Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away. 

The prompt for this doodle was to draw random shapes, fill them in with flowers (leaves, feathers) and then color in the space around the petals.

T Stands For Troubleshoot

 

I'm teaching an online class and a test run with the camera with the result of rotrow. In System, I could see the camera working, but when I ran the software, nothing. There was an error message that said to install the program from a CD. Say what? The laptop doesn't even have a CD/DVD drive.

What to do but take a sip of tea. A little too early to panic just yet. A quick trip to the manufacturer's site and a YouTube video showing an unboxing and installation. Perfect! Two ports on the back of the camera. The right port for running the camera. The left one for installing the software, but if you have a previous version, you need to uninstall.

So I uninstalled the software. Plugged the end into the left port and the USB into the computer and. Nothing! No software! No download. Play the video a little further along or you can download the software from the website. I took another sip of tea to quell the bubble of panic.

Back to the manufacturer's site and found the download button. I had another sip of tea while the download was happening. Then I clicked install. Another sip of tea as I watched the countdown. Then double clicked the software. Oh, rapture! Oh, joy! It worked.

The Young One had been standing by so I could use her eyes to tell me if my desktop was set up so that students would be able to see. Was the camera at the right angle? Could the nib of my pen be seen and not blocked by my hand? She suggested some left-right fixes and Bob's your uncle.

Hopefully, everything will work today. 🫰🏼

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

have a couple of pages to show from the January journal. The prompt for January 12 was to be a quote. I photocopied some artwork I had a done a year or two ago. I cut the little Kilroy dude out and stuck him to a tag. The poem was made into a pocket. On the back of the Kilroy tag, I wrote a quote about Winter. 😉

The prompt for the 13th was Torn. I tore the pieces for the penguin, cloud, and snow out of paper. I cut the sign because it was the remnant of a card and hard to tear. As of January 13th, there were 158 days left until the Summer Solstice.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Winged Pig Before

Winged Pig After. I had tried to bring him in but had waited too late. He was welded to the ground. From snow, rain, sleet, freezing, thawing, rinse, lather, a repeat. His nose fell off. However, I never expected him to implode. 

A bird visitor left a calling card in the dusting of snow yesterday. (Sat. 1/17)

Followed by a small creature. A cat?

And the Delivery Person.

Ugh

More Ugh overnight. Lots more branches came down.

But the Widowmakers are still hanging in there.

More Ugh predicted for tonight. The snow storm that was too far off the coast and would only bring my area 1 to 3 inches has now tracked closer. Predicted snowfall over night to be 3 to 5 inches. 🤬

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Three Guys from Boston (Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jimmy) Say Every Town and City in Massachusetts

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. I got all the blog posts ready for the week

2. Errands, dinner at out, and dropping off artwork for client

3. The journal for the Empty Page class arrived.

4. More errands and then out to dinner

5. Thursday or Teague Day and we started talking about plans to run away.

How was your week?

TBT Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

  In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Painting the Roses Red

Tuesday, the last day of the trifecta. The Weebles would be running out of milk. Ma would make Dad walk to the store to buy the milk. Too humid for a healthy, young person to walk a few miles, let alone an 88 year old man with heart problems. Though Ma knows she is 88 years old, she somehow thinks Dad is still in his forties and in good health. So, I stopped to pick up a gallon of milk to save Dad the walk. I also stopped so I wouldn’t be roped into a trip to Market Basket for a lousy gallon of milk.

Were they happy I brought the milk? I might as well have brought them magic beans.

“What’s that?” Dad asked.

“Milk.”

“What did you do that for!”

“To save you a walk!”

See Dad would like nothing better than to be running out for milk per Ma’s order and to drop dead in the middle of the road. Freedom for him with a helping of guilt for the rest of us.

“How much did you pay?” Ma asked.

“$3.89”

“You paid too much!”

“Well, if you people learned to drink 1% milk you could get a gallon cheaper!”

“I don’t like 1%. It’s watery.”

As if she could tell. She has a bit with her cereal for breakfast, and the rest is used in coffee. Ma was put out because there wasn’t going to be a quick dash for the milk after the visit to the foot doctor.

“Chalk one up for Herself,” I though smugly. I can play the game too.

Ma started to pick on Dad again about the blood and urine tests. She had the urine sample, but we’d have to drop it off at the doctor’s office.

“No, problem. I’ll take it with me and drop it off on my way home.” I go right by the doctor’s office.

Off to the foot doctor we go. The hospital medical building where his office is located must have been running a sale. There were no parking spaces available, let alone the handicap space. I offloaded the Weebles in front of the building and trolled for a parking space. I even went to the main hospital lot and that was filled! After a few circuits, I finally got a handicap space in front of the main entrance to the hospital. A primo space, but on the other side of the building and too far for Ma to walk. I no sooner got up to the doctor’s office when she came out. So I told them to wait in the lobby and I’d bring the car around.

I headed for their house when Ma announced I had to go to the other doctor’s office to drop off the specimen. She had it in her handbag. Punishment for bringing the milk is a different Toonerville Trolley run.

“I told you I’d take it with me when I went home. I go by this building.”

Ma crossed her arms across her ample chest. “I thought I was saving you a trip and doing you a favor.”

“No, this is now an extra trip.”

She sighed deeply. “I don’t give the orders, I just take them.”

And I'm painting the roses red.

More from the Junk Journal.

On January 6, Lindsay showed how to make streamer with bits of paper or fabric, a bulb pin or a safety pin, and a button. The cardinal stamp was from the Holiday Cheer stamps issued by USPS for the 2025 holiday season. It came from Finnbadger's cat card envelope

The house card was formerly an Amazon giftcard holder. It sits in a paper pocket. The tree was from an insert from St. Jude's Children's Hospital which I cut out. On the back some notes about the streamer. The tree is held to the house with the green paper clip.

When I hear someone say Let It Snow, I usually add at Someone else's house. 

The gift card envelope opened up. A sticker with 3 bears dressed for Winter. The bears asking Are we having fun yet?

Lindsay demonstrated how to easily make an envelope from a square sheet of paper. I used a piece of origami paper. The prompt for January 9 was washi tape. Lindsay covered her entire page with washi tape. I was too cheap so just covered the inner flap of the envelope.

This page is part of the spread you saw for T Day. The "Warm" came from the top of the snowman card. 2OLOTR (Two Old Ladies on The Road) need a warm destination. Inside the envelope, the Two Old Ladies on a warm, Summer day taken at Nubble Light in York, Maine.

There are no prompts for the January weekends as the group doesn't meet on the weekends. I decided I wanted to use my journal every day during the month of January. 

The pages for January 10 and 11 formed a spread. I thought of the Rankin and Bass production, A  Christmas Without a Santa Claus which introduced us to two characters, Mr. Heat Miser and his brother, Mr. Ice. I grabbed a screen shot of them from a YouTube clip and cut them out along with a thermometer which was colored in for each of them. Googly eyes added a bit of fun, too

My cousin and I tease each other about the weather. He loves snow and cold. I do not.

If you're humming their respective songs, you can find the lyrics on the back of Mr. Heat Miser and under the card flap for Mr. Ice.

T Stands for Dream Without Limits

From my January Journal, the prompt for the day was Note to Self and Postcard. A marshmallow snowman from a Christmas card relaxes in a hot tub of hot chocolate. The note to self: Open your heart and dream without limits.

Under the snowman card is a postcard of Ogunquit Beach, Ogunquit, Maine. The view is from the ocean looking towards the Norseman Resort. Two Old Ladies On The Road are anxious for warm weather and running away to Ogunquit.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

took some time to admire the thoughtful card sent by Finnbadger from Envelope 100. He sent the card because it reminded him of me, Ink, Calli, and Quill. Embiggen the card and you can see all three cats.

I also joined Lindsay Ostrom's Facebook group working on a January junk journal. I've really been enjoying the group even though I've gone my own way. My journal with a Winter theme is more scrapbooky, scrapbookish...more like a scrapbook than a collaged and painted art journal.

I like the idea that under flaps, you can have room for some personal journaling

While at the annual, family gathering, gifts for the grand-nieces were wrapped in snowman paper. Before the paper was tossed out, I asked if I could have some. At the time, I wasn't sure what I would use it for. As I began working in the journal, it occurred to me that I could punch the snowmen out and use them as page numbers or dates in the journal.

On January 2nd, Lindsay demonstrated how to make paper beads from strips of paper. I stuck a couple of strips of paper as borders on this page and rolled the ends to make the beads.

January 3rd was the Full Wolf Moon. I like the background for the page and the silhouette of the wolf against a full moon. I like the moon dangling from a string. I'm not sure I'm that crazy about the yellow banner.

The cool thing about the junk journal is the pages don't have to be complete. You can always go back and add more or take something out. This idea needs to percolate more

Having worked in a hospital laboratory for 6 years, I'm a firm believer in the full moon. The crazies come out of the woodwork. It's like a virus. Three days coming, three days with you, and three days leaving. It happens at the New Moon, too, which is a full moon we can't see. So the back of the wolf tag the wolf is howling: The crazies are OUUUT

While gathering ephemera for the journal, I went through some school papers the girlies created.  I photocopied this  poem the Young One wrote when she was 6 years old. 

Finnbadger has a beautiful, circle, return address stamp with a cardinal in the center. I fussy cut the cardinal and colored it in. I also colored in the snowman's carrot to make it stand out more. The cardinal poised on the tip of the snowman's nose is asking: Is it July, yet?

The journal prompt for January 5 was Tuck Spot. Lindsay demonstrated making pockets by folding pages in triangles or rectangles. The tag was a gift card to me from The Young One. The snowflake on the front fit the theme and with a little bit of a trim, it fit into the pocket. 

Since I'm not a fan of Winter and tend to hibernate, I saw a craft about making a polar bear bookmark. He fit into the second pocket. On his back, I wrote the instructions for folding pockets. With the white dots, he looks like he's peeking out from his cave. Wake me when Winter is over seemed to be a fitting sentiment for the page.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Not my backyard, but the chiropractor's backyard.

Icy steps and walk

Icy trees. Since the beginning of the year, every other day was either a bit of snow or ice.

Not my backyard. This was on the way home from Teague's house. In the 40 years I've lived in this area and driven this street, at all times of the day and night, I have never seen a train come through the crossing. It was a very long train. As long as the trains that go through downtown Framingham and Dennison Crossing.

Not much snow left in my backyard.

No snow in the front yard. 

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

WHIMSICAL CAT POCKETS are so cute and easy – thanks to dear Ada! 

The video is a little longer than I usually choose, but you get the idea after she makes the first cat.

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Marked the New Year with the annual family gathering. The two, little grand-nieces will soon be joined by another baby girl in March.

2. I texted with Nan about the junk journaling group. She's a good source for inspiration

3. I misplaced a card for the junk journal. Tore the place apart looking for it. Found it!

4. We got a new trash company and pick up day. They pick up trash and recycling the same time every week instead of recycling every other week. This week, I got the trash and recycle out without falling on the ice

5. After a nearly three week hiatus because of the holidays and vacation, Teague and I are back to weekly visits.

How was your week?

TBT Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

 In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Never Miss An Opportunity to Keep Your Mouth Shut

Monday, day two of the trifecta, the Weebles had an appointment at their primary care physician. I arrived to hear Ma singing the lament of no one doing anything for her. I was going to point out she didn’t have to walk to the doctor’s office, but decided it would be best for me to keep my mouth shut.

She noticed I was alone and wanted to know why the girls weren’t with me.

“They’re teens. They don’t want to be with old people.”

“I’m not old, I’m their grandmother. They should be here.”

I tried to keep the ‘Help me, Lord’ look off my face.

“You were never left alone.”

I shouldn’t have risen to the bait, but I did. I reminded her she worked, and was not home in the afternoons. I had my own key to the house when I was seven years old. I was a latch-key child only we didn’t have that term back then.

My keychain was attached to the side buttonhole of my uniform jumper. When I forgot or lost my key, Himself, who grew up next door, would break into my parent’s house to let me in. Usually, Himself enlisted the aid of his skinny Middle Brother. At that time, we had a 9 pane bow window. Two of the upper windows were like transoms. Himself would get Dad’s ladder, haul the Middle Brother up the ladder, pry open the transom and push the Middle Brother through while holding onto his legs to try to lower him the 4 foot drop to the sill. The Middle Brother would then unlock the front door to let me in. When Himself wasn’t around, I sat on the front steps waiting for someone, usually The Brother, to come.

I didn’t tell her about Himself breaking into the house. I didn’t tell her about the exciting times with The Brother, ever creative. Lighter fluid squirted into the toilet, set alight with a cigarette lighter, and flushed in a swirling blue flame. A hair raising ride ass over teakettle, in a sealed, cardboard box down a flight of stairs. Being told a cigarette was a punk and when I took a puff like the older, cool kids and began to choke, I was rushed over to The Brother’s friend’s where they put the garden hose down my throat and turned the water on full force. Water fights with basins of water that soaked the walls and were dried with a box fan. Shaken bottles of ketchup that exploded, and a red rose bloomed on the ceiling (forty years later the stain still bleeds through!) Sitting on the roof while The Brother pinged birds and dogs with a BB gun. Putting piles of pennies on the tracks of the subway while waiting for the trolley to take us to Grandma’s house. Yup, never alone and never well supervised.

Ma seemed surprised at the doctor’s office when she was asked to give a blood and urine sample. Of course, she blamed Dad.

“You didn’t tell me we were having tests.”

“For heaven’s sakes, Ma, you’re here every other week. You should know by now that you will have a blood and urine test.”

“We’re supposed to go have the tests a week before our appointment.”

“Save me a trip. The doctor will have the test results later in the afternoon. If something is wrong, he’ll call you.”

Back at the house, I put the kettle on for tea. Made a mental note to pick up milk and bring it the following day. I was not going to get roped into a trip to Market Basket for a gallon of milk.

At the table, Ma sighed. “I want to go into a nursing home.”

I almost said, “From your mouth to God’s ear”, but kept my mouth shut. I just sipped my tea.  Wasn’t going to poke that bear for love nor money. On the surface it sounded as if Ma realized she needed round the clock help. Couldn’t be further from the truth. Ma would like either myself or The Brother to take them in. Neither one of us have the room for one, or the energy and inclination. Ma was hinting since The Eldest would be heading off to college, I’d have a spare room. Help me, Lord, I’d check myself into the nursing home, first.

Gluing Tool

 

In the junk journaling group, we're doing a lot of gluing. While watching videos of various junk journals, I came across the Sili Glue Brush. The tips are silicone with a hard shaped plastic end. The tools were meant for woodworkers to get glue into tight joints.

I thought it would be good to spread glue on paper and other ephemera without the nasty cleanup of washing out brushes or throwing them away.

Cleanup is very easy with this tool. Just rinse under water or if glue dries to the tip, you just peel it off. (I was one of the kids that enjoyed spreading Elmer's glue on the palm of my hand, waiting for it to dry, and then trying to peel off the "skin" in one piece)

The downside of the tool is the wide tip is a lot narrower than I hoped. It's great for gluing small bits, but not so great for larger sheets. I think a silicone spatula or basting brush would work better.

Any of you mixed media artist out there have any other tips for gluing? 

T Stands For A Cup of Tea

 

When the world is all at odds

And the mind is all at sea

Then cease the useless tedium

And brew a cup of tea.

There is magic in the fragrance,

There is solace in its taste;

And then laden moment vanish

Somehow into space

And the world becomes a lovely thing!

There's beauty as you'll see

All because you briefly stopped

To brew a cup of tea.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

are working with Lindsay Ostram's Creative Hand Lettering and Doodling group on Facebook. For the month of January, we'll be making a junk journal or altered book. Lindsay suggested getting a book with less than 200 pages at a thrift shop, yard sale, library sale.

I had a notebook I had purchased at the Dollar Store sitting around that I didn't know what I was going to do with. It will be my junk journal.

The first class was about decorating the book jacket or cover. I happen to really like the cover of the notebook. I did make a marquee to put the title on the front: Junque Journal January 2026

I also decided rather than just playing around in the book, I needed a theme. I think it came from too many years as a computer programmer with linear, analytical thinking. I decided the theme would be Winter colors and whining and complaining about the weather. Because that's so me.

The second day, Lindsay show us how to make paper beads by winding small strips of paper around a skewer. I used a pencil. I added the beads to a bookmark string I added. To keep the beads from falling off, I knotted the string and then used a polar bear snowman earring that I wore once because it was too heavy.

The back of the book had decorated endpages, but they were missing from the front. I photocopied them, printed them out, and glued them to the front cover.

I did a title page spread using a photograph I had taken this week of the snow in my back yard. Snowflake stickers and a small calendar page for January 2026 made interesting decorations.

Lindsay had found a quote from her book that she printed out. I wrote out: Now is the Winter of our discontent (Shakespeare's Richard III). So me.

I like how the pages don't need to be finished right away. I want to cover up the black boarder on the calendar and maybe add some thing. Maybe icicles.

We also folded a page over to make a pocket to hold the Prompts for the month. I covered the pages with some Winter themed paper and added enough dots to make signs for the polar bears to spell out Prompts.

We also spent time figuring out how many pages needed to glue together for a substrate and if pages needed to be removed.  We needed 25 pages as there is no live session on the weekends. I decided to make my book to fit the entire month of January.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The only supposed to be a dusting that turned into 3 or 4 inches that A came to snowblow the driveway, cleared the cars, walk, and even shoveled a path to the mailbox from the walk so I don't have to deal with the icy driveway.

The New Year started with another coating to an inch that turned into 4 inches.

Inside. An eggplant flower in the hydroponic garden. It looks like the Demogorgon from Stranger Things

Today, another light dusting

The snow hasn't amounted to much except a PITA. Only 167 days until the Summer Solstice.

How does your garden grow?