Thanksgiving story

Helloooooooo,

How is everyone today?  I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving.  We were gone the whole week visiting my dad in New Mexico.  We just got back Sunday night and I've been working at work and working on getting things back in order around here. 

Tomorrow is December 1st.  Do you have your December Daily ready to go?  Yeah, me neither.  I've been gone.  I'm a loser.  I'm a procrastinator.  I'm behind. 

BUT, I'm still forging ahead and am going to start it tomorrow.  I'll just have to do a little catching up on getting things in the book.  I'll show you how its going. 

So I have no stamping goodness to share tonight.  But, I do have pics to share with you.  Not that you really care, just indulge me, okay? 

Here is my Thanksgiving:

We started here.  Okay, we actually started on the 15 North to the 40 East. 



Here is the butt of our cute little pop up trailer.  We had to take 2 cars.  My dad got his special wheelchair and needed a van to modify.  Our friend happened to be selling one for an awesome price and we drove it back there for him.  Very nice van.  Honda Odyssey.  I liked it alot.  So the boy and Grace and I drove the van.  Actually the boy only let me drive for 2 hours.  He hogged it the rest of the way.  Its about a 12 hour drive.

Even though my dad's house is very spread out, its only a 2 bedroom house.  The extra room has a twin bed in it.  So we had planned on sleeping in the trailer the whole time.  We knew it would be super cold but the trailer has a super duper heater in it.  We left it there and will pick it up in the summer when we visit again. 

Hello Arizona!  I know, I take pics of weird stuff.

Hogger!

We ended up staying in Flagstaff to break up the drive.  This is the next morning.  See that snow in the background?  I hate driving in snow.  Makes me reeeeeeal nervous.  I'm not sure how people in snowy states do it. 

Yep, I'm a wuss.

Doesn't this look like the landscape in the movie Cars?  Yep, I'm a dork too.

Hello New Mexico!

My hubs was in his element in my dad's shop.  My dad is an architect and loves to build things.  Here the hubs is building some new ramps for the wheelchair.

The boy did lots of wood chopping.  Getting Grampa set up for a few weeks.

Being goofy, working really hard............NOT! 

My dad has ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.  You can read about his diagnoses here. 

This is my dad's favorite spot in the house.  I should have sat in the chair and taken a few pics showing his view.  Maybe next time.

For some reason my dad wanted  the dirt/weeds mowed.  He lives on 2 acres.  Its actually kinda pretty and green in the spring/summer.  It was really cold! 

Thankgiving dinner. Yummy food!

Here is Dad using the special wheelchair for the first time to get the paper.  As you can see the driveway is really long and he wasn't able to get down there at all anymore.  This chair has big ol' knobby tires on it.  It will certainly give him a little more freedom and independence. 

This is the brick walkway we laid last spring when we were there.  Makes it easier to manuever.  Those are the devil dogs.  They rescued 2 pit bulls 11 years ago.  One is nicer and gets used to us quickly.  The other is named Sadie.  I say that is short for Sadistic.  She warms up but it takes her a few days. 

This is a shot of the house from the gate by the road.  Looooong driveway. 

Little girl climbing trees. 

So there you have it.  My Thankgiving.  I was planning on doing a special scrapbook about this trip.  But really, I think it just deserves a 2 page spread.  There just isn't enough for a whole book.  

One story I will make sure to document is the night we ran out of propane for the heater.  Our heater works really well and we had been pretty toasty.  But it ran alot because it was cold.  So the night we have no propane, us smart girls made up beds in my dad's office, which has a heater.  The unsmart men, decided to stick it out and sleep in the trailer anyway.  With about a million blankets on their sleeping bags. 

That was the coldest night we were there.  The news said it would only be 8 degrees.  It was so cold!  But clear.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Anyway, they of course froze their butts off.  But the funniest thing that had me chuckling for an hour, was that my son had taken out his contact lenses and put them in their case and left them on the table in the trailer.  Well they were frozen in the morning!  HA HA HA!  I laughed so hard.  What a numnut!  I'm easily entertained. 

Anyhow, I'm so glad we got to see my dad and help out around the house.  I wish things were different and that we lived closer but, it is what it is. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope to have some stamping goodness to show you in the next few days.  I have a list of projects to get done. 

Blessings, b.

home again

Hey everyone!

We have been gone this past week at my Dad's.  Didn't even know I was gone did ya? 

We just got home tonight and I'm posting this way ahead of time. I'll have a crapload of pics to share.  Like it or not! 

Even though I'm posting this ahead of time, I know I don't want to go back to work tomorrow. 

Do you have your December Daily ready yet?  Okay, maybe I'll rephrase that.  Have you made the decision to even start the December Daily yet? 

Remember, you don't have to do the whole month.  A week, a day, one tradition.........  You won't regret it.  I'm getting mine together in the next few days.  Do it with me! 

ps. I'm going to do a "week in the life" one for this past week at my dads.  I wasn't thinking of doing that until now so we'll see how it goes. 

pps.  today is the hubs birthday.  Happy Birthday Honey! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

Christmas tags

Hidey ho! 

So, did you go shopping?  I always hit Target and Best Buy on Black Friday.  Yep, I'm one of those people.  Only 2 stores though.  I'm home by 9:00 am.  The kids never even know I'm gone. 

Did you have a wonderful Thanksgiving?  I'll tell you about ours later.  I have pics to share but my camera isn't cooperating.  I can't tell my story without the pics.  I'm so thankful we were able to spend it with family.  And that I didn't have to cook it.  HA!

I do have some tags to show you though. 

A Word for You and Christmas classics sets.   Riding hood red, crumb cake, whisper white and old olive cardstock.  Black Stazon and whisper white inks.  Big shot, top note die, tombow multi glue (green bottle), silver glass glitter (holiday mini), and dimensionals.

Aren't these cute?  The finished size is 4x4.  I made these to go on the bags for some customers. 

I know they are very plain and simple.  But I like it!  I stamped the tree in old olive ink on old olive cardstock. 

To get the die cut shape you just cut out a Top Note die.  Then turn it 90 degrees, line up the points and cut again.  Gives you a perfect square.  Okay, not a square, but you know what I mean. 

I used a dollop of the Tombow Multi glue and then poured the glass glitter on there and pressed it down a little with my finger.  It gives it some nice dimension.  It almost looks like a big ol' fat snowflake. 

Then I wrote my little thank you on the back. 

Alrighty then, I am pooped out!  I think I'll sleep in tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

thankful

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  I really try to give thanks every day of the year and find the blessings I receive each day.  But on Thanksgiving day, everybody is on the same page. 

I have so much to be thankful for. 

I'm thankful for my family.  Thankful that we are together.  We are in good health and those of us that aren't, well, we're dealing with it through the Lord's good graces.  Thankful for the time we do have together. 

I'm thankful that the Lord provides for me every day.  I try hard not to worry about every little thing.  So hard for me not to. 

I'm thankful for my friends.  Friends that lift me up and understand my whacked out brain.  We can lean on each other when things get rough without criticism. 


And I'm thankful everyday for you, dear reader.  When I happen to check the stats and see that somebody came by to check things out, it makes me feel so good.  When you leave me a comment or send me an email, I can't tell you how awesome it is to feel connected to you.  I've made some friends from this blog.  And I'm thankful for each one of you. 

So now, I thought I'd show you some Thanksgiving things we made a few years ago.

Fall Harvest wheel.  Great little tag for a bottle of sparkling cider for your hostess.

just a closer pic.

Little punch turkey.  Scallop, ovals, circles.  Easy enough for the kids to do.

Another one using the wheel and the Leaves #2 die.  Easy tip for you:  use a very thin layer of the Tombow Multi glue to glue on your DSP before you die cut your leaf.  Way easier!  

This would make a cute little thank you card. 

These could be a crafty activity for the kiddos to do while the grown ups are cooking and chatting. 

I'm also thankful that I'm not cooking tomorrow.  HA!  I'm only supposed to help "serve".  Okay! 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I hope you're spending it with people you love........and that they help clean your kitchen! 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

Are you ready?

Hey there!  Its dawned on me (with some help from Ali Edwards) that I need to be getting ready for the December Daily 2010 edition.  ACK!  How can December be just a few days away? 

See here for Ali's helpful suggestions.  I'm not ready yet.  Last year I had it all together. 

What works for me is this: 

• decide on 2 stamp sets to use.  Last year I used Christmas Classics and Classic Numbers (retired). 
• pick out colors.  last year I used Crumb Cake, Old olive, Whisper white and real red
• choose 2 or 3 layouts and what size your pages will be
• get an album or decide what you're going to make one out of.  last year I used the 8 1/2"x 8 1/2" chipboard album.  They are retired now but you can get them for 1/2 price on the Clearance Rack right now. 
• make a list of a few things you know you want to document.  Like, the Advent calendar, baking, shopping, Christmas plays, relatives, church, decorations, any traditions, etc....

Ali has a bunch of great tips.  You don't have to do the whole month.  Just do a week or a day, or just till the 25th.  I did it last year and I'm so glad I did.  I LOVE going through it. Hide it away with your decorations and only bring it out during the holiday. 

Leave me a comment here and let me know if you'll be doing it with me.  I'll be getting all my stuff together and show you as I go. 

Do what works for you.  Ali has all her pages laid out already.  I found that too constricting for me.  Limiting what stamps and colors I was using was enough for me to get started and eventually done.  Too many options are too much for me to even get started and make the project seem overwhelming.

This is definitely a "no stress" project.  You get done what you get done.  Its more than you would have otherwise. 

Just do it!

Blessings, b.

blah, blah, blah and a card!

Howdy stampers! 

Ahhh....Thanksgiving break.   Yes!  Although all I've done so far is clean.  And clean some more.  After the tournament last week, my house was seriously neglected.  Now we are back to normal.  Whatever that is.

So whats on the agenda this week? 

I do love me some Harry Potter.  And Ron.  I love Ron too.  Oh okay, Hermione is wonderful too. 

The boy said he wants to go to but he wants to read the book first.  That is my fault.  When they were little and wanted to see a movie, I made them read the book first if there was one.  But man!  I don't want to wait around for him to read it.  We'll see how industrious he gets. 

Harry watches me stamp.  He hangs on the blinds by my desk.  He is wondering why I haven't seen his latest movie.  I'm working on it Harry. 

Really, I don't talk to inanimate things........often.


What else is coming out?

This comes out next week.  I'm getting it but will save it for Christmas.  Give me a chance to read the book again. 

Okay, I do have a little stamping goodness for you.  

Christmas classics set.  Whisper white and real red cardstock.  Old olive ink.  Neutrals Patterns DSP, scallop trim border punch, real red satin ribbon and misc. button. 

What a sweet simple card eh?  I totally ripped this design off of Connie Collins.  Love her stuff!  Really easy card to mass produce.  Not so sure about mailing that big ol' bow though. 



Now, normally I don't endorse naked buttons.  They need thread!  I originally wanted to use the 5/8" brads.  The silver one looks so pretty for the bell, but I was doing this for a workshop and I didn't have enough.  So on with the naked button.  I used a glue dot to stick it on there.  Easy peasy!

Okie dokie, its nighty night time for me.  Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

band on the brain

Howdy stampers!

Ahh.......the week is over.  For the past few months my dear hubby has been planning and organizing a band tournament.  Wednesday was the day.  Our school hosted 14 bands. 

This was a huge undertaking.  So many details to consider that I never would have thought of.  I helped mostly with the program.  And the judges gifts.  And crowd control.  That was my favorite.  I had the power to deny access to the stands during performances.  Sometimes having the power is fun.  I am woman!  Hear me roar!  HAHAHA!

I have pics to share with you.  Of course the judges gifts included some stamping.  My hubby didn't see the reason for this.  He never does........

I had to put together 8 gifts.  The first thing was deciding what the packaging was going to be.  We went through several different options.  Trying to stay on the cheap side but make them nice.  Story of my life.......

I found boxes at Michael's for .89 a piece.  They were 9"x4".  I cut a rectangle in the top and adhered a transparency so you could see through them.  I tied them up with our real red striped grosgrain ribbon. 

Cute eh?  Each box had a coffee cup, Starbucks Via coffee, creamers, sugars, fancy hot chocolate, candies, Oreo mini cookies, popcorn, 2 different kinds of tea bags and of course, a set of 3 note cards, lovingly handstamped by me.  I'll show you those in a minute.  First check out the tag:

A Word for You set.  Crumb cake, basic black and real red cardstock.  Black Stazon and soft suede inks.  Dotted ribbon punch, curly label punch, 1 3/8", 1 1/4", 1/8" and 1/2" circle punches, Newsprint DSP, dimensionals and hemp. 

I really like how the tags turned out.  They were 2 1/2" x 4 1/4".  I got the music note from some craft store, I went to so many I forget where I got them.  The judges thought they were awesome.

Here are the little notecards I put in:

A Word for You set.  Crumb cake and basic black cardstock.  Black Stazon and soft suede inks.  Top note die, big shot, vanilla seam binding (holiday mini), Newsprint DSP.

These are 4x4.  I made up little sets of 3.  Each bundle had 2 that said thanks and 1 happy birthday. 

I cut the DSP into 1 1/4" strips.  I tried to get as much music on each strip.  Then it was kinda funny because when they are cut up, you can't really (ok, I couldn't really) tell which way they went.  So I hope I got them on there right. 

Here was my other fun job:

driving the golf cart around.  Super fun!  These are our good buddies that came.  I know they don't look too happy here.  Thats because of my lack of understanding how my camera works and they had to take more than 1 pic.  As you can see, the girls are used to it ;)

 16 got put to work also.  She actually looks fairly happy here.  That didn't last long, let me tell ya.

  Since we were the host band, we didn't compete but we did perform.......last.  9:00 pm.  UGH!    See that little drummer boy?  He's mine.  Notice how crystal clear my pics are?  I need something with shake stability or something.

Here we are in all our glory.

Here is our Tournament Director.  I think he's kinda cute.  The biggest detail here to notice is that he is still smiling.  Because of his planning and because we had so many volunteers, things went pretty darn smoothly.  You did a good job, honey!

Here is a shot of my desk this morning.  As I write this, it looks exactly the same.  I'll get to it later.

Yes, that is our beautiful program from the tournament on top of the pile there. 

Alrighty then.  We are still trying to recover sleep.  Who has a band tournament in the middle of the work/school week? 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

Fall card......even though its 82 degrees

Howdy,  did everyone have a wonderful weekend?  Ours was crazy crazy.  I feel like I was never home.  I like home.  Alot.  This week will continue to be crazy.  I'm already looking forward to next weekend. 

So I thought I'd pop on here tonight.  I don't know if I'll get back on this week. 

Here is a fall card we did last week. 

Woodgrain and A Word for You sets.  Crumb cake, cajun craze and confetti white cardstock.  Crumb cake and early espresso inks.  Big shot, scallop square duo (Holiday Mini), early espresso satin ribbon, leaves #2 die, square lattice embossing folder, sponges and dimensionals.

This is the same layout as this card, I just changed the stamps and die to make it more of a Fall card.  Its such an easy layout that by just changing the stamps and die you could make anything work.

I should have sponged the leaf.  At least the edges I think.  Anyhow, this makes a great Thank You card.  I love that satin ribbon!  Makes such awesome knots and bows. 

Okie dokie, thats it for tonight.  I'm heading to bed to make up for lost sleep time this weekend.  I'm pooped!

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

Christmas?

Hey stampers!

How was your Veteran's Day?  The kids and I had the day off.  We get tomorrow off too.  Another furlough day.  We didn't get a whole lot done.  Monopoly monopolized our time.  HA!  We had a great game and 16 wiped the board with us. 

I was going to show you another one of the cards we made last week but I haven't taken pics of them yet.  So I'll show you one that we didn't do.

Medallion and Sincere Salutations sets.  Crumb cake, whisper white and old olive cardstock.  Whisper white and black Stazon inks.  Scallop square duo (Holiday Mini), little leaves die, big shot, real red satin ribbon, sticky rhinestones, and dimensionals.

I love this card!  I think the medallion looks like a big ol' snowflake back there. 

I colored the rhinestones with my red Sharpie again.  I used the larger of the scallop squares on the scallop square duo die.  Even though this card looks complicated, using the Big Shot makes it easy.  You can cut out 3 or 4 of the squares at a time.  I might use this as my Christmas card this year. 

I'm keeping it short and sweet tonight.  Both my men are sick and looking for meds.  Why can they never find anything on their own? 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

just call me, Dr. Beth

Howdy!

It decided to be Fall today.  It only got to 65 degrees and was windy and had big puffy clouds.  Perfect!  I hope your weather was as perfect wherever you are. 

I want to show you another project we made last week.  Everyone gives out gift cards, right?  Well you might as well put them in something super duper cute.  That makes the gift card extra special. 

Christmas Classics and snowflake from Season of Friendship sets.  Crumb cake, blue bayou and whisper white cardstock.  Whisper white craft ink and old olive and real red markers.  Dotted ribbon punch, 1/2" circle punch, 1/8" circle punch, crimper, crumb cake envelope, real red striped grosgrain ribbon, curly label punch, hemp, corner rounder and sticky rhinestones.

This is one of the first things I learned how to make almost 8 years ago when I became a demo.  I'm such a loser I can't even think what its called; envelope gift card holder?, crimped envelope envelope?, uuummmmm........help me out here folks. 

Anyway, you take a regular envelope and seal it.  Then lop off 1 1/2" from the side.  Then crimp the large piece.  (You remember the crimper right?  That tool you hardly ever use?  Well dust that bad boy off).  Then the little piece you cut off will fit on like a lid.  Cute huh?

 
I used the snowflake from Season of Friendship and stamped snowflakes on the lid and then swiped the white ink pad along the edges.  I punched a strip of Blue Bayou with the Dotted Ribbon Punch and stuck it inside the lid so just the little scallops showed. 

Inside I made a little card.  I used the markers to ink up the stamp.  I used my AWESOME Tombow Multi glue to put a very thin line of glue on 3 sides of the whisper white and left the top open to slip the gift card into. 

For the tag, I just cut a 2 1/2" x 2" piece of crumb cake and rounded the top corners.  Added some snowflakes and punched ribbon.  Check out the holly berries.  Can you see?  I used a red Sharpie to color in some of our Sticky Rhinestones!  Can't you just see all different colored rhinestones on a stamped tree?  I see one in my future. 

Anyhow, I used my old olive marker to ink up just the leaves.  Then punched out.  Stuck on some holly berries and put it on the tag.  I love it!

Put it all together and tied it up with the striped grosgrain.  Tie on the tag and you're good to go.  Super easy way to dress up a gift card.  I like to hide the gift cards in the tree.  That way they have to look for them.  When they're all pretty like this, they just look like another ornament.  Makes it more fun.  For me anyway.......

late sunflower

Alrighty then, I know you're all dying for a garden update.  Since the weather has stayed pretty warm here (it was 100 last week) the veggies are hanging on.  But the bees seem to have left.  So I did a little artificial insemination.  Yes, you can just call me Dr. Beth from now on, thank you very much. 

I had a few zucchini that were blooming and there were no bees around so I took it upon myself to do the deed.  I had done this earlier in the summer and had great results.  You just take a male flower, take off the petals and, (ahem) rub the stamin inside the female flower.

I know, I know, its all very embarrassing.  But sometimes you just have to help.  Become one with nature and all that. 

Okay, thats all for today.   Thanks so much for stopping by and putting up with me.  You guys rock!

Blessings, b.

Superwoman, I am not

Hey stampers!

What a crazy (stressful) week I've had!  One thing on top of another.  And I don't mean that in a good way YKWIM ;) 

First the faucet which lead to the garbage disposal, then car insurance trouble, stamping deadlines, etc........plus bunches of other things that are on the to do list that needed to get done. Plus cooking, working, cleaning............you know how it is.  Did Superwoman ever have to deal with a stinky washer?  I think not.

Anyhow, the week is over, all the boiling over problems have been handled and I have been laying low today.  The hubs and the boy are at a band tournament and us girls are hanging out.  We rented Toy Story 3 (which had me silently sobbing in the theater) and a pizza in the oven.  Leftover Halloween candy for dessert.  WooHoo!

I did have some fun this week though.  I got together with some stamping ladies Thursday night and had a great time.   Want to see one of the cards we made?

Pun Fun set.  Old olive, blue bayou, basic black and watercolor paper.  Black Stazon ink.  Black narrow taffeta ribbon, polka dot embossing folder, big shot, scallop border punch, aquapainters, watercolor crayons, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter and dimensionals.

We used the Pun Fun set.  I love this set!  Why didn't I get it sooner?  They got to choose which image they wanted.  We did a little watercolor comparison.  This one is painted with watercolor crayons. 

Using the crayons is so different from painting with the reinkers.  I think I'll have to start using them again, at least occasionally.  I used the glue pen and dazzling diamonds for the water.  Isn't he cute? 

Same materials as the other except I used smooshed ink pad lids.  I used Sahara Sand and Marina Mist.

The reason I used Sahara Sand instead of Basic Gray was because I couldn't get the gray to blend at all!  My painting always looks a little blotchy but, man!  This color just wouldn't work for me. 

Now I have 2 Get Whale cards ready to send someone who is sick.  I don't know anybody sick right now, but I'm ready.  Are you sick?  Could you use a nice Get Whale card?  Let me know. 

Alrighty then, the pizza is out of the oven.  I think after dinner I'll go ask Superwoman for a ride in her jet.  Maybe she'll give me some Superwoman pointers. 

Thanks for stopping by and hanging with me.

Blessings, b.