amyHELLER | my paperie sweets & me

Seriously, What a Month it's Been!

I spoke with a friend the other day that said to me, "Wow, you're life has done a 180 in the last month" and my response to her was "Yeah, you're telling me! Well, actually it's been the last 15 months that have really done that, but yes, the last month has been a doozy!" It seems that in the last month, everything really just came to a head - the good, the bad and the ugly, all seemed to want to pile on me all at once. 

It all started on my 40th (yes, 40th - YIKES) birthday, back in January. We made the decision to put an offer on a new house and rent out our old house. We made the offer on the house ON my birthday. I also found out my sister is pregnant ON my birthday! Both fantastic. Honestly it was the best birthday that I can remember. It was a super great day, and I remember thinking, "this is too good to be true" and it was, to a degree.February 15th, I was at my regular kickboxing class and I decided to take my VERY first sparring class - I'm now a blue belt and have spent the last year doing kickboxing and mitts classes, but in order to become a black belt you have to spar, and I had put it off long enough. To make a long story short, my left ACL in my knee was completely torn leaving my nearly completely unable to walk without major assistance from a brace and crutches. Fast forward a couple weeks, with a newly diagnoses condition (torn ACL, sprained MCL and bone bruising to the connecting leg bones) I was able to begin more steady hobbling thanks to a knee stabilizing brace. The day after my STAT MRI reading, we left for our bi-annual trip to Mexico with our extended family. It was great to relax in the sun (FAR, FAR away from all the snow we've had this winter), but it was a difficult trip. My knee swelled a lot on the flights and made the normal things I wanted to do much more difficult. Walking on sand was torture and walking any distances was downright near impossible. There was a lot more lounging poolside than I would have liked, but it did force me to relax, which was a good thing.  Literally, two days after we came back from the trip, we closed on the new house and have been moving ever since - about a week and a half. My husband has been a real saint through the whole process. SInce I was unable to assist in much of anything realted to the move, he's carried the brunt of that burden. He's been such a trooper. We had friends help us, too. Since it was and in-town move we never thought hiring movers would be needed, however, I wish we could have, just to save him so much of the burden.

We are finally *almost* fully moved in and settled. The bad news is I have to have knee surgery in two weeks from today reconstruct my ACL. The good news is, we are in our new home and we love it.

It's been some time, these past couple months. I'm emotionally and physically exhausted and simply cannot wait to get back to a boring, normal routine again. I'm sure when it is all over, I'm going to have a good long cry about it all. To be completely honest, my life hasn't been the same since December 2012, and this last series of events just seems cap it all off. It's all the beginning of a whole new chapter of my life I'm really looking forward to . . . in a few weeks when I'm back on my feet again :)

Chickaniddy Crafts for CHA-W

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I posted anything scrappy, so I thought I'd post a couple projects I created for CHA-W for the Chickaniddy Crafts booth."Her Top Dog" using Chickaniddy Crafts' Date Night Collection
"Beautiful Girl" using Chickaniddy Crafts' Twirly Girly Collection

Really fun elements, aren't they? Also, just so you know there's a few more days to apply to Chickaniddy Craft's:

If you haven't checked it out already, make sure you do!

Also, just a couple things.

1) I haven't forgotten about the stashbusting blog feature, I promise! We are in the middle of a move, so things have been very hectic. I won't tackle that project until after the move, so look for that sometime later in the Spring. :) I'm very excited about it!

2) Also, I am SO excited about this move, that I am beginning to think about an ADDITONAL feature on my blog. It brings me back to my first love, and what I wanted to do and be before I became a graphic designer - interior design and DIY home renovation. With our new home which we move into mid-March, I've been obsessing about everything I want to do to it, to make it "ours". It's going to be an all encompassing focus of mine for at least the next year. So, I thought I'd share the process with you. What do you think?

Lastly, because of our upcoming move, I likely won't be on the blog much over the next month or two as we get ready and settle in. But, I will be back and with big, fun plans! 

NEW Winners ANNOUNCED | My BIGGEST Give.A.WAY EVER

Okay friends, sorry this has fallen behind. We are in the middle of a big transition here in the Heller house, so I've had to push some things out in favor of those needs, so I'm sorry for the delay. We had a few people not come forward to claim their prize boxes, so I have done a NEW drawing! Here are the winners!

 

Box C - How To Books, OA Fabric + other stuff! - Paula Boudreux

Box G - OA Paper Lover - Ruby Fitzpatrick

Box K- Stamp Lover - Jennifer Stricker

 

Ladies, please contact me as soon as possible and I'll get these sent out to you! Remember, all that is required is your reimbursement for shipping. 

 

Thanks again!

October Afternoon | Tutorial

Hey everyone! I have a fun tutorial up on the October Afternoon blog today! Here's a sneak of what it's all about:

Also I wanted to follow-up with you on my biggest give.a.way ever boxes - there were 2 that were un-claimed by the deadline, so I'll be updating that post here today with the new winners of those 2 boxes. So make sure to check it out and see if you indeed ended up winning a box! I have sent out all of the claimed boxes but 2, that are going out today, so hopefully I have some happy followers out there in the next day or so. :) Have a super date!

October Afternoon Share + Updates

Good Tuesday morning, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! We had a long weekend here with the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday yesterday and now we are prepping for early dismissal and a very stormy and snowy night here in CT. Who knows when these kids are going to have a full, uninterupted week of school! ;)

Today, I thought I would share a page I created for the October Afternoon blog last week while teaming up with fellow DT member Aleksandra Gadji, who created a really fun sketch based off of a book cover (some of my favorite sketches are based off book covers!). To see that post, the sketch along with Alex's take, check out the OA post found here. Here's a look at the layout I created for the post.

I also thought I would share that today over at the Chickaniddy Crafts blog, Heidi is featuring a layout I created for her for the CHA booth using the super fun new collection, Twirly Girly. Just as a side note, as well, she's having a DT search right now for Chickaniddy Crafts, so if you'd love to be a part of the growth of a new manufacturer, check out her DT call post here. 

The past week has been busy, busy, BUSY! Lots of stuff is happening in our personal lives right now - all GREAT things - and I'll fill you in on more as we get closer to wrapping some of it up. But fun and great things are to come!

I have it on my list of things to-do:

1) Finish up my trendspotting from CHA part 2, in the next day or so

2) This week start in on designing my first 2014 collection for my shop

3) Get a move on my Project Life (I've nearly gotten my cover page done, picked all my photos from week's 1 and 2)

4) Get a move on for my new blog series on stashbusting in 2014.

LOTS of stuff to do!! Fun stuff to come, for sure! Anyhoo! Thanks for stopping by today, and if you missed it, I announced all of my winners for my BIGGEST Give.A.WAY EVER the other day, so if you haven't already, check here to see if you are a winner! I want to get these things sent out this week! 

Have a fabulous day!