Dacri’s Closet

My mom has been a teacher all of my life. I guess I was in junior high when she got her Master’s degree in Special Education. Not long after that I was introduced to Autism.

His name was Jeremy. I was in mom’s classroom for some reason. I couldn’t help but stare at him. His mannerisms, his movements, his words. Jeremy was “severely autistic.” I had heard mom before talk about how Jeremy had crawled under the table and wouldn’t let go of the table leg. My junior high mind thought it was funny. I’d heard her say how he’d hurt her aide… scratching, hitting, biting… and thought he was crazy. But I’ll never forget watching him in the classroom. He looked to me like a normal elementary school kid who just couldn’t sit still… rocking, patting, repeating words over and over again. Even then I wondered why.

Ali Edwards is a “celebrity” in the scrapbooking world. She’s published books, written articles, taught classes. I’ve met her once, at CKU here in Dallas a couple of years ago. She’s one of those profound thinkers… a person who seems to go deeper than the rest of us.

Ali’s son, Simon, is autistic. He’s not as severe as Jeremy, but autism has many forms, and many faces. Ali has gotten involved with an organization called Autism Speaks, raising money, raising awareness, and generally working to find the cause, and hopefully cure, for autism.

Heather’s son, Dylan, is autistic. He was recently diagnosed with Asberger’s Syndrome, which is a form of autism.

I’m sure you don’t have to go far to find someone near you who has been directly affected by autism. It’s downright scary.

Ali created a badge as part of Kevin Bacon’s SixDegrees.org charity campaign. He’s going to match the funds generated by the top badge. Ali’s badge has already raised over $30,000!!! That’s a lot of money, that can go a long way to finding the cause and cure for autism!

The minimum donation is $10. That’s not much. Two venti half caf fat free mocha frappachinos at Starbucks, right? Please take a moment, click on the badge above (or click here) and make a donation. Then, send an email to everyone you know and ask them to do the same. Because if you don’t already know someone with an autistic child, you will soon. Autism Speaks is trying to change that. Let’s help them change that.

For Simon. For Dylan. For Jeremy.
~Heather

I have been absolutely miserable this week! Started with a sore throat Tuesday, then got worse and worse. So I finally go to the doctore (I know, I always wait too long!), and surprise! I have tonsilitis, bordering on strep throat! Woo hoo! (imagine me rolling my eyes!) So I get good drugs to make me better. Yay! So now I’m feeling somewhat better, but not 100%.

In the meantime I’ve been knitting! I finally finished knitting the small pink bag tonight. Tomorrow I’ll attempt my first felting… I’m a wee bit nervous! :o) Here are the “before felting” pics. I’ll post the “after felting” pics… well… after it’s felted! lol

The whole color blocked thing happened completely on it’s own. Crazy, huh?

Tomorrow… felting. Tonight… sleep!
~Heather

Lots to show, so grab a cold drink and get comfy! lol

I’ve been doing quite a bit of scrapbooking here lately. I got a great coupon code for Winkflash, so I ordered about 100 photos! GREAT for jumpstarting some scrapbooking projects! Here are some photos of the projects I’ve been working on…

This is a little accordian album with various photos of Jack and I together. They span the entire time we’ve been together. I’ve wanted to do something like this, but never made it a priority, so I had the photos all printed, gathered up the stuff I wanted to use, and just focused on these various mini albums for the past two crops that I’ve gone to. I love the black and white patterned paper (it’s Pizazzils for you scrapbookers!)

This is a mini book that I’ve had in my stash for almost two years. A few years ago Simple Scrapbooks put out these little “Ten Things I Love About You” albums. There’s one for each person in the family – mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, grandmother, grandfather, etc.

This one in particular is the Ten Things I Love About My Mother. It was already the yellow gold color, so I just used some paper and ribbon to complement that.

Very simple, nothing real fancy. It’s all about the photos and the journaling. Yes, I attempted some doodling. With minimal success! lol

They aren’t pictured here (because of certain blog readers!), but I did two more of these albums – father and brother.

I did this a couple of months ago, but never shared it. It’s four 4×4 canvases, hung together with eye hooks. I just wanted something for a narrow space on the wall. Super easy, and cute (if I do say so myself!).

Well, I can’t believe I did this, but I agreed to let Jack get an aquarium. Could he settle for a small one? No. Could he settle for a simple one? No.

So now we have this 55 gallon monstrosity. And get this… it’s going to be salt water. Prettier fish, but way more up keep. But hey, it’s all Jack’s responsibility! :o) So apparently with salt water aquariums you can’t get fish right away. So here is our nice, big, empty tank. We got it off Craigslist, so at least we saved a little money there! The only thing in there right now is sand and live rock. Did you know there was such a thing? LIVE rock! Go figure.

Now it has to sit, fishless, for four to six weeks to “cycle.” So for now we have a very large, very pretty, glass box full of rocks and water. I don’t understand these things, but Jack does.

I guess I did benefit a little from the whole aquarium thing. Meet Billy Beta. He’ll probably be going to work with me… we’ll see. He looked pink in the fish store, but he looks orange now that he’s home. :o)

So as most of you know, Jack knits. Yes, he knits. No, he didn’t learn it while he was in the hospital… he actually took it up a couple of months ago. So I’ve been watching him and never understood it… never really wanted to. Until I saw this – (click here). And this – (click here too!). So I borrowed a pair of his needles and some nasty colored “scrap” yarn, and proceeded to learn how to knit. (If you want to learn too, and don’t have the patience to learn from your spouse, like I did (and didn’t! lol), check out http://www.knittinghelp.com/. Free knitting instructional videos! Very cool!).

So after I practiced on the hideous scrap yarn, I bought me some pretty stuff! The blue/tan/brown stuff is going to be a big bag, a la Donna Downey (the green and brown one in the links above). The pink stuff is going to be a small, cute bag, a la Cathy Zielske (the solid green one with the double handles in the links above).

Is it that I want to be like these other fantastic scrapbookers who have made the leap into yarn arts? Not so much. Seriously, I watched Jack, going “I wish I had the patience to do that.” Then I saw these bags that Ms. D and Ms. Z made, and thought “I REALLY wish I had the patience to do that!” I mean, admit it, the bags are totally cute! And way more interesting than a scarf. Besides, how many scarfs can one person really use? Especially when one lives in a rather warm part of the country where it gets cold enough for a scarf on maybe 10 days out of the entire year? So I thought… bags! I’m a total bag/tote nut, so I was completely on board.

Both bags are still in the beginning stages, but I’ll be sure to share the finished product. :o)

Have a great week!
~Heather