OCC challenge week 10

For Dawn's last week as designer at Our Creative Corner she chose a birthday card theme. And my friend Evan has a birthday coming up next month, so I took this opportunity to create a card especially for him. Evan has sight difficulties, and while he does have some "normal" sight, he relies on touch a lot. So this card had to have stuff for him to touch and feel, different textures, etc. So I first reached for my T!m Holtz Grungeboard! Built-in texture there! I pulled an "E' out and also a frame. I used Ranger DistressInk on both. I found some rope-like ribbon in my stash. All the edges of the cardstock have been distressed and roughed up with my distresser tool. Once I added the brads to the frame, I used my T!m Holtz distressing hammer on them to beat them up and added a bit of DistressInk to them to make them look old and gnarly!

Feeling better

Finally starting to feel more like my old self. John got the Kotexes off my face and ear on Wed so I could take a shower, properly wash my face and wash my GREASE PIT hair!! Warm water cascading down my head and face never felt so good! I now have respectable band-aids on both spots and for the most part, my hair covers both so I don't get Bride of Frankenstein stares when I'm out in public! I finally slept thru the night last night. I'd been waking up multiple times from the pain when I would try to roll onto my right side. Both spots are starting to itch, so that means they are healing. So that's a good thing!

It'll be a lazy Labor Day weekend here at Casa Waters. John is working his normal day today and will have Sun & Mon off as usual. But he's worked so many hours this week getting ready for the holiday, that he'll probably cat-nap in his chair both days. We do need to mow, weedwack and edge the yard at some point, but other than that, we have no plans.

Keeping our eyes on two storms in the Atlantic basin. Gustav is probably headed for the LA, MS coast. An area that was just devastated by Katrina three years ago. There's a couple of people in that area that I care about and hope that they are making their plans to evacuate. Then there's Hanna who was headed for the East coast of FL, but now looks like she will make a more southerly turn and head back towards Cuba. But you never really know with these storms, so I'm not counting any chickens yet!

And extending sympathy to my friend Chris and her hubby Mike. His aunt passed away suddenly this past week. The funeral services are today. My thoughts are with you both.

I will be so happy...

when John gets home today. My ear bled some last night, so the Kotex-like bandage on my ear looks pretty gross. And I can't get it off by myself. I've not been able to properly wash my face since Monday morning and my hair has not been washed since Sunday night. I think I could solve the current oil crisis just from the oil in my hair! And here I thought I was done with oily hair once I finished puberty. Oh no! The oilyness just goes on hiatus til you hit menopause and then comes back with a vengance! I am looking very forward to standing under the hot water and just letting it beat on the top of my head. Funny the things you miss when you can't do them. Even for two days!

The ear does feel a bit better today. I think I actually slept more than I was awake last night, so that's a good thing. I put off taking a pain pill when I got up this morning and have not taken one yet. Still taking it easy, per the Dr's orders. Hopefully I can get out and run some errands tomorrow.

Today's PSA

If you have a spot on your body that is troubling you, have it checked. I had a hard pea-size lump in my upper right earlobe for at least 10, maybe 15 years. It did not bother me, didn't hurt, never changed size. It was more of a cosmetic bother than anything else. I felt like if I knew it was there, everyone else would too. So I never wore my hair behind my ears for fear that someone would see it. I had asked the Dr about it on a few occasions and he told me it was probably a subcutaneous cyst, or something like that. Nothing to worry about. A couple of months ago I had a spot come up on my lower left leg. My wonderful nail tech, Elvira pointed out to me that it was growing, and getting darker. Something I had not paid any attention to. She said I needed to get it looked at. I also had a few moles that clothing irritated, so I figured I'd kill a bunch of birds with one stone and get everything looked at at once. So I scheduled an appointment. And two weeks ago they took three moles, the spot on my leg and the "thang" in my ear off. She seemed most concerned about the place on my leg because of the darkness and uneven-ness of it. Well they called me a week ago and it turns out that the thang in my ear had non-cancerous cells showing. So they wanted to do surgery on it. And yesterday I went in for that surgery. Turns out that my ear is an overachiever. That is to balance out the underachieving thyroid I've been blessed with! In addition to the non-cancerous cells, they also found basal cell cancer, the most common form of skin cancer. They removed all of the bad cells and because the ear has no extra skin and the spot was too large to stitch, they had to take a skin graft from behind my ear to close the divot left behind from the removal of the cells. So I am now the proud recipient of a Kotex-like pressure bandage on both my right ear and right neck! Thankfully, both can be taken off by my resident Dr John tomorrow for a more traditional bandage of gauze and tape! It is pretty painful because of the pressure bandage. I can feel my heart beat in my ear, but as I told someone earlier today, it's better than the alternative! I am a right side sleeper, which was next to impossible to do last night. Hopefully it will be a little less painful tonight so maybe I can sleep.

So if you have something on your body that you think might be suspicious, follow that voice in your head or feeling in your gut and get it taken care of. We lost a really good friend, Marc Clark almost 3 years ago to skin cancer that he let go too long and by the time it was found, had already gotten into his lymph glands and he only lived another 6 months after it was found. So in his memory, I ask, PLEASE...get yourself checked.

Edited to Add...Instead of NON-cancerous cells, that should read PRE-cancerous cells. Why do I catch these things AFTER I hit publish?!

OCC challenge week 9

Dawn at Our Creative Corner decided on a color challenge for this week. She chose SU colors, Old Olive, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Chip as an accent. So I used the CTMH equivilent, or as close to it, as I had! I chose Olive, Cranberry, Autumn Terracotta and Chocolate. I used my Argyle stamp set for the background. And the new Four Seasons stamp set for the tree. All edges are distressed. I also used a paper clip with Sassy Strands.

New stamps

I wanted these stamp sets from the instant I saw them, procrastinated and missed out on them and they sold out. But recently they got more in stock, so I jumped on them! I was a quilter in an earlier life, so the Quilter's Sampler really spoke to me. My Paternal Grandmother was an owl lover, and she passed her love of owls on to me. I love these because all of the elements are separate, so you can customize the owls and make each one unique. You can find them herePapertrey Ink - Quality Acrylic Stamps, Cards & Stationery They have fabulous customer service and any order over $50.00 gets free shipping!

I used the new CTMH Notebook paper pack for both. I've got a head-full of ideas for both sets, so you'll be seeing more of them in the coming days!

Go away Fay!

And it looks like she will, with not a lot of damage. Fay came ashore at about 4 AM today down by Everglades City, almost at the southernmost tip of the state. She is now slowly making her way northeastward. The weather people say we could still be in for some gusty winds and up to 6" of rain as the storm passes by us to the east, but nothing like was originally thought. It is perfectly calm outside now. No wind. No rain. Just another beautiful day in Florida!

The in laws opted to stay at home and John is working today. They were told to have all trucks off the roads by noon, but I'll believe that when I see it! So I'm working diligently on Christmas gifts!