It’s dark and rainy-looking outside with a high of 79 forecast. We’ll be dodging rain as we try to put the trash out at the bottom of our driveway later and get our mail. I’m greeting this with joy. I’ve had more than my fill of summer. Our doors are open and we’re enjoying a cool breeze running through the house. :0)
Our character-building activity for the day is changing out the innards of the cat’s bathroom toilet, which is running intermittently. My husband says we already have the kit for that, so I’m hoping it will be an easy change-out.
I had a great time yesterday working in my art room on wooden Christmas ornaments. Some are two layers glued together. Others are wood slices. I should be able to finish up the painting on most of them today.
I’m trying to space out my weights video, stomach exercises video, and yoga practice so that I can get them all in before I’m pooped for the day. It’s an ongoing challenge, but one that is worth doing. So far I’ve been able to do one of the videos and the yoga, but I really would like to get all three in. Maybe today.
May this be the beginning of a great week for all of us.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under digital art, WenderAspire on Etsy
We’re due for another ‘intense heat advisory’ today before we finally have a cold front overnight and tomorrow hopefully breaking the back of the summer. I’ve BEEN ready for fall, so I’m delighted to welcome it with open arms. Happy Fall!!!
I have several wood-burned Christmas ornaments ready to paint. I started on it a bit last night and look forward to playing in my art room today.
I had HOPED that any delivery people would interrupt my exercise efforts, but no luck. We received the dog bed covers I ordered from SlimDogBed on Etsy! I was able to strip off and get ready to throw away the completely worn out covers and replace them with nice, new, colorful, sturdy denim ones.
Amber is all fixed up now, if Monster Cat will allow her to use them. :0)
We’re also looking forward to this evening, watching the Kansas City Chiefs vs the Atlanta Falcons game. We’ll enjoy hot dogs while we watch. (My husband will have regular hot dog buns. I’ll have Mission Net Zero Carb tortillas instead of the buns – and he’ll have potato chips while I have cut up ripe tomatoes from our garden.)
I wish you a joyous first day of fall.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under Anna's Sculptures, sculpture
Filed under paintings I love
I’m more than ready for Monday’s reprieve from the slam-you-in-the-face hot weather we’re still having. Mother Nature is laughing and thumbing her nose at the calendar saying that tomorrow is the first official day of Autumn, and around here, she wins. When I let Amber in yesterday afternoon, the heat took my breath away!
I received the mug I ordered yesterday from the CaDoKoShop on Etsy. I know it shows my age, and a lot of people aren’t old enough to even recognize the card catalogue or know its purpose, but I love it. I’m using it now as I type. :0)
Today I have a haircut. Usually I go by myself, but my husband wants to go today. We’ll get our mail as we go out, and then we’ll hit the Harps (local grocery store) after Michael is finished trying to make me look civilized. That’s it for errands for the day.
At home, I’m doing laundry, paying bills, and figuring out dinner after we fix lunch. I MAY get the 3-D gold paint I ordered, plus the new dog beds today. :0)
The wood slices I got for my wood-burned Christmas ornaments are a challenge. The much-less-processed wood acts differently than the wood I’ve been using. Some of the tips essentially don’t work at all with the slices. I’m having fun figuring out new techniques and choosing tips.
I hope that this is a good Saturday for you.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under sculpture
With the official first day of fall this Sunday, we in Arkansas are again under an “Intense Heat Alert” for 106 from noon until 8pm tonight. It does look like this might be the last gasp of the really hot stuff, though. A “cold front” is due Monday. One can hope.
I was a good girl yesterday, doing my exercise with weights video early. I then started the new standing stomach exercises video and was a little over halfway through, huffing and puffing a bit, when the driveway detector went off. It was a Fedex delivery. I thanked the guy profusely for giving me a valid interruption from my exercising. He laughed. I never did get back to the video, but I DID do my yoga stretches later.
I just saw a piece from our local news that the work on the new Scott-Sebastian County Public Library has begun. The current one is in a building built in 1965 and is nestled in the middle of the main part of Greenwood. Since the library is meant to also serve other counties besides our South Sebastian County, they are building a new, twice-as-large building at the intersection of Highway 71 South and Highway 10 (the main thoroughfare through Greenwood.) The new building is supposed to be finished in mid 2025.
With the library being ‘moved,’ in the near future and our medical clinic having already been closed and a new one built, my husband and I are feeling a bit shell-shocked.
Both new buildings are all the way across town from us (the new facilities are on the far West side of Greenwood and we’re on the far East side). These won’t be as convenient for us personally, but it’s exciting that both will be larger and better for the communities they serve. We will see the new medical clinic when we go for blood work for our routine doctor appointment around the first of next month.
I’m pleased to tell you that even though I look like a dandelion-gone-to-seed right now, I will be “healed” tomorrow by Michael – the Miracle Worker – at Tangles Hair Studio in Greenwood. When he finishes with me I will again look like someone had a plan, for which I am truly grateful.
No particular plans for today. I can play on the computer and play in my art room, shielded from the obscenely hot day, happy in my own little world. Ahhhh! I hope you enjoy YOUR day, too.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Vince, the Sign Guy – Indian Hills Signs
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, Indian Hills Signs
Filed under Favorite Quotes, Poohisms
Yesterday started out with errands. I took my Kindle so that I could read while I waited for my husband to get his hair cut. When I opened it, it said I didn’t have connection to the Internet. I tried several things, but no dice. Finally, I gave up.
When we got home and put things away, it was already time for lunch. We ate and then we attacked my Kindle again. I looked for help on the net, but unless I could get a network and enter my password, the ‘help’ was none.
Finally, we sat side by side, comparing settings. His ‘admin’ was ‘on.’ Mine was locked. When I unlocked it, it wanted the password to my network. I put in the one my husband had found and I was back in business.
I’m in a constant fight with technical stuff lately. It makes me want to just shut most of it off and just sleep in my recliner. I know. Great, positive reaction to what is probably a character-building exercise. :0)
The good part of the day was I tried a new recipe from a new person I found on the net. Her name is Kasey Tenum and the recipe was “Keto Monterey Chicken.” My husband and I agreed that the flavor was really good, but that it was a bit hard to eat. The next time I try it, I’ll follow the directions more closely. I’ll slice the chicken breasts to make four thin breasts. I’ll cut the bacon up into bite-sized bits. I’ll try to pile up the ingredients ON the breasts so that we have four meal-sized servings, rather than ingredients kind of stuck together in the skillet. This recipe is definitely a keeper. I’ll start researching some of her other recipes, too. Here is her website.
I was a slug yesterday. Today I plan to try the video with the standing stomach exercises, since my legs aren’t screaming. I’ll also do a weights video from Mike, my Australian senior exercise expert. I’ll finish it off with my regular yoga stretching session.
Since we don’t have to go anywhere today, I should also have time to get up to my art room. I’m working on two sets of 4 Christmas ornaments, and then an ornament from a wood slice.
Enjoy your day!
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, Indian Hills Signs
I posted one of Andrew Simoson’s beautiful watercolors at the top of one of my posts lately, and mentioned that I would try to find more.
It was difficult, as I can’t find a website for his work anywhere. It seems to only be posted, one painting at a time, by J. E. Toney on Pinterest. I’ll show you here what I’ve been able to find so far.
Andrew Simoson Watercolor via J. E. Toney – Pinterest
Filed under Andrew Simoson Watercolor, Watercolors I Love
I’ll have to wait on most of my blog posts because we need to leave to run errands soon.
Monster Cat has taken up residence this morning on the table beside my computer to ‘help’ me write blog posts. She was driving me nuts a second ago rummaging around the feet of my chair. That’s a problem because my chair is on wheels and I really don’t want to run over her little feet. I stopped and very carefully moved the chair – to find one of her little catnip mice. I threw it in the middle of the room and she immediately ran and pounced on it. With her ‘help,’ I MIGHT get THIS post finished before we need to leave.
My second ‘helper’ is Amber. She is trying to guilt me into letting her out again. She’s in a barky frame of mind this morning, though, so I feel it’s rude to let her bother the neighbors. I let her out first thing in the morning while I’m taking care of Monster Cat. She comes in with great enthusiasm, hoping to get a treat. VERY SOON after that, when I’ve finished the morning chores and am at the computer, she comes and sits beside my chair, trying to get me to let her out again. That has already happened this morning, and yet she is doing it again. She only stays out 5 seconds or so, then barks to get back in. I don’t know what her deal is, other than maybe laughing that I’m pretty well trained, for a human.
Yesterday I TRIED to do the video with the stomach exercises. The backs of my legs were so sore, though, I simply couldn’t do it. I gave up, took some Tylenol, and went on to do my yoga stretches (with Monster Cat on the back porch). I’m still sore this morning, but I’ll try to do at least SOME of each of the exercises today and see how it goes. If I can do HALF as many reps as I’m supposed to be doing, that’s more than I HAVE been doing and should be good.
I’ll play in the art room, plus I’m planning to try a chicken recipe for our dinner tonight. I have the recipe, which is low-carb, and then another recipe by the same author for low-carb BBQ sauce. I’ll let you know if these are good.
Enjoy your day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under digital art, WenderAspire on Etsy
I don’t want to live to any particular age, but I would like to be as healthy as possible for as long as I can. I can’t control all of that, but I CAN control –
As you know, I’ve been trying to lose the lard and move more. I’m about halfway to my goal now.
I started with a BMI of 34, which is labeled on the chart as “Obese.” Right now I have a BMI of 29, labeled as “Overweight.” I’m celebrating JUST being ‘overweight’ now. My goal is a BMI of 24, which is labeled “healthy weight.”
I’m eating a low-carb diet, trying to drink more water, and using MyFitnessPal daily to pay close attention to what I’m eating and drinking.
My moving more efforts include working in the yard, practicing ‘old lady’ yoga stretches, and various YouTube workout videos. I’m doing one now from Good Morning Fitness with stomach exercises done standing that don’t involve jumping. I also like a whole series with Mike from Australia. He has a website called More Life Health Seniors. I’m also trying to make myself at least walk around the house and out to the shop once a day.
I’ve started taking SuperFoodMD Fruits & Veggies supplements, a competitor to the much-advertised brand you see on TV. That one is too expensive for me, but this one costs less than half as much. (I put the two products side by side and they look like the same thing.) I eat basically the same thing for lunch every day, and we eat a somewhat limited number of low-carb dishes for dinners, mainly because my husband will only eat a handful of veggies. I hope that these supplements will help me make sure I’m getting what I need for good health.
Onward and Downward!
Filed under DIET!, exercise, Healthy Eating
I had a pretty productive day yesterday.
I FINISHED weeding the flower planters, so that’s the end of the most important work in the yard. We are looking pretty good (for us) and working outside can go on the back burner of priorities for a bit.
I tried to do a new YouTube video yesterday of exercises to flatten your tummy. I moved right along with her most of the time, though balance was an issue at times. All these were standing exercises, but lots of turning, moving of legs, bending up and down, etc. Each exercise was repeated for 60 seconds. I guess we probably did 30 reps during that time. I made it through a little over half of the video and had to quit, out of breath and thoroughly pooped. The cute little person ran away and left me in the dust. I’ll try to do better today.
When I went to practice my yoga stretches for the first time in a while, things went well for about 60 seconds. Then Monster Cat decided she wanted to ‘help’ me with the moves. She pounced on my stomach, bit my toes, rolled on my legs, walked under me when she could, laid down on my face, tried to curl up on my neck…. you get the picture. For today’s practice, I’ll put her in her bathroom until I’m finished.
In my art room, I’m working on two different sets of 4 Christmas ornaments with layered elements, and also on one ornament that is a wood slice. It’s fun trying different techniques. I love spending time up there, learning new things.
I hope you have a happy, productive day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Yevhenii Zaborovsky is a metal sculptor from Kyiv, Ukraine. He specializes in bronzes that leap off the background in bas-relief. I have no idea how he does these. I’m in awe.
Metal Zaborovsky – Etsy
creativeartworksblog 