I wrote about a new friend I had "met" recently and how it seemed we had known each other forever. Well, that hasn't changed. We can walk into Panera's (our meeting place) and make 3 hours (or more) disappear just like that - poof!! KJ is a freelance writer among other things and she decided (with a little help from her new friend) that she ought to start a blog. "Wonderful idea!" I said.

I'd like to introduce you to KJ, also known as Kathy Johnson, and Catching Happiness! Kathy's a budding artist and a really fun person to spend time with. Her outlook on life is uplifting and I enjoy her company immensely - I'm sure you will to! Please do stop by, check out the blog, leave her a comment and welcome her to the blogosphere!

I've recently been having a problem with my light/fan combo in my studio. A few months ago, Chris came into to talk to me while I was in the studio and I asked him to turn off the overhead light. When he flipped the switch it threw an arc, shocked him and blew the bulb. Or so we thought. The light went out and would not come back on.

We replaced the bulb - no go, wouldn't work. And then it came on. Then off. Drats. Suddenly the bulb came back on. Then off again. Then it was on most of the time. Occasionally, it would blink on and off of its own free will in the most haphazard, irritating way possible. This is not desirable in an electric device. At least not at my house. So we started to replace one thing and then another trying to isolate the problem. Still hadn't found it and I'd began to get a bit concerned about a wiring short causing a fire. We decide to replace the light/fan combo all together. We went "looking" shopping, not "shopping" shopping.

When we left the house, I was thinking track lighting. After all this is a studio, right? There is now a bendable track lighting that you can bend around a room in whatever configuration you want - perfect! I thought. We looked and discussed the pros and cons of more than a dozen light set ups. We looked at light/fan combos, we looked at spot lights, can lights, and just about everything else you can imagine. Everything seem to have more cons than pros. Since the studio has become a video production studio in addition to being a painting studio, I was looking for something that would be useful in both scenarios. I couldn't find it.

Finally, Chris said, "Since what we had in mind is not working, you might as well get what you want." It was as if a chain dropped. I knew what I wanted. Immediately. Instantly. And it's nothing like me! Really. I don't do glitz. Or glam. Or bling-y. I don't do plaids, or pleats, or ruffles or frilly or fru-fru or cutesy or, or, or……or so I thought. Ummm, what happened? I've no idea. Dunno. Really. (Perhaps Sam, my alter ego, could explain it if she wasn't over there on the couch laughing herself silly. At what, I don't know and I don't think I want to know!) What I can tell you is that "this" is now hanging in the studio……
And (Sam and) I love it!! It makes (us) me smile every time (we) I see it or (we) I turn the switch on!  I think what appealed to (us) me most is the fact that the frame is rusty and that gets to (us) me on so many levels that it's impossible to describe! I love rust, just adore it, and I especially love rust in unusual combinations––so add some bling to it and I'm all over it. Really.

I'm sure adding/using chandeliers is now "just so last year" in the decorating/designing world and that's okay as I really don't much care. I'd much rather have something that makes (us) me smile and makes (us) me happy then to be up with the current fashions. There are also some other changes underway in both my studio and Chris'. I'll be sharing more about those as the week goes on. Let me just say that Sam's been busy. Very busy. Meanwhile, I think I need to go have a chat with my alter ego and find out what else she's up to……sneaky little wench! "Oh, Sammmmmm……"

. . . . or some special item from their trip out of town. My husband brought me dead snail shells from his recent trip! Wasn't that sweet of him?!!
Yes, you read that right - dead snail shells. They're actually Florida Apple Snail shells from Lake Ockeechobee (pronounced Oak-uh-cho-bee). They may be Channeled Apple Snails. He picked them up along the bank of a canal leading into the lake. Most likely they died a premature death caused by the rooting of wild boar in the area. Chris said there were 1000s of these shells, most of them crushed, damaged or bleached white from the sun.

These look deceptively easy to draw and paint. Very deceptive if you ask me. It was quite easy to get caught up in the whorls and lose my place - even with the shell sitting in front of me. The biggest shell is a little over 2" tall and about 3" at its widest point. The other one is much smaller - maybe half the size of the first one. The bigger one suffered some type of trauma as there is a distinctive ridge and a change in the shell pattern. To learn more about Florida Apple Snails please click here.

As to the dead snail bells, Chris knows me well enough to know that I'd much rather have the snails than flowers. Flowers are easy. Snails? Not so much! Especially unusual ones (to me anyway) like these. I'm not sure where the term "snail bells" came from, but I have a memory of it and it came bubbling up when I was painting these. A grandmother's comment perhaps? Not sure. Maybe as I continue to draw and paint these the answer will reveal itself too.

I'm becoming rather fond of the Domestic Goddess! She came back yesterday, and together, we cooked up something called Southwestern Corn & Black Bean Soup. The longer this stuff cooks, then sits in the fridge, the BETTER it gets! I think she came back yesterday because it simply was not a good day. Nothing major, just everything from broken email accounts to tropical storms to corrupt files to lost files to video hosting sites crashing - all - day - long. Lots of little things. All day long.

The goddess knows me quite well and knows that there is nothing that will lift my spirits faster than something yummy simmering on a cold, damp, windy day, filling the house with wonderful aromas. Especially soup! Our temps are suppose to cool down this weekend - yippee skippee - so soup was the perfect choice!! And she told me to share. Since I can't share the soup with you, I thought the least I could do was share the recipe! (Sorry there's no art to go along with this - there hasn't been much time lately.)

My thoughts and prayers go out to the soldiers, their friends and family, really to all effected by the massacre at Ft. Hood, Texas. May you find the strength and courage to move through this tragedy.

This afternoon, Chris returned from an overnight hunting trip, and we sat in our breakfast nook overlooking the backyard to discuss the two day's events, both his and mine. As some of you know, we have three dogs: two good ol' American mutts, and a Siberian Husky, all of them rescues. Susie, the husky, is a big girl weighing in at over 60+ lb. She is big for her breed and not at all overweight–just a big girl. She also wasn't raised well as a puppy and can be aggressive towards other female dogs. Gets along fine with males that are close to her size. Or bigger. Go figure.

In the last couple of years, we're started letting Susie have limited visitation time with our other two–female–dogs. She plays well with Spec, but Andi doesn't want too much to do with her. When Chris got home this afternoon, he let Susie out for play time. As we sat talking in the breakfast nook, with Chris telling me about his heroic pursuit of the "hog that tried to get away," about how he ran a quarter of a mile and still the pig was disappearing out of sight, and about how he had to bring it down or they would have lost it for sure, I noticed all the dogs stampeding for the north side of yard. That could only mean one thing…

…we had been invaded by a squirrel–the evil-doers of the outside world. Or at least in the Ferlita backyard. As Chris kept on spinning his tale, I noticed Andi trotting back around the house. Okay, I thought, we're safe and the pesky varmint had been run off. The audacity of some squirrels. I mean, really. Then Susie came around the corner. Prancing. Practically dancing. With. A. Long. Grey. Floppy. Body. In. Her. Mouth. That she was slinging around like a new toy. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! Dogs 1. Squirrels -1.

Past experience has taught us that if the dogs are going to get annoyed with one another it's generally over food. And squirrels are quite coveted as they are the tastiest of tidbits. So the squirrel had to be seized and removed before the girls had a quarrel. Do you know what it's like to try and remove a squirrel that is approximately 8" in length (not including the tail) from a 60+ lb Husky that does NOT wish to part with said item?? Ask Chris. He knows. This is no small feat.

But the mighty hunter had just returned from his successful hunt and he was up for the task. He started by trying to temp her away for her new crunchy toy with a milkbone. She wasn't having any. Then he tried to sneak up on her. She wasn't having any. Then he tried chasing her around the yard for ten minutes, explaining to her how he had just returned from "two days of hunting and he'd already been running for two days and she was going down!" Do you know how fast a 60+ lb. Husky can move? Faster than a 40-something-year-old man, apparently. Dogs 2. Squirrels -1. Humans 0.

After Susie settled down to some cheerful crunching, Chris managed to get close to her. At this time, I heard him ask very politely, and with a big smile, "Susie, may I puleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaasssssseeeeeee have the squirrel? I'll give you a milkbone!" She wasn't having any. Now, my hubby, he's a pretty smart guy. No, really, he is. While he distracted her with his right hand, he made a grab for the squirrel with his left–and got it!! Score!! Sort of. Problem was there was still a 60+ lb. Husky attached to it. The tug-of-war was on! It was back, it was forth, it was over there, it was over here, and finally, Susie made a tactical error and tried to get a better grip. Chris managed to pull the squirrel away from her. Susie was crestfallen. Heartbroken even.

And then as only dogs can do, not 15 seconds after Chris turned to dispose of the squirrel, Susie came trotting over to me, fully recovered and sat like the sweet little (well, not so little maybe) lady she has been trained to be and waited for her promised milkbone. Other than the fact that she would not look at Chris, nor acknowledge his existence even when he took the milkbone to give to her as an act of truce,  there was no other hint of what had gone on just moments early. But, dogs being dogs, who think with their stomachs rather than their brains, decided she could be nice long enough–to get the milkbone!

Only in Dogdom.

She, the Domestic Goddess, has returned!! She has been rather scarce around here of late, but yesterday, she came back. She made a pot roast, beef veggie soup and a big, big pot of spaghetti sauce for the cool winter evenings soon to come. Yummm!

As we sat eating some of the soup last night for dinner, I tried to explain to my husband that we needed to sing the goddess' praises and flatter her, or it might be a while before we saw her again. He really didn't take me seriously which will explain why we won't be seeing her again for a while. Silly man!

I must say her soup was exquisite. A while back she told me to take any dabs of left over veggies, rice, tomatoes, etc. and to put them in a big container in the freezer and when it was full, she would appear and make the soup. Well, being the busy person that I am (apparently a little on the silly side myself), I didn't get around to it for a while, and the container just filled up this past weekend.

As I stood there looking at all that frozen "stuff" and thinking to myself, "now what?" Poof! She appeared! The goofy illustration is part of my heartfelt thanks and shameless homage (ploy) to entice her to come back and play at my house again - very soon!!

I forgot to post about our trip to the beach! This was actually two weekends ago, before the trip to the mountains. The day was wild and windy as we had a front moving in. We'd had rain off and on for a couple of days before we got out to the beach. It was a gorgeous day - if you don't mind 45 mile an hour gusts and overcast skies. It tends to make it a little chilly out on the water but all the better if you ask me!