Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Best Christmas Present ever - Merry Christmas 2012

  •  Best Christmas Present . . . ever
  •  Christmas Lodge Christmas Card
  •  Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la

Here's a quick card template from My Digital Studio design software that I reworked a bit to accommodate a photo of our 11-year old Sheltie, Rascal.  We're so fortunate to have him with us.  A couple weeks ago we weren't sure if he would make it home for Christmas.





Rascal just stopped eating one Monday morning shortly after Thanksgiving.  We were able to get a little bit of food in him each day, but by Friday I was really alarmed and took him to the vet on Saturday.  The vet told us it was probably a bad tooth and sent him home with some pain meds until we could get him back to the vet for teeth cleaning a week later.

On Sunday, Rascal started throwing up and still wouldn't eat.  Monday we took Rascal back to the vet and found that his blood work showed very high liver chemistry numbers.  We went for an ultrasound at an animal hospital the following morning.  The new vet told us they would like to do exploratory surgery because the abdominal ultrasound revealed a distension of the gall bladder and a mottled liver.  I learned more about the importance of a dogs liver and gall bladder over the next few days than I ever thought possible.  However, I was really concerned what major surgery and a long recovery period would do to an older dog with hip problems.

We opted not to do the surgery, which would have required a 10-day stay in the animal hospital and the results wouldn't be back for 3-4 weeks.  Instead we decided to try a variety of heavy drugs because they couldn't pinpoint if this was a bacteria, fungal, gall stone blockage or what. 

We're happy to say that after a couple of days he started eating again--a little bit more each day--and two weeks after we started the drugs he's more active, alert and his eating is back to normal.  His liver chemistries are improving, with bilirubin now normal.  He will remain on Clavamox, Baytril, Ursodiol, Denamarin for whatever is causing his liver and gall bladder problems, Cerenia (for nausea, if needed) and Tramadol for his hip pain for another couple of weeks to be sure we got it all.

The return to health of our beloved companion is the best Christmas present ever! 

Here's what I used on Rascal's scrapbook page.
  My Digital Studio recipe:
Stamps
    Designer Kits/More Merry Messages/More Merry Messages - merry christmas, Stamp Color:  SUMMER STARFRUIT    

    Designer Kits/More Merry Messages/More Merry Messages - do not open, Color:  I color matched a piece of fur in his coat.
Background Color: CHERRY COBBLER
Punches
    1.25 Square Punch, Fill Color: CHERRY COBBLER     1.25 Square Punch, Fill Color:  I color matched a piece of fur in his coat.

My Digital Studio Design Software:  30-day free trial available.  (Try it today with your Christmas photos!)


 Last Christmas Card of the season


Here's my last Christmas Card of the season.  Now I can start playing with all of the new pre-order products from the Spring Catalog merchandise!  As much as I love to play with new stamps and merchandise, I love making Chrtmas cards and gift wrapping the most.  I wish we could use all of the sparkel, big fluffy bows, and festive papers all year round...love, love, love it and hate to put away the Christmas fun at the end of every year.




I love the Christmas Lodge stamp set.  This is the second Christmas in a row that I've used it on my main Christmas Card...even though I have every new Christmas stamp from this year's catalog...this one is my all-time favorite.  Also, check out the Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details (125585).  You're going to want a bottle of this for your Valentine cards.

This card uses: 

Stamps:  Christmas Lodge (123769), More Merry Messages (inside verse, which I forgot to photograph - 126402)
Inks:  Soft Suede
Papers:  Soft Suede, Cherry cobbler, Very Vanilla, Champaign Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Labels Collection Framelit (125598), Big Shot & Cutting pads


 Here's wishing you a Very Merry Christmas, with a final word (Christmas song) from Rascal...

Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la



Sing it out, Rascal ... and to all a good night!

Enjoy!
Donna Ross
Stampin' Up! Independent Demonstrator




3 comments:

  1. You were very lucky with Rascal! We lost our little Cocker to a bad gall bladder in May, her gums actually turned white from blood lost! We miss her so very much, she was a puppy mill rescue, but we know we gave her the best three years of her life too! Love your page. May I ask what kind of printer you have to print your digital projects out with? Thanks, Mary.

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  2. Mary, I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your little Cocker. That was my first puppy back in the days when "How much is that Doggie in the Window?" was a popular song. I'm happy to hear he had a wonderful life with you.

    I have 4 HP printers that I use for project. I have a Photosmart 8750 which is wide carrage and will print 12 X 12 pages and take Stampin' Up! card stock or photo paper just fine. For my smaller 8-1/2 X 11 size pages I find that the colors print most true is the HP Officejet Pro 8500. I didn't have to set up color profiles, it just prints colors more accurately. The other two HP's are older, but faster than the two I use for color scrapbook project. I use the two older printers ((HP Officejet 4310 & A Photosmart C6180) for printing out class instructions and class handouts. Their colors aren't as accurate, but the HP Officejet 4310 prints color pages very quickly. They are all older printers but I hat to upgrade when these work perfectly well.

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  3. Beautiful page of Rascal. We had at beautiful Sheltie that was 14 years old when he died from heart failure. Laddie like Rascal was very photogenic. I also used the Christmas lodge stampset the last 2 years. I made most of them this year into an easel card.

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