Itty Bitty Hooves

Freedom to Create

I’m always looking for good sources for custom picture framing since one of my favorite hobbies is taking pictures of our farm and animals. Since most of the time there is background stuff I don’t necessarily want in the picture, I have to cut and crop it and it ends up being a size much different than anything you normally can get in an off the rack type of frame. Plus you can get more stylized with custom frames. I also do a lot of painting and need frames that suit the style and size of the latest work. Although it is possible sometimes to find a close enough size and use matting to ‘fit’ the picture to the frame, and that’s okay at times, I prefer direct framing myself, so I need a custom sized frame. It’s also fun to pick different types of materials for the frame. I usually choose a wood base but there are so many options even there, and colors of wood as well, picked to match the decor of the room the picture is meant for. I grew up in a world of off the rack frames for normal sized pictures and paintings and having discovered the ability to create outside the ‘box’ is a freedom I love and cherish, and it shows on the walls of my home.

A Step In The Right Direction

I have to admit, when I saw the ad for vegan shoes curiosity piqued my interest. The term ‘vegan’ in my mind was reserved for a style of food consumption, and since most people don’t eat shoes, I had no idea what vegan shoes could possibly refer to, so I had to check it out. You should too, the concept is really unique, and looks fabulously comfortable. Saving the planet, and living responsibly is a large part of why we live the way we do, and grow our own food, although we are not vegetarians of any type. This is certainly a step in the right direction as far as I’m concerned.

Into the 21st Century

When we first bought this house 13 years ago, it seemed perfect. Okay, not 100% perfect. It was decorated in 70’s colors, and carpet, that was easily fixable, and it had teeny bedrooms. All in all, the 10+ acres, and newer house (only 30 years old, as compared to the 100+ year old home we’d owned previously), so those little things seemed to be nit-picky. Once all the colors were fixed, and fixtures and carpets were updated, all was well… except for the thing that wasn’t so easily fixed. The small bedrooms. The thinking in many of these farm communities is kitchens, and living rooms should be large, for families to live in, and in true country fashion, we have a huge kitchen, and living room and even a large family room. The bedrooms, however, were functional, and big enough for bed and dresser–what more do you need? Bedrooms are for sleeping. Most of us who grew up post 70’s have a fondness for larger bedrooms though. Places to escape the hubub of the house, maybe relax and watch a little tv, or listen to music.

My problem is with our bed, and dressers in the biggest bedroom there’s not much room for anything else, certainly not a tv. I began to think about a tv wall mount after seeing how hospitals have their tv’s suspended off the floor. That’s about the only place you used to see something like that though. Now, with flat screens and wall-sized televisions being so common, all kinds of wall mounts are available, even for regular console box type tvs. That will solve the space problem beautifully, and add the final touch to our update and bringing the house into the 21st century at last.

The Cure For Cancer

Most people who have been on heavy drugs, whether illegal, or pharmacudical have to rely on drug rehab to stop taking addictive drugs. Lately I’ve gotten a much deeper look into the other side of the coin, however, with my mother-in-law going through chemotherapy. No one ever needs to be told to stop taking those drugs. There’s nothing pleasant about it, nothing to crave. People going through that type of drug use are all too happy to be done with it. The effects are quite like those of an addict though. Loss of appetite, severe weight loss–I’ve always heard about how cancer makes patients lose weight, I’m not really sure that’s true. My mother-in-law was her normal weight when they found out she had cancer of the stomach lining, but after several months of chemo she is down to less than nothing, skin and bones, dangerously thin. I’ve also heard it’s not the cancer that kills you, it’s something else allowed in by a weakened physical state due to the chemotherapy–boy do I believe that. I’m not knocking chemotherapy. It has given hope to people suffering with cancer, and has either ‘cured’ the illness, or prolonged the life of the sufferer, but it would be nice if they could come up with a way to treat cancer that wasn’t so destructive in itself.