Tuesday, August 31, 2010

It's been a long, hard week

to say the least! For those of you who are my friend on Facebook, you may have been aware that I have been going through some very difficult things this last week. For those of you who don't know, I will start at the beginning.

At the beginning of this month our family moved into a new home and around the same time we noticed some changes in our oldest daughter Kylie. Just little things like a change in her walk, she wasn't playing outside as much, changes in appetite. When I started to notice these things become more apparent I scheduled her for a checkup so that we could check to see if she had a vitamin deficiency or something. Because she was a new patient, the earliest we could get an appointment was Wed. Sep. 1st. As the week went on and Kylie seemed to be getting a bit worse everyday (to the point where it was difficult for her to walk more than a very short distance without being completely exhausted as well as not being able to lift her arms up), I decided that I couldn't wait any longer so I took her into a walk in clinic so that we could at least get her checked out and to get some blood tests done just to ease my mind. This was 2 Friday's ago. When I called in on Monday evening for the results you can imagine how I felt when I was informed that the results showed that Kylie has some major inflammation going on in her muscles and that the doctor recommended that I make an appointment to get her looked at and preferably at Children's Hospital. I got off the phone and told Matt what they said and then sent him to pick up a copy of the results. Since the person I talked to couldn't give me any information what so ever, I dove into hours of research into the types of blood tests she had done and then finding out the possible causes for certain results to be higher/lower than normal. After I had a list of possible causes, I researched every single one of them to compare them to the symptoms that Kylie had been exhibiting over the last 6 weeks. The one thing that kept popping up was Muscular Dystrophy. Since there are many different types of MD and after I started to research them, I came across something called Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy. I got absolutely sick to my stomach. Kylie had all the symptoms of this disease (that has no cure and would result in her being wheelchair bound in a few short years as well as not living long into adult hood). First thing Tuesday morning I called Seattle Children's Hospital to make Kylie's appointment. They were able to get her in on Friday morning but I spent most of the week feeling sick to my stomach, having random crying spells and just trying to keep it together so that I wouldn't freak the girls out.

Friday morning Matt and I dropped the two little one's off at a friends house and headed up to Seattle with Kylie. She was feeling nervous so I sat in the back seat with her so that I could cuddle with her and make her feel better. About half way there she started crying and begging us to turn around and take her home. It broke our hearts to not be able to do that even though we wished that we could!

Children's Hospital is absolutely amazing! Not only is the inside beautifully decorated to make any kid feel welcome but the staff there are the most caring and patient people that I could ever have hoped for!! We had a very short wait time before Kylie was able to see the Rhuematologist and she did a great job of making Kylie feel comfortable and not scared. She did a short exam on her and asked us a bunch of questions and then delivered the best news that I have received in my entire life- Kylie does not have MD!! She does have a very rare (about 3 kids in a million) autoimmune disease called Juvenile Dermatomyositis (say that 5 times fast...) but after two years of treatment she should be completely cured! They told us that they were so glad that we were paying attention and brought her in when we did. They admitted her straight into the hospital to begin an intense 3 day course of IV treatment of steroids and a bunch of other stuff. I was worried that the drugs would initially make her sicker but was relieved to see that they actually made her stronger. Kylie went from hardly having enough energy to walk 20 feet on Friday to being able to walk around Children's Hospital a couple of different times on Saturday! She responded really well to the drugs and passed her EKG/Echo/Swallow Eval. so they said that they were comfortable with discharging her on Sunday.

Kylie is now on a treatment plan that will most likely take 2 (maybe even three years). Every morning she has to take 4 different pills, another pill at night, an injection once a week (given by me) plus she will need to go back into Children's Hospital almost weekly for awhile to get an infusion. While this is a lot to go through, I can't even describe how absolutely thrilled I am that it isn't MD!! Going from believing that I was going to lose my child from an incurable disease to finding out that she should be completely cured within two years was the best gift anyone could have EVER given me!!!!! Talk about a major wake up call, these beautiful girls of ours will never be taken for granted again.

So there you have it. That's what has been going on in my life this last week!

Chest x-ray
She didn't seem to mind the EKG too much
Getting her ECHO done
First night at the hospital (getting ready to lug her IV machine into the bathroom with her)
Day 2- Finally feeling better so we went on a short walk. These beautiful giraffes were right by our room area.
Sitting by the window in her room
Talking to her sisters on the phone. All three of them had a hard time being away from each other and Kylie even cried quite a few times because she missed them so much!
Two of the best nurses in the entire world!! On the left is Melissa, Kylie's night nurse and on the right is Rilla, Kylie's day nurse. These two ladies were absolutely amazing and I couldn't have asked for better care for my little girl :)

Kylie's meds for the next two years
Gotta go, Kylie is calling me from the living room saying she wants to cuddle and there is no way that I'm going to pass up that opportunity :)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Join us right here in the TSG Forum tonight for our release party chat!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Believe In You Blog Hop Challenge

Welcome to our last day of sneak peeks! Did you make your way here from Holly's blog? If so, great! If not, you may want to head back to the TSG blog for all the details about this fun hop as well as how you can win the set being shown today.

Today we are showing off a new set illustrated by Torico called Believe In You. This is a wonderful set is not only great for making cards for teachers, but also works for cards FROM teachers! Or how about making some cute little note cards to slip into your child's lunch?

Believe In You is a 6x8 stamp set that includes a total of 37 of stamps and will sell for $24.
Jessica 
The next stop on the hop is Jessie!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Dream A New Dream Blog Hop Challenge

Welcome to day two of the TSG Blog Hop Challenge sneak peeks! Did you make your way here from Holly's blog? If so, then great! If not, you may want to go back to the TSG blog to find out all of the details on how you can win the set being previewed today!!

Today's set is called Dream A New Dream and was illustrated by the amazing Chris Dark! This set has so many beautiful flowers with an array of sentiments that can work for just about any card type.

Dream A New Dream is a 6x8 stamp set that includes a total of 18 of stamps and will sell for $24.

*I used a lot of white space so that the flowers would stand out more.
*Images were colored with Prismacolor Pencils
Jessica

This set also has this beautiful hummingbird that I just could not wait to color! When I was designing this set with Chris's illustrations, I never knew how much this sentiment would come to mean to me!
Jessica2

The next stop on the hop is Jessie!

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure you come back tomorrow for our last sneak peek, I promise you won't be disappointed!!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Angel Wings / Bit Of Stardust Blog Hop Challenge!

Welcome to day one of the There She Goes September release blog hop challenges! Did you make your way here from my friend Holly's blog? If so, great! If not, you may want to head back over to the the TSG Blog so you can find out all the details about this hop and how you can win the stamp sets being shown today!!

This month we are introducing a new set called Angel Mail. $4 from every set sold will benefit the amazing Chemo Angels organization

Angel Mail is a 3x4 stamp set that includes a total of 6 of stamps and will sell for $7.


And another set that we are showing today is illustrated by Torico!

Bit Of Stardust is a 4x8 stamp set that includes a total of 28 of stamps and will sell for $18.
Thanks for stopping by! Now hop on over to Jessie's blog to see what awesomeness she has to share with you :)

Monday, August 23, 2010

TSG69- ATC

This weekend my girls wanted to do some stamping with me so I had them help with this week's TSG challenge which is to create an ATC. You can find out all the details about this challenge as well as how you can win a TSG gift certificate right here on the blog!

Since I wasn't quite ready for them to break into their stamps and ink pads, I told them that I would stamp the images and they could color them in with their brand new colored pencils. They were more than happy with that so it was a great compromise :)

First I will share my ATC:
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*This was created using the new set Puppy Love illustrated by Torico
*All of the DP used on this ATC came out of my 'scrap bag'
*The grass was created by using a pair of shape making scissors
*Image was stamped onto white cardstock, colored with SU markers, cut out and adhered to finished panel
*I used Stardust gelly roll pen on the butterfly and dog collars and used Diamond Glaze on the noses

And here are the ATC's that my little ladies made. After they were finished coloring, they were ready to run off and do something different so mama finished up their projects for them ;)

Kylie's is on the left, Chloe's is in the middle and Kayla's is on the right.
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Make sure you stop by tomorrow for the start of the sneak peek Blog Hop Challenges!!! We've got some great stuff to share with you and you are not gonna want to miss out :)

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Garden Of Friends

Here is another one of the cards that I made during my stamping extravaganza the other day. I love how it turned out :)

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*Stamp set used- Garden Of Friends
*Main panel is DP from K&co. with a Choc. chip mat, sponged and sewed with sewing machine
*Sentiment panel cut with Nestabilities, sponged and stitched
*Image/sentiment stamped in chocolate chip
*Flower and leaf images stamped onto K&co DP, sponged, cut out and adhered to sentiment panel with dimensionals

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Spread Your Wings

Talk about holy mojo, I got some much needed stamping done yesterday and made a total of 12 cards! I have no excuse now to not be posting on my blog every day ;)

The first thing I have to show you is this bookmark that I created for this week's TSG Challenge. You can read about it more here!

This bookmark was  created using the stamp set Spread Your Wings and was totally inspired by this gorgeous card made by my girl Sandra.
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*Created bookmark base out of Ruby Red cardstock and created smaller layers from Choc. chip, white and DP by K&Co.
*Sentiment was stamped in Momento Tuxedo Black
*Butterflies were stamped onto watercolor paper and heat embossed with black embossing powder
*Images were watercolored using a Aquapainter and SU inks before being cut and adhered to the sentiment panel.
*Gold ribbon was tied in a knot and wrapped around the sentiment panel before it was adhered to the bookmark base.

Thanks for stopping by today come back tomorrow for more inky fun!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Some days you are the dog

And some days the hydrant lol! I don't know about you but I seem to have a lot of those hydrant kinda days and the LOL Taglines set is perfect for that kind of stamping mood :)

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*Started with a 4.25 square card base in Kraft cardstock.
*Stamped the hydrant onto a piece of scrap DP and shaded using colored pencils
*Added Diamond Glaze and let dry before cutting and adhering to card base using dimensionals


Saturday, August 14, 2010

Kylie and Chloe's bedroom

Thank you guys so much for all of the great feedback about Kayla's bedroom! I am so happy that you liked it and hopefully you will like what I have to share with you guys today to :)

For the older girls, I went in a completely different direction when decorating their bedrooms. I wanted to give them a beautiful bedroom that made them feel like big girls! I absolutely love the way that it turned out and if they aren't on their best behavior, I've told that that it was going to be my room lol!

I actually made a lot of the design elements which I will detail throughout the post.

Before-

Before 
After:
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*I purchased 4 different sets of wall decals on Amazon.com for the wall art (including that awesome fake shelf above Kylie's headboard!)
*This is a bunk bed set that we have had since the girls were itty bitty. We stripped off the finish and painted it to match their bedroom.
*The curtain rods were originally in the living room but I took them down and painted them black for the girls' room :)
*Like Kayla's room, there are butterflies flying around randomly
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*This picture shows more of the items on this side of the room including a bookcase, laundry basket (which is usually full!) and saucer chair.
*Saucer chair ($15-$20) and zebra pillow were purchased separately at walmart.com
*The bunk bed originally had a desk insert holding up the side closest to the camera but I didn't like how closed in it made things feel so I had Matt come up with a way to add posts instead. It is awfully nice being married to such a handy guy :) He created notched posts that are bolted into the floor as well as secured the top part of the bunk bed to the wall somehow and that thing doesn't move an inch! Thank goodness because I've already had to go up there quite a few times and I'm happy to report that it is still standing lol!
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*We removed all of the trim and doors in the room so that I could paint them black. I added a few butterflies to the mirror that was purchased at walmart ($9)
*I love how it looks like the butterflies are taking flight :)
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*I created the girls' name frames by getting the frames and letters at Michaels for $1 a piece. I spray painted them black instead of painting them by hand to save time. I used pretty silver wedding paper that I picked up at the Dollar Tree and used it to 'wrap' the frame insert.
*I stapled ribbon onto the back of the frame to keep it securely in place
*The frames are held onto the walls with screws but the ribbon is held up with these pretty push pins I got from Michaels just for this reason (16 pins for $5)
*The nightstand is one that Matt had before we even got together. It has survived many moves but is still nice and sturdy :) I painted it black and added a wall decal to the side to glam it up a bit.
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*This is the girls reading area.
*Cute zebra chair is from Walmart.com and I believe it was $40
*Chandelier also from Walmart.com and also very affordable although I don't remember how much I paid.
*Kylie's favorite author is Dr. Seuss so I had to include that quote!
*Rug is from Walmart, $20
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*Even though they are sharing a room, I wanted each of the girls to feel like they had their own space. Which is why they have different comforter sets (but still black and white) and other small details that make each bed area unique.
*Nightstand thing was a cube unit I purchased at Walmart on clearance for $14 each of the drawer inserts were also on clearance for $4 each.
*The touch lamps were originally plain black but I added some of the wall decals to add some visual interest.
*I added two of the small butterflies to Chloe's plain white jewelry box to pretty it up for her
*Chloe LOVES flowers and when I told each of the girls that they could pick something out at Michaels that was $1, she chose that pretty orchid :)
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*The bookshelf was purchased at Walmart for $15 but before I put it together I added white wall decals.
*Yes 'I' put that shelf together :D Matt gave me my very own drill because I'm always complaining about how much I need one. It was one of his older ones but I sooooo <3 it!
*I picked up the film like frames at Michaels a long time ago while there were on sale. I never used them because I didn't have anywhere to put them. Now they have the perfect home! I believe that the large one was $5 and the small ones on top of the bookshelf were $1 each.
*The quote above the bookshelf was purchased at Dollar Tree

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 *Full picture of this wall
*I love those flower decals on the black closet door! <3
*Plugged in is a glittery silver lava lamp night light that looks so pretty at night! The glitter continues to swirl and looks like water reflecting off of the wall.
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* I have had this frame in my unused collection for a couple of years and it worked perfectly for this picture project that I put together for the girls.  It includes black and white pictures of just the two of them :)
*The quote above the door was a wall decal that was also purchased at Dollar Tree

Whew, so now you know why I am mojo-less and very much sleep deprived lol! While it was very much worth it to see the looks on their faces when they walked into their room for the first time (there were not allowed to go into the room at all until it was completely finished) I'm afraid that it may have drained me of all creativity for awhile lol! I'm hoping that after a good nights rest and a relaxing weekend, I will be back to creating once again!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my girls' rooms! Have a great weekend :)

Friday, August 13, 2010

Kayla's Room

As promised, I'm back today with pictures of the girls' bedrooms! Today I will share Kayla's room and tomorrow I will show you guys some pictures of Kylie and Chloe's shared bedroom :)

When the girls found out that we were moving that had a little bit of a tough time dealing with the idea of having to leave our neighbors who became our family over the last two years. Especially Kayla. She was adamant that she did NOT want to move and was quite emotional over the couple of weeks we were packing and getting things ready. So as a surprise to the girls, I had decided to give them a complete bedroom remodel to give them something that they could be excited about and want to sleep in :)

Since Kayla is my 'baby' (even though she's nearly 5 lol!) I wanted to give her a cute whimsical type of bedroom.

Here is her room before-

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And after-

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*We removed all of the trim and doors so that I could paint them white.
*The dresser was one that came with the girls bunk bed furniture set but we stripped all of their bedroom furniture and painted it to go with the new bedrooms.
*I made a stencil out of butcher paper and sponged clouds randomly around the room
*I painted grass all along the bottom of the walls
*I got a pack of pink butterfly wall decals for only $1 at my local Dollar Tree!!
*Most of the other decor came from Target

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*We got the bed for $60 from someone on Craigslist, stripped it and painted it white
*If you look closely, on the middle of the headboard you will see a monkey mirror frame that I made as a Dollar Find Friday project two years ago! You can check out the tutorial right here if you are interested ;) 
*Isn't that squirrel decal so stinkin' cute?!? I love how he looks like he is playing on top of the headboard!

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*I got the mirror at Target for I think $5 and added the adorable hedgehog that came in the set of wall decals that I got to match her bedroom theme.
*The shelf was also a Target find for $30-$35
*Those baskets on the shelf were only $1 a piece at Dollar Tree!
*Vacuum in the corner cost $15 (from walmart) and I decorated with polka dot stickers from the Dollar Tree.
*Do you recognise the framed picture on top of the shelf? It's a Stampbook Page that I made back in June!You can go back to this post on the TSG Blog to view it in detail.

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*With a nickname like Stinkerbell, I bet you thought that she would have a Tinkerbell themed bedroom huh? Sorry to disappoint but I don't do 'character' bedroom themes. Way too easy to grow out of! If you look on her little saucer chair you will see that she has a Tinkerbell pillow on it though :)

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*I took the doors off of her closet and turned it into her own little reading nook. She loves to sit and look at books and I wanted her to have a special spot just for her to enjoy.
*Behind the monkey robe is a Dr. Seuss quote that says "From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere"

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*This is her little owl friend that likes to read with her ;)

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*This is what Kayla sees from her bed

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*Close up of the wall that is directly in front of you when you walk in the room
*The name stickers were $1 from Dollar Tree
*Did you notice the butterflies that were flying around the room? Yep, $1 at Dollar Tree :)
*This princess mirror was a gift to the girls from my mother in law
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*Last but not least, our little Stinkerbell enjoying a book with her feathered friend before bed :)

I hope that you all enjoyed a look into what has been keeping me so busy (and not sleeping lol!) over the last few weeks!

Come back tomorrow to check out what I did for the big girls' room!