I Could Use Some Energy

For some reason I was in a bad mood when I got home from the art studio last night. I did better as far as throwing pots went, but I was disappointed with some of the things the owner said to me. When I got out of the car, Fletcher was sitting outside in the yard talking to a friend on the phone. As I walked past him, I felt something biting my foot. I was wearing flip-flops and it was dark so I never saw what it was but it stung like a scorpion sting in spite of icing it, standing in cold water, and putting Benadryl on it. At 2 AM I took some Ibuprophen (mainly because my back was hurting from throwing pots) and went to bed.  Ten minutes later I turned the light back on because the pain made it impossible to sleep. I read some more of the Witchling book until I finally nodded off.  Then at 4 AM a car alarm went off and I heard a car driving past the house. Since I live in the middle of nowhere, I had to get up and see if my car was still in the driveway.  It was, and I was thankful that my foot wasn't hurting anymore.

This time I slept until almost 8 AM and got up right as Fletcher was off to work. Two hours later, I couldn't keep my eyes open and had to go back to bed again. It's a Saturday and I have lots to do but I just don't have the energy for it. I watered 2 of the trees. It's the desert. If you don't water things, they die rather quickly.  I worked on my weaving some. I'd like to do something more physical today. The dishes at the very least. But I can still barely keep my eyes open.

Me a few years ago.

Gourd Art and Daily Activities

So many blessings have come into my life suddenly that I'm chasing my tail trying to be a good steward to all of them. I just can't do them justice.

Last night I dreamed I was being mauled by a leopard. So yeah, feeling a bit overwhelmed here.

Yesterday we got cages to prop up the tomato plants. I thought I had 3 or 4 tomato plants left, so I got 4 baskets. Turns out I have 5 tomato plants. But one of them is still small, so it might be a dwarf variety. In spite of starting our garden at the beginning of July, it's doing very well.

The gourd tools have gone missing so I need to get out there and help look for them. They are made for scraping out the inside of gourds.  Guy made them special. I'm sure they are in our tool container somewhere. I got 2 styles of gourds. One is to make quail figurines and the other ones are for doll faces with long noses. I haven't made dolls in a while and I'd' really like to get back to it. I bought some 'poodle' yarn recently on sale for .99 a skein and it will make great doll hair. It may be too bulky for the gourd dolls though. We'll see. It will go in my stash until the best use comes along.

Speaking of quail, we had 2 or 3 coveys with baby quail in them. The oldest ones turned into teen quail, so it's possible that they now look like adults so I can't single them out. But of all those babies there is now only one. I feel bad that the rest probably got eaten. They are at the bottom of the food chain between the hawks and the coyotes and the snakes. Makes me mad, but what can I do.

Someone is over here working on bows right now. (Bows as in archery, not bows as in hair).
I didn't realize he was coming today or I would have grabbed a shower. I didn't really need to be clean and shiny just to do the laundry, dishes and feed the chickens. He was going to come yesterday but we had rain intermittently. He is from here, but is going to school in NM. I grew up in New Mexico but haven't been there since I moved away in '69.

I hope Guy has time to make salsa today. We got all the ingredients yesterday. So much to do, so little time.

Gourd display in the Welburn Gourd shop.

Gourd Dollies

Under the oaks

Oaks at the Welburn Gourd Farm in Fallbrook, CA

August is Here & We Have a Bit of Rain

New plants in my Zen garden

Fairy mushrooms sprouted in my raised beds. They only last a day.

It is a little wet and rainy out and I'm really enjoying my panoramic view. I love it that my garden is getting rain. California is having a major drought so all rain is good rain in my book. Hopefully in a week or two, new desert flowers will be blooming as well. They are little time capsules, just waiting for the right moisture to bloom.

I'm almost done reading a Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. I can't believe it is taking me so long as he is an excellent writer and well worth the effort of reading.

Mostly I've been swamped with the website giveit100.com. I'm doing a huge self-improvement project which has been taking over my life.

My daughter gifted me with the book the Calorie Myth by Jonathan Bailor. As soon as I'm done with the other book, it's next. I put on 12 pounds while on vacation. Egads!

I just hypnotized someone in a chat room and he was so impressed he sent me money. Woot!

Our neighbors came back from vacation and also paid us for watching their cats and dogs and watering everything. Oh and chickens. We had to feed and water the 2 chickens.

Speaking of chickens, ours no longer look like pullets. They are getting fluffy and making bocking sounds. Bock bock. They are munching on live meal worms too. Boy they love those things. I hold one outside the chicken wire so they can reach through and grab one without taking my finger off.

I'm also making a country musical instrument called a washboard. Yes, I'm turning into a hillbilly. And I don't care.

So I just made my to-do list and was ready to dive in when my boyfriend said he is off to Victorville to get things for the garden. So yay! I want to go of course. I'll try to do the dishes first though, because usually by the time we get home I'm too tired.

I also started a Manga style painting this morning of a cat girl, when the rain started. So I put it away for now. I need to clean off my table in my container studio, so I can paint inside in bad weather. During the heat of the day it is way too hot in there to paint so I haven't worried about it much. But if I'd kept it clean, I'd be painting right now. Just one more way I keep getting in my own way.

I will still have all the specialized blogs, but I'll do my best to make this one a priority, because I don't always have time to itemize every topic into the right blog.

Washboard DIY

Family Time

Today was a day full of good news and bad news, blessings and curses. It reminds me of a movie I just watched where there was a Latin saying that basically means out of bad things can come good.  Let's hope so.

There are changes I want to make in my life. I don't think I've been applying myself. In many ways I'd given up. I got tired of bashing my head against the wall. So I either need a harder head or to remove the walls.

The relationship I'm in isn't working for either of us. I either need to change it or leave it. I want to keep traveling so I need to figure out how to finance that. I need to continue my education somehow. I need to improve my fitness, which is on a terrible downward spiral. I can't continue on like this; being in pain every day. Not every moment; just when I stand up, sit down, or move.

I have five Etsy shops, all of which are empty except for 2 items I just renewed. I have a lot of things pointed to those shops, like Youtube videos. It's discouraging when nothing sells, but it's stupid to have empty shops which pretty much guarantees nothing will sell. I just bought more tools and parts so I can finish new jewelry to put in my Hypnotic Etsy shop. I somehow lost my jewelry pliers when I got on the train, so I had to buy new ones. Maybe they slid under my train seat or something when I was pulling things out of my project bag. At any rate I got a kit for $12.00.  Just the pliers alone were from $8 to $10, so it made more sense to get the kit, which comes with a plastic carrying box, pliers that work also as crimpers and wire cutters, a magnifying glass, tweezers and some other tools. My daughter gave me her 40% off coupon to use.

Great start but when I got home and helped take care of my 2 grandkids, the day got away from me and was over before I knew it. One is 2 years old and the other is 5 months old, so they need constant supervision. My daughter is exhausted at the end of each day. So anything I can do to help her is worth it. There was a family emergency going on, so her husband was busy sorting through that and making the necessary phone calls. In a way I'm glad his father passed on so he will never have to deal with what happened.

Things To Do

My plans today were cancelled due to wind. So I made this list: Not sure what to do today? Call a friend who hasn't heard from you in forever. Keep a skill from getting rusty (piano, pottery, gardening, calligraphy). Play a sport instead of watching it on TV. Learn to juggle or juggle better. Do your yoga. Do something you thought only the other gender was meant to do. Hang up some mirrors. Clean your phone and light switch plates. Let your kid bang on some pots and pans for once. Groom your animals. Read old love letters. Visit a nursing home. Kiss someone. Learn the lyrics to your favorite song. Feed the birds. Watch an old movie. Try one healthy recipe. Try one not so healthy recipe. Figure out how to use your crock pot, food processor, DVD player, sewing machine, cell phone or camera. Stretch after every hour on the computer. Knit/crochet a lap blanket for a vet or women's shelter, go somewhere where no one can hear you and sing as loud as you want. Make a birthday card for a friend. Then it will be ready when they have a birthday. Order seed catalogs. Save your Altoid/Sucrets tins to sort things like bobby pins, washers, nails, rubber bands and Exacto blades in so your junk drawer will be less junky. Donate clothes you will never wear again to a thrift store. Browse Pinterest or Youtube or Intructables for great things to build. Try that interesting new hairstyle. Or you could just sit in your chair and complain that there is nothing to do.

Dust in the air from yesterday's high winds. More predicted for today.

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.