Blessing :)

Happy Thursday evening!!

I don't have any crafting to share but I will share about our little man's progress he's made.  I was excited as I got to pick him up from the vet yesterday.  That was the LONGEST hour I've had in quiet some time.  I had to wait for a room to be available as it was a discharge consultation.  Well 45 minutes later that happened and I got his care instructions and all 3 bottles of his medications and his new food.  Then off to the front as we actually got a credit refund from what we paid because he did so well.  That was a nice treat let me tell you!!  Then in a few minutes one of the care takers brought him out, he came around the corner and saw me and his tail was wagging and she picked him up to show me his incision and what to look for then handed him to me.  Let me tell you that was the best feeling!!  He was giving me so many kisses and I was in heaven :) 

Sometimes we tend to forget the little blessings that are right at our feet.  I now make sure I give even more love to our 3 boys :)

So here is a picture of Taz when Larry got him on Monday from the first vet.  See his little eyes, he was hurting and miserable :(

This is my sweet baby when I got him yesterday  :)  Doesn't he look much better??? 

He is doing great and we are still having to watch him closely to make sure there is no infections or any signs of problems.  Even though he has to take all these meds, he's still a happy camper because he feels better and he's home :)

So that is all I have tonight.  I work from home tomorrow so will get a head start to this 3 day weekend!!  I'm hoping to get a few crafts at least started if all works out lol.

Have a fabulous evening and happy crafting!!

xo ~ Laura

Update

Just a quick update on our little Taz.  I am happy to report that our little Taz Master made it through his surgery with flying colors on Sunday and has made great progress since then!!  Whew...we were told if it had been 8 hours later we would have lost him.  My heart would have been broken.  So he will be coming home tomorrow after I get off work and will finally after 4 days I will get to cuddle our little man again!!  The vet's office have been so great.....I think we may have just found a new one and if anyone lives around my area and is looking for one (they are 24x7) shoot me an email and I'll give you the info :)

Not any crafting going on these past few days because of all this but I'll be back soon.  In the meantime, I'm linking up to Lil Luna.  Hope on over and say hi!!

Have a fabulous evening!!

Hugs,
Laura

Waiting is so hard......

Hope you have all had a wonderful weekend and have been enjoying it.  We were having a good weekend until yesterday afternoon when our youngest Pom started to not feel well.  It is so hard when your animals don't feel well because they can't tell you. 

This morning Larry came in and woke me up around 7 a.m. and said he'd been up all night with our youngest Pom, Taz and that he had taken a turn for the worse.  I instantly got up and he was laying out in the grass and he was just shaking.  I called the vet immediately (emergency call of course due to it being Sunday) and told them his symptoms and they said how soon can you get him there.  I said we'll be there in 15 minutes so I grabbed a soft blanket, got him and wrapped him up and we were off. 

The issue he started having yesterday was he was straining to go tinkle and that's not good.  We arrived at the emergency clinic and they took him back to take x-ray and said he may have a bladder blockage.  Sure enough he had 5 stones stuck so we had to leave him there and we can't get an update until 9 pm tonight.  This day has just drug on!!!  We're hoping this procedure he had to get did the trick to clear them out.  They had to put a catheder in him, put him under and then try to flush them out and empty his bladder.  It was 4x's the normal size.  He never made a whimp all night bless his heart!!!

He is our smallest and we call him our perm-a-pup.  He is about 7-8 lbs and is just adoreable!!  He always makes us laugh and here are a few pictures to show you how darn cute our little man is :)

So we've been praying for the best all day.  If this didn't work, he will have to have surgery.  Vet bill currently paid for this mornings drop of is at $885 and could be higher from here if it didn't work.  Does anyone have pet insurance??  If so, any recommendations???

So needless to say I haven't felt like crafting today because my thoughts and prayers have been with him since 7 a.m.  A few more hours and I can hopefully get good news we can pick him up tomorrow morning bright and early.

Have a wonderful evening!!

xo ~ Laura

The last of the inside decorating for the 4th of July

Hope you are having a fantastic weekend so far!!

OK so I think I'm done with the decorating the inside for the 4th of July.  I do enjoy decorating though and want to change some things around decor wise but we'll see.

So I made this USA plaque last year and put up a USA TY Bear that I found when cleaning out my craft room on Sunday.  I thought yup, keeping this one lol.  I have a thing for teddy bears anyway :)  I also had picked up these two tea light candle holders at the Dollar Store and decided to put some star garland around them to dress it up a little more.  Perfect little addition don't you think?

I have also updated my shadow display box.  Trust me it was time.  I still had my Valentine's stuff in it!!  Opps!!!

And this is one of my favs :)

I still am thinking about the outside but nothing has come to mind quiet yet but you know me, some inspiration will get to me lol.

Have a wonderful day and hope you are all having a fabulous time with all your projects.

xo ~ Laura

Ready????

Happy Friday!!

OK so I left you with a tease the other day on what on earth I was doing with those pinecones.  I wanted to display them and in a festive manner with the red, white and blue so I got out my sparkle glue and started decorating.  Unfortunately the pictures don't do them justice but they are so darn cute in person!!

I then wanted to display then in a doiley bowl that I made.  So simple to make these and so darn cute!!  First off find a few doiles, get some fabric stiffner and soak them until saturated.

Pour it in a container.  I did just a shallow pan I had from the Dollar Store.  I wasn't sure if it would take off the finish but it didn't :)  It cleans up easy too so no worries.

The place your doiley in the mixture and start getting it very saturated until it is very wet.  Once that is completed you can get ready for the molding part.

I took two different size bowls and put plastic wrap over them so that when they were finished drying they don't stick to the bowl itself and the plastic is easy to take off.  Just a nice hint ;-)  Lay them gently over the bowls and mold them how you'd like them to be.  I gave one of them a scalloped edge as I thought that would be cute.

Let them totally dry and then when you peel them off the bowl you have this!!  I should have let mine dry overnight just to be sure they were totally hardened but got impatient so they flattened out :(  Well I can redue them but at least you can see what my idea was lol.

Have a great day and happy crafting!!

xo ~ Laura



4th of July Decorating

Howdy!!

All the blogs seem to be in full gear for decorating for the 4th of July so figured I would join the bandwagon.  I showed you a few things I had gotten at JoAnn Fabrics.  Are you curious what I've been up too?  You might be asking.....what is she doing with pinecones????  Well just wait and see what I've come up with.  Now you may ask.......seriously Laura???  For the 4th of July????  Do I have your curiosity up yet?  lol

Well you're going to have to wait just a little longer to see what is up my sleeve :)  I know, don't you just hate that.  I promise, it will be worth it :)

So what else have I been up to decorating wise?  Well I was excited as I got to pull my Dad's Veteran Flag and display case out.  How appropriate is this for the 4th!!  Thanks Dad :)

Then of course I had to add a little to the fireplace mantel to tie it all in so thanks to a pack of 4 minature flags, done!!  :)  Simple and easy!!

One last thing, some very dear friends of mine had their baby a week ago and he was diagnosed with HLHS Hypoplastic left heart syndrome when Shannon was 20 weeks along.  He is healthy except for this issue.  He has gone into his first of 3 surgeries today and we are waiting for an update on how he is doing.  If this procedure doesn't work they will try another more evasive procedure.  If that doesn't work he will have to be put on the heart donor list.  He is so precious and is a true miracle.  Please keep Gavin in your prayers that he comes through surgery fine and starts to heal properly to be a normal functioning little one.

Well that's all I have for today.  I hope you are having a fabulous week so far and happy crafting!!

xo ~ Laura

A few goodies :)

Happy Monday!!

This morning I had to report to Jury Duty, yes once again and got released early so I was able to go and see if I could find a few goodies to work on.  Did I score anything????  Not the greatest selections today but I have a few more things to work on now :) First off I scored these at Goodwill :)

Then off I went to JoAnn Fabrics to see what was on sale and I was excited!!

Hope you are all having a fantastic day and stay tuned for what my projects will look like.  I think I am going to be a happy crafter when I get done lol.

Well off to go craft after I get the lawn mowed.  Might as well take advantage of the decent weather and the rest of the day off right?

xo ~ Laura

Power Outage

First off, wishing all the wonderful and special Dad's a very Happy Father's Day!!  Today I really have been missing Dad.  They say the first holiday's without them are the toughest and I think that is true.

This morning I woke up about 7:45 a.m. (oh yes I love the weekends) only to find out the power was out.  Well thank goodness Larry had gotten up a little earlier and we at least had a fresh pot of coffee.  So I instantly thought this is definitely putting a crimp in my plans for Father's Day as I had a nice breakfast planned for him but that didn't happen.  So what exciting things did we do while we were without power for 9 hours?  Well I got the house cleaned up and then Larry reminded me I could always go clean up my craft room that I'd been neglecting lol. When he gives me that cute grin with his dimples showing I can't really resist lol.   I thought oh nice......well I suppose.

So off I went and decided to pull EVERYTHING out of the closet and corners where things were stashed and this is how I started it all off.  Now be prepared.........WARNING!!!  THIS IS NOT PRETTY!!!  lol

So off to  organizing I went.  I had already bought a bunch of plastic totes but hadn't done anything with them so after 3 straight hours, my closet and craft room looks much better.  I'm excited to not have to sit there thinking....now where did I put that?  Does that ever happen to you????  Please tell me it does :)

Up on the top shelf and all labeled :)  Even have a few empty ones and room for more if I need :)

The totes down below.  Love these as if I need to bring them out they are on wheels so perfect!!

And now I can walk again in my craft room!!  Yay!!  It needs to stay this way now lol.

So then 2 of the kids came over with their spouses and 2 of the grandkids to give Larry some gifts and I was able to sit down and visit with them for awhile.  Carissa was sweet as she had called and I had told her that our power was out and so she walked in with 2 coffees for us :)  Yay!!  Hey, you can never have to much coffee here on the weekends at our house.  After they left I was famished from really not eating all day due to the change of plans (stupid power.....still don't know what happened and probably won't) so I decided to make  up for not doing breakfast.  This was Larry's special Father's Day dinner.  Yummmm!!!  I devoured mine before he finished which is really unusual.  I told you I was hungry!!  hahahahaha

I have tomorrow off as I have my last day of Jury Duty.  Hoping it was like a few weeks ago and nothing planned for the docket as I could use another day to just relax and have some fun.  I have a few more craft projects I want to finish and start so here's hoping!!

Have a wonderful evening and happy crafting!!

xo ~ Laura

Made it!!!

Well happy Wednesday evening!!  Whew.....it was a tough day today as it was my first day back at work since last week because of going to the hospital with Mom these past few days.  I ask myself regularly, why on earth do I get up at 5:00 a.m. to be on the road for an hour each way to work???  You know, I still haven't been able to answer that one honestly lol.  Maybe because I have a mortgage??  Go figure :)

So here is one of the projects I've been working on the past 2 days.  One of Carissa's best friends is getting married July 24th and Arielle had sent me a few ideas that she wanted me to do up so she could buy them for their new house they just bought.  I had her send me what she wanted and told her that I would see what I could come up with.  Well here was one of her ideas........so this is what I did up, which will be given to her as a wedding present :)

I actually was very proud of myself as I cut this board myself!!  Yes...that's right, I used my new compact saw and cut it all by my lonesome :)  Watch out now girls/guys.....I'm ready for the bigger stuff now lol.  I think I'm getting tool-idious lol.

Well think I'm going to settle down now for the night as that darn alarm clock has no mercy for me in the morning so have a wonderful evening and happy crafting!!

xo ~ Laura

Finished :)

Howdy!!

Carissa and I went down to the hospital today and she wanted to see her also as she doesn't want to miss the opportunity to spend as much time as she can with her too.   Missed another day of work which hurts as I have no PTO time left but there isn't anything that can replace Mom and her needs so its all good.  Mom looked so much better today!  She had a very rough night on the CPAP machine and it was going off every 15 minutes so they have changed her to a different breathing machine which seems to be working much better.  The Dr. came in and said yesterday's xrays were showing pneumonia in the left lung so they are watching that very closely.  Her oxygen level keeps dipping down so they have her confined to bed which is a good thing.  If you knew my Mom at all, she doesn't like having to stay in one place lol.  It was good to see her feeling a little better and she was having us all laughing as she is quiet the character.  She said hey, you might as well make the best of things and laugh right?  Yup, that's Mom :)

Tomorrow I will go back into work and just stay in touch with the Dr. and her via the phone.  I can't miss anymore work this week.  Man....where is that lucky Lotto ticket???  :D

I finished one of the projects tonight and loved how it turned out.  Here is a picture frame we've had up for 9 years and as you can see it was even missing a picture or two here and there.  I just never did anything with it.  How boring huh!!!

Well here is my frame now and I love it!!!!  A little vinyl and a few embelishments and ta da!!    Now how is this for country :)  Aw, much better huh!!  I think I'm going to do one up like this for special cards like birthdays and Christmas too.  I have a new passion...chicken wire lol :)

Still working on the other one that I posted about on Monday.  It will be a gift so I'm taking extra special care with it lol.

Have a wonderful evening and happy crafting!!

xo ~ Laura

Very long day today....

Well today I went down to the hospital to visit my Mom and on my way down, about 10 minutes from the hospital, my cell phone rang and it was the hospital.  Let me tell you my heart just sank before answering it.  Funny how your mind just races when family members are ill.  She is having a very difficult time breathing right now as she has pneumonia in both lungs so the Dr. put her on a CPAP to see if that would help and she's been on it all day and all evening so far.  It has helped her but my heart just broke when I got in there.  They had given her a sedative and she was resting and when she heard my voice, she looked and just grabbed my hand and the look in her eyes just about made me lose it.  She looked so scared :(  I calmed her down and said it's OK, just rest and let the machine help you breath.  I'll be back down at the hospital tomorrow to talk to the Dr. to see what the results were from the tests and xrays today.

Whenever Dad was sick and in the hospital, he always had his teddy bear (Ole Gus) that Carissa had given him.  I've posted pictures of him, which Carissa now has in her position after Dad's passing.  So what did I get Mom for this hospital stay?  This is LuLu.  Her eyes just lit up :)

So after a long day at the hospital and an hour drive both ways, I came home and made some homemade mac & cheese which is in the oven waiting for my hubs and started to work on a few crafts.  It is amazing how theraputic it is for me.  It makes me happy and keeps my mind occupied.  Here are a few sneak peaks of what I'm working on tonight and will finish up tomorrow, at least with one of them.

Hope you are all having a wonderful evening.  Big hugss!!!!!!!!!

xo ~ Laura

Why??????

Howdy!!

Well just when I thought I could get back into the swing of things, more things keep popping up.  OK I'm not complaining because I have my health and so does my family, we both have jobs and taken care of but seriously???  How much can a person take.  You may be asking oh what now girl lol.

Well a few weeks ago I somehow tweaked my wrist and it has been hurting on and off and then yesterday we were at my oldest daughter's house for one of the grandbabies birthday's and my hand and wrist were really swollen!  I tell you, getting older sometimes is the pits lol.  So I am icying it and have a wrist brace on it which totally takes away my mobility to do crafting that's for sure :(  Well it will be better soon I hope :)  OK enough whining about my aging body lol.

Today I received a call from my brother and found out that my Mom is now in the hospital with a bad case of pneumonia and her sugar level is off the charts so I'll be taking tomorrow off work and heading down to see her.  It does make it so much harder not having her close.  I thought I was done with hospitals after Dad got so sick and then passed.  Guess this is part of lifes cycle for me right now.  Can you say..... Laura you need a vacation???  :)

So anywho...what did the hubs and me do today?  Well since my wrist is hurt, he knew I couldn't use the shears to cut down my partially dead honeysuckle so outside he went like a real trooper :)  I love this man lol.  I didn't take a before picture but should have.   So this corner of the yard is is dire need of attention let me tell you!!  Please don't scream when you look at the pictures lol.

So behind this BBQ (trust me it doesn't work) used to be all the dead honeysuckle so Larry chopped it down while I supervised lol.  My "new" son told me last year he would haul the BBQ to the dump for me and as you can see it's still in my yard and I thought to myself, there has got to be something I can do with it lol.  So a few plants later and my wood box, here is where I've gotten so far.  I have a mini vision but it isn't all clear yet so you'll have to stay tuned for that one.

Now onto the "jungle" as we're calling it.  I haven't been able to weed and the dogs love going under this maple and of course barking at anything or anyone that is walking on the street.  As you can see it needs help and bad.  I'm hoping next weekend my wrist feels better to get under there and clean it back up.  Thank goodness this is my backyard and no one can really see it lol.

Now you may be wondering....why is she taking a picture of a shed?  Well because I have an idea and wanted to make you think and tease you a little bit lol so stay tuned :)

So I'm sorry I don't have anything special to posts but wanted to say hi and tell you yes....I'm still around lol.  Stay tuned for exciting things to be coming, especially when my old aging body starts behaving again and my Mom gets healthy.

Big hugs and have a fantastic week!!

xo ~ Laura

Not bad for a Monday!!

Good evening!!!  Well this was quiet the eventful day for me today.  I didn't have to work as I got summoned to Jury Duty....the first time ever lol.  It was kind of nice though as it was just downtown so I didn't have to go far.  I got up early to be down there by 8:00 a.m. and not much going on so free to go.  So what did I do???  Went bargain shopping but not a good day for that as no deals today, well except I found a new saw on sale so I bought it.  Oh dear.....watch out!!!  lol

It ended up being a beautiful and sunny day today so I had the backdoor open, the breeze coming in and started to FINALLY get some cleaning done.  So much had been pushed aside from the wedding and now I am all caught up again and it feels great!!!

Carissa stopped by after she got off work this afternoon and I walked her out to her car and noticed my Clematis got it's first bloom and I was excited.  It is still a baby but it is definitely growing and grabbing on to the arbor.

Since it was so nice out I decided to make some sun tea.  I love this time of the year so here it is brewing away outside lol.

Speaking of outside, when the kids got back from their honeymoon and we were at their house watching them open their gifts, Carissa got so excited because she got something she's wanted for awhile :)  She had been eyeing mine but I told her no way.....don't even think about it lol.

I'm trying to get my brain wrapped back around crafting other than wedding stuff and I think I've got crafter's block lol.  I have a few ideas noodling around in there but I have to grab it and start working on it lol.  I'll get there and soon.  I'm itching to get back into it.

So had to get dinner finished before the hubs gets home.  So what's for dinner you ask?  Something very simple but yummy :)

Have a wonderful week and happy crafting!!

xo ~ Laura