While I was out having this brain tumor "thang" my friends and co-workers all put together this wonderful "Book Box".  These are made by 'Punch Studio's' and I've seen them available on Amazon.  What a fabulous gift.  The outside looks like this:

The inside opened to reveal this, full of messages of strength, hope, love and prayers.

The inscription was lovely:

Here are a few of the special things inside; this one was from someone very special and was the "quote of the day" from work the day of my surgery (02/29/12):

This one is a quote from one of my favorite authors, Dr. Seuss:

There were beautiful prayers and verses:

There were many more small thoughts and cards and a wonderful little uplifting book inside the "Book Box" and I will treasure it forever and make these for people in the future.  It really means alot to me.  Thank you wonderful friends of mine from Silverton Health and Wellspring!



Today was the day to shave my head.  I couldn't have been surrounded by better people or had anyone better do this for me.  My sweet hubby Terry was there through the whole thing and we shared a blast from the past when he tried on my wig.

Elvie of Blondie's salon Silverton first gave me a short cut to see what may be an option when my hair starts to grow in.

Then she trimmed my wig and added a PURPLE feather!

Today and tomorrow (cuz it's an odd number) mark the halfway point of radiation.  Praise God for this technology that is helping me.  I was prescribed some anti-nausea medication this week and so far, this week is going much better than last.  Looking forward to getting back to normal.  God has encouraged me to expand my prayer life and I am trying to be faithful to that. 

Couldn't find just the right gifts for a very special pair of siblings, Maddie and Morgan.  So Terry and I went to the fabric store looking for something else and found these great fleeces to make blankets out of.

Here's a photo of both of them with their new blankets.

Maddie loves Dr Seuess.  The back of her blanket is blue.  She is a very special friend of mine.

Morgan loves Dora the Explorer.  The back of his blanket is lime green.  He is one of the cutest kids I know. 

Wool penny rug

Started working on this kit about one year ago.  In between other projects, I've cut out all the octagons, matched them together, blanket stitched the two smaller ones to the larger one.

Then I cut out two pieces of the black wool.  One to stitch the octagons to and the other for a backing.

Truly I DID iron it first (guess I need to work on my ironing skills).  Next comes the placement of the octagons.  Terry helped me with this.  Now I'm basting them in place and will blanket stitch them to the black wool and finally sew the back on.  Love working with wool!

Terry and I decided (well, I decided) to try "tie" dying our Easter eggs this year.  A few days ago we went to the Goodwill and picked up several 100% silk ties.   Some turned out fantastic and some not so good.  This is definitely a project I would do again.  Fun, fun, fun!
Terry is "blowing" out the eggs, so we will be able to preserve them for years to come.  We wrapped each egg in a piece of silk tie, then in a piece of cotton and used a "twisty" tie to secure

I put the eggs in my pasta pot with my colander on top of it and a big rock inside the colander to keep the eggs from floating.  Worked very well.

The eggs were twist-tied together in groups of three then held together with some yarn.  Not sure this was a necessary step.  I couldn't hardly stand the wait for them to cool down for the big reveal!

Here's the first one.  The dark spots are a lovely purple.

Both of these are pretty cool!

Here's all the finished products (except one poor one that didn't make the boil). 

Sometimes, "the simple things" get a little complicated and this is one of those times.  On February 27th I woke up clucking like a chicken.  The super smart medical folks found a brain tumor and it was removed on February 29th (anniversary of my bilateral mastectomy).  Anyway, our Lord's hand has been evident in this journey.  Psalm 91 was such a comfort as was much prayer and visits.  I felt like I was cupped in the palm of our Father.   This is renal cell carcinoma and something I will be fighting for the rest of my life.  I pray God continues to use this to His glory.