I am loving these snowmen Christmas ornaments ...

I made 5 more for a total of 6 ornaments. They are sooooooooooo easy!!!

Most people who know me know my Christmas cards are done and mailed...

but I came across these ADORABLE snowmen Christmas ornaments and just had to make them!! Here is where I saw these adorable snowmen http://theinkboutique.blogspot.com/2007/11/just-arrived-snow-babies.html and got the directions from here: http://stampact.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/08/snowman-ornam-1.html. They are super easy and super quick to make. I did not use glass ornaments as my Hobby Lobby was out of the glass ones so I decided to try plastic and these worked great so I think I prefer these over glass as they wouldn't break as easy. I got the infant socks at the Target $1 spot. (Need to go back and get more of these. They have snowmen, blue stripes, pink stripes, and reindeer socks)

I don't only have one card in Take 10 Magazine but I have 2 cards!!!

I have a Halloween card on page 6 that is also in the magazine. Erin and Ethel are also in the same magazine. I can't believe all 3 of us are in the same magazine!! I went to the stamp store today, picked up my copy and I think I may frame it.... LOL

http://www.stampington.com/html/tss_take_ten_winter08.html The cover looks like this.

Hey, I am FAMOUS.

I got word today from my great stamping friend Joanie that she saw one of my cards in the latest Take 10 Magazine. I am on page 65 and here is one of the many cards I sent them.

I have no idea if I get a free copy of Take 10 but I can't wait to find out so I am going to my stamp store tomorrow to get my own copy. I wanna see my name in print myself! LOL I have been wanting to submit cards for a long time and finally got the nerve to do it over the summer. Now maybe I will submit some more cards. Can't wait to get my copy!!!

My Holiday Circle Journal made its journey back to me this week

A great big thank you to Angie who hosted this awesome swap. If you don't know what a circle journal is, its something that you pass around to everyone who are in the swap and it eventually makes its way back to its owner. We had 3 weeks between people to get each our pages done which was plenty of enough time. The whole project took about 2 months I would say, maybe longer. The subject of my book was: What is your favorite Christmas ornament?! So each person filled out 2 pages (one page was about themselves and the other page was what their favorite Christmas ornament is) and then sent it onto the next person. I still need to finish my cover. I need to borrow someone's Cricut and cut out some cute letters (Ellie maybe?). In this swap, there were 7 of us including me, Cindy Hoch, Angie Reece (hostess), Pam Speidel, Suzi Ferguson, Terry Helin and Kim Hutchinson. It was great fun and I can't wait for Angie to host the next one in the Spring. Angie, we're waiting to hear what you come up with. LOL

We got our 2 Christmas trees up today ...

This is the earliest I have ever put them up but the kids were begging me to put them up so we dug out all the decorations and put it all up. We have a snowman tree with just snowmen ornaments on it (and a few snowflakes too). The other tree has a variety of ornaments. This is the first year I do not have the kid's "little kiddie" ornaments on it. I put them up last year and put each set in a shoebox marked with their names so they can take them when they move out (if they even want them that is). You will also see in the photos to the left that the dogs are all decked out in their holiday attire. Oh and yes, that is Max the guinea pig too with his Santa hat on. He hates that hat and squeals like crazy when I put it on but then he gets used to it. Ha ha

Are YOU ready for the holidays? Do you have your Christmas tree up yet?

I got an autographed photo from Whoopi Goldberg today ...

WOW! Look what was in my mailbox today. I am just so excited!!! Back in September, a few of us from the Stamp Shack http://stamp-shack.com/index.php thought it would be cool to send Whoopi some "congratulations" cards for her being on the View. I usually watch the View everyday while we eat lunch. So I couldn't believe it when I had an envelope addressed to me from Whoopi herself. Here is a photo of the photo

I wanted to wish all of my family & friends ...

a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We woke up to rain this morning which is a beautiful sight here in the Carolinas. Its supposed to rain all day (which we desparately need!) and turn much colder for the weekend. Yesterday it was near 80 degrees so Charlie was loving that!! I want the cooler temps back myself! The leaves are absolutely gorgeous right now but I expect after this rainstorm today, the trees will all be bare in the next few days. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have alot to be thankful for!!

I got some stamps from High Hopes and couldn't wait to ink them up

Aren't these moose cute? I just can't resist them. Here are 2 cards I made today, after Debbbie left.

I ordered them from: http://www.highhopesstamps.com/. They are a Canadian company and their shipping prices for unmounted stamps are very reasonable (you have to email her if you order unmounted and she pretty much cuts the shipping quotes in half of the mounted stamps). I got them in about 10 days so I was pleased with that.

Debbie, Mike and Nathan came by for a quick visit ...

They drove from FL, spent the night and then went onto Georgia where they will spend all Thanksgiving week at a cabin in the mountains. We joke that they need to come back when they can stay longer :). One night just isn't long enough. Here are some photos we took.

Also, the Concord Christmas Parade was yesterday and Emily was in that for the 10th grade homecoming court. It was chilly but not too cold. Yes, the background is a cemetary. Didn't realize it was in the background for photos. Oh well.

And the winner of my blog contest is ....

Keltie/Heather ... WOO HOO Heather. You are the lucky one I picked out of a hat!! I will need your address and I will mail it out on Monday. Now I am up to 15,218 posts. WOW!! Thanks gals!!

If you know me, I work on my Christmas cards year-round and have had mine done for a few weeks now ...

(and its not even Thanksgiving yet) but I saw these awesome paint chip cards on this site http://angelasgro.blogspot.com/2007/11/paint-chip-holiday-cards.html and I just had to try them. When we went to lunch today, there just happened to be a Sherwin-Williams store right across the street so we ran in and I picked up some paint chips. This is what I came up with, only my trees aren't as cute and perfect as Angela's. LOL What do you think of them?

A few Fall photos

We finally got some beautiful color in the Carolinas. It has taken FOREVER ...

I made a few birthday cards today

I am loving cupcakes lately. Stamps I mean :).

Click this link if you want a good laugh

Check ME out as you have never seen me before here:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9509151875


LOL

WOW, I am almost at 15,000 hits and I have all of you to thank!!!

Hmmmm, should I do some blog candy!? Ok ... leave me a message telling me if you have started your Christmas cards ... its that simple. I will pick a random winner and send you a prize. If I don't know you, make sure to leave me an email address so I can let you know you won :). Good luck!!

Since Christmas is JUST AROUND THE CORNER ..

I decided to add some Christmas music to my blog. I know alot of people don't like music on blogs so if you prefer NOT to listen to it, just turn your volume down. I happen to love Christmas music and I'm already listening to it :). If you would to like to add Christmas music or any other music to your blog, this is the website I used: http://www.projectplaylist.com/forum

How do you like (love) my new blog heading?

My great friend Lesa made this header for me for the upcoming holiday. I just love it!! Thank you so much Lesa!! I just have no idea how you did this. lol But I do love it!!!

We seem to have the "never-ending" garden this year ...

After 3 frosts (it was 27 degrees this morning) Charlie came in with all of these tomatoes plus I have about 20 more green tomatoes in paper bags. That should help ripen them. I guess we will be eating a few more tomato sandwiches for lunch :).

Some recent cards I've made

Its Nov. 6th - Robin would've been 42 today if she was here!!

I made a trip out to the cemetary this morning. I cut off some pretty burgundy mums from my front yard and took them with me. This was the first time I had been back to the cemetary since her funeral which was only 6 weeks ago. Her "marker" was still not there so I was worried I wouldn't remember where she was but there it was - already a beautiful purple mum sitting on her site. I had to tuck my little mums underneath that purple mum so mine wouldn't blow away. It was very windy and turning much colder tonight. Supposed to freeze again tonight. I said Happy Birthday and I missed her, cried and then left. It still does not seem like she is truly gone!!