Yesterday I got serious about making thank you cards for Rich to give to friends and family for their kindness while he was down with his hip surgery.  I started by using some Ton Stamps, and if you’ve never used them, they make terrific red rubber (and clear) stamps, but I am all about the red rubber floral backgrounds.  They are so deeply etched, and create such lovely backgrounds….I used a bunch of different images, and embossing powders to create richly colored line images.  Even if I didn’t get a perfect image (because I couldn’t tell if I had covered the entire image with embossing ink), I can still use parts of the background and make a card with just a portion of the background used…I’ll definitely be making videos to show you all the ways I’ll be using them.

Today I read a Jack Reacher series book, and then had my girlfriend Lynn’s twin grandkids over for a lesson in etiquette.  Their older sister had been in one of the etiquette classes I teach in college, and thought her fourteen year old brother and sister could use the class, as they’ve been invited to a “dinner party” for one of their friends.  They are required to wear a suit or dressy dress, and the boys are supposed to wear a dress hat.  I can’t imagine how many fourteen year olds would have the necessary clothing, but these two are all about making sure they know what they are doing, and not sticking out like sore thumbs.  I can’t imagine what they will be served at this dinner party, as the birthday boy is world travelled, and spends summers in Greece…I had my girlfriend make a very simple meal for us to practice with, and it wasn’t very successful..These twins could not be more different.  The girl would eat almost anything, and her brother would eat almost nothing.  In fact, our dinner tonight was the first time he’s ever eaten salad.  I’m not talking some kind of crazy salad, I’m talking lettuce and dressing…He’d never tried it before….Then came the soup.  He said he’ll only eat a few kinds of soups, and luckily, he would eat the chicken noodle soup that his grandmother brought, but wouldn’t eat many other varieties.  I had her make a simple chicken dish with pasta, and he ate both of those, but then when we talked about the possibilities of what main courses he might be served at this “dinner party,” he said he wouldn’t eat almost any of them.  I really hope that he talks to the birthday boy before the dinner, so he’s not surprised by what they might feed him, as he won’t eat seafood, steak, prime rib, pork, or any combinations of the above.  He says his family primarily eats chicken, and so that’s what he eats.  Apparently he doesn’t branch out much (OK, at all.)  I told him he’s going to have to eat whatever they serve him, or suffer through a bunch of questions like, “didn’t you like that?”  or “Are you feeling OK” or “Was the food OK?”  I’m concerned that if he doesn’t eat what’s being served, he’s going to offend the host, and possibly not be considered to be included in future dinners, and that would be sad.  I really hope he can power through whatever they feed him, but it wasn’t looking very promising tonight…At least they know which forks to use and maybe that will count for something.

I spent the afternoon shopping with my girlfriend…we started at a craft fair held at the local elementary school.  There were a lot of vendors, but not many new ideas. So many things are repeated year after year, and I love it when people come up with something new.  Sadly, this wasn’t the year for new ideas.  I find more and more of the home party businesses transferring into the craft fair scene.  It used to be that if you wanted to buy Tupperware, you either knew a dealer, and bought through them, or you were invited to a party at someone’s home.   Now they sell primarily at craft fairs.  It wouldn’t bother me if the home party business made up a small percentage of the “crafters,” but now, it seems over half of the vendors are small businesses with no “crafts” involved.  They are the new “Lula Roe” clothing version (can’t remember the name of that company), and the vendor that sells Scentsy home fragrances, and the ones that sell goods made by women in third world countries, and the nail stickers, and Avon, and the lists go on and on.

The big craze continues to be things cut with a Cricut or Silhouette, and this year, it was long, tear-drop shaped earrings made from vinyl that looked like leather…Two vendors sold the exact same shaped earrings, which I thought was odd, considering the many shapes you could make for earrings out of vinyl…

I would like to make a few of the sock gnomes for family and friends….and my twist might be adding an essential oil to the inside, so it has a nice fragrance…I think we’ll try it and see how it works out…you never know.  I’d also like to make some small enough to hang on Christmas trees as ornaments.  I need to come up with some gift themed videos and I’m hoping this will be one of them…Guess we’ll have to wait and see what I can come up with.

I felt I should update you on Rich and his hip replacement surgery recovery.  He continues to do amazingly well, but because of that, is now getting to the point where he thinks he should be allowed to do a lot more than the doctor’s advised.  I was warned by his doctors that this would happen, but hoped Rich would realize that the doctor’s advice might be worthwhile.  They said the more he does in the first three weeks, the longer it delays his healing.  That held a lot of water for the first week, but now, halfway through week two, he’s over it.  We had a big snowstorm today and of course, I couldn’t shovel the driveway…we have nowhere urgent to go, and if we did, there’s not enough snow to stop me from driving through it.  Unfortunately, there also isn’t enough snow to stop Rich from getting the mail (at the bottom of our driveway.)  He assured me he wouldn’t have any issues doing so, after I pleaded with him to stop…

The thing is……he’s never been in a position to rely on others to do things for him, and he doesn’t like it.  He’s also never recovered from surgery like this, so he’s also stubborn enough to try things he shouldn’t, without regard for the consequences.  Luckily nothing happened, but what if it had?  I can’t get him to see that part of the scenario…the one where he’s hurt and I can’t help him.  I realize that he’s being careful when he’s taking these chances, but accidents happen, and then where will we be?  Honestly, I didn’t expect this surgery to be so physically taxing on both of us, and I know he sees that, and wants to help.

We have so many wonderful friends, who have been dropping by with food, which is so kind, and it’s made me appreciate all of them that much more.  Rich’s doctor’s appointment is November 20th, and I’ll be so glad when that’s behind us, as he’ll be allowed to drive, walk, go outside, and enjoy life again….This staying in bed or on the couch is becoming a real problem for him…

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a week since Rich’s hip replacement.  He’s walking without his crutches and already causing problems for me.  I need to tie him down or he might end up in big trouble.  Today, after lunch, my girlfriend and I were going to run errands for an hour or so.  I reminded Rich he needed to get back in bed or I wouldn’t leave and he promised he would.  When I got home, he told me he had decided he needed to run the sweeper since it’s impossible for me to do effectively.  I know I should have been grateful, but instead, I was so angry and frustrated at the risk he had taken.  After all, this morning we took off his bandage for the first time and he got lightheaded, so it’s not like I was over reacting.  He wanted to ease my anxiety over dog-hairy carpets, and instead, made me freak out because I’d left him unattended and he took such a foolish risk.  I don’t think he’ll do that again, but I’m sure in the next two weeks, when he’s supposed to be resting, that he’ll find something else to do that will make me lose my mind.  The doctor warned me that Rich would do this….In fact, he said I should basically tie Rich in place, so he doesn’t overdo it….  I honestly thought he would listen to the doctor, but I guess he thinks he knows best.  Yikes….It’s going to be a long couple of weeks.  Don’t worry, I’ll keep you all in the loop when he tries his next stunt.

I know many of you are thinking I should have appreciated the fact that he wanted to help me….but if he falls and has to have this hip re-replaced, then how do I handle it?

Since we’ve been married, I’ve been the patient and not the nurse, and this roll reversal is taxing, to say the least.  Some parts of it are almost physically impossible for me (like putting on compression socks without his help.)  He’s supposed to have his ice bag on his hip as much of the day as possible, so I’ve been changing ice packs like a mad woman, and trying to stay on top of all of the rest of the household jobs, and making sure he has his meds four times a day and eight different prescriptions.  The dogs have been losing their minds with all of the upheaval, so they’ve been causing problems, jumping on Rich, asking to go outside more often than usual, and terrorizing visitors.

I hope with each passing day that things go more smoothly, and that I can catch my breath….The best I can say at this point, is I haven’t lost my mind…much…

I thought I’d give you a short update on Rich’s surgical recovery.  He took his first shower today and is doing amazingly well.  I slept in yesterday (by accident), and he made his own breakfast and put his pills together to take.  That doesn’t sound like much, but they gave him eight prescriptions, so they are hard to keep track of…I made a big chart and if I didn’t have that, I’d be lost.

Rich hasn’t had a pain level over two since he’s been home, which blows me away, but then again, we’ve kept the ice pack on it and am changing it every two hours, plus giving him pain medication every four hours.  I want to make sure he gets through this first week with minimal pain, as, for me, that’s always been the toughest part.

I’m spoiling him with Mountain Dew and bacon, and friends have been stopping by and dropping off meals, treats, and desserts, so he’s doing well.  I can’t tell you how blessed we are to have such wonderful friends, and if you are one of them, words can’t express how much we appreciate you.

I’ve talked about this wedding for so long, and asked on facebook if anyone would like to see the short video we made of the day…Since many of you said you’d like to see it, here it is..

I picked Rich up at the hospital this morning and we had three of his college friends waiting at our house to help him make it up three steps into the house.  That might sound like overkill, but it snowed last night and things were slippery, and I knew if Rich had any kind of wobble, that there was no way I could stop him from falling.  Yesterday, in the restroom, he looked down, then looked up, and lost his balance (mainly from the pain medicines and the after-effects of anesthesia.  He had a nurse with him then, so I didn’t think it was too big of a stretch for him to lose his balance on outside snowy steps…We are lucky to have so many wonderful friends. They didn’t hesitate when I asked for help, and originally, we’d only asked two men, and then the third said he wanted to help as well, so we had lots of helpers.  They also brought one of their wives (the couple we go to movies with)…and she brought enough food to last us a very long time…There’s a really yummy chicken and mushroom casserole with rice, and a huge pan of pasta, cookies, salad and french bread.  I might have missed something they brought…they are so thoughtful, and we truly appreciated it.  I’d only gotten around to making up the couch so Rich could lay there when his friends were here, and baked a batch of cookies…The cookies were Nestles Toll House that you find in the biscuit area of the refrigerator section of your supermarket.  I bought them last weekend, thinking they’d be a great treat for Rich…..I made them last night so we’d have them for Rich and his friends to snack on today.  So we did and everyone seemed to enjoy them (I always roll the chocolate chip ones in crushed walnuts before I bake them and they seem more homemade, to me.)   As soon as our friends left, the telephone rang, and it was our supermarket and Nestles Foods, telling us that the cookies we’d bought had been recalled and we should take them and the receipt back to the store I bought them….That might be a little tricky to do since we ate half of them…Apparently, there’s some kind of plastic (non-food) in the cookies.  They didn’t have to tell me that plastic was a non-food group, but apparently not everyone is aware of that fact.

They gave the codes of the recalled batches, but I couldn’t read the batch on my wrapper, so called the toll-free number Nestles provided, and was on hold for over 20 minutes, when they disconnected me.  There’s nothing more frustrating than being on hold, hearing that message, every two minutes, telling you to hold for the next available operator, only to hear dead air after twenty minutes, and then nothing.  Of course now I’ve given up on contacting them, because I’m not wasting another 20 minutes on cookies….I’m so mad though, because we ate them before we got  the message, and as I said before, we’d bought the cookies last weekend, so they had plenty of time to contact us before we ate them.  It’s a day in the life of Sandy…..nothing seems to go as planned.

Today, as they were releasing Rich, they decided to tell him that he’s feeling great now, but in a day or two, the pain killer they put inside his hip will have dissipated, and it will hurt like anything.  Good to know, and isn’t it nice that he felt wonderful while he had real nurses around him, and once he feels bad, I’ll be his nurse…Let’s just say I’m not very patient, and after a partial day of nursing, I know why I never pursued the field…I’d rather be his chief cook and bottle washer, and leave the nursing to the professionals…

Although I said you can you can use this card for any occasion, I meant the technique can be used for any occasion…Sorry…
I’m also sorry that I put this video up so late, but with Rich’s surgery being this morning, I’ve been spending a lot of my crafting time preparing to make sure everything around the house was ready for him to be out of commission for three weeks.
Below you’ll find the complete instructions and products used in the making of this video.
I started with a Hero Arts stamp and cut set called Witch Feet, and stamped the inside of a 8 1/2″ wide by 5 1/2″ tall card out of orange cardstock, scored on the 8 1/2″ length at 4 1/4″. I stamped the witches feet and sentiment inside the card with Brutus Monroe Detail Black ink link:https://tinyurl.com/y2kkt2vd and used clear embossing powder then heat set it. On the outside of the card, I used Brutus Monroe’s stamp set called Bite Me link: https://tinyurl.com/yyqpuzgy also stamped with the same detail black ink and used with clear embossing powder then heat set.. I colored it with Dick Blick’s Wink of Stella markers link: https://www.dickblick.com/items/19905-1012/ and cut the candy corn out.
I used an old Fiskars cobweb border punch that’s discontinued…I did find Martha Stewart has a similar punch available on ebay and here’s the link to it. https://tinyurl.com/y6j7urbh
I used the border punch on a piece of black cardstock that is 5 1/2″ tall and about 3 1/4″ wide.

I took a piece of orange and black patterned paper and ripped the right edge of it so it is about 2 1/2″ wide and 5 1/2″ tall after being torn. I wrapped three thin pieces of satin black ribbon around the patterned paper near the top and adhered it on the back with tear tape.I glued the bite me candy corn vampire to the ribbon with foam tape. I glued fun foam behind the cobweb layer so it added dimension and then adhered these layers to the middle of the orange card base. I took cobweb stamps I found in the Witch Feet Hero Arts stamp set and stamped them on the back of the envelope and one on the bottom right corner of the front of the envelope.

Rich had his hip replaced this morning, and as you know, I’ve been fretting about this for months…..I couldn’t believe it when I saw him when they were wheeling him back to his room.  He was talking like he’d just been for a walk..No pain lines on his face, no pale skin..he looked like a million dollars.  I can’t tell you how relieved I was.  Once in the room, he said he had a lot of pain when he woke up in recovery, but we were cautioned before surgery that if he felt pain in recovery, tell someone immediately, so they could give him something to stay ahead of the pain.  They said once you’ve waited too long to get pain medicines, it’s hard to get the pain level down.  So he asked for pain meds and spent the rest of the day looking and feeling really great (for the first day of surgery.)

I had been asked to text or call several friends and relatives, and if you know anything about me, it’s that I’m terrible at texting, and usually end up sending something that makes no sense.  As soon as Rich was in the room, he wanted to see the texts he’d gotten and took over from there…I didn’t have to answer one more text or take any telephone calls.  People were amazed when Rich answered his phone and when they realized the texts they were getting were from him.

I can’t tell you how much your cards, thoughts and prayers have meant to Rich and me.  We have been anxious about this surgery since it’s the first major surgery with Rich being the patient and me being the caregiver, and neither one of us really knew what to expect.  The bottom line is, it was a wonderful day..We both love the surgeon, and Rich told him if he continues to feel this good, on his three week post-surgery visit, he’s going to hug the surgeon….Let’s just say the surgeon isn’t looking forward to a big hug from Rich, but appreciates how happy he is…

I started by using a Hallmark orange treat bag that I bought at Walmart after Halloween last year…. I used the twisty tree die from Brutus Monroe link: https://tinyurl.com/y4sn9flh
I wanted to make the tree look realistic, so took a white scrap of cardstock and colored it starting light and going dark with Distress Ink dies. I used Pumice Stone, Gathered Twigs, Hickory Smoke, Walnut Stain and Black Soot. I used more of the lighter colors then did swipes up and down with the darker colors to make it look more like a tree. I tried to make sure the white was covered with a variety of colors. I used less of each color as each got darker…Once I finished, unfortunately the video cut out, and I added some water to the paper and wiped up the ink that was on the plastic craft mat beneath the paper. I let it dry then die cut it.
The next step was to use Brutus Monroe’s grape glitter glaze link: https://tinyurl.com/y6mndwot on their batty stencil link: https://tinyurl.com/y2d4chcp and made sure the stencil was well taped to the orange bag. I pulled it off, making sure to clean the stencil and palette knife immediately…also not on film, sorry.
I went from there to used a die of a Halloween fence made by Cheery Lynn Designs link: https://tinyurl.com/y6n57nwl and cut it out of white card stock. I used Pumice Stone Distress Ink and dabbed it over the fence then ran my finger along it so that it was aged looking. I glued the fence in place with Tonic Studios glue then laid the tree over it and glued it down. I took a spider web die and cut it out of black cardstock and glued it to the top right edge of the fence. I was given a grim reaper die and cut him out of black cardstock and attached him by the tree.
I wanted to close the bag with clothespins, so took some Halloween inspired washi tape and put tear tape about an inch from the end and removed the backing, then laid it inside the clothespin and wrapped it around the front and rubbed it to make sure it stayed attached, then cut it off with enough to wrap around the “pinchy part” at the top and put more tear tape under that end and rubbed the end with a skewer or a pokey tool or scissors to rub it to ensure it wouldn’t come back off. I did the same to the other side of the clothes pin then repeated it on a second clothes pin.
I decided I wanted some purple glittery bats on the tree branches with the purple glitter embossing powder I made with Heather from Brutus Monroe. You can call her at 412-892-9511 if you’d like to order my special embossing powder that we made together when I visited.
I used white scrap paper and put embossing ink all over it then covered the paper with the glittery purple embossing powder then heat set it (I started heating underneath so the glitter didn’t blow away)..I took the purple paper and put it in the die so the white paper was facing the die as the purple seemed to adhere to the inside of the die if I put the paper in upside down. I cut several of the bats out and adhered the with mine glue dots. I added a black embossed “trick or treat” die cut to the front of the tree as well as a black embossed spider I had in my stash. I’m sending this to Brutus Monroe as a thank you for the nice tour they gave me…