Eccentric Beauty

Friday, May 1

finally feeling blog-ish again

just really have had an uneventful winter.

But it occured to me I should start blogging again when a new bloggy-friend suggested i start one. A bit red in the face I told I had one but was not exactly in the running for blogger of the year. Anyhow I am here and will try, try again.

A couple days ago Matt and I celebrated 8 years of being married to our best friend. I love him and I'm so happy he is my partner on this crazy wonderful ride.

I suppose the most excitement there is to catch you up on is my surgery next week. I will be undergoing a procedure to remove a skin cancer from the tip of my nose. I have tried hard to not think about it. Back in February I decided to ask my Doctor about a small, barely noticeable to others, skin irregularity on the tip of my nose. I had first noticed it last summer when I wrongly assumed it was a pimple and tried my darndest to deal with it the only way I know how. I squeezed the heck out of it but it never really went away. Just got irritated, bled and became flaky again. My doctor referred me to a dermatologist. In March I saw the skin doctor who looked at my nose and asked me "Have you EVER had a bad sunburn as a kid?" At first I thought I would give him a number of how many I recalled. I quickly realized a summer hadn't gone by IN MY LIFE that I didnt get at least one good burn. Probably sensing my thought process the doctor quickly told me one good burn will raise your chances of this sort of cancer. It turns out it is a Basal Cell Carcinoma. BSC is the most common but least aggressive skin cancer. He then did a full check of my skin and fortunately found nothing else of concern. I was scheduled for MOHS surgery for next week.

WHY O WHY does it take this sort of thing to make people do what should be common sense? I have been wearing sunblock every day now. My husband's aunt gave me some great moisturizer that contains sunblock, Eucerin. Its wonderfully light. Annabell has been getting sprayed with SPF 50 every morning and slathering her face in my moisturizer before school as well.

All I can say is 'Don't let this happen to you!'

So it is time for me (to quote a friend) embrace my pastey-white complexion. Treat it with care and respect and hope I will not have to go thru this again. Now instead of shopping for summer clothes in shades that will compliment my 'sun-kissed' skin, (what a joke that phrase now seems, BTW) I am looking for colors that compliment my 'natural (eccentric) beauty' How I will miss that shade of pale yellow that is not at all wearable on my natural coloring. But on the other hand I now have a solid excuse to buy some really sweet wide brimmed hats.

I plan on photo documenting the healing process to properly terrify any of my friends and family who still put effort into 'getting color' all summer. I hope it will just cause you all to think twice- cuz i love you.

Thursday, January 8

dibba

Annabell has had an everchanging nickname. When I first brought her home from the hospital I called her Poopsie. I even had a little song. "Poopsie-do, Poopsie-do. Does whatever a Poopsie doos!" I know it looks silly written- and really it doesnt sound any less sung. (I actually would sing it to the same tune as 'Spiderman, Spiderman- does whatever a spider can...') Anyhow that was it. But when she was about a month old, Matt expressed his disapproval of the pet name I had chosen. I remember him saying, "You fought so hard for the name 'Annabell' (Its true- there was no talking me out of it) and it is such a pretty name. But now all you do is call her POOPSIE? Its so ridiculous." Maybe so- but as an infant she just was my poopsie. But within the first year her nick-name morphed from 'Poopsie-do into 'doop'. Changing again to doopa and finally to what it is now. Dibba. I do remembr how dibba came about tho. When I would go get her in the morning when she woke up, she would say, "Mama! Hi, dibba-dubba dibba." It was her cute little baby-babbling. The thing is, once she learned how to actually talk, it was too late Dibba or dib, had stuck.

Now she is 4 1/2 and 'diddy' (thats what she has always called Matt) has again brought up the subject of her nick-name. He casually in passing remarked how I hardly ever call her Annabell. Its true- I tend to use dibba a lot. It hs even got to the point where Matt says it some times, tho he prefers 'Sweet-heart' or 'sweetness'. I've heard my dad call her dibba as well. All fine with me. But the other day soeone outside the family called her dibba. It sort of took me aback. It wasnt a stranger or anything, but did I not give her a beautiful name for the purpose of people knowing and using IT? I also recalled the nickname my brothers use to call me because they were babies and couldnt say sister or Jennifer. They always called me Tudda. I never cared when family members us the name but I couldnt stand anyone else to say it.

So that is my current dilemma. What do you call your kids? What was your nickname as a child?

Before I go searching for the dinner involving the least effort, I want to share a sweet little moment I had with my Dib tonite.

I was putting her to bed. We were dancing in the dark in her bedroom, me holding her and her head on my shoulder. I was thinking about how little she ued to be and how big she is getting and how much I'm gonna miss these moments putting her to bed at nite when she's older. I quietly said "Oh dib, What did I do before I had my Dibba?" After a second she whispered back "Nothing". It was so simple yet so profound at the same time. I know I did lots of things in my 30 years before her. But at that moment I couldn't think of one. There was nothing else I'd rather been doing than singing & dancing to 'You are my Sunshine" with Annabell in the dark.

Wednesday, January 7

past-blast

I found something today. It was a journal-ly sort of scrap-book I started keeping years ago. No- I mean YEARS ago. Like when still lived in my parents house. It was this really pretty spiral notebook. The covers were midnigt blue and had this gold speckle. I remember thinking it reminded me of the night skies. (I had this afinity for lunar or star themed anything back then.)It was the sort of journal you buy at one of those cool paper stores at the mall for MUCH $$$ and then have only enough left to buy a matching pen. (I have no idea where that went.) I recalled immediately what the purpose of this book was to me. (It wasnt the typical angst-filled book where I was compelled to write down my very misunderstood teen-age emotions and thoughts. I stopped writing that journal after coming to the realization my younger brothers were very entertained by it. Brothers.) I glued clippings that made me smile in it. Pictures, quotes, recipes- mostly all from the pages of my then-favorite magazine, Victoria. (I miss that magazine- is it still published I wonder?) Anyhow I will share the very first page.

It says "find some Me-time; and make the most of it." Don't you just love the photo above it too?

It made me think again about how much I miss my crafty old self. I dont mean the crafts I do with Annabell gluing together 'foamies' animals or fashioning nifty picture frames out of paper plates and pipe-cleaners. I mean the ones that involved thought, real tools, and adequate ventilation. I am reminded of all the 'junk' furniture and collectibles I have here cuz "I just KNOW I could make something really cool with that". So, to help motivate myself, I am blogging here my intention to start digging thru all my lovely junk and transfoming it into the shabby-chic treasures I know it can be. And please if you return and find me slacking o this- remind me of how much I NEED to do this for me and fo your own amusement!

I must go now and locate my hot glue pan....