Tips, Treats & Treasures: April 2013

Monday Message

~ My Monday Message ~

image source

:)...

~ Tammy ~

Happy Birthday to our little Princess

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet granddaughter today!

I hope she is having a funtastic time while on her Disney cruise!

A Night At The Opera - The Italian Girl In Algiers

We attended the Atlanta Opera performance of 'The Italian Girl in Algiers' this evening. This performance was a comedy, and it lived up to that with lots of laughs. This being our fourth visit to the Opera, I find that I always come away with a new appreciation of this art. An interesting stage set, with a large book that opened and closed with the lifting of the front cover to reveal the main set. Which changed at times with using different props brought in by characters during different scenes, and without a curtain closing. Scenes were performed on top of the closed book as well as with it opened. An entertaining performance with great music and vocals.

The Italian Girl in Algiers

"In the spring of 2013, The Atlanta Opera will present Rossini’s bel canto opera The Italian Girl in Algiers for the first time. In this whimsical, madcap adventure set in a 1930's pop-up book, Isabella is captured by an Algerian ruler who dreams of adding an Italian wife to his harem. Once imprisoned, Isabella turns the tables and rescues the man of her dreams. With more belly laughs than any opera should reasonably permit, Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers will charm your socks off!"

Sung in Italian with projected English translations

The Atlanta Opera - The Italian Girl in Algiers

Me and Bogart

(Camera phone photo)

Me and Bogart from tonight at Adam's Restaurant and Piano Bar in Buford!

-The words on the newspaper are..."Drinking in moderation"...

Yes, Uh Huh, Absolutely!

I was quite amused and had to have a photo! Notice the kiss on his cheek? It wasn't from me though!

We were having a Friday Date Night with Friends and it was our first visit to Adam's. The food was great and we will definitely go there again! The piano player looked a lot like Kid Rock and played and sang songs from a wide variety of genres. Some songs were better than others, and it was a bit hard to hear each other at times, but the experience on a whole was very good!

Good times!...

~Tammy~

Dust in the wind...

"Dust in the wind" may be a favorite song of my hubby's. But, for the past few weeks around here in the south, we have been seeing dust in the wind! ...with the dreaded yellow dust and its covering of everything! Pine pollen. It's everywhere! During this time, relief comes in the form of rain, and it's wished for just about every day to wash it all away, if only for little while.

This stuff is an even more unwelcome site for those who have allergies. The overload of pine pollen makes it hard, to almost impossible, to go out and enjoy the warm springtime weather. It often looks like smoke in the air, with a wind gust.

The pine trees are covered with what looks like little yellow star bursts, and the pine pollen comes from these. Since the pollen covers everything outside, vehicles also have a dusting of yellow. Even if you keep your vehical in the garage, as we do. But once you're out driving it collects on your vehicle too. So, as I often say, "This too shall pass!" ...and pass it shall, it will then be only a memory...eventually!

It looks like little yellow star bursts in the pine trees.

A little closer view.

This was after rain washed some of it away!

After the rain and then dried on an outdoor chair.

This was on the concrete patio where some of the pollen had collected after the rain

and then dried. {Yuck!}

Cough-hack, sneeze-ah-choo!!...

~Tammy~

A Place to Blog?

Is this the perfect office space or what?

After viewing this photo my imagination went running wild with the delightful thought of this being my office space. Also since it's a bit chilly here today, with temps below 50 degrees on this spring morning that has me saying, "My, what a lovely winter we are having this spring!" This looks like the perfect place to be, even if only in my mind!
So for now I'll be thinking..."Ah, I'll just be blogging from here today!"

Please try to not interrupt my ...daydream! *wink*

~ Tammy ~

A Visit With Family

We had a little visit with Hubby's parents here when they stopped in as they traveled back to FL after a trip to Indy. We enjoyed seeing them and having them here with us. I have to say these two impress me with their zest for life and their busy life style. I can only hope to be as healthy, active, and looking as great as them at their age. It was good to spend the evening at home with them and also our youngest Daughter was here too with her pup Dallas. We had gotten a delicious Boston Pork Butt to serve for dinner, so we made BBQ sandwiches along with mac & cheese, baked beans and potato chips. Yum! It really was a very good and delicious idea! We were all entertained by watching the pups Aeon and Dallas do their tumble fun for most of the evening until our Daughter and her pup had to head home, and it was bedtime for the rest of us. We said our good-byes in the morning along with having a little coffee and they then got on the road to drive home to Florida.

A few photos from their visit.

Hubby & His Parents

Hubby & his Mom.

Our Daughter.

Me, Aeon and Hubby. I love Aeon's little smiling face!

~ Tammy ~

Aeon - @ 13 weeks

Our little pup Aeon is not so little anymore. He had his Vet check-up on Monday, April 15th and was said to be doing very well and also had his next series of vaccinations. At 13 weeks old, he now weighs 25.4 lbs. I think if I stare at him long enough, I can actually see him growing! He has been doing so well with the at home training, and the house breaking too! He is very eager to please and seems to want to just be by our sides and is quite content knowing we are there with him.

Aeon loves to play outside, and ice cubes are a fun treat!

It's a nice place for a nap too!

On the way to visit the Vet.

I used a laundry basket to transport him in the car because he is smaller than the travel crate and I didn't have anyone to hold him.

After his adventure he napped on the way home.

I used a large and small carabiner to attache him to the basket for safety, and to keep him from jumping up or out, and also used the car seat belt to secure the basket since he has been too small for the travel crate.

I think this is the last time he will fit in the basket for the ride!

Sporting his new camo bandana.

A little hiding place. I think that he thinks I can't see him here!

The "Are you talking to me" look! Or more like "Did you say Treat?!"

Aeon likes his new Kuranda bed. We chose this because it is proclaimed to be chew proof and provides orthopedic support for him.

The new bed fits nicely in the crate. He seems to enjoy it!

Aeon has graduated to the full crate with no divider now!

This is the "I miss you already" face! But sometimes we have to leave him and this is his safe place!

I love this sweet face!

He sure is a handsome fella!

More "Tales of Aeon" to be continued again soon!...

~Tammy~

Monday Message

~ My Monday Message ~

image source

Wise words from Mr. Emerson! Illustrated beautifully by Mr. Hunt!

Perhaps this was the original idea for:

One of my favorites!

"Live well - Laugh often - Love much!

Live, Laugh, Love...

~ Tammy ~

Jewelry by Tammy ~ Sets

A few differently designed sets.
Mixes of metal, glass and acrylic.

Pearls, pearls and more pearls.

Pearls and bead caps

Red and gold.

Glass and metal beads

Black and antique gold.

Glass beads

Purple and lavender.

Acrylic and glass seed beads

~ Tammy's Tip Today ~ Great online shopping place!

nomorerack

Everything You Love, For Less

I have a new shopping addiction...nomorerack.com. Nooo, I'm not really addicted to it, really I'm not! OK maybe it's more of an obsession. Or, no wait!... something like a really, really fond of kind of thing. What ever it is I must share it because this is a great place to shop online! Their website states - "simply unbeatable deals! Deals go live every day at 12pm EST."- I've definitely found a few deals that I just had to take advantage of! There is a $2 flat shipping per item. I have found some great deals here with free shipping on some of the items I've purchased also. They offer a free buySAFE certificate of guarantee on your purchases! This gives great peace of mind when ordering. They will email you when your order has shipped and provide a tracking ID to track the status of your shipment. So far everything I have purchased has been perfect, actually the whole experience has been that way as well! You can like them on facebook and get notices of daily deals there too. Some items are only available for a short while so you need to get it while it's available. I saw a notice on the top of their site for Guide Dogs of America, that states: Proceeds help provide guide dogs to the visually impaired across North America. I like that too! Hop on over there and take a look at their website. I think it's truly awesome with many awesome deals! You just might think so too.

http://nomorerack.com/ <~

Happy Shopping!...

~Tammy~

My new phone - iPhone

iPhone 5

Can you hear me now?...

I'm excited about the purchase of my new iPhone 5 over the weekend, and so far I am loving it. It has been about four years since I last upgraded! I've had the first generation Droid for all of that time. My Daughters have been asking me for a very long time, when was I ever going to do this? Change! ...that is all I can use as an excuse for now. Not wanting to make a *change* actually. Being comfortable with what I had was, well, comfortable. And, it can also be a bit time consuming to learn something new, especially if it's a techie gadget! ...for me anyway!

I became more, and more disappointed (uh, make that frustrated!) with the battery life or lack there of, with the previous phone for quite a while. It's been a good phone and has served its purpose. But, we have to keep up with technology as far as these new 'smart phones' go.

Now I look forward to a much longer battery life and the longer use with my new iPhone, along with all of the new things I can do with it. I do really like the Siri feature on the iPhone 5 which (in case you didn't know) uses voice activated commands to do many tasks such as, sending a message, making a call or searching info. I also like the ease of adding my email accounts to one place, and how easy it is to access them. I look forward to getting to know more about my new toy/phone! A 'change is good' moment for me! So ...can you hear me now?

Why did it take me so long?{shrug}...

~Tammy~

A Spring Break Visit

It's the Spring Break time of year and for our Granddaughter, hers was spent at our house last week. She stayed here after everyone came for Easter. She was happy about staying with us, which she mentioned a few times by saying to me, with much excitement, "I'm staying for five days!" She enjoyed having her time alone with us. She's very entertaining and is quite the character, and it was fun to have her here with us. It was so nice to have Spring weather finally, and to be able to go outside and enjoy some warmth and sunshine. She and our pup Aeon were fun company for one another, and enjoyed playing outside together. They were great buddies! We did some dog-sitting of Dallas-pup for her Aunt on Monday, and she had a great time taking care of, and playing with him too. A few outings with going out for dinner and lunch, shopping and to get extra special sweet treats too. She was happy that her mom and little Sis came here on Thursday. Her little Sis would be having a sleep over night with her here, while mommy went to visit their Aunt. They were two giggle filled, happy little sisters that were glad to be together again after their time apart, and we enjoyed having both of them here staying with us.