Health updates...

My precious, mischevious, BAD granddaughter Mia has finally recovered from the shingles/chicken pox! Not a bump on her! Don't ever think that because your child got the chicken pox vaccine, that will keep them from getting them...NOT TRUE! She's 2!!!

Hallie's kidney infection has finally gone away, and now, she can schedule the surgery on her finger. Somehow, she tore the ligament in her right ring finger, but the surgeon wouldn't operate until her urologist gave her the all clear.

Jerry, poor guy, is going to have a procedure to unblock his bladder, and hopefully, clear up his prostate. So we have several doctor's appointments, lab visits, and pre-registration in preparation for next Monday's surgery.

GEESH! It doesn't end!

For those of ya'll that know him, he's had a hard time of it the last several years. First, there was the angiogram where the cardiologist placed a stent, only to have it "rip" the artery, and have to have ANOTHER angiogram and stent placed.

Fifteen months later, there was the angiogram that led to a quadruple bypass. Talk about a surprise!

Not two years later, after months of suffering with his legs (PAD), during the testing for that treatment, it was found that he had a tumor in his right kidney that turned out to be cancer. So there went the kidney!

Oh, and it doesn't stop there!

After six months or so, the vascular doctor started trying to open his arteries with stents and balloon treatments...which didn't work. We went through that for months. Nothing worked, so in May 2004, he underwent a bypass on his left leg, which didn't work.

So we're sitting there, going back and forth between doctors, when somehow, Jerry fell off an 8ft. ladder and hit his head at work. I remember the phone call vividly to this day. Nineteen days of ICU, not knowing if he would live or die. Nineteen days of crying, praying, and yes, I'll admit it, heavy drinking. Blood thinners, they are wonderous drugs, but when something happens bad, well, they are a curse.

And after bouts of shingles (neurological injuries can trigger the virus), dizzy spells (he'll never lose that) and Katrina (yes we flooded and had to redo the entire house), he's I'd say 80% back. And now this.

So if I'm not posting or anything, don't worry. I'm around getting all my eggs into one basket. And please say a prayer for him.

WOW!

I've received my first weblog award from Vicki at Stamping Ever After! I'm thrilled!


I can't tell ya'll enough how much everyone's sweet comments on my cards and scrapbook pages mean to me. I have a lot of trouble accepting praise and compliments...it's one of my biggest failings. A friend of mine once told me I'm "too humble", whatever that means, lol.

Anyway, there are rules to follow with this award...
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

So I've dug through my list of favorite and inspirational blogs, and picked out some of my favorites. Believe me, my list is long!

1. Today's Lessons with my friend Mel, who is a wonderful stamper despite her four great, little boys!
2. Chic n' Scratch Angie has wonderful video tutorials. She doesn't know it but I lurk on a daily basis!
3. Kadee Morrison Designs has some of the most beautiful cards I've ever seen and wonderful videos too!
4. Dawn's Stamping Thoughts Dawn does daily blog entries...it can be a sweet card or a fabulous video tutorial.
5. Day Dreamin' Dawn has some of the prettiest cards I've ever seen! I stalk her blog :)
6. K's Card Creations has beautiful cards, and she uses stamps and techniques I'm totally jealous of, lol!
7. StampinGHmom I found her blog quite by accident, but I love how she creates her cards and I think you will too!

So now I'm off to make sure that these blog awards get to these wonderful women! I can't tell ya'll how much I appreciate the inspiration that they give me!

Color Inspiration #17

Wow, I'm cranking out creativity these days! I'm participating in 2 different challenges this week. This is the only card I've completed...I'll post the other one later.

Vintage...I love vintage! And these colors are wonderful! I don't know where she finds them all, but IMHO, Kristina has outdone herself this time!

Rose Red, Regal Rose, Sage Shadow and Whisper White are this week's colors.

I bought these new stamps from Artful Inkables. This set is called "sunburst dandies".


What a great set of stamps! But I'm not crazy about how dark the Regal Rose shows in this picture, but I took the picture like 10 times and it's still dark!


Oh well, I hope you enjoy my card...and I can't wait to see everyone else's!!! And I'll probably post the other challenge card tomorrow, so stay tuned!

2nd Blog of the Day...

I think I've written enough about my beautiful, wonderful, bright and sweet granddaughter, Mia. She's also curious, inquisitive and DESTRUCTIVE!

There is nothing sacred in my house. I have all the cabinets child-proofed and locked. I have baby gates up all over. And I do my best to keep things out of reach.

Well, let me start with the first incident of the day. She somehow got open my Pumpkin Pie stamp pad and used some stamps and created on paper a lovely picture of alligators. A couple of orange fingertips later, she was happy with her picture.

Next, she wrote on my NEWLY painted wall with an ink pen! ARGH!

Then, and don't ask me where she got it from, she painted her legs with Desitin! :sob: It was everywhere!!! And she did this in about 2 minutes while I was on the phone! See below pictures...






There are days that she's the most cooperative child...so easy to please, so easy to entertain. I'm guessing that she's unhappy with me today. Why else would she feel the need to entertain herself this way?

A little something different...

I love to cruise different scrapbooking/stamping blogs. I totally enjoy seeing what others can create. I'm always blown away by everyone's imaginations and talents.

Last week, I found a new blog, Fat Cat Stamper. I'll be adding this blog to my "favorites" later this week. Please check her blog out!

Anyway, she has a challenge out there...one that I loved. So I have attempted an entry. I love quilts...and my favorite pattern is the "log cabin". So that's the pattern I used on my card.


I used the color combo (Close to Cocoa, Brocade Blue, Sage Shadow, and Very Vanilla) BUT I don't have any of the stamps that we were to use. So, I used a small SU! stamp that has been floating around my table to highlight the Close to Cocoa, and then began the pattern. I have to tell you, it was harder to create the pattern with paper than it is with fabric, lol.


I hope you enjoy it! And visit that blog...it's terrific!

Color Inspiration #16

Another week, another great color inspiration challenge! I did create a card, but I don't really like it. Not sure why, because I used the same basic layout for baby shower invitations for a friend of mine. Maybe it's the Pumpkin Pie?

Oh well, it's ok...I think I like it better when I used Apricot Appeal. Pastels work so much better together, IMHO. I do hope you enjoy it.

I used the SU set Noah's Ark, Certainly Celerey, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Sky and Very Vanilla cardstock and stamp pads.

Color Inspiration #15

Another week, another color inspiration challenge...

I'm still getting over whatever "bug" I had last weekend, but I felt good enough to drag out my supplies and attempt a card. I have to admit, I like it, lol. Maybe the "bug" inspired me, lol

Everyone knows how big a fan of Kristina Werner's I am. She's got such good taste and I love the color combos she comes up with. And this week's combo is no exception.




So I pulled out all the colors...and then remembered that I had a card already made! YES!!! My dad's birthday is coming up, and I had bought a new set of stamps from PaperTrey, and I was trying to get a jump on birthday cards, I made up a few. I just had to change out the paper to Really Rust, and voila!



Here's my submission. I really hope you enjoy it!

Stomach Bug...

Yuck!

I've got the stomach bug! Oh goodness, it's not pretty around here.

A couple of weeks ago, my oldest daughter Hallie's boyfriend brought his 2 kids over (it was his weekend), and his little girl got sick while she was here. I blew it off, kids eat the wrong thing all the time.

Well, I blew it off too soon!

Loretta (daughter #2) got sick Wednesday night, followed closely by Bonnie (daughter #3). I was fine, praying the whole time I wouldn't get it since SOMEONE has to watch Mia (my gorgeous, smart, talented, happy, mischevious) granddaughter.

Thursday night, after a lovely dinner for 3 at a new Chinese restaurant (since the girls don't like it and they HAD to eat broth), I got sick! EUWWWWW! I was miserable! Thank goodness I had already cancelled our July 4th dinner! I slept most of Friday away and a good part of Saturday. Now my back is killing me...lol. If it's not one thing....

Mel --- watch the boys! I'm apologizing now!

Lifting? Casing? Learning???

We all have our favorite sites that we like to check in on daily...I'm no different.

I'm always updating my sidebar, Blogs That Inspire Me. I want everyone to see these great sites! They have wonderful, creative designs...many with video instructions!

I "stalk" a couple of blogs (okay it's more than a couple, lol) and I really liked this design...so cute! Angie's Stamping Academy did these cards for a birthday...I'm thinking I'll use them for party invitations!




Another blog that I "stalk" is Dawn's Stampin Thoughts. She's so perky and sweet, you can just hear it in her voice! Anyway, today's post was this great "exploding card". I just did the card in cardstock, but even as plain as it is, I love it!




Great cards huh????

Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #14

Another Color Inspiration.....and it's different. I really like it.






I used some paper I bought to do a scrapbook layout of New Orleans, but it called my name to be used. One Heart One Mind is the paper company and the paper is called "fleur de lis". I also used a rub on by Kelly Panacci for the sentiment, and the striped ribbon is from Making Memories, it's what they call "textured tape". The instructions said that she added the River Rock and REal Red, but only if you needed to use the colors. I chose not to.





I watched Kristina's Make-A-Card Monday video and decided I'd try that too. My interpretation is a little different, but I really like the final presentation. I had never really done anything monochromatic. You can't really see it, but some of the stems are embossed. I've been playing with the idea of adding a little ink to higlight them, but I'm still a little wary of doing that.





I really like the way my cards came out...