Off we go again!

I'm telling you, this traveling is getting tiring!  We're heading out to see Dave's family this weekend.  Should be fun, though, unless Isaac washes out all the fun!  Bryan and Erin are coming, too.  Almost everyone will be there - they always get together over Memorial Day and Labor Day.  I hate traveling over those two holidays, but hopefully we'll get gone before everyone else gets on the road.

My card-making mojo still hasn't returned, so I guess maybe it's a good thing that I'm taking a little break.  I tried really hard to do some stamping today, but nothing worked the way I wanted it to!  I tried to do some watercoloring on cards and that looks very amateurish, so I'm not very happy with it.  I guess I'll just wait until Tuesday now!  I think Dave is going to work a couple of days next week, which means I won't get interrupted while I'm trying to "create".  Perhaps that's the main problem!

It's still hotter in SE Iowa than it is in Florida.  Today it was in the 90's here and only in the 80's there.  I know that's going to change dramatically pretty soon, but it's been this way pretty much all summer!

More later...

Brain Block!

I'm having brain block today.  Usually I've got an idea of what cards I'd like to see us do for our next stamping class...but not this time.  I just can't come up with any ideas.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better!  I need to get my mojo going again!

Dave was home a bunch today.  It was so hot and muggy out!  He worked on the brush pile behind our house and the neighbor's house.  He got it all loaded and tarped.  Tomorrow morning he's going to go unload it.  He said he just got too hot outside today!  I was sitting around this afternoon wanting to have a tenderloin for supper tonight, when Dave said, "I think I want a tenderloin for supper tonight, what about you?"  I think it's a hoot when we do something like that!!  I guess you must do that after you've lived with someone for 22 years!

I finished another book today.  Have I told you that I LOVE MY KINDLE!!  I know I have!  This one was the first book in the Brides of Culdee Creek series.  It's a series of Christian fiction.  It was a good read, but this morning when I was finishing it, I sat there sobbing!  I've always gotten into a book's characters, even when I was young!  That's the mark of a good book in my eyes!

More later...

A First for Me!

When I gave blood today, I had a first.  I felt "funny" - kind of short of breath and hot - like a prolonged hot flash.  I feel fine now, but I must have gone too fast or something, cause that's the first time I felt weird after giving blood.

I had typing to do today, so I was able to get most of it done this afternoon while I was recuperating from my blood donation.  I did get into my studio a bit this morning.  I sorted out some more old cardstock to put into my garage sale.  I've still got a long ways to go to be ready for a sale, but I'll get there!

Tonight I'm going to share some of the cards I made with the new butterfly punch and with the stamp set, Papillion Potpourri.  All of these cards are made with Stampin' Up materials.  On the first one, I used papers in Baja Breeze, Perfect Plum and Old Olive.  Notice the rhinestones...I "dyed" them to match my papers by coloring them with Sharpies.

This card is basically the same as the last card only I used various designer papers and made a card that will fit in a business envelope.

For this last card, I used the Papillion Potpourri stamp set and used Certainly Celery as well as Baja Breeze ink.  I also embossed the Baja Breeze cardstock with the new Chevron embossing folder and punched the butterflies out with our new punch.  The pears are colored with Sharpies!

I really, really like these products.  You'll probably see more butterflies in the days to come!

On a somber note, today would have been my mother's 101st birthday.  I thought about her today a little more than normal.  I sure do miss her!!  More later...

Good Monday!

Mondays aren't so bad any more - since I retired!!  I take my time getting up and around most Mondays.  I have Bible Reading Time at 10:30, so I can eat my breakfast and read the paper leisurely before I have to get around.  Today there were 9 of us at BRT - we didn't get chapter 2 finished, but we made it down to verse 22!!  Pretty good progress for us.  Chapter 2 of the book of John tells of the miracles/signs that Jesus did during his ministry - like turning the water into wine.  Very interesting discussion today!

I worked most of the day in my studio and actually got my Stampin' Up paper organized.  All of my current papers are in folders and filed alphabetically.  I even typed labels for the file folders!!  Speaking of stamping, I need to show you some cards that I made over the weekend.  They are so cute in person!!  The pictures don't really do them justice, but they're as good as I can get!

I told you we went to Ethan's birthday party on Sunday and this is the card I made for him.  It's made from Designs with a View papers that I had in my box of miscellaneous papers.  You can't really tell, but all of the cross-hatching is glittery.  I thought cupcakes were the way to go for the little guy.  I put his gift card inside it with just a very simple note of encouragement!

I think I also told you that our neighbors had twins about a month early.  They've now gotten to come home. So I made these little onesie cards for them.  These papers are not Stampin' Up.  Again, they are just made from papers I found while I was organizing my cardstock.  The bow and the trim around the sleeves, neck, and legs are all from SU.  The bow is made from white ribbon that I used Pink Pirouette marker on to make it pink!  The front buttons are from my mom's button box and the 3 buttons at the bottom are pearl buttons from Muscatine from Aunt Helen's button box.  I used a pink Sharpie on all of the buttons to make them a pale pink!  Fun!!  Dave thinks the little girl's name is Kaylee.

This is the one I made for the little boy, whose name escapes Dave.  I used blue card stock for the base and some designer paper (just from my stash) to make it look striped.  I put a little pocket on it and used buttons from Mom's button box.  Cute!    

We put both of these cards into a larger envelope along with a gift card from Target.  I hope they like them!! I had a blast making them.  I got the pattern from a lady on the internet...sorry, I forgot to make note of her name!

More later...

Busy day!

This morning when we woke up, it was still raining - hallelujah!  We went to church and didn't even get the umbrella out - just wanted to walk into church in the rain!  It'd been so long since we'd had a good rain!  We only got half an inch, but some friends over near Ollie got 5.2"  so it was spotty, but we're not complaining.  Every drop of rain we can get is appreciated!!

After church we had Sundae Sunday downstairs in the Fellowship Hall.  The Deacons served ice cream sundaes for a free will offering.  The ice cream was from Grahams and was wonderful!!  About 11:30 we took off for Des Moines for a 1st birthday party for little Ethan.  When Ethan was born a year ago, he wasn't expected to live and here he is at 1 year old!  He's still got many, many problems, but at least he's beat the odds for life expectancy.  Every day is a miracle.

No we're just hanging out - I couldn't sleep last night.  In fact, I was still awake at 3:45 AM so I'm really, really tired.  I sure hope I can sleep tonight!  More later...

Little raindrops!

Raindrops were fallin' on my head!  Dave and I went to WalMart to get a couple of gift cards (which we forgot and had to stop at Target on the way home to get some there!!).  It rained a bit before we went and then drizzled on us on our way out of Wally World!  As we turned onto Hwy 34, I remembered that we forgot the gift cards and Dave said he wasn't going back there...we could get them at Target because it was on our way home!!  What a hoot!  While we were in line to check out, Dave was thinking about the lady in front of us who had one cart heaping full - $348+!!  I was thinking about the beautiful blonde girl who was running the cash register.  If she would have smiled, I'm sure her face would have broken!  She didn't even acknowledge us until Dave's credit card wouldn't go through and she had to ask for it so she could scan it on her side of the register.  She definitely wasn't having fun on a Saturday evening working!!  Poor girl!!!  If she'd talk to people and enjoy her job, her hours would go way faster!!  Just saying!

I did get some of my cards uploaded today, plus I've just about got the cards for the new twins next door done...and I need a 1 year birthday card for tomorrow.  I'm blogging early so I can go finish them!!

Here are the 3 cards we did at class on Thursday.   I demo'd the first two and Juliene did the last one.  All products are Stampin' Up, of course!  I love this fall leaf card.  It has lots of color and lots of texture, AND it was fun to make!

 The Christmas card this time was super simple and yet very striking!

This card is the one that everyone struggled with, and I can't figure out why.  It looks so simple to me, but they really had trouble with it.

This is the card we made at stamp club on Friday.  Jan demo'd the use of hexagons because she had purchased some new dies that cut that shape!

She cut her hexagons out of maps and also used dies to cut both the car and the sentiment.  The designer paper at the bottom of the card is "the yellow brick road"!  (That's what she called it!!)  Fun card.  I also worked on another one using the quilt pattern of Grandma's Flower Garden, but I'm not done with it yet, so I'll post it when I finish it!!

More later...

Friday Ponderings

I was busy today!  I was sleeping so soundly this morning, when my husband so rudely woke me with breakfast!!!  I just wanted to sleep some more!  I got up though!  This morning I had stamping club at the church.  There were actually 7 of us today!  Made a couple of cute cards.  I'll try to get them uploaded tomorrow while Dave's gone to Habitat!  I've got about 10 to upload!

I went downtown to the Lucky Rooster and picked up lunch for Dave and me.  Good food!  On Fridays they have free sides, so that's when I like to go.  I really like their broccoli-bacon salad and their potato salad isn't too bad either!  Dave worked outside in our yard most of the day.  He's finally got all of the mulch replaced in all of the garden areas.  He goes out, sits on his little wheeled seat and pulls weeds, etc.  He's such a good guy!  The yard looks beautiful - except for the brown grass!

This afternoon, I went to Dr. Allison to have my eyes checked.  I needed a bit of a correction in my prescription, so I decided to get new glasses, too.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any Easy Clips (with the sunglass clip) that my trifocals would work in.  So, I got a pair of glasses that are different for me and I'll get prescription lenses put into the frames I have now.  It's not quite as convenient, but it should work out fine.

When I returned home, my eyes were still dilated for much of the evening, so I didn't do much!  I did, however, get my card supplies put away so that I can start on the next set of cards!  Next class isn't until September 13th, so I've got a little time.

More later...