Tea Time

Do you like tea? I love tea. I find nothing more comforting than a nice, hot cup of tea in the afternoon. I love cream in my tea rather than lemon. I prefer coffee in the mornings but tea in the afternoons. However, I have never worn a hat such as these. Notice, not a pattern lady present anywhere!

Find The Magic

Do you believe in magic? I do. Magic is really anything you do not understand and I do not understand plenty. That is why everything seems so magical to a child. However, there is still plenty to have a sense of wonder and awe about as an adult. In our busy lives though, we often forget to stop to look up at the full moon in a sky that looks as if God tossed a million diamonds across it landing all hither and yon. It makes me feel so small, so human, so insignificant but I love the feeling that builds in my heart. The feeling that I had as a child. It is a magical feeling. Never forget to find the magic that lives in your heart.

Music

Time is a very precious thing.We have not a moment to waste. Even when I am doing the hum drum such as the laundry, I try to find a way to get into it and enjoy it. I am not sure why I mention that except that I really enjoyed making this piece. I like how it turned out. I am giving the pattern ladies a rest for awhile. I need to branch out a little. They will come back eventually because I love them so much. Maybe I will give them the summer off.

Sweet Things

Just in case there is any doubt, I love sweet, cuddley things. Understand your planet and those we share it with and you just might begin to understand the universe. All life is precious.

The Oddities of Dreams

Last night, I had a dream. In the dream, I am riding a bicycle and I must say with much exertion. I am thinking "For crying out loud, riding a bicycle is much harder than I recall!" I struggle. I huff and puff. I make it up a hill. At the hilltop is a high school and I think "Finally! I am here at school!". Woops. I see a school bus full of young high school students.I feel embarrassed. I wish to shrink in my skin. I look down at myself. I think "Bet they are all laughing at me for having to ride this old bicycle to school." Not until I woke up did I realize that I had not worried about them laughing about an over 50 year old woman still going to high school. Maybe it is a regular occurrence for a woman to be held back 30 plus years. Anything is normal in the dream world. Naturally, I try to interpret it. Once I read that a car in a dream is your ability to navigate through life. Does the fact that I am on a bicycle mean that I have really hit the skids in my abilities? Does it mean that I am trying to attain some sort of balance? Actually, it means I have been reading too much young adult literature. There is a movie coming out at the end of the month and I wished to read this third installment of the book before I see the movie. Reading young adult literature is a sort of guilty pleasure for me. I do enjoy the innocence and simplicity of some of it but at the same time I am constantly critiquing the holes in this particular story and the missed opportunities to make it better. Oh well, she is still a millionaire and I am not so what do I really know about it anyway? Not much.

I Might Just Melt!

I am outside doing some work for Shoog. He needs a nice cool place to relax. In the process of making him a hideaway, I may melt. If I was 30 years younger, I might look like this young lady. She is melting in the bright hot sun. Okay, break is over. Back to work, I go. First, I must go inside to get something. Ah! Discovery! Believe it or not only hours ago, this bed was all neat and tidy. Looks like some horseplay has been going on in here while I was out...or should I say 'catplay'. Those little knuckleheads! It is like my mom always said. "You can have a cat. Or you can have everything else."

Dreaming of Antartica

Have I mentioned this week how much I hate hot weather? I know it gets so old hearing it but I really, really do not like it. For some reason, my internal thermostat is so much hotter than most everyone elses. I do not perspire instead I sweat a river. I pour buckets. I am not embarrassed to say it because it is blatantly obvious to anyone that sees me. I can spend 20 minutes blow drying my hair completely dry just to step outside to sweat it completely soaking wet again within 5 minutes. It is a misery for me. This morning, I got up very early to do some alter work. I took a couple of pictures only because the flowers that were delivered today contained some lilies! The church I attend is over a hundred years old, therefore, need I say it? The air conditioning is retrofitted for a building never intended to be climatically controlled. And....well...it doesn't work so good. I had to work alone today so it took me two and a half hours to get three alters set for tomorrow. I was a wet dish rag by the time I had all of the work complete. By 11 am, it was hotter than blue blazes outside. I knew it was a necessity to stop by the local large retail mart type store. I could no longer postpone. These cats I share my home with do not understand 'we have no litter'. I was so NOT looking forward to it. I had to park on the far side of the parking lot as it seems it was a necessity for the other seven million people here to visit the local mart type store too. I managed the long, hot trek into the building. Ahh! Air conditioning! I spent about an hour in the store shopping then another hour in the line to check out (This is no exaggeration-I read three magazines) all the while dreading the long hot trek back to the boiling hot car. Have I mentioned that my car is all black on the inside? It creates a type of "preview of hell" effect when I open the door. But when all is said and done, somehow I managed to get all of my chores done and I survived it! I must admit though that I have spent the large part of the afternoon reading underneath my soaring ceiling fan. If I could just live like a vampire, only coming out at night, maybe I could stay here. I really do have to go out in the day though so that is not an option at this point in time. Yes, one day, to a cooler climate I will go.

Isn't this a beautiful alter?

Pig Art

Lately, I have been thinking about pigs. Have you ever seen that pig art? There is duck art too. But the kind of art I am thinking of involves pigs. You know a giant pig in the kitchen or a bath tub or such? This is my take on that. A pig near a desk. This is probably very avant garde...probably...maybe...might be...not. But the colors are nice, no?

Taupe walks away

My favorite flower is the lily. There are many varieties of lilies. It is possible to have a blooming garden year round if you plant lilies. There is a lily that will bloom every month of the year. Lilies can be toxic to animals that might eat the greenery. That is their only down side. Otherwise, there is no downside. Their fragance is intoxicating. My favorite lily is the surprise lily that is a pale blush pink. Those are asian rubrum lilies in my artwork. Another favorite of mine is the brilliant orange and deep red tiger lily. As a child, I was terrified of the red spider lily but now I love their cheery faces. My least favorite lily is the white calla lily but even it is pretty. I suppose I do not particularly like white flowers because white used to be the color of mourning. Widows used to dress all in white in medieval Europe. Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Victoria both made daring fashion choices when they chose white for their wedding dresses as white was the color of mourning during both of their lifetimes. Queen Victoria had a lovely piece of lace that she wished to add to her wedding dress which might be the reason she chose the color white for the dress itself as to showcase the lace. I added lace to this art piece but lace is not my style. Lace is not something I would decorate with or wear on my clothing. I am not a lacey girl. I am not a ruffle girl. I am a simple lines girl. During the 80's, I wore so much taupe that it became my signature color. I loved taupe. I could not get enough of taupe. I had taupe silk blouses. I had taupe satin blouses. I had taupe linen skirts. I had taupe wool pants. I had taupe high heels of every variety...pumps, sandals, slings, you name it. I had taupe hand bags. I had taupe pearl jewelry overflowing my jewelry box. I loved taupe especially paired with black. Taupe matched the hair color I had at that time. I even had a taupe car but I believe Mazda called it champagne. It seems funny to say but I rarely wear taupe anymore, in fact, probably never. It no longer matches my hair color but that is not why I do not wear it. You know, I cannot recall ever thinking I was going to wear less taupe. It was just a natural transition slowly leaving my wardrobe. Slowly, taupe crept softly out of the closet door and I never even said good bye. Now, I need more color in my life. That is why I do not wear taupe now. My favorite color to wear is blue now. But this is absolutely something I would have worn then.

Steeplechase Dream

I have awesome dreams in glorious, amazing technicolor. I can easily dream of people that I have never met. In fact, some people I have never met consistently show up in my dreams. Usually, my dreams are good ones but occassionally there are frightening ones. From the numerous amount of times that I have blogged about my dreams, you should be able to tell that it is a sort of interest of mine. I find not only my dreams fascinating but other people's as well. Someone recently told me that he often dreamed of his teeth falling out. I have never had that dream yet I have heard it is one of the most common themes in dreams. Whatever causes that dream is not a factor in my personality. Many people dream of the ability to fly. I have only ever had that dream one time and it was fairly recently. I often dream of being 'tracked' or 'chased'. So long story short, not only what you dream about is important in understanding yourself but the absence of themes is also a key factor in understanding your subconscious. This depicts a dream the lady has of owning a horse in a steeplechase. This is the kind of dream I would have. Sometimes they can start out bright and cheery but end on a dark note.

The Born Cat Identity Starring Shoog

Due to popular request, Shoog makes his photographic debut. I apologize for the quality of these pix but he is a constantly moving target that is extremely camera (phone) shy. He is a smart boy that just cannot understand why I kept putting a phone in his cute face. I mean, yeah, he is smart but he cannot talk...yet. Plus, not many of his friends have phones...yet. You know there is a pet owner psychology that says something along the lines that you can determine the type of relationship a person has to their pets by the names they give them. For example, if you give your pets human names, according to this train of thought, your relationship is more personal...more friend like...more equal. According to the theory, if you name your pets names not normally given to people like Spot, Puff, etc., your relationship is more master-subject based or less personal. It is very unusal that I would name a cat, Sugar Plum. It is very indicative of something profound. In the past, my cats have been named: Andy, Russell, Blaine, Max, Abbey, Phoebe, Claude, Felix, Oliver, Nigel, Henry....now Sugar Plum??? What does it mean? You see, usually my cats live a long time. (knock on wood!) I can easily have a cat that lives 20 years.Claude is currently 18. Knowing that, it is easy to predict that there are not too many new cats in my future or they will very possibly out live me. Therefore, being the responsible pet owner that I am, I decided with Henry that he would be the last. So what happens soon thereafter? Sugar Plum captivates my heart. So, I put him at arms length by naming him a non-human name. I will love him 'some' but 'not that much'. But see what is happening? His name is morphing. I am now calling him Shoog. Who knows? Tomorrow, I may be calling him Cedric. Meet Sugar Plum a.k.a. Shoog. Yes, he is the typical red tabby that this neighborhood produces.

Summer wonderings and mockingbirds

Summer is here. I think summer is here although it is not here according to the calendar. Yes siree, summer is here. I can tell by the way I feel. Hot. Tired. Drained. I do a lot of wondering. I wonder why I was not born in Alaska or at least Montana. Is there a reason I was born here or was it just a shot in the dark, the luck of the draw, roll of the dice? I know what you are thinking. Too much Vegas, right? But back to my wonderings, would my life have been dramatically different if I had been born in Alaska other than I would have been much cooler and I do not mean cooler in the hip kind of way? I will never know the answers to these questions in this life but still I wonder. Wondering is my nature. Speaking of nature, oh hey, cat story! Well you see, Sugar Plum (or Shoog as I call him) and I were sitting outside. He likes to sit beside me and lay his head on my lap. He is good like that. He got down to get a drink of water then returned to sit by my chair when suddenly, down swoops a mockingbird aiming right at my Shoog! Shoog turned around and looked at that bird like "What the fudge?" Then, Shoog looked at me as if he was asking "What should I do?" and I said "Don't you worry, kitten, I will tear that bird to shreds if he hurts my boy!" Mockingbirds are bullies. They may be bullies but I am a grizzly bear. She kept swooping at my Shoog only really hitting him one time. After introspection, I decided she must have a nest close by and was worried about the feline variety being so near to her young as she seemed to have no interest in me (bear though I am) whatsoever. So Shoog and I relocated our chair further away and the bird left him alone. We got settled down again. Shoog looked up at me with what seemed to be a smile on his face. He seemed to know I was protecting him and was appreciative of it. Like I said, Shoog is good like that.

The Universe

The universe is a big place, isn't it? I love to sit outside at night just to stare up into the sky. No matter how old I become, my awe of this spectacular creation never lessens. In fact, my awe grows as I age because my own creative abilities are so very limited. I have a funny little comparison of Nigel's world to my world. Nigel's world is this house. My world is the planet Earth. To Nigel, I am the god of this house. He understands me just about as much as I understand my own creator. There is one obvious difference. Nigel can see me. He does not have to ponder my existence. I know so little of my own creator. Instead, my beliefs are based on faith and only on faith. However, this much I know is fact and that is that everything I do here is for Nigel's own good. I know the same is true for me. I really doubt that Nigel thinks that when I get that scary vacuum cleaner out that I am doing that for his good yet I am. I want him to have a clean home. I am sure events in my world that I do not understand and seem frightful are the same. In the end, it is all for good. To those that doubt what they cannot see I say that there was a time when no one had seen an atom, yet atoms still existed. Just because we have not seen it 'yet' does not mean that there will never come a time when it will be seen. These are my planets. As I said already, my creative abilities are so limited.

Spring Goddess

It may be hotter than a desert in this picture but this lady takes her memory of spring around with her. By the way, summer is not my fave season. I know it is not summer yet but it really feels like it. I got up at 6 am today to start watering the yard. Then, later in the afternoon, I almost melted going to the grocery store. Really in the deep summer, I almost end up living like a vampire. I try to do as little as possible out of doors during the daylight hours and save all of the chores for the night hours. I kind of did have fun watering the yard this morning though. I had this spray coming off the sprinkler that was like a mist. I sat up a lawn chair so I could catch the mist in the breeze. It was pretty delightful as I was drinking my coffee and visiting with Sugar Plum. Plus, he and I did some bird watching. We are learning what particular sounds each bird makes. He sure would like to sneak up on one but I would not let him, of course. I have so many of those things called night crawlers in my lawn or just really huge earth worms. They come out at night and apparently fry on the pavement. Come each morning, the birds have a festival eating those things. We have a lot of really fat birds in the neighborhood.

Adventures in Photoshop

I was going to try something fairly complex in photoshop tonight but I was too tired. Therefore, I opted for a simpler tutorial with lighting effects. Just when I began this post, a cat fight broke out on my back porch so I had to go out there and break it up. We have a large feral population in the neighborhood. Mostly at this point in time, they are largely all spayed or neutered. However, I do believe a new breeding female has arrived on the scene which is causing discord in the packs or herd or pride or whatever a bunch of them are called. Rather than putting a ghostly rider in this photo, I should have added a ghostly cat or maybe a pack of ghostly cats. Which reminds me, have I ever mentioned that it scares the bejeepers out of Nigel when I sneeze? I think he thinks I am hissing at him. Silly cat.

Getting Ready

Look out Vegas! This girl has her sites set on you!

Just Another Day

Something about this digiart that I made makes me think of the Paul McCartney song, "Just Another Day". Although I cannot say precisely what it is about it that causes me to think of that song, the piece does seem to have a daydreaming quality about it in addition to the young lady being dressed in office attire. Plus, the clock in the background appears to be an office clock and it is 9 which I think is 9 am the time most people start to work. The hearts suggest that she has a romantic bent to her nature so perhaps she is dreaming of another life for some other day but today is just another day.

I love hearts. I have a necklace similar to these that is a large white gold puffy heart piece. My necklace involves some scattered stones too but I love that necklace because one side of the heart is a brushed gold while the other side is polished gold. Plus, the chain is 22 inches which makes it adaptable to almost any clothing's neck style. When ever I think of this necklace, I immediately think of an incident regarding it many years ago. While at work, I was in the break room getting coffee. A woman entered stage right that I barely knew and rarely spoke to as we had little need to ever cross each other's paths. She looked at my necklace and exclaimed "Wow! Someone really loves you!" to which I replied "How do you reach this conclusion?" and she said "Because that necklace rocks." I smiled and thought to myself "Not exactly Sherlock Holmes reasoning....".