Health Update

Saw Dr. Awesome on Wednesday and I'm free to do as I please until my next visit in two months. I'm healing ahead of schedule, the mega-scar closed nicely and everyone continues to be in awe of my ability to feel my once dead big toe a mere ten minutes after waking from surgery.

Hooray!

As for the rest, the swelling, bruising, muscle fury etc. should die down about four months post-surg and the back pain should be 80% relieved by one year. That's a little different than I had it figured. Frankly I would have kept a numb toe and taken the pain relief first if anyone asked - they didn't.

But I am allowed back in the hot tub. Yippee. I was able to reduce my meds significantly as soon as I got my "tools" back.

While it's really nothing to fuss about, I am battling a nasty bug that involves a fever, mild cold and flu ick and a creeping rash that is intent on ruining my days and nights. I am SO itchy and whenever my skin touches something that bit welts up something fierce. In addition to itching, I feel sunburned. Ugh. It's so minor compared to everything else, but so are gnats - and those little buggers are annoying!

Last night between pain and itching I didn't get to sleep until after five this morning. My lovely family let me sleep 'til nine so I don't feel near so bad as I should. Hopefully tonight will be a lot better.

My, that was a lot of whining. My apologies.

Happy Things:

* This is the start of E fortnight ; E is a tricky minx - we'll have to brainstorm a little harder this time or else we'll eat edamame daily, listen to Eddie Vedder and Elvis and call it good.


* I'm considering the Eat Real Food Challenge from March 1st -15th. You can read about it here and here. It seems like an admirable E endeavor. Plus it's not a giant stretch for us as we have been moseying in that direction anyhow.


* I finished A Clash of Kings - a thousand page book in under a week. What amazes me is that aside from a sleepless night, the book was read three to five pages at a time. I think I may have forgot that parenting doesn't exclude reading, it just means you need to work a little harder and remember to steal those moments. The author has slowed down/halted his production on the series and different factions of my circle of friends have both encouraged me to continue with the series and cautioned me against committing to roughly five thousand pages of a story only to be left hanging by an ending that may never come. I was too intrigued to not read Book Two, but I think the break between two and three was "comfortable" enough for me to wait a bit before soldiering on. I think I might read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See next. I've heard good things.



* Thank you to everyone who came by my blog on Wednesday. I had 341 unique visitors. Wow and again, thank you so much for stopping by.

Bombshell Blog Hop

Yippee! It's the Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Hop!

We usually highlight the Bombshell projects we've done since the last hop, but I've done a whopping twelve projects - which is a lot when you factor in surgery, hospitalization etc.

Instead, I've been a good girl and tagged all my Bombshell projects so look over here ----------> at the tag cloud and click on "Bombshell Stamps"; it'll take you to everything I've done. Another handy-dandy feature of the tag cloud is that if you want to just see projects using a certain stamp set (like "Man's Ruin") you can click on that sets name and it will further sort them to just show those ones. Pretty fancy!

I do have something new to show, and it meets with our theme:

The Mission: Mama Said Knock You Out!

Use your punches and Die Cuts to create a Bombshell Masterpiece!

For this card I used Bombshell Angel and a lot of Gauche Alchemy goodies. This was the first time I've added clothes to a Bombshell Stamp - it was fun, but I don't think she's less scandalous for the clothing. *giggle*

It meets the Get Messy Challenge at Tuesday Taggers (which is being sponsored by The Craft Barn) and the distress challenge at Paper Sundaes.

I also made a gel card. Thanks Tonya for posting about them. Here it is:


See the pretty bubbles:


To be honest, I'm not super-happy with it. But, not every card is the greatest thing ever made (in case you're wondering, truly wonderful cards are orange and flee from purple. J/K) - such is life.

HERE is a link to a tutorial of my rather disastrous first brush with gel cards. It's a groovy Comic Life presentation, c'mon, you know you want to clickity, click.

This card met a couple of challenges out in internet-land:

KL Stampin and Scrappin: Recycle something that is usually trash - I used an old, used zip-loc baggies.
Our Creative Corner: Try a New Technique - and boy was this a new one. And....

Bombshell's very own Wet and Wild Challenge dreamed up by the uber-talented Pinkstar who on top of being a seriously talented crafter, she's super-nice. When I got home from the hospital there was a parcel from her full of fun things to play with. And she's Canadian to boot.

"Wet & Wild" CONTEST GUIDELINES: (CONTEST ENDS FEB. 28, 2010)
The creation can be a card, layout or altered item, but must:

1. use a Bombshell Stamp somewhere
2. project must involve a nautical theme, use a wet medium, or both
3. post a photo of your creation in this thread!


Here are the other blogs to hop to - I hope you make the time to visit, these ladies never disappoint.

Sarah
BoHoRose
Stempelientje
Meredith
Erika
Angela
Sy
Cheryl
MaryG
Kas
Kathi
MissMagoo
Gabby
Steph
Kelli
Kim
Angie
Patti
Sunghee

Blog Candy

My very talented friend Stephanie (who I will also be gushing about in tomorrows post) has a huge blog candy giveaway and there is only a few more days to enter.

The loot:


Check it out HERE.

While you're there, be sure to drool over her stellar creations.

Piling It On

After a whole week reading The Daily Dare I've found a ton of new challenges. The funniest one so far is Pile It On - their mission is to provide a challenge, but you need to enter as many other challenges as you can with one card. They are very helpful in providing a list of challenges that work well together. For example, this week there is a number of Get Well challenges.

When combining challenges, the easiest way for me to do it, is to choose a sketch, a color challenge, a theme and an embellishment. That way you can make a red and white birthday card with brads to a certain sketch specs and enter four challenges with one card. It ups the ante a bit creatively and helps you stretch your style. I know I can get pretty stuck in my "rut" of orange all-occasion cards.

Here's the card I made (orange is still strongly represented *grin*). Sorry it's a bit dark, we are getting snow so there is little natural light:


Close-Up:


This card uses an auxiliary image from Butterfly Queen by Bombshell Stamps

And here is the ridiculous number of challenges it fits:

1. Card Positioning Systems:


2. Corrosive Challenge Blog: Wings
3. Ann's Creative Nook: Ribbon
4. Pile It On: Get Well Card
5. PaperCutz: Get Well Card
6. Stamp with Sarah Kay: Get Well Soon
7. Creative Card Crew: Get Well Soon
8. Flutterby Wednesdays: Butterfly, Fairies or Angels
9. Belli Challenge: Butterflies or dragonflies
10. Lil Red Wagon: Ribbon

Okay, so how crazy was that?

Today is one month from my spinal surgery. I am very stable on my feet and my mobility is much improved. The pain hasn't decreased (yet) and I am feeling really frustrated by the slowness of my recovery. I know this will take months, but I REALLY want to be back to normal. Thank you all so much for the deluge of support. I have a stack of cards about six inches high that I look through whenever I need encouragement. Having something so tangible has been a life line.

Paper Piecing

I'm not a big paper piecer. I adore the look of it, but seldom make the time. I think it might be because I waste a lot of paper doing it as I tend to get ink everywhere, not just on the part of the stamp I'm piecing. So, when I saw the challenge at Cooking with Katie I had to give it a go.

Here's my card:


The challenges it fits are:

Cooking it up with Katie: girly (the floral paper), paper piecing (banner and heart) and at least two patterned papers
Gingersnap Creations: Three colors you love - Mine are orange, red and blue.
And this sketch at The Sweetest Thing:


And Everything But the Kitchen Sink had a very, very similar sketch that I thought I met as well:


This sketch (either one) is a design I plan to use again and again.

The stamp I used is "Til Death by Bombshell Stamps.

Keeping it Simple

I'm trying to find my groove again, but it's really hard when I'm feeling spread so thin by recovery, caring for my family, homeschooling etc. Whenever this hits, I usually try a few challenges. To my extreme pleasure, there was a lot of low-key, simple card challenges out there this week.

Speaking of challenges - have you been to The Daily Dare? They have a list of a huge number of challenges each day. All organized so you don't have to search all day. Love it! This card fit several challenges:

Pals Paper Arts: Kiss: Keep it Simple, Sweetie (to be honest, this is one of the simplest cards I've *ever* made... it's so hard not to do more!)
If the Shoe Fits: Mad for Plaid (see my orange plaid ribbon)
Clean and Simple Stamping had this sketch:





This is my first time using the heart from Madonna Woodcut. One of my favorite things about Bombshell Stamps is how the supporting images are so awesome on their own. Each set is really stuffed with stamps.

Cupcake Stands

I'm blogging at Gauche Alchemy today... want a peek?


CLICK HERE to see the rest :-)