Garage Apartment Part 2

It gets curiouser and curiouser around here. For so very long, I attempted to entice Bella into my garage. She continually rejected all of my offers of hospitality. Finally after a long session of attempts, I successfully 'convinced' her to stay with me awhile. Oh, she hated me plenty for it too. The first night was the worst. It sounded like she would tear the garage down. The next morning when I went out to assess the damage she had done, she had perched herself on top of the garage door itself which was down. She was balancing on about a two inch ledge because it was the only point in the garage that a ray of light was peeping through. Long story short, after two weeks in the garage, surgery, recuperation, etc., today was freedom day! I raised the garage door bright and early this morning to give Bella her freedom. Guess what? She would not leave. I left the door up one hour. She laid in the garage looking out. Finally, I had to leave for work so I put the door back down with Bella inside. Tonight when I returned home, again I opened the door and she would not leave. Finally, by putting some food out in the driveway, she was enticed to venture out of doors. But that girl did not leave my yard. She hovered nearby until I came inside for the night. I think that girl eventually realized that I was only trying to help her. Yep, she surely is a smart girl.

Garage Apartment

Sugar Plum has been staying in the garage at night because it has been cooler than usual. He has a chair, blanket, litter box, food...all of the essentials out there. I want him to get used to staying inside at night because it is safer. Plus, when it does finally get cold, it will be much more comfortable out there for him than what he normally does which is sleep in a pile of Asian Jasmine.

Focus on a Small Thing

Probably when you look at this, you do not think 'focus' but rather 'compartmentalize'.

However, this is how I focus. Through my niece, I discovered something about myself that had previously gone unanalyzed. It is a trait that both she and I were born with. We are easily overwhelmed by size. For example, if someone said to pack up this entire house and load it on a moving van, I would wander aimlessly with an empty box in my hand, picking up an item, laying it back down, walking a little bit further just to pick up something else then just to lay it back down again. This can go on for hours. By doing this, I am attempting to find a starting place but I am engulfed in an overwhelming wave of confusion. I have watched my niece do this many times because she has moved many times to far places like London and New York. Surprisingly enough, she manages to get it done. This is how we figured out how to deal with this issue. We must focus on a one foot by one foot square. Pack that up then move on to another one foot by one foot square. All day, I have been working out in the garage. I have 16 years of items out there. Some of it is mine. Some of it is my mom's. I am cleaning it all out. It is large and overwhelming. I am focusing though using the one foot by one foot method. I made lots of progress today! When I get it all cleaned out, I will post a picture of it here.

Success is the Word!

Being tenacious paid off. Bella went to the vet today! Yes, I successfully captured her. She had her surgery. She got her shots. All is well. After she is healed, she will be released back to her original habitat. I am so happy for her, poor thing. I say poor thing because she was so frightened. She is not a poor thing in the sense that she got some very needed medical assistance. I knew tenacity would pay off.

Tenacious is the Word

Have I mentioned lately that Bella is living in my garage? Have I mentioned lately that I do not like her very much? I would like her a whole bunch if she was cooperative but she is not. She is not one ounce of cooperative. I am having to park outside which I do not like to do. Plus, there are things in my garage that I am wishing to give away but cannot because I cannot open the door as long as she is living in there. Tonight, I had a heart-to-heart with her explaining that the sooner she cooperates, the sooner we can both go on with our lives. Plus, she does not like me. I do not blame her, of course. However, a word was invented that describes me. The word is tenacious. I am like a bulldog when I set out to accomplish something. I will get Ms. Bella up to the vet one way or another for her spaying. It may take some time but when it comes to hard heads, mine is harder than Bella's. She does not know it but I will win this battle of wills. I think this woman in this creation of mine is conjuring some magic. I wish she could conjure Bella into cooperating.

Someday Fall Will Be Here - For 2 Hours

I live in a part of the world where there is only one season...fairly hot, hot, hotter, hotter than heck. However, I am told that fall arrives tomorrow. I suppose it will someplace but not here. Here we just pretend it arrives. We pretend it is fall eventhough, the temperature is still the same as summer. Luckily for me, I have a fabulous imagination. I can imagine that it would be wonderful to live in a place where fall really does arrive tomorrow. And who knows? Eventually, along about mid December, fall may arrive here for a couple of hours. I hope I don't miss it!

Longing for Self Indulgence

Tomorrow starts a new work week and I am still tired. I did not get much rest this weekend. I had a lot to do. I wish I was like Daisy here. Don't you think she appears to be the kind that pampers herself? That would be a nice thing to do for about a week or so...just completely and totally pamper yourself doing all of the self indulgent things you wish to do.

Long Past Memories

Memories

Our Day in the Circus

Sunday our day seemed like a three ring circus. In the first ring, we had Ollie pining and whining to be in the craft room. Periodically, he would take off like a cannon ball heading down the hall straight to the craft room where he would immediately commence a pining wail as if he might die if he did not get into the craft room. He could pine but no entry. Here he is giving me his most cunning look. Sorry, Ollie. No admittance.

Ollie wishing to be a crafter

In the second ring, we had Claude. As I have mentioned on numerous occassions, Claude is sweet to the bone. He is very considerate of his brothers feelings. He could feel Ollie's pain. He sympathized and empathized with him. Claude would hear Ollie's wails from down the hall and go fetch his BooBoo lamb. Claude would go down the hall carrying BooBoo lamb as if to say "Here Ollie. You can play with my toy. It is fabulous." Ollie just looked at him as if to reply "No cigar, Claude. Only crafts will meet my requirements."

In the third and final ring, Henry and Nigel put on quite a performance. There was a lizard trapped between the window screen and the window. That lizard kept them entertained all afternoon. The likes of crashing, banging, meowing, hissing have not been heard in these parts in quite some time. They terrified that poor lizard for at least 4 hours. Finally, it escaped. The picture below is early into their study of lizard terror.

The picture below is after Nigel is completely exhausted but Henry thinks the lizard may have escaped to the ceiling.

Ribbon Candy Time

I have noticed as I uh...ahem...age...that strange things are happening. Strange things such as I am still growing but outward rather than upward. My once taut skin is somewhat shall I say 'relaxed'. My hair is not as thick as it once was but maybe it has just moved to my chin. In other words, folks, things are heading south. That is okay though. It does not bother me that much. I am pretty much okay with it because I still feel young on the inside and I know that is a feeling that will not ebb. But there are other strange things happening that are more difficult to explain. I find myself going through periods of intense rememberance of different points in time. A couple of years back, every night as I was falling asleep, I would find myself locked in a memory of being 16 or 17 years old, walking inside the mall. Every night in my memories, I would walk the mall looking into the stores, recalling them in detail as they were then. Night after night, I would gaze down at my wedge-heeled clad feet walking, walking, walking and looking, looking, looking deep into the stores for further memories of days past. Time passed and that period of reliving that nightly mall trek memory slowly subsided. It departed so slowly in fact that I did not even register its passing. The next thing I knew, I was reliving another entirely different childhood memory. Then came another memory and another and another. And that is how it has been for a few years now. For small periods of time, I can so vividly recall something from the distant past and it will be something that I will delve deep into wishing to remember more. At this point, I am locked in a memory of riding in the family car up a hill to a park where deer are and my sisters and I are going to feed them! It is a way fun memory and I am so enjoying reliving it. I am sitting in the back seat of our car looking out a back window searching for the deer feeding behind a chain link fence eagerly anticipating running from the car to the area where the deer will be waiting for us. What is causing these ripples of memories? My theory is this one. We have a tendency to think of time as being a straight line but what if it is a wave of ribbon like that red and green Christmas candy? What if it is an ocean of ripples that undulate and unfold on top of each other? Maybe that point in time that I continually recall is folding right over me during this phase in my life at this precise moment in time. The bygone memories are close and stimulating my remembrance of them. Some people think when we look into outer space that we are looking into the past. I do not know about that but what I do know is that I will again relive the past tonight. I will be riding in a car, up a hill to a park where there are deer and...

Ripples In Time

Rain-It's Just a State of Mind

Is rain just a state of mind? It is according to The Beatles. Not so much according to me though. Boy, did it ever rain here today! All night long, I heard the rain pelting the skylight without any breaks. When sunrise arrived, I could see that my entire backyard was a lake and the rain still poured. Fortunately, I had anticipated this rainstorm so I had put Sugar Plum in the garage. He has a nice little pad out there with bed, food and litter box. He is quite happy. Eventhough the rain has largely passed, he is going to stay another night in the garage. He likes it and I like knowing he is safe. The best part is that the only boat I built today was in photoshop and not in real life.

Guitar Playing Cow

I was feeling pink. This is one of those things that I made using a mishmash. I used the first pink things that were in my picture folder. Then, I just tossed the key on it for good luck I suppose. These are always fun to see how they turn out and often I end up liking them. That cow always makes me smile because he looks happy. I bet he is a guitar playing cow.

Labor Day

Did you have a nice labor day? I spent mine doing lots of work around the house. However, during one of my breaks, I made this. I like making these when I am taking a break. They make a nice break.

Days of Old

By now, I could be dragging out the pattern girls again but since I forced myself to stop leaning on them so much, I found that I learned many other things. That is the beauty of forcing yourself to do something that is not your natural inclination. Every once in awhile, I use these old, scary people. Of course, these people really were not scary but their pictures were because they had to sit motionless without demeanor in order to have their images captured. These people from this age had hard lives which made them strong. I would probably last about 15 minutes living back then. I cannot really imagine myself going out and plowing a field behind a mule and plow. That is not to say that I am lazy because I am not. I just cannot abide the hot weather. I would have to choose housework if it was any cooler which it probably was not back in those days. I cannot even speculate as to what my life would have been back then because I am a woman that likes to row her own boat. Life was so hard for people back in these days very few were able to row their boats alone. It usually took many people to keep the boat on course. It took a village as they say.

It is Written in the Stars

I like these mysterious little numbers that I have been making lately. Rather than making this, I should be trying to catch Bella. We are going to try to build another kind of trap to use to catch her. Supposedly, this other kind has much more success. I have made three new friends since working on the feral cat project. I know (I don't even think, it is at the knowing stage) that people that care about the welfare of animals are generally very nice people. Of course, I have wonderful old friends that also care about animals. I am thinking especially of my bff, Shelly. This lady in this picture is wondering what is 'in the stars' for her. If she is lucky, very lucky, she will meet some nice friends too.

Bears and Carriages

As I have said so many times here, I have very extravagant and detailed dreams. Question. Do you ever recall a partial dream then you cannot remember whether you had that dream last night or on a night from 20 years ago? On the one hand, it seems you just dreamed it. On the other hand, you are fairly sure you must be remembering something from long ago. I am almost certain they are from long ago and are suddenly becoming conscious because they are relevant to the present. At least that is my interpretation of how they feel. The other night, I dreamed I was living in a large rustic house with my entire family. At one point, we were traveling back to our house in a horse and carriage. Never once did I inquire "Hey, why are we not in one of our cars?" instead I just rode along in the carriage knowing it did not fit but never asking why. Plus, have you ever noticed the raw emotion in dreams? It is much stronger and powerful than what I feel when awake. For example, in this dream I was just referring to at one point I thought someone was breaking into our house. Since there were so many of us, I had to stay in a room with my niece. She told me she was afraid of our potential prowler. On that note suddenly, I felt rage swell inside of me to the point of bursting. I told her "Listen, if something breaks in here and tries to hurt you, hell has no fury like what I will unleash on it. Whatever it is, it better be afraid of me because I will reach down its throat and tear its heart out."  I am hear to tell you, I was an angry mother bear or I should say aunt bear. After I said all that, she immediately jumped in bed and fell asleep almost immediately. I do understand why I dreamed that part though. Earlier that day, I had been recalling a few years ago when my niece was having some medical issues and how I wanted to protect her from them. Funny how things manifest in dreams. I am still at odds though about the horse and carriage method of transportation. In time, I am sure something will become obvious to me as to its meaning.

Bird Dress Up

You can take the bird out of the dress but you cannot take the dress out of the bird.