Who are these guys, and what have you done with our Patriots?

Wow. Very disappointing game today against the Miami Dolphins. What's happened to our team? Up until the beginning of this season we were something like 23-3 on the road. This season we haven't won a SINGLE game on the road - we're 0-5! So many missed opportunities today, and for that matter, in a number of games in the last 3 weeks or so.
I want our Patriots back!

More Egyptian Inspired Pendants.

Shown here are a few of the Eye Of Horus pendants created recently. The stylized, and all-seeing Eye of Horus was considered to be a powerful amulet against evil spirits as well as a good luck charm.

The upper left pendant has been painted with a black background and the stamped image is in metallic gold. The left pendants are painted in a silver metallic with a metallic peridot green used for the stamped image. The color combinations are almost endless. I'll be trying out more color combo's soon. I'll post pictures of anything new.

Check out these and other items at my Bonanzle booth. www.bonanzle.com/whynotnow

I created some new Egyptian Inspired pendants with Polymer Clay. Take a look!

Shown above left is an image of the Egyptian Sun God RA, hand stamped into Polymer Clay, then baked and sealed. He is generally shown with the head of a falcon, and wears a sun for his crown. The basic shape of the seated or enthroned body was similar in most of the depictions of gods and goddesses, so the identity of a particular god or goddess was determined by the addition of symbols closely associated with the deity, such as a sun, a feather, tall plumes, etc. RA is, hence, identified by the "sun" for a crown.

Above right is the Egyptian Scarab. The scarab beetle sign, kheper, was also the sign of the god Khepri, one of the solar deities. Among it's uses by the Egyptians was in the form of a heart amulet worn by mummies on their chests as protection against evil.

Check for other posts showing a few more Egyptian inspired pendants.

These pendants, among many other items, are for sale in my Bonanzle booth @ www.bonanzle.com/whynotnow

Trying to learn about blog searches

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Trying out different things. Found submitexpress.com. Will it or won't it make my blog show up in various search engines?

Time will tell!

Will the tax increases ever stop??

I live in Massachusetts, or as we've grown up calling it...TAXachusetts. We've come to expect tax increases frequently, but are never happy about it. Me thinks the Democratic leaders of our state are the cause - many, many give-a-way money projects - of our middle class slowly disappearing. I used to consider my family in the middle class, but now I'm not so sure. We work our butts off and when we seem to be getting ahead...WHAM...we get a tax increase somewhere or other that eats into money that would otherwise have been saved.

Most of the increased taxes in recent years have been on smokers. Supposedly these increased taxes were going to go to health care for poor children. The increases have been staggering! I can't think of any other group of people who have been taxed so much in such a short period of time. Talk about "Taxation without representation"! I mention this because we recently saw another large tax on cigarettes passed down from the FEDERAL gov't. - I believe $1.00/pack - which was for...you guessed it...health care for poor children! Remember several years ago the tobacco industry paid out kazillions of dollars to the government? THAT was also supposed to go for, among other things, HEALTH CARE FOR POOR CHILDREN!! What we heard, from many states, is that the money was used for pet projects, fixing sidewalks, new parks...anything and everything EXCEPT health care for poor children. I believe we're all being played for fools, and I for one am SICK AND TIRED OF IT!!

Recently, our esteemed Massachusetts legislators voted a 25% increase in our state's sales tax. Boom...no incremental increase...a straight 25% increase! There is now talk about increasing substantially the tolls on our Mass. Tpk., a bridge, and tunnels. There's already been talk about increasing the gas tax here. As if it isn't already high enough!

On top of our local state tax increases, I now hear that the Fed's. are pushing for an increase in beer and wine taxes...the talk is a 20% increase in hard liquor; a 145% increase in beer; a whopping 233% increase in wine. And guess what these tax increases will help to fund?? The rising cost of HEALTHCARE, especially for the millions of uninsured! Among those, I'm sure, are poor children!

And just so you don't think the increased taxes only apply to "vices", there's a move on to also put a tax on soft drinks.

When will it end? I'm not sure it ever will! All I know is that since our new President came into office, there's been nothing but new taxes and talk of more taxes. I know we weren't in great shape when he came into office, but are we all going to have to keep paying through the nose forever...while jobs are being lost, hours are being cut, houses are being foreclosed on, everything is going up in price. Geez...

How do we stop this "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION"?????

Just my opinion...but feel free to comment.

Flowers that bloom in the spring...cont'd

Sorry the pic's are mixed up from what I said in my blog. Things got rearranged after I published the post. Still learning.....But...they ARE pretty flowers, don't you think?

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la! Our garden is coming to life!

Signs of new life in our garden in Holbrook, MA. I LOVE to see these new beginnings for our flowers each year. Thought I'd share a few pic's with you of what I'm enjoying these days.

The pic to the left is of our Variegated Weigela. VERY pretty. It's grown to 3 times it's original size in just the last 2 years! Yesterday I saw a hummingbird sipping from it's flowers. Hoped to see one today to take a pic of, but not to be.




Two very pretty Irise's. I like the purple Iris a lot better than the pale yellow. Maybe I should cut the purple one and bring it inside to enjoy it's beauty more often. (2 pic's in center)

Our clematis is starting to burst into bloom. There has to be at least 100 buds getting ready to open. So far, just a few have opened. What an electric purple/blue color! (pic is top center)

The bleeding hearts plant is almost done blooming for this year. A week ago, there were blooms all over it! (pic is top right)

The pic top left shows a few plants I potted up yesterday. They add quite the splash of color to our deck. I have them in a few other places on our deck railing.

It's so nice to see color sprouting in and around our backyard. Lots more to come over the coming weeks and months. Can't wait!