Progress

Sometimes you gotta see it....

2004 or 2005 maybe. Yes it is a snow suit but look at how fat my face is.

Multiple chins and chipmunk cheeks.

Jowls (at least they look like jowls to me. )

Several chins are missing in this picture. Like old boyfriends, I'm hoping they stay away. This was taken this past weekend at the field.

In all honesty, I looked for whole body pictures. Those are hard to come by. I have been an expert at staying away from cameras. But the missing chins do tell the story of weight loss.

Hope this finds you all well.

I have a beautiful life.

BECAUSE.......

Sometimes just being together is enough..........

Companionable silence. Two friends in a space together. No conversation. Each engrossed in their own activity. Still a closeness. An intimacy.

I saw these two nestled shells alone on a stretch of sand. Tybee is not really a great beach for lots of shells. Sand sand and more sand. I loved the way these two represented my thoughts about my oldest daughter and I. We got up early on Sunday and walked the beach - watching sunrise and the tide pulling out. There was very little conversation between us and yet I felt incredibly close to her and blessed by her beautiful presence. She will be 20 this summer - I realize how different things are becoming as they approach adulthood. I was basking in the true beauty of a family weekend, because I know there will be fewer of these kinds of trips where we all are together.

It was a wonderful trip.

I have a beautiful life.

Because.......

I already sent this as a text message, but I am posting here too.

There is an inside message to a certain friend here.

Why post it again? Because today, I think she might need this reminder.

Hey sweet lady - OLYMPIC.

BTW MaryAnn - there are beach bound clothes in the purple bag from my last post.

Have a happily today day.

FAMILY SPEAK #2

WE CALL THIS THE PURPLE BAG ------ GO FIGURE

Family Speak

We call them "tinkerbells".

What about you guys?

I am fine - just super busy at work. I am having more creative ideas than I can ever accomplish. MaggieGrace world is being cleaned and organized. Some cosmetic things being done at home.

Just busy. The next few may be quick posts.

Happy Summer Sun.

Almost Epic Fail.....

Having come to the understanding that I got stuff, I went to the studio last night specifically to use up stuff.

I gathered card making supplies. I had an idea. I was focused. I screwed up card after card. I tossed things in the trash.

I was obviously forcing myself to do something what just wasn't gonna happen. So I declared card making for last night a failure.

Well I had already punched these beautiful birds from handpainted paper. I had tags punched. I try to keep neutral tags most of the time. And I had stamps and ink at the ready.

Quick and easy.

I took a quickie cell phone picture and messaged the picture and this message.

"these sweet birds softly sing songs of hope and joy."

The tags are 2.5 inches by 1.25 inches. cream background. handpainted paper birds, silver stamped words and novelty thread strings. This picture doesn't capture the tiny sparkles of glimmer mist.

any takers on sets of 10 of these? $2.50 US dollars. mailed anywhere in the USA. email me at teresahome <@> juno com. international available, but email me about postage.

these went much smoother than the cards.

I'm thinking it may be time for an etsy shop. MaryAnn HELP!!!! Pretty please.

Littles...........

This is not the post title's main message. That comes later.

I have officially reached full storage in my studio. Damn - I have got to be serious about getting rid of stuff. I spent the weekend free time working on cleaning and putting away shit in my studio. I look at all those wonderful studios at the blog party and I realize I have been stuffing stuff for way too long.

I turned the ac on in the studio - it is time for some creative project immersion.


The weekend was highly productive. Poca Dog went to the vet. Not nearly as exhausting as I thought it might be. We are boarding her this coming weekend and she had to have a couple of shots before she could stay.

After the vet - I took off to the local farmers market. Fresh blueberries. Fresh corn. Fresh baked bread. Fresh basil (in a rather large qty).

I made pesto. There is a first time for everything. Never made pesto in my life. Love it. College Girl loves it. So we wanted to learn how. But because "I am a few bricks shy of a load", I didn't make it using a traditional recipe.

Sure I looked at them - thought about it even. Then went off on my own course and made it like this.

Food processor bowl full of fresh basil leaves. (I have a smaller food processor) Pulse until slighty shredded. Add a couple handfuls of pecans (yes pecans). Then a generous dose of grated parmesan cheese. Process while slowly streaming in olive oil until you like the consistency. salt and pepper to taste. After I tasted this - I also added a bit (2 or 3 tablespoons) of lemon juice.

Serve on pasta with fresh veggies....


Yes there are spagetti noodles mixed in. A necessity due to not having enough noodles of the same kind.


In College Girl's words ----- THIS CRAP IS GOOD.

Notice precariously placed salt shaker above. No telling where you might find it at my house.

Now on to the Littles. It has been a long time since we had littles at the house, but a friend of mine needed a sitter and I offered.

We gathered bits and bobs from the stash.

Made fairy headgear.

Painted birdhouses....

And I learned who Chowder was.

I had a blast. Next time I'll be finding my frisbee before they get there.

Thanks Punkin' and Bubba for coming to play. It was fun.

Have a fabulous week.

I have a beautiful life.

Fatigue......

They warned me about it, but I laughed it off. I'm not like everybody else. I am stronger than that. Stronger physically. Stronger mentally. The adrenal balance in my body is off. It has been 9 weeks since my surgery. In my mind I should be way past this, but today it has me in its ugly grip. Damn. I just want to whine.

For those of you who are moms, think back to a sick baby. Just wants mama, stuffy head and nose means no laying that baby down. So you walk, or rock, or bounce, or whatever it takes to keep baby quiet. Mama is tired - worn out - exhausted.

Now multiply that feeling times at least 10. That is what I am battling. And today - I really wanted to just stay in the bed.

But I didn't - I am at work and fighting thru the day. I have painting to attack.

So I have just a few pictures to share.


Love that Softball Princess found a place to store bouncy balls.

A blinged out "c" going for a late birthday giftie.

A package for a blogger, she just lost a beloved pet. I love using my office supply stamps sets for unusual apps. The address goes here. And because I know someone will ask, the tulip packing tape came from the dollar bins at Michaels.

I added a sticker message to a package.

These last few are from Wednesday night. The Man and I had been to eat. It is the season for afternoon/evening thunderstorms, and one was building. The clouds were really pretty. So I had him ride around to find a view for my picture that did not have power lines in it. (Hello - I'm a blogger - he knows how this works.)

God's majesty revealed in the beauty of a building storm. There was bright blue, pink, yellow, grey. An unbelievable beauty to me.

Then we took off for home. I get him to stop on the side of the road. I jump up in the window ledge for this shot. My house is located in the right hand direction of this picture.

Look at the rain.........

We got almost an inch of rain in about 30 minutes.

I love where I live.

I have a beautiful life.

Dang, I'm tired.

College Girl Mixed Media

This piece hangs over the softball princess bed. On a wall that is now white, but will soon become eggplant ---- she is painting her room purple (think Lowes Commercial for that conversation). I am painting at work, and very very soon will be painting at home.

College Girl is a Dean's List Chemistry Major. She has maintained those grades while being an athlete as well. Mama is proud of this accomplishment. She is working this summer and taking summer classes. Wants to double major. Crazy.

Most of these "nerdy science kids" are just that -- NERDY --

Not College Girl - she is into fashion. Cooking. Sewing. Her social life is important. Her church work is important to her. On top of all that, this very smart kid is an artist. Again -- a bit of a rarity.

She will invade my studio and throw together things. These are black and white magazine and college catalog images (cause mom saves everything) cropped and cut into a skyline. Note, not all of these were buildings initially. The arm and hand - another cutout of a statue from somewhere.


This is mixed media collage - College Girl Style.

I can't even begin to do this kind of work.

I love that purple skyline.

I have a beautiful life.

RSVP

I'll be attending this studio party on Saturday. I will not however be participating. Think of me as the lonely girl sitting in the chairs along the wall, drink in hand, watching everybody else dance. Last years party was great fun.

I snagged the photo below from somewhere. If this is a space you recognize please let me know, I would love to give credit. The reason I'll be just watching is because as much as I would love to have a studio that looked like this....


Mine looks like this..... Notice the hobby lobby stuff still in its bag. A sure sign of hoarding tendency.

And this......... See the glue cabinet. do you see any modpodge in there? Nope..... it is buried somewhere on the dang counter.

Oh --- then there's this view. (For starters there is a rocking chair in that picture) If you see it, you win. Just tell me what color and I will send you something from the stash.

Obviously - this is why MaggieGrace cannot create in MaggieGraceWorld. Help - it is out of control.

Uninterrupted cleaning time must be scheduled.

But you know what -- even in the middle of all that mess -- I have a beautiful life. And I am living quite happily today.

Weekend At A Glance

MaggieGrace found herself sleeping in on Saturday morning. Until 7 am. Which kinda ticks me off, because I wanted it to be like at least 9 when I looked at the clock. Oh well.

Last week was VBS. Wonderful - but exhausting. Then College Girl wanted to have a Cream Soda gathering at the house on Friday night. She cleaned so I have no problem with that.

When I got up on Saturday morning I found these...



A pile of bottle caps. Mind you - a neat pile of bottle caps on a tray on the table. She has been trained really well.

I also found this ......

Neat rows of their bottles. These two things and a few leftover food items (already put away) were the only signs of a gathering at all. I like that.

So the house was clean and we had no ball game, thus giving me the day to accomplish stuff.

I went to the farmers market, I went to the grocery store, I cleaned the tub, I changed the beds. I went to the studio, I got overwhelmed, I put away two boxes of crap. Then I cooked and crocheted.

Sunday - church. Home for sandwiches on some homemade bread (not mine) then a fabulous blackberry cream pie.

There was a nap. Then back to that studio. It actually looks like more of a storage shed right now. I had these huge sheets of paper, bits and bobbs have been cut from them for various church projects. I never work this large, they were a pain to store effectively, and they were part of what was so overwhelming.

(take a look in the background of this picture, this is the fairly organized area.)

I decided to do something about this.....

I grabbed a sacrificial piece of mat board. Marked some squares and rectangles, then proceeded to cut paper. And cut paper. And cut paper.

I saved the scraps too. Because I am seriously sick like that. Hoarders here I come.....

But I reduced that overwhelming pile into this. And immediately pulled a piece to work with. This makes all my effort well worth it, I will use the paper now that it is a manageable size.

After all that, back in the house. TV dinner -- I actually like the healthy choice ones. The rest of the family fended for themselves.

Then I crocheted more.

Resulting in this little pile of lovelies.

These already have a home.

It was a very good and productive weekend. I hope you all had one too.

I have a beautiful life. It fells really good to have some creative mojo back.

I just cannot help myself.

Okay - so no body tried hard to talk me out of my crazy idea. Cobwebs and dust bunnies being the only real effort. They don't scare me at all. I was kinda hoping for at least one " have you lost your everloving mind" comment. I'm still pondering. I'll let you know if sanity returns.

This has been a grueling week. Work - and VBS. Early mornings into late nights. Tonight is the final night and I have already informed my family that "my happy little is planning NOTHING for Saturday." Get it. NOT ONE DAMN THING. Feed yourselves. Mom has a DO NOT DISTURB sign around her neck. There.

This is a picture of goodies. These came from Upstairs at the Hardware Store.


Love the pink trim crocheted onto twisted rickrack. That idea may find its way into the crochet wall trim idea.

There are two of these. I think they were destined to become sleeve cuffs. The length is right and they are finished on each end as well. The package also included several more pieces of the already twisted ricrac.

It was all housed in this baby --- it is in great shape too. Needs a little cleaning on the top. Not sure where this will end up, but I love the colors.

One last little detail shot. This kinda strange green ric rac was in there. I love it. Its not mint, more of a creamed green and this card of buttons is the same greenish hue. Love it. Green being one of my favorite colors and all.

I hope you all have a fab weekend.

I have a beautiful life......

Contemplating something really stupid.

I have this picture in my inspiration book. I actually have several versions of crochet trim pictures in my books.

I crochet a lot. It takes time, but it also is relaxing.

I have also been on drugs. Pain meds, for the nerve pains around my incision. You know, the 12 inch monster across my abdomen.

Well the drugs have most likely induced the following project idea.

See the very first picture is stash. Lustersheen yarn stash. Free lustersheen yarn stash. And the orange and purple is already allocated for a project. But the other, those soft neutral, most definitely me colored skeins, 19 of them, has no such calling.

I was looking through my inspiration books, I had taken percocet, it was late, I was in make my living room over mode,and I had a brainstorm.......

I can take my wallpaper border down, repaint these walls, and put up some crochet trim.

Looking back on this today I realize how stupid this idea is. I think.

Because I am taking about 1375 inches of 9 to 12 in wide trim. Yes 114 linear feet of the stuff.

Somebody please bring me back to reality -------- confirm that this idea is CRAZY. Certifiably crazy.

I am painting at work. I love my wall color. More than likely I will use it at home.

Pittsburg Paint --- french grey linen walls and walnut grove trim.

I have a beautiful life. I want a beautiful home.

happily ever after........

Almost every fairy tale has a beautiful princess, a handsome prince or knight in shining armor, and they live happily ever after. That phrase echoed in my brain after something someone said to me in the last few weeks.

And so I pondered and pondered the idea. I decided that happily ever after is a little too broad and unattainable feeling to me. I was stunned by my diagnosis, but the surprise element to the cancer word has had me work on my perspective a lot. Plus I had couch time and bed time and porch time where I could sit still and really think about this.

What is happy? Am I happy? What can I change that will make me more happy? Is happy attainable? For me? For anyone else?

Deep ponderings......scary ponderings...... ponderings that require action.

So I decided - to look at it every day. Not in the happily ever after broad sense of the word, but in HAPPILY TODAY. That feels much better to me. I can make that fit. If something goes seriously wrong, and everyone knows it will, it won't ruin ever after, it just affects today. Guess what? This is exactly the same thing as take it one day at a time, it just feels different to be focused on happily today. If I can string a series of happily todays in sequence, I reach happily this week, then happily this month, and so on. Then the glitches don't feel so heavy either.

So that is where I landed in my ponderings. Yup, I am quite happy. I can decide to change things that will add to my happiness as opportunities come along. For me, happy is about accepting exectly what is happening right now. Keeping that perspective will continue to add happiness to each day.

Did anything change? Nope - still got bills. Still have a Man that sometimes makes me nuts. Teenage girls - check on that too. Medical issues - all of that. But I AM VERY HAPPY. TODAY.

Now for pictures of details that I have noticed that make me happy.


Jen's Garland. Going to do my own version in fabric for the porch. Think about prayer flags. Dominique Browning says it best so I am copying this from her new blog -- SLOW LOVE LIFE

"prayer flags do not actually carry prayers to gods. They are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom.Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread good will to everyone. The prayers of a flag become a permanent part of the universe as the images fade from exposure to the elements. Just as life moves on and is replaced by new life, Tibetans renew their hopes for the world by continually mounting new flags alongside the old. This act symbolizes a welcoming of life changes and an acknowledgement that all beings are part of a great ongoing cycle."

Gonna hang banners.

This little detail - We could have simply hung the spare key. But this is a tiny little detail image on my key rack. Took seconds, makes me smile. Those few seconds were not wasted. Take the time to add those touches -

I'll be doing some more work at my house. I am not waiting for happily can afford a new kitchen someday. I'm going with can happily change the pot rack today. Look out - there will be DIY coming over the weekend.

I spent Saturday with my mom - digging thru bins of fabric just like this one. We chatted easily - a love of fabric being very common ground. We also shopped for a new dress for me. I am 45 years old and one of the dresses I tried on showed some cleavage. My mother - always the mother - informed me that I needed to skip that since it showed way more boob than SHE was comfortable with. Even that made me happy - I have my mom still and there was no breakdown in that communication at all. HAPPILY TODAY.

Look at it from the two angles - can we reach happily ever after - or should we all focus on Happily today?

I have a beautiful life ---

Spellbinding........

Spoiler Alert --- JenV do not read this if you don't want a peek at what's on the way........






I was flat of my back recovering when Jen up and had some big events in her life. She married the love of her life, and turned 40 all around those same few days.

I should have been ready ahead of time to send her something but, in normal fashion, I procrastinated. Then the "Surprise you have kidney cancer" thing happened. Well I have struggled with going back to work and needing lots of extra rest and .......

Well FINALLY - her gift is ready to go and I have a full blown post to go with it.

Thanks to all those who emailed me to see if I was alright. This has just really been frustrating to me. I am used to going full speed ahead and that just ain't happening right now.

Anyway --- show and tell.

I gathered various scraps of paper. My three favorite Spellbinders dies. The Classic Scalloped Rectangles, Flying Beauties, and Ribbon Tag Trio.

Then I punched and punched and punched. I laid them all out and kinda matched the tags and butterflies and backgrounds.

I wrote words and quotes on each tag. (In all honesty, I started stamping these and then decided to handwrite the tags. Two reasons - time and I love the look of someone's handwriting. It just seems more personal.)

Then I went to dig through stuff. I embellished these with buttons, beads, chipboards, trims. Each one is different. I actually used some very special favorite bits. Trying hard to overcome the hoarding part of myself.

Thread tags on seam binding. Glue to embellished cards. My high tech measuring device for even spacing ---- a plain old index card.

Look at the left end of the top string in the picture above. Some of these are 10 cards long, some are 5 cards. I made them so you could attach them and rearrange them easily. More info on that later.

These will be divided into little packets with full explanations of what the words/quotes are meant for. Example - the ponder pose package includes phrases just designed to make you think.

The image above is a favorite.

Another of my favorites.

This one is College Girl's favorite.

The attachment points. Plastic rings held in the seam binding with snaps.

I didn't have enough snaps, but my mama did in her stash. And she gifted me with them.

There you have a completely stash generated birthday gift. It seemed to take forever to finish. It is full of heartfelt good wishes for my friend. I love her and I am so sorry I missed her wedding and her birthday.

I do have to say thanks to college girl for helping me string this up in my oak tree out front. When we got them all up, they looked so happy, colorful, hell just plain fun. We both giggled and really enjoyed how they looked. I'll be making some for the front porch out of fabric. Just for "happy energy" feelings.

I am doing well. I am back to work. I have one more little procedure in the early fall to make sure everything is working like it should. (I have a large stone in my remaining kidney that has to be dealt with) Thank you all for everything.

Guess what? I have a beautiful life.