Just joined yesterday--had lurked for awhile. Chose the name because that is what I love to do--take something and try to turn it into something prettier. I do some wood cutting and painting, and love finding and giving new life to GS,YS or TS items. I feel so bad for those of you who lost so much to the tornado and hurricanes. Best wishes to you on rebuilding and starting over.

Chose slowmedown or I'm going into orbit w/so many ideas. Since I found this site I'm overwhelmed. Just can't work fast enough. Calamity: Take a big bow. My RN daughter is a recovering alcoholic. No secret cuz she mentions it in her blog (Tales of a Bohemian Knitter). I read the Big Book, attended meetings w/her and laughed and cried w/them all. What a horrible disease. My heart goes out to them all. I was watching Glenn Beck on TV last eve., as he discussed w/a Prof. the pedophiles and sex deviants and whether they are curable. Glen said "life is all about choices. I didn't choose to be an alcoholic, but I choose NOT to drink". My congratulations to you. The sad part of this disease is, it's a lifetime sentence. My DD said she's buried friends who had been sober for 25 yrs., but committed suicide because of the depression. The disease carries w/it a multitude of other problems. Bless your heart. God's grace to you.

I have always been into crafts, got it from my Mom as she always decorated for the holidays and/or made things out of something and transformed it into something beautiful. As I posted in another forum, when I look at things, I see things. In a huge farm mailbox going to be thrown out, I see a painted flower container for the garden. Pic attached. I'm very critical of my crafts, always wanting perfection (I'm a Virgo). Once painted a farm milk can five times before I liked the design. Just kept "blacking it out." My brother exclaimed "I didn't think it was going to be so beautiful" when he agreed to let me paint it.

I chose Craftylady and the program added the 2006. I just love this forum and all the folks in it whom I find to be very kind, thoughtful, helpful, talented and creative.

Warm wishes to all,

Sal

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:127569}}

As you can tell,I have always drawn blanks when trying to come up with a user name, so mines not very creative. LOL I am a packrat, and I feel like I'm in good company here. My Mother claims I'm the "Queen of Clutter", but I really do know someone worse than me. I love this forum, and if I miss a day checking in on it, I feel totally lost, like I've missed something very big.

It has been interesting to read everyones posts.
I just used my given name. It's different than
most peoples so it works. I love the GJ site. so many
great ideas and nice people. My DH is probably glad
we don't have room for me to collect more junk!
Mayme in West MI

Delaniemae is my Smooth Coat Fox Terriers name. I got Delanie from a Jimmy Buffet song from his Fruitcakes CD. I always give my dogs middle names. There is also Marcielou the Sheltie and Vincent Ira the Boston Terrier. All rescues.

Short for Jim and Julie. I guess I dont have much of an imagination! Lol!

I used the Lou from the first part of my name and Dh said "when ever we ask who's going to do this or that, you say I will so just put Lou's It. So I did. Now isn't this funny my nickname for years is LOUIE.

Calamity, Congratulations!
Lou

Calamity congrats and many more years.
Leftielouie so sorry about your losses with Katrina and any one else down in that part of the country.
Slowmedown,I couldn't agree more. I often repeat that phrase to my children and others.
My name is not very original,Cait thought it had something to do with PIGS the irony in that is I used to be a huge pig collector.
I also was in a hurry to register so I could post here so I came up with SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN GARDEN NUT sewigardnut..

i picked my name backyardmom cause when my girls would come
home or call my dh would say mom's in the back yard again.
i love being out side.i have a pond.and my dd's would say"what's she doing talking to the fish or her plants."
so backyardmom i am. joan

my kids (7,4,2) were screaming and fighting at the time I was picking a name and I felt as though I was up to my eyeballs in kids.

My name has been "Bee" since I babysat for a little boy who couldn't say Beverly so I became Bee to everyone, even my family. I live in the south so kudzu is everywhere. I kind of liked the play on words. "Beekudzu can." "Beekudzu you can never have too much garden junk." Etc., etc., etc.

I'm so glad everyone is enjoying this thread.....some really creative people with creative names hang their hats here! Thanks for sharing! Have fun and keep it going ;'D

love rusty

hi, i work full time in payroll for a large hospital, have for 20 years. the name fits! lol
Wendy

Well.. Starscream is the name of a Transfromer that I really like - you know, those toys from the 80's. :) I'm a bit of a geek-girl. I honestly didn't think it would be my whole username/form name/everything name though and I've been trying to change it.. but I guess I'll have to re-register with a new name. Oh well!
Amy

Well, kudzu is famous down south,and DH treats me like a queen,"kween" went better with kudzu than "queen" did. And it's a weed,I grow weeds like crazy! We're outside Gulfport city limits,recovering from the storm. First priority is making our home livable, second is finding our lawn and garden under all the trees and debris. Luckily, I was looking for something to do "trash to treasure", and found this site about 2 weeks before the storm hit us,so as we sifted, I was making a "save this for Junque" pile,and it grew into a huge pile,let me tell you! My DH is as into it as I am, and looks at yard sales and thrift stores in a new light, and has a good eye for what I'd like! And now when he runs to Home Depot or Lowes, he asks me if he needs to pick up more silicone or grout!

hi
well I guess I can finally answer this was,nt going to because it,s kinda obvious.
this site (G.W.) was one of the first I found on the net and
when I I linked to g.j. and t. to t. I about died .
I still continue to get simple amusement from the fact that "grown" folks actually meeting and talking and getting THRILLED by what you/them/me, found at at a g.s. or on the curb or in a dumpster and on a world wide format. LOL.LOL.
my name kinda funny sounds like a johnny cash song when I,m a little more deadhead.
Also funny considering all the truly awesome places I,ve lived I use a city in kansas??
I I am glad I chose this though ,I don,t surf much but I have recently lost a lot of memory (mine) and get totally baffled by code words and user names and and !!! so this name and a single password are easy.
Jane congrats hope you share what you have with others .
have you ever read the history books on calamity jane.
quite the lady in her day and even now . she would be a fighter pilot or ? now a days. maybe dad knew something .
I am also 43 and had my 12th bday yesterday .
still kinda of amazed at how easy it is.
we all don,t have to look very far to see how this affects someone we know and am amazed at how much my d.d knows about alcohol and has never even seen a beer open.
it is a plague and promoted on the t.v. as a way to live?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Rick

Well. my story is........I'm short ( shrty) and I'm about 4'11"

I use it all over the web. Easy for me to remember!!

Maria

I'll chime in here, but my name choice sort of explains itself, doesn't it? LOL I was pleasantly surprised that it was accepted--was afraid I would have to try several to find one not already in use. Didn't realize I could have used my real name, or I would have just done that. It's fun to be on here with all of you, I look forward to reading all your posts each and every day! Nice to have found kindred spirits. ;o) Kay

Hey! I just discovered that I posted on this thread twice! Sorry. LOL

I've never posted, been lurking for a very long while. Have enjoyed everyone's reasons they have the names they do.

For me I've become so crazy about plants and garden junk. I have had plants live in my care , amazing to me.

Flowers blooming and I'm a fool in love with each one!

Kaire

I enjoy learning about you GJ-ers and why you chose your names. Mine is from childhood, when my grandma used to make wild plum jelly (which I loved and still do.) At the time I chose my name, I lived on-site at a sand-dredging plant where there were lots of sand plum trees. I couldn't get in as plain Sandplum, therefore the 1.

Since then, we bought a place with three acres (1 acre yard, 2 acres of trees and underbrush on a rocky, sandy hill near a small floodplain lake built by the corps of engineers.) And guess what? There is one huge sand plum tree in the middle of our property.

Calamity, I have a great deal of admiration for you. People often don't get that alcoholism is not something a person chooses. DH is a drug/alcohol counselor and he says to tell you, "Outstanding!"

Carol

Our last name is king and I am the queen of the family! Just a twist on the tv show king of queens!

My given name is Barbara Evangeline, in 1950 we moved to the "other side of town", & a new school. There already was a Barbara in my class. so, I opted to use my family nickname, Becky, still use it, but it is a comoon name.
I opted to use Vangy, which is short for Evangeline. I was named after a friend of my mothers who goes by Vangy.

Vangy likes to play inthe dirt

My son gave me mine a lot of years back. I was needing a name for the CB,and had just had my first of many grandchildren. So he came up with foxygrandma.

Makes me wish I was more creative...but I used my real name. Nancy was taken (there are a bunch of us here!), Nancy Jean was also taken, so I added the Mc because that's what our last name begins with. (I used to use more creative names, but then I found I would forget my user name if I wasn't there for a while! Figured I'd remember this one... ;o)

I just found this forum and so glad I did. Here is how I chose my name. My mother's name was Violet and the 4491 was the year I was born spelled backward. I thought about Violet being a flower also. I thought it kind of fit the GW.

After reading this, I just realized that I never responded! I joined this forum back in July of 2007 ... good lord, has it been that long? Now back to my nick ... I started out years ago as Pretty_fluffy_kat on the internet. I think I'm pretty (I can pretend, can't I?) and I am definitely fluffy (aka fat) and my real name is Kathy so it just all seemed to go together. After a number of years, I wanted to break away from some people who wreaked havoc with a bunch of online friends. I decided a name change was in order. I wanted something exotic sounding that also had some meaning to it. So off to BabelFish, I went!

I started playing around with Happy Full Moon in various languages. I thought, I'm generally happy and I have a VERY full moon! lol! In French - pleine lune heureuse - it just didn't sound good ... heck I had no idea how to say it! In Italian it is luna piena felice. Nope, still not right. Yikes, German was totally out of the question - glücklicher Vollmond! How in the heck would someone pronounce that! So then I tried Spanish and Luna Llena Feliz is what came out.

I thought hmmmmmmmm ... Loona Layna Fuleez ... that sounds pretty exotic, kind of like an old movie star's name. So I grabbed it and have been "Luna" (or as one online friend calls me Luna(cy)) ever since.

Before folks start correcting me ... I didn't learn until a few years ago that the name is actually pronounced Loona Yaina Fuleez. The two Ls are pronounced like a Y in Spanish.

So there you have it, how I became Luna Llena Feliz!

Ok, maybe my posting here will get SOMEONE(S) off my back for posting on the Non-Conversation side, even though I think Junk is Junk whether you can physcially put your hands on it or it is emotional.

When I joined GW I was tackling a set of problems with what turned out to be a 1,940+ sf deck behind our house - and I have never done a deck of any size previously. It is turning out to be a LOT more than what I bargained for, but then, sometimes life is as well. It might get done this spring - I hope!!!!!

Don't drink and never had any interest. Have two ex's that are ex's because they did. Don't care what you do with your life or sexuality or religion or politics etc as it is none of my business as long as it does not hurt anyone else!

Learned a long time ago that only I can control what I do - and I can not control anything anyone else does - nor do I want to anymore.

I am a live and live type, but can get my feathers ruffled when people try to exert their morals and values onto me.

Dealing with a couple of emotional issues currently.

First, a year ago tomorrow (1/18/08) I was released from what I affectionately call Ruby Memorial Prison (Hospital) (because I was in intensive care on and off for so many weeks - 9) after they told my wife (Mrs. No) to prepare for my funeral because I was not going to live.

Second, while I was struggling for life, my bookkeeper of 8+ years embezzled, stole, forged my name, etc... over $225,000 from my small family owned company. While I was hospitalized I was restrained and catherized without my consent or approval, but I was delirious. Non-the-less to me it was like being imprisioned.

The piece of sh_t that put my company into real trouble faces 10 years in prison over his actions and was Finally indicted last week and arrained this week.

Of course he pled Not Guilty, though there is a taped confession and there is not doubt that the 48 checks he wrote himself were a forgery, that is the American legal system.

Anyway, beside being a 20 year leukemia survivor, I am not sure that I want to be the cause of this 60 year old piece of sh_t being a roommate with Bubba for 10 years - but I don't think I have any say anymore.

Torn between the roles of Victim No More and being a nice person. Not fully understanding my role as a survivor of death twice now and there is a lot of 'guilt' that is associated with survival. Not something you can understand if you have not worn the shoes.

So, that is where Big_deck came from and if you change the "e" to an "i", what some think of me :-)

I chose halley_rose because one of my garden buddies my 4 year-old granddaughter's name is halley and our last name is Rosenberg.

I chose my name simply for how it's pronounced. I lurked here for a long, long time before I actually joined. After a time of reading posts on GJ and SG sides I was totally hooked. My family has called me Kat all my life. So Kat Is Hooked on GJ and Mosaics.
Calamity I am a survivor of abuse and still fight to this day to keep myself out of that pit called depression. I work hard every day to be happy in all I do. My thots are with you gal. Keep up the good work To all here I Am Almost 2 Yrs Smoke Free. I smoked for prob 40 yrs. I am so proud that I have kicked that habit. Yeaaaaaa

Kathy

This has been a fun thread to read. I am glad it was pulled back up. I wasn't here when it started but it would be fun to know where the people who are here now came up with their names. Some of the names above I recognize and some others I don't.

My name was given to me in college. My name is Michele but the only one who has ever called me that was my dad when I was in deep trouble. I have been called Micki since the day I was born. When I was in college I was always baking. One of the favorites of all my friends was my snickerdoodle cookies. A friend of mine put my name with the cookies name (Smickerdoodle) and it kind of stuck. Now that is the name I use for almost everything I do online since I was just starting to get acquainted with computers and the internet at the time. I have thought about using something else, but that would be just as hard as trying to change my real name at this point with everything that I have tied to this name.

~Micki~

There's names on here that I haven't seen for a long time. I wonder where they are? Hopefully junking merrily along!
I chose my name because I was born, raised and lived all but the last app. 7.5 years of my life in New Mexico. Love the people, the country, the culture, the food, the weather, you name it! If home is where the heart is, mine's in NM!

It's so interesting to read everyone's comments ... glad this thread was bumped up.

My screen name Tenderlee means Terry Lee which is my real name. I read a book about the meaning of names circa 1970 and the book said that Terry means tender. Hence my name tenderlee. It has been a pen name, then a screen name since then.

TennesseeTrash is just my warped sense of humor. There was a public service commercial on TV about littering the highways. It has this song "Ain't no lower class than Tennessee trash." and it was kinda funny showing some rednecks throwing out trash from their car. BTW I never litter! Since I like garden junk so much, I figure the name suits the forum. But I do consider myself middle class tennesseetrash LOL. Might be lower class soon if the economy doesn't turn around!

I thought of the same name (tennesseetrash) for my hubby to use several years ago also, back when he was metal detecting. Worked well for that forum too.

There you have it ... but to tell you the truth, we're both Georgia Trash LOL ... we grew up about 50 miles south of Chattanooga, in North Georgia. Chattanooga is on the Tennessee/Georgia state line. We "defected" to Tennessee in 1996. Love it here, great place to live. Chattanooga is called the Scenic City, and appropriately so. The mountains, rocks and river make it abundant in all nature has to offer.

Peace out GJers ~tenderlee

Here is a link that might be useful: Chattanooga wikipedia info

Mine pretty much says it! I grew up on the Cape and vacation there whenever I can. My family has passed and the homes have been sold, which makes it necessary to rent now. $$$$ It would have been too costly and too much of a hassle for us to keep them, especially being 900 miles away.

Cape Cod is my favorite place in the world! We rented a lovely cottage right by the water on Cape Cod Bay in October. The weather was perfect, enabling us to sit on the deck every day. It was like heaven!! Can hardly wait to go back!!

~Sandy~

I use this name on a lot of my sites. It is a combination of two of my beloved dogs. Chel is Chelsea my now almost 16 years old black lab. Cass is Cassie a Black Lab/Springer Spaniel mix we drove from the U.P. of Michigan to Louisa Kentucky (700 miles)to rescue. I found her on Petfinder. Unfortunately we lost Cassie when she was 4 years old to a virus that attacks the nervious system. Broke our hearts.

What a nice thread. Well, I have two sets of kids, two born before I was 21 and than one when I was 35. The older two's babies call me grandma but my younger one calls me Nana. My grandbabies range in age from 28 down to 3. Being NanaGrandMa makes me Happy :)

Jeannespines...

I love "pine trees" ... we planted a couple acres some 12+ years ago and it is where my secret garden is located...and my log swing. It is my place of meditation.. my outdoor church. It is where I feel closest to God. It is a place where I can smile or I can cry. It was my healing place when I was hospitalized for 2 months and then rehab for another month (2 yrs. ago)...I could go there in my mind and it saved my body and soul. So, hence, Jeannespines... a peaceful place to go.
A birdhouse in my secret garden in the pines...
{{gwi:127571}}

What a great thread! I remember seeing it years ago when it was first posted and thought that I had posted THEN. As I read through now I realized I hadnÂt. When I was 8 my family and I moved to the High Desert of sunny Southern California. I remember someone referring to those of us who lived in the desert as Desert RatsÂso hence why I chose the name. I had originally signed up as desert rat but somehow forgot the password or some gremlins were working that I couldnÂt sign in under that name anymore. UGH! So, I re-signed up as desertrat1, but I always sign out as Jules.
Love, Jules

Well, "alaska" because that's where I was born and raised. I lived there from birth to age 24 :-)

"amazon" because I'm 6' 1" tall and my best friend (who was obsessed with Xena) kept calling me an amazon because of my height :-p

Having roses was my latest passion. I came to the garden web to learn about them. I am tenacious about making home projects happen. I will design a dream on paper and collect materials until it comes to fruition. susiewantsroses was the declaration of my determination. I envisioned a large arbor with roses covering it. I now have a Gazabor (Repurposed gazebo and arbor combination). There are a total of 14 rose bushes growing there and around the gardens. No blooms yet but I am patient. My drive and my Hub's brawn make these miracles happen.

I usually use a combination of mine and my husband's names. At other forums I am jdkline but I wanted to change it to a shortened version of my name here. d is the first letter of my first name and kline is my last name. 2008 is the year I joined gardenweb. I am a moderator at 2 other swap sites and thought I could fly under the radar here but I didnt change my name enough to do that. Every now and then one of the members will private message me and say....I saw you at garden web. LOL I love the people here and at the other site. Both sites are awesome. But I come here for my garden junk inspiration and to be with people who think of junk as gold as I do. This forum is so inspiring to me. I come and post for a while then I get busy and dont post for a while but I ALWAYS lurk at least. LOL The talent here is awesome and the people are very nice. I really admire any place I can go on the web that has such talent and harmony. Everyone here is so wonderful and caring and I think that's what makes it special for me.
Calamity.........what a wonderful accomplishment!! I know your very proud of yourself.
Deb

I just HAD to bump this thread up so we don't loose it, it's sooo interesting to "meet" everyone!!! Jane

Very interesting thread! I've had difficulty choosing a name ever since discovering message boards several years ago when I retired. Never had time before that. Anyhow, I started out calling myself some variation of crafty and katie since I've done crafts all my life and my nickname is katie. However, there are lots of better crafters than I and TONS of katies on the net. So when I chose a name for GW I decided to go with luckygal as I've survived two near death experiences and feel lucky to be alive. I don't really believe in luck but just believe I have more to do in this life. I also know that I have more than many others in this big world and live a comfortable lifestyle so feel "lucky" in that respect as well. Altho I know it's not really luck.

Congratulations, Calamity! You are a strong woman!

How interesting to learn about everyone. My son help come up with my name years ago when he was helping to set up an ebay account for me ( I have only brought one thing on ebay, go figure). My friends have always said that I have to frou-frou up everything I touch.I have a bad habit of doing everything I do in excess also.I always say there is a fine line between "too cute" and "just tacky",my DH says I walk that line like a tightrope. I do think I have mellowed over the years, but pink is still my favorite color and I love some bling.I drive a red convertible, sew costumes for my dog and fill my garden with, flowers, shiny things and an excess of love,attention, and work. Some days DH has to make me come in from the yard, because it's dark.
Syble

I chose violet because it was my mother's middle name and because it was a name of a flower. The 2010 was assinged to me by garden web.

There must have been more than one of these threads, cuz I'm sure I posted before. It was fun to look through and see how others chose their names.
I like making things out of concrete and my favorite flowers are primroses (not evening nor supermarket types tho they are ok). I got the idea of combining in this way from guns N roses: concrete 'n primroses.
Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: American Primrose Society

i was nurse manager of an ICU some years back. had a monitor tech who was a doctor in the dominican republic but had to retest in the states to get his medical licensure. he always called me caroleena insted of carolyn. always loved it

I live on the shore of Lake Superior!

I choose azcactusflower because I live in AZ and the cactus flowers are beautiful and so many varied colors. I love them, so I thought that would be a good GW name and easy to remember!