“Bridge Between Trees” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Creativity, Oil Paintings I Love
It has been really cold for Arkansas already this winter. Our ‘worst’ month is usually February, and it has snowed on my birthday in March. Usually, though, we have a cold snap and then Indian Summer type weather through January. I think I mentioned before that last year I was still harvesting lettuce in January…
We have had no ice, though, and I’m very grateful. That’s the only thing that truly paralyzes us. We live on top of a ridge line. Our driveway is steep, 650 feet or so down to the road that runs in front of the house. It becomes a ski slope in the winter. We can navigate it down and up again if it snows because of the snow tires on the truck. Ice is another story. Not only does the ice make it impossible for us to go out, it breaks the branches of the trees. We still haven’t fully recovered from the damage from an ice storm in 2000!
That said, our 90 pound, 10-month-old lab puppy, Amber, LOVES this weather. She finally isn’t panting from being too hot. Her coat is very thick and she seems to grin all the time she’s outside. When it’s seriously cold, we don’t let her stay out long because she’s a huge dog with very little brain at this point, but we try to let her out often. When it warms up to our high of 36 today, I’ll take her out for her no-pull collar training session on the leash for the day – Day Three.
The fact that it’s too cold to be comfortable outside has helped in my efforts to declutter our house. Religiously every 30 years or so I go through the stuff in our house, taking everything out of an area, cleaning, donating what we think someone else might be able to use, throwing out what should have been thrown out years ago, and then reorganizing what goes back in. Yesterday it was our “coat, hat, muffler, and glove area” in the utility room and back bathroom. Today it will be the front hall closet.
So far, I’ve kept my promise of filling an EXTRA big trash bag to put out for the trash people each week. I’m piling things up for donations to our local library and the Veterans Thrift Store in Fort Smith before the end of this month. My goal is to have donations each month, but if I don’t make it, the goal still stands and will remind me that I have much more to do. I’m trying not to be overwhelmed by how MANY areas in our house are crying out for my attention!
Though I don’t enjoy going through things and cleaning, I DO enjoy each area when it’s finished. I like the feeling of accomplishment, the cleaner, more organized area, the feel that I’m getting better control of our ‘stuff,’ and the happy feeling that I’m sharing things that we have enjoyed with others.
I hope you’re having a happy Saturday. Stay warm and enjoy your day!
beatlessongwriting.blogspot.com
I absolutely LOVED fingerpainting as a child in school. I would have done it at home all the time, but my mom didn’t want to worry about a possible mess. I still love the FEEL of finger paints – the freedom you have to play and play – squooshing the paint between your fingers, swirling it all around, watching the colors mix, creating something, then wiping it away with a swoosh….
Iris Scott loves fingerpainting, too, but she brings it to an art form. I’m in awe of her talent. She makes me want to play again, even though there is no way in the world I could ever hope to emulate her work.
Iris-Scott-“Finger-Painting-Spring”-www.crazyleafdesign.com
Iris Scott-inspirationhut.net.
Filed under Creativity, Fun with Fingerpaint
Yesterday we learned the hard way that a now 90-pound ‘puppy’ on a leash HAS to mind. She almost pulled my husband down three times between the car and the vet’s yesterday. It really scared us that we basically lucked out, not being injured by our happy-go-lucky puppy. We came home, dug out the no-pull collar, put it on Amber, attached her to the leash, and headed outside for a walk.
The no-pull collar is designed for the DOG to control whether he or she gets shocked or not. If the dog is obedient and doesn’t pull hard on the leash, there are no shocks. If he or she pulls on the leash, a shock is produced, continuing for a couple of seconds if he or she continues to pull. The dog quickly learns not to pull.
At first Amber was rambunctious and got shocked a lot. I decided that we had the shock value up too high, so my husband lowered it, and we continued our walk. We were all tense, since Amber got really upset at the beginning (this, after she paid NO attention to the regular shock collar at the vet’s). She got shocked once more when she tried to chase one of our cats; but otherwise, we felt the first training walk was a success.
When we came home from errands and Lunch Bunch today, we put the no-pull collar on and attached her to the leash. She hunched down and didn’t want to go out. I felt awful, but determined that we get this under control. We HAVE to be able to control her even when she’s excited, meeting people, other animals,being treated at the vet, etc. We don’t want to be pulled down and dragged by our dog. So I grimly insisted she come with me, my husband following along behind.
She walked as if she were on eggs, clearly associating the no-pull collar with the shocks yesterday. Her tail was between her legs. I was tearing up, gritting my teeth, hoping she would be successful. We walked out to the shop, and she did really well. We gave her a treat and then started back toward the house. She wanted to go back inside, but I told her we were going to walk around the house. When we got to the far side of the house, I continued to walk with Amber and my husband hung back, so she would have to decide whether to continue with me or risk getting shocked by insisting she go to him. Happily, she continued with me. I kept the lead short, so we basically walked side by side. I stopped a couple of times, waited, and then continued to walk. As we walked her attitude improved dramatically. It’s as if she had to re-learn that SHE was in control of whether she was shocked or not. Her tail came up and her step became happier.
We finished the walk, brought her inside. took the collar off, and gave her a big hug, words of praise, and another small treat. I’m hopeful that, as the days of daily walks with no shocks pile up, she’ll adapt to the collar without any more problem. We’ll give this a couple of weeks and then try going to the vet’s again…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
afremov.com
Darko-Topalski-www.topalski.com
Filed under Creativity, Oil Paintings I Love
I’m making decisions and changes in my Etsy and ArtFire shops.
The first is that I’m moving toward only listing paper products on Etsy. I want to spend more time hand painting personalized note cards and stationery. To this end, I’m having a sale on Etsy.
Please come look if you’re interested in
Each page of stationery in a set of 10 is different – each painted by hand. I paint a coordinating envelope for each page. Extra blank sheets are included in the set. Each page and each envelope can be personalized with a name, initials, or…. A box with transparent lid is included, all tied in a bow with a nice ribbon.
Hand-painted thank you cards are fun to send. They come in a package of 5 cards, each with a different painting. these can also be personalized.
Note cards come in packages of 5 and 10. These can be painted in watercolor or acrylic paint. Each one is different, and can be personalized.
I honestly cannot paint the same thing twice, so each set is truly one-of-a-kind. The sets are fun to use, or to give as gifts.
Please visit Creative Artwks on Etsy when you have the time.
Filed under Holiday Gift Ideas
I spent half an hour today playing ‘pick-up-sticks’ that Amber had collected. We then did one of her favorite things – letting her ride in the car! We went to the vet’s office in order to weigh our ‘baby’ on the large set of scales there.
We discovered that our 10 month old ‘baby’ lab weighs 90 pounds!
We had armed ourselves with her shock collar and the remote in order to be able to control her. The eye opener was that my husband was almost not able to handle her! She got excited at all the strange sounds and smells in and around the vet’s office and would not listen to anything we said, and ALSO wasn’t reacting to the shock collar!
We got her in and out again safely, but we were both really impressed by the fact that this could have been a real problem, resulting in injury to one or both of us, plus problems inside the vet’s office.
We decided then and there we were going to start TODAY – starting over with our leash training – walking her on a SHORT leash – the ‘no-pull’ one that we had put away – around the yard once a day. (This shocks her when she pulls.) We actually found out that we needed to turn the shock down, which we did, but my husband and I walked all around the yard with her for about 20 minutes. She was shocked several times at first, but then calmed down and was more cooperative, only getting shocked again when she saw one of our cats and started to run after her.
In addition to the daily walks with the no-pull leash, we plan to go back to the vet’s twice a month as part of this training. It’s important that she also get socialization plus training-while-excited practice by going to the vet’s and having to obey us. She wanted SO badly to greet the main receptionist that she wouldn’t even sit! We hope that the daily training at home and the twice a month trips to the vet’s office will get her to the point where it isn’t SUCH a big deal that she forgets all she’s been taught!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
The Owl Report via Cathy Ruggiero -peace-thatwastheothernameforhome-Kathleen Norris-illus-Johanna Wright
A cold front is due this afternoon. It’s 60 degrees F (!) outside right now. By mid afternoon, it’s supposed to be freezing with “wintry mix” and trickle-the-water-in-the-sinks time tonight through the middle of next week, at least.
Happily, we’re rich in books around here. I already told you that
So the weather can do what it will. We have hot apple cider for my husband and coffee for me, two dogs, two cats, 4 fish, comfortable recliners and throws, and lots of books to enjoy!
Filed under Family, Mother Nature, Reading is FUNdamental
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Raven Tao-passionforproperty.wordpress.com
Filed under Cork Art, Creativity
Maude-White-www.boredpanda.com
Zoe Bradley-www.zoebradley.com
Filed under Creativity, paper art
Contentment
Thanks to Bill Lites for his email.
Filed under your 'awwww' for the day
Martin Karlsson-martinsfotopoesi.wordpress.com.
I’ve told you that I think painting water is impossible. I’ve also shown you by many examples, like these, that I’m wrong. I can study these all day long and have decided to just appreciate the talent of these artists.
mountain landscape-www.etsy.com
Filed under Creativity, water paintings
As with the file cabinets, I’m good about putting things IN, but not so good about taking things OUT. Our buffet has gotten to the point that we cannot get anything more IN. TIME TO PURGE! My husband hoards pill bottles. He’s not sure why. I’m going to solve this problem today. I love place mats, tablecloths, cloth napkins…..
Here you get an idea of what came out of the drawers of the buffet. Some I packed nicely in plastic, but most were just stacked and slid into the drawers. Then, when I changed place mats, I pulled out two of the four and put the ones I was not now using in the drawer, on top of the pile.
Time has passed and we’ve changed our daily pottery – a nice combination of aqua and brown. I’m going to go through what we have with that in mind, trying to keep only the things that look good with the pottery, my china, or other things I have, donating the rest.
This is another project that has been a long time coming. I’ll feel better when I have things in more control, where I can remove something from a drawer without half of the contents trying to come out, and actually be able to put something back IN to the drawer with the other place mats, for example, where they belong.
Waste basket and donation bag are ready!
Filed under Creativity, Fun with Fingerpaint
“Italian Church from Bucharest” – Paul Militaru Photography
I absolutely love this beautiful church photographed by Paul Militaru. I have always been drawn to small, beautiful “treasures” of churches. The fact that this one – a piece of the old world – is in the middle of a city that has moved on in time fascinates me.
Second, it reminds me of when I visited the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas years ago. My husband had some kind of business conference. We spent most of the free time we had on the River Walk – one of my favorite places in the world. I think I would be happy living there. :0)
One day I walked up some steps to the street above and saw the Alamo right across the intersection in the midst of modern city. In all the postcards and books I had ever seen it only showed the building. I imagined it sitting in wide, open spaces, but it was like time had stood still, leaving the building, and now it was crammed into the middle of the bustling city.
I will never forget my visit there. I went over, interested, but it wasn’t high on my list of things to see while I was there. I walked around inside and then sat on a bench in the courtyard. All of a sudden I felt swamped overwhelmed by emotion. There were a couple of other people walking around, but I was feeling something quite different. I felt the force of the lives that were lost there. It felt like they wanted me to acknowledge the enormity of their sacrifice. I sat there for about an hour, FEELING something I’d never felt before.
When I tried to tell my husband later about the visit, I found myself tearing up, still swamped by the feelings. I’ve never had this happen before or since.
This beautiful photograph is also telling a story of lives past. I hope that it has a large membership still, with people cherishing it. If it is now a museum, I hope it’s visited and valued.
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
I enjoyed playing “Pick Up Sticks” when I was young. I was pretty good at it, too! :0)
This is our 10-month-old yellow lab, Amber’s, collection of sticks this morning. Every day she makes a collection. Today I watched her while she put each stick where she wanted it, having some design in her head. She would stop, walk around a bit, go to the woods in front of the house, bringing another to add to the collection, then move one from one side of the yard to the other. When she was satisfied, she came to the door and barked.
We let her in and gave her a treat, but I think she was quietly disappointed that we didn’t admire her latest stick collection profusely.
This may also be a plot to get me to MOVE more, since I go out and ‘ruin’ the collection sometime during the day….
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
“October Forest”-T_C_Chiu-www.absolutearts.com
Filed under Creativity, Oil Paintings I Love
curatti.com
I’ve been working in my dining area and kitchen for parts of 3 days now, trying to purge/reorganize/clean. I have now done
It’s amazing how much ‘stuff’ accumulates around here. I swear to you that there is some hanky-panky and things are reproducing when we’re not watching. What is helping me on the counter tops is picturing my husband with too many plastic bags in each hands fighting with the dog when he’s trying to bring in a load from the car and plopping the whole bunch down on a part of the counter top. I’m trying to make sure that there is nothing breakable, “spillable,” or “dumpable” on a good part of each area, having learned the hard way that no thought will be given as the bags come plopping down. In this effort I’ve relocated a lot of things and gotten rid of the rest.
I’m enjoying a rest now and then I’ll tackle what we call the ‘go-out’ table (holding things we want to take with us the next time we go to town) which unfortunately also acts as a dumping table.
The remaining project for today will be trying to make sense of my hats and scarves in the utility room. This is more complicated than it sounds because nothing can be down low, due to the cats. Nothing can be high, because then I can’t reach them, and hard decisions will have to be made on which things should be given away…
As I move through the house, though, I’m feeling better about being in better control of my space. I’m getting rid of a BUNCH of ‘stuff,’ relocating some things that should live elsewhere, gathering things that I’ll donate to the library or the Veterans Thrift Store, and things being easier to clean when there are fewer THINGS.
I’m hoping that this urge to get my things in better order will continue. It’s quite unusual for this old broad, so I’m doing a bunch of it as quickly as I can…
creativeartworksblog 