Monday, June 22, 2015

On to the 4th of July

Fractal Eagle USA

Fireworks Forver Bright

Father's Day is over and we are on to the 4th of July! This summer is going way too fast.

Father's Day was really nice for our family. The weather was just beautiful so we got to be outside all day. We went to our daughter's home so got to be with all our kids and some of the grandkids and even a couple great grandkids. We didn't have a big, fancy dinner, but a picnic table full of goodies to munch on all day. Our daughter's chili dip is to die for and I ate way to much of it but it was so much fun.

I featured a couple of my newest patriotic designs. I have more made and will be putting more on line as the week goes on. 

Brand Thunder  gave me a list of themes to make for them so have been working on them also. I got a list of games from two of my grandsons over the week end so will work on that list also. I don't know anything about this gaming stuff so have to use them as my sources of information! But they are so much fun to make.

I made a new recipe for dessert yesterday and it really turned out good. Everyone seemed to love it. I had cut a kidney bean salad recipe out of the newspaper about 20 years ago.  A couple weeks ago I got the recipe out to make the salad for our daughter. I had folded the recipe over and here was this dessert recipe and the first word on the recipe was EASY! I liked the sound of that so decided to try it. Glad I did so now I will add that to my recipe box. 

I have to get back to work but wanted to update my blog from Father's Day to Independence Day so decided to write a bit. Have a super week and will be back soon!

Freedom Reigns

Thursday, June 18, 2015

My Brand Thunder Themes Now Online



Brand Thunder has been working hard getting some of the themes published they asked me to make. So I will post some of them here.

Darth Vader by MaDonna
https://gallery.brandthunder.com/en-US/theme/swdarthvader#.VYMPZUaTSUk

Call of Duty by MaDonna
  https://gallery.brandthunder.com/en-US/theme/callofduty#.VYMQRkaTSUk

Nicki Minaj by MaDonna
https://gallery.brandthunder.com/en-US/theme/nickiminaj#.VYMRzEaTSUk

Miranda Lambert by MaDonna
https://gallery.brandthunder.com/en-US/theme/mirandalambert#.VYMSWUaTSUk


Angry Birds Chrome Theme
https://gallery.brandthunder.com/en-US/theme/angrybirds#.VYCldUaTSUl

These are just some of the reasons I have been bso busy lately, but I love being busy.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Happy Father's Day

Love Song of the Waterfall

My theme I am featuring today I just submitted so hope everyone likes it. It looks cool and refreshing.

We had a great week end and the weather was just fantastic. All three of our kids popped in at different times over the week end so that made it even more special. I know now how much my parents loved it when we stopped in to visit.  Our kids all live within 10 miles of us but my parents lived around 60 miles away so it wasn't quite as easy to "pop in" and now I wish we had done it more.

Father's Day is Sunday and I wish my Dad was still around to celebrate the holiday. My brother and his wife always had the Father's Day celebration at their home. I remember one of Dad's last Father's Day and in fact it may have been his last one. He had recently had surgery and was really depressed and Mom was worried about what he might do, so she brought him up to the Father's Day get to gether. Dad couldn't even get out of the car but he got to be with us for a little while.

Dad would have been 100 years old this November.  

The pictures above are my Dad and he was a very good looking guy! Black curly hair and brown eyes.
I think I have written about him before but I am not going to take the time to go back and see what and when! He was a man's man, I guess you would call him. He was very talented and could do and build just about anything mechanical.  I remember he built a tractor once. I was very young and can't remember too much about it but I know it was when we lived "down in the woods" . The place where I had to walk down a long lane surrounded by big trees to get on the school bus. And I was afraid of the bears!
I don't think Dad ever verbally said he loved me, but I knew by his actions that he did.I always thought he was a big man and I remember when he was in the hospital during the end of his life, he was in the recovery room and there was a curtain open. When I was walking down the hall to see him I didn't think it could be him because he looked so much smaller. 

I miss you, Dad.

I have been working on "stuff" to submit to the County to try to keep our community out of the Urban Growth Area. The developer that bought the ranch next to us wants to build a housing development and we got pulled into his "plan"! As soon as his property gets put into the UGA he will ask to be annexed to the City so he can start building. I simply can not fathom the thought of living in a city. We have lived here for 48 years and after we stopped raising cattle, we started planting trees in our pasture so we didn't have to see other people's properties. It isn't that they aren't nice people, we just didn't want to have to see them! And luckily they don't want to be included, either so I am hoping since 100% of us don't want included we will have a good argument to be left out.

Gotta go fix lunch for my hard working husband! 

If your Dad is still around, go see him and give him a hug. Or call him if he isn't close by. You never know how long he will be there so don't have any regrets! 


Sunday, June 14, 2015

Father's Day


 Butterflfies in the Garden by MaDonna

 Just wanted to update my blog for Father's Day. These are photo's of my Dad during his life. I will write more about him sometime this coming week. 

If you have read my profile you would have seen that over the years we have been very involved in trying to protect farmland. We just found out this past week that our property and our neighbors properites were being pulled into a development plan that is being pushed by a Japanese developer that purchased a big ranch/farm by us. We won the first 2 rounds but they did build a golf course on the ranch. Since they got that built they haven't farmed the property at all. Mainly because they wanted to say it wasn't good farmland, which will help them with the City and County governments. Neither us our our neighbrs were told anything about this. I happened to find out when I opened a file about the latest Comprehensive Plan Update that is mandated by the state. They had a map with no roads named, etc. so you couldn't even tell by the map that our poperties were intended to be added in with the developer property. We got all our neighbors informed and they agreed with us that they didn't want included. So I typed up a document and went to the hearing and spoke. The City Planning Commission had already published their recommendations before the hearing! So speaking and handing in new information did no good, since they didn't even discuss it. Now we have another battle on our hands, but I am hoping when this all gets to the County level we can win there. We have lived here for 48 years and can not afford to live in the City limits and that is what would happen if the developer has his way. So...as it goes....

Have a super Flag Day.


Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Working On Brand Thunder Chrome Themes!

I have submitted Chrome themes to Brand Thunder so should be having some new ones coming on line, soon. 

If you are a fan of Justin Bieber I made several but only one is up right now.

Justin Bieber

I am working on some requests for them right now so better get back to work.

Have a super Tuesday evening!



Thursday, June 4, 2015

For Flag Day

Free Range

I am featuring my Free Range theme today. In memory of my Mother. She absolutely loved chickens. She raised them for years and years until she couldn't anymore and then collected rooster figurines! So she still was surrounded by chickens. 

I looked at the calender and saw Flag Day is the 14th so I updated my blog to celebrate it. Flag Day is actually a special day for me besides the origin of it. The last little dog we had and loved was actually born on Flag Day. He died in my arms in 1991 and was the last pet for us. I just loved him too much and just can't open my heart for another sorrow like that. 

I listen to the radio a lot while I am working and can hardly wait till the Presidential election is over. I can't believe the partisanship in this country. Most people don't listen to both sides so their minds are like lock boxes. Neither side is perfect but lots of people don't feel that way. 

We are out of the cold chilly weather we have had for a few days and the 80's are on the horizon. Looking forward to it. 

I will catch up with you next week. Have a great week end!

Monday, June 1, 2015

June is Strawberries!

Sweet Strawberries 

Wow, 2015 is half gone. I am featuring strawberries on my blog right now. My husband planted a few everbearing strawberry plants 2 or 3 years ago. They send out streamers that make more plants so we have plenty of fresh strawberries all summer. Just enough for the two of us.

Picking strawberries in WA used to be a way of making spending money when I was a kid. I started walking to a neighbors berry field when I was 7 to pick berries. I didn't think of it as hard labor. The best part of the whole day was the free ice cold bottle of Pepsi Cola that they brought to the field in a big tub full of ice. We didn't get treats like that at home so I looked forward to that most of all. I probably only made 25¢ a day but back then you could buy a lot of stuff at the "dime stores" for that. I think it is good for a kid to learn how to work and get satisfaction out of it and I don't think most kids get to anymore. Kids aren't allowed to work in the fields now. That is a shame because a lot of young people don't have any kind of work ethic. Our two sons are both laborers and they have a terrible time trying to get people that are willing to work hard, even for good wages! 

We moved to IA when I was 10 years old and of course I worked on our farm. But when I was 16 I started detasseling corn in the summer to make extra money. (Detasseling corn is removing the pollen producing flowers, the tassel, from the tops of corn plant. It is a form of pollination control employed to cross-breed  two varieties of corn.) Now that was hot hard work but I didn't mind and made new friends every summer. The money I made I got to spend on whatever I wanted. I know the first year I bought a typewriter and a ladies watch. I was very proud of both. The typewriter was not a smart purchase, though. I didn't know how to type as I hadn't taken typing in school yet so it really screwed up my typing. I am a fast typer but my accuracy is in the toilet!

Our kids picked strawberries every summer, too. You were supposed to be 12 to pick, but you could pick younger if you had an older sibling with you, so all 3 of our kids worked in the berry fields. The money they made was theirs and they go to use it as they wanted. Our boys saved theirs for cars and our daughter spent most of her on clothes.

My husband went on a hunting trip with his brother for a few days so Sunday our daughter and I had a day to ourselves! She treated me to a fancy frappe I can't reven remember what it was called but it had about a thousand calories in it! Did some fun shopping and then came here and sat on the deck in the sunshine with some wine and chips. I feel blessed to have a daughter. I really didn't think we would ever have a girl since boys were so prominent in my husband's family. But I got one daughter, one grandaughter and one great grandaughter! So I lucked out!

Back to work. Have a super first week of June!



💚Marching on to Spring💚

                                            Spring Tulip Farm https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/spring-tulip-farm-by-m-donna/  ...