Please help a friend in need!

Prayers for Carie

I’ve known Carie since we were in elementary school. I can say with total confidence that she is one of the sweetest, kind hearted people I will ever have the privilege of calling a friend. Although she and I don’t see each other often, when my father passed away last September, she and her husband, Tim, helped when we were cleaning out his apartment, and trying to raise money for his memorial, by buying a shelving unit of his. She also came to the memorial with her daughter, Norah, when none of my other friends were able to. Her support meant more than she’ll ever know.

Now, she needs help. On Christmas morning last year, Carie had a stroke. Within the past couple of months, she’s been improving significantly; she began speaking, and has recently been able to hold herself in a seated position, and has a little movement in her arms and legs. She’s still unable to open her eyes on her own. She still has a long way to go in her recovery, and her family is in need of financial assistance to pay for the treatment she needs.

A friend of the family set up an online fundraiser to help pay for those accumulating medical bills, and has raised almost $4,000! To make a significant impact on the cost of her hospital stay and therapy, though, that amount needs to be, at least, doubled. So, I’m asking you, if you’re able, to give a little to this wonderful family. If you’re unable to donate, please share the link to the fundraiser on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or whatever social media you use most! The more we can get the word out, the more money we’ll be able to raise. Click on the photo above to read more about Carie’s story and progress, and to learn how to donate.

Gentle hugs,

Chels

 

 

 

Escaping reality & forming alter egos (in the neverending world of cosplay.)

Reality and I are very close. Too close sometimes. So, to balance things out, I play dress up.

You heard me.

My neice looked at her mom one day last year, after she had gotten dressed and put on her makeup, and said, “Mama, you look fancy like Aunt Chelsea!” That, my friends, is the best compliment I’ve ever received. (That, and that I could be the first female president.) On days when I don’t feel well, even on days that I don’t feel well and don’t even have to go anywhere, I put on something that makes me feel good. Sure, it’s great to learn how to cope, and to work on your mental viewpoint of yourself, yada yada … but let’s be honest. When you think you look good, you feel good, as you should. It especially helps when you get compliments from others, Hottie McHotterson.

When I say that I put on something that makes me feel good, that can be anything from one of my favorite funny t-shirts to pajamas to a dress or skirt to .. yep, you guessed it, a costume. (Or at least part of one.) What says “escape from reality” like dressing up as someone or something else? I used to have this really funny book called “The Bad Girl’s Guide To Life.” One of the suggestions was to spice up your cleaning routine by wearing a tiara. A year or two later, around my birthday, I bought said tiara and wore the heck out of it. I wore it on my birthday, around the house, and, knowing me, probably to the grocery store once or twice. I had decided long before then that if something made me smile, whether someone else thought it was ugly or not, I wore it. Not only did it make me happy, but it made plenty of my friends, and probably quite a few strangers, laugh. You can’t really have enough laughter in the world, right?

When I met my husband, my small amount of comic world knowledge, his larger amount of knowledge, and his older brother’s even bigger amount of knowledge combined like a smaller but equally as cool Captain Planet team to turn my slight fascination into near obsession. Add to that my love for anything in the Whedonverse (Joss Whedon, that is,) and I’m not just a nerd, I’m a bona fide geek, thankyouverymuch!  Then there’s the happiness I get from watching the behind the scenes footage of nearly any movie to see how makeup and costumes were made. I’m pretty much done for.

Then, lo and behold, I discover a world that used to only be occupied my anime characters has now expanded to nearly any sci-fi, comic book, movie, and book character you can think of. Oh dear. All I can say is: look out, cosplay world! Here I, my seemingly useless knowledge, my amateur acting skills, and my awesome craftiness come! It’s a match made in heaven, really. Good old reality is still there, but it’s been downgraded to friend status. This world of imagination, creativity and play is my real love.

If you love dressing up for cosplay, or if you just want to see a bunch of really cool costumes, check out DeviantArt. (I’m “loveandeyeballs.”) You can search the submissions, or submit a cosplay picture or two to their latest fundraiser for child burn victims!

Gentle hugs,

Chels

Nicotine is gross.

I have love for lots of smokers. I know that it’s an addiction that some people don’t want to quit, and I get that it’s really hard if you do. My mom and my grandmother quit after having heart attacks, and my husband quit while we were dating.

But ew. I’m so sick today (so is my Mom, and my hubby was sick last night.) My mom and hubby are former smokers, I’m a non-smoker, and we spent several hours in a bar for the fundraiser for our friends. (Which, by the way, was a huge success – yay!) Needless to say, there was little to do to get away from the smoke. We sat right by the fan, so the majority of the smoke was being blown away from us. And we still got sick.

My mom kept saying, “I can’t believe I used to smell like that all the time. I’m going to go home and take a shower.” We all did just that, and here we are. Now, Tom never really gets sick, so when his stomach was upset last night, it caught my attention. Honestly, I figured it was probably the combo of hot dog, Frito pie, and stromboli he ate yesterday. Then I woke up this morning with an upset stomach, feeling really sick, and so did my mom. She didn’t eat any of the food we ate, so we’ve all deduced that it was the large amount of smoke/nicotine that was absorbed into our systems.

So, for those of you who smoke, please just take a moment to consider how sick you’re making yourself and others around you. I know you know that “smoking is bad.” (If you didn’t know that, welcome to 2012.) But you may not realize just how bad it is for everyone else around you. I feel nauseous, have an upset stomach, have sensitive skin, and I’m short of breath and lethargic. Today makes me so thankful that my grandmother and mom didn’t smoke around me.

Bleck.

Gentle hugs,

Chels

The loss of a home and the love of good friends.

Our dear family friend, James, and his wife, Julia, lost their house to a fire last Friday night. (It was, of all things, a freak accident with nail polish remover. Please be careful, ladies!) Thankfully, no one was hurt, save their pet beta fish. Also thankfully, they have homeowner’s insurance, which will help them recover the posessions they lost and either fix the home (there was no structural damage,) or find a new one, depending on the extent of the interior damage.

I’ve known James literally all of my life. He gave my mom away at my parents’ wedding, and he’s quite a character. He inspired me as a kid with his involvement in theater, and inspires me now with his involvement in local music. When I spoke to him on the phone the other day, he was joking about how they still had the pool, and his response to people who offered to donate items has been “Well, we could put it on the back porch …” Like he said, it’s not the first time he’s had the blues, and he’s just so overwhelmed by the kindness they’ve received that he’s crying happy tears. He has always been a great friend to us, and now we’re honored to return the favor.

James’s family set up a benefit and a donation account to help cover any extra expenses that insurance won’t, and to be sure they have the money they need to replace the necessities they lost as soon as they have a place to put them. I’ve been contacting everyone I can think of to donate items for the silent auction and raffle for the benefit, and I’m so excited by peoples’ generosity! So far, just out of the people I’ve contacted in the past couple of days, a photographer friend has donated a couple’s portrait session, my sister in law has donated a piece of her nature photography along with a handmade custom wooden frame, and another friend I met through James is donating brand new kitchen items and appliances along with some other miscellaneous items. Mom is modifying a Stetson hat with beautiful feathers, and I’m going to make a set of matching jewelry to donate. I’m hoping to hear back from some of my Etsy friends so that I can assemble a handmade gifts basket, and I’m contacting people in an attempt to collect event tickets and gift cards to put together a “Year of Fun” package.

I even created an icon and an invitation flyer for Facebook and for the event host to print. (she conveniently works for a printing company.)

We only have a couple of weeks until the benefit, but everyone is working together, and everything is just falling into place. It’s been really uplifting to witness all of the love friends and family and pouring out to this couple. It also feels really good to give. They deserve every bit of it.

If anyone has suggestions about how to obtain donations for the silent auction and raffle, please let me know! Also, if you would like to make a donation, you can check out the Facebook event page for more info.

Gentle hugs,

Chels