min-myinnersoul

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend...we sure did. Our anniversary is tomorrow, so we spent the weekend in Pigeon Forge and made our way up to The Biltmore in Asheville, N.C. The weather was perfect! And the company wasn't all that bad either;o) We were definitely inspired by all of the beautiful gardens, even though most of the plants and trees were dormant.  The hubs is ready for spring to get here b/c we have a massive back yard that needs some attention. We stayed at the  Inn at Christmas Place . It was reeeeally nice:o) We definitely want to take the kids there. They have milk and cookies with Santa every night, and on Saturday nights Santa performs:o) So cute! On our way back home, we stopped by the knife shop. The hubs has to stop by there every time we go up there. While he was perusing the knife cases, I headed to a small little corner where they were selling dulcimers. Just so you know...I am going to be purchasing one of these in the VERY near future. The li...

If you visit any of the memorials to those who fell in the First World War, you'll find five simple words on most of them - "Their names liveth forever more". A tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of their country. Today is Martyr's Day in India, the day 63 years ago when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. Its a day when the nation is supposed to honour those who laid down their lives for it. Its by and large a forgotten date - just look at today's newspaper to see if there's any mention of it at all. Well , passage of time dims memories. After all the last real war that India fought was in 1971 - well before most readers of this blog were born. Last year I posted this on this day . Today a few words on the greatest of the nation's martyrs - Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi is largely a forgotten man in India today. A few platitudes and he is conveniently brushed aside as belonging to the ancient past. But we would do well to ponder on the ...

Prada, the Italian fashion group, is reportedly going to seek a listing in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Nothing electric about this, except that you would have thought that they would list in Milan. European fashion houses are ,well, snootishly European. So the move to list in Hong Kong does raise eyebrows. This is the magic of China. As even a casual visitor to China knows, every brand is ruthlessly copied and pirated on a big scale. You can easily buy any fashion brand, indistinguishable from the original, perhaps even made in the same factory as the original, at one hundredth the price. Despite this, every fashion house's fortunes these days are driven by demand in Asia, chiefly from China. The nouveau riche in China like to spend. And spend on outrageously priced brands which you can then flaunt. There's a certain pleasure into walking into a room of Prada wearers and knowing that everybody elses is a fake and yours is the real thing. Flaunt your original. But if your main...

I made it through to the next round! Woo-hoo!!!  even though it was by the skin of my teeth:o) A Big Thank you to those of you who showed your support and voted. There were some GREAT entries out there! My favorite was the Pottery Barn Inspired Mirror. I have that on my to do list.  The next round is Decoupage, and I have already started on that project. I am beginning to learn that I don't know as much as I thought I knew when it comes to crafting. This has definitely been a humbling experience. So anywho, here is the before picture of the hutch that I transformed. It's seen better days don't ya think?  I purchased some "oops" paint for $3 at Lowes. This was the most frustrating paint. It took 3 full days to dry. I have had problems with this brand before, but at the time of purchase, I was only paying attention to the price tag and the color.   Here is the contrast between the old color and the new.  The doors are my favorite part of this piece. The tree...

S.R.'s 3rd Birthday is quickly approaching, early March to be exact. I started planning her party as soon as Christmas said AMEN:o)  S.R. loves Barbie. So do I for that matter, what girl doesn't?? Anywho, she is finally grasping the concept of birthday parties and is super psyched about this year. I LOVE IT!  For those of you who know me, birthdays and party planning are a big to-do in our household. The hubs is never that pumped about it, but I L-O-V-E to plan parties. I started searching for Barbie themed parties and ran across    THIS   over at  The Party Dress . This site has TONS of fabulous ideas for any kind of party. This is definitely the "go-to" place for party ideas.  This is exactly what I was looking for. More of a vintage theme than a modern day Barbie. I have already started buying some great decorations and such for this party and there are going to be  A LOT of similarities. Why mess with perfect?:o)  I found Barbie...

It's time to vote! I have had the jitters all weekend waiting for today to get here. Now that it's here, I am a nervous wreck! I have already seen everyone's entries, and there are some AWESOME  projects! Please head over to  Sew Dang Cute  and vote for your THREE  favorite projects. I'm hoping that mine fits into your three faves;o) But I can't tell you which one is mine until the voting has closed:o) I couldn't have been paired with a better "Star" for this competition. Beckie from  Infarrantly Creative  is my star. She has been GREAT to work with. If you haven't visited her site, you need to do so. She has so many great ideas. VERY inspiring. Today, I get a special delivery. A new washer and dryer!! Yeah baby!!  I am off to do some cleaning before the guys from Lowes show up:o) Happy (Voting) Monday!!

There are some ideal moments to observe humanity. From a sidewalk cafe in the heart of Paris on a warm summers day. From the stands at Eden Gardens, or Anfield, or Madison Square Gardens - pick your sport. Or in an Indian train. Another such classic place is when an aeroplane lands. Regular readers of this blog are aware of this blogger's fixation with air travel and this piece will come as no surprise, especially after this and this . As soon as the wheels touch the ground, humanity inside the plane wakes up and warms up. He may have been snoring just a moment ago, but he's wide awake now and is starting to limber up. The hand goes to the pocket and out comes the mobile phone. Its discreetly switched on and is sort of kept hidden between the legs, lest the pretty stew frowns on him and tells him to switch off. However the music on start up or the various pings rather give him away - such auditory masterpieces emanating close to an unfortunate part of the anatomy is brushed asi...

Yes, you read the title correctly....I am one of 12 contestants participating in Crafting With the Stars over at  Sew Dang Cute . I entered the  Nesting Tables  (that were inspired by a set from Ballard Designs) and thought I had absolutely no chance of winning a spot as one of the contestants. I mean, did you see the other entries?? There were so many great projects that were entered.  There are some awesome crafters I am going up against, but it's going to be so much fun!! I'm a little overwhelmed right now...well A LOT overwhelmed, can you tell I'm a little scatterbrained? The star that I am paired up with is Beckie over at  Infarrantly Creative . You really need to check out her site. There are some B-Awesome crafts on her site. (A little "Bolt" Humor for you Disney fans out there) January 24th( that's Monday...ahhh!) is when the competition will start, and you can vote for your fave project.  Thank You  to the judges for picking me! I feel s...

In the aftermath of the tragedy at Tucson, Arizona, there has been a frenzy of chest beating in the United States as to whether the poisoned and inflamed political rhetoric that is now commonplace, was a contributor to the tragedy. It took The Economist to say that was the wrong question. The real issue, as The Economist argues , is the gun control laws in the US. For those unfamiliar with the Tucson tragedy, a deranged man attempted to assassinate a Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords. Six people were killed, including a nine year old girl. A further thirteen were injured, including Ms Giffords, who is battling for her life in hospital. Unfortunately, such incidents have become all too common in the United States. Even more unfortunately, many of them happen in school and university campuses. Wikipedia even has a depressing listing of such massacres here . Guns are far too easy to get and own in the US. The right to bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the US constitution....

Onions in India. Cabbage & pork in South Korea. Chilli Peppers in Indonesia. Frighteningly, wheat globally. Riots have already started in Algeria , and is sure to spread. Food price inflation is hitting the world again. Millions of children will echo Oliver Twist's begging in those immortal words which are the title of this post. Are we going to see a repeat of 2008 ? This blogger is no expert on food economics. But the issue of food prices is close to his heart and he has posted on the awfulness of food price inflation here before. All inflation is bad, but food price inflation is especially awful. For it ceases to be an economic problem of supply and demand and becomes an issue of survival for half the world's population. It sparks a humanitarian crisis. And it will inevitably lead to unrest and riots. The world cannot afford inflation in the price of food. Certainly not the high double digit inflation that it is seeing. The issue is a complex one. World food supply and ...

I hope that you all are staying warm in this frigid weather. We have had so much fun in the snow! Living in the moment, we are:o)  I told you guys that I had started on some projects before the snow hit, and that I had one more to complete. Well it is finished...YAY!! And I LOVE how it turned out. Here is the inspiration for my project today. Courtesy of Ballard Designs     These tables are from Ballard Designs and run about $250 for the set. They are beautiful, but are waaaay out of my price range. I have wanted some sort of game table to go in front of the window by the fireplace for quite a while now, but had never found exactly what I was looking for. After seeing Ballard's nesting tables, I knew that those were IT. I had a vision and a mission to find similar tables.  And here we have them. Given to us. The hubs helped a sweet woman move into her new house and she had these tables that wouldn't fit into her new home. I was very, very excited about these. They j...

This is what we woke up to this morning...another gorgeous snowy morning. Ya'll we live in the deep South, and this is just unheard of....and I LOVE IT!!  We took the kids sledding with some others in the neighborhood. Just so you guys know, we have the best neighbors....EV-UH! They are so much fun!!  This right here was hysterical. Here in the South, we don't own sleds...what's the point? We won't see another snow like this for 15 more years:o) So we use what we have...in our case, we have laundry baskets.  Watch our little dare devil:  Weeeeeeeeee.....  Ker-plunk! And yes, I waited to pick her up AFTER I took the picture:o)  We have had a blast today. I even made snow cream, which is so yummy!! A big shout out goes to the mom-in-law for providing her recipe. Definitely a keeper(mom-in-law and recipe;o)HA!) Anyway, we knew that this line of snow was coming, so I made sure to knock out a few projects that required working outdoors before the really cold air...

The Ancient Library of Alexandria was one of the pinnacle achievements of human civilisation at the time of the birth of Christ. Knowledge is the cornerstone of human achievement and cataloging and storage of that knowledge is a singular feat . The library of Alexandria was, for that age and time, an unbelievable beacon of human endeavor. It is one of humankind's greatest tragedies that the library was burnt down by the Romans. While libraries came and went since, the Encyclopedia Britannica arose as a store of much of the knowledge and wisdom that the human race accumulated. But, with the arrival of the internet, arose another phenomenon in that same illustrious league - Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a singular human achievement, built cooperatively and freely, as a memorial to knowledge. That its free, that its ubiquitous, that it is accessible in so many languages, that it is constantly improved and bettered, is something that the wise men who built the library of Alexandria would...

Of course, there is no such thing as too much money. One man's dream is another man's basic necessity. But then sometimes there are those who don't know what to do with their money. The damn thing is burning a hole in the pocket (or the bank account, or wherever). They've already bought into houses, gold, shares, mutual funds, whatever. Now what ? They invent instruments like catastrophe bonds . I read about them with my jaw dropping - hadn't known that such esoteric stuff existed. Well compared to other even more esoteric species of investments, this might more resemble "plain vanilla". That only underscores my point. Insurance companies issue these catastrophe bonds. They carry a higher rate of interest and investors invest in them. The condition is that the investor loses his investment if the catastrophe occurs. So he is essentially betting that the catastrophe does not occur. For the insurance company, this is a form of reinsurance. If the catastroph...

First off, I want you guys to check out my new stools...the white ones. I REEEEALLY like these!! I got them from  AllBarstools.com . They are apart of CSNStores.com   I had the BEST experience with their customer service! It's really nice to know that there are still people in the service industry who take the time to work with their customers...There was a mix up in the delivery, and they were so friendly and fixed things right away. Can you ask for a better experience? I think not. I will definitely be visiting them again, especially since I like the white stools better than the wood toned stools. Guess I will be posting the old ones on craigslist soon;o) I have been extremely unmotivated to do anything here lately. I did, however, rearrange some furniture in the living room. This is the third time that I have changed this area. I just can't seem to make up my mind. But I think I like this arrangement best. This table fits the space better. I plan on stripping the ...