This week Im Grateful for : Survival

 Image by Me

Its been one hell of a week let me tell you this much... so I'm grateful I survived it so to speak.
It started of with my dog you know the one that loved Vodka and Coke ... ye him.. he became well lets say he became not is his self....

Tuesday morning we were woken up at 5am by him hacking ..... honestly I thought he was going to die, and there felt like nothing I could do to help him, I hate feeling that helpless.
So by 7.30 am I was ringing the vets but before I could ring the vets Bop decided to play me up cause the dog being ill wasn't about her....this continued all through the day with phone calls from school, peep talks from me over the phone and her just being a dammm right nuisance in every department going.

So we get to the vets long story short he has an abscess in his jaw line throat area from probably eating grass which he does fairly often... he secretly wishes he was a cow.... he did this last year and it cost us over $600 for a operation to remove the abscess ... fingers crossed we have caught it in time this year.

While on the way back from the vets which let me point out is not even five minutes up the road he throws up in my car.... and it looked like egg yoke ... maybe the abscess busting ...I wonder... but it wasn't pleasant to clean up.
Bop has continued to play me up cause the dog being sick isn't about her.... bless her RADdy ways ...
So being a thoughtful mom I decided to defuse the situation and got the Christmas tree out yesterday for them to help decorate that night once daddy got home.... more to come on that in a minuter

But first the visitor ... I'm so grateful that my husband dealt with the visitor in a timely fashion and in a humane way... we caught the mouse and he was set free in the woods behind us ... read more about this here if you don't know the story

Back to the tree.... ye not such a good idea... cause the dog is still sick and its not about her.... no need to say any more the tree is up but I have a few bold patches where hair once grew.

Oh and to top it all she dumped her homework on the school bus today...saying she didn't have any.
Well mom knows she did cause the teacher had rang mom tell her that more than normal was coming home, as she had refused to work most of the day and spent it under the table....

Well I'm off to find my table and I may just stay there most of the weekend.



So this week I'm grateful for Survival Technique.

This is a Grateful post linked up with Maxabella Loves... pop over and link up with what your grateful for this week...

There's a Rat in my Kitchen

Well not really a rat more like a field mouse...and its in my kitchen...for weeks Ive been saying to my husband there is a mouse in this house... he normally replies naw there isn't ....

Well there is I have the evidence I need today to prove it ..... and the flipping thing isn't scared of me nor the kids...who by the way as I'm writing this are on mouse duty .... until the man gets home and can catch it...


I had been painting to day and had thrown my tea bags on to the plate that had the paint on it plus a can lid from the gravy I had just used while cooking dinner...

I turn and there the thing is .... just licking the gravy of the lid.... I clap my hands and it shoots behind the counter.... and then low and behold its back ... this went on five times.... until I said to the kids stand guard..while I ring you dad.....

I'm not scared of mice neither are the kids...... we live in the middle of nowhere why would we be scared...but I really do object to it being in my kitchen....

Can you see it ... just munching away ....

and here are the kids on Mouse Duty .....

excuse the state of my kitchen ..... 

we had to move everything around to try to catch the thing... so far no such luck... ill let you know when we do

So this is me Flogging my blog...... but really wanting to flog a mouse if I could catch it 

Sharing Sunday : A Faviortie and a Wonderful find.

Happy Sunday to you all.

I cant believe its Sunday already where did our long weekend go? but let me say I'm grateful we didn't get snow, unlike my homeland that did. It makes a change its normally me screaming about snow instead this weekend its my UK friends post all over Face Book that they have snow.

Sharing Sunday, I love doing this post cause it means I have the perfect excuse for finding Stores and Artists to share instead of feeling guilty cause I'm spending to much time scrolling through stuff.

So My first fine ..... (yes that's right I have two for you today, I just couldn't pick between them both)

A Life Through The Lens, my dear friend Kristi, a true inspiration to me in more ways than one.
Her work draws me in and I hope it will you to as she has a fabulous sale on for the next two weeks buy one get one free.

This is what Kristi says about herself and her work

I capture life's little moments through photography. Photography helps me slow down and look for details that I otherwise might miss. I feel most alive when I am creating & sharing things of beauty. I believe Aaron Siskind best describes how I feel about photography perfectly, “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”

I'm a self-taught photographer; constantly growing and learning. I find inspiration from my children, nature, the simple things, soft colors, natural light, quotes and life.
 
I want to share with you the print that sits above our bookcase, it use to sit in Bops room but it looks better above our bookcase so I stole it from her.

If you look closely you can read the names of all the books and I just love that

 

This print is in the shop at the moment and I'm ordering one. I love the texture of it and the color theme will look wonderful in my kitchen

Along with 

So pop on over to A Life Through The Lens

and then go show her some love at her blog she does some wonderful tutorials

Life Through The Lens Photography 

The next Artist is

Teconlene - Le Petit Monde-

An Illustrate with so much talent I was pulled in and didn't come out I scrolled through her entire shop with lots of ohhhhh and arrrrrrs going on ....

The name of the Artist is Sara and she lives in Madrid ... a wonderful part of the world, many a drink drank in Madrid in my miss spend youth, but that's another story.

Here is what Sara has to say about herself and her work.

This is the corner where the Little World take its place.

Hello! My name is Sara Olmos, I work doing what I love: playing with images and ideas in order to gear them and transform them in small visual puzzles. I am a graphic designer and that is the way I face my work: searching for each project the solution that fits the best. A few years ago I started to look through a camera lens and I discovered that it allowed me, in an immediately way, to communicate my particular vision of the world, where the objects and the small things are filled with live and look at me in such way that it is impossible to deny them a photo.
Recently I have also begun exploring my illustrative side, where I let the fantasy govern and search new forms of expression.
Nowadays I am developing a series of illustrations called "le petit monde" (little world) inhabited by characters who interact with objects with a different scale finding in its relation new meanings.

So now let me blow you away

I'm leaving hints around the house as to what I would like for Christmas, not sure its going to work but if I was to post my husbands email address do you think you could all lead him this way please ..... 

and this way .....

This draws me in to a place that I know I could get lost in 

Sara also makes brooches which are totally adorable and she also has some Christmas cards

here are a few of them that are in her shop at the moment

How wonderful would these be to wish a friend a happy Holiday totally adorable.

Her shop address is Teconlene

and her blog address is Caleidoscopio 

Her blog maybe all in Spanish but trust me the photo's she posts are to die for and it will give you an insight into her wonderful colorful world.....

I hope you have enjoyed this Sunday Sharing and if you have something that has inspired you this week please leave me a comment and a link I love to see what inspires others.

Have a wonderful week people.

This week Im Grateful for : A Roof over my head.

(Photo credits)

So The day after Thanks Giving, the day after we proclaim what we are Thankful for.
We had a pretty awesome day I have to say, I was dreading it, we all went to my brother in laws house 22 of us.
Yes I did type 22 .... 22 people for dinner, 22 people to cook for, 22 people to talk to.

My problem with 22 people was, I wasn't sure how the children would cope, its been known in the past that in a situation of a large crowd they sabotage .... even if its family and friends. but you will be pleased to know they behaved, they did awesome ....

So there is number one I'm grateful.... Grateful my children behaved like fairly normal children, and there manners were whoa blow mommy away and give her a drink ........

Number two comes in the form of my brother in law and sister in law...... there is no way I would have cooked for that amount of people...but they did it and it was yummy ..... perfect hosts .....

And number three, you hear stories when your all together, and as much as you many not know the whole story or why something has happened, it makes you think about your own like, we found out yesterday someone had lost their house and had to move from a 3 bedroom house to a two bed apartment, why?
I don't have full details, but I am grateful today for what we do have, it might not be much but we keep her heads above the water line and live a comfortable life.... I am truly grateful for that.

So today I am Grateful for my children... they did awesome .... good food and the people who are prepared to cook it and the roof over my head.... on and my wood stove... we work up this morning to freezing rain.... and its very cold.

What are you grateful for this weekend ... Come join in the fun and hop over to Maxabella Loves and link up with her weekly.

Thankful ......

 Thank you for the The Notebook Doodles for this Doodle.

Happy Thanks Giving to all my friends in blog land ......  you are all a blessing and are truely appricated.

The Mystery behind each of us!

(Image Credits)

What draws you to a blog?

Is it the name that pulls you in?

The subjects that a person write about?

Is it that they have something in common with you and you feel a connection ?

Or is it that plain old mystery of who is this person what are they about and where are they coming from?

Each of us has a story to tell, we all come from a place of mystery when we start to write.

In this day and age I think people are draw to a good story, there is so much sadness in the world, that each and everyone of us wants something that feels good and brings a smile.

I am all for a good story, I believe that each and anyone of us is capable of writing one and delivering it to the public, big, small, wrote here, wrote there.

The thing I look at is the mystery, lets us all consider the power of our own mystery for one second or long if you wish.

Lets throw some garlic around our necks and go digging in our own back yards for that suspense that surrounds us all.

Did you know that your everyday words and rantings are gripping to someone out there in this place we call the world wide web, its something that has them coming back day after day for something more then they received the day before.

So where does it all begin .... I believe right here....

Because believe it or not ....

Your words are heavy shrouded in suggestions, they conjure up a chapter  from a romantic novel, and ideal world, a place where people want to belong.

But do we use it?

Where do you sit when you write or do you stand?, at what time of the day do you decide what you will write about on that giving day?, what happened to make you chose that subject?

What do you hear as your write, is there a window, what surrounds you see? what interrupts you?.

These are all questions a reader will think when reading something you wrote I believe, its human nature to think outside the blog so to speak. To look beyond the written word, and to create a story to match the smiling faces.

So the thing is this.... if you where to have to much detail about that person would it still bring you back each day?

Do you leave room for that mystery to develop, the things that have us running towards the mystery are not the same as the things that send us screaming the other way.

That song that played over and over again to the point where you knew the words by heart did not draw you back the next day ...No you avoid it, but the song that plays once and lifts your spirits is the song you desperately tried to find the next day.

Its the song that may repeat in our heads but we don't remember all the words, we need the words, we want them and we will find them.

I often think about the "Who Done" it novel of life... who started you on this crazy trip, and why did you follow through with it, was it something you did openly to begin with or where you a top secret agent working in the dead of night to achieve that something that would draw people towards you.

Its also that sense of belonging, that keeps us here. Or brings us back.

That part of something bigger and better, that is nurtured and nourished.
The whisper on the winds.
The silent voice.
The fostering of an idea.
The place of belonging.
And the friends that we make along the way.

Its the mystery of the creative face behind the words
The closed door we all want to open.

Has Anyone Seen My Son?

(photo credit)

So there is a boy who lives in the same house as me, he's helpful and kind, just like any other kids I know.

He looks after his sister and helps me with the animals we have. He will wash up with his dad at night, and his bed is always made.

He picks up his toys when asked and does his homework with out any fuss.

He is full of cuddles, and has a joy about him that is pleasant to be around.

So has anyone lost a child lately cause this isn't the same boy who used to live here a month ago.

I'm not complaining .... I'm rejoicing ...
We seemed to have turned a corner with Bip and I'm just praying it lasts.