Things I like Thursdays July 30

Greetings.

I don’t like starting my day frustrated but you can read my previous post.  The new Blogger is not my friend but I refuse to give up. 

Here’s a list of my likes for this week.  Thanks to Lee Anna for keeping us focused on positive things in theses difficult times! 

1.  Sprouts Market store delivery.  I finally took the plunge and use Instacart delivery service to have someone pick out my groceries and deliver them.   It’s not free but under my circumstances it’s worth it.  So, I online ordered a list of specialty (gluten free, etc) items and fresh produce within a larger amount of options.  It all worked well twice now.  One thing I’ve noticed with online grocery/ household buying is the delivery drivers are mostly women.  Oh, and I do wipe down everything that enters the house with disinfectant wipes.  I use peroxide/ water mix for produce.

2.  Thomas making Christmas cards in July.  He loves it!

 I’m so pleased my daughter purchased Christmas craft kits many months ago for stuff to do during lockdown. He informed us Christmas is his favorite time of year!  Us too.

DOES ANYONE IN OUR GROUP BLOG ON ANOTHER BLOG SERVICE?

asking for a friend.

At this point I had to close my iPad and walk away due to the struggles and amount of time spent trying to use the new Blogger.  This is not fun or how I want to spend my time.

I’m back:

3.  This poster from a specialty shop in Glendale 

4.  Cleaning and reorganizing my fabric stash and art supplies

One space that is delegated to storage. Not pretty.

Done. 

 All my crafts and fabric are in my bedroom.   I have been feeling guilty for having so much fabric around me not being used.  I purchased 90% of it before I retired. I haven’t had a sewing mojo for almost a year. There were a few items made for Christmas or family last year but when the Corona virus hit, sewing came to a halt.  I have no idea why.  I did pick up painting instead.  Certainly not to the extreme my quilting was.  

 We have an 8 year old (going on 40) sweet girl in our family who needed a hobby.  So, I gave her my two year old , small/ lightweight Janome, sewing supplies and tools, as well as appropriate fabric as a gift.  As I suspected, she is over the moon learning to sew. I cannot go to see or teach her.  But, on day one she was reading the manual and trying things out!  In addition, she has a grandma who stays at her house a few days a week who will now teach her to sew.  Happiness all around.  I am so thrilled for us all. 

I gave 2 large bags of fabric (plus scraps) to Goodwill along with many patterns I never even used.  I gave a large bag of precuts to a quilter friend of my brother. She's a happy camper to have all those pretties.

I still have  3 sewing machines, a small amount of fabric and now my painting supplies.  I no longer feel guilty about what I have. I have maybe 4 quilting projects that could be finished but no other sewing in the future.   Oh, and a much nicer bedroom.

I’m exhausted from all this cleaning and moving stuff around. Hopefully, I can paint tomorrow.

In the meantime, I put up some Christmas lights that we are enjoying!

Stay safe and let me know how you’re doin with the new BLOGGER 😂😂😂😂.

Mary

P.S. in case you’re wondering how lovely it’s been outside:

14 days of lows above 90 Degrees and 25 days of over 110 degrees. SO FAR. 

Just sayin.  Fun fact: more divorces are filed in August than any other month, here.  

 

Train derailment

Hi everyone.

Just a quick photo of the news in our area:

There was a huge fire due to a train derailment and bridge collapse-this morning.  This was on a bridge built in 1912 over the Tempe Town Lake.  Basically, one side of the bridge is Phoenix and the other end is Tempe. 

The train was carrying tons of wood and “some type of fuel“.  The derailment and fire has caused major disruption in the area such as the light rail can’t carry passengers back and forth to the area, Tempe is closed, highways are closed, the Sky Harbor airport is only 2 miles away so planes are being diverted not to mention the pollution of the Tempe Town Lake,  a major water  area for the valley.  

Miraculously, no one has been hurt but there are several hundred fire fighters in the area including in the air!  They say it will burn all day on an already high pollution day. 

Unbelievable and so sad. This is 22 miles from me but smoke is still visible hours later.

Thanks everyone for help

Thanks everyone for your help on my latest problem with the new blogger.  First the photo icon didn’t work but miraculously worked 3 weeks later.  Then the save button has never worked and now it’s working.  There must have been a lot of complaints to the Blogger crew!

It’s a struggle.

Mary

So after I wrote this last night it wouldn’t post- just saved to a draft.  Luckily I tried again this morning posted it and it worked today.

Very frustrating.

Things I like Thursdays jul 23

Greetings!

Obviously, we are still at home all the time, so I’m either  cooking, cleaning or painting.  Sometimes I go out to do a pick up at the grocery store or pharmacy. But I can still spend money like the rest of ‘em.  I’m keeping AMAZON in business and recently checked out Etsy.  Oh dear-  what a lot of lovely things they have.  

But I do have some likes from this week to share with you thanks to Lee Anna’s group and guidance to better things:

1. RAIN IN THE FORECAST. We are all getting excited. Hopefully today. Unfortunately, it means lots of dust storms, too.  But, my poor air conditioner has been running 24/7so it needs a rest after 20 days or more of 110 degrees.

6:30 AM PROMISING.

2.  Cold faucet water.  ( see number one above). In June, July or August, we do not have cold water out of the faucet.  At least in most homes in the area.  In this home I’m in, the cold water is so hot that it’s almost impossible to take a shower.  So, when the monsoon season starts, the ground water cools down.  Hence, nice cool showers again, laundry that doesn’t shrink from the hot water,  plants don’t need ice cubes on them, etc. As I always say, it’s the little things.

3.  Spending the day with my daughter.  We have such fun together and Saturday she brought Thomas with her At 8:30 am and spent the entire day. That just never happens.    I made breakfast and lunch for us all.  She brought all the stuff needed for us to do pedicures in the living room,  watching Christmas movies while  Thomas played on his tablet.  While  he was taking his nap, we researched supplies online for our Christmas projects and she snuck out and picked them up.  We accomplished a lot that day but took our time , ate well and had fun.

4. My “Splattered” painting 

This was scary and fun at the same time.  Thanks to Ellen Crimi for the tutorial on applying paint by tapping the brush all over with another brush.

5.  My new porcelain palette 

 

I love it.  It’s heavy but has lots of spaces for different colors and mixing.  The plastic palettes I have move around when I’m tryin to get the paint and paper plates dry out too fast.  This purchase took hours of researching online!! I’m glad I stuck it out. 

6. My new painting journal

Each page is  about 5 x 7 with high quality paper for watercolors.  Do you sense a theme here?  I’ve spent a few hours shopping for art supplies. After painting a bit, I realize there might be some things I should get to make the process easier or just because.  Lol. I’m also trying to figure out how I want to display my paintings.  Haha. I just like looking at them.  It’s like quilting- my current one is my favorite. I’ve purchased some mats and backings for the paintings so I’ll share them next week if I get them put together. 

7.  This quote from Dr Peter Marshall , the former chaplain of the U.S. Congress:

May we think of Freedom not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right. 

I wish I could put that in large letters all over my car or on a building but someone would probably take me out.

On that happy note, I will say “so long, farewell, auf wiedershen, good night”

(Thinking about Sound of Music)

I hope you are all safe and sound!

Take care

Mary

Things I like Thursdays Jul 16

Greetings!

Where do I start? 115 degrees again today, Corona virus numbers in our area are way worse and I had a UTI for fun.

However, the antibiotics worked , I have a great air conditioner, lots of craft supplies and everyone is still healthy. And, I’m eating vanilla ice cream which is my favorite food. 

Guess that’s a win for today.

I also have some other likes to share with you;

1.  My new Handy Opener.  I saw it on tv but purchased it on Amazon.

 My thumbs don’t work or are very painful so I have trouble opening many items. Your hand goes around the bottom grips and you line up the metal clips to open seals on jars, applesauce or pudding cups, Coffee Creamer seals, etc.It has helped me so much.  It also works to open sealed bags.  Many times I have to cut off the sealed part of the bag and use a clip to close it.  The opener is very inexpensive. Like $9.
It’s called Totoone 6 in 1 multi opener on Amazon.

2.  Thomas helping with chores

The second one is helping Gramma water her plants.  The first photo is him feeling very proud for helping mom shred junk mail in the shredder(very carefully).
He is just now starting to help around the house.  Contrary to most teenagers. LOL. We all work to get him to be more independent but it takes time in a wheelchair and one working arm/hand.  He has 5 therapists that help him (now online due to the corona virus) with his needs Yes, we are very fortunate.

3. My “purple and orange” painting

I usually wouldn’t put these colors together but I kinda  like it .  The tutorial is from.Ellen Crimi.

4.  Artichoke Potato  soup.  Ok, wasn’t expecting that, were you?

I had a can of artichoke hearts in thee pantry over a year  and 2 large potatoes in the fridge taking up room, so I looked online and sure enough there was a recipe for soup in  the crock pot.  Very easy.  Just chop everything small, added dehydrated onions, 4 c chicken broth,  lots of black pepper and 3 bay leaves.  Also added some turmeric for kick ( and joint pain).  Cooked in slow cooker on low for 8 hours then splurged through the blender.  Returned it all to the slow cooker, added a little milk (no cream on hand). And voila!  Supper.  Really different and good.  I made too much so I sent some to the freezer:

I was so happy to use things up and make something different.  I tweaked the recipe to my liking.

Now if I only had some fresh French bread.  MMMM

5.  An easy Christmas craft.  In the summer, my daughter and I like to pick a Christmas craft to make when we are lazy due to the heat.  Here’s what I found for this year on Facebook:

It’s so cute!! An old picture frame, 3 ornaments, 2 ribbons.  I think I would like a series of 3 on the hallway wall.  What do you think?

 6. This ancient painter’s palette from Egypt

This was also on Facebook from Bored Panda Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. VERY cool.

Check out the turquoise paint still there.  

Ok peeps, I’m tired and need to go to bed.  This was a fun post- hope you enjoyed it.  Please join us at Lee Anna’s for more likes: Not Afraid of Color.  Thanks for dropping by.

Stay healthy, wear a mask.

Mary

This is no way to start the day

I Like Thursdays Jul 9

Greetings!

I’m trying this post in the new Blogger because I think I figured out some  of my problems.  Google Chrome was blocking inserting of photos and links.  So, I switched to Safari, USED COPY AND PASTE,  and my test worked.  here we go.

We make a list of likes every week with our host Lee Anna so please join us for more likes at https://lapaylor.blogspot.com/ (You may have to copy and paste this URL)

Here’s a list of my likes this week:

1.  Christmas cakes photo on Facebook

These make me happy especially the last one.

2.  Fantasy Christmas photo

I need to be there NOW.  I belong to a Christmas group on Facebook, so these things keep me cool in 115 degrees ALL WEEK.

3. THE TUBE.  My new coffee filter for cold brew;

It fits in any wide mouth mason jar.  I got it at Amazon.  I love it.  So much easier than doing the cheesecloth thing.

4.  My blue trees painting

I’m only showing this so you can see how too much water buckled the paper.  I tried to paint a page from my drawing journal( wrong type of paper for painting).  It’s still kinda pretty tho.

5.  My current favorite book

Unfortunately, I spent many nights up late not wanting to put this down.  I was already a fan of James Patterson and you add President Clinton—I’m in.  Loved the writing and the story.  I believe I need to thank Colette for the recommend.?  Sorry, I forgot who in our “likes” group recommended this.

6.  HAMILTON, the movie.

I could go on for days ( and I have) talking about seeing this musical on Disney+ at my daughter’s house on Saturday.  BEST. MUSICAL. EVER. This musical is in a category of it’s own.  The genius of Lin Manuel Miranda is unbelievable in the writing, the score and his performance.  

After reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton , Mr Miranda wrote a musical in —hip-hop— depicting Hamilton’s  life which was interesting and incredible as  one of our forefathers. I am not a fan of rap music but evidently I am now a fan of hip- hop because  I can understand the words.   However, the performances of everyone are outstanding as well Which makes a big difference.  

  I can’t wait till this movie comes out on DVD because it is the actual play on Broadway and I want to watch it again.

7.My doctors and insurance availability for telemedicine- just had my lung tests in person yesterday and doctor visit later in the day electronically, so all is good.  

As you can see, I’ve been keeping busy so as not to worry about our state which is the worst state in the country for dealing with Covid19.   We have an idiot for a governor.  

Most parents (78%) who were surveyed here will not allow their kids to return to school in person in the fall  because of what is happening here.  It just isn’t safe and no one will spend the money or risk the wrath of Trump to make it safe.  It’s so sad because we were already the worst state for children’s education, and now this.  Kids in our families are staying home.  Unfortunately, this means a serious decrease in family income but the kid‘s safety ( and we grandparents) are more important.  We opened our state too early and now are paying for it in many ways. 

 Sorry, I went off on a tangent, but this is affecting all of us.

Anyway, keeping busy is tantamount to surviving without losing our cool, so I’ll keep painting and maybe even sew again this coming week.

I hope all of you are safe and sound.  Please take care and thank you so much for stopping by.  I love your comments..

Mary

I used the new Blogger for the entire blog and it took twice as long to finish but it worked, I think.

I like Thursdays July 2

Greetings!

The insert image icon still doesn’t work on new Blogger nor can I save a post - so I’m using the old Blogger.  Very frustrating and I don’t know at this point how I’ll blog in the future once they change over.

Arizona is still one of the worst states with COVID-19.  We had 4800+ new cases yesterday in addition to the 30,000 in 2 weeks.  The governor   revised the rules again to close gyms, bars and tubing down the river. He refuses to shut us down or mandate masks. Luckily, the mayors have mandated masks and cancelled all Independence Day events.  The hospitals are full in ICU or over 90%. This is crazy in a metro area of over 4 million. We’re also number 1state in fires for the U.S. Over half of the  state acreage has burned in the last few months.

Other than that, things are fine.

So, I’ve been painting and being creative! And,  finally went swimming at my son’s home. My daughter and I call it The Resort.  Lol.  Here’s a list of my likes for this week:


1. Swimming and lounging at my son’s home.

Thomas and mom on the left and my DIL on the right. I was the photographer. The hot tub is in the background. We were distancing and wore masks when inside. The only person not at home all the time during this virus is my daughter who is being as careful as possible.  Thomas sat on a huge step at the shallow end and played catch with my son at the other end of the pool.  Here he is anticipating getting wet, but he loved the day.

Here’s my son at the other end of the pool.  That’s a waterfall in the background that lights up at night.  Very cool.

Plus, my son and daughter in law made homemade pizza from scratch cooked on the “Green Egg “.
Best pizza ever.
The best part of that day was watching my son playing with his nephew which hasn’t happened before.  There’s always been too many people around or my son didn’t know Thomas’ limits due to his Cerebral Palsy.  They really enjoyed each other.


2.  My New “BLUE” painting

I made this while watching the news. Just sayin.  It’s very bizarre but fun.  Don’t worry, I’m still taking my meds.

3. A decrease in my car insurance monthly cost.  So, I don’t drive a hundred miles a week and the insurance company cut my rate due to the COVID 19.  Good.

4. My new LARGE mesh strainer. Somehow, my large (8 inch diameter)mesh strainer disappeared and I needed it for making cold brew coffee. ( yes, I went back to half and half coffee-one cup in the morning.). So, I ordered a new strainer from Amazon and obviously didn’t pay attention to the dimensions.

The mesh is 10 inch diameter but the whole thing is16 inches long!  commercial grade.  I told my daughter she’ll inherit it and will never need another one!  Haha

5.  Making a Jul 4th card for Thomas.  He still loves getting real mail.

On that happy note, I will call it a day in posting.  Thanks to LeeAnna for keeping us together in likes.  Please join us for more at Not Afraid of Color for more fun.

I pray you are all healthy and happy.
Take care and thank you for being here!!!

P.S.  here’s the schedule for July Christmas movies on the 2 Hallmark channels:
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a32962220/hallmark-christmas-in-july-2020-movies-schedule/

Now you know what I’ll be doing all month.

      

                                           Have a great 4th!


Mary🤗