Monthly Archives: August 2024

Sunday 8-25-2024

cannister with attitude-sususummer.com

I LOVE the creativity and humor shown in this piece!

This is the latest wood-burned piece. I’ll list it on HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy later today. I attached magnets to the back so that it’s ready to ‘stick’ to the fridge.

I’m slowly making order out of chaos in my art room each day. Yesterday I did three sessions – working on the piece plus going through more ‘stuff’ each time I was up there. It’s slowly looking like ‘someone might have had a problem,’ rather than ‘aftermath of the bomb.’

We enjoyed the first ripe tomatoes in about a month last night at dinner. I was truly amazed to find tomatoes ready to harvest yesterday. I had gone out there to see if the plants needed to be pulled for the season. It was such a nice surprise, and the tomatoes we shared were delicious. We have more waiting to be enjoyed and more on the plants. I’m in Heaven.

garetsvisual-freepik.com

I was a good girl all day yesterday. I fixed us hot dogs for dinner, with my husband having hot dog buns with his and my having Mission Zero-Carb tortillas to hold mine. I turned to put them on the plate and my husband had poured out potato chips for each of us. SIGH. Guess who ate each. and. every. one. P.S. they were delicious.

Today is a keep-on-keepin’-on kind of day. I’ll start a new piece in the art room and continue my efforts to make it look like a real human lives there. I’m finding a group of things that I’ll probably list on my Etsy site to see if someone wants to adopt them. Leftovers for dinner, so I’ll probably be able to make time to do a good session of yoga this afternoon.

Make this day a good one.

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Mug Wisdom 10

Love Art USA Outfit
MoonwakeDesignsCo-Etsy
Cute But Rude Gifts

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Drawings of Sean Briggs

Sean Briggs

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Beautiful Watercolor

Kiley – PaintedWingStudio – Etsy

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Saturday 8-24-2024

paper-Society6.com

I started a new piece in my art room yesterday, plus I’m continuing to do a THOROUGH clean-out/clean-up/reorganization up there. I’m stopping when I feel myself starting to ‘stash’ things. I’m taking my time, trying to create ‘areas’ of activity or storage, so I can find things more easily, rather than it sometimes resembling a ‘treasure hunt.’ I’m trying to throw away things I haven’t used and probably won’t use, dried up paint tubes, ‘idea’ pictures that no longer speak to me, and more. I’m SUCH a slob… :0) I AM making some progress, though.

Our son left a picture on our chat program this morning. His friends, who have a condo in the same building, had a baby girl this morning. She joins their about 2-year-old son, so now they’re a family of four. Brian is an honorary ‘uncle’, having a great time being a part of their family and watching their kids grow and thrive.

A wonderful surprise! I found these just a minute ago. I decided to go out to check on the tomato plants, just expecting to see the same – plants with green tomatoes, looking kind of sad. Instead, I found ripe tomatoes! I guess the cooler temperatures of the last few days revived the plants. I had essentially written them off, so it was a super nice surprise. ALSO, I still have ONE tomato sucker plant that is really large now. I have no idea if it will produce tomatoes, but I staked it up this morning and will enjoy watching what happens. FUN EXPERIMENT!

Enjoy your weekend.

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Truism

Coasters – modernpastime.com

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Mug Wisdom 9

Cute But Rude Gifts
Cute But Rude Gifts
Cute But Rude Gifts

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Nat’l Quilt Museum, Paducah KY 2

We’re continuing our virtual trip to see the beautiful quilts in the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky.

Today we look at some of the quilts by Cynthia England.

Angel
Come Into the Light
In the Southern Tradition
One Fine Day

I really find it difficult to believe these are quilts. These fiber artists are beyond amazing. I’m so glad that a museum celebrating this talent exists for people to enjoy. I’m delighted to be able to take a virtual tour, even if we can’t visit the place ourselves.

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Friday 8-23-2024

Gregorio Catarino – @gregcatarino1 on X

I absolutely LOVE this piece by Gregorio Catarino. It makes me happy and hopeful just to look at it.

Speaking of ‘happy’ and ‘hopeful,’ we talked to our son across the world last night on our conference call program. It was wonderful to see his FACE and be able to talk to him real time. There are 12 hours between us, half the year more with Daylight Savings Time, so we aren’t all functional at the same time on a regular basis. I’m STILL smiling and my heart is full after making him smile, and even laugh at one point. :0) He’s such a wonderful guy and I’m delighted that he is healthy and happy, doing what he wants to do. I’m also grateful that we’re close, that we communicate on a regular basis. It means the world to me.

3 and one/half bears

After at least a couple of weeks of yo-yo-ing results on the scales, I’ve FINALLY reached an interim goal of 35 pounds down from my worst this morning. (Actually, 36.4 pounds less of me today). I feel newly encouraged that I CAN do this if I just keep on keepin’ on. Next goal: 40 lbs off.

Amazon
Amazon

I ordered more blank wooden signs and pegs to attach to them yesterday. I’m researching some decorations to burn into them. Meanwhile, I’ll continue cleaning up one area each day up in my art room.

My husband checks to find the mug I gave him to use each morning. If it’s in the dishwasher, waiting to be washed, he pulls it out, rinses it, and uses it. I think he LIKES it. :0)

Happy Friday!

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Newest Wood-Burned Effort

“Bloom” is what I finished yesterday and it’s listed on Etsy now. I did the wood-burning, then used alcohol ink and finally pastels to finish.

My good friend, Marsha, suggested that I do some practical items, such as pegs on signs, and I’ll think about that next.

Meanwhile, I’m heading back upstairs to do a bit more cleaning of the art room. If I live long enough, maybe some day the room will look halfway organized again!

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Filed under HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy, Lewis Art

Changing the Mailbox Decoration

As we’re getting older than any dirt around, we’ve slowed down on doing some things.

We made twice as many mailbox decorations as we have months and used to change the decorations on the 1st and 15th of each month. We have all our decorations hanging from an overhanging rod in the shop, each hanging on a hook. It is getting more difficult for us to get a decoration down and back up again safely. They are heavy and awkward to handle and trying to get them down and back up, standing on a ladder, trying to balance them and get them off and on the overhanging hooks is hard.

I, of course, suggested that we make a huge set of slots that could run on the floor along one wall of the shop, so we could slide each decoration in and out. This was greeted with a, “Humpf.” response I’m taking as a negative. I’ve planted the seed of the idea now, so it MAY take root eventually.

Meanwhile, we changed the decoration yesterday, after I was talking about how the Amazon delivery lady had been quite complimentary about the critters up and down the driveway and our mailbox decoration. I said I thought he should choose which one to put up.

We had his favorite decoration up –

This is his favorite because of the legs on the Roadrunner. It was the first time we tried to go 3-D on our decorations. It was a challenge, but turned out reasonably well.

We replaced the ‘Sonic’ decoration above with this –

This is another favorite of my husband’s. The character’s name is “Wonder Warthog.”

“Wonder Wart-Hog is an underground comic book character, a porcine parody of Superman, created by American cartoonist Gilbert Shelton and first published in 1962.” ~ Wikipedia

As with most of my husband’s favorites, he is described as, “Fearless, Fighting, Foulmouthed Wonder Wart-Hog” in Bacchanal (Mar. 1962)

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Thursday Thoughts 8/22/2024

Fitdognation.com

I’m having a wonderful massage this morning. Ahhhhh! Then I’m hoping to have a good visit with my friend, Linda, who lives at the retirement place where I now get my massages. It’s a great combination of seeing two good people and easing all of my knotted up parts. :0)

I am 2/10ths away from my interim goal of 35 pounds down. I’m hoping I’ll reach that tomorrow. It would be a nice spur to my motivation to continue trying to lose the lard.

Today is the last day of super-nice-weather-for-August-in-Arkansas before the ‘intense heat warnings’ start in again. We’ve had about 3 days here of amazingly cool days and evenings with a soft breeze. We actually kept the car windows open on the way to our errands yesterday, thoroughly enjoying how beautiful it was.

I finished my latest wood burned piece yesterday afternoon. I’ll show you a pic later and I’ll try to get it listed on HandmadeHavenbyLinda on Etsy this afternoon, as well as do another session of trying to clean up my art room.

I hope you have a joyful day.

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Day’s Work in 2 Hours

DepositPhotos

I’m just now back at the computer after errands and chores.

We went to two grocery stores, then got our mail on the way back. We carried things in and put everything away.

I then got the makings of chili in the crock pot for tonight and then cut up a humongous Honeydew melon my husband grabbed. It took three large storage containers to hold all the chunks.

Then we cleaned up and started the dishwasher. WHEW! That’s a lot for these years-challenged people.

Now I’m resting, drinking both ice water and coffee at the same time. I know, it’s weird, but I need the coffee to stay awake until I can fix and eat lunch and then I’ll take a nap. I need the ice water to re-hydrate and cool off.

BoredPanda.com

The rest of the day, once lunch stuff is cleaned up, will be devoted to fun stuff.

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Snoopy Wisdom

Charles M. Schulz – Peanuts

Charles Monroe “Sparky” Schulz was an American cartoonist, the creator of the comic strip Peanuts which features his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy.” ~ Wikipedia

“By the wishes of Mr. Schulz’s family, no new strips are – nor ever will be – drawn and published. There are new animated specials in development, but the story lines are based entirely on themes and dialogue from the strip’s history.”

Peanuts is one of my all-time favorite cartoon strips. Charles Schultz was so talented and we’re lucky that he shared his gift with us.

E. H. Shepard, illustrator – Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

As with Winnie the Pooh, illustrated by E.H. Shepard, others are drawing the characters and selling products based on them.

I prefer to honor the original illustrators, even though some of the drawings are good. A couple of days ago I found a whole bunch of Snoopy quotes illustrated by AI (Artificial Intelligence). I don’t know how this is done. I love the quotes, but the the illustrations were just ‘off’ to my eyes, and this is in direction opposition to the wishes of his family. I guess there isn’t anything the family or we can do about it, other than to avoid using these images or supporting these products.

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Wednesday 8-21-2024

WanderlustHeartShop-Etsy

Hahahahaha. I love this. :0)

I hope things are going well for you today. I’m still trying to wake up.

We’ll do errands this morning and then will be in for the rest of the day. The weather is gorgeous right at the moment, with a temperature of 70 degrees, just like civilized people. Isn’t that GREAT?

I had a good day yesterday, vacuuming like a fiend with my big Dyson vacuum and then cleaning out my battery-powered one I usually use for the tiled areas. Its poor head was really clogged with dog hair. It’s good now.

I also spent some time in my art room, working on my wood burning piece and then cleaning up one area. I hope to do that again today.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

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Gift for My Husband

As much as I gripe about my husband, threatening to throw him into a huge hole in the back yard from time to time, there is a sweet side that comes out from time to time, showing me the man I married.

This was just delivered today. He’ll go get the mail soon. :0)

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Cute Little Planters

I would love to plant herbs in these. :0)

FashionaryDesigner – Etsy

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Nat’l Quilt Museum, Paducah KY

Thanks to a comment from Carol Janson, I’m researching the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky online, since I’m not able to actually visit in person. I thought that you might enjoy a virtual trip there, too.

“The National Quilt Museum, located in Paducah, Kentucky, is an art museum that exhibits fiber art and quilting from around the world. The museum is recognized by USA Today as one of the world’s top quilt displays.” ~ Wikipedia

Today I’m going to share some of the work of Susan Carlson.

Crocodylus Smylus
Dixie Dingo Dreaming
Polka Dodo
Samuelsaurus Rex (my favorite)
Tickled Pink

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Tuesday 8-20-2024

vintage-vicki thomas cat holding a fish

It was cooler yesterday, but seemed really hot when my husband and I drove the trash down the driveway yesterday. We had to stop SEVERAL times so I could get out and gather and/or drag branches that had fallen into the driveway from the storm and throw them off to the side of the driveway. The trash can had blown over and was partially filled with water. I managed to drain it and then drag it down to the bottom of the driveway. We put our trash in for pickup today. We got our mail and then it took the two of us to straighten our robot.

The robot is about 200 pounds and stands, welcoming people, toward the bottom of our driveway. We had winds blow him down once several years ago and practically killed ourselves trying to get him up on the driveway again. So we wrapped a big chain around his neck, securing one end to a pole behind him and the other end to our driveway gate in front of him so that he can only LEAN now. The storms were enough to make him lean, and my husband pulled on him while I found rocks to shove under his right foot to steady him.

That said, what we dealt with was nothing compared to what a lot of people in Arkansas suffered. There were a LOT of power outages, power lines and power poles down, trees down, roads had to be closed, flooding, etc. And this was from a storm I didn’t even know about when we went to bed. Another rain followed that one the next night, causing more outages and damage.

I THINK all is okay now. I don’t mind a good storm, but I wish Mother Nature wasn’t quite so dramatic, causing good people to have problems.

__________________

I had a good time in my art room yesterday afternoon. I’m working on a wood-burning piece, trying different techniques and having a blast learning. I even put away a few things while I was up there, but you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The only time it looks reasonable up there is when nothing has happened, nothing is in progress, and nothing is planned.

_________________

My husband mowed yesterday – telling me happily how much easier it is to mow now with the new mower – and I used the leaf blower to clean off our front and back sidewalks and driveway pad. Even though it was cooler yesterday, I was wringing wet when I came in. I’m ready for fall.

_________________

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

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A Mother’s Love

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Sandra Mollon Amazing Quilts 2

Summer at the Lake
The Moonlit Hunter
Tiger Longwing Butterfly
Valley View Yosemite

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Mug Wisdom 8

Zazzle
Zazzle
Zazzle

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Monday 8-19-2024

shoutask_shop

It stormed again overnight and we lost power for a bit. I didn’t realize it until later, when I woke up and saw the bedside clock flashing. I thought it was a bit past the time I usually wake, so jumped up to get dressed. When I got in the bathroom, though, it looked really dark outside. I checked my watch that was with my clothes and it was just a bit past 4am. SIGH. I tried to go back to bed, but was awake every hour and couldn’t make my watch light up. (When you hit anything other than the light button, the readings go wonky and I was in no shape to work on that. )

I checked with Lynn, my sweet massage therapist and friend. They got a generator, but have public power now. So the worst seems to be over for now. It’s rainy now, but the rain is supposed to stop this afternoon. Then we’ll gather and take down our trash and see if we have mail. That’s it for outside today, unless we have to spend time picking up clusters of leaves and branches and stuff on the driveway. I really hope we can mainly ignore it.

I got a good start on a new wood-burned piece yesterday. I had a great time, but I really need to start cleaning up my art room, one area at a time. It looks like a bomb went off up there. I have my little area on the drafting table where I’m working – the one area of ‘calm’ in a disaster area. Maybe I can get started on THAT a bit while I’m up there…

I hope that things are good where you are today.

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I’m Smiling/Crying at This

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Gift

Coasters – ModernPastime.com

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Beautiful Pottery

JoppaMTNPottery on Etsy

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Cat Leonard Art

Cat Leonard Art @catleonardart on X

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Mug Wisdom 7

Love Art USA Outfit
ThreadHeads.com
Zazzle

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Sunday 8-18-2024

crochettiky.com

Shout-out to Lynn, my magnificent massage therapist and her family who lost power during the last, sudden storm we had a couple of nights ago and are still without power. She said they may have to go until Monday or more without power, due to downed power lines and POLES close to her house. Her husband had gone to borrow a generator so that they could plug in their fridge plus maybe a couple of fans. With all the watches and warnings we are under during the summer, we didn’t even hear about the possibility of rain this time.

*Speaking of power, we just lost OURS for a few seconds. Just suddenly, while I was typing, everything shut down. It came back on, thankfully, and we don’t hear our generator running, so it seems to be public power. Wonder if this is caused by all the work probably being done to restore power to so many good folks.

__________

This is the story of my weight this week. I’m finally half a pound away from being 35 pounds down. Do you think I might make it this time? Fingers crossed.
sent to me by my good friend, Cathy.

______________

I’m still avoiding looking at our driveway. It’s my extremely adult reaction to the possibility we might be in for a big clean up after the storm. The Amazon delivery guy remarked on the stuff in our driveway when he came up yesterday. I’m excusing the fact I haven’t checked it out because he said he didn’t have any trouble getting up the driveway. Fingers crossed about the driveway, too.

Things are quiet around here so far this morning. My husband is thinking he’ll mow if the ground dries up enough during the day. I’m thinking I may get up to my art room today.

I hope you are safe and dry. May power be restored to those waiting.

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Before and After

Chair Table – Before
Chair Table – After – One View
Chair Table – After – 2nd View

I am definitely in the running for ‘worst-housekeeper-on-the-planet’ and I’ll continue to show you – embarrassing though it is – examples. I’m not ‘dirty,’ but I tend to do a lot of stuff at once, like reading several books at the same time, and the ‘stuff’ piles up.

Most of the things on my chair table actually belonged elsewhere and had gravitated to the table over a period of time. I’ve also won championship stars for ‘IGNORING’ and ‘PROCRASTINATION,’ two things that aid and abet my ‘worst housekeeper’ title.

Every once in a while the chaos finally gets on my nerves and I decide something is my project for the day. Right now I’m amazed at how much SPACE I have on my table. Monster Cat even looked at me in amazement when she walked around on it last night, big-eyed, obviously wondering where everything went.

SO – today I bask in the glow of having a pristine table beside my chair in the living room, and will choose from a myriad of other candidates for my cleaning out-cleaning off-re-organizing efforts.

SO MANY CHOICES – SO LITTLE TIME OR ENERGY… :0)

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Filed under cleaning, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob

The Cyclops Effect

I finished reading this book yesterday. The Cyclops Effect is written by CJ Williams, a husband and wife team. I don’t read a lot of science fiction, but my husband practically insisted I would like it. HE. WAS. RIGHT!

Asha loses her eye in a car accident. This is replaced with an implant by a gifted surgeon/inventor. She discovers that the implant does more than even the surgeon expects, making it possible for her to SEE the Internet inside her brain and react with it.

The plot is well written and action-packed. In fact, I told my husband I had to take a break from time to time to ‘rest’ and let what I had read settle a bit before continuing. I read it in two days, though, completely drawn to the story and the characters, wanting to find out what happened.

I highly recommend this if you enjoy strong women characters and complex situations written in a way that allows you to follow, even if you’re not a science fiction aficionado or techie.

I’m going to look at their other books now.

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Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews, CJ Williams