Quilts....

"A Quilt Warms The Body and Comforts The Soul...."

Participating in the Tuesday display chain hostessed by Misi at 1890 Gable House Musings.....

(Please do NOT enlarge photos....you will be grossed out by dust and cat hair....)

Quilt in brown tones:

Little quilts on a ladder:

Salvaged piece of a precious crazy quilt:

Close-up....look at the wonderful stitching....

Our couch quilt for snuggling: 

A quilt hanging:

A folded quilt in my chicken carrier:

Old quilt top in blues:

Our bed quilt (look - no kitties!!  Trust me - they weren't too happy to relocate....):

A quilt in wool:

  

A quilt made by my great grandmother:

My most precious quilt....Also made by my great grandmother....out of men's old neckties...It's tattered and torn in spots and too fragile to display any more....

But look at her impeccable stitch work:

Thanks, Misi, for hostessing another great chain!! I hope you visit everyone else's wonderful displays!

I Wished I May, I Wished I Might....And I Got The Wish I Wished That Night!

Most of you know who Lil Raggedy Angie is.....

(She's a Sweetie!!)

Well, a while back, Angie and her Princess got themselves a new little kitten named Fudge...

Now Fudge is about the cutest stinkin' little kitten I've ever seen....

So, I've been harassing teasing Angie about doing a swap....Ya know....One sweet, furry, little Fudge, for maybe one sweet, VERY furry, but not-so-little Snow Dog?

Gee....She didn't bite.....

But then, one late night last week, Angie did a post to see who was up late wishing on lucky stars, and gave a gift to the first three who commented....

Well, being the night owl crow that I am, I was one of the lucky winners!

So, I thought for sure this was it....I'd finally get my Fudge....

And Angie said she'd send him.....

And thought, in fact, she did send him.....

I couldn't wait to rip open that package when it came....

And there it was...Care instructions for Fudge!

I tore open the card....to find a note...from FUDGE!!

So, Fudge bailed....But he did send me the cutest little "Substitution Fudge" ever....

 (Check out his tag!! Noone's messing with MY Fudge...)

And Dear Angie sent me a whole load of other goodies to boot:

A basket, my lucky wishing star, a sweet lil raggedy angie annie of my own (isn't she CUTE??!), a painted spoon and fork, a lil cookie cutter, some lil grungy socks (sure hope the Princess isn't missing any socks!), and a magnet.....And....one of the sweetest gifts of all, was my very own cd with Fudge and Princess videos....so I can have my Fudge "fix" whenever I want it!!(Oh, and Fudge sent along some Neapolitan candies....I hadn't had those since I was a kid (why? I LOVE them!)....but, unfortunately, it took me a couple of days to find my camera charger cord, and I couldn't hold out that long....so they weren't around for the photo shoot.  I have to get me some more of those...

Here's where the socks ended up (at least for now...):

And here's my very own lucky wishing star:

Thank you so very much Angie (and Fudge...and Princess - especially if those are YOUR socks!)!! I love this package...and treasure your friendship....

Smiles & Raggedy Hugs.....





Thank you Laura!

Laura from Laura's Little House and Rhodes Creations recently had a generous giveaway....Once she reached 35 followers at her "Little House" blog, she gave away five personalized kitchen towels....In addition, she gave her first 10 commenters a gift....By the hair of my chinny chin chin (or would that be by the tip of my blackest, shiniest, tail feather???),  I was one of the first 10....So Laura sent me this wonderful canning apron:

And, yes, this Crow CAN can....(not to be confused with "CanCan" though....) (Sorry....the caffeine is wearing off....) ;o)



And, I was also lucky enough to be one of the other 5 winners and Laura made me (what else?) this crow towel:

Let me tell you....this lady can sew!  Thanks so very much Laura!  You are very kind and generous....

The Primitive Hutch Giveaway....

It is with great reservation that I am posting this....

Because, you see, the more people who see this, the less likely are my odds of winning.....

But, law degree or not, even TheCrankyCrow has a conscience.....

Check out this adorable gal that Robin (not this Robin - another Robin) from The Primitive Hutch is giving away to celebrate her birthday and blogging anniversary....

I really think this gal has my name written on her somewhere....Come on - she's holding a crow!! And my DH seems to think she has an uncanny resemblance to me.  (Not nice honey...I don't part my hair in the middle like that...!)

So....go check out the fun at Robin's - she's a sweetie - and she's from Wisconsin - and her favorite holiday is Halloween....just like this Robin!  (She's really my clone...)

But hurry - the fun ends July 1st when I win her!

:o)

The Bottomless Box: A Little Bit of *Parker's Paradise*

Woo Hoo!!

A few weeks ago, Linda from Parker's Paradise had a giveaway for her followers to celebrate her 4th year of blogging....and last week, I found out I was one of the four (yes, four) lucky winners!!

This week, a wonderful box arrived on my doorstep....

But this box was not just any box - it was from Linda....and it truly seemed to have no bottom....

Every time I took something out, it seemed there was still something more inside....(Now, if that isn't a little piece of paradise, I don't know what is!!)

Look at all the wonderful things that came out of that awesome box:

Where do I begin??? There was an apothecary box with 4 primly painted spoons; a creamer and sugar bowl; a little advertising canister crock; and a bar of goat milk soap....

A little tote in sage green paint and a painted plate with a pineapple.....

  

A wonderful little red candle shelf, with a grubby flicker candle and two wonderfully old rolling pins: 

And a partridge in a pear tree....

Just KIDDING!!!

But there were some stencils too I forgot to show in the photos...

Thank you, Sweet Linda, from the bottom of my heart.  I truly love all my treasures (still trying to figure out how you knew I wanted some rolling pins though!!)  What a generous and lovely gift you have given me and others.....Not only in this box with no bottom, but through your friendship and loving heart. Anyone who knows you, knows they are blessed.....



Thank You Barb!! Thank You Sue!!!

These thank-you's are several days late, and I apologize to the givers of these wonderful gifts....but the silence was only in my typing fingers....not in my heart.....

On Friday of Memorial Day weekend, Barb from Barb's Heartstrokes did a post and gave an "appreciation gift" for the first person to comment.  I don't think I was the first, but Barb sent me a gift anyway (such a sweetie she is!!)....

 And such a sweet gift it is!!

Perfect for the upcoming holidays and summer season!!

Barb does some amazing paintings on screens....(the photo doesn't show it well, but that is actually painted on screen....)  They are so cool! (Like I could even paint on wood, not!)  If you aren't familiar with Barb's work, check out her blog by clicking on the link above (she has a great Etsy and ArtFire shop too).  She's having another wonderful giveaway to celebrate some things in her life....including a "large-numbered" birthday!! ;o)  Happiest of birthdays early Barb!!! And thank you so much for my wonderful gift!!!  100x better than a worm!!

A few short days later, I learned I won a giveaway from Sue at Oodlekadoodle Primitives!  Sue sent me this little bowl with these awesome prim homespun-wrapped clothespins:

And the bestest-smelling dried raisin garland:

(Took me all of 2 seconds to find homes for these goodies!!)

Sue has a sweet blog with incredible recipes (WARNING!! Do not visit on an empty stomach!) and always has interesting tidbits to share or thought-provoking questions to ask...She, too, has a great Etsy shop with wonderful drieds and patterns.  Sue also does a giveaway every month....(Wow!) So, if you don't know Sue, you will want to!! She's a sweetie!! Thank you so very much Sue for my wonderful gifts!!

Ahhh....my mailbox is a happy place now....
:o)

 

They're Back.........

NO!! Not my patio flowers, Sillies!!!

I'm talking SNAKES!!!!!

I'm generally a nature lover at soul....I like frogs and toads, even though they're kinda slimy....I even respect (most) spiders....

HOWEVER, one thing I do not tolerate is SNAKES!!

And we have a plethora of them!!

No, not itty bitty little tiny garter snakes....or even harmless pretty little garden varieties....

We have huge, honking pine snakes (a/k/a "Western Fox Snakes")....

We've always had a "sighting" or two each year....but, several years back, we put a pool in our backyard.  My DH cleverly landscaped our uneven yard around it with lovely rocks....

And they came.....

(Note....this guy above is a newborn....)



Now we have a hibernaculum I do believe......

(Look close.....he's wrapped all along that rock....)

These guys average around 5' - 6' long....but we've had much, much, larger ones....They often stretch across country roads out here like the traffic flow monitors and you can't see beginning or end.... In fact, a few years back, one stretched from our garage door diagonally across our driveway to the back-around.....I nonchalantly stepped over it....not thinking it could possibly be....but it was.....

Yes, we've tried all sorts of things - decoy owls, moth balls, cement under the rocks, removing the greenery and a majority of the rocks....And they still come back....year after year.....

And it seems, they only come out when I do.....
(And please don't tell me they're more frightened of me than I am of them....SOOOO NOT true!!)

So, if one fine summer day you think to yourself that you have not heard from TheCrankyCrow in a while, you just might know what happened.....

:o

One Man + One Bottle of Round-Up = One Cranky Crow

OK folks....I don't have many pretty gardens....I do do a lot of container gardening....old pots, watering cans, even shoes....(Papa Crow (note - not "DH" tonight) remembers to pick up his shoes this time of year otherwise he knows they just might get something planted in them....)

But, one unique feature I always had was the flowers that bloomed in our patio bricks (yes, I said "in")....It always tickled me that these flowers would come up year after year on their own on a patio that Papa Crow carefully built with a layer of concrete underneath the bricks so weeds wouldn't come up....

And such a variety ~ At least 5 different colors of petunias, moss roses in every shade of the rainbow, vincas, and even gypsophila...)

BUT....today.....I went out to the patio and saw THIS!

And this:

And this:

And this:

A search of the dumpster in the garage revealed this:



It's very, very, quiet in the Crow's Nest tonight.....