Category: Life

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Christmas Carols Already

This morning I got into my truck and clicked on my favorite radio station, fully expecting my country music to surround me, since it was a country music kinda day, right? *deep sigh* Not to happen. Out of my speakers came not only Christmas music, but the one song I can not stand!!! Something about a kids mom making out with Santa. Okay…push buttons to find something not Christmas, since it’s not even that close to Thanksgiving and a few days ago, I was still taking off Halloween make up that sort of stained my neck. The only station I could find was the one my guys listen to and play with their band. Since I can’t understand the vocals of Death Metal, for all I know, the songs could have been Christmas themed also.

I really dislike retailers and such pushing Christmas on me if I just got over Halloween, and have yet to start my lists for Thanksgiving dinner. It is one of my peeves, I don’t like to be rushed to do anything.

I got out of the truck, went into the house and grabbed a CD off the music shelf. Can’t win for loosing, since I had grabbed Christmas with Harry Belafonte.

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Getting ready for goblins

With tomorrow being Trick or Treating in our town and I’ve been decorating the front yard and porch, hoping the weather is good and the predicted rain or even snow holds off for the kids that come trick or treating. I’m going into town to buy candy and get some odds and ends that I need. I love Halloween. I won’t be dressing this year though. First time in I don’t know how long. I have a pinched nerve in my neck and to be honest, since I’ve lost quite a bit of weight and am down to about 109 lbs, my costumes would all need taken in a size. I don’t have the time to do this. The kids are all ready though and will look great!

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Kitchen Renovations

I can remember many years ago, hiring a custom cabinet maker to renovate my kitchen in a house that I used to live in. I had spent a lot of time looking through magazines and planning out exactly what I wanted. I spent several hours consulting with him, showing him the magazines, and going through his hardware catalogs, picking out exactly what I wanted. That was back in the early 1980’s, before I had a computer with Internet access. That was a lot of work back then.

From time to time, I day-dream about using some ideas that I found from here and renovating my existing kitchen. I love so many of the new ideas for cabinet storage! If only I was independently wealthy!

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Anticipation is the Worst

As much as I hate going the dentist, I am OK with it after I get there. My new dentist is very good and a nice guy. He does not hurt me at all and is very considerate of my comfort level. But I still get freaked out when I know I have to go, and I know I have to go on Monday morning. So I have all weekend to worry.

I think just knowing that I have an appointment on a certain day just adds to my stress. I sure wish we could just walk in and have a chance to get treatment instead of having to make appointments. But I know that will never happen unless I end up marrying a dentist.

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Personalized jewelry

One of my favorite types of jewelry is the necklace. I love the new, trendy look of layering necklaces because it allows me to wear several of my favorite necklaces at the same time! I have a very large peg-style rack (think old-fashioned, accordian-style hat/coat rack) hanging on the wall behind the door in my bedroom that is overflowing with necklaces. At the time that I put the rack there I thought it would help me keep them from getting all tangled-up, but to be honest, they still get easily tangled. I find that frustrating.

But, I digress. I was writing about how much I love the necklace. I especially love the personalized necklaces that I have been given as gifts over the years. I enjoy them so much that I have made a point of buying some for my nieces over the years, and they always tell me how much they love them, too. I especially like the ones that include a gemstone that represents the birthday month of the person that I am giving the necklace to.

I used to buy sterling silver necklaces because they are so pretty when they are new and clean. I have found that they tarnish quickly, however, even though the so-called experts say that if you wear the silver frequently they won’t tarnish. I find that my sterling silver still tarnishes, and then the tarnish rubs off onto my skin or clothing. I have stopped buying and wearing sterling silver now, and buy white gold instead because that won’t tarnish.

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Cool rain catchers

During the summer I went to visit a friend of mine. On her porch she had what she called rain chains. I had never seen them before, and she explained that they caught the rain and watered the plant below, that was in a pot with the chains attached to it. She had a lots of really cool ones all around her house. I knew right away that I wanted to get some for my gardens, yard, porch and gazebo next summer. I asked where she had gotten them and she told me she went online for them.

I of course got online and found the garden rain chains that I totally love and want for my gardens next year. So then that led me to start doing more garden planning for spring. I’ve listed all the seeds and plants I want and how I want to redo some of my gardens just for these chains. They will make really nice additions to my front gardens as well. I have a lot of little fairies and what I call peeky people situated in places that one would least expect them, but can be seen if a person looks closely.

While browsing, I found a gutter rain chain and thought that would be a great idea for dispersing more rain water than what my boarder flowers would normally get because of the overhang on the porch.

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Playing with bunnies

This morning I let my dog outside and it was really foggy out. I thought for sure that he would stay in the side yard, where he usually stays. He generally “does his thing” and then plays with the cats for awhile, and scratches at the door to be let back in. This morning he was staying out longer than usual. The fog was lifting as the sun was coming out, and even calling his name didn’t make him come back. I didn’t panic.. yet. I went to the back patio doors to see if he had gone out into the big back yard we have. Wouldn’t you know, I didn’t have batteries in my camera. There was my dog, playing with (from what I could count) at least seven rabbits. It seemed like they were doing their own special game of hide and seek and tag. One or two rabbits would take turns chasing the dog, then he would chase them. No fear in the bunnies what so ever. It makes me now wonder just how long this game between he and the rabbits has been going on. It would have made for a wonderful video. I just put batteries on my shopping list.

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Bakers Twine

Have you ever heard of Baker’s Twine? Me neither. I have, for years, always kept some special twine in the kitchen that I used to tie the legs of poultry when I was roasting it. This twine is on a large cone, and I have had that twine so long that I don’t remember where (or exactly when) I bought it, and the label is long gone. But I do remember that when I got it that I had to go to a specialty place because I wanted to make sure that it was food-safe twine. I had read a recipe that called for using food-safe twine to tie the legs of poultry together, and that piqued my interest in finding it.

Before I purchased that particular twine, I never used any kind of twine when I was cooking, because I didn’t trust it to be food safe. This kitchen twine that I have now, I use it for everything that I need twine for – including bundling cardboard and newspapers together for recycling.

Last weekend I went to a birthday party, and saw that some of the gifts were tied with a very pretty, decorative twine. In the past I’ve seen gifts wrapped with yarn, but not this pretty twine before. I asked the people that had wrapped the gift “where did you find that pretty twine?” and they told me that they had found it online, and that it was called Bakers Twine. It didn’t take long for me to find a few websites that sell it! There are a lot of really pretty color combinations! I don’t know how I am going to choose which colors to buy!

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Staying in Apartments While Travelling

My family originated in London, and I have always dreamed of visiting my relatives that still live there. For decades I have corresponded with some of them, even though I never met them face to face. Originally the correspondence started with U. S. Mail, and then eventually it went to email. Now some of them are even Facebook friends!

Apparently many of them live in the London area, and have offered to let me stay with them for a few days if I ever do go over to London. I think that is a very nice offer, but I think that I would rather stay in one of the many London Apartments that are available to rent on a short-term basis.

I don’t mean to sound snobbish, but I do remember when a few years ago I went to visit my son that was going to college in New Jersey, and I stayed with some relatives that I had never met before. I was on a very limited budget, and it was very nice of them to take me in. The problem was that they guest room was full of sketches that their very artistic daughter had done, and I found the sketches quite disturbing. And the relatives themselves insisted on feeding me supper both nights that I was there – and their food was awful! On top of that, they were drunk the entire time I was there!

When I recall that experience, staying in a neutral place when I travel, like the furnished London Apartments that are available, sounds better and better every time!

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Business sign

My sister is starting up a small sandwich and salad shop and she wanted me to help her have the perfect business sign made up. She actually is the artist in the family, but she really doesn’t use her talents anymore, unless it’s doodling on a piece of scrap paper while she’s keeping our rummy scores. I hate it when a gift goes to waste, but she says that she got tired of drawing and just doesn’t feel like doing it anymore. I’ve known a lot of artists that sort of “tap dry” and who won’t draw or sculpt anymore. I guess it is sort of like a writers block.

While looking at various signs, my sister decided also to look at their brass plaques. There were quite a wide selection and she had a hard time with making a decision. At lunch I could tell she had put her thinking cap on because she was really quiet.

When I asked her why she wanted that kind of a plaque, she said that it was going to be a sort of commemorative plaque for the date we found out our mom and her husband were finally cancer free. The whole family is going to pitch in for this plaque. It makes me really happy that she would think of something like that. commemorative