My 1st SMART phone!

Ok, now don't laugh. I have been holding out jumping on the phone wagon.  My 2010 flip phone has been an old friend. I have had it for 5 years. I never needed the smartphone since I have an iPad2 and a newish MacBook Pro.  I was out of my 2 year plan with Verizon for 3 years now. It took that long to decide what to do.
But the 'ol Flip phone was starting to fail at receiving calls and messages. It just couldn't keep up with technology. 
So when Verizon offered the iPhone 5c for free I decided to jump on board. Yeah I know, the cost isn't in the phone, it's in the monthly charges.  I'm ok with the extra cost. I hate it but the phone companies have us by the neck.

She is very pretty.  I love how Apple packages their products. Everything is smooth, snug and simple.  I just love it. 

Look at this darling little box that they put the ear-buds in.

Can you believe how cute this is? They sound amazing too. But that box and the way they wind the cables so nicely. What other company pays attention to the details like this?

The only part I don't like is the time to get it set up how I want.

I am familiar with how it all works since it is so similar to the iPad.

FedX came early this morning and delivered my FREE iPhone. I tried to follow the instructions to set it up but since my Flip-phone was older I needed a Verizon store to transfer my contacts. So I drive the 23 miles to the next town.  I tell the guy to activate my new phone and de-activate the old one. He was very nice. Did the transfer thing. Then I went and did a little shopping around town with my new phone in my pocket. I felt like a million  dollars. I was hoping someone would call me. Nope, the phone was silent.

So when I get home I want to hear the phone ring. So I call it with my landline.  Long story short I discover that the phone was not activated and the old one was still working. I had to call Verizon and wait, wait, wait, wait and then a nice lady helped me.

Now everything is going good.  

I also took my first photo and started an Instagram account for the first time.  Everything is new to me with this new iPhone.

Here is my first Instagram photo

This is Charlie sitting on my new couch. He looks like a sourpuss.

He cracks me up.

So there you have it dear blog. I am a victim of the big bad techno monster. I promise to always put the phone aside at meal time and when visiting friends & family.

 Love and Hugs,  Carol

52 Weeks of Happy 6/52

Week 6 of Happy!!!
This last week I had a very happy time going to have a pedicure with my granddaughter Peanut.  We sat in the spa chairs and they massaged our feet & calves.  They also put my feet in paraffin wax to soften my feet. I am a barefoot kind of gal.  It was a wonderful way to spend an hour. Afterwards my feet felt like new.
Look here.....


Peanut got pink with zebra stripes where as I got a neon aqua.




I don't know why I waited 57 years before getting my first pedi.  I have had about 4 of them now.  It does make a difference where you go.  The last place made my toes hurt.  I think their tools were not clean and gave me an infection.  But this last place was very clean but expensive.  BUT no infection or hurting toes.

I love my AQUA toes!!!!!

Red Rugosa Rose-hips with long Sepals

This is week #2 of my online class with the theme Autumn.
I love this weeks assignment. As soon as I saw the big red hips with the long skirt-like sepals I knew this was the picture I wanted to paint.


I did some color swatching. I also tested my inks for bleeding:


Then I drew in ink for 30 min.  This is how far I got. It was fun using the ink.
I used my TWSBI 540 pen and my free Noodlers pen. The ink is Noodler's The Heart of Darkness.


I worked on my center of interest first. I tend to paint the thing that catches my eye. Those rose hips really caught my eye. I have learned that if I am interested the painting will be interesting. If I am bored the painting will be boring to look at.  So that is why I will paint the thing that gets the juices flowing. I just love the long sepals on these hips too.


I wanted to get that glow that I saw in the photo and my watercolor paints didn't have that for me. So I took out my little glass yogurt jars that I got in France and put some ink, since this was an ink project after all, and diluted it with some water. I had one little jar that I let it be watery mud.


I continued to work from the center out. I did more ink work in black and then added some white ink. I would work a while and then set this painting on my mantel for the evening. Then I would just look over to it now and then. It is helpful to me to do this because I can see what my marching orders are for the next day when I will paint. I have to back up and view my work from a distance to really see what it needs.


So in the end I took the painting outside and took her photo. I tried different places in the yard, sometimes with the painting laying flat on the lawn, and sometimes sitting up on a table. It's strange how the colors change depending on the lighting of the yard. I can see it when I upload the photos.


I painted a black ink border around the painting too.
This was a fun assignment. I really enjoyed it.

This is the time to PAINT

What am I working on?  Well I am painting on a large oil painting.  A few years back I painted a watercolor of a lady dancing which I really loved. I don't have this painting right now. It was given to a friend in Mexico.  I wish I had the original but I do have a photo of it. I love the bright colors.



So from this photo I decided to paint this again but larger and in oils.  Oil on canvas 36" X 36"

CLOSE UP

ON THE EASEL


I'm also painting an abstract.  This is fun to paint. I can paint for an hour and then leave the work for a month and still be able to come back to it. The size is 14" X 10.5" This is in progress......


Above the whole painting, below a close up of the picky work I love to do.


Speaking of picky work. Below is a drawing in pencil and ink that I have been working on for a couple years. I love doing the small detail drawing. I'm the same with my knitting, cross stitch and even as a dental technician. I like picky work. 

This drawing is 14" X 11"

So that is what I am currently working on.
Today I begin some new watercolor painting. I will share this soon.
Happy Painting!!!

A post from the Past: May 27, 2008 - My History

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009

May 27, 2008  First Blog post on Live Journal

mmm...my first post. I am still figuring out how this works. I am familiar with posting blogs on MySpace. But I am having problems figuring out how to insert photos. I tried for an hour and no luck. It shouldn't be this hard. I love to see lots of photos on a blog.
I will try again right now.................



This is my daughter Sierra. I lost her a year ago. She was my only daughter and I do miss her so so much. She was 23 when she died by a gunshot to her beautiful head. It's so sad. Her little daughter Peanut is living with me now. We are taking each day one at a time. Life is certainly changing for us. Here we are...



We were dressed for Halloween. On this night 10/31/06 my daughter was taking the photo. Then my daughter Sierra, Peanut and I walked around my neighborhood to trick or treat. 
Sierra and I had several good times like that before she died Jan. 2007. 
I miss her so. I do not understand why she was the one person out of hundreds or thousands who would die by a gunshot. We are not gun people. I never had handguns in the house ever, never in all my life. She only had that gun in her house for 3 weeks before a fight broke out between her and her boyfriend. No one is sure what happened. The police think the boyfriend is responsible. The coroner put gun shot wound to the head.  But it is the boyfriends word of what happened on that day. Peanut saw and heard the fight. She was watching from her room when the gun went off. I think her dad was blocking her view of the gun so she only knows what he told her happened. She was only 5 years old. What a horrible tragedy to have in a young girls life.



This beautiful granddaughter is living with me now. I am in a guardianship case trying to get full custody. For more than a year I have been in and out of court. I finally got Temporary custody on 10/30/2007. What a long wait.
It is not an easy road. Peanut is in therapy now. We are both grieving so much. But we are having good times. We took a trip to Idaho 2 weeks ago. My son Dustin, her uncle, got married. He lives in Idaho. Peanut and I have a goal to move to Idaho before the end of this year.

My new love is WOOL and KNITTING!!!!! more on that in the next blog.

Today and everyday, I thank God for carrying me this far in my grief journey. He has taken my burden. On days that I have a very heavy heart is usually when I have not looked at the LORD to give him praise for blessing me with my children, Peanut, a home, food, clothing, love and good friends. I have a lot to be thankful for.


Seven years ago my handsome, wonderful, hardworking husband died of cancer. I miss him so much. He never knew his grandchildren. He was my high school sweetheart. We were married 28 years. I was 45 and he was 47 when he died. I believe he is in heaven holding our daughter in his arms. God bless my family in Heaven.

So there is my first POST on Live Journal.
Yeah.....I'm glad to be here!!!!!!

A post from the Past: May 27, 2008 - First felted Hat

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009

May 27, 2008  First Felted Hat

I am very new to knitting. I began at the end of March 2008. I jumped into "Wool" with a hat I made. It was not knitted, it was crocheted.
I wanted to see if I could tackle felting. So I stuck to crocheting since I have been doing that since I was about 7 years old. I crocheted this hat our of Paton's wool.




I crocheted it larger than I wanted the finished product. Here is it before felting on my 6yr. old granddaughters head.





Then I washed it in the machine on hot inside of a pillow case. I then let it dry stretched over a glass container since I didn't have any other form to put it on.





When it was dry this is how it looked.





I liked it a lot. My daughter in law Anne loved it so now I am crocheting her one too.







I'm going to make it bigger than my first hat since I think my hat is too tight. I don't look good in hats but I am going to try to get over it since I plan to knit a bunch of them and I want to felt more hats.
My granddaughter Peanut asked for a hat so she is next on the list.

The yarn in both hats is Patons Classic Wool- merino, 100% wool
The red/mix color stripe on the second hat is recycled silk from Nepal.
It is handspun by women's cooperatives from silk weaving mill waste.
It is very soft and has bright vibrant colors. I will put more stripes in the hat and I know it does not shrink so it will stand out. Should be interesting when I am done.

A post from the Past: May 28, 2008 - Fairy Wings

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009

May 28, 2008  Fairy Wings



My sister and I worked on our costumes together at my house. It was so much fun. 




We did this for Halloween 2006. That was a special Halloween. My granddaughter came over in the evening....



This turned out to be the last time my daughter Sierra and I could take Peanut trick or treating, because Sierra died 3 months later.

So regarding the fairy costume, I bought the wings at Walmart of all places. First I tried to put holes in the wings with a flame but that was too harsh so I got some incense that was a stick. I lit it and then it had a burning coal at the end. A cigarette could do the same but I don't smoke. 
So I burnt holes here and there. The burning melts the edges so they don't unravel. And it looks cool. Then I got out my watercolor paints and I painted the wings with violets and blues and reds. The wings were a light green color.
After they dried, I put some fabric paint from a squeeze tube with glitter around each hole that I had made. Then when that was dry I sprayed glitter on all of the wings.

The costume is a skirt made with soft fabric of purple and greens. I had a long ribbon waist band and sewed petal shapes to the ribbon, then tied the ribbon around my waist. Under the skirt I had on the tights and some exersice shorts. For the top I wore an embroidered tank top that had little roses on it and a sheer long sleeve shirt and then over that I wore a purple vest that laced up on each side, front and back. 

I made my wreath for my head with wire and hot glued ivy and flowers, then added a dragonfly, bird, and lots of ribbons down the back.

So that was my winning costume at work. I won a gift card to Home Depot for $50. I liked that.

Then I kept on the costume and wore it to trick or treat around my neighborhood with my granddaughter, as me and my daughter Sierra took her around. We had a nice visit as we walked that night.

A post from the Past: June 5, 2008 - My son Weds

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

June 5, 2008   My son gets married.

For my user name on my first blog I picked idaho_bound because my goal is to move to Idaho before the year is over. My son, his wife and some of my family live there. I am in So. Calif. where a lot of family live too.

I just need a big change in my life after loosing my daughter last year and my husband several years ago. I have my granddaughter living with me and I think it would be good for her to live in a small town.
We will have to adjust to colder weather. I think we will be ok. I get tired of the summers here that are over 100 degrees.

Here she is at the mall in Idaho with her cousin.
My grandkids Peanut and Bryan.

 

And here I am with my kids in Idaho. The son on the left just got married and we are getting ready to go to the church.


Here is Bryan and Peanut, Bryan is dressed for the wedding but Peanut is not. She got ready at the church since her dress is white. In the background you can see my son Dustin the groom and my other grandson Trevor.



Here is the little guy, Trevor. 16 months old.

A post from the Past: June 13, 2008 - Sierra

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

June 13, 2008 - Sierra

This is really cool.

Here is Sierra and I at our old house back in the days when my husband was alive and of course Sierra. My front yard. 

A post from the Past: June 17, 2008

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

June 17, 2008  Balloon release for Sierra. RIP

Tonight my granddaughter and I went to our meeting of The Compassionate Friends.
http://www.compassionatefriends.org/
(Redlands Chapter of Compassionate Friends)
http://www.redlandstcf.com/

This is a grief group for parents & siblings who have lost a child.

Tonight was the annual balloon launch in the memory of our children. 

We arrived early and started making out little cards to attach to the balloons.

Ouch, sunburn.......




Then we were ready to head outside.  Legos in red case, balloons in hand.


Outside it was a beautiful night. There was a singer Naomi Slotkin and a man on the keyboard. Her voice was like an angel. She sang so beautiful and the lyrics to the songs made me cry.


Then we went on the stairs to release the Balloons. It was so beautiful. The balloons went straight up to heaven.



We watched till the balloons got smaller and smaller. 



And then Naomi Slotkin with the angel voice sang on..........

Near far wherever you are 
I believe that the heart does go on 
Once more you open the door 
And you're here in my heart 
And my heart will go on and on



And then they were gone.............

A post from the Past: June 20, 2008

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

June 20, 2008   Hot day in the pool.

I thought yesterday was hot at 104 but today it was 108 in my city.
It was a bit cooler at my house with 107 degrees.
We were in the pool 2 times but this is just too too hot for me.


Peanut is my underwater explorer. She loves swimming like a Tuna.


Peanut likes taking pictures too of her grandma.

A post from the Past: August 20, 2008

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

August 20, 2008

Tomorrow August 21 will be 8 years since my dear sweet husband died. We were married for 28 years. We met in High School and married as soon as I graduated from High School. I was only 17 1/2 years old.
We had 3 wonderful kids. 
Here is my Richard. 



That picture was taken at our house. We had a great view. 

Richard died of cancer 3 months after we found out. He had cancer of an unknown primary or CUP. He went on intensive chemo but it didn't help.
Here I am moistening his mouth. He is on hospice here. My daughter Sierra is standing behind me and my good friend and mother of my son's wife it there too.



I want to remember Richard as a fun and loving man. Richard was a very lively person. He was fun and had the energy of 12 people. 




It's hard to believe that he has been gone 8 years. I wish I could have a day with him to tell him how much I love him. I wish I could spend a whole day to laugh and hug and make love once again. I miss him so much. 

We use to go and play golf a lot. Sometimes twice a week. It was fun. We have been to so many different courses. We also use to take the kids camping every summer. We would hike and fish. We had a canoe that we would take out on the lake and then spend the day fishing. It was funny because the other people were in their powerboats and we were just floating along. It was just so peaceful. Here is a painting I made of him rowing the canoe.



He was quite a guy. He could do anything. I mean he could fix anything. He had a tool for everything. He could do mechanics from a lawnmower,car, tractor to a big semi. He could do carpentry or plumbing, electrical, cement, anything. He was an egg rancher. We had a lot of chickens for eggs. So he was good at caring for animals. He trimmed trees, roofed a house, installed a sprinkler system, he could weld in 3 kinds of welding (arc,tig, wire,mig, oxy) I probably got those spelled wrong, but I'm not a welder. LOL. He also had a brain for mathematics. He could add numbers faster than you can do a calculator. That use to piss off car dealers when they were trying to make a deal with us.
He was also a loving husband. He was generous, he helped cook. I could always count on him if I had a problem. 
He had his faults. He was high energy and could blow up if he got frustrated. He could even throw a wrench if things were not going good. He worked more than he should have which meant that he missed a lot of the kids activities. I was the one who took them to T-ball, or boyscouts. I was the one walking a parade route with Sierra when she was in baton. Richard was working. He would work on Christmas morning, just in the morning. When you have livestock they always need to be fed and cared for so he would have to check to see that the employees had come into work for the morning. 
Rich was a special guy. He was 47 when he died. 
Here is a picture of him almost exactly one year before he died. This was taken at our son's wedding.

And here is Richard and I on OUR wedding day ready to leave the church.

Tomorrow, God please hug my Richard for me. Tell him I love him. I will see you again one day Sweetie. I miss you. I miss you. I miss you.