The Birthday Queen is back

to wish Kris a Happy Birthday! We hope it's an extra special day!

Let's see what else have I been making?

Here's a card I sent to Jean whose post i just linked you up to had me so amused I needed to send her a card to thank her.

I now need to thank Barbara for her post that hooked me up with the image (from Stampington) that I used on the card.

I made another card using a different image from the set of images I'll post soon. I gotta wait til that card reaches its destination.

Okay - gotta run... its one of those days.

(edited to add: i'm getting a lot of annoying spam so you'll notice you're going to have to do a few extra steps to leave a message - sorry - that spam is just annoying!)

another baby card

okay so the other card i made for my sister's new baby? i decided I'd let my mother use it to send to my sister and I'd make another card for baby g. My niece has been baby g since before her birth and now it is the initial of her first name :-)

Supplies: DCWV and Bazzill cardstock; DCWV adhesive backed ribbon; Rubber Soul Giraffe stamp; Purple Onion Designs "welcome baby" from the mini sentiments set and "g" from Garamouche medium alpha; inner double circle stamp is Paper Salon. Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder and SU punches: circle and scalloped circle (phew thats a lot-o-shtuff for one card.....)

does anyone remember the original "baby g"... from ToysRUs? You know Geoffrey Giraffe and baby g... do you remember what baby g's mother was named? anyone? It's driving me crazy I cannot remember.

ah well. Memorial Day weekend here was kinda quiet. We broke out the grill. Barbecued chicken one day and steak another. Yum.

And we did another Video on Demand. This time around it was "Gone Baby Gone" with Casey Affleck, Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman. Wow. What a great movie. Not exactly happy subject matter (child abduction) but what a story.

I need to get moving for the day. Daughter is back to school today but I have my son home for the summer and my husband has taken off this week. It's hard getting anything done with these men about!

More cards

Here are 2 more roses cards

frankly I think I have had enough of those for the time being.

So I made a couple of other cards with some paper I had hanging around

(i think all the paper is Chatterbox, the roses stamp is Hero Arts and the Happy Anniversary is Purple Onion Designs mini sentiments; I printed off the Happy Birthday using a font called Black Jack; the ribbon adhesive backed and is from DCWV.)

I've been working on some more cards this morning that I'll probably post next week sometime. I hope you enjoy your holiday weekend!

So... am I an Uncle or an Aunt?

When ever someone's going to have a baby in the family - this is the question we ask - meaning is it a boy or a girl.
In our family, there is an abundance of boys.
Until Tuesday, I had 16 nephews and 4 nieces
(For the record, I am blessed to have a son and a daughter. When I had my second - my daughter - several people said something to me I had never heard before. Maybe you have? They said "now you have the perfect family" - meaning a boy and a girl)
On Tuesday my sister was scheduled to have her 3rd child by c-section. My mom and I were anxiously awaiting a call from Arizona all day Tuesday. We are worriers I guess. My sister is not exactly a kid and I can't help but worry - its major surgery right? And she is my baby sister. Of course I told my mother "don't worry - she'll be fine" but secretly I was a little on edge all day.
My sister has 2 adorable boys who I just adore. And while another boy would be welcome of course - deep down I think we all want a little girl. Someone who is like us. Do you think? I do.
So am I an Uncle or an Aunt?
Here's the card I made for my sister and brother-in-law (dontcha love the suspense?!)













When my sister called I was surprised to hear her voice. (I was expecting my brother-in-law) I asked her how she was - she sounded tired. Then I asked her the question and when she told me I yelled SHUT UP! and then I yelled it again. Then I started to cry. A lot. I know she called herself because she wanted to hear my reaction when she told me I am an Aunt.
So there you have it. I have a brandy new niece. My oldest nephew will be 32 this year and now I have this little niece. My oldest niece is getting married in 6 weeks from Saturday.
Isn't life something?
Have a great day!

More Birthday Roses

okay here's another card - same stuff except I used my quickutz photo corners die as well (don't even ask me how many time i had to cut those out before i got them with the stripes going in the right direction on each side - geez and now i look again and one is still crooked.... not... doing... it... again.... )

It's funny how you can have boxes full of ribbon and still don't have one the right color. I improvised. I had some really skinny pink and decided to add 3 pieces instead of having one tied around the image. I kinda like it.

Let's see... its sorta rainy again. A little drizzle falling - we must pay for the gorgeous day yesterday I spose.

Last night we did the Video on Demand and watched "Enchanted". Can I tell you thoroughly was? It was so cute and I thoroughly enjoyed it ... so there!

Off to flip some laundry - have a good Sunday

Happy Birthday with roses

I stamped a page full of this roses stamp yesterday afternoon. I don't know why, but sitting there and coloring them in was just very relaxing. I think I could do it all day.
(Hey Lisa R - you enabled me to buy this stamp months ago 'cos you made that beautful tag for me with it. I'm finally getting around to using the stamp I had to have!)
I cut apart the sheet and ended up with 8 useable ones for cards. Here's the first one I made. I had some SEI striped paper and used my cuttlebug embossing folder for the swiss dots. I got the scallop by using the StampinUp! punch all across. I pop dotted the whole piece - kinda looks like an awning huh? I repeated the scallop business at the bottom (but that portion isn't embossed).And thats also a portion of a Hero Arts sentiment (it says Happy Birthday to You but no room for the 2u on this one)
I really need to make something more simple for the coffee shop but you know how it is once you get started on something. I have a few other ones in the works which I'll definitely go more simple.
Ok - off to the races!

Bunch of flowers birthday

quick post here - just a few more cards for the coffee shop. Hero Arts flower stamp; background stamp is Purple Onion Designs. Quickutz tag stamped with a Purple Onion Designs mini-sentiment. I tied on a little embroidery floss and colored the flowers using the magic colored pencil technique (with prismacolor pencils).

gotta run!

Happy Mother's Day

Here's the card I'm giving my mom today. And please believe me when I say that swiss dot embossed background is a much nicer color green than it looks! for some reason the scan came out looking like a minty green which it is not. It's more of a springy green. (Don't you hate when the scan color is not true?)

Anyway the circles were cut with Nestabilities, the heart is Quickutz. The stamps are StampinUp! The patterned paper is Making Memories and the brads are DCWV. I used my prisma colored pencils and the MCPT. Oh yeah - i stamped the sentiment and then aged it with Antique Linen distress ink. I think that's all. I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Love and chocolate

I was listening to Martha Stewart's show this morning. I often listen while I'm doing other things around the house. I'll run on over to the tv if she's got something interesting on I need to see. Well this morning I heard something I hadn't heard for a while -
the sound of Jacques Torres.
ahhhhhh
Jacques
I've had a serious crush on this man for years.
Not familiar with Jacques? comment triste!
Here - go see and hear Jacques
http://www.frenchculinary.com/video_jacques_torres_2.htm
not only does he speak in theeee most wonderfully french-accented english
(I could listen to him talk forever.... ahhhhhhhhh)
he is Mr. Chocolate
(he owns a chocolate factory - seriously he does)
Dean of Pastry Arts at the French Culinary Institute
He's the perfect man - he speaks that way and he knows allllllll about chocolate. And did you read the part about his having a chocolate factory????
Just looky what he made on Martha this morning
a Chocolate Clutch Bag
So lets review:
He is handsome, speaks French, (and better yet speaks English with that French accent), is all about chocolate, and makes wonderful chocolate things in his chocolate factory (sigh).
Case closed
How could you ask for more?
hope you all are having a good Friday

A few cards and more on Spencer

I mentioned previously I've been making cards to sell in a local coffee shop with my friends June and Amy. So today I made a couple more. The scans aren't the best but those of you who know me know I refuse to spend inordinate amounts of time scanning to get the uber scan. These will do - use your imagination on the ones that are crooked, k?

I promised a little more on Spencer. When the rescue place brought her here Frankie was not immediately thrilled. (okay he hissed) The friendliest fur boy ever hissed at his new buddy. However I was assured this was quite normal. The plan was to keep them separated. Spencer would spend her days in my sons room. At a few intervals during the day Spencer would come out and Frankie would go in the room giving Spencer the opportunity to explore without threat (and Frankie to smell where Spencer had been and grow accustomed to the smell and the whole idea.) They said it might take up to 2 weeks for this process to bring everyone into a happy place of co-existence. Well Frankie took it upon himself to get into the room where Spencer was (he is a rascally boy who will not be stopped when he sets his mind on things) and then stopped dead. He saw her and didn't move a muscle. We took him out and then thought why not see what happens. Well, Spencer hissed when he got bold enough to get anywhere in her vicinity. Also quite normal. Long and the short, a week later they still are keeping their distance when they're together. We aren't keeping her locked up all day. I just couldnt keep doing that to her. But they are both making efforts to get closer to one another. There is a lot less hissing. Almost non-existent hissing in fact. So we are hopeful this is going to work out. I still keep them separated at night and they're never alone together - at least for now. Here's a pic of Spencer - isn't that crazy? She lays on her back! I've seen other cats do this but never any of ours. Also if you can see she has two different colored eyes! One is brown and the other is gold. She's an original alright. And Iwish I knew how to make videos cos seeing her run is hilarious! She has these short little leggies and pretty much looks like she bounces (ala Tigger). It's just the cutest thing.

Can you tell I love this cat already?

Getting back and I want you to meet someone

I finally switched my top photo back to the original one. Now its off center but i can't be bothered to figure out why!

This morning I've been catching up on blogs - still have few to go but it's been fun. I've missed you all.

I've been keeping busy: making cards some of the time. Also going through 23+ years of photos. Why? We're having a surprise 80th birthday party for the f-i-l and we're doing a little photo trip down memory lane with music. Sifting through all those pictures was fun in some respects. You forget a lot. Thank goodness for pictures! I have a good number of digital photos and ones on CD's (when the photos were developed I'm so glad I got those CD's). But there were so many good old-fashioned photos with negatives. And those were the ones that needed scanning. Total time eater! Anyway that project is done - CD of the selected pics are off to the nephew (who is putting this together for his grandad) today. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product at the party at the end of the month.

What else have I been up to -

well we have a new member of the family -

meet Spencer!

She (yes, she) is a mix - Maine Coon cat and domestic medium hair. Isn't she the cutest?

We didn't name her - she came with her name although she doesn't always answer to it. She was a stray that was brought to a shelter and named. Then she was taken by a Maine Coon cat rescue organization. I was shopping for food for Frankie in the Petsmart and the rescue was there with a number of maine coon cats. And little miss Spencer here was just miss personality plus. She made sure I knew she liked me a bunch. I went to the Petsmart with no intentions of falling in love with any cat. But I just couldn't get her out of my head. Frankie needed a friend. Although we still miss Holly, and always will, we thought why not get a friend for Frankie. He deserves a buddy. I'll tell you all about our getting acquainted period soon - with pictures of course!