Printable Stick Figure BSE -royalty free

This is Rebecca. She's a stick figure. I've been thinking about doing some sort of stick figure breast self-exam printable for a while now that could be included in things people sell to help raise money for breast cancer research and awareness. It was one of those ideas that kept being shelved until today. So here it is, in 2 sizes. So you can print it to fit one page, or you can print two copies on one page and cut the page in half.
Add your own text if you wish.

The reason it finally came off the back burner is two-fold. The first is the lady I named the stick figure after, she's a very good friend of mine who was diagnosed last year with breast cancer. She went through treatment, and at this point the prognosis looks very good. It's been scary, but she faced it with dignity, and she's in my thoughts right now.

The second reason is because today was my first mammogram. People told me lots of horror stories about how awful it was, and truly, it wasn't. My appointment was at 10 am. Since I had to be somewhere at 11 I was a little worried about how long it would take. The technician told me that it wasn't going to be a problem.

(skip this part if you don't want to get too personal!)

First I had to change into a cape sort of thing, and she asked if I was wearing deodorant or powder because that's a no-no. Then she explained what she was going to do. She placed small adhesive bandages that were printed with flowers and had tiny metal balls in the middle over my nipples. This was to mark their location since they don't show on a mammogram. Then I had to step up very close to the machine, hugging it almost, so she could do one breast at a time. My breast was spread horizontally between two plates. Hold my breath while she takes the picture, repeat for the other side. There was some pressure, but nowhere near the  "wringer" effect that I'd been warned about. Then she repeated the process, this time vertically.
If you have any moles, skin tags or other things like that, they may mark them with something like a hole reinforcement ring that will show up on the mammogram so the person looking at them knows that's something on the outside of the breast.
I was out of there and where I needed to be with time to spare, even with her careful explanations and the fact it was my first time. The worst part about the whole procedure was taking the bandages off after it was over.
It's not a lot of fun, but it's also not horrible. Since this was my first time, it's to establish a baseline, and she explained that I'll probably have to come back since there are frequently irregularities that need to be checked out when establishing that baseline.

Architectural Inspired Mandala to Color

This mandala to color is inspired by decorative architectural elements like rosettes. The outer ring pattern is called "Egg and Dart", the first beaded pattern is a "Bead and Reel" and the second is just a beaded pattern, surrounding a rosette. Click on the image for a larger version in transparent PNG format. 

Photos from a very snowy day (eagles!)

Last night, my husband and I went out to visit with my friend Sam to play Plutocracy. Every time we do this, the weather gets crazy. The first time, there were bad ice conditions, the second, it was well sub-zero and just freezing (photos from that outing here). This time, it was a snow storm with low visibility.

It was a very slow drive. Every time a drive pulled ahead of us and hit the snow on the road, things went white.
But on the list of things you see more often in Alaska than you do in other places...

Dog sleds on a truck outfitted for carrying dogs.

When we got out to Eagle River, we saw an eagle flying fairly low over the road, then off to one side, we saw this. All photos after this are uploaded at full size, so click to see the detail!

Yes. That's a tree full of bald eagles. 

This one made me smile, the branches look almost like it's make up, pretending to be The Crow!

Then a half block down, there was another tree that had both eagles and ravens in it!

Juvenile bald eagle and a raven.

We had fun playing our game for a few hours, then drove back into town. 

Currently, I'm trying to figure out what I can sell on Etsy to help make a bit of extra money to get a swatch collection printed at Spoonflower. My husband quit his job at the beginning of the month, and while he's looking for a new one, we are budgeting carefully. I'm thinking maybe an e-book of knotwork designs to color, or possibly post a bunch more blank templates for sale. 

Dragonfly Tea Box and Coloring Page

My friend Rosemary likes my printable tea boxes and also really likes stained glass effects. This is NOT the tea box template she means. But the other wouldn't have worked with this design. Click on the image to open a larger version. Print on card stock, cut, score, fold, glue. I recommend Chrome browser for printing directly from a browser.

I hope you also enjoy the coloring page. I really love how this dragonfly turned out and it will probably show up in other designs. Click the page for a larger version. Transparent PNG format.