Welcome to my Inking Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Candy!!

Welcome to our Inking Pink Awareness Hop! Our paper crafting community spans the globe and brings all of us together under a common roof. We are grandmothers, granddaughters, mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters, best friends, wives, cyber-friends and design team teammates. Many of us have family or friends touched by breast cancer and all of us want to encourage all of you to check yourself!

This hop will take you around the world, so please sit back with your morning coffee or evening tea and celebrate our stories and projects with us. Some of your fellow crafters along the hop are even offering blog candy! Please give a little comment love to each and every crafter along the way. We hope you enjoy our hop, and most of all we all want YOU to give yourself the greatest gift and do a self-check tomorrow. The more you do it, the more breast aware you will be!

Our hop starts at Patricia's blog so if you have stopped by my blog for a random visit, please head back to Patricia's to start at the beginning of the hop. Now, if you are well on your way through the Boobie Bonanza, then you came from Shelly's blog and you are right on track!!


my belated project, catch the details HERE

What I have to share with you isn't so much a craft as it is a story. My mother is a cancer survivor, and without taking you through the long version of the story, I will get straight to the point of what I want to share. She was diagnosed with uterine cancer when she was 27 years old, she noticed a strange cramping sensation in her gut and her menstruation had turned into an alarmingly bright shade of red. The fact is, that if she was not so in tune with her body, she may not have noticed the changes within herself. She made an appointment with her gynocologist, and at that point, there was nothing abnormal to be found within the routine exams. However, at her annual check-up several months later, there were telling and obvious signs of the disease and that is when she was officially diagnosed with stage 3 uterine cancer, doctors were able to confirm in that time, that the cancer was extremely aggressive, given the amount of spreading it had done in such a small amount of time, after all, she had very recently been in to get things checked out because of the unusual cramping and bleeding. In the end, she had to have her entire uterus and her cervix removed. She tried to hold on to her uterus, as she was wanting to have more children, and the doctors were willing to respect her wishes and simply remove, gosh this sounds gross, but remove chunks of her uterus where the cancer was, but it kept progressing throughout the uterus, and in the end, she had to settle up with letting that part of her life go. It wasn't easy for her, and in her own words, she truly didn't want to let doctors remove it, but her doctor sat her down and told her, "Don't get so caught up in what you want that you forget what you already have." For her, she had two young children, a husband and a home, and we stood the risk of losing her if she did not allow for the removal of her cancerous parts. Some story, huh? But I will leave it with her words of wisdom from her own experience and she told me that

"Attitude is everything when it comes to beating this thing. You've got to let them do what they need to do to make you better and stay positive."

I think what she meant was that you have to put your faith in the doctors and focus on your life as it is in the moment, and not worry about losses you may face in the future because of what is happening today. Be aware and alert of your own body and go and get checked up regularly. If you get in tune with yourself, and don't worry about the social stigma of feeling yourself, because by God, it could save your life one day!!!, anyway, get familiar with yourself and that will increase the likeliness of noticing when something just isn't right, and if you find something that just isn't right, go and get it checked out. I know that not all of us have the financial liberty of "just going" to the doctors, myself included, but there are many foundations and clinics that can help in times of need and our lives are certainly worth the extra effort it may take to find such clinics, that is for certain!!


Speaking of foundations..... I am offering a little "by donation" candy benefitting the National Breast Cancer Foundation. What you are being asked to do is to make a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation by clicking the DONATE button in the upper right corner of my blog. Any amount over $1.00 is acceptable, and you can elect to have me pay the Paypal fees if you prefer. After you have left a pledge, come on back and leave your name with Mr. Linky for a chance at winning my candy!! I will let Random Number Generator select the winner after the Blog Hop has closed, as well as share with you all how much we were able to come together and give to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (I know I always wonder, so I am going to include the total donation amount in the winners post!!!)

Just think how big of an impact we stand to make if we all come together and give. A dollar alone doesn't seem like much, but a dollar from each of us could really make an impact.

And here is what I am offering as a prize to one lucky hopper, it is a winter craft pack with a darling Tilda image, (Elise lover her Magnolia stamps and I wanted to give something with her in my mind and heart) charms, snowflake buttons, several metres of craft trims and doilies for your sparkling pink winter creations:



REMEMBER: This is a fundraiser candy, you must first donate, I have asked a $1 minimum donation, no max, naturally, and the proceeds will be benefitting National Breast Cancer Foundation



In case you get lost along the way, here is the list of Boobie Buddies.

Patricia
Betty
Bonnie
Carisa
Catherine
Chelsea
Danielle
Emma
Gini
Jamie
Jennifer
Jess
Karen
Kellie
Liz
Lori
Marlene
Meredith
Nicole
Shelly
Stephanie *you are here*
Susan is next
Trudy
Kimm




Thank you so much for joining us in our Inking Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Event, please head on over to Susan's blog to continue on through to the end of the hop, thanks again!!

EVEN IF YOU CHOOSE TO OPT OUT OF THE CANDY, PLEASE DO LEAVE A COMMENT TO LET US KNOW YOU'VE BEEN BY....

Stephanne