I love art, especially photography and painting. My next addition is crafts or primarily needlecrafts. And as if that was not enough, I am a genealogist.
This is my first post. A little about me. I am a senior citizen and at 68 while my body may be aging, I still love to try new things and experience all that life has to offer. My loves in life are my family, photography, art, crafts, camping, music and any other mischief I can get into at my age and get away with it.
I am a nut for cloud formations. As an artist I try to make anything look good. Being artistic brings out something in me that nothing else does. This is just the beginning so I hope you will keep coming back to see what I am into.
Being “American” means something different to many people. Ultimately, if you were not born and raised here with a family history of at least 250 years, you cannot really call yourself a true American! That being said certainly there are many people who have gained citizenship that love this country and should be respected as long as they uphold the constitution.
No I am not going to lecture about immigration. I respect those who have taken the time to enter this country legally and take that next step to citizenship my ancestry hails predominantly from Scotland and they came in as early as 1662.
This is about what we are celebrating, and actually, we should not be celebrating until August 2 because that is when the Declaration of Independence was actually signed by all delegates during the Revolutionary War. Whenever you celebrate Independence Day, it is still important.
This Independence Day is just as important as the first one. With the extreme heat, take precautions if you are planning to be outside.
As for me, I will be safe inside but still remembering the events of that first Independence Day.
Be safe
Be respectful
Put God first as He is the real reason we have any form of Freedom.
My 14-year-old dashund must have really been up to no good during the night. When I heard he was awake outside of my door, I figured I might as well go ahead and get up. I noticed he was coughing and then going along the wall licking the floor, strange behavior even for him. I chased him around the room and put his leash on to go out. We went outside and he did his thing. After going back to the house, he started acting like he was choking, and he was still licking the floor. I grabbed him around the belly and tossed him on the couch. It was then I saw something bobbing out of his mouth. When it bobbed out again, I grabbed it and pulled it. He had swallowed one of my four inch plastic yarn needles along with about a foot of yarn. It was fortunate he had grabbed a plastic one because I have some that are metal. I sighed with relief when I thought the mystery was solved. Oh no, about 30 minutes later, the same thing occurred, and I thought he was chewing on paper, but no, it was a ball of yarn coming out of his mouth.
In order to calm him down and me too, I finally put the cone of shame on him so that he could try to recover. Hopefully, he didn’t swallow the whole yarn basket.
The goal now was to make sure he recovered without any complications. I know what you are thinking, and no, I did not rush him to the vet, I calmly handled the situation. He is right here beside me. I will watch him closely for the next few hours.
This is a first even for this rowdy guy. It’s been thirty minutes later, and he is no longer choking and is eating and drinking normally. Guess he just wanted to shake up my day. Moving my yarn supplies to see if he will stay out of it.
Well, here’s hoping the rest of my day will be less eventful.
On Thursday, my sister and I embarked on another road trip. Our destination was Wilkesboro, NC. Why this town, it’s probably best known for two reasons, it’s racetrack and because it is a gateway to the NC mountains.
After about an hour and a half travel time we arrived at our first destination a slight detour but we’ll worth the stop. See if you recognize this place.
Her name is Little Sally and she is the wonderful creation of Thomas Rambo. This charming creature resides in a small forest in High Point, NC. You can read more about Little Sally and her creator here: https://trollmap.com.
After visiting with Little Sally, we left High Point and continued on our journey to Wilkesboro. While killing time before checking into our motel, we decided to eat lunch at a local favorite, Cagneys. It is a great place to eat that fits our budget well.
We checked into our motel, and after a brief rest period, we set out again to check out the town. The main street was a busy little place. We parked and walked to the nearby Wilksboro Coffee Company. Their selections were so enticing it was difficult to make a selection, but I finally settled on a Banana Berry Cold Brew. Oh my gosh, It was the best drink to hit my palate in quite some time. We decided to sit outside under a large tree since there was a nice mountain breeze blowing.
After finishing our drinks we got back into the car and we decided to check out a few barn quilts.
Applebee’s proved to be a slow delivery for a late supper but was still a delicious end to our dining day.
Day 2
Friday morning we got up early to go see frescoes. The first two were right here in Wilkesboro at St. Paul’s Episcople Church. Here’s a glimpse at them.
Here are more pics from this church and the gardens.
Walking the labyrinth.
We left St. Paul’s and traveled across the mountain ridge to Holy Trinity Episcople Church in Glendale Springs. Here’s a view of the spectacular frescoes there.
We traveled back over to Wilkesboro and visited the Wilkesboro Heritage Museum and here’s the link for their site: https://wilkesheritagemuseum.com/
Leaving the museum, we walked across the street to grab a sandwich at the Dooley’s Grill & Tavern. The restaurant was named after Tom Dula, better known as Dooley, and you can read about his legend here https://northcarolinaghosts.com/mountains/the-legend-of-tom-dooley/
After a rest period we set out again to see what we could find. Here are the pics from the Merle Watson Garden Of The Senses and more.
Today, we embark on our journey back home. I hope you have enjoyed this journey with me through Wilkesboro.
Come back often to see where I’m heading. Don’t forget to like and share with all your friends.
This morning, while everyone else in my house was asleep, I took pencil to paper and sketched this:
No, I didn’t copy her, trace, or use the ever evil AI! This was a test in perspective. By that, I mean I always struggle not with the construction of the eyes but lining them up. So I drew the right eye and then drew a light line to the left eye and drew it. I then placed imaginary lines in my mind to draw a cross to then form the rest of the face. In other words, the head post should come right between the eyes, and if you draw a line under the eyes, you have the bottom of the crossbar. Going back to the middle and down, you can line up the nose and mouth. From there, you can do back and place the ears from the bottom of the eyes to the bottom of the ears. Now bring a line down between the eyes and ears and depending on the sh a pe of face you want you skip down about s half inch under the mouth to draw the chin lining up with each corner of the mouth. After you have determined the shape of the face you want, you just connect where you left off on the sides and connect to the chin. Now for the gravy. Details matter. Whether you are just sketching or working in charcoal, the details can make or break your work. Take your time and see the shadows and highlights. Make your thoughts appear on the paper or canvas in front of you. I use music while working because I am sensitive to distracts.
If you still think you are getting quality food from your local grocery, you need to rethink that! Most, if not all, packaged food from your grocery xontain contaminants.
If you don’t get what I am saying, you need to be reading product labels before you buy! I know you are giving me that look right now. You know the one that says you don’t have time for that. Do you have time to be sick?
I didn’t always read them either until my husband had open heart surgery in 2008. Even though I was fairly educated on nutrition it didn’t mean we actually ate that way. What used to take me thirty minutes at the grocery store took me about an 1 1/2 after his surgery.
Now, since the discovery that our food chain is so contaminated, I rarely ever buy pre-packaged food. What we eat we cook and fresh when possible. I still go to the grocery store but only for selected items like pasta milk bread. Actually, I can bake my own bread, but my husband just refuses to eat it unless it’s apple bread. I prefer to source veggies at the farmer’s market because it is not only healthier but cheaper.
Even better is the option to grow your own cutting out most contaminants and chemicals. While I have been unable to convince my husband to fix a garden ben, he did manage a small raised bed. Here is what I just pulled from that bed:
Even in urban areas, people are doing container gardens. You know, like growing strawberries or potatoes in a bucket.
The other important thing is to harvest your seeds. Simply pull the seed away from the vegetable or fruit, put in a container or dish and rinse slightly with water but don’t saturate leave out on a paper towel to dry then put into an envelope and write what it is and the variety, for instance; tomatoe-beefstake. Store your seeds in a tin or dark area. Now you have seeds for the next years planting without cost.
Just these few steps can make you healthier while also reducing your household costs.
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Well when we decided to escape from our dog again things did not go according to plan. We sent out to explore Southport not taking into consideration that it was Sunday. So, of course on arrival the only thing open were restaurants. I did get this one shot of the lighthouse from the waterfront.
I would have stayed there and taken more shots but the water was very rough and it was extremely windy. That being said, we left Southport and headed for Bruswick Town and Fort Anderson. Again we were met with a locked gate but found some interesting things on the way in. Just a few feet in after turning on this road we were met with a sign that read “Alligater Alley”. Well, we used to have friends that lived not to far away and I remembered they had a lot of problems with allegators. After we found the fort was closed we turned around and I was able to get these shots along the road back out.
I particularly liked this lilypad pond, can you tell? Well we didn’t get to visit any shops but always love just being out in nature.
Most people in my age range have pain. The amount of pain varies depending on what’s causing it.
How you manage your pain can have a significant impact on your quality of life. I have had arthritis since my early twenties and back pain since my pre-teen years and migraines that ended only after a hysterectomy.
I said early on that I did not want to become one of those people who end up living off of pain killers. Yes, I may have taken an occasional Motrin, but I did not want to live a life of dependency. Once, a doctor prescribed something for my migraines, but I quickly stopped taking them because I could not even function to work.
I have found over the years that there are more natural ways to deal with pain that don’t cause more harm to the body. Over the years, I have used massage, reflexology, visualizations, and other relaxation methods that have been very effective.
Tonight, as I awakened in pain I didn’t grab a pill bottle but a pad and pencil instead. Distraction is one of the best relievers of pain. As I began to draw I became more focused on the image appearing on the paper than the pain in my body. My pain scale went from an 8 to a 2.
It’s the simple things that bring life back into the body. Here’s what I drew.
After I made my selection of paintings for my first showing, I thought I was ready. That would be a clear and emphatic NO! There was still work to be done.
Tools for the back finish.
I had to finish the back. If you have never finished the back of a painting, here’s what you need:
Brown craft paper, glue, measuring tape, pencil, scissors,screwdriver, and hanging hardware.
What I do first is to make sure all of the sides of my paintings have been painted. With craft paper down, place your painting down on the paper face up and with your pencil close to the painting draw around it. Move your painting and, with your scissors, cut the area out you just drew. Now flip your painting face down and apply glue around the edge. Take the paper section you just cut out and begin at the top left edge, lay down, and align with the edge of your painting. Continue laying down the paper by moving your right hand to align and lay down while you are pressing down with your left hand as you. After you get back to the starting point, run your fingers around the edge again, flip over, and blow to dry at least five hours.
After the glue has dried, look for any edges that are sticking out and cut with an exact blade or cutter. Flip painting face down. Determine the location for hangers by measuring the painting vertically and divide by 4. Using eye screw hangers (sawtooth are the only hangers not accepted) or hangers recommended by the facility of exhibition screw in. Taking hanging wire (or any wire that can withstand the weight) and run through the eye on the left pull threw at least 3-4 inches and with the cut end wrap around the long wire and crimp end with wire pliers if it sticks out. With the balance of the wire, you are going to hold it up to a half inch under the top of the painting and pull down to the right eye, and measure 3-4 inches and cut. Now that tour wire is cut, keeping one finger on the middle mark rum the remainder of the wire through the right eye screw, pull tight but not moving the middle and wrap around itself like you did on the left.
Congratulations, now you are ready to hang it. This process works with most size canvases.
Si, instead of buying those cheap prints, create real art and hang yourself. Ok, now get your hardware out and get to hanging
