two story well anyway! (dirt?)
Other than that, all is well, there are less than three weeks of school left and soon my peace and quiet will be gone for a couple of months. You know, I am totally fine with that as long as I don't have to clean up my sewing projects just because other people are here. I have to have all my stuff out to be inspired. In fact, I just tossed out the massive yellow DHL box that has lived in the kitchen since my last India trip. I finally used enough of the fabrics to get rid of that box.
I hope you are all well. I miss the old blogging days of 35 comments, and lots of people to catch up on their news, but the trade off is, I have money now, and that is important, and that takes time, time that I had to trade off from blogging. Oh well, it will just give me more money to travel the world and perhaps one day meet some of you.
BTW, I've just been reading over my blog and realized I've forgotten to tell you: The tickets to India are bought and paid for, madam! December 26th-January 18th, Keri and Susie, Saath (7th) year India tour!

Have a lovely week!

Thursday Portrait

Hi!

Mr Ratburn and I took this in one shot. We figured with that kind of luck, why try harder?

Have a happy Thursday!

Oh Lookit Here, Monday Again.

This morning I had this for breakfast.

And I am working on 3 of this.

And I am listening to this.
And the weather is like this!

Have A Happy Monday!

A Little D For Your Thursday

Watched a Tenacious D video last night. Got Jack Black on the brain!

Have a Good Day!

Interesting facts about the birthday boy:

1. Mr Ratburn was born in Yonkers, NY

2. He in fact is a teacher.

3. He loves beer.

4. Mr Ratburn has two younger sisters who he was mean to when they were younger. He has since made amends.

5. He is a good jewish boy! Oy!

6. Mr Ratburn is buying a kayak this summer.

7. Mr Ratburn had never been out of North America until 2007 when he came to India with me.

8. Mr Ratburn loves coffee.

9. He is 6' tall.

10. When he was in his 20's, he had flaming red shoulder length curly Shirley Temple hair! Well, it looked a lot more like a lion's mane to me.

11. He met his wife, aka Susiestheboss, at a Grateful Dead show in 1984.

12. As tokens of baksheesh, he is owns a sitar, tablas, a soorangi, and a mandolin that I brought back for him from India. He also has an awesome classical guitar which I bought him for his birthday about 20 years ago, and a bass guitar that a friend gave him.

Happy Birthday, Mr Ratburn!

It's Monday I Guess I should Post Something.

The Stalker by www. AlisaPaints.etsy.com

Ok It's Monday. Cool. Now what?

I have to take my car in to get looked at because it's acting up. It's a Ford, whaddya want? I have to make two pair of pants, and mail two packages. I need to take a hot shower because it's cold in here.

Yesterday was a fun but sneezy day. I actually got to sleep til 8:30 because Mr Ratburn got up at 7:45 to run out and buy me some roses. He is such a snorer that I cannot sleep in on weekends. And Saturday morning, it was the neighbors two stupid little excuses for dogs barking at 6:30 am, then the tractors in the orchard that start at 7 am, and the snoring too. My absolute favorite thing is when Mr. R rolls over and puts his face right next to my ear and then begins sawing off Z's. Argh!

Ok so after we lazed around the house yesterday, we decided to drag Mr R to the mall. He hates that stuff. So we sent him off to the bookstore while we shopped. Now, our mall has two types of clothing stores. First, we have the ones that play really loud horribly foul dance music and the manager is 21 with about a pound of makeup on her face. Those stores sell lots of hootchy mama clothes like gold lame leggings, 8" long skirts, and t shirts that say stuff like, "I put out." and "bitch". Nice.

The other type of stores are the ones where a t shirt costs 45.00 and the entire place smells like Polo. Everything is white and blue striped, with a white collar.

Shopping for a kid that wears a size 00 and is too tall and too old for kids clothes is also a challenge. Besides, LR isn't interested in hootchy mama clothes, (thank you, thank you!).

Now let me ask you this. What is the deal with those foam rubber things they put in the boobs of all the sundresses, tank tops and bathing suits these days? Are we trying to make our boobs look larger, or hide the nipples, or what? I am not sure what the plan is there, but those rubber things look completely stupid, and fake, and the first thing I would do if I bought any of those lame clothes would be to yank out the rubber boob things. That's gotta be the lamest idea I have seen in clothing in years, but if any of you object, please, tell me why they are a good thing.

The other hilarious finding in clothing these days is that to combat the super low 1" zippered pants, we now have tank tops and t shirts that are 2 feet long. Only a size 00 stick figure like LR can pull off that look. Anyone else would end up looking like a muffin in a sock. Apparently this style is the solution to hiding butt cracks that show in the 1" zippered pants. Why don't they just bring those pants back up a bit higher like they used to be?

Here's the other thing about malls that I have noticed. Walking along, I saw that one out of every 6 stores was out of business. There is even one empty "anchor" store if you can believe that. It's starting to look like a ghost town in there. We have two malls in that city over there which isn't mine. (my town has No mall, No Costco, No Walmart, No Target, No Food Max, None of that, thank you very much!) Both malls have lots of empty stores. Why they don't just shut down one mall completely and combine the two is beyond me. Seems like a rather obvious solution. I guess the city planners are much too busy with other stuff like golfing to figure this out.

Anyway, LR did manage to find 4 tops, yes, two were striped, and two were 2 feet long, but none said "bitch" or "I put out", thank goodness!

After that we went out for Indian food at our favorite place. It was a spontaneous move and quite yummy I might add! We had tandoori chicken, saag paneer, naan, and rice. YUM!

After that we went over to a local park with our bag of stale bread to feed the ducks. We walked around the lake, me sneezing the entire time, but still it was sunny, warm and very nice. We got to see some really cute yellow baby geese, and scale a climbing wall. Then I just couldn't take anymore of mother nature so we came back home. It was a fun Mother's Day. I hope you had fun too!

Why I haven't invested in stock in Kleenex, I will never know. Achoo!

Today I am anxiously awaiting a call from my travel agent. I need my India ticket, now! And, K is coming with me for sure. You know I am excited!

Have a lovely Monday!

Thursday Portrait

Me and my martian which I purchased at the exploded heart music center in Seattle in April 2007.

Ok so it looks like I have a traveling partner for India this year, and I am completely stoked!

We are currently in planning mode and because we live 1000 miles apart, but want to fly to India together, are requiring some help from a travel agent. This is my very good pal whom I have known for 23 years. In fact, LR stayed with K and her family when Gary and I went to India in 2007.

And some of you might remember this HNT from a couple of years ago. This is K and I at a Grateful Dead show in, like, 1987 I'm guessing. I'm not gonna tell you what's in those balloons if'n ya don't already know, but I will tell you this, it made us reallllllyyyy smalllll! :P
Whoa! I gotta lay off these balloons!

So, yeah, looks like we will be purchasing some tickets within the next week or so, and I am completely excited to be bringing yet another very close pal with me to share India.
In other news, it has been raining for a week. Totally weird weather for Northern California in May, but we do need the rain so what the heck. Both of my markets were rained out last weekend and that sucked, but whatcha gonna do?
Then yesterday our water pump blew out on our well so I could really use a shower about now. We are currently waiting for a new pump to be installed. Thankfully, I am a renter so I don't have to use any of my India funds to pay for the pump!
There are just about 4 weeks of school left and then this house will be bursting at the seams with Mr Ratburn, Little Rita and her pals who like to hang out here because LR's mom is cool and makes a mean mac n cheese. (Just kidding about that, I just make the box kind. Teenage girls tend to eat you out of house and home though so I'd better stock up on some snacks asap.)
And Mr Ratburns birthday is coming up, so I will show you what I got him if you don't tell.
If you are reading this Mr R, dont you dare click on this link!
Other than that, my online store is doing swell, and my market store will do swell as soon as this rain stops.
And one more thing, I just wanna say that Facebook is totally boring compared to the creativity allowed in blogging, even if I am down to three readers or less, and I am not about to become a twitterer because I don't text. Such a tremendous waste of time, I hate to read about those poor parents getting texting bills in the thousands of dollars. LR is never going to do that as long as I am paying the phone bills, and it just makes me ill to think about the amount of time spent texting when kids ought to be doing homework, or playing outside, even!

All is well in No Cal, hope you all are too!
Have a lovely day!

Musical Monday

I'm making some stuff today. Here is what I'm listening to.

I hope you're having a good day!

55Flash Fiction Friday

Fender Bender

"Honest officer, I didn't hit her, she was way out in front of me.
I um, think she slammed into reverse, that's when she lightly bumped my fender.
Oh no, I wasn't drinking, hiccup!"
"But what about this license plate mark?"
"Oh that's nothing! My car has always wanted a tattoo on her front bumper!"
~
Fiction of course! No, I wasn't drinking, and no she didn't slam into reverse. Of course I feel like a total heel causing a fender bender, but I have to laugh at the way her license plate number tattooed itself onto my bumper. Thankfully, I didn't hurt the poor old lady, or I'd really feel bad. Bad enough, they had just gotten the car a few months ago. ARGH! Yesterday was not a good day for me at all. Thank goodness I have excellent insurance and I am was a practically perfect driver.
I sure hope today goes better.

Happy Friday!
Now get over and tell Gman that you played.