Peter Pan, Help!

Peter, please take us to Neverland... I don't want Danica to grow up. At least not too fast. And I don't want to grow old... LOL. Every time I take Danica's photos, she looks a bit older and bigger than the last time. What is going on? My baby is turning into a little girl. Oh no! I love going through her old photos and videos to see how much she has changed in the past year. And let me tell you... she's definitely turning into a little lady.

Just a quick update on my health - My doctor started me on this immunosuppressant called Cellcept and I was on it for about a week. That drug made me very sick! I started getting migraines, mouth sores, eye infection, sore throat... so I asked him if I could stop taking it. And as soon as I did, the migraines went away. I am very sick lately and to be honest, I don't know how I manage to take care of Danica and do all the house chores. I still praise God, because He's always by my side. I pray for strength each day and He gives it to me. My liver enzymes are still elevated and the only drug that helps keep the numbers down is Prednisone. So it looks like I'm going to be on steroids for a while. I pray that I don't have to be on it forever. I know some people are on it for the rest of their lives, as a maintenance drug. Please, please, please... continue to pray for me. I really need to get better so that I can enjoy my life. Not that I'm not, because I love my life but I just want to be normal again. 

Guess Who's Back on Etsy?

Me! Yay! I had a little bit of time to make headbands and decided to sell some on Etsy. They are super cute and the headbands are very stretchy, it fits newborn to adults. All the flowers are hand made with fabric, ribbon, lace, even ricrac. I just love making these. Please support my hobby. I really enjoy making these and it would be awesome if I can actually sell them... so that I can buy more materials and make more. Hehehe. I am way too obsessed with  these hair accessories.

My Job Description

- sweet wife to Raul

- loving mommy to Danica

- photographer

- chef 

- interior designer

LOL at the last three... I'm delusional! Only in my household am I those three. But honestly, I do a lot here at home. I'm happy to be a stay-at-home. I get to see Danica grow each day, spend a lot of time with my husband (unlike when I was working 12-hour shifts, 3-5 nights a week). I really enjoy my job at home and hopefully we win the lotto so I can forever be a stay-at-home wife/mommy. That would be awesome! So I can make more cute things, also. Like these headbands I made for Baby Ava:

Ava is a beautiful baby girl, born last month. Her parents are Angel and Polly, they live in Nevada so I will be mailing these headbands to them next week. Still have to add felt on the back of the rosettes. What do you guys think? I tried the yellow one on Danica and here's how it looks:

Self-Portrait

I took some photographs of myself yesterday. I am 10 months post chemo. My hair is growing like Lion King's hair. LOL. My cheeks are still uber chubby secondary to steroids. Hope I won't scare you away. Hehe...

Lunch Time

Raul works 2 miles away from home, so he comes home for lunch everyday. How lucky, he is! Danica and I are lucky, too, because we get to see him and spend time with him during his hour break. Today for lunch, we had left-over Stir Fried Noodles with Vegetables from last night, so I didn't have to cook. Yay for left-overs. Anyway, Raul always spends time with Danica before he goes back to work. I love them so much!

Rosette

Remember that headband I made last week? Well, I added rosette fabric flowers with pearls to it. Omg! I love how it turned out. I think I'm going to buy more fabric at Jo-Ann's. Here is the link to the tutorial: http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/fabric-rosettes-tutorial

Inspirational Quotes

I took photos of these lovely flowers earlier when Raul and I took Danica for a bike ride. Please click to enlarge and view the quotes that I have added. Hope you love it!

Also wanted to let you guys know that I received the information in the mail regarding the Annual Bone Marrow Transplant Reunion at City of Hope. I am so excited to be a part of it and I hope my donor will be there. If you do not know yet, my donor is unrelated. I don't know anything about him except that he was 43 years old when he saved my life. I love him, whoever he is. God bless him!

And Another One...

My liver enzymes have been fluctuating since September of last year, so my BMT doctors started me on Prednisone. They tried to wean me off the steroid, but my ALT and AST labs went up again. Three weeks ago, one of the doctors decided to put me back on high dosage of Prednisone to control the GVHD in my liver, it worked... for a while... until he tried to wean me off the drug again. So, I've noticed that if I take less than 20mg of Prednisone a day, my labs come back out of whack. The thing is, I can't be on Prednisone for this long. It is killing me... well, not really. I only say that because it makes me super hungry. I'm eating like there's no tomorrow. I've gained 6 lbs in the last couple of weeks. My face looks so swollen. My stomach is distended. Plus, there's a chance I could have diabetes with this drug. So, I'm on this new medication called Mycophenolate. Basically, it's an immunosuppressant used to prevent rejection following a transplant. One of the side effects is it may lower my blood count (but not to the point where I will need transfusion again, at least I hope not... well, my doctor will keep an eye on me). I get my blood drawn every week, just to make sure I'm okay. Also, to determine whether there will be changes with my medications. I pray that this drug will work for me. Please, Lord, continue to heal me. I just want to be normal again.

DrawSomething

My facebook friends have introduced me to DrawSomething and I am hooked! If you've never heard of it, it's like Pictionary where you draw something and another person has to guess what the word is. I love those type of games! Anyway, this random person, instead of drawing something for me, she wrote "well" ... and for the longest time I was like, "What is she trying to say?" I couldn't come up with anything. I hit the pass button... and guess what the word is? It's "WELL." Aaaah... pissed me off... why didn't she draw a water well or something? Argh! Ok, that's enough rant. What I really wanted to show you are the shoes I got at TJ Maxx and this turquoise, ornate photo frame. Don't you just love it?

Cheese and Spinach Ravioli

This is a semi-homemade recipe. I got the cheese and ravioli from Costco, cooked as directed. It takes three minutes to cook the ravioli (my kind of recipe... quick and simple). For the rest of the recipe, here we go... saute garlic, add chicken breast (brown it), add 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup chicken broth, add the cooked ravioli, add baby spinach, transfer to a plate and grate asiago cheese on top. Very simple, right? And it's delish! I love cooking :)

And how cute are these cousins?

Danica and I drove to Pomona today because I had a dental appointment in Walnut. My car wouldn't start this morning so Raul had to jump start it for me. We have two Acuras. The thing is, with Acuras, I noticed that if you don't drive the car within 4-5 days, the battery just drains out. It has happened with my TSX and Raul's TL. And because I'm a stay-at-home mom, I don't get to drive the car much. Anyway, so we finally left the house at 8:30 am and while on the freeway, Danica vomited... a lot! I didn't pull over because I was already running late and plus she just fell asleep after she threw up. The car smelled so bad! It was 9:45 am when I drop her off at my Mom's house. I got to my dentist at exactly 10 am. I hate being late. I'm the kind of person who either gets there early or right on time. So I had my cavity filled, then I stopped by TJ Maxx. OMG! I love that store! I mean, who doesn't??? I bought a pair of nude, Calvin Klein peep toe pumps and yet another ornate frame. Can't get enough of those! After my TJ Maxx trip, I went back to my Mom's and had lunch with my sisters. My mom had a bowl of lemons and oranges, so I decided to have the kids play with them. Haha... don't tell my mom! Oh wait, she'll see the pictures. Oh well, at least they made cute photo props. I love how they turned out. Well, that's all for today. Hope you try my recipe and enjoy the photos. 

I'm Gonna Say It Again

I love my new lens! Aaaah... I'm so glad I bought it. Seriously, I've been snapping a lot (LOL. As in taking pictures)! There are a few things that I want to share with you guys. First, how cute is this white photo frame? I bought it at HomeGoods for $4.99. The baby is priceless ;)

Second, I framed some of my favorite scrapbook papers. What an easy way to add color to the wall, don't you think? I bought them online, 3-4 years ago and don't remember what brand it is.

Next thing is, did you notice what Danica is wearing? Well guess what??? I made it! And here's a tutorial - Make sure your scrap fabric is double the length of the onesie, sew a straight stitch along the middle (do not backstitch), grab the bottom thread (from the bobbin) and pull it. The fabric will start to ruffle. Then just sew your ruffled strip to the onesie. And for the headband, make a thin strip of fabric, make folds, and sew onto an elastic headband. How simple, right? So fun to make, too.

Here's one more project I made using a tutorial by Amanda of kevinandamanda.com:

If you didn't follow my instructions above, you can also check out Amanda's tutorial. She has pictures and step-by-step instructions on how to make the ruffles. Anyway, here is my camera strap slipcover. I love it. It is super cute.

I also have a new recipe, but I think I'll save that post for tomorrow. Enjoy these photos for now:

Danica's Bike

When I was a kid, my mom never really allowed me to play outside because she said there are strangers out there and it's dangerous and those kids out there are so dirty. LOL. I know, right? And to be honest, I don't remember her playing with me. Well maybe it's because I have two sisters and we pretty much played together. Anyway, my Auntie Lisa gave Danica a Toys R Us gift card for her first birthday and we decided to buy a bike for her. It's pretty cool. Since she's only 13 months and can't reach the pedal, we're able to just push it around like a stroller. Once she reaches 2-3 years old, then we can take out the handle of the stroller part and she can just pedal on her own. I want her to be active, so we have this routine at home: she wakes up around 8:30 am, I feed her breakfast, she watches Yo Gabba Gabba and Fresh Beat Band, I give her a bath (because by this time she also has #2 - sorry TMI), then we have reading time, I prepare lunch, feed her, then we go outside and ride her bike, come back to take a nap, then I try to blog while she's napping, also clean the house/do laundry, prepare dinner, and ME time.... I love my life! Then Raul gets home at 5:20 ish, we have dinner and from here he helps me out a lot with Danica.

Got a New Lens

Woohoo! I finally got a new lens for my camera. The one I got is AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX Lens. I think it's great. I'm not a photographer or anything, but just loves to take photographs of my daughter and my paper creations. Speaking of which, I have been so inspired to make cards lately. I will share them with you either tomorrow or next Monday, I promise. Back to the lens, I bought it online because it has great reviews and a lot of people recommended it. I really like it, I think it takes clear photos even if the subject is two feet away. The only thing is it's a fixed lens (so I think that's what it is called), meaning you can't zoom in or out. You'd have to move yourself, which I don't mind at all. Plus, most of the time, Danica wants to come close to me, so it is actually the perfect lens for us... for now. Well, I love it! Let me know what you think.

Thank you, Food Network

I tried a new recipe from the beautiful, Giada DeLaurentiis and it was awesome! Well, at least that is what I thought of it... and so did my husband and mom. I love watching her show. She always has easy-to-follow recipes and her ingredients are simple. I did alter her recipe a bit, substituted bacon for pancetta and omitted brandy because I can't have any type of alcohol in my system. First, I baked yam and sweet potato, with 1/2 cup heavy cream, sauteed  garlic and onion, and 1/2 cup chicken broth. Topped that with grated asiago cheese. Placed in the oven, 400 degrees for 45 minutes with aluminum foil, then remove the foil and wait another 15 minutes. It was heaven!!! Then for the main course, I fried some bacon, caramelized an apple, fried porkchops, and prepared the sauce. For the sauce, I sauteed garlic and onion and added 1/2 heavy cream. I'm sure it's better with brandy, but unfortunately I skipped that part. Maybe when I'm 100% stable with no medications, I will try it. Anyway, let me just tell you... everything was delish! I love my new recipe. Thanks, Giada!

Oh, and how do you like these glasses I got from HomeGoods? I love that store!