A BLUE THANK YOU.

SOMETHING NEW ?

I was looking at new blogs over on Bloglovin

and then I looked at my own blog's stats.

I know there are many ways that people can Follow a blog

but last time I checked how many were Following me through Bloglovin

I only had 2

so I was thrilled to see my count was up to 21!

Wahoo!

Then I went back to reading blogs.

After a while I decided to check how many were Following the one I was currently reading

and it said 115K

K? I paused.

K?

She had 115 Thousands Followers!

How does a person get that many Followers?

So I started checking others.

Many were in the thousands but some...OMG!

Another blogger who makes her living via blogging must be doing well

because she just bought a house in a very expensive city.

She has 110,440 K Followers.

OK, both are Design blogs but....

I need to research this a little bit.

I mean, wouldn't that be Heaven?

To be home with my animals and blog.

I'm sure it's not easy.

It must be very hard work

But...

I'm just going to try to figure out this Social Media world.

I have Followers on my Instagram and Facebook accounts

but I have a lot more on Twitter and I NEVER tweet!

I don't even have Twitter figured out really

but I do share my Instagram photos on there

so I guess those are tweets

and oddly I have the most Followers on Twitter!?

A site that I don't even try to do?

I'm just thinking that maybe I'm missing out on an opportunity.

Somehow, somewhere.

That I need to change my blog around, I already have my "Art" blog

and now I just realized that I haven't posted a thing over there for a year!

Maybe I need to keep everything in one place, blogwise.

And just remember to also post my Art over there too,

so that it's easy to go to and see my work.

So what do I want to write about?

Well...

I like to write my short stories (usually dog or cat related)

or just about a thought or insight I've had

or just general things about dogs and cats

or MY dogs and cats

and BLUE.

and OF COURSE my ART

and trying to write my illustrated book (about a dog or a cat)

and sharing photos I've taken (usually a dog or cat)

Oh, and about my garden (and how to make it animal friendly)

and I need to start on my home improvements

and I could start writing about that and doing it on a tight budget.

Home improvements with before and afters... and always with pets in mind.

Showing that it's possible to have style and design AND multiple pets.

But I don't want to be thought of as just a blog about animals even if that's what I always come back to.

Maybe I need to change the name.

But then again, maybe not...

Sigh,

I thought about changing the name before and changed my mind.

Oh, and I want to write about trying to be more of a minimalist

or if not that, at least being more organized

and taking joy in a simpler life, with animals...

And I have a list of  things I don't want to write about?

Posts with me whining and complaining.

I mean everyone has problems, but no one wants to read about THAT,

not when they have their own things going on.

Not unless there's a goal or a plan, a solution.

A way to work out the problem, something that might be useful for them too,

but not constant whining

and I'm afraid I've been doing that.

Talking about my work problems and being tired and blah blah blah.

So sorry.

So yeah, maybe I can figure something out here.

Who knows? But it's sure to take a lot of time and research.

I'm just looking into it and thinking about trying something NEW.

On a final note.

I have another commissioned illustration to do!

(and I still haven't finished the other pieces that I promised a friend.)

Yeah, need to get on that, NOW.

So,  I will leave you with a photo that people on other sites have enjoyed -

I bought one of those little puffy dog beds for my little tiny dogs to sleep on.

It's soft and squishy...and apparently Blue thought it was his!

I have no idea how he was able to tuck himself into this tight ball.

It just couldn't have been comfortable...

God, I love that dog.

TWENTY

Yesterday was my niece Lily's 20th birthday.
I have three nieces and I love them all dearly but I talk about Lily a lot on my blog

because she is the one who shares my passion for animals.

She is also the one who would always come to my house to visit when she was tiny,

only six years old

and help me "clean" and "play" with my pets.

We would do a lot of things together, like go to garage sales

or once when I entered my elderly Maltese, dressed as Nemo, in a Halloween contest

she was the one who walked her down the catwalk in front of a crowd and all the judges.

I still remember afterwards, getting ice cream cones and sitting in the park

and she turned to me and in her little voice said -

"Today was a Good day!"

When she was nine, she would sometimes come help me at the kennel

on Sundays and Holidays.

She asked Doc when she could work there for real and he said when she was able to drive.

So, when she started driving, she reminded him of his promise.

She worked for a year as one of boarding girls but then started working 

up front as a vet tech assistant.

She is a such a hard worker and loves animals with all her heart.

She's in my "will" to take of my pets and/or their welfare when I die.

She loves sharks and wolves.

When she got a huge tattoo on her arm (which I tried to talk her out of)

I thought her Mom, my sister, would have a fit but

we all knew it was useless because Lily is headstrong and fearless.

But most of all, she loves her little dog.

He's a mix of Dachshund and Shih-tzu.

I love this kid with all my heart

and I can not believe the years have flew by so fast

and that she is now out of her teens.

Happy Birthday Lily!

NO ONE GETS IN TO SEE THE WIZARD...

So I'm working in my backyard today and two men come walking up.

They were selling siding.

One of them said they liked my sign on the front door

which reads: "No One gets in to see the Wizard. No Way, No How."

I wanted to say "And yet, here you are" but instead I just kinda smile.

My dogs were going crazy in the enclosed patio area.

One of them asked if he could go over and pet Blue, "If he's friendly".

I say "He is, but the border collie will rip up you."

They both looked over towards her and she wasn't barking but just watching them intently.

The other guy said  to him "Yeah, don't go over there!"

Sigh, I REALLY need to get my privacy fence put up and

I think I need another sign that reads

"Solicitors will be Shot"

but in the meantime, Thank God for Nora.

TORNADO, FIRE, a CAT and a DOG and STUFF.

I need to write a post......

I have so many things swirling in my head

and don't know where to start.

I've just been thinking about so many things.

About... life.

About how I spend my time.

About my level of Happiness.

How I have such a list of what I want to do

and NEED to do.

And I always feel guilty if I don't do all that I need to do.

Spring was arrived.

source

In little bursts of warmth

but the nights are still cold.

But soon I can start building my fence!

I'm not sure where to place it... but that's for a different post.

So anyway,

I had breakfast with a friend

The one that accomplishes so much in a day

and she shocked me when she said she was tired.

Tired of doing it all.

That she just wanted her life to be simplified.

How she wouldn't mind moving from her home to a smaller house or

possibly even a condo with no yard.

Her house is so pretty and her yard landscaped perfectly!

I was so surprised.

She said she was tired of spending so much time on it.

I told her how I too thought that I resented working out in the yard

because it took time away from all the other things I needed to be doing and creating.

But I said that I also found it incredibly calming.

Like meditation.

source

But even if I was working hard outside, I felt stressed that I should be doing something else.

She understood but said that she didn't enjoy it at all.

So I could see why she would want to move.

We got to talking about how we used to shake our heads at people who hired others

to do their cleaning and yard work and home improvements

and how we never understood why someone would spend money when they could do it themselves.

Both of us have always scraped together our pennies for everything but

suddenly we understood why others did it...

The other day a tornado touched down, not here

but not far from here either.

source

We have warnings every Spring but we are almost always lucky.

They kept showing photos of the destruction that the high winds had done locally.

There was a storage place where units were knocked over and blown about.

I couldn't help notice the one that was mostly just knocked off of its footings.

You could see the contents still inside.  

It was packed to the ceiling.

Not in some orderly boxed fashion but stuff just jammed in a huge pile.

I thought about how someone was paying for all that STUFF to just sit piled up in there.

Why?

And why do I have STUFF in my basement? Still!

Furniture, wood, things I'm going to USE someday.

Things I'm going to paint and improve and make BIG money on... someday.

And things in Rubbermaid containers that someone will want to buy... someday,

in a shop online that I have never opened

or in a garage sale that I would dread having.

I'm no better, not really.

I mean, OK I haven't rented space for my STUFF and it's more organized but....

Then they showed where the tornado had hit.

source

People devastated over their destroyed homes and lost belongings.

I can't even imagine how horrible and tragic that would be. 

My house means the world to me

and my home has so many things that have deep meaning to me.

Things my nieces have made me and a few cherished items from my past.

They talked to a man who said at least everyone got out alive in his family and how

that was the important thing

and he's right.

Two people in the town lost their lives and many were injured.

If a tornado were to ever hit my home, my animals would be my only concern

I would not be worried about anything else inside of it.

Then they talked to a woman who looked to be about my age.

She was saying how devastating it was and how thankful she was that no one had been hurt.

Then she hesitated and said that it was kinda "cleansing".

To be rid of everything.

I'm sure that many people would be very critical of her words, but I got what she was trying to say.

A while back I was watching "The Talk" and Marie Osmund was a guest.

Somehow they got onto the topic of having a lot of STUFF.

She said that when her parents had passed, she had put everything of theirs into a garage to save.

One day the garage caught fire and she lost everything they had left behind.

The ladies of The Talk started to offer her sympathy and she shook her head.

She stated that the fire had done something that she was unable to do herself 

and therefore it wasn't necessarily a bad thing...except for the photos.

The other day I was standing in my kitchen trying to FINALLY decide whether to paint my red china hutch white or black.

A long time ago my kitchen had a lot of red but not any longer.

I decided that black would probably be the right choice.

It would balance with the black shelf above the sink

and the black framed photos resting on it

and the dark clock above it.

I stood back and stared at the shelf and other things.

I was in deep thought about it.

My house is a 100 years old and the walls are plaster and lath.

When you drive a screw or nail into them, you can hear the plaster fall behind the wall.

The shelf has always be a precarious thing.

So I stood there and suddenly for no reason,

Ghost leaping onto the edge of the sink and knocked the shelf off the wall.

(Ghost on my red china hutch)

The little ceramic leaf that also sat on the shelf and held some jewelry fell and broke.

I gathered up everything quickly and turned and looked at the space.

Suddenly it seemed clear and clean and more spacious.

I looked over at the china hutch, maybe I could paint it white!

So... I don't need a a horrific event like a tornado, a fire or 

even my sweet cat to change things in my life.

Maybe I need to stop looking at everything in my life as what it COULD be

and just BE.

And stop focusing on the money I spent in the hopes of bringing in more.

Or creating/ painting with an eye always on how to make some cash.

I know that the Law of Attraction is that if you focus on something it will happen.

If you think it, it will be so.

They say if you keep thinking "I won't be late, I won't be late"

The Universe will just focus on the "being late" part, and you will be late.

If you instead think, I will be on time, then you will be on time.

It's the focus on the good positive and not the negative.

Which I think is the answer whether you believe in The Universe and Law of Attraction or not.

Sigh, I don't know.

I'm just thinking out loud or rather blogging out loud.
I've talked about this STUFF so many times
and I'll probably change my mind again tomorrow.
I frustrate myself.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks,

but we all know that's not true.

It's just finding the energy to do it all.

(Blue is exhausted too.)

FOUND THE EASTER BUNNY

In my coffee cup!