St. Patrick’s Day Gift Ideas

 

 

“Luck of the Irish” Hand-Painted Journal by Linda Lewis

Lucky Shamrocks are hand painted on this one-of-a-kind journal by Linda Lewis. The outside cover is linen type off white with nice texture. The inside has 100 blank pages for your thoughts, dreams, lists, memories – Dimensions of the journal are 3-3/4″ wide x 5-3/4″ long x 3/8″ thick. A great size to put in your purse, tote, glove compartment, school bag. Make this YOUR lucky year with a “Luck of the Irish” hand painted journal!

 

St. Patrick’s Day – Hand Painted Basket

“St. Patrick’s Day” is a one-of-a-kind hand-painted wooden basket by Linda Lewis. The oval basket is 11″ long x 9.5″ wide x 7 ” tall. (The basket is about 13.5″ tall with the handle extended straight up.) The dimensions of the inner basket at the base are approximately 8″ x 6″. The “squares” created by the weaving are painted a deep green and then have a layer of clear glitter paint on top. The picture shows the front and back of the basket, with a different Irish saying on each. There are silver and gold shamrocks on both sides of the sayings. If you’re not Irish, try to be adopted by someone who IS!

 

St. Pat’s Memory Box

One-of-a-kind heavy paper memory boxes. Please indicate your choice of “3 Shamrocks” or “Multi” when you order. May the luck of the Irish be with you!  “Painted Shamrocks” is 9.5″ in diameter and 5″ high. It has shamrocks ribbon around the lid plus feathers as accents.  “Foam Shamrocks” is 8″ in diameter and 4″ high. It has several different sizes of foam shamrocks, plus gold paint as accent. The boxes and lids are painted with varnish for extra protection. Initialed and dated. Please indicate your choice when you order.

 

 

St. Pat’s Day Tote Bag

12.5″ wide x 13.5″ tall x 4″ deep, with open gusset in the bottom. Each tote bag is hand-painted with fabric paint, signed and dated, then sprayed with several layers of Scotchgard to prevent stains. Hand wash. Please indicate your choice of “Luck of the Irish,” “Irish Rainbow,” or “Kiss me!” when you order.

Triumphs to Not-So-Much

I’ve told you that I’m trying to learn to cook in a fashion that’s healthy, delicious, and will keep us on the path to losing more of the lard.  So far, the verdicts have been “triumphs” in some cases to “not-so-much” in others, depending on who is doing the deciding.

• I made “Basic Broccoli Soup” with a recipe from The Longevity Code.  My husband gave it a Thumbs Down – mainly because he doesn’t like broccoli. I loved it, and am eating the rest of the recipe I made for snacks and as part of lunches. I will continue making it, keeping some on hand all the time. The only thing I don’t like about the recipes in this book are that it doesn’t list the number of servings for a recipe or nutritional content. You just have to trust that it’s healthy. He’s a doctor, though, and he’s not selling any of the foods or ingredients in the book, so I do.  (If you’d like the recipe for this, I posted it under “The Longevity Code” in the categories on the right side of the blog page.)
• Yesterday I made “Crustless Broccoli Cheddar Quiche” a recipe I found online. The one I used was from SkinnyTaste.com.  If you click on the link here, it will take you to the site with the recipe.)

The recipe makes 6 servings. My husband came in while I was serving, and said, “Is that all we get?” so I cut another serving in half for each of us. (You can see we’re still trying to adjust to ‘reasonable’ portions.) The verdict was that I loved it. My husband said it was ‘okay,’ meaning that he’ll eat it – particularly since I served it with a salad – but he’d rather it was not too often. I told him that ‘I’ would eat the rest of it, and am looking forward to a fancy breakfast, plus a lunch and dinner from the leftovers. :0) (I’m going to freeze one portion to see how the heated up serving will taste.)

• Today I made a “Lemon Cake”  from The Longevity Code book. My husband loves desserts, and I thought that this might be a healthy dessert that he’ll love.

The verdict is in. We both tried it and said, “Blech.” It wasn’t BAD. It tasted lemony. The texture was very dry, so I put some butter on top of the still-warm ‘cake.’ That helped. The dogs liked it fine. All the ingredients are healthy, so we might hand it out to dogs and cats. I may have missed something, but this one – so far – is a ‘Thanks-for-trying.”

 

 

 

Seeds and Kindness

Karen Salmansohn via Stephanie Youmans Wilson

When we were doing errands yesterday, I saw that Yeager’s already had onions and some other plants out in the parking lot!  I think March 1st will be the earliest I can plant here without excessive worrying about freezing.

I MAY plant onion sets in one of our raised bed planters, though. I can cover one planter with a king-sized sheet.

If it will just warm up a bit, I’ll get out and prepare the raised beds for early spring plants. (Right now it’s 35 degrees F – MUCH too brisk (even with some sunshine) for this old lady to get out there.

Otherwise, I can prepare seed starters in the greenhouse so they’ll be ready to receive seeds. I want to get lettuce and spinach started for sure, around March 1st. I think they’ll stay warm enough in there. We’ll see.

 

This is what the raised bed planters look like when they’re ready for planting. Right now they’re full of weeds and the string rotted in the sun. :0)

This is our greenhouse. I’m learning slowly how to best use it. We don’t have heat, so I can’t winter over plants, but I CAN extend the growing season from early spring through late fall.

I’m itching to get started and will show you more plans as I get them going.  Did I tell you I’m more than ready for Spring?

The Art of Joe Bailey

Anham Hall Asylum – Joe Bailey

“Hungry Like the Wolf…”

Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

“That strong mother doesn’t tell her cub, Son, stay weak so the wolves can get you.” – Unknown

 

RJ Bennett – LinkedIn

“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. …” – Unknown

 

RJ Bennett – LinkedIn

“If you live among wolves you have to act like a wolf. …” – Unknown

 

RJ Bennett – LinkedIn

“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey. …” – Unknown

*These photos represent the work of several different photographers united in an effort to save the habitat and lives of wolves.

A Mom’s Love

Isabel Abreude Lemos – LinkedIn

“It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.” – Erma Bombeck

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

“Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials.” Meryl Streep

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.” ~ Sophia Loren

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

“If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” ~ Milton Berle

Getty Images via Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

“There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.” — Chinese Proverb

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.” ~Rajneesh

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

“[A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.” ~Emily Dickinson

RJ Bennett – LinkedIn

“An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.” — Spanish proverb

*These photos are taken by several talented photographers. We all gather them in an effort to save habitat and animals.

Fun in My Art Room

I love hand painted stationery, note cards, and greeting cards. I love receiving real letters and notes from people, and the people I write seem to enjoy it, too. I also love giving sets to my good friends and relatives for their use.

My newest theme is, “Thumbelina,” where I’ve used my thumb print to create happy characters running all over colorful stationery sheets and note cards. I also include a correspondingly hand painted envelope to go with each of the 5 different designs in a set. The stationery also includes 5 blank sheets for longer letters.

As you can see there are also Thank You note cards.

 

Thank you notes and note cards.

One sample of a stationery design.

Examples of corresponding envelopes.

Clean – Redecorated Digs

My fish aren’t saying much, but I’m hoping they are happy with the cleaning and redecorating I did of their digs today. Their water had become cloudy and changing the filter didn’t help, so today I relocated the four fish while I vacuumed the tank and gravel, put in new decorations, replaced the water with fresh, put in a new filter, etc.

 

Trying to take pictures of the fish in the tank is something for a much better photographer than I.  There are four fish, although I rarely get them all in the same shot. There are three goldfish and one that is basically an off-white with one gold spot. I got them about a year ago and they have at least tripled in size.

They don’t ever say much, but they bunch up in the corner when it’s time for me to feed them, all wriggling their sweet little bodies and opening and closing their mouths. I say, “Hi, Little fishies!” and that’s it until the next feeding at the end of the day. No tricks. No real affection from them. But I love to watch them as they swim around the small tank.

“I” enjoy the fact that they have a different group of things to swim around and look at, so I’m hoping THEY like it, too.

I’m a Slug This Week

I FINALLY did some real exercise, doing 35 minutes on the elliptical trainer. I at least moved at a faster rate since the machine is in the garage and it’s 41 degrees F outside today. The garage did keep the wind off, but my nose feels frozen. :0)

I MEANT to do my new-normal routine of a different type of exercise each day for 5 days a week, but life got in the way and I’ll take any excuse I can get.

My husband decided that Monday was the perfect day to demolish our 2nd failed brick planter. We spent a couple of hours on each of two days getting the plants out, the potting soil shoveled out onto a tarp, the bricks knocked down with the use of a sledge hammer, and then hauled off using the wheelbarrow. Then we wrapped up the soil as well as we could and put a 2nd tarp on top with bricks holding everything together. It was a lot of work for us, and we were pooped, having gotten a lot of non-standard use of our backs and muscles, plus cardio and aerobic. It doesn’t really take the place of ‘exercise,’ though.

I’ve been a slug this week, resting and recuperating from our labor and then putting off doing anything more until today. So I only have ONE star for the week on my calendar. UGH.

Next week I’ll try to do better. Promise.

 

Paintings I Love

Claudia Lucia McKinney via Elena (Livia) D. – Linkedin

 

Alina Ciuciu – LinkedIn

 

Graham Gercken via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

 

Richard Schmid Art via Elena-(Livia) D. – Linkedin

 

“Sunburst” – Stephen McGuinness – LinkedIn

 

Garden of Pensiveness via Cathy Ruggiero

 

“The Last Rays of the Day” – Graham Colthorpe – LinkedIn

Moms

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

Pretty Penguins

Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

 

Paul Nicklen – NatGeo – via Antonia Kalinowska – LinkedIn

Well, Hello!

Shari Septowski – Country Livin – via Stephanie Youmans Wilson

A Girl and Her Horse

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – Linkedin

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

“Red Wellies” – Acrylic – Graham Colthorpe – LinkedIn

Honesty

Cindy Basnett Thurman

Bethany Kerr Pencil Sketches

Bethany Kerr

 

Bethany Kerr

Snow-Goon Mailbox Decoration

We love Calvin & Hobbes. Bill Watterson created the idea of Snow-Goons, evil snowmen who wreaked all sorts of havoc.

This is the front of our Snow-Goon decoration. He is one of the largest of our decorations. The piece is about 4 feet high and 3-1/2 fee wide. This one was also more challenging because of the attached arms holding the head. We like the 3-D effect.

This is the back of the piece.  I tried to blend the attachment bar into the snowman.  We’re in the middle of having a cold front move through, dropping our temperatures and threatening freezing rain, etc., so this decoration seemed appropriate.

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

After catching up with our good friends at Lunch Bunch and doing errands, we’re enjoying being home in a warm, dry house.

I hope you’re having a happy day, too.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

My Get Up and Go has Got Up and Gone

WiffleGif.gif

We pooped ourselves out for the afternoon on the demolishing the brick planter project. We’ve eaten and taken a nap and STILL are feeling tired and sleepy. I’m drinking coffee to try to get some energy going.

We’re celebrating Valentine’s Day tonight with some jumbo shrimp cocktail and a salad.

dontgetserious

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” ~ CHARLES M. SCHULZ

New Careers?

My husband and I have decided to consider becoming weather forecasters post-retirement. I say this because –

• we FINISHED the demolition of the 2nd failed brick planter, AND
• we also put a tarp over my cement mixer behind the shop that we use to mix Mel’s Mix (the special soil replacement ingredients we use in our raised bed square foot planters

Because of these two things, we can practically assure everyone that the 40% chance we had of rain tomorrow morning is no longer applicable.

If we HADN’T finished and the soil wasn’t covered up, we would have had a deluge. We have proved this several times before in the 30+ years we’ve lived here. :0)

I’m thinking of calling our local weather guys and girls and letting them know there should be a change in the forecast….

Here is the 2nd 8 foot x 1-1/2 foot demolished-waiting-for-spring-for-us-to-rebuild-the-planter.

We did the work today in record time because the plant roots remaining weren’t completely root-bound and also we learned the best tools to use and techniques on the FIRST failed planter we demolished.

 

I hope the other people who live in our area weren’t depending on it raining tomorrow…. :0)

Planter Project

 

Yesterday I told you that the weather forecast was for good weather until Tuesday of next week, when we’re due for another ‘wintry mix.’  I was happy because we wouldn’t be rushed on our demolishing of the 2nd of 2 planters that were falling apart.

Well, when I checked today, the forecast is NOW for a 40% chance of rain TOMORROW – morning!  Arrrrgh!!!!!!

You can see where we are now. We just finished our errands for the day and are resting a bit before we tackle this again. Since there is a good chance for rain tomorrow, we really need to see if we can get the dismantling done today, including digging out the remaining plants, digging out the rest of the potting soil, knocking down and hauling off the rest of the bricks, and then wrapping the tarp around the soil and putting bricks on top to try to save as much of the soil as possible for the rebuild in the spring.

My nose is out of joint right now about this –

• It’s Valentine’s Day and I was hoping for a quiet day, with some time up in my art room. (We got some jumbo shrimp at the seafood place on the way home today from taking our tax stuff to our CPA. I peeled and cooked it, and it is cooling in the back fridge – but we may be dozing in our recliners from sheer exhaustion, rather than enjoying it tonight.)
• We are a bit ‘long-in-the-tooth for this project. It’s probably a good character-building exercise to do it ourselves, but it would be so NICE not to have to get the whole demolition part into two days…

Okay. I hear you. Enough with the griping and on with the DOING.

I’ll post pics later today – or tomorrow… :0)

Who?

Email from Marsha Koenig

 

John Gooday via Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

(I can’t read signature) via Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

*These photos may have been taken by many talented photographers. They are posted by Jeff Jett at LinkedIn.com. All are united in an effort to save habitat and animals from harm.

Part II of Brick Planter Redo

Awhile back I told you that two of our brick planters desperately needed to be rebuilt. My husband tried to dig out a hydrangea bush in one of them and the whole front of the planter fell down into the yard. We spent the next few days digging out the plants, shoveling the potting soil onto a tarp, hauling the bricks out of the way, and then wrapped up the soil as best we could to try to save as much as possible for the spring rebuild.

Today on the way back from errands, my husband said he thought we should take advantage of the spring-like weather today and start demolishing the second planter.

 

We worked for a couple of hours so far. We got a huge hydrangea plant out that was totally root-bound. We knocked off as much soil as possible and then wheel-barrowed the remains and dumped it ‘off the edge of the earth’ (past the edge of what we call the civilized part of our 8 acres.)

We’ve moved a lot of bricks and potting soil, but decided to admit we’re old and call it a day.

 

Tomorrow we’ll hit it again. The weather forecast says we don’t have bad weather until Tuesday of next week. I hope they’re right. We would like to get this part of the project wrapped up as soon as possible.

In the spring, we’ll rebuild the two planters. We already purchased the bricks. We’re not sure if these planters failed because the mortar we used on them was bad, or that they had enough water in them that didn’t drain out properly and froze, breaking up the sides.

We built 14 brick planters around the yard and only 2 failed, so that’s a reasonable amount of success. These lasted over 20 years before failing, so hopefully they’ll last until long after WE are gone.

Hopefully, more progress pictures tomorrow.

Cats

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Elena Schumilova via Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Bored Panda

 

YouTube

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

http://www.sodahead.com

 

berner2222 via mara spirig – linkedin

Now THIS is the Winter of my Dreams!

Irma Nadal – LinkedIn

 

Old Quebec – Iahsen Haddou – LinkedIn

 

Switzerland – Iahsen HADDOU – LinkedIn

 

Tetiana Shevchuk – LinkedIn

 

Tetiana Shevchuk – LinkedIn

I Want to Go Here

Richard Thorn via Elena (Livia) D. -LinkedIn

 

“Sunrise – The Keys in Florida” – Rita Gunning – LinkedIn

 

Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

 

“Calm Waters” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

“In the Mountains” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

Abdulrabiman Saad Alburih via Rachealgrace Adams – LinkedIn

“Just Living is Not Enough…”

Malgorzata Szczecinska via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

“The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.” – Leo Buscaglia

 

Mara Spirig – LinkedIn

“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” – Gerard De Nerval

 

Max Blanchard – AlheaMaxPhotos – LinkedIn

“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” ~Claude Monet

 

Flowers and Feelings via Cathy Ruggiero

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.” – Georgia O’Keeffe

 

“White Pink Laced” – Paul Militaru Photography

“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” – Hans Christian Andersen

Making Pencils Sing

Bethany Kerr

 

 

El Dudarion – Eric Armusik -LinkedIn

 

 

Igor Babailov – LinkedIn

It Feels Like Christmas!

I found a super-good deal on a set of acrylic paints a few days ago. They arrived today, and I feel like a kid at Christmas! There are 14 tubes of paint in the set and I have paid more for 4 tubes – plus shipping – than I had to pay for this set with FREE shipping. Woo HOOO!

For some reason I haven’t been up to my art room in quite a while. I felt I needed to accomplish more on my purging project to go through 30+ years of STUFF we’ve accumulated and really don’t need.

I’m beginning to figure out now that the more I go through things, donating a bunch of things to others, throwing away a bunch of things, and then reorganizing and cleaning before putting what is good to keep again, I’m in a never-ending job. The more I DO, the more I SEE to do!

I’m going to give myself permission to take a bit of a break from all the work and play in my art room this week.

 

I don’t know if I’ll come up with anything, but I’ll have a wonderful time dreaming, experimenting, and playing!

keetonsonline.com – via Sherry Dellaria McGrath

FUN

Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero

Beautiful Birds

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

(I can’t read the signature) via RJ Bennett – Linkedin

 

Lara Light Photography – http://www.prophotomaster.com via Jeff Jett – LinkedIn