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Thoughts on Friday

November 20, 2015 at 8:46 am by Claudia

11-20 lambchop&baby

Lamb Chop and Baby Lamb Chop. They’re hanging out by my side of the bed these days. They make me smile.

As soon as I took this picture, protests for equal time were heard reverberating through the upstairs walls.

11-20 lamb on bookshelf

A gift from Sheila.

11-20 two sheep

On the left, a gift from Judy. On the right, a gift from Lori (owner of Vignettes in San Diego.)

11-20 lamb with party hat

And the Lamb With The Party Hat – star and symbol of this blog.

I love my little lambs and sheep. My sister, also a lover of all things sheep, has even more than I do!

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I put a new Obsession Scarf in the Etsy shop yesterday evening and within minutes, it sold! I couldn’t believe how quickly it went. It’s in a particularly lovely colorway in blues and purples. If you see something and it’s snapped up before you can buy it, let me know. I do take orders and I am happy to make one up for you and reserve it on Etsy under your name. I’m only crocheting these scarves for a limited time, and I’m just about to order some more yarn. So let me know.

By the way, I keep meaning to tell you this: the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree for 2015 came from our little town. Yep. The whole thing happened while I was away in Florida. At first, I was sad because I hate the idea of cutting down a magnificent tree that has lived so many years, but a friend of mine assured me that the owners were worried it was going to fall on their house and were going to cut it down anyway. Big trucks came down Main Street (where the tree was located) and a crowd gathered and pictures and selfies were taken and the next time we see the tree, it will be at Rockefeller Center.

I try to avoid the political on this blog, but really, the anti-immigrant fear-baiting rhetoric I’m hearing is simply appalling to me. We’re talking about a humanitarian crisis that is being used for political purposes. If you are my friend on Facebook, you know how I feel about this. And anyone spewing such xenophobia who calls himself/herself a Christian might want to reread Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Immediately.

I’m stopping there, but believe me, I could write a lot more.

Happy Friday.

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The Schedule

November 19, 2015 at 8:28 am by Claudia

11-19 early morning

I’m stealing this photo from my Instagram post this morning.

We woke up at an ungodly hour this morning. 4:30 am. What the heck??

Back story: Scout, as an almost 17 year old dog, has issues with her ‘elimination’ processes. So we now use the pretty chalkboard in the kitchen to write things like ‘Pee 6:59 pm’ and ‘Poop 10 am.’ Since she pees less often, usually about twice a day, and sometimes leaks a bit, we are vigilant about chronicling her daily schedule, which is never the same. This involves remembering when she last peed, thinking ahead 11 or 12 hours, and making sure we get her outside in time. A good night is when she pees at around 7:30. We smile and relax, knowing we can sleep normally and still be up in good time for Scoutie.

There are, however, many times that one of us has to get up at 3 in the morning and hustle her outside. You do what you have to do.

Last night, for some reason, she peed at 5:30. So I figured we could probably get up around 6 am and we’d be okay. It was too warm in our bedroom last night and both of us woke up at various points in the night. At some point later, I woke up and figured it was close to 6 am. Still dark out, but about to be light. Don was also awake and we chatted back and forth about whether we should get up. I kept thinking about Scout and knew I had to get downstairs very soon to let her outside. When I start worrying about letting her out, forget it – I can’t get back to sleep. So I got up. And Don got up.

I went downstairs and looked at the clock (for some reason we don’t have a working clock in our bedroom.) It was 4:55 am. Hence…we were awake at 4:30, yammering on to each other, deluded in our belief that it was 6 am or so.

Crap.

And to add insult to injury, Dame Scout continued to snooze for the next two and a half hours. I finally woke her up to let her out at 7:30.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Don is now napping on the sofa in the den. Scout is sleeping in the tunnel.

I’m wide awake.

Happy Thursday.

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Finds Lost & Instagram

November 18, 2015 at 9:53 am by Claudia

11-18 coffee table

Life at the moment.

Chapped lips need Carmex.

Reading glasses.

Michael Connelly’s newest, The Crossing, which I’ve just started.

The newest scarf in its very beginning stages.

In a rare reversal, Don was up and about much earlier than I. I slept in, partly because I had trouble getting to sleep last night. I rarely sleep in and when I do, I find I’m groggy for a good while. Still groggy and it’s 9:40 am.

11-18 parrish

Oh, yesterday. Yesterday, I decided to go to the antique barn and see if that Maxfield Parrish was still there. It was about three weeks ago that I first saw it. It was gorgeous and a good price. But I couldn’t afford it at the time, so I passed, thinking I might buy it in a week or so.

Well, of course, I left for Florida suddenly and was gone ten days and then I came back and it wasn’t until yesterday that I roused myself enough to go back to the antique barn. I was thinking that it would make a good birthday present – either from me to me, or from Don to me.

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know what happened.

It was gone.

I searched every inch of that barn. Twice.

Someone wiser than me snapped it up.

I can’t explain the sadness I felt, except to say I cried. And then I cried again when I told Don about it. I had been thinking about it all this time, and though I knew the chances of it still being there were slim, I held a secret little hope that it would be. I could see it hanging above my desk in the new office/studio space that is yet-to-be.

I’m still sad. You know that feeling when you are absolutely sure something was meant just for you? That’s how I felt. Silly, but real, nonetheless.

As I said on Instagram, it’s a lesson learned, or rather re-learned. If you see something you want at an antique store or a flea market, grab it. We all know this, don’t we? I certainly do. But I didn’t follow my own advice. At the time, several of you suggested trying to put it on layaway. I didn’t follow through, but to be fair to myself, I flew off to Florida a few days later.

Still….

If you see it and want it and can afford it, get it.

This is one I’ll regret for a long, long time.

By the way, do you do Instagram? I reluctantly got on board a while ago, and I really love it. I don’t post all the time, but I post fairly regularly. I’ve found lots of interesting accounts to follow – everything from animal rescue organizations to farmers with gorgeous sheep to McCoy collectors to fellow bloggers to readers and friends of this blog. It’s visually stimulating and fun. I often pull out my phone when I’m waiting somewhere and scroll through my feed.

A lot of people seem to be using Instagram as a blog nowadays and sometimes the captions under the photos are rather long. If they’re too long, I usually move on to the next one. I like short and sweet. Longer is for blogs, in my humble opinion. But I’m getting used to reading longer captions (yes, even I can change) and do my best to comment when I can. I tend to use my iPhone for my photos instead of anything shot by my big girl camera, though lots of Instagrammers use professional, styled photos.

It’s a wonderful way to connect with all sorts of people who don’t blog and who are incredibly creative and interesting and with bloggers who share moments of their day that might not necessarily be covered in a blog post. If you want to follow me, you can click here or you can click on the camera icon at the top of my sidebar.

I like it a lot.

Happy Wednesday.

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Thoughts on Friday

The Schedule

Finds Lost & Instagram

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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