Courage, Roaring, and Strength

                       

Hi friends, hope you're all doing well. These pics were taken on my new iPad, and they are not the greatest, sorry about that, but I figured better that than nothing, right? ;) I am starting to feel much better from my recent stint with a kidney stone. In the middle of it all, though, my poor hubby fell down the stairs at work and cracked his rib (ouch!) So, we are having one of those "not raining but pouring" times with doctors visits and prescription painkillers. But we have seen so many blessings come out of it, I must say. And, I don't know if its just because I'm getting older or because 2011-2012 were so tumultuous, but I gotta say its been much easier to take all this in stride, and just have faith that things will right themselves in due time. I'll be 39 in a few weeks, and I must say, I'm actually looking forward to my 40s! I like who I am now so much better than who I used to be, I'm a lot more even, calmer, a whole lot happier, and far more comfortable in my own skin. It's so good to reach a place in your life where you are so at peace.

I have a friend who is also going through a really tough time right now. She's just had some troubles these last month that really tug on my heart strings, whereas our issues at our house have been health related, we aren't dealing with grief and loss.... Those are so much more painful than a kidney stone or a cracked rib. I've had her on my mind, and I've been praying for her. Sometimes, though, it's nice to just do something kind for someone else, so they know how truly they are loved. I can't bring back what my friend has lost, but I can let her know-I'm in her corner! :) So, I wanted to make her a card. I used my "Blue Skies" stamps from Verve. And a pad of coordinating papers called "New Leaf" by First Edition Paper. 

Recently reorganized my embellishments and its helped me a ton in finding things! I have all my tags together, and all my pockets, etc are in an adjacent compartment. This is a really old tag and a mini paper bag. For the back drop I decided to layer up a bunch of banners. I used dies from Lil' Imker and TCP to make them. 

The final touch was some rick rack trim and a few MME candy dots. I love me some candy dots! Seems like they go on everything I make lately! 

Well, I'm hoping to get my project done for TCP Tuesday this coming Tuesday, it's a really fun challenge and I've been really missing my crafty time! I also have some 50+ scrapbook pages to share with you, I just need to get the posts written!

Thanks for popping by crafty peeps. See you soon!

xo, Noelle