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Military Romance Author

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Have You Spit On Rocks Today?

April 26, 2017 By Kimberly A. Cook 1 Comment

by Kimberly A. Cook                     (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Distracted easily, that’s me. Finally had a day of sun last Friday and I could hardly make up my mind what to do first. I avoided all the things I “should” do and bolted into the backyard to assess fairy house door construction.

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Love this solar powered fairy door. When you open the door a staircase shows up, but alas, too tall.

The Douglas Fir stump in the middle of the Fairy Rock Garden is going to become a house. With this in mind I have already cut up one of the leftover cedar fence boards for a roof.

Assembly challenges exist on that since I can’t figure out how to nail the pieces together, even with a vice. Think glue first, then nails.

Have been able to de-cone several pine cones to get the shakes ready for the roof, but I digress. Last year I bought a variety of fairy house doors and now was the first opportunity to go outside without a scuba suit on for more than ten minutes and play.

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Very cute Easter Bunny themed door, but would not allow for roof overhang. Don’t think I need to do gutters. We shall see.

Gathered the fairy house door booty and headed out. Tried several different doors and the size problem appeared. Too small or too big. The Goldilocks issue. When I finally figured out the little door with the Welcome sign on it would work the best, I noticed a shiny pretty rock in the special lake rocks.

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Perfect! Even comes with flowers and a window frame. Now have to figure out the entire glue attach thing.

This is how it starts. For us born rock hounds, it was a simple pick up of one rock. That is never enough. Before I knew it I was matching rocks for earring sets. Like when am I going to get my butt in gear to do that?

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A girl and her bucket of rocks. Life is good.

Never stopped me before, so on I gathered. Ended up using one of the large fairy house doors as a tray. When I had trouble finding exact matches I hauled out the kitty litter plastic bucket still  half-full of leftover rocks. There is another full container since I obviously didn’t know how many rocks I would need. Backup rocks.

While I sat in the sun hunched over the plastic bucket, happiness ensued. One challenge was the lake rocks had been out all winter and were completely rinsed off, not so the ones in the bucket. Dust on these, so this required some spitting to get the true color on some rock specimens.

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Little rock couples, how cute.  Except for one at the top. And before I tripped. But I have the photo.

 

When I finally stopped since the tray was full, it worked well until I tripped on getting up and launched three of the rocks into oblivion, never to be recovered.  Sigh. When baby rocks fall into other rocks and on a cement walkway studded with rocks, forgetaboutit. I did a scan, nada.

Pretty proud of myself I only lost three of the rocks, though. Can use the others as pendants. You betcha.

If you’ve got a rock hound in your family, we’ve got Mother’s and Father’s Day coming up. Go to a local landscape rock place, find the “specialty” rocks and buy a couple pounds. Perfect!

Got rock stories?

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Filed Under: Garden Tagged With: earrings, Fairy Garden, Fairy House Doors, Fairy Rock Garden, jewelry, Kimberly A Cook, landscape rocks, play, rock collecting, rock hounds, Warrior Tales

House Alpaca Cody Shows Small Is Special Too

April 21, 2017 By Kimberly A. Cook Leave a Comment

by Kimberly A. Cook                        (Twitter@   WarriorTales)

From bunnies to alpacas, how can you lose? Came across this darling story about Cody the Colorado house alpaca and wanted to share it. She even has a book out.

Have a great weekend and Happy Quirky Friday!

 

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Filed Under: Quirky Fridays Tagged With: Alpaca, alpaca yarn, alpacas, animals, Cody the alpaca, Colorado, Kimberly A Cook, llama, pet, pets, small, Warrior Tales

After The Easter Bunny? Spring?

April 19, 2017 By Kimberly A. Cook 2 Comments

by Kimberly A. Cook                      (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Recovering from my chocolate Easter egg binge, so thought I would share some sights of the holiday celebration. All the candy seems to be gone; cannot figure out how that happened.

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This year I decided to pull some of my favorite bunny figurines out of the china cabinet and mix them with some new Fairy Rock Garden items. Loved the look it gave the table.   

 

The day before Easter I met with my fabulous writing support group and my buddy Martha gave me a bouquet of her award-winning camellias. Then her husband gave me my very own bloom picked fresh from the plant. Gorgeous!

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How gorgeous is this pink and white beauty? I’m drying the petals as they fall off to see if I can preserve them for resin jewelry.   

 

When I got back home from the writer group it was time for final preparation for family on Sunday. Got the items together for setting the table, put the flowers in a grand spot and made bunny candy bags.

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The single picked bloom floating in water. Takes my breath away.

 

Hope you had a nice weekend and are making plans for when the sun returns for good and Spring really kicks in this year. In the meantime, it’s finally time to move the fuchsias out of the garage. I think.

Maybe if I put parkas on them just to be safe…… Happy almost gardening!

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Spec Ops Cat helping with the table setting. Not. The bunny and flower wall did not keep him off the table. P.S. Got the bunny napkin ring holders at Goodwill for pennies. Bunny bargain!

 

 

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Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: bunnies, camellias, cats, Easter, home, Kimberly A Cook, photography, Spring, table settings, Warrior Tales

Kitty Bunny Snuggle Dreams?

April 14, 2017 By Kimberly A. Cook 1 Comment

by Kimberly A. Cook                   (Twitter@    WarriorTales)

Easter is Sunday and this kitty Sophie can’t wait to dream about her favorite floppy-eared friends. She even uses her bunny as a pillow. Check out this wonderful bunny dreaming kitty. For a bonus watch how she puts herself to bed every night.

Very accomplished kitty!

Have a great weekend and Happy Quirky Friday!

Now the Easter Bunny only arrives if you go to bed on time, so Sophie made sure she was tucked in! She learned from waiting for Santa from the looks of this video where she is cuddling with Rudolph.

 

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Filed Under: Quirky Fridays Tagged With: bunny, cat, cat bed, cats, Easter, Easter Bunny, humor, Kimberly A Cook, kittens, kitty bed, Sophie loves tuna, Warrior Tales

Closet Cleaning Reflections?

April 11, 2017 By Kimberly A. Cook Leave a Comment

by Kimberly A. Cook                      (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

The closet purge is finished. The bedroom clothes closet to be specific. It took more than a week and a half of dogged determination, but it’s done. The Mission Op also included the dresser, vanity and coat closet. Sweet crackers how did I get so many clothes?

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Spec Ops Cat helping out with the dresser purge. Yes, his butt is to the camera. What a great little furry assistant. Can’t show you what he did to my sock drawer; brutal. Hard to put things in a drawer when a cat is in it. I tried.

 

Truly a trip down memory lane when I finally tossed the dark green gauze dress from the Mazatlan, Mexico trip. Or purged the blazer jackets from the late 1990s. Most of them.

There are a few rules when starting on this type of operation:

What is the goal? Mine was to get the new clothes in the closet and the old ones out. There was not enough room for both. The tangible reward of my upstairs hallway not looking like a dry cleaners back room was also a major perk.

Go in with a plan. I started with a small group to ensure purge victory – cashmere sweaters. With stupid hot flashes I can’t wear most of them anyway. Sort by category.

Boxes and staging area at the ready. Made sure I had enough cardboard boxes and my plastic totes at hand to put the purged items away and stack until the garage sale. This also required cleaning up the exercise room so I could put all the boxes in there for temporary storage.  Lids on boxes also thwarted Spec Ops Cat plans to cuddle on all items and spread his fur.

Music required. I used my disco music favorite hits CD and cranked it up. Since I tried on every single piece of clothing, it really helps to keep the energy up. No video cameras were allowed in the vicinity.

Have an extraction plan. Garage sale at my friend’s house is set for May 12. Hope to sell some of it. Leftovers will go to the Women’s Shelter. Set free the items and get them gone. I’ve been known to load boxes of purged items into Subie and drive them around until I passed by Goodwill. They were out of the house!

Reward yourself in the process. I got new purple orchid hangers to help with the purge. Whatever it takes to accomplish the task. There was Dove dark chocolate involved too. Sure I danced off the calories. Kinda.

Next on the agenda? After the garage sale I need to tackle purging the exercise room, garage and kitchen. The office is on that list but I’m in complete denial about it.

By the time I get that list done it will be Fall. Or time to go play in the Fairy Rock Garden first. Sounds like more fun.

Got a purge plan for this Spring? Dance on!

 

 

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Filed Under: home Tagged With: cleaning plan, closet clean out rules, clothes, donate, garage sale, Kimberly A Cook, recycle, Spring cleaning, wardrobe, Warrior Tales

Butterfly Slow Motion Games?

April 7, 2017 By Kimberly A. Cook 2 Comments

by Kimberly A. Cook                (Twitter@   WarriorTales)

Since I’m on a butterfly theme this week, what better way to relax while some folks are sweating their taxes? Slow motion butterflies with lilting music.

I had no idea there was a Butterfly Museum in Houston. Must visit!

Happy Quirky Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

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Filed Under: Quirky Fridays Tagged With: butterflies, butterfly, butterfly gardens, butterfly museum, insects, Kimberly A Cook, slow motion butterflies, slow motion flight, Warrior Tales

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