INCREDIBLE HAPPY MAIL DAY! (warning: VERY LONG POST)

Yesterday I received the absolute most incredible happy mail ever!
A little background info is probably needed for everyone to understand: for several months on SCS I have been hosting a friendship appreciation thread. We are currently in round 3. It is somewhat of a secret sister concept except that people nominate friends that they would like to send a little happy mail to. The response has been tremendous (I think round 2 had something like 150 nominees). What I do is keep track of the nominees/nominators, send quetionaires to nominees that I send back to the nominators, keep track of postal and received packages. It is a lot of fun to see all the love shared and all of the wonderful friendships that people have made through SCS. This round I received a message from Renee (happystamper05 on SCS) that I was being nominated by someone her or maybe not her. I was totally floored. A week or so ago I received $25 gift certificates to Gina K and PTI from my secret friend "Renee or maybe not Renee". I was totally overwhelmed by the generosity of my secret friend/s. I used the Gina K gc to order Kindred Spirits Sentiments and Kindred Spirit Naomi. The PTI didn't last long either...I got TONS of fun goodies from them...ink, paper, ribbon...
After all of that, yesterday I received a HUGE box in the mail with a return address of Secret Friend (Renee or maybe not Renee). This was TOTALLY unexpected. The gc's were already INCREDIBLY generous. I opened the box and literally broke out into tears. It was full of WONDERFUL goodies! TONS of stuff! I still get choked up trying to write about this. Whomever you are you have totally made my day, week, month, etc.
The friendships I have made on SCS are so precious to me. I've gotten to know so many of you over the past several months/rounds and it is so fun to keep the friendship apprec thread going. When I first started this I wasn't sure if it would catch on or not, but after seeing the hostess appreciation thread I immediately wanted to start a friendship one. I know a lot of you don't know me really well, but I have to share this with you...before I "found" SCS I was a VERY lonely stay at home mom. I had quit my job as a scientist about a year before finding this site. I didn't really know any other stay at home moms and I felt isolated and completely depressed. After finding SCS and joining and hosting a few swaps I quickly found a few ladies (You know who you are) that I can honestly say are now my absolute best friends in the entire world. They have helped me through my hardest times and my happiest. I feel like I am so incredibly blessed to have found a family of such loving, caring, generous souls. As I've hosted this thread I've met some new and wonderful groups of ladies...PSF's, the dorks, and others. It has been awesome to see the love these ladies have for each other. The PM's I get are always so great...I have lots of people tell me that they wish they could send to more people. The love that goes into so many of these packages is so evident. The personalized items have so much meaning. I have absolutely loved doing this. I keep reading over this post and it honestly just doesn't come close to conveying the thanks and love I have for whomever (Renee or maybe not Renee) for brightening my day with this tremendous gift! You (all of you) are INCREDIBLE and I love you all dearly!

I found this poem that I felt very fitting to share:

My husband has finally gone to work
My children have finished their play
they've gone to bed their stories read
Now it's my time of day.

I've had one of those days
you know what I mean
so I sit back and relax
and turn on my screen.

I'll talk to all my friends
who know just what to say
to make my stresses go
and my troubles fade away.

My friends you're always there for me
whenever I feel blue
and though we've never met before
I know our friendships true.

And although we haven't been friends for long
in this short time it seems
we shared so many things already
our hopes, our fears, our dreams.

We come from different walks of life
but we share a common bond
and it's time to say that of all of you
I've grown so very fond.

So thank you friends for being there
whenever I've needed you
I know you're always there for me
and you know I'm there for you.






Here are some pictures of all of the wonderful goodies that I received. The envelope says Do NOT open until 5/2 (which is our reveal date for this round). Thank Goodness they didn't send the package any earlier as I am not very good at waiting! I'm being good this time though!
After opening the box it was almost as someone had been stalking me. A lot of the stuff was stuff that I have wanted so bad lately. The DCWV dp pack is something that I wanted SO bad but I'm currently on a spending freeze. I've put that pack in my cart at Joann's probably 20 times just so I can cart it around the store for awhile and then put it back. I LOVE it!!
I am still just completely overwhlemed. There is just so much stuff here!
Here is some Martha Stewart ribbon, some Art Institue glitter (my FAVORITE!), an adorable bella, some bing (also my FAV!)












I got TONS of glitter. If you follow my blog you know that glitter is my staple product. I pretty much make NOTHING without it. There is more Art Institute glitter (Once again my FAVORITE glitter evah!), some Martha Stewart glitter (I also love this stuff too!) and some totally cool chunky glitter. I absolutely can't wait to open these babies up!






I also got some stamped Elyzabells images. They are totally adorable. Along with those came this adorable tin filled with TONS of colored baubles. I LOVE these things!!!
















I also got TONS of embellishments. The BoBunny brads are some of my FAVS to. I can't believe how much stuff was in that package. There were these adorable Elyzabells stamps, Primas, more bling (you can NEVER have too much glitter or bling!). and OMG, these metal flower brads...I have wanted them SOOOOOOO bad. Every time I go to Michael's I look at them. They are totally gorgeous. Seriously, someone had to have been stalking me.
I also got this fantastic Stamper's Survival Kit. This is the first time I have seen this and it is totally adorable!
Also in the package was this awesome Camping themed frame. TOTALLY adorable!!! I love it!

I can't believe I'm still

typing. I got this FANTASTIC magnetic frame. I LOVE it! It is so special and I can't wait to put a picture of my kids on there. When I find out who you (or you all) are I'd love to know where I can get some of these frames! It is AWESOME! I got a bunch of scrapbooking embellishment packages. I love it all. LOVE all of the camping themed stuff. I have TONS of camping pictures that I need to scrap! Love it!!
I got another bella stamp, a vellum quote pack, and absolutely adorable clear camping set (LOVE THIS!) and last but DEFINITELY not least, a very generous gc for All That Scraps.

Whomever you are....YOU (you all) ARE AWESOME. I truly could never convey in words how much this means to me. Thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!

It's Friday night, you know what that means...

a trip to the urgent care. This totally SUCKS! Honest to God if you have been with me since I first started this blog you know that this isn't our first Friday night visit to the urgent care. Annabelle was totally fine all day long and then at 6:30, totally out of the blue, her ear hurts. Thank Goodness there is a tornado watch, everyone must be scared and at home because for the first time ever the urgent care was almost empty. This was a total bonus because it was my turn to take her. Last time Tom took her it was over 3 hours. Not tonight. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes. So 30 minutes and $50 later Annabelle has yet another ear infection. This is our 3rd month in a row. It breaks my heart when we go through this because she is in such awful pain. We are going to get an appointment set up with the allergy/asthma people to see if we can get to the root of the problem. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We have to wait until Monday to schedule an appointment but I'm guessing that they probably won't get us in until June or July but I guess we'll see. She seems to be resting on the couch now that she has some ibuprofen and antibiotics in her system. I hope you are all having a much better evening!

Monthly Swap Card

Hope everyone is having a terrific Friday. It is gloomy and stormy here. I just had to run something out to the mailbox and got completely soaked during the 10 seconds it took me to get there and back. A great day to stay in and stamp!

For over a year I participated in a monthly swap with a fantastic group of ladies. This past November I had to drop out due to several reasons but I still keep in touch with our tight little group. They asked if I would be interested in joining in for a month sorta as a "guest stamper" and I was thrilled to take a spot in May. I've known about this for over 3 months and now that they are due in less than a week, I finally got around to making them. The May theme was "use patterned paper". This was easy for me since it seems like I use patterned paper on every card I make nowadays. I chose the dp first and of coarse went straight to my handy dandy SAMS club pack. I love the flower pattern on this orange paper so it was an easy choice (especially since I had some orange Primas that matched perfectly). I used my old SU color coach to pick the coordinating colors (Barely Banana and Ballet Blue). The stamp I used is a wood mounted stamp that I bought at Hobby Lobby and then remounted in on EZ mount. Because of this I have no idea who the manufacturer is (sorry about that). I also used SU Linen and French Script. The pearls are from the $1 spot at Target.
I got tons of Happy Mail this week so tomorrow I will be highlighting several great stampers who showed me some love! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Blog Candy Winner....Lucky #6

I used random.org to choose a winner:

Here are your random numbers:

6

Timestamp: 2008-04-25 12:08:13 UTC

When I checked to see who left the 6th comment I actually had to laugh out loud:

mwebb said...

My favorites are Always, Sleepless in Seattle, My Best Friend's Wedding, and my number 1 is The Sweetest Thing. OMG, it is so funny, Bob even enjoys it!!!

I love those penguins btw, if I dont win, will you PLEASE let me know where to buy them? XOXOXO

April 20, 2008 10:23 PM

Congratulations Mary!!!

Here is the HUGE list of chick flicks that you all recommended:

A Walk in the Clouds (I own this one - LOVE it!!!)
Bridget Jones (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Catch Me if You Can (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
City of Angels (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Enchanted (I own this one - Great movie!)
Enchanted April (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
Even Almighty (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
Failure to Launch (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
Freedom Writers (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
Ghost (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Good Luck Chuck (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
In Her Shoes (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
Just Like Heaven (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
Legally Blonde (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Love Actually (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
Miss Congeniality (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Mona Lisa Smile (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Must Love Dogs (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
My Best Friend’s Wedding (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
My Big Fat Greet Wedding (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
National Treasure (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
One Night With the King (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
Patch Adams (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Pretty Woman (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Sabrina (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Sleepless in Seattle (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Sweet Home Alabama (I own this one - LOVE it!!!)
That Thing You Do (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
The Breakfast Club (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
The Devil Wears Prada (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
The Guardian (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
The Lakehouse (seen it and LOVE it and will definitely be adding it to the queue to watch again)
The Notebook (I just rented this one a few weeks ago - OMG, I've never cried so card at a movie...EVER)
The Reading Room (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
The Ron Clark Story (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
The Sweetest Thing (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
The Wedding Date (Haven't seen this one - definitely going to check it out!)
The Wedding Singer (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
Under the Tuscan Sun (seen it but definitely adding it to the queue to watch again)
You’ve Got Mail (I own this one - LOVE it!!!)


Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions! I hope you all have a fantastic Friday! If you are blog surfing later today I will be posting a card that I made last night. Thanks again for stopping by!

Another sheet-load!

The sheet load template is so easy to use and you can use as little or as much of the template layout as you want. This time I totally cased my sheet load cards from Kisa. A few nights ago Annabelle wanted to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban so I thought I would take advantage of the time and color some images. I colored 24 of these cute monkeys from CC Designs while we watched (I always try and multi-task when I'm watching TV). Kisa made some sheet-load cards with this stamp a week or so ago and they were SO cute I had to case them (BTW, her's are WAY cuter than mine). The cardstock I used is a mix of SU and non-SU and the DP is from that huge SAMS club pack. If you have a SAMS membership and they have these packs I highly recommend them. I think you get like 200 sheets (or something like that) of DP for $20 and it is thick sturdy stuff. I LOVE it! As usual I had to add a little glitter. I just wouldn't feel done without adding it. The ribbon used is from a variety of manufacterers.

We had a great time at the zoo today but now it looks like the rain is coming in fast! I'm so glad we had a nice morning though because I had promised the kids all week we would go to the zoo today (and these kids don't forget a single thing!).
I'm super run down from this cold but I really want to work on a sb page today so hopefully I have something to share tomorrow. I hope you are all having a terrific Thursday! Thanks for stopping by!

Not again!

Blogger is NOT cooperating again today. It won't let me upload anything. I will try again later today after we get back from an outing to the Madison zoo. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

It's Crazy Hair Day!

Today is crazy hair day at Annabelle's preschool. As you can probably guess from pictures that I have posted in the past, she has naturally crazy hair so we had to do something to make it even crazier....thank Goodness for the "Streak and Style". If you don't know what a streak and style is....it is a funky little contraption that uses sponges and colored gel to dye your childs hair different colors. By now, I'm sure you are wondering why anyone would have such a item. The answer to that is aunt April buys anything that mom won't. Annabelle wanted this for Christmas and I couldn't find it and/or wouldn't buy it. Luckily for Annabelle, aunt April did find it and buy it. My child is a totally punker already at age 4. She loves having pink highlights. You can't tell from the picture but her entire hair is covered in blue and pink streaks. Beckett wanted crazy hair too so I gave him a cute little blue mohawk.
Unfortunately I am still battling this darn cold, so I haven't felt like doing much of anything the past few days. Because of this I don't have any cards or sb pages to share but hopefully I will find some time and energy to do something tonight or tomorrow.
I hope you are all having a terrific day!

New Blog Banner!

Hope you are all having a terrific start to your week. So what do you think of my new blog header? It was made by my dear friend Kisa. As you all know I currently lack photo editing software so I sent this picture to Kisa last night and within, I think, an hour she sent me back this awesome banner that she made for me. I LOVE it! It makes me smile every time I see it! I warned her that I would probably be sending her a new photo every couple weeks :)
Now as for a card to share with you today...this is another wishRAK image (I think it is Whipper Snapper). I colored it with gamsol and Prismacolor pencils. The sentiment is from my trusty 7 Gypsies stampers again, boy do I love those things. I also used some of the Heidi Grace rub-ons that I used on the turtle card last week. Nothing too fancy but I think it turned out pretty cute! All the paper used is from Stampin Up!
Thanks for stopping by and don't forget about my blog candy. You have until Friday to leave me a comment here.
Hope you all have a wonderful day!

A Sheet-Load of Cards & Some Blog Candy...

As promised, here are some pictures of the Sheet-Loads of cards that I made yesterday. If you aren't familiar with Sheet-Loads (I just recently found them thanks to Kurtis- he was the guest designer this month), you should definitely check it out. These cards were just sheet-loads of fun to make!
Here is a close-up of the first card I made. The birds are from the clear Inkadinkado set "The Flourish Pack" and the sentiment comes from PTI's "Birthday Basics" set. The designer paper is from this awesome pack I bought and SAMS club and the rest is non-SU cardstock.
Here is the 2nd card I made. The stamps used are from a SAB set from this year (can't think of the name off hand). It is embellished with a Prima flower. The flower center is a glitter dot that I got from the Gina K store. Designer paper is from the awesome SAMS club pack again and the rest is non-SU cardstock.
Close-up of the 2nd card
And finally...Some blog candy! Woohoo!! A couple days ago I made my 100th post (this is actually my 105th post today). To celebrate the fact that I started a blog and actually continue to post on it, I have some fun blog candy. The prize package includes: 2 adorable clear penguin stamps, some pink and brown grograin ribbon pieces, some self adhesive pearls, a package of magic mesh and a package of self adhesive rhinestones.
For a chance to win all you have to do is leave me a comment and tell me your favorite chick flick. Why, you ask. Well, I've finally, for the first time in a long long time, started to find time to watch some movies that I want to watch instead of watching Disney Channel constantly. Because I have been living in a Disney/Nick Jr. world for 4 years I'm a bit out of touch with what movies have been out there. I'm a total chick flick kinda girl, so I need some suggestions so I can add some movies to our Netflix queue. I will pick a winner on Friday morning from all comments left.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Blogger finally decided to cooperate

Here is the 2nd baby card that I made. Blogger finally decided to cooperate and let me upload this one. For this card I used the SCS sketch challenge 169
The paper is actually the same as the first card: DCWV and SU!
The image is from Stamping Bella.
I hope you are all having an absolutely wonderful weekend. I spent the day making a "sheet-load" of cards that I will share either tomorrow or Monday. Don't forget to check in tomorrow for some blog candy to celebrate my 100th blog post (that I missed a few days ago). Thanks for stopping by!

Well, the good news is after 3 days of pure misery I am feeling a tiny bit better, the bad news is Blogger is not cooperating with me today. I had 2 baby cards to share but apparently Blogger had other ideas. I was able to load one of them so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. Our neighbors just had a baby this week so I thought I would throw together a gift and card to drop off to them. I don't actually know if they had a boy or girl yet so I tried to stick with some gender neutral colors for the card. This card might seem a little familiar since I posted the exact card but in different colors a couple months ago but I thought this one turned out so much cuter (and it was the only one that would load this morning). The paper I used is from the DCWV Nursery stack-Baby Boy. I absolutely LOVE their paper. The stamps are from the Oh So Sweet Gina K set that benefits diabetes. If you haven't checked out her Stamps For A Cause, I highly recommend them. Cute stuff! I got the gems on clearance at Target a while ago and the flowers are these totally cool Primas that I bought recently from an online store that was going out of business. I wish I would have bought more since there aren't many that come in the package. If any of you find these anywhere, let me know. They are fuzzy (maybe velour). If Blogger ever decides to cooperate, later today I will post my other baby card. Also, be on the lookout for a cute card and some fun blog candy tomorrow! Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday! Thanks for stopping by!

TGIF!

I am so glad it is Friday, but not for the usual reasons...I am sick. I have one of the worst colds of my life. I'm hoping that I can sleep every minute of the entire weekend (although I'm sure the chances are slim). Right now I feel like my entire head is going to explode, but of coarse a mom doesn't get sick days so I'll have to endure.
Here is a card I made yesterday after my day from hell babysitting. I used the SCS sketch challenge #172. Riley Moose from Hanna Stamps is another image I got in wishRAK. I don't think I've used one of my own stamps except for sentiments all week long.
The sentiment is from the retired SU! set Espress Yourself. Colors are Basic black and So Saffron. All Paper is SU!. The image is colored in with Prismacolor markers and the black gems are something I got on clearance at Target a while back. Also, if you haven't noticed yet, I didn't add gliter anywhere...*gasp*.
Not sure how much creating I will do today or tomorrow or Sunday. It all depends on how fast I can kick this cold in the butt! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

My 100th post and I missed it...

I totally didn't realize it this morning but I made my 100th post. WOW, 100 posts...where does the time go? Because I missed it and was totally not prepared, keep an eye out over the next couple days for some fun blog candy to celebrate!

Right now, I'll just share this fun little blog game I saw floating around, I'd love to see all of your answers! Feel free to leave them as a comment on this post or leave a link to your blog if you post them there!


1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Pepper Sienna

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Peppermint Sugar

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) H-Lee

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Green Giraffe

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Renee Lancaster

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Leehe

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put "The") The yellow chai (my first choice for favorite drink is water but The yellow water reminded me too much of pee).

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Lester Norton

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Eternity Lemonhead (once again my first choice would be sour patch kids but that just sounds too weird so I had to go with my second choice)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names ) Ann Lavern


Have fun with it!

Fresh air

We did manage to get a little more fresh air last night after dinner. Annabelle wanted to play with the bubble machine, and then the bubble mower and then she wanted to ride bikes around the block. Turned into an all out workout for Tom and I. Our house is set in the middle of a block that is on a hill. There is no good place to teach your child to ride a bike. You either have to pedal hard up the hill or pray they don't break their necks going crazy down the hill. We spent a lot of time running behind yelling "brakes, Annabelle, brakes". Annabelle is really starting to get the hang of riding her bike with training wheels so hopefully by the end of the summer we can take them off. Although I'm not sure if I will ever be ready for that! I also have to say that taking natural looking pictures of Annabelle is hard to do since everytime she sees me get the camer she poses. Nothing like a picture of her posing next to the bubble mower.
As for a card, today I have a really simple card to share. I was following one of the sketch challenges on SCS this time around. The sketch was very basic but actually really difficult for me (I always feel things need more). I also wanted to continue on my new technique journey so I decided to use the polished stone technique for this card. The main image is from Inkadinkado and the sentiment is from 7 Gypsies (the sentiment is a little crooked and it smeared but once again, it was the last thing I added and there was nothing I could do to fix it). I had the card finished a few days ago (minus the sentiment) and it just looked so plain. Once I decided to add the sentiment, I felt it was good enough to share.
Hope you all have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

A beautiful bubbly day!

The weather is just absolutely beautiful here today. Tom was home from work so Beckett and him did some quality bonding while Annabelle was at school and I was cleaning the kitchen floor. They rode bikes, went to the park and blew bubbles....lots and lots of bubbles. Kids nowadays have it so easy. You just put batteries in this little machine, add bubble solution and you get a GAZILLION bubbles. No dipping a stick in a bottle and trying to blow a bubble just to have it pop in your face. No sticky, slimy stick to carry around dripping bubbles everywhere. Just batteries and bubbles. Only bad thing about the bubble machine is that it really eats up that bubble solution fast! Beckett had a blast trying to catch and pop them all in this crazy wind. They kept changing directions. He would run into the yard to get them just in time for the wind to change direction and send them flying up the street. They did save some bubble solution for later since Annabelle wasn't home to partake in the bubble popping festivities so hopefully we can get some more pictures later tonight.

This is my last Penny Black cat card that I have to share with you this week. Once again the card is HUGE (I can't actually remember but it is something like 5 x 6). Just a basic card, nothing too fancy. The cardstock is SU! black, SU! Purely Pomegranate (I think that is what it is called), and GP white. The dp is SU!. Image is colored with gamsol and prismacolor pencils and just for a change of pace, *wink*, I added a little glitter. The sentiment is from the Stampendous clear Changito Monkey set.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks again for taking the time to stop by!

Another CASE of The Kub

I got a few minutes of stamping time this afternoon and thought I would share the card I made. Once again this card was inspired by Kurtis (Stampin' Kub). If you haven't checked out his blog and/or gallery I highly recommend it! His cards are phenomenal! I used the same card to case as I did with my monster card last week. Here is a link to his card if you missed it in my other post. Tom is always telling me that I add too much to my cards so I knew he would like this one (he did). I got the tulip stamp in a bag of stamps at a garage sale last weekend, it is from Hero Arts. I just LOVE it! It is colored with prismacolor markers with just a touch of, you guessed it, GLITTER! The background is Weathered from SU! and the sentiment is from PTI's Birthday Basics. The baubles are some of the Bella Baubles that Jen gifted to me. They are great, but the cheaper ones from Michael's work just as well (speaking of that I saw that Michael's now carries them in a sunflower yellow color, I may have to pick up a bag). The card base is SU! Sahara Sand and the layered pieces are SU! Real Red and GP white. This was a nice change from the BUSY cards I've been making lately and I really liked how it turned out. I hope you all had a wonderful day. Thanks for stopping by.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!

Another busy day today. Both kids have preschool and I totally forgot that it was Beckett's day for snack so now we have to stop at the store before trying to get him there by 9:00.
I also promised Annabelle she could stamp today because she really wanted to last night but it just got too late, so there will be some stamping of some sort later today. The house could also use a little (or maybe a lot) of cleaning. BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!
I made this card yesterday (when I wasn't quite as busy). I thought it was an adorable image and I tried to stick with a tropical theme with the dp, but in the end, I think I probably should have went with dp that was a little less busy. Because the stamp is so busy, the paper makes the whole card look, well...BUSY. The sentiment is from the 7 Gypsies thingys again. I used the same layout as the other Penny Black cat card I made a few days ago. The Penny Black cat images that I have are so huge that I once again had to make a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 square card. Even though it is a little too busy, the adorable cat saved it from the trash can!

Hope you all have a TERRIFIC tuesday!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Tagged again!

I've been tagged by my SBS-13 sister Debi. If you haven't already checked out her blog, please do. She makes some really neat collage stuff.

This is a 7 random (interesting?) facts tag. This is a tough one for me since I'm not all that interesting and I already shared 7 facts a few months ago. I'll give it a try though...


1. I cry every time I hear the National Anthem. EVERY single time. I actually sometimes try to hum a different song in my head so to help avoid tearing up. I also get totally choked up at events that have military jet fly overs.

2. My favorite TV show is Avatar. I absolutely LOVE it. If you have never seen it, rent the DVD's but definitely start from the begining!

3. I had 2 really fast, all natural (and not necessarily by choice) labors with my children. My labor with Annabelle was 3 hours 50 mins (6 lb. 10oz.) and less than 16 months later 1 hour and 37 minutes for 9 lb. 1 oz. Beckett.

4. I used to have 4 titanium screws in my jaw (2 on each side). 2 of them worked themselves out and had to be removed (not fun). 2 still remain...makes for interesting conversation with x-ray technicians who don't know about them.

YIKES, I still need 3 more. I'm going to have to start living on the edge before I get tagged again...

5. We haven't been on vacation since our honeymoon 6 years ago. We went to Durango, CO and Moab, UT for some mountain biking and site seeing. We visited Mesa Verde NP and Arches NP. We are currently trying to plan a trip to Florida for next month but we'll see if that actually pans out.

6. I rented the movie "The Notebook" a couple weeks ago ...not sure if I have ever cried so much watching a movie...EVER!

and finally...

7. I LOVE shopping at thrift stores and garage sales. It is amazing the treasures you can find!

It is a good thing I read Kisa's interesting facts to "help" me think of interesting things or this list could have just been a list of the cereals I eat for breakfast..Life, Rice Chex, etc. etc.
Also, like her, I am going to save my tagging of others for another day. Hope you all have a great day!

7 Gypsies stamps

These are the stamper "thingys" that I talked about in my post this morning. The 3 stampers came in one package and there are 12 different sentiments on each one. After using them on my last 3 cards, I am totally hooked. You just dial in the number for your desired sentiment, stamp it in your ink and stamp your paper...viola!

Happy Monday Morning!!

Happy Monday morning to you all. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I'm over my Sunday night blues (until next week) and am ready to take on a new week! OK, maybe not ready quite yet, my eyes are stilling trying to figure out how to focus again this morning and I definitely need to head downstairs for a nice hot cup of chai. After that I will definitely be ready to take on the new week. Spring break is over and we are back into our normal routine, which funnily (if that is a word) means a trip to the doctor (story of our life). Beckett's infected hang nail still isn't healed so we have to make a dreaded trip back to the doctor today. I need lots of prayers for this trip as I have a feeling it isn't going to be a pleasant one! Anyway, on to today's business...first of all I wanted to thank Danyelle over at Hangnailz and Papercutz for awarding me with another "You Cheer Me Up" award. I thought it was so sweet of her. If you haven't been to her blog, you should definitely check it out. She is funny and talented and her blog is a joy to read!
Now, as for a project today...months and months ago I bought this funky 3 pack of stampers (I think they were from 7 Gypsies) that I have never used, so yesterday I finally broke them in. They are groovy hand held thingys, kinda like stampers that you would mark something "paid" except they have a little twisty thing that you can change the sentiment. I think each one has like 8 or 10 sentiments on it and you just dial up which one you want. There is a guide on the front that lists the sentiments and the # you need to dial in for the correct one. Is any of this making sense? Maybe I'll take a picture of them later and post it. Anyway, I used them on the dog card that I posted yesterday ("missing you") and I used it again on today's card ("Life is Good"). I can't believe I haven't used them before now, they are so versatile. This card once again uses a wishRAK image and I believe it is from Inky Antics this time. The turtle is colored with gamsol and Prismacolor pencils (again) and the little black flowers are rub-ons (I think this is the first time I've ever used rub-ons on a card) from Heidi Grace. When I stamped the sentiment it was a little off center so I evened it out by adding a little rub-on to the end. Of coarse there is some glitter (because God forbid I make a card without glitter on it somewhere) on the flowers. The pink glitter is from Doodlebug and the black glitter on the flower centers is Martha Stewart. The paper is all SU!
Thanks for stopping by today and for all of you, I hope LIFE IS GOOD!

Sunday night blues

I'm suffering from the Sunday night blues. I can't believe the weekend is over already. I didn't get a whole lot accomplished today but I did get to visit with my friend Jen for quite a while this afternoon which is always fun (and a bit interesting with kids screaming and running in every direction). I got to play in my stamp room for a little while after dinner tonight and this is what I got done. This is another image I got from someone in wishRAK. I think it is Whipper Snapper again. I thought this card was pretty cute until I totally ruined it at the end. I had it all together and thought it needed just a little something so I added the glitter to the collar...bad choice. I hate the glitter but really like the rest of the card. At first I added navy blue glitter to keep it manly but it looked awful so I tried changing it to brown glitter so in the end it is a combo of brown and blue. Not great but there was nothing I could do to fix it and unfortunately since it was a wishRAK image I couldn't just stamp a new one. Oh well, live and learn I guess. I hope you all had a great weekend.

You Cheer Me Up Award

No new creations to post today (yet) so I thought I would share this award that was given to me by my SBS-13 sister Jo. I thought it was so sweet! Thanks Jo! Hope you get your plumbing issues cleared up ASAP!!!
We are supposed to pass this award on and I have to say that I couldn't pick just one person. Anyone and Everyone who leaves comments on my blog cheers me up on a daily basis. Funny thing is last week something malfuctioned with my comment moderation notices and when I posted my monster cards I didn't get a notification of any comments for over 24 hours. I was SO depressed! I thought maybe no one liked my monster cards. Then I realized that somehow blogger (or maybe it was me inadvertently) deleted my email address that comments get sent to so when I logged in I had a notice that I had 10 comments that needed moderation. Boy did that cheer me up! So this award goes out to ALL OF YOU who leave me comments. You all CHEER ME UP!!!!
Hopefully I will find some time today to make something (even if it is just cookies), so check back later for a possible 2nd post of the day. I hope you all have a terrific day!