Snowman Invitation

I made these for my friend Darlene. She is hosting a Christmas dinner at her home and wanted to send out some special invitations. I was drawing a blank on my Christmas cards so I made these instead. I don't think I ever saw an ugly snowman but this guy is way cute! Now back to my Christmas Cards. I hope to have them done by Valentine's Day!

By the way...A quick word of thanks to our loving father in Heaven. My little brother went home today after 8 weeks in the hospital. He is still very weak and the trache is still in place but God has my sweet brother in the palm of his hand. He has something more in store for Jody and I can't wait to see what it is!

What's in a name?

Naming a blog is harder than naming a child! I have no regrets on the names I chose for my children but I can't say the same for my blog....I'm not even sure if I was thinking. After much thought and very little research, I have decided to change  my blog's URL. It appears that it can be easily done but Blogger's Blog (sounds funny!) doesn't advise it. They say I will lose any followers I have and all links to my blog will no longer be valid. They say most people regret it. I only have 18 followers so it would be easy enough to notify those people and I have nothing of importance linked to me so I doubt it will be much of a factor. Why am I wanting to rename it? Well, "Ritten By Robyn" was a bad choice mostly because of the spelling. Most intelligent people think it is "Written By Robyn" and the confusion goes on from there. I realize that I can simply rename my blog and keep the URL but I think I will be happier with both being the same.

So...I am giving you fair warning. I will be moving to a new address real soon. If you want to know where I am going, let me know in a comment and I will be sure to notify you when I make the switch.

Robyn

My New Friends

Meet my new friend Riley Moose! Isn't he cute? I am a moose fan and I especially love him because he he does lots of fun things. He will be featured in our family Christmas cards this year. The card below is inspired by a card on Splitcoast Stampers made by a sweet lady that goes by "Just Because".  She told me how she paper pieced Riley's comfy chair so I had to give it a whirl. What a fun technique! I will be doing more of this.

This is his girlfriend Sophie Moose enjoying a bubble bath. I colored both of them with my spankin new Copic markers and used Cinnamon Stickles for their antlers. CTMH Liquid Glass makes her bubbles look real.  I stamped "It's a Girl Thing" inside. I think this would make a nice Girlfriend card. Well, I had better get to bed. Two more days of work before I head to the Scrapbooking Factory to work on my Christmas cards. Gosh, I hope they turn out nice.

Snapware Cricut Cartridge Case

I made this carrier for my Cricut carts. I saw a company selling them at SDV this summer and I thought "I can make that!" Well, I did and it was quite a bit cheaper than the ones she was selling. I got the Snapware containers from The Container Store. They sell one large and one small and call it a ribbon organizer or something like that. I bought another set of the small omes 50% off at Hobby Lobby. I have the dimensions of the plastic mesh somewhere. If you are interested, let me know & I will find them and send them to you. The cartridge bin holds 40 carts and the large bin holds 20 books and overlays**. I put my cricut tools in the third bin.
I made one of these for Cheryl as well. I think she likes it!

**I went through my books and tore out all the pages that are not in English. It makes it so much easier when I am thumbing through them.

I hope I don't miss a thing!

I'm not sure if I can leave the blogs I love to stalk! What if someone posts something simply awesome (as they ALWAYS do) that I have to try and copy? This may be a tough trip to the mountains for me! Have a blessed weekend and save all the cool stuff till I get back!

I am taking my Copic markers with me to play with so maybe I will have some cool stuff to share when I get home. I know I have been a blogging dud lately and I am sorry. I promise to do better.

God's Grace ~

Today has been such an uplifting day for me, I just had to share this with you. First of all, a friend from work, Todd Reineck, who bravely battled pancreatic cancer and passed last week had a memorial service today and it was simply beautiful. I couldn’t help but smile as I thought of him in heaven with his big grin feeling none of the pain or distress that he carried here on earth. Todd was all about Jesus! I can only hope I’d be able to handle myself as he did as he waited for God to call him to his new home in heaven. What an inspiration he was in that aspect.

I went to Methodist hospital at lunch time to see Jody. He is still in ICU but I am thrilled to say the little stinker is breathing on his own! As sick as he has been, only God could have made this happen. Jody is such a fighter and his blue eyes have more life in them than I have seen in the last 5 weeks. They may be removing the trache as soon as this weekend depending on his progress. Jody may be mentally impaired but he knows Jesus. I continue to remind myself daily that God’s timing is perfect and He will continue to work on me and my family until it is our time to leave this world. His miracles are very evident to me today and I am very grateful. We serve such a loving, kind and amazing God and He does have a plan for all of us...Thank you Father for loving us and knowing what is best for us even when we do not!!

Thank you for the continued prayers for Jody – God hears everyone of them.

Pardon the Dust

I am attempting to remodel my blog. I am educating myself in HTML code to change my blog to 3 columns. So far, no luck. What a yawner this is. I don't know why Blogger doesn't have a 3 column template to begin with. I find HTML code boring and intimidating. Stick with me and hopefully I will have something pretty to look at soon. I also have a new title coming soon but I have some header work to do.

Some Encouraging News

Tuesday morning at 8:30, Dr. Bell performed a tracheostomy on my brother Jody. After having a tube in his throat for almost a full month he was growing weaker as the days went by. Last Sunday, I spent some quality time with Jody and he cried an awful lot. It was so difficult to stay with him as he tried to call out in pain but couldn't. I sang to him a lot and prayed over him. Then Monday evening I went in to see him and he looked so peaceful it was almost scary. Every other visit I have felt very connected with his big blue eyes and felt like I could sort of read his emotions. Not Monday. He was curling more into a fetal position and was all surrounded by white pillows and his eyes just looked off into space. He would make eye contact with me but I couldn't get a "read" from him. I decided it must be peace he was feeling and thought maybe Jesus was finally going to take him to his heavenly home. The nurse was very rude and made me angry more than once. After I was there for more than an hour, another nurse came in and they started talking about "the procedure" he would have in the morning. I was taken by surprise to learn that my father had signed a consent form to have him trached. I cried all the way home and was fearful this would end up being a bad thing for him.

As afraid as I was yesterday, I gathered enough courage and strength to go see him. I remember my mother being on a ventilator before her death and I wasn't loking forward to seeing my sweet little brother the same way. I was very surprised to see how much better he looked. He was a little more awake than before and tired to talk a couple of times. (that made him very agitated). He was attempting to scratch his forhead but I noticed he had no use of his fingers and was only able to use the back of his hand. He was still curling up in the fetal position while I was there. I left him not knowing what to think. I noted he looked more comfortable but I could not say I thought he looked better.

What a difference 24 hours makes. Mike and I went up at lunch time today and he was much straighter in bed and very alert. I handed him a photo and he was able to grasp it pretty well with his fingers and he was able to nod yes and no. He was so happy to see Mike, he hardly noticed I was there. I hope and pray the doctors are able to get him off the ventilator soon.  I don't want him to have to learn how to live with a breathing tube coming out of his throat. Jody loves to talk and it will make him so sad if he can't talk anymore. The doctor said this will be his best shot at getting off the ventilator. So far so good. Thanks be to our Loving God!  I know He is in control and has Jody's future all planned out. This boy just may have some more important work to do for God before He calls him home. He is in charge and we are not.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah 29:11