§ Believe in What Your Heart is Saying.....

It seemed like forever for December to get here. I've been saving this post idea in my head for weeks now!! LOL A few posts back, I had an entry on Ruby Tuesday [red saw] that Bud had cut out the word "Believe" with his jigsaw from a piece of scrap lumber. At the time it was still all white. When he finished trimming and carving it out, he filed the letter openings on the "E's" and smoothed the others, adding a groove on the "fur" tassel of Santa's hat. When the filing work was done, he then sanded all the white paint from the old piece of shelving he used, off on both sides; front and back. It was from that point; when he finished, that it was now MY project to paint.The first step was to paint the entire word in red. I chose the color "apple red" with a flat finish. I allowed it to dry overnight so I could then add the white paint. The shade of white was "blanca". A pure, snowy white. Doing only a couple letters at a time, while the white paint was still wet, I sprinkled clear glitter on the wet, white, paint. Allowing it to dry and then moving on to a couple more letters until all done. I then did a pencil sketch of Santa's face on the letter "L" ---beard, eyes, nose, mouth, and furring trim on the lower brim of his hat. Painted the cheeks pink that I just mixed some of the white/red I had opened [from the two paint bottles above]....waited for the pink to dry and added two black eyes a nose and a little mouth. I took the black I had opened and painted a belt. Using plastic model paint, gold, for his buckle. With a small piece of wooden dowel, I stuck and glued a red jingle bell on the top side and drilled a small hole in the letter "i" for the dot! Using 'watered down' flat black paint I then used a thin brush to accent each 'crevice' to make the shadowing of each letter. Done!!!



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...and now, I placed it on the living room's fireplace mantle with a bit of greenery and mini-santas and brass candle holders with the red and gold ornaments....










[the link shows Bud cutting the word out of wood & opens in a new window]


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POSTED: Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
12:01 A.M.

Mothers of Brothers has graciously given us a Fun Monday Challenge this week:

So here is your Fun Monday Topic: Wordly Wise Words are our building blocks, our stepping stones, and, for many of us, our salvation. We string them together so quickly at times, we often lose sight of how precious they are. So tell us about your favorite word… or if you can’t pick just one, tell us about a few. Are there certain words that feel good the way they roll of your tongue? Do some words make you feel smart? Or silly? Or happy? Which words do you find yourself selecting to put in your posts? Since this response could be a short one, feel free to poll your family and friends and include some of their favorite words as well. If you think a definition is required, please share one. Please keep the words rated G for all audiences. Any language is acceptable, but please provide a translation. And stick to real words as opposed to ones made up along the way. We then challenge everyone to visit the posts on Monday and try to use other bloggers’ favorite words in your blog next week. We can’t wait to expand our vocabulary!

Ummmmm, wrong way, José! Yep! You guessed it....

First off, I never used to use this word; never! No, the word I've never used is not never. It's 'stupid'. And I picked it up from dear ol' Bud! To him, everything that isn't stupid, is. Now I hear myself speaking this word a lot. When I watch a ball game and the batter stands there in the batting box and lets a perfect strike come over the base by the opposing pitcher; without moving a muscle in his body - just watches the friggin' ball sail right over the top center of the home base..."what a 'stupid' move that was!" Or out driving, someone cuts in front of me I'm either thinking or yelling through the windshield "Stupid driver!" Or I turn the light switch on that's right next to the disposal switch on the wall....instead of the disposal [which I wanted to turn on]...."Now, that was stupid move Anni!" Reading the editorials in the newspaper..."Hmmmm, what stupid people in this country". Or politicians' mudslinging capabilities, "That's stupid! Why don't they get out on the campaign trail and tell us what they're going to do for us instead of these silly, stupid insinuations of the opponent!?!" Almost daily this past year..."People are stupid to think that this price of oil isn't a hoax...they want the billion dollar profits and the companies are NOT going to leave all that behind. Are we stupid or what?" Truthfully, I wish I could break the habit. And I'm trying. I'd much rather use synonyms of stupid:

absurd, addled, anserine, asinine, blockish, bovine, brainless, brutish, clod, cloddish, crass, cretinous, dazed, dense, dimwitted, dizzy, doltish, dopey, dull, dumb, dumbbell, dunce, fatuous, foolish, footless, foppish, hebetate, idiot, idiotic, ignorant, imbecile, imbecilic, imperceptive, inane, insensate, irrational, irresponsible, lethargic, loutish, meaningless, moron, moronic, oafish, obtuse, oscitant, pointless, purblind, senseless, silly, simple, simpleton, slow, sluggish, stultifying, stupefied, torpid, unintelligent, unwise, vacuous, witless, worthless...

They all sound much more like an educated person, right? And I am continually mocking my husband before the word even forms on his lips!---I butt in and quote the ever over-used word...STUPID before he blurts it out. And doing this, it's not changing him one iota either; he continues to use it several times a day.

Now, my most favorite word to read and hear is SABOTAGE. I just love the 'ring of this word' and how it flows off the tongue. But in all actuality, there is no sabotage often enough for me to use it. Boy howdy, when I do get a chance, it's always there on the tip of my vocabulary, gray-matter dictionary. And I'll jump at the chance!! Oh, and conspiracy and theory. Two more I like to hear, read, and speak. In fact they go together well...someone else thinks so too...'cause there is a movie of the same title!! Both are quite pertinent of today's times. There always seems to be a theory AND conspiracies amidst our lives.

Yet, as Mrs. Gump always says: "Stupid is as stupid does".
I do like Frank Sinatra's "Something Stupid" tho...
"And then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like I love you!"

STUPID:

1. lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity
   
2. dazed: in a state of mental numbness especially as resulting from shock; "he had a dazed expression on his face"; "lay semiconscious, stunned (or stupefied) by the blow"; "was stupid from fatigue"
   
3. a person who is not very bright; "The economy, stupid!"
   
4. unintelligent: lacking intelligence; "a dull job with lazy and unintelligent co-workers"

Next Week's Host
~...end Fun Monday
[scroll below hurricane update for comment link]


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Texas, and the coastal state of Louisiana are now under Tropical Storm Warning once again. In less that two weeks. We have another one out there in the Gulf, nearing landfall! This time, so far, the storm's path isn't predicted to go farther West and hit my section of the coast...it's forecasted to make landfall near Houston/Galveston area. This time, it's where my son lives!!

Tropical Storm Edouard