



Brian Donnelly is KAWS, the artist who creates these giant wood sculptures.
Filed under When Wood Comes Alive

It’s 38 and rainy here in Arkansas today, but no ice or snow, and I’m grateful.

I’ve been listening to music a lot lately and am newly in love with Seal. He’s magnificent physically; I love his voice; and he melts my heart when he coaches contestants on “The Voice”. He is really supportive and changes lives.
I’m delighted to tell you that my friend Kay is MUCH better after her procedure yesterday morning! She is almost pain-free!

“Vertebroplasty procedure Vertebroplasty is an outpatient procedure for stabilizing compression fractures in the spine. Bone cement is injected into back bones (vertebrae) that have cracked or broken, often because of osteoporosis. The cement hardens, stabilizing the fractures and supporting your spine.”
The only way it could have been better is if they had cleared the red tape sooner so she didn’t have to suffer for so long. I’m going to try to see her today. :0)
If the weather people are correct and it gets to the low 50’s here this afternoon (and the rain stops) I’ll try to get some work done in our planters in the yard. I would like to get at least one planter under better control for the winter.
I hope you’re having a wonderful Saturday.
Filed under Friendship, music, Thoughts on a ________




Share the hugs far and wide. :0)




Filed under Chainsaw Art, When Wood Comes Alive

The three-times-a-week yoga stretches are helping this sweet old lady loosen up. I’ve lost 3 lbs this week, too, so thumbs up. :0)
Speaking of feeling a bit ‘long-in-the-tooth’ lately, three things:
Thing One – when we were looking for a replacement cover for one of our kitchen fluorescent fixtures lately, a kind guy was trying to look it up for me at the service desk at Home Depot. When he told me he couldn’t find the one we needed, I realized that our fixtures are over 30 years old, installed in 1987 when we built the house – and older than the nice guy has been alive!
Thing Two – shortly after my husband and I married, we decided to try building a digital clock, building one with the use of a Heath Kit. (I’m probably showing my age again, but Heath Kits were popular back then for the fun of learning a bit about electronics, and having things you couldn’t afford otherwise.) I learned about circuit boards, learned to look at various parts to install, learned to solder, etc. My husband kept trying to prepare me that the clock would need a lot of trouble-shooting to get it to work and that things almost never worked the first time. Can you imagine his face when it worked perfectly the very first time we plugged it in? :0) We’ve had this clock with us ever since, most recently living in our entertainment center in the living room. We noticed it was losing time – something it has never done. We reset it several times, and it kept gradually going off the right time. I was a bit sad that we need to shop for another clock now, but realized that it lasted over 50 years!
Thing Three – The latest heart throbs are younger than our son….


We’re having a glorious day of ‘nothing-we-have-to-do’ today. My favorite. :0)
I’ve been playing on the Internet, finding some wonderful things to share with you.
Our weather is pretty quiet – 22 degrees F., breezy, and gray. Snow is forecast for Arkansas today, but north of us. I selfishly would like it to go away altogether, except for places that really need or want it.
I’ve just wished Michael, my miracle-worker hair stylist, the happiest of birthdays today.
I’ve been listening to lots of music lately, something that really lifts my spirits – heartwarming stories of talented people striving for their dreams. I feel really lucky that – around the have-to’s – I can lose myself in beautiful music that makes my heart sing, or dive into a well-loved book, visiting favorite characters again or finding new, interesting folks to populate my world for a time. I haven’t spent much time in my art room lately. I’m enjoying not having to push myself to meet self-imposed deadlines on gifts for awhile. I have some ideas rabbling around in my head, though, getting ready to push me up there to try a new technique.
I hope today is a happy day for you.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________



Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
Filed under Acrylic Paintings I Love




Filed under When Wood Comes Alive

I think this is gorgeous. It really makes my juices start to flow. I LOVE the wonderful 3-dimensional-ness of the piece, the colors, everything.
Filed under Creativity



The endless talent and creativity of this man amazes and delights me.
Filed under acorn art, Petr Vaclavek - Dubanci.cz

“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
“A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles.” ~ Mignon McLaughlin
“A sense of humor… is needed armor. Joy in one’s heart and some laughter on one’s lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.” ~ Hugh Sidey
“A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.” ~ William A. Ward
“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.” ~ William James

Filed under Favorite Quotes

With all of our labors in trying to take an old fluorescent light fixture down and install a new one yesterday, I didn’t do my yoga stretching. I’m trying to get back into exercise again, doing yoga MWF, so I’ll do a session this afternoon to make up for yesterday.
While I was at the post office this morning, I saw my friend, Hieu, a beautiful little lady from Vietnam who heads up the post office. We have visited here and there, in quick spurts of conversation as she processes whatever I have brought. It’s amazing how you can get to know people like this, care about them, considering them friends. She never fails to ask about our son. I ask about her mom, who was sick with Covid, but made it through.
Hieu was sick this past week and today was her first day back. She said she lost weight while she was sick, and is now down to 87 pounds. My left LEG probably weighs that much! I graciously offered to donate some of MY fat to her cause. Maybe we can figure something out.

This photo above is very similar to what we saw going to town and then returning from errands this morning. It felt almost as if they were running along side us, like a dog tries to chase cars. Happily, they didn’t try to cross the road or crash into our truck. Beautiful animals.

Did I tell you that I hate to do anything involved with the IRS? Our son lives in Thailand, but still has to file income tax stuff for the states. I try to handle the stuff for him. I mailed a self-employment deferred Social Security ‘whateverwhois’ certified with return receipt for him this morning. I’m hoping this is the end of things for him for awhile. My eyes glaze over whenever I try to read letters from the IRS. I send images of whatever it is to our CPA, who ‘translates’ it for me and tells me what I need to do. I do it, send him copies, and breathe a sigh of relief until next time. You would think I was an embezzler or something with the huge negative gut reaction I have to things like this. :0)

We have a cell phone with base that acts like our house phone. We have extensions all over the house. I thought about changing carriers recently, thinking maybe we could save some money. Though I could get less expensive coverage for my personal cell phone, I gave up because we would have to buy another cell phone system and couldn’t get the extensions we have. The system also has an answering program that we love that requires callers to push # or something to indicate they are a real person and aren’t selling anything before we hear a ringing phone. It really cuts down on calls we don’t want. I’ve actually had people laughing when I answer, then wanting to know where we got the answering thingie.
Recently we got a letter from AT&T saying they wouldn’t cover our house phone cell system anymore because it was only a 3G. They said they would send us a replacement phone that they WOULD cover. We have no idea whether the new phone is anything like our present one, our answering program, if it will have extensions, or we can use the ones we have, etc. The only thing that MAY stay the same is our phone number. UGH. We really don’t like change.

Under that same heading of not liking change is that we got a letter saying our trash contract was bought up by another company. The new service started 1-3-2022, according to the letter. We have no other details as yet. We put out our trash as usual this morning, hoping for the best….

While trying to put in new fluorescent tubes in a fixture in the kitchen recently, we dropped the cover, breaking it. We tried to find a replacement cover for it, but couldn’t find one wide enough, either locally or online. Yesterday we decided to buy a 2-tube fixture, using it to replace a 4-tube fixture in our office, and using the cover for the kitchen fixture.
Hours later, we finally had the new fixture installed and working and the cover transferred to the fixture in the kitchen. No lives were lost. If we need to consider this again, I’ll opt for candle light.

Actually, this sweet dog is doing a better job right now than I.
Today I’m restarting my exercise program – my effort to move more, get more flexible, improve my balance, ease some back pain.
I’m starting my yoga stretches again slowly – just Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, and will see how that goes. It’s mystifying that I have to keep MAKING myself exercise – proving to myself over and over how much better I feel when I do.
Exercise is just above house cleaning on my priorities – I guess I’m a slug.
Maybe a NICE slug, though. :0)
Filed under exercise
Filed under Louise Peterson Sculptor, sculpture






I’m feeling a bit frazzled this morning – not sure why.
Our son left us a URL to a video featuring Peter Green. He was playing a really soulful guitar and singing, “Fool No More.” I don’t remember ever hearing him before. I think he’s amazing.
Our day is pretty today – lots of sunshine and plenty of cold temperatures. It’s 24 right now. I haven’t switched gears to having winter yet. When we’re home and relaxing in our recliners, I’ve turned on my heat pad to warm my bones. :0) We have several errands to run, and a pretty day to run them in.
We have no evidence yet of more raccoons, but I don’t think we have EVER had just one…

On my list of ‘things-to-do” today is exercise. I will do my yoga stretches this afternoon and see if I can actually build a habit this time.
Have a nice Monday.
Filed under exercise, Mother Nature, music, Thoughts on a ________
Filed under Thomas Dambo - Wooden Giants, When Wood Comes Alive
Filed under drawings, Saverio Scoleri Art





Filed under snow people