Hi Everyone, as some of you know, I am a Childhood Cancer Survivor. In a previous post I mentioned the The Parkway Run to benefit The Cancer Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that is being held this Sunday, September 28th. (Also my husbands birthday, Happy Birthday Babe).

In CHOP's effort to bring awareness to this disease and the effects it has on patients, they called and asked if they could interview me, and speak about the Late-Term Effects of Adults that overcame their Childhood Cancer. At first I was hesitant, wondering why me, there has to be a better story then mine. But of course accepted the offer in hopes that sharing my story will help raise awareness as well as money for the walk this Sunday.

Most people dont know that the Drugs that help patients conquer Cancer are so strong that they take an incredible toll and at such a young age they can effect many other parts of your growing body. Some of the late effects are Heart/Cardiovascular Disease, Respiratory Disease, Growth & Development problems, Second Cancers and Infertility.

As a direct result of my Cancer Treatments, I have Cardiomyopathy (Heart Disease) and Restrictive Lung Disease. My Doctors also thought that I would be dealing with Infertility too, since my ovaries were in fact radiated and the type of Chemotherapy I received can have a negative effect on reproduction. But, as most of you know, I was blessed with my wonderful son, Mason! Not only is conceiving a concern for Childhood Cancer survivors but carrying a child is also a major concern, especially when Heart Disease and Lung Disease are present. But we proved them wrong and Mason is here and we couldnt be happier.

I was so nervous about the Interview, I felt incredibly vain talking about myself, but Denise and her camera man Brian were great and made our whole family feel at ease. She asked me about what my thoughts were on these late effects that cancer survivors are dealing with, my hopes for the children fighting today and my feelings about how they may have to fight again later in life as an Adult. We also spoke about infertility and how it is now becoming a such a concern that young adults (teenagers) are presented with the options of freezing their eggs or sperm just in case they cant conceive later. What a "grown-up" decision to make at such a young age. Another side effect of Childhood Cancer, the fact that you have to grow up so fast, deal and see things that some people will never deal with their whole lives, face death in the face and beat it!

The clip is supposed to air Tonight, Friday September 26th, on the 5 o'clock news on NBC 10. I hope I dont end up on the cutting room floor! haha.

Thanks Denise and Brian, for making it so easy and comfortable to share my story!

Well I am happy to announce that we were accepted to showcase in the Haddonfield Fall Festival on October 18th. This will be our first fine arts festival and I am more then excited. It is sure to be a great day, besides all of beautiful Handcrafted pieces for sale, there will be events for the whole family. Carriage rides, pumpkin painting and scarecrow making for the kids, for the grown-ups; some of Haddonfields best restaurants will be showcasing their food curbside.

Saturday, October 18th (Rain date - Sunday, October 19th)
10 am - 5 pm
Tanner Street & Kings Court
Haddonfield, NJ

For information on Parking click here
For Directions click here

I hope that everyone can come out and see us, our booth number is 46, all of the Arts & Craft tables will be located on Tanner Street and Kings Court.

Today was one of those days where you just start to realize summer is coming to an end...fast. And although I absolutely LOVE fall & winter, fall especially, I start to think that soon our days outside are numbered and the weather will force us to bundle up and stay cozy inside.

So Mason and I headed outside for a little fun in the sun and a little "photo shoot", I use that term loosely since I have no professional skills (as you can see from the pics) and I really dont know what I am doing most of the time. We had fun and I thought I would post them, and to prove that I dont work "all" of the time...just "most" (to those that have accused me, hehehe). Please enjoy!

I have to apologize for my absence from the blog for the last week or so...I have been busy with both designing new cards as well as continuing to work on my latest venture. I have missed blogging and in an effort to say sorry I am giving everyone an opportunity to get a "sneak peak" at a couple of new designs.

These will be available in both the QuickExpressions line as well as in our stationery boutique. If you purchase from our boutique you will also have the option of printing on the reverse side as well. This a new feature that we will be adding to most of our notecards for a very small fee. I posted an example here.

These cards do not have to include a photo, especially if we are doing the printing. They are great used as invitations as well!

I hope you like the new designs, we have more ready and they will all be unveiled this Thursday in our email. If you would like to be added to our email list and receive our announcements and specials please email me your email address.

Ok, well, some of you know that we are going to be branching out and starting a new venture that will run along side of Tan-je-reen Design, a sort of "sister" store. I don't want to give away what we will specialize in, but...it has to do with sewing.

For this I have enlisted the assistance of my mom, "the master seamstress". This is a woman who not only made HER wedding dress, also made ALL of the bridesmaids and flower girl dresses. That being said, since she is incredible, I have asked her to help me with some ideas and designs I have floating around in my head. But needless to say, to be able to produce enough of these beautiful, high quality, carefully hand-made products to keep orders rolling in and customers happy, its a lot of man hours and work, even for the "the master seamstress".

So, that leads me to this...I have taken on the task of learning to sew. Not only do I want to help out with the labor, I want to be able to design and create pieces that may be hard to explain or convey to people.

Some have used the term "obsessive" or "anal" to describe how I am about my designs or work, a bad trait to have in some cases, but when you are creating and producing custom pieces for people, they are GREAT traits! and I found out that its a great trait to have for sewing.

I sat down at the machine, after having multiple heart palpitations and deep breaths, lined up the fabric with the needle, pushed the pedal thing (I guess I still have to learn the correct terms) and off I went. I designed the pattern from scratch and did all of the sewing myself (can you tell how proud of myself I am)

Although not a fancy pattern, in fact very basic, I am very fond of my new business card holder. The fabric is a bit bold and bright for my taste, but it has grown on me and I think its pretty cute!

Enjoy the photos, please leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!

A big thank you to the "the master seamstress"!

PS - We are working hard on some fabulous Fall and Holiday Card Designs, keep checking the website for updates!

I know that Tan-je-reen Design does not specialize in Party Planning or decorating but it is something that I love to do. I have been lucky enough to plan, design and host many partys and get very excited when challanged with a blank slate. I havent really got to design/decorate a party since my sons last Birthday.....but here it is again, a year later and I am thrilled to be right in the throws of the last minute details.


The party is next week, and until 4 days ago I had no idea what the theme would be. My son loves every character on Noggin/Nick Jr. so picking one was to hard for him. Then while I was in a party store trying to get the essentials (for a party I hadnt designed yet), a lightbulb went off. I saw the colors of the Nick Jr. logo (Orange Peel & a Dark Teal) and thought, why not have a Nick party and then Mason can have all his favorite characters represented. At that very moment the creative juices started to flow. To avoid a store bought look to the party, I did not buy the premade character decorations, instead I opted to create functional pieces, like these snack bowls. They were placed down the center of the childrens table offering goodies to snack on while also bringing the characters to the table.

We have done party planning and can easily recreate anything you see here for any themed party! If you are interested in our help or to purchase center pieces, tags, favors or decorations please visit http://www.tanjereendesign.com/ or email me mgaffney@tanjereendesign.com

A few years ago I focused in the areas of Logo Design, Company Branding and website design. I have since taken a softer route and haven't done that...well, since designing my own logo. Until 2 very special people asked if I could help them come up with a logo for a company that I hold very dear to my heart. Colleen and Tina are very important people in my life and I feel very strongly about the vision that they have for this company and for mothers in our area.


So when they asked for my help I couldn't help but scream...YES! These are two incredibly creative and innovative women, they had the idea and vision for the logo, I just helped bring it to fruition....

This venture will be incredibly successful and when their site launches I will post the link on my blog and on www.tanjereendesign.com!

Well I guess I should say Hello to the world, this is the first time I have blogged and I have to say I am bit nervous. I plan on using this medium to post information on Tan-je-reen Design but also as a way to express the thoughts that go behind the designs that I create.

Sometimes I feel like the concept or my thoughts are not always conveyed, each piece I create is special and unique to me and has its own "personality". I hope that I can use this medium to explain and let people understand why and how, these pieces came to light. I know that not everyone will be interested in understanding that, and that is OK. As much as this blog is for others to read about my work, it also for me.

I have found a very happy balance in my life, and this has just come recently. My work is becoming more a part of me and a labor of love, my son amazes me each & everyday and I have made an effort to surround myself with friends and family that I love and make me genuinely happy. Life, unfortunately, is short. You get a small window to make what you do count and I want to make sure at the end of my journey I can honestly say that I tried my hardest to do that.

I feel good about this blogging thing! Now that I have broken the ice...I am going to jump right in! My next post shouldn't be to far away....