I must confess, except for one, I simply don't remember my birthday parties from when I was a kid. Oh, I'm sure I had them, especially while in elementary school, but nope, don't remember them! Not too sure about Jr. High and High School either -- perhaps nobody really had birthday parties, just hung out and went somewhere. Who knows!
Anyway, the June challenge for the Blogging Business Artisans team on Etsy is about birthdays and is being brought to us by Ayla of Eyelah. Since my fifth birthday party is the only one I remember, that's the one I'm writing about!
And, since "Fifth" just happens to start with the letter F, I am handily linking to AlphabeThursday where we are studying the letter..... you got it!..... F!!!!
In my mind's eye, I can clearly see several pictures from that fifth birthday celebration -- unfortunately, I don't have the actual photos so I can't show you.... boo :-(
Here's what I looked like at age five....
I look like I have a little round hat on my head, but that's really the severe part -- maybe there's a little ponytail hanging down! and check out the bangs.... what were they thinking?!!
Anyway, now think of that little girl with her cheeks all puffed out and one eyebrow raised. (My "I am so mad" look)
And why am I so mad at my birthday party, you ask....
Because Johnny (who was supposed to be my boyfriend) BLEW OUT THE CANDLES ON MY CAKE!
Unbelievable.
I can also clearly see the picture of Elaine -- my older next-door neighbor and paper doll nemesis (she insisted on cutting them out because she said I was too little and wouldn't do a good job... HA to her!). Elaine was leaning against my swing set, wearing a dress with lots of petticoats, and looking very bored. She was, after all, much older.... by a couple of years LOL!... and certainly couldn't be seen playing little kid games.
But I bet she ate the cake with the blown-out-not-by-me candles. Harrumph.
And then there was the picture of all the prettily wrapped birthday presents and one of me with a blindfold around my head playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Bet Elaine wished she had played that rousing game!! I wonder if I might have *accidentally* pinned the tail on Johnny. Heh heh.
~ linking my fifth birthday memories on AlphabeThursday where we are studying the letter F
I gave in and got a prescription from the doctor to relieve the itching -- and I can see a definite improvement! When it wears off though, I'm scratching worse than a dog with fleas. (I would said "cat with fleas" but Oliver might take offense at that -- even though we are careful that he doesn't have the dreaded fleas) Anyway, I'm getting off track here (easily accomplished if you are me).
So, I went online for instruction on how to get rid of it in a safe manner... not wanting to use a commercial product that would harm the outside kitties or the ground cover for that matter. I found this recipe and IT'S WORKING!!
3 cups vinegar (regular white vinegar)
1/2 cup table salt
1 Tbsp Dawn dishwashing detergent (the use of Dawn and not another brand is recommended -- Dawn has special stick-to-it-ness powers -- and use regular blue Dawn)
Pour the vinegar into a spray bottle, add the salt, and mix until dissolved.
Then add the Dawn
"Stream" spray on the leaves and straight onto the stem at ground level. Be careful and don't spray anything you want to keep -- this stuff works!
Proof:
Before at the fence
After at the fence
Before at the shed
After at the shed
The "after" shots were taken after two treatments. Pretty good, huh? We tried it on a couple of weeds and the sticker vine that is creeping onto our back fence -- works there too!
Maybe I should spray it on my itchies..... hmmmm, maybe not!! No, definitely not!!
But, Mr. Evil Vine....
I WIN!
heh heh heh
~ sharing the soon to be extinct poison ivy on Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter E
I read (yes, I can read.... don't tell!) with kitty amusement, the post that my hooman mommy wrote about the TUNA... nom nom nom. She just doesn't get it.... I can hear that can opener from a mile away and if I even think it might be the fabulous tuna, I go running.
But every morning I get the same thing, even though I run to my bowl, hoping hoping hoping that it's TUNA. But no, it's kitty foods. And she wonders why I just sit there, staring at my bowl.
Part of the time I'm sitting there staring because I don't like hoomans to watch me eat. I'm funny that way. But the other part of the time I'm waiting to see if I get any TUNA.
Another thing I do that she thinks is funny
is eat from the far away side of my bowl.
Somekitties step in their bowl to get to the other side, but I have
very good kitty manners and just stretch my neck out.
What I'd really like to know is why I have blue chickens on my water bowl. And why it says Chicken Soup. I'm not drinking chicken soup, I'm drinking water. Kitties only like water, not chicken soup. So I don't need a bowl that says Chicken Soup when I'm drinking water. Duh.
Sometime in the first few days of June, I took it upon myself to clear out some vines that were taking over a portion of our backyard fence. I had just bought a pair of garden loppers and was anxious to try them out on the various vines and limbs that were beginning to irritate me.
So, whack whack whack, off with the vine on the fence! Snip snip snip on some small tree limbs hanging where they shouldn't be. Stuff it all into a trash can to be hauled away by the garbage guys.
I didn't work long, probably about 15 minutes -- I am not a gardener and don't enjoy that sort of thing (although, I secretly wish I did... 'cause looking at the gorgeous flowers grown by fellow bloggers make me want to see if my black thumb would turn green...) Anyway, I went inside and considered that enough yard work for the day.
Fast forward a few days -- I wake up with a couple of raised red bumps that I thought were bug bites of some kind.... then the next morning there were more and I was getting creeped out. Off go the sheets! No bugs in sight. I vacuum around the baseboards and tell hubby I want him to spray.
Next day, more bumps. And the next. They're getting bigger. I'm freaking out! I had been using Cortizone 10 that I had on hand but needed more so when we went to Target for a few things, I showed the pharmacist the bumps and asked about something to use on them for itching. She asked if I had been working in the yard recently, because it looked like poison ivy!
Smack me upside the head! I hadn't thought of poison ivy -- only being bombarded by some creepy crawly! I was actually relieved that it was only poison ivy....
"Leaves of three, let them be"
Poison ivy even has its own special poetry
Only poison ivy.... HA!! I'm about a week and a half into this now, and believe me, you don't want this horrible stuff. The cortizone keeps the itchiness down but there are a few places that seem to itch all the time and when the stuff wears off.... OMG!!! Sometimes I phantom scratch.... hubby calls it "air scratching" LOL!
It's growing up the tree
I turned to my pal Mr. Google and found out all manner of things I didn't want to know... I confirmed that the vine was, in fact, poison ivy. I won't show you pics of my arms and legs lest you run away screaming in fear and disgust but suffice it to say that I did see photos of other arms and legs that looked just like mine -- and lots than were worse -- I'm the one running away in fear and disgust now!!
Way up the tree
all the way up that tree...
I swear I have never seen this stuff on the fence before now
so apparently it's pretty fast growing.
I also learned that the urushiol oil from poison ivy (the stuff that causes the breakout) stays potent, essentially FOREVER unless deactivated!! You not only have to wash it off your body, you have to wash your clothes and garden tools too. An allergic reaction is possible for a year or more if the clothes were never washed. Can you imagine?!
"Side leaflets like mittens will itch like the dickens"
(Another little poison ivy rhyme)
Do you see the mittens?
I started thinking back and knew which shorts I had on (yeah, I know -- shorts and gardening don't mix, but it was on an impulse) and I hadn't washed them but had worn them again. Hubby calls them my "uniform" since I typically wear them a few times before washing. (Oh, quit it, you know you do the same thing...) I'm thinking, well the rash on one of my legs right at shorts level was spreading -- could this possibly be because of the shorts??
So I started washing -- hot water, hot dryer. I've washed those shorts and my gardening gloves four times now. I've also washed the sheets, just in case, although it can't be spread by anything except direct contact with the vine. So my shorts can be a carrier of the oil, but not my sheets. But I still feel better washing them. I even washed every t-shirt I own as an added precaution!
Hot hot water.
Yikes! I found some by the shed....
But I also found a homemade concoction made of Dawn dish washing liquid, vinegar and Epson salts that's supposed to get rid of it without the harsh chemicals of the store-bought stuff.
We'll see what happens, if it ever stops raining...
And we won't even speak about how much I'm itching.... and itching.... and still itching....
And so I will leave you with something much less itchy and awful...
.
Do you remember this little ditty? From The Coasters, recorded in 1959. Measles make you bumpy And mumps'll make you lumpy And chicken pox'll make you jump and twitch
A common cold'll fool ya And whooping cough can cool ya But poison ivy, Lord'll make you itch
~ sharing this despicable plant over at AlphabeThursday where we are studying the letter D
Don't get too close to your monitor, or you may be next!!
A couple of nights ago hubby fixed chicken and wanted oven fried potato chunks with it. And broccoli. Now, mind you, we have a pretty good system -- he cooks and I chop and clean up. Well, I just wasn't in the mood to chop much and if we had both oven fries and broccoli, I would be chopping more than I cared to chop. Besides I have a love / hate relationship with broccoli -- it's one of my favorite veggies but I get tired of it quickly (very quickly...).
So out with the broccoli and in with a can of baked beans!! Now I only had to chop one thing and open the other (which is my other kitchen job -- hubby hates to use the can opener which is a hand-held one).
Wait! I think I have too many kitchen jobs!!
But I digress... the real subject of this post would be the bestest cat boy ever.... Oliver!
As I am chopping and can opening, in runs Oliver at a gallop...
He starts that winding around your legs thing that cats do. Around and around, in and out, tail hooking around my legs, light brushes with the fur. I'm thinking What on earth does this silly cat want? I check and there's plenty of food in his bowl... plenty of water. He only gets treats when I say "Treat!" and has never asked for them. Hmmm... what on earth?
And then it hits me. It's the can opener! Which is weird since it's a hand-held one and doesn't make noise. But noise enough for a cat apparently, because I see no reason why he would want beans! And hubby hadn't started the chicken....
So, back up a few weeks.... the only time I give Oliver any people food is when we have tuna.
I give him a little of the tuna water to lap up straight from the can (my can opener leaves the edges so they could only cut softened butter) and maybe a teeny tiny bit of tuna. Oliver always runs in when I open a tuna can so that's understandable. He doesn't run in when I open a can of green beans or black eyed peas or something. But baked beans?? Apparently so!
So all that winding around my legs stuff? My guess is that he remembered the can opener and was hoping for a tidbit of tuna!
Smart kitty.
Oliver says, Is that all there is???
and what happened to my ears??
Oh the indignity of it all...
Meowzer >^.^<
~ sharing Oliver's can opener and the promise of canned tuna over at AlphabeThursday where we are studying the letter C
~ also sharing Oliver's bluebowl, his beloved blue can of tuna (because we only get the packed in water kind), and blue Bush's Beans.... oh, and the bluechickens on his water bowl.... over on Blue Monday!
I'm being greedy and sharing two posts on Blue Monday today!
My first one, That's a Lot of Bull! has lots of blue to see, but I think you'll agree that this post has a whole lot more!! It's a treasury that I made for one of the Etsy teams I'm on -- BBArtisans (aka Blogging Business Artisans). Just wanted to share -- I think you'll enjoy it whether you're on Etsy or not :)
If you'd like to see any of the items up close and personal, just click anywhere on the treasury and you'll be whisked away! If you're an Etsy seller and would like to leave a comment, that would be awesome!
See. What did I tell you? A mega amount of blue!
Oh, and you know what else? I know that you blog, but if you blog and are on Etsy, you might like to join up with the BBA Team -- we're small but mighty! Go here to check us out!
