How to not be Scared of Needles with Cushings, Crohns & Christmas

Now this is one way to decorate the tree.....
I have no idea how to not be scared of needles. if you do, let me know.

At first I thought I had some brilliant ideas. deep breathing. meditating. then it didn't work and I was thinking: "What the heck?" Sure yoga is good for ya-!
or -
Warm your arms with little hand warmers! and drink warm water.

get a nurse to massage and "look" first so the veins don't roll or go down for a nap.

Distract them and your veins with a story.

Let them distract you with a story of how they were sticking someone else

think about something random

(ornaments to make that I will not do this year! whew!)



don't think

make sure they are doing it right and keeping sterile or ask your advocate to do so

get an advocate to sit with you

pray.

pray again.

think of someone else like my little hero of the days- phoebe who had cancer and they sent me a video with the news there is a new cure for nueroblastoma cancer. research is finally worth it! I am part of it! woo-woo! kidding. I can't woop. unless a cough is added.

(unless you have to go out into them to get an infusion or something and the roads are bad)

drink honey, lemon, and water warmed in microwave before leaving your house.
the blog below has some great recipes..... all of which make my esophagus stricture go ballistic. darn.



wear something nice.

wear your grubbies.

ask someone to help you.

do something yourself.

thank people that volunteer.

thank this guy:

watch over someone you don't know.

watch over someone you do know.



(maybe I could do this to get some good smells going on in the house..... looks user friendly!)

write a thank you note to a friend.

write a thank you to a stranger.

tell someone you are freaked out about a needle being put in your skin. Admitting it is brave!

ask for the spray to numb it if it is going to be a doozy.

ask them to get ultra sound techs to find the vein.

be brave.

*love this old Christmas picture, don't you?



be an absolute woos.

cry

show off and don't cry while pretending to be batman.

cry some more.

wait. ask them to wait. try again later if it doesn't work.

drink fluids. or 'push them' like they say in medical verbage.

floss your teeth. really. but get those toothpick ones and colgate little tooth brushes if you can afford to.

call your doctors.

write down your allergies and timelines of what is happening so you can relax and concentrate.

text your folks about the situation

pray.

He comes at all hours of the night. it's handy he takes late night shifts


(lds.org)

Crohns, Cushings/and the Holy War Football Game

Readers,

I am happy to say that Dr, Suess is right. Christmas can come without all the hoopla. However, just because it can, doesn't mean I don't want to leave the hoopla up through January!

 

After having the month of December robbed from us dealing with medical hoopla, we are going to get Christmas decorations up and let the feeling boil over into all of January. Why not? I mean, usually it is hard to pull down anyways, why not just make January a special month?

 

As months go, January is pretty chilly and sad-ish around Idaho. The weather burns that in with cold temps, high winds, and the media starts in with the next holiday which is not Christmas!

 

So, back to Suess and his life lessons! So glad we started to get things rounded up after the last few flu stragglers came into camp. (when you have a big family, you have to endure the weeks of everyone getting it.)

 

One of the things I was wishing for but have not done the formalities and penned it in a letter to Santa:

 

I wanted to watch a game with J.

 

I think this was a wish from some time back and so I was pretty much for sure it wouldn't happen. Friends invited us, or was it the other way around? Well, anyway, we got to see the rivals

 

BYU - USU

 

play their Holy War out in Vegas' Bowl Today!

 

We were late for the first part and slaughter of dignity when the U intercepted, intercepted, intercepted.

 

Did I mention the Y threw interceptions?

 

I know, you fans out there are wondering: "How did Amanda not run out of wind cheering, let alone from crossing the street?"

 

Well, it was a miracle. When you start out with a lost voice it isn't like you find it during a Bowl game. With my cortisol keeping my hoots and hollers in tact, it helped that I was mute too.

There isn't much that can bring loved ones together like a good rival game.

 

I was a fence sitter due to the medical condition- I couldn't take the 35-0 scoreboard going into Bronco Mendenhall's last game with the Y without feeling some serious remorse for the skinny, pastey white lanky armed players I saw trying to catch the ball that they call a football.

 

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHH~~~ They could have subbed me in and done better, REaders!

Sure, I would have had to be flown into the U's hospital afterward, but man......

Back to my wish coming true. Do you readers recall HOW LONG it has been since I have been able to attend, let alone cheer, at a football game??

 

For you newbies, I love watching a good game. When you go with your friends it is even more fun.

When you get to go with your child and they understand the game better than you now- it is so FUN.

 

Would the Cougars just lay down and let the Utes put in some c string?

 

THAT was the question for the half.

Thanks to the Utes laying down, the Cougars ripped back into action. It was a completely different team. Were those some serious quad muscles juking players bent on being rivals out there??

 

Yes, it was! The light blue jerseys came out and boy, they had me wondering and glad I was in the middle!

 

For Christmas, we were in for a treat- with plenty of chips, pop and dip handy the Y gave us a come back to always remember. 4 downs within a foot. Touchdowns within a blade of grass....

 

ALL of this with my bestest son. And his mother pal. We sat on the couch and took in a game. I could not have asked for a better gift. It came without me having to search, ask him to write a letter to Santa so he wouldn't forget what he wanted.....

It seems that when I let go, Santa Claus showed up with what I wanted before I had time to even stop and think about it. I didn't think it was possible, really. I would have thought we'd have to get cable or drive to Vegas to take in the game. Or find a Cure to Crohns before I could cheer.

 

Nope.

 

I was able to take a cane and gingerly cross the icy side walks, follow the car tracks left in the snow by fellow neighbors, until we came to our friend's happily decorated house.

They even had a REAL tree up with the big bulb, old school lighting.

- Which you don't see much of these days.

 

It was heaven! Or Christmas! Or both. Right here, before the Big Day, we had the best day.

It was worth the wait and the fatigue that came afterward.

This is non-edited and picture free. When I get some extra time and energy, I will add more.

 

Happy Final Week Before the Big Day,

Crohns, Cushings & The Christmas Story

 

 

So, since I'm cheap I have a gift for all of you: A Story!

This month was hijacked by Crohns, Cushings and the fff-fff- I have seemed to start to stutter when trying to even type the ffll..... Let's just say this month FLU by- whew.

It went slower than I thought then all the sudden I heard and saw signs saying:

 'Last minute Gift Ideas.'

 

ME: Wait a minute. LAST minute? What? Where?

Why am I wearing a blanket over my head as I get into Padre's truck in the middle of a storm?

 

Is this some dream where I think I am part of Chief Joseph and his clan walking in the winter to escape to Canada?

 

okay, I got off track.

 

This story starts with a baby. A big baby. Me.

I was under the impression that the Good Samaritan helped someone pummeled and close to death. I now think there is a footnote that says they gave him the flu before they left him on the side of the road.

 

Okay. So I am lying. But I bet they had the flu originate by some bad guy clear back in that time of the Savior's birth and ministry on the earth.

Another false claim I had in mind was that The Samaritan left him in good hands with people who are ancestors to those who invented

Amazon's Two Day Delivery.

 

Seriously now. There is another child that is part of my  Christmas story. Get comfy. This may, or may not, be long.

 

I saw a newborn child with the flu. Okay, that covers it! Oh, wait. There's more! I was so sad for this child. In my mind I thought: "Put a mini mask on it!!! There are germs lurking here that are from the bottom of..... something very deep and bad!

 

The mother was sick. She had the flu. A woman helped the little bird with a bottle. It was almost lifeless- the bottle taken from its mouth it lay wide open and barely moving. The woman, talking about the earlier struggle, said: "When he threw up I about cried. 'That was twenty minutes on each side!' " she shared her story.

 

Pumping at first is REALLY hard. Painful. And then to see it go to waste- she must have been deliriously tired.

The little one was so precious. I wanted to hold him so badly. His little head so tiny.....

But I kept my distance and covered my masked cough beneath my scarf.

 

Fast forward several hours and lots of dry heaving from others around me. I had calmed my lungs down by laying on my stomach and coughing downward, over the bed.

It helped.

 

Then suddenly, I had to go. To the bathroom Like, a Crohns, knee jerk response, had to go. Translation: NOW.

 

Readers, I searched for the call light.

I didn't have one! How does that happen? AAHHHHH!!!! All was quiet. I thought maybe they'd closed. I could go into elaborate detail about trying to sit up, being too weak to put the arm rail down, but it didn't matter cause I was tethered to the wall by an IV.

 

AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

"Hello?" I croaked, my breathing sounded like bacon in the frying pan.

 

As it sizzled in my throat I pulled myself up to reach for the curtain. I shook it open and there wasn't anyone at the festive desk.

 

Oh, geez. This could get bad. I used my survival skill and scooched down the bed and off! Quick thinking and determination got me to the bathroom and I had to admit that a lot of prayer went into it And someone unhooking me from the IV.

 

During this month and this particular day I had asked: "What am I to learn from this?"

 

I failed to look around until I excited the restroom.

 

Fast forward to the exit. I got out and began to make it back to my bed when I was impressed to look left.

 

There, down the hall,  a group of nurses congregated around an open door. All stood pensive, watching in the room. I was curious as to what was in the room.

I took another step and peered in- there was my nurse on the floor kneeling next to the little head I had been admiring and aching for hours earlier in the waiting room.

 

She was trying to put an IV in his sweet, newborn head. I ached to the center of my self. The nurses seemed to be like the shepherd who first saw the star, all coming to see The Savior beneath the star that represent His Birth.

 

The baby didn't cry out. He was that tuckered out.

 

My pleas changed. They turned to this newborn. I felt a calm. Despite being very worried for this little one and his mother..... I knew it was in His hands. And it wasn't the first time He had taken a spirit's fate in His hands.

 

For just a small window it was just us: The newborn baby and a quiet staff. Oh, and me.

I am glad to sometimes have a time out where I can just think of Him as a little baby, me as a bystander to the.... sacred scene.

 

If I could, I would hold that Little One and rock Him and kiss his sweet head.

Thank you, Heaven, for baby Jesus.

Festive Fabric with Crohns and Cushings



 

 

 

NOTHING says Happy Holidays better than this.......

 

And fabric.

When I saw the above fabric at Jo-ann's I knew I had to have a piece of it!

 Even if it were just for festive pillow cases that I would whip up real quick!!

 

(I have yet to do anything quick in a long time.)

Well, then there was a SALE on fabric and nothing says "Be Merry and Bright" than fabric on sale. Right?

 

So I went back. To the store. And to the area it was and brought my small piece with me that I already had to identify another piece of fabric I had to have because it had the right Teal color in it, and there was no cream and black fabric Christmas Caroling finish to my Christmas Carol theme this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Say that paragraph as fast as you can and as many times as you can before taking a breath and you will know the enormity of the situation. )


 I got talking to a lady who had coordinated several different styles for each kid. She was making them a stocking or something. They all looked SO good.

I told her about my dilemma and showed her my sack of fabric pieces.

"I have that  bolt in my cart!" she exclaimed.

"You are kidding! How much are you going to get?" I asked. I had grabbed a number already because the place was packed. She was some number close to81 and I was 17 and they were in the 50's. It looked like a tough situation to endure.

Readers, I had time to decide to try a new hobby, get some things, then feeling defeated by the time factor and feeling tired, that I put it all back just to kill time. Finally, I got in line. Which was long and extended almost back to where they were busy cutting fabric. I felt so bad for the workers.

A woman came up to me and asked if I was the person wanting the 'specialty fabric' because someone had told the lady at the counter to hold it for me. The other woman, who I had talked with before had saved it for me and gave the cutter a description of me. (I wish I could have heard that just because I hadn't thought much about my situation that day.)

I must have been recognized by my disabled appearance:  I was using a Nordic walking stick.  And people aren't use to seeing ski poles off the slopes and in a fabric store.

"Well, I don't know how "special" it is but I'm not going to worry about it now that I have waited in this line so long. " I said and thanked her so much for coming to find me.

"You should just use the ADA.... " something, something. I didn't know what she was saying and if it had to do with her feeling sorry for me using a ski pole stick as a cane.

 I meant to say it was on purpose cause canes don't help with balance but was too tired to yap it up.

"What is that?" I asked. And Readers, I'm disabled and didn't know I could use any sort of anything to get into the fabric cutting line ahead of others.

"Oh, geez. I'm not going to do that" I told the kind woman. "I would feel embarrassed, that fabric is not worth it cause I am just tired and need to go home."

She went on her way and then came back with the fabric. What was left of the bolt and handed it to me. I about cried.

Her daughter had been in line and we both checked out at the same time. I had to get her name and thank her once we were outside. I introduced myself and

(to be continued and edited later!)

Prednisone in a Pear Tree

 

Aahh... nothing like the beginning of flu season for the immuno-suppressed, Readers! It takes Black Friday and squeezes the life out of it then spits out December before you have time to say:
"Wha? Now, how many days til Christmas?"

And frantic shopping. Wait everyone is frantic. why didn't they just shop Amazon in august like me?
oh. wait. kids snoop different now so when I heard J say:

"I'm worried Santa doesn't know what I really want, " and I thought of the gifts I'd wrapped in girly paper with ribbons cause I have the bowdabra, I was panicky.



All those projects we started back in the summer- well, me, not you- it's a good thing.
Last night as I lay next to the fire, I mean the sound of my wheezing sounded like crackling wood around the camp fire, I pondered my coughing voice.

It sounded ugly. but then something cool happened. I was actually able to talk like an actor.
Everyone but me has the talent to impersonate movies and then show off at dinner and holidays and make people laugh.

(I like to call this: Last minute gift wrap cause of Flu present. No wonder J. was scared... aha, ha, heh.

ahmmm. REally, it was hard to not use this fabric to make a pillow case because just in case the flu ruins this Christmas, I needed things wrapped, Reader!)





Even Jaden, my son, can imitate voices and actions. I am totally unable to. on paper, maybe.

If no one has noticed yet, I am not talented out loud. Two left feet for speaking; thanks to prednisone.
Dignity is denied you every step of the way with pred. , I swear. The more that happens while coming off it, the more I shake my head and feel sorry for the poor girl my former self sees raising her hand or baring her testimony in public. Or blogging!

Then a Christmas miracle..... I must have been talking to myself, or the fact my lungs felt peeled from my chest cavity, because suddenly-- I was Batman.Voice-wise. I stopped. I talked some more.

I have a crush on the actor. I said: "I'm Batman." And suddenly  I was what's his face.

I kept talking because this was so cool.

 To finally impersonate a voice! And then in five minutes, it was gone; no one to hear it, because it was in the middle of the night. No dinner to interject it into my bag of tricks; nada; nothing.
Hero to Zero in Five.  I laughed so hard. And then I had no one to laugh with and it got pathetic so that is how writer's are born, Reader.

! it went back to the squeak and it is hard to type to you and brag about it. Not because I am hunble But I am because I need an emmy for it. for motivation. (dry humor here, people.)

I wish I had siri blog. or better yet emoticons for my shirt so as an aunt to cute kids,

 knew how I was feeling when they see me with my hair naturally curly or cushings crimped.
which is a cross between some stick straight hair, frizzy, wavy in all the wrong places" curly.

being chronically ill is hard.


then you hit flu season and it is harder. we have to be uber vigilant. and then it happens anyway. but I read a quote off of a cancer friend's page that said: "Don't go gently into that good night; Rage."
I don't have cancer but thought I could probably apply the quote when getting an IV placed in a veing that has been on prednisone for too long and won't let a poor nurse have a break or something.



Don't you hate being sick? Man, I was really feeling it and then I was given junk mail that wasn't garbage and I found out about a new cure I helped pave with immune therapy.



years ago I posted about kids with nueroblastoma cancer and, in some of their honor, I read their stories. I learned about the oldest girl to live with it. she got chubby too on prednisone. so it helped to see her look cool, then chubby and still be cool, and no one forgot who she was, she didn't have to remind people cause her cancer was obvious.

(this felt rose was made by my new friend, Erin. she has an etsy shop called: The Gray Rose. you will fall in love and buy Christmas presents starting next year cause I think she closes soon so hurry.)



Being immune-suppressed is not fun. But then you see a CURE from SEattle's children hospital and the T-cell therapy is 40 years in the making and loads of suffering and research and loss and then....

TA-DA! A kid who had it then turned into a 20 year old adult, walked into the center to find he had it for the 3rd time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they did the therapy and he is CURED.

They taught the T-cells, REaders.! Remember Taylor Swift wrote a song for Ronan? The son with the bluest eyes and whose mom blogged about him and then he left us. Remember? I blogged about him. She suffered so much and missed him and blogged about it and started a non-profit. And she started me studying it. And I met people that had lived and died on paper in front of me. It was hard but I did it in their honor.

Like you would give a salute to someone who died for us serving in the military or pioneering meds that helped us today.

Where was I originally in this story? this is getting too serious.

 Oh, shopping. And presents. And Christmas. Finding it. Then losing it. Then finding it. Then the flu. Oh, yeh.... that's where I am at, editing posts to you, Reader, and getting them out really slowly cause you all know how much I love to edit and no one has volunteered to do it... sooo..... you have to put up with this and my not capitalizing, placing commas in random places, etc. Run on sentences that j. inherited from me.

So let's look at Christmas Past.!

Wow! how cute! wish I had kept that stick so I could re-purpose it with white paint and use for the tree stick with starry lights. dang.

 

(Why didn't I keep this stick from years ago? I have been trying to find a stick tree for my room now and nothing.... if you have a stick that would work- I need it to decorate!)

Thankfully, real stores started selling Christmas back in October and I was able to get a jump start on the decorations and such. I found the cutest things I had to spray paint glue on so the glitter would still be there by December. (or even the next day- some things are cheap for a reason. So weighing quality is always something to consider. Reader. )

This last month I had Padre cut some more wood so that I could try my hand at pyrography again-  I know it sounds like pie you'd have for Thanksgiving. But really it means writing or drawing with a device that looks like a small iron.  instead of keeping to the simple "leaf" mlike last year, I thought I'd broaden my horizons and try to do something more elaborate.

This is where I learned, that, 1) I should stick to leaves; 2. watch youtube videos on how to do something first before I decide to try it; and finally 3.) Patience is a good thing to have with this sport, I mean hobby.

Like the old waffle iron from Christmases past- I put it in the snow a few years ago, I also stuck last season's wood heating wand in the snow for getting too hot. So it would cool off before I put it in the trash can.



(see Christmas 5-6 years ago when I made Grandma Beck's waffle cookies.)

However, It was good for me to try a new thing while under duress. I decided to take my own advice and stick to it until I felt I gave it my best shot. With arthritic hands and no clue what I was doing, it meant watching some seriously tedious footage of people that do this sort of thing. Kind of like watching the guy paint on channel 10 about 35 years ago.

Then something amazing happened. I learned something. but I was too tired to try it out and had to wait. you will too. sorry. I have to prioritize. guesstimate how much cortisol I will use up. that's tough. It is tough for even the best doctors. I talked to one on the phone one night- I know, amazing like in that movie where a lady says the f word cause her son has a fever and it is bad, but it was a movie about jack Nicholson when he is a writer and has OCD.

Anyway, this youtube video was amazing. She turned something tedious into a buffalo with heat against special wood. I was impressed.

hope you are too.

Goodnight,

go watch Christmas Carol, or Dr. Suess' Grinch with Jim Carrey. Or Black Knight with... that one cute guy. I forget his name. how does that happen?

Readers, I want you to know I learned a lot on the10th, 11th, and 12th. and un-learned it. then wrote you to help learn it again. lots of things, again. sheesh! this life is super crazy and I miss being able to speed text my friends, or bomb down and see them and play.

but guess what! J. was sick too and we got to hang out. and he found out about being sick more. and then he had homework brought by his buddy and we fought over math! it was soooo fun. I got to pretend I was a teacher again. and so I spoon fed questions to him and it pissed him off cause I wouldn't just tell him!

Readers- he actually came home and told me he got a good grade on it. and I was able to remind him about reading instructions cause I was made a fool in 6th grade when they made up a group of us smart and not so smart kids and made us read jane eyre and I did. and I loved it but it was so hard. and Mr. Principal at TV ele, gave a quiz.

Not on the book but handed out the paper and it had all these crazy things on it to do. stand up. pat your head. look up. down. twist. some kids weren't doing it. then at the end it read: "Don't do any of these things."

I went up to the top with my eyes- there, in the instructions: "Read all of the page before continuing with the commands."

I got to tell J. about putting his name on his paper.

"Oh, this is a homeless assignment. it will be so sad."

he hated that too cause I was his sub teacher and volunteer for awhile when he was little so this was like talking down to him. kids hate that. so do adults. and tweens.

p.s. I read things from the bottom to the top sometimes for some reason. I think that quiz made me literararily dyslesic. I just made that word up, too. so thanks Mr. Principal. but I love jane eyre. she became independent even though she had a tough life. and I have read it four times now.

Cushings, Crohns and Christmas

Mariner blue Piggy & Dirt star with a Pointsettia ornament (on sale at Lowe's) fashioned to it.

 

Readers!

 

I feel as if it has been Christmas season for some time already because I have been getting ready for it for a long time.

 

That's what you have to do when you are chronically ill. Plan ahead. Luckily I didn't get some things put away so I could just pull them out quite easily.

 

Like the red and green plaid towels. I used to use them only around Christmas. Now we use them on a regular basis but suddenly, because of the holidays- I am looking at them in a new light!

 

Now that December is here I am trying to put up what I have made and prepared from back into August. Along with deal with the joy of flu season.

 

The tree is half decorated but looks cuter more up top. So it will be filled in slowly as I make some wood snowflakes and stuff some merlot tulle that was on clearance last year at Joann's. My son's least favorite place but, for some reason, I now realize why people who are unable to climb Everest, go to craft stores.

 

Health problems don't help when you are trying to do elaborate things like learn to sew something new, find deals online or in line when you are too tired to remain in line at the store, and then having a difficult time on settling on a color scheme.

 

Weeks, per haps months ago I fell in love with the mariner blue center of a clear star of Kurt's etsy shop. But I figured I couldn't pull it off and I was liking some of the teal colors.

I saw this bit of fabric and decided to pull my twiggy tree into the shades found in it!

 

Hard to tell, but the colors are teals and blues and a gold throughout. I thought I'd whip up a pillow real quick.

 

Yeh, right.

Then put the tree together around it.

Then I fell in love with a picture in a magazine of a flocked tree! OH! Wouldn't the stars and boules I had stand out so beautifully if I had the flocked tree???

I am a crush on that stocking and wanted my life to be magically transformed into this scene.

 

Then another scene from a magazine caught my eye- instead of the traditional star atop the tree it was Santa's red and white furry hat.

 

I turned the page and there were black hats all over this one tree. I loved the Charles Dickens, chimney sweep, Victorian era look.

This Christmas Carol star hangs below my Steam punk hat with merlot see through ribbon and striped black and creamish white striped bow. Grandma Mary Lu's vintage pin is centered on it.

 

Instead of hats all over sticking out like irreverent, missed the boat on Christmas, I wanted one.

And I wanted to hang my white doily  "Christmas Star" from the ceiling just where it could catch the light.

Still need to ask Padre or Jaden for help on that one.

 

Somehow between then and now, my:

 

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas"

 

has turned into a tree that has darker ornaments on it, and even some black Styrofoam balls wrapped in soft black yarn.

 

The star of Qatar started the whole ordeal.

 

This is Piggy &Dirt's star I had wrapped with some teal wire around a vase for fall. It looked really good with what I had going for the Fall tree because it brought out the golds. Now it was bringing out my favorite colors: teals.

 

So back to black.....

 

 

 It's mixed with the teals and Atlantic ocean teal but the tree has evolved. There are dark purple star babies, some funky black and creamy ornaments,

 

 

 And sea foam. Did I mention that already?

 

So the ocean; teals; steam punk black hat tree topper all from the white flocked tree.

 

And don't forget your Wal-Mart ribbon: 

 

 

*with the help of "Bowdabra"
( a device that helps one make bows and can be found at Wal-Mart or Joann fabrics.) I can come off looking like a person who can make a bow.

or at least throwing a lot of ribbon around ornaments to lighten the dark parts. This is a boule made by Kurt that is in Atlantic Teal but ya can't tell what color it really is because I took it on those shorts.



So I put one (bow) on each of J's gifts. And around empty boxes just for display. Like last year.

*how cute is butcher paper? I love it with mixed ribbons and hounds tooth letters and homemade wood ornaments.



This sort of Grinch-ish trickery might be mean but I have to try out my bowmanship! It's the time of year when I get to be Marth "Sthurwart". Wanna-be home maker and creator but really just addicted to a hot glue gun.

 

3 different sized cheap teal balls filled with dark teal garland stands from Wal-Mart are also on my skinny tree. And there are the wooden snowflakes from last year's Nordic thing I had going on complete with a special book.

 

Those wooden stars are by far more "breakable" than the glass stars. And time consuming to make.

 

NOT a kid project.

(also not a kid project but some very cool stars off an etsy site using pyrography which would be fun to learn some day. not now.)

 

The hearth has the darker teals and Three Wreaths to replace the HUGE gold deco mesh wreath I made some time back when I had no idea what I was doing.

 .

More pics tomorrow of the chimney tree. I guess that is what it is. Maybe if I get some Carolers out or chimney sweeps out and around it?? Scrooge in his night gown maybe?