A Day With A Friend

     On those rare occasions when you have time off from any work you usually HAVE to do, nothing pressing upcoming on your schedule, no kids yanking and pulling on you to go somewhere or do something, and a girlfriend with the same schedule, who is just itching to spend some time with you, what do you do?!!...Okay,I know how really rare it is to have all of these things happen at the same time, but yesterday that's exactly what happened to me!

    As you probably demised already from looking at my header photo, a hot game of Scrabble was one of the things we did. We're both word people, so anybody that came into the house while we were intensely concentrating on how to beat the snot out of each other,...and a couple of times that did happen!...were systematically ignored until we were through! :-] It was wonderful!!...even though I was beaten at the end, with a 42 point triple word!!! Thankfully neither of us are bad sports, even though we are intensely competitive. I can hardly wait until we can play again! And with the Scrabble Journal (my header photo today) from "Littleputbooks" on ETSY, I could have another day like this real soon, and have somewhere to write poems down about it!! I love it when people are creative like that! And it's only $25.00 too!!!

   My day with my friend started with her fixing breakfast for the two of us.Turkey bacon, grits, and eggs! Yum, Yum!!! Between the eating and the talking and the giggling we fielded phone calls and I even took a minute to finish sewing the backing on a fun necklace I did the day before. Her daughter had given me 2 dinosaur buttons.

     I can't even imagine who will buy a dinosaur button necklace! LOL But she assured me that you never know what people will like! So...I hope somebody likes it!!...This was the other one I made...

         ...I am convinced now that there is a button of every kind, for everything!! :-))

   My friend and I also watched a rerun of a show that was on NBC last season. It's called "Who Do You Think You Are?" There were 7 celebrities who discovered the secrets of their past. We watched the hour with Emmett Smith, the football player. It was fascinating to both of us because we had talked about wanting to find out information about our own pasts. Too bad we don't have a bunch of people at our beck and call to find it out for us, like these celebrities had! It would be waaay to expensive and time consuming to do it ourselves. But wouldn't it be great to be able to go back in your past and see where you came from and whose life intersected with yours?! It was fascinating to me, when I watched it during the several weeks it was on, to find out that people who thought they knew who they were, were completely wrong!!! One celebrity had grown up thinking she was Italian and found out that she absolutely was not!!!

   For lunch another friend came over too! We sent out for Chinese. We had Beef and broccoli, orange chicken, rice and vegetables,...and Oreo Cookies for dessert!! Now, come on!!! Who couldn't have a good friend day eating like that?! LOL...I'm paying for it this morning too!! My stomach hasn't stopped flipping since I got up!!! Ha! Ha!....It was worth every flip!!!!

    Hugs and kisses and holding of hands til the very end, was how our 'Girlfriend Day' ended...Until Next Time!! :-))

(This poem has nothing to do with my girl day. It was one of the poems I mentioned that I would be sharing about my mom, when I wrote the 'Mothers and Daughters post, which you can see -->  here.)

How She Became The Mama I Know

She was a boozer,

HER mama`s loser;

Not many knew her

like I did.

She`d been abused;

Her, you could use;

Her body, bruise-

just make a bid.

It wasn't  fair.

They didn't care.

To a child's nightmare

they gave no thought.

She'd take the heat.

Her past she'd  beat!

(No-Just repeat

what she was taught!)

Tag Sale Accident

   All things can't stay the same forever, right?! That's what I keep saying to myself, over and over, now that our 'Old Faithful' is definitely not going to be the same anymore.

   She's obviously not a NEW car. She's been our only 'baby'...vehicle-wise...for quite a while. She rode nice, took the road bumps with a ease that would make even Humpty-Dumpty smile! :-) I'm talking about it as if it died or something! But it didn't die. Although there was an attempted murder! LOL

   Hubby did all of his errands this past weekend, came back home and was about to relax, and then said: "Oh No! I forgot...(can't remember what he forgot and had to go back out to get)...! I'll be right back." He took the 'baby'.

    It looked perfectly fine when he left...Then, about 20 minutes later, I got a phone call. He was standing in the middle of the road carrying on a conversation with me and with some lady whose voice I didn't recognize. "I had an accident." He said, in the saddest voice you ever heard. I inquired if he and everybody else were okay, and he assured me they were fine.

   The people around the way were having a big Tag Sale, with cars coming and going, and backing in and pulling out. It was right on a corner that had a stop sign that was being hidden by a large Van with tinted windows that you couldn't see through. The lady went through the stop sign, and couldn't see around ,or through, the windows of the Van, and hubby didn't see her at all until...BLAM!!!

   Our poor little 'baby' took one right across the chin, so to speak,...

   ...and now she's in sore need of a face-lift...AT LEAST!!

   So, it's off to the appraiser today, to see how much time and money is going to have to go into this patch job...Somehow I know though that no matter how much it costs, our 'baby' is never going to be the same. No matter how small the accident seems to be, (and I've been in a few of them over the years), and no matter how little the damage appears to be, somehow the cars never ride exactly the same again. It's as if their personality jumps out of the car right before the crash, looks at the car afterward and says: "Nah! I don't want to be apart of you ever again!" Ha! Ha!

   My 'baby'...

   ...an attempted "car" murderer, a distracted Tag Saler, got her!! *Deep breath*....I'm now going to think good thoughts. Maybe it won't go the way of all the other cars that have been in accidents! Maybe a little spit and polish and it will be just fine!!...Can you see the fake smile?!...All things can't stay the same forever!! Too bad too!!!...Moving on.....

    At least I have this to look at.

   My friend's mom came from out of State. She was wearing this necklace that she had bought from my shop a while ago. It looked so pretty with the dress she was wearing!! She said that she had worn this dress many times in the past and no one had said a thing, but when she wore it with this necklace she got all kinds of complements, and everybody wanted to know where she got the necklace! YAY!!! It's not my 'UN-accidented'  car, but it IS something to smile about again!!! :-))

Minutes In A Year

524,160-All together,

make up all the minutes in a year.

124,800-At least-spent working

in a job, insecurely stressed with fear.

175,200 minutes, spent sleeping.

(Or, at least, they say that's how many you should get.)

5,475 minutes, taking showers.

(An awful lot of time spent soaking wet!)

87,600 minutes, spent eating.

(Estimated at 240 a day.)

The same amount is spent watching T.V.-

feeding your mind on what other people have to say.

5,600 minutes, spent in worship,

with another 21,840 preparing for it.

(That doesn't seem like a lot of minutes to consider,

when you think of all the wholesome benefit.)

That leaves 6,045 little minutes

to ponder ways to show your degree of love;

To show you care about the people around you,

and to appreciate all the minutes from above!

Puzzled Flowers

   The flowers around here are still trying to put off some beauty. Through the scorching heat, torrential downpours, blistering winds, and everything, they are still holding up great! I haven't shown you much of the backyard lately. The brown grass made me stop looking at it! But hubby went out this morning and took this picture of the neighbors flowers. 'Sneaky Pete'!

   The rain we had yesterday is still hanging on the petals...

   I could tell he wasn't completely awake yet though, because these were in the camera too...

...His focus...NOT the camera's focus, but HIS focus...was a little off! That's what I get for shaking him and saying: "Hey Honey, run outside and get me a couple of pictures for the blog. HURRY UP!"...He looked a little puzzled...These last few pictures also look a little puzzled! LOL

   They're 'Puzzled-ness' though, is a great segue-way for me though, to lead me to the next thing I wanted to tell you about this morning...My friend, a great mother by the way, came over on Friday. Her little girl, who is  about 7 or 8, I think (I'm not good with ages. I try not to pay attention to mine either! LOL), with a big smile on her face came in and handed me this...

   She said she made it for me!...Just looking at it, two things were immediately apparent. First, a creative resourceful mind was at work in the packaging. I love the recycling of the plastic cassette holder!

    ...And second, look at what was inside? Puzzle pieces...She said she made a puzzle for me!...I got to work on my puzzle right away!! When it was done I was feeling pretty special, and I was smiling from ear to ear!! You can see why, right?!

   It really was made JUST for me!!! It has the sun shining up in the right hand corner...(wonder if that's because she knows how painful rainy days are for me?). It has a flower...

   I "DO" love a flower!!!...And it has my name!

   ...Leaving no doubt what-so-ever that it was made for ME!!!...It even has a little heart next to my name.

I LOVE YOU TOO, HOLLY!!! :-))

When Holly was a baby I wrote this poem and gave it to her mom. I hope her mom doesn't mind me sharing her poem on my blog today. I'm feeling the love for my Holly!

Baby "Holly"

You`re not like "Haley`s Comet";

(which streaks across the sky)

You`re highly sensitive, though,

and get our attention when you cry.

We joke about you being a "Diva".

(`cause we can tell that you have your own mind)

We can`t wait til you put it into words,

and your frustration will be left behind.

But, until then, pretty baby Holly,

please be patient with our tender stare.

Consider our arms reaching for you

as love from all those who care.

We`ll pray for you, not only to be "Holly",

but to serve God, and be "Holy" Too,

because those beautiful eyes-always searching,

were made by Jehovah-just for you.

Mothers And Daughters

   I have been wanting to do this post for quite a while now and have been putting it off. The opportunity to make this treasury on Etsy has compelled me though, to go ahead and get it out there. In all of these photos you see mothers and daughters in such sweet relationships. That is as it should be. But this has not been the experience with me and my mother.

   Just so you know, I don't have some sick need to embarrass my mother, or to use this blog as a gut-spilling area! The simple fact is that from the very beginning of my doing this blog I have left a poem at the end of each post. My own poems. They have run the gambit from silly to serious. But I have not shared quite a few of them because they are ones having to do with my mother and my very traumatic childhood.

    My mother was a physically beautiful woman. I remember as a child sitting and watching her, in awe, as she put on her 'going out' clothes, and fixed her hair. She was very petite, very personable, and a 'Man Magnet'! Her and her best friend hung out at military posts on the weekends, partying.

   Unfortunately, as she was a single mother for most of my childhood, we became very familiar with her boyfriends. They eventually became our sibling's fathers! She was pregnant a lot. And my siblings all have the different last names to prove it! That is neither here nor there though.

   The impact of her having men in the house all of the time, and having little girls, was the problem. I became a casualty. A victim of repeated sexual abuse from some of the men in her life. It made for very awkward relations with my siblings when some of these men were also their fathers! It's an on going struggle, even at this age, trying to have a conversation with my brother or sister about their father, my molester!

   My mother also was, up until just recently, an alcoholic also. And her best qualities, and yes...she had many...didn't show themselves when she was drinking. In fact, her behavior with us children bordered on sadistic at times. One of my sisters refuses to even open a card or letter from our mother even today! She has not visited our childhood state since we left, and doesn't even talk about it with her children...Her memories have cooked, as if in a simmering pressure cooker with the lid held tight, all these years. And I chance the lid blowing off and scalding me every time I even mention my mother's name to her!

   My poetry has been my saving grace. All of my feelings, good or bad, about my childhood have been chronicled in my story-telling style of poems. That's the reason I'm writing this post now. I have gotten down to some of the darker, more emotionally revealing, poems of mine now that I've shared a poem a day for all of this time. And it would not be me to not share the rest of them.

   So, as you see future poems that SEEM dark, angry, emotional, or mean-spirited, I need you to know that these are poems from my past. They are NOT who I am now. In fact, they are completely NOT who I am now. But in the same vein, they are who I was, and what I felt, and what I needed to put on paper at the time. I'm sure that as an abuse survivor I'm not the only person that has gone through these feelings. I hope that my poetry helps someone to deal with the emotions a little better. It is possible!

   I give much thanks to my God, Jehovah;  my husband Jeff, of almost 29 years; my dad; and my many adopted mothers over the years, for all of their healing words, strength of character, loving spirit, and listening ears. I am much stronger and happier, come what may, because of all of you! I think my life and my poetry also reflects that.

   My mother and I do not talk to each other now. I always inquire about her, and wish her a good life and an active conscience. One day I have hopes of resuming the relationship we had when I was a naive child, where she spoke and I hung on every word and I knew that my world revolved around the peace I got from her. I said I HOPE for that. I don't EXPECT that. She lives with too much guilt to admit that this was our experience, and I live with too much reality of it to waste even one more minute of pretend conversation with her about it. So that's where we are. And that's the way it has stayed for many years now.

   To all mothers and daughters in strained relationships, it will sound strange coming from me, after what I just revealed, but treasure the relationship you have! Love can be hard, but it's worth the trying! In my case, the trying didn't work. But I am centered, loving, strong, and ME because I know I did everything, short of pretending to be someone I was not, to heal the wounds. Communication is such a precious thing. Say what needs saying...Today! Tomorrow is not promised to you. Don''t live with 'What if's and 'I wish...'es. Those kind of things can eat you alive a memory at a time. Let John Mayer's song compel you, as it does me every day, to "Say What You Need To Say".

Excuses To Forgive

You have abused-been down-right rude

to all the memories that I had.

With one swift thrust-you've  slain my trust

and all the warm thoughts of my dad.

You have excused-while I accused,

and want 'Old Sleeping Dogs' to lie;

But with my heart-I just can't  start,

not at this age, another try!

We both know-that with life's  flow

will come new heartaches yet to live,

But heartaches, 'Old', have left me cold,

without a wanting to forgive.

If you get sick-will it all click?

Will I, then, want to care for you?

Will I understand you better then?

For both our sakes, I hope I do!

I give my God the final nod

on whether there will be a change;

Emotions flee-to think of me

thinking of you! Its kind of strange.

Maybe forgiving is just living-

respecting life-respecting his!

Believing every life is sacred,

and no matter what life it is!

Free Gifts!!!

   Aren't these the sweetest little hearts you've ever seen?!! And guess what?...They're magnets! I received them with a purchase I just made on Etsy.

    I was hunting for some gift tags to put on my packages when I send them to customers. I found these really cute ones ...

   ...in a shop called SnowFlakeDreams1 on Etsy . It says that it's for a Springtime gift, but I love this embossed butterfly so much that it's 'Springtime in July' for me! :-) I needed the tags, and frankly...still need to get some more, but it was the butterfly and the price of these tags that made me click and 'Add To Cart' right away! 12 of them were only $1.85!

   Velma's Etsy Profile says that she started crafting at about 12 years old when her mother fed her creative side. Mom's are great that way, aren't they?!...I really like all of the info she tells us about herself in her shop announcement:

     "Welcome to Snowflake Dreams 1 Boutique. I love to keep busy by crafting so I use many art and crafts media, crafting whatever tickles my fancy. My boutique is earth friendly. My motto is "Recycle as often as possible." If you see something you like but would like it better in a different color or maybe a different size just convo me. I aim to please. Thank you for visiting my boutique. Have a splendid day."

    My tags were done on white cardstock, but she has some really cute Acetate tags too! Look at these...

   Three Acetate Tags , any 3 in the shop, for only $4.50...

   A Snow Tag made on recycled acetate (Clear Plastic)...

   ...There's a whole story behind her love of snow (NOT!) in her profile...And if you're planning to give baby gifts to anyone, you have to see these! One for a girl...

    ...one for a boy .

   There's even a Friendship Card on Acetate !

   She's going to be surprised that I'm carrying on so about her shop, but when I got my tags in the mail last night, all wrapped up so pretty, with all kinds of free gifts, and realized that I paid only $1.85 for them...I knew that she was somebody with a feeling like mine for what she does! I just HAD to feature her shop today. My hope is that my blog readers will buy her shop out, and let her see what a great appreciation people have for someone doing what they love and giving their customers their best! But even if she doesn't get a sale, I wanted her to know that she was appreciated...by ME!!!

    Oh yeah, I didn't show you the other FREE gifts!

   My customers, who I also send free gifts with every purchase, will be seeing these little butterfly tags tied to their gifts. From Velma...and me...they will be getting a real gift!

My poem today is in anticipation of a blog post that I'll be doing tomorrow about mothers and daughters. It's not going to be an easy post for me to do, but I'm determined to get it said. (WARNING to those who don't like to read uncomfortable subjects...skip this blog tomorrow!)

Let Go

Ever against the tide we row,

fighting ourself, with bent elbow.

(Releasing feelings, tucked inside,

hidden because of foolish pride.)

Fighting just to stay the course.

Using every ounce of force.

(Dreaded emotions pushing through,

trying to get the best of you.)

Waves of feelings swirling round.

Fighting hard to keep them down.

(They're seeping out on every curve.

Letting them-takes lots of nerve.)

Open quick, your tight-clenched palm.

Feel the water's quiet calm.

(Released emotions-held too long,

now are righting every wrong.)

Bead Love...In The Making!

   Okay, yesterday it was 'Out With The Hats'! Today it's 'In With The Beads'! But only for a little while. Now that I'm trying to scale down some stuff, I figured I'd better start making some necklaces and earrings out of my bead collection. Then I can sell them and get them out of the house too!!

   My header picture is part of my collection of seed beads and such. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all of the colors!!! This isn't all of my beads though. I recently bought a 'Bead Buddy' to store the others in. This is my 'Bead Buddy'...

   When you first open it up you see this...

   The back piece is removable. It has a measured section to use when you're deciding how long of a necklace you're going to make.

It has little cup sections also, where you can put your beads that you're working with at the time. It's quite handy!...Now I'd like to show you some of the really special beads I have. These are a combination of black and white ones, and a whole bunch of clear ones.

   I don't really like plastic beads that much, even though I do have some. I may make bracelets for children out of them, or something. Most of my beads are glass, crystal, or ceramic. I like my beads to have a little weight. Don't I sound all 'Bead Professional' and everything?!! LOL NOT!!!

   These are some of my blue glass seed bead collection.

   These are some of my brown hues. The larger ones have a leopard look.

   I love the look and feel of this one...

   It's smooth and wavy even when you turn it sideways!...These are ready to go already. They have a spring ring attached.

   This one is one of my favorites. It's just full of heart-shaped personality.

   Here are a few of the others...

   And the last ones I'll show you are my candy beads...

   ...Don't they remind you of those fruity colored hard candies?!

You need more than beads if you're going to make jewelry, right?! Well, I got that covered too! Some beading wire...

   I had to learn the difference between beading wire and the other kind of wire that I crochet with...

   My crochet wire is much more mailable. It wouldn't be strong enough to make a sturdy necklace...Then you need spacer beads...

    ...crimp beads, to stop your beads from slipping off of the necklace...

    ...clasps...

   ...spring rings in silver and gold, of different sizes(I like these better because they don't just meet at the ends, but the ends pass each other. More chance of your jewelry staying put!)...

I'

   ...I even have some pretty bead caps that I was given as a free gift with one of my purchases...

Take a deep breath. I'm almost done!!! LOL...These are the pins I use for my earrings...

   ...and the earring wires...

Now, except for my very special crystals to add some sparkle to whatever necklace I make,...

   ...I'm done!!! I'm pretty much ready to bead myself into a frenzy, don't you think?! :-) Be sure and keep your eye on my Wuglyees shop so you can see what kind of beaded/crocheted wonders I come up with!

(Today's poem was one I wrote about 5 years ago, after I was watching the weather.)

Me And Isabel

She's round and likes to travel,

and goes where I'd like to go.

She loves warm weather and water;

and her size doesn't bother her flow.

She packs a lot of power-

But its peaceful to look in her eye;

And, like me, she gets lots of attention

when she goes meandering by.

Beach-combers hate to see her coming,

because she loves to kick up the sand.

She can be kind of destructive-

(But that depends on where she lands).

I love comparing myself to her,

even though I have nothing to gain

by seeing myself-point-by-point,

compared to Isabel-The Hurricane!