We're here, and the work is already beginning!

It was a very early morning yesterday, getting up at 5am to get to the airport on time.   Our 30+ team members met at the TACA counter to weigh all our bags and redistribute our items if needed.  We managed to fit almost all the donations of clothing, toys, etc. and the meds and our personal belongings into the four suitcases we were allowed to have, but we did have to move a few things around.  Unfortunately we had to leave behind some soap, it was adding just a bit too much weight.  We'll probably donate it somewhere at home.

We travelled with some interesting items: big dental cases, IVs, suture kits, blood pressure cuffs, syringes, as well as meds like anesthetic, creams, some high dose pain meds (narcotics), amoung other things.  Excitement was in the air as we got checked in and headed to the gate.  Security was fine, although Chris, who has done this about 5 times now, forgot to empty his pockets so he had to go through the scanner a number of times.  I, of course, went through the first time with no problem.  ;)

At the gate, we sat and chatted with everyone.  Some people meeting for the first time.  I had such a different feel about the trip this time.  I was so looking forward to it and since I knew what to expect, the anticipation was very different.  On the plane we switched seats around a bit so spouses could sit together.  Chris sat across the aisle from me and I shared a row with Jack and Michelle.  Jack is one of the dentists on our team.  Michelle, his wife, is a hygenist.  They're a great couple and Michelle and I had a wonderful conversation.  The flight lasted 4 hours and 20 minutes and was a bit bumpy on the way in to San Salvador.  Chris was sitting beside a mom and her little boy, about 18 months old.  He got sick on the way down.  Not so fun.  I really felt for her.

We arrived in San Salvador and after going through Immigration, getting our bags, and then going through Customs, we were out into the warm El Salvador weather!  It was beautiful and sunny.  We were met by the team from the El Salvador FTC office, two buses, and a police escort.  I'll have to get some photos of them later this week.  They actually stopped traffic for us on the way to our hotel.

Last night we had a meeting to chat about what the week will look like and then a very yummy dinner.  We have a separate room to house all our supplies and distribution items.  It's chock full of boxes of crocs, items to give away, medical supplies, food like vegetable soup mix and vitameal, and children's vitamins being stored in the bathroom.

That's Sonia in the photo, one of the two people in charge of distribution.

 

This morning, before we leave for the orphanage, we're are taking those vitamins and bagging them into packs of 30.  Linda, Lilly, and Dashina decided to start doing that work by the pool.  As I type this, almost the entire team is down there, bagging vitamins.

The cold I've been fighting all last week has settled into my nose and throat.  I'm hoping I don't pass it on to anyone and that it doesn't sap my energy like colds usually do to me.  Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

Until tomorrow,

God Bless.

Preparations are under way!

My husband and I leave for El Salvador in just two days.  For those of you who may not know, we are working with FTC Canada (Feed the Children) for one week, setting up medical clinics in five different sites around San Salvador, the capital city.  I will be working in the pharmacy with Chris, yes, dispensing medication.  We have to be at Pearson International Airport at 7am on Saturday, so I've been busy packing all of the wonderful donations we received from people in our church and other places.  I can hardly believe how much we got!  We have baby clothes, T-shirts and shorts for kids, hats, toys, balls, underwear, stuffed animals, soap, hair clips, and lots of re-useable bags!  Here's a couple photos of everything sorted.  The bags on the table are full of toys and other goodies. 

We're getting excited, but there's still lots to do.  Stay tuned.  My next post will be from El Salvador.

Here's a little sneak peek at the type of things you'll see.  These are a few pages from my Nicaragua album.

Until next time,

Happy Creating!

Open Your Heart for Haiti

We've all heard about the diaster that's hit Haiti and we all want to help, even Close To My Heart.  For the month of February, purchase a package of Textured Cardstock and you'll get one free.  But that's not where it ends.  Every time you take advantage of this promotion, CTMH will donate $2 to Operation Smile for their work in Haiti.  What can $2 do?  When you think that a Haitian's daily income is only $1.35, a lot!  Every dollar counts in the race to perform surgery on people in danger of deadly infection.  Visit www.operationsmile.org/haiti for more information.

What is textured cardstock?  This cardstock has a subtle weave through it.  It is one colour on the front and a lighter shade on the back.  The white core shows beautifully when you sand or distress it and the textured shows when you ink it.  Textured cardstock is available in the following palettes:

X5747 Basic
X5681 Spring Harmony
X5745 Summer Celebration
X5669 Autumn Harvest
X5670 Winter Cozy


If you want to place an order, let me know by Wednesday.  I'm putting in an order before we leave for El Salvador on Saturday, bright and early.  Stay tuned to this blog.  I'll be posting every day (hopefully).  In the meantime,
Happy Creating!

February Stamp-of-the-Month Blog Hop and Club Layout

A new month has arrived and that means another stamp-of-the-month blog hop!  If you came here from Tanya's blog, you're on the right track.  If this is your first stop, just keep hopping until you get back here and you will have seen everything! 
This month's stamp set is called Piece of Cake and it's full of yummy goodies.  Here is what it looks like:

Isn't it sweet?

Here is the project I made.  We're doing a birthday layout at our club on Friday, so this stamp set was perfect.  My layout will be used for my son's first birthday.

I used a pattern from Imagine, Animal Cookies paper pack, Playful alphabets, and White Daisy embellishments.  I also used a black rub-on for the number one, and my blending pen to colour the cake.  All the papers' edges are sponged with Desert Sand ink.  Can't wait to get my photos and journaling on this one!

Now it's time to hop on to Traci's blog and check out her beautiful artwork.  Happy Creating!

Want an Up Close Look at what's going on in Haiti?

My good friend from university is living in Haiti, just outside Port-au-Prince, with her family.  She and her husband work for Baptist Haiti Mission and she has been blogging faithfully to let people know how things are going.  They have a hospital on their compound, so as you can well imagine there's lots going on.  It is amazing to read how God is working in just their small part of this disaster.  Go to Bakers In Haiti to read all about it.

January Club Layout

Look at this, a second post today!  I've got more artwork I wanted to share with you before the February Stamp-of-the-Month blog hot.
My club wanted to do a Christmas theme, so I went to my new favourite Christmas stamp set, Holiday Trinkets.  They were also interested in heat embossing, so we did some on the ornaments.  We used the Jingle paper pack and the colours that go with it.

I love colours in this paper pack: Tulip, Creme Brulee, Juniper (although we didn't use that one), and Olive.  So bright, so fun. 
Yes, that is the wrapper from a hairbrush in that photo.  Arianna decided it needed to be hung on the tree, too.  It's not an ornament anymore, though.  ;)

Happy Creating!

Felicity Artwork

I love this new paper kit being offered as a promotion to celebrate National Papercrafting Month!  It has gorgeous diecut papers and fabulous colours.  So far, I've made two projects with it.
The first is a layout to celebrate my son's baptism.  I had too many photos of family members and so used a flip flap to add the extras.  I had already trimmed them to 4x4 so I made it work by using the see-through aspect to add a little birdie.  I also did some machine stitching around the edges, only the second time I've done that!

The next project uses our new journal.  I took two photos.  The first shows my artwork inside the sleeve on the front of the journal.  This is so useful for protecting your work and you can switch it out if you want to!  I'm using the journal for sermon notes, so it'll be in and out of my purse each Sunday.  I didn't add any ribbon to it because of that.  For the second photo, I pulled my artwork out so you could see it better.

For both these projects I used Cocoa ink and some Antique Copper brads.  On the layout I also used a few Twilight corduroy brads.  For the journal I stamped the bird in Barn Red ink.