A Bird in Hand

Little Mr. Birdie Man.

My office is pretty much in the middle of a fruit tree orchard and we gets lots of little furry and feathered visitors.  When the weather is nice, we like to leave the door to the office open to allow in fresh air and it’s not uncommon for birds to sometimes flutter in.  The larger birds normally fly in do a lap and fly out, like the mockingbird who paid me a visit last week.

Me looking sad for Little Mr. Birdie Man.

Well, today a smaller bird found his way in but couldn’t find his way out.  Our office is a small out-alone building that was once used as an old schoolhouse.  Each wall has two large windows to allow lots of natural light and cool breezes.  The little bird kept flying into the closed windows and getting stuck in the blinds.  I tried my best to shoo him towards the open door but the little guy was so scared he would quickly fly away and ram head-first into another closed window.  At one point he got himself behind the refrigerator!  I decided to let him be until he calmed down.  Then I heard a chirp followed by a little bang.  This time he rammed so hard into the window he was on the floor, his little head spinning… can birds have little cartoon birds fly around their heads?  Well, if not, stars flitted around his head.

Little Mr. Birdie Man finally flew away.

This time I was able to toss a towel over him while he was stunned in order to carry him outside.  Once outside I opened the towel for him to fly away and he stayed in my hand.  He was panting.  Poor thing was stressed, tired, and knocked silly.  So, I filled a water bottle cap with cool water and dipped his beak several times.  After a while he shook the cobwebs out and flew unto the roof of the office.  I hope the little guy is OK but at least he’s free now.  I’ve decided to keep the office door shut until we get a screen door.  =)

Hats Off to You

Some time ago I watched an interview with the milliner who owns Topsy Turvey Designs and I was fascinated.  She was so passionate about her art and the act of practicing a craft that not many do these days.

Her hats are amazing!  For more photos click HERE or visit her Etsy Shop.

Music, TV, & “Art”

• Musicals!  Ever since Glee premiered I have been obsessed with watching and listening to old musicals that I loved as a little girl and ones I love today.  I learned to sing by watching Disney musicals, particularly The Little Mermaid.  I must have worn out my cassette tape soundtrack rewinding “Part of your World” hundreds of times.
• Everything Bagels with Cream Cheese. So good it even has it’s own facebook page!  For the last couple of months Ramses has been making us breakfast while I finish getting ready for work.  Normally, it’s some variation of eggs, bacon, or waffles.  We normally don’t have bagels in the house so it’s a treat to have something I really love.  Yesterday he accidentally left the office with my breakfast that he had thoughtfully packed up for me since I was running late.  The one I had this morning was so much better because of that!

• Fall TV!!  I am a TV addict.  I love television; drama, comedy, trashy reality.  It’s my favorite way to relax.  So, needless to say I have been so excited about the new fall season.  With old favorites returning and some new shows I want to try we had to carefully organize our TiVo in order to ensure we get to record most of what we can to see.  Some new shows I am excited about:  Glee (but you already know that), Eastwick, Flashforward, Community, and Vampire Diaries .  Both Glee, Vampire Diaries, and Community have already premiered and I am really enjoying them.
• Ramses!  No explaination needed.  He’s a “thing I love” everyday.  =)
• Ebi & Kai!  Again no explaination needed, my boys make me laugh everyday.  I love them to bits.



• Coloring books & crayons!  I have been getting daily visits to my office from my boss’ granddaughters who I keep entertained by coloring with them.  This week we covered the refrigerator with Hello Kitty in an effort to girl up the place.  =)

The Source of my Procrastination

It has been brought to my attention that I am a terrible blogger.  I’ve received angry letters.  Well, not so much letters, more like IM’s.  And not some much angry, more like pointed.  Eh, splitting hairs.

I may be a terrible blogger but I’ve learned I am an awesome procrastinator.  That’s something, at least and I take what I can get.  I always have the best intentions, wonderful little ideas that play in my head.  They are terrific and ambitious … but never see the light of day.  My ultimate goal is to nurture these ideas into living, breathing creations and, dare I say, accomplishments?  Whether my ideas have to do with my blogs, my stories, or even myself I need to think less and act more.

I currently have a list of all the ways I’d like to improve this blog, a half finished entry for my Shadow Ridge series blog, and five separate ideas for stories… yes, five (three new and two continued!) I thought my main issue stemmed from the fact that I sometimes lack focus and that inspiration is so fleeting.  Then I read an article from Write to Done this morning.  The reason I have such trouble keeping up with things is because I haven’t committed myself wholly to my writing.  It’s no surprise really.  I have trouble focusing on myself and the things that brings me joy.  But if I ever want to reach my goals then I have to make a shift.

I have been writing  since I was a little girl.  I remember the first thing I ever wrote was play for paper bag puppets I made when I was 9.  By the time I was 13 I had notebooks full of a fantasy world I created that I could retreat to when things got rough at home.  I wrote all throughout high school but really found a place for my writing when I introduced to role-playing games when I was 17.  I wrote nonstop for years after that but shortly after the cancer my writing became sporadic and ended up tapering off completely.   That is until earlier this year.

I often think that my procrastination is a direct result of my fear of not being good enough.  It’s easier to put things off and allow them to live solely in my head than to put it out there and not be as well-received as I hope.  But not writing hurts my heart.  I need to write.  Despite the rust I know I am meant to write, it’s the only thing that I am truly passionate about.  Then I read this from the same article:

“And before you know it, you’ll forget that you ever were a writer. You’ll convince yourself that writing is unsustainable as a career and not that important even as a hobby. You’ll forget what it’s like to finish a great piece and bask in the knowledge that you’ve created something out of nothing. That this is what you were meant to do; that it gives you energy for every other part of your life. And you’ll tell yourself that it obviously wasn’t right for you.”

I’ve been to that place and let me tell you, I am not going there again.  It’s time for me “to trust my instincts, close my eyes, and leap.”

Evil Pencils

The ideas have been flowing so freely lately that I naively thought that Mr. Block and I had seen the last of each other.  But somehow he’s found a way to weasel his way back into my life.  Blast!  I am working on a new brainstorming/outline technique that I am hoping will get me over the hump.  So, here’s to shackling myself to the keyboard this weekend!

Filling Up

Last weekend Ramses and I spend two days reorganizing our office… it’s really a bit more than a home office but calling it “the library” or “the study” seems pretentious to me.  Once we have our dream house with walls of floor to ceiling bookshelves that require one of those awesome sliding ladders then and only then will we have a real library… ahh, to dream.  But I digress, as I often do…

If you’ve been to our house, which most everyone who reads this has, you know that last year for my birthday Ramses had a carpenter make a floor to ceiling bookshelf that I designed and bought new office furniture to match it.  Well, Mr. Carpenter never found the time to return and install the shelves in the cabinets that line the bottom.  So, for a full year the cabinets that were meant to add much-needed storage to the room housed miscellaneous items that poured out anytime a door was opened.  When Ramses asked what I wanted for my birthday this year I quickly decided that I would like to finish bookshelf.

We took advantage of the long weekend and made a trip to Lowe’s.  We found pre-finished  shelves that matched, some brackets, and the brushed nickle hardware to finish the look.  I really wish I’d taken a picture of Ramses’ handywork because it turned out perfectly.

Once Ram was done  it was my turn to put my organizational skills to work.  Once I get organizing there is no stopping me so I started rearranging all the books on the shelves.  It’s no Dewey Decimal system but it’s a system that makes sense to me and with about 450 books that is all I can ask for.   I find myself just wandering into the room often and just staring at the bookshelf.  I love it so much.

The best shot I could get of the whole shelf.  The new hardware is sort of visible at the bottom right corner.

Some of my favorite shelves; my Alice collection, leather-bound collections, and Harry potter.  I love my Alice and my Queen of Hearts dolls.  My boss brought me back the tea set from London earlier this year.

My Oz collection including my Dorothy & Wicked Witch (or Elphaba as I will always refer to her after reading Wicked) and a nice shot of the beautiful moulding.

Ebi & Kai On Vacation!

I’m not sure why on earth two of the world’s most pampered Chihuahuas would need a vacation or bay-cation in doggie “talk”.  Nevertheless they had a great time.  They explored the gorgeous yard, chased cats, sunbathed, and swam!  Yes, our little couch potatoes could actually swim!  It was adorable!  We made a little movie of them but I need to edit it together.  Once I do I’ll post it.  They especially loved floating on their boogie board, they looked so peaceful bobbing around the pool!

No H8

“Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

–Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801.

Don’t Stop Believin’

So my short hiatus turned into a long hiatus!  I have lots to blog about and lots of pictures to post of our Anniversary Weekend in Palm Springs so I will get to that this week.  Sadly, I have lots of work to catch up on too so I will have to squeeze in posts when I can.

Until then I absolutely MUST rave about a new Fox show that has me hooked… Glee!  First off, how can you not love the word “glee”?   It has to be the happiest four-letter word ever!  Secondly, if Fox doesn’t cancel it (which always seems to be the case with the shows I really like) Kristin Chenoweth is slated to be on the show.  I initially heard of this show months ago shortly after two shows I loved were canceled, Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone.  Two of the stars of those shows, Kristin Chenoweth andVictor Garber were said to be tied to the new series and I’ve been anxious to see it since.  Also, as an ex-choir singer myself the premise appealed to me.

So, you have to watch this show!  You can catch  The Pilot on Hulu in case you missed it.  Here’s a little preview:

Taking a Short Break

I am taking a short vacation from my blog for about a week.  I’ll be using all my free time to write.  I am hoping by this weekend I would have made my page quota and I will be back and blogging about all the little, wonderful things that make me happy by next Monday!  Have a fantastic week!