Surprises

My honey surprised my last night when he came home from work (he works the afternoon shift).  He had me close my eyes and I heard him rustling papers.  He said "Because I like to spend "time" with you...  Now open your eyes."  

Isn't that sweet?  It's a Brighton watch that I totally was not expecting.  After watching the wedding yesterday and saying to myself "I wish I was a young bride again who was experiencing all of those magical feelings, instead I'm an old married lady who hardly ever dresses up anymore!..."  (yeah, my self voice is not very kind to me...), my honey surprised me.  He didn't even know how I was feeling yesterday.   As us married ladies all know, the "pomp and circumstance" fades over time.  However, it's not about the wedding.   It's not about gifts.  It's about the marriage.  It's about putting time into the relationship.  It's being thoughtful to one another.  It's respect and love.

If you've got a great man, hold on to him.  After 27+ years, I'm keeping mine!

I created this card last year at my Alabama retreat (see earlier posts).  It is using stamps and Nestibilities from Heartfelt Creations.  I love how their designs are created to work together.  The flowers and petals, and even the swirly decorations on the sides are all a die cut.  I implore you to check out Heartfelt Creations.  I love their stuff.

I colored the card with my Copics.  Black buttons were used as the center of the flowers and to add some sparkle, I used Stickles. I hope you enjoy them and as always, drop me a comment or email me.  I'd love to hear your thoughts or make you a homemade card for that someone special! 


I'm just sayin'....

I watched it...

The Royal Wedding, that is...  I couldn't help it...  If it's any consolation, I TiVo'd it instead of getting up at 4:00 am.  Does that make me less crazy?   In my defense, I love a good fairytale.  Who doesn't?  And it was so good to see Diana's son seemingly in love.  Especially when he whispered to his bride-to-be "You look beautiful..."  How sweet was that?  Okay, so I'm a romantic at heart.   You got me.  

In honor of the crazy hats we saw today, I have dressed up in Royal regalia for the occasion. 

Yes, that's my Easter wreath from my earlier post.  I thought it was perfect...

I'm just sayin'...

Storms Across the Southeast

Our TV stations have all been reporting all evening on this ferocious weather that the Southeast is experiencing.  As of right now (10:58 PM EDT, April 27th), we are not sure of the damage done to Georgia.  It's just too dark outside for the authorities.   However, we do know there is significant damage done to our sister-state, Alabama.  My niece goes to the University of Alabama and she was there during those storms.  Praise God that she's okay, just a little scared.  Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was affected by these storms.  My area is not out of the woods yet, as the storm appears to be headed my way and I can hear the thunder.  I'm hunkered down in my "studio" which is located in my basement away from all windows and doors.  This next hour or so will be when Georgia gets the brunt of these storms.   


It's daylight now and I can say that was an incredible night of devastation.   At 12:30 am last night, I was worried to hear a tornado was headed to my youngest daughter's dormitory.  Her RAs woke everyone up and got them to the first floor and in the end, her campus was not hit, however these pictures were taken from the county next to me and the county above her college.  All total, Georgia so far has a death toll of 14.  Our prayers are with everyone that was affected by these deadly storms.  Keep safe everyone.  

Brave Girl's Club

I love my daily dose of the Brave Girl's Club.  I have "liked" it on Facebook which allows me to get a daily dose of very inspirational words that speak right to my heart.  This particular post spoke to me:  http://www.bravegirlsclub.com/dailytruths/apr2611.htm.  The words "Truth feels good and peaceful and warm, even when the truth is a hard reality."  I have had a tough two years since losing my job (nothing I cannot get through since I have a wonderful support system and I am a child of God!), and in some cases, it's been a humbling experience as well.  Through it all, when discussing my problems with family and friends, I always kept it honest.  Being known as a "liar" was not something I wanted to add when describing myself.  I highly recommend the "Braves Girl's Club".  Check it out... You won't be disappointed.  


This particular card I made for my friend Marcie.   I had mentioned that I liked something in her scrapbook arsenal, a wonderful Cuttlebug folder, and she went out and bought it for me and sent it to my house!  What an amazing surprise to receive in the mail.  Her note was very simple... it said "Because I  knew you liked it..."  How sweet!  I have a quote (well, I have several but they don't all apply here...) that I say to my daughters..."To have friends, you have to be a friend."  Marcie is a true friend.  And not because she bought me a Cuttlebug folder.  But because she shares herself with me and makes my life happier.  I hope you have a friend like that.


The plastic sheet is recycled from a purchase I made where the product is encased in plastic? You know the ones... the products we cannot open such as DVDs!  I saved it and then ran it through my Cuttlebug machine with a Cuttlebug folder.  It made a really terrific impression and I loved the look!  Everything is monochromatic on the card with touches of pink.  I hope you like it.  

I'm just sayin'....

Wedding Anyone?

Will you be watching the Royal Wedding?  I remember where I was when Lady Diana became Princess Diana.  I was still in high school and I remember skipping school to watch what I thought was a real life fairy tale.  It was every young girl's dream and that wedding was a testament that it could happen for all of us if we wanted it.  However, as we all know, it wasn't a fairy tale at all and tragically, after subsequent affairs and their divorce, Diana died in 1997 while being hounded by paparazzi.    Again, I remember where I was when that happened and it really affected me.  So much so that even though I was at Walt Disney World with my hubby and young children, I was really sad about her death.

Skip forward 14 years.  Now it's time for another Prince to marry his Princess.  (They do seem to be in love which is much more than we can say about his mother and father.)  The wedding is all we've heard about for the last 4 months.  And frankly, I'm not that into it...  I'm curious because I'd like to compare his wedding with his mother's.  And I do wish these two nothing but happiness because I admired his mom so much.  But I really think I'm just going to TiVo the wedding and watch it when I can...  I guess that means that I'm no longer a naive young girl who believes in fairy tales.  I hope that doesn't make me a cynical old ochre...  What about you?  Are you going to get up at 4:00 am to watch the wedding? 

Well, on to something different.  And boy, was this card different!  I belong to a group who meets monthly and our assignment was to incorporate "wire" into our project.   Wire?  Seriously?  So I came up with a basket made of chicken wire.  You read that right.  Chicken wire.  Where I came up with this, who knows.  And since I had never worked with chicken wire, I mistakenly thought it was a clever idea. 

Here is my card...  I loved, loved the background, which I created myself.  The colors are beautiful, I thought.  I used Martha Stewart's gold ink pad and did a mixture of several stamps.  I made sure that I stamped off prior to stamping on my background.  It gave me a more subtle look.   I also used Stamping Ups! Sky Blue ink pad and added some light floral touches.  The flower in the center is a Prima flower.  The lace around the top of the basket came from the dollar store in Canada (thank you my friend Karen!).  I used ivory HugSnug seam binding. 

I had to laugh everytime I explained my card...  Chicken wire????

I'm just sayin'....

"It's HUGE!"

I love reading blogs.  I could get lost in the time-warp of reading blogs.  Seriously...  I get up, I brush my teeth, I get my Diet Cherry Zero and I sit down to my laptop to see what is going on in the blogosphere!  The next thing I know, it's 11:00 am.  Seriously...  But I LOVE it!  If I didn't look at blogs, I wouldn't have seen an example of what I made for my next project.  Take a look at my Easter wreath!

Here it is on the red door...

My nephew sings the circus theme every time he opens the door.  Is he trying to tell me something?  While it's quite adorable, I did buy a 19" wreath instead of the suggested 15" wreath.  That was probably an important step that shouldn't have been changed.  Hmmmm....

 As I've been told from several people, "It's HUGE!"

By the way, the two blogs that I read that gave me this wonderful idea are located at Dittle Dattle and Kristen's Creations.  Check them out!

Vintage!

Okay, my friend Heidi (you can read her wonderful blog here) introduced me to vintage wallpaper.  VINTAGE WALLPAPER.  Old wallpaper that has been sold at estate sells or at auctions.  VINTAGE.  It is wonderfully flocked and delicious.  Delicious as in "beautiful"...  I'm HOOKED!!!  So I bought a few pieces from her (you can too at her Etsy store) and made a tag.

I used vintage wallpaper, a vintage doily, Tim Holtz ticket tag, gemstone ribbon at the bottom of the tag, heart gemstones hanging from the top, tulle, feathered ribbon, velvet ribbon hanging from the top and a BEAUTIFUL millinery flower. 

It's out of the box for me so I hope you like it!