Your Cards ... Aren't In The Post ... And Why I love Blogging ...

So here we have the painting I did for our Christmas card this year

I picked one of my favourite ornaments

and painted up the blues of the skies and water to warm those of you in freezing weather

It was going to be great and I was going to follow up last year's epic efforts

 I had grand plans to send them out to each and every one of the generous souls

who have made the last six months so much easier

and there have been a hugely humbling number of you

like truly heart achingly incredible support that brings me to tears on a regular basis

but did I get very far... nope

am I bloody hopeless ... yep

but does it mean I treasure any of you any less... not on your sweet nellies people

so this is in lieu of a card this year

you get a look at what I didn't send... bit ordinary when I have been so blessed.

but better than nothing I figure

and at the end of the day you all know I am slightly hopeless at a lot of these things

and even without the whole breast cancer crap

the chances of me getting cards out two years running was going to be slim...

So I am sending you all magic vibes for spectacular presents

not a slipper sock, ugly sweater or foot spa in sight for any of you

unless you like that sort of thing

 in which case I don't quite know what to say... slipper socks ... really????

I hope all your cleaning fairies turn up and your houses magically clean themselves

my bloody fairies are still on an epic bender getting trashed somewhere

but if you see them out and about tell them to get their lazy fairy butts back here!!!!

May all the feasts look like they belong on tv or in some mad cook book

and be completed with out a single need to cry quietly in the corner of the bomb zone that was previously your kitchen

but most importantly go into the mad festivities of Christmas week

knowing that you have made a difference in my life in ways you will never appreciate

and that I feel humbled and blessed to have you by our side

 helping Phantom Steve, Sinus Man, Mushu the wonder mutt and I though this crazy time

I have no clue how I would have got through it all without you

so thank you from the bottom of my overflowing heart

and have the safest and most spectacular holiday season ever!!!!

A few hours later after posting I now sit here

only just recovered from 20 bloody minutes of unrestrained sobbing at the sheer incredible and overwhelming generosity of my dear dear friends over at PPF

Kristin and Eva have hosted a surprise tea party for me and people have created the most extraordinary artworks and posts

so if you want to know why I blog... just pop over to PPF and you will get it totally

these people are the most generous, extraordinary , supportive community

coming home to this today has made me to cry to a point where I couldn't even bloody speak

 which caused both poor Phantom and Sinus have a small panic

at seeing me so awash... I adore my blogging family so much

thank you all so much... I honestly don't know how I would get through this without you all ... seriously... best Christmas ever!!!!

A Nod To The Nog ...

I try to stay away from the controversial here on the blog

so no politics, religion or the freakin Kardashians

but today I am veering into slightly risky territory

and discussing that most divisive of seasonal beverages

Egg Nog ...or The Nog as it is affectionately named around here 

and I know just the sight of it will have some of you rolling eyes and gagging slightly

while others will be licking lips and thinking nutmeg scented thoughts at the sight of it

I just hope you don't judge me too harshly for tipping my hat to the dreaded stuff

Don't worry that I have gone all Martha Stewart on you

and been in the kitchen whipping up jugs of the stuff

not on your Nelly ... oh no  we aren't talking lovely home made here people

we are talking the store bought , out of a carton, has the slight whiff of plastic about it stuff

and in the past I have never been a huge fan, not a hater but more of a take it or leave it deal

maybe one or two laced with some brandy over the course of Christmas and I am set

which is a good thing as I am quite the light weight when it comes to alcohol

does Glug, Glug, Woohoo ring a bell with some of you...

anyway this year it has all changed and I am in love with the bloody stuff

for some reason when all else is impossible to face to eat or drink

and my stomach is doing those delightful chemo somersaults that I loathe so much

the nog sorts it... just one little glass cold out of the fridge

and I am sighing like I have been sipping the nectar of the gods

and just to clarify in case you are thinking I am in permanent glug glug woohoo territory

we are talking unadulterated, virgin nog here

just thought I should clear that up in case you had visions of a lop sided, bald woman singing bad 80's pop tunes at 1 pm in the afternoon

Even better is the combination of the nog with this little gem

it is a Zoku slushy maker and it is crazy marvelous

so in the heat of our Summer days and when the flush of chemo hits I just fill her up with nog

and presto I have a nog slushy... well as long as you don't sneak icy sips

and give it time to actually slushify... which is a great new word right

it is truly a wondrous thing

So I have crossed the divide and it is nog all the way through to Christmas baby

I am trying to not think about what will happen when the season passes

and it disappears from the shelves

I will be nog less ... which isn't going to be pretty

or may force me to actually make the stuff from scratch.... or to play the cancer card and make Phantom be the dutiful daughter and make it for me

either way I think this might be just the thing to see me through to the end of chemo

weird I know

but better than the 10 weeks of not being able to stomach chocolate

that was just cruel

So as you read this I will probably be lying around

and scooping my slushy nog with a smile on my face

or maybe at my desk contemplating just what happened to this Cuppa with Friends piece

which was a fab mug emailed in from Lori 

It just didn't quite work the way I wanted it to

it might have to be revisited when I am not on such a sugar high from all the nog 

and when I don't have a brain freeze from the said stuff being slushified

or whatever other lame excuse I can come up with

So I leave you with my nod to the nog

and wish you all a great week...xx

Mug for the Cuppa With Friends Project from Lori over at The Paisley Turtle

Just Call Me Patchy ...

Tea cup from Jana at Tangled Pen

It would appear that patchiness is the order of the day at the moment

because in yet another joy that comes with chemotherapy

 I have lost parts of my eyebrows, not all of them... just most of them

which is hilarious in some ways, and bloody awful in others

for a couple of weeks I had just lost half of one 

so I looked like I had been the victim of some mad practical joke

but then bit by bit most of the others went out in sympathy... 

Phantom keeps threatening to stick fake mustaches over my eyes while I sleep one day

so the first thing I do when ever I wake up now is madly clutch above my eyes

to check to see if she has done it

cheeky sod is doing my head in

tea cup from Pat at Artfully Ooglebloops

So while my eyebrows fell out bit by bit... and eyelashes people...

 did I mention that... those suckers fell out too

I am somehow getting some fuzz on my head... I have like a five o'clock shadow on my dome

now some weeks this shadow falls out after my weekly dose

and others it hangs around... no rhyme nor reason

and not all of it falls out... like the brows and lashes... I have crazy, stubborn patches

 while other patches seem to fling themselves out of my head with great abandon

one day I wake up and it looks like someone has been shaving on my pillow

and the next week it hangs in there... bizarre... but kind of exciting too

I never know what I am going to look like from week to week

Mug from Boo from Stamp, Laugh Play

Following on with the patchy theme is that I finally got back to my

Cuppa With Friends Project

I didn't abandon it intentionally or mean to take such a break

and while part of me would like to say that I was associating it with my breast cancer diagnosis

because I was in the midst of it all when it happening

I know that I am just not that deep ... nothing wrong with being a shallow pool

and distraction got the better of me over the last few months

but I got back to it and completed these three new ones over the last two weeks

hardly settling the project back on fire, but I have another two started 

and it feels good to be back at it

even though I am a bit rusty on the drawing of handles

the first two were conveniently chosen due to lack of handles to ease me back into it

If you haven't emailed me a mug or a cup yet then get to it

who knows when I will get distracted again

The desk is now beckoning me to move my patchy haired head away from the computer

and get stuck into the hydrangeas I have had drawn up for a week

not the cups I have started... did I mention I get distracted!!!

the blooms on the plant are looking a bit patchy and faded in the summer heat

 so I had better get to it before they go the way of the hairs on my head

and they drop their insanely pink blooms completely 

have a great painting week everyone... xx

PS  ... a totally non patchy happening this week was that I won a spot in Soul Food

courtesy of Kristin Powers ... which totally made the week a great one ... excited to get started ... check out the link over on Kristin's blog if you want some info ...