My spirits are bright and soon I will be in sight...

Hello you lovely, thoughtful people out there,

I thought I must do a special post to thank you for all those healing and loving comments you have been leaving me. It means so much to me... specially because my spirits seemed to take a beating for the last week or so.

The first doctor I saw kind of made me feel like a crumpled tissue paper because he did not comfort me in any way, rather, he just plainly said that I should not use my heavy punches and that I should delegate it to someone... (Zeenya is more than unwilling to do any craft work and she has enough homework to do, so I cannot pressurise her into  child labour - Lol!)

I took a second opinion from another doctor who said that it was not a ganglion but a small bone that was jutting out... he even tried to push it in but that did not work. 

 After doing some research on the Internet, I learned that a Chiropractic may be of help to me so off I marched to one and lo and behold! He has asked me to rest my hands for a week and keep away from heavy usage. The Chiro also felt that it was a ganglion but I am not really bothered now because my hands are in the right hands now.. (Pun not intended!)

To cut a long story short, I had my first ultrasound treatment today... and hopefully I will be on the mend soon. But my spirits are already mended and that is what matters most, right?

Sorry for that long medical bulletin but I was so touched with all the tender, loving care (TLC) you good hearted souls have given me that I thought I must do a post to thank you all. And the waffling happened along with it. Lol.

Thanks again for putting up with this long story.

Hugs and I will soon be visiting you all as well,

Monica

DT card for Unstampabelles

Hello dear bloggers,

Thank you very, very much for all those kind and loving wishes... 

Soon I should be on the mend.

Here is my DT card for the 

February challenge of UnstampaBelles 

 Theme - 

Recycle, Eco Craft, Frugal bonus technique Paper Bead.

Any form of paper creation will be accepted as long as NO STAMPS (Digital or Rubber) have been used (this includes sentiments).

IDEAS: quilling, parchment, stickers, boxes, books, cards, scrap pages, etc.
You can find our rules here for further information.

Our sponsor this month is the lovely Anne from 

For the DP, I have recycled a newspaper print of a special kind of Batik (which is a type of hand printing on fabric with wax and natural colours.) This Batik was on display at the Jakarta Textile Museum last year and I have been saving the newspaper cutting for over six months... not too long considering I can hoard for as long as 10 years if not more!!! Lol.
The edges of the paper have been hand torn and the round nesties have been punched out of scraps of paper lying around on my table. The smaller nestie was the same size as the bigger one but I have used my deckle edged scissors to trimit to it's new size. 


The flowers are handmade as you can well guess and the leaves have been cut manually from scrap crepe paper. The ribbon is from my stash while the crystals are from Prima.

Incidentally this card was made before I developed problems with my hand - just to confirm that I am obeying the doctor's orders. Lol.

Will come and visit you soon - am trying to get some physio-therapy appointments so that my hands can be sorted. Am getting serious withdrawal symptoms without being able to blog.

Thanks for bearing with me...

Hugs,

Monica

Featured blogger

Hello lovely bloggers,

It is time for my regular monthly feature and this time the beautiful blogger is Beadee of  http://beadeesblog.blogspot.com

She makes great cards - clean, simple, uncluttered and elegant. Her posts often have  a dose of humour in them and that makes them all the more interesting to read.

And she always leaves me such lovely comments. 

So happy to have you as a blog buddie! Keep making those wonderful nestie cards while I rest my hands... 

Hugs,

Monica

Going to be out of action temporarily...

Hello lovely bloggers,

Just a short post to tell you that I have a ganglion (a swelling which comes about after the fluid oozes out of  a joint) on my left wrist.

 This is the hand I use a great deal to punch (me being ambidextrous) so it seems that it is under great stress.

The doctor has asked me not to use pressure with my left hand... how can he say that when crafting is my first love... He meant I should not use my beloved punches. If only he knew how much I am in love with my craft punches. I have been using them for well over 11 years and it is just natural wear and tear. Maybe I should try and make cards which do not make me exert any kind of pressure. 

On second  thoughts however, I will try and rest my left hand so that it improves... It is not an uncommon occurence though and often times there is no pain. Sadly in my case there is a fair amount of pain. So rest I must, I guess.

I will try and visit you all however after the pain subsides.

Until then I am this wounded soldier trying to be brave about not being able to make my beloved cards!!! 

Only you crafters would empathise with me... never mind.

Ciao and hugs,

Monica

PS: Not a nice way to start the beginning of the month, right?

A simple birthday card...

 Hello lovely bloggers,

Can you believe that January is at it's end... my God, isn't it amazing how these years are passing by. Really, it is the age of digital technology in no unsurest form.

Now to my card... Very simple and childish as my mojo is not very active these days.

The papers are from the book store close by. The gift and cake border punch is from Ek Success and so is the bubble border punch. The butterflies are what were left behind from a MS border punch - waste really but they looked so dainty that I thought I must recycle them. The ribbon is from my stash.

Will come and visit you all now...

Hugs,

Monica

Pictures of Bali

Hello lovely people,

I thought I must share some pictures of our short and sweet trip to Bali...

Paddy fields below - that was the view from our room. I felt I could watch it forever - coming from busy, busy Jakarta it felt like paradise!

Flora and Fauna in the hotel 

Aren't the flowers below unusual? See how the red flowers come out of white ones. Interesting, isn't that? On the left, one can spot two buds (waiting to blossom) still inside the bigger white flowers.

More flora in the hotel garden...

The day bed in our room ...

Close up of the wood carving above... all carved by hand. Balinese people are amazingly talented!

 Check out the carving on the study table - so intricate, isn't it? Model insisted on being photographed and I did not have the heart to ask her to stay out of the picture.

This is the foyer of a room close to ours... I get fascinated by Buddha images - they kind of relax me!

Aleeza outside one of the smaller side gates of the Bali palace. They still have a king and queen living there!

 This is a butterfly that fluttered into our room... dear hubby tried to help it to find it's freedom from the bondage of our room but sadly he damaged it's wings as you can see on the top left.

This butterfly stayed in the room all those two days that we were there and passed away minutes before we left...  I kind of felt I had to give it an honourable tribute hence the picture. We don't get to see many butterflies in Jakarta so it was very special for me...

Wish I had a better zoom lens to make my tribute more worthy.

Hope you enjoyed viewing Bali through my phone camera...

TGIF again!

Hugs,

Monica

Mizuhuki from a Japanese friend

Hello there,

Just a quick post to share what a dear Japanese friend brought for me from Japan... it is a paper crane, yes, it is made of paper!!!  The craft is called MIZUHUKI which is the tradition of making handicrafts out of paper.

The picture does not do enough justice to it  - it is just so delicate and pretty. This friend knows that I make cards so she thought this would be an ideal thing to give me and sure it is. I am fascinated! Japanese art and crafts have held great interest for me ever since I was a little girl and my dad brought home a traditional Japanese doll dressed in a pretty silk kimono. We had it for many, many years and now I wonder where it is. Funny how some childhood memories get sharper with time...

The sad part is that my dear friend is relocating back to Japan! That is the flip side of these expat assignments - you make friends and then when you get close, it is time to say good-bye! The good part is that there is always somebody nice waiting out there. So I am always on the look out. Lol.

Below is the middle of the crane - sorry that the bird is pointing in a different direction. I have rested it on the beautiful box that it was packed in. By the time I loaded the picture on to the blog, the bird mysteriously changed direction. Trust me, it did! Lol.

Thanks for visiting and I would love to hear what you think of this amazing paper craft called Mizuhuki.

Hugs,

Monica