Ashley Hackshaw, Author at Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

Spider Woman

April 4, 2012 by Ashley Hackshaw

Since I’ve started Cisplatin my hair has been growing in a little! Most of my hair loss was from the other chemo drugs I took. It’s growing in kind of spotty still…..but I asked Lisa to take some photos today to mark the progress since I had some energy back.

Boo asked to be included in the photo…..that’s a first. Be still my heart.

Cutie.

Yep….still pretty bald though:

After Lisa took some photos the next thing I knew…..my arm was swelling up. There were little menacing fang marks. My arm didn’t hurt at all but it looked crooked due to all the swelling. No biggie. Lisa called my primary doctor…..who just happened to be out of town for spring break. She told me to go to Urgent Care. Ugh. I had to cancel my first colonic appointment. I was looking so forward to that today. I thought I was done with doctors for at least a week! Guess not. I got a nice little nap in at least as I waited for the doctor. Look at that nice spider bite on my arm:

I love filling out the forms:

The doctor gave me some antibiotics to take to keep the venom from spreading up my arm. I still have to get a tetanus shot. What are the odds that I get bitten by a poisonous spider? High I guess. I’m glad I went…..I don’t want to wake up with gangrene in a week. I got in and out of the Urgent Care in about 45 minutes…..that’s enough to make me shout for joy. The only thing I worried about the whole time was catching some disease there….so I slathered my hands, arms, iPhone and handbag constantly hand sanitizer…..and I opened the door handle with my butt cheek (a perk of being 5’11”).

As I was picking up my prescription I picked up some of these:

Love these popsicles. They remind me of the pool snack bar when I was a kid. I think I’ll have another.

Easy Heat Transfer Applique (A Tutorial)

April 4, 2012 by Ashley Hackshaw

Have you tried out Silhouette’s heat transfer material yet? It’s a super easy way to add some decoration to a piece of clothing! I started out with the heat transfer starter kit which has heat transfer paper samples, a pick tool and a package of template downloads:

I decided to spruce up this cute little skirt that I bought for Boo. Boo chose the free bicycle graphic that comes with the starter kit.

If you are doing an image with text make sure to mirror it on the screen so that the text looks backwards. Insert the the heat transfer material into the Silhouette with the clear plastic side on the bottom. You don’t need to use the cutting mat….although it doesn’t hurt either. Make sure to select “flocked” or “smooth” transfer material in the menu before cutting. The clear side of the transfer should be face down.

Once the image has been cut, peel off all the negative space from the clear backing:

Use the pick tool to pull off small pieces.

The finished cut out:

Place the design face down on the surface you want to iron it onto. I placed it on the side of the skirt so it would wrap around:

Place a cloth over the design and place a heated iron on top of it (cotton setting). Press firmly for 45 to 60 seconds.

Gently peel up the clear transfer sheet. The transfer should be adhered to your surface now. If the transfer still sticks to the clear sheet, replace the cloth and iron again making sure to apply more pressure:

An easy heat transfer applique!

Click here to see other projects I’ve done with the Silhouette Machine!

Alternative Easter Eggs (A Tutorial)

April 2, 2012 by Ashley Hackshaw

A few fun alternative ways to decorate Easter eggs that we’ve done around here recently! I used wood and paper mache eggs to make our own lasting eggs: