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Everything Southern & So Cotton Pickin Cute

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Biggest Basket Full of Christmas Giveaway

Don't y'all know I'd like to take credit for this one.  I'm ashamed to say I don't even have a giveaway planned yet and Christmas is getting so close.  Can you believe today is the last day of November.  Where did it go?

Anyway to let  you know more about what you popped in for.  I just visited a friend who had a post on this fantastic giveaway and after I went to check it out I knew you'd wanna hear about it too.  Cindy at Thimbleprims Studio is giving away this huge basket of goodies.  How can you girls afford to ship all the HEAVY prizes?  Does someone know something that I don't about USPS or UPS?  Not much time left so click here and enter for yourself.

And if any of my readers friends wins something I've told you about I love to hear from you, so come on back and share!  Also let me know do y'all like reading about these giveaway opportunities?  Let me know if you do so I keep posting them.

Have a wonderful day Y'all.  Hugs...Tracy :)

Monday, November 29, 2010

A Charming Swap Indeed

Hi Y'all.  There are so many things to catch up on lately.  I've been doing lots of reorganizing and then going back to bed sick, then more of the organizing,  back to bed sick, so on and so forth.  But I have managed to get a few swaps in between all that.  And now I'm finally finding time to post some.

Sarah @ Gypsy Mermaid decided to have a charm swap.  I thought well that sounds easy peasy and fun too, so sign me up.  Boy was I wrong....about the easy part not the fun part.  I was going to soldier up some charms.  I went out and bought the glass slides, the soldiering tool, tape and flux.  Yep, check, I'm ready.  HA!!!  What do you have to do practice with these thing for 6 months after going to school for it.  Well after several hours for 2-3 days and a couple of burns, I was done.  DONE, do you hear me?!  Well maybe one day I'll take a class and then someone can show me what I'm doin'.  It just looked so darn easy.

One idea down and nothing new popping in my head.  Finally I decided to go with little metal disks and scrapbooking paper glued to the back.  I then added little crystals and filled with a glazing liquid.  On the back I glued a little circle of velvet scrap paper.  I also had some little wooden bunny shapes which I drilled a hole in.  Then I painted them and added polka dots and a bow.

The easy part was making the packaging.  I actually did that before I made the charms.  I made little matchbooks out of card stock.  The outside was covered with decorative paper, the inside was covered in a thin cheesecloth like muslin and I unraveled the edges.  I stamped the outside and inside.  Stapled the bottom, added a touch of ribbon  and punched holes at the top for more ribbon to hang the charms.  Added my little cards and was done.  At least that plan worked.

Sarah made cute birds with the alphabet to coordinate with a list of who made which charms.  That was a smart idea and cute.  Then she sewed little bags tied with ribbon to hold them all.

Thanks Sarah for hosting such a fun Swap and making me work my brain.

Not only did we get one of each charms but we also had a special swap partner that we made fabric hearts with to swap.  Jodie @ Everything Vintage, who is so creative, was my swap partner. And she sent me the most beautiful heart.  Isn't the heart she made above just swoony gorgeous!!!  I love it and am so proud to call it mine.  Thank you Jodie for taking so much time to make such a beautiful heart.
The heart above is the one that I made for Jodie.  I really hope she liked it.  It can't compare to hers.

Thanks to all the wonderful girls who made this so much fun.  I love all the charms and all the individualism.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

I Was a Pairre Flower Farm Winner

I won Linda's giveaway at Prairie Flower Farm!   Her cookie won 2nd place in Create and Decorate Magazines Holiday Cookie Contest!  Linda  is featured in the August 2011, Holiday Issue 2011 and December 2011 Issue. How exciting is that!!!  And since I was one of two winners she chose I received one of  her delicious snowman cookies (just like the top photo).  Oh' it was so hard to eat because it's just too darn cute, but eat it I did and it was delicious. YUM!  I also received a copy of the Create and Decorate Magazine that she was feature in (pictured above).

Linda also asked her readers to contribute recipes for the Prairie Flower Farm Cookie Cookbook she's creating.  I can't wait for that.

And if you've never visited her shop Peace Creek Collections
you really should stop by and see just how beautiful her creations are.  And you'll love visiting her blog Prairie Flower Farm.   You'll feel happier every time you visit her.

Wow I Won Wendy's Carmex Giveaway

 I knew I won this a week or so ago but I usually wait to post when I receive the prize so I can tell you a little about it.  And I'm glad I waited.  This is awesome.  Wendy over at Ramblings From the Sunshine State  who I hope to meet one day since we're in the same general area of Florida and I feel like I've know her forever just from blogland, hosted this giveaway from Carmex  which I blogged about earlier.    I never even knew that Carmex had hand creams until now.  I love Carmex lip products. We've used it in my family for years.  It works great for cold sores, fever blisters and chapped lips.  I love fresh cool feel of the Menthol and Camphor.  It's thick with Cocoa Butter and stays put on your lips.  I still have a ceramic jar of it and it still smells fresh.

Well now they have a whole wonderful line of lip products, healing lotions and creams.  And they all came in a wonderful toiletry bag in the giveaway.  Thanks to Wendy and Carmex , I'm ready for winter.

Wendy's is mother to 3 young children  and always creates the best birthday parties for them.  She also has a Etsy shop called Blake's Crayons.  She makes the cutest crayon shapes.  Just click on her banner below to stop by and see for yourself.

 Y'all have a blessed day now....Hugs, Tracy :)

A Scrapbookers Delight Giveaway

Pieces of Fate is having a huge (I'm not kidding) giveaway.  Susan is a lover of scrapbooking and anyone who likes paper crafts will not want to miss this one. I'd  like to tell you more about Susan but I'm new to her blog and haven't had the chance to get to know her.  But from the looks of her giveaway she is a very generous soul who likes paper crafting, mixed media art.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving is Where Your Heart and Mind Meet

Hi Y'all.  The only thing that would make this photo any better is to have it filled with family and friends.

We're not having a traditional Thanksgiving this year but we have so much to be Thankful for.
Neil's mother is doing better and is in Life Care Center.  Neil is almost well from a terrible stomach virus which means he will finally get to go visit his mother for Thanksgiving after a week of not seeing her.  My cold is clearing up and all my family seem to be healthy.

I will miss my son and grandchildren who live in NY., my sister and her family who live in Ft. Worth and my niece and her children and my nephew who live in Atlanta.

But Neil and I are Thankful to be having peace with a kindness of spirit in our home.  We're surrounded by fur babies and I have the most wonderful blog friends ever.  So even though it will be a very quiet Thanksgiving it will be a reflective one where we will relax, rest and count our blessings

I wish each and everyone of you a day filled with the warmth and love of family and friends.  I hope laughter rings throughout your homes.  This is a beautiful time for reflecting on the memories of years past while making new ones that will last forever.

Much love and many warm hearty hugs!!!!  Tracy :)

Thursday, November 18, 2010

I've Got Nothing

Except God....
what more do I need?

Well, this title is a little misleading.  When I decided to post tonight my first thought was I've got nothing.  Nothing to say that is.  Then I realized how shallow that sounded.  It wasn't meant to sound like it does.  I only meant to say that I know y'all haven't heard much from me for the past 3 weeks except begging for prayers and telling you of our troubles.  I so want something positive to say.  But honestly I just don't have the energy.

Then I decided the best thing I could do is look for scripture to share.  Well by the time I finished sharing I realized just how empty and unappreciative that title sounded.  I was prepared to change it, but in the end I think this is the message to me, that the Lord had planned for me all alone.

Trust Him in the Dark
 (Author: A.W. Tozer, from NIV Seniors Devotional Bible)
(Verse:  Proverbs 3:5 ~ Passage: Proverbs 3:1-10)

God constantly encourages us to trust him in the dark. "I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name" (Isaiah 45:3).

It is heartening to learn how many of God's mighty deeds were done in secret, away from the prying eyes of men or angels.  When God created the heavens and the earth, darkness was upon the face of the deep.  When the eternal Son became flesh, he was carried for a time in the darkness of the sweet virgin's womb.  When he died for the life of the world, it was in the darkness, seen by no one at the last.  When arose from the dead, it was "very early in the morning" (Luke 24:1).  No one saw him rise.  It is as if God were saying, "What I am is  all peace.  I will do what I will do, and it will all come to light at last, but how I do it is my secret.  Trust me, and be not afraid."

With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack?  Surely we are the most favored of all his creatures.

Neils Moms Dr. came in last night and spoke with us.  He tried to tell Neil the time for heroics has passed, that this is the progression of the end of her life.  They decided it was time to discharge her from the hospital to the rehab/senior center.  She has a peg in, for her to receive nourishment.  She is sleeping almost around the clock.  Neil wants her to stay in the hospital until she's better.  Which no one except Neil believes will happen.  This is so painful for him.  The Dr. told him that if he has a half hour of lucid time to be grateful for that.  He told us that he would like to contact Hospice and have them speak to us.  Bless his heart it just about killed him to hear that.  I thought he was beginning to accept things but I was wrong.  I know that God has a plan and her being away from home for the last three weeks is all apart of it.  To help him possibly separate and learn to accept.  Does that sound cruel?  I don't mean to sound callous because actually this is breaking my heart.  I hate not being able to fix things and to comfort him.
They did transport her to the Life Center today.  I didn't go today because I'm getting sick and we don't want to compromise her health.  Neil stayed with her until they moved her and then followed them over.  She continued to sleep through it all.  The people at life center told him they can't force her to participate in rehab but she has to make progress to be able to continue to stay there.

Neil came home still a wreck, still crying, although he tries not to show it.  He says he thinks he is getting the flu.  He stomach is terribly upset.  I believes he's so worn out that his immune system is down and he probably has caught a bug and you all know what nerves can do to your stomach.  What a bad combination.  Now he's really worried.  Who's going to go over there and try to get her up (in other words, try to make her live).  He's sorta feeling that the Drs., myself and his neices (who aren't really in the picture) have just given up on her and he doesn't think she's ready.  How do I work with that?  What do I do, how do I comfort someone who's not ready to let go?  So now we're both sick and no good to anyone.  I pray that God uses me and that I open my eyes if I'm looking at this all wrong.  Well thank you all for listening.

Maybe the title should be changed from Except God to ACCEPT GOD!
Love and Hugs...Tracy

I feel too sick and am too tired to proof, please excuse my bad grammar and spelling.  I do know the difference between there, their and they're or  dear and deer but when I get going I sometimes miss what I've done until I reread it.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

I've Won So Many Wonderful Prizes Lately

Wow.  I seem to have been so lucky the last month as prizes are concerned.  I've also been hugely blessed with so many old and new friends being comforting and supporting for me as well as my Mother-in-law Nadine and Neil.

I prefer to list giveaway wins in individual post but I am so far behind and rather than overwhelm my readers who I choose to refer to as friends, I thought I would post them all together.  I really hope y'all stop by and visit these wonderful giveaway sponsors because each of their blogs are wonderful and have so much to offer.  Who knows you may make a few new friends too.

First win
is from Jeannie at Nonnas ScrapsShe participated as a host in the Halloween Blog Hop.  She made the cutest tee with her cricut.  *I want one so bad!!!

She's the nicest thing too.  Look at the cute card she sent.  Love it.   She also sent me a package of Fabric Transfer, which one of us can't use that?  I really want to use it on some pillows and aprons.  And she even added some bling with rhinestones and ribbon.  I got so excited that I put it all away before taking a photo.  I love winning or being gifted with craft items.  Makes me just want to get busy.  Thank you Jeannie!!!  Her blog is friendly and sweet and all warm and cozy for Thanksgiving so stop in and visit.

Second Win

is from Hope at Pixie Ponderings. Hope describes herself as a artist and a stay at home mom transplanted from the wilds of Northwest Arkansas to rural Lincolnshire in Eastern England. That's quite a big change if you asked me. Well Hope had a giveaway just because.  I like those. I was the lucky "just because" winner and won one of her own handcrafted creations.  It actually seems perfect for this Florida girl.  It also makes me think of my very first blog swap which was with  Sarah of  The Gypsy Mermaid.  Sorry Sarah this one's mine.  Hee-hee.  You're going to like Pixie too.  She's been so sweet just popping in and leaving up lifting comments for me to get through this tough time.  Boy don't comments from thoughtful people just make everything better.  Thank you hope!

Third Win
This win is from Kathryn @ Creations With Kathryn.  She sent me a terrific box full of crafty goodness, much more than I expected.  It was much more than I expected.  I'm thrilled to finally have my own copic markers, she sent me "6"!!!  Tons of wonderful scrapbooking  papers and pages.  Lots with 2 sides.  Oh' am I gonna have fun with all this.  There was even a pumpkin punch and lots of stickers, transfers and embellishments.  You'll want to go by and visit Kathryn and see her beautiful creations.

Fourth Win
 Here's a win that I not only could use but need to use.  Stacy @ Survey Junkie had a huge giveaway going on with lots of prizes and I won a bottle of New Cystex® Liquid Cranberry Complex with Proantinox®!
And let me tell you why I was so happy to win.  By now I'm sure you know that my MIL was admitted to the hospital for acute UTI infection.  They are extremely hard on older people.  They don't even have any symptoms or at least they don't seem to recognize them.  It can be pretty serious and even cause hallucinations as they did in the case of my MIL.  It's hard for me to image them not being able to know they got an infection because I have had 2 this year and I panic at the first signs of them.  As soon as I know it's coming (blame it on my coca-cola and lack of water) I hurry to the store and buy the Cystex tablets.  They are better than the cranberry tablets and really work great.  When you get an infection you are supposed to start drinking cranberry juice immediately to help.  I hate cranberry juice and just can't do it.   But check out this new product Cystex has come up with, the New Cystex® Liquid Cranberry Complex with Proantinox®.

Cystex is the trusted urinary health brand that has helped millions of women manage the pain and discomfort of urinary tract infections. While anyone at any age can get a UTI, women are more prone to them ( 60% of women will experience a UTI ) and of those women who experience this infection, 40% will have another.. Millions of women will have multiple infections.
Those most prone to recurring UTIs now have a great, new option to help with infection prevention and boosting urinary tract health* without needing to drink all that cranberry juice!

Safe and effective, and clinically-proven to help prevent urinary tract infections from recurring. New Cystex® Liquid Cranberry Complex with Proantinox® provides powerful urinary tract protection in just one tablespoon daily - more than cranberry pills or cranberry juice! This pleasant-tasting, unique blend is more than just cranberry concentrate - its proprietary formula also contains D-Mannose, inulin, bromelain and vitamin C - a combination designed to boost bladder health. Cystex Liquid Cranberry Complex with Proantinox also has a higher absorption rate than cranberry tablets, provides 17 times more proanthocyanidins (PACS)¹, is lactose-, gluten- and sugar-free, and is just one calorie per tablespoon.

$9.99 1 tbsp = 8 glasses of cranberry juice

Fifth Win

Elizabeth at Deal Friends is sending me the new Trivial Prusuit Steal card game.  I haven't received it yet but can't wait.  I know we're going to have a ball playing this.  I was going to send this to my sons family as one of their Christmas gifts but it may be to old for the grandchildren and I would love to have it so we'll see.  Thanks Elizabeth for hosting such a fun giveaway!  She has a blog with all the latest giveaways so be sure to visit Elizabeth and tell her I said hi.

Sixth Win
Sweet Doni @ Faith, Grace, and Crafts had a giveaway celebrating her 100th post and yippee for me, I won!  I love all the vintage goodness that she put together.
Isn't that flower box gorgeous?  I've been so in love with Aqua or green/blue color this year.  There were all so 5 different size crystals from an old chandelier, a vintage makeup box and a vintage powder box.  Got to love all that.  What about that beautiful fall themed handkerchief?  Don't you just love the china plate with the transferred cross-stitched flowers? And what about the lovely lace doilies she's included too. There's a precious collection of gentile vintage postcards.  Lots of the cutest little glass bottles with stoppers, perfect for making jewelry.  And she even included the pretties pink rocks I've ever seen.  Pop over to Faith, Grace & Crafts and get acquainted with Doni and sure you'll feel welcomed as soon as you get there.

7th Win
Kodak Gallery Halloween Book

This is the first time I've ever entered a 48 hour giveaway.  You can't imagine my surprise when Blueviolet @ A Nut in a Nutshell, contacted me saying that I won.  Yep, I was one of the 2 winners.  What a wonderful prize.  I haven't received it yet and it will be to late to have the Halloween book made but it would be great to have a Thanksgiving or Christmas book made.  What a great treasure to keep.  I'd love to have one made for all the big celebrations or holidays in our lives.  Thanks Blueviolet for such a wonderful keepsake gift!   A Nut in a Nutshell is a great blog with  lots of giveaways and reviews.  And she's another thoughtful blogger.

Can you believe it?  What a wonderful month of giveaways.  It's been so rough here lately and these were certainly bright spots in my day.  Thanks to all the wonderful bloggers who host these fun giveaways and to all the fine companies that sponsor them.  It's not only the wonderful prizes but all the new bloggers I meet and get to know.

Have you won something lately?  I'd love to hear about it.  Please leave a comment and lets us all know.

Hugs and Happy Hump Day....Tracy :)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

And the Winner of The Bisquick Gluten Free Giveaway Package Is.....

I was thrilled to review my Bisquick Gluten Free package and  I'm so happy to be able to give away one too.  So on to the lucky new winner.

The winner is...................................
Cindy @ Get Along Home

Congratulations Cindy!  Please email me your address as soon as you can.   Thank everyone for entering and all the great comments.  I'll be having another giveaway before you know it so don't stay away.

Hugs....Tracy :)

Christmas came early - I won a Bed Head Wave Artist

I Won the Bead Head Wave Artist Win from Jennifer at The Dirty Shirt
The Bed Head Wave Artist Tourmaline Ceramic Deep Waver has a unique barrel design that creates deep, sculpted waves and provides a unique, effortless wavy look.
  • Tourmaline Ceramic coated barrel provides gentle heat for frizz-free, shiny waves with less hair damage
  • High heat and fast heat recovery make styling quick and easy
  • Barrel Locking Switch for easy storage
  • Multiple heat settings for customized styling
What a great win.  I want to thank Jennifer at The Dirty T Shirt, who always has fantastic giveaways for giving me the opportunity to enter and win this waver.  I'm looking forward to experimenting with this when things calm down.  With my long, very straight hair, it's going to be so fun to do something different.  And what a quick way to get a new look that isn't permanent.  This really does heat up so fast!

Also thank you Jennifer for being so patient with all that's going on I haven't been able to post this win until now.  I actually won it on Oct. 10th and I normally wait until I receive prize before posting anyway but geeze   I'm late on this one.

I have more wins to post soon.  Now I need to get busy finding some good giveaways that I can host for all of y'all!

Hugs and blessings y'all......Tracy :)

P.S.  Update on MIL ~ they didn't perform the procedure for the stomach feeding pick today but will tomorrow.  Thank you all again for your kind words and loving prayers.

Monday, November 15, 2010

My Bisquick Gluten Free Giveaway Prize Pack Ending Tonight

Quick reminder y'all......
The Bisquick Gluten Free Prize Pack Giveaway has been extended and will end tonight, Monday November 15th at midnight.  I've been so busy I didn't have even think about reminding y'all sooner so I'm adding an extra day.
I hope you'll take a minute and click here to enter if you haven't already.

Have a great week y'all!!!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Restful & Peaceful Sundays

It's seems I have a dozen things to post about.  It seems like everything is so out of wack.  But........Today, today was peaceful..... Peaceful and Relaxed at least as much as it can be.  I love the photo above.  I think I'll go to sleep tonight thinking of me as that model, well a girl can dream, can't she?  I'll dream that I'm so perfectly relaxed (while looking perfectly put together).  Oh heck, I'll dream that I'm an all American beauty too while I'm at it.  Don't pictures make everything look perfect?

A little update on my MIL Nadine.  Each and every day is different.  One day we come home with Neil saying she's going to lay right there and die.  We can't get her to open her eyes or speak and if she does they close back so fast.  Then all of a sudden the next day you think she's turned the bend and is going to start recovering only to go through the previous process the next day.   They finally put a feeding tube for meds and liquid food in her nose.  Unfortunately she wakes up and tries to remove it.  She has had an around the clock sitter for the last 5 days.  Tomorrow they are going to put a feeding peg in her stomach instead.  When she talks now we can barely understand a word.  I really don't know what to expect day to day.  So I just keep praying for the Lord's will.  I pray for her comfort and for the Lords support and comfort for all of us.

Back to today........
It really was a restful and peaceful day for Neil and I.  His mother didn't sleep at all the night before and was finally resting good so we came home and spent the day together.  We caught up on a lot of little tasks around the house.  The pressure felt like it was gone and Neil and I felt closer than ever it seems, even if it was just a little while it was really nice.  Just when I thought that I couldn't take the pressure anymore and was willing to give, the results of all the prayers that have been held up in my name by my friends here have been heard.  Just a few weeks ago I was in the hospital afraid I was having a heart attack.  Three days later my MIL was taken to the hospital.  But now the Lord has stepped in and somehow worked his miracles and given me relief.  Hearts seemed to have changed and even with all the upheavals my home seems to feel better, kinder and filled with the spirit of kindness again.  And I can breath again!!!  Yes I'm still, tired, still worried and don't know what tomorrow might bring but there is peace.  Thank all of you for being prayer warriors with me.  Thank you for praying for the pain in my home and in our hearts.

I hope to find time to actually share some of the things I've been lucky enough to win lately.  I really hate it, that the wonderful friends that had these giveaways, that I am SO EXCITED to have won might think that I don't appreciate it.  I really do so I promise to get to those soon.  I also was thrilled to participate in another of Elizabeth's swaps over at Bluebird Creations. I had a hard time getting them done with all that was going on but mine were finally mailed.  Now I need to get started on the Christmas tag swap so I am not late!

I've got tons of post in my head and lots of projects started.  I've got one or two that was actually finished.  Now I need to find time to spend blogging again.

Well tomorrow I'm off to the vet.  We have one more family member sick now ~ buger our cat has a UTI problem too (MIL has an acute UTI).  So hopefully we can get this taken care of for both of them.

I hope all of you had a blessed and wonderful weekend friends.
Love and tons of gratitude straight from my heart....Tracy

Friday, November 12, 2010

Please Pray for Dan and Kate!!!!

I just found out my dear friend Kate's husband Dan is in the hospital.  If you don't already know Kate you is just the sweetest person from MN.  She and her family have a strong faith in God and are just overall amazing people.  Please take a moment to go by Kate at Auntie Cake's and leave them a kind word and say a prayer.  Dan has been having some problems passing out and they were doing test to find the cause.  His heart stopped for 4 mins.  They have since put in a pacemaker and are still searching for an answer to the real cause of the problems.

You have all been so good to me and my family while we are still dealing with our issues as MIL is still hospitalized.  Please take a moment to share that love and support with Kate.  I'm sure she needs all the good wishes and prayers to keep her strong.

Much love to you all....Tracy :)

Sunday, November 7, 2010

still at hospital with family

So many of you have prayed for us and kept us in your thoughts, I wish there was a way to really show each of you how much my heart feels. I don't know what I would have done these past few weeks without the love you've expessed. I feel so bad that I haven't gotten a chance to contact each one of you yet. And there's even new followers leaving the kindest comments. Please don't think I take them for granted. They have brought so much comfort to Neil as well.

Today has not been a great day. They gave her a blood transfusion a couple of nights ago. She is still battling a had urinary track infection and pneumonia. The antibiotics weren't working and they've changed those. She is still not eating or drinking and they may have to go another route tomorrow. She is delirious most of the time and hardly wakes up.

Please continue to keep Neil and his mother in your prayers. My heart just breaks for him.
God bless and keep you all. All my love...Tracy

Thursday, November 4, 2010

MIL Heading Back to Hospital

I'm at home and Neil is with his mother.  By the grace of God the Dr. at the Life Care Center, which is a nursing/rehab center can in unusually early.  He told Neil with all that was going on with her health they would transport her back to the hospital.  Not only has she got the pneumonia (he said he's not conveince that it's that) but she now has an infection in the big toe of the foot she just had the vein surgery on.  He told Neil if it turns blue she could lose it.  The Dr. seems to have no bedside manner he said is was kind of insensitive.

So, that's where we are now.  When they transport her Neil will come get me so I can be at the hospital too.

Love you all....Tracy

MIL and Family Could Use Prayers

Oh' my.  Not good news today.  Neil just called me from the Life Center where they transported Nadine late Monday afternoon.  His mother has pneumonia in her lower right lobe.  This can't be good.  I'm am praying for the Lords will, her comfort and Neils acceptance.  I'm at a loss for words.  I'm hurting at thinking the worst but also I hate seeing her life just deteriorate.  I'm so confused and fearful.  Please friends remember Neil and his mother in your prayers again.  I'll hope you'll also pray that I find the right words and do all that I can to lift her up to the Lord.  I'm almost scared to pray.  What if I'm giving up on her to soon.  What if I'm wrong in thinking her life is not that wonderful and that she's tired and that maybe it's time for her to rest.  Just everything I say in my head feels horrible.  Yet as much as I hated losing my parents at such a young age I never had to watch any suffering or any of this horrid Alzheimer disease.

I don't even know how to close this post.  I'm sorry I keep posting prayer request and it seems that's all you hear.  I just don't have words to close.

Wendy is Having the Perfect Winter Giveaway

Is it cold at your house yet.  Finally cool weather is moving into Florida.  The high was only 75 today.  I so love fall and I sure hate having so little of it.  With the overcast day we had it almost felt like it.  But wait till Saturday!  Our high is supposed to be 63 degrees ~ WOO-HOO and wait for it...........the low is supposed to be 38 degrees!  Can you say...skip fall and go straight to winter?  That's life in the South.  One day it's in the 80's and the next it's in the 60's.  And believe it or not when it gets cold here, it feels cold.  It must be the coastal humidity. But you still never know on Thanksgiving and even Christmas we could be in  the mid 80's or like one Christmas eve we could have Snow on the ground.  Talk about the twilight zone -  ha!

Oops, back to why I'm writing this post.  Wendy, who has been a blogging friend from the beginning to me is having the perfect winter giveaway sponsored by Carmex.  Who new they had so many products. And how cute is that bag!  I've always loved the lip balm.  So go by and visit Wendy at Ramblings from the Sunshine State by clicking here or on her name and enter.  Be sure to tell her I said hi.

Best of luck y'all.  Love and Hugs....Tracy :)

P.S.  Don't forget to enter my Bisquick giveaway here.

Meet Show Me Moma and Enter Her Giveaway

Okay girls, I really want this!  I'm so tired of my little phone picture but I'm lucky to have it because it's a hand-me-down, so I'm not complaining really.  But can you blame me for wanting the one above.  Well I got a new follower today and she is having this cool giveaway.  She has lots of giveaways actually.

You know I like to find giveaways and share them with you.  I'm sure you know that I'm not a saint and I get an extra entry or two for telling you, but I'm really crossing everything in hopes of winning this.  (Otherwise I'll continue to be the oldest old lady with the worn out/out dated phone).  And my mantra is always if I can't win it, I hope someone that I share it with does!  So click here and visit Show Me Moma to enter and be sure to tell her I said hi!

Good luck y'all!!!  Hugs...Tracy :)

P.S.  Don't forget to enter my Bisquick giveaway here.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Bisquick Gluten Free Review and Pancake Prize Pack Giveaway

Do you have anyone in your family that is on a gluten free diet?  My 8 year old Granddaughter Ki'a was diagnosed with stomach problems and told that she should stick to a gluten free diet.  In the past this wasn't so easy because the grocery stores weren't carrying gluten free baking mixes. Well that's all changed now.   Bisquick has just released their very own Gluten Free Baking Mix.  You can use it to make pancakes, waffles, biscuits, pizza crusts, cakes, and so much more!

 Bisquick and MyBlogSpark together have generous offered me the opportunity to review the Bisquick Gluten Free Baking Mix and not only do I get to try it but one of my lucky readers do too!  This is such a nice prize pack.  The winner will receive a Bisquick Prize Pack just like the one we received!  This pack includes a box of Bisquick Gluten Free Baking Mix, a heavy pancake pan, pancake pen and a pancake flipper (see photograph above).

If you'd like more ideas on what you can make with it, just visit www.bisquick.com/glutenfree for a ton of gluten free baking ideas.

And Bisquick has made it even more enticing to try.  They are offering a $1 off printable coupon, please click here to get yours: $1 Off Coupon.

 Mandatory Entry
To enter, just leave me a comment below.  You know I love comments.
   All submissions must be received by midnight on November 14th and I'll announce the winner on November 15th. Since so much has been going on with the hospitals and things I totally forgot about tweeting and reminding every one about my giveaway so I'm extending the deadline till midnight on Monday, November 15th.  I will announce the winner on the 16th.  Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Extra  Entries

You will receive an extra entry for doing any of the following.  Just remember I need you to leave a separate comment for each entry telling me what you do.  And most important make sure I have a way to reach you in case you are the Lucky Winner!
  • Become a follower of Cotton Pickin Cute.
  • Follow Cotton Pickin Cute on GFC by hitting the button on my sidebar.
  • Follow me tracysuz on Twitter.
  • Like me Tracy Suzanne on Facebook.
  • Post this giveaway on your sidebar.
  • Post about this giveaway on your blog.
  • Checkout my Aprons in my Etsy shop.
There you have it 7 chances to enter and increase your odds of winning.  Good Luck and Hugs....Tracy

[Please note:  Products, information and prize packs were provided by Bisquick through MyBlogSpark]

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Giddy - Up Wild West Swap

I have so much catching up to do and no idea where to start.
So this is a post long overdue.  Paula from Paula's Palace of  Altered Art had a wonderful swap in September that I was lucky enough to be a part of.  I can't believe how the time has flown by.  I really wanted to post this much sooner but things have been so chaotic at my house for months now.  Hence the lack of you hearing about this before.  Just take a peek at all these wonderful tags that Paula received!

 I was lucky enough to get Sandy from 521 Lake Street for my swap partner.  She always makes the cutest things so I was thrilled when I saw that I was now going to have my own Sandy creation.  Isn't it the cutest.

I love this side of her tag too.  Click on the picture to enlarge it.  It's a picture of her own horse Chica that she owned for 19 years.  Wow, that's a member of the family. I just love how she shared something so special on her tag.

 Here's my tag from Paula.  It's so cute with the fabric ties.  It couldn't look anymore western.  Thanks Paula for your fun swap and your cute tag.

 Paula's Wild West Swap was a lot of fun and easy too.  We only had to make 2 tags.  One for Paula and one for an secret swap partner.  The tags could be any size you wanted.  You really should click on Paula's name up top and check out all the fun tags.  So many different minds working on the same project or should I say challenge.

Below are the tags I made.  I don't know which one Paula kept and which one went to Sandy but I sure hope they liked them.  It's always fun being challenged to do something different.  I made the flag pillow this summer from some vintage hand towel fabric, bias tape(strips) and a scrap of star fabric from my stash.

  The front of my tag is above.  I decided traced out a wagon and used some muslin for the wagon opening and some metal buttons for the wagon wheels.  A copy of a cowboy from a vintage card cut out singing to the girl of his dreams, who's listening from inside the wagon.
The back of the tag above is bumped out with pop dots for a 3-D effect. Star button and beaded trim for embellishment.
I shrank the cover of a vintage cowboy book  Added a vintage cowboy and I loved the horse shoe charm that came from an old vintage bubble gum machine.
The back of the tag has more buttons and a card stock star covered in tin foil.  And see that cute acorn tag.  Donna from Brynwood Needleworks sent me a lovely gift of sachets earlier this year and had them beautifully tied with her homemade acorn muslin ribbon.  Of course I saved it.  So I used a snippet for the tag.

Thank you Paula and Sandy for your beautiful tags and letting me be a part of the fun!

Quick Fast Makeover - OOPS!

 Yuck!  Pretty gross, right.  I hated the fabric that came on this very worn task chair.  Lint just clings to it so bad.  I can vacuum it daily but it's like an old sweater that's picked to pieces.  You just have to hand pick all the little balls off and it still looks cruddy.

So what do you do when you exhausted but have adrenaline flowing and your itching to get one thing accomplished.  Why you start recovering a chair at 10 pm, of course.  That's what I did on Halloween night.

I remembered that I had a bolt of this fabric in the closet that I planned on doing something with.  Valences, pillows, who knows.  I liked it and it was on sale and I new it would go great in our office.  (Unfortunately, we still don't have that done).  Anyway it's a great heavy woven upholstery fabric.  With the dark muted colors and fingers crossed, no spills, it should last forever or at least till I'm totally sick of it.

It was really easy and a quick project.  I had my handy electric staple gun, a screwdriver and removed the seat and laid it on the fabric and cut out a big square.  The staple gun worked out just perfect for this part.

Here's where the "It's too late and your too wiped out  to do this" comes in.  I get the back off, not to hard.  I look at the shape of the back, center it on the fabric where I want it.  Checked it at least twice before I cut, left plenty of extra so I was sure to have enough.  Check, cut and start to staple.  Nope not happening.  The seat was wood this was heavy duty plastic and my staple isn't going through it.

Okay, not a problem.   NEIL!!!!!!!

We find screws and the electric screwdriver/drill thingy.  And put in a lot of screws, then reattached the seat and back to the base.  Beautiful!!!  Simply beautiful, I'm thinking as I'm smiling ear-to-ear, so please that I accomplished and finish a task.

That is until it sat there mocking me........

Yep, look close.  The fabric on the back of the seat is upside down.  Did you notice, click the pictures to enlarge them.  I was so disappointed but not  disappointed  enough to recover it that night.  Who knows when I will either.  Luckily it's a not in you face pattern screaming "Hey, goofy put me on upside down".

Blog Candy Giveaway With A Hop

I have several blog friends who create the most beautiful stamped cards.  I've admired  them for so long and would love to be able to give it a try.   Do any of you stamp?

Tiddly Inks is having a blog hop and is offering an awesome giveaway of blog candy ~ I mean really a bunch.  Just look at all the goodies above.  I so want to win this but if I can't I sure would like to think I helped someone who reads my blog win it.

You'll want to hurry because this one ends on November 4th.  Just click here.

If you do win please be sure to come back and tell me.  I love hearing about your wins almost as much as winning myself.  Hee-hee!

Good luck y'all.....Tracy :)

Pretty Paper - Check ~ Coptic Markers - Check = YIPPEE!!!

Whoo - Hoo!!!!  I won the most fun giveaway.
I have been wanting to try stamping for sometime.  I have really been wanting some Coptic markers and boy did my dreams come true.  Where you might ask did I get such goodies?  I got lucky over at

I won Kathryn's blog candy for the Halloween blog hop.And all the goodies I got were a total surprise.  And she was so generous.  My pictures don't show just  how wonderful this package was.  Thank you so much Kathryn.  I'm looking so forward to getting time to play and practice with them.

Lots of these pages are 2 sided and they are all gorgeous and fun.  Do  you see the book making pages in the second photo how cool are those.  She also sent rub on transfers, embellishments and other cool stuff.  Can you tell I got excited!  I'm just sorry that I didn't get to post as soon as I received it last week.  I hope y'all click here to stop by and visit this sweet gal and see how talented she is too.  Please let her know that I sent you.

I have lots to share with y'all and hope I can get back here to do it this week.  See y'all later.  Love and Hugs...Tracy :)


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Monday, December 15, 2008

Pup Presents

Looking for a treat for your four-legged friend...I've found it! Check out Petit Four Legs for handcrafted canine treats. Aside from (you guessed it) petit fours they also have a cupcake mix. They are made from dog-safe ingredients (no chocolate!) and are adorable! Good thing my pooch doesn't read the blog. ;-)

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Monday, January 26, 2015

ANF 5: Cyprian Epistles XV-XIX

Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 5

Cyprian: Epistles XV-XIX

In Epistle XV, Cyprian writes to believers in prison for confessing the faith. he reminds them that what they have is more than the mightiest and most glories powers of the earth could ever comprehend--friendship with God.
Now, therefore, let magistrates and consuls or proconsuls go by; let them glory in the ensigns of their yearly dignity, and in their twelves fasces. Behold, the heavenly dignity in you is sealed by the brightness of a year's honor, and already, in the continence of its victorious glory, has passed over the rolling circle of the returning year. The rising sun and the waning moon enlightened the world; but to you, He who made the sun and moon was a greater light in your dungeon, and the brightness of Christ glowing in your hearts and minds irradiated with that eternal and brilliant light the gloom of the place of punishment, which to others was so horrible and deadly.
Cyprian then asks that they pray for him, which in Epistle XVI they respond that he is in their thoughts.

Epistle XVII returns to the question of restoring the repentant lapsed. Cyprian says that repentance and humility are necessary for all of us, including them, and that we ought to account for the recommendation of those who went to prison for the faith in restoring those who apostatized rather than suffer persecution, but that at the end of the day this "matter... waits for the counsel and judgment of all of us." Consequently, Cyprian does not "dare to prejudge and so to assume a common cause for my own decision." He may have meant he was waiting for a Council or Synod to make a decision, or he may have meant that the congregation was to decide. I like to think it's the latter, but I suspect it's the former.

Epistle's XVIII and XIX are a back-and-forth between one Caldonius and Cyprian. In XVIII, Caldonius asks what to do with a few people who had been believers who were disciplined for rejecting the faith but may not have actually done so. (One woman, "Bona," made a sacrifice to the gods--a sign of NOT being a Christian--only when physically dragged there by her husband, claiming all the way 'I did not do it!" and presumably unwilling at every point.) Caldonius asks Cyprian what ought to be done when such individuals petition for readmission to the membership of the church. Cyprian replies that they ought to be restored, given their confession and their clear contrition and the apparent working of grace in their lives. Cyprian then refers Caldonius to a book he has written on this topic.

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Friday, March 6, 2009

I wanted to share this special doll because she is truly one of a kind and has such a sweet story behind her creation.

 Her name is "Ruthie" and she is a very special present for Gracie, who's 3rd birthday is later this month.  Gracie's mom, Heather, contacted me about making her because her own mother passed away 3 years ago while Heather was pregnant with Gracie.  She wanted her daughter  to have a special keepsake of her grandmother so she mailed me some of her mom's old clothes to use to make a doll.   Gracie requested that she have black eyes, light pink lips, and a pink bow.  She also wanted her to be named "Ruthie."  She turned out so precious that it was hard for me to let her go!  I hope Gracie will love her for years to come.

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Saturday, September 8, 2012

THIEF             A-
USA  (122 mi)  1981  d:  Michael Mann

I am the last guy in the world that you wanna fuck with.     —Frank (James Caan)

After some brief work in television, this is Michael Mann’s first feature film, and the only film *not* shot on ‘Scope throughout his career, but it’s one of his most eye-popping films, with a dialogue-free opening where the everpresent rain and the synthesized musical score in an urban environment may make some think of Blade Runner (1982), which was still a year away.  Instead this is a crime thriller set on the streets of Chicago, the director’s hometown, introducing many local actors who would go on to have prominent careers, while showing in all its glory the essence of Lower Wacker Drive, once an underground, subterranean world of decaying cement pillars, an actual road directly underneath another road called Wacker Drive that runs on ground level, that was a haven for the derelicts and the homeless, given a clean sheen from the rain, making it almost look clean and respectable instead of the filthy rat trap it actually was, years later cleaned up by the city, sending all the homeless and riff raff away to other less protected grounds.  The grime of this notorious roadway rubs off on the film’s subject matter, suggesting crime is a dirty business.  James Caan, forever remembered as the hot-headed Sonny Corleone in THE GODFATHER (1972), plays Frank, an upscale jewel thief who uses the most sophisticated technological equipment as his means of entry, outsmarting the cops on all fronts, usually making a bundle while getting away clean.  Like most Mann films, this is a gorgeous looking neo-noir film, shot by Donald E. Thorin, making excellent use of onsite locations, using first class film composition throughout, plenty of night shots, and sensational editing.  Adapting a story written by an actual thief, the 1975 novel The Home Invaders: Confessions of a Cat Burglar by Frank Hohimer, pen name for John Seybold, who actually specialized in home invasions and was ironically serving time in prison while this film was in production.  Mann changed the focus to a jewel thief, using actual thieves as professional consultants for the film, along with their tools and equipment.  The burglary tools were provided by John Santucci, in reality a recently paroled thief who plays the rousting corrupt cop Sgt. Urizzi, the guy continually tailing Frank, where the tools of the trade are prominently featured in the film, usually in extended wordless sequences, much like Jules Dassin’s RIFIFI (1955), where the professionalism of the planning and the meticulous detail of carrying out near impossible crimes simply holds the audience breathless.

Much of this film feels like racing against time, as it opens wordlessly at a blistering pace right in the middle of a robbery in progress, with pulsating synthesizer music by Tangerine Dream that is locked in synch with their movements, where Frank is carefully working his way around a bank safe’s supposedly impenetrable lock mechanism, using heavy duty drill equipment (which the actors were trained to use) to search for a secretly concealed safety catch, where once inside he helps himself to a free-for-all of safety deposit boxes filled with stored diamonds.  The lookout in the car parked in the alley is honed in on the police radio, where both remain in close contact through a wire, as the jewels are dropped with the lookout who drives off while the thieves walk away on foot through a rain-soaked alley, quickly stripping off their work overalls until they appear as normal as can be.  After a job well done, we can see Frank kick back in a quintessential Michael Mann shot that appears again in MANHUNTER (1986), HEAT (1995) and THE INSIDER (1999). With his back to the camera, Frank looks out at the lake in a kind of Zen inner calm, where he has some degree of inner peace and personal fulfillment. Frank’s cover is running a car sales operation, though much of the time is spent in what looks like stripping down stolen cars into something he can sell on his lot, making it look like a respectable business.  A consummate professional, a man proud of what he does, knowing he’s the best there is, he is also someone looking ahead to where he never has to worry about looking over his shoulder again.  Respectability means family and stability, something he’s never had in his life, through privately this is his all-consuming desire.  We only learn this in a lengthy conversation he has with Tuesday Weld as Jessie, one of the stronger female protagonists in any Mann film, terrific as a woman who’s been around the block once or twice, but the woman Frank wants to hold onto, even though she doesn’t know it yet.  When Frank whisks her out of a bar (where Mighty Joe Young is playing), literally kidnapping her against her will, stuffing her into his car until they arrive at an all night diner where Frank’s near ten minute monologue is the centerpiece of the film, as he literally pours out his life story.  This may be James Caan’s proudest moment as an actor, as despite confessing his criminal history to a woman who’s dead set against his ideas, having had trouble with a drug trafficker in the past, but the guy is mesmerizing in convincing her that he has no time left in his life to bullshit or play games, that after spending a decade in prison he has to make up for lost time if he wants his piece of the American Dream, eventually persuading her (and the audience) that they are intrinsically linked together romantically, just a drop dead memorable cinematic moment, as the guy couldn’t be more genuinely straightforward, a complete game changing moment, as otherwise he’s a professional swindler, not the most trustworthy character.  Who’d believe him?—yet he’s convincing.

While everything to this point is among Mann’s best ever, using an odd mix of humor, male machismo, believable characters, and well-written, beautifully constructed scenes, where the dazzling pace of the film matches the accumulated interest in the storyline, which is astonishing in itself, where Frank is the kind of guy who meticulously reconstructs his lost or broken life piece by piece, where he constructs a marriage, a home, and a family exactly as he prepares for and approaches the most difficult aspects of his heists, one step at a time, where much of this film bears witness to his focus on the small details in order to be successful.  But things take a turn for the worse with the introduction of Chicago crime boss Leo (Robert Prosky), a reassuring father figure who’s always promising some idealized fantasy perfection, telling people their worries are over, that if they work with him, he’ll take care of everything.  Despite his better judgment, Frank is tempted by this Faustian offer that sounds too good to be true, as the lure of such a lucrative heist could solve all his problems, where he could pull one last big score and finally retire into respectability.  Frank has always run his own show, used his own guys, never had to answer to a “boss,” and he insists on keeping things that way.  But as soon as they agree to work together, his house is bugged and the cops are all over Frank because they know something big is in the air, as what are these guys doing, supposedly each other’s competition, suddenly chumming around?  Nonetheless, Frank’s advance work, including his pal Barry (Jim Belushi), the crack expert at breaking security, begins to bear fruit, where after plenty of doubts about whether it was even possible, they began to understand how to pull it off.  It’s here the film re-focuses on incorporating documentary detail, where the process of the crime takes center stage, where the audience is treated to the spray of sparks from a blowtorch and hand-rigged welding equipment, using some super-heated lance with a white hot tip to literally melt a safe open, where fire and smoke turn a bank vault into an iron smelt, with Frank and his crew consumed by the heat and smoke in the confined, claustrophobic space, where his grimy face afterwards looks like he spent the day in a steel mill.  Despite the apparent success of the operation, Leo and Frank don’t see eye to eye, as Leo sees a budding future together while Frank wants out.  These are not the kind of guys who accept no for an answer, but Caan and Prosky are excellent holding their ground in a spellbinding chess game of battling wits which could easily blow up in their faces at any time.  “You are making big profits from my work, my sweat, my risk, but that is OK because I elected to make that deal. Now the deal is over, and it’s pay-up time.”  Indeed—while some of this appears again in a later Mann film, HEAT (1995), which has a similar lengthy coffee shop sequence (with adversaries Robert De Niro and Al Pacino), the writing is terrific throughout, maintaining fresh interest and energy, keeping the suspense taut, using a remarkable score, where it all comes to a head with a convoluted 1980’s style action finish, given a highly stylistic flourish of double crosses and bullets, where the apocalyptic final shot bears a similarity to the Coen Brothers’ NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007).

  1. That diner discussion between Caan and Weld is one of the most romantic, moving, and devastatingly well-acted scenes in all of American film. The later scenes involving adoption are also terrific. I saw "Thief" during its initial theatrical run. I knew it was a film that would stay with me, and it has.

  2. Yeah, that scene comes out of nowhere, as Caan is largely a hood up to that point with little to no conscience to speak of, whose sense of forward thinking is utterly brilliant. One of the best uses of Chicago locations in *any* film, where the wordless, documentary aspect of the crimes themselves is a startling maneuver, as Mann breaks it down into tiny details, where in the crime business, those details are of paramount importance. Also, interesting use of real life criminals as cops and cops as criminals in that film.


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Thursday, November 02, 2006

NaNoWriMo, Day 2

Don't worry, I'm not going to blog about my writing every day of the NaNoWriMo competition. But I just have to say that I'm having a wonderful time writing!

Today was much easier than yesterday. I still have no set plot or outline in mind but many are running around in my head. I'm OK with that for now.

I wrote over 3,000 words today and I now have a total of 4,983 words written.

It's a good day :-)


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Drying flowers with silica

A couple of years ago I bought a container of silica granules from Lee Valley used for drying flowers 3-dimensionally. At the time I had all kinds of plans/ideas for projects/arrangements to do with various flowers particularly the ones growing on our property yada yada…I tend to have a lot of creative ideas but not a lot of time for follow through with 3 kids & a jewelry business…plus a growing love for the fiber arts. 🙂

My girls really enjoy picking flowers mostly everything ankle high; although they’d have at your flower bed if you let them. 😉 So with a growing number of little flowers coming my way daily, and the “I wish I could keep them forever” lament, I decided to dry them & finally try out those silica granules.

I also have a flower press, and we have done projects with it in the past, but never the 3-D way. These are small so they took no time to dry, we let them sit for approx. 3 days at a time. I put half the amount in these glass bowls we use for crafting, carefully arranged the flowers on top, and then poured in more silica burying the flowers with it. I did this process as I did not want my littles eating silica gel…that would be very, very bad…

So now the question is…what to do with them? They are small, so the only thing I have come up with thus far is setting them in resin…maybe making the girls pendants out of them…I can’t seem to think much past the jewelry making aspect…any suggestions of projects are welcome…otherwise, google, here I come… 😉

Jewelry--turned-fiber artist with a passion for keepsake gifts & spinning. Fiber work is my way of coping with daily stress and anxiety; whereas jewelry making is my way of releasing it. I enjoy honing my crafts while raising 3 little girls, and vow to use my talents to inspire the creativity within. A native Nova Scotian (valley chick); pinay (mestiza). I have been selling my wares on & off-line for over a decade, and donate my products for grass-roots charitable causes. I love barter!

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Yorkshire v Middlesex
County Match 1886
VenuePark Avenue Cricket Ground, Bradford on 16th, 17th, 18th August 1886 (3-day match)
Balls per over4
TossMiddlesex won the toss and decided to bat
ResultYorkshire won by an innings and 196 runs
Close of play day 1Yorkshire (1) 74/2 (Hall 25*, Hawke 2*)
Close of play day 2Yorkshire (1) 220/5 (Ward 19*, Peel 10*)

Middlesex first inningsRunsBallsMins4s6s
*AJ Webbeb Wade39
AE Stoddartb Preston20
JG Walkerb Wade6
TC O'Brienc Leatham b Emmett14
G Spillmanb Emmett10
AS Johnstonnot out7
JE Westb Wade1
FGJ Fordb Emmett10
+MJ Dauglishb Wade3
J Robertsonb Wade0
G Burtonb Wade2
Extras(7 b, 2 lb, 2 w)11
Total(all out, 118.1 overs)123
Fall of wickets:
1-55, 2-75, 3-82, 4-99, 5-100, 6-101, 7-118, 8-121, 9-121, 10-123 (118.1 ov)
Yorkshire bowlingOversMdnsRunsWktsWidesNo-Balls
Bates27   21160--
Emmett50   32453--
Peel9   3180--
Preston11   771--

Yorkshire first inningsRunsBallsMins4s6s
L Hallc Johnston b Robertson56
W Batesb West25
G Ulyettc O'Brien b Burton12
*MB Hawkeb Burton10
JM Prestonc Webbe b Stoddart76
A Wardc Spillman b Burton22
I Grimshawc Burton b Stoddart38
R Peelc and b Robertson24
S Wadenot out74
T Emmettb Spillman35
+GAB Leathamc Webbe b Robertson6
Extras(13 b, 6 lb, 1 nb, 3 w)23
Total(all out, 257 overs)401
Fall of wickets:
1-51, 2-70, 3-91, 4-148, 5-209, 6-239, 7-247, 8-314, 9-386, 10-401 (257 ov)
Middlesex bowlingOversMdnsRunsWktsWidesNo-Balls
Burton77   311143--
Webbe43   24470--
Robertson63   20763--
West36   19421--
Ford9   2260--
Stoddart24   5612--
Spillman5   3121--

Middlesex second inningsRunsBallsMins4s6s
*AJ Webbec Ward b Emmett18
AE Stoddartb Emmett1
JG Walkerc and b Emmett7
TC O'Brienb Emmett8
G Spillmanb Emmett11
AS Johnstonc Ulyett b Bates7
JE Westb Emmett4
FGJ Fordnot out6
+MJ Dauglishc and b Wade3
J Robertsonc and b Wade0
G Burtonlbw b Emmett10
Extras(4 b, 1 lb, 2 w)7
Total(all out, 80.2 overs)82
Fall of wickets:
1-4, 2-18, 3-29, 4-44, 5-48, 6-59, 7-66, 8-69, 9-69, 10-82 (80.2 ov)
Yorkshire bowlingOversMdnsRunsWktsWidesNo-Balls
Bates8   391--
Preston6   510--
Wade26   17192--

--> AS Johnston made his debut in first-class matches
--> A Ward made his debut in first-class matches
--> L Hall (1) passed 6000 runs in first-class matches when he reached 8
--> S Wade (1) passed his previous highest score of 28 in first-class matches
--> S Wade achieved his best innings bowling analysis in first-class matches in the Middlesex first innings (previous best was 5-30)
--> J Robertson reached 300 wickets in first-class matches when taking his 2nd wicket in the Yorkshire first innings
--> T Emmett reached 100 wickets in first-class matches for the season when taking his 7th wicket in the Middlesex second innings
--> W Bates reached 50 wickets in first-class matches for the season when taking his 1st wicket in the Middlesex second innings

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Monday, September 14, 2009

This is a character named Hoss from Cartoon Network's Undefist. I watched a little bit of the Halloween special last night on Youtube. It's alright. Neat characters but the typical watered down ren and stimpy humor cartoon network is all about.

He was a pain in the butt to draw, & I bet I sketched him 30 to 40 times before I finally found some joy. I'm pretty pleased with how he turned out. I see a few tweaks here and there that I need to make but overall I'm glad he's drawn. Hopefully I can work on some colors today but this is a thick week for me with work so we'll see.

Hope you are all well.

thanks for checking it out.

  1. Hey J, you interested in doing any cards for this new Iron Man II set? Hit me with an e-mail if so, I'll give you the ADs info.

  2. Really cool buddy. Nice stuff buddy. You did a fine job on the character.

  3. Don't know the character, but I dig your clean lines and the pose. Well done, JW!


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crossword help

General Crossword Questions for “nevis”

  • The principal ben
  • 1 - 0 66666, 1000m volcano
  • The Biggest Ben?
  • Highest Ben
  • The highest ben

  • Nevis, along with Saint Kitts, forms the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. For the British, Nevis is the place where Horatio Nelson was stationed as a young sea captain, and is where he met and married a. — “Nevis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”,
  • Ben Nevis (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Nibheis, pronounced [peˈɲivəʃ]) is the highest mountain The western and southern flanks of Ben Nevis rise 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) in about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the floor of Glen Nevis – the longest and steepest hill slope in the UK[6] – with the result that. — “Ben Nevis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”,
  • Hyperlinked encyclopedia article covers the country's history, government and politics, geography, economy, demographics, language and culture. Presumably the white clouds which usually wreathe the top of Nevis Peak reminded someone of the story of a miraculous snowfall in a hot climate. — “Saint Kitts and Nevis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”,

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Monday, September 1, 2014

UCSC 1971, The Rhythm Dukes, and Oganookie

In the fall of 1971, I entered college at UC Santa Cruz. Although only an hour from home, Santa Cruz might as well have been a different planet. Much less populated and pretty much graffiti-free in 1971, the town nonetheless already had the funky, slightly shabby, beach town ambiance it retains today.

The campus, only six years old when I entered, was tiny compared to its present size, with only five functional colleges, with the original four clustered together at the top of the hill, and the arts based College Five set widely apart, near the exit of the perimeter road to Empire Grade.  I chose UCSC over the other UCs because of its academic excellence, small size, unique residential college organization, and because of the haunting beauty of the forests and meadows of its campus, set on a hill overlooking the town of Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay.  A friend’s father was one of the main UCSC architects, so I had visited the campus on numerous occasions when it was under construction.

What Santa Cruz was not known for at that time was a music scene. There were really no viable live music venues in Santa Cruz proper, and the relatively small population did not support too many local bands.  The biggest venue, the Santa Cruz Civic, was essentially off limits for rock concerts when I first arrived in Santa Cruz , although they did start permitting shows there by 1973. There were clubs in the Santa Cruz Mountains like the fabled Club Zayante and the even more storied Chateau Liberte, but there were few if any options in the city itself.  The original Catalyst was still in existence on Front Street, but it seemed to be more of a coffee house than a music venue at that juncture, prior to its purchase in 1973  by Randall Kane and move to larger quarters on Pacific Avenue where it emerged as the town’s flagship rock venue.

My principal knowledge of Santa Cruz musicians prior to arriving on campus in the fall of 1971 was the fact that Moby Grape, one of the best and most mercurial of the San Francisco Bands, had just recorded an album there, the marvelous and underrated 20 Granite Creek.  The Grape’s travails have been documented at length elsewhere, but in 1971 the original members got together in a rambling house in Santa Cruz to record a new album of original material with their original producer David Rubinson.  Moby Grape’s resident genius Alexander Spence had left the group abter being hospitalized for mental problems during the recording of their second album, Wow. For Granite Creek, Spence was back in the fold and accompanied by multi-inatrumentalist Gordon Stevens who apparently kind of watched over the volatile Spence as well.

At any rate, Moby Grape had imploded once again following a short tour including some high-profile but musically disastrous gigs at the Fillmore East in June of 71. Nonetheless, most of the Grape members stuck around Santa Cruz, and at least one, bassist Bob Mosley, still lived in nearby La Selva Beach last time I checked. The Grape reformed with various lineups over the next four decades, but I did not see them live until 1973, when a version of the group performed in the UCSC Quarry Amphitheatre.

However, my first Grape siting occurred fortuitously on the second night I was on campus. For most of my time at UCSC, the campus at night was bustling with energy. Each of the residential campuses had its own flavor but, between the dining halls, the dormitories, and coffee shops, each remained a hub of bustling activity well into the night. During orientation week, there were also a number of unadvertised dances and social events.  A group of new friends from my dorm and I were exploring the campus late that evening when we happened onto a dance concert at the spacious Cowell College Dining Hall, down the hill from my own new home at Crown College. Holding forth was a power trio that was billed as the Rhythm Dukes, featuring Grape lead guitarist Jerry Miller along with bassist John Barrett and, I presume, drummer John “Fuzzy”Oxendine.

The Rhythm Dukes were formed in 1969 following one of Moby Grape’s several breakups, when Miller and Grape drummer Don Stevenson  joined forces with Oxendine and Barrett in the Santa Cruz Mountains to hang out and form this new loose, jam-based ensemble. They routinely played the ballrooms and clubs in the Bay area through the summer, but Stevenson left the fold in the fall, with the band continuing as a trio. For most of 1970, the group was augmented by keyboardist/vocalist Bill Champlin, whose main band, the Sons of Champlin, had also broken up. Champlin left in late 1970 when the Sons reformed, and some additional Dukes, including guitarist Russell Dahneke, were recruited to round out the band. When The Grape reunited for 20 Granite Creek, the Dukes pretty much folded, although the show I saw and a couple of others demonstrated that the Dukes trio got together for a few fall 1971 gigs after Moby Grape had imploded once again. Those interested in the Rhythm Dukes should check out the band’s web site and Bruno Ceriotti’s extremely useful family tree and gig guide.
Rhythm Dukes 1970 Champlin, Oxendine, Miller, Barrett

The Dukes show at UCSC was my first exposure to Miller playing live, and his blend of speed and precision was, and remains, a marvel to behold. Details of the set are fuzzy, since I knew none of their material except for Miller’s “I’m The Kind Of Man That Baby You Can Trust,” which was one of the highlights of 20 Granite Creek, but there were blues standards, country-inflected workouts, and lots of extended jams. Not bad at all for a free, unadvertised orientation week concert.

Although the Dukes apparently folded soon after this gig, Miller was a steadfast presence in many different bands in the Santa Cruz area for the next several years, including the Original Haze (which featured future Call leader Michael Been on bass and vocals), the New Shreveport Homewreckers and many incarnations of Moby Grape.

A week or so later I had my first exposure to another peerless Santa Cruz Band, the eclectic quintet known as Oganookie. who were arguably the area’s best and most popular dance band. Oganookie got their start on the other coast during the height of psychedelia as a very different band called Federal Duck. Initially an informal aggregation of musically inclined students at suburban Philadelphia’s Haverford College that apparently at one time included humorist Dave Barry, the group, sans Barry, managed to get a recording contract with  Musicor Records and put out a single album in 1968 that was recorded by seven other musicians including bassist Bob Stern, drummer Tim Ackerman, lead guitarist George Stavis, and guitarist Jack Bowers. The band’s sound was a blend of Strawberry Alarm Clock style soft psychedelia with some harder-edged guitar workouts and just a taste of the bluegrass influences to come in their later incarnation.

By 1969, Stavis had flown the coop and secured a recording contract with Vanguard Records, for which he recorded the remarkable solo banjo recording Labyrinths. He also opened for the Grateful Dead at Purdue University on April 18 of that year, so apparently toured in support of that album.

1970 found the core of Federal Duck (Stavis, Ackerman, Stern, and decamped to a farm in the Santa Cruz mountains. They had added guitarist-vocalist Bruce Frye, and reinvented themselves as country-rock ensemble Oganookie.  Several of the musicians also switched instruments. In addition to playing bass, Stern proved to be a fine electric violin player.  Bowers moved to electric piano and became the group’s principal songwriter, whereas Stavis focused almost entirely on the electric banjo, sometimes switching to bass when Stern was fiddling. Another Duck member, keyboardist Ken Stover, also migrated to the Santa Cruz area, playing in bands including funksters Chameleon.

Oganookie was a quintessential jam band a couple of decades before that term was coined. Their blend of rock and electrified bluegrass instrumentation and their tendency to play extended versions of  bluegrass tunes, notably their trademark pairing of Bill Monroe’s “Uncle Pen” and “Orange Blossom Special” made them one of the most popular acts for dances on campus and in town.  They also epitomized the people’s band ethos, playing many benefits and extolling the virtues of the back-to-the-land lifestyle the group modeled.

Alas, Oganookie’s term as a band was relatively short-lived, as the group broke up by mid-1973. Before sailing off into music history for good, the band did reunite in 1975 for a pair of energetic and sold-out concerts at the Coconut Grove Ballroom at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and, apparently, once again in 1991. Bob Stern moved back east, became a dentist, and still plays the fiddle.  Stavis and Ackerman both enrolled in the History of Consciousness program at UCSC, and Stavis also appears to have moved back east. He recorded a new-agey banjo album for Aspen Records in 1986 entitled Morning Moods, and still gigs periodically. Both Frye and Ackerman’s current whereabouts are not easily discoverable on the net.

Jack Bowers, however, stayed in the Santa Cruz area. After Oganookie’s demise, he spent several years working with country rocker Jill Croston (AKA Lacy J. Dalton) and built a career working in the Arts program at nearby Soledad Prison.  I saw him at a career retrospective concert at Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz last March, and he remains a fine keyboard player and composer.

As the seventies ticked by, Santa Cruz became more and more of a rock and roll town. More later.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Grateful Dead, Sufi Choir, Whirling Dervish Dancers and Yogi Bhajan. Winterland, 3/24/71.

By March of 1971, it had been a good seven months since I had seen the Grateful Dead, and several months since I had been to any large concerts.  A mid-week trip to Discount Records produced a handbill that showed the Dead playing at Winterland that evening, along with a mysterious crew including Yogi Baijan, the Sufi Choir, and the Whirling Dervish Dancers.  Although it was the middle of a school week, and I had never driven to San Francisco by myself,  I entreated my parents to let me go, and they assented, provided I could find someone to go with me. I asked a school friend, Tom, who had never seen the Dead, if he wanted to go, and he miraculously got permission from his parents to go with me, and by 8 PM or so, we were off on 101 towards Winterland.

Walking into the already darkened hall, it became immediately evident that this would not be a typical concert. On the stage were a number of robed, bearded gentlemen chanting around a roaring fire that sent flames high into the air inside what was famously a huge wooden firetrap.   Decades later, taking Yoga classes in Chicago, I learned what a major cultural force Yogi Bhajan and his Kundalini Yoga movement had become.  I can’t identify Bhajan in the photos I took, and another bespectacled gentleman led the chanting, so it is possible that he was not even there. Regardless, the spectacle certainly made a strong impression at the time.
Ceremonial Fire Winterland 3.24.71 Photo: M. Parrish
One can guess that the fire marshalls were not in attendance at that point. We found seats in the balcony and listened to the ceremony which, being mostly in Sanskrit, didn’t mean much to me at the time.

Once the chanting was finished, the fires were quenched (whew!) and the stage cleared for the Sufi Choir.  This group, conducted by William Allaudin Mathieu, came together as a group of followers of spiritual mystic Samuel Lewis, whose followers called him Mursid. The group was a true choir, that persisted under Mathieu’s direction from 1969 until 1983.  After performing several beautiful pieces on their own, the choir was joined by Dead members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann for their last two pieces. The Dead members provided delicate droning chords below the choir’s angelic harmonies, with Garcia’s leads dancing around the choir’s melodies – a magical, all to
Dead and Sufi Choir 3.24.71
Photo: M. Parrish
brief collaboration.

Winterland was pretty full, especially for a Wednesday night for a show with limited advance promotion, but most of the floor was cleared for the next performance, by a group of Whirling Dervish Dancers, who spun very quickly in large arcs, forming intricate patterns. I believe the accompaniment was just recorded music, but can’t say for sure.
Dervish Dancers 3.24.71 Photo: M. Parrish

Grateful Dead 3.24.71 Photo: M. Parrish
It was quite late, close to 11, when the Dead finally came onstage for their regular set. (Contrary to Deadbase, the New Riders did not appear at this show).   I was surprised and saddened by the absence of Mickey Hart, which had not been reported in the local press, despite his having been on hiatus from the band since February.  At this juncture, the band’s music was markedly less psychedelic than it has been just a few months earlier, with a raft of shorter songs, including several new originals, having taken the place of some of the longer pieces, although a nice Truckin’>Other One emerged late in the first set.

Other than the early Fillmore West shows that included both an early and late set by each band on the
Grateful Dead 3.24.71 Photo: M. Parrish
bill, this was the first electric Dead show I saw that included two separate sets (although the “Evening with the Dead” shows included breaks between the acoustic set, the New Riders, and the electric set.  The shift from one drummer to two was palpable in the music, with a much greater emphasis on rockers, starting with the pairing of an embryonic “Greatest Story Ever Told” and “Johnny B. Goode” that opened the show, and continuing with new tunes like “Bertha” and “Playing in the Band” (in its initial, concise incarnation).  The show wrapped up with something else that was new to me, but quickly became the standard closer for the next few years – the Not Fade Away sandwich with “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad” as the filling, followed by a nice “Uncle John’s Band” encore as closing time approached.

The drive home was interesting, given that I had been through a full day of school before taking off on this evening adventure. It had been a splendid evening, full of surprises, and a great introduction to the leaner, more rock oriented Grateful Dead of 1971.


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The Radical Implications of a New Maturity in Our Relationship to Death

A new, more mature relationship to limits represents one of Cultural Maturity’s defining characteristics. In my writings, I’ve given special attention to one particularly ultimate example: our human relationship to death. Never in the history of the species has looking directly at death been something we have been capable of. Doing so would have stretched us beyond what we could tolerate.

This picture is beginning to change, and the implications are profound. Appreciating just what is changing and some of those implications sheds valuable light on specific cultural challenges. It also provides important evidence for Cultural Maturity and the significance of its changes.

I’ve written most about the implications of a new, more mature relationship to death with respect to health care. I’ve argued that we can effectively address today’s health care delivery crisis only to the degree that we can leave behind modern medicine’s heroic, defeat-death-at-any-cost mindset (see link). While viewing death as an enemy to be conquered has been central to many of modern medicine’s grand achievements, today, as medical interventions become ever more costly, continuing to see death in this way inevitably results in medicine that is simply not affordable. And there is a deeper concern. When we view death as an enemy, too often we confuse the prolongation of life with supporting life. The common result is extreme interventions that ultimately violate the Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm”—well-intended measure that are, in the end, simply not moral.

Today, we see important changes in how the health care world relates to death. These changes represent only first steps, but they could not be more significant. We witness growing recognition of the importance of end-of-life conversations between patients and doctors. The role of quality hospice care is increasingly appreciated. And states are beginning to pass legislation that supports doctor-assisted suicide. Continuing to move beyond the Modern Age’s heroic narrative when it comes to death will be more and more central to health care being a life-affirming enterprise in the decades and centuries ahead. (Reflecting the growing acceptance of this kind of change, Being Mortal, a book by Harvard surgeon Atul Gawande that addresses the importance of medicine engaging death more consciously and humanely, has become a New York Times nonfiction bestseller.)

Religion is another realm where this “growing up” in our human relationship with death should have a fundamentally transforming effect. Recognizing how this is so both brings new perspective to religion and helps us to appreciate just how radically new the needed new human relationship to death in fact is. We could easily think that religion is a sphere that long ago made its peace with death. Funerals most commonly take place in churches, and religious settings are where we are most likely to encounter conversations about our mortality and find solace in the face of death. If we go back to earlier cultural times, we often find death-related imagery closely tied to spiritual experience. (For example, burial mounds were places of
worship for the ancient Celts, and writings such as The Tibetan Book of the Dead have served as guides to spiritual realization.) But religion, by providing unquestioned explanation for what happens after death, has also served to protect us from death as experience. At my mother’s funeral, the minister ultimately seemed much more concerned with reassuring everyone that my mother was now with God (and that everything was thus right and as it should be) than with my mother as a person. It became clear to me that this was not the place to be if I wished to grieve my mother’s passing in any full and complete way.

To appreciate the challenge a culturally mature relationship with death presents to traditional religious teachings, it helps to put how religion has conceived of death in historical perspective. Each stage in the evolution of spiritual/religious understanding has provided us with a somewhat different picture of what happens after we die. Each of these pictures, in a way consistent with the realities of that cultural stage, offered a sense of order and gave us a way to reconcile with death. But each also, in the end, protected us from the fact of death.

In tribal times, death was thought of as bringing a rejoining with nature and with our ancestors in a kind of parallel world. Later, with the early rise of civilizations and more polytheistic sensibilities, we commonly encounter belief in reincarnation, with death bringing a return to the present in some new form. With the emergence of monotheism, we came to think of death as providing entry into a now separate world—depending on our life choices, of either a heavenly or hellish sort. With the more liberal monotheism of Modern Age times, we tend most often to think of that separate world as simply a better and happier place.

It has been important that religion, besides offering solace in death, has also protected us from death’s easily overwhelming implications. But if Cultural Maturity asks of us a newly possible maturity in our relationship with death, how would this picture change? If religion were to succeed in making the kind of transformational step I have argued will be necessary for medicine and that could radically alter the narratives that drive media, how would religion become different? (See link to “The Future of Religion.”)

In asking this question of religion, it makes sense to bring a further sphere into the conversation: science. You might think that I am suggesting that science’s conclusion—that death is just death, the end of us—is instead correct. But science’s conclusion is, in the end, just as much an “article of faith.” Scientists share with theologians the fact that neither can describe death from personal experience. And Integrative Meta-perspective takes death’s challenge to science an important step further. It makes clear that while modern science’s view has contributed powerfully, the kind of “objectivity” that science relies on remains partial (see link to Integrative Meta-perspective). The aspects of intelligence that the traditional scientific worldview leaves out would be expected to make scientific interpretation especially unhelpful when it comes to making sense of death. (See link to “The Future of Science.”) In the end, science faces its own version of the same question as religion, and the implications could be just as transformative.

Creative Systems Theory supports death’s challenge to the thinking of both religion and science in another, more abstract way. It suggests that any time we find beliefs that are commonly thought of as opposite in a polar sense—such as the positions of Left and Right in the political sphere, or here, with the conclusions of religion and science—something important is likely missing in each belief. A larger, more systemic picture will almost always not only brings each kind of traditional conclusion into question, it will suggest that all along we’ve not been asking quite the right question. We might appropriately expect this to be the case with death.

A more mature relationship to death could also have marked and surprising effects in cultural domains that themselves do not as directly engage questions of death’s significance. Here I think most immediately of the media, both serious media—such as news media—and media of a more entertainment sort. News of an “if it bleeds, it leads” sort commonly garners the greater portion of airtime. It is rare to find television after nine o’clock in the evening that doesn’t involve at least one killing (more often it involves four or five). And killing—and the possibility of being killed—is pretty much defines what “action” movies and most popular video games are about. Modern media draw us in by creating a narrative tension between life and death. But, in the end, this is a manufactured tension, or at least a tension born of an increasingly outmoded and unhelpful interpretation of death—a polarized and mythologized picture that makes death if not evil, certainly our adversary. I find it fascinating to reflect on how the kind of “growing up” in how we view death that the concept of Cultural Maturity describes might, in the long-term, alter media—of all sorts.

The need for a new maturity in our human relationship with death pertains not just to the thinking of specific cultural domains, but also to today’s most defining, more encompassing cultural challenge. I’ve described the core crisis of our time as a crisis of purpose and argued for the importance of a new cultural narrative—a new step in how we understand significance. Coming face to face with mortality in our individual lives teaches us about what most matters to us as individuals—death is a personal life’s most pointed teacher of meaning, and ultimately of wisdom. As we learn to engage death collectively with a new maturity, it is reasonable to think that this engagement—e.g., that life and limits, joy and sadness, are paradoxically inseparable—should help us in a similar way to more deeply confront what most ultimately matters to us more broadly—as humans.

Death confronts us with the fact that life as we know it ends. But it also confronts us with what is an even more final and easily disturbing limit. Death confronts us with limits to what is possible to control, and perhaps ultimately to understand. The humility required to accept this limit should play an essential role in helping us generate the wisdom that effective future decision-making in all parts of our personal and collective lives will increasingly require.


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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Bare with us

We've moved to - you'll be redirected to this post in a moment.

Too many excuses to list.  The blog has been really hard to keep up with right now.  We hope to be back really soon with amazing things to show you.  And I may just change the name to "I heart Paper and Cake" because Abigal is working on yet another custom party for me that is looking AMAZING.  Check them out.  So for today, here are two pics of my kids.  Enjoy! :)

1 comment:

abigail @ Piece of Cake said...

i heart cupcakes and cutlery :)

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