Christmas Cards

Well, gosh! I won a card contest!  I've been making Christmas cards for a contest and came up with some cool ideas using "found" items like bits of lace, scraps of material, pieces of ribbons, etc.  I decided to go with nontraditional colors.  Instead of the usual reds and greens, I went with golds and beiges.  Above is the card that won the contest. I'd used an old postcard for the main part of the card.  Below are two more cards I made, using the same color scheme.

  

Holiday Lunch With Friends

'Tis the season!  I recently went to Christmas lunch with my friends, Jacquie Rogers and Judy Laik.  We've been friends for years, and often spend the entire day at Jacquie's watching movies.  Her husband is a sound engineer and he has a huge in-home theater set up in their basement, complete with real movie theater speakers as well as comfy recliners.  We each bring our own lunch and make a day of it, watching several movies in a row.

But this time, we were doing lunch.  As usual, we laughed a lot.  Oddly enough, we were almost the only diners in the restaurant.  Just one other table had customers.  Afterwards, we asked the waitress to take our picture for posterity.  That's us in the picture--Judy Laik, Jacquie Rogers, and me.  Aren't we colorful?!!  

The Mug Shot

My sister Lori and I often get together for what we call a Baking and Bonding Day.  On a recent B&B Day, we made squash bread, and the house was redolent with the wonderful scent of cinnamon and ginger and cloves.  We got to goofing around, and I tried to take a picture of ourselves with my camera.  It wasn't quite focused properly, and the angle was unflattering, but every time I look at the picture, I laugh.  That's Lori on the left, me on the right, holding the camera out and trying to aim at our faces.  I love this picture.

Mom! The Cat Wants In!

I've trained my young Boxer, Asterisk, to dingle a bell hanging from the handle of the sliding glass door when she needs to go out.  But lately, I've notice that Asterisk was dingling the bell even when she'd just been out.  I'd get out of my chair to reprimand her for dingling the bell when she didn't need to go out, but then get sidetracked when I noticed one of my cats wanting in.  So I'd open the slider and go back to my computer. 

This went on for a couple of weeks before I realized what Asterisk was doing:  She dingled the bell to let me know that a cat was on the other side of the slider, wanting in.  My desk faces away from the door, so I can't see a cat behind me at the slider.  But Asterisk can.  And she goes to ring the bell whenever one of the cats wants in. 

It's hilarious, really.  I never taught her that trick.  She figured it out herself.  What's more, the cats have learned to ring the bell themselves when they need to go outside, by observing me training Asterisk to ring the bell when she has to go out.  They put two and two together, seeing that every time Asterisk jingled the bell, I'd let her outside.  Smart animals!  (The above picture is one I took just after Asterisk had jingled the bell to notify me that Christopher wanted in.  You can barely see the blue and green cable ties just above her head, from which I've hung two large jingle bells.  The buckets on the porch were from the 2 weeks of cold weather when I had to carry buckets of water to the barn for the horses when the water at the barn froze.)

Construction R Us

Hmmm.  My last two posts disappeared.  No wonder things have been quiet around here!  I finally finished the office project where I installed cabinets over my desk.  It was a bear of a job.  No matter how hard I tried, I just could not get things level, primarily because my house isn't level! It bugs me every time I look at the cabinets, but friends tell me it's not noticeable.

I'm something of a DIYer and have built many things in the past:  a walk-in closet in one end of my bedroom, a craft center (with table and cupboards) on the other end of my bedroom, a closet and cupboards in the laundry room, cedar benches and table on the front deck, a rock garden, etc.  But the cupboards above my desk were the hardest task so far.  They're done, now, and I have lots of storage space.

And once the office cupboards were installed, I got on house-rearranging kick and moved furniture and pictures around.  I'm really pleased with how things turned out.  Here are two pictures.  The first shows the new cupboards.  The second shows my "office."

Lord Byron's Profile

Here's another picture of Byron.  I told you he liked to pose.  This picture was originally bigger, but I cropped it down, because I wanted to focus on his profile and his long whiskers, standing out stark against the dark background.  Isn't he a handsome boy?

Byron Gets Contemplative

The other day, Lord Byron (my cat) was in a very contemplative mood.  He was a study in otherworldliness.  This is a very photogenic cat, and he is an excellent photographic subject.  Most animals get silly and self-conscious when a camera is aimed at them.  Not Byron.  He's a ham.  Isn't this a handsome picture?

The Red Dahlia

This past fall I took a picture of a red dahlia that fills me with happiness every time I look at the picture.  It was a beautiful flower on a bright sunny day, and when I look at the picture, it reminds me of how lovely the day was.  I'd like to share it with you.

Cheesemonger

A couple of days ago my sister and I had another "Baking and Bonding" day.  This time, we made cheese.  Yes, cheese!  Mozzarella, to be specific.  I'd ordered a cheesemaking kit, complete with video, cheesecloth, recipe book, rennet, etc., and we made two batches of Mozzarella.  It was great fun, and now we want to move on to the more difficult cheeses.  I plan to make "farmhouse cheddar," and my sister has already made an herbed Mozzarella, adding sun dried tomatoes and fresh herbs.  She said it was great on pizza. 

One thing we found out is to avoid ultra-pasteurized milk when making cheese. It just won't form a proper curd.  And trying to find non-ultra-pasteuriaed milk wasn't all that easy, because stores like to stock the ultra-pasteurized as it has a longer shelf life.

Here's a picture of me with the two batches of Mozzarella that we made.

Autumn Photo Shoot

I hosted a nature photography outing here in Olalla on October 18, hoping to capture some of the beautiful autumn foliage on the local trees.  After a week of rain, Mother Nature did cooperate and the sun came out on our day.  We stopped at Olalla Bay first, taking many pictures of the beautiful trees lining the shore, as well as the numerous cormorants and seagulls sitting like silent sentinels on old pilings.  On the left is my favorite shot of Olalla Bay.  The second picture is another view of the bay, where you can see more of the colorful trees. 

The third shot shows Olalla Bay from a different perspective.  I think the rocks and boulders add visual interest.  They were brought in to prevent erosion of the beach.  At high tide they are completely covered.

Next stop was Crescent Lake, for more photos.  Then we stopped to shoot an old abandoned cabin.  Our final stop was a small park where we took pictures of an old weathered totem pole. 

 

The close-up of the leaf is another of my favorites.  It is a blackberry leaf and I love the red and green pattern.

At day's end a couple of us still had the camera bug, so after the rest left, we went to Burley Lagoon for more photos.  The 5th picture is Burley Lagoon.

In all, it was a great day and everyone got beautiful shots.  Hope you enjoy a few of mine!

Funny (and not so funny) Animal Shenanigans

I'm sitting here at my computer and I hear my cat yelling at me for some attention.  I look down just in time to see him lean heavily against a box on the floor, attempting to rub his face against it.  The box slides across the floor.  The cat staggers and falls down.  Oops!  A little too much body English!  Embarrassed cat fastidiously licks himself, pretending it didn't happen.  Kind and sensitive owner that I am, I laugh hysterically.

I did not laugh yesterday when my puppy, Asterisk, chewed the power cord on my new drill.  She didn't even have the decency to chew the plug end, which I could have replaced.  Nooooo.  She chewed it off where it enters the drill, leaving no room to splice a new cord.  I caught her in the act, and was able to punish her, which probably didn't have much of an effect on her, but it made me feel better.  :-) 

Retail Rip-off

I am becoming more and more cynical and curmudgeonly as I age.  Primarily it has to do with "the public out there."  Rude drivers, obnoxious people, outrageous prices on products, lack of respect . . . the list goes on.  We're breeding a society of "gimmee" people.  Gimmee this.  Gimmee that.

Last week I went to the pharmacy, looking for a device that helps old people pull on their socks.  I don't consider myself old, but I do have a bad hip, and while I can cross my left leg over my right knee to put on a sock, I can't do that with my right leg.  It's been that way all my life, but as I've aged, it's gotten so bad that it's very painful trying to put a sock on my right foot.

So I paid $18 for a cheap sock aid that is next to worthless.  I went back and looked at their other sock aids.  They had one other brand, at an utterly ridiculous $32.  We're not talking rocket science, folks.  A sock aid is basically just a tube with straps attached.  The top of the tube is open.  You slide your sock onto the tube, stick your foot into the opening, and pull up on the straps.  It pulls the sock onto your foot and slides free from the sock.

No way was I going to pay $32 for a piece of plastic with straps.  So I made my own.  I took an old plastic 2-cup measuring cup and cut off the bottom, sliced off the handle and upper part of the tube, made a slit on either side for the straps, and voila!  It cost me nothing--I had all the materials.  And because it's rigid plastic, I can wipe off the hand lotion that I often use on my dry feet.  That's my homemade sock aid, below.

The sock aid I'd bought isn't rigid plastic, so putting a sock on it is an exercise in frustration.  And because it's lined with cloth (whose bright idea was that?), lotion gets all over the lining.  So now I have a perfectly decent sock aid, and retailers who charge a fortune for an item that probably cost 5 cents to make, can go suck someone's toe!

Autumn in Olalla

Wow, where did the time go?  Let's just say I've been crazy busy.  REALLY crazy busy.  I'm now on Injured Reserves, having somehow injured my back just below the shoulder blade.  Ouch. 

Autumn is officially here now, and that means the leaves on the trees are just beginning to turn.  In a few weeks, they will be a riot of oranges and yellows.  A photographer's paradise! 

I'm having a group of photographers out to my place as soon as the leaves are at their gorgeous best.  We'll be heading down to the bucolic Olalla Bay, just 2.8 miles from my house, where pine and deciduous trees grow right down to the water line and put on a display worthy of Mother Nature's highest award.  The bay is glass-like at high tide, and the reflections of the trees in the water make for some beautiful shots.  Plus, the bay has an interesting contour and shoreline. 

I'll be checking tide tables and watching the trees turn color.  In a few weeks you'll likely see a million pictures from me.  Or perhaps just a few.  As all photographers know, you can take 100 pictures, and only have 2-3 good ones worth keeping.  Thank goodness for digital cameras!

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Olalla Bay, taken a few weeks ago.  Sort of my dry run.  The tide was coming in, so the water wasn't as glass-like as it usually is.

My New Gate

I just finished painting the new gate I built for the front porch.  The old gate was forever getting out of alignment, no matter how many times I tightened the hinges.  This made it sticky, and I kept planing off wood from the side to keep it from sticking.  Then it would sag some more and scrape the deck when I opened it.  I finally got tired and chucked it.  Now, the new gate is perfect!  It is perfectly level and swings shut with the touch of a finger.  I love it!  And it's completely green, because I didn't have to buy new lumber.  And I used paint left over from previous projects. 

Now I'm in a building mood!  Oh, hey, I just came up with an idea!  I'll build a cozy cat house on the back porch for the cats.  It'll be a place for them to get in out of the rain on days they're outside and don't want to come in.  Right now, they have a bed on a small table on the porch.  The roof overhang is really large (4 feet long), so it protects them from the elements.  So I'll build a box and install it under the kitchen window so they can peer into the house and scare me with their eye reflections.  Which is what they do now.  Let me tell you, it's really spooky to see two pairs of eyes watching you at night!

I think I'll hang the box/bed on the side of the house, under the kitchen window, and either build a ramp to the box, or probably just put a footstool below it, so they can jump to the box from the footstool.  Yup, that's the ticket!

Best Friends

Today is the birthday of my best friend, Carol Hansen.  Carol and I have known each other for 35+ years.  We met while taking horseback riding lessons and have been friends ever since.  We've held garage sales together, as well as driving around looking for garage sales to visit.  We done Competitive Trail Riding together, as well as just trail riding for fun locally.  We've weathered heartache and happiness, and many, many birthdays together. 

Carol's always there for me when I need her, and I hope I always return the favor.  Just knowing there's someone who loves me for who I am, and who overlooks my foibles and missteps, means a lot.  Carol has enriched my life in more ways than I can name.  So this post is dedicated to you, Carol.  May our friendship continue to grow.  Happy birthday, dear friend.