HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Stay safe on this scary creepy night!

EEEK A MOUSE !

What?

My hubby and I went to the home show this weekend mainly to look for a compressor that would keep our electricity on through the storms this winter . I really didn't want to go. It is always the same old thing. Countertops, windows, doors, faucets, hot tubs, oh yes lots of hot tubs, those special pots and pans and gutters that trap pine needles. Yep it is always the same old things but every time we go we end up finding something we didn't know we needed.

This year it was a new pest control company. We found it and what drew me in to the booth were these little guys that were displayed on the front table. They are little chocolate mice with almonds for ears, Cute as buttons (or should I say chocolate mice) and they were delicious!

I just had to share this with you all. These would make a really great trick or treat candy!

Oh and here is my entry to the Halloween Art Contest at Creative Souls this year.
The theme was cracked and crackle. 

I call it "Haunted Saints" and you can find the credits for this artwork at Creative Souls in the gallery

Gearing Up For Christmas

 Yes I am getting ready for the Christmas Rush in my Etsy Shop, Altered State of Tin
Over the past two days I created four new tins but these aren't just any old tins. They are kits!

Yep, two of them are Traveling Jewelry Maker Kits. They have a package of beads, the stretchy thread, needles, thread guide and sicissors. AND it all comes in a beautiful altered tin.

The other two tins have sewing kits inside. Thread, pins, tweezers, snaps, buttons, safety pin, needles and scissors, and it is all inside a beautiful altered tin box.

Both of these kits will make a great Christmas Gift or stocking stuffer.
To find them and more of my altered tin boxes click the link to the right of the page here or copy and paste this link in your browser. www.alteredstateoftin.etsy.com.

What are you doing to get ready for Christmas?

I WAS VERY CLOSE TO DEATH

I saw my surgeon this week and he said I look good and am doing great. He wants me to take it slow and gradually get back to all my normal activities over the next 6 weeks. I will have to take a beta blocker for the rest of my life but I do have a healthy heart now.

I ask him just how close I was to death the day I arrived at Oregon Cardiovascular Center. He said that I was right there. If the procedure of placing that balloon in my heart to keep the pressure off until he could operate had not worked, there would have been nothing he could do.

Those words sent chills through me. I don't remember anything after I was put in the ambulance here to be taken to the airport and flown to Eugene. I was so scared so I am sure they gave me something to calm me down. It is such a strange feeling to know that there were 4 days gone from my memory. It is probably a good thing though.

I think back about that day I had my heart attack and I am so blessed to have made it to the doctors office before it happened. I was having lots of pain but it only became unbearable after I got to the doctors office.
God was with me, I just know it. He tried to warn me for a couple of months but I was in denial of the symptoms I was having. I absolutely believe in angels and I know there was one with me in the ICU.

I am so blessed that I was given a second chance at life. God loves me enough to keep me here for a while longer. I look at things differently now and I when I find myself complaining about something I have come to realize that hey, I am alive and I have nothing to complain about.

God is good, angels are all around us and prayer is so powerful.

I FEEL AMAZING

Hello friends
I wanted to let you know that I am feeling great since my open heart surgery.
I am doing Cardiac Rehab twice a week and have another month to go. It is nothing like Zumba which I miss very much. I expect to return by November but I am hearing that open heart patients do not completely recover for a year!! I will take what I can get.  I just feel so amazing and have so much energy and want to use it all but I know I have to take it easy, after all my heart just went through a very traumatic thing.

I will be seeing the Cardiac PA here in Coos Bay on Friday and then my surgeon on the 18th so I will know more then but I am hoping I can at least get my driving privileges back and be able to soak in a hot tub!

I am however, doing my normal house cleaning and laundry and cooking now and without any problems. My incision is healing and the bruising is almost gone. I have some pinching sensation now and then but rehab says that is my sternum healing.

I am back to creating new tins for my Etsy Shop Altered State of Tin and getting stocked up for the holidays.
I am back full time with my Artist Network, Digital Whisper and I my creative juices are flowing.

 This is a piece I did for my Things with Wings" Challenge

 

Anyway I am feeling better and hope you are all okay too.

Hugs

This was a piece I did just because my creative juices are flowing right now

"Lady in the Garden"

I AM SO BLESSED...I NOW HAVE TWO BIRTHDAYS!

My design team at Digital Whisper created this darling banner for me while I was in the hospital.

August 2nd I had a heart attack!. I had chest pain for a couple of months and thought it was indigestion. I guess I was in denial. It started with the first 15 minutes of my workouts and then it came when sweeping the sidewalk and woke me up a couple of times. I called the doctor on Wednesday and she was out of town so they fit me in on Thursday morning. By the time I arrived at 9AM I could hardly stand the pain. The nurse came out into the waiting room and then immediately got the doctor on call. They did an EKG and saw that I  had had a heart attack but didn't know when.They wheeled me to the ER next door and did blood work after giving me 5 baby aspirin. The blood work showed triple red enzymes which meant I was having a heart attack. They took me via ambulance to the airport where I was transported by Life Flight to Riverbend Oregon Cardiac Center. I don't remember the flight at all. They did an angeogram which showed 4 completely blocked arteries. My heart had started to harvest tiny veins on its own to get blood supply to my heart. What an amazing thing our body is!

On August 4th 2013 I had open heart surgery. They sawed open my sternum to get to my heart. The rib spreaders caused so much brusing I looked like I had been hit by a Mack Truck ! They put me on a heart lung machine and took a vein from my leg as well as a mammo veins and bypassed the blocked arteries. God is good. He gave me a new life. My husband said I was close to death and he was so scared. I was unconscious for two days and on a breathing machine.

I have always been healthy as a horse. Strong and never sick other than a cold. My kids were shocked and still can't believe Mom had a heart attack.

Because of all of my husbands health problems these past two years I always kept baby aspirin in my night stand, desk drawer and purse but when it came time to use them, it never crossed my mind!

I had a friend in her 30's in the 90's that came to work with what she described as "terrible indigestion" and dropped dead at our bosses desk.  

My warning to you all is this....if you have pain, a feeling that you need to burp, a heavy squeezing feeling in the middle of your chest radiating down the back of your left arm and up in to your jaw area, DO NOT IGNORE IT. Go to the doctor and get checked out or go to the ER and have it checked. God was watching me. I was blessed. I could have dropped dead in those two months I was having this pain. Two week prior I was in Las Vegas where my 6 month old great grandson was dying and I could have easily died there with all the stress.

I am thankful beyond words for this second life God has blessed me with. My second birthday is August 4th.
Thank You Jesus

I am on the mend. Starting Cardiac rehab today. Up and walking and doing a little more each day. I feel fantastic and can't wait to use this new energy with the blood pumping through my heart as it should have been doing for who knows how long. I am excited and so very thankful.
Love you all, please take care of yourself and never ignore signs that your body is trying to tell you.

New Challenge at Digital Whisper

A collage I did for the Music Challenge this week at Digital Whisper.

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