Jacked Up Jack O'Lanterns

Today's post isn't overly deep but instead, just fun.  I love creativity.  I love Halloween.  Therefore.....we must look at some amazing jack o'lanterns.  That reminds me of a guy I once dated.  He called them Jackel Lanterns.  That probably should have clued me in sooner but I was young and dumb.  And he had a motorcycle and a pierced tongue.  What can I say?

Anyway.... to the photos...  I found all of these on the internet but don't have photo (or carving credit).  For more info, I'd suggest you fire up your mouse and do some Googling.

A gruesome twosome!

Hello!

A Golden Girl

TTFN

Perhaps not the most flattering...

Sad that someone actually took time to do this one

It ain't easy being green...uh, orange

Danger, Mistress!

A personal fave!

Exploding TARDIS

Don't blink!  Blink and you're dead!

Eight Legs and a Crochet Hook?

If you know me at all, you know I'm terrified of spiders.  I mean seriously afraid.  If I see one, I must leave the room.  I won't go in a pet store if they have one of those eight-legged horrors in a cage.  So, the fact that I am really into crochet patterns by someone who uses the name Spider Mambo is just plain odd.  But so am I.

I was lucky to "meet" Laurie Kahn on Facebook recently.  I lured her into MY web and asked some questions.  BUT I didn't ask WHY she uses the name Spider Mambo.  I prefer that some things in life remain a mystery.  Like why I... uh, never mind.

When she was about 8, Laurie's mother taught her to crochet.  Laurie thinks old Mom may have regretted that idea when stuffing began to go missing from a mattress.  Our spider lady was busily crocheting little toys and stuffing the heck out of them.

From tiny toys, Laurie graduated to reading sewing patterns.  I asked her how she KNEW she could design apparel.  She says being able to read patterns helped her to create an open work sweater when she was about 15.  From there, things snowballed.  Her crochet patterns feature many different designs but there has been some emphasis on skulls.  Skulls?  Yep.  Skulls.

Now you know we have to know the why of that.  Here you are making a cute sweater and suddenly you're into dead stuff.  I asked Laurie about this.  She said she noticed skulls were popular.  She's right.  They are very popular and there are tons of skull things showing up on Facebook daily.  Laurie dabbled in fused glass skull pendants and various other media.  She then decided to turn those creepy heads into some crochet amazement.  

Her patterns are featured on many well-known craft sites.  Her prices are AMAZEBALLS and reasonable.  I wondered why.  I loved her answer.  She's appealing to the "impulse buyer".  We all know how that goes.  You're cruising along on Ravelry and see a pattern.  You immediately check the price.  Whoa, baby, a buck???  Click Add To Cart NOW.  I have worked up some of Laurie's patterns and was honored to be included in her testing group on Facebook.  Her stuff is great.  If you haven't "found" her yet, visit her on Facebook.  Laurie hopes her future includes being discovered and turning to making custom items for boutiques.  I have no doubt this will happen!

Like all of us who crochet, Laurie loves yarn, especially the tie-dyed versions.  I asked if she saw a skull Christmas tree skirt in her future.  She seemed intrigued.  LOL, gotta love that!  Her inspirations for design come from her own twisted head but I just couldn't help but add a little weird thought for her to ponder.

I hope I've put a few of your spider fears to rest.  I know I have for myself.  Spider in bathtub - bad juju.  Spider doing crochet - good stuffs.

Visit Laurie on on Ravelry and on Craftsy and  on Etsy.  You'll be glad you stepped into her web of delights.

And you can visit MY Pinterest board here devoted to all things Spider Mambo.

Finding the GOOD

As I type this, I am watching a press conference about events taking place in Ferguson, Missouri.  Ferguson is a suburb and part of St. Louis County.  I live in that county.  I am a proud citizen of St. Louis.  The current events are making me sad.  I won't discuss them and debate the issues.  But this sadness has spilled over to so many places.  Including the online community.  So, to fight the negative, I decided to search for good things today.  Things that made me smile.  Or made me happy.  Or things that brought a smile to someone else.

Please take a moment and click on one of the links.  You could end up pleasantly surprised.  I don't get paid for these delightful blogs and don't necessarily have any real connection to any of the people or things mentioned here today.  Just wanted to share.

Let's start with this print by St. Louis artist, Mary Engelbreit.  
You can find her online in a variety of places... 

including her website, eBay, Pinterest and Facebook.  Her art is super cute, inspiring, fun and sure to bring a smile to your life.

The things I found today are totally random - like me!  If I saw and liked, you're gonna see it here.  Work with me, people.  This Pool Girl has a rain day and can't swim and must entertain herself.  You are just lucky to be along for the ride!

We all have jeans that no longer fit or have seen better days.  Let's re-purpose them!  Details at Denim Patch Organizer

I love rubber stamps.  And I love crochet.  I'm a bit on the fence about granny squares though.  BUT if you turn one into a stamp, count me in!!! See this on Facebook here: Hoffee and a Nuffin

And a little more crochet.  I was looking around on Pinterest and saw a pin from Spider Mambo.  I hadn't seen this great pattern before today.  Whooo hooo!  It's free too!  Go like the Facebook page or head to Ravelry and take a look at some amazing stuff.  See the pattern on Pinterest

I'm hungry.  Do I want salty?  Or sweet?

I'll do both with these Caramel Salty Pretzel Superbars

And more yarny stuffs.  This is from Bev's Country Cottage Shop:

"After many months of surveying, typing, printing and adjusting, I created this purse sized booklet of patterns from my website, BevsCountryCottage.com, for our humanitarian booth at the Clark Cty NV Fair as a handout for those who can attend.. 

This handy, 12 page booklet contains 20 reader favorite patterns (knitting, crocheting and loom knitting) along with photos of each project; Bev's size charts for making hats, and blankets, needle/hook conversion chart, and several charities to help are also included."

Visit Craftsy to purchase this e-booklet.

Yes, today was a yuck day.  The weather was ugly, the posters on Facebook all seemed to have forgotten their happy pills and the news brought a crapfest.  Yet, I was able to find things that were fun, interesting and worth learning about.  Do yourself a favor.  Lighten up!  Even on the dark days, we can find some spots of sunshine.

I'm A Regular Joe and I Like My Joe Regular

"The global spread of coffee growing and drinking began in the Horn of Africa, where, according to legend, coffee trees originated in the Ethiopian province of Kaffa. It is recorded that the fruit of the plant, known as coffee cherries, was eaten by slaves taken from present day Sudan into Yemen and Arabia through the great port of its day, Mocha. Coffee was certainly being cultivated in Yemen by the 15th century and probably much earlier. In an attempt to prevent its cultivation elsewhere, the Arabs imposed a ban on the export of fertile coffee beans, a restriction that was eventually circumvented in 1616 by the Dutch, who brought live coffee plants back to the Netherlands to be grown in greenhouses.

The first literary reference to coffee being drunk in North America is from 1668 and, soon after, coffee houses were established in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other towns. The Boston Tea Party Of 1773 was planned in a coffee house, the Green Dragon. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the Bank of New York started in coffeehouses in what is today known as Wall Street.

For US coffee drinkers, the country’s wettest city, Seattle, has become synonymous with a new type of café culture, which, from its birth in the 1970s, swept the continent, dramatically improving the general quality of the beverage. This new found 'evangelism' for coffee has spread to the rest of the world, even to countries with great coffee traditions of their own, such as Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia, adding new converts to the pleasures of good coffee. Today it is possible to find good coffee in every major city of the world, from London to Sydney to Tokyo; we are drinking more and, more importantly, better coffee."

- See more at: http://www.ico.org/coffee_story.asp#sthash.MH2rR2WL.dpuf

One thing I love about coffee from a cafe is the latte art.  It's amazing!!  I am always so surprised by just how creative people are.  And who dreams up this stuff?  When did someone decide that making a cool design with coffee foam would be fun?

These photos are from just basic Googling.  Enjoy!

And, just for fun, how about a recipe for Espresso Brownies??
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/espresso-brownies-recipe.html

Coffee Recipes from FOLGERS

Utter Frustration

Warning.  This post isn't funny.  It's just plain honest.  I am super frustrated.  Fed up.  And I want to share something with you, dear reader, and hopefully you can prevent such foolishness from happening in your little world.

Back in May, my dad broke his pelvis.  He fell at the nursing home.  Long story short, he went to the hospital via an ambulance.  He was seen and it was determined that the fracture was minor, would heal on its own and that he could return to the home and rest and take it easy.

An ambulance was called to transfer him from the hospital to the nursing home.  We got him settled in his room with orders to spend a couple days in bed.  He needed assistance with bathrooming, etc.  He had been given a prescription for pain medication at the hospital.  The nursing home received this order at 6:00 pm but I had to fight for four hours to get the bastards to give him the meds.  He got one dose of a pain reliever at 10:30 that night.  My sister and I left him in the care of the home and thought all was well.

We went to see Dad the next day. And we were shocked and concerned.  He was in a bit of pain but his breathing was terrible.  And he was so, so confused.  I suspected he had too much pain medication.  In talking to the nurse, I found that no, he hadn't.  He was given one dose and it had long since worn off.  As our visit went on, I become more concerned.  I finally called my dad's doctor and he said we needed to take him back to the emergency room.  We called another ambulance and made the trip.  He was seen and again, the pelvis fracture was deemed fine and the actual problems were of a different nature.

Dad spent twelve long days in the hospital.  He was found to have a lot of fluid building up around his heart, got new meds for that, was monitored and seen by his cardiologist.  He was also seen my the lung doc and ended up on oxygen 24/7.  Hospitals love to annoy patients so poor Daddy had to endure physical and occupational therapy.  He was given breathing treatments 'round the clock.  Finally, the staff determined that the had twelve serious conditions and none were directly related to the pelvic fracture or the lung cancer which is basically in remission.  A lot more went on during this time but I won't bore you.

Finally, he was released and went back to the nursing home.  Fast forward to now.  My sister and I are receiving bills for our father's medical treatments.  Remember that non-displaced, minor pelvic fracture?  The same one that let him be released from the ER the first night?  The same one that healed on its own and required no follow-up?  Well, the orthopedic surgeon who saw him in the hospital seems to want $1100 for his services.  My dad would NEVER have seen this guy had he not be admitted for things NOT related to the pelvic break.

My dad was also seen by the radiation oncologist.  The same one he was no longer seeing because there were no further treatments needed.  That doctor has also charged for his services.  He even was kind enough to leave his business card so I knew he'd been by.  My dad had NO REASON to be seen by anyone from oncology.

During the twelve-day stay, my dad was also never seen by anyone from his primary care physician's office.  Not one single visit.  He was managed by the hospital physicians who knew nothing of his history and caused more problems.  But given that my dad never saw his own doctor, why would he have been told to follow up with him after his release?  Screw that.  Just a ploy for another bill.

The $1100 bill is the one that has me saying 

 How dare they?  My dad had NO need for any ortho visits.  Had he not had congestive heart failure issues, he wouldn't have been in the hospital to be seen anyway.  Grrrrrr.  This is just not right.  Please don't ever believe the medical profession has your best interests at heart.  It's money.  Nothing but money.  Profits.  You are not a person, you are a vacation or house payment.

Does this story upset you?  Make you want to scrutinize your own hospital bill for asinine charges?  Tell me YOUR story!

Sorry this post was not fun.  I'm too irritated and fed up to make you laugh today.  But tune in tomorrow.  Same bat time and same bat channel.

Meanwhile, please stay healthy!!!  You can't afford not to.