Monday Miscellany 8-25-14

Image from Post Secret

Art:
♦Incredible tiny embroidery of cute animals!

Awesome:
♦The Nostalgia Machine...cues up songs from a chosen year.

Beauty:
♦Alexis Krauss (singer for the Sleigh Bells) talks about natural beauty. [Her hair is so beautiful and glossy!]

DIY:
♦This is an ambitious project, but sooo cool!

Fashion:
♦American's Next Top Model has a gorgeous model (Chantelle Brown) with Vitaliago. The show can get kind of gimmicky...but I am glad that in a small way they are educating people on vitaliago. More info on vitaliago.
♦I am catching up on older seasons of Project Runway. I am on season 9 right now. So far Anya is my favorite designer. She makes beautiful clothes full of color and vibrant prints. I also loooove her hair!

Anya Ayoung-Chee

Source: People Magazine (spoiler warning @ People)

Feminism:
♦A brilliant response to rape jokes

Gardening:
♦Menstrual blood as garden fertilizer?! Not sure I could do this myself..but it is interesting. [I wouldn't recommend this for consumable plants. After-all they don't recommend human waste for fertilizer on crops...just a thought.]

LGBT:
♦ The gorgeous model Andreja Pejic came out as a transgender woman. She is other-worldly beautiful. I wish her continued success in her career. :) Bonus she was in a David Bowie music video with Tilda Swinton!

 Noms:
♦  Blueberry marshmallows, this is not a drill go make these now!
♦Speaking of berries...Raspi and I have been enjoying a Dutch Baby  with blueberries  or breakfast on the weekends. (Think part pop-over, part custard, sort of a pancake...I know it sounds weird...just go check it out!)

WTF:
♦She is being swallowed by her belt!
♦Some Zoos use electrified plants to keep the animals in check... So disturbing!
♦What is REALLY in pumpkin spice lattes???

Better late than never!

Have a great week!!

Lost Our Furry Friend

We just lost our feisty boy Merlin. 

 As a kitten he was raised by his older brother Murphy a German Shepard. He always thought of himself as a dog.

 

He was my husband's cat, but lived with my mother-in-law out on the farm.

He was surrounded by dogs including a Great Pyrenees, but he was still the boss.

 Handsome prince!

 

In spite of his swaggering boss status he was cuddly and affectionate.

 He loved it when I would pick him up and carry him around. I would show him things and let him smell them.

He would respond with his patented  head-butt-of love. He would shove his head so hard up under your chin as if he was trying to melt into you.

 He was also fearless and a bit wild. He policy for new things was: swat first, ask questions later.

Oddly enough he could arm wrestle. He could hold his own against a grown man! (He used both front paws, but still!) If he got a hold of something you...weren't getting it back!

He was a big cat with a big personality. We are going to miss you so much.

Rest in peace Merlin.

(I just wanted to note that he was 16 years old when he passed. He lived a nice long life full of adventures. He had been my husbands little buddy since he was young. Even though we knew this time would come it still isn't easy.)

Cure For A Bad Day

I had a terrible day at work yesterday...and this video always cracks me up.

David Hasselhoff singing Hooked On A Feeling by Blue Swede

The video is so cheesy and terrible that I can't stop laughing. It looks like it was made at one of those make your own music video places that used to be in shopping malls.

Hope it makes you laugh too. 

P.S.if you want to hear the good version click on Blue Swede its a link to the original song.

:)

Roses

 

Absence

I know that I have had a long absence. I had burned out on blogging and had created a Tumblr. I was starting to really get into it, but then began to have problems.

I had problems with spyware crashing my computer. The second time was so hard on my computer that I had to re-install my O.S.I was disappointed, and sad but decided to delete my Tumblr.

I had edited and posted hundreds of photos, (as that had been the direction by blogging had taken.) Now I will have to post them all over again.

In spite of these set backs, they are not the worst thing to happen lately.

*****

My Grandma Honey (Rasputin's grandmother, but we are close) became very ill. She had a stroke and fell in the process. She had terrible bruising on her one side. Her health continued to decline, and the she had a second stroke.

We all took turns camping out at Grams hospital room. We did not want her to be alone, as she became combative with the nurses and doctors. (I believe she was confused and disorientated.)

She deteriorated further. She was in constant pain, and her breathing became very shallow and labored. She refused an I.V.

She was in so much pain...and maxed out on morphine. We kept wishing she would let go.

After 2 weeks she passed in her sleep. Which in one part was a relief...no more pain. Unfortunately she passed on Raspi's birthday.

*****

During this time the company I work for decided to restructure in order to survive the market fluctuations. I had no idea what hours I would work, what department, or if I would keep my job.

Depending on which shift I ended up on ...I would hardly see Raspi. 

*****

Considering we were both under a lot of stress...its no wonder Raspi got sick. He developed a skin infection. It kept getting worse.

After two separate trips to the doctor and two different creams...no improvement. He began to get worse. The infection was spreading and he was in more and more pain. The skin was cracking open and weeping.

They put him on a hideously strong medication. He had to have a liver test to make sure he could handle it. We were so hopeful...until he developed hives.

He had an allergic reaction to the meds. The wort part is that it was a once a week medication. It would take a week to clear his system. In the mean time...the hives...became blisters.

Raspi's doctor finally referred him to a dermatologist. His dermatology appointment took 5 minutes but gave us a correct diagnosis!

It has been two weeks since his diagnosis and he has improved so much! He may have some minor scarring (no big deal to either of us), but more importantly he is comfortable.

Sigh.

Orchids

Como Conservatory has a huge collection of Orchids. These are some of the ones that were in bloom when we visited.

 

 I did not know until recently that Lady Slippers were a type of Orchid.

There are more than 300 types of orchids world wide!

 I love the bold colors and patterns of this one.

Vanilla is derived from orchids. It is made from the dried seed pods of the vanilla genus.

This one reminds me of fireworks.

 

This one is so tiny, its about the size of a dime!

For more information on orchids check out Wikipedia, or The American Orchid Society.
 Hope you enjoyed the orchids. :)

Assorted Como Flowers

We took another trip to Como Conservatory for our anniversary. 

We had a lot of fun, and I took some great photos.

Water Lillies

Hibiscus

 Geranium

Lavender

 Petunia

Coneflowers

Lilly

(Anyone know what this beauty is?)

If you are ever in Minnesota check out Como Zoo and Conservatory. Its beautiful!

Local Hike

The same day that Raspi and I went to the Cemetery, we also went on a nature hike. These are some of the flowers we saw.

 

 

Zinnia

 "Dayflower" and invasive species.

 Forget-me-nots

"Ghost Plant" which is actually a fungus not a flower.

Cemetery

Rasputin and I  drove to a large historic cemetery. I took some photos of the older gravestones.

It was a bright and sunny day, and the cheery blues skies didn't quite mesh with the stoic beauty of the stones. I used various filters to age the photos.

 

 

 

 This was one is one my favorites. Its beautiful.