Filed under drawings
My body is letting me know that today might be a ‘take it easier’ day. Yesterday my husband and I did some cleaning out of our shop.
It was half as large as it is now when we first had it built. Now it’s 64’x24′. It’s a wonderful place. We have been able to set up some ‘work stations’ in there, so we don’t have to move so many things when we’re working on our projects.
It’s also large enough that we can be kind of sloppy about how much we keep out there. My husband started the clean out yesterday. Then he came and got me because about 25% of the shop is ‘mine.’ We cleaned out a whole lot of ‘stuff’ that should have been thrown out a long time ago. My husband burned it in our burn barrel, so now it looks like someone might care about the building – hence, my body complaining. :0)
Several of the yard critters we have made over the years are badly in need of a spruce up. Sun, wind, rain, and temperature changes are really hard on things that are outside. (We discovered that most recently when one of the shutters on the front of the house simple fell off the screws and anchors attaching it to the brick and shattered on the rocks below.)
I have cleared my work table now and will work on a critter we call a “box turtle” first.
Filed under aging, Arkansas, Lewis Art, Lewis yard art, Organizing/DeCluttering
Things are looking very happy right now. We are under a possibly severe storms warning most of the day, so I’m HOPING that the storms are just rain and wind, rather than hail.
123RF.com
Indian Hills is somewhere in Colorado. I LOVE the sense of humor!
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, punny, Word Play
Filed under sculpture
Once a year I feel old. The rest of the time I don’t think about it. One of my favorite things is this quote by Satchel Paige –
I’m 74 as of last March 9th, and I qualified for getting the COVID vaccination protection due to my age, but most of the time I don’t feel ‘old.’
Most days I don’t have enough time or energy to do all I want to do. There is still a whole pile of books I want to read; I want to try at least 3 new art techniques (that I know of right now); I want to learn to garden in a way that allows me to have enough that I’m taking fresh veggies to everyone I know (or even might sell some on the square!); I want to live long enough to lose my lard, feel even better, be able to exercise more. I want to get rid of my excess ‘stuff,’ giving it to others who can use it, hopefully, or simply pitching it…
My son is trying to convince me to meditate. He is really good at that now, and it really brings him inner peace. Since my life certainly could NOT be described as one that enjoys much of that, I would really like to do it. So far, I try it and am a dismal failure. I sit quietly, trying to clear my mind. Like I do in the middle of the night sometimes, my brain starts a litany of things I need to remember to do, the wording of letters I want to right, the order in which I need to do a big project, a worry I have, etc. – over and over – just making me even more tense. I then stop and resort to my yoga stretches to encourage my body to relax, and then try the meditation again. I’m not a very good student so far.
Unless I overdo, with my back or hips reminding me that SOME people might describe one of my years as “elderly,” I feel about 40. Old enough to know better about a lot of things, but young enough to thoroughly enjoy life. And I think feeling that way is pretty darned good.
How old are you?
Filed under aging
Filed under Wire Art
We are having a beautiful day today. It’s hard to believe that we are due for possibly severe storms overnight into tomorrow, with gusty winds and hail (and flying hair balls) much of the day tomorrow. I’m hoping that the whole thing will bypass us.
My guys are due tomorrow to finish painting our new porch ceiling. They will also paint the rest of the woodwork on the porch, so it will seem like a whole new porch when it’s finished! They have already installed a new shutter to replace the one that fell off the front of the house and sealed the area of the roof soffit where the squirrels were getting in. Clifford Harden is very reliable. He either comes when he says he will or calls to let us know what is happening, so we’re not left hanging. He, his brothers, and other workers in the group they call Safe Elite Transformations have a passion for excellence. You can reach them through Home Advisor, or directly at 479-849-0520.
If Mother Nature cooperates with us, by the end of the day tomorrow we should have a nice-looking new porch ceiling!
Since our weather is so nice today, I’m planning to transplant the celery I’ve started in the kitchen to the main garden. I’ll take some pics so show you later. Things are happy in the garden so far. I’m also planning to finish weed whacking in the back and then hopefully spray some KillzAll to discourage the weeds from popping right back up. My goal is to have less and less to weed whack each time throughout the season.
I’m still trying to go through the things I brought home from the booth I shared with my friend Carla at Rags & Roses in Greenwood. It is a really nice shop, and the owner, Joanna Brandt, is a peach. Our sales were super slow, though, so we decided that it was best we try other venues. I am going through things, trying to decide which I should list on my Amazon Handmade page. I’m taking my time, so my office looks like of like an explosion occurred. :0)
I hope that your Tuesday will be a nice one.
I got up this morning, as ready for the day as I ever am, and found that I gained a pound.
My head tells me that it’s probably retained water, but the REST of me is down.
I’m trying really hard to eat less and move more. I’ve been working in the yard each day and doing LOTS more than I sometimes do. If I eat a snack, I try to make it a healthy one, like cottage cheese, raw veggies and dip, etc. I DO eat a no-sugar-added low calorie ice cream bar by Sweet Freedom at night.
It SEEMS that if I’m eating carefully and moving MORE, the scale should be showing some improvement.
UGH.
There is always more to do in the yard or in the garden, and this is my favorite time of the year. Lots of sunshine, hope, new life, beautiful blooms, the promise of healthy veggies…
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I have been really active (for an old lady) lately. This has resulted in a combination of exhaustion, aching back, and hunger. I’m trying to slowly drink a full bottle of water and then wait awhile, hoping the hunger will pass until the proper time. If that doesn’t work, I’m trying to eat a combination of raw veggies and dip.
If I keep this up, hopefully, I can build a new habit. “If wishes were fishes….”
Filed under DIET!, exercise, taking care of yourself
Liucija Adomaite and Mindaugas Balciauskas – BoredPanda.com
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, You Only Had ONE Job To Do
I hope this special day is a good one for you and your family. May you be surrounded with love, peace, and hope for the future.
I went out to check on the garden and everything seems to be doing all right.
I’m trying to grow spinach, leaf lettuce, head lettuce, yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli, red onions, radishes and celery in the main garden.
This is what I call the “nook” planter. It’s in a nook between the back of the house and the back porch. It is shielded from the wind and rain a bit better than the other, longer planter.
This is the longer planter. Things are not growing really fast yet because of the cool nights, but things are looking healthy.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I found a very interesting website a few days ago and wanted to share one of Melissa’s ideas for the garden with you.
It looks like you could use any wide bowl (or I’m planning to make some of these for my birdbath). Put your choice of pretty stones in, paint some different colors, print out words representing things that are important in your life, wishes for the future, etc., and enjoy.
(I will look for marine boat paint, if not for the stone colors, I’ll try to get black for the words.)
If you try it, please let me know how yours comes out. I love this idea.
Filed under Stone/Pebble Art
I have always enjoyed the month of April. “Ray and Sarah” make it an even better month. :0)
It is only the third of April and already it’s shaping up to be a much better month for us.
So things are definitely improving around here since April started. I hope that a new leaf has been turned over and that we can continue making progress on what seemed like an endless list of things that HAVE to be done ASAP.
Happy April!
I’ve been moving a LOT more lately, but I’m not nearly as cute as this sweet girl.
Yesterday I started going through things that I brought home from the booth I shared with a friend in town. I’m planning to add more of my products to my page on Amazon Handmade. I will then put away the other stuff. This means a lot of bending over, cleaning out boxes and bags, stacking things I want to list, taking some stuff to my art room upstairs, taking other things out to my bins in the shop, etc.
I had gotten a pretty good start on this when we discovered that the work on the house would be starting at 8am this morning. That meant that everything on the porch needed to go elsewhere. My husband was working on our mower, so I spent a couple of hours going up and down on a step stool, taking down our decorations and taking them out onto the deck or into the garage, depending on whether they could stand to be rained on or not. Now the deck and garage are full of stuff and the porch was clean and empty.
Today I will do a bunch of weed whacking since my husband is doing the mowing. I will also do clean up of the debris with the leaf blower.
In the meantime, I’m weeding the new spring garden, cleaning out planters, getting flowers to plant, and we will check the irrigation system for the yard, repairing any blowouts or leaks.
If there is time and energy, I’m trying to work in my yoga stretches and time on my elliptical trainer in the garage.
This old broad is moving! Just hope that this makes and keeps me stronger and stronger. It DOES help me sleep well…
Filed under exercise, taking care of yourself
This is just a sample of the breathtaking work of David Burnham Smith of http://www.ceramic-artist.co.uk
This picture isn’t our house, but it gives you an idea of what is going on this morning.
The workmen were here at 8am. They will tear down the current porch ceiling, replace it, paint it, and put the fluorescent fixtures and ceiling fan back up. They will also install a pair of shutters on the 2nd story of the front of the house, plus seal a place in the roof soffit where the squirrel family got in. They will take away all the debris. They think they will have everything done by the end of the day on Monday – even with this being Easter weekend – and having to wait for different steps to dry in-between. We are delighted to have found them.
I showed them where the bathrooms were on the first floor and that there were bottles of water in the fridge and they got started.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday moving everything off our back porch. My back immediately began talking to me, but it isn’t hurting as badly today. I was happy that I was able to move a round table off the porch by myself. I had to turn it on it’s side, and maneuver it to get each of the legs to clear the doorway, but I DID IT.
I went through Home Advisor to get quotes for the job. I’ve used them before and was pleased. Things were much more complicated this time because “Home Advisor” bought out “Angie’s List” and there are a lot of details to be addressed regarding which website you’re on versus a payment app on a smart phone. We did it, but it was pretty awful. Thank goodness for a woman in the payment department named April who figured out what the problem was and helped us solve it.
Though not having the worry of the ceiling crumbling while we’re trying to enjoy lunch on the porch is a really nice thing, my biggest relief regarding this job is that my husband was planning to install the new shutters on the house himself. The shutters that fell off during the winter were on the 2nd story of the house. This requires standing on an extension ladder and balancing while holding the shutter, tools, etc. We had mollies in the brick into which the screws go to hold the shutters on, but sometimes they fail. The shutters have to have holes drilled in them, but that isn’t a problem. I’m just happy that my husband – who still thinks he is young – won’t have to try to do this job.
Otherwise, my husband prevailed and got our riding mower going yesterday, after installing a new battery and then using a chain hoist in the shop to raise the whole mower so he could remove a piece of wood that jammed in there, causing the blades to stop rotating, and was able to mow the back yard. He’ll do the front today. I’ll do the weed whacking and clean up.
I hope that YOU are having a good day, too.
creativeartworksblog 