Birthday and Last Treatment Vlog

Thank you all for watching the vlog and for all your love and support. 

More vlogs coming soon! :) 

Have a beautiful weekend!

Faith Hope Love

It’s been a long, emotional and challenging year of treatments. After completing surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and 18 rounds of Herceptin, I am finally finished. I only have five years of hormone therapy to do and the side effects are very stressful and annoying but I’m going to try and figure out ways to minimize them. 

It has been so hard. So difficult. Very emotional and a challenging year. I feel I don’t even know how to function without thinking about infusions and results and appointments. I only have follow up appointments and yearly check-ups. Sometimes I stop and think what just happened? 

I am so grateful that I’m here and I’m trying to appreciate each moment without drowning in the emotions that I dwelled in the past year. It’s hard to move forward, but with faith in God and focus on love and family my heart ♥️ is full and hope is here.

 Hope and positivity for the future. One day at a time. 

Thank you all for being here for me and being a part of my journey. 

Thank you from my heart,

Love ❤️ always Maria 

Ways to support me:

Poetry Book | Subscribe to my Youtube

Thank you!

Bridgerton Inspired Free Paper Downloads

 

I've been loving Bridgerton Part II. I love all the acting, the costumes, hair, makeup and flowers. All the details are perfection in my opinion. Have you watched Bridgerton? I actually like Part II better than Part I and I look forward to the next season. I felt super inspired that I created a few paper goodies to share with you. I created these on CANVA. You can download these goodies for free and enjoy them. 

This is perfect for a journal entry or to write a letter to a friend. Even turn this into a party invitation. 

Lady Whistledown's Society Paper 

Inspired Stationary

Download Here

Bridgerton Inspired Bookmark

Download Here 

I hope you enjoy the paper goodies. 

I hope you are all well and thank you for your comments. 

Enjoy!

 

New Eco Friendly Skincare And Beauty

 I kindly received the #ChickadvisorEcoBox and I'm so grateful because I really love everything. 

I wanted to share it with you because I feel these products are so amazing. 

The products that I kindly received are pHisoderm facewash,  Yesto eyecream, Clean Beauty Collective Fragrance Radiant Nectar, Rimmel London Kind And Free Mascara, Clarins micellar water.

This fragrance is so Fresh and at the same time has  musk notes. So beautiful and I love it as much as I love my happy clinique fragrance. 

A fantastic micellar water. I use this to remove makeup and also to refresh the skin before bed. so wonderful. Clarins is my number one love. 

Yesto eye cream is so lovely. Soft, gentle and super hydrating. I really love the packaging it is easy to pump the product out. A very lovely brand. 

I wish I would of known about this brand when I was doing chemo because this product is not scented and very very gentle on the skin. It's a creamy consistency and very soothing and hydrating. 

I'm very happy about this mascara. It has natural ingredients and the bristles are perfect. I really like that this formula has shea butter. The formula smells like honey by the way and its so lovely. 

My eye lashes have grown back short after chemo so this product will help my eyelashes grow better and I feel good knowing that it has 99% good ingredients. Vegan and eco friendly. 

Kind and Free by Rimmel

Thank you so much to Chick Advisor for these products. I appreciate it so much. 

I highly recommend them. So amazing!

#GOTITFREE

#CHICKADVISORECOBOX

April Free Stationary

 

Hello APRIL!

I love writing letters to friends do you? 

Here is the April Stationary that I created on CANVA.

 Enjoy!

FREE STATIONARY 

The Last Party! Paint Party Friday

The week started slow but It headed toward the right direction. I made watercolour art, created junk journaling, abstract art and I even made rubber stamps. I've created a Notion account so I can research topics that I'm interested in. Is it weird that I enjoy research? lol  So far I'm learning about Zines, Rubber Stamps and Art History. 

Here is the Zine I made.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝒾𝒶 (@bestdayblogger)

I wanted to say thank you to Paint Party Friday, I will miss sharing art with other amazing artists. 

A huge thank you again to Eva and Kristin for being amazing Hosts.

   

I am still participating with #The100dayProject,  I post on IG

Daily.  If you like to follow it would be so wonderful to see you over there.

@bestdayblogger

Have a lovely weekend my friends!

Thank you so much!

Poetry Book  |  Youtube 

Paint Party Friday! PPF CELEBRATES 11 YEARS!

 PAINT PARTY FRIDAY CELEBRATES 11 YEARS!

Thank you Eva and Kristin for running Paint Party Friday for 11 years! This is truly remarkable, inspirational and amazing. I am grateful for PPF because I have learned so much from other artist and the community is so supportive and wonderful. Truly inspirational place to share art and receive love. Thank you so much for everything. I will miss you all so much!


It snowed this week in Toronto.

This week I've been creating art everyday for the #100DayChallenge and I am very proud of my self. I am enjoying the process and learning to let go and have fun. It feels good to create and find inspiration. I'm truly grateful. 
I wanted to say thank you for all your love and support in my previous post. I appreciate all your comments and love. 
Mixed Media Layering and adding various pieces of paper on the page is so much fun. This piece is GRATITUDE for LifeI used paints, markers, crayons and paper.

Journaling in my favourite bullet journal Leuchtturm 1917I created a self portrait and a collage. 

Sometimes when I don't know what to paint or draw I just make shapes and colour them in. This makes me happy. 

Watercolour Landscape

Mixed Media 

Junk Journaling

It's so much fun to recycle paper bits and put them together on a page. 

I love junk journaling. 

Abstract 

I used acrylics and markers

Sometimes if a piece doesn't work out I put it down for a while and go back to it. 

This was my least favourite and now its one of my absolutely favourite pieces. 

Still life vase with chalk pastels, pencil crayons, pencil and markers.

Still life vase with pastels and pencil crayons

Abstract art with recycled pieces of paper

I hope you all had a lovely week being creative and I truly hope I inspired you in some way.

Thank you from my heart,

 I am so grateful to each and every one of you.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Much love, positivity and many blessings.

Love always,

Maria 

March Free Stationary

 

Happy Sunday!

How are you all doing?  I created a March Stationary and wanted to share it with you. 

Hope you enjoy it and I hope you write a lovely letter to a friend. 

Enjoy!

@bestdayblogger 

 I created the design on Canva. 

Download here: MARCH STATIONARY 

One Year Ago on This Day…

 “You have stage one; grade three ductal carcinoma and you are HER2 Positive.” After all the scans and tests and endless stress and worry, that’s what she told me and handed me a paper. On that paper was a diagram of a woman, it outlined everything that I was diagnosed with and all the treatments I had to complete to avoid cancer from spreading and coming back. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, Herceptin and hormone blocking therapy for five years. She looked at me and said “You will be okay”. I felt numb, hopeless, alone, vulnerable and shocked. This could never happen to me. Why is this happening to me? 

From the moment of my diagnosis tears welled up very easily. My mind and body went off the rails. My mind was foggy. The first thing I thought of is, “I don’t want to die. I love life so much. It’s abundant. I love my husband and children so much. I want to spend all my time with them and grow old with them.” The words coming out of her mouth were all muffled and I sat on a chair and felt all alone. It felt like I was having an out of body experience and I was looking in on myself. My body shook and trembled. I wanted to cry so bad but held back. I wanted my mother and couldn’t have her by my side. I needed hope and grasped on to each word that the doctor was saying. “You will be okay” she said and I thought to myself that “she knows these things, right? She’s seen a lot so she must be right.” She scheduled all my scans, blood work and surgery. 

I went in for the surgery and I felt so vulnerable. “My life is in these people’s hands” I thought to myself. I felt scared. I usually like control and now I was learning that somethings in life cannot be controlled. I laid down on the bed and warm blankets were placed on me. The nurses and doctors speaking softly and calmly really helped. The anesthesiologist calming and soothingly put me to sleep. I woke up and the lump was gone. It felt good knowing it wasn’t in my body anymore. In the following months I started chemotherapy proceeded by radiation. 

Chemotherapy was the worst part of this entire experience. No one can really prepare you for the pain that’s involved with chemotherapy and the side effects are atrocious! I had to go in the hospital alone due to covid. All my hospital visits alone. Chemotherapy brought on pain, muscle stiffness, jaw pain, teeth pain, mouth sores, diarrhea, nausea, migraines, loss of appetite and taste, hair loss, weakness and more. Four rounds of chemotherapy and each time my side effects got worse. After completing chemo my husband and daughters celebrated with me by putting up a banner and ribbons. We had cake and spent time together. All the side effects do not fully go away. Some are still lingering. Numbness of fingertips and toes, weight gain, body aches, anxiety and stress issues and along with these issues was also the side effects of radiation and hot flashes.

I had twenty rounds of radiation on my left breast. Radiation treatments don’t physically hurt at the time of treatments but the side effects start happening a week to two weeks after. The area gets red, swollen and can form blisters. The skin needs cream and hydration three times a day or more. It’s pretty much like getting a bad burn. What radiation does is kills all the cells in the breast but just like chemotherapy the good cells grow back and repair. Everyday my husband whose dedication and love helped me through this entire journey, would drive me to my treatments. For each treatment I felt very vulnerable and emotional during the entire radiation experience. The technicians were very kind and gentle but I felt sensitive and exposed. Even the atmosphere of the treatment centre felt vulnerable, sensitive, delicate and emotional. There is one thing that helped my deep emotional ache and sadness which hung in my heart and chest, my love for my family, my faith and gratitude for life.

This entire experience changed me as a person. I feel I have more faith, gratitude and love for life. I’m grateful for the small moments. The small moments in actuality are so special and beautiful and meaningful. I have slowed down the pace of my life. Even though I’m more emotional and sensitive than before I’m also stronger and more aware. I want to do more and see more in this world. I have a strong thirst to learn and crave new experiences. I want to embrace life with all the good the bad and the ugly because life is a gift. 

There are remaining Herceptin treatments, hormone treatments and a yearly mammogram to follow up. My mammogram is scheduled next week and I’m so emotional and scared. I have so many worries and anxieties. Will everything be okay? Will the scans be clear? I can only wait to find out. One day at a time. I can only be fully in the moment and fight with all my strength for my family with faith, love and gratitude. 

P.S My mammogram scan was clear. 

#MyCancerJourney on Youtube

March Showers By Maria Medeiros

 March Showers

March showers 

Melting snow

Branches dancing rhythmically too and fro to the wind

Down below there are puddles

 I jump in splashing around

My happy feet are all wet now

Grey skies

My colourful eyes reach up to the sky and feel the droplets glide on my face and lips 

Making my frown right side up again.

Excerpt From: Maria Medeiros. “TRUTH.” iBooks.