We drank too much tea

I loved all the rush and hustle and all the pinkness of it, but honest to goodness, I'm glad we are over the tea binge of 2010. I have been to visit about 1/3 of the entrants in the tea party blogs listed on Vanessa's blog, A Fanciful Twist.

Out of the first 20 I visited, 12 hadn't done anything, 5 just referred back to the original invitation and so 3 participated. That was just a sampling but sheez. I guess once again, I am old school. If ya say your gonna do something then damn it, do it. Don't volunteer to celebrate a funky fun day if you're gonna make excuses as to how life got away from you, or you had so many commissions due, to get finished that you didn't get around to it or this is my favorite, I'm going to have to postpone my entry until next month.....huh? I don't feel bad for any who were no shows, although I am sure that some had life changes etc and my sympathies are with them. I just think folks are rude, self absorbed and forgetful. Not that I have an opinion.

I mean we didn't get graded on this, it won't be on our permanent record and our insurance won't go up because we got too many "non participating" citations, but let me just say.....good uggly moogly, mean what you say and when you give your word, try to come close to living up to it.

And to the fabulous doers and finishers....hot diggity dog, each and every one of your tea parties was so cute, fun, clever, colorful, wonderful, interesting, eye catching and just plain adorable. I still have at least 100+ parties to go to but for now....not so much.

As Big G would say, peace out ya'll.

For you

come visit us at: http://omalindasoldebaggsnstuftshirts.blogspot.com/

We will be waiting to see you................

Nydia's question answered and more

It was my pleasure to have had my first give away and send out prizes to the four winners. One of the winner is (as so many of you already know) a sweet lady who lives in Brazil named Nydia of Bringing up Salamanders. The mail takes a little longer to get to Brazil and so yesterday I found out that the prize had arrived for her on Yule eve....how fitting. My granddaughter had written a letter to Nydia's son Lucas about being worried and how she understood what that felt like.

We have for months been working with her with journaling and focused breathing to calm her and give her a way of controlling her own anxiety. So when GK heard that Lucas was having the same difficulty she decided, this is too cute, because she was older and was already a big sister to a 6 year old boy that she could help with the worry problem. Nothing like helping someone else to help yourself.

She wrote him a chant or spell to help him rest at night. She has problems with that too. I do too. When I lay down, the worries of the day grow legs and dance around and on me. GK says hers fly around her head and make it hurt. Can you tell we're big on visualization? She also helped me make a spell holder, with a wish box included.

Anyway Nydia said that Lucas was excited to have a big sister in the US and that he says his spell every night. Nydia translated it because Lucas does not speak or read English. GereaKaye has decided to write to Lucas regularly and let him know how she is doing with her worry problems and Lucas is dictating to his Mom and in the end a transcontinental friendship has begun. I find all of this heart warming. A bit of a side note, GK has a friend she corresponds with in Portugal, her own age with a 6 year old brother as well. The kids are grandchildren of a friend here in Albuq. and so we get to see them some. Maybe someday all of these kids will visit with one another. That would be wonderful.

Nydia asked how to pronounce GK's name and if it had a meaning...so...
Gerea is pronouned like Sarah with a g like in the word good. She is so named because she was to have been a boy, according to the Dr's in Mississippi. When Shelley had an untrasound 5 weeks before delivery....a girl. We figure it was the construction mess she had to drive through in Oklahoma City on her move home..all the bumps and something musta fallen off. tee hee.
Her name was to be Gerrod, gaelic for strong warrior. Shelley had been talking to the baby and calling him/her Gerrod, so she did want to have another sound to the name. First time Mommy's.....who's gonna argue with them, so we played around until we found a feminized version we liked.

SM had been calling her "GK" for grandkid for months so that's where the Kaye came from. Little did we know that Gerea is very close to the word in spanish for war. And sometimes when I say her name to spanish speaking people they asked me why I would have named (because I did) such a sweet, pretty little girl war...they didn't know the little troll when she was a baby. That kid cried all the bloody time for the first 4 months. The only exception was if I would take her for a ride in the car....goodness help us when we had a red light. I am sure people thought I was killing her.....and sometimes......Maybe not war but pretty darn close to chaos.

So Nydia, there's the long of it. I am so happy that Lucas is finding magkic in GK's hope and wishes for him. Life is so good.

And here is a peek at Ms. Chaos as the white princess not queen.

I went to the craft store yesterday afternoon. Mainly because I needed a breather from the grands. Goodness, you don't realize how much attention they demand until you have a couple of minutes to yourself and then it's like.........what is that sound....oh yeah, quiet. Whew.

I needed to find a matting of some sort for my Goddess picture that I won from Danni at The Whimsical Cottage. I feel I have neglected her far too long. So off I went on a color scavanger hunt. You know how the right color makes the whole print just seem to settle in the frame and the wrong color just keeps you eyes moving all around?????????? Or maybe it's another one of my insanities. I just know that it has to be like baby bear's chair.........just right. I must have tried every fabric, ribbon, matting in the store. Then the light bulb went on and I went to the scrap book paper aisle and sure enough there were two blues that could work and so I was through with my quest.

As I was rounding the crap crafting aisles...my and Gerea's fav area of the store...I almost screamed when I saw....well I had to stand still for a moment to take it all in. Christmas has already thrown up at Hobby Lobby. I swear to Aunt Hannah that those greedy bastards have 4th of July, next to Harvest crap and damnable Christmas crap and if I am not mistaken it is only a little past half June. WTH. This now means I can't go back until New Year's. I'm not kidding it makes me ill.

Sure I know that some folks like to get a head start on crafting for the holidays but Judas Priest. I have been tempted to put a wreath with everything on it at my gate for all year and count it as done. I am in a snit...snit I tell you. Used to when Halloween wasn't finished and they began to put out the Christmas crap, I'd get annoyed. And then when 4th of July was 75% off and they began to put the Baby Jesus next to the Great Pumpkin, I got mad, but this?

You have no idea what I wanted to do with the bottle rocket cardboard cut outs and the snowman they had displayed..............come damn on. And this is coming to you from a dyed in the wool holiday aholic, but the only idiot my Mom raised is my sister and she lives in the flood plain and ain't got no good sense, I know about white shoes and Memorial Day and when to put out the lawn decorations for goodness sake. Jezzzzzzzz Louise.

Hobby Lobby is the devil.

Join us at Lindaoma's for mad tea

You and all your muchness are most vigorously requested

To attend the back garden tea soiree at Oma Linda’s

On 26th June, the day after Frabjous Day

Any non attendees must answer to the the crow as black as a tar barrel.

And then we shall all say:

Then fill up the glasses as quick as you can,

And sprinkle the table with buttons and brans.

Put cats in the coffee and mice in the tea

And welcome our lovelies with thirty-times-three.

Do try not to be tardy…or the White Rabbitt will drag you to our party at:

http://lindaomasoldebaggsnstuftshirts.blogspot.com/

Happy Father's Day

To those of you who have Father's who are admirable, loving, deserving of respect, dependable, loyal and that you just plain love so much, I hope you will celebrate a wonderful Day on Sunday with that person. Or in the case of those whose Dad's have passed away and had a super Father, I hope the memory of that loved person brings you joy in the remembering.

I love going to the card store and looking at all the different types, kinds, varieties of wishes for Father's day.

Sweet Man is a terrific man, great husband, loving father and kick ass Papa, but he doesn't fish, hunt, watch sports, cars or build stuff. So.....a lot of cards just don't do it for us. The kids made him cards, I bought a sappy lovie one and we'll have steak on the grill, southern style creamed corn, homemade rolls, great big old salad with everything in the world in it and lemon ice box pie. He always insists on no presents and we have kept it that way all these years. He is so easy to please.

Happy Daddy's Day Joe, we love you.

While my own father was alive, the day was always a disaster. Never right, never enough and you know it was even harder to find him a card. As I have joked (not really) since I was a teenager...'ya know they don't have cards that say...Happy Father's day you mean spirited, worthless old shit'. That isn't nice to bring up at this time of year but it is a case in point......if you have a precious and loved Father...consider yourself blessed beyond all measure.

I just read a report and I am troubled........

I am so proud to be an American. I am humbled by the sacrifice that our armed forces make to protect us and keep us free. You all know that my family supports our country in so many and varied ways from writing to soldiers every month, flying the flag, going to the airport to welcome back troops.....yeah we love our country and appreciate our troops and their families and the sacrifices they make for the US.

I prefaced this because I am a Vietnam era person. I saw how friends, loved ones and perfect strangers were treated when they returned from a very unpopular war. It was our TV war. Every night at the dinner table my folks had the news on and every night there it was in our kitchen. But when my friends came home they were called horrible names and told they had been involved in something less than honorable. So that's where my thought process comes from.

I have never been able to wrap my mind around why we are in Afghanistan. I know terrorists. Stablizing the area. Helping the people of Afghanistan run their own country. I know what I have been told.

The Pentagon just released this information. Now did you know that Afghanistan has been found to have the richest deposits of iron, gold, copper, lithium and many other metals necessary for making steel in the world....untapped? One trillion dollars worth of mineral deposits, this is conservative estimate. Did you know that the majority of the US non combatants in the area are there to determine just how rich this find is and a strategy for extraction? Did you know that the Kandihar (sp) area is where this huge mineral bonaza can be found? Do you know that  is the area where the majority of fatalities of our troops are? Chief among their duties is guarding these non combatants in the quest for minerals?

Whoa...hold the damn phone. Is this deja vu all over again?

Isn't this exactly how and why we, the United States got involved in rescuing the French in the 1950's from their greedy conquest and mercenary interest in south east asia? And no one has ever explained to my why Russia was so interested in Afghanistan prior to our going there. Hmmmmmmmmm. I think I am more than just a little sceptical. "They" the people who are so much smarter than the rest of us and have to keep info from us so we won't worry (cut me some slack) have been involved in this knowledge pool since 2006.and I am sure longer than that. The lithium find alone could make Afghanistan the Saudi Arabia of lithium, which is used for most all electronics batteries, everything from cell phones to computers.

I am puzzled. Why are we in Afghanistan? For whose best (greedy) interests? Please let me be wrong. Let the Pentagon report I read be an over reaction, a mis spoken thought. I so want to be wrong. But our track record (the US government) isn't exactly sterling when it comes to the intentions and rationale for being involved in conflict....money is usually the root of our evil.

Showgirls, beauty queens, patriotic lasses and she who is.............

After having done the tutorial....well we just had to play some more today. So here they are.........presenting

Violetta

The queen of red, white and morning glory

Our nominee for Ms. NM Fairydust

The Las Vegas tribute to Patriotism

And one of the forest fae

Thanks for all you positive comments on the tutorial and the easy peasy fairy make do dollies.

Faery tutorial....how to make GK's faery folk

I have posted a tutorial, my first so be kind, on my other bloggie: http://lindaomasoldebaggsnstuftshirts.blogspot.com/

So if you are of a mind to make yerself some faeries for Summer Solstice, ya better get cracking..........

Things to get done......

So much to do and get done.

I've finished preparations for the Mad Tea Party on the 26th. I even enlisted the help of a friend of my daughter to do the make up on the kiddos for the photo shoot.

Still have some finishing touches on the faery garden for Solstice this Sunday.

GK and I are doing a tutorial on the other blog on the making of her faery dolls and that is almost a wrap.

And tomorrow is sewing and making dinner day for the kids. GereaKaye is learning to sew. She is making a pair of shorts for herself. Ry is watching mostly in the doing part, but he sure does have lots of advice and council when it comes to doing.

The most fun part is that we......I have a car again. I am amped. Whoooo hooot. It has been almost a year since I've felt like a big kid and had my wheels available when the spririt moved me.

So this morning, the kids and I went to the library to return books from last weeks outing, went to the post office to mail the giveaway prizes, Wally world for cat food and etc., and then home to meet Mom for the Momma Monday activities.

And in the middle of the hustle and bustle of our busy life, they left for therapy and I took a nap. Ha, I am Oma hear me snore.

This is the last day of my giveaway

If you haven't yet commented on my other blog http://omalindasoldebaggsnstuftshirts.blogspot.com/ this is the last day to do so. I have added a couple of more items for third and fourth place drawings.

like this one only rose colored

A book: a guide to attract benevolent spirits to live with the fairy folk by marina t. stern and one of GK's rose colored flower fairy creations. 

see you at the water tomorrow night

Only 10 days and counting until Summer starts.....

Like so many of you lovelies we have been sweltering in the heat of the spring. Hovering around 100 degrees for the past week and a half. And still it is not officially summer. Yikes.

We are all in the same bucket when it comes to complaining about the weather...it ain't never what we want when we want it. Ain't life grand????

Anywho, Summer Solstice will be on June 20th. As a kid I used to look forward to the day because my 1st grade teacher told me it was a magickal day. I have a feeling she was a believer in all things magickal as well. That summer, I wanted to stay up and see the magic. I kept expecting that the magic would be in the sky. So when I saw a falling star......I was captured.

Now ions later, I realize that the magick, spelled differently, is truly all around. Sit outside late in the evening (if you can stand the heat and watch and wait and the magick of nature will capture you as well.  Remember.....I do believe.

I'm having a giveaway at Olde Baggs n Stuft Shirts, come on over

http://lindaomasoldebaggsnstuftshirts.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-giveaway-for-summer-solstice-at.html/  I'm giving away two necklaces this time. Take a look and enter.

Claws and hands

Catching some of you up on my life, since I have a few new followers. I have 2 grandchildren and my daughter living with us. We are fast approaching their 1 year anniversary back with us (Sweet Man and me).
Gerea is 10 (bright, happy, an old soul, active and artistic), Ry is 6 (chatty, charming, loves to build, also an old soul, active and high functioning Asperger with ADHD), Shelley, my lovely hard working, sweet, children loving daughter.

Both my grands draw all the time. They have learned to use both sides of the paper. They have learned to save the "best" and use the rest for recycle paper projects. They are drawing machines. I majored in Art Education in college, with a minor in earth sciences so I was well educated to be a grandmother, art teacher, flora and fauna appreciation director and I have taken additional classes in art therapy to be able to help some of the teenagers with whichI worked  long, long ago in a galaxy far away. This has also proved to be invaluable with Ry.

He has this "thing" with claws. Every happy, sad, adventure, fantasy thing he draws has claws. I know that this stems from having been "clawed" by someone. Clawed equals grabbed, yanked, pushed, pulled, hurt, redirected, punished. Can't touch Ry on his shoulder, upper arm or forearm without him wincing, pulling away and being emotional. And if you touch his head......omg. So readers, he has been abused in this manner. This is both clinical from his therapist and textbook. His thereapist asked me not to make a judgement about the claws but lovelies.......I cannot handle seeing such unhappiness on paper, day in and day out. So I banished my birthday twin, grandson to 1 hour of happy drawing.

So now during happy hour, tee hee, it makes me laugh when I announce, "it's happy hour". I wanta break out the little umbrellas and snacks, but instead everything drawn is to be happy, no worries, no fretting stuff. We only started happy hour less than 3 weeks ago and the results are fabulous. Ry has given me the gift of happy hands. He even includes them in robot, pirate, dragon, dinosaur and the bad people drawings. I am not trying to get in the way of the "work" he needs to do but that's there and it's happy hour here....and it isn't even 5 o'clock (but it is somewhere).

If you're unhappy and you know it clap your hands......

What? Huh? Do as I say, not as I do?????

I do understand that the owner of this station is not BP but rather an independent owner but at this moment in time......REaLy???!!!!

I "borrowed" this photo, if you would like to pass this on, Yeah.

You are so very kind......as always

My posting yesterday was to let you all know that we have had a break through with Ry.

I was not trying to call attention to my "story" only using it as an illustration. I am quite content with where I am in my recovery. My abuser is dead and gone and so are the ugly feelings that I used to carry around inside of me.

In the scheme of things, my grandson's recovery is all I can focus upon. Hard for him but worth it because he will not suffer into adulthood without knowledge. Ry has many other difficulties but everyday he is coming closer and closer to finding control for his young life. Our goal this summer is to help him not to be afraid....of bugs, of loud noises, of hands, of looks, of unseen enemies. He is so bright, talented and has a kick ass sense of humor. He can focus so much easier on tasks and is thrilled with his own accomplisments. He is certainly finding his place in this very complicated world.....albeit sheltered right now. He even has developed a bit of a swagger. Too funny and warm and wonderful. Protected and encouraged.

Love people, unconditional, uncomplicated, unfettered love.....thanks lovelies, you da bestest.

Good stuff, bad stuff and then there are things you can never understand

I remember when I first wrote in this blog. I wanted a place apart from my other blog to let my real feelings out, so that I could see them, and then be able to handle and process those emotions. The focus of all this was having 3 more people in close proximity relationship in my life, my home and my head (my daughter and my grands).

It has been several months and all three of them are doing better. Each has been able with the help of therapists work out some issues. It has been painful for both them and us (Sweet Man and me). Many really good things have come from these last few months. Clearer boundaries, communication, behaviors. Many ugly things have come to the surface. Worries, fears, hurts, pain. And as we expected, as with any journey involving healing, there is a root core disease.

There are just some things, even me, the jaded old biddy I am, cannot even fathom. And today is one of those times to face, if I believed in one, the devil. Evil is real, has a name, has a face and now the devil has been identified.

As a youngster, my Father, was my devil. He took a part of me, because he was missing part of himself. He was a coward, a weak willed evil man who had to hurt other people in order to feel better about himself. I had not faced that devil in my head until I was a grown-up. Thought I had imagined the evil. As a matter of fact I had displaced that evil to other people.....I was wrong. And when I faced my abuse, I was sick from it for many years. That's my story.

My grand Ry has a story too and I both sorrow for his current pain, past hurt and am thrilled that he will have a clearer future for facing it now.