Giveaway Alert…

Jenny over at Elefantz.com is having a giveaway! Check it out! (just click on the picture!)

Fungi…

Do you pintrest? I do. It’s amazing the things you can see on there! Things you wouldn’t normally stumble across unless your whole life is spent online.

I found a darling, and new to me, pincushion tutorial that I thought I would share with you. Aimee Ray over at Little Deer Tracks shares it with us. While you’re there you should check out her other crafting goodies…they’re adorable!

Why “My Art, My So Called Life”

So Dawn over at Sweet as Cinnamon wants to know how some of us got the names for our blogs. She’s even offering a lovely gift for one of us to win if we participate by explaining ourselves! So here goes:

“My So Called Life” was a short lived show that ran for only one season in ‘94/’95. I was very disappointed when the show was cancelled. I was fascinated by the main character, Angela, played by Clair Danes. I don’t know why I identified with the character Angela. I never went through a rebellious stage in high school. I didn’t have an antagonistic relationship with my mother, but still I get something about the character. Maybe it’s her social awkwardness or the not knowing exactly how to define herself or what group she belongs in.

“It just seems like you agreed to have a certain personality or something. For no reason. Just to make things easier for everyone. But when you think about it, I mean, how do you even know it’s you? And, I mean, this whole thing with year book, it’s like, everybody’s in this big hurry to make this book, to supposedly remember what happens. It’s not even what really happens, it’s what everybody thinks is supposed to happen, because if you made a book of what really happened it’d be a really upsetting book.”

– Angela Chase “My So Called Life”

I honestly believe that most blogs are “books” about what we want people to think happens. If we truly told the day to day, boring, grinding, sometimes angry and annoying truth about ourselves…well…really, who would read out blogs? And seriously, anyone that would like to read that type of blog is not really someone we want to be friends with. We want to surround ourselves with people who exhibit the same personality traits that we ourselves show to people. When we see only perfect lives on blogs…they’re lying!  What we see is a “so called life” as it were. That’s the honest truth in my humble opinion.

The “My Art” part of my blog title is rather self explanatory. I like to show off my “art” in all it’s varied forms. I have had many different “so called lives” over the years when it comes to my arts and crafts.

For years I crocheted. I started crocheting when I was five and at my pinnacle, I made the most beautiful doilies and pretties. I think I was pretty good at it.

Next came cross stitch. I did that for years, made lovely large “paintings” with thread.

Then came beading. Probably the art that I have been the most skilled at. I ended up branching out from making beaded things to teaching others how to make beaded things. I helped my father to design a bead loom that he still sells and gets wonderful reviews from those who have one.

Now, I am a bit more eclectic with my art. I sew. Both by hand and by machine. I like to embellish what I have sewn with beads and embroidery. I have started to incorporate many of my skills into single pieces. I really like it as it adds an extra dimension to whatever I am working on.

So now y0u know why I have chosen the title I have for my blog. It’s all about my art and my so called life…the part I want to show you!

Terrible, terrible picture…

I know this is an awful picture but I wanted to show you what I have been working on lately.

This is a 20”x20” appliqued quilt block for my husbands niece. In my husband’s family, when someone gets married, they receive a quilt made up of blocks from whatever relatives wanted to participate. My niece wanted all fall colors. I wanted to do some applique. So that is how this block was born. I would have a better picture of it, but, as is par for the course for me, I left making it until the last minute and it had to be delivered tonight…so no natural light to take the picture by.

My hubby was so sweet to offer to drop it off at my in-laws after all the hard work I put into it.  

Christmas gifts…

Wouldn’t these darling bath bombs make great Christmas gifts? I see some of these in my future!

Go visit Little Birdie Secrets to get the tutorial!

I have a secret…

…a Ghastlie secret!

I am going to be participating in a blog hop that will happen from October 24-28th and October 31- November 4th.

Its all based on a common love of Alexander Henry’s “Ghastlie” material line.

These are just a few peeks at this awesome material.

As part of the blog hop, you will get to see lots of awesome projects made with this fabric. I already have two thing done to show you and have one more special one to do. You will find giveaways and tutorials and eye candy…so please stop by and check it out!

October is around the corner…

I know that I have been MIA a lot this summer. My summer has been incredibly busy! I’ve definitely been living my life on fast forward.

It will soon be October and as we all know (or should) it will be Breast Cancer Awareness month. Some of you know that my stepsister Kathy passed away just over a year ago from breast cancer.  Well, now I have another story to share with you.

We all know that we are supposed to check our breasts for lumps on a monthly basis, ideally in the shower, but how many of us actually do it?  Many of us go through life, not unlike our children do, thinking that it can’t happen to us…”it’s not in my family history, so it isn’t something to worry about.”  WRONG!!!

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer this past July and I want to share her story with you.

One day, while showering, my mother found a lump in her upper breast.  Now for the women in my family, this is not such an unexpected occurrence. You see, my grandmother, mother and I have fibrocystic breasts. This means, for us, that we form cysts in our breast tissue. They are benign, but can become uncomfortable so we go off to the doctor and have the cysts drained. No big deal, not fun by any means, but not life threatening. Most women with this have a cessation of it in their 50’s, when menopause is complete.

My mother is 65 and hasn’t had a problem with them for a while. When she found this one, it felt different to her than what we usually have experienced. For starters, it was up high, right above what we think of as breast tissue. Secondly, it didn’t hurt. That can be a big warning signal, fibroids are usually uncomfortable at the very least.

Off she went to the doctor, who decided that it needed to be removed. The next week, he removed it and sent it to be tested. It came back positive for two different types of slow growing breast cancer. The doctor had my mom back in the next week to remove more tissue and also check her lymph nodes. Needless to say we were all on pins and needles waiting for the results to come back.

When the results did came back we were over-joyed to find out that everything looks clear. Her lymph nodes are clear and a bone scan showed no signs of cancer anywhere else.  As a precaution, my mom is now getting radiation treatments. She is also taking a medication to reduce the estrogen she has in her system.  Estrogen feeds cancer…it’s like candy to it.  My mother is very proactive and has said on many occasion, she will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t come back and that she is around for many, many years. We were very lucky.

Because the mammogram my mother had back in October of last year didn’t show any signs of the lump, we are telling every woman we know…check up high!

I made a drawing for you based on where my mother’s lump was located…CHECK THERE!!! If we can help one woman find something that would have otherwise been missed, there will have been some purpose to this rollercoaster ride we have been on. Tell your mothers, sisters, daughters…everyone you know.

…no, I’m not giving up my day job…and no… it’s not a self portrait or a drawing of my mom…we should be so skinny!!! Ha-ha!