Raige Creations

Who would have thought I would find my spirit animal on a walk? Is it really my spirit animal, or just a chance sighting I thoroughly enjoyed? We have been doing well getting our walks in. Oh yes, I have a walking partner now! I finally got hubby to start exercising. Even if i go a slower pace than when I am alone, it is great to have some company. Our walks bring us to the North Sound. If you follow me , you should recognize the views. I try to take a picture every day, thinking it would be interesting to see the slight differences each day. Honestly I think some days are just so beautiful, other are more subdued. A different view each time really. But perhaps I am the only one that finds it that way, as the moods often highly affect my interpretation of the views. And I may be the only one who never tires of these same place views. As we are still on  lock-down , and the beaches are still closed, I must find interest with what is in walking distance as we are not t...

A very special installment of Music Monday. In these unusual times, special installments are to be expected. I am now working remotely and therefore have 2 extra hours in my day that I am not sitting in traffic. (You may just see more blogs from me) These times are unusual, our lives have suddenly changed. For one thing, I have noticed that we all are more aware of what is gong on in our bodies. And other people's bodies. Every little pain, every time we go up the stairs and have a little trouble breathing, every cough, every time someone near us coughs. We start asking the questions at the slightest tickle in our throats: Am I just hot or do I have a fever? Has anyone else taken their temperature a million times each day?  (asking for a friend....) Did that person REALLY just sneeze on me???  Do I have the COVID Virus? Many more I know, but let's get to the music! Brilliant, right? As with most Barenaked Ladies songs, the tune gets stuck on your head. ...

We had a nice break. Took a vacation and ended up in Durham, NC. We splurged and stayed at a great hotel, 21c Museum Hotel Durham . Found an art fair unexpectedly and just wandered and enjoyed. I love being a bit spontaneous like that. And coming across a great performance by the Silver Drummer Girl . A really great art fair. A really great trip. Some very enjoyable time with family. A nightmare of a trip back, but glad we went. The nightmare is a long story that I may never tell, but let's just say I started feeling like the character Victor Nevorski in a good movie, The Terminal . We were stuck in the airport for more than 12 hours, wandering and waiting. I lost hubby for a good hour and a half. He doesn't have a cell phone, so you can imagine how hard it is to find someone in a sea of people with a pesky security department separating you most of the time as it turned out. But, we did make the best of it after all and decided more breaks are a necessity. Bu...

Do you ever have days where you feel like you're just one puzzle piece short? Just not quite all there, not quite finished, so close, yet so far? And then you just can't FIND that last piece! We had that day two days ago. And are plagued by it. We were coming along nicely on the puzzle . The one we started 2 weeks before, with inspiration from my recent trip . We worked together on it, and were having a great time. As we got closer, the more excited we were to be done. Nearly Done! photo courtesy of Raige Creations And when all that was left was the flowers, we noticed that one pesky hole was left in the upper right. What the heck happened to that last piece? No clue. Did it come missing one? Did one get thrown away with the bag the pieces came in, I really don't think so. Where is that confounded last piece?!?! photo courtesy of Raige Creations We looked under couches, tables, in the laundry basket, pockets of clothes we thought we may have worn and ...

Seriously - the only reason I picked this one is the last line in the song. It totally took me off guard, as I was enjoying some great old music Friday afternnoon , because I took off from work and was doing some much needed 'chilling'. It is a nice background song. I was just scrolling the internet, with this on in the backgroung, and enjoying the peace and relaxation of no work on a Friday afternoon. And of couse I was blogging too. And well, I hear the the last line, and it stopped me and I even said out loud 'did he really just say that'?  So enjoy this song, sit back, relax, go about your business with it playing.  And then hear what I would have told anyone of the  hovering office space invaders and paper pushers   if they approached me if I was working Friday afternoon. Here are the lyrics if you would like to see it, and use it as well.

Friday! We all wait for it, especially those of us who had to go back to 9-5 jobs. This has been a particularly long week.  Our office recently moved in to a new building, thus a new floor plan. Gone is my office, and I am back to cubicle working. In other words, every 15 minutes I have some paper pusher coming to my desk and hovering until I notice they are there. Even hovering while I am on the phone. Or obviously busy doing something for the paper pusher who is still standing there ahead of them.  So much so a co-worker who was waiting on me to sign a check told one aggressive hovering office space invader  : 'Give her a minute she is doing something'.  This particular week, for whatever reason, was chock full of hovering office space invaders and paper pushers . Constantly interrupting me. Add the phone that seldom rings suddenly was ringing far too much - some cubiclists decided to stay at their desks and call me instead.  Dare I say, I was a...

Taking a minute to take stock of the week. It boils down to: Stories, A Stormy Start, Snails, Plants, Flowers, and Coffee (or late coffee really). Sounds nice and simple, right? Even if a little horrifying (late coffee....). But dang I am tired. It has been a long week! Stories: I did manage to get some writing in, but I have to wait to share because it will be published (!)  on this great site, Women Who Live On Rocks . It is a site featuring a fabulous group of women who, well, live on rocks. It is a collaboration of funny women writers celebrating the humorous quirks and eccentricities unique to island living . (See regular postings on the Facebook page.)  It will be my first article published there, and I am so excited to have a new outlet. Hubby stumbled across this site, and thought I would like to expand my writing a bit. As hubby said, it is more a story telling style, which he knew I would find rather challenging. I also have been taking some photos, again, w...

Sunrise 4-29-16 Apparently I only needed 6 hours of sleep last night. I was up at 4:30am. But, make the most of every situation, right? So when it started getting light, I popped out and put my feet in the cool sand, snapped a pic, and have high hopes this Friday, and weekend, are as spectacular as the view this morning.  At the same time, I know I will be getting tired, and know that when I am tired, the grumps set in. I may just want to hide this afternoon, kinda like this wee little froggie I caught in the banana plant.  Wee Little Froggie  Hiding Sunrises and hiding froggies.....could either be a great story of beauty and nature, or a tale of impending doom. It will be interesting to see how this Friday unfolds.

Thanks to M.L. Gardner , my chocolates source: Raige Creations Yes, I will be talking about chocolate, again. I so enjoyed the Godiva chocolates I won , not just because they were SO delish, but because it made me stop, relax, and enjoy the company I was with. It also brought back memories of when I was young. My father used to buy Whitman's Samplers every holiday, no doubt bought from the pharmacy on the corner.  It was his special treat for the family, probably one he continued from his childhood. His young years were during the Great Depression (the era of Author M.L. Gardner's 1929 series which are my latest favorite books), and I am sure chocolates were a fine treat indeed. His family was from Philadelphia, where the chocolates originated so no doubt this tradition came from his father, my grandfather. A true family tradition. source: Whitmans.com Not the fanciest, and certainly not expensive, the Whitman Sampler chocolates were all his family could ...

As we sat comfortably in our living room on Wednesday night, watching Cloud Atlas (which I have been wanting to see for some time), we had a criminal in our garage. Hubby went out for a smoke, came back in and asked why the garbage can was between the cars, with the lid off. Huh? I said "I put a bag in it earlier today, with the lid on, and certainly not between the cars!" He said the dog was sniffing by the door just as he was going out, so we assumed that he just missed the culprit. Tracks showed that it could very well be a bear.  Fairly Large Footprints photo: Thoughts of Raige This morning, we investigated further.  We followed a trail of egg shells,  Egg Shells in the Driveway photo:  Thoughts of Raige onion tops and napkins,  Onion and Egg Shells photo:  Thoughts of Raige More onion photo:  Thoughts of Raige and the tissue box right in the middle of the driveway. Tissue Box The criminal went off to the left, near...

This is not the chipper TGIF kind of Friday post.  I am sorry to put a damper on your excitement for the weekend, but today I am finding I miss those 'good old days' where we didn't have worries other than lava on the floor. source: Pinterest I am not feeling that chipper! Instead, I am facing a day of unpleasant tasks. Though it will be good to have them done and out of the way so I CAN enjoy the weekend, I am not enjoying the worry and sour mood these tasks bring me. So pardon me for putting a damper on your joy at rejoicing the favorite day of the week. Though I may get to sleep in tomorrow, I am still dealing with the stresses of the stupid health care crap, and this other one pesky problem. source: imgfave.com Some day soon I know this problem will be solved, but in the meantime, I would much prefer to jump on the couch a little.  This would be a better pastime than the other 'game' we made up as a kids. I hate to even admit it, but our game wen...

Well, it's late on a Friday. I am sitting here watching a movie with my family, stressing about what to write about for the first day of National Blog Posting Month .  Fall Country Road photo courtesy of  Raige Creations "Didn't she just do that?" I hear you asking.  Well, kind of. Well, yes I took part in National Blog Writing Month , where the goal was to write every day in the month of October.  But National Blog Posting Month is the month of November, and I joined a group on Blogher.com . As the day wore on, I felt so uninspired, yet felt the pressure of getting something posted. I realized, not for the first time actually, that I am tired of stressing . Camouflage Tree photo courtesy of  Raige Creations Dinnertime came. Pizza was on the menu (see tired of stressing above, and I DO stress about dinner regularly), but we had to go to the place to order it, and wait for it.  (They don't have to-go menus, and I actually find...