El Salvador 2013: Day One is Done

Wow, what a day we had yesterday!  We visited El Congo, a community that has never had an NGO visit to help them. There were speeches by the mayor and they sang our national anthem!  The drive was gorgeous, winding along mountain top road, with a valley on one side and a stunning lake on the other. 

We saw 805 people in medical, 181 in dental and handed out 171 pairs of reading glasses. 

It was a great day with so many people needing our medical attention. I got to meet a 104-year-old man, whose only issue was eye pain. He was so sweet. 

It is so rewarding to know that these people finally know that there are other people out there who care about them. 

Here are a few photos I took at the end of the day. 

El Salvador 2013: Ready to Start

We are almost ready to start our first clinic day. As I write this, I am about 20 minutes from boarding the bus. 

Yesterday we packed our medicine bins and bagged some drugs and vitamins in record time. 

We have already had some challenges on this trip, which happens every year. Our truck, carrying items we had stored in Guatemala, was denied entry at the border. So, a pile of dental equipment and medical tools will not be here. Our team here was busy purchasing new items like a generator for the dental team and other dental units (at a cost of $5000 each) had to be brought down with us on the plane. Medical equipment had to be purchased as well. As for pharmacy, our bins had to be replaced and it was challenging to work with new ones that are different and much bigger. Hopefully we will still have room for them on the desks that serve us as tables at our sites. 

On another note, it's been exciting to see our team work together so well!  The people on our trip are workhorses!  They 105,000 vitamins yesterday and we were done before 4pm!!  That doesn't include the parasitic and other meds they also packaged up. It's all done. What a wonderful feeling!

As we go into today, pray for strength, health, and energy. Pray also that I have a better sleep tonight!  Thank you for your support and encouragement. 

If you want to read another blog about our trip, go to Speroway.com and click on blog. 

El Slavador 2013: We're On Our Way ... Almost

It's time again for another trip with Speroway to El Salvador. I'll be posting as often as I can so you can share in our experience and see how your support is helping us. 

Right now we're killing time at a Wendy's near the airport. Our flight times are flipped compared to our last trips, which is bitter sweet. It means we can spend time with our kids before we leave and they'll be awake when we get home. But it also means that we won't be arriving at our hotel until after 10, and we just discovered that our flight is delayed. Sigh. Oh, the joys of air travel. 

I just thought I would share some photos of how we are passing the time. :)

I'm going to miss these two. 

Next post from sunny, warm, and precious El Salvador. 

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #26: Announcing ...

Hello and welcome to another Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge!  The sketch for this week is a fun one.

Here is what I created with it:

This little guy is my friend's nephew.  Isn't he just adorable?  I used Babycakes paper packet and Stickese, as well as some Chocolate Baker's Twine, and ink.  The Sparkle Flourish was clear, but I coloured it with a Sharpie.  The word is stamped with the Trinity alphabet.  Here's a close up of the bottom:

Now, create your own piece of artwork using this week's sketch.  Be sure to link it up here and say in your post that I sent you!

Happy Creating!

Cross Canada Hop: It's All About the Bling!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians!  I'm typing this up just after arriving home from visiting with family.  Our first turkey dinner is sitting quite comfortably in my belly. :)

Welcome to our October Blog Hop featuring the NEW Base and Bling line. If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada, you can pop on over to Michelle's blog and start at the beginning. If you came from Michelle's blog, then you are in the right place!

Here is my project:

As soon as I saw the Base and Bling introduced at convention in June, I knew I had to make a blue (her absolute favourite colour!) hair clip for my daughter.  She loved it!  I used the Sparkle & Shine and Sarita textiles as well as a floral accent.  I popped the clear sparkle out of the flower and substituted a sparkle leftover from the necklace kit.

The flowers are made of circles, cut at various sizes and then folded in half twice.  Each layer has four circles.  I used the Base and Bling adhesive.  Boy, that stuff is fantastic!

Arianna is now asking for another one!  Better get busy.

Now, hop on over to Sheri's blog and check out what she's created.   If you get lost along the way, you can head to Michelle S Blog, as she has the complete blog list.

Join us again on November 15 when we will be featuring the projects from the new Mini Holiday Gift Guide.  Happy Creating!

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #24: I Must Admit

Hello and welcome to another Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge!  This week's sketch is so fun and has lots of potential.  Here's the sketch:

Are your creative wheels turning?  Here is my card:

The Babycakes paper was perfect for this sketch.  This card is actually going in my Creative Card Club set for this month. Here's a close up of the embellishment cluster.  The flowers and ticket were cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge.  

I hope you'll join us this week.  You can create any kind of project using this sketch.  Don't forget to link it up here and you could earn a top three award!

Happy Creating!

Products Used:

   

CTMH October Stamp-of-the-Month Blog Hop: Peace

Welcome to another SOTM blog hop!  Are you ready to start thinking about Christmas?  This month's stamp set is just lovely and will bring a traditional feel to your Christmas projects.

If you arrived here from Dawn's blog, you're on the right track.  If you are starting here, just keep following the links at the end of each blog post and when you get back here, you've seen all the yummy inspiration there is to see.

This is the set for this month, called Scandinavian Wishes.

Notice the red lines around the images?  They can be cut using the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.  How great is that!?!

I've been hanging on to a 6x6 canvas for a while and decided I would use it for this project.  Here's what I created:

I used pigment inks to stamp directly on the canvas.  The main image was sponged with Ruby, Cocoa and Olive.  The sentiment and border was stamped with Cocoa.  I loved how the border was exactly the right length to fit on the canvas.  In order to stamp in the centre, I placed a block underneath and it worked perfectly.  Here's a close up of the centre:

I do have a couple of tips when it comes to stamping with pigment ink on canvas.  If you are going to sponge the ink on a stamp, be sure to go back over the first colour again.  It dries very quickly.  You'll also want to huff a breath on your image before stamping.  I helps to re-moisten the ink.  I also gave the stamp a lot of pressure when I stamped it, way more than I normally would.  I pushed it down on the canvas to sort of encourage it to soak in a bit.

Now, it's time to hop on over to Kathleen's blog and check out what she's made with this fun set.

Happy Creating!