Hi there friends. I hope that you are having a good week so far. It's been an awfully busy one for me and then I came home to a really messy and unorganized house. My car is even a mess. By Sunday evening, I will be dead dog tired but my house will be all the way organized. After that, I'm going to get my floors and curtains professionally cleaned and get a really good housekeeper over here to finish the job. Then, I am going to eBay and you will want to check that out for sure! I'm going to put up at a minimum 10 items or lots a day and just clear out.
Today's card was halfway done before I had to get my procedures done. I've been on this lupus flare ride for about 3 weeks now and it's awful. I got knocked out yesterday, although I really wasn't supposed to be, but I just fell asleep and didn't want to wake up. I was tired. I also think I'm having a bad reaction to the anesthesia or something too – like an emotional one like little kids have. I just want to cry all the time. It's the weirdest thing. Today when I got on that table, I started to get some anxiety and Dr. Anand asked me what I was freaking out over since I guess my blood pressure shot up pretty high. The monitor was making a lot of noises. I do not need to develop OR table panic attacks. I think I was just really tired and am having a steroid crash or something. I've had to go on a few rounds this time. I'm hoping this is the end of the flare. I felt great last night but today, I feel every. single. needle. he put in my back. When I got my knee reconstructed a year ago, 8 days post-op, I had this massive synovial fluid blowout – like the kind you have to replace your carpet blowout. I thought that it would regenerate but it didn't so I'm bone-on-bone. I have another decade until it can be replaced because they have a short shelf life, but I know I will not last that long. I'm getting Supartz injections, which is fake synovial fluid, that is supposed to last a year. The bad part is that you have to get them once a week for 5 weeks. I cannot make that drive down to the Bay Area once a week so I'm getting them done every other week instead. The closest Mike can legally practice/contracted with is Sacramento and Davis so he's done one of them so far and I'm so grateful that him and Dr. Anand worked it out so that Mike will finish out the rest of the series, and I have 3 more. You get one injection, wait a month, and then get the other 4. Having a trauma surgeon for a best friend does have its benefits. He's getting tired of his commute as well since he works at all of the trauma centers between here and the Bay Area, but mainly in the Sacramento area. Chico has an airport, if you could call it that, as it's mainly a charter airport, but he will helicopter out if there is a trauma when he's on-call. We were out to dinner one time and he got a call and I should have driven myself to the restaurant, but I didn't, and I had to go on the helicopter with him and I will never do that again. I don't like helicopter rides. He kept trying to tell me to look outside at "the pretty lights" to calm me down but it wasn't working. He had a few patients that night, with me being one of them! Anyhow, I do have to go back down at the end of March to get a left facet medial block that's supposed to last a year too, but that really means a few months for me. Oh the joys of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Today was 60 times I've been on that OR table in 3-1/2 years. Ugh.
Anyhow, I'm just really tired and looking forward to relaxing in a few. Let's get to my card, shall we?
As you know, every Wednesday, I have my design team work for the Paper Craft Crew. Each week, we have a sketch challenge for you and you can use the sketch on anything you want; a mixed media page, a scrapbook page, a card, whatever you want. Today's sketch was fun, as always, so I made my coffee card. I spent some time hunting for my paper crimper, even though Stampin' Up! does not sell them anymore. I was bound and determined to have the Crumb Cake panel crimped to mimic the coffee holder that you put around a cup of hot coffee. It was a necessity in my mind. I went through a few boxes for about an hour since I have to hunt for absolutely everything. I was positive I had the right box as I remember where it was at my old house and found the box that it should have been with. I never found the crimper but thought that I would check in my new studio, that I'm still not in due to a paper storage problem, which is huge, and sure enough, it was exactly where my tools were. I was pretty happy to find it. I tore the right edge of it and I'm not a person who tears as a habit on my cards, and then I had to have newspaper print because you read your paper while you drink coffee. See how well this card flows and goes? Just in case you thought it was weird or something, I wanted to explain my thought process to you. My head is not such a scary place after all. I stapled my sentiment to my coffee cup image, which I expertly colored with Stampin' Up! Blendabilities. I have a video on how I colored this exact cup that I used on this card that I need to edit. I have a lot of videos that I need to edit for you. This video is pretty short (I will add it tomorrow) as I just show you how to color the coffee cup. I used a different method than what Stampin' Up! does on their videos and it worked for me. I used the brush tip only. I think you will be excited for the video judging by how great my coffee cup turned out. Everybody has what works for them. I'm just showing you what works for me and it is non-traditional, of course.
Thank you so much for stopping by to see me today and may God bless you richly.
