I Won!

Yesterday, I opened my mailbox, and there they were...two of the most wonderful, hand-painted coasters from dear, sweet wonderful Angie, from ranchdressing:cowgirlstyleblogspot. Okay, everyone stop laughing...you can go to blogs that I follow, and click on it...remember, I am the one who is so totally computer impaired. I love them...and it's amazing how well they go with my floorcloths that I hand-paint. In fact, before I started blogging...long before, I was Googling "hand-painted floorcloths", just to see what was out there, and I have to tell you it runs the gamut from horrible to mundane, to very few good ones...Angie's caught my eye, and I admired them greatly (still do)...It was much later that I began blogging, and Angie and I have followed one another. She's brilliant, and she's working on a new endeavor..check her out...Anyway, I love them, and they are on my kitchen butcher-block island for all to see and admire... Thanks Angie, I treasure them.

Life is falling back into place a bit. My cat can see, I have catastrophic short-term health insurance (no intentional play on words with the cat and catastrophic, just happened that way)..in fact, it didn't kick in until midnight last night, so I hunkered down in the house. I just knew that if I went out of the house before the "witching hour", I would get into a terrible accident...jaws of life kind..and we would lose our home (no raving paranoia there?)...So, then, I went out to feed the deer that evening, and tripped over a rock, nearly falling (envisioning a severe brain injury), then, I was cooking linguini and clam sauce for dinner, and I knocked over a lovely, glass bottle, that holds/held our dishwashing liquid, which shattered, glass and liquid soap everywhere (we have granite countertops, which are pretty, but not glass-friendly)...My husband insisted on cleaning it up, as he was sure I would sever and artery, and bleed out on the kitchen floor...Finally, I just went to bed with a good book.

A friend of mine called me last Saturday and was all excited, as she'd been to Ben Moore paints, and was talking to the paint guy, telling him she has a friend (me), who paints floorcloths, and often goes to the "whoops" section (mistakes in mixing colors), and buys quarts of paint for a dollar (sometimes, gallons for $5). He told her that I was welcome to all their leftovers and mistakes...I was dealing with a blind cat, and no insurance, so haven't gotten there yet. Today is that day...I love free anything, especially paint. I have to be careful, however, as when I left our home in Wisconsin, I had a basement - full of leftover paint....hundreds of cans...you cannot throw paint cans containing liquid paint in the garbage...(I was informed of this by my garbage man, even when I would meet him at the end of the driveway, with a cup of coffee and freshly-baked apple turnovers). What you have to do is buy kitty litter, and pour it in the cans, and stir it up, so it will absorb the paint and dry...just so you know...sheesh!

The Ides of March.....Actually, February Ides...

are upon us....March comes in like a lamb...etc.
With all the Gussie drama, I didn't have a chance to post photos of our SNOW, yes, snow in the Hill Country...Texas, that is, land of cacti, big pickup trucks, rocks, heat, and no snow....That said, last week, we got whomped on...three inches of the white stuff. Since we moved here from Wisconsin four years ago to get away from the snow, we weren't nearly as impressed as those young children, shrieking, throwing snowballs, building snowmen...We laughed as a reporter was showing off her snowperson, and the eyeball fell out on camera...I mean, this was heady stuff. So, I grabbed my camera and tromped down the road. But before doing that, I looked out back, and there were some very confused deer, who come here regularly to be fed. They were confused. The snow was too deep just to dump the corn, so I got some "Totes" lids from the garage, and put the corn out on that...They were afraid of the scent of plastic (who isn't), and ran away. I went out, scraped the snow away with the Tote lids, and left it be...as you can see, they sucumbed.

Since my computer is hobbling along, and things are just getting worse, I cannot put the images in order (so when is she actually going to get this all fixed, you ask, soon, come soon = now, the latest crisis is health insurance-I suddenly have none, due to a very strange reason...can't share that right now)...anyway, the next day the sun is shining, and that's when the deer came back - they are here every day...out back, looking wistful...Best go feed them.

We Have A Miracle

Yesterday, I noticed Gussie was staring at the window, then out the french doors in my bedroom. Last night, she came into the living room, and sat on the hassock, watching the tv. At first, we thought she was just seeing light, but today, she was tracking my hand, and it would seem that God turned the lights back on for her.

We are blessed.