Quiet Sundays

Wordless Wednesday

Playing with Concrete

I've been playing with concrete for the last few weeks.

Here's my first rhubarb leaf . . .

One Year. A Melanoma Update

It's been a year since I was first diagnosed with melanoma and many things have changed in my life.

I've had two operations, one of them major. I've had check ups, physiotherapy and more moles removed.

I spent months hanging out in my chair recuperating.

I was given the amazing news that I was cancer free.

 I went to the Northwest garden show with Tamara, held a plant sale, attended my first blog conference and enjoyed various adventures around the city as I became more and more mobile.

I took pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

I signed up for several courses on a variety of topics.

I gardened. A lot. Seriously. Whaaay more than I ever dreamed of!

It's been a year.

My faith is stronger and my doubts and fears are weaker.

My leg will never be the same but most days it lets me do what I want to do.

I still get tired faster than I'd like, although, I constantly fool myself into thinking that my energy is limitless. . .

Would I change anything???

No.

There were many hard, scary things. Some things are still hard and scary.

God has brought me through this year with tender loving care. He was always with me. He is still with me.

What I received far outweighs what I lost.

To celebrate another year I wanted to do something beautiful. Something unusual. Something that would fill me with joy as I was reminded of God's faithfulness.

I choose mehendi.

Henna. It's an ancient art that has been used for centuries upon centuries in celebrations on the Asian subcontinent and thought to originate in Egypt.

Nicole came with me. It's been twelve years since she was first diagnosed with melanoma. She too is cancer free.

Nitasha, our talented henna artist.

The paste is starting to dry.

Isn't it beautiful?!

Nicole choose something small for her leg as she had a family wedding to go to a few days later.

Trying to keep the dried paste from falling off was tricky as we enjoyed drinks on Whyte ave.

Wrapping my arms in paper towel and saran wrap. No washing for 24 hours. Someone else will have to do the dishes!

The finished product after the paste was removed and it had had a few days to darken.

 This just makes me so happy every time I look at it!

It's beautiful, hand crafted art. A reminder of the many blessings that have been showered on me this past year.

I'm pretty sure it's going to become an annual event.

I'm off to B.C. early tomorrow morning. I get to stay for a week, visit with my sisters and hopefully have an adventure or two.

I'm not sure if I will be able to post while I'm gone. It will all depend on my ability to get to a computer with a good internet connection. Tamara's is has been very temperamental in the past so we will see. I will post pictures on Facebook though . . .

  If you 'like' A life of Whimsey's Facebook page  you can share in my adventures.

Otherwise I'll be back next Monday!

I've stopped hyperventilating . . . or . . .Making Progress

Some of you may have noticed that my blog's been down.

You've been sent to a weird page that is definitely not A Life of Whimsey!

Just when I thought that the switch from one domain host to another was going smoothly . . . disaster!

And no idea on how to fix it!

I've got a call out to Jana but as you can imagine she's a busy woman and I started panicking at the thought of all these people (all 3 of you  ;D ) continuing to find this weird page every time you came to visit.

Morgan suggested that a good friend of his might know how to solve the problem and . . . we hope . . . it has been solved.

It will take 24 hours give or take before we know.

Fingers crossed.

Or. . . much more effective . . . prayers are going up.

Decluttering My Basement . .(Shudder!!!)

I am a small time hoarder.

Most of our married life we have been on a tight budget and each new (to us) thing we brought into our home was precious because we had so little to start with.

Both Henry and I look at stuff (i.e. junk) and see potential for . . . something.

The thing is, we will be celebrating our 29th (gulp) anniversary this fall and after 29 years we've seen a lot of junk coming  in and not a whole lot has going out. After all . . . what if I need it???

The time has come, however to look my hoard in the eye and get ruthless. Free myself from all the stuff that jams up my hallways and leaves me feeling like my house is never, ever truly clean.

The time has come to stop cringing inside every time the kids head downstairs with their friends and wanting to shout down after them "I'm not really a messy person!"

So I've decide to call in the Big Gun. To enlist the help of the most organized person I know.

My good friend Joyce has volunteered to give up a few days of her precious holiday time to help me conquer the beast.

We're going at this Peter Walsh style. Everything in the basement hallways and storage cupboards will go onto the driveway where it will be sorted, condensed and organized within an inch of it's life before going back into the house in an orderly fashion.

And because we are crazy like that, both Joyce and I independently thought about painting the hallways and cupboards (outside only) before putting things back.

I think we may just go for it . . .

I have the best friends ever! If it weren't for Nicole my kitchen would still have ugly brown wood cupboards and without Evelyn the rest  my upstairs would be in even worse shape. (and that's only painting . . . if I had to list everything else friends have done for me over the years, this post would never end.)

I may not blog much this week. Projects like this tend to be all consuming so I expect most of the week I'll be doing quick updates on Facebook rather than here. Feel free to stop by my Life of Whimsey page to check out our progress.

Have a great week everyone and wish us luck! And if you have some free time . . . many hands make light work . . .  ;D You know where to find us!

Also a big thank you to the sweet ladies who offered their hosta and rhubarb leaves so I can keep sculpting this summer. Thank you so much! I'll be by next week . . .

Technical Difficulties!!! Again!

Once again Technology rears her aggravating head!

I just got an e-mail from Google Apps saying I haven't paid for my domain name. (That's my web address)

The asked me to update my info. I tried but couldn't get on to the site.

I have a free account so I can't talk to a person. I can't upgrade to a paid account where I can talk to a person because I can't get on the site!!!

I am in the process of switching to another service provider but it can take up to a week for it to become active.

This means my blog may be down next week.

I hope not . . . there is something we can do that may speed things up but if I'm not here . . . not to worry, I'll be back in a week at the latest!