And We Have a Winner…

Using random.org for my blog candy winner got me this:

(I used the number 15 for number of comments since two were duplicates)

Which means that

TraceyJean Jan 23, 2012 07:03 AM

I'm curious to see the project you completed. Been looking at these inks but haven't made the leap just yet. Would love a chance to try one out...

should come on down!

I don’t have a way to contact you, so please email me your mailing address and I will get this out in the mail. My email address is over on the left side of my blog.

I’m excited for you to try this ink, you’re going to love it.

Thanks again to Hero Arts for sending me an extra ink pad!

Silly Dog Video

While editing pictures for Project Life, I came across these four pictures and put together a silly little video. Makes me smile.

 

My silly dog.

 

There are a few days left to win some new Hero Arts ink, don't forget to enter!

Who Wants to try the new Hero Arts Ink?

I just finished a small stamping project for Hero Arts and am absolutely in love with their new mid-tone shadow inks. I’ve never used a Hero Arts ink before, and now I’m wondering why not. They are wonderful. The colors are lovely, the inks are forgiving, and the saturation is just perfect.

(I am no artist, so that description was all mine, in case those words make absolutely no sense to anyone that might be reading this, and happens to be a real artist.)

Anyway… Hero Arts sent me an extra Pool Shadow Ink pad, and since I don’t need it, I’m going to give it away here as blog candy.

All you have to do is leave me a comment here on this post. It would be nice if you started following me, but I won’t make that a contingency.

This is open to all commenters, worldwide. So, you know… comment away.

Edited to add: I will post the winner on Monday, January 30, 2012. Winner will be chosen via random.org.

Blog Your Heart

The amazing Stephanie Howell issued a challenge today to “Blog Your Heart.” So, I am.

2011 was not an easy year for me, but I know people who had it harder. And that makes me feel that I have no right to complain. That’s self-imposed, by the way. No one tells me that I can’t complain.

And since Stephanie issued the challenge, and since I’ve been wanting to blog some things for a few weeks now, I’ve decided to use New Year’s Eve to my advantage, and get this off my chest.

February 12th, 2009 was the day that I found out that we would not be having any children, of our own. It was the day that my last fertility treatment was cancelled, because the frozen embryos did not survive the thaw.

That was after two fresh rounds of IVF.

That was after three rounds of clomid and the “not as fun as it sounds” timed intercourse.

My husband has “perfect sperm”. Which makes all of this my fault. And for those of you who want to know, my fertility “issue” is that my tubes are blocked. Plus, at the time, I was in my late 30’s, also known as “advanced maternal age”, which I likened to the other “AMA”, against medical advice. As in, it’s against MY medical advice to tell me that I am at an advanced maternal age. Just saying.

Anyway, that was almost three years ago. And I got over it, eventually. It wasn’t easy, but it happened. And we went on with our lives, and spoiled other people’s children.

I made some good friends during my infertility journey. One of them, we’ll call her Jessica (because that’s her name), is still a very good friend of mine. And we still email, talk, and text each other all the time. You know, like when I’m having raging PMS and just can’t figure out why I get to have PMS every freaking month, but can’t have a baby.

While I was bitching about my PMS in November, just last month, Jessica said “ummm, you’ve been bitching about PMS for about three weeks now, I think you’re pregnant.” Now, I’m paraphrasing here, because she spent about a week telling me how I must be pregnant. And I finally said to her “I am the least pregnant person you will ever meet, now stop saying that. Thanks.”

And then I took a pregnancy test. It was positive. Holy shit, I peed on a stick, and the stick did not win. That has never happened to me before, and Ladies & Gentlemen*, I have peed on a lot of sticks during my two years of fertility treatments.

Miracles do happen. Infertile women do get pregnant the old fashioned way. You know, via sex. It was amazing. Being pregnant. Not the sex. I’m not sure that I remember the sex.

And now I’m not pregnant. I miscarried on December 10th. Which, really, is a whole other post. Holy hell, I had no idea a miscarriage could be so painful. Probably because no one speaks of them, but still, that’s information that people should know. If you’re pregnant, and you know it, and you’re at least eight weeks along, and your body decides to be a bitch and throw the baby out, it’s going to hurt like nothing you’ve ever experienced before. Ever.

So, that’s my 2011 in a nutshell. I was pregnant. I had a miscarriage.

I believed in miracles. And then mine was taken away from me.

I have a lot I want to say on this subject, but I’m going to post this right away to get it out there, and end this year on a high note. You’ll be hearing more from me on this subject, I’m sure.

 

***

If you have any questions about infertility, please ask me. I’m sort of an expert since I’ve been through most treatments for it, and would be happy to share my knowledge. I can not help you get pregnant though. Clearly.

 

* – I know of two men that read my blog, hence the proper usage of the word “gentlemen”.

Are you using Photo Stream?

The other day I was helping a friend with her iPhone and importing photos to her computer.. I saw “Photo Stream” on her iPhone and had a very vague idea of what it was all about.

Well, tonight I was pondering how I might get my husband (Hi, Robert!) involved in our my upcoming Project Life journey. I was thinking it would be pretty neat if I could get him to contribute to the stash of things I’d like to include in Project Life. You know, receipts, cool collectibles, etc. Most importantly, photos.

Then I came across a reference to this amazing post by Lisa Truesdell. She mentions using iCloud to sync her photos wirelessly from her iPhone to her computer. SIGN ME UP!

A big reason why this will work for us is that my husband and I share an iTunes account, so now all of our photos will sync to one folder on our computer, and I can just pull from there for Project Life.

It’s very easy to set up. You just have to turn it on on each of your iOS devices, and then download a control panel, if your computer is a PC rather than a MAC.

There is even a way to manually upload photos, if you need to do so. The standard is that it just starts to work with the next picture you take, after setting it up on your phones/computers. The great thing about that is that we’re very close to January 1st, when I plan to start my Project Life.

I am very excited that I learned about this, it will make Project Life even easier. I can’t wait to get started!

Project Life

I've decided to jump in and do Project Life starting in 2012. I've loved seeing other bloggers post about their Project Life albums over the past few years, but never felt that it was for me. It's just myself, my husband, and our dog, and I have always felt a little bit like I have "nothing to scrapbook".

I was wrong. I have a life, and I intend to document it in Project Life, starting in just a few days. I am very excited about it. A great friend of mine gifted me the Clementine core kit, and the page protectors that I will need to get started. I haven't decided on an album yet, but I've got a while before that's really necessary.  I'm thinking I'll go with an American Crafts modern 3-ring binder. Those appeal to me the most.

Here's a picture of the core kit, love the packaging, the design, and just the fact that it's here in my happy little hands! I've already made my first and last page, since the kit comes with pieces designed for that. I'm sure I'll embellish and/or edit them as soon as January rolls around, but so far they are just perfect.














I've added the badge to my sidebar, which for some reason, makes me pretty darn happy.

In case I don't check in before the weekend is over, I wish you all a very Happy Holiday season.

I love Hero Arts!

If you got here from the Hero Arts blog, welcome! I really do love Hero Arts. Their products are beautifully designed, made in the USA, and work perfectly, right out of the package! No wasting paper, ink, or time, when using Hero Arts stamps!

And, Hero Arts has recently won a Top Environmental Leadership Award. And that makes my little green heart go pitter patter!

Hero Arts mentioned on today’s blog that they sometimes enlist the help of outside stampers to get their samples done for stores worldwide. Well, I’m one of the lucky gals that gets to help! Honestly, it’s lots of fun for me. First, I get to deal with Jennifer McGuire. Hello, amazing lady. Second, I sometimes get to see a stamp image or even actual rubber before it’s released to the public. Yes, I have top secret stamp clearance. It’s awesome. Third, as a reward for helping out, I receive some Hero Arts products in return!

Here is a little something I made with the Big Ticket stamp set and with the Large Fabric Design background stamp. I just stamped the background with Distress Stain in picket fence, onto kraft wrapping paper. Then I used the Tim Holtz winter seasonal distress inks to stamp my ticket. I happen to LOVE how it turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope to have some more Hero Arts goodness up soon!

Friendship

Tonight I was texting a good friend of mine. And I confessed something to her, something I’ve been keeping from her for a few years.

Something deeply personal, that was about me. I hadn’t told her before because I didn’t want my issue to affect the way she shared her life with me. I didn’t want her to hold back.

I realized that that was a very selfish thing for me to do. And maybe a bit controlling, too.

I did it because I didn’t want her to feel guilty about something that was beyond her control. Or mine, for that matter.

Ends up we’ve both been keeping a secret for the past few years.

Shame on me for being selfish.

ETA: I really meant to say “how selfish was that that we didn't give each other the chance to support each other?”

Neat Gadget

The Nest Learning Thermostat. Wow, this is a neat item.

It's a good looking thermostat, created by the original designer of the iPod. Here's a basic overview:

To program it, you answer a few basic questions about what temp you want for day and night. When you leave for the day and turn the temp down, the Nest will record that and follow a similar pattern. The device even knows when you consistently raise the temp on specific days of the week. You can then see your energy patterns (and savings) through an online portal and via a handy (you guessed it) iPhone app.

I love the concept of this, and the neat design. I especially love that they have a link on their website entitled "responsibility", where they address their environmental practices.

Hey, good looking...

Let’s Play “Guess the Product”

I saw these ingredients on a food product today at Safeway. What do you think it is?

SUGAR, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN AND COTTONSEED OILS, WATER, CORN SYRUP, CORN STARCH, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, CELLULOSE GEL, SALT, PROPYLENE GLYCOL MONOSTEARATE, CARRAGEENAN, ARTIFICIAL COLOR INCLUDING RED 40 AND YELLOW 5, POLYSORBATE 80, POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE), CITRIC ACID, CELLULOSE GUM, SOY LECITHIN, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE.

I am blown away by this list of ingredients.

For a second, I was afraid that this was just a listing of the ingredients in cream cheese, plus stuff to make it into frosting. Thank G-d, I was wrong. Philadelphia Cream Cheese contains the following: PASTEURIZED NONFAT MILK AND MILKFAT, CHEESE CULTURE, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SALT, GUAR GUM, CAROB BEAN GUM. CONTAINS: MILK.

For me, it doesn’t matter. We’re vegan now, and will be trying a cream cheese frosting made from Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese. I don’t like frosting, so I’m sure I’ll be okay with it. We’ll have a non-vegan do a blind taste test.