Behind Again!

Oh, heck.  I keep forgetting to update.  At this point I forget what day it is.  I "think" it's day 4,576 of Corona.  I could be wrong about that, but it's certainly how it feels.

We're still doing our challenges at PAO.  I have to admit that I skipped one because two were sent to me at the same time.  I'm having to dig for photos because, truthfully, I don't want to dig into the box of really old family photos.  Since we're pretty much doing a lot of nothing (other than mowing) I haven't taken many pictures.  Maybe giving myself a "photo a week" would be a good challenge.  Project 365 was a lot of fun a few years ago (one photo a day), but my chosen subject was our property and after a few months I was incredibly bored with that.  Maybe a more realistic approach would cure the photo doldrums.

Anyhow, time to get caught up on the LO posts.

#8 was the last one I posted, so onward and upward!

#9 - I was cleaning out some old files and found these photos of me and 2 of my great-nephews.  These were the first photos we took with my Nikon D1x, which shows how old they are!

#10 - This year was the first time this Dogwood wasn't under the shade of one of the large oaks that we took out.  It was absolutely gorgeous and just seemed to scream "Spring."

#11 - When I first saw these pictures I told my sister not to be surprised if they ended up on a LO.  The colors are a little wild but I think the paper choices are in the spirit of the fun she and Macie were having.

#12 - My Apollo!  Love this big silly idiot to the moon!

#13 - A day in the life long ago.

#14 - Adam's First Communion.  I'm still trying to get the date.  This was at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Sylva.  Father Williams was the celebrant (I think that's the correct term).

#15 - My birthplace in Coeburn, Virginia.  It's a very small town located in the southwestern part of the State not far from Abingdon and Bristol.  High up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachians.  The older I get the more I miss my mountains.  All photo credit goes to Shadowlands Photography - a very talented artist and photographer.

#17 - A summer surprise!  All of my orange daylilies have decided that they now have 4 layers of petals instead of 1!  I'll take it!

#18 - Which finally brings me up to date.  These are some of the other varieties of day lilies that I grow.  This has been a wonderful year for them with the spring rains that we've had.  Every time they bloom it's like seeing them for the first time.

And just like that, I'm caught up!  Yay! 

Stay safe and listen to the "news" with a jaundiced ear - methinks that things are not always what they seem.  🤭

Love and light!

Doubts and Uneasy Feelings

I haven't ranted about anything lately and I feel like it's time.

I've been watching the news, reading posts from news sources that I trust, listening to others, checking out the news videos and articles on their websites, and I've come to some very disturbing conclusions.

All of the tin foil people have been making some pretty outrageous claims all along.  The first one that I heard was that this virus currently causing so much fear worldwide was created in a lab in Wuhan, China.  This was poo-pooed by so many news agencies that, well hey!, maybe those people early claims were a bunch of garbage.  For many reasons, one of which being that one of the "tin foil" hat people is a scientist who always has good information, I kept that in the back of my mind.  Turns out they were right and the "official" track was wrong.  Seriously, who ever believed that the virus started because people at a wet market made some very strange food choices??

The next thing we're hearing is that Trump is recommending a certain drug for treatment of the virus.  Enter the talking heads who don't agree with him and are saying he's going to kill millions.  After weeks of hearing that, it turns out he was right and at least one State is now doing clinical trials to prove the efficacy of this treatment.  People are being healed by hydroxy chloroquine .  Taken in combination with zinc sulfate and Azithromycin more and more patients are leaving the hospitals.

Early reports had people requiring ventilators, with Cuomo going nuts and screaming that he needs a ridiculous amount.  Following that I received information, again from trusted sources, that placing patients on ventilators was causing more harm than good and was in fact destroying or permanently damaging patients' lungs.  Now what's the "official" recommended treatment?  Avoid ventilators.

Masks.  We must all wear masks.  Doesn't matter what kind.  So the country went crazy making masks.  Doesn't matter that they don't do any good - make them and wear them.  At the same time that we're being told that this can be transmitted by air particulates, touching something that someone infected touched, walking through a store where an infected person walked and picking it up on our shoes, and so on ad nauseum.  The truth is they don't know exactly or in how many ways it's transmitted, but we have to avoid contact with anything and everything.  Just curious - how many of you are sterilizing everything you brought home from the grocery store or Wal Mart?

While we're at it - do you sterilize your mail, your Amazon packages, your FedEx and UPS deliveries?  Just asking.

And now the big push is for vote-by-mail because of the virus.  Coincidentaly this push is being espoused by the same political party that has in several States declared that voter ID is Un-Constitutional.  It's also the party that has tons of dead and illegals voting for them.  Vote-by-mail does NOT require an ID, and it's already been proven as a sure fire way to commit voter fraud.  I guess if you can't beat 'em, cheat 'em.

And consider this - hospitals are labeling every death as being caused by Corona.  WTH?  If I have a heart attack tomorrow and die as a result, I'm labeled as a COVID death.  Car accident?  Diabetic coma?  Snake bite?  Nope, that's not the official COD - it was the virus.  Why fudge the numbers?  Could it be yet another reason to keep the country closed and under what basically amounts to martial law?

There are some States that are even banning the purchase of seeds and are closing garden centers.  Why?  Why are we being denied the right to plant gardens to feed ourselves fresh food?  Could it be because certain facets of government (read: certain Party lines) want everyone dependent on their largesse?

Welcome to the Socialist States of America, people.

It's time to push back. 

Falling Behind!

My last post was Challenge #5 - we're already up to #9!  This has been a great inspiration for all of us and a good kick in the pants to spend some time playing with ink and paper.

#6 is actually a companion page to one I finished last year.  It's my 80# baby Apollo on the day he came back from spending several weeks with a trainer.  I wish I could say that it was effective, but he was still a wild child when he came home.  The best part of it was the fact that he was (mostly) house trained when he came home.  I guess I should be grateful and count that as a win!

#7 - I've been trying to document all of the changes we've been making.  This was in September 2019 when I had 5 dead trees removed.  One was hanging over my bedroom, one was over the deck.  The other 3 were scattered in the general area.  The trees basically died almost overnight, as did a lot of others in the neighborhood following the flooding from the 2 hurricanes that dumped 35"+ on us in a 3 week span.  The water lingered for 6 months before finally evaporating.  Strangely enough our trees weren't in the flooded area, but the fungus that killed them started because of the water.  I was amazed at how much it opened up the yard to have them removed.

#8 - October 2019 - I decided that I was tired of paper bag brown walls in the living room and red and bronze in the dining room.  I selected colors that appeared more aqua tinted on the chips than they looked on the walls.  So... I ended up with BABY FRIGGIN" BLANKET BLUE walls.  Since I screwed up my knee royally painting just one wall, we had a painter come in to finish.  I love the way the dining room looks, and will just live with the living room.  The den will be repainted as soon as the Corona Virus has passed and the painter can come back.  Memo to self:  buy a small can of paint and test it before committing to it!

Stay safe and maintain social distancing!

Challenge #5

It's really going to be a lot of fun to see how much the LOs change from person to person, and what elements of my design are inspiration for them.

I chose a photo of Tiger, our little overweight Terrier, as my inspiration for this one.  She never looks happy, even when her tail is wagging!  It was past time for her to have her own page since the other animals are generally featured in my pages.  More than likely it's because Tiger is more George's dog than anyone else's while Apollo and two of the cats are my babies.  She's a sweetie and deserves it, but I couldn't help having a little fun with this because of her unhappy face.

Hope this gives someone a little inspiration to create a page about a part of their home life that isn't usually highlighted!

Love and light.

Playing "Telephone"

At Paper Artists Online (PAO), we're doing a series of challenges based on the old Telephone game - which some of us know as "Gossip."  It's been a lot of fun and helped those of us who are participating to get out of our comfort zone.  

The premise is that the challenge is posted, we sign up with our names in sequence of accepting the challenge, and the originator sends their LO to the first one the list.  That person uses the original LO as inspiration for their LO, which is then sent to the next person on the list.  When everyone is finished, the LOs are posted in sequence so we can see the changes from beginning to end.  The best part of the challenges is seeing what each person takes from the previous as inspiration.  Some of us stay very close to the sender's page, some are inspired by a background pattern, others by a color, etc.  It's amazing to watch the progression and the end result is never like the original.  

We're now on Challenge #5, which was my design.  I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but what I ended up with was nowhere what I had in mind.  Sort of like life!

I've been happy with what I've created, and I have to say that I had some really talented people to follow!  Since it's been ages since I've posted anything resembling artwork, I thought I'd share my LOs.

Challenge #1 - I followed Farley on this one and used a photo that was on our refrigerator!  It was a great excuse to pull out the Buffalo plaid that I've been sitting on. 

Challenge #2 -  This one was originated by Pam C.  I loved the 6 x 6 papers she used for the background, so that was my inspiration for this one.

Challenge #3 - Again this was originated by Pam C.  We had just discussed grid backgrounds, and I used her circles as inspiration for a grid made of circles.  Plus it gave me a good excuse to scrap a photo of Macie!  After posting I did go back to the LO and added a few small stamps to several of the circles which balanced it out nicely.

Challenge #4 - Debi D. originated this post, and I followed Pam C.  I loved the use of several different sizes of photos, and I decided to use this LO to document the stupid accident that caused me to miss Spring and Summer of 2019.  While recuperating, I managed to enjoy Zen mornings on the deck with a cup of coffee, the cats and my container garden.

Challenge #5 - This one is still in progress.  I'm happy to say that I was the originator and I'm really looking forward to seeing the progression of the other LOs.  While I can't post mine just yet, I will give a little clue - it's Tiger and her "resting b---- face."  😂

Looking forward to many more of these!  If anyone is interested in joining us, the website is www,paperartistsonline.com - AKA my home away from home!

Love and light!

Has It Really Been 4 Years??

Hard to believe it's been 4 years since I've posted.  And now I find myself repeating past history - knee surgery coming up this Thursday and it's another election year.

To review - the knee.  Last time it was the right knee.  I'm told that I need a replacement but I'm putting it off since it no longer hurts.  This time it's the good knee, old lefty.   All of this started in October when I decided that I was tired of paper bag brown walls in the living room and red and bronze walls in the dining room.  Time to brighten things up and ditch the clutter.  Bought the paint, pulled out the trusty step ladder, and went up and down one lousy step to paint the ceiling trim.  First day the knee hurt a little.  Over the next few days it got progressively worse - to the point where I couldn't walk on it.  I found someone to finish the painting for me and rested the leg, thinking it would heal over time.  No. Such. Luck.  Finally got tired of it, sucked it up and called my orthopedist, who was booked so I saw his asst.  She x-rayed, found something (bone shard she thought) floating around and scheduled an appointment with the doc.  Saw him and he ordered an MRI after reviewing the images.  Had a follow up 2 days later and scheduled surgery.  Evidently the MRI showed more junk floating around in there than the x-ray, so he's going to remove all of it and clean up the meniscus a bit.   So this Thursday I find myself back where I was 4 years ago April.  Fun and games but at least I won't have to worry about work anymore because ...

I finally retired!  Yay me!  Unfortunately all I've done is make repairs and upgrades on the house, bought a new Boxer as we lost Cedric several years ago, had 2 surgeries on the lower right leg last April, losing all of Spring and Summer because of it, redecorating the living room and kitchen, etc. etc. etc.  It was easier to get up every morning and go to work!

The elections - We may eventually get to them IF this impeachment garbage is ever laid to rest.  I won't even go there because all it does is make my blood pressure go up.

Our new baby boy is now 1 year old.  Apollo is a Sealed Brindle Boxer and is definitely not a cuddle bunny like Cedric.  He's a clown, full of energy, and finally starting to grow a brain.  He understands commands but only performs them when he wants to do so.  He seems to obey better for me than anyone else, but I'm wondering why in the world we bothered to send him away for 2 weeks of training.  This is crazy dog doing his best Winston Churchill imitation.  

As for being crafty, I ended up totally embracing making cards and am now a regular participant in card swaps.  I guess I was a card maker, whether I wanted to believe it or not.  

So, end of thoughts for now.  I'll add some craftiness after surgery.  Send me a few good thoughts for a quick recovery!

Love and Light!