Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Tuesday-7am

Karma had to check out the snow on the porch, of course.
She just made a quick trip out...gazed at the screen moving in the wind...but there was too much noise from people scraping their windshields...
...so she headed back inside.
It was warm enough for the snow to stick to her furry feet...so I could barely get the door closed...
...as she busied herself happily eating her meager footprints.
Haven't had the energy to do much, but it is easy to keep up with the SOAR journal when I just use her print outs and cut and paste...writing thoughts from the day.
Start of a new week...
...and preparing pages. Been just using several colors of my distress inks and smearing them about. Easy peasy. ;)
Karma has been sleeping better on the loveseat even if she sleeps lighter and is constantly opening her eyes and lifting her head--LOL! We're just two old broads not used to change--ROFL!
The snow plow cleared the main drag in the parking lot and the maintenance folk cleared the sidewalks...
...but there's ice under this snow. As I was taking these pictures I watched this driver turn into a spot and almost slide sideways into the back of that one parked with all the snow on top. The driver managed to stop, backed up, and then made it in just fine, but it is slick out there.
Out in the fields you can see where the prairie grasses are longer.
They remain patches of brown on the landscape...usually never visible at this time of year.
I'm still feeling punkish, but I did work on the SOAR journal...filling in my notes...
...and decided to just get set up for the rest of the week while I was at it...Tuesday through Friday...
...and Saturday...are ready to go and waiting for notes, doodles, or whatever.
Well, other than that, I have been reading a little and writing in my regular writing journal here and there. I watched the documentary I AM (loved it!) and the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce with Kate Winslet (excellent!)--Netflix. Been pretty quiet up here in Fargo for me and Miss Karma. We're just happily hanging out. ;)
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Stay safe and well!!
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"A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world."
Joseph Addison

Monday, January 23, 2012

Monday-4:15am

Not a lot to tell you over the long weekend I was away. I never do as well when I am sleeping days...as I still am. It's like I am stuck in a pattern of sleeping from 11-12pm until 6-9pm. Not really making my way around the clock very quickly this time, I guess.
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Karma is still trying to get used to the loveseat. She remains jumpy when I move on the loveseat or bump her cat bed so I wake her up a lot. She still parks herself on the footrest between my feet a couple times a day--can't really relax there but it doesn't stop her from trying. I disturb her sleep enough that she regularly goes off to odd spots in the apartment to sleep. She's still not eating well. A slow adjustment.
I am also adjusting. Mostly physically--getting used to the sliding down and having to push down with my legs to get out of here--LOL! Probably good for my body to use some new muscles, but it's rough on the fibro and OA. I can tell this cranky body is slowly getting accustomed to the crazy new acrobatics, though--LOL!
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I had a stuffed head and ear this weekend. It hasn't gotten worse and seems to be getting better, actually. I hope it continues in this direction. ;)
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I started playing around adding a little random color with distress ink pads in the SOAR journal.
Just kind of smeared a couple different colors all over the page spread. Getting ready for Saturday--two blues.
I did catch a gorgeous sunrise.
Most of the sunrises have been pretty blah with clouds and grey skies. We had another light dusting of snow a few days ago.
Saturday. The original "cut and paste"--LOL!
Getting the page spread ready for Sunday and a new week--brown and yellow.
I can get lots closer pictures of Miss Karma when she's so near now. She does like me laying a hand on her side while she sleeps or reaching over to pet her so easily...even if it startles her at first.
Yesterday...we had snow!
Enough snow that the plow has been working away in the parking lot since 4am this morning.
White everywhere!!! :):)
I know. Don't hate me because I love it.
They said we actually got 3-5 inches, even if it doesn't really look like it here.
I'm sure the plow companies are delighted and why they're out long before dawn because now we are getting freezing rain--arg!
I was happy to see everything all clean and white out there, though. I have missed the snow.
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I never did watch the sky painting class on Saturday because of my sawing logs by that time. And I am sooo disappointed that there was no replay that I could find anywhere. In fact, all I found were some previous classes that you could pay for the downloads. Makes no sense to me to sign up 4,000 people knowing you can only handle between 1-1,400 for the streaming and then have no replays for people to watch. Duh! So--if I happen to catch them, fine. If not, too bad. I had already signed up for a waterfall painting class for February before I discovered they had no replays. Oh well. Live and learn, right?
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I got tagged by Tori. I don't pass them on, but welcome anyone to answer the questions if they'd like to. I think it's always fun to read people's answers. :)
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1. What was your first pet? And what was its name?

My very, very first pets (around age 8 or 9) were some guppies in a fish bowl and they never got named, but I got to see live births--awesome!


2. What's your earliest memory?

I wrote a story about it in college.

Mommy and That Baby


3. If you could live anywhere in the world, in any type of home, where would you live? And what kind of home would you live in?

I'd live in Minnesota in a house big enough for two creative rooms--one large one for an arts/crafts studio and one smaller one for a writing den--on some land where there's woods and a creek or river. Enough land where I couldn't see my neighbors, but enough room that I could hold classes to do fun things and have an extra room for company to stay.


4. If you had to pick just one meal to have every day for the rest of your life, what would it be? And why?

Goodness! I just don't know. Maybe if I picked something like stir-fry or hot dish so that you could switch the ingredients up all the time...you know how I love variety! ;)


5. What would your ideal job be?

Can't work anymore. I was an English Writing major in college...if I ever decided on something that was worth giving up everything else in my life for to write, I could write I suppose. But I do love variety, so I'd have to fall into intense passion, that's for sure. ;)


6. Do you love to read? If so, what are your favourite types of books?

In my little one-bedroom apartment I have four bookcases with books. I have books on writing, on arts & crafts (painting, drawing, polymer clay, aromatherapy, cardmaking, calligraphy, etc, etc), on spirituality and religions, self-help, cookbooks, chic mysteries (from my cleaning girl), literary journals and collections, some historical, novels, mysteries, memoirs...quite a variety. I go in cycles where sometimes I am reading compulsively and sometimes I only have a couple books I'm reading at a snail's pace (like now).


7. Are you a fan of watching movies? If so, what are your favorite types of movies?

Ha! Am I a fan of movies! Always was, but especially now since I have been housebound and the Universe sent me Netflix--LOL! I like some popular (although the comedies have become so raunchy I am not liking a lot of them anymore), independent, sci-fi, thrillers, some action-adventure, period pieces, old black and whites, classics, TV mini-series and movies, documentaries, nature, animated, dramas, foreign...lots! :)


8. It's a cold, dark night in the middle of Winter; the snow is falling thick and fast outside the window... What are you doing?

Inside--nice and warm--either watching one of those movies, reading, writing letters, making cards, working on some journal or another...or on the laptop as I am right now in that very scenario--LOL!


9. It's a beautiful, hot day in the middle of Summer; there's not a cloud in the sky, and bearly a breeze... What are you doing?

Inside--nice and cool--see number 8. ;)


10. If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be? And why?

I'm terrible with these type of questions. Too pragmatic. They're fictional. I can't talk to them. I'd rather talk to the author.


11. If you could have a conversation with any person - alive or dead; just as long as they really exist (or have really existed in the past) - right now, who would it be? Why them? And what would you discuss?

Again...does this mean I am weird? I have no desire to talk to anyone famous. I'd be much more interested in talking with a pioneer family, or somebody who worked at building the pyramids, or a maid from a big house in England back in the day, or a monk from an old Tibetan temple, or a family following the reindeer in Scandinavia, or a Chinese family of rice farmers. Those are the people who interest me. The common folk, you know? They fascinate me. We already know quite a bit about famous people.

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Anyways, that's enough for today. Karma's mostly asleep at my side in her comfy bed (her ears give her away that she is not totally out). My ear is mostly unplugged. Everything I do, I do slowly. It's now 6:15am and I can still hear the snow plow. They have to be thrilled to finally have some work. They're predicting it to be around 30 degrees the next few days, so most of this snow could be gone once again.

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The start of a good week ahead, right? Stay safe and well. :):)

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"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door."

Emily Dickinson

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Thursday-5:30am

During the night I worked on various correspondence.
All caught up to date--for now, anyways.
For the SOAR group on the Just Be Yourself Ning website I remembered I've had this set of three composition notebooks for many years (that I'll never use for just writing because I didn't realize they were wider lined when I ordered them--LOL!) that I could use for this journaling project.
So I printed off all the various stuff for the group since the beginning of the year...
...and sorted them into a couple big envelopes. Some things are for dates or days of the week and some are unspecified lists and journaling cards and flowers and words.
Since I was almost three weeks behind I just kind of did a whole lot of cutting and pasting...
...a little bit of coloring with colored pens...
...wrote a few notes here and there...
...made a few lists...
...did a little journaling for the past couple days...
...and got caught up. Was definitely a rush job. I've done a little more coloring, but it's pretty simple so far. Not sure if I'll be able to keep this up for the whole year. Time will tell, I guess. It feels more like doodling and playing to me.
I've only had writing journals before...and I just started up with one of those again a year ago. Never thought I'd also have an art journal (since November) and now a SOAR journal for 2012, too. Goodness!
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Well, my paper order came from ClearEnvelopes. The papers were in four cellophane envelopes.
I was excited.
Karma was excited (about the packing paper).
I began to take the papers out.
These are the 12 X 12 inch.
I noticed there were papers where I had two or three of the same paper...
...when I had only ordered one of each?
These are the 8 1/2 X 11 inch. See the duplicates?
Gosh these are all so pretty!!
But I was wondering about the duplicates?
And then I discovered this packet of paper, too!
Must be 20-25 of these very thin purple sheets.
Most of the sheets appeared to be what I ordered, but I got extras. I'm not sure what went on with them because of the handmade paper being discontinued...and when he called me about some sheets being gone already I was so tickled to just get as many kinds as I could of what they had left...I think maybe they just were making up for the fact that more of the paper wasn't there. Because I remember counting on my original order and it was close to 90 sheets...like 87 or 88 maybe? And he said they were out of four of them, right? Well, on my invoice there were 67 listed...and it is the same price he quoted me. But...I got about 100 sheets plus that (dusty) packet of the purple paper!! Whoohoo! I'm assuming they were just housecleaning and I was the lucky beneficiary.
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Whatever the reason, I am one happy camper. I may not have gotten every one of the papers I had ordered, but I ended up with more than I expected. I am picturing bookcard covers. Collage paper (some are very thin). Card backgrounds. Who knows what else?! Happy dancing up in Fargo! :):)
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I was shocked when I recently discovered I was following 155 blogs. I have been tired with little energy, so I decided I could at least work my way through my blogs and eliminate a lot of them. Long overdue. There were some that no longer existed! Some that hadn't blogged for many months...or even years! I hope I didn't accidentally eliminate somebody I didn't really want to, but I cut my blogs down to around 70! That's still a lot, but it's a lot more manageable. :)
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Oh, and I signed up for the next free painting class, too. He's doing another one on how to paint waterfalls on three Saturdays in February. It sounds like he's been doing these for a while and I just didn't know it.
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I've only tried painting with acrylics or oils a couple of times each. Even more foreign to me than watercolors...and the techniques are kind of backwards from watercolors. And I forgot that we moved the boxes with the acrylics and oils into the storage area--duh! So, I might not do the lesson for this week and just wait until he covers watercolors (and pastels) on Saturday...and pray I get in there early enough to watch. At least I have a little bit of experience with watercolors.
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Maybe I can just play with the watercolors, anyways, instead of the oils he used for the first class, right? If I do the assignment that is probably what I'll do. My knee has still be touchy. I'm tired, my back hurts--(whine-whine)--just can't see going down there with my cart and trying to lift and haul boxes around right now. Geez! I can't believe I forgot that until I went to look in the shelves over the washer and dryer. Memory isn't what it used to be--LOL!
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Anyways, that's about it from here. It's currently 17 below. I'm about ready to crawl under the warm covers here pretty soon. Morning for most of you all but nighty-night time for me. ;P At least I've been getting some sleep again and, therefore, am feeling a little better and getting a little done. Well, I'm safe and warm with Karma. Life is good. :)
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Hope you do the happy dance today, too, over something!! ;)
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"Just to be is a blessing; just to live is holy."
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel