water park day

Every year, J's youngest daughter and her family spend an afternoon at the water park with us and then we come to our house for a very late lunch. This year it was a special 10 year old's birthday too.

First, J's daughter had a sun screen party with the kids before all the fun in the wave pool, on the water slides and on the lazy river.


Then a birthday party for a very special 10 year old young lady. DQ made the cake for us. No sense heating up the oven during the summer, right?

Yes, another flip flop day. What am I going to do when I go back to work and have to wear real shoes?

dear fashion designers

Dear Fashion Designers and Womens Clothing Merchandise Buyers,

I went shopping last night in a store. Not online, in an actual store. This is rare for me, but I needed a few (gravity fighting) garments that aren't easy to purchase online. That part of the excursion was successful. My size, in stock, several of them, and on sale. A rare occurrance for which I am grateful indeed.

Then, I started looking around. My husband has a couple of special occasions coming up, and I thought it might be nice to wear something besides the dress that I've worn to every funeral and wedding I've attended for the past three summers. So I checked the dress department. Much to my chagrin, it is the same old story. The dresses have lovely fabrics, there are many with very classic prints and designs. The clearance prices are fabulous. Yet again this year, all of them are still, yes still, sleeveless. Dresses haven't had sleeves--not even short sleeves--for at least three summers at my local store.

Don't get me wrong, they are great dresses, but have you SEEN my upper arms? I'm a hard working woman with upper-midwest, Norwegian-American genetics. Yes, there are probably plenty of very slim women with these genetics. However, I seem to be built to withstand the cold. My upper arms are thick. Heck, my upper body is thick. I can haul a 50 pound feed sack and sink fence posts as well now as I could twenty years ago, but there is ZERO Madonna-upper-arm tone going on with that muscle.

Do you really want people eating meals at wedding receptions and other special functions with my upper arms in FULL VIEW? I mean, at the pool in a bathing suit is one thing. There are several other women at the pool who don't go to the gym either. But me going sleeveless for dressy occasions? Uh, no.

So then, dear designers, merchandise buyers and retailers, you have somehow become aware of this problem, and decided to do something about it. Next to the racks and racks of sleeveless dresses, you offer the cute little just-below-the-bust length cardigan sweaters to wear over the sleeveless wonders. HELLO? These skin-tight shrugs further emphasize my pre-existing conditions. There is not a foundation garment in the world that will hold it all in so it can be covered with something skin tight. Something may explode!

While it would be fabulous to have my forty-something mind in my twenty-something body (you know, those clueless years where you are a size 6 and are SURE you are fat), it just didn't happen. I like to eat, and yes, I have an occasional cocktail or beer. I have a lot of self discipline in a lot of areas. One of those areas is not around a pizza.

I exercise regularly, my blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels are super healthy. I just happen to be a middle age woman with a thick figure. Put some dang sleeves on the stuff already. I need a new dress.

Looking for the second part of the Summer Sale? Please read on....

More Summer Sale

Thanks for the wonderful response to the earrings I had here for sale. I'll get back to making things and showing you photos of recent creations after the move. Thanks again!

a new tranny

The people who are buying our house want to buy the appliances with it. Sounds good. The appliances have been dependable and have plenty of good use left on them. Unfortunately, after this deal was struck, the washer had its first "episode" in nine years of dependable use. Yep, my washer had tranny problems. It needed a new transmission and some sort of new seal. Cheap to fix? No. Here's the phone call to J.

J: D-L Company Sales Department, this is J speaking.

C: Hi, it's me. I have news.

J: Yesssss??????

C: I just spent $370 in less than an hour and there were no shoes involved.

Summer Sale

This was a post about sale on hand-made key fobs. Thanks for the great response!

While the sale is over, there is still a supply of fobs on hand. Please e-mail for more information.

my favorite golfer

Here's J on his way to the company golf tournament. It is an outing he really enjoys every year. Takes a pretty special guy to be willing to pose for a camera at 7:00 a.m. on a hot and humid Saturday morning. Thanks, J!

His team in the scramble finished 8 under par. Their last hole was the first handicap hole on the course and they got a birdie. The best part? J sunk the birdie putt and his name will be on the trophy on the last year he plays in this tournament, his second time on the trophy.

J's hat came from a West Michigan retail location of this store.

(Did I sound like I knew what I was talking about with all that technical golfing stuff? Oh good.)

P.S. Stop by the blog tomorrow for details on the Summer Sale!

garden party

Does it look like something out of a magazine? I think so too. These are photos from a recent evening spent in the amazingly beautiful back yard of our dear friends R and T. Both master gardeners, they've created a fabulous outdoor living space.

We began the evening with appetizers in this lovely area.


We had dinner here.



They've recently added another room to their outdoor garden home, and it includes two water features.

Nothing tops off time in a beautiful garden with special friends and good food like a friendly canine companion.