My Days

My front porch is my natural place I seem to not be able to leave. I find myself there all the time. My rocking chair and my blankets keep me happy.

It also seems like every time I leave to go out anywhere it becomes a photo opportunity, even walking around our neighborhood forest. I love living in the forest, it is actually the Nantahala National Forest and our neighborhood is a no trespassing and no hunting neighborhood, so we hope to see no deer or bear hunters. We saw ducks on our pond yesterday and it is a perfect place for them although I have not seen them before, it is nothing like the river and the geese we always saw when visiting here to pet-sit.  We also have many birds and I made new feeders from a plastic bottle and wood spoons since the old feeder bottom fell off.  I have not yet seen the turkeys, although I am always on the lookout for feathers, neighbors say they come here as well as four bears live in this area.

I have dirty hands all the time, even my nail brush is becoming frayed, I use it so much but my nails still stay like garden hands all the time. Last week, when we were at the hotel my daughter and son-in-law were checking out of and I collected  two doggy bags full of tiny pine cones . I always have doggy bags in the car for a couple of reasons. Our dogs travel with us almost everywhere we go and I am picking nature things up all the time.  I am always finding nature items to collect or neat photos to take. I see a bird and squirrel nests  in the trees  and rusty crusty trucks, barns, a sawmill, pastures, horses, beautiful Christmas decorations at homes all over this countryside. Smoke is always coming from the chimneys around this area also. Many homes have outdoor heaters or fireplaces for their heat source.

When we first moved here I remembered the car steering wheel handles that  folks used  driving the mountainous hilly swerve roads that folks used to have a handle on their car steering wheels to maneuver the turns that are everywhere on mountainous roads. It really would come in handy up here. 

We never know what will be around the next curve. We drive slower and I love not being in a larger city with faster life. But, it seems I never have everything done. I am always making projects in progress and never completed.  That is one of my New Year vows, a commitment to finish what I have started! Always!  I have that and that going on all over my craft room that is slowing getting organized. I can't wait to really have it finished! Oh, I hope I do! I have too.  I have so much in my head to do and I HAVE the needed tools to make about anything, soap, candles, fabrics out the kazoo,

Oh, and the pinecones I am drying in the oven from the doggy bags smell fabulous. Even my husband has commented on them. The house smells woodsy and feels cozy.  I had the heater from the flea market we used on to help stay warm going through them picking up the stems I also picked up. But, I wish I had not tried to remove so many because when I was making a bird nest last night I found they are fabulous to help make it more natural looking, instead of the grapevine I was wrapping that was dried and breaking so I wound a few this morning that I had in the yard.  Now, I just need to tie them wound to dry.  So much to work with as far as natural nature goes, I love it!

Dried Pine Cones, TINY!

My Bird Nest for Swap above

My Swap Gifts

I received my Junk Revolution swap gift in the mail and I have not even mailed hers yet. I am so behind and actually I was waiting for our monthly check to come for the postage for it. I have gathered junky items, well, not junky, but FOUND items that can be used in mixed media art and or whatever she desires to do with what I send to her. She make want to trash it but I try so much to keep things from the landfills and I am always finding things on the ground that I keep and collect. You  know, I forgot to take a photo of my sent swap presents, I just started filling up a box with all I could find that I thought maybe a junk addict  could use in their art, recycled mixed media. 

 Anything from a bottle cap to a button, plus at the flea market I started trading for things before we gave up our weekly booth. 

 My greatest trade was two leather bags we had that are wonderful for a laptop or whatever and one that was a good duffle travel bag for an OLD ANTIQUE Garden Cart. Oh, how I love it. It says carved in the wood "The Original Garden Way Can, Charlotte, Vermont 05445.  It will be fabulous for me to use around the yard and my collections, even bigger than a wheel barrow! 

Emma in Garden Cart

 I have been trying un-successfully to get our two golden retrievers to sit in it with their Santa Hats and jingle bell candy cane collars with Jingle bells attached.  I sure can keep track of where they are kind of like the bells on the cats collars.

I found an old saw mill the other day and had to take some photos of it. IT started with a rusty truck we stopped for and the saw mill was hidden from the street. 

Those saw blades were as big as I am! HUGE! 

Anyway, this started out to be a face book post and grew into this blog posting. My blog posting is kind of a way for me to go over in my head what I have been doing and releasing it to be whatever. I started blogging with my pain journal to release the pain thoughts. Writing them down helped to let it go. I got a spinal stimulator when you may already know and from St. Jude's so I like to promote that with them as they have helped me every day to go on and be busy. 

We do buy locally and spend our money locally as much as possible.  Sourwood honey and the best kettle corn is here along with local crafts I have some of mine at" Carolina Crafting "in Brasstown, NC just 5 miles away from us.  I don't buy much home decor anymore as we have no room and so much so I am starting to list more in Easy and Bonanza to try to sell and make so extra money also. Extra Money is a sad word with us lately, learning to live on Social Security is really very hard to do and we have got very good help from the state of North Carolina.

I am late posting my Christmas Photos, my Mother wanted me to get a new camera as my old Easy Share Kodak quit working one day so these photos have been taken with my cell phone. 

Well, here are a few:

The dogs loved opening their presents! 

  My Grandog " Barkley"! 

Can you see my Mother's angels on this light? They were made back in the 1970's with depressor sticks! They are so special to me! 

Something about these white or light leaves surrounded by dark brown ones just spoke to me. I love the veins and blotches on them. I wish I knew what tree they were from? Maybe a birch? 

More Christmas display:

Here is our booth we had a Decker's Flea Market but we closed up till spring as sales were really low after it got cold here

My Daisy trailer, 1963 Shasta

Lily Beth is growing up so fast, she is the abandoned kitty our dogs brought to us weighing 10 1/2 ounces

Here is a pony we are watching grow up, she is still nursing from her mama

Here is a car I saw at an outdoor sporting goods store

We also got a shotgun when we moved here but the protected neighborhood is very nice. We first looked at a cabin in a subdivision that had no rules and was very isolated so that is when we got the shotgun. I have been saving cans to learn to shoot it. I have never in my life shot a gun but I want to learn just for the heck of it. I watched Amie and Jolie on the Junk Gypsies TV show on HGTV and Jolie shot up a restaurant can for a light fixture. I don't know about that but it is good target practice I hope. I also have found another idea to use cans for in Somerset magazine I got at the local scrapbook store had on sale as they are both retiring and having a big sale. I hope to go their Monday when it even gets better. I shouldn't have but last week I dropped by there and with my PayPal money I got a couple of magazines and some stamps. Very good prices and even a "kewpie and Tim Holtz stamp!  I couldn't believe they were still there as his sale has been going on but I have been trying to avoid it as I know I needed nothing from there as I shopped there big time when we came up here to pet sit at the river. They also teach classes on about everything to do with scrap booking and now that I live here they are retiring and closing. I hope to go Monday though for another magazine or two or three if I can. Somerset at half price or even maybe cheaper now is great for me to get ideas and learn without formal lessons.

I like mixed media using a little of everything. Not just a piece of stamped paper but adding fabric, natural items, vintage finds and whatever I think of. Once I get stated it is hard to know when to quit but I need to get busy with Valentine's Day coming up.  I will, I vow I will! ( grins)  I did do some walnut staining. I have to give it to the squirrels for eating most of my walnuts I collected. I just could not get them open to eat ourselves, so I stained. 

Trying to open the shells by using  a rock and hammer! NOT!

This post has really turned into a book chapter which is really what I think of reading blogs, folks just tell another part of a story every time they post.

 I love reading these blogs  " The Feathered Nest"  ,   "My Owl Barn"  blog I found which always features something about "Owls"!  Also, Tipper of " Blind Pig & the Acorn" tells stories of the Appalachian way of life in the olden days, so I learn stories from what it was like up here in these mountains and she is very creative. 

I also saw these cute owl boots at a shop while I was waiting for my DH in the Radio Shack store next door. 

We just returned from Alabama again with another trailer load of our things and I had a Doctor appointment so I have a trailer load to unpack from our porch, thank goodness we have lots of outside space as I have to work it inside. 

Well, I will see you again later and I will try to posy more often.  

Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog.

Smiles, Cyndi