I KNOW MY ALPHABET!

I've been creating like a crazy person! (I HEARD THAT! And I KNOW I AM a crazy person. LOL!) But I can't SHOW you most of my creations because they are for the March birthday people who all happen to be BLOGGERS! (Well, except for my daughter who is getting a card with $$. And despite the economy, I'm pretty sure you all know how money looks! You remember - it's that green paper stuff that flies out the window as fast as we get it!) So I thought I'd show you a NON-birthday gifty! It's for my dear and treasured friend, Risa. She likes green and purple together (so do I - it looks RICH and ELEGANT) so I thought I'd make her an 'R' for her craft room. Risa is a wonderful painter. She hasn't been painting that long, but she has a real feel for it. Her pieces are abstract & (to me) they all look like explosions. Now, that's an EXCELLENT thing! For instance, she painted something for ME, and I told her it looked as though Christmas exploded and the joy went EVERYWHERE! I JUST LOVE IT! Anyhow, I took a letter R and painted it metallic emerald green, then - once it dried - backed it with a pretty purple paper. On the front side, I used both green and purple self-stick ribbon, then added a piece of what my friend Heather calls her 'junque jewelry'. She has an online shop, Speckled Egg, where I bought a LOT of her pieces awhile back. The grapes were a clip-on earring from which I removed the clip. The music represents Risa's collection of musical instruments PLUS her love of singing. The key is a secret. LOL! And the teddy bear is to carry on a tradition I started about 15 years ago. She likes dragonflies & has one tattoed on - I believe - her shoulder. I haven't yet seen it, so I can't remember. And the purple wooden piece is just for effect. I had a BLAST going through all my stuff to find exactly what I wanted, and I've already sent her a picture of the letter, and she says she LIKES it! I'll be blogging more as soon as I make something ELSE that isn't birthday related! Now I need to go & actually WRAP some of the gifties I've been making!

I HEART BLOGGING!

First of all, Susan, I hope it was okay to use this I HEART BLOGGING thingy from your blog. I didn't ask 'cause I KNOW you and I can already hear you saying it's fine! If I'm wrong, you can send me straight to the nearest bad-girl corner! LOL! NOW! I visited Susan's blog last night & saw her post about WHY she loves blogging. I thought it was an ultra cool thing to post about because those of us who ARE bloggers, must SURELY have a lot of common reasons we do it, and perhaps some unique ones as well. Therefore, I thought I'd just jump right on the bandwagon! I think one of the MOST obvious reasons for blogging is the love of journaling or just keeping a record of what goes on in one's life. (Tho' sometimes, the way MY days go, I have to doubt my sanity for wanting a record of them!) Another obvious reason is to connect with people who share our interests. In MY case, I love to blog for both the above reasons. But, in addition, I am a NUT when it comes to LEARNING things. You who are crazy - uh, SWEET - enough to bother reading my nonsense know I love, love, love learning new things! And reading blogs has afforded me so much in the way of learning. THANK YOU, Bloggers, for teaching me! I also love the idea of connecting with people from all over the globe. Right here in the US there are multiple people I've 'met' via blogs, and many of those I've come to just love. I've also met some absolutely AMAZING people from other countries/continents! Finally, I love that I am able to show you all what I am currently messing up - ummmm - working on creation-wise, AND see what YOU are all doing! That's inspiring! I learned the hard way that I don't seem to fit in well on Yahoo groups, tho' I truly WANTED to. I think there are just so many personalities on groups, and I am sort of a strange, overly happy (something that seems to make people suspicious - LOL!) WAIF! So when I decided against joining any groups, I turned strictly to blogging to feed my creative soul. In doing so, it freed me to make whatever I feel like making, and in addition, to make some of the MOST amazing & beautiful blogging friends. So, yes! I DOOOOO love blogging. I hope to read on YOUR blogs why YOU love it, too!

WARM KNITTED LOVE!

As a crocheter (and former knitter - I still know how, I just tend to crochet these days) I KNOW what goes into any project. You pick out just the right yarn for the pattern, consider its weight, its texture, the colors, the pattern itself. You hope if it's going to be a large project - one that will definitely pile up on your lap as you work - that you WON'T be working on it in sweltering temperatures. You understand that once you've actually MADE it, if it's made in sections, you then must piece it together and BORDER it. You are aware of the TIME it will take, including any goofs that may have to be undone and REdone. And you psyche yourself for the repetitious movement. What? WHAT repetitious movement? Trust me, if you knit or crochet, your wrist and/or shoulder JUST started to ache in sympathy. Now, suppose you have arthritis, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, or anything causing constant joint pain. Then you understand how much knitting or crocheting REALLY means to the person doing it. I understand. And yesterday I received a package that can ONLY be considered what I titled this blog entry: WARM KNITTED LOVE. Susan Cleveland (you'll find her at her blog, Blackberry Creek Home Arts) knitted this amazingly soft and gorgeous shawl for me. It's so warm, yet very lightweight. It is a neutral color, yet has lovely hints of red dancing through it. I can wrap myself in it as I read late into the night. If I choose to cover my legs with it, I can without it hurting them. You see, I DO relate to Fibro because I HAVE it. Almost everyone with Systemic Lupus does. And that causes any weight (such as heavy covers) to be unbearably painful. This shawl is NOT. Susan is such a dear & generous person, and she actually MADE the shawl while she sat & waited through her husband Vann's chemo sessions. Not ONLY that, Susan ALSO has Fibromyalgia. I'm so incredibly touched by the generosity of spirit this lovely lady shows to people. I'm blown away that I get to be FRIENDS with her. And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her gift to me.

FROM MY BESTEST, BESTEST FRIEND!

By this time, you are probably all familiar with my best friend, Jan Demetralis aka Jandee. It's sooooo great having beautiful friends, and every single ONE is a treasure to our lives. But if we are lucky enough to have someone we consider a BEST friend, it's BEYOND 'great!' Jan & I are for SURE 2 of a kind. LOL! Both of us love to learn and are on a constant quest to fill our minds with new things. Then, we turn right around and take those new things ... and RUN with them in our own topsy turvy way! UNlike me, my Jan is extraordinarily talented in just about every imaginable way. Example: Go to my side links & find her blog. It's called Jandee's This and That. Check out her latest post where her sweety-pie granddaughter, Kami, asked her to 'make a sloth.' A SLOTH????? I mean, I KNOW what a sloth IS, of course, but it would have thrown me beyond WORDS if I had to create one out of thin air. However - JAN did it. And darned if it doesn't look like the real thing, too! I'm AMAZED by her every single day. I am even MORE lucky in that I love her entire family! So I got a HUGE bonus! Anyway, this afternoon, the mail carrier brought me a Valentine package from Jan. Check it out! a marvelous Chinese letter (pretty, pretty, pretty!) a darling card, & two yummy fruit teas. But, WAIT! There's MORE! See the lil' doll? She is a pin doll and she's holding something only a best friend would remember how much I love - a gingerbread person! Soooooo cute! THANK YOU, my Jan - for the wonderful gift, of COURSE. But WAY more for making me smile & laugh out loud, for sharing & encouraging, for tolerating me when I'm too talkative or in a crummy mood, for sympathizing without feeling you have to solve, for just being the greatest best friend EVER. I wonder sometimes how I managed before I met you! You are my ALWAYS Valentine!
And if anyone would like to do this, when you leave a comment, tell me who YOUR best friend is, and WHY. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL OF YOU SWEETHEARTS! I just LOVE you all!

'WOOD' YOU LIKE TO SEE WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO?

Betcha' thought I'd stopped making messes, didn't you? NOPE! But I had to wait to SHOW a couple because they are birthday gifties & needed to get to the recipients first! Well, now that they have, I can show you two of them! The first was for my beautiful friend, Sandra Walker, who loves PURPLE the way I love RED! It's not a very USEFUL gift, I'm afraid - just a decorative thingy. Here is the back of it.

And HERE is the front. I (obviously) did the counted cross stitched letter 'S' with the Pansy, and I put it on this wooden plaque I'd primed and painted. I love making things for Sandra because she's just such a sweetheart!

The other gifty was for my wonderful friend, Dolly, at My Cherry Heart blog! Dolly likes - well - CHERRIES! And I also like them because they are - you guessed it - RED! So this keyholder was a no brainer! HAD to do it! I have to confess something here. I didn't realize till too late that I had the blasted ribbon - uh - UPSIDE DOWN! Sigh! Only Kai! But Dolly is such a sweety that I know she will forgive my topsy-turvy brain!

Currently, I have several OTHER (non-wooden) projects going simultaneously. I didn't feel like working on just one TYPE of creation so I went crazy & started four different kinds! Stay tuned to see the upcoming messes which I will show as I complete them! (And I'll TRY to keep my puns at bay next post. I promise!)