A is for Angie #AtoZChallenge

Here we are, the first day of the 2014 A to Z Challenge! This is my fourth year participating, although I didn't finish it last year.

I don't usually do a "Theme", unless you count getting off of my lazy butt and writing a theme... :)

So A... well that's an easy one, A is for Angie - my little girl. She's six now, well six and a half, as she often reminds me. She's very smart and creative, why just a few weeks ago she put on a puppet show for Lenny and I.

The first thing we noticed were signs... "Puppet Show Today DO NOT MISS"

It's important to advertise.

The show featured a Zebra. 

 And a Tiger

 And a giraffe, whose string was lost... so he was put together with tape - a somewhat tragic tale that ends well, just as long as he doesn't try to move too fast... 

And finally, an elephant.  

Our stalwart adventurers encountered a pirate!!

who wasn't sure just how best to wear her eye patch 

This may have been my suggestion...

And when the play was over, our Puppet-Mistress took a well deserved bow.  

What was the plot? She spent so much time staging the play, putting up signs, arranging chairs for us to sit in, setting up her "state" and putting out snacks (left over Halloween candy LOL (yes, in March)), that she never really got around to planning the play. So, she pretty much made up the story (and acted out) on the spot. 

All in all, I give Angie's Puppet Show 5 out of 5 stars :)

Crafty Saturdays - Glass Painting

Last year Angie, Pat and I started doing Crafty Saturdays. We've had a lot of fun with them!

Some of our first projects were glass painting. You can do so many things with glass paints, between the three of us we've made:

• Christmas ornaments
• Picture frames
• Glasses
• Vases
• Pencil cups
• Pictures

Many of these ended up as gifts - which made it even more fun. 

A lot of people asked how we made these projects - it's actually pretty simple and is not expensive.

We use Plaid paints. To get started, I recommend their book Glass Art: The Easy Way. You can get it on Amazon for about $4 used ($0.01, plus shipping). The book tells you exactly how to lay out the leading and create different paint effects. There are also several patterns in there that you can use for a wide variety of projects.

You can also pick up the paints on Amazon - individually or in packs. Michael's also carries them, and other craft stores may as well. The paints are a few dollars each, and are plenty big enough to use on many projects. 

Here are some of our projects:

This was for my friend Lisa - she had created the picture in the back, I recreated it on a glass.

This one always reminds me of Stephanie <3 td="">

I designed this one - it was my very first project. A Christmas present for my mother in law :)

A Christmas present for my step mom - more on these ones below.

One of my favorites - I just love his expression. 

Pat's kitchen cabinet doors.

This idea actually came straight out of the book I mentioned.

The process is very simple. 

Lay out the leading - either by tracking a picture under the glass or free handing it. 

These were inspired by an artist named Jean Paul

I purchased these canisters from Target - they worked great!

Then lay in the color, be sure not to add too much or it will run. For these, we swirled the colors.

Then let them dry. Finally, add Crystal Clear (it's another Plaid "color") around the edges of the leading to seal the paint. On these we also swirled Crystal Clear over the rest of the canisters to give them sort of a frosted finish. 

If you goof up, and we did a few times on these actually, you can simply score and peel off the portions that didn't work out and start over. 

A to Z Challenge 2014

I've signed up to do the April A to Z Challenge again this year. This will be my fourth year participating! I'm looking forward to it. The challenge (almost) always helps me to blog, because it gives me something to focus on.

I didn't finish the challenge last year - I made it to "L" and my poor sweet Mr. Goo (Guinness) passed away. He had been with me for a very long time -  almost 13 years - and was just finding it too hard to get around. His hips just gave out on him.

I miss him, but it broke my heart more to see him in pain and unable to move freely.

Mr. Goo

But anyways, if you're interested you can check out the A to Z Challenge at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/ - it's always a lot of fun, and you'll find some other great bloggers along the way. It's only mid February, and there are already 708 other blogs signed up!

The Plot to a Mystery... if only I knew the story.

This story is so surreal... it would make a great plot to a novel, if only I knew what the plot was.

A few weeks ago a woman, who must have been very distraught, made the decision to turn onto a rural divided highway going the wrong way. It was just after 10 p.m.. A Correctional Officer on his way home from work almost broadsided her when she made that fateful left turn.

Several other officers from the same shift encountered that car, barreling down Hwy 85 going the wrong way. The mystery lady traveled almost 10 miles down that dark stretch of highway. I imagine her sobbing, but have no idea who she was or what drove her to do what she did.

She almost hit at least four other officers before my husband came upon her. At first he thought the lights were a trick of the eye and must surely have been on the other side of the divided highway. Finally he realized that the car was in his lane and he had to bail off the highway onto the median to avoid an impact. The other car started to follow him off the road, but corrected itself.

Lenny looked back at what he could only assume was a drunk driver. Other cars were flashing their lights at the car, but he saw no taillights. He assumed the other car's taillights were out and wondered what he should - could - do, as he pulled back onto the road.

When he got home he was still shaken and concerned that he should have done something more... called 911 or DPS or something.

The next morning, early, another Correctional Officer called...

The woman, apparently (reportedly) suicidal, had turned her headlights off - perhaps after missing Lenny - so as not to miss the next car. Maybe that's why he didn't see taillights.

She rammed into another officer from Lenny's shift's car head on.

Both were killed on impact.

The officer, a young man married with a one year old daughter, never stood a chance. He never saw her coming.

I don't know who the woman was, but find myself fascinated by her. What was her story? What pushed her to drive 10 miles the wrong way down a dark highway and kill herself, taking a stranger with her? She almost hit at least five other vehicles in that time; that takes a level of determination I can hardly fathom.

As incredible as this story is, it never hit the news. For days I stalked the local news websites wanting to know more, but nothing.

I am extremely grateful that she didn't follow Lenny off the road. It's surreal... realizing that your life could have radically changed but for the snap decision of a stranger. And for someone else, it did.

Retrospection

I was asked to write an article for an upcoming issue of I-Merge Magazine about my experience with breast cancer. I have to tell you, it stirred up a lot of old emotions. I went back and looked at old blog posts and the letter I sent out to at least 50 people with my little breast cancer duckies and.... wow... I was laughing, I was tearing up...

I am so lucky and I don't truly appreciate that enough. I am lucky that I had such a great experience and met so many wonderful people. I am lucky to have had a wonderfully supportive husband - when so many do not. I was lucky to have beat cancer period, and to have done it laughing (for the most part) all of the way. Each sad story had a glimmer of humor to it...

Like when Lenny shaved my head, and I later took the vacuum hose to my head because all of the little hairs falling out drove me crazy.

When I wore that silly x-ray robe over my belly when I got my mammogram (because I was pregnant).

When all of my eyelashes fell out, except for one. ONE! So I plucked that stupid thing. Rebel hair...

How nice it was not to have to shave my legs for a few months. Normally, after just one day I'm stubbly.

When I asked my male, bald co-workers if their heads just randomly started to sweat and they looked at me like I was crazy. Then later, when my chemo nurse told me that I was having hot flashes... OH.... heh...

And when my old boss asked me why I'd shaved my head when we were in a meeting, because he had no clue I was battling cancer (and apparently that idea hadn't dawned on him. "Ok... Wendy had a baby, then shaved her head... that's odd...")

Or when I "dedicated" songs to cancer... like Christina Aguilera's Fighter. (Makes me that much stronger, Makes me work a little bit harder, It makes me that much wiser, So thanks for making me a fighter)

And when I'd cry all the way home from work because it was the only time I was by myself and didn't have to be "strong" for everyone else. Then I'd listen to Beautiful (also by Christina) and see how far I could get into the song before just totally losing it. I was beautiful... and bald.

And the people I met along the way, and am still meeting, because of cancer... wow... amazing people.

But still, I'd like very much not to do it again. Five... almost six... years out from all treatment. My fingers are crossed!!