Merry Christmas!

May the joy of that first Christmas fill your holiday season with happiness and peace.   Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Dickens Festival in Holly!

Last Saturday, my husband and I spent the day with dear friends of ours.  We went to the Holly Dickens Festival!  It has been about ten years since we have gone to this. It was a day well spent!  I was so disappointed that I forgot my camera, but my friend didn't!  She took these wonderful pictures!

The small quaint town of Holly came alive with characters from Charles Dickens.  I swore we had stepped into one of his books!  The music that was being  played was of the times of Dickens. I am sure these Dickens characters were glad they had that extra clothing on, as it was so cold!  I think it would be fun to dress up like that for a day!

The streets were lined with several Antique shops and beautiful Victorian architecture.  We enjoyed browsing through the shops, and going down memory lane.  I told my friend, that I can't believe that some of the stuff we see now in Antique stores, we used to have ourselves as kids!

My friend's husband thinks he looks so cool in those sunglasses and Santa hat!  He's cute, though, isn't he?  As he was leaning against the building, I thought to myself, good thing the sidewalk wasn't slippery!  He sure would have slipped!

After the festival, we headed towards Frankenmuth for their famous chicken dinner at the Bavarian Inn! Oh, it was so good!

Even though it was so cold outside, we couldn't resist taking a walk to see the beautiful lights on the streets of Frankenmuth.   Horse drawn carriages were going up and down the streets.  Oh how I love to hear those clip clop sounds the horse hoofs makes!  The trees on the streets were all lit up.  It was so pretty.

The Nativity and the Bethlehem scenes looked so pretty against the darkened sky.

My dear friend, Annette and her hubby Dan.  Many thanks to Annette for sharing these pictures!

Me and the love of my life, Gerry! 

Awesome giveaway !! A lovely handcrafted leather handbound book !

I am so sorry that I have not been blogging! Been pulled into too many different directions!  It took me a while to figure out how to feature someone on my blog and it was not as difficult as I thought!  :)   I am going to keep this post short,  I just wanted to share something you.

Oh my!!  What a wonderful giveaway  RikRakStudio is hosting!  A beautiful leather handbound book created by Myhandboundbooks.  It's a 2010 weekly planner! Who wouldn't want this beautiful book?!!  I love it!!  I entered the giveaway, and thought that you might like too also!  Just head on over to RikRakStudio for the details on this amazing giveaway! It's too good of a giveaway to pass up!  I wonder who that lucky winner is going to be!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope you all had a beautiful day!  My daughter has a friend from Paris, and we were talking on skype. I then asked him if they celebrate Thanksgiving like we do. Gee, I felt so dumb! My daughter looked at me and said, Mom! That's all she had to say, I immediately realized my mistake! Of course, Thanksgiving is an American Holiday! Duh!

I thank you for the lovely comments that was left in my last post.  To know that people care, is such a blessing.   It's been a week since my surgery. I am slowly recuperating.  According to my surgery discharge instructions, I was to be able to remove the steri strips (another way to do stitches) after one week.   I gave my 18 year daughter the task (she at one time wanted to be a Physician Assistant, but then changed her mind) as she is very good when it come to nursing care. As she was pulling off some of the strips, she gasped and covered her mouth. I knew instantly, something was wrong, and thought uh oh...what happened?? Well, some parts of the six inch incision was not completely closed!! And gee, we were just about to head out the door to go to our family's Thanksgiving Dinner. To make a long story short, I did not need to be restitched after all. Whew!

The pain is not too bad now, as the medications do help, but it makes me so foggy!  I have a hard time thinking clearly!  I spent a good portion of the day yesterday just trying to get my Facebook Fan page going, and gee, I have nothing to show for it! It would not let me create my page! I know I was probably doing it wrong, but, for the life of me, I could not figure it out! My husband has had to remind me, that it has only been a week since the surgery and I am still under medications.   Thank goodness for his loving support as I can be quite hard on myself!

Every year, we have this tradition that my daughters and I go out shopping early on Black Friday. But, this year, I am sad that I will have to stay behind. It would be too much for me at this point of time, but there's always next year!  If you go out shopping tomorrow, I hope you have a great shopping trip with awesome deals and finds! I,myself, will be looking through the Etsy shops for great deals and finds! There are so many amazing crafters on Etsy!  I am hoping that I can figure out how to post my links on this blog soon, so I can begin to feature some of these amazing Etsians!

To blog or not to blog

I have been debating on whether or not I should blog about this. So here goes nothing. I had surgery yesterday. Received my second cochlear implant! Today as I sit on the couch with my constant companion, Dakota, just resting as directed by the surgeon, (which is totally not the norm for me!), I keep thinking about all the things I need to do for my shows in December. Oh well, what gets done will get done. I know, at the moment, that it's important for me to rest. But, I sure can take advantage of some online time! :)

Last November, I received my first cochlear implant on my right ear. I have been deaf all my life. Even though I have always worn hearing aids, my hearing loss was slowly getting worse, from a severe hearing loss to a profound hearing loss. My tinnitus had gotten so bad, the roar was so loud in my head, that I had no alternative but to get the cochlear implant with the hope of ridding the ringing, and to hopefully maximize my hearing.

Oh my! What a difference it made!! This past year has been an AMAZING journey!!! With my first implant, I can hear things that I never heard before!!! I can now hear the birds chirping, the wind chimes, my dog sniffing!!!, the phone ringing, and oh, so much more! I even heard my dog, Dakota, chewing on a pin!! Thank God I heard that! I was able to retrieve it from her. Who knows what could have happened ?!

The new sounds I get through the cochlear implant is very different than the sounds I used to get through my hearing aid. The new sounds are more mechanical and a lot louder. It was quite an adjustment as it is not 'sound' as I know it. It took time, hard work and patience as my brain slowly opened up to the new sounds around me. But, it was the best thing I ever did for my hearing. I wish I had done this 20 years ago! The younger you are when you have it done, the better it is. But, that's OK. Better now than later.

I so look forward to hearing out of my new CI ear, which won't take place for 6 weeks. It has to go through the healing process first. I look forward to the day that my new CI ear is hooked up, as they call it, and to begin my new journey as a Bilateral Cochlear Implant recipient. I should feel more balanced as the incoming sounds would be the same in both ears. I do wonder what other new sounds I will hear and how my hearing in general will change. Although, I have been told that I would never hear like a hearing person, but it would be a lot better than what I have ever had before. I am happy enough with that. Isn't technology wonderful??!!!

First Impression

I have been wanting to do my first post on my blog for quite some time, but it seems so intimidating! What do I talk about? OK, I gotta grab the horns and just go for it! So, uhm, maybe a little bit about me. My name is Jan, and I LOVE to create. It is my passion! There is rarely a moment that I do not have an undergoing project going on. Come to think of it, I don't think there has EVER been a moment that I did not have some project going on. I have been so inspired by all the blogs that I read here on the Internet. How amazing is that? It makes the world seem smaller after all.

As a child, growing up, I was always surrounded by arts and crafts. I spent hours with my childhood friends designing barbie doll clothes, making doll houses and furniture out of cardboard and old wallpaper books, creating quilts, crocheting and knitting just to name a few. I still have a pair of mittens knitted by my friend, Theresa, that she made about 30 some years ago! It is the best handmade pair of mittens I have EVER had! My daughters even love it, and they wear it too! In fact, she is the one that help me to focus on what I need to do. Prior to that eureka moment, I had made my oldest daughter a laptop cover for her MacBook, and she had gotten so many compliments on it. Theresa encouraged me, along with my family and friends, to begin a business creating laptop covers. So, this is how this all began.

I also feel so blessed that I have made so many wonderful friends through Twitter and Etsy. This creative journey this past year has been amazing with a lot of ups and downs. I have never spent so many hours working before! I don't even know how to have 'down time' anymore! lol!

I love the designer fabrics that are on the market today. I really have a weakness when it comes to fabric shopping. I literally have had to discipline myself not to buy any more until I use most of what I have. But, oh that's so hard!

As I become familiar with posting on my blog, I plan on featuring some of my favorite artists and crafters! I thank you for taking the time to read this post and invite you to become one of my followers.