Merge!!!

Any Survivor fans out there?

I love the TV show Survivor. I think I have only missed one season out of the thirty they have had so far. The only reason I missed that one season was because I'd just moved and didn't have access to television yet!  I think the best job in the world would be the person whose job it is to test out all of the challenges and make sure they are good for the contestants. How fun would that be? Sign me up, please!

A dramatic time that happens on every season of Survivor is when it is time for a merge. It's an exciting time because the game shifts and those playing can either gain more allies or more enemies. It also means they are one step closer to winning the title of sole survivor.

Well, today I am going to take from the Survivor playbook and call for a merge of my own.

I love to write and have lots of things in my head that I want to share with others. I want to share my thoughts on certain topics, my updates on what's happening in life, stories from my past, etc. I also want to share things about my hobbies, the cards I make, the books I read, etc. In the past I've tried doing this on several different blogs and it has not turned out well. I always end up neglected one or the other. It also confuses me and limits my creativity because I'm not sure what blog to post what story to. So, as of right now I am merging my blogs!

All of my blogs will end except the one titled Life's Daily Treasures. This will now be the blog I use for everything. I hope you will find this merge to be exciting and come follow me and my adventures on my blog. I will still post the same content as I have been on this blog, there will just be more of it and other things in between.

Thanks for being a friend, reader, and supporter of my ramblings.

Love & Hugs,
Tiff

Birthday Cards

I was recently asked to be in charge of making birthday cards for all the ladies in my church. I am thrilled at the idea. This will combine two of my favorite loves in life....card making and serving others! I mean who doesn't love getting a birthday card in the mail. Heck, I love getting any kind of card in the mail!

I would like to be able to tailor make each card to fit the personality of the lady receiving each card. However, I also know this is going to be a big task as there are lots of ladies who will be needing cards. Some months there may only be six or seven and some months there might be twenty! So, I am planning on making lots of birthday cards and trying to stockpile them for times when I need to get a card mailed out, but I haven't felt well enough to be in the craft room. Hopefully I'll be able to send out custom made cards more often than the stockpiled ones!

This week I made a card that would be adorable for a spring birthday. This image is from the Rainy Day digi set at Imagine That...digis by Kris. If you are unfamiliar with Kris and her digi's you need to head over to her site and check them out. She has some of the most adorable images on the internet! Once I colored and cut my image I used the cloudy day embossing folder from Stampin' Up to add some depth to the background. I think it really added to the overall look of the card. I can't wait to send this one out! If you know someone with a springtime birthday you can also head over to my shop and purchase this card, it's sure to bring a smile!

One thing I have learned from being sick is that no matter what is going on in my life there is always someone out there I can serve. I may not be healthy enough to go work at an orphanage in Africa, volunteer at the food bank, or babysit all the kids in the neighborhood, but I can still do my part. I can smile to a stranger in the grocery store, I can give close parking spot to the person behind me, and I can mail a card to someone on their birthday. No matter what life is like for you, I hope you will find someone to serve today. Never forget it's the little things that matter most!

Luvs & Hugs,
Tiff

I'm Back!!!

My last post was in January?? Oh my word!!

I apologize that I have been so bad at posting lately, but I have a really good excuse! In September I found out about a doctor in Colorado that specializes in Chiari Malformation. I did a bunch of research, said lots of prayers, and came to the conclusion that I needed to find a way to get into to see this doctor. I spoke with my neurologist and he agreed to send in a referral for me. Two days before Christmas I received a phone call from the clinic saying they were ready to get me scheduled. I was so excited!! Merry Christmas to me!! They set me up for an appointment on February 10th. 

The month of January was spent getting everything ready for this trip. I had to gather lots of medical records some dating clear back to my original brain surgery sixteen years ago. It was a lot of work, not to mention stress! I also had to do a lot of planning regarding booking a hotel, flights, and finding a rental car. 

Finally the day of the appointment came, and boy was I glad I went. Right from the beginning it was obvious this guy knew what he was talking about. It was so refreshing! We spent three days running all kinds of tests, and meeting with doctors to discuss my symptoms and how it all effects my life. 

In the end they found a few things wrong. One of the tests on my blood work came back pretty bad. They said that anything over a 3 on this test meant that you were at risk for a serious cardiac event, stroke, etc. and mine came back at a 7.5! Not good! He said there could be two possible reasons for that being so high, one would be an autoimmune disease and the other is a condition called pseudo tumor cerebri. He wants me to follow up with a Rhuematologist here in Utah to rule out the autoimmune diseases once I've done that He wants me to get another spinal tap. The only thing is he wants me to go off my medication for it, which is scary. I'll have to go off my meds for a few weeks to make sure it is completely out of my system when I go in for the tap. I don't do well off my meds. The last time I went off of them I was having my pass out/seizure spells on a daily basis. I hate the thought of going off of them again, but if it is what he needs in order to get an accurate reading on my spinal tap then I'll have to. This spinal tap would either confirm or rule out the pseudo tumor cerebri. If it comes back positive then he wants to put a shunt into my spine. If it doesn't then we will move directly to the next option. He found that when I had my first brain surgery they opened up the back of my head too much. He normally removes 30 mm of bone, they took our 54 mm on mine. He showed me on the MRI that my brain is very exposed. I literally have nothing between my brain and my skin, no protection whatsoever. He wants to fix that. He has created these little metal plates that are curved so it would still leave room for my brain, but it would also offer protection from the outside. Then he would pull muscle in and attach it to the plate for even more protection....basically rebuilding the back of my head. It would be a pretty extensive surgery, but he thinks it could really help me. 

It was a wonderful trip. They were able to give me some direction and most importantly some hope. I have been lacking that lately. Either option ends in a pretty major surgery, which is scary, but if it has a chance of making me better I have to do it. The trip was also very exhausting. It took quite a toll on me physically and took a while to recover from it. I'm just starting to get back to a normal schedule and normal health for me. Since being home I have also started on the path of getting appointments with the Rhuematologists so I can get going with this course of treatment. 

So, how is that for a good excuse??

I have started crafting again and will be posting some of my creations for you again soon. In the meantime drop me a message and let me know one thing you've been up to while I've been away. 

Finally!!

Well, Christmas is over and the new year has begun. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and set some attainable goals for 2015. 

The holidays were pretty crazy around here. I made an advent calender for my sister and filled each day with an activity of something we could do as a family. These activities included things like reading a Christmas story, going to see the lights, baking Christmas cookies, and going to see the play of a Christmas Carol. It was a fun way to countdown to Christmas, but it added a lot of busy-ness to a season already pretty busy. Some days I barely had time to breathe let alone craft and blog! 

Following the holidays I became very ill and have spent a lot of time in the hospital as well as home on pain killers and only functioning at about 30%....again leaving no time or real desire to craft. 

The good news is that today I finally felt okay enough to do a little cardmaking. I used my Stampin' Up set called Hearts a Flutter and made a cute little card for Valentines day...it will be here before we know it! 

What do you think? 

Last Minute Scramble

I recently signed up to sell cards at a local boutique. At the time I agreed to do it I had a full stock of cards and plenty of time to continue making more. I was confident I would have plenty of fun stuff to sell. Then last week a lady at my church said she wanted to look at my cards. I knew that she used to make cards often and I honestly thought she just wanted to talk about it and perhaps critique my cards. To my surprise she ended up buying close to 30 cards!! It was a lovely surprise and I was thrilled for her business. The problem is that now I have a boutique this Friday and not nearly the amount of cards I was hoping to have! I have been trying hard to spend every waking moment in my craft room stamping, coloring, and stamping some more, but my health has also decided to turn against me and has been pretty rough the past two weeks. Making cards when I am sick and in pain is not the easiest thing in the world. I have been doing my best to push through it and get as many cards done as I can. I just worry that it is too much work in too little time with a body that doesn't want to cooperate. I have no idea how this boutique is going to go. Wish me luck!!

Here is a fun Christmas card I made today. I used a few stamp sets for Stampin' Up for this one. I love the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. It adds a lot of personality to a card and is great for fast card making since the point is to look grungy and not perfected!

Alright, back to the craft room. My blogging break is over. If anyone needs me I'll be buried under a pile of ribbon cutting, coloring, stamping, gluing, embossing, and then doing it all over again! 

Back to Posting!

Guess who is finally feeling well enough to be crafting again?!? I had some problems come up with my health that has put me down for a few weeks, while I still have my bad days I am back in the craft room stamping and coloring up a storm!

Here is an example of what I have been working on:

A lot of sympathy cards I have made in the past are very muted in their coloring. I have stuck with black and white, as well as very light greens and blues. However, sometimes our grieving needs some color as well. We need to feel the brightness to pull us out of our dark holes of mourning. This card is bright enough to send a message of hope and also classy enough to send a message of understand and sympathy...perfect for anyone going through a loss. I used a couple of different stamp sets for this one including 3 by Stampin' Up: Gorgeous Grunge, Flower Shop, and Betsy's Blossom. 

This card is the perfect pick me up for someone going through a hard time. Isn't this bear just the most adorable thing you've ever seen?!? He is from Deedee's Digis, so cute I can hardly stand it! 

Tara's Card

Happy Sunday everyone, I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. I'm not feeling well enough to attend church today so I thought I would post a card for you.

One of the leaders of my sisters special needs mutual group recently underwent knee surgery. Tara has been very concerned for her. Yesterday she came to me and asked if we could make a get well card to mail to her. Of course I agreed. I wanted this to be Tara's card so I let her pick out the image, sentiment, and paper. I then colored the image and helped her put the actual card together. I was pretty impressed with the way it turned out! Tara was so excited about it she couldn't wait to get it in the mail.

We used an adorable image from Great Impressions called "A Band-aid from Muzzy" and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Tag It stamp set. Didn't she do a great job of picking out the paper and everything! I think I just found myself a card maker assistant!