A new day..............

SO, I haven't been her in a while. I get in funks like this sometimes, when my creating is just BLAH. It's been one of those past months. After the angry birds party, I think I may have over loaded my brain...lol. But hey, it was worth it! The smile on his face during the party was priceless :) *even if I was a bit obsessed* 
Funny thing is, I thought I would be totally sick of those birds, but strangely, I am not. I still like creating angry bird stuff :)

Why, just yesterday I made the boy a fleece angry bird hat, that literally took me around 20 mins to whip up :) Here he is wearing it :) Not too shabby eh.

It's a brand new year......

Well, it is the year 2014 now. It has been eons since I last blogged. It's been a long time since I did much of anything lately, except plugging away on the daily train of life. I think I am battling slight depression. I have had a battle emotionally with someone I love, but who is toxic. Sadly, there is nothing left to do but pray.
Knowing this, my heart is grieving , mourning...........hurt and angry, sad and disappointed.
I have decided to give this relationship to God, it is out of my hands. Knowing this, still , even now, my heart hurts.
So, I have neglected my passions.....my creating. It's been awhile since I sat at my sewing machine. My *umph* is missing. My desire is not there.
On a positive note.......I QUIT SMOKING 1 year ago!!! THIS is HUGE for me. I smoked for over 25 years.....wow, that is CRAZY! Only by God's grace was I able to this time. Did I gain weight? Yep....Now my battle to lose that is on.
The weather seems to bring me down lately, I miss the sun. This cold can go away now...haha. I am not a very good handler of the cold. It seems to go right to my bones....I need to move to a tropical place, where it is warm all the time. With my millions I have stashed away. Just kidding.
I have been preparing my daughters birthday party for this year. My baby is turning 5. HOW did that happen? She is so independent , quite the little lady, with a BIG personality. When you meet her, you can't help fall in love. I'm not just being biased. She is so sweet and kind. And quite the little beauty. Not sure where she gets that from, haha.
Anyway, guess that is it for now, sadly, I'm not that exciting today. But I will end on this note. I want to be a better person this year, For God, for my husband, my kids, myself. ......Better at using my armor... The shield of faith, my helmet of salvation, sword of the spirit, my belt of truth, my breastplate of righteousness, and my feet fitted with the gospel of peace. I want to stand, firm and strong.

SUPER easy colored chocolate chip cookies with box cake mix

Box cake mix Christmas chocolate chip cookies
1 box white cake mix
1 (12 oz.) bag chocolate chips
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. melted butter
1 egg
1/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
red and green food colouring
Mix all ingredients, except chips, with a wooden spoon. Divide into 2 bowl and add a few drops of food colour in each until desired colour. Mix in chips a few at a time. Drop by teaspoons onto un greased cookie sheet. we used the left over after making 24 cookies, to make a large cookie candy cane. Bake in preheated oven at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes or until just slightly brown on top..my added bonus trick?? when you don't have a cooling rack, use a roasting rack on top of muffin tins ;)

How much do YOU know about Childhood cancers and the research behind it??? Educate yourself!.

How much do YOU know about Childhood cancers and the research behind it??? Educate yourself!.

Hi there, just finally able to sit down at a computer...I know I wanted to share the info about childhood cancer, and that people need to be more aware. here are some of the stats, and info that many people do NOT know. We need to be the voice for the children!. They are our future, and they need to grow up before they can even think of breast cancer!!

Breast cancer receives the most research funding dollars.

Yet childhood cancer (that's ALL CHILDHOOD CANCERS rolled into one - not one specific childhood cancer) gets less than 3% of funding raised by the cancer society.

There are 12 MAJOR types of childhood cancers.

Leukemias (blood cell cancers) and cancers of the brain and central nervous system account for more than half of the new cases. The most common type of leukemia in children is acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The most common solid tumours are brain tumours (e.g., gliomas and medulloblastomas), with other solid tumours (e.g., neuroblastomas, Wilms tumours, and sarcomas such as rhabdomyosarcoma and osteosarcoma) being less common.

Childhood cancers are MORE AGGRESSIVE than adult cancers and in most cases, treatment with chemo is a higher dosage per kilo gram than adult cancer.

Every 16 hours a child dies from neuroblastoma.
7 children die each DAY from childhood cancer.
Every day, 46 KIDS are diagnosed with cancer.

Pediatric cancer kills more kids than cystic fibrosis, pediatric AIDS & asthma COMBINED.

1 in 330 children will develop cancer by age 20.

Treatment side effects can last a lifetime for these kids.

Children treated for one cancer, often develop another cancer later in life as a side effect from the original treatment.

Children do not receive routine cancer screening like adults do. As a result, children are often misdiagnosed or go without treatment for months or years before their cancer is finally discovered. By this time, it has usually metastasised and spread to other organs.

Childhood cancer is cancer in it's purest form. If we cure it, we can potentially eliminate adult cancer.

Childhood cancer research has a HUGE impact on adult cancers.

Adult cancer research no longer has any impact on childhood cancers.

It was a researcher working on the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, who first discovered the stem cell for neuroblastoma. Using this researchers methods, doctors are now searching for the breast cancer stem cell. Stem Cells relating to cancer were previously considered to be non-existent.

Even if you just compare adult cancers, lung cancer & colorectal cancer kill more adults than breast cancer.

The Canadian Cancer Society gives only 3% of it's donations/funding to childhood cancer research.

Although Terry Fox died of a pediatric cancer, and stated that he was running for the people who were in the hospital with him (other children), the foundation does not usually donate to childhood cancer, choosing adult cancer instead.

Unless funds donated to the Canadian Cancer society are labelled for a specific cause, the society can use the funds however it wants. Whether that be supporting victims, more fund raising, advocating against cancer through brochures or administrative costs. Relay for life proceeds go to no specific cancer or even necessarily to cancer research at all.
Run for the Cure proceeds go to breast cancer.

The Canadian Cancer Society is only held accountable for dollars donated to them that require a tax receipt. All those pins bought by donation etc, go straight to administration costs, which is why the CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society makes in the 6 digits as a yearly salary. The same goes for the Terry Fox Foundation and the Breast Cancer Society.

The James Fund for Neuroblastoma Research owns and operates the James Birrell labs for childhood cancer research in Toronto Sick kids. It is run by Dr. David Kaplan - chief of childhood cancer research. Every dollar donated to them, goes directly to childhood cancer research. Dr. Kaplan is the doctor who discovered the stem cell for neuroblastoma (Central Nervous System cancer).

If you choose to help childhood cancer research, PLEASE ensure your efforts are ACTUALLY going to childhood cancer research, not into the pockets of administrative executives or into printing glossy brochures about not using tanning beds.

Thanks!!

I got this info from my best friend, who is advocating for her baby girl who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at age 8 months old. She is 14 months old now and is in remission.

We need more research and awareness done for the children.....why some may ask...*My child doesn't have cancer....* Her child never HAD cancer either......You never know when it could be your niece, nephew, daughter, son, grandchild.....ect....

Thanks again..

Kim Gonzalvo

Angry Birds party preparation cont'd......

So, I have been one crazy busy momma, OK, so just the crazy part is really true ;)
I made some homemade reusable loot bags that the boys can reuse after. Added angry bird colouring books, tattoos, stickers, small *nest* of candy *eggs*, one golden egg with silly putty inside, a angry bird Frisbee *dollar store Frisbees with my own stickers, Way cheaper that the Frisbees the party store had! They were like $5!!! And I even had left over stickers :) I used the rest to put in the loot bags and used some on paper cups to make another game, not shown on here yet :)
, and they will each take home a handmade angry bird bean bag too.

 The complete loot bags...

 Some of the loot in the bags...

 the card stock labels I attached to the squawkers....

 The start of the reusable bags I made...I used 2 brand new pillowcases, and quartered them, to give you an idea of size, they fit a letter sized colouring book in them. Then I added the iron on angry birds I printed myself :)

 Some angry bird items He got on his actual birthday on Wednesday from his sister , from the dollar store.

 marshmallow fondant angry birds made by Thelma and Louise...*aka Me and Elspeth :)

 Some trial run cupcakes :)

The bean bags I made for the angry bird game we are gonna play.

On Sunday, my Louise *aka Elspeth, made homemade fondant and did a trial run of the angry birds I will use for the cupcakes/cake *still undecided on that one. here are some pics of my finished items so far.....There is more, I just haven't completed everything yet...what was supposed to be a simple party has turned into an obsession....lol....

Angry Birds birthday party for my soon to be 6 yr old.

So, I am just going to tell you about a few things I am preparing for my son's 6th birthday party. I didn't want to go huge this year, so I am trying to make as much of the decor as possible.
first I made invites...this consisted of printing them off. I found a free printable on line, this is the link I used.http://partyinvitationshq.com/free-printable-angry-birds-invitations/
Then I found another amazing lady who had a whole printable kit on line, so I used that too, to make cupcake toppers, bag tags, a banner, and MORE! check it out, and totally FREE. I LOVE FREE!!
http://www.sherykdesigns-blog.com/2012/01/free-printable-bithday-kit-angry-birds.html

Then I found a simple ,cheap, way to make a homemade party game, consisting of making the birds and using plastic cups....here's the link for that as well, if you scroll 3/4 down the blog here, you will see a homemade game using pompoms...http://asmallsnippet.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2012-01-05T22%3A40%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=8&start=15&by-date=false

I amazed myself when I found a plastic slingshot at the dollar store...whoo hoo!!

These are pompom angry birds :)

so here are a few pics of my homemade birds, and I free handed some foam ones for examples that the kids can make to take home as well.

And now a pic of the whole printed lot I made up..... I found the free printable coloring pages here on this site...http://coolcoloringpages.blogspot.ca/2011/10/angry-birds-coloring-pages.html

So this is what I have accomplished so far, the party is a week and a half away, so not to bad for now. Oh, I almost forgot, I made him this photo banner too....
I will update this at a later date with pics from the actual party :) stay tuned ;)

my sister...........

I have been thinking a lot about my sister lately. She seems to be on my mind. When I think of my sister, I think of a strong woman, independent, faithful, a pillar, a mentor, a friend, a woman of God and so much more.
It wasn't always like that in my eyes. I used to be jealous of my sister, I wanted what she had, I didn't know what *it* was , but I wanted it. She had it all, a loving husband, 3 beautiful children, her own home, a job...ALL the things that I Didn't have at the time. but most of all, she had God...I didn't. She seemed happy, at peace, in control....I wasn't, in fact, at the time, I was opposite of ALL those things. I envied her life.
So when the day came, that God found me, things changed. It was just before I got married, God found my husband  too :) Our lives spiralled for a number of years before we surrendered, my husband and I , but when we did, things began to happen. We are now happily married, with 2 beautiful children, I work from home doing what i love to do, creating and taking care of my children and my husband. And my relationship with my sister? Well that changed too...for the better. First off, she spoke God's word at our wedding, for us, it was beautiful. My sister and I began a journey on sisterhood from then on....that was almost 8 years ago. She is my older sister, and today, we share a special bond, no one can break. I look up to my sister, I can ask for advice and she will give it honestly, yet lovingly. She is not just my sister, she is my friend. Today, my sister asks me for advice sometimes! NEVER in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that ! I love my sister, more with each passing day. She is a part of me, not just by blood, but God has bound us, woven our life fabrics of love, so intricately. I thank God for my sister, who made me who I am today, by modelling who she is everyday :) I love you Deb!

video: My Sister by Reba McEntire