Friendship & Love

The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love.
-- Hubert Humphrey




I have not felt well for some time now and have had a myriad of tests to try and find out what is wrong.  As you know, feeling ill is not fun.  Feeling ill and seeing serious specialists is less fun.  Waiting on tests results can really test your patience and your faith at times.  During all this, there are at least two things that can help you through it, hopefully....love and friendship.  I am very blessed to have both.


I am very blessed that both my family (including extended) and my husband's family care and love me.  I don't think I understood this until now.  I mean, I know my family loves me.  I know my husband's family cares about me, but love????  Well, people show love in many ways and at different times.  They are very kind and generous people but we have never been close.  We see each other for holidays, birthdays but rarely for no reason.  I'm going to see what I can do about that.


During my scare, my husband's family...each member, reached out to me personally.  How are you doing?  What have the doctors said?  What tests have they run?  When will they know more?  These were the questions my husband and I found ourselves answering, typical questions.  I guess what makes me feel loved during all this is that each one of them took the time to ask about me and listen and extend help in any way.


Over the last 4 weeks, I have missed a lot of days from work for tests or pain.  I am new in the department and the last thing I wanted was to have this impede my performance.  Each day I called my boss to communicate my status.  Each day he said to focus on getter better and work can be re-distributed if need be.  And then, I started getting calls and emails from people at work asking how I was doing and if there was anything they could do for me.  People who only knew me for 5 months.  On one of those calls, I broke down and started crying.  I was scared.  My co-worker on the other line stayed with me.  She listened.  She didn't interrupt.  She lifted me up and gave me the strength to make it through the rest of the day at home. She did this all while she was at work.  That is how much she cared.  That is how lucky I am.  That is how blessed I am.


I returned to work this last Friday and had more people come up to me and inquire about my health.  They were happy to see me but wanted to make sure I didn't over do it and have a relapse.


Even as I am writing this now, I still can't believe how blessed I am to have so much but most importantly love and friendship.  I guess I need to count my blessings more often.

A New Happiness

What is happiness?  It could be having a home and a successful career.  It could be getting a raise. Or, it could be something small like a child's face.  But if you do not have a child (in the normal sense of the word), happiness could be brought to you by Charlie, Lucy, or Snoopy.  Not the Charlie Brown characters, although those are fun and can bring giggles, smiles, and happiness too.  My newest happiness is a sweet little 16 pound Westie called Molly.

Molly is sweet, playful, well behaved, has so many other wonderful traits but most importantly she makes me happy when I am sick or down or anytime for that matter.  How can you not love this face?

From Molly to all other dogs of the world,  "Woof, ask your master for a doggie massage and you'll want it everyday."  Woof, Woof for now.

Creating Once Again

I've finally gotten back to my creative arts.  I am trying to be more organized for the new year and regularly post.  We will see how that goes.

Anyways, I saw another blog where the blogger had shown her 10 favorite cards using a particular brand of stamps.  I am not partial to any one stamp manufacturer.  I just like them to be deeply etched for a nice crisp look.  I also like to try a variety of techniques.  You know, keep the creativity alive.  Be different.  Below are my own ten favorite cards.  I hope you enjoy.

 I made the card below with black embossing paint and used wood as the surface on which to emboss.  I think it is so elegant.  This has to be my #1 favorite.

Alcohol Inks on Acetate

Nestabilities, Embossing Plates, Copics

Impressabilities. Copics, and Glitter

Watercolor

Crayon Resist

Dry Embossing

Stamping on Acetate

Distress Ink, Acrylic Paint, Distress Embossing Powder

I hope you enjoyed a little peek into my creative outlet.  More creations to come in many different formats.

Keep your creativity alive and Happy New Year!

Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween Everyone!


Well, it's been a Long time since I have posted anything and to my followers, I apologize for going MIA.  Life has been exceptionally busy and challenging over the last 11 months but it has brought me many blessings.  And, I thank God for each one.


Now on to Halloween and surprises.  


Did you know Halloween is celebrated on the last day of the Celtic calendar?  It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago.


Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It ranks right up there with Christmas.  I find the mystery of Halloween exciting.  I didn't do much trick or treating during my childhood but did enjoy seeing the scary movies and every now and then listening about haunted houses or urban legends.  


While you won't believe me, I can attest that I lived in a haunted house in the city at about age 5 or 7.  My father and his friend experienced the supernatural too in that house.  I won't go into my true story as just thinking about it brings back scary memories.  So, here's an urban legend for you ghouls and goblins out there.  It is similar to what I experienced except  I was all alone very late at night and there was absolutely no explanation for what had happened that night.


I present to you...Stranger at the door.

There was once a young boy and his sister. One day their parents went out to run some late errands they had put off until the last minute. Before they left they told their children not to open the door under any circumstances.

Because they were watching TV, they didn't pay much attention. About an hour after the parents left, the children heard a knock, knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock. The children who were now in their rooms asleep, were awoken at once.

Knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock. Finally the sister got up wondering who it could be. Her brother lay awake in his bed listening. When he heard nothing for a few minutes and his sister did not return, he got a little scared.

He decided to go to his neighbors house, who were very close friends of his. He got out of bed and headed for the front door in the dark. When he got to his neighbors house, he found them awake.

They told him they were relieved he was there, because they had just heard on the news that a murderer had been spotted just a few blocks away not too long ago. In the morning, they discovered the sisters body and a discarded knife on the brothers bed. 

So what scary stories do you have to share that you will never forget?  Or what urban legends have you created?

Happy Hauntings!

One person at a time....

At this time of year, you hear so much about giving back but do we just listen or actually do something about it?

I heard a great radio story on CNN today about a principal in Vegas who had a large population of homeless kids in her school. These kids live in the blanket tents they have talked about in the news, they barely have food to eat, or clothes to wear. Some children were getting by eating catsup packets. Catsup packets...do you believe that? The principal made it her job to run a campaign year round to help these families have food, clothes and toys for birthdays or Christmas. One person at a time changing the world. That is all it takes.

Then of course you hear about the number of homeless in this country, the number of children that go to bed hungry... here in the most advanced country in the world, the number of people who can't pay their gas, their water, their mortgages. One person at a time can make a change there. Whether it's donating to a food pantry, dropping off clothes at a shelter, paying a little extra in your gas bill for those whose gas may be shut off. How about donating your time if you can't donate your money? Work with Habitat for Humanity, help at a food pantry, deliver meals through Meals on Wheels, visit an elder home and spend holiday time with a resident, adopt a pet for the holidays if you can't keep him/her (but you'll come around and start loving them so quickly, you can't turn them in after Christmas), volunteer opportunities abound!

I will be donating my time to file tax returns for low income families through the center for economic development. I have gone through my closets once and will go through them again before the holiday season is over. I have coats and shoes to give. I have my donation pile waiting until I get paid to see what little we can do. Making a change one person at a time.

It all makes me stop and think 'How lucky am I Lord...for I have a roof over my head, food on my table, clothes on my back, light and heat in my house, a job, a supportive family'. Thank you Lord.

Not only during Thanksgiving or the Holidays should we be giving thanks but all year round.

Count your Blessings and Give Back.

One person at a time can make a difference!

Copy Kat???

Ok, so many of you know that I make handmade cards and have so many I should sell some of these. I am thinking about it but not there just yet.

Anyway, anytime a SCS swap comes through, I consider it carefully for a couple of reasons. First, do I need more cards?...Always. Are the participants using high quality paper and excellent stampers (comes with time unless you are a natural (which I am not))? Do I have time???? This is usually a no. Once in a while regardless of time, I fit in a swap or two. Well, this is #2 with 2 more to go.

So, here's is the story. I read the directions to the swap and thought I understood them which in too many cases I think I do but read through the instructions so darn quick that I miss something. Boy did I miss on this one. You see, the swap was very simple. All I had to do was create a card (copy) from the Clean and Simple gallery or something similar to that and make a slight twist on that. Pretty simple, right?

Instead, I go through the process of creating a card from scratch similar to one I saw elsewhere but very detailed. Not Simple but Clean. I spent about 2 hours working on my sample card and got sooo frustrated I stopped, went back to the swap instructions and realized...."you silly fool, you are making the wrong card." "You did not follow instructions at all." Well, at this point with all my craft stuff out, I made the correct swap card. I have attached it here for you.

I have since found out that the other card I made can be used in another swap that is - Cuttlebug related with stamping. Not a loss after all...but wait that means that it would be swap #5. Ok, I think I am getting in over my head. So much fun though. :)

Here is Swap # 2 or is it #3 at this point?

Fuzzy Cozy

I love my fuzzy slippers. They are so warm and keep my feet just toasty. Sometimes I don't know I have them on since they are so cozy. I am sure you have a pair or two like these.

Well, like I said, sometimes I forget I have them on. DH wanted to take me out for dinner last night since I have been in the house for the past 2 days nursing my flu...not the piggy one. Anyway, you know where this is going, right? I got out of my fleece pjs, put on some socks, long sleeve t-shirt, followed by a warm fleece, jeans, long scarf, warm and cozy fleece hat, wool mittens...now remember I don't want to get sicker. So what's missing? Hummmmm. How about some shoes that are not my fuzzy slippers. I didn't notice until we were about 1/3 of the way to the restaurant but who cares. There are too cute and cozy.

At least I didn't go out in my pjs. I have done that too at Chili's but they just didn't look like pjs.

Anyone else forget to change out of something that should only be worn at home?