Heat Be Gone Hodgepodge

It's been a long, hot summer, y'all and I'm OVER it. I'm not a fan of the summer heat and enough is enough. I am ever hopeful that fall will bring some cooler temps but you just never know in the low-country. Fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, let's all enjoy the Hodgepodge!

1.  Are there any men or women in blue on your family tree? No. 

2. Are you someone who suffers from the Sunday night blues? I used to be. What helps you get over it? Nothing, really. Coming off a weekend, especially during football season, was always rough. It wasn't the job- the job was great. It was the fact that I HAD to get up early and go straight into a fast routine so I could get up to school on time. There's a lot to pack into a morning when you have to go to work even if your kids are all grown up. I do better with leisurely morning routines. 

3. I read the color blue is an appetite suppressant since there are very few naturally blue foods out there. How do you feel about blue cheese? Meh. Love it or blech? If you're a fan, what's something you like that's made with blue cheese? I use it rarely. Lovely 1 LOVES blue cheese. There is a blue cheese burger that I've had that was really good. Blue cheese is a bit strong for my bland taste buds. 

4. We can't head in to the Labor Day weekend without a related question, can we? Complete this thought: I work best when everyone leaves me alone.

5. 'Everything yields to diligence.' Antiphanes Your thoughts? (on this particular quote or on diligence in general) All I can say is that when I work carefully and give it my absolute best  on anything from work-work to a craft project, I produce much better quality work than when I try to rush through. 

6. The National Park Service turned 100 years old on August 25th. Have you been to many of America's National Parks? I've been to 5.  If so share with us a favorite or two. I loved going to the Everglades when I was a kid and I enjoyed Sequoia. Not enough to want to go back, however.  Which National Park would you most like to visit before the next birthday rolls around? Any of the ones in Alaska or Montana look worthy. 

7.  Bid farewell to August in seven words or less. Take your hot temps with you. 

8.  Insert your own random thought here. Do you ever feel as though you simply did not think something through before you acted on that thought? You'd think I am old enough to know better but, apparently, I am not. 

Anyway---

It's Day 31 of the August Happiness Challenge but I owe one for the 30th as well. 

Day 30: Watching my sweet pup do just about anything makes me happy! Even watching him sleep after a long day of helping keep an eye on Baby M and chasing squirrels. He's a busy boy!

Day 31: Participating in the Happiness Challenge made me happy! And it made me look, DILIGENTLY (see what I did there?), for my happy every day. It also got me back into gratitude journaling! A worthy challenge indeed!

Have a great rest of the week, y'all!

Artsy Fartsy

Are you artsy? I'm not. I would like to be, but I'm not. I know what I like and what I don't like. I also know what I'd like to be able to do. But I am quite aware of my limitations when it comes to painting or drawing or being artsy. You might call me an artsy wannabe. 

While I am not an artist, I do appreciate art and the artists who have the gift of being a visual artist. I get especially excited when I see this gift in a young person like my friend, Patrice's, daughter, Lauren. 

Lauren is talented in several areas: she sings opera, plays the harp and the piano, and she paints and draws. It's the visual artist part of her that has inspired this post. 

You can visit Lauren's website to see her paintings. I have 'lifted' a couple of my favorites from her Facebook page (Operartist). This is my favorite:

On August 18th, Lauren launched a 101 Day Art Challenge. That means she will create a new piece of art for 101 days IN A ROW! Wow! And, those who see something they like can purchase a print of the original during this time. The price can't be beat, it's the number of the day plus $1 for shipping. So, if you liked the work created on the 12th day, the cost would be $12 plus $1 for shipping. Cool, right?

If you want one of the paintings, just leave a comment on Lauren's Facebook page. 

In November, for the last 26 days of the challenge, Lauren will accept portrait commissions for the day of your choosing. Sounds like a good gift idea, eh? 

Check out the color on this one:

Please consider hopping over to Lauren's Facebook page and sharing some love by 'Liking' her page. 

It's Day 29 of the August Happiness Challenge but, as usual, I owe y'all 4 days. If you want to join in, create an icon of something, anything, that makes you happy, post your 'happy', and head over to One Gal's Musing and let her know, in the comments, that you're on board! That's it!

Here you go:

Day 26: Young, inspired/inspiring young artists make me happy!

Day 27: Watching the birds and squirrels eating on the deck every morning makes me happy!

This robin was on the roof fussing at me for being on the deck. 

Day 28: Having most of my adult lovelies living close enough to come over for dinner makes me happy! And we did this last night but I was so busy feeding everyone and 'fighting' them for baby holding privileges that I failed to take pictures. "You get her every day, Mom!" was their argument for not handing Baby M over to me. They may have had a point. :)

Day 29:Mondays that roll around too quickly make me happy because I do not have to go to work. Shoot, every day that rolls around makes me happy because it's a day with this kid:

Ok, y'all! Share your happy in the comments! 

Day 25 of Happy

It's Day 25 of the August Happiness Challenge! If you want to join in, create an icon of something, anything, that makes you happy, post your 'happy', and head over to One Gal's Musing and let her know, in the comments, that you're on board! That's it!

Today, memories make me happy! Ok, yes. Sometimes I will tear up when my memories take over my day but they aren't bad tears. They're kind of bittersweet in that I am so very grateful for the memories even though I miss the people or the times. Here are a few of my happy memories:

My grandparents:

Family reunions at Papa Campbell's house:

Cousins:

Sitting on Santa's lap:

 

The Lovelies' excitement at Christmas:

And so many more! Thank goodness for happy memories! 

What's making y'all happy today?

Ordering Groceries Online

Have y'all tried Boxed or JET? I have. I like being able to order bulk items online and having them shipped to my house in two days FOR FREE instead of going all the way up to North Charleston or  all the way to the far side of West Ashley to shop at Sam's or Costco. Yes, there is a minimum amount you must spend to get that FREE SHIPPING, but it's not that bad.

When I first tried Boxed, I loved it. All I had to do was spend $50 and the shipping was free. After the first few times, however, they up that amount to $65 for the free shipping. AND, their customer service is not the best. I ordered a shampoo/conditioner pack for one of the lovelies tand Boxed sent me TWO shampoos instead of one shampoo and one conditioner. I contacted them and received NO response. When I mentioned this in a review, they immediately responded that someone would contact me and resolve the problem. They never did. I don't like that. I also do not respect that. And I'm' not that fond of having to spend $65 to get free shipping. It is because of the customer service ball drop and the upped price for free shipping that led me to JET.

JET is great! You only have to spend $35 for FREE SHIPPING and that does not change. They also have a bulk section listed under the WHOLESALE tab. Also, I ordered some chips a few weeks back
and the bag was busted open during shipping. I contacted JET and two days later, a new bag of chips. Customer service heaven, y'all! They responded immediately and did what they said they would do. AND, they apologized. NICE people.

Do I order from Boxed anymore? Yes, but only when they show up on ZULILY because then, you only have to spend $50 to get the FREE SHIPPING. And, I don't shop with them every time they show up on Zulily. Because I do prefer JET.

I haven't stopped shopping at the grocery stores or farmers' market. I always go for the fresh, local, organic produce. But, sometimes, the convenience of online shopping is just what I need AND, many times, the prices are better online. Combine that with the two-day FREE SHIPPING and you've got a winner in my book.

UPDATE: After sending boxed.com a link to this post, they have FINALLY refunded my money on the above-mentioned goof on their part. Of course, the apology came in an email wherein they tried to put this on me and yet because they're so awesome, they would refund me and give me a $10 credit. Wow. That would have been fantastic had they not claimed not to have received an email from me. Good thing I keep all correspondence of this kind. 

SO--- the August Happiness Challenge part of the post: customer service that responds and resolves issues quickly make me happy! (If you want to join in, create an icon of something, anything, that makes you happy, post your 'happy', and head over to One Gal's Musing and let her know, in the comments, that you're on board! That's it!)

Ok, y'all! Have you tried online grocery shopping AND, what make YOU happy today?

Catching up with Happy

This post is going to cover 4 days of the August Happiness Challenge, again. If you want to join in, create an icon of something, anything, that makes you happy, post your 'happy', and head over to One Gal's Musing and let her know, in the comments, that you're on board! That's it!

I was going to keep up with blogging since I'm not at school this year but life has a way of making you out to be a liar. I'm the lone stranger on the nursery project for Baby M at my house and that has been going rather slowly. Snail's pace is speedy quick compared to my pace with this room. It didn't help that I got sick. And, of course, Baby M is already coming over in the afternoons and there's nothing more important than watching her smile and sleep. Anyway---

Day 18: Hiring a guy to paint anything from now on will make me happy. Hell, way more than happy. Ecstatic. I have now added windows and trim to the list of things I shall never paint again. Ceilings are already on the list. I freaking hate painting. 

Day 19: Football makes me happy! Even preseason! Y'all might already know that about me.

Day 20: Caramel latte with an extra shot makes me happy! And bouncy. Especially when they accidentally put in TWO extra shots. Sheesh. Didn't speed up the painting process, though. 

Day 21: Friends who are beyond generous with baby clothes, strollers, cribs, toys--I have the BEST friends on the planet-- make me happy! Y'all are so AWESOME! Thank you a million! No, a gazillion! 

Ok, get your happy on and tell me about it in the comments! :)

Running with the Hodgepodge

Where is fall, y'all? I'm getting a bit tired of all this heat. I've been inside avoiding it for over one month now and I'd like to get outside. Meanwhile, school started without me. And yes, I was a little bit sad. Until my granddaughter arrived at the house Monday afternoon and, BAM! All joy! :)

Another good thing about being inside is participating in and reading everyone's Hodgepodge answers! WooHoo!

1. I read here four creative activities to try this month. They were-calligraphy, make your own cookbook, dance or learn a new type of dance, and letter writing. Which activity on the list appeals to you most? None, really. I've already made a cookbook and I write letters. I dance around for fun and I've tried calligraphy- thank goodness Lovely 1 does this as my efforts were fruitless. Will you add it to your August? So, that's a, no. Besides, who has time for that when I have a baby to stare at every day? :)

2. Bertrand Russell is quoted as saying, 'To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.' Agree or disagree? I'm not sure. Explain. I guess if it means that we can't be happy if we have everything we want because we always want more then, I guess that could be true. If he means that we will never have everything we want so we need to find happiness in the midst of 'the moment' regardless of what you have, then I guess I agree with that as well. To a degree. Maybe I just don't know what the hell Russell was talking about. College and thought producting brain cells was a long time ago. Ha! 

3. August 17th is National Thriftshop Day...are you a 'thrifter'? I am not. If so, tell us about one of your best or favorite finds. HOWEVER, this is changing. I'm beginning a few projects that require some vintage, or antique, items and looking around in thrift stores or flea markets are going to become necessary. 

4.  On a scale of 1-10 (with 1= almost none and 10=loads) how would you rate your sense of wanderlust? I'm going to say, 3. What kicks your wanderlust into high gear? On the rare occasion, this actually occurs, it most likely stems from a desire to get away or a strong desire to go visit someone. Other than that, I'm a homebody. 

5. Has life felt more like a marathon or sprint so far this month? A sprinted marathon? How so? I'm working on the Divine Baby M's nursery at my house and, while the push is on to get it done, I feel it's been a marathon process. What does that mean? I'm doing it all by myself and I am slow but feeling the pressure to get it done!

6. What do you need to get a jump on before fall officially arrives? When I finish the nursery I have to paint one bathroom and this needs to be done before fall because that's when the work starts on the outside of the house. We are going to German smear the brick and replace the front door, shutters, and columns. And yes, we're doing it ourselves. Say a prayer. Or a hundred.

7. What's the last thing you did with friends or family where you lost track of time? The weekend everyone was home at the same time. There were several times I lost track of the time. And that was better than the moments I spent realizing the time was going to end too quickly. Which it did. 

8. Insert your own random thought here. The Divine Baby M has been here all week while her mommy went back to work. It's only part time right now because Baby M's mommy loves football season and, being an athletic trainer, she gets to be on the field and she loves it. She won't start back full time at clinic until the end of September. So, Baby M coming to my house every day is another reason to love football season!!! 

It's Day 17 of the August Happiness Challenge! If you want to join in, create an icon of something, anything, that makes you happy, post your 'happy', and head over to One Gal's Musing and let her know, in the comments, that you're on board! That's it!

I actually owe days 16 AND 17. 

Day 16: Happy families make me happy. Like the ones I get to read about on the Hodgepodge.

Day 17: Happy babies make me happy. Like the Divine Baby M!

Have a great rest of the week, y'all! 

August Happiness Challenge: Television and Other Lovely Things

This post is going to cover 4 days of the August Happiness Challenge! If you want to join in, create an icon of something, anything, that makes you happy, post your 'happy', and head over to One Gal's Musing and let her know, in the comments, that you're on board! That's it!

Day 11: Television makes me happy. Not the news or politics but sitcoms. I do enjoy sitcoms. My current favorite is: LAST MAN STANDING. I've been crushing on Tim Allen for a long time. I find him hilarious. 

But why do I like his latest sitcom so much? I love that they look at both sides of the issues. So many people talk about how they love his conservative comments and how "that is stuff that needs to be said." I have no idea what the hell they are talking about and I'm not sure they're actually watching the show. Two of his three daughters are more liberal minded as is his wife. They are constantly giving attention to both sides of every issue I've seen aired on this delightful program. I find it refreshing to see a father of daughters allow his daughters to be who they are and not try to shove his own agenda down their throats. 

The other thing about television? Netflix and Hulu which offer so many detective shows that I love, such as LONGMIRE, and have introduced me to my latest craze- Brittish detective shows! 

Day 12: Football makes me happy! Preseason has begun and college ball is not that far behind. I am going to be a happy camper until February! WooHoo! And do not worry, I've been collecting football related clothing for Baby M for months! She's all set! 

Day 13:  Funny memes make me happy. And there are some funny ones out there. Like these:

Day 14: Learning words that are new to me makes me happy. Especially when those words are so soothing. 

What makes y'all happy?

Bye-Bye, Stinkface and the Happiness Challenge

Have you ever gotten stuck with a stink face in your family pictures? Y'all know what I'm talking about. Someone in the family falls out of grace somehow- a break-up, generally- and his/her face is in all your family photos for as many years as they were part of the family. Now that they're gone, what do you do?

I suppose if children were involved, you would keep the ex's face around but, in our family, this has not proven to be the case. So far. Anyway...

Ask anyone who has known me since childhood and they'll tell you that I am the crazy lady behind the camera at every event, large or small and on a daily basis even if it's simply taking pictures of the dog or the birds eating birdseed off the deck. I can't help myself.

I have at least a gazillion photos around my house and I come up with projects other than scrapbooking to make good use of those pix. The last big projects I made were these:

And there's a stink face on both. What to do? What to do? And then, the Divine Baby M was born. It took me a few weeks after her birth but, on my third order of prints- a REVELATION! Put Baby M's face OVER the stink face!

And now---

Stink face:

No more stink face:

Problem solved.

However, from this moment on, whenever I'm taking pictures, I will insist that some of them be only of the four lovelies. I can't tell y'all how many stink faces I have in about half of those gazillion photos.

Now, how does this factor into the August Happiness Challenge? Well, covering up stink face makes Daughter 1 happy and when my daughters are happy, I am happy! :)

It's Day 9 of the August Happiness Challenge! If you want to join in, create an icon of something, anything, that makes you happy, post your 'happy', and head over to One Gal's Musing and let her know, in the comments, that you're on board! That's it!

Have y'all ever had to get rid of a stink face?

August Happiness Challenge: Music, Alone Time, and Traveling Ornaments

It's Day 5 of the August Happiness Challenge! I'm going to add Days 6 and 7 here too. If you want to join in, create an icon of something, anything, that makes you happy, post your 'happy', and head over to One Gal's Musing and let her know, in the comments, that you're on board! That's it!

Day 5: Music makes me happy! No matter my mood of the moment, music can uplift me even more, relax the stress, drown the blues, calm the anger, make my workouts more effective... Music is magic to my soul. I can live without many things but music is not one of them.

In honor of music and the joy it brings into my life, I leave y'all with The Wild Feathers (y'all knew it was coming) new music video. I'm not sure who that Gus Black is but he did a fantastic job on the video. He also has some very nice stills of the boys. Like this one that I got from the Friends Who Like the Wild Feathers Facebook page (let me know if you want to be included and I'll add you):

Here you go:

Aren't they wonderful?!

 Day 6: Alone time makes me happy. Heck, it nearly makes me happy on a level akin to delirium. Alone time was a major adjustment for me when the nest first emptied out but, once I got used to it, I cherished it. I coveted it. I guarded it with a loaded weapon. Not really. But I was protective. Now that other people are living here with me and someone has retired, I do not get enough alone time. And I don't like that. But when I do get it, I am quite the happy camper!

Found somewhere on Pinterest...

Ok, Day 7: Christmas ornaments brought to me from loved ones who travel make me happy. I have enough now to decorate a 5 ft tree now! I LOVE my traveling ornaments. I've got them all boxed up right now because, July...but I have these that were brought in since Christmas that I will share:

This one is from the trip to Harry Potter World that Daughter 3 and her hubby took this spring. The lovelies are all about Harry Potter. And their mother has never seen a movie nor read a book. I just can't get interested in Harry. But I have Harry Potter ornaments on my traveling ornament tree. LOL 

The lovely Daughter 2 brought these back from Brazil this summer when she went for a friend's wedding. 

DrummerBoy brought this back for me while they were on tour. This is from Texas. I was so excited that they saw the Marfa lights and, apparently, Terlingua is host to a Ghost Town! I might need to rethink visiting Texas. I do enjoy such things as the Marfa Lights and ghost towns. During the day, of course.  

What's making you happy this weekend?

August Happiness Challenge

I found this little challenge on One Gal's Musing (thanks to McClendon Villa who is also, PS Annie, who knew?!) and decided to give it a go. I've got happy, but daily posts? We shall see. I do agree though, that talking/posting/reading about happiness can rub off on a soul and that's never a bad thing.

As is my usual style, I'm arriving late to the party. Odd though, since I'm never late in 'real' life. Ha! It was suggested that we mark our challenge posts with an icon. Something that means happy to you. I made this because- daughters and granddaughter.

There's nothing in the world that makes me happier than the people in that picture. I owe four 'happys'.

Happy #1: This little cutie who blessed our family on July 7:

Happy #2: These four who have been blessing my life for the last 31 years with more love, laughter, and joy than any mom could ever imagine!

Happy #3: This little love of mine that has been blessing me for the last 8 years:

Happy #4: These boys who make three of my girls smile and laugh instead of cry. Hey, and for the one who can no longer make one of my lovelies sad. Because she got rid of him. But I'm not putting his picture on here. :)  I wonder who will be the first to say something about the pup coming before the boys? LOL

Ok, that gets me started on the August Happiness Challenge!

Are y'all doing it?