Andrea has a new site -- get the scoop on journaling
and learn just how it can be done easily, effectively and rewarding.
Check it out: http://andrealeda.com/

SCOTT MANSFIELD
PHOTOGRAPHY

If you want to experience the beauty of this country -- check out Scott's new web site.
www.scottmansfield.com

I LOVE DIY

My niece, MiMi, posted on Facebook a site that has some wonderfully simple DIY suggestions. Here is the site: http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/2013/08/50-insanely-clever-organizing-ideas.html 

And here are a few cool ideas that followed me home.

Pegged to the inside of the cabinet door -- This one I did right away and love how simple it is

 

Shower baskets for the kiddy car stuff we all carry

Empty baby wipe containers -- great storage boxes

 This one is for the journalers out there --- glue a closeable envelope to the inside of your journal. Keeps the extras organized and in one place.

Our Latest Real Estate Purchase

Another Rental Property in the MANSFIELD PROPERTIES Portfolio

This duplex doesn't look like much from the outside (typical 1967 structure) but it's the location that can't be beat. Only 1 block walk into Fairhaven for the library, multiple restaurants, coffee shops, boutique stores, book stores, and all the charm that Fairhaven has to offer. PLUS these two units have spectacular bay, island and ocean views facing west.

Each unit has a front facing living room with French doors to the divided deck, ample kitchen with small eating area, utility room with washer/dryer and storage. Two bedrooms each have a wall of closets and the central, remodeled bath is at the end of the hall. Spacious double closet in the hallway adds to the storage space. Each unit has a private 1-car garage that is extra wide (more storage space or work-shop. Private, fenced backyards all within a wonderful, quiet neighborhood on the South Hill of Bellingham.

For MANSFIELD PROPERTIES is means double the rent - double the fun. We now own 3 rentals.

Ironically, Andrea rented the unit on the right for her "first" home-away-from-home when she went off to college 12 years ago.  I've got the photos to prove just how adorable these units can be decorated and how much fun it is to live here. 

I've got a long (and growing) To-Do List to spruce-up the place starting with the street appeal. Power wash the driveway, add large stylish house numbers, new mailboxes and attractive sensor lights. Plant something in the small space in front of the hose/utility box. The paint isn't too badly done - light gray and dark blue/gray trim.

IF you have any suggestions -- send them my way.

 I'd love to hear what you would do to change this from drab to fab. 

Sweets for my Sweets

So true - So true!

If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

If Grandma ain't happy...RUN!!!!

(just saying....)

These followed me home from Pinterest......

Anyone with basic carpentry skills can construct this classic, one-room cabin for less than $4,000. MOTHER EARTH NEWS contributing editor and DIY maven Steve Maxwell will show you how to build a 14-by-20-foot cabin featuring a sleeping loft over the porch. motherearthnews.com

Someone I know keeps talking about wanting to build a small cabin: this is for your file of plans.

and.... speaking of files: I love, love, love this idea -- so different, useful and unique. If I had files needing to nest this would be on my desk.

It's a dish rack and the silverware basket is used for pens and pencils. Love it! I may have to create some files just to get this in my space.

We have three (count them: 3) dollhouses stored in boxes, forgotten and not being used. Okay, one will only be opened when a granddaughter has a certain birthday - it will never be forgotten. But, the other 2 would work for this idea. Okay, one of the two isn't really mine, so I best leave it boxed up.  I have one dollhouse that would work for this idea. IF only I had a place to display, to use it and enjoy it.

I need a house just to put projects that don't fit in our home, but would be fun to have around.

I Wish You The Very Best!

Happy New Year to all my family and friends!

The Christmas Spirit Has Arrived.......

Sam'Studio has found a new home...

A new artisan gallery and gift store has opened in Bellingham and Sam'Studio is now offering the product line you've been buying through the Allied Arts Holiday Festival event at DragonFrog. DragonFrog Gallery is open:

Tuesday-Friday 11:00am - 5:30pm and Saturdays 11:00am-3:00pm all year long.

Come out and see the amazing NW artist/crafters works, take a workshop or pick up a bouquet of flowers that Deb has on display. If you've loved going to Allied Arts Holiday Festival, but can't wait for it to start --- you won't be disappointed with the selection at DragonFrog --- there are Allied Arts artist/crafters, new NW crafter's work and flowers arranged by Deb (the owner).

SAVE THE DATE

November 13 5:pm-8:00pm

"Shoppers Nite Out"

courtesy gift wrapping - refreshments - hourly prizes

Sam'Studio will not be participating in the Allied Arts Holiday Festival this year. 

DraonFrog Gallery and Gifts

4131 Hannegan Road Suite #101

Bellingham, WA.

visit the web site at: http://www.dragonfroggifts.com

You Gotta Love Brad Parks

 

When I was focused on filling this blog with insightful thoughts, sketches of life and sometimes the mundane, I had included a monthly book review. Books that I had read during the month, giving a very brief synopsis and a thumbs up or a thumbs down. I stopped doing that. Not because I stopped reading, I just got lazy and didn't  brag blog about my ferocious hunger for the written word. Plus, I figured you had your taste in books and I had mine --- I Love A Good Mystery, how about you?

I like following the storyline, picking up clues as the author drops them along the pages, figuring out just "who done it" before I get to the end of the book. I've been known to come to the last page of a book and shout, "I KNEW IT!" And I especially love a good mystery when there is humor sprinkled thought out by an author that can pull it off with ease.

Marshall Karp is one of the best

Lisa Lutz - she's just plain crazy fun to read

Janet Evonovich - her earlier books are far better than the later

Just to name a few

BUT

I have to put Brad Parks at the top of my list!

His character, Carter Ross, is an investigative reporter in New Jersey. He's inquisitive, an original preppy, and down right funny. His one liners should be sneaking into everyone's repertoire. Coming from a journalist background, Brad Parks, has given the fourth estate something to live up to in his refreshing and very, very funny mystery series. 

IF you're looking for a great read, love to laugh until it hurts, then get to know Carter Ross and the man who writes some of the best prose around.

 

Write - edit - proof - edit some more

Where the heck have I been, you ask? Writing, writing, writing. I'm writing a book -- NO, I've written a book. And with that comes all kinds of things:
the writing (of course)
the editing
the proof reading
more editing
selections
polishing the writing
how I want it to look as opposed to how it will look
etc. etc. etc.

then comes:
how the heck do I get it into the hands of the powers that be?
a steep learning curve on the "how to's" to publishing
the second guessing -- really? a book? etc. etc. etc.

If you've ever been to my other site (and I hope you have), Attic Whispers, you know I love to discover the old, sepia photos that have a story to tell. The vignettes are simple slices of who these people might have been and what they may have done in their lives. It's all fiction, of course - that's what makes it fun (for me and hopefully for the reader, too).

Now that you know what I've been up to (and up to my neck in alligators) you'll understand why this site has taken the back seat and at the bottom of my list of things to do. I haven't completely forgotten about Sam's Amusing World - heck, I stop by now and then to see if anything new has cropped up in my absence. But, for now (and the next 3 months) "THE BOOK" has my full attention. The working title of my new book is Lost & Found.  That's all I'm going to say for now about "THE BOOK" but I will keep you posted on developing events - just not for the next 3 months.  Thank you, Sam

Interesting - or is it?

I'm in the process of finishing my book, Lost and Found and after some research (actually after much research) I discovered an interesting bit of information. At least it's interesting to me. Do you know the break down of fund distribution from a book sale? That's one book sold. Here is a small sample:

40% = The Book Store - Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.  They stock their shelves and sell
7-8% = The Literary Agent - finds the publisher and may help in editing
43% = The Publisher - they edit, proof, print, promote and distribute the book
10% = The Author - writes the book, edits the book, proofreads the book, edits the book some more, finishes manuscript in the "correct" format for publisher, begs agent to represent the book, helps promote the book

What's wrong with this picture?
I'm a bit surprised we have any books left to read
(guess I better not quit my day job)

The Background Story

During a trip to Portland, Oregon last year, my son, daughter-in-law and I ventured east to old historical Hwy. 30 and the Columbia Gorge. It was a cold, windy, stormy day and we were deluged with buckets of rain until we hit the beginning of the highway when the rain stopped and we could see the storm veering off to the south.  This very first scenic drive in the United States was built in 1922-23 and for 30 miles it encounters over 77 waterfalls. Most of these water gushing falls cascade right down to the parking areas offering trails and view points nearby.  We drove from one awe inspiring waterfall and view to the next becoming overwhelmed as they got bigger and bigger along the way.

We lunched at the famous Multonmah Falls Lodge (great food by the way) and traveled on, taking photographs, catching memories and ending up at Hood River.  I won't go into detail of each waterfall or our special day trip, this snippet is about my discovery at a little antique store in Hood River.

It was there, as I was pawing through the boxes and baskets of old sepia photos (always looking for the next photo to tell it's tale on Attic Whispers)  that I found a series of 22 photographs. They are small, black and white photos only 3" x 1.75" and of the Columbia Gorge Hwy. 30 taken around 1923. Each little photo had a note written on the front in white writing of the location and name of the scene. For $12.00 I shouted, "Sold!".

It wasn't until I got home, unpacked and took a good look at the photos that I felt they had a special quality to them. They were obviously taken by a professional photographer, so I started doing some research. I found the photographer. Benjamin A. Gifford 1859-1936. He was a landscape photographer who was an apprentice to Wm. LaTour in Missouri before relocating to Portland, Oregon in 1888. He and his family moved to the Dalles in 1895 and set up shop.  Their photography studio and store was very famous and well known, as was Benjamin's work. After his first wife died in 1919, he married his shop worker, Rachel and settled on the Salmon River just north of the Columbia in Washington state. They called their homestead Wa-Ke-Nah. Benjamin's son continued the family business and became a landscape photographer himself.

Now it gets interesting.....while researching I stumbled onto a web site that displayed Columbia Gorge postcards. What to my surprise -- there was Benjamin's photographs, colorized (probably by hand) and printed as postcards. My Hood River purchased photographs were done for a Portland postcard company and I had copies of the originals for the series. WooHoo!

Here are 9 of the photos I have and their counterpart as post cards. Amazing - huh? I'm sure I'll find the remaining 13 post cards as I continue finding photos, post cards and stories that make up Attic Whispers.

The story I wrote for these photos are being posted on Monday's Attic Whispers' Post Card Series. Go check it out and read the story of Harold and Sylvia's 1923 auto trip.