Holiday Give Away

With all the celebrations coming up this month, such as Hannakah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa, I thought it would be a great time to have a give away. Starting with this blog post, every time someone leaves a comment their name will be added to the bowl, and on my birthday (Dec.19th) I will draw the winner's name. I will be giving away a beaded seahorse similar to the ones I have in my Etsy shop now. And if I get lots of names, maybe I will add a couple more prizes. So each and every time you leave a comment, your name goes into the bowl and your chance of winning goes up. Just a token of my appreciation for you kind people who take the time to read my ramblings.

Studio is clean, people are rude, and the end of hurricane season...

Thanksgiving weekend is over and all is back to normal. Holidays are nice, but last too long for me. One day of any holiday is plenty in my opinion, then I'm ready to get back to my normal daily routine. I was so glad to toss out all the leftovers! But I'm happy to say that my strange aversion to turkey and dressing this year not only resulted in me not gaining any weight, I actually lost a couple of pounds. Now if I can just get through the Christmas and New Year celebrations without gaining any weight...



I finally finished cleaning and organizing my studio late yesterday- whew! The landfill now owns bags and bags of stuff I got rid of... half done canvases, sculpts, sketches, and other projects I knew I'd never finish. Plus odds and ends of things I've saved thinking I'd someday use them for something. And boxes- so many boxes! I have no idea why I've saved all those empty boxes. As I cleaned the studio and bagged up all that crap I realized I need to be careful, or I could end up on an episode of Hoarders on A&E. Sweet jezzuz, have you seen that show?!? Good gawd almighty, it's a wonder those poor people don't die from all the decaying crap in their homes. The animal horders are the worse- between the decaying animal carcasses and feces everywhere... ewwww.... Anyway, my studio is now clean (as clean and orderly as I can get it until I get more cabinets hung for storage) and I assure you I didn't find any rotting animal carcasses or feces under the piles of stuff on my tables (or the floor for that matter). And all my beads are sorted and organized by type and color. That was a huge accomplishment! What a mess I had made.


I played in the studio today trying to come up with a tropical themed holiday card. As you can see in the photo, I've already managed to clutter up one of my tables. When I finally get the sketch I like, I'll import the image to my graphic program and print out cards.



Now about rude people... if you've been following my blog for any length of time, you know about Isabella and her craziness. If so, you can skip this paragraph. She's a fantastic dog, my constant companion and has a heart of gold. She's gotten me through some bad times, and has made my happy times even happier. But she has her problems, too. She barely eats enough to keep herself alive, is terrified of even the lightest rain or wind- let alone thunder and lightning, doesn't like to go out to unfamiliar areas except when she's in the car (which she loves unless she has to get out of the car), and freaks if strangers try to touch her- just to name a few of her fears and odd behaviors. For example, we've been walking the same route every day since she was a 12 week old puppy. Four years later, she still freaks if an unfamiliar car or object is sitting in the street on our daily walking route. And yes, we've tried behavior modification and everything we can think of to help her work through her problems, to no avail. Unfortunately for her, she always catches peoples' attention. When people want to pet her I have to explain her reluctance to be touched by strangers. In fact, I've had to explain it so many times I've thought of printing cards with the info and hand them out when someone asks what's wrong with her, just so I don't have to keep repeating it.


Anyway, back to rude people... when I took Issy out for her morning potty this morning, a woman was walking by and she asked if she could pet Bella. Once again, I explained her anxiety with strangers touching her. Then the woman goes on to say she'd met lots of poodles and had never seen an unfriendly Standard Poodle before. Then she asks me why Isabella is "that way" and not like normal Standard Poodles. So I asked her if she was always so rude, and if she approaches people with autistic or mentally challeged children to ask them why their kids aren't like normal children? And that dogs, like people, are sometimes born with problems, whether from bad genes, birth trauma, or for unknown reasons. The woman just gave me an odd look and walked on-LOL I should have told her she could pet Isabella and when she pulled away from the woman I could have said- "You're the first person she's had that reaction to. She must sense there is something wrong you and you're not like normal people."





Today all of us that live in Florida breathed a sigh of relief as another hurricane season came to an end with our homes and towns still intact and standing.

Winter Arrives in Florida...

... Mother Nature had a surprise for our first wave of winter tourists. Though Thanksgiving Day was gorgeous, the temps began falling that evening and we've been chilly the rest of the week. I imagine the holiday visitors' plans for basking on the beach and swimming in the Gulf were pretty much ruined. In fact the past few nights it's been down in the 40's. But the temps will begin warming back up to normal tomorrow just as this horde of tourists head home. Now if all the tourists and the snowbirds would just stay home, but I don't see that happening.


I finished the Aging Bathing Beauty today. One more UFO scratched off my list. Then I spent the rest of the day ruthlessly cleaning the studio. I carried bag loads of stuff out to the garbage can, then began sorting my beads. Oh dear jezzuz, what a mess. If I ever get all my beads organized, I swear on all the saints, gods and goddesses of the arts that I will clean up after every single beading project I ever do as long as I live! I finally quit about 7 tonight and so far have just gotten the copper and turquoise beads gathered up and organized. That still leaves all the other beads to sort through, put in individual containers, and organize. Then I have paints, canvases, pads of various papers, colored pencils, pens, markers, clays, clay tools, etc. to sort through and put away. But I'll start back in it tomorrow, and I'm determined to get it done. Then I'll have quickly take a photo to prove I actually have a clean and neat studio before I make a mess again ;)


The cool weather didn't stop me from enjoying some time on the patio tonight- it just meant instead of wearing flip flops, I had to wear two pair of socks. Please note that each layer of socks match. Of course I can't claim that the first layer of red socks matches the second layer of turquoise socks.









Bella said my feet smell wonderful!

And that she loves me very much-

America's Official Day of Gluttony...

... has now come to an end. I began cooking about 11 this morning - sauteing onions and celery for the dressing, then adding the sage and seasoning, mixing it with the dried bread cubes, placing it in the roaster pan with the turkey and popping it into the oven. Then the giblets were placed in a sauce pan of broth and simmered for hours.
Everything was ready and on the table at 5 p.m. We had entirely too much food- turkey, sage dressing, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, green bean casserole, broccoli and rice casserole, and hot rolls. Within a half hour of eating, I felt like going to the ER and having my stomach pumped. It's now 1:15 in the morning and I still haven't been able to even consider having a piece of pie.


In my younger years I could gorge with abandon and still have room for pie, and not gain an ounce. Of course that was when I worked full time, had a three acre yard to take care of, a kennel of dogs to walk miles a day, and weekends were spent driving hundreds of miles in the middle of the night, loading and unloading crates of dogs in and out of a van, and showing dogs all day Saturday and Sunday at AKC shows. Then driving back home, unloading the van just in time to sleep a few hours before getting up and going to work Monday morning. Then along came menopause, retirement, and spending my time sitting on my ass in the studio. Now I merely look at or smell food and gain weight. So I've had to readjust my eating habits- very small portions of low carb/high protein low fat foods. Now on the special occasions when I over eat rich foods, my stomach goes into shock. I decided today this would be the last huge Thanksgiving meal I cook. I realized that I'm actually tired of typical holiday dishes and would much rather spend the day on the beach with a turkey sandwich or a bucket of iced peel and eat shrimp, then walking the shoreline collecting shells. No more holidays spending hours in the kitchen cooking, then eating so much I can barely waddle from room to room. And then trying to lose the pounds I gain between Thanksgiving Day and the next two days of leftovers, just to do it all over again on Dec. 25th.


Isabella certainly enjoyed her holiday meal, but then she's only 4 years old, has a great metabolism since she's not pushing 60 like me, and she didn't have to cook it!

By 11 tonight I finally was able to hoist myself off the couch to go outside ( though I'm sure I gained enough weight in the few hours since dinner that my thighs felt like they were rubbing together with each step I took) and enjoy the moonlight and starry sky. I had noticed earlier in the day that the bougainvillea growing around the light pole was blooming so I took a photo. I wasn't sure I'd get a decent shot since it was dark, but love how it turned out. The gorgeous red color against the nighttime darkness. (Click all my photos to enlarge to full size)

I hope you all had a fabulous day, with no indigestion or ballooning thighs!

Twas the night before Thanksgiving,,,

... and the counters are covered with food I'll be cooking tomorrow.
Here's just one area- where you can see the Butterball Turkey, cans of soup to use in a couple of the casseroles, green beans, an onion, some spices, and a pan of cubed bread drying out over night in preparation for the dressing. And there's more on the other counter and in the fridge. Why I'm making so many dishes, I have no idea, other than it's a tradition. We'll spend hours cooking, followed by eating too much, and then spend hours cleaning up, all the while complaining we ate too much and our tummies are way too full. And after we have all the dinner mess cleaned up, we'll eat dessert, while still complaining we're too full... as we shovel the pie into our groaning stomachs. But that's the traditional Thanksgiving day in America- we express our gratitude by gorging!

Our first Thanksgiving in Florida was a delightfully warm and sunny day. We made sandwiches from a turkey breast Mike had smoked on the grill and had our dinner on the beach. I think that was my favorite Thanksgiving ever! A couple of years ago for Thanksgiving, we went out to eat at the fabulous Mattison's On The River where we had a prime rib dinner and it was delicious. I'm thinking we should make that our new tradition. It was wonderful food of sensible portion sizes, and there were no rich and fattening left overs to eat for the next two days (adding at least 5 extra pounds I will then struggle to take off). Plus there was no cooking or clean up!


You may notice in the photo that the backsplash tile is up. It was supposed to be put up Tues. and then grouted on Wed. But they called to say the tiler couldn't be here until Wed. and the grouting would be done on Friday. So today the tiler showed up about 10 a.m. and started putting the tile up. Luckily I happened to walk in and notice that the bullnose edge was all wrong and didn't line up with the rest of the tiles. So he took that down and redid it, and it looked better, but not the kind of edging I was expecting. After all the tile was up we were expecting him to leave and return Friday to grout. But he surprised us by saying he was going to grout right then. I was concerned because everything I've read said the tiles and adhesive had to sit for 24 hours before applying the grout, but he insisted it would be okay ( even the tile salesman had said there should be 24 hrs. for the adhesive to dry before grouting). So... I hope the tiler knows what he's talking about because within a four hour time period he had not only glued the tiles up but had also finished the grouting. And I wasn't crazy about his grout lines. But it's done now and all that's left to do in that area is for us to put up the outlet plates.


I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Eat too much, laugh alot, be in the moment and forget all your worries for the day.