Happy New Year!

It's still January (barely) so I'm thinking I can still get by with wishing you a Happy New Year! If I were making resolutions I'd resolve to blog more frequently, but I'm not so we'll just have to wait & see what happens.
Things are going fine here. I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas and have been reading like a maniac! I absolutely LOVE being able to pick a book & instantly have it right in my hand, it's amazing!! I've bought a few, borrowed a few through the library's electronic book program, and downloaded some that are free because of being classics or Amazon.com's deal of the day. Woo hoo! Happy New Year & Happy Reading!! :-)

Tuesday Afternoon with Aubrey the Silky Cat

Today was my day to volunteer at our local Animal Shelter. I've been doing this for a couple of months now and really enjoy it. I mainly focus my attention on the cats and puppies, because that's what's needed most right now. (They already have plenty of dog walkers, and that works out fine for me because with my back being a bit delicate I don't want to risk getting jerked & ending up like I was earlier in the Fall!)

Today I was scheduled for afternoon instead of my usual morning hours and I was amazed at the difference a few hours made! When I arrived all of the cats were sound asleep, a huge contrast to mornins when vying for attention - wanting to play, bouncing around in their cages, meowing, etc.! As I was reading their cards & catching up on new arrivals a ball of fluff started to stir and Audrey, a long-haired calico who has been living there nearly 3 weeks, woke up. I got her out of her cage and she snuggled up against me purring like crazy. I sat in the rocking chair and petted her for quite a while - we were both in Heaven! Since the other cats were all still sleeping there was no need to "share the love" - they were perfectly content and so was I.

As we rocked I realized that my eyes were getting misty. Hmm.. what was that about? It only took a couple of minutes to figure it out - petting her felt just like petting Callie, our elderly cat (nearly 19 yrs. old) who passed away in '09 and who I still miss. Stroking the incredibly soft, silky fur and slender frame brought back so many good memories! This little "pound kitty" girl is 7 years old and was turned in because her owner was no longer able to care for her. To me these are the saddest cases - it's easy to find homes for puppies and kittens, but when a pet has a few years under its belt people tend not to be as interested in them even though an older pet is often more docile and well behaved than the younger ones.

When I got home I told DH all about her and guess what he, who just a few months ago, said "no more cats", said? "Bring her home!" WHAT?? You could've knocked me over with a feather! I don't know whether it was her photo or hearing about how much like Callie she was, or if it was just the way he was feeling at that moment. I don't know that we'll actually get a cat - we had decided not to - but anyway it was interesting hearing those words come from his mouth! We (or at least I) would have to discuss it further before making such a big decision. In the meantime it's fun to think about!

High School Pal Charged with Animal Cruelty

You may (if you're a FB friend) know that my high school class recently had a 40-yr. reunion. It was wonderful seeing everybody after all those years & we all had a great time. During the reunion talk turned to the people who weren't there & what had happened to them. Turns out one of the girls (well she'd be 58 now so maybe we should say women) had recently been arrested for running a puppy mill! I'd heard about the raid but never would've imagined that my classmate was the person who was responsible for the deplorable conditions these little dogs were living in!

Pat and I had many classes together including Home Ec, which stressed cleanliness & good nutrition. Her Puppy Mill showed no sign of either of those things. I am just heartbroken thinking about what awful things must've happened to her after high school to bring her to the point where she could raise dogs like this and not see anything wrong with it.

There were over 110 dogs being kept in bad conditions behind her homes. The neighbors, when interviewed by the local tv & newspaper, all talked about how noisy & smelly the animals were. Some even mentioned that Pat's husband (now deceased) had been convicted of animal cruelty several years ago & wasn't even supposed to be keeping animals.

What I don't understand is why these neighbors never reported the situation to the authorities!! PLEASE, if you see animals being kept in bad conditions, call your local police or animal shelter & don't rest until something has been done about it.

If you are planning to buy a puppy, please don't buy it from a pet shop - or from somebody who wants to ship it to you or meet you somewhere with it. If the breeder isn't willing for you to come to their house & meet the parents & see where the puppies are being raised, RUN the opposite direction! You can bet they have something to hide. What they do is clean up a couple of the breed you're interested in & bring them to meet you. Sometimes they clean them up & bring them to a pet shop to sell for them. They may tell a flowery story about the wonderful place where the puppies live but don't believe it unless you see it.

When questioned about what she'd done, Pat refused to admit that she'd done anything wrong. Some of the dogs confiscated from her property were in such bad shape that they had mold growing on them. They had no water, had rats in the cage with them, poop everywhere. It just broke my heart to hear about it, and when I watched the video that showed the conditions I just cried & cried. Nobody, human or animal, should have to live like these little dogs did. I cried for them and I cried for Pat, the quiet, friendly, helpful girl from high school whose life has led her to this point. I pray that when the legal process is finished, these little dogs will find loving homes and that Pat will get help and be able to once again become a caring individual and overcome whatever it was that brought her to this low point.

(The video is entitled "Rowan County KY Puppy Mill Bust" and can be seen on You Tube.

Scrabble Birthday Calendar

Saw this Birthday Calendar idea today & LOVE it! My son recently asked me for a list of family birthdays. He's a huge Scrabble player, so this would be a really cool way to present him with the birthday info! I'd like to make one for him AND one for myself!

I'm wondering how they did the tiny lettering used for each person's name. Maybe rub-on letters? I wrote the calendar creator a few minutes ago & asked him how, hope I hear back! If not, I'll figure something out. :-)

Overwhelmed When Trying to Scrap :-p

Yesterday I made a couple of cards & today I spent several hours reorganizing some of my materials. I'm feeling a little discouraged because I have so many scrapping/cardmaking supplies and so rarely use them. Whenever I try to scrap I end up spinning my wheels, getting overwhelmed, and accomplishing nothing. I have years of pics to scrap and tons of pretty things to use. So, my question to you is: How do YOU get started when you're not sure where to start? Any tricks or suggestions will greatly appreciated! :-)

Ticker Tape Quilts

I like to quilt but haven't done it in a very long time. Just now I read about "ticker tape quilting". Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't. Apparently you use small scraps & stitch them onto a quilt sandwich. I've been looking at pics on flickr of ticker tape quilts & it looks like there are quite a few ways of assembling the pieces. If you haven't seen them, there are a variety pictured here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1347527@N21/

My friend Ruth wrote about them - that's how I first heard of them. You'll find her blog under "fuzzy's faves" there on the left side of my blog. There's a sew-along project going on that she featured today in her blog. Each person works at their own speed, posting pics to show others how they're progressing. When you finish you'll have a Rainbow Ticker Tape Quilt, so called because each square will feature a different color. It sounds like fun!

Taste Test: Blue Buffalo vs Canidae

While we have double the dogs we usually have, we thought it'd be interesting to do a little dog food comparison & see which dog food is preferred. Our dogs (which we'll call the White Team since they're both white) normally eat Canidae and the visiting dogs (which we'll call the Black Team since they're both black) normally eat Blue Buffalo. Both are high-quality dry dog foods that are similar enough that we (and the owners of Dex & Sam) agreed that it'd be ok to have a bowl of each brand of food available to all four dogs.

First Day: All 4 dogs ate like there was no tomorrow! Seriously, they ate twice as much as they usually do. The White team (aka our dogs) ate Blue Buffalo almost exclusively. Black team (aka the visitors) ate Canidae almost exclusively. Both bowls were almost completely empty at the end of the day. While the dogs were extremely active, I think part of the encreased eating was due to having something new since each chose the food he/she didn't normally receive.

Second Day: Food consumption returned to normal. All 4 dogs returned to eating their own brand, and at the end of the day both bowls were still half full. The dogs were not as active today since the excitement of having each other around had abated. Funny that the "new" wore off this fast, both with having new companions & with having different food. All 4 are happy & content, playing and napping.

Double the Dogs!

As you know, we normally have two dogs here at our house. Right now we have FOUR! That's right, Polly & Garcia have houseguests. Dexter and Sammy, 2 little black Shih-tzus are visiting. I'm sure I'll have some pics posted of the 4 of them before the visit is over.

We brought them home with us yesterday morning & Polly & Garcia were SO excited! We walked in the front door with Dexter & Sammie and headed straight through the house & out the back door with Polly & Garcia joining us along the way. The 4 of them ran around like maniacs in the back yard while Mike & I rolled around laughing. It was the cutest/funniest thing you've ever seen! We then came in & everyone under 2 ft tall got a treat. We thought they'd all then take a rest, but NOPE, they were still way too excited for that! The 4 of them ran around in the house, pulled out all the toys, hopped up & looked out the windows, and had a grand time.

Sammie, the baby, was SO excited about having a fenced yard in which to run that he scratched at the door (his way of saying he needs to go out) about every half hour. He got to go outside lots & lots, & the other 2 boys went with him just about every time. Pollyanna decided to hang with the humans instead, and just went out at her "normal" times.

We could not believe how active the 4 of them were all afternoon and evening! When it came time for bed they did really well though, settling right down to sleep without the whispering & giggling I remember from having tiny human sleep-overs. :-)

Today the four have alternated between playing & napping - I think they wore themselves out yesterday. Wonder what they'll do tomorrow?

The First of my YAWYK Items Left Today!

Today I did my first papercrafting of 2011: I made a card & sent it with a bunch of stickers to a little preschooler and her big sister. (Should've taken a pic of the card but didn't... but at least I made the card LOL!)

Items used: 3 small Sizzix cardstock sheets, 1 ribbon, 1 blank card, and some epoxy alphabet stickers. I'm counting all the letters as one item rather than counting each one individually, so that makes a total of 6 items used for making the card. (I'm not counting adhesives.)

I enclosed:
24 little sheets of stickers (the sheets that are 3-5" square that you buy from a roll)
and 2 mini-scrapbooking kits.

SO... 6 items used on the card + 26 items given away = 32 items out of the house! Just 1,979 to go to reach my goal of sending 2011 craft items out of the house in 2011. That's kind of daunting, but if Ann Marie can do it I can do it! (See Ann, you've inspired me!)

YAWK 2011 (You Are What You Keep)

My friend Ann from the old Scrapbooking board took part this year in a movement called YAWYK ("You Are What You Keep") which encourages you to get rid of the excess stuff in your life. Ann did a scrapbook-related project, striving to get rid of 2010 scrapping items in 2010 by either using them, donating them, selling them, or tossing them. Even though she didn't start until June, she actually accomplished her goal!!

So.. I think I will do the same thing! I vow that one year from today my crafting room will contain 2011 fewer items than it does today! This will include scrapbooking, sewing, and needlework (knit, crochet, embroidery) items. I think this will be fun - I plan to use the same guidelines she did when it comes to counting items. You can read them here in her blog:
http://vexedangel.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/not-sure-if-this-is-possible-in-5-months/

I just read some blog entries by the person who inspired Ann, and it looks like she counted everything in the house (clothes, etc.) in her count of items. (Her blog is here: http://youarewhatyoukeep.blogspot.com/2010/06/getting-started-few-ground-rules.html )
I'm going to stick with the craft items though - having to list clothes, etc. just seems too complicated. I think I'll be more inclined to stick to it if I stick with one room. (Other items may fly out the door, they just won't be counted.)

Want to join me in the YAWYK for 2011?

Life Insurance - ugh!

DH got something in the mail today that started a conversation about life insurance. That's fine & dandy as long as I can stay semi-detached from the topic & just discuss it intellectually. When it comes down to the realities of it though, I don't really like to think about it. I'd say most people feel that way - I mean who wants to think about their spouse dying (unless they don't like them).

Anyway, I guess we're going to get some, so I'd like some input from YOU. Do you have life insurance? If so, do you have very much (you can be as specific or as vague as you want). What company did you choose?

Thank you! :-)

My Parents are Coming!

My husband just left to go get my parents & bring them up here for Thanksgiving. I haven't seen them since Christmas! This is the longest we've ever gone without seeing each other. I'm excited about seeing them & a little anxious about how they'll be... my sister (who had them at her house for 3 weeks recently) said they're showing signs of aging quite a bit with memory, hearing, and some mobility problems. However they are though I'm sure we'll have fun just being together.

I'm Baking Again!

I'm about to bake my second cake in less than a month! I used to bake a lot, but hadn't in quite a few years... I think I'm "getting my groove back". LOL

As you may (or may not) know, on October 1st we moved 300 miles closer to my family! For the first time in over ten years I'm getting to see them on a regular basis, and boy is it making a difference! I'm LOVING it! A couple of weeks ago I made a birthday cake for my grandson's 2nd birthday. (see pic) He adored it!

Tonight I'm going to try a new recipe I got from a friend earlier this week. It's called "Coal Miner's Cake" . I'm also going to make dressing using the recipe my grandmother used every year on Thanksgiving. Yum! These are both for a family gathering tomorrow. Being back close to my family has made it fun to cook again! :-D

This isn't Crafty or Artistic at All!

Most of the blogs I read are written by my "crafty" friends - those who use their talents to make beautiful/quirky/inspiring creations. While I love making things, I really haven't blogged much about that myself.

When I write it's mostly to clear my head of swirling thoughts or to work through things I don't talk about IRL. I hope this isn't annoying to those who arrive at this blog by clicking on a comment I've made on a knitting, sewing, or scrapbooking blog. I've thought of making a separate blog to use when commenting on those but I haven't. I figure my blog is just for myself, not to please others. That said, I do apologize to anyone who is disappointed not to find cool creations here.

Who knows, that could change. :-)

Ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch Changes...

I just added a pic to my last post & it got me to thinking, seeing the 2 photos side-by-side, about how many changes DH & I have endured this year. Somehow it was reassuring seeing that I haven't changed all THAT much really, at least not on the outside. I feel (internally) like I've aged a good 20 years just since that pic was made last May.

It was on the way home from the birthday party/picnic (where the pic was taken) that I got the call that my husband was in the emergency room with his heart rate insanely high and his oxygen level dangerously low. They were considering doing a heart cath right away. Hearing his voice & knowing he was all alone & that there was no way I could get there in time to help him through the frightening procedure was horrible! Fortunately it turned out he didn't have to have the hearth cath, but my confidence that he'd be fine when I was (400 miles) away was shattered.

Since that happened I've cut myself off from my friends & not lived a healthy lifestyle at all. The health crisis that led to his being in the ER that day led to an all-consuming fear, fear that I would lose this man I love so much. A move was necessary because of all the stairs in our home. Other changes, including his having to take a medical retirement, came about & the resulting decrease in income and increase in stress seemed to suck the energy out of both of us. Talking to friends just seemed to take more effort than it was worth. I had the urge to "batten down the hatches" and stay close to home. We both went into "automatic pilot" in a way.

This Spring I feel a bit of change in the air, as they say, and am hoping that the changes we're considering will result in a happier situation for both DH and me. That would be cool! Just having something new to talk about has been refreshing after a winter centered around ill health and fear.

I came across this Bible verse yesterday & need to make it a point to remember it next time things seem so overwhelmingly bad: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.” Psalms 46:1-3 I hope it will inspire you and bring you peace as it did me last night.

Saturday & the Silver-haired Nana

It's a brand new day - hurrah! I'm hoping to either do some sewing or make a few cards for FUN & to boost my happiness level. Creating things makes me very happy but sometimes I forget that & spend too much of my "free time" on the computer instead. (Easy to do since it's fun too, just in a different way.)

A few months ago I decided to stop coloring my hair & just see 1. how much white was hiding, and 2. how it looked that way. I've always just used temporary color that washed out in 6 weeks so it didn't take long for it to all be gone & shiny silver showed up promptly.

My husband likes it - he prefers it being "natural" so he was happy about my decision. None of my friends or co-workers said anything about the change. Then, last weekend, I saw my kids & my grandchildren for the first time since going natural. I was curious about what they'd think... I know Jas & Jen tend to prefer it when it's the style & color that it was when they were growing up... I don't think they like the idea of their mom getting older.

So, what did they say about the new silvery streaks in mom's hair? Nothing! (Maybe because their mom, aka me, taught them "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". LOL!

The only person to mention it was my youngest granddaughter Bri, who is 5. We were coloring paperdolls to look like ourselves, & she said "Nana, I have black hair like you! Yours has some gray though, but that's ok! I love you anyway."

"Umm.. thanks" I said (laughing). "That's why I'm using the black glitter crayon for my hair - the glitter is the silver."

Brianna nodded. "Well, Nana, you don't have to worry. I will always love you no matter WHAT you look like!" she exclaimed & gave me a big hug. ROFL!

So... now I'm rethinking the hair color. Here's a pic - taken in a disheveled moment but it shows the color - or lack of!. As you can see there's not a LOT of silver, but it's definitely there. Also, for comparison, there's one taken 1 year ago when I was still coloring it. What do you think? All opinions welcome!

Grouchy!

Aaack, I'm feeling so grouchy today I can hardly stand myself! Guess I'm still getting over the fun & frolick (& many hours in the car) of last weekend! It was definitely worth it - I had a great time - but I feel like I've been "rode hard & put up wet" as they say.

My shoulder blade has a knot the size of Texas & is hurting like crazy, my Florida plans got cancelled (thanks a lot, BP Oil), and my stomach is killing me. Whine whine whine! The good news is that I have keep the grouchiness to myself & haven't yelled at anybody or anything like that. The fact that I didn't see a soul the whole time I was at work made that pretty easy. Can you believe it?? Even the mailman didn't come in to use the restroom like the usually does. I couldn've worn my bathrobe to work & nobody would've known the difference!

Luckily it's Friday so hopefully I'll get rested up & feel better. If the weather permits we'll plant some flowers tomorrow & get the front porch/sunroom fixed up for Summer. :-) I'm wanting to get a porch swing for the patio but so far haven't seen one I liked. Home Depot had the perfect one last Summer but so far this year they don't have it. Crossing my fingers that I'll find one soon! Swinging is so soothing - it makes things seem much better!

Sarcoidosis

A week from tomorrow my husband will work his last day at the job he's had for 25 years. He has been approved for a medical retirement because of the damage the disease Sarcoidosis has done to his lungs. I have mixed feelings about the retirement. Getting to spend more time with him will be great, but having it be because of a life-threatening illness is devastating.

If you haven't heard of Sarcoidosis (most people haven't) or aren't sure exactly what it is, here's the best website I've found about it: http://www.stopsarcoidosis.org/

I'll no doubt write more about this at another time, but right now just typing that one little (first) paragraph made a huge knot form in my stomach. We'll get through this & God will help us, but right now it's still taking some getting to the idea that his health and life are being affected so much by this stupid disease.

Nana's Smiling Boy

Here's one of the cutest smiles you'd ever want to see! DD took the pic yesterday - can you believe how he is growing?? She called me yesterday afternoon so I could hear him giggling! What a sweetie!

Success!

Hurrah! Woke up this morning & the "scrapper's block" was gone! Marched right into my craft room & did the prom layout in less than half an hour! Don't know how that happened - maybe I worked through it in my sleep - whatever the reason I am thrilled!!! I'll share a pic of it later.
:-D