11/11/11

Today I'm thankful for the men and women who serve to make our country free.

Fighters WIN

There has been a battle raging since April when Dad was diagnosed with bladder cancer. In June his bladder, prostate, pelvic lymph nodes, urethra and appendix were removed. In July doctors told us that the cancer had spread. The last 9 weeks of chemotherapy have been HELL. Today he got the results from his latest PET scan and . . . 

the chemotherapy is working!!!

The cancer in his neck is half the size and the spot in his chest isn't visible. He will have two additional chemo infusions, so he won't be done until January, but we couldn't be more THRILLED! 

Dad has been AMAZING through this ordeal. He is so strong. Our faith has been strengthened. Our prayers have been answered. The next 12 weeks will still be challenging, but we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Wait, it's November?

photo by Golden Section

I vowed to myself to be a better blogger, and then I seem to have lost the month of October. I don't really know where it went. I'm on the computer ALL the time, and I had blog post ideas. Somewhere I experienced a disconnect. This being the month that celebrates Thanksgiving I will be creating posts about things I am grateful for. Some meaningful and some silly. Thankfulness is something I am really trying to work on. I might also throw in a few tutorials. 

Join me in a month of thankfulness. And if you write about things you are thankful for, leave me the link in a comment and I'll check it out.

Dia de los Muertos

Happy Dia de los Muertos!

This won't be a long post. I don't want to steal my sister's thunder. And this is ALL her. (I'll post a LINK to her blog with the complete story.) Halloween has become a VERY big deal in our family the last few years. For anyone on our Christmas card list you'll know what I'm talking about. It's not unheard of to find us discussing costumes in February. This year has been different. With Dad in the midst of chemotherapy we didn't know if he would feel up to dressing up. As of the week before Halloween we didn't have a costume and figured we'd just skip it this year. 

D.D. came up with the idea. Steele was on board as long as he could have a cool hat. My makeup alone took over two hours! But what a FANTASTIC job! My sister is a makeup artist, and she really demonstrated what she can do. Especially what she was able to do on herself!

I LOVE the way my teeth turned out! And my eyes! At the end of the night I was reluctant to remove my makeup. I wanted to revel in it as long as possible. And yes, we did our photo shoot at the cemetery.

THANK YOU D.D. for being the creative force behind my favorite Halloween costume ever!

p.s. we really missed Dad and Mom

Painting with Coffee

A few weeks ago I saw a post on one of the MANY blogs I follow that really caught my attention. You might not know this about me, but I haven't always sewn. I taught myself to do that, but I did take years and years of art classes. Watercolor was my favorite medium. So when I saw this process I had to try it. I became obsessed. When you're done it should look like an aged parchment.

My first obstacle: coffee. I don't drink it. So one morning I went to Cost Plus and poured myself a cup of FREE coffee they have set up at the back of the store.

I filled the cup a little too full. It was quite an adventure driving home---no lid. I only spilled one drop.

You'll need to tape down your paper so it doesn't buckle. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist so I measured a 1/2 inch margin before I taped.

I used packaging tape. That's all I had. I would recommend masking tape. It is less strong and will peel up easier.

Next, paint a wash over the entire surface of the paper. The first time I tried I used TOO MUCH coffee. See the ripples? Too wet.

Sprinkle coarse sea salt. I don't think my salt was coarse enough. I also over salted the first time.

You can kind of see the separation effect, but the first time I used too much coffee and salt.

This is my second attempt. Less coffee, but my salt didn't quite do what I wanted it to do. I think I still used too much.

Be careful when you pull up the tape so you don't rip the paper. And make sure to rub ALL the salt off of the paper. Now you're ready to sketch your painting. I'm still deciding what my subject matter will be.

I just re-read the original post. I didn't alternate brush strokes of coffee and pure water. Maybe that is my problem. I'll try it again. If you try this, post pics and let me know.

Craft Supplies and Hair Color ?

Here at the "Craft Palace" (we don't really live in a palace) we have so many supplies that we can make virtually anything, and in some cases we've tried. For new projects we usually only have to pick up 1 or 2 things, like a cup of coffee (reason for coffee to be revealed in a future post).

We have bins for almost everything. This is the thread bin that has been taken over by embroidery floss.

We have paint---water color, oil & acrylic, stamps, lace, trims, buttons, snaps, beads, patches, jump rings and chains for jewelry, fabric by the yard, scraps of fabric, felt, ribbon, yarn, paper, stickers . . . the list could go on and on. Suffice it to say we like to create. And we're pretty good at doing things.

One thing we're not good at is coloring our hair. That's not to say that we can't, we just hate to do it. One of us is a licensed cosmetologist. The other one of us is not, but I've been doing D.D.'s hair for a good number of years now. I should be over it by now, but HATE is not too strong a word to describe my feelings on the matter. I get anxious and absolutely dread it. But I do a fine job. Just ask my sister. I'm just afraid I'll mess her hair up. Foils, weaving and cotton can be intimidating. As much as I hate doing her hair, she hates getting it done more. So we procrastinate---something we're both very good at doing. It doesn't take us very long, so why do we drag our feet and moan about it? I'm very grateful that we don't have to pay a salon to color our hair. We do it at our convenience and we're always VERY happy after we've done it. 

D.D. with her foils.

So now we both have great hair and no weekend plans. I guess we'll have to go through our craft supplies and make something.

Musings

The experiences of the last few months have reminded me how lucky I am to have the family I do. Not just immediate family, but the entire extended family circle. And not just blood relative family---friends. People I've known my whole life, or people I've connected to who I feel I've known my whole life. The level of love and caring has overwhelmed me. D.D. and I have tried to spend as much of our free time in San Diego as we can. Dad's cancer has spread to his other Lymph Nodes. This week he had his second of six chemotherapy treatments. Last week his hair started coming out so he had Steele shave it for him. And then Steele supportively shaved his own head.

I have tried to become better at living in the moment. Some days are good for Dad and some days are bad. Some parts of days are better than others. When Dad feels good we react. We do what he would like to do. When Dad is hungry we fix a meal or go on a food run for something he wants. This has gotten a little bit trickier since his diet is now restricted because of the blood thinners he is taking, and during chemotherapy he can't have any fresh fruits or veggies. If he feels up to playing a game, out come the Liverpool Rummy cards. When he would rather rest, we all quietly find something else to do. We even got Dad to play a little Beatles Rock Band last weekend.

I take each day as it comes. Some are better than others. The other night I completely lost it listening to a Kenny Rodgers song that reminded me of better days with Dad. I cried it out and felt better afterwards. Hope and prayer are sustaining me. And LOTS of ice cream. We've gotten into a bad habit of ALWAYS having ice cream at Mom and Dad's house. Thank goodness we usually come back to LA during the week, otherwise we'd be bigger than houses. Weekends filled with eating pretty much whatever we want followed by a week of more sensible eating and exercise (when it isn't heatstroke inducing HOT outside).

Thank you to all who have shared your love with us during this difficult time. We've not been very good at returning or acknowledging every act of kindness, but just know that we appreciate everything done in our behalf.