JUNE IS THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY HERE AT THE NEST

It's been quiet here in Faerieluna. While I have been busy with work and the addition of Morgan, I just have been in a quiet, reflective mode. Some personal things have kept me preoccupied, along with a couple art projects that had deadlines. I had a few e-mails from friends wondering where I was and so with a few days off from the office I am trying to catch up.

I noticed that June 24th of 06 was my very first post which means I am heading towards the first anniversary of Faerieluna. That is a good reason to celebrate, and celebrate we will. I shall put together something that will be given away, and the drawing will be on June 24th. So I will head into the thought process and once decided, I will let you know.

In the meantime, here is something I put together for an art doll round robin that I am in. Her name is Lexi and she will visit with four other artists over the next several months. When she returns home I imagine she will be glitzed and arted up in a most delightful way. I will be sure to share it here when she returns home.

LEXI before she heads out on her journey


Fashioned from a wooden cabinet from Michael's painted with Lumiere Olive Green paint, head is Paper Whimsy image on fabric, hair created from silk fusion fabric bits. Her "arms" are of dyed silk ribbon with rusted clips for hands.

As you can see there is a shelf inside with room for lots of additions from fellow artists. The hardest part of creating this art doll was stopping. You know what difficulty I have with that, so having to stop well before she is done was, well, almost painful!! But I am not going to do anything else (I promise) except create a little book to go along on the journey for the artists to sign and embellish. It's hard to even look at her because I just want to add a little something more. So I am going to box her up and send her on her way with an open heart. I have no expectations of how she will develop. I give up control (hard to do) and just allow my art friends to have fun. Lexi will not be back until sometime in the Fall and once home, I will share her with you here.

TUSSLE OVER TOYS

Olivia is delighted to find a pet mouse in her favorite color, purple.


Out of the blue, Miss Morgan leaps in to snatch away what she believes is HER toy...and the tussle between the two is hysterical to watch. Neither will give up the darn mouse!!


However, when it's all said and done, and Mama has intervened to take the mouse away from both of them...

....it's Olivia who offers a hug to mend the rift.

...AND BABY MAKES THREE

Her name is Morgan


Monday brought an unbelievable surprise. A little girl to love.


I had been longing for a kitty for a while, but Jim had professed not to really like cats. He preferred dogs. I have never been keen on the dog issue feeling they were too needy, especially for folks who were seldom home. We agreed to disagree on this issue and have neither pet. But oh how I longed. There was nothing more comforting than the sound of the purr when you held a cat close...that sandpaper little tongue. It had been almost nine years since I had a cat. Not just any cat. One that forgot she WAS a cat. Chloe came to us one Mother's Day weekend many years ago. An orange fluff ball that grew to be about 17lbs. She loved attention and followed me around from room to room. She just loved to be loved.

Well, the 'kitty void' has been filled. Jim knew I had been smitten with a little ball of fluff that was born April 2. She was one of five girls born to a stray taken in by a co-worker. Secretly he arranged to get her when she was old enough to leave Mom and this Monday when I arrived home from work there was Jim, (man who doesn't like cats......) sitting on the couch with a ball of fluff in his lap. A gift for me, the little girl that I had fallen in love with. What joy!!! And guess who looks for the baby as soon as he comes home????

A MOTHER'S DAY

I wonder what her thoughts are holding this sweet little boy, the baby she almost missed. If I could guess, I'd say her serious look reflects that very thought as several weeks prior to this captured moment, she fought like a warrior at the young age of 54 through a massive heart attack. None of us could have imagined that she would be sitting in my living room holding my new nephew, Tyler, the strap of her Halter monitor the only outward evidence of the recent battle. That was the end of June, 1990.

I don't remember THAT day as vividly, as painfully, as I remember Saturday, November 3, 1990, barely four months later. On that day it was warm for November-Indian Summer type of day begun with picking bittersweet vines down behind the park in front of our house. I had promised to gather some for Mom the day before while having a Mother-daughter day of shopping at JoAnn's for Christmas fabric to make stockings and other items. We had lunch at a place called Pie Plate and had an amazing heart to heart conversation about EVERYTHING. Some old issues were resolved and for the first time, at age 36, I was able to tell her things that had been heavy on my heart for a very long time. It was a healing time and the most wonderful day ever spent with her. After the gathering of vines I decided to do some baking to put in the freezer for Thanksgiving. Seven layer bars to be exact. When they came out of the oven the first call came. Mom was missing. She was to have already been home from a half day of work and no one had heard from her. A few calls were made in frantic mode. Nothing. Dropping everything I got in the car and raced 20 minutes to the plaza where she worked. Everything from that moment on was in surreal, slow motion. The police, and yellow tape...my brother two years younger than I, and my Dad. A gathering crowd. Strangers witnessing the heartbreak of a son finding his mother, MY mother, OUR mother, two months into her 55th year, on the floor behind the counter of the closed shop....gone. Strangers watching as an officer walks to the side of my car and tells me, the oldest child of six, that my mother is gone, probably a heart attack. Gone forever. Strangers witnessing my meltdown and sudden inability to put the car in the proper gear to move it out of the way of the official car that had come to take her away.

That day is still vivid and surreal. But what I held on to that day, and all these years since, is the magnificent gift of the last day of her life this time around. The special day together that Mom pushed hard to get arranged and just in the nick of time. Time to share laughter and tears. Precious hours that I hold close to my heart always. That day was the last I held my mother, told her I loved her, and smiled at her as she stood waving goodbye in the driveway as I pulled away.

NOTES FROM THE NEST

On my list of "FAVORITE FRAGRANCES", alongside the heady scent of lavender, lilacs, peonies, and lilies comes crayons. Instantly I can be transported back to elementary school, delightfully wearing new shoes and opening the square box of 8 jumbo crayons the teacher handed out to each of us. That waxy aroma that still brings childhood delight. Now, many years later, I still love my box of crayons. Except now, I have 96 of them instead of 8. I've had this box for seven years. Yes..........seven. Notice how many of them still have the original points? Obviously I did not really buy them to use (although at the time I also bought a coloring book). Evidently, my intention was to pull them out every so often and morph back to a time of innocence. Days of graham crackers and milk, jump rope, and new crayons.

IT'S A SICKNESS...............