a hottub, surgery, a photoshoot and some news

This is me with my loverly cousin, Lauren. Blake and I spent New Year's Day this year with Lauren and her husband Matt. We played an incredibly long round of Settlers of Catan, enjoyed kabobs and delicious blended drinks in an amazing rock bottom spa and enjoyed each other's company. It was a great way to start 2012.

Lauren and the newest addition to their family. Shelby.

 Many years ago Lauren and I (along with my mom, my sister and my uncle- Lauren's dad) spend a week in Puerto Vallarta. It was an amazing vacation. We went snorkeling, rode a banana boat, danced our little hearts out at the Hard Rock Cafe, went parasailing, swam in the ocean late at night and enjoyed pizza parties with the local kids that sold us gum during the day. We snuck into a Marriot and used the pool at one point and enjoyed (virgin) daiquiris in the pool beside a waterfall. This evening reminded us of that adventure.

My husband had surgery on January 9th. They removed about 10 inches of his small intestines. It was a section that was mostly scar tissue as a result of (more likely than not) Crohn's disease.



I went with him to the hospital early in the morning and camped out in the waiting room after a walk to a nearby Starbucks. I had a book, notebook, crocheting and netflix on my iphone to keep me busy.

The procedure was supposed to take a couple hours and only took about 45 minutes. Apparently the portion of the intestines that was total rubbish was very easy to find.

I got to see Blake several hours later and eventually we got moved up to the 6th floor where he was lucky to get his own room. So very nice. 

The view from the window was lovely... Blake had to just take my word for it the first couple of days. 

My collection of visitor's tags.

 In all he only spent 4 days in the hospital. That is quite enough, thank you very much. I did get to know the hospital pretty well. Important things like where the cafeteria was located and also the bank of microwaves. Crucial information like that.

In the elevator after a long day in the hospital.

They stapled Blake up. Pretty gross, huh? I do, however, approve of the use of Transformer band-aides.
Also, I decided to try and redo some photos in my shop. Blake and I spent some time in his school design studio and photographed my octopus scarves on a dress form. 

Lovely, huh?

With the help of Blake, I also rephotographed a bunch of coffee cozies... some haven't been listed yet. Others I will update on my Etsy shop later. Exciting, isn't it? Well I think so at least. 

 In other news, a local shop is going to start carrying my coffee cozies soon!! More on that later! Wee!