About Me

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I LOVE to design and to paint whimsical items that will put a smile on your face. Each day I share my simple life with you as I try to encourage, to inspire and sometimes JUST to make you smile as I recount my life growing up on a dairy farm! I've never had many material items in my life, BUT I have been blessed beyond words with love and encouragement from WONDERFUL Parents who instilled in me WHAT was important. I have had EVERYTHING that I needed and WAY too much of what I wanted. I am slowly learning to be a better person each day through my interactions with my friends on Facebook. Some day I hope to be as good as people seem to THINK I am! I am BLESSED! Welcome to my little corner of the world...Please stop by and visit often!

Monday, March 30, 2015

My HOPPY FRIEND, Monday, March 30, 2015

 I went to the Post Office the other day and picked up a VERY heavy box.  I could NOT imagine what was in it, but I couldn't wait to get out my scissors and open it!


 I was BLOWN away!  It was the awesome bunny noodle board that I had watched my friend, Lynn from Painting Thyme Needfuls, painting over the past few days.  My package was PACKED full of goodies from the Cape.

She put a candle, dog treats for Charcoal, candy, Chocolate, and patterns that she had designed!  I could NOT wait to get them cut out and painted.

First, I had to find the perfect place to put the treasure.  I chose to place it on the washstand that is a family antique.  My Mother refinished it YEARS ago, when THAT was the thing~~NOW you are NOT supposed to touch antiques.  

On this washstand are some china pieces that belonged to My Aunt Jenny.  She PROBABLY bought them with stamps or got them from the bank of maybe even from Oatmeal...we are not sure, but they are beautiful and remind me of her.

There is also a Chinese Rice Bowl that has a butterfly, a symbol that was so important to Mother, that was given to her by her dear friend, VV, when VV was cleaning her Mother's home after her death.  It was VERY special to mother.

The Rose bowl is another antique given to Mother by a friend.

The moustache cup was a funny story that Mother would tell with a twinkle in her eye.  When a friend, Mrs. Johnson, who was the first woman judge in Robertson County, was having to sell her home to move to a smaller place, she asked Mother if there was anything in her house that Mother wanted to buy BEFORE the auction...We went over and Mother bought a HUGE mirror and a loveseat.  While there, Mrs. Johnson asked Mother if she would be willing to buy the cup at the auction since it had belonged to her Daddy and she wanted it to go to someone special.  Mother agreed...she took it home for $25, which was a HUGE amount for Mother to spend on something so unnecessary back in the 60s...

It was only fitting that I should place this NEW treasure on this wash stand because NOW I have another special story to share...Thank you Lynn!!

I gathered my supplies to start this project.

I stained some tags to hang on the bunny...
I used coffee, vanilla and cinnamon...

I painted the bunny with RUSTIC Chalky Finish paint.  I sanded it offer after I had a good coverage.  I then put wax on the piece.  When that dried, I put Golden Brown Creme Wax on to make the exposed wood darker...I WISH I had the darker wax, but this turned out just fine...it gave another texture to the piece...

I am SO BLESSED to be able to cut my own wood...NORMALLY, I would NOT have cut this with the knot, but since I knew it would have a bow and I was going to make it look prim, it was ok THIS time...I DID put sealer over the knot...

I sanded the piece really well before I painted it...EVEN if I am going to PRIM something, I STILL want the foundation to be the best it can be!

I put 3 coats of paint on the from so the coverage would be good...I KNOW, some think that is silly since it was going to be sanded, but I just stick to the theory of a good foundation makes a better product!  That is my story and I am sticking to it!

I added a burlap bow, rusty wire, rusty bells and a tag...
I LOVE this pattern!!!


You may order the pattern as an

This gift has meant the world to me...it is just an example of how special a serendipitous moment can be!

Miss Lynn, YOU ARE SomeBUNNY VERY SPECIAL...

A Friend LOVES at ALL time...Proverb 17:17 NIV

PLEASE PAY IT FORWARD every chance you get...Blessings to YOU...~charlotte

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Strangers and Friends...Friday, March 12, 2015



I find myself searching to discover what kind of person some of my relatives were now that I no longer have anyone else to ask~~isn’t that strange?




I was so young when my Granny, Uncle Bud and Aunt Jennie died, that I find that I don’t really KNOW them.  I’ve listened to the stories through the years to the tales told of them and have formed an opinion of them~~right or wrong…



We do that about people…WE have an OPINION~~right or wrong.



I look back at the BAD MOMENTS I have had in my life and can ONLY PRAY that people will give me another chance to know the REAL ME…but then, maybe they do??! 
 




We have had a lot of characters that have passed through the life of my family.  Our home was always opened whenever a bed was needed for whatever event…or if a DISH was needed to be baked for an event…My family practiced HOSPITALITY and I HAVE to BELIEVE that this did not happen just by chance.



I don’t really KNOW much about My Uncle Bud and the personality that he had, BUT I look at my Daddy and I don’t think ONLY Aunt Jennie’s influence could have made him the MAN he was.  Yes, His Father was in his life, and from what little I know of him, he was a good man, but I ALSO have to believe that Uncle Bud was an honorable man.


 Uncle Bud held many jobs that earned him respect…he had lots of friends that were the pillows of the community…He attended Church, and I PRAY that the good he learned rubbed off on him…I KNOW that he SPOKE his mind and was a bit gruff from the few stories that Mother shared with me, BUT this tale, I THINK speaks VOLUMES of what personality he was.



Mother LOVED people and she ALWAYS saw the BEST in them, sometimes, I THINK, through rose-colored glasses, but really, is THAT a bad thing?  She didn’t work full time outside of our home because my parents decided that raising us was far more important than having MATERIAL THINGS.  I was taken home from the hospital to a brother who was 2 years older than I and a brother 10.5 years older and 3 people past 80, whose health was declining.  It was a full house with ONLY one bathroom (GASP!).  Mother would recount that we SELDOM sat down to a meal that SOMETHING wasn’t spilled, and it wasn’t always the children…There was PLENTY of love to go around.  Mother would work in the tobacco market, where her typing skills and calculator skills were AMAZINGLY fast and accurate.  For a short time, she was the Director for the Senior Citizens at our local YMCA, long before the YMCA was the force it is today.



 Mother raised me not to believe in coincidence, a topic we have discussed at length, because I would ALWAYS try to push her buttons by saying, “I’d rather be LUCKY than GOOD any ole day.”…this of course, was usually said when my favorite football player would be standing at JUST THE RIGHT PLACE to catch a ball that had been tipped~~HOW can one PLAN that??!!  ROFL…





On March 26, 1971, Mother was hosting the “OVER 50 CLUB” (OH CRAP…I could join THAT club NOW…sigh) at our home.  On ALL the days of the years that had past, we got a knock on our back door and it was Franz Weiss…Now, that IS an ODD name for a visitor to a small farm in Middle Tennessee!  HOW confused I was to see Mother and Daddy hugging this short, strange talking man, but OH, what a TREAT was in store.


Mother asked Franz to tell his story.  He told of His wife, Elizabeth and son, Anton, begin prisoners of war during the reign of Hitler.  His wife and son were sent to a concentration camp together and Franz to another one…neither knew if the other was alive, but they made it through the war and found each other.  There was a location program that was in place to bring concentration camp survivors to America, BUT they had to have a sponsor.  When The Weiss family got to their destination, the family decided they did not WANT to sponsor them, so all seemed hopeless and they thought surely they would have to return to a land that was in shambles.  I do NOT know the details, BUT things came into place, and a tear streamed from Franz’s eye as he said, “NOBODY wanted us…BUT Mr. Widick did.  He welcomed us into his home.”  





At that moment I felt such pride in my Uncle Bud…He was willing to help TOTAL strangers, who spoke broken English, make a better life for themselves in a country that held great opportunities for those willing to follow the laws and to work hard.  




Uncle Bud paid the $151.86 for the family’s travels and the family was to repay the debt.  Daddy laughed as he recalled Uncle Bud and Franz TRYING to communicate one day while working on a tractor…it was HILARIOUS to see my Daddy and Franz acting as old friends and recalling hard times that existed, but OH the JOY of that reunion!




Franz brought a watercolor drawing that his wife, Elizabeth, had painted.  He told of her struggles to exist in the world after the abuse she took while in the concentration camp…I don’t think we really realize the HORRORS so many endured…


Franz signed a painting that his son, Anton had painted on a window shade as a young boy and had given it to Uncle Bud…That picture was in the upstairs room of my brothers and it used to SCARE me when I would go into that room…THOSE BIG EYES haunted me….





OF ALL the days and years that Franz could have visited, he choose the day where he was able to share his story with several ladies of our community…BUT then, not too long after this chance encounter, Mother again, had taken the OVER 50 CLUB to the Parthenon in Nashville and WHO was having a one man show?  YEP, Anton, the son…Mother marveled as she saw paintings with price tags in the thousands of dollars…



We’ve tried in the past to contact the son, BUT I am certain he spent his time moving FORWARD because the hell of REMEMBERING MUST be too much…I can’t imagine..



I just know that I feel SUCH PRIDE, once again, at the hospitality that my family showed…It has instilled in me a desire to practice GRACE and MERCY…we never know what little things can be life-changing~~right or wrong!





GO through this day KNOWING that YOU are LOVED beyond MEASURE and that a path has been planned JUST FOR YOU…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte

Monday, March 9, 2015

A Happy SPRING HARE, Monday, March 9, 2015



Our Wacky Weather continues…just from Wednesday until Saturday, the temperatures bounced from 8 to 61 degrees!  ROFL

This is how it started on Wednesday night...

By Thursday morning, we had about 5 inches of sleet/snow!


Isn’t it strange how we HEAR the same stories over and over our entire life, but then, we are unable to give the details.  It was SOME day in Spring that Mother would tell that Daddy picked buttercups in the snow for her friend’s wedding shower…I JUST know it was late, but have no clue WHEN!  I THINK it was in 1950…that’s all I remember…
Spring 2014
Before our last two snows, the buttercups were a few days from opening!
This was February 14 BEFORE our WINTER MADNESS began...



I remember a HUGE snowfall the first day of Spring in 1996.  It was the ONLY time I ever remember Daddy being snowed in.  It was a tradition to pile into the truck and go to town with each new snowfall!  This time, though, the drifts were so high and there was no getting out…The snow was so heavy that the tractor couldn’t get it moved without weighing the back HEAVILY and Daddy just didn’t want to trudge through all the wet snow to get rolls of hay put on the back.




Daddy and I had laughed at the weather forecasters~~who doesn’t!  It had been POURING RAIN and we thought there was NO WAY that snow would ever stick.  I guess that just proves WHEN you get enough, it will eventually stick!



I was lucky to have a “deal” with my manager at Vanderbilt Bookstore…IF the students in my county didn’t have school, then I didn’t have to go into work…it was an hour away and we are on THE RIDGE, so often the weather is not the same.  I got LAUGHED off the phone when I called and told them that I could NOT get to work because there was not a drop of snow in Nashville…THANK GOODNESS, the news people came out and took pictures for the evening news…it was a weird weather event!



It was funny to be playing outside in the 60 degrees today and to see the patches of snow that still hadn’t melted…



I thought I needed to paint something with COLOR today, so I quickly designed this little bunny and thought I would share him with you all…


 Click on your mouse to save the picture to your computer.  The ONLY thing I ask is that you give ME credit for MY design if you post it anywhere…paint it...stitch it…use it in mixed media…it doesn’t matter, just do NOT claim it as YOUR own pattern…I am happy to share…I painted this on an 8x10 burlap canvas and the design is approximately 6.5 x 9…Feel free to resize it as you wish.


PLEASE give CREDIT to ROMA LAND WOODCRAFTS when posting or sharing
I ALWAYS use DecoArt Americana Paints to complete my projects...so many COLORS and GREAT Coverage...



I need to HOP along and get on to other stuff…I hope that you have the most AMAZING week and that it will be FILLED with times to remember…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte♥

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Happy Birthday Charcoal...Sunday, March 1, 2015

Happy Birthday to my big boy...one year ago you were born in Nebo, Kentucky (Rabbit Ridge) to the Ramage Family....I had not met you yet BUT God was already working things out for us to be together!

This is the first time I met you on April 18, 2014.  You were one day shy of being 7 weeks old and you were already a BIG BRAVE BOY!  This is our ride back to Tennessee. ...you were a good traveler...you didn't get sick or whine.  You crawled to the back and got on the console and probably wondered what you had gotten yourself into...

I stopped for a Dr. Pepper and you spent the rest of the trip trying to get into it! It was a foreshadowing of things to come.  WHEN we got home, you knocked off that drink and started licking it up immediately!  You were showing me that YOU were ALWAYS going to get YOUR way.

You slept at my feet with no trouble and that is where you have remained ever since...sleeping with you is what I figure it would be like to sleep with a kangaroo!!

You came into my life JUST in time to bring ME back to life because you see, Roamie, who had been my buddy for 14 years went home to be with Poppa and Gramma on April 2.  I was lost...I wanted to crawl into bed and just stay there.  He was the last living link that I had to my daddy.  I had given him to Daddy for Father's Day in 2000.  He was the best dog EVER and he was the reason that Mother even got out of bed many days. 

One of my silly Facebook friends who lives in West Virginia EVEN sent a policeman to my house to do a welfare check on me...I was lost without Roamie....
You got your name for several reasons...First because I am an artist, a friend suggested it...Second because your Momma is FOREVER being told that she will ONLY get COAL in her stocking...AND third, because your FUR MOMMIES DADDY works in the coalmines in Kentucky!  It was JUST meant to be!!
Once He discovered my pillow, there was NO going BACK...
This friend got several of my other friends together and took up a collection to HELP me buy YOU...
You have LOTS of Aunts who love you and I will FOREVER be grateful to them for helping me when I was so lost....
I threw some OLD eggs out into the yard one night...Charcoal watched...the NEXT morning, he went EGG hunting and brought about 4 of those eggs that had not broken back to the stairs...curious GEORGE...
I didn't think you would EVER be potty trained to go outside!  But I think, FINALLY at about 7 months old, you magically stopped using the pee pads!!
yep...that is paint on his nose and face

I also FEARED you would NEVER learn to fetch, 
BUT you finally got that too!!
You are so funny when you put that ball in your mouth and yes, cause I love you so much, I stick my hand in there and pull it out...ick...
You are HILARIOUS how you just PLOP on the couch 
like a teenager...
I KNOW...I take TOO many pictures of you...sowwy...BUT I SO wanted to get a picture of your laying your head on top of the cake box...it was too funny!!
Your cake was SO yummy...filled with blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and whipped cream!!
I am pretty sure that you like it too...That plate was spotless!!

 
You are the MOST HANDSOME BOY...It is HARD to believe that you were so small!!  Time has gone too fast!!
Thank you to my friends who help me get Charcoal AND who encouraged me to take a chance and get another fur baby...
Charcoal, YOU have brought SO MUCH JOY to my life and your silly antics have put smiles on the faces of so many...You don't know it because I don't want to tell you this, BUT you are QUITE POPULAR on FACEBOOK...teeheee...

Thank YOU to all who share your stories of your fur babies with me... I just feel like we are ONE BIG FAMILY...THANKS for being a part of MY life and for stopping by OUR little corner of the world...Blessings to YOU...~charlotte♥