With almost half of the online game playing population looking for and playing virtual girl games the demand has been heard and they have done a good job in providing females with a good variety of virtual girl games to occupy our online time. My 11 year old niece got a laptop for Christmas and spends a good amount of time online, since she is the only child she doesn’t have anyone around the house to play with and spend any of her spare time with, so the computer has turned into her best friend these days.

It is a good thing that her mother is on the ball and is constantly checking in on her and does look to see what sites she has been visiting. She isn’t allowed to have a FaceBook or a MySpace account yet, but she seems cool with that for now.

We especially get excited when we see a bluebird; we don’t see them very often!  My hubby has been talking about trying to take pictures of them, but by the time he gets his digital camera, they’ve flown off!  I recently came across a website that  sells special bird cameras.  I’ve never heard of them before, but I was intrigued.  These are special wireless bird cameras just for taking pictures of birds!  They are weatherproof, have motion detectors, and one even has a flash feature for night time photos!

The cameras were more affordable than I would have expected!  I just might break down and buy my hubby a bird camera for his next birthday.  I think he’d be really excited to get a gift like that!  No more groans of disappointment when the bird has flown away!

That was my very first time painting on tiles! I used Folk Art Enamels paints, and used the One Stroke method of painting. When I gave them to my mother-in-law, she was thrilled to death! It would be very easy to glue some felt and ribbons to something like that to make a pretty gift!

It seems to me, though, that she could really go wild on one of the tower style ecco v8 mailboxes.  Painting one of those would be really eye catching!  Whatever she decides, I’m sure it will be gorgeous.  Sue has such a great eye and talent that everything she touches looks great!  When we first moved into this house, Sue gave us a gorgeous hand-painted bread box for our new kitchen.

I’ve been trying to weed out some of the things that my kids have outgrown. I’m finding it hard because I keep thinking that the classic kids toys would be something that would be good to hang onto in the event any grand children or grand-nephews/nieces might drop by and need some kind of activity to keep busy.

And as much as my son loved his Ghostbuster action figures I’m a little bit attached to them just because of the memories of watching him play with them for hours on end!

I do think that I can donate, or freecycle some of the old ride on toys; at least the ones that I picked up at lawn sales. But the cute little John Deere tractor that was given brand new and is still in great shape, well …. I just don’t know. I think part of my reluctance to get rid of these things is the thought that they don’t really belong to me – they belong to my children! And I can remember how very upsetting it was for me whenever my mother threw away my toys. I guess that just made me feel powerless, and I don’t want my kids to have that feeling.

I was thrilled to be able to take my outdoor planters out of the basement and put them into the shed – it freed up valuable space inside. But I was quite annoyed a few short days later when I went out to the shed to pick out a decorative planter to put a new begonia in and found all of my garden supplies in a pile on the floor! I have tried many times to fix that problem, but the shelves just will not stay up! I guess the only solution is to put in free-standing shelving units and be done with it!  I think if my hubby had installed the shed correctly this wouldn’t be an issue!  But I always learn to make do, and I think that is the answer to the problem.

There sure was a lot of money to be made back then!  The current financial situation reminds me of way back then.  So many advertisements are on television lately about place that you can to buy gold bullion for investment purposes.  I feel rather sad that people feel that investing in gold bullion is a safer way to invest than to buy stocks.  Although I agree that it is a good idea to buy bullion as part of an investment plan, I thnk that diversification is the right plan of action.  Never put all your eggs in one basket!

She is a treasure hunter and has gotten pretty good at it lately. It seems that she has been hitting the pawn shops that are abundant in Texas. One of her local Dallas Pawn Shops has become one of her favorite stops when she goes into town and she has become very friendly with the owner, which is cool. We could all use as many friends as we can possibly acquire these days.

She is totally into vintage jewelery and there seems to be a lot of people pawning their vintage jewelry in order to get cash to help pay the bills in today’s troubled economy. It is a buyer’s market, if you have the money. She has even ventured out to some of the other Austin Pawn Shops in her attempt to find her treasures that put a smile on her face. It’s all about the hunt and I say go for it girl!