Today was a day to celebrate!

Today we celebrated my daughter's sixth birthday!

This was extra special for us because just a year ago, our daughter was in the hospital battling for her life. 

On May 1st, Megan was diagnosed with ALL....leukemia.  We were all so devastated, yet ready to fight this with all we have.

I'm so proud of my little girl, who throughout the year, has fought this off like a true warrior.  While we are still in the battle, and will be for the next 17 months, we celebrated her life, and our life getting back to "normal" by having a house full of people to celebrate along with us. 

So for the first time in a long while, our house was full, and loud, and chaotic, and happy.  It was so beautiful that I found myself tearing up a few times. 

So give your children a hug tonight, tell them you love them, and try to celebrate the normal stuff a little bit everyday!! 

Blessings!

Getting back to it isn't always the easiest.

My intentions were good.  I was feeling the creative juices flowing.  I had visions of sitting down in my quiet spot to create hours worth of crafty cards, scrapbook pages, and gift tags.  BLISS!

Then the flu hit our little home and well......

First I came down with it.  Headache, body aches, weakness.   Just an all around blah feeling. 

Next was my nine year old.  "Mom I'm cold.  Mom I'm sweaty."  Uh oh.  Here we go.

Today it was my 12 year old.  "Mom I feel like I climbed a mountain yesterday.  Everything hurts".  Uh oh squared.

So I broke out the lysol, the antibacterial wipes and gel, the surgical masks (don't laugh...we do wear those when we are sick to protect my daughter who is undergoing chemo therapy right now).

My life has become a series of trips up and down our stairs bringing things to and from my boy's rooms while still attempting to take care of my five year old little girl with leukemia, meanwhile nursing myself back to health and NOT getting her sick all at the same time.

*sigh*  Saying I'm exhausted is the understatement of the year. 

But I WILL get back to it!  In fact, I've taken a few minutes each day to get downstairs and peruse some idea books and go through my inventory.  The creative juices are still flowing.  Only right now, they have been a little diluted with all the OJ I've been downing. 

Stay tuned....

Sometimes, I just need my space.

So here it is, my crafting area made for me by my wonderful hubby who may not understand what women love about making things with paper or cloth, but supports it anyway! LOL

We all love being down in our new basement room.  It's open, and cozy at the same time.  We were able to get the most amount of living space that we could by seperating it into three sections.  The first is a seating/tv area, the second is the kiddos play area and the third is my craft space. Here are some pics....

We used our 12 ft folding table, and added some shelving units above half of it.  This is great because it allows me to have plenty of storage space while still having the entire table to work with. 

And due to my love of all things paper, my husband found these great drawers to oraganize all of the papers by color.  Again, giving me easy access, but still giving me plenty of room to work.  Here's a close up...

I should mention that I also adore ribbons...

And punches...

And I guess just stuff in general...

Don't mind the toys on the left...I don't collect those, I promise! LOL

Here are a few pictures of some of my projects.  The majority of these are from my scrapbooks, but I am also beginning to make cards.  Here was my first...

It's not great, but its a start.  And I got to use ribbons!  That always makes life lovely.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head back down to my basement.  I've got lots of inspiration!!! 

Days like today just make your heart hurt so much.

I turned on the morning news bright and early this morning only to see that on the other side of the world it actually looked like the world might be coming to an end. 

I wish I had something profound and comforting to write here today, but honestly, my heart is just breaking for these families and all of their loved ones.  I still can't wrap my head around most of the footage I watched....it's just so painful to imagine.

Tonight, I will be praying with my children for all of the Japanese people as they begin to process what has happened to them today.  I hope that you will be praying along with me tonight. 

We may not understand why this happened, but I have to believe that He knows, and He will bring something beautiful out of the ashes.

His mercies are new every morning.  I will be thanking Him for that tomorrow.

I hereby promise....

That I will start crafting!! 

After posting yesterday I realized just how much I miss sitting and creating something.  I know that I have a creative spirit in me...and it's time to get back in touch with it! 

So, I will be crafting my heart out this weekend and posting my results on Monday!  Stay tuned!!!!!

My name is Eliz, and I'm a crafting addict.

They say that admitting it is the first step, so here it goes.  I have a problem, with craft supplies. 

I love them.

I enjoy them.

They make me happy.

Making something out of nothing makes me giddy.

I buy the stuff whenever I can with full expectations of sitting down to my quiet crafting space, that my wonderful hubby made for me, and spending hours among my piles of supplies creating things that would send Martha Stewart back to the big house for attempting to gain control of my cool little crafting empire. 

And it gets worse...not only do I purchase these items, but I also LOVE to organize them (how type A can I get?).  I buy pretty boxes and storage systems and make them all look I just stepped out of Real Simple Magazine.  It just makes me so happy. 

So what is the problem with this exactly?  Well, first of all, as the homeschooling mom of three, one of whom is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia, where does one find the time exactly? 

In reality, I don't have the time to spend making all the creations that pop into my head at any moment.  But I DO seem to find the time to buy all the stuff! LOL  Herein lies my issue.....

Is it crazy to have a hobby that mainly consists of buying products for a hobby?  Am I crazy?  Maybe.  I'll post pics tomorrow and you can be the judge! ;)

So a few weeks ago I discovered the nirvana (if you will) of all crafting supplies while at a friends house working on one of my many scrapbooks. 

I was instantly covetous and had to confess my sin on more than one occasion.  I ran home and researched the said item and after much deliberation I have decided....

I must make it mine.

Here is the beautiful piece of equipment....

It's called the Cricut Expressions cutting system.  What does it do you ask? Well it cuts beautiful pieces of artwork out of regular old cardstock as well as vellum, vinyl, just about any material you can think of.  It does so many things that I'm sure I haven't even touched the surface of what this thing can do!  I'm pretty sure it even makes julienne fries judging from one review I read.    If you would like to read more about it, you can find it here at:  http://www.cricut.com/.  I got the above photo from their website.

Will it become mine?  We will see.  I'm trying to be a good girl, and make a smart financial choice about when/if to get it.  I'll keep you all posted!  Meanwhile, if you need me, I will be at my friend's house playing with hers.  Goodness, its like the Barbie Dream House envy of 1980 all over again! LOL

Christmas in.....March????

This afternoon my wonderful husband came in from the pouring rain with a package.  As the person who usually does all the online shopping around here I wondered what on earth it could be as I hadn't ordered anything (or at least remembered ordering anything).

When I opened the package I found that my amazing, sweet and ever so thoughtful husband had secretly ordered me this.....

I was so thrilled!!!!!  You see, this past Christmas was such a hard one for us.  Our family was separated as my daughter was in the hospital dealing with a difficult set back from her cancer treatments.  My husband was there with her and I was home with my two boys...we were all sick, which of course meant we couldn't go and see my daughter.  In my low state, I decided to break out my older than dirt VHS copy of my all time favorite Christmas movie.  All was well and good until Bing offered Ms. Clooney some butter milk for her insomnia and then, to my utter horror, my tape got stuck and was eaten by what is probably the oldest VCR known to man. 

As you can imagine I was heart broken!  Not only was I separated from my husband and daughter for Christmas, but now I couldn't even bask in the comfort of Danny Kay singing "Snow" or his hilarious rendition of "Sisters" anytime I wanted.

I casually mentioned it on the phone the next day with my husband during one of our phone calls that we so lovingly referred to as "debriefings" where I would get all of my information on my daughters health and he would guide me through the important things to keep our house standing like, cleaning out the pellet stove and what time the garbage man comes in the morning.

But because he is so thoughtful, nearly three months later, he remembered my Christmas movie crisis and while browsing the Internet, (thanks again Al Gore) ordered me, not just a copy, but a Collector's Edition copy, complete with never before seen footage, cast interviews and even a documentary with Irving Berlin! 

Yup my man kind of rocks. 

So today, on March 5, I sat in my cozy chair in my basement, by our warm pellet stove, and watched my favorite Christmas movie....because I could. 

All is right with the world.