(All images via weheartit)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Once Again, I Must Ask Too Much of You
Guess who just scored tickets to the midnight showing of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows? Yep. This girl.
Click the photo for a larger viewing or just head over to the "Once Again, I Must Ask Too Much of You" treasury on Etsy by yours truly.
I'm just itching to get my hands on some of these fantastic creations!
Monday, October 18, 2010
A Room With A View: The Trip Home
For those of you who haven't heard, I ended up flying home this past Tuesday for a family emergency. It plays out something like this:
Friday 06:00 - My aunt Sandi sends me a text message while I'm at work saying Nana was taken to the hospital around 01:00 with chest pains and difficulty breathing. She was placed in ICU. She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure (CHF) and aortic stenosis. She also had a mild heart attack (MI)
Friday 13:30 - Nana was med-flighted up to Tufts in Boston. The doctors had planned on taking her in to do a heart cath to see how extensive the blockage was and to possibly place some stents. She was too unstable for them to try the cath so they were going to put her on some meds to try to stabilize her over the weekend and try to do the cath on Monday.
Friday 23:30 - Nana started having chest pains again so the doctors decided to go ahead with the heart cath. They were unable to place stents so they inserted a balloon pump instead. She was at about 85% blockage.
Saturday (Sometime that morning) - Nana had a mild stroke (TIA) which affects her left side. The doctors came in and told Nana that she would need an aortic valve replacement and bypass surgery. They gave her 24 hours to think over the decision because of the surgery risks: 30% chance she might not survive surgery and they couldn't guarantee that her quality of life would be better afterwards. If she chose not to have surgery they gave her a 75% chance of living 2 years. Nana decided to go ahead with the surgery.
Sunday (Morning) - The doctors informed Nana that she was not a candidate for surgery because of her age, health issues and whatnot. At that point they were going to give her meds to make her comfortable and eventually send her home.
Sunday (Afternoon) - Dr. Weintraub, one of her doctors, explained there was another procedure they could do which could act as a bridge of sorts to help Nana get to the point of being able to have surgery. He offered the option of a valvuloplasty. They literally go in and crack the valve so it stays open. As with any surgery, this one had risks as well: the possibility of dying during the procedure. Nana agreed to the surgery. Mom and I started looking at flights to fly home.
Monday (Afternoon) - We were told that the surgery would take place on Wednesday morning at 10:00. Mom and I booked our flights for the next day. Nana had a CT scan to check the calcification level on her arteries.
Tuesday (Afternoon) - Mom and I flew into Logan and we headed straight to the hospital. We met with Dr. Weintraub and Dr. Jaffe (another one of her doctors) and they informed us that there was extensive calcification and the scan showed she has cirrhosis as well. Because of these two things as well as her general age and health they made the decision that Nana would never be a candidate for surgery and therefore there would be no need to do the valvuloplasty. Nana was moved from ICU to a regular room.
From here on out - The doctors have placed Nana on various cardiac meds to make her comfortable. She was transfered to a rehabilitation center to help regain some more mobility in her leg. I'm not sure if she'll ever be able to live in her apartment unassisted again. And, as if there wasn't enough excitement going on, the ambulance that was transporting her blew a tire on the highway (coincidently) just hours after we had an almost roll-over accident with my aunt and her three kids.
When it rains, it pours. And I couldn't agree more.
All of the above photos were taken around Tufts. It's a beautiful hospital tucked nicely into Chinatown.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Movie Time!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The December Daily: The Goods
I stopped by Michaels and Hobby Lobby to look for things to add to my December Daily album. And of course, I came out with way more than I intended to buy. I think that usually is the case with stores like these two however. I knew I needed something to use for either foundation or accent pages and I wanted to pick up some embellishments as well.
I toyed around with album vs. something spiral bound. We don't have very many places around here that will bind things so my options were pretty limited. I couldn't find a spiral bound album anywhere. Anywhere! I knew ahead of time that I didn't want a very large end product. A 6" by 8" perhaps. While I was walking towards the front to check out I ran over to the $1 bins to see what they had. Score! A perfect little spiral bound journal that I would be able to take apart and use for my base. (I'm rather good at re-purposing if I do say so myself!) :) You can see it in the photo below.
I also snagged some stickers, a fabric covered dove and some reindeer head cut-outs from the $1 bin as well. I found a lovely holiday vintage-esque paper stack at Hobby Lobby and some clear velum frames that I can't wait to use.
I'm still playing around with ideas for foundation pages. I'll keep you posted!
Friday, October 8, 2010
The December Daily
Yes, I know it's only October but I am so excited and can't wait to start on my December Daily! I think I'm going to run to Michaels and Hobby Lobby this weekend to see what I can find for my foundation pages. If you'd like to follow along, head over to Ali's blog. You can also see past December Dailies on Flickr for 2009 and share your work in the 2010 gallery. Or follow on twitter with the hashtag #decdaily.
(Many) photos coming soon!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Reading Update
If you recall, I checked out three books from the library this past weekend. I devoured The Last Song (Yes, it was sad. Yes, I cried.) in about 2 days, contemplated Cold Mountain for a day or two and then started on The Time Travelers Wife. I'm in love with this book. IN LOVE! I want to have a son named Henry who grows up to be a librarian and falls in love with a sweet girl named Clare. I could do without the time traveling bit though. Maybe I can get through Cold Mountain this weekend. *fingers crossed*
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Giveaways!
Gourmet Pretzel Giveaway
Handcrafted Bar of Soap
Halloween Cupcake Kit
Handcrafted Pea Pod Item From Lucky Accessories
Good luck!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Goodbye Buddy, We'll Miss You
It's with a heavy heart that I tell you that we had to put Jake down today. Dr. Davis did the tail amputation, which went well. However, the skin around his neck was so badly damaged that it lost its blood supply. It would require many surgeries and extensive care for the next several months, all of which Jake would probably be in pain. We don't want any of our animals to suffer so we talked about it and made the decision.
We love you Jake!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Makin' A List...
And checkin' it twice.
As part of the Etsy Holiday Boot Camp, I'm making my list of things to help me get ready for the holiday season. And away we go...
- Order new business cards
- Order cellophane envelopes for my cards
- Finally get around to photographing new items
- Edit photos
- List new products
- Get the word out
Saturday, October 2, 2010
The Showdown
Yes, that's blood. No, it's not for Halloween. Bill and I got home from visiting mom at the hospital last night to find Jake beaten up. We're almost 100% sure it was done by both of our next door neighbors dogs. To make a long story short, Reece (who hangs out at our house and plays with Jake) is in heat. Jake is fixed so he could care less. Leroy and Brown Dog (her name is Stinky and I refuse to call her that!) come over occasionally. Since Reece is in heat, Leroy is claiming a stake. And whenever Jake tries to play with her, Leroy goes after Jake. So we were thinking Leroy probably got Jake down on the ground (he outweighs Jake by about 20-30 lbs) and the other two joined in on the fight. Poor Jake. He ended up sleeping out in the shed, which is really a large outbuilding. He was beat up, bleeding and in a VERY bad mood. I put out some food and left him be.
This morning I was up at 0400 and finally got around to checking on him around 0530. He limped stiffly over to me and let me pet his head and generally check him over but if I got too invasive, he let me know. I was concerned because a lot of his wounds were still bleeding. He had a few chunks of fur and skin bit off (right down to the muscle wall) and his tail was in pretty bad shape as well. I called the vets at 0730 when they opened and they told me to bring him in when we could. It took Bill and I about 45 minutes to finally get him in the back of the truck. Any time we tried to put his leash on his collar, we would try to bite us. Not out of meanness, but out of fear with, I'm sure, quite a bit of pain mixed in. Jake has been known to fear bite on other occasions as well. So I knew I'd have to run in and grab the leather muzzle once we got to the vets. The only way we could get Jake into the truck was by laying out one of the moving blankets that we have and basically wrapping Jake up like a burrito in it. Then, off to the vets we went.
Once we got there I went in and asked for a muzzle. They ended up bringing a metal gurney out to the truck to help get Jake in, still a la burrito. We had mentioned that they might just want to go ahead and knock Jake out but Dr. Davis wanted to see the wounds first. A believe a remark was made about once we take the blanket off, no one is going to be able to get anywhere near him. So they ended up knocking him out via a shot to one of his back legs. It took a few minutes for him to get drowsy and we were able to slip the muzzle on him.
Once he was under enough, they carted him back and started to shave around his wounds and give him a general once over. I ran next door to get coffee for Bill and I and then we waited for some news. A little while had passed and they brought us back to the conference room. Dr. Davis said that Jake was in pretty bad shape and they were going to keep him for the weekend. He said he would give me a call on Monday morning. He asked if we would like to see his wounds before we left. Bill stayed in the lobby but I decided to go back and take a look. Since he was shaved you could see exactly where all his wounds were. He was mauled. Scrapes and scratches, puncture wounds, chunks of skin missing and his tail was a bloody mess. Dr. Davis said they were going to stitch him up but he may end up losing his tail.
So all and all, a pretty crappy day.
Friday, October 1, 2010
October Reads: Week One
I swung by the library today since I'm out of reading material seeing as I finished Freedom by Jonathan Franzen the other day. (Amazing read by the way!) This week I picked up The Time Traveler's Wife, The Last Song and Cold Mountain. On the way home I realized all three of them have been made into movies and I've yet to see any of them. Next week I think I'm going to try to tackle Anna Karenina and perhaps Mansfield Park.
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