I am totally stealing this from someone on my LiveJournal friendlist.

Box exercise

So, say you were meeting a new person–blind date, new friend, who knows. And you wanted them to have some idea of what kind of person you are, and who you are. But you can’t actually tell them in so many words.

Instead, you have to give them a box, with a dozen things in it for them to look at/read/listen to/taste/whatever. What would you put in the box?

1. art supplies

2. a statue of Buddha, and books/website links about his teachings.

3. one of my cameras..maybe the tiny one that fits in the palm of my hand

4. a white cake with white frosting and a hot cup of espresso

5. the Atlantic ocean and Old Orchard Beach in Portland ME

6. vegetables, lentils, tofu, soy milk, fruit, and maybe an “I am vegetarian” bumper sticker. ha!

7. SUMMER!

8. photographs of family and those I love

9. - my favorite book at the moment: the art of looking sideways

10. a photo of my fur babies - Fred, Izzie, Emma, and Scrappy

11. my computer and laptop

12. - my favorite CD at the moment: Chants to Awaken the Buddhist Heart

is photo is dedicated to my mother. she will understand why.

At this time last year, I found out my mother was sick. We didn’t know a lot of the details; there were tests to take.

On New Year’s Eve, I was told it was cancer. A happy new year, it was not. I spent the entire day in tears, and many days after.

This is not the first time we’ve walked down this road. This is the third time. She beat it twice, and it reared its ugly head once again.

She had chemo.
It didn’t work.

A few months later, the cancer had spread.

She tried again.
It didn’t work.

The doctors weren’t giving us much hope. In fact, they were being quite negative. I remember writing an email to my Mom one time. I wrote, “Tell your doctors to go to hell. They do not know my Momma. They don’t know what a fighter you are.” I know it’s not nice to curse, especially to your mother, but I couldn’t help it. At times, it seemed they were giving up, and it was making me mad.

We refuse to give up hope.
I will NEVER give up on her.

She is trying chemo for a third time, and.. AND…it just may be working!!! Her test number last month was 25. Today, it is 7.5!!! (it is suppose to be zero) We will know more in two weeks when she has another cat scan, but for now..

I am dancing for joy and ooooh, so thankful. YES!!!

If you’d like to enlarge the photo, please click.

I don’t know why I’m fascinated by memes lately. I guess they’re kinda fun, in a stupid, stupid way. heh! That said..the bold has been done. The not bold is yet to come, maybe..if I want to.

Feel free to steal it, and let me know when you post your results.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (only a day cruise, though)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (computer)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

okay, i’m off to my studio. I’ve got some painting to do.

Well! This is the first morning since Halloween that I’ve felt ok. Still not tip top, but a little better than meh. I just may get through the day without sleeping it away. I have been sleeping waaay too much. Needless to say, I’ve been neglecting so many things, like my blog. I’ll probably post a flurry of entries today, like this one.

mmm..can’t resist.

I stole this recipe from one of my favorite websites. There’s only one thing better than cake on this planet, and that’d be cupcakes. YAY!! I can’t wait to try this recipe.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemony Frosting
prep time: 20 minutes | cooking time: 17-22 minutes | makes 12 cupcakes

Equipment:
12 cupcake tins and paper liners, 2 medium mixing bowls.

Ingredients
For the cupcakes
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup light molasses
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup soy milk
2 tablespoons soy yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

For the frosting
1/4 cup soybean margarine
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup soymilk
juice of 1 lemon

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line tins with paper cupcake liners.
Sift together flour through salt.
Wisk together wet ingredients (oil through yogurt) until well emulsified.
Fold dry ingredients into wet, wisking to combine.
Fold in lemon peel and crystalized ginger.
Pour into tins, 2/3 of the way.
Bake 17 - 22 minutes, until top springs back when touched or a toothpick comes out clean.
When fully cooled frost them with frosting below.

Prepare the frosting
In a round bottom bowl cream margarine and shortening with a strong fork. This could take 5 minutes, to make sure they are thoroughly blended and smooth. Add sugar and mix, adding splashes of soymilk as you go along to make blending easier. Add lemon juice, and keep creaming away until everything is perfectly smooth. Refrigerate until cupcakes are ready for frosting.

an apple a day..blah blah..

Forever ago, Trish tagged me for doing that 6 random things meme. I’ve been sick with some nasty virus since Halloween, so I haven’t blogged much. I’ll make this quick, since I’ve already done this meme. And, I’m not going to tag anyone this time.

1. I used to take photographs every day. What happened?
2. I prefer documentaries over Hollywood movies.
3. No matter how big the slice of cake is, if it’s sponge cake with white frosting, it’s not big enough.
4. I love wearing clogs.
5. I grew up in the white mountains. I’ve always liked the ocean better than mountains, though.
6. I don’t like mayo, sour cream or cream cheese. Yuck! Each has an odd, bitter taste to me.

I’m so happy to see that Connie and Sweet Mango are enjoying the books I made for them. It warms my little heart.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’m going to get my still sick butt onto the couch, and curl up with my blanket and pillows.

I told Amy from Magical Musings that she could tag me for this, if she wanted..and she did. I thought it sounded fun.

6 random things you may or may not know about me..

1. I am legally blind (very distorted shadows only) in my left eye, and I’ve been having trouble with my right eye for a few years now. Astigmatism in both. I have no depth perception. I’m near and far sighted. It makes me a very nervous driver. I tend to run into and over curbs a lot, especially on the left-hand side of the car. I can not judge distance at all. Am I going to hit that? Nah, I’m not going to.. Crunch. Yeah. I drive slowly and stay off interstates, if at all possible.

Having horrible eyesight makes being an artist a little difficult. I’m never quite sure if my paintings look too flat or not. I really have no idea. I know how it looks to me, but I have no idea how it looks to someone with 20/20 vision. It is challenging, but I don’t think of it as a handicap.

And, believe it or not, they can make a contact lens for my blind eye, which helps make colors a little brighter, but they can’t do anything for my right eye. I’ve tried several contacts, and it only made it worse. They suggested glasses, but if they can’t get a contact right..should I really spend over $600 for glasses? hm..

2. Miz Katie dot com is my third website. None of my old websites exist anymore. Some people know me best from my photography, not art. I’ve been told numerous times that I have “a good eye”, which always makes me laugh at the irony.

3. I met my bf online seven years ago. Or was it eight? hm..not sure. It was six. Six years ago. Greg set me straight last night. It sure feels like more.. We were casual email friends in the beginning, so I don’t remember the exact date. He bought a lot of art from me, and I thought of him as my “best customer”. It took a little while for our friendship to take off. Truthfully, I thought he was a bit weird (he laughs hysterically whenever I say that), but I didn’t want to be rude. I kept thinking I’d answer his emails until he stopped writing. Well, he never stopped. And, I kept answering. Somewhere along the line, we began to email, call and IM each other obsessively. But, still, we didn’t meet for a long time. It became a long distance love affair of the heart.. until we couldn’t take it any longer and had to be together. We met for the first time 3 years ago, TODAY, and have been together ever since! It’s our anniversary. aw! I’m going to bake him a chocolate cake (for a purely selfish reason, of course. I want some caaaake!!! isn’t he lucky to have such a thoughtful gf?). laa!

4. I’m a vegetarian, but don’t worry. I don’t care if you eat meat. I’ll even cook it for you if you come to my house to visit. I swear, I’m not going to go all PETA on you. I don’t eat it because I don’t like it. I like cake better. mmm..cake!

5. I tend to over-think everything, and I can really annoy other people with my long, drawn out thought process. Sometimes all I end up doing is thinking, not doing. I paralyze myself. I am over-thinking this entry right now, and it’s annoying me. heh!

6. I love animals! I have 3 cats - 2 sweet, loving Persians - Izabella and Scrappy, and a cranky black cat named Emma Bossy. She bites me all the time, but I try to look past her faults. Scrappy, the meditating cat, has Lupus. He’s pretty sick, and probably won’t be with us much longer. We’re just trying to make him as comfortable as possible, and love him up, until he’s ready to go.

I also have a lab named (big red) Fred.

All my pets were rescued, in one way or another. Fred was on death row when I met him. He was only a year and a half, and he was going to be put to sleep. Emma was a tiny kitten and lived in a fallen down, abandoned barn. She was barely fed. Scrappy and Izzie came from FreeCycle.org (at different times, in different states), and were unwanted pets. They were both very sick when I/we took them in. Scrappy never recovered, and we later found out why.

Okay, so that’s it! I hope you enjoyed reading. So.. now I’m suppose to tag people. hm..okay. If you don’t want to do this, it’s cool. Don’t feel pressured.

Here’s my list:

1. Trish
2. Paula
3. Sweet Mango
4. DebMarie, who claims she’s not my friend anymore because I won’t shut up about marshmallows and chocolate. ahem! ;)
5. Jeannine
6. Zom

here are the rules:

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

i put on white shorts and a white t-shirt this morning.
20 mins later i dropped a huge hunk of a tomato, dripping in spaghetti sauce onto my right leg.
i am still sitting here with a stain on my shorts that kinda resembles the picture above. a big ole splat of red. what that says about me, i don’t really care.

1. i’m a klutz.
2. i’m lazy.
3. i don’t care about my appearance.

true. true. and true.

i wish i felt better today.
i wish i wasn’t so cranky.
i wish my white shorts weren’t ruined.

i need to go paint or something.
maybe get some bleach on that stain.

he meditated.
we painted the walls.
somehow, it didn’t seem fair.

it looked like this at 9am:

and now it looks like this:

it’s my new home office, which means soon..very soon, my now office is going to turn into my art studio and I can move out of the walk in closet I’ve been using for the past year! WOO!! tomorrow i will stain the path to the bathroom and kitchen (no way i could wait 6 hrs of dry time and not need the bathroom..or food!!), and get ready for the poly. almost! almost!!

pizza for dinner because i said so.

greg bought me a huge bar of patchouli soap from the health food store yesterday. i wasn’t sure if i liked it. it kinda smelled..well, awful, to be honest. but, this morning i tried it, and oooh la la. i smell like a fresh clean hippie, and i LOVE it. makes me want to put on a long skirt and burn some incense.