Further Dad updates- back to Stamping this weekend!

Just a new update- Dad had the angiogram yesterday- good news was- he came through the procedure just fine. Bad news is there is 100% blockage in the right leg and 80% blockage in the left. We meet with the cardio-vascular surgeon who did the bypass last year on Wed. to look at options. At the moment- none of the choices are great. There is a possbility of doing another by-pass (unfortunately a low rate of success and a high probability of not making it off the table), option 2 is amputation of most of the right leg and option 3 is to do nothing and die from gangrene.

Although dad was originally against any more surgery, he's starting to think that amputation may not be so bad as dying. Thanks for all your emails and support. I'll keep you posted.

Tomorrow, I'll be working on Christmas cards and will be sure to post the creations! Need to get everything done just in case...

Holiday Helper Newsletter

If you haven't signed up for my monthly newsletter, you might want to sign up for the next 12 issues of the special holiday helper. This short piece will be sent to you every other day through December. Jam packed with crafty tips and ways to make your holiday shine, there are ideas to use throughout the year.

Just sign up using the newsletter link in the right column.

Happy crafting!

m

Update on Dad

Quick personal update here- spent the day with Dad- his muscle strength has rapidly deteriorated since a week ago. Saw another of his doctor's today. He was concerned (aren't we all) but apparently not as concerned as we are. Added a few more meds to the regimen and scheduled the "gram" (not sure if it's angio or arterio) for a week from Friday. In the meantime, the foot continues to get worse. We'll see what happens....

Santa Popcorn holder

I found this idea on the My Creative Corner blog and tweaked it a little for my needs. I am participating in a 12 Days of Christmas swap and needed a quick, small, flat gift to use and then Ama needed some quick little coaches gifts and since most of the coaches running the tennis clinic are college players, I thought they could enjoy some microwave popcorn.

The original instructions can be found here. I was running short of black cs (oops!) and so instead of making a complete belly band, I actually glued the flaps shut and then just made a Faux belly band (covering just the front of the holder). I also decreased Santa's buttons to 2. I don't think anyone will notice :)

I had a little bit of a challenge making the gold belt buckle, luckily, I was able to find my 2 different CM square punches. My first try, I punched using the 2 larger squares, but found the buckle hung over the belt. My second try, I followed the instructions and used the 3/4" punch and then the 1 1/4" punch. The hardest part was lining things up. Overall, I think they turned out well and I was able to use up some of my scrap paper, too!

I added a quick little tag using Flaky Friends (from SU)- colored the snowmen's scarves in blue to match the MTSU colors and now I have some quick coaches gifts!

I'm still working on some ideas for Richard and David (the main coaches) any suggestions on how to creatively dress up a case of Coca-cola?

3D Ornament

If life ever gets back to normal, I hope to post more regularly and get back on track with my monthly classes. First, a quick update on life around the Nunaley household.

Last week was a week of goods and not so good things happening. First, my dear friend (and SU buddy) Patti Keitzman husband passed away just before Thanksgiving from Pancreatic Cancer. This was quite a shock.

On a family note, my dad's gangrene returned - the bypass that was done last year to open up the circulation in his leg has failed and he is looking at extensive surgery again- possibly later this week. Please keep him in your thoughts.

On a positive note, Amadeus played in his first high level regional tennis tournament- while he didn't win, he was able to hang in there with the players and I believe that next year will bring very different results.

Finally, I wanted to share this quick project with you- it's the 3D ornament from the SU catalog (which will be replaced on Jan. 1). There was a great tutorial on the Paper Pleasing Idea's blog that I thought you would enjoy! I'm going to be making a bunch of these this week as holiday gift toppers!

3D tutorial

Free Holiday Printables

This was shared on the TennesseeStampers Yahoogroup and I couldn't wait to pass it on to you. What a great way to get some fun new art to use in your holiday projects.

Yes, it's true---I'm doing another insane 25 day free printable
countdown to Christmas. Every day from December 1st through
Christmas, I'll post a new image on the calendar. There's a catch:
you must post a link to the countdown on a blog, web site, group or
message board before you begin downloading. Post your links to this
page now: http://countdown.tentwostudios.com "

HR Pufnstuf Opening and Closing Themes

Okay, we had a blast at Christmas stamp a stack last night but more on that later- just found this and couldn't resist sharing :)