Feb10

Two finishes!

Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2008 by Dianne

Since it was such a brisk and good day to stay in, I made two flat holds out of cross stitched projects. I will post Ground Hog Day and my works in progress (Giggles in the Snow and Zebra) throughout this post. Watch for the other hopefully in the next week or so! I will say that I keep Von’s tutorial for making these up on the screen so I could refer to it many times. I can’t wait to try her other items! Please visit her at The Twisted Stitcher to see the awesome basket she just finished off!

I made little messes in almost every room, even Sean’s as his dad needed his bank statement for his taxes. Sean has the exact statement they need up at school with him and his dad needs it now. You have to do your income taxes before you can apply for grants, etc.

Speaking of Brian, he went to visit his dad on this freezing, blustery day. I made some meatballs as I had defrosted the ground turkey over the last few days. I’ll eat some tonight and tomorrow with him! I have some lobster ravioli I’ll toss in the hot tub! (Rachael Ray’s expression)

Last night, I watched Casanova, a movie that Heath Ledger starred in about 3 years ago. I had only seen him in Brokeback Mountain. He was so talented and had so many more roles to fill-so sad.

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For Erika, a little sick girl I read about on a Flickr group who would like some fairy art. My little calendar had fairies on the 5th, so I turned Becky Kelly’s fabulous watercolor into an ATC for Erika.

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A little bit ago, I answered the phone and it was a lady from a breast cancer org. I think they have been calling here for weeks and then hanging up! There is no number displayed on the caller ID. Does anyone else have that issue? I asked how she had gotten our # (unlisted) and she said the computer dials until they get a connection! So I heard BC and I told her about me and how we are paying a fairly large sum out of pocket for my procedure. She asked if I was ok and I said yes. But I did say that I click on the BC link on my blog everyday so women can get free mammograms, my little way of helping out.

Feb9

Photo Hunt-Heavy

Posted on Saturday, February 9, 2008 by Dianne

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Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

Wow that was a difficult hunt! I could show you a building or an elephant and say they are heavy, but I didn’t have an elephant photo. Instead, I present to you Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Mass (the links photo looks just like mine). I figured not a lot of people have seen it. It’s a big rock, much bigger than how it looks here, so I figure it’s heavy also. When my husband and I saw it back in 1984, it was on the beach and under a marble shelter. It’s probably the marker for the exact spot where the Pilgrims landed.

I am also reminded of the song (since I just saw it in a journal I wrote back in 1979) that ‘he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother’. I have 3 brothers.

Feb8

The Bucket List

Posted on Friday, February 8, 2008 by Dianne

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Since two of my pals Pea and Zoey did this, I thought I’d play along. Anyone else who wants to do theirs, go ahead!

There are no rules except to give your list of five things you want to do before you die, based on the movie “The Bucket List“.

I’d like to see my only child happy in his life with a good job, wife and children, preferably 3 granddaughters, but I’ll take what I get. : )
See more of the USA, especially the west coast where my paternal family lives in Oregon. Funny, but I feel a need to see it!
Have a genuine crafting area where I can craft to my heart’s content! Maybe design a big selling item.
Volunteer more as an older adult. I use to do this at Sean’s elementary school and church, but fell out of it.
Meet my online friends, though I’ve met 3, but there are so many more I’d like to meet. ; )

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Our internet has been acting flukey, and I had to call Comcast for a ping or whatever they call it. I was in the middle of writing the above meme and off it went. The tech said it sounded like a local problem, not our system.

Woke up about 5 am with a terrible sore left thumb/wrist area. I used Icy Hot (that stuff is worth it’s weight in gold) and it helped. I did wrap it up a little while ago. I couldn’t find the wrist bandage, but one for every other joint! I think I lifted something heavy in a funny way as my scar was hurting too. I bet it was my purse!

Whoopi Goldberg wants to lose weight. Even though she weighs less than me, we have almost the same measurements, though my chest is 2 inches bigger, but hey girl, I believe in support garments! The guy that is helping her believes in resistant training over aerobics and of course he was showing those band things you put around your foot and pull with your hand, something I can’t do right now! I plan to go for a little walk soon.

Feb7

New Specs

Posted on Thursday, February 7, 2008 by Dianne

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I got my new glasses today and I really like them! They are more of a rectangular shape, a brownish pink and have some neat swirlies on each corner. I didn’t have Brian take a photo of me yet as I wasn’t ready to pose-ha!

Television was actually good tonight for a change. Survivor is back with a twist-Fans vs. Favorites. I guess I can say that I wasn’t surprised that the less than favorite John Dalton aka Johnny Fairplay almost begged to be voted off first. What a piece of work he is! I think he just wanted a little screen time so people would remember him and give him a job. Then the second week of Lost aired-gee, I’m really confused now. They keep hopping back and forth or forth and back. One week doing fast forwards and the next week doing flashbacks. I go on tribe.net to the Lost group and see what everyone there thinks.

Then there is a new program called Eli Stone that follows Lost, so it has a good lead in audience. So far I am enjoying it and it’s star Jonny Lee Miller. For the life of me I knew I had heard that name before and here he is the ex of Angelina Jolie! And he is British and hiding his accent too. He has the biggest blue marble eyes. : )

Stitchingwise, I picked up a UFO ‘Giggles in the Snow’ to take a few days break from the zebra that still isn’t matching up quite right. I’m about to leave it be as it really looks fine and the little boy isn’t going to know that I was a stitch off or whatever. It took me a few minutes to acclimate to where I was with the little snow angel boy, but I got it. I’d like to finish that one up and soon.

I’m trying some multivitamins and calcium, so crossing fingers with those. I may take them alternating days, so my tummy won’t complain. I remember when I was pregnant, I took my prenatal vitamins every other day. This is all thanks to Dr. Oz on Oprah.

Feb6

Can it be?

Posted on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 by Dianne

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There is a hint of spring in the air on this, the 6th day of February! It’s 66 degrees right now. That’s the only nice thing about the day so far as it’s been gloomy.

I finally packed up Sean’s Valentine Day goodies-had to use the box my tea kettle came in! Funny thing, everything fit in perfectly! While I was getting the box, I did a little power cleaning for an hour in the basement-ugh. I was also looking through my old papers in hopes that the autographed John Travolta photo would pop out! It didn’t. Darn. I did find some journals I wrote and will check them out to see if I’ve changed that much in 30 years! ~LOL~ And don’t worry, I had a dust mask on, but my eyes were suffering. Brian has a nice pile to add to the trash this week including my old biology papers! I can’t seem to part with the Early Childhood Education papers yet.

We are suppose to get some bad weather that effected the southern states overnight (tornadoes down there). Since it’s Ash Wednesday, I requested pizza. We decided to try to give up McDonalds and similar places for Lent, but figure Subway is ok. Bri mentioned pizza, and I said it was too much of a staple during this meatless Friday time. I don’t agree with that, but go along with it. My thing during Lent and throughout the year is doing things for those who are less fortunate.

Still working on the zebra cross stitch (which is a charity item) but had to rip out his butt section as I was making him too short! His body is white, off white, dark brown and medium brown and it’s easy to mess it up. His head wasn’t that bad to do. And to think I have his little brother next to him to stitch too!

It looks like we’re going to get rain sometime this evening.

Feb5

Tuesday already?

Posted on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 by Dianne

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So I completely skipped yesterday-not really! Had to get a truck load of groceries and was so not in the mood to do so. I want to get a goodie box to my sweetie son for Valentine’s Day ready to go and found that Brian tossed all the bigger boxes! Shoeboxes are fine, but I don’t need that many of them and they are usually heavier and too small to mail.

Speaking of which-does anyone want any Altoids tins? I have about 20 maybe and if you love to use them in your crafts, let me know. I swear by Altoids for a stuffy head and use a tin a week.
I’m going to the eye doctor at 2:30-please send me some good vibes. My mom thinks I’ll be fine. I sure as heck hope so. I’m after Brian to go for his bloodwork and then I have to go get my paperwork for mine. 1.5 years is too long to wait. I started taking Vitamin E a few times a week and I think I feel a bit more energetic. Hope that’s it or the disco dancing (kidding again-but when Brick House comes on the radio-watch out!)

Big election day in the country. I don’t usually discuss politics or religion here, but the election in November will be history making for the Democrats.

Something funny (thanks Joy):

Update-
I went to my regular eye doctor and he thinks I also have ocular hypertension when the eye pressure is up for no apparent reason. The nurse said that I should watch using Flonase that contains steroids as maybe I fall into that group that is sensitive to it and it sometimes causes eye pressure to go up. In two months I have to get the pressure rechecked (21 and 24 today, should be 22 and under) and get the thickness of my cornea measured to see if they are getting a false readings. He doesn’t think I have glaucoma because my optic nerve and peripheral (side vision) are fine. If I continued to have abnormal high or it gets worse, I will probably eventually have to use drops. That’s aging for you.

For Fat Tuesday-I have some NY strip steaks defrosting! : )

Feb4

Easter giveaway

Posted on Monday, February 4, 2008 by Dianne

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Nancy Malay of Notes and Notes from Nancy is giving away a gorgeous Easter basket of her own designs! Be sure to click on her name to go enter yourself. If you mention this on your blog also, you have 3 chances to win! Good luck!

Thanks for the heads up for this C!

Feb3

Craftiness abounds

Posted on Sunday, February 3, 2008 by Dianne

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Most of what I am showing below were made from recycling or from a sheet of $1 stickers, etc. I got 40 paper heart doilies in one package!

For my niece-a butterfly angel with a vintage little girl

This is suppose to be a cake! I made it out of a tea bag cylinder-there is a lid under the frill!

This is for my mom. It has a plastic heart ‘cover’, meant to be like a ‘snow globe’ with loose hearts inside. That is my favorite rubber stamp.

Some of this ATC is made from an old magazine of my mom’s (Oriental rug and Cherubs)

I got a Valentine’s Day card making kit at Big Lots and promptly added my own things. I made 3 for the Make A Child Smile kids

Found this kicking around my mom’s -it’s a key chain box about 3″ long. The bottom slides open to put some change or something small in it. I added some Wizard of Oz images from junk mail, some ribbons and charms. It’s for my niece.

And finally, an ATC on a quilted hot pad Zoey over at Perennial Passion gave me for Christmas!

Feb3

Ground hog day times 2

Posted on Sunday, February 3, 2008 by Dianne

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I’m about to go to bed, but I wanted to stop by and say yes, I did almost finish the cross stitched Ground hog Day freebie-he just needs some beads around his head and I also watched ‘Groundhog Day‘ on VHS-wow, seems so different watching it that way (and it’s taking forever to rewind-urgh).

I haven’t watched it for ages-it’s different, weird and funny! Definitely one of Bill Murray’s best. I remember the bed and breakfast where Phil Conners (Bill in the movie and Brian had a teacher by that name who came to my high school-ha!) was really in the Chicago area. Brian asked if Bill was about 70, he’s only 57-ha!

One of my favorite scenes and quotes:

Rita: [Phil has described several people in the diner] What about me, Phil? Do you know me too?
Phil: I know all about you. You like producing, but you hope for more than Channel 9 Pittsburgh.
Rita: Well, everyone knows that!
Phil: You like boats, but not the ocean. You go to a lake in the summer with your family up in the mountains. There’s a long wooden dock and a boathouse with boards missing from the roof, and a place you used to crawl underneath to be alone. You’re a sucker for French poetry and rhinestones. You’re very generous. You’re kind to strangers and children, and when you stand in the snow you look like an angel.
Rita: [in wonder] How are you doing this?
Phil: I told you. I wake up every day, right here, right in Punxsutawney, and it’s always February 2nd, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I’m thrilled with all the comments I’m getting for the giveaway. I love new visitors and hope my friends will comment too.

Feb2

Photo Hunt-Narrow

Posted on Saturday, February 2, 2008 by Dianne

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Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

Here my boy Cosmo is making a narrow escape from under the narrow underneath of the sofa! This shot is over a year old and we haven’t seen him go under there lately (to lay near the heat duct and hide) as he may be too chunky now. There’s a heat duct that is more accessible in the remodeled kitchen and has a catnip mat in front of it. He’s not dumb!

This photo is of the narrow canal in New Hope, PA was taken with *gasp* a film camera. I love this area and haven’t been up there for a couple of years. If you look closely, you can see ducks in the water. I noticed the date on the picture-my 40th birthday!