30 Days of Gratitude: Day 6

I forgot to post this yesterday, although I thought about it all day.  I'm grateful for holiday crafting.  I'm almost always in the mood for it no matter how crappy I feel.  I leave a lot of my hangups about making behind and just play.  I'm not as worried about the perfection of a Christmas ornament. 

 I was a little more concerned about the wreath, but I managed to hang it on the door yesterday in all it's imperfect glory.

Today, in between doctor visits, I plan to make more Christmas balls.  I found some on the internet that I liked quite a bit:

I like the use of pretty ribbon and colors she used.  

Here are a few of mine:

The button balls a little wackier, with odd sizes, and larger buttons overlapping smaller ones.  They're looser, and much quicker to complete, however, you do end up with more bits of styrofoam showing through than with the completely covered sequin balls.  Since I have some new and exciting sequins to work with, that's what I'm making this week.

I'm grateful that there are always a lot of things I want to make in the days before Christmas:  ornaments, a wreath or two, maybe a few Christmas cards, and something knitted or crocheted.  When my hands are busy, I'm so much happier.  

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 5

Today I feel a bit sad and a little lonely.  Feeling crappy most of the time is boring--to me and to friends.  What I am grateful for are the friends that continue coming over, continue e-mailing, and continue calling. Those people are the ones I will hold in my heart forever.  Thank you darlings.  You are the best.  

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 4

I'm grateful for these guys:

zoom

olive

sophie

flea

squeak

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 3

I am grateful for books and for the ability to both lose and find myself in reading.  

I am grateful for all the places and people I've discovered through reading, the knowledge I've gleaned, and the inspiration that's fueled my imagination. I'm thrilled each time I discover a "new" writer and happy to travel with him for awhile, discovering a new view of the world. 

  I'm grateful for having an appreciation of words: their beauty and power.  

 I am grateful for the invention of the printing press. 

  I am grateful to my mother for reading to me as a child, for teaching me to love and cherish books, and for encouraging my appreciation of the art of writing. 

 I am grateful for having the time to read.  

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 2

Morgan and Pollock

I have infinite gratitude for my husband, Morgan, who is wise, kind, tender, and patient, and who has battled cancer with me for the past 6 months. He has held my hand when I've been afraid, held me while I cried in frustration, watched bad movies with me, and brought me countless cups of tea, smoothies, and vitamins.  He gives me excellent council, makes me laugh, cheers me on, and puts up with me when my disposition is less than sunny.  When life gets tough, he's not afraid to do the necessary hard work.   He's a gift.  

I wrote about some of his amazing abilities some months ago: Miracle Man

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 1

My dear friend Kathleen, brought this to my attention via a facebook post this morning.  It's a 30-day practice of gratitude:

http://blessherheart.typepad.com/bless_her_heart/2010/11/30-days-with-a-grateful-heart-2010.html

And as Kat pointed out, this seems to be the perfect time of year to begin this practice.   And who knows, maybe I won't stop after 30 days.  

I'm grateful to be alive--to breathe, to move, to think, to experience life through my senses. This dance with cancer hasn't been much fun, but I've learned from it.  I'm grateful that my cancer was caught early, that the surgeon was able to remove all of it, and that the chemotherapy and radiation treatments ensure that there's is an 89% chance that it won't recur.  There are a few post-chemo days of flu-like symptoms, food tasting crappy,  shortness of breath, and depression.  Then I wake up in the morning and the sun is shining in that clear blue winter sky and I notice that my body doesn't ache.  I take my temperature and I don't have any fever.  The bad taste in my mouth doesn't seem so bad.  Ah, this feels more like what feeling good feels like.  And then I realize that by spring I will feel good again.   I'm grateful for the days of feeling strong and for all the future days of strength I'll have.  Today I'm grateful that my body doesn't ache and I don't have a fever.  That's a very good way to start the day.  

Stuff I want to make

I'm in the mood for holiday crafting.  If the mention of Christmas wreaths, tree skirts, ornaments, and handmade gifts before Thanksgiving makes you stabby, then you might want to skip this post.  But those who make things know that you have to start early or you won't have the tree up by Christmas and the stockings will be empty.  This year I'd like to make a wreath for the door.  I've seen a few things on the interwebs that I've liked.

this one is made from Rosemary

made from paper

paper again

and another one from paper

and I loved this card wreath using clothes pins and what looks like a giant embroidery hoop

I'm going to attempt to make one of the Rosemary wreaths.  I want to use things I have and I don't want to purchase anything to make my wreath.  I have Rosemary.  All of our newspaper subscriptions are now online, so I can't make a paper wreath from newspaper, but it is possible that I could make one from handmade paper because Morgan and I have been collecting things to make paper with, not to mention our large bag of dryer lint, for some time.  There are a number of paper wreath tutorials online.  Here's a good one from Blue Cricket Design: 

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2010/07/paper-wreath-tutorial-by-lovely-paper.html

Next time I'll be talking about balls.  Big, blingy Christmas balls. 

 In the meantime, some of you know that I've had this wall in my living room that has driven me crazy for some time.  I've tried all different sorts of arrangements of photographs or paintings on this wall and never liked the look.  I finally figured out that since there was nothing, like a piece of furniture, in front of the wall, the whole space needed to be covered with either a very large piece of art or many smaller pieces of art that looked right with each other.   One day I was tidying up in my art room and noticed that I'd collected quite a few picture frames over the past 20 years.  Hmmm.  I didn't necessarily have things to go in the frames, but the frames themselves could be used to fill that wall space pretty nicely.  To pull everything together,  I painted the frames with the paint I'd bought six months ago to touch up the molding.  Here's how the wall looks now: