Easter Goodies for the Kiddies.

I made these cute little Easter treat bags for Marti's challenge over at PCP. There's a Studio G Collectors group with challenges, conversation and inspiration - - and also a Pez-A-Doodle group; would love to see you there!

I totally dig these - and they were super easy to make too! I got the glassine bags HERE - 25 of them for $4 so that makes them 16-cents each; and the Studio G stamp is from Pez-A-Doodle. You can find this stamping goodness in Marti's holiday pack for only $22.40 - 24 stamp sets for 93-cents each! Sure, you can look for these puppies at Michael's, but good luck finding all of them! The beauty of Studio G though - in addition to affordability - is that they have sentiments and images in a variety of shapes and sizes for every occasion, so you will always have exactly what you need for whatever you are working on!

This one will be for D.....

....and this one will be for K.

Thanks for stopping in; and have a FAB day!

....back to the grind - - Blog Candy too!

The Monday back to work after vacation just cannot be a good thing.

*sigh*

...and because it's Monday, that means I am hosting over at Fun-Frilled.
Here is a little peek at the card I have over there - but you'll need to head over to see it in its entirety ;) And just a little head's up - there is a HUGE contest going on over there with some delish blog candy this month that you'll not want to miss out on!

Speaking of blog candy, my last winner never claimed the booty. I have heard that blog candy can drive site traffic, but then the flip side is that people only come for that and never return. Which apparently is true because the winner didn't come back to see that they had won. *tears*

So the package looks somethin' like this:
(1) pack of Taylored Expressions Tiny Twinkles
(3) packs of KaiserCraft Rhinestones {lt. green, dk. green & yellow/orange}
(4) 8 pks. of Junkitz flowers {coffee, beige, red & lt. blue}
(3) packs of Daisy D's paper minis
(1) pack of Daisy D's patterned CS {with monkeys!}
(3) Martha Stewart craft ribbons {putty, calla lily & grasshopper}
(1) CC designs mounted rubber stamp {cool chick with big glasses}
AND
AND
AND
(5) sheets of paper from Paper Temptress!!!!!
The 5 sheets are: 1 laser silver lustre, 1 laser black glossy lustre, 1 laser white glossy lustre, 1 laser gold glossy lustre, and 1 laser red glossy lustre.
Much love to my girl Patricia at Paper Temptress for hookin' a sistah up - she's the best. Visit her site - trust me, the Sandy Stripes Vellum is the coolest paper EVAH and I {heart} it.


And since I am still on vacation - in my mind - enter by leaving a comment on this post and telling me what your dream vacation would be.

Winner will be announced on my post this Saturday morning.

Fine Print: Winner has 7 days to contact me...I ain't chasin' people down to give them free stuff - heh. If you want it, you have to come back and see if you won ;)

Hope your week starts off great!

Home Sweet Home.

We're back from vacation, and with the exception of the trip back, our week was FANTASTIC.

Let me give you the Sports Center breakdown of the ride home: woke up to 6 inches of snow, the road out of Santa Fe was closed....left 2 hours late and then had to go super slowwwww through the snowpacked area....Rob got a ticket before we got out of New Mexico - speeding in a construction zone....we ran out of gas at Hoover Dam - yes, RAN OUT OF GAS...we were 12 miles from the Nevada town right on the other side of the dam but because we actually stopped in Arizona, AAA had to send someone from Arizona and there we sat for OVER THREE HOURS....we finally got to our hotel at 10pm...starving...had to go pee.... - ended at the Circus Circus buffet which even for convenience sake is just not worth it (some people never learn). But we got home last night before 6....ordered Chinese food and started to get back to real life - cards and laundry *giggles*

So here's a little sumpin' sumpin' I made using my fantabulous Paper Temptress paper. I am so in love with Kiwi Vellum - it's so bright, and vellum is just such a nice change of pace from cardstock to use on a card.
BTW - I made bunches of cards with this layout, so get used to it - ha.

~ SUPPLIES ~
Paper: all paper from www.PaperTemptress.com - White Felt Grandee, Kiwi Vellum, Pink Lemonade Pop Tones and Vintage Silver Lustre.
Everything else: Papertrey Ink ink & heart stamp; Verve main sentiment; misc. Craft Warehouse ribbon; Fiskars border punch; Paper Bliss bunny.

Today hopes to be the perfect Sunday: church, NASCAR - it's Martinsville, baby! {goooooooooooo CASEY!!}, laundry and lotsa cards! Yippppeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Have a good one; and thanks for stopping in.

Real quick....

Haven't had internet access....the familia dinner last night was wonderful - D cried when we left because he's going to miss his new cousins :(

We should have left Santa Fe at 5am but we woke up to SIX INCHES of snow...and the road out is CLOSED. So...we're waiting it out.... Should be in Vegas late tonight and then home tomorrow night.
Will blog atcha soon.
TGIF!

Can you hear me getting fatter?

I am so disgusted with myself.

I had just gotten done bragging to my girls in my fat club (again, I'm a fat chick fightin' the battle, so it's OK for me to be blunt about fatness - heh), I was bragging about how good I've been on this trip. Sticking to my food regimen (low carb/high protein) and then there was Adelita's. Ohhhh myyyy land-o-be! Adelita's is Mexican food in Santa Fe - NOT New Mexican food. This food was SPOT-ON like Yaya used to make. I'd like to say it was a spiritual thing every bit as much as it was a disgusting indulgent display of weakness - haaa.... I ate sooo much...and then I had flan after that!! And then during American Idol - my God, Megan Joy has GOT to go - I had some rice krispie treats.

Anyhooo.....pre-overeating, the day was good. D and I dropped Rob and K off at some nature preserve to go geocaching {borrrring} while we went to some LSSs and the Albuquerque Hobby Lobby. I got some yummy new paper that I can't wait to play with on Sunday. Sunday is laundry, cards, church, cards, race, cards....and probably some more cards - can't wait!

It's freeeezing here, and supposed to snow tonight so we were going to leave a day early. However, the family dinner in our honor could not be moved to last night, so, it's tonight.

The week is almost over girls, thanks for stopping in.

Postcards from New Mexico.

OK - so check out this cemetery. It's like up on a hill and it's sooo not modern. It's kinda creepy actually because some of the plots there are, um, mounds - ay! I suppose it has its charm - in a still-being-a-cemetery kinda way. Oh man - life and death convo with a 4 & 6-year old....um, not easy. K wanted to know why we couldn't just dig up Yayo. {gasp} I said "because he's dead". She says "but we can dig him up so we can see him". {gasp} Funny in an awkward moment kinda way. The kids in front of Camel Rock in Pojoaque.
My cousin is a cop....and my tio is a detective....so we thought we'd keep with the family tradition - sort of.

Going back to Albuquerque today. Rob and the kids are going geocaching - unless one of the kids wants to come with me - and I am going to *HOBBY LOBBY* and a LSS that I found. The other Hobby Lobby I went to was in Santa Fe and there was this one thing that was 1/2 price that I took the last 2 of...and I want more...plus whatever other goodies catch my eye this time.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, Girls!

- second post for today: PICTURES! -

Hey - whaddayaknow - Rob found a way to get pictures off the camera and on to the computer without having to have the normal programs on here that I usually use. These are totally unedited/resized so I apologize if they aren't the greatest.

The kids and their cousins (4th, once removed? - whatever) on a big potato at the botanical gardens in Albuquerque.

D at the botanical gardens - took a while to convince him that standing in front of the cactus would not hurt him.

K on a big mushroom at the botanical gardens.
And ME - hiding my fatness behind a big carrot at the botanical gardens.

How do I get on this design team? LOL

Thank God for HL!

Another good day in the Southwest for me and my little family.

We met up with my prima and her girls at the Albuquerque Aquarium. The aquarium was kind of, um, simple? Just not much to it. However, the botanical gardens we went to after were super cool. Just so much to see and do - and lots for the kids - which was great. Then we went to the mall and had lunch at Johnny Rockets (don't have that in Boise either) and did a little shopping. Rob and D took naps at the hotel while K and I went to....

HOBBY LOBBY

I have died and gone to papercrafting heaven - LOL

I got so many goodies that I just cannot wait to play with!!

And - side story - while K and I were waiting for my new super cool ribbon finds to be cut, we saw this lady looking at the fabric, and she looked kinda familiar. Turns out it was my aunt! Um...go to another state and run into your aunt - weird...but really cool. She's a sweet lady and we'll have dinner with her and the rest of the familia later this week.

Dinner was about 2 hours of indecision finding the place and then finally settling for the first place we passed - love it.

Today we are headed up to Espanola to take flowers to my Yayo's grave.

Should be an interesting conversation with the kiddies.

Hope you're all doing well - can't wait to have something to show you!

But I totally appreciate you stopping in even though there is nothing to see here.

Made it to Santa Fe.

Another day of driving yesterday - did the 10 hours from Vegas to Santa Fe with a stop at Hoover Dam so the kids could see that. They're building a new bridge there which was pretty interesting actually. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful - although going 93 in a severely windy duststorm made me feel kinda NASCARish {goooooooooooo Casey - I missed the race and didn't get to say that}. Oh and there was this stretch of dead coyotes all along the interstate...like every few feet another dead coyote...odd....and gross.

Got to our hotel and then had dinner at the Flying Tortilla. Know what a sopaipilla is? Sopaipillas are basically the dough used to make flour tortillas...you roll out a flour tortilla and then cut it in half and deep fry it. FRIED DOUGH is good stuff - LOL That was the only sinful thing I had, so, not too terrible.

This morning we are meeting my prima and her daughters at the Aquarium in Albuquerque and going there and then to the Botanical Gardens; fun times.

Here's to a great start to your week!

Life is too short to eat bad buffet.

Happy Sunday, Girls!

So we made it to Las Vegas yesterday afternoon - took us about 11 hours.

Just a few of things....

....since when did McDonald's start putting salt and pepper on their burgers? I worked at McDonald's back in the day and there was no fancy seasoning there except for the special sauce. Now they put pepper and salt on their burger patties and not that it's not good, well, it's not, but it's not the classic McDonald's anymore. Come on, 400 thousand billion sold - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

....how does a BOY get his underwear in the toilet? We're taking naps before heading down to dinner and my son (6-years old) comes out of the bathroom and whispers loudly to his dad "dad, just so you know, my underwear fell in the toilet...." How'd they get off his feet? Do I really want to know....?

....spend the money and go to the MGM. We're staying at Circus Circus - they are very kid-friendly, you know. So we decided to do their buffet for dinner - all Vegas buffets are the same, right? WRONG. It's so hard to binge on bad food - and there's nothin' worse than being stuffed from food you weren't pleased with. I couldn't even find a decent dessert - the best dessert they had was nothing more than Little Debbie Swiss Rolls sliced into bite-size pieces. The roast beef was dry. They had strawberry chicken though (Chinese). This could have been good - had it not been dry and old looking.

This morning we're making the 8-hour drive from Vegas to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We're going to see my cousin Loretta and her family. Not sure how that works, but my mother and her father are cousins, so does that make her my 2nd or 3rd cousin....or something once removed? I don't know...we just call each other "prima" - cousin in Spanish ;) We met via e-mail about 11 years ago, and then met in person a year later, so it's been 10 years since I've seen her. It'll be nice to see her again - she's a really sweet, down-to-earth kinda girl.

Talk at you tomorrow, Girls!

....I knew Friday was gonna be a good day.

Remember I said "I ♥ Fridays" - remember? You 'member!
Well yesterday was a goodie for sure!

So check this.
Miss Marti from Pez-A-Doodle Designs asked me to be on her DT.

GET OUT! What? Me? Sistah, please!

And what's more - she like created a position just for moi. I told y'all I was special! FINALLY someone who gets me and my "crafting for the working mom" gig. LOVE IT. So yeah, I'm totally excited. There was this chick Catherine that showed up on my blog one day - LOVE WHEN PEOPLE SHOW ME LOVE!! - she's almost as funny as I am - ROTFL - anyway, she's the DT leader. *waves at Catherine* Guess she was scoping me out - heh. So yeah - TOTALLY stoked (whoa, that's a throwback word - stoked - ha). I'll be doing a card a week showcasing Studio G Stamps and other products. Now now, don't you turn your nose up at Studio G Stamps - YES, the are AFFORDABLE. NO, they aren't your fancy schmancy $24 a set stuff from Papertrey Ink (which I gots mad love for) but what they are is both FUNCTIONAL and AFFORDABLE - I said that already, I know, but today, let's be honest - people are BROKE these days. But you do NOT have to sacrifice your hobby, your escape, or anything else to enjoy and turn out quality creations. So, when I get back from vacation - plan on seeing new stuff from me using all the fun stuff that you can find at the Pez-A-Doodle Designs store.

....and in other news - yes, there's more. I went to D's school program in the afternoon and it was completely adorable. All the boys in white dress shirts and dark pants - looked like little Catholic school boys (ah, if only we had the money for that!). Anyway, it was a good time for sure. Sorry - no pictures - the best picture we got was of this LARGE man (I'm a fat girl so it's OK for me to say people are large - heh) sellin' crack - if you know what I mean ;) Man that's some picture...*whew*

And then after that I had a meeting with my big boss wherein I GOTS A NEW JOB! Ohhh yeah. I was moved over to manage a particular area last month...and, well, change has not been good for yours truly, but I'll tell you what - I've been a trooper. However, now I get to report directly to the big boss which is off-the-chain cool because we get along soooo well. And this job, well, it's pretty high-profile for lil' ol' me. Wish me luck.

Alrighty - as you are reading this, hubby, the kiddies and I are en route to Viva Las Vegas! We'll stay there tonight - CAN YOU SAY BUFFET?! - and then tomorrow we'll be in New Mexico. I ain't makin' cards on vacation - so there will not be any pictures - but I will be here hopefully every morning to entertain you with tales of my days.

Enjoy your Saturday, Girlies!

I ♥ Fridays.

How do I love Fridays, let me count the ways....

Off all next week - yeah, today is gonna be a good day.

Get to miss HOURS in the middle of the day to go to D's music program at school - love that.

My hair stylist was sick, so I went and got my pedicure instead of my hair done last night. Got me some sparkly fuschia toesies with flowers. I have the second ugliest feet in the world (my mother's are the ugliest) and getting a pedicure makes them look ugly+.

And then I was jonesin' to create, but didn't really have any mojo, so I decided just to whip up some cards for the kids for when we get back from vacation. I don't even think it took me a half an hour to make both of these - I'm sure you can tell - heh. I got some new vacation/summer fun paper, so I highlighted the words PLAY and FUN on them with some hardware...and then put the kids' names on them with some fun Target clearance stickers. K's had a wide-open gap of nothing, hence the pom poms which actually stuck with the Tombow this time - wooooooooooooo!!

Make it a great Friday, girls!

The busyness has begun.

Laundry and packing for the trip....D's soccer practices started last night....D has religious ed on TU so that means I had to catch up on American Idol last night and then watch the booting show {so glad they didn't save Alexis - no idea what they saw in her to begin with!}....I'm behind on e-mail (you'll be happy to know I just deleted what I had in this parenthesis originally because I got on my soapbox and then remembered that last time I did that I lost a friend...who clearly wasn't a friend at all - but anyway - now the parenthesis serves no purpose but this tangent - LOL)....gettin' my hair done tonight....D has his 1st grade music program tomorrow afternoon....I need a pedicure.....have to take the soccer jerseys in to get the names on them and the place is all the way on the other side of town near the airport.....no time to make a card either.

Calgon, take me away!

Nothing to show you - so I'll leave you with a little sumpin' sumpin' that D read to me last night out of his joke book:

What kind of shoes does Cinderella wear to the beach?

Glass flippers.

Hope you have a wonderful day.

Rubbish.

Another draining, emotional day yesterday was. Layoffs SUCK. I shed tears for this lady yesterday - she has been with the company almost 30 years - I would guess she's about 50. She's dying. Yes, DYING. She's on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant, and she just went blind in one eye. She's not married....no kids...her father died a few months ago, her mother passed about 10 years ago and she has no siblings. And now, the one thing she had to keep her mind off of all her *stuff* was taken away from her because we let her go. My God. I saw her leaving in the morning with tears running down her face...just...so very sad.
{heavy sigh}

Anyway - so I made bunches of Easter cards this past weekend - still playin' with my pom poms. HOWEVER - these cards no longer exist. The pom poms apparently don't stick with AdTech, they probably need Tombow glue - they started to shrivel inwards and then the edges curled up...just a mess. I pressed and pressed, I have this heavy tool on my desk that I pressed on them, and no, these bad boys wanted to ruin my day. So, I tore these cards apart, saved the embossed cardstock part and the back of the card to use on a scrap card someday. This is not my week, I tell ya'. So - take a good look at these cards now - because you'll never see them again - ha!

Peace in your 'hood, Girls.

Hugs...

....to all my girls for showin' me love.

I STILL HAVE A JOB - praise God!
We are however cutting 25 positions - 1 of them being one of the ladies on my staff. Sooo...these next couple of weeks until she's gone are gonna suckkk. Tears...whispering....anger - all that today. Very very draining. Oh, and I'm losing 6% of my pay which, I guess is better than 100%, right?

Have I already mentioned I NEED A VACATION?
We leave for New Mexico Saturday morning - so much to do...but sooo excited to get the heck outta dodge!

So these HUGS cards were made by young Miss K. I think I mentioned last weekend that I had a coupon for free cardstock at Archiver's so I let her pick out stuff for herself....she got some paper and then some stickers at JoAnn's. She put the letters on, she stamped it, and we did the bow together. Not too shabby for 4-years old, eh?

I'm not the huggy type - but...

{HUGS} to you, my friends.

...it's Monday again.

Which means I am hosting over at Fun-Frilled. Fun theme this week - and I love the card I made. Hope to see you over there. By the way - we've got a big giveaway goin' on over there this month, so if you make cards, you'll want to get in on the action.

Today is THE day. After the weeks and weeks of waiting, we were told that we would hear all the layoff goodness on or by today. So I'm thinking whether it's me or not - there is going to be a lot of stress and a lot of emotions and drama today at the office. Remember what I say about drama: I like drama as long as it ain't me in it. I think this is one of the few exceptions where that does not apply - it's not going to be a good day....guaranteed.

Anyway...hope you had a wonderful weekend....

....and start the new week off grrrrrrrrreat!

Good Sunday morning, Girls.

Real quick post this morning - I've got the blahs....think I need a vacation - oh wait, I leave for one next Saturday morning - thank God!

The Papertrey Ink DT all created things with these little pom-poms on them. I thought they were so cute so I went down and picked some up at Archiver's. I'm liking this layout - tweaked it several times yesterday and made some different but similar things that you'll see soon. Who says you've got to be a skinny busty blonde to have pom-poms? - take that! chicks with names like Brandie and Carly and Kimmie!!

Have a great day....Sunday...what a beautiful thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*....BLOG CANDY WINNER....*

Miss Joni wins!

Miss Joni who said the first person never wins!

Joni - PM me your addy at SCS and I'll get your prize out to ya' soon!

Congratulations - and thanks for playing, everyone.

Rubbin' it.

LOL

So I've seen people use these rub-ons and I don't know, I just thought they were cheesy or something which is why I never bought any. However, one of my Secret Sistahs sent me a pack of rub-ons so I thought I'd give it a try since it wasn't on my dime ;) I have to admit - I LIKED IT - a lot! I love this card. It's almost perfect - but it has one tiny flaw. Can you see it? I'm so bummed. Maybe it's one of those things that just I notice - but I'll point it out to ya: the DP is upside down! I'm so stupid!! See how the roses are? Ugh.... But I have all the supplies to make another one that will be perfect. I think I'll give this one to one of Rob's old aunts who have failing eyesight and may not notice....ha...or to one of my friends who wears Coke bottle glasses (love ya' Heather!).

Anywho - so my little girl and I will be out shopping this morning (our Saturday morning ritual) and then the plan is crafting and laundry for me the rest of the day - at least 50% of that will be fun, eh?

Thanks for stopping in today -
- have a GREAT Saturday!

ETA: the rub-on part is the Happy Birthday sentiment.

>gasp< It's Friday the 13th.

The president of the company said we would get the layoff how many/who on/by Monday. I'm hoping they would have enough sense NOT to do it on Friday the 13th! I'm not really stressin' anymore though - I mean yes, work has been insanely stressful lately, BUT I figure I can't change whether I am chosen to be kicked to the curb or not, so no sense getting worked up about it, right?

Anywho - I made a little thank you card for someone who did something very nice for me this week. She doesn't come to this blog, but, she helped a sistah out. All the paper on this card is from Paper Temptress, and I am using my new Fleur de Lis punches and a new Verve sentiment (it was a thank you for my order - cool, eh?). I have such a hard time capturing fuschias and reds - and I'm sorry, I do not have the time or the patience to play in PSP to alter it to the right color. I will say though that the photo does not do this card justice - the CS is a vibrant fuschia - Azalea Metallic cardstock.

~ SUPPLIES ~
Paper: all paper from www.PaperTemptress.com - Azalea Metallic CS, Aquamarine Metallic Text, Emerald Metallic Text, Vintage Silver Lustre Text, and Pearl Vellum.
Everything else: Papertrey Ink ink, & ribbon; EK Success punch & border punch; Cuttlebug folder; Verve sentiment; Foofala button; coat thread.

I hope your Friday the 13th is without incident - just don't walk under any ladders or break any mirrors today just in case ;)

TGIF!

Good mail.

Remember how excited I was for the Verve release party Sunday night? Well my order came yesterday! ~~ wooooo!! Verve's home office is like 10 minutes from my house so I'd be willing to bet dollars to donuts that I get my stamps before anyone else does! And if I don't, just let me live in my it's-all-about-me fantasy world, would ya'?

I'm feelin' this card - hope you are too. The paper is all Paper Temptress paper, the main sentiment is from Verve's new Plain Jane's - I love Julee's Plain Jane's because I work with ONLY sentiments and she's got them in a variety of sizes, shapes, fonts....just always something perfect for me to work with.

~ SUPPLIES ~
Paper: all paper from www.PaperTemptress.com - Lemon Drop Pop Tones, Wild Cherry Pop Tones, Teal Felt Grandee, White Felt Grandee, White Diamond Metallic, Aquamarine Metallic Text, and Retro Glossy Gold Lustre (tiny piece sticking out from the Wild Cherry).
Everything else: Verve main sentiment; Papertrey Ink secondary sentiment; Nestibilities - flower, circle, scalloped circle dies; Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Folder; EK Success heart punch; Foofala buttons; coat thread; Misc. Craft Warehouse ribbon; Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy ribbon and all ink by PTI; Sewing machine; dimensionals.

This week has flown by for me - what about you?
Thanks for stopping by, girlfriends - much love.

Dulce de Blog.

* BLOG CANDY *

Yes - you read that right...and here they come out of the woodwork!

That's OK, the point of my very first ever BLOG CANDY is to get people to know about my blog....bribe them to come, and who knows, maybe they'll see something or read something that'll make them come back. Now I got much love for my faithful girls like Jaycie and Heather and Jennifer. But if one of them is busy or sick or something - there is life off the internet, you know - then I am here talking to 1 person or sometimes just me :( So....I'm doin' it - BLOG CANDY - in hopes of ropin' in another sucker...or two - heh.

Alright - so how do you win said BLOG CANDY, you ask?

You just gotta answer this question...on this post.

*.....QUESTION.....*

If you could go on a reality TV show, which show would it be - and why?

One lucky winner will be chosen at random on Sunday the 15th - so you have at least until the end of the day Saturday...and maybe some of Sunday to post your answer. Spread the word - tell a friend - who doesn't like free stuff?

Oh yeah - what's all this *stuff* that you're trying to win?

I'm finna tell ya'....

(1) pack of Taylored Expressions Tiny Twinkles
(3) packs of KaiserCraft Rhinestones {lt. green, dk. green & yellow/orange}
(4) 8 pks. of Junkitz flowers {coffee, beige, red & lt. blue}
(3) packs of Daisy D's paper minis
(1) pack of Daisy D's patterned CS {with monkeys!}
(3) Martha Stewart craft ribbons {putty, calla lily & grasshopper}
(1) CC designs mounted rubber stamp {cool chick with big glasses}

AND
AND

AND

(5) sheets of paper from Paper Temptress!!!!!

The 5 sheets are: 1 laser silver lustre, 1 laser black glossy lustre, 1 laser white glossy lustre, 1 laser gold glossy lustre, and 1 laser red glossy lustre.

I am totally envious - I don't have the black or the BRAND NEW RED and one of you lucky ducks will - it's an outrage!

But I gotta give props to my girl Patricia at Paper Temptress for hookin' a sistah up - she's the best.

Visit her site - trust me, the Sandy Stripes Vellum is the coolest paper EVAH and I {heart} it.

Alright Girls - get the word out.
I'm not sure how to keep this post at the top, but if I can't figure it out, I'll put something on the sidebar about it with a link to this post.

Fine Print: Winner has 7 days to contact me...I ain't chasin' people down to give them free stuff - heh. If you want it, you have to come back and see if you won ;)

Good Luck!

I never thought I'd be able to have children. We tried for years. I brought it up with my OB/GYN and he put me on Clomid for months - months longer than you were supposed to be on it. The test was negative every month. He told me about a fertility Doc in town - but I knew we could never afford that. Then I read a story in the paper about the Doc. And then this lady at work who was over 40 and pregnant told me that she had gone to him. Much to my surprise - a lot of the procedures and tests were covered by my insurance. The fertility Doc told me they try it 6 times before they give up. It took 5 rounds - 5 stressful, emotional, depressing rounds of treatments - over about 8 months - to finally get the phone call telling me that I was indeed finally pregnant. We had our baby boy almost 7 years ago. It only took us 2 rounds of treatments to get pregnant with my daughter almost 5 years ago. When I was in the hospital after having my son, the 40-year old pregnant lady (and her baby girl) came to see me and brought me a cute little boy outfit and the book "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. I cried the first time I read it - and I get teary reading it still today. One of my mommy/kid things has been singing the song to my kids - when we're alone together: I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be. It's just precious.

I bought this new Basic Grey DP at my LSS last week and I've been thinking - does it have to be for Valentine's Day? I decided that it didn't. And then I thought perhaps I could use it for a baby card sometime. And then yesterday - my son got 100% on his pre-spelling test (teacher gives them their words on Monday and does a quiz to see if they know any of them - and he got them all correct yesterday even though the real test isn't until Friday) and my daughter spent the day at my mother's because she's sick - again. Just a cold...lotsa boogers and those red, watery eyes - nothing too bad, but, just decided to keep her home. So I thought you know what, I make cards for friends and family and people I don't even know, I'm going to use this sweet paper and make them each a card - one will go in D's backpack this morning and one will go in K's "going to grandma's" bag today too.

I'm getting teary now as I write this - I work, my husband works, we try to be good parents, raise smart, grounded, faith-filled children but sometimes you know, it's hard; sometimes you lose your cool. I kiss my kids when I leave in the morning...I kiss them when they go to bed...I love cuddling with them on the weekends - that's probably my most favorite thing to do in this world. I always tell D that I love him and he says "I love you more..." - which is completely impossible.

*sigh*

Here's their cards - (the inside is the Love You Forever sentiment you see above).

I love my babies.

Good Monday 2U!

It's Monday - so that means a super-short post. I was up late (at least for me) on a Sunday night with the Verve release party and then getting caught up on all my TV shows. The only thing I am missing now is the Top Chef reunion show.

Because it's Monday that means I am hosting at Fun-Frilled. This week's theme was a bit of a challenge for me - it'll be nice to see what everyone else does with it. Here is my sneak peek - head on over to Fun-Frilled to see it in its entirety. And if you're not interested in my card - because I think there are stalkers out there in the blog world ;) - head over there anyway because there is * BLOG CANDY *.

Here's to a great start to your week!

Wonderful Sunday is here.

Woooooooo - today is one of the best races of the year: Atlanta Motor Speedway aka Hotlanta. LOVE IT - and it's one of Casey's favorite tracks. Doesn't mean he'll do well there - LOL - just means he really likes racing there. I should be getting in the door from church right as the green flag drops; LOVE IT!

So I've got a few things to show you today - starting out with a RAK. A RAK is a random act of kindness. This chick Tara over at the Papertrey forum got some of these little tags and wanted to see some different ways to use them. Well I'm all for a challenge - and free stuff, right? So she mailed me some. I'll tell you what - I have learned so much about the kindness of strangers over the last few months - it amazes me...in a good way.

So thank you, Miss Tara - and here's what I did with them.....:

This last card I made for Julee's special release party sketch challenge. Tonight is the big Verve release party at SCS - so if you're looking for me between 6-8pm my time, that's where I'll be ;) Speaking of the kindness of strangers - this card's base is from my new Paper Temptress paper I got in the mail yesterday. Now I knew that being on a DT for a company would get you free stuff - but Patricia totally hooked me up. I got the biggest, fattest package yesterday with some stuff I wanted, plus a bunch of stuff she wanted me to have. I got paper to make the kids' birthday party invitations that are going to make them soooo excited - more about that in a couple of months though. Anyway - back to this card. Check out the Kiwi Vellum - the brightness scared me at first, but I knew I had to play with it right now right now, and pairing it with this beautiful Azalea Metallic cardstock seemed like a winning plan; you like?

~ SUPPLIES ~
Paper: White Felt Grandee, Kiwi Vellum & Azalea Metallic CS from www.papertemptress.com; Raspberry Fizz DP from Papertrey Ink & some misc. spring DP from I don't know where...?
Everything else: Papertrey Ink buttons; Nestibilities flower dies; Fiskars border punch; coat thread; sewing machine

Make it a great day;
and thanks for stopping in!

I ♥ Saturdays.

- who doesn't, right?

Sleeping in - 'til 5 instead of 4 because my body just won't let me sleep any longer...wearing jammies until I'm good and ready to get some clothes on and if it's not until 3 in the afternoon, that's OK....driving all over Boise spending $10 in gas to go find 3 bucks worth of ribbon.....cuddling with my babies.....taking a longer shower than usual because I can.....taking an afternoon nap....making as many cards as I want because I have the time;

oh yeah - Saturdays are good stuff.

So I got all caught up on my Verve stuff last night. This first card is for Julee's Mojo Monday challenge. This week it's a contest - the best 7 get a set of stamps and I love me some Verve stamps. I also used all Paper Temptress paper on this one as well.

~ SUPPLIES ~
Paper: all paper from www.papertemptress.com - Hot Fudge Pop Tones, Wild Cherry Pop Tones, Cappuccino Metallic Text, Sandy Stripes Vellum and the little dove is done in Emerald Metallic Text
Everything else: Foofala buttons; American Crafts ribbon; Martha Stewart dove punch; Verve stamps; Papertrey Ink ink; Heidi Swapp bling; sewing machine; coat thread

This second card I TOTALLY love! It was for Amber's Viva la Verve challenge. It was a little tricky because you have the sketch but then she throws in a twist and this week's was that the colors needed to be pink, red and green. PINK, RED and GREEN - are you kidding me? That just can't work. Having said that, I think I just hurt myself patting myself on the back with this one - LOL I love how it turned out - clean, and the colors actually DO work!

Have a SUPER-FLY Saturday, Girlies!
Thanks for stopping by - y'all are just the best.

Praise Him - it's Friday!

LOL - that's a college thing we used to say.....when you go to a private Catholic college, you do some really silly things in the name of Jesus - ha.... I'm laughing right now - and no one is laughing with me....sad :(

Anywhoooo....so several of our papers announced their layoffs, er, "expense savings measures" this week - but we still have yet to announce ours. Rumor has it that furloughs are off the table which I think means just pay cuts and layoffs. While none of it is good, I'd take a pay cut over losing my job any day, right? I hope it all comes down today because my boss is going to be gone all next week and it would so suck to get laid off by a stranger; if I'm getting laid off, I want me the personal touch - heh.

I made a little sumpin' sumpin' with Paper Temptress paper last night. Paper Temptress now has a blog - and my card is posted over there now as well. If you're looking for a deal, Patricia has IRIDESCENT PAPER on sale this month for 40% off! Check this - for $3.10 you can get 5 pieces of iridescent paper and have it shipped to you as well....27-cents each, up to 5 ships for $1.75 - 3 bucks is a pretty good investment to try something if you ask me. Or you can just get 3 of those and 2 sheets of my most favorite Sandy Stripes Vellum {my cards are the samples at the store for this paper - how cool is that??} which is 2 sheets for 76-cents. I'm tellin' you - the prices are good, the shipping is affordable, and you know I got mad love for Papertrey Ink, but this stuff is soooo different and really really nice stuff; I wouldn't steer ya' wrong....especially when most of y'all have my address - haaaaaaaaaaaaaa....

~ SUPPLIES ~
Paper: all paper from www.papertemptress.com - White Velvet, Pink Lemonade Pop Tones and Laser Silver Lustre
Everything else: Heidi Grace stamp; Papertrey Ink ink; misc. clearance ribbon from Craft Warehouse; Prima & Hero Arts bling; sewing machine

Have the bestest FRIDAY, Girls!

Scrappin'.

Oh how I love today's card, let me count the ways. I got this new ribbon at Craft Warehouse - see the frilly light pink ribbon? It was 29-cents a yard and then 75% off - love that. So I got 10 yards for what, 72.5-cents! I think I am going to go back and get some more - was going to then but the chick I had cutting all my cheap-o ribbon was kinda not nice. Sorry I asked her to do her job - sheesh. Anyway - and the rest of the card: allll scraps! I love putting things together from my scrap box. I just try things and match them up and make it work; it's shabby chic at it's best - wooooooooooo! Oh and see that torn bottom down there? - saw that around and thought that would unnerve me to try it, but I did and I totally love the way this bad boy turned out!

Thanks for checkin' in, Girls; much love.

GM 2 U, GFs! - KWIM?

LOL

So I've never really done any cards with *chipboard* and I have BUNCHES of it too but it scares me for some reason. So I thought I would dabble with some chipboard letters and see what I thought of it. These are pretty cool too - they have sticky on the back so you don't have to glue!

Will someone getting these cards know what they mean though? TY = thank you; HB = happy birthday. I actually made the HB one for a little girl on the east coast whose birthday I am late for...me, late with a birthday - unbelievable!

Happy Wednesday, Girls -
- thanks so much for stopping in!

...and that night, he had a tummy ache.

- anyone know what that's from? Why The Very Hungry Caterpillar, of course! That was my very most favorite childhood book. And I bought the million dollar version of it for my kids when they were born. What was my point? Oh yeah...belly, ache - ME. Mondays are my weigh-in days so on Monday nights I'll do a little something extra...just a treat. Wellllll.....we never go out to dinner because we're cheap and dinner out for 4 is not, but we got our tax money so last night we decided to try this new restaurant in town - Tucano's. Ohhhh myyyy goddess!! {yes, that says goddess and not goodness, I know what I'm sayin' ovah here, trust me ;)} This place is an all-you-can-eat Brazilian restaurant where they just keep bringing you more meat and even more meat and when you feel like you're so full you're gonna puke, they'll bring you more!! Bacon-wrapped filet mignon, teriyaki beef something, roasted pineapple - 15-20 different things every 2 minutes. Oh! And they brought chicken hearts too - GAG ME WITH A SPOON!!! - but we gave them to K and she loved them and asked for more - grosssssssssssssss.Moving right along.... I made this card for the Paper Temptress sketch challenge at PCP. If you've never been to PCP - since I think I met most of you at SCS, well, I'm not sure how I feel about it actually. It's not SCS that's for sure. I find it hard to maneuver around, but, that's where the Paper Temptress group is, so I go there for that reason. Anywho - this is my take on the sketch....

~ S U P P L I E S ~

Paper: all paper from Paper Temptress - Kraft Cardstock, Hot Fudge Pop Tones, Cappuccino Metallic Text, Sandy Stripe Vellum, Lemon Drop Pop Tones

Other Supplies: Foofala buttons; Coat thread; Papertrey Ink ribbon & ink; Verve stamp; Sewing machine & thread; Nestibilities

Have a great Tuesday, Girls!

Monday comes so quickly.

I think I'm livin' in the wrong country. Isn't it Spain or somewhere that has 4-day work weeks or like their work days end at 1 in the afternoon? Something like that - and it's really appealing.

Anywho - had a fairly decent weekend (at least the time not spent at the office). Got caught up on American Idol and Top Chef. OMG @ Top Chef - nooooooo Carla!! I HATED CASEY in Season 3 and now I hate her even more for sabotaging Carla. Poor Carla, she was stupid for listening to Casey and not making the food that she knows - and that the judges came to enjoy from her; stupid stupid stupid. And Hosea wins? Hosea = H O S E R. Ugh.

And then American Idol - I love me some Adam Lambert......but I also loved that crazy fool Norman Gentle aka Nick - LOL I'm good with the results of the 6 that have gotten through thus far.

So I got some cards made this weekend - this first one is for Amber's Viva la Verve challenge on SCS. I didn't win last month which means I don't get all the new stamps being released on the 8th. Well, I can get them - I just have to pay - heh. My father died in October of 2005. When I was putting this card together for Rob's dad, it kind of bummed me out because I thought how more suited this card would have been for my father. He lived in Mississippi and worked on an oil rig - out in the water - and loved to fish. {heavy sigh}

Monday means I am hosting again over at Fun-Frilled. Here's a little sneak peak of the card I made - to view it in its entirety head on over there today...and every day; we need the support!

Hope your week starts off swell.

Appreciate you stopping by.