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Choriocarcinoma

December 13, 2011 by Ashley Hackshaw

Diagnosis: Choriocarcinoma. I had new scans yesterday and this afternoon my family and I met with Dr. L, my new oncologist. The scans show that some spots that were previously on my lungs have gotten smaller but a few new ones have shown up. There’s also a new 4cm tumor in my pelvis area (near where the old one was that was removed with my hysterectomy). The area on my liver hasn’t changed.

Dr. L wants me to start on a much more aggressive chemo regimen known as EMA/CO as soon as possible. I’m also doing a PET scan this week so they can try to get some more information about my liver. Dr. L is certain that my cancer is Choriocarcinoma and I’m stage 4 Gestational Trophoblastic Disease….the good news is that the rate is about 80 to 90% survival as long as it’s treated early enough. There will be a plan of attack by the beginning of next week. I’ll count my blessings: I have a treatable form of cancer and I have friends and family to rely on throughout!

Boo made me a “shot” advent calendar last night: Mommy, every time you have to go and get a shot you cut one of these strips off with scissors okay? I’ll just tape this to the back of your door.

I love her little tired smile:

A quick note to my friends and family: I will not be sending Christmas cards this year. Ha.

Well, I’m exhausted today….so off to bed. I’m on my 7th week of current chemo and it seems to wipe me out a little more each time. I’m not scared for what lies ahead just a little anxious to get it behind me. Anyways, thanks for reading! Love to you all….

XOXO,

Ash

P.S. We got a HUGE box of CHOOSE JOY bracelets delivered today!

Handmade Doll Bunk Beds

December 13, 2011 by Ashley Hackshaw

Boo and her cousins are getting handmade doll bunk beds for Christmas! The guys started working on them last weekend. They still need to be painted and I’m going to make a mattress, sheets and pillows.

We downloaded these easy free doll bunk bed plans from Ana White:

The plans tell you what size to cut all the wood:

And then the beds are assembled:

Three doll bunk beds finished!

Now they need putty, primer and paint!

Hand Painted Ribbon and Recycled Wrapping (A Tutorial)

December 9, 2011 by Ashley Hackshaw

I’m starting to wrap some gifts for the holidays and I used some this hand painted ribbon that Boo and I made a few weeks back:

To paint the ribbon I used Setacolor transparent fabric paints. The paints are very thin but rich in color. They are also very soft to the touch when dry. You can use a little bit of fixer if you would like to skip the ironing step…but I like ironing the ribbon nice and flat after it’s been painted.

I used this bias cut 1/2″ silk habotai ribbon from Dharma Trading…..one roll goes a LONG way since it is so thin. But I love how silky it is and the edges fray just slightly for a very unique look. I only ended up using about a 1/4 roll for this project.

First, I unraveled a bunch of ribbon and made it into a large loop like shown:

I took three rubber bands and sectioned it off into 4 sections….basically like a tie-dye technique:

I watered down some of the Setacolor paint and used a paint brush to apply it to alternating sections. Flip over the ribbon so you make sure to soak the paint through:

While the other paint was still wet, I added my second color to the other sections. I did alternating red and green for Christmas ribbon:

Boo made pink and purple ribbon. She had a mishap with some puffy paint too that you can see…..it stayed in her hair for about 2 weeks:

I let the ribbon dry thoroughly and the removed the rubber bands. I ironed the ribbon flat so it was nice and neat and also to heat set the paint (I didn’t use any color fixative):

I wound the ribbon neatly onto some scrap cardboard for storage. I love how bright and vibrant the colors are!

This Christmas I’m using recycled paper bags to wrap our smaller gifts. The brightly colored ribbon is all that is needed for decoration. I don’t use tags around here if I can help it…..so I stamp my “to” and “from” directly onto the wrapping using little mini stamps:

These little alphabet stamps are so versatile:

So pretty….and ecofriendly:

Diesel is such a talented dog……he can even wrap his own gifts!

Have you hand painted ribbon before?