Monday, April 30, 2007

Monday Musings

It's a Monday. Kids are off on a Pro-D day which is nice as I don't have to rush back & forth from school. I love lazy days :) The sun is even shining which we've missed terribly! My hubby keeps teasing (perhaps he's serious?!?!) that we're moving to Arizona. He often wonders if people wonder WHAT IN THE WORLD WE'RE DOING LIVING HERE! I love it personally, yes the rainy days get wearisome, but the beauty of it outweighs those days for me. I can't imagine not living by the ocean. So... I'm thinking I gotta get some stamping done. May arrives tomorrow and May is full of birthdays -- even a new one as my sister-in-law is due on the 17th!!! :))))))) I went into my stamping room & it looks like my kids were *playing*. I need to do some clean up before I can get stamping. Hopefully I'll then be able to post some for you to see. I'm looking forward to the new BLING coming in the catalog this summer. RHINESTONE BRADS! How cool is that?!?

Sunday, April 29, 2007

I WON!!

I ran my first ever 10K OFFICIAL run today in Victoria & I won. No, I didn't win in standings, but I won a goal I thought I'd never be able to do. Not only that, but along the way I fell in love with running! It was such a beautiful day, an amazing run with some amazing friends -- what a fabulous weekend!!

Friday, April 27, 2007

CHIPBOARD CRAZE




OK, some VERY cool chipboard coming up in the NEW IDEA BOOK -- July seems so far away! LOL. I hope you can see these well - there's everything in here from accents, photo corners, flower stems & petals. VERY COOL. Here's a sample from the cruise one of the top-dogs showed ;-) Cute little hostess gift using a little box as a *pot* some Dr. Pepper jellybellies for *dirt* and then the chipboard flower *planted* in the middle -- TOO CUTE!

Chipboard is easy to work with. My favorite is with design paper: simply flip your chipboard over, trace it out onto the wrong side of the design paper, cut it out, glue it to your chipboard, trim if you need and the MOST important part IMO, SANDING BLOCKS!!! Use them to buff up the edges. It gives your chipboard a nice soft/antique touch and a perfect "finished" edge! You can also slide your craft pad straight on top & it gives you great coverage. If you like to get messy when you create, then pull out those acrylic paints and go for it! Possibilities are endless -- isn't that why we LOVE this craft so much. :)

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

I miss Ferry!!


Ferry was my room steward on the ship. I LOVE HIM!!! Every day he'd clean my room, make my bed, shine my bathroom. He even brought me food when I asked. :) Of course is reality this morning when I had a shower, I had to pick up the towel, wipe off the faucet & tidy it up myself! The joys of a vacation, sure makes you LOVE being spoiled. I think the jet lag is SLOWLY wearing off (which means I was actually able to sleep past 5am this morning! whew!!) We got home VERY late on Monday (nearly midnight here, which is nearly 3am ship time) and had to wake up the kids to give them hugs & smooches. Takes all the blues of a vacation being over to feel those little arms grip your neck and your little one beam when they see you!! LOVE THAT!! Monday morning my Mom & her hubby pulled out (*sniff, sniff*) to head for home as they stayed & spoiled the kids all week while we were away!! Kids had such a wonderful week with them. Tuesday was back to making lunches, getting the kids to school, a t-ball game, a minor baseball game and a clubs meeting. Breakin' in slowly, yah right! {LOL} Now the countdown is on for my 10K run this Sunday. And yes, I did keep running while I was on the ship... it's not everyday I can say I ran to Aruba! It was so hot, and I enjoyed every minute of the heat! The ocean was like a bathtub so warm (compared to us here on the coast!) So I got up and ran this morning again -- it was a lot chillier than last week! But it felt good to get back out there and get ready for this run. It's going to be a fun weekend & amazing to cross a goal of my life-list-of-to-dos!! :)

Monday, April 23, 2007

Pick A Petal Stamp Set


OK... here's a sneak peeks before I head to bed, the jet leg is killing me.... lost three hours somewhere and I cannot seem to find them :)

This is a new stamp set from the 07/08 Catalog. It's called Pick a Petal and it was demonstrated on the ship. It looks like an awesome set, but I'm a sucker for flowers! They did some great things with this set. In one demo she even used a side of one of the petals as a stem! Too cute. I will see if I actually took a photo of the card she did that with. OK, my eyelids are shutting involuntarily. Ship time is 12:45am and I think simply having to cook dinner tonight made me exhausted. One can get used to having someone pick up after me at all hours of the day, cook for me & spoil me with treats consistently!! :)

ENJOY tidbit #1 !! Off to see if I can make it to the pillow.....ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz...

We're BAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaack.


Amazing. Spectacular. Unforgettable. Adventurous. Exciting. Overeating.... oh the overEATING..... BLISSFULLY WONDERFUL. That was our cruise with Stampin' Up! :) Too much food, too much sunshine, too much fun -- loved every minute of it. Caught up with some great gals again (Hi DEANNA, CARMEN, AMY!!) and met up with some new ones (HI CARRIE or is it Kerri, or Keri, or Carey... why are there so many spellings of this name! LOL.... Hi PATRICIA!!) Can you imagine a ship FULL of of stampin' gals... incredible. We stamped, we played, we watched demos... even got some sneak peeks of what's coming up in the NEW CATALOG!!! WANNNA SEE?????

Hopefully I'll be posting regularly now that we're back (and I have so many photos and samples to share....)

stay tuned.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

In The Fast Lane


It truly is crazy how busy life has been in preparation for our cruise as well as the house project & three children! :) I've been very glad to have birthday cards & such on hand for occasions such as these when I'm so busy that I can't even stamp a card *gasp*! :) I'll be gone for a couple of weeks & then hopefully I'll have tons of photos to share with you to see :) There's always amazing samples & ideas on the boat.
This is a card I made for a wedding. I sure like The Art of Life stamp set. Even though it's retired, I have to pull it out now & again. I thought this was a very versatile card. I also love to stamp a matching envelope when I have the time. You could stamp any sentiment over the top for any occasion. Enjoy. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Sometimes they just won't look :)


This is my "Munchkin #3"....It is nearly impossible to get a calm picture of this girl! All her photos are goofy faces & crazy looks. Even for her school photo (last year at pre-school) she told the photographer she didn't know how to smile for a picture -- too funny. We settled on one and we just giggle when we see it. She was so "calm" in this photo -- but still.... simply being Sarah. I thought I need to go & print off a collection of *Sarah "poses"* and do a page of her & her unique *smiles*. Just thought I'd share this pic before heading off to bed -- I love crawling into bed.... night!

I'm Still here, honest!


WOW, what a week! It's crunch time on the house for a number of decisions (lighting, pluming, heating...) so it was a full week of decisions & meeting with the trades. Of course the GOOD news is that we're on a roll again with the house & that's beyond exciting. Then of course was my middle munchkins birthday party (think 12 boys -- I know! {LOL}), soccer festival which included 2 games on Sat, two games on Sunday and a big pizza party at the coach's house.... a family night at our church (we made adorable planter boxes for some pansies -- kids loved it!) Of course there's still all the *usuals* that every mom knows (that ever-growing list of to-dos), all this to say it was a real treat to get this card in the mail from my up-upline, Sue Farrant!!
She used Sahara Sand and rounded all the edges (love that) and used my new-favorite tab punch on the side & the notations paper. And how cool is that ribbon that she frayed. Very neat idea! THANK-YOU Sue!!
Well, 10 more sleeps until the cruise and my list of things to do is great, but I will try to post a wee bit more before we leave..... thanks for all the comments on the photo-chipboard!! I just used our tacky tape to adhere it to the chipboard and then used a sanding block around the edges -- it was that easy! Hope you're able to try it out!!