Filed under bleeding tissue paper art, paper art
I came upon an art form new to me a couple of days ago. It has me by the throat now. I was dreaming about it last night and ideas are rattling around in my head. I hope to be able to get up to my art room today to make a first pass.
I was looking at examples of things done by those who know what they’re doing and I’m again in awe of the talent some folks have. Their work makes my mouth water.
I’m going to go up and play, and then I’ll share some of the work that makes me proud to exist on the same planet as these creative people.
I hope you are having a happy Saturday.
Filed under playing in my art room
My husband and I are in the middle of a gigantic splurge that we hope will cure us of the ‘wanting-to-make-up-for-all-the-things-we’ve-been-missing feelings we’ve been harboring for about a year now. We accept that the scale is laughing at us – sometimes holding its nose in derision – but the feelings have been strong.
The dog helped us toward getting temptation out of the house last night. I had fixed fried chicken for the first time in a least two years of abstention. I overcooked it, so we were less than delighted with the meal, although the deviled eggs were wonderful. My husband took his plate to the kitchen giving our 95-pound yellow lab, Amber, the remaining bites of chicken on his plate.
The next thing I knew, I was hearing ‘noises’ from the kitchen area. Amber had not only taken care of the remaining bites of chicken on his plate, but the remaining two PIECES of chicken on a platter on the island, plus TWO packages of cookies we received – his and hers – from the counter. The only thing left was the containers and a mess on the floor. My HUSBAND was in the dog house for leaving Amber in the kitchen, rather than watching her eat the largess from his plate and then bringing her into the living room with the gate to the kitchen closed – a lesson we have learned before.
We are giving ourselves until the end of the month to cure our longings and find our intense motivation again to get the lard off…
Filed under Attitude, DIET!, getting the lard off, holidays
This wonderfully creative “Sky art” is by Lan Nguyen. Thanks to Rokas Laurinavicius and Austeja Akavickaite of BoredPanda.com for sharing it with us.
Filed under Creativity
Beautiful combination of clouds, silhouettes, and imagination.
Filed under Creativity
Merry Christmas! I hope you’re enjoying a safe and love-filled day.
My Christmas memories are filling me up and spilling out today.
Favorite childhood Christmases include the one where I received the most gorgeous, soft, pink, furry, FEMININE sweater I’ve ever had. Another was when my brother and I received 3-speed bicycles called English racers. One of the most cherished memories is the Christmas caroling that started at our house each year. We gathered neighbors at each house, singing and laughing, freezing our parts off, ending with hot chocolate and cookies at home when we were finished.
My husband’s and my first Christmas together was in 1969. Our very best Christmas present was our son, born in December of 1978. The next was December of 1980 when our daughter was born. Today we are celebrating our 51st Christmas together. It’s just the two of us this year, but we are very grateful to be together. We talked to our son in Thailand on our chat program this morning.
This has been a challenging year for us all. I hope that you are staying safe and well, surrounded by love however you can manage it.
“Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don’t quite know how to put our love into words.” – Harlan Miller
“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.” ~Andy Rooney
“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.” ~Larry Wilde
Filed under Favorite Quotes, holidays
Cookies, candy, bread. Chocolate, apple fritters, peanut brittle. We’re surrounded, and we’re eating our way out. It’s delicious. I’m telling my husband that all this ends VERY SOON – as we stuff yet another wonderful thing into our mouths. It’s been a year or two since we have eaten some of this stuff. I’m blaming it all on our generous friends who GAVE this to us, but WE’RE the ones who are stuffing our faces.
I’ve decided that, since we’re adults, we are merely getting all this gorging out of the happy way, and that once it is over, we will EAT like adults again. We are talking about the fact that anything ELSE that finds its way into our house and is not a gift is on US – and should not happen. (I’m also reminding myself that “I” am responsible for what goes into MY mouth. So even if my husband continues this holiday splurge, “I” will not.
I will not.
I will NOT.
:0)
Filed under DIET!, getting the lard off, holidays
Filed under paper art
Yesterday afternoon my husband and I spent about an hour with a chainsaw, cutting down a huge branch that broke off recently. It was hanging down into the civilized part of our front yard (as opposed to the woods that slope all the way down to the street that runs in front of our property.) The branch would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for my husband to use the riding mower there.
Since the land slopes, I had quite a challenge of trying to get the ladder braced against the back of the tree so that my husband could get up high enough with the chain saw. I breathed a sigh of relief when we got the main part of the branch cut and I could quit worrying about that part of it.
The rest of the time was spent cutting smaller branches off the large one so that I could grab them, pull them away from the main one, and throw them down the hill farther so they would be out of the way.
We don’t like to think about it, but we are considered ‘elderly’ by the people deciding who should get the Covid-19 vaccine, so I guess that means we’re older than dirt, whether we want to accept that or not. I have to admit that after we finished the job and had rested in our chairs awhile, both of us were wincing a bit at sore muscles.
Today my husband would like to use our pole saw to cut down a few branches along the side of our driveway. They are about a third of the way down, which means we’ll need to put two 100-foot extension cords together to get power down that far. Hopefully we can get them cut down and thrown off to the side of the driveway without too much problem.
Please wish these ‘elderly’ people luck…
Filed under exercise, Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Our psyches and stomachs are happy with our holiday splurge. We have been good for an entire year and will be again, but it feels GOOD to be BAD…
Filed under DIET!
LIST OF THINGS I’M HANDLING
WELL CURRENTLY:
1.
I have a beef roast in the crock pot, and I need to put the trash at the bottom of the driveway on the way to the post office to mail a book we sold, but that may be in for the day.
I am feeling at loose ends and incredibly lazy. I just wish I looked as cute as this kitty not getting anything done….
Filed under .gifs I Love, Attitude
The latest paperback in the In Death series by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) comes out in about a week. I pre-ordered it months ago and am eagerly awaiting it.
I decided late last month to re-read the previous books in preparation for receiving and enjoying the newest one. There are now 51 books in the series. I’m reading # 20 now. I remember the situations, but not the details, so it’s almost as if I’m enjoying them for the first time – except for getting to spend time with the characters who have become old friends again.
I have read for pleasure for as long as I can remember. There was a brief period when I lost that ability. I was finishing my Master’s Degree as a reading specialist. I picked up a best seller and discovered that I had tensed up, reading it as if I would be tested on it when I finished. It took me a year or two to finally get over all the garbage I was forced to read and regurgitate that would supposedly help me be a better teacher. I’m glad I only lost a couple of years. :0)
Just as an aside – I realized that the best thing I could pass on to my students was the joy of reading, whether it was to spend some fun time with interesting stories and characters, to learn new skills, to vicariously travel to wonderful places, the satisfying of curiosity, and more. Reading is contagious. It grabs you body and soul – hopefully to hold you in its arms forever.
Filed under Reading is FUNdamental
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, George Wheelhouse
My husband and I have decided that life is too short to feel guilty all the time. During the holidays, plus the change of weather, plus this awful pandemic, plus – we will finish out 2020 stuffing our faces. Well, not really, but not raking ourselves over the coals, either, when we overindulge.
We got lots of goodies from friends. We are going to enjoy some of them. We are freezing some for later, enjoying some now, and enjoying some comfort foods.
We are now – finally – into a lifestyle of eating good food, watching our portions, foregoing lots of things, such as sugar, bread, starches, excess carbs, etc. I am trying to exercise on a daily basis, and move more in general. We want to lose the lard, become more flexible, improve strength and balance, and improve the numbers on our quarterly or every-six-month routine monitoring blood tests.
BUT – for a little while – we are allowing the kid in us to come out and play, enjoying the ‘season’, smiling as we enjoy the lovely things that aren’t so great for our health, but make life much more worth living for a few days each year.
May we all be much healthier in 2021, eventually free from worry about the virus.
Stay safe and well.
Filed under DIET!, exercise, Healthy Eating, holidays
As it happens, we are having a lovely day today – sunny with highs in the 60’s today. :0) I’m planning to at LEAST walk around in our yard today, telling Mother Nature what a great day she produced, if not do some actual work out there.
USPS emailed me this morning that two packages I mailed recently are out for delivery. I really enjoy making things and sending them to people, no matter what time of the year. I love reminding people that they mean so much to me.
Amber thinks she is a lapdog. She weighs around 95 lbs. She comes up to my chair in our office with a gleam in her eye. She stuffs her wet nose under my arm as I type. I look at her, stop and pet her, speak to her, maybe kiss her on the head, and then go back to typing.
The next thing I know, as reliable as clockwork, the front half of Amber is up in my chair with me. I have the bruises on my legs to prove it! I have to stop everything and watch out, being very careful. She whips her head around, trying to be everywhere at once. If I don’t watch out, she clocks me in the face with her head. We love, with me laughing every morning before she will back off and climb down. We usually do this 5 or 6 times each morning.
I found the picture below on BoredPanda and wanted to share it with you. Amber isn’t THIS large, but you can certainly share the feeling.
Have a wonderful first day of winter!
What is usually a 30 minute job turned into at least a two-HOUR job this morning and afternoon. I was putting together the aquarium after cleaning and ran into a problem with the filter. The motor wasn’t running when I plugged it in. I played with it, my muttering becoming more and more colorful as nothing worked. I finally asked my husband to come look at it.
He looked at things, tested it, and decided it was dead. I found one of our old filters and installed it so that the sweet fish wouldn’t croak while we waited for a replacement. My husband continued to look at the one that wasn’t working, and decided it was working again. I changed things out, only to find out the motor died. We did this two more times. Finally, he took the filter apart as far as he could and found a part he thought had been jammed. I changed the filters out for the fourth time and it worked. I told my husband I would fix lunch and leave the new filter running and see if it quit again.
I came back after lunch and it was still working. I then proceeded to clean up the kitchen – which is always a mess after aquarium cleaning – PLUS now from the lunch fixing. I have just now finished cleaning up and leaving the dishwasher running.
All this for two goldfish who never say a word, show any affection, do tricks, or perform any service. They DID get into the far right corner of the tank and wriggle their little bodies, opening and closing their mouths as they looked at me. I broke down and put a bit more food in the tank.
Filed under Challenges, Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance
I love this. It shows a great sense of humor. I’m still smiling. Thanks to the creator of it. :0)
When we started up our driveway yesterday, there were two white-tailed deer! We stopped and watched as they looked at us briefly and then crossed the driveway to disappear into the trees to the west of our property. Beautiful sight.
We had a really special Lunch Bunch on Friday with our friends. Since Christmas is next Friday, we exchanged gifts. We have been meeting at The Pizza Barn every Friday for over 17 years now, and this is more of a family gathering than simply really good friends. The two waitresses, Susan and Mikey, are a definite part of our family and we exchange gifts with them, too. My husband kept us all entertained by opening all of his food goodies, sampling each one (while waiting for his lunch order to be delivered) and then stashing them in a humongous gift bag, being quite territorial about his presents. The way the holidays fall this year, we won’t meet NEXT Friday or the NEXT – and will have to wait until Jan. 8th to meet again.
Otherwise, that is our Christmas this year. Our son is in Thailand, and I’m hoping that we can arrange a video chat either on Christmas day or that weekend sometime. There is 12 hours time difference, so it’s a bit of a challenge to find a time we’re all up and functional, but we’ll manage. I am grateful that we are all pretty healthy right now. I am thankful for a quiet holiday.
Today’s project is cleaning the aquarium. I will see if I can find something festive to put in their tank for the holidays.
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, George Wheelhouse
Filed under DIET!, getting the lard off, taking care of yourself
This article on BoredPanda.com took my breath away, so I’ll be sharing pictures of some of the beautiful rooms these two people gathered. I’m collecting things that bring up my spirits these days. I hope they help YOU, too. :0)
Filed under Dreams
Today is a wonderful day to stay inside, warm and dry.
First, we need to get our mail and then mail some things at the post office. THEN we’ll enjoy the rest of the day inside. :0)
I will try to find the time and energy to get up to my art room today. It’s been awhile, and ideas are starting to rattle around in my brain on things I would like to try. That idea fights with things I am passing that definitely need my attention today, so I’m not sure which will win out.
I hope that YOU are having a nice Saturday, doing something fun.
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