Making A Comeback!

Hi everyone!  I have really been missing in action lately.  I do apologize for that.  This August was a very emotional one for me.  For some reason it hit harder this year than it has in recent years.  Just the other day I received an email update on one of my aunts is declining pretty steadily.  She was always such a strong person and when she walked into a room, you knew she had arrived.  It was just the final straw.  I decided I could not allow the sad things in life to rule over me anymore.  I am determined to find my inspiration groove and get back to crafting.  I think it will be therapeutic.  So this weekend, I plan to get a start on it.  September will be my month to get myself back into the swing of things.  Now Monday is a holiday so look for my new creations to start on Tuesday.

For today, I wanted to share a few cards with you made by others.  I took time to be inspired by some cards I found on the internet.  Please enjoy these and have a wonderful weekend.  I will see you all on Tuesday!!

News!!!!

Hi everyone.  I am happy to be blogging this and visiting with all of you today.  It has been a crazy week.  I was bitten by some parasite last weekend and spent the entire weekend deep cleaning my house and washing all my clothes.  It was such fun (NOT!).  I was lucky enough to have the blog for Monday prepared but I lost track of time and did not get my others completed.  I am sorry.

I wanted to update my blog a bit.  I changed the look and added a snippet of information at the top.  This info is to remind you that most of my cards on this blog are for sale.  I accept payment through PayPal and am working on adding a "Pay Now" button to some of the past blogs.  My goal is to add it to future ones as I prepare them.  However I may not get it on all the past ones so if you see a previously posted card and the button is not there, please email me.  I will be working on this button over the weekend so hopefully I will get some of the past ones updated.

Please email me if you are thinking of ordering a card and need a change made to it.  I am more than happy to help if I can.  I will let you know if the change is possible and then you can order it. 

I am looking forward to a more relaxing weekend this weekend.  I hope you are never bitten by a parasite.  It is not fun. 

Since I deep cleaned the house and had to sit some things out in the sun where the warmth (okay here it is just heat) could freshen it, I thought I would share a card I found on Pinterest with you. 







 
This little guy reminded me of cooler weather.  Believe me I am truly looking forward to the weather cooling down and allowing us to have a time we can be outside without overheating.

Well that's it for now.  I will be back next week and I will hopefully have a new share to show you.  Come visit me to find out.  See you all then and have a great weekend!!

I'm Sorry

I am truly sorry I have been missing in action so much.  I had every intention of getting into my craft room on Tuesday and playing with all my stuff but it just did not happen.  By the time my hubby and I finished the memorial service to honor the 19 firefighters who were killed in the Yarnell wildfire, I was an emotional wreck.  I just could not even function.  I think I walked around in a daze and cried for the rest of the day.  Thank goodness my youngest daughter and her boyfriend came over to swim and play video games.  That was the only reason I did not go to sleep crying.

We are also preparing to go visit my in-laws in California next week.  It has been a while since we have seen them and I am looking forward to spending a few days just visiting and going to the beach.  I think my husband needs the break and so do I.  The time together will be wonderful.  I spent a good part of Wednesday and Thursday running errands for the trip.  When I was home, I was working on wedding cards for my daughter's friend.  So it's not that I haven't been crafting, I just haven't been getting things done to share with you each day.  I should have 3 days coming up before the trip to work on cards for next week though so please don't give up on stopping by to see me.  For now, let me share a few cards I saw that were too cute to keep to myself:



A little patriotic inspiration.  I love the ease of this card.



This is a new dahlia stamp set from Stampin' Up!.  It is one I definitely hope to get.




This is such a simple card to make but I love the finished look!!!  Can't wait to make one of my own.

Thanks for your patience and understanding this week.  Like I said, I do plan on working on some cards to share with all of you next week while I am away.  Have a safe and wonderful weekend and I will return on Monday!!!!!!!  Thanks for stopping by.

It's Friday Already?

Hi everyone.  Well I have been one absent blogger this week.  I really thought I would have time to craft and it just did not happen.  I spent most of Tuesday running errands.  With the temperatures around 110 degrees, I was exhausted by the time I reached home.  I unfortunately also suffer from migraines and the intense heat seems to bring them on.  Wednesday, my hubby and I spent the day with our youngest and her boyfriend.  They had other plans on Father's Day and Wednesday was the day they wanted to celebrate with my hubby.  We went to lunch and shopped and really had a great day.  My hubby bought a new grill so of course we had to break it in by bar-b-quing that night.  by the time the kids went home, it was after 10 pm..  The day just flew by.

Thursday was my sister's birthday so I wanted to take a moment to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her on my blog.  I did get her birthday card made for her and plan on sharing it with you on Monday.  I just want to be sure she sees it first.  I spent part of the day cleaning because today (Friday) I get to spend having lots of fun with my sister.  So once again, I am going to share a few cards I came across when I finally took time to catch up on my computer time last night.



Very elegant don't you think?




I LOVE this flamingo!!!!!!

Well that's all I am sharing today.  Like the flamingo, go have some fun in the sun.  I will share my sister's birthday card with you on Monday so be sure to return to see what I made.  Have a wonderful weekend.  See you later and thanks for stopping by today.

OOPS!!!!!

Hi everyone.  Sorry I missed posting a blog on Monday.  I had a fairly busy weekend and the time just seemed to fly by.  I was lucky enough to spend Friday with my 2 girls.  We got to go to lunch and spend some time just catching up.  I am afraid there just was no crafting time that day.

Saturday brought a whole new challenge to me.  My youngest daughter who just turned 21 was planning to spend the day with her grandmother and the evening with friends.  She really did not want to leave her 9 month old puppy kenneled all day and night so she asked me to doggy sit for her.  Now my dog is 5 years old and quite enjoys being an only dog so spending 10 hours with the puppy was not exactly her idea of fun.  The puppy happens to also be bigger than my dog and is a herding dog.  She tried all day to herd my dog and was so energetic there was no time for rest.  According to my daughter, her puppy sleeps all day.  Well not here.   I think she slept for maybe 45 minutes.  By the time she went home, I was exhausted and so was my dog.  Bed was calling and we answered quickly.

Sunday being Father's Day meant I spent it with my hubby.  We had a very relaxing day and sat in our little inflatable pool a lot.  It was nice to just not have anywhere to run.  He really needed the break and after Saturday, so did I. 

Needless to say, I am very behind on my crafts.  While playing with the puppy Saturday, I accidentally got my arm in her way and she stepped on it.  My fault, not hers.  Anyway it is my right forearm and it is quite sore.  Punching and stamping are a bit uncomfortable so I am really slow.  I do plan to try to craft for you this week but for yesterday and today, I am afraid there was nothing to share.  I do want to show you a few cards I have come across recently.  I will do my best to have something for you tomorrow. 

 

I like the simplicity of this one.  I intend to give this a try soon.

 

Toy Story is one of our favorite Disney movies.  I just love the little green guys!!!

 

Here is another pop up card.  I do like the color scheme used on this one.

Well that's it for today.  Hopefully I will get a card finished for you today and be able to post it tomorrow.  I hope you stop by to see if I do.  Thanks for dropping by today.

Where Did The Time Go?!!!!

Hi everyone and happy Thursday!!  I had a busy day yesterday.  My hubby decided it was time to trim the trees so I helped by supervising.  Okay I did hold the ladder for him but beyond that I really could not help much.  I happen to be allergic to the tree he was trimming and did not want red patches of skin and itchiness for the day so I chose to not pick up branches.  He would not have let me if I tried.

Once the tree was all pretty, a friend happened to stop by for a short visit.  While this was unexpected, it was very welcomed.  Of course, I got a wee bit behind schedule on everything else I had to do.  We had a lovely visit and then it was time to go to the store.  Needing mostly produce, I chose to go to Sprouts.  I love this store.  I could spend hours in there just smelling all the fresh fruit.  It is just heavenly.  By the time we reached home again it was already lunch time.  Now I am truly spoiled by my hubby.  He makes the most delicious salsa I have ever had.  When we go to Sprouts, we usually buy all the ingredients for his fresh salsa and yesterday's trip was no exception.  When the salsa was made, we had a nice lunch.

There were other chores for me to get finished before the day was done and I just could not seem to get through them as fast as I had anticipated.  I finally made it into my craft room and got started on a card but had to stop before finishing.  We had dinner plans with family and were gone the rest of the evening.

Therefore, for today I am going to share with you a few cards I recently came across on the internet so that I can finish the card I am making and share it with you tomorrow.  I hope you enjoy these:






These graduation owl are too cute.  They sit on top of a "piece of cake".  Any graduate would love this.



The top note die is one of my favorites so when I saw this pirate made using it I knew I would want to give him a try.  My oldest daughter is a huge fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies so I know she will love this.  Once I make mine I will share it with you but until then you can enjoy this one.



I don't know why but these lamb cards always catch my eye.  They make great baby cards or Easter cards.

Well, that's it for today.  I will be back with my card tomorrow.  I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did.  Thanks for stopping by today!!!!

Internet Problems Again!!!!!!!

Well this post will be brief as my internet keeps losing its connection.  What should take just a few minutes to do is taking hours.  So I thought I would share a card with you that I recently found and really liked.  I hope you like it too.



I know it may seem a little early for Christmas but if you are like me it is never too early.  Here is another card with the same type of theme:



Cute aren't they?  I sure hope this is just a glitch in the system and that my internet will be back to normal tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by today and please come by tomorrow for the owl superhero card!!  See you all then.

More Inspiring Cards for You to See

Hi everyone and welcome to Friday.  It is going to be a sad day for the fire service as we say good bye to one of our own.  I usually have my buddy Jackson in the mornings and that always cheers me up but mommy is out of school now and she is taking him with her to her meeting (her principal is so nice) so I will no longer be keeping him.  That saddens me.  I guess it is just an all around depressing day.

As you can probably tell, I just did not have it in me to come up with anything new to share.  So I decided to share some wonderful cards I have seen recently that inspired me to try something new.  I hope you enjoy these.





A nice graduation card.






I love the pop of color on this one as well as the lines in the corners.






Can you ever go wrong with a butterfly?!!!!!





This is one of the most elegant sympathy cards I have ever seen.

Well that is it for today.  I hope you all have a safe and fun holiday weekend.  Since it is Memorial Day weekend, I will not be posting on Monday.  I will return on Tuesday with another creation of my own to share with you.  Maybe I will used some of the new products I recently bought!!  Until Tuesday, thanks for dropping by to visit!!!!!

Taking a Break

Hi everyone.  It's Wednesday.  I updated my post from yesterday but in case you did not see the update I wanted to share it again.  I am cutting my week short this week.  My hubby has a couple of days off and we have not had a lot of time together in weeks.  I am going to spend some much needed time with him for the rest of this week. 

Here is a card I found on Pinterest that I really liked this week:


I will be back next Monday with another share for all of you.  Thanks for stopping by today and I will see you all next week. 

I Had An Idea.........

Hi everyone and welcome to Wednesday.  I am happy to say that my sister is now in a walking boot and will hopefully be back to walking easily.  That's the plan at least. 

I have a very special day today as I get to spend the entire day with baby Jackson!!  I cannot wait!!!  My hubby and I went a bought him a couple of toys to have at our home.  One of those is the Fisher Price Stackable Rings.  Do you remember those?  Well I was washing the toys, getting ready for today and thought this would make a cute card.  I thought I had found my idea for today's share.  I sat down and decided to visit some of my favorite blogs and guess what I found?  A card featuring this very toy!!  I was so surprised.  Now I still could have made my own but I wanted to share with you first the one I found. 



It was made by Debbie Rippentrop.  Click here to visit her blog for the details.   I think it is so cute.  Now I do plan on making one of my own but will share it with you on Friday. 

Between the doctor yesterday and Jackson today I have not had a lot of time to craft.  So I promise to try to have a share for tomorrow but may not get one finished.  That's why I said you could see my stackable on Friday.  I know I will have plenty of craft time on Thursday. 

I hope you enjoy Debbie's card.  Thanks for stopping by today and I will see you all tomorrow (hopefully) !!!!!

Exercise? Not Me!

 

Happy May Day everyone!!!!  

Now you might be wondering why I would want to type a blog about exercise.  Well frankly, I am wondering too.  I looked up this cute bowling lady from the stamping queen herself, Ellen Kemper.  I remembered her from a while ago and she was the most active punch art character I could think of to show you.  Anyway, let me tell you a story.

Yesterday started with a trip to Home Depot, or so I thought.  On our way there, I remembered that last year we had purchased a package deal from out local car wash to have our car washed and detailed.  I checked the expiration date on it and realized that it was going to expire in just a few days.  So we quickly changed out plans and headed to the car wash.  

Well we dropped our car off and were told it would take most of the day to complete.  So here we were about 2 miles from home and no car.  Now I will do the Wii fit that we own and some walking dvd's but I am not one for exercising outside.  The heat and I are not friends.  It was already around 90 degrees and was only going to get hotter.  We did not want to stay at the car wash all day so we decided to walk home.  

I would say it took a good 30 to 45 minutes to make it home.  I was overheated and sunburned by the time we got there.  I was also lucky enough to get a heat headache.  I took some time to cool off and get some much needed water into me.  Now you would think I would have laid down and gotten some rest but instead, I had lunch with my hubby and off to Home Depot we went for air filters.  Yes, we have another vehicle so I did not walk!!!  Once we returned home, my daughter came over to visit.  She stayed until our car was ready and took us to pick it up.  

I finally laid down and got a little rest.  The day was gone by this time.  I did not even get to have time for my craft room.  After a small dinner, a shower and some good television, I went to bed. 

What a day!!  I hope yours was better than mine.  I will be back tomorrow with a card to share with you.  Until then, have a wonderful day and I will see you tomorrow!!!!

Wacky Day

Happy Wednesday to you all!!!!  Well I must say my day did not go exactly as planned yesterday.  It got off to a good start but then my dog apparently ate something she should not have.  Now we all know when a doggy has an upset tummy they like to eat grass.  Well because of my hubby's allergies, we do not have grass in either the front or back yard.  We did desert landscaping in both so he could breath easier.  Since she could not find any grass to eat, she decided to eat the leaves off all my vegetable plants.  Needless to say I was not happy with her at all!!  It is hard enough to grow veggies in my yard because the soil is so bad.  We have to do container gardening and we are still pretty new to that.  So to have her destroy my plants was just heart breaking. 

Once I cleaned up all the leaves from the patio, I came in and started thinking about what character I wanted to make out of punches for you.  My daughter had asked me to do Yoshi, another Mario character.  I thought I would see if anyone had ever done him before so I googled it.  Up popped some of the cutest punch art featuring him as well as other characters too.  In fact it is so cute I decided to share some of the photos with you today and save mine for tomorrow or Friday.  Here are just some of the wonderful Mario punch art characters that I saw:







I threw the Toadstool guy in at the end because I love him!!  I absolutely have to give this one a try!

The pink Yoshi is nice because it includes all the directions to make it.  Maybe I will give this one a try first.  While pink is my favorite color, I will either do a different pink scheme or a completely different color.  Maybe I will do him in original Yoshi colors!!

That's it for now.  I hope you enjoyed seeing these and will give one a try.  I will return tomorrow with my creation for you to see.  Thanks for stopping by today!!!

More Inspiration for You

Hi everyone and happy Tuesday.  I am happy to say that my sister's surgery went well and she is recovering at my home.  It is fun to spend time with her.  We were at the surgical center for the entire first half of the day.  Once we got home, I got her all settled and went off to the pharmacy to pick up her medicines.  I fed her lunch when I finally was home and then it was time for her to nap.  Now I know it is not an excuse but I chose to nap too.  The wind is blowing here in Phoenix stirring up all the dust and allergy stuff.  I had a pretty good sinus headache going by the time lunch was finished.  I wanted to work in my craft room but was unable to complete the project I was working on before it was bedtime. 

I think the hardest part of the surgery for my sister is the recovery.  She cannot put any weight at all on her right foot and has one of those knee scooters to get around with.  She is still getting use to it and I am trying to be as helpful as I can and also be the cheerleader to encourage her.  Hopefully every day will get easier and easier. 

I did want to share something with you so I have chosen to share a few more cards that I found on Pinterest that have inspired me. 


 This is a perfect card for a boy.  I have never met a man or boy who doesn't like to eat.







 My father in law loves cars.  I may have to give this antique car a try for Father's Day.  I will let you see how mine turns out.



 This one caught my eye because I love to read.  My mom was an avid reader and I guess I learned to love books from her.



 How fun is this card?  I would love to send one like this to a girl friend.  I know I will be attempting this one and will definitely share it with you when I do. 

Well that's it for today.  I will be back with my own creation tomorrow.  Until then, have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!!!!!

It's Jackson Day!!!!!

Hi everyone and happy Friday to you all.  I am so happy to finally reach this day and spend it with one of my favorite little people, Jackson.  All the shares I chose for today are inspired by him.  I thought it would be fun to look for things that made me remember what it was like to have my girls be little and how much fun it was to play with them. 







I have is Noah's ark stamp but never thought about using it like this.  Now that I have seen this one, I really love the effect.  I am definitely going to try a card like this.









What kid doesn't like pizza?  I remember taking my girls to Chucky Cheese (did I spell that right) and Peter Piper Pizza when they were younger.  We would eat and play games.  One day I will have to take Jackson to do these fun things too.  



I had to include this card in today's blog for many reasons.  One being that I use to teach elementary school.  The second one being that Jackson's mommy, Kayla, happens to be a teacher now.  She also decorated his nursery with owls so it all seemed to work together.

I am very thankful to all of you for sticking with me this week.  I am officially back in my craft room now and will be back on Monday with an original share to show you.  I do hope you come by to see it.

Have a wonderful weekend and do something you truly enjoy.  I will see you all next week!  Thanks for dropping by today!!!!

The Day After

Welcome to Thursday!!!!  I am happy to say we all survived.  I am a little tired and sore today but at least most of the heavy work is finished and now my daughter can set everything up the way she wants.  I am going to make this post short simply because I am too tired to even think.  Here are a few cards I found to share with you:



I love the colors used in this one.  The medallions look beautiful!!!!

 How cute is this?  A card with a matching top note purse.  Where do people come up with these ideas!!!





Love, love, love the butterflies.  I am always looking for cards that display these!

Well I am going to take a nap and relax.  Tomorrow I get to spend part of the day with little Jackson.  I can hardly wait!!!!!  See you all later and thanks for stopping by today!

It's Moving Day

Hi everyone.  Well Wednesday is finally here and my youngest is moving out.  I am so excited for her but at the same time, I am truly sad to see her go.  It is the end of a chapter for me.  While I know you never stop being a parent and worrying about your children, it is the end of bringing them up, preparing them for life and seeing them everyday.  I feel like I have all these different emotions going on and they have been all shaken up.  Tears will come later I am sure but for now, I will put on a smile, do a little stretching and get ready to help her move.

As promised, I am going to share a few more cards with you today that have caught my eye. 

 

 

I'll try be back tomorrow hopefully with a few more cards to share with you.  However, depending on what time we finish the moving, I may be too tired.  I hope you understand and it could be Monday before you hear from me again.  Until then, get inspired and send me a photo of your cards.  I would love to see them.  Thanks for stopping by today!!

Weird Weekend

Hi everyone and welcome to the start of a brand new week.  I sure hope your weekend was better than mine.  I spent most of mine in bed or in a big comfy chair.  Last Thursday night, my anniversary night, I started not feeling so well.  My stomach felt weird and I was really tired.  I went to bed hoping the feeling would pass and unfortunately I was wrong.  I was up all night so sick I did not know what to do.  I ran a high fever all day Friday and could not even get out of bed.  By Saturday I was a little better but still not 100%.  Sunday was about the same.  Needless to say, there was not fun crafting time for me. 

Meanwhile, my youngest daughter has decided it is time to spread her wings and fly the nest.  She will be moving into her first apartment early next month.  The gathering of items to take with her has already begun and unfortunately my craft room is the holding area.  I cannot get to my stamps or card stock right now.  I am going to have to work to make a path for myself.  I am hoping to feel well enough today to do this so I can get back to crafting.  You will have to stop by for daily updates as to how it is going.  Until I do I thought I would share with you a card I found on the internet and really liked.  I am going to have to make one of these soon.  I promise to share mine with you when I do.  Please stop by tomorrow to see how my progress is going.  See you all tomorrow.