A Dose of Austen...

does help the medicine go down. And for an insomniac to sleep. I'm unfortunately keeping my poor family up in the wee hours of the morning and they've found that putting in a movie tends to make me drift off easier - such as Persuasion. My mother put it on and before Anne and Captain Wentworth met again I was out like a light. LOL Also helps to make the weird pain killer dreams less creepy. I've had quite a few nightmares the past few weeks.

So at the moment I'm trying Austen again as far as Sense and Sensibility, but no luck so far - instead I'm fascinated with the wall hangings and carpets, furniture, costumes, Miss Marianne making Willhoughby's silhouette, etc.

It really woke up my creative side again and I am simply DYING to finish my Christmas ornaments I'd started way back in early spring in time to sell them on my blog. I'll have to ask someone to drag one of our little trees upstairs to display and manage to sit at my table long enough to finish them, but I am so very determined to do so. :)

And now I'm awake enough to visit blogs so off I go to blog hop before falling back to dreamland. And if that doesn't do it I'll picture Edward and Elinor riding past sheep instead of just counting them.

Still Here

Still haning in there. I've had three lovely showers so far and every one of them I had to be practically dragged out of as I didn't want to leave that lovely hot water. It's a painful process and rather embarassing to have others take care of you so intimately, but it really does show you just how much you are loved and cherished by your loved ones.



Some days are better than others, but I think I'm making progress. My creative side positively screams for a chance to reemerge and do something, but I really do have a long way to go. Just sitting for a few minutes and typing REALLY takes it out of me. Thanks SOOOO much for all your good wishes. I will be exploring other blogs after a nap, I think. I'm reaching the end of my rope at the moment and must crash. Hope everyone is doing very well and that there's lots of cool stuff going on for me to catch up on.



Happy Fall Everyone!!!!

Made it!

Surgery was a success and I'm finally home. I had a really rought time in recovery - the pain was unbelievable and feeling subhuman for the last two weeks has been hard, but since I can finally type for a few minutes I think I'm on the road to recovery. Mostly my day consists of waiting for rounds of pills to stave off pain whilst trying to force my slow and uncooperative body around in the walker. I haven't washed my hair in any real way since Aug. 16th so I feel like an orc or something. Tomorrow I maybe be able to sit in a shower chair and get a limited shower and actually shampoo my hair so I'll feel way better then. My dream is to get into a deep bath full of bubbles and soothe my pains away, but that is about a month off I think.

I'm ETERNALLY grateful to my family for taking care of me - I never ever would have made it without them. My docs were great and my nurses were a rather mixed bag, but enough good ones to make me grateful to them, too. Physio therapists are by definition tought gym teachers and mostly I'm happy with them, but the occupational therapist seemeed intent on treating me like my surgery was brain surgery or something and after awhile of being treated like an idiot and being in a lot of pain and repeating myself I got a little short with her so I'm quite glad to see the back of her. All in all, though, not a bad experience. Still, my GREATEST piece of advice for a stay at the hospital is have someone with you at all times that questions what's going on and if the right med/therapy/appt./etc. is going on because the hospital is just FULL of mistakes and you could be harmed without an advocate fighting at your side constantly.

That's all I can stand to type for now before I crash and fall asleep again. Thanks to All you great bloggers and friends out there for your kind wishes. I hope to be blogging fun crafty/artsy stuff again very soon. Happy Sunday!!!

See Ya Later, Alligators...

Tomorrow I go in to the hospital for a central line and then Monday is my surgery so I'll be gone from blogland until I've recuperated a bit. Thank to everyone for their wishes and prayers. I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared, but then I think any sane person on this earth would be scared so no apologies for that.

Frida Kahlo

Just fyi to anyone curious or out of the loop. I have been living with rather severe scoliosis since I was diagnosed at 11. I wore big ugly, painful brace for a year and then had to have surgery the next year. I have three rods in my back along with lots of ugly bolts and screws and it did me well for about 16 years, but now the pain is back with a vengeance and I can hardly walk or do much of anything so I finally dragged myself back to see the doctor and found out my back has degenerated quite badly and part of one rod is broken and I need to extend more rods to hold my whole back in place and all sorts of other disturbing details that I wish I didn't know about so enough said about that. I'll be in the hospital at least a week, possibly more and then recuperating for months afterward.



I have an EXCELLENT surgeon so I'm not too worried about the results. If you would like more information you can visit my surgeon's website. The adult scoliosis link lets you see all types of x-rays of the kind of surgery I'll be having. I do warn the squeamish, though, that they are disturbing to most people so view with caution.

My next post will be the 100th and I'll be sure to have a giveaway when I'm feeling better. I've been working on some pretty cool necklaces and jewelry which I'll save for a surprise. :) See ya guys later!!

Summer Treats

I just love my summer door sign:

I got it at Hobby Lobby a few years ago.

And I'm craving chocolate cupcakes right now...mmmmm....have one!

Yesterday after I got home from the pool I spotted some prowlers across the street!!

Our neighbor's chickens got loose!! Yikes. No one was home so we had to hurry up and herd them back into their own yard before they got hurt.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Because their neighbor's fence is too low! We're going to give them some taller chain link fencing to help them keep them in. :)

Aren't they beautiful to look at? Such vibrant colors. I saw the neighborhood cat run away from its hiding place nearby once we started herding them back in - they're lucky we saw them first!
You just don't see this kind of thing every day in the city it was really fun.

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

Anybunny seen this?

Have you seen this rabbit toile wallpaper?? I've been searching for it high and low ever since we first spotted this on some wallpaper site and failed to buy it.

Now I wish I'd snatched it up - all I have is this really bad image of it. *sigh*

I'm not really big on wallpaper actually up on my walls as I figure I'll get tired of it or find it too repetitive. What I'd really like is to paper a room with vintage sheetmusic or old maps or find some wallpaper that looks like elegant old handwriting all over the walls. I've yet to find a decent example of that, though. Sometimes I'm tempted to paper a wall with all the beautiful scrapbooking papers I have. Why do those seem prettier than anything I can find at a wallpaper store??

Anybody got a really cool wallpaper picture or link to share??

Happiness is...

...a good movie


Saw the latest Harry Potter movie with my family. An excellent adaptation of the book this time around. Alan Rickman as Severus Snape thrills me. I would pay good money to just sit and listen to him read the telephone book to me. That voice of his...such bliss.






...a trip to the bookstore



Went to Barnes and Noble and picked out a few new books to read next month while recovering. A new Tudor book, of course, on Jane Boleyn, and two Julia Child books since I'm looking forward to the Julie/Julia movie. I wish I'd felt better so I could have stayed longer to look through some other books, but I was hurting and quite tired by then so we went home before I could max out a credit card on all those great books I found.



...and a good meal.

We then went home and made some homemade pizza and enjoyed a little glass of wine, too.

All in all, I had a great weekend. It was finally warm enough again to go to the pool twice so I managed to get some good exercise, too. I feel much more relaxed and at peace.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend.

Gratuitous Vintage Rabbit Pictures

Because fluffy bunnies always cheer me up...

These two really crack me up...

An old primer - such a pretty illustration!

And thank you for the good wishes, everyone! I had a wonderful day at the pool. The weather finally warmed up, though the water was rather cold. I also got some craft supplies through the mail and am very much inspired for new projects. I'm in a much happier mood and promise no more dreary posts. :) It's all sunshine and smiles from now on. And crafty, vintage-y posts, of course.

Have a GREAT weekend!!!!

Time Flies...

...even when you aren't having fun. A whole week goes by without a post - I've been a bit preoccupied. Wednesday was spent all day in the hospital for pre-op tests (CT scans, blood drawn, x-rays, etc. etc.). I've been x-rayed so much I no longer need a night light - I'm glowing in the dark. The worst part of it all, though is being in nothing but a flimsy hospital gown while one doctor examines me and three more plus a nurse stare at me like a specimen beneath their microscope. Actually it was better than last time - then there were four observing doctors with the nurse and surgeon - all in one tiny little exam room with no room to spare and everyone shuffling around when I'm requested to walk on my tippy toes and then heels and get onto the table. My x-rays were up all over the room like wallpaper for them all to enjoy. Just about the worst nightmare for someone as shy as me. I'm just so darn interesting of a case, the nurse told me. I'm so thrilled to be so interesting...never mind my feelings, doctors. By all means, talk about me like I'm not there. The nurse was the only one that could tell how uncomfortable I was - she was nice. When another person knocked on the door and tried to enter she actually told him to go away - there's no more room! lol

Anyway - enough complaining. I do so hate dreary posts, but I hope you'll forgive me if I felt the need to vent - it was a really awful day. I'm defintely in the mood to forget about the all too near future and focus on some inspirational ideas and photos.

First, Black Apple's post on her Renegade booth - oh how I love her set up. Just the kind I've dreamed about having one day. I covet her vintage red suitcase the most...seems too good to be real...maybe a reproduction?

detail from Black Apple photo - see her blog for more

Which of course got me looking for red suitcases. I'm just drooling over these:

Handmade luxury suitcases from Globe-Trotter

This one, though I forgot where exactly I found it...

Red is one of my very favorite colors...I hope I find a cute vintage suitcase in that color one day. My other favorite for suitcases is maybe white...or green...or, well who the heck am I kidding? I love vintage suitcases, period. :)

Happy Friday, everyone. I hope to finally get to the pool again this weekend - it's been downright cold this month - 70's in July in St. Louis?? Unheard of - it's a conspiracy to keep me from the pool, I tell you.

Squirrely Friday

Last weekend we went to a little flea market and the only thing we brought home was this little guy:

My mother fell in love with it, but my first thought was, this squirrel looks like he's on crack. lol

But the more I looked at it the more I realized he reminded me of the squirrel in Over the Hedge.

Doesn't he look like Hammy?

I loved that character in the movie, Hammy totally stole the whole film - I thought the rest of it was quite boring, but whenever Hammy had a scene I was laughing hysterically. :) They should do another movie with a much bigger part for him.

Just thought I'd share my vintage Hammy with you. Happy Friday!