OCC challenge week 14

Amy's challenge for the Our Creative Corner girls this week was to use any stitches on your card other than white. You could machine or hand stitch, just not use white thread. I pulled out the Magic Moments paper pack thinking I would do a "fallish" card, even though we're still in the upper 80's on the west coast of FL! And as usual, my initial idea went by the wayside as the card progressed! I cut out 2 pieces of Indian Corn Blue and 1 piece of Colonial White cardstock, sponged the edges a bit with Cocoa ink and sewed a scallop design using brown thread on them. The I took a piece of Cocoa and Colonial White cardstock, sponged their edges in Cocoa ink as well and sewed a different design on it. I used a button stamp from Thoughtful Seasons and stamped them on coasters and cut them out. I also used the frame, heart and star from Thoughtful Season. The faux buttons, heart and star are all pop-dotted for added dimension.

Cellar to Stellar!

Our Tampa Rays that is. From the worst record in baseball last year to the AL East champs this year. Probably THE toughest division in any major sport. It's been dominated by the Yankees and Red Sox for more years than I'd like to remember. The Tampa Rays sat on top of the division for and unheard of 107 days this year. John and I used to go to games at Tropicana Field when they were cellar dwellers. We've not been to a game now in quite a few years. We'd watch on TV as they lost more games than they won. I'm not a fair-weather fan. If I like the team, I back them win or lose. It just felt different this year. Like you knew this group of guys had it in them. They weren't just talking the talk, they were walking the walk. They played hard and they played to win. And win they did! Now we look forward to the Playoffs and hopefully the World Series. How flipping cool would THAT be?!

Yay!

FINALLY! I don't know what happened, but this morning Blogger is gonna let me post pictures. So before it changes it's mind...here goes!

My friend Nicole lives in Japan where her hubby is in the Air Force. They just had a new baby boy on the 10th of this month. His name is Kieran. So in honor of Kieran's arrival, I made and sent one of "Sue's Famous Coaster Hangings" with his name on it for Nic to hang in his room. I also made a baby buggy card that she can use on a layout on a scrapbook page. I left it flat, didn't put in on a card, and made it oversized so it would take up some space on the page. I used Serendipity paper pack and It's A Jungle stamp set. Each of the animals has something special done to it. Most have googly eyes, the monkey's have bling for eyes, the hippo has a piece of rope-like ribbon for his tail and my personal favorite is the Sassy Strands on the lions mane!

I don't know if I'll get anything else posted today. John's on his way home and we've got all of last weeks season premier shows on DVR to watch!

Beer

So I am NOT an adventurous beer drinker. Gimme Michelob Light and I'm good to go. Or should I say, used to be good to go! When I was at Convention, I discovered Mori Moto (yes, the Iron Chef) Black Obi Soba Ale. And I fell in love. So very unlike me. It's a dark beer, an ale, and very caramel-y. Nothing like what I generally tend to drink. But love it I did. And I tried to find it once I got back home. With no luck. So I contacted the Gaylord and they sent me the names of 3 places in the Tampa area to try. One of them was World of Beer http://www.worldofbeerusa.com. I went there a couple of weeks ago and ordered the three different types of Mori Moto beers that they carry. Last week John and I went to pick them up. The guy forgot to order them. Oh well! So we sat at the bar and each had a couple of beers. I had an Asahi, a Japanese beer that I've had before and like very much and a Tsingsao, a Chinese beer that was very much like the Asahi. John had a couple of dark German beers, I couldn't even begin to tell you the names. One was a draught and the other had a plastic goat (ram?) hanging on the bottle. We ordered a half case of Asahi to pick up this week. It is sold in 1/2 cases only since the bottles are 16 oz each. We went back yesterday afternoon to pick it up and enjoyed a couple more beers each while we were there. And I wrote the names down so I could remember! I started with Wittekerke draught, a white beer with a fruity citrus-y flavor. Then I had to try the draught Shipyard Pumpkin Ale from Maine! My friend Melan is always drinking it and she loves it, so I had to see what was so special about it. Tastes like pumpkin pie! Hoo boy! Really enjoyed this one! Even brought a couple of bottles home with me! John started with a draught Radeberger Pilsner, a German beer with a light taste and a bold distinct finish. I wasn't too crazy about said bold, distinct finish, but I could drink this too! Then he had a Unibrous Ephemere from Canada. A beer that is brewed with green apples! As soon as the barmaid set it down in front of him, you could smell the apples. And it was wonderful! Very light, not bitter at all and not too sweet! They have over 30 beers on tap at any given time that change seasonally and hundreds and hundreds of bottled beers. They are having their 2nd annual WoBtoberfest next month and John and I are already making plans to go!Thye will have food, beer, fun, beer, food, beer, games, beer, music, and BEER! Stay tuned for more adventures in beer!

Blogger is still not letting me put in links or pictures, so I'll just continue working on projects and taking pics as I finish them. Maybe someday I can share with you again!

Grrr!

Blogger is not cooperating with me. I've got pics to post and it won't let me. This is the second day I've tried. Hopefully the problems will resolve themselves soon and I can resume normal programming!

OCC challenge week 13

Amy at Our Creative Corner used a chipboard challenge for this week. I needed to make a birthday card for my sister-in-law today anyway, so what better excuse?!

The flowers, flower centers and buckle are all chipboard. I used CTMH Perfect Day paper pack, CTMH Juniper, Creme Brulee', Sorbet and Tulip ink. Annotations stamp set is the SOM for Oct, and that's used for the sentiment, and Simple Stitches stamp set for the flower stems. Last but not least, a piece of Sorbet ribbon thru the buckle and some Stickles for sparkle on the flower centers!

Gifts for a friend

So I've been working on a few projects. For my friend Chris! She's got a bun in the oven and I had some ideas of things I wanted to do for her. I made a canister for the baby's room to hold cotton balls or whatever. The theme of the room is camping, so the cardstock is camping and there are forest animals stamped and cut out on it, leaves and other stuff. CTMH introduced a new acrylic album with the fall/winter Idea Book and I made one for Chris and Mike with a Christmas theme. All they have to do is add pictures!

Happy Birthday Evan!

Today is my friend Evan's birthday. He sent me a birthday gift last year and had written on the outside of the box that I could not open it until my birthday. He's never even met me and he knows me too well! He knew I'd open it early if he hadn't said I had to wait. So there it sat, for a week, taunting me! I knew I'd pay him back! So I sent his gift a week early and put a big sign on the outside of the box that he couldn't open it til today! Debbie, his mom, said he got the biggest grin on his face when he saw that! And he sat it at his chair at the dining room table and gave his mom grief when she would move the box so he could eat! With Evan's sight limitations, I knew I had to do something with different textures so that he could feel the differences. So to embellish the "E" letter I got for him, I used T!m Holtz Grungeboard, DistressInk, Crackle Paint and Distress Powder. I used Fragments for smoothness. I stamped a clock face and used a T!m Holtz Game Spinner for interaction. I posted the card I made for him last week as my OCC week 11 challenge. It had things he could touch and feel as well.

He's going out for a pizza party tonight if the weather holds off. He said they were under tornado warnings all night and had lots of rain, thunder and lightning. Now it looks like they will be in for some of the remains of Hurricane Ike as he moves across Illinois. Hopefully they will not lose power and he can enjoy his party later tonight.

Hope your day is truly special and wonderful Evan!

OCC challenge week 12

Amy gave us a sketch to work with for this week's challenge. I decided to use the cute CTMH snowman set that is the November Stamp of the Month. It's called All Decked Out and all of the pieces are separate so you can customize your snowman. Paper pack is Aspen. CTMH ink colors used are Grey Flannel and Black. I used Stickles on the snowflakes. The hat and scarf are paper pieced.

Just Because

That's what the Sept promotion is for CTMH. You got all the stuff you needed to make 16 cards, 2 of each style, 2 mini ink pads, cocoa ribbon, Sparkles and a stamp set. I've been slowly working on them the last day or so. All of the pieces of cardstock and B&T came attached and I'm anal and had to sand all of the little "tabs" off from where they were attached! I took some liberties with all of them, putting my own spin on them. I especially like the last one, I used the Stamp Kissing technique on her dress. You ink up your image, then using another stamp that has a heavy pattern on it (like Spot On!), press it into the inked image, then stamp. It leaves the pattern on the original image. (Thanks Lea for the idea!)These will be a Christmas gift for someone...don't know who yet! That's ONE gift completed! I've got lots of others in various stages of completion. Hey, I get bored easily and have to move on to something else!

New (for me!) blog

Doing a little blurfing this morning and I came across this blog. SheetLoad ShortCuts AND! They are having a giveaway! So go! Now! And enter!!

Stitches Begone!

I went yesterday for the stitches removal. The Dr was very happy with how Doc John had kept the ear and neck clean and dressed! She said he did a fabulous job. I'm such a wimp though! I almost passed out twice while the nurse was removing the stitches! It was pretty painful, but sheesh! I'm such a gurl!! We have to keep a dressing and bandage on the ear at night, and then in the morning, I am to remove the bandage and re-dress it and leave it open during the day until it is completely healed.

They also froze 50 skin tags around my neck while I was there. I have a place on my left hand that they froze as well. She didn't seem to think it was anything, but she said if it comes back, they will biopsy it when I go back in 6 weeks.

Last. A shout out to my friend Nicole and her dh Jason and son Brendan. They welcomed the newest addition to their family, Kieran at 3:18 this morning in Japan! Welcome Kieran!

Sweet surprises

I received two cards in the mail this week from friends . Both were to cheer me up after the ear surgery and they both did their job! The first one came from my friend Jeanne silly to sane. . . . , and the second from one of my CTMH sisters Megan whom I've swapped with a couple of times. I wanted to share their beautiful cards, and tell them Thank You again for your thoughtfulness!

OCC challenge week 11

Amy is the hostess for Sept at Our Creative Corner. Today is her 40th birthday. I remember my 40th just like it was...ohhhh...10 years ago! We were challenged to make a humorous birthday card to help Amy feel a bit better about this monumentous occasion.

I dug out an Emerson Quillen image that Liane had RAK'd me with. I just love the sassy attitudes of these ageless ladies! I used my PrismaColor pencils to color the image. Paper pack is CTMH Magic Moments from the new fall/winter Idea Book. I used my circle Nestabilities to cut the image and the scalloped circle for the frame. Then I used some of the new CTMH embroidery floss in Sweet Leaf to make French Knots on the scallops. The same embroidery floss is used on the top layer of Chocolate cardstock.

Happy Birthday Amy! Hope your 40th is super special.

I am sooooo bad!

Has it really been a week since I blogged?! OMG! I had no idea. OK...here we go!

Ear's doing better. Still pretty sore up at the top of my ear lobe, but it's not waking me up when I turn over on it. I go Tue to get the stitches out, so maybe they can tell me why it's still so sore. My neck/behind my ear where they took the skin graft is doing great! It just itches like the dickens!

We are now on Hurricane Ike watch. Looks like he could be impacting the west coast of FL Wed or Thur of next week. Tourists are being evacuated from the Keys this weekend and residents who want to go will probably start evacuations on Monday. I'm being cautiously optimistic about the storm. We can still use some rain. If it stays offshore, we'll be on the "bad" side of the storm. The front (top) right-hand side of a hurricane is generally the worst part of the storm. Depending on how far offshore he is, or if he comes onshore will be a big factor in how much bad weather we get. No sense in panicking just yet!!

Not really much else going on. Maybe that's why I hadn't posted in a week! I've got my OCC challenge for this week done, so I'll be posting that in a few minutes. Hope everybody has a great weekend!