THE REST OF THE STORY. . . . .

I started this story on Facebook and am going to finish it here.

For those of you that didn't read the fb entry, I went to the doctor yesterday about a blister on the bottom of my right big toe that, over the weekend, had ulcerated. I knew that it had, I had been on my feet for the past five days instead of staying off of my foot and taking care of it.

But, we all have choices to make and I chose to honor a commitment I had made that caused me to travel out of town and be on my feet like a regular person (said tongue in cheek). I had gone to my doctor last week about the blister and had been following her instructions. I could tell nothing was happening very quickly, but I went ahead and left town knowing that I would continue to take my antibiotics, keep the blister bandaged, clean, medicated, etc.

So, I went straight to my doctor when I got back in town (Monday), she sent me to my podiatrist (today) that took care of my ankles after my surgeries in '06 and she sent me straight out for an MRI to make sure the infection hadn't made it into the bone - if it had, get this, readers, I would probably "loose my toe". I wasn't laughing then, but now must shake my head with a tiny little smile on my face just thinking about the things I do that God takes care of for me....read on....

Oh, and the radiologist noted a stress fracture of the 2nd metacarpal (I think that's the right word:)- probably caused by pushing down really hard on my bicycle pedals when riding up hills. But, the good news was that the infection was not in the bone. Praise God - I so don't deserve His unending care!

So. Here I sit, laptop in my, well, my lap, ice cold diet Cherry 7-Up on the table next to me, a stack of b'day cards to write of which I'm way behind, tons of pics on my camera's memory card to blog about, pictures to upload onto Flickr, blah, blah, blah. I have plenty to keep me busy until my next doctor's appointment on Monday. However, I doubt seriously I'll be back on my feet that soon. She'll probably keep me down for at least two weeks. (Now, that sucks. LOL)

Okey dokey, thought you'd want to know what was going on with me. Thanks for being such sweet readers. And, check back later this week, like in a couple of days, because I still have to blog about another one of Joan and my adventures during her visit AND the Paper Cowgirl art retreat!

Be safe! XOXO,

. . . . . . . . . . . .Jan

MARIE ANTOINETTE, FLAMINGOS AND GOODIE SACKS IN THREE MINUTES!

Before I say, "goodnight", I simply must show you what I've been up to these last couple of weeks.
One thing, and it was covered in the last post, is that my sister, Joan, is here visiting from Indiana.
Oh, have we had fun. And, as usual, it doesn't take much for me to make myself laugh so hard I PIMP and when I'm with Joan, I'm often the only one laughing. She's says I'm not funny, I'm stupid.
Oh, how wrong she is!!
Anyway, I've been frantically getting ready for the Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat that I leave for this Wednesday. I say "frantically" because Satan has been trying to have his way with me by doing mean things to keep me from accomplishing all that I need to do......like crashing my new computer, having T-Mobile continue to be T-Moron - oh, I will be blogging about them after this retreat - and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember.
See??? He's even messing with my memory! I'm down to one brain cell! YIKES!!
So, here I am trying to get ready for the retreat at which I'll be teaching, am heading up a 22 participant ATC swap and am participating in Vendor's Night.
It's 10:30 here and I'm so tired all I want to do is go to bed! But, first, let me show you -

I did a run-through of the class I'm teaching just to brush up since it's been a while since I painted and that's what I'm teaching. (Don't tell my students!) For my practice canvas I did a very simple Marie Antoinette collage painting.
This is a close-up of Marie herself and some of the most amazing vintage lace that I added!

This is a close-up of the chandelier. It's really cool as it's a napkin and looks all old and cracked.

This here's a close-up of the vintage lace that I cut off of a larger, wider piece and a vintage drawer pull. Oh, so cool, I think.

I wish my camera took better pictures. These pictures don't do the canvas justice. But, never fear, I'm saving my money to buy a new camera so sometime in the next couple of years.......hahaha!

Oh, these are great.......tonight I "glittered" these flamingos and they're in my flower bed drying! I'm going to put a pink bandana around their necks and sell every one of them at Vendor's Night!

You can't see the glitter well at all in this picture, but trust me, they're "glittered" and look smashing!

And, I think I'm safe showing you the goodies that will be in my student's sacks that I've made. I doubt any of them have time to read my blog this week! I made them the most precious sacks and wrote them letters on these amazing tags that I made and am filling their sacks with all you see below! Won't they be surprised??? Don't you just love really cool surprises? I'm so excited for them to get their goodie sacks!

Okay, that took just a few more minutes than three, but it was a really fast post! I felt like I had been ignoring you and wanted to show you what I've been up to so now you know as much as I do! LOL

I won't get a chance to post again until I get back from Paper Cowgirl, but I'll have lots to show you then! Also, since I've been such a mess this month and didn't get a giveaway done, in July I'll have two fabulous giveaways! I hope that's good with y'all!

I've got the best readers in the world and I thank God for you!!

XOXO, Jan

"THAT was really scary."

JOAN, SECOND FROM THE LEFT

As you know, or don't know because you remain uninformed and for that I apologize, my baby sister, Joan, is down from Angola, Indiana, for a two week visit.
"YES!"
Oh, we do have fun! We both love junking ("thank you, Jesus!"),

she's a professional photographer and I have a camera and love to take pictures,

she doesn't mind at all for the top to be down on my convertible and

we both ride bikes.
Ahhhhh. Heaven on earth.
And to think, she's related and we love each other and are BFF's.
Isn't that just the best???

So, I thought that while she's here, I'd keep you abreast of anything interesting, odd, or just plain stupid because "stupid" can be REALLY funny.

Let's start with scary.
I didn't mention "scary", did I?
Well, I think that's because I didn't expect to have a sub-title, "scary"!
But, alas, my life is full of surprises.
Sometimes my art is scary (so say my boys, friends, husband......"Why did you put a fish on top of her head???" "Clay. It's ART.", blah, blah, blah)

Okay, I disgress.

So, Joan asks me if we have a meat market close.

See, she's an AMAZING cook and does all of the cooking when she visits.

Of course, the Tank is so excited when she comes to visit because his beautiful, though busy, wife doesn't do much cooking.

AND, when she cooks, she makes extra and freezes it.

BFF's - it's a perk!

Okay, so she asks about a meat market after we've just bought groceries at Stupid Wal-Mart (enough said) and I tell her there's one in the town down the highway from us. For the sake of the story we'll call it the "Comfort Meat Market".

We drive down to 'the town down the highway from us' yesterday and go to the Comfort Meat Market.

We walk in together.

It's small and old.

There's a stainless steel meat case across the front and on the right wall there's a hand written sign telling the public what they have to offer and the prices.

Okay, I didn't see any mention of "human cuts" but I swear I saw a man's thigh (plucked) cut into steaks. Joan said I was wrong, that there weren't any cut up humans *rolling her eyes*, but I'm here to tell ya, we didn't buy any steaks. Case and point.

Behind the meat case, leaning on it, is an older man who looks a little like this (exchange the hat for one of those white paper rectangle hat things):He looks at us and says nothing.

Joan says, "Hi".

He replies with, *definately not with a lilt in his voice* "Hi. Whatchawant?"

I think it was at that moment that we both wondered how we could back out of the door gracefully - "Oops, excuse us, we were looking for the Dairy Queen. We'll just back out of the door."

We approached the meat case and that is when we noticed his "helper" standing to the back near the large refridgerator/freezer, I'm not kidding.As we looked at the meat in the display case, both Joan and I (as we discussed while peeling out of the parking area) noted that all of the meat looked a wee bit dried out. There were two chickens in the case....I wanted to ask him how much his cornish hens were but thought better of it.

We stand there for what seems like forever, the meat man staring at me. *I'm the cuter of the two of us.* Joan turns towards me like I'm going to make some kind of decision. Shut up!

I'm busy keeping my eye on the helper.

I tell her to pick out what she'll use in her cooking over the weekend because I KNOW she feels like she needs to buy something.

As she looks over the porkchops she asks how thick they're cut and Mr. Meat tells her they're *narly-ish* "one-half inch".

She asks if he could cut some thicker for her and he tells her, *in a wierd way - you know what I mean* "I'm not going to pull out a big ol' slab if you just want one or two. I'll only do it if you want a lot.".

Hey, look Mr. Meat, it's not like there's exactly a line forming here.

Joan passes and picks out the thickest of the one-half inch thick pork chops, pays, and we head for the door............The minute that door is closed behind us both of us say to the other,

"THAT was really scary."

We hadn't spoken of our reaction to any of it until that moment (we couldn't exactly comment on the amount of blood dripping from the chainsaw) and we both had the same thought.

Of course, that started an entire litany of what had transpired and ended with us deciding to tell Clay (my 19 year old) that we needed some bacon and sending him to the meat market.... alone.... to see what his reaction would be. It was at that point that we couldn't talk in full sentences because we were laughing so hard thinking up different scenarios.

See? If you have the right attitude *warped sense of humor* you can turn "scary" into "PIMP" (Pee In My Panties).

The End.

Until the next adventure, remember that I love my readers and I live for comments and thick-cut steaks.

XOXO, Jan

BUSY WORKER BEE GETTING READY FOR VENDOR'S NIGHT AT THE PAPER COWGIRL RETREAT

Meaning, I have no personal life, no time for telephone calls - 3 minute maximum, even my mother, cooking (oh, waaaa), cleaning (bigger waaaaaaaa), but I'm getting so much done.
Oh, wait, what I mean is that I'm getting so much done between telephone marathons with T-Moron (aka, T-Mobile), a laptop that is new but needs to be dumped in the trash. Instead, it's at the shop getting a new hard drive! This is after getting an external mouse because the mouse stopped working, and a CD drive that's never worked. All of that is going to be a future post - I have a lot to say......

Today??? I simply want to show you what I've been working on for vendor's night at Paper Cowgirl.......

These first three photos are pictures of lavender sachets I've made. Are these tags too cool? They are copies of hand-colored engravings, circa 1779, and the originals are the property of artist, Sandra Evertson. And, let's not forget the fabulous fabrics (toile and cottage roses), ribbon and the gold brad.

These photos are of wee bitty pots with precious little bird's nests, teeny eggs, mommy bird and a Paper Whimsy fairy to watch over the nest.

These following photos show you wonderful bird's nests, each seated on vintage lace or, as with the pink bling birdie, a vintage ladies glove. Each nest has ribbon, eggs, flowers, a gorgeous bird resting atop the nest and a tag. They're so wonderful! I simply love them!

I have so, so much more to do to get ready for not only vendor's night, but the class that I'm teaching that there's no time for chit-chat today. My three minutes are up - LOL.

Bless all of my readers - especially those that aren't too shy to leave a comment.

You know the comments make my day feel like my birthday....."show some love, leave a comment." (said with an Italian accent:)

xoxo, Jan

SO MUCH TO TELL YOU, SO MUCH TO SHOW YOU, TOO LITTLE TIME!

Okay, I gotta be honest with you - I am so sick of being on the computer that it is only my love for you that keeps me on it. I've been taking pictures of finished pieces, fixing the pieces with my software, uploading the pictures to my lollishop and describing, pricing, proofreading...it's enough to make one want to set themself on fire.

So, this post is going to cover a multitude of pieces that I've finished and are now for sale (I am nothing if I'm not subtle) in my lollishop and I can't help but throw in a couple of pictures of another one of my boys (Blake was in the last post).

This picture is of my oldest son, Craig, ummmm, let's see, he's 24, and his girlfriend, Janna. He's a policeman - he loves it; I don't talk about it - and his squeeze is a doll!

No, it's not a model - it's Craig.

I know, I know, it's confusing, but it's true. . . . . .

Is it a crime to describe your son as "a hunk"?

The rest of these pictures are of pieces I told you I've just listed in my lollishop.

They're self explanatory so I'll just let you browse through them and I'll go to bed.

Sounds like a plan!

Who doesn't love Marie Antoinette???

A set of almost funny tags:

A set of summertime tags:

A set perfect for that special friend:

The tag slides into this sleeve...

Oh, I have to tell you - the brown spot on the envelope below is a shadow from the fabric it's laying on - it looks like I laid my cigar too close to it, but really it's just a shadow.

This is a cute little tag (it has an envelope, but blogger just ate the picture of it. Stupid blogger):

Ahhhh, another delightful set:

Next precious (LOL) set:

Okay, that's it. I don't know how blogger is going to interrupt my spacing of pictures and font sizing, but you know what?? Tonight I'm too tired to care and I really need to get this posted.

.......Don't let their spill on my posting ruin the eye candy you've just enjoyed. ROTFPIMP!

Love my readers,

all the time!

XOXO, Jan Oh, good grief. Look what I just found way down at the bottom of this screen.

Well, here it stays. Like I said, I WANNA GO TO BED!