Get Off My Lawn, Life!

Monday, I thought I was going to post about how to scrap from an authentic place during hard times and not making viewers want to slit their wrist after looking at your page. Monday was also my son's 13th birthday, which prompted my brilliant topic. After all, autistic kids have a whole set of struggles that at first glance don't feel scrap worthy, but if you look deeper you can find rich, positive meaning.

I had good intentions. I even had photos. I also had a cake to bake & boy who actually wanted to watch a 3 hour movie with his parents (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) & by the end of the day was in allergy hell. I just didn't get the post past the first paragraph, so I decided to finish Tuesday.

Tuesday morning, my husband had a cardiologist appointment. He was seeking clearance for a surgery and had his heart tested a few weeks before. Instead of coming home with that clearance, he came home with a surgery schedule, orders not to exert himself and eliminate stress. His heart sometimes goes wonky because the permanent damage from the Chiari Malformation causes neurons to misfire or not fire at all. (Interesting to note that most Chiari related deaths are caused from the brain forgetting to send the signal to breath during REM sleep) It turns out that he has a blockage that could could cause a heart attack at any moment.

Next week, he's having a cardiac catheter test, which I'm sure has a better technical name. If the blockage is moderate to severe, he'll have surgery the same day- either a stent or bypass. If not, it'll be treated with meds and lifestyle change. Needless to say, there's been a flurry of activity in our house to get everyone situated just in case.

How's that for hard stuff? On top of this, my allergies are the worst they've been since childhood.  After two weeks of hives, stuffy and runny nose, itchy and water eyes... I'm just exhausted. My mother is visiting after Easter and we just started redecorating, both mean there's lots of spring cleaning to do. Also, my calendar is packed with appointments for me and my son.

There's no big revelation in this post except that real life happens and I need a nap so I can scrapbook all the junk that raises my blood pressure and makes me laugh.  

Anti-awesome... scrapped

Just Jaimee and Mommyish have teamed up to create a (pocket style) kit called Real Life in Pockets- Candid that stresses life is rarely perfect. I've talked about this pressure to create a life-is-always-wonderful-here portfolio. You see it on layouts, you see it on social media, you see it in advertising. It's inescapable and it's depressing.

My life is messy, crazy, difficult and hardly ever perfect. I have more "Life is Awesome" word art than I could ever use. I was so grateful to see two of my favorite designers not just acknowledge life is never perfect, but embrace it with a little humor, a dash of snark and a whole lot of honesty.

This page is about the cure for my back strain being worse than the actual pain. The doctor prescribed me Valium of all things. I'm think he prescribed it because he knows our family pretty well. Turns out the med doesn't agree with me at all.



It's a huge kit and currently on sale. I highly recommend it, not just because I'm on her CT, but because everyone can relate to life being woefully imperfect. Scrapping about it is always therapeutic and revealing.

Kitten Therapy scrapped

My last post was kinda a downer, so I'm here with a bit of happiness today. The subject still has to do with cats, but with good reason or at least an explaination. Sorry if you hate cats, but you could apply what's coming in this post to your favorite species, including humans.

I make a lot of pages about our cats. Yes, I really and truly love, love, love felines of all kinds. I have been drawn to them since I was a knee high to a bullfrog. Yet, there's a whole other reason I make so many pages about our cats: They are therapy in my house. Kitten therapy to be exact. You can't tell our story without telling their story.

To briefly explain:

My husband was born with a Chiari Malformation. It's a rare, complicated thing, but simply put the skull is too small for the brain. As you age, the brain gets skewered by your spinal cord. Think pumpkin on a stake. He's had the condition fixed a few years ago, but not before his brain was damaged and un-skewering the brain doesn't make the brain necessarily happy either. My son has Asperger's Syndrome, so he has his own set of complex issues.

How does this relate to our cats? They are awesome therapy. My son learned to read cat body language and vocal tones before learning to read human's. They provide an awesome amount of comfort and aid in practicing empathy.  Science is finding that cats are as just as good at therapy for ASD kids as dogs (with the exception of dogs traveling better). Let's not forget the practical aspects like teaching responsibility, which we are working on right now.

For my husband, he gets an awful lot of comfort from the kitties, especially when he's in the greatest pain. The frequency at which a cat purrs is also said to speed the healing process and relieve pain as well as other homeopathic remedies. Post surgery he had companions while life marched on without him. I can tell how my hubby is truly feeling by how many cats are doting on him- extra kitty time means he's having a bad day. Cat's creating a kitty shield around him means it's time to call the doctor. The list could go on, but I'll spare you cause I think you have the idea now.

Then there is just the plain fact that cats are interesting, joyful creatures that make us laugh. There are days when we really need that in our lives. After an autistic meltdown or when my husband is too confused to remember where he lives, the cats help us calm ourselves and regroup with either affection, silly antics or just by dropping a toy at our feet. How can you be upset or anxious or worried or sad or mad when a cat is looking at you like you are the greatest thing in the entire world and they need your greatness lavished upon them because they may die at any moment without your undivided attention? The answer to any of life's woes in our house could easily be 'kittens'.

Now for the good stuff. The telling of a our stories through a cat incredibly cute kitten:

Supplies: Blagovesta Gosheva Things I Love About You; Fonts: Trashy Butterfly, The X-Files, Waterfalls 

I knew I wanted to use the photo to make a page. There are a lot of stories I could have chosen from the photo. Yet, the thing that really stood out was the story about my greying hair. (You may not notice it, but I sure do!) This photo changed everything. Yes, the cat is cute and funny on top of my head, but also this photo made me realize that my hair isn't terrible, which was story playing in my mind.

For Cropped Round 1 at Pixels and Comapny | Wild Blueberry Ink: Just a Boy; Pixels & Company: Cropped Round 1 Basket; Fonts: LLRubberGrotesqueOTF; MS Mincho; You Wont Bring Me Down

This page is just about how spoiled this kitten is... not terribly deep. But there will come a time where one of my step children will have a question about their dad and this may answer it. The man loves babies and kittens, which is exactly what I wanted convey... okay, WE love kitten and babies. :)

We may not be off having grand adventures, but our home (aka The Savannah) is never boring (though there are times I wish it were).The kitties have earned more than a footnote in our biographies. If I want to tell meaningful stories, I must then include those creatures who have a grand meaning in our lives.

♥ Carrie

"A" is for aroma

I was hoping to get this post up yesterday, but as Mother Nature would have it, my allergies flared up in the midst of unseasonably warm weather. I'm terribly allergic to evergreens which are currently enjoying the weather tremendously and prompting them to propagate with each other. I'm allergic to their tree sperm. Oh well.

The good thing about yesterday is that an all new Digi Files came out!! It's larger than last months collection totaling over a gigabyte of scrappy-goodness. If you aren't a member-- what is wrong with you?!!? Seriously, you need subscribe. I'm actually a bit overwhelmed with the all new kits. Where do you start with that much new stuff? I want to use them all at once... life is hard.

I completed my first Life-A-Bet page yesterday. It's all about the aromas of my life. I may re-work live with the page later because I happened to have a really stressful day yesterday on top of my allergies. That happens when the pharmacy doesn't work for you and your kid doesn't have his ADHD meds (just one issue, believe it or not!) Whenever I have a tough day it seems to show up in my layouts. Buy hey, at least I got it scrapped! As much as scrapping is my creative Calgon, it sucks up whatever emotions I'm feeling. So this layout probably looks a little forced and uncomfortable because that's exactly how I felt. I know its not the best, but if we are all about documenting our life authentically, then this shows I'm not at my best all the time.

Why did I pick aromas for "a"? If were doing a traditional Project Life, I would have included the things that make my life smell good... those things make me happy. That's what this alternatives is about: documenting the little things in my daily life that would otherwise get no credit. In thinking how to explain the why to you, I thought of my nieghbor. When you open my neighbor's front door, you are hit with a wall of cinnamon, dried leaves and mulberry. It's distinctively her- red, feminine, strong yet not over-powering. That about sums up her, her kids and her husband pretty well. Our home's scent is so much different than hers... maybe the polar opposite. My mom-in-law's house smells like cucumber melon, so I can't ever smell that scent without thinking about her. See? Aromas play a large part in our life.

Next up will "B"... and will probably have to do with our budget or what we are buying...  I haven't decided just yet. You'll be the first to know!

What will you be scrapping this weekend? Picking up any goodies? Happy Scrapping!!

P.S. Blogger's formatting is a mess tonight, so if you want to see the credits, they are on my flikr.com page.