Was honored to be asked to make a wedding cake for friends...and they wanted CHOCOLATE!! Happy Life...Rob and Linda!

So I bought this big ol' thing of Bic markers and I am having a ball!!!

So did I mention I have the best friends in the world. Not only did they give me a surprise birthday party and gifts but the best gift was this: 2 printed out calendar pages with names filled in for days that they would make dinners for my parents and take some of the load off me! God is good! How lucky am I!!! Thanks you guys! (thats me in the black!)

So two really nice things happened to me today. First of all, my dear friend Vicki and her daughter, Meagan (who is my mom's caregiver) left me a Birthday Week Riddle at my mom's so when I got there this morning there was a riddle and I had to solve it and find a gift. It was so fun and the gift was a gift certificate to my hairstylist! And they are doing something everyday until my birthday next week!! SO FUN!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I came home from my mom's and there was a box in the mail. This wonderful blogger artist lady named Marilou (Lulus Lovlies) who I don't know, never met and just commented back and forth once or twice on our blogs sent me 24 old spice tins to make my pumpkin folks out of!!! What a surprise!!! What a NICE PERSON!!!

And let me say that God is Good! I needed these nice people and things as this has been a rough couple days in the mom/dad world....sometimes I lose my mind. And those of you who know me, know that I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY! I LOVE PRESENTS! and am not afraid to say it! I just don't love my age.....

So we live in an 86 yr. old house with radiators, therefore, no central air, no duct work to get some. It has been very hot here and it makes for a crabby crabby artsy person. There is no way to go upstairs in my studio and create. You see along with the charm and coziness of an old house you get the whole 2nd floor on one electric circuit so no window air conditioners either! But that's fine, really, I love my home.

And I love Meijers! For a mere $69 I got this pool!! (sorry, took photo thru screen window...) Its 12ft dia and not so deep BUT WHO CARES...it refreshes me, cools me off, MAKES ME UN-CRABBY!! I love my little pool! God is good!

My Art Space

I have a small spare bedroom that is my art "studio". It has enough things crammed in there for 4 rooms! I just lose all track of time in there and get glue and paint all over my clothes! I have hardly any clothes with some goop or another on them! I know where every little thing is in all that mess too. Yep its my very own little heaven. Someday.....I will have a REAL studio! Someday. But for now this is it!

Boy! Am I excited! I found a BUNCH of vintage spice tins at an estate sale for a quarter a piece! Bought 'em all! I feel a bunch of spice tin pumpkin folk a brewin'! I LOVE ESTATE SALES! and garage sales...and thrift shops and the Salvation Army.........

So I have just joined another marketplace online to sell my pumpkin folks! This is so much fun! It is WSOAPP which is Whispered Secrets of a Primitive Past. It is www.wsoapp.org. Everyone on these sites are so nice. And the creativity is unbelievable! So many talented people. Well, I better get busy, Halloween will be here before you know it and I got folks to make!

Blessed Girl

I just wanted to say that my faith is the best thing in my life! God is so good! I am very blessed to have found the Lord. I have the best husband, I have my art, I have the best help for my mom and dad and all their issues always get taken care of even through some miracles! I have the best friends and cousins. I have the best church family. I have to much good to mention. I am one blessed girl!

God is good!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Lunch with the surgeon

So, finally!, my mom's surgery is over and she is home and healing and my life is a bit back to normal. It was a LONG week.

She has the nicest, sweetest, down to earth female surgeon. She is very intriguing to me since I am the polar opposite of her. She is very cute and tiny with gorgeous thick hair, and those of you who know me know that I am NOT tiny, and my hair is not thick. She must have gone to school a long, long time and has a job with tons of responsibility. I avoid responsibility at all costs (not counting my parents), can't stand being locked in anywhere and am a creative spirit/artist. If I paint flowers and ivy on someone's wall and screw it up I can just paint over it. She can't screw up! PRESSURE!!! How does she do it?? I just can't comprehend...that's why she is so interesting to me.

She probably lives comfortably and we pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. She most likely goes on fabulous vacations but not so often and we go on less extravagant getaways and often. I have tons of freedom, and I assume she doesn't because of her job but I don't know for sure. The choices we made and still make are so different and that is sooo interesting to me. I am very happy with my life and I hope she is with hers.

I had a lot of time sitting in that hospital with my mom and I was thinking that if her and I had lunch what would we talk about? Is there a level that two people like us can meet on and talk about our lives? Just because she is a doctor/surgeon does she complain about her husband leaving dishes in the sink like me and my friends do? Or is there a housekeeper to do dishes? Can't help it, I am creative and my mind goes and goes. In surgery, does she put out a gloved hand and say SCALPEL! and someone slaps it in her hand? I just want to know!! What's her house like? Mine is warm and homey and filled with vintage/antique things and I decorated it myself. Did she do her own, do people like her have time? Do they want to? I just wonder... When her phone rings it is Bugs Bunny saying WHAT'S UP DOC...I thought it was so funny, (doc...shes a surgeon, get it??). Up until recently I had Frank Sinatra. What music does a smart, schooled surgeon like? These things are interesting to me, so many questions in this world that aren't answered. So many "coulda beens" and so little time left to do something substantial. I want to leave a legacy. Can artwork be a legacy just as much as taking cancer out of people? I like to think of my life and art as encouraging. To show that not everyone has to be book-learned (some of us just can't do it!). That not everyone has to be locked in an office all day. That you can be happy doing what ever you love. I am sure she loves her job as well, how could she not - she is SAVING lives for pete's sake!! I really admire her and sometimes wish I was different, more like her, but just sometimes. I hope she is happy too. Maybe some day we will have lunch and I'll ask her....