Thought Of The Day

Hope you are enjoying your day.  If you are not, remember to believe in God first and the person he created you to be....have faith and BE BRAVE!

Print available here

A Hot Minute

Sooooooo, it's been a hot minute since I last blogged.  Truth be told, I needed a break.  Time out.  

To Pause

 Rewind.........

and here I am again.

Refreshed

Invigorated and ready to go!

Again.

To be perfectly honest, it was good for me to step away from everything for a while.  If you need time out.

Take it.  


Life for me in the last year has been a world wind.

Ups

downs

turn-a-rounds

relocation

separation

divorce

and all that goes with it.

Important, life changing stuff.  And so with that being said, I move on.  Happy in the knowledge that I emerged like a butterfly from a cocoon.  Beautifully and wonderfully molded from the intensity of the struggle.

Wiser

Stronger

Determined

But most of all,

Winning!

From Lamb To Lion

This is a true story as recounted to me by my mom.  It really demonstrates that true courage is present in all creatures........even a lamb.

Last week on a whim, my mom purchased a lamb.  Not rack of lamb, but a real live, cute cuddly woolly lamb.  My mom named her Julia.  Reason for buying Julia?  Well.  Let's just say that Julia may  have been destined for babacue sauce at some point.  More on this later....

Anyway, Julia somehow escaped her enclosure and was reaping havoc on a near by vegetable garden.  The little lamb was out of control. 

And having a ball.  

Well, my mom eventually got a few men to corral the lamb so she could return her to her enclosure but alas, miss Julia wasn't having it.   She sidestepped the men and off she went.  Well after this happened repeatedly, the big gun was called to the site.  Enter Grover.  My aunt's Verna's mammoth size dog. 

With the command "sic em Grover", he was off. He charged full speed at Julia but Julia had a surprise for him.  She held her ground and then suddenly charged full speed at him!  Grover promptly did an 180, tucked his tail and ran as if his life depended on it with Julia hot on his heels.  It didn't help that he was howling as he ran.  Poor grover.  He jumped straight unto my aunts lap.  Only then did Julia stop chasing him.  

Needless to say, Grover has permanently ruined his macho reputation and Julia....well she will not be on anyones plate any time soon.  Lol, this lamb is a soldier.  I made a deal with mom deal to buy her freedom.  Long live Julia!

Cherio

Peony Power (Guest Post By Shanda Neighbors)

I have developed a full blown love affair with flowers. Now, it's not to the point where I'm talking to them yet...Well actually, I did speak to one today so cancel that. I said something to the effect of "you have to get better." Hey don't judge. Besides, you'd do the same thing if you were in my shoes. One of my all time favorite flowers (and only for the sake of this post will I admit I have one) is the peony. For those of you who don't know what they look look like, see below:
Oh, and yes these happen to smell as beautiful as they look. They come in a variety of colors, coral and purple being the most stunning (my opinion). They are reasonably priced, but when you have a project the size of mine, and a limited budget, they are not reasonably priced enough, which brings me back to my story. I was out in the yard today (where else would I be on such a beautiful day) surveying my latest project (I'm landscaping a slope in the front yard). I've planted a row of rose bushes, and thought that something with lush, green leaves would add contrast, and look nice there. That's when I remembered the lone peony I inherited from the previous owner of this property. Unfortunately, it was planted in a shaded location. Peonies are not a shade plant. I also learned that they are finicky about being moved. In attempt to save this plant I actually debated cutting down the tree that was causing the shade. My husband wouldn't go for it. After a year of stalling, and with the plant near death, I was forced to make a decision. Today, and far to late in spring to transplant the poor thing, I gathered the courage, dug it up, and gave it a sunny, new location. I'm not sure if it's gonna make it, but hopeful. I'd love for this story to have a happy ending. I don't even know the color of the flower on this particular peony bush. Only time will tell. I'm hoping it turns out looking like this:

But for now it looks like this:

Pathetic. I know. I've heard that talking to plants help. I'm not saying that I willing to have a full blown conversation, but given the looks of this one,  and despite the "looks" I'll be getting when I do, I'm at least willing to say hi. I'm thinking we'll be be on speaking terms for a while...

Are You Ready For This!

About a month ago I on a whim entered a major gallery showing.  It was competition based so my sketches/ideas had to beat out numerous competitors to qualify. I sent the sketches and forgot about....that is until I got an email saying I had made the cut!  O. M. G!!!!  

And so, just like that I had a life changing opportunity in my hands.  I was so happy to finally have a major platform to express my heart through something that I love so much.  Art.   But then, I starting looking at the formidable competitors and envisioning what they might be bringing to the table and the more I did that, the more nervous and apprehensive I got.  My ideas were not coming together properly and the ones I did like soon became "not good enough".  I was second guessing myself and it was getting me nowhere.

The back and forth and vacillation between excited and overwhelmed continued until my son put an end to it.  He looked me dead in the eye and informed me "you gat this mom!".......gave me a big hug and and walked off.  Well, turns out that was all I needed.  After that I had fire in my eyes.   No matter what happened I was going to create something amazing. Something I can be proud of. 

 The first piece I made took a whole day to make but it was a little off so I scrapped it and started over from scratch.  I did not let it get me down, I just knew I could do better....... and I will.  At the moment I am working on two of the three pieces required for the show and everything is coming together quite nicely.  I am started to get excited now because I can envision/see the final product......the finish line.  I will probably have a Steve Urkel moment at the end, like "Did I do that???!" but in a really good way.  I am going to make sure of that.  

Well, back to work I go but I will be posting the pictures here when everything is finished.  Have a beautiful weekend everyone.

Cherio!