A Blog Hop for Pulmonary Hypertension

Last weekend, I got an e-mail from my friend BreAnn McFarland, asking if I'd participate in a Blog Hop for Pulmonary Hypertension(PH for short). This cause has special meaning to me as my older brother and good friend suffered from Pulmonary Hypertension. BreAnn told me a long time ago, that I was one of the few people that she had mentioned the disease to, that actually knew what it is. Unfortunately, including BreAnn, I've actually known 3 people who have suffered or are suffering from this devastating disease.

Pulmonary hypertension - WHAT IT IS.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an increase of blood pressure in the  pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein or pulmonary capillaries, together known as the lung vasculature, leading to shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting, leg swelling and other symptoms. Pulmonary hypertension can be a severe disease with a markedly decreased exercise tolerance and heart failure.  In  other words just walking 50 feet will have the person gasping and laboring for breath. 

You can learn more about the disease from this LINK.

FACT: While there are now 11 FDA approved medicines to treat pulmonary hypertension, zero are approved for use in children with PH.
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For my card, I chose this image from Sassy Cheryls called Firefly Frenzie - Maddie. The reason for choosing this image is in memory of catching fireflies with my big brother when I was a little girl, a task that would be physically impossible by someone suffering from PH. Be sure to note that  periwinkle ribbon to remind us of the PH cause.

She's colored with Prisma-Color Pencils and Faber Castell blended with Gamsol. The papers are from a digital kit by Correen Silk called Sandy Getaway from Computer Scrapbook.Com. I'm also entering this card in this week's Sassy Cheryl's Anything Goes challenge.

This is a two day blog hop, so be sure to check back tomorrow for the second round.

Here are the blog links for both days.

Saturday Line Up 

Betty http://simplybettystamps.blogspot.com/

Corinne - http://wishuponascrap.blogspot.com/

Darcy - http://craftingwithdarcy.blogspot.com 

Katya - http://kattyxotica.blogspot.com

 Shelley  - http://shelleyscreations.blogspot.com 

Irene - http://irenescardcreations.blogspot.com/ 

Karen - www.kraftykarensblogspot.co.uk/wordpress

Lisa - http://www.mindovermattercreations.com

Emily -  http://emilyshroom.blogspot.com.au/

 Veronica - http://www.artbyveronica.blogspot.com/

Shirley - http://tangentsfromtazmanial.bloghop.com

Sunday's line up 

Tamara -  http://thestampingchef.oo.gd/Blog/

Amanda P - http://Oldenough2beakid.blogspot.com/

Charlene - http://charlenescardcreations.blogspot.com

Kerrie - http://cardsbykerrie.blogspot.co.uk/

Sharon - http://www.mrslumpys.blogspot.com/

Amanda A - http://amandascolourcreations.blogspot.co.uk/

Petra - http://pscreations-sa.blogspot.com/ 

Corinne - http://wishuponascrap.blogspot.com/

Eleanor - http://ellispysselochdittadatt.blogspot.com/

Marji - http://www.fstampaholic.blogspot.com/

Tanja - http://craft-teeinthecity.blogspot.com

 Veronica - http://www.artbyveronica.blogspot.com/

What's Up This Week With Show Me Thursday

Well, I have to say that with SCAMP over, you would have thought life would be uneventful and back to routine. My husband wanted to know when things were going to be back to normal? My question is what is normal, because its for sure I don't have a clue.

Tuesday afternoon I babysat baby Charles. He and I took a two hour nap with him laying on my chest. Since it was  just him and me, I don't have a picture of that.

Then on Thursday it was a marathon day of babysitting. I picked Coleman up from pre-school and kept him the rest of the day. His Mom and Dad delivered Lucy Ann to me around 6:30 on their way to the MSU football game. This is a picture of Lucy Ann eating grape tomatoes and a grilled cheese(she's only 10 months old).

When her parents came to pick her up, I asked if she had a costume for Lucy Ann for Halloween. She was going to make her a Pumpkin costume. I have been keeping my nephew's Halloween costume since he was one year old, and asked her if she'd like to borrow it. Her fear was that it would be like everyone else's pumpkin costume, but I assured her that with the costume being 26 years old, there was no threat of that. So here she is in her pumpkin suit. She didn't care for the head piece at all.

Friday was spent making cowboy chaps for great nephew Corbin for his Halloween costume. The first pair I made was for my great nephew Robert 21 years ago for cowboy week at his pre-school. Coleman is attending the same pre-school, so I'll be making a pair for him before February. Here's Corbin in his regalia.

When we delivered the chaps to Tupelo, we made a stop by Harbor Freight. Terri, one of the SCAMPers brought us all these neat needle nose pliers that she had gotten from HF. I stopped and picked up some more needle nose pliers along with some other small wire cutters. I have to buy multiples since my DH seems to walk off with mine every time I buy them.

That's my week.   So what have you got going on in your life this week? You never know you might win a free image from the infamous Mz Sassy Cheryl. Just post a photo of what you have going on, on the Sassy Cheryl's Blog site.  In the meantime, I'm going to work on getting back to normal(if you know me, you know that saying normal is about as close as it gets).

A SCAMP Show Me Thursday

SCAMP in case your wondering is my name for Sassy Camp. Last year a bunch of us that belong to the PCP Sassy Cheryl's Group gathered  for a week in Columbus(my hometown), MS. We stayed on Tibbee Creek at our Camphouse and crafted in Tazmania. We had such a great time we decided to repeat the event. This year was even better than last year, and one of the reasons was that the infamous Sassy Cheryl, herself, was among the campers.

This year several of us brought a project to do with the rest of the group, but we also included some different non-crafting activities. You could participate in what you wanted to.

The first activity was to expose the girls to the use of Heat Transfrer Vinyl and Hot Fix Rhinestones. One of our nightly activities the first year was to watch Jeanne Robertson videos. One of those videos talked about the person who  helps Jeanne pick her suits out, and everything was FAB U LOUS. Anna saw a t-shirt in the Birmingham Airport that had Fabulous done in glitter vinyl. Instead of doing t-shirts that some of us might not ever wear, Anna found these great aprons. I added the rhinestone Sassy template from the Silhouette Online Store. Anna let everyone pick there aprons and colors of vinyl and rhinestones early in the prep, but didn't tell any of them what we were making, nor what they were picking colors for, until we started the project. So here are the Scampers in our Fabulous and Sassy aprons. Notice that Cheryl is the different one in the bunch.

One of my favorite things to do is to get up early and go kayaking on Tibbee Creek. Fortunately for me  Anna and Cheryl, liked it too. The second morning we kayaked it was extremely foggy so it was  a very spooky Halloween type of morning.  Here are pictures from that morning. 

Judy is the Queen of trees, so when we saw this tree, we knew it would make a perfect diecut for her Cameo. All I did was bring the shot into my Silhouette software and do a trace on it.

 

On Wednesday, Terri brought all the parts for us to make a frame for a group shot of us Scampers. I still have to add my flowers(just temporarily added for the picture) to my frame, but I can't wait to add a photo of the seven of us, and plan on hanging it either in my office or at the Camphouse.

Thursday morning, Judy gave us another coloring lesson with the Prismas. We made a card like her last week's Challenge card. Here are all of the cards that were made, and then a solo shot of my card.  She also had us make a great card with diecut trees and a sled, but I'm going to hope someone else posts it.

After lunch on Wednesday we decided to get a  little exercise. We went down the road about 3 miles to the Plymouth Bluff Recreational Area, where they have two 2 mile trails. This shot is one of Anna and Cheryl up on a tree. Both trees in the shot are off the ground. Can you tell who is the adult in this picture?

My BIL has a trail riding business, so after the walk, DH and I took Ann, Cheryl and Anna to his barn and let them get in a little horseback riding. They didn't do the trail this year. Think that might be on the agenda for next year.

Ab trotting with Ann

Anna on Briggen, Ann on Ab and Cheryl onStrawberry

On Saturday I took them to Waverly Plantation for a tour of an antebellum home(built prior to the Civil War). The architecture is pretty impressive, but what makes this a fun tour, is the story of the home itself. It literally set empty and open for 50 years. Of 716 hand turned mahogany spindles on the stair cases and around each floor(house is open in the center from the ballroom in the center of the house upwards 65 feet to the octagon shaped cupola) only 1 was broken. Two 12 foot gold pier mirrors were still in the ballroom along with a giant gold mirror over the mantle in the parlor(all undamaged). All of the glass gasoliers were still in place and unbroken. It was a party house, and I know because my father talked about going and partying there when he was a young adult. Of course, it's filled with some impressive antiques. The magnolia tree is estimated to be between 250 and 300 years old and the largest in the state of Mississippi.

And finally a shot of us the last day of SCAMP on the side of Tazmania. I have to say, I can hardly wait until next year. Oh and I promise you I had more than one shirt. It just seemed that I had it on in every group shot.

Thank You! Thank You! For Anything Goes

It truly has been six weeks I think since I've participated in a Sassy Cheryls Challenge, because I've been working on updating and redoing my house. Finding crafting time for cards hasn't been in the mill, since I've been busy crafting house decor.

Thankfully this week's challenge is Anything Goes, and it worked perfectly for some crafting I needed to do.  I am so excited that Sassy Cheryl has added pre-colored images back to the store. The reason is that I can now make the most adorable T-shirts using a pre-colored image and the Silhouette Heat Printable Transfer Vinyl.

Silhouette makes two printable vinyls. One is for light fabric(READ WHITE for light) and one for dark fabric. When you use the light you reverse the image and peel off the negative and it leaves a backing top side. When you use the dark, you don't reverse the image and you peel up your image(this one's a little trickier since it's not sticking to a backing so has a tendency to curl on you. Just make sure that you follow the instructions on the package.

So my first shirt is for my great niece Lucy Ann. When Sassy Cheryl came out with this image called Maddie's Prized Pumpkin, I knew that it had to be on a shirt for LA. She has the most amazing red hair, and I found this lime green shirt(I should have used the for dark fabric for this one) that will be perfect. Now I need to find some coordinating striped leggings, and this outfit will go through the fall.

Sassy Cheryl's just released this new snowman image called Admiring the Star. Since I purchased a white shirt with the Lime Green, I decided this would be a perfect winter shirt image. Now I need to find some leggings to go with this one. Again, this one can actually go through the winter and not just for Christmas.

Finally I have had two white t-shirts to do Christmas shirts for my grandson and my great grandson. This time I used two of Sassy Cheryl's images colored images that I actually purchased a long time ago. Combined they make a fantastic Christmas shirt.

With these colored images and the printable heat transfer vinyl, the world is open to creating one of a kind clothing for your children and grandchildren. You'll have people asking where you found those shirts, and you just get to grin and say "I made it myself."

Now for some exciting news. There's going to be a Sassy Cheryls Winter Holiday Blog Hop with prizes. Check it out!

*******

Next Tuesday, October 8th starting at 6:00 a.m. EST 
Sassy Cheryl's is releasing 

SIX NEW WINTER DIGI IMAGES!!

AND...to help celebrate, the Sassy Cheryl Design Team Ladies will be having a 

BLOG HOP!!

 

So...mark your calendars and set your alarms...
you won't want to miss the FUN!

Plus...there will be PRIZES PRIZES PRIZES!!

So...come join us, won't you?!!
*******

And the Redo, Just Keeps On Keeping On

It's time for a SMT post. I have lots of pictures because I have LOTS going on both at home and at the neighbors. And yes Cheryl, we are seeing fall like temps, and I am totally, totally loving them.

So as you know I'm working on redoing the house, so last Thursday and Friday, the last of the hired work got done with the completion of the floor in my kitchen, breakfast room and office. This is ceramic tile, but it looks like six inch wooden planks.

Once that was done, it was time to start reloading. I have not been happy with the board that serves as my desk top since I painted it. The paint didn't stick like it should have, and yes I primed it first. So I found some contact paper that was wider than the board and covered it.

Coleman celebrated his third birthday on Saturday at the a place called Country Pumpkins. It was a great setup and not just for kid's parties. A few of us adults had to try out the tire swing. We just needed someone to get us going.

This is a picture of Coleman and Lucy Jane in one of the barrel train cars.

On Wednesday, my BFF and her DH arrived. Her DH put up the crown molding in the last of the bedrooms. She spent the day hanging pictures and decorating. She also made me a dried hydrangea wreath that is perfect over the bed in the front bedroom, plus I got curtains up. The funny part of the curtains is that my DH has tried to have as little to do with this project as possible. After I hung the curtains with them open and the rod exposed in the middle, he asks me wouldn't they look better pulled to at the top and then back with tiebacks. This coming from the man who doesn't want any curtain on our bedroom windows. Oh and the only window treatments we've ever had in this house are some valances and blinds(and those aren't even on all windows). OK, so this might freak some of you out, but we live 400 feet off a road, so there's not much chance of anyone seeing in unless they come down the drive.

She finished the FAMILY wall, but that's not to say that I won't be adding some more pictures. I really don't have a problem with pictures going from door frame to door frame. After all with families as large as ours, there are PLENTY of pictures.

Today, my walking buddy and I spent the afternoon stenciling her kitchen floor. It's painted white and butts up to dark hardwood, so she wanted to stencil a border along the dividing point to make it look like the border on a carpet. I think she liked the way it turned out, and I know I did.

Then it was home to finish the shirts for my neighbor's twin granddaughters. She's giving them fishing rods for their birthdays and wanted a shirt to go along. We all loved the way they turned out.

From now until next Thursday, I'm going to be finishing up cleaning cabinets and getting my dining room back to being a dining room.

So that's what I've been doing this past week. Please share what you've got going on in your life on Sassy Cheryl's Show Me Thursday. Just for sharing you have a chance at a free Sassy Cheryl image.

Keeping On With the House Redo With A Little Fun Thrown In

It's time for a SMT post, and I've got a lot to show this week. I spent a Sunday afternoon a week ago, making some Christmas t-shirts and personalizing some outfits for my great niece and nephews. I have to tell you that Sassy Cheryl is bringing back her colored images for sale. If you want to know why I'm so excited, just look at the adorable Christmas t-shirts I created with her colored images and using the Silhouette Printable Vinyl. These were so easy and so inexpensive to make. They're also going to be one of a kinds, because no one else in my area is going to have any like them.

Front of Coleman's Camp G&G t-shirt

Coleman's birthday t-shirt. His party is at the Pumpkin Patch.

Then it was back to house stuff. So these are images of the towel ladder that DH and I built for the bathroom as well as the coat rack or nightgown hanger I built for the bathroom. The knobs are just that, cabinet pulls.

I saw this saying on Pinterest and decided I'd dress mine up a bit using a frame. A friend brought me the wooden beads and I decided to make my hanging wire and use them. I smile every time I look at this.

Finally, I saw this FAMILY thing done on Pinterest and knew I had to do it for one of the open walls in my hall. I still have a lot of pictures to hang, but I love the look of this.

Through the years I've made Christening gowns for friends and family. I've also saved birth announcements so I have a wall in my hall that's going to have these hung. I created this vinyl floating image for the wall.

Now I'm off to empty my office. The floor people called and are going to be here tomorrow to put down the new floor in my kitchen, breakfast room and office. I'll have something to show y'all for next week for sure.