My hygienist patted me on the head yesterday! I’ve always cornered the market on building tartar. It used to be that the hygienist had to use the ‘water torture’ gun to try to power wash the stuff off, followed by the use of all her tools that break it off, pry it off, scrape it off, etc.
On my previous appointment, I had been using tartar control toothpaste and I had switched to a Sonicare toothbrush. That made it so that the pressure washer wasn’t needed, but it was still a laborious process to get me to a reasonable state.
THIS time I had changed back to my previous toothpaste and changed to a different Sonicare toothbrush when my previous one died. Lots of flossing. No power washer, little work with tools. She spent more time polishing my teeth than the whole rest of the session, saying, “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it! No signs of oral cancer (my mom died of that). Whew.
To cap everything off, the weather people were wrong. They had predicted snow showers. We only got a few flurries, having no trouble – other than my husband’s aggressive driving – getting there and getting back. I’m delighted the bad stuff didn’t find us. HOOORAAAAY!
Isn’t this child the cutest thing? I melted when I found this picture.
It’s 32 here with snow showers forecast by the locals through 6pm this evening. There is frost on the ground, but the concrete and our driveway are clear at the moment.
We’ll be leaving in a bit to drive to Ft. Smith for our semi-annual dental cleaning. This is already a thing I dread, not even THINKING about the snow showers. Right now I’m TRYING not to freak out that my husband might insist on driving the Vette (rather than the truck with the snow tires.) I’ve stressed that the locals say the next wave of weather is supposed to happen while we are in Ft. Smith, maybe causing a bit of trouble for our way home, and then getting back up our driveway. Fingers crossed he’ll be reasonable.
It’s been a long time since I needed to worry about winter shoes. I have several pairs of boots, but they are mainly decorative, rather than for seriously cold or wet weather. I got a pair out this morning, put them on, and then started making our bed. I found a chunk of black ‘stuff’ on the carpet. Then I noticed my left boot seemed to be ‘sticking’ to the carpet as I moved. It turned out the whole sole of the left boot was crumbling! I’ve never had that happen before. There was nothing to do but throw out the boots and grab a second pair. I’m thankful I HAD a second pair! My husband insisted I also have a pair of Herman Survivors, and they are still in my closet. They weigh a TON, and make my ankles and legs hurt when I wear them. It would need to be so cold outside that no one in their right mind would GO out in order for me to wear them. The ones I have on are mainly ‘hiking’ boots, I guess, but they’re much lighter weight and have rubber soles for the wet. Even if we have to walk up the steep driveway (650+ feet) when we get home, I should be fine. I have a warm coat, hat, and gloves, as well.
I wish I looked HALF as cute in my gear as the child at the top of this post. :0)
It would seem that refilling a prescription should be a simple thing. You order, you pay, you receive –
Except when your provider decides to quadruple (that’s right) the price of your prescription. You look on the net for other providers. They’re as bad, or worse. No generics, either.
I finally found a source outside the country. I’ve used them before and was delighted to find that their price is 1/4 of ours. Then my doc said they don’t provide paper prescriptions anymore. When I explained my problem – detail – she relented. We picked it up, sent an image to the outside pharmacy, as well as all but our first grade report card, paid, and then also mailed the prescription. We received it just fine. End of story? NO…
The next time they were out. So was everyone else. A generic was offered. HOOORAAAAAY!!!!!! I ordered, paid, and we waited. We got the box, but instead of 100 tablets, we got 10.
I went on chat and told them about my problem. The department that handled problems would call me last Thursday – or Friday – or…. of COURSE they called when we were out this morning.
I called. They were too busy. I called back. A nice lady is now expediting a replacement of the order for which we have already paid. We should have it in a little over two weeks – keeping all appendages crossed.
It would be NICE – when your husband’s life depends on a prescription – if it didn’t cause you to have to hock the dog in order to pay for it and jump through countless hoops in order to get it. Just NICE.
We got our morning stuff done (gathering and putting trash at the bottom of the driveway for pick up tomorrow, getting mail, replenishing groceries in CASE the weather folks are right about snow tomorrow) are back home now with things put away. We got drenched several times. It seemed to ME that Mother Nature was laughing her head off at us, in that every time we got out of the car, the rain “turned on” – coming down in a whoosh – and then stopped when we were inside, over and over. Anyhow, her reason for the giggles is over now. We’re in for the rest of the day now.
I listed the 7 pairs of wood-burned wooden earrings I made recently on Etsy yesterday. Some are just wood burned. Others are also painted. I’m going to play in my art room this afternoon (I think) and see what else I can come up with. I’m enjoying trying to get the feel of the tool, learning what the different tips can do, and experimenting with creating designs.
Right now I’m fighting on the phone about a messed-up order. Hope your day is now going better than mine. :0)
I want you to know that I’m not as dumb as I look! I figured out TWO things recently that I’ve been TRYING to do it seems like forever –
THING ONE – I used to add captions and credits to pictures on my blog with no problem. Then – the people who get paid to keep the website up to date, make it easy to navigate, and on the cutting edge, came in and ‘improved’ WordPress (this host) and disappeared my ability to caption or credit the way I used to. I tried and tried, and finally gave up, just putting the credit on the next line as close to the picture as I could. Suddenly, in the middle of nothing, I right-clicked ON a picture instead of elsewhere, and a box for caption and credit popped up! Yureka!!!!! I am newly ‘en-franchised’ now. :0)
THING TWO – I told you that I have been working to improve my Etsy site. I have fought with making and installing a banner across the top, have made and installed a new logo, and have mostly finished describing my products in a different way that SEEMS to be slowly increasing my “traffic” (visits to the site).
I’ve been unhappy with the names of my product sections for a long time. I have also been upset that I couldn’t reorganize the categories in a different order on the page. I fought and fought this morning, after having added two of my new wood-burned earrings to the site, trying to change the name of the earring section and also to figure out a way to have the three types of earrings I offer to be listed as sections one after the other to the left of the page, instead of having people have to scroll down to SEE I make stud and clip earrings, as well as dangles. I FINALLY found a place that allowed me to change the names of the sections and reorder them! HOORAAAAAAY! :0)
I’m not as dumb as I look, nor am I dead yet!!!!!!!! There is still life in the old girl!
Now that I’ve done that, I need to take a gazillion pics after putting the hardware on the rest of the earrings I wood-burned and add them to the site. I hope to be able to finish that today.
It feels so GOOOOOD to have finally made some progress.
I wood-burned these earrings yesterday. I’m adding the hardware and adding them to HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy today. Then I’m going to watch another video and put my efforts in another direction. From looking at the Etsy site, it looks like most people are doing laser wood-burning, rather than anything by hand. Maybe I should be getting a “message” from this…. :0)
It’s supposed to be an amazing day, weather-wise. 57 degrees for a high this afternoon. Woo HOOOO! I LOVE IT! I’m hoping we JUST get rain tomorrow and Tuesday, when we’re due at the dentist. Fingers remain crossed.
“What a difference a day made, twenty four little hours Brought the sun and the flowers where there use to be rain” (and snow!) ~ song by Jamie Cullum
skiresort.info
We are no longer snowed in! The temperature came up to the low 40s by mid afternoon and turned our ski slope back into our regular steep driveway. Hooraaaaaaay! The next bad weather is forecast for Monday (heavy rain) and then Tuesday morning (when we’re supposed to be driving to Ft. Smith for our dental cleaning appointment) “snow showers will move in for Tuesday. Current accumulation estimates are between 1 to 2 inches of snow by Tuesday evening…..” I hope we can get to the dentist and back up to the house before it gives us a problem.
Pinterest
I did my yoga stretches like a good girl yesterday, put the third star on my calendar for the week, and felt some of the positions were getting a bit easier. I keep reminding myself that Cat Kabira, the wonderful lady in Gentle Yoga DVD series, said that stretching TOWARD the position and breathing into it were as beneficial for us as actually touching the floor when we tried to touch our toes, or…. I actually felt I was making some progress yesterday!
Alamy
SMALL RANT/PET PEEVE – I was trying to come up with Cat’s name on the previous paragraph and my mind was producing a blank, so I tried to look it up. I found “Yoga for the Elderly” or something similar and immediately bristled. I don’t CARE if that DVD is the best thing on the planet. I wouldn’t buy it because of its name. GRRRRR! Same thing as a local clothes store here called “Heifer Boutique.” I’ve probably lost my sense of humor, but even if all the clothes in there fit me like a glove and made me look like Julia Roberts, I wouldn’t go in there. I don’t WANT to buy clothes from a place of that name! END OF RANT.
Lowe’s
I’m going to try to wood burn some wooden earrings in my art room today. I still don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but I’m ready to see if I can make something I like. Wish me luck?
Women’s Health
Shout-out – Michael Remillard, our treasured hair stylist ( 479-357-9305) who is celebrating a birthday today.
As of today there is almost 19 pounds less of me. (18.8) I’m hoping I can get to 20 off soon, as that will motivate me to put less in my mouth and move more. :0)
I was under the weather yesterday, so didn’t do my yoga. Happily, that doesn’t happen often, so I should be on track for a good bunch of stretches this afternoon. I’m also doing laundry, vacuuming, cooking, and general cleaning up, so that may help, too.
I’m using MyFitnessPal.com again, as well, trying to be accountable for all ‘going in’ so I can tweak things, if needed. My husband is happy with our eating plan, so that is very helpful.
We don’t have a large accumulation of snow, but you can’t see where our driveway begins or ends and we’re snowed in. It’s 35 and quite windy. I called, texted, and sent carrier pigeons to let our Lunch Buddies know we couldn’t get there today.
O’Connor Dental Care
The thing I’m most worried about now is our dental appointments Tuesday. They emailed my husband and texted me yesterday, and we both confirmed we were planning to be there Tuesday. Now this. With the forecast for more snow showers, I’m not sure what to do. The dentist charges $150 if you don’t cancel 3 days before. They don’t work today, Sat, or Sun. I have texted them about the problem and we’ll just have to see what happens. We can’t afford to pay for services NOT rendered, but I realize the dentist suffers losses when his patients don’t show up or give him a chance to schedule someone else in our place. Did I tell you I’m not fond of winter?
I just finished getting the makings of beef stew in the crock pot for tonight. We are safe and warm on top of our ridge line, so I have no complaints. Nothing excited planned for the day. Our local schools are open, so the streets must be reasonable, although we can’t get down to the street in front of the house. Maybe it will warm up, or rain will take the snow away….
123RF.com
Laundry, wood-burning, reading, listening to music – NICE day.
It’s wonderful to see my husband excited about getting set up to do something different. He has ordered two kinds of wire for the new MIG welder – one to be used with gas, and the other with electric. We’re going to get CO2 for it at the welding supply place today. He’s watching YouTube videos and dreaming. :0)
__________
He is also encouraging MY efforts on my new wood burning tool. I’m experimenting with a large piece of scrap wood, trying to use the different nibs, figuring out what to do with them. Jannie at BurnSavvy.com is helping give me confidence to keep experimenting. Here is my latest effort –
____________
Yesterday was Day Two of doing my old lady yoga stretches. As I expected, it was harder than Day One, dealing with a combination of the mess I am now PLUS my body yelling about the stretches the day before. I went ahead and did the best I could, expecting that TODAY may be a bit easier.
My husband still lives, even after coming in while I was doing my yoga. I was sitting on my mat, legs together stretched out in front of me. I was bent over as far as I could reach, stretching my back deeply, reaching for my toes. My husband asked, “When do you start stretching?” GRRRRRRR! :0(
______________
I was encouraged by some stats on my blog this morning. I got curious to see how the traffic to my blog had changed since I started it. In 2019 I had 56,306 visitors to CreativeArtworksBlog. In 2023 I had 437,808. That’s really nice. :0)
“Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” – Agnes Sligh Turnbull
“I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source.” – Doris Day
Bailey
“Did you know that there are over 300 words for love in canine?” – Gabriel Zevin
I put a star on my desk calendar yesterday because I FINALLY did my half hour or so practice of yoga stretches yesterday for the first time in a long time.
My head is so hard that I have to keep proving to myself that I NEED to do these stretches. If I don’t, for some reason I tend to “pull everything in”, hunching my shoulders, compressing all my muscles, trying to make myself into a big ball, I guess. I’m not aware of it while I’m doing it, but the result is lots of stiffness and soreness and feeling-old-ness.
It was difficult yesterday. Every time I started to stretch in any direction, I would get a cramp, having to breathe through it and try to work it out calmly. Then I would continue to stretch as carefully as I could, into the pose. Hopefully it will be a bit easier each day until my body doesn’t think it’s being ‘attacked.’ I’ll try for another star today. :0)
____________
First attempts with the new wood-burning tool. I’m working my way through all the different nibs, trying to see what each will do, trying to get a feel for what I’m doing. I’m also watching the wonderfully talented lady on YouTube who patiently guides everyone through their first efforts, making you feel that it’s possible you won’t feel so awkward and clumsy if you continue to practice. I’m having a good time now and haven’t burned myself or anything else besides the wood yet. :0)
Today I’m planning to put on my ‘responsible adult’ hat and try to catch up on my computer financial spreadsheets. Several years ago I started these, trying to keep up with our tax records monthly. It really helped. I’ve gotten behind lately, so I’ll try to get November done today, and hopefully go right into December when I finish that.
I hope you’re having a safe, warm, and dry Wednesday.
I just recently found this artist on X (formerly Twitter). I think he’s wonderful.
This is more of his work. I wish him a great 2024 and much success.
We are having a quiet day, and we’re about to fix some lunch. We just gathered our trash and drove it down to the bottom of our driveway for pickup tomorrow. We got our mail and came back up, thoroughly chilled. It’s supposedly 40 outside right now, but it seems much colder. A great day to stay inside.
I’m going to do two things this afternoon –
Thing One – do more experimenting with my wood-burning tool. I’m changing the nib on the tool each time so I can get a feel of what each one does. It’s exciting to be doing something completely new.
Thing Two – I’m going to do at least 30 minutes yoga stretching. Yes. REALLY. I know I often intend to do it, but don’t actually get down on the floor with the mat and DO it. Today I will. REALLY. (I have an encouragement thing going with a much-loved friend. SHE is going to peddle on her exercise thing and I am going to do my yoga stretches. We’ve both been making excuses and are trying to do better.)
I had a subscriber write and ask me how to unsubscribe this morning. I thought an ‘unsubscribe’ button was automatically included on the blog website pages and certainly at the bottom of emails or texts people receive from me.
I found out that there wasn’t one on my blog that I could find, so I looked for one I could add. I couldn’t find one. That frustrated me. I then researched further, and found instructions to unsubscribe. They are –
_________________
Unsubscribe From a Blog
To stop following a blog’s updates, follow these steps:
Click on Reader in the WordPress.com toolbar. (upper left on your screen)
On the right side of the screen, click the “Manage” link next to your existing Subscriptions.
Click the three dots next to the title of a specific blog you’re subscribed to.
Choose “Unsubscribe“.
_____________________
I did this, and found a LOT of things to which I’VE subscribed in the past, and some I didn’t even remember. I’m going to clean those out this morning.
I have had others contact me over the years, and I can go to my list, find their name or email address or website, and delete them. No muss, no fuss. This isn’t possible when I don’t have any of that information, as was the case this morning.
I realize that I write a lot. Sometimes I have to cut myself off because my intention is NOT to bury you in emails on your computer or messages on your phone. Every person’s definition of ‘too much’ is different and I respect that.
If you would like to unsubscribe, 1) comment to a post on the blog and I’ll handle it if I have your information, 2) follow the directions on this post, or 3) you can always email me at lindawlewis1@gmail.com and ask me to help.
Sorry I can’t seem to find information on adding an unsubscribe button.
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.” ~ Neil Gaiman, British author
Gathered
I spent some time in my art room yesterday experimenting with my new wood burning tool. I WISH I could do what you see above. So far, MY stuff compares reasonably well with a 4-year-old with crayons, but the images wouldn’t make it to the fridge door, even if you loved me. :0)
Happily, I found a wonderful source of help. A wonderful lady name Jannie Lisonbee has recorded YouTube videos on pyrography that I’m just starting to watch. I watched one yesterday of the 7 things she wished she had known before she started. She also has a website called Burn Savvy.com that shows various nibs and what they’re used for – just what I was looking for! I just signed up for her newsletter and emails. I feel like I won the lottery – well, ALMOST….
Our backyard neighbors didn’t feel obligated to put on a fireworks show to entertain the Lewises at midnight, so we just hugged each other, said “Happy New Year” and went to bed around 12:30.
Today is cool and crisp, nice and sunny.
My husband’s Christmas present was a MIG wire welder. He’s enjoying playing with it, buying stuff to use with it, reading about it in the manual that came with it, and online. He wants to set it up for gas AND electric. He’s found some videos on people making things with it, and so is in “Hog Heaven.”
MY present was my wood-burning tool, and then I ordered some replacement kitchen knives. They are ceramic and called, “Kyocera.” I truly love them and use what I have every day. I’ve had the set for several years, but, sadly, I chipped two. I’m still using them, but I decided that I would really enjoy having ones that weren’t chipped.
My only New Year’s Resolution is to try to give myself a break. One thing in particular is my new ‘habit’ of hitting the backs of my hands on things, causing large bruises. (I’ve TRIED telling my friends that my husband is abusing me, but they don’t believe it. They know I’m just a clutz.) I don’t know I’ve done it until AFTER I’ve clobbered one hand (or both) again. It would be nice to be bruise-free at least every once in a while. :0)
This Calvin & Hobbes piece we made will go up on our mailbox today or tomorrow.
creativeartworksblog 