Monthly Archives: July 2021

Beautiful Way to Start A Day

Cerinthe Major Pride of Gibraltar Purple Wax Flower-Etsy.com

I found this yesterday in my travels around the net. This may be the most gorgeous flower I’ve ever seen. My heart filled when I saw it. I’ll have to look it up to see if I can try to grow one. Fingers crossed.

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Amazing Animal Sculpture

NickMackmanSculpture.co.uk

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Favorite Business Signs

Credit: memolition.com

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Magic

Nino Chakvetadze-Zen to Zany

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Laugh and Hug

tumblr.com

I’m giving myself a hug and smiling right now. I just had two sales (one yesterday and the second this morning) from my HandmadeHavenbyLinda Etsy website! A really nice start to the day and a spirit-lifter, for sure. :0)

I’ve been having fun in our shop, refurbishing 4 “emu” planters this past week. I need to paint their legs, and then they can go back outside when they are dry.

I’m feeling very motivated on my weight loss and exercising goals. I’ll do two sessions with weights today – one with 5-pound weights, and a second with 3-pound weights, where I follow a short video online. Then I’ll do my regular session of yoga stretching and abdominal exercises later today. I’m trying to drink FOUR bottles of water daily (trying to ignore the fact that my eyeballs are floating as I get more movement in) – running to the bathroom. I’m eating some raw veggies and a bit of dip mid afternoon as a snack. Keepin’ on keepin’ on. (So far. 30.2 pounds down and 26.2 inches off).

I’m finding lots of wonderfully creative people on the net who have created artwork that makes my mouth water. I’m so grateful I live on the same planet and can enjoy their work and share it with you.

Have a wonderful Monday.

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Filed under DIET!, exercise, getting the lard off, HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy, Lewis Art, Lewis projects, Lewis yard art

Expressions of Love

Sail Away – Flickr.com
7intheevening.tumblr.com
tersessenta.tumblr.com

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More Art by James Doran Webb

James Doran Webb – Driftwood Art

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Just Hilarious

Taura Sitkauskaite – BoredPanda.com

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Wood and Bone Art

Wood and Bone Figures – Andrey Sagalov – designyoutrust.com

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Quite a Storm!

Amber is not afraid of storms. This is what she looked like, though, last night when we were having lots of thunder, lightning, rain, and gusty winds, plus our power going off and on repeatedly for very short periods.

When I reached out to pet her and talk to her, she climbed right up into my recliner with me, circled behind me, and settled in. Since she weighs 95 lbs, that left ME with only the front edge of the chair to balance on while I petted her and talked to her. We stayed like that for about half an hour, til things had tamed down. She jumped down and happily went back to choosing a toy from her toy basket.

This shows you a bit of what our yard looks like this morning. We have leaves EVERYWHERE. We haven’t found any damage, though, and that’s wonderful. We only have a chance for afternoon thunderstorms today, so we’re relieved.

The elephant ears came through without damage. Hooray!

The poor phlox is pretty battered. Hopefully, they’ll pull back up.

I hope that wherever you are, things are quiet.

Enjoy your Sunday.

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News of the World

We just watched “News of the World” starring Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel. It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long, long time.

My husband loves movies with lots of action, lots of CGI effects, lots of things blowing up, violence, etc. I’m not sure how this one got on his list, but I’m really glad.

It has a plot, real actors, people you care about, and more.

“Five years after the end of the Civil War, Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd crosses paths with a 10-year-old girl taken by the Kiowa people. Forced to return to her aunt and uncle, Kidd agrees to escort the child across the harsh and unforgiving plains of Texas. However, the long journey soon turns into a fight for survival as the traveling companions encounter danger at every turn — both human and natural.”

This is a movie well worth your time.

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Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews

Good/Bad News in the Garden

The grocery store was selling lettuce plants yesterday! I bought two, having little hope that they would do anything this time of year, since they are a cool-weather plant. One of them has already croaked :0( – but this one is still alive as of this minute. I’ll probably have to go ahead and clear out the garden for the season, since my yellow crookneck squash plants are producing lots of huge leaves by very little else. I’ll go ahead and pull everything out, unless this sweet plant is still alive. I’ll pull the onions and start drying them out. We have possibly severe storms coming in this evening-into-tomorrow, so this will wait until next week. It was a fun thing to try, though.

Meanwhile, though my tomato plants don’t look pretty, they are producing. This is what I brought in this morning. There are more to come tomorrow. This is the time of year we feel super rich. We have lots of ripe tomatoes to each for both lunch and dinner. :0)

I’ll take pics of the onions when I get them onto the trailer screen to start drying.

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Good to Know

allwomenstalk.com

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Stone Art – Stefano Furlani

Stone Art by Stefano Furlani – designyoutrust.com

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Small Victory

I FINALLY got back to the 30-pounds-off-since-my-heaviest mark this morning! HOORAY!! Thanks again to Maria, who suggested in her blog – FlowingWatersArt.wordpress.com that big goals should be broken down into more doable chunks. I haven’t met my “doable chunk” goals for the three weeks I’ve been trying, but my motivation is high, and that’s the more important thing right now.

I’m building good habits – watching my portions, eating healthy snacks, drinking THREE to FOUR 17.9 oz bottles of water each day (my eyeballs are floating as I run to the bathroom), exercising, etc.

I’m doing yoga stretches and abdominal exercises every day.

This week I started exercising with 5-pound weights- Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I do a pretty short session – enough so my arms are definitely feeling it, but I’m not incapacitated on doing my normal activities. Monday and Wednesday I did two short sessions with the weights during the day plus my yoga.

Yesterday I found a 3-minute video on the net. The lady was using 3-pound weights, so I switched to those and exercised along with her. She was doing different things than I was doing with the 5-pound weights. My arms felt pretty ‘used’ when I finished, but this is a good addition to what I’ve started to do. I plan to do a session with the 5-pound weights and another with the 3-pound weights with the nice lady MWF next week.

I feel good that I’m taking one day at a time, making short-term goals that seem more achievable, am moving and exercising more.

Short term goals are –

  • Work to try to lose 2 lbs in the coming week
  • Check off my exercises each day (giving myself gold stars :o) )
  • Drink 3 to 4 bottles of water daily
  • Work toward the idea of earning “Bear with ’40’ on his chest” in the near future.
  • Realize that I’m working to lose the lard and get stronger – that ANY progress toward that goal is a victory and should be celebrated.
Made with Love by recitethis.com

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Filed under Attitude, Cause for Celebration, Challenges, Changes, DIET!, exercise

I’ll Have Some Sass with my Aging, Please

brightside.me

I acknowledge that I am getting older. It’s much better than not.

The thing I am hostile about – feeling a definite emotional slap in the face – is that when the talking heads on TV are talking about ‘The Elderly,’ they are talking about ME. I want to bite them in the leg, and I haven’t had a rabies shot.

We are described as ‘vulnerable.’ They are mainly referring to us that way in regard to Covid-19 and getting the vaccine protection. I acknowledge that my husband and I are more at risk from dying from this awful virus, and we have both received the two shots. The thing I resent is that we are being discussed as if we are all one person, one block of sheep, a group that only matters tangentially to the more important matters we’re facing in the world.

Well, THIS OLD BROAD has a lot of fight left in her. My husband and I have long realized that we have never – and probably WILL never – think like other people of any age. We have never been representative of people of our age on almost any subject you can name. And I think that’s probably true of the rest of the ‘elderly.’

We are individuals, as are the people of any labeled group. We have different goals, different needs, and react differently to the same set of circumstances.

I guess what I’m saying is that being called ‘elderly’ and treated as if that MEANS someone can assume anything about me is my new PET PEEVE. I’m not normally a hostile person (although my husband has always described me as, “mean as a snake.”)

I’m not aging ‘gracefully.’ I’m aging, trying to wring out every drop of joy possible from each and every day, finding wonderful, creative people whose work amazes me, new things to learn and try, a new motivation to get and stay as healthy as I can be for as long as I can, enjoying the people who make my life a joy and the beauty around me.

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Filed under aging, Pet Peeves, sass

I Love Acorn Art

Dubanci.cz
dubanci.cz
Dubanci.cz via -postila.ru
Dubanci.cz via welke.nl
yandex.ru

I love this art not only because of the wonderful creativity of the artists creating the acorn “people,” but also the situations created, and the wonderful photography associated with it. I’m in awe of people who take a fun, creative idea and make it an art form. Don’t we live on a wonderful planet?

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Celebrating Children

twinkelijintje.nl
Georgettesart.com
Corinne Chauvet-corinne-chauvet-sculpteur.fr

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Beautiful Watercolor

Angela Fehr-angelafehr.com

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Art from Wood

Hitesh Durgani-hitku.tumblr.com
ift.tt
MK Carving-Canada-mkono.net
Tony Fredriksson-pelican

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Hiding

etsy.com

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Make a Note

dumpaday.com

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Found Things Creations

Amy Flynn FOBOTS (Found Objects Robots) on Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/Fobots

Brian Marshall-flickr.com
ebaumsworld.com
Green Goblin-ebay.com
MdBots2-boneyardstudio.net

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Dog Advice

Jin Art Shop-etsy.com

“Be content with what you have.”

Passerine-Butterfly

“Don’t be afraid to question the rules.”

Kaye Bishop Studios-etsy.com

“But accept blame when you’ve done something wrong.”

dogtime.com

“Spend time with your friends.”

Lydie Steyer

“It’s important to help when you can.”

Thanks to Buzzfeed.com for the quotes.

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Filed under Amazing Animals, animal paintings, Awe-Inspiring Photography, Favorite Quotes

Red Letter Day – 7-7-2021

Words Matter Or Word Smatter?
  • FIRST – My husband said I should write this blog post!
  • SECOND – I was right TWICE yesterday and he acknowledged it!

We took one of our vehicles for diagnosis and service first thing yesterday morning. I told my husband I would follow him, since when senses of direction were passed out, I was AWOL. I can get lost in a paper bag. He said I KNEW where the place was – at the curve of two streets in Ft. Smith. I told him that the company had been sold and they had relocated to the autopark, wherever that was. He got angry, so I let it go and told him I would follow him.

We got to the place he said. There was a big sign that has been there at least a year that says, “We moved!” and gave the address at the autopark. We wound around and around, finally making it to the autopark. We made it in time for our appointment, and he said. “You were right.” as we drove home together.

We changed our TV provider recently. That meant a lot of changes, and as we age, we seem to learn the new procedures with less and less grace. The biggest remaining problem for us with the new system was that our whole DVD collection, taped on a system called, “Synology” was gone. Since my husband got rid of the DVDs as we taped them on this, it was really upsetting.

My husband has been working with Microsoft – who did an update recently that disappeared our access to the program, and the tech support from Synology, trying to solve the problem.

Since I am amazed that my computer works at ALL, my function at these times is to keep my mouth firmly shut rather than voice what are probably inane suggestions.

This once, though, I told him that I THOUGHT I remembered that we accessed the movies through our Playstation. He blew this suggestion off right away, irritated that I interrupted his train of thought. This was two or three weeks ago.

Finally, we were able to access the collection through the Media Player on Roku. This was a really good thing, but he is still not satisfied, since it’s not coming through our main system, but an add-on. I finally suggested that we get on the Playstation and see what it showed. My husband did that, a pained expression on his face. There – right in front of us – was “DS218” – our movie collection! We immediately accessed a move and watched it.

When the movie was over, my husband looked at me and said, “You were right.”

Last night, he said, “You need to write a blog post about this.” I told him I was marking my calendar – that first – he said I was right twice, and second, that he wanted me to tell others about it. We agreed that since we are now considered, “Elderly” by many (though not close enough that we can punch them in the face for saying that) that we need to work together when we have problems – listen to each other more and consider that the other might have a point.

Words to live by. MAYBE I’ll be right again sometime… :0)

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Filed under aging, Bright Ideas, Challenges, Changes

One Step

Dog Trying to Eat a Veggie – Giphy

I found more motivation for my efforts to lose my lard and get stronger from an unlikely source: Eve Dallas (NYC murder cop in the future) speaking to a young musician who had turned the corner on trying to stay straight from his drug and alcohol addiction – Dark in Death – J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts).

She said, “You know, it’s a long street after that corner’s turned. I hope you stay on it.” And the musician answered, “One step, every day, the rest of my life. I like street. I like who I am when I’m walking it.”

I’m feeling that way right now.

The weight is still clinging, down a bit one day, up a bit another, but I’m trying to concentrate on eating healthy, portion control, healthy snacks, drinking lots more water (up to THREE 17 oz bottles a day now) and exercising daily. I’m doing half an hour to 45 minutes of yoga stretches with abdominal exercises every day and then working with dumbbells (5 lbs) three times a week. Since my arms get tired pretty fast, I made it through my sets yesterday, then did some other things, then came back and did another session.. That seemed to work well. I can tell I worked my arms yesterday, but I’m not SORE.

I’m pleased that I’m TRYING to get stronger each day, that I’m trying to control my eating.

“One step, every day, the rest of my life. I like street. I like who I am when I’m walking it.”

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Filed under DIET!, exercise, motivators

Love and Tomatoes 7-7-2021

countrydoor.com

We hit the lottery on tomatoes today!

Usually, I have the better crop from the two plants in what we call the ‘nook’ planter – a brick planter we converted to a square foot garden planter that is square and is in a niche beside our back porch and in back of the house. It is protected from a lot of the wind that whips through here and doesn’t get the unrelenting sun the other planter gets.

This year it’s the opposite. The eight foot planter – also converted to a square foot planter – getting full sun and unprotected from the wind – is giving us the better yield.

We are very grateful to have ANY tomatoes because I’ve heard from others that this is a ‘hard year’ for tomatoes. People are getting plants, but they aren’t blossoming or growing tomatoes. We have sharing one larger tomato or two smaller tomatoes as part of our dinners this past week – the first of the crop – and enjoying every bite. When I told my husband that we had hit the lottery today, he wanted to have some – RIGHT NOW.

You can’t get fresher than right off the vine and still warm from the sun. Love and tomatoes! :0)

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Clever Clay

amazon.com
Ephraim Pottery-etsy.com
Tina
madebybarb.com

This last one is actually concrete.

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Customer Service

amzn.to

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Arty Acorns

dubanci.cz
dubanci-dazzle.com
dubanci-zazzle.com
dubanci-zazzle.com
ForrestGump-zazzle.com

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So Punny

dumpaday.com

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Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, punny