Quitting Facebook: The FOMO Catch Up

Lemme tell you a lil story about an man named NO!.... And apparently, the gyst of that story is that I shouldn't blog before I have finished my first cup of coffee.  Is that going to stop me right now?  NO.  Remember, deep down, you love me!

In a burst of inspiration, I added a third day to my break from Facebook in February.  It was only supposed to be two days; but all of the people who are logging off for Lent are just so awesome.  Clearly, I'm not nearly as awesome...strong...determined?  Well, when it comes to The Book of Face, anyhow. 

Overall, it was a good break.  The Boy and I played silly games.  I made him read to me (a school requirement), practice multiplication facts and this week's spelling list.  Yeah, he LOVES me right now.  We have also been tuned into the Gravity Falls marathon, awaiting the final episode tonight. I want to be Mabel when I grow up....  Grappling hook!

I also spent most of the extended weekend in achy pain.  Short version (ha!):  Domino's Pizza and I are no longer on speaking terms and I suspect my blood pressure might have been higher than my meds will handle.The aches are way less intense this morning.  In fact, until I started my coffee, I wasn't really feeling yucky at all.  That beesh is only half caff, too!

So, yeah, a good time was had by all.  Valentine's Day was a standard Sunday.  I'm content this Monday morn....Except when I log onto The Book of Face.  Last week, I noted that I didn't feel any fear that I was missing out on the online party.  This past weekend, I still didn't feel that I was missing anything huge...Okay, I missed immediately seeing the pictures of a friends new baby, but I got to see them today.  I'm good there.  It was the never-ending news feed that got me.  My attention span is short...and easily interrupted. By an adorable child that apparently has begun to reflect on the different potions he wants to brew.....  Where was I?  Oh, right, short attention span.  Like many other people, I can only scroll through my feed for several seconds before I want to move onto something else.  Three days worth of news feed would require an hour of focus. I am beginning to miss out.

Truth, I'm a little worried that I'm going to miss some major news from loved ones during this personal challenge.  I'm going to miss more and more information as my breaks increase.  Still, I come back to comparisons to the days before all of this digital connection.  There were days, so many moons ago, that I didn't know A LOT of the daily moments happening to the people I love.  I was still okay.  They were still okay.  We were bound to update each other on the really important stuff when we would talk face-to-face.  I survived.  We all survived.  It CAN be done.  All will still be well.

In the mean time, the biggest thing I'm probably missing out on is a shower.  Since our water test came back with zero counts for lead and copper (Flint, baby!), it will be nice to not worry about one of the best parts of daily life.  The fresh start and preparation to revel in the daily muck of life all over again.

Quitting Facebook (The World Won't Fall Apart)

So, confession time? If I could actually live in Facebook, I probably would. I joined in 2009, connected with a core group of friends and haven't really logged off since. I'm not checking my feed while driving. I do get approximately eight hours of sleep each night. I do check Facebook within ten minutes of waking up each morning, virtually all day long and before I go to bed each night. I read local articles, shared in local groups, selective political blurbs, funny memes. I check on my beloved online friends to make sure they're okay. I update my husband on family activities, whenever relevant, because he doesn't log in unless absolutely necessary. It hasn't been "absolutely necessary" for years. He's proud of that. I admire him for that.

While I enjoy most of the time I spend on Facebook, it doesn't satisfy some part of my core that knows there is something more to life; that there is this real, tangible, thing known as life. After a day on Facebook, I don't feel the pride, and value, of accomplishment. I feel the regret of squandered opportunity.

Beyond the guilt, I feel wounded by hurtful generalizations. I feel angry because I see too many memes fueled by fear and hatred. I feel like giving up. I have learned that I love people more when I don't know about the darkness that has escaped from their hearts and flowed out of their pecking fingers. It's getting harder to look specific people in the eye and attempt to listen to them when we see each other again in the flesh. It's even worse in an election year. Everyone is so certain that they are right; everyone ends up being wrong.

I made a choice to remove myself from Facebook this year. While trying to decide how exactly I should follow through, I came to accept that a few specific groups, and people are still important to me, and my daily life. I couldn't just delete my account and lose them. I couldn't temporarily deactivate my account because I would lose my admin status and abilities. I can, however, remove the app from my devices whenever I want without consequences. Gradually increasing the duration of my absence allowed me to get used to the concept of having a life, and getting things done, at a rate I could handle.

I started in January, just Sundays. That was pretty easy. Sundays are busy days, especially when I'm healthy enough to be busy. I learned a couple valuable lessons.

1. I function beautifully without 24 hours of Facebook.
2. Nobody misses me when I'm gone that long. It was a valuable bit for my ego to acknowledge. I am not so fabulous that the world will end without me.

This will be the first full weekend (48 hours) that I will be off of Facebook. Late Saturday morning, I had a solid reminder of days long ago; when friends weren't just a text away. I couldn't just start typing away to get my friends' advice on some First World Crisis. I had to sit still and think things through on my own. I had to remember that, ultimately, I control my outcome. I'm responsible for handling my own problems. The world didn't fall apart.

I am also remembering how to entertain myself. This blog is actually part of that. I have always enjoyed writing. I'm a wordy gal.

Heard of FOMO? I learned about it thanks to Facebook. This weekend, I don't have it. I'm at peace while drawing imaginary friends with my son, helping my mom with cookies, getting The Boy's hair cut, going to church, ironing, boiling eggs, going to Mass.... I'm not worrying that we're not sky diving, attending festivals, and anything else you can imagine. I look forward to seeing the pictures Monday, but I'm not comparing myself to others today. Anxiety managed.

Don't misunderstand. The Boy is enjoying YouTube videos while I type right now. My husband is upstairs sleeping off a potential illness. We're not suddenly bonding all day long, and I'm okay with that, too. Four years ago, I worked hard to encourage independence and space because I was too sick from cancer and chemotherapy to be engaged in anything at all. Independence and space were necessary goals. But now, there's a happy relaxed layer of love to it all. I think we're going to be better for it.

Never A Dull Moment

Good Monday morning!  Surprise, surprise, I have another layout to share!  I am trying really hard to get back into the swing of things.  The Powers That Be might have helped a little.  Much of last week was spent dealing with weather-related headaches.  The most comfortable room in the house (the cool basement) also happens to be where I craft. Awesome coincidence!  Anyway, on with the share, yes?

The photo is from Mother's Day this year.  I've held off from scrapping it because I couldn't decide on design.  I've loved multiple sketches that in the past two months, but none screamed out to be matched with this page.  Colors have been tricky, too.  Also, my printer was bratty and made this far too blue. I still might not have gotten the color choice right, but it was high time I got this photo taken care of.  THAT was enough struggle for me.

Confession of a Challenge Junkie:  I've relied on inspiration from other people for so long -- give me a sketch to follow; tell me what colors to use; tell me what elements to use -- that I stopped trusting myself.  I learned a BIG problem with that in the past few weeks.  While I LOVE participating in challenges, and likely will continue to do so, I will actually STRESS about fulfilling them; all of them.  I will stress over esthetics, time management, and rules to the point that my blood pressure spikes even more than some stupid chemo drug can manage and then I'm physically worse off than I would have been otherwise.  Then nothing is fun, nor relaxing.  Screw that, right?  Agreed.  So, while I am looking forward to seeing what fresh challenges await in August, I am going to practice chilling out and seeing what I can make all on my own.  On that  note, how about some close ups?

First off, this is how it all started.  I wasn't sure if I really liked it (or if anyone else would, either), so I posted this in the Facebook group, NicoleJones911.  I then got loads of great ideas from others.  Thank you so much, ladies, if you happen to stop by!

One of the big changes I made was to create a lot of torn layers.  It's such an easy thing to do -- tear paper -- but I have hesitated to do so for... over a year.  I know! So, I did it.  I also happened to pull out this little airplane while I was grabbing tiny bottle of sequins.  Yep!  Aint no party like a sequin party!

Initially, I was just going to use the layers of torn paper below the photo.  Unfortunately, that headache I mentioned earlier also meant that all of the patterns and colors were too much for my eyes. It was fun to create but painful and distracting; so I layered some vellum overthe top.  Instantly, I was able to concentrate on the photo again. As for the journaling, I kinda wanted to add some interest and attention to the area, so I used up roughly half a sheet of alpha stickers.  I really like the alphas from MME, but I can see how it will be wise, going forward, to buy two packages of the ones I like.  They played it well by NOT supplying enough vowels.  OR I can play it my way and stop giving them money because I kinda think that's a shady thing to do.

Back to the page, I had originally intended to put the title on top of the vellum, but the shiny gold Thickers just weren't working for me.  Also, I discovered a card that had my desired title, "Never A Dull Moment" that won the day.  Instead, I snagged a coordinating photo frame, attached left-over strips from the cream cardstock and worked on adding journaling.

Basically, "See the vellum hearts that I cut out by hand?"  This was the awe-inspiring moment in the FaceBook conversation that started a complete overhaul.  One member of the group suggested I trade out the stars in the circle for hearts; to match the bockeh in the photo.  Then it became vellum hearts.  It's possible that the was also thinking that I should ditch the circles and stars altogether, but I just couldn't do it.

More vellum hearts and a stray, clear, sequin.  It amused me so it got it's own photo.

I still feel like I want to add more to the page, but I'm making myself stop.  It's supposed to have a light feel with the vellum. It could be counter productive to add more, right?  Also, in this moment, I've getting 104 comments in the background about Minecraft.  I'm a distracted human being.  As always, I will work on posting this page to my galleries at A Cherry On Top and Scrapbook(dot)com in the next day or so.  There, you can find links to all the of the products I've used.... or at least as many as I can find on those sites.

Thank you for stopping by!

Pitch Perfect?

Good Monday Morning!

I have another page to share with you.  This is my submission to the White With 1 challenge; pomegranate.  This is what I came up with:

This was a fun (read: slightly crazy) page to put together.  When the prompt was first posted, I had no specific photos in mind.  While I really wanted to work with a nice dark red (again), I had to make myself wait until it all clicked for me. Finally, there was a moment of fun in the back yard....followed by some fun with my favorite photo editing app, PicsArt.  After messing with the Color Splash option, picking out the red in their shirts, I knew I was ready to begin this challenge.  Then came the....

Confession of a Challenge Junkie:  At the same time, I really wanted to use one of the prompts in the June Page Maps challenge at scrapbook.com.  Problem:  You can't combine other challenges with White With 1 prompts.  I had to make a choice.  Obviously, we can tell which I chose, but this is why I've got the woodgrain in the background:

It's actually a combination of stencil + modeling paste + mist (added to the paste for color) + a layer of ink on top to darken the red further.

Originally, the photos were supposed to print out smaller, to follow the sketch more closely, but they were cut off and just bad.  In order to see people, I had to print larger.  Grr!  Still, I like it, because I can actually see what's happening.

Aside from the buttons, all of the other elements were pretty much "findings" on my crafting table.  They've been lurking between several months to a year.  I've tried adding them to countless pages, but they never worked.  This was their day!

I believe that's everything I wanted to say.  The product list is so short and/or hard to find, I might as well share here:

• woodgrain stencil:  Prima Marketing
• mist (mixed with modeling paste):  Tattered Angels, Red Velvet
• ink (dabbed on top of dried modeling paste for more color):  Prima fluid chalk edger, Lady Bug
• red text embellishments:  Theresa Collins (I'm pretty sure on that one; they really came from a Scraptastic kit), Family (something.... I'm horrid here)
• other red text/arrow:  Basic Grey; (pretty sure) Bow Ties
• red label:  Studio Calico printable
• Title alphas:  Jenny Bowlin and October Afternoon
• Pinked circles:  Jenny Bowlin
• airplane strip:  Echo Park, That's My Boy

Thanks for looking.  Have a great day!

Hello, Handsome! Part 1 of 3

Good Morning!  Yes, you read that correctly, this is one of three related blog posts.  Why three posts for one (possibly mediocre) page?  So glad you asked, because I have another....

Confession of a Challenge Junkie:  What I'm sharing today is my submission for the June challenge at Scrap the Boys.  This month, the challenge is to use a photo, 5x7 or larger.  I LOVE using large photos, and I knew that I wanted to use a large photo of DS and my dad after getting the Easter Sunday tie to submit to the human will.  Also, Holy Moly, I got The Boy into a tie AND smiling!  However, there is more to the story, so there is a complimentary page that I will share tomorrow.  It is focused on other challenges.  Then, because I like how the two look together, there will be a third post, just showing that.  If I didn't love challenge sites so much, this would have been much more straight forward.

Anyway, on with the share?

• I attacked the background with a texture stamp that I've owned for about six years. I hardly ever use it, but today must have been it's lucky day.  
• My little monsters are fussy cut from a sheet of Fancy Pants, Be Different paper.  
• The "Be Different" is cut from the branding strip.  It's a message I want my son to absorb often, so I'm trying to incorporate them whenever I can.

• These layers included more fussy cutting (that little banner on the bottom), a very distressed plaid paper ruffle and a left-over strip of glittered paper.  
• Also, may we have a moment of silence for my little Prima edger that was torn apart while inking that glitter paper.  Literally, it's in two pieces now....

• The bits of vellum are leftovers from the creation of the coordinating page.  I cannot bring myself to waste a single bit of vellum that I stocked up on, so even my mistakes are getting reused whenever possible.

And that pretty well sums up this page.  Thanks for looking!  If you're interested in learning which supplies I've used, most will be linked in my gallery post at scrapbook.com  You're more than welcome to return tomorrow, if you'd like to see the rest of this three-ring circus! ;)

Egg-cellent Decorating

Hello!  Happy Wednesday!

It turns out that I get a week off from my usually ickiness; and I've been lucky enough to play with my crafty crap.  Yay, me!  I've even got two pages done so far; so I'll have at least that many posts to keep things going.  That's good, right?  I thought so.

In both cases, I decided to try something new (to me); that inky splattery thing that has been all the rage.  I resisted it for so long because, well, I didn't "get it."  Fun fact about me:  I'm a literal person, EVEN when I'm feeling creative.  Most of the time, I have to figure out a logical theme that matches the story. Everything has to be connected; somehow someway.  When people sprinkle their mists or paints, it does look REALLY cute.  I enjoy watching people splatter in videos.  I like seeing it in the galleries.  I just couldn't convince myself to try.  Mists come with spray pumps for a reason; and apparently that reason is to cover the spread of a stencil on my paper.....  Yeah, I know.  I'm getting better; especially with the help of patient acquaintances in a scrappy group I joined last year.  I asked them why they sprinkle and splatter, and they had some really good reasons.

• It can help tie the colors in a page together; so you don't have to rely on just the paper.
• It helps spruce up white space.
• It adds a layer.
• You can create a visual line for the viewer.
• It's funky.

So, I sucked up the buttercup and I tried it.

AND, since I decided to add some fun and funk, I gave myself permission to play a little more:

Ever found yourself completely without the perfect color of thread, floss or twine?  I did; so I used an old, but well loved, stash of Glimmer Mist (color) to dye some twine and fake it.

THIS was a learning experience.  I'm going to have to keep practicing it.  Well over a year ago, I read a magazine article about adding Liquid Pearls to your project.  One woman added drops to her page, waited until they were almost dry and pressed down to crack the finish.  Hers looked A-May-Zing!  Mine...Well, maybe you can see why I kept thinking I was really popping really fabulous zits. For me, it will take a minimum of three hours drying time before I can even consider crushing them again.

OH!  OH!  Also, the green tags upon which I globbed placed my pearls is actually (at the base) a 4x6 card from the Fancy Pants/ Be Different line; green with cream polka dots.  I used a navy embossing powder with a label stamp on the card; cut out three; cut the largest into 2 pieces to place on the left and right of my photo block, and tucked the other two.

Now, the overall design is thanks to Sketch 267 from Creative Scrappers.

 

I took a few liberties.  It's a great sketch; and I love seeing what everyone is doing with it.  Unfortunately, I am currently lacking in single-photo stories.  HOWEVER, I liked the big square of background paper and decided to use this 8x8 collage of photos in it's place.  On this one, I can now relax.  Story told and in the books.

Why not be the beginning of it all?

Good Tuesday Morning!  It's an early one at that.  Once again, I awoke around 4 AM, my brain just ready to go.  Of course, once I've gotten this bit of writing out of my system, I'll likely be tired again; craving my bed; praying my son will let me sleep for an hour before I participate in his day.

I awoke because of another dream that had something to do with my long-defunct teaching career.  For the first time in a dream, I said "goodbye" to it.  Or, rather, I finally tried saying "goodbye" to a former colleague; couldn't find her in the (apparently) ginormous high-school-reunion crowd; thought "screw it, I'm gone," and made the most graceful run for the glass doors to head home.

Yeah, I have issues.

I have a lot of issues.  I'm voluminous with them all; and I have no segue into the rest of my rambling.

Awesome, right?

Actually, I might.  There is a bit of awesome in my life right now.  Okay, there are LOTS of awesome bits in my life, but this one is a corner bit.  It took me two weeks to absorb all the information and fully appreciate it.  Vaguely speaking, I'm almost "there."

"There" would refer to the end of this battle with cancer.  So far, it has lasted fifteen months (of treatment, never mind the growing process!). I've had several months of chemotherapy.  In the winter, I underwent surgery to remove the main tumor.  In the Spring, I experienced radiation, to ensure nothing else grew in my lap.  Now, I'm in something I consider to be the final phase.  There's more chemotherapy, with a different cocktail.  It should be finished within the next six months.  This will be followed by a step-down to a lighter chemo cocktail, more scans, more discussion, less nausea.

The time frame is long, but I still consider myself "almost done" with this.  It's small and huge at the same time.

Small:  I'm still doing chemo; and through the remainder of the year at that.  Likely, it will continue into next year. Essentially, nothing new is happening in my life.

HUGE:  I AM getting my life back.  I can start reviewing my resume; evaluating part time jobs; getting back into the kitchen and cooking for my family; establishing an exercise routine; contemplating the long-term loss of four pounds (then the vanity ten), blogging, creating nearly everyday....

I have a feeling it would be most wise to take baby steps all the way around.  This morning, I'll make a hot breakfast for my son; either oatmeal or French toast for myself.  (P.S, he woke up to the sound of all this clacking.  yay.)  I'll gather ingredients for an awesome dinner salad tonight (because I'm truly craving one). I'll refill the humidifier (thank you, Avastin for bloody noses! I didn't actually miss those!) get the frigging laundry in the frigging wash; play with zee boy and settle my brain on Project 365.

A couple-ish weeks ago, I decided that I missed documenting "the everyday," but have no desire to make 24 scrapbook albums about it.  However, I can grab the camera and fill a P365 album with it all. This is part of what kept me awake at 4 AM; having this proof that "my life" was coming back to me; having this proof that I can move on.  With a decided theme of "365 Days NOT Owned by Cancer," I couldn't decide when Day 1 would be.  When do I officially declare my independence?  On what amazing day do I reclaim myself?

And why do I still think I've got a million days promised to me so I can just pick and choose like that?

So, why not start yesterday?  Why not make Monday, (I LOVE Mondays) July 23, 2012 the beginning of "it all?"

Why not start with this face?

Always Time to Snuggle

Good Saturday Morning! .... Okay, even as I type that I'd like to make myself go back to bed (it's 6:15 AM!), but I won't. It's a big day and I have lots to do. One of those things is share an adorable moment between my son and my father. It happened on Father's Day; just a simple desire to snuggle; and is based on the current sketch at Twisted Sketches:



And here is my take:



Adorabibble, right? I've seen so many amazing pages, created by Nancy, based on these sketches, that I finally decided to give it a try. Of course, as I was creating, I also wondered how I could try to include fun and unexpected details, like she does. I tried to be like Nancy.... Until I finally remembered that I'm NOT Nancy and went back to having fun with it. I LOVE looking at pages that are chock full of detail -- so full you could actually spend a half hour looking at the page, in order to find it all. I LIKE making pages that have at least a thick border of negative space and a single cluster of embellishment. It feels like a pair of properly fitting jeans to me, but I keep forgetting that.

Details?

I used Glimmer Mist (Dragonfly) to mask some Dusty Attic gears.

Tim Holtz clock face and spinner. My son actually had fun with this element when I finally let him near it. Evidently, he also really likes my glue dots. Super!

This gear clock is Scrap FX. Initially, I slathered it with Distress Ink, then the Dragonfly Glimmer Mist. If you get to look at the actual page, it really changes color nicely as you move it around. Not so obvious with the camera, though.


I wanted to highlight the "four" on the clock, since it's the age of my son at the time of these photos. I probably should have chosen a brighter shade of Stickles.

This is what I have today. Now, it's time to get spiffy for company and a highly anticipated shopping trip with my son.

Hello, Handsome!

And hello, again! If for no other reason, these extra off weeks sure have been productive for me. I wandered around the blogosphere more than I've been able to do for the past couple months. When I took a moment to stop in at Sketches In Thyme, I noticed something special. They now design their own sketches for use. How awesome is that? How fun does this sketch look?



I like the cute colors, and it seems I've had a thing for the simplicity of circles lately:


One of the many things I love about my husband is his smile. He has a couple of them, at least. Normally, his loved ones get the cheesy grin that follows a remark showing off his smart-mouthed charm. When you actually try to get him to smile for a photograph, it will look like he's under duress. And sometimes.... Sometimes if you look fast enough and have been blessed, you'll see him really smile. He has one of those "light up the room and twenty feet around you" smiles when it's real like that. There's a sparkle in his eyes. There's honesty and hope. It's as hard to capture that smile with a camera as getting a butterfly to stay put for the same reason. I know it's hard to see all of that in this photo, with his sunglasses on, but I know that was the kind of smile I got in that moment.



I don't know if it was the act of watching Elizabeth Town while pondering this page...or hormones because, I did bawl (and wish for a very special road map all my own)... or just simply noticing I do A LOT of blue/green pages lately... but I felt compelled to keep this page as green as possible. The chipboard circle (Technique Tuesday) is coated generously in Distress Ink and Distress Stickles. I like how the Stickles somehow lubricates the ink to truely go every where because there were spots that were still white before adding the the pretty sparkles.



The bingo card behind the photo is from Tattered Angels. I've hung onto it for quite some time and swore I was going to use it. Well, it took over a year, but tada! The original title on the card is Family, but I had wanted a more accurate title. Luckily, I recalled a few sheets of Scrabble tiles I had printed (and found on the blog of Scrapperlicious). It was a bit bigger than the card, but I like it. Above my husband's head is his age. I decided to coat it with glossy accents and frame it with some more of the Distressed Stickles.

OH! Speaking of Scrapperlicious (and all the cool things that can be found on her blog), she is celebrating her millionth hit this month. Click on this link to see how she's chosen to celebrate!

Hmm, I guess I'm feeling a little tired, but good....And, I'm wondering what my little boy is up to right about now. Thanks for stopping by! One more project I'm working on, some cards that are looking kinda cute, too! Think I'll get a chance to share?

Some Days....

Good Saturday Morning! How does this day find you? We're kinda gloomy, and I think I'm the only one missing the days of 90 degree heat, but otherwise all is well. So many parties and festivities and weekend wishes going on. Normally, I'd be freaking out, trying to figure out how to fit them all in with some level of quality time at each. Now, I'm often sleepy enough that it's much easier to chill and take life as it comes. Because somedays...

Heh, how's that for a segue? I didn't have chemo this week (and will babble about that at the bottom) so I spent some time paper crafting. One of the pages I made was about a fun moment between my son and my brother:


My husband and I have been protective parents. My brother has been waiting for the moment he'd be allowed to rough house with my son to the point of turning him upside down. This photo makes me smile and laugh a little so I had to give it some love! It was inspired by sketch 159 at Creative Scrappers:


Pretty, huh?


I used Basic Grey alphas, part of the Oliver collection. Then, I felt playful so I coated them with Glossy accents. It's hard to see, isn't it?


I tried to use the Sew Easy again. It was a little better this time, but I'm not in love with the tool. It works best on single sheets of paper. I like to layer THEN stitch. Also, I'm pretty proud of the inking work; being stumped as to how to ink in such tight quarters on this jagged piece. Then, I figured out that all I had to do was bend the paper to get two edges at once. I felt smart for a moment.



Dusty Attic chipboard gears. I just love adding gears and skulls'n'crossbones to my projects. I REALLY want to find someone from which I can buy more! The woman who sold me these is on a temporary leave from her shop, so...


So, I have to get creative! I went rooting through Cricut cartridges at my disposal. It turns out one of them has a gear border. It's one of the cake cartridges -- can't recall the name right now -- and it occured to me to cut out the border then cut the border up. I think I'm falling in love with kraft paper, by the way!

And, unrelated to this post, I was delayed another week in my chemo. It was frustrating and I almost cried. That was mainly because I was in limbo on the results of a recent CAT scan and blood work. For all I knew, two extra weeks off of chemo was really hurting my body, but....

Yesterday, I met with my oncologist. My tumors are shrinking and my cancer marker (like, how much cancer I have) dropped from 9 to 4.5. Those are definitely steps in the right direction! He was also encouraged (and it was encouraging to me) that I've gained about seven pounds since we last met a couple weeks ago. He told me that all three of these are very good signs, because I would NOT be gaining weight if the cancer was hanging on.

Somedays!

Thanks for stopping by. I have another page and some links I would love to share today or tomorrow. Here's hoping those get done....and I REALLY get chemo next Tuesday.

The Dealio

Good Saturday Morning! Granted, we might get some storms, soon, but I'll consider it good as long as I'm here to enjoy it....And on that cue, evidently I don't want to spend a lot of time today trying to build up to some important personal information I wanted to share.

If you need a moment to brace yourself, go ahead and take it. It's not like I'm about to say I won a billion dollars from a lottery ticket. In my weird way, I'd say it's actually better news, but that's more in a personal growth kind of way.

Okay, moment taken?

Ready?

Alright, I'm posting this information on my crafty blog because I've noticed that many crafter I appreciate -- and more importantly have begun to form a connection with -- read my blog. It seems smarter to post here then go to several other sites and post individually there.

This past Tuesday, I was diagnosed with Cancer. Yes, I'm 34 years old; wife to one amazing Rock of Gibraltar; mother to a nearly-4-year-old boy and I have cancer. I won't go into which kind because that doesn't matter. I won't go into the stage because that doesn't matter....to me.

I start chemo on Monday afternoon to shrink the tumor so the removal will be easier in a few months. As twists of fate go, one of my closest friends will be administering my chemo treatments. I've been blessed.

I won't lie to anyone or myself. I'll be up and down for the next few months. I won't apologize for not posting scrapbook pages or having Friday Finds. I honestly don't think anyone would expect me to, either. Most crafters I've met have really good heads on their shoulders and understand priorities; so I'm cool with all this.

I have one obligation that will be easy to create and fulfill. It might not make it to my blog, but if it does, know that it was a really healthy day.

For now, I'm going to go back to researching what I can do to be proactive in all of this. Sorry to lay it on you, but know that I have no intentions of leaving this rock any time soon. I'm a fighter and I want to live.

Living An Honest Life

Good Morning! Has the coffee kicked in yet? I'm still waiting for mine to do it's job. Hopefully it will soon, otherwise this may be one of the most interesting posts I've ever made!

Thank you for all the well-wishes in the past week. I really do appreciate them and have used them to fuel a big boost in my recovery. I was feeling so healthy and optimistic that I decided it was time to get crafty!.... Okay, so it was a combination of feeling healthy and needing a concrete way to give my son a message about life that he can come back to whenever he needs a reminder.

Since I've been in a creative funk, I looked around for a sketch that was simple, but still gave me a chance to add my own preferences and style.



Easy peasy lemon sqeezy, right? Thank you, Nicole Nowosad and Creative Scrappers! And what I made:



This has to be one of the flattest pages I have made in a long time; but I like it. Since I'm trying to get my groove back, it would do no good to force myself to create in a way that is not true to me right now. You could say, I wouldn't be living honestly.... In staring at it right beside me as I type, yep! I am definitely happy with this one.

Like I wrote above, I wanted to create something concrete for my young son to (hopefully) come back and re-read again and again; especially in his more challenging moments in life. This past week, he had a moment-of-choice while I was upstairs and it was just his grandmother (my mom) and himself downstairs. He convinced her to share part of her treat with him, as if THAT's ever been difficult, but it was HOW he did it that bothered me most. Evidently, he told my mom, "Now, if Mommy asks this was all my idea so you don't get in trouble."

He's not even four years old yet. Reflect on that a moment.... He's several weeks shy of turning four and he's making sure that accomplices get the story straight so Mommy won't frown. He knew for a fact that I had told him he wasn't eating anything else until he finished the peanut butter-banana-waffle-wich he had begged me to make him and then snubbed. He knew I was serious, but as soon as I was out of sight, he was out of his mind.

Reflect further on the understanding of "what goes around comes around." Twice, I have done what I could to appease my son after my husband laid down the law, making sure he understood that we didn't need to let Daddy know that we had done so. Super! I taught my child to be sneaky. But, so have my parents because this is certainly not the first time he's gotten a special treat when I've left the room.

Super....

So, I'm working on changing that. I really do want my son to live an honest life. I want him to be able to grow and stand with his shoulders squared and own all of his choices because they are the best choices he can make at the time. I wanted to type out the following sentiments on a tag that would tuck behind the photo...but I forgot that plan and adhered enough adhesive to prevent it. Hence, the rub-on journaling at the bottom.

* Tell the truth, EVEN when you know you'll be in trouble.

* "Sneaking" food is not necessary.

* Only take what you need.

* Focus on function over fun.

*Learn who you are. Accept it. Strive to enrich your strengths. Grow from your weaknesses.

* Say "yes" because you mean it; not because it will make someone else feel better.

* Same for "sorry."

* Bravely (and knowledgeably) speak in what you believe.

* Follow your heart's advice.

Surely, there are 100 other things I could have added, but space was at a premium.

Sibs

Good Afternoon! I know, it sorta seems like I'm a blogging fool, huh? If it worries you, rest assurred it's only temporary. I'm loving the reveals at Maya Road....and Prima....and Tim Holtz. In fact, I'd love to share my faves from Prima and Mr. Holtz soon, too. I've already warned my loving and supportive husband that there will be a time coming when I have a solid case of the "I wants".

Despite those moments, I DO have a page that I wanted to share and I FINALLY got out the camera and took a few photos of it. The main inspiration comes from a color challenge at Bella Creations -- use only blue, brown, beige and salmon. Salmon was the tricky color to come up with, but this is what I've created:



The paper is Bo Bunny Mama Razzi (still loving this line). It's based on a 2010 sketch from Page Maps. Since I'm kinda geeked that I got this photographed and ready to share, I've also missed the step in saving the exact sketch to my computer....and have temporarily forgotten exactly which month. My bad...

The photo is based on a much crisper scanned version my family received from extended branches a few weeks ago. I say "based on" because I thought I'd play a bit with the photo. It's printed on shimmery cardstock; so when you look at it in person it glitters. That was a complete accident but pretty all the same. The children in the photo are (left to right) my Aunt Carol, my Uncle Tom and my Dad. Of course, I had to zoom in on my Dad:



This little beauty is a piece of Dusty Attic chipboard. I won this (and many more astounding pieces) as blog candy from an amazing artist commonly known as CraftySprinkles. She also has an etsy (where you can get some amazing Dusty Attic all your own) right here. I inked this piece with Momento Ink. The piece beneath it is cut from the Bo Bunny Mamarazzi collection.



both flowers are Prima. The one below is a Winter Rose...that was too clean for this page. It was driving me nuts (especially since it was already well attached!) so I found a way to ink the petals (Distressed Ink) and add more sparkle with Distressed Stickles, Straw.



The title alphas are from Cosmo Cricket. Since they match the background so well, I tried to bring more attention to them with a couple Prima Pearls:



The blue flower was created with Prima white flowers (the ones that come in the long tube) and a mix of Glimmer Mist and Distressed Ink on the creases. I also added a Tim Holtz clock face to the center.



And finally, the flower/ribbon embellishment. It is a technique I learned on Helen Croft's blog:



.....And this is all I have for today! Luckily, I've been able to take quite a few photos of some fun family moments lately, so I hope to have even more to share in the weeks to come. But for now, I'm getting excited about a novel I'm reading. It's part of the Dresden Files, as written by Jim Butcher. I blame my husband for getting me hooked on the series...and I think he's okay with that. Maybe that's another page to create, huh?