Unfortunately, my PSP skills are rusty and my mojo has gone elsewhere..and time?  well, it’s sort of a day by day thing..

anyway!  Here is a flashing star that I’ve just finished..  I may make another if I can do so in time for your Holiday tags

..I’ll also move up to this post ~ whatever Holiday stuff that has gathered here over time and is now in the weeds.

Here is an example of the star:

click the star to download the .mng file

*feel free to share but Please ask that File Names not be changed..  thank you

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more stuff from the past:

raeCarolingCritters

click the animation to go to the post with materials and instructions

raeSparkleTree:

click the tree to go to the post with all 4 file presentations of the tree

You may follow my page about ‘my battle’ with a sarcoma..  or you may not

The back story is ~ that my longevity is rather tenuous and I mentioned..  offhand .. to a fellow chatter..  that I wished to see it snow again

here is what came after that lil nugget of a statement..  was made into a surrounding circle (globes!) of love and support

enjoy

http://lithomax.com/SnowglobeCaper/index.html

Today..  I see a new Google tribute = to Jim Henson, Muppet creator

ok, follow along with me now..  I have a tie to twist for you:

my first memory of The Muppets was seeing them on the Ed Sullivan Show..  singing this (Mahna Mahna) :

ok..  get this..  the Muppets haven’t always been for ‘kids’ right?  ..*cough ( ever see the first Muppet movie under the influence? I did!  hahaa)

here’s the tie = Bohemian Rhapsody   .. classic by Queen/performed by Queen:

..and..  here’s the twist = Muppets doing Bohemian Rhapsody..
watch/listen closely..
catch ‘Mahna Mahna’ in the midst of the Muppets video!
thrice!  can you spot the three moments?

yes, who knew?  I didn’t.  Nonetheless, I thought it very cool and well..  it IS isn’t it?

yours truly, rae
lover of muppets and all things Queen
enjoy!

a card for you! .. please click above

He’s 9 yrs old…very sweet, very talkative, very much a snuggle-butt

..and

what a character!

When I met him..he ran to me and I swooped him up..and we had a nose-kiss.  I knew he was mine

His former mama wanted a new home for him because she has a 14 mo toddler and she felt that Mr Mel wasn’t getting enough attention.  She loves him that much = enough to let him go to where he’ll get loads of attention…awww. (yes, we stay in touch!..this is an open adoption )

Once I got him home I told hubby that he’d need a few days to acclimate..but that I had met a kitty with a ton of personality..and loads of character

After I had a few days to observe him, I realized (in fact, hubby and I both did..and he’s not a ‘pet guy’)..  that Mel has diminished sight

His former owners had no idea.  They had never owned a cat previous to Mel and, most likely, they never noticed that his sight was failing, since they were with him each day ..  and Mr Mel was accustomed to his home and could maneuver it by habit and scent trails left by his feet.

*notice the photo = he’s not looking into the camera.  I took so many photos and most are like this.  He isn’t ‘looking at me’..  not into my eyes/camera lens, even though I was making kissy noises and talking to him..and he, to me.  He’s mid-meow there (and yes, he has a ‘freckle’ on his bottom lip)

I can’t use the photos with a flash, at all, for the fact that the refraction from his eyes is like two burning suns.  I’ve never seen anything like it..and I was a photo retoucher for more than 20 years.

His pupils are abnormally dilated..at times, his eyes are coal black.  He leaps over shadows on the floor..  stops abruptly at a wrinkle in a rug..or at a rug, period…as if it’s a deep pit in the floor.  He has a very hard time dealing with going up and down stairs…anything in dim light or with shadows  etc..etc

No matter! He plays like a kitten..

He is part Abyssinian..and, unfortunately, that breed carries a genetic abnormality that causes blindness at early age or middle age.  Mel has the middle age form..it’s called ‘Progressive Retinal Degeneration’.  Yes, he’ll be fully blind soon..poor guy

But!  for now he’s happy..very loved and spends a few hours each day harnessed to a long leash outdoors.  He totally loves it   He does get a few owwies from time to time = from chasing a bird or whatever..and running into the spruces or a tree trunk.     I joke about getting him safety goggles..but it’s not a bad idea.  Imagine how funny he’d look..hahhaaa   ..as if he doesn’t make me laugh as it is..he’s such a cornball

He squeeks his toes on the floor when playing, sounds like he’s playing basketball on the hardwood *ya know the ‘squeeks from their shoes  ..I gave him his first catnip, fresh from my yard..and omg!..  I think he did a cartwheel..so funny!

I call him ‘Maynard’ a lot!  ..or  ‘Buzz’ (the catnip!)  .. as well as ‘Mr Mel’

they fit his character and personality..  and now you probably feel that you know him too

aww..gosh..  I could cry.  These sweet, cute, funny, boisterous, and bouncy lil pups will begin to leave us next week.

One by one, MrsMaryJanes (human mom ~ known for her shoes) will sit in the puppy-bed and hold the departing sweetheart..and wave its’ paws goodbye.  I want to cry already!

I love this puppycam..  it’s done so well and the pups are simply adorable

Byakko is my Fav this year. ..what a doll he is

Last year, they kept My fav ~ Ms Ayumi!..  and I had a year of watching her grow up on-cam.  This year is bittersweet for they will not keep a pup  .

.and I may not see another puppy-romp with this Shiba family

..  but damn.. I’m so happy to have been here for this one, with two ‘creams’  added to the sesame ShibaInu color-scape.

The two creams DID look like little polar bear cubs..when their ears and snouts were teeny..and complete with black toe-pads.  omg..  eat-em-up cute!

Wish I had scrach n sniff computer..I’d die to snuffle those bellies and necks

mama Kika & her 5 puppies ~ 2 girls/brown .. 3 males/1 brown/2 cream

They’re just born this weekend (January 16,’10) and have not been named yet..but they will all be named Japanese beginning with the letter B

*update = the names are :
Girls (both red):
- Bella
- Beni-Bara (Bara for short)

Boys (1 red and 2 cream):
- Bonsai (the red boy)
- Bento (the biggest cream boy)
- Byakko

This is the same mama of the famous ‘Shiba6′ from the late autumn of 2008, all with ‘A’ names.  Such fun they were to watch!

..when they got their feet under them and their motors revved

I promise that you’ll fall in love with these pups as they grow, plus their dedicated humans ~ Mr Feet and Mrs Shoes.

Enjoy!!

With our new world of  digital communication, emailing, IM’ng, Facebook..etc. = we’ve all found ways to connect to people we may never meet.  We come together through an array of interests..

I met Garfie when I was new to PSP..at a very popular MSN Group (raven’s).

As the years went by, I found her here and there (GIG Graphics) , and at my own group..we’d mail and have a bit of a chat over this or that..

Then, I formed a forum off  MSN (looong before the plug was pulled..MSN-wise)

She was in the same place (tired of the MSN-bull)  ..she knew I was building my forum and we bonded over creating her CSS (eek) and so many other (new,unfamiliar) headaches of an owned forum!   She asked me for a helping hand with her Invision forum.. ‘Graphics Playroom’.

What was most significant was our ‘click’.  You know..nothing but text/words/email   …yet a strong personal/spiritual connection.  It’s wondrous, really

Years go by..  we mailed and mailed and mailed.. hundreds and hundreds of emails.    We had phone calls.   She was a Brit indulging her life far from the UK..and far from the mainland of Greece, on an island (Rhodes/Rhodos) just miles from the coast of Turkey…with her beloved Cocker Spaniel mother and daughter pair..and assorted cats..and lemon trees.  I am in the USA..  in the Midwest..  indulging my husband and my beloved kitty..  not all too exotic

It made no difference the distance..  we became fast friends who went far beyond PSP..forums, and all that..  we found we were Sisters.

After my hubby, it was Garfie I turned to, when I found I had a sarcoma.

I could speak the unknown to her..the fear and more..she was my guidepost..  she let me hang on to her for whatever I needed and she backslapped me if I got too woeful   She also allowed me not to speak of it, if I simply didn’t want to.  Cancer-talk can be tiresome for everyone…and a burden on friendship.  Happily, we continued on with our sisterhood, mostly..as if nothing changed

She never wavered in her support, tho ..never.  When I’d be getting chemo, I’d check email..and there she would be..holding my hand…  same when I’d be getting a CT scan report  ..there she’d be, cheering me to be a soldier in our army of two Sisters.

Last June 2009, I asked her to do me a favor = to finish my blog when I couldn’t.  She agreed and we let it go = until that unspoken/unknown slit of time would arrive.  Basically?  She would tell you I was gone

A month later, she told me she’d found two lumps at her breast… 

A Greek physician removed them and assured her that they were caught early..he’d send it off to be biopsied and not to worry.  She didn’t.

I did!  She told me of how much weight she’d lost…so much so that she was embarrassed by it.  That was worrisome to me.   It was a full month before the pathology returned, telling her it was, indeed, breast cancer.  Another month went by before she finally arrived in the UK to be treated, if further treatment was necessary, under the NHS.  Thankfully, they still considered her a British citizen.   It was September, 2009  ..and at most, she assumed they’d take more tissue to make sure the cancer was completely resected…as well, she’d have her sentinel lymph node removed for further assurance that the cancer hadn’t spread.  She was not worried, whatsoever.

Immediately, the breast cancer was dismissed, for they found Garfie had a very large tumor in her lung.  Consider a grapefruit for size-reference..

In fact, her lung had collapsed…the tumor had cut off the airway to her lung and had wrapped around her pulmonary artery.   Inoperable.   Radiation was out of the question..the dose would have to be so high, it would kill her.   Chemo was a possibility..but she was very weakened physically..  the chemo was put off.

She soon developed fluid around her heart (pericardial effusion) that needed to be drained immediately.  At that point she was considered critical.  She hated that they took her to another hospital in an ambulance, lights and sirens, the whole shebang.  She thought it was a bit much, as if she didn’t deserve such exclusive transport…but I knew better.  I had googled pericardial effusion as related to Lung Cancer.  Serious, indeed…. it also gave me a grim message = that it was a sign that the cancer was very advanced and signaled the last months/weeks of life

No, I never brought that to her attention.

My friend was very ill with Lung Cancer.  It had not metastasized to her lung from her breast.  She had two Primary cancers..and this one was very serious and well established.   It was there long before she found breast lumps.

I recall telling Garfie in February, that she’d been sick too much.  I pushed her to get better rest and food..and to please see her doctor.  Since October ’08, she seemed to have a continual chest/bronchial thing going on.  Then..around mid-spring..she told me of wrenching back and shoulder pain..and of hearing ‘a mighty crack’.  I have to tell you, it was too familiar to what I experienced just a year earlier (if you’ve read ‘my battle’).  She and I got a little creeped out..but we then blew it off..  no way could she have cancer and have her bones break like mine…  too ironic.

Again, I asked her to see a doctor, this time an orthopedist.. she didn’t ever go to a doctor for her ‘cold’s/infection’..nor for her bone pain.

Now?  I do believe her bones were cracking.  She wasn’t given a bonescan in the UK and had continual pain in her ribs and shoulder. She mentioned it, again, to me just two weeks ago..how painful her bones were.

I think the docs knew as soon as they saw her lung xray and her CT..that she was beyond help.  Why give her all the crappy details of what this cancer had done to her, already.  They also saw that she wouldn’t give up on Hope..so they let her keep Hoping.   That’s my guess.   All through her time in the UK, I was angered and frustrated by how they’d tell her they’d begin chemo..then never follow through.  Looking back, it furthers my belief that they thought they’d compassionately placate her by telling her ‘yes, one day soon’  ..  ‘yes, next week’  ..and so on

Even after they told her she had only weeks left to live, just two weeks ago, she still wanted to try chemo.

Through hospitalizations, terrible pain, tubes into her bronchial passages, needles into her lungs, drainage tubes into her lungs and heart..etc…  she never wavered from the Hope that she could fight this disease.  Just one week ago, she was going to have another chemo assessment done…she was not going to give up nor give in

Three days later, December 17, 2009  .. she died peacefully, serenely in her sleep  ..  just three and one half months after diagnosis

Six months after I asked her to finish my blog,  I told her forum membership that she is gone  ..I never thought our tables would turn in such an awful and ironic way

……….

Garfie was a truly joyful, witty, warm, compassionate, wise, and very brave woman.  To say that I and her friends miss her is an understatement

Having her in my life was a comfort and a genuine pleasure.   To know that she loved me, and that she knew I loved her, is also a treasured comfort for my soul.

Garfie (realname Chris Rumney)  June 14, 1956 – December 17, 2009

I could brag up this amazing women’s blog for everything I love about her :  her amazing artistic talent..her photo talent..  her lovely way with words..  and that I simply see her as a Sister and lover of Nature (white tail deer..  read her entries there..*sigh…       and the little baby groundhogs? with  the tiniest (cutest)  runt o the litter, ever?)

Her site has so many links..  just keep clicking = making sure to visit her Blog! and view her art..  how talented she is

Before you get there..  go Here and see the red-nosed deer.. astounding and?  ..maybe Rudolph was real?

Here are further accounts of the male deer..”bucks”..at her property..and how they (the humans and the deer) know each other..

Now..  to make you smile inside..  read and look at her baby groundhogs!..the little-teeny guy will melt your heart

scroll down to the blog entry= ‘seeing the world for the very first time’

the babies and the Runt!.. so cute they will make you weepy!