Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Home Tweet Home

Welcome Blog Hoppers!  Hope you made it here safely from Debby's Blog with your hands and arms inside the train and hats and glasses intact (old Disney joke there.)  Hopefully you are here for the September Club Scrap Blog Hop.  You can check out all the great crafts and fun goings on at the Club Scrap Creates Blog
The kit this month featured some wonderful paper and stamps.  I didn't want to cut into that paper quite yet though and I haven't cut or mounted my stamps.  I know, I know.  Where does the time go???  But also this month they sent us a little embossing folder with birds on a wire on it.  I have a couple of these and I have had and I had no idea what to do with them.  Finally after a suggestion on the Community Boards at Club Scrap someone suggested I get one of these...
Michael's with coupon only about $16.  So I read the directions, kind of and used Tricia's idea from the Scrap Rap and I cut a piece of paper to match the size of the folder.
I then inked the folder with Adirondack "Name that Color" (CS needs a light blue ink-just saying...) and ended up with this...on my first try!
Since I already had in mind a bit what I wanted to do, I inked the folder most of the way down to create a "sky."  Next I tore a piece of the green Take Wing HPOP paper to make a grassy bottom to the panel.  Make sure you tear a piece tall enough to go to the blue section (don't be like me and waste paper.)
So next try to find a house stamp (or trees or something that goes with sky and grass right?)  I love these ones from the In The Neighborhood special collection...
Stamp image (this is onto Tribal yellowish paper) and then color away.  Don't you love coloring?  It's a bit like therapy...so color it and then find something else to add to the card but forget to take a picture til you are done with the panel and waaaa laaaa...
Dang isn't that so cute?  It was a moment of pure genius when I changed the little sign from Home Sweet Home to Home "Tweet" Home!  So then I mounted the panel on the Take Wing Red and some Brown from Tribal and stuck it on a card and here ya go!
Here's a little up close of my birdies...
I felt pretty good for trying something new and getting a new little machine for not too much money.  Now to find more of those embossing folders...

Thanks so much for checking out my project this month.  The Take Wing kit is really one of my favorites in a long time, the quotes alone are worth the price of admission!  

So when you are ready--secure your loose items, take small children by the hand and head on over to Tiare's Blog.  Have a crafty day!





Thursday, September 5, 2013

Wake Up Little Susie...

Ok I have no clue what my right adrenal gland's name should be but today in honor of her starting to perk up...we will call her Susie.  As in Wake up Little Susie...now the rest of you can sing this all day.  (You're welcome.)

Alrighty, welcome back for a long awaited (or not) health update.  Had a visit with the endocrinologist today after blood work on Tuesday of this week.  The good news is that my Cortisol level is approx. 4.  Normal is around 9-15 with some people topping out at higher (mine used to be 30+).  4 is much better than 0 which is what it was 2 months ago.  This means that my remaining adrenal gland is starting to "wake up". 

In the meantime though I have been actually feeling worse since decreasing my hydrocortisone two and a half weeks ago to 10mg (from 13).  Work, both physical and metal, drain me to the point of dizziness and confusion. She said it was probably a combination of too low of a dose of the hydro plus some pretty cruddy nutrition blood work feedback in other areas.  Low iron, low protein, low blood sugar-it is sort of a bad merry go-round because I feel bad so I don't eat, so I don't have enough good nutrition in my body and then I feel worse.   So...some more vitamins, possibly some supplements (including B12) and try to eat a little better or do some protein shakes (esp if I am trying to exercise.)  She added that some of the other "weird" symptoms I'm currently having, like sore feet and numb hands-could be vitamin deficiencies.  She is also keeping me on the prescription potassium.

So I'm upping my hydrocortisone for the next couple weeks, trying to eat a little more and a little more balanced.  My blood pressure is perfect and I am off of all of my blood pressure medication. 

I'm down 30+ pounds which is great but some areas are still acting stubborn-bra shopping today was like trying to wrangle two toddlers.  Why please are big bras so ugly?

Ok...back to topic.  Thanks everyone for the continued thoughts, prayers, messages, phone calls, cards etc.  I'm on my way to being a normal person again.  Well I don't think I was ever normal but I'm enjoying figuring out who I really am again!