Crafts: Allison's Cards

I've been making a lot of paper piecing fabric cards in the past few months, I mean A LOT. I started making my own designs and trying random ones I found online because it's so much fun to do. I love that I get to be creative and have a little product at the end of it. With my abundance of cards, I decided I should sell them seeing as I don't have that many friends or reasons to send cards. I set up a little Etsy shop and so far I've sold one! I realize most people don't send very many cards beyond Christmas and Birthdays! Isaiah tells me that "Thanksgiving and Halloween cards are not a thing" to which I vehemently disagree. Cards for every occasion! Plus getting fun mail makes everyone's day much better.

It's been a lot of fun and keeping me busy coming up with new designs for various occasions. I'm quite bad at taking pictures of all of the ones I do though.

Here are some of the paper piecing designs I've made over the past few months:

Autumn tree!

Meeple! For board game lovers.

Tiny Pumpkin!

Garden gnome (pattern I found online)!

Birthday Bee (pattern I found online and modified)!

 

 

 

Here's the link to my Etsy store if you want to look at a few of my other designs! It's all fairly basic because I have no idea what I'm doing but the "Starting a Etsy Store for Dummies" book I got from the library will soon change all that!

Dermatology appointment

I had my dermatology appointment and I don't have skin cancer! It was a pretty quick appointment. After taking a medical history (always the longest part), the doctor looked me all over and said all my freckles look normal. She then gave me a list of approved sunscreens and pamphlets of things to look for that had with terrible pictures of skin cancer on them and booked a follow up in a year.

While the most common skin cancer in the general population is basal cell carcinoma, with people on anti-rejection medication, we are more likely to get squamous cell skin cancer. Squamous skin cancer develops from actinic keratoses or "sun spots." The spots themselves aren't cancerous but the doctor said she would want to treat me because there is a strong likelihood they would turn into cancer. She also said that they treat squamous skin cancer very aggressively because it can be fast moving and spread other areas.

All in all,  I need to be on the lookout and check my skin every once in awhile. If it's caught early, it's very treatable. And to wear sunscreen every day, even when it's cloudy. The grocery store was clearing it out so I stocked up on some nice face stuff.

Doctor appointments

I had my fourth month hematology check-up on Thursday and I still don't have cancer! Woohoo! That's what I expected to hear because my blood work has all been normal the past few months but it's still a bit of a relief every time. I'm hoping at a certain point my fear of recurrence will go away but I'm not there yet. It feels a bit silly to celebrate the lack of something but that's where I am in life. Everyone should take a moment to celebrate any day they don't have cancer.

I have my first dermatology appointment this week. I've waited 8 months for this appointment. I'm so accustomed to jumping the line for doctor's appointments that waiting like a healthy person is unusual. It's just a consult appointment as every transplant patient is suppose be followed by a dermatologist. The prevalence of skin cancer is high post-transplant thanks to all the medications. I'm pretty good at wearing sunscreen every day and not lounging all day in the sun but my years of being stupid about sunscreen as a teen combined with my now superhero ability to burn after 10 seconds outside could catch up with me. It'll be nice to have a baseline consult. Plus I'm looking forward to pointing out all my random skin bumps and have her tell me what they are.

PEI

Last week we spent the beautiful week on PEI in a cottage near Morell. We keep returning to the same beach because it's a perfect sandy beach with amazing sunsets. Plus it's close to the Confederation trail which makes it great for cycling to St. Peters. We spent the week biking, kayaking, and swimming.

I hit my 500km summer cycling goal during the week! Woohoo!

Since getting home on Saturday, I've spent the last two days relaxing and sitting in silence after the intense family week.

Sunset over the water.

Off we go down the trail!

Playing in the waves.

Cycling selfie at Brackley Beach (Isaiah always yells at me when I have my phone out while cycling along).

Greenwich National Park!

Kayak in the calm ocean.

Our one and only bonfire.

Family kayak trip down the Morell River.

Goodbye PEI!