Author: Lisa -Southern Patches

Hello everyone, my name is Lisa I am a southern girl born and raised in East Tennessee. I love discovering new places and things to do. I have a lot of favorites, shopping, traveling, knitting and photography are all at the top of my list. I am married with my fur babies my only children. This blog is actually named after my beloved basset hound Patches. She passed away a few years ago but will always have a huge part of my heart. Come with me and we will explore some wonderful places and discover some really fun things. Are you ready?

Hello Monday, It’s Vacation Time!!!

I was supposed to be waking up at the beach this morning for my first full day of vacation. But you know how plans are, sometimes they’re just not meant to be.

We decided to stay home and not do our beach vacation this year. With everything that is going on with Scruffy I just didn’t feel like going away and leaving him. He is on several different meds for the congestive heart failure and he is doing really well. But because he is still not feeling the best I just didn’t want to leave him. Taking him with us really wasn’t an option .He is having some diarrhea and a ten hour car ride for him, and us, would have been miserable. My sister in law usually keeps him for us but I just didn’t feel right asking her to handle all of that. The meds and cleaning up after him right now is a lot. I didn’t want to board him because it is just so stressful on him. Changing the dates was not a problem for me but Mark’s work has been so crazy this was the week he needed to take.

So here we are. I guess we are having a “staycation” I am not really upset about the vacation and to be honest I think Mark is sort of happy to spend a week at home doing nothing. I guess this is not the time to tell him my big plans for the week like cleaning out the garage, cleaning the driveway, painting our gate that never got painted and planting shrubs around the new gate. Yeah I will let him enjoy his coffee first. Realistically I know I won’t get those things done either but it is fun to dream.

But first I have to tell you about our great family day we had last Sunday. It was my Sister in Law’s Birthday. My niece and her daughter came in from California and we had lots of other family we hadn’t seen in years. It was a great time. I volunteered to bake the cake. I was a little nervous because I hadn’t made a really large cake in a long time. But it turned out great. Nothing fancy just colorful and it was yummy. The Birthday was held at The Fort Loudoun State Historic Area. There is lots of room to play and fish and hike and just have fun. We love this place.

My sister-in-law, Pat and her daughter
Spending time with family is just the best. I love these guys!!!
Fort Loudoun State Historic Area.

I actually started my vacation on Friday. I was scrolling through Facebook on Friday morning and saw that there was a Trade Fair at The Living Heritage Museum in nearby Athens. So I jumped up, got ready and got to the museum around noon.

There were several artist set up demonstrating their art. Such talent and great ideas. I enjoyed it so much. I think it was the perfect start of my vacation.

Some beautiful art work.
The spinning and quilt making were my favorites.
I am fascinated by bee keeping. My dad had bees when I was growing up. I would love to have them now but Mark is allergic and is terrified of having them here.
This lady was demonstrating Calligraphy
Lots of people were trying to weave.

I stopped in and saw my MIL at the nursing home. We had a great visit. She is still having therapy so that she can get stronger and move back to the Assisted Living Village where she was living.

Got groceries and went home and chilled. I don’t take Scruffy on long walks anymore. He is just not interested and the vet said to do what he feels like doing.

On Saturday I did some house cleaning so that I could enjoy the week off. I also read on one of my online books I have through the Libby App. I go to the app and I reserve books that I want and it seems like they all become Available at the same time. You do have the option of putting them off for a week and still stay in the rotation. I have had to do that a few times.

On Sunday I was very lazy. I worked on my Halloween cross stitch and took Scruffy for a couple of short walks. I decided to make meatloaf for dinner. I like having the leftovers for lunch during the week.

So it should be a very quiet vacation week. I did work in my flower beds today and got a lot of old and dead plants cleaned out. Mark’s grandmother had some large concrete planters on her front porch. No one has lived in the house for years. I wanted the planters and was afraid that someone would steal them before we had a chance to get the. Mark brought them home last week and I can’t wait to get them cleaned up and some flowers planted in them.

I can’t wait to use these. They are very old.

We finished up the day going into town and getting dinner and bringing it back home. I got a yummy chicken Cesar salad.

My precious Izzy

So how is your week going so far? I plan to have a lot of fun on my “staycation”. Sometimes those can be just what you need.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

And The Hits Keep Coming

This morning, for several mornings in a row actually, I have heard the old kitchen clock downstairs bong three times indicating that it is 3:00 AM and I’m wondering why I am awake. One of the reasons I was awake is because of Scruffy, my little terrier. Well I guess he is most or all of the reasons I am having trouble sleeping and wide awake in the middle of the night.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that Scruffy just wasn’t acting like himself. Let me catch you up a little if you are new to this blog. Scruffy is a rescue. We have had him about four and a half years. When we got him he was in pretty bad shape. He had a horrible skin infection and was almost totally blind from Cataracts. We took him to the vet and had him checked out. Other than the bad infection on his skin and the cataracts he was in pretty good shape. The vet estimated that he was about six years old although we have been told by our current vet that he is older. So that makes him at least ten years old, probably older. We took him home. I fell in love with him immediately and he loves me. He never lets me out of his sight. I am his person. After we brought him home we cleaned him up and had to bathe him about every other day with a medicated shampoo. After we had him a short time we had the cataracts removed. He has been living his best life with us, all the kitties, and until last month, Molly. He is sort of the big bro to all of them.

As I said a few weeks ago I noticed that Scruffy was just not himself. He seemed like he didn’t want to go on the walks with us every afternoon. I thought maybe he was missing Molly being with us, and that may have been a part of it. He acted like he had no energy. He has always been a fairly energetic little guy.

Last week he started this horrible coughing. It was especially bad at night or when he slept and stretched out. He always sleeps with me and usually on my bed. So of course every time he did this I would wake up. I also noticed that his stomach felt tight and maybe a little swollen. I got an appointment with the vet. I also did a video on my phone of him coughing so they could see exactly what it was like. It was terrible.

On Friday Mark took him to the vet. They ran a series of tests and told us that Scruffy is in heart failure. I was afraid that was what was going on. I hoped for anything else but I guess that fear was in the back of my mind. My sister had a dog several years ago and he went through the same thing. I remember staying with him one night when they were out of town and he did the terrible coughing just like Scruffy was doing.

They tell us that they think they have caught it early. His stomach was swollen a little from fluids and he is on Lasix for that along with a couple of other meds. So we were are hopeful that he will be okay for awhile.

But the last few days Scruffy will not eat anything. I am having to coax every bite that goes into his mouth. It is really hard to give him meds. Normally I would put the meds in a bite of food but now he won’t have anything. Even his favorite foods, he simply sniffs and walks away. He also has terrible diarrhea. I went by yesterday and picked up some medicine for the diarrhea. So far it hasn’t helped. We go for a follow up tomorrow. Maybe we will know more after that. All I know is that in the last two weeks he has really gone downhill. He is very lethargic and breaths heavy. It breaks my heart to see him this way and after losing Molly only a month ago I just don’t know how to go through it again.

Scruffy is mine. He loves Mark but wherever I am he is right there beside me. Right now he is lying beside my chair in the office. He follows me every move I make. Even if I am making the bed he follows me from side to side. When I am at home he never lets me out of his sight. When I go to the bathroom he sits outside the door waiting patiently for me. I used to think it was annoying but I will never think that again.

This is the day I brought Scruffy home, it was over four years ago. You see why we named him Scruffy.
After we got his cataracts removed and that nasty skin infection cleared up. And a haircut
Waiting to get the cataracts checked out at U.T. Veterinary Clinic
His favorite place, and mine.
He loves his sister, Kitty Kitty
He loved his big sister Molly and misses her terribly.
He loves sleeping in mommy’s arms. Especially when it is storming.
My sweet boy I love him so much.

So as you can see I am terrified right now and can only pray for guidance on what to do. I am trying to be positive that we can get these meds going in the right direction and he will start feeling better.

I just wanted to share all of that with you. Hug those babies close they are special little gifts. And if you would whisper a little prayer for my Scruffy that he can stay with us for a bit longer.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Friday Favorites

Hello Friends and happy Friday. Just a few things I wanted to share with you this week. I hope you find some of these things useful.

First of all is this steamer. I have been wanting one of these for a while. When I was growing up my mama ironed everything, and I grew up doing that too. But through the years I iron very little. There are still things I take out of my closet and think, I need to iron that before I wear it. Then I have to go downstairs to my ironing board. I have always kept my ironing board set up in my laundry room even though I rarely use it now. A lot of times I just wouldn’t wear the clothes because they needed to be pressed. Now all of that has changed. I put a hook on my closet door, and I just hang the clothes there that need to be pressed and steam the wrinkle out of them.

This is handheld, very light weight and was about $31.99 at Amazon. I love it.

Next is this Poreless Putty Primer by Elf. This is very light weight and I put it on with a small makeup sponge just before I put on my makeup. It is light but gives your face such a smooth even feel for applying makeup.

I got this at Walmart, but you can also get it at Target or anywhere that sells E.L.F. Cosmetics. It is usually $8.00-$10.00

I guess I am all about some hair accessories right now. My hair is longer than it has been in a long time, so I am having fun with the headbands and the hair clasps like I showed you. But I just had to have these large flower hair clips. They are so much fun. They are colorful and large, and they hold a lot of hair. I keep several of these around the house and in my car. When I feel the need to put my hair up, especially if I am working in the house and get hot, or on my way to work and need to tame my hair a little, I have one handy.

Aren’t these adorable? I also ordered these from Amazon and I got an assortment of colors 8 for $15.99. They are very durable. Not flimsy at all.

I am loving these little mascara wands. These are by Equate. There is about 20 in a pack. These were $4.99 and I use them after I put my mascara on and feel the need to brush out my eyelashes. They also work well on your brows.

Have you ever tried this Power Paste? I tried it a few weeks ago. It comes with a little tub of cleaning paste. There is a scrubber that you wet and dip into the paste and it works great!!!!

This is about $10.00 at Walmart. I thought that was a little pricey but it lasts for a long time.

These peds work great when you don’t want socks or footies showing. These are light weight and really stay in place. You can get several different colors.

These are around $9.99 for a pack of 3 at Walmart.

You know I would have some snacks as part of my favorites this week. This popcorn is Carmel and cheddar. It is like the Chicago Popcorn that you can buy at Costco. These are smaller bags and I got them at The Dollar General Store for $3.50 a bag. Mark and I love them. It’s a pretty good sized bag. I bought every bag they had. It’s a good snack.

I saw this beautiful rainbow on my way home.

Some other favorites this week:

I saw a beautiful rainbow.

We celebrated my Sister’s Birthday this week with a lot of our family.

My niece came for a wonderful visit and brought her daughter. It was so wonderful spending time with them. They live in California, and I haven’t seen them in several years.

I had Sister Lunch with my Sister and another lunch with my good friend Dann.

I am making a special Birthday cake for my Sister in law for this weekend. I will take pictures.

So, lots of good things this week.

What are some of your favorites?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!