THE UNFINISHED ANGEL & AN ANNOUNCEMENT

Awhile back I discontinued my literary blog because, as much as I read, I was finding I needed to post way too often. That DIDN'T stop me from READING, though! I've read some stinking, some fair, some pretty darned good, and a couple of AMAZING books over the last year-plus. Once in a great while I find a book that - on some level or another - reaches right into my heart & soul, and tugs the daylights out of me. Those of you who read my other blog know that STARGIRL by Jerry Spinelli was ONE of those. I cannot tell you how many copies of that book I've bought! I truly should own stock in it! It's still a book I loudly declare SHOULD be required reading for ALL human beings. Everywhere. All of them. I mean it! (Have I convinced you yet? LOL!) Now I am introducing you to ANOTHER book I feel as strongly about. It's Sharon Creech's THE UNFINISHED ANGEL. It takes a moment or two to acclimate the reader to the way the main character speaks. As SOON as THAT happens, you fall right into the pattern & MAY even find YOURSELF angel-speaking. (I did!) It's a SMALL book - only 163 pages - and it moves QUICKLY. I read it in one very fast sitting, and my housemate, who reads much slower, read it in a record-setting 3 days. Again, I have found a book I'll be buying and giving and buying and giving! This makes 6 I love THAT MUCH! NOW! If I haven't already convinced you, maybe THIS part will interest you: I am currently writing my 186th post. At Post #2oo, I will be doing a giveaway! A GOOD one! I don't intend to TELL you most of what will go INTO the giveaway box, but it will be fun! I have been assembling it for awhile now! I WILL tell you that this copy of the book will be added! So DO be watching for future countdown announcements. As I near the 200 mark, I'll let you know so you can be in the drawing! Below is a photo of the book cover in case you are inclined to buy a copy! I HOPE you are! And, for the record, here are the SIX books I should own stock in - and YOU should definitely consider reading!
Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Claire Robson
Follow the River by James Alexander Thom
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Oniongirl by Charles de Lint
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
and, of course,
The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech



WHOOOOOOAAAAA! WAIT JUST A COTTON PICKIN' SECOND!
Did you think THAT was my announcement? NOPE! THAT is as follows! I am about to do something just for ME! WHAT????? Gasp! Yes, I am! I don't have tons of $$ but I am going to take a vacation. Where am I going? Am I visiting friends or going to the Rez? Nope! Am I seeking a lovely log cabin somewhere surrouned by SNOW? Huh-uh. (Tho' I WISH I were!) How about a pristine beach? ME? Uh - not on your LIFE! If I want HEAT, I'll just stay HERE! I am going ... drumroll ... to stay home, do NO emailing, do NO blogging, and CREATE. I have to be on the computer a LOT because I edit for a living. But I find that I ache to create non-stop in my so-called spare time, yet I gravitate right over here & start jabbering. I want to see if I can REALLY accomplish something for awhile. I believe taking 2 weeks will replenish my soul & make my spirit SOAR! Now I MAY check blogs every few days but I won't comment. I will go back & comment later. Do you think I'm CRAZY? OOOPS! Strike THAT! Of COURSE I am. But I mean to take this kind of vacation? I think it may be the SMARTEST thing I've done in ages! Now this won't start immediately. I will 'leave' (Blogland & Email Land) on Saturday, July 3rd, and return Saturday, July 17th or Sunday the 18th. Until then, I'm still going to be 'here'. Okay! All my chatter is used up for now!

A CART BEFORE THE HORSE CHALLENGE

PHOTO #ONE: My daughter and her faithful kitty companion still sound asleep on a Saturday morning in 1981.
PHOTO # TWO: A bunch of felt pastries I made a few years ago
PHOTO # THREE: My REALLY fun/crazy friend Jerry, who works at the Borders (my old hangout) a block from where we used to live.
PHOTO #FOUR: An EXQUISITE drawing by my best friend, Jan Demetralis. (Isn't she AMAZING?) Yes, yes, yes! I DID already post today. LOL! But when I went to finish reading blogs, I saw an interesting one from the incredibly talented Jo Curry of The Cart Before the Horse blog! (WHAT???? You aren't FAMILIAR? Get right on OVER there! You'll love it!) Anyway, her post said to go to our photo albums & go down to the 4th picture in the 4th album & show and tell. Go down 4 more and do the same. Do it 4 TIMES. Now I don't HAVE 16 albums so I had to alter things a bit. I did the 4th picture of every SECOND album 'cause I have only 8. Here they are! And those are the photos you are seeing at the top of this post! Thanks Jo! FUN!

MY HEART IS OVERFLOWING

Yesterday afternoon as I checked blogs, I came across this beautiful piece on my dear friend Cherie's blog. Cherie - or as I call her, Lil' Chirp because she is always sweet, welcome birdsong to my soul - had posted her newest upside-down heart. I commented, raving about the detail & the FEELING in it! She used butterfly batik fabric as the background, and added so much detail & so many significant pieces. Chirp puts tremendous love & feeling into her art. She's always really shy and quiet about her work, though I say she should beat the drum and sing her own praises to announce EVERYTHING she creates! I think it's exquisite and TOLD her so. Today, the mailman brought me a box. Three guesses what it contained! I was blown away & cried for a full 20 minutes! Her love & generosity, AND the words she added to the back of the piece, touched me deeply. I've already written to thank her and I took a photo of where I hung her lovely gift! But HER photo - the one from her blog - is much better so I am using that to show all of you! Let me just add this: If any of you are EVER lucky enough to get Cherie Day as a swap partner, you will receive THE best exchange & a piece of art worthy of displaying for all time! THANK YOU AGAIN, lil' Chirp! I know you aren't fond of being the center of attention, but I HAVE to share your talent with my other lovely blog readers! I just wish I could let you all TOUCH it and experience the great texture, too!

PANTRIES AND PINK THINGS!

My pictures are not in the correct order - or at least not in the order I'd originally INTENDED them to be, especially the first three. Sigh! But here they are - a bit of what I've been working on. Let me explain the top three. I do not have a designated pantry in this house. I have, for the last year and almost 3 months, been using the shelves in the little laundry room, which happens to be located right off the dining room. You know - the shelves meant for detergent & stuff. But all my detergent is on top of the dryer. So it worked as a temporary pantry, that shelving. However, the room has no a/c so it's hot as blazes in there! AND it's a tight space for someone as round as I am. So I fixed THAT! HA! When I bought the Sterilite shelves for my craft room, I saw that Target ALSO carries Sterilite cabinets. Hmmm ...! I waited till they were on sale & went back for 2 of them. Put them together (Sterilite stuff is quickly assembled) and placed them on either side of that old green couch in the dining room/den area. No other place FOR them. No, it DOESN'T look like Better Homes & Garden. I totally agree! But it WORKS! In the first cabinet is most of the food stuff for meals. In the second, on the 2 upper shelves, are snacks for The Beast aka Ray, my housemate. I haven't finished the last 4 shelves because I had that health crud last week. I'll do it tomorrow! The tallest shelf in the middle will hold my cookbooks & recipes which are currently in a lower cabinet and very hard to get to. The last 2 shelves will be for all baking foodstuff. I'm pleased because, while I would have preferred an actual pantry, this keeps things neat & organized & out of sight. I am trying to think of some way to make the cabinets look prettier. Any suggestions? (And don't anybody DARE say dynamite!) NOW! The next photos are baby things! LOTS of them. My friend Sandy's granddaughter is expecting her first baby - a girl. My friend (and swap hostest extraordinaire) Harley, is expecting TWIN girls. So I made each baby the exact things with only slight variations in style. A dress, a bib (all alike) a hat, a pair of booties, and a small photo album with their names in counted cross stitch. I am still finishing the albums for the twins. Takes me a bit more time to cross stitch because I have vision in only one eye, so my sighted eye tires quickly. The bib is a one-size-fits-all, of course. The dresses range from 3-6 months to 6-9 months. The booties are (I'm thinking) 0-3 months, and the caps will depend on the individual baby head! They are not sets meant to be worn together. Just various pieces. Harley can mix & match everything for the twins! Tonight I hope to finish the cross stitching & add it to the last albums. Then it's on to the Wearable Doll swap items. After THAT, I want to work on a really oddball (original) idea I've had dancing around in the space where my brain is SUPPOSED to be! At any rate, there you go! No whining about pain today, or about the heat (tho' I AM privately whining about that heat BIG TIME) but only stuff. Stuff I put together. Stuff I made. Now let me take my bow & exit, stage right! LOL!
CABINET #2 WITH SNACKIES
CABINET #1 WITH FOOD ITEMS AND COFFEE/TEA

THE TWO PANTRIES

BIB
BUTTON ON BACK OF ONE OF THE DRESSES SET OF ITEMS FOR WHITTLEY ANN ONE SET FOR TWINS

OTHER SET FOR TWINS

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGITY JIG

You will be glad to know this is my last health and/or mood-related post for a loooooong time! Subsequent posts will be much more creating-oriented! But I wanted to say I am home (a teeny bit sore but no worse for the wear) and the offending shards have been BANISHED! I also received GOOOOOOOOOD news! The doc had discovered some lumps suggesting the Hodgkin's may have decided to make a reappearance. I had a biopsy (this was prior to yesterday's surgery, of course) and the results went to my oncologist who I was scheduled to see soon anyway for a routine checkup. Woooooohooooo! It was nothing more than benign cysts. I am terrifically happy because I had quite enough of the chemo awhile back. So, for now, tho' I have to take it a bit easy for a couple of days (you won't hear ME whining about THAT!) I am recovering nicely and already crocheting away! Thanks to each of you for being so sweet and supportive. Now I will go support YOU by reading your blogs! LOL! Back in a day or so with finished projects to show!

HAVING MY OOOOWIES TAKEN CARE OF ... BACK WHEN I'M ALL IN ONE (BIG) PIECE!

Well, here it is Tuesday afternoon & I thought I'd write and say toodle-oo for a couple of days. The tests I had yesterday showed something we weren't really expecting (bah, humbug) so looks like I'm going to have to get a bit of 'extra' repair work as well as some 'ongoing maintenance'. I hope to be home by THURSDAY afternoon. It may be Friday. So you sweet readers will get a BREAK from this silly old Comanche! Don't let your guard down, tho'. I'll bombard you when I have a lil' recovery time under my belt. I'm taking my trusty crochet and a couple of books with me and calling this a mini-vacation from editing, housework, & cooking! How's THAT sound? To all of YOU, a WONDERFUL rest of the week is what I wish. Do something fun every single day; ALSO something SILLY - it's good for the spirit! LOVE YOU ALL!

PATTERNS GONE WILD!

SOMEONE GOT A BIT CARRIED AWAY, DIDN'T THEY?

I crochet a LOT. I buy a lot of patterns - mostly from Annie's Attic, a place I've been frequenting since the late 70s! In fact, I still have (and USE) many of the same patterns I used back then. I also 'live' over on Crochet Central & Ravelry. I could spend as many hours perusing patterns as I can browsing in bookstores. You all KNOW how brutally honest I am about my sewing shortcomings. But I will give myself credit - I crochet pretty doggone well. That's why I've been kind of frustrated recently. We all get a 'bad' pattern now & again. By bad, I mean faulty. Sometimes I can go back and figure out what the pattern's writer REALLY meant. Sometimes I can't, but I figure a way around the error. This past week, I have encountered three faulty patterns. Two were from Ravelry, one from Annie's. Grrrr! Now the 2 Ravelry patterns I can't fuss about because they were free! LOL! But, by golly, I paid good $$ for the Annie's pattern & it's the 3rd one I've purchased in the last year that was a MESS. Uh-huh! I know what some of you are saying! "Maybe that goofball Kai just isn't reading the pattern correctly or she is screwing it up." Uhhhhh - NOPE! The first one this week didn't bug me as much because it was to be for me. A snood. I'd been WANTING a snood to control this wild hair in a stylish manner. For awhile, the pattern SEEMED okay - altho' it WAS awfully looooooong! I mean, c'mon! My hair IS well past my shoulders but it ISN'T down to my ... well. Yet I continued, thinking I could always re-make it with a smaller yarn once I saw the finished item. Well, I was ALMOST at the end when I started realizing the pattern was wonky. Sigh. So disappointed. THEN I started some baby things for several friends who are pregnant - all with baby girls! Grrrrrrr! TWICE MORE I got faulty patterns! So, what am I going to do? First, talk to Annie's Attic & get a refund! Second, pull out my old reliable, tried and true patterns and get BUSY! But it surely is a pain having to unravel stuff. Phooey! In FACT, I think I may just do a counted cross stitch next! You really CAN'T go wrong with those. (Can you?)

YOU ROCK!

Hello, you bunch of blogging sweethearts! This quick post is brought to you by the crazy Comanche who SO MUCH appreciates each of you! You lift my spirits, make me feel as tho' I'm NEVER alone, and give me virtual hugs! THANK YOU, ONE & ALL! I wanted to tell you I saw the doctor who told me the cause of this excruciating pain is DEFINITELY not in my round head! Shards of bone from the shattered kneecap have travelled through my bloodstream into several places, including my left thigh! The NERVE, huh? But luckily, he is going to be able to remove them in a relatively non-invasive way (next Wednesday) and I will not even have to stay overnight in the hospital. Pretty COOL, isn't it? So while currently I am still hurting, I can get past it. Tomorrow I will have CRAFTY stuff to post so lookout! And darned if I know exactly HOW you're s'posed to do it, but check out the right side of my blog & see where I am inviting you to link to me. One last thing from the original airhead: I am signed up for - GASP! - SEWING lessons. OMG! The instructor who teaches all SORTS of classes at Hobby Lobby is coming HERE two days a week starting the week after next for $5 an hour to SHOW me how to thread a sewing machine (STOP LAUGHING) & teach me some basics. I'll be 60 on my next bd but by golly, I say it's NEVER too late to learn! (The poor instructor may disagree when she learns how VERY dingy I am with machines!) Again, THANK YOU for the kind words & feel the monstrous hugs I'm sending each of you!

JUST PITIFUL!

WARNING! This post is all about self-pity so if you aren't in the mood for my 'poor old Kai' bit, I advise you to RUN - not walk - RUN, RUN, RUN! And with that said ...

I have a LOT of health issues. Some I pretty much ignore because they are just a part of who I am. Lupus surprises me with new aggravations during each flare-up. But it is what it is, and I don't have time for stopping my life so I can be self-indulgent. I DEAL with Lupus. Fibromyalgia is a partner to Lupus. Arrrrgghhh! I loathe the pain and weariness it brings, but again, I am HERE, and I LOVE LIFE. So I deal with that, too. I am Bipolar. Having been on meds for that since the early 90s, the ONLY meds I TAKE, by the way, I don't even THINK about it. Truth is, NOT being on meds and being Bipolar & undiagnosed was hard. No - it was TERRIFYING. I'm so grateful to know WHAT used to make me swing from I-can-d0-anything to I-just-want-to give up in a few short days, from being SO indecisive I couldn't choose my clothing without HOURS of confusion, that KNOWING what's wrong with me - this chemical disorder in my brain - is a complete BLESSING. I am perfectly OKAY with that aspect of my being. It's the knee that's making me insane, frustrated, FURIOUS because it is so PAINFUL. For the few who DON'T know, I have a shattered (not slighty cracked or broken, but totally shattered) right kneecap, compliments of a 14-year-old kid who was cart surfing in a grocery store back about 5 years ago & rammed right into my already damaged knee. You could HEAR the breaking bones the next aisle over. It was a one-minute action that has completely changed my life. Ended my dance aerobics - a thing I LOVED - stopped me from being able to get around independently. Keeps me from sleeping lying down. It cannot be repaired, my leg, because of the 'highway of mess' from childhood 'injuries'. (I won't even GO there!) The surgeons - a number of them - said even if they WERE to attempt it, most likely the healing time would be - well, never, and there was less than a 7% (SEVEN????) chance it would be even remotely successful. I begged not ONE, but THREE surgeons to just cut the cursed thing OFF above the knee. I can LIVE with an artificial leg! I can get AROUND with one. Losing my leg? Not afraid of that! Living with this pain? Very afraid. They won't do it. They WON'T. And it makes me ANGRY. I am in intensive pain tonight. Sometimes it subsides within a few days. Sometimes it doesn't. ONE HOUR of it is too much. It interferes with who I AM. Who AM I, you ask? I'm a person who's so grateful to BE on this earth I want to live EVERY MOMENT to the fullest. This pain doesn't allow that. So tonight - at a time when the pain is worse than it's ever been - I am feeling so pitiful. And even tho' it's no one's problem other than my own, I just really needed to share it and FEEL that there are blogging friends out there who will 'listen' and care. Thank you for that! I'll be my silly self soon. Honest!

IT'S GETTING DOWNRIGHT SALTY AROUND HERE!

THREE of the five Under the Sea Tilda projects are DONE! I was all ready to do the lil' sandcastle when - ooops - no heavy interfacing. In fact, no ANY kind of interfacing. I guess it will have to wait till the 10th when I go to Hobby Lobby. I'll live. It's not as though I don't have any OTHER projects I can work on in the meantime! HAHAHAHAHA ... sigh. Below are my two seahorses & the smaller starfish. I SWEAR, regardless of how carefully I clip the curves, I STILL get puckers. But (in MY opinion) the 2nd seahorse turned out better than the 1st. AND I used a pale pink inkpad on the cheeks. Now it doesn't even show UP in the pictures. I can't win!
Here are the latest ones by themselves. Now I'm off to crochet myself (yes, MYSELF!!!!) something!

Stay tuned because I think this is post #177. When I reach post #200, I'm doing a give-away. AND I'm also cooking up a swap pretty soon. So visit lots, OKAY?