A very close stamping friend of all us at the Stamp Shack, Heather, had surgery

a couple of weeks ago and I asked some of the great gals at the Stamp Shack to make her an ATC. WOW, what an overwhelming response I got!! I got close to 50 ATC's sent to me from all over the country. Some as far as Australia, England, .... they are just awesome!! I decorated a mini mailbox in her favorite red/white/blue colors and stuck them all inside. You can see them in a slideshow below. If you look above each photo, I have added the person's name who made that ATC. I was only able to add 50 photos to the slideshow so there are a few I could not fit.

Yesterday I met a friend for lunch (hi Ellen!)

and we ate at a great place called Just Fresh and I always get the same thing. I get the Raspberry Fields salad and it is just the best!! I have known Ellen since our kids were 2 years old. We first met when I had decided I wanted to meet other moms. I made a "playgroup" flyer on my computer, put it up at the local grocery store bulletin board and 2 weeks later, I was surprised when 75 moms and kids showed up at the park. Ellen was one of those moms and we have been friends ever since!! That was 14 years ago! WOW!

On the way back, I decided to take a few photos of some beautiful red trees. The colors are really vibrant this year!

More frost photos for those in FL or TX

who never see frost but wish they did. LOL

Baby, its cold outside...

Yes and I took a photo to prove it. LOL

Traci called me from Ohio today ... it was snowing there!!

Snow in October? Why won't it snow here? I love to see snow. It did actually snow in Boone today and I got to watch it on tv but its not quite the same. LOL Boone is ONLY 2 1/2 hours from us. Can't I just drive up, eat lunch and then come back? HA HA

It sure feels cold enough to snow. Its 38 degrees and its getting down to 30 for a low. It may as well just snow :).

Emily wins 11th grade homecoming representative ...

Homecoming was just perfect. Taylor came before the game and we took some photos. Taylor is not the same as Tyler, who was her ex-boyfriend who she is NOT dating at the moment (she isn't dating anyone at the moment). Taylor has been a good friend since 8th grade and he has a girlfriend who "let" him escort her to the game. LOL

Taylor came all dressed up and I had gotten him a matching red tie. When I first met Taylor (Em was in 7th grade), he asked Emily if "I" was his "sister". Well, now ... that is the best compliment anyone has paid me in a LONG time!! So of course, I think the world of him. Since that day, he calls me sis and I call him bro. HA HA HA



The game was pretty chilly, a whopping 45 degrees. I was still feeling pretty rotten from whatever stomach thing I was fighting (I feel much better now) and I wasn't able to eat most of the day. We were all bundled up under blankets, coats, etc. and I honestly was surprised when they announced "Emily Thacker" as the 11th grade representative winner. Here, each grade votes for their own grade then everyone votes for the homecoming senior.




Now she will get to ride in the Concord Christmas Parade which is Nov. 22nd. Its a very L-O-N-G parade and lasts a few hours. So .. I will be working on that.

Is it really time to order the class ring?

Emily is a junior this year so its time to order her class ring. This is what she chose. She got to design it completely by herself. She doesn't like her birth stone which is June so she chose pink (for October). I think it came out really nice. She will order it at school on Tuesday. If you would like to see what she chose, go to this website or here is the website too ... http://shop.jostens.com/CommerceServices/share/shareMyRing.jsp?designId=681745.

We're getting ready for homecoming tomorrow night. The kids have a no school day tomorrow for a teacher work day so the game is at 7:00.

Homecoming has been rescheduled to Monday due to rain

and I could not be happier!! Its cold and rainy out and I am thrilled they rescheduled the game to Monday night. The rain will be over by then and we won't get soaking wet, like we did last year. LOL Josh is not able to be her escort now so she will have her friend Taylor be her escort.

Is that a cupcake on her head?

I got this stamp a few weeks ago and haven't gotten around to inking it up until now. I was looking at my November calendar and see I need to make a few birthday cards so I made these 2 cards today. The one with the caramel apple is my newest from Spiral Whisper and you can see her stamps at: www.spiralwhisper.com. They are in the UK but shipping was very reasonable and I got my stamps in about 10 days shipped to me. Isn't she cute? (I added Aileen's paper glaze to the caramel apple so it looks "glossy").

A ride to Fancy Gap, Virginia to see the leaves change

That's what we did today. I went with Michelle, Laura and Harley (Harley is 4 months old). We had alot of fun and saw lots of pretty leaves changing up in the mountains. It was just across the NC/VA state line. We stopped at some road side stands and got some apples, cabbage (Michelle got cabbage, not me! LOL), etc. Here are some photos I took.

We bought another pair of shoes

and I'm returning the first pair. They were just too expensive. She found these and she loves these just as much and these are MUCH CHEAPER. What do you think?

Went homecoming dress shopping today

and lucked out by finding the FIRST dress she tried on at Dillards. Then we found these beautiful shoes at Dillard's too. She tried on about 20 dresses and this was the final winner!! Doesn't she look all grown up? (You can click on each photo to make them bigger)

Gosh, how did it get to be Friday already?

I have been a terrible blogger this week. I'm sorry about that. I have been busy stamping away but I am working on a "secret project" and cannot reveal it here just yet. I don't want that person to happen to be blog hopping along and say "oh my gosh, look what Sherri made me" so I just want to say a quick hello for those who do read my blog everyday. LOL

Emily got chosen today to be on the junior homecoming court at her school. Homecoming is next Friday night so we don't have much time to look for a dress. I suppose we will have to go out tomorrow looking. I want to first check Dillard's, we usually have luck there. Then, she has to find an "escort". We're working on that too.

Alot of you know I have been having headaches (migranes) since August 1st and I went to a new dr today because I just learned I have high blood pressure. I have always had "normal" blood pressure so when she took it and it read 172/112 I just about fainted. She put me on a beta-blocker and a water pill and let's hope this makes my headaches go away. I am tired of them as you can imagine.

That's about it. Leaves are starting to change now here and its getting down to the low 40's tonight. We will have to bundle up for Nicholas' soccer game tomorrow at 9 am. A perfect morning for my hot cocoa in my candy corn mug :). {Speaking of that ... Debbie, did you get a little surprise by UPS today?} No other hints ....

Hot Cocoa in my candy corn mug ...

How cute is this candy corn coffee mug? I got this from Cathi. She sent it to me from IL. I especially love the inside too!! (Sorry Debbie, you can't have it!) Thanks again Cathi. I used it this morning to drink my hot chocolate!! I love it!!

Our day at Appalachian University with Brittany

We had the perfect weather - it was a little on the chilly side, leaves were changing and I was oohing and aaahing over all the beautiful reds, oranges and yellows. If this wasn't peak, I don't know what was!! LOL

We left at 7 am and got back around midnight so it was a long day. ASU was HUGE and Brittany showed us all around campus. We walked around Boone (love the little shops!). Emily & Brittany got their cartiledges (top parts of their ears) pierced. OUCH!

On our way to dinner, we saw an awful motorcycle wreck right in front of our very eyes. They literally tried to avoid hitting some cars and they skidded out of control and fell over on their bike. They seemed ok and there were plenty of people who stopped to help them (it was a couple on one motorcycle).

Ate dinner at the Mellow Mushroom. Had the white pizza and it was the best pizza I have ever had! Boone was extremely crowded (and there was no ASU home game) and I felt like we waited alot in traffic jams and rode around forever looking for parking spaces.

On the way back, Dalton slept all the way and I missed hitting a white/gray wolf or a coyote by a millisecond. I thought at first it was a fox but i think it was too tall for that. Talk about scary!!



I managed to miss the Nascar traffic. It was our big race last night and i literally sped by the exit within seconds of the race getting out !! I had the race on the radio and I felt like I was in the race with them. It was so funny!! I just wanted to make it home WITHOUT sitting in hours of traffic since I do go right past the Nascar exit.

So all in all, it was a great day and I can't wait to go back and visit again. Emily kept saying "wow this place is huge" so I really don't know what she thought of the campus itself. LOL

My new Magnolia stamps came today!!

I found this awesome website to order Magnolia stamps in the US. She is in Hawaii and her service is super fast!! I placed my order on Monday and got them on Friday (today!). You should check out her website http://www.rosesonpaper.com . She also sells Flower Soft (which is new to me) so I got lavendar and I love it so I will definitely be ordering more. You just place it on with glue and voila, all done!! Its nice and fluffy feeling :). If you don't know what Flower Soft is, check out http://www.flower-soft.us.com/ Its neat stuff!!!

I thought I would share with you some fall photos

of the leaves changing in the Carolinas. Its my favorite time of year!! Also, these 2 deer were in our back yard on Sunday and I caught the perfect photo of them before they ran off to hide from the camera.

My holiday gifts will be the best "dressed" with these tags

I hosted my 4th annual Christmas gift tag swap over at the Stamp Shack. The Stamp Shack has only been around for 2 years but before that, I hosted this same swap over at Papercrafts. Its hard to see that I did label who did which tag and it came out green but I can't figure out how to fix that. You can click on each photo to make them bigger but even then, its hard to read the writing I typed on each one. Aren't they great???

Here is my card for Thanh's Think Pink challenge

You can find Thanh's challenge here at http://yummycreations.blogspot.com/. This is the card I came up with. My ice skating owls are Just Johanna stamps and I also used a TAC stamp, MFT stamp and the oval stamp is by Amuse. How did I do?

Did you know today is a national holiday?????

All of you non-stampers are thinking "huh, what holiday is it?" Its actually called National Card Making Day. Yes, today is the day!! Lots of blogs and stamping websites are having card challenges throughout the day so I made my own at the Stamp Shack. I said to post a Fall-type card NOT using the colors brown and orange. Its not as easy as you think. Here is my card I made using purple and green. I love this little scarecrow. Its by Amuse.

I decided to finish up my gift card "card"

and here it is. Its a small card, the finished size is only 3 3/4 x 4 1/4. I put a "fake" gift card in it so you can see how it looks.