Sunday, March 30, 2008

My latest jewelry creations

I am starting this one off with a listing of what's in my Etsy shop. I hope you enjoy looking at it, and hopefully decide there is something you just HAVE to own.



We have had the strangest weather this year. It is March 30, and it is the central Oregon coast, and it snowed . . . again. This past week has had sunshine, snow, hail, sleet, and temperatures so cold it has been tough to go outside much. My daughter and grandgirls walked to the store one day and ended up having to dodge into our favorite little cafe, Beach Dog Cafe, a couple of blocks from the store to get out of the horrendous hail storm that was passing over. She was going to just stand under the awning, but my littlest grandgirl started yelling, "Want pancake!! Want pancake!!" and once it begins there is no turning it off. They only had $3 with them, so my daughter was hoping she could talk her into having just hot chocolate. No way was she not having pancake after yelling, "Want pancake." The nice thing about living in such a small town is everyone knows you and your kids and knows you will be back. Sonja, the owner, insisted on giving both girls something to eat, a round of hot chocolate, and food to take home. She said, "I know you will be back, I can count on you or your mom and your girls coming in at least once a week. Just pay me another day."

I am hoping to finish the creation of a seed-bead bracelet I started on Thursday. It is a big pain in the butt, but it is also another skill to have and I always love more food for my head.

I am going to Portland on Tuesday to take my cousin to the VA for blood work, a visit with a specialist, and a little shopping. We can't go to Portland and not stop at a few places, which always includes his personal favorite . . . Walmart. I know it will be a long day. We have to leave by 7:30 or so. At least it is not another 5:30 am departure time. His last appointment is around 1 pm. It would certainly be nice to make it back before dark. I won't hold my breath, but I can always dream, can't I?!?!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Another day in paradise

My two little grandgirls came to visit me at a little after noon and they are still here. I actually said, you are just going to have to entertain yourselves for a bit, Grandma has a project she is in the middle of and I have to get the first part finished before I can help you with anything. And I stuck to it, and they have been so very good. I am so blessed with such wonderful girls. I got the first piece of the bracelet done. I only took one section apart three times before I realized I was looking at the wrong part of the pattern! Arrgh. Oh well, now I know what I am doing and the middle part is a little shorter than the other side which is identical to the part I just finished. I am going to wait until the girls go back home before I try to work on it again. We are all going to pile into the car and go see my dad. I told my daughter, I can’t go anywhere near him, but at least I can go sit across the room from him and talk to him. I know he will be all excited to see the girls.

Well, put a little break in there, and my daughter, the girls and I went off to see my dad. Along the way we stopped to pick up my tiny, since I was sick, paycheck. As we drove away from work toward the bank, the three-year-old started to cry. We asked her what was wrong and she sobbed, “I hungry.” We said, don’t cry, we will stop and have lunch before we go see grandpa. She sobbed, “I no want nunch, I want food. I hungry.” What a funny girl she is. My daughter asked her what she wanted for lunch, chicken, hamburger, pancakes? She said, “Chickem, hamgurger, pancake.” Tess asked her again, what do you want for lunch and she yelled, “Pancake!!” So it was off to our favorite pancake house. We then had to go to Goodwill to find a clean outfit for her, since by that time she was wet and filthy and nowhere else at the north end of town has children's clothes. I had spilled an entire glass of water on our table, and she had been one of the recipients. We then went to visit my dad. On the way into the rehab center in the parking lot, my oldest grandgirl somehow tripped over her own feet and fell on the pavement. She skinned her left knee, elbow, wrist, and pinky finger. She had a scrape on the front of her left ankle, too, have no idea how she did that one. She was sobbing so hard I think all the residents knew someone had been injured. Several of the nurses and the administrator patched her up and by the time we left she was feeling a lot better. I tried not to breathe on dad too much, but I could tell how happy he was to see us. He is doing a lot better. He really enjoyed our visit even if we could only keep the three-year-old occupied for a about a half hour. She sat on Grandpa’s lap and looked out the window at the birds for a while, and then traded laps between Tess and I. My oldest grandgirl had to snuggle in grandma’s lap for a while to soothe her arm and knee. Then she settled down and was pretty much okay as long as no one touched any of the sore spots. She wasn’t hurt badly, it was just overwhelming with how many spots she had injured. She didn’t even notice the scrape on her ankle until the nurse said she had better put a bandaid on that one, too. Every time she would look at the bandages she would start sobbing all over again. She is so sensitive it is always a struggle to find out how badly she is really injured. She definitely reminds me of me at that age. I had a little chat with a couple of the people who work at the rehab center, one of the dietary workers and the care manegement gal. She said my dad is working really, really hard to build up his strength. He is spending about two hours in therapy every day. She said she asked him what his plan was and he told her he wanted to be strong enough to go back home. She said he was really doing everything he could to make that happen and so were they. I stopped to talk to her because I had asked him what he was doing for therapy and he said, “Oh, just some exercises.” I asked him if he was walking and he had told me no, but when I asked him if they were getting him up with the walker he said, “Oh, yeah, they have me walk from the therapy room to the nurses station and back a couple of times. I think he forgets just how much he is actually doing, but it is nice to know the care planner is keeping an eye on him. She has been there as long as we have ever been there, which was 3-½ years with my mom and 3 years since then.

I am finally feeling a little better and should make it through the weekend at work. I have to be better, I have to drive my cousin to Portland on Tuesday to the doctor at the VA. It ought to be a fun outing after we get the medical crap out of the way. Nick and I have always been more like siblings than cousins, and he is definitely one of my best friends. I just hope I feel better so I can really enjoy the trip.

I am hoping for the weekend to go by quickly, and my healing to continue.

More soon!!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Monday, March 24, 2008

allergies, smallergies, I think it's the flu or a cold

I just noticed my map from the last post didn't show the eastern seaboard, so it didn't include New Hampshire, Massachussetts, Vermont or New York. I don't know if Illinois or Kentucky count since I have only been in the airports there, but they would probably count since I have touched the ground there.

I have had plenty of time to ponder strange things the past couple of days. No work, no Easter celebration, just sitting home and wallowing in my misery. Sleeping all the wrong times of night and day, and coughing and sneezing, and generally feeling like crap. I think I might almost feel not quite as bad tonight as last night, but I feel bad enough so it is really hard to tell. I am a miserable patient. I want to be doing something, but feel bad enough to not want to do anything.

I am determined to make something creative tomorrow whether I want to or not. Here is my latest creation, shrink art hand drawn and colored starfish with a Thai silver starfish:



Here is the other piece, shrink art charms hand drawn and colored by me, Swarovski crystals in hyacinth and capri blue and Thai silver spacers with a sterling silver toggle:

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Stupid, Stupid cold!!

I am having an allergy attack topped by a lovely spring cold. What a lovely way to spend the first day of spring . . . again!!

I made a pendant for a challenge on WetCanvas.com and the site it down and has been since yesterday. Poopy!!

So I, throught a friend's blog, found a site where I could make a map of all the states I have visited. Could do foreign countries, too, but I have only visited the closest corner of Canada, Victoria and Vancouver, BC. Here's the map:



create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

Where have you been??

Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy St. Patty's for real this time

I went to visit my dad this afternoon and he was lying in his bed when I got there. I had expected him to be at the St. Patty's party. I asked him why he wasn't at the party, and he said because he didn't feel like it. I asked him how he was feeling, and he said fine. I said then what the heck was he doing in bed, get his butt up because we were going to the party. He said, Okay, since you put it like that. I think he was glad I "made" him go. He got a nice hot cup of coffee, some green filled oreos, some peanutbutter and caramel filled chocolate candies, and got to listen to some nice Irish music. He hummed along ate his treats, and told me he was glad I "made" him get up. I reminded him the less he does the less he will be able to do, and I think he really would like to come home at some point. Right now he is still tired from being so ill, and but I think he is also enjoying not having to do anything much for himself.

I wore my new pendant today. I call it "Balancing Act." It has a beautiful lampwork bead handmade by my friend Pam Brisse, torcher extraordinaire. Here it is:

Happy, Happy!!

Happy St. Patty's Day world!! Happy Birthday, Ed!!!

Fell asleep in front of the TV again. Got to go to bed before I do it again.

My dad is in the rehab center, following spending four days in the hospital. He is right where he needs to be. He is doing great. They are supposed to start his PT today. I hope they can get him all fixed up so he can come home. They have him in the short-stay ward. Right now he has no roommate, so he has some peace and quiet and is finally getting some sleep. He said the hospital kept him awake so much being in rehab last night was a relief. He finally got some rest.

I will attempt to catch up more tomorrow. We shall see. Bed is calling me, I am feeling the need to answer.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

This one's for you Ed!

My friend Ed stopped by today and told me I was falling behind on my blog. He said it was terrible, and I better knock it off. He had nothing else to read when he woke up at 3 am and had resorted to rereading my old blog. So, Ed, this one is especially for you.

I have a lot of catching up to do, so I will start with the trip Tess chaperoned to the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport with my granddaughter's class. This occurred on February 28.

The Marine Science Center trip was really fun. The group of kids we had were awesome, unlike the kids some of the other parents got stuck with. We had my granddaughter and two other girls as well as two very well behaved boys. One boy told Tess, I think your daughter is really pretty. (Tess said he was such a shy kid my granddaughter would probably never notice him.) She is so bubbly and outgoing like her momma. We got to look at all kinds of critters, and the kids touched lots of different intertidal animals. Clams, mussels, sea urchins, sea stars (starfish), fish, sea anemones, and a sea cucumber. There was an enormous octopus, a bonded pair of wolf eels, and so many cool things to look at and do. One of the fish in a really big reef tank kept following me around. They must do that because they are hoping we are there to feed them. It was so beautiful there we ate lunch outdoors in the beautiful sunshine and the kids ran around after lunch and burned off some of their excess energy. While everyone was eating lunch I asked several groups if they were eating fish for lunch, I got a bunch of eeeww gross comments, and a few puzzled looks. I had to laugh. Haven't they heard of tunafish sandwiches??

Here is a picture of the octopus, and two of my favorite anemones, and the view from where we ate lunch.








We had a great time. Then Tess and I went on to shop at Walmart and headed for home.

This past Thursday I drove my cousin Nick to Portland for a doctor's appointment. Wow was that a long day. I got up in the middle of the night (5:30 am) and drove to my cousin’s house and picked him up at 6:30 am. We then drove for 2-1/4 hours to his doctor appt. We got right in so had the rest of the day away to play. We went out to lunch, a fabulous Chinese buffet in Portland, a thrift store, an art store, Michael’s Craft Store, then on to a bead store I had been dying to visit. Then of course we had to go to Walmart so he could buy a new TV for his bedroom, and then had a two hour drive home. I was really beat, but feel great for all I got done and the cool stuff I found.

I also got a little soldering torch and fuel. It has all kinds of tips, even my dad thought it was a good buy. I showed him the beads I bought and he was happy I had found some things I like and can use. I bought a big fish bead for Cassie, a pretty green leaf pendant for Tess, and at the thrift store I bought Athena a big unicorn toy she will love. I am sore and really really tired, but relaxed, and happy. Oooh, I bought some Qwan Yins at the new bead store. It is such a great store. I got two types of Qwan Yins and some Thai silver they had bought in Thailand recently. Had a great day!!

At Michael’s I got a few beads, and some Shrinky Dinks!!! Here is a picture of my bead purchases.



See Ed, sometimes you get what you ask for. I don't know if you will finde this interesting, but it is a glimpse into my crazy world.