October: So Far, So Good....

Spending almost all my time at home lately (which is actually fine by me) has afforded me the opportunity to get back to beading.  My craft table was overloaded with projects ready to work on when life went sideways at the end of August.  It's been so great to get back to it!  

Picked up a couple of glass floats up in PTown this summer and added the beaded strand to it.  I need more of those mirrored tiles to work on the second float.

Drilling the hole through this agate slice was time consuming and required 3 drill battery recharges. Then added the beads for a window hanging.

I'd started this in August and just wasn't feeling it at the time.  I was glad to get this one finished at last.  That red bead on the left strand glows in the dark.

Labradorite & glass beads on the left, watermelon tourmaline on the right.

Matching necklaces

I just love those funky bead strands that are in craft stores and Walmart's craft section!  I restring them in the exact order as they are in the store.  

Another necklace.

I found this rainbow string of beads at Walmart.  Put them on memory wire with a prism on the bottom for a swirly effect.

My friend Ruth has commissioned 3 driftwood hangings from me, one which was requested to be blue & brown.

Annette commissioned this from me, in memory of her sister Debby who passed away this spring

I love love love mini bottles.  I got 4 up in PTown at the same place as the floats so I had fun embellishing them. 

I made this for my stepdaughter.

And this one too

Ta-Da!  My Bear cross stitch is finally done too!

Cool clouds one night

And THEN my friends Deb & Jim sent this Seahawks goodie package to me!  Russell wanted to tear into the M&Ms but there is no way I'm opening it!  The bracelets are wicked pretty and I can't wait to use the cookie cutter.

This one is the coup de grace!  The Space Needle in chipboard to assemble and paint!!!!!  I can't wait to start working on it!!!!  If I do the Hawks colours, I will have to tone down the lime green.  I can't stand it.

I have never been a 'one day at a time' kind of person but this whole past month has forced me into that mindset.  Just taking one day at a time to catch up on my crafting!

Cairns at Town Neck Beach, Sandwich

A couple of months ago, cairns started showing up on Town Neck Beach in Sandwich.  There is a bumper crop of rocks on that beach so there are a lot of materials with which to stack.  I know that there are some people who think cairns are ruining the ecosystem and will knock them down but the waves pound that beach to bits anyway so any ecosystems are being smashed up.  I happen to think the cairns are amazing.  Rock stacking is not at all as easy as it looks.

I was in the middle of errands last week, and had my 'heart patient' in the car with me so I was only able to swing by the beach for about 10 minutes to shoot some pictures.  

I was so tempted to pick up this rock but I didn't and now I wish I had because I found out my friend Ann painted it!

This really does take a great deal of skill

It was a super windy day so the Bay was rough.

Getting a good picture proved somewhat challenging.

I love listening to the waves

It was hard to resist the urge to beachcomb since it was low tide.

And I Thought Summer Was Bad

Sorry I haven't been around at all or visited anyone's blogs.  The last time I posted was August 31st about the worst summer ever.  My hopes for September were dashed on September 1st.  

My mom had a medical incident that resulted in her being sent to a rehab to determine if she can go home and be able to take care of herself.  She's 90.  With that came a lot of paperwork, phone calls and me having to run two houses while going over there to pick up mail and check on the place.  

We had a cool full moon on September 5.

Followed by pouring down rain on the 6th.

One good thing did happen, however, I got my first Harry Potter Loot Crate.  Very impressed with the stuff!  High quality items.  I signed up to get 3 total crates.  They come every other month, so my next one is in November.

Locket Horcrux

Honeyducks candy erasers (cauldron cake, chocolate frog, sugar skull, jelly slug)

Wand pen.

Stationery set

And the best one, this awesome Ravenclaw scarf.  You can pick your house when you sign up so that they will send specific house related stuff.

Then the absolute worst thing happened.  Russell got so sick that he was hospitalized on September 11.  It was terrifying....his heart was in bad shape and I truly believe he was possibly hours from a fatal heart attack.  The local hospital had him for about 2 days when they transferred him to Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River.  I'd never heard of them till that day and as it turns out, they are in the top 5% best cardiac hospitals in the country, and it's true.  The care he received was top notch. Long story short, he had a triple bypass and valve replacement but they had to get him strong enough to survive the operation.  I have never cried so much and so hard in my life, and if it wasn't for my friends and stepdaughter, I don't think I would've been able to cope.  We drove down early the day of the operation and my friend Annette met us there and stayed with us in the waiting room.  It was a long, nerve wracking day.  When the nurse approached the door with a huge smile on her face around 2:30, I knew he had made it through.  Post-op recovery meant 10 more days in ICU and step-down, and he finally came home on the 29th.

Val found this outside Tobey hospital, near the entrance.  She told me to take it, so I did and put it in my purse.  I kept it there the entire time he was gone.  Gryffindor colours too, I might add, for my brave, strong hubby.

I would spend 6-7 hours a day in his room, watching TV with him and stitching.  I finished this owl project in just about 20 days...maybe less cause the visiting hours in ICU were much shorter.  I put the last French knot on it in his room, about an hour before he was released.

He has a long road ahead with recovery but so far, so good.  

I'm generally not a fan of candy bars but I couldn't resist getting this Snickers bar.  There were all different sayings on it but I felt 'hot mess' summed up my month. 

In other crappy news from September, found out one of my cousins passed away from a sudden heart attack.  She was alone when it happened.  Bobbie always read my blog to keep up with what I was up to since she wasn't interested in Facebook.  I deeply regret not keeping in touch more this spring and summer.  

Val & I got addicted to these cheese sandwiches that were sold at a coffee stand in the lobby.  The cheese is called  Sao Jorge, or Saint George' and it's Portuguese.  Fall River has a huge population of Portuguese people so there are lots of markets that carry the food.  I headed to Portugalia Marketplace one morning before going up to see Russell.  It's right in the downtown area.  I got the cheese and some rolls and went out to my car to put the rolls in the trunk.  Stuck the key in, turned, aaannnnnd *snap*.  I'm standing there holding half a key...the IGNITION key too, I might add, feeling a giant wave of panic wash over me.  I freaked out.  I had to call AAA and thank god they found a locksmith who could come out, fish the broken piece out and make me a new one on site.  I was at the market place a good 90 minutes before Atlantic Locksmith showed up.  I was weeping...all the stress of the month and now this.  The locksmith was so kind.  He felt so sorry for me that they knocked some money off the bill which I appreciated.  

First day of fall came and went.  No decorations are going up this year.  Just way too tired and it's too daunting of a project, no matter how organized I try to be about it.  We have lots of fragile every day things and they have to be dusted, wrapped and packed into the bin once the fall/Halloween things come out. 

Pretty moon on the 26th

We had a really cool sunset on the 28th.  It was seen all over the Cape and the pics I saw on Facebook were stunning. 

The clouds were really unique

From this particular angle, I was imagining that this is what Jupiter would look like from one of it's moons.

And so I bid September good bye and good riddance. Here's to better days!