40 Tips for a Better Life in 2009

I got this sent in an email from my pen pal Pam who lives in Washington. Love this Pam!!

40 Tips for a Better Life in 2009

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.
4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to __________ today.'
5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008.
7. Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6. (Ha! I do this every day!)
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.
14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, issues of the past, negative thoughts, or things you cannot control.
Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away.
18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?
26. Forgive everyone for everything.
27. What other people think of you is none of your business.
28. Remember your God heals everything.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
33. The best is yet to come.
34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
35. Do the right thing!
36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!!!)
37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________.
Today I accomplished _________.
38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass.
You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.
40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about. I just did.

May your troubles be less, May your blessings be more, May nothing but happiness come through your door!

Recycle those 2008 calendars ...

I can't take credit for this idea but I got the cutest envelope last year from Erin and I asked her how she made the cute envelope and she shared with me that she had recycled her 2007 calendar. I had no template for envelopes so she was nice enough and sent me one. So I recycled my 2008 calendar and I got 8 envelopes out of this one calendar. 4 of the months, I could not make them work right but I am pleased with the envelopes I came up with.

Did everyone have a nice holiday?

My mother in law is here from VA for a few days so if I don't get on my blog, that's why. We had a great Christmas here and Santa brought me all kinds of goodies so I must've been a good girl this year. I got some fleece-lined brown crocs, a calendar for my stamp room, some Yankee candles (my favorites!), a snowman cookie jar from my mom (to go with my other cookie jar), some snowmen Christmas ornaments, a camera bag to hold my camera and a few gift cards.

Have you ever checked out Spiral Whisper stamps? I love her stamps and she has some new ones coming out soon. Check them out for some free blog candy too.

Merry Christmas!

At 5 am, the dogs woke me up to eat like they do every other morning. So I fed them, took them out, and I listened ... the house was quiet. WHAT? The kids weren't up yet? I went back to bed and woke up around 8 am. This was the first time in 16 YEARS that the kids slept past 5 am on Christmas Day!! LOL Are we starting a new trend here? I sure hope so!!

We are having unusual warmer temps today in the Carolinas (high 65 degrees) and I have capris and flip flops on. Charlie is going to grill out steaks. Yes he is on Christmas Day!! We will have our big family get together on Saturday so I can relax between now and then. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!!

Welcome to my open house virtual tour

Some of us at the Stamp Shack signed up for a open house virtual tour swap and I have decided to show alot of my snowmen that I have around the house. I have them ALL over!! The one photo is a snowmen necklace that I love to wear. I found it last year at Stein Mart. Isn't it adorable?






Alot of these I have collected over the years. Some have been given to me as gifts and I think my favorite snowman item I have is my snowman cookie jar. I found him in Wisconsin several years ago and had to carefully carry him back on the airplane so he would not break. I just love snowmen (almost as much as flip flops!!)





Some of you know how I love to start my Christmas cards in January and this year will be no exception. I made 10 a month this past year and this worked out great for me so I thought I would post my first card for 2009.



On this card, I used a Bella snowman/tree stamp (its one stamp) and used my Labels #1 nestabilities for the cut out. I used glitter as snow and on his hat and used fun flock on his scarf.

For a little giveaway, I have a bottle of Flower Soft (summer) and some holiday clear stamps (from Walmart). Leave me a comment of what collections you have, if any. If you don't have any, just leave me a comment anyway and I will enter you for a drawing. I will draw a name Dec 28th.




Next stop for the Open House Around the World
Midnight Creations in Maryland (she has until December 23 10 pm EST to December 24, 1 pm EST to post on her blog so if its not up yet, go back and check out what she has to show you)

Gingerbread house

Emily had 2 friends over last night and they made a gingerbread house. This is the final house :).

Accupuncture - who has tried it?

I've had back problems since I was about 18 or so. I "threw it out" at the beginning of the week and I have been going to a chiropractor. He worked wonders on me the first 2 times I saw him. I was feeling much better. Yesterday I went and I told him I was having some numbness in my left hand and left foot so he asked me if I was afraid of needles. I said no. So he said I am going to put in 4 needles and you will take them out in 2 days. I freaked out thinking I was going to be walking around with these LONG needles sticking out of my body but these are teeny tiny and they are covered by teeny tiny bandaids. Here's what they look like as I know you are curious now. (Click on each photo to see it bigger)







I have a 4th one up near my neck but you get the picture. Its hard to tell if they are working yet as I am still having some numbness, just not as frequent. I will take them out tomorrow.

Are you ready for Christmas? I am officially done with all my shopping. I'm ready to start on next year's Christmas cards now. LOL See that's what I do, I start in January so I am ahead of the game.

Have a great weekend and I hope you aren't too stressed over the holidays.

Robin's letter to me ....

I stopped by Jeff's house for about 30 minutes today and he gave me the letter Robin had written (Robin passed away 15 months ago). It was a cute card with 2 cute kitties on it and she had written on it "Sherri" "Robin". On the outside of the card under the cats, it said "Aren't we cute?" Then she thanked me for being such a great friend and she would always have a special place for me in her heart" She was always doing nice things like this!!! I sure do miss her!!!

It was great to see him. We talked about he and the kids are doing. His daughter just turned 16 last week so she is driving now. His son is 12 and in the 6th grade.. Both are getting ready for another hard holiday to face without their mother. Life isn't fair sometimes!! Robin was only 41! I'm glad I went and it was great to see him. I must keep in touch more often.

A Riley calendar

I must've forgotten to take photos of November and December before I gave it out..

Here is a card I sent to Patty, Ellie's sister

I love this Riley stamp :).

Ellie and Michelle are coming over tomorrow

so I baked us Christmas cookies. Don't they look yummy????

You can see the Dirty Dozen creations "free" this month

on Splitcoast Stampers. Normally, you have to be a member of Splitcoast to see these wonderful creations each month. They are posted on the 15th of each month and they are all fantastic. They have a different theme each month and its amazing to see all the great talent there. You can check it out for yourself here. They are also running a special for $19.95 a year to join Splitcoast. You have certain priviledges others don't have and I think its worth every penny!! I hope you find time in your busy schedule to check the adorable cards out.

The Massey's came over for lunch today. CJ and Emily are both 16 and Mindy is my godchild. Linda brought Chick-Fil-A peppermint chocolate chip shakes for dessert and we split them. Mmmmm, they are really good!! Emily and Mindy drove the golf cart down to the farm down the street and they saw some cute mini donkeys so they took some photos. This is the same farm who has Humphrey the camel but we did not see him today.

My friend Joanie has a birthday coming up next week

and I made her this coaster calendar with ALL Magnolia stamps. Some of the Magnolias I got the images sent to me and I exchanged my images for theirs. I think it came out really cute and Joanie seemed to like it. You can see it at my picture trail account which is here. Then I made this card for her too so she is on Magnolia overload!! LOL

Run out and buy the latest Just Cards magazine - I'm in it!!

LOL I have 5 cards in it and there are some other Stamp Shackers in it as well. Erin, Awna, Thanh Vo and Joan all have cards in it. Here are the cards I have in it:















Erin's blog
Awna's blog
Thanh Vo's blog

I need to see if Joan (Lakeslady) has a blog :).

Back from Florida ...

Had a great time visiting with family and friends. The weather was chilly one day, hot the next, cool the next, hot the next .. and so on. My mom, Debbie and I went to see Four Christmas's (you can see the movie trailer here.)If you watch this trailer, this pretty much is the whole movie only condensed down into about 2 minutes. LOL We went out to dinner to Bonefish Grill, then got an eggnog shake from Steak & Shake (as I was still hungry after my tiny steak from Bonefish Grill), then we went to Toojay's for dessert. By then, I was STUFFED!!! Debbie took these photos so you can see how delicious everything was!! LOL


If you happen to love eggnog and have not tried the eggnog shake that Steak & Shake has for the holidays, you MUST try them. Mmmmm good!! We each got a kiddie size and it was PLENTY!!



Toojay's sells this "sample" dessert and you can pick 3 different slices - we picked carrot cake, cheesecake and Banana Dream. Again, mmmmm good!!!

Saw lots of old friends that I haven't seen since July so it was great to see them too. All in all I had alot of fun but its good to be home back in the Carolinas :). Now only 2 more weeks until Christmas!! I must get my shopping done!!

I'm in Florida visiting my mom and sister

so I will post more when I get home. It's going to be 72 degrees today in Hobe Sound!!!

You gotta see this cute snowman gift bag I made today

I googled "gift bags" and this is what I found on the Family Fun website. I am bound and determined to use these brown paper bags that I have left over from making SEVERAL paper bag albums (remember when those were all the rage?) well, I found some white acrylic paint and painted the whole bag. It took about an hour to dry. Then I printed out the template on the website and cut out the pieces of the hat and the carrot. For the eyes and mouth, I used 3 circle punches, 3/4", 1/2" and my 7/8" punches. I glued them all on and it was done. They also have a reindeer gift bag and a Christmas tree gift bag if you want to try and make those.

Isn't my new blog header the cutest????

Many many thanks to my blog header wish fairy ... Angie!! Isn't it the best? Thank you so much! I love it!!!

The moon, Venus and Jupiter

Tonight as we were watching the news, the weather man told us to go outside and look up. He said for a few nights we will be able to see the moon next to Venus and Jupiter. So Charlie and I both ran outside - each with a camera. I took the first photo and Charlie took the 2nd photo, I just added the words to his so you can tell which planet is which.