The Road to Recovery

Hello, friends!  Well, praise God I came through my shoulder surgery.  But let me tell you....this is NOT fun.  It's very painful, I can't use my right hand/arm, I have to rely on my husband to do my hair (ponytail) so I look laughable at best, I'm typing with just left hand fingers, I'm having some other little side health issues, and life is very challenging dealing with it all while I'm hurting so badly.  However....I am SO BLESSED and so grateful for so many things.  I never want to lose sight of the fact that my blessings far outweigh my burdens.  I praise God for health insurance and the peace of knowing this isn't a financial burden, and....I was lucky enough to have made a special connection with my surgeon's assistant who hooked me up (as a courtesy) with an amazing ice machine that has a large pad that wraps around my shoulder with velcro straps hugging my wounded arm and delivering pain-relieving ice therapy.  And then there's my hubby who gets me my vanilla latte every morning, meals, and anything else I request; and my sweet son who wakes in the middle of the night to help me and pray with me.  Yes, this is difficult....but I am SO very blessed through it all.   My cup runneth over.

So if you're wondering...NO!  I did not make these cards with one hand.  These two cards were made (pre-surgery) and I felt up to photographing them today, and now I'm "chicken plucking" this blog post to share them with you.  They use an old favorite Crate Paper line called Restorations that I was lucky enough to get more of on EBay recently.  I just love this line.  The first card (above) uses patterned papers, stickers, and a darling chipboard button card from the Restorations collection, as well as a Grungy Stained Tag, some sequins, a punched butterfly, some sequins, a stamped sentiment, and a Papertrey Ink die-cut wreath cut from a wood-grain patterned paper.

This second card also uses the Restorations line from Crate Paper by way of the patterned papers, journalling card, Memories sticker, cute chipboard tag, and even the little tassel is by Crate Paper.  I stamped my sentiment, and added some Natural Burlap String, a few Double-Head Stamens, lots of Tim Holtz Distress Inks, a Rusty Pear-Shaped Safety Pin, and a Miniature Sweetheart Blossom.  And of course, I used a Lunchbag Kraft Note Card.

The string of hearts is a PTI die-cut, and I machine stitched through the center of it, which makes such a cute border. I just really wanted to share a close-up photo to show you how sweet the little chipboard tag and tassel are.  They just tie everything together so nicely.  Well, I sure think they're cute!  I really do thank you for stopping by, and please know that I am SO very grateful for all the prayers, warm thoughts and well wishes I've received during this trying time.  Let's all just take time to count our blessings and focus on all the good things in our lives.  God is so good ALL the time!

Hugs,

Karen

I'm playing along here:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog - Animal Antics - My first card has a butterfly.  I hope that's an animal, as it's definitely one of God's little creatures...so it must have been on the ark, right?  LOL

CropStop Challenge Blog - Linky Party #44 - Anything Goes - I used lots of fabulous Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Dare2BArtzy - October Challenge:Autumn/Fall - Both my cards use warm, Autumn colors

SumMore Fun Challenge - Sketch Fun - I used the sketch for my first card, but I flipped it.  I ran the strips of patterned paper down the side and then placed my focal point offsetting the strips.