hand eye crafts

My husband was an Aries. My daughter is a Gemini. My son is a Libra. Today would have been my husband's 65th birthday.

By my fingernails.  Which are slowly breaking, one by one. Making this: out of this:

Having a monumentally bad day.  Inside, I'm screaming, "What is the point of going on?"  Keeping it inside is setting off waves of panic attacks.  And if I type about it anymore, things will get worse. So let me type something that I found the other day.  A while ago, the magnificent Stephen Fry published a book called  The Ode Less Travelled , which helped its readers write all different types of poetry.  I found my workbook from when I read the book, and am rather fond of the following. We were called upon to finish "Fry's Ballad," which began thusly (my contributions in bold): Now gather round and let me tell The tale of Danny Wise: And how his sweet wife Annabelle Did suck out both his eyes. And if I tell the story true And if I tell it clear There's not a mortal one of you  Won't shriek in mortal fear. For Annabelle was fair of face, A comely shape and size. She won young Danny with her grace, But everything was lies. Her...

Riley is home.  And eating some of her dry food.  We still have to syringe-feed her canned food, and there are pills to be given, but she is here and she looks so, so very much better. The funny thing is, she has never eaten canned food.  My mother never fed it to her because her previous owners never did, and we never fed it to her because Mama never did.  And here's everybody forcing it on her.  She was probably glad to see that crunchy stuff in her own dish.

Riley is now at our vet, and will be until at least Friday.  She is showing signs of improvement: she's noticeably less jaundiced, has gained a couple of ounces, has less bilirubin in her urine.  They're still having to feed her with a syringe, but that is SO much better than a feeding tube.  We miss her, but would prefer she stay with them until she is completely stable. In addition to calling off all my travel plans for the rest of the year, I've also cancelled acupuncture for the time being.  I wasn't having the best luck with it anyway, but that's another weekly cost that     would have eaten away at the money I have. And I'm still looking high and low for a job.  Without any luck.  Wonder if I qualify for unemployment again? Just bought this bead from my friend Shannon.  Not so clear in the photo, but the "sky" is swirly purple, like a storm.  Just gorgeous, and so me.  The plan is to make it into a pendant. ...

Riley, my mom's cat whom we adopted, is in the vet hospital as I type, receiving treatment for "fatty liver disease."  She hadn't been herself for several days, and last night, we decided we should take her to the emergency vet.  They kept her overnight, gave her IV fluids, then we picked her up this morning and took her to our vet.  She (our vet) seemed a little grimmer than the emergency vet, and now Hannah is a wreck.  She's kicking herself for not having said something sooner. We've got 24 - 48 hours without her, as the doctors drip more fluids and see if she will eat.  She'd become almost skeletal, and, handily, the treatment for this is food.  We are hoping she'll be able to eat on her own, or with the help of a syringe.  Worst case scenario is a feeding tube. The bill last night was $630.  No telling what a few days at our vet will be.  I do know my monthly visits will have to be off for the rest of the year.  At least I ...

Right now, I am going through as bad an emotional spell as I have since I was suicidal.  No hope, no energy, constant worry. I don't want to lay it off on the acupuncture, but after each session I've had, I've been immobilized --- the first time by physical pain, this time by emotional.  I just stare straight ahead, unable to move, unable to find a reason to move. And blogging about it is iffy, as I already feel that I've scared away friends who had once stood steadfastly by me, but lately, have been nowhere to be found.  If I were crying wolf, I'd get it.   But I'm not.

Second acupuncture session today, and it was a disaster.  The needles, the cupping caused pains that made it difficult to breathe.  One needle to my hand sent electricity through my fingers.  One needle in my foot, in a place that one was last time, caused me to gasp in pain. Then, all of a sudden, I was crying.  Not just tears leaking out of my eyes.  Huge, racking sobs.  I couldn't stop. If I can't even endure the treatment, how will I ever get well?

Finn has the oddest habit of grabbing shoes when someone comes in the house.  Not when someone is leaving , and needs to put shoes on , but when they're coming in. When you adopt a rescued pet, you wonder (or at least I do) what kind of life they had before.  Finn was definitely trained to "stand up" and have his leash put on.  I wonder if this shoe thing was part of his training, too. Sort of a quiet weekend.  Hannah worked both days.  I got a good amount of knitting done.  Briton  came over last night to watch "The Walking Dead."  Obligatory Daryl photo now: I spent a whole lot of time looking up and printing out patterns.  I've got a sock and a scarf on the needles right now: the scarf courtesy of Roxanne .  A while back, she sent me two skeins of Chunky Mochi  (color 817), and one of the patterns I came across was a scarf pattern calling for --- you guessed it --- two skeins of Chunky Mochi. Got a follow-up appo...

Apparently, some parts of Georgia got snowfall today.  Nothing here.  Completely unfair. One week out from my acupuncture treatment.  I've had a headache every day (but two) since.  I'm doing as much as I can with the new dietary requirements, but can't, and really don't plan to, switch over wholly.  More fruits and vegetables, not a problem.  All the fermented stuff?  A bit more problematic.  And, as much as I try, I just cannot  drink the amount of water she suggested.  I'm drinking more than I used to, but not near as much as I'm "supposed to."  Did you know each person is supposed to drink, in ounces, half their body weight in water every day.  Not that 8-glasses-a-day rule.  That's outdated and uncool. Some random sentences generated by this artist's book I'm following: "A stitch is dropped --- the sweater won't be born." "The fan spins clockwise, moving air around." "From nose to knees, ...