Hit the SHOP NOW button. Don't you want to get the mini flag punch and the dots embossing folder FREE? Remember for each $50 in merchandise you get to select a FREE item from the SAB catalog. No limit. Order now.

Be sure to get you free stuff (with every $50 purchase) today!

    Stampers!!!!!   The first bi-annual Product Extravaganza is coming this Sunday, March 23rd .  It will be held at Medina Entertainment Center from 1-5 pm. http://medinaentertainment.com for directions.   *Hourly Prizes* *Make & Take Color Keeper Chart* *10 Live Demonstrations, 5 per hour* *Specials* *Plan on spending at least 2 hours* ***Bring Your Camera***   Contact me for more information at needsaribbong@gmail.com . You do not want to miss this event!   I will be working, happily sitting, at the check out table. In the meantime, Happy Stamping ~Sandy

The theme for March's Diva Blog Hop is Embellish. I chose to use supplies (stamps, embellishments and more) that are featured in the mini catalog.  I wanted to do several cards using the same stamp set changing the layout just slightly.  I like this simple stunning flower in the People Like You stamp set 133215. Plus the greeting is pretty universal "The world is a better place because of people like you.     I love the Watercolor Wonder designer series print in this paper 132994. It really softens the card. My embellisment on this card, is the gold twine 132975, label punch, paper doilies, and gold foil paper 132622.  Changing things up a bit this card has a more vertical focus. I used the gold bakers twine and metal buttons 133319,  and label punch on the greeting. I also used an embossing folder found for FREE with a $50 purchase in the Sale-A-Brate catalog on the Smoky Slate piece.     For this next card I used the Big Shot and

Pictured is a small container of the special cream I have been using on my face in the last year. It is a modified recipe that I found on Pinterest. Gotta love Pinterest.  Other than days I need sunscreen on my face, this is the only cream I use on face, around my eyes and elsewhere on my vast body. Lol. My ortho surgeon is very please with how well it healed my first knee scar. He thinks it looks amazing. His only recommendation was a little Vitamin E. Well mine does better than that. If you have been reading DIY blogs on going organic, making your own homecare products or your own health and beauty products, you see over and over to use organic coconut oil, which, when heated, becomes oil. At room temperature coconut oil's consistency is more similar to a nut butter, which is really what it is. A year ago I decided to try a recipe found on Pinterest for coconut oil and vitamin E. I have had so many skin issues with irritation from various creams and lotions, some quite expensive

What a difference a day can make. If you read my post yesterday (March 10, 2014) about my Scarred Journey you can see how beat up, scarred and ravaged my knee looked yesterday.  This is my knee today.  Looking more like a normal knee, as normal as it will ever look now.   Happy dance. I was even able to lift it over the edge of the tub getting in. Getting out was a very different story. But that was more muscle contraction than I have had since pre-surgery.  Yes, I cried.  Relieved. Even if I do not get muscle contraction like that for another few days, it is an honestly good sign that the muscle will work. And contract enough for such a large movement as lifting the 18 some inches over the edge of the tub.   I was just so happy I had to share with you.  My special scar/face/whole body cream recipe coming. Maybe, just maybe, I needed more time to heal. Maybe it was the warm weather today and sunshine outside. Maybe things will move foreward now.  :-) Sandy

I thought I'd share some of what has been going on with me the last six months. The journey is far from over.    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Since my scrapbook pages upload as tiny .jpegs here is the text on the journaling part. The rest of the page should be legible.   This is me, in all my glory, 6 months after my first total knee replacement on the right, and now one month after the left knee was replaced. The journey to replacement started many, many years ago, in my teens. In my 40's the pair have been nothing but a headache and in an out of pain meds, injections, fluid removal, xrays and more. No new knees said the half dozen doctors I saw over the years. Too young. Arthritis not that bad. Keep moving, they said. The pain grow worse. Mobility nearly impossible. How can I be mobile when it hurts some days so much it brings tears to my eyes. The swelling that came from movement often would take a week to die down. Keep moving indeed. July