ONE WORLD ONE HEART 2011 EVENT SPONSORED BY LISA SWIFTKA

http://awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com/a_whimsical_bohemian/2010/12/annoucning-the-fifth-and-final-one-world-one-heart-event-.html 



Hey! Guess what? It's that time again! That's right! The wonderful blogging event called..............

One World One Heart.

It's designed to unite the blogging community. This event was created by Lisa Swiftka whose original idea for this giveaway event was to bring blogger's together from around the world. This event tightens the art blog community and enables us to discover new and wonderful people, and allows us to learn from other creative people. It's actually an international event that unites creative bloggers. It is an opportunity for those who are still relatively new in the art blogging community to meet and interact with seasoned artistic bloggers and hopefully establish new friendships. I may be repeating myself, but I'm excited over this event. I wish I had found it sooner and  participated in all the events, but this is my second time around and unfortunately it is the last event Lisa is holding after 5 long years of holding the event.

You can click on Lisa's name or the OWOH on my sidebar or above to be taken to her blog to see the list of participants.

I am supposed to say a little about myself and will quickly try to describe who I am, what I do, and why I'm here. I'm a happy go lucky person with a wonderful husband who has been kind to me all our almost 30 years together. A stay at home wife who started painting as a hobby and it actually still is a hobby and a fun one at that, although someday I would be very happy to exhibit my work.  I love to cook and as of late have been trying to moderate for myself and my husband. Gardening is a part of who I am or who we are. Having our fruits of our enjoyable labor sitting on the table is a must have. I'm here on blog land to INTERACT with people and to better my creativity, plus it gives me a sense of well being. Ta Da! :D

I want to thank you for stopping by my blog and because you did, I hope to make new friends. I've decided that my giveaway will be a  bangle and pendant and there will be TWO lucky winners.  Be sure to leave a comment so that I can pick two winners when the event is over,  and post the winning names on my blog on February 17, 2011.

Number 1 giveaway

         Number two giveaway2 giveaway

Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a wood bangle/pendant. Hand painted with Acrylics and sealed with a non toxic spray. You do have to have an
ACTIVE BLOG  to participate. Thanks for stopping by and so very nice to meet everyone.

The contest closes on Thursday February 17th @ 6:00 p.m. PST. I will draw TWO names via random generator and the winners will be announced on February 17th.

TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHTS PST- Don't Forget About OWOH EVENT

I'm sure we will all remember to do our post TONIGHT at MIDNIGHT PST. I wanted to be sure so I asked Lisa again and she relayed it to me again. So I've scheduled my post to POST at midnight tonight. It's going to be a fun event.

So don't forget and join in the fun if you haven't. A chance to meet and greet so many people. You can find out more by going to Lisa's blog. This is the 5th and last event. I'll have more on my post tomorrow.

Just click on the link above and you are there.

Journal Pages 2011

These are my latest journal pages, An incomplete drawing of  myself. Pastel pencils.

This lady who I decided to call "Thinking Egyptian Lady" and that's probably because of what is happening in Egypt at present, I suppose.

...and this lady who is "Ole Blue Eyes Herself"

and last are photos of my yard in sepia/black and white

So today is Saturday and I've been just "loafing" around since hubby went to work. Just watching the cooking shows with thoughts of going to the studio in mind. So many things are going on in my head but I haven't done any of them. It's so cold out there, even with the heater on. I was almost finished with the studio sign, but didn't...I'm still working on another project that has to do with my series of 40 faces. I'm trying to get them all either on one huge canvas or on their own black painted boards. Not sure yet what to do.

My word for this year as noted on my sidebar is "running" and yes I've been running around in circles because it's so cold and this OLD house can attest to that. Oh we can go out and buy a new home with all it's fancy dandy heating stuff, but we won't. TURN THE HEAT UP!

Okay, Super Bowl is tomorrow. Time to cook and not sure yet what to cook. Something will come up before the day is over.

I'm thinking KINDLE

Seems that these days everyone is doing KINDLE. I read blogs and am informed that they are so very happy with their Kindle and have read two or three times as much as they ever did. They are totally so very happy with the results "it" delivers. So me, being me, started checking up on it and reading about it and the Kindle 3G seems to be the newest and smaller version. I love the idea of flipping pages when I'm reading and the scent of books, but this is also stirring up my senses. I think there is another version DX,  but this is the one I'm looking at.

Kindle  ( <----- here is the link) has definitely got my ears/eyes perked.



Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology

By Amazon
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14,043 customer reviews)
14,043 Reviews
5 star: (9,920)
4 star: (2,436)
3 star: (682)
2 star: (366)
1 star: (639)
Kindle is our #1 bestseller and has the most 5-star reviews of any product on Amazon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I am considering this product. I will give it some thought. What do you think? I know there is nothing in this world like the feel and scent of a book in your hands....but...still, what do you think? Would you buy one?

SHORT STORY FRIDAY

In one of my English classes, Dr. Netto had us write up a "descriptive narrative" of the movie we had just seen, which was "Run Lola Run. In this particular class, Dr. Netto had us keep a journal of the movies we saw,  and we saw quite a few, so it was a fun class. The writing though, was another thing. This movie,
Run Lola Run, had animated sequences in it and that's what we had to write about. If you haven't seen this movie, it is a fun movie.

Journal/Run Lola Run

Animation/Live Sequence

Lola is fired up and ready to go after receiving the phone call from Manni saying to her that she needs to get some money so that he can pay back some people, that he owes money too. He has tried borrowing the money and still needs more.  She throws the headphone in the air and the camera swings into action catching the shot of the headphone as it lands right in place. At the same time, the camera does some overhead shots around Lola‘s head as her mind begins to think of whom to ask for money.

She leaves the room and heads downstairs and we are now watching the animated feature of her running down a spiral of stairs. Even in animation, the camera is following her closely. Her speed and mobility run ahead of us, causing us to want to catch up to her. She passes a boy leaning against the wall with his fierce looking dog and a smug look on the boys face. The dog growls and she skillfully jumps over the dog and races down the stairs growling at the dog. The animated boy looks surprised by her jump. The skillfulness of the cameras speed and the soundtrack that is playing makes your heart beat faster. There is a high camera shot of her running out of the building and into the street. Her bright red hair moves swiftly as she runs and the yellow subway train that goes by clashes with her red hair. The camera is high above and captures every movement. There is a lot of red in the buildings she passes. A red truck goes by, there is a woman with a red purse on corner, and the boy on the bike is wearing a red shirt. Even the ambulance is red. I don’t know if the color red was meant to signify blood or some sort of danger. And if so, it worked.

Lola running towards and away from the camera

When Lola runs away from the camera it looks as though the camera and everything in the scene is moving towards you, whereas towards the camera we see more of Lola and her visible breathing, the movement of the skin on her face as she runs, and her red hair being blown about. The camera doesn’t seem to change its angle as it follows her. She bumps into the homeless man who at the time was carrying the bag with the money in it. He was in a hurry as well, probably to get off the street and figure out what to do with his recent luck in finding the money. Lola jumps over the car that was coming out of the parking lot and keeps on going, while the man in the car appears to be in shock.

Photomontage of old woman

As Lola runs to get to Manni, she bumps into a woman pushing a baby carriage. The woman cusses her out and then we get a flash-forward of her future life where she wins the lotto and gets rich. You see her with her family living in a great house, enjoying drinks in the yard and seemingly not a care in the world. In a previous segment, the woman’s children were taken away. I think inserting these segments about the people Lola races past, leads us to believe what this story is all about. What ifs, and the choices we make in our lives. I enjoyed this movie and find that although I have a hard time describing the technical parts; I now watch movies with a different perspective.

Here's a short trailer of the movie.

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Nice is good....sometimes

Hope everyone is doing good. Not much happening out this way, just staying indoors. I only go out if I have too. I'm limiting my Curves days to M,W, and F and the rest of the time it's the treadmill. I  had to go to the grocery store yesterday and was at the counter in line to pay and noticed that the person behind me only had a thing or two so gave them the opportunity to go before me and they refused. I actually said, "Please, go ahead of me, you only have a couple of things." They still refused, "uh, no, no, no-it's all right." Okayyyyyyy!, I thought, whatever rocks your boat. Tee hee. I actually asked her 3 times and tried to be nice, so much for that.

It's been cold and cold weather I love, but it really gets to the knees fast. We were out in back this past weekend and we finished picking the tangerines. I promised a center nearby that I would take the tangerines to them so they can give them to the people that visit there.

I'm going to TRY to upload the pic of the tree before we picked the tangerines. Okay...here goes...

Oh that's great. It loaded. A few years back, the neighbor had a fire in his yard and it spread to our yard and burned our orange tree, tangerines, and part of the peach tree.  All of our hedges that were on the fence burned, as well as some of favorite cactus that were in the cactus garden. I posted about it and had the pix to show how everything burned. Well everything came back and seemed to have  flourished since.

We are definitely grateful for that. We've added more fruit trees since, so now we are having double loads which is why we just give the fruit away. I don't  make jams or jellies too much anymore, too much work, now it's just a couple of jars for the winter.

Time to turn the radio on and listen to Rush Limbaugh. A lot of people can't stand him, but I really LISTEN to what he has to say, and have been listening to him for 20 years or so.

I've been backtracking in my blog book on the different posts for part of 2010 and it is interesting to know what we ate on a specific date, what happened, what was new, and the like. The other half of 2010 is on order now and am looking forward to completing my library in the near future.

I think the kitchen is calling to Gloria to go boil an egg, slice up an orange, and make some wheat toast. It's so easy to say that, but there is bacon in the frig and hopefully won't get tempted by it. Have a wonderful day and go out and do SOME THING and then tell me what you did.:DDD Take care



162 Pages of My Life as a Housewife Blogger

From January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010 are all included in:
Section one of My Life as a Housewife Blogger. This is so cool to have a part of last year's posts all in a book, including pictures. I'm getting ready to do July 1, 2010 to December 31st., 2010. It's exciting to me because my life is in a book. I didn't include comments because it would have taken  many more pages. I've already created the other books, I just have to order them. I'm building a library of all my thoughts in a hardcover book. Nice.

I just wanted to share this with you because if you haven't done your book, I promise you...you will love to see your words all in a book along with your pictures.  So it's titled Gloria's Blog, Viva La Vida-My Life as a Housewife Blogger. Tee hee. Time to go, have to watch CNN at 6pm. I some how managed to upload these pix, probably because I deleted other photos from the web that were on my posts. Eventually when I have all my books, I will delete the photos that are on my blog. Take care, enjoy tomorrow.

WHO DO WE REALLY BELONG TO?

My creativity has gone down the drain for now. I did a sketch of myself and that's about it. No journals, that has gone down south, as has GM and jobs. According to a column by the Washington Post, GM is definitely having more cars built, but....NOT in the US where they should be built,  but in Mexico, China, and Korea.  It just makes no sense to me and it makes me angry that these jobs, that should go to the people in the United States of America, are going elsewhere. My husband really gets so angry that this is happening to our country. We owe so much money to China, they just about own us and eventually will if they don't already. If you are interested in reading about it, the link is included above.

I better stop talking about this because my bp is rising, but it is my blog and don't have art today but these words. It's definitely something to think about, which is really all we can do.

I've been lurking here and there on blogs, just haven't been posting daily. Now it's time to get the paperwork ready for the tax season. We do our taxes early to get them out of the way. Last year we were done by February 6th. We await the W2's.  By the way, thank you for the nice comments on my DAD's birthday, I very much appreciated it.

We went out and bought that treadmill so it will be used on the days I don't go to Curves and hubber's promised he's going to use it too.

It's been so cold that really nothing outside has been done. My lettuce has been eaten by something or someone. The red leaf lettuce wasn't touch so I suppose it wasn't to "their" liking. "Their" meaning the snails or the birds. I've noticed that birds will eat just about anything. I put food out for Chippy Girl and what she doesn't eat, the many birds are out there picking and taking her leftovers. It's so funny.

I managed to sell the Tuscan red bangles and pendants, they are all gone. For the One World One Heart event, I will be giving away a bangle and pendant. I do so much better selling via email or yard sales etc., then I did when I was listing them on Etsy. I didn't have  much traffic there, that venture just didn't pan out.

Food wise, I've managed to eliminate most of the beef in the freezer and have decided that we will have at least 3 days a week of no meat at all. Hopefully we can increase that number if husband can take it. He does like meat. It's been cold, so soups have played a role lately, veggie soups.

So I end today's  post with just four words and hope that those four words helps me in keeping my mind on my husband and our family and not everything else, although that's very hard to do.

LIVE FOR THE MOMENT! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FATHER DEAR!

DAD I wanted to tell you that I didn't forget your birthday and have been thinking of you all day long. I can't upload pictures right now, so I added a link to your last year's b/day. You've been gone since August of 2007 and not a day has gone by that I don't think of you. The first thought this morning was, "It's dad's birthday." I love you DAD,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD.

B & W and Sepia Tone

Brenda left a comment on yesterday's post about getting rid of videos in order to make more room for photos. I ran out of memory and would have to buy some memory from google in order to upload pictures, etc. I'll be sure to upload pix that are "best for web." Thanks Brenda, I did get rid of 56 videos from 2009 and part of 10 and hopefully that will help.

Today I'm going to try and spend the day in the studio just goofing around. Changing some little plastic cabinets to other sections of the studio in order to make more "moving" room for myself.  I stopped by my friend Donna's yesterday and she had gone for a very nice walk on her property and taken pictures, excellent pictures too. I felt like copying her because I'm a copycat. :DD

I did tell her I was going to do that though. I actually didn't really go for a walk, just went to my backyard which is a mess right now and took pictures of my trees, etc and uploaded and changed them to b/w and sepia. I wish I could take great pictures. I once tried taking a photography class and I just could not get the hang of it. I don't learn easy. I was very good at test taking at Modesto JC and always passed with the best of them, but still had a hard time understanding what I was taking a test on, if that makes sense. 

The server rejected the 5 photos I was going to upload and I was only able to upload this one. I guess getting rid of the videos didn't help and so now I'm going to have to buy 20gb for I believe it said $5.00 a year and that holds 10,000 photos. That's what I understood it to read.

I actually don't like the idea that all Blogger  photos are  held in Picasso. It's an automatic thing that comes with Blogger. Mine is private, or at least I hope it is. I set it up that way because I didn't want ALL my pix floating around. I'm really  having thoughts about this. It's no fun not being able to upload pix, it goes with the blog in every sense.

My lemon tree

Have a great weekend!

Ooops, ran out of memory on.....

.....uploading pics to Blogger. Now I have to purchase memory. I wonder if I can just get rid of previous  photos?? Hmmm, this doth pose a problema. Especially since I planned on doing this years journal on Blog to print.

I'll definitely have to work something out. Oh jeez, as if I don't have enough to do already.

I can't stay, just stopped in to say hello and how de do. I'm cleaning out my closet and it will be time to cook soon.

Just a couple of journal pages. Now I really have to think on if I want to buy memory for pix and it's really not expensive but......oh jeez....what to do....what to do.... Be back later.

CHOICES

The Choices You Make In Your LIfe

Will Echo After Your Death...

I know, I know...I'm being morbid sort of. It is true though that we are free to make choices, and how we live will  reflect on us all,  once we are gone. I heard the comment above on my way home from exercise and promised myself to make better choices in my life. I've always tried to do what's best, but those words just kept lingering in my head. I'm never afraid to discuss DEATH, because the way I see it, we are all born to die. What we do IN BETWEEN  is up to us.

BITE ME!:DDDD

We are who we are.

Today MY CHOICE for dinner is CHICKEN BREAST along with a side dish of sauteed cabbage, onions, chili's, tomato's, and mushrooms all spooned on grilled wheat bread.

Have a great rest of the day. I'm off to tidy the kitchen and then out to the studio to finish working on my outside sign for the studio.

HASTA LA VISTA BLOG! I'LL BE BACK!

I decided to use my word for the year in a very tiny, short, and little story or narrative. Whatever! :D

RUNNING

I'm "running" out of things to post about and the year has just begun. I feel like I'm "running" out of time and I have to hurry up and catch up, so I'm "running" to get there, some how, some way. Sometimes we "run" out of words that make any sense so we just type whatever comes into our heads, like I'm doing now. Just "running" along with my brain and it's waves.

The more I "run," the more apt I'm likely to ride those waves and to me that would be awesome. I'm floating atop a wave, moving rapidly, as if I'm "running." I like to think that when that wave comes down and lands me smoothly, as if I had been on a cloud, then I'll get on the sand and "run" home where my best friend will be waiting. Because I wasn't there when he came home, he "ran" to the store and picked up veggies and was hurrying to cook them because he thought I would be right home and he'd "run" out of time.

But he didn't "run" out of time. Once I hit the sand, I was "running," just "running" to get back home where I belonged. If I was going to "run", this is where I'd want to "run" to....my home with my husband. Now please excuse me while I "run" to the kitchen and hug him and let him know that the 3 words that I'll never "run" out of are......I love you.

THE END!

Exercising, Lentils, and breathing...what could be better.

It's a beautiful Monday and I'm alive. What could be better than that. Now that makes me very happy and also the pot of LENTILS that's on the stove simmering ever so slowly. I love lentils. Now that is a sign of healthy eating. I added veggies and decided against the chorizo or other meat in there. I spiced it up with chili tepin, chopped up Anaheim's, garlic, onions, cumin, dried cilantro, carrots, celery, potatoes,  so the meat isn't missed. I'm in the front bedroom facing east,  where one of our computers is located and the kitchen is in the back of the house  facing the backyard westerly,  and I can smell those lentils. You like lentils? Do you cook them often? I haven't cooked them in some time and this time I'm cooking them in homemade chicken broth.

It's simmering as I type. I think this is enough for a meal, do you?

Maybe some Peta bread and sliced radishes. I'm trying to cut back,  but even if it's enough for me, I don't know if it will be enough for the working man.

Finally, I went back to Curves early this morning and brother do I feel so much better. I hadn't had exercise since December and now I feel like I'm on the right track again. The manager took my blood pressure and it showed a little high, so it's time to bring it down before it's doctor's visiting time. We don't go for our yearly till June so that gives me enough time to lower my sugar with cinnamon and my bp with exercise.

I talk too much huh? Really, this may be hard to believe but....I'm rather a quiet person, did I ever mention that? I am, but once I start talking, it's hard to get me to stop. Tee Hee. I don't laugh like that either, the tee hee, I more like open my mouth and let it all out nice and loud. I got that from my  Dad's side of the family. Everyone laughed loud. lollolol...that's more like me. Okay now, have a great week and I hope you are of to a good start on this beautiful Monday, the 17th of January.



Leaving Comments

I've been noticing that a lot of blogger's are changing their comment section where you have to type in your email address,  sign in, type in that verification word and then you can post your comment. It takes a lot longer to leave a comment on someone's blog now. I hope mine isn't set up like that, if it is, let me know and I'll change it to the original way. I know I have where you have to type in the verification word, but that should be all. Has anyone else run across this? I mean I'll still leave a comment, but sometimes when you are going from blog to blog to visit and have to go through all these steps, it's a little time consuming. Have you run across this?

Goodies in the mail, cooking, and remembering.

Well it's here, my little book of last year's bangles. I love it! I am satisfied with the look and have included a few pages below of the bangle pictures. I really like that we can have our blogs printed and I'm in the process of doing this blogs posts as well. I'm going to put this picture in my bangles blog.

See the little mailbox? I'm going to hang it outside my studio. Tee Hee.

I watched Rick Bayless yesterday and he fixed the recipe of Mojo de Ajo.

here is where I got this recipe for Slow Roasted Garlic Mojo, or Mojo de Ajo in Spanish as it's known. Our garlic garden this past year produced a hearty crop of  garlic which I gave some away and saved the rest. This is the last of it and I didn't want it to go bad so here is my Mojo de Ajo cooking in the oven. The recipe is available from Rick Bayless's website. I'm sure though that most of you know how to do this. According to Rick, it keeps in the frig for weeks, if it lasts that long. I can't eat pieces of whole garlic or I will end up in the hospital. I can though puree the whole thing once it's cooked and the olive  oil will become a wonderful "POT OF GOLD" to cook with. I can only eat pureed garlic. Go figure?

Here I'm squashing the garlic and then added some lime and tossed back in the oven for 25 minutes, poured into a jar, cooled and tossed in frig.

This was dinner last night. As I said I'm trying to get rid of "MEAT" that's in the freezer and just have Talapia, Chicken, and Tuna. So I cooked sweet and sour pork and white rice. Yuk! I don't care for pork but hubber's does.

AND THEN....

I ran across the picture of a painting I did of Chorizo my girl. How I loved this little lady. My bloggie buddy Donna mentioned how much she loves her dog on her yesterday's post and it reminded me of the love I had and still have for Chorizo who was at my side for 14 years. She was the first dog that I loved  like I did. Now we have Chocolatte who has quickly in the 3 years she's been with us, stole our hearts. Chocolatte is on my sidebar along with Chorizo, Chippy and SisterMay.

Yep, those were the very happy years. Unfortunately most of Chorizo's life was about doctor's and pills, medicines, and pain killer's. She was a brave family pet member who grinned and beared whatever pain she had. She always held her head up high and looked me in the eye. It kills me when I think that there was nothing I could do for her. I was there with her up to the end. Oh she wasn't always ailing, so there were lots and lots of fun days. She used to ride in the truck with her daddy to go sell birds. Now Chocolatte and Chippy take that ride. Chippy is a loner and she doesn't like to be bothered by anyone. With her, it's just feed and water me and I'll be fine. Tee hee. That's just the way Chippy is since she was 2 months old she has been a scaredycat for 11 years and has stayed that way.

Okay I am going now, it's 11:43 AM and time to head for the studio and find something fun to do. Enjoy the rest of the day and evening and if you are in tomorrow day, then enjoy tomorrow. :DDD

Got to get that exercise going

Today I made a decision that had to be made. The Curves where I was a member, shut down due to the economy and I haven't had any really good exercise since the beginning of December or somewhere around that time. This isn't going to get it were my thoughts. So I called Christina at the Curves that's probably about 5 or 10 minutes further and asked her if I can transfer to her Curves without having to pay the yearly fee. She agreed and my appt. is for tomorrow at 9 am to get the paperwork done and be introduced to some of the new machines they have which we didn't  have over at the other Curves. I'm glad I made that decision. Got to get my heart pumping.

Hope all is okay with everyone. We here at home have been trying to moderate, but of course we had Chinese and lots of cake the other day and yesterday I made potatoes with string beans, onions, tomatoes and hamburger meat. I'm trying to get rid of the "beef" I have in the freezer so that when I go shopping it will be for chicken and fish. We have to train ourselves. If it was up to me, there would not be meat but husbands seem to want that meaty stuff. Hmmmm, maybe that's why he loves me, cus I'm meaty?? :DD

I've not done much in the studio. I finished up some bangles, mailed them out and actually doing  pretty good with the bangles, although I do give a lot of them away as well. I'm still reading the Jack London book, the short stories and I am so fascinated by the way he describes everything. You feel like you are there, feeling and seeing everything he is writing about.

Okay I will let you go for now and will leave you with a journal page of my b/day cake and me and one of the cards I received that I added after cutting it up. Have a great weekend bloggie friends and take care.  

Errands to run and stuff.

Hi everyone! Thx to ALL  for the b/day wishes and now it's better to act my age, right? NOT! Tee hee.

Today is one of those "business" days or should it be said, "errands" day. So the noisy treadmill will be used, then it's the post office to mail out some bangles, Walmart for a couple of towels, stop by a friend who is having a couple of ladies over for BINGO. Everyone takes something to place in the winning pot. Some take jars of pickles, cans of chili's, and just anything for whoever is winning. Today I'm taking a case of those soups...RAMEN. The ladies enjoy the soups but my taste for them is blah.

After that I am coming home to finish gluing a painting to canvas that will go in my kitchen. I don't have a journal page because  it was busy yesterday, and was working on the cover of my journal. Not done with it yet, because there are embellishment's to be added.

FRONT COVER OF MY JOURNAL BOOK, NOT COMPLETED.

 Then there's this painting that hangs in my studio. When I painted it, who knows, and whether this was seen in a magazine or somewhere else, I just don't know. All I knew at the time was this  intense feeling to paint them.

THEY ARE FUN LOOKING PEOPLE AND IT WAS FUN PAINTING THEM.

 

So for now that is all. Down with  my coffee, it's 7:39 am and it's time to get a little exercise. As far as running, still hoping but very unlikely. Have a great day or evening. Be back later. Thanks again for yesterday's  B/Day wishes. Take care.

Styroform Containers put to use, and some CAKE

Remember these styrofoam containers from a month or more ago? I ordered wine and then looked at the the containers and knew I wasn't going to throw them away, but couldn't figure out what to do with them. I have found one use for them and you can go here to see what I'm using them for. I've got some other ideas for them and am working on getting those ideas to fruition.

and guess who had a BIRTHDAY today, MOI! Yes it was my big day. Cake, ice cream, Chinese food and present. No biggies, just kick back stuff, because we are kick back people..

It was a good day and I look forward to tomorrow to be an even better day. Hopefully you too will have a great day tomorrow.



Butter Nut Squash and a Journal Page

It's a great day, the sun is out but it is cold but not as cold as YESTERDAY.

TODAY'S PAGE IN MY JOURNAL,  JUST ONE PAGE IS WHAT I'VE DECIDED TO DO IN ORDER TO HAVE TIME FOR OTHER THINGS AND SINCE I WAS DRINKING COFFEE, WHY NOT JOURNAL ABOUT IT.

THIS MORNING AFTER DOING HUBBY'S LUNCH AND COFFEE I PROCEEDED TO START CUTTING OPEN THIS YEARS GARDEN BUTTER NUT SQUASH AND REMEMBERED I HAD A DREAM LAST NIGHT THAT I HAD SLICED MY FINGER OFF. OH BOY, DID THAT HURT. HUBBER'S WAS ON HIS WAY TO THE WASH ROOM TO DROP OFF A TOWEL IN THE HAMPER AND HE ASKED ME IF I PLANNED ON CUTTING THE SQUASH. I TOLD HIM YES, AND HE TOOK THE KNIFE FROM MY HAND AND MY DEAR HUSBAND, SLICED THEM IN HALF AND THEY ARE HARD AS A ROCK, AND PEELED THEM FOR ME. WAS THAT NOT SO VERY NICE? WHAT A DEAR. HE SAID HE DIDN'T WANT ME TO CUT MY FINGER OFF BY MISTAKE. :DDDDD HE LOVES  ME, HE LOVES ME NOT,

 HE LOVES ME!

SO HERE THEY ARE ALL PEELED AND ALL I HAVE TO DO IS CUBE THEM AND MAKE THEM LATER THIS AFTERNOON. YAY!!

WILL SAVE AND DRY THE SEEDS FOR THIS YEAR'S GARDEN

THE OLIVES, WELL I'M NOT SURE IF THEY ARE GOING TO BE OKAY CURED IN SALT. THEY STILL SMELL OKAY, BUT I'M AFRAID TO TASTE ONE. I'LL HAVE TO TRY ONE AND SEE HOW THEY ARE. AYEEEEEEE! IF I FAIL TO POST AGAIN, YOU'LL KNOW WHY.

TEE  HEE or HARDY HAR HAR

SO I'M CUTTING IT SHORT SO THAT I CAN REALLY DO A LOT OF THINGS AROUND THIS HOUSE, INCLUDING OUTSIDE IN MY STUDIO. HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY AND EVENING. I SHOULD BE RECEIVING MY ORDER FROM MY FREE GIFT CERTIFICATE, YAH, YAH, YAH!

What are Journals and what to do about my involvement with them.

My Definition of my Journal:

Journals leave a trail of what I am feeling in that moment and makes meaning in my life as I go about my journey. Because it makes meaning for me, I've started art journals last year. For all of US, I think journals tell the story of our daily lives, what we ate, what we wore, what we did,  and when we were doing it.

Personal journals are like diaries. You use them to tell your own life story, and sometimes to sort through issues and challenges. Then I started thinking that I've always kept a journal, perhaps I didn't paint in it, but I do remember long ago the writing I did and maybe a sketch or two on the page. So it really is something I've always done but perhaps not as intense as it is becoming today.


I found this little clip somewhere on blog land and just thought I'd share it, I don't remember where I found the clip so I can't give credit for that description:

"Art journaling" is illustrating your personal journal or diary. You can use sketches, photos, paintings, or collage. You can glue in receipts, newspaper headlines or clippings, entries from the TV Guide for that day, or... anything visual, really.

It's what I do mostly when I'm alone. When I'm alone with my journal, time just ceases to be. That is what is beginning to bother me. I woke this morning at 6AM, made my husbands lunch, coffee and the first thing in  my mind was running to the dining room table and continuing with the sketch I had started the previous evening.....and I did.

My kind esposo left for work and here it is 8:46 AM and I haven't done a thing in the  house. I journaled till about 8:10 and now it is 8:46 and what I really want to do is run back to the table and sit and play. My knees started stiffening up from all the sitting and I haven't even had exercise today. This is not a good thing.
Don't get me wrong, I don't plan on quitting, I think what I will do is take everything that's on the dining room table and move it all to the studio so that I won't be tempted to stop by daily chores to write or paint. I need to set some rules for myself or the house will go to POT and  no I don't mean that kind of POT. Tee Hee!

I will do that....in the meantime here are my latest journal pages. Actually this BLOG  is MY journal as well. How sweet it is!! Oh that saying reminds me of,  oh dear, what was  his name....Gleason, yes Jackie Gleason:



HOW SWEET IT IS!!

HOW SWEET IT IS!!

So now it is 9AM and I am getting off the computer, getting the vacuum cleaner and putting it to use, dusting, and other household duties, plus plan the menu for tonight's din din, feed my cutie pie family pet members, check to see if there are clothes to be washed and I'm sure I'll find lots more to do. See you this evening, have a great day, God bless you, and JOURNAL ON!! :))

Today was Healthy Mexican cooking with recipes by Marcella of Food Network.

Today I resorted to doing a complete recipe and I'm so glad I did because it was delicious. I made each recipe in Marcella's  "Healthy Mexican" episode. I watched it yesterday and it was on again today. I printed out each recipe for this specific episode and excellent! Just excellent. I pretty much had everything on hand except for the agave syrup for the icy drink. The soup was just delicious and the flank steak wrapped in lettuce was outstanding with the special sauce. The dip for the chayote veggies, well we just took a taste and kept dipping. The video for this episode isn't out yet at the Food Network on her site but it should be soon. She does have about 8 videos that can be watched. She's very interesting and very involved in her cooking skills. I found her recently and she is fairly new to the Food Network. I didn't take pictures,

(boo, hiss, gloria), but trust me, the recipes were outstanding.

I've cleaned the kitchen and am out of the kitchen for the rest of the day and evening and headed for

Viva La Vida studio to sort out what I won from Lisa. I need to put the heater on first and then go back in or I will freeze. I better get off this computer or I will get hooked and stay on. I'm drinking my recipe non-alcoholic orange, tangerine, grapefruit, sparkling water with berry syrup and that red syrup you use in mixed drinks and of course crushed ice. I'm totally happy with my cooking job today. Now I better write up the tab for my husband, tee hee.

Oh by the way...If you can believe this, we talked about this and we've decided that even though I don't work out of the home, I have many jobs here at home. Cleaning, Washing clothes, Cooking, Planner, Bookkeeper, Budgeting, and more. We decided that I will have a salary, twice a month. My husband gets his petty cash twice a month, so starting this month and already have started, I've received wages for my wonderful skills. :DDDDDD. I like my job even better now. Tee Hee!! (not that I didn't have my own petty cash before, but now I have more) (oh boy, canvas, paints, brushes and on and on.):DDDD

Have a great week ahead!! I'm going to a bingo game on Thursday.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/mexican-made-easy/healthy-mexican/index.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/mexican-made-easy2/video/index.html

Wishing....

When I was young I never was athletic. I was skinny. In those days you rarely saw someone running down the street and if you did, you thought it was because they were running from someone or something. Somewhere along the way I didn't know there was a need to exercise to stay healthy. I learned about this at a lot older age. So here I am in three stages of my life where I could have done exercising, but didn't. There is one exercise that I long and so WISH I could do and that is RUN. I think I forgot how to run. A couple of years or more like 4 years back, I was walking about 2 miles a day, 5 days a week and gave that up when I started Curves in 2006. I'm no longer with Curves and am using the treadmill here at home, but it's not enough.

So those faded pictures were the days that are now long gone, when I could have been running and when I was a
LOT YOUNGER. As I was saying, a WISH I would have is to be able to RUN. Well run, you say? I can't. My arthritic knees and weak ankles kill me on a daily basis. It was rough when I was walking those miles a day. There were times I had to stop because of the pain. Now I want to LEARN to run again. Maybe slowly at first. I need to find someone who will work with me and visit my orthopedic doctor to see if I can RUN. So Perhaps now that I am here at this much older age but still raring to go and also

 feeling cartoonish, perhaps I can learn to run again.

Cartoon Effect

So with this in mind, my wish is to be able to run once more. Maybe I will be able to and maybe not. I need to find out if I can even attempt to try it without falling and breaking bones. So here's WISHING  which is what I thought might be my word for this year and instead I've decided that my word for the year will be:

RUNNING!

So on another note, I received a gift certificate of $40.00 for "Creativity" for "unique design combination with matching pendants," and the sharing of my video showing my work and studio. My favorite bangle place awarded this to me. I am so appreciative and guess what?? I already spent the $40 yesterday. Tee Hee. Is that not cool. I feel like I'm a born again ARTISTA.  So good things are a happening, I can feel it and perhaps my wish to run will sometime this year happen too.

Have a great weekend and I will get to your blogs, I promise.