Cindy Basnett Thurman
I finished raking and making mulch for 7 brick planters yesterday. My body is saying, “You thought you were 20, didn’t you. Haahahahaahahah.” I’m hoping that we won’t get the predicted rain and that the temperature gets close to the 58 predicted so that – armed with my leaf blower, leaf mulcher, yellow plastic leaf-scooping ‘hands’, and a trash bag – I can finish the other 5 planters this afternoon.
Unsplash
Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday. I want to do something special for him, but he ‘doesn’t want to talk about it.’ He says he is ‘too old to celebrate birthdays.’ I think I’ll surprise him with a pineapple upside down cake (one of his favorites) and see if I can make him grin…
I hope that YOUR Sunday is a nice one, too!
Filed under Family, Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Thoughts on a ________
Filed under exercise, Funny Signs - Humor
This is my wonderful Worx Leaf Mulcher. (This one is MUCH cleaner than mine. Picture this with a leaf bag between the orange part and the top ring of the legs, and a cord attached to it and you have a great picture of what I’m doing in the yard this afternoon. I also have two plastic yellow leaf-gathering ‘hands’ that allow me to pick up a bunch of leaves at once to put in the top of the mulcher. Once the leaves are pushed down into the top, I pull the power button out and the mulcher grinds up the leaves. When the bag is full, I pick it up and distribute the mulch in my flower planters.
I told you recently, when I was trying to prune and weed after the freezing temperatures essentially killed all of my blooms, that I have 12 brick planters in the front yard, plus two concrete pots. Ao far, I have finished an hour out there, first using our leaf blower to amass a large pile, then processing the pile and distributing the mulch. I have filled two-and-two-thirds planters. At this rate, I’ll probably croak before I finish, but I’m giving it my best shot today. It’s a bit after 3pm now, so I have a good two hours of light left. I’ll see how much more I can accomplish, and then take it up tomorrow, hoping I don’t get rained out.
I’m certainly not a stickler for a perfect looking yard. That was one of the reasons we built our home in the sticks in Arkansas over 30 years ago. Neighborhoods are nice, but we really don’t want to have to go around with the manicure scissors making sure that no blades of grass are any taller than the others or that we don’t have any weeds or yellow spots in the yard. We have moles, voles, and other oles here, plus fire ants, plus grubs, plus all kinds of other stuff. Our ridge line is woodsy. If we weren’t pretty good about hacking things down around here, I think the woods would simple cover the house and it would look like it did before we came in a short amount of time.
I DO like the idea of ‘free mulch,’ and I DO want to protect my flowers and the good potting soil in our planters, so I’m going to mulch as many leaves as it takes to fill up my planters and then leave whatever remains.
I’ll tell you – even with my leaf blower, my Worx leaf mulcher, my plastic ‘hands,’ etc., this is a really good amount of exercise today for this old broad…
Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Esma CETIN – LinkedIn
Twisted Copper Creations
Torres Del Paine Nat’l Park by Weimin Chu via Zeliko Divac – LinkedIn
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Favorite Things, Mother Nature
Jeff Jett
I think one of the most important paths to happiness is REALIZING all you have. Today my main feeling is thankfulness.
I have a beef roast in the crock pot for tonight. I have a cup of coffee. Molly is resting comfortably at my feet as I type.
My husband is almost completely recovered from his stroke. (He still gets words garbled occasionally, but we smile at each other when that happens. He has to really work to use his keyboard on his computer. He still has bursts of anger, saying hurtful things, but the episodes are father apart. I’m avoiding triggers I know about, and talking to him calmly about the ones that do happen, making it clear that I don’t deserve it. Things are improving.
Our son is happy in Thailand. We are talking to him on the chat program almost daily, so it’s ALMOST like he is still here with us. If a person figures out to send HUGS through a chat program, he or she will be a gazillionaire. :0)
Our weather is good, with a nice, sunny day. I’m hopeful it will warm up enough this afternoon that I can get outside. I want to rake and shred leaves, putting the mulch in our flower planters.
I have ideas rattling around in my brain on what I would like to do next in my art room. I’m even DREAMING about them! SO many fun things to play with!
Filed under Family, Gardening, playing in my art room, Thoughts on a ________
We put up our turkey decoration on the mailbox as we left to go to Lunch Bunch and errands this morning. We love making these.
I paint both sides of the piece so that people passing our driveway going in either direction can see it. I hope they smile.
We made this yard critter turkey out of an old propane tank, a farm ‘tooth’ of some kind, rod, come metal strapping, and sheet metal. We have him standing toward the top of our 650+ foot driveway to the side, beside an old, defunct computer my husband decided was ‘decorative’ and placed it on the edge of one of our brick planters. Happily, birds like it and make nests in it each year.
Filed under holidays, Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, Lewis yard art
Beautiful World
Sri Lanka Frogmouth Birds – Belal Moheb
Beautiful World
Beautiful World
Birds and Blooms Unlimited
doves – source unknown
Graham Colthorpe – “Last Rays of the Day”
Garmash via Stefka K-Foerster
Graham Calthorpe – “Sunshine and Shadows”
Filed under paintings I love
wildlife-photography-awards-www.boredpanda.com
We are having a balmy day today – bright sunshine at 56 degrees F. – can’t ask for more.
A happy thing happened yesterday. I received an email from ArtFire that I had an order! A nice lady ordered one of my mosaic Christmas Bell ornaments. After I received an answer on which one she preferred, I packed it carefully and mailed it today.
I always go around with a silly grin on my face after I receive a sale. It’s the highest compliment there is. :0)
My big push for the day is to clean up our office. It exploded recently when I was doing a lot of new projects in my art room, then trying to get the new stuff on my websites, and then was trying to get my products together to put in my new “Blasing Bright” booth locally in the Rags & Roses shop in Greenwood. Every flat surface is piled high with ‘stuff’ now. ANYTHING more added would result in instant avalanche.
SO – I have promised myself that I won’t do another thing – other than write a few blog posts – until I transform the area from a hard hat area to what could pass for a regular office….
Wish me luck?
“Beauty Wilted by Time – Lost Hopes, Dead Roses” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Bush of Flowers” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Yellow Leaves and Dried Leaves” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Yellow Ornamental Flowers” – Paul Militaru Photography
A whole new world has opened for me since my sister-in-law and FRIEND, ML, sent me a set of Unicorn Spit. I’m having such a blast, trying it on different things. So far, I’ve used it on wood, paper, and fabric. I have some glass Christmas ornaments I’ll try it on soon.
Tote Bag
“Cherish” Wooden Plaque
“Purple Bliss” Journal
“Purple Dreams” Note Cards – Package of 5
I’ll take pics of these and put them on the proper websites today, and will probably take them in to my new booth at the local shop after the holidays.
I also want to make time to try the melting crayons technique after I watch some more YouTube demonstrations.
SO many wonderful things to try! Lucky, lucky me! :0)
Filed under fun in my art room, playing in my art room, quality of life
When I was working in the yard a couple of days ago, trying to clean out our flower planters before the coming bad weather, I found these iris! We have several deep purple ‘twice-blooming’ iris that we treasure. I don’t remember seeing any others around the yard this year, but these were blooming behind the well house. They bloom in the spring, and then again in the fall. I couldn’t bear the thought of them freezing, so I cut them and brought them in the house so we could enjoy them as long as possible.
Filed under Delightful Surprises, Gardening
Zen Design via New Animal Book
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Kanno Hisao
Keith Anderson via Marianna Bellantoni
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
This morning was an adventure.
I had trouble sleeping last night, and so was up until about 2 a.m. or so. At around 5 a.m. our power started going off and coming back on again right away, over and over. We would just drop off to sleep again with a sigh and off again, on again. We finally gave up trying to sleep and got up for the day at 6. One of the reasons we were more awake that usual at that hour is that our generator is supposed to come on automatically when our power fails, and it didn’t.
I fed animals while my husband went out to look at the generator. By the time he came back in, I had lit a fire in the fireplace, because it was quite cool in the house by then (less than 20 degrees F. outside) and the generator does not run our heat or air conditioning, managing to serve hot drinks and a bagel with cream cheese. My husband had tried to jump start the battery on the generator with our truck and the jumper cables, but that didn’t work, either.
We had to wait another hour or so for O’Reilly’s, the car place, to open. I went around finding battery-powered lanterns while my husband went to buy a new battery for the generator. We installed it and got the generator going. HOORAAAAY! We went into the house to find the public power had finally come back on.
We let the generator run a bit, and then did the test it is supposed to be doing on a weekly basis before turning it off. We have NOW put it on our calendars the day and time the generator is supposed to test itself, so that we don’t miss it. Our insulation is so good now that we can’t hear it come on unless we have the doors open. We also put it on our ‘winter prep’ list to check when we bought the battery for the generator so that we can replace it, if needed, BEFORE something like this happens again.
Since this morning, I have been going around turning lights off. We turned many on while we didn’t have power – as a habit – and forgot to turn them off when nothing happened. We also had to go to ‘manual’ on getting our garage door up without power, and then had to figure out how to hook it up again so that we can push the button on our remote again. We reset all the clocks, turning off the alarm that was still beeping upstairs, etc.
This goes to show how spoiled we are – how dependent on electricity we are – and how very LUCKY we are that this morning served as a wake up call to be SURE we are prepared before we get snowed in!
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, Thoughts on a ________
2 STAR art
I love working in my art room. I finally got things in order enough that I could start to experiment again. This time I’m trying to do a set of note cards and a journal with the Unicorn Spit. With this new paint, you do a quick burst of activity and then you have to let it dry before you start the next, so I go up and down the stairs a lot (good exercise!) while I’m trying things.
My wonderful sister-in-law, the one who sent me the kit, was asking if I had thought about doing earrings. I actually found several different shapes of light weight wooden earrings that I have ordered. I can’t wait to try this!
If you haven’t tried this, you really should. It’s SO much fun. I’ll try to have things ready to show you tomorrow.
Filed under playing in my art room
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
stormzonec
Rain, fog, wintry mix, flying hairballs, and MUCH colder temperatures are forecast for my area today. We are just southeast of Fort Smith, in Greenwood. With as warm as it has been, we don’t have to worry about any accumulation, but bridges and overpasses will get slick and it’s just a great day to stay inside.
Happily, I managed to finish cleaning out the flower planters in the front yard – 11 brick planters and two pots. When we have good weather again, I’ll tackle the remaining brick planters and pots in the back yard.
This is Memorial Park in the center of our small ‘square’ in Greenwood. People can have memorial stones made for their Veterans and have them added to the moving display. On Veterans Day you can see the flags placed at each of the stones remembering our veterans. More stones are added from time to time. I wanted to get one made for my husband, who served for 4 years in the Marine Corps during Vietnam, but he is adamantly opposed, since he wasn’t in combat, ‘only’ on a ship offshore all the hot spots during his time. I think he deserves to be there, but that’s a fight for another day. This remembrance makes me proud.
Memorial Park, City of Greenwood AR
I’m going to TRY to clean up my art room today. With the combination of having a blast experimenting with the new kit of Unicorn Spit Stain/Glaze my sister-in-law sent me and then taking a set of shelves out to put in the new booth at the shop in Greenwood, it looks as if a bomb exploded. I’m going to concentrate on getting things so you can walk through the room without injury and MOST of the ‘stuff’ is put where it won’t fall down. :0) THEN, I’m hoping to PLAY some more up there!
littlekidsbigart
Also on the ‘should’ list for the day is a clean up of our office – but I’m studiously ignoring that for now – celebrating the fact I worked hard yesterday and that it’s definitely an inside day today!
I hope that the weather is nice where you are – OR that you have a nice warm, dry place to spend the day.
design-dautore.com-Autumn Vibes-Sarah Patrick via Yolanda Vanveen
I’m about to go outside for the 3rd session of the day of trying to get flower planters cleaned out before our weather goes to pot tomorrow. I have finished finished 7 brick planters today. I have three more, plus 2 pots in the front yard. If I can finish ths, I’ll be happy with my efforts today.
My husband got me a nice roll-around, sit-down thingie that saves my back, so I think I have one more session in me before I’ll run out of both time and energy. 
This is the closest I could find to show you my wonderful gardening seat. Mine is red and has a small basket on one end, plus a rope and handle that allow you to pull it like the proverbial ‘little red wagon.” The seat turns, so it gives flexibility in how it is used. I love it.
While I was pruning and clearing out one of the planters, the wind picked up and all of a sudden it was raining leaves. The SOUND the leaves made was wonderful! I don’t think I’ve ever been in quite that position before, but it was a very special thing. My sweet elderly Molly (she is almost 15) was enjoying the sunshine and stayed right with me, keeping me company.
I just had lunch (it’s almost 4pm) and am finishing a cup of coffee. I’ll go see how much more I can clear before the day is gone.
Hope you’re enjoying your day, too!
Beautiful World via George Dumaine
We just got home from grocery shopping and putting everything away. I’m now relaxing at my computer with a cup of coffee. Ahhhh!
First, I wanted to thank those of you who wrote encouraging messages about the way “Blasing Bright” looks, the booth that my friend Carla and I are sharing now at Rags & Roses in Greenwood, Arkansas. I think we managed to put things where they show up well, people can get to them to look more closely, and you’ve told me that it looks inviting. So THANK YOU. The shop is closed now until Tuesday, but I feel GOOD that I have some of my stuff ‘out there’ for people to see and possibly buy. If you’re in the area, the address is 100 North Main St. The hours Tuesday through Friday, are 11:00 – 6:00. Hours Saturday are 10:00 to 4:00. This is the first time I’ve enjoyed a local venue, and I’m hopeful that Carla and I can share this booth for a long time.
I am planning to spend much of the day out in the yard – or at least as long as my back holds out – cleaning out flower planters. We’ve had several freezes and things are looking pretty sad now. Today has been named, “The last good fall day” for awhile by the weather people, with a cold front coming tomorrow, along with rain, possible wintry mix, and MUCH colder temperatures, so today is the day to do all I can to have our yard look like someone cares.
On cleanup after the ‘gathering-and-processing-for-the-booth’ I need to work in our office and my art room. These are on the back burner, though, as far as priorities, due to the coming weather. I can work on both of THEM when the weather deteriorates.
With all the activity around here, I have ignored my exercising and my poor old body is complaining LOUDLY. I’m going to see how the yard work goes, and then at LEAST get in my yoga practice this afternoon.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Filed under exercise, Gardening, Mother Nature, Seasons
Kelly Armitage – LinkedIn
Kelly Armitage – LinkedIn
Gary Wing, LinkedIn
Gary Wing, LinkedIn
Filed under drawings, Gary Wing, Kelly Armitage
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Beautiful World
Beautiful World
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
shutterstock_WorkingMums
I have spent the whole time since I came home from putting up the rest of the items in our booth on two things:
THING ONE:
I made huge messes everywhere trying to gather, describe, tag, and put the items in bags to take to the booth. I also took a plastic set of shelves I had in my art room to the booth, so everything ON those shelves was scattered in the art room. I hadn’t cleaned up since playing with the Unicorn Spit, so suffice to say everything I looked at was shrieking at me. I’ve now cleaned the dining area table so that even my husband noticed the difference. I then tackled the big table beside my recliner in the living room that is a catch-all for everything I am doing, or want to do – such as books, magazines, things torn out of magazines… Finally, I made a serious pass in the art room. My drafting table is now clean and ready for work. I’ve grouped what I need to paint and personalize Christmas ornaments, organized wooden plaques, started grouping things to take to the booth at the proper time, etc.
THING TWO:
I spent the rest of the time making notes on the shop, plus an inventory of what I have in there, when it went in, price, etc., how many I have of each ornament to paint, when I want to change things out, and more.
I still have a lot more to do, but I’m going to relax a bit and join my husband, who is watching another football game…
Filed under Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
The name of our booth is “Blasing Bright” – a combination of part of the last names of my friend Carla and her former partner. It’s a small booth, but in a good location in the shop of booths called, “Rags & Roses.” 100 N Main St, Greenwood, AR 72936, (479) 597-3107. The owner is Joanna Brandt, a truly lovely, intelligent, energetic lady. The hours of Rags & Roses are Tuesday – Friday, 11:00 -6:00, and Saturday, 10:00 until 4:00.
Carla and I arranged, rearranged, then decorated a bit for Christmas, then rearranged again before we found what we thought looked the best. Carla is one of my best friends, a joy to work with. We caught up with what’s been going on, shared lots of laughs and hugs.
This is my dear friend Carla Woolbright.
And this is me.
I’m taking another group of things today and then will keep all appendages crossed that we both get some nice sales. I’m really excited to have this opportunity to try to sell my work locally, all year ’round.
EXCITING AND FUN!
Alive Inside.org via Marianna Bellantoni
Filed under aging, Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
“Siesta After Lunch In Two” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Rest” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Love at First Sight” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Birds in Flight” – Paul Militaru Photography
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