Silly Valentine

Okay, so, remember below, I said I was gonna work on kids Valentines? Welllllll, I am, but FIRST, I worked on this for my swap and I'm just giggling. This was fun. I sure do hope the host of the swap is OPEN-MINDED and okay with this. I would hate to upset anyone.

Anyway, hope it brings a smile to YOUR face....

BUT FIRST...this is what my craft table looked like when I got done (it looks like this every time I make a card for the first time!!!)



NOW....the card....

Card Front:



Inside:



Details of the boy and girl...note that I "covered" them so they weren't "exposed". I just LOVE those stamps and haven't used them in a very long time.




IS IT COOL OR WHAT?

Valentine Challenge

I was reading on another blog I visit frequently (for inspiration)...and I saw this challenge for Valentine's Day. It's to create cards for the charity "Cards for Kids".

Ultimate Valentine Challenge

SOOOO, I'm going to make a few.

Gracias

OH MY...For some reason, my day was just, so...random. I didn't get anything with substance done - really - other than laundry, images mailed to a stamper pal, and a jog. I organized a bit, but unless one cares or looks closely, one can't tell. I can (a little), but ONE can't...Guess days like this (down days) are necessary.

So, finally, I perk up at 11 PM. my head has been all over "THANKS". Thanks for one friend in particular that I never truly thank - and oh - she deserves it. She is such a ray of sunshine in my life.

So, I had to put something together to let her know.

And after that (and if you look close you'll see what time it is), I also finished some cards for a Thank You swap.

So, Thanks all around...For the year, friendship, general health, BENEFITS, and employment...



Oh, and thanks for the Twilight Zone marathon on Sci-Fi that is going to run again this year on New Years Eve.

Goal Setting

So, this is my motto for the new year!

Gotta Get Those Shoes

Besides scrounging around in my stamps looking for a good humor sentiment to go with a good image stamp, I created this.

I love this lady. She is all Sas and style. Very Diva. She reminds me of a woman I know in Pennsylvania (near Lancaster) who is amongst the cows and corn because of work...Her spirit really deserves to be closer to the city where she could really LIVE.

Anyway, she loved her fancy shoes, but had a tough time walking in them for any length of time because of a long time injury in her foot.

Anyway, this is a tribute to her! :-)

Wake Up

I created this card for a swap on SCS.

Christmas Morning Family Photo

This was taken Christmas morning right after Dave woke up. Gnarly looking crew!

Merry Christmas

We finally put up our tree on Christmas Eve. Thank goodness we were able to finish it before Noon! I was so happy. Last year, I didn't get it finished until the afternoon (and that meant that everything else I needed to do got pushed off as well).

So, here it is just after I finished:



And here it is later after the sun went down. Isn't it pretty?



What is amazing is that Dave and I had all our gifts wrapped and under the tree BEFORE 9 pm. That was a first too. We are usually up late and exhausted struggling to finish wrapping before we fall over snoring. (Although this morning as I was bringing down the present I couldn't wrap, I noticed that he forgot to wrap John's PJ's - they were still in the closet in a bag).

Now all that good stuff said about prepping for what happens this morning (if Dave ever wakes up!) doesn't mean I'm DONE....'Cause of course, I'm not. I still have some Christmas cards to make and mail (figured it didn't matter if I did them today sometime, since they were going to be late anyway) and I have some presents to finish. But I do see a little shimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I'll finish before the end of my vacation (which will again also be a first).

After all the wrapping was done, I worked on Rita's gift. Dave picked up a gift card from Lowe's for her (she gutted the drywall in her house and is replacing it. She's been "constructing" for the past few years). It was not much, just a token. So, I decorated another box of chocolates and included that too.





I'm into these gift card holders this year, I guess. Easy-peasy (and pretty too)!

I got an email from UPS yesterday that my Brother received his presents in the mail. Hope he liked them.

Christmas to Daughter

Well, I was early with her birthday present but late with the Christmas present. Maybe some day the stars will align and (besides the gravity changes) I'll actually get everything I need to done on time.

I'm not sure why, but all this took all afternoon...really, it did. I think what took the most time was figuring out how to make the box of chocolates, but now, if I repeated this (soon, I should add), it would go much quicker.

So, here is what I did. I hope she likes it and doesn't give me too much of a hard time about not using recycled wrapping supplies!



Box of chocolates:

Lid:



Yummy wrapped insides:



I finally finished just before John and Dave came home from a swim meet. Maybe I get too distracted or something, but I FEEL like I'm working on something constantly. I guess it's gears in the head, because the end product doesn't seem to look like much work (but isn't it pretty?)

By the way, John was in two competitions, one right after the other....breast stroke 100 and relay freestyle 400. He looked pleased, but a bit tired when he came in.

After tomorrow, he's on vacation too!

Our house is now in 100% Holiday Mode!!! (ps - that doesn't mean that it looks all pretty and decorated...it looks like scissors, and paper, and tape, and more paper shreds and gifts waiting to be wrapped in piles....and cats sleeping and hiding amongst it all)

Naked Mail Swap

I did a Naked Mail swap at SplitCoastStampers and today I received my mail! It was awesome:

Thanks to kidsmomscrappin for such a generous gift!

Christmas gifts are coming together

Yesterday I mailed the gifts to my sister, Regina for her and her sons. She has three boys ages from 6 to 14. They are into games so I got them each very modest Gamestop cards (again, wimping out and going the easy route). For my sister, I sent a large Wilton Cupcake pan. I love that pan and she owns a catering business. She mentioned how much she liked that pan too, so I got her one thinking she would have lots of fun with it. I think her business is really starting to take off, which is good, because she was recently divorced and she is really struggling financially.

I hate the gift card holders that they give you at the stores, so I made my own. Here is a picture. I hope the boys don't think these are too "girly". They were quick and easy...and definitely improve the way they look.



The band slides off and you open it:



Today, I finished packaging up my youngest brother, John, and his family's gifts. This fall, I went to the Rennaisance Festival in Baltimore with my friend, Robin, and picked up a couple Merry Men (Robin Hood style) hats for his boys. My brother was really into Rennaissance themed stuff when he was younger, so I think (hope) they like the hats. They were really cute. For my brother and his wife, I gave them a dessert package from Tastefully Simple. It looked yummy and since they are really busy these days, I thought they might appreciate something they could whip up quickly for a treat.

And mentioning his chicken business, I thought it would be fun to make him some Chicken-based themed stationary. I used a new set that will be released with the next Stampin Up! catalog. I also used a Just Rite monogram stamper, and an old chicken feet print stamp from Art Impressions. Anyway, they turned out really elegant. Maybe he can use them to thank his customers!

Here is what they look like:



I just put a simple band and ribbon around them. Simple and elegant! :-)



Next, I need to start working on the rest of the family and Rah Rah gifts. Unfortunately (and as usual), most of my gifts are going to arrive late. Oh, well.

And no, the tree still isn't up!

On the Friday Before Christmas...

And all through the house.....

Is clutter, the messes! And NO TREE YET. Yep, that's right! Again this year, we are waiting until the last minute to get the tree up. Oh well. We'll probably have it up until February again.

I'm exhausted and it is raining like crazy outside. It's cold, and I'm cozy sitting RIGHT HERE.

My husband's office party is tonight, so I went out in the torrential downpour to find a little black dress. I found one on sale at Macy's for guess how much - $20.00! What a great bargain. And it is cute.

It was a humbling event trying on dresses. My butt has gotten much larger this year. I guess because I spend more time sitting on it than moving it around exercising.

SO, after purchasing the dress, I went out and purchased a pair of form enhancing hose.

Okay, enough pouting. I did create a Christmas card today and made about 30 of them. So, if I can get them addressed, maybe there is SOME hope that my friends and family (that will get these particular cards) will get a card on time.

It was super easy to make.

Anyway here it is:

Busy Weekend

Besides Christmas, this is an extremely month in general at our house. All three kids have birthdays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I know, I know, just thinking about that is exhausting, isn't it?

We celebrated John's birthday a couple days after his actual birthday (he turned 18 this year). He wanted Corned Beef for his meal, and I think that between Dave and John, they ate about 2 lbs each! Because they were STUFFED with MEAT (and I was just feeling a little nauseous after watching them eat, we waited on the cake until later that night. It was a Friday night, making both Dave and I SOOOO tired (and so was John) after a long week getting up at 5 am and going to bed at 11 pm. Unfortunately, we were not presenting the best party atmosphere for such a monumental occasion. Anyway, here's a picture in the dark with John and his birthday pie (I made a cheesecake). For some reason (that goes back to when the were wee) it's a tradition in our house to have the lights out when the candles are blown. He's purposefully looking pensive. He's wishing. (probably wishing he were celebrating elsewhere with all the glitz we put on! HA) Anyway, the cake was yummy. Men and boys are so hard to make gifts for, so I just went the easy route and got him a gift card from Gamestop. Game On.



Last week, I mailed Candace's package so that she'd get it on time (her birthday is tomorrow). Here's a picture of the Card I sent her, followed by a picture of the package. I gave her some handspun yarn, fancy square wooden knitting needs (I purchased both those items from Twin Ponds Fiber Farm), a candy bar, clear blue three pronged handheld messager, a necklace I made, a glass ornament I received in a Splitcoaststamper swap, and a bookmark and photo clip that I made. She got them on Friday. I think this is the first time I have been EARLY for her birthday.





With that done, I had to buckle down and get to work on Caitlin's present.

The above slideshow is the 2009 Calendar that I made for Caitlin's Birthday and Christmas. Her birthday is first (November 28) and she wasn't able to visit over Thanksgiving and she's not going to be able to come up during the Christmas break because she has to work on Christmas Eve and also the day after Christmas. So, yesterday we went down to see her in Baltimore and had lunch. It was a really nice day. We walked around Hamden after we ate and did a little light shopping.

And, she liked her calendar. Being an artist herself, I think she realizes the amount of time it takes to put together something like this. Really the most time consuming part is figuring out the design (and for me, then locating my supplies, which are usually in three or four different rooms of the house!)

Anyway, I was happy with it and I'm glad she liked it.

Di

I mean look at Kelly Rippa, now that skinny girl woman looks like she has the body of a 12 year old, and she has no boobs, and I am thinking if I lost a whole bunch of weight (ok thinking and doing is a whole different ball-game people) would I get tinier boobs? Who knows....and did I spell tinier right, or did I say I want boobs of tin? Well if they came with buns of steel I guess I could settle for boobs of tin, and what? abs of washboard?

I've been following Di's blog for awhile...and....I find her heartwarmingly unique, honest, and at times, silly.

Go here to read her: http://dianagibbs.typepad.com/

Beautiful December

Isn't that picture a beautiful, peaceful image? I took this when I was home over the Thanksgiving Holiday. We went for a walk along the NorthRidge Trail. This was a trail I frequented when I was young. It is a trail that spans the ridges between Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Oliver Springs. We probably only walked about 2 miles on the trail and jumped off about 1 mile from my mother's house, walking back along the road. It was a pleasant, warm afternoon, and these cute tiny little pinecones were enjoying the weather.

Anyway, it's posted here to help calm my spirit. This month is just screaming by. I have many gifts that need to go into the mail - but - I first have to finish them! So, darn, I'm more "behinder" than I thought.

My employer is starting to really feel the impact of the economic times. For the first time since I joined this particular group, we've been told that only fully billable folks will be working starting on December 22. This policy was announced to the entire company (of 95,000 employees!) My primary client told us earlier last month that we'd be transitioning off the project at the end of the year. We are finishing our work early, so we'll actually be done by the end of this week. And my other project was a short term effort that I finished the week after I returned from Thanksgiving (that has a lot to do with why I was so quiet over the last couple weeks). My other project, is an overhead project, so we're pausing for the mandatory shutdown period and will resume in January.

All that said, that means I will be taking two weeks off of work starting on the 19th. While I love being off, I wished it were when it was warmer! However, it will definitely give me time to finish up my last minute gift preparations before the Christmas Holiday.



Shimmery, beautiful magnificance!!! This is my Aunt Sheila's tree. We visited with them over Thanksgiving too. It was on our way home, so we drove up the day before we were heading home and visited with Sheila and Tommy, John and Jean, and Sonny and Charlcie. Tina also came down to visit. Tina, Charlcie, Tommy, and John are my mother's siblings. Charlcie lives in my Papa's house. She isn't doing very well healthwise, which is a shame. She has congestive heart failure and is also diabetic. Her feet were very swollen and looked extremely uncomfortable. Amazingly, she's pulled through a couple critical issues recently. I hope she feels better over the Christmas holiday.

My Aunt Tina is a sight. She is very proud of her children and grand-children. She always has several pictures of everyone. When I saw her this time, she didn't have her brag book of pictures with her, but she usually does. She only had a couple (a couple meaning....10 at least) pictures of her grandchildren -- which range in age from 2 to 16. And oh my gosh, what a talker. She's like the energizer bunny in that regard.

My Uncle Tommy impressed my husband with his guitar and bango playing (he's very talented). While at his house, we all (Dave, John, and I) experienced our first private gospel concert! A couple young ladies that are friends of Tommy and Sheila came over after church that night and sang and sang while Tommy played the guitar. While I'm not a gospel fan, it was both interesting and entertaining. Poor John (he's 18) was patient, but I could tell he was pretty bored. Dave looked in wonder most of the time - I'm sure what he was thinking, but I'm sure he was experiencing a bit of culture shock. Being a Delawarean, he's not ever heard much southern (rather very COUNTRY) dialect nor hospitality.

I also saw my cousin Doug play in a band in Knoxville while I was visiting. HE IS SIMPLY AMAZING. His band has a wonderful guitarist, but Doug - he is an awesome harmonica player. Really. The music is blues and rock. If you ever get the opportunity to hear the Doug Harris Band, GO. They are really excellent.




Let's see, what else. Oh, my brother John is now raising chickens for both eggs and as meat. He has 14 laying hens right now that are producing about 8 eggs a day. He said the number will go up to about 14 eggs a day when they all start laying. Here's a picture of "cluck", one of the laying hens:



And here's a picture of one of the Roosters (of which, I'm not sure there function, since they are not being used to reproduce MORE laying hens):



Pretty cool, huh?

Here's a picture of my brother, Sam. He went with Dave and I to see Doug play. He's just silly.



Sam's daughter, Jessica, is really quite a talented budding artist. She showed us her sketchbook (she's been sketching since she was 5). She has the same sketch book and each page is signed and dated. I found it not only amazing that she had the chronology intact, but her work is really good. She's only 10 and she is starting to use shading. And there are so many details in her drawings. Very Very cool.

Well, hmmph. I just didn't realize all the artistic talent in my family until this visit. Now I know where my interest came from.

On a final note...I noticed one thing in all the houses I visited over the holiday. There was a picture of Jesus in almost every room. I didn't realize that Southern Baptists had religious icons. I'm familiar with Catholic and orthodox icons, but now I think I have a handle on Baptist icons. Jesus at the Last Supper.