Happy Birthday Jenn!

Today is my friend Jenn's b'day. In honor of this momentous occasion...here's what Jenn got from me. Her favorite holiday is Halloween, so I made her one of Sue's Famous Wall Hangings that she can put on a table. (I bet it stays out year-round!) I also made her a pocket Memory Book. And probably best of all, not one, but TWO pairs of Big Gurl Panties. Since she always seems to be losing hers! So now she's got a spare pair!

Happy Birthday BB!

A little pick me up

My friend Heather has been feeling kinda blue lately, so I decided to get her a little something to hopefully make her feel better. I went shopping last week and Yankee Candle was just putting out all of their new summer candles and accessories. They had the cutest little flip flop tea light candle holder and I couldn't resist! I got a pkg of tea lights to go with it and made a cute little penguin card with a hula skirt to complete the gift. She got it yesterday, so I can share now!

Happy Birthday...

To my bestest cyber-buddy Chris! You don't look a day older than you did yesterday. I sent her birthday gift early since I knew I wouldn't have time to get it mailed with all the last minute Convention crap I had going on. I made her an accordian photo frame that she can use at home or at the office. And I found the cutest T-Shirt for her. I found it here: SnarkyMommies: Personalized Apparel for the Family : CafePress.com Great customer service too! Hope your birthday is fabulous girlfriend! The first drink tonight will be a toast to you and Flip Cole Sue!

My hero!

T!m Holtz that is! No other designer "speaks" to me like he does. I get him and what he tries to teach. My friends Debbie and her son Evan know this! Deb is participating in two different swaps that I am currently hostessing and I recieved her swaps in the mail yesterday. In addition to her swaps (which are snot cute!) she also sent me on of T!m's latest releases from the Winter CHA, Game Spinners. As soon as I saw that they were on the release list, I knew I had to have them. But the last time I was at Ruban Rouge they did not have them yet. And so I waited! But Deb found them and she bought them and sent them to me!

So of course I had to create something with them! The logical choice was Make It Count stamp set, so that's where I went! I created a title topper. And I have 23 more Spinners left to create more things with!

Meet Freida...

This is Freida. Freida the Flamingo. She arrived in the mail yesterday from my friends Debbie and her son Evan. Evan is my friend who has eyesight problems. When I posted about the flamingo I had in the front flower bed and how bleached by the sun it got in one summer, Debbie said Evan had a hard time grasping that concept. He doesn't see things like those of us with "normal" sight do, so it was difficult for him to understand. She said she kept showing him different ones until they found this one and he knew he had to get it and send it to me! Freida is now perched on my shelves in my scraproom watching me as I craft. Thank you for thinking of me Evan!

'Nother Liane RAK and more Convention stuff

Mailman surprised me again the other day with another RAK from Liane. She sent me a bunch of the new Emmerson Quillin images to color, paint, waterbrush, whatever! I still can't decide which one(s) I can't live without, so I've not ordered any for myself yet!

And, a couple more cards for Convention. We are at 77 days away today. We found out about this time 2 years ago that it would be in Orlando and it seemed sooooo far away, and now it's almost here!

The first card uses new Boom di Ada paper pack, Cottage Floral and Say It In Style stamp set and Sweet Leaf, Autumn Terracotta, Barn Red and Hollyhock inks. The green floral and green strip with "Just Because" sentiment are both distressed using the sanding block.

The second is my take on a card Liane found on a blog and sent me. She jokingly said she knew I had the Little Bee stamp set and the Word Window punch and I could make her some! Well, I did! And can I just say what a PIA cutting out and cutting down all of the word windows was to make the bee hive! This will never be a mass-produced card for me! The big bee is embossed with black then I used Sunny Yellow and my water brush to color the body and wings.

Mail surprise

My friend and CTMH sister Debbie has a son who's name is Evan. Evan has some physical challenges, not the least of which is severe eyesight difficulties. Braille is his main means of "written" communication. Imagine my surprise yesterday when an envelope arrived from Evan! Mom did help address it, but HIS name was in the return address space, not hers. Inside I found these adorable alterable clipboards. Deb told me that Evan picked them out himself and took quite a while deciding on what would be the "perfect" surprise for me. But his personal handwritten note means more to me almost than the clipboards. I know how difficult it is for him to write as most of us do and take for granted. I will cherish his note forever. I wanted to share this with everyone. Thank you Evan! Thank you for being my friend.

RAK from Liane

My mailman was berry berry good to me yesterday. He brought me a RAK from Liane. She sent a bunch of Bella images. One's that I don't have. Gotta love that! She also found a new stamp designer...well new to us anyway...Emerson Quillen who does these fabulous "Maxine" style images and sentiments. Emerson Quillin : American Art Stamp She sent me not one but two cards that she made with images she ordered from the company. So far I've resisted the urge to purchase any. No guarantees as to how long I'll hold out!

Debbie's birthday gift

Here's what Debbie got for her birthday! Using her favorite Simple Pleasures paper pack, of course! I altered a paper mache` letter "D" and added some Tim Holtz GrungeBoard and a cute little MM chipboard bird. I also altered a giant clothes clip to be used as a photo holder. She also got Puppybella in honor of her dog Stormi!

Birthday gift

Today is Liane's birthday. And because I know she will open her gift from me before she reads blogs, I'm going to go ahead and post pictures of her birthday gift now. And if I had remembered to take pictures of Debbie's gifts before I sent them to her for her birthday this past Monday, I would share them as well. Deb, if you will take a pic and send me, I'll share what you got as well!

I actually did a coaster hanging for each of Liane's "girls", AKA the puppies! Each one is different. Each one has the dogs name on it, with a spot to put a picture. Liane also got Javabella from me. It's one she's been wanting and I decided to add that to her gifts at the last minute. Happy Birthday my friend. I hope your day is filled with Joy.

Mail Bonanza!

Holy, I Didn't Know It Was My Birthday, Batman!

Did the mailman bring me a bounty of goodies today!

Chris sent me a humongous jar of ShurFine Zesty Sweet Pickles. I LOVE these things and I cannot find them here in FL! I had sent her some Nellie and Joe's Key Lime Juice and a jar of Jalepeno Jelly and she sent me the Pickles in return. Yummmm!

Marjorie sent me a RAK of the cutest little Oriental girl images, and an awesome Bella card! The images are just too sweet! I'll be playing with them soon.

I also got my Convention brochure! It's been posted on the consultant side of the CTMH website, but the print is so darn little, I can barely make out every fourth word. Not that I'm old and my eyesight's failing, or anything like that!

And finally, I got my April/May issue of PaperCrafts magazine. That and Scrapbooks Etc are the two "artsy-fartsy" magazines I subscribe to. I also get Sports Illustrated and Southern Living.

So now I'm gonna go sit in my chair and read from cover to cover both the Convention brochure AND PaperCrafts!

Awwww!

Lookie what Marjorie, Mommy Scraps, sent me! They actually came in yesterday's mail, which I completely brain-farted going out to get so I got it this morning when I went out to get the paper!@@ Gotta love those Alzheimer's moments. NOT!! I sent her some Bella images and some Oriental images last week for a RAK and she sent me these loverly ladies! And I don't own any of them. So I'm going to get my creative juices going now that I have new earl (oil!) in my truck and my errands are run. Off to play. See ya later with new creations!

A little giftie

Just a little something I threw together! Bought the Welcome sign at JoAnn's and knew I was gonna alter it. Eventually! Sat it in my scraproom, waiting for the right moment. It finally arrived. Chris and Mike recently moved from the "crack shack" they had been living in since they married into a beautiful house that they can actually call home. So I asked Chris what her primary colors were and she told me a grey-ish blue. Got some input from Debbie, Liane and Rhonda and voila! Done! Serendipity it is! Got it altered in no time flat and could. not. find. a. box. to fit it. Ended up having to take it it the UPS Store and have THEM box it up. It arrived safely to it's new home at 8:11 PM last night! Chris said the packing peanuts were a bit much! But the UPS guy was so nice. He was so afraid it was gonna get damaged and at one point I was almost afraid to leave it with him cuz he kept oohing and ahhing over it and how pretty it was, and how much work I put into it, and how good it would look in HIS house! But I had my receipt in case he didn't send it! So I entrusted it to him, and I guess he used a bit of overkill! But it's safely there and Chris loves it and she's gonna put it in HER scraproom once Mike gets it done for her.

I love making my friends smile unexpectedley!

John was home at 1:30 again today. So we headed out to the Oriental grocery store so I could get stuff to make Miso soup for mom. Since we will be seeing them on Sunday, I figured I'd make it tomorrow and take it to her. She loves my homemade Miso soup, so it's just one more nice thing I can do for her. We also got some beautiful fresh asparagus. I'll cook it and take she and dad some of it too. I steam it til it's just tender, then season with a little garlic powder, soy sauce and lemon juice. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Yes, I serve it cold! They both love it and mom says hers never tastes like mine. I tell her because she doesn't have MY finger to stick in it!! We got some Yaka Soba for us. It's Soba noodles with a seasoning packet. I buy skirt steak and slice it real thin and cook it very quickly in hot oil and remove. Then I chop up a variety of vegetables. Today I'll use Napa cabbage, snow peas, mushrooms and green onions. Sautee them in the hot oil til they are about 1/2 done, still more crisp than tender. Add the beef back in along with the soba noodles and seasoning packet. Cook until the vegetables are crisp/tender. Yummmm!!! So that's dinner for tonight. It's quick and good for us.

My coolest gift....

...so far anyway! From sister Kathy. She couldn't have found anything more perfect! How dad-gummed cute is that??!!

I Robot

THIS is the gift I'm most excited to give John this year! His eyes got as big as saucers when they announced they were selling the FoxSports Robot. I was beginning to think "Rocky" (so named by me because of the "Pound the Rock" slogan) wasn't going to make it for Christmas when I rec'd notice that he was on his way. And because I am a meanie, it will be the gift he opens last!

You too can get one for the kid (or overgrown kid) in your life here:

Fox Sports Robot

More Serendipity

I played with the Serendipity papers again yesterday. I bought purse-size calendars for each of my sisters, mom and myself for Christmas and re-covered the front of them. And since my current addiction is to this special paper pack, I decided to use it.

And one of my boy! My clean boy, that is! He was getting that male musky smell that I hate so much, so yesterday he got a bath. We used to bathe both of them once a month, but the vet said it's not good to bathe cats that often. It tends to dry their skin out too much and then they start having other problems. So now we bathe on an "as needed" basis. Savannah will get hers this weekend when John is here. She tends to be a biter with me when it's bath time, but notsomuch with him. So he gets to bathe her. Orleans is laying on top of a pile of old Scrapbooking magazines that I'm gonna give to my friend Lorraine the next time I see her. They were in a box, but I needed it to mail a package, so now I gotta find another box!

And as a final note. I "talked" to Rhonda this morning on the computer. She was having quite a bit of pain but is very greatful to be home with her dh and boys. And it's good knowing you ARE back home, my friend. Now we just need to work on that pain and get it under control. Sending you hugs {{{Rhonda}}}

Grrr!

Blogger wouldn't let me post all the pics in one post. Here's the rest

How Do I Love Thee...

I've been working on a special Christmas gift for John. It's a word bloom and the word is LOVE. I decided to use Elizabeth Barret Browning's "How Do I Love Thee" poem and Close To My Heart's new Heart of Winter campaign paper pack and stamp set Serendipity. This paper pack is just gorgeous, blues, creams, browns and comes with textured cardstock and die cuts. It's been great fun coming up with the ideas of this project. I just hope he loves it at much as I do!