A Wonderfully Random Act of Sweet, Sweet, Kindness....

I can't stinkin' believe it....

Just about when I was ready to surrender whole-heartedly to my curmudgeon-ness, give up on the thought that spring will ever find Nod, and send out invites to the biggest pity party this side of Salem, "things" began to happen....  "Happy" things,  "good" things..... And, if a crow wore boots with strings, I'd swear some higher power was yanking me up by my bootstrings, slapping me alongside the beak, and telling me to fly right...

What things you ask?  

Well, several.....but let's start with this one amazing one:

Theresa from Dulaney Woods Treasures, as many of you know, is a stitchress, seamstress, craftress, and artist extraordinaire....(Besides, she shares my twisted obsession with all things Halloween, so what's not to love?)  Anyways....she had done a Pay It Forward on her blog, but when she didn't have enough sign up, she chose to do some random acts of kindness.... And YIPPEEE!!! She chose me as one of her blessed recipients!!! (I'd like to think it didn't have anything to do with how shamelessly I pouted about Silas not ever picking my name in her wonderful giveaways....) ;o) In any event, a few days ago, this sweet, sweet, stitchery arrived.   (Trust me, I didn't get the colors entirely right - if you can imagine, it's even better in person):   

(Even the back is gorgeous....LOVE Theresa's choice of fabric....)

(It's a Stacy Nash design....Geesh, Theresa...how did you know she's my fave???)

Thank you SOOOO MUCH Theresa!!! You truly do make my heart sing....

Another good thing:  We have broken the freezing mark here in Nod for two days in a row....AND, there have been two days in a row without snow.  The snow is even beginning to MELT, I believe (at least that's what I hope that wet stuff was I stepped in)....  We can SEE the stop sign on our road again!!

 Life is good, I tell ya.....

 

The Oh-So-Very Good, The Bad, and The Downright Ugly....

Hey there Peeps!

Didcha miss me?

Ok....Don't answer that.

Yeah, I know I said if I made it through February, I'd be a better blogger in March.  And, yeah, I know it's March.  And, yeah, it hasn't happened yet.

But, hey...there's still a couple of weeks left for redemption, no?

Anywho...Just a little "catch-up" post here...And it truly can be summed up by the title.  So, let's start with

The Oh-So-Very Good:

A few weeks ago, I won a Spring giveaway from Robyn at Primlish, and that girl spoiled me up good.  A whole box of Primlishious goodies:

 Are these not the coolest prim little eggs you've ever seen?

A little candle, some bird and egg ornies, feathers (LOVE me my feathers you know!), and the sweetest old Arithmetic book (LOOOOOVE!!!)

 Mini Easter cookie cutters

 A giant feedsack carrot that suits my bunny gal well.....

 Not the best photo (sorry), but a little cupboard candle holder and sweet Robin's egg blue candle.....

Little Easter mold ornies (yeah, I have a "thing" for molds....)

 Bunny head ornies.....

And last, but certainly not least, a beeswax bunny (Look Mom...he's got ears!!) ;o)  (Sorry....inside joke....), some wonderful pieces of olde ticking, and a little piece of quilt (the latter which I just realized I neglected to photograph and now my camera battery is dead....)

Thank you SOOOO much Robyn!!  You're one of the rockingest Robins/Robyns around and you don't know how much it tickles me to have a little bit of Primlish in my home!!

*************

Ok, now for

The Bad: 

Little Crow's car was totaled.  I've spent several weeks dealing with the aftermath.  (Grrrrr....I rank car salesmen and insurance agents about on the same level....and, trust me when I tell you that you don't want to know "what" level....)  His knee took a pounding.....

I am continuing to fight the plague.  It's now been two months of pneumonia, bronchitis, sinus infection, upper respiratory infections and back issues....I'm on round three of meds....If these don't kick it, they start with the MRI's, CT scans, and other fun stuff....

It continues to snow in Nod....Even when the sun shines, it snows.  It snowed yesterday, and the day before...and the day before.  It is snowing now.  Another major storm is coming in Monday.  I am weary of white.

That's all I'm gonna say about that.

*************

And.....

The Downright Ugly:

   The bath "re-vamping" (which was precipitated by a malfunctioning "midget-sized," irreplaceable loo) has begun. I do believe we have the messiest contractor around.....

Heaven help me.

Emmaleigh's Shoe ~ "The Rest Of The Story...."

No, I didn't overdo the pain meds, and yes, I'm sorry to have left you hanging with that strange, strange, post a few hours ago.

In my defense, however, I had originally intended to do things all in one post; but then decided it would be too lengthy....So, then, I decided I'd do two, back-to-back, posts....Well, I did one, and the 'puter went funky.  (STILL is funky and making me very, very, cranky....)

Ok...the point already....

 

The "story" of Emmaleigh's shoe is, just that....a story.

Not very cleverly crafted or artfully told, I confess, but, you see....

IT'S MISI'S FAULT!

It goes back to the Merriment Chain hostessed this past holiday season by the lovely, inimitable, Misi from 1890 Gable House Musings and the equally lovely, and ever-so-charming, Robyn from Primlish.

As if the chain weren't gift enough to those of us who participated, the fun-infested hostesses sponsored a participant "game night" afterwards to usher in the new year.

For once my computer cooperated, and I had a few surviving post-holiday brain cells left to work with, and actually won a "game" or two.....

And, despite my recent "no mail receptacle" issues, a most glorious package found its way to me a week or so ago....

Larger than it should have been (as I was told I had won gift cards), it was still unassuming in its size.

Upon opening it, however, it was a gift that filled a room - and a heart....

 

 Look at that beautiful envelope....and, inside, and even more-than-gorgeous card:

But, it was the shoe....the glorious, wonderful, SHOE that crept inside my soul and heart and stole the lot of them.  (If you know anything by now from following my blog, it ought to be that I have a serious "thing" for shoes....especially, "old" shoes, and even more especially, for "old, children's" shoes.....)

One sole (no pun intended), lone, little, shoe - tattered, and carefully, sweetly, mended....in the most gorgeous russet color...."Misi-fied" to perfection with with grass nesting and a wee little gourd egg.

Of course, then the wheels started turning in my little birdbrain....thinking about that shoe.  Where it had come from....where had its mate gone....who would keep only one....who had mended it so carefully and creatively?

When I thanked Miss Misi for my generous gift and suggested that she somehow "got" what exactly would "get" me, she wittingly (or, would that be "unwittingly?") responded that she had thought this little shoe "needed a story" and suspected that I might appreciate its past enough to give it one.

Little did she know, that it had been given several already.  Emmaleigh's was just the "latest" one that happened to spew out when I sat down this afternoon to do this post.

And I am most certain, it won't be the last.  (But, lucky for you all, I'll spare ya....)

:o)

So, thank you again, Sweet Misi.  Like I said - you so, so, "get" me....And, Robyn, thank you for your part in the gift of merriment that has kept on giving all these months.

 For those of you who were patient enough to read through my little indulgence with Emmaleigh's story (and actually leave kind comments) - wow...I owe you big, big, time!!

  

Emmaleigh's Shoe.......

 

     Emmaleigh cried for days after that Sunday….

That Sunday when Mother reached carefully under her trundle cot to pull out the wonderful little high-button shoes Poppa had purchased for her to wear with her church dress.  Even though she was too young to talk, she knew something was wretchedly wrong when Mother’s hand came back with only one shoe. Sundays became a melancholic ritual for Emmaleigh from then on.

  

                 Over the years, as Emmaleigh grew older, the painfulness of Sundays slowly, but lethargically, diminished.  Like the light at the end of the day, the hurt grew a little softer, and a little less pronounced.  Yet, every night before she drifted off to sleep, she let her hand roam quietly and carefully under the dark absyss under her cot – hoping that, just maybe, her hand would find the little shoe – somehow overlooked in the countless searches that preceded this one. 

 

     And so it was a very curious thing that happened one night as she lay in that trundle cot as she had every night of the past 15 years of her life.  The early March wind had been particularly merciless the entire day and seemed to have renewed its frenzy with the coming darkness, bringing on its wings an ice-edged rain.  Emmaleigh tossed restlessly under the nubby, tattered, ticking of her covers, trying to stay warm and willing the wind to subside.  Then it began…an incessant, haunting, scratching at the wood door braced close against the elements for the night.  After an eternity of hesitation, Emmaleigh crept to the door and, using her slight frame as a ballast, wedged the door open against the wind gusts and peered out onto the stoop.  There balancing precariously and cocking its head ever so knowingly, stood a raven.  Even in the dark of the storm, she could see him peering directly and precociously at her, and the blue black of his wings glistened as he took flight into the night.  Puzzled, Emmaleigh pulled the door close again, but finding it would not close cleanly, bent down and picked up something wedged on the threshold…. Soaked and shivering, she hurried back inside and raised the lantern light.  She wouldn't have even needed to bother, however, with the weak and timid light of the lantern as her fingers knew, before it was even raised, what she held.  The touch of the supple leather, the ridges of the welted stitching, and the round little buttons told her it was....her shoe.

     The shoe was considerably more worn than when it had disappeared, and tattered by more than just a lifetime of Sunday wear.  It was lovingly mended with string and thread harvested from nests of prior seasons, but there was no doubt it was her shoe.

 

So, carefully, Emmaleigh wrapped the shoe in a leftover scrap of her stitching linen and tied it with a piece of silk floss.  And, with a heart full of bittersweet joy, she tucked it in the corner of the dark recesses under her trundle cot.