MY NAME IS BETTY .. AND THIS IS MY LIFE ..."WELCOME"


Friday, April 30, 2010

Do you know what this is?

I bought this at a yard sale last weekend and I was very surprised that my '30 something' son-in-law didn't know what it was.

Back in the day we all had one of these in our kitchen sinks since we didn't have garbage disposals ... at least not in our house .. so you would put your garbage in it and then take it out to the 'garbage can' ..for the 'garbage man' to pick up .. I remember the smell of the garbage cans as we walked past them on our way to school... not good :^( ...lol
Some people would take the garbage out to the chickens ..but I lived in the city so we didn't have chickens .. well, except for the ones my brothers would try to keep as pets.
by-the-way .. my 95 year old kitchen does not have a garbage disposal so I will keep this in my sink and really use it.
I remember my Friend telling me that on her moving day he son was taking the ironing board to the truck and asked .."Mom, what' is this"?
LOL







Wednesday, April 28, 2010

My Mom's Cottage

My Mom was born in Mexico in 1919 ..She came to Texas when she was four years old where she was raised, went to school, met and married my Father...then they moved to California where we were raised ... She was a wonderful Mother to us five kids and was always so much fun to be around .. I think she enjoyed mothering since she was raised by her father since her Mother died when she was just a little girl .. about 6 years old .. She worked hard cooking, washing, and even rolled tortillas every single day for our family .. Back in those days our moms didn't drive so if we went anywhere we all got on the bus or the street car or 'walked' .. We never had babysitters because our mom took all five of us everywhere she went... There was really no such thing as "day care" ..pre-school ... nannies or any of those things ...not in our neighborhood anyway ..lol ..Our home was full of music and loud kids ..Our friends were always welcome and there was always plenty of food to feed anyone we brought home ... actually in those days we would go from house to house on our block with our friends and all of our mothers always feed us all... It was a great time and since we stayed close to home after school and on weekends us kids really did get to know and bond with our Moms ... Weekends were nice cuz you could stay in your PJ's and sit on the floor and watch TV all day ..or go out and play marbles, jacks, ride our bikes or skate..etc. ... we'd stay outside playing "statue maker" .."hide and seek" .. or "Mother My I" until it got dark... We really didn't join any after school sports or clubs because there really wasn't money to join those things ..and besides we had our brothers and sisters and our friends to play with .. For me and my siblings .."Those were the good ol' days" .. just as for my kids and grandkids .."these" are their good ol' days. for them. :^)
One thing I forgot to mention is that my Mom was such a huge help to us in high school because she was studying US History along with us .. It was a very exciting day for her when she became an "American citizen" .. She was so happy to be able to vote and always impressed how important that privilege is for us Americans .. She voted until she no longer really knew what she was voting for.


Here are a couple pictures of my Mom's little cottage that she lives in now ..it's right outside our back door ..and as you can see, it started out as a garage ...These pictures were taken a few years ago ..but I'm sorry to say it does not look this cute today ..but I'm working on it. ..It's actually all "pretend" .. the window pains are just 'tape' that I put on the plain glass .. The window box that you can hardly see is a 'chicken feeder' that I hung ..and the picket fences are just pieces of fence that I leaned on the house .. I love the purple flowers .. I bought a little bag of seeds from a little girl at a yard sale without knowing what they were ...I planted them .. and "waala"!!
The screen door is just a screen door and I wired the frilly things on it to make it look cutesy .. they are really plant hangers.
All that cute stuff has been stripped off to paint the house ..so it's very plain this year ..but like I said .."I'm working on it".

My Mom

Since it's almost Mother's Day
I thought I'd share this picture
of my Mom which was taken some time in the 50's ..I love it
and I've always thought it would make a great Mother's Day card.
My dear Mom is almost 91 years old now and I have had the privilege of having her live with me for the past 20 years ...she lives in her own little cottage right outside my back door that she shares with her beloved pets .. her dog, Petunia and her cat, Frankie. ..She is such a sweet lady and I am blessed to be able to spend this time of her life with her.
My Mom, Enriqueta, had five kids and she was always so much fun and worked so hard taking care of us ..and now I get to take care of her ..
We are blessed. :^)
"Happy Mother's Day Mommy"

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

It's a rainy day in the neighborhood.

I'm sitting here in my sun porch
wishing I could go out and dig in the dirt..


But it's kind of nice having my coffee,
enjoying the rain ....

and thinking how nice it is to not be able to see the weeds from the widow.
:^)
Maybe I'll bake something.














Saturday, April 17, 2010

BEFORE AND AFTER

"BEFORE"
"AFTER"


These two chairs were amongst the stuff I brought home from my morning of yard sale-ing ... There is also an ottoman that goes with the chairs, but I think it's too big for this little room.

After I got them home I was afraid I didn't have any place to put them .. but since we really never used the table I decided to replace it with the chairs..I think we'll use the room more now.
This is not a very big room and unfortunately I have to share it with my DH since he paints and there is great light in here for painting ... you can't see his half of the room in these picture.
I'm baby sitting this birdbath for my daughter Jennifer so I thought it would be safer in here then outside with the neighborhood cats.
In my next post you'll read about my "yard sale-ing problem"
LOL















Am I a "hoarder"????


This has got to stop!!!!

Today I promised myself to not go to another yard sale ...until ..
"I have one"!!!

I need to either purge or organize ...

I don't have a tiny house ..
..but it's feeling smaller and smaller all the time cuz I just can't find a place to put all this 'wonderful stuff'.
So the only answer is for me to have a yard sale ......
"SOON"!!
I'm starting to worry about myself...lol

"Seriously"
. This morning I was walking around my house and thought .."I sure have a whole lot of stuff ... I'm starting to think I'm a hoarder".. then I thought I'd better stop buying so much stuff ..Just then my phone rang and my daughter asked if I wanted to go to some yard sales ..Well I couldn't though my clothes on fast enough .. so I went and came back with a truck load of 'more stuff'. :^(
So I am promising myself and all of my blogging sisters to have a yard sale.. So I hope you guys will help me out by reminding me ..since I need
"HELP"!!!!






Thursday, April 15, 2010


Goodwill Warehouse Outlet

OK ..I gotta say .."this was over the top" ... even for me...lol
These are the "treasures" I brought home...

This is my dear friend Mary Ann ...
we are soo excited to go in and start our 'hunting'.

So this is what's inside of the "Goodwill warehouse outlet" ... Barrels and barrels ..big bins full of clothes and whatever ...big tables piled high with clothes and blankets and pillows ... old furniture, lamps ... etc. ..etc. ....this is the last stop for this "stuff" before it goes to the dump ...lol
So you dig through the barrels and never know what you'll find ...you can hear the workers dumping the 'left overs' into a truck outside to go to the dump.



Me and Mary Ann fighting over some Styrofoam balls.. "hey, what happened to them"? ... they never make it home with us ...hmmmm??
I had heard about this place ... but like I said ..it was really something ..even for card carrying dumpster divers like me and Mary Ann...lol
Did we get some good deals? ... hmmm? ... maybe ... maybe not ... the guy just looks at the pile of stuff and tells you how much it will cost ... we really didn't even know what was in our pile ..so we just paid what he said ..."$20.00" for all of it ... ( there is more that is not in the picture) ... Was $20.00 too much to pay for a pile of junk?... maybe
The fun we had digging and laughing ...
"PRICELESS"




Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Craft project from my dear friend *Mary Ann*




Whenever my friend Mary Ann and I are together we always find time to do a little crafting ... Mary Ann is an amazing artist and always has wonderful things to teach me ... unfortunately we live too far apart to get much 'play time' in... she and her dear husband Abe are in town for a few days so we got to spend some time playing ... This is a picture of one of the journals she taught me to make ..."what a fun project"!


Actually the 'pages' are supposed to be made out of brown paper lunch bags, which gives you 'pockets' to put pictures or cards, or whatever in ...but for this one I just used paper since I didn't have any bags ... as you can see the 'spine' of the book is made by weaving chop sticks in and out of slots you cut into the paper.



Funny how things happen ... the day after Mary Ann taught me how to make the book I went yard sale-ing and found a box full of vintage chop sticks!


"Ask and you shall receive"!




This is the back of the book.

"Wine cellar "AFTER:"

"Wine cellar "AFTER:"
This is another view of the cellar.

Wow!

Wow!
This is Louie running in the heat.

Congratulations Louie!

Congratulations Louie!

Michael & Maegann

Michael & Maegann
I got so busy that I forgot to post Michael and Maegann's birthdays .. They are brother and sister and they are both amazing young people .. I am so very proud of both of them and I am so blessed to be their grandma. ... Happy Very Late Birthday to both of you. ♥

One of my favorite gifts..This thing is 'huge' ..notice the Halloween pumpkin still on my porch.

One of my favorite gifts..This thing is 'huge' ..notice the Halloween pumpkin still on my porch.
I got so many wonderful gifts, but this one is really special ..Thank you Jennifer ♥

I love this hand made gift. ♥

I love this hand made gift. ♥
My daughter Tina made me this wonderful garden art .. The top piece lights up at night ... I can't wait for spring to find the perfect place for it. ..Thank you Tina. ♥

*HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM*

*HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM*
Grandma Queta turns "91"!

Job well done!!

Job well done!!
Congratulations Michael for another year helping raise $$ for Aids... So proud of you.... This picture is of Michael and his Mom ..my daughter, Jennifer. :^)

Michael..AIDS LIFECYCLE RIDE ..From San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Michael..AIDS LIFECYCLE RIDE ..From San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Last year my grandson Michael and my grand daughter Natalie both road in the aids ride to help make a difference..This year Michael and his friend Justin will be out there again ...I am very proud of these young people.. I will be posting more later to let everyone who would like to donate to Michael..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIET

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIET
Happy birthday to my wonderful daughter and one of my best friends.

*BIRTHDAYS*

January, February and March are our "birthday months" ... We have so many birthdays at this time of the year that it makes your head spin ... Although every single one of them is so important, we sometimes just can't celebrate each one like we should .. But we all know we are special and that we are loved by our big family.

There have been all kinds of parties and celebrations, some are big and some may be having pizza at our local pizza place ..but we always have fun.

One of the celebrations that stands out in our family memories is the one where my son-in-law invited about 20 people over for an early brunch since my dauther Jennifer works nights he knew she would be sleeping ... he had us all stand around her bed and outside their big picture window were everyone could look in and she could see everyone outside. ...Well, she woke up to a bunch of "fire crackers" that he lit outside the window... Oh yeah! ...It was not pretty when she jumped up out of a dead sleep ... Saying .."what the hell"!!!! along with a few other words #@%$$#&**##@!!!! .. especially when she raealized that there were 15 people standing around her bed.. she wanted to kill her dear hubby ..but she laughed and has never forgotten her 40th birthday ......So that tells you what kind of a family we have ... there's always something that is good for a laugh ...and it makes for great dinner stories.... So I am saying ....* HAPPY BIRTHDAY* to all of us who will be or has been celebrating a birthday .... I love you all ..and I am blessed. :^)

So that gives you an idea of what kind of a family we are ...

Kind of hate to see Christmas end.

Kind of hate to see Christmas end.

Daniel and Heather's wedding

Daniel and Heather's wedding


I made this from a plastic pumpkin

I made this from a plastic pumpkin
I wish the right side was not cut off .. that's the best part ..lol ..who can tell me how to fix this ...I know there is a way..."help somebody" ...lol

Fall is just around the corner

Fall is just around the corner
I just found some great fall decorations at the Dollar Tree .. Can't wait to use them ..."I LOVE FALL".

Joe & friend Wayne went backpacking..

Joe & friend Wayne went backpacking..
it was beautiful and he cought these great fish ... and ate it!

HAPPY 21ST OF JULY

HAPPY 21ST OF JULY

MY NEW FRIEND ...just had to share.

MY NEW FRIEND ...just had to share.
I guess this has been around forever ..but I just found it and "I LOVE IT" ... I think it's the best thing since sliced bread ( or tortillas) ... it works great on rust, coffee stains .. whatever! ..thanks Karen for telling me about it.

LUIS* GRAND KID OF THE WEEK

LUIS* GRAND KID OF THE WEEK
Luis ..or Louie as we call him in the family ... lives every man's dream life right now ... in the summer he is a river rafting guide ...

in the winter he works at a sky resort ...

just for fun he climbs mountains ...

OMG!

he's a hard worker...

...and he's one of the sweetest persons I know. :^)

Something "just for fun"

Something "just for fun"
I just couldn't throw this away so Tina and I thought it would be a fun addition to her garden. ... "I want it back" ....lol

Tina's Guest Cottage

Tina's Guest Cottage
Cottage 93422 ... she rents it out... I want to stay there ..it's soo cute.

GRAND GIRL OF THE WEEK*

GRAND GIRL OF THE WEEK*
MAEGANN ELIZABETH* Congratulations ... We love you and are proud of you ...Hugz ...Grandma Betty

She did it!

She did it!
Maegann wearing her lei. :^)

"WE DID IT"!!!! ( 2009)

"WE DID IT"!!!!  ( 2009)
Michael & Natalie .. I'm soo proud of you ... great job!

Update on the Aids Ride

Update on the Aids Ride
"IT'S RAINING"!!!!

Natalie ..Aids Ride ... 2009

Natalie ..Aids Ride ... 2009
Go Nat! ...I'm so pround of these two ...in this picture My grandkids are half way there! ... ready to sleep in their own beds ..but still smiling. :^)
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A LITTLE RED AND YELLOW OUTSIDE TOO.

A LITTLE RED AND YELLOW OUTSIDE TOO.

Louie Reade Fire Fighter

Louie Reade Fire Fighter
My brother Louie is a wonderful, wonderful man who always gives of himself and talks to children at their schools about fire safty... He is a wonderful brother and my good friend. ... Happy Birthday Dear Brother.

ME AND MY DAUGHTER JENNIFER

ME AND MY DAUGHTER JENNIFER
this picture was taken in the early 70's .. Jennifer is now 41 years old .. We are standing in the middle of what is now our lawn and gardens ..I love seeing the changes from 1915 to now ... It must have been morning since I'm still in my robe ...lol

YOU DON'T NEED A FACE TO TELL A STORY

YOU DON'T NEED A FACE TO TELL A STORY




A Birthday Gift From Louie & Yoly

A Birthday Gift From Louie & Yoly
My brother Louie & his wife Yoly gave me a gift card for my birthday back in Feb. .. I went shopping with my daughter Julie and she convinced me that I should not buy something like underware when you get a gift card ..she said I should buy something I don't need or would probably not buy for myself ...so I bought this great bike flower pot stand ... Don't you just love it? ... I still have to put some pots in it ... Julie was right .. Thanks Louie and Yoly. :^)

A GIFT FROM RITA

A GIFT FROM RITA
What a wonderful surprise I got today when the postman left a package at my door! .. I was having a regular day doing what I do ..then I found a package on my porch .. I had no idea who it was from .. then I saw that it was from my niece Rita Reade ..I can't tell you how thrilled I was shen I saw what she had sent me ..."A beautiful bag full of trinkets" ....I just love every single thing in the bag and the bag is a treasure in itself .. and guess what? .. It's not even my birthday!... I don't think I've ever gotten a gift in the mail for no reason at all .. and don't you just love getting packages in the mail? .. Thank you soo much Rita for all the beautiful things and for making my day soo special... I love you ... Hugz ...Tia Betty

Mammabellarte.blogspot.com


I love this little bag "tied" with an old clip on earing.

BEAUTIFUL!

I am feeling so special right now

I am feeling so special right now
THANK YOU RITA. :^)

Some Mexican Folk Art

Some Mexican Folk Art
When I was a little girl my Mother had a couple of these bird feather paintings in our living room ..so now I have a small collection of them in my home.



This is one of my favorites

My Mexican outdoor kitchen

My Mexican outdoor kitchen
Another old stove .. this one lives out doors in our Mexican patio / kitchen.

We brought a little bit of Mexico to our corner .. I'll show you more of the Mexican dining room when I get some new pictures ... This part of our yard is one of our favorite "out door rooms."

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU.

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU.

This is what $1.49 pot of ivy can do to your garden! .. This "was" my 'children's garden'.

This is what $1.49 pot of ivy can do to your garden! .. This "was" my 'children's garden'.
I've been working on it so I hope to show it to you soon without all the evy ..it's like "The Secret Garden" .. I'm finding all kinds of treasures under all the ivy ...Wish me luck!

My Purses

My Purses
One of my hobbies ...making purses. .. These are some I made last summer.

Old World

Old World

Sandy's Cottage

Sandy's Cottage
These are pictures of my friend Sandy's little "3 room" cottage ... It's always a treat to visit her and see what she has done new .. It's a little doll house.

living room

living room

living room

living room

She 'painted' her piano white!

She 'painted' her piano white!
She 'painted' her piano white!

more painted furniture

more painted furniture

Sandy put down used brick in all of the rooms and then white washed them on her knees.

Sandy put down used brick in all of the rooms and then white washed them on her knees.

yep... she painted the fire place too.

yep... she painted the fire place too.

Her big bed in her little bedroom

Her big bed in her little bedroom

Bathroom

Bathroom

Sandy set this beautiful breakfast table for my birthday.

Sandy set this beautiful breakfast table for my birthday.

My Dear friend "Miss Sandra"

My Dear friend "Miss Sandra"

WELCOME TO MY HOME

WELCOME TO MY HOME

My Kitchen

My Kitchen
I love my red stove ... The stove is one of my favorite "prizes" ...it was a gift from my nephew Dean Reade ..Not a day goes by that I don't think of Dean when I look at my stove.

MY DISH WASHER

MY DISH WASHER
I told you my house is pretty much like it was when it was built in 1915 ... I have no dish washer, no garbage disposal, no trash compacter, not even a teenager to wash my dishes.



laundry room at Christmas time

laundry room at Christmas time

Yard sale weekend

Last Saturday was a city wide yard sale in a near by beach town called Morro Bay ...it's about a 15 minute drive from our town ...I went with two of my daughters, Julie and Jennifer. ..They picked me up at 6:30 am ...we wanted to be the "early birds" so we could get the best "prizes" ..of course everyone else had the same idea ... Tina, our oldest daughter also followed in her car with cousin Pam ... we had to take two cars to have enough room for our treasures ... good thing we did take two cars because they were both 'packed' when we came home ... It was such a fun day. One of the things I bought was a service for 12 set of Spring looking dishes .. but when I put them on my table they just 'didn't work for me' ..so Tina is going to try to sell them at her yard sale next weekend.... You can't win them all.

Easter

Easter
I love my bunnies



Dining room Easter table

Dining room Easter table
My first attempt at making a bunny out of clay

dining room Easter table

dining room Easter table





la la la ..Happy birthday to you " ..la la ..happy birthday to you ...la la...Happy birthday 'Dear Yolanda" ..happy birthday to you ...la la la


A touch of Easter in the kitchen

A touch of Easter in the kitchen
These eggs are kid's sidewalk chalk from the Dollar Tree


A BIRTHDAY "PRIZE" FOR YOLANDA

A BIRTHDAY "PRIZE" FOR YOLANDA
My sister-in-law Yoly loves hankies .. I could not find any in the stores so I hit the yard sales and found this old box and a bunch of old vintage hankies in the bottom of a box of junk .. I washed and ironed them and put them in this great old box .. under the hankies there is also a vintage apron. .. I love this kind of stuff... I hope she does too. :^)

hankies

hankies