Tuesday May 25

First, an update on Henry. He is such a sweet dog. He sleeps all night, on the couch. If you leave the room, he will come searching for you. He ignores my other dogs. My husband loves him and is going to miss him when he gets adopted and we have only had him for 2 days. I believe his separation anxiety will go away with time and trust.

Yesterday, I went on my first big adventure. I had an appt with the VA about going back to school. They will not pay for me to be a vet tech as it is to physical and will aggravate my service related disabilities. They want me to go to medical coding and billing school--no thank you. I would rather pay for vet tech school on my own than to do that. I had lots of time after that appt until my 1:00 PT appt so I went to visit a friend, she was not home but a friend that was living with her was there so I visited with her. Then it was off to PetSmart to get some antianxiety biscuits for Henry, I hope they work. I'll found out tomorrow. Then to Walmart. Then finally to PT, that was exhausting in itself. And he made me use muscles I haven't used in a long time so today I hurt. I couldn't even stay up to watch my programs last night and they were the season finales. I'm supposed to be getting ready for a flea market and do not have the inspiration to create anything for it. I guess I'd better go find my mojo and get busy.

Weekend

I try to play the challenges a couple of times a week and like to do the Featured Stamper. There have been so many fun new ways to make flowers, I wanted to try some of them today. Here is Nikki's card I chose to case: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1377508. I used Bashful Blue and Sage Shadow for the colors. The background paper is Miss Elizabeth from the Dollar Tree. I used a background stamp from CTMH on the Bashful Blue cardstock. I inked edges in Bashful Blue and Sage Shadow. A flower brad from Oriental Trading holds the flower together. Mine seemed to call for something else, so I added some rickrack ribbon to the top.

I hit the mother lode at Big Lots the other day. They must have just put out new stock because I stumbled across a bunch of Cuttlebug stuff--embossing folders, dies and some with matching dies and embossing folders--all for the ridiculous price of $2 each!! There was even a build a flower one that is very similar to SU Pick a Petal, folders and dies! So I played with some challenges today. First I did the sketch challenge 281 over at Splitcoast. I used SU Merci set. Paper is CTMH Shell pink and SU Mellow Moss. Images were colored with CTMH markers. I inked all edges with choc chip. I sponged around the image with Shell pink ink. I Versamarked the butterfly from the set on the card itself for a background look. The butterfly is one of my new dies cut out of Shell pink CTMH background paper. I little bling on the butterfly and he was stuck on using a pop-up.

OK. I think I now know how to get the text with the picture I want but I guess you can figure this out for today.

Henry

Today did not turn out to be the relaxing Saturday I had planned. I logged on to Facebook when I got up and there was a request for a foster for a 3 year old Pyrenees that was scheduled to be euthanized. I called the number, it was close to my home and I went to retrieve the dog. The owners had brought this dog in to the vet with a request he be put down due to aggression. When the vet tech put him on the table to give him the injection, he rolled over and asked fora belly rub. Needless to say, the tech could not continue. He has been at the vet's clinic since April 1 and could not keep him there any longer. When I got to the clinic and they brought Henry to me, he came right over to me and sat down so I could pet him. I took him out and he got right in my car to go with me. When I got him home, I put him in a separate kennel from my other dogs and due to his extreme separation, it only took him 5 minutes to destroy the kennel gait and escape to be with my husband. What could I do but bring him inside? Apparently he is an escape artist that will need to be watched while he is outside. The 2 inside dogs growled a little and left him alone. Henry laid down and went to sleep. So much for aggression issues. It will take a while for the rest of the pack to accept him, hopefully they will. Introducing a new dog into the pack takes time and patience. So for now, Henry has become an inside dog couch potato. All he wants is somebody to love him that he can love back. Tonight I am going to try him in a crate but I am sure he will want to be in my bedroom. He is not in love with being in the crate. So stay tuned for the upcoming adventures of Henry.

PT

I am in my second week of PT and it is so time consuming--45 minutes to drive there, 45 minutes of PT and 45 minutes to drive home again. Oh, and there is the occasional side trip to stop at the craft stores. Now that I am feeling more back to normal, I have the urge to do things I shouldn't be doing, like gardening. I was out this morning for the first time to inspect the gardens, or should I say weed beds. I also pulled a few weeds like I'm not supposed to bend over to do. It's really late in the season for this to be the first dirt under my fingernails, I'm usually out there while there is still frost in the ground. I'm going to put my books down today and get that giant puppy on a leash and start to get her trained, doggie school starts in a week and a half and if Ihave not taught her even how to walk on a leash, the school is going to wonder about my training skills. So I am off to fill my day with activity.

Friends

Last week I was having a severe fibromyalgia flare. I had not been able to get in the hottub for 3 weeks and that is how I usually control it. A very dear friend came over and gave me Reikki treatment. It is amazing how that works, the spasms and pain were gone. This is the card I made to send to her. I used the Vintage Vogue set and Very Vintage wheel. The cardstock is Sage Shadow and Pretty in Pink. I cut out the flowers, curled the petals, attached a button and adhered them with a pop dot. On the Friends panel, I outlined it with a silver paint pen. I hope she likes it.

SC280

This is the card I made for this week's sketch challenge at Splitcoast. The background paper and the floral paper are from my stash. I used the floral image from Vintage Vogue to make a background paper. The saying is from Herbed expressions. The dress form is a scrap from Crafty Secrets. The button and lace are also from my stash.

Microscope slide necklace

This is my very first piece of microscope slide jewelry. It came out pretty good for my first attempt. The pictures are a little out of focus but pretend they aren't. I used microscope slides and metallic tape from Oriental trading. The front pieces came from Easy Peasy Jewelry by HOTP. The back images came from Artsy Collage Vintage images by HOTP. I'm off to clean up my studio so I can find my desk and make more creations.

Vintage Workshop

The Vintage Workshop is holding a blog contest. You can win a Fresh from the Garden gift set just for posting a comment to their blog. All you have to comment is what you are planting in your garden this year. It's easy, go on take a chance on some great products.

Choices

When I lost my job in January, it seemed I lost my identity. So many of us describe who we are by what we do. So I have been trying to figure out who I am. I am a mother but my son is 33 so that does not seem to be who I am. I am a wife but that seems to less that the sum of who I am. I have people in my life that I want to emulate and so I look to them to see who they are. I have people in my life who are not who I thought they were. So, it seems to me that who I am is about the choices I make. I choose to be a Godly, spiritual woman. I choose to be an honest woman. I also choose to be a positive, loving, caring woman. Sometimes I make wrong choices and am not who I want to be but again, I can choose to return to the person I want to be. So, I thank everyone in my life who shows me who I want to be and who I do not want to be. I am who I choose to be today.

Good morning. Today is the first day of physical therapy. I can hardly wait, I know they are going to hurt me. Meanwhile I thought I would share the card I sent to my Mom for Mother's Day. Mom loved it. The collage cards take me a while to put together, looking through all my stash, but I love the final look. Have a good day all.

This blog is my Mother's Day present to me. I have wanted a blog for a while and took the time to do this for me today. Hopefully I will soon have lots of creations for you to look at. I've been a bit of a slacker, recovering from a hip replacement over the past 4 weeks. So Happy Mother's Day to all no matter how many legs your children have.