“He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.”
― P.G. Wodehouse
Filed under stupidity
Stephen King via The Writers Circle via Cathy Ruggiero
Filed under Encouragement
Maggi Hambling-blog.rowleygallery.co.uk.
Filed under Creativity, water paintings
“Mona, My Girlfriend is Fixing Me” – Paul Militaru Photorgraphy
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
creativepixar.blogspot.com
ManonLawrence
mommo-design.blogspot.it
Filed under Creativity, playing with your food?
One of Amber’s favorite things is sticks. She loves ’em.
Because we don’t want her to eat the baseboards and the wall in the utility room at night, and NOTHING we’ve found to put on the wood to make it taste bad has worked, we give her a stick at night. Happily, she chews on this and leaves the other things alone – mostly.
Since the poor dog doesn’t have ANY toys to play with, each time we let her out, she gathers sticks. We live in the sticks (appropriately named in Amber’s honor) outside of Greenwood AR we have lots of trees and branches. Amber has decided that it’s her life’s work to gather as many of these as possible each day in a collection in our front yard.
Here is this morning’s collection –
Maybe she’s being generous, providing me with exercise in my efforts to keep moving. I gather these each day, taking them to our burn barrel. Maybe she’s thinking ahead, trying to save us money, by not having to pay someone to clear out the underbrush in our woods.
I suspect, though, that she’s just being a healthy, happy puppy, gathering wonderful treasures to play with and chew on. She doesn’t complain that her treasures disappear each day. Happily for her, there are plenty more where these came from…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
behappynowbook.blogspot.com
My husband and I work in harmony each morning to get all the animals fed, breakfast fixed and eaten, dishwasher unloaded, and our basic chores done.
He usually takes the animals out first thing, stopping at our big bucket of sunflower seeds in the garage to take out to the deck for the birds. We put out both sunflower seeds and the small seeds you see in the picture above.
After he comes in and we are sitting at the dining area table for breakfast, it’s like the memo went out – “Mr. Bountiful has come!”
All of a sudden we’re awash in lots and lots of birds of all stripes bouncing from feeder to feeder, plus a squirrel or two, entertaining us as we eat.
We put a special squirrel feeder up, right on the other side of the window. It has a gallon glass bottle held up by a wooden closure. The squirrel has to come into the wooden enclosure and then stretch out to get the seed in the bottle. We get a really great look at him. There are little pointy-headed birds that also use this feeder, popping in and out with regularity.
With the birds and squirrels outside the window, our two dogs and two cats sitting on the floor around the table, and the fish happily eating in their aquarium, we feel happy and rich.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Arkansas, Delightful Surprises, Family, Favorite Things, Greenwood, Mother Nature
We put up our “Happy New Year” mailbox decoration with Calvin & Hobbes today. I’ve still had to ‘think’ a bit when writing a check to get 2017 on it. NOW – another year has whizzed past my head, making my hair blow!
“My Wish for you in 2018:
May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!
May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires.
May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had forget your home address! In simple words …….
May 2018 be the best year of your life!!!” ~ Source Unknown
American Hippie via Kitchen Crafty Fun via Stephanie Youmans Wilson
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
“December 25th” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Mother Nature, Paul Militaru Photography
“Waterfall” – Hailey E. Herrera – fineartamerica.com
Filed under Creativity, water paintings
Our friend Nora came for dinner Christmas Eve evening. We exchanged gifts, ate, caught up, and shared lots of love and hugs. It was a really nice evening.
One of the gifts she gave me was called an Intarsia Puzzle Box.
It is handcrafted by ‘Carver Dan,’ Daniel Terrico. I would have loved this if it didn’t ‘do’ anything at all. It is made from 100% exotic hardwoods with NO paint or stains! Their color comes from the natural wood and hand-rubbed finish. Isn’t it wonderful?
Each puzzle contains a removable locking pin. You check around the outside of the puzzle box, locate the pin and remove it.
On the bottom right side of the box, you can see where I’ve removed the pin. Then you slide the ‘face’ off its dovetail style cut to remove it.
You then pick up the ‘lid’ showing the storage area below.
Nice, felt-lined storage area.
The workmanship is first-rate. The pieces fit beautifully and slide apart with no effort. This is such a treasure!
My husband sent me a small puzzle box a hundred or so years ago when I was 14 and he was in the Marines. We wrote every day. The mailman – ignoring rules – put the red flag up on the mailbox at the road when there was a letter to me from my husband. I would watch from the front window in the house, bursting out the door and running down the driveway to get the mail. :0)
One day the box arrived. It was supposed to take 6 or 7 movements in order for you to be able to open the box. No instructions, just the wooden box. I don’t know how long it took me to get the box open, but I finally did – to find a sweet, sparkly rooster pin inside!
THIS beautifully made box brought back wonderful memories of the past, as well as providing great fun on a Christmas Eve with a well-loved friend. TWO gifts in one!
Filed under Creativity, Friendship
just laugh-via-lynn moody
My cooking is adequate. I have always dreaded being asked to ‘bring a dish’ to a meal because I’m intimidated. The best cooks in the area – plus my friends – all have ‘signature’ dishes that they bring, seemingly effortlessly, that are simply out of this world. The kind of dishes you take a bite and immediately are transported to a cloud in Heaven, sighing with pleasure.
For awhile I experimented, trying to cook things my mother used to make, except that her best dishes were things like huge skillets of spaghetti sauce or a vat of chili – not easy to transport, to say the least. I have enough trouble keeping my mouth shut and not eating anyway, without trying to perfect some confection I can’t stay away from.
So – I only invite really good friends to our house for dinner, hoping that things turn out all right.
Last night I fixed a turkey breast with gravy, salad, deviled eggs, and sliced jellied cranberry sauce. Our friend brought cauliflower ‘mashed potatoes.’ We had wine before and during our meal. Simple and satisfying.
I’ve always admired people who cook ‘by feel,’ – not measuring anything – not going from a recipe – just having the talent for knowing how to cook things perfectly, what herbs and spices to add to bring out the flavor….
The best I can say is –
Filed under Challenges
Amber said, “WOOF!” quickly, then threw off the antler head band and tried to eat it.
We didn’t have a physically white Christmas here in Arkansas this year, but we avoided a possible ice storm this week, and that really adds to the spirit of Christmas around here. We had dinner last night with a long time good friend, ate well, exchanged gifts and good hugs, and laughed a lot. Amber was even more boisterous than usual when Nora came, but then thankfully settled down and was reasonable – until Nora stood up to leave…
I found some nice Christmas quotes I want to share with you today –
Norman Vincent Peale ~ “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”
Charles Dickens ~ “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
“Merry” – Paul Militaru Photography
Bing Crosby ~ “Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it ‘white’.”
Dale Evans ~ “Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas” – Paul Militaru Photography
Bob Hope ~ “My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”
Edna Ferber ~ “Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.”
“Night Snow” – Paul Militaru Photography
Calvin Coolidge ~ “Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Filed under Favorite Quotes, holidays, Paul Militaru Photography
I’m getting ready for our evening’s festivities as my husband naps in his recliner.
The house is clean, ready for guests, and the table is set for tonight. I didn’t do much for Christmas this year, but I have a wonderful infuser light decoration on the table. You put in essential oils for a wonderful aroma, and it changes colors! I also have a resin ‘chain’ of snowmen and women decoration behind the infuser. I have a string of LED lights going across the top of the window.
This is the diffuser that smells good and turns different colors.
Why is it that LED lights don’t show up well in pictures? They lend a festive note to the room.
Here are the snow people who will share our table tonight.
I’m going to fix something we’ll have tonight, take a break, then go fix something else until all is ready. A lovely way to spend the day and evening!
I hope that you are having a delightful day, too.
Merry Christmas!
Filed under Friendship, holidays
free-Christian-wallpapers.blogspot.com
These two photos are so precious. Maybe “I” didn’t get the memo when I was a child. I had so much adrenaline flowing through my veins and erupting that I’m amazed my parents didn’t put me up for adoption or squash me like a bug. I was cranky, didn’t eat well, didn’t sleep well until I collapsed from exhaustion.
I do remember SO many times when Santa, my parents, or my other relatives got me just the right gift. I HOPE I showed them by expression, unabashed joy, and spending a lot of time enjoying, how happy they made me.
I don’t remember how old I was when I finally turned the corner, preferring to save, plot, and plan what I would give to friends and family. I’m grateful that we get to experience both ‘ends’ of the material side of Christmas in our lives. Each is so rich, so special.
I’m listening to classic Christmas carols as I type this -what a joy! I’m going to see if we can arrange to play these in the background as we celebrate tonight with our friend, Nora.
We have a CHANCE of snow flurries today! I won’t expect it, because we almost never have a white Christmas, but it sure would be a wonderful gift!
Merry Christmas!
Filed under holidays
Amber would rather EAT the decorations than WEAR them, but we caught her quickly in a couple of pics for her first Christmas.
She appreciates the smell of roasting turkey, gravy, and more, but otherwise, seems unimpressed by any hoopla she sees around here.
She is getting more and more companionable lately. She wants to be where we are, no matter what we’re doing. One of her favorite things is going ANYWHERE in the “CAR!” (one of her recent words.) My husband is trying to get her to bark at the door when she wants to come in from being outside. So far, she hasn’t a clue what we’re trying to get her to do, although Molly does it when both of them are outside. We’re working with her every day, plus playing a sound byte on the computer of a dog barking. Her new words, if we’re successful, will be, “SAY IT!”
We’re having our good friend Nora to dinner tonight as our celebration. Amber will forget everything we’ve taught her, bounding around, clobbering all with her tail, trying to bowl everyone over for a bit. Then I’m HOPEFUL she’ll settle down and show Nora what a really sweet – if destructive – puppy she is.
Nora always sits on one end of the couch in the living room. For the past month or so, I sit there and then motion for her to come over, sit – THEN say, “OK” for her to come up and snuggle with me a bit. With my luck, the fact that Nora is sitting there will be all the “ok” she needs to get cuddly with Nora…. I’ll warn Nora and watch the sweet puppy, zapper in hand….
Have a wonderful Christmas Eve!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, holidays
“Christmas Eve” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under holidays, Paul Militaru Photography
“Christmas Tree” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under holidays, Paul Militaru Photography
Such an innocent, sweet puppy.
This is what I saw first when I went out to call Amber in this morning –
I picked it up and headed for the front porch to find –
(Only one head involved. I simply added it to the pieces for the pic before I got out the broom.)
SO –
I almost feel like we’re in the 12 ‘Weird’ Days of Christmas Song
________________
“On the first day of Christmas, sweet Amber gave to me – a hedgehog with a missing nose, not to be repaired.
On the second day of Christmas, sweet Amber gave to me – a duck with a bitten-off beak, not to be repaired.
On the third day of Christmas, sweet Amber gave to me – a completely smashed duck, not to be repaired.
And a par tri – idge in a pear treeeeee.”
__________________
I THOUGHT I had the duck in a safe place.
One can only wonder what will bite the dust next.
Poor doggie – she only has 85 (more or less) wonderful chew toys, plus sticks, plus another dog who likes to play sometimes, plus people who like to play sometimes…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
creativeartworksblog 