Clutter

This is my motto and I'm sticking to it :D  To say I'm not tidy is the understatement of the year.  Never have been, never will be.  Oh, I have good intentions, but you know what they say about them.  But I decided today that I would make an attempt to 'straighten up'.  To say I need to 'straighten up' is like saying the Titanic had a small leak.  So I do a little, then have to 'rest'.  Resting is a very good thing.  Resting actually means sitting on your butt in front of the computer.  Or watching Jerry Springer.  Either one will fit the bill of 'resting'.  Then I do a little more, and, YAY, it's time to rest again.   But I digress.  So I actually have gotten quite a lot accomplished.  Which means I will never find anything again.   But when I do stumble upon something, it will be like Christmas.  "I forgot I had this!!"

So, on to the creative mind thing.  I have all these ideas but it seems I'm always missing one thing to actually do the project.  I generally find this out when I've gathered the other things I need for the project.  So I think I'll get the one thing next time I go to the store and get the project done.  So of course, the pile of things has to stay out cause 'I'm gonna finish that'.  Yea.  Okay. This is why I am less than tidy.  Jewelry stuff here.  Embroidery stuff there.  Cameo things over yonder. Assorted other crafts under the table.  I wish I could be all neat and organized.  I would love have one of those craft rooms you see in magazines.  But I have to ask myself if anyone out of those magazines actually DOES anything.  I mean, how can you create with all that neatness around?

So anyway, I started this blog a few hours ago.  I am proud to report that I have actually put some stuff away and can walk through the room without having to follow a path LOL Yay me!

And on that happy note, I'm off to find some chocolate.

Til later,
Morado

Officially tired

Ok, I am officially tired.  And can't rest yet!  Oy!  Okay, last Monday we had major scary storms with torrential rains, so I didn't go to dialysis.  I went on Tuesday.  And on Wednesday.  Thursday we had a new fridge delivered, so I had to unload the fridge and freezer, and then reload the new one.  Friday was dialysis.  My mother and sister picked me up after treatment and we headed out to South Carolina to visit my niece and her little boy.  She just bought her first house!  I'm so very happy for her and so proud of her!  The house is big - eat in kitchen, dining room, den, living room, 4 bedrooms, front porch, screened in back porch, finished basement and 2 1/2 baths. And a patio.  By the pool.  Yes, a pool!  We spent til 10 or 11 each night floating around in it.  With glow sticks.  We had a majorly good time.  On the way home, we stopped at a peach orchard and got fresh peaches, and of course we had to stop in Gaffney (Home of the Big Peach!) at Hamrick's, where I got 3 pairs of shoes, and a couple of Christmas presents.  Never too soon to shop for Christmas!  Here's a picture of the Big Peach :)

Oh yea, I was talking about being tired.  Ok, so Monday we drove/shopped all day.  Since I couldn't go to dialysis Monday, I went yesterday and today. Tomorrow I have to go to the hospital for a fistulagram, and Friday I have dialysis again.  Saturday I am going to SLEEP!  ALL day!  Janie Mae may or may not join me.  Her choice.  But my butt WILL be in the bed a large portion of the day.

I have not been able to do crafty stuff in nearly two weeks.  I'm suffering withdrawals!  I have a bracelet partially done but I haven't had a chance to get back to it.  So hopefully in the next week I'll get my mojo back and git-r-done.

But for now, I think I'll go talk to the Sandman.  And watch The Golden Girls til I fall asleep.  Without Janie Mae.

Til later,
Morado

Time Marches On

Man, oh man, where has the time gone?!?  My poor blog feels so abandoned, and I really have no excuse other than.....wait, I'm thinking..ummmmmm......errrrrr.......ok, I have NO excuse..   Moving on!

So what's been going on in my lilac world?  Well, I've really been into beading lately.  Bracelets. Earrings.  More bracelets. More earrings. There are beads everywhere.  But I've really been having fun with them.  Now the Cameo feels abandoned.  I have such a hard time keeping all the 'kids' happy.

At the beginning of May, Mama and my sister and I went to Florida to visit our friends Bonnie and Polly. We hopped in my sister's big black truck and took off.  We drove about 6 hours to Savannah, GA, and spent the night, then the next morning drove the remaining 6 hours to Homosassa, FL.  What a fun trip we had! Of course, the best part was hanging out with Bonnie and Polly and Bonnie's sister, Betty.  The best social worker in the world, Shirley, had made arrangements for me to have my dialysis down there and it went off without a hitch!  Other than the fact that I had to be there at 6 in the morning!!!!  Ack!  But we did some way fun stuff while there.  We ate the best fried green tomatoes I have EVER had, and I'm a Southern girl, so I know fried green tomatoes.  We rode around and looked at cool stuff.  We went on an airboat tour which was WAY fun.  We saw sponges.  We saw coral.  We saw jumping dolphins.  We rode over grass.  It was way fun.  Here is a picture of a sponge.

See those orange blobs?  Those are sponges!  At this part of the Gulf of Mexico, the land only drops an inch a mile.  So we were maybe 5 miles out from land.  We also saw osprey nests.  With ospreys in them!

Then we went to Dade City Wild Things, which is basically a zoo.  Lions and tigers.  No bears, oh my!  But they did have a zebra :)  And we fed a baby buffalo.  But the MOST fun part was when we got to play with a 3 week old Siberian tiger baby.  I wanted to bring her home!!!  She was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. :D

How do you like my butterfly ring???

Even at that little bitty size, her roar was fear inducing.  She 'meowed' a couple of times and it was SO loud!  Made me jump :)

I'll do some more catching up on the blog tomorrow.  Maybe.  If the beads or the Cameo or the embroidery machine or the sewing machine or the serger or Jerry Springer doesn't get in the way.

Til later,
Morado

Sunshine and warm temps!

After the last few weeks of snow, sleet, and ice, I am happy to report that today it is S U N N Y and 76 degrees!  It is deliciously tempting.   Spring is waving her lusciousness in front of us.  And speaking of spring, yesterday at D Day, one of the other patients and I were gardening.  Oh, we grew roses, tulips, azaleas, camellias, gardenias, phlox, wisteria and multitudes of other things.  I wish I had all that going on in my yard :D It's fun to discuss your interests with those who share said interests.

Right now, I'm watching The Barefoot Contessa.  I just love watching her show.  But she's cruel.  Cruel, do you hear!?  She is making DONUTS!!!!!  Cinnamon donuts.  I want some!  Sigh.

Let's catch you up on what I've been doing.  Ok, not a whole lot of anything, really.  I couldn't go to D Day Friday because of the snow and sleet we had, so I had to go Saturday.  Mama and my sister Debra picked me up after D Day and we went to Cookout and had lunch.  Yea, buddy - hamburgers!  I am the original hamburger kid. I could eat a hamburger anywhere, any time.  But don't give me any of those hoity toity designer hamburgers.  Meat, mayo, ketchup, lettuce, onion, cheddar cheese and tomato on a bun. That's it.  Heaven on a bun.  Oh yea.  I reallllllllllly wanted a milkshake, cause Cookout makes awesome peanut butter shakes, but I was good and didn't get one.  I feel so righteous.

Saturday night/Sunday morning we sprang forward.  I sprang into my bed and stayed there til 1:15.  P.M.  Yes, in the afternoon.  I haven't slept that late in forever.  It sure did feel good.  I continued the day by doing nothing.  And that sure felt good, too :)  Yesterday was D Day and last night I just goofed around online and chatted with my friend Steve.  He was ebaying while I surfed the net.  Today I haven't done much.  Mama is not feeling well, so I've been playing nurse and trying to keep her hydrated.

I'm thinking of making my world famous - ok, only famous to me - spaghetti sauce for dinner.  Then again, perhaps a hardy pan of goulash.  Hmmmmm.  Decisions, decisions.  Then AGAIN, I may do hamburger steaks with camelized onions and a side of yellow squash.  That sounds good, too.

Janie Mae is just having a terrible time.  She wants to eat and I won't feed her. Now don't get me wrong. I am not starving her.  She's already been fed.  She just wants more and I won't give it to her til it's time for her din-din.  She's tried looking pitiful, looking mean, being cute, meowing, stomping around, trying to lead me to the food bowl......but alas, none of it has worked.  She is now sitting and staring at me.  It's actually pretty funny.  Uh oh, here come the pitiful I-can-barely-stay-upright meows.  Too bad she has another couple hours before dinner.

I think I'll go fire up the Cameo.  I think it's feeling abandoned.

Til later,
Morado

Almost Friday!

Man, the past couple weeks have had my head in a whirl. I hardly know what day it is.  Tomorrow IS Friday, isn't it?

Let's start with last week.  Our friends Bonnie and Polly came up from Florida, stopping by here on their way to Maryland.  They are a blast and I love hanging out with them.  They blew into town on Wednesday and we met them for dinner, where we regaled the other diners with much snorting and howls of laughter.  Thursday we all piled into Bonnie's van and took off for Forest, VA, where we invaded the Virginia Candle Company outlet store.  Oh, it's heaven in there!  And such bargains!  I could care less if my candle has a label on it, and if I can save 75% on the candles, then I'm all for it :)  I did, however, restrain myself, and only bought 5 candles (2 of which WERE 75% off! SCORE!) and 1 reed diffuser (also 75% off :D)   After the candle stop, we went on to Bedford, VA, where we had lunch at the old Liberty Train Station.  It was indeed a train station in its former life, and while freight trains still go by, passenger trains do not.  So the old depot was turned into a restaurant and they do have yummy food.  I surprised everyone by NOT getting what I usually do, which is a Greek Steak salad that is to die for.  I also surprised everyone by not getting a hamburger.  I am the original hamburger kid. I can eat a hamburger any time.  ANY time.  And like it :)  Soooooooo I got a chicken panini, which was good but Polly got a hamburger and I was immediately jealous and shot daggers with my eyes at her but she didn't seem to notice.  After lunch, it was time to head to Mountain Produce.  Now, you wouldn't look twice at this little place.  Handmade sign.  Couple of older vehicles out front.  Just looks like some old run down place.  WELL, we found it a few years ago while we were on our way back from a day trip to The Peaks of Otter, and we wanted something to drink and we stopped at this place.  You open the door and your olfactory senses are assailed by.......apple pie????  Oh yes, please!  They make regular pies, hand pies, breads.  Yummy, yummy, stuff, and they also sell all kinds of cider, apple included as well as blackberry, scupernong, cherry....you get the picture. They sell old fashioned candies.  They sell jams.  They sell ice cream. They sell soft drinks.  But the hand pies.  THESE. ARE. TO. DIE. FOR.  Perfectly fried.  The perfect combination of cinnamon to apple.  STUFFED with the perfect combination of cinnamon and apples.  Oh my.  Each one lovingly wrapped in saran wrap, it taunts you with its little bits of glistening apple filling shining through.  You hear it calling you......come eat me.  Come eat me.  COME EAT ME!  However, if you can restrain yourself until you're home, throw that baby in the microwave for about 10 seconds and plop a bigass scoop of vanilla ice cream on it.  You will see rainbows and hear angels sing.  I promise.  It's THAT good.

Now that I've told you the good stuff about the week, let me tell you the not so good.  So Monday morning we awake to snow, sleet and freezing rain. Lovely.  No D Day for me that day.  So I call the clinic to tell them I won't be there and they tell me to call Tuesday morning cause they don't know if they're going to be open or not.  Greeeeeat.  Tuesday morning arrives and the falling weather has stopped but of course our little town has not salted, sanded or plowed the roads.  So while the main roads may be ok, I can't get TO the main road. Not only has our little street not been cleared, there is a hill no matter which way I try to go.  So Tuesday is spent watching Jerry Springer and Maury and napping.  So I wobble into D Day yesterday but surprisingly didn't have THAT much fluid on, considering it had been 4 days since I'd had a treatment.  I don't advise normally going 4 days between treatments.  Not a good thing.  But I did ok and had no problems with my treatment.  I stayed on the machine about 15 minutes longer than I normally do to get just that much more fluid off.  And YAY, no cramps, no drop in BP or any other funky stuff.

Did I mention that tonight's forecast is..........snow/sleet/freezing rain?  No?   Well.....it is!!  Aiiiiiighhhhhh.  Hopefully they're wrong and the roads will be fine and I can go to D Day and not have to wait til Saturday.  Guess I'll hold off on that extra glass of honey crisp apple juice I was gonna have.

Keep warm and go craft something nifty!

Til later,
Morado

Funky Friday

Ok, it's only 'funky' because of the weather. This time last week we had 10 inches of snow and ice and today it's almost 70 degrees and we had a massive thunderstorm.  Been a few days since I posted, so let me fill you in on what's been going on.

Ok, not really a lot has been going on.  BUT.....good news from the kitty kingdom.  Janie Mae, as you know, is Queen of the Castle.  However, she used to share that title with Dolly Sue, aka Chubb B. Butt. Chubb and Janie Mae shared space on my bed and both wanted to be petted at the same time.  Chubb had this cute thing she'd do where, while I was scratching her head, she'd fall over on her side and fling her hind leg out for me to rub her belly.  Well, a few months ago, Chubb went out and didn't come home.  I was so upset. I just knew something had happened to her.  We have this less than nice neighbor who threatened all the cats in the neighborhood and I was afraid he had done something to her.  ANYway, Tuesday morning, who strolls in for breakfast but Chubb B. Butt!!!!!  She ate breakfast and then came in and hopped up on the bed.  Well, of COURSE I had to pet her.  And she fell over on her side and flung her leg out!! I was so tickled.  Doesn't take much to make me happy, eh?  She hasn't spent the night here yet, but she's been home every day since then.  I sure hope it continues :D

In other breaking news.........wait, there is none.  But I have a new passion of the week - making paper flowers.  Now, I'm not talking about the big poofy flowers you used to make from crepe paper (am I giving away my age here??)  but beautiful flowers made from card stock, cut with my Cameo.  It's not complete yet, but I have to show you some I'm working on.

 

Daffodils!!!  I still have to make leaves and put stems on but I just love the way they're turning out.  I cut them out of a bright, happy yellow cardstock and I chalked the cups with orange chalk.  I'm also working on some roses and day lilies.  I got the cut files from TheKraftShak page on Facebook, so if you're into Cameos and flowers, be sure and check it out and tell Christy that Morado sent you :)

Tomorrow is a trip to Walmart.  Woohoo!  No, seriously, I HAVE to go to Walmart.  I need glue!!!!!!  Gotta make more flowers and I need some florists' tape for the stems.  So you see, it is imperative that I make this trip.  Just.  Imperative.

Got a surprise to tell you about, but I think that will keep til tomorrow.

Let me go find Janie Mae and assure her she's still Queen of the Castle.

Til later,
Morado

Thursday -itis

I have Thursday-itis.  It's not hump day, so can't be excited that it's Wednesday.  It's not Friday, so can't be excited that the weekend is nearly here.  It's Thursday.  Thursday-itis is just that feeling that's not really blah, not really happy happy, not really anything. You just are.  So what do you do when you have Thursday-itis? Well, I fired up the computer and the Cameo.  Ok, ok, the computer stays fired up most of the time anyway.  You caught me.  But I'm obsessed with these Pop Up Card Boxes.  They are just so stinking cute.  Here's another one I made.

Dontcha love red and pink together?  I do.  Sort of like rubies and pink tourmaline sure go good together.

I don't really have anything exciting to blog about tonight.  Even less exciting then normal.  

Oh!  I do have something to report.  A couple weeks ago, my sister and I stopped by Outback and got takeout for the two of us and our mother.  Get home with it, and with drool sliding down my chin, I opened up my takeout box, where, to my surprise, my rare prime rib was not pink, but was dark brown.  So I gingerly cut into it and took a bite.  Holy smoke!  It was so freaking hot with spice I couldn't eat it.  So I decide to dive into the blooming onion.  Also so hot with spice I couldn't eat it.  I ended up eating the house salad and some mashed potatoes.  But alas, my taste for prime rib was left unsatisfied.  So I sent an email to Outback, explaining to them nicely that I was disappointed in my takeout order.  Can you believe I got a phone call from the manager of the restaurant we had gone to?  I was amazed!  He was very nice and apologetic and tells me they have changed the recipe for the prime rib. Instead of being slow roasted, it's now got a rub on it.  Anyway, after chatting a while, he told me he was going to send me something, and I got it today.  He sent me a gift card.   How nice!  I will definitely go back to Outback, but I also will definitely not get the prime rib!!!!!  But anyway, here's a shoutout to Outback, and the manager of the Danville, VA, restaurant.  Thanks, Jason!

Janie Mae graced me with her presence today.  It's so nice to be in the company of the Queen of the Castle. She did pat me on the butt once but I knew she was behind me so it didn't scare me.  It's nice to get love pats from your pet.

This weekend is a trip to Ollie's and Big Lots.  I love those places.  And lunch at Mayflower, an awesome seafood restaurant. I can hear my pants getting tighter already.  But it's so worth it.  I can almost taste the shrimp already.

I think Janie Mae and I shall go play a game on the tablet before we turn out the light.

Til Later,
Morado