Jinx and Hoax

Today I found my kittens, I have been looking for a kitten for a while now..My last kitty I had for 15 years, a little tiny calico that appeared to be only half grown her entire life.Then last fall I got a little grey kitty that died, poor lil tiny thing, that broke my heart . These I got from a lady a ways down the street and supposedly they just turned 8 wks old, the mother was a large marmalade kitty with a beautiful white ruff..so these are the new and final additions to my family, two dogs, two cats. At least the cats will earn their keep, unlike the dogs who manage to always get into trouble...They each had their own personal skunking very early this morning, their first one of the year. YAAAY...that means warm weather is here for sure..of course my house and dogs now reek, that stuff lingers forever, I even have a hint of it on my personal self..ode de skunk..gotta love my dogs..and thats the way I deal with it. Just try to make it something good..peeeeeeweeeeeeee..

anyway, I ramble the new kitties are named Jinx and Hoax, Jinx is the one sleeping and of course the one that looks like the mother is actually the boy and he of course is hoax..and he appears to be the more rambunctious of the two.

Just For Fun

My husbands last Dr. Visit

A Visit

Today I shall invite you to my house perhaps for a cup of tea..but more than likely for a budweiser with my husband. He is the center piece of the household, He is the King of his domain, and I am happy to be the queen.

We are regular hard working people just like you, with the same hopes and fears, joys and sadness.This is our humble little abode..I just adore this little house, though we are constantly doing something, I think we shall do the upstairs floors this year as we did the downstairs a while back. we try to do a project or two a year on the place and every year it is a challenge but an improvement, we had to redo the drive which is roughly 175 yards back from the main road which I tried to show in the photo..We had to reclaim, most of the yard you see, and of course the interior needed things like doors, floors, etc..but we have 7 acres with this house and that is what I wanted the ability to have a yard, as big as I wanted with a couple of dogs able to run freely about..and they do, so does the wildlife, but that is another topic.

I love plants as most ladies do, I try to keep something green growing year round in my home, and I have had such wonderful luck with the donkey tail plant you see in the photo, that was as big as my thumb when i planted it 12 yrs. ago, now look at it, it drags the floor, it is a stunning plant and I have never seen one quite this large and healthy. I have the usual ivy's too, and the crab grass in a pot that no one can kill..it is just nice to have the greenery and i hate that artificial stuff, it just collects dust.

We each drive a used vehicle, he purchased his truck used and the car was also purchased used, and we are still using them, till they literally rot, I have no idea which way the car industry is headed, heck i may be better off to purchase a pair of healthy horses. We'll see how that goes.

I cook at home, we seldom go out to eat, we grill stuff, deepfry stuff outdoors, and have some really great meals, though I do hate cooking, I must say.

I grow my own veggies in the summer, and they do quite well, enough to give to neighbors, and it is great to go and pick a salad. I also recycle, everything, and I believe very strongly in recycling.

The lilacs are special as are most of my flowers because they were gifts, I insisted on plants for house warming gifts, and that lilac was just a little thing in a pot and now it is reaching 9 ft tall and growing great, the peonies are also gifts that I planted and have nurtured for many years.The big bushes in the front of the house were also very small in pots when i planted those and now I am pruning them back.

My snakes are fun, I have a rock wall full of them, baking in the sun and I have quite a collection of perfect snake skins too from them shedding there. They mate there and have their lil snakettes and just love life..aren't they pretty?

anyway, just wanted to invite you over for a chat, glad you could stop by.

Spring at Last!

Now that the last bit of snow is finally leaving, I can feel good knowing that the days will only get nicer. I am going to be starting my vegetable seedlings next weekend here in the house. I get so excited about the planting and have to force myself to hold out till the last full moon in May has gone by to put my lil treasures in the ground. But we are not out of danger of frost till then so I keep them indoors. In the spirit of Spring I am posting some of my flowers that I grew last year and hope to have some more new ones planted this year, as we are getting older I am now leaning more toward perennials, less work every year.

pug

This lil pug was also done for the dog breed project.

Yorkie

Wow..this one is really hard, so much hair going so many directions.This is my attempt at my lil yorkie, named Jazz..I will have to try him again later on .

Welsh Corgi

So here is another attempt from Wet Canvas dog breed project. I thought I would post it with no back ground and then the final. I think I like the plain background better.I think I may deviate from WC for a bit and try to do my own little yorkie in Watercolor, we'll see how that goes.

I learn something new with each one I do.

Yellow Lab

I have decided on trying the yellow lab..this was also done for the wet canvas forum on dog breeds.

Dachshund

I finally did it, I joined wet canvas. I have been hearing so much about the place for the past year and have gone and investigated a few times, and finally just did it. I joined because they are having a 'dog breed' project and I have a passion for dogs. I was trying to learn how to create white fur using dogs as my projects, so I may as well continue learning how to use my watercolors by doing a few more dogs of different breeds and posting them here as I complete them. This particular dog belongs to 'Bigs' and I hope she likes the way he turned out cause this is my 4th attempt at this breed before finally coming up with this particular one, which pleased me enough to post it.

Onward to my next , no idea what breed yet it will be a lil surprise..

Get Educated About HCV (Hepatitis C)

I have mentioned before that I have undergone treatment for Hepatitis C..The treatments were not pleasant and of course with my luck I was one to go through some side effects that were difficult to deal with. Not everyone has side effects, some people have minimal but in lots of cases, mine included the treatment works. My viral load was in the millions when I was FINALLY diagnosed. I was told that from the liver biopsy they could tell that I had been carrying this bug for over 20 years, liver scarring and tissue damage had already started to occur. My viral load is now undetectable, which is a good thing.
If you think you could be infected it merely takes a blood test to find out.

The link is a quick fact and myth page regarding HCV and there is much misinformation and belief about the illness. People who have this virus should also be quickly vaccinated against both the Hep B and Hep A viruses as contracting one or the other while infected with Hep C can be fatal.

First let me start by saying that the Hep C virus has only been discovered in the late '80's..Right about the time I contracted it. It took them 20 years to discover that I had it. Over the years I started to develop symptoms such as, achy, my shoulder would at times hurt when I breathed, The middle of my back too would hurt when I breathed, so bringing these symptoms to my Dr.'s I was diagnosed with pluracy, bursitis, even a gall bladder problem. I was also over the years losing my energy level..I was one that rafted, hiked mtns..etc and now it was getting hard for me to do anything, just seemed to be tired, when taking these symptoms to my Dr.'s I was told I was depressed, and that depression can cause physical pain..I tried to tell him it was the pain that was causing my depression..but what do I know, so I ended up taking depression medication, and no it didn't work...I was still in pain and tired so I ended up being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, so now I had a title, I was a depressed fibromyalgic person..I ran around actually believing that for several more years and my condition silently worsened.
Finally I went to another Dr. when we moved south and that was where I was diagnosed, so see I wasn't nuts after all..It was a strange trip to my final diagnosis and as I have said the treatment is not easy, but so far as of last week, my viral load is still undetectable.

So get checked, even if you think you are far too clean and careful for that cause many of us are indeed walking around with this silent killer within.

Shepard

Here is my last attempt at the white dogs, a white german shepard, I have learned much doing these 3 white dogs, and one of the things I learned is boy do I still have alot to learn :)

It was an enjoyable experience and I received tips from a very skilled friend on how to try and carry out the process. I have also learned that rendering a white dog in watercolors is not an easy thing to achieve.. but it can be learned.

Westie in Watercolor

Here I attempted to watercolor a west highland terrier..I think I shall attempt one more white dog in watercolor. This lil guy belongs to Cees.

my poodle project in watercolor

Beginner attempt at my white standard poodle in watercolor. His name is Oliver.

We Love Motorcycles

My husband and I both love motorcycles and have each had our share of trips cross country. When I first came to Maine I came on a 45 trike everything I owned in the trunk, never looking back. This is me during that trip. Young and Invincible.

The pic with the bike was taken during a different road trip through the Blue Ridge Mtns. of Tennessee.

Upper bike is one of the ones we own now.

I love political humor

I love political cartoons too!

Lou Dobbs

This is another that I watch and really like..I am really into news programs and political points of view. Things you shouldn't discuss at the dinner table or with friends.

The Glenn Beck Program

This is one of my favorite shows, he talks about world events, happenings..I am a big Glenn Beck Fan..you guys should check him out

Art Cards

I am absolutely addicted to ATC'S..if you would like a private ATC trade please contact me..Here are a few of my favorites that I have done and have traded in DRAWSPACE.COM which by the way is my second home. I love it there..come and check it out..

OK here I am, I did it..

Hello, this is my very first blog and I think here I will share whatever comes to my mind..

I am interested in Dogs, Artwork, Gardening, Reading and of course a good debate in politics. My husband and I have some very interesting and intense political discussions, some which send us to our own corners of the house for hours at a time to cool off.

I am from New Orleans Louisiana and now reside in Vacationland Maine.

I have done lots of factory work here in Maine, everything from shoes to fish and I LOVE the factory setting and the ppl who work in them..however, Maine no longer has any factories to speak of and when I first arrived here 18 yrs or so ago it was a factory booming town. After I grew up some and had a child I decided I needed a career HAH! So off I went to school, I decided that since I care about people so much (I love even the ones I haven't met yet) I thought the nursing field would be a good place for me to be, so that is where i headed. I was a CNA for about 5 yrs and a tragedy happened with my son ( cant share that I'm sorry) but he needed me and I left the work and stayed home with him for over a year. Then when it was time to go back I decided I needed another career change HAH! I thought it might be interesting to work for lawyers..boy was I wrong..I went back to school, took two years of office stuff, got my job in my lawyers office and HATED it..I hated everything about it. So I left that and took my skills to another field where I managed an Historical store. Now this job I loved. I got to hold and read actual documents and photos from former presidents, civil war soldiers, movie stars and lots of other interesting things, we held auctions monthly, BIG MONEY AUCTIONS, and sold smaller things online as well..then the inevitable, my bosses went through a horrific and nasty divorce which caused them to liquidate and split everything and needless to say there went my job.

Shortly after that I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, Doctors say I had been carrying it around for about 20 years..WHAT!! well after a year of a hellish treatment, my counts are undetectable so it appears the treatment has worked for now. After all that I took in a small child to daycare at a very low rate to help his mother and since I was home anyway, I wanted to help out. The baby became a huge part of my life and I so adored him, but alas, his mother was laid off after Christmas and now i am not working at all for now, My husband retires in 5 years and if there are ANY jobs left at that time, i shall take one, both for my sanity and his. lol