Examples of Etsy Items

Lots Goin' On!

We have had an eventful few weeks in our household. Daughter broke her leg while sliding with Daddy, I opened an Etsy Shop (www.etsy.com/shop/TwinkleLight), and the in-laws came up for a visit. I'm finally in the last stretch (aka 3rd Trimester) of this pregnancy - and I can't wait to meet our new little girl. It still seems surreal that we're parents at all let alone welcoming our second daughter into the world in the next few months. Daughter, dear girl, has had such a rough time lately, and then to break her little 2-year-old leg was just more than I could handle. We had gone to the park to spend a beautiful afternoon playing. She and Husband climbed to the top of the tallest slide, went down, and when she got the bottom/landed, she was in tears and wouldn't walk. It took us a couple of hours to determine that this was serious, went to the ER expecting to hear she had a sprained knee. Doctor floored me when she announced that she had completely broken her tibia in two (later we found out she incompletely fractured her fibula as well). It wasn't displaced which was such a blessing. They gave her a dose of pain killer and temporarily splinted her leg(to accommodate swelling). Within 20 minutes she was much happier. It really...made me MAD. The whole thing. Between FD in her arm and then this, she has seen more x-rays than I have in my entire life. It just felt like bad things were happening and I am still trying to process my feelings about all of this. Husband & I both questioned if we had done something...to deserve this from God. There is no greater punishment than to watch your child in pain & fear. We've come to terms with the fact that He is a loving God, and not spiteful. But how can a parent not question? The good news is that the doctor expects her leg to heal completely (she is in a long-leg cast for 6 weeks, so no walking) and we are going to find out if this had anything to do with FD or not come January. Since she had her hot pink permanent cast put on, she's been her usual self. She tries to walk all the time - keeping her down is hard! But, it's a blessing that she feels so well that she wants to walk. She can still have her favorite bubble baths as well - and we're managing. She's a chunk to carry though - almost more than I can handle, but what can ya do?

Husband's parents finally made it up to see us! We were thrilled - and had a great time. We decided not to travel to Indiana for Thanksgiving this year, just needed a break (and it worked out, Daughter would have only been in her cast a few days and that first week she was still in a bit of pain). We made dinner and had a co-worker & his son over. It was a lovely Thanksgiving evening. We went out to breakfast at Wildberry - if you live in the Chicago area, there are 2 - one in Schaumburg & one in Libertyville. They are EGGCELLENT :) I personally enjoy the blueberry pancakes with sausage links the best. Anyway, we spent the day out & about and came home to decorate with Christmas items. It's been a tradition of mine for the last several years to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving - and this year was no exception. Lots of help from his folks and the house looks really nice.

Finally, my newest endeavor - my Etsy Shop. This sort of all came from nowhere(from up above maybe, something to give my creative side an outlet, and something positive to focus on?). I am selling silhouettes made from JPG images (aka your basic digital photograph). I messed around with a program called Inkscape (free download at inkscape.org) and learned how to use that in combination with GIMP (also free at gimp.org) to create silhouettes of the people, animals, or objects in the photos. I convert those to a vector file and then use a machine to cut them out. So basically, you can have silhouettes made of anyone or anything made from your pictures and cut out of pretty bits of paper- and do so many things with them! Please check out my shop & pass the world along - www.etsy.com/shop/TwinkleLight.