Starting to look for a car

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Tomorrow the Purple Heart will tow my van away. I cleaned it out today and didn’t mice get in it and leave a gift! It’s right in the driveway too. Brian took off the license plate. I got on auto*trader’s.com and a place up in Lancaster has a few vehicles that I am interested in. One requirement-I have to sit up a bit higher than a sedan, because I’m only 5′ 2 1/2″ tall. I am looking at Ford* Escapes or Explorers and Kia* Sportages. This place has a Sportage for dirt cheap, but it has over 100k miles on it. We buy used, never had a new car. My brother the mechanic says you shouldn’t look at the mileage as much as the upkeep, etc of the car. I just do not like rust or holes. We’ll see. I feel a bit blue as the van is the vehicle Sean learned to drive in. I remember letting him drive around a parking lot ‘for the first time’ about 6 or 7 yrs ago. He was more than ready to drive, but still has issues with parallel parking.
We need to gather some funds together first anyway. I saved up a wee bit so far.

Some of my Christmas decor is in a big pile in the living room-mostly pillows and stuffed animals. They all go in those big Hefty bags. The tree will gradually get unloaded. I took the wreath off the door (need to replace it). Once I start taking stuff down, I want to get it over with.

Seriously…I’m in shock!

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I got the newest issue of ‘Peeps’ (let’s call it that) Magazine as it featured ‘people’ who have lost a ton of weight. Now most of the ones they showed were in their 20s-30s and me being in my early 50s, I wanted to see if anyone this age could loss weight because of having hormonal issues, etc. Then I ran across the article on Drew ‘Price is Right’ Carrey! Holy cow-he looks like a different person:

Amazing-he went for about 246 to 180. Losing his older brother was a wake up call for him. Though he’s a guy, I wanted to share.
I did my first set of ‘floor exercises’ in a week or so as I haven’t been well because of my sinus condition. I went to the pharmacy to get my hbp medicine and wanted to see what I could take as regular Suda*fed isn’t good-the kind with PE in it is ok. I came home and took some and feel so much better. I do want to lose 20 pounds to start. We love our carbs like pasta and bread, but I guess I’ll have to change to whole wheat pasta, etc. I am urging Brian to do some kind of exercise as he is getting a tummy again and snacking endlessly.
Will do some walking as weather permits, but I really want to not take hbp medicine though the pharmacist said it’s so common now you wouldn’t believe it.

2010 in review

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The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 3 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 329 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 2935 posts. There were 33 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 14mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was January 25th with 424 views. The most popular post that day was One World, One Heart .

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com, muffintop.wordpress.com, rpc.blogrolling.com, perennialpassion.blogspot.com, and facebook.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for canon eos, retro christmas, dianne rambling on, canon, and recommend.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

One World, One Heart January 2010
314 comments

2

Sunday’s I Recommend-vol. #3 November 2008
3 comments

3

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins October 2009
4 comments

4

Just a few retro Christmas shots December 2007
1 comment

2010 Cross stitch ornaments

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Here are my cross stitch ornaments for this year. I didn’t take a photo of the back and they are both backed with pretty fabric. My only regret was not making the fabric on the front tighter. The dog is a little bumpy on the front.
Terrier dog Cross stitched Christmas ornament
And some new collages!
Celebrate! 4" x 4 " Collage Card
Very appropriate! So cute.
Love Winter 4" x 4" Collage Card
And a little winter scene with a new Martha S. sticker
8 seconds until 2011in Time's Square
Here’s the Crystal Ball in Times Square. It seemed really far away this year and did we really need a clock?

Golden Hours

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I’m really liking this collage I made a few days ago (made 4 others, not all finished yet). I took some of the homemade paper I had and ripped it up and glued it down for my background. The window and bird seemed to be the perfect addition with the ‘fortune cookie’ saying. My mom had gotten that one in her cookie and she wasn’t thrilled, but she is a real life ‘golden girl’.
Then I made this:
Paris in the Spring 4" x 4" Collage Card
I am trying to use things that people have sent as ‘goodies’ to me in swaps. That’s where the flowers in the background came from. I then thought of ‘Paris in Spring’ and I am guessing it’s really beautiful there.
I made another, but it will be sent to someone soon and I will share it when she gets it in the mail.
I made two Christmas ornaments, one for me and one for mom. I had started hers about 5 years ago! I am sorry I didn’t pull the front taunt with ‘the thread method’, but they look fine. I have them under some weights now and will share later.

Some more collages

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I’ve been a bit behind and have been working on the collage cards diligently even though I have some sinus thing going on.
Here is the little bird in a cage from a CD or book I have and the expression ‘Blessed are the joy makers’.
Also:
Follow your dreams 4" x 4" Collage Card
I mostly went this the butterflies and added a verse. They don’t all have to be fancy. ; )

Sir Paul the honoree is teary-eyed

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Last night the show ‘The Kennedy Center Honors’ was on and Sir Paul McCartney was one of the honorees. It was neat to see James Taylor briefly sing in honor of Sir Paul as I had seen both of them this year in concert. James was the first singer signed to The Beatles’ Apple record label. I’m lucky to have a copy of this.