Where have I been? and a Collage idea....

The last five days have been a blur... and frankly, I'm really not certain where they have disappear to, LOL! After finishing up the kitchen, I baked and decorated some Christmas sugar cookies for Don and I to enjoy. Of course, they are gone now; but there is a freshly made batch of sugar cookie dough waiting in the refrigerator for me to bake and decorate today. {smiles}

Last Saturday, I seem to have sort of just fallen out. I have not had much energy to do anything with and began wondering if I am on the edge of obtaining a cold. I sat at the kitchen table and put a 500 pc. puzzle together, took an afternoon nap, made dinner for Don and I, cleaned up afterwards, and re-discovered the couch!

Sunday, Sheila telephoned to invite us over for a lasagna dinner; so we ventured over to Galion to enjoy the afternoon just visiting and chatting with friends. In the evening we headed into Target to pick up a few household necessities; made a quick stop into Barnes & Nobles, where I acquired the newest issue of Somerset Gallery.

On a whim, I ventured back to the Craft book section and was delighted to find Sally Jean Alexander's Pretty Little Things book! I'd recently informed Don that I would love to have it for a Christmas present, so I picked it upfor myself, deciding to save him the hassle, LOL! I even had good intentions of waiting and saving it until Christmas, wrapping it up, but somehow after reading Somerset Gallery, I found myself deep within the pages of Sally's book! The book itself is a work of art!!!! I love the soft aqua, beige, and white backgrounds, the graphics used in the design, all the eye candy, and techniques to one day try and experiment with! I dove back into its pages on Monday as well, since I'm still not feeling up to par yet.

Monday and Tuesday went on by... yet, somehow I had managed to cook everyday, clean up afterwards, wash/dry the laundry as it accumulates, and even did a little bit of housework here and there --- just enough to get by! For some strange, unknown reason, I'm not sleeping very good. Either I'm tired and go to bed earlier than usual and sleep for about 4 hours and wake up wide awake; or I seem to toss and turn through the night, waking up frequently, attempting to get back to sleep before giving in and just getting up. The bad part is, I am waking up around 3:30 a.m.!!! Urgh! That certainly makes for a long day, especially when you have no energy to accomplish much of anything, then fight the desire to go to bed early in the evening.

Today was one of those days. I somehow managed to make it through the day; having cooked us a wonderful dinner {roast, beef and noodles, mashed potatoes, and corn} and doing the bare minimum of housework {dishes, dusting, sweeping, vacuaming}, playing with Chaos. Yet, tonight was one of those nights. I retired around 20 after 11, fell right to sleep, to awake at 3:30 a.m.!!!!

I do know that I was dreaming... something about assisting to solve a little girl's disappearance; seeing her collage-style encased in glass, and wrapped with wire. I remember despirately thinking, I hope that she is alright and no one finds her murdered before dozing back into a deeper state of sleep. {Too much Sally Jean reading; LOL! Maybe...}

After a while, my dream continued... I was a little girl again, only instead of dreaming --- although I was! it was like a recording of a memory was playing within my mind. Something, I haven't remembered or thought about in a very long time. I may have been 5, 6, or 7 years old at the time this took place, but I'm thinking I was in first grade for some reason. Anyways, my Dad was out on the road {he was a semi-truck driver} and mom had already left for work for the day. Several of my older brothers and an older sister had left me behind as they left for school because we were unable to find my shoes that morning. So, I was home alone, searching for my shoes and unable to find them, I sat down in a chair in the living room and began to cry.

Right about then, a lady appeared at the open front door asking me why I wasn't in school. When I replied, that I was unable to find my shoes, she asked to come in and help me look for them. Of course you can! I'm elated at this point for someone's here to help --- well, so I thought! I opened the door for her and we began searching for my shoes. I remember feeling disgust coming from her as she found a pair of shoes belonging to my younger sister; tossing them to me, and telling me to put these on. As I started to protest, she became angry with me, shouting at me to just put them on. So, as I struggled to put my younger sister's shoes on my feet, the tears began to fall. She had yelled at me and was now attempting to assist me getting these shoes on my feet. Once done, she walked me to my school that was a block away. I remember crying, saying how they hurt my feet, to which she told me to shut up and keep moving. I remember arriving at my classroom, feeling relived to finally be able to sit down, and wishing desparately that I could remove them. Somehow, I made it through the day in school with these shoes on my feet, to feeling relief at taking them off at the end of day right outside of the school and walking home barefoot with a smile on my face!

As I lay there in the throws of dreaming, I remember thinking it was my childhood spirit that was murdered! Tears began streaming down my face and I awoke to warm, wet, salty tears thinking "2 shoes; 2 small" Now that I am actually awake, I got up out of bed, attempting to regain my composure before I wake up Don and Chaos.

I'm not certain why I had this dream; why I would recall such a painful memory from my childhood? Anyways, I do know that I really feel a strong need to document it. I believe that I want to create this into a glass encased charm, wire wrapped, of course! for a bracelet, perhaps? I will definately be adding the title, "2 shoes, 2 small" a maybe a broken heart charm for my childhood spirit that was murdered! On the back side, I'll definately have to use a stamp or an image of a pair of Mary Jane's! Although, I don't rememer the style or type of shoes exactly, Mary Jane is my younger sister's name!!!! Hopefully, my gesture of creating this collage-style charm will somehow heal that awful childhood memory and repair a little girl's broken childhood spirit.