I'm Back!!!!

It seems as if I have been away from my blog for ages! I have not been anywhere except stuck in the year 2010 without modern conveniences. Getting 14 inches of snow here creates havoc with the trees. Living in Hicksville USA means that we still have above ground utilities. Oh, I am about to get started on one of my rants and I do not want to go there. I want to think lovely, peaceful thoughts. That is what my blog is for...lovely, peaceful thoughts. I mean, I could move, right? I am always talking about moving but to where? Well, everyone here knows that I want to work at the Library of Congress even if only on a voluntary basis. But that poses a problem...how am I going to work in Washington D.C. without being around snow?  I had finally decided that I wanted to live in Baltimore and commute to Washington. After this bout of snow, I am thinking about Vegas again. But when you think of the academic world, Vegas is not the first city that comes to mind. But then, LOC is not academic either. It is just awesome! Hmmm....I am still in a quandary. I am sure the right place will present itself to me at the right time.

Subject change...back to being 'powerless'. The temperature inside my house was 50 degrees at its lowest. I didn't really have any trouble staying warm. I wore lots of layers and these boots:

Now these boots are warm but let me tell you something. Nigel is scared out of his mind of them. He thinks they are some kind of monster on my feet! When I take them off, he sneaks up on them, stretches out a paw as far as he can and then swats them like he is trying to hit a poisonous snake on the head.

R-Ugg-Ro, right? Everything in the freezer thawed. There was not a super big loss there but it was a mess. Henry licked up some melted popsicle juice.

And now it is time for another New Year! Seems like we just had one, right? All of these "years" remind me of the "truth". Which truth, yours or mine or hers or his? So which new year is the true new year? All of them or none of them? Oh, it is more than my simple mind can comprehend.

I made this one below when I was captive in the icey cold house.

Want a Kitty?

I am snow bound. It is fun to be at home though. I especially enjoy it because I do not get to be here that much. It is snowing steadily in big flakes. Sure, I could have driven into work today but was not looking forward to the long walk from the car to the building plus not to mention having to de-snow my car late this evening after dark. So, I decided to stay home and work on other things for my job on Saturday. Then, I snuck in this valentine which reminds me. I love to put colors together that are non-traditional. Red and pink are common to see at Valentine's. How about turquoise though? Now, I am about to go bake a few cookies and have some coffee!! Yippee! Snow Day!!!

Paisley Kitty

I am beginning a little Valentine Vignette. Only two more posts and I will have already posted as much this year as I did for the entire year last year. I am finding this digital art to be very therapeutic. The only thing is that I have not posted about any of Nigel's escapades lately and he has been up to plenty. Nigel is very smart. Apparently, I have not been keeping the house as warm lately as he would like it. This morning, I found where he had built himself a little bed using one pillow as a mattress and another pillow as a blanket/roof. He was sleeping like a log under that homemade hovel. I didn't dare touch it because I didn't wish to disturb the little sleeping scamp. I am just like a mama bear fiercely protective of the fuzzy ones' welfare.

Ghost Post

Which one of these ladies is a ghost? I tried a game tonight. I closed my eyes and picked a picture. She was my background. I closed my eyes and picked another picture. I picked the angel. The rest of it I purposefully selected. It was fun.

Underneath the Giant Boiled Egg

This morning I saw a beautiful primitive art piece made out of colored patches of fabric. I tried the concept here and honestly, I do not think it is half bad all except for the moon which looks like a boiled egg cut in half. What could be a more romantic idea than being out in the vast dark desert at night looking up a giant boiled egg? I am not EVEN going to try to redeem this one with a short story. It is what it is.

The Bookseller

The city clock had just gone four as the couple heated themselves with brisk walking through the palpable fog and biting frost. A person must have an intent purpose to navigate the harsh elements of this dreary, dark day. The sun had seemingly never traveled the zenith of the sky but must have surrendered to the horizon before midmorning. The cumbrous fog shrouded the street like a think veil causing fellow travelers to appear as purposeful phantoms traversing in the late afternoon. The halo of a flaring candle in the bookseller’s window sent a lonely beacon of cheeriness out seeming to say “Welcome. Please stop within.” The gentleman shopper opened the heavy, ornate door bearing the signage of books for his lady as the fog came pouring off of the street and reaching out its long, thin tendrals into the respite bearing the knowledge of the ages. The bookseller’s eyes twinkled as he recognized his favorite customers not by sight but my the sound of their approach…

The Masculine Answer

This is my masculine counterpart to All Things Beautiful.  JD is the kind of masculine I like. He is not macho. He is cool. He is not big and strong. He is sensitive. My idea of masculinity is sensitive and understanding and not taking oneself too seriously. Making this type of digital art is way fun. For the most part, I love the parts JD plays. For the most part...;)

All Things Beautiful

I wanted to have some fun with this one. I love cosmetics. I love shoes. I love handbags. I love girly things. I love Charlize. We have so much in common. Did I hear you wonder what? Like well, she is so beautiful and I am...uh, old. She is tall and I am... regular. She is glamorous and I am so not. Hey, we have the same initials!!! I knew we had a lot in common.

Happy Place Avenue

I will not ride quietly into the sunset. I plan to kick up a fuss. I am going to cling to, hang on, dig in and do whatever it takes to remember clearly happy memories of my past for as long as I possibly can. Memories fade just as feelings fade. They can become tarnished. Has something wonderful ever happened to you when you thought "I want to remember how I feel right now forever?" Sure, it has. Something like that has happened to everyone. However, I have noticed sometimes the further I get from a memory how it looses its luster and magic. It does not have to be that way.  A person can cultivate a memory. It can always be an avenue that takes you to a happy place just as this does for me. The magic will never fade for me. I can still see it through the tarnish of time. I will not say goodbye.

Angel in the Trees

I am not sure what I was thinking when I made this one. It could very possibly be that I was not thinking anything. I could have just been playing around with some tools to see what kind of outcome I would get. I am not all that happy with this one. This angel's wings are at odd angles. Plus, she is only a half bodied angel. I suppose if an angel appeared in the forest, she could appear anyway she felt like it. If she only wanted to manifest part of her body, she could probably do that. I would like to take a walk in a forest and see an angel.

Kitty Bed Woes

I have never had a kitty that will sleep in a bed other than mine that is. To be honest, the kitty in the bed in this picture does not look all that happy about it either. He looks sad like he might be missing his mom. The closest cat I have to sleeping in his own bed is my Henry (pronounced ohn-Ree...he thinks he is French.) Henry sleeps in his tent. My kittens each have a tent. They all play in them but Henry really likes to sleep on top of his. His has an upstairs with a fake sheepskin pad on it. He likes to get inside the upstairs on his fake sheepskin pad to sleep. That really helps me out because the big bed gets really crowded with the cats. Here is another thing. Kitties do not know about sleeping vertically...they sleep horizontally taking up as much as room as possible. It is a real pain in the back, literally. Sometimes I wake up in the night to so much purring and humming that I think I am in an angelic choir. But no, it is just the kittens being happy. I spoil my kittens. They are really spoiled. My sister says it is a good thing that I do not have any kids. She says if I did, they would be in prison due to my lack of being a disciplinarian. I am a softie. One time my niece wrote on the headliner of my car with an ink pen. She said it was an accident. I believe her. My sister said it was not an accident. I still believe it was an accident. My kittens have lots of accidents; breakage of porcelain birds, using the heads for hockey pucks, etc. Hey, accidents happen, right? Even if all of my kittens would sleep in their own beds, I am not sure I would want them to do that. I like fighting for room with them and I do love that angelic choir.

Enjoy It While You Can

Yesterday, I was young. I seemingly turned around to find that there was more life behind me than there is in front of me. It went by so fast. Too fast. Someone snapped their fingers and 40 years flew past. I am a dreamer. I have dreamed many things but never in my wildest imaginings did I ever dream that it would pass at light speed. My advice is to enjoy every moment, even the not so great moments. In the not so great moments, in the dark hours, you must make note, what am I feeling? What am I learning? Because both the good and bad are over way too quickly.