My family tree...

...is full of interesting and colorful people. There's George Ives, the scoundrel. He was so bad that they hang him every year in effigy.

http://www.experiencegoldwest.com/listings/16583.htm

Poor George.

Then there was Mabel Ives. She was pretty cool. Towering over most men of her time at 6 ft. I hear that she owned the town of Ely Nevada once and worked as a seamstress for a Hollywood movie studio when she was committed to a sanatorium after she was diagnosed with TB.

Then there's this fella;

http://garyives.wordpress.com/

He's a published author! That's my uncle :-) Pretty cool! Check it out.

sigh

I'm feeling a little "officially" old today.

Someone that I was friends with in high school passed away last week. Oh, it's not like we kept in touch, we didn't. And we weren't best friends. None the less, he was someone in our 'click' that I hung around with and cared about. He had a heart attack. He was 56. It made me feel sad.

I'm dreaming...

....of a white Christmas....Oh, right, it's not even December yet. But it is tomorrow!!!

This weekend I will be happily putting up the tree and decorating the house and listening to Christmas carols and watching Christmas musicals. Bill is going to visit the kids so I'll be by my cheery self. No, I don't mean cheery because he'll be gone. I mean cheery because I'll have Christmas things to do. What's happier than that?? I'm even going to wrap presents! I can do that because I'm done shopping :-) Yeah, don't hate. hahahahahahaha And do you know, for the very first time, I bought every single present, on-line. A couple days ago a package was delivered and Bill asked me, "did you buy everything on-line?!" I had to think about it...yep, I did. Well, I'm going to get a couple things at a real store this weekend. But still, 97% of everything I got, was purchased on-line. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I'll be doing lots of happy things things this weekend.

Oh, and I still have 2 quilling projects to finish as well. And someone asked me yesterday if I could squeeze in another one before Christmas. I said yes! I LOVE Quilling!!

The 12 days of Christmas

Do you have any idea how much the 12 days of Christmas gift giving would cost for the entire 12 days? HA! I know, you've been wondering your whole life right?!

Well, here's the answer, $107,379.52. Truthfully, I thought it would be more than that.

Tis the season!

OK, Thanksgiving is officially over now...Hooray for Christmas! I love Christmas. I love the sounds and smells and good feelings and joy and colors and all the sparkly things and Christmas music! I got all the decorations in the house but haven't started putting them up yet.

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving though :-)
Did you shop on Friday? I thought I might go out this year but then I thought again and stayed home instead. Bill is putting up cabinets in the garage so I helped with that. Mostly I just had to hold them up. In between, I did lots of quilling. Saturday we went to see Lincoln. I think Daniel Day Lewis made an excellent Lincoln. Also, the "sets" and costumes were out of this world. Seriously! It was so believable you almost felt like you were there. I loved it. But, you have to be a fan of history to enjoy it. It was kind of slow...and it's a long movie. The other interesting thing is, I wonder how many under 30 'African Americans' know what the 13th amendment says. I know that isn't entirely fair, most people under 30 wouldn't know. But African Americans should. Interesting.

The beginning of winter is upon us. It's close to freezing or below every morning now. I hope it snows soon! hahahahahahaha. No really, I do!

What are you thankful for?

You
my health
my family
blue skies
autumn
winter
summer
spring
french fries
malibu rum
a job
love
a car
freedom
books
dogs
music
eyeglasses
humor
coffee
strawberry pop tarts
desk fans
cell phones
slippers
cool ink pens
birthdays
cheerful people
EVERY THING!!!

HAPPY  THANKSGIVING  EVERYONE

Long live Twinkies!

Hello beautiful...

...the sunrise I mean;

I'm not a fan of driving in when it's dark and coming home when it's dark but the time change does have it's perks!

getting stuff done!

What nice long weekend it was for some of us.

Saturday, Mom and I went to our first, second, third and last, Christmas church bazaars. The 3rd one was ok and we actually bought some things but the first 2 were a bust. The first one was like a giant garage sale complete w/used furniture. ick. The 2nd had some homemade things but it was tiny, like an afterthought. But now we can say we've been to one.

Bill built these shelves for me in the hallway - I still have to paint them and put more pictures on them but I LOVE them!! It's like looking at a giant collage! Love, love, love it. This part of the hallway is open to the kitchen and the family room so we see it a lot.

I also finished another commissioned quilling project over the weekend. This one is a gift for a woman who is retiring, favorite color lavender, likes to quilt and grow flowers;

I even worked on some Christmas things! Oh, and it snowed Monday!! It was a good weekend  :-)

KOG

Which stands for, Kokomo Opalesceant Glass. Here's their website;

http://www.kog.com/

It's pretty cool. I know because Mom and I took a tour of the factory yesterday. They only do one tour a day, 4 times a week. I'm not a glass artisan, I don't own any glass art - aside from a couple little tiny things - and I don't seek out glass art. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating tour. The factory itself was built in 1888 and has never been "updated". There is no climate control in the factory. So the winter months are probably ideal to work in. During the summer, the workers come in in the middle of the night and finish up their days work by morning.

Our first stop was the furnace room;

Each one of those costs about a million dollars to replace and they are on 24/7. It's 2600 degrees in there! To the left of this picture they are pouring molten glass into forms;

And to the left of this picture is where they plop down big clumps of molten glass that goes through rollers to create sheets of glass;

Next, we got to watch a couple craftsmen make a floppy bowl, hand blown and twirled;

There is a lot storage for the glass. This a picture of where they put the sheets of glass - about the size of 1/2 of your sliding glass door;

And there are lots and lots of little isles like this one;

And here's a bit of fun trivia ~ every person who has ever worked at KOG, has the signed a wall somewhere in the factory;



Chances are, if you're ever in an old church or building with stained glass windows, that glass was made here at KOG.

I highly recommend the tour next time you have a couple hours to kill.

Moving forward

Did you vote? Did you exercise your right to be heard and counted?

The system is flawed in many, many ways. The media is flawed in many, many ways. The United States is flawed in many, many ways. Long conversations can be had about these flaws. But it's what we've got. If you don't like it, then do something to affect change.

But don't be so overly dramatic (part of pop culture) and say you're physically sick to your stomach or "if (so and so) wins, I'm leaving the country." Unless of course you actually plan to do so. Don't call everyone who votes differently from you, an idiot. It's a free country after all. I know quite a few very intelligent people who voted for Obama. That's their right. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, religion and political beliefs. I don't have less respect for them because they exercised their right to choose. I didn't vote for Obama. But the majority of the people who voted, did. I'm disappointed. I'm frustrated. I don't agree with the Democratic party as a whole. But it's what we've got right now.

So, lets move forward.

Saints and souls

Today we are smack in the middle of a few odd religious days.

First up, Halloween.
"All Hallows' Eve falls on October 31st each year and is the day before All Hallows' Day, also known as All Saints' Day in the Christian calendar. The Church traditionally held a vigil on All Hallows' Eve when worshippers would prepare themselves with prayers and fasting prior to the feast day itself. The name derives from the Old English 'hallowed' meaning holy or sanctified and is now usually contracted to the more familiar word, Hallowe'en.


Today, is All Saints Day.
"In Western Christian theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries. Christians who celebrate All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day do so in the fundamental belief that there is a prayerful spiritual bond between those in purgatory, those in heaven, and the living. Other Christian traditions define, remember and respond to the saints in different ways; for example, in the Methodist Church, the word "saints" refers to all Christians and therefore, on All Saints' Day, the Church Universal, as well as the deceased members of a local congregation, are honoured and remembered."

And tomorrow is, All Souls Day or Day of Dead.
The Roman Catholic celebration is associated with the doctrine that the souls of the faithful who at death have not been cleansed from the temporal punishment due to their sins and from attachment to mortal sins cannot immediately attain the beatific vision in heaven, and that they may be helped to do so by prayer and by the sacrifice of the Mass. In other words, when they died, they had not yet attained full sanctification and moral perfection, a requirement for entrance into Heaven. This sanctification is carried out posthumously in Purgatory.

Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it is a national holiday, and all banks are closed. The celebration takes place in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. They also leave possessions of the deceased.

Day of the Dead seems the most celebratory by far!