Maybe I will. Maybe I won't.

Blog that is. If you notice it has been quite a while since I last posted and to be honest with you the last few - or more - were put up just because I felt I needed to do it. Not because I particularly wanted to. I do enjoy the idea of blogging, but reality be told I just can't get around to it. I'm just not in a phase of my life where I can. I thought I was entering one when I started this blog; I had life more in hand than I do now. So I will just keep treading water and hopefully keep my head above the flood line. And when the phase comes that I have things I'm able to accomplish that I'm excited about sharing - if it does - I will. Until then I'm content to use my internet time relaxing and reading what great things others are doing. If you've peeked in because I left you a comment, I want you to know that I appreciate the visit, it's still a nice and novel way of connecting with people. But the only reason you had a link to follow was blogger put it there, I don't even bother putting my url into comment forms anymore. It just seemed like pressure to accomplish something on here and I definitely needed to take all extraneous pressure off.

 I have ideas for the way I'd like to do things if I ever return and I hope to "see" you then.
Thank you!

No pet

Sadly none of the kitties came home with us. Both of the striped cats have disappeared and the fuzzy cutie face cream one is apparently the dominant male of the litter and sprays all over the place and isn't very friendly. Hubs had no good answer for why he would tease me with such a photo.

New Pet?

I've long considered myself to be "not a pet person." I like animals, I've owned a few pets, but in general they require more time and energy than I'm willing to invest. And cleaning. Oh lord am I done with bodily waste or what!? I was willing to consider a bunny that could live outdoors in a large pen we have available with a few modifications - it's 6'x12' or so - because it's poo could be used for fertilizer and I could potentially wrangle people who would want free organic, natural, fertilizer into cleaning the cage. But finding one who is hardy enough to live outside is apparently not so easy. I will not deal with dogs, for several reasons, again I like them, but they're just too much. And cats, we've done. Indoor cats and baby bedding do not mesh - baby blankets should never be subjected to territorial marking, not to mention the fur.

But here I am, no place for a decent aquarium, no tolerance for rodents etc. so we're back at cat. Outdoor cat to be precise. The thing is, I have to make a decision. I've seen the mama cat and she's lovely black and gray stripe

(this is one of the 2 that look like her)

so I thought I'd want one of the ones that look like that, but then Joe sent me the photos. Now I can't make up my mind! What do you think?

Naming Lovies

I can only think of 3 lovies that I named when I was a small child. 1 was an elephant named Dumbo, another was a softie cabbage patch kid that I christened with my mother's name and the very first lovie I named was a frog, surely as big as I was at the time, who I graced with a baby babble name that stuck.

My pets didn't fare much better. My parents had an Akita when I was a toddler named Mandy so when I received my own dog* I named her... Mandy. To make matters worse, I think she was already the 3rd Mandy dog in our family with the first, another Akita, being struck by a car when she escaped the fence. Our kitten kept the name her mother's owner gave her, if I ever referred to our bunnies by a name it was Blackie and Whitie because they were, you guessed it, respectively black and white (although I think my sister may have called them something else). I had a very mean red roan horse inexplicably named Misty, but I didn't name her. About as creative as I got was naming a beta fish Leggs because its long trailing fins reminded me of legs.

I was a little nervous about the prospect of naming my children, but that at least worked out well. Then came the time for my kids to name their lovies - or for me to name the lovie for them. We now have a Giraffie, Doggy and Moosey Man thanks to me. My kids have named the additions of Spots (the leopard), Teddy (the bear) Greeny-Bluey (the blue snake with green stripes), Dinosaur, Dragon, Dragon, and 2 headed Dragon (I don't need to explain the last 4 do I?) along with a few other obviously named and unnamed stuffed animals to our clan. The only redeemer in our group is AK who has added BoBo, Ed (no, we don't know anyone named "Ed") and Mom (OK say it with me, "awww"), but even he has bestowed his share of unimaginative monikers. Surely we are not the only family with lovie/pet names such as these. If yours has something out of the ordinary - where did it come from?

*Please consider rescuing an animal as a pet. If you have your heart set on a particular breed you may still be able to find a rescue, even at a pound. My Mandy was rescued from a family who bred show dogs for their own family. She had a bent ear and was going to be euthanized for it, giving her to my dad actually saved them money.

In lieu of an introspective and possibly depressing post

Today was our first day of school. Our first first day of school. I know, right. It's still summer, yet my niece went back last Monday! Of course her county is on a different calendar system where they get a week of break every 6 or 7 weeks plus holidays that don't fall into that pattern. ANYWAY

In preparation for school I did a couple of little projects for AT. Scrapbook paper A's on her 2 journal notebooks, a little puff paint embellishment on her princess backpack from Target so it's easier to pick out if other kids have the same one, a hair bow (which didn't make it home) to match her outfit and I customized her shoes. I will only focus on the shoes. Firstly, I was amazed by her decision to have robins on them. She loves birds, but when she said "bird" I thought she'd go for a cartoony or fantasy colored one a la the birds that often show up in princess movies. But no, she wanted robins that look like robins. Secondly, I drew and painted the robins - it was my first time trying my hand at birds. I make a few sketches but the first time I ever painted one was on her shoe. Lastly, and perhaps most significantly to my own little world, I like the way they turned out and didn't feel an urge to toss them in the trash or paint over the whole thing and start again.

I used regular craft acrylic paint with a textile medium added. It makes the dried paint less rigid and should help avoid cracks, at least major ones, in the fold points of the shoes. AT picked the theme and colors of the panels. She also picked having a big "A" on the back - in red. I decided that only a few people would associate that with its literary reference so I decided to not argue even though I don't like it even for aesthetics.

While the blogger is away

stuff gets done.
In the last few days:
I finish sanded lots of sheet rock patches, cleaned up LOTS of dust and primed all the spots and the rest of the kitchen and stairwell going down to the basement. I don't particularly like the tan from the living and dining rooms in there, but I like it better than white primer and I like it WAY better than the blue it was. You know since I have had 2 tone orange cabinetry for the last few years. Light orange, dark orange and BLUE? No thanks. This is the only picture available that shows it. And my messy countertops.

And now we're also preparing to rearrange the house and get some organizational furniture from Ikea. Which also means we're finally taking the TV out of the living room. Which I thought I'd be fine with, more than fine with, but now that it's here I feel slightly apprehensive. Silly right?

Hub's has gotten some good news on the career front. No full-time job, but an interesting request from a college, being featured for his work on an industry website (his work has been in magazines and on TV before but that was client work and not purely his own), a 4-6 month contract, and commissioned art for a national ad campaign.

Also, I had nothing to do with it, but my brother proposed to his girlfriend, making her officially my FSIL. They're hoping to get married in October - of this year! Since she doesn't have nieces or young cousins I may be back in "flower girl dress" sewing mode very soon. I'm going to ask him tomorrow when we get together for dinner and talk about our plan to build beds for my kids (YAY!)

So, that's not all but it's good enough for now. I've got to perform emergency surgery on a frog's red thread nostril and then get back to painting. If you don't have to, don't ever paint your own ceilings. This is my 7th one and I loathe it, especially since it's so high up over the stairs.

The Passing of a Friend

This morning our caller ID displayed a name I didn't recognize so I didn't answer it. But it turned out to be a female friend from far in my husband's past. I don't know that Hubs had talked to this woman since he moved to Atlanta nearly 15 years ago. He was about to simply call her back when he noticed there was a message. It turned out to be another friend calling from this woman's house to let him know that a mutual friend had passed away. It was more than just their mutual friend though, this man was Hub's best friend, Butch (his nickname).






I wasn't there so I can't really say when he became cemented in my husband's life as his best friend but I believe they've known each other for 25 years or so. Not living in the same state, I didn't get to know Butch very well, but it was never like being around a stranger. He was the best man at our wedding and fit right in with my family at the rehearsal dinner. A little bit loud, a little bit silly and full of laughter. He and Hubs could talk on the phone for hours - way longer than I ever spend on the phone. They had spoken last week making the beginnings of a plan for Butch to come visit us again. He'd been here a few times in the past couple of years, most notably a stay in the fall of 2008. What was supposed to be a 3 day stay, while a specialized mechanic fixed his motorcycle, turned into 10 days I think, maybe longer. And the reason I can't remember is that having him here was natural in a way. He fit in with us. An early riser, one morning he went out before we were awake and bought construction paper, markers, crayons and glue (I chuckled at him at the time because I found it so funny that he didn't realize I'd have all those things. And then he chuckled at himself.) Then after breakfast he sat at the dining room table drawing, coloring, cutting and pasting. He and the girls made paper dolls of each of us, a boat, a shoebox car, Christmas decorations and other masterpieces. I think they stayed there until lunch time. That's when he became Uncle Butch.

I'm not a natural picture taker so all I could find were the prints from our wedding which I have scanned, but they seem to capture the twinkle in his eye when he smiles.
Goodbye, Uncle Butch, you are loved and missed.