Crop Creations

Here is a layout I made at the crop this past Saturday. I used one of the May kits from The Scrapping Spot. Papers are Fancy Pants Sweet Spring. The beautiful girl in the photo is my niece Lauryn. Isn't she sweet? I designed this for the National Scrapbook Day celebration we are having over at The Spot this saturday. Come and join us! We have several brand new Layouts from the DT to share with you as well as some fun new techniques. The technique I am teaching is how to use just paper and a layer of glue to make diecuts or shapes on your layout have some dimension. The large butterfly and flower in the lower right corner of the photo were done using this technique. Be sure to join us for details and instructions.

This card will be for Friday's bi-weekly card challenge. The challenge for this time is to use felt on a card. I decided to use this fabulous felt flower that I bought from my friend Lisa with Shabby Pink Designs. A lady on Etsy made them for her. Aren't they cool?

I guess I was won over to be a crop person because now I am going to another one this Saturday. The ladies at the Scrapbook Tree are hosting an 8 hour crop for National Scrapbook Day at a local ice cream/coffee/sandwhich place. Several friends from church are going and Lisa will be going to set up the Shabby Pink booth again. Should be a blast! I got this cool PINK large duffle bag thing on wheels to load all my stuff in this time. Hoping it will work as well as I think it will.

So I wore the new crocs with the 3" heel to work today. After 7 hours on my feet, my feet didn't hurt. The only thing that was bothering me just a bit was that the strap was rubbing my little toe a tiny bit. My feet are wide so I am thinking it was me and not the shoe. I also think wearing them a bit more my feet will get used to it. So 2 thumbs up for the Cyprus Crocs! Love them.

Hope you are having a fabulous week! Blessings.

CROCS!

Ok, are you a Croc lover or a Croc hater? I am a Croc lover so how excited am I that these came today? How cute are these?!!!


















Look I even modeled them for you. LOVE these shoes.




















This style is Cyprus. I may need a pair in every color! Ha. OK, well maybe not every color but maybe one or 2 more. What do you think? I think I've won my husband over to the dark side too. When I said I needed to take a picture of my feet to put on my blog.... well he didn't seem to find that the least bit weird. Evidently he has been hanging around me for too long.

I also got a couple of new books in the mail. Happy mail day! I got The Perfect Life by Robin Lee Hatcher and I Heart Bloomberg by Melody Carlson. Robin Lee Hatcher is one of my favorite authors and I've really enjoyed several of Melody Carlson's books too. Currently I am reading At The Scent of Water. Not very far into it yet, but so far so good. That one is by Linda Nichols. Love, love reading - especially Christian Fiction.

OK, further ways I have won my husband over to the darkside.... he just handed me a magazine (Memory Makers) that came in today's mail. Not only did he take it out of the bag for me, he actually shook it so all those annoying subscrition cards fell out of it. I hate those stinking cards. Why, why do they have to put like 20 in every issue?

Time for dinner! Blessings.

Cropping Fun

Got to go to my first all day crop yesterday! It was so fun. My friend Lisa with Shabby Pink Designs invited me. She was going to crop and to set up her first vendor booth with her page kits and scrapbook supplies. Her booth turned out so awesome. First, she had these awesome pink cupcakes for shoppers at her booth. Aren't they cool? Then she had her booth all decorated with shabby/vintage stuff. Look at this screen door! Her Dad painted it pink for her and added the trim. She used it to display the layouts that she has page kits for. Isn't that an awesome idea? She is so smart.























Here is a shot of her table at her booth. Did a little shopping here myself.....


















So along with having Lisa's booth, we were there for the day to crop. I had never been to a crop like this so I was blown away at all the ladies and all the stuff! Wow. It was pretty cool to be in a room with so many other scrappers creating their layouts. Here was my spot. Most of the ladies had stuff piled everywhere.... leave it to me to have to have my space neat and orderly.


















Could you have picked my space out if I hadn't told you because of all the pink? Here is a shot of the room



















The crop was actually all weekend so most of the ladies had been there since Friday night and didn't go home till this afternoon. Lisa and I just went for Saturday. I got there at 10 AM and didn't get home till like 9:30 PM. Some of the ladies were cranking out layouts and becoming a crop queen (which meant you got a sash, rose and tiara) by completing like 20 projects. Um me, I got done 1 LO, 1 card and got part way thru a second layout. Not bad for me. I am a slow scrapper. I take my time and enjoy the artsy creative part so I never get a lot done quickly. That is fine by me though. I am not concerned about the speed/quantity. Included in the crop fee was a continental breakfast with yummy Amish Cinnamon rolls and fruits, etc. Then lunch from subway and dinner at the Amish Buffet. We also got a goodie bag with some papers, etc. from the local scrap shops. I wasn't sure I liked the whole crop idea but I ended up having a good time and liking it. The social aspect was fun and I did enjoy the time to just sit and create. I think it was the packing/loading/unloading I was not wild about. We have had a few crops at church and it is always so hard to figure out what and how much to bring. Not to mention that then you have to lug stuff in/out. However, this time my husband took me and picked me up and I did better by using a large wheeled duffle bag so my bag could be pulled rather than carried. Good idea there! I think I would go again. The ladies in this club were very kind and invited me to come to more crops. My favorite thing of the day might have been when one of the co-owners of a nearby LSS was walking around looking at what everyone was working on. She stopped where I was and said "oh my goodness that is fantastic! Wow! This is what we want our pages to look like when we get new product in and then they never look this good. Can I take your page and show my friend." and she did! I wasn't even quite finished yet and she wanted to take my LO to show the other owner. I was very flattered and thought that was so sweet. I was hoping though that the other ladies didn't think I thought I was all that... I am sooo not all that and I hope that came across. I think everyone does beautiful work. How can it not be beautiful when its our personal creation right?

Friday night we had went out to dinner and to a Gaither Homecoming concert. It was a great evening. The concert was really long. We were there for over 4 hours! We got home so late but it was well worth it. Then yesterday was another long day and today I had to be at church at 8 AM and it was a totally stressful morning.... so by this afternoon I was ready to crash. I did too and had like a 2 hour nap. So needed that. Now this week is busy too, but I am looking forward to next weekend for National Scrapbook Day fun on Saturday! TSS is having special LO's that will include sketches and cool techniques. Please come and join us for the fun!

Work will be early tomorrow so I am off for now. Blessings.

Spring Flowers

How pretty is this? Got in another walk after work today and these flowers are in the front of the neighbors yard. LOVE the bell shape and love the blue with the pink mix. I am so enjoying the gorgeous colors of the spring flowers this year. God is so awesome. I love how He gives us the beauty of the fall colors before the winter and then after going thru the long cold winter we get more gorgeous color. These lilacs are in our yard. I am sitting here smelling them now.


















I am also loving these pink trees!! They are everywhere right now. I was told they are called redbud?? Not sure about that. They are such a gorgeous pink color. A friend from church has their driveway lined with these trees and I've been tempted to stop and take a picture every day this week! If I didn't think a coal truck would run over me I probably would have! ha.



















When we got back from our walk Darrel checked out 2 bird's nests in our yard. We wondered if they even had eggs yet so we were surprised to find one already had a baby bird! Look how cute!


















Darrel spotted this other nest when he was mowing the other day. Love the gorgeous blue of the eggs. God even makes eggs gorgeous. How cool is that?


















The new kits are up for May over at the Scrapping Spot. Be sure to go check them out. They are awesome this month. The large kit is Fancy Pants About A Boy mixed with Cosmo Cricket Cogsmo. The small kit is Fancy Pants Sweet Spring. Both are gorgeous. I think they will go quickly so don't miss out.

We had our first grilled hamburgers of the season for dinner tonight. YUM. So good. So glad my husband likes to grill. We don't have a gas grill or anything, just a good old weber kettle. Still love the grill taste when you use charcoal. It was a nice end to kind of a stressful day. Mother's Day can be a hard time of year for me and a couple things came up at work today about Mother's Day that just kind of got to me. I am usually pretty OK with the whole not having kids subject but every so often it jumps up and surprises me and hits me hard. When you are a women and not a Mom people don't usually realize that you don't really feel included in Mom's Day stuff. Usually people are nice and will say that whatever the plans are that they are for all the ladies, but you just still know that you aren't a Mom and basically feel like an imposter. I really appreciate the kindness, its just that it doesn't always make it easier. It actually makes it harder sometimes. Not sure if that makes sense.....

I have not gotten much scrapping done lately. I keep intending too and not making it into my room! I want to make a journal for something personal I am working on. Then I need to get a LO done for the National Scrapbook Day celebration that TSS is having on May 3rd. If nothing else, I am going to my first all day crop this Saturday with my friend Lisa. She has a booth there for Shabby Pink Designs. So I get to help with her booth (which I think will be so cool!) and we get to crop, plus we get breakfast/lunch/dinner at the crop too. Should be a blast! I'll have to take pics so you can see her booth! It is going to be so awesome with a really cool vintage/shabby kind of look and lots of PINK!

Did a little shopping today. Bougt myself a couple more pairs of crocs! I picked out a new pair of the Off Road style in Khaki. I have the army green and they are about my favorite comfort and looks wise. I just wanted a more neutral color. I also got a new turbo strap for the army green in the same color (army green) so I can switch out the orange when I don't want it. Then I wanted to try a pair of the Cyprus to see if they would be comfy with the higher heel and dressier for like church? Figured I could send them back if I don't like them.

Hope you are having an awesome week! Blessings!

Card Challenge Week 4

This is my latest creation for the bi-weekly card challenge that I host at The Scrapping Spot. This week I decided to challenge the ladies to use sewing on a card. Now as I mentioned to them, sewing is not my best thing. I do not do too well with a sewing machine, mostly because I never really learned how. However I love the look of stitching on cards or layouts so when Bazzill came out with their stitch templates I thought it was the perfect solution for me. Love these things. I only have 2. I definitely need the other designs and styles. The ones I used here I think are called Granny Stitches and Flourishes. Why not come on over to The Spot and join us for the challenges? I got my May kits today and they are AWESOME. Lots of cool new goodies from CHA. Wait till you see! Here is a card close up:

















So Tuesday night we went grocery shopping. We usually get a quick dinner out before doing that. While we were leaving Taco Bell I noticed a new store where the Walmart used to be. They built a new SuperCenter and moved. Anyway, the new store is called Peebles. Have you ever been to one? We decided to check it out. It wasn't very big, but it's a nice department store. They had nice purses, shoes, jewlery, clothes, housewares, etc. This kind of primitive houseware stuff was marked down 30% so we picked up a few things. This picture will go in our bedroom and I haven't decided where I want the little pillow. Love the primitive/vintage look. Very me.


















Also got this picture and "home" word, plus a "faith" and "rejoice" which I took to work to put in my office.
























I am going to hang this one over the pass thru window in my kitchen. Love it!

Look!






















There is another new calf next door. Last night when I got home from Bible Study I thought I noticed another one so I walked over by their pasture to take a look. This little one was laying on the ground. There was a cow next to it eating something.... Call me slow, but at first I could not figure out what she was eating. It was long and stringy and looked like red panty hose... Well duh... it was the Placenta! This calf had just been born. Lets just say the Mother cows process of cleaning things up was not something I wanted to focus on. YUCK. On the other hand it seems like we just missed getting to see this baby be born. I would have liked that. The baby had not even stood up yet at this point. Today it was walking around kind of wobbly and trying to run too. Very cute. Plus it looked like this new black and white one was also playing with the brown one from before.

Hope you are having a great week. I am off to bed for work in the AM. Blessings!

Comfort

This week's word for the "Triple The Scraps" scripture challenge was "Comfort." Perfect, perfect word for this week. I've been dealing with some personal struggles and God's comfort, Jesus' comfort was just what I needed. It did me good to check out all the scriptures I could find on this particular word. The one that was most speaking to me was the first verse I decided to use from Psalm 94:19. I love how it says His comfort will give "renewed hope and cheer." I also really like the second verse from 2 Cor 1:3 which tells us He is the source of all comfort. Wow. Love that. I used some K & CO. Ancestry line on this as well as one of the 7 gypsies ATC transparencies. They are so cool! I found the Ancestry stuff at Target. The vintage homespun kind of feel just really went with the word comfort for me.

Look what was waiting for me on my desk this past Friday!























Some kind soul left flowers and a lovely card on my desk. It was not signed. It just said it was for me because I was loved and appreciated! How cool is that? It brought me a huge smile and made my day and totally came at just the right time. I e-mailed my husband, my Mom and a few friends a picture just after receiving them and told them that someone was totally speaking my language. They all said they didn't do it and didn't know who did. I love, love flowers and any kind of gifts. Love it. This just really blessed me and touched my heart. I wish I could tell this person thank you. If you happen to be a blog reader, thank you, thank you for doing this for me. It meant so much and was such a kind and special thing to do. I pray you are blessed triple in return!

My Day In Pictures

Well it was a beautiful day here today! I think we hit 70 degrees. I grabbed my camera several times and took a few pictures to share. I took the one above at work. I had to run out and mail some letters and when I was walking back in from the car I was enjoying listening to the mourning dove's cooing and liked the pretty country scene looking out from the parking lot. It kind of captures the small town feel I thought. And of course, it's not just a "feel" it is a small town! Ha.

I had to leave work a bit early for an appointment. When I got home I had some happy mail waiting for me! Yep, April Studio Calico kit is here. yay.

It was so pretty out I decided I had time for a walk before dinner. This is my dog Tanner ready to go walking with me. I don't know why though. He is such a wimp on walks! 1/2 the time he is either bumping me in the leg with his nose or trying to climb up my leg so I'll pick him up.... He is a dog right? Aren't dogs supposed to like walks?

Here is my favorite Forsythia bush. It practically glows this time of the year when it first blooms. LOVE it.

My bulbs are starting to bloom too. Aren't they pretty? Can't wait for the irises and Azalea's coming next.

On the way back from my walk I noticed there was a new calf in with the cows next door! Isn't he cute? Darrel had to go back with the camera with the better zoom to get this but didn't he get a good picture? The calf wasn't there a week ago so he must be pretty new.

Hope you had a beautiful Monday too!

Blessings.

New Furniture

Last night was our date night. We headed to town for dinner and some shopping. Dinner was at Penn Staion. Have you eaten there? Yummy. We had Cheesesteak sandwiches and their great fresh cut fries. Really the only store I wanted to go to for sure was Target. But before we made it there we stopped at a wood working store for Darrel and Hobby Lobby for me. I bought a new AC Modern album with my coupon at HL. I was hoping they would have some new stuff but didn't see much I needed besides that. I'd love for them to get in the previous releases from BG but so far, no such luck. So after those two stops we headed to Target. As we were driving thru the plaza parking lot we noticed the Sofa Express store that is going out of business. We had been talking about a chair for our bedroom so we decided to stop. Well we didn't end up with a bedroom chair, but we did end up with 2 recilners for the living room. Our furniture is OLD and needs replacing but we have been trying to wait until we get to the remodeling of the living room. This was a good deal/price though and my old chair was falling a part so we decided to go for it. Guess we will be replacing things a piece or two at a time. At least that is easier on the budget! So Darrel went to pick them up today and the photo above was as we were getting them ready to bring in the house. This is what they look like!

Please ignore the UGLY wall behind them. As I mentioned we are like perpetually in remodeling mode around here so ugly walls that either need to be redone or that are in the process of being redone are easy to find in this house. You have to go in the kitchen or the bedroom for the good looking walls! Ha. New chair wise though I have a question..... I realized my Mom & Dad each have their own chair. Darrel's Mom and Dad each have their own chair. Um Archie & Edith each had their own chair....... does this mean we are getting old? Bwa ha ha ha ha ha..........

We did finally make it to Target too. I was wanting to see if they had any of those new Fiskar's Threading Water punches. I couldn't find one. From what I've "heard" on the message boards, these things are hard to find! I guess I will have to be patient. I saw some on ebay but they were going for like $30! That is like double the price I think so I definitely don't need one that badly. They did have several new things from MM like the 5th Ave line and garden party. They also had KI pop culture and cloud 9 chocolate chalet. I was so surprised they had those lines. I bought a few things from the K & Co. Ancestry line. I really like the vintage kind of heritage look it has about it.

Hope you are having a great weekend! Blessings.

Card Challenge #3

Here is a sneak peek of my card for this week's card challenge at The Scrapping Spot. I was looking at my list of ideas for upcoming card challenges (yes, of course I have a list...) and decided to do a challenge to use your punches to make a card. It was about midnight last night. I walked into my scraproom because suddenly I had an idea for what punch I wanted to use and from there what I wanted the card to look like so I was going to jot it down or sketch it out so I'd remember today. Then I thought, why not just make it? So I spent some time then and put this together. I've been seeing lots of people punching the scallop circles out of vintage ledger paper or sheet music. I bought this sheet music at an antique store a few months ago. A word of warining...if you are using vintage paper like that, it can be very fragile! When I was putting adhesive on the back it pulled apart in one place from the strength of the ATG adhesive so be careful! I just punched with the scallop circle punch and inked with Tim Holtz distress ink in Vintage Photo using the ink applicator he makes. I was going to place a punched heart over it, but ended up liking this look better. The paper was in a K & Co mega pad of paper I got from QVC. The whole pad is vintage looking prints it might have been the Life's Journey line? The pink sheer ribbon was off of a gift someone gave me I think. Here is a close up of the detail.

Did you notice on Marvy's site this paper trimmer? My friend Lisa bought one thru QVC. She loves it. I keep thinking about getting one just because of the deco edges it will cut. I have 2 paper trimmers. Well OK, 3 if you count the little CM one. I do not need one. Of course I always need one of anything Lisa has. It's her fault right? Bwa ha ha ha ha.

I *heart* Bath & Body. Do you? Love their stuff. Good smells to me are just so relaxing and they certainly deliver on the good smells and pampering stuff. I just put out a new bottle of hand soap in the bathroom. It was one of these. The one I have is called "calming." Please sign me up for anything with the word "calming" in the name! Scent is also a memory trigger for me and smelling this soap, seeing the container takes me right back to our 20th anniversary dinner at The Melting Pot in Colorado. They had this in their restroom and I love places with nice restrooms with good soap and nice towels, etc. That was such a wonderful evening.


















Now, on the subject of smells.......... there are also not so good ones right? Well imagine if you will living next door to 5 cows........... I took this picture on my walk the other day and it shows the neighbor's cows and the back of our property. (all the trees/brush on the right is the back of our property) Let's just say some days, when the wind is blowing right, my backyard smells like a farm.... Not always such a good thing.

I also took this picture.


















Cool huh? I love the old weathered building with the contrast of the daffodils.

Just finished with dinner. I made my "famous" Mostacolli. It's a recipe I made up on my own years ago and one of my husband's favorites. It was yummy! Now to finish a load of laundry and watch Survivor and finally a new CSI! Yay! Blessings!