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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

I'm still here..

Thank you so so much to my readers and commentors on my last post. Your support and kind words truly mean the world to me. :D Days when I miss my mom are more often than I ever admit.

I meant to get back on here before my last post but honestly I had nothing good to talk about. :P And really I don't want to bring a whole ton of bad stuff on here, because the last thing I like to do when is read about all the awful things happening to someone. But that is all that has happened right now. :( And I think I just need to vent it.

On Monday night, my family lost it's oldest and most precious member. My dearest Great Grandma, Gammy. Her real name is Ethel, but we always just called her Gammy. She was 92 years old. I wish so much that we could have taken Creedence to see her just one more time, but by the time we knew it was close, it was too late. I am happy though that she got to meet her Great Great Grandma one time. The picture below is from July 2008. Creedence will never remember it, but she will have pictures to look back on. We all know that Gammy is in a much better place, and lived a very long and full life. The real person I am concerned about right now is my dear Grandma. I wish so much that I could be with her right now, be there to support her. She has worked so hard the past 10 years or so, making sure that Gammy had everything that she needed taken care of, and when Gammy developed Dementia, she worked tirelessly to make sure she had the best medical care. This has been so much of my Grandma's life for so long, that adjusting to not having to do it will be hard. I know the emptiness she will feel. But I hope to see her soon, and help her in any way I can.

My Great Grandma passing is just the last of a list of things that have made the last almost two weeks really really hard. The truck broke down twice. The first time (Thank Goodness!) the fuel injectors were still under warranty, so to get them fixed was free. The second time, well let's just say there goes a week's wages. I was actually the one driving it when it broke down the second time. And it was the biggest pain in the butt I have had to go through in a really really long time! LOL! I don't own a cell phone, and if you don't believe me ask Michelle from PDW. ;D Anyway the power steering fluid/brake fluid box exploded in the drive thru at Jack in the Box. The truck is a lifted F250 and the tires are absolutely huge, so this means when the power steering is gone, those tires don't move. At least not for me. And this drive thru is one where you make a full 180 degree turn to get through, and I broke down in the middle of the thing. I was working on my 3 point turn to make it through, when the wheel just stopped working. My first thought was 'Oh S**T!!' I got out and ran to the little drive thru window and told them what happened, and that I needed someone with muscle to come and help me. Believe it or not the guy they sent was named Jesus. :P Anyway, with both he and I turning the wheel we finally, after nearly 40 minutes, got the truck out. I was shaking my muscles were so shot. Turning that wheel to try and get those tires to turn was hell on earth. I was so thankful that Jesus came out to help, because otherwise I would never have made it. Ever. Once the truck was parked out of the drive thru, Creedence and I went back in and got our food (LOL), and then went and called Jed from a payphone. Sidenote: I am so happy those things still exist. Although I think that there will be a day real soon when payphones are just no longer there. :P Jed came and got us and drove the truck home and then we had a tow truck come and pick it up and take it to the dealership. Needless to say I am pretty nervous about driving that thing anymore. LOL!

The next thing has both good news and bad news to it. Good news is we have finally started the speech therapy for Creedence! She had her first evaluation last Tuesday, and will have another one sometime this next week. She qualifies with this center through the school district, and they will be helping as much as they can to try and get Creedence on track with speaking. They have a Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and a Psychologist at the center, and every child is required to see all three to get a more rounded idea of what we can do to help her.

(In case anyone is unfamiliar with the situation, my daughter is 30 months old and only speaks 3 words. She has her own language for everything except kitty, goodbye, and Oh Wow. She never said mama or papa or any of the common first words.) The speech therapist (hereto after referred to as SP) was very fascinated by Creedence's own language. She talks and talks and talks all day long, but besides those three words, non of it makes sense. We have come to understand a few of her words which she says for the same thing all the time. Like when she wants more of something (which is usually a sippy cup refill) she says Kabwee. We found out from the SP that from evaluating Creedence, she has been able to hear Creedence say up to 9 words in a sentence! And that if she were able to speak correctly, she would have a pretty fantastic vocab!

That really made me feel a lot better about things, because when your child doesn't talk, it really starts to make you wonder if you did something wrong. You start to worry that you are a bad parent. I had never really thought about it until after the evaluation, but the fact that I can not have a conversation with my daughter (like all the other mom's at the mommy and me class), or hear my daughter say anything that makes sense to me, has really really been wearing me down. I am so ashamed to say that, but it's true. I love my daughter with all that I have in me, but to not hear or be able to do those thing with my daughter makes me sad. And scared. The SP says that we are still a ways away from a diagnosis, but from what she has heard this sounds like it could be something called Apraxia.I came home and looked it up, and just started crying. (I especially cried when I read this poem) This told me that we could be in for a very long haul with this. And my Grandma, bless her heart, told me that if we all have to learn sign language to be able to talk to Creedence, than we will. I want so much to be able to talk to my daughter and to hear her say something back. And yet I feel like a failure for feeling this way. Like I said before, I love my daughter so much, and I am sooo lucky and blessed to have her, that I feel ashamed for wanting more and not being happy with the little angel I have. This is one of those moments that I wish my mom was here. She would know just how to comfort me, and how to get through and passed it.

And the last thing, which was the first to happen, is that I am in battles with one of my fav scrapbooking companies to try and get some of my work back. I am not going to go into any details with this, but I will say that it has made me so sad. Really ruined scrapbooking for me, and made me so scared about my work. I would like to hope that my relationship with the company will one day be as it was before, and I hope that day will be soon.

Well, on a more positive note, I am scrapping with the March Polka Dot Whimsy kit today (which looks like it is now sold out)! :D I am waaaaay behind on this (So sorry Michelle and Nicole!) but hopefully by the end of the day I will have sufficient projects to add to the site! :D The other DT members projects are up right now so go check it all out if you get a chance! :D

I will be back soon to share my March projects! And hopefully some much greater news about something! I have no idea what, but something good is bound to happen! :D *Keeping positive here!* :D Hope everyone is well! Take Care!

~Amy

Thursday, February 11, 2010

From my heart, from now on.

I have been thinking a whole lot. I don't really have any relationship with this blog other than to just share my layouts. And I feel very sad about that.

So here is to changing that:

I am missing my mom very much today. I miss being able to talk to her and get advice from her. She wore her heart on her sleeve so passionately, and I have tried so hard to live my life like that. But sometimes that can get you into some pretty hot water. I am watching Pride and Prejudice today, it reminds me so much of my mom. We watched that all the time.


I am not sure what to do right now. Or what to say. But no matter what, I will be true to my feelings. No matter the consequences. And I will be proud of myself.

:D

And because I can't do a post without a pic: here is Cree from the other day. She fell asleep standing. With mismatched BabyLegs on her arms. She is such a crazy maniac girl.


Take care

~Amy

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Sharing all my Cosmo Cricket stuff today! :D I did a mix of stuff with the new and old (they always ask us to do some stuff with the old so people can try to see it in a new light ya know?). I didn't get to work with any of the paper from the Joy Ride collection so I only have two new layouts for the new collections, one for Material Girl and one for Garden Variety. All the rest are new layouts for older collections.

First up is Material Girl! I absolutely love love love this line! I can't say enough good things about this line. It speaks to my heart completely! :D And I had a ton of fun doing this layout! I'd be happy to do a tutorial on how I did it if anyone would like! :D

Supplies: Paper-all of the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl collection papers; Embellishments-Cosmo Cricket Material Girl Ready Set Chip, Ready Set Chip letters in Red Line; Tools and Other-Marvy 2 1/2 in scallop punch, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, hole punch, (used a Crate Paper die cut paper as the template for the scallop circle), sewing machine and embroidery thread

Next up is Garden Variety. I went super simple on this one because I love the background paper and wanted it to be a focus of the layout. This is kind of my resolution page for 2010. It just listed tons of things that I want to work on, improve on and change. I wanted to use as many of the paper's patterns as I could, yet not use them-know what I mean? The theme for this line just didn't work with resolutions, but the colors are great! So I just used punches of the papers and lined them up. :D I really like how it turned out.


Supplies: Paper-I lost track on what papers I used and what ones I didn't :P I used almost all of the Garden Variety papers here. Embellishments-Ready Set Chip Letters Extra Extra; Tools and other-sewing machine, Martha Stewart punches Starburst and 3-in-1 Butterfly

This layout is my fav that I did. I love the muted colors and the little glassine circles. :D And I went a little punch happy too. :P Oh and once I get the Tiny Type stickers in my new box then I will be adding an m and a o after the 25. :D


Supplies:Paper-Girl Friday "Monday" "Tuesday" "Wednesday" "Thursday" "Saturday" "Borders"; Embellishments-Girl Friday Pink Velvet Scallop ribbon, Ready Set Chip Letters Flour Sack, 7Gypsies Chipboard trim; Tools and other-Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, 1 in circle punch, Rose leaf punch, Frond punch, 1 in Scallop punch, Marvy 2 1/2 in scallop punch, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, Claudine Hellmuth paint in Sable Brown and Pink, Craft Supply white acrylic paint, sewing machine, glassine evelopes (punched), Starbucks coffeecup liners, vintage book paper

I had a lot of fun doing this LO! And it came together fast too. Very simple. Well fairly simple. No journaling. Just my motto for 2010. Bloom and Become.

Supplies: Paper-Earth Love "Relive" "Remember" "Repeat"; Embellishments-Earth Love Image Rub ons, Earth Love Alpha Rub ons, Boyfriend Ready Set Chip Alpha, Earth Love Cardstock Stickers, American Crafts Nutmeg Thicker, Craft Supply Acrylic White paint; Tools and other-EK Success tiny scallop edge punch, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, Marth Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, Marvy 2 1/2 in scallop punch

And one of my new all time favs! This LO was a blast! Tons of layers and texture.

Supplies: Paper-all papers from Early Bird collection including the Borders and Elements; Embellishments-Ready Set Chip Extra Extra, Fleuriste Blackboard negative, Basic Grey Opaline Teal/Aquamarine; Tools and other-Fiskars Apron Lace punch, Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch and 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, Claudine Hellmuth paint in teal, Craft Supply paint in black and white, sewing machine, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, packing paper

This has got to be my all time fav layout that I think I have ever done. :P I know I say that about quite a few but I this one is really special to me. Oddly enough though, Cosmo Cricket bought it from me for the CHA booth, and now I have to recreate it. LOL! Which is fine with me, I am supplied with more than enough product to do so. :D The journaling is from one of my fav songs, It's Amazing by Mindy Smith. It reads:

Can you see
It's amazing what you do to me
Took my heart and made me feel things
I never felt before
It's changing me
Switched direction so suddenly
Shook me up and threw me around
Helped me learn to breathe
It all in

When I was afraid to reach out
Oh, when I was the one to run
You came along with a new lease on love
To show me how it's done

Supplies: Paper-all Boyfriend papers in collection including Elements; Embellishments- Boyfriend Ready Set Chipboard, Honey Pie brown scallop velvet ribbon, Ready Set Chip Letters Flour Sack; Tools and other-Martha Stewart punches Starburst, Rose Leaf, Frond, 3-in-1 Butterfly, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, sewing machine

Whew! I can't even tell you how ridiculously long it has taken me to finish this post! LOL! I am still working on the CHA post but hopefully will have that finished by tomorrow evening. I am so excited for new stuff to come out! :D

On another note, I am going to soon begin the task of planning my wedding. *I'm so excited!* It is going to be a tiny thing, but I want it to be beautiful and meaningful. If you happen to know of any good DIY or inspiration sites for weddings I would appreciate it soooo much! I am clueless about how to plan, and about what exactly I would like for our special day. It is in December btw, so I have a bit of time. :D Thanks so much!!!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Polka Dot Whimsy Reveal!

Ok so I am quite a few days behind on posting these but better late than never! :P The reveal was on the 28th of January, which was later than it normally will be in the future. Usually it will happen on the 25th, with sneaks starting on the 16th (or as soon as any of us can dish them out after the 16th!).

This kit was such a fun one! It is Valentine themed, which was lovely for me because I hadn't got any of the Valentine stuff that was out as of recent. (Themed kits are a little intimidating, but no need to worry, this is the last themed kit for a while from PDW. They are going to resume regular kits, and then in April Michelle will start the addon kits and project kits again! Exciting!) This kit is also really eclectic in that it has lots and lots of little things and variety! From tons of ribbons, to fabric strips, to confetti, to cupcake liners, to tons of buttons-there are a million little things that add the perfect little touches to your LOs and projects! And seriously I have a whole freakin ton left of my kit! I gotta figure out some more stuff to do with it! :P So without further ado-I present to you Polka Dot Whimsy's February kit PS I Love You!!!





And here is what I did with it:

First up is a Valentine banner that I made. Kinda similar to the one I did previously with Prima stuff (love making these!), except this one actually says Happy Valentines and has hearts instead of stars. Please forgive my horrible photos of it, it was super windy outside and I absolutely suck at photographing indoors. :P But you get the idea of what it is.



Other supplies used (besides the PDW kit): Martha Stewart punches-starburst, scalloped 1 in circle, heart confetti, heart button double punch; Marvy 2 1/2 in scallop punch; and my sewing machine

Next up is the first of my LOs. I love this Pink Paislee die cut paper! Love.



And this is the other LO that I did. I had lots of fun with this one! Misting and painting!


Here I decided to make a headband! I used this tutorial from Rachel Dunbow's blog Smile and Wave. I thought it was the cutest thing I had ever seen! But it didn't look nearly as cute on me. LOL! Anyway I used part of the two fabric strips that came in the kit. Sorry for the super bad shots. I seriously took like a 1000 and these were the best out of them all. :P


But oh no! I didn't stop there! :D I had to make something similar for my Creedence. And the pics here are even worse because she was soooo not in the mood to cooperate! This thing has not been back on her head since, which sucks cause it is kinda cute! Oh well.


And there we have it! I was kinda disappointed in myself with this reveal, but I only like one evening to work on all of this and then a little bit of the next morning. Next reveal I will have a whole ton of time to work on the kit! I am excited because it should be here soon! :D If you haven't signed up for the newsletter than click here and do it!

I am working on a couple other posts that has the stuff I did for CHA, and another that has all the new CHA things that are on my ToGet list! And also I am going to be doing an overhaul of my blog because it is in desperate need of such. :P Take care!
~Amy