Many of you have asked where in the world I've been.

All I know is that after 7 plus years of blogging and a different lappy, which I don’t like, I seem to have lost my blogging fervor.

Someday, when you least expect it, I will post again.

For those of you still waiting I say thank you.

Meanwhile, I am rather prolific on twitter. Find me: @KeethaB
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The Eclectic Company - Waitin' on a New Adventure!!
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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Friday Fragments on a Very NonWinter-ish Day

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It's almost Friday, so for ONCE I'm trying to pull my fragments together early rather than my usual late or even nonexistent.


I Went Back Down to the Creek


And when I go to the creek, I can't just dip my toes in, I have to fish things out and bring 'em home with me!!!

This copper pint oil can was my favorite find of the day. I love how shiny he is and yet he still has a few splotches of green patina showing around the edges.

Doesn't he look HANDSOME escorting Miss Tea Cup???


I also "caught" a Majestic shiny tin coffee pot which joined my orange basket vignette in the dining room.

Oh, looky here! A REAL antique rug beater and a miniature faux one.

Nope - - - haven't found any faux eggs for my wire chicken egg basket yet.


More copper oil cans. These are some honkin' BIG oil cans - - - maybe some Wisconsin dairy farmer used them to oil up his farm engines. I don't know, but I love their color AND the way the tips of two of them bend over.


They moved in on the lower level of the African Savannah.



Confession Time


See this cute little thank you note? Other people THRIVE on writing them. They mail them out if you say "God Bless You" when they sneeze.

I'm NOT one of those people.

I'll send you an e-mail, or blog about what you send me or do for me, and I'll for SURE brighten up with a huge smile and grovel at your feet with my thankfulness in the moment.

But I can't REMEMBER the last time I mailed a thank you note.

I deserve to be kicked out of the race - - - the HUMAN RACE!


So, when I receive a thank you note, I put it right here, on top of my bread box, where it will strike guilty daggers into my heart every time I pass by.

Nope - - - hasn't made me write one thank you note yet.



Surprised AGAIN by the Mail!!


A while back I received a Wisconsin Badger Nutcracker in the mail from an undisclosed recipient. I made a blog post and BEGGED due disclosure. Turns out it was from my mother-in-law, Robin.

Well - - - ANOTHER mystery package arrived!

What can it be????


Oh my GOODNESS!!! One of my all time favorites - - - NEWSIES!!!

A while back I did a post about Newsies, mentioning that we used to have the VHS tape and wishing I now had it now on DVD.

I guess SOMEONE took that as a hint - - - because VOILA!!!! They sent it to me!!

Oh mysterious gifter, PLEASE reveal yourself.

And THANK YOU!!!!! (Better take that, 'cause there's no snail mail one coming.)



Home, Home on the Range

The kitchen range that came with this duplex was dying. The self-cleaning and timing portion of the oven never worked from day one.

I don't do oven cleaning without self.

Then the right front burner started shorting in and out - - - would work sometimes and sometimes wouldn't.

Besides, that old dinosaur had coil burners.

I HATE coil burners - - - I just can't keep them clean no matter how hard I try.

So, I betook myself to the store to PRICE a new kitchen range with the PLAN of asking the landlord if I could pay the difference and upgrade to a ceramic top.

As fortune would have it, the day I popped into Sears, they were having their year end sale and if I bought it, I could save $150. So I decided it would be better to ask forgiveness than permission and BOUGHT IT.

Later I contacted the landlord and offered to just call it my stove and take it with me when we move. (Oh heaven forbid that we should EVER move again!!!!)

But my landlord she is one AWESOME lady and she said she would pay for it all.

She even THANKED me for doing the shopping for her!


So, my shiny new stove has moved into the kitchen and I am one happy camper!!!

Oh, I KNOW it isn't stainless steel - - - but you see girls, I don't LIKE stainless steel. Too cold. Too commercial. YUCK, not for me.


But I DO love me my ceramic top almond colored range. Ahhhhhhhh the CLEANNESS of it all!

(Yes Cass, I KNOW you got rid of your ceramic top, and I GRIEVED just to hear you tell it!)



Florida Girl's Scarf


My OTHER mother-in-law, Rosie, sent me this Florida girl's scarf for Christmas. It's a cute little thing made mostly from single strands of yarn.

It is surprisingly warm though - - - I don't think you'd catch ME wearing it in Florida heat and humidity.

Too bad the light/shadows in this picture and my sober face make me look like I just stepped out of a Vincent Price horror movie.

Bwaaaa haaaa haaaa!!!



Angels Among Us


Our oldest daughter told us she knows some folks who seriously believe when they find a feather on the floor that a real live angel left it behind.

Fortunately for us, Fisherhubby and I BOTH have feather pillows, so we are abundantly BLESSED with angel sightings. (Well, pseudo sightings - - - we find the feathers, not the angels.)


I told my friend Kay, with whom I work BOTH at the Library and at the Shepherd's Loft about our angel sightings.

The other day while we were both working in the library she brought me THIS piece of angel evidence.

Fisherhubby says it's from a DIRTY angel.



The Frozen Tundra is Not


The other day we had some snow. I got all excited thinking that FINALLY winter might be coming to the usually frozen tundra of Central Wisconsin.


I even took this picture to COMPARE when the snow got deeper.

HA!

We've had so many 40 degree sunny days and so few below freezing days that the bare ground is showing in many places.

This is NOT what I call winter, and I'm not a very happy winter camper.

Fisherhubby says it is despicable weather.



Mommy's Idea

Please head on over to Mrs. 4444's place
And check out all the Friday Fragments.

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18 comments:

Mrs4444 said...

I agree--Where the heck is our winter?! We need at least one snow day this year!

I LOVE your new stove! The oil cans are, too, and I too love the way they tip.

Nice job, linking up early, Keetha! BTW, is Keetha your real name? (just curious)

Vincent Price, huh? That's pretty funny.

It's always nice to see evidence of "what goes around comes around." Yea on the surprises in the mail. I'm with you on the thank you notes; I only send them to grandmas.

Actingbalanced said...

I agree about the weather - here in SC we have only had 2 nights total where the weather has dipped below freezing... heck my roses were still blooming until this month...

Love your finds!

Unknown said...

You fund those? in the creek? I never find anything but rocks! I love the oil can's, love them. I'm seriously addicted to the tv show American Pickers. Just once I'd like to find something cool...

Happy Friday!

Ellen aka Ellie said...

I love sending and receiving thank you notes. I have some cute ones! You DO thank people, so you won't be thrown out of the human race. My husbands children on the other hand? He sent out Valentine packages (as always) and he followed them with an email stating, "Don't make me ask you if these ever arrived, and when they do, thank Ellie because she's the one who puts them together!" I was so embarrassed, but you know what? We did get a lovely thank you from one daughter, complete with videos and photos of the kids with their treats, and it made our smiles bigger for a few days to see those sweet faces!

Ellen aka Ellie said...

BTW, not fragging, but my post yesterday was about teaching. Hope you saw it or will see it.

Wayne W Smith said...

That tea cup looks like an amazing find. Sounds like you had an interesting week.

Tracy said...

I agree about stainless steel appliances. I don't like them at all. I've been replacing my 18 year old appliances with all black ones. I still need to do the stove/oven but I will get gas not a ceramic top like you got.

Ann in the UP said...

Just a line to let you know I've been here---even though I'll be AWOL until Monday.

You DOOOO thank people! You're the embodiment of gratitude. Don't sweat the notes.

Nice stove.

mub said...

I agree with you about the stainless appliances... I think they're just plain blah but if I had the choice of getting rid of my ceramic range I totally would throw it out the window in a second ;)

Erin said...

I love your clean shiny new stove! I'm with you...I'm not a huge fan of stainless steel. A nice clean white will do for me!

Kathy ... aka Nana said...

No snow here. :-(

I like your stove! We have a glass top (provided by the builder when we bought this house). I do NOT like it ... it shows every little scratch or scrape. ugh! I had a ceramic top range (I think it was a ceramic top) at our old house ... it had enough of a white/gray speckling on the black top that it never showed dirt and either the speckling or the material of the top itself was very scratch resistant. I loved that stove and hated to leave it behind (of course, I also hated to leave behind the 2 y.o. remodeled kitchen, too ... figures, I lived with the hideous kitchen for 8 years, finally talked DH into a full remodel, and we move 2 years later - sigh).

Ok, I'm babbling! Sorry! Thanks for stopping by!

Keri said...

I love your new copper pot.

I must get the "no thank you card" gene from YOU. AND the "daggers of guilt" gene.

Congrats on your new stove! I prefer gas, myself. But that's a nice one!

You know I agree with you on the lack of snow.

nancygrayce said...

Love your fishing trophies! And oh, no, we don't need any scarves in Florida this year. In fact I just walked out in the yard and raked some leaves off the pool deck.....not to be confused with "cleaned" off the pool deck!

We really needed to cool the Gulf down before hurricane season....I don't think it's happening. Yikes!

Cass @ That Old House said...

I am trying to remember the BEST of all the cleaners I found for the glass top cooker -- I have a bottle at the beach house and my sister's heading out there this weekend; I'll ask her to peek.

Lots of cleaners leave streaky bits.

I loved the LOOK of the smooth top cooker, but Howard really didn't like how I burnt things, and then gave up cooking pretty much altogether. Ruined a pot, too.

Good luck with your new stove -- it's a beauty! LOVE the white. I am having SO much trouble maintaining the stainless cooktop I have now; it STAINS. Isn't it supposed to NOT do that???

And you may look menacing in that photo, honey, but your boobies look AMAZING.

Just thought I'd toss that in.

And I am LOVING the mild winter -- last year I spent 4 months sliding from our driveway to our door, down the slope. Got tired of strapping those Yak Trax things on my shoes.

Sorry ... if we get any snow, I'll tell it to backtrack to YOU.

Ugh I just squooshed a spider with my bare finger. Ick. And I am still typing!!!! ACK. Time to go toss a dead arachnid, and wash my hands.

Bye!
Cass

Sorta Southern Single Mom said...

You header makes me miss the snow. We might get some Below the Mason Dixon Line tomorrow night, but it was 60 degrees yesterday!

I'm terrible about thank you notes too, which is a HUGE faux pas in The South. Heck, moms write notes for playdates... playdates!

I don't like stainless appliances either. Mine are black.

Kay said...

We have had a couple dustings of snow, but that is it! My kids are so disappointed! It's been crazy. I just hope that does not mean a miserable hot summer.

I have to be good at thank you cards because I have relatives that will hold it against me :-(

Your scarf it very lovely! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Patti @ Pandoras Box said...

You have to go over to Mamie Janes blog to see what she did with her oil can (she got published, too!) I can't imagine pulling things out of a creek - with my luck it would be gruesome and part of a cold case! Great new stove - and I am with you in regards to stainless steel!

Claudya Martinez said...

I am terrible about sending out thank you card, it's shameful.

I love that you mention things on your blog and they magically appear in your life.