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... or rather lack of-I used to be quite well groomed back in the days when I worked as a cocktail waitress while raising two kids and going to college full time. How I had the time for hair and makeup, I don't know, but somehow I made the time for it. After college when I worked in an office as a mental health therapist, my hair was always done, make-up perfect, and my clothes and shoes were current and stylish. Even on days off, I did my hair and makeup as soon as I got up in the morning and wore cute trendy casual outfits. My appearance was very important to me back then.
But I recently realized that over the past few years my daily attire consists of paint spattered shorts or capris, and tee shirts or stretched out and frayed ratty sweats. And of course flip flops. Occasionally on cool winter days I add miss matched socks. (One evening not long ago we were taking the dogs on their evening walk when Mike asked me why I had on two different socks. I looked down and sure enough- I had a crew sock on one foot and an ankle sock on the other foot, but in my defense my flip flops matched on that particular evening.) There have been a few times Mike has had tell me that I had my tee shirt on backwards or inside out, or that my flip flops didn't match. Why he feels the need to point that out after I've gone through the entire day with my shirt on inside out, I haven't a clue. He's just nitpicky that way. My nightime lingerie, now consists of a tee shirt or tank top with men's boxer shorts. On the few really cold nights we have, I often wear an old faded and worn thin flannel nightshirt my oldest grand daughter gave me for xmas 10 years ago and flannel pj pants.
As for my hair, it's too long and I usually just pull it back in a ponytail or braid, with loose wispies that annoy the hell out of me and I'm constantly blowing out of my face. Sadly, I've been in need of a good cut for some time. A stylist gave me a truly horrid haircut about 10 years ago, and I haven't been back to a stylist since. There was the incident a few years ago when I had an emotional melt down, went temporarily insane and whacked my ponytail off. It looked like a pack of crazed wolverines chewed it off. But now it's grown back out, and we don't like to talk about the incident. I do keep the color done. That's the one thing I haven't gotten lazy about- can't stand those grey roots.
How and why did this happen? I blame it on art. That's why so many of my clothes are paint spattered (and of course the never ending renovating work). It would make sense to change into old clothes before working in the studio. and every time I buy new clothes, that's my intention. But I step into the studio intending to put something away, then I decide to add a few paint strokes to one of my numerous UFOs, and the next thing I know it's hours later and I've some how managed to ruin another piece of clothing. So rather than try to remember to stop and change clothes before I go into the studio, I just put my ratty old clothes on as soon I'm up and showered in the morning. Seeing as I've become something of a recluse in the past few years, no one sees me on most days, other than the neighbors when I'm walking the dogs. And neither the dogs or the neighbors seem to care what I'm wearing or whether my socks or even my shoes match. But on the days we do go out, I make an effort to dress in decent clothes, a bit of makeup, and even put a bra on! And my toenails are always painted. You may be wondering why I'm rambling on about dressing like an eccentric homeless person. First because you're now forewarned what you'll see if you ever happen to be in the neighborhood and drop by unexpectedly for a cup of coffee. And second, because its on my mind tonight as we have company arriving tomorrow. So for the next 8 days I need to make an effort to dress like a normal person, including appropriate foundation garments, like a bra. I didn't realize how uncomfortable those damn horrid things were until I stopped wearing them around the house. Now that I know how comfortable it is let the tatas have their freedom, it's agony to restrict them with a bra.
All this introspection on my lack of style has given me an appreciation for my Aging Bathing Beauty. She just seems so comfortable, and quite at ease wearing nothing at all! I began applying her hair last night, and she still needs a necklace and earrings.
***Warning- as you scroll down there are photos of a naked old lady. If you're offended by the sight of naked old ladies, you may want to stop reading now and come back to visit on another day. Viewer discretion is adviced. Naked old people may be disturbing to some people!*** 
We had to run by the Bradenton Manasota Flooring showroom this afternoon to pick out grout for the kitchen back splash, and I remembered to take my camera. Our new best friend who saved our marriage, James Shondel, greeted us as soon as we walked into the showroom. After we picked out the grout color, James was kind enough to show me some of the most gorgeous tiles I've ever seen.
James knew I feel in love with the Hi Tech Saicis Tira Molla tile I spotted when we were in the showroom Saturday. It's so expensive I couldn't justify spending that much on a back splash, especially since we have so much more to do to the house. But I still fell hopelessly in love with it! I couldn't find much info on the internet about it, other than it's imported from Italy and is made from ceramic and semi-precious stones. Here are the two sirens that first sang to me, luring me to the display... I stood gazing at them as if I was memorized, I may have even drooled. I can't remember because I entered an altered state of consciousness. Click all photos to enlarge to full size- 
Excuse me, I got lost looking at those pictures again. Where were we? Knowing how much I loved these tiles, James took us on a tour around the store to see some other stunning works of art that pretended to be tiles. Oh my, it was sensory overload! If I ever win a multi million dollar PowerBall, I will have a home completely tiled in these gorgeous tiles- floors, walls, ceilings. Until then, I can visualize these beauties being used in mixed medium art work- on canvases or pieces like Big Frog and Giant Gecko.
Because I took so many pictures and there's so much to show you, I'll have to make several entries to get all the photos up.
... and how a mere $600 saved our marriage. We've been dragging our feet over tiling the kitchen backsplash, but needed to get it done before we started laying the laminate flooring. Our very first experience with tiling was when we did the sills of the bay windows. Although it wasn't physically hard to do, it was nerve wracking trying to get the tiles laid just so and even. I knew it would be even trickier doing the walls than the flat window sills, and we both were dreading this job. And then add in the fact that we've had more fights in the past few years over this renovating than we've had in the entire 25 years of our marriage. In our case, renovating does not equal martial bliss. There have been discussions with one of us announcing "That's it I've had it! I'm leaving!" To which the other responds "Over my dead body! You're not leaving me here in this mess- I'm leaving!" and "If you leave, you have to take Emmy". We often threaten each other with who has to take custody of the demon dog, Emmy.
Sooo... I suggested to Mike we hire someone to do the backsplash, and to my relief he jumped at it. We spent Saturday traipsing from one flooring store to another, and the fifth place turned out to be the place for us. Several of the stores would sell us the tiles but they didn't have staff that actually did the work and we'd have to hire a tiler from the list they would provide us. I didn't want to deal with that many people- hell, if we wanted to do that we would have just gone to Lowe's or Home Depot. But the last place, Manasota Flooring, have not only been in business for beaucoup years, they also had their own tilers to do the work. And to sweeten the deal, the guy that waited on us was personable and knowledgeable. At the other stores it was like pulling teeth to get info and they seemed bored to tears to even be talking to us. Anyway, so our new best friend asked us a few questions about the type of tiles we wanted, and then showed us the ones he thought we might like. OMG- decision time!
When we started renovating, I had no idea how hard it would be to make all these decisions. In my other homes, all I've had to decide is what color to paint the walls, which carpet to have laid, and select drapes. When you renovate the decisions start with what walls to take down and where to put new walls, and then what kind of walls, ceilings, lights and fans, cabinets, sinks, stove, fridge, flooring, windows, doors, bathtubs, toilets, and even the little things like switch plates and plugins. After making some bad choices earlier in the renovations, I've become terrified of making decisions. I'm so brain dead from making decisions, lately I can't even decide what I want for supper- just the choice between beef or chicken is too much. Okay, back to the tile story... We narrowed our choice down to the tiles in the photo below and brought the sample home to consider it over the weekend. We finally decided on the shade of the smaller tile in the upper left hand corner. Our new best friend came out to the house this afternoon to measure and give us an estimate. Everything including labor will be under a mere $600! We were giddy with relief! We have to go by the store tomorrow and select the color grout we want, and the tiling will be done before Dec. 1st. And we'll still be happily married. Tile = $250 Labor = $300 Happy Marriage = Priceless!
Finally we will have tile on this wall- 
And this wall-
When we go to the tile store tomorrow, I must remember to take my camera. You have to see the most beautiful tile we saw when we were there Saturday. I've never seen a tile like it- it's made from ceramic and semi-precious stones. And it costs a 2 kidney and 1 liver per foot, but damn, it's gorgeous.
I hadn't been into my studio for weeks, first because I was busy painting the living room, dining room and hallway, and then because I had the flu. But I decided Monday that enough was enough! So yesterday I told myself that at 1 p.m. I was going into the studio, turning on the stereo, turning off the outside world, and work on something for at least 4 hours. When I got in there, I remembered what a mess I'd left it in, and recalled that I had even posted photos of all my work surfaces buried under UFOs and supplies. Somehow I had conveniently forgotten all about that. I had a choice... I could begin cleaning and putting away supplies, and try to find somewhere out of the way to set the UFOs, or I could finish some of the UFOs with the supplies already setting out. It sounded easier, and like less work to just get busy finishing some pieces. The next thing I knew, it was 11 p.m. and I had finished all four of the tribal men. I did some shading on them, and then embellished them with copper wire, copper beads and findings (some of the findings were salvaged from old vintage jewelry), and turquoise beads. 
Though it doesn't look like Hurricane Ida will come close enough to bring us any badly needed rain, we have been getting a lot of wind.It was a challenge yesterday to even read the newspaper while sitting on the patio, with 20 mph winds and gusts up to 30mph. And the same is forecast for today.Though not as stressful for her as the sound of rain or thunder, Isabella doesn't enjoy the wind either. It's like she doesn't understand where it's coming from, so she stands around looking in all directions with apprehension, not sure what to make of it. 
That's kind of how I felt when I first heard the news about the Fort Hood massacre. I'd think a military base in our own country would be one of the safest places to be. What a cowardly act of senseless violence to gun down unarmed people! Thirteen people killed and 38 wounded.This guy is truly an evil bastard- I don't even want to dignify him by using his name. Soon after the shooting the news began trickling in that the gunman was a home grown Muslim with anti-American sentiments. Though I find all religions irrational, I'm particulary baffled by the Islamic religion that seems to produce so many people willing to kill others and themselves. I keep hearing how peaceful and loving the Islamic religion is, that the terrorist acts are commited by a small percentage of extremists, but I sure don't see any evidence of that.
But then I remember the Oklahoma City bombing- committed by good ol' home grown American men, and not a Muslim in the bunch. And it was just last week that the bodies of 11 women were found in a house in Cleveland- all raped and murdered by one man.
In fact, according to the FBI, "An estimated 16,272 persons were murdered nationwide in 2008." Spouses killing spouses, parents killing children, kids in one gang killing kids in another gang, strangers killing strangers, and the killing goes on and on, year after year.
So like Isabella, I stand around looking in all directions with apprehension and sadness, wondering from which direction danger will come. I don't know what the answer is to all the senseless killings. I guess as Bob Dylan said...
"How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind."
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