Luncheon

Before school wrapped up for the year, I had a visitor come and bring me a gourmet lunch from Sonic to share with her.  She had her own personal chauffeur and accountant (her mother). 

The lunch was delicious.  The company was even more so.  There was a little bit of artwork left behind for the girls in the office and me to enjoy as well. 

Entrepreneurs

Somebodies in our family have become entrepreneurs...

Signage

 

 On a couple of recent afternoon phone calls, I learned all about business..from my six-year-old granddaughter.

Her mother informed me that the two girls, Lillie (6) and Lydia (4) had crafted some bracelets using pipe cleaners and beads.  They had made some using patt-er-uns (pronounced just like her mother and uncle used to say).  I asked to speak to the head of the corporation and Lillie was given the phone.

She informed me that they had lotses of bracelets for sale.  One bracelet costs one dollar.  Their store was set up on the front porch.  "We wanted to put it in the yard down next to the road but MAMA (meanest mother in the world was inferred here)  wouldn't let us." 

"We have a sign down by the road but people just keep on driving by.  Isn't that just RUDE?"

I asked her to pick out two which would match the kind of clothes she has seen me wear.  I was told, "You can only get one bracelet for a dollar."  So, I had to convince her that I would cough up two dollars in order to get two bracelets.

So, being the thoughtful grandmother that I am (living a bit more than an hour away), I suggested that the little entrepreneur give my sister (Aunt Brenda) and 'the girls' (her daughters) a call and ask them to come driving by to check out the new business.  I also suggested that she ring up MawMaw (her other grandmother).  Lillie thought this was a grand idea and handed the phone back to her mother with this instruction, "Please talk quick, Mama.  I need to make some calls."

Evidently a few choice calls were made.  One went out to her mother's friend who works nearby.  The friend couldn't come by the new store that day but promised to buy a few when she could on Tuesday.  Bridgette shared this information with the head of the corporation and learned, "But Mama, there won't be a sale on next Tuesday."

Aunt Brenda and the girls came with money in hand and didn't rudely drive by.  They stopped and shopped and bought treasures.  They were also informed that each bracelet costs a dollar. 

A bit later, MawMaw cruised down the street and wasn't rude either.  She stopped and did some OOOHing and AAHHHing.  Then, she asked how much a bracelet cost.  To which the little entrepreneur quickly responded, "three dollars," without batting an eye.  I told Bridgette that she certainly knows her clientele!  We grandmothers will pay anything won't we?

Small business in action - but not near the street!

A Birthday Celebration

Hot Dog!  Hot Dog!  Hot Diggedy Dog!

It is Lydia's birthday!

 

Happy 4th Birthday!

I've Been Pinning

Don't you just love Pinterest?  I ran into a teacher friend I have known for years and years when I was in the grocery store today.  She informed me that last summer I had transformed her life at a technology professional development session she had attended.

My heart was warmed.  My face began to beam.  I felt so puffed up with pride.  I was so glad to have made her life in the classroom more meaningful and full.  Then, she told me that she had become a huge fan of Pinterest! 

I do recall that during one of the breaks in one of the three sessions she participated in that facilitated she asked me to show her how to do something with Pinterest.  She didn't quite 'get' something about pinning and needed a little coaching.  So, I accessed my Instructional Tools Pinterest Board and shared with her just how to work through whatever it was her stumbling block happened to be. 

As I tried not to show that I was wilting a bit professionally and withering there on the educational leader vine, Jan went on to describe several of the wonderful tips she had picked up as a result of Pinterest...like how to cook corn-on-the-cob and shuck away the silks or how to clean your bathtub caulk and several other fabulous and life-changing pins. 

We never know what sort of impact we make upon people do we?  I feel so proud!

Transformed!

Toby got a haircut this week.  He went from being a shaggy mutt to...

...a Schnauzer!

Grace, the groomer, said she could tell that he had experienced that sort of haircut before because he was cooperative with her and didn't even flinch when she was trimming his eyebrows.  (I was so thankful to hear that he was cooperative and well-behaved because...well, let's face it, he isn't always!)

Mike thinks the new 'do makes him look quite sophisticated and was calling him Pierre and Jaques and names like that.  I just think it makes him look cute.  Don't you?

Bad Behavior

A couple of weeks ago, SOMEBODY was exhibiting poor choices.  His behavior was not acceptable.  I was ultra disappointed.  For three afternoons in a row I came home to find this:

SOMEBODY had jumped around enough to tear up the black plastic liner in his crate the first day.  So, I ordered a new one.  The next day, SOMEBODY had jumped around enough to get the crate to move all the way across the floor where he could reach the towel that was hanging on the closet door knob.  He had pulled the towel through the holes in the crate and yanked and chewed on it till it was wedged in and what was left had to be cut out.  The third day, there was a repeat performance with a different towel.  The fourth day, another repeat.  The fifth day, the crate was place on the rug.  The new plastic liner was installed.  Two cable ties were anchoring the back of the crate to the shelf brackets.  SOMEBODY's behavior dramatically improved!

Springing Up

With the longer hours of daylight and warmer temperatures, I've been doing a little springing up.  You know, that time of year when the rich, warm colors of winter need to be replaced with the bright, airy colors of spring and summer?  One of my springing up projects was to use up some fabrics that I had picked up. 

I stumbled across a couple or three or four... oh heck, a whole bunch of fabrics that I really did like.  I have learned that if something is cheap a bargain reasonably-priced and I really do love it - I need to just go ahead and get it and put it away till later.  You can read about one such project HERE. 

I dug into my stash of fabrics and found some prints that I thought would do just the trick to perk up our den.  I made some pillow covers similar to the ones in the afore-mentioned post.  What do you think?

Monogrammed Doors

I've noticed on Pinterest that there are lots of ;pins' and 'likes' of things that feature monograms.  I'm southern.  So, I've loved things monogrammed for a long time.  I have monogrammed sweaters, bags, purses, coverlets, pillows...well, you get the idea.

One of the cutest things I've seen lately are some of the different ways folks are adding a monogram to their door decor.  So, not to be outdone, I have joined the monogrammed door crowd!

Aren't these adorable?

My daughter, Bridgette, has a cottage business called Tops for Tots.  She crochets hats for children and creates all sorts of personalized gifts ranging from appliqued clothing to door decorations to garden flags.  I got the idea that an adaptation of the cute garden flags she creates would look really cute and simple on all three doors on my back deck.

I asked her if she could make me something that is about twelve inches square that I could run a dowel through.  She asked me what colors and fabrics and all that technical information required to personalize things and please the customer and I told her to just use her own discretion and make something cute.

These turned out perfect for the French doors leading into the kitchen!

She did just as I asked.  Doesn't she do magnificent work?  (She must have a wonderful mother!)  The O is appliqued out of a lime-green-and-white, geometric fabric onto burlap.  Then, she machine embroidered our last name at an angle across the middle of the O using black thread.  (Some of my fabric stash is a black, cream, and green scrolly (that is a very technical term) print indoor-outdoor fabric to cover my porch cushions and she knew that.)  I bought a couple of dowels and painted them with a bit of left-over oil-rubbed-bronze spray paint after I cut them down to size.  I got a package of finials to fit the quarter-inch dowels and spray painted them as well.  Then, Elmer's glue and I assembled them.  They are finished off with leather pieces tied on either end of the dowel between the flag and the finial.  I created a loop in the middle and tied on a wired-ribbon bow made of a scrolly black printed on burlap.

I think it turned out just adorable and am inspired to dig out that fabric and get started on covering the porch cushions!