Kilo

Wow, it has been awhile since I have posted.  Been busy here, but I'm sure all of you have been too. 

We not only have rescued dogs and cats, but we have even rescued a bird, sort of.  Kilo is about 40 years old now (large birds can live as long as humans).  My sister and brother-in-law were taking care of him for about a year.  He used to belong to a couple who were unable to care for him anymore.  The husband was in a motorcycle accident and the wife had all she could do to take care of him. 

Well, my sister already has quite a few birds and since we used to raise them she asked us if we would like him.  My husband had been wanting a big bird (no not Sesame Street kind, LOL!) for a long time.  Anyway we have had him for about 3 years now and he fits right in with all the animals.  He thinks he is a dog.  He runs after my daughters friends nipping at their heels. 

One of these things is not like the other. 

He gets along great with the cats.  Nobody, cat or dog, seems to bother him.  They treat him just like one of the gang.  You can tell by the casual poses on the cats that it does not phase them. 

Here he is at the front window looking out at the world. 

Of course dinner would not be complete without Kilo and his own bowl or plate of food. 

Here he is at the dog's bowl eating the dog food. 

As you can see life with Kilo is amusing to say the least.  One of the phrases he says quite often is, "Go get Bob."  We don't know who Bob is, might have been a previous owner.  Well about a year after we got Kilo, I got two parakeets, a male and a female, and you guessed it, I had to name the male bird "Bob."  Couldn't resist it.  So now we CAN go get Bob. 

Thunder Boom Booms

We have been having a lot of thunderstorms lately and I love thunderstorms provided we don't flood AND our power does not go out.  Unfortunately, most of my dogs do not share in my enthusiasm.  They follow me around like I'm the Pied Piper.  They hide under my desk and mess up my internet connection (it is very touchy) by sitting on my wires and disconnecting me.  LOL!  They shake, shiver and pant like the world is coming to an end.  I don't mean to pick on my furbabies, I love them so much, but it's just so funny the way they act.  Take a look at this poor pitiful bunch. 

                                     

"Mommy, save us!" 

Let me know when it's over...

This is my little "Lady" 

This is Bowzer and he is the biggest of all the dogs, but he is the biggest baby.  He tries to find corners or little areas to squeeze into when there is a thunderstorm.  He dreams of being a lap dog.

Here is a close up of that adorable face.  Now tell me, how can you resist that face? 

The only dog not in the least bothered by the storms is Buttons.  He is the only dog, I might add, that still has the neighborhood intact.  Maybe that's why he doesn't mind.  He goes around like it's nothing.  Sleeps right through the whole thing. 

I think I might need to invest in some of those thunder shirts they are advertising for dogs. 

I guess I can't blame them for being scared.  After all if you didn't know what that noise was wouldn't you be scared too?  Poor babies!

Where Bloggers Create

Welcome to Where Bloggers Create.  This is my first year and I am so excited to see everyone's spaces.  I enjoyed it so much last year that when I was done looking at everyone's spaces, I looked at them again.  I have always had a fascination with other's homes and how they decorate and store things. 

Well I have many interests.  My first love of course is drawing.  I love to draw in pencil.  There is something about a pencil drawing that I absolutely love.  I have some samples on my blog here.  I still have more to put up but I have just started blogging and am working on it and I am still learning all about the tools that blogger.com has.  I also do cross stitch, plastic canvas stitching, painting and sewing, among many other interests. 

Well, here is the entrance to my abode.  As you can see I am a HUGE Andy Griffth fan and I watch the show all the time.  I still laugh even though I have seen them many, many times over.  I was greatly saddened when Andry Griffith passed away last week. 

Below is the view from the doorway.  If you look closely you can see one of my cats, Ben on the back of my chair and Jake our pomeraian on the floor.  The nice thing about working at home is having your fur babies with you.  I use this room for paying bills, doing my transcription/editing, sewing, writing and any other kind of crafts I do. 

Here is a close up of Ben in his favorite spot.  He looks like a rug, doesn't he?  Yes, he does stay there when I am sitting in the chair.  Sometimes he gets so relaxed that he will fall onto me.  LOL!

These are my pencil drawers.  This is where I keep my colored pencils and drawing pencils (well some of them, I have many).  This is just below my computer monitor. 

You never know where Ben will pop up.  He does keep me entertained. 

This is the shelf next to my computer where I keep my models.  As you can see I have a dog and a cat model and the one that the cow is sitting on is a lizard.  The little man who has his nose hanging off the shelf was made by my mom (from whom my love of crafting comes from) back in 1981. 

This is the other side of my room.  This is where I keep my medical books (on the top shelf) and various craft books on the bottom shelf and the box on the top is where I keep some of my fabric. The dresser has fabric and plastic canvas and assorted other crafts.   The plastic drawers next to the shelves are where I keep my stamps. 

Here is the rest of the other side of the room, as you can see more craft and art books.  Can you tell I LOVE books?  The boxes on top have pictures and sketch books in them.  Then there's Ben again with his eyes shining like headlights. 

Here is another one of our cats, Isabelle (Belle for short).  She is sitting next to a pot that I painted. 

This is a cross stitch project I am working on and of course Ben has to get in the middle.  LOL!  The plastic drawers to the right there are also where I keep some of my drawing supplies and other odds n' ends. 

This is an empty computer monitor case.  I saw an idea on Pinterest about taking out the tube to an old monitor and making a cat bed out of it.  Well, I had this monitor sitting around that I was going to throw away and I had my husband take it apart.  Well, so far no tennants.  Nobody wants to sit in it.  Oh well, I tried. 

More animals....

You could say this dog, Dixie, is my office dog.  This is her spot below my desk at my feet. 

The ladies room is not the only place where there is a line for the bathroom...

Here is a sample of my plastic canvas work.  I made these napkin rings for my niece for Christmas last year (although I did not get them done until her birthday in January).

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little tour.  As you can see animals are HUGE part of my life.  Like I said in my profile, all but 1 dog, 2 cats and 2 birds are rescues.  I am still working on getting the rest of the pictures of our fur babies up on this blog and more samples of my work.  Please come back and visit often and don't forget to visit all the other spaces that everyone has up.   

 

Going Home

Recently I went back to my hometown of Jupiter, Florida.  We moved there when I was about 5 so I consider it my hometown.  I started first grade there, I graduated from high school there.  It's where I learned to drive, had my first job, my first kiss, fell in love and got married.  Shortly after my husband and I got married we moved to Kissimmee, Florida and lived there until 1995 when after my husband had a stroke and we had sold our house we moved back to Jupiter to live with my father.  We lived there until we thought we would follow a dream of living in North Carolina, where my husband is from.  In 1997 we moved and being on my own with a disabled husband and two small children was very hard.  There were times when I really regretted moving.  I had my father to help me before, but now I was on my own.  What was I thinking? 

Well, my father died in 1998 and the last time I was in Jupiter was to pick up the pieces of his life he left behind and get the house emptied out and sold.  This trip that I just took this past month was the first time since then I have been back.  My sister still lives there as do many friends.  I was scared of going back, always making excuses and stalling about going back.  You see, my dad had asked me to stay with him until he passed away, but I didn't.  I always regretted that, but I am coming to terms with it. 

We went back mainly to go to the wedding of my daughter's best friend from there.  I couldn't back out.  It was with great anxiety that I pushed forward, even though I made subtle hints about not going.  When we got there, the very next day I swallowed hard and drove past my childhood home where the last time I was there, my sister and I still owned our parent's home.  We sold his house to the neighbors kid whom we grew up with so it is like it is still in the family.  It wasn't as bad as I had anticipated and actually a wave of relief came over me.  This big huge monster that was staring me in the face for so many years had turned into a little mouse.  I had friends of my father's say that I shouldn't regret not staying.  That God has things planned for us and like my mom always said, "everything always works out for the best."

It has been an emotional trip and I am ready to go back again, although I am NOT going to wait another 14 years to go back. 

Hello Again!

Well, it's been awhile since I have posted anything. I had a cold and then I have had some health issues. I have Tourettes and it has reared its ugly head lately which makes it hard to keep up with things. I don't have it to the point that I have vocal tics, I mean when I cuss, I do it on purpose, LOL. But it does wear me out and its about all I can do to keep up with my full time job and the house. Well enough about that.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about something that is near and dear to my heart lately and that is animal rescue. I used to foster animals for the Humane Society but unfortunately with a disabled husband and a full time job and 7 dogs, 6 cats and 3 birds that is not too easy for me to do right now. I have been doing some praying and I feel that the easiest thing for me to do right now is to take a page from Michelle May's book of the Raspberry Rabbits and combine my loves and do animal drawings and donate part of the proceeds to animal rescue. I have to get my bearings and figure out what I am going to charge and how to go about advertising for this and such, but for now if anyone is interested please let me know. I draw pictures from a good photograph and I can draw more than one animal in one picture from more than one photo.

Well, just wanted to get back with everyone. I will keep you informed.

A CRAFTY POST

Well, finally a craft post. I am an artist and crafter and I finally finished a Christmas gift that I started before Christmas, but did not finish in time, but will be a Birthday gift for my niece in January. She loves penguins and she can use them this next Christmas. I guess you could say I'm early for this year. HA HA!

Kinda looks like a new singing group!

SUPERBOWL COMMERCIALS

Well, Superbowl is coming up and the Superbowl is known for expensive flashy commercials and that is what a lot of people watch for, besides the football. But when we visit our friends, Billy and Florence, to watch the Superbowl, I go to see Billy's reaction to the commercials.

Now, let me tell you a little bit about Billy. He and my husband have been friends since high school. He's the kind of friend who is there for you no matter what. He is a laid back, good ole contry boy, but by no means is he dumb. He has a sharp wit and is funny without even trying. They live out in the contry and the closet neighbor is about a couple of city block lengths down the street.

During half-time last year, the "Black Eyed Peas," a singing group, in case you didn't know, were the entertainment. Billy had never heard of them before. They came out in futuristic, wild-looking outfits. Billy, in his casual southen drawl said, "they ain't from around here."

Later on there was a commercial for some beer, the name was "Stella Artois." It looked like it was in a club and there was this guy singing a slow song, kind of romantic sounding and with a French accent. All the women were entranced with him and had tears coming down their faces. After the commercial ended, Billy sat there for a few seconds and then said, "must be some good beer, all the women are crying."

Well, just a few more weeks and we get to visit with Billy and Florence again and I am sure we will have more stories of Billy's "observations."

Stay Tuned....

A Run Around the Block

We have 7 dogs. The reason we have 7 dogs is: 1) We love animals. 2) We used to foster for the Humane Society and we ended up keeping the dogs that had trouble finding a forever home.

One dog we have is Runt. Runt is part lab, don't know what the other part or parts are. We have a fenced in yard but when given the chance they will make a break for it out the front door to freedom. Runt will run down the steps and stand at the end of the driveway and look back as if to say, "Come on, let's go." He has a game that we play, he runs around the block and we chase him in the car. He will look back every once in awhile to make sure that we are still behind him.

Here he is waiting at the end of the driveway for his "Run."

I'm still waiting...

And we're off...

C'mon Mom, keep up with me.

We're almost home.

OK, I'm done, ready to take a nap.