Morgan is having heart surgery (UPDATED)

My niece, Morgan, went in for her heart surgery today.  Please pray for her!  She's such a fighter.  I just know she's going to pull through just fine, but it is still nerve wrecking!  Her poor little 19lb body being cracked open like that is unsettling!  We weren't certain if it was gonna be postponed again.  That's why I've been kinda silent about it.  But she went in at 5:30 this morning, and the surgery started on time at 7 am.

Anyone that has my number:  If you want to be kept up to date as soon as we know something, then text me.  Include your name since I have a new phone and the old numbers did not transfer over.

Also,  Anyone with crafty, colorful, or happy blogs:  If you have a facebook page tied into your blog,  I would love for you to leave the url in the comments so I can surround myself with happy things!   Urls to sad or angry blogs/facebooks will be deleted!

 Here is Henthorne Handmade on facebook for those of you interested!

UPDATE:

• Morgan's surgery began on time at 7 am.  She came out of surgery about 3 hours later.
• Her heart started itself back up.  Which means she won't need a pacemaker like her sister!
• She also didn't need artificial walls like Brooke did.  They were able to use a piece of her own heart tissue to close the hole.  So there is no risk of her body rejecting it!
• Her breathing was erratic from the anesthesia.  But that is a common side effect.
• She couldn't be seen for at least another hour.  And we still don't know when she can be held.
• She will be in recovery for longer due to them breaking open her chest for the surgery, rather than going thru an artery like they hoped to do.

So it was a successful surgery!  But she has always been prone to complications and infections!  So please continue to pray for her!

The Flower Town in the Pines

I thought I'd share a little info about my little town.  I've heard many people (mainly from northern states) respond to the name, Summerville, in ways that express the longing for the summer sun.  The name sort-of gives a fantastical daydream of sun-swept fields and romantic cuddles on the local sandbar.  Then you hear Flower Town in the pines and you are taken to playful frolics through a forest to collect the abundant rainbow of Azaleas.

Being in the South Carolina Low Country, you may be aware that our Autumn lasts about a month or two.  We sometimes have a winter.  Our spring lasts about two weeks, and summer is king for the rest of the year.  What you may not know about is the extreme humidity.  South Carolina is a state of forests and swamps.  To the country, our state bird is the Carolina wren.  However, if you ask a South Carolinian, it is the mosquito!  Which brings me back to the name "Summerville."

For those those that don't know where Summerville, SC is:  Summerville is only a hop, skip, and jump away from Charleston, SC.  And with good reason.  Summerville wasn't named for the royal rule of the sun.  Summervillians were actually Charlestonians that sought higher, dryer land in the 1700's and early 1800's to escape the mosquitos and the malaria that the hot, wet summer brings with it.  Not quite the perfect setting you were imagining, huh?

Then in the early early 1900's people from as far away as France started flocking to Summerville when the International Congress of Physicians declared Summerville as one of the two best places in the world for the treatment and recovery of lung disorders thanks to the turpentine scent of our pine forests.  Proud of Summerville's environment-based heritage, a "Tree City USA" flag from the Arbor Day Foundation adorns the pole in front of Town Hall along with Old Glory.  It's no wonder the motto on the town's official seal is "Sacra Pinus Esto- The Pine is Sacred".

The little forest town has exploded in the past 30 years from a population of 3,000 to 33,000 people seeking a quality of life that cities have lost.  How long do you suppose until Summerville loses that quality, too?  Many of us believe that loss has already begun.  People come from all over the world to see our annual Azalea Festival (also known as the Flower Town Festival.)  It seems like those in important chairs are making efforts to be more like our parent city, Charleston, than like the Flower Town we all know and love.  Futuristic visions are starting to overshadow the the 700 historically registered buildings.

Maybe it is just jealousy of the attention that Charleston gets by stars like Charleston native, Darius Rucker, whose newest album released this year (2010), "Charleston, SC 1966" consists of videos shot in the brick and cobblestone streets of Downtown Charleston, and at the surrounding Charleston plantations.  Or maybe it is mover's regret for leaving Charleston before the city sinks into the Atlantic.

(Click here to take a "tour" of Charleston with Darius Rucker!)

Sentenced to the Chair

I finally got out of the house long enough to experience something!  I went fishin'!  How did I do this you ask?  Travis finally brought home my wheelchair!  It looks like it came straight out of an old, abandoned asylum.  It is as hard on my butt as sitting on a seat made of aggregated diamond nanorods!  But we can't afford to buy a new one.  (This one is a loaner which I am very grateful for.)


The day of fishing prevented me from meeting the deadline for a contest I so wanted to enter, but I wouldn't change a thing!

2 venues and tons of bites, but I was the only one to catch anything.  The funny part:  I caught it while trying to repair a borrowed fishing rod.  I didn't even know the line was in the water!  LOL

Other than this odd looking fella, I pulled in a small oyster clump that had the tiniest baby crabs that I have ever seen!  (Sorry it was too dark by then to take a picture of that.)  We also found a very nice Leatherman knife!  A nice replacement for my recently lost fixed blade Old Timer knife, but I miss my old one.  (It just has to be around here somewhere...) 

(A look at it near my hand to show size, but not too close as it had barbs and teeth!)

It was nice to get out, but I got real sick of the stares!  I'm a very private person that prefers to be nearly invisible.  Going out in the chair makes that difficult.  I am trying so hard to not be a tee-total b!+ch to these rude people, but I know the time is going to come when I make a ton of enemies in a single day!  *Sigh*

I didn't use my handmade fishing lures, because I forgot to put them in my toolbox.  Being saltwater fishing, I don't know if it would have been a good idea to use them anyways since salt makes metal rust really fast!

Sheridan-Our Christmas Angel

Henthorne Handmade is now a Christmas Warrior through Reece's Rainbow for our dear little angel named Sheridan!  (Orphanage 38)  Sheridan was born June 27, 2005 to a mother that didn't realize how much of a blessing he is!  Sheridan was born with Down Syndrome.  This and his age puts him at an unfortunate disadvantage in being adopted.  But there are families eager and willing to bring children like Sheridan into their forever family!  However, adoption costs are so steep that many would-be adoptive families simply can not afford to adopt!  Most people don't have a spare $25,000-$30,000 (+plus!) just laying around.

So as a Christmas Warrior for Sheridan, we pledge to raise as much money as possible to help cover the adoption costs, and to help send him home with a loving Mommy and Daddy.  Reece's Rainbow has given us a goal of $1,000.  With your help I know we can not only reach, but exceed that amount!

Really, we are supposed to be waiting for November 1st to get started.  However, why not get started a little early?  Well, we did!  And you can help at absolutely no cost to you!

If you search online, then you are already doing enough to raise money for Sheridan!  How?

By downloading our Yahoo powered toolbar absolutely free of charge!

This toolbar will not replace your existing toolbars.  The features on the tool bar are designed to help us send new information to you and raise funds for our dear little Sheridan!  There are no pop-ups, adware, spyware, and your privacy is protected.

By using the Yahoo powered search engine located in our toolbar, and clicking on sponsored links when those links have information you may be interested in, you are helping us raise dollars.  Even a minimum of 2 sponsored links of interest a day will add up towards our goal.  The more people that use the search bar, the better!

What's more...You will be up to date on any news and levels of money raised thru our toolbar's scrolling marquee!  And you will always be one click away from Reece's Rainbow and Henthorne Handmade!

So please download our toolbar by clicking the link below and feel free to refer a friend by either sending a link to this post or by clicking the Refer-A-Friend icon on the installed toolbar.  (It looks like 2 people.)

And don't forget to come back on November 1st to join in our fundraising giveaways!

Click Here to Download Your Toolbar!

I won - my SB Sept story!

 Many thanks to everyone that voted for me!

I WON!!!  :) 

(Doesn't the frame Robin put around them make them look bigger and better?)

I know it doesn't seem like such a big deal to some of you, but this means sooo much to me!  After all the things that have been going oh so wrong in my life right now, it's nice to have at least this little light!  A couple days ago I got online just to see that someone had nearly double of my vote count overnight!  I know, I know...trivial things...but I was crushed.  I posted a plea here and on facebook.  WOW!  Thank you all sooo much for voting for me!

I would also like to extend a huge thanks to Robin of The T-Shirt Diaries for hosting such an awesome contest, and for including me in the top 10 to begin with.  I would also like to thank Robin for snapping her fingers in my face, and yelling at me to get a grip over my junkin' habit!  (Ok...so she didn't literally do that, but she did figuratively!)

The funny thing is:  I am NOT a shopper.  (I hate shopping!)  The only kind of shopping I really do is junkin.'  So I figured, "I can handle not junkin' for a month!  Especially with how much I already have in my stash!  Easy, peasy, lemon...damn!  A restriction!  I must rebel!  LOL

I am very, very, VERY proud of myself!  Not only did I stick to it, it sparked a whole new outlook on my junkin' habit!

(My handsome hubby, Travis, doing the loading of one of the loads!)

I, too, was pretty much one bag away from being a hoarder!  OK...I lied...I AM A HOARDER!  I'm not as bad as those people you see on TV.  I'm not far from it, tho.  I have a house, attic, studio, and workshop all overtaken with way too much stuff!

A few years ago (on an old blog) I did a 100 things challenge.  And I reached (and exceeded) 100 things that I gave away to family, friends, and charity.  The Stashbusting September Challenge has sparked up another such goal...200 things to be given to the National Kidney Foundation!  Well, we have exceeded that goal, too!  We have easily doubled that number!  We didn't even count the large bags of clothes that went with it, and sets of things were counted as 1!  We've been able to reclaim my studio, and are almost able to have our shop, too!  I'm also finding myself using more restraint while junkin'!  Thanks again, Robin!  :)

Also featured on The T-Shirt Diaries:

(As usual, click on the picture to go to the feature post on The T-shirt Diaries!  Or click here to go to my magnet post!)

PS:  For anyone wondering:  I still haven't had my blood transfusion, yet.  Please pray for me!  I don't want to miss the zipline tour in WV this week end!  We already have a ton of money into the trip!  I'm afraid I won't be able to go!  With or without the transfusion, the altitude change is very risky!  :(

Update to Bloggy Land

First I want to start off with a shameless begging for votes!  I was in the lead, but someone else got a mass of votes overnight!  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!  I really want to win the Stashbusting September Craft Contest!  To vote go to The T-Shirt Diaries and vote for my Sushi Guitar Picks & Earrings in the voting poll on the right side of her blog!  PLEEEASE!!!

Ok now on to more news:

I apologize for being absent lately to many of you that I would normally visit nearly every day!  I am seriously ill!  I won't get into too many nasty details, but to sum it up, I'm bleeding to death!  Sounds overly dramatic doesn't it?  Well for better perspective:  I have a disorder that causes me to bleed...a lot!  In the spring (last time this happened) I needed 3 bags of blood transfused into me!  Normal blood count is at 11-12.  My blood count was 6.7 and decreasing fast!  (For those that don't know--4 is coma, and 3 is death!)

Don't get too freaked out.  I will probably be getting another transfusion within the next week.  But I do want to let yall know that I will likely be relying on some premade, scheduled posts, and I probably won't be able to reply for a few days!  I appreciate every comment I get!  Just know that I am NOT ignoring you!

Anyone curious about the disorder?  Me, too!  Obviously the doctors are imbeciles!

Halloween Printables Linky Party

I thought I'd share a collection of Halloween printables I've found online!  Feel free to link up some you've found, too!  :)

Family Fun is one of my favorite magazines.  They offer a variety of printables such as:  masks, cards, stationary, stickers, games, and more.  They offer many other fun things year round, too!

Here's another blog that had a compilation too awesome to pass up!

Another blog by the name of halloween-cards.blogspot.com says it all.

Another compilation of free halloween printables.

Here's some more from Kaboose.

Here's a nice variety.

This variety is from a website called Teacher Vision, so I would think it's safe to say that these are likely educational, too!

Simple and cute from another blog.

Here's another blog I haven't actually checked out, yet, but thought I'd mention it anyways.

This one has always been one of my absolute favorite sources for papercrafts!

Batty Specimens

Lookie, lookie what I made from ALL recycled stuff!  I found 3 of these frames in a trash pile a few years ago.  And all the "batty specimens" were punched out of trash!  (Some advertisements and some packaging for some stuff I bought.)  My bats aren't as pretty as the ones I was inspired by at Tatertots and Jello, but I still think they are cute.  I tried to get the best picture possible, but lighting is horrible everywhere in my house!

I painted the frame black.  And since I was also inspired by my butterflies, I wanted a glass background and I wanted to mirror the pattern a bit.  Between sessions hunched over Sally (my newest sewing machine) I will stare at my butterflies and I am taken far away.  So when I saw this project at Tatertots and Jello, I just knew I had to have one, too!

Happy Halloween!!!


**Update:  I forgot to mention that the glue on the bats was from my recent treasure gift.  The glue that holds the back glass on is fingernail polish!  (It has to be used for something!  LOL)**

I'm linking up here:

    
                                

I made top 10! Please vote for me!

OMG!  Not only did...

My sushi guitar picks and earrings made the top 10 Stashbusting September Crafts list on The T-Shirt Diaries!  I am sooo excited!  I actually have happy tears!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!!!  TO VOTE, GO ---HERE--- AND FIND THE VOTING THINGY IN HER RIGHT SIDEBAR!

What a roller coaster today!  Spencer is finally off the antibiotics, but now Blue is on them!  :( 

A ton of tests were done today.  I will hopefully receive the results tomorrow.  Please keep your fingers crossed for him!

Spencer still isn't in the clear, either.  Now he has 2 mineral crystal types in his urine.  Hopefully, we will be able to gather the funds for his surgery, soon!

I finally have a phone worth having!  (AKA one that works!  LOL)  Thanks MIL!  I truly am blessed!  As soon as I figure out how to use it, I will be able to blog more efficiently!  YAY!

Please Help Andrea Help Downs Orphans

Andrea Faris Roberts is a mom of a cute little boy named Reece.  Reece has Down syndrome.  Instead of letting the Downs call all the shots, she stepped up to the plate!  I can tell you from experience with Brooke and Morgan:  to truly know a child with Down syndrome is to know a magic that exists nowhere else on earth!  (I try to tell people that all the time, but you can't really know unless you know!)

Reece, as well as, our own dear Brooke and Morgan, live happily in families that love them.  However, many Downs children aren't so fortunate.  In many parts of the globe, people with Down syndrome are not accepted by society, and tragically, many aren't even accepted by their own family.  Which means that way to many of these magical blessings are ending up in orphanages where they have a slim chance of ever being adopted.  That's where Andrea is Wonder Woman to the rescue!

Andrea started Reece's Rainbow.  Reece's Rainbow is an organization that not only finds loving families for these wee ones, but also works towards global acceptance and understanding of people with Down Syndrome!

How can you help these children, too?  I thought you'd never ask!  ;)

People magazine is hosting a People Reader's Choice Contest!  And Andrea is a contestant!  The winner will receive $10,000 towards her cause!  I've already visited the contest site and read her article.  I voted for her, and posted about her and the contest (with a link) on facebook with encouragement to vote and pass it on!

The voting ends October 8, 2010!  Please stop by and vote for her!

 

 

As always, the links in this post was placed there by me...and with good reason.  I always try to link to my sources and to additional relevant information.  As you can see, I also added the self updating Reece's Rainbow Angel of the Week feature button in my sidebar.  In case you are interested:  Reece's Rainbow Blog

And in late October/early November, I will be signing up to be a Christmas Warrior.  I would love if you could help me raise funds for my little angel!  More about this at a later date, tho!  :)

Buddy Walk 2010

OMG!  I am sooo tired!!!

Let's see how well I can post and make it sensical...um...make sense!  Wow!  I'm off to a rough start, huh!?!

The National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) and the Down Syndrome Association of the Lowcountry (DSAL) organized a Buddy Walk in Daniels Island today, and we finally got to go!  It seems like every year I find out too late or someone is in the hospital or something.  The day was perfect for it, too.  We finally got some Autumn weather.  There was an awesome cool breeze all day.  (Which is why my hair is a disaster in every picture!)  We got out there early enough that I was even able to get a T-shirt!  (I was worried they would be out of them.)  Travis didn't want his, so I got one in my sister's size, since she couldn't be there.  Next year, tho...We hope to have a whole team of people there!

Nine jump castles, shows, games, free food and drinks...What's not to love?  There were dancers and gymnasts;  including this Downs gymnast that was having a flippin' good time.  (Ok that was corny, but she was really good at flipping!  Even without hands!)

Even as much as I've learned about Downs with Brooke and Morgan, I'm still learning so much more!
I encourage you to check out the NDSS website to learn more about Down syndrome.  October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month!  Check out the Buddy Walk website to find a walk near you &/or find out how the funds raised from the walk is used.

I would love to see pictures/hear about your Buddy Walk!  :)

OK!  Sleepy-by now!  LOL

RHCC 1st Place Winner

First place for the Recycled Halloween Craft Challenge belongs to...

.....Drum roll please.....

Congratulations to You Craft Me Up!

The code for your button will be posted in the side bar for the next few days.  Keep an eye on Henthorne Handmade for your feature post!  Email me your mailing address and which you decided you wanted to receive out of the Henthorne Handmade trick-or-treat bag or a Henthorne Handmade Halloween-style clutch!  Also, please include any allergies so I know if I need to omit anything from the grab bag!  :)


You Craft Me Up's Scrap Wood Pumpkins scored:

• 19 in Originality
• 29 in Execution
• 30 in Photography
• 30 in Explanation
• 30 in Recycled Content
• 31 in Public Poll

• 169 is the Final Score!  (WOW!)

 Thanks for participating! Simplicity can be gold!  There weren't many projects that were totally recycled.  And you nearly tied with Textiles For You's wreath, as well as yourself!  (Which scored really high due to it's usefulness and the perfect tute as well!)  We love your version better than the original, but we still felt it was really close.  However, your tutorial was perfect!  Well planned out as far as timing the reader experience, too!


~ANKH

RHCC 2nd Place Winner

Second place for the Recycled Halloween Craft Challenge belongs to...

Congratulations to Textiles 4 You!
 

The code for your button will be posted in the side bar for the next few days. Keep an eye on Henthorne Handmade for your feature post!  Email me your mailing address and which you decided you wanted to receive out of the Henthorne Handmade trick-or-treat bag or a Henthorne Handmade Halloween-style clutch! :)


Textiles 4 You's Halloween Wreath scored:

• 27 in Originality
• 28 in Execution
• 25 in Photography
• 30 in Explanation
• 27 in Recycled Content
• 1 in Public Poll

• 138 is the Final Score!

 Thanks for participating!  With the abundance of video tapes making their way into landfills, it is great to see tapes being used for crafts!  We loved that you also used some of the tape to apply the glue, and that it didn't look like video tape in the end.  You were (prior to public voting) nearly tied with first place!


~ANKH

RHCC 3rd Place Winner

This competition was neck and neck!  Third place for the Recycled Halloween Craft Challenge belongs to...

Congratulations to Lizard & Ladybug!

The code for your button will be posted in the side bar for the next few days. Keep an eye on Henthorne Handmade for your feature post! :)


Lizard & Ladybug's Boo (Milk Jug) Vases scored:

• 27 in Originality
• 26 in Execution
• 28 in Photography
• 29 in Explanation
• 17 in Recycled Content
• 0 in Public Poll

• 127 is the Final Score!

 Thanks for participating!  We really liked that you started with the recycled materials and made a craft for them, instead of having a project in mind, then finding recyclable materials.  We see these bottles all the time.  But this is the first we have seen them in a craft project as opposed to a landfill! 


~ANKH