29 January 2009

Thursday Looks to be Starting out Good...

The weather warmed up and melted all that snow. My water pipes unfroze and I'm a happy camper this morning.
My sleep is under control somewhat...I'm tired all the time but at least I'm sleeping at night now and not up all night and sleeping all day! I'm sure that will change though..it never lasts for long!

I'm going to be gone for a few days next week. My son is having surgery on his back in Kansas City and I'll be going to be there for him if he needs me. The boy is in a lot of pain and it's past time to do something about it. It's an 8 hour surgery him. I'm in hopes he will feel much better once they fix the problems in his back. Keep him in your prayers if you're so inclined to pray. His surgery is scheduled for Wednesday. I won't be anywhere near a computer for at least three days. Maybe longer. All depends on who I ride to KC with and how RJs surgery goes.

I'm still plugging away at my whimsical cats. No further progress to report on those. I'll show them to you all as I get them done. I'll be taking art stuff with me to KC. Probably not cat stuff, but I have other swaps to work on as well.

I entered another tree chunky page swap. Yep, you'll be seeing more money trees.

Super Bowl Sunday is fast approaching. If I'm not mistaken it is the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals? I'm really not certain just who is in the Super Bowl this year. I'm going to the Super Bowl Party for the food more than the football! Though I do like to watch football occasionally. Men are extremely funny creatures when football season rolls around and the ones I know become fanatics when Super Bowl rolls around. Should be a fun time. I'll be going into town to my friends' house for the wing ding. Not sure what food I'll be bringing. I was going to make brownies but Miss Allison informs me her mama is making brownines so I'll have to figure out something else. Will have to raid my cupboards cause I am broke and can't go buy something for the party... no problem! I'll figure out something.

I read two more books last night. I am very fast reader! Course these two newest books didn't have an abundance of pages either. The book about Mount St. Helens' eruption was very fascinating. I can remember when it blew its top but had never read any accounts (other than newspaper stories) about it. That book had about 100 pages. The book about the earthquake in Los Angeles back in '71 was pretty informative as well. It was more pictures than words though. It had about a 100 pages as well. Both of those books have been sitting in a bookshelf for over a year now.

I really wish my camera was in working order...it and the pc refuse to talk to one another...I would have taken a picture of my visitors the other morning. There's a open field to the north of my house. It was planted to milo last year, just stubble out there now. RJ was here that morning, standing in the deskroom, looking out the window. He asked me where my binoculars were. They were in the van and it was cold and snowy out that morning. I asked him what was out there. "Either turkeys or deer, I'm not quite sure which." Turns out they were deer, much closer to the house than the boy first thought. Nine of them out there pawing at the snow to get to the milo stubble beneath. I like it when the deer visit the field out back. Susan saw three deer in her driveway the other night when she came home. They were probably part of the herd RJ and I saw out the deskroom window.

We have an extra cat these days as well. Big grey striped and white cat. I haven't been able to get close enough to it to know if it's a friendly cat or not. I saw it out the front door window the day before yesterday. Ma said there was one hanging around last week. Her cat, Sam came home with a boogered up ear, he'd been fighting with someone. Probably the extra cat. I'm wondering if Billy's sore tail isn't a result of a schirmish with the extra cat? His tail is healing nicely!
Where'd the other cat come from? Your guess is as good as mine but I'm guessing someone dumped it out here thinking we'd take it in. We don't usually take the strays in. If they are wild critters, unused to human contact, Ma will live trap them and take them elsewhere. You can't change the thinkings of an old woman, least not that one! Cat can stay so long as he behaves himself, doesn't fight with my cats, Susan's cats or Ma's cat. If it's a friendly cat, it may even end up a house cat. People think just cause other people live out here, they can safely dump a cat and it will find a new home. We have six cats between us and six cats is more than enough! There's plenty of rodents to be caught out in the storage shed. He's more than welcome to kill as many of them as he needs. I'd put food out for him, but Fred would just eat it and I can barely afford to feed the mouths I have to feed now. This won't be the last extra cat that shows up out here. There have been many in the eight years I've lived out here.

Billy is feeling much more chipper these days. His tail is healing and he's up to his old shenanigans. Climbing the curtains! Running through the house! I found him asleep in the linen closet in the bathroom this morning. Sleeping atop the clean towels. Opened that cupboard door all by himself and climbed right in.
Miss Blue is sitting atop the pc monitor right now staring at herself in the mirror on the wall. She was asleep on my feet when I woke up earlier and has followed me throughout the house since I got up.
Doob's still asleep in bed. She's always asleep in bed unless she's at the food bowl.
Fred's gone outside.

It's beautiful out there this morning...a little chilly, the thermometer in the livingroom says it is 31F out there. It's nice and sunny though. Fred's asleep on the front lawn. Looks like it might be a really good weather day!

I have dishes to do. So, I'll stop yakking at you all and go do them! You all have a fantastic Thursday and get you some hugs today!
Peace
831

27 January 2009

Things I Am Thankful For and More

Snow is falling again on my little piece of earth. Big, fluffy flakes of frozen water. God's miraculous artwork in miniature! Have you ever really taken a look at a snowflake as it lands on a window pane? Marvelous!
Fred went out a little while ago to frolick in the snow. Ok, he went out to pee, but frolick he did as well! When he barked to be let back in, his black fur was covered with white flecks. Each little fleck a masterpiece from the Maker's own hand. Snowflakes, as individuals, fascinate me! Snowflakes, enmass, they're kind of a pain in the pattootie! Wonderous nonetheless.

Yesterday brought us just under two inches of snow. With the size of the flakes falling right now, I'd say we are in for another couple of inches. It is awfully cold out side! I'm thankful I don't have anywhere I need to go today. Driving could be treacherous. I think I'll just stick close to home. I may go to Susan's house later, but I don't have to fire up the van to go there. I'll just bundle up in my warm cape and traipse across the yard to her doorstep.

I was reading on this machine and came across a list of 'Things I'm Thankful For'. It truly doesn't hurt to sometimes step back and assess those things we take for granted. There were no rules to the list. Just make one stating all the things you are grateful for. I thought I would make my list here. Feel free to make your own list and post it in my comments or on your own blog.

The Things I Am Thankful For (in no particular order.)

I am thankful I know how to read. There are millions of people the world over who don't have that ability.

I am thankful for my eyesight, fading as it is, that I can see well enough to write this blog entry and read others' words as well.

I am thankful for the roof above my head. No morgage payment and no sign of having to pack up house and move again.

I am thankful for my animal companions. They keep me from being too lonely at times.

I am thankful for my bed. There are those who sleep on the ground!

I am thankful for my blogger friends and the fact they read my ramblings then sometimes comment on those ramblings. That makes me feel more connected to the world.

I am thankful for my coffee pot and the fact I can turn that sucker on anytime I like.

I am thankful for the electricity that makes my life easier. There are some who don't have the luxury of electricity.

I am thankful for my mode of transportation even when that stupid van doesn't start cause it's too cold outside.

I am thankful for my sons. Each a treasure in their own right. They take good care of me and never fail to say "I love you, Mom" when they come to visit or call.

I am thankful for experiences passed. From yesterday I learn how to live differently tomorrow.

I am thankful for being able to express myself through artwork.

I am thankful for trees. Without trees, life is barren. I learned that while living in the desert of Nevada many years ago. I missed a lot of things being away from those I love, but I missed trees most of all.

I am thankful for cows, chickens, turkeys and swine. They give me sustinance when they sacrifice their lives to become my dinner.

I am thankful for my washing machine and dryer. Laundry would be a very large chore without the pair to ease the burden of keeping clean.

I am thankful for my telephone. It keeps me connected to people I love.

I am thankful for children. They teach me to keep wondering. When wonder is lost you've grown too old for life.

I am thankful for the clocks on my walls. Time is a motivator and without a clock to keep track of it for me, I'd get very little done!

I am thankful for vegetables. I love veggies! I eat them all with gusto!

I am thankful for my storage shed. It holds all the excess things I own and without it, I don't know where I'd put all that junk.

I am thankful for all that junk in the storage trailer cause it is there if I need any of it.

I am thankful for music. Music is a calming medicine. It is also a motivator, a joy, a necessity!

I am thankful my hearing is intact so I may enjoy music, the sound of my children's voices and the sound of the birds that sing in my yard.

I am thankful for laughter. In any form, it brings me a smile and lifts the spirits when most needed.

I am thankful for my family.

I am thankful for my mother. She loves me like no one else ever will!

I am thankful for sunshine, rain and snow. Weather conditions change hourly. It is good I have no control over the weather. There should be things in one's life they have no control over and the weather is the most benign of those things we have no control over. Give it up to God, He will take care whatever the weather throws at you.

I am thankful for the dictionary! And the thesaurus! And all the other reference books that help me in my writing.

I am thankful for a pen that writes smooth. I'm thankful for any writing instrument that will put mark on a sheet of paper when I feel the need to record some thoughts in my journal.

I am thankful for the hot water that comes out of my faucets!

I am thankful for my flashlight. It is a very useful tool at times.

I am thankful for the postal service, my mailbox and all the art that arrives to me via that mailbox on the other side of the highway.

I am thankful for propane. It heats my house in winter, heats my water and cooks my meals all year long.

I am thankful for the garbage truck that comes every Wednesday to haul away my refuse for the week. I'm thankful I have control over what ends up in the garbage truck from my refuse cans.

I am thankful for the little piece of ground that has my name on the title.

I am thankful for the color spetrum! How dull life would be seen only in shades of white and black.

I am thankful for my friends. They add variety to my life. They add love and smiles to my life. They take me as I am.

I am thankful for my new keyboard! Very thankful for it cause the old one was worn out. I'm thankful for the generosity of my friend, John, for seeing I got a new keyboard!

I am thankful for my electric blanket! I think the cats are even more thankful for it!

I am thankful for my freedom to worship as I choose.

I am thankful I live in the United States. I enjoy many things others around the world are refused.

I am thankful for my hairbrush. Keeping my long hair tangle-free without it would not be a fun experience everyday.

I am thankful for socks, shoes, clothes in general! I have an over filling closet full of wearables. There are those who have only one set of clothes and no shoes or socks for their feet.

I am thankful I have things to be thankful for!

I am thankful for life itself.

This is by no means a complete list of the things I am thankful for. I could sit here all day and keep adding to the list but I won't do that...I'll keep thinking about the things I'm thankful for and perhaps jot some of them down in my journal to share with you all another day.


Have yourselves a Terrific Tuesday, Friends.
Peace
831

26 January 2009

More Snow, A New Book Added and The Dog Is Still Crazy

I forgot to mention the artwork in the title, but if you read the last post, you'll already know there was going to be artwork in this post. So, here goes!

When I got up this morning I was going to work on my whimsical cats but when I sat down at the painting table and dilly dallied with the two cats already started, cats didn't feel right. I knew that if I continued to dilly dally with the cats I would ruin them! So I went to the livingroom, sat on the sofa with my lap desk and created the four ATCs you see here now. These are for the Handdrawn Pots Swap over at ATCsforall.com. I'll be sending them off sometime this week. I'm pleased with the results. Some of you are saying, "Hey, wait a minute! Those aren't pots! Those are vases, a basket and a clay vessel." Oh, I agree with you! Truly I do! It is explained in the description of the swap that the word pots refers to anything that can hold something else. (Or something to that effect.)






Others have drawn buckets, bowls and things of such. I like the third one the best, then the last one. I am pleased with all of them though. They're done in markers. Sharpies, Bic, and cheapos.
It's still snowing to beat the band. Susan went to town with me. We terrorized the grocery store. Well, not literally of course, but we made our presence known. She spent almost 70 dollars and I spent a whopping $3.14! lol And what did I buy for $3.14? A 2 litre bottle of Coke and 4 slices of frozen beef liver. Heck of a combination don't you think?
We also went to 1st Stop for gasoline. Their pumps are wonky! I put the nozzle into the gas tank and before I ever hit the lever to make gasoline flow, the read out said I'd obtained 2 cents of gasoline already! What's up with that??? It was very strange. I think it's wrong as well.
We got our 15 dollars worth of $1.79/gallon gasoline and headed south out of town. Snow coming down like crazy!
They called off school this morning because of this snow. What's up with that too? I can remember WALKING to school (3 miles to school!) in snow up to my knees! Children are spoiled these days! I can see them calling off school when the buses can't run, but this snow coming down (5pm now) isn't even two inches. The calling off of school just hit me wrong today, I guess. I know it's a safety issue, but I sometimes think we've become a society of pansies. Everyone's so hellbent on doing everything just right and we fail to remember that the little trials of life, like a bit of snow, only make us better equipped to handle the big trials, whatever they be.
Susan and I, Fred was along as well, took the chalk road south of town back to home. She owes me 50 cents for a bet I made with her. There's a chalk road on the south side of the river that takes you to Woodston...you can't get off that road till you get almost to Woodston.(I forget the name of that road)...she said she could get us across the river by taking that road. I said she couldn't. She said "I bet you I can!" I bet her 50 cents she couldn't and took that road. Snow flying like crazy! Road getting whiter by the minute. We got about half mile down that road and she realized she owes me 50 cents! There's a house on this road. As we came upon that house on our way back to the river road, the people who live in that house came buzzing out of their driveway. Had I not been paying attention we'd have crashed right into that blue mini van.
Susan said it was a good thing to have happened. Her reasoning: Those folks seldom see traffic coming from the east on that road cause ain't nothing out that way except farmland and there isn't much traffic there! She says by having a near miss with us they will remember that they should look BOTH ways before they exit their drive way. I agree with her.
It is Monday. I don't know if I'll be going into town to sit with the girls tonight or not. I haven't yet on a Monday this year... I suppose I'll get a phone call. We'll see. Makes me no difference one way or another if I go to town tonight or not. I'd rather stay home if truth be known. That van is parked in the upper driveway and it's a long way from the front door! It's cold out there! If need be though, I will go to town. Been awhile since I've seen those folks. I miss them.
I added another book to the Book List on the sidebar. C. Fred's Story is about the Sr. Bush's cocker spaniel. It's a funny book. Written from the viewpoint of C. Fred himself. I enjoyed the read greatly. It's one of the books I got at the library book sale the other day.
Looks like I will be going to town to sit with the girls tonight. That call just came in. Cool. Allison wants me to bring some art stuff...says she needs something to keep her busy. I'll go around 6:30 or so.
I should get off this wretched machine and do something productive before I have to go. You all have a wonderful Monday night! I'll yak at you tomorrow!
Peace
831

Snow on the ground, a dead van and a crazy dog!

Happy Monday All!

I like Mondays! Though in reality Mondays feel like any other day to me cause I have no schedule to adhere to any day! Lucky me? Not really. I sometimes wish I had a job to go to each and every day. Only job I have is keeping myself busy with whatever suits my fancy on any given day.

There is snow falling in my neck of the woods today. RJ said the radio reported three inches were expected before it all stopped. It's really pretty coming down, big ol' flakes! I'm fixing to get in that van here in a few and take it for a spin around town to charge up the battery which was dead as a doorknob before RJ showed up and fixed it for me. Need to finish up this entry and get dressed before I go anywhere.

That dog is crazy cause he thinks there's something under the cabinet here in the deskroom and try as I might to convince him otherwise, he just doesn't get it! He's barking at the cabinet as though it is going to spit out whatever it is he thinks is under it!

It is going to be a short entry this time! I need to call my sister and see if she needs anything from town or if she wants to ride along for the spin around town. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt her in the least to get out and get some of the stink blown off her. I know it won't hurt me in the least!
Well, that was easy! I called and she said, "I probably better put some clothes on instead of these pajamas I have on." So I better get off this machine and do the same!

I'll be back later to show you the artwork I did this morning.
You all behave yourselves! I'll try to but I ain't guaranteeing anything!
Peace
831

25 January 2009

Early Sunday Morning

I don't have any new artwork to show you all so there will be no pictures today. Just the new one at the top of the page. That's Fred out at Webster Lake a few Autumns ago.
I actually slept like normal folks do last night. Went to sleep around 9:30 and woke up at 6:00 this morning.
Yesterday was a birthday for two people I know. My sister Linda turned 53. My friend Jerry got another year older. I really have no idea how old Jerry is...he's older than me but to even try to guess? I just don't know. He's in his 50s, I assume. He doesn't look any older than that.
We had a party for Linda over at Susan's house. Ma, Aunt Sherry, Evelyn, Justin, Courtney, Me and Susan. My boys didn't come nor did their girls. Guess someone forgot to invite them. I wasn't in charge of the party. Linda got lots of good presents. I gave her a fake fur throw to cover up with while she sits in front of her tv in her recliner. She seemed to be pleased with that choice. It was a good day yesterday. I felt relatively human. Not hurting too badly.
It has been cold for the last three days. I have no water this morning again. Froze! I'm getting used to that. Though I think if I go to the burned house and plug in the heat tape that's wrapped around my water pipes I should have water in a few hours. It's still dark out at the moment though and there is no lights in the burned house, just two electrical outlets that work and I'm not sure just where the end of the extension cord is that hooks up the heat tape so I better wait till it gets light enough out there to see what I am doing!
RJ and Devin built shelves in the west room in the storage trailer on Friday. I've not been out there to see what has been accomplished yet.
I started working on my whimsical cats on Thursday. That isn't going as smoothly as I had hoped it would but we'll get them finished in plenty of time. They aren't due till March. I have only one started. It's a complicated piece of art. I decided to make the first cat a rock star. The cat is made, I'm just waiting on it to dry enough to peel it off the tinfoil I made it on. It's made with paper pulp mixed with pale green paint. I bought it that way. My cat isn't going to be green, he'll be purple...give him that punk rock look! I built him a fish shaped guitar out of balsa wood as well. There's still a ways to go before he's finished and I'm not even sure if it's going to work like I want it too once the cat is dry enough to peel off the tin foil. I should have put him on a piece of sheet plastic instead of tin foil. We'll see. And you guys will see too once he's done.
I drew up four other cats to use in this swap as well. Not sure just what will happen with them. I'm planning on making at least one of the pages out of Sculpey clay. It's been awhile since I played with the clay. I'll be making charms for the whimsical cat pages out of Sculpey as well. Fish bones for sure...other things I haven't thought too much about yet too.
I added a few books to my list of books read for 2009. I read those six books on Friday. One of them isn't really a READING book as it has only a few words in it. That would be the book called Battle Lines. It's a book of line drawings about battles. I looked at it numerous times though and studied the drawings. Odd book, that one.
Friday afternoon I was at the library in town and they were having a book sale. I brought home about a dozen books that day. I've started another book already. It will take a bit of time to read though cause it has like 1000 pages! It's called Murder Ink and is a companion reader for the mystery reader. It's a bathroom book. Meaning that it will eventually end up in the bathroom where I will read it in increments while in the bathroom. (That's a learned behavior...reading in the bathroom. I get that from my dad. Most of his children do read in the bathroom!) At the moment it is sitting on the coffee table in the livingroom. I seldom read in the livingroom though so if it's to get read...it must go to another room and it's the kind of book you can read in increments. It's like a bunch of short stories only they aren't really stories...more like essays. It should be an interesting read. I like mystery books.
Today I'll be working on my whimiscal cats again. I'll also be putting together a couple of chunky books. I have enough pages for an elephant book, a tree book and a Halloween book so it's time to assemble and bind them.
There's a draw-a-thon going on over at ATCsforall.com this weekend but I'm not participating in that this time. I haven't really felt up to it is the reason why. I did some drawing this week so I'm good to go!
Billy's tail is healing nicely. No infection. He's doing a good job of keeping it clean. He certainly won't let me anywhere near it! I'm lucky to get to look at it, let alone put anything on it! He has a puncture wound at the base of his tail, right above his anus. It looks terribly uncomfortable but Billy doesn't seem too bothered by it. He was horseracing through the house yesterday morning, climbing the curtains! Literally! I had to holler at that crazy cat to settle his hide down or I was going to throw him outside! He gave me a glare, swished that tail and went to the kitchen to the food bowl after I hollered at him while he was climbing the curtain! Silly cat! His tail is bald where the wound is and it really does look painful.
I went through all my index cards yesterday that record all the art trades I did in 2008. I emptied the file box so I can start anew for this year. That stack of index cards, one for each trade, is almost six inches high! I made a lot of trades last year. I hope to make just as many this year!
I really don't have anything of importance to talk about this morning so I'm going to go play a few pc games and drink my coffee and then later I'm going to do some artwork involving cats!
You all have a blessed Sunday.
Peace
831

22 January 2009

So Much For Wednesday!

I slept the entire day away! I really have to get a handle on this sleeping business! I had no sleep to speak of on Tuesday and slept for 18 hours straight on Wednesday...essentially the whole freaking day! I laid down 'for just a second' on Wednesday morning knowing full well I had things that needed to be done then. Next thing I know, it's dark outside, the dog is asleep on his pallet at the end of the bed and the clock is glowing 11:58. Had to be P.M., it was dark outside! How could I sleep for 18 hours straight? I remember vaguely talking to RJ sometime during the day...he said something about Devin being next door helping Susan with some projects and that he'd talk to me later. I didn't give those errands I needed to run another thought in the short time I was almost awake. I wasn't even awake to take my meds. That's probably a good thing though cause one of those pills always makes me sleepy. But that's beside the point! Twice this week I've slept for more then 12 hours straight and accomplished nothing that needed to be done. Sorry, there's no whimsical cats to show you all today. I can't very well paint in my sleep! Wish I could! I'd get all kinds of things done if that were the case! Poor Fred had to pee really bad when I finally got my hide out of bed! Must of been sometime before noon when RJ was here. I know he let Fred in at the very least. I know I didn't! I did let him out about 9 a.m.
So, painting cats is on the agenda for today (if I can stay awake long enough to accomplish it).
I've been for a drive this morning and it's only a little after seven. Fred and I caroused through town a few times, checking up on folks we have no reason to be checking up on... just a friend I haven't talked to for what seems like forever. It was a wasted trip in that aspect though cause we didn't find a friend at all. We did, however, see a beautiful crescent moon high in the eastern sky with a hint of sunrise peeking over the distant hills. It was well worth braving the 33 degrees outside this morning. The weather gurus say it's going to be in the upper 60s today if we believe everything we hear on the morning radio. Boomer said it, so it must be true? Guess we'll find out.
I just folded a load of laundry that's been in the dryer for at least three days. There are now sheets in the dryer that were washed at least three days ago as well. They didn't have a musty odor like things usually have that have sat in the washing machine for three days though so maybe someone washed them yesterday while I was among the sleeping dead? I don't know. I do know that they'll be dry in about 45 minutes or so and I'll put that load of towels in the dryer and start in on the rest of the laundry as well. I really should accomplish something productive today even if it is only laundry that gets done.
I need to take the van to the car wash! That windshield really needs a good cleaning! It has been awhile since I drove anywhere in the dark and when it's dark, the windshield is pretty evident. And it's pretty evident there's a lot on that windshield that shouldn't be there! Dog nose prints on the inside of the passenger side especially! I'll take Fred through the car wash later this afternoon when the temp is up there. That dog's never sure what to make of the automatic car wash. He sits there watching the sprayer go around the vehicle. He wrinkles up his eyebrows as though it's all foreign to him even though he's been through it a hundred times before! It will be an adventure for both of us!
I should start another book sometime this week. I'm behind in my schedule for book reading for the year. The goal is 50, I'm still sitting at 1 in the third week of the year! I believe the book I'll start is going to be The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel. That's the last one in The Earth Children Series. I did read about 3/4 of a book Ma brought me the other day but I'm not sure I should count it in the books read even if I go back and read the chapters in it I passed over. It's a textbook about Design. I really did read every word of about 10 chapters in it the other day sitting on the sofa. I hardly ever read anywhere but in my bed. I read almost everyday. Usually magazines but it's still reading. Then I cut up the magazines for art fodder. I have a whole stack of them that need to be cut up...
I'm out of here for the time beings. I have things to do before the day gets too old. That paperwork needs to be gathered so I can make a trip to Pburg later this morning and the dishes need to be stacked so I can do them later today and and and...you get the picture! Now, the hard part of all this is going to be staying awake to get it all done. Wish me luck on that one! A shower wouldn't hurt anything either.....
You all have a thoroughly terrific Thursday! I'll do my best to have just that too!
Peace
831

21 January 2009

More Inchies and little else....

Hello All!
It's hump day. Whoo hoo! I have a few errands to run today. Gonna make a trip to Pburg to turn in some paperwork that some folks are expecting. I haven't been to bed yet since yesterday. The sleep is all screwed up! As usual! I've been awake since 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. It is now almost 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. Go figure! I should dead on my feet, but I'm not even sleepy.

I worked on some art today. I've already lost track of the number of pcs of art produced...
Here's an ATC for you though. Sharpies on posterboard. I drew this one at the cafe on the back of an envelope from the bank. Then when I got home I cropped it to fit on the ATC and colored it once I'd adhered it to the posterboard. I like how colorful it is. Here are some more number inchies. Sharpies again. These were all cut from one large drawing and then colored. These were done on the back of a reciept from the dr's office for my copays. You can see the writing on the underside of the paper on a few of them, especially where there is yellow. My scanner doesn't make these near as vivid as they are in person! And now that I have looked at them on the screen here, disregard that statement about writing showing through. You can't see it on the scan. But you can on the actual Inchies. And again none of these numbers have a significance of any sort. That's not exactly true....25 is the number I am on the list of participants in the Inches By The Numbers Swap. Other than that though, no significance at all. One of them doesn't even have a number on it! I didn't do that on purpose. That's just how they laid out on the reciept when I glued them down to cut them out. Doesn't really matter at any rate. Not all of these I've shown you today and yesterday are going in the swap anyway. I am going to finish the collage ones before I decide which will go and which will be traded out otherwise.

I have about 100 inchies that I have acquired in trades in the last year. I am going to organize them in some semblance of order in a small photo album one of these days. I've run out of room in the only negative pocket page protector I have. I've no clue where to get more of the negative pocket page protectors. I got the one I have in a trade for art materials. I didn't concentrate much on collecting inchies in the last year. I would like to acquire more of these neat little pcs of art this year.

Tomorrow I'll have some whimsical cats to show you all. They are chunky book pages. I'll show them to you all if I get them done. I haven't even really decided just what they are going to look like. Haven't thought that out yet, but it's easy once I sit down with the blanks in front of me. I'm thinking acrylics for the kitties. I haven't done any painting lately and I still need to do those three cat portraits I've been talking about since July! Those ladies will be really surprised to find their cat portraits in the mail one of these days! I really have to be in the right frame of mind to do a decent cat portrait. Whimsical cats, on the other hand, don't have to be 'perfect'. Not that I go for perfection --- only God can reach perfection. I strive for excellence but that takes a certain frame of mind to acheive. We'll see what happens after I have a nap later this afternoon.

I'm gone for the day!~ You all have a wonderful Wednesday! Get you a hug or two, spread some cheer and smile at everyone you meet today!
I shall yak at you all another day!
Peace
831

19 January 2009

Inchies, and that's about it.

We have inchies to show today. I did all 13 of these earlier this morning. Somewhere around 6 a.m. to be exact. 12 of them are for a swap. The first one you see, the eyeball, is just an inchie with no theme other than to count. Count for what? Well, I decided the other day that I could take on the goal of making 1000 inchies this year. That is an attainable goal with little trouble. And it will really help out with that goal of doing 365 pcs of art this year! Just kidding. Even though each inchie IS a pc of art they don't count in that goal. They only count in the inchie goal.

So what's this inchie swap all about? Inchies By The Numbers. That would explain the numbers on them. I think they're all pretty self exlainatory so I won't jabber on about them. The one on the right, bottom row is my oldest son's birthday and time he was born...all numbers!

And you knew you'd find 831 in amongst those numbers so that shouldn't come as much of a shock to any of you! They are all done on watercolor paper with sharpies. I am going to do more for this swap and pick out what I consider the cream of the crop to send for the swap. I need 12 of them for that. I think I'm going to go another route with the next dozen and make collages. I've never done inchie collages before...might be a good challenge for me!
In case you don't know what an inchie is....it's a inch square pc of art. Amazing what you can put in an inch of surface area!
The cat nor the house smell of skunk any longer. Billy has a nasty sore at the base of his tail that Iwill be keeping an eye on. Not sure how he got it. I hadn't let him out of the house till yesterday. I noticed it this morning when he was washing himself in the overstuffed chair in the livingroom. Looks like it has been there a day or two.

I really have absolutely nothing exciting to talk about today. I slept yesterday away...5 a.m till 11:30 p.m. Like I said...I slept yesterday away. The sleep pattern will adjust accordingly in its own sweet time. I'm just not exciting these days.
I could tell you about my trip to Plainville at 12:30 a.m. but trust me, it wasn't an exciting trip. I drove. Fred slept on the back seat. It was dark out. Nothing exciting to even report there!
So with that...I shant ramble any longer!
Have a great day. I really hope it's much more exciting than mine seems to be going! :)
Peace
831

16 January 2009

A Little Art, A Lot of Sleep and A Smelly Cat

I've been away for a few days...
We'll start with art today cause that's how the pictures got uploaded. I really haven't done any art in the last four days, more on that later.

Here we have the front and back of a chunky page that I noted as "pink flamingo" in my picture files. I don't really name Chunky Book pages. Both flamingos are freehand cut, the top one from a catalog page (pink dress for sale) and the bottom one from a piece of pink cardstock. Legs and beaks are drawn with a sharpie marker. Nothing really special about them, but I like the effect of the whole. There's pink lace, rickrack, ribbon, beads, papau (I'm not sure that's spelled right) shell beads and pastel colored string to hold the beads on. Lot of different kinds of paper on the front side (top picture) along with some plastic bathtub chain and a chipboard flower cutout. The pink dots are acrylic paint. The backside (bottom picture) is tissue paper, marbled construction paper and cardstock. Both are adhered to recycled chipboard from food packaging.



There is (indeed) always some madness in love! This chunky page is made from a birthday greeting card, gold plastic heart charm, red sequin lips, paper doily, blue velvet background and a playing card with the quote on it. Danglies are eyelash yarn and green glass beads and plastic banana beads strung on a string from Fred's dog food bag. (I'll use just about anything in my art apparently!) It is all adhered to recycled chipboard from food packaging. (Hot chocolate for this one, I do believe.)

Merry Christmas Flamingo. Only I would put a Santa hat on a flamingo! (Or maybe not...) Here we have another Chunky page (that's all you will see today, Chunky pages) made after Christmas. The flamingo is freehand cut from pink cardstock, the hat is cut from a velvet ribbon, a tiny white pompom and a piece of pipe cleaner. Bird's legs and beak are sharpie marker. The background is wrapping paper. Danglies are sparse on this one! Gold wired ribbon and a plastic candy cane that came in a Message in a Bottle. The text is from a Christmas card. All of it attached to recycled chipboard from food packaging. (Probably hot chocolate again. I go through that stuff like it's going out of style!)

This is my favorite Chunky page I've made this year. It will go in my Black and White Chunky Book as soon as I get enough Black and White Chunky pages to put a book together! The elements of this page are a clear sticker that says Young Love, a vintage photograph of two little girls (not sure where I got the photograph from, I had two of them of the same two little girls), oriental writing on scrapbook paper?, I'm not sure if that is Chinese, Japanese or just what kind of writing it is, nor am I sure if I even got it on the paper reading the right way and I've not a clue what it says either! I needed something to cover up that side of the photograph though cause there's nothing under that piece of paper but a shadow of another person standing near the girls. Up in the left-hand corner is a small (1/2 x 3/4 inch) plastic (might be ivory?) dodad that came off an old bracelet that was broken. The round thing up there on the corner of the photograph is a papau shell bead. Underneath everything is silver paper and black paper. The danglies are black cording that was unraveled...it was originally a thick cord with three layers but it wouldn't fit through the holes in the coin charms so I unraveled it so it would. And again, it's all attached to recycled chipboard from food packaging.
A Lot of Sleep
There has been a lot of sleep going on at Donna's house. Mostly by her! Fibro has kicked my butt royally this past week! I've neglected everything in my life because I've been asleep most of the week! I need to call the phone company, the pharmacist and some other folks and rectify what was screwed all up because I wasn't awake to take care of the things that needed to be taken care of while I was asleep. I slept all day and was awake when everyone else was asleep! I don't think the sleeping spell is over with just yet either. Good thing it's now the weekend and I've no obligations this weekend.
I need to call the phone company cause someone forgot to pay the bill earlier this month and they shut the danged off! Not really a problem.... I was asleep anyway and couldn't talk to anyone even if they had called! And those that needed to talk to me called me on my cellphone instead anyway. Guess the others, if there were others, will just have to wait till Monday when I can get the phone turned back on. Not to worry! It's all good!

It's all good except for this stinky cat! That's Billy in the picture above. He tangled with a skunk about sundown on Friday (today). Fred was standing at the front door barking to be let in so I opened up the door to do just that. There was Billy standing on the top step with Fred behind him. I opened up the screen door and was clobbered with an awful odor. I hesitated to let either one of them in but Fred doesn't take NO for an answer and he just barged his way around me to come in the house and Billy followed after .... that stench followed them both. I sniffed the dog thinking for sure he was the smelly culprit but he just smelled like a dog. That cat went straight to my room and jumped up on the bed. I smelled him and about passed out from the stink. I grabbed him off the bed and threw him back outside. (Not literally...one shouldn't throw their cat anywhere.) I took the Odorizer (eliminates foul odors, works great too!) outside to spray the cat down with it. He didn't appreciate my efforts to make him smell decent. I got him smelling much better though and he's now inside again. I can still smell that skunk smell every now and then though. My blankets are in the washing machine at the moment. I'm hoping that lingering smell will go away when I mop the kitchen floor tomorrow. I sprayed Odorizer all over the house in hope of eliminating the nasty smell. We'll see what happens.
I called Ma to ask her what to do with that smelly critter and she said she knew there was a skunk around cause she could smell it. She asked if I was sure it was Billy and not Fred that had tangled with the skunk. Nope, not Fred! It was Billy!
This isn't a smelly cat, just a silly one. That's Miss Blue asleep in a toy car box Christmas Day 2007. At the moment she's asleep under my desk where my feet go. She gets kicked a lot sleeping under my desk. I don't kick her on purpose, mind you...she's just in the wrong spot. If she would sleep over the side instead of right in the middle, she wouldn't get in the way of my feet. I didn't show you all Doob or Fred this time...Fred and Doob are both asleep on my bed at the moment.
I have whimsical cats to make this evening and I better get started on them before sleep invades again. I can feel the old eyeballs waining!
I'll be back again tomorrow, maybe the next day, all depends on what occurs in the meantime.
You all have a fantastic weekend wherever you might be!
Peace
831

13 January 2009

A Gift, Some Art Traded and A Very Weird Dream!

No pictures today. I did make two more ATCs today but they are remakes of two shown already. I traded the originals and had requests for the same card so I made another version of "Summer's Past", which I showed you all awhile back and "Don't Leave" which I showed you all yesterday. I traded a total of eight cards yesterday. Not all of the zentangles I made for the ZAT got traded though. That does not surprise me! I'm pleased with the trades that have occured. I'll mail them all out tomorrow when I get to town. I forgot to take the envelopes with me earlier when I took Miss Allison home.
No sitting with the girls tonight. Allison came to my house instead. Her mama dropped her off around 6:30 pm and I took her home around 8:30. We did artwork while she was here. We also played a game of yahtzee.

That gift I speak of in the title came on Saturday. I found a very large box sitting in the driver's seat in my van late last night. The UPS man put it there and Fred never even let me know the UPS man had been here! What can I say? I hadn't been to the van on Saturday or all day yesterday. It was a good surprise. I asked Billy cat if he knew anything about the big box while I was carrying it into the house but he didn't tell. I really had no idea what that huge box had in it cause it didn't weigh hardly anything! I got a paring knife out of the kitchen drawer and slit open the tape holding the flaps shut. All I saw were a bunch of air-filled plastic bags at first glance. I yanked all those bags out (28 of those useless things!) and discovered a Brand New Keyboard! Thank you, John! You don't know how happy your little gift has made me! No sticking keys!!!!! Thank you! Thank you! Now let me know what you need and I will see if it is in my power to grant it. I cleaned off my desk somewhat and hooked that bad boy up shortly after I found it! Typing used to be a chore what with the keys sticking all the time and now it takes no time at all to type up these posts! A good keyboard can only make me a better typist! I may hit 70 words per minute this year yet! Again, thank you, John! I'd give you a great big hug if you were close enough to do so! I don't know why they put it in that giant box when they could have easily slapped an address label on box the keyboard was in and sent it without all those plastic air-filled bags and the big box. Not complaining... just pointing out how wasteful it was to use all that plastic and the extra box to boot.

And what have I been up to today? Not a heck of a lot! I didn't get out of bed till almost 5 pm. I've changed those days and nights around really bad now! I'm headed to sleep when the sun is rising and getting up when it goes down. That isn't good for a body, I know. A body needs vitamin D from the sun, not just from what they eat. I don't get much of the happy vitamin in the winter time from the sun. It's a good thing I take a vitamin D supplement during the winter or I'd be so down in the dumps it wouldn't be funny!
I let Fred out about five minutes ago and he's already barking to be let back in. It's very cold outside today! Windy! It isn't fit for man nor beast out there! I was out in the weather twice today and it didn't agree with me either time! My bones and joints hurt like crazy in cold weather! I'm dressed in layers! Even in the house, I dress in layers!

Sometime before the sun comes up I'll be washing dishes. I did get the laundry done...but then laundry is never REALLY done...You think you have it done and then you get undressed for the day and realize it's starting all over again!

I had a very strange dream on Sunday while I slept. In my dream, Fred and I were in the van driving down the highway and all of a sudden we left the roadway and ended up in a cane field. The cane growing in this field was taller than the van! (In reality cane doesn't grow quite that high!) We're barrelling through this cane field at top speed! I crawl into the back seat where Fred is and strap him into the seatbelt. Then I climb back into the driver's seat, the whole while we're still barrelling through this cane field at top speed! Bouncing along at a rapid pace! I'm thinking to myself , in the dream, that we are going to crash! And about that time, the van hits the river bank. Stops! Just like that! From 65mph to 0mph....and the nose of the van ends up in the river. Next thing I know we're in this room with a bunch of other people. A waiting room. I'm sitting in a chair beside Evelyn. Susan is talking to someone up a counter. My left leg has puncture wounds all over it... like someone stabbed me with a pencil or something similar. All of these little puncture wounds have one or two stitches in them and Evelyn is trying to pluck them off my leg like she does with lint on your clothes. No idea what happened with Fred. Didn't see him in the dream after I ended up with Susan and Evelyn in the waiting room.
It was a wild dream! It made me laugh and shake my head when I woke up too. No one in their right mind climbs into the back of an out of control vehicle to strap the dog into his seat belt! Been awhile since I had a wild dream that I remembered so vividly!

Right now I'm going to go read my email and play a few games on this wretched machine. I feel like Word Racer tonight on Yahoo Games. We'll see how good I am tonight. I didn't do too well on that yesterday. Lost some of my rating....the old eyeballs weren't focusing right and the old brain followed suit! I just wasn't fast enough in finding the words in the grid! I like word games though and a rousing round or two of Word Racer feels right tonight.

Here's hoping this week brings you lots of smiles, words from a friend, hugs from a loved one and lots and lots of joy!
Peace, my friends!
*#!


11 January 2009

Zentangles

Here you go! Zentangles! I really like drawing zens. They take no thought, you just let the writing instrument go where it wants. The mind does come into play sometimes, but it's easy to shut it out. Most zens are not as colorful as the first of these. That's my own twist on my perception of what a zen is supposed to be. If you ask me, there aren't supposed to be any supposed to be's in art...but that's a whole other bag of worms. Can of worms. Worms don't generally come in a bag.
All the zens below are done in Markers; either Sharpie, Bic or a cheapo brand of one kind or another. A couple of the black and white ones are done in black gel pen also.
Here's Lookin' At Ya Silver Pines


sailing
Don't Leave
haystacks
The colored ones were all done after the black and white ones. It was like the muse got off the pot and got her stuff together! I'm not pleased with these below.
Points of Light--gel pen



Peeking In--sharpie marker Onion- gel pen and sharpie marker on coated thin corregated cardboard. The coating on the card did not like the gel pen at all! I'm not happy with the effect it left behind either. This one probably will not trade but it is a lesson learned. No gel pen for this particular type of blank.
The rest of them are done on white poster board.
I have traded two of them thus far. "Here's Lookin' At Ya" and "Silver Pines".
I updated my flickr with every card I have available, plus a few chunky pages as well. Here's the link if anyone wants to go take a look at it. There are over 130 ATCs available.
I'm up for trades, just shoot me off a message or leave me a comment on the blog if something interests you. I'm open to all kinds of themes to trade for. I prefer to trade like card for like card...as in painting for painting, drawing for drawing...colage for collage...you get the picture. I do collect specific themed cards also:
elephants
cats
dogs
insects
men
alphabet
monochromatics in black, purple, brown, green, yellow, red, orange and blue
I like funky and quirky. I am in Kansas, USA, if that makes any difference to you. I will trade internationally.
Beings I put 'make 365 pcs of art' on my new year's list, I should probably add 'trade some of those 365 pcs of art' on the list as well! Doesn't do me much good to hoard them. I like other people's art better than my own - I gotta trade. I'm up for a trade anytime!
I haven't accomplished a dern thing today! It's about time to hit the sack.
You all have a fantastic week ahead! I'll be back another day to yak at you all. Might even show you some more art. Won't that be fun! :)
Peace, my friends!
*#!

10 January 2009

I thought today was Sunday...

Wordsworth....collage magazine pictures on chipboard with a spider I made from two fake pearls and jewelry finding. ATC
White Flowers (How original is that? lol) fuzzy string, gold fabric leaf, sequins, two different kinds of ribbon, tissue paper with sparklies in it all on chipboard backing. ATC

Welcome to the Club- mulberry paper, an inchie that T made, cancelled postage stamp (not sure where it came from), magazine pictures, all attached to a blue paint sample. ATC

And they Crowned Him King- cancelled US postage stamp, royal mail stamp, tiny paper money, a bug sticker, silver foil paper, plastic star sequin, his crown is patterned paper and it's all attached to a playing card. ATC

None Came- the butterfly is cut out of vintage wallpaper, blue paint sample, patterned paper, pipe cleaner, black cord, and words from a book (I'm altering) it's all attached to chipboard backing. The butterfly is actually black where it looks gray... not sure what's up with the scanner not wanting to stay true to color on this one. The rest of the colors look pretty true...a little washed out, but not too bad. ATC


Kingston- Red and Black Sharpie marker on poster board. ATC

Encaustic Crayon Trees- melted crayons on watercolor paper. ATC


Boogie Beat- fortune cookie fortune, cancelled US postage stamp, sheet music, air mail stamp from envelope, blue magazine picture background and blue strip of magazine picture all on attached to chipboard backing. ATC

I did think it was Sunday when I got up earlier. I'm glad it's not though...
You're getting pictures today! (Like you hadn't already figured that one out! LOL) I drug the cord for the scanner out from behind the cabinet a bit ago and scanned all the artwork that needed scanned. I won't show it all to you guys cause some of it ain't worth showing and some of the stuff done this year so far hasn't been scanned and probably won't get scanned anytime soon. I'm fixing to make ATCs this evening. I'll show you them tomorrow.

Have you taken a look at the full moon this evening? It's gorgeous! I hope you got to see it! The moon is the largest it's going to appear from earth this year. It's pretty big out there right now! It just come up though about an hour ago and it's at its biggest at moonrise. I do hope you all got out and took a good look at it. I stood in my front door and watched it peek over the horizon. Magical!
I have a six pound yardbird (aka chicken) in the oven right now. I'll be going to take it out of the oven in about half an hour. It smells divine in this house at the moment! Haven't decided just what I'm going to have with that yardbird just yet though. Yes, I know I said I was going to put it in the oven yesterday but it didn't get done yesterday. I every intention of doing it then, but things came up and I didn't have time to sit for four hours with a cooking bird. So I put her in the oven when I got up earlier today.
Sometime before 10 pm I need to get dressed (I'm still in my jammies) so I can go to town. I should have taken Susan up on her offer to go to Plainville an hour ago but I was in the middle of scanning pictures, doing dishes (Yes, I know I said those were going to be on the agenda yesterday as well.) and finishing up the laundry. (I did get it started yesterday!) Dishes aren't completely done but neither is the laundry. I figure it's a good day when I get things started that I've put off for awhile. It's a great day if I can actually accomplish the task of getting it all done! Today looks like it might end up being a great day afterall! I have two blankets and my light cape yet to wash in the laundry and only glasses are left of the dishes. Yeah, I might get it all done!
And ATCs are on my agenda as well. There's a Zentangle-a-thon going on over at AFA and I intend to get a few of those made before 11pm on Sunday! That's why I'm glad today is only Saturday! I missed Friday working on Zens for the ZAT. Forgot all about it being this weekend.
I didn't show you all the chunky pages I had stacked up to scan. Perhaps tomorrow I'll show you some of those and some of the zentangles I'll be making later as well.
You all behave yourselves and have a fantastic Sunday! You might as well make the most of what's left of Saturday too!
Peace, my friends!
831

09 January 2009

An Update.....

That storm the windchimes were singing up earlier has arrived with a vengeance! There snow swirling about in the buffeting winds and the chill in the air cuts right through bone. I sit here in the deskroom and listen as the tin roof ripples to the movement of Mother Nature. The trees are swishing, flailing, dancing wildly in the breeze...nay! We cannot call the torent outside a breeze! That would be like calling an acorn an oak! It's a torrent out there!
I just came from across the yard. Fred and I were at Susan's kicking butt at marbles. We won't talk about cards cause the same wasn't the case! Fred doesn't really know how to play marbles and he wasn't there for the marbles anyway...we let him in the house after the marble game with Linda. She had gone with the 'old women'. They took her home.
I did kick butt at marbles! I beat Linda and Susan by at least five marbles the first game. Everyone only gets eight marbles to play with when there's three people playing! I played three games of marbles with L & S and two games with S after L left to go home. We always have a good time playing marbles. Killer Marbles is really fun with Susan! Susan whooped my hide at Skip-Bo! We won't even talk about that....
I got critters surrounding me! Miss Blue's wanting to sit between the keyboard and me. Fred's laying on the floor, making a mess, chewing up that stick that I told him belonged outside. How come he doesn't get splinters in his tounge? It's a wooden stick he's chewing up. He's taken to chewing his things up lately. The rat he's had since before halloween is now headless and this stick he's making a mess of now he's had since April or so....he's torn them to shreds! Well, not the rat so much...he just chewed the head off it and made it not squeak anymore. He's abandoned the rat's head and still carries the body around. He's a very strange dog.
Billy has stuffed himself into an empty puzzle box laying on the floor behind my chair and is taking a nap. Doob's on my bed snuggled under the blanket oblivious to the fact I turned the electric blanket off this morning.
Laundry has been started for the day. It's only 6 o'clock in the evening. My day started around 2 this afternoon.

I finished the book Love Medicine. Finally!
Peace
831

Worry

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength." Corrie Ten Boom

I found that quote while reading in my usual jaunts on the www. Are you a worrier? I don't worry about things till it is time to worry about them! Worry is a waste of a good day. For as the quote says: "...It empties today of its strength."
Some people say I live with my head in the sand cause I refuse to worry about things I have no control over. Worrying isn't going to change a thing about any situation. Action is what changes circumstances, not worry.
Worrying gives you gray hair and ulcers. I have very few gray hairs and not an ulcer in sight! I take great pride in not having an overabundance of gray hairs growing out of my scalp. As you all know I have six sisters and two brothers. I am fourth from the youngest. ALL of my brothers and sisters have much more gray hair than I do. And all of them worry more than I do!
Worry is a waste of good emotions! If you're prone to worrying and you think you HAVE to worry about something....worry about how much you spread joy around instead of worrying about why that same joy doesn't come your way. It's a known fact that what you give will eventually return tenfold. Smiles and joy are in that category as well as hugs, love, respect ect, ect.
The wind is blowing like crazy today! The wind chimes out in the trees out front are singing up a storm! Hopefully not a real storm, but they are making pretty music for today at least. It's not near as warm out there today as it was yesterday though. The Christmas tree is still in the living room and will stay there until the wind dies down some. If I took that tree outside now, it'd end up in Plainville before the day was out if it got away from me. I'm not even going to attempt wrestling with that tree in that wind!
Dishes and finishing up laundry are on my agenda for the day. I declined lunch in town with Susan and Linda. I didn't feel much like getting properly dressed and I wasn't hungry at the time either. I'll save my $8 it would have cost for lunch and spend it on something else on another day. I just went to the grocery store last night and I have plenty to eat at home. I'll be putting that baking hen in the oven in a couple of hours. I think that bird is too big to put in the crockpot or I'd cook it that way. Guess the oven will have to do.... See? No need to worry about what to do with that yardbird...just cook the danged thing...one way or another. I actually know someone who would be torn about how to cook that yardbird and she'd worry over it, chew it like a dog chews a bone, and ruin her day because of it. Worry isn't good for a body anyway you look at it.
There are things I do worry about .... but only when its time to worry about them. Like the electric bill. I've not given a thought to the electric bill since the 22nd of December when I last paid it. I am worried about it today though cause it should have been paid yesterday. But to eliminate that small worry all I have to do is make a phone call and the bill is paid! I am worried about my son's upcoming back surgery as well. That's a worry that is on the back burner, stewing till the time comes to really worry. The boy isn't under the knife today so today isn't the day to actively worry about that and once the boy is under the knife, I still won't worry all that much cause I have no control over the ability of the surgeon that's doing the cutting on the boy. I'll leave that up to the Good Lord to watch over the boy at that point. Prayers go up everyday to help eliminate any need to worry on that matter.
I don't know why I'm on about worrying today other than I found the quote and it got me to thinking. I am a very patient soul. I was without heat in my house in the dead of winter for eight days and I didn't worry about it. I knew I wasn't going to freeze to death! And I didn't! It would have been wasted emotion to worry about it. I guess patience and worry are two completely different things. I have an overabundance of patience and probably (according to others) not enough worry in me. How many folks do you know who would have spent 73 minutes on the telephone, without getting angry or upset, to fix a problem with a cell phone? I talked to one fella for 45 minutes before I asked him if there was another person I could talk to to help me out with the trouble. I let him do everything he could possibly do to clear up the problem. He seemed quite relieved that I wanted someone else to take this problem off his hands! I was quite pleasant throughout the ordeal... Ok I did get a little bent out of shape when he said he couldn't help me at the beginning of our conversation but I convinced him at that point that he could help me. I didn't yell at him or anything like that... I just made it perfectly clear to him that my phone did me absolutely no good at all if I couldn't make a call on it! My youngest son RW, could never have had that conversation about a cell phone without getting angry in the first five minutes. I don't know why I have so much patience and that boy has very little. His brother RJ, hasn't a lot of patience either but he's more than RW has. Not worrying just works for me, I guess!
I have to get off this machine now and go do something productive. I can hear those dishes screaming at me from the kitchen so to shut them up, I better get in there and wash the damned things!
You all have yourselves a fantastic Friday! I might be back before tomorrow if anything comes up that I care to talk about. Be happy!
Peace
831

08 January 2009

Propane, a clear agenda and me just rambling about nothing

Propane was delivered yesterday morning. I still didn't have any heat though...no propane coming into the house. I called the Coop this afternoon and they sent Doug out to fix my troubles. He lit the hotwater tank pilot light as well. So, I'm back to having heat again. Only eight days without it! I'm a tough old bird apparently. I'm doing laundry at the moment. I really need a shower! Gotta wait for the hotwater tank to get its job done of heating enough water for a shower though. I'm real tired of cold spit baths!
Not much on the agenda today. I didn't get up till after one o'clock this afternoon. I was supposed to go with Susan to Pburg to pick up her car but I didn't hear the phone ring this morning around 7 when she called. After I got up for the day, I listened to the messages on the phone. There were three of them. Susan called twice. Her second message had me laughing out loud! She said the mission had been aborted. This message will self destruct in 30 seconds! Run, Donna, Run! LOL I have yet to talk to her to find out why the mission of going to get her car has been aborted. I thought they had fixed it and it was ready to go. Perhaps Justin drove it over for her this morning? I really don't know at this point.
I got one thing done on my list of things to do yesterday. Laundry was one of those things but it didn't get started till just a bit ago. I got the Christmas tree undressed and all the ornaments packed away in their box. The tree is still in the livingroom and so is the box of ornaments but at least the tree is naked now. That was my goal! I had much help in detrimming the tree too. Fred helped. Miss Blue helped. Justin and Courtney watched. Actually J and C left shortly after I started removing the baubles off the tree.
I don't see any art getting done today. My muse is off on vacation. She needed one after the art frenzy on Tuesday! I might work in my altered book but that's about it I do believe. Though I never know when that fickle muse will show up and produce something spectacular. Somebody really outta retrieve that scanner cord from behind the dresser and hook it back up. I got a large pile of chunky pages and few ATCs that need to be scanned. I can't very well trade them if no one knows what the heck they look like! Housework takes precedence over artwork today unfortunately.
I hit the after Christmas sales at Dollar General on Tuesday. Most of the stuff I bought will be used in art in one way or another. I got a pretty good deal on some shirt boxes that will end up being bases for ATCs and Chunky pages. Some will probably end up being book covers also. Most of the shirt boxes are plain white but a few of them are decorated for Christmas. Those decorated ones will end up being the book covers before the white ones will.
It is a beautiful day outside. There was a honeybee in the laundryroom earlier. I shooed him back outside to do his hunting. When honeybees are out and about in the middle of January, you know it's a nice day! Temps are in the low 60s. I'll be hauling that tree out to the burned house sometime before the sun goes down today.
All in all it's been a pretty good day thus far.
I hope you all have had a fantastic day yourselves!
I'll come yak at you all another day when I have something of importance to say. Seems all I do is ramble on and say not much of anything in the process these days! Thanks for staying with me and reading the ramblings! And thanks especially to John for commenting on the ramblings! You all behave yourselves!
Peace
831

07 January 2009

A Day Away From Home, A Runaway Dog and A Visit to the Vet

The day away from home started Monday night around 9 p.m. I didn't sit with the girls on Monday cause their brother was going to be home and he could keep an eye on them. That's two Mondays in a row now. I LIKE sitting with the girls on Monday evenings and I feel as though I've missed out on something important when I don't get the chance to do so on Mondays.
RJ and Terah spent all day Tuesday in Kansas City consulting with the doc about RJs upcoming surgery on his back. That surgery will occur on the 4th of Feb in Kansas City. Was a long day for the kids. Kansas City is a six hour drive from their doorstep. I stayed at their house to keep an eye on Brenton...get him to school, get him home from school, feed the kid. I got him to school via Richard and the principal brought the boy home cause we got our wires crossed somewhere and Brenton missed his ride home with Lou (Rich's wife) when she picked her younguns up at school. It all worked out alright though. Brenton made it home. I was fixing to go find the boy when he came through the front door. He devoured a bowl of cereal after school and an hour later he devoured six pizza bites. That's a lot for Brenton to eat at once. He's a picky eater!

The runaway dog was Pug. I really thought it would have been Fred who took off on me in Pburg instead of Pug. She was hellbent on talking to the dogs across the alley though and she paid no attention to me when I called her back to the house. Fred went right on inside after he peed on the tree in the front yard. Not Pug though! Dang that varmit's hide! I chased that dog all over the trailer park where RJ and T live.
She's the dog that went to the vet today too. I didn't take Fred with me on Monday night to Pburg cause we thought Pug had a touch of the mange and I sure didn't want Fred getting the mange. He spent the night at Susan's with Evelyn. Evelyn was quite happy to have Fred spend the night with her too! :) She said he tried to climb in bed with her twice but she's like me and doesn't think dogs belong in the bed! Especially one that weighs upwards of 120 pounds! Anyway, Fred didn't go with me on Monday night. My sister Linda, (who is RJ and Ts neighbor more or less) went with me to Dr. Nash's office so he could take a look at that rash Pug has. Come to find out the dog is allergic to fleas. So we came home with some antibiotics, some flea killer for the dog and for the house and Pug got a cortisone shot to make her stop digging at herself. She saw the doc at 11 am and by 11 pm her rash was no longer red and she had stopped itching. I gave her the first of the anitbiotics earlier this evening.
I could have stayed the night at RJ and Ts but it was only 1am when they finally got home and that's still pretty early for me. So Fred and I got in the van and drove those 23 miles to Stockton without seeing a single vehicle till we topped the hill on the north end of Stockton. That's quite a ways to drive without seeing another vehicle! Not even a big truck on the highway. I ain't complaining mind you, I'd rather have the whole road to myself anytime!
I spent the whole day in Pburg. I don't know how to run their television so I couldn't watch TV once Brenton went to bed cause I forgot to ask him to fix it for me before he fell asleep. I made him turn it off when we did his homework and read his books for the day. He's a first grader, six year old. Pretty bad when a six year old can run a remote and a 47 yr old woman is clueless! I have to laugh at the absurdity of that!
I still have no heat in the house. I knew it was going to be cold at home when I left RJ and Ts. I'm uncertain if propane was even delivered! I haven't been home to know. Wouldn't matter if it has cause no one has lit the pilot light on the furnace or the hot water heater. No shower for Donna today....That is on my list for tomorrow though! Should have taken one at RJs while I was the only one there but I had my hands on the sharpies and was busy drawing while Brenton was in school. I went to the Dollar Store with Linda after we took Pug to the vet also. Then she and I headed to Stockton to check on things at my house and to get the mail and bring Fred back to Pburg for the evening.
He and Pug get along great. She's a tiny white and brown dog and he's a huge black lab. She cracks me up and terrorizes Fred at the same time. He steals her balls and she demands that he give them back. She'll bite him on his heels and he'll sit on her head to make her stop it! They make enough noise for a herd of dogs when they get to playing like that. Growls abound like they're going to tear one another's throats out! It's all show though.
Played with the sharpie markers well into the evening while Brenton played a car racing game. I did 11 4x4 inch drawings Tuesday night. Of the 11 maybe four of them can be called quality. Those four are all trees of one sort or another. They will go in my tree chunky book once I get them chunked up a bit and I get my other trees in the mail. Those will be here within the next two weeks.
My kitties missed me while I was gone. I've been fighting off Doob since I sat down in this chair to make this blog entry. She keeps wanting to sit between me and the keyboard on the desk. She's too fat to be sitting there! I can't see around her! All three of the cats were on my bed snuggled up like little balls asleep on top of the electric blanket which I left on for them. Now Blue is alseep on the floor by the little heater next to me. Billy's sitting on the kitchen floor in front of the fridge stalking a mouse. I hope he catches that mouse pretty soon! He's been fiddle-farting around about catching that varmit for days now. Doob's gone off to the south end of the house cause I wouldn't let her sit on the desk between me and the keyboard. Sulking more than likely! She will be the happy critter when I climb under the sheets on that bed. She likes to sleep under the blanket with just her head sticking out. Fred's asleep on the floor here in the deskroom not too far from the heater. He sure had a good time in Pburg.
I don't know what's on the agenda for later today. It's 2:30 am right now. My soup dinged about ten minutes ago. The microwave will cook soup from a cardboard bowl! Thank goodness! I'm hungry! So with that....I shall bid you all a wonderful Wednesday! Be good, share your smiles, give a few hugs....be thankful for a beautiful day!
Peace
831

04 January 2009

Sunday's Ramblings

It's still cold at my house. That will change tomorrow! Thank God~!

I really didn't do much in the line of art today. I need to keep track of that artwork business. How many get done...I said I was going to do 365 pcs. I didn't say I was going to do one everyday. I did do one today though. Sharpie on a steno pad at Susan's this afternoon. Nothing special...alien upcomance or comeuppance ... my mind was a tad foggy when I named the piece. I could finish the two chunky pages that need done. Art isn't counted as done till it's ready to be traded or sold. Sold. That's an excellent idea! Now if I could find someone willing to shell out some cash for the stuff that comes out of me! I already got folks trading their own art for mine. I suspect there are more than a few of them who would love to find someone to shell out some cash for what comes out of them too!
I discovered ATCs in November of 2007, so I've been through my first year of trading. I couldn't tell you how many exactly that I have traded of my own. Generally when you make a trade with someone it is one card for one card or one chunky page for one chunky page. There are times when one will send out a RAK. I've done this a few times in the past year. The only way to tell you exactly how many pcs of original art have gone out of my house since Nov 07 is to go through that box of index cards sitting in front of me and break it all down into what went where. I really can't even give you an accurate number of ATCs and Chunky pages that have arrived in my mailbox from others who took a pc of my art out of their own mailboxes. The last time I counted the ATCs, there were 560some. A rough guess would be around 580 ATCs, close to 75 inchies. I've never counted the Chunky pages. I have a lot of chunky pages cause I like to make Chunkys. I haven't traded a great number of them though. I've participated in swaps for Chunkys where a group of folks all make chunkys with a set theme. Probably better than 100 Chunky pages. It's been a great year in the mailart department of Donna's house! I don't see any trouble in making 365 pcs of art this year. Maybe I should up those odds???? You know what? Let's see how long it takes me to get to the 365th pc of art. Until I get the scanner's cord retrieved from behind the dresser you all will just have to take my word on the art department. Once it's back to working order I'll show you guys some of it! Just remember....I haven't said anything about quality...I've only dicussed quanitity with you all!
Here's what's been done in the art department thus far this year:

Jan 1 - Zentangle- ball point ink on steno pad paper
Jan 2 - ATC with ribbon flowers
Red and silver Chunky page with postage stamp
Jan 3 - 1 Black Chunky with old photo of little girls
Zentangle - ball point ink on steno paper
ATC - red and black face in sharpie marker on white chipboard
Jan 4 - Zentangle in Sharpie on steno pad paper--Alien Upcomance (Comeuppance)

Yeah I don't see any trouble hitting 365 pcs of art this year! Those zentangles on steno pad paper are done at Susan's house. She hasn't participated in art with me for awhile. She could care less that I sit at her table and draw all over her steno pad. Works for me! I like to keep my hands busy and putting lines down on paper is one thing I truly enjoy.

Susan invited me to pizza at her house for supper this evening. It's not delivery! It's Di Giriono! It was alright. It filled my belly and I had a good time watching TV for a couple of hours. TV really doesn't interest me that much. We watched something on the Discovery channel about shallow seas. It was pretty cool actually but I don't need TV. I'm thinking I should go finish that book that heads the list of those read this year. It shouldn't even be there, yet.

Only people I've seen today are Susan, Courtney, Justin and Evelyn. The only people I've talked to are Susan, Courtney, Justin, Evelyn, Terah, RJ, Brad and Jeanny. Haven't seen my mother for days. I have many things to get done tomorrow! Many! First thing in the morning when that silly dog wakes me up to let his hide out, I'm gonna call the Coop and tell em to bring me some propane and then I'm gonna get dressed, go to the bank, rearrange the finances and go pay for propane before they ever get out here to put it in the tank. After that...I'll probably go back to bed for a bit. I sit with the girls tomorrow night. RJ said he'd come light the pilot lights for me. I won't know how to act with hot water and a stove to cook on! After the girls' parents get home from bowling I'm headed to Pburg to spend the night at RJ's house so I can get Brenton off to school on Tuesday morning. RJ and T are headed east aways for a dr's appt for RJs back. They want to do some sort of surgery on his back, this is a preliminary meeting with the surgeon. My brain is foggy...details escape me at the moment. I know I have a busy start of the week ahead of me. I probably ought to put some gas in that van before I stop by my house to pick up Fred around 10 pm. All the kids go back to school tomorrow.
Alright that settles it! I'm outta here! I gotta go read on the book that shouldn't be on the list yet and then close these old eyes before midnight strikes! You all behave yourselves on Monday! Spread some joy around...smile at everyone! Don't forget to pick out some hugs too!
Peace
831

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