win some art!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop on here and share a chance to win some fabulous art. Allen Designs is giving away some pieces of thier whimsical artwork and anyone who wins some is super lucky! I am a fan, and have been fortunate enough to have been in an ornament swap with her and the art is so fun! Every now and then I like to look (drool) in thier etsy store and on thier blog store... some day I will own one (or more) of those cool clocks. :)

here are the details. Good luck!

Allen Designs Goody Giveaway


Enter to Win some of our Favorite Designs:
Party Animal Cat Box, Sunshine Smile Print or 2 sets of (3) Art Blox.
4 Chances to WIN. (we'll draw a different winner for each item)
Here's 3 ways to Enter:
1. Leave a comment on this post telling me one special thing you're doing this summer. If you're at a loss for summer ideas check out Meg's list.
2. Sign up for our Newsletter on the top right hand side of this blog. Not to worry, we don't send many and the ones we do send include some amazing close-outs and giveaways.
3. Promote our giveaway on your blog and get 3 entries! Feel free to pull this image to use on your blog. And don't forget to leave me a comment so I know you did.
contest will end friday, july 3rd
Thank you for playing!
http://allendesigns.typepad.com/

These are all so wonderful and I would be thrilled to win any of them! Just looking at the print makes me happy, and those Art Blox are just so darn fun and colorful! I am going to have to get me some of those.

I'll be back soon with some scrappy work. Take care,
Rae

Summery projects to share

Happy Friday! Tonight I attend orientation at Target. I am not excited about working late (5-9)because I am not a night person, but I will take what I can get. it won't be so bad once I get used to it.

Here are some summery projects to share with you:

first is a layout I created for Morag's challenge on Ally Scraps. I usually struggle with pastels, but this layout came together nicely. I am sure it's beacuse it's created using fabulous Fancy Pants products. ;)

this layout was also created for Ally Scraps. It was one of my May monthly projects... and I had so much fun creating it!

this layout was created for the Last Serendipity Scrapper Standing contest on the Serendipity Scrapbooks site. I never made it past the first challenge. I figured I wouldn't get far. lol

and lastly this is a simple card that I created for this round of Purrfect Projects at Ally Scraps:

Take care and have a great weekend!

Rae

projects to share

It's been a great week for me so far! I was the winner of the SPCC Color Combo #2 and won some beautiful and bright papers. I also found out this morning that I won a pack of Pink Paislee papers from CMK with one of the layouts I posted previously; 'her beauty is fetching' (although I must admit I am shocked to say the least because out of the 3 layouts I entered, this was the one I least expected to win, not to mention the amazing, and I do mean amazing, entries that were posted in the 'Fetching' category). And best of all I am now a cashier at Target. I adore Target and I am really excited to be working there. Ashlyn's medical expenses have really taken a toll on things and this job is going to be so helpful and alleviate a lot of financial stress. It's close to home which is also a bonus. I go to orientation on Friday night and should find out when I start soon. :)

I have a few projects to share today.
Here is this weeks color challenge over at SPCC:

I decided to create a card this time:



The next two projects are from Artz de Scrap. The mailbox was our mid-month challenge for June and the birdhouse was the mid-month challenge from May. This was my final month there. I really liked all the projects we created... some of them I stressed about, but they turned out to be projects that are among my favorites. My creativity was stretched, and I tried some new things which is always a good thing. :)

I hope your week is going well!

Take care,

Rae

a layout from Mix It Up!!!

Yesterday turned out to be a fantastic day! My parents drove over from their house on Lake Chelan and spent the day with us. We junked out...ordered pizza, ate chips and dip and shrimp... yummy. Skye even made a chocolate cake from scratch, which turned out amazingly, even after the cakes overflowed and caught the oven on fire. lol We played a long, but fun game of Phase 10. It was a nice family-filled day.

Today I have a layout to share that I created using Mixer 22 over on the Mix It Up!!! blog. The oh-so talented Juliana created this wonderful sketch. (I am a huge fan of hers) I wanted to make it a big grungy, and i really like the masking effect from the Maya Mist. I need to get some more colors and try this technique again and again. My 5 different materials for the stars are: chipboard, rhinestones, felt, paper and magic mesh. I suppose the masked stars could count as a 6th.

Take care and have a beautiful week!

Rae

Summer has arrived

Summer is officially here, but the weather must have missed the memo because it's anything but nice outside. I actually had to turn the heat on downstairs this morning to take the chill out of the air. We had weeks of wonderful Summer-like weather in May, and now we have rain and clouds with a peek of sun here and there. At least the rain is making everything a beautiful green and along with the intense rain and thunder and lightning storms we've had, there has also been several rainbows which always make me smile.

I have been scrapping, but my mind is cluttered so I have been struggling with my mojo. Thankfully there are plenty of challenges out there for me to find inspiration by. I stumbled upon a new blog this morning and I was so inspired that I just had to create a layout. The blog is SPCC and it's a color challenge blog. As soon as I saw the color combo I knew immediately which papers I was going to use. It's a great way for me to become inspired to use colors like I might not have thought of before.



Here is the color combo for this week:


and here is the layout I created:


Go check it out and while you are there enter to win some great blog candy! The bright colors are perfect for Summer fun!


I will be back tomorrow with some other layouts to share.
Take care!
Rae

having fun with Pink Paislee

Happy Sunday! It's a dreary and rainy morning here, but it's not so bad since it's been hot and sunny all week. It's a great excuse to stay inside today and hang out with the girls and Kenny.

I am trying to understand more about Ashlyn's disease, so I checked out a book about Crohn's and Colitis from the library yesterday. I have only read the first chapter, but I have learned so much and have already had some questions answered. Her pediatric gi doctor is 5 hours away, and I got the results via telephone, so I didn't get a chance to physically see anything and ask questions. I do have a list that I was planning to ask the doctor sometime this week, because she would have called me back to discuss them, but I think I am OK for now. We meet again on August 6th, so whatever else I feel I need answered, I will do so at that time. What I really need to work on is getting her a good gi doctor over here so we can manage her treatment easier.

Anyway, on to the scrappy stuff!

It was my week to post a little somethin' on the Ally Scraps blog and I chose to do a quick paper pleating technique. I made this pretty little box to go along with it. The red flower from the paper is just beautiful, so I had to doll it up a bit as well with some bling.

I have been on a creative roll for the past few days and I am loving it! I have also been on a Pink Paislee kick, thanks to a great contest over on CMK. I have been hoarding my Pink Paislee, and this was a perfect reason to get it out and create. :)

I made layouts for 3 of the 4 categories, but I doubt if I will make the last one. I have several other things I want to work on, plus I don't have the other 3 collections and would love to win one of them, especially 'Enchanting'... I have wanted that one since the day I first saw it. Wish me luck, I am going to need it because the entries from everyone else are out-of-this-world amazing!!!

here is my entry for the Enchanting category: Kara curled Ashlyn's hair and she looked so pretty! She told me that everyone at school told her how beautiful she is. She really needed to feel good and get some compliments because the past 5 months have been really rough on her.

for the Captivating category:

and for the fetching category:

That's it for today, I hope you have a beautiful week!

Take care,

Rae

We have a diagnosis

After months of waiting and testing, we finally have an answer to Ashlyn's problem. (Well, as much of one as we can hope for now.) She has been diagnosed with Colitis and noninfectious gastroenteritis (basically the stomach flu that doesn't subside), which is a bit vague as there are more specific diseases in the colitis category, but I'll take it. It's something to work with and something that can be treated with medication. The good news is that she doesn't have Crohn's disease, the bad news is that there are some areas along her colon that are flat and what they call "non-specific" so that will have to be monitored. The next step is starting her on some medications for inflamation and switching her to a more potent acid blocker and hope this eases her discomfort. We also have to increase her 'Ensure' twice a day now, once between lunch and dinner and then again after dinner which will provide her with an additional 700 calories at a time when she is least active (not that there is any time that she is active at this point). I need to take her to the pediatrician to have a weight check every 2-3 weeks and record that. She will have a follow-up visit with the GI doctor in August and we will go from there. They are going to hold off on the immune supression drugs for now (thankfully), but they might have to be introduced after our follow up appt.
I feel better and a little weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I know this is not the end of anything, just the beginning, and there is going to be many more questions and procedures and blood work in the future, but at least we are moving forward and hopefully my sweet girl will get some relief.

On a side note, Kara registered today at one of the local community colleges for Fall quarter. She was so bummed that she couldn't start this summer, but it's OK. She has decided to become a radiology technician and she tested high enough to qualify for the program. She will take her pre-requisites for the Fall and Winter quarters, then by Spring she will begin the rigorous 2-year program. I cannot believe that I have a kid enrolled in college already. *sigh* I am so darn proud of her.

Thanks again for all your kind words and well wishes.
Blessings my friends.

My beautiful grad

After a long week of being away for 4 days with Ashlyn, picking up my in-laws, just having a ton of chaos the day before graduation and just being flat worn out, Kara's big day arrived and it was perfect (with the exception of the weather, which wasn't horrible, but after weeks of the 80's and 90's, it was cool and windy).

I decided early in the day that I wasn't going to stress about things or even pick up my camera once because I wanted to enjoy the day and savor the moments. I knew that with both sets of grandparents, 2 aunts and my slew of kids we would have more than enough people to take photos and I was right. I love love love my fabulous sil, Jess (yes you are a blessing girl), because she took so many amazing photos and was the only one who was able to capture photos of Kara receiving her diploma. I have a few pics to share that she has burned onto a cd for me, but there are so many more that she has for me, as well as pics from others that I will share as I get them.

I thought I would be a miserable, crying mess of a mom, but I held it in quite well. Only a few times did my eyes mist up, but I was able to hold the tears back. Kenny, on the other hand, was teary-eyed much of the day. My heart was sure swollen with pride and I thought it would burst from my chest at any time.

Just a quick update on Ashlyn. She handled the colonoscopy and endoscopy procedure beautifully. The prep was not such a breeze for her. the poor girl had it rough and by Tuesday night she was vomiting and I was so worried that they would cancel the procedure. She even threw up early Wed. morning and I was in tears because I didn't want her to have to suffer through this again. Thankfully her procedure was early (7:30AM) and the anesthesiologist assured me that since it was just liquid she would be OK, they would just place a tube down her throat just in case. Thank the good Lord for that. The results of the biopsies will be in tomorrow and I should be getting a phone call from the dr. at some point tomorrow. She has lost 2 more pounds in 2 weeks, making a 4+ lb weight-loss in a month, plus a few pounds she had lost prior to her first visit with the GI doc a month ago. That has become the main concern now. I am hoping we will have some answers, that would make it so much easier to breathe.

Take care