Do you have courage?

So my aunt has breast cancer.  She’s always been sort of softspoken and quiet in my opinion.  But she’s talking the talk and walking the walk that she’s gonna beat cancer’s ass.  She went and had her hair cut off and a fantastic wig made before her hair fell out.  She felt like it would be easier to lose her hair all at once than bit by bit from the chemo.  I have a newfound respect for her and I am beginning to see her in a different light than I always have. 

I recently came across this quote and I knew I wanted to make her something with it.  I altered a canvas that she can either hang on the wall or sit on an easel.  If you’re interested, here are my supplies:

12×12 canvas from Big Lots

Acrylic paints  (started with teal, added some dark green, added some lime green, added some yellow.  I used Anita’s Acrylics from Walmart & Making Memories lime & yellow)

Rob &  Bob Studio chipboard letters in Lime Green

Colorbok cat’s eye fluid chalk pad (made the flower with it) in Blue Lagoon.

 Mod Podge

White Bazzill cardstock (printed the quote on it and cut into pieces then inked the edges)

 I freehand painted the flower’s stem and wrote the last part of the quote with a black Sharpie paint marker.  I wrote it on a transparency and then just stuck it down on the canvas while the paint was still wet.  Mod Podge applied over the top of the whole thing to seal it. 

Thank you Donna Downey for inspiring me and giving me the COURAGE to make this! 

Do It Afraid

So, about 3 weeks ago I was channel surfing around 11 in the morning, which is not something that I ever do and I came across a channel that had Joyce Meyer preaching the gospel.  If you don’t know who she is, she’s a minister who has written a lot of books and travels around and does seminars and speaking engagements and stuff like that.  My step-mom discovered her years ago and that’s whyI know who she is.  Now, I’m the kind of person who fell asleep in church as a kid because it was so boring to me.  But Joyce just has something about her.  She’s a regular Joe.  I love the way she preaches.  She’s very down to earth and informal.  She’s really a captivating speaker.

Anyhoo……..I came across a channel that had her on it and I hadn’t seen her for a while so I stopped and watched.  It was the coolest sermon too.  She was in a this huge auditorium place, so it must have been a seminar or workshop somewhere cause the audience was huge.  She always wears a skirt and a jacket/blazer thingie, and high heels.  Anyway, there was this wooden boat up on stage and she was standing in it barefoot.  And she was preaching about how someone said (I think someone even wrote a book) “if you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat.”  And that the boat can be a metaphor for being in a “rut” in your life.  It’s safe in the boat.  You’re there in the boat and everything is good and you might want to try new things, but it’s too scary to get out of the boat so you just stay in the boat. 

Anyway, something she said in particular spoke to me.  She said if there’s something in your life that you want to do, but you’re afraid,  DO IT AFRAID.  Get out of your boat and do it afraid.  Do it anyway. 

Anyway, I wrote that down on a piece of paper that day and told myself I would do a canvas for me with those words on it and hang it in my office.  I think about her saying that all the time.  And how I just so happened to come across her that day on the TV and she said that. 

So I made this 12×12 canvas.  I found it at Big Lots for $5.  Those flowers are cut from the new line of Tinkering Ink papers called Beloved.  I used 3 different colors of paint and K&Co Twinkle Type letters.  And I love it!

Another joke for you

Why did the math book go to the psychiatrist?

Because he had PROBLEMS! 

ZING!  Courtesy of my 7-year-old daughter. 

A joke from a 7-year-old

Why did the plus sign hate the minus sign?

Because he was NEGATIVE! 

My daughter just walked into my office and told me that joke.  Then she said ZING!  Whatever that means.  The kid cracks me up. 

Bite Me! pendant

Isn’t this the coolest?  I was browsing this etsy shop called Pretty Girl Things (don’t you love the name?) and saw this pendant.  Cracked me up!  I want one!  In fact, I want a lot of things from her shop! 

She also has this pendant.  I can think of a few women I know who need one of these! 

Or this one for when I’m just feeling grouchy right from the start in the morning.  Just save us both the trouble and leave me alone!  ha ha

They’re not all comedic.  Here’s one I like that just a nice little reminder.

Anyway, these are made out of polymer clay and she puts some sort of gloss on them.  And for $6 or $8?  Come on!  What a great gift for Christmas.  I don’t know this lady; I just think her stuff is awesome.  She has lots of other cool pendants and jewelry.  These just happen to be my favorites.  I think I’ll put them on my Christmas wish list to Santa this year.  You can go to www.gorgeousredhead.etsy.com to see her etsy store if you want to check out her stuff.

Cow Pasture Golf

Remember the guy I told you about the other day who wrote the post about the 1977 JcPenney catalog?  Well, I got to reading his archives because that post cracked me up so much and I ran across this one.  I literally laughed until I cried.  I discovered abdominal muscles I didn’t know I had.  Just wanted to share with you. 

Woman’s Best Friend

Remember the story I told you about where I temporarily went insane and made 3 trips to the local animal shelter in 1 week, ending up adopting 2 more dogs?  I wrote that story here.  If you want to refresh your memory or you’re new here, go read that and then come back.  So I’ve had several requests for photos of the dogs, to put faces with the names in my story perhaps.  I’m sharing these here today.

Here’s Ginger.  Isn’t she a beauty?  The one I started out with back in June.  You can read my first announcement about her from this past summer and see a picture of her in the thralls of relaxation here.  She is the reason I went to the animal shelter, to find her a playmate.  She’s a big girl, but she’s a puppy and wants to jump and play and bite.  I wanted her to have a friend to play with and teach her to be a little calmer because she’s lonely during the day with my daughter at school.  I mentioned this in the original story.  So I went to the shelter looking.  On my first day at the shelter I saw starved and shy Sophie but didn’t bring her home because she was a big dog and I didn’t want to have 2 big dogs running around here.  I came home emptyhanded. 

I went back 4 days later and found a medium-sized dog but just couldn’t really make up my mind.  I decided I’d go back the next morning and adopt her if I still wanted her.  On the way out my daughter and I saw Buddy the Pomeranian, and the next thing I knew he was riding home with us in the car because we’d adopted him.  (But I still had that first dog Sophie stuck in my head.  There was something about this dog.  She was so meek and so starved and skinny.  You could count every bone in her body,  not just her ribs.  She just touched my heart.  I saw her again that day and again felt like I couldn’t take her because she was too big.) We adopted Buddy and thought he’d be a good companion for Ginger to play with since the shelter folks told us he was still pretty spunky for his age, so I felt like I had to quit thinking about Sophie and let it go.  Turns out Buddy HATES Ginger!  Every time she goes near him to sniff him or try to play, he wants to bite her and chase her away.  Which is pretty funny considering she’s much bigger than him.  He’s a brat! 

Here’s Buddy the little brat. 

So as the story goes, back to the animal shelter I went to adopt the medium-sized dog we had seen the day before.  Fate intervened and that dog was taken already.  But I turned around and there in the cage behind me was Sophie.  Again.  And again that dog touched my heart.  She sat there so quiet while all the other dogs were going crazy (it was half price adoption day and the place had a million people in it looking at dogs–but not at her) but not my Sophie.  She sat there quietly and looked up at me through the bars like she had the other times I’d been there.  It was like she’d been patiently waiting for me to come back to get her.  And my heart said she’s coming home with us. 

And here’s my Sophie girl.  We’ve had her a full 4 weeks and while she’s still pretty thin, I’m much happier with the way she looks.  Before those ribs were sticking out her sides.  It was terrible.  This dog just crawled into my heart and she’s staying here.  She’s so gentle and sweet and just wants LOVE so badly.  When you reach down to pet her, she just sits right down on your feet.  Is she trying to say she doesn’t want you to move?  “Just stand right there and pet me all day please.”  Someone has obviously beaten her at some point in her life, though, and that saddens me.  Whenever you walk toward her to pet her or talk to her, she cowers down to the ground.  I hate that.  But I’m hoping she’ll outgrow it eventually when she realizes we’re not going to hurt her. 

So that’s the scoop at my house.  Scoop?  Yes, that’s what I need…. a pooper scooper. 

What a Turn On

I’m sorry if I offend, but this light switch cover totally cracked me up when I saw it.  It’s from a fabulous catalog/website called Femail Creations that I love.  If this thing wasn’t $25, I would have one in every room in the house just for a great conversation piece! 

NY Girl of His Dreams

I saw this on dooce.com and was intrigued so I googled it and read more about this man.  How convenient that he’s an illustrator and has the ability to draw a lovely little picture like this.  This is around 80% cool and 20% creepy in my opinion.    I LOVE how part of his description of himself is “not insane.”  I think that’s hilarious!  Wonder how many hundreds of insane women have called him?  Hope he finds the right one!

(if you click on the photo you can see it larger, then click again and it should become larger still to read the writing)

1977 JcPenney catalog fun

Did you grow up in the 70s?  Well, I did.  And while I wore some pretty ugly crap, I don’t ever remember any of the adults around me looking THIS bad.  I had this blog post e-mailed to me from my cousin and it didn’t have a name, but I literally laughed until I CRIED reading this post that I had to have more, so I googled it and found the original author.  This guy is a scream!  I’ve only been reading October’s posts and I’ve already laughed harder at some of them than I did this one that I’m going to direct you to.  I’m saving it for future days when I might feel sad or depressed.  This is a cure for sure!  Go here http://15minutelunch.blogspot.com/2007/10/strap-in-shut-up-and-hold-on-were-going.html

Enjoy!