Christmas!!  You know how annoyed everyone gets when they find that the day after Halloween all retail stores have put up their Christmas decorations?  

Yeah, I’m really not one of those annoyed people.  I love Christmas.  I love the twinkling lights (please no LED’s), cookies, wrapping paper, Christmas trees, family gatherings and of course the anticipation.  It’s always been about the anticipation.

 I think my father may have taught me that.  We would open a few gifts Christmas morning have breakfast, open some more, have lunch and then finish opening up the rest by late afternoon.   I was never one to search high and low for my gifts.  I always loved surprises and would be disappointed when the day was over.  

My sweet Daddy had the philosophy that folks needed to ease out of the Christmas holidays.  He usually would take my mother and I up to Gatlinburg, TN for a little post-holiday season fun.  That way, we always had something to look forward to after Christmas.

Anyway, I love seeing everything decorated and only wish the season could be longer.  

I have yet to start decorating my own house on account it looks like something out of the television show Hoarders.  No joke.  I’m painting my craft room and working on some pieces of furniture and my hallways are filled with boxes and crafting supplies.  It is such a wreck!

Unfortunately, I have a short attention span.   When I’m cleaning and organizing, I find that I get distracted quite easily.  So while I was supposed to be painting my craft room last weekend, I found myself working on a Christmas wreath for my dear friend Grace.  She has had quite a few health problems in the past two years and I thought this fun wreath would be a nice pick-me-up.

I love making collage wreaths.  It gives me an excuse to buy all sorts of fun vintage nick nacks at thrift stores and antique malls.

This was the first time I used mica glitter on the ornaments.  I used Modge Podge to glue the mica.  It worked like a champ and I love the results.  It reminds me of snow.

Happy Hump Day!  Have you started decorating?

I hope that everyone had as good a Thanksgiving as we did.  We certainly have a lot to be thankful for.

First and foremost, I am thankful that my sweet Mama Puff is doing well.  She was in the hospital last Sunday to start a new medication for her irregular heart beat.  They did a cardioversion on her Tuesday and she has been doing great ever since.

I am thankful that both Chuck and I are healthy.

I am thankful that I get paid to do what I love.  It is such a gratifying feeling to get up each morning and enjoy going to work.  I know that not everyone is as lucky as I am.

I am thankful that Mom has met a wonderful, caring and fun-loving man with which to spend her life.  Buddy, thank you for all that you do!

I am thankful that central Arizona has the best Goodwills in the nation.  Seriously.  The above wreath cost me two bucks.  Score!  And Mom wonders why I spend so much time there. 

I am so thankful for everyday I have with this sweet kitty.  She has been in renal failure since June and the ordeal has taken all of our time and money.  She’s worth it.  She is such a loving and fun companion.  Everything you could possibly want in a four-legged friend.

These photos were taken Thursday as we were getting ready for dinner.  As soon as I opened my linen drawer, she took it as an invitation to nest. 

I am especially thankful for this diabolical-looking man.  Were it not for him, my precious kitty would have been gone long ago.  He gives her all her medications, sticks her when she needs fluids, manages the occasional force-feed, pays for the exorbitant vet bills and adores her as if he has always been a cat lover.  He is also a great help in the kitchen and wields a mean knife!

I am thankful for the beautiful home we have built together.  We sure do have a lot of fun!

I am thankful for friends who are like family — those both near and far away.  This is my dear friend Lori who spent Thanksgiving with us.

 What are you thankful for?

For my 38th birthday, my sweet Chucklebutt bought me one of Terri Brush’s soldering workshops.  I have coveted her stuff for quite some time, so I was super stoked to take a class at Melrose Vintage.  Diane and Wendy were super sweet hostesses and Terri was an incredibly patient teacher.  Check out what I made.

I used an old school photo of Mama Puff.

Don’t you just love those pursed lips?!  My Aunt Jeanne gave me the small cameo.  It had been my grandmother’s and she knew that I would put it to good use. 

When I got home from the class, I added the flower pot and fence.  I love all things miniature and though they added a bit of hominess to the house.

One of the coolest techniques I learned in Terri’s class was etching on copper.  It looks super complicated, no?

It was sooo easy!  We stamped various images on the metal and then used ferric chloride to erode the metal around the image.  Lots of fun!  Can you see where I stamped “Je t’aime?”

  Thank you Terri for a great experience!  Thank you Chucklebutt for the opportunity!  Have a good week everyone.

I’m not too sure when it happened, but sometime during the past 10 years, Halloween became my favorite holiday.  I don’t know if it’s the color scheme — I love black and orange — or all the skulls and witches or maybe it’s just all the sweets and treats, but I love Halloween!

Oh yeah, and I love to dress up!

 

I love costumes and wigs and hats and fun false eye lashes.

I also love crazy stockings. 

Luckily for me, my place of work allows me to be as wild as a woman needs to be!  That’s what happens when you teach theatre for youth and are an activity director in a retirement community. 

As a lot of you already know, my family has been through the ringer since the end of September.  Mom had open heart surgery (I promise to blog her story soon) and the whole month of October has been a blur.  Normally Chucklebutt and I would have thrown a big shindig for my residents at Halloween, but there just wasn’t enough time this year.  I did manage to work on a few crafty projects.  I’m addicted to decoupaging Funkins!

I got the idea from the folks at Country Living.

I decided to go black and white chic, but I’m already thinking about what I could do for my Thanksgiving decor.

The first Saturday I was back home in Arizona, I took a class with one of my favorite sculptors — the very talented Jenny Hernandez. 

Skellies!!  Aren’t they precious?

I had such a good time working on these two love birds.

Check out that mustache!  He is so daper.

Hope that everyone has a very Happy Halloween full of lots of treats and a few tricks!

 

In October of 2003, my mother and I went camping at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina.  I had just moved back home in order to save money for graduate school, and we were super excited about exploring the coves with my sweet, little Jon boat.  While the trip was a huge success, we never did get the boat working properly — but that’s another story entirely.  Because of the boating debacle (think no steering in the middle of the lake), we came home a little earlier than planned.

My memory is a bit foggy on the next few details,  but either that night or the following night, we were at the local community theatre preparing for our perspective plays.  I was doing a read-through for Neil Simon’s Rumors, and mom was working downstairs in the costume shop ironing nun costumes — she was the wardrobe mistress for The Sound of Music.

About thirty minutes into the read-through, Stan the costumer comes to me and says, “Nicole I think your mother is having a stroke.”  As you can imagine I was completely flabbergasted and my adrenaline kicked into crisis mode.  When I got downstairs, there was my mother — the quintessential stroke victim — complaining about her arm not working properly.  All she was interested in was ironing those nun habits.  I explained to her quite nicely that she was having a stroke and she needed to get in the damn car!

Fortunately, the hospital was less than five minutes away.  When we entered the emergency room, folks immediately swarmed mom and began to do what they do best.  I have never in all my life seen emergency medicine work so quickly and competently.  It really is almost an art form.

To make a long, traumatic experience short, Mom was given the super duper anti-clotting drug (you must be given it within three hours) and in minutes she went from a stroke victim back to my gregarious, crazy mother.  Within seconds, her hands unfurled, her speech became recognizable and her face no longer palsied.  It is truly a miraculous medication.

Mom was extremely lucky and has no residual side effects from her stroke.  However, shortly thereafter, she discovered she has something called atrial fibrillation.  It is a pesky, irregular heartbeat, and most people either take medication for it or are lucky enough to naturally go back into sinus rhythm.  Mom has not been so lucky.  For the past eight years, she has tried all medications, been jump started more than anyone her cardiologist has ever known and exhausted all other alternatives.  Except one — ablation.  It is a pretty labor intensive procedure where they enter into the heart from the groin and scar the tissue that is all out of whack.  Doctors have been encouraging Mom for years to do this, but she has been wary.  Unfortunately, she has been experiencing a decline in health for the past year and a half and has found that her activities are limited.  She is ready to take that next step and she has got a tremendous amount of folks rooting for her.

Back in June, we (Mom, Buddy, my Aunt Jean, Uncle Peter and myself) all headed to the God forsaken land that is known as Cleveland.  The city was rainy and cold and really quite dreary, but it has an amazing heart hospital — The Cleveland Clinic.

Mom met with the head of the electro physiology department — Dr. Lindsey — and scheduled a date for her ablation surgery.  November 10th.

We just got word this morning, however, that there has been a cancellation and her date has been moved up to September 20th.  It is truly a blessing and we are all rejoicing!

The staff was incredible.  From the doctors, nurses, PA’s, housekeepers — everyone was solicitous, kind and encouraging.  We all feel extremely confident regarding Mom’s care.

This is Nakeyah — one of Mom’s nursing assistance.  She was a doll.  She even gave us her phone number so we could call her when we get back up there.

The hospital itself was gorgeous — original artwork everywhere.  I love this sculptor made entirely of letters.  The pictures at the beginning of this post were taken of a wall made of letters.  Buddy promptly ran his fingers through them and only then did he see the sign that said Do Not Touch.  Doh! 

The hospital itself is like a city within a city.  Complete with bookstores, restaurants, boutiques and gift shops.  The one thing that did shock me was a McDonald’s — in a cardiac hospital!!  I guess it helps business.  Sheesh.

Tours of all the artwork are offered daily.

I spent most of my time with Mom, but it was nice to come down to the lobby and hang out with all the kooky installations.  They even had a gal playing a grand piano for ambiance.

Did I mention that the Cleveland Clinic also has their own police force?

This sculpture is made entirely of felt.

Super Cool!

Once they discharged Mom, we all went to the roof and had a photo shoot.

The roof was a nice place to come up for lunch, read a book or just meditate.

On a completely different note, can you tell that I’ve discovered the nifty processing buttons in Picnik?  My favorites are Holga-ish, Orton-ish and Cross Process (the above effect).  I am hopelessly addicted!
I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted as to Mom’s progress.  We would appreciate all prayers and positive thoughts.  Cheerio!