Wednesday, February 29, 2012

29th: What I'm Listening To

I'm not really set-up here yet with my comfort music. I'm in my hubby's car with no radio, all my music is on the home computer (in TN still), so what I wind-up listening to is the second hand noise coming from Keegan's headphones. Right now he's watching a movie on the iPad. It sounds very exciting.


In two hours, he'll put it on to charge & go up to bed, but right now he's snuggled up in bed with me. I'm knitting, he's watching a movie, and all is right with the world. I enjoy my solitude, but I relish communal time with my babies. I can't believe how much he's changing lately & starting to look like a man.


Have a Happy Leap Year, everyone!


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28th: Money

I wish I could make money being creative. Unfortunately, I don't think I have the motivation to be self-sustaining in a creative endeavor. Maybe one day I'll be able to do Craftsy classes or teach knitting locally if my husband's dream job works-out up here.


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27th: Something I ate

Dinner was tuna melt sandwiches & tater tots, because I've been sick & that was all I could muster. He liked it though! So did I.


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26th: Night

What it looks like inside & outside my house @ night. That lamp was my gramma's. I've held onto the shade forever now because it reminds me of her. It's crumbling. One day I'll have to find a replacement just like it. Right now, it's my bedside table light, just like it was hers.


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Saturday, February 25, 2012

25th: Green

I'm not the only one wishing for some today. This is Keegan, getting rid of our sidewalk snow this morning. I'm glad he's here to do it, I don't hink my hands could handle it in the condition they've been in the past couple of weeks. We are legally obligated to keep our sidewalk free of ice & snow, too. All the mail is delivered by walking letter carriers. There are no boxes by the street anywhere in this town!


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24th: Inside My Bathroom Cabinet

Sorry, it's full of boring. I haven't lived here long enough to have strata from the dark ages of medicine layered in here. (Yes, Mom, I am talking about your tin of leeches...)


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23rd: My Shoes

These are my normal "work" shoes, though this is the 1st time they've been up on the table... and if you'll excuse me, now I need to go get the cleaner.


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22nd: Where I Work

Since I'm not currently employed outside the home, this is my dining room table AND the place where I compose sporadic letters to friends & do some accounting paperwork for Blue Chip.


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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Fave Pic of Me

I have a (usually) very amazing, talented, and wonderful husband - who over the years has taken many spectacular and artistic photographs of me. I was at a loss to pick just one that was my very favorite. I figured I'd weasel out of this day by asking him what his favorite of me was.


This is it. Me, in the wind, at the front of our cruise ship, waiting to pull into the Cayman Islands. Look, it was VERY windy! I was making faces @ Jeremy, who kept telling me not to squint in the 40mph winds! What a ridiculous picture. Apparently this one reminds him of how animated I am with my facial expressions when I'm being silly, and causes him to convulse with laughter every time he sees it.


I've got to go sprinkle itching powder in his sock drawer.


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20th: Handwriting

Mine. Big & messy & loopy & scrawling across the whole page. Barely respecting the restraints of lines when they're there & never even trying when they're not.


And of course I always use a Sharpie Pen whenever I'm able.


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19th: Something You Hate to Do

I'm sorry, I can't think of anything I hate to do. I dislike putting down the things I love to do for things I am not as fond of. Hate never enters into it though.


Instead, how about this: I will hate it when my beautiful Valentine flowers are completely wilted & I have to compost them. They smell like Heaven, and I have such good husband-feelings every time I see/ think about/ smell them. *happysigh*


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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Drink

Today, I really wish I had something a little stronger than kool-ade.


This morning, around 4am, my neighbor's dogs were going nuts. I'm a pretty light sleeper under the best of circumstances. My neighbor usually works the night shift, but yesterday afternoon she left for a week of vacation in Cancun.


She has huge dogs. They have already mauled one intruder in the past. A very stupid intruder, apparently. There was damage to a window in that circumstance.


When her dogs hadn't shut up by the time I was dressed, I was a little concerned. My thoughts were running more along the lines of, "I should go retrieve any severed body parts from the dogs so the hospital can attempt to reattach them later," but I grabbed my shotgun & loaded it with a buckshot round in case there were multiple perps I needed to convince to leave the area quickly.


I also grabbed my cell & put my knife in my pocket.  I always carry a knife. Not for self defense, per se, but because growing-up on a farm means you will need a knife 50 times a day and it is just an extension of me after all these years.


I walked next door, scanning her lower level windows for non-dog movement and breakage. Nothing. I walked around the front of the house & as I'm about to mount the steps I see what looks like a human head laying in the gloom to the side of the steps.


Immediately my heart stops. My first thought is, this can't be a person. No one lays out in the half-melted snow. This is some crap gnome in her planter and the gloom is playing tricks on my inner child's imagination. Remember being a kid & having every shadow morph into something ominous when the bedroom lights go out?


I take a step closer. It's definitely a man, laying on his back in the planter next to her front stairs! I call out to him loudly, but he doesn't move a muscle. His mouth is closed. His face doesn't even twitch. I turned & raced back to my house & woke Keegan up. He dressed in a flash, first time in his life!


We head back out there, me with more ammo - Keegan with a wicked-looking but fairly useless pellet gun & my phone on standby ready to call 911 if the asshole is agro. I prayed the whole way that the dude would have already bailed... but he was still there. I'm terrified; no drunk sleeps that calmly - no snoring, face placid, nothing.


I called-out to him again, standing at his head, and lighty rap his forehead wth the barrel of my shotgun. I'm waiting for him to make a grab for the gun, something, because he just doesn't look like he's really out of it. But his head hardly moved when I rapped it the first time, nor the 2nd time, harder. I thought maybe he was dead, but a third harder whack to his forehead had him groaning slightly and starting to roll over.


Great! I'm thinking this guy is totally faking it & he's gonna come at me any second, but he never does. I prod, poke, & nudge him until he gets to his feet and it's a few seconds of what I still believed may have been fake-drunk stumbling before he fully acnowledges the barrel of my gun trained on his crotch.


He sobered enough then to tell me he was just drunk, stumble out to water my tree next to the road (I'm still trained on his nether-bits when he turns round, in case he's armed himself), and thank me for not shooting him. He tells me his name (Nathaniel) and says he's freezing. I sent Keeg to start the coffee pot & we sent the bloke packing a minute later with a water bottle full of hot black coffee.


Someone pointed out that I may have saved his life by getting him out of the frozen planter he'd fallen into. Someone else said it was nice I didn't call the cops on the kid & get him charged & sent to jail. Frankly, it didn't occur to me to get the police involved in a non-violent encounter. Well, I guess not so non-violent since he was staring down the barrel of a gun at me the whole time... But I am more than a little spooked that someone scared me so shitless I found it necessary to arm myself right outside my front door.


And I don't know how I'll sleep tonight either, jumping at every noise or bark & wondering if a slightly-more-sober drunk young man comes back to challenge me for scaring the shit outta him last night.


Still, wish I had a little firewater to throw back myself, tonight. Watch out for yourselves & your neighbors - even the ones trying to sleep it off in your yard. Times are tough, and there are those who have a Hell of a lot less than us, just trying to get by for one more day. Usually it's easier to not think about them, because they're sleeping somewhere besides my yard...


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17th: Time

There is never enough of it for everything I want to do. This is a beautiful bundle of roving 60/40 Wensleydale & Mohair. It's a gorgeous brownish natural color. My lovely darling husband brought my spinning wheel up for me when he arrived on Valentine's Day and I've been itching to spin something on it ever since!


I need longer days, less sleep, or fewer hobbies.


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16th: Something New

This will be my new closet when we get it assembled! Then I can share before-and-after pics of my real closet! Wahoo! I can't wait to have a closet again, where clothes get neatly hung up instead of folded back into boxes like I've been doing for a month now.


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15th: Phone

This is Keegan's new one that his Dad upgraded for his Valentine's Day present.


Since then, we've seen nothing but the top of Keegan's head.


*sigh* At least he likes his new phone, and now finally he can use all the data we pay for in our monthly plan!


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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Heart

I got a very special delivery for Valentines Day. Around 2:30 I received a bouquet of flowers & a box of chocolates. Card said "even though we are far apart, you are always in my heart."


About an hour later, I'm on the phone with my Mom in KY when a strange vehicle pulls behind my house and a man who looks very similar to my husband gets out of the driver's door.


And a very happy reunion was had by all! (I got my heart-on! Say it out loud, it's very funny.)


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Monday, February 13, 2012

Blue

First, of course: my rockin' blue cardigan, whose sleeves are actually starting to resemble what they should hopefully one day be... done!


Second: The Valentines present I sent to Baby Regan. Included because it's in a blue jewelry box & I needed a little bling in my posts.


I took "Robin" (the sleeves) to my 1st knit night in the new town. Have to make a good first impression! I met a lot of lovely ladies and Robin was duly admired, as as my Triinu scarf. I'm glad I went. Having knitting friends & a library card make me feel like I really belong here right off the bat.


I also got a great email today which ended with this:


Have a great day, unless you already had other plans.


It made me giggle.


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Sunday, February 12, 2012

Inside My Closet

I am showing my favorite closet in the house: our coat closet. None of the others are nearly this interesting. Our coat closet, however, has a massive built-in drawer where I keep all my fabulous knitted accessories, it's got a handy dowel for permanent coat hanging, it's got a light all its own, and super-duper hooks along the wall too.


All that wonderful plays second fiddle to the magical quality of having a leaded glass window in my coat closet, though!


Now, catch me in a few months, when we're unpacked properly, and I won't mind showing you my actual closet. Right now though, there's not a shelf, rack, or dowel left in any of the closets. The previous owner must have taken them when she left.


I don't really mind - it'll give me a good excuse to buy one of those fancy customizable organizer things from the local Home Superstore. I've never had a nifty closet before, so I'm looking forward to it!


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Saturday, February 11, 2012

What Makes Me Happy

My kids. Every day I get to spend in their presence is a joy and an inspiration.


Keegan took today's picture with his phone. Of course I'm proud of his obvious artistic talents (he's been my designated photographer for years now), I am also in awe that he can be so bloody creative with a little craptastic ancient phone that can't even download apps.


I'm also wondering where his fourth finger and knuckle went for the duration of this creative effort of his.


Any guesses?


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Friday, February 10, 2012

Self Portrait

So, I'm squirming out of this one too. My self portrait would undoubtably look like someone with some artistic aspirations but no real talent took some acid & tried to paint a seizure.


Instead, I'd like to show you this piece of art by one of my lovely East Nashvillian friends, Ms. Sadie Compton. Sadie is phenomenally talented in every conceivable way. She is a musician beyond compare, playing fiddle & banjo & singing with an astounding sexy brazen voice that just shouldn't be possible from a tiny little white woman. She paints these glorious, magical colorful things. In fact, her whole house is like this painting. SHE is like this painting; surprisingly colorful, soothing, quirky, warm & inviting.


She has her own line of aromatherapy products, a CD of her music out, and beautiful paintings for sale too. Search for her on youtube to hear her sing & play! Contact me if you would like to getin touch with her, or find out more about her products. She's had a bit of a stalker problem recently, so I'm not just throwing her info out there as far as FB contact or products' website info. Not sure how far her crazy person would go!


Otherwise, enjoy her beautiful painting. This one is being sold thru Logue's Black Raven Emporium, I believe.


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Thursday, February 9, 2012

(Shut The) Front Door!

This is our new house, the front door part of it. You can see Kara's pretty face looking out the screen door. What you can't see is poor black Luke next to her, but he's there too.


When I don't have the front door open for them, they lurk in the bay window and watch the neighborhood as if they're really guard dogs instead of fat soft house-dogs!


I think they like it here as much as we do.


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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Sun

Today was brittle and cold and mostly overcast. I am going to share one of my favorite pictures in the world, instead. PJ and I got married in 2004. This is in my parents' front yard, at dusk, just after the ceremony. I was wearing a dress my Mom had gotten for me, that I had never seen before. I was going to wear one of my favorites, but she didn't feel that was special enough, so took matters into her own hands. I remember the whole day looking like this; saturated with Spring green and dappled with sun rays.


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Buttons

The first is one I have saved since before I became a knitter. It's destined for something special that has not been revealed to me yet. I call him The Water Bearer. I've never seen another button like him, or I would have snapped them all up. I have a whole big box full of favorite buttons, but this one goes with me everywhere in my wallet, like a good luck charm. I can't stand to be without him.


The second is a set of four. I purchased them on ebay a couple years ago.  I think I loved the idea of them and their gentle creator as much as I loved them. They are hand-cast pewter buttons, created from a hand-carved wooden cast that like any priceless piece of art is made in a limited amt and the cast permanently retired or broken afterward. One man makes them, not a corporation.


They are called, simply, "Robin" by their creator. If the picture isn't clear enough to tell, there is a pretty little Robin perched in a tree branch (looks like an apple tree from the leaves) above a tiny little nest filled with three perfect eggs. The Robin's head is up as if she's been singing her pride to the world.


When I purchased these buttons, I dreamed of putting them on a winterberry-red cabled cardigan, they would be perfectly showcased against the deep color. I never found that yarn though. This past Christmas,with gift certificate in hand, I found the yarn that wanted to be my next cardigan. A beautiful cardigan, too - filled to the brim with texture and winding cables. The kind of cables that made me want to learn to knit in the first place!


I've been happily knitting my sleeves, enjoying the fabric I'm creating, luxuriating in the way the yarn feels in my fingers and the way the cables materialize out of a few twisted stitches like magic. I've also been thinking about the four buttons called-for in the pattern. I look at buttons everywhere I go. These have to be perfect, they have to be showstoppers but not stealers... and there is nothing I see that comes even remotely close.


Until I'm unpacking in my new house, and this little folded envelope tumbles into my hands, and I REMEMBER! Oh, yes! Could it be, that these priceless treasures I squirreled away years ago could be THE buttons I was looking for? Yes. There's not even a sliver of doubt. It could only have been these buttons all along. This yarn's color, named from the yarn company, is Breezeway. I've always thought it was inadequately named and I've called it my "Stormy Robin's Egg" cardigan from the beginning. What better fate, than the Robin buttons being its soul mate?


You just can't convince me that things don't happen for a reason. People come into your life when you need them most. Fate hands-out life changing events that often bring miraculous things in their destructive wake. God is there to be seen in the little things. You just have to train yourself to see with your heart instead of your eyes.


I hope everyone has a blessed day!


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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Dinner

A dinner picture. We are wiped-out by a very thoughtless head cold here and didn't get a pic of last night's dinner. I'll tell you what it was though. I roasted a whole chicken in my biggest cast iron skillet. It was delicious, juicy, and tender! We had peas (not the baby's favorite) and a loaded salad with it. Salad had dried cranberries & raisins, carrots, cucumbers, & cheese over a bed of baby Spring greens.


The picture above was Sunday's dinner: Homemade beef stew with potatoes carrots & onions, fresh baked (yes, by me) white bread, and steamed broccoli florets. Salad also.


Tonight, we're having chicken soup with the remains of last night's carcas diced-up in it & Wednesday we're using the last of our bread loaf for stuffing in some apple-stuffed chicken breasts. Thursday & Friday might be leftovers nights, we'll probably have the rest of the chicken soup and the Boob Jobs. (What else would you call an expertly stuffed breast?)


We love to eat good food!


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Sunday, February 5, 2012

10am

I didn't go to sleep this way... dogs don't belong on the bed! They were all on the floor last night & all around me this morning. Guess I have to get bells for their collars.


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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Stranger?

My original plan was to photograph one of the myriad friendly locals I invariably encounter every time I leave the house. My catchy little tagline was going to read, "A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet". Aww!


Keegan and I went to the library, where I missed a very good opportunity to meet a nice young librarian I've seen once before. We went & dropped-off mail at the post office but there was no one else there. We had more luck at the grocery store. We were approached by a lovely young lady of maybe 13 who asked my help; she was purchasing a Valentines Day present for her Mom & wanted me to block her Mom's view of her until she could complete her transaction in the you-scan aisle. Of course I helped her, but taking a picture of someone else's 13 year old daughter for your blog seemed skeevy & innapropriate. So there we were. All my good ideas down in one fell swoop.  Until I realized something...


'Ain't much in this world stranger than a teenage boy!


GOTCHA!


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Friday, February 3, 2012

Hands

Mine are awesome. Today alone, they have prformed intricate knitting, electrical work, food prep, cleaning, laundry, baby & pet love, touch-typing, and many other things.


Take a moment to think about what your hands mean to you. Then consider thanking them with a nice manicure & lotion massage. After all, what would you do without them!


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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Words: These Came for Me Today

My lovely friend, Blue, sent me a notecard and some beautiful handmade earrings to thank me for being in her wedding this past October. I love everything about getting a note from someone in the mail! Not to mention one that also has a beautiful gift in it too. My friends are some of the most talented, generous, and crafty people in the whole universe!


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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Day One: My View, Take 2

My multi-purpose office, LR, & DR. For now, anyway.


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February Challenge

This seems do-able. I'm excited-enough that I downloaded a new Blogger app for my phone. So far, it's much better than the last one!


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