The Annoyance Trifecta

When I am at home during the week, I usually leave the television on for background noise while I do things around the house.  Because of this habit, it's not uncommon to walk in on Today, The View, Rachel Ray, or some TLC show in mid-program.  Sometimes what is on the screen captures my attention, sometimes not.

Today I entered the living room with vacuum cleaner in tow.  And there, on my tv, were Rachael Ray, Regis Philbin, and Rosie O'Donnell.   All in one shot. It was as if someone had intentionally put together as many personalities I find annoying as humanly possible!  That feeling intensified when I realized that Regis's wife, Joy, was also there.

Had the mind that dreamed this up only been able to also collect Tom Cruise, Joy Behar, and Rush Limbaugh - it would have been the perfect storm of annoy-dom!

I should probably do myself a favor and just turn on the music channels.

Pure Bliss

Pure bliss is sitting quietly while a grand baby sleeps on your chest. 

The warmth and weight of his little body.

The rise and fall of his breaths.

The occasional quiet baby noises.

The soft fuzz of baby hair against your cheek.

Tiny fingers splayed along your collarbone. 

The sweet baby smell.

True contentment.  I think I could sit like that all day and be happy.  Of course, part of the joy is that once the baby smell is not so sweet, or the breaths turn to cries - he has a mommy you can hand him over to and not stress over it. 

A Time to Sew, And a Time to Reap (or something like that)

It's time.  I know it.  I've been feeling the pull and bouncing the idea in my head for a while.  It's time for action.  It's time to nurture my creative side.  To give myself an outlet from the grind of my day job.  And maybe even an "out" from the day job if things go well. 

I've been a crocheting machine for the past months.  Recently I have been hooking out gifts for family and friends for Christmas, birthdays, new babies, etc.  Scarves, tote/craft bags, baby sweater and bib sets. And I always get many compliments and raves over them.  I enjoy doing it.  The work is soothing to me.  And it gives me something to do with my hands while I watch TV, or even attend meetings and trainings at work. 

It wasn't until someone I had given a ruffled scarf to for Christmas said to me "Everyone loves my scarf and keeps asking where I got it!"  that it occurred to me.  Why NOT make some money doing something I enjoy??  Seems like such a simple, logical idea.  And yet, overwhelming at the same time.

As I was sitting on this idea, mulling it over and praying on it - a few things kept pointing me in that direction.  One day, after spending much time wondering how I would even go about this venture or get started I stopped to check the mail and pulled out a magazine with the cover feature "Fun craft ideas, PLUS how to turn them into cash".  Stopped me in my tracks!  Not long after that, I finally realized that I have a friend who owns a consignment store.  I talked to him about test marketing a few items for me see what sort of interest there is in them.

So, here I am...

I'm ready to look into finding a website where I can set up to sell my items.  Once that's done, I want to make up some cards or tags.  Then continue giving some of my work as gifts, of course including a few of the cards so when the item is complimented a card can be given to point the interested person to where they can get one of their very own.   And of course, I need a little free time to whip out some samples.  And a little extra cash to invest into yarn and notions.

The plan is starting to come together.  And to be quite honest - I am scared to death!!

One Minute Wednesday: Day After

If the day after Valentine's Day were a holiday - I believe it would be "Indulgence Day".  One day to sit around eating all those Valentine goodies and enjoying the flowers and other presents you received on the day before!  Of course then the day after that would have to be "Get Back on Track Day" to recover from the over indulgence.

(Inspired by a prompt at The One-Minute Writer:   If the day after Valentine's Day was a holiday, what would it be called?)

Empty Spaces

I have two brass lantern-style candle lamps on my mantel.  They were once a treasured bargain find from 'Tuesday Morning'.  Now, I just find them tired looking.  Something which I don't even think much about unless it's that they need dusted or polished.  I don't care much for dusting or polishing; and it's because of this that I have decided it's time to find them a new home.  I was thinking about just that very thing this morning - moving the lamps off the mantel and on to the local Goodwill, perhaps.  The natural progression of that chain of thought seemed to be considering what else would go in their place.  I had no ideas and began thinking that maybe nothing should go there.  Maybe I would just like some empty space. 

Oddly enough, the next thought that popped into my head was how it would be nice to have some empty space in my life as well.  Space with no need to/have to/want to moving me along.  Empty space to just sit and be still.  No obligation looming.  No chore that needs to be completed.  No where to be.  Time to just sit in the silence.  Enjoying the quiet buzzing around us, listen to the birds, hear the breeze, the quiet whisper of God in my ear, or just my own thoughts.  Time to just BE.  Filled with absolutely nothing.

So many of us fill every waking moment with busyness.  Activities.  Places to go and things to do.  When was the last time we left room for some empty spaces?

When You Love Somebody

It's February.  And Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  The day of Love.  Hearts, cupids, flowers and chocolates run wild in every store.  And just so you know - Yes,  I can hear the groans from here.  The quiet grumbles of "made up holiday" and "why should I have to show my love on that day just because Hallmark says so", etc, etc, etc. 

And you're right.  Although it's roots go back to a religious day to observe St. Valentine - the more modern idea of Valentine's Day is pretty much a made up holiday.  And yes, the card companies and candy makers and florists are getting rich off the romantic madness.  But you know what else?  I don't care! 

I can't believe that any reason to show love and affection could be a bad thing.  Sure, we should be showing those we love how we feel about them every single day of the year.  Goes without saying.  But what is one day set aside to remind us of that and encourage us to go all out going to hurt?  Any excuse to be loving and affectionate sounds like a good thing to me!

And yes, I know not everyone is involved in a romantic relationship.  And some of those persons might feel left out of all the lovey-dovey going around.  But is there a law that says one must use Valentine's Day only to show romantic love?  Maybe you have a family member you can show a little appreciation and love for on this day of hearts.  Or a close friend you love like a sister.  Or maybe the person you need to show a little love is yourself!!

You don't like chocolate?  Flowers just die anyway.  Maybe the gifts aren't your thing.  But I bet there is someone who would just appreciate your time and attention.  Or maybe you just need a little time to yourself to read that book/watch that movie/take that bubble bath/paint your toenails like you've been meaning to do.

Take advantage of the day meant for love.  Show someone some love.  Show yourself some love.  Just love somebody! 

Because love is a many splendored thing!

 Love makes the world go 'round!

All you need is LOVE!

The Comforting Art of Brinner

Brinner...  Mm mm....  Just thinking about it makes me smile.

What's that? Did someone just ask "What's brinner?"  Brinner = Breakfast for Dinner.  It's one of lives little pleasures.  All the yummy goodness of breakfast; without that whole annoying having-to-get-up-early thing!

I personally love brinner.  I say this, as if I have ever met anyone who doesn't like brinner.  I can honestly say I've never met a single person who said "Oh, I don't really like to eat breakfast food for dinner".  And thinking about it - I can't imagine what would ever possess someone to defy the comforting tastiness of brinner.  Unless, maybe, they just don't like breakfast food in general.

What is it about mixing up the meals?  What exactly is so comforting about having an evening meal of bacon, eggs and biscuits?  Or maybe a stack of pancakes and bacon.  (Or pretty much anything with bacon.  Bacon is enough salty deliciousness to dedicate an entire post of praise for it alone!)  Whatever it is, it works!  

I feel confident I can turn around the entire mood of my household just by dragging out the electric griddle and starting the bacon while whipping up some pancake batter!  Those frowns turn upside down.  Even the dog gets in on the act.  He sees that griddle on the counter and refuses to leave the kitchen, knowing something good is about to happen.  (I probably created this particular monster by making him his own little pancake each time) 

Can one have too much brinner?   Is there actually a point where it becomes too much of a good thing?  Possibly.  But I  haven't found that line and crossed it yet.  I admit to fixing brinner about once every week to 10 days.  Yep, I like it just that much!

We had brinner just last night.  And I'm already thinking about the next time I'll fix it!

A Sleepy State of Mind

I stayed up too late this weekend.  Every night I was up past my bedtime.  I'm not as young as I used to be.  I'm a gal who needs her rest.  I chose to ignore that this weekend.  Today, I pay for it.

I'm in that sleepy place.  The one where I'm running on auto-pilot.  The one where my mind doesn't really productively function, but rather just goes through the motions.  The one where if I stop moving, I'm pretty sure it's over. 

At this point I'm even scared to sit down and fold the laundry.  I feel pretty sure that if I do; that is exactly the mindless sort of task which will cause me to drift off.  Leaving the sleepy place for that nap place. 

On second thought, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

Featuring... ME!!

YIPPEE!!  WOWZA!  (Yeh, I said "wowza".  Sue me.) 

I received a most exciting email today!  My "The Endless To Be Read Pile" post is  is being added as a featured member post in the Books topic on Blogher.com today!! 

I'm a featured blogger!!  Who ever would have thought it? 

My little pointless ramblings might be featured somewhere, someday.  This is HUGE for me!  Oh sure - for some a simple feature post on a blogging website might not be that big of a deal.  Maybe for some published writers it's just a thing.  But for me, this is a big, big ego boost!  I feel like some one took notice and felt one of my posts was good enough to feature. 

I love this feeling!!  Thanks blogher.com !!  :)

One Minute Wednesday: Carry

What would I carry for a friend? I'd carry almost anything... a baby, a book, makeup, a phone, grocery bags.  But nothing illegal or too heavy.  Or if it's gross.  If it's gross, you are on your own friend.  I admit it - I'm lazy.  And maybe not a very good friend. 

(inspired by the daily writing prompt: "What would you be willing to carry for a friend?" at The One-Minute Writer)

Out of Touch

Frustrated.   That's the only word to describe how I felt most of the afternoon. 

The messaging feature was not working on my phone.  Every time I tried to send or check texts or emails, it would just say "Initializing" for about 2 minutes and then go back to the main screen. 

(Over, and over, and over.  Until I was ready to scream.)

A quick Google told me first of all, that this must not be an unusual problem with this particular model of phone. 

(The Samsung t582g)

One suggestion I found was to try resetting the phone to factory settings.

(Which did NOT work!)

Another Google entry led me to a site which suggested rebooting the phone by removing and reinstalling the battery .

(Which also did NOT work!)

As I continued reading, I quickly realized that my only other options were to completely restore the phone, which would mean all Contacts, ring tones, etc would be lost.  OR I was going to have to contact my service provider to get a new SIM card.  I was not happy about either one. 

(And of course - this is the point when the phone starts beeping the "low battery" warning at me)

Fighting the urge to just throw the darn thing at the wall , I continued to stare at the computer screen hoping I would find an easier solution to the problem.

(easier solution - aka: one that makes me happier than the one I have been presented with)

However, I quickly realized I was going to have to suck it up and try restoring the phone.

I attempted to blue tooth my contacts to the computer. 

(Which ended up being one more thing that did NOT work)

Which left me with a) actually lose all my contacts, or b) copy them all down by hand and manually install them back into the phone later.  So, I pulled out a trusty pen and paper and started writing. 

(It was at this point I was thinking that pen and paper never have data errors or have to initialize)

Fortunately the reset seems to have done the trick.  And once again I am text capable.

(Now, if you will excuse me... I have to go re-do my entire contact list. grrrr....)