CHILDREN OF OTHER LANDS...HAWAII, ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL

                                ALOHA

An almost sleepless night

Last night I had the hardest time falling asleep because I'd cuddle Sweetie Pie before I fell asleep and she'd let me. I had a small  pillow my friend Lilly bought me years ago that has You're purr-fect embroidered on it, so silly as it may seem, I cuddled that before I went to sleep and it seemed to help. It was no substitute for her warm little body and there was no soothing sound of a purr in my ear, but the message was accurate...she was purr-fect. This morning I sorely missed her pawing me awake and to get up and feed everyone. She would never let me sleep in. LOL  The right side of my bed was so empty last night and it hurt not being able to carry her one more time on my shoulders as I went to bed. Her usual sleeping spots in the house were bare and empty. I know I will over come her loss but still...no other cat can take her place...ease the loss yes but NEVER ever take her place.

Today is just more photos of my Sweetie Pie.

Cuddle Bunnies

Drooler's warm pillow

The above photo was altered into the one below in mid 2012. I had such fun putting these two cuddlers on a beach in Hawaii.

chillin on a beach in Hawaii

The photo above was fun to put together. It's a composite of the one previous and a photo I took in Hawaii. I had dreamed of actually taking both these cats to the islands. I'm sad that I will never be able to take Sweetie. She would have fit underneath the airline seat. Poor Drooler, though, would have to travel with the luggage.

Sleeping in the cats chair

The chair in the above photo is on the left side of my dining table. The chair, as you can see is covered in cat fur. I DO try to keep it clean but it's difficult since it IS the cats chair and we seldom have visitors. It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that she will no longer be sleeping in it and I can't reach over and pet her.

Mama has chicken!

Above: their positions when it comes to begging for food scraps especially chicken and tuna!

Judging the distance

About to leap onto the dining room table. 

A unique face

Sweetie had such a unique look. I've yet to see a cat that even closely resembles her. She had a brother at the humane society and I often wonder if he was ever adopted. I'd like to think so. 

This will be all the photos for today. Please bear with me. I will probably post more tomorrow. Although I was broken hearted when Snowbelle passed away, Sweetie I had for very much longer. Since she was five. She had so many unique qualities and quirks, not to say Snowball, Flaky and Snowbelle didn't they all were unique beings but Sweetie...well...she was a lady in ever sense of the world. Mellow, calm and the easiest off all my cats when it came to trimming her nails. She's lay in my arms while I clipped her claws and I'd kiss her sweet head letting her know it was okay. She was so tiny compared to them all. I will miss that. 

Before I end this days blog...I saw a photo on Facebook of the rainbow falls on Kauai and I couldn't help thinking of the Rainbow Bridge and my precious animals crossing over it..I have to admit I shed a few tears when I gazed at the photo.

I'd like to think my "babies" are playing in a place like this, running about and sunning themselves. 

Til' next time....

                                                                       Aloha!

WONDERFULLY FUNNY NOVEL

I don't normally start off my blog with a comment on a novel I'm reading but in this case I can't seem to help it as I'm reading a wonderfully funny one entitled: A LOVING SCOUNDREL by Johanna Lindsey. It's the 7th book in the Malory family series and deals with Jeremy Malory, son of James Malory who meets up with Danny who is a thief living in the seeder part of London. Jeremy is trying to help out a friend and needs to hire a thief  in order to do so and Danny ends up being the one enlisted to help him retrieve some valuable jewelry from the person who stole it from his friend. While some readers will go into length on what occurs in a book, I never have the heart to as I don't want to ruin the novel for any one who might be viewing this blog. Suffice it to say what it states on the outer cover is true...it is indeed witty and sinfully sensual. I can't put the book down and while I want to finish it and move on to Captive Of My Desires, at the same time I don't want it to end at all...I still haven't found out who tried to kill Danny when she was just a child and before she took up her "thieving" ways as it were. And I've only got a few more pages to go before I'm finished with it. I'm up to the part where Jeremy's father, with the help of three friends, has just extricated Jeremy from being forcibly leg shackled to a woman he never even gave the time of day to and yet she had decided SHE was going to have him as a husband whether he wanted to marry her or not. Anthony Malory, Jeremy's uncle, is down right put out that he wasn't let in on Jeremy's problem and asked his advice on the matter. So, as usual, this has caused the two brothers to argue. It's such a delightful scene and hard to imagine that these two siblings didn't really exist at one time but sprouted from the fertile imagination of the author. The story moves along quiet nicely without a slow or dull point (at least thus far) in the entire tale. I simply never tire of the Malory's and in my humble opinion, someone in Hollywood should snag these novels and write a screenplay about them in order to turn it into a movie. I would LOVE to see them brought to life on the big screen. I don't know if Lindsey will write any more novels featuring the Malory's and Andersons (Georgina (or George as she's commonly known by) is James's wife and Warren (who we meet in Gentle Rogue and again in The Magic of You) is George's sister) but then I haven't read the last book in this series yet either so I will probably find out if she's left it open for more stories. There is still the rest of the Anderson clan to "marry off". I'm not a big fan of the Regency era but when it comes to this family I dive right in! By the way...I didn't mention but Amy Malory (Edward Malory's daughter, second eldest in the Malory clan) is Warren's wife.

So, now that I've gotten that off my mind let me proceed with more personal issues...which, for a change, there aren't that many. I'm getting my blood sugar problems under control. It's staying under 200 after I've eaten and I wake in the mornings and it's been as low as 85. Which I don't think is to serious as my monitor hasn't given me the message to "see my doctor". So the insulin twice daily is helping. I inject 20 units in the morning and 26 in the evening. This of course, combined with the Metformin, is helping me keep it down to a more normal level. I've also stopped stressing about my home situation. If, and I hope it isn't the case, we have to move because the new home owner decides he no longer wants us to pay rent, well, then, we have to move. I still want us to buy the house back but that may not be feasible (we have to wait at least four years before we can try to get a loan again) and I'm accepting that no matter how much I think it sucks. This is the hardest I've had it in all my life, at the same time I am grateful that we've been able to stay in the house as long as we have, some families haven't been so lucky and they've had to move out soon after they were foreclosed on.

Cow girl fashions from Katy Keene No 4  1951

On the job front...nothing yet. I keep looking and nothing seems to be available out there, for me any way. It is hard not to let my spirits get down, but I do try to keep them up by doing things I love...like reading a good book (goodness knows I have the time now) or drawing and finishing art projects that have been sitting on the back burner for years. I've been doing a lot of scanning lately...mainly my Katy Keene comic book collection. You never realize how much you have of one thing until you attempt to store it all in some way or another. I am, however, enjoying going through them all. Some of the comics, though, are seriously falling apart, literally crumbling into dust. These are the ones I have to scan from cover to cover the soonest. I pretty much have all the comics from the 1950's...though I am missing number one but trying to complete my collection is sometimes virtually impossible due to the price of the earlier ones...mainly 1 through 20.  Still if I can obtain a number one at a decent price I'll buy it. Since I am doing a cow girl theme with the Katy Keene's I thought I'd continue along those lines with today's paper doll.

It's almost February and I still haven't posted this blog. What with one thing and another this is pretty much low on my "things to do" list. So, having said that I promised myself that I WOULD post before the end of the month.

Al  Moore

I did alter this pin-up a bit...just took out the "hole" that graced the calendar it was on.

January 30th 1944

The paper doll for today I found at this site: http://mostlypaperdolls.blogspot.com/ It's a GREAT source for old newspaper paper dolls and she has a variety of Boots ones all in black and white. I think they were originally in color and she's made them into ones that you can color but I'm not sure. I don't have the color version if this particular one but I'm on the hunt for it. I love the paper doll because she's Boots' heavier friend and her clothes are chic and not frumpy. I always disliked it when people assume because you are heavy you can't dress nicely. Now that isn't to say being heavy you should dress in something more suited to a thinner person...it just doesn't look right in my eyes when a heavy person shows a lot of skin. One can dress "sexy" but cover up those rolls and flabby areas, please. :) I'm not familiar with the Boots characters so I'm not sure who this lovely lady is. I do know she is a friend of Boots though.

Copyright NJD 1983/2012

Well, I've come to the end of another blog entry. But I leave you with yet another one of my own paper doll creations...well the doll any way. Her name is Anita and she was created back in the 80's and has outfits reflecting that era and if I remember right her costumes were inspired from outfits worn by Betty and Veronica. I used to own quite a few Archie comic books but after various moves they were lost in the relocation from Hawaii to the mainland. The paper doll was created when I lived in the islands. Living in the islands did inspire me as I created, at the time, over 100 sets. (Anita was number 51) I've yet to find them all. I still just get tantalizing glimpses of the sets I created. I'm SURE I still have them all as they were all in the spare room in our old apartment. and I KNOW I brought them all from Hawaii. I'm hoping I didn't leave them behind at one of our old residences.
.

I did revamp Anita. Gave her a new border design which I obtained from The Graphics Fairy. Her site is such a wonderful source for borders. http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/. Anita's pose was also inspired by Betty walking but can't be absolutely certain as it was quite a while ago since I created her. Regardless I do like her. I have a thing about making dolls with quite a few wig changes as well as various shoes in her wardrobe. She used to have 9 pages of clothes but thanks to Photoshop I was able to reduce it down to 7 pages by reorganizing them. Many of her outfits are mix and match.

Well, that will be all for this entry. Until next time.....


                          ALOHA!!

A REPRIEVE

Well, we have a reprieve until the end of January. While that is good we still don't have the money to move, no matter which way we budget it. It's frustrating since we can't understand why the homeowner (GDM Group Corp) won't let us rent to own the house. They've already gotten some of their investment back. They bought the house for around $78,000 and have made $14,000 of it back in rent without having to do to much to the house. If we'd planned on moving that would be different but there was no plan to move. At all..ever  Well...me yes, but not my husband. Moving one person is different and my plans to go to Hawaii have definitely gone awry...for the time being anyway. Perhaps it might sound odd but I can handle stress much better there...why not with the ocean and the mountains being so close together I would have two places to go and chill out at. I can actually see myself getting off work (providing I EVER get a job again) and going to the beach or up to the Ko'olau Mountains and just taking in the ambiance of the place. It's a dream I intend to hold on to no matter how far away it is at the moment.

Katy Keene No 57

I can hardly believe that Christmas is nearly here. Only a few days away. Where has the year gone? As bloggers go, I'm horrible at it. I really never have much to say, especially if things are going down the tube. I don't really like to write about negative things, and truly want to be positive. Sometimes that's difficult when things are going so drastically wrong and there just doesn't seem to be any hope.

I've been having fun lately. I've been taking photos of my Barbie's. I always wanted to do it but felt being my great age it would seem rather silly to do so. However, I do enjoy my collection and enjoy changing their clothes. I hate for them to be in the same outfit day in and day out. I like to switch them up and give them a new look. I've been seeing dolls from other collectors on the Internet and they've set up little dioramas with their dolls and took photos of the scenes. So I couldn't help thinking: "Why can't I?" Soooo...I did. LOL I took my Bettie Page doll outside on a nice cloudy day, a few days back, and started taking photos of her. And they came out fairly good. I've dressed her in a Barbie Fashion Avenue gown and call the photo Pretty in Purple. I don't think I'll ever grow out of the joy I feel when I "play" with my dolls. I have containers upon containers of Barbie clothes, both vintage and current that I'll never really run out of a garment for my dolls to wear.

PRETTY IN PURPLE

Last year, when I went to Hawaii, I had thought about taking a few of my dolls to the islands and photographing them in natural lighting and situations: like on the beach, in the "jungle", etc., but I didn't feel comfortable doing that. People don't seem to think your a little odd when they see you setting up and then photographing toys. Still, now that I'm actually doing that in my backyard and enjoying it, I just very well might do that the next time I go to the islands and if someone should ask me why, I can always say I'm doing a doll calendar. LOL  I think the photos would make a nice calendar and if I had the money I would do one up. I have several of the doll photos on my Flickr page if you'd like to check them out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/njw1958/sets/72157632225806379/

Courtesy Wikipedia

The book I'm reading now is THE BORDER LORD AND THE LADY by Beatrice Small. It's the 4th book in her border chronicles series and takes place during the reign of King James I (ruled from 1406 to 1437). James fell in love with Joan Beaufort and ended up making her his queen. Beatrice alludes to this in her book. The novel begins several years before James takes his rightful place as monarch of Scotland.

The story is about a young woman by the name of Cicely Bowan who's father has remarried and who's wife takes in instant dislike to the little girl even before she marries him. She stipulates before the marriage that she doesn't want his "bastard" (although he's had the child legitimized) in the house and because he desires sons and the wealth that she'll bring into the marriage, he complies with this demand, sentencing his daughter and her nurse to a house on his property with him visiting the little girl from time to time. After an incident with Cicely's half brothers, the stepmom demands that her husband send the little girl away.  She is fostered to Queen Joan and ends up befriending Joan Beaufort who is also being fostered in the queens household. Eventually, after James marries Joan, she travels to Scotland with the royal couple. There she comes under the eyes of two men: Andrew Gordon and Ian Douglas. Andrew wishes to marry Cicely for the fortune she will bring to the marriage but Ian wishes to marry her because, like James, he's fallen in love with her at first sight. So far the book is pretty interesting and I'm about half way through it. I try not to give to much away when writing about the novels I'm reading but I do recommend it. Especially if you like to read about the history of Scotland. Small really brings the characters to life and I do like how she mixes fact with fiction throughout her novels.

December 1954

The artist of this months pin-up is T. N. Thompson. I always like how he adds another pin-up within the composition.

Lucy Eleanor Leary year unknown

I wish I had more of Leary's paper dolls. They are hard to find. her and Charlotte Ware are difficult to come by without paying through the nose on Ebay. I'm just glad I have the ones I was lucky enough to buy.

Christmas Pin-up paper doll  Copyright N. Dennis 2008

I've yet to finish coloring Holly. I did have her for sale on Ebay but no one seemed interested in her. My goal is to eventually do a pin-up paper doll representing all the holidays. The inspiration for her pose came from a Katy Keene comic and her clothes were also from designs used in the issues. Eventually I will give Holly another go around on Ebay and perhaps my repeat customers will want to add her to their collection. Holly consists of 10 pages of which 9 are clothes. I'm debating whether I should reduce her down so I have less pages. 

Well, that's all for this round. I'll try to blog again before the end of the year.

Until next time...

                                                ALOHA AND MELE KALIKIMAKA!

                                                            (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian)

One ill Kitty

Snowbelle age 6

I'm starting this edition of my blog differently. I had a scare recently...my cat, pictured on the left, Snowbelle, was having trouble breathing. You know how a person with asthma has trouble catching their breath? Well that was Snowbelle. She'd never behaved like that before. Lately I've been leaving my Air conditioner off during the heat of the day in the attempt to conserve energy. While 84 degrees isn't hot to me, it is probably uncomfortable for a cat, after all, unless they are hairless, she's covered in fur and I'm sure wearing a fur coat in the Arizona heat can't be comfortable.
My husband and I took her to the Vet yesterday (although we really didn't have the money for the extra expense) and they presume it's asthma but aren't sure due to the fact that we couldn't afford to pay for the x-rays which would have been $200.00. In order to have the x-rays we would have had to pay for the visit up front, and we simply didn't have the funds. It's really hard to get blood out of a turnip but we still had to have her looked at. I didn't want her to die, and I do know an animal can die from lack of oxygen. And being an asthmatic myself, I know how it feels not being able to breath.

What's the password?

We were able to make payment arrangements, but what worried me the most was the medication we needed to give her. Come to find out she needed it IMMEDIATELY, otherwise we would have waited until today to get her prescription filled. So my poor husband had to forgo his wrestling to ride his bike up to Walgreens in order to get her prescription filled. He wasn't happy about it but he went any way knowing our "baby" needed her medication. Well, after going the couple of miles, his trip turned out to be fruitless because they didn't have either of her meds in stock and wouldn't be able to get it until Monday. He also went to Fry's pharmacy but they were already closed. I was finally able to get a friend of mine, through Facebook, to give me a lift over to a CVS over on 19th Ave off Indian School Road where they had both her medications in stock AND they were able to give me a discount. It would have cost me $32.00 but ended up costing me $15.00.
After giving her the medication and staying up with her all evening, she was breathing easier, although you could tell she was still breathing hard. She ate, drank some water and went to the litter box, which was a relief. So I am hoping that with the medication she's been given that it is asthma and we can get her breathing back to normal. So far the medicine seems to be helping and I'm leaving the air conditioning on until I know her breathing is under control. On a side note, she DID bite me when I tried to give her her pills. She bit down on my first finger when I tried to get the second pill (the most important one as it helps her breath) into her. Can't really blame her though. Would YOU like having someone trying to get a pill down YOUR throat? :)

I've started another Cartland entitled Wish For Love. The time period is 1818 and is about Mariota who's family is hard up due to her Grandfather spending the family fortune. And although they still have the house, most of it is closed up because they can't afford to hire servants to help it.  The house is run by Mariota who does the majority of cleaning and cooking. Her brother Jeremy wants better clothes and just funds to live comfortably and comes up with the brilliant scheme to become a Highwayman in order to get the money necessary to live as he would like them to. Mariota is against this idea but ends up helping him anyway because she doesn't want to see him hurt or hung and accompanies him. In the process they end up wounding an Earl after robbing a carriage that contained his sister who was visiting one of the local gentry.

Map from Wikipedia

I've gotten to the section where the Earl they wounded (he doesn't know that her and her brother were the ones who robbed his sister) has professed his love for Mariota but can't marry her because he's already said he'd marry someone else BEFORE he met her. Being a gentleman he can't go back on his word or break the engagement.The story itself takes place in Worcestershire.

Today's paper doll is another Boots from June 8th, 1952. I like how they added the scenery in the background but it just doesn't seem to go with the gowns. I suppose she could be taking a drive and crossing the old covered bridge. Very romantic if you are in a horse and buggy. My favorite of the two is the red gown although I think it would be more elegant if it didn't have the extra drapery on the side of her hip.


For my paper doll design, there is Little Bo Peep. Done in the early 1980's I've rearranged the pages thanks to Photoshop. I sell the set on Ebay. She has a total of four pages, with 8 outfits, 10 accessories, one sheep, and two extra faces. I'm not going to revise the doll or clothes but want to do a different border.

Aloha for now. I leave you with a beautiful view of  majestic Diamond Head as seen from Ala Moana Beach Park.

Diamond Head March 2007

                                                           

Crystal clear water

Hanauma Bay from lookout March 2007

I love this shot of Hanauma Bay . The water is so crystal clear! I like how you can see the coral under the water. I've always wanted to go snorkeling but as of yet haven't been able to. Mainly it's a monetary issue not that I physically can't do it. I didn't go down to the beach on this day. It's a steep incline (if you look closely you can see the incline on the right hand side of the photo) and though I hate to admit it at times, I'm out of shape and walking down the incline would be easy..it's the coming back up that would be the hard part. I could do it, but would have had to walk backwards and since there were quite a few people there on this day, didn't want to look silly walking in reverse. It's easier on my calf muscles if I walk up such a steep hill that way.  I took this on the same day that I took the photo of Koko head. If you turned to the right of this photo you'd be gazing up at Koko head. It was also extremely windy from this vantage point. 

This is also another doctored photo.  Again the sky on the left side of the photo was to light so I separated it from the bottom portion and using the brightness/contrast feature of Photoshop altered it so that the sky was a little darker. There isn't to much of a difference to the two photos really. I did brighten the bottom portion a little as well which you can tell by the water and the sand being a little brighter in tone. Hawaii is the only place I know of where you don't mind gadding about on an overcast day and said overcast doesn't ruin it in the least. It did sprinkle a little but not so much that my camera got to wet. I had just bought the camera in 2006 and it was the first time I'd given my Kodak a real workout. The lovely part of using a digital camera was when I got back to the condo where I was staying, I could immediately download my card on the laptop computer I'd brought with me without having to go to Wal-mart, K-mart or Walgreens to get the pictures developed. 

Lord Stratford Canning age 29

I've finished THE PASSION AND THE FLOWER (it was really good so only took a day to read) and I'm now reading THE SLAVES OF LOVE. The time frame is 1855 and the setting is Constantinople, Turkey or what is now Istanbul.  The Crimean War is raging and fear abounds that there are Russian spies every where. Our hero, Lord Vernan Castleford, is on his way to the Bazaar in search of a present for the British Ambassador Stratford Canning, who, I might add, was quite a handsome fellow.  The book takes place when Stratford is 68 and according to Castleford is still a handsome man. (Photo of Canning courtesy of Wikipedia) He actually was still quite good looking in later years. 

Photo from Look and Learn website

Upon arriving in the Bazaar he is witness to the beating of a Russian by a mob. It is here that he comes upon a young Russian woman, Yasmina, who was raised in both Crimea and in Russia. Her father is ill and she'd come to the Bazaar for herbs in the hope that they'd help her father get better. He'd been sick for awhile and not trusting British hospitals she was trying to nurse him herself. I'm at the part where Yasmina's father has just passed away and she's trying to figure out what to do. She doesn't have any where she can go. She's now pretty much alone except for Hamid and he's just told her that the safest place for her to be during that dangerous time would be in the Sultan's harem.  

Today's paper doll is a Jane Arden. I couldn't find a matching paper doll for today's date in my collection so decided to post this one. I'm not sure of the year but judging by the dress I'd say either 1950's or 60's. I remember these paper dolls in the Sunday paper. I wish now I'd kept them but like all things from my childhood, my paper doll collection was relegated to the trash bin or a garage sale when I "out grew" them. This paper doll was also on a disc I bought from a seller on Ebay. It was rather on the small size so I enlarged it. The scan I received was at 150 dpi which isn't to bad of a resolution. I also made this one into a black and white version for those who like to color their paper dolls. This pose was a common one in the Jane Arden series so the clothes of other dolls will fit this one. 

For my paper doll design I present Babs the Ballerina Cat. I'm in the process of revamping this one. I'm thinking of perhaps making her into a greeting card. Maybe have several cats with the same pose and with two or three costumes a piece. I'm also thinking of enlarging her. She doesn't have to many outfits. As she is now she only has three pages of clothes. 

It's time to call it a day. Until next time, Aloha and may your day be a great one!!

N Dennis 2007

For the Birds!

Kualoa Beach Park looking south at Koolau Range March 2007

Beautiful isn't it? This photo has also been doctored. The day I took it was another overcast day with the sun peeking in and out of the clouds. In the original the sky is white so I tried to do what I did with the photo of Koko head with different results. The sky is there when I use the contrast feature in Photoshop but it's a different blue and it was harder to get the hue right. I'm not dissatisfied with the results, I just wish I could have gotten more gray in the clouds. I'm not brave enough yet to try using the spray paint tool in Photoshop. For those not familiar with Oahu, across the street from the park is Kualoa Ranch where they shot parts of Jurassic Park and the television show Lost. I've never taken a tour of the ranch most likely because it's geared for the tourists and I like to, as the saying goes, go where the locals go. While Kualoa Beach Park is frequented by tourists, the locals go there too. While I was enjoying the views there were several local families enjoying a day at the park.

Remember I mentioned that I fed a cardinal at the Hanauma Bay park? Well it was at Kualoa Beach Park (I went a few days later) where I discovered a sign that stated not to feed the birds. I was enlightened after I'd shared the coating of my chicken Mcnuggets from the McDonalds that I had bought my lunch from on the way to the park. This time I'd actually planned to have lunch here rather than just driving around until my stomach began growling. I wanted to take photos of Chinaman's hat which is just off shore. 

I saw a cardinal, my first visitor while consuming my repast, on the ground near my table and I couldn't resist the urge to share the breaded portion of my meal with the little fellow. It was rather bold as it eventually flew up to the table and almost took the food from out of my hand. I have to admit I did try to coax it closer but it never would come within finger distance. The bird flew off and must have gone and told his friends about me because before I knew it I had almost every variety of bird on the island surrounding my table and found myself hard pressed to share my meal with the cardinal and it's gang. It was after I finished and was putting my garbage in the trash that I noticed the sign that stated one wasn't supposed to feed the birds. I laugh about it now but I did break the law, unknowingly though it was, and could have been fined for my ignorance. No one seemed to have noticed me doing it and if they did they probably thought stupid tourist! LOL

Red-crested cardinal March 2007

Here is my friend from the park when I first noticed it. While writing this I did do a search on the internet and found out that this is a Red-crested cardinal. According to Wikipedia it is not related to true cardinals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-crested_Cardinal It's an introduced species and not native to the islands. It's amazing the information you can find on the web!! I will have further photos of the other birds that enjoyed my meal with me on future posts. 

Yesterday, after posting I spent most of the day organizing my files in order to have plenty to put into this blog. My interests vary from the types of books I enjoy to the type of art work I like and of course creating art. :)  My passion!! I want to 'chat' about more than just Hawaii, much as I love the islands there is more to my life than JUST that, although my husband and friends would dispute this  since the majority of the time that's all I talk about and if  I'm honest, think about. :) 

I'm still learning the ins and outs of Photoshop and hope to continue to share my forays into the medium with who ever is interested in my progress or the results of my endeavors. Writing this blog also helps me with sentence structure and story telling. It is my hope that in relating my tales of my trips and life I can make the reader be amused at what has happened to me and perhaps if they are going through a rough time know that life can be hard but it does get better, it just might take awhile. I do have a tendency to look at the down side of life when things aren't going so well. But if I am honest with myself, my life hasn't been so bad. While it is true that the future is uncertain at the moment (I still don't know if we will be living in the home we have now next year) on the up side being jobless does give me time to do what I love which is create art in some form or another and to write in this blog. :) Perhaps it is the one thing that will keep me from feeling to depressed about the situation we are in at the moment. I realized this morning that yesterday was a wonderful day because not only had I written in my blog but organized some of my files so that I could post other photos in it as well. It gave me something to do rather than moping around moaning about my jobless state. 

And on that note, I will bring this daily blog to a close. :)  As promised yesterday;  here is the first page in the last of my Star Wars trio paper doll set. I give you Princess Leia! Out of all three, I feel Luke resembles Mark Hamill more than the other two resemble Carrie Fisher or Harrison Ford.  

Until manana...MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!