The auction is coming! The auction is coming!

The countdown to The Michelefund Auction is underway! Michele is a wonderful, giving, loving person who happens to have been diagnosed with breast cancer in February of 2006. She also happens to be a special friend of mine (and of countless others), a wife, mother, daughter, sister, Christian, volunteer, animal-lover, a writer, a chef and many other things depending on who you ask. Michele is one of those people who can do anything. Michele is a SURVIVOR!

Unfortunately, being a breast cancer survivor costs a great deal of money. Earlier this year a bunch of writers, readers, cherries and others got together and donated items and we held an auction. The outpouring of love and support was incredible! After the auction was over, a few people asked if we were doing another auction. They were crafters, you see, and they needed some time to craft their donations. Pokey (from the beautiful Quilting Arts & Cloth Paper Scissors Magazines) helped organize our wonderful crafters and soon we had a huge lineup of (mostly) craft items for another auction.

This auction begins Monday, November 6. Yeah! Just in time for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/pick-your-holiday shopping. I'm not kidding. You should see the beautiful items that our crafters made with such love and care. Most (not all) of them are included in this Fickr slide show. Have a look and drool. There's a couple of items I'll be bidding heavily on, let me tell you!

Please spread the word about our auction to your family and friends. You never know; you just might find the perfect holiday gift for that special someone and help Michele at the same time. Really, what could be better?

Current Mood: Hopeful, anxious and filled with gratitude

As promised

Here is a picture of the cake I made for Sally and Guy. I'm not sure how well the photo will turn out, but there you have it. Pay no mind to the junk in the background. I was just taking the photo for myself, I hadn't planned on sharing it. I have a couple of lovely pictures of Guy and Sally cutting the cake on the prettily decorated cake table, but they are sideways pictures of course. If I can figure out how to flip the pictures, I'll post one of those. No one's ever going to accuse me of being a computer wiz.

Current Mood: Sleepy

NaNoWriMo--Woo Hoo!

I decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo this year. I've never done it before--and I'll never write 50,000 words in one month--but it definitely can't hurt! A few of my friends do Nano every year. The lovely cherry Lani Diane Rich has sold 2 of her Nano books Time Off for Good Behavior and Maybe Baby. Everyone I've ever asked about Nano had positive things to say about his or her experiences.

So, if you have been thinking about participating too, why not sign up? What do you have to lose? It's free. (Or you could make a little donation--I plan to*.) And you just might write a little more because you know that there's a whole lotta people all over the world writing too.

If you need a buddy, add me. I'm "cherryred." Let's all enjoy the November madness that is NaNoWriMo together!

PS. If you're feeling bad about signing up when you know you don't have time, I don't have time either. I'll be working on our Michelefund auction in November, so I'll be a very busy girl! Check out a sampling of the items we're auctioning and get excited.

Current Mood: Ambitious!

*Update: Made the donation. Got a nifty little halo above my name. Sweet.

A Sweetest Day Wedding

My cousin Guy married his fiancee Sally yesterday and my family couldn't be more pleased. Guy and Sally have been dating for about 5 years and we love Sally and her 11 year old daughter Maddie to pieces.

It actually was a very spontaneous thing. A couple of weeks ago they decided that they were going to go down to the courthouse on Friday the 20th and perhaps have a very small potluck dinner that same evening. Well, the family didn't like that much because nearly all of us work on Friday and some of us had to travel a couple of hours and we all wanted to be there. So it went round and round and finally it was decided that the reception would be on Saturday the 21st. Then my aunt asked her pastor if he could perform a small wedding on Saturday instead. He said yes and it all fell into place.

For being such a spontaneous event, everything worked out very well. Sally's aunt has a lovely home (close to the church) and she decorated it in fall colors, Sally wore a beautiful beige lace gown, Guy's suit and tie were in earthtones as well and both Sally and Guy have red hair. (Color coordination at it's best!) I was even able to find a cake top that had both a redheaded bride (with long hair like Sally's) and groom that looked quite a bit like them. :) I used to be a cake decorator so I decorated a cake for them and I was really pleased that they enjoyed it so much. ALL my cousins, aunts and uncles who live in the area were able to make it. We all had a wonderful time and I am just so glad.

When I looked on the calendar the other day I saw that Saturday was Sweetest Day and after I spent Saturday with Guy, Sally and both our families, I think the name was very fitting indeed. Welcome to the family Sally and Maddie. May the life the three of you share as a family grow sweeter every year.

Love,

Kim

Does anyone know...

how to post pictures in Blogger within the text? Whenever I try to write a little and then post a pic, then write some more, and then post a pic, Blogger just puts them all at the top of my post--in backwards order to boot.

Also, does anyone know how to turn my pictures sideways in Blogger? Whenever I have a photo that I took horizontally and I try to post it, it's sideways. Even if I've already flipped it in my photo program.

Thanks to anyone who can help!

Current mood: confused

If you're not angry, you're not paying attention

I saw the Movie Iraq For Sale on my vacation last week. I knew this administration was corrupt and cronyism was rampant, but I never could have imagined how bad things truly are. The Republican party touts itself as the party with moral values, the kinder and gentler party, the religious party. I believe that most people who vote Republican are those things, but this administration does not have those things in common with them.

Please see this movie. The people in the movie are U.S. soldiers and civilian workers who have actually been to Iraq. They tell of horrible things. Civilians dressed up like soldiers and told to drive on roads that were labeled "red"(or dangerous) roads with no protection and no maps. They didn't even know where they were going, they were just told to drive. Many good people who were just trying to make some extra money for their families died that way. Sacrificed by these companies to make a fast buck.

They tell of the system of payment that Haliburton and Blackwater had arranged. The more money these companies spent, the bigger bonuses the government would pay them. (These are our tax dollars, people!) So, they would lease expensive cars and they wouldn't bring over any parts. If a car got a flat tire or needed a new fan belt, they'd simply burn it and lease a new one. One man told of a car/truck that was worth (IIRC) about $40,000 that over the course of 3 years, the government had paid $230,000 in lease payments on. Our tax dollars and the government doesn't even own that car now. It was a lease! Workers were put up in 4 star hotels! Meanwhile, there are many people who are homeless in our own country!

Some of the soldiers said that they were told to train the civilians to do their own jobs (many of them confidential) and after the civilians were trained, the soldiers didn't have anything to do. Why are we asking our soldiers to train civilians to do the jobs that U.S. soldiers are supposed to do? So these big companies could send workers and pad the bill they send to the government, to the Republican controlled congress.

Maybe some of you don't know that because the Republicans control all 3 branches of government (plus the Supreme Court now) there can be no oversight committees and no hearings unless they allow them. And they will NOT allow them. I hear many people ask why there is no oversight. This is why. The Democrats' hands are tied. In order to get some kind of oversight in our government, we need both parties (therefore 100% of America--not just 51%) represented. All of our voices must be heard.

Please watch the clips of this movie. Please go see it. Please start asking questions. Please educate yourself. PLEASE VOTE in November. We need accountability in government. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." No truer words have ever been spoken.

Current Mood: Heartsick. How could this happen in America?

Arrrrr!

Let it be known that I attempted to update my blog today. I wrote a lovely post complete with pictures and Blogger ate it. I will update over the weekend. Just Grrr...

For now I will leave you with a smiling picture of Lulu to hopefully make you smile too.