Saturday Mom and I are off to New Hampshire to finally close out mine and Tommy's storage.  After six years I don't know what I'm going to find, but I am finally going to close out that part of my life.  I do know a few tears will be shed and memories remembered.  I'm going to get to show Mom the cabin we lived in on top of Kimball Hill.  We lived there for three wonderful months before being transferred to the Big Easy after "The Bitch" (Katrina) went through.  Since we were supposed to return after five months we left most of our stuff in storage.  We've never been able to afford to go back and get it.  Mom has decided it is time for a vacation.  She's never been to New England, so that's how this trip came about.

It's not going to be a long trip, well not in time anyway...we'll be gone a week.  We are going to get a little sightseeing in, though.  We will be staying in Hershey, PA our second night.  Can anyone say chocolate overdose??  We're going to go through Lancaster County and see the Pennsylvania Dutch area.  Wonder if I'll see any crazy quilts??  Probably not, but I may be wrong.

We are staying at the Best Western White Mountain Resort in Franconia, NH for two nights.  The lady I spoke to while making reservations, said we will be there at peak color time. 

On the home front, last Wednesday Zoe got the last two pins out of her little leg.  We thought for a little that she might lose the leg, but the dr. discovered that the last two pins had loosened so much that they were causing her pain whenever she used the leg.  So, now she walking better and not limping as much.  She and Zax are going on vacation with us.  They both suffer a bit from separation anxiety.  They are very good travelers.  I just hope they remember their manners when meeting those northern pups...lol.

While we are gone I am going to try to update this blog daily.  I have two brothers who are having fits cause they can't go with us.  They are both of the opinion that we can't survive without them to do everything for us.  Jeremy is going to be here at the house to care for Lady and the birds and the mail and such. 

A quick update on Zoe.  As of Wednesday the 21st, she no longer has any pins in her little leg.  We are still having to be very easy but she is pin free.   YEA!!!!!

My mom, sister-in-law Paula, and I have opened a shop at Artfire.com.  It's called CuLeaCu.  That's for Cummings (my mom), Lear (me), Cummings (Paula).  Everyone says it sounds kinda Hawaiian.  I like it and I don't think we will have any competition for the name or much confusion.  We tried to find a creative name that was memorable but most of them, or some variation, seemed to be taken.  Mom decided to come up with the name and she sure did a winner.  The address to visit our shop is CuLeaCu.Artfire.com.

Below are some of the things we are offering in our shop right now.

This is a flowered candle holder created by Paula.  It's $18.

 This is the Golden Blues, created by my mom.  I think it is just beautiful.  It's $26 with free shipping to the US.

This is an octagonal Jewel Tin and one of two I've got listed.  It is $48.

We have lots of other things listed also.  Drop by and see what we have.  Remember Christmas is just over two months away.

I thought I'd share some pics with ya'll.  I have been working on stuff for the artfire store my mom, sister-in-law, and I are opening.  I've made three covered tins.  I gave one to the wonderful lady that spent so much time getting my contacts just right so I can see clearly again.  (I have keratoconus and need special rigid gas permeable lens.)  Anyway, I don't have pics of the other two tins yet but here is the one I gave Susy.

This is an altered altoids tin.  I've shown the top block previously on this blog, now the piece is complete.

The top of the lid is lined with black felt.  The bottom is covered in black velvet with lace going around the sides.

I got this cute little cupid bead in a swap years ago.

After finishing the blocks for the purses, which I haven't put together yet, I went off on a wild tangent and made some brooches.  Don't know what came over me but I did.  As soon as blogger quits yanking my chain I'll have some pics to post.

Finished Blocks

 This is the block in progress.

This is the block finished.  It will be made into a purse.

This is the block in progress.

 This is the block finished.  It will be made into a purse.

After several months without one, I finally was able to replace the usb cord to my digital camera.  There were lots and lots and lots of pictures on it.  Thought I'd share a few with you.  I'll try very hard to keep them in chronological order.

Zoie and her leg:

This was just after we brought her home from the emergency vet.  She has a blue bandage around her neck and a splint and cast on her leg.  My poor little girl.

This is 4 days later after she had to undergo surgery and had 5 pins put in.  The blue thing is what they call a cage.  It encloses the exposed ends of the pins.

She has had 2 of the pins removed.  One in the top and one at the bottom.  They may have to replace the one at the bottom.

They definitely gave her some really good drugs...lol.

She is a little trooper.  Other than getting bored and whiney at times, she has taken this whole thing alot better than I have.  But then what else can she do?

She is happiest sitting in the recliner, wrapped in her daddy's koala blankie.

.Zaxxie decided that since he didn't want to get attention the same way his sissy did, he'd have some wild hair days:

Blogger is trying to mess with my head and my pics this morning so I will break this post up.  More pics to come.

Here is Mom, Jeremy, and Ashley on Mom's birthday.  I made her a trifle instead of a cake or cookie.  She wanted it made in the punch bowl from her wedding (really the only large bowl we have).  I think that sucker weighed out at around 8 lbs, minus the bowl.  Used an angel food cake, 8 large bananas, 4 quarts of strawberries, 2 qts of blueberries and 2 pts of raspberries and one large tub of cool whip.  Each layer was then drizzled with condensed milk.  Everyone loved it.  For a huge as that thing was, it only lasted about 4 days.  The fresh fruit was awesome.  Everyone wants me to make another one.  I refuse to make one that big again....unless it's for a large party or something.

Happy 69th Birthday, Mama!

I know your birthday was Saturday, but we were having such a fun and busy day, I forgot to post this.  Hope you will forgive me...lol.

We all love you very much.

This block is still in progress.  I have ripped out nearly everything on it and started over.  I like it alot better than originally.  I'm calling this the cornfly block.  My dragonfly at the lower left was causing me difficulties cause I had the wings but I couldn't find beads for a suitable body.  Then one day, I came across these four corn shaped beads in my stash.  They are the only ones I have and I have no clue where they came from, but they work so well.  I think this may end up being a purse.

This is my little girl block.  It is also in progress but all it needs is beading.  I really like all the little flowers at the base of the piece of lace.  I still need to add a spider to the web, also.

This block was shown earlier and I realized I left out three of the corners.  So now those corners are beaded and don't feel left out anymore.  I'm not sure what I'm going to make of it yet.  Maybe a wallhanging.

I have three tins complete and ready to photograph.  Our Artfire store is almost ready to throw the doors open on and welcome everyone in.  I just have to get a new USB cord for my camera and finish all the "paperwork" for the store...excuse me, Fusion Studio.

Happy 53rd birthday, my dearest darling love.  I miss you so much.

Ok, I think we are officially down now.  The hits just seem to keep coming.  Last Tuesday when we had the powerful storms come through, we got 6 inches of rain in like four hours or so.  Four inches of the water decided to go straight through the house.  It was nasty.  The sewers in the street backed up so that joined the rainwater.  I do think we were fortunate, unlike our neighbors, that our toilet and bathtub didn't back up into the house.  We lost clothing, fabric, doors...now badly warped, and a myriad of other things.  My brother Harvey came from Texas Thursday to help out.  Boy did we need him.

Friday, Mom and I went to Shreveport for my last contact appt.  YEA!!!!  I can now start going to the local clinic for my regular checkups. 
While we were there, we visited Tommy...it was the year and a half mark.  I had a nasty panic attack.  Mom got a beautiful steel and bamboo windchime to hang for him.  I miss him so much.

We spent Saturday morning at the vet with Zoe.  She got xrayed today and everything is looking good.  We don't go back for three weeks...much better than weekly visits.

Saturday morning a very dear dear friend of our's died.  Her name is Velda Schmeer.  We have gone to church with her for 30 years.  She and Jeremy share a birthday.  She fell in love with him the first time she saw him...he was only a few weeks old.  He was quite attached to her also.  They exchanged birthday cards every year and as he got older and started doing yard work, he did her yard.  He was supposed to go do her yard Saturday morning but didn't make it over there.  Her funeral is tomorrow at ten a.m.  She was 89 years young.  She made the trip to Haughton to Tommy's funeral.  She will be sorely missed.

I think we have finally reached the saturation point.  I don't think we can deal with anything else bad happening.  Surely we have reached our limit....for the next few years anyway.

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary.  I sure wish Tommy were here to spend it with me.  I miss you and love you so much, my darling.

 I finished the three pieces I showed a few days ago.  Here are the pics:

To this block, I added the flowers in the middle of the top and bottom.  I then added a small silver dragonfly and transparent gold beads.  I'm really happy with it.  It's now just waiting to be put on its tin.

This block also received a small dragonfly, gold this time.  I scattered green transparent beads around.

To this block, once again I added a small dragonfly and clear beads.

I am very pleased with all three of these blocks.

I also did the following two pieces.  The first one I actually thought I was finished with until I scanned it and looked at it on the monitor.  Then I realized I totally forgot three corners.  How silly.

I made this for a specific tin.  It was a little too big but I figured that as I stitched that it would shrink.  NOT!  It is still too big.  I am thinking of making this into a wall hanging when it's finished.  I did alot more silk ribbon embroidery then I usually do.  I love doing it but have always been kinda scared of it.  Not anymore. 

I do hate that the scanner squished my roses in the middle though.

This is the piece I am currently working on:

I'm happy with what I've done so far but now I'm kinda stumped as to what to do next.  Any ideas?

Isn't that piece of lace just lovely?  It was dyed specially for me by my very good friend Lesa, owner of the group CQ For Newbies.  She did such a wonderful job and it fits this block very nicely.  Thanks, Lesa.

Had a death really close to home tonight.  Sometime during the late evening, firetrucks and cop cars went down our street with sirens and lights.  Jeremy came in a little later and told us that there had been a really bad accident at the end of our street.  There had been a motorcycle/car accident (the car was driven by a 20 year old girl who fled the scene; she later turned herself in) and the young man riding the bike had died.  Made us all stop and think.  Jeremy rides a bike.  He is safety conscious but accidents happen.  He had one a couple of years ago that if it had not been for the quick thinking of a friend of his, he would have died.

A couple of hours later, Jeremy told Mom and I that the young man that died was not only someone he went to school with but is also the brother in law of Lyric's aunt.  He was only 25.  His name was Mitchell.  He left behind a wife and a year old son.

Including Tommy, this is the 7th death in the last 17 months.  Three of them were school mates of Jeremy's.

Zoie update: It's been almost two weeks since Zoie's surgery.  The vet is pleased with her progress.  She has five pins in her leg.  All of them stick out and are enclosed in what the vet calls a "cage".  It is like a bar that all the pins are held in place by.  I was really surprised that she was up and walking on it the day after her surgery.  When mom and I got there to pick her up, they told us she had just come in from her daily constitutional and they were pleased with how well she was walking.

So, I take (read that as carry) her out to the side yard three to five times a day.  She walks around a little bit and then does her business.  I then carry her back in.  She spends most of the day and all of the night on my bed.  She is to be still (as best a dog can be) except when she goes outside.  My bed is high enough that I know she won't jump off of it.  Sometimes she wants to sit in the recliner.  Have I ever mentioned how spoiled this pooch is?  So whenever I am in the room, she gets to sit in the recliner.  She jumped down from there yesterday.  I don't think she was expecting the pain.  She spent the rest of the day on the bed, cause I just don't trust her.

We go back to the vet once a week.  They will re xray in six weeks, at which time they will determine if it is feasible to begin removing pins.  Dr. Bell said he should be able to remove the last two pins in about 18 to 20 weeks.  It's gonna be a long five months...lol.

I'll post some pics once I get them off my camera.

This is my little Zoie.  She was Tommy's baby girl.  She is part jack russell and part chihuahua with the attitude of a rottweiller.  The only thing I know she is scared of is my mom's german shepard, Lady.  Lady wants to eat her.  We work very hard at keeping them separate.  Lady gets puts in mom's bedroom whenever Zoie goes out back for her daily constitutionals.  Everyone is told that under no conditions do we let Lady out of her room while Zoie is out of hers.

Well, Sunday, Zax (who by the way loves Lady) and Zoie were in the front part of the house and Lady was in her room.  Lyric, my brother Jeremy's girlfriend's (Ashley) 2 year old (3 next month) boy decided without telling anyone to free Lady.  Yes, he does know better.  It is something that has been drilled into his little head since he first set foot in this house...Lady must stay in her room when Zoie is out of hers.  He knows this.

Well, we all know accidents happen.  Before Mom, Ashley, or I even knew what was happening, Lady was on Zoie.  It took Mom and I about five minutes to get them separated....seems like so much longer.  We rushed Zoie to the Emergency Afterhours Clinic.  Her little left hind leg below the knee was crushed.  She also had puncture wounds in her scruff.    The vet (very nice man) set her leg and put a cast/splint on it.  He was able to realign the bones, but there were still splinters of bone that could slip out of place again.  She also got a pretty blue bandage on her neck. Monday morning Mom and I took her to our regular vet as per instructions.  Dr. David looked at the xray from the er vet.  She wanted to take more xrays cause he had only included one view on the cd, so we had to leave my little girl there.  After lunch, Dr. David called to tell us what the new xrays showed and what the next course of action should be. 

Tomorrow afternoon, Zoie is having surgery to rebuild her leg.  They are putting pins in it.  Dr. David said some of them will be visible.  She gives Zoie a real good prognosis.  If for some reason something goes wrong, or the leg doesn't "take" after the surgery, then they will probably have to go back in and amputate.  I was told that if this happens, she will have to relearn her center of gravity but she should be just fine without the leg since it's a rear one.

My poor baby girl.  It is going to be a long six weeks...for both of us.  I should get to bring her home Wednesday afternoon.  When I talked to Dr David this afternoon, she said Zoie had taken both food and water.  She also had her pain medication and was "feeling pretty happy".  This is the first time she has ever stayed over night at the vet's.  This is only the third time in her life that she has been away from mama overnight.  Maybe someone should give mama something so she can sleep and stop worrying about her child...lol.  Zaxie misses his sissy something awful.

This past weekend was a long one for my family.  My mom went to Texas to visit my brother Harvey and his wife Paula.  They came and got her Friday night and Jeremy went and got her yesterday afternoon.  Their truck had serious transmission problems that didn't become evident until the drive from their house and back Friday night.
So Jeremy and I had the house all weekend.  I actually got quite a bit of work done.  Here are some pics to see what I did.  All three pieces are worked on silk dupioni...which I love love love to embroider on.  None of them are totally finished.  They are all tin toppers.
The first one is round and done on yellow dupioni.

This one is eight sided for a lovely vintage tin and worked on tan dupioni.

The third one is for an altoid tin and is worked on green dupioni

I'll show more later when I have more done.

This is the picture I made for my brother Jeremy for Christmas last year.  It was actually rather difficult as he doesn't like a lot of "bling" and I had never made anything "masculine".  It was very hard not to put on some roses and such.  But I did it and he loves it.   

My brother Harvey and his wife Paula live in Diana, TX, just north of Longview.  Harvey manages a feed store there.  My mom is going to spend the weekend with them this Friday.  Harvey is taking some of my stuff back to put in the store.  I am so excited.  I hope it does well.

I mentioned in my last post, so very long ago, that I am taking an online "retreat" called Soul Restoration.  One of the activities we do is to make truth cards.  A new friend of mine from the class, waving hi to Evelyn, wants to see mine, so here they are.  And yes, I know I misspelled believe on the card, just wanted to see if anyone else was paying attention...lol

Just stopping in for a minute.  I'm still sick as a dog.  Move five feet or talk for a few minutes and I cough my head off for 20 minutes.  I do think I'm getting better though, the congestion is pretty much gone.  Unfortunately coughs seem to like to hang around for a while.  I think I might even be able to get back to my stitching tomorrow, hopefully.

On the 11th, I am taking a 6 week online workshop called Soul Restoration through the Brave Girls Club.  I am so looking forward to it.  There is still time to sign up and I'm sure Melody and Kathy will be more than happy to have you.  The art we will be making is going to be so far out of my comfort range...art journals.  But I'm going to pull up my socks and learn something new.  I can't wait!!!

I still have four bead journal pages to make and then to put them together in a wall display to hang beside Tommy's picture.  I have an idea for a couple of the pages, but a couple are still a mystery.  I am so glad I did the BJP last year.  It really helped me remember times that I'd forgotten.  It has also allowed me to make sure I never forget them again. 

Before the week is over I will have finished pictures of my mom's bible cover that I made her for Christmas.  I also have a couple of other small things I want to get done before I start Soul Restoration.

I'm going leave you with a couple pictures of flowers that we had in the yard of our house in Lafayette.

Til next time.

Late on the first day of 2011 and all I have done is sleep and watch tv.  I am so blasted sick it's not even funny.  I am trying real hard not to swallow cause that hurts the worst.  Coughing feels like I am ripping my throat out.   Yuck. yuck yuck.