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.