Well, isn't that a kick in the pants

Update : Oct 14, 2009

Yeah well, that was just plain rude to say the least for me to just drop off the face of the planet like that but I have a (somewhat) legitimate reason for it.

I've been sick. Not the kind of sick that requires a trip to the hospital but the kind of sick that makes you dread getting up to make dinner or even climb out of bed in the morning. Sounds like depression doesn't it? Well that is one of the off shoots of Celiac disease (the inability of the body to process gluten found in wheat, rye and barley.

These particular problems (G. I. issues, general malaise, some depression- more on *that* later.) I've had to deal with in one form or another for as far back as I can remember. After reading Molly Wiezenberg's wonderful Orangette blog and through that Shauna James Ahern's Guten Free Girl blog, the light bulb clicked on and I did some digging around of my own. So that's what been the matter for oh around 40 (!) years!

I went to the doctor and got the blood test as well as some other tests he wanted to do including for thyroid problems (oh joy!). And guess what they all came back negative! "No worries" he says, "we'll do a biopsy of your small intestine." (!?) "We-eeel okay I guess, but when can you do that?" "Three weeks from now." he said cheerfully. "So I'll have to keep on eating gluten for at least another three weeks so as not to skew the test results?" "Yup" "Tell you what Doc, how about I just go gluten free and call you back in three weeks to let you know if it's working or not?" He considered for a moment and said "That works too" So I did and it did (work that is) and I've been gluten free ever since the 1st of September.

Shows you how much damage had been done over the course of 45 yrs though, it's taken this long for all the different symptoms to finally clear up.

Now if I can only figure out GF yeast bread.....

Me Himself and I

Himself and I, circa August 2007

April 16th was our 25th wedding anniversary. Honestly I must have blinked, because I just can't realize it. But I still think that the smartest thing I ever did was to marry that sweet man.

Here's some pics of us then and notice how young and svelte we *were*! Sigh I was an atractive young woman once, *before* the children came!

Us in May 1984. That's the Golden Gate Bridge
I was 4 months along with Oldest Son

Me circa April 1983, Oaknoll Naval Hospital,

Oakland, Ca.

Himself (he was a Corporal at the time)
On the flightline at NAS Alameda, July 1983

wish me luck

So now I'm starting something that I always dreamed of doing. I'm planning out a spring wardrobe. (and in the fall it will be my new winter wardrobe) I know who does stuff like that anymore? But I've always wondered if the Good Lord didn't plunk me down into the wrong era. I love any and all things, vintage and antique from books and magazines, comic strips
clothing, recipes and especially interior design.

I have to laugh at all the folks who are reacting to the economy like it's another Great Depression. Honey this ain't no depression. When unemployment goes to 25% and milk is $6.00 a gallon then I'll start paying atention to the gloom and doom talk.

So what's this got to do with sewing a new wardrobe? (Shrugs) It's what you did when you didn't have the money to buy a whole new set of clothes every season. Until the late sixties that is when the feminazies (Do Not get me started about those, ahem, *ladies*) decreed that all home arts especially cooking, knitting and sewing were degrading to women and the only way to restore our dignity was to stop doing them (or get even with those awful men and make them do them) I'm also convinced that we have become so prosperess as a country that we've become lazy. Why sew something when it's so much easier to go to the mall and buy it?

(Shakes head)


Anyway, hopefully I'll have my dress cut out by tonight and the skirt I'm crocheeting will be done by next week at the latest, then I need to start on the shawl to match and pick out the patern for the camisole to go with it. Then we'll see about a skirt and blouse a well.

(And if Ican cheese off some "feminazies" in the mean time even better!)

the Best Place to Begin is at the Begining.....

So now that the weather has finally turned warm again (yes Shay it actually does get cold down here in north Florida in the winter time.) Himself and I are actually turning our thoughts to all the renovating and redecorating we need to do around here. Why do I always think of the Mickey Mouse cartoon "Boat Builders" when I think of us doing any kind of DIY? "All you gotta do is put it together!"

Cats, it's their world we just live in it.

Okay, so ours isn't the most fabulously expensive house on the cul-de-sac and my (note - MY) doodad room isn't the most fashionably decorated doodad room in the country but it's *our* house and that's *my* rocking chair in *my* doodad room! So how come I can get everyone including Only Daughter (who is finally reconciled to the fact that it is indeed a for real live Doodad room and no longer her bedroom) to understand that but the cats??

Sigh.......

updating vintage patterns

I've been collecting a wonderful old needlework magazine called Needlecraft The Home Arts magazine and have been working on updating some of their old patterns. (Some of the yarn companies they recommend have gone out of business) And besides, the old needle and yarn sizes; as well as names; have been changed as well. For example - what exactly is Shetland Floss?

Any way I found an adorable Dolly's Trousseau from the November 1932 issue and have had a real dickens of a time tracking down the old school Alice in Wonderland embroidery pattern the little tablecloth and knapkins called for. Well I finally found it here: http://www.patternbee.com/CQ150.html. It's too bad that magazine is defunct. I could have made a killing in free stuff they awarded for selling subscriptions.

So just *what* is a doodad, and why would you need a room to put it in?

I guess maybe I should start with an explaination as to just what a doodad is. That started several years ago while we were visiting my husband's (I affectionately refer to him as Himself online) 95 y.o. grandmother in Kentucky. I had brought some crocheting along and was sitting on the couch talking to grandma when himself came in and plopped down on the other end, sprawled out and promptly stuck his foot in the box I keep sewing notions in. I sighed and *looked* at him as only a wife of over twenty years can look at her significant other. He *looked right back. (Ha! A twenty year veteran in the USMC isn't going to intimidate easily especialy when it comes to his wife and her *stuff*) "Can you move that stuff?" he growled. "Stuff?" I asked darkly. "Yeah your stuff," he took the box and shook it (completely messing it up after I had just organized it -again.) "I don't know what all theses doodads are. " "They're sewing notions" I said and yanked the offending box out of his hands before he messed it up even more, and ignoring how grandma was *not* laughing at us.
Anyway, my love of all things needlecraft related quickly turned into an obsession. And with the children grown and finally leaving the nest I was able to pounce and grab my daughter's old room for my craft (or as we say Doodad) room (the doodad box was quickly out grown and a plastic bin was brought in to hold all of my yarn and crafting supplies, then another to hold just the yarn! LOL I guess it could be worse I could have taken up rugby!
Anyway, I now have my own sanctum sanctorum as it were and both Himself and I are supremely happy. We both watch what we want when we want on tv with no sighing or eye rolling from either of us and I can work and read into the night with out keeping him up. An important consideration since he gets up at 4 in the morning to leave for work at 4:30.
And here I thought when he retired from the Corps we would have it so much easier.