I’m Having a Blast

It’s Always Autumn

I told you that my wonderful sister-in-law read about my new interest in bleeding tissue paper art, and that she immediately sent me a large package of assorted colors. (I found out that BLEEDING tissue paper is different from regular, wrapping tissue paper. I have no idea HOW. I just found out that regular stuff doesn’t bleed – except for one sheet I had of blue…)

I decided that today was the day to get started. I have a drawing sketched out and just finished putting down the first layer of tissue paper pieces. I’m going to let that dry, remove the pieces, and decide what comes next. There is no real ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ about this – another thing I really like about it. You just do what you like and see what happens. Since I love watercolors, I like some of the effects you can get. I also really like mixing media, so it’s possible to get 3-D, textures, etc.

Anyway, I’m having a blast experimenting. :0) If I don’t end up with a COMPLETE mess, I’ll share it when it’s finished.

I hope that YOU are having some fun today, too.

Happy New Year – A Bit Early

Happy 2021

I just had the joy of chatting with our son. He lives in Thailand, and so is 12 hours ahead of us. He said the fireworks were starting there.

I also went ahead and started my 2021 calendar, needing the boost of another gorgeous Australian firefighter with sweet animal to start my day. I figure with the way the world is, YOU might need a boost, too –

http://www.australianfirefighterscalendar.com

So, here are Richard and Abigail to welcome us to January 1st tomorrow. :0)

Our weather sucks – it’s 33 degrees F. right now with heavy rain and local flooding forecast for this afternoon through tomorrow. It’s a very good day to have a warm, dry house on top of a ridge line.

I am enjoying watching YouTube video demonstrations of the bleeding tissue paper art technique. I’ve watched two very different techniques, both with stunning results. My wonderful sister-in-law sent me a big package of large bleeding tissue paper sheets in assorted colors, so I spent last night dreaming of things to try with it. I also received 1″ round magnets I ordered that I’m going to try to paint and sell at our local booth. I’ll spend some time watching a few more videos and then go up and start getting my act together to try some new art!

My husband has requested I make chili mac tonight for dinner. I’ll do that – kind of as a ‘last hurrah’ from our ‘hang-the-diet’ eating splurge of the last few weeks. I am talking to myself (I know) – trying to get ready for a new day, new year, ‘new-motivation-for-diet-and-exercise’ frame of mind for tomorrow.

Enjoy your New Year’s Eve celebrations wherever you are. I wish you the very best for 2021.

Rags & Roses – Greenwood AR

Blasing Bright Booth – Rags & Roses, Greenwood Arkansas

This is the booth I share with my friend, Carla, in Greenwood.

I went today to bring some things home, take some new things to display for sale, clean and freshen the booth.

Now it’s all ready for someone to come, like what we have displayed, snap it up and take it home with them. :0)

Kidding Myself

KryptoniteBlonde – Global HD – El Montagista via Tumblr – TellMeNothing

At this point I’m limping along, kidding myself about my efforts to get back to my diet and exercise regimen. Suffice to say, I’m not back yet, but HOPE to be soon. (We are still eating our way through delicious no-no’s. )

I am about to leave to do a bunch of errands. I’m leaving the trash for pickup at the bottom of our driveway, getting our mail, changing out the things I’m trying to sell in the booth at Rags & Roses in Greenwood, then stopping at Real Food on the way home to see if I can get more kielbasa frozen dinners.

We’ll eat a quick lunch and then head back out again for more errands and a couple of appointments.

Our weather is deteriorating, culminating with a cold front and LOTS of rain for tomorrow and Thursday, so getting our mail may be all we do until Friday. Since it’s a holiday, Lunch Bunch is called off for Friday, so we may just stay up here, hopefully safe and dry in our house on top of our ridge line, celebrating the new year by ourselves and getting ready to start 2021.

I am happy that we’re about to see the end of 2020. I have high hopes that 2021 will be a much better year for all of us.

AND a year where there will gradually be less and less of a more fit me! :0)

Exercise Question

Neato Shop

More Luscious Bleeding Tissue Paper Art

eileenscraftyzone.blogspot.com

Activity Village

Sky Art by Lan Nguyen

Thanks to Rokas Laurinavicius and Austeja Akavickaite – BoredPanda.com for showing us the sky art of Lan Nguyen.

Beautiful Rooms 7

Ilona Baliunaite and Rokas Laurinavicius – BoredPanda.com

New Diet

Cartoon Stock

I’m still smiling at this one. :0)

My husband and I are still enjoying our stuff-everything-in-your-face-that-tastes-good mode. We have agreed that we will miss it – and very soon – when we go back to our get-the-lard-off mode.

I have to tell you that the stuff-your-face mode has helped my general ‘downness’ of the past few weeks. The world is such an unhappy place right now, and I can’t see it getting better soon, so a handful of fritos is spirit-lifting – at least for a few minutes.

I will break out my adult pants – if I can still get in them – and deal with what IS soon enough.

In the meantime, would you like a frito?

Beautiful Rooms 6

Ilona Baliunaite and Rokas Laurinavicius – BoredPanda.com

Mouth-Watering Art

Pinterest

Crafts by Amanda

eileenscraftyzone.blogspot.in

Beautiful Rooms 5

Ilona Baliunaite and Rokas Laurinavicius – BoredPanda.com

Bleeding Tissue Paper Art

I came upon an art form new to me a couple of days ago. It has me by the throat now. I was dreaming about it last night and ideas are rattling around in my head. I hope to be able to get up to my art room today to make a first pass.

I was looking at examples of things done by those who know what they’re doing and I’m again in awe of the talent some folks have. Their work makes my mouth water.

I’m going to go up and play, and then I’ll share some of the work that makes me proud to exist on the same planet as these creative people.

I hope you are having a happy Saturday.

After Christmas

Unknown

My husband and I are in the middle of a gigantic splurge that we hope will cure us of the ‘wanting-to-make-up-for-all-the-things-we’ve-been-missing feelings we’ve been harboring for about a year now. We accept that the scale is laughing at us – sometimes holding its nose in derision – but the feelings have been strong.

The dog helped us toward getting temptation out of the house last night. I had fixed fried chicken for the first time in a least two years of abstention. I overcooked it, so we were less than delighted with the meal, although the deviled eggs were wonderful. My husband took his plate to the kitchen giving our 95-pound yellow lab, Amber, the remaining bites of chicken on his plate.

The next thing I knew, I was hearing ‘noises’ from the kitchen area. Amber had not only taken care of the remaining bites of chicken on his plate, but the remaining two PIECES of chicken on a platter on the island, plus TWO packages of cookies we received – his and hers – from the counter. The only thing left was the containers and a mess on the floor. My HUSBAND was in the dog house for leaving Amber in the kitchen, rather than watching her eat the largess from his plate and then bringing her into the living room with the gate to the kitchen closed – a lesson we have learned before.

We are giving ourselves until the end of the month to cure our longings and find our intense motivation again to get the lard off…

Lan Nguyen Sky Art 2

This wonderfully creative “Sky art” is by Lan Nguyen. Thanks to Rokas Laurinavicius and Austeja Akavickaite of BoredPanda.com for sharing it with us.

Sky Art from Lan Nguyen

Lan Nguyen Sky Art – Rokas Laurinavicius and Austeja Akavickaite – BoredPanda.com

Beautiful combination of clouds, silhouettes, and imagination.

Lan Nguyen Sky Art – Rokas Laurinavicius and Austeja Akavickaite – BoredPanda.com

Lan Nguyen Sky Art – Rokas Laurinavicius and Austeja Akavickaite – BoredPanda.com

Beautiful Rooms 4

Iloa Baliunaite and Rokas Laurinavicius – BoredPanda.com

Merry Christmas 2020

UploadStars

Merry Christmas! I hope you’re enjoying a safe and love-filled day.

My Christmas memories are filling me up and spilling out today.

Favorite childhood Christmases include the one where I received the most gorgeous, soft, pink, furry, FEMININE sweater I’ve ever had. Another was when my brother and I received 3-speed bicycles called English racers. One of the most cherished memories is the Christmas caroling that started at our house each year. We gathered neighbors at each house, singing and laughing, freezing our parts off, ending with hot chocolate and cookies at home when we were finished.

My husband’s and my first Christmas together was in 1969. Our very best Christmas present was our son, born in December of 1978. The next was December of 1980 when our daughter was born. Today we are celebrating our 51st Christmas together. It’s just the two of us this year, but we are very grateful to be together. We talked to our son in Thailand on our chat program this morning.

This has been a challenging year for us all. I hope that you are staying safe and well, surrounded by love however you can manage it.

greetings-day.com

Versatile Paper Art 2

Pinterest

Red-Tailed-Hawk-Kwik Kopy

River View Observer

S&S Worldwide

Sena Runa – WooArts

Things Will Be All Right

Depositphotos

Christmas Quotes I Love

AnimatedImages.org

“Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don’t quite know how to put our love into words.” – Harlan Miller

“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.” ~Andy Rooney

“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.” ~Larry Wilde

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Fatness

Zazzle

Cookies, candy, bread. Chocolate, apple fritters, peanut brittle. We’re surrounded, and we’re eating our way out. It’s delicious. I’m telling my husband that all this ends VERY SOON – as we stuff yet another wonderful thing into our mouths. It’s been a year or two since we have eaten some of this stuff. I’m blaming it all on our generous friends who GAVE this to us, but WE’RE the ones who are stuffing our faces.

I’ve decided that, since we’re adults, we are merely getting all this gorging out of the happy way, and that once it is over, we will EAT like adults again. We are talking about the fact that anything ELSE that finds its way into our house and is not a gift is on US – and should not happen. (I’m also reminding myself that “I” am responsible for what goes into MY mouth. So even if my husband continues this holiday splurge, “I” will not.

I will not.

I will NOT.

:0)

New Diet Program

Art With Versatile Paper

DIY Enthusiasts

Paper Crafts – Facebook

Laura Shabazz

MargaretScrinkl

Masayo Fukuda

Beautiful Rooms 3

Ilona Baliunaite and Rokas Laurinavicius – Boredpanda.com

Good Exercise

Askideas.com

Yesterday afternoon my husband and I spent about an hour with a chainsaw, cutting down a huge branch that broke off recently. It was hanging down into the civilized part of our front yard (as opposed to the woods that slope all the way down to the street that runs in front of our property.) The branch would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for my husband to use the riding mower there.

Since the land slopes, I had quite a challenge of trying to get the ladder braced against the back of the tree so that my husband could get up high enough with the chain saw. I breathed a sigh of relief when we got the main part of the branch cut and I could quit worrying about that part of it.

The rest of the time was spent cutting smaller branches off the large one so that I could grab them, pull them away from the main one, and throw them down the hill farther so they would be out of the way.

We don’t like to think about it, but we are considered ‘elderly’ by the people deciding who should get the Covid-19 vaccine, so I guess that means we’re older than dirt, whether we want to accept that or not. I have to admit that after we finished the job and had rested in our chairs awhile, both of us were wincing a bit at sore muscles.

Today my husband would like to use our pole saw to cut down a few branches along the side of our driveway. They are about a third of the way down, which means we’ll need to put two 100-foot extension cords together to get power down that far. Hopefully we can get them cut down and thrown off to the side of the driveway without too much problem.

Please wish these ‘elderly’ people luck…

Stuffing Our Faces

Zazzle

Our psyches and stomachs are happy with our holiday splurge. We have been good for an entire year and will be again, but it feels GOOD to be BAD…

Lists

LIST OF THINGS I’M HANDLING

WELL CURRENTLY:

1.

4GIFS.COM – Awesomely Cute

I have a beef roast in the crock pot, and I need to put the trash at the bottom of the driveway on the way to the post office to mail a book we sold, but that may be in for the day.

I am feeling at loose ends and incredibly lazy. I just wish I looked as cute as this kitty not getting anything done….

Beautiful Rooms 2

Ilona Baliunaite and Rokas Laurinavicius – BoredPanda.com

Good Company

The latest paperback in the In Death series by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) comes out in about a week. I pre-ordered it months ago and am eagerly awaiting it.

I decided late last month to re-read the previous books in preparation for receiving and enjoying the newest one. There are now 51 books in the series. I’m reading # 20 now. I remember the situations, but not the details, so it’s almost as if I’m enjoying them for the first time – except for getting to spend time with the characters who have become old friends again.

I have read for pleasure for as long as I can remember. There was a brief period when I lost that ability. I was finishing my Master’s Degree as a reading specialist. I picked up a best seller and discovered that I had tensed up, reading it as if I would be tested on it when I finished. It took me a year or two to finally get over all the garbage I was forced to read and regurgitate that would supposedly help me be a better teacher. I’m glad I only lost a couple of years. :0)

Just as an aside – I realized that the best thing I could pass on to my students was the joy of reading, whether it was to spend some fun time with interesting stories and characters, to learn new skills, to vicariously travel to wonderful places, the satisfying of curiosity, and more. Reading is contagious. It grabs you body and soul – hopefully to hold you in its arms forever.

Always