do you know Lily and Laura?

Lily and Laura bracelets are handmade by women in Nepal. They are beautiful pieces of wearable art. They are a current obsession of mine. I feel good supporting this business, women helping women make a better life for themselves. This is from their website:

Namaste.  We are the producers of Lily and Laura Bracelets.  Our  handmade glass beaded bracelets roll on over any hand.  Laura and our  women artists in Nepal custom design these creations which are handcrafted in the Kathmandu Valley.  We use the finest glass beads in the world in our bracelets.  Our business focus is to pay more than fair trade wages to our artisans in Nepal thereby improving the quality of their lives while providing you with beautiful, top quality, handcrafted glass beaded bracelets.  All beading is done in the comfort of their homes or on rooftop decks during nice weather.  Our artists also have the freedom to work only when they are inspired.  Please visit our Facebook Page for the most current Lily and Laura Bracelet pictures, bracelets news, and to view our video of how the bracelets are crocheted.  Thank you.

I love designing combinations to wear out of all the different patterns and colors. I'm looking forward to their next shipment to add to my collection!

the last 2 months...

Seems like I've gotten away from blogging... since it's been 2+ months since my last post. So I thought I'd try to look back to see what I was up to. The Shingles took quite a while to get over. The nerve pain and itching lasted about 6 weeks. I didn't do much of anything during that time. My Oncologist took me off chemo and I'm still on a break. I feel normal again! I started back to golf in mid-August and tennis started on August 22. It felt so good to run around the court again. I hadn't played ALTA for the past year because of surgery, radiation and chemo. We've played 2 matches so far and I've won both, hooray!
I flew down to Orlando to visit Kris, Ryan and Nathan and stayed for a week. We got so many projects done! We upholstered her guest room bed, reupholstered a rocker in her bedroom, chalk painted and glazed a cabinet and built a sewing cabinet in her office room closet. It was a productive week and a great visit!
We spent Labor day weekend at the Lake house with Kelly and Carter and Alex. 
I planned, designed and contracted with a company to renovate our master bathroom. Demo to start in ~ 2 weeks. That will be a mess to contend with for sure!
And this past week, in mid-September, we met the extended family in Hilton Head for a week's vacation. What a fun time we had! My husband and the girls and their families, my sister and her husband, my brother and his wife and their daughter and her boyfriend, and my husband's brother and his wife. My Mom lives there too, there were 17 of us in total! We golfed, played tennis, cooked, rode bikes, played at the beach, swam in the pool and hot tub, read books, puzzled, shopped and had a great time together!

This week I was back to tennis and Gal Pal golf, and yesterday I painted baby Nolan's nursery. He'll be here in ~5-6 weeks! I've got quite a bit of sewing to do for his nursery... better get to it!

Shingles

If you've had them you'd shudder at that word. The word means "pain".

It all started last week, probably early in the week, when I felt a slight pain behind my left ear, like the frame of my eye glasses was putting pressure on me. Then on Thursday evening I noticed an ear ache, in my middle ear. I had no congestion and I wondered where an earache could come from. I even thought maybe there was a lymph node putting pressure on my ear. When you have cancer you think like that. By Friday the ear pain was throbbing, coming in spurts now and then. I took a decongestant and some ibuprofen to ease the pain. It didn't really help. On Saturday I noticed a few bites on my neck but didn't remember being bitten. They were extremely itchy and when I touched them they oozed clear pus. By Sunday the rash was in front of and behind my left ear, and by that evening it was all the way to the back of my neck into my hairline. We were home from the lake by then so I put it out on the Sarcoma Website to get everyone's opinion. Three people immediately responded "Shingles". I Googled it and after some research thought they were right. Monday morning I got into the dermatologist who confirmed the rash and told me what to expect and handed me 3 prescriptions. I called my Oncologist who said to stop the chemo this week and just come in for blood work on Thursday. By that afternoon the nerve pain was coming fast and furious. Like no pain I've ever experienced. When I move my head or neck I get a shooting tingly nerve pain that radiates through my whole neck. OUCH!

Another side effect from cancer. I got this now because I am immunodeficient from taking chemo. 
This has got to be the worst side effect yet. 

Sarcoma treatment update

I haven't posted on Sarcoma since my last post in April on my five year anniversary. In March I had come to a conclusion. My current Oncologist had come to the end of his expertise for my unique cancer. He was in touch with the Doctors at Dana Farber over my treatment, but they were still not sure about what chemo to try. I decided to go to Emory and meet with their new Sarcoma specialist, Dr. Movva. Our first meeting, she presented me with a research paper about my exact cancer and the drug combo they were using to fight lung mets. She wanted to use these drugs on me and she had a reason why. I liked that right off the start! So, I switched Oncologists and we started a new chemo protocol in March. I take Temodar pills, 200mg for 7 days and on the 8th day have an infusion of Avastin. Then I get a week off the drugs and start again. I've been doing this since March 8th. I had a PET scan on April 30th that showed shrinkage of the previously growing nodules. It was minimal shrinkage, but most of all hope! So we continued the protocol for 2 more months. After 4 months on the drugs I had another PET scan. The nodules were basically the same size as on 4/30, no shrinkage or growth. I was disappointed in this. I wanted my wonder drugs to attack and kill those nodules down to nothingness! But the good news is I was stable. "Stable" but unstable emotionally because now I had to think further down the road to the next treatment. We are doing the drugs for 2 more months, through the end of August and we'll scan again and assess. If still stable I may get a break to see what happens on nothing. We'll see. That's the hard part, the unknown...

flip flop wreath

A little craft project for the 4th! Wrap a straw wreath in ribbon, pin on wide organza ribbon, stick silk flowers through the flip flops and pin them onto the wreath! Easy and festive for the 4th!

happy summer!

whitewashing brick

One of my spring projects at the Lake house was to whitewash the brick wall in the master bedroom. I had seen this done on another blog and loved the look. I thought it would update the room and it would look good especially since I was decorating with gray. The red and clay colored bricks changed to white and gray bricks. 

Here's the how to: I watered down a can of flat white interior paint + primer by Behr. I brushed it on and had a rag handy to catch the drips. This was quite a tedious job, to get the paint in all the nooks and crannies takes time. It took me 4 sittings b/c I didn't have the patience to do it all at once. Boy was I happy to be done!

Here's the wall with the new gray and white duvet:

And while I was at it, I updated the yellow paint and country quilts in the loft. I painted the walls a "hemp" brown and decorated with blue quilts with a bit of a nautical theme. 

The window frame became white and the shade brown, 
a reverse of what it used to be. 

We're getting new carpet in 2 weeks, and then I'm ready to relax for a bit 

and just enjoy the lake!

My new walk-in pantry!

This room went from a small computer office when we first moved in, to a room for the dogs to basically a closet for stuff. We cleaned it all out and created a walk in pantry just 3 feet off the kitchen. The walls went from Venetian plaster terra cotta to creamy white. 

We hit a slight snag when the closet company doing the install could not get the countertops to fit correctly. After 3 attempts, I fired them and searched for a countertop-only company.

I found a granite remnant at Premier Surfaces. A remnant ends up costing less because it's not as useful as a full slab but great for smaller projects. I wanted something that didn't compete with the kitchen granite. So... I found this green/gray that picks up the sage background in my kitchen countertop. I think it coordinates very well!

and of course it needed a few accessories...

from my favorite accessory store Home Goods!

 It's so neat and clean now, filled with my food,extra serving dishes and craft stuff. 

A much better use of the space!