Emily's soccer season is over ...

Tonight was Emily's last soccer game for the season. They lost 2-1 but they played a great game!!! Nicholas will continue to play till first of June.

We woke up to 33 degrees this morning. I couldn't believe it! Its the end of April!! Thank goodness we didn't replant the garden yet. Hope to do that in the next week or so (since all of my earlier plants did not make it at all. boo hoo hoo)

Here is a recent photo of Emily & Nicholas together - Not sure when he grew SO MUCH TALLER than her. LOL

I found these awesome video tutorials today and decided to try them myself

1) is a small pocket folder book. The pockets are very tiny so I haven't figured out what would go in these pockets just yet but I think it came out so cute. It is made from one piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. I used 2 sided paper so that's how mine came out like it did. I found it at this blog




2) is a maze book. Its out of 1 piece of 12x12 paper and then you add the cover and back. This little book does not have pockets so you would glue on photos or whatever else you may want onto the pages. I am thinking this may be good for a Mother's Day present but since my mom reads my blog everyday I am not going to say for sure this is what i am going to do. She will have to find out in a couple of weeks when Mother's Day rolls around. LOL You can find that at the Scrapbook Lounge

Life's simple pleasures ...

DO YOU AGREE? I do!!!

I sent this card to my friend Lesa

and since she got it today, now I can show it off on my blog. I did not want her seeing it on my blog before she got it in the mail. LOL Had fun with my new Penny Black alphazoo stamp set once again. Notice how I paper pieced the letters? This is my favorite technique, in case you didn't know :).

I made 3 more cards for gift cards

Do you like them? Directions are on the next post below.

Do you need to give a gift card to anyone?

This is a really easy, fun card to stick a gift card in. I followed these directions from this blog and this is my version. Inside and out. Try it, its easy :).

If you don't want to take notes from the tutorial, here are the things you need to know:

Your piece of paper should be 4 1/4" x 11. Score at 3", 5.5" and 8". Then fold on the scores. I guess you will have to watch the rest of the tutorial so you know where to glue the flaps and where to use the word window punch and circle punch but it is really quick. I am making more now and they are going together real fast!!!

I got my new Penny Black Zoophabet letters yesterday

from HMStamps and I had to ink them up. I have been starting to cut coupons again and I hated to put them in a boring white envelope. That's too plain! So I decorated this legal size envelope and now its much cuter. Do you like it? :)

Business card template

I found this business card template here at this blog. She always has the neatest ideas!! I just ordered some business cards from vista.com and they came this week and came out so cute. This is the business card holder I made for my business cards to go in. I will try and tell you step by step how I did it.


Start off with a sheet of cardstock cut 5x5.

Score at 1 1/2", 1 3/4", 3 3/4" and 4". Flip cardstock 1/4 turn and score that side at 3/8", 5/8", 4 3/8", and 4 9/16". Use bone folder to crease them good.


Cut off 4 corners and discard. Then use corner rounder on all 4 sides.

Stamp your background image into cardstock.
Using Stampin Up's Sticky Tape, tape edges and then close shut.



I used my cropadile to punch the tiny holes at the top for the ribbon (which is going to be your handle). Add ribbon by tying knots on the inside. Then add some velcro so it can stay shut.
This is what it looks like with my business cards in it with it open.

The finished business card holders look like this (hmmm, I wonder who I made the "B" one for?!!).

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial :).

I forgot to add this photo of Tudi and her birthday toy

she got :).

Nicholas had another soccer game today.

I added some photos to my blog. He is #14. Our goalie was out of town today so the coach decided to try Nicholas as goalie for the first half of the game. Nicholas was NOT happy about that. He just does not care to be goalie (not enough action for him). Luckily, they only scored 1 point off him so that wasn't too bad. The other team ended up winning 3-1. Enjoy the photos!!

Tudi turns 2 today!!

Its Tudi's birthday so you know what that means! We had to get a birthday cake!! Its not for her, its for us!! LOL

TAC new catalog due out end of June

I have had a few requests for the new TAC catalog. It is due out in mid June and I expect my shipment to come late June. I will be taking pre-orders again about mid May so I know ahead of time how many to order. I have heard its going to be a really great catalog (aren't they all great?).

I made another birthday card today using another Gruffie

stamped image I got from Jennifer. Isn't it cute?

Ladybug is back to her normal self

and we all got a great night sleep last night. Let's just hope it was "cone anxiety" from having to wear that ugly cone on her head! LOL Woke up to 29 degrees this morning. Brrrr!! My garden doesn't look so hot so I think we will have to replant everything in a week or so. Oh well, next year we will know to wait until AFTER April 15th plant our garden.

Ladybug, Ladybug ...

I was going to email everyone about our springer spaniel Ladybug but then i thought I will just put it on the blog so I just have to enter it one time. Ladybug went to the vet today. She is going to be 9 yo in June. Anyway, for the past 2 nights, Ladybug hasn't been acting right. She has been pacing the floors ALL NIGHT LONG both nights and the only way I could get her to lie down was for me to lay down with her on the floor. She was still wearing that cone and just banging into everything while she was pacing. She was sniffing more than normal and just seemed very disoriented. Last night was worse than the night before so off to the vet we went this morning. They saw first hand how she acted. She did it right there at the vet. They all agreed this was not the normal laid back Ladybug. They did some blood tests. All came back ok. She had a few raised levels but nothing to cause this. She thinks its one of 2 things, she is possibly having seizures or she has the symptoms of vertigo. There isn't anything they can do for vertigo but if she is having seizures they can put her on medication. So now we just wait and see how she does the rest of the week. She did fine the rest of the day. So maybe its over. They took her stitches out from last week and the cone is long gone so maybe she was just having "cone anxiety". lol All I know is we all need to get some much needed rest, her included!!!

I got some cute stamped images in the mail today from Jennifer

They are the cute Gruffies which are made by House Mouse, only instead of mice, they are big bears. She sent me a ton to color and so I grabbed the Halloween image and the Christmasy image (my favorite 2 holidays for cards) and made 2 cards. What do ya think? I colored them with prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. I kinda like them :). Thanks again Jennifer for all the wonderful images you sent me! I just love them!!

Did someone say cupcakes?

Oh not real cupcakes but in a cupcake card. How cute is this?! I found this cupcake pattern on this blog and had to try it. I had to use my white cupcake ribbon that Julie sent me. I know it doesn't match the paper but who cares?! Does anyone else notice it doesn't really match?! Probably not :).

We went looking at new cars with Emily today. She turns 16 in 2 months. How is it possible she is going to be 16? We just drove around, seeing what's out there. At first she said she didn't like any cars that are round or square. Have you noticed how many cars fit this description? LOL Then she said she wants either red, black or white. Ok, that really narrows it down!! LOL We looked at Toyota, Honda, Mitsibishi, Saturn, Kia and I can't remember what else. She loves the Honda CRV I think its called. So we will see.

WOW, I am on a roll... 3 posts in 1 day!? HA HA

Our neighbors put up their hummingbird feeders on April 1st. I think that's too early but if they do it, then I do it. LOL We saw our first hummingbird a few days ago and today I got this photo. Hope we see lots more...

Turning 90 ...

How many times does one get a request to make 90th birthday cards? My best friend Amy's grandparents turn 90 this year so she asked if I would make her a couple of birthday cards for her. Here is what I came up with. Now on the girl b-day card, you will notice I used Hero Arts pearls. I figure if a gal makes it to 90, don't you think she deserves some pearls on her card? LOL Amy, do you approve? PS Images by Penny Black and Inky Antics

Nicholas started his soccer season today

This is the first time he has played spring soccer. In the middle schools here, they don't allow 6th graders to play sports. I think this is soooo stupid but that's the rule. So I signed him back to play in the county and today was his first game. His team won 5-0! What a way to start the season!! This will run into June 5th.

Emily's soccer season is more than 1/2 over. I think she is done with hers at the end of this month.

Nicholas' mouth is doing much better. He isn't complaining anymore and can eat whatever. We are still cranking his "expander" once a day.

I haven't made any cards in a few days but I plan to get a few made tonight. I need to make some 3x3's to keep them on hand. I ran out. Imagine that, me running out of cards. How did I do that? :)

Have a great weekend everybody!

A butterfly and a bumble bee

We hit 80 degrees here today in Concord. WOO HOO!!!! It felt soooo good!! The deer have not discovered my garden YET but I do think they have found my tulips in the very front of the yard, out by the mailbox. None of them have blooms, just green stems coming out of the ground. Do deer like tulips? LOL

Ladybug caught in the act

Uh oh, look what we found Ladybug doing. LOL She actually could not get her nose out of the bag. The poor thing!!

We got the garden all planted today. We planted spinach, lettuce, carrots, squash, zucchini, watermelon and cantelope. Some of them didnt' look so great so I hope they come out. Then I heard on the news tonight, we may get frost next week. Please say it isn't so!! Everything will die before they get a chance to grow. LOL Let's hope the weather guy is wrong :).

Check out Ladybug's latest "accessory" ...

She had 5 cysts removed yesterday. One was fairly large on her back end but the others were very small. Luckily, all checked out ok but she has staples all over where they cut her open so to make sure she doesn't bother them, she has to wear this "hat" for 10 days. Oh doesn't she look thrilled? LOL

We are going to plant our garden today. Its almost 70 degrees and just perfect for planting!!!

Nicholas is doing ok with his braces...

He was able to eat some bourbon chicken and a shake from Chick Fil A when he got home from school. We cranked his expander when he got home. I wanted to make sure I remembered how to do it while the orthodontist was still open in case I had to call the office all in a panic. I remembered and he felt it cranking. Some of you have asked what this key looks like and this is it. The little end at the bottom fits into this teeny tiny hole (its the size of a pin hole) and I just push it back towards the back of his mouth and it widens the expander. We will crank everyday for 2 weeks then go from there. He will wear this contraption for 7 whole months but we will not crank it that whole time (thank goodness).

EXCITING NEWS!! I got published again ...

I went to the stamp store today and what was on the counter, the latest Scrap & Stamp Magazine. Jackie (who works there) and I were talking and I was saying how I think I had sent some cards in, I wonder when they will be there. I flipped a page and thought gee, that looks like a card I did. And sure enough, it was!! LOL I continued flipping pages and I actually 5 cards in this issue. Its the latest June issue so run out and buy it!!!

Nicholas gets braces!!

Today was the day!! We had a no school day today for a teacher workday so I scheduled Nicholas to get his braces put on this morning. It took under an hour and 1/2. I took some before and after photos. He also got his expander put in the roof of his mouth and so far I think that's worse than the braces.