CRYSTAL AND DAISY MAE'S PHOTO-BLOGGING SITE
NOT JUST A PHOTO-BLOGGING SITE!!!!
1. I may clean up some, but I find that highly unlikely.
2. I keep forgetting that not all Cats liked to be picked up or have their Tummy rubbed.
3. This time of year, warm registers are my favorite tret to enjoy.
4. Halloween costumes scares me more than seeing Mom Sister Crystal go without her makeup all the time.
Please Note: The first two were done by me and numbers 3 & 4 were done by Daisy Mae.
Hi Everyone although I have posted some here and there I thought after some of you reached out to see if everything is OK with us and where we have been, I thought I would update you with what has been going on. It seems that ever since I have got over COVID then against my better judgement I got a COVID Vaccine which I regret doing now because ever since I did I have been sick. Since My Mother is completely immobile I’m a Full Time Caregiver for her and help my Dad out when needed. This Summer has been a very busy one since three of my Nieces got married so the family grew by three. As for Daisy Mae well she will be turning 17 on Sept. 12 and my Tabby Cat Tigger died on Sept. 11 so will be having her Death Anniversary and my Grandmother died on Sept. 11 so things have been quite busy here.
Daisy Mae & I send our best to everyone.
YEAH I HAVE GONE AND DONE IT. Yes I have. So what have I gone and done? Well… between helping take care of my Mother who can not walk and is in her Lift Chair 24/7 and recovering from an accident in December, a later accident and then one where I did a literal Face plant and did my shoulder in I somehow found time to complete two books and start another one. To give you an idea of my books here are the titles of my books and OH yeah there is a good chance there might be a fourth book too. So the titles of my books are as follows: The Hot, Sexy, Clueless, Arrogant, Cocky, Obstinate Cocky, Bachelor & The Unexpected Heir: Book 1, The Most Unexpected, Beautiful & Gorgeous Engagement Of The Century: Book 2 and the book I just started is entitled: The Most Beautiful & Gorgeous Wedding Of The Century: Book 3.
Somehow I have managed to get three chapters finished and a fourth chapter started which means I’m at 13,858 words. I am trying to get to Novel Length which is 40,000 words which means I only have 26,142 words to go which for me is very easy at least for me it is since I’m very wordy LOL. I will try to keep you updated every now and then. Wish Me Luck.
I was introduced to Carolina Russo through a contest actually and I was the lucky winner of that Drawing and it was beautiful. From there I liked her drawings and paintings so much I have bought several more for myself not just the two shown above and I have bought some as gifts too. This woman definitely has a gift and I should mention she does custom drawings where you ask her to draw something for you.
Some good links for Carolina Russo are to check out are:
2. Etsy Shop
3. Fine Art
5. Instagram – @carolinarussoart
First let me say Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate this special day.
Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day and if you do what are your plans? To answer your question Do I celebrate Valentine’s Day? I used to until high school then things took a turn for the worse. So what happened? The boy that led me to believe he had feelings for me & convinced me to fall in Love with him scorned me then once in college things got worse. Some of my so called friends pushed me into a blind date then went on the date with us. Not my idea of a date. Then the same guy I went out with on the blind date well… that was on Valentine’s Day then my so called friends started taking bets on whether or not we’d date a year. The result: A year later that guy dumped me on Valentine’s Day then Valentine’s Day is really just another day to a single person if they don’t have a spouse or significant other and that is what February 14 is to me just another day. My Valentine I guess will have to be my Cat Daisy Mae.
Hi Everyone Daisy Mae Here with Mom Sister Crystal. I am here to reveal my Secret Paw & Thank them. So why did I take so long to reveal my Secret Paw & thank them? Well… everything was going OK then life through us some major curve balls & when I say major I mean Mom Sister Crystal’s Mom was in and out of the Hospital, she had to be in the Hospital over Christmas & now she is in a nursing home she’s not crazy about. To say the least things have been frustrating & chaotic not to mention hectic around the Stewart household.
My Secret Paws were Charlemagne & Tamar & the funny & ironic part of Secret Paws 2022 was we were each others Secret Paw. So thank you Charlemagne & Tamar for the Catnip, the soft snuggle mat, all the play toys you got me & a special thank you from Mom Sister Crystal she really liked reading the letter and we hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year.
Thanks Again,
Crystal & Daisy Mae
Dear Santa, I’m writing you early because what I’m asking you for this year are big things so I want you to have enough to get started on. So what are the things I am asking for? Well Santa, I’m asking for: 1. An Engagement Ring on my left hand finger. 2. I’m asking to be married. 3. I’m asking to be published. 4 & 5. I’m asking for two more things that go along with what I’m asking for in 1. & 2. I hope you can get me one of these things because I have been hoping and praying for numbers 1 & 2 it seems all my life and want it more and more each day.
Dear Santa, let me make it easy on you this year what I want is: 1. Give my Human Mom everything she asked for especially numbers 1 and 2 and everything that goes with that. 2. Some new catnip mats please.
Thank You Santa, Crystal And Daisy Mae
SEX, SEX, SEX, SEX… Now that I got everyone’s attention, let’s talk about the subject of my post today which is are book excerpts and trigger warnings really necessary?
I have always wondered are book excerpts and trigger warnings really necessary when you can look at the book cover. My opinion & conclusion is a resounding YES. You are probably wondering why? first you have to decide how do you decide to buy a book? Is it by the cover, the excerpt, by reviews or all of the above. Me personally, I am one of those people who look at a book cover then decide and only read the book sometimes. I learned the hard way don’t trust reviews. I will use an example that happened to me this past week and it was: I like to read that’s not a secret so I follow book sites to get a good idea of new books and authors I might want to buy. This past week I noticed some books being advertised and I checked out all the book covers. Surprised the book cover was neutral or just made me eerily turn off my idea to buy these books. The one book cover that caught my attention had a nice setting but what made the cover eerie was a man on the cover with his hands out reaching for the woman but the expression on the woman’s face was a terrified one and one asking the guy why are you doing this to me. Yes, I got all that from a cover then I started reading the book excerpt and it was so bad I cringed through what I did read and what I did read was so bad I didn’t even get halfway through it I had to stop. I found out real quick these books were about birching, spanking and beating their Brides To Be and their Brides to their bare bottom was almost bloody or to it was bloody. I found at least a half a dozen or more books like this and I thought where are the trigger warnings. The book with the book cover of the terrified woman on it, was about beating a woman’s bare bottom until it was almost bloody or until it was bloody. This was supposed to make the woman submit to the man and if she didn’t listen to the man the first time, each time he beat her got worse. I’m sorry but in my opinion this sounds like abuse. I found so many books like this without looking it just surprised me. A trigger warning should have been placed in the front of the book or right before the book excerpt. I like to read books in that time period but not about this. Even if there was no Trigger warnings, no book excerpts or even if there was a book excerpt and I ignored it, the book cover alone turned me off so bad I would not buy that book.
What are your thoughts?
Internet Meaning Of Birching: beat (someone) with a bundle of birch twigs as a formal punishment.
My Meaning: Abuse.
Hi Everyone Crystal And Daisy Mae here, so where have we been all this time? Well on December 13, 2021 Crystal and the Dad that’s my human Dad got their second vaccine shots. Thankfully, no reaction for the Dad but for Crystal well that was a different story. Boy did Mom Crystal have a reaction. No not an allergic but her reaction was she got sick. She got the headache, earache, soar throat and a few other symptoms and has yet to get rid of them. She has tried everything she can think of but finally had to stop the cough drops for sore throats because one of the side effects was she started getting ulcers on her gums and gum line. Then what happens but life happens again and again and things are getting so stressed and frustrating she doesn’t know what to do except go live in fantasies and imagination. So Posting got put on the back burner and we are real sorry for that. We don’t know when we’ll post again so were on an indefinite temporary break.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST EVERYONE!!
It’s been a year as of April 22, 2022. That’s right when all this chaos and life hit my family and life hit my family and I. You see, it all started a few days before April 22, 2021 and then my youngest sister visited to see how everyone was and if we needed anything. I remember to this day what both Dad and I were doing. Dad was mowing and I was picking up sticks to make it easier to mow. We both had started having symptoms but they could be written off as something else or no big deal. The week before, we had scheduled our first vaccine shot for April 22 but that never happened because we were both diagnosed with COVID at Faster Care. Since then, my Dad was in and out of the hospital at least 4 different times and believe it or not he got all of his infections in the hospital. The only thing was Dad had to relearn to walk. Yep COVID took that away from Dad. I’m pleased to say he’s doing so much better now not 100% but doing better. The funny and Ironic thing is, yesterday was a year we both got COVID and we both were doing the same thing we were doing a year ago. Dad was mowing and I was picking up sticks. April 22 was the same day I was thrown into being a full time caregiver for both of my parents and still am doing that today. Things are crazy at our house.
So who is this beautiful Cat named Snowball? Snowball is one of my Angels. She passed earned her wings and passed over the Rainbow Bridge many, many, many, many years. A guy who was the friend of the family came to our door one day for something and when he saw Snowball, he said we should have named her Avalanche.
Snowball is a rescue Cat who before we rescued her, lived on the streets and went from house to house trying to find something eat and find a place to sleep and try to stay warm. You all know how children are when they want something, they are good at concocting plans and schemes even if that means getting the one parent to go against the other and come in with them on their plan. Well that’s what happened with my two sisters and I teamed up with Mom to try to get Dad say yes but to no avail he kept saying “When Pigs Fly” AKA a big fat NO. Well if you have a cat or even owned a cat then you know Cats can sense who the person is they need to convince. Snowball sure could sense that person was Dad. So one day on a gorgeous day with plenty of sunshine, Dad went out on the Front Porch to enjoy the gorgeous day and the sunshine. Eventually, Dad got tired and stretched out on our glider to take a brief nap. Surprisingly, Snowball showed up and tritti trotted up the stairs to the Front Porch and hopped up on glider and curled up tight against his back and snuggled in to take a nice long kitty nap. When Dad awakened from his nap, he found Snowball sleeping on the glider with him tight up against his back. Well to say the least that did it, Pigs flew that day because Dad finally relented and Mom, My two Sisters and I got a victory because we rescued Snowball and from that day forward, Snowball had found her purrfect furrever, loving home where she got plenty to eat, plenty of toys and gave us so much fun and joy. Eventually, we got a dog who was a Pure Bread Female Alaskan Malamute, Snowball tolerated Shandar our Alaskan Malamute and lived many years with her. A picture of Snowball with Shandar is below.
As most of you know, I have found a new talent and hack to lesson the stress at least it does for me. That new talent and hack is writing for fun and yes it actually works. Well since my family and I all caught the nasty virus COVID 19, I was thrown into being a full time caregiver for both of my parents unexpectedly. So since I had already set a New Year’s goal of being done with the book I’m writing in which I entitled it appropriately When Love, Murder & Rejection Collide.First I should tell you all how I found out I could write poems, short stories and yes even books. You know how college professors and college classes can be well boring? One day my college professor who was very boring and strict took the class over to a building to where there was a meet & greet scheduled. She took the class to hear Maya Angelou speak and afterward we had the opportunity to meet her. I took that opportunity and met Maya Angelou that day. The one thing I remember her saying is to never give up. After that, I thought how cool it would be to write for fun so I decided to start small and tried writing short poems. When I found out I had success at that, I tried my hand at writing longer poems then I went on to short stories. Then approximately 2-3 years ago, I wanted to surprise an author friend who I had been following for a while and write her a poem about two of her main characters from some of her books. As a a fluke none less, the poem I wanted to write kept getting longer and longer about 2 pages worth so with good conscious I felt I had to stop then the next day I contacted the author told her what happened and what I was trying to do then apologized and she accepted my apology. After that, we came to a mutual understanding along with mentoring on my writing. She was really great and stills mentor me today in which I appreciate very much. But finally today I have progressed from writing practice books to writing a book of my own. The update on that book is below.
You know it’s funny because the title for this book has changed 3 times. This book has literally been a labor of love. Also, it’s been hard work but well worth it. Will it ever be published? I really don’t know but I do hope so. If it gets that far at least I’ll have a draft of the book. My goal for this book is at least 40,000 words AKA novel length if I don’t get more. Right now from Jan. 1, 2022 to present day, I now have 33,983 words and I’m still writing. Am I having fun writing this book? You bet I’m having fun writing because the book is set in multiple settings. Also even though the book is set in multiple settings, the main setting is in Ireland. Like I said before, writing this book has been a labor of love but what I didn’t tell you is although this book is fiction, it’s based on my first hand experience from being bullied what can happen, what I wish would’ve happened and what I wish the way things could have been so this book that is fiction spans multiple genres. What genres is the book written in? The book is written in the genres of Mystery, Suspense & Romance.
Reflecting on last year made me really think about the last year and few months & how it was good, bad and yes even ugly. Let’s start with the Good.
Everything up to April 22, 2021 with live giving us a few minor ups and downs but nothing major just colds, allergies. I even helped my parents around the house inside and out. Dad and I once a week would go for groceries. We always had fun and we brought Dinner home that’s Lunch to you city folk. I enjoyed walking and talking to the neighbors a few times a week, meeting new neighbors and their pets usually a Dog. Things were just as normal as they could be during COVID 19 times. I was just thrilled my family and I were fortunate enough not to catch the nasty virus going around called COVID 19. Then it happened really happened. Really happened. The Bad finally caught up with us and more about that below.
As I said before, the bad finally caught up with us and boy did it ever. So what do I mean by that phrase? Let me explain. After Dad and I developed symptoms of COVID 19 that could be explained away as a cold, pulled muscles and allergies so neither one of us thought anything of it then my youngest sister stopped by to check on Mom and Dad and to see if they needed anything we didn’t. However my sister said to my Dad that he didn’t look to good and that she thought he needed to be tested for COVID 19 and after she said that, I said in that case I want to be tested for COVID 19 too. On April 22, 2021 a couple days later and the same day we were supposed to get our first COVID 19 shot but instead we ended up being tested for COVID 19 and guess what? We both were positive for COVID 19. Not a good day. Next then I know a few days later, I noticed Mom having symptoms of COVID 19. Now she was never tested but we suspect she had it since she was in a house with 2 people who were COVID po19 positive. My other younger sister came down for a week to help take care of Mom and Dad. When my sister left at the end of the end of the week, she decided to get tested for COVID 19and sure enough she was COVID 19 positive. You know how it goes, your taught to share, share alike and that’s what Dad and I did, we shared COVID 19 with the family.
From April 22, 2021, my Dad was in and out of the hospital about 4 times if not more plus he had to relearn how to walk. Dad’s getting stronger each day and he has learned how to walk again. Also, on April 22, 2021, I was thrown into being a full time caregiver for both of my parents too.
So after all this, you probably think if that’s the Bad then what’s the ugly? Shall we go onto the Ugly? Check that out below.
On December 13, 2021, I finally got my second COVID 19 shot. No big deal right? Wrong. You may remember seeing on the news and hearing that there are people who have reactions to the second shot or even the first COVID 19 shot for that matter. Also, it is said by doctors that you may get sick or symptomatic after your second shot but the symptoms are usually mild. Well after my second COVID 19 shot, sure enough didn’t I get sick and became symptomatic on December 13,2021. For 2 months I kept thinking whatever I had was finally going to go bye byes—it didn’t and so I finally decided to go to my new Doctor. He gave me a 5 day antibiotic and some nasal spray but neither worked. Fast forward to March 29, 2022 and low and behold I’m still sick with whatever it is I have. So this why I haven’t been posting as much.
I look forward to getting better from whatever it is I have.
Here is Queen Daisy Mae sleeping on her royal throne with a Tigger Tabby Cat pillow behind her and she is sleeping among he animal friends. Of Course being a very smart Kitty Cat and always on watch one way or another with one eye open and on her head. Daisy Mae feels like royalty not only when she is on her throne but all the time.
Happy New Year Everyone.
I have joined a challenge for books that’s called the Cat Mystery Book Challenge. There are different levels and the highest level is Catnip which is the one I chose. Below are how the Cat Reading Challenge levels go.
I thought I’d give you all an update on how I’m doing. First Catnip level is 30 or more Cat books read. So how I am doing? I’ve listed below the Cat books I’ve read so far. As you can see, I’ve reached 31 Cat books with the Cat in the Mystery playing a major role in solving the mystery already and I’m still going strong.
The Case Of the Banishing Spell: A Hillcrest Witch Mystery, #2 by Amorette Anderson – Kindle.
The Case Of The Fire Spell: A Hillcrest Witch Mystery, #11 by Amorette Anderson – Paperback.
Hi Everyone, Daisy Mae here with my update on my Secret Paw gift from Amazon. According to Amazon, my last Secret Paw gift was finally delivered at 4:00 PM on December 24, 2021. Now that’s what I call cutting it close.
So who was my Secret Paw you ask? My Secret Paw who bought for me was Peekaboo, Onyx, Angel Smokey and Butterfly. Thanks to their Human too. What were the Prezzies I got? The Prezzies my Secret Paw got me are: A 4-pack of Crinkle balls to play with, I got a new Pole to play with–YEAH!!, I got a new catnip mat that’s nice and warm, I got a thermal mat to lay on and it’s nice and warm. I used it already. Also, I got A case of Classic Pate` Chicken Fancy Feast canned, A big bag of Indoor Health Meow Mix Dry Cat Food, A big bag of Hairball Meow Mix Dry Cat Food, A round mat with a toy to chase and a Bag of Chicken Temptation Cat Treats. Thanks to my Secret Paw. I loved everything you got me and we loved your card too.
I have to tell you this though, Mom Crystal had walked to the Post Office which she does most days but when the Post Mistress handed her the box she told her it was heavy. She had her mail from her mailbox too. So how does she get the box home? Well that’s the part that’s incredible, The Post Mistress put her mail in a bag to carry and she carried the box the whole way home. She got her exercise that Morning.
Now for my Secret Paw who I bought for this year. Who was it? My Secret Paw who I had fun buying for are: Raz, Noelle, Reesie & Sharon.
We have also posted at our other blog Secret Paws. So check that out too by clicking on the following link and that is: Thank You To Our Secret Paw & Secret Paw Reveal
CRYSTAL AND DAISY MAE'S PHOTO-BLOGGING SITE 