Crafty night

Thursday night was my monthly crafty night out with the gals, for this crafty night we had to make 8 Xmas cards and so I wanted to do something different. Here is what I came up with :)! For this card I first cuttle bugged my green card stock with the Snowflake embossing folder, and then I used my Nestabilities to cut out the large label out of White card stock (from Carousel), a circle out of the same white card stock and a tiny gold square Nestabilities. I then took the white circle and I embossed the gold pattern onto the circle card stock, once I did that I took a sponge and inked up the white card stock using my Bravo Burgundy SU ink pad. So no that is not Burgundy card stock that I embossed on, lol, thought I would do something different.

I took my white label card stock and stamped the branch like image onto the edge of the card stock, to make it look like the end of a Christmas tree. I then sponged the blue on around the tree stamped image, it really made the branches pop. I attached the branch image onto the card base, then attached the circle ornament onto the branch. Next, I attached the ribbon onto the top of the card because I felt the card needed something else to make it look more like a Christmas card.

We then exchanged our Christmas card challenge

cards to each other, which is always exciting to see what the other gals have made :)! The first card is Louise's card, it is gorgeous and love the font of the "Peace" sentiment.

The next cards is Deborah's card, another gorgeous card and it is an easel card (sorry I didn't take it out of the clear envelope it was in). It is gorgeous, and I have been meaning to try my hand at the easel cards but just haven't gotten around to it. Now I will HAVE to :p!

The next card/lantern project was done by Val, and what a great idea that was she had to make this :)! LOVE it :D, okay so I LOVED all of them :p!

Here's Kim's project, GORGEOUS snowflake card :)!

Deborah did the first project with us, it was a fun easy one which I really loved doing. It was to stamp on a candle and to blingify it :p (like my new word??) ! Gorgeous...just gorgeous and easy to do too, didn't take long.

The next project was done by Louise, she taught us how to make a cute lantern and also gave us those battery operated tea lights. Wouldn't these look cute hung all over your Christmas tree??

Once we were all done our projects we exchanged our Xmas gifts, and also played a fun game which I will have to get the directions for. We also had some yummy chocolate cake that Kim brought for us, and boy was it delicious :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

School Board meeting

Well, I am sure you are all anxious in finding out how our presentation to the School board went the other night :)! We were originally given 5 minutes to do our presentation, but they decided right there before we went up that they would give us 10 minutes and in the end we had 30 minutes. They kept asking questions, commending us one by one, shaking their head at the state of how things are, we kept answering questions and asking questions ourselves. Then they asked if we had something else to add, I told them I did and here is what I said:

" I would like to challenge the board to go out into the schools, to go out into the communities to talk to the families at all the schools in HRM and the staff at the schools. Making sure the staff know that they will not be reprimanded for telling the School board how things are! You really have to LISTEN, you will hear some pretty heart wrenching stories but these are the stories you need to hear. They will tell you if you ask, but go out and get to know these people...you will have your eyes opened."

To that they told me it is impossible to get out to all the schools in a short time, but that I was right in that they HAVE to get out into the community and talk with the families/Staff or how will they know what is going on. They told us we have to take this to the government next, so the next morning I wrote all the MLA's in our Province and they are one by one writing me back telling me they support us :)!

Check out our FB page called "Choice Words", would love if you could be part of it too :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

bad blogger again here

I know I am such a bad blogger lately, but here is my reason for the past week and this week as well...I am getting ready to do one of the BIGGEST things I have ever done in my life. Not only am I a full time stay at home mom of 3 beautiful children, but now am working on a side project that involves being an advocate for all Special Needs children or children with Learning disabilities in HRM. Yep, I know a big job and yes I am crazy :p! Not to worry I am not taking this task on by myself, I have a friend named Laura Campbell who is a parent of a Autistic girl who is in grade 4 at my son's school.

Tonight we are going to our school board to do a presentation with regards to the lack of:

~Support Services

~Speech Therapy

~Occupational therapy

~Learning Center service

~Resources

we aren't pointing fingers and we aren't looking for who's at fault. We just would like someone to stand up and say okay how are we going to fix this or start to fix this?? As I said before this is for all children in our city :)! We have been printed up in the newspaper, and are getting a lot of feed back...yes even the people who should really keep their mouths shut are coming out of the wood works to give their thoughts. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow morning...this is going to be an interesting night! We have also started a Facebook page called Choice Words, and not too worry once this presentation is done we aren't done we are moving on to the lovely politicians :D!

On another note I will be having something crafty to post tomorrow for you :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

new playground in our area

The other day I had to goto the Post office, it is about 20 minutes away from our house...on the way home something caught my eye. So I looked and I saw a HUGE new playground behind a community center just up the street from our post office, well I was excited to see this here because if you want to goto a good playground you have to drive into the city. There are several play structures there for different ages, and there are also swing sets there too for older kids and little ones :).

Yesterday, we decided we'd stay home and rest...since we are still exhausted from the flu we all had over the past 3-4 weeks. I decided the kids needed to get out of the house mid morning,

and took them to this new playground to check it out :)!

Check out this castle, it was pretty neat and the best part is that it is for 5 year olds to 12 year olds (not too sure if it is something a 12 year old should be on). My kids had fun climbing, sliding, spinning things, climbing through tunnels etc. :)!

Here is my dd all bundled up on this cold Sunday morning, getting ready to go play on one of these several play structures :)!

Here is E* up onthe neat climbing structure, he loved this and spent a good 1/2 hour on this one.

Here is I* up on the same climbing structure as E* was, but Isaac went to the top of it :)!

Here is Isaac in another one of the climbing structures, wanting to just take a break from running.

This is my dd mashing her face against some plexi glass at the plaground...just as I took it I told her to get her face away from that as we don't know who else had done that. Lol!

The kids came down all at once in a row, and I was there at the right moment to get them coming down the slide :).

This is the last picture of my dd coming through one of the small tunnels that they had there...it is actually a lions head that she is climbing into.

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

kitchen pile up and my Sensory Sensitive child

Lol, this was too cute... myself and my dh were making French toast and eggs for brekkie on Saturday morning it is kind of a every Saturday morning thing but sometimes we switch the French toast for Pancakes. Anyways, my oldest came in to the kitchen and lay down in the middle of the kitchen on a blanket...next thing we knew the other two came in and laid down on top of him. We called it the Kitchen pile up or the E* sandwich, believe me it didn't last long at all!!

(Warning put down your drinks and swallow before proceeding)

Later on this same day, I made some yummy chicken rice soup with veggies for lunch. While I was making this soup, my son E* hurt his finger and got a cut on it. So he got a band-aide by himself, put the band-aide on himself and left the wrapper on the table. It finally was lunch time, when E* decided that he didn't like the smell of the soup I made ( yet he has had this soup 100's of times before and wasn't bothered by it).

He just couldn't handle sitting there smelling the soup, so he left the table for a few minutes and came back looking like this. He thought outside the box, and developed this nose plug himself and then was able to eat his soup. He literally scotch taped this band-aide wrapper onto his face and it worked enough for him, and then he had no troubles eating his lunch. He did the same thing yesterday for something he didn't like the smell of, but this time instead of using the wrapper of the band-aide he used the actual band-aide.

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

a foggy sunrise

One day near the end of last week, here is the second most amazing looking sunrise that I have ever seen. Yes, I said sunrise...yes I was up, as my oldest son gets on the bus at 7 a.m.!

Anyways, check out this gorgeous foggy sunrise...

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Christmas card

I had to make 2 cards for this months CCE card exchange, and here is one of the cards I came up with :)! I used the "Worship the Lord" stamp set by Our Daily Bread Designs, I actually won this stamp set last year on someone's blog candy and I must say that I really like this set. I have checked out the different cards on Splitcoaststampers site, which helped me with creating this card.

Some of you were wondering if my coasters would be good for placing a spoon on, and I would have to say it would be good for that sort of thing. The stamped images don't smudge or run, because I spray each of them with Make it Last Clear Acrylic sealer. I use Archival jet black ink to stamp my image on the tile, and I picked up the coasters at my local Home Depot or Kent store in my area. I also should mention, that for the backs of my coasters I use cork board that comes in a roll from Michael's Craft store and I cut the cork to the size I need. I usually cover the whole back of each coaster, not put squares on each of the corners :)! Hope this helps...

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

bad bad blogger I am

I am such a bad blogger lately, I think it has a lot to do with just all the illness then my knee surgery and then the complication to the surgery plus allergic reaction to meds for the said complication. Anyways, I promise I will have cards up on here for you to enjoy soon! In the meantime, a friend of mine who owns her own little gift shop in my area is having a Christmas sale at her store and has asked me to make some of my coasters to sell. Here are two of the coasters I have made so far. I think I will do at least 15 sets of coasters for her to sell :)!

Please keep Julie and her family in your thoughts and prayers this week, her mother in law isn't well and they have gone up to spend as much time with her as they can before she passes. HUGS to you and your family Julie and Jim!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Another Update

Well, just when I thought life was settling down...I woke up yesterday morning to find out I had allergic reaction to the meds that I was taking to make my leg not swollen. I am now officially covered head to toe with a pink ITCHY raised up rash :(! I am taking Reactin for the rash and am hoping it will be gone when I wake up tomorrow morning but I am not holding my breath on that.

Am going to be crafty today though, I have to be, since I haven't been in a few days!!!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Passion For Crafts blog candy giveaway

WOW, Debbie over at the blog called "Passion For Crafts" hit the 200,000 mark on her blog and is celebrating with this HUGE blog candy giveaway. Hurry on over and check it out :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

My dh and a project he did for me

So awhile ago I put in a request for my handy dandy dh to make me a light tent, as he saw me wandering all over my house to take the perfect card picture as well as using sheets and paper etc. Well, yesterday since I came down with this not fun flu bug he finally finished the tent part and now he is working on the lighting for it :)! I was shocked when he came into my bedroom where I am stuck pretty much to show me what he had made me, I was wowed by how big it was. I didn't realize he was making a BIG one, but that is okay no complaints here except where to store the thing :p! Any lighting ideas??

Sorry still no crafty things from me, but thought my dh's project might help with something for you all to check out. I am feeling better, I have no fever since yesterday early afternoon and no headache either but I do have this cough and am very stuffed up. Both my poor parents who were out here helping me recover/looking after us all during my knee surgery etc. are now both sick :(! Am trying to work on bending my knee more and more as I am lying in bed, am now not using crutches am walking the best I can for now.

The one thing that surprised me was having the flu, you know how you hurt everywhere?? Well, this is super weird, well I hurt MORE in my leg/knee where I had my knee surgery than anywhere else which made it difficult for me to get up when I had to. I am however, thinking my antibiotics for my knee has helped me recover faster!

While I am here I thought I would add my 2 cents for what I think about the H1N1 shot, my dd had it Monday but on Tuesday she woke up with a BAD headache and a high fever and had flu like symptoms. They tell us that the vaccination won't cause one to get it, oh yeah ours in Canada does have Mercury in it same with several other vaccinations which we have been told they don't. Anyways, Friday is when my dd had to be rushed in to the children's hospital to get checked out as she had the same symptoms as she did the day after her shots but worse in the sense that she now had a cough and found it hard to breath. So many people I know are having effects from having the needles, to only get sick with the H1N1 a few days later. Hind sight is everything, if I knew my dd was going to get the H1N1 I don't think I would have gotten her the needles. Plus, the H1N1 vaccination takes 2 weeks to kick in...so in that time you too can get the H1N1...crazy eh? I am sure I am not the only one who is confused and felt like we are left in the dark about this vaccination...

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Update #3

My lil dd, had her H1N1 shot Monday afternoon then on Tuesday she woke up with a high fever and a nasty headache. All her symptoms basically went away on Wed, but that night in the middle of the night she got a wet cough and a high fever of 102 and another headache. Yesterday, she complained of a headache most of the day but was still wanting to play with my Mom who has been out for the week helping me since my knee surgery. Last night at 11 p.m., my dd woke up with a high fever of 103 again and a nasty headache, could hardly breath and had a nasty cough which didn't help her breathing. I called the lovely 811 telehealth #, but then decided they'd tell me to go to the children's hospital and I took her in...sadly I wasn't ready for what was to happen next. She started to throw up about 15 minutes from our house, she threw up all over herself but luckily got a bag for her to hold.
We got to the children's hospital at about 12:00 a.m., there were 10 or so children all doing the same things my dd was doing and were throwing up all in cue it seemed. Poor lil one's :(! Anyways, the doctor finally saw us at like 2-2:30 a.m. and he told me anyone who has flu like symptoms HAS H1N1 as the seasonal flu isn't out yet. Plus, he kind of hinted that they are now thinking the H1N1 vaccinations may cause them to get it anyways...don't think that is likely...
My dd was given Tamiflu, we just pulled into our driveway about an hour after she had her first dose to only loose most of it but this time she didn't get it everywhere.
This morning we are very tired, and she isn't well still...hoping she won't get worse as we are getting snow here today about 15 cm of the white stuff...hoping my dd will have a nap soon.

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

update #2

Well, sorry for no craftyness on my blog for the past couple of days as I had a set back I wasn't expecting. See the other morning I took my son E* out to his bus, but my shoe wasn't fitting right so I took off my sock...E* squawked "MOMMY YOUR FOOT IS HUGE!!!!" Sure enough my foot was triple the size it normally is, same with my leg...off to emerg I went and they thought I had a clot. I quickly found out that a person with a potential "clot" ranks lower on the Emerg list than someone with "possible H1N1"...anyways in the end, I have no clot but had an infection in my leg. Was put on IV antibiotics, for 2 days and they worked really well my foot is down to it's normal size...but now I am on antibiotics in pill form.

This morning I went to ER again, this time to get my stitches out and to find out I HAVE to do Physio again and so as you can see I have been rather busy and worried with my knee surgery complications. I will be back in a day or two with a crafty project for you :)! Thank you for all your kind thoughts...means a lot :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

update

My middle guy was out sick all last week from school, he had a flu which I am sure was H1N1 just because there are several confirmed cases in his school. There were over 94 kids out of the school last week alone, thinking that the numbers have increased because there were only 5 kids on the school bus today. He is now well, back at school but I am leary about sending him back to perhaps only get sick again!

Last night, my oldest who's picture is above has come down with : a fever, a sore throat (you should see his tonsils they are HUGE) and also a cough. He is now home for the week, getting him checked out at our doctor's this afternoon...making sure it isn't strep throat!

My dd and I are heading to get her vaccinated, my mom is staying home with the boys so I can get in the LONG line at the local clinic this afternoon...am hoping my crutches and I will get through the line faster :p. One good thing about my knee surgery!

My knee is doing better, still using one crutch (will be using two this afternoon when I take my dd in) and am doing my exercises they gave me and I have my follow up appointment on Thursday to get my stitches out. Still can't straighten my knee yet, and my leg is very swollen :(!

I also have cancelled my meeting with the teachers for parent teacher night at school, if they want me I told them they can call me where I don't have to be on my leg too much...don't want to be in the school for long where there are confirmed cases of H1N1. Lol

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Sympathy cards

I had to make 3 sympathy cards yesterday, and have to make 3 more :(! My pastor's father in law past away, my father in law has a company that they use for work sometimes and one of those guys passed away, my friends unborn baby passed away, my friends father passed away. Here is one of the cards I made from the other day, I replicated it 2 times...couldn't take a picture of the third one I made because my camera's battery died.

Inky Hugs,

Catherine