Well as my mama used to say "one down and many more to go"!! Designing can be an interesting project when you plan to many more items in a variation on a theme. I have made ever so many different sized templates (each one cut out by hand!! since this old dog has learned a thing or two about crashing computers). Not only do I have digital patterns I can pull up and print but I also have the real deal hold in my grubby little ole hands cardboard patterns that may burn but WILL NOT evaporate into cyber space.
Now to the finished project : a tea themed banner that I have just listed in my ETSY shop
http://www.etsy.com/listing/110793965/teacups-and-teapot-banner-bunting
I am not quite sure how I did the double pic above (who understands this NEW blogger ~I sure don't) I loaded 2 pics and it turned into 1 ~ Ho Hum
Anyway I have been playing with my favorite teapot and teacups from Karen at the Graphics Fairy ~ http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2012/02/vintage-graphics-3-pretty-teacups-with.html
These tea babies have the best vibrant colors that I just love. I wish there were even more of them in different colors. Any way I have more tea things coming and angels and Christmas tags and banners that are in various stages of work. Stay tuned as the old radio announcers used to say. (Oh how I miss old time radio ~ I have stacks of tapes I bought at the Cracker Barrel that I listen to all the time ~ so much more entertaining than trashy TV) But I get off track here.
I am also linking to Home and Garden Thursday http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/2012/10/home-and-garden-thursday.html on Oct 4th and also at Fabric bows and More linky party ~ http://fabricbowsandmore.blogspot.com/2012/10/link-party-no76-will-see-it-wednesday.html Beautiful blogs ~ be sure to check them out!!
I hope you all have a great weekend ~ Roll Tide!!!
May God bless each of you.
Mary
Believe it or not, I am still amongst the living. Sometimes I feel better and then again sometimes I don't. I have actually been working on goodies for my ETSY shops. More on that in a day or two. I'm photographing stuff now.
I came across a really neat giveaway today while visiting Georgie over at (visit her because she has a neat blog) http://georgie-hornpuddinnpie.blogspot.com/ . On her side bar she had a pic of a cuttlebug. I am soooo far behind the times in paper crafts that I wasn't even sure what a 'cuttlebug' was or is and what it will do. So in my quest to learn more I clicked on the pic and it took me to http://mymindseyecreations.blogspot.com/2012/08/cuttlebug-candy.html . Now this blog seems to mostly be about card making and has frequent postings of card sketches (which I find a really good teaching aid for someone trying to learn how to make really beautiful cards (and tags) without having to spend big $$$$ taking classes on line or in site. Anywhoo she (Kadie) is giving away a cuttlebug.
So I went to several web sites selling the little green machine and did some reading. This device seems to be a neat machine with a variety of dies and embossing thingies to turn out some great embellishments for card making and tag creations. The drawing will be held Oct. 1, 2012 so you need to check it out and register before Sept. 30th. She is also giving away a second prize of a SEW EASY tool, 6x6 papers, ink and other bits and pieces. Looks like a great giveaway at least if you are like me and don't have $$ to spend on this type of equipment for your crafts. If nothing else just visiting her blog is worth the trip for all the beautiful eye candy and inspiration.
I hope all of you are doing well. Please pray for our country and its citizens in these troubled time. Reading the news these days is just plain scary.
May God Bless each and every one of you.
Mary
Today I am writing to you by the Grace of God. I had a heart attack last week and almost died. Those of you who are sweet enough to read my blog all the time, know I have not felt well for months now. Apparently I had a ticking time bomb in my chest for a good long time now. From what the Docs found I had a heart attack in the last 5 to 7 yrs from one of my main coronary arteries being blocked 100%. It was long enough ago that small capularies have grown to bridge the gap in the artery blockage. For the last last 3-4 months I have barely been able to get around to do housework or crafts or anything. I would do a little, cook a meal, put a load of dishes to washing or a load of clothes and then have to sit or lay down and rest. Last week it got the worse it has been. Friday I could hardly to anything. Saturday morning I got up around 5 am because I just couldn't stay in the bed I hurt so much. About 6 am it started thundering and I checked to weather on line and sure enough a big storm was headed straight at us. Friday nite Don had cut a lot of grass (and because it WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO RAIN!!) he left the lawn mower uncovered to finish cutting Sat. I went outside and rolled it under the tarp and got it ready for the storm. I walked back in the house and barely made it in. I sat down and felt like a huge weight was sitting across my collar bones, like a huge fist was buried between my shoulder blades in the back, and a tingling down my left arm this time all the way to my finger tips. I felt like I was going to throw up and felt some pains shooting up thru both sides of my neck. I could barely breath. I sat there for several minutes ~mostly because I couldn't do anything else. Move or breathe or anything. just holding on to the chair. Then it started to ease a little and finally I was able to stand up and moved several feet to my recliner. I guess you are wondering why I didn't call my husband and have him get me to the hospital. I don't have any insurance to cover anything. I have not gone to the dr because I couldn't pay him. I knew if i went to the ER I would run up a bill of thousands of dollars in just a few hours if I lived or not. Honestly a funeral is cheaper than a hospital. I do have a little life insurance. Since the pain backed off a little I decided to stick it out a little longer and see what happened. When Don got up he was very angry because I didn't call him. The truth is I don't think I had the strength to call him anyway. I stuck it out a little longer during the day and about mid afternoon I tried again to lay down and rest and hurt worse laying down than sitting up and I gave in to Don to go to the hospital. The irony is my Medicare will start in just 6 weeks.
Thus started an adventure. The folks in the ER were sweet. I told them I didn't have any insurance and frankly do not have the means to ever pay the the bill in this life time. The folks at Shelby Baptist Medical Center treated my like any other patient. They slapped me on a stretcher and wired me up like the Space Shuttle. I couldn't have run away if I felt like it. I think they were moinitering everything but my thoughts and they might have been checking those out ~ who knows with that many wires and screens. Of course the vampires decended to draw all my blood out to play with. Then the 'hurry up and wait' began as we waited for all the results to be read, debated, discussed and voted on. They shot me up with Morphine and I was floating somewhere up in the ceiling tiles watching everything without a whole lot of interest. Just watching. Every 5 min someone would come in a ask how I felt, poke and push a little and go back out. Meanwhile all the screens were shooting out numbers and graphs and such except the only one my husband understood ~ the TV. Believe it or not for a long time the only thing he could get on it was the cartoon channel and I think it was Daffy Duck. Like I said I was floating up in the ceiling tiles. If I answered any of their question by telling them I hurt even a little bit they stuck that needle back in the IV line and I floated a little higher.
Finally they came in and said the heart Dr (or rather his assistant ) was coming and it was decided to ship me to the floor and admit me. That 'yes sir indeed, Mrs Albrethsen You have had a heart attack and you will be spending some sighnificant bonding time with us.' Those are my words not theirs. LOL but you have laugh a little bit. And that was the gist of what they said. I slept pretty much the next day except when the vampires came to draw any of my blood they might have missed. I will say this for them one and all they didn't hurt. And of course that nurse kept shooting me up with morphine ~ I asked her if they didn't have something between morphine and an asperine that I could take because to be honest I just don't like floating like that and she said NO we want to keep you a pain free as possible so you won't make the heart attack worse from the stress of hurting. So I floated til Monday morning and I got my guided tour of the cath lab from flat of my back. I know what cath labs look like ~ my brother installs and services them and has for about 20 plus years. I have worked in a hospital and my job was to pick up the cath charts for medical records each nite and I could talk to the guys and got to watch a little of some caths. But let me tell you it is different when you are the patient and they have strapped down to make sure you don't float off. It didn't hurt, they kept giving me a little more Versed every few minutes and finally I lost interest in watching the screen of my heart and closed my eyes. Next thing I knew they were sliding me off the table and on to my bed to go back to my room. Now I have to tell you about the new backboard they used to move me from the bed to the table and from the table to the bed again. Everyone has seen the backboards that paramedics use ~thick and strong ~ well this one was about the thinkness of the plastic cutting board you buy at the dollar stores. It was full size but paper thin. They took the sheet I was laying on and kinda rolled me up in it and over a little to one side and slid that thing under me and this one guy (that weighed about 170 and looked EXACTLY like Johnny Depp in Pirates etc) pulled a little toward him and I slid over to the table like greased lightening and he kinda pulled the board up and I slid off and I was on that table with NO EFFORT OR STRAINING OR ANYTHING!! on my part. I am not a small woman I weigh well over 250 (only my Dr knows exactly how much) and am 5'7". That board must be teflon coated or something ~ it was slick as glass and as flexible as paper.
Anyway the Docs say I am in pretty good shape to go now and if I take care of myself and stay in touch with the Docs and let them do their thing to keep me going I should keep on going for a while. They are going to watch the artery that is still 100% blocked and decide later whether to do any thing about it since my body is doing its own patch up by growing capularies around the blockage. I really do feel much much better. I still have a twinge every now and then and when the Doc asked today how I felt, I told him I am going to have to figure out what my NEW NORMAL feeling is. It has been so long since I have times that I didn't hurt at all that it is hard to decide whether a pain means nothing or something.
I received a lot of prayers this week end from my church and family and close friends. I still need prayers.
The reason I went into so much detail about how I felt before and during the heart attack is women don't have the same pains men do, I mean who would think that pain between your back shoulder blades could mean a heart attack.
I thank God for being with me and guiding my doctors and nurses. May God's blessings be on each of you.
Hugs and Love
Mary
Well it is still hot hot hot in Alabama (like that's news in August) LOL. The real news is that Gail over at Shabby Cottage Studio http://www.shabbycottagestudio.net/ has reopened her Challenge Blog ~ Mind Wide Open after retiring it 2 yrs ago. That challenge blog and the monthly contests taught me more about creativity with paper and fabric and altered art and mixed media art than any one single spot on the internet blogland. Each month on the 1st she would post an image she created usually with a female(s) subject and lots of color for us her loyal followers to play with. You had a week to create something pretty with the image and ANYTHING GOES ! It can be cloth, paper, glass, plastic, journals, tags, wall hangings, digital, painted, sewed, stapled, ANYTHING. On the 8th day she posts all our pretties at http://mind-wideopen.blogspot.com/ and you our loyal followers get to prowl through the entries and vote on your favorite. OK so here is the original image ~
And here is my creation from that image ~
I decided to do a journal. The wings for my little girl are from the Graphics Fairy http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ and are actually the wings from 2 different bees. They were such pretty colors that I printed them when she posted them and cut them out for future use and here it is. My lace heart behind the image kinda disappeared but that is life with a camera. I really think Gail's image is very pretty and I will be using it again in the future.
Funny thing is one of our local art shows used the picture of a teenager in one their publicity shots to advertise the show and the girl had been face painted with a butterfly in that position on her face. When Mother and I were doing craft shows I usually did face painting to make our space rent and draw folks to look (it ALWAYS worked too) and butterflies was the most favorite image of the girls, but I never painted one around the eyes, it was on the cheeks, shoulders, hands or knees (did a lot knees especially on little kids getting their first painting!).
Anyway back to the challenge ~ here is the link to vote ~ http://mind-wideopen.blogspot.com/ ~ voting is by leave a comment stating your favorite entry person and voting closes at midnight Eastern Time on Tuesday August 14th and the winners will be posted the next day.
I hope each of you will drop by http://mind-wideopen.blogspot.com/ and leave a vote (if you don't have a blog you can email Gail at shabby@lgschmidt.net ) and next month come join us for the challenge ~ the more the merrier !!!
May God Bless each of you.
Mary
Well, we have been roasting down here in Alabama and dry as a bone, but it seems we may have some relief now during 'dog days'. The old saying is ~ whatever weather you have on the first day of 'dog days' is the kind of weather you will have for the next 40 days. Well we had a cooling thunder storm, and so far that will continue. A 50% chance of rain and thunderstorms the rest of this weekend and 40% on into next week with temps in the high 80's to low 90's. After a 107 temp that is fine with me.
I am working on some mini journals and altered art tags for my ETSY shop and will have something to show you later today (maybe) and definitely Sunday and Monday. With the temps so high I don't use my computer so much since I don't have airconditioning where my computer is located (my whole house AC died a couple of years ago and I couldn't afford to fix it). Air conditioning this area (kitchen, breakfast room [where my computer is] and the den is hard since that area has large 9ft open doorways to the front of the house. Bad luck is how expensive it would be to install a door frame and double door (necessary) in that entry way. Money is just too tight and neither Don or I have the skill to do it ourselves. We just hibernate in the master suite (that has a window aircondioner) during the worst of the heat ~ I mean just what's wrong with staying in bed reading etc all day ?? After nearly 50 years of working at 1 to 2 jobs and doing craft shows, I can be lazy with the best of folks.
Well it is thundering in the distance and just started raining so I will say goodbye til later.
My prayers are with all the folks that have endured the fires and storms this last couple of weeks. Keep Calm and Pray. It really does help.
Hugs
Mary
Well I came across another bi weekly challenge while visiting the Paper Squirrel http://papersquirrel.blogspot.com/2012/06/siren-of-sea.html
She had posted a tag with a mermaid on it and of course I had to check out. She is on the design team for the bi weekly challenge that starts every other Wednesday at Scrapalicious USA. So I had to check out that site just to see what they do and low and behold the theme this time 'Vacations'. Well I love tall ships, huge sailing ships (not little sailboats) maybe because I have always loved romance novels set in the time period of huge sailing ships and all the romance that surrounds them. Yes I know it was a hard and dangerous life, but this is my dream and my make- believe so it can be a romantic as I want it. I guess everyone has a 'bucket list' these days and at the very top of mine was to take a week long trip on a 'tall ship'!
I recently destroyed my bucket list and let the ashes drift away on a gentle breeze because I finally accepted the fact that I would never get to do anything on my bucket list. I have to admit though that when I see pics of beautiful sailing ships my heart beats a little faster and my mind wanders away to follow that ship. Recently Abby over at Little Birdie Blessings http://littlebirdieblessings.blogspot.com/ posted some beautiful tall ships pics and of course I saved them so now we come full circle to Scrapalicious USA's challenge about vacations. I created a tag with my favorite ship and used flags for the words, some yarn and a piece of wallpaper sample I altered and printed out and presto! you have my entry for the current ScrapaliciousUSA challenge.
http://scrapalicioususa.blogspot.com/2012/06/oh-what-do-you-do-in-summertime.html
I can hear the sail popping in the wind and the creak of the ship as it dips and comes up over the next wave, the shout of the men up in the sails and the captain's orders. I can feel the wind on my face and the spray in the air. Oh how I wish I were really there.
God's Blessings to each of you.
Mary
