favorite ornaments

I am sharing some of my favorite ornaments this week for 

A Favorite Thing Saturday.

Of course there must be dogs.

I found this darling little girl at a Teddy Bear Show
in San Diego many years ago.

Three charming Natalie Salitch angels.

Love these little girls found at a home craft show years ago.
The one in the foreground is carrying a dollie and her friend
has a stack of Christmas fabrics.

This is my tree top angel I made for my first tree,
in my very first house in 1978 or 1979.
It's the first counted cross stitch I ever did
and I was terrified.

These may be my absolute favorites. I bought them in 1976 or 1977. 

I got them at this wonderful teeny tiny hole-in-the-wall shop in 

Santa Monica that sold ornaments from all over the world. I wish I
could remember which country they're from??? 

Wishing everyone the very merriest of Christmases!

Joining in A Favorite Thing Saturdays with Claudia at Mockingbird Hill Cottage.

a christmas memory

When I was very little, my brother and I would sleep together in the same bed on Christmas Eve because we were so excited and thought it would be fun. I adored my brother so very much and he was my hero.  (He passed away the day after Christmas in 1995, so the holidays are always difficult.)

One year there we were and I was on the verge of sleep and I heard outside of our bedroom window, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night"!  

Santa! 

I mean it must have been my father but ... it sure didn't sound like my father. I can remember that sweet memory to this day and I do believe that I heard Santa :)

 (I used to scrapbook - I did this page about ten years ago or more for a scrapbook group I was in.)

Not believe in Santa Claus!
You might as well not believe in fairies!
~ Francis Pharcellus Church
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

 

christmas cards

Christmas cards I gave long (long!) ago ...

Guessing this was my Kindergarten Christmas card?

Love how I wrote my name ... the two LL's in Sally

are below the SAY and then I wrote two letters of my last name.

This must be first or second grade???

 

These have to be from third grade, 

as my best friend taught me how to write the 

letter S in cursive in our third grade class.

So much fun to travel back and catch a glimpse of your childhood self!

Joining in the fun Rednesday with Sue at It's A Very Cherry World.

 

Joining the Vintage Thingie Thursday fun at Colorado Lady.

a clarion call

Can you hear it? The sound of billions of heartbeats in unison ...

Now is the time. 

Do not wait for others to answer the call. Do not tarry and delay again. Stand up.  Raise your voice. Now is the time to act.

Do all that it takes.  Go the distance.

We have the power.

End the insanity. 

There is not one single justification for any of us to possess an assault weapon.

I keep hearing the words my mother would so often utter ... I am my brothers keeper.

Take heart. Be emboldened. We can do this thing, this great big thing.

I begin today ...

a favorite gift

 

I'm sharing one of my absolute favorite things this week, a Christmas gift that was so beloved when I was small. This Advent Calendar came all the way from Austria, sent to me by a pen friend of my mothers, the Christmas I was five years old.

I was absolutely mesmerized and enchanted by it. It's a wonder that it survived after all the times I played with it, opening everything.

It was given to me by Bruna, who I could kiss as she noted "Advent-Calender for Mrs. ------ Junior, Christmas 1959", on the back.  Thank you thank you thank you Bruna for that inscription and this gift that brings memories and smiles. I found it placed in a (pastel pink) folder at my parents house last year and boy, I needed a tissue after that.

Now there's a curious thing written on Santa's pack ... it appears that Bruna has written "Corn on Cob" on the sack ... is that an Austrian thing or is that because I adored corn on the cob as a child and my mother told her so???  I think it must be a personalization but what a weird kid I was if I longed for corn for Christmas hahahhahhaha! 

Joining in A Favorite Thing Saturdays with Claudia at Mockingbird Hill Cottage.

vintage ornaments

Still unpacking and going through my mom's ornaments.  Everything here predates me except for the ornament hangers and Spode serving bowl and I'm definitely vintage, so these must be too then LOL.  I found my mom's vintage tablecloth - it's really too small for my table but I'm going to pretend it's not!

Joining Vintage Thingie Thursday at Colorado Lady.

doggie update - back where we started

ARGH!  Shortly after I posted my earlier update today, our veterinarian called and told me that the test results show that Georgie doesn't have Cushings Disease. Our doctor also told me he had spoken to the doctor at the specialty and emergency hospital and he now believes as the Internist does, that Georgie has some form of cancer. WAH! 

We're on one rotten roller coaster ride over here.

The first order of business is to make Georgie's tummy feel better - I just got back from the vet with two prescriptions. Then if his respiratory system is still doing well, he'll have another ultra sound to see what the blood clot is doing (growing or shrinking), this weekend or perhaps midweek, next week. 

Trying to take each day as it comes, with all it's bumps and give George lots of love and attention.

doggie update

 

Yesterday was quite a day!  George had um, intestinal distress, all day.

I was in a panic as there was blood involved and I called the fancy pants Specialty and Emergency Hospital, THREE times wanting to speak to someone and no one was available.

GRRRRR!

They had told us over and over again, while extracting a kings ransom from our pockets, to please call them anytime with any questions and concerns.  Uh, apparently during working hours does not work for them.

OOOF! I was so angry and so scared. The paperwork they had sent us home with had said that diarrhea was one of the things signaling distress and to call them.

After three phone calls and no one to answer my questions, I called our regular vet, crying, and I guess I sounded like a pathetic lunatic as they put him on the phone with me, even though it was his surgery day.

Well ... our vet proceeds to tell me that this condition is so rare that he thinks there's a possibility George may not have cancer at all, but rather have Cushings, which is treatable.

And he said he thought it unlikely the clot would cause a stroke and that if it did go to his lungs, George should be okay since his chest is so very big.

What the hooha?!

We are so beyond confused, having received two such divergent and extreme opinions!  Where does the truth lie?

George was very energetic yesterday - I think largely due to his intestinal upset and needing to go out repeatedly.  He's a little less bright today, dozing a bit (having pooped himself out yesterday hahahha, sorry, easy joke!), but still a happy camper, wagging his tail.

Our vet said yesterday that we should drop him off and test his blood pressure and give him the Cushings test, so we did that.  Now I'm waiting for the test results. 

1980's Christmas

Straying from my duties as Doggie Nurse for just a brief moment to join in Rednesday today with a trip back in time to Christmas, circa the 1980's. (I had to put on my thinking cap about what was close at hand that I could grab and take a quick photo. VOILA!  My mom's holiday stuff has never found a real home yet and was lurking, at the ready, in the front of the closet cabinet.)

The Christmas rabbit, mouse and two girls were all my mom's ... I embroidered the Joan Walsh Anglund Christmas pillow for her gift one year. 

The other three pillows I embroidered for myself ... there is a quilt in the background that my mom gave me ... and a little rocking horse she also gave me in the middle of the second photo.

Joining in the Rednesday fun with Sue at It's A Very Cherry Christmas.

the patient is home

"Nurse Gracie on duty, Mom!"

"Giving the patient a big dose of TLC!"

Thank you everyone for your sweet comments and support, I so appreciate all of you!

We brought Georgie home Saturday afternoon.  They sent him home very doped up on pain meds, so he basically slept the rest of the afternoon and through the night until Sunday morning.  Gracie loves him so and cuddled up next to him on their pillow bed and rested her face (in the cone of shame!) on his neck.

He didn't want to eat Sunday morning and that was very distressing - lack of appetite being one of the things we are to observe and note, that could be a signal that he is in distress from the clot moving. WAH! 

Thankfully I found he would eat his biscuits, in fact he gobbled them up.  And then I remembered that I had a can of a different kind of food and he ate half a can of that.  YIPPIE YIPPIE YIPPIE, doing a major happy dance!  But for some reason he refused water???

I am thrilled to say that he is very much like himself this morning - he ate his regular food (and more) and drank water and he's following me around and watching every move I make. Crying tears of joy.  He is supposed to just rest though so I keep reminding him that he needs to lay down on his pillow.  Fighting a losing battle though, he wants to MOVE!

If a miracle should happen and the clot safely dissolves/disperses, we may have some more time with him.

Husband at work, I'm on my own today, stomach tied in knots, nerves shot. Phone number at hand for an emergency Vet in case George should be in distress and needs to cross the Rainbow Bridge.

Thank you again for all your care and concern and friendship.

"Paparazzi everywhere I go!"
"Hey look, Gracie has a new cone of shame!" 

(that's because she could still chew her leg with the plastic one ARGH!)

"Just stretching my legs mom!"

"Okay, I'm laying down. SHEESH!"

"Think I'll have a little snooze."

heartbroken - George has cancer

with his favorite ball

Oh gosh.

George was sick to his stomach last night and wasn't himself at all this morning. He refused his food and wasn't interested in anything. We took him to our vet and she examined him and took abdominal xrays.  She found a suspicious area/mass on his xrays and blood work also indicated he is anemic.

She sent us to the whoopie-di-doo medical hospital with all the bells and whistles for an ultra sound and to see a specialist.  The vet there said that George not only has one mass, he has two.  One on each of his adrenal glands.  As is our rotten luck, this is so rare that it's virtually unheard of the vet said.

And to make things even more dire and dicey, George has a blood clot. Most likely the source of his discomfort yesterday and the source of his anemia.

Georgie is staying at the hospital for the next 24 hours where he'll have the best of care, given fluids and pain meds, etc.  The doctor didn't seem very optimistic but he said he thought this was the best option for now, that we needn't rush into letting him go. He said if he is improved after 24 hours he may be able to come home for a bit. 

We are heartbroken and devastated, we love the big lug very much.  He is the best dog, so very sweet and low maintenance and has brightened our days.

To lose another dog, less than three months after our Honey - this is incomprehensible. 

the cone of shame

Can you guess who ate their bandage off AND ingested it 

and required another visit to the doctor this morning? 

Partners in crime seen here hatching their next plot to
drive me insane and into debtor's prison.

my mothers ornaments

I've only just begun unwrapping my mothers ornaments, I have an enormous box to go through.  I keep stopping and lingering over each one.  So many memories attached to nearly all of them. Tiny bits from my youngest of childhood memories, in fact those vintage ones predate my arrival.  I don't know if they were purchased during my brothers first Christmases?  Or if even earlier, perhaps my newlywed mother picked them out for their home? There are so many ones that we found while shopping together over the years ... department stores, craft shows, home boutiques (we shared a BIG love of home boutiques and handmade ornaments) ... some made for her by her friends.  I'm not sure of the origins of the Santa painting, it arrived sometime after I left home.  It's a charming little original painting, I assume done by or gifted to her by a friend. 

Please join in the Rednesday fun with Sue at It's A Very Cherry World!

Please join in the Vintage Thingie Thursday fun with Suzanne at Colorado Lady!

 

Please join in the A Favorite Thing Saturday fun with Claudia at Mockingbird Hill Cottage!

dala horses

 

As we approach the holidays, I thought I'd share two of my absolute favorite things I own with you, my mom's two Dala horses.  My mother always dreamed of owning one and when she finally made it to Sweden, she treated herself to these two.  Not only are they so very pleasing to the eye but they remind me of my mom.

 

(A bit of a back story ... My mom's fraternal grandparents were Swedish. Her grandfather came over in 1883 and her grandmother in 1887 and settled in Minneapolis, MN.  In the 1980's my mother and her sister went to Sweden and met one of the surviving family members. Sadly when I went through all of the tons of paperwork that my mother did save, I was never able to find a name and address for this uncle and his family. So very disappointing!)

Please join in the fun on A Favorite Thing Saturday with Claudia at Mockingbird Hill Cottage!