Monday, December 17, 2007

Merry Christmas

Wishing all my family & friends a very Merry Christmas, may the joy of our Lord Jesus Christ fill your hearts with peace & happiness this coming season.

All the best for a happy, healthy 2008..

My DH Joe found this little light thingie (official name) that turns while the lights change colour some time ago. This year when I got out my beaded ornaments, he chose a clear glass one covered with silver lined beads & clear crystals to sit atop of his 'light merry-go-round' & made a short video for me to share with you all

I guess he should have had some Christmas music playing but hey it is what it is

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The weekend at the beach

Was windy as all heck!!

We had high winds of up to 80 MPH this past weekend & woke yesterday (Monday) to no electricity - YIKES!

&

NO WATER - Double YIKES!

We did have bottled water & the holding tanks on the moter-home were full so we were able to make tea & coffee out there - thank goodness for small mercies, eh? I cooked spaghetti bolognese for dinner out in the moter home last night & Joe took a bowl of it over to our elderly neighbour, so that she would have a hot meal too. Vida told me today that is was the best spaghetti she'd ever had but I'm guessing anything would have been welcome on a night like last night ~ grin

The water was out because a tree had gone over pulling the water pipes up (just inside the property line so it is our expense - yikes again! Joe made a temporary fix & we have the insurance man coming tomorrow to see about them paying for the trees in front (beach pines) to come out as there are 4 & while only the first 2 are over, the other 2 are also showing signs of disturbance to the roots so are a problem now as well - Widow makers is what Joe calls them

The trees are actually in front of my MIL's house but we share the water line ;9 Our house is the white looking one to the right of the picture..

The power came back on this morning around 10 am thank goodness, Joe had got the fridge in the motor-home going yesterday afternoon & we put all the perishables out there, so didn't lose any food at all which is a good thing, eh?

A friend's daughter had her 11th birthday last week & I made her a couple of things, can you tell that pink is her favorite colour?


I have started making some Christmas themed jewelry & lots of ornament covers as a friend is going to host an open house for me at her Motel sometime after Thanksgiving weekend. So keep your fingers crossed for me that I'll have good sales ;9 I'll share photos of that stuff later when I get done with them all

Friday, November 9, 2007

Eeww

Do you travel?

Do you stay in hotels?

Check this out eeww

Under the Sea for October

I used a fish cut from some of Laurel Burch's fabulous fabric for my Under the Sea BJP for October. Laurel passed away in September, so this is my tribute to her & her wonderful art...

Isn't Laurel's choice of colours fabulous?

The fish was backed & lightly stuffed with fiberfil to give him a 3D effect. His body is bead embroidered & the fins are woven with Peyote stitch, which allows them to 'float' as fins should.

You can read Laurel's Obituary here.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Joe's news

It turns out that the tumor that Joe had removed is the lowest grade of Lymphoma there is. It is a very slow growing cancer & the Dr assured Joe that people with this type of cancer usually go on to live several more decades.

To which Joe replied that; as a 60+ year old man, several more decades is a good thing.

He had a PET scan of the lymphatic system, done on Thursday so we should hear the results of that by mid next week. Depending on the outcome of that - we are believing that there are no more tumors - Joe will have some radiation treatment to the area where they removed the tumor & that should be that...

What a wonderful outcome, eh?

An added bonus to all of this is that Joe has had chronic sinus problems for over 10 years getting worse each year & it seems that this tumor was the cause of it all, as the sinus problem has cleared up! That is a huge relief too..

My dear Mother has improved somewhat too & is able to walk to the dining room for meals witht he aid of her walker & encouragement from the assistants at the home. She is getting more & more frail as time goes by tho & it makes me regret being so far from her..

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

October what a month!

Ok this month started out with Joe having a tumor removed from his sinuses - yeah scary, eh?

Next the drainfield for our septic failed & now we have a HUGE mess in the back yard.. Argg!!

This is looking down at the house from the top of the garden at the back... It is a pretty good pic too of the finished roof & deck, Joe replaced the original roof over the hot tub & the decking around it too so that it all matched the additions we made a couple of years back.

Still work going on in the South end ---> like a window to go in that wall & a built in closet/storage for stuff that needs to live out there on the deck as well as a laundry tub as there is none inside the house a fact that seems odd to me ;9

It was an easy if messy fix & while the backhoe is here we are adding an extra hole full of rock for all the rainwater that comes off the west side of the house & the roof over the deck. This should help keep the yard a little less soggy over the wet winter that is in store for us compliments of La Nina..

I imagine the backyard will be something of a mud hole for most of the winter but we will cope ok, worse things are happening elsewhere right now. Like the horrific fires in Calafornia, my heart goes out to those folk who have lost their homes & those in fear of losing their's. Thank God there are not as many lives lost as there were in the last big fires they had down there..

Anyhow back to Joe, we saw his Oncologist today about the tumor they removed from his sinuses 3 weeks ago... He has a form of lymphoma, exactly what we don't know yet... The Dr was concerned because the 'almost cancer' lump they took (back in February) was from the left side of his neck & this was from the right side of his face, he seemed to think this odd as it is unusual for these things to be both sides of the body at once kind of or something

Like Joe says, he is nothing if not unusual.

He has to have a PET scan which is a scan of the lymphatic system to see there is anything else there - He had one of these done after we got back from NZ last April - & it showed nothing, so so much for that!! But this thing they removed must have grown quite fast, another thing that appeared to worry Joe's Oncologist.

He also has to see Dr Nichols an Oncologist who specializes in Lymphoma & incidentally treated Lance Armstrong, the famous cyclist who won the Tour de France several times, so we know he is good!

I'll let you know when we know more, please keep Joe in your prayers he is pretending to not be worried but he is & so am I

Oh yes, my dear Mother is not doing well at all, she had a clot removed from her ankle area a few weeks back & now has cellulitis & is not able to get up & walk on that leg at all, I spoke with the manager of the home where she lives this evening & she tells me that the antibiotics are working as the cellulitis looks to be clearing up, I hope so, that is a wicked infection. Her poor old body is starting to shut down & that saddens me more than words can say.. I fear I will be on a plane winging my way to New Zealand very soon

I am making progress on my 'whatever month' page for the BJP - I am so far behind that I need to look at another way of keeping up... Bead more often? LOL I'm trying to ha haaa

I hope to have some pics of what I am working on now to share after this next weekend

~smiles~ Ellen

Saturday, September 29, 2007

July done OMG!!

Finally I have something to share - This is my JULY page..

The starfish was made as a separate piece & then attached after he was beaded



He will eventually live in this frame but I have a lot of embellishing to do before he is completely done


So today I also finished a Caterpillar Bracelet that has been sitting waiting for the last 3 inches to be done for longer than I care to admit LOL




I recently bought a new wrist support, which is especially for sleeping in & I am pleased to say that it's making a LOT of difference in the pain level in my hand. The wrist support is padded so that the metal bar which keeps your wrist straight doesn't dig into your flesh - that's why I gave up wearing the last one I had - but this one is so comfortable & I no longer wake up with pins & needles in my hand.. I can now sit & bead without pain - YAY!!!!!

Hmm... I don't know why my pictures won't open to bigger pics when you click on them, if anyone can help me with this I would very much appreciate it