spookification 2012 is running late

ARGH!  Well gosh.  Forever running late these days. 

I'm trying to get a few Halloween cards made and good gravy, it's taking days.  I feel as though I'm swimming in molasses ... or not even swimming ... I'm snail walking through molasses. Woe is me.

I like to send handmade cards to a few friends who enjoy handmade cards and I found this great photo of my maternal Great Grandmother with a broom to use for this years cards, so cool.  

My GGM is wearing a cap in the photo that makes me think of a Civil War military cap - does anyone know about period clothing?  She was born in 1870 and her parents were both born in 1842. I wonder what on earth this pose was about?

I probably shouldn't be on the computer, probably should be making those cards but I'm having such a hard time making myself do anything, other than pet the dogs and stare off into space ... my mind just wants to veg and wander around ... I guess that's grief again. 

My husband and I talk about how we can't get anything accomplished anymore, how we're just slugs. I wonder if this fog will ever lift?! 

Hope you're doing better at keeping on top your days than I am.  Wishing you all a Happy Halloweenie!

the old fogie family

   

So here we are, the old fogie family of four. I am a bit happy to say that the dogs are older than the hubby and I.  Sure glad someone is LOL! 

meet the woolly lump lumps

Look at this big galoot!  I've never seen a Golden this big.
He's a big smoosh.  Loves to always be at your side.

 She's a dainty little Miss, so petite.
She's shy and hesitant but starting to blossom
into a major snuggle bug.

They are so cute together.  They give each other kisses

and love to cuddle up.

 

vintage cookbooks

We went to the Antiquarian Book Fair in Pasadena, CA this morning. I thought I'd share a bit of two darling illustrated cookbooks I HAD TO HAVE.  I love cookbooks and illustrated ones, all the more.

First is Jolly Times Cookbook, Simple Recipes For Young Beginners by Marjorie Noble Osborn, published in 1934.  Made me smile!  Has the most darling illustrations throughout. 

The other cookbook that called out my name was this funny holiday cookbook from Peter Pauper Press, printed in 1950 - thought it would be cute to include in holiday decorating this year. 

  

 

Joining the following link parties in the coming days:

A Favorite Thing Saturday @ Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Rednesday @ Sue Loves Cherries

Vintage Thingie Thursday @ Colorado Lady

dog is my co-pilot

It's so very lonely and quiet for me over here.  The days are filled with tears.  Remembrances of Honey are everywhere.  I am filling up pages, writing down all the memories that come to mind. 

On Tuesday I wrote to the rescue where we adopted Honey and our two other Golden loves of our lives, telling them that we are forever grateful for finding us worthy and entrusting us with these gentlest of souls. 
 

Somehow the days pass.  I find that there has been a paradigm shift within me. 

I have never been one quick to recover from loss but now I feel an urgency, a sense that life is short and one should not tarry or put things off.  To open up my heart to what may come. 

So with that in mind, we embark on a journey on Sunday ... 

A journey to meet two senior Golden's, a much bonded pair, not wanting to leave each others side.  A boy and a girl, left by their owner at the veterinarian hospital to be euthanized when they still had golden days left to be lived in their lives.  A compassionate vet and staff and a call was issued from the vet's office to the rescue and the pair were rescued and placed with a foster family. 

When I was asked if we would consider a senior bonded pair, I felt the answer YES welling up in side me, like a tidal wave.  All I could think of was what if something had happened to us and our dear Honey had needed a home at 13 years old, who would have given her a loving one?  What will become of all those wonderful woofies with so much love and companionship still to give?! 

On Sunday we shall see if we are all meant to be together and be given the gift of sharing our lives with this boy and this girl, and provide them with a home to spend the rest of their days in love and dignity.   

Thank you to everyone for your care, kind words, thoughts and prayers.  I am so grateful for your friendship.  You are all very dear to me.

Please give all your furry friends (and gilled and feathered and scaled ones, etc. too!) a hug and a kiss in memory of my sweet Honey. 

i miss her so

SQUIRREL!

Our dear Honey loved to watch and chase the squirrels.  We could say "squirrel" and she'd go flying out the doggie door to the backyard.  She'd manage to scamper a few feet up the olive tree, barking at the squirrel/squirrels (sometimes there were two at a time). The squirrel would "bark" back at her ... well it might have been a chuckle the squirrel uttered. 

It makes me smile to think of Honey saying this ...

"You're my angel on earth.
I'm your angel in heaven.
Nothing makes me happier.
Except for a squirrel angel floating by."
~ Elaine Seamans

Wishing you lots of squirrel angels, dearest friend!

so leave awhile

So leave awhile the paw-marks on the front door
Where I used to scratch to go out or in,
And you'd soon open; leave on the kitchen floor
The marks of my drinking-pan.

~ Robinson Jeffers, "The House Dog's Grave"

 

I see you everywhere,
dearest girl, best friend.
You are forever in my heart.
Miss Licky Loo, Honey Bun Bun.

our doggie is very ill

Update Tuesday 3:15 PM

My husband just called from work - he received a call from the vet, they don't think Honey will make it much longer.  He is racing home and we will go and make our goodbyes to our beloved girl.

My heart is breaking ...

------------------------------


Update Tuesday 09/18/12 8:45 AM -


We are on a terrible roller coaster ride. 

We visited Honey late afternoon yesterday and she was very much improved, compared to Sunday. Her cough was looser and more productive. She wanted to come home with us so much, broke our hearts. We were elated and very encouraged.

We received a call at one o'clock in the morning last night. Telling us that, as we had been forewarned, Honey was much worse. SOB!!!!!!!  They asked permission to place something in her vein to be more able to monitor the oxygen in her blood and make sure she was getting enough oxygen and facilitate their being able to respond to her needs.

We were told the next 24 hours will be the key. 

Thank you all so much for your kind words and support, I am so grateful and appreciative.  Thank you for your friendship and care.  Please keep sending out those healing vibes, thoughts and prayers for our dear Honey. 


------------------------

Edited to add 10 AM:  The vet just called.  Honey has pneumonia from aspirating her food. They had to put her on oxygen.  They are aggressively treating the pneumonia. It takes 2 to 3 days to fully present itself.  She will most likely get worse before she has a chance to get better. The next couple of days are crucial for her.

They are going to do further tests to determine why she has the mega esophagus condition.  If she makes it through the pneumonia, this will be a life long condition for her, requiring continual testing and follow up visits as the possibility of aspirating her food again and subsequent bacterial pneumonia will always exist.

The abdominal ultra sound showed she does have some foreign matter in her stomach.  They are going to treat the pneumonia first, while doing further testing on her esophagus and will hope that the foreign matter has passed through her system at that time. If not, they will do an endoscopy and remove it. 

They believe the esophagus condition and the matter in the stomach, are unrelated.

SOB SOB SOB - needing lots of hugs over here!

--------------------

We had to take our doggie to the vet Sunday morning - she had an episode of vomiting that went on through the night.  The third vet at our veterinary hospital was as flummoxed as the previous two as to the origin of our Honey's nausea.  This has been going on for months now.  We left with yet another "possible" thing that could be the cause and yet another bunch of prescriptions. 

Honey proceeded to get worse as the day turned into night ... her symptoms now included a strange cough.  We left for the Emergency Hospital at nine last night, getting there at 9:20 and staying until after 2:00 in the morning.

Honey's cough got even worse in the nearly five hours we were there and her breathing became labored. So she has spent the night where they could monitor her around the clock and give her oxygen, keep her hydrated, etc. 

Turns out she has something wrong with her esophagus and that because of that, she probably aspirated some of her food and that she most likely has pneumonia - even though the chest xray showed none (apparently there is a "lag time" with xrays!).

The questions remain, why she has been having these bouts of nausea, why something is wrong with her esophagus??  They will do new chest xrays this morning and she'll have an abdominal ultra sound this morning to see if there are any clues to be found there.  Of course the "C" word came up.

I am so afraid she won't make it.  sniffle sniffle sniffle ...

Please please please if you can spare any good thoughts, prayers for our beloved Honey Bun Bun, it mean the world to me. 

March 2011
Honey came to lay with me in bed and console me
after my daddy passed away.  She had a trip through
the sprinklers first LOL. 

half a dollar

Edited to add: Several people suggested to me that perhaps I am wrong about the worth of my colonial currency, so I googled and found that yes, it could possibly be worth more than I previously thought. I had googled it when I first found it and was able to find more than one site stating it's worth at maybe a few dollars.  I was lucky that first time for I was able to find an exact match to my inherited half a dollar.  This evening I haven't been able to find the same denomination.  WAH! The interesting news is that colonial currencies like this (but not identical) are selling on Ebay for anywhere from twelve dollars, up to several thousand dollars.  What???!!!  WHOA!  So now I will need to have it appraised.  Thank you to those who spoke up and questioned me ... let that be a lesson, don't rely on googling for your evaluating the worth of well, much of anything.

What fun stuff I've found amongst my parents things!  These blew me away when I found them ... a "half a dollar" from 1776 and I'm not sure what you call the second, some sort of promise to pay thingie from 1815. 

And it was not the first time during this long journey that I thought I was going to be a bazillionaire hahhahhahahhaha. I thought for sure that the intact currency from the Colony of New York would catapult me onto Easy Street, LOL! 

Nuh huh!  Turns out to not be worth much of anything more than it's face value ... and of course, it's immense sentimental value to me.  Sentimental value = treasure beyond words.

Isn't it fun that it's called a "Half A Dollar" ... love the wonderful graphics on it too.

Sadly the Promise to Pay Bearer note 75 cents, is damaged but still such fun to see. I'll have to research and see how these were used. 

Joining Vintage Thingie Thursday at Colorado Lady.

we will remember you

  2003

 2004

 2006

2007

For five years I participated in a mail art call in tribute of September 11th. I read about the call for mail art in one of the rubber stamp magazines and was delighted there was some small way that I could contribute something.  (I don't seem to have taken photos of my submission in 2005.) 

The background of the last envelope is taken from photos we took at the 9/11 quilt show at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, August of 2002.  It was amazing and so very heartbreaking to see all of the blocks that had been made in tribute to those lost. 

That's me in the red ... this is only a very small section of the exhibit.

It was overwhelming and I just dissolved into tears.


We will always remember you

old macdonald had a farm

with a chick chick here ...

and a chick chick there ...

teddy bear

This little teddy bear was given to me by my mother about a year before she passed away so it is very dear to me.  We shared so many of the same interests. Reading (mysteries, especially old English tea cozy mysteries). Crafting (especially embroidery). Gardening (especially planting bulbs and annuals). Movies. Teddy Bears. Dollhouse miniatures. Dogs. Live Theater.  I could go on for a long time yet ...

This September will be the 16th anniversary of her passing ... miss you so very much Mom! 

I'm joining Claudia's new fun link party, A Favorite Thing Saturday. 

I look forward to seeing what your favorites are too.
You can join the fun here.

dear harriet

(Great Great Grandfather at age 30)

So many little treasures found in my parents house.  Bits and pieces of my ancestors lives.  

 

Three photos of and one letter written by, my Great Great Grandfather.  This letter was written in 1857 to my GGGF's fiance, Harriet, about six weeks before their wedding day.  No words of love or mention of their impending nuptials.  GGGF was soon to be 23, perhaps his youth precluded his use of flowery language. He is quite the serious minded young man. I feel a bit sad for dear Harriet LOL. 

 

I suspected this letter couldn't be an original but I had so wanted to believe that it was the original that I momentarily talked myself into believing it was.  Then, I googled when typewriters came into use and typewriters were not commercially available in 1857.  PHOOEY.  

Can't even trust one's relatives to leave you the real authentic stuff. SHEESH.

So a family member must have typed this up, copying from the original, at some later date.  My guess is that another branch of the family kept/received, the original letter and the rest of the relatives received a typed facsimile.

 

(I thought I didn't have a picture of Harriet but I just remembered that I do!)

 

(there is barely visible handwriting at the bottom of the page - I tried to darken it but no luck. WAH!)

Possibly a family clue, lost forever now, left by whoever typed up the letter.

Although GGGF seemingly wasn't much of a romantic, he appears to have been quite industrious in other areas of his life.  He was a farmer, a banker, a real estate agent and a representative in the state legislature for eight years.

These two photos are of GGGF, not sure what age?  Look at that mustache!

I have some of the documents he wrote ... land grants, patents, indentures, etc., written on parchment.