Feeling Better

One thing about being sick is how good it feels when you're not sick anymore.

And when the weather is so nice.
The weather has been soooo nice the past few days. Neither hot nor cold. I've had the windows and doors open, letting in some fresh air.

My Mom and Aunt came up on Sunday. Mom brought me a bunch of apples from Dad's orchard. I made homemade chicken & dumplin's for dinner. We had a nice visit. I don't get to see/spend time with my Mom too much, since they mostly live out of town.

Monday, I took my oldest son home after having spent the weekend with us and stopped by a Thrift store on the way back. Found a few good deals.

This navy blue, Velour (?)(Idk what kind of material it is) was only $1.00.
It was New-With-Tags, and had originally retailed for $44.00 in the store.

I think trimmed out with some silver-toned Bling will make a nice Christmas-y look.

This tiny Nativity ornament was 25¢.
They had a few other, larger Nativity sets from $3.00-$5.00, but I figured I'd better not bring them all home with me.

Still seems sad, though, to see more Nativity sets in the Thrift store than in the Retail stores during Christmas time.

Found these awesome Vintage Blow Mold plastic light-up Jack-O-Lanterns for 50¢ each!
I hung them in my front kitchen windows. 

Otherwise, I got to work on the 911 Dispatcher Christmas Tree Ornaments I had been planning to do for so long. Finally got them all finished and listed for sale on Etsy.

Also made this super easy Santa Ornament using the Vintage red ball ornament I'd gotten in the pile of "Christmas trash" at the Thrift store awhile back, black electrical tape, and a soda can tab.

J was off yesterday and the weather was super-nice, so we got a couple of minor projects that was on my to-do list done around here. Weatherizing the camper, cleaning up and putting away some yard and garden items, cleaning up a bit in the yard.

We also got another section of kitchen wall "planked":

Aaaaaand, tomorrow I have a decent load of Stuff to take to donate at the local Thrift store.

After that, I'll probably be done-for again.

We woke up to a rainy, grey, dreary day this morning.
It was fantastic. So awesomely Fall.
So dark outside, with soft lamplight on in here.
Love, love, love those kind of days. (Every so often.)

Bad news is, it was a cold front. Now we're going to be dropping into the 30's again every night. Highs will only be in the 50's-60's, which isn't horrible, but bad enough. Especially after the 70-80's we had this weekend that were so, so, so, so, so, so nice.

I tell myself, I insist to myself that I'm going to enjoy the Season, whatever the Season is, for what it is.  If it's cold, then I'm going to enjoy being inside, warm and dry and cozy, snuggled in a blanket, a nice (gas) fire going in the fireplace, sipping on a cup of hot chocolate, or hot soup. Not getting bug bit.

Or even being outside, cold, wet and uncomfortable, because, it's just good to be Alive.
Every day is a gift. A blessing. Not to be squandered.

Easier said than done, sometimes, but as Joe Dirt says:

Things Didn't Go as Planned

This post was supposed to have been posted this past Friday, and was supposed to be about what a nice time we had going on another Fall Family Adventure up to the North Georgia Mountains.

Instead, me and J came down with the Plague.

Okay it wasn't really the Plague, but it was still miserable. Head and chest crud.

He went to the Doctor for drugs, but I don't like going to the Doctor, I prefer to get over the sickies on my own as much as possible.
It's taken me longer, and I still have a pretty bad cough that makes my head thud, but I'm back to the point where I think I might live.

I spent most of the past week (or so) on the couch (so I can sleep sitting up so I can breathe), watching a lot of television.
Or, well, the tv was on. Don't much remember what was on. 

At first, when I wasn't quite so sick (and dumbly thinking I wouldn't get sicker) I watched movies on Netflix and worked a little on my craft stuff. 

At some point I had the idea that I wanted to make a Glitter House/Putz house Nativity.

I don't know why, or where the idea came from, but I knew the look I was going for was like the old Shiny Brite Nativity, manger scene, plastic Christmas decoration.

Via Etsy

 I have a vague memory of the one my Great-Grandma had when I was a kid, back in the early 1970's, but all the different ones on the internet, I can't remember exactly which one it was.
I was thinking hers had palm trees, but then again, maybe not.

I was trying to put palm trees with mine, but the boys didn't like the palm as well as the Christmas trees, so I went with their preference.

I looked online for a stable/manger pattern but didn't find what I was looking for, so I decided to adapt the Halloween house from Little Glitter Houses.

I didn't have any Nativity figures in my crafts or Christmas stash so I had to wait until I felt like getting out and going anywhere to look for any.
R needed to go out earlier so I went along and looked in Micheal's, K-Mart, and Dollar Tree. The only set I was able to find was a mini 6-piece set at Micheal's craft store.

It still isn't complete because I'm at one of my stand-stills, where I know I'm not done, but don't know what to do next.

 (Warning: bad photos ahead)

Yes, it is "warp-sided"...it's supposed to be an old (animal shelter), wood nailed together willy-nilly without precise measurements, weathered, whatever.

 
I added the flicker-light way up at the top inside so it's not visible at eye level, but kind of looks like a flickering star from underneath.

This was an ecru colored button from a Victorian button package that I painted.
(The picture makes it look horrid. It really doesn't look that bad IRL.)

The split-rail fence I made from popcicle sticks.


I glittered the roof with silver glitter, like the old Shiny Brite Nativity set.

I'm hesitating on glittering the rest of it with the iridescent glitter because when I glittered my log cabin it didn't turn out so well. Seemed like the glitter masked a lot of the color and or detail. I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, but I don't know if it would mess this one up.

The one Wise-man and the two tiny lambs in the yard are so small, it leaves a lot of empty area that needs filling, but I'm afraid I won't find other animals on the same size scale, and I don't really have any other ideas (ATM) for what else I could add to fill in some empty space.

*I notice in the background of some of the pictures you can see the Magazine Christmas tree I'm (sort of) working on.

I had pinned This Pin the other day, and the next day or so I got a catalog in the mail. After I finished looking at it and didn't see anything I wanted to buy (saw a lot I wanted, nothing I should be wasting money on) I sat and folded all the pages into a Christmas tree.
Just that easy.

I just did it to see if I could, not really intending to make a Magazine Christmas tree.
Eventually I'll probably decide to paint and decorate it. Maybe.

Glad This Week Is Over

I thought last week was rough, but this week was just about as bad.

Monday started out okay. I got the unpacking and laundry done and watered the garden and such.

But, I started sneezing hard as the day went along. Not like when I just sneeze from allergies *achoo*, these were like *Ah, Ah, Ah, AH, AH, AHHHHH- CHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!* sneezes, and my nose started running like water faucet and my ears felt itchy, cloggy.
These were pretty much the same symptoms my niece started with last Friday, so I figured I had caught her Strep throat.

I felt bad on Tuesday but J was home and ready/willing to work on any of the projects I wanted done around here so I got up to tell him what I wanted and supervise.  We (he) got started on opening a doorway between the carport and back porch wall.

He had to work at the urgent care office on Wednesday, which was good, because I was really miserable sick (with a head cold. Other than drying out from sinus drip, my throat didn't get sore or my glands didn't hurt so I don't think I got the Strep part.).

However, we were in for a late-season Frost Thursday morning, so me and the boys had to go out and get our little garden sprouts covered.
I've never had to do this before but I read putting newspapers over them would protect them (lol, newspapers again). We put stakes at each end, ran a string, and draped the newspapers over it. Ended up having to anchor the corners with rocks because of the wind.

R said our garden looked like a little mini-prison camp

Thursday was cold and I felt like heck so I didn't hardly get out bed, only to get me some more OJ or Chicken Noodle soup or take more drugs or tinkle.


I don't care how "old fashioned" it might be, there's just nothing like hot chicken noodle soup and cold OJ when you're sick.

The rest probably did me the best, though. I'm always preaching to the boys how when they are sick they need to lay down and rest and sleep as much as possible and let the body work on fighting the germs, instead of having to do that plus everything else if you're up doing this and that, playing, working, etc.

Friday my head was better and the cold began it's progress towards my lungs, as usual, so I'll have a naggy cough for the next few weeks. But all in all I felt better, and was able to make it down to my Aunt's to get my taxes done and go by the grocery store.

Man, I don't know what happened, but we aren't getting back even a third of the tax refund we usually get. Sucks because I was hoping to be able to get a new roof this year with it.

The weather is back to lovely, sunny and warm today. Good day to be working on things like projects around the house if one's husband wasn't off wasting the day at a Mudbog.
Oh well, he works so much, he needs a break to have some fun every now and then.

I slept in then got up and opened the doors, put in some laundry, and had big plans to make some accomplishments around here. I swept the carport and dusted off an old stationary bicycle to yardsale or give away, made a pitcher of lemonade and started cleaning off the piles of stuff from my kitchen island.
I opened an envelope from my auto insurance company to find a CX notice! Apparently my payment was due the 4th. I'm not sure how that happened, when before it used to be due the 26th. Last month I paid it 3/12, and it wasn't late.

So I came in here to pay it, and some other bills while I was here, and saw my cellphone bill was quite a bit higher than usual. Quite a bit.
They made me so mad I could spit nails :(
Cellphone companies are nothing but scammers, crooks, and assholes, because they know even if you change providers, they are all the same.
I'm seriously thinking about going back to the days of having no cellphone. We managed to survive thirty years without them.

After that, I got pretty much nothing else done. Finished the laundry, made a homemade chicken-pot-pie for supper, that's it.

To top it off, two of my cousins went at it on Facebook, and in my family, people can't just say "oh that's between them" and leave it alone. Everyone is going to take sides and start fights with each other.
This happens every so often, and I refuse to get involved, so I get left out of the gossip, so then I don't know who exactly is pissed at who, and when I bring someone up in conversation, I usually end up offending somebody else.

I hope tomorrow is the start of a better week.