-Artful Amethyst-: What the Kale!

This is my beautiful talented niece Ame.  Please check out her fun blog!

See ya soon!



-Artful Amethyst-: What the Kale!: Kale: finding its way into your diet in an unexpected, yet delicious way! Recently, I noticed that kale has a new found popularity amon...

Hugs and Happiness!

Huge update from Kricut Krazy

Warning:  Super Long!

Hello everyone!

I know it's been a while but I have plenty of valid excuses and a few excuses that are just....excuses.

Ragan Lyn update!

First off, many of you know my very first grand child was born in March.  When she was exactly 1 week old my daughter called 911 when she couldn't wake Ragan.  From that day on Ragan was in pediatric intensive care at Hopkins for 6 weeks.  So much of our time was spent running back and forth and trying to keep my daughter and her bf sane.  They are too young to deal with these stresses for sure.  But, Miracle of Miracles our lil beanie baby made it through (after 3 very bad scares) and is finally home safe and sound with her mama and daddy.  Right now Ragan has gone on her very first road trip for a holiday weekend in WV.  So thank you all for your thoughts and prayers - they were and are appreciated!

Julianna Marie is coming!

I was able to get a few crafty things done.  These are one of the 3 Party Favors I made for Amanda, my youngest daughter who is expecting her first on July 2nd.  So far everything is great with her pregnancy and she's happy and healthy.  However, I think her fiance (Sept Wedding) Brandon is a "Helicopter Dad" in the making because he will not stop fussing over her LOL.    The anchor is from Stampin Up Nautical set... I can't recall the exact name. I just punched out the circles, made a little tray and wrapped 4 hershy nuggets in pretty pink striped paper and put it all in a pretzel stick bag, tied a ribbon on the top with a teeny lil pacifier and waaahla.  Done.  I still need to do a Julianna banner using a pink nautical theme.

Mothers day gift from Amanda

My 'baby' Amanda is not much of a crafter. By that I mean paper crafter. She is a very talented photographer and she and her fiance run an up and coming photography business. Lennon Photography  Take a peek.  Anyway - Amanda shows up on Mom's day with a bag full of goodies and this little beauty.  My favorite of all the gifts she gave me that day.  She took a Plant Pot and tightly wrapped pink tissue paper around it.  Then she filled it with Swedish Fish and Peanut Butter M&M's and topped it with a super cute garden mushroom (which is now in my garden)  This is super cute don't you think?

Some cute cards I made the other day

So I decided to play around with a coupla stamps (Peachy Keen Hillbilly) and scraps only.  That's right, I dug in my scrap drawers and this is what I came up with.  2 Hillbilly Holler Cards - super cute, the one with the 3 flowers on it says I'm wishing nothing but the good stuff for you! and the other one with the dog says "If you need me, just howl!"  and finally the colorful one on the inside says "You color my world"

Health Issues

I realize (a lil too late I'm afraid) that I'm not a very healthy person.  I'm not grossly obese but I sure am close (says the BMI chart, my jeans still say size 14 but who am I to argue?)  Over the years it's been harder and harder to do stuff, like stairs, lifting, standing for a long period etc.  For the last 5 years or so I've had High Blood Pressure issues that were ALWAYS kept under control. Until very recently.  I guess all the baby stuff going on just took me over the top and I got to spend the night in the hospital with a very very strange room mate.  They got me on better meds that seem to be controlling it but the dizziness is just insane.  Apparently the night they admitted me I was very very close to having a stroke.  Talk about SCARY!  But again, it seems to be under control

Spineless - wish I was!

Around the time I was in the hospital my left arm started hurting - a lot. Just in the upper arm, hurt more when I laid down. Very strange, was not cardiac related.  It's gotten worse the last 2 weeks so I finally had it looked at.  Well looky looky,  major neck and lower spine issues (forgot to take a pic of the lower spine)  But apparently I have stage 2.5 cervical decay, bone spurs and Spinal Stenosis.  Sonofanutcracker.  First gotta try some PT for 3 weeks and if that doesn't help, shots and then duh duh duh...... (ominous sound) surgery.  No thanks. My sister had surgery on her neck back at Christmas time.  She did say when she woke up she had no more shoulder/arm pain and that's pretty awesome (she's a lil bitty thing, I think I'm the mailman's but that's another springer episode) but she was in quite a bit of surgical type pain.  She's doing great now but I'm a huge sissy.  I thought I had the worlds lowest tolerance for pain but the doc tells me with this neck it's no wonder I'm bitching  complaining about pain all the time.

Free Groceries SAY WHAT???????????

Yep - ya heard that right sistah's and mistah's!  Back in North Carolina the employment was crashing all around us - in no time flat we too were affected.  So I resorted to coupons and baby sitting to supplement hubby's income.  Then one day one of the gals I sat for said "Oh keep these granola bars here, they were free"  WHAT?????  So she told me about a website that does all the work for you. All you have to do is clip and run to the store.  Before you knew it I had stockpiles of stuff.  I'm not kidding.  Never paid for or pain very very little (under a quarter) for things from CVS and Walgreens, and got so much free at the grocery stores that we were literally giving it away.  When we moved here to Maryland to take care of my mom, the deals didn't 'seem' as good so I kinda stopped.....pretty much totally stopped, using them.  Now that things are tight again (thank you people who tell me I HAVE to have a certain craft item or machine)  I just reactivated my account at The Grocery Game  I realize that there are free websites that do the same thing but... for 5 bucks every 3 months I choose the grocery game.  First off, your first 4 weeks is...... FREE.  You can choose all the stores in your area and you will be presented with a list of items that are currently on sale.  Then they tell you what coupons to use to get more bang for your buck.  They even have links for printable coupons, a recipe swap forum and an idea swap, newbie type forum.  You guys gotta check it out cause saving at the grocery means more money for PAPER!

I've missed you guys - I will try to do more here.  I have a coupla things in the works, experimenting with fabric and the Cameo/Pazzles/Cricut as well as a coupla vinyl projects.  

Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today.  Remember, Memorial day is not just about cookouts - thank a Serviceman/woman and their families!

One Last Thing

Cricut recently had a big ole sale on cuddlebug folders and I went nuts.  2 bucks each, why wouldn't I?  Turns out I now have a coupla duplicates so I will be using them for some blog candy in the future.

Love & Hugs,

Tangee