DOING THE CHORES...

Hmmm! Any day is laundry day at our house!!  For two old people we generate a LOT of laundry and a lot of garbage-ha!  Just when I think I am ahead of the game, there is another 2 or 3 loads of laundry to do!  Today it was the throw rugs, a load of whites and a load of darks.  I do so wish I had an umbrella clothes pole as it is 75 degrees and sunny here today--heaven!  I love hanging sheets and towels on the line and conditions are perfect right now before the pollen season!  There is nothing more wonderful than the smell of line dried clothes but for now my dryer must suffice-ha!

 I love this vintage advertisement for Laundry Starch from Buffalo, NY  The ladies in their little bustles are hilarious!

And I really don't mind ironing once I get started and always do an entire basketful at once.  Some don't iron any more but I cannot abide wearing cotton blouses or shirts that have not had a quick run over with an iron.  But at least we do not have to use the flat iron in the vintage picture, bless this lady's heart! I have a vintage flat iron that I painted on and it sets on the floor for a door stop-ha!
   I had seen some painted in a magazine several years ago when I painted mine with a farm scene from my imagination.  I love it.

I also have some kitchen items, a vintage can opener with a wooden handle and a spatula that my Mom gave to me many many years ago.  She was always sharing anything I needed and always said, "keep it".  Mom's are like that, aren't they?  I miss her so much...

I have turned the photo sideways for viewing but these are hanging in my kitchen the long way.

Do you have any old utensils or laundry memorabelia to share?  I would love to see!!

So I am on my Third load of laundry, the rugs are done and back on the floors, the light clothes in the dryer and the dark load just finished in the washer!  Yay!, now I can spend some time out of doors taking pictures like this one of the young female Bluebird that visited us this morning.

 She is under the plant crook eating what has fallen from the Suet hanging there.

She is right on the curve of the upper crook hanger blending in with the background so that I can barely see her.  Now that I am looking at these pictures after posting, I think this may be a young Male who does not have all of his vivid colors yet.
   I have the windows open in the house and I love the sound of my windchimes that sound like a harp.  Happy day to you all and come back soon!
♥KERRIE♥
My heart to yours...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

ALL AROUND THE HOUSE VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Nothing cheers up a house as much as fresh flowers!  The bouquet of miniature tulips was a gift and looked so lovely on the table!

 

The colors of the leaves and blossom are so vivid.



These are my kissing Angels given to me back in 1996 by a very dear friend who has passed on just this last year. I love them very much....

These
are the paper Valentines on green ribbon banner  that I made from graphics from the Graphic's Fairy.

Lollipops in my flower frog, candle bear and Red Bow on Bunny



This is a Valentine banner of little quilt squares surrounded by eyelet material and folded over and stitched to hang on the dowel.  I made this a few years ago and put it out every year now.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!  I hope you all have a day filled with love and happiness!


Thanks for stopping by and do come again soon!

♥KERRIE♥
My Valentine heart to yours...

Blue Skies, Shining on me...

♫♫☺Bue Skies, shining on me, nothing but blue skies, do I see. ♫♫ Remember the lyrics to the song?  I love it!  My older sis and I always sing it with 2-part harmony and have since we were children!  During this last week we had much rain but there was one evening before dark when the sky was as blue as a robins egg and these fantastic puffy little clouds were floating along.  My camera was just snapping away and I did not know what direction to choose next!  The rendition of Blue Skies by Willie Nelson is not traditional but still uplifting...

I cannot help but smile just to look at these pictures!  If I had a bigger living room, I would frame a set of sky pictures and put them over the sofa, so that I would always see blue skies....
 
Blue Skies was written by Irving Berlin in December 1926.  The singer Belle Baker, introduced it on December 28th (My Mom's birthday and my grandson's) in 1926.

♫♫Bluebirds singing a song, nothin' but Blue skies all day long!♫♫
  We love the bluebirds, too!  This is a picture of a Blue Bird in our back yard last Spring when we had snow in early February here in South Carolina!  Hubby was able to snap this beautiful little fellow who was hanging to eat on the suet blog cage.

I hope you enjoyed today's post and you might like to visit my Christian blog this morning at http://kerrieshomejournal.blogspot.com/.  We also have a craft blog at http://kerrieskrafts3.blogspot.com/ and our original Two Happy blog at http://beaver-kerrie.blogspot.com/
          Thank you as always for visiting today and I hope you will come again soon! Hugs and blessings are wished for you on this beautiful sunny Sunday!

♥KERRIE♥
My heart to yours...

Red Tailed Hawks

Red Tailed Hawk in my Kitchen? Yes you are seeing right!  Our friend who is a Licensed Raptor Trainer, brought the hawk so hubby could see him.  Of course Hubby is taking the pictures as we did not want to take the chance of his being hurt in any way.  When the immune system is compromised, you learn to be very cautious.  But of course Grandma Kerrie was up for holding the hawk-ha!  He was a juvenile and very well behaved which was a great surprise when we were told he had only been in captivity for a couple of weeks.  (Trainers only capture injured birds or young juveniles that have lost their parents and after caring for them, they are released into the wild again.  They take them out on hunting excursions so they learn to find their own food and they were returning from one of these trips when they stopped to see us.)  Knowing how much we love birds and also my husband had a pet Great Horned Owl when we were dating that he hunted with back in the 1950's. 
    This young hawk in the picture weighed only 2 lbs. and was all feathers.  Birds are very deceiving in stature as their feathers make them look large and ferocious but their bodies are really small, though muscular.
   Here are some of Hubbies pictures of an Egret that was in our little lake at the edge of the yard last week.

He is so beautiful!  I love his head feathers trailing back...

And this is a Mockingbird that I saw on my walk yesterday.  He was most cooperative just sitting there while I snapped several pictures.

I hope you enjoyed our pictures, do come again soon to visit and don't forget to visit my other blogs, the links are in the side bar.

♥KERRIE♥
My heart to yours...

Another Swan Morning...

The Male Mute Swan came swiftly to the bank this morning and it is as though he senses when I am here.  He came right up to the window looking for a hand-out.  He is posturing here as the female approaches and she is very cautious since he cuffed her and bit her neck a few weeks ago.

But she postures back a little and comes up to his side.  Note the raised wing feathers, so beautiful on both of them.

In this picture it appears she is aggressive but is really just reaching for a morsel of food in the grass.

His feet are so large they look like platters-ha!  At least a Man's size triple E width!

He continues to strut his stuff but the female remained and at least was able to get some of the morsels...

Finally, he returns to the water to drink and she followed after.  Such a thrill to have them up close and personal as always.  I take the pictures through the den window glass as it is too cold to open the window for any length of time.  So the pictures are not as great in quality as I would like but you are able to get an idea of how beautiful their feathers are!

Thank you for visiting and do come again soon!  Hubby is making an intarsia Red-tailed Hawk.  To see its development, please visit our craft site, http://kerrieskrafts3.blogspot.com/ and to see the MERGANSER couple who also visited this morning, see our TWO HAPPY SITE http://beaver-kerrie.blogspot.com/
♥KERRIE♥
My heart to yours....

Continuing SC Winter Days...

Good Morning! The drabness of the winter inspires more poetry here-ha!  It seems I have to share what is in my heart and then I feel better about the gray days that linger.  And the Cardinal still graces the old Bradford Pear branches and a Yellow Throated Vireo is visiting the feeder every day!


I was able to get this shot of the female Cardinal yesterday!

Note the buds on the Bradford Pear Tree branches.  The Bradford Pear tree is a beautiful shade tree that flowers in the Spring looking like a huge bouquet of white blossoms.  It then bears tiny pear fruit no larger than a marble.  The birds love them and have something to sustain them through the winter months. They grow for the most part in a globe like shape and require very little maintenance.  Their leaves turn a brilliant red in the fall and retain their color when brought into the house indefinitely.  I keep one on my kitchen window over the sink.  These trees are very popular and are prevalent in the South.

Here is the beautiful Male.

 Another SC Winter Day...
    ©Kerrie O'Hearn Marquart

A rain is falling softly on the lake this winter morn
  And the trees are bare of their usual adorn
Save the jewel-red of a Cardinal among the branches gray
  Popping a bit of color into this gray winter day.

The garden bed is sleeping with Iris toes underground
  And Shamrock is looking frail
         though the leaves stay green year round.
The Pear tree has furry buds just waiting for the Spring
  Bluebirds checking last year's birdhouses again
And the Robin continues the hope of spring...
                         January 25, 2011

Hubby captured the beauty of the Yellow Throated Vireo in our feeder.



Yellow-Throated Vireo



Cardinal in the Rain January 25, 2011

Thank you for coming to visit today, you know you always brighten my day! Come again soon!

♥KERRIE♥
My heart to yours...  

The Colors of Winter

THE COLORS OF WINTER

     ©Kerrie O'Hearn Marquart

The color of the Mourning Dove

  Matches the gray of the sky above,

Matches the dark earth below,

  And the leaves blowing to and fro.

A Southern winter without any snow

  A drab world, I am feeling kind of low.

The greenless grass, the bare trees above

  But the birds still come and this I love!

Tomorrow, they say the sun will shine

  I hope they are right so I won't pine

For Spring days that are yet far away

  And Sunshine can brighten any day!

Thank you for the dark days, Lord

  So that I appreciate the bright days more.

Thank you for the thorns as well as the Rose

  They exist side by side, heaven knows...

We cannot have one without the other.

         ~January 18, 2011~

My little sketch colored with art pencils...

And then the beautiful Cardinals appear,

such a brilliant color in the the bare branches.



Though elusive and I could not get a clear picture of his beautiful face
He is still the punch of color among the winter branches.