More Change then I Expected!! Need Prayers or Good Energy or Whatever!

Turns out it’s a good thing I’ve closed my practice. Fortuitous you might say.  I had just re-started some of my fav activities (like SCA) when “poof”. More life craziness.  I’ve given up on much new selling for this holiday season or getting more involved in anything else. Somethings are just more important.

My 79 yo Mom’s been sick for a while (why I haven’t been around my usual on-line haunts). Last week we took her to hospital – and found out she’s got recurrence of ovarian CA. Today I’m coming off 5 days of literally not leaving the hospital; we got home yesterday pm.

The good thing – we had the most excellent hospital experience ever! We were on the 6th floor of UNC’s Women’s hospital. The room was spacious, had a great view and adequate sleeping space for 2 people. The staff were wonderfully kind & compassionate. The med student, residents, fellow & attendings  were the best I’ve ever worked with. And I know – Between my own “stuff” & staying with Mom at other times, we have some nightmare stories. (just see my earlier posts!) The social worker  – OK, they call them “case managers” now – was a miracle worker.

All the discharge arrangements went off exactly as planned. Nurses got blood from  & IVs in Mom on the 1st try – unheard of!! Even the food was good -balanced, well cooked & attractive. Even at the cafeterias for non-patients (except I still think the coffee  was too weak – imagine that for hospital coffee!) We had a few palliative radiation treatments done & that went well too.

The bad thing – we have to call hospice; we don’t know how long she has to live, but it isn’t very long. Mom & Dad live with me, so I’m a huge part of her care. Mom’s got dementia & she has no idea what’s going on – so she’s  her usual pleasant self now that we’re back home. My Dad is frazzled & goes around in circles like a caged ferret.(fueled by Dr Pepper ) He’s 79 too, but looks & acts like 60. Harder headed than a 2 yo too. Poster boy for geriatric hyperactive adhd. He had to face some very hard truths there in the hospital. Funny, I’d been saying those things for years. Got no cred with him; I’m just “the daughter the doctor”. How would I know anything?  I think he can’t deal with this with denial.

Mom & Dad both turned 79 this summer & celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary in Sept.  They’ve been very lucky.  We’ll work to make Mom’s last months as happy and comfortable as possible.  I’m gonna make Dad buy her the REALLY GOOD chocolate  – and the awesome chocolate chocolate chip cookies from Weaver Street Market!!

I’ll try to steal some time away later to post updates. Please send your prayers, energy wishes & love to all of us. We’ll need all the help we can get.

Life is gonna change. A lot. Again.

It’s been a rough few weeks. Not so good health & pain-wise. Cycle of over-doing, paying for it, repeat. Spent a whole week recovering from the jaw spasms I got after spending 2 hours trying to get some information from an insurance company for a patient. Brain doesn’t work so well when I’m exhausted & in pain.

So, I’ve decided to put my medical license on inactive the end of this month. Besides the physical toll my practice has taken, my medications & brain insults from chemo, meds, concussion etc add up to my brain not being as sharp as before. Scares me. When I’m really tired, I lose words. I’m not going to be responsible for making a mistake on someone’s prescription or anything else that could have adverse consequences.

I’m glad I’ve already gotten rid of most of the work. there were days I was completely wiped out. The migraine I got after the Blue Cross/Blue Shield day of the complete run-around was a real day-killer. Luckily I could spend the day resting. Wouldn’t have been able to do this before.

Another advantage of my lowered stress levels – the return of some artistic creativity. Something besides finding funny gifs for my blog, I mean! I made some great mixed media bookmarks, cards & boxes for our  temple’s annual bazaar. OK, I’m tooting my own horn, but they really are lovely.  When I get a little more energy I’ll put up photos.

Because I’ve been down a lot & working on the bazaar project (when I had energy) for the last 2 weeks AND Kat came home for a week of extended fall break, I haven’t been able to tend my on-line business.  I have SO many things I need to list before the Christmas buying season ends – really need them up in the next couple of weeks. My first priority is the group of stuffed toys I listed last year, have photos but when I pulled the listings didn’t think to copy the wording onto notepad… so now I’ve had to weigh and measure each one again! Here’s one of my favorite toys – a lovely custom-made white teddy bear with a gorgeous custom made lined white plush coat with great details:

That’s what I did this afternoon – after I slept for 2 hours in what was left of the morning/early afternoon when I got up at 11….We had the bazaar yesterday & it really wiped me out.

So – it’s toys, Christmas jewelry & collectibles and then my gorgeous vintage hats. Hats are a new venture for me – I’ve been doing my research; have some great ones, including a couple Mr John Classics. Here’s one of the gorgeous Mr Johns – the green wool felt & veil really complemented Kat’s red hair – I wish I had a photo of  her wearing it!

My listing hold-up has been finding a good hat head for photographing them. I have that plain styrofoam head & one of my wigs from chemo days. That will probably do if I can make it stand up! It wasn’t made for the weight of a hat, so I need to stabilize the bottom. Some of these hats weigh a couple of pounds – Yeah! Really! I can’t believe women actually wore some of these things…

Got some more vintage ties too. This time most of them are really pretty – including a batch of wool ties from Scotland, Ireland & England. Those should be great for the Northern winters. Nobody around here in NC would even think of wearing a wool tie!

Life goes on. Nik and i were able to make it back to 2 SCA meetings!! YAY!! I had Nik do some research on Aristophanes. I was inspired by Tony Blair mentioning “cloud cuckoo land” in a speech before Parlement. Nik found out about “The Birds” & the political climate in Athens at the time as well as the format of Greek “comedies”. All by himself except for a discussion at the end of the day when we discussed what he’d found. He’s such a great kid!

Yesterday he was explaining a moss bonsai to a lady at the bazaar. He mentioned he’d been studying moss recently and she wanted to know where he was doing that. She was probably thinking which school class. He simply explained he was home schooled & decided to see if he could grow moss under out back deck to prevent erosion – studying which grew best, what growing conditions were ideal, which propagated itself most freely etc. Think it scared the heck out of her to hear this coming from the mouth of a young teenager.

Unschooling or “child led education” is working extremely well with Nik. He’s interested in so many things that he’s providing himself a liberal arts education! Did I mention he is studying classical painting & has Thomas Constable as his current favorite? We’re working on his writing problem with his blog. Slowly, he’s increasing the amount he’s writing and decreasing the amount of whining. Eventually he will learn to write a research paper; I’m content with him finishing most of Algebra 2 and being ready to start on Trig. If he were in the 8th grade (as he would be), he’d never have even heard of a Greek play….

Life is changing. A lot. Again. Always something new to do, to learn & to discover. I guess I’ll roll with it

My Vintage “Selling” Frustration – Not Selling!

I’ve been working SO hard over the last few weeks to get great listings in my Bonanzle stores.

Even while I was on vacation!! (yeah, the computer addict thing)

Where are all the buyers? Is it the economy?

My items are way less than the current retail (even with shipping).

I consider my stores re-cycling, making them a a great green option  too.

My first 2 stores, Vintage Valuables & Fabrics Fibers and Fun are at least getting looks with sporadic sales. Their items are  always getting put in one hand-picked list or another, especially my various  Clifford the Big Red   dogs, trolls, enamel crab & bluebird pins.

But Alas!!  My poor lonely Dragonmum’s Wears store is sitting there just begging for someone to at least browse it….  Good thing I’m not dependent on my “income” from selling -

I’d be homeless & starving.

I’m not sure why. Right now I’m featuring a terrific selection of vintage ties -

bow ties,  “ugly” wide ties,  from the early 70s,

retro 80s skinny ties & nifty 1950s-60s skinny ties. 

Some of my fav contemporaries too  like this J.S. Blank Collection beautiful textured woven silk tie.

How can you resist??

Where are all you KNOTs?? (Kollectors of Nasty Old Ties) I’ve put out a feast for you  – and all at negotiable prices.

Are you  ???

There are these gorgeous shoes for you:

Vintage Margaret Jerrold, Vintage Ferragamos, &

these show-stopping Red Prada Mules -
all in excellent condition & at prices that are a steal!  

Not to mention contemporary  bags & purses,  snow boots for kids, new men’s & women’s shorts and a selection of gently used dresses & lingerie. Plus sizes & petites.

You can’t beat my prices for these quality wearables & every price is negotiable (that’s what OBO means).

What are you guys waiting for??   

Consider this your invitation to visit Dragonmum’s Wears.

If you don’t see what you want, contact me. I’ve got tons of other “wears” I haven’t had time to list.

M is for Mountains, V is for Vacation

My daughter has accused my blog of looking like Highlights’ “Read with Pictures”. I thought it might be fun to try that.

These are some random thoughts…  I’m on vacation anyway!!

I finally convinced Hubby he could take time off from work  So we are now on vacation  in the North Carolina  mountains. We’re staying at a very nice resort Sapphire Valley, an area that is apparently lousy with waterfalls  and other gorgeous scenery. The boys want to try fishing  (again). Their track record isn’t great. I’ll join in -  as far as I’m concerned,  fishing’s another excuse for a nap! We’re planning to go out to eat somewhere as a family.  The restaurants are kinda pricey.  Like most everything else here… I told Nik it was because only old rich people  live around here.   He agreed; “They’re the only ones who can afford  the real estate!”

We’ll try not to feed the bears.  while we try to figure out where the gem hunting places are.   I found a nice topaz today at the local instant-gratification cheap-o salted-bucket place! We’ll bring home lots more useless rocks.

I’m a sorry soul; I brought my computer along.    So I’m an addict, OK?  Wanted to work on my Bonanzle stores. Served me right;I kept losing my Internet connection  (which I paid for at the resort!)  Spent about 45 minutes with 2different nice techies.  I brought my Hubby too…. Unfortunately, there’s no tech support for Hubby…

Now that he’s 13, Nik eats everything and anything he can get his hands on.      His willingness  to try just about anything remotely edible  has increased about a thousand-fold.   Today he ate a tomato basil mozzarella sandwich… Definitely have a teenager (ie Locust)  in the house.  At least we won’t be taking  any food home!

We’ll be out hiking some trails. The minute it starts to go up-hill significantly, I’m sitting down and having a little snooze

So far the weather’s been really nice;sunny with only a few clouds.

My idea of a good vacation includes plenty of time just to sit and read.

Nik is always on the prowl for wildlife ;some of the wildlife is always on the prowl for him! Mosquito magnet! Hubby just talks to squirrels. Today we found a new/used bookstore. Nik got a book on wildflowers  of the Carolinas. How can they charge that kind of for a book that’s only 6 x 4?   Between him & Hubby, we acquired 5 more books that, of course, we need like a new  hole in the head…

Next thing, I think they’re going to try to convince me to go rafting.   Right. As if.  They’ll have better luck making me go to the swimming pool…  Tomorrow morning the plan is to have bacon (turkey) and eggs (free-range) for breakfast.  Hubby has to do all the cooking. So sad….

By the way, I’m one of those people who never send postcards when on vacation. That’s WORK!!  Consider this post my “post”card!

Why can’t I actually get anything done?

Photos. I’ve got photos. Stuff. Lots of stuff. Want to list stuff on Bonanzle. So what am I doing? Blogging. Chatting. Answering & beginning topics in groups, forums & discussions. Taking stupid quizzes on facebook. Making Bonanzle hand-picked lists. Fooling with widgets. Looking at my piles of stuff.

Like a potted plant. Clearly I need a kick in the pants!!! Or watering.  Or maybe a vacation??

Well, Hurray!! We’re finally getting a vacation. Up in the mountains. Where the boys can mine gems. And play in a video game room. We’ll bring home lots more useless rocks. Sigh.

It’s my idea of a vacation too. Time Share. Comfy beds. AC and Microwave. Cool mountains. Way up where cell phones don’t work.  I think there is wireless Internet. (hehehe) I have to have something to do while the boys are wasting time in the game room!

Meanwhile, I want to get as much listed in my on-line stores as possible.

I want to sleep too ….   No. Not really. I just wanted a chance to use that cartoon. My cat’s named Chuck anyway….

But wait! Don’t you have a day job? Oh, yeah. That’s still hanging around. Seeing a few patients. Having to write summaries for other docs. Answering phone calls from patients panicked because they’re afraid they can’t function without me. And one of my favorite ladies is dying.

Not getting things done there either.

So – nose to the grindstone- LIST! No, I didn’t say “Do the Funky Chicken”. That’s Nik’s dance!

Here are the 3 Vintage 9″ Thomas Dam troll dolls I managed to get up on my Bonanzle store,  Dragonmum’s Fabrics Fibers and Fun:

The 2 boys are from the 1960s, Nightgown Lady is 1977.

Maybe I’ll get more done tonight.

After the Antiques Road Show.

Vintage Vintage Vintage!!

I have been such a jewelry harlot lately. I spend most of today out buying more vintage jewelry than I can possibly sell in the foreseeable future….  I’ve also been hunting around on-line; last night I found an etsy store, VintageTreasures4You. I think I’ve restrained myself from buying, mostly because the number one thing I would like is a size small. This dress is in a gorgeous Asian brocade. Sigh>

I’ve been trying to list more of my vintage goodies.  Here are some of my cool summer earrings – just right to brighten up a hot steamy day!

And great necklaces for fun…

Come visit me at Dragonmum’s Vintage Valuables for more treasures!

Texting & Facebook & Twitter OH MY!

OK, I’ve done it. Have a facebook page. Opened a twitter account. Sigh. Dragged into the 21st century by friends, The Vintage Village and the need for any one who wants their on-line business to flourish to be socially networked.  So sad. I now have FB & Twitter links on the side-bar… ARRGGHHH!!!  Now I’m connected to the whole world and they all know my name. Hubby wouldn’t like it if he knew. Since he doesn’t care or want to know anything I’m doing on-line, guess I’m safe.

Meanwhile, I’ve been listing even more fun summer jewelry on Dragonmum’s Vintage Valuables.  Here are some of the colorful pieces:

These little enamel monkeys are some of the funniest earrings I’ve ever seen. The seashells have screw-backs; they were my mother’s.

I love these sparkly orange molded clips. This colorful shell necklace actually coordinates with them.

Here is another necklace & earrings that coordinate well…

These fish would also go with that necklace swimmingly well!

And here are some pretties for the 4th of July spirit.

Also, don’t forget the ugly ties on Dragonmum’s Wears. All the guys on KNOTs ( Kollectors of Nasty Old Ties) need to know – these are real “ugly beauties”! Go figure. People will collect almost anything….

I hope they collect mine!!

Wasting away in Weekend-ville….

I’ve been quite distracted lately since I’ve been working on “officially” closing my private practice. I’ve had some things I’ve been wanting to post, and now is the time – after all, I wouldn’t want to actually get anything accomplished today, would I?

Over Memorial Day weekend,  I had planned to help my daughter sell her lovely gamer dice jewelry and hand crafted t-shirts at the local anime (read geek geeek geeeeek) convention, Animazement. Here’s a photo of her booth – and her making that “MOOOOMMMM stop! You’re such a….” face.
After a half day , it became blindingly clear that I just wasn’t up to it. And on top of that, I got a traffic ticket for expired tags…

So I found other things to do with myself…. Except sit on my heating pad and take tylenol the rest of the weekend, I mean…

First thing I decided to tackle was photographing a bunch of my very ugly 1960s-early 70s neckties. I mean Very wonderful examples of why we all remember those years fondly (OK, I was occupied playing in wading pools and reading Nancy Drew – but I’m sure someone does…).
Or maybe it’s because the generation who didn’t wear leisure suits first time around thinks they are great ways to express their individuality. (hehehe)

I needed more great vintage pieces in Dragonmum’s Wears. I’d been picking up the “vintagest of ties” I could find over the previous couple of months. Do you know there’s even an organization dedicated to the men (and it is almost all men) who actually truely collect these things? It’s called KNOTs (Kollectors of Nasty Old Ties)   So, here are several very raw shots of some glories of the 1960s to early 70s – the first 4 are Ralph Lauren – he was having a BAAADDD decade…

After I got tired of that, I thought about doing my 3rd jewelry marks post. Then I started listing all the marks I had yet to do, and decided I had to get some sort of organization before I started. Tried alphabetical, but kept finding too many Cs. I realized it’ll be about 4 or 5 more installments before I’m through that.

So what then? I also needed some new blood in Dragonmum’s Fabrics Fibers and Fun. Since I’ve been sitting on all these vintage magazines (while I was distracted by my shiny goodies) seemed like it was a good time to tackle that. I got the 1st 3 done. While looking for price comparisons on the web, I saw that there are very few of these from the 70s and most are considered rare. Hurray!! Did I mention that a friend GAVE them to me???

Back to the master file #1 for the mags – realized I needed to re-order my list because I, for some reason completely unknown to me now, didn’t photograph them in order or even in groups of the same magazines!!??? And all the price comparisons were a year old. The photos are pretty bad too. I had to think about whether to re-do them or just go with it – only so much “photoshop” can do.

Ah.  Surely I actually accomplished something…. and if you believe that, I have some lovely water-front property to sell you….

Hanging out at The Vintage Village

I have been hanging around my new favorite site, The Vintage Village.

If you don’t know, V V is a site for sellers & collectors of vintage anything to share, learn, network and promote. We reached our 600th member on May 17th and are continuing to grow. Whether you are just starting a vintage collection, opening an on-line store or are an “old hand” who has lots to teach, please check out this site!

I’ve been working on some tutorials – I’m not an expert, but there are some things I know more about than some other people – no harm in putting it out there. One of my sets of info is on Vintage Jewelry marks. Lots of times we see sketches of marks or photos of the jewelry without photos of the marks. Here’s the first part of the photo series; I’ve posted some more marks here.

This is an article I wrote about the sad sad story of buying a beautiful vintage baroque pearl necklace by Robert without looking closely. It’s called “verdigris – yuck!”.

I’ve also got a blog on my page relating to my vintage goodies. My latest post is about the bevy of 10 inch Dam trolls who’ve invaded my house…. Here’s a photo of one of my favorite guys:

Isn’t he darling? I’ve got 15 of these big ones and a bunch more of the medium & littles. You can look for them soon on my Bonanzle store site Dragonmum’s Fabrics Fibers and Fun.

All 3 of my Bonanzle stores now have vintage items!!  Check out these vintage bow ties from Dragonmum’s Wears …

Just the thing for your vintage father!!

Taking it Easy or Working Too Hard?

Which is it? Ha! 

I decided to skip the hospital horror stories….

and write about the here & now….

After surgery, you’d think – Oh, she’s taking it easy. She’s being taken care of.  People are letting her lay on the couch and waiting on her. Ain’t so. Especially that being taken care of part.  So I have to balance what I have to do for myself with what I can without hurting myself.

I’m having a really hard time grasping how debilitated I am. Having your abdomen slit open and  surgeons muck around in your guts is a rather traumatic experience. I finally realized why I’ve just not cognitively getting just how traumatic it was.

See, I had breast cancer surgery 5+ years ago. I had double mastectomies and a type of reconstruction called TRAM at the same time. They take the top group of your “6-pack” and move it up where your boob tissue was. Problem is, the skin that is over that area is cut out and they have to stretch the remaining skin down. This would leave your abdomen pretty weak if they didn’t put in a strong mesh fabric to give it support. That’s great; works well. The downside (besides the really horrendous  but well-worth-it recovery) is the nerves are all cut too, so there’s no sensation in the skin layers of my abdomen.

“Great!” you might think. So that big ol’ slash doesn’t hurt. I’m grateful because I’m dreadfully allergic to all the strong pain meds. My heating pad & acetaminophen are my best friends. However, I’ve discovered the big problem.  Pain can be our friend. It lets us know when we are doing something that might damage our body. It lets us know when we’re doing too much. It’s our early warning system.  Get the picture?

No pain at the incision site – no “hey dummy,  time to stop now”. Plus my ADHD meds give me more energy, so when the crash comes, it really comes. Then I’m totally exhausted  & the place where they actually cut into my abdominal cavity is having something to say about my over-activity.

So, by the school of hard knocks  (hard heads?), I’ve figured out about how much activity I can handle. I made it worse by initially not realizing what I was doing. Took me awhile to figure out that even sitting in my office chair for 3 hours isn’t such a good thing. Somehow the way I move around really irritates my belly. The result? Lots of time on the couch. Sleeping late. Not taking my stimulants so I’m not tempted to keep going even further beyond my capacity.

This all sucks. Not so much because I have to lay around. Heck no. It’s because, amazingly, after the surgery a lot of my other aches and pains have evaporated. Joe, my PT god, thinks it’s because I probably had an infection brewing there for months causing even more problems than I had to begin with. Plus, my mental energy level has suddenly improved.  I’m interested in things. I’ve started to read again. I want to do projects. This is amazing!!

I’ll see. Maybe all this laying around will help heal more than just my belly.  It maybe just the thing my knotted and sore muscles need to reset themselves. That would be tremendous. I haven’t been myself, or what I think of as “myself” for a long time. It also has confirmed to me the wisdom of closing my practice. There is so much more I can do to nurture myself & my family without the constant need to nurture patients too.

Yesterday I had the privilege of a visit from an old friend.  She had felt compelled to come see me; she didn’t know about my very recent problems, but just had that 6th sense something wasn’t right. She is an incredibly centered mindful person & has offered to be my wellness coach. To help me get my life into a very healthy place physically, mentally & spiritually.

Everything happens for a reason. What a wonderful gift; it couldn’t have come at a better time. Wonderful but scary. Change can hurt. Well, I’ve got a pretty high pain tolerance. We’ll see what happens next!