Monday, October 29, 2012

Monday 9am

Caught another orange morning sunrise on Friday. 
A little sky drama. 
We did see the sun for a while.
Karma was basking with eyes closed on her carpet hunk (I use to sprinkle catnip on).  
What are you doing?  
Oh, camera. 
Here, I'll beat up my carpet a little for you. 
Moving the TV tray? 
Are you done? 
I don't have time for such nonsense. 
But Saturday morning we woke up to this.
A thin blanket of snow again.
Was mostly melted away by evening.  Chance of snow again tonight and tomorrow that could turn to rain--which always adds to your driving pleasure.  Been in the 40s during the day and 30s at night...so a tad warmer...but it is going to be a chilly Halloween.  I rarely get any kids here, but I have some candy just in case.
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The really horrible and dangerous weather is on the east coast.  I pray that everyone is safe over these next few days.
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Wasn't the best weekend--bodywise--but Karma and I hung out and had a nice time.  Nothing new.  Just the normal fibro roller coaster--LOL!  (I never did like roller coasters.)  But I did get some more pictures of Dagan and Leah's house from Leah!!  Can hardly wait till I can do the video tour...which I will take when it is empty and all finished...right before they move in.  :):)  In the meantime...here's a glimpse!!
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Notice there's another house on the right that I don't remember being there last set of pics.  I should go back and look.  The truck is not theirs, BTW.  Driveway and steps are poured--looks like sidewalk, too.
 Their black dirt is pushed back and leveled off.  The box in the driveway is the stone that will go on the front of the house there by the garage doors.  Their front door will be red.
 Kitchen!!  And lights!!
 Woodwork!  And color!
 Master bathroom cabinets.
 Laundry room.  (Dagan painted a smily face underneath.)
 More woodwork and paint.  I can see that Dagan and Leah have been very busy painting!
 Garage door openers and sheet rocked walls out there.
 The front door and garage door waiting patiently to be hung.
Probably my next visit will actually be in person with a camera!!  Whoohoo!  Won't be long now.  :)
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Well, everybody please stay safe and healthy.  May angels watch over you and hold you gently while you sleep.  
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"Happiness is not what makes us grateful.  It is gratefulness that makes us happy."
David Steindl-Rast

Friday, October 26, 2012

Friday-9am

Good Morning!
This is what the days have looked like this week.  So rainy and/or dark that the buildings with automatic nighttime lot lights were still lit up at noon. 
This morning...now this is what I call a cloud bank.  Even if you click to enlarge this you can barely see it but the ground is far below the edge of those dark clouds.  I tried several shots, but the clouds were so dark my camera just didn't register the shadowy land below them.  Looks promising for some sun today, though. 
I have been puttering for days!  Here's Erin's Zendala Dare template for this week. 
And this is what I did with it. 
This week I actually used nothing but tangles from TanglePatterns!  Reticulated, Tearee, Netting, and Opus...well, my adapted versions of a couple of them--LOL!
Then for Jenn's Artist's Playroom!  This week's challenge was "Pairs".  Immediately I thought of my favorite wild and crazy socks from The Sock Lady, of course. 
So I swiped the picture of my favorite pair (so hard to choose) off her website and used tracing paper to get the outline of the socks (how many times have I admitted that I can't draw well)... 

...and then picked the closest colors I could find in my Triplus Fineliners and LePens...and then freehanded the crazy sock patterns.  Was fun!  So that's my submission to (mismatched) pairs. 
Then...remember Felicia who surprised me with the beautiful card and a roll of Scrappy Tape?  She told me about a special on the 1/4 inch Scrappy Tape over at ScrapbookPal.  With a code from their Facebook site you can get the $2.99 rolls for 99 cents!!  And orders over $25 are free shipping!  I think the sale goes on for a while yet--end of October maybe?
Whoohoo!  Look at all that tape!  I haven't even tried the ScrappyTape yet, but for 99 cents a roll I went for it.  Also got one 1/8 inch roll, too... 
...and they had the Viva Decor on sale, too!   
I've been wanting to try these ever since I saw some ladies using them on youtube.  Supposed to be kind of 3D.  Should be fun to play with.  :)   
While Karma slept in her bed on the couch (she really pushes into it, look at how that bed is tipping!)... 
...I have been working sessions on the Tangles Binder. 
Have the tubs of tangle pictures and the binder behind me... 
...a small bucket of warm water and towel next to me (hate sticky fingers)... 
...and I just keep plugging away with the gluing and labeling...
...while they keep working on the mystery building across the way. 
I'll keep working on the Tangles Binder over the weekend.  Dagan and Leah are busy painting walls.  I just finished watching season five of Mad Men (Netflix).  Karma is laying in the sun.  Going to be a good weekend.  Hope yours is, too!!  :):)
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"Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don't want it.  What appears bad manners, an ill temper or cynicism is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.  You do not know what wars are going on down where the spirit meets the bone."
Miller Williams

Monday, October 22, 2012

Monday-10am

We did see sun this weekend.
I have proof. 
I even moved Karma's bed over by the porch door... 
...so she could catch some rays in comfort on the chilly morning. 
(Next time she's complaining about how mean and cruel I am, I'm going to show her these pictures.)
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What a nice weekend.  
Besides seeing the sun for the first time since Tuesday and finally feeling more human, I got more fun mail!!  Erin over at The Bright Owl (she has the weekly zendala dare template challenge) had a giveaway of two Zentangle Zendala tile kits to celebrate reaching 200 followers...and I was one of the winners!!  Do you believe how blessed I have been lately!?  :):)  
When I first opened them up I thought they were all blank...  
...but they have very faint hand drawn designs on them. 
Two each of nine designs plus three blanks.  Twenty-one tiles to play with.  They appear to be printed on some pretty decent drawing paper.  Thanks for having the giveaway, Erin!  And congrats on the 200 followers--whoohoo!!   
Okay...when I used the Ink Drop ink samples like watercolors for the artwork last month I kind of ruined them for fountain pen use with the wet brushes.  I didn't want to ruin any more ink samples and remembered I have these skinny syringes (no needles).  I seem to remember they were for pet medication?  Maybe for Dagan and Leah's Sammy?  (The curse of fibro-fog...maybe by now with a dash of Alzheimer's thrown in for good measure!)  I tossed them on the craft table to show you...  
...but my OCD tendencies didn't leave them like that for long--LOL!  Anyways, I could gather up a few drops from each of the five sample vials without polluting them...and was able to drip them with precision...one drop at a time...one color at a time...onto the mixed media journal... 
...and then blow them all over the paper with the air can!!  This was waaaay too much fun!!!  (Not that Karma would agree with me.) 
I searched all over for glossy paper...thought I had just a few sheets left somewhere (even though I never ran across them cleaning I didn't go through every sheet of paper I have and it just seems like something I shouldn't be out of).  I thought the ink would maybe slide better on glossy.  Couldn't find any sheets but I found some store-bought, pre-made glossy cards...spread one out...and had a blast!!  The colors stayed more true, I think.  I turned this in for the October Ink Drop Art contest at Goulet Pens.  Has a kind of spidery look for Halloween, I think.  ;) 
Was a hazy, sun-peeking weekend.  The geese are already making their way south.  If you click on the picture you can see better all the geese that landed over where there used to be a swampy pond and a wild field of prairie grass.
Some of them still stop...even though men spent a couple years filling in the natural pond/swampy area that they loved.  They used to come and stay for a few days.  The place was a concert of crickets and frogs back then.  Now they are only here for less than an hour.  No longer a motel and restaurant.  Just one of those rest stops on the highway with a half-empty candy machine and no water fountain.
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I actually did something else extra over the weekend as long as I was finally feeling better after almost two weeks...look familiar? 
I went through the tangle pics and wrote the names in pencil on the backs.  Had a few random ones left over that I will have to track down...but this step is basically done.  TaDa!!
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I guess I spent a few too many sessions doing that over the weekend.  I thought I was doing fine, but it's not always easy to judge.  Last night I couldn't sleep for the sharp pain in my back and shoulders.  I finally got up and took a pain pill and was able to sleep after while...and why I didn't wake up till 9:30 this morning.  There are times I am so grateful for pharmaceuticals!  ;)
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The next step is to start gluing them all onto the binder pages and labeling them.  I will have to wait a couple days, but I hope to start this week.  :):)
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Let's see, what else?  Oh, Karma seems to really like the Felidae canned cat food so far.  (Let's not tell her that this is also diet food.)  I didn't totally catch up on emails this weekend, but I did read blogs.  Didn't comment as much as usual.  Really can't when I am that far behind, but I am caught up with you all--whoohoo!  :)  
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I forgot to tell you that last week when I went to walk the old phones (saving as backup) out to the garage my automatic garage door key didn't work.  Dead.  Long story short...back when they switched garages for me years ago (I needed one with a garage door opener because I couldn't always manage to manually open the door with my bum arm and not all of them have openers) they forgot to also switch the electricity in the basement someplace.  So I have been paying for 202's garage electricity all these years and they've been paying for mine.  If they happen to be people who plugged in their car in the winter or something like that...maybe my bill will go down?  But most people don't plug in their cars in or spend time in their garages, so probably won't go down much.  Anyways, I learned I have a switch for the garage in my breaker box in the hallway.  ;)
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Well, that's it from Fargo for today.
I plan to find some time to play this week.  
Be healthy, safe, and happy!  
Keep smiling!
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"Focus on the journey, not the destination.  Joy is found not in finishing an activity, but in doing it."
Greg Anderson