It's a Boy!

The picture is awful because it's from my web cam, but here he is...

 

 

He's still at work with John, but will be home in a few hours. His name is Kek, and he's Kauket's new boy toy. Or rather he will be in a year when he's all grown up and not just a hatchling.

He's just a couple of weeks old and is a lavender corn snake. While you can't really tell in the terrible picture, he's a pinkish purple color. I've been told that he and Kauket will have beautiful babies in all different colors and patterns.

Sadly we had to give my hognose Kebechet back to the breeder. She had stopped eating again and was becoming rather aggressive towards anyone who came near her tank. Hognose snakes are notoriously picky (which is probably partly why they're an endangered species) and she just didn't like something about the environment here. I loved her dearly, but I want to see her thrive so i sent her to an environment that I know she enjoys. The breeder is going to keep her as one of his personal snakes, and I know she'll do great with him.

In exchange we got Kek. The breeder knew I was apprehensive about having to send my baby Kauket away for four months to breed next year, and with Kek that won't be a concern. She'll be able to stay where she's happy and comfortable, and I won't have to give her up. So in the end everyone will be much better off, and I think I'm already falling in love with my little man.

Design for a Cause!

Ok, so here's the deal...

My daughter is having her final surgery (in a long string of surgeries) to correct her scoliosis this summer. She was born with scoliosis and a couple of years ago it started to progress rapidly, so they inserted rods into her back that straightened her spine but still allowed her to grow. Now that her lungs are done growing she can have her permanent rods put in, and her spine fused into the corrected position.

Since nearly the begining of her ordeal she's been a patient at Shriners Hospital in Chicago. I can't begin to tell you how thankful we are for the Shriners because we would never have been able to afford her treatment otherwise.

If you're not familiar with Shriners hospitals, let me tell you a bit about them. Children are accepted into their care based entirely on medical need and if they can be successfully treated. Income, race, and nationality have no part of the decision making process. Once a child is accepted into their program, EVERYTHING is taken care of. All medical bills and even transportation is covered by the Shriners; they even provide tutors if children will be out of school for more than four weeks. They take care of everything you can possibly think of and more, so that children and their families don't have any additional stress during an already stressful time. They manage all of this with donations from area Shrines and other sources.

Shriners is such a great place, not only do they treat all of the kids free of charge, but they make their stay as pleasant as they possibly can. Tiana actually loves it there, not so much the doctoring part of it, but everything else. They have a recreational therapy department that plans activities for the kids twice a day, a craft in the morning and then something else in the evening, and the doctors won't schedule any treatments during that time so all of the kids can play.

Since Tiana's been a patient there I've always tried to give back a little of what they've given us by organizing donation drives for the recreational therapy department. Usually I ask for craft supplies to be donated, but Tiana had a different idea for me this year...

I showed her the start of a tropical fish digi kit I was making for her yesterday. She has a thing for Finding Nemo because she has a small left arm and hand and she associates with Nemo's little fin. She was really excited about the kit so I asked her what we should do with it when it was finished. I told her I could put it in my store and that I'd give her the money from the sales so she could get new books for when she was recovering, or we could share the love and give it away as a freebie, or that she could keep it all to herself as an exclusive thing if she wanted. I told her it was her kit though, and that the decision was totally up to her.

My sweetheart thought it over and said that she wanted the kit to go in the store, but that she didn't want the money. She wants all of the money to go to the recreational therapy department at Shriners Chicago so that all of the patients there can have some new things to play with. I thought that was a great idea, and I'm so proud of my girl for thinking of it!

After she went to bed last night I got to thinking, why not open it up to other designers and make a mega kit? The additional pieces would raise the value as well as giving it more publicity, and I know a lot of people really enjoy designing for a cause.

So... If you'd like to contribute to this charity kit, here's the palette we're using:

All kits should have a tropical fish theme, this is especially fun because Shriners Chicago is decorated with fish and they have a few big saltwater tanks with fish in them for the kids to enjoy! You're welcome to add more colors to the palette to color your elements but they should be accent colors only. Feel free to make whatever you enjoy making. Alphas, elements, papers or full kits, it's totally up to you!

Just complete your portion by July 1st and then send me an email (anne @ creative-dreams.net - no spaces) with a link to download your contribution. All files included in your zips should be prefaced by your name or initials, including your TOU, credits and preview so that they're not overwritten if extracted into a shared folder. Please do not put spaces in your file names, but use underscores instead. Additionally, all files must be saved at 300ppi, in jpg or png format. My assistant will compile all of the portions into one big kit, and put it up for sale in my store on July 15th.
Every participating designer will get the entire kit for free!

If you own a store and would be interested in stocking the kit for charity, please contact me for more information.
If you have any questions, problems or concerns, just let me know.

Thanks so much, I know this is going to be a wonderful opportunity to give back to an organization that has given so much to so many!

P.S. This kit doesn't have a name yet, and I'm open to suggestions. If you have any ideas let me know, I'll run them past Tiana who will have the final choice.

Goodbye Jasper

This morning we said goodbye to a small member of our family. Alexi's kitty Jasper, who's been suffering from the ravages of time, curled up during the night and found some permanent rest.

Alexi's handling it well, we started noticing his decline about 2 years ago, and I think she's been preparing for this for some time. It's a relief in some ways, actually... There was little joy left in his life, and it had become obvious that he was suffering. Last night Alexi and I had finally made the decision to take him to the vet on Friday, but he took the responsibility from us, and instead passed peacefully in his sleep.

I haven't written anything "real" here in awhile, so as my own form of therapy, I thought I'd tell you Jasper's story...

After my cat Tigger passed away 9 or so years ago, I said I wasn't going to get another cat. I became allergic to anything with fur after I had CJ, and as time went by my allergies kept getting worse. It's a contact allergy, when animals touch certain parts of my body, I get wicked hives. If I get it in my eyes, they itch and swell until I want to gouge them out with my fingernails. I've had a cat since I was four years old though, and I didn't last long without a kitty in my house. About six months later we found ourselves making a trip to the humane society.

The first ward we visited at the Humane Society was the sick ward. It's where they quarantine all the animals with kennel cough. These are the ones who really need a home as they've been in there too long already. I found MacDuff right away, and decided he was my cat, he was so soft and sweet. While I was sticking my fingers through the cage to scratch him though John called out to me to come see this other cat.

As I walked to the other end of the kennel, I saw my family clustered around a monster cat who was trying to find a way out of his cage so that he could attach himself to the humans who were standing so tantalizingly close. He was HUGE! Not fat, in fact he looked like he needed a good meal or seven, just really tall with a wide face that looked like it belonged on something that was at home in the plains of Africa. He was gorgeous, and obviously very friendly as he rammed his humongous head against the bars of his cage trying to get closer to the fingers that were poking through.

No, no, no, I shook my head. I'd already picked out a cat. He was a normal sized fluffball down at the other end of the kennel, and if everyone would just follow me they could fall in love with MY cat and forget about this monstrosity that was now meowing loud enough to wake the dead. They reluctantly followed me, but not without a few backwards over the shoulder glances at the mini lion who was looking at them with mournful eyes as they walked away.

After we adopted Duff, we checked back in on Jasper and were happy to see that there was a young couple who were discussing taking him home. At least he wouldn't be in the kennel much longer, as it looked like he'd soon be going to a new happy home. A new happy home that wasn't mine.

Or so I thought.

A day or so passed, and John wondered out loud if that couple we'd seen at the Humane Society had actually adopted Jasper. He was just such a cool looking cat, he said, it would be a pity if he was put down. I didn't think much of it, until the topic was brought up again the next day. I told him that I was sure Jasper was curled up in a cozy chair in some trendy apartment somewhere, basking in the love of his new owners, but John wasn't convinced. So, I told him to call and check on him, just ask if he'd been adopted, and he could stop worrying. He said no, but continued to ruminate on it, so eventually I called in myself and asked. Turns out, the young couple had second thoughts, and Jasper was still there, hacking up a lung from his kennel cough, and using his battering ram of a head to beat at the bars of his cage.

Ok, well that was distressing news, but I was sure he'd find a new home soon, he obviously had a lot of love to give some wonderful family out there. Love to give to a family that wasn't mine. Did I mention I'm allergic to cats? Two more days passed, and the topic was broached again, by John I'd like to add--the resident animal hater. I said OK, if he doesn't have a home by Thursday, we'll go get him.

So that Thursday Jasper found a new home... My home. I guess it was just meant to be.

The joke at first was that Jasper was John's cat, since it was John who was so worried about his fate. Jasper had this habit of nipping people he really loved though, like a mother cat would give a kitten a love nip, and he and John came to an impasse when Jasper bit his nose about three days after we brought him home. He managed to get one of his really large fangs right into John's nostril before he clamped down, which brought tears to John's eyes, and their relationship was just never the same after that. And so it came to be that he attached himself to Alexi, and after awhile he was just *her* cat.

While Jasper may have loved Alexi best, he was not a one person cat by any means. In fact, he was quite an attention grabber. If anyone sat still for too long they were sure to be accosted by the beast, and he refused to take no for an answer! If you pushed him away he was back at your side within seconds, butting you with his head, licking you and sprawling on top of you until you got up and walked away. When guests came over he was the first one to greet them, and heaven forbid you were allergic or didn't like cats because he especially loved to bother those people.

We often thought that Jasper was a dog trapped in a cat's body. He'd drool when he was really happy and his meow was almost like a bark. He was certainly the right size for a dog, our UPS delivery man was terrified of him because of his abnormal size, no matter how many times we told him that he was extremely friendly, he wasn't convinced that Jasper wasn't part wildcat.

We weren't sure how old Jasper was when we adopted him, the vet thought he was probably around seven, if not older, but we had him for over eight years. About two years ago we noticed he was starting to get stiff in the hind legs, arthritis and old age were setting in. Then, about six months later he had an accident trying to jump into an open window. He misjudged his jump, or his legs gave out, and he ran into the sill instead. His right eye filled with blood from the impact, and was never the same again.

In the last two years he had an increasingly hard time getting around, he developed a cataract in his left eye, and almost completely lost his sight. His hearing also became severely impaired. Alexi insisted that he was still full of love though, and he was. Even last night as I extracted him from a corner that he'd gotten lost in, he purred and snuggled into my arms.

Early this morning he woke up John and I as he struggled up the stairs. John helped him the rest of the way up, carried him to his most favorite place in the whole world, and laid him near Alexi's bed. It was there, where he was most comfortable and with his beloved human sleeping nearby, that he passed on.

As much as he drove me crazy, I'll miss him. He was a good cat, with an amazing personality, and our house won't be the same without him in it.

Goodbye Jasper. I hope you were happy here with us. I hope we gave you the love you needed, the love that you didn't have before we took you home. I hope you're sleeping in a window somewhere with the warm sun streaming in on your soft fur, and that you're content, and no longer in pain.

We'll miss you.

Ramblings

It's Wednesday, which is my new blog posting day.  I have to post to at least one of my blogs, it doesn't matter which one.

Things have been pretty icky around here, we had a round of the stomach flu go through our house, and then a week later a round of upper respiratory infections.  As I'm typing this Jenna's laying on the couch, the latest victim of this last bug.

 

So, I finally finished the Creative Dreams website!  If you haven't been over there yet, you gotta go check it out, and be sure to hit the blog page because I have a couple of digital freebies there to celebrate.  In fact, my friend Nicky made this gorgeous page with the free kit that's up there.

Isn't it fabulous?  She's on my creative team for a reason!

Here's a page I made with the same kit:

 

Those pictures were taken back when we lived in Oak Creek.  Time has flown so fast, and Jenna's gotten so big since then.  I have so much fun scrapping the kids baby pictures, but they make me a little melancholy.

 

I don't know if I've mentioned it here or not, but I'm also on the digi creative team at the Scrap Shanty.  This month we played with one of Ellie Lash's kits called "Luke."  Here's one of the pages I made with this really cute kit:

If you want to see more you'll have to visit the Shanty though!

 

So that's about it for me for now...  I'm going to be posting some more of my digi layouts on the Creative Dreams blog later today, so be sure to stop by over there.  Also, be sure to hit A Shade of Blue if you haven't lately, there are some fun challenges happening over there!

*Hugs*

I'm Still Alive

This poor little blog has been so neglected. I've been working hard over the last couple of weeks to schedule my life though, so my hope is that I'll start posting more to my little cellar here and give you some things to look at.

So some news before I get to the cool project I want to share with you. Have you been to ASB lately? There's so much cool stuff going on over there, you should really check it out. K&A Die Cuts sponsored the creative teams for a month, and they made some awesome projects with them. The digi store has also been going strong for a few months now. Be sure to check out the new kits that were just released so that you can get them on sale! Last but not least, we have a new newsletter, so that you never have to miss any of the fun stuff going on over there. It also has tutorials and inspiration in every issue, so you should go sign up!

Now... on to the cool project I want to share with you!

I was dollar store shopping this weekend and I came across this cool little set of spice drawers. It had a wood cabinet and six ceramic drawers that fit into small slots. It was neat, but pretty beat up; the white paint was stained and pretty nasty. The really bad thing was that the drawers were filled with these seriously icky candles. They smelled horrid, like an old man's cologne or what people used to smell like before bathing became popular. Just awful!

I thought it had potential, so I bought it.

The first thing I did was to take all of the drawers out and throw them in a 250 degree oven for about 20 minutes. That didn't melt the wax completely, but enough so that I could pull the candles out of them. My house smelled like Louis V's palace for the rest of the night. I should have waited until it warmed up outside so that I could open a window.

While the candles were melting I put a coat of blue paint on the cabinet. The nasty white just wasn't doing it for me.

Here's a picture of it at this stage.

I didn't take a picture of it before I started working because it was just too gross... Plus I forgot.

It looked good at this point, but it still hadn't met it's full potential yet. So I pulled out some vellum paper that I purchased at the last Leader Paper Sale (I don't buy anything full price), my white Staz-On pad, and a pretty flourish stamp. I stamped up the patterned vellum with white flourishes and attached it to the top and sides.

It was still missing something though, it was just a little too pristine with the fresh paint and pretty paper. My sanding block to the rescue! I roughed up the paint so that the white underneath showed through, and viola! perfect.

This is my new gorgeous set of spice drawers. They still need to have the final sealing coat put on them, but I have to wait for it to warm up a bit outside before I can do that.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with them yet. Tiana thinks I should give them to her, but that's not going to happen. I may use it as a jewelry box, but I'm not sure.

And the moral of the story? Spend lots of time at the dollar store, and be sure to look past the gross exterior to the potential that lays hidden inside.

Hugs,

Big News and a Freebie!

You have to suffer through my big news before you get the freebie. Sorry, but that's how things work! LOL

My big news is that I've opened a digi store! John and I thought it would be a great way to defray some of the operating costs of A Shade of Blue, and so all proceeds from the store will be put back into ASB for hosting, upgrades, and prizes.

I'll be releasing at least two new kits each month, and the cool thing is that the first month a kit is available it will be on sale for 50% off! That's just $2.50 for a full kit! If you don't want to purchase a whole kit, the papers and elements are available separately for just $1.25 during the first month.

Not a bad deal, huh?

This month I have two kits that I just love!

Pretty in Punk:


and

Winter Chocolate:


Click on the picture to be taken to the product page in the store.

If you'd like to see some cool pages the Digi team has made with these kits, check out this post on ASB:
February Project Share

Ok, I've made you wait long enough!

A while ago I made a freebie kit called Cherry Cheesecake, in fact, it's still available here, and here. It's been my most popular kit, and so to celebrate the opening of my store, I've expanded it with an add-on pack!



This add-on includes:
5 Papers
1 Tissue Overlay
1 Brass Frame
1 Brass Nameplate
1 Brass Photo Turn
1 Chipboard Nameplate
1 Chipboard Photo corner
1 Chipboard Photo Turn
1 Chipboard Journaling Tag
1 Chipboard Bracket
1 Paper Flower

And you can get it here:
Cherry Cheesecake Add-on

I would like to ask that you do not distribute the direct download link to this file, instead, share the link to my blog. It's free either way, and no extra effort. Thanks so much!

And last but not least... As always, I love to see what you do with my kits, and I love to hear your comments. Link me up if you make something, so I can give you some love in return! Or, drop into the ASB forums some time, and say hi. We'd love to meet you!

Enjoy!

ASB Design Team Call

I wanted to give you a heads up! ASB is looking for a new design team, and for the first time ever we're holding a public call!

We need all types of papercrafters, stampers, scrapbookers, and digi designers, so if you fall into one of those categories, give it a try! All you need to do is upload 5 samples of your work, so it couldn't be easier!

Check the ASB Challenges blog, or the ASB Forum for more information!

Good luck!!