February 8, 2020
How can this be? When I posted in November, I thought for sure I would post in December and January, no problem! I guess midway thru I got a sinus/chest cold and then we just passed it back and forth until now, but I still have a dry tickle every once in a while.

I had my family Christmas meal and we had a really good time. This year because of the sinus cold going around, Jacob and Jerry had it bad and I was the one to go to Christmas Eve at Morris and Chris's. We had lots of treats and yummy meat pie with ketchup and then wonderful homemade desserts that Dina made. Dina helped decorate their home for Christmas and it was so beautiful.

Today is one of my oldest nephews birthday, Craig. He and his older brother Lyle, were the first nephews in our family. They lived close and we seen them often and for at least a month in Summer. It was so wonderful to have them around. I was about 15 or 16 and still living at home. One of the few things I knew for sure was that I did not want to be a farmer! We lived on a farm with almost all the farm animals of Old Mcdonald! And I really hated our huge vegetable garden, because it needed so much work. One thing I learned from that experience is to prepare the ground first. Which I do use for my flower gardens and a small veggie garden.

Oh, for Christmas gifts on my side I made tree ornaments. I hand painted a Winter scene on a blue ornament for Morris as well as a cute Snowman and Snowwoman with their "hands on each other's butts". When I moved them off the table for us to eat I dropped the scenic one on the floor and it smashed. I thought it was plastic! So I am painting a new one for him.  I plan to have it done for Christmas!!!

That's all for today, but here are some pictures of the ornaments.

November 9, 2019

  I can't believe we are in November already. We have switched to daylight savings time and now it's dark just after 5 now. I do not like it. And I am not fond of the cold either. But I do love the beauty of winter and the wonder of Christmas. I have been making Christmas ornaments in the past few weeks. Last year I wanted to make ornaments for our two newest nieces, but my head didn't get there in time! So this year, I have made 4 for Lillyanna (she's 4) and 2 for Aurora who will be 3 in March. I plan to (or hope) make one every year for Christmas. And now that I think of it, I should make some for 2 other nieces who are 9 and 7. They joined our family 3 years ago by way of a nephew I hadn't seen for 30 years. We didn't know we lived close to each other, about 3 1/2 hours away, until his father passed away suddenly in 2016 and he came for the wake and funeral. I am so glad he is in our lives again. Plus he and his wife (since Spring) had a baby boy 2 weeks ago; Seamus Alexander!! We would have been to see him but I have got a sinus cold that will not stay away. The first time I had it, about 2 weeks ago, it came with horrible sinus headaches and this time it's coughing and laryngitis. But it hasn't stopped me from crafting, and that's very good! So here are the ornaments...

 

Fall is here

October 7, 2019
  We have had a good summer, but I wasn't ready to say good bye just yet. Oh well, you can't stop time. My hubby and son built a small deck on the front of our house this summer and my in-laws gave us their old but comfy swing which was awesome for having morning and evening coffee, until Mother Nature threw the switch from warm and bright to damp and chilly.  Since then, I have been starting days with coffee in my craft room. It is a much better habit than sitting in front of the laptop on my end of the Lazyboy couch for hours which also adds to my winter insulation, that I do not need!

I started walking again a few weeks after our little vacay in New Orleans. My hubby had a conference there for 4 days at the end of August so I went along and we stayed a few extra days. There were a 3 men and 2 women who also came down from the company he works for. We had free time from mid afternoon and hung out together exploring Bourbon, Canal and other streets. Food was amazing and the Hurricanes were  huge! We had a great time.

Because of my habit of coffee in my craft room, I have been doing quite a few crafts per week. Mainly cards, tags, ATC's and Rolodex cards with a few challenges and Skype crafting thrown in. Today I made a Jack Skellington wreath, quite different than the usual wreaths we see in décor. I have been "percolating" on what to do for décor with Nightmare Before Christmas for a few years and have only done some acrylic painting to use as a tote bag, but haven't made the bag yet! Hopefully in a week or two!

The current  challenge over at DoubleTroublePapercrafting blog is Kids/Babies birthday/Special occasion so I made a tag as an entry. Head over and check them out, you may win something!! 

Since my illness, Guillain Barre Syndrome took my ability to work away, I have been challenged by my identity. Before GBS, I was a self-employed Financial Planning Advisor.  I really enjoyed the scheduled life and being able to help others thru the financial pitfalls. After GBS, I couldn't handle scheduled appointments because I would often not be able to keep them, be it counselling, volunteering or other outings, with family or friends. The other thing GBS left me was anxiety attacks. I did not even know what it was when it happened! Luckily I only have a few a year, but I am still not able to count on how my body will feel from one minute to the next. I look "normal", but have so many strange residuals that even I am surprised by them. I was one of those who believed mind over matter and if I didn't have GBS I could not imagine the strange sensations I can feel! 

Prayerful hugs to all.

This is a card I made today, for a challenge over at DoubleTroublePapercrafting blog, that I thought ended July 31, 2019, but actually ended July 21.  These goils seem to have a lot of fun and have all kinds of different challenges!
(My short term memory has really been affected badly since I had Guillain Barre Syndrome in 2000. GBS is a rare autoimmune illness that isn't well known and can act differently from patient to patient. It can be fatal and is hard to diagnose because the symptoms present as other illnesses, and Dr.s aren't familiar with GBS. Unfortunately, most patients are not believed even if they are unable to stand! I was lucky; I ended up paralyzed from the waist down within 3 days of pins and needles in my legs and feeling disconnected to my limbs like a marionette doll! 24 hours later, I was paralyzed from the neck down. A Dr. 2 hours away knew it was GBS and started treatment right away, after telling us that if I left the hospital I would die because the other hospital wouldn't know what to do when I stopped breathing. More in another post!)
I hope you like the card, the challenge was Santa on the Beach. I enjoyed making it, once I had my percolating hat on!

My next post is for the actual current challenge on Double Trouble Papercrafting

Christmas card Watercolor  for the challenge over at CASChristmas challenge

Christmas card Anything Goes