Random Acts of Kindness

Just when I think my head is about to explode from the multiple angles of stress being aimed at me from work, family and life in general; a couple of friends bring me a random act of kindness. The act consisted of a nice visit, hugs, emotional venting and a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses and day lilies.

Sometimes when you're on the edge of your sanity and you know that any moment could be your nervous breakdown someone who cares notices and decides to throw you a lifeline. That's what happened to me yesterday; two friends threw me a lifeline. A very much needed and appreciated lifeline. Thanks, Tama and Kathy. Remember to share random acts of kindness when you can.

And you thought you had a bad day...

A gentleman was riding his horse this weekend, as he usually did most weekends, when it bucked him off and he fell to the ground; hard. Adding the classic insult to injury, his horse then decided to STEP on his groin! I guess he didn't feel like giving any rides this weekend. This gentleman couldn't even lie completely flat on his back or straighten his legs without a great deal of pain. I was driving at the time so I didn't see the level of physical damage and even if I had writing about that kind of private trauma on a blog wouldn't be appropriate; even if the privacy laws didn't exist. No, some things just should remain in the imagination. Unfortunately for him it was very real.

work, work, work...work, work, work- hello boys!

I haven't had much time to blog this week. I've been busy at work, taking another continuing education class and making more jewelry for my shop and upcoming fairs. To the left is my latest necklace; trimmed peacock feather with all sterling silver and swarovski crystals on a braided black satin cord. It looks even nicer in person!

At least it's been an easy week on the ambulance. By easy I mean a lot of transports that consist solely of medical taxi rides. You place the patient on the stretcher, load and hook them up to the automatic blood cuff. You ask a lot of personal questions then chill out for 15 minute ride to the hospital. No muss, no fuss, easy shmesy way to earn a living. And I got to sleep most of the night last night. It may sound a bit boring but you learn to be grateful for boring shifts because you next several probably won't be and if things are exciting for medics then they're really bad for the public.

I've also gotten several details worked out with The Terrace in Clear Lake for an upcoming Craft Show I'm organizing for local artisans. It's on Sept 26 and we're all getting really excited about the event!

BTW- who got my reference to Blazing Saddles in the title?

EMS Continuing Education

What do I have planned for tomorrow you ask? Well, I get to wake up at 6am, drive to the opposite side of Houston and spend 10 hours in medical lectures. Whoopee! The upside is that they're going to feed me breakfast, lunch and a coffee/ice cream bar in the afternoon. Sounds tasty doesn't it? I'll need all that sugar and caffeine just to keep my eye lids open. As far as learning anything....hmmm....we'll see. At least I'm blessed with a scary-good memory and most of the time I tend to learn by osmosis. As long as I'm in ear shot and conscious enough info should filter into my cerebellum. Also, fortunately I tend to like to know things just for the sake of knowing it. Terrible curiosity...drives my friends and family crazy cause I'm always asking questions and watching boring science and education channels. (Not that I don't love watching pointless fluff, too!)

My new work area

My birthday was yesterday the big 3-9! And my hubbie, parents and in-laws all got together to buy me a new work/craft desk since I've making do with a dining room table. See this previous post. We moved everything into the study; previously known as the computer room. But we've both converted to laptops with mobile broadband internet and since our desktop had become obsolete my hubbie asked me if I'd like to turn the study into my new craft/work room. Hell ya! It also houses large bookcases with tons of books from every genre, etc. But almost half of the room will now be entirely devoted to my work. See that great new table in the left pic? It also inclines forward to faciliate my artwork and lies flat for jewelry and other crafts. It has built in drawers and organization trays, too! I just got it yesterday so I haven't had too much time to try it out yet but I'm sure it'll be great. It's an Alvin Craftmaster II just in case you're interested.

My first Blog Giveaway! Let's Play!

This is my first blog giveaway! I was going to do it for my one year anniversary of starting my business in August but since I'm starting to feel so much better I decided to go ahead and do it now. My poll showed that most people preferred a bracelet or ring as a prize so I'm going with bracelet.

The bracelet pictured is an example of the type that will be the prize. The actual prize is a CUSTOM bracelet in this style with or without feathers. I used artistic silver plated wire with Swarovski crystals and a silver plated clasp with adjustable sizing links. If you win you get to pick the color and size of the bracelet and you get to choose either non tarnish silver plated or non tarnish brass wire for a gold look. If you decide to include feathers, be aware that while I have numerous colors/sizes in stock some colors/sizes may be limited or unavailable. Let me know what you prefer and I will do my best to match it.

The Rules:

1) Go to my artfire shop Feathered Friends Mementos, pick your favorite item and post a comment about it here. That earns you 1 entry!

2) Post about my giveaway on your blog/twitter/plurk/ etc and post a comment here with a link to that post and that earns you 2 entries!

3) Buy something from my shop and that earns you 3 entries! Woohoo!

FYI- you can do any combo of the above, only one comment entry allowed and multiple entries allowed by posting with a link in a comment or purchasing.

This giveaway will run from today June 15 until July 15. Then I'll randomly draw a name and announce the winner the next morning! Yippee!

I'm going to post a separate link to this post at on the upper right hand corner of my blog and keep this post up for a few days before a update again.

Thanks for all the support and follows! I hope this will be fun and can't want to see who wins!

Teresa Mallen's June Newsletter - I'm featured!

Okay, enough of the icky news of my life! Here's some good news for a change.

This is Teresa Mallen and she has featured me in the June issue of her Colored Pencil Newsletter! Teresa always has great advice about art, especially colored pencil and loves discovering new artists and their work. She has her Newsletter which is primarily for members (which is free to sign up) and her blog which has loads of great info and advice and links to her website and newsletters. She also offers art classes for those of you in the Ottawa area. A bit to far for me - but they sound like fun! Take a few minutes and read about me on her feature and if you like read about some of the other great artists that she's featured in the past. Loads of talented people out there with plenty of beautiful work to admire.

Brand New Week

So I'm almost back to normal! The constipation has finally resolved and my guts are nearly back to normal. Eating normal foods but staying away from sodas and anything to acidic right now and eating lots of small meals and resting. Lots of resting! My incision site didn't hurt before because it was overwhelmed with the other pain but now it's really stinging and burning and I have to be cautious how I move but it's slowly improving as well. I can tell that my body is overtaxed with recovery from the surgery, the complications and of course the anemia. I only have so much blood to go around to all these reasons and I have to keep my activity level very low otherwise I bring on more malaise and feel really awful for most of the day. 4.5 more weeks until I'm back to work so I'm trying to take advantage of everyday that I can to build my strength.

I'm hoping to make some more jewelry this week and list a few pieces since my shops are starting to look a bit barren.

I almost didn't survive!

Okay, so I haven't posted in several days because I've been dealing with complications of my surgery. I tried doing everything right but my guts just didn't like surgery and I had severe constipation start on Monday, the day after I was discharged. I'm doing much better now, not quite normal but no longer in severe pain. I've barely eaten or slept since Monday and spent several hours in the ER receiving treatment Tuesday night. I was a stone's throw from obstruction, (shudder) but fortunately intensive laxatives, etc finally worked and the worst in over now. My system has been completely and utterly cleaned out! I'm currently eating plain cooked potatoes (without the skins), crackers, plain pasta and lots and lots of water!

I've experienced kidney stones, migraines and other high levels of pain and I must say that this is definitely in the top three most painful experiences I've ever lived through. And I hope to never repeat this for the rest of my life!

I survived!

That's right I made it through the surgery without any problems. I also got to keep my ovaries, woohoo! Although my dr. found fibroid like growths throughout my ovaries. She strongly doesn't think they're cancerous but they're were biopsied to find out exactly whats going on with them. I'll hopefully find out more about my ovaries tomorrow. But for now they're functioning normally and I get to keep them.

Today is my first day home. I was discharged about lunchtime and have been chilling out at my house since then. I'm really, really tired and really, really sore and all I want to do right now is as little as possible.

Womens' Hospital took really good care of me for 3. 5 days and think I'm going to have an uneventful recovery. Thanks again to everyone for all the prayers, support and well wishes. It's easier knowing that others are out there thinking positive thoughts for me.Thanks so much!

Final Countdown!

That's right, in just over 12 hours I'll be checking into Womens' Hospital of Texas for my surgery tomorrow. I'm anxious about the results but not the actually surgery. I'm ready to get this chapter of my life over!

Of course, after tonight I won't be able to post for a few days. And even if I could I'll be so drugged up who knows what I would write, LOL! As soon as I'm able to get online I will post to let everyone know that I'm still alive and kicking. Well, probably not kicking for a few weeks but maybe moaning or some such activity.

Meanwhile, for your reading pleaseure, two more of my articles are submitted to Handmadenews.org. One about care and prevention of tendonitis for crafters and Part II of my Obsessive Crafter series. They're probably be publised sometime this week.

Meanwhile, take care and I'll talk to ya soon!

Are You an Obsessive Crafter?

Take the quiz and found out if you have the symptoms of obsession!

Lots of sales!

Who would ever think it? The last couple of weeks I've made several sales both in my Artfire and Etsy shops. What's funny is that I haven't had time to list much and I haven't bothered promoting my shops because I've been so busy with Handmade News and plain old energy conservation because of my medical condition and my surgery in 2.5 days.

So just when you start to place your energies elsewhere, bammo! Things start picking up. Handmade News is exciting and I know that I've had several references to my Artfire shop from my articles. This makes me very interested to continue writing for them, however, it's a lot of time and energy and I'm not sure how long I'll be able to maintain this schedule. I'm hoping that my recovery will allow me to regain my old energy levels and this will no longer be a concern.

Now it's hurry up and wait time.

What a week!

I spend all day yesterday pre oping for my surgery next week. I got to have my blood drawn, poked, prodded and taken for hundreds of dollars; and I haven't even had the surgery yet! Another wonderful aspect - the pills are so strong that I've been nauseated for days as if I were pregnant and now the bleeding has started getting heavier again. Sigh...even my doctor said, "It's almost over, just another week." That's right the countdown is: 5 days! Surgery time is 1:30 pm. I appreciate everyone's support and prayers and I will give updates as I can.

On the happier side of things, my Star Trek Quiz is the #3 most viewed article on Handmade News right now and ranked in the top ten most popular! As of this morning it has over 580 hits in less than 5 days! Thanks everyone that has stopped by to check it out and I hope you enjoyed the quiz. While it's mainly for fun I dis my best to make it as coherent and accurate as possible. I love sci-fi and have seen every Star Trek episode and movie. I attempted to incorporate my knowledge of the series and if you're a fan as well you probably caught the in-jokes that I added. If not then one of them was Kirk's favorate color green since one of the big Kirk jokes is that he had relationship with a green woman during one episode, LOL!

Have a great Memorial weekend!

Star Trek Craft Personlity Quiz

My most popular article yet! It's a 5 question quiz designed to discover which Star Trek Craft Personality you would be.

Star Trek Quiz

It's quick, easy and fun!

A soap maker's commitment to chemical-free purity.

I recommend that you read Jackie's post about her commitment to chemical-free soap. She has several important personal revelations regarding soap/chemicals and I respect her decision to remain chemical-free even though I sure it increases her costs.

2 Virgos Designs blog - soap maker extraordinaire

PS Her Knights Templar soap smells so nice and it makes my whole master bathroom smell wonderful. It's so pretty I'm careful about using the front painted area so that it remains pretty longer. ;o)

Want to know the difference between truth and accuracy?

Years of writing professional medical reports has given me an appreciation for the difference between truth and accuracy. Read about at Handmade News!

Truth and Accuracy: What's the difference?

Star Trek 2009 Movie Review

Only one word echoes in my mind when I think of the new Star Trek movie: AWESOME! Nearly everyone loves Star Trek and the new film is sure to gain a large, new following in the youngest generation.

To start, the running time is just over two hours. Long enough to get in all the important details but not so long that everyone is avoiding a bathroom break. The special effects are incredible, believable and spectacular enough to amaze without detracting from the story or characters. The story line is well thought out, well paced and throws a new twist into the classic Star Trek franchise that opens up future movie opportunities without undermining the core of the original series.

The most important aspect that I’m sure gave the director, J.J. Abrams, the most concern, was the casting. I can’t stress enough what an amazing job all the leading actors accomplished. In my opinion they all stayed true to the original characters’ manners of speech, personality quirks and physical appearance while updating them for a 21^st century generation. Have no doubt that this first installment of the new Star Trek series is not your dad’s or your granddad’s Star Trek but it is the same amazing crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise “boldly going where no man has gone before”.

Do you love your Blackberry? Me, too!

My newest article is posted at Handmade News. It's called Why I love my Crack-er Blackberry. It's short and fun and won't take much of your time, lol!
And yes, I'm totally pimping my articles!

Long Week

What a long week! Hours and hours of separating files is the MOST exciting activity ever! UGH! 6 more working days, cause I get Memorial Day off, then surgery time. This will be the first holiday I get off like a normal person in over 15 years. It's a little weird to be working 8 to 5 hours. I haven't done this schedule since I was 22 years old. My entire life is centered around a 24 hours on/48 hours off schedule. It's difficult to adjust to a normal week and in 2 weeks I won't have a work schedule at all while I recover for 6 weeks. By the time I'm back to normal I will have been off the truck for 4 months.

Geez, I'm not sure I'll remember how to be a paramedic! LOL!