Monthly Archives: January 2018

Sun Through Clouds

This isn’t that great a photograph, but when I was taking the doggies out this morning, I was really struck by the beauty of the sun streaming through the clouds. This only lasted long enough for me to go back inside and grab my phone. It’s now overcast and we’re supposed to have rain the rest of the day and evening – a wonderful thing to help with the bad drought in our area.

I think it was Irene who suggested that I try emailing the photo to myself to get it off the phone. It worked! THANK YOU, Irene!

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Decluttering my MAC

animal-animal-animal.blogspot.com

I have spent the morning trying to go through all the ‘stuff’ on my MAC computer in preparation for trying to change over to the new PC my husband is building for me. To be honest, I’m in a bit of a panic about this, afraid I’ll lose things, afraid I won’t be able to remember – or it’ll take a LONG time for me to relearn – how to use Microsoft. I’m certainly no expert on the MAC, but I was determined to get ‘functional’ before our son left to go back to Thailand over two years ago.

I have a place on the MAC called “Notes” that I’m not at ALL sure can be transferred from the MAC to the PC. It’s become kind of a catch all for things I want to keep track of – recipes, how-to’s, URLs, quotes, greenhouse articles, etc. I had a gazillion things on it in no particular order. I made a run through this morning, printing things I wanted to keep and deleting the rest. I’ll need to make a couple more passes before I’m ready to give it up when I change computers, but I made a good start today.

I’ll just try to do a bit each day and hope for the best.

I LOVE computers – except when they’re not being cooperative or when they go on strike. I basically consider them ‘magic.’  It’s a good thing my husband is a computer analyst. I LOVE the Internet – a great place to learn a ton of things. I HATE trying to make sense of what files I have, where they are, how to move them. I hope we don’t lose a lot of valuable ‘stuff’…

 

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Snow People – Take 23

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“The Colors of Sea in the Morning”

“The Colors of Sea in the Morning” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Art from Found Things – Take 2

Brian Marshall-www.flickr.com

 

 

ckudja-www.etsy.com

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In This Year to Come…

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.” ~ Neil Gaiman, British author

It’s late to post this – on the 20th of January – but I think it’s important. Expanding your horizons, moving out of your comfort zone, is a way to keep your juices flowing.  I hate it when people I care about start ‘closing down.’  I want them to be overflowing with enthusiasm about SOMETHING, whether it’s a new author they’ve found, a new idea for their home, a new exercise they’re trying, a new picture puzzle they’ve started, a new hobby….

My husband and I are so busy all the time we don’t know how we EVER found time to work full time – as we did for most of our lives. The day begins and it’s over. We cram as much as we can into each one, but always make time to relax and take a nap to replenish energy, if needed. The days go so fast our hair blows! We have too many good things to do for each day.

Right now we have two main things we’re focusing on: I’m trying to clean/declutter/reorganize our ‘stuff’ one area at a time and my husband is building a new computer for me.

Yesterday I

  • finished getting things together for taxes for our CPA. We’re waiting for one more thing and then we can go dump it all on him. :0)
  • I also cleaned out the fridges in the kitchen and the pantry.
  • We received a BUNCH of boxes via UPS yesterday afternoon. We unpacked several computer components, plus the case they’ll all go in. We spent the rest of the afternoon and much of the evening putting the components we received into the new case. Now we’re waiting for a CPU and the main memory, and then I think my husband will start installing the operating system.

Meanwhile, my husband found a DVD via YouTube on TIG welding. He has done this for years, but really would like to do better. The DVD is wonderful, with an expert who makes it look easy. My husband is happy-as-a-pig-in-s_ _ t” watching the videos, ordering things he didn’t know existed to make his welding go more easily, plus downloaded a project to make a part for his metal lathe.

Also, meanwhile, I’m trying to get my greenhouse organized and functional, hoping to get a jump on the upcoming spring planting season. I’m researching, making notes, starting to spend a bit of time in my greenhouse as our weather is warming up a bit, listing plants I want to start, and figuring out how to get set up, at least initially, to start seeds.

Not to mention the newest member of our family, a yellow lab ‘puppy’ who is now 10 months old and 91 pounds, who is definitely giving us a run for our money.

The point is that we’re trying to branch out, do things that are a bit intimidating, trying to get healthier. Our interests are broadening and we’re loving our lives. We’re ‘Doing Something”

I hope you’re pushing yourself to ‘do something,” too.

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Art From Found Things – Take 1

“Dutch” ~ Original found object art created by Laurie Schnurer in 2014

 

blog.energyearth.com

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Friday’s Project

This year I ALMOST set a personal record to getting our tax stuff organized. Since I closed my website, Creative Artworks, in June, I MADE myself do the year’s accounting records in December, wrapping up the end of my business – happy that it’s the LAST time I have to fight with it.  I LOVED running the website, working with the other artists who displayed their work on it, making things to list, selling things, working with customers, and more, but I HATED the bookkeeping.  The fact that I no longer have to do that part is freeing.

I was trying to get the rest of our stuff ready for the CPA before we got the booklet he sends each year. Because our scanner bit the dust and we had to get a new one, I missed that goal. I totaled the different categories, and was plugging them into the booklet when I hit a brick wall not being able to make copies of anything.

We got our scanner yesterday. My husband fought with it, finally getting it to work.

No more excuses. FRIDAY’S PROJECT is to go through the awful pile on my desk made when I needed to find stuff and had to move the careful staged stacks as I went through the booklet.

By the end of the afternoon I plan to have all the totals entered into the booklet with the receipts in the proper place tied into a bow and put into the big envelope – waiting only from the paperwork from our broker to be able to take the envelope to Fort Smith and dump everything on our wonderful CPA.

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Steering

coolfunnyquotes.com

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We’ve Definitely Created a Monster…

This photo shows where the doggies usually are – under my computer area or beside my computer chair. They do go over and bug my husband, but he is mostly able to ignore them and they come back to me.  (Amber is on the left and Sweet Molly is on the dog bed on the right.)

 

We’ve been working on teaching Amber to bark when she wants to go out, and again, when she wants to come in. It took several weeks to get this across to her. When she realized what we wanted her to do, she would ‘bite the air’ silently, over and over, looking at us. It seems weird that we would have to TEACH a dog to bark, but that’s exactly what we were doing.

We finally have achieved our goal and Amber loves it. I’m concentrating on the computer and she comes and sits beside me. I may absently pet her, or ignore her, trying to do something that requires my attention on the screen. Suddenly, there is a sharp, LOUD “WOOOOF!” With me jumping straight up in the air, saying a ripe word or two on the way down, Amber is already halfway to the door. She LOVES being outside, so as soon as she comes in, she barks to go back out again.  She is also barking at ‘something,’ while out on the front porch. She is facing away from the door when we get up and look out the peephole in the door, so it’s obviously not an asking to come in. We refuse to let her sit outside and bark continuously, so after we get up a few times, we insist she come in…

How do you explain to a puppy that the “new trick” is not a license to drive us nuts?

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Birds and Water

“Birds” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

“The Calm Before the Storm” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Watercolors I Love – Take 25

Bear-portrait-signedsweet.com

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Snow People – Take 22

majesticgoldenrose.weebly.com

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Are You SURE?

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Wonderful Surprise!

thereforenow.com

There is little that gives me so much pleasure as writing my blog. I LOVE sharing things with you that I think you might like. The WordPress people keep track of how many people sign up with their email address, as opposed to people who read the blog through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

My husband told me that, if/when I reached 1,000 subscribers via email, he would take me for a lobster tail dinner (my favorite food in all the world). I laughed, knowing that I would NEVER have that many followers.

For the past two weeks, for some unknown reason, I’ve had a lot of new subscribers. Last night I had reached 998. I refreshed the page this morning to find 999. Just before I was going to go into the kitchen and make us a salad for lunch, the number changed and said, “1,000!” I whooped with joy and ran to get my husband to come look.

I figured that soon we would go get my lobster tail, but my husband said, “Get your coat. We’re going to get your lobster tail!” We just got back about 10 minutes ago. I am now stuffed to the gills with a truly wonderful, bit lobster tail, bites of which I dipped into a little bowl of melted butter. We got the Red Lobster biscuits that are to die for, and have a gazillion calories and even more carbs, but simply melt in your mouth. I had wild rice and broccoli, plus a small salad to round out my victory meal. I savored every bite.

My husband hat a grilled chicken salad, a couple of the biscuits, and a Corona, but his favorite part of the meal was apple croissants with ice cream and caramel sauce for dessert.

My husband says I need to ‘get to work’ now. I won’t get another lobster tail dinner until my subscriber list hits 2,000….

Seriously, I am very complimented that so many people enjoyed what I was posting enough to sign up. I’ve lost subscribers over the course of the past two years – probably because I tend to post a lot. I hope that people aren’t aggravated by that, because I just have a  lot to share.  I picture people just ignoring my posts until they have the time to look at them, or – if they’re not in the mood – just deleting them.

THANK YOU for reading my posts. Thank you, also, for taking time to write from time to time. I appreciate the feedback very much.

Have a wonderful day.

 

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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

ONE STEP FORWARD – I’m happy to report that I FINALLY got the counter top under and behind where the printer WAS and the computer screen IS – dusted and wiped down. Until you’ve tried to clean a gazillion wires with velcro ties of dust, dog and cat hair, and other “ickies,” you have NO idea what my morning has been like.  After several steps with dustpan and brush, then heavy-duty cleaner and wiping down wires, and finally Pledge, my area is now cleaner than it’s been in at least a couple of years and smells nicely of lemons. :0)

As I told you before, we moved the printer over after my husband extended the counter top with plywood and supports, opening up my work area and in preparation for the new computer my husband is building for me. My son convinced me, after talking about it a LONG time, to change from my PC and Microsoft to a MAC. In some ways it has been good. I had to learn to do EVERYTHING all over again. Anything I did by habit or with any confidence was wrong with the MAC. My son set up the computer and tested it, then helped me learn (with me taking extensive notes) how to do things. I’ve used it for at least a couple of years now.

Whenever it acts up, though, my husband is really frustrated that he can’t help me solve the problem. He knows nothing about MACs and is at the point where he doesn’t want to. Our son lives and works in Thailand, so when something goes wrong, I have to wait until we’re both awake (there is a 12 hour time difference) and then depend on him to walk me through telling him exactly what’s wrong, and working to fix it. Stressful, at best. Add to that my husband haranguing me about having the MAC and his wanting me to change back, and you can picture me tearing out what little hair I have left….

TWO STEPS BACK – (ONE) SO – we’re starting to receive parts for the new PC each day. My husband will put it together on the counter to my right, installing everything, testing everything, then moving things from the MAC to the new computer, testing again to make SURE all is there and reachable, before switching over, selling the MAC, and I learn again how to do things under Microsoft Windows 10…

(TWO) – I crowed and patted myself on the head recently because I had done my Creative Artworks bookkeeping for the LAST time (:0)  and was totaling up the various tax deduction categories in preparation for our CPA to send the tax booklet that organizes our stuff the way he likes it. That came to a screeching halt a few days ago when our scanner suddenly wouldn’t work. I HAVE to have copies of some stuff and couldn’t make them. The scanner would scan something halfway and then quit. Over and over. It wouldn’t simply make a copy when I pushed the button on the front, either. We worked and worked with it, but couldn’t get it to work the way it should. AND it was a fairly new scanner!  My husband contacted Amazon and they said they would send us a new one with instructions on sending the current one back to them.

We received the new scanner this morning.  My husband got rid of the old software, installed the new and we were again ready to scan. It did the same thing the old one did! After much frustration, my husband figured out that it was a communications problem, and instead of plugging it into our hub, plugged it directly into the back of the computer. It worked!

TODAY’S 2ND PROJECT – figure out where I was in the plugging-the-receipts-and-totals-into-the-CPA-book-project and see if I can get it wrapped up. THEN it will be a matter of waiting for some paperwork from Schwab and dumping it all on our wonderful CPA.

I hope that you’re making more steps forward than back today.

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Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

“Winter Solstice”

“winter-solstice”-www.almanac.com

This is late, but I think it’s lovely – as long as I don’t have to drive in it…

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Promise Me

Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero

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“Sunrise – Lake Waccamaw NC”

“Sunrise-Lake Waccamaw NC “- Lisa Bearnes Richey

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Snow People – Take 21

www,boredpanda.com

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“Doves”

“Doves” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Lesson on Being Polite

funnyminionsmemes.com

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“Beautiful Lady”

“Beautiful Lady” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Reluctant Writer?

Do you have a child, grandchild, niece or nephew that drags his or her feet when asked to write a thank you note for a gift received?

I just added these to my Etsy and ArtFire shops –

A good friend of mine suggested that I offer the option of themes, such as cat lovers, to my thank you note cards in order to encourage kids to write thank yous for the gifts received. I think this would be a FUN way to encourage kids to write a personal note when they can choose from 5 designs with their name on them. Bright, colorful, cartoony – many of them with a 3-dimensional touch, like glitter glue collars, string whiskers, etc. Tell me what theme you would like, plus a name, and I’ll do my best to make both your relative AND the gift giver smile!  $14.99 for the set of 5 with free shipping in the contiguous United States. 

 

For flower lovers, I offer this group of 5 hand-painted, personalized thank you note cards. These are mostly ‘flowers-that-exist-only-in-my-own-mind,’ and I have great fun painting different styles and colors. These are watercolor or acrylic with pastel backgrounds. Personalization at no extra charge. It’s FUN for children or adults to send a special thank you with their name on it – even if they have to write a short note to go with it. The child smiles, choosing which floral design to use. The recipient smiles, feeling special and appreciated. Win/win!  $14.99 for the set of 5 cards and envelopes and FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous United States.

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Good News!

Sassy Senior Lady

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Snow People – Take 20

 

 

 

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Fingerpainting – Take 8

colegallery.wordpress.com

 

 

Isn’t this a cute idea? This would be fun as baby announcements….

 

Zaria-Forman-www.dailymail.co.uk

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Your Home is…

Francine Jay via Lisa Bearnes Richey

I think these nice folks were looking at ME when they wrote this reminder….

I AM making progress in my efforts to tackle one area at a time, take everything out, look through it, decide what to keep, what to donate, what to throw away, and THEN how to reorganize what is left after a thorough cleaning. I figure I should go through things this way at least once each 30 years or so – just to keep up to date…

My husband is getting me a computer. He HATES my MAC. He’s a retired computer analyst, used to knowing everything about computers. Lately he is realizing that the field is growing faster than he can keep up. He hasn’t given up, and he wants to be able to fix any problems I have when my computer is getting wonky. It really makes him angry – feeling inadequate – when he can’t begin to solve any problems on the MAC, so he finally convinced me to let him build a new computer for me – a PC with Windows 10.

He has promised me that he’ll build it on the counter beside me, taking all the time he wants to bend Windows 10 to his will, making sure all is good before we CAREFULLY move my stuff from the MAC to the PC. When we’ve tested everything and we’re sure we have everything we need from the computer I’m using now, we’ll make the switch. We’ll wipe the MAC and sell it, since it’s a good computer and fairly up to date on what is being sold now.

To this end, we decided to move the printer over beside one of our file cabinets. The printer is wider than the file cabinet, so he built an extender for the counter top and we put the printer on it. Now I have a lot more usable space for working.

I also discovered, to my horror, a truly contest-winning amount of dust and grime that was living under and behind the printer and my MAC screen, among the rivers of wiring that string along the counter. This will be my project of the day – to move stuff from one side to the other, thoroughly clean the counter top, and then figure out the best way to arrange things so I can reach them easily and the area can be cleaned again in another 30 years or so…

In the past we’ve always moved often enough that we were forced to go through things, being ruthless about what we would pay to move and what needed to be purged. We’ve lived in our home on the top of the ridge line for over 30 years.  Internalizing the quote above, that ‘Your Home in LIVING SPACE, not Storage Space” hits me right between the eyes. The two nice ladies took one look at me and said, “Linda Lewis, this means YOU!”

At least I can look to various places in our home and see that progress has been made. I’ll just keep tackling one area at a time, healing things as I go. :0)

 

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Filed under Challenges, Changes, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

The Joy of Raising a Lab

Amber at 10 months

Today has been a challenging day for the parents of a 10 month old lab ‘puppy.’

She LOVES the cold weather we’re having.  She comes to sit beside me as I’m working on the computer. Then she starts ‘talking’ to me, saying something like, “Hmmmm!” If I look at her and say, “What do you want, Amber?” she says, “WOOOF!!!” – making me jump straight up in my chair. She actually hurts my ears! We wanted her to bark when she wanted to go out and when she wants to come back in again, but I think we’ve created a monster. How to you ‘explain’ to a 10-month-old-lab-with-small-brain that barking ONCE to go out is good. When you’ve gone out, and come back in again, you need to wait at least awhile before repeating the process?

It’s noon and so far, she’s been out 5 times!  The first time I let her in, I saw she had been busy collecting sticks again. I put on my coat, hat, gloves, and muffler (I feel like a kindergartner getting ready to go out and play in the snow), and cleaned up the yard.

The second time, I saw ‘something’ I couldn’t identify in the yard. I donned all my gear again and went out to discover that Amber had brought the cats’ water bowl and bottle out into the front yard and had been chewing on them. :0(   I picked them up, brought them into the house, washed the bowl and water bottle and refilled them. I took them back out into the garage to find that, before taking them out into the yard, she had played, “Let’s splash all the water out onto the floor!” Since it’s 15 degrees outside right now, I took the broom and swept the water out as best I could, warning my husband to be careful if he went out into the garage, watching for thin patches of ice on the floor.

The next times were more ordinary, without much destruction, but she would stay in 30 seconds, come over to me and say, “WOOOOF!!!” – piercing my eardrums – to go right back out again.

My husband just finished playing “fetch the frog” with her. That lasted for a good 5 minutes or so before she came over and said, “WOOOOOF!!!” again.

By the way, this cute rubber frog is a “Thumbs UP” list frog, as far as we’re concerned.

 

 

When we first got it, It’s made of soft rubber and squeaks. I thought it was really cute, but wouldn’t last long. I was wrong! It has lasted for about 3 months so far. She just loves it. She finally ate off one of the eyeballs, so it’s a one-eyed frog now, but seems to have many hours left in it.  (sorry. I just tried to find the toy on the net so I could give you a URL for it, but I guess it’s been discontinued.)

Footnote – It may be that I’m paying for past sins or something, but one of our CATS just pulled over the laundry basket that was sitting on the stairs, scattering the clean, folded clothes and throwing some socks over the side…..

 

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Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, Dog Products - Thumbs Up List, Family

Cats and Flowers

One of my dear friends ordered two sets of hand-painted, personalized thank you notes recently – one with a cat theme and the other floral. I’ve had more fun doing this!

 

My friend knows my work. The cats will be silhouettes and cartoony and the flowers I paint are mostly ones that never were – except in my own mind. I’m spending a bit of time each day playing in my art room, trying to create thank you notes that will bring a smile or two.

Spending time there working on a project, trying to bring order out of chaos, or just experimenting, is just about the best time there is for me. The years fall away. Aches and pains fade. I’m totally absorbed, bopping to my music, surrounded by fun materials, with the only limitations my own imagination and ability. HEAVEN!

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Cheshire Cat

We put this up this morning.  I forgot to take my camera (surprise!) and so I’m posting pics from the last time we put it up, when things were green and the weather was deliciously warm. Today it’s 30, but sunny. Tonight we’re supposed to get a wintry mix and tomorrow the low will be 14 and the high 21….

 

We needed something happy to take our minds off another possibility of ice. The Cheshire Cat is just the ticket. :0)

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