Jer

"Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. "
Genesis 35:29

It is with profound sadness that I tell you that my Father-in-Law, Jerry, whom so many of you have prayed for in these last few days, has gone to be with The Lord. Complications from a triple bypass and valve replacement surgery left him weak and unable to sustain. He passed away on Monday evening. He was 78 years old.

Jerry was a wonderful man who lived for his wife and children; always putting his family first. He was a proud father and grandfather, a decorated soldier for over 20 years in the Army, hard-working, honest, loyal and lived life with utmost integrity. He was a dedicated and loving husband for over 50 years to my mother-in-law Roann and she, along with all of us will miss him so very, very much. I ask that you please continue to lift our family up in prayer, especially Roann, as we transition through this difficult time.

Thank you again for all of your prayers.

Hugs,
Heidi

This Made Me Smile Today!!!

My blogging friend Jenny sent me an envelope of goodies today and inside were some awesome embellishments and this ADORABLE card. I just love it. That little bird makes me smile so much. Jenny you are the sweetest. I love ya girl!!!

Decompression Therapy

Stress has a way of eating at you sometimes. For me it does two things. I get hungry and I get creative. Creativity is a way to decompress and lose myself and all my problems and go off into a world all my own. Well this past week was one of those weeks. You know the kind. The kind where everything seems to go wrong, "Hurry up and wait" is the hit single of the week, and my last nerve is hanging by the last thread. So how did I handle it? Well mostly I got creative.




I poured myself into my Junkie DT projects. I ate way too much junk food. I cried on my best friend's shoulder (ALOT), I stayed up way to late and slept in way to long. But hey, I survived. And guess what, tomorrow starts a whole new week. Yeah!!!!



Well here are some pictures of my creativity at it's highest point of stress. I started with a little Dollar Tree bird house added some Ranger acrylic paints and then added some Making Memories Chloe's Closet papers and embellishments. I hope that you enjoy it. It was definately theraputic and I think it's kinda cute.



Hugs, and have a great week. I am counting on it.

February Junkie Design Team Layouts

It has been a very busy week for me but I give thanks for the weekend. Whew! I sure need it.

Tonight I finished up my Junkie Design Team Layouts. The first layout featured some really cool papers from Lil' Davis called Ready, Set, Go. I got to use some matching chipboard stickers and some awesome Maya Road clear acrylic ribbons and some really cool glitter paper. Loved that glitter paper.

The second layout features some beautiful papers from Fiskars Cloud 9 Designs Sparkle line. The rich earthy tones made me think about my sons guitar so I immediately went searching for just the right photos. In addition to these wonderful papers I got to play with some awesome sequined trim, some chipboard borders, some very cool glitter paper and some golden pearls. It was a challenge coming up with something that was masculine yet not too glitzy, but I am satisfied with the results.

I would love to hear what you think about the results of this month's assignment.

I also have a prayer request. Can you please keep my Father-in Law, Jerry, in your prayers. He is in intensive care in El Paso and will have to have quadruple bypass surgery on Monday. He took ill about a week ago and it has been slow going ever since. He suffers from respiratory problems and they are making his treatment options problematic. We are praying that he will be strong enough to undergo the surgery, as the doctors feel that if he doesn't have the surgery very soon his chances for survival are grim. This has been a very difficult thing for our family and we would appreciate it if you would lift him up in your prayers. Thanks so much and God Bless You all.

Hugs.

Heidi

More Blog Candy...Take A Look!

Check out this fabulous blog candy over at Ching-a-Ling's Blog Not Left Standing. She is giving away some wonderful papers by Marks Paper. This is a new company and their stuff is to die for! Check it out.

Junkie Canvas

I spent the weekend working on my Scrapbook Junkie Design Team assignments and finally got my Designer Profile canvas done. I first used Golden Fluid Acrylics mixed with Golden Glaze to paint a faux wood design on my canvas and then embellished it with some wonderful Sassafrass Lass Fawned of You, Too and Woodland Whimsey papers. I love these paper lines and was so excited to play with them. I hope that you like my design. Tell me what you think.

AND THE WINNER OF MY FIRST GIVEAWAY IS!!!!!!!

Debby said...
I agree with Sondra.I founded a group called the Fellowship of Scrapbookers. We meet twice a month. First Saturdays all day and Third Thursday mornings. We actaully attrach different people to both dates. Since it is hard to get everyone together at the same time this seems to work. I'm usually at both, but when I can't we have a Board that decided who will be there. We generall just scrap, help one another, share tools and such. I have taught classes during our crops and they are well received. We've had parties and hosted a huge crop for NSB Day. It is fun...but it takes time. We've been meeting since September 2007 and we still keep plugging away. I find it a great joy. BTW: everything we do is FREE. If I hold a class individuals cover the materials only and that goes for the person who teaching card classes. Well, this was more than you wanted. LOL
February 10, 2009 8:01 PM

Debby I will be contacting you by email to get your mailing address. Congratulations!!!

Junkie Design Team Meeting

******SCROLL DOWN FOR BLOG CANDY! YOU HAVE UNTIL FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!*******

We had a great Junkie Design Team meeting tonight. It was short but we had fun. We got to do a little photo shoot tonight to promote the upcoming St. Patty's crop. Beth had some awesome accessories for us and we had a blast stylin' for our blogging friends.


The St. Patty's Crop is on March 7th from 10am-Midnight. They will be serving lunch and it is only $15. If you are free, you should come and join in the fun.



My Junkie assignment this month is great!! I got some really cool papers from Cloud 9's Sparkle line of papers, Lil' Davis Ready, Set, Go! papers, some matching stickers, brads, sequined trim and clear ribbons. Oh and she even put some very cool glitter paper in there too. I can't wait to get started on this stuff. I love my kit for the month. These will go great with the boy's pics.

My First Giveaway Updated with Picture

As promised, here is a picture of what I am giving away.

It is a beautiful 8.5x8.5 post bound K & Company Scrapbook Album from the Hopscotch Line. This would make a great addition to your families albums! I just loved it when I saw it. I think it will work for boys or girls!

Good luck y'all!

My First Giveaway!!!**Updated with clarification**

My BFF Theresa and I are thinking about starting a scrapbooking club (one that meets once per month to fellowship and share our love for scrapbooking; a time to relax and get away) and wondered what your thoughts were. I am not referring to a club that puts scrapbooking kits together, but rather a meet and scrap type club. A bunch of crazy ladies, schleping their scrapping stuff to a meeting place once a month where we can crop, chat, eat some great foods, laugh and make friends.

Do you have any ideas, suggestions, experiences (good and bad) that you would like to share? I tried to do a paper arts club once and it had limited (and I use that term loosely) success. I know these things can go very well or they can fail painfully and miserably, but we are willing to give it a shot.

So what are your thoughts? Leave me some comments about the do’s and don’ts, blood and gore or wine and roses of scrapbooking clubs and I will randomly pick someone to be the recipient of my very first blogging giveaway!!! Yep you heard right. You have until Friday night 6PM (Central time) to tell all your friends. I will post pictures of the prize to be given away tonight. Now hurry, leave me some comments. Go on. You know you want to. Really. Is anyone there? Hello?

Toot My Own Horn!! TOOT TOOT!!

I forgot to mention that this month I am featured over at the Scrapbook Junkie Blog as the Junkie Designer of the Month. The best part of it is that I get to feature this really cool banner on my blog all month. How cool is that? Thanks a million Beth, you are too sweet. Hope you all will stop by.

I Am a Featured Artist

I am so excited to announce that I was asked to be the featured artist on one of my favorite blogs Just Your Average Scrapbooker. Head on over and take a look. How cool is this!!!

Delicious Webster's Pages

Have you seen the new MAGICAL WISHES line of paper and embellishments by Webster's Pages? It is so beautiful. I adore the colors and the story book feel of this paper line. I can not wait to get some. And hey, check it out, they are giving away the entire line over on their blog. Don't miss out on this opportunity to win one of the hottest lines to debut at CHA this year.

Listen Up Ladies!!!

This time last year I was preparing myself physically and mentally to have an abnormality removed from my right breast. Ok, so not something, most women want to talk about, but hey, LISTEN UP ladies. Do you conduct routine breast self examinations? Do you make and KEEP your annual mammography appointments? Do you get regular pap smears? Well if you don’t it’s time you make a change. Breast cancer is a real threat to the women of this world, young and old, and our best odds are to catch it early.

That is what happened to me.

In November of 2007, I went in for a routine mammogram and my test results came back abnormal. They found three tiny micro calcifications in my right breast and one in my left breast. They were very teeny tiny but suspicious. My radiologist gave me the option of waiting 6 months and checking again to see if there are any changes, or to have the areas biopsied. Well, I took the biopsies. It’s was probably nothing I told myself, but I had a gut feeling and thought better safe than sorry. Well guess what, it turned out to be something. My doctor told me I had atypical ductal hyperplasia, essentially the calcification was one stage removed from cancer. The doctor’s recommended that I have the area surgically removed. I did that last year on February 14th, Happy Valentine’s Day! Since my ordeal, my best friend was also diagnosed with breast cancer. She is in her mid-twenties and would have never thought in a million years that it could happen to her, but it did. After almost one year of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation she is on her way to a full recovery.

My point in sharing this story is this: Had I not had kept my appointment and blown off my mammogram like I so desperately wanted to do things may have turned out differently. Early detection is the key.

Have you hugged your breasts today?

This has been a public service announcement.

Hugs to all you wonderful women out there!

OMG I WON AGAIN!!!!

I entered a contest during CHA over at the Creative Cafe blog and guess what? I WON!!!

It seems that I have won $150 prize package of Creative Cafe goodies and a wonderful Make N Take for Mother Day. All I can say is WOW!!! If you haven't been over to see the Creative Cafe blog, you really should check it out. It has tons of wonderful ideas and inspiration. I am so excited to have won. Thank you Creative Cafe!

A Weekend of Reorganization

Where did the weekend go? It seems to have evaporated. But I can tell you that it was not in vain that is for sure.

Friday evening I went to work in my scrap room, sorting and organization all my scrapping goodies. To start I went through all my scrapbook paper and purged all that I no longer wanted. Whew! That was liberating. It has been a long time coming I will tell you that. The last time I went through a purge like this was a little over 1 year ago, so I was definitely over due. My BFF and scrapping buddy Theresa came over on Saturday to help. I have all my paper and embellishments organized by color so she and I went stack by stack and pulled paper.

I did the first pass. There was a time when I would always buy 4 sheet of each patterned paper that I liked because I love to share. Having 4 sheets on hand would allow me to share and still leave me with enough for me. But what it also did was leave me with way more paper than I will ever need. So as I went through each stack I pulled out the duplicates and kept only enough for me.

She then took the stacks and made a second pass and kept the designs that she liked. Once we purged all the paper, then I was able to sort all the new papers that have been stacking up and put it in it's respective color stack. Then I went through all my kits and did the same. Once I had all the paper done I moved on to embellishments.

I sort all my embellishments by theme, so I had to take everything new, sort it and put it in is place. I could not believe all the stuff I that I had forgotten that I bought. Crazy, yes I know, but if you are reading this blog, chances are you are afflicted with the same compulsion. Right? I knew it!!!

Now that that is complete I can actually see the top of my work table.

So I settled in to do a little scrapping tonight on my nice clean desk and my nephew, who has been battling an upper respiratory infection, who refused to go to the doctor (he is 22 and has a mind of his own), comes out of his room and he looks awful. When I asked if he was okay, he pretty much confirms my suspicion that he is VERY VERY sick and that he needs to see a doctor TONIGHT. Holy Cow! I had to rush him to the emergency room. We took him to Christus St. John and they had us out and good to go in record time. They prescribed some good meds and he is now tucked in bed, resting comfortably. Thank God he is okay! No sooner did we get home from the ER though, did my Mom tells me that she too isn't feeling well and that she would need to see a doctor in the morning.

Whew! It has been a busy weekend and it looks like my week is just getting started.

Anyway, tomorrow comes early, but I wanted to give you all an update and what was going on with me. It was a productive weekend and I survived another one.

God Bless all of you. Have a good week.

Heidi