I might have a GREEN THUMB afterall!!

My Northern Pine is 6 months old and it's still alive! I bought it last December to use as a display for some of my necklaces and bracelets when I had my kick-off party for my NeeNee & CheeChee's Beaded Things website (www.neeneeandcheechee.com). Most of my plants die, so I just resigned myself to ever having indoor plants. I figured that this Northern Pine would eventually die too. After my party last December, I put the plant on top of my dining room hutch and it started growing new shoots at the top. So, I decided to plant it in my pottery shard pot. I decorated this pot with the pottery shards about 10 years ago. Annie C. lived in our garage apartment when we lived here in Dallas on the "M" Streets. Annie called the apartment her treehouse. Annie is a potter and she does some beautiful work! Check out her website at www.earthtoannie.com Every once in awhile Annie would "clean house" and get rid of her pottery that didn't live up to her high standards. One day we came home from work and she was tossing some of her pottery from her apartment balcony and it crashed into many pieces on our driveway. Of course, I loved ALL of Annie's pottery and I hated to see any of her pieces get broken. She collected the broken pieces in a big bucket and one day I decided to use the pieces and I made this plant pot. I'm very proud that I have this beautiful plant pot to hold my LIVING Northern Pine!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

On the way home from work tonight, I saw lightening to the north of Dallas. We made one stop at the cleaners and then, we saw very dark clouds. Bob said he saw the dark clouds heading south and clouds to the south of us heading north. He said we might have some exciting weather come through. I was hoping that they would bring some rain to downtown and maybe some lightening too. I love to watch storms and lightening from our 17th floor perch. We have a great, unobstructed view from our windows that look to the east and south for anywhere from 5 - 10 miles, I think. We hadn't been home for more than 10 minutes when Corbin called and as I was talking to him, I saw a rainbow over the east part of Dallas. I got off the phone and photographed this rainbow. Then, I heard a lot of noise. Bob was upstairs, so I hollered up at him and asked him what was he doing up there making all the racket! He said he wasn't doing anything and he told me to look out the windows. Hail!!! About the size of quarters! It was hitting our windows hard too. We have nearly floor to ceiling windows and I was getting a bit scared that the hail would come flying right through one of them. But, thank goodness the hail only collected on our windowsills. We had about 5 minutes of rain, then it all stopped and the sun came back out. That was our exciting weather!

Beaded Bead Necklace

Here is a photo of my beaded bead necklace. It was a little time consuming, but I like the finished necklace. The beaded beads were fun to do once I learned the technique. If I decide to sell this, the cost will be a bit more than most of my necklaces on my website (www.neeneeandcheechee.com), as this one took me a lot of time to make. I'll wear it to work tomorrow with my new turquoise, knit top. I enjoy working so I can get dressed up and show off my pretty jewelry!

Beaded Beads

I wanted a new bead project, so yesterday I looked through my huge stack of bead books and pages I have printed out from websites of beaded jewelry I want to make some day. I found a necklace that had beaded beads on them. How beautiful! So, I decided that I wanted to try making beaded beads. I'm not working temp today and I have the car so I could run errands, so I went to a bead shop and bought the supplies I needed. Here is a photo of my beaded beads. It was so easy! Why haven't I tried these before? Now, I need to make a necklace with them. I'll post a photo of my finished necklace when I make it.

Cavan Scott Tubbs

I have a slide show on my computer of all of the photos that are stored in my computer. It doesn't take up the whole screen like a screen saver. It's just a small slide show on one side of my computer. I usually don't pay much attention to it, but since I had my big computer crash a few weeks ago, I now have a different set of photos on my slide show. Bob found some discs that I have stored in slots on my computer desk, so he added those photos to my files on my computer when he was restoring it. Several of the discs have photos of Cavan, but since he died, I didn't want to look at the discs to see what photos were on them. This photo came up on the slide show the other day and I printed it out and propped it up on my computer desk. I think this was taken when Cavan was on his 6-month cruise aboard the USS The Sullivans in the Mediterranean. The captain of the ship had several discs of photos sent to me after Cavan died. Cavan looks quite happy here. Even though I know he's in a better place, he is very missed by his family and friends here on earth.

Fireworks!!

Bob and I just finished watching fireworks from our living room windows. We could see 12 displays from the different suburbs of Dallas on the horizon. But, Fair Park, which is less than 3 miles from our apartment, had the best display. Bob set up the digital camera on a tripod and took some photos and videos. Most of the photos he took will have to be discarded, but there were a few good ones. I'd much rather watch fireworks up close and personal with them, but being in our COOL apartment and not having to deal with crowds of people and traffic does have its advantages. When my boys were little, we used to go to Riverside Park in Tulsa and the fireworks would open right over our heads. I took a photo class when I lived in Tulsa and the instructor took us to one of the bridges that spans the Arkansas River in Tulsa and told us that would be a good spot to get nice photos of the fireworks. The photos were pretty good, but the next year I took my camera and tripod to Riverside Park and I got some terrific photos! And I could smell them, feel the debris and hear the loud booms. I still think that's the way to watch fireworks!

WORK = MONEY!!

I've been working a temp job this week. One of my temp agencies called me on Monday afternoon and asked if I could work the rest of this week. I was already scheduled to work at this same place next week. I've worked off and on at Lone Star Funds for about a year or so. The people there are wonderful and the office is beautiful. It's located in the same building where Bob works -- City Place. So, it's convenient for me to get back and forth and he even takes me to lunch! I sit in for the receptionist who is on vacation. It's a great job and it's nice to have the extra money.