Scoot The Monkeys Over!

I've had so much fun today working on the beautiful, handmade altar that I purchased from Jody Armijo. Jody is Cindy's partner. They live in Northern New Mexico and I dearly love both of them.

Cindy has an altar and as do many of our friends. So a while back when I was watching one of my favorite movies, The Milagro Beanfield War, it made me want to get an altar, but I didn't know where to start.

So I asked Cindy, "Where do you buy altars?" She suggested that I buy Denise Linn's book Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines Into Your Everyday Life. So I purchased this fascinating book.

On the back jacket cover, I read these words, so I  sat down in Roy's and my chair and read the entire book in one day.

So the next time that I was talking to Cindy, she told me that Jody had just made his first two, beautiful altars for some friends of theirs and she sent me a picture of them. Then Cindy also told me that Jody was going to start making altars and she was going to start selling them online, in her Pooh & The Brown Piglet Store. And before she and I adios-ed each other, I had purchased my very first altar.

My altar that Jody made that Cindy customized for me, arrived last week and it is totally beautiful. She told me that I had a heart of gold, so they named it, Heart of Gold. And this is a picture that Cindy took of it and e-mailed to me, before she mailed it.

When my altar arrived, Cindy had included: a rooster, a Great Pyrenees dog, two tiny bottles of beer and two miniature pumpkins and four tortillas, that Jody had molded out of clay and painted. And Jody signed the back of it and it is #6.

As you well know, since I didn't blog for four days, I had a busy week. So this morning after I did a little paperwork, I vowed to set up my altar, using Denise Linn's book as my guide.

I first thought that I was going to set up my altar, in the big room, on top of the electric, faux wood burning stove, next to my guitar.

But I changed my mind and decided I wanted to put it in our bedroom, on top of the dresser, next to my monkeys. And all I had to do was remove the clock and scoot the monkeys over.

Then I opened up the book, to page 150 and used the Meanings Of Altar Objects as my reference guide, because it is a partial list of different objects with their associated meanings.There were lists of religious items, symbols, shapes and patterns, offerings, polished stones, metals, plants and flowers, shells, herbs, fruit and grains, twigs, branch and leaves, essential oils and incense, animal symbols, aquatic symbols, winged creatures, amphibians and reptiles, mythical creatures, colors, etc.

I spent over an hour, having fun and deciding what I wanted to put on my beautiful altar. And this is what I came up with!

And this is a partial list of Cindy's items and the items I chose with their associated meanings:

The altar itself:

Turquoise-relaxation, meditation, peace

Pink-love, softness

Dove-peace and feminine

Gold Heart-solar, magnificent, expansion, healing, balance

Roses-love

On my silver charm bracelet that Tony gave to me, hung top center:

Silver-ruled by moon, deceptive, feminine force, intuition

Bear- Health, strength and stamina

Turtle- longevity, stability, home, Mother Earth

Lizard-guardian of dream time, divination

Buffalo-abundance, courage, determination

Snake-wisdom, initiation

Rabbit-intuition, quick thinking

Then I added the rest of these objects: Please note that this *** means it is my interpretation

My mother's cross- Christianity, intersection of Heaven and Earth

Duck-emotional balance, domestic harmony

Donkey-surefootedness, determination

Dog-loyalty, protection, faithfulness

Peace sign hanging around the donkey's neck-peace, love***

Rooster-alertness, fertility, enthusiasm

Quartz Crystals-spiritual attunement (That's the way it is spelled in the book)

Beer bottles-fun ***

Tortillas-abundance, harvest

Candles-powerful symbol of spirit

Pumpkin-Thanksgiving***

Appalachian Trail sign-Photoshop or Henry, Fay, Miss Moneypenny and me on the Trail***

Key-opening inner realms, because I do not know what key it goes to***

Alien guitar pick-music, love, peace, Longmire—Texas Style video***

Silver dog bone-too cheap to buy a gold one***

Little Debbie's alien-attracting helmet-Longmire, way too cute and makes me laugh***

And that is about it for tonight, because I can't wait to add a few more things to my beautiful altar and figure out where I am going to hang my clock. (And I love that light circle that the clock left behind. It is northwest of my fabulous altar.)

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Again!

Yesterday and today have been great. Ben Stiller got adopted Friday morning, with almost all of our great friends/volunteers out here. He is now living, in Kerrville, with a super nice man that adores Great Danes. Tom adopted Ben to be his and his older, female Great Dane's constant companion and all of us are thrilled about Ben's fantastic adoption.

Also, while our great friends were out here, I dressed in my "crazy lady" costume, smeared red lipstick on, put Little Debbie's alien-attracting helmet back on her again, so we could shoot the Longmire/crazy lady scene, out on the highway, and Jim did an excellent job playing the part of Longmire.

Friday afternoon after eating a fun lunch with our friends, at the Koyote Grill, we took off for Kerrville to run several errands.

Our first stop was to go by Wolfmueller's Books to visit with Sandy & Jon. When we walked inside their super cool bookstore, Harley, Sandy & Jon greeted us. Then we started catching up with each other's latest news and it was a lot of fun.

After I purchased two Bill Bryson books from Jon, we adios-ed them and then we went next door to Bad Girlz of Texas, so I could shop for some hilarious birthday cards. While we were in this great store, with super great vibes, we visited with Andie, the owner.

And after I had paid her for my cards, we left the building and climbed into Trigger to take off for the big H-E-B, because we needed to buy dog food for our rescued dogs and for our five dogs and Henry, our giant puppy.  

While we were waiting for the light to change to green, I faintly heard Sandy hollering, "Nancy! Nancy!" So, I turned around and lowered the window and waved to Sandy and Andie. "Nancy, Andie has your books that you forgot to take with you!"

"Okay! We'll drive around the block!" I hollered, as Tony made a sharp, right-handed turn onto Main Street.

A minute later, Tony again pulled back into the same parking space, in front of Bad Girlz of Texas. Sandy and Andie were standing there holding my books and they were laughing. "I can't believe I left my books. I feel so stupid. Thank y'all for catching us, because I can't wait to start reading them."

"You also dropped a dollar bill on the floor," Andie teased, as she handed me back my one dollar bill. Then I thanked them and jumped back inside Trigger and we took off again. And Tony teased me about leaving my books, on Andie's counter, in Bad Girlz of Texas, all of the way to the big grocery store.

When we got back home, I checked my e-mail. My dear friend Cindy had sent me a note about her writing and posting a short story she titled"It's Not Important..a very short story" on her blog about me and Jim, my late husband who passed away in 1995. 

So I immediately went to Cindy Pickard's awesome blog: Pooh & The Brown Piglet to read it. And to say the least, I totally loved it. Then I read some of Bryson's book and then once again I re-watched the awesome show, unBranded, that's now trending on Netflix.

Today has been busy. We had several people come out to look at our dogs and keeping my fingers crossed I am pretty sure that Claudia is going to adopt Bonnie Raitt from us, on Tuesday. So please keep your fingers crossed for Bonnie, too.

Early this evening I organized the Longmire—Texas Style videos and then I sent them all to Gerry Olert, so he can start putting our Longmire spoof together. And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

This Is Big!

Today has been great and so was Monday. Yesterday afternoon, while I was waiting to check out our groceries, at the big H-E-B, I glanced over at the magazine rack and the cover of the Newsweek magazine caught my attention big time and it was a special edition.

It sort of freaked me out, because I was wearing one of my favorite hoodies that has a Big Foot on the front of it, that my dear friend, Cindy Pickard, gave to both Chet and me when we visited her & Jody, in Northern New Mexico, this past June.

Cindy's good friend, Jonathan Warm Day Coming, a very famous Native American, Taos Pueblo artist designed the beautiful sweatshirt for her along with six others, that represent the Seven Sacred teachings of the Anishnabe People. And we got to meet him and he looks just like Henry, who Lou Diamond Phillips plays, in Longmire.

Big Foot represents Honesty. And hear are pictures of the front and the back of my sweatshirt that I was wearing. 

Cindy sells these beautiful hoodies, handmade crosses by Jody Armijo, pillows, posters and much more, at her super cool, website store: Pooh And The Brown Piglet. And please note that her hoodies are not covered in Roy's, Belle's, Beau's, Little Debbie's and Big Al(ice)'s dog hair, like mine is, in the pictures above and all of the rest of my clothes that I wear.

Anyway, last night Cindy and I were talking on the phone and I told her about Big Foot being on the cover of a special edition Newsweek magazine and she told me that Big Foot is very popular, all around the world and I found that interesting, because I love Big Foot and seeing him is near the top on my bucket list.

"Jody can't make the Big Foot plaques fast enough, because people are always ordering them from us and Jonathan's and my Big Foot hoodies are the number one best sellers."

"Do you have a Big Foot plaque for sale?" I asked, because I already have one of Jody's beautiful "Bear is Courage" plaques that always gets compliments." Here is my Bear plaque that hangs on the wall, above the big chair, in our big room.

Cindy told me, "Yes, we have only a dozen left and he is working on more. There is a picture of one at the website store, but I will send you a picture of his Big Foot plaques. And ten minutes later, after Cindy and I adios-ed each other I checked my e-mail and here is her picture of Jody's awesome artwork.

I loved it so much and knew that I wanted one, so I went Online and bought one at Pooh And The Brown Piglet store, as a Christmas present to myself. Then I went down the hallway and told Tony, "Thank you for buying me one of Jody's Big Foot plaques." Tony looked at me like he was seeing Big Foot, because he didn't know what I was talking about. So, I explained it to him and then I showed him Cindy's  Big Foot picture.

And tomorrow when we go to Kerrville, I am going to buy Newsweek's Special Edition on Big Foot.

Y'all have a great evening!

Pooh And The Brown Piglet! or How Maribeth Survived!

Today has been great. This morning, Tony and I returned the rental car and then we went and ate breakfast at Randy's & Lisa's Save Inn Restaurant. And yes, once again, we ordered the exact same thing: Sinker Omelet, hash browns and whole wheat toast and coffee.

Tonight I have two things that I want to tell you about and I am saving the deal about Maribeth to keep y'all in suspense. So here goes.

My dear friend Cindy Pickard, who I've known for nearly thirty years, the woman who lives in Northern Mexico, that Chet and I went to see, in late June, has just started blogging about her life. In her first post on, Pooh and the Brown Piglet, Cindy introduces herself. She wrote about her earlier life, growing up and having to deal with death, grief and loss, at an early age and how she has survived.

And by the time you finish reading about Cindy's incredible life journey, after her youth, you are totally hooked and can't wait to read more about her and her award winning documentaries and her (She's Pooh) and Jody's (He's the Brown Piglet) life together. Because they are successively living off the grid, with their two hybrid Wolves, a milk cow, two horses, birds and a phantom cat, that neither Chet or I saw when we were out there.  

Cindy is an incredibly interesting woman with a lot of insight and humor. In fact I am still laughing about her hilarious story about her renting a Big Foot costume and having to haul it into Canada, for a documentary that she was working on.

Cindy is an extremely talented writer and you will find that her beautiful photographs are more than awesome, so I hope that you'll take the time to check out Pooh and the Brown Piglet.

Now I must tell you about how Maribeth survived baby-sitting for us. I didn't find out about Maribeth's "near death experience" until we got back, Saturday afternoon.

If you read last night's post, I wrote about me fixin' healthy smoothies for Maribeth, Chet, Tony and me, before the three of us took off for Fort Worth. The more than healthy smoothie ingredients were:
strawberries, blueberries, a banana, peaches, almond milk, organic cacao chocolate powder, organic sun-dried goji berries, chia seeds, cinnamon and fresh kale, from our organic keyhole garden.

Late Saturday afternoon, I called Maribeth to thank her for baby-sitting the rescue ranch for us and her response was, "Nancy, what in the heck did you put in that smoothie you made for us? Because after y'all left, I had an really bad allergic reaction. Ten minutes after y'all left the rescue ranch, my eyes swelled up and I could barely see...."

I told Maribeth all of the ingredients that I had put into the smoothie and she said, "It had to be those dang goji berries! I ended up having to drive to Bandera to get some over the counter medicine...."

After I apologized to her for nearly poisoning her, we had a really good laugh about it.

Y'all have a great evening!