Tantrum
Zimbabwe
Liana Desat
Dark Ages
Child Bride
Greg Beecham Studio
A Quick Turn-Around
Beware the Stranger
Born to be Wild
Repose
Tatting
Whiskey Mountain Boys
Greg Beecham Studio – @gregbeechamart on X
Filed under animal paintings, Greg Beecham Wildlife Art
Felted Wool Art
Instagram.com
justsimplesomething.blogspot.com
justsimplesomethings.blogspot.com
media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com
Filed under Embroidery/Sewing Art, Felted Wool Art
Beautiful Fall Sunday 11-5-2023
quhl – @quhl5 on X
It’s a beautiful fall day here in Arkansas. I’ve been whining and gritching about it being too hot or too cold, so I thought I would make a point of praising the weather today. Mother Nature’s head is ‘on straight,’ and her nose is ‘in joint,’ so the weather is truly nice. It’s 58 here right now and the high is supposed to be 77 this afternoon.
I’m trying to follow a new routine of doing something ‘significant’ outside each day, make progress on my glassware etching, do something significant in the house, and then spend time on the computer/reading/and/or listening to music – short sessions of each of these over and over throughout the day, plus do my yoga practice each afternoon in an effort to get off my rear, get things accomplished without hurting myself, and feel good about my progress each day.
Yesterday my outdoor project was to cut off the dead elephant ear stalks. I’m leaving what’s left now to dry out before cutting more. When I get them cut off at the soil level or just below, I’ll cram as many leaves as I can in the planter for the winter.
My outdoor project for today is cleaning up the raised bed square foot garden planters and covering them with tarps for the winter. I’ll at least get started with that today and see how it goes.
One of my pet peeves is rearing its head today – Daylight Savings Time. I just read a mishmash of ‘reasons’ we have it at all, and the fact that Congress can’t decide – IF they decide to stop having it – whether to keep Daylight Savings Time permanent or use Standard Time. (And we wonder why we’re in such a mess these days.) End of rant.
I hope that your day is beautiful and that you manage to cram as much fun into it as possible. :0)
Humor Needed
Vince, the sign guy – Indian Hills Community Center
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, Indian Hills Signs, punny
Paul Miller Wildlife Art
Paul Miller Wildlife Art – @Paulmillerart on X
Ethereal
Susan – Pinterest
Somehow I just needed to be “eased-into” today with something soft, fragile, and beautiful. I don’t know for sure if these are paintings or photos, but I think they’re exquisite.
Filed under Favorite Things
Gifts From Mark Gray
Art by Mr. Barghest
Potted Goblin
Aldous Turnpike-Skull Polisher
Mr.Barghest – @Mr_barghest_ on X
He describes himself on his X profile as, “Artist, Illustrator and occasional sculptor.” I describe him as clever, delightful, and humorous, and, of course, talented. I love it when I’m scrolling and find another of his creations.
Bits and Pieces
“When I offer to wash your back in the shower, all you have to say is ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Not all this “Who are you and how did you get in here?” nonsense.”
Pinterest – I love this. I wish I knew who the artist is. I almost expect these sweet little girls to move!
I’m going to go upstairs in a bit and work on the glassware project. I received the kit of diamond bits for the Dremel. My husband confirmed that I’m SUPPOSED to be able to simply pull the current bit out of the Dremel and push the new one in. Time will tell…
String Art is another area that is evolving beyond belief. I love the whole idea of this art form, and I’m amazed at the creativity shown by the artists. Here is the latest one I’ve found. It simply knocks my socks off.
StringArtByOlesia-Etsy
Ian Bourne Art – @IanBourneArt on X
Lil Ol Couple – Hippopottermiss on DeviantArt.com
Mozaico
Filed under Favorite Things
It’s Friday 11-3-2023
Quora
We’re leaving for Lunch Bunch in about half an hour. I haven’t heard from anyone. That USED to mean that everyone was planning to be there. These days it doesn’t mean much. We just leave, get our mail, show up and see if anyone else is there. If they aren’t, we enjoy talking with the restaurant owner and our wonderful waitress and eat our lunch and leave. If someone else shows up, we enjoy lots of catching up and laughter.
I’m working on my glassware etching presents. I can only so really short sessions because arthritis in my thumbs makes its presence known after a few minutes. I’m trying to do several sessions each day I can.
Meanwhile, I’m using the smaller dremel that my husband had in the shop. The pencil type engraver I bought just isn’t doing the job. I’m hoping that I can limp along with this one, doing the free-form designs I’d like between the stenciled designs I did on each glass with the chemical etching stuff. I’ve bought a set of diamond bits that I might be able to use. They should be here soon.
I’m having a good time, certainly more than challenged. The jury is still out on whether I’ll give them to my friends or pitch them.
If the weather is cooperative, I plan to get outside this afternoon and do something in the clean-up-the-yard project.
Have a safe, happy day. It’s Friday!
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
I Earned Half a Bear!
I’m not sure which of these pictures (or either of them) clearly shows you that I’m half way to an old Nutrisystem reward bear that says, “20”. I have officially lost 15 pounds this morning.
I know I told you a couple of days ago that I had lost 14.4, but 15 is much more satisfying as a number. :0)
I have a long way to go on my journey, but I’m starting to feel I may have a handle on what works for me, if I can just keep my act together.
The basics for an older-than-dirt lady like me are –
- Intermittent fasting from after dinner at night until lunch the following day.
- I eat mostly protein and share an apple with my husband for lunch
- For dinner we eat either portion-controlled leftovers from my cooking or occasionally a commercial frozen dinner (Healthy Choice/Atkins), sometimes a side veggie, plus one dinner roll with butter.
- I’m trying to drink lots more water during the day
- I’m trying to move more – walking out to the shop, working out in the yard, plus doing a session of old lady yoga stretches each afternoon with some extra exercises thrown in.
This is what is finally working for me, and I have all appendages crossed that I will earn the 2nd side of the ’20’ bear soon.
Filed under DIET!, exercise, getting the lard off
Autumn Joy
Filed under .gifs I Love, Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts, Seasons, video
Beautiful Photos
Rick Bowden – @rickbowdenphoto on X
Ariaa – @AriaaJaeger on X
Daniel J Greenwood – @DigitalDanielG on X
Ken James – @openshutter21 on X
Ken James – @openshutter21 on X
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography
Thursday 11-2-2023
Zeel
In about an hour I leave for my rescheduled massage. My body is telling me, “Yes, please. THANKS.” We had to reschedule because my massage therapist was exposed to Covid and I didn’t want to risk bringing it back to my husband.
I had to change the diamond bit in my dremel for my glassware project. I had trouble, so I asked my husband to help. We thought we had it in, but I found when I tried it, it wasn’t in securely. I brought it back down and we tried everything we could figure out to do, but it just wasn’t happening.
I started to try to look for another one on the net and my husband remembered that he thought he had one in the shop. He DID, so I THINK I’m back in business. I’ll try it this afternoon. :0)
The freezes for 4 days this week have pretty well taken care of the rest of the blooming roses, irises, and elephant ears now. :0( It’s supposed to start warming up tomorrow, so I’ll try to get outside and start the clean-up/clean-out, trying NOT to grind my teeth that Mother Nature decided to take these from us at least a month early.
My husband woke me up at 4:30 this morning, talking. After I woke up enough, he was telling me he was answering MY question, which he said was, “Who has the power?” I never did figure out what the answer to that was, or why he thought I had asked him that, but threatened him within an inch of his life if he didn’t quit talking and go back to sleep. It took me a LONG time to finally drop off again.
I wish you an enjoyable day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Mother Nature is Laughing at Me
Freepik
Mother Nature is thumbing her nose and laughing at me. First, she gave us much-warmer-than-normal temperatures, followed by 4 days of hard freezes, and will follow this up starting Friday with highs in the 60s and 70s. I might handle this with a bit more grace if my plants’ lives weren’t in the balance.
In the course of these 4 freezes, I’m losing ALL of the rest of my flowers and my elephant ears.
Example:
I read where I’m ‘supposed’ to dig up the bulbs and store them in peat moss in the garage until spring. I did that two years in a row, once in our garage and the next year in our shop, and both were complete disasters. I ended up each spring with ‘blobs’ instead of bulbs, and had to pitch them.
For the past two years, I just left the bulbs in this planter, cut the stems off as close to the soil -or just beneath the soil- as possible and then filled the planter with as many leaves as possible.
This past year was the best year EVER for my elephant ears, with them almost covering the window and shutters of the garage, reaching WAY above my head and being extremely happy plants.
SO – I’ll do my new procedure of cutting them off (probably this weekend) and will make sure to stuff as many leaves from the yard in there as possible and then hope for the best for the spring.
Filed under Gardening
Withdrawal Help for Halloweeners
Do you get caught up on all the hoopla around a holiday and have trouble going on with life afterward? Here are some skeleton art images that hopefully will help us through today and get back to ‘normal.’
These were gathered into an article by Ezzly on hubpages.com. I hope they helped you as much as they did me.
Very Small Celebration
4ArtWorks
My scales weren’t quite so snarky this morning, registering my loss of almost 15 pounds – finally. Even a turtle looks like a race car in comparison to my weight loss, but it IS happening, and I AM learning healthier habits. So, a very small celebration of moving in the right direction plus “keepin’-on-keepin’-on!”
Filed under DIET!, getting the lard off
Phunhaus’ Favorite
This was shared with me by ‘phunhaus’ as her favorite decoration for Halloween. Can you imagine the reaction of the neighborhood kids plus spider-phobes? :0)
While we’re at it, I found a couple more images to get you in the mood for the critters tonight –
@Britton65Sam on X
Steve Blumke
Enjoy your night!
Filed under Halloween - How Do You Carve YOUR Pumpkin?
Thoughts on Halloween 2023
BBC
It was 26 this morning here. It’s a balmy 40 degrees now and sunshine. It FEELS really cold. We have this “unseasonably cold” weather through Thursday, and then it will probably be “unseasonably warm” after that until Mother Nature can make up her mind which season she would like us to have. (The high is supposed to be 74 on Saturday, after killing off all our remaining flowers, elephant ears, etc. :0( I shouldn’t be griping. I know that people got snow recently, and THAT is surely unseasonable in the fall).
I’m still smiling from yesterday, when I was parked at the bottom of our drive, trying to roll the big trash can down to the road without falling on my rear. The lady who delivers our mail drove by and we waved. She went down to the next house, then turned around and came back to give me our mail, saying, “Just wanted to save you another trip.” (Isn’t that NICE?)
She then asked, “Who makes all the art?” When I told her my husband and I made the stuff together, she said, “I just love it when I can drive up your driveway. I notice something different every time I come. I just love it.”
When I got back up to the house, I told my husband. We love it when someone takes the time to say something, particularly when it’s out of the blue and could easily NOT be said, that they enjoy what we’ve done.
Can you see me grinning and walking about 3 inches up off the ground?
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Just Beautiful
Thanks to Jonathan Slater – @paulsla1539372 on X
Boo! Halloween 2023
This HAS to be my all-time favorite Halloween decoration. He’s just so awful he’s cute. I wish I knew who had created him.
Steve Blumke
I had never heard of Steve Blumke before, but apparently he is to Halloween decorations what Ray Villafane is to pumpkin carving. They are both masters.
sun-gazing.com – Sam – @Britton65Sam on X
I’ve talked to you about my sometimes fantasy of having a huge hole dug in our back yard so I can throw my husband in it. Maybe I should consider the timing as during the Halloween season….
I wish you the happiest of Halloweens tonight!
Filed under Halloween - How Do You Carve YOUR Pumpkin?
Pat, Pat, Pat
Murder Drones Wiki
I’m feeling like I got something important accomplished.
My purse is a bottomless pit. I admit it here, but not often, and not without defensiveness. When we’re out, I’M supposed to have everything we need for errands, for identity, money, notes, paper, kleenex, etc. Soooooo…..
That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.
BUT – My friend, Kay, lost her wallet last week and has been going through a really bad time trying to figure out what she lost and replace things. I decided that I couldn’t – if my life depended on it – list what was in my purse OR my wallet – and decided I would take time to take everything out of both, go through everything, throw stuff away, reorganize what was left, and create a list with specifics that I have printed and will keep in my office.
I just now finished. I guess it took me a good hour to do it, but I feel more confident that I’m not carrying a bunch of stuff I don’t need to, and that I have things more organized. This will also make sure that I don’t ever NEED the list. It’s like locking your keys in your car. You do it once, and it’s such a pain you learn to never do it again. :0)
It reminded me that my husband has a birthday coming up. I checked his driver’s license to be sure he isn’t up for renewal. Then I checked mine – and I WILL have to renew in March. I’ve now put this on my desk and computer calendars….
So, I did something I’ve been putting off for a LONG time and am patting myself on the head a bit that I did something good today.
Filed under Organizing/DeCluttering
Weird AR Weather
Freepik
Two days ago we had the front and back doors open, the ceiling fans on, enjoying a nice breeze. Now we have freeze warnings through Thursday, causing a flurry of activity yesterday in the Lewis household, trying to prevent pipes from freezing, turning off irrigation systems, etc.
The thing is, once we get through Thursday, we have lots warmer weather coming – no freezes and highs in the mid to upper 60s and 70s!
What I want to know is – who is in charge? I would like to lodge a note of diplomatic protest to the powers that be for this to be changed – along with Daylight Savings Time…
Who’s with me?
Halloween Sweet Treats
I love all the ghoulish, scary stuff that people create for Halloween. I laugh at the wonderful skeleton art and simply can’t find enough of that. There is also a SWEET side to Halloween through photography and artwork that rounds out the “special-ness” of the holiday nicely –
“Seasonal Greetings” – Mr. Barghest – @Mr_barghest_ on X
“Let Spooky Season Commence” – Mr. Barghest – @Mr_barghest_ on X
Gregario Catarino – @gregcatarino1 on X
And the award for one of the sweetest Halloween photos I’ve EVER seen goes to – cutigers-@cutigs1 on X – My heart simply melted into a puddle when I saw this. Still does. :0)
Halloween-Eve 2023
Amy D. Pinterest
Sandy Brower – Pinterest
Artur Luczak
I’m delighted that people are getting into ‘skeleton art,’ and I’m a bit disappointed that they haven’t expanded the creativity and humor into other holidays yet. Maybe one day.
In the meantime, Artur Luczak shows us how a master carves a pumpkin (or two) into works of art.
Freeze Prep 10-29-2023
We usually prep for the winter before the middle of November, just in case. This year, we just came in from a quick trip around the yard to prep for what looks like 4 days in a row, starting tomorrow, of morning freezes!
My husband had a couple of strokes the past couple of years, and sometimes he blanks on how to do things. He’s always been the go-to and fix-it guy who knows how to do everything, so I have relied heavily on his expertise. Now he looks at ME and says, “I don’t know how to turn off the irrigation systems in the well house.” GULP.
I found the paperwork for those in the files, thank goodness, and found it was very straight-forward. We went out there and I did that, showing him what I was doing. We then found the electric heater thingie that sits on the floor out there. It monitors the temperature inside the well house. If it decides it’s too cool, it automatically turns on, making sure the pipes don’t freeze out there. I got that going. My husband wanted to fight with lighting the propane wall heater, but I told him we could wait on that, since we’re only supposed to have 4 days of freezes and then we’re supposed to be back into the 50s and 40s for lows for quite awhile.
We made our way around the yard, unhooking hoses (after I went back into the house and found a set of pliers). I found the styrofoam caps for the faucets and we got those installed. We unhooked the hose from the free-standing faucet that controls water to the garden and got that shut down.
Inside, I propped open the cabinets under the sink in the utility room bathroom and made sure the electric sensor heater we have under there was on. I’ll do the same thing upstairs later under my husband’s master bathroom sink.
We turned on the heater for the house for the first time this season. We’ll do the same upstairs later, if we need to. Otherwise, we’ll just turn OFF the a/c up there! We’re laying a fire in the fireplace in the living room in case it’s needed.
And that should be it.
We’ll do the heavier, more serious winter prep when we see the weather has, indeed, decided we’ll skip fall and go straight to winter.
Time for coffee!
Filed under Seasons
creativeartworksblog 