Filed under paper art, paper mache
BoredPanda.com
I’m finally making some progress in my efforts not to stuff my face.
I’m making it fine with lunch and dinner, and am working on snacks between the two meals, determined to eat either cottage cheese or some raw veggies with dip, if I’m really hungry. I’m also trying to drink more water. We eat dinner at 7 and go to bed around midnight. During that 5 hours or so, I’m fighting with myself NOT to eat anything. If I’m up – unable to sleep later in the middle of the night – is the worst time.
This week I’ve done a better job of taking it one day at a time.
taolife.com
Filed under DIET!
Unsplash
I’m still happy that we aren’t snowed or iced in, but we’re facing possible severe weather this afternoon, evening, and overnight, with possible snow flurries tomorrow morning. It’s supposed to be really windy today, too. I would love to have a talk with Mother Nature and see what has her nose out of joint. Maybe I could calm her down.
We’ll need to re-tether our humongous trash can to the pole toward the bottom of the driveway today before gusty winds carry it somewhere else.
I hope that you and your Valentine had a happy day yesterday. Our day was calm and good. My husband and I drove the front half of the truck into our shop and took off the front tires to look at our brakes again. We couldn’t find any problem. My husband shocked me by saying first that we could change the brake pads all around ourselves OR take it to someone to have that done. I jumped on the latter. Once we came back inside I jumped to find someone in Greenwood who could do it for us. We have an appointment for next Monday morning. Hoooraaaaaay! I think yesterday’s session finally got through to him that both of us are a bit long in the tooth to be trying to do the heavy lifting required on some of our projects.
I talked to a really good friend yesterday via email, asking what was going on in her life now. She is now working in Greenwood, rather than Ft. Smith and sounded really happy, with lots of plans for the future. I couldn’t be happier for her and am waiting to hear details in another email. :0)
Enjoy your Wednesday!
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Healthline
I received a Jacquie Lawson Valentine’s Day card from one of my long-time close friends this morning. It was a really nice way to start the day. My husband showed his romantic self yesterday while we were at the local grocery, asking, ‘You want flowers or something?” I swoon. :0)
I’ve always thought that Valentine’s Day, at least the way it’s celebrated, is awful. People all over the world, I guess, are pressured into getting ‘something’ for their significant other on a particular day of the year. I think that if you love someone, EVERY day is the time to show how you feel, with a smile, a kiss, a hug, or maybe even a nice gift if you find something you think they will like. When it’s NOT the ‘official’ time to show it, it’s REAL. Happily, my husband and I share this belief and we show each other often – when we’re not contemplating digging a hole in the back yard to stash the body….
It’s raining today, so I’m not looking forward to having to go out in it this morning. My husband has a haircut. I sold some earrings last night on my Etsy site, and so will mail them to my customer today. When we get back, hopefully, our huge trash can will have been emptied and we can pull it partially up the driveway to re-tether it to the pole.
We’ll spend time today with our truck in our shop. It’s making a grinding noise when we put on the brake. When we put the snow tires on, we checked the brake pads as we always do, and all was good. When the grinding noise started, we put the truck in the shop and took the back tires off again to see what problems we could find. We didn’t find anything. Today we’ll check the front again.
I hope that you have a happy Valentine’s Day with the one you love.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
What is love? (From the mouth of babes)
Parade
‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.’
Rebecca- age 8
'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4
'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'
Karl - age 5
'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'
Chrissy - age 6
'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
Terri - age 4
'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'
Danny - age 7
'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that.
They look gross when they kiss'
Emily - age 8
'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents
And listen.'
Bobby - age 7
'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate, '
Nikka - age 6
'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day..'
Noelle - age 7
'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
Tommy - age 6
'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.
He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'
Cindy - age 8
'My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'
Clare - age 6
'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'
Elaine-age 5
'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford .'
Chris - age 7
'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'
Mary Ann - age 4
'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
Lauren - age 4
'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.'
Karen - age 7
'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'
Jessica - age 8
And the final one
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.
Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there..
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
'Nothing, I just helped him cry'
Clear Lake, Iowa
I’m cherishing every minute of our bright sunshiny day today, as the rest of the week is forecast to be quite rainy.
The Super Bowl game last night was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Two great teams, no bad sportsmanship, brothers on each team, some truly wonderful plays, strong, tight game until the last minute. Someone had to win. And lose. But I really think both of these teams were winners.
We’ll go out after lunch to take our trash down and do some errands. Just a quiet Monday.
My husband gave up on the shop computer and is now transferring parts that are still good from it into the shell of another one that was extra, hoping that he can build one to go out to the shop. Fingers crossed. He’s not stressed over it, so that’s really, really good.
I’m having fun in my art room the last few days. I’m doing a project where each part needs to dry before I do more, so I spend a small bit of time up there, then come down and read or do something else on my list, then maybe go back up, depending on what stage I’m in. FUN!
I’m on book #40 in re-reading the In Death Series by J.D. Robb. One of the perks of being older than dirt is that I remember many parts of each book that I can enjoy again, but don’t remember many of the details of how the person was caught. Sometimes, I even find things I swear I didn’t read before….hahahahaha
On my ongoing “wish list” I’m including ‘developing an aversion to most food.’ It would be SO much easier to lose the lard if I could ‘forget’ to eat, or just ‘not be hungry,’ so I could eat what was absolutely necessary for nourishment, do my exercise for the day, and concentrate on other things. It’s a thought.
Happy Monday to you.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Sporting News
Will you watch the Super Bowl today? We always do, even though we’re not big football fans. My husband doesn’t care who wins, and I just want a really competitive game where we won’t know who will win until the final nail-biting minutes.
I could never actually ATTEND a game because 1) I change who I’m routing for – switching to root for the one behind, and 2) I’m vocal about it. So fans of either team – or both – would probably want to pummel me. I appreciate expertise in most any form. Playing football well is an art and I love being able to watch the two teams with the best records this season duke it out.
I also love the commercials. My dad had his own one-man advertising agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He specialized in radio advertising and billed himself as ‘the 2nd worst radio voice in Tulsa.’ (The 1st was a woman florist who had a really raspy, grating voice.) I grew up admiring his creativity, his ability to make people smirk or laugh while buying his client’s products. He received an award from the Tulsa Chapter American Advertising Federation in 1984, that said, to Jim Wheaton “With admiration and Respect for His Unique Contributions in Advertising to Tulsa and All Other Markets.”
So I appreciate the creative minds that come up with unique commercials that make you laugh or cry while you consider buying the products. Standouts in my mind are the Budweiser Beer Commercials, where I hope the creators have won numerous awards – and I don’t even drink beer…
Here’s hoping we see a lot of skill and heart, a good, competitive game, a good halftime show, and lots of creative commercials.
Enjoy!
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
“Deep Purple”
“Little Cave”
“Spring Garden Flowers”
“The Rough Sea Seen Among the Stabilopods”
Unsplash
Isn’t this a beautiful photo?
The rain has FINALLY stopped, though we’ll have a rainy week ahead – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and the following Monday if the forecasters are correct. If it’s ONLY rain, I’ll try not to gripe too much. :0)
Unknown
My husband is still trying to fix computer problems. Yesterday he finally got our two office computers to see each other, so now we’re able to share files, access what we need, send things to each other, etc. NICE. He was able to upgrade the operating system on the shop computer, but he is beating his head against the wall trying to get the updates downloaded to it. So that’s the focus today. I’ll do what I need to on mine asap and turn mine off, and we’ll also turn the DirecTV off so that all our rural Internet power can focus on that. Fingers crossed.
While he’s doing that, I’m enjoying time in my art room. I’m trying some new techniques and just generally smiling up there while listening to some music. I’m also on #38, Concealed in Death, on my re-reading of my J.D.Robb/Nora Roberts In Death series collection before diving into the newest paperback, #55, Desperation in Death. The newest book in the series, #56, Encore in Death will be out in hardback at the end of this month, but it’ll be awhile before I can order it in paperback.
Since the sun is shining today, I’ll try to do some walking in the yard this afternoon when it warms up. It’s 35 right now, but it’s supposed to get to 54 this afternoon, I think. It’s been so gloomy lately that it almost hurts to look out the window at the effect of the bright, happy sunshine!
Along with several gazillion others, we will plan to watch the Super Bowl tomorrow. I’m hoping for a really competitive game – a nail-biter to the last minute.
Enjoy your Saturday.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Weather Station Advisor
Today rain and a possible ‘wintry mix’ is forecast. We’re going to try to go to Lunch Bunch anyway. We want to splurge on a burger. We’ll also get our mail, stop for gas and groceries before coming home. I’m really keeping all appendages crossed that we JUST get a cold rain, rather than being snowed in yet again. It’s really getting old.
On the home front, my husband is still fighting to get the updates on the shop computer. It continues to fail. He’s on chat with Microsoft, but so far, they aren’t able to help. So I do what I need to do first thing in the morning on the computer, then shut it down, plus the TV, so that he has as much download speed as we can gather to try again.
I’m reading, spending time in my art room, cooking, cleaning, etc., all really exciting stuff while the computer fight continues.
I hope that you are doing well and that the weather is treating you right where you are.
Take care.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
“Untamed” – Kimberly Kelly Santini -paintingadogaday.blogspot.com
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“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” – Scott Adams
Vic Bearcroft-setterstuff.com
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“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ― Pablo Picasso
mungfali.com
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“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” – Andy Warhol
finewoodworking.com
Filed under Art Around the World
Minions
Day 3 in my husband’s fight to get the shop computer up and running again. He’s trying to get the operating system updates onto the computer. This takes a long time and THEN announces the failure of the attempt. More than frustrating. We’re compromising now, with some time for me on my computer first thing, then my computer and the TV are unusable until late after dinner. Since I’m totally spoiled, I’m having withdrawal symptoms.
I’m reading, doing some cleaning, some cooking, and I spent time in my art room yesterday for the first time in a long time. I’ve started work on an idea up there with some cleaning up and putting away in there, too.
It FINALLY stopped raining! The sun is out today – a hugely welcome sight. I’m planning to take at least one walk in the yard today. We’re supposed to get more rain/wintry mix tomorrow, but we’ll deal with that THEN. It might mess up Lunch Bunch. :0(
Filed under Attitude, Challenges
Rice on Your Head
My husband is still in a death struggle with the shop computer. I thought there was a TV problem, and then an Internet problem, yesterday. I finally found out after dinner that it was a HUSBAND problem. HE had made it so the TV didn’t work and my computer didn’t work so that he could hopefully increase the download speed for stuff he was trying to get on the shop computer. Communication is one of the things that has suffered since his strokes.
ANYWAY, we talked about it and agreed that I would have at least a short time at the computer today before he turned everything else off again for the day. Hopefully he will get all the stuff he needs on the shop computer today and he can continue to tweak it however he wants and I can get back to normal.
It’s rainy again today, so I won’t be spending much time outside. Amber came up to greet me this morning while I was making the bed. I pet her and she was SOAKED. I got a towel and dried her off the best I could before coming downstairs. She really doesn’t seem to mind. Her hair is thick enough she might not even realize how wet she is! She greeted me with a huge smile, so I guess HER morning is off to a fun start.
I hope that your day is a good one. Once I do a couple more posts, I’ll watch for you again tomorrow.
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes, character-building exercises
“Keep your faith in beautiful things;
in the sun when it is hidden,
in the Spring when it is gone.” Roy R. Gibson
Earth.com
Quora
I’m thankful today that the precipitation we’re due to get all day today and tomorrow is JUST rain. No snow, sleet, ice, or severe storms – no flying hair balls – JUST rain.
As soon as it’s time for our mail to have been delivered, we’ll check to see if the trash people have made our trash disappear this week. They didn’t last week, I assume because of the weather. I would imagine that if the school buses can’t make it around up here, neither can the trash trucks, mail delivery, etc. Hopefully, they’ll get it today.
My husband is in a ‘death fight’ with the computer that lives in our shop. I’m not sure WHY it’s a death fight, but he has spent hours and hours putting a new operating system on it, new video card, etc., getting more and more upset because it isn’t working. He plays music on it when he’s working in the shop. Since we haven’t been out there, except to get tools or mailbox decorations, I’m not sure why everything else has taken a back seat to this, but it has made it so that he can’t sleep at night and then sleeps on and off during the day. I’m glad he can get his rest, but I wish he would take a more measured approach to this.
I hope that the weather is not a problem where you are today and that this is a nice Tuesday for you.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
This is the flying pig we had hanging from a line up high over one side of the driveway. Since he fell onto the driveway during the recent snow storm, he has been moved to the shop, waiting for some long-needed refurbishment after hanging out in the weather for several years now. He needs new eyes, a total rework of his mouth and nose, and a repaint. I’m dragging my feet a little because I’m trying to find a good time to strongly suggest that we anchor him to a boulder beside the driveway, rather than trying to hang him up again. He’s really heavy, and I don’t want my husband trying to do this when all I can do is stand nearby, holding my breath and worrying trying to be ready to drive him to the ER if the worst happens.
Since I wrote this morning, we took our trash down to the bottom of the driveway. There we found our trash from last week, just as we left it, in the humongous can the company provides. I guess the ice storm made it impossible for them to do their work. We’ll check it tomorrow after the time they normally pick up, and see if it’s still there. If so, I’ll have to call the company. We got our mail, took other mail to leave at the post office, then the bank, then the local grocery where we indulged ourselves by bringing home fish dinners for lunch. Then a nap, and the day is half gone!
We may be the last people on the planet to see this, but the last two evenings we’ve been watching “1883,” the prequel to “Yellowstone.” We moved the last disc for the show to first in our queue last night and hope to be able to watch it very soon.
Another really rich story with strong characters typical of Taylor Sheridan’s work, fleshing out the John Dutton clan. Another thing that was fun, other than seeing Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, plus new to ME actors Isabel May, LaMonica Garrett and others, were the guest stars that just suddenly were there, like Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, and Taylor Sheridan himself. The quality of the acting is really, really impressive. If you haven’t seen this prequel yet, I highly recommend it. I should have brought more tissues. I can’t stand it when Sam Elliot tears up.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
“Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle … a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dream.” ~ Barbara Winkler
This won’t happen for awhile, but I’m enjoying dreaming about it. Each year I try to get head lettuce and then several other leaf lettuces to add variety to our salads. I also try to get spinach plants, and of course, tomato plants. Otherwise, I experiment. I grow radishes from seed, celery from cutting off the bottoms of celery I buy at the store and then replant when they sprout in water. I like to grow some sweet onions. My cauliflower and broccoli grow lots of leaves, but I haven’t had much success in growing the edible parts yet. I’ve had mixed results on squash. Maybe I’ll try some herbs on my kitchen counter this year, as well.
A little at a time, I’m thinking about what I want to start with this spring. I would love to be able to supply all of our friends with nice veggies straight from the garden.
I’m thinking about all this now because we can finally negotiate our driveway, and the ice is almost completely gone. We still have areas that could use more chain-saw work, but we’re able to drive up and down without a problem now.
I’ll get out my last planning sheets and see if I can figure out the best places to put the new spring plants. It seems funny to talk about ‘crop rotation’ in chest-high 4’x4′ wooden planters, but it’s just as important here as in humongous commercial farms.
I hope you’re enjoying a beautiful day.
Filed under Gardening, Seasons, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
creativeartworksblog 