Free Business Cards....

I got turned on to this website and they truly are free. You can pick from 45 or so designs, you add the information you want and no more, just pay a small shipping fee. It is just over $5 for the cheap shipping and you get 250 matte business cards. You can tuck them in with every order and gift.  

How exciting is that! It would cost more than that for the paper and the ink to do it yourself! Then you have to cut them out or tear them if they are the perforated ones.

For a fee you can have things like a 2011 calendar on the back of the card, thanks for your business, we like referrals, things like that on the back. 

For 19.99 you can have access to hundreds of other designs and for 24.99 you can use your own pic and logo.

If you are feeling like really promoting your business they also offer matching pens, journals, address labels, magnets, big car magnets and more.

This is a screen shot of the card I am going to get payday. Just the basic freebie.

But check it out at Vistaprint

 I am not affiliated in any way with them, just turning you on to a site I was turned onto and is used by many crafters and business friends.

Friends.....

I have got to tell you... I have some wonderful friends. But this post is specifically about 2 of them. E and P... You know who you are.
I am truly blessed to have these two women in my life. P about a year ago got me a bunch of yarn... a bunch and a wonderful royal ball winder, gifts for my grand babies and so much more. E has also given me yarn and gifts for me and my babies.
Well.... long story short, I loaned my precious ball winder to Cheryl Slocum Dorchak along with a bunch of cotton yarn in trade for her to make me a couple sets of kitchen items and Cheryl decided she was going to disappear with all the yarn and my ball winder and has never answered another email or phone call from me, so please use extreme caution in ANY dealings with her. 
But I digress..... E sent me a big ole puffy of cotton this last week and today in the mail came a new royal ball winder. I am back in ball winding heaven and can take this nightmare rug out now!!! Thank you so much E!!!
I am so grateful for these 2 women, I cannot even put into words what the 2 of them mean to me and probably never will know how to put it into words. So for now this very public acknowledgment of what they mean to me! 

So... P and E.... I love you both and am so lucky to have you in my life! I am forever grateful to you both!

Ambers Leg part 2

Well, she had her surgery and they took the external fixator off (The metal halo thing) She is back home now. These are pics from The 20th on Miss Shaylee's birthday. I know, I know, blog neglect. But life has been a real muther lately and time isn't my friend! LOL 

But here are pics of the leg healing. Will try to get over there in the next week or so to get pics without the halo!

Can you say OUCH!!!

She is home from the hospital now and thrilled to be in her bed tonight.

Curling Ribbon Coasters

I love these things and they seem to have disappeared from my blog, or I just plain thought I posted and didn't, so I am re-posting them. (you know how the mind is! LOL) I am leaning towards the fact that I just thought I posted..... 

Anyways, I ran across this about a year ago and HAD to make some.....

 

You can tell by the penny that I made them quite large to fit the bottom of my huge coffee cups.

Takes a little patience to make them, they wont be ready today type of patience, so be prepared... not an instant gratification project for sure.

Here is the link to the blog where I found them. Making coasters from curling ribbon. I hope you try some out, be sure to check out all the other things that JO and Chica offer. They show you how to make your own tablets and even offer a small amount of the padding compound for sale so you do not have to buy a huge amount that you will never use all of! They have recipes, how to make photo cubes, lamp shades and more. Be sure to check them out and tell them I sent you!

Great eBay purchase.....

I have to share this seller! We have been desperately trying to find some teal cotton yarn that won't break the bank to get and I ran across some Peaches and Creme on eBay that only costs 6.95 to mail 1 cone, not over $10!
I was thrilled and placed the order and I had told her that we needed it to make ovarian cancer things for Mom and she emailed me back to tell me she had a pound cone of teal that she would get right in the mail. Well.... 3 days later the package was on my doorstep with a note apologizing that what she thought was teal was actually peacock and she sent me 8 balls of teal cotton AND stated in the note she ordered the teal pounder and would mail it to me as soon as she got it!
She was wonderful and went above and beyond outstanding customer service....  Truly above and beyond! So many of my cotton needs will go through her! I got her permission to post about this and her eBay id is carol14270, her store is called Do it Yarns and here is a link to her store on eBay.. Do it Yarns. 

I hope you will check out her store and give her some of your business. A lot cheaper shipping for just one cone!

Moms Ovarian Cancer Awarness Ribbon Dishcloths....

Here are the cloths I have been desperately looking for Teal Cotton Yarn to make for Mom.... I finally found a small amount and got them done! Woo hoo!!!! So very pleased with them! There is a link to purchase a set for yourself or a loved one as well as a link to the Breast Cancer Cloths too. 10% of ALL sales of these or any other Cancer Awareness Item goes to Breast and Ovarian Cancer research. I Hope this inspires you to do the same! And please remember to get yourself checked regularly!

Ovarian Cancer Cloths

Breast Cancer Cloths

I am in an Etsy Treasury!!

My Sofa Tissue Box Cover made it into a treasury on Etsy... how exciting is that!?!?!?!? I am honored and thrilled to be in it! That she thought my works was good enough out of all of those on Etsy to be listed in her treasury is humbling! YAY! I am so excited.

Here it is.... Not so Humble Facial Tissue Toppers Treasury

Thank you so much for including me!

Worsted Weight Ovarian / Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon Pattern

In all my searching for things to make for my Mom, who is undergoing Chemotherapy for Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer, the one thing I cannot find is just a plain worsted weight cancer ribbon for basic plain old lapel pins, appliques, key-chains, etc. 

So.... I set out to figure it out myself and after playing with double crochet, too loose and holey, half double crochet was too bulky and single crochet with 1 row was too narrow and 2 rows too wide, G hook was too big and floppy, so I went down to an E and love the results. I ended up doing it kinda like a foundation chain!!! Heck, I don't even know if I do it right to call it a foundation chain! 

Please feel free to share this pattern, sell what you make from it, whatever you like, but do not say the pattern is yours. Please link it back to me. Thanks and enjoy. 

 

 (I am including yellow ones to show support for our troops! So these do not have to just be Cancer Awareness Ribbons!) 

Here is the pattern for The Worsted Weight Cancer Awareness Ribbon.... With pics dedicated to my mom, LaDonna ... I love you. 

Worsted Weight Cancer Awareness Ribbon

(I used Cotton Yarn and a G hook for these pictures.)

Materials:

Very small amount of any worsted weight yarn you have in your stash.

Size F crochet hook

Hot Glue gun or other way to join the ribbon. I use hot glue like most people use duct tape.

Hint: Make sure to keep your tension tight as it makes a neater and tighter ribbon with less flopping on you.

Instructions:

Ch 2, insert the hook back into the first chain, yarn over and pull through, but instead of finishing the stitch, do a chain one and insert the hook into that chain just made,

 

yarn over and pull through, yarn over chain one, 

yarn over again, pull through both loops, that is the first single crochet,

now insert the hook into the chain previously made, yarn over and pull through, chain one,yarn over pull both through both loops, 2nd one done,

do this until you have 20 sc. tie off and weave in all ends.

Now just bend your ribbon into shape and attach it to whatever you like, I use a drop of hot glue. Be careful not to use too much, it will burn you! 

Please email me if you have any questions. 

Here I just incorporated the key chain into the 9th, 10th and 11th sc. Enjoy and be sure to make some for your local cancer center. It will brighten someones day. If your sell them, consider donating a portion of your sales to Ovarian or Breast Cancer research.

Happy International Crochet day everyone!

I hope you all got to support the cause today and got some quality hook time in. I know I did! I created a pattern for Cancer awareness and will be posting the pattern here tonight.
I am teaching my neighbor to crochet Granny Squares tonight after I get the kids all fed and bathed and in bed. YAY! I enjoy teaching ... well... sometimes! LOL! I know you all know exactly what I mean!
But just wanted to pop on and say Happy International Crochet Day and hope you got to support the cause and got to Crochet in public or got to teach someone to crochet... the day isn't over... it's not too late to do it still!
Have a great day!

On Life .....

 You just have to wonder sometimes what life has in store for you. I know my life is not what I expected it to be at this point. I really am thrilled about things the way they are, don't get me wrong ... then sometimes I just have to ask ... "Why me"?????? Really...
I know in the big picture of things I am doing a wonderful and loving thing, raising my grandchildren. I love their little faces to pieces and cannot imagine my life without them and then there are days that I really don't know if I can stand even another second of it. Am I horrible for thinking this? I know (and have been told) that I need to give myself a lot more credit for what I am doing, because it really is a good thing that I am doing. 

With my big boy finally having a 'diagnosis' of severe hyperactivity and severe attention deficit, I am at one moment thrilled THEY have finally recognized it and have given it a label, but then that label carries a lot of things.... not all good.
I do not know if I want him on meds, but then the days he is having a really bad day, I would give anything to have him on meds.... what do you do? On his bad days he is very hyper, very aggressive, very loud, very mean, very uncooperative, very everything bad ....  Are all the drugs they want to put them on bad?
Am I wrong for wanting him to be better?
We are waiting for them to get back to us with his full assessment and we have the appt at OHSU in a couple months for further genetic testing, and also have the EcCares program assessing him on Thursday for school placement. Things will get better, they really will.
And now the counselor, school and Dr are all pushing for me to get full legal custody and become their foster parent so we can at least have access to a lot more resources for help with the kids as well as more money that we deserve for sure. On one hand that would be great, but on the other hand, I do not want to hurt my daughter in any way, I know she is in no position to take the kids any time soon, she is going through enough right now. I am so torn. My daughter has always been the most important thing in my life and now I have her kids..... what do I do people? 
All of this is because I was looking at a friends pics of her burned crafting room being put back together, (thankfully all were OK, she lost some sports memorabilia plus a very old doll from her childhood) and I am so envious of her yarn collection... in a very good way, I had much more yarn than she does and she has a lot, but I had to sell almost all of mine to help with the moving costs to get to where we are now.
It hardly ever bugs me, but seeing her room made me remember what I had, what we had to do to get here,  how far I have come to recover from the abusive situation I was in, to where we are now ... all of us in a much, much, MUCH better place and I have my babies... so life is really rather great in the big pic of things, it sure could be a lot worse, I could still be where I was, the kids could have been taken by the state almost 2 yrs ago... so life really is good.
I am just having a pity party for myself at the moment.
After all... I am entitled once in a while... right??? After all... it has been a bad year starting with me breaking my knee, tearing my mcl and physical therapy April 19, Mom having serious serious surgery April 25, Micheal's ambulance ride May 30, Amber getting hit by a car and critically injured June 22, Mom being diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer July 7, going through chemo and Gramma passing August 26... Yep, been a bad year so far! So yes... I am entitled!
But life is basically good for us right now considering it all.

My morning (mourning)

Well.... Gramma's service it today at 2, so I woke up this morning feeling the need to bake in honor of her. I made some fresh Banana Nut Muffins (had some dead bananas that needed to be cooked) and a small batch of Chocolate Chip toll house cookies.
Got out the cake pedestal and put a little white doily on it and viola...
Just thought I would share them with you all... take one, they are so yummy..... Enjoy... I know we will!

***ADDED 9/3/10: Had a couple emails for the recipes... I only use the toll house recipe off the package for the cookies and the Banana muffins are the banana bread out of the betty crocker breat cancer awareness cook book.***

Found a cute FREE photo effect site...

You know we crafters like to take pics of our projects (if we remember to take the pic before it is taken from us!!!) and I found the cutest little site called PicJoke.com and it has a bunch of different layouts like the two below and all you have to do is load your pic and it does everything... it centers it right, it really does it all!!! You'll have to check it out. There is holidays, weddings, kids stuff, famous people, even a hello kitty one... LOTS of things to frame your pics, there are even a few ... shall I say risque as well, so if you wanna do a special spouse pic without having to go somewhere... here you go! Go check them out and have some fun with your pics! Get your fav pic of your little ones, projects or pets and go have some fun! It is also available in many languages!

Carols Crochet Place is giving away a $65 CSN Gift card!

How exciting.... Carols Crochet Place is giving away a $65 gift card for CSN stores. Please check out her blog for more info on how to win this.... Carols Crochet Place
Thanks Carol for the great offer!

Ovarian Cancer Sock Kit

Something after my own heart....
As you all may or may not know, my Mom was just diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer and is undergoing Chemo treatments.

Rob Delmont of Skacel Collection has teamed up with the Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research (marsharivkin.org) to make the egg-stra Special Sock kit designed by Rosemary Chappy Chapman in honor of Susanne Skacel, a three-year survivor of ovarian cancer. You can read more about it in the newsletter here.... Creative Knitting Newsletter  or read about the kit here..... Ovarian Cancer Sock Kit   

They are donating 15.00 of every kit sold to ovarian cancer research!!! How amazing is that. Makes my hear warm to know that our craft can make a difference in someones life. So if you or a family member or a friend have had or know someone that has had, does have, is a survivor of ovarian cancer, here is our chance to help. Kits purchased through both Jimmy Bean's Wool and Webs, will have their entire purchase price of $25.00 donated to the Marsha Rivkin Center!!! Makes it an even better deal!!!

I have posted this on my blog and on facebook as well.... Please do the same, together we can make a difference! Lets show the world what we can do as a dedicated group of crafters!!!! Spread the word ladies (and gentlemen!!!)

Thanks for reading!
Hugs
Micki

Moms Chemo Caps

Most of you already know that Mom has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer after complications (embolism, pneumonia, infection)  from a surgery she had April 24th and caused a battery of tests (THANK GOD) to be done and the fluid drawn from around her lung contained ovarian cancer cells. So she is now going through Chemo and her hair is starting to fall out and she is very much OK with it, but knows that the public can be put off, so she wants some caps and this is the first one (well, first 2), there are several others waiting to be made until we can find some darned teal cotton, crud, we can't even find any teal regular yarn either and I just can't afford to pay 10+ shipping for one cone of cotton!!! Teal is the color for ovarian cancer. I am going to make her a set of the cancer awareness illusion cloths in teal too! (If we ever find teal cotton)

Anyways... I digress.... 

This is the hat out of Think Pink for the Cure and it is so cute and looks really good on her. She wants them to match all her clothes! LOL

I made these with Simply Soft, but she wants them in cotton as well. 

They are a really nice tight stitched little hat. Will actually provide some warmth and be cute!

Purple for her first of course! LOL  

And then Pink. I really like them. Pretty quick to make up too.

Chicken and taters..... can't go wrong.

I was watching cooking channel the other day and fell in love with the Easy Grilled Honey-Dijon Chicken and Tangy Tater salad that Sunny was making, so I HAD to make it. YUMMY! WOWSER! Can get the recipe here.....Tangy Tater Salad and http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/easy-grilled-honey-dijon-chicken-recipe/index.html
If those fail to work, just loook for Sunny Anderson on foodtv.com and look up the recipes. Very quick and easy and super YUMMY! Kids even cleaned their plates! Even Shaylee!!!

Cooked the Chicken on the grill and the taters inside. Man oh man was it GOOD!

Jar Covers

I love these things... I have them for everything almost... crochet hooks, barrettes and pony tail holders, pens & pencils... you name it... if it fits... it has a jar! LOL  

I use Peaches & Creme yarn always.  These are quart wide mouth jars.

I love how the variegated cotton spirals up the jars!!! Have to have a ruffle and a ribbon of course.

Another Cradle Purse

This customer wanted Pink, White and Blue... so.. here it is finished.... She didn't give a baby color preference, so I used a pink & a blue one. Nice little surprise for her.

OK... everybody... awwwwwwww

 

Kitty Couch for Precious

Made Amber's spoiled kitty, Precious, a Kitty Cat Couch. It is just HUGE! And this is the only pic I didn't goof and delete from my memory card!!!! I will have to get Amber to take a pic for me with her cell phone and I will post it too.. But you get the idea. SPOILED CAT!

My and is there so you can see how big it is and my cell phone is on it too!!!! That is how deep it is! I made the letters and hearts with sport weight yarn. Used Red Heart Super Saver in 2 pinks... you can also see the darker color of the bottom in this pic.

Mini Trinket Box Doll for daughter

I made this for Amber while she was in the hospital. I used #10 thread and a short fat RX bottle for the base. I just made her up as I went along. I have made so many of the big ones that it was pretty easy. She has her tongue, la brae and eyebrow rings in it. So very cute. She has wanted one of the cross ribbons and is in love with Black and pink.

Isn't she cute!

Here is her Black ribbon cross on the under skirt.

 

And here it is open... too fun!!! I love making these!

Daughters Leg injuries.... WARNING YUKKY PICS!!!!!!!

My daughter was hit by a hit and run driver on her 27th Birthday and spent 8 days in intensive care in critical condition and another 8 days in critical Orthopedic care followed by home visits from the home health care nurse and lots of Dr appts.

She had 4 surgeries in the first 36 hours after they got her stable enough to take her in!!! I honestly do not think I have never been so scared for my baby in my life. 

Her leg was shattered from the knee down. (her patella and tibia (?) ) She had 7 surgeries all together that 1st week and there will be at least 2 more. 

There is severe nerve injury as well and the 4th surgery was a femoral artery bypass because there was no blood flow to her lower leg.  2nd or 3rd day home, she slipped and broke her left wrist... tak about adding insult to injury!!! 

It is almost 2 mos into it and she has an infection in the femoral artery bypass site. Has been on antibiotics for it for over 2 weeks now and is on the 3rd batch now and hopefully it will go away.

I will do the least offensive pic 1st, the next couple will be VERY GRAPHIC... scroll to the next post if you are squeemish AT ALL!!!!!

This is after her leg was wrapped it (about 10 days).... She had half a million IV holes! It was unreal.

THE NEXT 2 PICS ARE GROSS!!!

       

  

This is after the femoral artery bypass and she was still unconscious most of the time. She had 4 stitches in her eyebrow and scuff up cheek and eye and black eye... she will kill me if I post that one!!!!!  

The dark hole (s) are on both sides of her legs are open incisions with drains to drain off the fluid from her leg.

Fishnet knee highs!

LOVE these! I have made 3 pair now, they work up so quick! Pattern here.....  http://www.crazycoley.com/2009/07/july-sock.html

I do not know what the yarn is, it was a gift from Margaret (THANX!!!) and had no label, but LOVE IT! These are mine!!!!!

  

   

 

The black are a sport yarn and the fall variegated is a sock yarn. I do have to say that they look WAY better on!

Trinket Box Doll for Sister's Birthday

This is my sisters Birthday present. She is one of the trinket box dolls! Sorry ... Horrible pic, I know, but snapped it as she was on her way out the door... literally! Threw up a backdrop and put her on one of Edie's Dishcloths. But at least I remembered this time!

Our Butterfly Garden

This is from the infomercials on TV... The kids loved watching the whole process and them getting to hold them and let them go too! They come in a plastic jar with food on the bottom and have 5 little bitty black larvae in them. They eat and grow and grow and grow and grow then do their cocoons and then hatch. You keep the for 5-10 days and let them go. They started eating each other after 11 days because we could not let them out in the severe rain we were having! So they will start eating each other! They are vicious little creatures. Out of 10 we let 8 go!!! Was very exciting.

The larvae and 2 fresh hatching's!!! (Note the dye dripping down, that is from the wings)

Butterfly enjoying our little garden

 Michael with a butterfly, they were in total awe!!!

  

Shaylee's 1st ever holding a butterfly!

Shaylee's Butterfly!

Michael's Butterfly

Ambers Magic Wand Pillow

 This it done without the button covers (well... snap covers) and Double strands of yarn throughout.

The inside is crocheted and single strands of Simply Soft... of course it HAD to be soft!

This is what it is going to house.....

All snuggled in its new home! 

Shaylee's dress

This is the little dress I knit for Shaylee. She has a blue one and a yellow one too! Very quick and easy to make too! Only uses a fat quarter that you can usually find for under a buck and less than a ball of cotton. A little sewing knowledge is a really good thing too! 

It was so cute, they were out riding their bikes and I decided to get a pic since she HAD to have the hat on too and it started sprinkling so she had to do her rain dance!