Just "inching" right along to say ...

I love this little inchworm brad. Isn't it cute? I used the new Bella stamp again and I am getting my birthday cards done for SEPTEMBER. Yes, I am officially caught up till September now. Hmmmm, now who has a birthday in September?????

Am I published again?

Yes I am ... in the latest Scrap and Stamp, September 2009 issue. I have 3 cards in it on pages 17, 19 and 42.

Finally made some graduation cards

I think I like them :). The newest graduation girl image by Hanna Stamps. At least its new to me. The sentiment is from a retired Stampin Up set.

More cleaning in my stamp room

When its 99 degrees outside , I decide to keep cleaning my stamp room. I started on Father's Day and went through all my paper. Threw out scraps that I will NEVER use and ditched papers I just didn't like. Why keep it if I am not going to use it? So I came across these cute brads and mini license plates. I have them out on my desk so I will be forced to use them. Do you do that, buy something, get it home, put it away, never to see it again? Well, I am going to start using my cute things up!!

My new Smooch colors came today!!

Aren't they pretty? :) I got them from Taylored Expressions on sale and got them in 3 days .... That is awesome customer service!!!

I am in the latest Just Cards Magazine, Vol 14, Summer 2009

I have 3 cards in it ... Pages 35, 44 and Page 103. Check it out :)

Happy 17th Birthday Ms. Emily!!

What does a 17 year old girl want for her birthday? Her belly button pierced!!

My friend Lesa found out 2 years ago this week

that she had (I think Stage 3?) breast cancer. She has fought it and is winning the battle!!! I sent her this card to let her know how proud of I am of her. Go Lesa Go!!!! (Notice the "survivor" charm? I found that at Hobby Lobby and knew I had to make her a card with it) You can read all about her journey here at her blog.

My latest circle journal "A-Z Things About Me"

My latest circle journal was returned to me today after first starting it back in January or February. WOW is the one word that comes to mind. Everyone did such an amazing job and I want to show you here so you can see why these are so fun to exchange. I made these 4 pages to start out with and then I passed it on to Ellie, she worked on her pages for 3 weeks, then she sent onto Patty and so on. When it finally got to the last person in the swap, Joanne did her pages and sent it back to me. I really enjoyed learning all these fun things that everyone filled out. A great big thank you to: Ellie, Patty, Roxie, Mary, Cheryl, Angie and Joanne.

The next 2 pages are done by Ellie who lives in Charlotte.




Patty did the next 2 pages and she just happens to be Ellie's sister. Patty lives in Massachusettes.






Roxie's 2 pages are next and she lives in Michigan.




Cheryl does the next 2 pages and she lives in Kansas.





Mary's pages come all the way from Arizona.




Angie (who is the host of ALL of our circle journals) and keeps us updated and on tact, did the next 2 pages and she lives in Utah.



Last, but certainly not least, come these pages from Tennessee and they are done by Joanne.

Gotta get me some "Smooch"

Have you tried the new product called Smooch yet?



It comes in all different colors and it resembles a nail polish. It does not smell and I smelled it before I brought the bottle home. I got green just to try it out. I put it on this card I made where the grass goes. Not sure you can make it out that great. Anyway, I found it on sale at Taylored Expressions for $3.60 each and I of course had to buy all the other colors she had :).



She is having a huge moving sale and I think they are on sale for 20% this week only. You have to order it by Friday or she will be closed for a week or so while she is moving. So get some smooch! :)



And here are the details on this card: I used a section of the classifieds for my background. I know a few people moving over the summer so I made 3 cards all like this. I also used my new SU neighborhood wheel that I hadn't used before. Nice and easy!!!

Poison Ivy isn't getting the best of me ...

Ok, so you all know I have had poison ivy for WELL OVER a week. I am sick and tired of itching!!! I got a shot and so far, it hasn't done a thing. I am on my 2nd batch of prednisone so let's hope this works this time.

Today I decided to take a little road trip to the Enchanted Cottage in Clemmons. Its about an hours drive and I haven't been there in a long time. I got a few stamps and some cute paper. I was surprised to see they had the newest Bella images there, they are called KETTO. This one is Tatiana (wasn't that the girl's name on American Idol that was sooooo annoying this past season?). LOL Notice the glitter accents in her hair. The Happy B-day balloon is actually a sticker in a pack of 10 and I think it looks so cute in her hand.

Holiday circle journal hosted by Angie

Circle journal found at Hobby Lobby for $2.99. It has 10 plastic sleeves so that makes for 20 scrapbook pages. I then found this cute snowman and mitten felt stickies on sale and then I found the fence too.

Its that time of year again when Angie who is the hostest with the mostest hosts her annual holiday circle journal. A circle journal gets passed around to 8 people. Each person makes up their own topic for the holidays and we each have 3 weeks to complete our 2 pages before passing it onto the next person. I chose "Name your 5 favorite things about the holidays". And here are my pages. The first mail date is next week so I thought I had better get started. If all goes according to plan, we should all get our completed books back sometime in December ... in time for the holidays!!

A very sad goodbye to a dear stamping friend

Jean, who lived in Arizona, was a very dear stamping friend of alot of us at the Stamp Shack, passed away a few weeks ago of lung cancer at the young age of 51. She had been battling it for 2 years and she just couldn't fight it any longer. Jean and I had never met face to face but we knew each other on the internet and I loved her cards and her friendship. She will be missed by many!! I made this card that I will send to her sister, Debbie.

Summer has just begun and I can't find time to blog?

Shame on me!! School has been out for about a week now and we had Amber's graduation party this past weekend. We had a wonderful time. Beautiful weather, wonderful company, lots of great food ... I did come down with a HORRIBLE case of poison ivy or poison oak. Not sure where I got it, probably doing some of the weeding getting ready for the big grad party I suppose. After the graduation party, I was itching really really bad so I got Charlie to call his doctor friend and he called me in some steroids to help ease the pain and so we found the closest 24 hour CVS that was open. This was around 12 pm at night. Came home in pouring rain, a horrible thunderstorm and when we were about to turn onto our street we heard this really loud siren going off. I knew it was at our house but Charlie kept insisting "its not at our house". Just as we pulled into the driveway, my cell phone rang and Emily tells me "Mom, the alarm is going off". So I told her and Nicholas to get the dogs and go outside. I am thinking "fire". We run inside and find the alarm blinking Carbon Monoxide. I start to panic. The kids say it went off right after the power had flickered off and on. Charlie isn't worried, turns off the alarm and I am still in a panic and ready to call 911. He goes in to take a shower (what?!) and his cell phone rings and its the alarm company saying the volunteer fire dept are on their way. 3 different volunteers come within minutes, checked everything out and all is fine. The kids and I wait outside on the front porch and then we hear TONS of firetruck sirens in the distance. They get closer and closer but the volunteers must've called them off right when they got here because they never came down our long driveway but did get really close since they were so loud. All is good and we are fine. Whew!! What a way to start the summer!!! LOL So here are a few photos from the grad party that I took .... Katherine's good friend Dana made this beautiful quilt for Amber. Isn't it gorgeous? I love all the pretty patterns she picked out. Its no secret I want to learn to quilt!! Dana, will you teach me? :)

WOW, I haven't updated this blog since the 1st?

The end of school is wrapping up so its always very busy for all of us. End of soccer for both kids, exams for Emily in high school ... only a couple more days. Saturday we will have Amber's graduation party here so we're busy cleaning up around the house for that.

I made this card for Ricky's birthday. I don't think I have posted it yet so I am posting it now.

Gosh, its June 1st ... where did this year go?

Only 9 more days until school gets out .. the kid's last day is June 10th. Hard to believe!!

I made some cards for my friend Mary who has a birthday today. We are meeting at a chinese restaurant in Mooresville for lunch and I am bringing these with me. I made more but I only took photos of the cute boy ones I made :). Boy cards are always challenging for me but I like how these came out.

Stamps by: Stampabilities & Rubber Cottage

Sentiments by Amuse

Paper by: Cosmo Cricket (I love this paper for boys!)