SPA DAY #5 (not that I'm counting...)

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go...Treatment #5 out of 6...Bring it on!!!

They'll think I'm a little crazy when I put all my empty toilet paper tubes on the table and start covering them with Christmas paper.  They make the best little card holders, gift card holders, or mini-scrapbook albums!  25 of them will make an Advent calendar--great ideas at MayaMade online.

I also have some papier mache circle ornaments to decorate and three of Tim Holtz's configurations boxes.  So I know I have more than enough to make the day fly by!

Making a List and Checking It Twice...

I've been over my Christmas list many times today and have been sorting through the items in my Christmas closet, matching names to gifts I've purchased earlier in the year.  I purchased ornaments and wrapping supplies during the after Christmas sales last year.  As I have found things that I think particular people on my list will like, I've stashed them in my cupboard.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of my shopping is already done!  The Artistree Craft Show this weekend and a stop at L. L. Bean on Monday and I think I'll be done!

Because of my chemotherapy schedule, I have this weekend before my treatment on Monday to finish my shopping tasks.  Even when I'm not feeling so hot the next few weeks I can get wrapping and decorating done.  I have my last treatment scheduled for Friday December 17th, just one week before Christmas.  We're planning a small and quiet event at home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with just Mom and Dad and me, anticipating that I'm not going to be feeling so great and will also need to limit my contact with people that weekend.  Our larger family celebration will be some time after the first of the year, once I've recovered from my last chemo treatment.  My brother-in-law Wayne, Barb's husband, is having surgery the same week I have chemo and he's going to need a few weeks of recovery time, too.  So I think this will work out all the way around.

I'm hoping to find a small tabletop tree tomorrow that I can put in my room for the small herd of sheep I've been acquiring.  I think Sunday may be the day to decorate the tree we put up each year in the dining room in the main house.  Dad's already made the wreaths and hung them outside and placed the tree that he will string with big brightly colored lights on the next warm day.  Mom and I will probably spend some time on Sunday addressing the Christmas cards I've made.  And Sunday night I'll pack my crafting bag for Monday's Spa Day at the Oncology Center.  I haven't yet decided what kind of a project to take for the day, but I want to have something that a group of people can participate in if they choose to.

Snow Sleet Freezing Rain

The weather has changed my shopping plans for today.

Think I'll stay in this morning and wait to see if the weather clears by noon.

Rain I can deal with but not ice.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy the day!  I'm off to the kitchen!

Sunday, November 21

I realized today that I haven't been working in my art journal much lately nor have I been posting any of the pages.  Here is a recent page:

There's a skim of ice on the pond this morning.  We had snow flurries for about three minutes on Thursday.  The nights are long and the days grow even shorter.  Mom and I have unpacked our winter coats, hats, and mittens.  Dad has buttoned up the house and readied the snow blower.  Winter's on the way...

Dad finished making wreaths this week.  I'm working on the Christmas cards we'll send out after December 1st.  Sometime in the next couple of days I have to plan Thanksgiving and do the grocery shopping.  It will be a small celebration this year--Mom and Dad and me.  No need for a twenty pound turkey--not that I could fit one into our tiny stove's oven!

Off to Portland Thursday and Friday!

Thursday I have an echocardiogram scheduled at Mercy Hospital State Street.  This is like an ultrasound of my heart.  They do this every three months to check to make sure that all of the heart toxic drugs they are giving me don't damage my heart.  That's at 10 AM so I'll be up and on the road early.

Friday is my regular blood work at the Oncology Center at Mercy Fore River.  I'm pretty sure that my numbers won't be looking so good this week.  I've had a hard time bouncing back after this fourth treatment.

My temperature is holding steady at 100...

Looking forward to sleep tonight.  I took a three hour nap on Monday afternoon and haven't really slept since.  I sure could use a night of sound sleep!

After Feelin' Not-so-groovy...

This has been a hard week since the last treatment.  Seven days of not feeling quite like myself, food tasting really bad, and tired but not sleeping well.  I think my acupuncture treatment yesterday, an afternoon nap, and a good night's sleep have finally helped me turn the corner.  I'm at least feeling better this morning, even though I'm sure my blood count numbers are plummeting.  I'm off to Portland later to get those numbers checked.  I hope they are good enough to let me out tomorrow to a couple of church fairs in Manchester and Winthrop--gotta love the places that have rooms of second-hand junk for sale!

Dad just drove the Chevy to the end of our road with a For Sale sign on it.  Know anyone who wants to purchase a 1987 Chevy Caprice with less than 80,000 miles on it?  It's in good shape, has been garaged, has new tires, and has hardly been driven the last five years (20 miles last year!).  Let's make a deal!  It's almost a collector's item!

Once that car goes, then we can try to move the Kharman Ghia out of the garage and find that a home.

Here's Olive sitting on the head of my raccoon sculpture on the porch, gazing wistfully at birds in the bushes or squirrels/chipmunks on the ground.  She loves this porch and so do I.
I'm hoping for warm weather this weekend so I can close up my porch for the winter.  Have some things out there to put in storage in one of the outbuildings.  Then I have to seal up the two sliding glass doors which means putting up a ladder, taking down some of the porch screening, and prying the doors into place before locking them.

Richard and his brother Chuck will close camp at Moosehead/Beaver Cove this weekend.  There's just no way I could do this and I have hardly been there at all this year.  Next year in the spring maybe I can get the rest of the work done needed to winterize the place, to finish what Gail had started.

Hoping for enough energy to do the laundry later today or tomorrow.  It's either that or I have to go shopping!  I'm out of almost everything!!!

Feelin' Groovy

I'm back from my chemo adventure. Good day. There were two women who took my cardmaking class today and there were three nurses who wondered if they'd be caught if they logged out during the day for an hour or so! They didn't join us but they kept checking in. Each of the women made ten cards! Of course we had four hours to work with! I gave several cards I made away to other patients who were just there for bloodwork only and couldn't stay. One woman was trying to figure out if she could take the next Friday off from work that I'll be there so she can come in just for the class! It was fun and made the time go by quickly.


I also had good luck at LLBeans on the way home. Had gift cards to spend and went a little bit over so I got another $10 gift card to use before February. And I picked up chicken lasagna at Claytons!


Hoping to go to a craft show and an art show tomorrow morning, both in Manchester. Then I'm having brunch with Lydia and Connie at Slates on Sunday morning!  Got to get in the fun stuff before the first of the week when my blood counts start to plummet!


Sometime tomorrow or the first of the week I ought to work in another stop at Dom's Barber Shop for the "bald man's special"--I have several bald spots but hair growing in other areas of my scalp...weird. I finally plucked out the last of my eyebrows yesterday. Maybe I'll practice drawing crazy eyebrows on now that I have a good eyebrow pencil!


I made twelve Christmas cards yesterday and I have ten tags all ready, too. Still have to make more thank you/gratitude cards for November and a couple of others for my parents to send out this next week. I guess I'm back into a crafting mood. I have some ideas for altered clothing, too, as soon as I figure out how to rewind bobbins on this sewing machine! I also want to make more ribbon and fabric flowers for pins or to sew onto my clothes.


Four treatments down and only two more to go!!! Woo-Hoo!!!

Friday is Spa Day! Treatment #4

This Friday I'm hosting a Make It/ Take It project for any of the Spa attendees.  I've packed up a big bag with everything we need to make gratitude/thank you cards in Thanksgiving-themed colors.  I know I have at least one woman who wants to do this, and then I'll see who else is in on Friday.

I will be up early and on the road by 8 AM for early appointments.  I'll leave dinner for Mom and Dad in the crockpot and grab a light breakfast and pack my snacks before heading out.  I'm planning a stop at LLBean on the way home--have a sweater to exchange and a $10 gift card to use.  Will probably also stop in Yarmouth at Claytons for dinner take-out and at the Royal River health food store for groceries.

Places to go and things to do this weekend and the first of the week depending on how I feel after this treatment.  Updates later...

Now that Halloween has passed...

When Andrew was here for a visit recently, we spent some time creating his slightly off-kilter somewhat demented Mad Hatter costume for Halloween.  We actually had good luck at the Goodwill Store in Augusta and both Goodwill and Salvation Army in Topsham/Brunswick.  The first and best find was the blue brocade tuxedo jacket with the velvet collar and the royal blue men's cuffed (and somewhat short) pants.   A pleated front tuxedo shirt was augmented with linen pleated cuffs from another shirt sewn on.  Andrew thought he'd like a black and white vest--found this double-breasted one and re-tailored it to create the pointy front and a shorter back.  He found the perfect hat at the One Stop Party Shop in South Portland and added a purple scarf from my collection to it and used another of my scarves as a floppy bow tie.  A giant playing card (the Ace of Spades) tucked into his pocket and a giant tag in the brim of the hat add the finishing touches.  Cool, huh!

LOVE LOVE LOVE this photo!!!