Hello out there! (listens to echo, admires the tumbleweeds blowing around)

Yet again i’ve been absent for an inexcusable amount of time. The buttonbox has been rather bleak, to tell the truth, and i’ve really not much felt like talking about it all. But i fianlly have something delightful to blog about so here i am, telling you all about my wonderful visit with the Amazing Calamity Kim!

Lucky me! Kim has been up, spending time with her parents, who live not-too-terribly far from here. So, we decided that it was time for us to finally meet in real life. Even tho’ we’ve been talking pretty much every single day for nearly two years, we’ve never met in “real” life. Isn’t it funny how you can feel so close to a person who you’ve never “really” met? That’s how we’ve been, like sisters, holding each other up thru our various trials and tribulations, sharing triumphs and joys too. She has been a HUGELY important part of my life, so it was like magic to get to finally give her the hug i’ve been saving up for so long.

I consulted the INDESPENSIBLE Amy Sedaris masterwork on entertaining, “I Like You” to ensure that i would be the very best hostess i could be. Did looney things like getting u p a t 7:30 in the morning so i could make home made chicken stock for a Chicken, Mushroom, Spinach and Tortellini soup for our “Luncheon”….baked a loaf Italian Herb and Mozzarella beer bear, and of course, the infamous Black Bottom Cherry Tarts. (teeheee) Pulled myself together and tried to make my house presentable and was oh-so-nervous….what if Kim did not like me in real life? Oh, how i fretted. But we got along just as well in person as tho’ we’ve always been friends and everything went along wonderfully. Kim spoiled us with beautiful faerie wings (better photos of these are coming soon),and even wings for little Beastie too!

Buntings and beautiful dollies, vintage slips and a whimsical top…. her big red truck stuffed with books and fabrics and kinds of amazing stuff like some kind of magical crafty gypsy caravan. I was so nervous, happy and excited that i failed to take as many photos as i’d planned. But we had a grand day, and Kim is definitely one of the delightful people i have ever met. She came at the most perfect time…i have really been “lost” lately, and my world has been turned upside down…i’ve not been spending as much time being creative because i just have not had the energy. But Kim brought inspiration, color and much-needed joy back to me and i am so grateful that i can’t even express it. We had a fun day of visiting Belladonna’s and chatting over coffee at Cool Beans….even my mama hung out for most of the day! Later, we went to dinner at lovely old Zesto’s so that Kim could get “a taste of old Greece” and be amazed at he giant Ice Cream Cone In The Sky. Such fun! And even more fun, Kim decided to stay for a slumber party, and so i got to share my “nest room” too!

The rest of the evening was spent up in my craft room…a place that sadly, i have not been spending much of my time these days. But it was lovely to share it with Kim, and i pulled out one of my old projects-in-progress, the denim picnic quilt. This is an years-long ongoing process…i cut simple squares from all my fam’s worn-out or outgrown jeans to make blocks, then i have family and friends make simple drawings directly onto the squares that i then embroider over. One day i will piece it all together and it will be our picnic quilt…a sturdy blankie to spread out on the grass for lolling about on sunny days. I had stowed it away an not done any work on it for a LONG time, but i had Miz Calamity Kim do some drawings for me while she visited and embroidering her charming doodles has helped me occupy my self over the past few days of not-so-greatness. Color is medicine for the soul, i think, and friendship preserved with a few simple stitchings is nothing short of magic.

It was my lifeline to sanity as i sat in the waiting room, stitching a sweet cupcake with rainbow threads, trying to wrap my mind around new and unexpected words like Oncology, CT scan, and bone marrow biopsy and what meaning these words could have in my family’s life.

Kim could not have come at a better time…i needed her so much more then i knew i did.

The short version is that my Mister has been ill since mid-december. The doctor just kept throwing antibiotics and steroids at him, but whatever-it-it just wouldn’t go away. Steroids made the symptoms manageable, but it was kind of like putting a tiny bandage on a gunshot wound. We just have no idea what’s going on…at first we thought maybe Lyme disease, then maybe some kind of rheumatoid issue….but never any positive result to pin it down and treat his illness properly. So finally she’s referred him to specialists and yesterday was our trip to the Oncology center. Obviously the result was not what i was expecting . There will be more tests and hopefully we will know what is going on. Right now, i am in a fog, nothing seems real and i am so angry, and frightened. I can’t explain how i really feel in a coherent way. As scary as it all is, i am at least glad that he is on the road to getting some treatment, because we’ve just been in this limbo of awfulness since pre-Christmas. Hence my absence. Hence my totally lack of motivation to create. It’s hard to talk about it…i just have not wanted to put all this out there because to do so somehow makes it more real, maybe. I don’t know. I thought talking about my hysterectomy was as personal and as “real” as i could get with this blog, but THAT was easy compared to this. That pain seems like nothing compared to what i am feeling now. Why am i finally writing about it now? I am not really sure. It seems like i need to get it out but i just don’t know how.

So Kim was my faerie friend who brought me rainbows and hope and light at what could be one of the darker times of my life. She reminded me that a needle and thread can be the stitches that hold your heart together when you are sure it might shatter. That cupcake embroidery was the sweetest part of a bitter day. Being surrounded with her bright joyful creations is helping me hold onto some positivity and light. And her friendship is giving me wings.

Thank you, beautiful Kim. We love you, and can’t wait for your return.