Corner for Theme Thursday

Jessie Wilcox Smith's painting of Little Jack Horner  1863-1935

Little Jack Horner

Sat in the corner,

Eating a Christmas pie;

He put in his thumb,

And pulled out a plum,

And said 'What a good boy am I!'

 

Traditional English Nursery Rhyme, 1725

 

 

This is a Theme Thursday post!

  To see what others chose for 'corner' click HERE!

Treasure Map

click to enlarge

Treasure is the theme for Theme Thursday! It reminded me of the treasure maps my sisters and I would make when we were kids. Here's how we did it:

1. Crinkle up a piece of paper; make creases by folding. Tear a few spots.
2. Stain it with tea to give it that aged, yellow look. Let it dry.
3. Burn some of the edge. Not sure why, but when you're a kid, it makes it look really cool.
4. Smear some of the ash on the map for dirt and variation of shade. Use the match tip to draw parts of the map, lines for water and land.
5. Add what you want, including a compass, landmarks, and of course, the big X!

click to enlarge

Looks like Jack Sparrow could have carried this around in his pocket!

To see other treasures, click HERE!

♥

Gourd ~ A Theme Thursday Post

art by carolyn reed barritt

Gourd ~ a noun. The hard-shelled fruit of various plants, especially those of Lagenaria siceraria (white flowered) and Cucurbitaceae (yellow flowered gourds). Their shells can be used for bowls, utensils, musical instruments and ornamental objects. The flesh can be eaten and the seeds roasted.

............Calabash

........pUmpkin

.......cuCumber

....lUffa

.........biRdhouse

.......Banjo

.....trIploid

spagheTti.........

.....mAracas

crookneCk...........

watermElon........

squAsh...

ornamEntal......

Favorite one to eat ~ spaghetti squash.

Favorite ornamental ~ birdhouse gourd.

To see other posts on 'gourd' click here!

♥

Gadget ~ For Theme Thursday

A small imaginative............

mechanical....

......device,

....an ingenious or

novel........

...tool.

Gadget is the theme this week!

To see more gadgets, click HERE!

♥

Thrill ~ A Theme Thursday Post

Cemetery for one. Rt. 42 Wilberforce, Ohio

Photo taken 10-26-11

Telling ghost stories by candle light,

giggling girls sitting in a circle.

Wide eyed and terrified at shadows across the window,

illumined by the moon.

Hide and Seek at midnight,

holding breath as snapping twigs and crunching leaves

give signs that you may be discovered.

Squeals and shrieks at sheet ghosts hanging in trees,

a mix of goose bump pleasure and a flash of fear.

Click HERE to join in!

♥

New ~ A Theme Thursday Post

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.

Ralph Waldo Emerson American Poet

I'm joining back in with the Theme Thursday group!

Click HERE to check them out!

Today is the first day of the rest of your life!

♥

Clouds

cloud over Maldivian Island of Meerufenfushi

by ninganut of cloudappreciationsociety.com

*****

Lay in the grass and find animals as

Cumulus puffs linger.

Or imagine God painting wispy

Cirrus Lines with his finger.

Enjoy the cool comfOrting shade

as the StratUs envelopes a sunless sky.

Or open your mouth and catch rainDrops

falling from a NimbuS on high.

This is a Theme Thursday post.

To see more cloud thoughts, click HERE

♥

Repo Girl or A Brush With Danger for Theme Thursday

I've had lots of brushes with danger in my life. Just this afternoon I cleaned the refrigerator! Any food item so old that you cannot properly identify it is certainly dangerous! LOL! But the most interesting brush with danger would have to be my day job in the 80's as a repo girl....

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Over the past couple of weeks the subject of my having been in the repo business has surfaced several times. I have mentioned it in passing before, but I thought I'd share my unique job experience with you in a little more detail.

I got married right out of college and landed a job with General Motors back in 1984. I worked there for 10 years, doing anything from recording credit applications , running credit reports, processing refinancing agreements and yes, I even did 18 months out 'in the field,' repossessing cars!

Now normally, when people cannot pay their car payments, they call and work something out. But that small percentage that refused to communicate, refused to pay and actually hid from us....well, they got assigned to people like me! This was before the Internet and we did a lot of foot work...visiting their homes, nearest relatives, neighbors, making lots of phone calls, visiting them at work and looking for the car!

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I learned all the makes and models of GM cars...able to identify them just from little things like their tail lights. Did you know that the brake light shown in the rear window began in 1991? :) I learned how to sweet talk friends and neighbors into giving me the information I needed. And I could even sweet talk delinquent customers into peacefully handing over the money or their car......sometimes. :)

The few customers who refused to pay and actually hid were the real challenge. I learned to cut keys so I could drive a car away when it was spotted. Let me tell you, there is nothing more thrilling than finding a car that is incredibly past due, especially if you have searched the entire city for weeks and your boss is breathing down your neck! There is also nothing more terrifying than actually getting in the car and driving away! You pray that the keys you cut actually unlock the door and fit in the ignition so you can go! And you pray that nobody is watching you that could run outside and cause a scene! This was before cell phones...at least supplied by GM...so after driving away...and breathing again, I'd find a pay phone. First call was to the police so the customer wouldn't think it was stolen. Second call was to the boss, telling him "Yes! I'm actually sitting in it right now!"

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There were those times when the keys didn't work! Or the key codes weren't available to cut keys in the first place. In those cases we called a tow truck. Certain towing services were familiar with working with us and I became friends with at least a couple of guys from each towing agency we used in various cities. I should probably mention that this wasn't exclusive to one city, but our region was about a quarter of the state of Ohio, so not only did I do a lot of driving, but I formed connections with a lot of places and people over a large area. Always nice to have those people to trade favors with! .

The least favorite part of the job was dealing with the car after we took it. Most of them were in terrible shape...some having been lived in for a while. Part of our job was to clean out the car and trunk. This meant itemizing all of the personal belongings, packing them up and shipping them back to the customer. All the garbage was thrown out and a detailed inspection of the car had to be made, noting the overall condition and any damage. Summer, of course, was the worst season for spending the day in a impound lot with your head stuck in a car! I literally saw everything imaginable from guns, rotting food, dead mice, used condoms, dirty laundry, drug paraphernalia, and dirty diapers!

The most interesting part of the job was the people! Yes, it could be dangerous and I did run into some trouble. If I felt it was going to be dangerous, I could call for police backup beforehand, which I did a few times. Only once did I actually get hurt, which was only a bruise the shape of a man's hand on my arm. One time someone pulled a knife on me, but fortunately he decided not to use it! LOL! I'm sure my guardian angel called in the reserves to follow me around! :)

. But the weirdest experience was this one.... I had been out to visit a woman and remember sitting in her kitchen explaining all the options available to bring her account up to date. She was odd, to say the least, but I didn't think too much about it. The next day she called my boss, saying that she wouldn't be paying or giving up the car! And in passing, she added that she had made a voodoo doll of me..complete with long brown hair and a red raincoat...which I had been wearing the day before! Needless to say, the company didn't want me to go out to her house again! LOL! I wonder what ever happened to that doll!?

And of course, don't get 'repossessed' confused with 'possessed', which I'm convinced was the trouble with my old van! Remember the wipers that would run when the key was out of the ignition? Oh yea..THAT is possessed! LOL!

all photos from googleimages.com

Theme Thursday = Brown

Once upon a time there was a girl I knew, who lived across the street. Brown hair, brown eyes. When she smiled, I smiled. When she cried, I cried. Every single thing that ever happened to me that mattered, in some way had to do with her. ~~The Wonder Years

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Someone once threw me a small, brown, hairy kiwi fruit, and I threw a wastebasket over it until it was dead.” ~~Erma Bombeck

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I look into your great brown eyes, Where love and loyal homage shine, And wonder where the difference lies Between your soul and mine! ~~Josiah G

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Do not expect the world to look bright, if you habitually wear gray-brown glasses.

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I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns. ~~Winston Churchill

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Visit all of my friends at Theme Thursday by clicking HERE!

Theme Thursday = Light

light:

Function: adjective

Definition 4 : having little weight :

not heavy, as in "light as a cloud"

Grim Reaper? spaceship? dog? red snapper? dragonfly? six legged pig?

******

• Lilting
• Imaginary forms
• Gliding
• High above
• Tree tops

O, it is pleasant, with a heart at ease,

Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies,

To make the shifting clouds be what you please,

Or let the easily persuaded eyes

Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould

Of a friend's fancy.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

*******

Visit all my friends at Theme Thursday HERE!

Theme Thursday = Park

googleimages.com

• Pleasant time
• Away from
• Routines
• Kept

visit all my theme thursday friends HERE!

Theme Thursday = Help

• Hand
• Extended,
• Lovingly
• Provided

"In helping others, we shall help ourselves,

for whatever good we give out

completes the circle and comes back to us.”

Flora Edwards

♥♥♥♥♥

visit all of my theme thursday friends HERE!

Theme Thursday = Ball

• Basketball to Banana,
• A
• Lovely
• Lunar Eclipse

This acrostic is especially for my dear friends

Jeffscape and Mmm, whose lives seem to come

to a sudden halt if I don't include an acrostic

in my Theme Thursday posts! LOL!

Enjoy, gentlemen. :)

Make sure the rest of you visit all my

Theme Thursday friends by clicking HERE!

The last lunar eclipse was 6-26-10. If you missed

it, the next one is 12-21-10!

Theme Thursday = Blue

blue jay ~ blue nile ~ blue sky ~ blue mood

blue man group ~ blue shark ~ blue angels

blue ribbon ~ blue whale ~ blue ocean

blue eyes ~ blue lagoon ~ blueberry

beautiful blue.

♥♥♥♥♥

Visit all my Theme Thursday friends HERE!

Theme Thursday = Triangle

• Tiny
• Rhythm
• Instrument.
• A
• Noteworthy
• Gem I
• Loved to
• Experience.

In kindergarten, the triangle was always my favorite when we

got to choose from the rhythm band instrument box!

Visit all of my Theme Thursday friends HERE!

Theme Thursday = Camera

• Capturing
• All
• Meaningful
• Events to
• Review
• Again

Visit my Theme Thursday friends HERE!

Theme Thursday = Candy

I have a huge sweet tooth. And if I have to get

a sweet fix from a vending machine, my first

choice would be an Almond Joy or Mounds bar.

Did you know that they have been around since

the 1940's? I love the vintage ads! And can

you believe they were only 10 cents?

They were probably bigger back then, too!

Isn't that they way it usually goes? ha.

Kinda like a Burger King Whopper...remember

when those were so huge you could barely

pick them up? But I digress...

Remember the catchy slogan,

"Sometimes you feel like a nut...sometimes you don't"?

And look at this cute couple! I'm glad to see they didn't get their costumes confused! ;) I'll tell you right now, The Mister wouldn't be caught dead in something like this! ha.

*****

I'd have to say that Butterfinger, and Twix would have to come in as a close 2nd and 3rd on my favorites list.

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So...what's your favorite candy bar?

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