we're getting there

Happy day...blood draw was not as easy as usual, but with every area already poked with holes, she did a great job of not torturing me too much. LOL And smart girl took a little extra while she was already in there. ;) Tomorrow afternoon I see the doc for follow up and I totally anticipate a 100% clean bill of health. I'll be happy with 99% if I have to be, but I'm doing great, feeling great, and breathing on my own since all day yesterday - and maintaining the numbers on my own too. Yay!

Again, thank you all for your good thoughts, prayers and emails. :)

I love you,

Back to the land of the living!

Oh my gosh. I'm so happy to be back home. :)

Many of you know I suffer from asthma and have had a rough year of it already. Mostly I'm able to control it with the breathing machine and sometimes the need for prednisone, but this time was different. I caught a cold and when the cold went away, I knew something wasn't normal. But it wasn't bad and I kept thinking I'll be fine, I'm feeling better every other day or so. Then I'd have a horrible couple of days and think I'll see the doc if it's not better by Monday. Monday would come and I'd be great again. Well, enough of that and by this past Sunday night I couldn't breathe at all. Nebulizer treatments weren't touching it and I was getting scared.

We headed to the ER just before 9 p.m. thinking I'd get a treatment and some prednisone and likely be back home after a few hours. Wrong. The nights in the hospital were horrible, and I had one really bad morning when my poor hubs thought I was possessed. It was literally that bad! LOL

We got home from the hospital last night with not only my asthma meds, prednisone, more inhalers and breathing meds PLUS oxygen. Ugh. Yes, I'm on oxygen until I can breathe on my own again. Which I expect will be only a couple of days if today is any indication. I'm doing GREAT! I'm keeping the numbers up really well with very little help from the machines and that is such a good feeling already, having been home only 24 hours now. I go in Monday for blood work and see the doc Tuesday for results, which I expect will be fine.

Thank you all for thinking of me, emailing, facebooking and keeping in touch with good thoughts and prayers as well. It means so much! :)

Love and hugs,

Cake in a Mug

Yum! When Grace was here last summer, this was one of the fun new things we tried. We found a recipe with a video on youtube and decided we had to try it for ourselves. The results were delicious and worth making again. (There are lots of videos for this. I've linked the one we used.)

The papers for my layout are October Afternoon, Modern Homemaker collection.
The pocket that holds the recipe is the largest of the Winter Wishes gift set pockets. I've also used nesting ovals, nesting circles, 'recipe' from the recipe cookie cutter shapes, and the fork and spoon from the Rev. place setting die.


The 'mug' is actually the bowl, with the mug handle, from the Cottage Cutz Valentine Baking Set Die.

I hope you'll try the cake in a mug sometime. It's a fun, quick and easy project to do with the kids, particularly on a rainy day when they need something different to do. Did I mention, the cake is really good! One mug of cake will easily serve two little people, and if you add ice cream it will probably serve three. :)

Font Freebie Friday!

How about a freebie!? I love free computer fonts and have literally thousands of them {don't scoff, I freely admit I'm a font freak from way back! LOL}

Here's one that works for pretty much any sentiment or occasion. This version is called Honey Script. There is another version almost identical called Bounce, which matches the QuicKutz font, Stardust, which I used for the title on this layout. I love having matching computer fonts to my die alphas!



Have a crafty three-day weekend! :)

Ribbit!

...or loosely translated, I love you! I don't think you can say "I love you" too often, do you. Just because Valentine's Day is over, doesn't mean it no longer applies, right! :)

For this simple card, I used the adorable Cottage Cutz frog on lily pad.

But for an extra fun touch, I cut the "flies" from plastic and put them on wire to make them appear to be buzzing over the toad's head!

I also used googly eyes for the frog, so he may have a little trouble seeing the flies at first. He looks a little buggy-eyed! Haha!!

Thanks for coming by today. Sorry my post was late! Hope it was worth the wait. :)

Still in love with banners

Happy Tuesday. :) I hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day if you celebrate such things. Hubs brought me a lovely arrangement in a cute metal pot that will go so cute on the front porch. It has teeny daffodils, mini tulips, ivy, and primroses. I can't wait to put it out there when I'm able to clean up the flower beds again. I'm feeling better every day, but not there quite yet. Please keep the prayers and good thoughts coming.

Ok, down to business. Today's layout features the new pennant banner border, DC-006-1; nesting squares, L-CC-003; and the 2x2 pennant, 0909.

I used the squares to border the photo using one of my favorite paper collections, Farm Fresh by October Afternoon. The cute little farm animals are part of this collection and I've put them on foam tape to give them pop. The cute rickrack border is also part of the sticker sheet from this collection.



For the title, I used the small pennant layered over the pennant border and foo-fa-la letter stickers.

I attached the banner title with glue dots using the flowers and buttons to hold it onto the page, but still allowing it to swing freely by the twine. Cute huh.


Thanks for stopping by today! I always enjoy hearing from you. :)

Recycle for a super cute candy box!

I'm sure by now you know I love this tiny little take out box die from Lifestyle Crafts. It's the perfect party favor for any occasion. But what I love most about today's version is that I made it from recycled packaging from my cutting pads. Awesomely sturdy and cut pretty easily too (I used my BigShot). Is that the coolest?!

What have you used on a page or project that would normally be tossed out? I love using recycled items to make embellishments and page accents. And in this case, the whole project!


Do you have your Valentines finished yet? Time is running out, you better get on that. :)

More Valentine ideas

Today I'm sharing another Valentine card, in case you still need some inspiration. :) For this one I've used the adorable cottage cutz giraffe, heart locket die, and for the tiny heart, the tree of hearts. Heart design border punch is Martha Stewart - I love her punches.

And for this treat box, I used the plain heart from the cottage cutz heart locket die to make the window then outlined with hand stitch and scallop doodling. For the window, I recycled packaging from my BigShot cutting pads. Works great for windows like this one! Again the Martha Stewart heart doily border punch. The box itself is the mini pizza box by Lifestyle Crafts (formerly QuicKutz). I love this box, it's so versatile.

Thanks for coming by today. And thank you again for the love while I've been sick. I've really missed creating and sharing and it feels so good to be back at it again.

I'm back!

Oh my goodness, it feels so good to finally be back. It's been a rough few weeks, but I'm finally feeling better and hope to nip this thing in the bud very soon. Thanks to all who shared get well wishes and happy thoughts for me in my absence. I really appreciate it very much!

My first project is a layout. Long over due, I think! I've missed scrapping photos, and with the new LC Blue Sky alphabet it was a given a page was in order, since it's a little large for cards. I also used the new loopy border, along with the mini scallop edger. My apologies for the poor image. I generally scan my pages for a crisp view, but the rosette is way too lumpy to allow for a decent scan. The rosette is cute though. ;) This particular one I did with Tim Holtz' rosette die by Sizzix, but you can make them without a die as well. It just takes a little longer, but you can make them different sizes too.

Oatmeal alpha for subtitle

Blue Sky alpha for the title. Love that it comes with shadows. It's like getting two alphas in one.

For the next project, I've used the mini pizza box. It's so much fun to give gifts in, from small trinkets to yummy treats. It's not as small as it seems either, so don't let the size put you off if you're on the fence about this one. I made the box to match the card, embellishing with the same papers and twine.

I used nesting circles, nesting scallops,

nesting squares, and one ticket from the ticket border.

Isn't chillin' fat cat cute! He is a free digi find, colored with copics and blinged up with stickles.

Well thanks for coming by today. I hope you have been able to fight the nasty bug going around. Keep crafting and I'll see you again next week! ;)

Cupcakes...!? Why, yes please!

Oh my goodness, I didn't think I would ever finish this simple little card. But a little each day as I've felt better, and finally she's done. Yay! Finally getting some energy back, oh how I have missed that. :)

Ok, this fun cupcake card is for Gracie's birthday. Cupcakes are a free digi-stamp image colored with copics and embellished with bling and stickles. I used Martha Stewart border punch and QK mini scallop edger, added yummy pink twine with button and bling, and done!


Looking for free digi stamps to practice your copic skills? Check out the link on the left of my blog. There are freebies listed almost every day. :)

Hit me with a bus!

Ugh. I can't believe I'm still so sick. Tomorrow will be three weeks since I woke up with this crap. I'm having more good days, but it's still pretty hit and miss with no rhyme or reason why one day I feel so much better and the next is back to feeling like I've been flattened by a steam roller. Thank God for my nebulizer, as much as I hate that thing.

I so miss my crafting and can't wait to get back to sharing my projects. Thanks for hanging in there with me and for all the good thoughts and get well wishes. I promise to have something new to share very soon.

Hugs,