Fimo Fanatic: Charlene's Blog

About Me

What to write, what to write…

I usually have this shpiel about my polymer clay accomplishments, and whenever there’s a place for a bio about me, I paste that in.  It it used to be here on my blog, too; but today I decided that, since my blog was more about my everyday life and less about my business, I’d just give a link to my professional bio and leave this page for stuff that’s more personal.

(If you really want to read that professional bio, you can find it here.)

If you meet me for the first time, generally you’re going to meet some member of my immediate family, too.  Like my stepdad used to say:  “Can’t tell the players without a program”.

I’ve been married to the same guy since 1984.  I know, it’s out of fashion these days to be married this long.  But I think it’s one fashion I’ll go on outing, just because it’s so darn much fun.  My favorite part about my husband:  he makes me laugh.  Every single day.  He’s one of the wittiest people I’ve ever met.  That goes miles, in my book.

Together we have six children. Five boys, one girl.  (Yes, you read that right; your eyes are working just fine.)  Yes, they’re all ours — no adoptions or blended family.  And, yes, we do know what causes that, and we did it on purpose.  We do have multiple tv’s in our house.  We did intentionally try to overpopulate the world.  Or, at least field our own softball team.  No, I’m not a Catholic married to a Mormon.  (Of all the comments and questions we had from people about our family size, that one is my favorite… remind me to tell you that story sometime.)

I’m owned by pets. If you read that and immediately thought of cats, you would be right.  Currently there are two felines in our home, and they rule with as disaffected an air as they possibly can.  I do my best to grovel as necessary.

I’m an artist. My creative talent showed up as a young child, as soon as I could hold a pencil.  I come from a long line of artistic people, on both sides of my family tree.  It’s an honor to be a part of that legacy, as well as carry those genes to our own children.   I married an artistic man, though he doesn’t consider himself one.  I could argue the point pretty convincingly if I wanted to.  He has a very good eye, and can draw sketches for furniture that he’d like to build, without using a ruler.   Our life together has been filled with art, and we express appreciation for it in a kaleidoscope of ways.

I’m a Christian. Don’t let that scare you — I’m not about to bash you over the head with my bible.  Besides, it’s too small do do much damage, anyway.  But matters of faith are important to me, and occasionally my thoughts will be sprinkled with them.  I won’t be offended if you skip over those parts, so feel free to do so at your leisure.

I was born in 1965. So whatever year this is when you read my blog, do the math and you can find out how old I am.  (Frustrating, isn’t it?  I know, I know.  But it’s good for you.  Exercises your brain.  And now you know how my kids felt, when they asked me how to spell something…)

I’m a proud mother of soldiers. You’ll possibly have seen one or two things in the sidebar about that.  There are stickers on my car, too.  You see, when I married, I not only joined a man, I joined a military machine.  He was in his last semester of ROTC when we met, and marrying him meant I would spend the next 4 years going wherever the US Army told us to go.  And you know what?  For the most part, I liked it.  The Army was good to us.  And it was good to our family.  My husband’s side has generations of  military service.  He and his two brothers were in the Army, Navy, and Marines, respectively.  Three of our sons have carried on the tradition, by joining the Illinois National Guard.

I have a brown thumb. If you want a plant to grow, don’t give it to me.  Shoot, even if you want me to hang on to a plastic plant for you, don’t expect it to come back with all it’s leaves.  I don’t know what it is about me and green leafy-shaped things, but they die.  Whether or not they were alive in the first place.  I don’t mind too much.  There are some plants in my yard that are green, and as long as I leave them alone and don’t touch them, they actually survive.

I’m allergic to dairy.  Now, you might be asking yourself why that is important.  But you’d be surprised at how many products have milk in them.  Things like going out for coffee together would seem innocuous, until you tried to treat me to a latte’.   Trust me, you don’t want to know what happens if I get anything that has milk in it.  Fortunately, there are alternatives that aren’t disgusting.  I drink coconut milk in my cereal.  I have almond cheese on my pizza.  I eat soy ice cream.  So I can have most of those dishes we all love (well, okay, maybe not Cheese Curds from Culver’s, but you can’t always have what you want).