Quick update and question

Hey friends!
My goodness have I missed you all so very much. Thanks for your well wishes and support over my gimpy shoulder issue. It kind of went from bad to worse this week. On Monday I had to go to the E.R.  because the pain was just so bad. I swear to you, I thought I had dislocated my shoulder the pain was so bad. Not only that but I could not move my arm, at all. The x-ray came up clean so it was a shot of some heavy duty pain meds and an order for an MRI on Tuesday . Tuesday I went in and had the MRI done of the Cervical spine and right shoulder. What an ordeal that was. Then as you know I went in Thursday to see the ortho doctor. To sum it up, it isn't tendonitis as it was previously thought. Not to gross you out here but the doc had to drain my shoulder and send this crystal type fluid in for testing. He didn't say much about it other than to come back next week to discuss the results and possibly have my shoulder "flushed". Yippie yea, doesn't that sound like a ton of fun! Oh, and he did give me two steriod injections. Between the draining and injections the pain is much better but not gone. At least I can sleep at night and move my arm and after what I went through that is okay by me! I have never had pain that was so intense like this was.

Here's my question. I know this is a blog about positive and fun creative things but it would help me out so much if any of you have been through anything like this. If so can you please share? You can email me if you would rather keep it private. (SNally1965 (at) comcast (dot) net).  I've done some research on the internet and have an idea I know what this could be. Of course I don't want to say until I know for sure.

Now while my arm is still feeling better I am just dying to get in my craftroom! And blog hop! And visit all of you! And I might be slow at doing all this but I am going to do it! After all, I am stubborn and will never let any sort of disability stop me. It may take forever but as God as my witness....I will do it! Thank you for your prayers, and I mean that from the top and bottom of my heart! It really means so much to me! {{Big hugs to all of you}} and I will see you soon!

Susan

A new challenge- Lessology!

When I heard about this new blog, http://lessology.blogspot.com/, I had to be a part of it. One of the main rules is that you must use one item that is recycled or upcycled. I wasn't too sure what upcycled really meant so on to Wikipedia I went. (Hey, that rhymes!). From what I learned upcycle is when you take something of little to no value and add something to increase the value of the item. So for their first challenge the ladies at Lessology asked for a project that uses an old book. I decided right then I was going to make something using a recycled item and turn it into an upcycled item. Are you with me so far? lol! This project was VERY tedious to say the least. But what turned into the biggest challenge for me wasn't anything craft related, oh no, for me it was this right side shoulder issue I'm having. (I'll post more about that another time, but thank you all for your get well wishes and prayers- that WAS what got me through this project, well, that and my stubborn determination!)


I took an old photo booklet that pictures would come in when they were developed at Wal Mart and created something fun. Here are the before pictures:

                                                                  A recycled item!


And this is what I upcycled it into:




Not a Cook Book- A Cookie Book!




Pictures on the left- recipe on the right!




Pull the recipe card out with the mini oven mitt to write on back of card!




The inside of back cover- with additional note cards!

Here's the making of the little page tags:



Once done they were glued to little paper clips!

 These pictures don't even begin to do this Cookie Book justice. With 14 pages in this Cookie Book I'm sure you can imagine the work that went into this. Embossing, inking edges, cutting the little oven gloves in three layers, attaching them to paper clips to form tabs, tying tiny ribbons on the clips, etc, etc...Yes it was a lot of work! I had to stop many times to ice down the shoulder but I was determind to finish this to be in this first challenge! I have to say, even though I am very happy with the end results I am more proud of myself for not giving up! I did it! Now you might be asking...how is this upcycled? Well, I took something worth nothing and made it worth at least .50 cents! ;)

Thank you friends for being so understanding on my lack of posting the last few weeks. I have been really trying to visit your blogs in between working on this and icing! I am going to take a few days now to do nothing but visit all my friends here. On Thursday I get to see an Ortho doctor, I'll keep you posted!


{{Hugs}}

Susan
p.s. I should add, all the paper along with the recipe cards were from Close to my Heart.



Ms. Kiki picked a winner!

Yes my beautiful assistant, Ms. Kiki Anna, picked the winner for the blog candy from Jo's Birthday Blog Hop!  Before I tell you who she chose I want to give a huge thank you again to Jo for having me be part of the fun and thank you to all that follow my blog and leave such encouraging comments.We all love to get encouragement which is why I feel it is so important to give and not just receive. Now on to the winner!

I usually post a video of Kiki in action but since my cameraman isn't available I'm doing it old school...pictures. The first picture is Kiki taking her nap in the sun with her head laying on a pair of my sons shoes. (Btw- my amazing son Dennis is 17 today! Happy birthday to him!)

 I then gave everyone a number that commented starting from the first comment down and put the numbers together in a container.

 On cue my beautiful assistant Kiki Anna knew exactly what she had to do and she picked out the winner.

 As you can see by the wet paper the winner is comment number 22....

Number 22 belongs to Christine at http://pickulblog.blogspot.com/!

Congrats to Christine! I will be emailing you shortly on the good news!

I also want to add that the very talented Chris at http://chatterscene-mom.blogspot.com/ was so sweet to think of me and pass on the Butterfly award.

Thank you so much Chris! I will be posting more on this award soon, I promise. Now ladies, if you will excuse me it's time to ice down the shoulder. Boy, you don't realize how much you use both your arms until one is out of order! You all have a fabulous day!

{{Hugs}}

Susan

Down but not out!

Hey friends!

Thanks to all that visited, followed and left comments for my first blog hop last weekend. There is still time to hop! For info scroll on down to the post after this one.  I must keep this short. Why you ask? Because someone has developed tendinitis in her right shoulder. How you ask? No idea but it hurts to use my right arm. Ice and Advil is all I can do. And I am so mad because I am so close to finishing a really cool project. But I have a back up plan. Here's a cute Christmas card I made last year.

The sentiment was from a CTMH stamp set. Well, since I'm suppose to keep my right arm rested I have to keep this short. Don't forget friends, stop in on Monday to see if you won the blog candy from Jo's birthday hop!

Have a great weekend!

Susan

Jo's Birthday Blog Hop!

Welcome hoppers! I'm so glad you are stopping in and showing support for Jo's Birthday Blog Hop! First things first...a big happy birthday to Jo at http://joboogie.typepad.com! {{Big birthday hugs Jo}}! You should have came here from the blog of my friend, the fabulous and very talented Lisa at http://indymermaid.blogspot.com. This is your last stop before hopping back to Jo and making sure you leave your blog/email address in Mr. Linky to win her amazing blog candy! (And don't forget...you have to follow all the blogs to win!) Now if you popped in and want to start at the beginning just click on Jo's link and hop away from there! There is much fun and inspiration to be had and also some pretty awesome blog candy to win! In case you are like me, and lost your way, here's the list of blogs:

Jo - http://joboogie.typepad.com (The birthday girl)!


Amber - http://my3escrapbooking.blogspot.com

Ashley - http://hearthugsdesigns.blogspot.com

Corinne: http://rinnesbliss.blogspot.com

Diana - http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com

Jacilynn - http://jacilynndashwood.blogspot.com

Lisa - http://indymermaid.blogspot.com

Susan - http://cricutandgrasshopper.blogspot.com  (That's me)!

Yes, a nice easy blog hop and it's going until Sunday, Sept. 11th! Pass the word!


For Jo's birthday I wanted to make a card that is original, cute and above all else, funny. I hope this puts a smile on her face! I used the Create a Critter cartridge and let my imagination do the rest. To get a better view of this card click on the picture to enlarge.

Happy Birthday from all of us Jo!

The original and unique thing about this card was that I wanted texture for the little path the turtle is walking by but I didn't have anything to give the effect of gravel. So what did I use? Bird cage liner. That's right, after all it is paper! lol! I did distress the edges with a little brown ink to give it a more realistic look.  I hope you like my little critters birthday card. I had a lot of fun making it!

 

How about some candy? Now I know we are all told not to take candy from strangers so that being said if you become a follower here we won't be strangers and you could win this awesome candy!

 

 

Just in time for Halloween you can win four stamps and Stickles Black and Orange for just leaving a comment and following! A winner will be chosen on Monday, Sept. 12th.  (If you already follow me, thank you so much, you're awesome!) ;)

 

I hope you enjoyed the hop! Please don't forget to hop on back to Jo, wish her a happy birthday, and link up your blog/email on Mr. Linky. Thanks for stopping in and have a great week!

 

Susan

p.s. This is the first hop I've participated in so I want to also say thank you to Jo for allowing me to be in the fun! Also, I hope I didn't mess up but if I did I always blame my husband so it's his fault! (ha ha, he knows I love him)! ;)

 



It's the little things

OMG..how fast summer goes by! I love summer but I wouldn't be honest if I said I didn't enjoy the extra time winter allows me to craft and blog. I know you all are maybe feeling the same way but there is no guilty feelings allowed on this blog! Now I know I haven't posted a project in a short time but I have been working on a few. Here's the story...

In the townhouse where I live we have an amazing association. Anytime there has been an issue of any sort it is dealt with right away. Now of course I'm not one to expect the world to bow at my feet, only the males in my home should do that. I'M KIDDING! (That was a good one). However, I'm a firm believer that you always get more results when showing respect to others. It's the right thing to do. Too many times I feel people who go above and beyond are overlooked so I like to go above and beyond to change that when I can. Could you imagine how better our world would be if everyone did that? Well, our association has the best maintenance guy in my opinion and he has his son who works with him to learn the trade. His son is around 20 years old and he works so hard everyday. He really is the hardest working 20 year old I have seen.  A while back we had requested a privacy fence put in since our neighbors can't seem to keep there dogs in their yard. Now I love dogs but with a bad back I have a difficult time picking up the dog waste of my own two, I'm sure you can relate. Last week this 20 year old came out and put in the most beautiful wooden fence all by himself. So I got to thinking. This boy is so quiet and polite and he works in his dads shadow so I'm sure he doesn't get much in the way of gratitude. I decided to make him a little gift card holder and included a $10 dollar gift card so he could buy himself a nice lunch sometime. I mean, I couldn't take him out to lunch because people might start thinking I'm some sort of cougar or something! LOL!!! Then after I made that for him I thought it would be nice to make a card for the fine folks in the association office, which I did, and I also baked a cake for them. So here is the picture of the card and gift holder. I'll spare you the picture of the cake which tasted good but didn't turn out as pretty!

That gift card  in the picture was used for dramatic purposes. The gift card I bought him was for Milio's, which is like a Subway. Let me add that the way his face light up when I gave this to him was priceless. It's the little things that can mean the world to others.

I'll be making my rounds in a little while here. I'm working on something for a blog hop I will be participating in on Monday!!! Whoo hoo! My first one! I can't wait!

Till next time friends!

Susan