Fibro Funk

The Alabama Horse Council's Equine Expo that is. I met my friend Sandy there. Do you remember her? (She's here and here). Told you I was going to phone a friend. *grin* Can't get much better than horse AND friend therapy combined, right? The only thing missing was the spending money (it's a 7 week stretch between paydays this time - and youch!) Didn't know we were going until the last minute either, otherwise I would have saved some of my Christmas money (well, maybe ;o) I had a ball hanging out with Sandy - always do - and thoroughly enjoyed wandering around looking at all the vendors (DH and his wallet stayed to watch the clinic - the coward). A couple of the clinicians looked interesting but the sound system was terrible and they were very hard to understand. Too bad it wasn't closed captioned. HaHa.

Want to see? I should warn you that it was dark and yellowy (is that even a word?) in there, so the photos are not so hot. Anyhoo, here are a few of the wonderful things I saw and [mentally] salivated over. I immediately thought of Catherine when I saw all the gorgeous tooled purses. The booth owner, Ms. Clydette, gave me her email address in case I rob a bank find some extra money, or if any of you want to ask her about them. Just shoot me an email and I'll be glad to share it with you (unfortunately, she doesn't have a website but she said to just email her ;o)

I don't normally care about such things, but ooooh I wanted one of these purses! Love the burgundy one in the middle below. *sigh* Oh well, maybe next year...

Took the picture below for my friend Lori who [wisely] does the socks only in the house thing:

Then there was the metalworks lady who had this really cool - really big - welded peacock in front of her booth; isn't that neat?

She does have a website (her name is Sonya, and her site is here). I liked this trio of running horses too; it would look so cool on our patio! Rats ;o)

There was quite a bit of overpriced tack, along with a selection of faux hides (a giraffe? seriously?) You know now that I think about it, our living room sofa could use some new upholstery... Not.

But my favorite booth had to be....the jewelry by Engrave This. They don't have a website, but they are on Facebook (here). Everything was sooooo pretty! And look! She even has Arabians! Oh-Oh-Oh, be still my heart! I could have cried. I stood there ogling; bemoaning my December birthday and wondering if 12 months in advance was a bit too much for an early present. *laugh* I spent the next hour mentally working out an emergency script designed to cajole DH in to springing for an Arabian horse charm. For those of you new to this blog, I can only tell you that DH is so tight he squeaks ('nuff said ;o)

I must have looked more pitiful than I thought, as Sandy vanished mysteriously from the ladies room when we ducked in there that afternoon. Sure scared me; those automatic flushers always struck me as being a tad on the dangerous side with their violent vortexes. She'd gone back to the booth for the round charm at the top of the picture above (the sneaky little heifer).  I wasn't expecting that (I was still busy fine tuning my script for DH ;o) Wasn't that a lovely thing to do? Now to figure out what I want to do with it; a pendant necklace I think. Here's what I ended up with - I threaded it through some sheer satin ribbon and wore it long - what do you think?

And look! It's a perfect match for my fabulous copper swirls from Meghann at Little Studio Jewels. She has a beautiful silver pair listed in her shop now (right here). I had a little trouble photographing them though; they swing ;o)

I think I'll wait and tell you about the clinicians next week - I'm out of time (can you imagine? *grin*). Have a big hug and a blessed week everyone!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

I'm cranky. Maybe I should say I'm CRANKY. So much so, that I've given DH a pretty good run for his money the past two weeks. For those of you who don't know, I often refer to him as "Tall, Dark and Grumpy" (and yes, to his face too; he knows he's a grouch and sometimes will even admit it *laugh*). I've been in a snit since shortly after my last post. No idea why, really, other than I am just sick and tired of being sick and tired (and had no desire to inflict my crabby, whiny, annoying self on the rest of you *grin*). Aren't you grateful? A frantic schedule and some wild weather patterns have been wreaking havoc on the Fibromyalgia (and boy does everything hurt x10 + Ugh). My latest and greatest autoimmune accomplishment has been to suddenly develop all of the symptoms of Sjogrens Syndrome but without having the actual disease. Aren't I just gifted? Too bad, that, as I am fairly certain had I scored one more disease I would be eligible for a free set of steak knives (please pardon the sarcasm - I seem to have it in abundance this week ;o) 

Sjogrens is what sidelined what's-her-name (tennis chick) at the height of her career. It causes your immune system to attack the moisture-producing glands in your body and dries up everything. And I mean everything. Remember my spotting scare not long ago? Apparently that's what caused that little issue. Just to add to the adventure (oops, more sarcasm), it also causes extreme dry mouth, dry eyes and dry skin. I've never had dry mouth before this - not to this degree anyway. Actually, I've had more trouble with drooling in my sleep than anything (and don'tcha just hate waking up to a puddle on your pillow?) Blech. How about waking up in the middle of the night with your tongue hurting like crazy because it's stuck fast to your teeth (had to literally pull it off and it left a blister - eeeew). Welcome to the superweird world of autoimmune. Did I mention my mouth was closed? Sheesh. So now we're taking a new drug to generate saliva (whoopie) and using Biotene's gel stuff before bed which has helped somewhat. And of course the eyes are all nice and gritty too, so we've added two different kinds of eye drops umtpeen times a day. Well. The blessing in that one is that I don't need a new pair of glasses. I was having trouble seeing, and assumed (ha-ha-ha she never learns) that it was because my vision had changed. I was really worried I'd have to buy a new pair of glasses (and with bifocals, that tends to be a real pain in the checkbook). So that's good news anyway.

You know what? I think I am in desperate need of some serious horse therapy. Maybe I'll borrow a phrase from "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" and phone a friend. I could use a lifeline right about now (okay, probably more like a good swift kick in the pants but that's just a matter of semantics. Ha. ;o) I think I'm just going to drag you all (er, y'all) into horse therapy with me by virtue of a couple of my favorite photos from posts gone by that always make me smile. Ready? Here goes...
First up is Champ making good use of a homemade water pik:

 Shadow giving DD a bath after their nap (maternally speaking, this horse is a hen):

I don't know what Rina said, but Bella definitely looks appalled:

And let's not forget the great snoozefest of 2011 which always makes me smile:

Shadow's hilarious "rump rotation routine" (precedes rolling on his other side). He looks like an equine eggplant here, but don't tell him I said so ;o)

Okay, I feel ever so much better now. Do you? I'll be back again next week - like I'm supposed to do - in a much better frame of mind. 'Kay? Have a big horsey hug and a wonderful week!

There are presents, and there are Presents, and then there is T-H-E  P-R-E-S-E-N-T.  One that SO overwhelms, you just can't quite figure out what to say outside of quoting Mary Poppins, that is. *grin* DD really got me this year; just wait until you see what she made for me! First, though, you should know that the apple didn't fall far from the tree at all; the little stinker. Sometimes anticipation can be every bit as much fun as the actual event; in this case Christmas. Over the years I have entertained myself (and others) by making up fun things for the kids to do at gift giving times. From numbering and color coding presents to treasure maps and silly poems full of clues, I've tried to make birthdays and holidays both fun and memorable for them no matter the gift. Well. DD, it seems, is a chip off the old block[head]. *laugh*. I would like to share some of that lovely anticipation with you too, if that's okay. Ready? Let's have some fun...
I noticed a large number of small white (unmarked) envelopes scattered all over our living room Christmas morning. DD, wearing an ear-to-ear grin, shrugged her shoulders and said that was something for later. When later arrived, she handed me a large manilla envelope containing a strangely shaped piece of wood, and the following note:

After collecting the envelopes (26 in all), I opened them and spread out the contents on a stool. Each one contained a small piece of paper with a word on one side and a number on the other, and a final strip instructing me to ask DD for [yet another] envelope:

She handed me another large manilla envelope that had a series of lines and numbers which corresponded with the paper strips I'd just opened:

Once I'd matched up all of the numbers, it would tell me what to do next. Honestly, where does she get this stuff?? As if I didn't know. *laugh*

Other than accidentally whacking the "o" off of into, I had to give her two thumbs WAY up on the fun and sneaky scale ;o) Oh, and the little house is the small storage shed (the big one being one of our many fantasies at this point). So, we all went be-bopping out to the shed. I opened the door, and....CRIED.

Although I was expecting something made from wood - she's in the woodworking program at college where she is making wonderful use of the talent that the Lord has blessed her with - I was definitely not expecting it on the scale of what I got. A full blown hand made 38 drawer scrapbook paper storage cabinet that is almost as tall as I am....Isn't it phenomenal?

We had to take the drawers out to move it into my craft room/office. I was (still am, actually ;o) totally blown away by the remarkable job she did:

Dang. Girl's got some talent, doesn't she? Guess who's sporting an ear-to-ear grin now? :-D <-- See? I had a field day putting labels on each drawer before sorting and filing away all of my 12x12 papers. Woo!

I saved the last two paper drawers for my rubber stamps, which had enough room to lay them all out nicely - no more digging  through a box (boo yeah! ;o)

She even put four larger drawers at the bottom, which were perfect for storing my other paper crafty things (like embossing, wood burning, etc.). She did confide that after about drawer #15, it got rather tedious. *laugh* I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas; you know I sure did ;o) For those of you who would like some inspiration for sneaky gift giving, feel free to borrow some of my ideas from this lens: Making Those Memorable Moments.

May you have a wonderful week, and a blessed New Year!