Saturday-2:45pm

Two weeks again!

Lots of pictures.  Probably should grab a cuppa and settle in--LOL!

I have been in love with the new planter boxes.

They survived two storms in a row that first week.

Ian is Mama's garden helper--complete with garden gloves and sun hat.

Seems like it's been a long two weeks.

I continued to work--slowly--on the studio closet.  

Got new pictures of Ian's baby sibling.

Had the cord in front of its face. 

Yes, "its"--because they don't want to know the sex this time around.  Going old school and being surprised.  :)
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The wind has pushed the plants about some...

...but they were still filling out pretty well a week ago.

I am out there picking dead heads...

...and watering.

Just enjoying the days with blue skies.

Oh, this cracked me up.  I was thinking of moving over the wire cube shelves in the studio closet to see if the tall stuff might fit to slide in on the other side of them.  Emptied the cubes and moved every thing out.

Was pulling the set of wire cubes over...and clunk!  I forgot about the top shelf brace--LOL!

So I had to pull them back.  Lot of effort for nothing.  But I did sort through the tall flat stuff on the right side--panels, gator board, odd large papers, large cutting boards, etc.

Worked at getting most of the bookbinding supplies together in the closet.

The living room was a mess for over a week.

Been out on the patio every day...

...and couldn't resist taking some shots of the clouds.

You know how I love sky pics.

We've had occasional rain and clouds galore lately.  :)

Leah sent me a picture of the full double rainbow!  The second one is faint but you could see it better in person than in the picture.

They had a better shot than I did.

The weather had been so hot and then it took a dip recently--ahhh!  I LOVE IT!!!  Can't stand the heat and then you get trapped inside with the AC for days or weeks on end.  
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I see lots of people walking dogs...

...out walking, rollerblading, biking, pushing strollers (one has a yorkie in it), and even skateboarding.  Some truly perfect days lately in the 60s and 70s.  My opinion, of course--LOL!

Okay--you may remember how disappointed I was with the square gridded Leuchtturm1917 having the "Datum/Date:" on every page and how I decided to use washi tape to cover them up because they drove me crazy.  Well, putting washi tape on almost every page made the journal so fat I couldn't even close it anymore.  I had made it up ahead to October...but I hated using it so much that I bought a new one.    

Was thrilled to go back to the dot grid with nothing written on the top of every page--tada!

In anticipation of a new bullet journal I had purchased these stencils a while back from Moxiedori on Etsy.  The tall one has already been worth its weight in gold.  :)

I also purchased this Helix on Amazon--which is super cool--but I haven't figured out how to use it yet--LOL!

I cut out all the last pages in the current bullet so that I can finally shut it--tada!  Now it will fit better on the shelf when I switch over to the new one.
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Well, I had crazy eye stuff happen, so I didn't get much done for several days.

A week ago Friday I was doing my usual morning routine (journaling and catching up online) and I suddenly had a huge bright arc of twinkling, glaring, blinking light across my field of vision.  It wouldn't go away even when I closed my eyes and was difficult to see through.  
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I went and laid back in my recliner--thinking maybe the macular pucker was trying to move around, right?  Okay--proof I have chronic fatigue--I dozed off in the middle of the light show--LOL!  It was almost gone when I woke up.  Lasted about 45-50 minutes and left me with a sharpish headache and light sensitivity, but I could see as well as I had before the light show.
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For two sunny days I wore my sunglasses all day long inside, had a little worse headache than normal, but otherwise was fine.  I had assumed it was likely caused by the macular pucker.  But on Monday a blogger friend, Dianne, told me it could be a sign of a retinal tear.  She's such a sweetheart.
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So I called my eye doctor on Tuesday morning--but from what I described they thought it was an aural migraine.  ??  I've never had a migraine before.  Anyways, I have an appointment for the 28th to have them look for a retinal tear and check my macular pucker.  They're hesitantly sure it was a light show migraine.  Of course, if anything else happens in the meantime I'm to call right away.  
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Nothing else has happened yet.
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Thank goodness!
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After two weeks my flowers are really filling out!  

I can't get enough of them.

This was the best project idea for the patio...

...whoohoo!!  :) :)

Meanwhile, I have been working on setting up my new bullet so I can start using it in July.

I am loving the tall stencil with those little squares for checking off stuff.  Just marvelous!

I am planning to use a partially different format (won't use up as many weekly pages so this bullet will last longer).  Absolutely not going to be adding lots of washi tape or stickers so I plan to do more drawing, lettering and such.  I already tape in the pre-printed calendars and monthly trackers and that's all the added girth I want in this one.
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Therefore, I really needed to test the thin paper
for using my marker sets--Zig Clean Color brush markers and Tombow brush markers.  (No bleed through!) 

Also tested for using my drawing pens, gel pens, calligraphy pens, etc.

Then I can see right off which ones are a no-no and bleed through the paper.

I have several more pens, crayons, and pencils I will be testing.  I trim the top and bottom so that these will all fit in the pocket on the back cover.  Then they can easily be moved to the next bullet.
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For the headers I tried out a font I found on google images.

I am inexperienced using lettering ideas but I think I will improve the more I do it.

I'm loving the little check boxes stencil!

I've been working for two days and haven't even gotten to the actual month of July yet--LOL!  But I am having such fun!!
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So, this coming week I have eye the doctor on Wednesday and the dentist on Thursday.

Ian's coming over to open his presents from me on Tuesday and then Tuesday night Leah is coming over for crafts.

Busy week.  Hoping for the migraine verdict.  I have a sensitive tooth that lost a side chunk (probably a big filling?) back before Karma hurt her ear.  Yup--back in January.  Been so much going on this year that it's taken me this long to get in for the cleaning and x-rays.  It's possible I might even have a toothache so I am sure there will either be drilling or pulling in my near future.  Not expecting a good verdict at the dentist's--LOL! 
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But I am loving this cooler weather!  Having the place opened up.  Fresh air.  I'm having fun setting up the new bullet and doing the paper testing/color swatches.  Loving my colorful flowers.  Ian is three years old today!  I finished the studio closet--so when Annie's collar arrives from Taiwan and McFamily has a good day to do it, Annie can come over.  Even my lone, nameless, very old red serape tetra got his bowl cleaned today.  Once I finish setting up the bullet my next project is to start on the sewing.  Always another project around the corner.  ;)
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Life may have some bumps and bruises...but it is full and fine, wouldn't you say?
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Life is good.
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"There are many things to be grateful 'for' but, as I ripen with the seasons of life, the many reasons blend into a sacred mystery.  And, most deeply, I realize that living gratefully is its own blessing."
Michael Mahoney

Saturday-10:30am

Good Morning!

Been over two weeks since I last showed up for a chat.  I have either been really busy or recovering from being really busy... 

...and watching the grouse go by pecking at the grass bugs and seeds. 

We've had lots of predictions of rain... 

...but what we got was mostly very light to just sprinkles or drizzle. 

I think the first storm might have been last night.  We sure had the wind, anyways.  Woke up to a brown lawn chair blown into the bush next to the patio.  Supposed to die down during the morning here.

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What have I been up to when I was functional?  Went down to listen to the dietitian from the University of North Dakota one afternoon--may have mentioned her.  She had a recipe for us to try at the end of her talk about nutrition.  I was surprised I liked it because it was such an odd combination of ingredients--for me, anyways.  California roll-ups with avocado, grapes, celery, greek yogurt, apples, lemon juice...goodness, that's all I can remember off the top of my head.  

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One does get tired of soups and pastas and rice...so I splurged and got everything at the beginning of the month.  Took me the better part of a morning just to cut and dice and slice (because I can only stand in one place for short periods of time--sets off the chronic sciatica).  But it is quite good and has been holding up well in the frig.  New recipes can be financially and physically challenging--LOL!

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Dagan and Leah ordered a collar for Annie that I found on an etsy shop.  She needs one with her name and my number on it.  Turns out the collar is coming from Taiwan--LOL!  But it is in the mail, so I need to finish working on that last closet.

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Yes, I have still barely touched the studio closet.  I have gone into a fibro flare, so have taken it pretty slow the past couple weeks.  Banker boxes...

...Ikea boxes... 

...and plastic containers were hauled out. 

But the smaller ones will be for use in the actual studio bookcases so they got moved into the hallway on top of those bookcases.    

I save old towels and washcloths to use for various art and craft projects (or for whatever else comes up).  These got purged down to one box.  Just those things took me three days--ROFL!  Pretty sad.  But, you do what you can do. 

Leah has still been coming over to trace and rough cut patterns.  

 We got the last ones rough cut on Thursday, but I haven't finished cutting them out yet.  Next I will take over sewing them all after I finish the closet.  See how slowly I am moving?  I thought I would be long done with the closet by now.  Oh well.

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We've been attempting to get together for crafts on Tuesdays and Thursdays until end of July, but you know what they say about plans.  Ian got sick.  Leah gets very tired now, too.  They were running late one evening when they were out visiting...you know how it goes.

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I haven't been doing great, myself.  Missed the CCC group and some afternoon tea event put on by Senior Companions this past week.  Plus it has been horrible out for folks like Leah and I who hate the heat.  Been in the 80s and 90s.  Awk! 

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I have been using the new breadmaker, though.  Thought you might get a kick out of this.  I am so short that I need a stool to be able to see to program this tall machine--LOL!

I did get something else done.  Went through all the old books from when I was a kid! 

Got them out of the decades old oranges grocery box, anyways. 

Does anyone remember when you could buy the weekly reader books in the 1950s in grade school?  At least I think they were Weekly Reader books. 

A few of these books I believe were my sister, Renee's.  And a handful of them were Dagan's when he was little...but the vast majority of these were mine.

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I remember how I waited with anticipation for that flyer and order blank to be handed out in class.  Such excitement!!  But that was nothing compared to the day the books arrived!!  I'd walk through that classroom door, my eyes would alight upon those colorful little stacks on the various desks, and I'd race to my seat to peruse my treasures.  Always loved the smell of the new books.  Even though they were small paperbacks, I had been taught how to gradually crack the spine of a new book so I had to wait to actually read until each precious book was treated with spine cracking respect.  Ah!  I loved book day!!

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The days of these last couple weeks have slipped by so quickly...but sweetly.

I couldn't believe it has been this long since I've blogged! 

This past Monday I had a nice visit from Alan and Marylu Belisle as they traveled through Fargo.  Alan was my first love--senior year--when I was 16 and he was 18.  Goodness--50 years ago now!  I am absolutely the worst at remembering to take pictures--too much living in the moment all the time--LOL!  But they do have a blog--footloose fogeys.  When they retired they sold their house and have been on a great adventure traveling around the US!  Oh--and Dagan stopped by, too, and joined in the conversation.  He remembers Alan because we have kept in loose touch all these years and see each other every decade or so--LOL!  (This time it was 17 years, I think.)  Anyways, was nice to meet his wife and we all had a good visit.

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On Tuesday Leah came over to work on making Ian's birthday party invitations.  (He'll be three on the 24th.)  On Wednesday Leah, Ian, and I went to Baker nursery!!  I picked out plants.  Leah picked out plants.  We went and picked up Leah's brother, Aaron, and dropped off her plants.  (Needed Aaron to help with the heavy lifting.)  Picked up a bag of rocks and a big plastic tub to hold soil at Home Depot (Ian and I stayed in the car).  We had a nice break to eat a Subway lunch at my place before potting the planter boxes in my garage.  (Was close to 90 degrees again that day--awk!)

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Leah and Aaron did all the work while I kept an eye on Ian--who was helping in every way we could think of--LOL!  Then we wheeled the planter boxes to my apartment--and brought the brown lawn chairs, too.

Then the planter boxes got soaked really well. 

There are two on each end of the patio. 

Ian was helping to water but his arm got tired... 

...so Mama helped. 

He loves to help these days...and has just started the "why" stage--LOL! 

I picked out lots of colors. 

I hope all these baby plants take hold and grow.

And that they can survive the wind up here.  I really do live where a wind tunnel is formed by the long stretch of buildings one after the other that are connected.  The flowers look like they did pretty well.  The wind is dying down some after two days of 40mph wind.  I'll see who stands back up and who doesn't--LOL!  Some never got bent over, so they are probably going to make it.  This is the first time I have had outside potted plants since Dagan was Ian's age!

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Leah was here Wednesday night to trace and rough cut the last of this batch of patterns!  I have been such a total zombie since the trip to Baker and all that in the heat.  Like I said--either busy or recovering from being busy--LOL!  ;)

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I watched Bloodline, Vikings 4-2, and am getting close to the end of the new season of House of Cards.  I might finish that tonight over at McFamily's.  I have a super easy babysitting gig.  After Ian's asleep I will keep an eye on the monitor while Dagan and Leah go see the new Wonder Woman movie.  :)

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I will try not to let so much time go by.  Though, life is just like that sometimes.  :)  Have a great weekend!!

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"Every exit is an entry somewhere else."

Tom Stoppard