I wish I actually KNEW people who looked like this. It would be nice to share their worlds for a while.
Dapper Doggies
Filed under Amazing Animals, Embroidery/Sewing Art, Felted Wool Art
Mysterious Boy
I’ve been finding and collecting pictures for some time now that I’m not sure I understand. Two of them for sure seem to be the same artist.
I find them from time to time on Pinterest. Never any artist attribution. Never any other information.
I love the art work. I’m not sure if this is real wood carving or AI or what.
I’ve tried looking up the people who posted these on Pinterest, but that hasn’t helped.
I love whatever this is. I think it’s very distinctive. Maybe this is a game character or series character.
If you know anything more about this boy or the artist, please let me know.
UPDATE: One of my readers kindly wrote, telling me that the mysterious boy is from a book called, “The Little Prince.” The French artist’s name is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who both wrote and illustrated the book with watercolors, described as integral to the story.
Filed under Favorite Things
Saturday 10-19-2024
We haven’t had TV cable service since October 7th. I contacted our Internet provider again yesterday morning, wanting an update. The tech answered, saying that they were suspending providing TV service immediately, since the provider with whom they were partnered had unsolvable problems.
SO. My husband decided he wanted to try to get YouTube TV, and we spent an exhausting day on that. I finally called it a night at 11:00. We made some progress, but still have a lot to do to get it running, with sound, and so that we can actually USE it. Suffice to say, I’ll spend the day trying to keep my mouth firmly shut, and will stay clear unless he asks for my help.
__________
I finally received the earrings yesterday I ordered some time ago. “Something happened,” and apparently the package was lost in the ozone. I contacted Chaia and she said she would get another pair in the mail ASAP. Some time passed again. I was just about to contact her again and she wrote, saying the earrings had been mailed. A few days later, I got them. They look just like they do in this image. I think they’re wonderful, and I don’t have anything like them. Except for the delivery time. I’m very happy.
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My good friend, Marsha, sent me this! We are really good friends and communicate at least daily; and better, sometimes several times during a day. Even though she’s across the country from me, she is my CLOSE friend. She has used this TENS system to alleviate her pain for some years now and wanted me to have one. I’m really touched that she would get me this starter kit, plus extra electrodes. :0)
________________
My husband likes it really cool and really dark to sleep. I’ve gotten used to moving around with the use of a couple of extremely dim lights – a night light behind a curtain under the window, and the other the residue from a shaded light out in the hall from our 2nd floor thermostat. I walk toward the bathroom with my arm straight out in front of me so I don’t bash into the bathroom door when I get up to pee. :0)
The sheet, light velour blanket and comforter were more than he needed, but I was freezing. Yesterday when we changed the sheets, we put our electric blanket back on. The added weight of that blanket really helped me sleep better. AND, if I need it, I can just flip my control for more heat on my side. We are both happy now again. HOOORAAAAY.
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Two days ago I received my smart watch and got it set up mainly to record my steps in an effort to move the lard. That afternoon I recorded around 1800 steps. The following day I logged in 4177 steps, taking several short walks around the yard, wearing my gloves and carrying the pruners to do some neatening up while I walked. Yesterday, even though I only got outside for one walk, I logged 5293 steps.
My SIL whom I love – even though she leaves me in the dust – told me this morning that she is ‘still walking 4 miles daily.’ Humph! Instead of feeling like a slug or sloth, though, I’m not comparing myself to her. I’ll keep her wonderful ability and habit kind of as a beacon, but will only concentrate on improving MY total each day. Moving this lard SOME is much better than completely sedentary. My watch is now reminding me to “get off your duff!” and, “drink more water!”
Have a fun day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Idiot
While Amber and my husband drove down to get the mail this morning, I grabbed our leaf blower and blew the TON of leaves out that had accumulated in our garage over the last couple of days.
I had barely finished when the wind started blowing, making ‘funnels’ of leaves dancing around my head, blowing the leaves right back into the garage. It was obvious I was an idiot, trying to blow the garage out while the leaves were laughing at me, so I put things away just as my husband came back up the driveway.
I told him what I had been TRYING to do. We agreed it would be better done another day.
DUH.
Filed under Challenges
Smile on Your Lunch Break
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor
Friday 10-18-2024
My heart just melted when I saw this picture. I think the look on their faces is just priceless.
I finished these two signs and listed them on my Etsy site, HandmadeHavenbyLinda, yesterday.
I’m intrigued by the smart watch I bought. I set it up so that it sends me reminders. It suddenly comes on, flashing at me, saying, “Drink Water,” or “Go Exercise.” Since a lot of my activities are sedentary – computer stuff, writing my blog, listening to music, reading, playing in my art room – I NEED to be reminded that I’ve been sitting plenty long enough and it’s time to get up and move my lard, or hydrate.
It did this several times yesterday. I DID get up, put on my hoodie, grabbed my gardening gloves and pruners on the way out of the garage and just walked around the yard. I decided to stop and tackle something that caught my eye. I improved the situation a bit and then walked on. I went out to the shop and my old garden area (TOTALLY grown up now :0( ) and then back to the driveway pad, then around the house, then around the house again. (you get the pic.) I did this several times during the day.
The first afternoon I had the watch I logged 1800 steps. My first whole day (yesterday) I logged 4177 steps. Even a sloth is supposed to try for at LEAST 10,000 steps, but I’m going to 1) listen to my body and stop if my hips start yelling, and 2) try to increase MY total from the day before. If I can do that, it should be a good addition to my half hour of yoga stretches and one or more ‘drumming’ videos – which I do holding 3 lb. weights. I love the music on these.
I made a bit of progress on the scales lately, rather than GAINING and having to re-lose the same two or three pounds again and again. You can see from the graph above I only maintained and gained before finally starting to inch down again. I would really like to break into new territory one day soon, so I’m just keepin’ on keepin’ on.
If you need me, I’ll be walking, pruning, and guzzling. :0)
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Indian Hills Fix
Indian Hills Signs – Vince, the Sign Guy
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, Indian Hills Signs
Wooden Wonders
Filed under When Wood Comes Alive
Thursday 10-17-2024
I don’t know the artist, or whether this is really stone, AI, or what, but I think it’s lovely.
Bakoor Fitness Tracker
This is a FitBit competitor ‘watch’ that was delivered yesterday afternoon. I didn’t need all the bells and whistles of the ‘main brand’ of tracker (though I would love one that cooks dinner), so opted for this one that was about 1/5 of the price.
All I really wanted was a pedometer so that I might be encouraged to move more, particularly to take several short walks around our yard each day.
This is paired with a software app called, “Keep Health”. I managed to install the app on my phone and sync it with the watch! (Imagine that! Non-tech old broad prevails!) I even got the clock face on the watch changed so it shows time, day and date, number of steps I’ve walked today and calories used for the walking.
I also have it set to send reminders that I need to get off my duff and get moving every so often, plus reminders to drink another glass of water.
I put the watch on late yesterday afternoon and just went about the rest of my day, doing a bit of yard work, cleaning, etc. just to get a feel for my normal number of daily steps. I ended up last night with a bit over 1800. Double that for not having it on for the morning, and I get ‘normal’ is about 3600 steps daily. I may die of old age before/if I EVER get the at LEAST 10,000 steps one is SUPPOSED to do daily for good health.
My plan is to simply try to log in more than the previous day. My hips burn and ache pretty soon after I start walking, so that’s an obstacle. But maybe that will ease up if I just continue my efforts to walk more. I’ll log my number of daily steps each day on my exercise notes on MyFitnessPal.com and see how it goes.
I did finally show some progress on the scales this morning. I had been on a roller coaster and plateau since I added the Premier High Protein Chocolate Shake to my diet at my doctor’s suggestion to improve, or at least preserve, my kidney function. I’m hoping that the combination of losing more weight, the added daily protein, and the exercise will result in better numbers at our next routine appointment in January.
Ah! My WATCH just sent me a reminder to ‘do exercise.’ Hahahahahahah. I’ll finish this and go take a walk around the yard. I wonder if she’s a nagger…
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Cute Cats
Filed under Amazing Animals
Wednesday 10-16-2024
It’s almost time for me to leave to get my hair cut. I’m really lucky that I can depend on my stylist, Michael Remillard, of Tangles Hair Studio in Greenwood AR 479-996-6366 to make sense of what lives on top of my head. My hair has always been thin, fine, and awful to work with, but now that I’m ‘mature,’ it takes even more. I come out from Michael’s looking like someone has a plan, and that means a lot to me.
After fighting to get both of our irrigation units reprogrammed after our electricity went off and on quickly the other day, we had another really short power interruption yesterday, making us realize we probably needed to do it all over again.
I also noticed, though, that several counties in Arkansas were under freeze alerts overnight. Not us, but it will happen soon, so we’ve now decided it’s probably time for us to turn off both units and drain the system as best we can for winter. That means our plants will kick the bucket since we’ve been really short on rain for quite a while now. In fact, the whole area is under a burn ban and a wildfire sprung up yesterday that they are still trying to contain.
We’ll have to get out our ‘get-ready-for-winter’ list soon. I much prefer the spring, when all is opening up again, rather than all this shutting down and prepping for possibly being stuck up on our ridge line. We have a great start on things now since Richard Billett came and worked on the driveway vegetation for us. And so it begins…
Enjoy your Wednesday. I hope it’s a good day for you.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
2 a.m.
I’m throwing my husband into this hole I had dug in the back yard.
At 2 a.m. this morning the light went on. My husband was sitting up, pulling the covers off me as he rummaged through the sheet, blanket and comforter, muttering. I determined that he was, in fact, awake.
We played a game of ’20 Questions,’ since he wouldn’t tell me directly what the problem was. FINALLY, after I got up, we straightened the covers, and I again asked him what he was looking for, after we determined he wasn’t cold, or too hot, or….. He finally said he was looking for the rope that went around the comforter, pointing to the stuffing inside it. We discussed THAT for a good 5 minutes before he agreed that the comforter didn’t HAVE a ‘rope’ running around the edge on the inside, that we didn’t need or want one, and that we should go back to sleep.
I was so frustrated with him at that point that it took me a good hour to calm down – and warm up – enough to try to go to sleep again.
When I got up this morning and came downstairs, he said, ‘hi,’ but had the towel over his eyes and was under his throw in his recliner.
The hole awaits…
Filed under Challenges
Beautiful Bears
Filed under Amazing Animals
Tuesday 10-15-2024
Good morning! I’m having a slow start getting to my blog this morning. I had a note on the chat program from our son, asking me to open a PDF file. It’s from the IRS, saying he owes them money. Since our son lives across the world from us, I wrote the check, signed the form and will mail everything later today or tomorrow. Our son pays us back right away, so it isn’t a big problem.
I started a new account on Facebook two days ago because I wanted to read a new blog there. Someone hacked my account years ago and Facebook wouldn’t help me, so I closed my account. I started looking at things there, joined a few local groups, tried to find some of my old friends, commented on a few posts, etc.
I received a notice in my email later from Facebook saying my account was suspended because I hadn’t followed their rules. They didn’t point to anything, so I have no clue. I appealed the decision, saying if they would let me know what I had done, I would make every effort not to repeat it. I haven’t heard anything since, and I’m still suspended, so you MAY be reading the words of a ‘terrorist,’ though, from what I’ve read elsewhere, Facebook allows THAT…
We don’t have anything scheduled today. I’m hoping that things will be quiet around here. I’m working on a couple of signs in my art room, have ideas for two more, and am getting supplies gathered to try to paint some new stationery and/or note cards.
I’ve been trying to walk more, to add to my weights videos and my yoga stretching. I ordered a competitor of the Fitbit watch. I don’t need the brand name and all I really want is for it to track my steps so that I can keep track and try to increase it each time. I should get it Thursday, I think.
I’m on a bit of a plateau on my efforts to lose the lard since I started the protein shakes. I’m tweaking what I’m eating otherwise. I’ve read that eating too much protein can knock you out of ketosis, but I’ll keep doing this until my body has a chance to settle. It’s important that I increase the protein, so the tweaking and increasing movement will continue, hoping for the best.
The weather here has gotten so much cooler in the mornings and nights that not only have we turned off the a/c, but we wait to open the doors until closer to lunch time. What a welcome difference! Monster Cat is a bit ticked because she likes going out on the back porch. In the early evenings there are some bunnies running around and she fantasizes about catching them and eating them. Amber enjoys lying on the tiles right in the doorway to catch the nice breezes.
Our terrific tree guy wasn’t able to take the stray pup who has been visiting us. I didn’t see the pup yesterday, though, so I’m hopeful he’s moved on.
Hope your Tuesday is a fun one.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Relax
Filed under Attitude, Funny Signs - Humor
More Beautiful Wood Sculpture
Filed under When Wood Comes Alive
Strenuous Morning for Us
We gathered our trash and drove it down to the bottom of our newly cleared NICE driveway this morning. My husband stopped the truck before we got to the bottom so that I could get out and get the trash can and drag it down to where we leave it for emptying right beside the street. I did NOT fall on my head, though I’m thinking of trying to have retractable cleats installed on the bottom of my sandals so I don’t slip and slide so much. I’m seriously considering getting several pallets to put across the ditch to the side of the driveway and leaving the trash can down there, rather than dragging it down and then back up every week.
We drove back up and noticed our elephant ear plants were drooping. We checked the watering units in the well house and they were wonky again. Apparently every time the power even blips, the control units lose their minds, not knowing what time it is or when or if they’re supposed to come on.
I managed to figure out how to run each unit manually and we had to tweak the water in several of the planters. Then I had to set the clocks again, and reprogram each unit to run automatically. I’ll set my alarm to go out at 3pm and check to make sure that each one runs as it is supposed to.
One of the units had switched which ‘station’ it was on, so when I got the manual setting to work, water whooshed out of a faucet that had nothing attached to it, drenching me from the waist down. Yeah. :0(
I went to check on my husband and found him trying to get up onto the edge of the nook planter (the one behind the house and beside the back porch.) I got him to wait until I could come heft him up and get him settled standing in the planter while he worked on a hose that wasn’t working right. He fixed that, and I helped him get out of there and back down to the ground without falling.
Hopefully, the rest of our day will be QUIET. PLEASE.
Filed under Challenges, character-building exercises
We are Lucky 10-14-2024
This was the part of our driveway closest to the house Friday. Even after we had a previous guy work on getting the trees on either side of it under better control for the winter (when they tend to fall INTO the driveway from both sides during ice and snow or severe weather) I was still dreading the season to come.
Because a crew from the power company was here to clear the vegetation encroaching on the power lines, I went out and asked if anyone did work on the side or knew someone who did. I got the name and number of Richard Billett, called and left a message. He called me back very soon and came out that afternoon after work to see what we needed.
Happily, this weekend was free, so he started work early Saturday morning. He worked all day long until almost dinner time. He came again yesterday morning, starting even earlier, and finished up mid to late afternoon.
He cut things way back, but left the woody, natural feel we like.
My photos don’t do it justice, but he climbed tree after tree, carefully trimming or taking out some of the tops, opening things up so the sun can now get to the driveway more, enabling faster melting. He took out almost all the dead stuff – anything that looked like it might THINK of falling into the driveway, opening the whole driveway up. There is no way to show you how much he did, but I now feel safer about the driveway than I have in YEARS.
When he was showing me some of what he’d done Saturday and what was left to do Sunday, we walked quite a way down the driveway. It’s steep and skiddy with the gravel, so he offered his arm on the way back up. This old lady was very grateful for a strong arm to anchor me and keep me from falling on my head as I huffed and puffed my way back up.
Not only did he do the driveway, but he cut down a BUNCH of the weed trees that were impeding our view out of the back yard. (We feel if we can SEE it, we OWN it, so it makes us grin from ear to ear when we can actually see down the hill into the valley a bit.) He didn’t even charge us for that because he said it should have been done to clear the area around the power line.
So, in one weekend we are breathing a huge sigh of relief. Our miracle worker’s name is Richard Billett. His side business is called Ba_Boom Tree & Construction. Phone number is 918-315-4286. Email is Baboomtreeco@gmail.com. He does “Tree trimming and removal, Drop & Go, All phases of Construction, Framing, and Remodeling, Custom Decks, Metal Roof/Siding and Repairs.”
To say I highly recommend him is an understatement. He is honest and hard-working. He does what he says he’ll do, with care for the continued growth or function of what is there. (He left some trees in the ground to hold our soil, and took care when topping things so the trees would have continued growth.) He communicates well and wants his customers to be happy with the job he has done. He goes the extra mile. You can trust him.
Gnomes are Intriguing
I find gnomes fascinating. I guess it’s one of the ‘so ugly it’s cute’ things, but I’m drawn to every one I find.
Sunday 10-13-2024
Today is supposed to be the last day of unusual heat for October. We’re due for a cold front tonight with much cooler temps tomorrow. HOOORAAAAY!
Meanwhile, we hired a wonderful tree guy who worked in the heat all day yesterday and will do it again today, trying to cut back trees or branches that look like they’ll dump into our driveway at the next severe weather or the coming snow and ice storms this winter.
We’ve maintained this ourselves for the almost 37 years we’ve been here, but we’re both too long in the tooth for chain-sawing and hauling branches to the side and dumping them off the edge of the driveway anymore.
He’s actually climbing the trees, lopping out the parts of them that cut off sunlight to the driveway, so we’ll have better melting of snow and ice.
He’s also going to clear out a bunch of the weed trees that are impeding our view across the back yard. He said that if he doesn’t finish today, he’ll be here after he finishes his regular work tomorrow. He is a really nice guy and takes what he’s doing seriously. We’re lucky to have found him. (As usual, the guy we found before him doesn’t have a working phone anymore.)
I finished these in the last couple of days and listed them in my Etsy shop.
I’ve started a couple more. My husband has been calmer and has been working on computer stuff, rather than what could be dangerous projects, so I’ve had more time to relax and play in my art room. It’s really great and I THINK that, plus music and reading are keeping me sane. :0)
I’ve tweaked my program for my health by
- increasing my protein (I’m drinking a Premier Chocolate Protein Shake daily, plus eating some cottage cheese during the day),
- taking the new med that is supposed to protect my kidney function, plus
- continuing to increase drinking water daily and
- losing more weight, plus
- doing my weights videos and yoga stretching.
I’m having to really tweak my eating and drinking log on MyFitnessPal.com. I’ve decided to ignore the protein part of my macro since my doctor wants me to increase it, but I’m trying to watch everything else. I dropped some things I’ve been eating, substituted things, and moved other things around, but I was able to come up with a good combination for today. I love this website and would be lost without it.
I hope you’re doing well and having a fun weekend.
Filed under HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy, Thoughts on a ________
Smile, Smirk, Groan – Repeat – 2
Indian Hills Signs – Vince the Sign Guy
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, Indian Hills Signs
creativeartworksblog 