Through the world of Blythe and Flickr I have met a ton of amazing people… a few of them in person and many not, but this has never affected the relationship built between us. Months ago an amazing photographer milk & kisses told us about her niece, Alissia who was struggling with being sick. It was right before Alissia’s 3rd birthday we found out it was brain cancer. Alissia now needs a stem cell transplant.

I feel for this family and for Alissia, who shares the same birthday as me. In my own family we have gone through 3 separate brain surgeries… my mother had 2 when I turned 13 years old for a cyst at the base of her spinal cord blocking fluids… and my brother had his surgery 5 years ago for an aneurysm. I know how scary this can be, so I feel strongly about helping when and where you can.

Here is what I ask… please visit the site her family has set up for her IF you can donate… and if not, bare minimum please keep her in your prayers.

http://4alissia.blogspot.com/2011/01/for-alissia.html

I have been blessed with meeting many crafty intelligent people through the Blythe hobby… so I want to give something back to the world out there…

Pay it Forward 2011: As an arty- sewing type I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. They must in turn post this & send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status. *Rules: it must be handmade by you & it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011.

As people comment on the photo on Flickr I will post their names here and blog about the craft items I make. My goal is to not just make 5 identical items, but to tailor each piece to the individual… We shall see how this goes!

1. Wendy- SimplyMinty

2. Abigail Warach- Abigail’s Knits and PieFairyPrincess

Well it only took a week to recover from Halloween and I am now able to go back to having a normal life!! I hate to say that I despise Halloween because I don’t actually but I do hate how much of my life gets totally screwed by it. After checking my hours I realized that I worked 2 weeks all in the space of one! Yup 70 hours were put in during Halloween week!

So now I am getting back to normal and am enjoying life again!! The good news around our house is this…my darling hubby has found a job!!! He also is starting the day before my birthday!! I really couldn’t ask for a better birthday present! It cracks me up inside because the other day I was talking with one of our Santas at work who knew that my birthday was coming up and asked what I wanted for my birthday…I know that sounds a bit daffy but I work in the costume business so trust me that it is normal. I really wanted to ask Santa to give my husband a job for my birthday but figured that was not really a possibility, so instead I said I wanted some god luck for a change. That night I came home to find out that he had been offered a job in the mail room of one of the larger banks in the area. *sigh* So Santa answered my birthday wish without me even having to say all of the words!!! So yes my dear friends I do believe in Santa!!

Also I have a new little girl who has moved in…

She had a bit of a rocky start here… the day that she moved in… we kind of hit rock bottom financially so she immediately had to go up for adoption again. But we lucked out and now that we see a light at the end of the tunnel, she gets to stay!! I adopted her from Carmen, a wonderful Twitter/Flickr Blythe friend! She was customized by Val… who also did my Sydney, and has a haircut by Squirrel Junkie. So life is again getting back to normal around here… and we are all feeling a bit better now that Halloween is over and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel… If you have an idea for a name for my new little one… please leave a comment!