Sad news today

Well I hate to spoil Amy's special day, but my aunt just called me to tell me that my uncle died. He had been ill for some time and Thursday a lot of family members went for a prayer vigil with the priest. I was honored to be there and be able to hold my uncle's hand and talk to him, even though he couldn't respond. We knew it was only a matter of days and Brenda called in a panic for me to come home early and when I got home on Friday, there was nothing for me to do. My immune system is already weak and my blood sugar shot up to 222 from 60 yesterday at dad's. The dr told me it was a combination of my meds and stress, so now I know where to stress comes from. There is nothing we can do until Monday because the contractors aren't coming back till Monday to install the window and door and the alarm system won't be finished until Monday. I was not supposed to return here until Sunday, so now it will cost us more than $70 in gas to return again.
My cousin told me that my aunt laid in the bed with my Uncle and fell asleep and then a couple of hours later, he died peacefully and without pain. When I would rub his feet, his eyes would open so we knew he was aware of things around him, so everyone kept talking to him, telling him everything was going to be okay. He was such a sweet old man and now I know he is at peace and free from pain in his heart.

Please keep my Aunt Dee, Uncle TJ, and their family in your prayers. They say deaths come in 3s, so now it's just another worry for me about my dad who is in congestive heart failure and full blown diabetes. I had to laugh Friday morning because Dad almost pushed me out the house so he could go get his cabbage plants-lol-he was hoping I could have stayed the rest of the weekend, but he understood that Brenda needed help, only she didn't. I had already let her know that when Uncle TJ was gone, I was going back. Aunt Dee is her godmother, but she is going to her husband's cousin's funeral on Sunday instead, so I will have to give her regrets for her.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Amy I hope your weekend is great and that your special day was fantastic. Sorry that I was late with it, but I had no connection in the country where dad lives----just the sound of crickets and frogs and a beautiful full moon with a sky filled with stars. Hugs, everyone, Pat

Today is Amy Day

Today Is Amy Day Today is a Special Day for Amy. I met Amy through Mary at Isabella's Closet and Amy had become my inspiration to fight. I have never met her, but I feel I have known her forever and am following her journey through Breat Cancer. She is a beautiful inspiration to all women who have or could have Breast Cancer. She has a wonderful site, etsy shop and web site and she has shared her journey with us. When I look at her, I see an angel in disguise---don't you know angels have no hair! She is beautiful on the outside as well as the inside. I have laughed with her, cried with her, and cursed with her, but I know that she is going to come through this an even more beautiful person than she already is. God puts people into our lives whether we meet them in person or just through cyber space for a reason and as Amy and some know, Amy was sent to me for a reason and she gives me strenght to face whatever comes my way now. She has the beauty of Venus, the strength of Samson, and the spirit of God Almighty in her and for that I will never forget her.

Amy you have shown me what courage is what you make it and you certainly have lots of it. If this dreadful disease should ever face me, I will only have to read your journel to give me the courage and the strength to fight it. Even though some days you feel like you took 1 step forward and 2 steps back, remember at the end, you get to skip lots of steps and you will look back at this and say "I am a survivor"

So if any of you reading this want to read about Amy and about the wonderful courageous person she is and an example for all women, go to her bloghttp://foursistersinacottage.blogspot.com/ and say a prayer for her.

Amy thanks for sharing your journey with all of us. I hereby crown you Mrs. Pink Queen forever. Prayers and Hugs, Pat

Bad blogger

Well I am a bad blogger. I have been working on things, but I am at my former home packing up Christmas things to bring to my apt. Had some trees to undecorate and pack for the move. I only have room for a tree in my bedroom part and a small one on the corner desk ---which will be my Wizard of Oz collection and I will decorate my kitchen in gingerbreads. Glad Brenda is going to let me store the boxes in her garage until I can get a good storage building. My holiday closet is 8x12 and I really don't want to get rid of my collection of each holiday until I know how much can be used when the addition is done. I may change my mind and put up my Red Hat tree also if I can make room for it.

I have no new pictures of the shop, but it's just about ready for moving things in. Brenda has put up the black velvet curtains for the dressing rooms and took a bench that was ruined from Katrina and painted it black and recovered it. Here she was telling me she couldn't do it and I knew she could and she did a great job. The dressing room area will be cleared on weekends because she wants to have tea parties there for little girls---and the mom's can shop while the party is going on. That was my idea and I'm glad she decided to do it. So now I am on the look out for party dresses at Goodwill and garage sales. Al could make the table and chairs for her, but she said he has too many other important things to do, so she is going to buy some pink and purple ones---if not, we will spray paint them.

We are going to Atanta on the 13th to Market and the business is paying my ticket and hotel. I can't wait to show ya'll the beautiful clothes, jewelry, and purses she has gotten in already. She also will have used clothes, hence the name The Old, The New, and The Beautiful. Only name brand clothes and we have found some wonderful things for that area. She decided to order 2 full body manequins beside the headless ones. She got some jewelry from a girl from Italy and they are so beautiful. There are people from all over the world selling their goods at Market and I get to pick some gifts out for the shop. She said I will go crazy when I see all the things there---there are 3 buildings with about 7 floors each, but she knows which she will go to first from her previous trip.

I am hoping to meet one of my MSN group friends, so that will be an added treat.

For those that know me, you will only get to see last years Christmas tour, except for my kitchen. I will post my Christmas blog when I finish with it, Then you will know how bipolar I really am-lol. I really want to do an "adult" tree, so it will have to be the one in Brenda's shop. 80% of my ornaments are Hallmark---have been collecting since 1980 and I have different theme trees---snowmen, santas, angels, family tree, gingerbreads, nativity, Charlie Brown, Wizard of Oz just to name a few. I have always admired the beautiful pinks, silver, gold, and red trees, but have never done one. I do have a Red Hat tree(white) that I really like.

Well hoping everyone will visit---guess I have to get busy and make some eye candy as it's very boring here right now. Wishing you all a wonderful day.

I've been tagged

Okay, I've been tagged by Nettie from Australia and after I list my answers, I will tag someone else and you just copy and paste on your blog, then tag someone else.

This is apparently a NEW tag that is going on in Blog land...

1. FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED? I've lived in the same state of Louisiana, but in Jennings, Crowley, New Orleans, and Gramercy

2. FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION? Wyoming, New York, Branson, Missouri, Vancouver, Washington

3. FOUR OF MY FAVOURITE FOODS? Salads, Mexican food, shrimp, crabs

4. FOUR PLACES I'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW? With my x, with my dad, with my children, on a quiet lake

Change my answers & replace with your own answers...& TAG someone else

I now tag Jackie at Inspriration Creation

Update on Brenda's shop

Well I am a huge Duh! today. I guess I should check my own post as I seen I had already posted the canvas. Now I know I need to get back to work and clear the fog that has now enveloped my brain---not that it hasn't been there for some time-lol. So this is a new update on the shop. I didn't go tonight because they were cleaning up and that's something I can't do and the dust would have killed me. I can't wait to get in and start decorating it. I hope I do it justice. It has to stay Chic, so I have to throw the country out of my thinking. We are going with black, touches of red and pink---she got black velvet curtains for the dressing rooms. I get to go to Atlanta to Market next month with her and you should see the clothes that have come in already---awesome, but sure wish my boobs weren't so big so I could wear some of them. The coconut purses are to die for. Brenda wants me to set up a blog with pictures of the store, but I told her she needs a web site and that I don't know how to do. So anyone reading this, if you do web sites. email me and give me a price for her. The shop is very large for a boutique, but we have so much stuff I am worried that it won't all fit.

Smooch you would love Market, as Brenda described it for me. She is allowed to bring guests who can pick clothes out and get them at wholesale prices, so I am hoping to find some things for big boob petites for my 5'1" figure-lol. So here is the newest picture of the painted shop---please ignore the mess. This is looking to the back of the shop---the double doors are Brenda's office and the wall jutting out is the 3 dressing rooms.

The next picture is facing the front of the shop. The new window and door should be in this week and the alarm system put in. All the register stuff and phone lines are in, and the register will automatically do the bar scans so inventory will be easy.

These are the dressing rooms that will have black velvet curtains and we had to make one of them to fit a wheelchair. So now it's just a matter of putting it all together, if they got the carpet clean---they waited to put the plastic down after putting in the drywall.

I did a little crafting

Well don't want to bore you, but I have been a little down for the last month. I talk to my dad in the morning and he just sounds so lonely and then I cry the minute I get off the phone. What do you tell someone you love so much, he has never been alone for 62 years. My younger sister, by the way is the one in the blue jean shorts, (I am the red head on the left of my dad) is taking my dad to Texas to spend a couple of days with his baby sister and go to the Casino. Hope you win Dad.

Anyway, I did do 2 projects, one I can't show yet, as it goes in the mail in the morning and then I wanted to play around with a canvas I got from mom's things and made my little niece an altered canvas for her new room. I misunderstood her because she wanted a 12" wooden puzzle piece that Al makes in her room colors, so now I have to work on that. But she likes the canvas, so it's just an extra surprise for her. I really wanted to go wild with it, but she is putting some of her friends pictures on it, so had to leave room. Now I have to do a pink and purple one for her little sister.

Lots of work going on

Now just look at these colors---this is what my little bathroom looked like before we primed and painted. Although I really like red, this was not my favorite place to be, but it has been re done with what we had and bought a few things. The cabinets are just utility cabinets for now as they serve the purpose, but will be changed one day.

Here is the after shots of the same room.

As you can see the shower is still un tiled, so trips into Brenda's house are required and then I have to change again, because I don't like walking around my bil in my jammies.

I chose the colors black, white, and silver because I wanted something

different than what I was used to---country for 20 years.

I was hoping we could have put a bath in the double closet,

but a new water heater has taken that space---I still like

to soak every now and then. But I think with the new spa shower head, I will be able to sit on a shower stool and just let the water

relax me enough.

I am looking for a unique hanging lamp for over the mirror, so that will wait until I find the perfect one.

Now Brenda has boxes and boxes of tile that has been sitting for over

2 months and she is always too busy on the computer to start the job.

Did I tell you she's a procrastinator! But once she starts she doesn't know

when to stop. She hired someone to do her shop and it's coming along

just as slow, but that's because they have day jobs and work at night. Will post those pics later. I need to get the before shots from Brenda as I deleted them from my files.

A day of prayer

Today has always been a somber day for me since my son and his partner work in New York city. My phone kept ringing early in the morning and since I'm a late sleeper I ignored the ringing, until the 3rd time and something told me to answer the phone. It was my son calling and asking me to turn the tv on and when I did, I began to cry and asked where he was at. He didn't make it into the city because of the 1st plane hitting the tower. I watched in shock as the second plane hit and Donnie said he could not get in touch with Gerald, so for the most part of the day, I was able to call each of them, but they couldn't get through to each other. Gerald had just come out of Starbucks and they saw the second plane fly over and everyone had said that was too low and planes don't fly over the city. I felt helpless that I couldn't get there to be with my sons. The city was in lock down and no one could leave until around 7 that night when they cleared people to cross the river into New Jersey and other parts of New York. My son took a picture from across the street of his apt of the first tower on fire and the date on the picture is 9-10-01---he forgot to change the date. Gerald's 2 cousins were in medical school and went to ground zero and she took pictures all the way to the towers and we got to see pictures that were never published. She sent me some extra ones and to look at them and see how tiny the men working looked next to the rubble was unbelievable. At the time Donnie was working for Virgin Records in Times Square and he said Bryant Park was filled with flowers, pictures and candles. I have been to ground zero 3 times and it is always a somber feeling looking down in the pit that once held shops, parking garage and subway. I have gotten to see the progress of one of the smaller towers that is finished and can't wait to go in December.

Seeing the 30,000 plus names on boards on the fence surrounding ground zero brings tears to my eyes each time. Prayers to all the familes and friends of loved ones who are heroes in my book because they paid the ultimate price for a freedom we often take for granted. May you all rest in peace. God Bless America

Never forget

2nd post of the day

My little grand niece wanted an altered canvas, so I just took stuff I had around and from mom's things and did this for her, now the other nieces want one, so they have to wait for Christmas.

This is the outside of my apt and it shows how much will be added on. They are supposed to start next month, but I will believe it when I see it. I am starting to get antsy in 2 rooms and don't like my craft stuff in my bedroom.

Now I have all these angel heads and arms to finish the angels my mom started. All the lace, ribbon, and trimmings are all here, so I will get them done to put in the shop and give my dad the money, since he was so sweet to give me all the crafting and sewing things.

These are really cute little glass bird beads, over 100 of them. Not sure what I will do with them, but I'm sure I will figure something out.

Well I hope you have enjoyed my treasures and as soon as I can, I am going to take pictures of the old vintage pyrex Brenda got from the lady she bought the house from. I think she is thinking about selling them on ebay after I told her what she had. Have a great day----hoping the plumbers finish soon, as I could really nap with the rain.

More treasures

I could really take a nap right now. It's raining but I have the plumbers here putting in the new hot water heater, then hopefully I can light a fire under Brenda and get the tile done. I found some black velvet curtains to use for the shower, but need to find some really cool trim to sew along the edges.

These are just a smidgen of the beads mom had. I found a packet of swaroski(sic) crystals, so going to get some sterling silver findings and make a bracelet with them.

I also have 4 containers filled with silk rosettes.

I found a cool cupcake basket ornament that I want to try and make with crepe paper and paper mache---mom had a big block of it. But look what my son got me in the French Quarter when he visited last. I think I could make these. It looks like old dictionary paper on the cone with a chalk head.

These are some of the treasures I found in a jar with mom's beads. Some had rhinestones missing, so I fixed some. I think I am going to put them on hats this winter and maybe make some earrings out of some.

I got this little shadow box at Goodwill for 59cents and just loved it when I saw it.

Prayers for Peggy

Well we have another girl from our ABC group that has breast cancer. Please keep Peggy in your prayers. I have known her since Smoochie and Mar formed our MSN group and she has been through a lot in the last 5 years and she just found out she has breast cancer.
Peg, I hope you keep your spirit up and God helps you through this. You always said we have been through so much together, so I am keeping you in my daily prayers and I know with your fight you will beat this dreadful disease. Hugs, Pat

I have been tagged

Well Mary at Crash and Smash has tagged me to name things that describe me with the intials of my first name.

P---perfectionist(thrive to be one)
A---active( always doing something)
T---Trustworthy

Now I pick 3 to tag and I have chosen

1. Nettie from Australia
2. Mary at Issabellascloset
3. Tia ---Mizsmoochielips

Hope you all have a great day. Hugs, Pat

Beautful cds from Nettie

It is so great getting things in the mail to brighten your day. These are the cds I got from Nettie in Australia, one for a friendship cd swap and the other for my birthday. You need to visit her blog (link in my favorite places to visit) and see the wonderful things she makes, especially her "Bitch" puzzle and altered Advent puzzle. She is an inspiration to me as many of you are. I need a little push sometimes to get things started, but once I get started, I don't know when to quit. Today, I have over 130 cards to stamp my name on the back and seal them in protectors and here I am playing on the computer. Thanks Nettie for the beautiful cds.

Look what I won

Jamie (Simply Me Art), just wanted to say thank you for the beautiful things from your giveaway. Sorry that I have not posted earlier, but I am sure you know that mom has gone home to be with Jesus, so I have been gone and did not have the picture. Brenda loves the picture and wants me to try and make some with vintage housewives, so hope you don't mind me "borrowing" your idea. I love everything---such great talent---thank you so much.

The small picture with the fleur de lis is super great as that is a symbol used for New Orleans and I have lots of things with them on it. The fan is just too adorable---I remember the ones we had at church when there was no air conditioning, so that is a great reminder of my family in church together.

Aren't these shoe box tops awesome. I might try and paint one on a canvas. I got these at mom's and I would have loved to have her paint one, as she did oil painting.

This is a beautiful card I got from a swap from Pat (Pats World) and this will be a sentimental piece as mom's kitchen was done in sunflowers. Thanks Pat for such a beautiful card.

This is a cd and cd box that I altered for a swap. Wish I could find more boxes. I have 4 left and if anyone has any they would like to trade or sell, let me know.

My mom when she was 18

This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom because when I was that age, I looked very much like her. I am going to have one of these printed up as we gave my dad the original back after copying them. I am pushing the bad memories into the back of my mind and just cherishing the good ones and all the things that she did teach me. I just noticed the black eye and hope that's not one her dad put there---I'll just say she fell off one of the horses.

I am hoping I get back in the crafting mood---I'm just drained right now, but I know it will get easier with time. I do have to work on an altered canvas for my niece, so hopefully I will have something crafty to post. Hope you all have a great day. Hugs, Pat

Feels like I have been gone a month

Thank you Amy for your nice award---I will cherish it always. I feel like I have been gone a month, but we had a great time with my dad and he came with me to Gramercy, but will be leaving soon. He is taking a nap, so I thought I would come in and catch up in blogland---maybe tonight when every one is gone, I will just sit and relax and play on the computer.

I brought more boxes of things and you would not believe the amount of silk roses and flowers mom had, not to mention 5 cases of ribbon.

We sat one night and looked at old photos and then we took a picture of us with dad. Try and guess who is the oldest daughter.