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St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and since my weekend is full up of green alcohol fun I dropped of one of my themed Wendy Bombs of Kindness today.

photo (7)#35 – No pinching.  When I first got Riggins I had grand plans of getting him certified as a helper dog who I could take to hospitals and senior living homes.  His job, which he is a natural at, would be to make people happy.  In return he would be the recipient of endless attention and snuggles.  Seemed like the perfect fit until I came to realize Riggins is crazy.  He does not like anything that he sees as “abnormal.”  This includes anything with wheels, high-pitched voices, signs of nervousness (or just shaking in general), starring directly in his face, odd smells, etc.  In general he would hate everything about a retirement home and/or hospital (no offense).  He seems to be calming down in his old age but I still wouldn’t trust him around a wheelchair as far as I could throw him!

Riggins went to an assisted living home once, to visit my Grandma.  He was a puppy and did well.  Sometimes I think he would probably be fine and I should look into the certification again and then he goes ape shit over a little person walking at Runyon (Is little person the politically correct term?  I’m going to go look it up …. well that was unhelpful but if you want a giggle go to Ask Jeeves and look at some of those answers.) or nearly has a stroke when a skateboarder comes by, and I come to my senses.

Both my grandma’s lived in different degrees of assisted living near the end of their lives.  I feel like when people look for places to donate their time, energy and or love our elders get overlooked.  I didn’t want to leave them out of my 39 Acts of Kindness!

Riggins and I walk by Windsor often.  It is an assisted living community in Glendale, CA.  I’ve always been impressed at how pretty they keep their lawn, flowers, outside of the buildings, etc.  I had never been inside but based on the flow of family members and visitors in and out I figured it had to be a nice place.  I decided to make them green tissue flowers that they could wear on St. Patrick’s Day.

A quick trip to the dollar store left me with two different color green tissue paper.  Weirdphoto (4) fluorescent green and gross dirty green.  Who knew that when you put those together they are beautiful!  I’m so happy with the results.  Here is my “how to make tissue flowers tutorial” for those who can’t remember this same lesson from kindergarten:

  • Grab something circular that you can use as a pattern.  I choose the lid to a lovely smelling candle a friend gave me.  I’m sure a crappy smelling candle lid would work just as well! 
  • Cut out tissue in the circle shape.  I folded the tissue over a number of times so I could cut as many circles as possible all at once.  Some would call that sloppy.  I consider it efficient.
  • Fold the circles in 8ths (that’s 3 folds in half) and round off the corners with scissors (again I did as many at once as I could manage to push my scissors through).  I didn’t worry about uniformity.  Once unfolded you have a scalloped circle.
  • Gather 6 (or so) of these fancy circles and stack on top of each other.
  • Insert a brad clip in the middle and secure it on the back.
  • Starting at the top (middle of the flower) pinch up each layer to make your flower.
  • I added a piece of curly ribbon to the back with a safety-pin.

I dropped of my bouquet today.  Let me tell you the Windsor lobby is as impressive as the outside.  Definitely a place to look into if you require such services.  Now the men and women of Windsor can enjoy a pinch free holiday!

(Once again I forced boy dogs to model flowers.  I told Morgan and Riggins they were boutonnieres and very fashionable for the hip gentleman.)

Act of Kindness Roll-Call:

(BTW no one alerted me to the fact that I had two 31s.  Fixed that, making me even closer to my goal!)

To be continued …