So I think I still reside in the state of Mississippi however from the looks of this photo out our back door, one would never guess we were in the deep south.
The governor declared a state of emergency in 36 counties last night in the wake of this weather. All schools and public offices closed and the main thing on television is stating to stay home unless it is an emergency.
In the north all of the peeps are laughing at these southerners freaking out. I have to say I was freaking out at the first hurricane so I can't talk. This would be a day in the park at home in Montana, everyone would be thrilled that they could see some blue sky and the golfers would just use colored balls to play around. I ventured to the mailbox and about bit the dust, there is no de icer to speak of at stores down here and the word snow shovel gets you very silly looks. Robyn and Jeff's cars are covered in ice and Jeff said it was so fun using his 4 wheel drive for the first time ever. He is thrilled when we get any kind of weather down here.
The snow day has provided me with time to call the internet company once again for the bill that they have messed up, catch up on my filing and to rest under some warm blankets. Thankfully we have power and we have hot tea.

I am back!!!!!!
Seems like it has been years. Oh , right it has. Well, let's see what is new. Not much, Two years older, two years wiser and now a grandmother. Yeah, our Blakely is our little Love Bug.
Mississippi is cold this year. This is really the first year that I can say that we have taken our winter coats out to use. The Polar Vortex is hitting the entire United States and we are part of that. Well, some days I question whether Mississippi is part of the United States but that is another blog post.

I have been crafting as of late and entertaining the idea of an etsy shop. This would be a very new experience for me and I am trying to practice with Windows 8 at the moment. I love getting my hands messy in my art and have been trying to decide what to do. When I can't make up my mind, I send my art out to unsuspecting friends as gifts. So my not making a decision may end up in your mail box one day soon.

Time to get my act in gear and get some work done, but I look forward to renewing my blog. Please list a comment if you have time.
Angela

A Peek inside my Art Journals

So I have been away from my blog for quite some time now. I am slowly but surely getting back to my writing. In the time that I have been gone, I have been creating. This is something that I love to do. I love to have my hands full of items and put them together to make ART. I have started sketching, my father doodles, sketches, draws, whatever  you want to call it all of the time. I have never felt very good at this medium, so in the last few months, I have challenged myself to explore my doodling. I do not think that they could be called sketches, as I have trouble adding depth to my drawings. I am working on this.
I love color and I love to color. I am calm when I add color and always remember an art teacher in college telling me that I had a very keen sense of color combinations. I have watched Robyn paint in the last few months and she has a way of blending color as well. Allison has been making signs for a wedding, and using her creativity as well. So nice to know that the creative gene from my Grandma Hazel and my mother Patty has been handed down. So here goes nothing: a visit for you inside my art journal. Please let me know what you think.
Til Tomorrow or whenever
Angela

I can talk to a rock

My family says I can talk to a rock. What they mean is that no matter where I go I will talk to anyone and anything. This is just me. I have been reading a book called the Happiness Project and the one thing that keeps coming up in the book is that the author says to herself daily "Be Gretchen". I keep telling myself to "Be Angela" this is harder than it sounds.
I love to interact with people much to my families uneasiness. No matter where we go I will strike up a conversation and see what follows. I consider myself pretty open minded and easy to talk to so the conversations are usually pleasant and I even learn something every now and again. The family tease me cause they do not do this. I have decided that they are jealous. Most of the time my conversations benefit one or more of my family members but do they consider that in their constant hazing of me... No
So last night was one of those nights. We had purchased tickets to hear Colt McCoy speak for a church group here in Hattiesburg. This is for those of you that do not know a yearly event and the last two speakers have been Tony Dungy and  Jim Kelly. Jeff was very excited and wanted to get to hear the quarterback of his Cleveland Browns. I wanted to get him some face time with the man but that cost more than the new bed I want and a good down payment on a new car, so we decided the event was enough.
There was to be a silent auction and a live auction, and some small food in the price of your ticket. The food was amazing and the auction items out of this world. Now I know it was for charity, but they all went from a 25.00 bit up to the thousands rather quickly. Hense I did no bidding. I asked one man if there was anyway Mr. McCoy would sign autographs and he said he was not sure. I went to the front row and let Jeff mill around and staked out my seat.
The evening was wonderful and Colt gave a very good talk. At the end he had to hop on the private plane and fly out so there was only time for the final auction item, a browns helmet and jersey to be personally autographed for the buyer. The man next to Jeff bid 2000.00 and got it. I knew he was disappointed as I held his browns hat and mini helmet in my hands. So as the man and his son went up to get their items I followed. The man I had spoken with earlier had been the creater of the event and he motioned me to come over. Mr. McCoy signed my husbands hat and then left. I was so excited. I turned to show Jeff and he nearly fell over. I said you do not have time to be excited now cause Brett Farve is right there behind you. Get your camera ready. I was next to his wife Deanna and asked her if she was tired of having him at home all the time now. She smiled and said, No cause she is training for a triathalon. She also said she liked the bike event the best. Then Brett wisked her off and out they went to take Mr. McCoy to their airplane. I is okay, cause they just live down the road from us, this is a fact. The huge gate in front of the house does pose a potential problem if I ever want to talk to her again though I fear.
So I am now credited with getting Colt McCoy's autograph, having a conversation and getting an autograph from Nolan Ryan and Bob Feller. My family should be thrilled that I can talk to a rock let alone all these famous people that if I was to admit it, I would not know from Adam on the street and that is why they talk to me. I usually have no idea who they are.

Ranging Up

I have been in a creative funk for awhile now. I walk aimlessly through my craft room trying to figure out what to begin, should I finish some of my on going projects on the shelves, trash them or what.
I am very unproductive. So last week I decided it was time to go through the millions and I am not exaggerating millions of boxes of my school items. I was very good, I threw away 15 bags of non life altering items and now a car and a half car could actually fit in the garage. We have not put one in there yet, however, it could happen.
I have always felt good after "ranging up" that is what I would tell my mom I was doing when I was organizing all my stuff when I was little. There is a calm that comes over me when I clean up and rearrange. I do not alway get rid of lots, but the order it restores in my mind is helpful.
So I tackled my magazines this morning. I went through them, looking at all the covers and putting them in order by title. I did not purge any, which I should, cause they in themselves are works of art. I love stampington and company publications. They are all art, sewing, journalling, blogging, cooking etc. The paper they are made from is the highest grade and just touching them is different from any other magazines.
So those are now all in order and the room still is a mess. I have 5-10 projects currently on the bed in the room drying, I made 100 cards the other day only to find that they are larger than the envelopes that I currently have on hand. Measure twice, cut once, dad's advice that I did not follow.
So all of you that get one of my handmade cards and the end is sticking out of the envelope you will know why.
On other news, the neighbor's and I planted a 20 row garden. We are doing this as a joint effort and it was so fun, I planted and they made the mounds and tilled. My back is still sore. It looks great. Robyn and I planted some flowers and her gerber daisies are going nuts.
I mowed the lawn prior to our most recent storm. I hate the storms here. I then helped the one neighbor locate her lawn furniture. The other neighbor raise the trampoline that flew a lot over and landed upside down.
Today is organize my clothing options for our cruise that we leave on in two days. Yes, two days. I am finally excited and not so fearful. I get car sick and boat sick and any kind of movement sick so I have been really worried about this event. I think that I have worn myself out with all this yard and house work to the point that I am ready for any kind of vacation. So off I go to see if any of last years clothes still fit and look for the swim suit that I look least like a whale in for my Mexican vacation.
Happy Easter to all and I hope all of you find time today to do some "rangin up"
Angela

Allergins

I have now sneezed and coughed more than in any past day. I know I did too much yesterday.
I mowed the lawn, with ear and nose protection, but still did not help the breathing, and cleaned a mold covered window that I did not know we had. I looked up on line how to do the cleaning and did it all by the book. Now waiting for it to dry so I can repaint the area.
The lawn looks great, some areas of the yard are still really wet from all the rain we have had, and we are expecting more, that is why I mowed yesterday.
I think I will buy stock in benedryl. I live on this amazing invention.
For those of you that do not know, I have become in the last few years an allergy magnet. I never know when they will hit, or what form of attack they will take. Sometimes it is sneezing, itching and coughing. Other times it is a swollen tongue that will send me to the hospital. Other times hives break out on my body in strange places like my pinky finger or the bottom of my foot. Which is covered by a sock and shoe.
Basically, Yes, I should go and get stuck with thousands of needles and figure out what the real causes are, but I am currently on a path to figure this out homopathically. Yeah, I want to see if I can do this without the need to be stuck a million times.
Living in the humid south has not helped this. I did have problems in Arizona but I feel that the main thing there was we were at 7000 feet and in the mountains. My main trigger is pine I do believe. Now after that I know I have a strawberry allergy that has now moved to tomatos. The next thing is potatoes and I love them so that would be why I need to go on a diet, another blog some day. I also have problems with junipers and the cedars up in Arizona. So I think trees are a big problem. This is really sad as my life is lived for trees for without trees we would not have a job, house, three cars, a college graduate and a college senior. Trees are our livelihood. Jeff works for paper mills.
I do not hate trees, I love trees, just hate their pollen. The cars are currently covered with a yellow film of pollen that washed off each day accummulates in double the next. I am going to the beach this weekend and there are no trees there. I am curious if that will help the allergies. If so I will need jeff to build me a salt water fountain in the back yard and a soft wind machine to mist my face  on a daily basis. As if that will ever happen.

The Sun

Okay, so all of our friends and family in the north can stop reading this right now and you will be fine. I promise.
The sun is amazing! I love that it has decided to revisit us here in Mississippi after a way too long break. The sky is blue and the wind is softly blowing and Robyn and I are soaking up some much needed vitamin D.
She asked me why we need this vitamin and I said cause the sun helps us have a happier outlook on our life and be better people. Real scientific I know. But it is the truth. The sun makes everyone seem more pleasant.
While on the deck I got to watch what appeared to be about a sixty or seventyish lady golf with what had to be her nintyish father. It was amazing. He walked very slowly up to his ball, swung with much caution and then drove the cart the thirty yards his ball had travelled. He putted the ball in the hole and his daughter scooped it out. I only hope I am able to do this at his age.
I am walking the golf course and it brings back many memories of my high school years on the girls golf team. Oh, for those of you that do not know, I was the girls golf team. I was the only girl on the team until my sister was a freshman. Anyway, I got 12th in the state of Montana my junior year in a driving rain filled tournament. My clubs were never the same after that. The grips were soaked and the last time I golfed, last year, my five wood flew out of the grip. Yeah, I know time for some new clubs. They are only like 40 years old. Just like me.....
Any way back to the sun. It lifts my spirit and helps me to realize that what ever little things are going on in life, the sun will come back out and make me feel much happier.
Happy Day to all.