Simple Saturday Chores

fresh from the dryer

warm 

smelling sweet

folded 

stacked

it pleases me

uh oh another storm coming

better be alert

I love this shot

Howie's tail is too long for him to sit properly

so he has to sit "side saddle" if you will

and to keep from toppling

he sticks out a leg

making him a tripod

Justice is in front in her "spot"

High Noon

stand off

but I HAD to dig at the rug!

didn't you hear the thunder?

another tripod shot

I've gone to the dogs lately

spending days, 

weeks,

the summer?

 cocooned in my home

puttering, performing simple chores

reading, sewing, painting,

always purging of course

love it - all of it

love the company I keep

unconditional love

(with a bit of neurosis thrown in)

read until 5 am this morning

watched the sunrise peek through 

as I drifted off to sleep

back up at 10 am

as Justice hollered at the base of the stairs

demanding attention

steaming cups of coffee,

warm homemade muffin,

crisp pink lady apple

sliced egg sandwich

using grandma's vintage slicer

a little butter - even less mayo

pepper, a whisper of salt

on potato bread 

a nap is necessary

on the couch

with both my pals 

fighting for position

Howie always wins

simple

soulful

pleasures

saturday

SLEEPY SLUGGY STORMY SUNDAY

Lined up like departing aircraft

Snoozing the day away

Open eyes long enough to say "shoo I'm sleeping"

Storm coming in, more opportunity for Howie 

to chew holes in curtains and tablecloths

The last storm 's tablecloth chew

sigh...

I love this tablecloth and kept turning 

the bad sides to the back.

Now there IS no good side

But those eyes

one blue

one brown 

say I'm sorry

As I shot the pic of the tablecloth just now

 Howie went and hid under the table

checking his penis..

Yeah he does that too when anxious

Such a guy

Have a good week my friends

with special shout outs to all my teacher pals.

I salute you!

Z

TOOT TOOT

I don't own a horn so 

I'm not very good at tooting my own.

My pal Sonja yelled at me 

(she did too - ALL CAPS! hehe)

in Tuesday's post comments for not promoting

my August Guest appearance on her blog.

Sonja was kind enough to ask me,

I just fretted over my words.

see my post HERE

She was right,

but not about me,

I should have linked over to her  

post weeks ago, not for me

 but to introduce more of you 

to Sonja of Hickety Pickety.

Sonja has hundreds, yes, hundreds

of patterns floating out there in the world and she

has recently converted many to E-patterns and is now

designing new patterns.

I have known about Sonja for many, many 

years and joyfully made many of her patterns.

This mini quilt was a huge hit.

I think a pal of mine still has it.

In March of this year I received an email from

Sonja who had just stumbled into Oldgreymare

for the first time and she introduced herself like this.

W O W!!!

I just spent the past hour reading some of your blog....Holy Moly, it's like I found my new best friend!!!

Honestly, you my Dear are a kindred spirit...a friend I knew was out there, but just hadn't found yet....I LOVE you!!!!

Ok, don't get scared, I'm not gonna stalk ya or anything too weird....just had to take a minute to let ya know...your home is such an inspiration, your written word makes me actually smile, caught myself laughing a bit even!!!

A week later a great friendship was born.

We now email, phone chat and

the friendship grows.

Another blessing from blogging is noted.

Her patterns were always HUGE sellers

in the shows my pals and I did,

and Sonja only asks that you

 credit Hickety Pickety when you 

do make them to sell.

I'm guessing many of you will

 instantly recognize her style,

say yeah, I remember these

and wonder, where did she go?

Sonja did take a long break 

but she's BACK

with even more great ideas.

You should get to know this talented,

funny, wacky lady

I now call my friend.

You too can easily purchase 

her patterns and completed goods

 from her Etsy shop...right...

HERE

If you visit my guest post please leave a comment

for Sonja so I can get out of hot water.

OK Sonja I did it,

now undo the Caps Lock

love ya girl

Jar Jar (Binks)

If you 

are still

and quiet

and look around

 patterns emerge

in your decor

in yourself

You must decide 

if change is required

if change is necessary

If you always make the same choices

should you ever expect a different outcome?

I am drawn to repetition

in my decor

in my profession choices

and

sometimes 

in my life choices

patterns emerge

be still

 pay attention

reflect

Hanging Around Oldgreymare

A few things that "hang" around Z's place

Under A Rock

Under a rock

Not a bad place to be

If you're a bug

a worm

uh..dirt

or me

I haven't crawled under one, 

but my inactivity in the big world 

may seem like it to everyone else.

Things are great

small, quiet and great.

Ben and Anam 

were here for my B-day 

and it was so lovely.....such a sweet time.

Did we do big stuff? Nope

He cooked a couple fab meals

(I prepared a great chicken piccata)

Ben repaired everything broken that he could find,

what a super son,

and we watched great films.

I even convinced them to watch Creator,

which they either enjoyed, or lied to me  hehe

We visited, noshed and wined

and not a photo to show.

(I do wish I had a chain saw one - up in the tree)

I was in the moment, savoring each laugh,

 smile and raised eyebrow.

I never left the house,

they did a "little Vegas"..

I had several B-day lunches with pals, 

received some great B-day gifts. 

My pals are so kind, 

but oh girls, the chocolates! 

I saved time and just rubbed 'em into

my thighs and butt.

This weekend I spent quality catch up time

 with a pal just returning from 4 weeks in Europe.

Another yummy lunch, more chocolate,
this time brought back from Belgium...

they know me well.

Polished off 10 books last week.

Battled wasps and more broken tree limbs

 from latest monsoon storm.

Pooch Howie sleeping atop my feet

under my desk right this minute

“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with.....but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it’s clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar. 
― Victoria Moran, Lit From Within: Tending Your Soul For Lifelong Beauty

Haven't read the book but I liked this quote

Small

Simple

Quiet

Living the good life here under my rock

Dang it all to Hades Doris

So there I was a few days ago bragging 

on how the world was being nice to me.

"Gratitude is Riches - Complaint is Poverty"

Doris Day

The garage door opener broke several days ago.

No biggie, I have repaired before.

I went through all the checklist,

 and got it kinda working and then a sudden

grinding nasty noise made me fear the whole

door would buckle so a quick call to

 Sears repair was necessary.

While waiting for him yesterday in

a five hour window I decided to repair the toilet.

I had diagnosed the problem.

replacing gasket tank to bowl.

Purchased the parts $7.00 versus 

Roto Rooters charge of $250.00

(seriously I called to check)

that's $1,000 an hour folks.

Watched a video on You Tube on how to repair,

supposed to take 16 minutes...

and printed out some directions to take upstairs to follow.

GRRRRIND < EEWW< POP < CRACKLE

uh oh, my printer was jammed.

After 45 minutes of picking out paper with tweezers...

I reloaded paper and hit print.

GRRRRIND < EEWW < POP < CRACKLE

Are ya KIDDING ME?

Tweezers again

and fiddlling faddling and it's feeding

 but inks are all screwed up.

Nozzle checks blah blah blah and it's still hooey.

Just paid 59.00 for new inks so if this one goes belly up...

ARGH!

Head upstairs to work on toilet and 

the 16 minute process evolves into 90 minutes 

as the bolting does not go smoothly.

I nearly reached the tears

of frustration phase..

you know the sitting on the side

of the tub, weeping cause you're

sick of all this crappola...

Ok, so maybe I did do a little weeping.

Sometimes being on a beneath minuscule

budget and solving every problem alone gets to me. 

Even Doris Day had bad days.

Then I put things in perspective 

compared to "real" problems,

and pull up my boot straps and get back in there.

They're just metal and parts anyway

Sears Repair arrives and after $154.00

I have a working door.

 A gear had pulverized.

So one issue down.

Two more to go....

and oh

Power went out this morning around 5 a.m.

I woke up to even earlier howling from

Le Pooches 

who sensed the outage somehow.

Went to make coffee.

DANG

Check email, blogs, check the news?

DANG again

Then thought of folks who depend on 

power for medical reasons,

or for business and

quit my DANGING....

 I poured some iced coffee from carton in 

barely cold fridge and headed out to the back yard...

The sunshine still worked.

I could still read a book...

and there I sat until 8:00 until the big 

whoosh when all the air conditioners 

turned back on.

Hades can wait, right Doris?

I have an old spare printer I can hook up.

I have two other toilets my guests can use

this weekend.

Be careful with the DANGS

Be careful with the BRAGGING

A friend tells me it's all Mercury Retrograde 

anyway and by Saturday all will be well.

Check out the last part... HA!

Perhaps baking a B-day cake is too risky?

Mercury's retrograde periods can cause our plans to go awry. However, this is an excellent time to reflect on the past. Intuition is high during these periods, and coincidences can be extraordinary.

In Cancer: Expect annoyances at home with baking, gardening, and household duties under domesticated Cancer. Complete repair projects that weren't finished or done correctly.

Oh Happy Day!

The world is being kind to me today.

The first season of The Newsroom is on today,

great background for more purging and cleaning.

The second season begins tonight.

WoOt!

Being driven mad by promos for tonight's

 True Blood and The Newsroom!

I watch very little TV.

What I do watch is addicting.

It is five days until 

Dearest Son and his Sweetie arrive.

WoOt wOoT!

I am beyond excited.

I will turn 60 this weekend and Ben is 

driving up to fix me dinner!

How lovely is that?

My brother Scott turns 61 the day before.

Happy Birthday Bro!

Not that he ever reads my blog....

I have a new chair to use to plant my butt 

for watching the shows tonight.

I sold my floral sofa and chair to a good pal

and they are happily ensconced in her new pad.

The cute little ottoman was on clearance (34.00) at

Target.. It opens up to store this week's

 stack of library books.

The chair came via Home Goods.

 It was already a great deal and it 

was already dirty. I hate how most furniture

is dirty there thanks to unruly kids

 NOT being watched by indifferent parents.

(topic for another day)

Anyhoot I brought the dirt up

to a manager and got another deep discount.

Don't want to tell you how little I paid.

I'm known for getting kick ass deals

that make my friends go

Aw damn!

Yes, the dirt came out. 

I love it.  

The sides are some kind of paisley "pleather".

Because it is half the size of previous chair and ottoman, 

it makes the room feel larger.

Son and Sweetie are coming in five days.

Her first time here,

wonder what she'll think of Ben's homestead?

Your home does reveal a lot about you;

what does mine say... hmmm? 

His old room is now the guest room,

so very little of his youth to discover there.

I do have his Magic and Pokemon cards still

under the bed though... 

We are more likely to drink wine and 

nibble cheese than play card games I'll bet.

So purging and cleaning all day - Love It!

Great TV all day - Love It!

Great TV tonight - Love it

New Chair - Love It!

Son and sweetie will be here soon - ADORE It!

Told you it was a Happy Day!

RAINDANCE

Rain Glorious Rain

I'm praying this rain puts out the fire in our mountains.

It  always happens this way,

right after the fourth, cool down a bit and then rain.

I am working on some custom canvases.

French doors wide open so I can 

enjoy the sound on the tin roof.

Old movies on the tube, 

and when not, I switch to Mathis.

The best "drink your wine

and bawl your eyes out CD",

and then you replay it

then switch to  

Joan Jett

to say my musical taste is diverse

is 

well

right as rain

FRIED

Fried Brains

Fried Blogger

Fried Eggs

Still working with my air conditioning company

on the repair of my attic truss they cut through

while installing new unit.

uh huh yep - of course.... 

Meanwhile fancy thermostat decided to 

channel Frankenstein's monster and

spring to life,

"It's ALIVE"

 as for two days

it has had the ability to raise itself 

to higher temperatures

all by itself.

Frustrating yes, but the real 

pain in the tuckus is that this thermostat

talks. Yep, weird male voice that announces

any action it performs. 

Soooo no matter the time of day,

or night in this case,

you'll hear...

"81"

"82"

..."95"

It is 3 am and I am awakened

by Howie freaking out downstairs.

Howie is growling and running in circles and this

male voice is counting up

"93"

"94"

"95"

I nearly fall rushing down the stairs

half asleep hearing male voices.

So it's true like in scary movies.

Women DO run down to the 

pitch black basement or

open the closet door to look behind...

( Not really, I knew it was the thermostat)

I discover Justice lying right at the base

under the swing gate at foot of the stairs.

To those who don't remember Justice is deaf.

The gate is to protect her from

falling up and down the stairs 

as she is also 90%  blind.

So I gently tap her on the head

 and she startles and slams up into the gate

from underneath and RIPS all four screws 

out of the wall, causing the gate to 

crash down behind her. 

She is terrified

but unhurt.

Howie views this

all as some attack from within  

and promptly runs to chew

 the side of the Ballard Design $$$

 burlap tablecloth he munches on 

when in distress.

HOWIE!!!!! NO!!!!

It is too damn hot for this....

hot enough to fry an egg,

well, you know

and if you don't here is a link on how to do it.

Seriously?

A link?

NUMEROUS LINKS

GET LIVES people!!!

How to fry an egg on a sidewalk.

Some mornings the world tilts off sideways 

pretty early for me.

Blogger keeps sending me pink alert messages

that have nothing to do with anything I am doing.

ALERT- this space cannot be left blank

Huh?

118

117

116

115

Our red hot numbers this week.

Death Valley I heard hit 129.

People were driving there to have their

photos taken in front of a big thermometer.

Again..

Really people?

Risk your health and perhaps

blow up your car for a photo op?

Some people have fried brains.

Fried eggs

Fried Blogger

Fried Brains

True Blood and Falling Skies

are back 

Newsroom is close..

coming back right before my signpost B-day.

I watch very little TV

so this is momentous.

As for me?

I have a working air conditioner.

Lots of iced tea

and eggs.

I'm good.