Sweet Boy!

And, as promised, albeit a tad late - wanted to post this last week, here is the layout with my beautiful boy! Isn't he a heart breaker? Just look at those baby blues! And his super blond hair! Gosh, he was a cutie at 2... ok, he still is 10 years later, but, he's 12 now, and as many of you know, sometimes 12 isn't quite as cute as 2!



See, his face cleared up!! (if you are wondering what I'm talking about, see my last post.)

And a few close ups:






I pretty much used up all old stuff, except for the American Crafts flair, I got that this past October in Lancaster while on my retreat. I'm totally up for another scrap retreat!!

On this piece, the doggie was green. He didn't really match, so I painted him this gray blue color... and there ya go, now he matches.



Well, that's about it. I do have another crafty project to share later on. I was sprucing up my foyer this past weekend. I went "shopping" in my basement for accessories... it was kind of fun. I used a lamp that was in the front living room on the foyer table, put my husbands deer rack up... and wa-la... a totally new look, all from just shopping around the house for stuff. I had a spot on the shelf that needed something... so I whipped up a little crafty project for that space... so stay tuned.

Hope you have a great crafty day!!

Bumby Hump Day

It's Wednesday, in case you weren't aware, or maybe you haven't found a decent 2011 calendar yet! ;)

Humor, R-R... remember Mork from Orc?? I was in 7th grade, and it was a huge hit. Everyone came back from Christmas vacation with Mork rainbow suspenders, including me. The "kids" at work were talking about it, and this one girl says "I wasn't even born yet"... I felt old.

Anyway, here is the bumpy part of my post. My son has allergies. 3 major ones, dairy, eggs and peanuts. He also is allergic to cats and wheat, but he can eat wheat now. (He doesn't particularly care for the taste of cats! R-R, more earth humor!!)

Prior to knowing that he had all these allergies, I was nursing him and eating everything that he shouldn't have. As a result, the poor little guy had horrible acne. I know that infants have infantile acne, but usually after the first month it goes away. Ethan was over 2 months old yet he still had it. I asked the doctors but they just brushed it off.

One evening, I decided to give him some formula. I had some free samples from the hospital. I mixed it up, and gave him one ounce. Just one. He got super hot. His belly broke out in splotches. I knew (as mothers know) that something was seriously wrong. The next day I took him to the pediatricians office. Our regular doctor wasn't in, but Dr. Maroon was there. He thought that maybe I should stop drinking milk. That maybe Ethan was allergic to dairy. Also to make an appointment with the allergist. I made an appointment, which was a week away, and during that time I tried really hard to give up milk. It was really hard. I found a formula that he could have (Nutramigen). After his test results came back, we found what he was allergic to. Thankfully, he could have soy. He went on a soy formula, and I went back on my regular diet.

I also had him tested for peas, and he wasn't allergic to them then, but, he is now. His lips will swell up like balloons. If you think about it, the pea is a legume and a peanut is a legume, and they're related. No peas or peanuts for him.

I've been wanting to document this story along with these photos of my poor baby. He looks like a teenager with severe acne.

I titled it We Did Not Know...



Here are a couple of close ups:




In this one, you can really see his poor skin.


I'm glad I documented this. Ethan hates having allergies. Thankfully at 12, he is outgrowing some of them. He can have egg if it's baked in something like a cake, but if it's mixed in Chinese noodles or soup, he gets very ill (we found out the hard way). He's OK with wheat now and milk isn't too bad any longer. He can't drink a glass of it, but he can have small amounts of cheese and he loves Rediwhip. Peanuts are usually a life long allergy that people do not grow out of, he cannot eat those, ever. They cause anaphylactic shock.

I did another layout this past weekend, I'll post that on Friday. It's a very cute photo of Ethan. I need to show you how cute he turned out after his face cleared up!! ;)

Have a great hump day!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!!

I finally got to get scrappy this weekend, on Sunday. I tried to get scrappy on Saturday, but I just sat there staring at my paper. Sunday I decided to just do it, stop over analyzing and just glue some photos on some cardstock, slap a couple of embellies on it and call it a day!

My warm up act was this Valentine's Day card I made for my hubby. I've been wanting to use this Dear Lizzy rosette ribbon forever... love it!!

 

It's pretty simple really... here's a close up:



Here you can see (sort of) the layering of the scalloped edge corrugated paper with the foam heart. I used pop dots to pop it off of the page.

This is what I'm most proud of though, it's the inside. Hardly anyone shows you the insides of their cards... if you're a card maker, please share the insides with us!!

 
Isn't it cool???? I wanted to write a little message, but with that puffy ribbon it was too lumpy, so I just attached this little envelope to pop in my letter!! I think it's just adorable... if I do say so myself!! hee hee

I've realized that I haven't shared anything personal lately, so I thought I'd update you. I'm working out of the house 3 days a week. It's OK. I like what I do, I just don't like driving there to do it. I much prefer my normal commute of walking down my steps in my PJs to my office right off of my kitchen... but, it's kind of cool to dress up and get out of the house.

Now, if you follow my blog, you'll remember that I was blaming wearing high heels on my knees hurting... nope, wasn't the heels... it was a pair of suede boots that I bought at Target, the heel is rather heavy and clunky and it must make my knees work extra hard, those suckers are the culprit! I noticed it after I wore them for a few hours and grocery shopped in them. Not good for grocery shopping. They look cool tho!

Then, I have this terribly itchy rash on my legs. It drives me crazy. I've been putting tons of creams of all different kinds on it, but it won't go away. Finally I decided it was time to look on the internet... I try not to do that because all kinds of scary (and gross) stuff can come up when you type in "rash".... but, it was actually helpful. I came to find I have something called runners rash. Apparently when you have been sedentary for a long period of time, as I was last year during my treatments and surgery, and you start to run again, your veins, the very teeny tiny ones can't handle all the blood rushing through them that fast, so they burst just beneath the surface of the skin causing this rash. Now, top the sedentary year I had with the vein shrinking effects of chemo and you get the rash probably worse than the "normal" sedentary person (if there is such a thing).

The only way to get rid of it is through time, so I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

Hope that's not TMI... I found it to be an interesting fact, and one that I think more oncologists might just want to tell their patients to expect after 8 rounds of draino (aka chemo). Tiny dried up veins do not play well with running.

{{sigh}}

Never a dull moment, try to get healthy, and it makes me itch... you could say I'm (literally) allergic to exercise!! bawhahahahahaha

Have a great day!! Stop back, I have layouts to share later on!!

Happy Friday!

Hey, it's Friday, and one more week closer to spring.

I've had just about enough of this gray, white, black looking weather. Although yesterday we did see some blue sky, but it was only a balmy 20°.... brrrrr.

I hear we're going to have a warm up, I hope. I'm seriously considering moving to a warmer climate.

Well, on the scrappy front, all I have to share is this little birthday card that I made for my mother in law. It's pretty simple for the most part. I used my slice to make the shape, and my punch to edge the envelope, which she just gushed about!



Speaking of cards, yesterday I bought a card... yes, you read that correctly, I bought a card. I just didn't have time to make a Valentine's card for my inlaws so I thought I'd buy one. And OMG, I picked up a pretty card with a ribbon and it was $6... S-I-X bucks!! Do you know how much scrappy paper and ribbon you can get for $6?? So, next time someone thinks our hobby is expensive, point out that buying a premade card costs a heck of a lot more. (unless of course, you get the cheapo ones)

Well, I'm off to work in the salt mines! Have a great day, and I hope we can all get creative and scrappy this weekend!!

It's Friday....again... & CHA Highlights

A whole darn week has flown by and I didn't do anything crafty... ok, I did one thing, it was a birthday card for my mother-in-law. I'll show you that later, because it's still on my camera. 

As you know, if you're a crafter/scrapbooker, CHA was this past week... and {sigh} my trip to Cali was canceled. (sniff, sniff) But, I still enjoy looking at all the lovely goodies and videos.

What I wanted to highlight was some stuff that I found to be unique this time around. We all know that all the companies come out with new lines of paper, stamps and such... but I found some pretty unique stuff.

The first thing I want to mention is the wood products... this one is from Studio Calico, but I've seen a few other scrappy companies come out with real wood embellies... (these are Studio Calico's)

 

Next up, I'm really diggin' the fabric stuff that is coming out, like these fabstrips from Studio Calico

 

and these cool canvas tags by Maya Road... you could make some cool banners.

Prima came out with some ribbon with bling factor:

Also by Prima, these really ornate butterflies:

And last, this is by Cosmo Cricket, it's called Fashion Crafting... cool zipper flowers:

 

Which you could always use on an album or scrapbook page.

That's it for today. I sure hope to get some scrappy time this weekend...  of course it's the Superbowl, and I only have one thing to say about that....

Go Steelers!