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Showing posts from 2008

Switching subjects

Life is so mean! With my FIL in the hospital, and me being a great caregiver my time is being sucked away. I am trying hard but keeping the doctors on point can be draining. Even if I am not in the hospital I am on the phone. As of right now his foot has been removed. He should be in lest pain that he was before. He compare the pain to have an operation without any anesthesia. When I go to see him later today I am praying that he is in good spirits and has a more positive outlook for 2009. But what a way to start the year. Switching subjects I recently helped my friend move from her house into an apartment. I was also happy to give her a housewarming gift of a bread maker. She loved it. Until she started using it. She follow the recipe that came with the maker and the bread was.....well not a good as expected. She made me a banana bread and the smell was wonderful. It just made your mouth water. But it was a little dry. She was so disappointed. She did not give up and re gift. She sear

Still trying to stay focused...

Sunday I got all the avon prepped for delivery. I was proud to be able to get items to customer in time for them to have them gift wrapped and ready for the holiday. Life is very distracting..... My father in law called at 4:15 am on Monday morning to say he was in a lot a pain an needed to go to the hospital. He has a major infection in his foot. He may lose his foot. I love him dearly and it difficult to watch him go through this knowing that it could break his spirit or will to survive. It's even harder watching my husband deal with the same thoughts and memories of when his mother went through when she had her leg amputated. He links it directly to the dementia she had in the later years before she died. So I am determined to use my nervous energy and stay focused. I find it hard to concentrate on my sewing so instead I clean the house. I organize papers. I cook. But I do not enter the sewing studio. (I just named the room a studio recently. Thought it sounded better

Avon arrived in time.

I had several people order avon for Christmas. I had to have the order sent by the 19 online. Which I did but I did not have confidence that it would be received on time. Sunday Morning 11:26 there is a knock on the door. Avon has arrived on time. Now I have to put it together so it gets to the customers on time. PRESSURE!

A great meal and wonderful day off.

My husband asked me to change my day off from Wednesday to Thursday. He also took Thursday off. I asked him what he had planned and he kept saying don't worry about it. So I didn't. However I was wondering what he had planned. After a while i decided that it was nothing. Wednesday after work we went to Sam's Club . I love warehouse shopping and the fact that everything is package with store owners or restaurant owners stocking needs in mind, it is bulk shopping for us. What did we buy? Colossal King Crab legs! They were huge and cost 12.00 a pound. One bag has two legs in it and cost 25.00 the second one 3 1/2 legs cost 35.00. I have never seen crab legs this big before. I decided that these must be the crabs that the show Deadliest Catch catches. Thursday Todd and I cooked them together. He put too much water in the pot but I correct that and explained way. The we made a giant salad with shrimp in it and then dinner was done. It was great! Because the crab was so larg

Refocus.

I was reading the entries of this blog and have decided that I have gone far off course. Since I am easily distracted this does not surprise me at all. It is time to refocus. Get the eye examined and new contact in place and stay on the right road. What is the right road? Right now it will be sewing and getting the Avon business up and running again. 2 goals. Work on some kind of sewing , crafting project everyday and the second rebuild my customer list. It has been one year in business as an Avon representative and I have face some unexpected expenses that I will keep my eyes on from now on. I will work on these goals right now and see how things go. Tonight I attempted to create a jewelry caddy of sorts. On my second anniversary my dear sweetie bought me a pearl necklace and it was in envelope sort of holder. This is the design that I am attempting to create. I have lots of necklaces all over the dresser and I hate the jewelry rolls. Tonight's attempt failed because I missed sev

One of the little designers

My sweet little neice had her audition today for Rodgers Creative and Performing Arts School. The thing is Rodgers before it became a Creative and Performing Arts School was a regular grade school grades k through 8. Everyone in my old neighborhood went to Garefield and then to Peabody High School. My favorite teacher was Mr. Mark Moore and yes he was the art teacher. Very tall handsome man with red hair. He is still an art teacher but I am not sure which school he is in. Tay had several completed works of art to bring to the school and while she was there she had a art project to complete. She said she was nervous at first but everyone was so nice and they liked her work. Check out her self portrait. This pictures is mixed media, watercolors and pastels This one took her 2 hours to complete. I think this is most impressive considering she had no formal training and she is only 10 years old. If she is not accepted to the school then I am sure her mother and Aunts will find her

What we need is a sabbath year!

There are lots of possible solutions to the current economic problems. My solution is simple its time for a Jubilee year. As I explain this to several friends I said it was the cancellation of all debt. Everyone get a clean slate. I thought about this while doing my cross stitch and watching TV. I decided to look it up. After a little research on this and I am wrong it’s actually time for a Sabbath Year or a year of release. The Jubilee year shares some features of the regular seventh-year Sabbath, but there are marked differences. As to the Sabbath year, according to Deuteronomy 15:1, 2, there was a releasing from debt: “At the end of every seven years you should make a release. And this is the manner of the release: there will be a releasing by every creditor of the debt that he may let his fellow incur. He should not press his fellow or his brother for payment, because a release to Jehovah must be called.” The expression “at the end of every seven years” is understood as meaning

Who did this?

Friday Why oh why!

This morning getting to work was not as much of a challenge as I thought it would have been. I decided to leave by the garage instead of the front door. This is the usual when the ground is covered with snow. HEAVEY WET SNOW. So I shoveled the steps and spread some salt. Made it to work on time. J came in with chips on both shoulders. He explained that he was irritated and we needed to have full books on christmas eve and news year eve. He also knew that one of three would give him a problem about it. No sooner than he went to his office did the phone start ringing. Normal stuff but here is the good part one of three calls she is sick. I snap at her "the phones are ringing you do not call me to call off call J." She told me she call C and told her she just wanted to know if c told me. " No" Then she say she was feeling better and would be in late. I get back to the phones. J comes in to and says " Oh she not coming in? coming in late did she call any

Estate Sales -Diary

Sydney Estate Sales has been had estate sales for the past 22 years in western PA. This was my first time going to an estate sale done by her. I will be keeping an eye on her website from this point on. There was a beautiful hallway mirror that I just loved. Some of the scroll work around the mirror was broken and it was extremely heavy but I just loved it. $10.00 I did not have my car and it was too heavy. So I did not get it. Lots of items that could be used in a tea party. I did get some Japanese china snack sets. Hand painted. There was also a mirror bar. At least I think it was a bar. The front door were touch release and inside were 2 glass shelves. not a single mirror broken or scratch or chipped. $25.00. Once again I could not carry it home other wise I know that would have been mine. So I am hoping that both of those items will still be available when she does her super sale on Jan 3. I will save my shopping money so I can get them or something better if possible. My sister t

Treasures from Aunt Honey

You have heard me mention my Aunt Honey. She is in a nursing home connected to a feeding tube. My Aunt Hen visits her every day for 3 hours each day. Recently My Aunt Hen came to accept that her sister will not be returning home. So she asked me to come and get all her clothing. Some of the clothes when to my cousin Lucy, the rest came to me. The clothing is out date and for someone much older then I am but I am determine to make something usable out of each and every item that I had received from her. I have been thinking about it daily and still have not decided where to start. I know I have to get started soon because they have taken over the sewing room. This is just some of them. Other are folded up and place in the mattress that sits on the floor in my sewing room. Aunt Honey never talked much she was born with some mental challenges but she took great care of us when we were little kids. She cooked for us and played games with us. Then She suffered a stroke and she was not as a

How would you feel?

How would you feel if your son's mother in law called you to tell you what you are doing wrong in regards to how you raise your children? How would you feel if this woman told you that your son is weak and that he will never be a man because you spoil him? How would you feel if this woman told you that all you did was make your son a dependent brat? Yes, One of three strikes again. Her daughter and son in law have been kicked out of the son's father's house. The father and son had some kind of argument and the father kicked them out so the daughter called mom to say " We are coming for an extended visit." One of three was shocked to find them coming with all their clothes and computer etc to move into the daughers old bedroom. Her problem is that her house is sooooo small and she can't have them living in her house. So I think her motivation is just to get them out of her house. She said she was going to call the father in law and I said it is not your proble

I can be a master of my craft in 10 years!

I read a blog called A Dress A Day. Erin, post some wonderful stories of dresses and the lives they had. She also post about the dresses she makes for herself and vintage dress patterns. I am not sure who recommended her to me but I love the blog. You should ready her post for today . You also need to read the article in the Guardian So according to Malcom Gladwell I need to practice 3 hours a day or 20 hours a week for the next 10 years and I can be a master of the whatever I decide to do! It's not about being gifted it's about how much work you put into it. I always thought that but now I an test it out. Will it be sewing, crochet, needlework, drawing, writing, computers, .......... what will it be. If you look at that list they can all be use in art. So I will practice and this will enable to accomplish my own study of this theory and become more accomplish at my artist ability. So as Erin says it just a matter of time what do you want to master?

A Little out of whack.

My blog recently has not been about creating much of anything. I really have to get back on track with creativity! I guess I have not yet got it together. I had my 5th anniversary on Saturday and I did enjoy hanging out with family, listening to music with a nice cold drink. We were all together not to celebrate my anniversary but to morn a family member. It's cool to look at all the pictures taken over the years and remember what you were doing and what the person meant to you. It was my 1st cousin Lucy's husband who died. When we were growing up she was like a big sister to me and when she is not acting crazy I will refer to her as my sister. When is acts like she lost her mind she just a cousin........... a distant cousin. My D & C is schedule for December 9. I will be happy to have it done so I can get some sense of how my cycles are going to be. My last cycle ended on October 6, and there is no indication of a cycle so far. I know that I am not with child because this

Change.

You know things are changing when a 5 year old little cousin hands me the remote control to the TV. That part is not so unusual. I ask him what he wants to watch. He said " Turn on Obama he's winning." So I sat with my cousins little boy and watch elections returns. Each time a new state shape appeared on the screen he would ask what state was it and if Obama won that one. He was truly watching it in between playing with his transformers robot toy. His attention span was no more or less than when he is watching Sponge bob. CONGRATS TO PRESIDENT ELECT SENATOR OBAMA.

Need time to sit and think

This weekend with the weird direction my mind was taking me, and the hectic pace of the weekend. I needed to calm down. I tried to just sit and think but for some reason my husband thinks it strange for me to sit without the TV or Radio playing. No nothing is wrong I just need to think. He felt it necessary to barrage with a lot of nonsense questions so I went into the bathroom. This is the most uncomfortable place to sit and think unless you are sitting in hot bubbly tub. I am 5’9” tall one day I will have a tub made to fit one of the tall basketball players so I can really know what it means relax and soak in a tub. So I just go to lie in my bed so I can think. I fell asleep. Sunday after going over my Auntie house to say good bye to a visiting cousin I finally sat down. I started crocheting my hat for the winter ….could not concentrate. I am crocheting in the round with a boucle yarn. For me the first few rounds take a little bit of concentration and then it’s all good. Then I decid

Mind drifting in weird directions.

Friday after work I went to a wake for my cousin's father in law. He did in FL and her and her husband had to make all the arrangements for the wake and funeral while driving on the road. To add to her stress her father who is in a nursing home is now being moved to a hospice. When she called me she was trying to be strong for her husband to lean on and at the same time call people to get everything in place. As well as emotionally deal with what was going on with her father. My sisters and I got food together for the family after the wake on friday. And I help get the food together on Saturday at the Church. Strangely enough even though I had no signs of AF that is what came to mind. So while I am serving chicken to people my mind started drifting in a way that is weird even for me. I was thinking of my cycle and started counting from October 6 last day of AF last visit. I know that I have a D & C the first week of december . I also know that my cycle has been messed u

Scrub Skirts?

Today I was reading H&M magazine, which I was able to get from the H & M Store at the Ross Park Mall. It was free so I grabbed a copy. There is an article title Dress for Success. After reading the article it should be about Power Dressing. It starts out talking about the year 1988, Dallas and Dynasty was on TV, remember the shoulder pads on those suits and gowns? Power Dressing in the 1980 meant slim jackets with broad showers, pencil skirts, tight and high-high heels with pointy toes. One example of a power dresser was Margaret Thatcher. She ruled Britain with an Iron hand; I loved the suits she wore. 2008 Winter RTW from the catwalk Power dressing is very much on display. The article mentions the trendsetter Maison Martin Margiela. I prefer the look of Akris. This is power dressing to me without the football shoulder pads. I think Akris is more in line with Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle which are also mentioned in the article. Of course we must not forget the women of t

Its possible, not probable.

I went to my doctor appointment today and He explained the procedure for getting rid of the polyp. It's a simple D and C with hyperscopy ( not sure of the spelling). Then I explain that I did not want the ablation because my husband and I would still like to have a child. Please note when I explained this to the nurse who put me in the room to wait for the doctor she looked at my chart twice before replying "your 46!" As if my age was not known to me. I told her I was 41 when I got married and its 5 years later. If I was 21 when I got married and it was 5 years later and decided to have a child that makes sense doesn't it. So I got started late in life. She decided that I was a saint and bowed as she left the room. The doctor when on to explain the reason why this prospect was improbable. He asked how were my cycles before this constant bleeding problem started. "You could create a calendar based on my cycles" he nodded his head, he asked if my husband had a

My discovery!

As a little girl I did not play with dolls, did not play house. I climbed trees and explored how things worked. Tried to make my bike do things it was not meant to do. My mother complain when I was a toddler she would dress me in frilly dresses to play and I would prompty find mud or dirt. My mother and father had a loving relationship but I really did not see my father much. He worked the night shift. I had a close relationship with my mother. She taught me to crochet and make clothes. She kept a beautiful home and was a great cook. I felt that my father did not appreciate her enough so I decided that I would not get married and deal with someone who did not appreciate me. When my mother died it totally crippled my father. I realized just how much he appreciated her. When she first died he would just sit in a chair and just stare for hours. Finally I started talking to him and he revealed just how much he needed her. Then I decided that I should not get married because I wou

Recessionista, Who me?

I was reading the NY Times online in a vain attempt to understand what is going on with the stock market. When my ADD kicked in and I notice an article " A Label for a Pleather Economy" this article was about finding things like the designers fashions but at a cheaper cost. Because of the recession. It make sense to try to find a way to still be fashionista with less money. I was recently in a Simons Mall and they have up scaled the stores in it. For the first time in my life I saw a Micheal Kors Store . The sales girl told me that it was a lifestyle store. Fill with some of Micheal Kors favorite items. Shoes, Handbags, Watches and a lot of other accessories. I fell in love with this bag. Its only $348.00 I began a search for a look a like. A Patent Pleather should be easy to find. So this article in the NY Times is right in line. As the article continues I find that there is a recession chic movement. "Mary Hall started a blog to chronicle her cheap and chic choices.&

Is Charlie Brown and the gang going to be there?

Its Friday and once again I am left with the coworker who loves to tell stories. Today however it just one story. OVER AND OVER AGAIN! If she gets interrupted during the course of the story she has to start over from the begining. "We had made plans to go the the pumpkin patch on saturday but I am changing it to sunday because there is less chance of rain on sunday. It's already cold and I do not want the kid to get sick. Plus it will be all muddy." The phone starts ringing and after twenty minutes of answering the phone and making appointment there is a break and she starts the story from the begining. So reread the begining part of the story. This is the next part of the story. "My son does not want to go on sunday he is mad at me because we changed the plans. He said for three months we had the plan for saturday and now it time to go and you want to change the plans. Lets just go on saturday because it may not rain. I said there is a 60%change of rain on sa

I am learning Needlepoint.

I have been reading Janet's blog Nuts about Needlepoint . I try to read it every day. Since I am switching from Comcast to Verizon Fios my Internet connection is temporary disconnected. You never realize how much you use the Internet until it not available at your every whim. So I have been following my blogs at work which is frustrating because work gets in the way. I love Janet blogs because she is always encouraging. One time she wrote about how Needlepoint is thought of as a craft and not a work of art. You should read it because she is right. Take the time to do a little bit of research and you will find some amazing works of art. Each time I see and amazing needlepoint, I would say I wish I could do that. SL does beautiful cross stitch and she was always telling me to get a counted cross stitch kit as a start. One day we were in Pat Catan and I found one in the clearance section. So I started! I was excited until I opened the kit. It had the thread separated on a chip boar

SERENITY NOW!

Why, I am I work today? So far one of three has told me 3 nice little stories. I can't remember what they were about because they sound like...blah, blah, la la blah blah. Blah? That last one is her asking if I was listening. I know she knows that I am not! She has just left the office with the promise of yet another nice little story. SERENITY NOW!

I would love to win this.

Pigtails and snails is giving away a beautiful quilt. I thought of a friend who was dealing with some life altering medical problems. I have been considering what I could give her that would give the feeling of comfort. So I hope I can win this quilt because she would love it. She loves all things natural so I just have the best feeling that this is it. Even if I do not win it I would to make it for her. Gifts of comfort are hard to find and we all need comfort at times.

So now we wait!

Today I had my biopsy . Dr S.S. explained the following to me. My hormone level are just were they need to be. I am not perimenopausal in any way. Not experiencing hot or cold flashes or any other symptom. The amazing thing is that with all the blood loss I am not anemic either. Even the thickness of the uterine wall would not be of serious concern. . . . if not for the polyp I would not have been there today. Usually they are benign but rare times they are malignant. The purpose of the biopsy is to find out if it is benign or malignant. This is what I hate. It takes about 1 week for the results to come back. Sometimes they comeback sooner. If it is malignant then they will call me. . . and wherever I am I must stop doing whatever I am doing and come in right away to have the D&C ! If not malignant then the D and C will still have to take place but we can schedule it when it is convenient. If I do not received a call by Tuesday then I will call them. So now we wait!

Rain Rain go away!

This morning I had breakfast with Todd. We had a productive conversation about our budget. This is a daily conversation because if it is not the budget restriction will no longer be in play according to his mind. So to stop family stress we talk about it daily. Just the make sure we are still of the same mind and notate all transactions. Then I dropped him off at his dad's house. He then did his daily routine of takiing his child to work and taking his dad to a doctors appointment. I picked up CB and we made our way to the KH where we meet for FS. The group had 15 people in it which is good. I think the normal number is some where about 6 to 10. We were in the Forest Hills Area and the hills are a nice work out. I knew their was some moisture in the air because I felt like I needed my inhaler. We did some door to door until it started to lightly rain. I think the time was 11:00 am we had been out for about an hour already. We continue to finish the street and by 11:30 the

I got my invite!

I got myt invite to spoonflower . I am taking the time to understand the directions to prepare file for printing on fabric. My internet connection is not working correctly but I will get it together in the next couple of weeks. So I have been using my husband's laptop just to get on the internet. I am putting my health concerns on the back burner for right now. I am not ignoring them but I will follow doctor instuctions and just do the best I can with what I have. I have and idea stuck in my head for a balloon purse. Not that its made of balloons it just looks like an inflated balloon. of which should be made of my signature fabric. thanks so much for the invite I will be sending the contactsheet to you shortly.

Crafting at work!

I have been encourageing coworkers to bring some crafty project to work and we can have a craft at work session during our lunch hour. One of three is creating cards some of which look kinda nice. Two of three constantly forgets her cross stitch at home. (She doesnt want to bring it to work!) She may bring her scrapbooking project. She may forget again. I have been working on my cross stitch at work. This is my first cross stitch project so we will see how I like it and If I will every use it again. It does help make the day less stressful.

Art isn't easy

Art isn't easy is a line in the song from a musical " Sunday in the park with George". Bernadette Peters was in the play which is why I watched it. The title of the song is Putting it together. This has be redone by several people. Barbara Streisand 1985 Broadway CD and this was one of the songs on it. These are not completely her words I changed some of them so it goes with the designing and sewing that you see on project runway. In fact this should be the song paying in the background when ever they put a compilation of all the project runway season together. Like a highlight film. Art isn't easy. even when your hot creating art is easy financing it is not a vision's just a vision if it's only in your head if no one gets to see it, it's as good as dead it has to come to life stitch by stitch putting it together piece by piece only way to make a work of art every moment makes a contribution every little detail play a part having a just a vision's no s

Welcome to work!

This is a weird day. I thought it was raining. So When I took my shower I washed my hair and slicked it all back with some hair gel. Put on a scarf and Hat and made my way to work. The ground was wet but it was not raining. So I figured it was a fast moving rain storm. The new bus driver does not try to leave us anymore. I guess he is starting to know who are the regular riders. We greet him when we get on and wish him a good day or weekend when we get off. He is starting to do the same. At one point along the route he just pulled over and sat still. He was way ahead of schedule. But no one complained and we were soon on a way. Usually by the time I reach Oakland the day has started to brighten but not today. It was still dark like night. Which I thought was weird. Had I actually watched the new weather forcast I would have known about the rain storms headed our way because of the hurricanes. As I made my way to the entrance on Yellow side the building I saw 6 to 8 people in suits sta

I am so weird!

I love notebooks, any type of paper, pens, crayons, and markers anything that I can write or draw with or on. I can stay in a stationary store all day. I have several books with my ramblings and rants! Sometimes I still write in notebooks. When I feel the need to be doing something, but I am not focus enough to sew or crochet or create anything I draw, doodle, and scribble whatever takes get it together to get something done. As a child I kept crayons and markers and notebook and coloring book right beside my bed so when I could not sleep I had them close by so that I could draw, write or color in the coloring book. My mother would get so mad because often I would be using a marker and fall a sleep while drawing and the marker would be all over the sheets. That was fine with me because her taking my stuff away from my bedside was annoying. I could not sleep if they were not there and would spend hours looking for them so I could put them beside my bed before falling asleep. I w

Measure twice cut once!

I have laid out countless skirts, shirts, jackets. I have relaid patterns just to make sure I could get the complete outfit made in the fabric of choice. So can someone please tell me why I cut the pattern for the skirt out of the fabric before making sure I had enough for the jacket! So I have the skirt ready to be sewn together but it will not have the matching jacket! Its my own fault. I usually measure and measure again and then lay out the fabric and put all the pattern pieces on the fabric to make sure everything will cut out properly. I realize that I have been distracted with fish bones in my throat, and being told that I am premenopausal and then being told my hormones are in balance according to blood test. Dealing with the never ending cycle. But as much as that should be enough for daily concerns, my husband not taking his meds correctly so a blood clot in his leg broke off decided to take a tour of his leg. First it visited his ankle and then it visited his calf a da

Clearing out

Today I am stuck in the house by choice. Not feeling my best is playing a factor but I probably could get out and do something but WHY? I need the clear out some things that are not being used nor will be use anytime soon. No I am not giving away my fabric stash! I am always looking for more fabric but I am trying to sell some furniture that currently not in use or soon to not be in use. I have listed one item on craiglist It is a Dark wood vanity with mirror that my great aunt gave to me. I love this but it is currently in the garage because it is too large to go into my bedroom. The mirror is very heavy and has the wood backing that is cut to the same shape as the mirror. The mirror is not glued to the wood backing it is attached with brackets. The vanity is also heavy. It has 7 drawers the 4 lower drawers are very deep the other 3 are regular depth and the one in the middle has a divider in it. I have had this vanity since she died. I have never fully used and kept it because

Welcome to Suessville!

The following was drawn by J King who claims he does not draw anymore. He made an exception for this party and we were very pleased! I usually hate using streamers but this was fun to do and it looked great! The little gold fish who kept trying to get rid of the Cat in the Hat! North and South traveling Zaks! The family baker did a great job on the cake. It was a big hit! I have to work on my photographer skills. I really need to be on eyelevel when photographing children. They look so much better. Once everyone starting arriving I was so busy with helping getting the games and food stuff together I kind of forgot to take pictures. They had great fun! Much thanks to all who help make this party and event!