HAVE I ACCIDENTALLY INVITED GREMLINS TO LIVE HERE????

I think I want to cry right now but I HAVE to laugh instead! These past few weeks have been so ridiculous it's unreal! After having my old computer crash, then having internet connection troubles with this new one, plus a HIDEOUS Lupus flare-up AND a bad old fall which caused - you guessed it - MORE stitches in my round head, plus a burn on my hand, and on & on, I THOUGHT things were finally turning around. But today I decided to try to get some small carpet stains up. The landlady - a sweetheart - did not replace the carpet before we moved in and it's very light-colored so it shows every little DOT. I HAD professional carpet cleaners out here the first week we were here, but they didn't do a good job, and these spots - while not all that bad - BUG me. Well, I read that Oxyclean will get out even old stains. So after I spent two hours scrubbing the house up one side & down the other earlier today, I decided to try a small spot & see if it worked. It SEEMED to so I went ahead and scrubbed ALL the spots. Only problem IS, it leaves a white spot where the dirt was. Sigh. So I NOW have MULTIPLE lil' white spots all over the house. CRUD. Decided not to stress over it and came in here to my craft area. Now most of you know I do not have feeling in my hands or legs a great deal of the time. THAT'S why I fall so easily & burn or cut or stick myself so much. I didn't do ANY of those things tonight. Huh-uh. Instead, I walked past my shelves - the ones behind my craft table and heard a loud, "CRASH!!!!!" OH, NOOOOOOOO! Approximately 10,000 (no exaggeration whatsoever) beads came pouring out of the huge container I didn't even FEEL myself knock off as I passed by it. It took me 2 solid HOURS to get 90% of them picked up. Heaven only KNOWS how long I'll be finding the REST of the cursed things. Once I finished, I thought, "Okay! I should just make this sound FUNNY & blog about it. So I found a couple of pictures of multiple beads. (You don't REALLY believe I'd take a picture of the actual MESS I had to clean up, right? No way! I was WAY too busy using up my year's supply of bad language!) Saved the pictures & came over here to post. The picture thingy in Blogger isn't working. Sigh. As a result, THIS is what you get tonight! A grumpy old post with no photo. I HOPE by Sunday evening to post a HAPPY account of my latest creations AND some PICTURES. In the meantime, I think I will go drown my frustration in a HUGE Margarita. Oh, wait - I don't drink. LOL! Maybe just some water & an aspirin. Nighty-night, all! Tomorrow HAS to be a better day, don't you think?

NOTE: THE CRAZY PHOTO JUST DECIDED TO POP UP ALL BY ITSELF. GREMLINS, I TELL YOU!

testing

I'm having blogging AND email headaches & trying to see if this will post. Sigh.

I HAVE FABRIC!

Thought I'd show you what I did while my NEW computer was on the fritz! I'd HAD all my fabric LITERALLY crammed into a cedar chest. It was extremely difficult to get to anything because I had to unload the entire contents of the chest (each category of fabric was in individual bags - those ENORMOUS plastic ones) then go through them. Of course, FIRST, I had to dump everything OUT of the bags, one at a time, and put everything BACK before trying another. Sigh. What a pain in the calico. So I bought another snap-together shelving unit and crammed it into ... uhhh ... I mean, found JUST the place for it, then got busy sorting and containerizing (my own word - heehee) fabrics. The top shelf has a bag (see it?) with netting and miscellaneous other oddball fabrics. The second shelf from the top has a pillowcase filled with - well - BLANK pillowcases ready to decorate. And also my wad of various (mostly Christmas) fabrics. I wish I had more shelf room because I'd add at LEAST two more of these snap-together deals & have EVERYTHING neat as a pin. Anyway - here's the shelf: And here is my rather ridiculous fleece supply. Okay - so I LIKE fleece!

My 'purty' fabrics are in HERE! Lots of silks, satins, and velvets. Yum!

And my cottons! I have LOTS of cottons! I know you can't tell, but each color & coordinating print color is together. I can REALLY find EVERYTHING now. Now, you'd THINK with all this fabric, I'd be ready to make something MARVELOUS, right? Folks - get a GRIP. This is KAI. I don't SEW. I am HOPELESS unless I'm crocheting or counted cross stitching! However I DID make my daughter Leah a doll to add to her bd box. My child calls herself Texas Girl. She LIVES in Wisconsin, but her heart is deep in the - well - HEART of Texas! So I used a teeny piece of I LOVE TEXAS fabric I had as inspiration - if you want to call ANYTHING about this inspired. I made a bitty rag doll, gave her Texas makeup and big hair, plus a fireworks display of chili peppers adorning that big hair AND a star to represent the LONE STAR STATE. I - ummm - sorta got the fabric upside down on the dress front but she won't care - my daughter, I mean, not the doll. I don't CARE if the doll isn't happy! And the hair & features and sewing as well as the doll in GENERAL are PATHETIC. Still, I will send it so my child can have a good laugh. So tell me this: Did you TRULY think my having a pretty decent fabric supply would make me sew well? Or sew AT ALL??? Believe me, if that were the case, I'd be a seamstress, a master beader, a clay artist, etc. Instead, what I AM (besides goofy - heehee!) is a very decent crocheter and counted cross stitcher, and a ridiculously horrid doll maker. But don't I have a nice, organized shelf?

I HEART YOU!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! I've MISSED everyone so much but - until yesterday afternoon - I was STILL having computer woes. NEW computer woes. Not good. They are finally all resolved (at least for now) and just in time to tell you that I hope EACH of you has a day absolutely FILLED with so much love you can barely HOLD it all! Starting tomorrow, I will resume my regularly scheduled (BWAHAHAHAHA) blogging routine so expect a LOT of Kai nonsense! In the meantime, DO please eat a piece or two of chocolate for me as I'm allergic. Sigh.

MAKING ME PROUD TO BRAG!

My best friend, Jan Demetralis, is just astoundingly talented. I'm not SAYING that BECAUSE she's my best friend but because it's true. Look at her latest sketches. Jan had serious eye surgery a short time ago & sadly, it was NOT successful. Still, she is so creative and so determined. I admire her tremendously & I asked her if I could share these wonderful pieces she just did. She always thinks her art is somehow 'less' because it doesn't conform. HA! I think she is a genius BECAUSE her art is HERS. I love it! She did at least one of these with a graphite pencil which I've TRIED using. All I got for my efforts was a smudged MESS. LOL! At any rate, check out the great job SHE did!

Doesn't this little girl look sweet and innocent? I LOVE her! And this one has a very pensive look as tho' she may be considering sharing a secret! Can you tell how impressed I am? I WISH I could draw!

While I'm bragging on people, let me tell you that my friend Lucia will have a new book on the stands as of April 27th! I'm EXTREMELY excited because not only is Lucia my friend, she is my LONG TIME favorite author! You all KNOW what a reader I am, and believe me when I tell you that NO ONE writes like Lucia St. Clair Robson. Lucia is the BEST when it comes not only to writing the story but to RESEARCHING it first. I should know because she is the ONLY person to EVER accurately write an account of the history of my Comanche people. My people adore her, and rightfully so! Hope EVERYONE will check out LAST TRAIN TO CUERNAVACA in late April and, for that matter, ALL of her wonderful novels!
Information about the story, as well as an excerpt, are posted here: http://luciastclairrobson.com/Coming.htm

Sometimes it's just GOOD to brag on our friends when they deserve being bragged on! I'm HAPPY I DID! And don't any of the REST of you be too surprised if you see YOURSELVES being bragged on here pretty soon because you ALL deserve it!