A contemplative new year's eve...

Yesterday at Bran's house we began a crafting frenzy starting a Victorian feather tree! Stuff was flying all over the place as she hastily improvised in ways that both made my skin crawl and delighted me at the same time. Once she has it in her mind to get something done, conventional methods be damned! Come Hell or high water "thy will be done".
Here she is cutting a dowel down to size with what? A Dremmel! She gets her money's worth out of this all purpose tool; she's a regular MacGuyver with that thing. She uses the same drill bit on it to cut through a variety of materials as well as to drill holes. And when it's all the way in she uses the tool's chuck as a grinding burr!
I looked forward to getting the half started tree back to my house where I must say, I generally have everything I could ever want at my disposal.
The idea of a feather tree is a stick on a stand with several tiers of branches all sticking straight out leaving several inches in between tiers to hang ornaments. They are gorgeous and the possibilities are endless! We robbed the metal base from a 1960's lamp she had in the basement. We saved the middle stand part to be used on another project later and trashed the rest.
I made a rudimentary sketch of the tree last night before bed just to get the ideas flowing. Next time I'll use a softer lead so it shows up in the photograph.
Today I sharpened my technique until it was flawless! It took me a total of 3 hours of twisting, twisting and more twisting of black annealed wire onto the dowel to complete all the branches. I'm quite pleased with myself.
Once I get the feathers on it I will post another picture for your viewing pleasure.
Here is a "very Brady" clock I got from the thrift store to turn into something fabulous...
I'm not sure what to do with it yet. I'm thinking something with skulls, what a shocker right?
I only realized it is new year's eve about three hours ago! I thought it was tomorrow. No matter, I'm not a big new year's party-er anyway. I finished a glass of wine early and when I set it on the kitchen counter I thought Mixie just looked so cute curled up on the beaver pelt! Don't ask why there;s a beaver pelt on the kitchen counter. Actually I just got it out to try to photograph some ornaments I made to put on eBay. I keep it hidden so Roxi doesn't find it and chew it into oblivion.
Here's a shot of the ornaments. Aren't they adorable? I just painted the skulls on with a metallic silver Sharpie. I did them all free-hand yesterday and the day before. I like the skulls over crossed swords the best. Skulls are my "go-to" motif. As I was drawing them on I remembered drawing a skull and crossbones on a class mate's hand in fourth grade...
...I can almost remember his name; it was "La-something" or "De-something". He was a sweet and charismatic black boy. I had an eraser pencil thing. Instead of lead in the middle it had a white eraser, and I could draw on his brown skin and it showed up beautifully. We were both pleased with the results, kind of a "fourth grade tattoo".
Fourth grade was the most dreaded of ALL the grades for me, and drawing in my spiral bound notebooks or on a friend's hand were my only pleasures; like a tortured artist carving a bar of soap in prison it was my only creative outlet. I don't recall even having art class at that dreaded school. I felt like a prisoner, and facing an entire school year may as well have been a life sentence.
To simply say I hated school would be a vast understatement. I remember vowing to myself that no matter what I would not live my adult life feeling the way I did as a kid in school. I could not endure waking up every day to the same feeling of dread I felt every morning as I headed off to school. I was comforted by the belief that anything would be better than school; surely this would be an easy thing to attain! I honestly think I would have been happier as child laborer on an assembly line or machining bomb components.
To my great joy I can say I enjoy adult life looking forward to each new day. I fill my days taking care of myself, observing the world and creating things. Some days I create art, some days I bake, some days I repair things, and on the best days I write about it.

Thanks for sharing all these things with me.
I can't wait to see how I will live a better life in 2010 than all the years before it!
Happy New Year!

man in the moon clock on eBay

Here is a clock I painted. It is on eBay for 6 more days!




http://cgi.ebay.com/OOAK-Man-in-the-Moon-clock-handpainted-bubble-glass-bat_W0QQitemZ250555604237QQihZ015QQcategoryZ158655QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26ps%3D63

I spent yesterday painting. I love Christian Icons, the archangels, Jesus, Mary and saints. I've always wanted to do a similar painting but with animal heads in place of human ones. This is my first stab at it. Keep in mind it is still unfinished.
I need to change his hands; either his right hand could be the weird two fingered "Pope hands" or he could be holding a spear like one of the angels. Actually, the only part remotely right so far is his cute little 'possum head. The wings are okay, but the rest has to change.
I moved on to paint ornaments for a change of pace. I love these black ornaments and there's so much you can do with them but to me they begged for Jolly Rogers, yarg! On the larger ones I painstakingly brushed the skulls on in gesso with a tiny liner brush. I'll go back over those today with white acrylic. I love this kind of tedium; mandibles, tiny teeth, nose holes.
I also have small 2" ornaments and for these I switched to a silver sharpie. I'd like to have a twin tip for the smaller detail but I don't know if they make metallics in twin tip? I'm favoring this method because it's just one step. You can't make any mistakes though, once it's on there that's it.
It is 32 degrees outside and a wonderful day to stay inside detailing cute little Halloween things.
I had a thought yesterday about the one advantage Christmas has over Halloween. On November 1st Halloween is over (except at my house). It is a huge let down, you just have to go cold turkey, society in general moves on straight to Christmas without even slowing down to Thanksgiving. It is awful. In contrast, Christmas has a whole week of decompression built in. The week between Christmas and New Year's is a time you can leave the tree up, relax and enjoy the afterglow of the holiday. It's traditional to leave all the decor in place until New Year's day. By the time January first rolls around I am ready to take down the tree and all things Christmas and move on with the New Year, a fresh start!
Even though I'm not a die hard New Year's Eve-r I always welcome the "clean slate" feeling it brings with it. I don't usually go out to do the count down, it's just not my holiday. I will spend this one at home with a glass of wine with a fire burning in the new year. I might throw something symbolic on it as a ritual cleansing, maybe some old medical bills!
I am ready to move on!

Clutch

Wow, I went out in public to see one of my favorite bands play last night. I am now deaf. It was worth it. I wasn't able to get close enough to get any good shots, but these still capture the energy of the night. Clutch has a HUGE following and Amos' was packed to overflowing. The air was thick with testosterone as their fan base is mostly male. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of ladies there too, but we were outnumbered.

Being in a big crowd does not make my list of top 100 places I'd like to be. I've always been that way, but I'm working on it. It's not like a phobia, it's more like being around so many bodies just sucks the energy right out of me. I remember going to some very epic heavy metal shows as a teenager and feeling so conflicted; I really wanted to see the band but I dreaded the crowd.
In an effort to get over it I made up a little ritual to gather my energy and get my "shields up" as soon as I walked in.
I walked to the back and found an unoccupied corner to adjust. I played the stare at the floor game for a few minutes. (Behold my view above).
Then I fiddled with my camera trying to find a mode best suited to override the flash. I dislike pictures taken with a flash. I take lots of pictures and all that flashing makes me feel conspicuous and annoying in a crowd. People were going up and down the stairs in droves; none of them knows their feet made it into my blog.

After I got warmed up I made it up close to the stage; I hopped on the wave of energy from the crowd. Everybody was so "up" and sparkly. It occurred to me at that moment that watching a live performance makes for a great opportunity to truly live in the moment. Your attention stays focused on whatever is being presented and you can really "be here now". I was surprised to discover that being in a crowd can be a nearly meditative experience in it's own way.

There were so many people rockin' out, and little to no drunken aggression. The one time somebody had to get carried out we all parted like the Red Sea to make way, no problem. There is a weird collective consciousness of a like minded crowd that reminds me of a flock of birds; they can move as one body, synchronizing when necessary. That is the flip side to stampedes where people get trampled to death at events. As many shows as I've been to, I've seen far more examples of camaraderie than fear and malice.
I love this shot; guys in front of me making Devil horns, the traditional gesture reserved for the most awesome of rock. We were a happy group. I did see some kids skulking around looking like they had a chip on their shoulder which of course reminded me of being that age. And then I realized that I am an adult; I remember what it's like to be young and inexplicably angry, and I just smile knowing they'll get over it someday and laugh at the angry kids too.

It's Christmas time.

I have to include a hasty shot of some of the incredible gifts I got this year. This crappy picture does not do the paintings any justice, but how could I contain my enthusiasm?
Starting from the left is some fancy coffee I got from Jim, then on eof the best gifts EVER chocolate prayer hands from Laura in Texas! She is not even kidding about Texas being the bible belt; I have always thought of the Deep South as Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, not including Texas. Laura assures me she is indeed deep down in the Dirty South and the tales she tells of local legend...she needs to write a book! Anyhow, next is a painting my Dad did of a gorgeous barn with a Gothic window, jaw dropping, just stunning. How lucky am I? Below that some more fancy coffee and some cool bracelets from "the hot for real black girl store" from Bran, thanks!
And everyone probably recognizes a most enchanting silver Man in the Moon lantern from my uber talented sister. Last but not least another painting, this is Whiskey at the farm painted by Connie. I can't believe it but she continues to keep getting better and better and better! She is a master, and I am the lucky recipient of many of her paintings through the years. I have quite an impressive private collection of Snipes; maybe someday I will generously loan it to the Mint Museum? Ha! Not a chance, mine mine mine.
I haven't been to my sisters house in forever and I must say, I'm feeling much better after getting a good shot of "Vitamin 'B'" as Brandi says! She always gives me a great pep-talk and I walk away feeling motivated, sometimes accompanied by an urge to take a nap...
I had to get a quick shot of works in progress in her kitchen; where she and Jim both work their different magic. He is an artist with food, and she's an artist in...most everything else!
Here she stands displaying some of her wares after dinner. Doesn't she look peppy and ready to crack the whip?
When we started opening presents it was kind of madness, just the usual present opening frenzy of Christmas day. Everything was wrapped so pretty I had to get a quick shot before ripping everything open.
Dad is a fantastic gift wrapper, an odd trait to find in someone so manly some might say; but Dennis is truly a Renaissance Man and he is really good at everything he does. He uses the horse feed bags as wrapping paper, hay string for the ribbon and embellishes with natural objet d'art like this magnolia leaf. These materials give the gifts a wonderful farm smell. I really do hate opening them and usually save the materials for months.
I feel like I'm leaving Mom out but it's only because all my presents from her are still at her house! She got me way too much, but I'm not complaining. She got me some awesome sweaters and all kinds of cool stuff, she is a great gift buyer.
Truly though, my favorite part of Christmas is giving people cool gifts. It's just so much fun picking things out and making things for somebody else, isn't it? I do lots of baking as gifts, and as I've whined about previously being sick the week before Christmas put a cramp in my style this year, but I managed to pull everything together more or less.
My friend Dee has a saying about people who lay around and just expect fame and fortune to come to them with no effort on their part. "You can't just lay around and expect to open the door and find a basket of success waiting for you"! I swear, when she said that to me I died laughing and never forgot it. I have wanted to make a basket of success for her for years and finally made a stab at it!

This is an old basket from the thrift store that I painted a crown on one side and made a paper banner reading "Success" on the other side to cover up the pink & blue flowers. It was so fun deciding what to put in it, a little of this , a little bit of that and viola-basket of success! I used one piece of green tissue paper together with tissue from an old 1960's dress pattern. I like the way it looks with all the black lines and instructions. Pluss I have a butt load of the stuff waiting to be used as gift wrapping or whatever. I also put in some really yummy navel oranges, globe grapes, various hot teas, candy canes, a skeleton, vintage wooden toy ornaments, a Madame Alexander wicked witch doll, home made cookies in a skull covered bag and individually wrapped chocolate fudge skulls! The hang tag has her name and the names of everyone in her family and a tiny sketch of a skull with holly sprigs behind it and my trademark heart with wings. Cute cute cute if I may say so myself. I can't wait to leave it on her doorstep, 'cause that's where i have to leave it, I can't ring the doorbell and hand it to her. A basket of success must be left waiting to be found by whoever opens the door next. So I have that to look forward to tomorrow!
Also I have to go out and buy a bra tomorrow thanks to Roxi and her famous scissor teeth, God help me! I should really read the literature that came with the chocolate praying hands.
But that is still hours away...For now I am going to get off of this Devil's Etch-A-Sketch and enjoy the last few hours in this day.

Merry Christmas to all
and to all
a good night!

Christmas Eve!

Well here we are, Christmas Eve! I had lots of make-up-baking to do after my badly timed sickness, but that's okay, I got better just in time. I wanted to make oatmeal cranberry cookies, chocolate chip cookies, fudge and pralines. They pralines were a bust, I blame it on humidity.
It was a beautiful day here and started off sunny, but turned a beautiful Christmasy cloudy gray sky after lunch. My favorite kind of winter sky! But not good for candy making.
Still my cookies did great. Here are a few dozen going into my perfectly clean oven.
The fudge came out right too. Here are all tiny tart tins after a coat of oil awaiting hot fudge. I love these tins, they have a gorgeous patina. I love cute tiny treat things, they make the prettiest individual fudges.
More Christmasy stuff...
Here are some of the finished product, yum!

I am packing everything up for the fam tomorrow. I got very cool cap guns loaded with hundreds of rounds of ammo for the kids. I'm sure Bran & Jim will be cursing my name for a while. On second thought, they will fire through a thousand rounds in two minutes...
According to NORAD Santa is in South America right now. SO exciting! I loved watching the local news report on Santa's progress on Christmas Eve when I was little, and I still do! Part of me will always believe in Santa Clause...there's probably some way you could prove it with quantum physics or something. Or you can just have a little childish faith...It is more fun.
When we were little, my sister and I would sleep in her big bed every Christmas Eve. Dad would read us The Night Before Christmas, a pink and white striped copy permanently checked out from the Church library. God, what heathens! Then we would wiggle and giggle and squirm in bed after lights out in gleeful anticipation of the arrival of the Jolly Old Elf! What was so exciting to me was not the mere miraculous appearance of Santa's gifts in the morning, but the idea that THE Santa Claus was going to come to MY house! Miraculous! And I loved picturing his sleigh and all eight reindeer (plus Rudolph) tapping around on our roof.
I better get myself to bed, you know he doesn't come to houses where little girls haven't gone to sleep...

I have been sick for almost a week exactly. The first few days I lived off NyQuil and gingerale. First I thought it was the flu but it was just strep throat. Anyhow, I have been hemmed up inside since last Wednesday and have felt too crappy to even write anything. The only thought that ran through my head was "put me out of my misery"!
Why is it that like so many other things in life, sickness and pain can not be remembered, you only know abstractly how you would quantify its level?
You remember The stinkiest thing you've ever smelled in your life? Of course you do, but you can't remember how it smelled, only how to try to express its level of nastiness. By the way, the stinkiest thing I've ever smelled in my life was some rotten chicken forgotten in the microwave back in '94. But that's a whole other story...
But as I was saying, illness is like that. I always think of it when I'm sick, but I think I'm glad I forget it; I don't want to remember anything as bad as being racked with a high fever. It's a good thing you can't remember it. It's like my sister has said about childbirth; if you could really could remember how bad it hurt you'd only do it once. She said to herself after natural childbirth of her first born "Well, I'm glad I did that because I'll never do it again!" But the body thankfully forgets.
I spent hours and hours of lying around in a fevered haze, so of course this picture of Scrub curled up with me is from weeks ago. I really did enjoy all my familiars during this illness. Mixie, Scrub and Roxi would all pile up around me like little heaters when I had the chills.
This is the first time I've been sick in a year which is great! It was a first since I got Roxi, and I kind of anticipated it would be torture taking care of her while I was in this condition. I have to say she was a perfect angel. The first time I took her out I told her we would not be doing this our usual twelve times a day and she needed to make the most of it. I looked into her brown eyes and I swear she understood me! I think I took her out twice that first day. Then we'd get back in bed and she would snuggle up close to me and take care of me. She was a doll.


I wish I had felt up to taking a picture of her at the time, but I was miserable and my bed was all balled up tissues and the vaporizer and medicine and crap all over the place; not my bedroom's finest moment.
So now I need to stretch out my sore neck, take a shot of NyQuil and climb into bed. Tomorrow when I wake up I will feel even better than I did this morning and who knows? I may even venture out of the house!

sick

I have strep throat. I just woke up at 3 A.M. with a burning need to gargle hot salt water and now I'm waiting for the Nyquil to work its magic.
I'm proud to say I made it a year with no illness though! Apparently it just wouldn't be Christmas without me getting sick. I started antibiotics today and should be feeling much better tomorrow.
I will post something good real soon.
But for now...ouch! The glands in my neck look like golf balls under my skin and my throat feels like a hot, dry, cracked desert.

A Very Viking Christmas

I went to Iron Cordoba's "A Very Horny Christmas" party at The Visualite theater last night. Get it. "Horny" because of the horned Viking helmets? It was good blasphemy! A jolly old time was had by all. I got there early to claim a good spot where I could prop my feet up and have some grog.
Before the show started I had to get a picture of the Gibson Les Paul and the Ibanez Destroyer; seeing them is always like seeing old friends. In true Jay Tilyard fashion there were stacks and stacks of Marshalls, Spinal Tap style.

Jay and I were a couple for nearly eight years. We split up about six years ago and now I really enjoy going to these local Rock Star events he and his girlfriend Tracie put on.
Here they are at a previous Viking party. (I don't know how to make this picture bigger)


Some things never change, he is joined on stage by friends we went to high school with to perform spoofs of heavy metal classics with a Viking Christmas twist. Imagine Danzig's "Mother" but with lyrics changed to "Rudolph, if you really wanna guide my sleigh..." Hilarious!
With a population around 1 million Charlotte is still such a small, small town...Six degrees of separation? Around here it's more like two. Here is Kerrie Clayton, my friend Dee's oldest daughter who I've known since she was a sweet little six year old girl. Dee and I worked at Cobourn & Sons together when I was 19 and she would bring Kerrie in to work after picking her up from school and she would play in the saw dust while we refinished furniture.
And look at her now! In a blood wrestling match she emerges from the gore victorious!
Kerrie and Dee have started producing events locally under the name "Goralicious" and they teamed up last night with Iron Cordoba. Here is a hasty shot of just some of the mayhem on stage. The event brought together go-go dancers, thespians, musicians and hangers-on for a truly
"Unholy Night, the screams are fast declining...

...it is the night that the world felt our girth! Dead lay our foes, in blood and guts reclining...
...for one night it was pure Hell on Earth!"

After cleaning off most of the fake blood here are Kerrie Clayton, Jay Tilyard and Dee Clayton rejoicing in Christmas glee. Lock up your maidens!
And to think, years ago Jay briefly worked with us in the shop stripping furniture out back while a first grade Kerrie dug up worms and brought them in to show off to me and Dee. And all these years later we are brought together again by our common love of rockin' out, mayhem, blasphemy?

Yes, all three!
I love my peeps.

Fancy

I am so fancy that this is how I do water.


After a long and wonderful day spent baking homemade chocolate cupcakes and planting a flat of pansies I settled down with a glass of water and relaxed. The weather was the perfect amount of cold and the sun was shining. I spent most of the afternoon with the heat turned off and the doors open, coming in and out of the house doing chores. I made cupcakes for my MS group's Christmas get together and replanted my front porch pots with gorgeous winter cabbages surrounded by multicolored pansies. I also raked and swept the tiny porch on the side of my house and cleaned everything up, throwing lots of crap away, planting bulbs, relocating a rosebush, and putting more pansies in the flower bed. I just love days like this, when you get done and everything is improved at the end of the day.
As a landlord once told my parents when they were young and renting a house in Picayune, "I try to keep this place beautified"! I try to keep it beautified on the inside too. Last year when I was gimped up with MS I vowed to purge stuff and make everything neater and simpler in my home. I have made significant progress I suppose, but still have a lot to do ahead of me. I have two spare rooms that need to be emptied of so much useless crap, and a back porch I would be horrified for anyone to see.
I watch those shows where a person dies and somebody has to go in their house and empty it out...and sometimes the place is just wrecked and you think "Lord, look at how she was living; just layin' in filth!" If I die I want them to come in my house and say "Well she sure had everything in order and she didn't even know anyone would be coming over!"
When my house is clean it makes my mind feel clear, you know? Cluttered house, cluttered mind. I'm not materialistic but I do love my stuff. None of my stuff is expensive, I'm just too thrifty for that. Besides, yo9u can't just go out and buy the things I like. One of my favorite things is this bird's nest a friend gave my as a birthday gift. Isn't it pretty under this glass cloche? That is the foot of a Cooper's Hawk resting in it. How I came upon the dead hawk is a funny story, for another time...



Bird's nest: free
bird foot: free
glass cloche:$2.12
fancy display: priceless.

Last night I decided to rewire my Mary Icon light thing. Here it is before. It had an old stiff brown non polarized cord with no switch. Fire hazard? Maybe, but perhaps most importantly, ugly and not very functional. So I got a sacrificial electric candle to rig up for my Catholic art thing. I still don't know what to call it.
Tod do the job I used wire cutters, a utility knife, heat shrink tubing, and not shown, electrical tape. I disassembled the candle, but ended up just cutting the cord close to the base. Then I took the sleeve off the candle, removed the socket and stripped the last half inch of all four wires to be spliced. Then I twisted them together, and covered the splices in heat shrink tubing. The fun part is heating it up with a lighter and watching it shrink up tight around the twisted wire. I couldn't get pictures of this step because I only have two hands.
Then I cute down the white plastic tube that looks like a candle and slid it over the splice which I wrapped in electrical tape to keep everything neat and together.
And viola! The finished product, a pierced metal Virgin Mary 4 watt light thing. I don't know what to call it. But still, now I have a roll cord switch and it probably won't catch on fire. Nice!

It's Christmas Time!

Yay! I finally got my little tree standing up straight. It's been jammed in that PBR bucket crooked since I put it up a couple of weeks ago.
Isn't this better?

I had to get a picture of this hot pink electric doll head atrocity; I just love it! I think it's just me though. But you know what? It's my house and I like it so there.


I remember our first fake Christmas tree when I was in kindergarten. We took Dad's Red Truck (it was a 1978 Chevy Diesel that I was in LOVE with) to a store right around the corner from where I now live and took the tree home fully decorated in the back! We went inside and there were these fancy big trees all decked out, Mom saw the one she wanted and said "I want that one right there with all the decorations; load it up". Mom drove home and Dad sat in the back with the tree to keep it from blowing away!
Me and Bran would lay under the tree and look up into the magical wonderland of lights and ornaments. Lord, no wonder kids love Christmas so much! When I was really little we had all the cool tiny wooden toy ornaments and it was so hard not to play with them. I guess I did and that's why they didn't survive all these years later...
But they live on in my memory, along with that magical feeling children get as Christmas draw nigh...

Christmas Chorus (and sister worship)

Tuesday night was Ellie's first choir gig. They did a secular Christmas program, it seemed to revolve around a plot based on Frosty The Snowman. I couldn't get close enough to get good still shots. You'll notice Ellie is the tall blond bombshell in red, one of her best friends Zoe is to her right wearing green. They were all so cute! All those angelic little voices singing together sounded so sweet.

Her little sister Cassie sat in back of the audience cheering her on with gusto. Here she is hands raised making the Devil horns; the traditional raised arm signal reserved for the coolest Rock concerts! Once she saw me sneaking pictures of her she really started hamming it up.
On the way out of the school we passed some really good elementary school art on the walls. I wish I had gotten more pictures. Ellie stopped to show me one of her drawings that she was not particularly pleased with. It is like pulling teeth trying to get her to consent to a photo at this age, but Cassie is more than willing (if you can get her to hold still long enough).
Actually this picture pretty much sums them up. Cassie has never held still for one instant since she came into this world. Here she jumps straight in the air mid-photo; a blur next to her much calmer big sister. This is how they appear at any given moment.
Cassie drives Ellie bonkers sometimes, but I always try to explain little sisters to her. "Ellie," I say, "your little sister is the one person in the world who will always be your biggest fan; she thinks you are the coolest, most talented, most beautiful, smartest, toughest, most awesome person ever no matter what."
I think they are so lucky to go to school together. Brandi and I were four grades apart and only went to the same school at the same time when I was in kindergarten through second grade, while we were in dreaded private school together.
Charlotte Country Day was a big campus with many different buildings spread out so classes always walked to lunch, gym, the library, etc. in single file lines led by the teacher. Whenever my class would happen to pass her class I would wave vigorously at her like she was a celebrity! I was so proud to be her little sister. "There's my big sister!" I would announce to my classmates. The word "sister" being synonymous with "hero".
I have been to Rocky River Elementary to have lunch with the girls or go to a book fair and seen Cassie say "Hey there's Ellie!" and waive to her with her usual gusto. As much as they may drive each other nuts at times, the family tradition of sister worship continues.

Sisterhood is a sacred institution that transcends tattle-tailing, clothes-stealing and favorite- possession-breaking. Souls that chose to join in the strongest alliance on Earth come as sisters.
As Brandi said upon my arrival from the hospital "Thank you for getting her for me, she's just the kind I wanted".

Rainy day tasks

Ah, Tuesday...
on this week my favorite day is drippy and cold. From my kitchen window everything looks Christmasy and festive! I have a tiny poinsettia in a silver sugar bowl instead of the usual giant variety. I'm not the biggest fan of the iconic Christmas house plant, but I think everything is adorable when in miniature form.

Stuck inside for the day, I decided to finally get around to the tedium that is organizing my kitchen junk drawers. Truth be told this is a task that I enjoy, but I have to be in the mood for it. (That's why I haven't done it in over a year). I know this may seem boring, but look at how neat these drawers are! Aren't you inspired to clean out your own junk drawers, or maybe yours are already perfectly obsessively organized (you know who you are). If I had taken a before picture you'd be more impressed.


Also on my to do list was writing Christmas cards. Done! I'll put them in the mail as soon as I get stamps later...It took much longer than I thought it would. I didn't send any last year with all the MS rigamarole I was going through at the time, so this year I extra enjoyed the task. You've got to enjoy all the little things that we all take for granted.
Did you notice the doll heads? Guilty as charged.
What else would you use to decorate a pink metallic tree with pink lights? I do have my weaknesses. What the Hell? You only live once!