Wow...

Last night was my first night back to work. Everyone was so happy to see me & I can't tell you how warm that made me feel. It did feel great to be back, but after about an hour I got a bad headache. My boss said it was probably due to the negative pressure our room has. So I went out for about 10 minutes to get a Diet Coke, came back, and felt better. Also saw the Doctor today for my 2nd PostOp. You don't want to know about that....needless to say, it hurt & it hurt, and it hurt, but it is OVER!

So I didn't get home until later this morning. Fiona was sitting there waiting for me looking at her "watch" as I wasn't there at 6:45am for her morning walk. I talked to Chris for a few minutes then off to bed tossing & turning as I'm trying to stop taking Tylenol PM to sleep. Finally did get to sleep. When I woke up this afternoon, first things first...coffee. I'm using a new French Roast that I got at CostCo. Yum. Then I came up here to do my e-mails. I saw one from the editor of Cloth Paper Scissors. I waited to open it as I knew it was a rejection, but surprise...it said I was one of the finalist of the reader's challenge of "Life's a Beach". Shocked me as I sent in the image on a whim. Cyn sent me the information, and I put it off at the last minute thinking..."yeah, right...what does CPS want to see that I have?". I sent Gideon Goldfish. Gideon is one my rescued beanie babies from the thrift store. Instead of being in the Columbus city dump, he now sits on my work table & will soon be heading out for the final cut. I did see that my e-mail was with others finalist such as Laura McCabe. Wow...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he like Gideon. He's a pretty sweet looking "reject".
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Addicted to the BRA!!!

I have so many things that I need to get done before I'm back to work on Monday, but I can't help myself. I'm so addicted to these sweet Bra Dolls. This afternoon, I finished up my second & worked on Tootsie's stand as she was falling over. The new doll is am "employee" of Victoria's Secret. She is a runway model. Tululah's specialty is lounge wear. She has on her sweet poofy pants, with a top that matches. I also am showing a picture of the Bra Twins. Looks like Tootsie is giving Tululah a little trim before the next show! LOL!

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bra doll & other

Well, today is the first day since my sinus surgery on the 16th, that I can actually say I feel great. I had a bout with bronchitis the weekend due to drainage, but after a course of Steroids I feel invincible. I did have slight problem on Monday. Did you hear my scream? I got a call from HR at work saying that the Doctor released me to go back to work. I could barely breath and was wheezing. I actually did one of those "WHAT?" moments like in "Harold and Maude". I told the HR representative that it was impossible, and I hadn't even seem my Doctor for the 1st Post-Op appointment. She was surprised and told me to just tell them that I needed more time off to recuperate and to just have the Doctor's office fax in a release to work form change. When I saw the Doctor the next morning, he was confused about my release and told me he did not authorize that. Went out to the office staff and came back to tell me it was taken care of. Then he did some things to my poor nose that I am not sharing, but I'll tell you that even though I work in a hospital lab and have seen everything, this was outside of everything! He then gave me steroids for the bronchitis and told me he'd see me next week. As I was walking through the Pharmacy to get my prescription filled, something happened that I never realized before in my LIFE! At that point, I knew I was a changed person. As I walked down the make up aisle, I could smell things that I'd never in my life been able to detect before. Later on, I called my sister, Cheryl, and asked her if make up always had a smell. She laughed her head off at me, then got serious and asked did I really think make up was scentless. Well, I did until Tuesday!

Okay back on the track of art. I've had so much energy with the Steroids only sleeping 5 hours a day, that I've got so many projects completed that have been partially done. First off, I'm sharing an almost completed doll of Ruby the Troll. Ruby is a character in Terry Prachett's Discworld books. She is for a display the Doll Street Dreamers is doing for AFIC. She is almost finished & yes! a recycled doll. She started out as a thrift store reject. I cut the head off & made a felted head with a Styrofoam ball. The ribbon on her head was off some Christmas present from the Past (Yes, I'm that big of a hoarder), and someone at the Guilded Lilies' retreat last month gave me the red glass buttons which I cut the shank off of. Those which are on a very visual display give her her name...Ruby. Her microphone was the ice cream cone the doll was using that I encrusted with beads. I still want to embellish the stand some with some ghoulish things. She is a Troll, you know?

The next doll is from Barb Keelings' Bra Doll Challenge. You can read about it on her blog, and zip over to her website (which she shares with husband Doug), and purchase the pattern with a part of the money benefiting Breast Cancer Research. There are 5 patterns to chose for for $10.00. Barb is working on an article for SDA (Soft Doll and Animal), and is looking for people to send her pictures of completed dolls using recycled bras. AND YES! Another recycled doll. This time it is the bra which was an old purchase I made at Victoria Secret back when I could still wear VS! I only used half of the bra as I want to make another Bra Doll with the cups. It was fun to puzzle together how these pieces would work together. Now, I didn't really paint that face. I'm not going to lie to you, but I for the life of me cannot paint faces. This is a stamp from Barbara Willis that I colored with gel pens. I also used some recycled fiber for the hair. Jody Miller had given me a bag of goodies for hosting a Stitch & Bitch for the Lilies. I opened it up. saw that green fiber, and realized HAIR! Also recycled is a plastic horn from a dollar store purchase. So her name is Tootsie. She Toots Her Own Horn about her sewing skills. NO, I'm NOT TOOTSIE!!!! LOL. If you saw me sawing these dolls up, you'd know that. Enjoy.

breathing through my nose! dot

March BJP

I'm slowly recovering from my sinus surgery on Monday. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but recovering is going kind of slow. Right now, I feel like I'm having a sinus infection what with all the pressure in my head and the sinus pain under my eyes. I tried to go out today for breakfast & boy was that a mistake. Had to hurry home. I'm NOT ready for the public yet. One thing that I was worried about with having this surgery was if I'd be able to sit at my work station and do some beading. Have I EVER! As long as I keep my head still, I can work away the hours. Which is a good thing considering that television makes me a little nauseous still. So I've been creating new projects, sewing, and naturally beading.

This is my March entry for the BJP 2008-2009. His name is Shawnee. The beading & color manipulation on this one isn't as good as I wanted, but I wanted to do a beanie totally encrusted. Shawnee first started as one of the bears from my recycle project. He was sitting there all bright & naked next to his friends. I'd just finished reading a post by Jeannette Shannigan which really touched my heart. Jeannette is blogging about grief from the death of both her husband and son. Every word she writes is filled with raw emotion that makes the reader want to reach out & give her support for this journey she is documenting. I thought about my Dad. He passed away from complications due to lung cancer back in 1991. He was only 61 years old and had only taken medical retirement two weeks before he died. To this day, I miss him so much. I have a picture of he & I when I was 3 years old in my bedroom. I see him every morning when I go to sleep and every night when I change clothes to go to work. I have one of his hats (Daddy had a bald spot & liked to cover it up), and sometimes get it out. But of all the things I have of his that give me peace is memories. He & I became closer toward the end as he still was too proud to quit working though he could. He worked 3rd shift with me at the hospital, and got too weak to drive downtown every night, so he'd come here & we'd car pool together. We shared so much in that time in the car. He told me things that I never knew & he also told me things I probably shouldn't have known. I look in the mirror every day & I see his face. I look like him so much as does my younger brother, Victor. So he also has a real physical reality to me every single day. I think you never truly get over the lose of your parent. I know I can't. I don't think about his death so much after all these years, but I do remember funny silly things about Daddy that make me laugh.

So back to Shawnee. I was thinking about Jeannette's post & looked down at the beads I had on my work table. They were greens with some yellows that I'd been playing with. Then I felt my eyes glaze over & suddenly I was back at home watching Daddy eat his breakfast. Daddy ate the same thing every single day except on Sundays. He had a big bowl of Wheat Chex with at least 3 tablespoons of sugar and enough milk to fill the bowl to the rim. The bowl is what I focused on. He had HIS BOWL! and nobody ate out of Daddy's corn bowl. It was a yellow and green bowl that looked like an ear of corn. It had come from a set of popcorn dishes that my Mother got from Brother Mendenhal for a wedding present. It had 4 bowls, a salt shaker, and a wee little pot for the melted butter. I believe it was either Shawnee or McCoy pottery, but I'm thinking it was Shawnee. Other bowls weren't big enough for Daddy's breakfast (oh he also ate ice cream sundies from this bowl too & could he fill it up with pineapple toppings), so Daddy picked this last Shawnee corn bowl for his. I remember having to wash it afterwards & there in the bottom was a crust of that huge amount of sugar he added to everything. Daddy loved his sugar. He is the only person I've ever seen who could sit down at one sitting and eat an entire apple pie (the WHOLE THING) with a couple scoops of ice cream. Funny thing is that he was very fit and trim. I never saw an extra ounce of fat on that man ever. Next thing I knew, I picked up the bear & started to beaded the greens and yellows on him. Some places is looks like the kernels of corn, in other it looks like the green of the shucks which were at the bottom of the bowl. But each bead was for Daddy. After I finished Shawnee, I called & told my Mom about this project. She laughed & told me she had forgotten all about Daddy's Corn bowl, but that made her remember it. She told me she still had the salt shaker and pot. She told me they'll be mine someday. So, Shawnee made both my Mother & myself share one more thing of Daddy that day. And Shawnee will make me remember my Daddy & his Wheat Chex.

Wrinkles, anyone?

Well it is officially March 16th here in Ohio. Why do I mention that? Well, in about 10 hours, I'm going to be having surgery for my nose & sinuses. I believe I've had trouble breathing for 40 years. I finally got sick three weekends ago at the Guilded Lily Retreat in Hocking Hills, and it was the push that I guess I needed to make me finally go to a specialist for my chronic sinus infections. Imagine my surprise when he told me I need surgery & got the appointment within 10 days. I guess I'm still a little in shock that I'm finally going to get my sinuses worked on. The ENT, Dr. Spies told me that this chronic infection is probably one of my Asthma triggers, and the Vertigo I experienced back in Feb was caused by press on my ear. He told me I'll feel so much better once it is over. I know I will. Everyone I've known who has had it done (including my husband) has told me it made a big difference in their lives. My youngest brother told me it is hard to explain to someone like myself who has never breathed well through my nose to know what I've been missing. Besides the breathing issues, I have a very bad sense of smell. It has to be very strong for me to notice, AND now my sense of taste is going. I can taste heavily spiced items & some sugar, but it all is texture anymore. So, I'm looking forward to smelling and tasting again once I've healed. Now, along with all the positive support, I've gotten people telling me their horror stories. One gal told me she threw up blood & had to go into the hospital for a week. Another told me he couldn't smell anything any more. And for every positive story, there is a negative one too. I'm not going to lie. I dread this morning. I really do!

Well, because the surgeon has gotten me into the operating room in what seems to me a record time, I've had to hussel in getting all the pre-Admission work done. Friday afternoon with only 4 hours of sleep, I had to go to get a Pulmonary Function Test (you'd think with Asthma I'd have had this before, but nope), and an EKG. I asked in the Doctor's office why did I have to get these two test done as I'd never had anything like this required for procedures before. The tech quietly told me it was because I was 55. I asked, what that had to do with anything as I only had Asthma, and he said that I now was a SENIOR! WHAT!!!!!! SENIOR!!!!!! Then when I was getting my EKG done, the young Asian girl told me that her birthday was the same as mine, but different year. She asked me how old was 1954 people & I told her I was 55. Then she said....wait for it..."You don't look so bad to be so OLD!!!!" NOW I'M A SENIOR & OLD TO BOOT! What a nice day I had. NOT! I came home & told Chris & he said, "Well, you have been ordering off the Senior menu at Bob Evans for awhile." Only because I wanted the smaller portions. So am I really OLD? Am I really a SENIOR? Don't feel like it, but hey! Ask me that question in about 10 hours.

Well, I'm going to drag this worn out "old" carcass to bed so I'll be able to answer more insulting remarks in the pre-op. Can't Wait!!!!

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Trash to Treasure

Well there are two things that let me know IT IS SPRING finally in Central Ohio. The first thing is that on the way to work yesterday, I heard the frogs "singing" at Sharon Woods Park. They were at it last night too, so it isn't very long until all this nasty cold Winter weather is gone. Saturday and Sunday it was so warm that we #1 opened the windows, and #2 gave the dogs a bath in preparation for their Spring Cut. I'm going to have to do a before photo as all three are pretty fuzzy.

Next to make me know it is Spring is the arrival of the May issue of Doll Crafter & Costuming with my article on recycled thrift store rejects. It is called Trash to Treasure. If you've been reading my blog, you know that my whole theme this year is to recycle & to use recycled objects in every project I'm working on. Originally I had found some beanie animals stashed away in a tub of my junk & I had the idea to bead them. DUH! Like what else would I want to do with anything? LOL! So that started the whole thing. I sent a picture of some of my beaded animals to Sarah the editor of DC&C & she loved them. Asked me to write an article. I was challenged! It was fun writing it up. I wrote my statement about rescuing items on their way to further over fill our City Dump and turning them into pieces of Art. I think everyone is in love with the Hippo. I've had several people want to buy him, but he's not going to be for sale. Some things I just have to keep. The photographer did such a wonderful job with my group of misfits. Chris said we are going to have to get a little trunk to put them all on. Also, for those who live in Ohio area, I'm going to be teaching this class at Byzantium later this Summer/Fall.