no more sunbeams

some of you have noticed my absence. i appreciate the emails - its good to know one has friends who wonder what is going on when i'm not my usual blog-posting self.
i haven't felt much like posting.
truth to tell i don't feel much like it now.
the last two weeks have, frankly, stank out loud.
last i mentioned my cats i said i needed to keep an eye on Holly as she'd been losing weight. well unfortunately she didn't improve and it turned out she was a very sick little girl. very sick with only the worst outcome you can imagine. i took this photo of her last weekend. She was sitting in a sunbeam (that's what i like to call it)- and outside of being by my side - it was probably her favorite place to be - sunning her sweet little self.
We had to say goodbye to her yesterday.
Not a sunbeam in sight I'm afraid.
It was a rainy day here - outside and in my heart. I'm totally broken hearted.
She was the sweetest, smartest cat there ever was and she was the best friend I've ever had. Total unconditional love.
i emailed my sister to tell her the sad news. She had been so supportive the last two weeks as was the vet we had here. (unsung heroes these vets, i tell you). And she told me that i should remember I was her best friend too - right through to the end. And I guess that's true. But i still am crying over it all even though it was the right thing to do. Little Holly was my heart.
Anyway, there you have it. I'll be back making my blog rounds soon k? thanks everybody.

Valentine Rakarama 2008 (5th Edition)

Yes kids, it's that time of year again.

Time for my annual Valentine Rakarama.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about - I belong to an online group of wonderful women for what - the past 6 years? is that possible girls? Anyway each year I send them all a valentine. You can check out past years here

I thought this was the 4th year but I forgot to scan that first year's cards - darn!
Usually I make one design and make one for everyone. One year it was the same basic design and I changed certain elements (monogram). This year I couldn't make up my mind. I had basic cardstock, patterned paper, stamps, and punch I wanted to use. So I said what the heck - I'll just use those items and make a different one for each person. (yes, I was feeling a little crazy!)

I know a few of them have received theirs and the rest should get theirs by today - i hope. If you don't want to see - stop looking girls! The scans aren't great but it was more important to me to quickly scan then get them in the mail. Without further ado....

Some details: i teastained cardstock and stamped on the Stampington main hearts. That eyelet-y looking type lace is cardstock punched using a Martha Stewart punch (I love Martha). The patterned paper is last year's Basic Grey (still looks good this year I think). All the other stamps (the ribbon label, postage, LOVE, music and script backgrounds, small hearts and the faboo Damask) are Purple Onion Designs (only thing not POD is a flourish I used on a few of them - that's Rhonna Farrar). I used a versamark ink as well as StampinUp! inks, some buttons, some ribbon and of course, my sewing machine.

Okay - I gotta get moving for the day. I'm going to do some scrapbooking tonite! Have a good one

Leave it to your kids (kitties) to make a liar outta you

well it's true
kids - kitties - all furry and non-furry children
they like to make a liar outta you
i said on my previous post that the kitties don't like car travel nor do they like the doctor's office
and indeed this was the case
the last time holly and frankie were in the car was a disaster. they frothed at the mouth and, in general, were flipping out. and when we got to the vet's office, the vet had to shake them out of their carriers - by turning it completely over! they held on for dear life until gravity took over - are you getting the picture?
So yesterday I decided on a plan of attack.
First of all I went to unearth their cat carriers.
I searched high and low and was only able to locate one. The darling husband told me later he'd given one of them away and said don't you remember? I said no.
Regardless that immediately set me to worrying - if you have cats who are flipping out in their carrier what will happen when you put two of them in one carrier? I was concerned they'd hurt each other because they'd be in a panic.
I crossed my fingers (and said a Hail Mary for good measure)
I replenished their "little pink sock" with fresh catnip (yes... I was hoping to dope them up naturally. hey... whatever works right?)
and got a bag of their favorite treats.
Then when it was time to leave, I brought them both to the carrier.
I dangled the little pink sock in front of Frankie's kisser and he walked right into the carrier.
Then I set out a line of treats and miss Holly walked right in and I shut the door.
I thought - hey... that was too easy.
I grabbed the carrier and put it into the car on the passenger front seat.
We left and I couldn't believe it (the beginning of them making a liar outta me) - they seemed quite content. They both sat in the carrier and just sniffed the air (it was kind of a nice day here).
No flipping out.
No frothing at the mouth.
I'm thinking okay but surely things will go south once we arrive and get into the exam room.
I set the carrier down and opened the door - out walks Holly (like she owned the joint) and she proceeds to look all around. Frankie wasn't his usual overly friendly self. I did have to pull him out of the carrier but he did just fine.
Whodathunkit?
Now the reason I brought them there in the first place - Frankie had a small lump on his side. Obviously it didn't belong there and I was concerned.
Holly - she has been losing weight. Also not a good sign. This girl likes her food. One of my nicknames for her is "chubs". She had weighed 12 pounds. She has a small frame. At the doctor's office we weighed her and she came in at 8.9 lbs. See what I mean?
So anyway the doctor and I talked for a bit - they did some tests on both cats.
I got a call from the doctor late this afternoon.
My kids are fine. Everything is looking good for them both and I cannot tell you how relieved I was to hear it. Even the doctor said it was nice to make such a happy phone call. I have to keep an eye on Holly's weight but aside from that ....
all is good.
I finished a book "Running with Scissors" - now that was a bizarre book
I'm working on some cards.
We're going to meet up with our nephew and his wife tomorrow nite in DC for dinner. We haven't been into DC for a bit so that should be fun. (I'm secretly hoping to sidetrack into Georgetown to maybe check out Paper Source but that may not work out. We'll see)

a banner birthday

a few days after the fact the birthday queen would like to acknowlege the birthday of a special friend - miss Tina!

here's what i made for her day -

A birthday banner! Here it is hung across my fireplace - so i could show the whole thing at once. But here are some closeups :

I used some Heidi Swapp chipboard letters and Making Memories chipboard hearts and gave them a coating of Martha Stewart fine glitter. I cut out circles for the front and back as well as a scalloped circle (that got sandwiched in between with the ribbon) using my Nestabilities - i really love those Nestabilities!

Glad you had a nice birthday Tina!

Otherwise around here - I stayed up too late watching Super Tuesday results last night. I'm still recovering from the lack of sleep.

I spent several hours yesterday addressing Save The Date card envelopes for my niece who is getting married in July of this year. Addressing, stuffing, sealing, affixing postage. We never did stuff like Save The Date's back in my day. Boy i'm showing my age huh? We just called people. Go fig.....

Did you ever notice the abbreviation for Save The Date is STD? kinda yucky huh?

I have to take the kitties to the vet tomorrow - not sure if both of them have something going on so I'm taking them in just to be safe. Wish me luck - they absolutely detest any travel in the car and are also not fond of the vet office (they love my sister but her office is on the other side of the country! waaaah!)

Valentine - Admit One

It's that time of year :-)

As some of you know, I love valentines.

I've been known to send a few.

But this one - I think I'll keep for the husband

I used Romance Heart Cube from Stampington for the heart. I tea dyed some cardstock and stamped with Stampin Up Purely Pomegranate (just a great color!). The Admit One stamp is from Purple Onion Designs. The background was created using the wonderful Damask stamp also from Purple Onion Designs. I stamped it in versamark and used the Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress embossing powder. The background paper was a scrap from the little secret compartment Nancy Drew book I made my niece for Christmas. I also added a little bit of black rick rack to finish things off.

Yesterday, I forgot to mention a movie we'd seen recently. If you have a chance, go see Michael Clayton with George Clooney. He's enough reason to go see it ;-) but the movie was excellent.

well hi there!

i was planning on posting another birthday queen creation - she's been a busy girl that birthday queen- however i don't wanna post til i'm sure the fille courante d'anniversaire (gosh i hope thats right lol) has seen it!

on to other things - made this card for a college friend of mine. i love this anna griffin stamp! and i love hydrangea.

I made this next card for my brother-in-law whose birthday was yesterday - him and Punxsutawney Phil

I hadn't bought anything new paper-wise in a while. I went to a small local scrapbook store (on my way home from chauffering the daughter somewhere) I haven't been to in probably over a year and this creative imaginations paper was screaming out to me 'hey... take me home - and whilst you're at it grab some of those buttons!' I did make a few cards with the CI buttons but this particular card has some buttons from my own stash. Oh and the stamp is from Stampin Up!

Let's see what else have I been up to - reading. I read a book called Escape by Carolyn Jessop (about her escape from her life in the Fundamentalist LDS church. It was a little repetitive - coulda used some more editing in my opinion but) it was a pretty compelling story.

An absolutely brilliant book I recently finished is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Suggested by my friend Donna. I thought why would I want to read a book about a guy who joins the circus? But knowing Donna wouldn't steer me wrong I got it from the library. Wow. What an amazing book - if you're looking for something to read - run - do not walk - to your library and get it. You will not be sorry.

Lost was on the other night - do you love Lost? I do! Now if you've never watched Lost you can catch up on all the seasons by watching on ABC.com They have all the episodes online! However that's a big time investment now isn't it? Okay. Well you can also catch up by watching this video - Everything you need to know about Lost in 8 minutes

Even if you are all caught up this video is hilarious!

Okay - its Super Bowl Day - gotta get moving - Go Giants!

a little birthday candle action

the birthday queen should have made an appearance on Tuesday to wish Michele a wonderful day - so she's makin an appearance today - better late than never. And whilst we're doing that I'm gonna show you the little project I was working on - a little book for Michele.

The ribbon is gettin in the way of some of the words but it says:

Are you ready? Cue music; Hit the lights; add a little birthday candle action; Now lets all sing.....

If blogger wasn't a pain when you post a lot of pics - well i might format this a little differently but actually you can see how it reads. The words to the song are on your left and the little illustrations are to your right. I don't know if other families sing the "how old are you now" part but we always did - and still do to this day - so i threw that in as well. (yes - i ran out of time and i had to give in and print some of the last verse - the how old are you now part - if i didnt this little book would still be sitting here and it was late as it was with the MLK holiday). I used a lot of Purple Onion Designs stamps, natch :-) and my own little drawings that i drew on bristol board, inked then colored in with prismas and odorless mineral spirits (mcpt technique). Oh yeah - i used my binditall to put the whole thing together - i just love my binditall!

I better run - have a good one! And Michele - happy birthday again missy!

....edited to add - i totally forgot to edit these photos so they're gonna come out large when you click - sorry about that!

Took a wee break and now I'm back

Yeah I decided I needed to actually make some things and stay off the internet. well... not entirely but for the most part. how's that? I don't know about you, but I can really spend way too much time looking at blogs etc. By the time I finish, I'm wondering how come I don't have time to make anything! (sound familiar?)Okay so in the past week or so I've been busy making things when I'm not watching CNN (that's a little addiction that resurfaces when election time rolls around. can't help myself. don't want to)

The husband, who is a bigger CNN junkie than I, had the television tuned into the playoffs. When we were married, a million years ago, it was I who was the Giants fan. Grew up with the Giants. It is thoroughly entrenched in my family and background. I can, however, live very nicely without football. I had a bit too much of it growing up. Just the sound of the fans cheering sets my teeth on edge every Sunday. However, the husband loves it. He was a Colts fan. Long story. Suffice it to say he has pretty much always liked the Giants but since we were married - he's a Giants fan. Anyway....

Can I tell you what a happy man sounds like? I should have taken a picture to show what one looked like last nite. I was up here watching a movie. I could hear him yelling etc so he really didn't need to come running up the stairs to tell me who won.

Regardless, I have been making some things. One thing I'll have to wait to post - I need the recipient to receive it first. I realized today it's going to arrive late - forgot about the holiday. But I do have a little project I can show. It's one of those satisfying-yet-simple little projects you just smile at and say well now isn't this just great!? I was looking at Martha's website a few weeks ago and saw this project: Holiday Card Scrapbook I have saved probably every Christmas/holiday card I've ever gotten. Yes, I'm a serious packrat. I certainly save one sample of the cards I've made and sent each year. And I have trouble throwing out the cards I receive and certainly cannot throw away the photo cards I get. My plan originally was to make a traditional album of said cards (sent and received). But let's get real - it wasn't going to happen. I have enough plain old scrapbooking to do, right? So I saw Martha's project and thought that would get some major piles taken care of tout de suite! Here's another view
I took all the cards I had immediately handy - that was 4 years worth. I got the general size then cut up some cardboard (chipboard in scrapbooky lingo) so it would be larger - cover -fashion. Took those and covered them with holiday scrapbooking paper. Used my cropadile to punch the holes (love that cropadile so you can punch a predetermined depth over and over again and it comes out perfect!) in the covers and cards. Set eyelets in the cover holes front and back so that the D-rings would slide smoothly through. I decorated the covers with the year (with Quickutz Zoe numbers I believe) and then if the card I made to send that year had a vertical orientation I put it on the cover. The horizontally oriented cards (2007 and 2004 see above) got taped on the inside front cover. I used my rectangle nestabilities for that white scalloped rectangle on 2007. Fun, easy, and practical. Totally my kind of project. Best thing was I had everything I needed to make these so I could just sit down and do it! I will be making more as I uncover other years cards that have been packed away.

Okay. That's enough for today. It is a holiday but I had to get up early and retrieve the darling daughter from her cast party. The final night of her latest play was last night. They have sleepover cast parties. Can you believe it? Really. We live too far away from the school to probably ever get to host one of these but the parents who have hosted say the kids have a great time - no problems whatsoever- they're the best bunch of teenagers ever. Do you ever hear people talk about teenagers this way? Amazing isn't it?

another card and is this winter or what????

okay its take 2 for the crimper faux ribbon and the nestabilities circles (i also got rectangles but i've yet to play with those yet - maybe today) And yes, its the wonderful Damask Stamp from Purple Onion Designs - I love this stamp! It looks equally good stamped repeatedly with black for the main pattern on the card as it does stamped with versamark to create the watermark behind the sentiment.

Yesterday it hit around 70 here in the burg. Today it's supposed to be in the 60's. I certainly don't mind not having the heat cranking all day (while wearing several layers inside the house)and I am enjoying having the windows open. It's just so odd. By tonite it will all be over so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Have a good one

another warm day here in the burg; an oldie but a goodie

so warm I have the windows open. I have to keep reminding myself it's January! Even living in Virginia we shouldn't be having this kind of weather in January - it's crazy - not complaining mind you.

Here's a little thank you I made for my dear friend June. I used a few Christmas presents finally - this StampinUp! set called Priceless and some Nestabilities. I'd been looking at both the stamps and the dies for months and months and well - isn't that what Christmas is for? :-)

Anyway I used Versamark and clear ep for the bottom portion. Then I stamped the sentiment with Ancient Page (my favorite black i think) and clear ep'd that (yeah i embossed that dye ink again) then versamarked over the entire circle and clear ep'd it. The band that looks like ribbon going across is cardstock I ran thru my paper crimper. Yeah - a paper crimper - remember those? I loved that thing years ago. I was looking for something else and came across it and said well gee - I think I need to use this again. It really is an oldie but a goodie yaknow? As it happened I didn't have any black ribbon handy so finding that crimper was a little bit of serendipity.

warm wishes on a warm january day

....here in the burg
Earlier this week I would have said it felt like an
ice-burg. It was so stinkin cold! Today a totally unseasononable day. Sunny and in the 60's I guess. I'm going to enjoy it as long as it lasts.
Anyway -
I wanted to make a card for a friend who is ill.
I saw a lovely card challenge via my friend Amy's blog. Amy is the Guest Designer for January at i{heart}2stamp and Amy made a lovely card (Amy only knows how to make lovely cards) and I thought I'd take a crack at that challenge. So here it is. I had pop-dotted the sentiment and finally gave up on scanning it as I couldn't get a straight scan - apparently I can't get a straight photo either!
I used some textured white cardstock I found at ACMoore, some snowflake vellum I had hanging around, my marvy punches, a hand held punch; SU! mat pack (yes June I finally played with it!) and sentiment stamp (from SU! All Year Cheer I set -retired) and silver cord; versamark and white ep.
I have a few thank you's I made last week I'll be posting tomorrow. Now I'm off to watch Amazing Race. It'll be a nice break from the CNN ballot bowl we've been watching most of the day- I enjoy the politics but it's enough for one day.

Smart Pet Tricks

I was going to title this stupid pet tricks but I just can't call Frankie & Holly stupid. They're too smart and I love 'em too much to do that. But they have been quite the rascals of late so I thought you might get a giggle out of their antics.

First up is Holly. My mostly companion.

I have no idea when this particular trick began although I discovered her doing this in early December. I spose you could say she has always been doing this - while we are not in the house? But I would think that in 10 years we would've caught her before now. Soakin wet.... nuff said. I spose we all may have to learn to close the lid. (I have to remember to ask my sister, the vet, if this is really bad for her or not)

Next up is Frankie (I call him Franklin when he's in trouble. He gets called Franklin a lot. He's the original Peck's Bad Boy I swear. He opens doors, medicine cabinets and the freezer. I am NOT kidding - and he is so darn cute he gets away with it all) Yesterday I was sitting here at the computer and I heard a paper rustling sound. At first I dismissed it, somewhat absorbed in what I was doing at the time. Then I heard it again. This strange paper rustling noise. I thought I'd better investigate although my imagination is often much worse than the reality. I got up from my chair and walked out of this room and looked from side to side. Then out of my bedroom walked Frankie - in this get-up - a Kohl's bag worn superhero-style. I started to laugh so hard I almost cried. Frankie didn't seem amused. I told him I had to get a picture first before I rescued him (he owes me at least that much LOL!) He declined to comment on how he got him self into this situation although I did inquire. I took the bag off of him and he went on his merry, crazy kitty way.

I know people who don't have pets are missing out. Seriously. I adore these two furry friends and they reward me daily with love ...and shenanigans.

Have a good one!

Bye Bye 2007

hello 2008

I am sure i should be making some resolutions but they are always the same ones so I shall spare you.

We finished off the year here by going to the husbands family Christmas. Had a nice time. I promised you a look at the last gift card holder I made. Well, a few weeks before Christmas I decided I was going to make something to hold the gift card we were giving our niece. She is a special girl to us- and my husband's godchild (she is one of a set of triplets - the others are boys). I got her some hair bands and some earrings and a bookstore gift card. She's 11 and a reader and enjoys Nancy Drew. So I decided I'd start searching the antique stores in the area for an old Nancy Drew book. I have my own small collection of Nancy Drew (from my childhood) but I am not parting with mine just yet! I went up to The Old Lucketts Antique Store and had a wonderful time searching floor by floor and while I didn't come up with a Nancy - I did find a book that resembled a Nancy by the same author, Carolyn Keene. Then I set about making the book into a gift card holder. It didn't take that long to cut out the pages. I modpodged the pages together and it worked out great. The gift card as well as the hairbands and earrings all fit inside the book. My husband gave her the present and when she opened it he told her he was sure that she must have things she'd like to hide from those 5 brothers of hers - she made a huge smile.

We got home on Sunday afternoon and have been trying to catch up ever since.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to play with some of the things I received for Christmas. We shall see......

Happy New Year everyone!

almost christmas'd out

well it was a nice and quiet christmas around here.
for which i'm grateful
so much hubbub beforehand
we did something on Christmas Eve we've never done before - we went out for dinner! Now that was nice! Came home and dove into the Christmas cookies!
here are a few pics (i make a number of other cookies but you'll get the idea)

note the total destruction of the rainbow cakes. I had to have a discussion about proper choice of knives for cutting this particular creation with the family. i spend a lotta time making that particular one... i'd rather it not be hacked to bits.

By the way - the rainbow cookies - or really cakes - came to be part of our regular holiday fare a few years ago when I was finally able to find a recipe that tasted like a childhood memory of mine. It took years to find this recipe. When I was little. my grandfathr would go to a particular french bakery in NYC nearby where he and my grandmother lived on East 35th Street. My grandparents would come to visit every Sunday and they would often bring those cookies. Delectable cookies of all kinds but the favorite, hands down, for my sister, brother and myself was the Rainbow. These little cakes were not very large but there weren't that many in the lovely bakery box so my mother would cut each one up into 3 pieces and we'd each get a piece. Unbelieveably delicious. Three thin layers of colored cake. In between the layers was raspberry jam and the whole thing was topped off with chocolate. Yum doesn't even begin to describe the flavor. Anyway I finally found a recipe that I tweaked every so slightly and we've been in Rainbow heaven for the past maybe 5 years!

Anywho....
Christmas day came and went but we're still Christmas'ing it. We're off to the husbands family Christmas tomorrow in Delaware. I wrapped some more presents today and baked another round of sugar cookies. Then i set about decorating them - ze best part!

We always painted cookies as far back as I can remember. My mother would sit us down with paintbrushes, icing and food coloring and she'd let us have at it. I came upon the edible gold dust - used on the stars you see above - over 10 years ago in a cake decorating store. I take the "dust" and use lemon extract (like you'd use water and watercolor paints) and then paint on the cookies. You get the pretty gold as well as a light flavoring of the lemon and its really delicious.

I think its time to post this so I'll be off. We'll be back on Sunday and hopefully I'll get a moment to post another gift card holder I made. This one is definitely a little different - i hope our niece likes it. I'll let you know.....