Moving Sites (Again!)

As you know there is always a lot of work involved when you move, and I don't think moving blog sites is any less work than moving to a new home. I have decided to merge all my blogs into one, and am now posting here.  I would be delighted if you would like to follow along on the journey with my art, my garden and my life!  I won't be posting here any more, but I'll leave it up for a while--at least until I get my things moved over to the other site.

It isn't fully set up yet, and I have a lot more work to make it my "home" but at least it's up and running!  Thanks for dropping in!

Taking a Blogging Break

I used to hate it when I would subscribe to a blog I liked and the author quit posting, but now I see how it can happen. I've been regular at posting my art to my design blog and Instagram, but other than art I haven't been doing much else, so there doesn't seem to be much point.

I have just started to go back to my chiropractor to see if he can figure out what is going on with my body--why it is so determined to store every bit of food as fat.  I went yesterday for the first visit in quite a while, and he put me on the dreaded diet of no sugar, no yeast, and no dairy along with a couple of herbal products to help cleanse my lymphatic system--first.  I imagine this will be a long term adventure, and he seemed to indicate that it would be.  He joked as I was leaving saying, "It may get down to where you can have water, ice and toothpicks." I am sure he was joking, but I remember the last time I got serious about detoxifying and getting healthy that I had a hard time finding foods that were not going to stress my system.

It was either go this route or give up on life completely, which had been flitting around in the back of my mind. My world has narrowed to such a very tiny corner.  I went a whole month without ever leaving the house before Ornery insisted I had to get out on Sunday, even if it was just for a drive.  I have had no desire to get out, to see people, to shop... I am embarrassed to be seen in public, I have nothing that fits me, and I am just uncomfortable all the way around.

I don't feel sick, and for the most part I don't think I am depressed, although I have had a few days where I was a little weepy. I have a few niggling complaints, but no headaches or major illnesses. Obviously something is wrong, though.

So this blog has not been a high priority for me, and when I have thought about writing, I haven't been able to come up with anything positive to say, so I have just been quiet. I realize we all go through hard times, and I am not telling this for sympathy or anything like that, but because I hate to just leave my online friends hanging, wondering where I went.  I am still here, but I am going to focus on getting my life back together for a while, and then maybe I will have something to write about. 

Odds and Ends

While making lunch today I was reminded again how glad I am that mayonnaise comes in plastic jars now. If you have ever dropped one, you will know what I mean.  The lid broke and it still made a mess, but at least there was no glass involved, and the clean up was relatively painless.

I have realized (once again) that I have terrible social skills.  Just don't hold it against me, okay? 

I have posted quite a few things on the design blog lately, in case you have missed them. And if you are instagram, my craft projects usually show up there first.

The new Crate and Barrel catalog arrived this week.  I have it all dismantled in preparation for cutting up to use for mail art.  The bright colors are so cheery!

I feel a batch of cookies coming on.  I haven't done any baking in quite a while, and I am starting to feel the urge. Ornery will be happy. :)

Week (end) in Review: Three Saw Saturday and Paint Slinging in the Studio

I thought about blogging a couple of times this week, really I did.  I just kept getting distracted!  Lots of mail arrived, letters and packages galore.  I got some home-made goodies from a fellow blogger for whom I made a card earlier in the summer, and several of my Christmas presents have arrived.  It really was hard to wrap them (oh, yes I did!) but I am looking forward to Christmas in a big way!  I made and decorated some envelopes, put together a few ATCs, washed a bunch of dishes (are they multiplying??!) and read a couple of books.  I didn't get all the gifts wrapped that are purchased so far, but I made a significant dent in the pile.

Ornery said he didn't know one could have so many Mondays in one week, but he had four of them!  He has two simulators off site that are going into certification soon and two more locally that have all been needing urgent attention.  He didn't end up working much overtime this week, but when he was at work, he was running like a chicken.  Wednesday he took a 3 hour lunch to visit with an estate planning attorney with his sister, which is really the only reason he didn't end up with more overtime because he did go in early and stay a little late most days.  The week wore him out so much that he came home Friday night and took a nap, then slept hard all night!

I had a Snoopy-dance moment Friday evening when I got rated for a swap and received my 100th heart.  :)  It was a delightful moment complete with "WOOTs" and high fives. The neighbors, who could hear me whooping through my open window, probably thought we had lost it.  They may be right! :D  Sadly, I got my third rating without a heart the next day after asking my partner if she had yet received it.  I am sure she had been sitting on it for several days but hadn't rated. Oh, well.

I am almost out of regular postage stamps, (not surprising!) and decided to rob my old stamp albums.  I had bought a LOT of new stamps for my collection back in the 90s and am going to delight my pen-pals and swap partners with some pretty awesome stamps for several months to come!  They don't make them like that anymore. I found holographs, pentagon and triangle shapes, and just some plain incredible photography and artwork.  By using them up I won't have to feel compelled to store them anymore, and I get to share the joy of seeing some of them again. PLUS I won't have to buy more stamps for quite a while. That is a bonus!

The weather forecast called for rain all weekend from Friday night through Tuesday, but we somehow missed it so far, and Ornery was able to mow the lawn on Saturday. Then he worked on some Christmas presents in the man cave with the garage door open to enjoy the beautiful fall day.  We have been trying to come up with gifts for our sisters and Mom, and I think we have hit on a workable solution. Hopefully it turns out as nice as we envision it. Of course just about anything he makes he also needs to make one for us and our kids, so there are 7 of this particular project on his to-do list at the moment. Saturday he had a three-saw day, so he was pretty happy. :)

We finished off the earring holder we have been working on for weeks, and I did a bit of fancy painting on the frame. I got some letters written, played around with some mixed media ATCs and did a little cooking.  Ornery has been trying to get his computer straightened out.  Every time he downloads updates, it fails and he has to back them all out. Frustrating, to say the least.  We are trying to get things organized on our computers to do a back up of the pictures. Keeping them orderly is quite a challenge!

It's hard to believe I could condense the whole week into just a few paragraphs, but I live a boring life. :)

Hi!

If you aren't checking the design blog you are missing most of my posts these days.  Art is consuming me, and I am good with that.  Just sayin'.

Weekend in Review: Finally Fall!!

Brr!  It got cold this weekend!  Ornery wore a jacket when he was out running errands on Saturday, and this morning when we got up the house had a definite chill to it. I say, bring on the cooler weather! :)

Saturday Ornery went shopping for groceries while I stayed home and cleaned up the kitchen and did laundry.  I rearranged the pantry to accommodate the new purchases and replied to a couple of letters.  We talked quite a while about various topics--as is our usual.  We both enjoyed a really nice afternoon nap. :)

I have really been enjoying my correspondence, but I am having trouble asking questions to keep the conversation going. I received a letter from a new pen friend from Sweden and at the end of each paragraph she asked a question related to what she just wrote.  By the time I finished answering all her questions I had written six pages and had no idea what to ask her in return. :(  It will bother me for days that I forgot to answer one of her questions, and that I didn't give her anything to prompt her next letter to me. Sigh.

We brought in several plants today to winter over, and every time I walk past the hall I think there is someone standing in the foyer.  The palm tree took over the whole area, and we had to use some twine to make it so people could pass through there.  I foresee a haircut in its future.  We also brought in the shamrock, which had been beneath the Boston fern all summer.  The fern got so big, the shamrock really had to s-t-r-e-t-c-h to get to the sunlight...

Here it is after I pulled off all the dead leaves and stems.  It is now on my bathroom counter, and the fern is on the stand in the tub.  I guess Ornery figured it would be easier to water from there than having to climb inside the tub to water it.  The fronds are about 4 feet long, and I have never had one get so big before.

We also brought in the amazing Gerbera Daisy that has bloomed all summer long.  It still has a flower on it and another coming up.  We put it in front of the studio window so I can enjoy it every day!

It's October, and that is apparently the month for going crazy with spooky things.  I am not a big fan or Halloween, preferring the cheery to the macabre for my holiday celebrations, but there is one nod to the holiday I usually make and that is putting Monster Mash as the ring tone for my phone.  It makes me smile every time the phone rings!

Already Friday?!

As grateful as I am for another weekend, I have to say that week was a blur!  I have gotten a lot of mail, some I have even answered!  I have done a bit of art, and spent part of two days on a special order of greeting cards, one of which was a purse that I thought turned out pretty cute.  :)  My cards designs have stepped up a bit in that each envelope is now sporting at least a few strips of Washi tape, and some also have stamped images.  The outside is as fun as the card inside, and that makes me happy!

The weather is supposed to turn cooler this weekend--to the tune of low 40's for the low Saturday night, and upper 30's Sunday night.  Brr.  It will be nice to turn off the air conditioner, but I am not ready for the heater yet!  Since yesterday's high was 90, I imagine the quick drop in temperatures will generate a fair number of colds and cases of flu.   Might be a good time to make a batch of chicken soup!

We are planning to bring in a few of the plants from the patio to winter over inside.  I managed to keep alive most of those we brought in last year, but I have to say I wondered if it was worth it with all the little gnats that came in with them.  This year I am putting down some diatomaceous earth in each pot to see if that will help control them.  We already have a few flying around the house, but they apparently breed in the soil, so bringing in house plants is a sure way to have an infestation unless we use some sort of insect control.  Last year I put out little bowls of vinegar to attract them (they dive in and die because they can't get out) but that was a smelly remedy that was only marginally effective.

The tomato plant has finally set some tomatoes now that the season is over.  It doesn't seem likely they will ripen, but who knows?  One year we were still picking tomatoes at Thanksgiving, so apparently anything can happen in an Oklahoma garden!