A Leap of Love and a Tear of Joy!!

      It's happened again!!! I've fallen in love with another Etsy artist, Vickie Wade! And again I had a completely emotional response to looking at her work! I was sitting and scrolling through picture after picture...crying tears of sheer appreciation!
   It's only happened to me 3 times, that I remember, where I ran across someone's etsy shop and starting crying...{By the way, am I a complete nut, or has this happened to any of you too?!} The first time it happened was in the shop Raceytay. Then it was in Leonid Afremov's shop where I found my love of rain again. This time in was in the shop of Vickie Wade, VickieWadeFineArt.
    Scrolling through picture after picture that took me down the memory lane of my life, I found myself feeling sorta like the groom in the above print entitled Leap of Love.
    So, the Wuglyees Gallery is open again today to feature this very talented artist.
          I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do. Her profile info in her shop says:-->  "I'm Vickie, an artist living in the Pacific Northwest. Blessed with a wonderful husband, grown sons and two grandkids, my life as an artist has lots of joy! Every day I am thrilled I get to do what I love for a living!..." Her paintings and prints reflect her life. Look!--↓

                                             {Country Chicks}

                                            {Fishing}

                               {Country Kids}
      I know this is her life, but it strongly reminded me of my life...feeding the chickens, going fishing, and just hanging out with my siblings on the farm when we were little! But the reason I had such an emotional reaction to her work included the fact that there is so many layers to what she does! There are these sweet, down home country, prints and paintings, and then these--> ↓

                               {Eagles Wings}

                               {Chickadees}

                               {Sunset Sea-oil painting}
     And then there are these beautiful beach scenes that would look great on the wall of a child's room-- ↓

                               {Beach Buddies}

                          

                               {Side by Side}

                               {Beauties by the Bay}
    And some great wall art for the grown-ups, or to give as gifts! ↓

                                           {Kiss After Work}

                               {Moon Glow}

                                           {Perfect Pair}

                               {Forever Love}
     The announcement in her etsy shop says: "Hello and welcome to my studio. I love painting colorful images of children, nostalgic country scenes, majestic mountains and fat chefs! Find a print or original, love it, buy it, enjoy it!...I hope my art will put a smile on your face and light up your life!..."
    Well, it certainly put a smile on my face! She didn't mention anything in the announcement about it bringing a tear to your eye....but it did that for me too!! :-] But maybe that's just me!!...Okay, I'm going to leave you with two more of my particular favorites. ↓

                                            {Wagon Ride}.....and

                                          {Let's Dance}
     I can almost hear the music in this last one! ^_^ This etsy artist really caught my attention. What do you think of her shop?!....I gotta go find me some music to play now! :-)

Its The Beat

The syncopated rhythm
of the tapping of your feet,
and the snapping of your fingers
to the systematic beat
makes the music that you're  hearing
(that you think is kinda neat)
motivate your body's swaying,
and you have to leave your seat;
Now you're dancing back and forth,
and causing rising body heat.
And it's all from a beat-
Yes, one syncopated beat!

"CHECK, CHECK!"...Yep! I'm still Alive!

        First off, I want to thank everyone who participated, commented on this blog, tweeted, or mentioned on Facebook my "Say What You Need To Say" Day post yesterday. I learned what really wonderful people you all are, and I hope you learned a little bit more about me. Now you can put up with my silliness with even MORE understanding than you have been already. And that's saying something!! ^_^ ...Okay, moving on!!
        Subharik Chatterjee, on Facebook, is interested in Wildlife conservation and took some beautiful and eye-opening shots of these beautiful tigers. You can find the others if you follow the link. But this photo really struck me. One, because it's a beautiful photo. But mostly because I've been feeling just like this. All day long, every day, I've just been tired and looking for a good place to take a nap!! I started to wonder if maybe my C-Pap machine wasn't keeping pressure...That wasn't it. {Hubby took it to get it checked and they said it was fine.} I don't know what it is,...but it's something!
    Don't get me wrong, I do love a nap ANYWAY, but this has been feeling like something more. So, It was time for a check-up. I got the usual 'once over'. My lungs sounded good. My blood pressure was great! Everything looks good, but....! She started asking me questions: Are you eating okay? "Listen! It's not my eating! I don't eat all day long or anything...anymore...*Teehee*...but when I eat, I EAT!! There's nothing wrong with my appetite!" So, other than blood work that may eventually have to be done, my oxygen intake levels had to be checked.
   So, I had to do an all night 'Pulse-Ox' thingee. I had to put this little thing on my finger {sorta like a short clothespin}, tape it in place {or in my case, wrap a band-aid around it. I'm not a fan of tape on my skin!}, and sleep with it on all night. It was suppose to record my oxygen levels during my sleeping time.
     Picture this: Me in my nightee, full face mask on {C-Pap, with velcro straps all around my head and a hose going over the side of the bed to a standing unit}, and now a clothespin thingee trapping my finger in a vice, being taped in place with a smiley face band-aid, and another cord leading to this device!!! UGH!
    And if that wasn't bad enough, all night long the thing kept coming on with this blinding, blinking and flashing light! I felt like I was riding by one of those highway construction sites!..."Not this way Mam. Go around. *Blink*.....GO AROUND!!! *Blink, blink, blink,......*"...Hopefully that doesn't mean I'm dead, because this would be a very tough post to be writing to you with me in that condition!! Ha! Ha! Ha!
    Hopefully I'll find out the analysis of all of that overnight data within the next couple of days. I'll keep you posted...But while I was getting my check-up, hubby went for a consultation for an up-coming test he has to have too. The old Colonoscopy!!....The doctor has scheduled it for January and brought him in to tell him all of the ins and outs {no pun intended} of the procedure. I guess being 50 is going to be as much fun for him as it is for me!...NOT!! ^_^
    I can see already how much fun the two of us are going to be to live with for those few days, with the colon prep the day before, and the WHO KNOWS WHAT the day after!!!

                               {Silja Erg's photo on Facebook}
     Good thing  I always have my crocheting to keep me calm, or to restore my calm!....And in between my naps I've been crocheting my brains out! I've been working on a custom ordered hat.

    It's been coming along wonderfully! I love working with the Caron Simply Soft yarn. Not only does it look gorgeous when it's done, but it feels so good to crochet with! Not every yarn...or thread...is like that.

    Because of the Winter White color I've had to be really careful about making sure my hands are clean before I pick it up to work on it...this is as far as I had gotten when I took these pictures, but the hat is actually finished already now! I even made a flower brooch to send with it as a free gift. But I still have to take the photos of it on my lovely dummy head model before I can list it in my Wuglyees shop...{I've got to think up a nickname for the dummy hat model! The one I take my scarf pictures on has a nickname...Tina. My girlfriend named her. :-)} I'll show you the full hat when I get the pictures done.
    Typical of me, with my sleepy self, is the fact that when I had a little of the yarn leftover I started to try to figure out what I was going to do with it, so that 'Nothing is wasted, not even the ugly!' That's my shop motto! *Teehee* So, this is where I am so far on the next project...

     I had a couple of small skeins of specialty yarn, soft and fluffy, hanging around waiting for just the right place to be used. So I put it on the end of my Wuglyee scarf that I'm now working on...in between naps! :-) I think it's going to be pretty cute when it's done. I may start a whole line of scarves like this, with the specialty threads on the end. I have other colors too! Couldn't you see this one on the end of a scarf made out of the chocolate brown?! Or how about on the end of a Pistachio green scarf?!!!....Wait! I don't have anymore Pistachio. Oh well...I can always order it! :-)
    Okay, I'm going to go and get some studying done for my meeting tonight before the sleep bug hits me again, and I wind up sitting somewhere looking like this...

                               {Sleeping Dove, from the A Little Piece of Me blog}
    Have a good day everybody!!

Tired


Sapped, low,
weary, slow.

Dragging about,
plum tuckered out.

Fatigued, spent,
No power surge sent.

Depleted, drained,
almost empty-brained.

Pooped, sucked dry,
out of gas, can't try.

Exhausted, fried,
 done in, mopey-eyed.

Tired? There's no doubt!
'Cause I'm all petered out.

Today is 'Say What You Need To Say' Day

                                {Silhouette Father and Daughter First Steps...by Lauri57}
       {Sometimes in life you just need to be quiet, and sometimes you need to not speak and just listen, but sometimes you need to speak up and 'say what you need to say'. Following is the letter I would have written to my biological dad, saying what I needed to say to him, but never got the opportunity...Other letters will be posted at the bottom.}

Dear Dad,
    Actually, I probably shouldn't have started a letter to you with 'Dear Dad', seeing as I never met you or anything. But somehow...and it's a funny kind of thing...I feel like I've always known you. That's probably because as a little girl everybody, most of the time in whispers, used to say: "She looks just like her father, doesn't she?" I hoped you were handsome! Otherwise they might have been insulting me and I didn't catch on! LOL
   I need to tell you, first off, that I'm not angry with you that we never got to meet. In fact, if it hadn't been for you, or at least the THOUGHT of you being somewhere out there, I might not have made it through my childhood in as good of shape emotionally as I did! Although...when I used to see Michael Landon {Little Joe, on Bonanza}, or Elvis Presley, I used to imagine that they were my father. What can I say...I was a little kid! ^_^
      It was very rough being raised by Ma, with all of the issues that swirled around her life all the time. I'm sure you must have heard. But I would be lying if I didn't say that I was, and to a great extent, still am, disappointed at the fact that you apparently didn't feel it was necessary for you to be around at least when I was born,....

                                {Love at first sight by TheOpenPalette}
        ....and then to stay available to me growing up, if not be in my life on some sort of regular basis.
   It would have been nice to have your phone number and be able to have called you when I unfortunately was being abused by different people, or when I fell in love for the first time and got my heart terribly broken.
        I would love to have had your input on the major decisions I had to make in my life, and for you to have met my husband, Jeff. He's a great man and an even better person. He takes good care of me.I'm sad we couldn't have had a conversation about him and I the day I got married. I used to imagine us on that day, in the back room somewhere, right before we went down the aisle, with you asking me: "Do you really love him?" and me smiling at you and saying something like: "Don't worry Dad! He loves me!"
      Did you ever wonder about me over the years?! Did you try to contact Ma?! I know it might have been hard if you did because....WHEW!....we moved around a lot!! Did you ever get a picture of me?! Ma says she sent one to a friend of yours when I was born, but she says she never heard from you after that, so she didn't know whether you got it or not.
   I don't want to start talking about Ma. Even though there sure is a lot of questions I have about you and her that I wish I could find out the answers to! Like, did you love her?! Did you ever see her when she was in the later stages of her pregnancy with me?! Did you really leave her as soon as you found out that she was pregnant?! Probably none of my business. I can respect that. But it still doesn't stop me from wondering. :-)
   I am in my 50s now. No longer a little kid waiting on the edge of the driveway, looking at every driver that passes by in a car and wondering: "Is that my father?"

                                           {Daddy's Love by StephanieGuajardo}
        Your wife sent me pictures of you some years back. You were handsome. Not Elvis or Little Joe, ^_^ but pretty good-looking for an average guy! :-) I cried the first time I saw your picture because it was the first time I ever looked into anyone's face and saw myself so clearly there! I could see my cheek bones, and my smile. Even the little moles you had on your face were just like mine! WOW! Aren't genes something?!
    I know you had 2 kids with your wife before I was conceived, and 2 after you went back to her. Boy, girl and boy, girl. I saw the picture of your youngest daughter, my sister...*strange to say*. She looks like me too! I've never met or even talked to any of them, but I hope to do that one day. They're still trying to work some things out about me. Like why you never even told them that you had another daughter. I guess I'm trying to work that out myself. I've gone through a lot emotionally over the years just trying to work that out! I still don't have all of the answers, but I'm no longer in pain about it either. I guess time really does heal some wounds.
   Here's what I need to tell you. Whether you knew about me or not, I have always known about you! And the knowledge of you caused me great happiness. You were my refuge when things were bad, my port in a storm...and there were lots of storms! But because of you I could always say to myself: "If my dad were here things would be different!"

                                            {Dads Helper....by VickieWadeFineArt}
       Like little kids do when they don't know the whole story, I loved you anyway! I figured that if you didn't come back it probably had something to do with my mother! I never thought it was about me...In all honesty, I probably should have, but I never did! But I did think that if I made myself the best little girl in the whole world you'd be able to find me somehow and everything would then be perfect! Well, I was the best little girl in the world....you didn't come back and find me....and everything wasn't perfect. And that's the way life goes.
    I may never meet you, and this may be the only letter I ever write you, so I want you to know that while my childhood was really bad, the rest of my life has been really good! Jeff and I have been together for more than 30 years. Unfortunately, we didn't have children, and I didn't get the chance to show a little girl what it should be like to be loved by a parent whose always there.
    But I have shown that love to every little girl and every little boy I've come in contact with throughout my life. I think you would have been proud of me. I don't want to hurt you by saying this, but I felt that they deserved to be loved unconditionally by someone,...everyone,....in their vicinity, to make up for any love they missed by a parent not being there for them when they needed them to be. And since there were no kids of our own, Jeff and I also showered all kinds of love on each other. It made up for it...kinda. :-]
      As to me, I love music,...all kinds,...and I sing a bit too. I was almost the lead singer in a couple of groups when I was younger even! Now I just sing to Jeff and my congregation. I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and a Bible teacher. I've had many students over the years that I have watched raise their children in loving environments. I've often wondered what kind of family ours would have been if I had 2 parents growing up in a house full of love for God and each other.
      I love to read, talk, and write poetry. I wrote a book about my life that I may try to get published one day...Don't worry. I wasn't TOO hard on you! ^_^ Honestly, I could be here all day trying to tell you about all the things that make up ME! I'll spare you. I'll save it for the day we meet...Yes, I believe it will happen!
   Saying goodbye right now is going to be kind of hard. So, before I do, I'll say something else that I need to say...I love you...and I always will.

                               {Fathers hold their daughter's hearts by ImagesofHope}
      I'll carry your genes with pride and try my best to make you proud of the woman that I have, and will, become. Maya Angelou, one of my favorite poets, once said that 'people do what they know how to do, and when they learn better, they do better'. I hope that after you read this letter you say to yourself that if given another chance you would 'do better'. I believe you would. If given the chance to have the baby girl I always wanted for myself and to do the best I could for her, I would have. Somehow with your genes in me, I know without you saying it, that you would. I think that you and I would have been great friends...Dad.
    Until we meet, your daughter, Deb

My Baby Girl

To the little girl
that I never had,
when I think of you
it makes me sad.

All the years
that I missed;
Your little forehead
I could have kissed.

Watching your eyes
when I breast fed;
Reading you stories
when you went to bed.

How the words
would've run like water
off my tongue,
just to call you "daughter"!

Tucking you in,
with your "Teddy Bear";
Changing your diapers,
combing your hair.

Sharing secrets,
when you could talk;
Watching you pull yourself
up to walk.

The first time you
would eat solid food;
Your first baby pictures,
in the nude.

How I now wish
I had not been afraid,
and let all of my
opportunities fade.

I might well have been
a good mother;
And who knows-
You might have had a brother!

I could have walked you to school
on your first day;
You could have learned to cook.
I would have taught you the way.

You could have played with dad
(Too rough for me!)
I could have watched you sing
with dad-off key.

Oh-The many things
I could have taught her,
my little baby girl,
my child-my daughter.

But-is it too late now,
for that endeavor?
Who knows-(God willing
I won't be childless forever.)

Just the thought of it,
my heart it warms,
that one day I'll hold
my baby girl in my arms;

Or maybe one day
it will be
a baby boy
looking up at me.

But naming a boy 'Alanise'
would not be kind.
That name is for the baby girl
of my heart and mind.

And I'll hold her close
one day.(I just know it!)
But until then,
I'm just a baby girl poet.

Other letters:
1.) "Say What You Need To Say" A letter to my mother by Cindy at CinLynnBoutique 
2.) Today is 'Say what you need to say' Day by Velma of  SnowFlakeDreams1
3.) three: the one we forgot by Hollie at the blog  And baby makes three

Is There Truly 'No Place Like Home'?!...No Place?!

   This was a photo on the blog Twenty-Ten Fotos the other day. Between this photo and a question that was asked of me yesterday, on the blog Honey from the Bee, I really got to thinking about places that I would love to visit or some day call home.
    This balcony is in downtown Croatia. (I think, anyway). I would love to go grocery shopping and then have to come back home to this! It looks like such a great place to live in. And I could see my hubby, just like Romeo in "Romeo and Juliette", yelling up at me from the street: "Where fore art thou, Puddles?!!" {Puddles is my nickname...Okay, so I cried at everything when we were first married. Puddles of tears,...even for commercials on T.V.!! ^_^}

     Just looking regularly at her photos of Croatia makes me think it would be a great place to live! The above photo is a little resting place a little ways away from the Roman ruins near Split Croatia, in Solin,...(I think). You can read the full blog post, which has lots of other photos on the blog Croatia-Motherhood and my daily adventures of living overseas. This got me to thinking...could I live overseas?!...I don't know about that. I'm the kind of girl that loves the familiar. Even though this certainly looks like a beautiful place! Her little daughter Beli certainly loves it!
     The question that Janet asked me was: "If you could take a trip anywhere in the world, where would you go and what would you want to see and/or experience?" You can go HERE, down in the comments section, and see my answer to this, and 3 other questions she asked me. But for sure wherever I called home would have to have good food, a good place to buy yarn or crochet thread, colorful flowers, and good music! Not to mention water and breath-taking scenery!
    And around this time of the year any place in the Northeast of the United States would probably be a good place to call home. You can see what I mean in this photo of the Bronx River, in New York, taken recently by Cathy of the blog Artsy Butterfly.

    She has some wonderful memories connected to this area and the Bronx Zoo. You can read the rest of the post HERE. I would love living here, I think. But maybe not all year round. Just in the Fall...My tastes as to dwelling places would have to be...what shall I say....comfortable. I need to have all of the comforts of home...and then some! Number one place to call home?!

    Hawaii!! What's not to love about this place?! Sunrises and sunsets to die for, food, the ocean, flowers, music, and friendly people!! I might have a bit of a problem with people needing crocheted items...but I can always ship them off to somewhere else!! ^_^
    And then again......I think the expression is true. There really is 'No Place like Home'. Especially for me. What would I do without the Connecticut river...

     ...and my backyard?! :-)

    Even in the dark there's always something going on around here! I bet Mr. Skunk is thinking just like me, that no matter how many places you can really love visiting or vacationing in, there's really 'No Place Like Home'!!...No Place!! ^_^

}Remember, tomorrow will be "Say What You Need To Say" Day! If you want to do it too, use the words 'Say What You Need To Say' in your blog post title. I'll link your blog letter to mine. Have fun! You can be honest, but nothing mean-spirited please! :-)

 Home

The place where I am at my best.
A place of calm and peace and rest.

The place from which I never roam.
'Cause it's in my heart, this place called home!

I'm In The Dark...Are You?!

    Well, it's November....and Mariann has given us another beautiful Calendar to put on our computer desktops for FREE! Isn't that nice of her?! Just follow the link to her Nature and Photography Blog to download it! And PLEASE leave her a comment to let her know how much you appreciate all of the work she goes through to give it to us...Or a little donation, if you like. {That's not required though.}
    With it being so dark and gloomy earlier in the evening...and later in the morning too, here in Massachusetts....it's nice to be able to have this warm and cozy calendar to look at. When I'm trapped inside the house with it too dark to even look outside at the backyard, at least I'll have this nice image to keep me company. All I'll need to do is get me some warm apple cider or some cocoa to sip on....and let the dark times come! :-]
    Okay.........so I'm a little bit delusional, and overly optimistic about how cozy I'm going to be in the DARK!! UGH! It's only November 1st and I'm already sick of it! ^_^ It's almost 7 a.m. right now and it's STILL dark outside!!

     I'm sure people are up, even in the dark, getting ready for work, stirring the kids from their drowsiness so they can eat and get ready for school...

     ....getting out of their pajamas and putting on their sneakers, {I call them tennis shoes. Hmmmm...wonder why?! ^_^}....getting ready to go out for their morning jog, or to give the dog a little walk around the block, heading just down the street to 'Dunkin Donuts' to grab a mocha latte doo da doo da {Okay, so I don't really drink fancy coffees, but I have heard the words mocha latte put together with some other words behind it. Ha! Ha!...I like to say the words Mocha latte. I'll say them again...Mocha latte!! ^_^ Of course when I hear it it makes me think of music,....that 'Lady Marmalade' song! NOT GOOD! UGH!....It's so dark I'm going nuts!! LOL...Back to my list-->} ...or just doing some newspaper deliveries...

     ...taking a little ride on the interstate to clear their head and think about what they're going to do when the sun finally comes up!

    It IS going to come back up again..........isn't it?!!! LOL
    Well, there's one person who is no longer going to be in the dark. The winner of my afghan Giveaway!! :-) Wanna know who won?!.......*Insert 'The sun will come up tomorrow' song here, while you wait*.........
     Hubby is my "Picker". He shook up the box......Then he stirred up the papers.....Then he shook it up again. And then.........*he really needs some lotion on those ashy hands of his!*........

      ......the winner is mythreebeez!!!!

    It's going to cost me a little bit to get it to her all the way in the United Kingdom, but I'm glad to have my "baby" travel to a part of the world that I have never been! And knowing that her interests include yarn, buttons, eating chocolate, photography, country music {especially Vince Gill}, and reading blogs makes it all the more my pleasure to send it to her!!! :-)
     The next Giveaway, followers, starts immediately. The drawing will be on November 15th. I haven't decided what the prize will be yet. If you have some preferences...you know what I got!! ^_^...let me know.
    Over the weekend I did the rough draft of my "Say What You Need To Say" Letter for Wednesday. My plans for today include tweaking it a little...just a little...and getting it ready to "cut" and "Paste" for Wednesday. Also I'm going to really get a good start on the Winter White {or Off White} Floppy hat I'm making for a customer. I've never made a completely white hat out of my soft yarn before. I'm looking forward to it! Who knows..... if it gets dark early enough I may finish it! {I'd rather be looking down at a crochet project than out the window at the darkness now anyway!!}
    {The poem today was about a very different kind of dark period in my life. Forgive the really personal nature of it, but I hope someone can relate and my darkness gives them some comfort. On a good note, my life is very much in the light now!! :-)}

Darkness-See!

Darkness was my friend.
My cloak of invisibility;
When Mama came home drunk,
it worked, so, she would not see me.

Darkness gave me food-
(The kind that only feeds the mind.
The kind that tells you all is well,
because all bad is left behind).

Darkness was my water;
A peaceful trickling I could drink
when Mama was in a bad mood
and talked so much I couldn't think.

Darkness kept me safe-
protected from her nightly stare,
when it seemed the world was cold
and there was no one there to care.

Darkness was my home-
The softest place I had to fall,
when my sisters and my brothers
were too young to heed my call.

Now, Darkness is my memory-
my slow journey toward the light.
One day soon our paths will part
and confusion will be "sight".

Darkness-Then-will reveal all.
Pain and sorrow will have passed;
and all things "right" will comfort me-
I'll be in the light at last!