Thursday Thanksgiving Portrait

Just another idyllic day in the orchard...

When suddenly......

My gosh, it isn't even safe in your own backyard anymore.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

and do be careful!

71India

PS If anyone has anything negative to say about India and those bombings, I can't hear you! I can't hear you! I can't hear you. Tummmm teee tummmmm.....

Houston, we have a problem....

Yes, that is my oven, in pieces, two days before Thanksgiving.

I don't really like to cook turkey anyway...

(coke box used to protect repairman from greasy buildup...ack!)

72India

Musical Monday on Friday Night

Ok well I have to admit I went looking for the lyrics for this song because I thought they were saying something pretty sexy, in fact, too sexy for it to be playing from my daughters radio in her bedroom! Actually the lyrics are pretty tame, but I wonder if you can figure out what I thought they were saying.... he he!

At any rate, what a cool video by Finger Eleven. Check it out.


Happy Monday, everyone!

73India

Thursday Portrait

Flashback 1996
Seeing Lime's post of her lil kids and herself from a few years back has inspired me to post some old pics for Thursday Portrait myself. Thanks Lime, I am having a brain freeze due to too much cashmere and fleece inhalation.

Some of you already know this, but Little Rita was born 8 weeks early! That is why she looks like a little wood elf or some non human creature up there! When she was born, they told us not to expect her home for 8 weeks. Of course, I was in hell at that thought. Imagine how thrilled we were when the doctor announced that she could come home after 4 weeks. Believe it or not, she is one month old in that picture and barely weighs four pounds!

That picture up there was taken on Thanksgiving 1996. Pretty much 12 years ago exactly. Could I please look that young again?

As you can see, by the time Little Rita was 9 or 10 months old, she was looking like a right plump baby girl! That cat is Buster. He lived to be 17. What an awesome cat.

Ok there you have it, flashback!
Have a wonderful day!
77India

Shop Til You Drop!

So, if you are one of those Christmas shopping types, come on over here, we need to have a little talk. Did you know that there is an online place where you can shop for handmade and totally cool items from all over the world without leaving your computer?

I am talking about ETSY.com. Now think of Etsy like that other place that starts with an E, except that ETSY.com was especially created as a marketplace for artists to sell their stuff online.

Last year I also did a post about ETSY because I think it's really important. You can get everything you need and never have to leave the house. No mall, no parking hassles, no traffic jams, no gas, no lines, no returning stuff, no Walmart greeter. No slave labor, no sweatshops, no plastic junk that's gonna break tomorrow.
Additionally, you are purchasing an item entirely handmade by the artist, and no middleman!
So this year I did some random searches, and you can clearly see, this isn't the toy aisle at Target!
Here are some cool things that I found today:

clancy the little weirdo

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=13023468

Morticia Handspun Wool Haired Bedhead Doll

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17073094

There are tons of handmade jewelry on Etsy but what kind of a friend would I be if I didn't share MY friends jewelry shop. Here is my favourite item from her store!
Chained Amethyst
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15070864

Snowflake Dream Booties
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17415826

Now you have shoemakers, and then you have shoemakers!
Zerkahloostrah custom retro platform pumps

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5102176
..and they have lots of other styles, for men too! They get my vote for the best non factory shoemaker on etsy. (You're not supposed to be a factory on Etsy, as everything is supposed to be handmade, but you wouldn't believe some of the stuff that sneaks by the Etsy team!)

Burnin Love Fire Skirt
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10368374

To heck with JC Penney, eh!

Queen Tiger Maple Pencil Post Bed

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_gallery_21&listing_id=10542956

Now I think you will agree, we can do well without the mall! Head on over to Etsy and spend some money. I promise you the best service, the nicest and most talented people from all over the world, and terrific gift items in everyone's price range.

Last year Lime found some pretty hilarious stuff on Etsy and so I'm sorta hoping she will do her own search again this year and share what she finds. (HINT HINT)

And in case you haven't already figure it out, I have an ETSY shop too!

http://urbanprairiegirl.etsy.com/

Have a lovely day!

80India

55Flash Fiction Friday

"My new shiraz is ready", she cooed, gazing out over her golden vineyards. She watched in delight as her personal vintner poured the burgundy nectar and holding it up to the sunlight, she swirled, then took her first sip.

Suddenly, her eyes grew wide in horror.

"This wine is pure SWILL! Off with your head!"

~

In this 55 I get to pretend that I am some snobby rich wine baroness in the Napa Valley. Actually, I came upon this poster while searching an appropriate background to pose this skirt in front of. I ended up using a beach scene, and my standby checkered background. You can see it over there in my shop sidebar if you wanna------->

By the way, I know nothing about wine, and I don't really care for it either, so this wine poster girl thing is a total fake out.

Hey that gives me an idea, I oughta do a poster for the agriculture that I really love about Northern California....he he....

I wanted to post this because Bryan really oughta make that trip out West to see the home of his favorite cartoonist, and go ice skating at Snoopys with the Ratburns! So there you have it, your very own wine country poster chickie fakeout 55!

Happy Friday to you and be sure to run over and tell the G~man that you played.

8583India

My god, it seems there has been a miscount! 83 days only to go!

Thursday Portrait

Bangalore 2003

Beedi Factory, Mysore 2003

Time for the India countdown.

That's right, I am not going until February this time so I have a little bit of a wait still. But that doesn't mean I am not exciteddddd already!!!!!!!!!! I can barely stand it. Poor Mr Ratburn, the India bug has bitten him as well, leaving him incredibly envious. I really wish he could come with me again, but the $, oy, and then there is Little Rita, still not ready to go to India with us. So where traditionally I would attach my India counter when I have 55 days left, this time I cannot wait. Here we go, the countdown has begun, woo hoo!

86India

Hiya Tex, Where Ya From?

Here it is, the moment all three of you have been waiting for:



Ease up on the linguine!

Have a lovely week!

Musical Monday

I don't care what anybody says, I think Courtney Love was fabulous. I don't know what she's up to now, but I hope it's something good. This from 1999.
Enjoy it.

Doll Parts

Thursday Portrait

What's this?

Royal mail?

Wow! Do you think maybe it's a crown or something? Hey look!

It's t-shirts for Little Rita, Gary and me from my very own pal over at Fortress Guinness !

Thank you, FG, I love it! My favorite color, how did you know? I'll see if I can round up the other two models later on after school!

YYY

JUST DO IT!

I don't wanna hear any excuses. Get off your computer chair and go. It's only 8 am pst, you have plenty of time!

Now I don't wanna influence your vote or anything...but if you want pain, bring on McCain.

I could just roll over and die laughing at that little jerkface. (Don't you just love it when you have your own blog and you can call someone important a jerkface on the internet?)

Over the past few months, I have received lots of polytainment emails and BTW when you start hearing that word around, POLYTAINMENT, remember, you heard it here first. It's my word, I invented it. I have to say the most ridiculous email of all was this letter proposing that Barrack Obama is a terrorist, why, just look at that name AND his running mate, when you put both names together, you get Obama Biden, which sounds a lot like some sleazy little man we've been trying to squelch for years, so therefore you mustn't trust Obama, "they" are going to take over this country! "We can't have black men tellin' us wut to do, mah gawd, them guys wuz slaves when my granpappy wus alive. It'll be uh cold day in hell when ahm gonna lissen to some black guy tellin' me what for."

Now this blog of mine is at the point of 4-5 readers a day. Thankfully, I am pretty sure those faithful readers of mine don't need a lecture, but I am gonna say this to you passers by that need a nudge.

Pull your head out, people!

This political message brought to you by Susiestheboss

**UPDATE****America has spoken. Obama, you're the man. What a fucking miracle!

What Makes You Think An Ant Can't?

I'm out standin' in my field!

Some of you have already seen these pics but Bryan hasn't. This was my 32 pound pumpkin that I grew last year. I was so looking forward to growing an even bigger pumpkin but the gophers won. Next year I am aiming for a 50 pounder, at least!

Oh! Do you wanna know what we did with the pumpkin after we had had it in my bedroom for 8 months? We harnessed it to a rope, Little Rita climbed up into a 40 foot redwood tree, and with a pulley system hoisted the pumpkin up there, and attempted to drop it for the big splatter! But guess what? It got stuck in the limbs of the redwood and so LR had to climb down and shove it off....it landed on the ground with an unsatisfying plunk but remained unbroken. I wish we had gotten pictures, the three of us were in hysterics over the sight of the giant pumpkin wedged 30 feet up in the air in the branches of a tree, that and we had worked so hard to tie this yellow rope around the pumpkin only to have it fail....hilarious!

Finally, Little Rita climbed up into her fort and we handed her the pumpkin which she then shoved over the edge! There we received good splatter! From those seeds we grew this years pumpkins that the gophers ate....sigh....

Have a lovely weekend!

Boooooooooooooo!

We're off to trick or treat!!! See ya later!

Thursday Portrait

I like this picture because I'm just chillin between posing as a fashion model. Yes, you are right, I am getting a little portly. Time to "ease up on the linguine." First one to guess which film that is from wins a prize. No googling IMDB!

I'm having so much fun right now selling lots of clothes. Sometimes I just can't believe it! They like me, they really like me.

PS I know I am a day early but it's just a habit left over from HNT days. I'm heading over to G~mans now because he's got the velveeta!

Have a good day, y'all!

Mispelled Misspelled Words of Wisdom

Little Rita's birthday weekend was a smashing success. She and 7 of her girlfriends hung out over here on Saturday afternoon before being shuttled off to the movies to see Nightmare Before Christmas 3D version. Of course being the kid that I am, I had to go too! Problem is, as some of you know, I am amblyopic. Just means only one eye works. That makes the 3D thing a little odd for me. I had the strangest tugging sensation on my "bad eye" when I put on those glasses as that eye was trying it's dangdest to do the 3D experience.
Needless to say, things were not so 3D for me, but still it was fun sitting one row behind the girls, watching them devour three huge bags of popcorn, two bags of fun size candy bars and various beverages. Do you have any idea the noise that 8 girls can make while busily munching popcorn and unwrapping crackly caramel wrappers?

So that was totally fun, but while we're on the subject of food, let's back up here to the party before the movie. Now being that I have only one kid, and a skinny rail of one at that, I am never quite prepared for the volumes of foods these 12 and 13 year old girls can put away! Before the party the fridge was jampacked with cake, brie, schmears(!), strawberries, chocolate, ice cream, etc....and after, it was like Mother Hubbards cupboard, i'm tellin' you!

Simply amazing.

Little Rita loves her laptop. Now if her not so computer savvy parents can figure out this wifi thing, she'll be online in....well, in....as soon as we can figure it out!

In other news, I had a fun day at the market. Did ok, not fantastic, but good. Mostly it was a beautiful 85 degree day and perfect for hanging out in our town square listening to some really fantastic Ghanan drummers and dancers too. We have a fairly sizable Ghanan community in our town, and they are just such wonderfully lovely people. Many are multi talented dancers, drummers, and basket weavers, and they really liven up our market!

After the market we had our annual meeting. I am the president so I hadda make uh speech! You know, funny thing, when people find out that I am the president of the board of the farmers market, they give me freee tomatoes and stuff. Quite a few people have asked me if I can get them a booth in the market. With a little coaching from Gary, I have learned to smile and say, "I am just an elected official." :P It works. We blame everything on the market manager, and afterall, she gets paid, and she really is the boss, so that's just the way it goes. The rest of us are just elected officials.
So now I have that lovely Monday morning feeling when the kid is at school, the hubby is too, and I am just here, hanging out with the cats. Ahhhhh! Nice. Time to pop open an icey coke and enjoy my space.

And now I will leave you with these misspelled words of wisdom left on a bench near my market booth and brought to you by some local punk rampant. Also notice upside down martian head. Cool.

Wishing you a lovely Monday!

Thursday Portrait

Happy 12th Birthday, Little Rita!

Guess what we got our straight A student for her gift?

Shhh! Don't tell her til after school!

A Family Reunion

So, this weekend the three of us loaded up the car and drove to LA for my parents 50th wedding anniversary party. We were sorta hoping to fly down, but it costs more to fly from SFO to LAX than it did for each of my 15 Canadian cousins to fly down from Ontario! So drive we did. Snnnnorrrrre! Can't someone change the scenery on the 5?

Did you all know that the central valley in California is the breadbasket of the nation? That might not be the official title but it really is. One would think that 500 miles of crops would be a scenic lovely rural thing, well let me tell you, on that scale it's nothing but smelly!
Ok so, let us start the tour with the hotel room. Being the traveling family that we are, Little Rita is completely accustomed to hotel room rituals such as take out pizza eaten from the box while sitting on the sleazy bedspread watching cartoons or whatever else is on TV that prior to the '08 Olympics, we were seriously deprived of. Other rituals include not letting the maid in no matter how messy the room gets, using all the towels and beauty products provided, and jumping on the bed. In these pictures we are passing a football "kitty" and trying to catch it on camera. Took about 50 tries.....After about 20 minutes we heard pounding on the floor/ceiling.....oh, oops! We forgot we were on the 3rd floor!

So then off we went to my moms house where we reunited with relatives and friends of ours that I have known my entire lifetime. I almost don't know what to say. It was so awesome. I saw cousins that I hadn't seen since I was 8 years old, uncles and aunts, friends of my parents that have known me since I was an small child. There were so many people there that I knew, I barely could figure out who I wanted to spend this precious time with.

Ok here we have from Right to Left because it'll be easier that way, my dad, then mom, then LR, Me and Gary above. Right next to Gary is my baby brother, J. Ok then over there on the far left, that is my sister, J, and everyone in the middle is her kids and 2 grandsons. Believe it or not, one son is missing. He's 15, and he was texting! LOL Now I'd say that of the 75ish people that came, about 60 of us were related. I am hoping that one of my cousins will send some more pics my way this week.

What's that up there in the sky, Susan? It's a bird, it's a plane. These are my second parents when I was growing up, and my very best childhood friend, Susan. Yes, we were quite the pair on our street, Susie and Susan. With barefeet and rollerskates we wore a dent in the sidewalk between our two houses. Most weekends and just about every night in the summer, we were never sure which house we would sleep at, but one thing we all knew, was that Susan and I would be spending the night together, listening to music, making jigsaw puzzles, watching all night movies and eating candy.

Susan and Gary chill in the pool room. Eventually, everyone under 30, and some of their cooler parents, ended up having their own good times in the pool hall!

My Canadian cousin, another Susan, who I had not seen since I was 8 and she 6, my mom (a canuck too!) , and my cousin Lynn, also from Canada.

Susan and Susie again. The cousins version this time. Now, I have spent zero time with this woman in my adult life, andyou know what? It's high time I did! My god, my shoulders are fabulous, aren't they? : p

So I will end with this fun picture which is my sister and her 2 daughters, me and my daughter.

I am feeling verklempt. More pictures later, but I just wanna say, that next summer my sister turns 30 (haha!), and all the chicks are meeting in Las Vegas. 25 girl cousins, sisters, hip moms and friends in Las Vegas! No husbands allowed. You know what they say about Vegas...
Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Thursday Portrait

Someones gotta model the fashions!

Have a lovely Thursday!

PS That's not a mustache, it's chocolate.

Mona Monday

Hee hee! I couldnt resist, Monaji!

I will bet that Mona doesn't want to be VP of India even though she can see the Taj from her house!

In other news, had a fantastic weekend at the market. My fleece hoodys are selling very well this time of year, and so that is what I will be sewing this week as I am nearly sold out of them. Not complaining at all!

Sunny and very windy sky sent only one poor vendors canopy flying through the air! Man, I hate when that happens, because a bent by the wind canopy is a $200 disaster. People ran from everywhere trying to grab onto one of the four legs before one of them landed through a car window or someones head! After watching that disaster, this week I will be making some new sandbags.

All is well on the home front. Little Rita seems to have calmed down a bit. I suppose this is going to be a monthly mood swing freakout thing.....suppose? Know. We are women.

Have a lovely week!

One

Sometimes you run across a really good sounding thing on 'tube. This is one of my all time favourite tunes. I hope you will enjoy it.
REM & U2 live
ONE

And in other very important factual news:

Now darn it, Jooe, there you go again! If you'd like yer own button:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vt_related_2&listing_id=15861456

Have a lovely weekend!