Friday, May 23, 2008

Don's Sky Watch Friday 5/23/08

 


This morning it was rather dreary and drizzled a little bit so I decided to post this picture I took last Saturday when we went to the flea market to look for our stolen stuff, but alas we did not find any of it. We stopped at a stop sign and there was these old gas pumps without any shelter to my right. I made Don stop so I could take a picture of it. Then he told me to take one of the sign showing the old gas price compared to the high ones now. He doesn't always say much, but when he does, he has good ideas such as this one. So this is really Don's Sky Watch not mine. I dedicate it to him. Hope you like it and the perfect pretty azure sky. May the gas price make you feel nostalgic and long for the good ole days...

If you would like to particpate in Sky Watch Friday, please got to the following....
http://womtig.blogspot.com/

Posted by Picasa

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Thankful Thursday 5/20/08

Today I am so very thankkful no one was home last Thursday at 4 pm when theives broke into our hoome and robbed us for the 2nd time in almost 10 years. I am NOT thankful for the things they stole from us by any means. During the course of this week I was asked if you could go back to a day you could change in your life, I guess I have two days now. The day of the first robbery, I would have taken the video of my son's birth out of the cam corder so I would still have that because I cannot go back and re-do that. Then last Thursday, I would have asked the police to patrol our street so this would not have happened to us again. I am not asking to change history per se; just alter one tiny thing on each day. That shouldn't alter the time quantium physics thing, should it?

I have had to ask for prayers of safety, peace, of the hope that they find the thieves and that we get our belongings back and much more. I so thankful I have such wonderful friends that have told me they have been praying for us or emailed me stating the same.

I am depressed one moment then try to do stuff to get me out of the funk in between prayers then I remember it all again... I see my underwear all over the bedroom floor or the door almost off the hindge as my son and I walked in later that evening. I see how this has effected my husband and my son. I am angry that it took away my son's innocence, his sense of security, bringing fear into his world and the toll it has taken on us all. My friend Cheryl has had a hard time dealing with it also. It was upsetting that it upset her so much and her poor husband had to suffer from it, but it really made me feel good that we mattered that much.

I am thankful we are safe and pray we remain that way. I am thankful we are alive. I am thankful we were still able to celebrate our son's 10th birthday even if my husband did not feel like celebrating his the next day. I am thankful for the card I created on Sunday, my husband's birthday. I am thankful for the card my son created too because his said he was thankful for God. A mom could not ask for more than that.

So I ask you, too, to keep us in your prayers. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If you have something to be thankful for and would like to participate in Thankful Thursday, please go to the following....
http://www.eph2810.com/

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Time Flies cards

 


Time Flies...
Eyes cry...

I had to substitute as Rhett's Sunday school teacher on Sunday morning. When I do this, I let them make get well cards for the those on our sick list. It was only Rhett in the class. I made this one, but it was off center and I could not stand it so I cropped it but that made the sentiment on the inside way off center. Now Rhett's was more of a religious nature which meant it was better than mine. Inside his sentiment said he was thankful for God.

I played around with this more after we got home after dinner at church. I tweaked it til I got it where I really liked it as it is... I stood this card up which gave it a neat and different effect to me.

It was Don's birthday, but he said it didn't feel much like a birthday day due to the robbery. He didn't even want to open his presents, but he did open them anyway and I took photos of course to mark the special occassion of his birth. It is one birthday weekend we won't likely forget for the rest of our lives.


 



Time flies...
Love happens

I made this one on Monday despite the robbery and being all alone in the house. It was also Rhett's 10th birthday, the day after his Daddy's. He had a party on Saturday at Chuck E Cheese. I'd re-found more rubber stamps over the weekend and decided to add some love and rosieness to this one. I also used eye make up brushes to form the maroon hearts on it which I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with that idea or did I get it from my friend Claudia of Stampin' Up? Thus making these a time card series.

My mom & I took two large chocolate chip cookies, a Pepsi, ice, and utensils to Rhett's school. Having to tote all that stuff wore us out. Lesson learned from this experience: Never, ever order blue frosting! It gets all over the place! It gets underneath your fingernails, staining them even after numerous washings. The stains lasts for days. Always order lighter colored frosting.

~theRAV~

Posted by Picasa

R is for....

 


Rebecca and Rhett

Rhett and I took this self portrait of ourselves on Mother's Day. I knew it was going to be my first R word.

 


Another rose from our yard. I did not want to repeat the roses I have already posted here on my blog so I picked this rose for this R is for... post for ABC Wednesday.

 


Reimagine....
I found this sign at Sears awhile back. I liked it, but I don't think I had R words in mind when I took it or maybe I did. Since I have an IMAGE plaque at home, it reminded me of that one. Ah, To be able to reimaginee our lives..., but I wouldn't change mine except for a few days... Like I would reimagine last Thursday... I would have had the police patrolling our house on that evening around 4 pm....

I apologize for not participating in Odd Shots Monday. I had a good odd one for ya'll; one you probably would not have guessed in a million years, but our home was robbed again for the 2nd time in almost 10 years on Thursday! Our rooms have been ransacked, my underwear was thrown all over the bedroom floor, leaving us feeling of being violated and raped. Yet strangely enough it felt sort of surreal to me; like I had been through this before and I had. They didn't take much of my stuff just mostly my husband's this time around. I guess I felt I had to be strong for my son who was really bothered by it. He reverted back to his younger days of not wanting to go to the bathroom alone and I had to sleep with him that night. Then he had a really good 10th birthday which really seemed to help him through this loss of his innocence, his security and safety. Of course now every sound he hears he asks me what it is.

To add insult to our injury they even took 3 two liters of Pepsi! That was when I really got mad and said I could shoot them if I ever found them and I have never fired a gun in my life.

These **** robbers have caused us more work. We had to clean up the ransacked rooms. We are still finding things missing like Saturday, my husband went to put new brakes on my car... they took the break pads, but left the box they were inside. What they can do with brake pads for a 95 T-bird is beyond us. We have had to make long lists of stolen items and then type them up. I have had to cancel and re-open accounts. All unnecessary.

Lessons learned from the robbery: Lock everything you can up! Don't buy in bulk. I'd bought a lot of frames like the fish frames I found and had bought the stores out of their supplies. Luckily they missed a few of them and I had some in the trunk of my car. It is a bit ridiculous that one of my R words is about our robbery.

So I hope you had better luck with your R's this week than we had with our life. If you would like to participate in ABC Wednesday R is for..., please go to the following...
http://mrsnesbittsplace.blogspot.com/
Sorry I don't have as many R's. Sorry they are not as upbeat a usual for me.
~theRAV~


Posted by Picasa

Thursday, May 15, 2008

A Time for....

 

 

 



Thankfulness. I am thankful for the wonderful Mother's Day weekend I had. I am thankful for my husband, my son, my mom and my Daddy. I am thankful for all the cards I made over the weekend and this week.

I made the 1st card last night, but I wasn't happy with it because I did not think the letters that spelled out the word "time" went with it due to a difference in eras and styles. It kept bothering me. Rhett said it was fine just like a man. Not like the perfectionist in me. I was proud of myself because I found the brown paper and the maroon colored leaf in some of my stash which reminded me of my friend Abby. She would be proud of me. I am proud of me because I have made 4 cards today! So I am tooting my own horn again as well as being thankful. I think I finally have this one where I like it. After taking the last photo, I added an "A" before the clocks and the word "for..." underneath the clocks so that it actually reads "A time for..." Because the leaf reminded of "To everything there is a season..." I wrote that around the leaf's square. I can't take any more photos of it now because I only have one bar on my battery and Rhett is getting an award after school. I made the cover of his birthday card which is so cute, but I'm pulling a Scarlett O'Hara... that will have to wait 'til tomorrow. I made two 3x5 cards also but they are still works in progress.

Which one do you like better? Just from viewing them here on my blog, I am leaning towards the middle one. Now if I were to view it say from the library, I may change my mind. At the library, I liked all three! Go figure.

If you would like to participate in Thankful Thursday, please go to the following...
http://www.eph2810.com/
~theRAV
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Q is for...

 
Posted by Picasa


Well, I was quite in a quandary over the letter Q, the 17th letter of the alphabet, but I already had one so I quit worrying about it. Mine was an easy, but obvious choice of Quaker oats which made me think of Quaker motor oil. I wondered how many of you had either one of these. Were you on your p's & q's?

But I continued to think of more q's... I have always like the name of Quentin since the days of "Dark Shadows. I used to work with a lady name Quintilla but we called her Quin. We have a good friend who's last name is Quinn.

Of course an obvious choice would be the title of my blog Quoth the Rav. Or I could have quoted Poe's poem "Quoth the Raven, Nevermore". Instead I came up with my own sort of similar version aquired by today's events at work. I dedicate this poem to Josie because of her Black Widow Spider lady on her blog. http://passingtime-josie.blogspot.com/

"Ode to the Black Widow Spider"

As blue gray skies hung over the lion's den
The RAV arrives, hearing her name harshly spoken
and negatively intoned.
It was only the loud part heard
as "Illy Nilly" aka the Black Widow Spider was in her web
on the black phone complaining.
Then silence as the RAV stood as still as a white marble statue
too scared to move
waiting for the Black Widow Spider to crawl out of her weave
to verbally attack yet again.
The RAV stood there shaking, waiting...
for the inevitable that did not come this time.

But the black phone conversation was over
It was all cleared up
It was not as the Black Widow Spider made it sound.
It was cleared up into blue gray beginnings
hoping the Black Widow Spider will be nevermore.
~theRAV~

I know I won't be the Queen of the q's today because I don't have that large a quantity of them, but I do have quality. I won't quibble about who has the most q's but I will admit I am quick-witted and quick-tempered. And I don't like quiche! I do love patchwork quilts. I love collaging them since I don't know how to make them. Well, I guess I have reached my quota of q's. I'll quit now, but I will leave you with these quotes of the day....

Quotes of the day:

Cheerfulness greases the axles of the world. -unknown-

Never ask friends to do for you what you wouldn't do for them.
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.-

History is the short trudge from Adam to atom.
-Leonard Louis Levinson-

There must be more to life than having everything.
-Maurice Sendak-
(But I would like to find out!)

If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
-Michelangelo Buonarroti-

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.
-Sir Francis Bacon-

Everything I understand, I understand only because I love.-Leo Tolstoy-

If there is anything a noncomformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't comform to the prevailing standard of conformity.
-Bill Vaughan-

There's no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership. None. Zilch. Nada. Actually, as an artist gets more into his thing, and he gets more successful, his number of tools tends to go down. He knows what works for him. Expending mental energy on stuff wastes time.
-Hugh Macleod-

If I am going to concentrate on what's important in life. I'm going to strive everyday to be a kind and generous and loving person. I am going to keep death right here, so that anytime I even think about getting angry at you or anybody, I'll see death and remember.
-Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, "Northern Exposure", Do the Right Thing, 1992

And I loved the whole idea behind the story, which is that you're beautiful, so don't let other people tell you that you're not just because you don't look like the people in magazines. Or because you're not that ideal body image that's out there right now.
-Mike Myers, talking about "Shrek"

If you would like to participate in ABC Wednesday Q if for... please go to the following...
http://quoththerav3.blogspot.com/

Be sure to go back and look at the cards I created.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Art Time

 
Posted by Picasa


They couldn't fix my air in the car yesterday. After work, I printed the pics of Mother's Day at Walmart, paid Don's Sears bill and went to
A. C. Moore where I spent way too much money before my guys birthdays. I could not find the time sets of stamps like the lady used in the class I recently took. I had to buy odds and ends of stamps that looked nostalgic to me and this is the results... I love it! It just all sort of came to me at once. I love it when that happens! I did the numbers first with a number stencil I bought. Then I used Rebecca Sower's nostalgic stickers for the word "TIME" above the numbers that I got from Walmart a bit cheaper. I fell in love with the ART stamp and had to have it. The clock face stamp was really too small, but the only one they had. Still it was what I needed and wanted. I liked the heart stamp because of the design in the heart. I used distressed ink. It has something to do with photography, but I can't recall the correct name of it. I also bought a stamp pad at Walmart that was a coffee color. Then I distressed the whole thing. I am not sure if I will leave it as it is - a card or tear more off the sides and distress it more then frame it. All my friends have liked this one too and some can see it hanging in a frame on a wall. So I can assuredly toot my own horn today for all my artwork I have created the past few days.

Have you made time for Art?
~theRAV~