A Few Pieces of SewArtsy News

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve added a new category to the sidebar: Etsy Amys. These Amys are members of a new Etsy Street Team that I’m now a part of – Amys in the Arts! We Amys have banded together to support one another in our businesses, and to offer you some exciting opportunities to see, support, and buy from, a bunch of fabulous artists named Amy! We are new and quite a varied team, but are beginning to work on some really neat ideas – stay tuned! And in the meantime, check out my teammates’ Etsy stores!

And speaking of stores, I’m going to be paring down (but not depleting) my stock in the next few weeks to start packing up for craft show season. If you see something you’ve been thinking about purchasing, you may want to take advantage of my current stock. Full store stock will be back in November just in time for holiday shopping!

I just can’t believe it’s almost time for school to start. It always seems like the fall just flies by, and Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are just around the corner. Hope you’ll take some time to enjoy this last month of summer!

Happy Thursday, Amy

More Fab News!

Sam's blood test came back negative! His last hurdle to be cleared of his peanut allergy will be mid September, so I'll post more on this at a later date :o)

In the meantime I'm going to spend the next week and a half getting ready to send Caleb off to Kindergarten and to play soccer for the first time, and to send Sam off to his first year of preschool. My babies are growing up!!

I leave you with some photos from our beach vacation in the Outer Banks- it was so awesome!

Two down; One to go!

Blood test: done. We should know the results of Sam's RAST test in a couple of weeks. Sam really did a great job, however he did flinch at first causing the needle to come out of his arm. And knowing what he was in for at that point brought on the howls! So in went the needle again. One minute, a strawberry sucker, and a Bugs Bunny bandage later, and he was back to his usual antics :o) Mommy, however, was still clenching every muscle!

I pride myself on not being a queasy person, and can pretty much watch, look at, and handle human "grossness", but for whatever reason when Sam tensed up, so did I. And of course, it took me another 20 minutes before I could relax. So since my mom was with me and the boys, we left the clinic and decided to peruse the clearance racks at Old Navy. I just love it when stores put perfectly good clothing out for next to nothing :o) Retail therapy to the rescue!

Happy Friday! Amy

Fingers Crossed!

This morning Sam and I made a quick trip to the allergist for his 1-year retest for peanut allergy. The great news is that his skin test came out negative! He was such a trooper, and bravely gave up his arm, which I really did not expect. I figured I’d have to sit on him kicking and screaming :o) But he really impressed me, and I was so proud of him. And for his valiant efforts he was rewarded by the nurse with a blue monster truck to play with while we waited the 12 minutes for the allergen to take effect. Before we get too excited, though, I have to take him in for a RAST blood test, and if that comes back negative, then he’ll be allowed to eat a peanut butter sandwich at the doctor’s office. So he’s passed part 1 of 3!

Thankfully, at his young age he really doesn’t know what he’s “missing out” on. But I sure will be able to rest easier when I don’t have to read every label, or pass on something just because I don’t know what’s in it. This is one issue where I’m overjoyed that he’s a pretty picky eater :o) And if all is resolved in the end I know a few folks at our house who will be overjoyed that peanut butter is once again allowed to visit our pantry!

As a bit of history, Sam broke out in this rash after just licking a small amount of peanut butter off a spoon when he was about 18 months old:


It was a smaller red splotch here and there intermittently that started me thinking he might have an allergy to something, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was. After Caleb left a spoon (off of which he'd eaten peanut butter) on the table, Sam stuck it in his mouth and I yanked it right out before he could eat any, but the rash came on almost immediately covering his cheeks, mouth and under his chin, and that's when I called to have him tested.

If you are wondering about peanut or other food allergies, some good resources can be found on the web: FoodAllergy.org, PeanutAllergy.com, MyFoodAllergies.net.

I'm no expert as I've not had to deal with many more situations than friends and family's homes, and the church nursery, because Sam is so young, but there are blogs-a-plenty that are written by moms with kids who have more severe allergies and more life situations that could be problematic for their kids. Those blogs may be of more immediate help to introduce you to a community dealing with the same allergy issues.

Here's to passing tests 2 and 3! Happy Monday! Amy

Oh...the resources available today!

If I were getting married in this day and age, I would be addicted to Weddingbee.com! Befriending and chatting with other brides planning their weddings. Having open access to others’ wedding plans, ideas, purchases and opinions is such a blast, not to mention the rewards reaped from reading about plans that worked out great, or just didn’t pan out at all, before you invest your own time and money! And having the support of other brides going through it all is priceless.

Recently, I worked with a bride (Miss Canary) on some custom zip bags that were added to gift bags she was making up for her bridesmaids. This was my introduction to the Weddingbee. She is a wonderfully thoughtful blogger, and is a real asset to the site. Even though I don’t need to plan another wedding, I still found her blog enjoyable to read, and I loved checking out the other items she bought for herself or her wedding party, and the artists she came in contact with. Check her out!