Too Many Ideas

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family and fun and food. We did!

So, mea culpa, I missed Wed. So sorry. But here is the Angel of Peace:

You get the svg here.

And the digi is here:

Click on it to get the full size.

We’ve been having so much fun these last few days, my son and his family, and the three of us. I forgot! But here it is, at last, the next Christmas Angel. There’s not a svg to go with it, just the digi this week.

Having my own veterans at home today has put me a little late. Having two grandchildren to stay has exhausted me. But it’s all good, so worth it.

Here’s your angel for the week: the Angel of Joy.

You can get the svg here.

(Media fire has changed, and I’m not seeing all my files together on one page. However, at least one link which I posted previously still works, so I’m assuming they all will. You just have to hunt)

Here’s the digi. Click on the picture for the full size.

Dear Albus,

I love you very much. I love your spotted snout, and your
silky, floppy ears, and your barrel chest and the fact that you can’t seem to
get a decent bark out. I love your enthusiasm for life and how you steamrolled
into our hearts and declared that now, you’re living the good life. And you
love it!

I’m not too thrilled with this obsession with the human
female anatomy, though.

I could even (okay, I admit it, I have called you this out
loud) call you a pervert.

First, it was the way you stuffed your nose down my shirt. And
Meg’s shirt. And licked. (Yuck!) And then, to come home from picking Meg up
from school, to see you in the yard, tossing around that bra I’d put aside for
donation, well…

The kicker, though, is that yesterday morning, when I went
to get dressed, I had everything I’d laid out the night before, except…my bra.

And our poor boarder. He’s a nice guy (Albus, he takes you
for walks!) But when I stormed into the kitchen and told Meg, “He stole my bra!”
no one had to ask which “he” I meant. Just a very embarrassed voice came from
Dave’s room, “Uh, yeah, he was chewing on a blue one this morning.”

Pervert dog!

But I love you.

Mommy

Christmas, even though I can still see the Halloween decorations up outside my window. I really do think the world jumps onto the holidays too soon, but for crafters, we need to. So to get you started, here is the Angel of Hope.

You can pick up the svg files here and here, and the digi by clicking on the outline for the full size.

I decided to give you your last Halloween freebie a day early, in case you wanted some extra time to work on it. It’s my absolute favorite of all the 13 to Halloween files–an owl. Because we love Harry Potter, and Hedwig, I can use this for many projects. harry Potter birthday party favors or decorations are just one use.

Click on her and get the full size.

and here is the svg file.

Happy crafting!

We’ve gone to the local humane society (which is really not all that local, 30 to 45 minutes away, depending) three times this week. The first day, Wed, we looked at the dogs and picked out several we would like to meet. Thursday, we took Sweetie to a meet and greet. But between those times, my husband, who loves dogs, almost any dog, managed to persuade me to offer for a pair of sisters, pug puppies. (They were named Linda and Blair–and I couldn’t help thinking of them as the Exorcist dogs)

Sweetie was terrified of their energy! It was almost funny, poor thing, she is so much bigger, but she was shaking. And the puppies just wanted to play with each other, not pay attention to us. So we agreed that the pugs were not for us, and asked to see the first dog. His name was Oswald. He’s so sweet! And funny, and we think he’s a lot younger than they predicted. They said adult, we think he’s between 6 and 8 months.

And then, we asked to see Casino. He’s so sweet! (yes, I know, repetition). And a snuggler. We like snugglers.

Sweetie liked them both. (In other words, she didn’t hate them). She’s the sweetest dog in the world, but when it comes to other dogs, she has issues.

So we asked to see all three dogs together. And they all worked fine. So, mom caved. (note: a few months ago I said, no, we’re not getting a new dog. Period. And now, I agreed to two?)

While they were getting fixed, we discussed names. We wanted names from Harry Potter, and since Oswald is white, and Albus means white, well, it fit. Casino’s name was harder. We thought of Severus, then Snape (because he’s also a favorite character), then Hagrid, and then Rubeus, (which means red, and Casino is a reddish brown). But then, none of those has a good nickname, other than Ruby, and Casino is a boy and we have a friend named Ruby… We tried out Dumbledore. Do you know how many not-so-nice nicknames you can get out of that?

Then my daughter remembered Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes.

Perfect.

They are all the best dogs in the world. And while Sweetie is having a little trouble adjusting, she’s doing her best, and we keep assuring her she is our first dog, and the alpha.

The cat, however, hates them all.

We’ve been busy adopting two wonderful rescue dogs. Pix up soon!

For today, enjoy the candy corn.

Click on the picture for the full size:

And pick up the svg here.

Typically, writers are people watchers. Well, maybe I should qualify that. Most character-first writers are people watchers. And they go beyond that. They eavesdrop. They pry. They want to know why it was done and how it felt and all the motivations before and the consequences afterward. After all, what are all those details, but story?

My youngest daughter, who is also a fiction writer, and I share this trait, where we’ll be somewhere, and both overhear the same line, and we share a look.  And we know. One or the other of us is going to use that somewhere in a scene. We’ll put our own spin on it (although some things we overhear are too perfect to mess with). But
we’ll use it.

I suppose this is annoying to others. After all, I’m not giving my total attention to the person I’m with, and that’s rude. I don’t mean to be! I’m trying really hard, without losing that ability to nose in on other people’s conversations. It’s working, right along with growing those two new ears I need….

On Sunday, we took our dear friend, Sister C, to the Orange Empire Railroad Museum. Because my dear hubby is an engineer there, she got to ride in the cab of one of the big trains (and we got to go with her).

She was SO excited. I loved watching her face as we pelted down the track at 15 miles an hour. (yes, I was watching that, too!)

You know how there are some people who just infuse life with joy? She’s one of them.

So it’s half a day past tomorrow…but here’s part two.

While I was in the prayer room, feeling the Spirit guide my words, a woman came in. Obviously upset, she rushed to a chair near me and sat down. I did my thing, read her name tag and realized she was a friend from online, with whom I’d planned to meet. I said her name, told her who I was, and asked her if she wanted me to pray for her. She was overwhelmed (not by me). Nothing bad had happened, but the conference just walloped her good, and she had an appointment soon. She needed to calm down.

So the Spirit prayed and my friend and I listened.

At some point, Brandilyn Collins had come in with a few other people, and after I’d gone back to sit down, someone else came in to tell Brandilyn that she was going to the hospital with another writer who had eaten something at breakfast that sent her into anaphylactic shock.

What better place to hear something like that than in a prayer room, right?

Later, I left, and ran into my friend, who was taking pictures of Brandilyn and another writer. The woman didn’t want to make silly faces (Brandilyn’s trademark at conferences) but finally, Brandilyn assured her that if she had to go public with the story, she’d use my name.

I was fine with that, as long as I got a picture with her, too. Here it is—a little fuzzy but I think it’s hilarious!

Then she prayed for my friend. The thing about Brandilyn is that she is so in tune with the Spirit as she prays. She puts her hand on a person, wherever He tells her to, and says, “I need to pray for your shoulder (if that’s the place). What’s going on with that?”

And she always got it right. There’s always something going on. I saw that as she prayed for my friend.

Except she prayed for her throat and my friend said her throat was a minor issue.

Later, I met Brandilyn again in the prayer room and she prayed for me. And for my throat. Now, I get hoarse at least once a week, for several days at a time, but I never thought of it as anything serious. Still, she had to pray for that.

Then I had to pray for Brandilyn (had to, I really mean that, and not because she made me, or even asked me to. You-Know-Who made me! Me—who would never have been brave enough to offer!)

Later, I emailed her to ask about the author who’d gone to the hospital. She wrote back to say she’d never gotten there. Stuck in a taxi in a jam, her throat opened. Brandilyn said that was what the prayers for my and my friend’s throats were all about.

Cool to be a part of a miracle.

And she’s right, He’s ALWAYS awesome!

Check out Brandilyn’s books.