Never underestimate the power of uninterruped sleep.....

AHHHHHHHHH.......

More AHHHHHHHH......

Coffee in bed, served in my favorite red polka dotted mug by my dear husband...........see one here.

Even MORE AHHHHHH......

No beeps, no tethers to the "Christmas Tree of Life"........

And though I'm wearing some REALLY FUNKY shiny gold FUGGS, I'm still clicking my feet together and saying....

"There's NO PLACE LIKE HOME!"

Today's agenda at home is to be a quiet one...things to put away, doctor's papers to go through, organizing medicines in my el giganto pill dispenser, just generally trying to ease back in. Visits with family.

Emails, FB messages would be most welcome! Phone calls (at the moment, and which I love) are leaving me a little breathless.

Got to build up those little red polka dots of hemoglobin so I can get some more oxygen.

Darn....red dots are EVERYWHERE!!!!!

Love,
Penny

Hellllllll yes. Home at last!!!! Fresh air!!!!!


Love, Penny

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sleeping in MY OWN BED tonight!

Yesterday there was a hint that I might come home today.

Today the nurses came in said "Are you excited about going home today?"

HELLS to the YEAH!!!!

By 10:30 I had blown SPA DCH and sent hugs and kisses down the hall to the nurses. What a great staff!

When the door opened and I felt the fresh air on my face for the first time in 23 days, I almost melted into a puddle of happiness.

Got home, Katie and Mary-Keeley and I sat in the sun and they took the rest of my stringy hair off my head....ahhhhhhhh.

Rested and then we were treated to homemade pizza from Nita and Holden.

My bed is going to feel SO good tonight.

Being next to Jonathan is going to be even better!

Thank you all so very much for caring, praying, gifts, cards and all the other good things I felt while in the hospital.

And don't worry.....the blog will go on. Still have LOTS to say!

Love,
Penny

When I woke up this morning.....

Yes, all of you were on my mind!
The wonderful visits, gifts, phone calls, emails, texts, prayers.
ALL of it! I'm so VERY, VERY, grateful!

I loved this particular video because it shows what we, errrr, of a certain, errr, age looked like, thought was cool, etc.
Did you catch those white "go go" boots?

I'm actually intrigued with finding a wig that resembles the
female singer's look

Had a nice quiet morning and early afternoon. People were
resting at home, I was quietly finishing My Life in France,
which deserves a second read, IMHO.

Old friends dropped in. Thanks Harry and Jenny...always SO fun to see you both. So glad
y'all and Jean and Sandy had such a fun NYE!

Night ended with one my best visits EVER, because Pam and Anna Gordon walked in the door. Anna Gordon, Summa CumLaude student at U of A, grad student at Georgia,
discovered she had Leukemia within the past year. BUT YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW IT.

Anna has a true "kick ass" attitude about this whole thing. Thewisdom this old lady learned from a 23 year old was AMAZING. What Pam had to share was AMAZING and VERY helpful.

We have promised each other that we WILL be sitting side by side on Oprah's yellow couch one of these days and that Oprah will be trying to butt in to remind us that it is HER show.


But it won't be. We won't give her time to talk!

Before I forget, I should mention that Anna (and her sister Torrey) were former students from back in my library days,
when I had the INCREDIBLE fortune to teach at Tuscaloosa's first magnet school, at Central Elementary School.  


Program UP: Unfolding Potential.

We were different, we were strange (to some who couldn't really break out of the traditional
"school" mode--like worrying if their kids would still be invited to the "nice birthday parties")


AND we were an OASIS, a HEAVEN, a GODSEND to those families knew their children marched to the beat of a "different drummer." It is just too damn bad that we didn't have charter schools at the time.

There's a book in that story, too, to be told by the many who went through it. And if I have anything to do with it, there will bea bunch of us sitting on Oprah's couch again!

And as a P.S. to my Central story....when "Room Service" door knocked yesterday for lunch, in walked a tall thin boy whoseface was very familiar. I stopped him, turned him around so I could see his name tag. Cardae Thomas, one of the sweetestkids that went through Central Elementary while I was there. I jumped up and hugged him and held onto him for dear life.

He had recognized my last name on the order form, seen ME through my lack of hair, and quietly whispered, "I wondered if you would remember me, Ms. Mc".  

Oh yes, Cardae...I remembered and will NEVER forget you!


Love,
Penny

Survivor....not the TV schlock kind.....

I was going through my inbox and came across an email from Walter Grant, a local guy.  His family, sadly, has suffered the tragedy of losing a child before they should have.

I have many friends to whom this has happened.  I cannot even begin to fathom the depth of grief they still must bear every day.  To all my friends who have had to go through this, I am deeply, deeply sorry.

But this isn't about that.  It is about Walter's opening sentence to me in that email.

"My name is Walter Grant and I am a Leukemia survivor."


It was sort of late last night, since I'd had that nice Phenergan nap, and I was still a little groggy.

I didn't "get" that sentence at first.  I sent a quick reply to let him know how much I appreciated the letter, talked about meeting Beth, his wife at the Church Bazaar.  (Are you noticing how much is happening around this Church Bazaar thing????)

I told him I remembered Adam, as he was in Katie's class and was the boyfriend of one of Mary-Keeley's best friends  when he died.

We exchanged a couple of other quick emails re: dealing with Leukemia, things we could do to help around here, etc, then it was time for shut eye.

I woke up this morning and was re-reading the email and this time his opening sentence took on a new meaning.

It is my PLAN (not a dream) to be able to share those same words with anyone who is willing to read or listen to them:

"My name is Penny McAllister and I am a Leukemia survivor."


Don't groan....you knew this one was coming....

"We pause this programming for a commercial break....LONG commercial break"

OK, don't hit me but this is a preview of Christmas 2010, yes Christmas 2010 which will be available at America's Mart in Atlanta, January 6-13th, as well as all the other regional markets that are held around the country during January. Since the catalog has been mailed, I decided to post the styled shot for the catalog....there are MORE cute pieces in this collection.

Yes, I am engaging in a bit of shameless self promotion.  Skip this post if you skip commercials on TIVO.  Won't bother me ONE BIT.  NOT ONE BIT.   And this is a LONG post.

I have another story to tell.  One of the most interesting, adventurous, eye opening stories of my life.  A story of courage.   A story of taking a chance.   Enough of that.....but in the spirit of another great story, I'll entitle mine......

MIDWEST and ME

Many of you know that I am a licensed designer with a company called Midwest of Cannon Falls, recently merged with another company CBK, henceforth known as MWCBK.  This is a company that makes things overseas and then imports for sales in stores like Dillards, Anna Kate and Co., Bow Regards.  I make the original prototype, it is sent overseas for reproduction, and end up in stores like the above.

Some of might not have known that, but now you do.  For those of you that may  have been wondering how I make all those things in the stores, there ya go.  I know some think I'm making all of those at my house.  Jonathan surely does, because our house is more studio/storage/etc. than a house sometimes.  But, I digress.

As an only child, I spent lots of time imagining things, making things, learning to sew very simple doll clothes with my grandmothers, that sort of thing.  My mother and father provided me the things I needed with which to occupy myself.

I am also sort of obsessive-compulsive and have always said "Hmmmmm, I can make that myself".  Not all have been successful, but what the hey....it was fun.  And, most often, I was teaching myself how to do it, either by just "studying" on it or reading directions from a book.

One of the first stages was the huge crepe paper flower stage.  All over my room.

Next, the wooden bead necklace phase, where my mom just shook her head at how much acrylic paint cost in 1960 something.  But still, we headed to this store and that to find the "perfect" string or the "perfect" paint color.

Lest we forget, the painted lunchbox purse phase, where I perfected the art of swirly monograms on the side.  A neighborhood idol, the late Carolyn Flanagan Whitfield, beauty and style queen at Tuscaloosa High school bought one from me.  WHAT AN AFFIRMATION!!!

There are more...needlepoint phase, (learned how to do it while sitting under one of those sunbeam hairdryers so I could pass the time quickly) later, the cross stitch phase, where I still marvel at the fact I could make a tiny stitch like that.  Oh wait, I had 20 year old eyeballs then.  More phases, too numerous to mention.

I continued to play with this creative gift while doing things like creating very simple backdrops for events.  One year it was a "Peter Max" styled backdrop for one of our THS proms.  It was not so great but I was proud. One day Jonathan and I were looking at old prom pictures, each with other dates.  He said, "I hated that background."  I said, "I painted that background."  He said, "I still hated that background."  We laughed and moved on.

Later years,  there were more backdrops, table decorations, thinking of impossible things to do in a short amount of time.  (Hmmm, making paper mache life rafts about three days before a themed party?  Jean Gordon and I were frantically trying to dry them in her oven and not let them burn up)

Oh, there are so many, many more.  If you want to hear about them, you'll just have to buy my Oprah's Book Club selection book when it comes out!

SO, big jump forward.  (I have a good Okra Santa story to tell, but again, you'll just have to buy the book.)

After 25 years employeed in one school system, I change to another one.  Whole different atmosphere.  My creative brain, which had not been totally dormant, especially the prior six years to "the jump" began to flourish.

NOTE:  At this point, I'm sure Jonathan is channelling his music mantra..."Don't bore us, get to the chorus."  J, my love, that's for you to do with the songs in your heart.  I have to be what I am.

My friend, Beth Roberts, who has always gotten my quirky sense of humor and art (along with many other folks) had shown me a copy of a 1999 Halloween issue of Mary Englebreit's Home Companion. (May it rest in piece....greatest mag out there, IMHO).

I had seen the issue but had been more focused on the fact they had featured a home full of southern folk art, as well as the private backyard retreat of another southern woman whom I had known back from an earlier first marriage life.  I had NOT noticed what Beth was showing that day......

There were these adorable figures.  Quaint, quirky, vintage, cute, huggable.

She said, "I bet you could make these."

"I can't do anything like that!  I've never sculpted a thing in my life!  Besides, I don't want to make them, I JUST WANT THEM!"

Off to the internet to search the artist out.  Debbee Thibault.

Off to the phone to call local stores.  They never heard of her.

Off to the internet again, to find who sold them.  Then found out I couldn't afford them.   Sigh.

But I would drool on my keyboard over them.  DROOL, people, DROOL.

Fast forward again.  Christmas comes.  We are ready to put up the old lights that have burned on my tree for nearly 80 years. *Note: they burn for 15 seconds, but we count it anyway.  The cord has broken.  I am sick.

Again, off to the internet, where I locate a guy who collects this stuff.  I explain my dilemma and the nice man sends me TWO new "old cords".  Christmas can continue.

How to thank this man?  Aha!  I'll make a papier mache Santy Claus, holding a string of lights!  I do, send it off, and he is thrilled.

Next, I want to do something for my aide at school.  She loves snowmen.  Ta Dah! A snowman.

Then, two more Santas, one for my mom, one for Jean Gordon, my best friend who has accepted and loved everything I've ever made for her.  (Of course, so has my mom!)

I find myself overwhelmed with ideas, so much so that I am popping out of bed at 3:30 a.m.,  working until 6:00 a.m. and then getting ready for school.  Crashing on the couch at 7:00.  Wasn't I a fun wife???

I reach a stage where I have so many things I've made, I can't do anything with them, so I try selling them on eBay.  Slowly I build a following, enjoy some success, make a little money because what I really want to do is buy a Debbee Thibault piece.

Another flash forward...I'm sitting in my PJs (spent one whole spring break never moving from the work table) and have one of my "flashes".    "Hmmmm," I'm thinking to myself..."wonder how much it costs to get one of those little "Editor's Picks" pictures often found in the front of magazines?   "Hmmmmm"

Thinking it cost 10K or something, I decide to forge ahead and call the first number I find in the front of Country Living.  No pain, no gain.   Find out it IS actually editor's pick.  No cost.   My head is reeling.

"Why do you ask?" responds Matt Holm, associate art director or assistant or something.

"Well, I make these little things and thought you might be interested in seeing them, ummm, ya know?"

"What kind of things?"

"Well".....and I am still trying to struggle to describe them when I realized I had a new digital camera and had taken pictures of some sold things.

"What issue are you working on now?" some voice whispers in my ear to say to him.  I realize I can send him Halloween pieces.

So off go the pictures.  Forty five minutes later, I get a response.  They like them, and want them up there.  OMG.  These were sold pieces!  I had to get busy to make more!  It felt like the scene in Julie/Julia when Julia Child is on the porch and opens her advance check.  Jonathan and I were jumping up and down in the ironing/computer/art room!

August 30, 2001.  The magazine comes out.  There are the figures.  It is real.

Are you tapping your feet, or fingers wondering about when in the hell I'm going to get to MIDWEST and ME?

Ok, here ya go....

Spring break, 2002.  Complete repeat of the above. Pajamas all day, working on things.  Another "flash".  "Hmmmmmmm, wonder what it would be like to have these reproduced more easily?  Wonder if one of these import companies would be interested?  But how would they find me?

Yes, the "internets", folks.

I pick two companies, only because I liked their products.  Dept. 56 and Midwest of Cannon Falls.  They have contact info for folks like me who might bring new, fresh products to their line.

Dept. 56 responded right away...."Interested, but give us a week to really look at them."

Nudged them with a couple of other emails and then said..."Oh well, at least I tried."

A couple of weeks go by and I've almost forgotten about the Midwest email when I receive an email from someone named Cassandra Hatten, MW licensing co-ordinator.  They liked what they saw and wanted to see more.  More pictures are exchanged.  Ideas start to flow.

An agreement is reached.  AGAIN, Jonathan get to do the Paul and Julia child jumping up and down scene.  It is surreal.

That was in 2002, and since that time I have designed things for Midwest, now MWCBK.  They have been, and continue to be, some of the most kind, wonderful, enthusiastic, supportive  people I've ever met. They "got" me.  They "got" my art.  They stretched my abilities to do things I didn't think I could do,  like sculpting small things.  They have been as important to my life as my family and the blood that flows through my body.   I am better, because of them.   Many of my "first contacts" are now gone from MW...Cassi, Shantelle, Margo, Angela, Ingrid.  I miss them a lot, because they were good to me.  Very, very good.

Susan, the designer I work with, is still there.  Kari, my new contact with the company is there...and probably wondering "Who IS the crazy woman that doesn't recognize pale colors?"

But I have one more dream.....and am stating it publicly.  My dream is that somehow the "powers that be" at MWCBK and I can work out a deal where, together, we share in making a donation to the Lymphoma/Leukemia Society of America, from the sales made at the markets that are coming up.  So that people who buy my products in their local gift shops know that they are not just buying a gift for someone, a happy for themselves, or something to decorate their homes for the holidays.

I want them to know they are helping fight a disease that knocked me off my feet, literally, on December 10, 2009.

Love,

Penny

P.S.  I am having SERIOUS stove envy in the picture at the top.  SERIOUS.

"Ought Ten?" What will we call this year? BETTER, that's for DAMN SURE!

Happy New Year!!!!

Hope everyone had a safe, sound, happy celebration last night!

OUT with the OLD!  IN with the NEW!

Get a new broom, get a new mop.  Don't sweep or swish all the old dirty gray water around on your floor or in your mind!  Fill an imaginary helium balloon with all the crap that is inside of you and LET IT GO!

Want to do something new? Don't say, "Welllllllllllll, I just don't have time."  We all MAKE time for the things we want to do, whether it s something fun OR engaging in activities to that make us very UNproductive.

And hey, you better know that I'm the queen of the last one!

I picked the picture above because I've always loved the art of Jessie Wilcox Smith.  Her story is wonderful and I hope all my teacher and "bookie" fans will take a minute to visit the link.  You will be amazed.  Of course, readers who are just following along might be interested, too, but you book people will LOVE her story!  Oh, and guys who are reading...her illustrating improved after studying with Howard Pyle.  Need I say more?

When I was growing up  my dad's mom lived on 15th Avenue here in town.  She had a Jessie Wilcox Smith reproduction of a small child with red curly hair, dressed in footed pajama, looking like she was coming down the steps backwards.

That was the way I had to come down the steps at that house, as there was no carpet on the stairs.  Just slick wood.  Of course, the most fun way to come down those stairs was to sit at the top and propel yourself, bottom down, until you reached the landing.  Bumpity, bumpity bump!  She let me do it because it kept me out of her hair so she could get back to sewing new dresses for me!

Ok, sorry that was such a long story.  But the picture reminded me of it so much, I had to tell it.

So here's a  New Year's suggestion for you that doesn't involve any money, exertion of your physical body or giving up chocolate cake.  You just a little notebook and pencil or pen.

Start writing your stories.  Start writing your thoughts.  Start a journal.

Even if you only DATE the page with today's date and say, "Hello, 2010!  What are we going to do this year?"  It is a start.

Oh, and don't start whining, "There's no store open for me to get some nice journal", or "But I can't write" (DUHHHHH, if you're reading this you can write!)  Nobody's saying, "Be Hemingway".

Grab a piece of paper, date it, write a little something and then save it in your fancy new journal if you want to get one.

As I've lain in this bed looking back over the past six weeks or so, I've wished SO badly that I had been a journal keeper.  A journal of what went on that day, with family, friends, thoughts.  I probably would have even noted that I felt a little breathless, had a weird cough, wondered why I was so tired and uninterested in things I normally love to do, might have made a little note of it.

Not that pinpointing a specific date, earlier than December 10th would have made any difference.

Oh, WAIT!  Yes it would have!  I would have been home, struggling to deal with the Christmas hoopla instead of SPA DCH!

Ok,  as you can tell I'm feeling pretty good into the first three hours of 2010.  We can chalk that up to a couple of shots for nausea, one of which put me out for five hours yesterday after having some delicious quiet time with Katie and Mary-Keeley.  MK sat in the chair and did some crochet.  Katie stretched out on the bed with her head at my feet and we just talked some more words from a Mother's heart.

My mom visited, as did Dana Taylor, toting pictures of a beautiful white Christmas in Virginia, where she had been visiting her daughter, Margaret.

Then, Jonathan popped in for a quick NYE celebration bringing a bottle of wine called "Irony".  It was just about that time I realized I needed some Zofran, which didn't work.  The phenergan did.

He left, quiet as mouse, so we didn't get to share a little NYE toast to better things for this year.

HOWEVER, there might be a little mimosa on the menu this morning, courtesy of some friends.

Because alcohol IS sterile, you know!

Oh, and before I forget, the first person I saw in 2010 was my PCA, Debbie, a HUGE sweetheart that is so kind, talks so sweetly to us.  It was very nice!

Wow....from Jessie Wilcox Smith to this.....