Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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Merry Christmas Eve!  I hope you are all ready for the big day tomorrow or having fun celebrations today already.  We will be heading to church this evening (since I really like the new pastor this year), and then over to my parent’s neighbor’s house (she’s also the MIL of my mom’s second cousin, and they stay with her when they come in from Pittsburgh, so we visit with them).  Tomorrow we will go out for a buffet lunch with my one grandmother, uncle, parents, and aunt and uncle.  When my grandparents started getting a little too old for cooking big meals, they decided to take everyone out on Christmas day instead, and even though I never liked going out to eat on a holiday, my only remaining grandmother loves this tradition, especially now with my grandfather gone, so we still go and then we head back to her house to exchange gifts and play Wii games.  Usually we headed to my other grandmother’s house in the evening, but that won’t be happening this year…

So here are my photo choices for this week (they are pretty much my last Christmas kitty pics I have of my own kitties, so I better take some new ones for next year!):

I don’t know why the picture quality is so bad.  I guess these weren’t the original files.  This was the boys first Christmas.  We tied pretty ribbons on them (don’t worry, they were supervised the whole time and the ribbons came off immediately following pictures), and posed them on the sofa with our Santa hat.  Jasper did not want to stay for anything.  Dusty was perfectly content to sit and let us snap away.

As seen here!  I really need to find the original files of these somehow.  This picture quality is terrible, but these are all I had to work with at this time.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I will try to post again on New Year’s, but before then will be very busy and crazy for me.  Happy Holidays!

My Christmas House

I feel very behind this Christmas.  I almost feel like I’m not enjoying the Christmas feeling as much this year.  I felt very Christmas-y before Thanksgiving already, which is really early for me, but now that it’s upon us, I feel like I’m missing something.  I think my grandmother’s passing has a lot to do with it.  I still feel a lot of sadness…

But with that aside, I did get my house all decorated.  It’s as complete as it’s ever going to be this year.  I wanted to share my decorations with you, even though these pictures are from last year.  The decorations are all in the same spots this year, but my house currently looks like a tornado hit it with shopping bags full of gifts, and one ornament tub that still needs to be packed away, so you get to view last year’s pictures of this year’s decorations!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My grandmother made my stocking, probably about 5+ years ago, and I will cherish it always.  As I said, she never had much money to give big, expensive gifts, but I always cherished everything she ever gave me because it came with a lot of thought, and straight from her heart.  Last year’s gift from her was a set of dessert dishes because she noticed I didn’t have any at Thanksgiving, and even though they aren’t fine china or fancy, I love them and they are some of my favorite dishes.  She also gave me an ornament that she personalized for our first year in our new home.  I have to admit that I forgot about the ornament until I pulled it out this year, and it brought tears to my eyes.  It has an up front and center position on the tree this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The newest edition to the decorations this year.  Bought this angel at a recent craft show.

 

 

Forgive the setup of this post if everything looks out of place.  My blog writing program and Blogger don’t always match up and look the same.  This is the majority of the decorations.  We do put up a mini tree in the bedroom and hubby decorates his desk with lights and such, but I didn’t get pictures of them last year, and it’s probably not happening this year either.

We did get a brand new camera for ourselves.  Mine has been acting a little funny lately, and BJ’s put one my dad has been eyeing for a year now on a sale for the cheapest we’ve seen it from anywhere, so we decided to go for it and have a very good camera.  My dad finally got it too, so now we have identical cameras!  I haven’t really been able to give it a good testing yet, but I’m excited to, and I’m hoping to start to get some really good shots that I can turn into prints to sell in my Artfire shop.  That won’t happen until next year, but look for them hopefully by summer!

I’ll have my Favorite Kitty Pic Friday post up this week yet, but I don’t know about any others until New Year’s then.  It’s crunch time now to get all my last minute gifts purchased, handmade, wrapped, and baking done.  It will be a busy week and a half, since my Christmas won’t end on Saturday!  We’re have a get together with some friends on Tuesday next week, and then we’ll be heading to the in-laws for a night or two after that.

Hope you’re all staying warm and sane during this crazy Christmas week!

A great loss.

Virginia Grace Weaver, Feb. 16th 1923-Dec. 6th 2010

 

This is one of the best, and only, pictures I have with my grandmother from my adult life.  I was so happy when she was able to make it to our wedding, since she had recently lost half of her leg at the time and wasn’t sure if she would be able to make it or not.

It’s been a very sad time for my family.  My grandmother was 87 years old, and hasn’t been in the best of health over recent years, but she was a very strong woman and seemed to overcome whatever had been thrown her way.  Until Monday the 6th.  I got a call from my dad immediately after hanging up with my mom to tell me she was in the hospital, and the doctor requested that everyone get there as soon as possible to make a decision about her condition.  I won’t go into details about her ailment, but she was extremely sick, and her body was not able to handle the damage the illness was causing anymore.  She had apparently been sick since the week before, but refused to go to the hospital then.  I was worried about her one or two months ago when she was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia.  I know that pneumonia can be very serious in a person of her age, and when she came out of that ok, I figured we had more time with her.  So, the phone call I received that Monday came as a complete shock.  I hadn’t seen her since the day after Thanksgiving prior to that, and she seemed fine then.  I didn’t know that she wasn’t feeling well for a few days after that visit, and by that Monday evening, she was at peace.

We all agree that she must have known her time was coming to an end sooner than later.  My aunt was able to answer questions about great grandparents and her siblings that no one else knew the answer to because my grandmother gave her all that information on her most recent visit a few weeks ago.  My uncle’s fiancee, who has cared for my grandmother since losing her leg almost 4 years ago, had a paper that my grandmother wrote out with all the dates of her siblings births and deaths.  My other uncle got the feeling from her on a recent conversation that she knew it was her time to go.  And my dad and I went up to her bedroom to look for something the day after she passed, and found the whole stack of my grandfather’s funeral cards sitting next to her bed, along with a few very old pictures sitting around that didn’t seem like her normal display.  She knew.  I wish I had.  It was a very difficult week.

I got to see all of my aunts and uncles along with all 10 of my cousins and their children together for the first time in a very long time.  It was nice to see everyone again, but not for the reason we were gathered together after so long.  My one cousin did a very nice job of reminiscing about her and memories that each person contributed, and even that could have gone on all day.  We each had very special memories and moments with her.  She had 6 children, 11 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren, and always gave her love individually to each of us.  I won’t get into any of their memories and moments with her, because those are their private thoughts, and this is my personal and public blog.  But I have so many special and even funny memories with her…

She lived near the schools I went to, so when I was old enough to walk to school on my own, my parents would drop me off at her house in the morning to walk to school, and then pick me up there afterward.  If there was ever a morning I didn’t get to eat breakfast or was still hungry, she made sure I didn’t go to school with an empty belly.  I tried new things at her house that I never would have otherwise.  And every day after school, she would let me watch whatever I wanted on TV, and a lot of times there was even an ice cream treat waiting for me.  Butter Nut was the favorite (like Butter Pecan, only the brand the local mini mart sold at the corner called theirs “Butter Nut”).  If she didn’t have any left, she would give me money and send me for some.  I hardly ever missed school for being sick, but I do remember staying at her house during the day a couple times when I was too sick to go to school.  She always had crackers, soup, or ginger ale and knew how to make me feel better.  Her apple pie was the best pie I have ever eaten.  When I was in 5th grade, I had to do a “how-to” speech, so I decided on how to make apple pie.  We were allowed to bring in the item or treat we were speaking about, so my grandmother was generous enough to make at least 5 or 6 apple pies for my dad to bring into school that day.  I was a big hit with my class and all my teachers!  Her homemade apple sauce was also wonderful.  Sadly, I never got the recipe for that from her, and never got the chance to make a whole batch with her to know just what to do.  I do make her apple pie though, and it may not always be as perfect as hers, but it comes pretty close, and I love that I can at least carry that with me in life.  After high school and college, I would drive her to a lot of her doctor appointments, and we would go out to lunch together many times.  I loved my time alone with her, just to talk and be listened to.  Her doors were always open, and I could stop by whenever I wanted for a visit.  I could talk to her about anything and everything, and even when I only planned a quick visit, I would still end up there for hours sometimes.  She was a wonderful role model, an inspiration, and I can only hope that I will grow into being just as an amazing woman as she was.

She will be missed greatly, and will be a part of me forever.

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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I know I have posted anything in 2 weeks.  I even skipped this post last week.  I’ve been somewhat busy, especially this week now with Christmas only being 1 week away, and last week was a very physically, mentally, and emotionally tiring week.  I will have a post on that (hopefully) tomorrow, since I haven’t been able to finish typing it up yet, due to emotions and lack of extra time.

It is Friday today though, so TGIF!  I wanted to make sure I got this post in today, because I have a few very cute Christmas-y pics of my kitties from when they were babies.  My choice for today (I picked 2):

We have an artificial tree, and this was the first year they ever experienced a Christmas tree.  I’m estimating them to be about 4 months old at that time.  So, in the middle of putting it up, Jasper decided it looked like a fun thing to climb and perch himself on.  This was not the last time we found him perched in the tree – but it was worse once all the ornaments were on.  We lost a few glass balls that year…

Dusty tried climbing the tree at least once, but definitely seems to like to cuddle up under it on the tree skirt more often.  To this day, they don’t try to climb the tree anymore since they are both too big to fit up inside, but Dusty can still be found under it sometimes, along with Japer, who is mainly under there to play with all the ornaments around the bottom that he can reach.  We decided to replace the broken glass balls with shatterproof ones, and the rest of the ornaments on the bottom are harder to break.  We do still have lots of breakables, but we don’t seem to clean up as many, if any at all, each year they get older.  Though I may be replacing my string of colored lights soon…Jasper apparently thinks they are candy and chews on them.  We stop him as soon as we catch him, but some of my colored lights now look clear!

Have a Christmas fun-filled weekend!  Tomorrow’s (hopefully) post will be on a very serious note, with much sadness from me.  Just a warning.  I wanted to make sure I posted this today though.

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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Hello! It’s the end of the week again, and I hope you all have something fun or relaxing planned! I’m having a busy 2 days – I’ll be at what is probably PA’s largest craft/gift show all day today, and tomorrow hubby and I have a few things to do before getting ready for the baton twirling group’s annual banquet. It’s always a nice night to get together outside of the practice or performing setting, but I am having a really hard time figuring out what to wear. I have nice dress pants that still fit me, but I’m having issues with tops – all the ones I currently own are a little snug for my liking, and I bought 2 new tops tonight, both the same size, but one is still snug and the other one is so huge it totally drowns me! How does that happen?! I really liked them both, but now I have to try to exchange them for different sizes, or shop somewhere else altogether on Saturday morning and hope to find something. I’m frustrated in the clothing department right now.

Anyway, back to what today’s post is really about:

Jasper just loves the blankets! This brown one seems to be his favorite, but the gray fleecy one we have will do just fine if the brown one is not in sight. He usually only snuggles up on your lap between your legs if you have the blanket. He drags this blanket from the couch in the family room all the way through our kitchen and dining room to the front living room or through the kitchen and hallway. Every night. He’s not usually snuggled under this blanket, like above, but if you put it that way he doesn’t seem to mind! My poor boys had their yearly vet visit tonight along with their rabies and distemper shots. Dusty was shaking and scared, Jasper just crouched low, but overall they did well, and seemed unaffected by the shots this evening. I remember when Cody would go to the vet, and they would have to throw a towel over his head because he would hiss and spit, and try to bite the vet and techs! I’m so glad my boys aren’t like that. You can tell they don’t want to be there, but they are calm and quiet.

If you’d like to share your favorite kitty, please grab the button above and create your own post that you can link here in the comments section, or just leave a comment with a link to your photo somewhere online.

Have a great weekend!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday!  We had a smaller gathering than usual – unfortunately hubby’s parents couldn’t come because Wal-Mart is evil, and that’s where his dad works.  But it was still a delicious meal with way too much dessert, and a very happy day for everyone.  I wanted to post more earlier in the week, but I spent everyday since last Saturday cleaning the downstairs of our house and garage/basement, very thankfully with hubby’s help, and by evening I was pooped and sleepy!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any cute Thanksgiving related pics of my own kitties, but Dusty is just so cute all on his own…

He loves to find cozy spots on our bed, and apparently my kitties like to sleep with their faces covered.  Anyone else’s cats sleep like that??

Well, I hope you all are enjoying something this Black Friday, either relaxing at home or out shopping.  If you are brave enough to be out shopping, I hope you are able to find everything you wanted and have safe travels.  There’s a few things I saw that I’d like to go out for, but I don’t know if I will make it out in time, if there will be any of those items left, and if I’m even brave enough to venture out at all!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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It’s that time of week again – TGIF!  Here’s my favorite pic for this week:

This was Jasper sleeping on the couch last night.  I don’t know how he manages to be comfy with his neck all twisted and his face suffocated like that, but he looks soooo sweet when he sleeps (different story when he’s awake!).   I’m totally surprised he didn’t wake up and look around right when I went to snap the picture.  He has a really bad habit of doing that.

Well, I hope you all have a nice weekend!  Mine will be spent cleaning the house, and cleaning out the garage with hubby.  Time to get ready for winter and prep for Thanksgiving dinner here!

If you’d like to share a favorite picture of yours, please take the button above, create your own post, and link it here in the comments.  Otherwise, just leave a link to your photo choice if it’s somewhere on the web.

My Life Lately…

I have hardly been blogging at all for at least a good 2 weeks now.  I was hoping to break the trend with last week’s Kitty Pic post, but obviously that didn’t happen.  So, I figured I’d take a few minutes and write something in a post now, at least let you in on my life lately.  It’s not all that interesting, but here it is…

Two weeks ago hubby had to go back to the main office for work for a week.  He left on Halloween, and since my parents don’t like to stay at home on Halloween for trick-or-treaters anymore, they came down to my house to keep me company and play some Wii games. 

The next day, Monday, I decided to do something healthy and walk a half hour on the treadmill.  I know I mentioned this in a previous post, but I managed to hurt my foot when I stepped off the treadmill.  It hurt even worse on Tuesday, and by Wednesday that week I could hardly put weight on it.  Since I couldn’t get into the orthopedics office for at least another week, I ended up having my mom take me to the ER to get x-rays and find out what was wrong.  Apparently, I just sprained it, but I could hardly walk, so they gave me a surgical shoe to take some of the pressure off my foot, and I ended up borrowing a pair of crutches from my mom so I could just do partial weight bearing.  Let me tell you – it’s not easy at all, and definitely no fun to hobble around your own house on crutches without any help around.  I almost fell on the stairs twice, and if I needed to carry something, forget the crutches – hello pain!  I ended up sitting around all day on Thursday, only to get up when I absolutely had to, so by Friday I was feeling somewhat better and was at least able to go out and about with my parents and no crutches.

Hubby came home that Saturday, and brought me these really interesting and beautiful roses.  I did take pictures, but I don’t have my camera here at the moment, and that’s where the pictures are, so I will have to post them another time.  They were 2 toned pink striped, and they came with these little purple baby’s breath type spray.  Most awesome flowers ever!

Since then, I’ve had absolutely no motivation to do anything.  My house is a mess because I’ve had no energy to clean, and I haven’t even crafted anything new because I just haven’t felt creative.  Same with the blog.  I’ve been feeling more tired lately, and I really dislike losing sunlight so early in the evening.  It really exacerbates the whole motivation and sleepiness issues.  So, I tried to make today somewhat productive.  I had higher ambitions than what actually got accomplished, but washing 2 loads of laundry, folding 2 different loads of laundry, washing the dishes and putting away the clean ones, and calling my dermatologist for a different prescription is quite accomplished for me lately!

So, I’m hoping for more accomplishments tomorrow.  Hubby is going to have to help me clean the house starting this weekend for Thanksgiving, so tomorrow I’m hoping to be crafty and get some of that stuff accomplished.  OH!  I almost forgot!  I sold my first pair of earrings from my Artfire shop on Monday!  Thank you to my first buyer – I hope she enjoys them as much as I do!  I was so happy when I got that notice.  I have re-listed the earrings, but when I priced them I unfortunately forgot about taking into consideration Paypal’s fees and the shipping envelope, so I had to increase the price by 50 cents – that’s not too much of an increase, right?  She still got them for the original price, but I apologize to any future buyers who have to pay the slight increase.  So, I have more jewelry and wine charm stuff, and I have really cute winter/Christmas ribbon that I’d like to create more items with to add to the shop ASAP so there’s more of a selection for holiday shopping.  Please check the shop, and check often since I hope to add more very soon, and see if there’s anything that catches your eye.  I am also interested in custom orders – if you don’t like anything in the shop, but would like something created just for you, please e-mail me through Artfire and I will see what I can do for you!

Hopefully more posting to come now…

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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Happy Friday!  I realize I haven’t blogged in about 2 weeks.  I even missed this regular post last week!  I’m not really going to apologize here, but thanks for sticking with me.  I’ve just sort of been in a creative slump.  I haven’t felt like blogging, I haven’t gotten any crafts done, and I haven’t even worked on any new stuff to teach my baton twirling girls (which that doesn’t matter at this point, but I need to get going and prepare for when it does!).  I’m hoping to break this bad cycle with this post today though.  I do have an update on a few things, but that’s not what this post is about, so it will have to go in another one.

Back to today’s post.  Here’s my choice for this week:

I chose this one because I never shared it before (or at least I don’t think I did) and even though the boys are all grown up now and don’t typically snuggle together anymore, they actually have done it a couple times recently, and it made me think of these days.  This was taken the very first night we had them in our apartment.  We made the bathroom the “safe room” for that night, so they wouldn’t feel overwhelmed, and even though we put a nice cozy towel inside the carrier, they decided the top was much better!  Dusty is on the left and Jasper on the right.  They were just too adorable back then!  I miss the days when they were little and enjoyed snuggling with each other.  It’s a rarity these days, but I love it when they somehow end up together again.

If you’d like to share too, please grab the button at the top of the post, and create your own blog post then leave a link in the comments below.  Or just leave a link to the photo online somewhere.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!   :)

Monday Madness

So, remember the post titled “Monday, Monday – so good to me…”?  Well, today was not so good to me.  I can’t say it was horrible, but a little weird.  I slept the best I have slept last night for a while, but I was woken up at 6:30am.  I heard incessant digging on the carpet, and I was so afraid it was Jasper getting ready to pee on the floor (not that he does that, but he likes to pee on towels…).  I got up and turned the light on to discover Dusty trying to bury a piece of poop in the middle of my bedroom floor!  Thankfully hubby is not home, because he certainly wouldn’t have liked that wake up.  I dispose of the issue, and while I was in my own bathroom, I heard more incessant digging in the hallway bathroom (they share a wall).  So I go to check it out, and what do I find?  MORE POOP!  Only there was a lot more of it, and it was smeared…  Wonderful – just what I want to be doing at 6:30am.  I have no idea what happened, or exactly who’s poop it was (though I have a sinking feeling it was Jasper’s, and Dusty is super prissy about keeping things clean and buried), but I could really never have to deal with that again and be happy.  I also had to remove something from Jasper’s hiney today…something else I never thought I’d have to do since we never use tinsel or anything for that reason…but today I had to, and he was not pleased with me.  Another thing I will be happy to never have to do again.  And, thanks to him, I now have to spend my afternoon at the laundromat tomorrow washing my comforter – yep, you guessed it – poop remnants got on there too!  The comforter definitely needed a washing, but thanks to that I now have to do it immediately tomorrow.  Just didn’t get there today, and unfortunately it’s too big and fluffy to fit in my machines at home.  Just what I feel like doing tomorrow…

I did do something good today though, and yet somehow that seemed to turn bad on me too!  I decided to finally start keeping track of my food intake again.  I need to eat healthier again, it’s a must.  I also walked on my treadmill for a half hour today too.  But when I got off, a few of my little toes on my right foot were hurting big time.  They are still hurting, and making me gimp along when I walk.  I have absolutely no idea what caused it, since they didn’t hurt at all before I went on, and gave me no issues while I was walking.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better because I have to teach at baton practice tomorrow night, and a sore foot will not make for a good practice.

I’m also having some other issues again.  I have these problems periodically, more frequently than I’d like, and I certainly won’t get into it on here, in e-mails or comments, so please don’t ask.  But just know that these issues cause me a great deal of discomfort or even pain sometimes, and I’m currently having quite a bit of discomfort.  I’m hoping it resolves ASAP, but if it’s not gone by next week, I may be checking with the doctor again.  I may have to anyway – I’m still losing clumps of hair daily, more than my usual shedding, and thyroid tests came back normal.  So that will need to get figured out sooner rather than later.  I read it could be some sort of deficiency or hormone imbalance.  It might even be my scalp I guess, but I go back to that doctor in 2 weeks, so I can have him check things out too.

So today has not been such a great day.  I’ve had worse I guess, but I was hoping to get things done today that I didn’t, and now I’m not sure how much I’ll get done tomorrow either with an afternoon at the laundromat and baton practice with a lesson beforehand in the evening.  I’m at least hoping for another night’s sleep like last night though…that would be awesome.

Scrapbook Sunday

Yesterday was busy with yard work, then we ate dinner with my parents, grandmother and uncle.  Then I was just very tired, and didn’t feel like doing this post yesterday.  At least I did one this weekend!   :)

Hubby in front of our first ever fire outside on the patio!  Plus I managed to snap this really cool picture of the fire itself, even though being in that little frame does it no justice.  I used a premade template, but got rid of a few things and added in some of my own touches (fire frame included – that one was from a Halloween kit).

Hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween today!  Enjoy your trick or treating or any parties left to go to.  It’s quite chilly here today, so hopefully it’s warmer wherever you are or you are able to keep warm tonight!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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Happy Halloween weekend!   :)    In the spirit of the holiday, I found this photo on I Can Has Cheezburger.  I wish I had good photos of my kitties all dressed up or having some Halloween fun, but no kitty costumes here.  We dressed Cody up as a Devil once, but the picture came out awful because I had too much stuff in the background.  Maybe I’ll share that one next year…

see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!
(PS – If you want to join in on this post, you can create your own post, grab the button at the top, and leave me a comment with the link to your post, or even just a link to your photo online!)

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday! (The late edition…)

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 Didn’t get to do this post earlier and schedule it for today, so it’s coming in a late edition.  Happy Friday!  I had a pretty good day today, especially with hubby off.  We did some running around, ate yummy soup and salad at Olive Garden (if you have not had the Lasagne Fritta yet, you must try it!  So yummy!), and I spent the evening at a neighbor’s house chatting and ordering some new Pampered Chef stuff.  So, then I was sitting here going through my e-mails, and I get a daily pet calendar picture via e-mail…this was yesterdays:

I thought this was just too adorable!  It reminds me a little of my boys when they were only that big and actually used to like cuddling up with each other.   :)

I hope you all have a good weekend planned!  I’m hoping to make mine somewhat productive, and relaxing all at the same time.  I’m going to Hershey’s Chocolate World with some family tomorrow, and there’s a few things that need to be done around the house tomorrow, one of which is getting our basement window screen fixed.  Don’t know what tore that up, but it’s pretty much destroyed, and letting in monstrous crickets and spiders.  My dad just shop-vac’ed the entire basement this morning – gross…

Anyway – have a great weekend!

Monday, Monday – so good to me…

Please Note: This post was supposed to go up last night, but the internet went out and I couldn't add my pictures and get it posted, since it was very late, and the internet didn't come back on until 2:00am or later...sorry if it seems confusing!

Those lyrics just popped into my head when I was trying to start this post. The rest of the lyrics don’t really pertain to me or this post, but it just struck me as a good title. (If you don’t know this song, it’s “Monday Monday” by the Mamas and the Papas)

So, as much as I was against it before, last night for some reason I decided to sign up for Twitter. The name “Twitter” actually annoys me a little, and I always thought it was kind of ridiculous, especially since I have Facebook and really like that social network. But, I know so many bloggers who have Twitter accounts, so I thought maybe it was about time for me to give it a try too. Expand my horizons and such… I don’t really understand it all yet, and I don’t really know if I like it. I’m only following 4 “people” so far, one of which is Dr. Oz, lol! So, if you would like me to follow you, let me know how to find you, and if you’d like to follow me, you can find me @SSgherza.

I made today as productive as I could. I had to call my doctor to try to get them to order a blood test to check my thyroid. My hair seems to be falling out a lot more than my usual hair loss, or even my typical season changing hair loss (I swear, I’m like a cat!). Hubby says it didn’t really feel thinner to him at all, and I had a hair cut on Thursday last week, and my hairdresser didn’t seem to think it was much thinner, but when I told her I felt like I was losing a lot of it recently, she suggested I have my thyroid checked. I have definitely thought about it recently, and taking into consideration that thyroid issues run in my family (my mom had Grave’s Disease, and both her mom and brother are currently on thyroid meds), and my hairdresser even recommended what I had already been thinking about, I decided to call today and try to get the test ordered. I had it tested 2 or 3 years ago when it was brought into question then, along with diabetes testing, and everything came back normal then, but now I got a little worried about it again. So, hopefully I will find out tomorrow what’s going on with that, and hopefully there’s no problems! But after spending a good portion of the afternoon even trying to get through to the nurses due to their phone line issues, getting the blood test, and then stopping by my Grandmother and uncle’s house to drop off some cookies, I finally got home and got started on my to-do list for today. I got all my Halloween stuff up now (finally!), my kitchen floor all cleaned up, vacuumed the family room, and dealt with some laundry. I had some other things I wanted to accomplish today, and didn’t get to, but there’s always tomorrow, since it’s late now and I'm feeling pooped!

Jasper is finally feeling better today it seems. He sneezed a lot less today, and when he actually did sneeze, it was just once and done – no more sneezing fits of 10 in a row! His eyes were a lot less goopy and watery today too. He even got feisty with Dusty for the first time in a week, ran around the house, and played with a couple toys for a little! He still isn’t quite 100% yet, but he was definitely better today, and that made me feel a lot better. Looks like we won’t need to call the vet now anyway, thankfully.

I had a really good weekend. I know I totally skipped Scrapbook Saturday this week again, but I didn’t think to create it earlier in the week and schedule the post, and I was really busy this weekend, or when I wasn’t busy I was tired and didn’t feel like doing much. We went to the PA Renaissance Faire on Saturday with my dad. That always makes for a good day. The weather was a bit windy at first, but the sun was bright and warm, and when the wind died down it was beautiful. I froze after the sun went down though, and was getting very uncomfortable on the benches at the Globe Theater, so we had to leave before the finale in song was finished. We never stayed that late before either, so it was nice to see at least some/most of the finale for a change. The best act of the day: The Dandy Pirates. Two guys singing hilarious songs, some about “being a pirate sucks”, one about being gay (one of the pirates was supposedly gay, but was sleeping with the other pirate’s girl), one about a girlfriend who ended up being a guy…definitely not a show for the kiddies! They were the funniest act I ever saw at the Ren. Faire though! Another funny show was a new one this year – The Duo of Woo’s Quest for the Perfect Wife. Definitely another show not suitable for young ones! They did it like a game show and took 5 women from the audience as the contestants. The women had different things to do, and each “level” eliminated one until they had only 1 left – and she ended up with some gift certificates for some of the fair vendors totaling $35! We have been going free every year, courtesy of my dad’s employers. I look forward to laughing hysterically at the Dandy Pirates again next year!

Sunday was a performance for the baton group. The small group of girls I teach now (which started at 5, went down to 4, and now will be up at 6, possibly 7!) performed the routine I taught them for the very first time yesterday. It’s to the song “Fame” from the 2009 version of the movie. I was nervous for them, they were nervous, but overall it wasn’t too bad. They still have a lot of work to put into perfecting it more, and the routine isn’t even completely finished yet, so they have more to learn, but for a first time with some girls who have never twirled before this summer, it was pretty decent. I still have to review the recording, since I didn’t get to watch the entire show, so we’ll see what I find on playback. They have another show coming up in the beginning of November, so I’m hoping for an even better go at it then. I love being a part of this group – I joined as a member when I was 5, and they are like a second family to me, always have been. The group has changed somewhat over recent years, but it still feels great to be a part of it, and I absolutely love being able to teach now that I can’t really perform anymore. I also have picked up private lessons on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so I get to do what I love 3 evenings a week now! :) I’d love to post pictures, but I don’t really have their permission or parents permission, so I will refrain from upsetting anyone, just in case.

Hope you all had a great weekend too! Looks like we might have more rain tomorrow and Wednesday…wonderful.

(PS – I actually typed this post out much earlier today, but wanted to add the photos, so I didn’t post it right away, and now that I was ready to post it I had to change a lot to reflect on my day, not list what I wanted my day to be like. I also didn’t think Jasper was better earlier, and thought I was seriously going to have to call the vet today – but luckily that changed too!)

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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Happy Friday everyone!  Here is my pick for this week:

I don’t think I used this one yet.  This is Dusty as a baby – cutest kitten ever!  Look at how scruffy he is, and isn’t that face just making you melt?

Hope you all have a fun weekend planned.  I will be going to the PA Renaissance Faire (for free, courtesy of my dad’s employers!) and the baton group has a performance – the group of girls I teach will be doing their baton routine for the first time ever!  I’m hoping it goes well!

Thursday Thoughts

1. I have a sick kitty.   :(   He’s been having sneezing fits since yesterday, and you can just tell he doesn’t feel well.  My poor baby, I feel bad for him.  I don’t think it’s time to call the vet yet, since he’s still eating some and drinking, but once I see that he’s not eating, I will put out the wet food (they can smell it better and will eat more when they are sick) and call the vet to see if he needs any antibiotics.  See, not feeling well:

Hubby put his blanket in the corner by the bookshelf in the office, and I know Jasper likes blankets, but this is a little unusual for him.  It doesn’t help that it’s chilly, and and the heat hasn’t been on yet.  2. Speaking of heat and chilly weather – I’m so tired of the rain now!  I know we had quite a dry summer here, and needed some rain, but I’ve had enough of it now.  I have outdoor things to do – fertilize/weed kill the lawn, plant my daffodil and tulip bulbs so we can finally mulch the planting bed around the patio, and I’d like to use my brand new fire bowl some evening before winter hits and make some s’mores.  We’ve had some nice days, but the nice days have either been too warm to plant the bulbs (I was waiting until the temps got cooler and stayed consistent – now that we’re there, I feel like I can’t get enough dry days to plant!), or busy with other tasks and errands, and lately we’ve gotten a late start to dinner, so it gets a little too late to sit outside around a fire for a couple hours.  I was supposed to have a baton lesson today, and that got rained out.  Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer, but windy, so I can have the lesson tomorrow, but the wind might be too much for a fire.

3. Oh, and as I was typing this post, the heat did get turned on.  Everyone is warming up, and so far I haven’t heard the clicking from the vent in the bedroom.  I don’t think it’s quite cold enough for the clicking to start yet.  Yet another stupid issue with our brand new house – the vent coming up through the garage/family room wall, running along the floor of our bedroom and coming to it’s opening in the back of the bedroom is made of aluminum, and expands and shrinks when we use the heat.  So, the result is we hear a clicking/pinging sound on really cold days when the heat kicks on.  When there’s no heat blowing, the vent “shrinks” since it runs through the one garage wall, and gets very cold, and then when the heat blows it starts to warm up the vent causing the metal to expand, which creates the noise.  Kept me awake and irritated soooo many nights last winter.  We were told that it sometimes is an issue in these houses, and they need to fix it by cutting into the garage wall, replacing the aluminum duct with a plastic flexible duct, and fix up the garage wall again.  If it’s a known issue, why don’t they make these houses with the flexible duct in the first place???  But no, I have to deal with the noise and have them cut holes in my home to find the problem and fix it.  My issue is that I don’t think the expansion problem is coming from the garage wall area, but where the duct runs between the family room ceiling and bedroom floor.  If that’s the issue, they might have to cut open my whole family room ceiling!  Really not looking forward to dealing with all that this winter…

4.  Back to my sick kitty – if you’ll notice in the above pictures, he is quite a tubby cat.  We have tried switching to light food, and now even strictly measure out his daily amount of food.  We don’t regulate the food bowls overnight, because if we did, we wouldn’t sleep at all!  But we are trying to get his weight down, and I don’t think we have been successful yet.  So, I saw this fun little toy, and thought it would be a super success!:

Not so much…  I figured I’d fill it with some of his regular kibble (not treats, as if he needs anymore of those ever!), and make him work a little for his food.  He’d get some much needed play and his food would be the reward.  He would still be able to eat a lot of it from his regular bowl, but I was trying to incorporate some mental and physical work into his feeding.  He hasn’t figured it out yet…  He looks at me like I’m playing a cruel trick on him.  Maybe someday he’ll finally figure it out.

5. I have things to do that I just don’t feel like doing.  I have to hem a pair of costume pants for one of the girls in the baton group.  I offered to do it so I knew it would get done and hopefully come out well, but I really never feel like hemming pants…  It’s tedious and boring.  I don’t want to fertilize the yard.  It needs to be done, and seems pretty easy, but I just don’t want to do it.  The basement and garage need some major cleaning, and I really don’t want to do that!  I have some crafts I really want to finish up, but I’m at a tedious and boring part of the process for some of them, so I keep pushing it off.

6. Along the lines of crafts, I made these on Tuesday as well: 

Swirly Blue Chandelier Earrings:  I have not added these to my Artfire site yet, because I have to figure out their cost and selling price.  There we go again with the tedious part of a craft that I really dislike to do!  Hopefully by tomorrow I will have them priced and added.  The ear wires are a different style for my typical selection, but I really like them and think they make this pair look more elegant.  The blue beads are leftover from my Beachy Blue set, and I bought the swirly chandelier parts a while ago, but just got around to using them.  Look for them there soon though!

7. I’m a little disappointed about some things.  I have yet to make a sale from any of my shops, and I hate to admit that to anyone reading this, but I don’t get it.  I think I make/create some cute stuff, and my jewelry and other crafts are priced right around what other people charge, if not less, but yet still no takers, no orders…  The stuff on my Cafe Press shops are slightly expensive, but I promise I don’t mark them up a whole lot – most of the cost for them is Cafe Press’ base cost for the item.  I even have my Breast Cancer Awareness items that I’m donating profits to the American Cancer Society, but sadly no takers on that stuff either…  So, I hate to do this, but I’m going to be a little shameless here – go check out My Style Crafts on Artfire, My Style Crafts-Photography Gifts on Cafe Press, and My Style Designs on Cafe Press (currently all breast cancer awareness designs on this shop with ALL profits going to American Cancer Society – changed from a portion as stated before) – if you like anything, buy it!  :)  Christmas is coming.  ;)   If you have any questions or would like to make any special orders, feel free to contact me!  I love to craft a whole variety of things, and I have some cute ideas for future projects, but struggling to get my dance business going, and not working otherwise, it gets hard for me to spend money on more supplies when I haven’t gotten any returns from previous projects.  It just makes me feel disappointed that I can’t seem to get anywhere with this stuff, and I have no idea why.  I know people are looking at it – if you have comments about anything, please send them to me!  I don’t know how to better my products or services if I get no feedback!

I think that’s all for today…I’m very tired because I hardly slept last night.  Jasper woke me up with a sneezing fit, and then there was just no going back to sleep after that.  So, at 5pm, I say goodnight!

HOPE Wine Charms

I said in yesterday’s post about my Cafe Press shop that I would have these posted either last night or today – didn’t happen until today, but they’re up and ready for orders at my Artfire site!

I made my first set of wine charms, in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month.  During this month, ALL profits from the sales of each set will get donated to the American Cancer Society.  I am taking custom orders for these too, where you can request a certain bead color in support of a different cancer awareness or change the lettering to someone’s name, nickname, initials, etc. instead of the word “hope”.

Here are my sample photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please check them out here and buy by the end of the month to show your support for breast cancer awareness and cancer research!  HOPE for a cure someday!

Support Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

If you didn’t already know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Since I know people who have either conquered breast cancer or are currently fighting it, I decided I wanted to create things this month that I could donate profits from to the American Cancer Society.  I am currently working on some wine charms that I hope to have finished and posted by the end of this evening or tomorrow, but for now I opened up another, different Cafe Press Shop where I can put designs I create on other merchandise.  It is separate from my Photography Gifts site, and currently has 1 design related to breast cancer on a variety of products ranging from clothing to mugs to buttons/magnets.  Depending on the item, I will donate anywhere from $0.25 to $1.00 for each item sold (amount depends on the item), so the more I sell, the more I can donate!  I created this design using the obvious pink ribbon, the symbol for breast cancer awareness, but also with the yellow flowers because they were the closest looking flowers to Pear Blossoms, which is apparently the flower representing “hope”.   

You can visit the shop here:  http://www.cafepress.com/MyStyleDesigns 

And here is a preview of what you’ll find in the shop: 

   

      

So, hurry up and show your support for cancer research!  Cafe Press currently has a sale through Oct. 13th – get 15% off all orders $60 or more – so while your checking out my shops, you might find some cool Halloween stuff while you’re there! 

I would like to start creating more designs, so after October 31st, 2010, the items and designs are subject to change.  I will most likely keep a few “Think Pink” items in the shop, but I will be working on other designs as well.  Unfortunately, I only have a basic shop, so I can only have a product listed with one design, meaning I can’t have coffee mugs listed with 2 or more different designs (once a design is put on a coffee mug, you can’t create another coffee mug with a different design).

Check it out!    :)    More to come on those wine charms later…