Chrysanthemums ~ A Natural Fly Screen...

An old gentlemen came into the store this morning. He bought some of the metered fly spray. This is not significant in itself except for what he proceeded to tell me about one of the ingredients.

The fly spray contains Pyrethrins. He asked if I knew what Pyrethrins was. No, I did not. Well...Pyrethrins is the oil from Chrysanthemum petals. Years ago people would use Chrysanthemums in their window boxes as a natural fly screen. (Correction: The Pyrethrin oil is from the seed pods.)

The oil in the petals is toxic to flying insects. Sounds like a beautiful flowering plant that would go great around patios and bar-b-que areas!

Artwork by Phyllis Mae Richardson Fisher ~ Copyright 2006

Do not use without written permission.

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Battle Hymn of the Republic...

This hymn has been one of my favorite songs from childhood. To this day I get goosebumps every time I hear it or play and sing it along with our family band. The following link was sent to me by my mother-n-law and I would like to share it with you.

All I can say is WOW

> After the
> page first opens, and after you read it, just click your
> mouse on any
> area of it to make it open. Turn up your music and ENJOY!!
>
>
> http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm
>
> PASS IT
> ON

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News from West of the Pecos!!!

Life has been very busy and exhilarating for the past couple of months! After visiting my sons in West Texas the latter part of February, I was offered a job, I accepted that offer, rode the train back to California, made the necessary arrangements to move not just myself, but our family business PJ's Corner Gift Shoppe, all within a month!

Once here, I started a full time job, went through the process of securing a place to stay (which included starting all utilities and services need to survive in my new domicile), joined two committee's (more on this later!), picked up Wrangler, my new Starlo's Cockapoo, at the airport, and now don't have a washer & dryer...

Gotta go unpack some more boxes...talk at ya later!!!

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Moving to Texas!!!

Here is a photograph that I have titled "White Simplicity". It is available as a giclee print over at Fine Art America. I will have to research the name of the bush that offers these beautifully simple flowers. I believe that it is in the wild plum family, but I am not positive...

My posts have been very sporadic the past couple of months. With the family reunion in Arizona and vacation to Texas, and packing for my move to Texas, I have not been able to devote enough time to my blogs. While in Texas I was offered a job that I can not turn down! It is a Godsend and I will be living in the same town as my sons!!

I will be taking the majority of PJ's Corner Gift Shoppe with me, while PJ's Paper Doll Factory will stay here with my mother/partner! Also, I will be taking ShiLoh and ShyAnne, my Katy-pups, and two cats. Annie and Spurr are my rescue cats that can not be left behind.

It has been decided that Diesel Marie, our Golden Retriever, will stay with my parents, along with their Katy-pup, Dunny. My brothers' Chihuahua, Luke, will stay with them waiting for my brother to get home on the weekends. And Honey, my dad's Pomeranian/Chihuahua will continue to ride shotgun for my Dad until he gets off the road.

Life will be very busy and fun once I get settled in Texas! I will also be taking on seven new websites to either build and maintain or revamp and maintain!! I'm excited for what the future will bring and will not be able to post until I get settle in Texas!!!

Look for a "Howdy from Texas!!!"

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Purple Majesty...

From the garden to the computer palette, these purple iris are the first flowers of spring. Available as a giclee print.

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The McDonald's Observatory in West Texas...

On the morning of March 4, 2008, we got up very early (4am!) to drive down to the McDonald's Observatory nestled in the Davis Mountains near Fort Davis, Texas. I took this picture just after sunrise when it was still below freezing. You can see the snow on the side of the road behind my son, Tony!

When I move back to Texas (at the end of March!) we are making a point of going to the Observatory, when it is open, so that we can go inside! Follow the links in this post to visit the official website and don't forget to stop by the Astronomy Gift Shop.

You can become a "Friend of McDonald" and enjoy lots of benefits through the different membership levels available. This will help The University of Texas fulfill their "mission of bolstering K–12 education, by supporting the programs and resources (they) provide to teachers and students nationwide."

"As a unit of The University of Texas at Austin, the Observatory is one of the world's leading centers for astronomical research. Its facilities are located atop Mount Locke and Mount Fowlkes in the Davis Mountains of West Texas." http://mcdonaldobservatory.org

The slide show here consists of four pictures that I took starting with the West Texas sunset taken from the parking lot of the McDonald Observatory, followed by the valley toward Pecos, Tony and Travis freezing, an out-building at the Observatory, and Tony took a picture of one of a valley between the Observatory and Fort Davis, Texas.

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Enterprise Wash in Central Arizona.

Enterprise Wash in Central Arizona.

About a week before this picture the water was flowing down the wash at a tremendous rate. Farther down this wash is where we had our family reunion. Every year the local members of the family go down to the wash and prepare the area for the picnic.

This year the boundaries of the wash where pushed into the picnic area and clean up was a little more extensive. They trim the trees so that we can sit under them for protection from the Arizona sun, even in February!


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Creosote Bush of the Sonoran Desert...

Here is a picture that I took of a creosote bush near the Ajo Museum in Arizona. Creosote bushes are drought-enduring plants that grow in the deserts of North and Central America. This bush is growing in the Sonoran Desert, the hottest desert in North America!

The fruit of this plant is a 5-lobed nutlet with silvery white hairs. As a child growing up in the Mojave Desert, I gathered these little "kitties" by the hundreds to play with!

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Snow on the foothills...

My mother and I went for a drive just to take pictures the other day! This picture is of the foothills at the base of Mt. Pinos located in the mountain range that skirts the southern edge of the San Joaquin Valley of California. The infamous "Grapevine" on I5 is located to the left of these foothills. You will notice that it is a vineyard in the foreground of this picture!

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Remembering Grandma & Grandpa...

With the family reunion less than two weeks away, the memories of my Grandma and Grandpa are flooding back...

...I loved their red house! I remember the window seat, and trying to go to sleep upstairs while looking at "Sneaky's Footprints" on the ceiling! He (really Grandma) would tie knots in my shoelaces! Glad it wasn't my hair. And the smell of breakfast waking me up in the morning! Delicious!!

...I remember running in the irrigation ditch on the edge of the pasture past an angry bull with three of my girl cousins!

I remember walking out into the alfalfa field with Grandpa and getting to eat my very first alfalfa bloom and trying to catch some little yellow kittens that hid in the hay stack while Grandpa was milking a cow...

...I remember the swing in the tree beside the driveway and the tree house that was above the swing and picking blackberries (I think they were blackberries, it was something with lots of tiny thorns) on the back of the white house...and going to the grocery store in Grandma and Grandpa's 1963 Chevy Corvair (my brother has the Corvair, now!) and being very careful beside the canal that ran swiftly through part of my grandparents property.

I have so many wonderful memories of Grandma and Grandpa...I miss them!

My mother painted this picture of her parent's home the year I was born. Grandma and Grandpa lived there for 28 years.

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I found a "Shop Around the Corner"!!!

I don't know if you have noticed, but there is a list of blogs that have been recently updated on the blogger sign in page. As I was attempting to sign in to my dashboard, O'Gara and Wilson, Booksellers caught my eye!

As I browsed this blog, I instantly thought of one of my favorite romantic comedies, "You've Got Mail" with the "Shop Around the Corner". Even though, they are located in Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois, the writers of this blog have captured the ambiance of their "used and antiquarian bookstore" as well as have set the scene giving us a glimpse into the Hyde Park area.

If you love to read, love old books and love to travel via your computer, this is a blog well worth visiting and bookmarking!


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The two blue books are copyrighted material by Artist ~ Phyllis Mae Richardson Fisher.

Happy Birthday, Christina Dawn...

On this day in 1982, I became an aunt for the first time ever! Christina Dawn was born in San Angelo, Texas as a premature baby. The doctor who delivered her, had delivered her mother and her mother's father. Seventy-one years earlier, Christi's paternal great grandmother had been born in San Angelo, too!

At first they told us that Christi was 4lbs. 6 oz. and then a couple of days later changed her weight to 6lbs. 4oz. I knew better! My son Travis, who had been born 7 months earlier and weighed in at 6lbs. 12oz., was twice her size at birth!

Christi loved playing the piano and her repertoire was getting quite long. She was very good with people and her guinea pigs. Christi taught Sunday school and was active with the puppet ministry. She wrote stories and poetry and created 3D images out of baling wire or modeling clay. Christi loved to go on nature walks, always taking her walking stick. She got to go to our family reunion in Arizona in 2001 and loved every minute in the desert.

She was my angel after I had back surgery, staying with me during the day for about a week while my sons were at work. She cleaned house for me, did the laundry, fixed meals and helped me when I needed to move around. But, what I will always keep in my memory is the picture of her curled up on the edge of the couch with her favorite book. She had just sighed really deep knowing that she had completed all her work of taking care of Aunt Janey and she had a few hours to enjoy reading before her cousins came home!

We lost Christi in a car accident along with her mother Pamila Dawn, five years ago this coming May. Christ was only 21 and this would have been her 26th birthday. We miss you Christi and Pam...

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Valentine's Day is not that far away...

With Valentine's Day on everyone's mind, I have been creating heart filled designs for our CafePress Gift Shoppe. Being able to use my mother's artwork is a real pleasure. I hope that you are ready for Valentine's Day this year. So far, I have four designs: Hugs 'n' Kisses, LOVE, Neddy's Hugable Love and Gunny's Hugable Love.

The special day falls on a Thursday and is less than a month away.
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Notes Adds "FuelMyBlog" to Directory...

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PayPerPost Resolution...

Maybe this should be a New Year’s resolution for me…to post about what I love best and to get paid for it? Sometimes, even though I find a “good thing”, time and circumstances do not allow for me to follow through. It’s time to follow through with PayPerPost!

With PayPerPost I HAVE found a “good thing” because I can blog about opportunities that fit the theme of my blog and get paid for it! All I need to do is get into the habit of visiting the PPP website everyday, find the opportunities that I qualify for and blog about it. Oh yeah, and get paid for it! What is really helpful is that PPP gives pointers on bringing up my page rank so that I can qualify for the better paying opportunities.

I found out about PayPerPost through my blogging friends and have shared PayPerPost with some of my new blogging friends. I plan on putting on goggles and steel toed boots to find out what is available in the payperpost labs. What will I find behind link number 1 – titled “Affiliate Sites”, or link number 2 – “Skunk Words” or link number 3 – “Postie Created”? I have a feeling it will be lots of cool stuff to make me more productive as a PayPerPost postie!

I'm not sure what I will use my PPP fortune on...maybe take a trip to Texas to visit my boys or just have some extra spending money!




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Road Trip!!!

It looks like my brother and I will be going to the Family Reunion in Arizona again this year! The reunion is scheduled for Sunday, February 17 and "The Family" will meet in the desert if it does not rain. There is always a rainy day schedule and we end up gathering in the school gymnasium.

Not only are we going to the reunion, but my brother wants to do some desert running around Quartzsite! He will ride his Honda while Luke (my brother's Chihuahua) and I follow in the desert runner. The last time I stopped in Quartzsite was Christmas of 1977 when my grandparents were still alive and were camped there for the winter.

We probably will do this after a run to Texas to visit my sons in Pecos! I am so excited and will probably forget to take lots and lots of pictures! Not only will I get to see TnT, but I will get to see Kate and her six new puppies, papa Rusty, Cody and Jesse (siblings from the last litter), my horse Oakley, and the mustangs, Cahlibur, Coal, Belle and Clancey!!!

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The Vegan Diet: Get the Year Going with Alfalfa

Although I am not Vegan or Vegetarian, I do LOVE my vegetables! I found some wonderful Alfalfa Sprout recipes over at Jackie's blog in an article titled: The Vegan Diet: Get the Year Going with Alfalfa! Jackie is a fellow BLOG VILLAGER and her blog is a wealth of information on anything organic and makes it a perfect blog to find new recipes for my mother who is diabetic, too! Once I get settled in Texas later this year, I will be making sure that my new home has a garden and a greenhouse!!! Yummy...

BTW...you will find this Water Bucket 'n' Veggies design on product over in our CafePress store, PJ's Gift Shoppe.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to everyone! Now that the holidays are over I hope to be able to post more often. In my last post I was on my way to the post office to see what my birthday present was. I found a beautiful leather notebook! It is handmade and the guys found it in Alpine, Texas at the Big Bend Saddlery. I have used it every day in PJ's Workshoppe and I am tickled that it matches my purse.

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