Wreck This Journal

I've been working on my "Wreck This Journal" by Keri Smith since right around Easter. I'm not finished with it yet. I only work on it with my grandkids or when I just want to doodle or experiment. Or play! She has several different books out. All of which I'd like to get.

These are a couple of the pages that I've worked on recently. I've enjoyed working on them very much and I hate that I've finally filled up the pages of circles. So much so that I may have to put circles on a another page or two, just for the heck of it.

The stamps have been extremely fun too. I wish I had been pasting used stamps in books for years! I just think of all the cool stamps that I've bought to send off to other people and never seen again and I get a little sad. Then I look at these two pages and think of the ones to come. I'll never skip over an envelope again. And I can always use the stamp glued pages for other art at some point in the future. You just never know what will happen. It will also be a great way to cover up pages in the journal that I'm not overly fond of.

I highly recommend this book and anything else that Keri Smith has written. *each name has a different link

One Little Update on The Best is yet to Come

Just want to clarify that when I'm talking about eating better and exercising, my goal is to get healthy. If I do lose weight and get trimmer in the bargain, that will be an added bonus. I want to see my grandkids grow up. I want to see them get married and have children. I want to see them be happy. What a blessing that would be. What more could a gramma want?

Even more than that, I want to be comfortable in my clothes. I want my knee to feel better. I want to walk miles at a time and enjoy it. I want to find a bra that fits and is pretty and comfortable. I want to actually wear the clothes that I always picture myself in. I want to be much more fit.

The Best is yet to Come!

As the year grows to its end, I am thinking of all sorts of things.



The last year and a half have been more than challenging personally, not only for myself, but for my husband also. I have hopes and wishes for this man I've been with since July of 1976 and married to for almost 32 years now, but when you get right down to it, I can only work on my own hopes and wishes. He has to take care of himself, so to speak. So do I. I plan to do just that this coming year. I plan to become the person I was meant to be. It's not too late.



I plan to get healthy, once and for all. I'm too young (at days shy of 50) to feel this damn old. The reason for me feeling old is my physical condition. To say that it's "poor" would be an understatement. I don't exercise and I don't eat correctly, whatever that is. Over the coming year, I plan to start doing both of these things, slowly but surely. I may even start another blog just about my health goals. If I do, I'll let you know. Getting healthy has been a goal of mine for many years now, but I swear this is the last year that I'm going to end the year weighing more than when I started it. I heard Dr. Phil (I think) say one time that you will not weigh the same the next year as you did this year. You will either weigh more or less. I do believe he's right.



I will continue to grow creatively. I've done some of this in 2009 and I cannot tell you the difference it has made in my daily life. I feel like a new person! I feel like I'm starting to become the person I was meant to be. I feel that it literally saved me these last few months. I must continue on this journey. There is no option. It's like needing to breathe. My only regret is that it's taken me so long to start this journey in such seriousness and enjoyment. I've been on the path for many years, but I'm making progress now. Thank You Lord for that.

The Christmas Day that was....

We were able to cook after all. I got lots of suggestions, all good, from my quilting friends on how to handle the dead oven heating element. In the end though, my hubby decided to use the oven with the broiler element. We kept the door shut and adjusted the shelves down one, experimented with time and temperature and used foil when necessary. Thankfully, it was just the two of us and, because of that, we had a limited menu to begin with. Everything turned out well. Which is more than I can say for me.



I'm sick. I don't know if it's an extremely light case of the flu or a sinus infection. It feels like a combination of both, so your guess is as good as mine. I do know that using my neti pot just about killed me last night, but after the initial pain, I felt much better. So, I'm leaning toward a sinus infection.



My hubby has been taking care of me. I've been in bed, being a bum and feeling crummy. Sleeping when the coughing isn't keeping me awake. Today, I'm a little better since it's the first time I've felt up to using the computer at all.



A little update on our snow. You basically saw it in the photo I posted. It did get heavier for a bit, but nothing came of it. We didn't get even a light covering.

What's not cookin'

We just discovered that the heating element has gone out on our oven. It's after 6 PM on Christmas Eve. I'm guessing that not one place that sells replacement parts would be open at this time. So, our Christmas dinner will be most unusual tomorrow. I'll let you know later what it ends up being.

Will it be a white Christmas?

Christmas Eve 2009

We were supposed to go to my sister-in-law Charmaine's house today. When I woke up, I could tell that it had indeed gotten colder, as predicted. I felt a migraine coming on. I feel miserable. I did not feel like visiting with anyone even someone I love and enjoy so very much as Charmaine.

I drug myself out of bed, washed the remaining dishes and had breakfast. Then I told my hubby how I was feeling. Seems he wasn't feeling terribly good either. So he called his sister and told her we wouldn't be making it to her house after all. I feel bad about canceling on them, but with 16 other guests expected, hopefully they won't miss us too much.

I came back upstairs and put on my Holly jewelry that I made last night. I turned on the White Christmas marathon that is showing on AMC. I have it muted so that I can listed to Christmas music on the radio, which I'm listening to through the computer. I have KVIL (a Dallas station) on because they play all Christmas music after Thanksgiving (I think). Since it's on the computer, they usually show the song and artist, so I'm making a list of songs to down load later.

I've got the shades up, watching for the snow we might get. It's snowing at Charmaine's now and at several other friend's homes who all live farther north than us. It's very windy here and ice is melting from our roof, but no rain or snow yet today. We got a lot of rain last night, which I guess is where the ice came from. I've seen a little bird land several times on the deck rail. That's been fun to watch. I have an urge to put bird seed on the rail, but I'll have to wait for hubby to wake up. I can hear him softly snoring in the recliner downstairs.

So, this is our Christmas Eve. Quiet and drippy. Nice, but not quite what we had originally planned. Head achy and hoping for that to end. Maybe I need a nap too.

"Holly" Jewelry set

Hubby and I are going to his sister Charmaine's tomorrow for Christmas Eve dinner. I'm not entirely sure what clothing I'll wear, but I did want to make some jewelry to wear to the gathering. So, tonight I pulled out my new green glass beads and started playing. I knew I wanted it to be Christmasy looking, so I pulled out all of my reds, whites, clears and other greens also.

My garnets are beautiful, but too dark for Christmas and rather brown looking, like most of my other red beads, which I hadn't realized before and I find rather disappointing. The garnet beads are what I had originally planned to use, so on to plan B since they just wouldn't do. I had 30 lovely little green, red and white millefiori beads that I almost incorporated into the necklace. I also tried some Swarovski Crystal AB beads, but I really liked this combination of the glass beads and coral best once I came across them together.

It's the shortest necklace I've made for myself since I've been making jewelry. I couldn't make it any longer. I used all of my coral beads in this. The earrings are the first I've ever made. I call this the Holly set. It looks like abstract holly leaves and berries to me.

Merry Christmas!

Hair

I have old hair now. I'm going to be 50 in a couple of weeks. I'm not upset by that number because it sure as hell beats the alternative and I'm more comfortable in my own skin than ever before, but I'm not overly happy about my hair. I've never dyed it. It's my natural color. The only thing I've ever done to my hair in the past, besides cut it, is to perm it, many years ago. I have some grey. That doesn't bother me. Never has. I'm not all that vain. Although, I am more vain that I used to be. At one time (in my late 30's probably) I saw an interview with Tyne Daly, who said she celebrated her 50th birthday by shaving all the hair off of her body. And I do mean all of the hair off of her whole body! I thought that was pretty cool and decided I'd do the same thing. Well, the closer I got to 50, the more I thought I probably would not do that. Tyne is a more courageous woman than I or I am indeed more vain than she. Maybe both.

So today I get out of the shower and dried my hair. Then I look in the mirror and realize it looks so dull and lifeless. I have old hair now. That makes me a little sad. Even more sad than the sagging breasts, the flapping arms, the smile lines and other wrinkles. But, I digress and I go to places neither of us want to picture at this time of day. When I was much younger, I promised my dad that I would never dye my hair. I may have to break that promise one day because if the commercials are to be believed, that's all I have to do to get my shiny hair back.

This time of year...

This time of year is always special to me. I love to see my Christmas tree all decorated and lite up. This year, the tree is so full of ornaments that my hubby has been concerned it would topple over. I knew it wouldn't. My favorite new ornament on the tree this year is a sock monkey wearing boxer shorts with hearts all over them. I bought my hubby similar boxers when we were first married, for Valentine's Day. I found the sock monkey ornament at the Houston Quilt Festival in October and just had to get it for him. I look at that little sock monkey and laugh.

I've been doing chores and running errands when I have to. Craving Christmas movies and music constantly. I can't seem to get enough of either this year. I want to sit and quilt with these wonderful old movies playing in the background for me to stop and gaze at every time I pull the thread through the layers of the quilt. Sometimes I have to rewind the movie if something really good or special to me happens while I'm loading my needle with stitches. I stay up late watching and stitching and sleep later than I should the next day. I'm not getting everything done that really should be done, but I'm getting the things done that have to be done.

You may have noticed that I haven't added any photos to my weekly photo challenge in a while. Well, I think I've run out of room for it in my life at the moment. Other things are just taking over. Not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sure I'll revisit a photography challenge in the future. Right now, I want to concentrate on quilting and stitching.