Homemade Party Invitations & Fall Decorating

First of all, thanks again to everyone for their prayers. You're a great encouragement to me right now :)

My doctor has diagnosed me with hyponatremia (low blood sodium) and adrenal dysfunction. They want to check my lipids, because high cholesterol can exacerbate this problem. I will have to fast from 9:30 tonight until 9:30 tomorrow morning, and when they get the lipid profile results back, they'll send me to an internist to determine the proper course of treatment.

*sigh*

I'm coping with all of this news by, essentially, not thinking about it. To distract myself, I spent the morning making Bee's birthday party invitations.

The great thing about being a scrapbooker is that I always have plenty of card stock, ribbons, decorative scissors, stickers, punches, and other fun supplies on hand. I find that when I'm upset, doing something creative is soothing to me. I remember that when I was a kid, I was always comforted by coloring in a coloring book, or making a snowflake, or just cutting and pasting pictures from magazines to make a collage. Scrapbooking is my grown-up version of art therapy.

I made these Barbie "12 Dancing Princesses" party invitations by printing an image on white cardstock, cropping it and rounding the corners, and gluing it to the front of folded, pink, 8 1/2 x 11 card stock. I printed the header on white card stock, and trimmed it with a decorative scissors. I attached the bow by punching 2 holes with a paper punch, and threading them with pink craft ribbon:


All of the party specifics, including directions to our house, are inside:


These invitations will fit in standard greeting card envelopes, which can be purchased by the box at Wal-Mart. It took about a half hour to make 3 invitations, and I didn't worry about my health once!

Last night, Bee begged me to get the Halloween decorations out. I didn't feel much like decorating, but these things are so important to her, so I dragged the Halloween box up from the basement. We wove (or is it weaved? I never remember. See how my English degree is paying off?) garlands through the porch railing,


and Bee agonized over the perfect way to decorate the front door:


She was very dismayed to find that mice had gotten into our garage storage cabinet, and had eaten a hole in Samantha the Scarecrow's sleeve. I assured her that it just makes Samantha look more authentic:


We decorated the mantle,


and put my sweet little witch on the china cabinet. I've always loved this witch, because her pudgy apple cheeks remind me of my girls:


The final touch was our Looney Tunes Halloween lights in the kitchen window, along with the Kleenex ghost family that Bee made in preschool:


Cakesie was so excited to see all of the decorations when she got up this morning. She cracked us up by grabbing a little light-up pumpkin and doing a funny little dance:



One of the great rewards of raising children is that they can always find a way to make you smile.