Halloween Journal..a work in progress

Today..I worked a bit in the garden, did laundry, and decided to work on a Halloween project. This project is another Never Ending Journal with 5 signatures. The covers are made of mat board and covered with handmade paper and the signatures are cardstock.  The pages can be swapped out easily when the signatures are full.
This small journal is far from finished. It is 4 1/2 x 5  3/4. I just thought I would share what I accomplished today. It felt so good to sit and create something.
cover..witching hour Journal
inside cover..tag pocket. The tag needs to be decorated. 1st. signature
  2nd. signature 3rd. signature
4th. signature, but I haven't done anything with it yet, other than add the zig zag orange polka dotted strip down the page.
last signature
left..last signature and back cover with a slash pocket and tag. The tag needs to be decorated.
binding

I also have another Halloween book that I have been working on, but only the mat board pages are covered.

While in the garden today, I snapped a photo of blue dragonfly that had landed on an old piece of white plastic. The dragonfly looks deformed, but if you look closely you will see on the left side it's upper wing is up in the air. It really looks strange doesn't it?

Update on my Dad...Tuesday night my Dad was discharged from the hospital. The nurse called me at 4 P.M., but I didn't get out of the hospital until 7 P.M.    Mom was glad to have Dad home, and Dad was thankful to be home. He is doing well and looks good.
Yesterday, I took my Mom to the doctors, and then I did grocery shopping for my parents. 
Elaine

Some little projects started

First...thank you to those who have left comments and sent emails with prayers for my parents and myself.
I took my mom to visit Dad yesterday afternoon. Dad hasn't got much rest in the hospital, because they are always coming in to draw blood. other than that he is doing well and  has had no further chest pain.
His blood level was 22 when he was admitted, after a unit of blood it went up to 27 but he is still bleeding. Yesterday after we left they were going to hang another unit of blood because the blood was still low.
Dad called me this morning, to let me know that he was waiting for them to wheel him down to have an endoscopy to check his esophagus and stomach to find where he was bleeding. He was in good spirits and wants to come home.
I was planning on taking my mom to the hospital this afternoon, but my brother who had been in Maine wanted to Mom when he went up to see Dad this afternoon. So I decided I would just stay home and just relax. 
Update..Monday evening...during an endoscopy they found the source of my Dad's bleeding. A vein in his stomach. The doctor cauterized the vein. He tolerated the procedure well and is resting in his room. No complaints other than he is tired and his arms and hands are black and blue from so many blood draws.

I haven't attempted any art projects in awhile and wanted to work on some easy and fast projects. I decided to make a few sheets of polished stone paper. I wasn't happy with the results of half of the papers I did. Click on the photo above and below for a better look. I love the papers on the left in both photos, and the papers on the right came out just so so. You just never know how the colors will  turn out until the alcohol and inks dries.

I also cut down several pieces of mat board as I want to make a Halloween themed book. If I don't start working on the book now, it just might not get done. I will start cutting out papers to cover the books pages in just a bit.
That's it for now,
Elaine

My Dad

It has been hectic here for the past several days. My 93 year old Dad had been having chest pains for a few days, and never mentioned it to me. I wasn't happy to find that out. Can't imagine what he was thinking. :-(
About 9 A.M., Friday morning he called me after having chest pain the night before and again that morning. He took nitroglycerin, and I told him to call 9-1-1. I rushed to my parent's house and he was sitting at the table having his breakfast, I asked if he called for the ambulance..Of course he hadn't as he wasn't having pain at that time. He insisted on calling his doctor to see what he would say. I told him the doctor would want him to go the ER.  STUBBORN FINN!!!!

I left to run a few errands, because he was sitting at his desk going thru piles of junk mail and I couldn't convince him to go to the ER and he was pain free at that time. I had waited at the house for over an hour waiting for the doctors call back. ( as a nurse, I told him that he was crazy to wait), but when the office hadn't called back I left to run an errand, because I couldn't get him to listen to me. Awhile later I got a call from my mom's care giver to say that the doctors office finally returned Dad's call and they wanted him to get to the ER. You guessed it...He wasn't budging. He told the care giver that he would ask my older brother what he should do when he came later in the day. ( OMG!!!! can you believe this, I couldn't) Anyway, a few minutes later the care giver called me back and told me he decided to go to the ER. 9-1-1 was called, and I raced back to the house as I wanted to follow the ambulance to the hospital so I could be with him in the ER, because he is so hard of hearing, even with hearing aides in. I stayed all day with Dad and when he finally was transfered to a room I left. I didn't get home until 8:30 p.m.


  At the hospital after doing a rectal exam they found a lot of blood in his stools. From blood test he was extremely anemic. They gave him a shot of Vitamin K and hung an IV with medication to stop the bleeding. After much discussion between the doctors they told him they/he had to make a hard choice..on whether to stop his Coumadin which his level was high at the time. If they stopped the Coumadin he could have a stroke, but if they didn't stop the Coumadin he could have a massive heart attack due to the heart not getting enough oxygen because his blood levels were so low.

Dad decided to stop the Coumadin. The doctors are closely monitoring his blood and coumadin levels, but yesterday the blood levels were still dropping. Dad had no chest pains yesterday, which was a good thing, and he didn't have any other problems. Thank goodness!!!!

I spoke with Dad this morning and he had no chest pain during the night. Today, they are suppose to have a gastro doctor to scope him to see where the bleeding is coming from, but most likely it's in his stomach. Then a cardiologist is to consult to discuss further testing to see what's what. It has been 23 years since his bypass surgery. His pacemaker always tests okay. He is in good spirits.
Dad will probably be in the hospital for several days. He is in a private room on a cardiac floor.  Dad got a unit of packed red blood cells in a transfusion yesterday afternoon. Please keep my dad in your thoughts and prayers, and my mom too as she is very upset that he had to go to the hospital. Any upset is so unsettling for those suffering with Alzheimer's. I went to see Mom yesterday, and got her pills set up for the week in her pill box for the care givers to give to her.
I let ma talk to dad on the phone last night to calm her down, and the care givers dial dads room a few times a day so Mom can talk to him.
I will be taking my Mom to see Dad today.
Elaine

Time for another R&R..getaway

It's after 4 p.m., and I got home a little bit ago. I left the house at 9 this morning to take my parents to doctor appointments, and then grocery shopping. I stayed at their house until 3:30 P.M when the next shift of care givers arrived. I just finished downloading photos from my camera for your viewing pleasure, or at least I hope you like the pictures I took.
I have been away for several days. I decided to go spend some time on Cape Cod with my cousins. My Cape cousins and I had planned on driving out to Ohio to visit another cousin last week, but that didn't work out. I got an invite to spend several days with my cousins on the Cape, and I decided to go. I left the house Friday morning. The weather was iffy and I almost decided not to go, because the forecast called for rain. I'm glad I went as I always have a wonderful time.
a robin singing on a branch of the Mulberry tree in my cousins backyard..Friday
We didn't do much of anything on Saturday and Sunday, because the weather wasn't the greatest..dark, windy and looked like it was going to rain at any minute. So, we stayed in and watched the Olympics. We did get heavy rain that night.
Sunday morning after my cousin delivered flowers to the church we went out for breakfast, and then took a ride to Veteran's Beach, Hyannis. The Hyannis Yacht Club was having a sailing regatta there. Part of the beach was filled with boats waiting to be launched. Catamarans were also racing and there were several of those too.
waiting to be launched
taking turns getting the boats into the water..ocean side
getting the boats into the water. You can see how stormy the sky looked. It was a good day for sailing as their was a stiff wind.
using my zoom lens..the boats were way off in the distance waiting for all the boats to get into the water and to the starting point of the race
  
After all the boats were in the water, we went down the road to Kalmus Beach to see if we could get a better view.
Monday...the weather was absolutely perfect..there was a  breeze, it was sunny and warm with no humidity. We decided to go to Chatham. On our way to Chatham Light, we stopped, parked and walked to stop in the little shops along Main St, Chatham. I had never taken the time to go in the shops. The shops had so many interesting things. Something for every budget.
  
I found this neat Alice in Wonderland wrist watch in Yankee Ingenuity. I am debating on going back to buy this watch.  There were so many wonderful items offered for sale. I loved this store. I also found some Kliban cat items there. I did buy a turquoise bracelet. I usually don't buy jewelry, because I can make it myself.
thought this mirror with lotteria cards was cool. I have several decks of lotteria cards.
  Kliban cat ..cat christmas book

  memory game
I had never noticed that there was a Ben Franklin craft store in Chatham.

We stopped in..the store had a little of everything...art supplies, yarn, house wares, shades, tools, rubber stamps, stickers, scrapbooking supplies and paper, fabric, threads, buttons, embroidery floss, the list goes on and on. Great place to browse and I will be going back.
saw these beautiful hydrangeas on Main St. This hydrangea  was  1/2 dark blue and 1/2 dark purple. So beautiful!

 

In a candy store on Main Street (Candy Manor) , I stocked up on Teaberry chewing gum. I am always delighted when I find this gum I so enjoyed growing up.

We finally got to the Chatham Light Beach. It was low tide when we arrived. Lots of people were on the beach enjoying the gorgeous beach day.
  white caps in the distance, sand, dune grass, small dunes 

you can see the sand bar because it was low tide. The seals were in the shallow waters near the sand bar. Great White sharks had been sighted on Friday near the seals.
seal..head bobbing in the water
I don't have a fancy digital camera but I was able to zoom in enough way out in the water to snap this photo of 3 seals
4 seals resting in the water and on the sand bar
 
After seal watching, we headed to Kate's Seafood and Ice Cream stand for some clam fritters. Kate's is located on Rte.6 - A at Paine's Creek Road, Brewster, MA.

there is another location by the same owners..Liam's, at Nauset Beach Road, East Orleans, MA.
The clam fritters are just the best. The ice cream at Kate's is really good too.
When our order was ready, we went down the road to Paine's Creek Beach, to eat our fritters. The beach area there is great for kids.

Coming home  (Monday afternoon 7.31.2012)
I stopped in another store that I have passed a bazillion times and never stopped. Wonderful displays and great items for sale. I had seen this store featured on a travel channel featuring Cape Cod businesses. Lovely!
Harvest of Barnstable
  beautiful, sunny, brown eyed Susan's near the entrance
shell wreath near the door
 I thought this tree made of Jingle shells and a star fish was pretty, but then again, I love Jingles.                   At Harvest, I bought 2 bracelets. The store is set up beautifully inside with so many wonderful items. Most items are hand crafted on site.
Leaving Harvest, I drove home on 6-A, and stopped to look at fabric at Tumbleweeds Quilt shop. I bought a yard of Day of the Dead fabric below. They also had this fabric in Black and White, but I liked the colorful fabric much better. The only drawback is that it is an all over print. 

I also bought 13- 1/8 th yard pieces of fabric that are rolled and kept in a kids swimming pool (itty bits). Great assortment. I found some fall leaves, beach themed, cat, mice, Christmas, horse and batiks. These small pieces are wonderful for small projects.

I also picked up 2 cowboy boot charms

Leaving Tumbleweeds,  I continued driving on 6-A heading to the Bourne Bridge to get home.
I didn't get very far, on Rte. 6-A, Sandwich, MA., I had to make a stop, as I spotted 2 young osprey sitting on the telephone wires.
Below is the nest on the top of a telephone pole.

  Mama osprey was at the top of tree off in the distance
I couldn't believe it when I saw 2 young osprey that hatched this year sitting on the wires not far from their nest. I parked my vehicle, got out and snapped some photos. It was another gray day with sprinkles of rain coming down every now and again. The birds were still sitting on the wire when I left.


 

I was thrilled to see these young birds. I watched them from the side of the road for about 1/2 hour. click on the photos for better viewing. Seeing these young birds made my day.

My last stop was in Wareham, on Rte. 28..I ran into WalMart and then the Stop n Shop grocery store to pick up a few things before heading home.

I had a wonderful time visiting with my cousins, as I always do.
I hope you enjoyed my photos. I've had pizza dough rising, and now it's time to make pizza for our supper.
Tomorrow, I will make one for my parents and aunt.
Until next time.....

Elaine

Checking in

I've been away for several days. I decided to go visit with my cousin's in Yarmouth, on the Cape. I left Friday morning and got back home late this afternoon. Saturday and Sunday, were just lazy days, as the weather wasn't the greatest. We stayed in and watched the Olympics on TV.

I am still downloading photos that I took while I was away, and hopefully I can get them uploaded in a post tomorrow. I hope you like my new header on my blog. The photo was taken Monday, July 30th, at the beach across the street from the Chatham Lighthouse. There are white capped waves in the background, and rosa rugosa wild roses in the left front of the photo.

 Until tomorrow,
Elaine