hip hip hooray!

hip hip hooray! here's the postcard for today!

(yes that DOES rhyme!)

cute little stamps from Rubber Soul and the rectangle stamp in the background is from StampinUp!.

Yes its a hip hip hooray week. My son will be coming home for the holiday - probably tomorrow nite (we had discussed the virtues of coming home early and the perils of waiting til later on Wednesday morning - traffic around this area is pretty hideous....)

The daughter gets out early on Wednesday from school (why they bother to haul them all in to school when the dismissal is at 10:50 i wonder....). And we all get a nice 4 day holiday.

Course to get to the good part (the pie...c'mon) we've got a few days of a lot of nonsense to get through. Early mornings, doctors appointments and such. I've already done the grocery shopping - I will do most anything to avoid the grocery store this week. Got the turkey, all the dressing shtuff, bought the pumpkin pie yesterday and ingredients to make an apple one.

I was just thinking about the food and I think I make pretty much the same thing every year. Despite all the food shows I enjoy watching, I don't vary the menu. It seems almost sacriligeous to do so. So I'm curious: What do you make for Thanksgiving and do you make the same thing every year or do you add something different?

Here's what we have: Start off with fresh fruit salad, turkey with giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, white onions in cream sauce, broccoli casserole (think of that famous green bean one - now take out the green beans, add broccoli and cheese...), and last but not least - pie (pumpkin and apple). We always have apple - and most often the dutch apple pie (crumbs on top) - but one year I made a homemade apple and it was the best - so I'm going for that this year. I'll be sure to take pics (you knew I would didn't you?) Omigosh - i forgot! The whipped cream for the pie. Homemade - nothing else will do on Thanksgiving.

Damn - i just realized I will be heading back to the evil grocery store - i forgot the cheese and the whipping cream. ugh.......

Postcards and Christmas Cards

Here's todays postcard from home - the gingham stamp is from Impression Obsession and the other stamp is SU -Elegant Ornaments set

(retired i'm sure)

and here's the one from yesterday

I am sure i picked up this foam stamp in Michaels - i've long since forgotten who made it. When i saw it I thought it reminded me of Matisse's shapes from his later years - here's a sample or two.

see what I mean? Anyway.....

I've been working on my Christmas cards for the past week. I'm done with all the scoring and still have a little cutting to do. I have to stamp the main image. Yesterday i spent stamping and cutting out the sentiments. I'll take a picture of my little assembly line once i've got all the pieces ready. In the meantime I want to pass along this request. A friend sent me an email about this and I wanted to pass it along here.When you're doing your Christmas cards, make an extra one and mail it to this address:

A Recovering American soldier

c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center

6900 Georgia Avenue,NW

Washington ,D..C. 20307-5001

Isn't that a great idea?

On the fly

Ze postcard du jour....

last nite i realized i needed some more postcards and took out a foam stamp (for tomorrow's edition). As i was stamping that one i noticed some paper with this bird punched out of it. (i usually have some typing paper or newsprint under whatever i'm stamping and i grab whatever is handy. I'd been trying out this new punch I got at Michael's - it's Martha Stewart. I was enabled by the evil temptress Barbara, who is always making the most wonderous things, and who showed this birdie on some cards she'd made. Anyway i noticed the punched out shapes and i thought i'd try to use it for a stencil. And this is how i made this postcard - using stencil brushes and sponges to apply the color thru my accidental stencil (does that sorta rhyme. i think it does). Then i stippled the background a bit. I dont know if you can tell but on this one and future postcards I've changed the size I am using. I decided I'd just cut up my 8.5x11 cardstock in quarters and be done with it. Previous postcards had been 3.5x5.5 It's a little less measuring this way and i'm all about less measuring!

Here's yesterday's postcard. I used some selfadhesive scrap papers i had from making that book for Annie last month and I wondered if the postal service was gonna give me fits about the thickness of this postcard. Obviously all my postcards are 2D. That makes it a little frustrating creatively sometimes. So this is my little experiment. Asking my son to let me know if this postcard made it to him so i know i can use a little bit of dimension - yeah i know its still flat but its thicker than normal postcards. we shall see. okay i gotta run!

Countin the days

til Thanksgiving. Do you realize it's next week?

Well of course you do. But I did a little double take whilst looking at the calendar. That one crept up pretty quickly. Maybe in other years it seemed as if I saw a lot of ads for turkeys and pies and this year things are just getting away from me? I decided I had better take a look in the grocery store for a turkey. It's just going to be my husband and myself, 2 kids and my mom and of course the kitties. I could make just a turkey breast but I kinda like making the whole bird. At least right now. I don't mind cooking the whole deal - not that anyone absolutely loves turkey around here. But once a year, it's okay. I like making the gravy - and I'm guessing you don't get a bag of giblets with just a turkey breast - or do you? (someone please confirm or deny.) The smell of the giblets cooking the day before is very important for the olfactory portion of our holiday dontchaknow. It kind of sets the stage, as it were. Smells are pretty important to holidays, wouldn't you agree? Just as I like the smell of giblets and pies cooking, I detest the smell of turnip - so that will not be on our holiday table. Turnips always permeated my house on Thanksgiving day as a kid and I decided long ago not to include them... ever! (okay all you turnip lovers let me have it! go ahead.... ) So I did pick up a turkey yesterday. I am waiting on the pie. I am thinking of making one (apple) and availing myself of Mrs. Smith's skills on the other (pumpkin). We'll see how things go around here. Above is today's postcard. All stamps are from Purple Onion Designs.

serendipity

a fast card for a friend

the serendipity (don't you just love that word?) comes in because not long after I got this cuttlebug embossing folder I was walking in Michael's and I saw this ribbon. Seemed like it was made to go with the embossing folder huh?

Postcard for today:

all stamps by Purple Onion Designs. I don't know about where you live but it's now feeling a little like winter. But I like it!

Busy day today so i gotta run. Have a good one!

So i said i don't like rushing the holidays

and then i find this cute countdown calendar - to your right. I love Norman Rockwell so what the heck. I probably should go back and find a countdown to Thanksgiving calendar but ya know Thanksgiving was never one of my favorite holidays.

So Norman Rockwell and Santa it is!

Anyway here's today's postcard. I don't think the background is showing up as well as it does irl. I used Purple Onion Designs Script background and autumn stamps. The leaves are from a retired StampinUp! set called Oriental Gardens and the flourishes are from Autumn Leaves.

And now for your musical enjoyment ......

Now that WAS fun wasn't it?
okay onward ......
postcards for Tuesday - i found this pic online somewhere - the kids got some large ears and i dubbed him the record holder for worlds largest ears - non-elephant category (as the son has the mistaken notion he's got the title (not even close). And today's postcard is a little bit of fun regarding our wedding weekend (the shuttles were never crowded but i couldn't resist when i found this photo).

Well i gotta run. Hope you have a good Wednesday

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

you know with Daylight Savings Time I should feel less tired.

but all this jet-setting is not for me

I feel too pooped to pop (yes Will, we say that too! since i was a little girl it was always a most apt description of being tired)

All the running around before hand (so that we could go away) and the getting up at the crack of dawn (i think 5am is actually before the crack....) - the stress of leaving everything in the hands of other people and realizing I could do nothing if something went wrong - welll.... when we arrived in Detroit on Saturday morning we had plenty of time before the wedding so the husband and I said lets get in a nap now. He lies down and is asleep in perhaps two seconds. I was so wound up it took me an hour to fall asleep.

(This is extremely not me - i can fall asleep anywhere, at anytime. I just think sleep and I'm gone! So you can imagine my frustration.)

Of course I called home a few times - my son (who had come up from school to keep an eye on all this weekend) assured me all was well. And it was.

And we had a lovely time. It was all so well planned out - all we had to do as appear at the prescribed times and places and we were whisked here and there and it was so easy and nice not to have to think - for just a day. Do you know what i'm talkin about? I bet you do.

Here's today's postcard - a little thank you to my son for coming up and taking care of things so well. (I hadn't stamped in gosh - 48 or more hours so i was a little over the top however - those are Wordsworth alpha stamps - colored in with some random brush markers)

He left late yesterday afternoon.

This morning of course I'm playing catch-up. I love ketchup but not catch-up. Ugh. Piles of laundry and a doctor's appointment for my Mom. The only saving grace is that my daughter has off school today (teacher workshop thingy) and tomorrow (election day - VOTE PEOPLE!). So this morning I slept in until 7 am! Ahhhhhhhhhh

Now i gotta run....

Leavin on a jet plane and i do know when I'm comin home again

Last night I needed to make a thank you. And since I liked how it came out -I made another! I know a lot of people do this routinely but I never do. I'm going to have to make a practice of this from now on. (card makins: paper is foofala, oval and oval scallop punches, red seam binding instead of ribbon, StampinUp! sentiment and my sewing machine.)

Tomorrow we are getting up at an ungodly hour to first drop off our daughter at a friends house (and they will make their way to their school to take the SAT) and then head on over to Dulles to catch a plane to Detroit. Why you ask? We are going to a nephew's wedding. A very special nephew ('cos otherwise i wouldn't be flying to Detroit on Saturday morning - I guess I'd be driving the daughter to the SAT ... but i digress.) We'll arrive in Detroit - maybe have time for a short nap - i live on naps - dress and be shuttled off to the church, shuttled back to the reception (thankfully held in the hotel we are staying at), then head back home on Sunday morning. Yeah, I think there's gonna be a whole lotta nappin goin on.

It will be nice to see my husband's family - they are quite a crew and will all be there in force for the big day. This is the 2nd nephew (dh's side) to marry. (Yes, we've reached that stage where everyone has married, had children and now the children are marrying. How the heck did that happen?) There is another wedding coming up in July - a niece getting married. By then there will probably a few more weddings slated..... it's a big family LOL!

Anyway I'm thinkin I may snag a few postcards in the airport or hotel. (you catch how i worked that segue in .......) Here's today's postcard: i like the crispness of the colored leaves on the white background for some reason.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'll see you Monday!

Happy November!

I can hardly believe it is November.

October just flew by - just like yesterday.
Here's yesterday's postcard. (that StampinUp! Botanicals set again. It has a toile-like look doesn't it?)

And here's today's postcard:

This one is using just the leaf stamp from that set stamped on top of a background made with a palette stamp (stamped a few times) using chalk inks.

Now that we're in November we'll be speeding toward Thanksgiving and Christmas - not that we mean to but doesn't it work out that way? I know I'm already thinking Christmas cards and plans for the holidays. Even in the grocery store last week I saw them consolidating the Halloween stuff so they'd have more room for the Christmas stuff. Which had been out for a while already.

Kinda makes you wanna scream doesn't it? oh well. Too much thinkin for so early in the morning. Have a great day all

a little more traditional

a little more traditional - as leaves and postcards go.

and very simple to do which was what i needed yesterday when i made it. prismacolors and mineral spirits. the stamp is by StampinUp!- from a set (i'm sure has been discontinued - more's the pity) called Botanicals.

Tag, a new blog and postcard

Here's today's rather odd postcard - #51.
I am posting as I promised I'd post whatever I made to send to my son. This one --- well its sorta borders on strange and ugly. I mention this because Lauren talks about "permission to make something ugly" on her blog today - its definitely worth the read (and to look at her beauteous books). I've gotten much better about this in the past say 2 years - getting over my perfectionism and even sharing anything I make. Trust me when I say a few years back you never would have seen me posting this bit of strangeness anywhere. And I'm not totally sure I think its awful - but it gives me some thoughts on what i will do for more postcards this week. and that's a good thing (in my best Martha imitation)
I meant to work on postcards yesterday but shtuff got in the way - mostly running hither and yon. I had to run my daughter to a friend's house yesterday (study group - physics test in a few days dontcha know) and on my way home i stopped by AC Moore for 10 minutes of fun - i thought. You know I didnt see a thing I wanted? I guess I have it all LOL! which is my segue to this portion of our program for the day:
I've been tagged by June so here goes:
1. If you could have 100.00 worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments, which would you choose? Paper (i hope cardstock counts... but paper over embellishments any day!)
2. If you had to choose between using only stamps or rubons, which would you choose? Now that's easy - stamps!
3. If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts but could only do one for a whole year...which would you do? As much as I love making cards, I really would have to say layouts (cos after the year was over i'd be sooooo caught up LOL!)
4. Would you rather own a scrapbooking store or have your own scrapping room at home...(can't have both he he he) I would never want to own a store (i've worked in one already) I'd pick my own room (which i have!)
5. What is your CURRENT cardmaking or scrapping style? Style Shmile. I'm just making stuff. However if anyone has an idea of what my style is... let me know - i have no stinkin clue.
New blog: Have you seen this one: Adventures in Diecutting The Official Quickutz Blog
ok.. i gotta get goin....

Last thing I posted was that we were thrilled with the rain. And of course we are. There are drought conditions in a lot of places in VA. So - yeah rain. However - we don't like power outages. Those I can live without. But that's what we got last night. All night. Starting at around 6:30 pm. Came back on at 6:45 this morning - i know this because I woke up and was afraid to go back to sleep as we had to pick up the daughter from her overnight cast party by 10am. I was sitting there in the dark and poof - the power came back on. We just got back from picking up the daughter and giving another friend a ride home. It was quite an excursion taking about 2-1/2 hours. However, the rain has stopped and we were treated to some beautiful fall foliage.

Oh here's my postcard for Friday - have a good Saturday

more halloween

here's today's postcard

i used a mesh stamp by StampinUp, a palette stamp (for the solid orange), stitching stamp by Hero Arts and the pumpkin is Memory Box. i used some prismas (no mineral spirits this time) to color in the candy, and the sentiment is Purple Onion Designs.

It's raining here and we're thrilled!

You've figured out by now - I LOVE Halloween!

Isn't that the coolest pumpkin thingy - look over to the right if you haven't already noticed it. You can get your own virtual pumpkin to carve just by clicking on mine. You'll be taken to the lovely site to carve and grab your code. Okay? I'll be looking to see your Jack-O-Lanterns! Here's today's postcard - a little more elaborate than most. A few friends may recognize the adorable cat - I used him on a card or two in the past. I clipped the original out of the Washington Post book section one Sunday (a few years back) - he's a black cat and cute as can be. Reminds me of my cat, Frankie.
I know it's a blurry photo but you can see how handsome Frankie is now can't you?
Anyway, I clipped the illustration of the cat out of the Post (i wish i could credit the artist because he is fabulous) and made copies at the Staples. I used a copy to create this transfer using a EF Design Colorless Blender Art Marker. The background Harlequin and Mesh stamps are both by StampinUp! and the flourish stamps are by Autumn Leaves. The wonderful "trick or treat" sentiment is by Purple Onion Designs.
I'm sure my son will enjoy this postcard as he and Frankie are best buds.
Oh and a reminder - you really should play that tic tac toe game I mentioned in yesterdays post. It's fun!

Postcard and a game

Here's the postcard for today using the Halloween set from

Purple Onion Designs

When i was stamping this i thought these little stamps are just perfect for postcards!

And since you've been so good I'm including a fun Halloween game for you to play - TicTacToe

Okay TicTacToe isn't really Halloweeny but play anyway. Just make sure your sound is turned down cos it's a little noisy when you win.

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postcard Halloween

i thought i'd start celebrating Halloween on postcards. here's today's entry.

A little birthday queen

shout out to Christa

hope you have a wonderful day!

a little bit of fun

Here's something fun if you're in a aristocratic kinda mood - get your own Title like I did! Sue at Wandering Star and Cindy at Yapping Cat Studio both were having fun on their blogs using these - you really should give it a try! Here's mine:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Her Exalted Highness Duchess Tracy the Confused of Much Madness upon Avon
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Here's today's postcard. The scan seems to be a little crooked but no matter. I believe the stamp is by Magenta. I don't know about you , but by Friday -i'm pooped.

Have a good one

I'm too sexy for

this card... too sexy for this card

ok.... stop singing...

what do you think? is it funny -

give someone a good laugh?

I hope so. That's what I was a shootin for

And here's today's postcard -
strange little mix of different stamps