*knock knock knock* Who's There? Door. Door who? Doorn't you glad to see me?

About a month ago, Gene and I went to Lowe's for somesuch.  Probably to spend money, because that's what we do now.. spend all the money.

 

When I saw it, from across the aisle, the most beautimous door, like... ever.

 

You see, Gene and I live by this rule.  Decide what you want, and then wait.

Sometimes years.

 

A few years ago, I decided I wanted a new front door.  I hate the one I have (it's in a corner wasting space) and it's pretty ugly.  I painted it red but that's about as exciting as it gets.

 

So when I saw "the doors" I was so excited. 

 

Seems they were custom doors that were returned by the customer.  Nothing wrong with it, he just wanted to put the doorknobs on himself and they pre-cut the holes.

 

oops.

 

Their mistake, my gain.

 

So they were regularly $2500 doors.  Marked down to $1500.

 

Except I didn't want to pay $1500.  I never want to pay full price, and IMO, a returned door at $1500 is full price. 

 

Everything is negotiable.  So we went home, Gene called Lowe's and offered them $1000 and they turned us down.  Said that decision came from corporate.

 

A couple weeks later, we had to stop in again and thought we'd look, just to see.  As we walked across the store, we could see that they were still there!  Pitter patter my heart.

 

Close enough... I gasp!  $700!

 

I couldn't rip off the "for sale" tag fast enough!  MINE ALL MINE!

 

SPEND ALL THE MONEY!!!

 

So, fortunately we had the trailer with us, and fortunately, they have a forklift because those bad boys are heavy!

 

 It took 4 guys to load it.

And one person to be paranoid all the way home it'd fall off the truck.
*that would be me*

But dammit, look hout purdy they are!  I love you doors.  I want to murrrryyyy youuuuu. *mwah*

But for now, they sit on my 92% finished deck waiting for warmer days.
Which is like.. what... May?

Merry Christmas to me.

It's a puzzle!

Something's..... just... *different* about this photo.

 

Corn?  Nope.. it's been gone for a while now.
Jeep?  No, Tanner's had that for a few months now.
Kayak? Well, yeah, Tanner got a new kayak a few days ago.  I admit I'm a little jealous, I want one.

 

But that's really not it either.  Something's just offish.

 

 

 Maybe this pic will help:

Do you see it yet?

My kid has a beautiful smile!
Yep, 6 *years*, thousands of $$ and those braces are FINALLY GONE.  His teeth look so nice now and he looks even more handsome and grown up.

sniffles.

Excuse me for a moment while I get all verklempt.
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Ok, I'm back.
He's been warned not to get in a bar fight and lose any teeth because when he gets back, I'll break both his legs.

Love you though Tanner!

P.S.  I swear I have another kid.  He's pretty good looking too.  Hoping to sneak a pic or two of him and his girlfriend this weekend if he'll let me.  I'm sure *she* will, him?  He's a kersmudgin.

Turkey day!

Happy Thanksgiving from

Cease Fire Ranch!

 

Sorry, this is the closest thing I have to 2 turkeys

Happy Birthday Dear! Your gift is a .....

 

Brand new business!

 

All day on Gene's birthday (Sunday) was spent working on the shop being hell bent on getting the sign(s) painted and up.  Fact is, we got the glass shop sign done, and I feel like taking my time on the photo sign, because frankly, it's going to be *harder*.

 

Harder.

 

As in...

More difficult.

 

 

And this is what he did while I painted his sign.

 

Online shopping.  We call it "jewelry porn".  He calls it "working".

Mmmhmmm.

 

 

 

We finally finished, right as it started to get dark.  We almost had to hang it in complete darkness, we had only a few minutes left.  Street lights were on but we made it!  It was a big deal because the scaffolding was borrowed and that sign was heavy.  Plus hung pretty high.  Hard to do with a ladder.

 

 

Next day touch up, and we're done!

 

 

And a little bit to show you my side of the building.  New paint (the ugly flag border had to go!), new trim work, cute furniture.  Cute cute. 

Lots of great ideas coming this way!  I have my first clients schedule to come to the office in a WEEK!

Who wants to help decorate?
Budget is $12.17
Anyone?
Hello?

Good news, bad news, great news

 

So a couple weeks ago, an idiot ran over our mailbox.

Again.

 

I was so mad I chased him down without my bra on.  So you KNOW I was mad.

 

They had to come out and dig a new hole for the new mailbox.  I don't think he was happy about it.  Maybe he should chase me down without his bra on and tell me about it.

 

So anyway, we're tired of the "mailbox saga".  I think we're on our 4th mailbox now in 5 years.

 

Gene is hell bent on putting in a steel pipe.  10 feet long.  Packed with concrete.

Success!  That's what we'll be getting.  So the next guy that comes along and decides to play runsies overs with our mailbox will get a big surprise and a big dental bill for losing 7 teeth in his dashboard and a bumper.

 

Hoping that's not me.

 

So what does this have to do with Boo?

 

Our next door neighbor is great.  They come down and scoop our drive with his bobcat in the winter when it's bad.  We buy him beer as a thank you.  If we need to borrow a weird tool for an hour, he'll probably have it and always lets us.  We give him eggs as a thank you.

 

So Gene stopped down at his house tonight to ask him if he would bring the bobcat down and help us get the pipe a few more feet into the ground (our hole is only 4' deep). 

 

Good news:  Yes.  He'll be here at 9 a.m.

 

Bad news: He informed Gene that they have such a possum problem (I know, we have them here and he's right on a creek bed) that they are making their horses sick.  So they are putting out poison that will kill every possum for 3 miles.

(I'm pretty ok with that part).

 

Worse news:  He didn't know if it'd have any affect if Boo Kitty came around.  Boo likes to go on "explores" and disappears for 2-3 days at a time.  I'm pretty sure he's up there chasing mice.  Or girls.  Or girls.

 

Great news:  Gene said "I swear to Jesus I'm a max 3 cat family".

 

What did he just say?

He said Boo can live inside!

 

So, because we didn't know how fast the poison was going to happen, Boo is now sitting in a cat carrier in my kitchen under my desk. Hoping we can find a vet on Saturday to get him snip snipped because I really don't need a bunch of cat urine marking my walls.

 

Everyone has sniffed everyone else.

2 hisses and life goes on (well, if you're a fat indoor cat anyway).

 

So I got my Christmas present early.

Yep, I asked for Boo to be an indoor kitty.

There is a santa!  He's a grumpy glass man in Missouri.

 

Life by bullet points

• Had my first show ever.  It ended up being lots of gifty type stuff, and a bit of art.  Not exactly what I was expecting, but I still did pretty good.    Good thing, because my days were off by one and if it hadn't been for my sister pointing it out on a facebook post, I would have showed up an entire day late.  Man, would Gene have been pissed.
  
  And me.
  

 

• I sold quite a bit of stuff.  Figured out people want prints and notecards, not originals.  Great, because I can sit on my butt and watch the printer make prints and notecards.  Sweet.
  
  Yep, that pic has a blurred out section.  There's a couple christmas gifts hanging up there that I don't want ppl to potentially see!
• Was so busy for a week trying to get ready that my house was a disaster.  It's slightly better now, which means it's back to its usual self.
• Tanner marched in his last parade.  I may or may not have been tearing up when I took this picture.  Probably not... but maybe.
  
  I think it's when I saw him giving hand signals to the other kids made me realize how he's gone from just a little kid, to a young man who's a leader and role model to the younger kids.
  
  I might have sniffled all afternoon when I thought about it... maybe even now.
  or not.

• I'm behind on editing, but catching up.  Mornings spent editing, daytimes working at getting the shop/studio/office ready, evenings spent editing and drinking copious amounts of wine.
  
• My eldest critter turned 23.
  Twenty.
  Three.
  
  That was a hell of a feat considering I'm 28.  Let me tell you what.
  
• Voted!  Tan voted for the first time ever.  Pretty damn proud I raised a couple of good conservative young men.  That doesn't happen very often - when I was his age I was a liberal. 
  
  Things didn't turn out how we'd hoped, but we'll cross our fingers for the best outcome.  I try not to be political here, so I'll leave it at that.

 

• I was so busy last week, I forgot to brush my teeth a couple times.  I made up for it and brushed my teeth double the next couple days.  That counts right?
• The shop is looking pretty kick ass.  I think I finally have Gene on the same page with me, that it will be both a glass shop and photography office. (Studio down the road is the plan).  I pretty much told him that I was going to decorate it how I wanted and he responded "I don't care if it's pink and fluffy as long as we have an office."
  End.
  Quote.
  
  So why is he dragging his feet on the dancing flamingos and the teddy bear collection?  Sheesh.
  
 

• This is our new door for the bay.  It's been closed up for years, now we have another door to slam when we get mad at each other... which is NEVER.
  
  Uh. huh.
• Boo kitty keeps taking off.  Is it high season already?  He'll disappear just long enough for me to freak out and worry that the coyotes that pass here every night at 10 p.m. ate him for dinner.
  
  Kinda contemplating letting him keep his nether giblets since they seem to keep him pretty scrappy.
• Had to get internet at the office, because I'm sure as HELL not sitting there all day long looking pensively out the window.  Holy cow, I should have told them I was living there, business internet is really expensive.  Oh, and now, I have a phone line I don't need.  If only I'd known, I'd wouldn't have gotten the extra cell phone line.  Le Sigh.
• Thanksgiving and Christmas should be a bumpy ride this year.  That's all I got to say about that.
• Except my MIL - we're going black friday shopping.  Gonna show her how it's done.  Put on your walkin' shoes Carol.  Oh, and do some warm up stretches.  When all else fails, throw elbows. Use a wide stance for better balance.
  
  now go!

What I've been doing is....

 

Getting ready for the Sugar Plum Festival!

 

It really kind of snuck up on me.  Well, literally, thank GOD I mentioned it on facebook because someone pointed out that my days were off.  Which really threw a wrench in my schedule.  I sure thought I was on top of things.  Oops.  I was off a whole day.  That could have been really embarassing.

 

and maddening.

 

Anyway, I'll be there for 3 days showing my work, which includes the Aspens above (20x10).  I don't have as much done as I'd love to have done, but when you're just starting out, it's hard to have a lot of things!

 

If you're nearby, please come visit.  Thursday evening 5:30-8:00 (preview), Friday 10-8 and Saturday 10-4.  There's lots of artists and vendors that will be there.  They take down the whole museum and set let the vendors take over!

 

Pictures soon.  Lots going on, haven't had time to post.

 

She crawled through a half mile of sh!t and came out clean on the other side

 

I made it.

 

I made it I made it I made it.

 

I made it through hell month.  I know, that sounds terrible and I apologize if you had me take your photo in October in any way.  October is absolutely the busiest month of the year for me.  Lots of seniors, engagements, several weddings, and throw in a few families.  This year, I didn't push getting shoots in any way because I was worried about having enough time to accomplish anything with a new business starting and being at the helm for that, plus my regular duties, plus getting ready for an art show, plus, plus, plus.

 

Calgon...  I'm here, come get me.

 

So I'm happy to say that I made it, and it wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be.  I actually ended up doing as many shoots as normal and I seemed to have time to spare. 

 

Of course, as soon as I say that, I'll be bombarded with things to handle, so scratch that!

 

P.S. That photo above is a full moon rise I witnessed as I returned from a my last shoot of the month.  Seems fitting.

 

P.P.S Name that movie in the title.