I Can't Stop Smiling

I wanted to share with you one of the cards I made with my sister and some other friends a few weeks ago. I picked up the peach element in the dollar section at JoAnn's back in October. It is completely covered in glitter. I know it looks shiny and smooth in the photo, but it's just raw, chunky, sparkly glitter. I was looking at the peace (pun intended) I thought about one of my favorite card artists and how she had been layering buttons on her cards. I wanted to achieve the same thing and have a card with some pretty stuff on it but nothing that would detract from the message.

Peace is what I hope you find in the coming days as Christmas quickly approaches. Peace is what I hope you find in the new year and all throughout 2009.

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting my blog. Your visits and your sweet comments make my day!

And finally, I wanted to share with you why I have been grinning and floating for the past 2 days. First, a major goal of mine was realized this week. I had a card picked up for publication - this has just rocked my world!!! I am so excited and honestly, still in shock....I didn't expect to be able to say that I had met this goal this year. Granted it won't be out for months and months but still - I got the acceptance this year! Anyway, I knew you would understand my joy.

Another reason I'm floating this week is because I have been honored to be included as part of the Twinkle Team (more info here). I am so excited to be a part of this. In case you aren't familiar with this brand new sketch challenge, here's some info. Jessica, The Whimsical Butterfly is a fellow DT member for Pink Papery Studios. I have really enjoyed getting to know her over the last month. Her daughter sits near her and doodles and sketches while Jessica stamps (how cool is that?). Earlier this week, she created a card sketch for her mom to use; the sketch's will continue every Tuesday. I'm so excited about this because I love kids being interested in any artistic endeavor, be in drawing, painting, sculpting, whatever. My grandma was very talented and her home was filled with paintings that she did. I was always in awe of her ability. Now, I can't really draw much beyond a doodle and I grew up thinking that I wasn't any good at art and didn't have any creativity. My only claim to fame was my excellent penmanship (which completely got destroyed in college - why couldn't they have had laptops back then). It wasn't until I was a newlywed that I discovered stamping and it was like all this creativity just gushed out of me, as if a dam had been broken. I am so thankful to have the skills and talent that God has given me, thankful for the resources that I've been blessed with to continue to develop them, thankful for the friendships that have blessed my life as a result of stamping. There are times when I wish that I had known as a child that I had an artist inside me, that she had been freed years ago. And that's why I love it when kids get excited about creating - anything - stuff - whatever it is.

Anyway, this has gotten to be incredibly long and if you've stuck with me this long, then thank you. And know that you bless me everyday - and I hope to do the same for you!

Have a beautiful day!!

Terrific Treat

Hi Everyone!! Just a quick log-in to post the Terrific Treat winner ---- VALERIE!!!
Thanks to everyone that played along and helped spread the word on diabetes!! I so appreciate it!! Valerie - email me your address so I can get your treat out to you!

I'll be back later with my Pink Papery Studios card but right now I've got family coming over so need to scoot!

You Really Want to Know?

My friend Tara recently joined the blogging world and I think she's loving it!! You should go visit her - she's a pretty funny read. And of course, she had a really pretty blog page after just a few days - and so sweetly hooked me up with the info to get one too! You can find the link way up there in the upper left corner on my screen. What I love about Tara is that she is completely honest and just puts it all out there. What you see is what you get - a trait that I happen to {love} in my friends!!

So she tagged me to share 7 random things about myself. And I am happy to share with you because I know that you are just *itching* to know more about me.

1. I spent almost my entire day going through a stack of Parenting, American Baby and babyTalk magazines today. I subscribed to them when the little man was born hoping that they would turn me into this wonderful, magical mother. I'm sure they would have if I had bothered to read them every month. Of course, reading them today, I realized that a lot of being a mom is instinct and I haven't done too bad of a job! Yea me!!

2. My first college roommate called my toes "finger-toes" because they were so long. Trust me, I wish I had short, stubby toes that are oh, so normal. If my toes were half as long, I'm convinced I could wear a 9 1/2. And I'm sure it's much easier to find cute shoes in a 9 1/2 than it is in an 11.

3. We have grown our own pumpkins for several years now and managed to harvest 12 this year
- our biggest crop to date!

4. One of my favorite shows is Project Runway and while I think Leanne does great work, I really, really wanted Korto to win. That coat she made from seatbelts was amazing!! I consistently loved the things she created.

5. I would be one happy girl if Sonic decided to bring back Pickle-Os. There is nothing like a fried pickle chip as a snack.

6. So far, I've got 2 presents out of the way: bibs and some cardboard blocks (just like the ones they had in the church nursery all those years ago) for the little man. I wish I could be like those women who have all their shopping done in September! I wonder if they hire out?

7. In my mail today, I got a request from the cable company to let them handle my phone service and a request from the phone company to let them handle my internet service. Why can't they both just be happy being really good at providing the one service that they originally started with?

Well, there you have it, 7 more random things. Consider yourself tagged if you want to play along.

What's Up Moose?

The challenge this past week on the MFT forum for What's Up Wednesday was to make a box. I used the template that was provided (see post here) and one of the free MFT stamp sets that I recently won! Somehow, I knew that the 2 I received were the 2 that I would get! Or maybe it was just wishful thinking; either way, I was a happy camper with what I won!!

I stamped the moose twice and colored him in. I cut out one and popped him up and then decided I would do the same for the frame. I love the look but I'm not sure I would take the time to cut that frame out very often! I wanted a box that was bright and fun and non-traditional looking when it came to Christmas! I hope this fits the bill!! I'll put it aside until December and then fill with some treats for a friend!

I hope you had a great weekend! My friend and I had scheduled time to stamp on Saturday! I made a rustic pizza for lunch, got a little stamping done and then we went shopping!!! The deals were too good to pass up!! My LSS celebrated it's 2nd birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! - and we enjoyed some yummy cake and got some cute stuff. Then on to Michaels where paper was on sale and I kept finding a new sheet I *had* to have!! And then off to Joann's, where I swore I wouldn't buy anything --- until they DID HAVE a glitter stack on sale. I snagged the last one before my friend could grab it. I should probably give it to her as it was not a very sweet thing to do and I'm really trying to be sweet these days. Oh, it was such a gorgeous fall day! Then my dad watched the little man while we went to the MAZE with my mom and brothers!! Lots of fun and it was great traipsing through the mud! We lost half the crew at one point and while waiting for them to catch up (they never did) the boys snuck off .... and then I was standing there all by myself. As I set off to find the boys, my "little" brother (he's younger than me by 14 years but he's about 5 inches taller!) jumped out and scared me!! Too funny!! I think my mom was game to go through the Haunted Maze but didn't want to wait in the L-O-N-G line! I never knew my mom liked scary things as we weren't allowed to be around that growing up!! "For good reason" said my other "little" brother (who is 8 years younger, 8 inches taller

[do you know that I'm 5'11"?] and was a Marine!) Cracked me up when he said that!!! He loves to act tough - and he is tough, but he also has a heart of gold - both of my brothers do!

Anyway, enough rattling on by me! I'll see you back here soon and in the meantime, have a beautiful day!!

Totally Random

Have you ever thought about why you blog? For me, I love stamping and I LOVE looking at other things girls have created. Being able to share is such a wonderful, fulfilling thing - it's almost hard to explain, but I bet you know exactly what I'm talking about. How cool is it that we can cyber-connect and share our art and passion?!? I know that I've made some awesome cyber-pals. I was tagged by Amy (The Scrap Addict). She recently started her blog so go check it out and leave her some love. Don't you remember how exacting it was to see comments on your blog when you first started? Actually, does that ever go away? I know I still get the BIGGEST smile (hey, I'm in Texas, of course it's big) when I read the comments and encouragement ya'll leave for me! So A BIG TEXAS THANK YOU!!!

Okay, here's the Tag Details:
1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

7 facts about me:
1. My mom makes this YUMMY chocolate sheet cake topped with pecan halves. A few months ago I blurted out that my baby brother was selfish b/c he was sucking the chocolate off the pecans and then spitting them out. He apparently doesn't pecans. I love pecans. I feel totally justified but it seems to have made a HUGE impression as I got reminded of it TONIGHT. Of course, we were celebrating HIS birthday so there were NO PECANS on the cake, and I of course felt neglected and jilted. Now who's the selfish one?

2. I have a sign that hangs right above my computer screen that says "never, never, never give up". I keep it there to remind me that I can do whatever I put my mind too.

3. Heidi Daus is one of my favorite jewelry designers. You can see her stuff here on HSN if you are interested:
http://jewelry.hsn.com/heidi-daus_c-j_a-664_xc.aspx?sz=11&cm_re=LN*Brand*HeidiDaus&prev=hp!sf&lastbc=!664&ccm=J

4. We grow our own pumpkins to carve. We've done this for 3 or 4 years now. We have 7 pumpkins to harvest this year - our biggest crop ever!! If you want to grow your own too, just save the pumpkin seeds from this year and then next year, toss em out in your patch. I think hubby planted ours in early summer this year. Little One loves to go look at them and water them.

5. I can't stand spiders and when we came home tonight we saw a HUGE spider spinning a web off of our porch. I doubt I'll be able to sleep tonight worrying about him getting in the house. Plus, hubby thinks it has an egg sack on his butt - well, I guess it would be her butt. Whatever.

6. He's still on his web. I refuse to believe that anything so icky and creepy could be a girl.

7. My college French professor used to get a big kick out of me. She never laughed OUT LOUD, but she didn't always HIDE her smile either when I spoke. Seems everyone thought my Texas accent was a hoot when trying to pronounce a foreign language. I wonder why I thought of that.

If you want to play along, consider yourself TAGGED. Just leave a comment here so I - and all my readers - can check it out!!

Inspired

It's been busy, busy around here - and I've actually been a very good girl and focused on things that needed to be done that were more important** than stamping. We have a garage sale planned for this weekend that we've been wanting to do forever....so I've been spending tons of time working on that. My SBS3 sis Teresa did one several months ago and so I was really inspired to do it right - and do it BIG!!! It has been great letting go of things that I've been storing for years. Of course, I have tons of craft stuff that is in that pile - so if you are in my area, please come on by. All my friends are begging for pre-shopping privileges!! Cracks me up!! But I'm happy to have it to go a place where it will be loved than just in the dumpster.

**Hubby and I have differing opinions on where stamping ranks on this list. But I'm shoving it down a few notches for awhile longer.

***Although I did realize this morning that tomorrow is the SECOND TUESDAY of the month which means ATC club is tomorrow and not a full week away as I thought. YIKES!!! I've already told hubby that I have to get my swap made AND plan for my demo --- which I don't even know what I'm doing yet! He was so sweet and told me I didn't have to sort/price anything tonight!! Ha!! I don't have to cook dinner either as he took me out for lunch!! But I'll bet he's not expecting that one!!! So stamping is back at the TOP of the LIST!!

That's it for now - I've got to get cracking!! Hopefully you'll hang with me a few more days!! I do have some gorgeous cards that I'll get photographed one day!!

Check it Out!

Thursday is Tutorial day over at Croppinsville! That's my day!! I hope you'll blurf over there and have a look around!!

Back Home

We are back home from the mountains! Such a wonderful trip; loved getting to spend time with my family. I always leave the mountains wishing I could live there year-round. It's such a slower pace of life.

I'm not sure how many projects I'll get done to post here this week. My little guy came home with a cough so was super cranky yesterday.
Thanks for stopping by - it was so much fun to read through all the sweet comments ya'll left for me while I was gone! Have a beautiful week and I'll check back in later!!

Old Eyes

Seriously. I'm only 35 but I think my eyes are 90. Two years ago when I was first pregnant with my son, I was at the eye doctor getting my eyes checked. I was in every other week trying to find the right ?prescription? My contacts would work for a few days and then they wouldn't - things were blurry and would go in and out of focus. After several weeks, morning sickness hit and I didn't want to go anywhere, so I cancelled an appointment. And then I read in one of the prego books that your eyes get weird. So I just switched to my glasses because they were the most consistent. Well, Dane is one now so I guess I should go back in and start the process over again. How do I know this?

First exhibit: This card (found at this link) by Melissa Phillips that she posted on her blog, LilyBean's Paperie. She has been one of my favorite artists in the magazines and then I found her blog. love, LOve, LOVE her work. Love her style. When I first read this card, I read "Dry Cleaning". Yes. You notice it actually says Day Dreaming.


Second Exhibit: This card (found at this link) by Sherrie over on her blog, Card Creme. My eye went straight to the image in the upper left corner. I thought it was a fancy perfume bottle - you know the kind where they have the "ball" that you squeeze to squirt perfume? Then I read the sentiment - and thought - well, okay, perfume gets rid of body stink, I guess that makes sense. It wasn't until I read the description that I realized it was a boat. yeah. Definitely need to call the eye doctor. And if you don't currently check out these 2 blogs, I encourage you to go for a visit!