obviously - since no responses.  or is i that no one else knows about pods either??
just feel like whining to day. 
plans were for 'family' (tom and candace) to make a second dump run, thus emptying her (licensed for two weeks only this time) truck so 'we' could move that huge desk of mine out of my part of the garage - along with the two bench seats from the van.  the purpose being, to place them in my new storage unit so i will have more space in the garage in which to create some sort of organized 'business' storage - you know, enventory and some of that stuff i just might need some day.  actually, some of the stuff t&c brought back from their storage unit because they needed the space for their own stuff - was stuff i have tried to find over the past months.  prime example - ended up having to go purchase fabric for cassie's school project when i knew i already had exactly what we needed - somewhere! NOW it's here.
anyway, in preparation for the moving out of the desk, i cleared everything from off and in front of.  then, found out they are NOT going to the dump - and that meant putting it all back into the garage - except for what i had loaded into the van to take to storage with the desk.  perhaps i will take that stuff on down later - just don't want too much stuff in the way before the desk and seats go in - so i know how much room i actually have.  i have rented the small unit since money is a little (a lot) tight these days.
so, now the desk, etc won't get moved until next weekend - and i will be out of town friday afternoon and all day saturday - teaching in scotts valley, near santa cruz.  oh, plans changed because tom read the sign wrong.  dump takes paint cans on fri and sat, not sat and sun.  and the truck is full of same.
and so it goes, don't cha know.

love and beauty

while it could be tempting to describe myself as 'stuck' lately - experience tells me i am more likely in transition - and my kicking and screaming ego-self is hanging on for dear life and keeping the process as slow as possible. 
one of the places the 'stuckness' shows up is with regard to orders coming in from the webpage - as in, none.  i was about to 'sign off' in my journal this morning when i had the flash realization that it is my ego's fear of change that is keeping that door shut tight! 
the emotional & psychological 'work' i have been doing are a result of my having asked the question:  "what in me is preventing the page from being successful?"  a dangerous question to ask if you aren't ready for the answers!  i have been asking that question for some time - but this week, i stepped it up a notch.  i purchased a 'package'/"book"/journal that are a program/practice using 'sacred geometry'.   and that question is the one i chose for this week.  and, of course, one of the cards i picked is the 'diagram' labeled "confirmation" - and the diagram definition is "what you have/see is a confirmation of your thoughts."  just another way of saying:  what you think is what you get.  change your thinking, change your life.  and the last thing the ego wants is change!  big threat, that change stuff!
so, good thing tomorrow is 'shrink' day. ^_^

this is the booth at a recent show - and shows some of what is available on the webpage - in case you were curious. ^_^

www.artfullyapplique.com

love and beauty,
j

ok, i do not understand what the hell is going on.  mice, lizards, rats, deer - grrrrrr.  as i was sitting watching tv last night, a couple of times i thought i saw something out of the corner of my eye, wasn't sure.  then, there it was, a tiny mouse scurrying toward the kitchen area.  ok, it's time for bed, so i set up a barrier of sorts and prop the door open enough so it can just scurry itself on out.  somehow i figured it had done that. 
then, tonight, just a bit ago - there it was again.  this time i was pretty sure it did head toward the door, eventually.  yes, i had propped it open again.
no sooner had it gone out, then there was mr pepe coming in from the other direction - and while i didn't see that he was carrying something - somehow i knew.  sure enough, while he had headed toward the bathroom, when i went that way to check - there he was, keeping an eye on the area under a cabinet (nothing there) that backs on to under another cabinet which houses both desktops (this one i am using and the brand new one i have had for a couple of months and not fired up - but that's another story)!!  so, once again i have some critter in here - and i don't even know what!
and earlier today, after returning from the quilt shop where i hang out on 1st and 3 rd mondays - oh, and stopping at the rv place  to put the stuff from the van into the new storage unit - i took a little nap.  shortly after i awoke - there comes mr pepe in thru his window (which is right over my bed/headboard)with something 'large' and furry in his mouth.  that's large when compared with a tiny field mouse.  this one, thank goodness, was dead - as, of course he dropped it as soon as i said something - no, didn't yell, ok, raised my voice - didn't scream in fear.  once i recovered it from behind the headboard - it was obvious it was a field 'rat' - those ears much too large for a mouse!  it got 'buried' in the compost along with the last few things i've found - birds, if i remember right.
as for the deer - the one today is a yound buck.  and he is a lot more timid than the doe.  he runs as soon as he hears me - she stands there and looks at me and merely saunters off if i go out - and, yes, attacks the chahuahua!
no, the silly cat is NOT hungry.  always has food - on which he is munching even as we speak.  and he has never brought things in before.  used to just deposit them on the front porch.  damn.  have no idea what is in here now!  mouse or lizard??  i have had him since he was a kitten - never been like this before.  is it the new food???  does organic and healthy food turn your cat into a lion ???big time hunter??  maybe i'll go back to iams!
another night with the door propped open?  not so sure.
oh, for anyone who read one of these a while ago - never did capture what went under the washer/dryer - and there's never been an odor.  it was more the size of that rat i picked up today.  no, not like a sewer rat! (i think i might even be afraid of one of those)  just a large mouse.
off to bed, have to get up fairly early and be on the road before 8:30.  off to see the shrink.

love and beauty
j

well, it finally got to me, this heatwave we are having.  so, first it was turn on  that butterfly valve and see if the line holds or there is water spraying all over the place.  no leaks.  good, then it's off to good old home depot again for a new filter.  of course i didn't measure first - i've  done this every year, don't need to measure!  well, this year they are fully stocked, which meant i actually had to choose which size.  duh, could not remember, but decided the 22"x24" might not work and since the 24"x30" was the same price - and looked like what i always get and cut to fit - that was the clear winner.  (i think mine is more like 24x24, as it turns out - just slightly less)
so there it is, 'humming' away.  we shall see.  the car therm was reading 107 on the way over there.  that means i could get it all the way down to 87 in here.  smelling a little funny from the new filter - "syzzle" - ok, i'm sure that's not how you spell it ^_^ - looks like straw all woven together.  i tried a plastic "reuseable" one once - didn't seem to work as well.  and do you think I"M gonna go thru all the trouble of cleaning the dang thing when this one cost all of $2.85?  not likely.  i'm just hoping there's nothing deadly in the unit 'housing' itself, cause i surely didn't do any cleaning of it.  (as in some kind of poisonous mold). 
i will need to check outside every now and then.  did this one year and later found i had been watering the area in front.  and fixing that was a real exercise in futility!  i had extra line, so just cut out the bad spot and installed a connecting fitting.  yes, it did spring another leak, and then another.  yes, i did have to go buy more plastic tubing - twice - bought the wrong kind the first time.  the clear stuff is a smaller inner diameter and those fittings won't fit!  live and learn.
  i'm not sure, but i think i thought that by the time i got to be this age someone else would be handling this sort of stuff.  no idea just WHO i thought that might be??  i think that requires some sort of 'relationship' ?  and that is an area way outside my expertise. ^_^  not to mention comfort zone!
cn i find a picture to brighten this up?  just for fun.  oh, before i go check - one of the deer was back today, a female.  she didn't bolt as i stood and talked with her thru the (lovely new) screen.  and she didn't eat the flowers.  munched on fallen plums - so while i was out there before, i shook more off for her. (them?)  there's way too many on those trees anyway.  as well as on that apple tree.  did i mention i live in eden? ^_^
ok, so that doesn't look like eden to you, perhaps - but hidden here in the middle of 'town' and completely private - feels like it to me. ^_^  and this was last year, i think.  for sure before the latest cleanup and hot water heater fiasco.  and before that chair you can hardly see was neon yellow! ^_^

love and beauty

from today's science of mind:

Plotinus:  "Withdraw within yourself and look.  And if you are not yet beautiful, carve away here, carve away there, until what shines forth is the radiance of your own soul."





we are sculptors of the Divne, able to eliminate, shape or carve away that which stands in the way of the divine radiance at the core of our  being.

Affirmation: Today I realize I am an artist of God.  I am receptive to the divine ideas of beauty that are within me and I courageously take steps to carve away what stands in the way of my intrinsic beauty.

'nuff said,
love and beauty

the weather, that is.  completely and heavily overcast as if it could rain any minute.  probably not unusual most places - just doesn't happen here in july.  so to have it look and feel 'dark', feels weird.
the class in scotts valley went well - 7 satisfied students.  i drove down and stayed with the shop owners on friday night.  here are a couple of the pictures i took of their lovely home - well, mostly of the beautiful surroundings.  didn't get such great shots of the house - i was too in love with the trees.  and the house was great, even tho i didn't get it from a good angle!  lots of big windows front and back - and a huge floor to ceiling rock fireplace on the back wall between the floor to ceiling windows.  in the big 'great room' - so when you walked in thru the door off that deck - fireplace to your right, kitchen to your left - and all the trees showing thru the windows!  just my style!!!
look at those trees!  and there are no houses closeby.  they have 18 acres and there are, she said, only 3 houses on the little tiny road - guess it's more like a comunal driveway, as it's behind a locked gate and only about as wide as a driveway.  about 10 miles out of town, and the roads just keep getting more narrow as you go there.














gotta love those trees.  this one is a little distorted cause my little box of a van looks so long here.  ^_^

love and beauty