Moving On

Halfway point

Empty finally, after 3 trips.

In an effort to save money (and who doesn't want to do that), we finally got everything out of a storage unit that has been stuck there for 16 years because we've had no where else to put it. I finally found my Gocco Printer, my manual typewriter, my upright loom and my collection of rubber stamps. I found things that made me sad, like all the stuff from my office in San Luis Obispo, CA before my divorce. I found things that made me happy, like the first stuffed elephant I ever crocheted, which I made for my new baby in 1982, which I can now wash and fluff up and re-gift to my grandson. Just in time too, because he will soon have a baby sister, and I don't want him to feel left out when the new baby gets all the attention. But after two days of driving to Orange County and back from the Mojave desert, I am happy to be home again. What a long day!

Working on Computer Issues

Still testing out my new Broadband connection. It's so weird to have a limited amount of data. I have to choose do I want to keep up with games, or just use it for work. Computers should be fun as well as a way to make a living. Do I give up blogging, which indirectly earns me money, but is more a creative outlet? Don't ask me to choose between work and fun. I may have to go to Westminster this afternoon and tomorrow to empty out storage because we are hemorrhaging money. If we can get it empty before the first we save $100. I need to go help take the camper shell off the truck now.

I Got My Zazzle Order

I got the t-shirt and postcards I ordered from my Zazzle shop and they are fantastic. I can't wait to use them as soon as I get better. It's not a cheap process compared to just buying a shirt somewhere, but I get my own art or photography on the items and for that is it worth it to me.

The items I sold on Zazzle earned me enough money to but the postcards and t-shirt.

Desert Beauty

Today I wanted to focus on the beauty and the healing power of nature.

Slow Internet Connections

I'm hassling with my Internet connection again. I couldn't take the dial-up anymore so I got Virgin Broadband yesterday. It's also slow. I can get no better than a low or good signal. I called to ask how to fix that and she recommended buying an antenna to boost the signal. So I browsed the Radio Shack website and their antennas are about $200-$300 range. I think it's ridiculous to pay $55 for the service per month to begin with, for limited data so I'm not going to be buying a $200 antenna. But I'll go ask someone at the store how much the exact one I need would be, just to be sure. So I called Verizon once again to ask them if DSL was available at my home yet. Still no. She said all they had was Direct TV. Our next door neighbors have DSL, but Verizon said there are no new ports available so we are S.O.L. Ugh. That's how my day is going. I just want fast unlimited Internet service that doesn't cost an arm and a leg like I had in Anaheim. Why is that so hard to find?

Follow Me

I'm almost made it through the first month of my daily blog for 2013. It's been hard to post every day with my dial-up connection. For a few days I couldn't get it to open with Windows IE at all. Fortunately, I switched to Firefox and now Blogger has been working much better. I don't know why that is, but it's a relief.

I still have only 1 follower, and that makes me sad. Maybe people don't follow blogs anymore, preferring to find the links on Twitter or Facebook or that Google plus widget.

Last night I didn't sleep well and kept having annoying and repetitive dreams. So I tried to sleep in a recliner for the second half of the night. My cold is worse I'm afraid. And there is no sunlight today so I'm in for another dreary day. I'm hoping to get a ride to the yarn shop, but even that is looking tentative at this point. But I will hold on to that hope, because at least it is something to look forward to today.

Cheer me up and follow my blog. It's free.

New Banner

I made a new banner for my blog yesterday. I hope you like it. It's supposed to look like butterscotch being all swirled together in a pan. I tried to put the banner on my Facebook page, but no matter how much I re-sized it, it just wouldn't fit right. If I got it too small, it wouldn't upload. I tried getting the size from Google, but the size it said to make didn't work either. Sigh. So now it just says Gypsy Tribal Kaleido. The rest is off the page. Oh well.

Today it's gloomy outside. I'm doing my best not to be gloomy inside. I want to make bread dough art today. First I have to clear a workspace. I have a sore throat so I'm low on energy. Hopefully by the time I clear the space, I won't be too tired to do the project. But the dough will keep in the refrigerator if I run out of steam.

Thursday Thoughts

It's a new day. I didn't sleep well and have a bit of a sore throat. It was warm when we walked into the house last night for the first time in weeks. I was able to sleep under one blanket instead of 3 and I didn't have to wear a hat to bed. Even so I was so stressed out from the day before that I couldn't stay asleep. I got up at 6:30 and slept in the recliner for a few more hours. I think I slept until 10:30 and now I feel really weird. I had fantastic dreams though, which I wrote about in my 'craft-a-day' blog.

 I don't know what I want to do today though. It's raining intermittently, so I don't really want to get a project going outside, only to have to rush it back into a dry place if the rain dumps on me.I'm trying to finish some books. Today is my library day, but I don't feel well enough to go. I guess I just feel sad since people keep giving me a bad time about having too much stuff. I want to paint, but then I start thinking how if nothing sells, I'll just be stuck with even more paintings to store until the day comes when someone realizes I actually have some talent. What if Van Gogh had just dumped all his paintings in the trash, so his house would be clean and his friends and relatives would stop judging him and complaining? I'm tired of being misunderstood. I wish everyone would just leave me alone.

A Dreary Day of Moving Boxes

I spent most of today as a passenger so we could go clean out our storage unit in Westminster CA. I wish we had just rented a truck because not much fit in our pick-up and now we’ll have to go back 2 or 3 more times. I’d rather have done the whole thing in one day. It takes an entire day to make the trip, whether we get 20 boxes or all of them. The good part of the day was I got to knit for about 4 hours and I found my loom and my manual typewriter in storage, so I’ll get to use those again finally. They’ve been in there 16 years. We had no room for them in the apartment, and now we have no more room for them in the new home, but we can’t afford storage anymore, especially storage that is 150 miles away. Don’t ask me what we are going to do with this stuff when we get it to our new home. And it’s raining today so we can’t even unpack the truck.

Broadband 2 Go

Life is about taking risks. And in an effort to step out of my comfort zone I've just ordered Broadband Wi-fi from Virgin. I just hope it works. Anything has got to be better than the dial-up connection I'm stuck with now. And hopefully my income will increase as soon as I have a better Internet connection. I can start posting regular tutorials again and continue writing for Hubpages and Squidoo. And I will save time by not having to spend 6 hours a week at the library waiting for a turn on their computers. I practically feel like I live here. The best Virgin can do is 3G. The newer 4G isn't enabled in Lucerne Valley (big surprise there).

Guitar Where Did We Go Wrong?

I remember trying to teach guitar to a college student. After the 3rd lesson she quit. She asked me when she’d be able to play like Eric Clapton. Seriously. I think a lot of people want something for nothing. They want to take a magic talent pill and be an overnight sensation. Right now I have a mental block with practicing my guitar. I got 2 library books on playing it thinking that would motivate me. Today I even stared at my guitar case in the closet. Nothing. I said to myself, ‘when you get out of the shower, then you can play.’ Then I forgot all about it until I needed a topic for tonight’s post. The person who inspired me to blog daily, because she was going to blog daily, left a post a few days ago saying she was ‘going away’. No posts since. Sigh.

Heal Your Life

I'm reading Meditations to Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. It's really helping me to keep a positive mental attitude. We had a beautiful warm day today. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I have a happy feeling of contentment knowing I did the best job I could with what I had. I brought joy to children. What more is there?

Gig Tomorrow

I've resolved to make small improvements to my life each day. I'll make a note of them at the bottom of my daily blog posts if I remember to do so. Like today I took everything out of my face painting tackle box, and scrubbed it clean. That way I'll feel better at my gig tomorrow. I'm going to get my costume ready tonight. I already have some of the stuff for the party in the truck, so I won't waste a lot of time tomorrow getting ready. I just need to add a folding table and my juggling bag. So when I get home I need to sort out my juggling bag and make sure the balloons are still good. I hope I don't have to go shopping for fresh balloons on the way to my party, but I don't want to find out they are no good in the middle of the show. I want to practice my juggling too, so I hope I get home before dark. Juggling the teddy bears is the trickiest so I need to practice with those at the very least.

Music Corner

I’m doing my best to make small improvements to my life each day.

I’d noticed my musical dreams had fallen by the wayside. So one of the first things I did at my new place was to make a music corner with the guitar, drums, recorders and didgeridos in it.

So I’ve been making it a point to practice piano. I just realized that it's already been a week since I got to play piano. So I sat down and played while my boyfriend was (hopefully) out of earshot. He came in and asked me what was wrong. I said, “Nothing, why?” And he said he thought the cat had gotten tangled up in the blinds again and was making a racket. Very funny. There is a reason I’m so self conscious about doing anything theatrical around him. I try to have mercy on him and at least wait until he is out of earshot. I’d like to get back to the point where I could teach piano classes again.

I also picked up some guitar books at the library. Hopefully when I clean my room today I’ll be able to get to my closet and get my guitar out. Then I can put it in the music corner.

Zazzle T-shirt

Zazzle is driving me crazy tonight. My account says I have $40.41 of cleared earnings. So I ordered merchandise that it should have covered completely, only it says I can only use $32 of my earnings. So I emailed their support to find out why and they say only $32 is cleared, even though my account page as I view it says $40. #confused. I hope it's worth it. This is going to be the most expensive t-shirt I've evre bought. This is the logo I will have on it.

What Do You Love?

My boyfriend mentioned butterscotch pudding today and now I want some. Mmmm.

He did gift me with some Red Vines though. Nom nom.

I love sushi.

I love sitting in front of a cozy fire.

I love watching the phases of the moon.

I love doing witchy things.

I love watching goats play.

I love red chickens.

I love the roadrunner that drops by.

I love waiting for my granddaughter to be born.

What do you love?

Opportunity Lost

Here I am an out of work children's entertainer, and I'm on the library computer, and right behind me the librarian is calling a children's storyteller or something trying to book a March Dr. Seuss event.  I am torn. Do I leap up and say 'pick me pick me'? I'd love to know what website she was looking at when she called them but I don't want to be a nosey nellie. Do I come back carrying balloon animals in one hand and a portfolio in the other? Or do I do nothing, hating myself for not being more prepared.

Bang

If Heather drew this she was 8 at the time. If Tiffany drew it she was 6.
 

I feel like a pioneer woman chopping kindling and building a fire every morning, noon and night. Knitting warm clothing, making bird feeders out of gourds, adding to my compost pile, and shooting arrows. Looks like I’ll be taking a gun class next. My boyfriend keeps trying to talk me into it, and then our landlady came by today and said she just took it. It’s an NRA class called Women on Target. I never in a million years would have thought of taking a class like that, but it seems the universe is conspiring against me. Maybe I’ll meet some people at least. And maybe it will lead to me joining S.A.S.S. some day so I can do old west reenactments.

Happy One Thirteen Thirteen

When I got up this morning we had no running water again. We took a hair dryer to the outdoor pipes that we could see. That didn’t work straight away but about 20 minutes later the pump came back on and we had running water again. So maybe it did help but I couldn’t prove it one way or the other. It’s been seriously cold here.

Today was my boyfriend’s birthday but he didn’t want to do anything. So I have to respect that but it’s a letdown to me. I tried to make him breakfast in bed, but he got up. I tried to make him lunch but he said he doesn’t like the way I make cheeseburgers. After that I gave up. I enjoyed my cheeseburgers though.

Then we found out Stater Brothers had gotten more hams in, so he wanted to go to the store and get a ham. On the way home we stopped at the hunting range run by the Lions and he got info on when they are open. All their proceeds go to charity and it’s run by volunteers so that’s great.  They have a little spot for doing archery too. And they have a SASS group with old west type shooting. That should be fun to watch. I hope it will be a way for me to make some friends here. And I hope it gets him out of the house and back into doing something he loves.

 

 

Snow in the Desert

This morning I got a new video uploaded on Youtube. It's a vlog of the snow we had a few days ago. I am happy to report that once I made the video at home with Movie Maker, and put it on a remote flash drive, it took less than 5 minutes to uplaod it with the library's computer sysetm. So maybe I can make tutorials again. We'll see.


I continue getting new subscribers to my Youtube stream. So if you want to subscribe to that, view this video on youtube instead please.

Time Alone

I hope you had a fabulous Friday. I had fun visiting a friend and her two young children. We came home with a truck full of free firewood which I’m very thankful to have considering it was 40 degrees in our kitchen when I got up this morning. I made a fire at 6 AM and spent most of the next 4 hours knitting on a new afghan project. There were a few colors I wished I had so when we went to a yarn boutique in Apple Valley and I got the three colors I needed. Their prices are like highway robbery and the lady told me I was lucky to be shopping now because the prices were about to go up. I grabbed my treasures and ran before she could slap a higher price on it. From now on I’m ordering my wool online. I just have to be more patient and wait for it to be delivered.

I’ve been tense today and I realized I’ve had no time alone and also that I haven’t written in my long hand journal in weeks. I don’t know about you, but when I don’t get any time by myself I’m sad, cranky and anxious. I used to walk to Dairy Queen when I needed some space. Now there is nothing close enough to walk to, unless I just want to stand out in the cold desert. I could go in my room and shut the door but it’s freezing in there and my boyfriend would feel rejected. Yet again I realize I need to get a car. It’s the downside of a tiny house I guess. There is no escape. There's no privacy.

It's Snowing!

I slept in the recliner last night because the winds were howling and it was too noisy to sleep in my bed next to the window. I tried drowning it out with the radio, but then the radio was too loud to sleep next to. So the cat and I shared the recliner. When I got up this morning it was snowing. We cancelled our plans to visit friends today and stayed home to enjoy a warm fire and a snowy morning. It doesn’t look like I’m going to make it to the library either. But I’m reading a good fantasy trilogy. Book two is ‘To Light a Candle.’ I already ordered book 3 from the interlibrary loan system. The library here is tiny so I have to order almost everything.

I’m going in circles trying to figure out how to change my address for my CSA Annuity.  When it didn’t arrive this month I realized it’s probably one of those types of things that the post office won’t forward. I needed that money to pay bills! It should be a simple thing but I’ve been going around in circles for 3 days trying to find out who will change it for me and waiting for call backs. So far this year I’ve had hassles with the City of LA, the State of CA (DMV) and the Federal Government. And it’s only Jan 10^th.

On a more cheerful note, we got to use a BOGO coupon at Hometown Buffet yesterday for my birthday. It’s the only one in this area and it was quite nice. If you get on their birthday list, you have a week from your birthday to use the coupon they Email you.  Which reminds me, I need to get my boyfriend’s name on that list because his birthday is Jan. 13. Go Capricorns! If you want to get on the coupon list it's here: Hometown Buffet.

 

 

Thawing Out

Yesterday when I unpacked my daily box I found my yoga video. I’m looking forward to getting back into it because I’ve been so stiff every day. It’s so cold in my house; I’m going to have to warm up before I can even start. The phone rang and I got up to answer it, and I was so stiff that by the time I crossed the room, they’d hung up.

I try not to be angry that my boyfriend moved us somewhere so cold. But when my arthritis flares up, it’s hard to be happy. I was so worried about being too hot here (and I will be come summer) but I had no idea I’d be freezing my bottom off in winter. I wear outdoor clothes indoors. Yesterday I was going to go outside for some reason, and I got up to put a sweatshirt on, and I realized I already had on the same clothes I’d wear outside. Its noon, and I’m wearing pants, shirt, sweatshirt, socks, shoes, knit hat, and knit scarf IN THE HOUSE. And I’m still cold. We are trying to save the firewood for evenings so we don’t run out. Since it is warm and beautiful outside, I’m heading out as soon as I get my daily blog posts finished. I’m sure I’ll be in a better mood when I defrost.

Library Computer Time

Lighting a candle for absentee healing.

Yay, I've managed to blog every day for a week on my new blog. I guess the next milestone will be one month.

After I get done blogging, I'm going to Youtube to find a Minecraft tutorial on what the cauldron is for. This is the second cauldron and flower pot I have found and I still don't know what to do with them. I can't open the cauldron or anything so that's not it. You would presume it was to brew spells. I have a Minecraft blog if anyone is interested.

A friend said he'd pay for a Satellite computer connection or faster Internet of some sort, only after he said it he hasn't returned any of my emails, so maybe he changed his mind. I did have my hopes up though. I'm at the library now and the woman on the computer to my left is on her cell phone while using the computer as if this were her own private office. She's trying to whisper, but like most stage whispers, that just makes it worse. The guy to my right is typing like a bat out of hell. I think it's the same out of work teacher that was here a few days ago. It seems like we are all desperate for computer time. These chairs are as hard as a church pew. Am I doing penance for not earning enough money to have the luxury of decent computer service in my own home? I keep praying to the computer gods for help. I miss the Anaheim library. Not only did it have more computers, it has a snack bar where I could get lunch. I get pretty hungry between 11 and 3 and they don't even have a bench to sit and have a snack on, much less a room with vending machines. I was spoiled by the Haskett library.

Anxiety and Restless Nights

As much as I wanted to sleep in today, I was flopping around like a fish, so at 7 AM I finally gave up and got out of bed. When I renewed my driver's license, the DMV put my old address on it. I'd already sent them the new address when I moved here but somehow they botched it and put the wrong address. So now I have an appointment to go there this morning. No big deal, except I don't have a car and my boyfriend will now have to drive me 60 miles round trip to fix their mistake. I just hope they don't charge me for the privelege but they probably will. So I couldn't sleep. I hate to impose on him and he's not happy with me anyway so it just adds more stress to our relationship. To make it worse, I haven't gotten my check yet, because that is still forwarded from the old address. So I can't pay bills until it comes in the mail. Last month it came on the 5th. It will probably come today, but if so it will be while we are already out of town, so we will have to make another 40 mile round trip to take it to the bank before I can pay bills with it. I shouldn't blame myself...he's the one that wanted to move out in the middle of nowhere. But I know he can't afford the gas so I feel miserable about it.

Update:

Today turned out better than I thought it would. Although the DMV was as bad as I remember the DMV offices of the past being, I was out of there in 20 minutes because I’d made an appt. first. Why in the world the other 100 people in line didn’t do that is beyond me. And she waived the fee for fixing my address which was only fair because they are the ones who haven’t updated their records with my new address. To my surprise she gave me a piece of paper to serve as a temporary license until they make me a new one.

But on to the good stuff. I finally got to go to Hobby Lobby. Friends have been telling me about it for years but I never lived near one. I’ve been waiting 4 months to go to this one. I didn’t have much money on me but I was determined to buy something. Luckily their McCall patterns were on sale for .99 so I was able to get 2 dress patterns from the new book.

Windy Day and Butterscotch Fashion

Our neighbor's chickens.

Blog Day 6

It’s a blustery day outside. I lit the fire to get the chill out of the air inside my house. Then I made two egg and cheese burritos because I always feel a little better after breakfast.

The cat is curled up on our new ‘used’ recliner. He’s already tried to scratch it a few times so now it’s covered with blankets.

I watered the bedding plants and bulbs yesterday. I hope the bulbs take. It would be nice to have flowers in the spring. As cold as it is, I’m not sure if I’m watering them enough or too much. I’ve never lived in a place with so much frost. Not since I was a child in New Mexico anyway.

My mantra today should be Manifest Abundance. I could use some abundance about now.

I got that Butterscotch board made on Pinterest yesterday. It’s called Best Butterscotch Fashion if you are motivated to look for it. I’m not even going to try to open up Pinterest on my dial-up  connection. Otherwise I’d get you the link.

I need to write my pen pal Carol a letter. She sent me a birthday card, a Christmas card and a letter and I don’t think I’ve written her back yet. If this wind keeps up I won’t be able to work outside, so maybe I’ll stay in and knit and write letters.

 

Thrift Store

I just visited the strangest old thrift store. It looked like hoarders gone wild. Stuff filled an entire house, the huge patio, and if you looked through some ragged curtains, a huge storage space behind the patio/house. I've never seen such a fire trap. I about turned around and left, but Guy dove it. I told him, 'If it exists, it's in here, but good luck finding it." Two little old ladies were running it. I got a Louise Hay book of affirmations, an egg basket, and a big thermometer for my front porch. Guy was trying to find a basket for his beeswax, but nothing seemed just right.  So he went away empty handed.

A pit fired face I made a few years ago. Now that we live in the desert, we'd like to do more pit fired pottery.

I See Every Sparrow Fall

It's been a cold day. I'm wearing my fingerless gloves just so I can type.
When I opened my door this morning, there was a sparrow on the ground flapping around. So I bent over and carefully picked it up in my gloved hands. When I carried it inside to warm it up, I realized it was already gone. So I set it under the bushes so it could become part of the food chain. And then I was thinking about death.

Later in the day my daughter reminded me of a friend in a coma. And then I started wondering if prayer was a useful thing. Does it really help or does it just give the illusion of helping in a time when I feel helpless? Should I be lighting a candle for this person every night? Is there absentee healing? These circular arguments mostly disturb me and are never resolved. Reading the book The Symbol got me to thinking about these things all over again.

Then another friend told me his mother-in-law is in the hospital. She has terminal cancer. I can't imagine how a person copes with that. This was a close call. When you are that fragile, it doesn't take much to do you in.

I remember a pagan crystal shop that had an altar where you could light a candle for someone. I always felt better when I did that, though I don't know why. I suppose it's a symbol of showing you care for and are thinking of that person. Maybe I should set up my altar again. Maybe I will light a candle for both of them and see what happens.

Birthday Girl

Happy birthday to me. I woke up at 3 AM and ate a piece of pumpkin pie. Then I went back to bed. Before I had breakfast I asked my boyfriend if we had any eating out lunch or dinner type plans before I wolfed down a big breakfast.  To my delight he said we were lunching at a buffet in Hesperia. Sure looking forward to that! I could have waited for him to surprise me, but then I’d be full when I got there and then I’d be sad.

It sounds like the tea kettle on the wood stove is hot now.  I need some tea to warm me up and get rid of that cold morning congestion.

I was reflecting on being 55 and some of the principles in that novel The Symbol. At one point in my life I believed we should do service to advance mankind. But years of hardship perhaps have made me apathetic. Why give to a beggar in a parking lot when he’s holding more money in his hand than I earned today? Why give to the poor in foreign countries when I find the government just siphons off the money to use for their own nefarious schemes? Hard questions to answer.  When I was more giving (because I had more to give) I was often taken advantage of by the takers. For every giver there seems to be a plethora of takers.

For example, I would give away balloon animals. The kids would line up, get their balloon, and run off again.  Then I found out some kids got back in line a dozen times, each time giving the balloon to a relative somewhere out in the crowd, then coming back for more. These people never tip.  And they have no shame about milking the system. So when I run out of balloons, they’ll have 25 and other kids will have none. Nor do they ever think that since they got something for nothing, maybe they should pay it forward and give something to someone else. They seem to have grown up with the pirate code: ‘Take all you can then take some more.’ This is just an easy to understand example of the way many people are, always with the hand out but never there to lend a hand.

Wow, kind of a dark topic for my birthday. I want to be the generous person I used to be before I was old and cynical. That’s all.

There are many ways to serve mankind that don’t involve money though. Like teaching people a skill like reading or accounting. Or visiting shut-ins and nursing homes. Or helping an elderly person with yard work or grocery shopping.

 Overnight I ran a systems scan and found a medium risk virus, so I’m glad I got rid of that. With dial-up it’s tricky to run scans, so I’m thankful I did it at 3 AM. My boyfriend doesn’t like tying up the phone line between 7 AM and maybe 10 PM.

I had to leave my clothes on the line overnight to dry, because it was too chilly yesterday.  I’m still getting used to not having a dryer. There’s a lot I haven’t gotten used to yet. Like dry towels that feel like cardboard.

The Red Wagon

This is the eve of my 55th birthday. I'm sitting in a tiny house in the CA desert, in a place I never thought I'd be. So far I haven't gotten used to it. I have a fire going in our wood burning stove. I would describe this as a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live here. Unfortunately I do live here and I'm trying to make the best of it.

My friend sent me a birthday card with a victorian woman on the front. It says Do something wild on your birthday...and don't forget who gave you the idea.

My grandson is 2 and wants to do everything himself.  Here he is pulling a wagon in my yard. I wish it had snowed. It snowed about a week before Christmas. We had a bonfire in the backyard for New Year's Eve. My son-in-law took over chopping dead branches and cactus for the fire. My boyfriend made tamales and pumpkin pie. I spent my time seeing as much as I could of my pregnant daughter and my grandson.

I was sorry to see them go.

New Year New Blog

I am on a quest to blog every day of 2013.  But the Blogger URL Quest 2013 was taken by a person who titled her blog Quest 2014 and she has no posts. So I went for a name of things I love and that I was pretty sure wasn't taken. Hence Gypsy Tribal Kaleidoscope Butterscotch was born.

So what shall I write about? I taught belly dancing for twenty years, so that's the gypsy tribal part. I love kaleidoscopes and the art inspired by them.  And butterscotch is such a fun word and a yummy pudding. When I was a child I always thought of the house next door as butterscotch colored.  Maybe I will make a board on Pinterest and call it Butterscotch. That would be fun. Come to think of it, the Lifesavers on my desk are butterscotch, though originally I was going to go with hopscotch as part of the title.

This is New Year's Day and I got to see my 2 year old grandson. He's a strawberry blond bundle of pure energy and curiosity. I think in 2 days time he touched everything he could reach in my house. I was happy when he left so I could catch my breath but I was sad to see him go. So one of my big goals for 2013 is to get a car so I can drive the 300 miles to see him more often as well as my grand daughter that is due in Feb. 

The book I'm reading is a thriller called The Symbol. It makes me even more curious about the Masons. Some of my friends are Masons. One of my boyfriends was in the Order of DeMolay. I wonder if he stuck with it when he grew up. Steve Webber holler back if you see this. I've tried to find him on Facebook but it's a name many people have. I have no idea where he went after he joined the service in the 70's.

Yesterday I did some archery and realized my arrows are in sad shape. Two have fletching damage, one was cracked behind the tip, and therefore unusable, and they just look ratty. Time to make new arrows.  We got to shoot at a foam deer a friend gave us when he was downsizing his garage. That was a lot more fun than shooting at my cardboard target. We're going to make a burlap target too, as soon as we get the sewing machine set up. We just moved here so things are still a jumble. Frankly, I'm not the most organized person in the world even on a good day.

I had a great plan of renting a container for the backyard so I could do all my arts and crafts in it and free up my house for living in.  Now it's so cold in my new town, that I'd be a human popsicle if I was out there working right now. And I just read that the last day of frost is mid-May. I better buy some flannel shirts with long sleeves. It's over half full of my craft junk as it is, so I can't just tell them to take it back or I would have zero room in my tiny house. I call it Shoebox Ranch because it's so tiny, like living in a shoebox.

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I'm doing a photo study of this pile of firewood.