Charlie's story - day 2

May 28, 2015

When we landed in San Francisco yesterday we decided to visit the animal rescue’s storefront site in a neighboring town. I’d been visiting their web page and had noticed 2 or 3 dogs I wouldn’t mind taking a look at. Of course none of those dogs were at the site and T and I both looked at each other and said “Charlie isn’t here.” Although I hadn’t planned on getting a dog yesterday, I found myself down and disappointed and lonely and missing Shifu more than ever.

So today, on the 2 month anniversary of his death, I’m wondering if maybe Shifu has sent Charlie to us. I found a new dog on the website – a 4 year old Chihuahua mix named Marley. He has bright eyes and Shifu-like ears that stick straight up. He’s a dark brown and looks like he’s a lot of fun. I filled out the on-line application and within 2 hours I had a phone call from the woman that’s fostering him and we arranged to meet up tomorrow at 11am. 

Isn’t he adorable? We’ll see if he actually turns out to be Charlie. I can’t wait to meet him!

May 29, 2015

I couldn’t wait to meet him but I guess I’m going to have to. I got a text from Marley’s foster mom that she had slept late and decided not to bring Marley into work with her today so she wanted to reschedule our appointment until Saturday. Heart thud. Sigh. Ok.

But, in other news, I had gotten an email from Penny’s foster mom (another dog I had asked to see) this morning and so I emailed her back, let her know that our appointment to see Marley had been canceled and asked if she might be available today for us to meet Penny…and she is! We’re going to her house at 2:30, in a little over 2 hours. 

Isn’t she sweet? She looks like our other dogs – a cross between Jasper, Bear and Shifu but she’s a girl and I’ve always wanted a girl. She’s a 2 year old, 9 pound longhair Chihuahua mix.

Isn’t it funny, I feel like I’m being unfaithful to Marley by even considering Penny but she just looks like a dog that would belong in our family. As excited as I was to meet Marley, I’m even more excited to meet Penny! Doesn’t she look like a Charlie?

 

Charlie's story - day 1

May 27, 2015

It seems odd to start writing now about Charlie because I haven’t met him yet. I don’t even know who he is or who he will be. Heck, I don’t even know if he is a he because he very well could be a she. I just know there is a Charlie and he (or she) is out there…waiting for us to find him.

To really tell you about Charlie’s story I would have to tell you about Shifu…and to really understand Shifu you would have to know about Jasper…and there would be no Jasper if there hadn’t been a Bear. So you see that to fully understand could take quite a while. Maybe someday I’ll tell you all their stories and how they fit together but today I am anxious to begin Charlie’s story. If only he would find me.

I knew that we needed a dog in our lives. It has been 2 months since we said goodbye to Shifu (who died of a brain tumor) and even though it breaks my heart to think about moving on, we have to. We have to have someone else to love and take care of.  Shifu saved our lives once, we need that miracle again.

Enter Charlie. Steinbeck wrote a great book called Travels with Charley about a cross country trip he made with his dog, Charley, where he reacquainted himself with America. One day a couple of weeks ago I was hit with the idea that we should get a dog named Charlie and write blog posts about travels with our Charlie. We love to travel and we’ve had so much fun taking all our dogs on the road with us that I'd love to do more of it. I mentioned the idea to T and he loved it too. So since we knew we wanted to travel with Charlie, it seemed that getting a small dog was in order. That was our first decision because before that we’d been all over the place about whether to get a small dog, like Shifu, or another Golden, like Jasper. But Goldens can’t fit under the airplane seat and we wouldn’t ever travel with a dog in the cargo hold. So a small dog it will be. But where will we find him? 

I’m so ready to be a family again.

home

Some things are just never meant to be, no matter how much we wish they were.

 This is a hard post to write. It isn't going to be filled with pretty pictures or craft projects. I won't be pretending that life is all cupcakes and sunshine.

A few months ago we set forth on a grand adventure, a real dream come true for me. We were finally going to be able to live in Florida while my husband pursued his career. I had dreamed about this possibility for years and now it was happening. It should have been the happiest time of my life.

In the weeks after I arrived in Florida it became increasingly clear that things weren't going to work out the way we had hoped and that we were going to have to move back to California. The fact that this happened sooner rather than later is a little distressing but that's the way this particular cookie crumbled.

Luckily I love California and I have learned that Florida is probably best left as a vacation destination. What does bother me is that although we were able to return to our house (thank goodness we couldn't move right away so although everything is still in boxes, we hadn't given up our house - Jasper's Cottage) I am not able to return to the life I left. I mourn the fact that I gave up a job I loved for nothing, that's definitely the part I'm having the most trouble with. 

 Right now the future is a little dark and unclear but I trust that things have happened for a reason and that good things will happen in the future. As Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook who recently lost her husband) wrote on Facebook "option A is not available and I mourn for option A...but I promise to do all I can to kick the sh*t out of option B."

So here's to finding option B...California style.

 p.s. One really good thing has happened since we got back home...Charlie's story starts tomorrow.
 

kindred spirits

Twenty years ago this summer, back when the Internet was fairly new to all of us, I joined a "listserv" for fans of Anne of Green Gables and the author L.M. Montgomery. I was a big Anne fan and it seemed like it would be fun to talk to others like me. We called ourselves the Kindred Spirits.

Best thing I ever did! That group of people have become some of my very dearest friends. I think the novelty of it all bound us together. Imagine receiving email from 100 strangers every day talking about subjects that your very own friends and family would never understand or were tired of hearing about.

Pretty quickly we started holding Kindred Teas when we found that some of us lived near each other and we found that we enjoyed each other in person as much as we did online.

One of these friends is Moonbeam (not her real name ) and she and I have stayed close even though we've only seen each other in person a couple of times. She lives in Georgia and was thrilled to hear I was moving to Florida. One day in May she emailed and said she was going to a conference just 3 hours away from me and she wanted to drive down to spend a day together. Plans were quickly made to go out to lunch and I was delighted to spend time with my friend.

Then it all went kerfuffle. An obligation reared its head and I had to tell Moonbeam that I wasn't going to be free that day after all. I was crushed.

But do you know what Moonbeam did? She drove down anyway, really early in the morning just so that we could spend 30 minutes together.

When someone goes to all that trouble to let you know you're important to them, you have to put on a spread.

 I just love this mixing bowl so I use any excuse to whip up something from scratch.

 ok, not exactly from scratch

 I also freshly baked some croissants. Ignore the box, I don't know how that got in there.

 add in a little freshly squeezed Tropical Blend V-8 juice and, voila, you have breakfast!

 oh yeah, I even broke out the extra special pretty paper towels for napkins. Nothing's too good for Moonbeam!

 lace tablecloth, soft music playing in the background, basket of baked goodies - perfectly Kindred breakfast

 Moonbeam arrived right on time and we settled in for a nice cozy chat. She ended up staying an hour because there was so much to talk about and we didn't want to say goodbye.

 she brought presents! Moonbeam knows exactly how much my darling Jasper meant to me and how much I still miss him so she knew these would brighten my day.

 I'm so glad Moonbeam made the drive down to spend a little time with me especially since it might be a very long time before we see each other again.

But that's tomorrow's story...

 

florida fun

May was my first full month in Florida and I feel like I packed a lot in there. In addition to my painting projects during the week I also spent time adding a few fun decorative touches to the house and Mr. T and I had a lot of fun on the weekends. 

Sometimes it felt like we tried to experience a whole Florida lifetime in just one month. We were on the go from early Saturday morning until late Sunday night traveling all over our area discovering new parks, flea markets, shops and towns. We even found a church we love and made a new Sunday morning routine.

So. Much. Fun.

 

 

May, you were quite a month. I am never going to forget you.

purpleliscious

Do you love thrift stores?

I never used to visit them but now I can't pass one by; it's my favorite thing to do these days. Not only is it a bit like a treasure hunt, you never know what you're going to find, but I love going up to the checkout counter and seeing the final, low total. I mean, what could be better than getting a bunch of great stuff for a low price?

In California we had a wonderful Goodwill in our little town and I found several treasures there, all sorts of fun painting projects for the future. On a trip a few months before moving away I found a metal hanging basket that I instantly fell in love with...except for the color.

 It's not a bad color but I just imagined it could be even prettier with a little paint. 

But I'd never painted metal before and somehow that intimidated me so it just sat around and sat around while I ignored it, occasionally feeling guilty that I hadn't gotten started yet.

So when it was time to move I threw it into a box and shipped it straight to Florida because I figured I would have more free time there, at least at the beginning.

Basking in the success of my jewelry organizer, I felt confident to tackle this so I decided to start with a coat of white paint inside and out just to cover up the green.

I really liked the way it turned out, there was such a neat texture with just one coat of paint. I considered leaving it this color and then I, briefly, thought about painting it blue (I had a lot of blue paint left over) but I decided to throw caution to the wind and go wild. What could be wilder than soft lavender...am I right?

There was just one problem with this plan.

I've been using really inexpensive line of paint and the color selection wasn't extensive so the only paint I could find was a deep, dark purple which was not what I wanted at all.

I was hesitant to mix my own color because I was afraid I wouldn't make enough to finish and then wouldn't be able to ever match the color again but I gave myself a little pep talk and off I went to mix up the perfect shade of lavender.

I think it turned out perfectly, I just love the soft pastel shade. After all my worrying about having to color match, I ended up mixing enough the first time especially since I chose to only use one coat of paint so that a little of the white shows through.

I still think it needs something around the top, maybe some lace, so it's a work in progress but other things have demanded my attention so it's hanging up on the wall of my bedroom just like this and likely to stay that way for a while - perfect as it is.

i'll be shuttered

Welcome to a brand new month - Happy June! I've got to admit that my May was a bit of a roller coaster - some good, some bad, some terrific, some...well, bad. But the month is over now and it's time to look toward the future.

I have a bunch of blog posts planned for this week because there's lots to talk about but I need to do it in order so hang on, it's going to be a thrill ride!

 Remember that shutter that I bought at the Fancy Flea in late April? I had great plans for using it as a jewelry organizer but first I needed to make a few changes to make it more "me" so it became my first Florida project.

Before I could begin painting I had to set up a workspace. I drug an old, broken table out of the garage. This was a leftover from when we rented out our house to vacationers. See how nicely they took care of it? This was a beautiful painted table for the entry hallway but one day it became a crash site and it's been relegated to the garage ever since. I'm quite handy with repairs, see how I fixed it? Ok, it's not pretty but it worked!

hey look, I painted the shutter blue. Didn't see that color coming, did you? 

I do have other colors of paint (as you'll see in my next project) but blue was what I really wanted for this project plus I was missing my blue benches in California. 

It took 2 coats of white primer to hide all the dark burgundy (and keep it from bleeding through) and that part seemed to take forever but finally I got to start with the blue.

The great thing about having a dedicated craft space (rather than using the dining room table the way I did in California) is that I could take my time and leave everything out while I waited for the paint to dry completely. 

Oh who am I kidding, it's not like we ever ate at the dining room table in California but it sounded good, didn't it? I'll bet I had you fooled for at least a minute or two.

And voila - the finished product!

I am thrilled with the way it turned out, exactly as I pictured it on that hot April day at Fancy Flea. Not having much experience with painting or crafting in the past, it's a real victory for me to be able to say that. Plus it really helps to keep my necklaces and earrings in order rather than having them all jumbled together in a basket.

yay me!

I had so much fun, I couldn't wait for my next project. More on that tomorrow.

jonni