One down, two to go!

Good morning! Is everyone looking forward to the weekend as much as I am? We're supposed to have temps in the 80s & plenty of sun, so I think I'm sunning my pale, pasty self this weekend. I need some color! *LOL*

I made a card yesterday that I wanted to share with you. I need to make two more for Father's Day then I'm good to go. I wanted this one to be clean & simple...no fuss, just like the man I'm sending it to.
This is a 4.5x6.5 pre-made card base with distressed green paper from My Mind's Eye; distressed Striped paper also from My Mind's Eye; "Love You" stamp is from Studio G; chipboard, colored with YR04 COPIC marker is from Best Occasions by WalMart. Inside, I used a leftover strip of green stamped with the "Love You" stamp & punched down one side with the scalloped border punch from SU.
Had a bit of the striped paper left, so I used it on the envelope flap. This card is going to my "dad by heart" - Daddy Carl means the world to me & even though I didn't marry one of his sons as he'd hoped, he doesn't hold that against me. *LOL* He still loves me, calls me every month, & I always feel like I'm part of the family. He's the best & I'm a lucky girl to have him in my life!Well, it's early out day for my boys & I've got to get these other cards made, along with the laundry that comes from raising males, so that translates to tons of things to do & NO TIME to do it in! *LOL* Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Middle of the week already

Geez, Wednesday already! Okay, so I missed posting yesterday. MIBAD! I have a really good excuse, um, I mean, REASON. My belated wedding anniversary gift arrived in the mail. Seasons 1-4 of Doctor Who on DVD. Chris won them for me on eBay before he left last weekend for his ride to California. He had hoped that they'd arrive in time for me to enjoy them while he was gone, but that didn't happen. Instead, they came just as I was leaving to pick the boys up from school yesterday.

There's nothing but reruns on the telly right now, and there's quite a few of these that I've missed, so I sat down with the munchkins and we watched the first DVD out of the 22DVD set. Three, one-hour episodes on the first one alone...what a TREAT! I'm jonesing for the David Tennant episodes, but I'll get through the first year of shows with Christopher Eccleston and I'll be okay. It's not like I don't LIKE CE, because I do. I really enjoyed him as the baddie in Gone In Sixty Seconds. I just like DT waaaaay more! *ROFL* He's ONE HOT SCOT! I mean, just LOOK at him!Who in their right mind can resist a man in a KILT?!?And those eyes. *sigh* Yummmmmmmmo...Okay, dry the drool of yer face & keyboard, then get back to reality, Fan Girl! *LOL*

This morning when I came home from taking the two oldest boys to school, I noticed my roses & thought I'd share them with you. Look how much they've done since Saturday's pictures... This is a bloom on Betty Boop that just opened. See what I mean about her color show? And here's how loaded down Lemon Drop is today. There are still OODLES of buds waiting to pop, but I can't see how the branches will support 'em all!

I'm off to get the boys from school now. May try to get a card or two made while they're doing their homework, we'll see. Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!

Keepin it Simple Sunday (part 2)

Two posts in one day...haven't done that in a while! I managed to make three more quick, simple cards while supervising the teeth brushing, good nights, & a late supper for Chris, so I thought I'd post 'em real quick before calling it a night.

This one is from a soon-to-be-retired stamp set called Oh How (#T-2808). I put it on an A2 pre-made base; background paper is from DCWV; stamped on ATC card in SU Purely Pomegranate; EK Success punch to round all corners

This one is done the same as above, with the exception of the image & sentiment stamps from Imaginesce; colored with pencils/odorless mineral spirits.
And last, one other bovine beauty from An'udder Birthday? (#T-2642); mounted onto 4.5x6.5 pre-made base; background paper from my stash (mfr unknown); paper ribbon from K&Co; image stamped onto ATC & colored with COPIC markers and chalked sky.
NOW I'm done for the day! *LOL* Thanks for peeking in. See y'all tomorrow!

Keepin It Simple Sunday

Hope your weekend is going well. I'm very glad that I got the flower beds tended yesterday, because today the weather has been windy, rainy, and we never saw a temp warmer than 55 degrees. Almost autumnal weather instead of spring-like. I'll take it over those 90s that we'll be seeing sometime in the next week or so...you'll hear no whimpers outta me!

I ended up vegging out in front of the telly last night with the boys. I was too pooped to do anything...I didn't even eat my supper! Today, in the midst of laundry and waiting for Chris to arrive from Southern California, I managed to turn out three cards. This first one is a masculine card that I intend to use for Father's Day.
Base is a 5x7 kraft pre-made; background paper is by DCWV; strip of scrap pale blue cardstock; Ship Collage from The Angel Company (#T-2027) stamped in Art Brown archival ink onto an ATC; antiqued with Distress Inks by Ranger in Old Photo, Tea Dye, & Frayed Burlap.

Can ya guess how much I love my lil cows from The Angel Company? They're just so stinkin cute!! I used a white 4.5x6.5 pre-made base for this one.The paper is a washed aqua from Makin Memories; 3 Prima flowers; 3 REAL Dew Drops (I actually found a bottle locally - God Bless Wade, The Craft Guy, at Ben Franklin in Kaysville, Utah...he always knows just what I need & when I need it!) colored with COPIC #BG72; ATC stamped with an image from An'udder Birthday? from The Angel Company (#T-2642) colored with pencils & odorless mineral spirits; all corners rounded with punch from EK Success.

This one was snagged by Cordell. I get tickled at some of the ones that he begs me for! I'm guessing that this one will end up with his latest girlfriend. Another 4.5x6.5 pre-made base; paper from Provo Craft; cotton lace from The Paper Studio at Hobby Lobby; rhinestone brads; Prima flower with rhinestone center; LOVE stamp from Lil See Ds, stamped with SU Whisper White craft ink.

Now I'm off to figure out what I can eat for dinner. Between the physical work yesterday, the mental work of keeping up with 3 boys by myself for the last two days, the stress of worrying about Chris's safety while he's out riding on a holiday weekend (he's been home now about 30 minutes & the weather beat him up all the way in)...let's just say that food is not only un-appealing, but just not treating my cranky pancreas too well. I'll probably end up with a nice, hot bowl of McCann's Irish Oatmeal, some hot tea, and call it a night.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Happy Saturday!

Hello! I hope you have tons of wonderful plans for this Memorial Day weekend. Me? I'm sitting here with my three boys, just puttering around the house. Working in my flower beds, making cards, watching movies...that sort of thing.

Chris is gone on the first BIG run of his many biker runs over this year's ride season - he's gone to Southern California - left yesterday morning and will be back late Sunday night. Today is also my 13th wedding anniversary. Haven't celebrated it in 7 years, though, because Chris is usually out riding somewhere. He keeps waiting for me to be upset with him, which is probably WHY he won me the entire 4 seasons of Dr Who on DVD from eBay this week, but I'm so used to him just taking off that getting upset would just ruin my day, so why bother?

This morning, I slept in till 9 (for the first time in YEARS), popped a Nexium, threw on some grubby clothes and went out to work in the front flower beds. Chris TRIED doing it for me a couple weeks ago - thought he'd "help" me since I've been so sick the last couple of months. He dug up 4 of my favorite miniature mums, 6 tulips, and a thriving set of hen 'n' chicks. Left all the chickweed, clover, mallow, and dandelions for me to deal with today. What REALLY twisted me off was when he said something to the effect that if it wasn't taken care of by the time he got back, he was digging all of it up and pouring concrete out there. If I wanted flowers after that I could put them in pots and set them on the new front patio. {rolling eyes} Yeah, okay, whatever you say, Skippy!

Here are the "before" pics of SOME of what's in my front flower beds:
This is Betty Boop, my floribunda rose on the East corner of the house. She desperately needs a haircut...I trimmed her back last fall & she's already shot up another 2.5 feet!
I really like her because she's not a "traditional" rose. She sure looks like one starting out, though!Her buds are nice and tight, creamy yellow at the bottoms & deep burgundy/red at the top...But when those buds open, she looks more like a wild rose and the blooms are creamy white & deep pink! She loves puttin on a show!This is Lemon Drop, a miniature rose in my front bed, sittin right next to the front porch steps. As you can see, it's loaded with buds.And so you can see how small these beautiful bloom heads are, here's one in my hand...As for "miniature"? Yeah, right! This little yellow darling was only SUPPOSED to reach a maximum height/width of 3 feet. She's actually 4 ft across and over 5 ft high (the top of those steps when I'm standing at the lowest point, hits me at my shoulder & I'm almost 6ft tall!). Next to Lemon Drop, you can see my white lilac.
My "dwarf" white lilac (tossing in another "yeah, right!" here). If this is a 6ft maximum height with a 4 ft maximum diameter, then you can kiss every acre of my big, white, dimpled tukus! *ROFL* Just so ya know...the bottom of that window bay is almost ELEVEN FEET off the ground! The Spruce twins that it's hiding are both 6ft tall. I planted my lilac here, because directly behind that beauty, there's a window that used to be my she-cave (now Cordell's bedroom, well, it is until I take it back sometime this year). When the window is open & there's a southerly breeze, the entire lower level of the house smells like lilacs. My favorite floral fragrance of all time! It's so stinkin tall now that when the living room windows are open (that's the bay there) you can smell them. *LOL*
Here's Lemon Drop today. A lot of those buds opened this morning, but it looks like there are TONS left to come on in the next week or so...
And this is my lilac, now that I've trimmed the undergrowth, chopped dead tulips down to ground level (I never dig up my bulbs), pulled out the clover, mallow, and some stray Mexican Primrose...you can actually SEE the Spruce twins AND the lamb's ear! *LOL**sigh* This is the carnage left in my West-side flower bed after Chris was done digging up my mums. Those mums this year would have been about 4 inches taller than the gas meter & LOADED with shades of peach, orange, and deep rust. I loved having them in this location because not only did they tolerate the heat well, but the oils & fragrance that they put off are a HUGE deterrent to spiders (FYI - chrysanthemum is one of the main ingredients in the spray that the pros use around your house perimeter). Oh, well, at least the grass, clover, and snails are all gone. Maybe I'll put some lavendar and shasta daisies in the empty spots. I'm thinking that the miniature powder pink rose (that one, waaaaay back near the fence there under the electric meter - bought it the same time I got Lemon Drop) needs to be dug up and put into a patio pot for my back deck...'K! I'm off to feed the munchkins, then run to Sears. Seems that my asking Chris to drop the mower a notch for one week has made it MY fault that he ran over a tree root and now we need a new blade. OY! I wonder how he'd react if I brought home one of those old-fashioned reel blade mowers?
I'm just guessing, but I'd probably be the one "volun-told" to do the lawn work from now on! *ROFL* I'm also stopping by the DI Thrift Store to look for storage jars to go in my she-cave, then when I get home, I'll work on a few cards after I have supper with my boys. If I don't end up watching a movie with them till Doctor Who comes on at 11pm, I'll share the cards with ya just as soon as I'm done. If you don't see me here again tonight, I'll catch y'all tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Moo-velous!

Good morning! Hope everyone's looking at a nice, sunny day, like I am. I also hope that it doesn't get as hot as it did on Monday (93 degrees -- YUCK!). We just don't get enough SPRING in Utah - about 2 weeks worth, if we're lucky, then it's time to turn on the a/c. That's tough on a gal that adores spring and autumn, the way that I do. You'd think after twelve years, I'd be used to it, but nooooo! I NEED my Spring, doggone it! *LOL*

I played around and put together some pieces for a card last night...just finished it a few minutes ago, so I'm sharing. ;) I had some extra ATCs of my udderly divine bovines from The Angel Company & one of them I hadn't played with yet. I colored it yesterday morning & had a song stuck in my head the rest of the day because of her. Can ya guess what it might be?Base is wheat 5x7 pre-made from K&Co, inked edges inside & outside with Old Paper Distress ink by Ranger; polka dot paper from My Mind's Eye; I THINK that the green strip is from DCWV (not 100% sure tho); wavy border punch from EK Success; yellow posies from Prima; Antique Linen Distress Stickles for the posie centers; chipboard photo corners from K&Co, colored with COPIC #YG03; image from The Angel Company (an'udder birthday #T-2642) colored using odorless mineral spirits & colored pencils; edges of the ATC are inked with Scattered Straw, Old Paper, & Shabby Shutters Distress ink pads. I had some scrap strips left over, so I had to do up the inside, too!Now I'm off to play with ideas for this week's COPIC challenge & Kerry's Thursday challenge at Three Clovers.

Oh, before I forget! If ya haven't figured out the "song" that was stuck in my noggin ~~ watch this video & then it'll be stuck in YOUR head today! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha



Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Moving things around

Do you like the new layout? I think that I do. I can get my ads in here from The Angel Company, give you even MORE links to some great blogs (I'll have a set dedicated to fellow "angels" on here soon) & it's not going to look horribly crowded. I just think that this format is easier on the eyes for traveling around the page. I'd love to know what YOU think of it! I was going to do 4 columns, but I think that 3 is going to be my magic number. Many thanks to Andrea for pointing me in the right direction.

As promised, here are some cards that I made last year. I used clip art/graphics from PC Crafter. They were nice enough on their own, but after the ones that I've made the last few months, going back to these, well, they just seemed a little dowdy in comparison. So I've made some minor adjustments here and there, but I still kept them fairly simple, so the artwork would show better.

This is "Soda Shop" by Laurie Furnell...
Of course, with the ice cream sundaes, I just HAD to use some Liquid Applique & make them look as frothy as I could! I also used a red Sakura Glaze pen on the cherries & a clear Glaze pen on the dishes and spoons.I chalked the foam of the root beer float just a bit and found a nice chocolate-y colored ribbon to finish it all off.This next one was made with pieces from TWO sets by KaeLynn Winn - "Sent With Love" (tags) and "One True Love" (border strip). Some Paper Glaze on the entire "s" tag, around the rim of the "h" tag, rhinestones & studs to accent and it's finished.
This one is from Gina Jane, who left PC Crafter and now owns The Daisie Company. The set is called "Paper Vignettes" and has a very soft feel (I'm a sucker for watercolors). I mounted it onto some paper from Provo Craft that is almost an exact match to the lilac, ran some Sakura Stardust Clear Glitter pen around the dragonfly wings, then covered the entire dragonfly in Paper Glaze.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these. Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Pictures & an award

No cards or crafts today for me. Not yet, anyway. *sigh* I'm designing a flyer to announce my sales through The Angel Company for the folks in my neighborhood & it's chewing up quite a bit of my time today. I can't quite get everything on there like it needs to be. May end up making two. OY! Like I want to do that!

I did take some pix on Sunday & yesterday that I thought I'd share with you. Last Thursday Chris brings home this 4 pound box of strawberries. I could smell them as he walked through the door. This delightful mouth-watering smell that screams "SUMMER!" First thing he says is, "You've gotta come & see these! They're monsters!" Yeah, right. Big to you, isn't big to me, Mister. I haven't seen a big strawberry since I was a kid & my parents grew Tennessee ever-bearers.

Okay, it just so happens that he wasn't exaggerating this time. They really are HUGE! This is a shot of one, compared to my 6 year old's fist...
And two of them in MY palm...Can you smell them? *ROFL* OMGosh, they are so sweet that I didn't even need to add anything to them...just mashed about 6-7 of 'em up and poured 'em over shortcake. The boys ate till I though they were gonna bust! *LOL* Chris is bringing home 4 more pounds of them tonight. I can't wait...I'm prepping these for the freezer & making a strawberry pie with some of them. That is, if I can keep the munchkins out of the container long enough! *LOL*

I took the next two pix on Sunday afternoon. Devin, my middle son, was out in the backyard when he came inside...index finger held gingerly in his opposite hand. Well, being the clutz that he is, I started running for the First Aid kit, thinking he was in the shed and used a tool to try and take his finger off. Nope! He was "just being REALLY careful, Mom." Turns out, it was this little beauty.

I haven't seen a moth that fat in ages! Here's a nice aerial shot so you can see the "face" in his wings. Isn't he cool?!? He was a fantastic model! {Wish my boys would sit still like that for more than two minutes...}
And lastly, I want to thank Brenda for giving me my 9th award. Super sweet of ya to think of me! Go by her place & say HI. Don't be afraid to peek, she's got some cute projects over there! Not sure who to send it on to, so for now, just pick out of my Inspirations list & have fun peeking around!Well, gotta dash. Hopefully tomorrow (maybe later this evening, if I'm really lucky) I can come back & show you those older cards that I've been snazzing up...thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!