Who is in Charge anyway?

We know that all things come together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. (Rom:8:28)

I spent all day yesterday alternating between thanking God and just crying. I had to visit the dr for a check up following the injuries from my big fall in July. I fell again last week and banged up my 'good leg' again causing a lot of pain and bruising.

My rehab dr has been 'trying to convince me to use a walker when out of the house and I have refused to entertain that thought . Yesterday it was taken out of my hands. Dr Perry, being a wise and kind man, simply said, "I agree with Dr Rempel you cannot go on like this. You need to start using a walker when you leave the house."

As I sat there and tried to quell the tears pooling in my eyes he said With your rsd it is like climbing a mountain. You are starting down here on the ground and you put every effort you can into getting up that mountain to the top. Well rsd throws in all these obstacles and you only get part way before you fall flat off the mountain. Then it takes weeks or months of reconditioning to try to climb the mountain again. Poof you fall off again and start over. He said you never get past falling off and regaining strength enough but not complete strength so you are always going back to zero.

I have to protect myself while I am gaining strength to climb back on that mountain. He said the goal will be to condition for three to four months HOPEFULLY and then get myself back to my cane.....back to my cane.....echoing in my head.....back to my cane and never without walking without assistance. But then I KNOW that. I just would rather not give rsd any more than 'today' when I think about it.

Thank goodness John was with me. I cried off and on most of the day.
We went by our good friends for some love and hugs and then off to the supply store to get my new walker. I picked one with four wheels and
and nice padded seat, a basket and brakes whoooieeee styling wheels!

Dr Perry has known me for years and knows how active I once was when I would show up with a broken digit from softball or 'runner's knee' or whatever so he knows how difficult this is for me. He looked at me and said DO NOT start becoming a hermit and staying home. Get out there and live your life!

So I came home and took a nap and then we went off to our nephew's cross country meet at a nearby lake county park.

I actually made it up a small hill with the walker----and back down---with my cane I would have taken one look and said "forget it I can't do it' and stayed at the bottom. It was easier with the walker and I was the only one who could sit the whole time alright!

My nephew came right over and gave me a big hug and said 'nice wheels' and I only cried when my sister arrived and said 'i am so sorry'
and then encouraged me.

almost 6 yr old Nakiah our oldest grand daughter put it all in perspective for me. She is having a few difficulties transitioning to first grade..... mostly with all 12 grades...... where she goes to school ......eating lunch in the cafeteria ...... at the same time....

oma when i go through my bad troubles i cry and my momma tells me. ' you know nakiah God is giving us bad troubles to go through because he is making us into the best people we can be. we have to go through them even when we don't want to. But we can choose to be sad or happy.' oma when i go through my bad trouble i just look out the window and smile at God and tell him thank you for making me into a better person.

oma you can look out your room window and smile and be happy too even when your having bad trouble with you legs and stuff you know because God is making you in to the best person you can be.

2 yr old tovi joi was crying in the back ground and I said "why is tovi crying honey?" she said "she bit her daddy and so she can't have her snack.
she is choosing to be sad and doesn't want to thank God for her bad troubles and making her into a better person."

is that a message or what??? she is so amazing. all of our little darlings are so dear to me.

I keep replaying our conversation in our head and thank God for my many many blessings and for such a wise Mommy teaching her daughter
such beautiful wisdom about God.

I am full of awe at the complete circle this is---I taught my daughter about God and living through the bumps in the road----and now she is teaching her daughter the same-----and her daughter --my grand daughter is coming back to teach me again the things I have forgotten or
have taken for granted.

AMEN is all I can say. My prayer for all of you is that you have a 'very special' and unexpected teacher in your life.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT MY HOME PARTY

Hello and welcome this morning.....especially if you have arrived from Karla's "what I love about my home party". If you haven't come from Karla's blog, then you need to rush right over to see everyone's blogs and what they love about their home. It is a party all day long and everyone is invited!!

What I love about our home is that it is all rebuilt since the fire and the dining room is my favorite room. We didn't have one before so this is so wonderful. The house was all new and we had to pick paint colors etc.
It really bothered me that there was nothing of us in the newness of everything. So I made the wallpaper for this room. Of course red is my very very favorite color and it accents almost every room but our bedroom and laundry room.
I took two rolls of brown contractor's paper that was $3 a roll at the home improvement store. Then I bought a dark red, two shades lighter red, and a can of white---all latex, all one gallon.

We were residing in a duplex that had an island in the kitchen. So I rolled out lengths of paper ---about 6-8ft at a time and then spooned a glob of all three paints on paper and used a roller to spread it. For the red I just used both reds and the pink i used the dark red and a lot more white. I hung the sheets of paper over the banister and shower rod to dry.

when both rolls were done and it was time to do the dining room we brought it over here. John put all the even edges of the paper along the ceiling first then the bottom of the wall. We tore sections, tearing the paper away from us so the brown wouldn't show on the edges.

Then He papered the corners next. We used wallpaper paste and treated it just like wall paper. We would stand back and decide if we needed more pink or more red or white here or there. It took 28 hours to just paper. We then let it set for 24 hrs, came back and washed it all down.
Then we brushed on two coats of varathane. It is washable and we love it. People either really like it or really hate it.

this is our antique china closet. We bought it after the fire but all the china was salveageable.
the fireplace used to be red brick but would not come clean and was cracked. So we had the new stone added. This divides the kitchen from the dining room.

from the kitchen/hallway area looking into the room. I love the carpet. It is a large area rug over the original wood floors. The floors and the outside walls were the only part of the house they were able to keep.
French doors open to the front entry way and family room.
A beautiful new grandfather clock.
Our 35th anniversary gift to each other was this antique chandelier from the early 1800's. It was originally an oil lamp now electrified.
a close up of the wall and the variation in paint. It is so easy to do--just time consuming.
Just our immediate family numbers 15 now and our table has leaves enough for all of us to sit at one table. I also have a kitchen table that is a round oak table from John's grandparents. They had five round oak tables at one time!! This one has claw feet and three leaves so another 12 people can sit at it.

when we have one or the other side of the family here for dinner, we usually have about 30-35 people. We love entertaining, I love to cook and I love company. It gives me something to look forward to and everyone fits!!!

I would show you more rooms but am tired this morning and have had to do this post three times because the pictures wouldn't upload to blogger until the third time and 2 hours have passed!! Sheesh.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the 'tour' and please let me know what you think of the handmade wall paper treatment. If you want to stay longer hold on and I will brew up a fresh pot of coffee.

Halloween Swap

MORE SWAP GOODIES!!! My partner for the Black Cat and Pumpkin
Swap sponsered by Deb over at HophopjingleBoo is Lolly from Lolly's
Nest Egg
john was home when the package arrived and he had as much fun 'oohing and aahing' as I did.
My favorite piece is her collage of the black cats and pumpkins. I love collage work so much. I am going to frame it so i can place it on the wall
in the entry way for the holiday. Lolly your work is amazing. Thank you!!

This trio of pumpkins are nestled together on our coffee table. I love holidays so much and it has been very slow going to regather holiday decor. After the fire and moving back in there was always decorating and furniture and all that expensive stuff so the last two holidays are pretty sparse for decor. These really help and can be used for fall decor as well as halloween and thanksgiving. thank you lolly!

Lolly also included this darling vintage golden book that is all about

things starting with C! how special!
This cute cat is a gift bag and it sat on my kitchen table for a few days.

both of us thought it was our callie cat for a second. It is so precious.

In this bag were al

l these fun things, halloween straw man, a little black cat with a purple and black hat, a black cat pin, a fall pumpkin and leaf pick, a funky plastic black kitty that you fill with jelly beans and lift the tail for them to come out, we laughed over that one!! I also have a pumpin spice

sachet that fills the house. When we leave and come back in, the house smells like thanksgiving and pumpkin pie!!
Lolly also included a vintage scarf with gold/yellow trim. I can't wait to make it into something special. And there are also vintage and newer buttons. I love them!
Lolly included some very special vintage magazine ads and knitting projects how fun!! These are from the 50's in case you can't tell.

This was such a fun package. I am mailing lolly's package on Monday and am still finishing up a few things. This has been so much fun-----all these swaps are great. Swap partners turn into brand new friends and stretch your creativity as well. If you haven't signed up for one there is no time like the present.

Ava Grace's Auction in Progress

http://avagraceangelsunaware.com/

"Angels for Ava" auction is now midway. Please check it out and bid on your favorite artist's donated angels. The money is going to Ava's family for medical expenses. They do not even have access to a computer to see all that is going on. Over 70 artists have contributed to this auction.

You can even make a simple donation if you are so inclined. Please open your hearts to this beautiful child of God and help in any way you can.

Look What I Got in The Mail!!

Yesterday the mail lady brought me two boxes from Kent, England from
my vintage kitchen swap partner Marie!! How exciting!! I was thrilled when I opened the boxes!! Marie sent so many goodies!! She sent two of these dish towels and also a white one that is irish linen. I put one of these in my studio as a scarf over an old vintage tool drawer. The white and red irish linen towel is going to be a table scarf in the kitchen.Marie made me this darling apron. It has sweet little apples on it and is edged in very pretty lace. it is going to hang on my pantry door.
HMMMMMM YUMMMMM GOODIES......golden syrup from England will be so good on a number of things. The walnut whips are sooooooooo
rich and so good. We sat and sampled those and the other candies while watching a movie last night. So delicous..... chocolates and carmels and oh my!!!

Marie crocheted the pretty pot holder as well!! What a lot of loot!!

Marie also sent a beautiful recipe box that she painted herself. How talented!! It is perfect for my kitchen colors and so well done. She even hand wrote some victorian recipes for me to try!

This is a vintage cookbook and I will add it to my small collection. It is fun to look through and see if we use some of these recipes still.
This is a cute hook that will be on the front of the pantry door and here will hang the darling apron.
Talk about spoiled!!!! Marie You outdid yourself with this swap! I love it all and appreciate it so much.

If you haven't visited MariesMuses you have to!!. Such a wonderful blog.

Daily Rituals

This is callie my one yr old cat. She thinks she is human and we haven't told her the truth. shhhhhh

I have had cats all of my life, but this one is certainly different from any other.
She spends every night wrapped around or across my head. She will wash every inch of my face and of course that always wakes me up.

Every morning she heads to the bathroom with us and has her 'morning drink.' If we forget to leave the water on for her she will meow and let us know we aren't doing our part.

I always laugh. This morning I started thinking about the rituals I go through. They are always done the same way and in the same order.

We have two dozen coffee cups and there are only 2 I pick to drink coffee out of every morning. I have to drink a soft drink out of a certain mug---it happens to be a WSU thermal cup with handle--from our son's college.

No matter how many times i rearrange my studio, my art tools are always on my right.
When I put on my tennis shoes they are always double knotted and the ends slipped through the first shoe lace at the bottom of the tongue. I can't afford any 'trips' if i can help it.

When I enter an antique store I ALWAYS go to the right first. It never fails. I thought about it today when I was browsing through one. I never vary my pathway.

If each of us thought of all the 'rituals' we observe consciously and unconsciously
I imagine we could come up with a pretty long list.

I mentioned it to John this morning when Callie was 'drinking' her morning water.
He agreed. We have two sinks in our bathroom and we each use a different one and the same one every day. I guess it is like sleeping in bed.

We don't ever remember saying "I want to sleep here you sleep there." John has always slept facing the door no matter what angle the bed is placed.

That has been our sleeping ritual for 36 years and remains the same when we travel and stay in other beds.

I have a vert odd ritual that I observe every time I have a lot of stress or increased pain. If it lasts more than a few days I have to completely reorganize my studio. I once talked to my therapist about it and his comment was that this is MY space exclusively. IF I can't change what is causing the stress or the increased pain, I CAN change my space. It is like being out of control and taking control of what I can.

This week is another one of those weeks and it is only Monday. The stress actually has been ongoing for a few weeks now. Things are just coming to a head. It has to do with my family meaning my Mother.

It is too detailed to go into here but my five siblings are all as stressed as I am over it.

I told my sister in law I know I am very upset with her as I am redoing my studio.
She sighed and said I wish I had a studio to redo instead of eating chocolate.

She decided that was her ritual!!

I hope I have planted a seed for each of you to sit back and think about the 'rituals' you observe throughout your own day.
catie

Meet Dora Do Good!

Meet Dora Do Good!!

she is my mixed media angel that I am donating to Ava's Auction to be held next week. If you want to bid on her please go to that web site


this is the back of Dora. she is a vintage wooden cigar box mounted on a
glass candle dish. her wings are a trio of christmas decorations found at a garage sale.
When you open the box, dora has a 'bag of wise thoughts'
The Good Book of Gentle Praise and Salve for healing life's hurts.
her head is paper clay and her face is a decoupaged victorian scrap face of a child. I have used yarn bits for her hair.
the cigar box body is covered in antique satin frabric that was taken from a threadbare pillow from the 20's. All lace is antique and german scrap border spells out her name.

FORCED RELAXATION

Hi everyone. I haven't been online in a while. I have had a major flare of my illness and have been 'sidelined' from doing much in the way of anything.

I have taken advantage of not being able to write, type, cut etc to focus on photography though. I have enjoyed the pictures I have been taking;

trying to look for the specialness in my every day world.

I know God puts us where we are ' supposed' to be and I think He wanted me to spend more time in prayer and meditation as well as listening to the quietude of every day.

I always marvel at the beauty in the simplest things that surround us.

The sunflowers were planted by Brianna and the little girls while they were here and now they are laden with bees gathering nectar for their winter stores.

I like to think this 'quietude' imposed on me was to help me become more centered and thoughtful.

I have come to appreciate these moments that can't be filled with anything but gratitude and praise.

May you all marvel at the worlds you live in and find the most beauty in the simplest of God's gifts.

catie