Quick Takes, Spring Edition

--1--

Spring has sprung and my puffy swollen eyes are testament to that fact.  I generally like this time of year for the light, the pretty flowers popping out all over, and all the reasons most people like spring, but given the fact that it never really froze this winter, the pollen is out in force already.  I'm dreading the rest of the year.

--2--

Birdie caught a cold last Friday night and we spent a rough four or five days coaxing her through the crisis.  I'm so tired.  

--3--

 This sound ridiculously extravagant to write about, but we are sort of considering hiring a night nurse for a few nights a week just to get through this.  Because even when she isn't sick, one of us (or usually both of us) are up for literally hours with her every night.  Neither my husband nor me is particularly functional right now.

--4--

I'm so grateful to all the dear ones who've written to me, called me, brought meals, given gifts of food, etc. during these last weeks.  I'm simply stunned and overwhelmed by all the generosity of our friends and family as we work through what it means to have a chronically sick child.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

--5--

Who has seen the Hunger Games?  I read the first book for my book club and can't decide a) whether to read the other two and b) whether to see the movie.  These books seem like the anti-Twilight to me, and while I appreciate a good story, and I generally like distopian literature and extended allegory, lately I'm more in the mood for fluffy stuff.

--6--

Two cards to share today (because I don't have a sixth quick take).  This first one I CASEd from Julie Davison--I immediately loved her idea to make a digital hybrid card with My Digital Studio and decided it would be my swap for the April Philly Inkers meeting.  So easy and fast!  (Although I did run out of red ribbon three cards from the end and had to substitute a button for the knot).

 

--7--

I don't remember where the inspiration for this card came from, but I just love it.  Minimal stamping (although the hand stitching took a bit), and yet so nice!  I'm all about the flagged sentiment lately.

That's it folks!  Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!

Just My Type

Today's card parade features the Occasions Mini set Just My Type.  I will say that the typewriter is a little tricky to ink and stamp evenly, but it is a nice big stamp.  With the clear mount version, the sentiments are so easy to stamp without a stamp-a-ma-jig!   

Also, for those new to the blog, CASE stands for Copy and Share Everything.  I usually make some little tweak when I remake a card that someone else has designed, but sometimes I make it over just exactly the way they did it (as with the second card).  No use messing with perfection, right??  I am hoping to get back to creating original work sometime soon, but right now CASEing is about the best I can do.  And like I always say, this kind of stamping is sort of like creative cardio--good to keep the muscles limber, so that when you are ready to pick up the weights again, you are still in shape!

 

CASEd from Carrie Sampsel

I do have to talk about this one a little bit.  I tweaked her design just a tad, but the element I loved about her design was the taffeta ribbon running out from the t ypewriter.  For anyone as old as me (or older) who remembers actually using typewriters, this image is quite ept!!  The ribbon reminded me of typewriter ribbon--I'll probably use this element again!

CASEd from Jan Tink (GOJUS!  YILM!!)

You also might notice that my photos are different--I'm experimenting with taking them outside on my front step.  My light box set up isn't working for me since we put the window grates on every window, and I can't seem to find another place in the house that works for this kind of photography.  I'm liking how little I have to edit the outside photos!  I did find, however, that the best light was around 4:00 p.m. 

CASEd from Mary Fish.  No one does clean and simple with a modern flair like she does! 

 CASEd from Jen Sannes.

 

CASEd from Wendy Weixler

 CASEd from Jen Sannes

Shoebox swap from my sideline, Michelle Therrien

CASEd from Ann Schach 

Tweaked from a design by Jan Tink 

 CASEd from Erin Bradley-Hindman

CASEd from Beth Weinstein (splitcoast)

6 Lessons from the Parenting Trenches

--1--

If if smells like a bodily fluid, it probably is.  'Nuff said.

--2--

Those babies who sleep through the night at two weeks and never seem to cause any problems?  Wait until they turn one.  Then you have the pain of newborn sleeping habits combined with a truly irascible (and overtired) toddler.

--3--

And for those babies who never sleep for the whole first year?  Eventually they do sleep, and some even take regular naps, but not before you are ready to sell them for just a few hours of shut-eye.  

--4--

Children are impossible for the entire year after they take their first steps.  Then, inexplicably, it gets better.

--5--

At least,  it gets better until they turn four.  And four is great, except for the part where you as a parent realize that you have a sentient, slightly rational human being who now needs to be parented.  As in, raised.  It is no longer entirely about feeding, clothing, and sheltering them.  Suddenly those big questions of what to do about lying, or willfulness pop up, and you find yourself looking around and wondering when the real grown ups are going to show up.

--6--

Just about the time you get things figured out, they switch everything on  you.  And you realize, hey, you are the grown up, and man, this is hard.  But it is worth it because they are your family.  Besides, where else would you get such great comedic material?  (I recently overheard my husband instructing the boys in the bathroom one night during the bedtime routine: "Don't put your foot in the toilet!  That is a good lesson for life.")  You can't make this stuff up!

--7--

And just for something pretty!  I copied this card from a splitcoaststamper who goes by passionflower.  Brilliant design, and I loved the monochromatic color scheme with that little pop of red.  

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!

Somebody stop me!

Anyone who has read this blog for the last few months knows we've had a tough go of it lately.  And I say, when the going gets tough, the tough start stamping!  I've had long periods of staring at the wall these last months, punctuated by short bursts of intense card making and baby book scrapping activity.  I'm hoping that the bursts of creativity become part of my norm again, and that the staring at the wall part becomes rare, but for now, I'll take what I can get.  Those days that I get a creative boost, I've been thinking of as my "Somebody stop me!" days.  I can make 10-20 cards in a day on those kinds of days!  Craziness, people.  Utter madness.

What I realize about those bursts is that I don't actually get very many of those cards posted.  Granted, most of them are tweaks of other people's designs, or straight up copies, but I still think they are worth sharing.  I used to have a one or two card limit for blog posts, but I've decided that in the interest of getting the cards posted in a timely manner, I'm going to be posting more cards per post, but fewer posts.  So my plan going forward to is to keep on with the Quick Takes on Fridays, plus one other post a week.  And then we'll see.  As we are still adjusting to the new normal of chronic illness in this household, I don't know what my spare time is going to look like in a few months.

That said, I'm also going to be skimping on the details about the cards.  I know I have a few readers that really like having all the details, and I'm sorry about that.  If you really must know how to make a card, please e-mail me and I'll be happy to send them along.  I'll post supplies as I have time.  I will try to post the source of inspiration or original card, but sometimes I don't know, so if this looks like one of yours, let me know and I'll give credit where due!!

So, for today, we have a Really Big Show (insert Ed Sullivan waving his hands here). Today's cards feature Sale-A-Bration products (ends March 31), or something from the Twitterpated Suite in the Occasions Mini catalog (ends April 30).

 

Tweaked from a card from my upline, Claire. Can't decide if I like the blue or green ribbon better!

 CASEd with a small tweak from Jen Arkfeld

CASEd from Wendy Weixler

I've seen several iterations of this card around the blogosphere, so I don't know who the original creator is.

CASEd from Jan Tink 

CASEd from Mary Fish. 

 Dress idea from Lynn Pratt (card design tweaked from her original).

CASEd from Splitcoast (Grandma Overboard) 

 CASEd from Julie Davison

Tweaked ever so slightly from Diana Gibbs.

Tweaked slightly from a design by Melissa Davies 

CASEd from Mary Fish. 

 Tweaked from a design by Gretchen Barron

Make-n-Take from Spring Fling, designed by Claire Lawrence. 

 

CASed from Mary Fish.

CASEd from Cindy at Pretty Impact. 

Tweaked just a bit from a card by Jenny Petersen. 

CASEd from splitcoast (I think--no watermark on the original photo)

 CASEd from Linda Callahan (PPA)

CASEd with a small tweak from Nance Leedy

Baby Prints

I know you are shocked--a midweek post!  Whatever will we do with ourselves?

Several friends have had babies recently, and my standard baby gift these days is baby thank you notes.  I made a rather small set of these for a fellow Philly Inker who had a baby boy at the beginning of March.  I knew she loved this set (so do I!), and I loved this design, which I found at Carrie Sampsel's blog.  That girl is so stinkin' talented.  I got a ton of new ideas from clicking around her blog one night.

But that aside, I love this card.  I won't lie--it took a little time to cut out the frame for each of the cards, and I wasn't able to make as big a set of cards as I had hoped because of the time involved, but I'm quite happy with how they came out.  I also simplified her original design a little so that I could make more than one.

The way you make this card is to dry emboss the card base with the Perfect Polka Dots folder, then run it through the Big Shot with the heart framelit.  (This will flatten out your embossing some; if you want your embossing to stand out more, reverse these steps). Cut another heart the same size out of Calypso coral, and then very carefully trim the outside of the heart where the embossed edge is.  That will give you your frame.  Take a 4x5.25" piece Very Vanilla and adhere to the back of the front of your card, and then stamp the baby hands in the opening.  Adhere the heart frame with glue or snail.  Place sticky strip across bottom of heart and arrange about 8" of seam binding in a bunchy manner.  Stamp and punch sentiment and add flower with brad.  Use dimensionals to pop it up on the seam binding.  

Supplies:

Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral cardstock
Baby Prints, Just Believe stamp sets
Calypso Coral and Pear Pizzazz inks
Vintage Trinkets (brad)
Itty Bitty Punch pack (small flower)
Large Oval punch
Hearts framelits
Perfect Polka Dots emboss folder
Big Shot
Paper Snips
Pear Pizzazz seam binding
sticky strip
dimensionals

Suspended Animation

Pampers smell like hospitals.

Three of my children were born in hospitals that used Pampers in the postnatal wards, and E has been hospitalized in two other hospitals that use them in the pediatrics wards.  We use a different brand of diapers at home, so the Pampers association is fairly restricted to hospitals.  I know a lot of people would find that disquieting, but I find it strangely comforting.  I am not afraid of hospitals or doctors, or procedures.  I've grown up around them.  My dad had four major neck surgeries during my growing up years; I worked in a hospital for several years when I was younger and, at one time, considered pursuing a medical career.  I understand the lingo, and can talk the medical jargon.  Hospitals are places where you go to get help for what ails you.

It occurred to me this week, sitting at CHOP with Birdie after her Big Procedures, smelling that Pampers smell, that our lives are on hold.  We are on hold while we deal with Birdie's recurrent respiratory crises and try manage all the health issues she has had in her short life.  Yes, we are fortunate that her conditions are chronic rather than life-threatening, and that she will eventually get big enough to manage her condition with less drama than currently, but on the other hand, we still have a long row to hoe.  The pulmonologist thinks it may be five to ten years before she is out of the woods, so to speak.  In the grand scheme of things, that isn't such a long period of time, but when every day feels like an eternity, it seems forever.  She is falling behind developmentally, and we don't know how long it will take her to catch up.  I try not to think about it too long or I just become paralyzed with fear and trembling.  I try not to think about anything at all lately.  There are too many scary things to consider, too many big questions that lurk in the corners of my mind, and I have to be strong.  My husband needs to me to keep it together, and my children need me to be there for them.  So I can't think about any of it except to push it away to a dark corner of my mind.  Because otherwise I might start screaming and never stop.

I feel guilty because I just want everything to be normal again. I'm desperate for a good night's sleep.  I know I should be selfless, and giving without anger, but it is hard when every day is a battle of fatigue and crying and vomiting and medication schedules.  I want more time to myself, more time to feel like there is more to me than sick-baby-care.  I feel terrible for Boo, who is sandwiched between a intense older brother and sick little sister, and necessarily gets less attention.  He is acting out a lot lately, and I know it is because there just isn't enough to go around for him.  I try to spend extra time with him one-on-one, but there is only so much of me to go around.

So for the moment, we are hunkered down, in bunker mode, just trying to survive this season.  There are good days and bad, good moments and bad moments, and I confess that I mostly can't see the forest for the trees, but I hope someday to be able to. I am grateful for a wonderful and flexible babysitter, who has been so available to us during this time.  I'm grateful for friends who have checked in, brought meals, offered listening ears, comforting e-mails, gave hugs, and generally helped me not to feel so isolated.   I'd like to be grateful that Birdie's condition is chronic rather than life-threatening, but I'm not there yet.  I just want her to be better, to be healthy and normal.  Hopefully we'll get there.  And perhaps by then, I'll even be grateful for this season of illness and tests and doctor's visits.  But I'm not there yet.

Quick Takes: CHOP Edition

--1--

 

Sorry I was AWOL last week.  I spent last Friday in New York City doing a food challenge for tuna fish.  And passed. My allergist said I could also try salmon and cod at home since the tuna went so well. So yay for fish!  I had fish and chips yesterday for lunch and a tuna noodle casserole for dinner. It was lovely.

--2--

Birdie had her Big Procedures this week and stayed overnight at CHOP.  Everything went very well, and we now have a few more pieces of her health puzzle in place.  While I'm glad they were able to figure a few things out, we have a long road ahead and I feel sort of overwhelmed by the whole thing.

--3--

The first is that she has broncho- and tracheomalacia, in addition to the larygnomalacia that was already diagnosed.  Essentially, her entire upper airway is floppy and collapses with every breath.  There isn't much we can do about it except wait for her to get bigger so that she can manage it better.  Right now, every cold is a respiratory crisis.  Our wonderful pulmonologist is starting us on a new medication that is supposed to help strengthen the muscular walls of the bronchi and trachea.  So we'll see.

--4--

The reason we had to stay overnight at CHOP was because GI wanted to place a probe to watch her reflux activity for 24 hours.  They also did an endoscopy at the same time pulmonary was in there.  The endoscopy was normal, but we don't yet have the results from the probe as it will take some time to collate the data.  On the upside, she did have a very typical day for reflux, coughing, and vomiting, so hopefully the probe will reveal something useful.

--5--

CHOP nurses are the best.  That is all.

--6--

And now for complete frivolity.  Today I made my first attempt at Victory rolls with my hair, and I think I like it!  Unfortunately, the photo doesn't really show all the details, but suffice to say it looks pretty 1940s! (Just ignore my bare and puffy face; it is spring and my eyes are a mess).

--7--

Here's one of the projects I showed at Spring Fling last Saturday.  I CASEd it from Diane Vander Galien at splitcoast.  I really love how this came out--I used Boho Blossoms for the flowers.  I need to remember to use that punch more often--it has so many possibilities!!

Bonus: I love the effect of Instagram, but I don't have an iPhone, nor do I plan to get one any time soon.  So I googled around a bit and found this great program that has similar filters to the Instagram program.  I used it on the photos of Birdie and me in this post.  So handy!!  

Go see Jen for more Quick takes!

7 Quick Takes: Clean Week Edition

--1--

Ready, set, go!  Today marks the end of the first week of Great Lent, also called Clean Week in the Orthodox Church.  There have been church services every night this week (although we didn't make very many of them this year), and things have been quieter than usual.  We unplugged the CD player for the week, and meals have been super simple.

--2--

Today also marks the middle of round three of stomach viruses in our household since the new year.  Piglet started with the vomiting Sunday night, but then was fine on Monday (although we had to keep him home because he had thrown up overnight); Birdie got it on Tuesday and threw up a ton between 3:30 pm and 9:30 pm and then was fine, and I got it last night.  Although I didn't throw up, I desperately wanted to, and as before when I got the bug, well, let's just say that I could have a colonoscopy today no problem.  At one point, I considered bringing a blanket into the bathroom and sleeping on the tile, because between the cold sweats, hot flashes, and needing to run to the toilet every 15 minutes, it would have been more efficient.  Now we wait to see if my husband and Boo go down.  And that's how it goes during a Seige.

--3--

Birdie and I are officially done nursing.  I can't say I'm sorry.  It's earlier than ideal, but the child kept fighting me and fighting me, and really, it is so demoralizing to have to fight that fight multiple times a day, and then have to give a bottle anyway because she is such a lazer nurser.  So I give up.  It's not like breastfeeding has kept her healthy or anything.

--4--

Amazingly, now that I'm done, the creative process in my brain that has been stuck since she was born is suddenly unstuck!  I don't have a lot of creative space for new stuff, but I'm CASEing up a storm!  I think I made 15 cards this week.  I find CASEing (Copy And Share Everything) is a good way to ease back into original creative processes.  I'm a bit behind on Birdie's baby scrapbook, but I figure I'll save that for a time when I don't want to create with my hands and just want to create digitally.  I made the card (above) during my creative nesting during the weeks before Birdie's birth.  I tweaked from a card Meg Loven made.

--5--

We are closer to getting to the bottom of all Birdie's health issues.  She is scheduled for an endoscopy, GI probe, and bronchoscopy on March 14.  We lucked out at CHOP and got a fantastic pulmonologist who was eager to collaborate with GI and ENT, so all the surgeons are going to be in the OR together and get everything done in one go.  In the meantime, the GI doc started her on a low dose of erythromycin and that has been a miracle drug--her frequent and copious spitting up has stopped, and she seems happier overall.  I'm a little overwhelmed with her dosing schedule, however, as she is now on three different medications that all have to be given at different times of the day, and two of them can't be given together.  I need a spreadsheet.

--6--

I know this is starting to feel like a litany of health issues, and probably my posts over the last six months are on theme, but honestly, that has been the ruling factor of our lives since Birdie was born.  I'm hoping that we'll get back to some kind of normal soon.

--7--

It's been a few weeks since Piglet's surgery for his adenoids and ear tubes, and I have to say, it is amazing what such a little surgery can do!  He is doing so much better now--he hears us, his speech has improved, he is more responsive, he doesn't seem tired all the time, he is eating better, and just seems to be getting along more easily.  He and Boo are able to play together now for short periods, and he is very interested in being my "helper". (And because Boo wants to do everything Piglet does, Boo wants to "help" also). I've now assigned him the job of cleaning the floors under the table after dinner.  He loves to help out and now that he is four, is actually kind of useful.  I'm starting to see how people have large families!  (And since we'd like to have a few more, that is a nice revelation to have).  

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!