October, 2010 - TWS Trade Mini for Deanna

It's been ever so long since I have posted to my blog, but; now I'm back. My beautiful mother-in-law lost her battle with ovarian cancer on 9/23/10. I was ever so fortunate to be with her the last weeks of her life. Her husband (who has Alzheimer's) has moved to an assisted living unit. We now have her affairs in order and life is returning to normal.

I missed my scrappin' time ever so much. When I was able to spend time in the Craft Cave, once more, I strangely found that I wasn't able to sit down and bring out any creative mojo. How strange was that? After being away from the Cave for weeks on end, I thought I would be able to jump in and feverishly bring marvelous creative notions to the table. Not so, my scrappin' sistahs! I went to one of my favs, Life on the {Scrap} Beach, just in time to commit to the October mini swap. The theme of the mini - Celebrate Womanhood. That's all it took (woo hoo). I created a mini for Deanna in Colorado Springs. I absolutely loved making this mini. Hope you enjoy!

Live long & prosper,
Weezie

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Not Really MIA

I've not had much time in the Craft Cave and no time to post to my blog. I've taken a leave of absence from my job to care for my mother-in-law and her husband (an Alzheimer's patient) 24/7. Gene and Irene don't have a computer and I can only access the internet when I'm home. I'm only home for short periods on occasion when someone can stay with Irene.

Irene remains the strong beautiful woman she has always been. Our hospice team is absolutely wonderful. Irene tells each and every nurse and aide how much she appreciates their presence at this time in her life. Our last trip out and about was Friday, two weeks ago, and we had manicures and pedicures and "did" lunch. What a fun afternoon that was. We laughed and enjoyed this last adventure.

My goal is to keep Gene and Irene together until her passing. Gene's Alzheimer's produces good days and difficult days; but, I'm able to "keep him on track" enough to stay a part of Irene's life. She is able to be out of bed only for short periods of time; but, is experiencing little pain. The nurses have only administered morphine on three occasions.

Irene often reflects on the magnificient care she received from her oncology team at the Simon Center and the quality time their care has given her. Irene remains one of the most gracious individuals ever.

I'll be back crafting, and making vids as soon as possible. Miss my scrappin' sistahs.
Live long & prosper,
Weezie

Mini Trade Album for Izzabella in the UK

It took me much longer to complete this trade mini than I anticipated. I never intended for this mini to be quite so chunky; but, once I got started it just evolved that way. Wow, I love the finished album. I have thought of a number of ways Izzabella might choose to utilized this mini. I hope she likes it. She was soooo patient when I told her I was going to miss the deadline of May 25. I just can't send out a mini that's not pleasing to me because of a deadline.

My life is just too complicated now for me to have projects that have a time table.
I have a couple of projects on the table that need my attention right away, now that Izzabella's mini is finished.

Velma, your die cuts will be coming, I promise. Tiffany, I will complete the covers/pages and get them to you before July 1.

Live long & prosper,
Weezie

By the way, when you watch the vids, keep in mind I do know the difference between embellish and emboss. My mind was on slow speed. It was ever so late when I made the video.


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Slings & Arrows

The past several days have been lackluster, to say the least. My MIL (battling stage 4 ovarian cancer) had two very difficult days - Thursday and Friday - two doctors appointments, an infusion and an MRI. Ok - so Friday ended. We move to Saturday morning. My computer crashed. All my hardware was ok; but, some of my Windows XP files were corrupt and I couldn't open Windows. I performed the recommended diagnostics, called HP Tech Support (terrible result). My machine was out of waranty and I could choose either $99.95 (one year) or 49.95 (fourteen days) of tech support. If my problem didn't get resolved, they got to keep my money and I was exactly where I started. Upon my protest, the CSR advised I could log in with another PC and chat live. My Darling DIL lent me her itty, bitty laptop and I was off to the races only to find out that the only option left to me was to perform system recovery and loose all my data. Totally unacceptable.
My Dearest Son-in-Law (Tech Support to IUPUI Medical Center, St Vincent Group) to the rescue. A simple call and he advises he would travel to our house, I could purchase Windows 7, another hard drive, he would install all, no data would be lost and all would be well.
Now I have to recover all my "Favorites" - one site at a time.Time consuming; but, possible. I am working on a swap mini for Izzabel in UK and will miss my deadline. Never, never have I missed a deadline before - very troublesome. I hope to be only a few days late with my post of her mini.
We live to fight another day. That which does not kill us only makes us stronger. Platitudes for today. Well TTFN (Tata For Now)
Live long & prosper,
Weezie

Question

So here I sit trying to remember where I saw the tutorial about making designer paper flowers using heart punches. JoAnn's had punches on sale for 30% off. I loaded up. I thought this is my chance to make those lovely flowers. Now I can't find a tutorial anywhere. Does anyone have a clue???

Live long & prosper,
Weezie

Vintage Seed Packet Mini Album Winner

Perfect Prince Dylan had the flu on April 21, so I had to reschedule the drawing until today. Julie at thescrapsofmylifebyjulie.blogspot.com is the winner. Here's the vid of Perfect Prince Dylan (and Perfect Prince Austin) and the drawing. What a great time I had reading the comments. I'm thinking I need to do this again, really soon.

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Live long & prosper,
Weezie

Mini Album Give Away

My October GGS Swap partner (Ashton in Oklahoma) declined to swap minis. I would like to give this mini away. Thought maybe a drawing would be a great way to send this mini on it's way. Leave a comment on my blog and I will enter your name in the drawing. The Perfect Prince Dylan will draw the winner's name on April 21, 2010. I'll be entering the names of my Followers in the drawing also.

I'm a novice at this Give Away stuff, so bear with me on this one.

Live long & prosper,
Weezie

Long Over Due Post

I'm actually not MIA. Lots has been happening in our family and I haven't been able to spend as much time as I like in the Craft Cave. When I've been Cavin' it, I've been working on my "honorarium" projects.

Viewed Sarah's vid about the mini she wants to take to Somer Thompson's mom just before Somer's next birthday. Sarah gratiously allowed me to make a page for the mini. Actually got that sent out in a timely fashion.

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Velma, dear sweet Velma, sent me two of the most amazing RAK packages in December, 2010. I finally finished a special mini I created for her and sent it on it's way.

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Roseanne, out of kindness, sent me die cut flourishes I requested late last year. I wanted to create tags to send to her as a thank you - finally finished those.

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Karina commented on the laces I used in one of my minis. I wanted to send her a package of laces - finally got those sent.

Zeffy and I were Secret Beach Pals. Sent her package 12/5/09. It didn't arrive at her door step, ever. It finally made it back to my doorstep on 1/29/2010. I had the incorrect addie for Zeffy. Resent it, Zeffy finally received it. Zeffy wanted the DCWV Mariposa Collection (It isn't available to her in Greece.) I found it on sale at JoAnn's. Finally sent the Mariposa collection along with some roses, TH style & Roseanne style to Zeffy.

Now I think I'm about (???) caught up.

I hope to be able to spend a bit of time on the Beach and maybe tackle the next crop hosted by Kathryn.

Even with our bumps in the road, life is good!!

Live long & prosper,
Weezie