Planet NilknarfJune 2015Welcome to Planet NilknarfCover story: Here's Janette and I with one of the most recent quilts I've finished. This one I made especially for her. I believe I started working on it way back last summer around the time we went to Guelph. I've kind of been multi-tasking between several quilts at once. The following horses appear on both her quilt and the big one I'm working on:The skulls, hearts, etc. on the original drawing are stickers I bought at the Dollar Store when we were in Guelph The colourful green floral print on hers is from an old blouse that she cut up and saved the fabric from. I did three of the same for the Don't Give Up and God Loves You Too Much... horses for both our quilts and the one I made for Jan and Fede:

The square in the middle is the third time I've done my picture of a small carousel with several of our favorite animals including my papier-mache creatures and Janette's Gas Sign and Honeymoon horses. The only difference is that on hers, instead of the Frog Prince there is Fluffy Ladybird and it is trimmed with the yellow fabric instead of the pink carousel fabric I've used on the one for the Positive Energy Quilt and Jan and Fede's Quilt. It has been fun bringing my projects with me to the Livingroom where I can work on them in the presence of other people whose company I've really been enjoying. It's such a blessing getting to leave the house and be with all these new friends I've made.

One wonderful surprise has been being reunited with Barb, who was my landlady in Peterborough when I was in college. She's been coming to the Livingroom since it opened last November! We had a great time reminiscing. When I lived with her in Peterborough, her daughter, Sarah was just a toddler. Sarah still remembers me and still has the unicorn I drew for her way back then and Barb has had two more kids since then. The youngest is now 24, I believe. We've been showing each other our scrapbooks we've been working on.Both Janette's Quilt and the one I'm working on have references to the New York Library Lions:It's really made a difference having a reason to get out of the house and hang out with other people. The Livingroom has been the best thing that's happened to this town and when I am not working on my quilts I am either working on my scrapbook or my collages.

The collage pictured at the beginning of this month's newsletter is the result of the Soul Collage workshop we did on Saturday, May 2nd. The idea is to divide the page into four sections, not unlike the medicine wheel: Emotional, Physical, Spiritual and Intellectual. Then without thinking too hard about it, just freely associating images with each category. It is okay if there are more examples of one category than any other or pictures that fall into more than one category and overlap. Even before I took part in this workshop I found myself experiencing working on these collages as a meditative exercise to express the feelings of my subconscious.

I've noticed I seem to include a lot of pictures of food. And when doing so I actually feel kind of rebellious. I guess it's kind of a way of getting revenge against all the times, living as a Fat Person, I've been made to feel guilty and ashamed for my love of food. The picture in the middle of my Soul Collage happens to be an inviting-looking banquet table, outdoors with cozy lanterns at each place. It's not just about the food. The banquet table represents a place for good friends to gather and exchange ideas and meaningful conversation. There also seems to be a lot of books, chairs and water. I guess lately the most important thing in life has been comfort, so I am drawn to these images for a reason.

Weird Titanic CartoonsYou know how I sometimes like to share bizarre cartoons. Well today at the Livingroom we were talking about some really weird ones about the Titanic. So I went and looked them up on YouTube.

This one's not as weird as it sounded but farfetched and corny enough. You may want to make yourself some popcorn before you sit back and enjoy THIS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cHIMdEq_pA

Personally, I think Tentacles the octopus bears a striking resemblance to that goofy baby kangaroo in those Sylvester the Cat cartoons where he is always being mistaken for a giant mouse!

I couldn't find the second one in its entirety but this review gives you a pretty good condensed verion that tells it like it is:

http://www.zippcast.com/video/10f2b27b505e28b63f4

I'd like to say that the character based on Celine Dion reminds me more of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman only her dress is blue instead of red.

Eloise's Adventures

Welcome to a new feature in Planet Nilknarf. On Monday, May 11th, I made a very special new friend. She would like to share her story...I woke up not knowing where I was, how I got there or where I had been before. I had no idea how long I'd been sitting there when a lady with purple hair crossed the bridge and came walkig toward me. She took out her camera, bent down and took my picture. Then she walked away. Moments later she turned around, picked me up and put me in her backpack. I was scared. I didn't know what to expect. She took me out at a place called a bank where she sat me down in front of a vase full of white flowers. I heard her talking to the man at the counter, telling him that she wanted to post my picture on Facebook and hopes that it goes viral so that the little girl who lost me may find me again. What if someone just threw her away because they didn't want her anymore? he said. I didn't like him very much. He seemed kind of grumpy and unfriendly. And the lady with the purple hair definitely wasn't impressed either. She was devastated to discover that she had only $14 left in her bank account and muttered something about exchange rates whatever that means, not to mention not being able to make the minimum payment on her VISA bill this month.When she brought me home, her husband was annoyed. He called me trash! What a big meanie!!! Aunt Margaret, as I now call her, cleaned me up and made me a pretty new dress and I do SO NOT look like trash now! Still, I'd best stay out of Uncle Dave's way. Getting my body cleaned up was easy. Whoever I'd lived with before had been scribbling on me with a pink magic marker. There was a pink stain on my chest, a bulls-eye drawn on my butt and X's on the soles of my shoes. A quick rub with the Tide Stick made me good as new. We can't do anything about the marks on my face though. Maybe it's just as well. If I looked too new, my previous owners might not recognize me.

Even if I could remember my own name there's no way I could tell Aunt Margaret. Dolls can't talk. Pre-recorded messages activated by pulling a string don't really count as talking either. But I HAD to have a NAME. We had considered Perdita which is Spanish for lost and Nellie after a character on Little House on the Prairie. But Nellie's really not a nice person. So the name Eloise stuck because I reminded Aunt Margaret of the little girl in the storybook. The one about a little girl who lives in a fancy hotel in New York. My namesake was made into a movie. Aunt Margaret had actually made a doll for that movie at her old job!! Sabine is Eloise's Jamaican doll who looks like the daughter that Aunt Jemima and Mr. Peanut avoid talking about!!!

Anyway, Aunt Margaret sat me on a very large rocking horse. It was fun but a little scary as it was quite high and I was a bit scared of falling. Then I had tea with two of her other dolls, Margaret who is her Travelling Doll and Punky Penny who is a Groovy Girl. We had to improvise because I had the only cup. There used to be two more but Uncle Dave threw them out because they were Toronto Maple Leafs mugs and he doesn't like the Leafs anymore! Next time Aunt Margaret goes to Niagara Falls she wants to get a proper Tea Set from that beautiful gift shop at the Secret Garden. She and her friend Janette have been there many times with their Travelling Dolls as well as Waddle and Fluffy. I've yet to meet Fluffy. Aunt Margaret has had the little house-shaped teapot for many years. The manager of Golden Griddle gave it to her when she and Dave were regular customers there. There is no more Golden Griddle at the Oshawa Centre. Dave's bank is where it used to be. Since we had no other cups we had to improvise using a disposable plastic shot glass and an egg cup.

Still we had a pleasant afternoon together just the same. I'm making lots of new friends around here, enjoying good food, adventures and beautiful new clothes. When and if my previous owner finds me I will have a gorgeous new wardrobe to take home. It's a shame I can't remember where I used to live before but I am having so much fun here I probably won't want to go home. Wherever home is.

Anyway, we enjoyed a tasty supper of leftover Thai food. It's quite spicy but I think I like it.And then Aunt Margaret took me along to her Autism Spectrum Disorder support group. I agree. I don't really like the word disorder very much. It makes it sound like somethings wrong.Here I am enjoying dinner and here I am riding on the bus!! I had a great time watching everyone create comic strips!

Our meeting was originally supposed to be about Passport Funding whatever that is, but the group leader had to cancel because she had something called a migraine, whatever that is. Aunt Margaret was pretty disappointed, but at least she put her creativity to good use: There's even a little lamb version of me in the corner leaning against Olive's hat!

Although there are pictures and regular posts about me in Aunt Margaret's Facebook Account, I also have my own Facebook Page. You can find it here and see regular updates:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adventures-of-a-Lost-Doll/1629667543915046

Epilogue Eloise was returned on Saturday, May 16th to the place where I originally found her, along with a plastic box containing the clothes I made for her and a short note. I regret to say that although it was fun dressing her up in pretty clothes and taking pictures of the adventures she's had with the friends she's made here I've had nothing but bad luck since I found her.

Perhaps it's just a coincidence, starting with finding out I only had $14 left in the bank and the Passport Funding workshop was cancelled. These things probably would have happened with or without Eloise in my life.

My husband didn't like her and neither did the man at the bank, who seemed like a grump with no imagination anyway. And when I posted her picture to the Empath community on Facebook, it was pretty much unanimous that there was a bad vibe about her and that she had to go!

While Dave was grocery shopping I lit my White Sage candle to cleanse away any negative energy that Eloise may have brought into the house with her.

Not only were there those two things that happened on Monday. I have lost my Happy Place. More details about that later.Links Worth Sharing:

First of all you may want to enjoy some really cool background musichttp://www.flixxy.com/bohemian-rhapsody-played-by-100-year-old-fairground-organ.htm

http://in5d.com/how-many-of-these-51-spiritual-awakening-symptoms-do-you-have/

http://archive.autistics.org/library/more-autistic.html

http://thoughtcatalog.com/lauren-rinere/2015/01/7-realizations-that-convinced-me-not-to-have-children/

http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/05/sensory-processing-disorder/

http://higherperspectives.com/smartphones-killing-conversations/?c=cleo&ts_pid=2

http://galadarling.com/article/how-to-survive-mercury-retrograde/

http://globalnews.ca/news/2005341/missing-garden-gnomes-in-guelph-ont-looking-to-be-reunited-with-owners/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ten-things-an-autistic-adult-wants-you-to-know-1431463652

http://viralslot.com/people/this-girl-did-this-after-a-boy-snapped-her-bra-at-school/ I can relate to this because I've been wearing a bra since THIRD GRADE and already boys were snapping mine!!! >:(

http://mentalfloss.com/article/64187/old-mother-hubbard-weirder-you-thought

http://beingchildfree.tumblr.com/post/86573994443/heres-what-parents-need-to-understand-about

This has GOT to be the BEST thing I've seen in AGES:http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/uncategorized/45-creative-examples-of-my-little-pony-customization

My Life at the LivingroomMarch 20th, 2015-May 15th, 2015I will no longer be going to The Livingroom Community Art Studio. I no longer feel welcome there. I will spare you the gory details. They're all over Facebook. This situation and the characters involved sound like one of those ridiculous bullshit stories that I usually make up in my April Fools Day issues of Planet Nilknarf. I just WISH this situation wasn't real. That the whole thing has just been a horrible nightmare and I could just wake up. I'm sure I'm not the only one annoyed by this situation and it will probably take somebody else having a meltdown even worse than mine to rectify things back to normal.

This whole experience feels like a death to me. Before these people and their constantly screaming brat showed up on the scene, this was my happy place and I used to think it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to this town. And to add insult to injury I've been told that my not liking babies is as bad as not liking gays or old people.

Unless I actually sell any of the shit I left there I doubt very much I'll ever be going back there!!! :'(

Carousel of the MonthCentral Park 1908 Stein & Goldstein Clockwise from top: NCA members gathered in front of the pavillion, me riding a humble little brown inside-row horse, Richard on his favorite horse, Blackie.Big Red and BubblesDear Mom & Dad

Monday, June 1st 2015

Dear Mom and Dad

Hello. Sorry I haven't written in so long. However I am confident that you still watch over me form time to time to make sure everything is okay. Things have been pretty crazy around here. This month's issue of Planet Nilknarf will be a little late as everything has been so bizarre. Yesterday my whole routine was screwed up because Dave decided not to go grocery shopping after all. Who can blame him? The weather was downright crappy! And it's just as well he didn't. He suddenly began to feel quite ill. Yesterday he was burning up with fever and chills and could not stop shivering. And I didn't get the dishes done until around 7:00 last night. I usually do it while he's out grocery shopping.

He's been laid off this week. And I am happy to say I am BACK IN SCHOOL!!! The strike stopped on Thursday! Dave was still working days so he woke me up at 5:30 to tell me he had just heard it on the news that the teacher's strike was over. Sure enough, when I got up I checked the website to confirm the news. I wondered if I had been dreaming but there it was. Sometimes during the strike I'd be worried that the website hadn't been updated so early in the morning.

The first two or three weeks of the strike were great. I kept myself busy with my art and enjoyed going to the Livingroom. That is until things got ugly for me and that dreadful family showed up with Little Sir-Cries-a-Lot!! And I'm the one who gets reprimanded for expressing my discomfort!! These folks ave totally ruined it for me! I swear, constant caterwauling is that kid's DEFAULT state! The only time he doesn't cry is if somebody picks him up or takes him out. And obviously they need their hands free to do art. I can't get into my creative zone if I have to deal with this shit!! My MP3 player just isn't loud enough. I have been so depressed about this situation.

As I am writing this Mark and Janette are having an amazing time in Banff. Well, I hope they're having an amazing time. They had the flight from hell! Another plane ride ruined by a screaming baby Must they be on EVERY flight these days?

And on the first night Janette tried to phone me but her phone kept cutting out. Mark tried to Skype me but my computer just isn't set up for Skype. I don't even have a WEB CAM!!!

But at least they had a wonderful time up the Calgary tower. So far they've taken many pictures, much of which Mark has posted in his FaceBook account. I can hardly see Janette's pictures though. She says she took one of Fluffy on the glass floor. I don't think the Calgary Tower HAD a glass floor when I was there back in 1987. In fact that was such a bad trip for me that I didn't even WANT to remember most of it and destroyed my film instead of ever getting it developed!Maybe someday I will go back to Calgary under better circumstances, with Janette or staying at Sharon's place.

At least I am happy to say that things are going better between Jan and Fede. By the time you read this they will have moved again. They're still in Edmonton, but they are in a different place.

In the meantime it is unusually COLD around here!!! I don't believe it! The FIRST OF JUNE and today I needed my Technicolour Dream Coat!! The other day I found my Huckleberry Hound patch from Canada's Wonderland. That patch must be at least 20 years old. I probably bought it the time I was there with Richard in 1993. I don't think Wonderland even sells patches of ANY kind now, let alone Hanna-Barberra characters. For awhile there it was all Nickelodeon characters such as Spongebob Squarepants and Dora the Explorer and now it's all Peanuts characters; Charlie Brown, Snoopy, etc. Now there's a blast from the past. Talk about characters that never go out of style. I still have my Snoopy wall plaque hanging in the bathroom. I've had that so long I don't even remember where it came from! I think Aunt Jean and Uncle Alex gave it to me for Christmas when I was about eight years old. It's been everywhere I've lived since I've had my first apartment back in Lindsay!

Scrap-booking/art-journalling with a vengeance has helped me hold onto what little is left of my sanity! Here are a couple pictures not usually seen by the general public just yet. I have shared them in Facebook threads but I won't be adding them to my album until sometime after the 11th when I have printer's ink so I can finish the chapters in between.Anyone who wants to see the rest of my scrapbook album can do so here:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.554208641385568.1073741870.100003893116310&type=1&l=9440203e3d

A funny thing happened a few nights ago. Just as I was drifting off to sleep I felt something jab me in my left hip. It was a crayon. Before turning on the light I thought I would try to guess what colour it was. Blue. I turned on the light. I was right! And of course the first thing I thought of was that KIDEO episode where Ace says I just can't imagine life without a blue crayon.

Tonight is a very special and very important meeting for my Kerry's Place ASD group! We are FINALLY going to do PASSPORT FUNDING!!! YAAAAAYYYYY!!! More details to follow!!

Well, I can't think of much else to write about so I shall go for now and publish this month's issue.

Love, Margaret