Sandra Cox's Blog, page 198

Paint. A Four Letter Word.

Looks like five letters, but trust me, it qualifies as a four letter word on many levels. I decided to paint my cave. Piece of cake, right? So not. It would have been fine if I'd stuck with white, but nooo, I had to go with 'Girls Night Out'. As you can see it's a lavender with a gray base. With white if you meander into the trim or ceiling, it's no big deal. With a color...it's pretty noticeable.  I've been painting, repainting and touching up all week. But I'm done (so done). It's obvious it wasn't done by a professional, but it will have to do.
Next project...painting the babies room. sigh.

To add insult to injury I purchased PAINT Shop Pro X8.  I should have paid more attention to the Pro in the title, cause I'm so not.  Our pal CJ uses this program and I was intrigued with it. After I downloaded it, I totally freaked. Too many options. Old dog, new tricks, etc. etc.  When I master it, I know I'll enjoy it. I think I'm going to hit on my beautiful and talented sister-in-law that overhauled my website. Now if I knew what I was doing with Paint Shop, I could have removed my shoes from the picture....I think.
Anybody else using Paint Shop?  Any and all tips appreciated.
~*~Today is my lovely niece's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Sweetie.  

It's The Weekend....

For those of you working outside the home....you may want to wait a few hours for this. Grin.  Have a great one.

A Little Help From A Friend

Thanks, Rye.

IWSG Wednesday

It's the first Wednesday of the month and you know what that means. It's time to share  information, encourage others and express our doubts and concerns, and talk about our fears.
Let's face it. We're not in it for the money, even though that would be a huge bennie.  Inside most of us lurks the innate desires of a storyteller. Stephen King said it best: "Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well." Writing is challenging. It's not an easy gig. But we do it because its right up there with eating and breathing. So when you have one of those days--and you know what I mean by 'those day's--just remember, you're not alone. You have a huge circle of writing friends that are right there with you, ready to pick you up and urge you on. So here's to new beginnings and a wonderful, productive year for all of us.
~*~My project this month:I am converting this: Into this:
The book itself, other than some small nits will remain the same, but I wanted to put more emphasis on the gardening piece of it. What do you think? Like the cover? Pixelstudio at Fiverr did that for me. You're probably familiar with Fiverr, but if not you may want to go visit.  They have all kinds of options for writers at extremely reasonable prices. 
As mentioned yesterday: Loves, Lattes and Mutants, and Queen of Diamonds are on sale for ninety-nine cents.
And last, but not least, I'm very pleased to mention that my short alternate/parallel universe story, Rainers, will be included in the IWSG Anthology. I've always wanted to do an alternate universe work of fiction and this gave me the perfect opportunity.  To the powers that be: a heartfelt thank you.
I've told you mine, not let's hear yours. What's going on in your writing world?

Grumbles and Sales

Is anyone else out there tired of picking out gift boxes and cookies or is it just me? Captcha is appearing at nearly every blog I visit, but not all require verification. If verification is showing up on mine, please let me know and I'll try to turn it off. Sometimes the simplest things allude me. Or delude me:)

Okay enough grumbling, on to the advertising piece of the show:) Both Queen of Diamonds and Love, Lattes and Mutants are on sale for ninety-nine cents. Queen of Diamonds will be on through the 7th and Love, Lattes and Mutants till the 31st.
Logan Hunter is a bestselling author with a penchant for the ladies. Kendall Theron, his efficient publicist is prim and colorless—at least on the surface. Beneath the proper facade is a woman who will do anything to protect her family, even if it’s not quite legal.

Amazon

Kensington

Finding love is hard, even when you aren’t a mutant.
Like most seventeen-year-olds, Piper Dunn wants to blend in with the crowd. Having a blowhole is a definite handicap. A product of a lab-engineered mother with dolphin DNA, Piper spends her school days hiding her brilliant ocean-colored eyes and sea siren voice behind baggy clothing and ugly glasses. When Tyler, the new boy in school, zeroes in on her, ignoring every other girl vying for his attention, no one, including Piper, understands why...

It's Really January 2016

lovethispic.com


Can you believe it? The weather has finally decided it's winter.  Before the weather turned there were Crab Apple Trees trying to blossom. Poor things.

How did you spend New Years?  Ours was zany but fun.  We did our weekly pilgrimage to Walmart for groceries, along with half the other people in town, and picked up games to play. We entertained ourselves with Yahtzee and a Memory Game with Disney characters for age 3 and up.  Just let me say, we have no memory:) Have you ever played it? It has seventy-two cards that are laid face down and you have to match the figures.  The person who ends up with the most cards win.  We found ourselves picking up the same cards over and over again.  Lots of head slap moments. After three rounds we decided to give our poor overworked brains a break and watch some mindless TV. The HH counted down the last eleven minutes, EVERY minute. At midnight we had our toast then I toddled off to bed.  Oh yes, and I colored in my adult coloring book:) Beat that for wild and crazy.  Yes, the chandeliers remained in tact.
What did you do to celebrate? We want to hear all about it.

Happy New Year!

May this year be the best year ever, my friends.

Counting Down

Calendar of Events

I'm back....
Whew, the holidays have been busy. No doubt for you too.
24th: Our anniversary
Ordered in, exchanged gifts and listened to Christmas music. Nice:)
25th: Christmas
Served Christmas lunch and exchanged gifts with the fam.
26th: The Twins 2nd Bday.
Had twenty-some-odd people over and was awash in carnage.
27th: Exchange day for presents that didn't fit.
Customer service in department stores has just about gasped its last breath.
Most of my gifts came without receipts. All I wanted was exchanges, no returns, but even that was exhausting. Anthropologie was the easiest to deal with. You just show some form of identification and make your exchange. Track N Trail was fine. Though I did have the receipt for this one, so that helped. I'm a Belkie girl but Belks was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't have the receipt or the tags so that's a definite ding, but still I just wanted to exchange sizes for the exact item. I know clerking isn't a fun job on the day after Christmas but a couple of the clerks were less than cordial. One in particular. Even though I was making the exact exchange for a different size, I had to run back to the other end of the store and get the exact size I was exchanging or she'd have to call her manager for approval, which would have been easier. The good news: it's in the rear view mirror now:)
28th: UHaul Day
The twins made such a haul between Christmas and their birthday, we had to load up the RAV with toys and follow their parents home:)
29th and Today:
What's your days been like while I've been gone, blogster buds? 
Isn't this weather something? Hope you aren't in the rain or snow band. Flood watch here.
12:30 p.m.  Just upped to flash flood warning. 
3:30 p.m. It's stopped raining. Whew.

Merry Christmas

May Your Day Be Filled With WonderMerry Christmas, Buds.