Little Stowaway

I am making another she art piece. I do not have anything ready to take a picture of yet though. It will not be of me this time. I am already having so much fun with it!
In the meantime, I made this photoshop of Little Jake wondering if he should stowaway. I cannot even fathom traveling with a pet in the baggage area. No way would I ever relinquish one of mine to the baggage handlers. If we cannot travel in the cabin together or in a vehicle together, we cannot go together. Little Jakey will have to stay home with his Miss Danielle.

She Built Sandcastles

This is the latest in my She Art excursion. This is me at a younger age. I built sandcastles in the air back then. I still do now. I love to do that! I am a born dreamer.

As you can see, my She Art style is evolving. This time I put my own mark on it. The first one I made, I pretty much went by all of Christy's guidelines. She does encourage people to find their own style as soon as they feel comfortable with it. I like both of them. I am looking forward to making more of them.

It is a Cat Thing!



Look at these cute kids helping me clean out the bedroom. I spent two days cleaning in that closet and bagged up more clothes than I can say with a clear conscience. I had three bags of shoes alone. Shoes are heavy too. The place where I took all these clothings said I needed to bind the shoes together with rubber bands first before bringing them down. Well, that took a long time. I had these two guys here helping me all the while. This is the bedroom in a good state. Wow! At one point, I and they could hardly walk around in here. This is a respectable state of disarray when I didn't feel embarrassed to take a picture. It is all clear now. All of it is gone. I had my car so packed with clothing that I really didn't even feel comfortable relying on my rear view mirror to inform me if all was clear behind me. Notice that Henry and Jacob are lying on my pants and shirt. It is a cat thing! The only other thing that could have possibly enticed them away from those clothes is if I had put an open book out there. Then, they would both have tried to lie on that at the same time.

From That to This

I worked on the background for my next She Art girl yesterday. It does not take long. I have discovered many things about myself working on these lastest projects.

1. I do not like working in my craft room.
2. I like working in the kitchen.
3. I do not like to get my hands dirty.
4. I do not like to get the counter tops dirty.
5. I do not like to get the brushes dirty.
6. I like being near water. (in order to clean off the dirty.)
7. I like working in fits and starts.
8. I like mulling ideas in my mind.
9. I may not have any artistic talent. ie. Could be why art never holds my attention for long. Maybe. Could be. Most likely.

So, if I can carry my gear into the kitchen easily, then, return it to its craft room, again effortlessly, I am cooking with gas,well, at least for a little while anyway. Stay tuned for the She Art girl. She will be a younger version of myself.
After many layers of many things, here is the more modified background:

Using the Box

"Stay in the box" is my new mantra. Well, it is regarding somethings anyway. If my mind is not boxed in, it loses focus. I lose direction. In order for me to make progress in so many ways, I must focus on small aspects. I am so easily overwhelmed. When I am overwhelmed, I am useless.

It goes like this. This year as I have previously mentioned here, I find myself much altered. I am focusing on eating healthy not that I ever ate all that unhealthily. However, much improvement was needed especially in the water drinking category. I can only eat/drink items "in my box". If I am presented with an item not in my box, I do not eat it. So far it has been easy. I am now drinking 96 oz. of water per day. Big improvement!

I have found a new hobby that seems to ring home to me and that is making these She Art girls. I am not sure how long the hobby will last. It will last as long as I continue to get enjoyment out of it. That could be a week, a month, a year, whatever. I doubt it will last a lifetime or even a year knowing my past record. Therefore, I am committed to not buying anything new to persue this hobby. If I only had all of the money I have spent on previous such endeavors, I could probably take a trip around the world. Maybe even two trips! Therefore, I have confined myself 'to the box' again. All of my She Art making junk supplies must fit inside a real box. It cannot spill out. That keeps me from overdoing. I have always relegated myself this way when it comes to jewelry making. Once the jewelry supply box becomes overloaded near to overflow level, I must start making some jewelry using what is in the box or I will not allow myself to buy any new supplies. It works well. I recommend it. Plus, hopefully "using the box" (cat term) will keep my life clutter free in so many ways.

I find "the box theory" does not work with budgeting. The Hope Diamond could easily fit in a box. See, what I mean? But using these other boxes peripherally help to reign in the budget too.

I have started the companion piece to my first She Art girl. There is lots of drying time in this type hobby. That is good for me because I do not have long segments of time to spend doing hobbies. I slap something on the canvas then, go about my merry way. You know, saving the world and such.

This is what I have done so far regarding the companion piece; not much. Stay tuned to see how it evolves and how long this hobby holds my interest.

She Art With Words

I got the words on my She Art describing me with the best phrase I could think of as it pertains to me. What do you think of it? I plan to do a 'sister' She Art piece of this one which might be used as a jumping off point for the design of my new den. Of course, I do not believe I am saving the world or that it is even possible for me to save it. Still, I would like to in the sense that I want to show love to creatures that would otherwise know none. I don't mind getting down in the trenches to save one. I don't mind getting dirty, scratched, hurt whatever because never think that an animal is incapable of knowing or giving love. They do not carry baggage. They have no hidden agendas. They have no alterior motives (unless it is that empty stomach). They give pure love. It is a gift. It makes you feel special when they give it to you. You have to earn it. You have to show them you are worthy of their trust and affection especially with cats. The cat is like me. He is aloof. He is on his own. He is capable. He does not show his vulnerabilities. He needs no one and no thing so when he gives his affection, it is a beautiful thing. He could have casually just glanced at you with those "please get out of my sight" thoughts in his eyes. Notice he said please though? That is the cat. Mannerly yet frosty. Yes, that is me too. I do have English ancestry so I suppose I come by my frostiness naturally. Cats are not English. They are an ancient desert creature. They give their love as sparsely as water in the desert. There just is not anything as special as a cat's love to me. It is elegant. Yes, it is my purpose to save the world, however small a  corner of the world it may be. When I leave the world, I want it to be better than when I arrived even if only fractionally. Remember, all love is good love whether it is maternal, paternal, fraternal, romantic or whatever. None is better than the other. None is greater than the other. All love is good. We do not all need all types of it but we all need it in some form. I did not write this on Valentine's Day because I didn't want my love post to be mistaken for romantic love. Romantic love is only one form of dozens of types.

I think I may have posted this video before because I love it so much. Words written by Bernie Taupin who I swear at times must have seen into the deepest recesses of my soul. Sung and performed by Elton John. Actor is Robert Downey Jr.

We Love the West!

Nothing to say, really. I just stumbled across this pix of Andrea with a redwood and it makes me want to be there. Okay, I will pack faster!

SheArt to Plug the Fireplace!

Cleaning out and packing is not the only activity I have been up to lately. I have been taking an online class over at The Scarlet Lime. Really, this craft "is me". I am not sure what took me so long to dive off into it but now that I have, I cannot stop. I am truly, madly, deeply addicted to it. Christy suggested the first SheArt girl we make should be one of ourselves. I did that but I have not attached the words to myself which is what really makes it SheArt. I took a picture of what I created but I must confess this picture does not do it justice. What I made is like at least 10 times better than this picture suggests. I am really proud of it which I must say is rare for me when it comes to making 'art'. Usually I do not create much to be proud of in that category. But this time, I am really proud of this and will not be embarrassed to hang it up in my house. I wish you could see really how pretty it is. I will take another picture of it after I get her words on her. Just the right words, of course. I love making these things!

Crummy picture of my beautiful art

I have been busy. I believe a person should keep themselves busy working on constructive and learning projects. Never stop learning. Never stop working. Always improve. There is always room for it.

On another completely different front, we had some drama yesterday. After coming home from the store, I walked into the den just to see Nigel take off into the fireplace and launch himself upward. He clung to something I couldn't see then vanished. Gone! I peered up into the fireplace and he had managed to push open the damper. He was climbing up the inside of the fireplace up toward the roof. As you can probably imagine, I was somewhat panic stricken. I could not imagine how I was going to retrieve that boy. He was heading toward daylight! I was yelling up that fireplace "NIGEL!!!NIGEL". The sound of my screams prodded him upward so I stopped yelling and just sat back on my heels perplexed and worried. Seconds passed seeming like hours then, I heard a couple of boom, booms followed by plunk! And there he was, Nigel lying in the bottom of the fireplace filthy yet completely unscathed albeit significantly adled. Suffice it to say, the fireplace hole is exceedingly, adequately plugged now.

Okay, so I Made a Poor Choice

Okay so NOT all of my mistakes are cool as I have claimed recently. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake to take the fireplace screen down until I had constructed the new one. View the evidence, please.

You must admit though that these little feet prints are cute though, right? Those belong to either Henri, Ollie or Nigel. They do not belong to this guy.

Look at my moon and stars! He shelters me with his heart. Isn't he cute? He has been so good since his surgery. He does not like the fireplace either. He looks at it like it is a big cavernous black bottomless pit. He will not approach it. Good boy, Jakester!

I Am a Pack Mule!

Guess what I will be doing more of this coming weekend?

Right! More packing! Here I am at Lowe's buying more packing materials. I bought 50 more boxes. That should keep me busy for the weekend. I am an organizing fiend! I will be dragging more stuff out to the curb while anxiously awaiting someone to stop and claim it for theirs. I am really getting into this packing thing. Of course, my garage is running out of room for storage because I really need room for two vehicles in there (according to my sister). I may need to rent off site storage. That might be next week's project. I still have lots of rooms to clean out though so I will continue to be busy for a very long time.

Your pack mule,



De-cluttering and other "de-s"

Look at this! Anyone familiar with this bookcase will know I really de-cluttered! It was difficult! How do you decide which books you will no longer keep on the shelf? In the library business, we call this weeding. Wow, did I weed! I got it down to a few necessary volumes. By all means, keep the cookie recipe book out! Plus, you never know when you might need to reference a Harry Potter volume or a book about Henry VIII.

I even decluttered the columbarium and made it look more formal. A little insight here, usually more than I freely give; see that urn box on the right with the white cat hugging a pink heart that says "I love you"  and the black depiction of Bastet atop it? That is my kitten, Russell Lee in there and I cannot touch that box without tearing up. The energy coming off that box is powerful stuff! I could be blind folded and someone could hand me that box and I would still tear up. I know it seems weird yet it is true. There are odd things in this universe of ours, aren't there? Fascinating too.

Plus, I left a few pictures of a few of my 'human' loved ones in there. Sometimes my humans like to know that I care about them too.

Today is a big 'de' day for Jacob! He is getting as they call it 'de-sexed'. Ouch! It may hurt a little now but he will be a much better cat for it later. The odor surrounding the boy lately has not been that pleasingly fragrant. He is getting microchipped too in case I ever lose track of  the little whipper snapper somehow, someway. Look, it has happened before but this time, I will not be caught unprepared should it ever happen again.

Cinder-henri

I have talked a lot about my house cleaning. Now, I have decided to show pictures of it. In the picture below, everything is going into boxes. I even took off the fireplace screen. I put that fireplace screen and andirons out at the curb later in the afternoon and someone claimed them. Yay!!!



This picture is not related to anything other than it was just a weird phenomenon that I had to include in this post for interest. I kept trying to take a picture of the fireplace after I had cleaned it out. This weird sun thing kept shooting up the fireplace as I would take the picture. There was no sun there! I would snap and then 'woosh' sun! I never could get a picture of it without it. Does anyone know what that is about? It was weird!

Okay, so maybe later in the day Henri became mesmerized by the fireplace-sun phenomenon and started trying to do that shooting thing like the sun did. However, he did not fare so well. Poor Henri! He did not like his bath that I had to give him to remove 5 lbs of soot. Do you think he is considering dunking his head into his water bowl? I don't think he was. He looks mistreated but honestly, I am a good cat mom!





Uh Oh!

Okay so we are still driving around trying to decide where to call home. We are traveling south now from Seattle and just got to San Francisco. We have shifted places. Ollie is sitting by me now. Nigel is still co-pilot because he is boss after all. Jakester went to the back seat and Henry (Henri has changed into his French beret and recovered from his terror) is sitting in area behind back seat. However, there has been a new development. It just occurred to Jacob that Shoog is not with us!

Are we there yet?

I spend a lot of time in my home talking about destinations to any visitors willing to listen. My cats hear a lot about Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco, London and a few others but mostly those. The truth is they do not know Vegas from Seattle so they will not know the difference when we get there. In this little depiction, I am at the wheel of our 'red one' showing us on our drive from Texas to Washington. It will be long, right? I mean really, really long, right? The meowing will make one mile seem like one light year. My sister said to be sure to let her know exactly when we are leaving so she can come watch and listen to us depart with all the yowling and scratching going on in that car. This is something how we will look with Jake sitting beside me thinking we are moving to Vegas. That is Nigel in passenger seat acting as co-pilot. Henry is in backseat looking terrified. Ollie is in area behind backseat just being happy because that is what he does best.