I CAN HEAR YOU ~ WITH MY PARABOLIC MICROPHONE

I got a new toy in the mail. It's a parabolic microphone. Have you ever heard of these?

They are built for spying on people. Yet you are warned not to use them for anything illegal.

Have you ever looked at the spy equipment out there for anyone to buy? It's kind of scary what they have. Which in turn is really scary to think about the things out there that we don't even know about.

However, I did not get my Parabolic Microphone to spy on anyone or listen to them talking two houses down.

Nope, I got mine for ghost hunting. OK, stop laughing! I really did.

I saw this being used on one of the many ghost hunting shows out there. They say it can pick up things a normal human ear can't. Like ghosts talking to you. Or EVP as they call it.

EVP means Electronic Voice Phenomena. You hear them talking about EVP's all the time on Ghost Hunters and the other ghost shows.

One June 27th my sister, Maureen and I are going on another ghost hunt so I thought this would be a fun thing to take along.

You can hook it up to a recorder so you listen to everything again later and see what it was you thought you heard.

I don't know if this will really work or not but it sure would be fun if it did.

I tried it out at home and let me tell you...you do hear things that you normally wouldn't be able to. I was able to hear my sister, on the other side of the house, breathing. No, she is not one of those people who breathe loud or with her mouth open either. She was just being normal and even when I stood next to her I couldn't hear her. But, when I had the parabolic microphone on I could hear her from the other room.

So, who knows? Maybe I'll catch a ghost one day talking to me. If not, heck I can always listen to my neighbors two doors down. LOL

THRIFT STORE SCORE!

This month has been a busy one so far. I have not had a lot of time to go do fun stuff.

Today I had to go to the dentist. YUCK! But on the way home I decided to make a quick stop at Goodwill to see if there was at least one thing to brighten my day.


As soon as I walked over to the area with all the dishes I spotted this darling little china sugar dish. I love the little pink and pale blue roses on it.

So, I picked it up, checked for cracks and chips and saw it was in perfect condition and only cost $1.99. So into my cart it went.

I'm not going to use it for sugar though. I think I'm going to use it in my bathroom.

We are finally getting our bathrooms remodeled in two weeks. I can't wait! I thought this would be cute to put Q-Tips or something in and pretty up the bathroom a little bit.

After all, who likes to look at ugly things in the bathroom? Not me.

I also noticed, on the same row as that darling dish, these two Milk Glass vases. They are different but perfect just the same.

The one on the left has tiny stripes (I don't know if you can see them) and the one on the right has dots. I also have another one, that bought before, that looks just like the one on the right.

I'm going to use these for the baby shower I'm giving later this month. I think they will be pretty with some lovely fresh flowers.

I got excited when I found this beautiful Milk Glass bon bon dish. I love the lace edge.

I'm going to also use it at the shower to put some cute candy in.

Then of course, these Milk Glass items will go into my china hutch with the rest of my Milk Glass collection.

I saw this great tea pot. It is perfect for any tea party or even just to enjoy a cup of tea with a friend.

It's from Germany and the design is elegant yet simple. I couldn't leave this behind.

I always go through the store pretty fast to see what catches my eye right away. Then I go through again more slowly. It seems I always find things I missed the first time around.

These fun vintage glasses were found on my 2ND go round. I'm happy I found them.

Don't you love the tall slender look of these glasses. At first I wasn't sure if I would get them because they looked like the design is snowflakes. But, then the more I looked at them the more I thought they could be bursts of stars.

I couldn't get the picture out of my head of sitting my back yard this summer and drinking a nice cold glass of pink lemonade or ice tea out of these.

So guess what? Yes! They went into my cart too.

I don't know if you remember or not but the baby shower I'm giving is going to have a bird/nest theme to it. The colors are blue, white and brown.

The white birds on this item caught my attention right away.

I thought it was such a cute piece but really had no idea what it was or how I would use it.

It's really heavy. Made out some type of iron or something.

Since it was only 99 cents I got it and figured I would find something to do with it.

Then it hit me....I'm going to also add vintage photos of babies around at the baby shower.

I put one of the photos in here and I think it will work great.

Well, I was happy with my finds and getting read to leave. I was headed towards the front when I saw this white Santa sleigh with three little shamrocks.

I wasn't really interested in it and kept walking. Then it dawned on me...I had to go back and look at this item. Could it be? No! Could it?

Yes! It was Belleek from Ireland!

I don't know if you have heard of Belleek or not but it's pretty costly stuff. Highly collectible.

I saw the price was $5.99 which was a steal. Again, I checked it over good. No chips, cracks or anything. It was in perfect condition. I knew it was worth way more the $5.99 so I got it.

Then I went up to pay and the girl kept looking at the price. I thought for sure she was going to tell me it was marked wrong or someone had changed the tags. But the only thing she said was this color tag is 1/2 off today. So I got it for $2.99.

I came home and looked it up. It sells for $95 and higher. I was very pleased.

So all in all I was thrilled with my quick little stop at Goodwill. I love days like this.

WELL IT JUST WASN'T MEANT TO BE

I've been busy making the two cakes I've told you about.

I had not been feeling good the past few days but, the girl who ordered the cake from me is so nice and I have made many cakes in the past for her so, I agreed to help her out with these cakes.

I should have listened to myself and just said no. Oh well, live and learn.

I can't believe I'm going to share these photos with you but heck, we all mess up now.

The little boy was having a baseball theme cake and wanted blue and white. So that's what he got.

The top is his photo turned into a baseball card, just like the pros. Then I had it printed onto an icing sheet and used it as the topper along with a little baseball and glove.

The bats say Happy Birthday. Everything on this cake can be eaten.

The mom and little boy were thrilled with this cake. All I notice is how I didn't center the cake! Of course they didn't even notice that. But, I only see the flaws.

Also, the topper was the same color as the cake. For some reason this photo makes it look washed out. It wasn't.


So here is the nightmare cake! From the get go it gave me problems. So many problems. I wanted to just throw it in the trash.

It started with not being able to find the right candy. I had to go to several shops and my sister even went to Disneyland to get the suckers I wanted.

They were going to go on the top and one would say HAPPY and the other one BIRTHDAY with tootsie pops that spelled out the little girls name.

The cake was done and I was finally able to go to bed late last night. I got up early and woke up to the above. The Golden Ticket had cracked and the cake was starting to sink.

I had put dowels in to keep this from happening but it still was sinking and starting to lean.

OK, no problems. I propped it back up, put some edible butterflies on to hid the cracks and got it loaded up in the car.

I brought a repair kit with me in case anything should happen in transport. As I was driving I heard ping, ping, ping. I knew it was the chocolate squares falling off the cake.

No problem I thought. I was prepared with my fix it kit. I had extra candy, icing and was ready for anything. Or so I thought.

I opened up the back of the SUV to take a look and fix anything that needed to be fixed before I delivered the cake.

This is what I saw.....


Yes, that was the candy cake. Smashed open and all over the car.

Here is the top, in the trash! I guess it's true about being careful for what you wish for. After all, I did wish I could just throw the cake in the trash.

Now I know this happens to everyone sooner or later. I've seen it on TV shows several times and knew that one day, my turn would come.

I should have known it was going to be this cake. This cake gave me more problems then all the other cakes put together.

So, sadly there was no Willy Wonka cake for the little girl. The party planner did find a bakery where they picked up a simple plain cake.

I didn't get photos of either cake set up at the party all finished up. I was to upset to even think about taking photos there.

I felt bad. Really bad. But life goes on. Oh, and of course I did not charge her for the smashed up cake. So, I lost the money I put out and three days of work.

Lesson learned.

BAKING CAKES

The next few days I am going to busy baking cakes. Yes, I said cakeS. Not just a cake but two cakes. Two big cakes.

I got a call from a local party planner asking me to help her out with two big parties she is working on.

One is a Willy Wonka theme and the other is a Baseball theme. Both are for kids.

I can't get over how many parents are willing to pay $350+ for a kids birthday cake.

I agreed to do them. I don't know why. I get so stressed when I make cakes where I get paid hundreds for them. I mean really, that's a lot of money for cake. At least to me it is.

I always worry that no matter what I do it won't be good enough to make the customer happy. But, I guess they are because I do get repeat customers and referrals.

When I do a cake all I see are the flaws. I pick apart everything and have never made a cake I was really happy with. I'm my own worst critic.

So, if I'm not around for a day or two, you know it's because I'm stressing over the cakes.

It's funny because I wanted to learn cake decorating just for fun. It is fun. Though when I get paid to do a cake it becomes a job and sort of takes the fun out of it.

Oh why do I do this to myself.....

IT'S BECOMING A FAMILY TRADITION

It seems like I may be in the beginning faze of a new Family Tradition.

For the past several months, my sister, Maureen and I drive down to Oceanside to visit with my brother.

We have been going out to lunch then we head over to the local Video Rental store and pick up a scary movie.

All three of us love scary movies. Yes, most of them are silly or down right dumb. But, we still like to watch them and laugh and try to scare each other.

Oh, I almost forgot the most fun part of the day...we have dessert! YUM!

This weekend we went to El Torito and had a nice lunch. Once our tummies were full we went to rent our movie.

We ended up getting Death of a Ghost Hunter. Have you seen this?

It claims to be based on a true story. It says "All events that take place are from the journal of Carter Simms, a paranormal investigator".

She goes to the Masterson House in Queen Creek AZ. The story is that the wife, Mrs. Masterson killed her two children and husband then killed herself.

The movie claims that the Masterson House is one of the top 10 most haunted places in the US.

What transpired is the most terrifying tragic paranormal investigation in the history of moder ghost hunting.

Sounded rather fun and scary. Though while it claims to be a true story I believe it's really a fiction film that is presented as a documentary sort of like The Blair Witch project.

Most of it is shot with a night camera that makes everything have that green cast of light. Eyes appear to glow and it's often hard to make out what is a shadow and what is real.

Let me just say, if this is based on a true story then it's one heck of a scary story. Though I don't believe for a minute it is true.

Still, we all had fun and of course shared several laughs.

If you enjoy a scary movie then I would recommend this one to you. It's a pretty good one though like most of the scary movies out there, there are a few silly moments that just make you roll your eyes and wonder "Why did the director put that into the movie."

So how about it, do you like scary movies? Or are you like my other sister, Patty, that can't stand them and won't watch them at all?

SHE'S HERE! WE WILL NEVER FORGET!!

If you have not already met her then let me introduce her to you. This is the USS NEW YORK.

She is the fifth of a new class of war ship designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists.

What makes her even more Special is she was made with steal from the World Trade Center.

Her motto is NEVER FORGET. I hope and pray that is all of our own personal motto's also.

Did you notice the two towers on the ship? Those are in memory of those who died in the Twin Towers attack.

Personally I can not think of a better use for the steal in the Twin Towers.

As they say...They knocked us down but we will pick our self up and come back fighting stronger then ever.

I think this ship proves that. No one messes with the good ol' USA and gets away with it.

IT'S CHERRY TIME!

It's cherry time! That's right. Those wonderful little red balls bursting with flavor are back.

I just love when the summer time fruit starts to come out. It's hard for me to say which I love more...peaches, plumbs, apricots, watermelon or cherries.

But, when I had my first cherry of this season, I knew cherries were on my top five favorite list.

I don't know if all cherries are great yet but, these ones we got the other day sure are. You couldn't ask for a better cherry.

I even put them in a special dish that I don't use to often. You see, the dish they are in are antique cut crystal. I have five of them.

Not only are they special because they are antique but, because they are the only thing I have of my Dad's.

My Dad died when I was only 12 years old. I still think of him and miss him every day. I love my Dad more then words can ever say. I was his little girl.

As I hold these dishes in my hands I can almost feel him there with me. Yet, I'm scared one my break, so, I don't use them very often.

I don't even know if my Dad liked cherries. If I had to put money down I would bet he did. After all, who doesn't like cherries?