Creating Kris ~ a young mom blogs…

bright birthday cards

Even as my “Bold Brights” paper pack gets depleted to the point the plastic wrapping is too loose to really accomplish much in the way of paper-covering, I still enjoy the colour set and use the colours regularly in my cards. It was the first pack I ever got, back when I was more into scrapping than stamping & card-making.

So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I veered in that direction again… At my crop last weekend, I didn’t accomplish much in the way of my holiday cards (got some inspiration but still not happy with my designs), but I did get a couple of birthday cards done that I was happy with…

Cardstock: Pink Passion, Only Orange, Pirouette Pink, white. Ink: Pink Passion, Pixie Pink. Ribbon: from my stash (source unknown). Glitter: from my stash (source unknown). Embellishments: SU’s filigree brads.

Since I’ve been using the Only Orange cardstock a lot lately, I think I’m totally out of letter-sized sheets. And then I keep mixing it up with Pumpkin Pie until I look closely and realize it doesn’t go well. My DH really enjoys poking fun at me for knowing all the bizarre colour names so well, but really, would orange #1, orange #2, and orange #3 be any better?

If I just wrote “orange paper & ink” on my Stampin’ Up wish-list, maybe he’d understand… because then he’d be in a real pickle trying to guess which one, wouldn’t he?!?

angel memories

Every year, we take a moment to acknowledge our angel babies that we lost through miscarriage.

This year we had another family over for supper so we had their little girl help light with lighting the candles along with my two. 3 candles for 3 angels so it worked out. Also, her mom and I were pregnant at the same time and when she was born (in October 2002) it was around the time my 1st angel would’ve been born.

Which partly explains why we always take the time to remember our miscarried babies on the same day each year – October 25th. Our first lost baby was due on October 5th and for my 3rd and 4th pregnancies, I started to miscarry them on October 25th (one year apart).

Another annual tradition linked with our candle-lighting is a donation made to March of Dimes. When we were losing our 2nd baby, I found out that they offered a free grief package with helpful info and I ordered one to be mailed. It was so helpful during those few weeks following the loss of our second baby.

This year, the March of Dimes has started a campaign where little bracelets can be created in honour of lost angel babies. So for our regular donation I created a bracelet for this second baby, willow. Maybe next year, I can create another bracelet for our third baby, sienna.

If you’re a regular charity-giver, please consider the March of Dimes as a possible source of your givings. And if you’d like to donate in willow’s name, here is her bracelet:

willow’s band
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eye-yi-yi! chemical burn

So I have been a little quiet this week, and here’s why: on Tuesday I went for a little snooze and then afterwards stumbled around to get ready for a shower. I was unfortunately too brain dead to realize that I was rinsing my contact lens with the unfamiliar-bought-on-mega-sale contact solution instead of my regular contact solution (that I’ve been using for well over a decade!). Until the burning searing pain hit after popping that contact into my right eye!!!

So… note to self and others:

1. Don’t buy unfamiliar contact solution unless you’ve researched what it is. Especially if you have been using the same stuff and brand for a looooong time and have been a contact lens wearer since “back in the day” when there were blue bottles and red bottles, and disinfectant solution came in red bottles.

2. Don’t buy stuff just because it’s on sale. Even if you’re going through severe financial difficultly and are trying to penny pinch. Sometimes it’s on sale because it sucks. The big labels wrapped around the bottle with “NEW INSTRUCTIONS:” warnings should’ve been my first guess this product was bad news for me.

3. If you ever have the misfortune of putting a contact lens just rinses with chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, rinse your eyes right away for a long time. Like minutes and minutes. Because if you only rinse for a minute, even though that *feels* like forever, it’s not enough time and you will just have to call poison control and have them tell you to do it.

4. If you are disabled and have spinal injuries and need to rinse out an eye for 15 minutes, do it in the shower. Keep your jammies on to stay warm though because it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to rinse your eye with warm-hot water. Stick with lukewarm. Oh and bring in a bath pillow if you have it because then you can rest your head on it because you’ll need to tilt it sideways so the water can rinse out the inside of your eyelid.

5. If your preteen is in a selfish stage, you need to actually scream her or his *name* to get any chance of help. Otherwise they will disregard general screams of injury and distress. Better yet, make it about them (e.g. “hey Harmony, want to gape at my bright red eye?”), that’s all they really care about anyways.

Can you tell I’m having a “FML” kind of week?

(((sigh)))

I really need some good news or positive happenings to come in my direction soon.