The Blackburn Digest

I’ve had an extended & frustrating period of requiring excessively long ‘rest periods’ for every chore accomplished; washing and hanging up the laundry would take all available energy, watering all of the outdoor plants left me exhausted, necessary attempts at taming household clutter meant someone else was cooking dinner. Not surprising, I suppose, as rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia both pack a big fatigue punch, and the air pressure(a big trigger for me) has been dancing a ballet for weeks!

Finally, though,I’ve had a weekend during which I really accomplished something . . . more precisely, more then one “something”! Trimmed my e-mail down from 100+ to 4 by actually reading, responding and/or copying and filing recipes, patterns for miniatures, etc. Accomplished the two-week food shopping with Tom’s help. Gave all the plants a cleanup and hearty drink (still need to feed them!), and even managed to spend a productive period up in my “Tower” workroom! I didn’t create any masterpieces, but it was extremely satisfying to convert three long-stored kits into finished miniatures and solve a visibility problem within my newly remodeled Cabbages & Kings antique shop! I hope this trend lasts a while - I’ve sooo many projects I want to complete!

My admittance to the GSOLFOT (Green Sock on Left Foot on Tuesday) group has stirred up my creative side again:) Other than organizing some of the perpetual chaos in my workshop area, I haven’t really spent much time in my “Tower” recently; but my new title and a (virtual) office of my very own (#17) has me back at the workbench!

There is only one miniatures shop in San Antonio, and I will not shop there, ever! Since I was fired-up to start creating my new office now/immediately/this very minute, I turned to an alternate possibility for the wallpaper I needed; my local scrapbooking shop! A long-retired room box from my storage closet was pressed into service - by dinner time, the old & discolored wallpaper was stripped, fresh new paper installed and a new carpet measured and installed. A dining table with two wobbly legs and a very dull finish was re-glued and wearing a warm new wood stain, ready to become my workbench. A seriously red-hued mahogany wall cabinet was wearing a fresh coat of pale spring green paint, and I had a large basket full of possible furniture, nick-knacks, throw rugs, fur-kids and craft supplies (all in one-twelfth scale) was waiting for glues and paints to dry. Oh, yes - dragons aplenty were waiting for a shelf, table or a corner to claim also!

Still feeling a bit shaky, but I did manage a few constructive actions today; laundry, more entries in my “flower recipe’ book (miniature flowers), a two week menu & shopping list to occupy us for awhile come tomorrow and a shiny new “official” title, awarded by The Great Oz of GSOLFOT!

As a newly-minted member of the “ancient & honorable” order of GSOLFOT, I’ve been mulling over what title and duties I wanted (should I be so fortunate as to be granted either a title or an office in the virtual -castle). Today, my title request was granted, with an acceptable alteration. I’d held a feeble hope that I could be a Princess (every ‘little’ girl’s dream - LOL!), but there’s no room for more royalty. Fair enough - I am now, officially, Contessa of Useful Bits, Bobs & Specks and Protector of Roof Runners! No, I am not kidding. Yes, I am off my rocker. Having a glorious time, thank you!

I have served as President of my local miniatures club for two terms (4 years), and my loyal and supportive board of officers has backed me up throughout. I have cheerfully mangled Robert’s Rules of Order at each and every meeting, for the sake of swift-moving meetings and maximum time for projects and general mini-fun. Besides, rules or no, controlling a large group of gregarious miniaturists is much akin to herding cats! Why fight an uphill battle when humor works better than “rules”?

Before I led a larger-than-usual group through a lesson in miniature flower making today, there was the usual “Christy version” of a business meeting. Along with minutes of the last meeting, a quick report from our treasurer, collection of yearly dues and some discussion of upcoming projects and some good-natured arm twisting to produce instructors for said projects, it was time for a new board of officers to be installed. Well, that is what the calendar said, anyway! While I realized that the current board hadn’t had a single serious internal disagreement or ’spat’ over our four years, and everything has run remarkably smoothly, I assumed that the general membership was probably tired of my refusal to take myself (or much of anything else) seriously Um, wrong - LOL!

Well the title got your attention, anyway:)

As I was leaving our house to run errands and buy a few things I’ll need when I teach my class on Saturday, I noticed the big “automated trash pick-up” containers being distributed in my neighborhood. I hoped we would receive our *very own set* of 96 gallon containers (brown for trash and blue for all recyclables), but held the pessimistic view that they would run out of containers before reaching our street. Delivery of *any* goods or services can be a bit slow in Texas ~ it’s something about that ‘Southern cadence’ . . . I was introduced to that phenomenon in Athens, Georgia in 1968, and it truly hasn’t changed very much in forty years:)

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed an article in our local paper about a yearly Antiques Show -or rather a huge group of shows in and around Round Top, TX. It was going to run Sept. 30th thru Oct. 4th, featured 350 dealers from all over the US (and some from Europe!), and I realized this was the show I’ve read about in several major magazines as “One of the Best”. Tom & I used to love poking through antique shops, (especially the dusty, quirky ones), but it’s something we haven’t done in a very long time. Sounded like fun, and I made an idle comment to Tom about it. Before long, Tom was talking about taking a couple of vacation days and asking whether I wanted to go antiquing. It’s something we used to love doing, something we haven’t done in ages, and YES, let’s do it!

I took one of my favorite T-shirts out of the closet a few days ago, looked at it, and then put it back on its hanger. The shirt is black, with white lettering proclaiming “I’m Blogging This”. I haven’t written a blog entry since late-March, and need to re-earn that T-shirt! (So much for “Blog 365″!)

A passing glance at what has been happening in my world since the last post:

- I have *started the ball rolling* on the hideously expensive dental surgery which will (I hope!) end my on-going war with my upper dentures! Oh, it fits fine - it’s just that the palate plate and my over-developed gag reflex (coupled with the ever-present Texas allergens) are making making me miserable:( This will be a long-term project, since it involves consultations, scans, impressions, more scans, evaluations and more consultations before the actual surgery.