The Convivial Gist

She was roused from her sleep by her husband.  Bird sighting alert! A hawk just landed on their backyard deck.  She immediately scrambled out of bed and tiptoed to the kitchen window. They did not exchanged word for fear of startling the magnificent bird, both of them impervious to the fact that their house was insulated from the din of the outside world. They stood there in awe, hoping this feathered creature would stay for a little much longer. And it did! He was  in for the hunt, looking for his prey amongst the various rodents that create a ruckus at this time of day in the small expanse of green.   The territorial cardinal When did this  morning ritual of  bird watching started, two, three or four months ago? They can not recall, what they remembered were the joys of watching the cadre of  sparrows feeding, the brilliant scarlet red of the matured cardinals pecking on the hapless sparrows,  the soft coos of the graceful mourning doves, the swelling breasts of the chi

Corollary to my previous blog on rehashing Christmas cards by converting them into tree ornaments , I tried and I am still trying to stick to my commitment of  spending  zero dollar on Xmas tinsels this year. Well, since my hands I are tied in relation to opening my wallet to Christmasize my crib, I opted to  let my imagination run wild with what I have currently on hand in  such a way that my decor would  look new and fresh.  1.  I have these red fabric with gold dragon prints in my storage box, ( purchased from one of my vintage shopping hunts from ages ago ( that means a month of so and it costs me 3 yards for $ 4 dollars). I do not know how to sew a throw pillow cover but I taught myself by getting the pattern from an existing cover that I have. Since I am zipper challenged, envelope type of pillow covers are such a breeze for me to create.  Changing the Throw Pillow Covers to Xmas Colors , the cat is not included in the decor. 2.  I hung the recycled Xmas fan card in m

 Photo from Getty Images.com  One lady in  my social networking page was griping about football taking precedence over  church attendance  on Sunday.  I can commiserate with her but on a different scale. Lucky for me, play time for my husband's favorite football team starts at 3 pm so it does  not run counter with our church schedule but if it does, there's always the DVR to do it. It's hard to compete with sports e.g. baseball and football specially when its in full season. I thought I was done and over with that. Growing up in a one television household with my older brother hooked on sports for the behemoths (basketball) in the land peopled by the vertically challenged (that is compared to a giant, no offense meant to my people, the Filipinos), he  would slyly  preempt any chance for me to switch channel  to my favorite TV show, I rue the fact that remote was not yet invented during that time ; as a consequence I developed a furtive enmity towards broadcaste