The New Year is for Art

For the past few years I have been doing very little artwork. Something else always seemed to take precedent over it and there is, after all, only so many hours in a day. I did dabble a bit here and there but not seriously.

This year is going to be my year. A positive attitude and a definitive decision. My Year. Mine, mine, mine.

One thing I have always wanted to start was an art journal. I have a couple I sort of started but didn't keep up. Perhaps an online journal will be easier to maintain.

Presently I am beading dolls and Ug Bugs, bracelets and watches. My goal is to finish at least one a month. Pray for me because it is going to be tough. I am the worlds greatest procrastinator.

This is a little purple Ug Bug. They are small dolls that can be worn as a brooch or on a rope or chain. The first year I started making them I sold 10 in just 2 weeks. Good Lord willing I will, perhaps, have the same good fortune this time. I have one on the go at present.

Happy New Year!!

It's a brand new year. No resolutions for this old gal. They would have been broken by now. I have been beading again now that the arthritis seems to have left my hands. Hoping this will last for a long while.

Just a few miscellaneous and totally unrelated bits of fluff.

My Oleander tree in bloom.

Murphy surveying his domain from the dining room table. Once upon a time I tried to discourage the cats from sleeping on the table but I finally just gave it up. Now I just scrub it well before using. I am owned by 8 wonderful cats and 1 small Jack Russell Dog.



This is Bambi and April my little girl. Bambi lives with my son. April lives with us and the 8 cats. Sometimes I think that she thinks she is a cat. They are all bigger than she is and the poor old gal is easily intimidated.

Christmas bye bye...

and thank goodness that is over. I got the flu on the 19th and wasn't back to normal until the 31st. My son, his significant other and his brother came down on Christmas day and put the whole dinner together and on the table. Bless them. I stayed curled up in a ball in bed having a pity party. It was awful. I surely feel bad for all the rest of the good folk who ended up with that particular strand of flu.

This is my wonderful son Serge and his beautiful lady Tania. Serge is an awesome cook and every now and again graces our table with some of his cooking.

I sincerely hope ya'll had a wonderful, happy and germ free Christmas.

Just thinking....

today as I went through my email... where do people find the stuff they send. I surf the web every day, do research a lot, go to all manner of sites and I never find these cutie things. Obviously I am surfing in all the wrong places.



I got these ever so cute kitties in my email tonight. I am owned by 8 wonderful cats so I tend to really like pics of kittens and cats of all kinds.

Over the years I have filled quite a large file with these pics, some cute, some just interesting. But what I really want to know is... where do people find these pics.

Have a great night.

Vista

This summer I bought a new Dell laptop. It's a Studio 17 in a gorgeous coppery orange colour. I splurged and got the LCD screen, bigger graphics card, more ram etc. I debated having it come with Vista or now but decided to take the plunge. It is 3 months later and I love my 'puter. I love Vista. I adore the LCD screen. So far Vista has been awesome. There are a couple of programs I wanted but they wouldn't run so I got newer versions and they were fine. My printer, external hard drive, all the peripherals I use worked instantly with no tweaking. All the graphics programs I use worked great.

I'm an old dog who doesn't want to learn many new tricks so I was quite prepared to not like Vista. Especially after all the horror stories I have heard, we all have heard. I was sure surprised to see how smoothly the change over went.

So! If you are sure you aren't going to like Vista, just try it. Make sure you have a whole lot of ram though. I think this is one of the secrets to having it run smoothly on your computer. A minimum of 2 gig I would say.

I would also highly recommend Dell. This is the 3rd Dell computer I have had, the second laptop, and they have really out performmed themselves. The support is awesome as well. Not to mention the pretty colours. For Linux users, Dell has a series that comes with Ubuntu Linux a distribution I am particularly fond of. For the first time Linux users or the old timers, I think Ubuntu is one of the best distributions I have used and I have used a lot of them.

In my humble opinion anyway.

Whenever a system becomes completely defined, someone discovers something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition.

More funny Brooke's Law quotes

Just Stuff

My life is filled with little pieces of stuff that float around me. Every now and again I reach out and grab a bit of stuff and file it in the appropriate places. Sorting through and throwing out has become a major pastime. Will it ever all be done?

The Dark Crystal - Movie Score Poster

Buy at AllPosters.com

This was published somewhere, I think in The Mag.... in 2002. Found it in some papers today while was cleaning out some more "stuff".


Downtown after Dark
by Heather O'Neil


Down in the alley
back of the store
Little Jimmy snorts coke
goes lookin' fo' more.
Angel walks her beat
looking for a john
a rich man from uptown
wants to get it on.
Curtis draws his knife
sticks it in the man
grabs his watch and wallet
runs fast as he can.
Over on the corner
smokin' heavy weed
buncha raggy home boys
thinkin' nasty deeds.
Lights are bright like diamonds
sparklin' in the dew
The night is dark like charcoal
settlin' over you.
Downtown after darkness
writhes with evil's own
Ain't no place for Cinderella
run girl, take it home.


"Love is the emblem of eternity: it confounds all notions of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end." Madame de Stael

---

"This we know: the Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth. All things are connected like the book that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself." Chief Seattle

Happy Halloween

This is a scan of a very old card. The artwork used on cards "back in the day" was something else and not at all like the artwork used now. Personally I prefer the then over the now.

This Halloween we had all of 2 kids. We usually have 6. I liked it better when we lived in town and had lots and lots of little ghosties and goblins. My darling grandson went out as a little lion. Mom and Dad took pics which I shall post as soon as I get one. In the meantime here are a few scans of old Halloween cards that I particularly like.

I don't think too many people give Halloween cards anymore. I don't even remember getting any when I was a child in the 50's. Obviously they used to do it judging from the collections of old cards I have found.

Some of these are cute enough to frame. Maybe I will frame one or two for Logan's room.

Pretty Pictures

I have spent a great deal of time surfing this evening and have come across some great photos that I am going to share. They come under the Creative Commons License.

Personally I can't take a decent picture for love nor money.


This was called Lonely Tree. It certainly gives you the feeling of loneliness and desolation.














This one is awesome. It was called Overgrown. The contrast between the grey and the purple is so perfect. I can't make a decent composition. This is a natural.








Turtles are such awesome critters. This reminded me of our cottage at Otter Lake when I was a child. There was a wood mill just across the little inlet and we would be over there everyday checking out the turtles and hunting for frogs. I think I lost at least 2 dozen pairs of flip flops in the muck along the shoreline.




I must have a couple of hundred photos that have come from dear knows where. Every now and again I will share a couple and hopefully I won't have broken every copyright there is. I leave you with a favorite quote:

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. ~~Kierkegaard

Little Bits of Stuff

It has rained and it is damp. Not very cold. I have been in bed for more than a week. Well not right in bed. I can move around a bit until the pain gets really bad and then back to lie down I go. I have Anklosing Spondylitis. An uncommon form of spinal arthritis. It also affects connective tissue. My Achilles tendons are tissue paper thin and at the moment terribly inflamed and painful. It's the pits. So I just plugging around on the computer, housecleaning the hard drive and whatever. I'm finding all sorts of pages of "stuff" that I have written or saved.

I am a big fan of Stargate: Atlantis. And a big fan of the character Ronon Dex. What a hunk he is too. Would like to see him with a few less clothes. Which brings me to the cost of TV series on DVD. I would love to buy the complete seasons of Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5. But being rather destitute money wise I surely can't see putting that much money out on movies.. even on eBay.




To the left we have Diesel, a wrestler who I consider a hunk and a half. IMHO of course. There is something about a big man with long hair that makes me happy. LOL. They look so good. How come in the movies you get to see a woman's front but not a mans. Now that just doesn't seem fair somehow.








10 Things to DO Every Day

• Hug someone
• Always tell the truth
• Phone home
• Compliment somebody
• Do the dishes
• Eat something green
• Recycle
• Laugh
• Help the Elderly
• Write in Your Journal

One of my favourite quotes:

Cmdr. Leonard McCoy: Where are we going?Admr. James T. Kirk: Where they went.
Cmdr. Leonard McCoy: Suppose "they went" nowhere.
Admr. James T. Kirk: Then, this will be your big chance to get away from it all.

Well, it is getting later and I think I shall go to bed. Hope you all have a very wonderful Sunday.I leave you with a quote from Covert Bailey :
"No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office."

Cold and Damp

It's cold damp and raining. I have a thousand things to do. My Spondylitis is kicking up big time and if I take enough drugs to kill the pain I'll be useless all day. Next best solution, booze. Or not. I still can't believe John is dead. Wow. Makes you really stop and think about what's important and what's not. You spend all your life working and looking forward to retirement and then you never get there and somebody else gets your money. Pooh!!

To fight off the cold and damp..... Recipes to make you happy!

Coffees to warm the cockles of your heart.... and other things. These are all for a single serving.

Cafe Foster

2 tablespoons of dark rum
1 tablespoon of creme de banana
Hot coffee
Whipped cream for garnish....the real stuff.

Pour the rum and the creme de banana in a thick coffee mug. pour in the hot coffee and top with real whipped cream. Mmmmm.

Cafe Mocha (No Booze)

1/2 cup hot coffee
1/2 cup hot chocolate
Whipped cream for garnish
Ground cinnamon

I make a cup of coffee and add 2 heaping teaspoons of hot chocolate. Top with a generous squirt of real whipped cream and dust with cinnamon. Delicious.

Cafe Dramatique

1 tablespoon Bailey's Irish Cream
1 tablespoon white creme de cacao
1 tablespoon Amaretto
Hot coffee
Cinnamon stick for garnish

Pour the liqueurs into a LARGE coffee mug. Add the coffee and cinnamon stick. If you are planning on having more than a couple of these, you might want to remain seated. They can sneak up on you.

Cafe a la Crazy Lady (No Booze)

1 tablespoon of 18% table cream (or more)
1 tablespoon of chocolate syrup
1 tablespoon syrup from a bottle of marachino cherries
4 or 5 cherries cut in half
Hot coffee
A few small marshmallows
Ground cinnamon for garnish

Put the cream ,chocolate and cherry syrup in a coffee mug along with the cherry halves.Pour in the hot coffee. Top with the marshmallows and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Don't forget a spoon for the cherries.

I leave you with a quote from Thomas Carlyle. It seems appropriate:

"Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand."