Girl's Night Out

We try to get together for birthdays, just the girls ya know. Sometimes we go out every other month and sometimes it's more frequently. This particular night we enjoyed New Mexican food, I pesonally had a stuffed sopaipilla. So stinkin' yummy. I wish I had a pic but it was quite dark in there. The floral paper is flocked with the orange and I used my SU Office Accoutrements set for the journaling block and flowers. Orange Peel Stickles for bling and buttons from various sources.

Things are going along swimmingly. We leave for California in 9 days and we're all so excited! We'll be gone for ten days. I just need to find someone to water our garden and trees while we're gone. I'm thinking the neighbor girl if she's here. I've got to get our little trees planted today so I hope you all have a great day and I'm off!

Makin' Tracks...EMDR

I was just creating for this card. I'm sure it will go to some adorable little boy I know. The stamp is from Basic Grey. I used Not Quite Navy ink. I inked the edges with Old Olive. EK Success grass punch and I popped some up with dimensionals. Ribbon is from American Crafts.

I was out of sorts this weekend. I experienced something that was extremely traumatic to me on Saturday and only felt better yesterday after going for a session of EMDR therapy.
I wasn't exactly skepticle when I went in but I was afraid it wouldn't be able to help me with what I was experiencing. I was proven wrong and I came away from my session feeling better than I have in years and will probably go back at least once more. I want to say thank you to my friends that have had EMDR and shared their own amazing experiences. It truly helped me to take that leap and heal myself. I am definitely going to suggest my mom find someone in her area that does EMDR, it would help her so much. I'm just rambling as always, but it was so interesting to see how your brain can be reprogrammed to NOT react to certain things the way it used to.
I hope you have an amazing day.

Dear Husband

So I haven't mentioned what we did for our anniversary...we went out to dinner at an upscale BBQ place. Travis didn't think it was that great but I loved their sauce and my chicken was cooked to perfection. After dinner we went to see The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian. Wow, the special effects were amazing. I thought the storyline fell a little short, but I'm a book lover so what can I say. This is the card that I made for Travis. It's different for me, but I love the way it turned out!

The funniest thing about the card I gave him and the one he gave me was what we wrote to eachother. It was like we were reading each other's minds. Verbatim. I laughed out loud at how alike we've become in our thinking. The children also helped Travis pick out a pair of earings for me! They're darling. I told Trav he could buy a scroll saw from Craig's List...I just didn't know which one would be the best one...so I'm letting him choose.

"Gotcha" puffy sticker from SEI. Paper is from Scenic Route. Image rub-ons are all from Heidi Grace. That's pretty much it. Have a super Sunday.

Jakob's Teacher So Rocked!

I made a template with my circle punches and then rolled my Whimsy wheel over the template. I traced around the circles with a fine tipped pen. Removed the template and colored the images in. I then replaced the template and chalked the circles in for more definition. This is for my son's teacher. It says "Teachers touch hearts forever". I used my dymo labeler for the quote.

On the inside I printed out..."and they can't live on apples alone, so here's some chocolate to enjoy!"

Here's Jakob on his first day of 1st grade and on his last day. My, how he's grown. Next year I'll have to get the teacher to stand both times. Heehee. I always think of that Veggie Tales song, Billy Joe McGuffrey...1st day in the 1st grade. He needed 1st aid in the 1st grade... So catchy... follow the link to listen.

Fondue With Friends

My friend, Jenn, put together a fondue night for our friends that have known eachother since before marriage or children. It was my first forray into fondue. Man, was I in heaven, I must have eaten my share of the night's millions of calories. So yummy. I had a lot of fun with this double lo. The pictures of the people were very yellow due to lighting so I converted those to b/w and left the foodie pics vibrant. We also had a white elephant gift exchange. The green goo was one of the things we ended up with and the rest of the night was spent by all making farty noises with it and just generally manhandling it!!!!

Today is our ninth anniversary and I've got a sitter so we're FREEE!!!!! I don't know what we'll be doing but I'm sure we'll have a good time.

Have a great day.

RAK from Jenn

Here's the wonderful card I received from Jenn the other day. It's so awesome. I just borrowed the picture she had on her site. Thanks Jenn!!!!

And here's the card she made with the castle/cloud images that she sent me some off. Aren't they adorable!?!?!

Wow, I feel pretty special.

Have a great day.

Lifetime of Happy Tomorrows

I had a lot of fun with my brand new Verve stamp sets, can you tell? I used Julee Tillman's Mojo Monday Sketch #38 for my jumping off point. I need to make an extra special card for one of my kiddos at church who was baptized this past Saturday. She's such a sweetie. I used the stem stamp from SU Double Line Doodle set to go with my Verve Visual Petals and Stems set. I think I have a thing for polka dots. A lot of scraps of paper here. I used my Creative Memories Oval Cutter to cut the oval for the sentiment.

Yesterday was my dh's birthday. We went to Pizza Barn for dinner. Travis loves their pizza. We came home and at German Chocolate cake and Breyers Loaded Waffle Cone Ice cream, again, his choice. Then he got on the roof and hooked up the cooler because MAN was it hot yesterday! Happy Birthday Honey! He actually went deep sea fishing with his dad and friends over Mother's Day weekend and there was an understanding that that would be his "present". They caught quite a lot of fish and ended up with about 20 lbs. of fillets each when all was said and done. Does anyone know any good fish recipes? We have many different kinds of sea fish and I'm at a loss besides baked or grilled. Hee hee.

Oh, and don't let me forget to give a big shout out to Jenn D. over at Stamp Your Heart Out. She's such a sweetie. She sent me the cutest card (which I will post as soon as I get a pick) and some images that my daughter, Tessa, fell in love with. Thanks JENN!

Have a great day!

Zoo for Me and You

I found these pictures while trying to organize all of my pic files on my computer last month. I was suprised with the ultra cool shots I was able to capture with my dinky Kodak digital, the first one I ever owned. WOW! The peacock really put on a show this day. The polar bears were even in rare form...posing for the camera. I really have a hard time with zoos, it's a love/hate realationship. I love that my kids and I get to see all these different animals we might never see otherwise and I hate that they have to be caged and kept like they are.

I used my dymo labeler and some Soft Sky paper to add dates, names, and details. I went over them with Cool Carribean Ink. The title is done with Art Warehouse clear alphabet.

Tessa's birthday...last year.

So here's the double lo for Tessa's 4th birthday party. I used some flocked paper from Costco. I wasn't quite the right color so I inked it up I just made the whole lo better. The title was stamped with SU's Jumbo Outline Alphabet (thanks Erica, for letting me borrow it). The other stamps are SU Polka Dots and Petals.
Church was good today. No chocolate, but still good. The kids were totally rowdy and I let them talk A LOT! Normally, I'm all over them to settle down, but what the hay, summer's comin'! I think I might get some scrappin' in today...we'll see.

Blake is graduating...

Hard to believe I've been a part of my dh's family that now I really do feel like and Aunt. It will be nine years on the 22nd of May. Blake is Travis', sister's son. My kids love him to death and he'll be at the beach when we're camping next month so they can't wait! I wanted to do a special card for Blake cuz he's such a special guy. This card has lots of texture and stuff to feel, the letters are plastic beadsthat are quite large. I hope Blake likes it, you see, he was born with no sight and loves to feel things and hear repetative things. He also loves to make funny voices up which is one of the reasons the kids adore him. I was thinking of adding the year, embossed in silver in the right hand corner. What do you think? Or does it "feel" done enough to you.

Have a great day.

In Sympathy

My friend, Kari, called yesterday and aksed me to make her two sympathy cards. I was happy to oblige, although sympathy cards are always challenging for me.

I started with this gatefold card. The silk flower is a bit lighter irl. Dragonfly stamp is in River Rock, handmade leaf design paper. Handmade ghost flower with Saddle Brown StazOn inkk added.. Soft Sky cuttlebugged bg inked over in Soft Sky ink. Finally I sewed around the front panels for the finishing touch.

It's been raining for the last two days and I'm in heaven. Means I don't have to water the garden or the flowers AND that there's not a TON of wind. The only drawback is the leaky roof. Yup, we've got a screw hole leak right above my craft area because I wanted to hang a vintage lamp and put ribbon in it. We will be getting a brand new roof in September. I'm waiting with baited breath...a bunch of my paper was almost dripped on today!

Have a great day.

Jemez Camping Trip 2007

Imagine, if you will a large journaling block on the left hand page, underneath the title and covering much of the scalloped corner. This is one of the layouts that I "completed" at our SU weekend retreat. It's so much prettier IRL. Jemez, New Mexico, is such a beautiful piece of nature. My kids loved it there and had such a great time. It did rain quite a lot when we first got there but look at the double rainbow we were blessed to see...just click on image for super size. We had yummy breakfast burritos in the morning and Travis made an apricot cobbler in the dutch oven for dessert. I love just hanging out and not worrying about the daily grind. Take care and have a great day.

Layout, global warming or last days?

Just posting a picture of a lo I did on my MIL and FIL. This is a picture we took a couple of years ago at Disney Land. It's amazing what Weight Watchers has done for them! They look so thin now compared to this pic.I used silk/paper flowers that I purchased at the $1 store for this lo. I scanned it in but I think I'll take a picture of it later. It's so hard to get a true representation of a lo or card on the blog ya know!?!?!

I've been thinking a lot about all that has been going on around the world lately, ie earthquakes, volcanic erruptions, tsunamis, tornadoes. I just wanted to put the question out there...what the heckdo you think is going on? My very close friend thinks it ALL has to do with global warming...I thought to myself that the last time I checked volcanic and techtonic activity aren't even remotely related to global warming, are they? We're very opposite politically and sometimes I feel that gets in the way of us speaking about things without letting politics rule. I love her so much but I have to admit I was frustrated after hanging up the phone. So I'm asking you...what's your opinion. Mass intelligence out there.

I feel horrible for all those that are suffering at this time, 9,000 dead in China, someone from our church is living in China, his mom has no idea how he is yet. My other friend from Church is from Chile and she's so worried for her family.

So, do you think it's time we REALLY started preparing for "something major" or do you think if we just cut back on our greenhouse gas emissions and our carbon footprint everything would be all right? Just puttin' it out there.

Have a thought provoking day.

21 Week Old Baby Bump

Do you know how hard it is to get your five year old to hold a bulky camera still while you beg her to take a picture of your belly for posterity's sake?!?!?!?!??! So, so, so, so, so hard. I just about gave up after blurry try number nine...now, where did I leave that stinkin' tripod? This one is still blurry if you get in close and the bg was super distracting, but this is what we're workin' with here ladies. I tried to make it interesting. This will go in baby #4's book along with a progression of the burgeoning belly.

This is good as it got gals. Have a great day!

KWerner Color Inspiration Challenge

This is my first attempt at kwerner's color inspiration challenge #8. The colors are Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie and Brilliant Blue. I found that my Bashful Blue was a lot darker than the example square from K's Blog. Still works though. Are we getting in the mood for Father's Day cards yet?

I used my SU Bronc Buster stamp set. Main image stamped in PP. I stamped the swirls in WW on the bg. I roughed up the edges of the main image and sponged on some Bashful Blue. I don't have any Brilliat Blue so I fudged with a piece of embossed tape for the sentiment. TIP: One of my favorite things to use on cards are finishing washers. Travis brought them home one day for some project and ended up not needing them...he turned to me and said, "I bet you could use these on YOUR stuff!" Sure enough, I have. They work perfectly with regular sized brads.

Have a super day!

Mojo Monday #36

Had a wonderful day today. Tessa graduated from preschool. They were all so stinkin' cute. I now have her on video doing the chicken dance...side splitting action I tell ya. Paper cap and all.

Oh, oh, oh, and yesterday I reaceived my brand new toy from Lesli over at Dragon Fly Time. I was so excited to see the little package on my porch. A new Cuttlebug for moi! Yeah.

I made this card for my mama for her birthdayusing Julee Tillman's Mojo Monday sketch #36. This year it actually falls on Mother's Day. She's kinda unlucky that way I guess (like those who share b-days with Christmas). I'm a good little girl and ALWAYS give her a card and gift for each of the special occasions. We're originally from Illinois and my mom loves cardinals, now I know this Pun Fun bird isn't exactly a cardinal but you get the idea and so will she. I made my own ghost flower out of some packaging and used a red sharpie to add polkadots. I used my sprial punch and tied ribbon around the "tabs" in coordinating colors. The Always Artichoke flower is from the Be Happy set.

Grocery Ramblings...

On a side note I am CRAVING watermelon like ALL the time!!!! No one has it on sale right now and I just went to Smith's and paid almost $7.00 so I could have some sweet, watery, cool goodness back in my life. I don't think I've ever spent that much on a watermelon, now please don't tell me there's nothing to these crazy hormones. I also spent $3.00 on oranges and another $2.50 on apples, I bought a loaf of Nature's Own 100% Wheat Bread $2.50 (only one I've found that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it besides the low carb ones), I found a new cereal in the cereal isle that caught my eye and snatched it up it's called Uncle Sam's Toasted Whole Wheat Flakes with Flaxseed (all the bran flake brands have HFCS in them as well but this doesn't and it has 10grams of fiber...watch out world!) and finally I gave into the other craving that Never goes away, the one for chocolate and bought a Symphony bar with Toffee chips. Yummo! Total grocery bill...like $18.00...cravings BEGONE!

Have a great day.

Happy Mother's Day my sweet MIL!

Go visit http://wooddeboraha.blogspot.com/ for some hints at great blog candy. Kitty's Krafty Blog and such

I LOVE my Mother In Law! Now, how many people can say that? She is truly amazing. Mother of eight children and such and inspiration to me. I really wanted to do something in purple for her, she loves it. I really DON'T like purple for some reason. I have a hard time working with it and sometimes I hate what I create with it...but I'm diggin' this card. It's pretty straightforward. Sentiment is from CTMH. Hope she likes it. I also made this plaque for her. It's faux tile. You make it from MDF wood, route out the lines, glue a picture on it and then pour really thick enamel on it. So pretty.

You Did It!

A lady at my church asked me to make her a card for her daughter's graduation. Her daughter is a married mom of two who stuck to it and graduated with honors! She's a very proud mama to say the least. Hope she likes the card.

All stamps are Technique Tuesday except for the "You Did It!" that's Wordsworth. I made the mortar board and tassle by myself and added a rhinestone brad from MM at the top...I always have a hard time finding the center of the square...even with doing an "X".

Have a great day!