He's Our Baby and Our "Bud!"

If you're a reader of my Linda's Blog you know that we have a cairn terrier who is our "baby." He's the "king" of the house and a demanding "king" to boot.

But, he's our "Bud" and our baby and when he's hurting we are hurting and the last two months for Bud haven't been the best.

You see, two years ago he was diagnosed with diabetes, which our veterinarian told us was a manageable disease for dogs and was no longer a death sentence. So, we learned all we could about diabetes in dogs and give him two shots a day of insulin. The vet showed us how to administer the shots so he doesn't get hurt and it seems to be working. Of course, he gets a few treats afterwards for being such a good boy.

Well, with the diabetes comes a problem with his teeth so we have to get his teeth cleaned every year and decided to have this done in April of this year. Since they have to anesthetize him for the teeth cleaning the vet does a more thorough exam of his whole body. During this exam she thought she felt a mass near his spleen and took an x-ray of his belly which revealed an egg size mass next to or in his spleen.

Now, "Bud" is 12 years old and overweight and like some older dogs has masses all over his body. Some of "Bud's" masses are fat and some are benign cysts. However, this one was different. The vet told us that he would need to have his spleen removed as the mass could rupture at any time and referred us to another vet whose specialty was surgery in dogs.

So, we went to see the specialist and she, too, told us the spleen would have to be removed but it wasn't an organ that dogs really need and that he'd be fine without it. He'd be able to bounce back from the surgery with no problems. As time was of the essence we scheduled the surgery for the next day. She did however caution us that she wouldn't know until she had performed the surgery whether the mass was malignant and whether there were any other issues of that nature with surrounding organs.

The surgical vet called and told us that the mass was inside his spleen and she had to remove it. She also told us that he had another egg sized mass inside his abdomen that she also had to remove. She'd sent both masses to be analyzed and would have the results back in a few days. She said the surgery went fine and that his liver seemed normal and that there didn't seem to be any problem there.

"Bud" made it through the surgery with flying colors and we brought him home the next day for recovery. The vet sent us home with pain medicine that he'd need for a few days and told us that due to the 4" incision along the middle of his belly he couldn't jump up or down or go on walks for 10 to 14 days. We had to get the pain medicine in liquid form as since birth our "Bud" has had periods where he's nauseous and won't eat or drink water until he's better. I wanted the liquid pain medicine as I didn't want to encounter one of those days when he wouldn't eat or drink and not be able to give him pain medicine.

We got a call from the surgical vet in a few days with the results on the two masses and they were both benign which was wonderful news for us. Needless to say "Bud" quickly recovered and had his staples removed after 14 days and got a wonderful report from the surgical vet. "Bud" was back to normal.

For all intent purposes "Bud" was back to normal - or so we thought. Unfortunately last Sunday morning (Mother's Day) at about 10:00 o'clock and totally of of the blue he had a full blown seizure. We rushed him to the vets office and by the time we got there he was no longer seizing. The vet examined him and said that looking at him you'd never know that he'd just had a seizure. He didn't have a temperature and his blood sugar was normal. He said he might never have another one and to watch him during the next 24 hours. He might have another one, which was okay, as long as they weren't in clusters and weren't longer than 2 minutes or so.

At 12:00 midnight he had another full blown seizure. When he had a third full blown seizure at 3:00 o'clock in the morning we rushed him to the Tufts Veterinary hospital. They admitted him and told us that he would be moved from intensive care to neurology in the morning. They wanted to monitor him and had an I/V set-up so that if he did have more seizures they could give him the anti-seizure medicine intravenously. The Emergency Room Vet thought it was possible that the seizures were created by tumors in his brain.

"Bud" had another seizure at 6:00 o'clock in the morning and they administered the anti-seizure medicine. He was transferred to neurology in the morning and was evaluated by the vet neurologist specialist. They did a series of tests and an MRI and determined that he didn't have any brain tumors and that he, in fact, had a stroke caused by high blood pressure exacerbated by his diabetes. Of course, the stroke could have been caused by a blood clot from the surgery, but the neurologist thought the most likely cause was the high blood pressure exacerbated by the diabetes.

We, of course, were concerned about what this meant for "Bud" and his quality of life. The neurologist vet told us that, unlike humans, dogs are very resilient and can recover from strokes without any problems. The stroke was not in an area of the brain to be concerned with and didn't cause any permanent damage. In a few days, "Bud" would be fine and in a few weeks - back to normal.

He told us that "Bud" needed to be on anti-seizure medicine (3 times a day) for a year or more and, maybe, for the rest of his life. He also needed to be on blood pressure medicine until his blood sugar levels were lowered resulting in his blood pressure being normal. If we could control his diabetes better than he could go off the blood pressure medicine. So, we brought "Bud" home with a bunch of prescriptions and information on handling all of this.

The first couple of days "Bud" was very unsteady on his feet and would just suddenly collapse so we had to monitor him very closely. We were told not to let him jump up or down off the sofa's, go near stairs, or near water as if he had another seizure he could seriously hurt himself.

The good news is that he hasn't had another seizure in a week and seems almost back to normal. In fact, he hasn't had his walks in a few weeks and is starting to get very demanding about them. We know he wants to go on his walks, but that will have to wait just a little longer. King or no king.

Looking at him you'd never know that he had such an ordeal during the last two months. Our "baby" is almost back to normal.

That's the good news. What I didn't tell you was that 1 week after our "Bud" had surgery my husband had a minor surgery. So, I had my hands full - so to speak - for the last two months with both my "kings" in recovery. And, BOTH, very demanding.

Happily, both are on the road to recovery. My husband's surgery will take a few more weeks to heal, but "Bud" is almost back to normal.

Given that he thinks he's a "king" he's not going to wait for my husband to fully recover before he starts DEMANDING that he take him for a walk. Surgery or no surgery I need a walk - NOW!

Yes, your highness!

A Little Research Into The History of Goddess Dolls

I updated my "A Little Research Into The History of Goddess Dolls." It can be found here.

I Really Need To Stop Playing!

I think I'm losing it!

You see I can't seem to stop playing these Facebook.com games. Last time it was with my Linda avatar on YoVille, and my "Peaches" dog on Super Poke Pets. This time it's Farm Town. What is wrong with me?

Pictured above is what my Farm Town currently looks like. I've been adding trees and animals sent by my friends and then harvesting the crops so I can buy things for my farm.

CLICK HERE or click on the picture above to see what I've managed to do so far.

I really need to stop doing all this and get back to work. It's just that I LOVE shopping and buying things for my YoVille avatar, my "Peaches" Super Poke Pet, and My Farm. Maybe there just isn't any hope for me!

Come join me on Facebook.com and see what I'm talking about.

Have Fun At The Beach - Peaches Habitat!

You're probably going to think that I'm loosing my mind. Either that or I'm just having too much fun with some of the Facebook applications.

Shown above is my "Peaches" doggie avatar on Facebook's SuperPoke Pets. She not only loves the beach, but is quite the spender as you can see from everything she's added to her beach scene.

She wants to buy more, but, personally, I think she's done with spending for awhile. She should concentrate on playing with her friends and giving to others. What do you think?

Have fun at the beach!

Isn't She Adorable?

If you've been a reader of my Linda's Blog for a while now you know that I just LOVE graphics - especially dollie graphics - animated or not. And, I just LOVE blinkies - which is another story for another day.

In any event, I was asked to join YoVille on Facebook by one of my friends and have to tell you that I just LOVE it.

I created my Linda avatar above and I'm in the process of furnishing my apartment which right now consists of a living room, bedroom, and kitchen. I have to work or visit my friends to earn YoVille coins so that I can buy things for my apartment. I'm working on it and hope to have a wonderfully furnished apartment before long.

I LOVE my new avatar so much I decided to add her to the sidebar of my Linda's Blog. She can take her place amongst all the rest of the dollie graphics and blinkies I have there. I'm sure she'll feel right at home.

If you LOVE dolls - especially animated doll graphics and would like to have a little fun come and join me on Facebook and then visit me on YoVille. Hope to see you there.

Have fun.

I Hope You Like My Faceless Beauties Video

I think you all know that I, personally, love faceless dolls. Victorians, primitives, colonial, prairie dolls, rag dolls, or country style dolls. It doesn't matter. I love them all.

In fact, I created a video to reflect my feelings about faceless dolls which is: "Beauty lies not only in what is seen, but what is imagined. I believe the essence of a dolls faceless beauty should determine her personality."

Please CLICK HERE or on the video above if you would like to view my "Linda's Faceless Beauties" video.

My Goddess Doll Adventure So Far!

In February I wrote a post on my Linda's Blog entitled "Why Not Be Adventuresome!" which was about my buying a batch of 10 small goddess art forms from Monica Magness of "Girl Gone Thread Wild" blog that she had for sale on her GirlGoneThreadWild Etsy shop.

I wanted to try something different this year and have been wanting to make some mixed media "goddess dolls" as I haven't made any as of yet. The doll body forms that I bought ranged between 4"-6" tall in size and are of of various colors.

Some of the "goddess dolls" that I have seen are either faceless (which is fine with me) or have cloth faces, clay faces, have sun or moon faces, even beaded faces. Some of the face shapes are round or oval, some are square, and some are triangles. I haven't quite decided what kind of face I want to try as of yet, but I always like to be prepared.

They probably will be clay so I decided to buy some polymer clay to sculpt my own and also buy some polymer clay masks to use in the event my clay ones don't look exactly as I had envisioned them. If these don't work then they may have cloth faces or be faceless. I might even try beaded faces although I think they were be difficult to do. Or, I may just decide to do several of each. I just won't know until I start creating them.

Next I need to decide whether they should have hair or no hair. Headdress or no headdress? Since I was running out of doll hair (well, not really, but you never know what you want to use until you start creating) I also decided to replenish my supply of doll hair. I made a note to look at the yarn sections of my local craft stores and also look on line at some of my favorite doll hair websites to see if there was anything that caught my eye and would help me to decide which way to go with the hair.

I decided to buy some hair from one of my favorite websites for doll hair, Cloth Doll Hair Supplies at http://www.clothdollhair.com as Suzy was offering a discount to all her Twitter followers (which I am one of).

Also, I wanted my "goddess dolls" to have beaded decorations along their bodies or in their clothes (should I decide to add something along these lines) so I decided to visit my local craft stores to see what they had. I was expecting a little section of beads. Au Contraire! Make that ROWS and ROWS of beads. Aisles and aisles of beads. So many so that it was almost impossible to decide.

Should they be round? Should they be flat? Should there be a combination of the two? Should they be large, small, or medium in size? What color? Solid or multi-colored? Shiny or not? And on and on it went!

Obviously, this was not going to be as easy as I had thought. I really hadn't thought this through and should have tried to design what I wanted my goddess dolls to look like before I attempted to by the beads. Should they be traditional mixed media art dolls or should I make them a little different? Maybe they shouldn't even have beads? But, I really want to try beading as the dolls I've seen are just so beautiful. Time consuming to make, but beautiful.

In any event, I bought several different colors and sizes of beads and because I like to be organized I also bought some containers to house my beads. Can't have them falling all over the floor. That would not be good!

So, now I have my doll forms, various ways to make the faces, and lots and lots of beads. Since I just love history next on my agenda is to do a little research on the Internet on "goddess dolls" also known as healing dolls and spirit dolls. I'm not sure what this will tell me - other than I just love research, especially on different doll legends.

What I'm hoping is that it might just help me decide what type of "goddess dolls, healing dolls, or spirit dolls" I want to create. It might even inspire me to create a goddess doll, healing doll, or spirit doll design of my own - which, of course, I'd create an e-pattern for. Oh, what a delightful adventure this is going to be. Wish me luck.

I'll let you know what I find out.

Why Not Be Adventuresome?

Well, I decided that I was going to try something new this year. To try and make a type of doll that I haven't made as of yet.

Since I live with 1,796 dolls of my own creation you might be wondering exactly what kind of doll I haven't made yet.

Well, believe it or not but there are thousands of different types of dolls I haven't made and one of them is a beaded goddess art doll. Either with a clay face or with a cloth face.

I have been wanting to make one for quite some time. The problem is - lack of time. So, I thought that maybe if the bodies were already made then I could just embellish the rest. Maybe?

So, when I saw that Monica Magness of "Girl Gone Thread Wild" blog had a batch of 10 small goddess art forms for beading, painting & altering for sale on her GirlGoneThreadWild Etsy shop I decided to buy them! The doll bodies are between 4"-6" tall in size of various colors.

Now the question is how exactly should I finish them? I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish them all before next Christmas as I think they would make wonderful Christmas presents.

Oh, I can hardly wait!

I'm already thinking of the different beads and embellishments I might try. Hmmm..... Should I try clay faces or not? Hmmmm..... How many beads? Hmmmmm.... What else should I use to embellish them? Hmmmmmm.....

Oh, what a delightful adventure this is going to be. Wish me luck.

I Just Want To Cry!

While I was surfing through some of the posts on blogs I like to visit I saw this picture on Shula's "Poppalina" blog post entitled "Thirsty Koalas" and just wanted to cry!

There has been so much devastation and damage caused by the Victoria bush fires in Australia. So many people have lost their lives and so many people have lost their homes and everything they had. It's just horrible. And, the worst part is - they are reporting the fires may have been intentionally set.

I just want to cry.

If you want to read more this link was provided on Shula's blog - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25034233-5018723,00.html

How Lucky Am I?

Yesterday I was singing and blogging about being at "The End Of A Long Odyssey!" and figured that I couldn't be happier and couldn't be luckier.

Well, I couldn't be more wrong. I actually could be luckier and could be happier. How can that be?

Well, this morning I awoke to a snowstorm - which, by the way, doesn't make me happy. At our ages hubby and I just don't like snow anymore. It's beautiful to look at, but requires way tooooooo much work to clean-up. And, this winter is just not cooperating.

In any event, I wasn't happy to see all the "white" this morning and then I decided to check my email.

Not only did I have one wonderful email, but two this morning. Two emails that changed my mood and my perspective.

The first email was from a wonderful woman, who also happens to be an astonishing doll maker, who told me that she had downloaded my "How To Create A Print Pattern and E-Pattern" Free E-Book and wanted to thank me for sharing this information with her and for helping her.

For me, I couldn't be happier to hear this. You see, all my pleasure comes from knowing that I've helped someone else and to hear this just warmed my heart on a cold, snowy day.

I was in a great mood after I sent my email back to her and thought - well, it might just be a good day after all - snow and all!

Then I read another one of my emails. Well, this was a comment left on one of my blogs that said I had won a doll in a blog giveaway contest.

Her name is Hannah and she was created by Shirley of Skellyton Art Originals Designs and was donated by her as part of a Kindred Sisters Gathering Post blog giveaway.

Needless to say I was thrilled. As you can tell from the picture above Hannah is a beautiful doll.

So, I decided to find out more about the wonderful creator of Hannah. Here's what I found out about Shirley from her Skellyton Art Originals Designs blog profile:

Skellyton Art creations are original designs many one of a kind, never to be reproduced works of art. It is a combined effort of Mother and Daughter. Myself I am Wife, Mom, grandma and a survivor of a career in retail management I am making an effort to return to a more creative lifestyle. Excited to learn that there are successful artist who create soley in Halloween motifs, I knew I had finally found what I wanted to do. Halloween has always been a special holiday for me. I spent my childhood with a cemetery for a front yard. [it was across the street] Being the youngest of 4 girls. I shared a bed with my sister, who never failed to terrify me with her scary stories. I was five years younger, of course I believed her when she told me of the people buried under our bed. Why wouldn't I? There were dead people across the street. We spent many hours in the dark watching Dracula, Wolfman,Twilight Zone or any spooky movie we could find. Then I would lay in the bed with the covers up to my neck and a crucifix over our bed watching for Dracula or any monster to creep into the room.

Hannah is a beautiful doll and I can hardly wait to see her. But, Hannah is not the only beautiful doll Shirley and her daughter have made. You really need to go to their blog and watch the slideshows of all their creations. They really are wonderful, wonderful dolls - each a work of art all unto themselves.

I wish I could own them all. But, I'm thrilled just to have Hannah. I hope the rest of my "dollies" love her as much as I do. We'll see - my "dollies" can be very jealous and very temperamental.

Today I received two wonderful emails. Thanks from a customer and the winning of a beautiful handmade doll. It doesn't get much better than this.

Nana - Look At My Hair!

My grandson "Noodles" and I have had this ongoing discussion for several years now about his hair. You see, he was blessed with a full head of thick curly hair. I just LOVE all his curls and think he has the most wonderful head of hair that you ever could imagine. I would LOVE to have his hair.

I, unfortunately was born with fine and straight hair. It doesn't even know the meaning of the word curl. Even if I tried to curl it my hair would revolt and revert back to it's fine, straight nature.

As a result of my love of my grandson's hair I'm always after his Dad not to cut his hair. To just let it grow.

Sometimes "Noodles" wins the "don't cut my hair" battle with his Dad and sometimes he doesn't. This time - he won. He wouldn't let his Dad cut his hair until he had shown Nana how long it had gotten on Christmas Eve.

What he didn't know was that I had cut a picture out of one of my magazines of a famous good looking young man with an incredible head of long, curly hair - who just happens to have the same name as my grandson and sings in a rock band.

When he came in on Christmas Eve he ran over and said, "Nana look at my hair!"

I couldn't believe how long it had gotten and told him that I loved all the curls. I also told him that he was a "good-looking guy" and took out the picture I had cut out and said, "See - he's a famous rock singer. Look at his terrific head of curly hair. Now that's a good looking guy, too!"

Of course, he's no where near as good looking as my grandson who is shown below with his twin cousins. The twins, like their Mom and Dad, were both blessed with full heads of terrific thick straight hair. Lucky guys that they are. Now if I'm going to have straight hair while couldn't I at least have been blessed with a full head of thick straight hair?

I Finally Got A Terrific Picture of My Eldest Grandson!

It seems like teenagers go through a period where they don't want their picture taken and my eldest grandson was in this phase for the last several years. In fact, like most teenage boys if I tried to take his picture he would turn away or cover his face.

The last decent picture I had of him was this:

That was close to 6 years ago and I haven't gotten a really good picture of my grandson since then. That is, until this Christmas Eve when he finally let me take his picture. Here's the results:

Now I may be biased, but I have to say my grandson has grown into quite the looker. The best part is that not only is he handsome, but he's a a nice guy to boot.

In fact, he's everything a grandmother would want in a grandson. Intelligent, handsome, witty, full of life and very talented. I couldn't be prouder of him and couldn't love him more.

For me, however, no matter how grown-up he has become he will always be this guy to me: