Monthly Archives: July 2024

Wednesday 7-24-2024

Paul Bunton-Pinterest

I’m again trying to distract myself from the completely nuts world we live in, filling my days with pleasurable things, since my magic wand is on the fritz and isn’t working, no matter how hard I wave.

I had a truly wonderful massage yesterday from Lynn Moody, my massage therapist who listens to what I KNOW is bothering me, works on those, PLUS finds the spots I didn’t know about, and works on those, as well. I could truly fall asleep on the table when she finishes, thoroughly relaxed and loose. She laughs when I say, “Good night,” before getting up and getting dressed.

After I had paid for my visit and had a new appointment scheduled, I gave her a small ‘thank you’ for what she means to me – this plaque I made. She seemed to like it.

I was going to try to get up to my art room to start a new piece yesterday, but two things got in the way – THING ONE – I was on the phone trying to get the replacement credit cards that I was supposed to have received in 5 business days, but didn’t, and THING TWO – my husband wanted me to come out in the yard and help him deal with getting the new tach he put on the generator set and working.

I was pleased that my husband asked for help. He had gotten dizzy trying to work bent over, realized it before he had a more serious problem, and came and got me. I was able to get the tach set and tested, and I praised him for not trying to ignore the problem he was having, wish it away, work through it doggedly, or any of the other things he has done in the past.

Today we’re going to replenish our grocery supplies and get the mail. I THINK that’s all on our list for the day.

I fixed Suzanne Ryan’s “Bacon-Wrapped Cheesy Chicken” recipe from her Simply Keto recipe book last night. The last time I tried it I used Ranch dressing and didn’t have fresh mushrooms. This time I did have the mushrooms and switched to using honey mustard instead of the Ranch. My husband pronounced it ‘delicious’ and we have enough for one more meal from the leftovers. :0) Tonight is spaghetti, where I’ll fix spaghetti for him to have with his sauce while I have zoodles (zucchini noodles.)

I’ve told you that Jet (aka Monster Cat) likes to play in an empty open box, sneaking around it to attach a catnip mouse, and jumping in and out of the box. My husband added another box to the mix to see her reaction. I didn’t think she would get in, but she jumped into the top of the inner box, rooted around, and then exploded out again in dramatic fashion. I went to get the camera, but she was already out by the time I got back. :0(

Make this a wonderful day.

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Truth

sent to me by my good friend, Marsha

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Marilyn De la Cruz 2

Marilyn De la Cruz

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Tuesday 7-23-2024

Ruiu Marjorie-Pinterest
Daily Paws

My massage therapist texted me that she needed to change my massage day and time, so – happily – I’m going this morning! Between my massage this morning and my yoga stretches this afternoon, I should be a happy camper!

Yesterday I finished two wood-burned pieces. One is a gift for our hair dresser and the other a sign I listed on Etsy

I’m having a great time in my art room. I learn more each time I work on another piece, and I’m enjoying the challenge. I’m brimming with ideas, so that makes me greet each day with anticipation. Hopefully, I’ll get another piece started today.

I hope you find something fun or satisfying to do today.

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Thoughts on a Rainy Monday

Tail & Fur

I THINK this morning’s rain is finished now, but it’s still pretty dark and wet outside. We’ll wait a bit and then gather trash to drive to the bottom of the driveway, getting our mail and then coming back up. Thankfully, we don’t have any pressing errands to do today – at least none about which I am aware.

Bianca Peters – Pinterest

I saw this little guy yesterday and just LOVE the way the light is shining through his ears and happy face.

We just grabbed the opportunity to get our trash down to the bottom of the driveway and get our mail. A wonderful new down-the-road neighbor family from Norway was taking their daily walk on the road that goes in front of our house. We waved to them and chatted for a second before we drove to the opposite end of the street, turned around, and drove back up. It still looks like we could get more rain, but it’s cool enough right now that we turned off the a/c and opened the front and back doors to enjoy a nice breeze and air out the house.

My two wood-burning pieces are coming along. I’m learning so much every time I’m up there practicing. It’s fun to be learning and trying to make things at the same time. Monster Cat sits right outside my art room door waiting for me to come out. :0)

This is my weight chart for this past week. I’m encouraged by the downward trend, and this is motivating me to continue my efforts. I’m closer to my interim goal each day now. Down 33.4 pounds and 34.1 inches so far.

Jean Thompson – Pinterest

Have a fun day.

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Question

BoredPanda.com – Funny Signs – Migle Miliute and Ilona Baliunaite

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Almosaik Design on Etsy

Houran Almahrouk – Almosaik Design on Etsy

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Funny Antics

Yesterday I smiled as I told you about Jet’s (aka Monster Cat’s) playing with a catnip mouse and a cardboard box in the middle of the living room.

Jet gave us quite a show yesterday evening as she ‘re-discovered’ the cat tower in the corner of the room.

It started with her leaping on the tower all of a sudden to play with the ball hanging from one of the top levels. She batted the ball as if it were a tether ball and gave us quite a show as she hung from the tower, toppled off, then leaped up again, attacking it from all angles, even finding a catnip mouse up on the highest level. We both stopped what we were doing to appreciate the show.

I’m happy that her personality is showing more and more. I think it shows she feels more confident now and is fearlessly exploring all areas.

One thing I DON’T like is her biting – with and without warning. I’ll be petting her when she has jumped up on the arm of my chair and she’ll suddenly nip me. Most of the time the bite is kind of like a ‘love bite,’ but I don’t want to encourage it. I am using my cosmetic misting bottle, trying to spray her just as she bites, in order to discourage this behavior. Hopefully, she’ll get the message and stop.

Meanwhile, she is causing lots of grins and laughs around here. My husband’s reaction after the show was, “Whatever we paid for the tower, it was worth every penny.”

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3-D Drawings 2

Fredo
GrayHood
Iza-nagi
Julia Barinova
Saulius Art
Vamos Art

Realistic 3-D Drawings – Julija Neje and Juste Kairyte-Barkauskiene – BoredPanda.com

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I’ll Take This Under Advisement

Migle Miliute and Ilona Baliunaite – Funny Signs – BoredPanda.com

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Marilyn De la Cruz Art

Marilyn De la Cruz

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More Mosaics

madebybarb.com
Barbra Colburn-Pinterest
Pinterest – no credit provided

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Rainy Sunday 7-21-2024

Tail & Fur

It’s quite dark and rainy outside right now, even though it’s after 9am. It’s welcome, though, because we can really use the rain. I can almost hear everything outside saying, “Ahhhhhhhhhhh.” My husband is sleeping in this morning – a really perfect morning for it.

We monitored our irrigation system yesterday afternoon, and had to spend over an hour trying to fix a blowout in the main pipe coming from the well house. I insisted we take a break, since we were both literally dripping from the humidity, and then we finished the job. We’ll monitor things again today to see if our ‘fix’ holds and my reprogramming of the irrigation unit for the front yard was correct and works as it’s supposed to.

Because of this, I didn’t get up to my art room yesterday. I’m having a really good time working on two new pieces of wood-burning. I’m improving, although it’s hard to judge because finding hand-done wood-burning designs now is difficult. Most of the ones on Etsy are machine-guided, like we do when we cut out a new mailbox decoration using a computer for the cut out on the sheet metal. Of course, they look really wonderful, but I’m trying to do ONE one-of-a-kind piece at a time, even though the art form has already left me in the dust. :0)

Make this a wonderful day.

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Calm Saturday (I Hope)

Deb Ruper – Pinterest

We’ve had several ‘wins’ lately, and I AM ‘smiling on the inside.’

The most important is that we are finishing up on the generator project. We had put a new car battery in it and a new starter solenoid. We changed the oil and the oil filter. The generator tech/electrician did his magic, getting all the red lights to go off and pronounce it ‘good to go’ again. Yesterday my husband removed what he called a ‘tach (and something else) combo and has a new one ordered. We looked on the general log we keep to find out when we bought the generator and found it was 2008, so it’s old. In fact, the tech said he had never seen on as old as ours. Of course, WE are also older than dirt, so it fits right in. We’re HOPING that the generator will last as long as we do. The generator did its weekly automatic test yesterday – the first time this has happened in about a month. HOOORAAAAAAY!!!!!

Second, for the first time in a couple of years, it’s a pleasure to go down and up our driveway. We had to plan to be able to afford someone to do the project because the driveway is 650 feet + and STEEP. It really needed some reshaping and scraping, as well as a couple of huge truckloads of a special gravel that the city uses when it does roads, plus the work of spreading it. THEN nature was trying to go back to what it was 37 years ago when we first cleared it for our house, our shop, and the driveway. We had done what we could each year, but it just wasn’t enough. We hired a guy who calls himself “The Tree Man” to cut away the branches and brush and even trees that were trying to close off our access to the road. Happily, he said he would make himself available if during the winter we had any problems with trees coming down into the driveway.

Third, my husband mowed the grass last night, so we look as civilized as we ever do around here. Plus, he waited until 6:30 to do it, not risking heat stroke. The weed whacking and weed killing I’ve done in the past is holding up so far. My husband had an easy time of using the riding mower.

Fourth, I’m still alive and mostly sane after riding in the Vette with my husband to our teeth cleaning Wednesday. The hygienist is now used to my blood pressure being sky-high when I first get there, and down to the only-mildly-elevated-about-going-to-the-dentist reading by the time she finishes with me. We don’t have to go back until January 27th of 2025. Ahhhhh!

Fifth, our foyer corner is empty and clean for the first time in about a year, since it holds waiting-for-donations stuff. I’m letting it bask in all its glory for a few days before starting to gather more donations.

Finally, I hit the 33-pounds-down mark this morning, so I’m re-motivated in my efforts. I’m exercising, eating right, and making slow, steady progress, PLUS I’m having a blast experimenting with the concept of wood burning. I have two more pieces in the works and the ideas are keeping me up at night. I have a pad of paper and pen beside my side of the bed so I can write down some of the ideas that are swirling around. :0)

We still have many challenges to work through, but the progress we’re making is encouraging.

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More Digital Art

LeeLee – Journey Art Hub
LeeLee – Journey Art Hub
LeeLee – Journey Art Hub

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Escalator with Attitude

Funny Signs – Migle Miliute and Ilona Baliunaite – BoredPanda.com

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3-D Drawing

I don’t draw well. I love finding people who do, wishing I could learn, but knowing that I’ll just have to thoroughly enjoy what others can create. Adding 3-D-ness to the art simply blows my mind. I’m impressed with the ability to convey ‘regular’ perspective in drawings, but making the work leap up off the page is mind-boggling. I found some wonderful examples yesterday –

Alessandro Diddi
Alessandro Diddi
Alessandro Diddi
Carmen Harada
Devil Of My Own

These were featured in an article by Julija Neje and Juste Kairyte-Barkairskiene, “Realistic 3-D Drawings” – BoredPanda.com

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LOL

Jet (aka “Monster Cat”) is showing us more and more of her personality as she settles into her new lifestyle as a member of our family.

She still startles a lot; in fact, it’s funny that she’ll go from what looks like a deep sleep beside my foot on the recliner to sitting straight up, neck stretched, eyes wide, as she tries to figure out what is ‘attacking her.’ To my knowledge, she hasn’t found anything at all in the time she’s been with us, but she continues to be vigilant.

We found out that she LOVES empty boxes. We put the one in the middle of the living room and she jumps in and out of it daily, stretching her head up to peer out the top, eyes wide.

Yesterday afternoon she jumped out of the box and crouched down beside the box, partially under one flap. She waited, holding her breath. Her backside came up and her eyes widened. She started moving her weight from one front foot to the other, soundlessly. She got very still – then POUNCED – landing on a tiny catnip mouse a couple of feet from the box. She rolled with it in her arms, flipping it with her paws and rolling again. Then dashed back to hide behind the box.

She repeated this at LEAST 5 times before finally tiring of the game. My husband and I were laughing out loud watching her. Quite a show.

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Needle Felting Sculpture

Needle Felt Sculpture – Magnus and Gordon on Etsy

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Digital Art on Ceramic Tile

I pointed out this website on Etsy before, loving the stained glass look decals they have created. Now I found they are adding digital art to ceramic tiles –

WenderAspire on Etsy

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Eyes Open, Mouth Shut

Migle Miliute – BoredPanda.com

Re-losing the poundage I gained because of caving when my husband insisted we stop at Sonic so he could get a large banana milkshake. “Somehow” a medium chocolate shake appeared in my hand while we were there. This was followed that day by some potato chips from my husband’s stash with our dinner….

I’m ALMOST back now to my 33 pounds down level. I’m hoping to be there tomorrow, and then I can zero in on getting to my current interim goal of 35 down.

The key to all this, of course, is keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut. I am now using MyFitnessPal.com to ENSURE that when I plan my eating for the day, the result, including any snacks will be the website concluding, “You’re not eating enough.” When you’re old and you don’t live for exercise, this seems to be the key in seeing a difference on the scales.

I’ve also decided to concentrate on my yoga each afternoon plus a video or two daily using weights from my More Life Health Seniors guy, Mike with the wonderful Australian accent.

Reddit – r/midjourney

“Eyes open – mouth shut – body moving” SING IT! :0)

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Thing of Beauty 7-19-2024

This may not look like much to YOU, but to ME it’s a “thing-of-beauty” and “a-joy-forever.” This corner of my foyer is empty for the first time in almost a year. This is the corner behind the front door to our house that is the storage place for donations to go to Veteran’s Thrift Store and our local public library.

Until yesterday, it was filled with two large paper grocery sacks of books plus three large trash bags of clothes. On Thursday we donated the clothes in Fort Smith while we were there for our teeth cleanings. Yesterday while my husband had a haircut, I took the sacks of books to the library for donation for their next community sale.

I also took some paperwork for the nice lady at my lawyer’s office to fax for me. She was really nice and didn’t even charge me – a nice surprise.

It will be really nice for a while, at least, not to have to move 5 sacks/bags in order to vacuum. HOORAY!

Today I’m hoping to start two more wood-burning pieces in my art room. I have an idea for a present for a good friend, plus another idea for a gift sign. I’m having such a good time learning what I can do with the different tips. I’m challenged now – rather than intimidated – so I can thoroughly enjoy myself. :0)

No errands today, so hopefully a quiet one. Ahhhhhhh!

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Fabric Collage Doggies

Solange Piffer
Terri Dinardo – Pinterest

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This and That 7-18-2024

VitaKartier456-Pinterest

I hate needles, so I’m too much of a chicken to get a tattoo, but I LOVE this design.

Posted by @RGRyan777 on X – I’m still laughing. :0)
Artmajeur Gallery
Unknown
designsbyheidi.wordpress.com
Kenda Davis-The Sequel-Pinterest

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Gorgeous Stained Glass

Alledee-Pinterest
High Tech Rug Canvas on Etsy photo by Inspiring Designs – Kim Brushaber – “Umbrella Lady” – Pinterest – Phoenix SolCatchers
photo by Inspiring Designs – Kim Brushaber – Pinterest

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Thursday 7-18-2024

It’s only 77 outside right now. Ahhhhhh! It won’t last long, but I’m hoping that if I mention it, Mother Nature will be happy enough to allow it stay for a bit longer than she might have planned.

Yesterday was our semi-annual teeth cleaning. I really hate it, even though our dentist and our hygienist are both really nice people. Years ago, my husband wouldn’t wear a helmet when he was riding his motorcycle. I kept talking to him about it and he kept refusing. Finally, one day he said, “Okay. I’ll wear a helmet if you’ll come with me to the dentist for regular care.” I agreed and now I’m stuck, even though the motorcycle is a thing long past now.

I’ve always been afraid of the dentist, even though I had never had a cavity until one last year. I did have braces for a couple of years – painful and annoying – and then my teeth went back to their original places even though I wore a retainer. My mom died of oral cancer, and so I hold my breath that I’ll get that, too, even though I quit smoking some 45 years ago. Adding insult to injury, my husband insists we use the Corvette to make the trip to Fort Smith. He scares my hair off, putting on the gas when I would put on the brakes in any given situation. My stomach is in a knot by the time we get there.

We have made it alive through another trip now and don’t have to go for another 6 months. We did leave a donation for the Veteran’s Thrift Store while in Fort Smith.

I have a pretty impressive to-do list for today, some of which I’ll actually have to get accomplished – like putting clean sheets on our bed. I’m getting really skilled at pushing other things on the list aside for another time, though, to the point that I might see if there is a competition around for an award…

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The Best Gift Ever

Pixabay

My husband was given the best gift ever yesterday by our son.

Our son lives across the world from us – having created a life where he can live on his own terms, happy as a clam. We use a chat program almost every day plus a conference call program when we are all up and functional at the same time of the day, so we stay close.

I check the chat program every morning to see if he’s left any messages, pictures, or questions for us.

Yesterday morning I found this –
“Dad, I have a luxurious life now because you were so patient in making me strong.”

I’m still tearing up this morning. What a beautiful thing for our son to FEEL, and to SAY to his dad. We really won the lottery on sons.

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Wood Burning Efforts

I just finished this little sign. It’s a combination of wood burning, paint, and pastels. I’m having fun experimenting and learn a TON each time I do a new piece. My poor brain is overflowing with ideas I would LIKE to do now. I’ll have to start a list so that I can sleep, instead of trying to MAKE the ideas happen in my mind with my eyes closed. :0)

I’ll try to get this sign added to HandmadeHavenby Linda on Etsy by the end of the day.

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Rainy Wednesday 7-17-2024

My mother – Betty Wheaton

It’s my mom’s birthday today. My main memories are of her sitting in her chair in the living room, one small dog sitting in the chair on each side of her, and a big board propped up so that she could work on the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle, plus the Cryptoquote in the paper. She usually finished both.

Her dad didn’t think she should go to college, but allowed her one year at the community college in Nevada, Missouri. She graduated one credit short (physical education) of a degree from the two-year college program in that one year she was allowed. Most people thought she was highly educated, due to her vocabulary (a product of reading voraciously and the crossword puzzles :0) ). It was funny that I could tell how angry she was by the words she used – in that they got longer and longer the angrier she got. She could stand on her feet and cut you off at the knees verbally. She did this at city meetings in Tulsa OK, when she was upset.

She had a delightfully silly side, ‘speaking’ for various dogs in a high, delicate, babyish voice, insisting that you react to what ‘the dog said.’ Thankfully, you only had to react – she didn’t require that YOU speak in a high voice to the dog…

I’ll never forget her bailing us out financially when our son was going to a private school in Tulsa which had a big tuition. My husband was working in Tulsa that year so that our son could attend the school. He and our son were living with my in-laws.

After we signed the contract at the school, my father-in-law decided he didn’t want them to live there and insisted they leave. My husband found an apartment, but we couldn’t afford to pay for both the apartment there, our home here, AND the tuition, even with both of us working full time.

My mom called and I tried to just talk to her as if nothing was wrong. It didn’t work. I told her what the problem was, and that we were trying to figure out what we could do. My mom said, “Stop worrying. I will pay the tuition for the school.” I hadn’t cried when telling her about it, but I cried buckets when she said that. My husband did, too, when I told him. He had been feeling like a failure, trying to be strong for our son while we tried to figure things out.

She’s been gone a long time now, but I FEEL her sometimes, usually when I’m sticking my neck out, trying something completely new that scares me. She encourages me to try to be the best person I can be. Quite a woman. I miss her so much.

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Rowandean Embroidery

These exquisite pieces are made by Katrina Witten of Rowandean Embroidery on Etsy. I am simply awestruck.

Katrina Witten – Rowandean Embroidery on Etsy

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Critters by MandMChicko

Garden Owl
Grouse
Macaw
Sax Man
Spring Bird
Terror-ier
Turtle

These wonderful critters were created by the team of “M and M” (Marty Cohen and Margie Ruegger) who use their imagination, sense of humor, creativity, welding skills, and scrap metal to bring smiles.

MandMChicko.com

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