Good Morning StarBright

5:30 am - Alarm goes off. Up and about we begin getting the family ready for their drive home to Indianapolis and St. Louis. Hmmm, you think maybe I could go back and take a nap. Nope, once awake and up, yup, I stay up and have a cup of coffee.

Just want to say one thing about the video with Aaron that was posted yesterday. When Aaron comes to his Auntie M's place he gets bear hugs. Yes, he has Asperger's Syndrome and he tolerates my bear hugs. In the video you will notice that I come up behind him and put my hand on this shoulder. He handled that so well because he was in the "moment" acting and it was not real. Aaron has just moved into an apartment on his own and travels throughout Missouri giving presentations on "Living with Asperger's Syndrome."

Finding Kansas will be released again in April 2012, and I love this quote by Dr. Keith Schaefer, Director, Missouri Department of Mental Health, "Aaron Likens may be the most courageous, intelligent and tenacious young man I have met in my long tenure in the mental health field. Being profoundly touched by Asperger's Syndrome, he is fiercely determined to better understand himself and the world around him."

Yes, I am very proud of my Aaron. OK, now back to .... Thanksgiving is still up and won't be "taken down" for at least a week. Yes, the same oh same oh - am I gonna pull out the Christmas decorations from under the stairs this year? I can honestly say I don't know... Maybe not this year since I really do want to get this place cleaned out of its clutter and the clutter given away to let others enjoy it. Remember the closet,

Doesn't look that way right now. Right before family showed up last Tuesday, I had to start hauling the leftover stuff into it but I also now plan to pull each item out and deal with it now. Time ran out and thanks to all of you sending me your comments on FaceBook and here on this Blog, I feel OK with it and not overwhelmed! Progress not Perfection as they say.

Right now it is 11:00am and we have had a shower, cleaned the kitchen, and am now on laundry load # 2. On a roll, on a roll and hopefully will keep rolling on today.....

While my brother was here, he did work for his food.  Got me a new fantastic kitchen faucet, (looks like we can play beauty shop with that sprayer - oh yeah),

Got the laundry sliding door fixed along with a new light switch.....I am now starting to make a list for next year. Don't want to forget why I started this blog.... so onto some art work for you... been a while and these items were created years ago.... First of all is a Thanksgiving clock I made in order to submit to Somerset Holidays (and no it was not selected which has nothing to do with anything...),

And then a "place card" using a Martha Steward "gobble gobble gobble"... She (the stamp not Martha) is one of my favorite stamps which I used a lot in years past .....

And again for this Thanksgiving, the Christmas Cactus did not disappoint.....

Have a great day.... I am still hanging out in my "Fight Like A Girl" lounging pants while keeping the cleaning going for a few more hours and then it is into the recliner with mindless TV going on, my kind of day!

And one more thing about my new iPhone.... I have discovered iSpeak, man oh man, words I think I am typing are not the words I am typing. For example, left a post on FaceBook for my niece which was suppose to say, "What a joy it was to spend Thanksgiving with my precious niece. . ." It came out in iSpeak as, "What a joy it was to spend Thanksgiving with my previous niece. . ." to which she responded, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated - Mark Twain" As to why I am not turning the auto-correct off? - it is way to convenient .... even with words getting all mussed up.... Hey, I don't have to blame me for my senility - just the iPhone.... Have I told you how much i love my iPhone lately - yes it is a little senile....

The Chaos that was Thanksgiving

Days spent with family are always exciting in more ways than one. Preparing the holiday turkey, setting the table, figuring out where everyone will sit at a table for four and trying fitting eight chairs around it. This Thanksgiving we added my niece, Kim, and her son (my great-nephew) Caden, to the mix. As you know, my nephew, Aaron has Autism - Aspergers - and his worse nightmare happens at Thanksgiving when he sees his aunt's (that would be me) and his father's (that would be my brother) Thanksgiving plates.  Aaron has written a book called, Finding Kansas, which is interesting since I have a door mat that says, "you're not in Kansas anymore:":



His book featured on the right side of this blog has been picked up by Penguin Books and you can see information on it at this link: Finding Kansas. You can also pre-order the book at that link.

So, let's begin now with the back story - as they say in television.  The day started out early (especially if you go to bed late, "early" is relevant) with me getting this 20 pound turkey in the oven:

And the turkey in the oven at last,

And before you know it, turkey carved, everything out of the oven, let the feast begin:  

Brother, Jim

Nephew Aaron

Great Nephew, Caden, Jim, and Niece, Kim

Along with Phil, Larcy, and Oliver make it to the table,

OK, can't just do one of Oliver as we all know,

As you remember from the video, here is Aaron's plate in all of its organized glory,

WAIT - that could be Larcy's plate..... yes, can you see the two lime green plates interspersed with mother's china? And wouldn't you know, Larcy escaped without her photo being taken however she is in the video!... 

That was our Thursday and another thanksgiving meal in the bag - yes, the turkey was in the bag this year and very juicy, if I say so myself..... Friday, Aaron and I sent Jim, Caden, and Kim downtown DC while we chilled out here in the suburbs and had our Thanksgiving tradition of going to the Game Stop..... yes, every Thanksgiving, Aaron and I head over there.

So with our Saturday comes another tradition - a movie - we will be headed off to see Hugo, in 3-D and our Saturday is still young...... Dearest Brother has done is annual chores around the condo: put in a new faucet in the kitchen, fixed my downstairs toilet, and just finished fixing a sliding door upstairs. Life is good.  See you tomorrow,

Send in the Clowns, Please

Today, yes, we did need to send in the clowns .... Been working all day on the craft room. Still throwing out trash, made a trip to the Goodwill, and more stuff placed in the "donate" piles. I feel good as I yawn.

I have had this wonderful box for a long time.....

Decided it would work in the laundry area - you can see it since the sliding door is waiting for my brother to show up for Thanksgiving. He will need to either help me get it back in the "ruts"and "grooves" or it will be tossed. Couldn't do it myself. It is a heavy piece of wood.....

So with this being opened, it forced me to clean the area and lots went to the Goodwill - clean clothes in a laundry basket - a second basket -- not the one you see with clean towels......

The bathroom looked like hoarders heaven - Larcy and Pup Oliver stopped by - we decided it was a hoarders haven since you were not using the room for its original purpose. . . yup, couldn't raise that lid with all the junk on it.

Larcy:  Where did the stuff come from?  Me:  Remember last Thanksgiving with my surgeries and how we threw all the stuff into the closet without any sorting? Larcy:  yes. Me:  In order to begin organizing I had to drag all those "bags" out of the closet and put them somewhere and the bed was not available!

Bed looks much much better now.... yes, it does, I just don't wanna get up and go take a photo of it! I am lounging remember! LOL. Have a great evening! I am having salmon and steamed veggies for dinner. Getting ready to work on the cross stitch again. Just remember as we begin our new week,

Keep on smiling!

Getting ready for the Thanksgiving Visitors

For those of you who have followed me for years, you know that I am visited each Thanksgiving by my brother and nephew (who is also my godson). This year we have the pleasure of my niece and her son joining the fray! Which means I will be cooking a turkey for Jim, Aaron, Kim, Caden, Larcy/Phil/Oliver. We will have a grand time. The only stress I always always have is getting the craft room ready so Aaron will have a bed. YES, every year we go down this road. But this year is a little different. I am taking time to purge, clean, and store the stuff instead of throwing in a closet at the last minute in order for a room that Aaron can walk into.

So, with Elizabeth (Altered Book Lover) in my head:  "like things with like things" and Terri (Artful Affirmations) sending me photos of her studio as she cleans, I have been inspired to keep plugging away. Terri wrote me this week and told me she felt like she had almost 50% done BUT it didn't look like it. BAM - I knew what she meant and probably why I always get frustrated and start tossing things in the closet.

After viewing her photos, and yes, she did manage to get me to open the door last Saturday so she could take a look, I have been working all day on that room - all day - and tomorrow will be doing the same. Here is where my binding machines and coils are living at the moment...... All together in one spot! Yes, you do see the Bind-It-All, the Rubicoil, and the Clinch..... geez, and I need three because.... the one you don't see is the little 7 Gypsies Binderie.

I have craft stuff to donate and luckily have a place to drop it off at, I have stuff for the Goodwill, and I have carted out trash all day.  Here is the craft stuff:

And Goodwill:

My mantra right now is -- let someone else enjoy it for awhile! OK, I admit it, I am a little tired tonight and am planning on doing some cross stitch after I finish this post.

And, last but not least - I never let you all see the last two ATC cards in the alphabet series.  A and B. A = Amour and B = Bats

I know this is a little off kilter but that is me at the moment! LOL My mind is still upstairs toss and purging, OH my! AND of course, learning to use my new white beautiful 4s iPhone..... yes, I crossed over and kissed the BlackBerry Good Bye....

Friends are the Zest of Life

Been quite a busy time for me the last two weeks. Working a lot of days in a row, playing some tennis, working out, and finally doing a little bit of creating thanks to a visit by a blog friend. Years ago growing up I had a pen pal. I was in high school and right now I can't tell you where my pal was from or what her name was. But I remember how fun it was to have a pen pal. And then along came -- blogs. A form of pen pals but I do believe you get so much closer since at times blog becomes a journal online. I certainly know over the years I have told you all more things than I could have ever imagined sharing when I began.

This weekend I was blessed with a visit from a dear friend who I met for the first time. We spent 12 hours together on Saturday beginning at the hotel in the Reston Town Center. Terri and I met about 3 years ago over at PaperWhimsy. She has a beautiful blog called Artful Affirmations. This one blog has taken off and I encourage you to follow her. We started our day out with shopping, eating lunch, and then heading to my place where we had a fun time creating together. We also discovered we like the same authors and the same shows. Hmmmmmmm, we had never discussed this before in any communications we had prior to her visit.

I had a handmade book made a couple of years ago that I needed to begin painting. I began with gessoing a number of pages and then spreading paint on a number of pages randomly. In our travels shopping  we stopped at Anthropology where I found some fascinating gift wrap......

In my heart of heart I was hoping it would "run" when I played with it. It is sturdy, peeps, sturdy,

Started to do some stamping on it. This is a Leonardo DaVinci book and so I had all of my stamps set aside for working in this journal, glad I didn't have to go looking for them, (yes the craft room is still a random accident in the universe waiting to happen)......

So I can always remember that the first two pages in this journal were done while Terri and I had tea and coffee and a great visit in my dining room.

Larcy and Oliver Pup came over to visit.

After our creation time, we headed off to dinner and a play.  Had tickets to see the Elden Street Players presenting A Midsummer Night's Dream. Excellent dinner and  play  made more fun when we caught up with other friends. We celebrated Mary's birthday,

And do tell, she and Terri are from the same home town in Michigan. Holy Cow! LOL So those two had a great visit about the old home grounds. The play was a hoot, you can tell from the set....

I took a photo of the floor with my phone and although dark you get the idea of the beautiful flowing colors,

The night ended when I dropped Terri back at her hotel. Yes, 12 hours went by so quick. What a great weekend! And now back to creating! Am I'm back, probably...... just need to get back into my routine........ Hugs, peeps.....