Move In Day 2011

This week we moved Christina into her dorm to begin her 3rd year of college. Doesn't seem possible. This year she is getting to room with one of her bestest friends from homeschool. She and Laura have been planning this since Christina graduated 2 years ago. I didn't get any pictures of them together on move in day (fail!), but Andrew took some of me and Christina.

This first one is just us being silly with a pillow that Laura's sister, Shannon, made. It is a huge moustache :)

We had quite a time trying to figure out how to arrange all their furniture so they would still have some floor space to do P90X. What you can't see in the picture are 2 dressers and their sink. They did end up with a tiny bit of space to work out.

Wish I had a good pic of their matching bedding. It is so cute! After I bought it Stampin' Up announced their new In Colors for the year and I realized that most of them are on their bedding...which of course led to some crafting for their dorm room, but I think I already posted that project. Oh well, here it is again...

Missing her already, but now we get to have her home for a long weekend! Andrew and I re-started his senior year of high school because we changed curriculum at the last minute. Now all of his work is on the computer and scheduled for the whole year! Very excited about that, but of course we would discover this at the end of our homeschool career.

Stampin' Up's Holiday Mini Catalog became active on Sept 1. I have already recieved several of the cute Christmas stamp sets that are in that catalog. Will try to play with them and post pictures soon.

Hope you have a blessed day today!

So Long Summer...

A friend reminded me earlier this month that I was behind on my blog posting. (Sorry Janet!) We have had a great time this summer. In July we traveled to New York for vacation and had a BLAST! Andrew had the opportunity to participate in the Lamplighter Guild for Creative Disciplines and got to spend his week at an incredible resort in the Catskill Mountains. The rest of us explored New York (city and state) and visited the surrounding states also. Here are pictures from highlights of our trip.

Lunch with my brother, Dennis, in Pennsylvania on our way to NYC...

Seeing Spiderman on Broadway...

Mohonk Mountain House, where Andrew got to spend the week...

Niagra Falls at night...

Dinner with my family in Indiana on our way back to Arkansas...

I have so many more pics, but you'll have to wait and look at the scrapbook to see them all.



Yesterday my baby boy turned 18! Yikes! Today we begin our final year of homeschool. I am so blessed to be able to spend so much of my day with him, he's an amazing young man. He had been "driving" my dad's old '87 Ford pick up, but it wasn't real dependable and we decided to go shopping for another vehicle for him. This is what we found...



It's not much of a truck (which is what we had in mind), but he loves it and it is a lot of fun to drive...when he lets us :) We surprised him at gym last week with a little early bday party and a new car---he was speechless. You can't see him in this pic, because he's inside the car.
As for crafting, I have done my share this summer and if you dared enter my craft room you could tell it by the mess I have made! My sister was here for a weekend and we played around with making some melted fabric flowers. Here's a pic of Christina modeling it on her shirt...



I made a cute card for my mom's bday, but put it in the mail without taking a picture---ugh! I played with a new stampin toy that just arrived at my house this week. You can come to my card class this Friday and I will let you play with it too ;) Today I am anxiously anticipating delivery of my goodies that were preordered from the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalog. There are so many fun things in that box I can't wait to open it! If it comes in time for me to play with it before church, I will post pics of what I come up with.

OKLAHOMA!

This has been quite a busy time at our house. Christina and Andrew finished the last show of "Oklahoma" at the local community theater last night. Pat and I saw the show 5 times and loved every minute of it! How I love to watch my kids singing and dancing on stage...it is fun for all of us.

Of course, its also a crafting opportunity for me. This is a picture of one of the gift bags I made for them to hold their "you did a great job" goodies. I also made 140 chocolate dipped Oreos as a parting gift for the cast and crew...

The release of the new Stampin' Up catalog is July 1st and so I am also gearing up for the release party this Friday! Let me know if you would like more details about that.

Praying you have a blessed day today and that you are able to be a blessing to those around you!

My New Toys

June is such an exciting time for Stampin' Up demonstrators. The new catalog arrives, the retiring stamps & accessories list is posted and we beginning planning for the new catalog year. This is the first year I have gotten the new catalog sent to me Next Day Air. I had to order some items for a class this week end and was going to have to expedite my shipping anyway. Soo just after breakfast today the UPS guy rang my doorbell. I have had lots of fun today looking through the catalog and playing with some new toys. I can't show you any of the new stuff until July, but I can show you some of the things I have made with the new stuff! So here's a little sneak peek of what is to come...

Christina will be starting her junior year of college this year. One of her best friends just graduated from homeschool last week & will be joining her at Williams Baptist College in the fall. They have been looking forward to rooming together for 2 years. For Laura's graduation gift we bought matching bedding sets for their dorm room. I noticed as I looked through the new In Colors that they matched their new bedding and I had to make something for their room from my new stash.

Congratulations Graduates!

This graduation season has been a busy one for our family. 15 high school graduation invitations were sent to us this year. About a month ago I began pondering what gift to give. I wanted it to be useful for those who were planning on moving into a dorm or staying home to attend college or not going to college at all. Cash would have worked, but with so many I needed to find something more economical too. In the end, of course, I opted to make them cards. I made personalized note cards for each one to use as thank you notes for all the other gifts they receive. Here's a picture of the ones I made for the homeschool students. And this is a picture of the cards I made for the graduates. This one is for a Paragould graduate...I tried to use school colors for each one.This final picture is a graduation card I made for a friend who needed cards to give. Love that cute little owl from Stampin' Up's owl punch.

Already the wheels are turning in my mind for next year's graduation activities. Can't believe my baby will be a senior! I wonder if after the last one graduates I will be glad to have more time to stamp, or if I'll just be lonely? I guess it'll be a little of both...

National Scrapbook Month

What a great time to celebrate the ones we love in our paper crafting! Here's the project I have planned for National Scrapbook Month...

Now I realize you may not want a big "G" on your project and that is part of the fun. You can personalize this any way you choose...with your own initial, using a favorite quote or Bible passage, replacing photos with words like "family" or "friends", etc. The possibilities are numerous. Because the photos can be added later, it would make a very nice wedding or housewarming gift also.

I am scheduling workshops now for this project. Contact me if you'd like to participate. The cost of the workshop will be $25 which covers all supplies including a snail adhesive that is yours to keep. If you want to supply your own adhesive the cost is $20.

For my cardmaking friends who are NOT scrapbookers, I would like to point out that the project is divided into 4 X 6 sections so it is really like making 6 cards instead of a 12 X 12 scrapbook page. So you really don't have an excuse not to try it! :)

Party on Campus!

My daughter had a birthday this week and is no longer a teenager! Makes me feel old, but we had fun celebrating with her. Last night was the opening night for a play she is in at college and we took some friends with us to see her on stage & celebrate with her afterward. Here are some highlights of the night...

She asked for a Daisy Rock pink bass guitar for her birthday!

We put trick candles on the cake & were afraid we'd set the smoke alarm off in the Student Center because they filled the whole area with smoke...I didn't post the smoky pics :)

The Gammill family & Kendall were there to help us celebrate. Here's Christina & Erin being silly together.

This is a picture of her & some fellow cast members of The Secret Garden. Christina played Colin, who is actually a young boy in the play.

I have some other items to post on here later today. I have been busy with craft projects and want to share some of them with you. Looking forward to more time in my craft room today!

March Madness

Can you believe this month is all but gone already?! We have watched plenty of basketball at our house over the last few weeks. And we have been on the road a few times for gym meets. We have been blessed to have a dear friend visit us from out of state and we also enjoyed a whole week of Christina being home from college for Spring Break. All this busy-ness has left me little time to craft. I did hide out in the craft room for a day when my BFF Debbie came to visit me & stamp with me. We made some cute cards for her to send to her ladies Bible study group. I have also spent some time in my craft room with a local BFF creating graduation invites for some special people in her life. I am so blessed to have stamping friends! :)

As a mom I feel its my duty to brag a little on my kiddos. Thought I'd share some pics with you that were highlights of ours this month.

Actually, this event was at the end of February. Christina participated in the Miss WBC pageant at Williams Baptist College. Isn't she beautiful?!!!

For her talent, she choreographed a karate routine to the song "Be A Man" from the Disney movie Mulan. She did a great job putting it together & performing it!

On March 12 Andrew competed in the Arkansas Men's State Gymnastics Meet. He placed 2nd all around, but was the state champion on the rings. Here's some pics of him doing his thing! :)

The head you see in the bottom of Andrew's pictures is his coach Darin Grogan. This coming weekend we get to travel to Austin Texas to watch Andrew & his team mates compete in the regional meet.

I'm hosting a Mystery Hostess Workshop on Tuesday, March 29. Hopefully on my next post I'll have pictures of the projects from that event. If you'd like to attend let me know & I'll give you the details. I'm off to the craft room now to prepare...

A Blessing A Day {Day 22}

Last night I got to hang out with some fellow crafters at a stamping class. Most were old friends, but some were new. We had fun creating together. One of my friends comes to almost all of my stamping classes, but she really doesn't like stamping very much. She comes just to support me and usually has her daughter make the projects. This time, however, she "played" along with us. What a good sport she is! She even allowed me to take her picture with one of the items we made.

Here's some pics of our other projects...

And the final picture for the day is my project for today's blessing challenge. Our church secretary's mother passed away last week. The funeral was held while we were out of town. Since she and Pat are coworkers, I wanted to make a special card for her.

The Lord has richly blessed me with my friends and family and I am thankful for every opportunity to let them know how I feel. Hope you are doing the same!

A Blessing A Day {Day 21}

It is so good to get back home! I had a great time with my fellow Stampin' Up demonstrators at the regionals in Branson and I got plenty of fresh ideas. Wichita was a LONG way away, but I enjoyed the time with my husband and son. On the way home we stopped in Walnut Ridge to eat dinner with Christina and one of her roommates. :)

Yesterday was one of my dearest friend's birthday. Because I had been sick before I left, I hadn't made her a card. That was one of my first tasks this morning. Here's what I came up with...

Today was also our homeschool co-op day and this week I do have pictures of our craft. The name of my class is "Crafts-n-Junk." We are making craft/gift items out of things that might otherwise be thrown away. Our project this week was a bookmark that we made our of a scrap of material that was used in packaging some towels I bought a while back. The 4th-6th graders did a great job sewing & stamping on these today.

Anxious to be back on track with my blessing a day challenge! Hope you'll join me.

A Blessing A Day {Interrupted}

Well, the month was going pretty good until Tues. That's when I got sick. Not bad sick, but annoying & with a fever. Yuck. Anyway, I haven't created anything! Today I leave town for a Stampin' Up conference in Branson. YAY! Hopefully I'll come back with a ton of ideas to show you. From Branson we head to Kansas for another gym meet. So... look for more posts next week on my journey of blessing others daily.

A Blessing A Day {Day 14}

This past weekend we went to the movies with some friends to see Gnomeo & Juliet. Christina and Andrew were already fans of lawn gnomes from the Travelocity commercials, but the movie just increased their liking. So for Valentines Day I couldn't resist making some gnome themed cards. This is Andrew's. I can't post Christina's yet because she hasn't even seen it.

Of course Valentine's Day was an easy day to find ways to bless others, especially my family. I also got to work with some 4th thru 6th grade girls at our homeschool co-op today. We made a special valentine treat for them to share. Wish I had taken pics, because they did a great job! Next week I will definitely post pictures of our craft.

My journey continues tomorrow...

A Blessing A Day {Day 12}

Ever since my kids were little bitty, I have been sewing their costumes. Halloween, theater, costume parties...all of it. I have made princess costumes, Robin Hood, elephants, dinosaurs, three musketeers, dwarves, elves, etc. etc. etc. My daughter has several events coming up that require my sewing skills (limited though they are). One of the events requires her to present a talent in front of judges. She has chosen to do a karate routine. We decided to make an outfit that is different than the one she wears to class each week and maybe add some bling to it. :) Here's a pic of the pattern and the shiny material we chose.

So we are cutting & pinning & sewing this weekend. We also attempted to apply fake fingernails, but in the end all she had was blue fingers! Apparently the die from blue nail polish remover really soaks into your skin. I told her it would surely be gone before her semi-formal dinner on Monday....we'll see. I am so blessed to have a daughter that will spend her Sat. evening shopping and hanging out with her mom. :) And I am blessed to have a mother that helped me to learn to sew also. I guess doing this for her is as much a blessing for me as for my daughter, but I'll count it for today anyway.

A Blessing A Day {Day 11}

Yesterday I told you about the family from my sister's church that was going through a major struggle. She is making a box of cards to donate for the silent auction to help raise money for them. She asked me if I had some cards I would send for this as well. So I looked through my stash and came up with several, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to create some new ones to send also.

Both of these use one of my new embossing folders. My husband pointed out that I must really like my new "toy." I suppose I have used it a lot this week, especially if he noticed! But I can't help it, I just think it's so elegant and adds such a nice touch with little effort. :)

I also worked on some Valentines today, but if I post them my family will see and I want it to be a surprise. Maybe I'll post them Monday. The month is not half over yet. You still have plenty of days to bless others intentionally if you want to join me in my challenge for the month. I am loving it and can't wait to see what the rest of the month holds.

A Blessing A Day {Day 10}

As part of the body of Christ we are called to rejoice with others when they are happy and to weep with others when they are sad. My sister told me today about a man at their church who is going through a battle with cancer and a struggle to provide for his single income family since he's currently unable to work. They are having a silent auction at the end of this month to try and raise funds for him and his family. I knew this was the perfect project for me today. I made a couple of framed items to send to her for their auction.

The first one has the fruits of the Spirit listed along with the reference in Galaltians.

The next one is a small 4X4 quilted picture. I was so pleased with the way my quilted card turned out yesterday that I just had to repeat that technique. The picture really doesn't do it justice. It turned out so cute!

So what do you think? Would you bid on these? I am praying for this family and for the church as they support and encourage them. I hope you'll join me. My journey continues...

A Blessing A Day {Day 9}

SNOW DAY! My friend came over and we spent the day in my craft room being creative and just having fun together. That was certainly a blessing to me. My dear hubby fixed us lunch and "delivered" it to us...another blessing. And to top it off, I got to play with some new stampin' toys that arrived at my house last night! (Thank you UPS) So here's what I came up with using my new toys. I'm mailing these out to some special people tomorrow, so you might see it again in your mailbox---but I'm not telling who ;)

The blessing a day journey will continue tomorrow. I am so thankful for opportunities to show others that I care. Hope you are doing the same.

A Blessing A Day ~Catching Up

I know, I know... It has been days since I've updated. I have been spending time creating every day in my craft room, but have neglected my blog. I'll post several projects today and try NOT to get so far behind again.

{Day 5}

This is a gift I made for my friend Jo who's birthday is Feb.5. I printed the verse on my computer and then dressed it up before framing it.

{Day 6}

I am so pleased with this project, but not with the pictures I took of it! Another friend celebrated her birthday on Feb.6. She has a little grandbaby named Lilly so I made this scrapbook box with a lily on the lid. With the help of her son, I printed out pics of her sweet little granddaughter and surprised her with this on her birthday. It wasn't hard to make the inside of the box look good, of course, because of the sweet little baby pictures. Love that paper lily (and the cute little cuddly one too)! I'll try to post some better pics later.

{Day 7}

Today I had deadlines to meet. I have been mass producing these tags and had to get them in the mail today for a swap with other demonstrators. I'm excited about the tags that I'll be receiving next week. I'll post some pics when they arrive.

{Day 8)

Just to change things up a bit, I'm not going to post a craft today. My blessing today was a service provided for my family---grocery shopping! Maybe you don't get too excited about that, but these days I do. I have started participating in a program called "The Grocery Game." If you know me, you know that I am pretty competitive. I like playing games, but I like WINNING games more! The Grocery Game is not really a competition, but I figure if I go to the store and save more money than I spent, then I WIN! You can find out more about The Grocery Game here.

A Blessing A Day {Day 4}

Today I am thinking outside the box. I spent zero time in my craft room today. It was one of those days where life happens and you just go with it. I spent the day cleaning my house, running errands and cleaning some more. We were suppose to host small group in our home, but the weather turned a little nasty and instead I spent the evening watching a movie with my family (in my nice clean house). So my blessing to others today was a pleasant family/home environment to share a snowy evening together just hanging out. What I'll share with you is the creativity of someone else, but it is what inspired us to watch the movie we chose...

Do you recognize her? This is Edna Mode from Disney's movie The Incredibles. She was made using Stampin' Up punches! I am always amazed at the creativity God has blessed others with. You should check out Ellen's blog. She is quite the punch art artist.

Check back later in the weekend and I'll have some other fun projects to show you :)

A Blessing A Day {Day 3}

I have several good friends and a parent who have birthdays scattered throughout February. This weekend 2 of my very dear friends & small group members from church will be celebrating birthdays. I won't say which one this is for so I don't spoil the surprise. :) My craft room is getting pretty messy from the card making I have been doing. I am an extremely messy stamper! But we don't have a gym meet this weekend so I should be able to get it back in order before the Super Bowl Party here Sunday evening. I have to have it back in order by then, because I plan on stamping with a friend during the big game. I do enjoy football, and if Denver was playing I would be glued to the TV, but this year (as last) stamping wins out.

Enjoy what's left of the week, and take time today to bless someone!

A Blessing A Day {Day 2}

I know this isn't the warm summer card that I talked about making yesterday, but I had a friend call today for some encouragement. She has a lot of stuff going on in her life both at work and at home and was feeling overwhelmed. I made this card for her. Hope it will lift her spirits a little. And I hope the Scripture I wrote inside will lift her burden some too. You can check it out in Isaiah 43:2 and the first part of verse 3. Praying that God will continue to bring people into my path each day that I can encourage. Hope you're doing the same. :)

A Blessing A Day {Day 1}

Well it is Feb. 1 and that marks the beginning of my Blessing A Day challenge. I made this card for my parents. They are both dealing with health issues right now & since I can't reach my arms from Arkansas to Indiana, I sent them a hug in the form of a card. :) Hope it brightens their day. Tomorrow I may send a card with a summer theme to my friends in Columbia, MO who are dealing with blizzard conditions! Wish I was there with you....really I do. We have rain here, but no snow :(

You can still join me in the quest to be a blessing to someone, somewhere everyday in Feb. I personally am commited to creating an item each day, but you can be a blessing to others with an intentionally spoken kind word, a smile shared with a stranger, or by cooking a meal for your family. The point is to focus on someone other than yourself and let them know you care. I hope you'll join me.

Blog Update?

We are sitting in our hotel room in Kansas City, just taking it easy this morning. We loved seeing the piles of snow as we drove in last night :) I am working on my blog, trying to add a gadget that will allow others to subscribe via email. Wish I was more tech savvy, maybe this wouldn't be so frustrating. If you have suggestions let me know...

On the Road Again...

We will be leaving today for a gymnastics meet in Kansas City. Andrew competes tomorrow evening. During meet season we seem to travel every other weekend or so. It never gets old though, because we so enjoy watching our boy do his thing! Thought I would share some pictures with you from his last meet. I created this page with My Digital Studio. It took me about 20 minutes, maybe less. I know every time I use it I go on & on about how much I love it, but I do. So easy to use & with great results.

Hope you are blessed today! And if so, remember to give God the glory for it.