SAYING HELLO

Hello All. . .

I've been missing in action for the last few weeks and thought maybe I should let you all know why.  Several of you have emailed me to check in and I thank you for thinking of me.

My sweet Gunther was diagnosed with cancer.  Long story short, we found a very aggressive tumor on one of his toes on his left front paw.  We thought at first that he had just broken a nail to the paw pad, but quickly saw the tumor growing.  Come to find out that it was the tumor that pushed the nail out.  We opted for surgery and he had the toe amputated.  It was sent to Chicago for biopsy and it came back positive for cancer.  The particular cancer is called Squamous Cell Carcinoma.  We've had two good pieces of news so far.  The pathologist said that this particular cancer, though aggressive, is slow to metastasize, and from the view of the amputation, it looks like our vet got all of the tumor.

He got his stitches removed today and while at the vet, we tried to get a biopsy of his lymph nodes on the left side of his chest.  The doctor said she felt that they were a little swollen and wanted to biopsy a sample to make sure there were none of the cancer cells present.  However, after 4 attempts, all she could get were "fat cells".  So, we just have to keep watch for signs that it has spread.  This type of cancer usually spreads to the lungs.  Our vet is going to consult with an oncologist to see what we might need to do as far as chemo etc. if needed.

So, as you can imagine, battling Gunther's desire to rip off bandages whenever I wasn't looking, taking care of him and all of Jay's care demands, the depression has won out more than not and I've had no desire to "create".  All this is happening so close to the loss of Shotsy.  I'm sorry that I haven't visited any of you as well, but my mind and heart are elsewhere at the moment and I hope you will understand.

I do hope you are all well, and I miss you.

Hugs,

Curt

"God, please help me be the person that my dog thinks I am."

UPDATE

Hey All!

No post (other than this) tonight. . .I had to get a new computer (was one of those dinosaurs still using XP).  I was unable to load my old editing software onto my new one.  So working something out to get the photos ready.  Will post in a couple of days.  Just wanted to let you know, and there is no need for you to comment on this.  See you in a couple of days!

Best,  Curt 

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR APRIL 9, 2014

Hey All!

It's nice to see you back and I have to say, you keep looking better every time I see you!  Just gorgeous!

You are going to be a little confused with tonight's post because of the theme of the cards I'm showing you.  I know I've been bitching about the cold, snowy weather and it's now Spring. . .however, you'll have to remember that I didn't post anything for over 3 months, and I have stuff to catch up on.  Also, I don't want to post my Easter stuff yet, because I don't want the recipients seeing what they are getting.  So grab a blanket and take a look:

I made a winter note card set for a neighbor friend from my old neighborhood.  She is an older lady and loves to send out notes and cards.  She is always grateful to receive what I make so it is always a pleasure to make them for her.  This is my go to box design from Gina K's website.  Here is the link to the instructions.  The box above held these six cards with envelopes:

If there is anything that you would specifically like to know about any of them just ask and I'll respond with an answer.

I'm really excited to post my stuff for Easter.  I've found some great 3-D projects that I've added my own touch to that I think you are going to like.  And don't worry, the projects can be used any time, not just for Easter.

Thanks for stopping by.  Sorry if this post made you feel chilly all over again.  However, I know some of my Canadian friends are still snow covered at the moment.

Hope you are all well and in good spirits.  I know as the temps rise here, my spirits follow.  Soon it will be pool time!

Hugs,

Curt

"God, please help me be the person that my dog thinks I am."

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR APRIL 2, 2014

Hey All!

Welcome back to another edition of my blog.  Hope this finds you all well, safe and happy.  This edition will be short on words and heavy on pics.  Why?  Because I am going to show you the Christmas cards I did this past year that were never posted.  That is right GAIL, Christmas cards.  I want to get these posted finally so that I can update my SCS gallery.  So here we go:

Was that fun for you Gail???  The last was a little box I made for holding mini pumpkin bread loaves I made for a few of the neighbors and my friends.  The boxes were so easy to make and made a great presentation.  If anyone wants the instructions, you can find them HERE.  In case you are wondering about the loaf recipe, it was from a box.  Libby made this great product (only available for the holidays) that came in a box and had the ingredients for two loaves (including the canned pumpkin). 

As painful as that was (lol) it's done.  Now I can get these up on SCS and be done with Christmas cards for another several months!

Pic of the Week

Spring is springing!

Thanks for stopping by and having a look at my stuff.  I'll be back around to see you all soon!

Hugs,

Curt

"God, please help me be the person that my dog thinks I am."

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR MARCH 26, 2014

Hey All!

My gosh Wednesdays get here fast!  Seems the older I get, the faster time flies.  Kind of scary actually. My blog is all dressed up for Spring and Gunther is welcoming you to the blog in his finest Easter bandanna.

I'll get right to the cards for tonight.  The first two have two main things in common.  1) They are both cards that use tags, and 2) they both feature my first attempts at using masking fluid!  Take a look:

I have always loved creating scenes so this underwater scene was a lot of fun for me.  I thought that the masking fluid would work great for creating "bubbles".  You can't really see it in the photo, but I used a silver stardust pen to glitter up the "bubbles" for some sparkle then matted the tag with silver glitter paper.  The sea horse is a stamp by Recollections and the plants are from Inque.  I splattered on the masking fluid, let it dry then sponged distress ink all over the tag in two shades of blue.  Used my finger to rub off the fluid then did the stamping in Archival Jet Black.  Added some fuzzy fiber at the top, and some bling on the sentiment panel and ran the background through an embossing folder.

Here is the second:

Again, using masking fluid on this tag, I did a combination splatter and drag pattern, let it dry, then removed it with my finger tips.  Sponged on Rusty Hinge distress ink then stamped the flowers in Archival black as well as the French script background.  I then used SU's French Foliage set to do the water spots.  Attached the bling to the middle of the flowers and ran the background panel through an embossing folder.  I'm really liking the masking fluid effect a lot, and I have some other ideas for it.

Unfortunately, I had the need for two Pet Sympathy cards.  One for a neighbor here in our present neighborhood and one for a neighbor in our old neighborhood.

When I saw this sweet image, I had to have it and I knew that I would use if for just this reason.  To me, it is the most sweet, comforting image I've seen.  It is a digital image from KnK Designs.  I colored it with my colored pencils and oms.

When I think of dogs I always associate them with parks and trees and running in the outdoors.  So this simple tree I thought was perfect for this pet sympathy card.  The dog that passed was a sweet little dog named "Annie" that Shotsy just loved and she loved him.  Shotsy was so big and she was just a little thing and he would always lay down when he saw  her to "get down to her level".  I wrote in the card that I was sure that they were now playing together.

Pic of the Week

SPRING IS SPRINGING!!!!

I hope you are all in good health and happy.  I'm trying my best to get caught up on yoru blogs.  Please be patient with me.

SHOUT OUT:  There is a particular person that leaves me a sweet comment every week.  The name on the comment is always "NISE".  I have no way of contacting you or thanking you for visiting.  Do you have a blog?  At least email me with your email address. . .There are a couple of you that also need to check your settings so that I can respond to you as well from time to time.

Hugs to all of you!

Curt

"God, please help me be the person that my dog thinks I am."

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR MARCH 19, 2014

Hey All!

Welcome to another edition of the Wednesday Evening Post.  I'm happy to remind you that today is the LAST DAY OF WINTER!!!!!!  I've actually seen signs of Spring, so I know it's coming and it has been a very long wait.

I hope this post finds you well and happy.  Tonight's post (BTW, I've used a larger font-what do you think?) contains more thank you cards.  Seems like I have been thanking people left and right lately.  That makes me a lucky guy to have so many out there doing stuff that deserves thanks. 

As most of you know by now, I have a brand new set of choppers.  The dental staff has been wonderful, and I wanted them to know how much I appreciated them.  Here are the cards I made for them:

FOR MY DENTIST

FOR THE HYGIENIST

FOR THE FRONT OFFICE 

The first two are of course House Mouse images and the last one is Gruffies.  That is one of the many reasons I love these stamps, because they have an image for just about anything you would want.  On the second one, I created the "crocodile skin by running it through the CB with an embossing folder, then covering it with Versamark and embossing it with clear embossing powder (twice).  It gives it a leather look.  On the last card, I created the background paper using clip art.

I also needed a "manly" thank you card for someone else who helped me recently.  Here is another "guy" thank you card:

I actually got the inspiration from a card from one of my old House Mouse buddies Patricia Rose HERE.  I liked her two-toned oval.  So I changed it up a bit by running it through a wood grained look embossing folder, then using distress ink to make it look a little more like wood.  I added the copper square brads and then a banner greeting all on some DSP for background.  You are going to see a lot more square cards from me.  I've never really liked the A2 size card.  The square just gives more room to do stuff and is more impressive in size.

Pic of the Week:

I think these Canada Geese are tired of this crappy winter too.  I love how they were standing on just one leg while trying to keep the other one warm.

Well another post is complete.  The next post will be written (wait for it. . .wait for it. . .) IN THE SPRING!!!!  LOL  I've still got just a few more people to visit then I will be all caught up.  So hang in there those of you who haven't seen me yet. . .I'm coming!

Hope you all are doing great. . .

Hugs,

Curt

PS. . .there were a couple of you who asked for the instructions for the gift card holder I made last week.  Your blog is not set up so that I could reply with it so here is a link in case you were interested:  GIFT CARD HOLDER

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR MARCH 12, 2014

Hey All!

Welcome to my first "normal" post since my sabbatical.  I've caught up with half of you and have about half more to go before I'm all caught up with visiting you.  It's amazing how much all of you have done in 3 months!  So if you haven't heard from me yet, I'm on my way this week!

While I was "away", I had an emergency visit at my local hospital.  Since I got my new "smile", I've had to really adjust to eating differently.  Well, one night I was eating and swallowed a large piece of stew meat which promptly became lodged in my esophagus.  Long story short, they took me from the emergency room directly to emergency surgery to remove it.  I felt so bad because they had to call in the GI team at 11:30 at night.  These pour souls (two nurses, the surgeon, and the anesthesiologist) all were called from their warm beds to take care of my emergency.  They were so amazing and so wonderful at their jobs.  Not once did they make me feel like I had inconvenienced them, even though I apologized to them 100 times for dragging them out in the cold so late.  I wanted to say thanks and I made the following cards for them:

For Nurse #1

For Nurse #2

For the Surgeon

For the Anesthesiologist

Not only were these people disturbed late at night, I had to call my sister to come and get me after surgery because they would not allow me to drive home after being put under.  So she had to come and get me at about 1:00 AM.  So I made these for her:

An inside, I tucked this:

I really like this style of gift card holder and it fit perfectly inside the A2 size card.

What an ordeal, but these people literally saved my life.  I now chew my food until it's mush before swallowing!  LOL  God, such changes. . .

Pic of the Week:

Snow covered sweet gum balls

Well that's it for this post.  If you would like to know about what I used on my projects above or have questions regarding them, ask in your comments and I'll email you a response.  Just make sure that you have your settings set so that I can respond via your comment.

I hope you are all happy, well, and warm.  Will this damn winter ever end???  We had almost a 70 degree day yesterday and we have snow today!  I could just spit!

Hugs,

Curt

I'M BACK. . .

Hey All. . .

I can hardly believe that it has been over 3 months since I lost my Shotsy.  The holidays were very tough, but we made it through.  Not a day goes by that I don't grieve for him, but as the old adage states "Time heals all wounds".

I wanted to thank all of you for your outpouring of support and the wonderful cards, emails, and notes that were sent to me after Shotsy died.  You will never know how much comfort they truly brought to me.  Thank you too for all of you who have continued to check in on me letting me know you are still thinking of me.  I'm truly blessed to have so many wonderful people out there who care so much.  

I wanted to share this picture with you:

This is kind of my "memorial space" for Shotsy.  You can see there in the center of the first shelf is the tin containing his ashes.  I have a small Giant Schnauzer with a halo on top of it and my sister bought me a small pewter angel on a chain for him which hangs on the front.  These are the cards that were sent which surround  him.  The one card sitting to the left of his tin is a hand drawing in ink of a Giant Schnauzer that my friend Mark of Deadbeat Designs drew.  It is so beautiful and I was so touched that he took the time to draw it.  He is so talented.  Our vet's office also made a donation in Shotsy's name to a shelter.  I miss him so much.

Gunther is doing well (getting fat - he now weighs 135 pounds!!!)  He finally got groomed today. . .Here are his before and after shots:

I just had him shaved down so that we could get rid of all that wooliness which was really matted underneath from all of this damn snow (as you can see from the new header picture he LOVES).  He is always so worn out from the groomer that he sleeps all afternoon . . .he is actually snoring right now!  LOL  He was so woolly, that when I was walking him in the neighborhood a few days ago, I noticed a woman walking down her driveway with her dog, look towards us coming towards her, and promptly turned around and went back up her driveway.  When we got to her house, I looked up and she was standing by her house with her dog close to her laughing.  She said "When we first saw you coming, I thought you were walking a small black bear and I was afraid for my dog."  LOL  So I knew it was time for grooming.

Also, I know a lot of you were going through the drama with me regarding my "teeth".  I now have my new smile and thought I would share a picture of that with you as well:

It's kind of a cheesy grin but I wanted the teeth to show.  I think my dentist did a great job.  They look really natural and I have a smile I can be proud of now.  I'm still going back for a few adjustments because of a few sore spots, but I'm getting used to them more and more each day.

We are still battling the harsh winter here in Indiana. . .I'm hard pressed to remember a winter so cold and snowy.  Here is an example of what the "normal" has been around here for the last couple of months:

Our pool looks like a skating rink.  You can see the amount of snow on the table.  This was just one snow.

Well, I've taken up quite a bit of your time so I'll stop the update here.  I have missed you all and am planning to get by each of your blogs soon to catch up with all of you, so expect to seem some comments soon.  I have been working on cards and have several to share next post.

Again, thank you all so much for your support, and thanks for not forgetting about me.

Hugs,

Curt