Fall's Here at Last!

I just really like this card. :) Yes, I made it a while ago. But I like it. A lot.

I NEED to get stamping! It's my therapy. So I'm gonna jump back in. Soon. As soon as I get my craft/music room straightened out. Again.

Here it is sideways, so you can see that the layers are actually popped up:

Here's an inside view:

Okay, off to get Kat from work. Did I tell you she has a job now? YES! She's a Cued Speech Transliterator. Pretty cool! She works 15-18 hours a week and goes to school the rest of the time. I'm so proud of her! :D

Happy Fall,

Pia

A Big Sunday

Got to visit with some friends last Sunday! They moved out of California last year, and we've missed them sooooo much. Of course, we all went to R. O'Sullivan's Irish Pub and Steakhouse in Escondido -- our favorite hangout! We hadn't been there in pretty much forever, so it was a lovely and FUN reunion of sorts with a whole bunch of people!

In other BIG news, My uncle Jesse was ordained a Deacon in the Catholic Church last month! We missed his ordination 'cause I had to work, but we did get to go to his thanksgiving Mass last Sunday. It was beyond cool to see him up on the altar with the priest! What a blessing to have an ordained man of God in the family. My grandparents would've been so proud. Sorry no pics, but I promised him I'd keep him as incognito as possible. :)

In "Kid" news, Ricky and Kathi are still healing and Selina's moving. Ricky's legs re-fractured when he was put back onto a running regimen, so he's gotta wait several months more before he can go on in his training. He's chomping at the bit to get out there, so this is a hard time for him. Kathi is STILL suffering from that pesky headache. Nothing has really gotten rid of it. Now she's on a restricted diet. Here's hoping that works! Selina is going to be stationed in Florida next year. Oh my goodness, sooooo far away.... no more spur-of-the-moment phone calls telling me she's in port in San Diego and wants to hang out... Thankfully, we have relatives in Florida so I know she's got family to visit when she's lonely out there.

Well, time for me to get to work now. Have a great day!

Gotta run,
Pia

OOHRAH!

Well, he's done it!! My Ricky graduated from USMC boot camp on March 5, 2010. Woohoo!!! Or should I say, OOHRAH!!

Kat, my mom, and I went to celebrate this auspicious occasion and brought friends with us! We were soooooo proud of our new Marine!


Ricky graduated with a meritorious promotion to Private First Class (only 5 in his platoon of 60 can claim this distinction!), was one of about 15 in his company of roughly 300 to score a perfect 100% on his final practical exam, and was one of the top third in his company who earned the recognition of Expert Rifleman. Wow, we were bursting with pride in his accomplishments!


He is currently recuperating from stress fractures in both legs and one foot. He should be fine again in a couple of months, and then he gets to go to the School of Infantry for the next step in his training.

So that's the news of the month! Hoping to get some more crafty stuff up here soon. :)

Peace,
Pia

Variations on a Theme

Here are a couple of cards I made while I was offline. The "Just My Style" card was a thank you to a very kind couple who gifted me with a nice outfit for Mass. The "little boy" card (I made three of these; only the buttons were different shapes) was for a few friends who all had boys born recently.

The card bases are white and they stand as tents -- the fold is at the top rather than at the side. Both cards are standard size. The sentiment, small image in the top right, and the main image are all popped up on STAMPIN' UP!'s dimensionals, with the main image mounted on a colored square first. The "threads" in the buttons are slivers of coordinating card stock slipped through the holes and tied, and then the buttons are mounted using sticky dots. I ran the Kraft paper background through my Big Shot to get the raised dots all over it.

I like this card sketch very much. Took me a while to think it up, but I really think it will work with a lot of different occasions and images so it's worth the time spent! :)

Peace,
Pia

Back Online... What a Journey!

Well, life threw us another curve ball. And this one was a doozy! Kathi (my youngest) was struck in mid-September with a severe headache that just wouldn't go away. We thought at first that it was a migraine, but it wasn't. It was accompanied by dizziness, nausea, vision problems, and too many times of her just randomly toppling over. Talk about scary! This went on for weeks, without a single headache-free moment for my girl. They ran every test in the book (some of them more than once), and everything kept coming up normal. This was a GOOD thing, but it was frustrating because we couldn't treat her if we didn't know what she had.

She went into the ER twice in November, and while she was in the hospital the second time they ran even more tests. One was a spinal tap. And guess what -- after the spinal tap, her headache went away for a few hours! Eureka! Her doctors determined that what she has is an excess of cerebral fluid, which causes too much pressure on her brain. The fancy technical name for it is Pseudotumor Cerebri. They gave her a medicine that decreases the fluid, and now she has headaches only once in a while! The headaches she does have these days seem to be stress related (I guess increased stress equals increased pressure for EVERYONE, so this is normal). Whew!! Praise be to God for Kat's doctors and medical team!

She still has vision issues and some tingling, but we're dealing with those with her doctors. The main thing is that her big headache has been relieved!

So, all of this has taken me away from my blogging and stamping and pretty much everything that didn't have to do with Kat's health and my day job (gotta be able to pay for all of this medical stuff, yes?). Sorry for the extended absence. I hope to be back more regularly as things begin to settle down at home. And maybe if I can get Internet at home that would make it even easier. :)

Here's a photo of my Kat, feeling better at long last!


Peace,
Pia

Candy, Candy Everywhere!

A fellow stamper is posting a series entitled, "Wrapping 101" on her blog -- it's a series showing a lot of different ways to wrap candy! How fun is that! In the same vein, here are some past projects that I found hanging out in my computer. Enjoy! And go check out Martha's blog for a whole bunch of cool stuff!

This is a lollipop cover that I made a few years ago. Really simple, so I could mass produce them for our Trick-or-Treat kids! Inside is a caramel apple lollipop. Yum!


Above are little nugget holders. The top photo shows the ones I made for our Trick-or-Treaters, and the bottom photo shows a slight variation for the teens on a weekend retreat. Super simple to make!

Assorted candies in cellophane bags, with stamped tags.


These are boxes I made to fit different candy bars -- Kit Kats and Hershey Bars.

This last one is a simple wrap using decorative paper with stamps and embellishments.

Too much fun stuff! Don't forget to check out Martha's blog! We've got some fun candies on our STAMP YOUR LIFE blog, too, so hop on over there if you wanna see!

Happy Friday,
Pia

Sympathy

Our dear friends lost a dad and grandpa last week. He was 90 years old. This is the sympathy card I made for their family.




No matter the age, it's so hard to lose a loved one. May he rest in peace.

~ Pia