OW!

I was awoken early this morning with pain in my right leg.
Oh Hell, I can't even be stoic about it, I awoke to excruciating mystery pain from my hip to my knee in my right leg. I am only writing this so I have something to focus on while I wait for the one remaining Darvocet I have to kick in. It is too painful to even read a book.
Here's the thing: I kinda have to suspect the culprit could be MS, and I don't like to because I can't be concerned that this is a bizarre new start to a relapse.
I've had two, neither started this way. I am one of what I consider the very fortunate who does not generally have physical pain due to MS. It's a good thing too, because I'm pretty tough, but I'm not tough enough to handle prolonged debilitating pain. You know, the kind where you can't even hold still, the kind that prompts you to squirm around in agony? Call me a SISSY!
And while I'm at my own damn pity party here, let me reiterate how much I do not wish to be thrown into another relapse.
For those who don't know, I have relapse remitting MS which means most of the time I'm okay, but I experience occasional relapses or "exacerbations". These can be triggered by many things, prolonged exposure to heat, stress, a mild breeze...sometimes it's anybody's guess. But at onset of an active relapse, treatment is high doses of Prednisone to stop the process. The process being your own immune system attacking myelin that insulates the neurons in your brain and spinal cord.
This can result in any number of symptoms, one of which could very well include a pain in your leg sent straight from HELL!
It's never a good time for a relapse, but it just so happens that I have an important project which I had very much looked forward to finishing this week, starting tomorrow.
In the interest of observing the Law Of Attraction, let me end on a positive note and just say
"I am healthy, I am happy, I feel good!"
Wish me luck!!!!!

Can't have too much of a good thing.

http://www.themarthablog.com/2009/10/eerie-but-fascinating-graveyards-near-my-home-in-bedford.html


On Martha Stewart's (a.k.a. the Queen "B"!) blog I found these pictures of an old cemetery in Bedford, where she lives.
Old graveyards are, as she would say, "A good thing"...

Gussied Up!

So, I've been working on conjuring up good things, good news to come in the mail. Something other than bills, you know? My mailbox and the entire entrance to my house was nasty, grungy, depressing looking. So I spiffed things up a bit. I repainted my front door inside & out with Kilz exterior white. I can't tell you what a difference it makes having a serene, clean, updated entryway to my house. It's just good feng shui. I scraped and painted my mailbox, and after trying to get the brass plated part to look decent I decided some Halloween orange glitter was in order. I lacquered it heavily, but I still don't expect it to last very long. Isn't it exciting though!?
Now I just wait for the good news to start rollin' in...

I was getting ready for bed the other night and had to get a picture of my girls waiting in bed for me. Roxi is my blue Doberman/yellow Lab mix and Mixie is my crazy mixed up kitty, the one who delivers all sorts of dead critter offerings through her kitty door. She has even brought them straight to my bed in the dark of night before; now that's service.

Today is Misty's birthday. Misty is a friend of my sisters (and mine now too), she is hilarious, witty, creative, gorgeous and a wonderful friend. I'm going to Concord in a few hours for her Birthday and this is what I made for her.

I have been having way too much "OCD" fun with my rosary pliers. I even gave myself blisters the first night I used them. The rosary style chain has faceted glass beads, I cut the bat from silverplated copper, a big two inch glass tear drop hangs below. This pendant is strange; I've had it displayed on my coffee table for a week and I swear at times it looks pale, pale gray and other times it appears to be purple. It has me stymied. But I think it's cool the way it appears to change colors...
I love giving gifts!
And maybe when I come home there will be good stuff in my Halloween bling mailbox...

Waiting...

I am waiting, for fall, for good news, for things to come...
When I'm anxious I like to bake, it soothes me. So last night I made this dark chocolate pound cake.
The glaze is dark chocolate too and it oozed down the sides of this creation like molten black patent sugar.
I love baking, everything from scratch of course.
This will be my contribution to dinner tonight with my Mom & sister. And I will have to take the remaining cake to the Farm for Dad this weekend, especially because he reads my blog and if he sees that he missed out on this he will be sorely offended!
It has been so hot, a truly unfair and punishing summer here in North Carolina. June came and went with record breaking consecutive days above 90 degrees, turning the pond into a crock pot of hot soupy unpleasantness. July is not making up for it either. We will have to endure the rest of July, all of August and at least half of September in sweltering, blistering, suffocating, debilitating patience.
My reward will be blessed, delightful, wonderful FALL; always worth the wait. Fall renews my spirit and awakens in me such joy, peace and reverence. Much as I try to live in the moment and enjoy each day...I can't help but dream of that first day in September when you can see Fall coming in the sky, smell it in the air, feel it in your bones.
Until then I will wait, and write, and dream, and swim when the weather is tolerable.
And bake cakes and treats and sugary things for anybody who will eat them.
Because I am
biding
my
time...

I told you so!

Remember a few posts ago, me telling you about how hydrangeas are good places to find Junebug empties?
SEE?
I told you so.
We have been experiencing a much needed & deserved plummet in temps here and today was gorgeous! I took my hydrangea cuttings outside to root, and as I added fresh ones I noticed this little hanger on under one of the leaves. A Junebug husk on a hydrangea leaf; that took me back to being a little girl pretty fast. So, you pick this off the plant and stick it to your tee shirt; their crusty little feet parts are like Velcro. Or you leave it there and place the whole arrangement by your bed to bring a little nature into your room.
I'm also gonna say it will be good luck, bringing me nice dreams. Even though I always have weird dreams, the sort I've been having all week have been downright unpleasant. But this little Junebug childhood totem will change that...

And now for somethings completely different.
Someone is doing a "Chuck Taylors" project on Facebook. He asked for people to send in pics of their Chucks, so here is mine. I sent it in today. I don't think they will ever go out of style. Aren't they all so cute? The pink ones on the bottom right are 6 years old and have been errywhere with me. Now they are relegated to yard work footwear. May as well cut the grass in style huh?

I am working on a Paris/Gothic themed necklace in trade for some graphics. Here is a sample platter...
I made this while working on the stuff above. Black & blue are so great together. The pendant is a lower chroma blue than in this shot. It's also a Space Age Polymer, sadly, instead of glass. The package wasn't marked and I couldn't tell what material it was until after I bought it. Whenever something is plastic, I call it a "Space-Age Polymer". That just sounds better. See how I can Gussy plastic right on up?

Holla at this blog!

I wanted to share the awesomeness that is my friend Dana with a link to he blog. Today's post is especially awesome.
Sun worshippers click below!

http://dana-dee.blogspot.com/

Random things about me.

I did this on Facebook and it was fun. Whenever one of my friends writes one of these I always enjoy reading it. It was supposed to be "30 random things about you" but I keep adding stuff.
The idea of getting to know someone through an assortment of little random facts about their life is delightful to me!
Here goes.
1. When I'm putting up clean laundry, I always guess the exact right number of coat hangers for all the shirts, without counting first!
2. I have broken my arms 5 different times.
3. My favorite color is green (if forced to choose just one).
4. My left foot and boob are both bigger than the righties.
5. I have no tattoos.
6. My favorite multiplication is 6x7=42.
7. The first thing I remember wanting to be when I grew up was a cowgirl.
8. My first car was a '72 beetle...yellow.
9. I never turn on the TV before 4 PM.
10. The longest I ever went without sleep was 36 hours in a row. It doesn't sound like much but I hated it.
11. The first time I broke an arm I went to school and had everyone sign MY name on my cast. I was in kindergarten.
12. I worked on a boyscout ranch in New Mexico for three summers after high school.
13. I wear tank tops all summer even though my arms are too fat and I don't care.
14. I'm a funky skull and I'm a Scorpio.
15. I've never had the dream where you're in public naked (although I will now).
16. I eat an egg every day and never get tired of it.
17. I have given mouth to mouth resuscitation to a squirrel before, and saved it.
18. My parents were the first white people to be married in McGrath Alaska 40 years ago. Their guests were all drunk Eskimos and they got a wolf skin for their wedding present. I still think this is the coolest wedding I've ever heard of.
19. I am good at conjuring things up.
20. Peas and cornbread is the best food ever. Period.
21. I hate the following words: slacks, pocket book, blouse, purchase.
22. I had my first out of body experience at age 4.
23. I can't comprehend my own mortality.
24. I was present at the births of both my nieces. It was the coolest thing ever.
25. I am still best friends with my first best friend.
26. I have never been arrested. Yet.
27. My worst fear is of being lazy.
28. I don't do bumper stickers.
29. I'm a furniture junkie.
30. My teeth rock.
31. My favorite pet was my 'possum Pumpkin who slept in bed with me and got weekly baths with Sweet Pea lotion rubbed into her tail after. When she was a wee baby I kept her in my bra and fed her my sister's breast milk, which she pumped for me. I miss Pumpkin my sweet little lumpkin!
32. When I was little, my big sister and her friend Heather who lived down the street were making prank calls and swore me to secrecy not to tell Mom when she got home. When Mom's Cadillac pulled in the driveway and ran out and announced to her "Mom, Bran & Heather have been calling Frank!"
33. I dreamed of Pumpkin every night for a year after she was gone.
34. When I was in 6th grade I got to watch my horse give birth to her filly, who I promptly named Daisy. It was one of the coolest things I will ever get to see (second only to watching my nieces' birth).
35. I'm still waiting to volunteer for Hospice, which I really look forward to.
36. I can count all the boys I've ever kissed on both hands, with fingers left over.
37. With the exception of Miss PackMan at Godfather's Pizza, I do not play video games, ever.
38. I got in a fight with a girl in the BoJangles at CPCC over her breach of line etiquette. At the top of my lungs I screamed at her "B***h, you are f***ing with the WRONG white girl today!" She apologized to me the next day in the elevator.
39. I have been a size 10 shoe since I was 12.
40. I used to hate my nose but now I like it.
41. I never liked going to the mall when I was a teenager. I still don't.
42. I think Mississippi is a very cool place.
43. I love talking in other accents, and will do it all day long if nobody stops me.
44. I floss my teeth every single day.
45. The first phone number I learned besides mine was Brandon Broadway's, 542-3337. I still remember the song the keys make when you dial it.
46. I don't like garbage disposals or dishwashers.
47. Ten years after graduating high school, I took the SAT and got a 1030.
48. My first job was at a pet store.
49. I have never felt sexually discriminated against.
50. I have never seen the movie Titanic. That's what happens when something gets too much hype, I refuse to see it.
51. My extended family are all from Mississippi and when I was little I helped clean ice chests full of shrimp caught on my Pop's boat, popping off their heads and pulling out that gross vein. I still will not eat shrimp.
52. Of all the things I love doing, writing is probably number one.
53. My official favorite day of the week is Tuesday.
54. I love the smells of both molten lead and gunpowder.
55. The first time I saw a ghost I was 31 years old.
56. I have a terrible weakness for funny people.
57. The material item of which I am most proud is my Dad's ShopSmith which he gave me on my 21st birthday.
58. When I was a teenager, my Dad & I ran out of gas in his Triumph (motorcycle, not car) not once but three times.
59. I crack myself up in my sleep and have woken my self up to the sound of my own laughter.
60. I love licorice and tequila, though not together.
61. I like to eat cereal late at night.
62. In third grade I brought a King Snake and shotgun shells to school for show and tell. I got to take my snake around to every class in school, I think my teacher Mrs. Rowe didn't want it in her classroom.



Now, who wants to make their own list? I'd love to read them!