If the road was paved with good intentions.............

I forget the rest of it but surely I could walk around the world by now.  So much for my daily doodle post.  This year just didn't get off to the greatest start.  My sister was admitted to the hospital with what, we didn't know.  Since she is 78 we had all kinds of fears.  As it turned out it was an intestinal flu bug that left her severely dehydrated.  She spent 3 night in the hospital, but by the second day her daughter got sick and had to leave the hospital.  The following day my daughter and I came down with it.   It quickly made it's way thru 12 family members in less then a week and a half.

My sister was finally able to go home but to increased home care till the family can get her into a senior care facility.  It's that next step we knew was coming.   She has severe osteoporosis and suffers from Alzheimer's.   It's sad to see how her body is changing, she is so frail and unsteady.   But she really lights up when she has visitors,  she hasn't lost her social skills.  

She's my big sister,  she was always there for me growing up and into adulthood.  We became even closer in our adult years.   We use to go on a trips together during hunting season when the guys were gone.  We started with short trips to the beach then we ventured to Seattle and Vancouver BC.  Then the trip to Edmonton Mall in Alberta Canada.  Four whole days doing what we loved the most, shopping.  We never left the mall the whole time we were there, we even stayed in a hotel inside the mall.   Pure paradise.

She was with me when I had my first flat tire, together we got it changed.  She sat on the curb reading the manual and I did the dirty work.  We leaned to pump gas ourselves together.  She was the left hand I was the right.  Together we could do anything.  But we were especially good at shopping.

During one trip while visiting my daughter in Virginia we got to go to Washington DC for a whirl wind tour.  We walked from one end of the mall to the other in one day.  In and out of museums, botanical gardens, the capitol, Washington monument and lastly when we came to the steps of  Lincoln memorial,  all we could do was stand there looking up at the Lincoln, we knew we couldn't walk another step let alone climb the stairs.  That is the one and only time I ever saw my sister tire from walking.

If you have a sister you know where I'm coming from.  There is this special bond between sisters, it's really hard to explain.   She's been my friend, my confidant, we were never play mates till we grew up because she was much older then me  but we learned to "play" shopping, traveling, dinners out with chocolate martinis, adult play.

The roles are changing, her daughter is now the mother, I'm a care giver and distraction.  One thing that has changed, she lets me get away with bossing her.  She'll do what I tell her to do and pretty well accepts it.  She's a little stubborn and gives her kids a hard time,  it's so hard to let go of being the parent.

I'm sorry for rattling on for so long, maybe you can relate to where I'm at right now.  I'm slowly loosing my bestest friend ever and the last of my siblings.


Thanks for visiting.

Hugs

Cyndee

Doodle #7

  

I crowned myself Queen of Doodles. 

Got some great stuff to add to my stash, my daughter brought me some tiles from her trip to Mexico plus they were wrapped in a local newspaper.  She brought me more then she realized, I can use the newspaper in a collage.  

This means more cutting and pasting, yeah.  Haven't worked on a collage since way before the holidays.  I'm beginning to have withdrawals.    

Thanks for visiting, I'll get caught up tomorrow with my doodles.  Just need to scan them.  

Hugs

Cyndee

   

Doodle 5 and 6

I beginning to get inspired again.  Such a creative dry spell around the holidays it takes a bit to get back in the groove.

Thought I'd try some letters.  Play is just what it is.

I've been working in the other direction on the page.  It's always good to make a change every now and then.   I like working up, trying to carry the design a little higher.  














Hope you have a great weekend.  Thanks for stopping.

Hugs

Cyndee

Doodle post 1 thru 4

A new year and new projects.  I was thinking about setting a goal to post a doodle a day for this year, but since I've never been good about sticking to goals I re-thought the idea and decided to post one a week.  Then I thought no that's no challenge so I'm going to start with a month.  Even if I don't have time to post each day I will still post a total of 31 doodles for the month of January.  I know I can do this since hardly a day goes by that I don't do one, sometimes only a quick one on lunch break or I spend several hours working on one after I get home.

So here's my first through fourth doodles for January.  

Cyndee Starr, Artist ©

Sometimes I see things in my doodles, other times there's a message,  quite a few look like dragons.  I can totally get lost in my doodles.  They are all a reflection of my muddled mind.  

So what are you doing to challenge yourself this year?  

Thanks for visiting and I hope the New Year brings you peace and joy.

Hugs,

Cyndee

Merry Christmas!

My wish for you all is a very Joyful and Merry Christmas.

Thank you for all your support and comments during the year.  

Hugs

Cynthia Eloise

Where has the time gone?

I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted, but like everyone this time of year I'm just plain busy.

We went with my daughter and grandson to see an old historic steam engine role in with Santa aboard on Saturday.   My grandson has such a love for trains, it started with Thomas now it's all trains.  He even watches videos of old historic trains, not cartoons.  It been fun for all of us, we get to ride and see so many different trains.  A couple of Christmas' ago, we drove up to Hood River and rode the Polar Express.  It was so cool,  they had a Santa's village set up along an old warehouse site, of course it was dark out so you couldn't see anything but the lighted village set.  Santa came aboard the train, then we continued on our trip.  We sang and had hot chocolate and cookies.  Santa walked through the whole train talking to the kids.  A high school group cruised the isles singing some of the songs from the Polar Express movie.  The kids all enjoyed it, of course we did also.



Sunday I participated in the Annual Business Women's Holiday Sale.  It was a little disappointing, the crowd wasn't what I had expected,  but I wasn't totally bummed, it was a great learning experience and I met a lot of other great women.  Our fee included breakfast and lunch served to us, and the bar opened at 5.  So got to finish the day with a glass of wine.   I shared a table with a needle felter.  It was fascinating to watch her poke at the ball of wool yarn and see it take shape.  She slowly turned the wool into little gnomes.  They were so adorable.

 And I finally got my Christmas cards off in the mail today.  Sent out my own designs this year.  Here's a couple of the designs I used.  I tried printing them my self at Kinkos, what a chore.  I had trouble with the machines taking my card stock.  Next time I think I will have them printed.

Haven't yet had time to bake, or finish my Christmas shopping.  Although I already had to return one item,  it seems my ex and I tend to buy the same thing for at least one of the grandsons.  At least this  year I found out before Christmas so I could exchange it.  

Since I'm having my kids and some of my honey's kids at our house Christmas Eve I need to get busy and figure out what I'm going to feed them.  Then a Christmas Concert next week and dinner with my sister another.  Christmas will be here before you know it.  So much anticipation and such a let down when it is over.  It will be nice this year to have the day after Christmas off work to unwind, I don't have to go back till Tuesday.  

It's such a fun time of year, and the weather has been cold here, no snow.  But at least it feels like Christmas and no rain.  Hope you are surviving all the holiday cheer.  

A little over a week till Christmas.  Take time from your busy schedule to enjoy the holiday season.  It seems we get to wrapped up in making everything so perfect we forget to sit back and enjoy it.  I ready for some hot buttered rum.  Maybe tonite.  

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs

Cyndee

Holiday Weekend Update

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Holiday.  We all traveled to my daughters house on the coast.  Both daughters and all the grand kids.  Ate and drank far to much, it always seems like we plan so much food for our stay that we don't have time to eat it all.  Since we all had a four day weekend we got to play a little. 

The weather was even accommodating Friday and Saturday.  We attended the Rockaway Beach Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, hung our home made ornaments that we made earlier in the day, and sang Christmas Caroles. We got to go crabbing off the pier in Garibaldi, got one, and Saturday was warm enough the boys went skim-boarding.  Burrrrr!!! far to cold for me.  But at their ages they don't feel the cold.  We stood with our coats on and hoods up watching.

I just opened a new journal for my doodles, twice the size I had been using.  It's a little intimidating at first, but challenging.  I'm using a new pen, Tombow ABT dual tip.  The tip I'm trying is the brush tip, very fine point but brush like.  Kinda cool.

I hadn't thought much about my doodles, as far as, do they look like something, do they mean something, and forget about titles.  I've only titled a small handful.  I was looking at one of the new larger doodles and realized they are my play, I seem to always start with a main line or shape, some control,  then I let loose.  It's just what comes from my muddled mind.  All my lines, dots, and swirls represent running and jumping,  swinging and dreaming.  It's my escape to foreign places.  See the castles,  some are dragon like, crowns, sometimes a jesters hat, circus tents.  Can you see the legs trying to run off with the whole menagerie?

I'm thinking about posting a doodle a day starting the first of the year.  I'm not good at keeping focus on goals, or resolutions but I think I'm going to try this.  I miss very few days of doodling now so the only difference is posting them.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed, so now on to serious shopping.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs

Cyndee