Albert Einstein via NTDLife via Laufrain Taylor
I guess we’ve all met them. I call them, “balloon prickers.” They rain on every parade, poke holes in your happiness and suck the life right out of you, if you allow. I avoid them like the plague. Life is too short. (End of cliches… I think – )
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement
I was finally able to get a few pics of Amber playing with her stick –
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
I have to admit that this year I haven’t been swept up with the Christmas spirit yet, other than making a few things as presents for some of the great people in my life.
My good friend, Jackie Lyons, created a “Snow Village” and posted it on Facebook today. I wrote and asked her if I could share it with you. Happily, she said, “Sure!” Best of all, it gave us a chance to visit and catch up a bit. She’s a beautiful lady I never would have met if it hadn’t been for the Internet and my former website, Creative Artworks.
“Snow Village” by Jackie Lyons
I could feel my spirits soaring when I saw this. Who could be filled with, “Bah, Humbug” when they could see this?
Filed under Creativity, holidays
Amber will be 9 months old December 7th. She weighs 81 pounds now. To describe her as an “aggressive chewer” just doesn’t do her justice. Like our pit bull, Bambi, before her, she LIVES to destroy.
Example – I gave her a stuffed purple dragon this morning that was supposed to be extra tough for aggressive chewers. She already has gotten the ‘head’ open and is happily spreading stuffing all over the office carpet. I get her one of these every once in a while because she really does love them. I make sure I get them on sale, though, and don’t expect them to last.
We HAVE found some exceptionally good, long-lasting toys to add to “Amber’s Thumbs Up Dog Toy List “-
Mammoth TireBiter Tire and Rope Dog Toy
Before I forget, I bought all of these from Chewy.com
They have an ‘aggressive dog’ toy section. Most of the toys I’ve bought Amber has demolished pretty quickly, even those that are supposed to be ‘tough.’ I’m happy to be able to send on her recommendations for the ones that are worth the money.
The TireBiter above is about 8 inches across. Amber tends to carry it around by the rope, hoping we’ll play tug of war. If we don’t, she still carries it around, trying to break its neck. We have learned not to be in the path of that because we’ve gotten bruises from being hit by the tire. She loves it.
PetSafe Sportsman Bristle Bone Dog Toy
This is the absolutely best toy I’ve found that BOTH our dogs love. It’s got interesting things to chew. There are two “Jerky” type discs in the row of things between the two ‘bone’ ends. They smell good (to the doggies). You can get refills for the jerky type things. Molly basically ‘guards’ it for her turn, rather than aggressively chewing on it. When Amber’s turn comes, she chews on it heavily, sometimes actually unscrewing it. I came in one day to find the pieces all over the room. I just gathered them up, replaced the jerky discs, screwed everything back together tightly and declared it was again Molly’s turn. GREAT toy. (When this one is used up, we’ll definitely get another one.)
JW Pet iSqueak Bouncin’ Bowlin’ Pin Dog Toy
Squeaky, bouncy bowling pin. Amber mainly carries it around, rather than chewing much on it. She wants us to play – you guessed it – tug of war with it. She especially likes when she can make it squeak. She has to work for it some, which is good.
Nylabone DuraChew Ring Original Flavor Dog Toy
This is a good, all around toy. We can throw it for Amber outside in the yard. Both doggies like to chew it, though it isn’t the favorite toy. We’ve had this about 3 weeks and it holding up really well.
We’ll tell you about more toys as they make the list. :0)
Filed under Amazing Animals, Dog Products - Thumbs Up List
I went to the door this morning to get Amber to come back in after some time in the yard. When I opened it, she was standing there, smiling around the humongous “weed tree” in her mouth. I hurried back in to get the camera, but – of COURSE – she had dropped it when I returned.
I took some pics, though, of two sticks Amber brought into the front yard –
Stick # 1 – this is about 3 feet long.
This is Stick # 2 – It’s about 10 feet long. She lost the root ball that used to be on the end of it. As you can see, she did a bit of digging in one of the flower planters we cleaned out to start over with a new Rio Samba rose plant in the spring.
Here’s another view of Stick # 2. I’m really sorry I couldn’t get a picture of her with this in her mouth. She had a great time outside.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Debbie Smyth-ego-alterego.com
As you know, I love string art. Just by chance I looked up ‘thread art,’ and got a whole new art form! “Thread Art” or “Thread Painting” seems to be a combination of all things good about working with thread. Some slants more to the string art form. Others go more toward embroidery and quilting. Then, as the one above shows, talented people are working with thread to do portraits! My mind is boggled, and my senses soaring to find something I didn’t know existed. Over the next few days I’ll be sharing what I’ve found with you. I hope you enjoy it, too.
Kitschwerk.blog.de via diyprojectsforteens.com
Filed under Creativity, String Art
brunnersgardening.com
We started the day with Lunch Bunch and good friends, and I’ve spent most of the afternoon outside. What could be better?
I just got the last brick planter cleaned out, the elephant ear and Purple Passion plants, dug up, potted, and put in the greenhouse. Tomorrow I’m planning to spread the rest of the mulch and we’ll be pretty well ready for the colder weather to come.
I found three small hydrangea blooms, so I brought them in and added them to the purple iris I gathered the other day.
I have two more celery plants that are ready to plant. I’m thinking of planting them either in the greenhouse or inside on the window sill. I’ll read and see if I can find out what people think is best.
Starting on Tuesday night we’re supposed to have freezes for at least three nights in a row. I only have the one box of lettuce plants to cover. I’m hoping I can keep them alive to harvest for quite a while longer. Fingers crossed.
I’m going to go have a snack, put my feet up and relax for a while. I hope you’re having an enjoyable day.
Filed under Gardening
We put our Santa mailbox decoration up this morning. I’m not sure if you can tell it from this picture, but the white of his beard, the snowball and fur on his hat, his eyebrows, mustache, and bands on his mittens are all textured with SnoTex, so they have a 3-D feeling. I like that stuff a lot.
We have a mystery, though.
I asked my husband if he would get the mailbox decoration that has two children on either side of a Christmas tree so that we could put it up today. He came back, saying he couldn’t find that one, but had brought back Santa. I went out to the shop and looked through the decorations and I couldn’t find it, either!
I don’t know if I’m losing my mind or what! I can’t find any pictures of the decoration, so there seems to be no record of our making it. I’ll have to look on the net and see if I can find it again. Could I have DREAMED we cut it out and painted it?
Kind of rattles my confidence a bit…
Filed under holidays, Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
“Glade” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Old Stairs 1” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
gemslu.blogspot.com
gemslu.blogspot.com
Filed under Amazing Animals, your 'awwww' for the day
My friend, Laufrain, shared this on Facebook. I wanted to share it with you.
word porn via Laufrain Taylor
Filed under Encouragement
I’ve gotten really lazy on food prep lately. My excuse is that I’ve been working in the yard each day, trying to get our flower planters ready for winter. When I come in, my energy is gone. All I want is for my hubby to put more ‘stuff’ in my dry, tired, gritty eyes and take a nap. By the time I’m functional again, it’s ‘too late’ according to my inner time clock to fix what we should be eating. This excuse and rationalization is stupid, but I decided today to change my ways a bit.
I just started some chicken breasts in the crock pot, following a new rosemary lemon chicken recipe. She wanted me to put a whole chicken in there, but I had chicken breasts. I’m not sure if the recipe will stand the change, but I thought it was worth a try. We’ll have those with some steamed broccoli tonight.
If it turns out well, I’ll share the recipe with you.
Filed under Uncategorized
Filed under Beautiful Baskets, Creativity
Dalai Lama via Elephant Journal via Cathy Ruggiero
Portrait Face of Old Man by Eren Yigit
I’m not fond of the title of this portrait. I think the man looks distinguished, interesting, and wonderful. I think the portrait is wonderful, though.
I would love to MEET this man. He looks like he has a great sense of humor and loves to laugh. Doesn’t he have a wonderfully kind face?
Filed under Faces
I have one more hydrangea plant to prune before filling the planter with mulch, but I’m pretty sure this is the last of the blooms for the year. I gathered the twice-blooming iris so that we could enjoy them inside. (These usually bloom in April and October – I’m not sure what’s happening this year, but I’ll sure take it.
Today I’m going to see if I can finish cleaning out the planters and getting them ready to mulch. I have 5 left to clean out – three 8-foot planters and two small, tall planters on each side of the front porch. I’m hoping I have enough mulch to finish filling things up.
I’ll prepare pots for the elephant ear and Purple Passion plants, digging them up carefully and putting them in the greenhouse. If it gets too cold in there over the winter, I won’t have lost anything, since I would have dug up the bulbs after the freezes got them and stored them in peat moss in the garage. I’m hoping it won’t get too cold in there. I’m filling lots of small jugs with water and hoping the sun will warm them each day and they will keep the plants warm at night. We’ll see. Fingers crossed!
Have a wonderful day!
Filed under Gardening
“In Flight 1” – Paul Militaru Photography
“In Flight 2” – Paul Militaru Photography
“In Flight 3” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Williams Sonoma Raised Bed Planter – $179.00 plus shipping.
This is typical of what is called a “raised bed planter.” It’s wonderful because you don’t have to worry about building up your soil or heavy duty weeding as you do in typical gardens. You can grow a good amount in a much smaller space, and it’s up from the ground. This is a nicely made one offered by Williams Sonoma.
When we first started square foot garden, this is what we did. We had two rows of raised bed planting areas – The thing is, I still had to either bend over double to plant, weed, and harvest things from this. It was good, but it didn’t go far enough. I’m old and I can’t do a lot of kneeling or bending over double anymore.
We decided, when the wood was beginning to deteriorate, that we could do better.
When we decided to break down what we had and redo it, we made metal table-like supports for boxes to ‘sit’ in. They are at about chest level on me, comfortable to stand up and be able to reach any side of the boxes with an easy reach. I have six 4’x4’x8″ wooden boxes on my supports, with hoses stretched down each row of three boxes for automatic timed irrigation. I can spray weed killer under the boxes or around the perimeter of the whole garden without bothering my veggies.
I stretch string across the wooden boxes to create 1 foot planting areas. Then I can plant according to the advice of Mel (the square foot gardening expert), either one plant in a square (cauliflower, broccoli, etc.), 4 plants in a square (lettuce, spinach, etc.), 9 plants in a square (carrots), or 16 plants in a square (radishes.)
I can plant standing up or sitting on a tall stool. I can pull weeds or harvest without kneeling or bending over double. The Mel’s Mix (peat moss, vermiculite, and as many different kinds of compost as you can find) has all the nutrients needed for the plants, replenished when you harvest all of a plant when you add a bit more. The soil’s consistency is such that pulling weeds is easy. The planting plan makes it easy for a beginning gardener like me to see what is a ‘good plant ‘vs a ‘weed.’
I’m really lucky that my husband spoils me rotten, figuring out how to tackle things like building the square foot garden in the first place, then improving it when we needed to pull up what we had done after several years. We also built the new greenhouse recently so that I can hopefully grow my own transplants, rather than having to depend on what is sold in stores locally. I’m hoping I can get a jump on the spring season, plus have more transplants growing in the greenhouse, ready to plant in the garden at the proper time.
Trying to grow some of our own veggies, plus flowers around the yard, is one of my favorite things. There is never enough time or energy – or cooperating weather – to do all I’d like to do. :0)
We can now take Amber (above) and Molly (below) outside together without worrying about them running off, as long as we have the special shock collar on Amber. She reacts to the warning noise immediately, so we can now allow them to play – with their OUTSIDE VOICES and ANTICS, having a great time.
Occasionally Amber will get a bit rough and need to be reminded not to be so exuberant, but it’s less and less often, and Molly seems to be having a good time, growing and acting fierce as Amber runs rings around her.
Since Molly is 12 now, we give her the choice of whether she wants to be in the same area as Amber or needs a rest.
Today I took them out and Amber played “Mad Dog,” running around and around like a mad thing as Molly stood in place and tried not to get run over. Then, when Amber ran off the excess energy, they started to play. Molly growled and participated fully, enjoying every minute. I had them out for about 20 minutes, and then let Molly in for a rest.
Amber stayed out with me, keeping me company while I tackled cleaning out the planter. When I was getting ready to haul off the last big bucket full of hydrangea branches, Amber had found one of the weed trees in the front, pulled it out of the ground, and had brought it onto the civilized part of the yard. I wish I had my camera, so that I could show you what she looked like with the about 10 foot reed-thin leafless ‘tree’ with the root ball on one end, walking around in a victory lap from ‘dog-against-tree.’
I through it off what we call ‘the edge of the world’ and she decided THIS was a great game, too! I was completely out of energy by then, and the third time I threw it, I yelled, “NOOOOOOO!” and hit the warning sound on the remote. She finally got the fact that the ‘game’ was over and came in with me.
As I type, Molly is on the big dog bed in the corner of the office and Amber is sprawled on her side on the office pad behind me, snorking.
Poor doggies. All worn out…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
This picture shows you the break in the pvc pipe rib for the greenhouse.
My husband drilled into the wood uprights on either side of the louvered fan and attached guy wires to the wood.
He used a cement drill to drill a hole in the ground at the proper angle for the guy wires, ran the wire around the stake (held in place by a hose clamp.
This picture shows you the completed guy wire fix for the end of the greenhouse. It’s nice and sturdy now, thank goodness.
Here’s the fix from the side.
So, thanks to my wonderful husband, things are once again in good shape. He’s definitely a keeper.
When he came in, and could man the phone, I went out and got an 8 foot brick planter cleaned out where we have two really large hydrangea plants. I cut off all the branches and disposed of them. I have 4 more planters to clean out and then I’ll put mulch in them. :0)
Z.L.Feng-webneel.com
Z.L.Feng-www.theluxuryspot.com
Filed under Creativity, Landscapes I Like, Watercolors I Love
I was PLANNING to clean out another flower planter yesterday. My husband came in and told me we had a problem with the greenhouse. The end ‘wall’ you’re looking at in this photo had broken loose because the last pvc pipe ‘rib’ closest to the lumber had broken. The rib isn’t repairable. We would have to take the whole end of the greenhouse apart and replace the whole rib, probably resulting in more damage.
My husband, who is really good at figuring out how to fix things, figured out that we could attach heavy wire (like that used in the guy wires for the ham radio tower) to the upright pieces of wood on either side of the louvered exhaust fan. He is outside as I type (waiting for an important phone call we’re expecting) drilling a hole some distance away from the end of the greenhouse. He’ll then pound in a metal stake with the sledge hammer. Then we’ll attach the wires with what I think are called turnbolts – metal things with rings on each end and a threaded length in between that you can turn to tighten the wire until it’s taught.
The stake and ‘guy wire’ type attachment should keep the end of the greenhouse secure. I’m not sure what he’s planning about the broken pvc pipe. Maybe we can just ignore it and rewrap the transparent liner stuff on the end carefully.
Anyhow, my best laid plans had to be set aside, once again, in order to try to fix the greenhouse – again before it is forecast to rain today… I’m lucky to have a guy who can look at something and figure out how it works and what needs to be done to fix it. I don’t have a clue – although I’m a pretty good helper and ‘gofer.’
If I can get the yard under control for the winter, I’m planning to start moving things around in the greenhouse, getting ready for planting seeds later. I’ll post pics as I get things organized in there.
Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Lewis projects
Tina Puckett-www.tinabaskets.com
willow weaving-www.pinterest.com
Filed under Beautiful Baskets, Creativity
“Outdoor Autumn Concert” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
creativeartworksblog 