My Grama's Soul

Time to treat ourselves to a little adventure.   Both my soul mate and I have done really well on our weight loss plan....SO it is time for a little treat. Will be back in a few days. I have gotten behind on visiting each of you...I will attempt to catch up on my return. Hugs to all and enjoy this Springtime weather. SEE YOU SOON!! Jo

Good morning all.......here in AZ we really do have a bit of spring....although it is short in duration....and most of the time it goes from moderate to HOT....HOT...HOT....we do enjoy this little respite. This is one little corner of my courtyard...with basil, scented geranium, spider plants, fern, amaryllis and birds of paradise growing happily beside one another. The large tree behind is a Texas Mountain Laurel. this is of course before all the HEAT comes so they are growing like crazy right now before they have to deal with the "blast furnace". (O: On the other side beside  a small outside dining area is a wonderful Lady Banks Rose.  The smell in this courtyard is quite heavenly this time of year...and I do spend quite a bit of time out here...just enjoying all of God's gifts. Off now....to pick up young grandson. Have a beautiful weekend, Jo

Hi again.....Just wanted to show you the same piece framed.  You don't always have to frame your whole painting...sometimes just pieces of it are quite nice.  Also....save all your old frames from decorator pieces that you are tired of. You never know when you will be able to put one to good use. The toe on one of the slippers had become kind of "muddy" so I simply chose to delete part of the shoe...to make it a little more interesting. Ok....enough of my rambling for today. Thanks sweet ladies for letting me share my art with all of you marvelous artists out there. Hugs, Jo

This is the second Paint Party Friday...be sure and scroll down to see all the other marvelous works of creativity everyone has provided.  The button is on my side bar...just give it a click and you are there. I painted this piece this week....was inspired by another artist on the internet..so I thought I would give it a try. It is still on my gator board as you can see...I'm about done with this as I tend to really mess things up when I keep messing around with it.  Anyway...this piece is a mixed media piece....watercolor and pastel.   When I began painting the first thing I tried my hand at was watercolor...incredibly hard (O: (O: So...after that moved onto pastel...but sometimes I would pull out an old watercolor piece and apply little strokes of pastel over them.  I liked the effect and still do it to this day. This piece was a completely new experiment.  First laid down my watercolor....followed by pastel in various areas..looked at it for a few days then went back i

Discovered a new term this last week in an interesting article I was reading.  The term was Soul Shredders...I had never heard this term used before so it certainly caught my eye. In case you have no idea what a soul shredder is stick with me and I'll explain. It is those people, places or things that completely burst your bubble...time and time again. The little things you save of days gone by that rob you of your creativity and happiness....today.  For instance...we all have had relationships that have disappointed us..and many of us have saved little tokens reminding us of those days gone by...yet each time we look at these little items...we are filled yet again with some sort of sadness that this or that didn't work out.   Do you ever find yourself looking back at old journals and realizing that you are continually repeating the SAME year over and over....same stuff....different day. Have you ever saved old movie tickets from a special time in your life..only to realiz

I am an avid reader.....it wasn't always so....in times past it seems I could not calm down enough to read a magazine  article let alone a complete book.  But I found this great magazine at WHOLE FOODS; I have not seen it before and it looked like a wealth of information.  It provides information on various paths of Spirituality...and well-being.  Thought you might enjoy it if you can find it in your area. ~~~***~~~ On another note...here is my latest book find.  I know the title is a little strange...but that is exactly why I choose it. First of all..I have had many an accident with a kitchen knife while slicing and dicing....so this title was right up my alley.   In reality though..it is about the life of the Chef who owns PRUNE in New York, city.  Now I ask you, who would name their restaurant PRUNE...might as well be called BRUSEL SPROUTS for those of us that are foodies.  (O: Anyway this is her tale of how she became a Chef...all the trials and tribulations of a very dif

LIKE MANY OF YOU OUT THERE IN BLOGLAND.... I have been the recipient of many..many tags.  Some have been purchased...some have been gifts.  I love each and everyone of them..but have been somewhat perplexed about how I would be able to display all these beauties so I could see them on a regular basis. Well...I found my solution.  I purchased this macrame plant holder up in Montana last summer.  It is certainly a throw back to the 60's but I liked the shape and texture so I brought it home.  Used it up there for a while but decided I would bring it South with me this last fall. SO HERE IT IS....A PERFECT DISPLAY FOR ALL THOSE BEAUTIFUL TAGS I HAVE RECEIVED FROM ALL YOU BEAUTIFUL LADIES OUT THERE. Now...I must confess...I have even more tags....oh....where to display them. So..I decided here would be the perfect place. It is an old bird cage stand that I have simply hung a chandelier on...strung a bunch of beads and crystals...and then hung more tags on the form.  This is i

Today....I'm joining Razmataz for her Friday Photo Shoot....todays topic....perfume bottles. Messed around with various setting on my photo program on my Apple...some of them look like they might be from outer space. LOL Anyway....this was fun... This is kind of a silly post today...but also not forgetting all the tragedy that is happening around this beautiful world of ours...Keep praying...everyone!!! Have a beautiful weekend. Jo

O.K. I know what you are thinking....today is going to be a post about this... and this........ but alas.....it is really a post about THIS...... YEP.....it's about how our diet is going.... The above photo is a sample of the foods we can choose on the MEDI FAST plan.  It is quite a variety...you eat one of their meals 5 times per day and then one of your own which you prepare. We choose to eat our prepared meal at dinner...which means I cook.  They call this one meal LEAN AND GREEN....which means 6 to 7 ounces of a lean protein and one and one half cups of vegetables.  It actually is a lot of food and you are quite satisfied.  Their meals are approximately l00 calories a piece so you are taking in approximately l,000 calories per day..while in the loosing phase. SO FAR ....... I'm down 10 lbs. and my wonderful soul mate is down 20 lbs. We've even gone out to dinner several times and I've had guests for dinner and been able to prepare healthy and quite go

O.K......today while doing a little blog hopping...after getting home from the dentist; I came across a blog that posted on Blogger Burnout.  We all know what that is...not having anything creative to say....getting tired of trying to be witty, creative, beautiful or wise in our posts. The kind lady who posted about  blogger burnout stated that one of the ways she manages her burnout syndrome is to NOT COMMENT ON ANY OTHER BLOGS....thus freeing up her time to take care of other things in her life. She also gave some pretty firm advice about how to pick up loads of NEW FOLLOWERS so one would not feel you were blogging for nothing. Hmmmm....I don't know how you all feel about this...but I like to make comments on other ladies blogs.  I feel I can connect with them a little more while in the process of perhaps making a new friend and spreading a little light out into this dimly lit world of ours. And as far as acquiring hoards of new followers....why would one care....It is great