just one thing

it is my wish that each and every one of you can find 1 thing to be grateful for on this day of Thanksgiving.

my biggest wish is that you have pages and pages and pages of things to be grateful for.

years ago i began a journey. 

mine was a journey of self discovery in the deepest, most sincerest form.

a journey of transformation.

a journey of enlightment.

a journey of love.  not just for all others, but for myself as well.

a journey of acceptance.

a journey of forgiveness.

i am still on the journey, and always will be, no matter where my soul lives.

i learned on this journey that gratitude is so very important.

the days when you are tired, weak, frustrated........gratitude for what is now at this very moment takes all of the discomforts away.  if you are in alot of pain, mix half gratitude with half a vicodin.  seems to work for me.

when you are stuck in traffic because there has been an accident....thank you God that I am not the one involved in the accident  that has caused this back up. 

when you have a messy house to clearn....thank you God i have a home to clean.

when your kids are driving you crazy.....thank you God for my children.

i have had a couple of events  in the last couple of decades that i can truly truly say were bad days. 

we seem to throw those words around to casually.

i am having a bad day because.....

  i broke a nail, i did not have time to stop for my latte, i had to drive an ugly rental car while mine is being repaired, it figures i was the repairmans last appointment,  i wanted to eat at that restaurant not this one....


it drives me crazy, but i have to admit there was a day many many many years ago when a broken nail so totally ruined my day.

now, when i hear others complain over the minor details, i am grateful that i have come so far in my journey and that i can see a bit of my former self in them and have a bit of peace knowing they just have not quite made it the same place yet in their journey. 


having a bad hair day....thank God i have hair.

every day

throughout the day

i give thanks

thank you God for the dishwasher. 

   there were a couple of years i had to wash them by hand, for a family of 5. 

   thank you God i have dishes to wash in the dishwasher because that means we have food to eat.

thank you God for our hot water.

  last year our hot water heater pooped out.  for 3 months we took ice cold showers, unable to afford a new   one, and while dealing with a call center, long story short i started making calls here in America and found there was a recall and we were given a brand new water heater. 

thank you God my kids do not do drugs.

  after being without air conditioning for 2 years, we finally scraped the money together this year to get it fixed.  almost 700.00 to do work on an air conditioner that was only 5 years old.  most of that bill was to refill the  freon.  no leaks.  a drug addict  most likely stole our freon, inhaling it. 

thank you God for our groceries, toilet paper.....

  there have in the not so distant past been some really tough times...no, i mean realllllly tough. 

thank you God for my collection of antique wooden chairs....

   my beloved 90 year old couch bit the dust this spring.  thank God that i have quite a few old chairs that no one else wanted that i fixed up that can fill the void until we can afford a new couch.   we look like we are holding 12 step program meetings in our living room, but  there is a place to sit if need be.

the gratitude does not have to be for just the big schtuff.   for the out of the ordinary stuff.

i am hearing impaired, the weather permitted us having the windows wide open earlier this week and i woke up being serenaded by song birds.  thank you God that i still have enough hearing to hear the birds.

there are still a few roses blooming.  i can see them, feel the soft petals and the ouchy thorns.

the unbelievably beautiful sunsets night after night that i can see, and photograph.

i am breathing.

i can read this.

i can taste the meal i am eating.

i can smell the rose blooming, and when wanting to curse the cat for stinking up the house after using the litterbox....thank you God i can smell.

i am exhausted from doing all of this cooking and cleaning for Thanksgiving......thank you God that i am healthy enough to cook and clean.

i don't know why i stopped to do this blog post.  i am tired.  my vertigo flared up from all of the movement cooking and preparing a tasty Thanksgiving meal for our small, but mighty, family of 5.  Thank you God for each and every one of us in this family, that even with the vertigo i kept on cooking and preparing.

i was so heading off to bed to get some sleep, thinking about doing a blog post friday.  i still have so many photos to show and stories to tell....something made me stop.  something made me want to wish you all the most wonderful  and happiest of Thanksgivings, and to wish for all of you that you have at least one thing you are grateful for, but most of all that you have pages and pages and pages of things to be grateful for. 

maybe there is a wonderful reason i was so inspired on my way to bed to write this post. 

whatever that reason, i am so grateful.


i cross my fingers  um, i mean my heart....told you i was tired..... i will try to do some  show and tell friday, i am looking so forward to sharing some wonderful photos with you, and i thank God that the virus my computer got last month did not eat up any of my photos.


with much love to you,

mwah.

so much to tell you.....

the past week has been one wild ride here.

there are so many things i want to say.

so many photos and stories to share.

last week i had one of my worst vertigo flair ups......

we thought for sure i was going to end up in the hospital. 

 i live with vertigo every day, every day is like a gift. 

 i don't know until i open my eyes  if that gift is a diamond ring kind of day or an ugly sweater kind of day.

5 long days it lasted.  today is the first day i have felt back to my normal self......

yesterday we celebrated sam's 17th birthday.  this is all going way to fast.  sometimes i wish life had a pause and rewind button. 

tonight we attended sam's choir performance. 

i am so proud of this child o'  mine.

he does not let his speech impairment keep him from doing something he loves. 

sing.

played with the fish eye lense while waiting for sam's group to sing.


saturday, the 13th, marked 6 years since my dad passed on.  i miss him.  sometimes i feel like knowing him was a dream that i don't fully remember after waking.  

while the vertigo is on the mild side i will be spending as much time as i can adding the rest of the items to our etsy shop. 

hoping for some shoppers to stop by to stock up on ho ho ho gifts.

i will be back soon to add photos and share some of what life has given us in recent days.

with much love to you,

until next time......

smooches to you.

nighty-night.

aah......aah......choo

just a quick note to say i am back.  last week my computer caught a virus and i just got it back from the computer fixer upper. 

i will be back soon with a post and pics....and thank you, again, God that my pictures are safe and sound.

mwah!

we are getting there

short and sweet this post will be to avoid rambling in a rather unorganized fashion as seen in my previous post.

my mind is officially boggled and blown as i have started the process of adding items to our accessory 2 fashion etsy shop.

my desire is for a much...hmmmm....how do i say it properly....uh, is for  a higher level of sophistication of sorts for the etsy shop for the pieces that demand it, than what my previous etsy shop held.  so, i have become great buddies with 'the saurus' online.  still not happy with all of the photos, but i have got to press forward and once all is added to our shops the maybe i can revisit some of the pieces and create photos i am a bit more happy with.

yesterday i struggled to keep myself from ending up in the fetal position in tears as i discovered photos snapped, altered, and edited for our nest feathers and twine shop were not going to be without challenges.
it is a long story and at just the thought of explaining, well lets just say i feel my body involuntarily heading toward the fetal position.

 a sampling of what i was able to print out yesterday....i so wanted to print out 1 of everything but trying to conserve on the ink for the moment.  i found for some silly reason all i had was glossy photo paper, i always have steered clear of glossy, so why that is what was stocked in my studio cabinets i will never know. 

off to add some more luvlies to our etsy shop.  you are officially invited to come visit by clicking the link on the right hand side of the screen.

check back soon.....until then lots of love to you.  xoxoxo

sunday drive

today we headed out to hannibal.  exploring.  excited....wondering just what we would find. 

i found my brain bounced from thought to thought with each observation.

many miles of our drive revealed that there were great distances between homes.

....mmmmm...peaceful, quiet, slow........ i thought as i watch 2 horses grazing, looking so graceful, so at peace, in their fenced in portion of land as their owner tended to quite a large bon fire meant for disposing of unwanted brush, furniture.....no marshmallows being roasted there.   miles later another piece of land fenced off by it's owner. 

i have always wanted to live out in the country...many of our sunday drives i fall in love with a landscape dotted with old farm houses, old barnes, just far enough apart, but not too far.  where summers were spent drinking lemon-aid and eating apple pie under an equally aged oak tree.

today what i saw seemed lonely, cold, unfriendly, and so very lonely.

after what seemed like hours we reached civilization

we spent the afternoon stopping here and there so steph and i could sieze some pretty awesome photographic opportunities and i am so grateful to

for another wonderful day spent with the one's i oh-so-love and adore.  although we were down one peep today, as sam decided to stay over at a friends house.

 (bill and max setting up my tripod, little did they know that i could have had it set up myself in an nth of the time, but they were so sweet, how could i say anything)

(steph capturing her own photos at a scenic look out point)

for our safe arrival back home.

for the chance to see such beautiful scenery, and for the oh-so-neat photos i was able to capture, that i can not wait to edit and share with you.

as i was photographing an old building, something caught my eye and made me come take a closer look

someone, who shares the same shortened version of my name, had left their calling card.


i have come to find i have a facination with photographing old buildings, long ago occupied, windows, and bridges.

can not wait to play show-n-tell, but this arty girl is finding herself pooped from a long weekend spent in a nasty-bad battle with the beast, vertigo, on saturday and today's exciting travels. 

i am off to tuck myself snuggly in to bed for a night of oh-so-sweet dreams, and it is my wish that you too have dreams fill with sweetness.

smooches to you all.

fall....glorious fall

...don't you just love the smell.....wet decomposing earth.  the weight of the atmosphere around you feels lighter, and the colors changing everywhere around you. the sun almost seems to have a 1960's photo affect.   (can ya tell this arty girl has been editing photos out the wah-zoo?)

we have been busy, still.  last week the boys were on fall break....didn't we just get over summer break?
the first 2 days left me feeling as though i needed to be wearing a black and white striped shirt and a whistle around my neck.

 momma doesn't see the computer much during break. at times i stepped in and took my beloved piece of technological wonder back, but by the time i seized control of it i was too pooped to even think of hitting the blog or facebook.

 the computer, first thing in the morning while i am waiting for my meds to kick in, is like some peeps cuppa joe. 

we have taken several out - of - the - blue - got - nothing - else - to - do - drives to here, there, and the middle of no-where lately and steph and i have captured some fan-tab-u-lous photos.

(the photo of the cow....got that as the hubs was driving 60 mph down the road.)

the fan-tab-u-lous photos still have to have the watermarks added to keep the not-so-honest folks from right clicking......but you will be able to view them soon here and for sale on our etsy shop.  this weekend we will start the long process of adding them on. 
i have spent the last couple of days cropping and editing. 

today, during lunch,  edited the smooshed headless raccoon out of a scenic bridge photo.  mmmm... yummy.

if you have been reading my posts recently.....you will understand this photo (below)

last nights surprise when we opened a box of store brand fish.

i tried out the panoramic feature on my 2 year old camera for the first time finally this past weekend...

note to self:  next time bring the tri-pod!


by this time next week the etsy shop should be up and going.  we have hundreds of items to add, so once we get it going you will have to stop by often to see all that we have added. 

hoping this weekend to get our hands on some more lightweight cotton and dye to make more scarves and such....brrrrrr....those buckets of dye and  water are going to be chilly compared to what it was a few weeks ago.

i am off to edit more photos..........talk to you soon....smooches.