This Is A Nest...



This is a nest...I don't know how she does it...but she does.

Lucy is a cat who loves comfort.

Lots of comfort that comes from borrowing and using my things.

She loves to be in the extra guest room that houses all of my fun stuff.

I actually caught her pawing gently through a basket of bracelets...seemingly looking for something she thinks I need.

Bracelets, earrings, hair ties...

they all have a way of finding a home with her toys.

This morning we woke up to bracelets and hair ties scattered all over our bed and on the floor.

Which makes me wonder about just how terribly busy she is at night.

Is she holding a hair tie over my face as I sleep?

Is she trying to use some sort of cat magic that she thinks will make me play with her in the middle of the night?

I truly think she does.

Do you have a pet who constantly surprises you?

Pleasantly?

Hmmm...Hooked...Happily Hooked...And Not About Books Today...

I do believe that I have an addictive personality...

Little hints lead me to this belief.

I cannot buy one of anything.

I buy plants in groups of three.

I have to go in and out of the same door but I have been told that this is from my grandmother.

If I do talk myself into just buying one of something...I worry that I am missing out on the other colors.  So I go back and buy them.

Hmm...perhaps this is not addictive but OBSESSIVE?

Am I sharing way too much?

Anyway...this leads me to my nails.

I never get manicures because I hate that they are wrecked in days...what is the point?

But somebody must have been thinking of me when this stuff was invented...it is amazing...it lasts for at least two weeks. 

I can get colors!!!

I never have to file or buff or do anything to my nails except get to JoEllen...the lady who does this at my salon.

I cannot stop looking at my nails.

They are beautiful except in the photo my hands look like claws...it was too hard to take an upsidedown photo.

JoEllen has been doing this to my nails for a few months now and I will never be able to stop.

And even though I don't need to say this...I often tell Dennis I can't empty the dishwasher because I don't want to wreck my nails...he believes me...lol...

You can do almost anything to these babies...and they remain shiny and lovely.

I get so excited when I am near the end of my two weeks because it is new color time!!!

Do you have a new obsession?

Amazing Days...

I am sitting on my sofa staring out my windows and looking at the pond.  It is sunny and warm...a bright beautiful day with a gentle breeze.

The deck furniture is in place.  There is even a hummingbird in that plant...or there was.

And it is so hard to believe that barely two days ago the pond was a churning mess...it had risen to the very edges of our lower French doors and it had invaded our basement!!!

Order is almost restored in our household.

The basement is drying out.  Bins are scattered every which way.  But we will reorganize it over this Labor Day weekend.

So for now I just close my eyes when I need to go down there.  I am such an organized person that I am bothered by disorder. 

My bad.

It seems amazing to me to be past all the awful stuff that represented our week end.

There was no going to dinner...no making dinner...no relaxing talks...no peaceful evenings.

Everything we did was hurricane prep.  Target and Home Depot and Walmart were all out of lanterns and batteries and ice.  We were ill prepared and it is still a shock to us that we did not lose our power.  We always lose power.  We did not even lose cable.  We always lose cable.  We prepped for no electricity.  We stocked up on sandwich making things and crackers and pretzels and fun snacks.

We did not snack on anything and by Sunday night we wanted a real dinner.

But roads around us were flooded and we did not feel like going anywhere.

I cooked us a salad.

It is so quiet right now.  I am revelling in it.  I actually had a headache from listening to wind and rain.  I was depressed...I had a hurricane form of depression.  I felt trapped.  It is still hard to believe that this hurricane held us so captive.

Enough.

Over it.

Ready to move on.

Happy Tuesday...hopefully your day is as sunny and peaceful as mine is.

I made amazing cinnamon rolls today.  A recipe for a sweetish dough that you actually make in your food processor...I love this dough...so much fun.  I will post photos and a recipe later this week.

A Lovely Lovely Book...

My brief summary...

A baby is stolen. A young mother's life is forever changed. A young girl awakens to all the things her mother has told her that she begins to question. Why is she never allowed to leave her house? Why do they move from town to town? Why is she hidden?

My thoughts...

Wow...I read this breathlessly. It was amazing. It was told in two of the most lovely voices I have read in a long long time. Sophie the lost daughter and Emmy the lost mother. Emmy never ever giving up the hope that her baby is out there somewhere. Sophie...finally living next door to an amazing loving odd family and beginning to yearn for truth while slowly growing up enough to give herself the courage to search for it.

There are many lovely characters in this novel...Jimmy and his aunts and their pets...Harvey the dog and Minxie the cat who sits in Sophie's lap as she sneaks there each day while her mother is at work. It is such a book of contrasts...beautiful voices and harsh voices...the images and tastes of homemade cookies and brownies against diner food brought home each day in stark white cartons for Sophie and her mother's cold dinner. Each little ordinary bit of life that Sophie shares at the aunts' house leads her one baby step closer to living her own real life.

A lovely book. Memorable and hopeful. Moving and sad. Finally...wondrous!!!

This is a book that should not be missed.

Thank you again, NetGalley and Lindsay...thank you again, Beth Kephart.

It Isn't Over 'Til Irene Says It's Over...

We survived an earthquake, a hurricane, and a tornado watch all within a matter of days.

But...when the pond actually flowed into the basement through the French doors...

I think we lost our cool.

The good thing is that I am an organized person...stuff in the basement...and there is lots of stuff in the basement...is in bins...labeled, etc.

My husband always loses it whenever I buy more bins and put more stuff in the basement...

but the bins saved us and the stuff...the very important stuff...I think.

Our sump pump was broken...that was the reason the massive amount of rain and pond water couldn't be controlled.

We love Ron...our plumber.

New pump...messy but much drier basement.

Sun is shining beautifully.

The wind has finally stopped blowing.

Lucy has stopped looking up at the ceiling and running.

We have not a thing to eat but who cares.

We did not lose power...yet...that alone is amazing...in fact a miracle...we lose power all of the time.

What an amazing week end.