Hmmm, Maybe A Photo Or Two?

As I get closer to my milestone 100th post, I'm getting more and more frustrated over not being able to post photos. I have cleaned out all sorts of files, adjusted and re-adjusted various settings and still nothing. I have tons of stuff to share. Photos of stitching, pumpkin caving, costume making, frolicking pets. I try, day after day and always the repetitive page pops up "Upload Photos". Yes, YES I want to upload photos! Then why won't Blogger do that for me?
This morning I found three kittens by the road side. They were on the end of our street, but very near the busy highway cross-roads. One was pale orange-striped, another dark gray with golden markings and the third, the smallest one, was all black. I very much wanted to keep them, but I knew that would upset the delicate balance of pets we already have. Sammy would accept them immediately, but I was afraid both Coal and Elliot would chase them into the road. I couldn't bear to take them to the local animal shelter. Although it is a wonderful place that does a lot of good, it is not a no-kill shelter. If the kittens were not adopted after a certain amount of time they would be euthanized. So I took them to my Vet. She always has several animals roaming around the place, waiting to be adopted. She was pretty full-up on cats but agreed to take them for one month. At least for that amount of time I know they are safe and well cared for. After that, if they are not adopted, I must decide whether to take them to a shelter, a pet store or back home with me. I know what I will choose if it comes down to that, but I really can't have any more cats inside. With Alix being so old I think 3 new little guys would upset her very much. In a month it would be too cold to introduce three little indoor cats to the cold outdoors of our barn. Mocha does fine year-round outside, but she has always lived in the barn or on the porch. I will still sleep well tonight knowing the little kitties are away from the road and away from the awful person who dumped them there. It is just so painful to think that no one wants them. I will get to see them again tomorrow when I take Bud, Elliot and Sammy in for their annual shots. I will take a few photos of them...but of course you will never see them here!

OK, Now I'm Really Getting Mad!

Where are my !@^#&*%$%$ photos. Day after day I try to post them here and day after day the stupid little screen pops back to "post photos" after I have spent innumerable times pressing the UPLOAD NOW button. Should I try again? Maybe a nice shot of me flipping off the computer? Better yet, I'll shut off this blasted machine and go and stitch.

This Is Only A Test.

Blogger has been giving me a hard time lately when it comes to posting photos. Or maybe it is just my odd, old computer. Something about Java and Cookies. Sounds more like a morning coffee break to me then some computer problem. Lets see if I've gotten past this tasty little glitch....







..............apparently not. Anyone else using Blogger got a clue as to what I'm doing wrong?

Suzie

My heart goes out to my friend Nicole in Belgium who lost her beloved cat Suzie on Thursday.

I very much wanted to post a photo of Suzie here, and have been trying for two days............

WIPs, Wishes and Weaknesses

A few stitchy items in the works. Actually this little Owl from La D Da is done and in his sparkly black wreath. I think he will live at home here with me rather then go away as a gift. There is something about stitched animals that attaches me to them, as if they are real animals. I am still working along on the French Sampler too.The Halloween decorating at my friend Sharee's is also a WIP. Here is the porch, made up after last years' magazine cover of "Mary Englebreit's Home Companion". (Picture is very dark, but I love how the sky looks!)Doll clothes are always a WIP and I need to complete some more for the 18" dolls for a craft fair at the gym 13 December. I still dream about making more 1900 outfits for the 16" dolls though. The last WIP is a little turkey quilt patch I pieced together years ago.I found him in a box of holiday decorations last week. What he's doing in there I have no idea. He is part of a larger seasonal quilt by "Country Threads". That series of books is similar to the "Needl' Love" books I am crazy about. But now I am drifting into the Wishes category..................
As for wishes; the usual ones apply.....health, happiness, peace, financial security. On a more tangible scale:
1. I wish I wrote more letters. I used to be an avid letter-writer, but a combination of soaring postal rates and the Internet have really curtailed my writing. I have over a dozen "pen-pals". I suppose there is a more adult word then pen-pal, but I have called them that since childhood. Infact, one of these "pals" has been around for over 25 years. I have been writing to my friend Gudula in Germany since we were both young, aspiring gymnasts in our early teens.
2. I wish I could focus more. I find I set out to do one task and as I walk to that particular area of the house or yard I am suddenly taken up by another task and then another and then nothing seems to get completely done.
3. I wish I saw more movies. I made a list the other night of the movies I have actual seen as first-run features in the movie theater. There were 9. Yes, nine in my entire lifetime! I think that is part of the focusing wish. I just can't sit still in a theater for several hours and not be able to stitch or clean or cook or perform some other useful task. Here is a list of the movies I have seen:
Star Wars ( yes, the original in about 1976)
Strawberry Fields (or something like that. A drippy little movie with Peter Frampton redoing Beetles tunes. My cousin and I were just wild over Peter Frampton in those days, about 1978)
Mad Max (yuck, not my style at all. But it was the style of the boy I had a crush on in 1981)
One of the Bond/007 flicks (about 1984, again more crush-oriented then a topic I was really interested in.)
Some horrible South American torture movie (again motivated by a boy. Around 1987 and I closed my eyes through most of this one, hence the lack of a proper title.)
Nightmare Before Christmas, 1993.(Liked this one, except for the fact that I went with my neighbor and her three screaming kids)
Somersby, about 1993(again with the same neighbor and her screaming kids)
Jurassic Park about 1994(went with my mom and dad of all people! My mom wanted to see it because she taught 3rd Grade and wanted to be up on the current trends. My dad went to see it because it was a $1 matinee!)
Ace Venture Pet Detective about 1995 ( with my husband,just for laughs)
Movies I wish I could see: The Duchess, The Notebook, The Queen, Brideshead Revisited....are you seeing a trend here? Movies I saw on TV loved: Enchanted April, Out of Africa, Forrest Gump, Cold Mountain, The Piano. Those last two sort of creeped me out a bit, but I still like them.
Under the category of weaknesses: Of course I don't include chocolate,cheese, fabrics, threads, cats of any shape or form. Magazines is #1. The more expensive and hard to find the better! My latest two cravings are "Majesty" and "Haute Doll". Both totally useless (no patterns or charts) and dreadfully over-priced. Another weakness is dolls. I just can't seem to get enough of them. I have nearly all of my childhood dolls, including two 11.5" Dollikins that my mother bought for me in 1973. Here are two more beauties I would love to have. They are "The Devereaux Sisters" form the Robert Tonner Doll Company. They are 16.5" tall fashionistas from 1920's Paris. They are $70 each so they will remain just a wish for now.
I suppose I should add the category of "Weirdness", since this entire post is rather odd. But that is the course my brain is taking today. Oh well, it's Friday and I have the entire weekend to get back to reality before Monday rolls around again.

Rewind

Let's go back in time a bit. Not an entire century, but about two weeks to get caught up on what's been going on around here. Not that you people are out there hanging on my every word, waiting for the constant stream of boring gymnastics stories and endless pet photos. Well, here it goes anyway. I think I left off around mid September. Right before the wind sotrm we had some lovely weather and I was able to complete a few nice doll outfits, including this one. It is from a series of amazing books by Susan Sirkis called "Wish Booklets". It has truly been my wish to own one of these books. I was lucky enough to find two of them at Amazon at a pretty good price. They are hard to come by as they have been out of print for over 20 years. The patterns are amazing and it took very little "fiddling" to get them to fit my 16" Alex doll. This one is from the 1900 Fashion book. The other book I got was Jane Austen style, 1806-1810. Can't wait to make some more dresses.

Then the wind storm/hurricane hit. 70 mile an hour winds with gust up to 85 miles per hour! It took this huge tree limb down on the side of our house, narrowly missing the roof and the kitchen window. Clean-up was slow, but the weather before, during and after the storm was bright and sunny. We did a lot of raking, burning and even split up a little wood for the fire this Winter. As I mentioned before, the electric was out for over a week and here you see Elliot worshipping the generator as well as the bin of Bud's food.

The following week I got my crafty/stitchy stuff together and set up a table at a craft bazaar as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations at the gym. It was $10 for a table space and I made over $150.00!! I was stunned, as I didn't expect to make a penny. This was more of a fitness fair/kid's festival and I wasn't sure how many serious shoppers would be there. The most popular items were my doll clothes, displayed on the rack at the far right of the photo.

Last night we went to a neighborhood fish-fry party at the famous "party house" on our street, the home of our friends Roy and Sharee. Sharee is also the local "Queen of Halloween" and later today I will be helping her decorate her porch and barn. The inside of her house is already spectacularly done-up! They will be hosting the huge annual Halloween party on 24 October. It will be a short party for me because our fist gymnastics competition is the next day. A 5am trip 2 hours north of here for a "gymnastics marathon" lasting about 14 hours (not including the 2 hour trip back home). I am hoping my back, shoulder and collar bone cooperate on that day. That would be an awfully long time to sit around in pain....plus all the spotting kids, setting of equipment, moving of springboards etc. Thank you for the wonderful and encouraging comments I have gotten regarding this injury. I really appreciate all the advice. I am not one to complain much of physical pain. I usually don't let it effect me. As a gymnast I had plenty of painful injuries and just learned to "work through it". I am one much more affected by emotional pain or seeing pain in others.

Almost Back

Although the electric came back on very shortly after my last post ( Sunday 21 September) I have been avoiding the computer for the past two weeks. I just found so many other "non-electronic" things to keep me busy during the week-long blackout that I am finding it hard to settle back in to blogging again. Yes, I miss everyone and I have browsed around a little and left a few comments. But I have felt really disconnected ( pardon the pun) from blogging, e-mailing and even my beloved eBay!
I apologize for the extended absence and I really have no excuse for it but my own selfishness. It is hard to let several hours drift away here at the computer while waiting on this slow dial-up connection to finish the tasks I've requested. I am instead spending my time mostly outside, reading, sewing, cleaning up the yard ( yes, there is still some lingering damage to be repaired), or just enjoying the time with my Joe and our pets. Sort of a throw-back to 100 years ago...a time I am more suited to anyway. Time at the gym drags me back to the 21st Century for several hours a day, but I am not finding much pleasure in gymnastics these days either. A "Mid-Life Crisis" perhaps? I am not quite sure, but whatever it is the flip of the electrical switch did not cure it.
Again on a selfish note, I have been plagued once more by the pain in my left shoulder, neck and collar bone, which could account for the lack of enthusiasm for coaching gymnastics. It's gone from mildly annoying to life-disrupting this past week. It keeps me up at night as I struggled to find a comfortable sleeping position. Most days I have headaches the run up the left side of my face and make me squint in my left eye. The amazing American medical insurance system (or lack there of) prevents me from going to the doctor or chiropractor. I am also a bit afraid the diagnosis would end my career as a coach. I still swim three mornings a week and that seems to do no harm. I've managed to lose 3 pounds, but for nearly 7 weeks of swimming that isn't much of an accomplishment. I tend to use food for comfort these days and that has always spelled trouble for me.
So, my dear friends, I will still read your blogs and comment as often as I can. I love to see all your stitching, crafts, family photos, pets and wonderful stories. I may be an "absent poster", but I am still an avid reader.
I send big and joyous BIRTHDAY GREETINGS to Edgar and Larisa. Edgar, you are such a dear sweet man and I could not let this day pass without a happy birthday wish to you. Your kindness and generousity have overwhelmed me. I am so glad I met you.
Larisa, who may or may not be able to read my blog, Happy Birthday wishes to you my wonderful friend for so many years. I did not forget you; I'm just a few days late. I have shared with you things I could never tell anyone else. Thank you for opening up your life to me. I treasure your friendship!
Hope to post again soon at "full strength" and add some photos too.