Lucky 15 Paper Arts

A New Leaf...

Thank you to everyone for all of your love and support for Maryanne.  She is doing well and the doctors cleared her for daycare.  We got to wash her hair on Tuesday and with half a bottle of detangler and the movie Robots (twice) we were able to comb out all the tangles from her hair and avoided the dreaded hair cut I thought she was going to have.  With her accident behind us it is time to get back to business...  So with that I am announcing that Lucky 15 is turning over a new leaf and we will be closing our store front.  That web site I have been promising is almost ready to launch and that will be where you can get the unique and eclectic things you have come to love us for.  I will still be giving classes around town and custom work is always available.  We are not putting everything on the web so that means BIG SALE!!!  Starting today June 29th everything is 50% off...  The 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th of July Everything is 75% off and the furniture and store fixturing will be available.  First come first serve so don't be the last one here...  Our store hours will be as follows... Tues- Thurs 10-5, Fri-Sat 10-7, Sun 12-5.  If you can't make those times please call me to make arrangements.  Thank you again to everyone for your support...  Stay tuned for the new phase Lucky15Paper.com..

Update...

First of all I want to thank everyone for all of their wonderful words of encouragement and support through this time of healing for Maryanne.  Truly the power of positive energy really does work.  Maryanne is making a fast and speedy recovery.  She had another CT the day after surgery and the doctors said that it looked perfect...  Which means there was no long term damage to the brain from the large clot or the surgery.  We came home a week ago Tuesday and I quickly realized how hard this was going to be.  (What to you do with a two and half year old who has no concept of "taking it easy")  When you're two if you feel good it's time to play..  Well by Friday her body had had enough of her crazy ways and it made her slow down.  It kind of came on quickly so we took another trip to the ER.  Two stuffed animals, a new IV,   a new set of EKG pads (these are the dreaded wires that keep you attached to your bed and hurt like heck to get off), another ride on the CT machine, and two Spongebob Squarepants temporary tattoos later the word came back that everything was fine and that she was just feeling the effects of major surgery.  I was relieved and I think that so was she..  There was a fever for a few days and now she is back to her normal crazy two and a half year old self.  The biggest thing is keeping her from running, jumping, wrestling with the dogs (good luck).  And the worse thing... She can't wash her hair until she sees her doctor next week.  I think that we are going to have to cut it off in the end (maybe I will cut mine off with her).  It has been good to spend these days with her to help her through this and I am totally grateful for that.  She has a follow up appointment on the 26th and if the doctor gives her the ok to go back to school (which she is dying to do) then the store will be open at 10 am on the 27th.  I of course will keep you posted...

The Scariest Day of My Life...

That was my day Sunday...  It started as a regular Sunday in our household, we got up, got dressed and went to the Zoo... It ended with me facing the reality that I may lose my little girl on an operating table. 

Maryanne tumbled off the back of a wagon at the zoo and hit her head on the pavement.  Immediately after-wards she seemed fine but with in a few hours it was clear that she needed to get help.  She was assessed and a CT scan was ordered... with in 15 minutes a pediatric neurosurgeon was explaining to me that the large white blob on the screen was a large blood clot on her brain that would kill her and that it had to be operated on immediately...  What a choice, do nothing and she would die, consent to the surgery (that would require them to cut open her skull to remove the blood clot, that was like the size of a baseball squished between her brain and her skull and then find the vessel that was bleeding and stop it) and risk, infection, paralysis, or death.  Of course Michael and I consented to the surgery, but I felt the saddest weight on my heart as I signed that paper.  It was not long after that that I was saying "Good-Bye" to a very small, very frightened two and a half year old, as a complete stranger carried her into the OR.  Two hours later, the lead surgeon emerged bearing the news we had prayed for, she made it through the surgery like a champ, no complications and the artery that was bleeding (in the words of the surgeon) was right there "like it was screaming here I am come get me!"  So the best possible situation was there, the clot was removed and they didn't even have to touch her brain in order to stop the bleeding. 
Last night she was really out of it, but she tolerated the anesthesia and all the poking and prodding well.  Today she was up and walking on her own, making jokes and being her regular funny self.  By this afternoon, we have realized that this is going to be a trick, how to keep a two year old with a head wound (but doesn't know it) from jumping on the bed and well basically being a two year old.  (the doctor suggested a helmet)  So here I sit in this hospital room, totally trying to grasp what has happened.  It still feels surreal to say that my two year old had brain surgery yesterday, and not because she is super ill or something like that, but because she feel off a wagon at the zoo and hit her head just right to make this vessel bleed and because of that I almost lost her.  I am so grateful to all the nurses and doctors here at Phoenix Children's Hospital for all of their hard work and their skillful hands because without them I would not be able to hug my little girl and tell her that "I Love Her." 
The story is...  I will have to be home with Maryanne for a while and because of that the store will be closed.  I will keep everyone posted on what is going on so that all will know when we will be open for business...  Thank you to everyone for your prayers and understanding.

It is just so crazy how your whole life can change in just one day...

First Harvest

Here it is the official "first harvest" from our grape vines.  This is the second year that we have had these grapes and last year we had so many grapes it was ridiculous!!!  This year we have played around with the idea of trying to make our own wine...  Does anyone have a good recipe for anything grape, I am going to need some ideas on how to get these guys eaten...  Maryanne is really excited, she has been patiently waiting for the last few months for them to ripen.  I think that it is so amazing to see these vines grow.  They go from sticks to these monstrous bushes in just a few months, and then the grapes...oh the grapes!  Yummy!!!

Totally what I wanted!!!

Ok so have been busy cleaning out all the "stuff" that we have in the house and I have been thinking... "What I need is a bin that I set by the door and when I find something that  know I don't want anymore I can put it in the bin and when it is full I can just take to Goodwill for donation..."  And then this weekend we were at the Scottsdale store and low and behold...  There it was!!!  Goodwill had been thinking the same thing as me and they have these great bins.  They are small enough that they don't take up a ton of space and they have wheels for rolling AND a retractable handle for pulling it around.  So, you put it by the door (like me) fill it up with "stuff" you don't need any more, donate it and then the bin makes a perfect shopping basket for finding cool new stuff you can't live without (look at all the cool stuff I found). So cool!!!  Anyways, they are twenty bucks (not bad) and as always you know they money spent is going to a good cause...  I have even though of getting more then one and using them as laundary baskets... (for another time saving idea I have to come later...)

It's been a year...

Since I started this blog...  If you can remember back then, I didn't post all that often and when I did they were so long...  But over time I have gotten to really love this blog (dare I say it might be on the list of things I couldn't live without??).  So, anyways... it only took me a year but I finally figured out the whole "feed" thing (with a little explanation from my bother-in-law (professional geek)) so if you are into the whole feed thing please subscribe to my blog (click on the link that says "subscribe to this blog's feed") and if you have a blog please add me to your list..  and thank you for your help in spreading the lucky word...

Because Maryanne says...

We (Maryanne and I) are posting this picture of Nancy Pants (as Maryanne calls her).  Maryanne saw all the pictures of Buddie that I have been posting lately and she was concerned that Nancy (Pants) would feel left out... So we looked through the all the (like three, Nancy doesn't like her picture taken) pictures of Nancy (Pants) and decided on this one...  I think that it does her justice!