Baby It's Cold Out There!

OOOOHHH my goodness! It's SO cold that it now takes me like 20 minutes to get ready to go! If you're wondering....yeah sometimes I do finally get all my gear on and darn it....I gotta go! LOL! Anyway, here's a picture of me just as I'm getting ready to head out the door -

**WARNING** - it ain't purty! LOL! I had on 3 layers up top and thick running pants too that were black with the reflective safety strip down the side!
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I was kind though! I uploaded the smallest version! LOL! How's the weather by you these days?! So now, how about a "challenge"?!! I dare you to make a card or an altered item using the colors of my gear?! Oh and since it's the season for all things sparkly, not to mention the flash caught my flourescent safety strip, how about adding come "bling" to it?! LOL! My bling is the blue stickles on the snowflakes. Here's my take on it;




Sorry for the picture being slightly blurry! I must still be shaking from the cold! LOL! To make this even more fun for more people (a couple of my readers are quilters and crocheters not card makers!) how about you make anything with these color choices, leave me a message and send me a picture or a link to a picture on your blog and I'll put your name in a drawing to win MY Card?! Oooh temptation......! LOL! Can you resist?!

Until next time....

New Gift Idea

Are the holidays approaching you as fast as they're coming at me?! I'm so not ready! LOL! I already have a bunch of parties I am going to and the one question that goes with all of them is "What do I bring for the hostess?" Well, how about a nice bottle of wine?! Yeah, I know, typical fall back on, "safe" gift - right?! Well how about we "buck it up a notch" and add a little gift holder to the bottle?! I used a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers to create this little pouch of sorts. Take a look;



I used some great paper for this, the green is from "The Paper Co", the designer paper is from "My Minds Eye", the white is from SU. I simply stamped it with Stazon and colored it in with my coloring pencils! Easy peasy! Just think of it with some chocolates, which I would have put in there myself however two little mice in my house named Brian and Breanna ate it all....no surprise there, but it would also be a great idea for a gift card to a local supermarket so they can pick out some great cheese and breads to go with it! Your hostess would love you if she got this! The stamps?! Well, you're going to have to visit The Rubber Cafe to order your own! LOL! I have more coming with this set if you can believe it! The next one will knock your socks off so stay tuned!

P.S. - not being a drinker at all, I didn't have a bottle of wine to post with this picture! I'm so glad you all have great imaginations to think that beer bottle is something a little classier! LOL!

Saturday Fun

It feels good to be able to help others in their time of need doesn't it? Well, this past weekend we decided to do something different from our norm! We found out about the local food pantry our church supports and decided it was high time we helped out! Here are a few pictures I took while I was there! Guess they're not used to pictures being taken as I got a few funny looks!

That's one big can of tomato juice isn't it?! My honey sure does look handsome too!


Behind the scenes!


I'm glad we were there to help as when I asked how long this many bags would last they told me, about 2-3 hours! I'm SO thankful to be on the giving end! We sure are blessed!

Until next time....

All About....

Breanna?! Huh?! This was supposed to be more about the house but, yet, somehow, someone, managed to be in almost all the pictures! LOL! Funny how that happened! We stopped by the house this past weekend. Brian hadn't been able to stop by lately because of how busy his school work is keeping him and I'm too impatient to wait so I'd go without him! Here are a few more pictures of the house - no snow! YEAH!

Here's Breanna excited to see the front of the house all bricked up! I'm glad I'm not paying the heating bill with the door wide open!


This was supposed to be a shot of the kitchen cabinets in boxes but who's that sitting on them?! Last time she'll sit her fanny on my counters! LOL!


Can you believe this is the pantry?! Shocking!


No pictures of Breanna it is, however, a picture of her bathroom!


The tile guys were here putting in the tile! This poor guy couldn't run from the camera because I think the tiles were stuck to his hand! LOL!


Here's the King surveying his future domain.... and who's right behind him! LOL!


Well that is the house up till yesterday! As Breanna would say, it's still all about her and she was "looking good"! LOL!

Until next time....

Nitty Gritty

We're getting down to the nitty gritty on house details now! I'm SO excited! Soon we'll be moving from our long term hotel, otherwise known as the townhoue to what will hopefully be "Home Sweet Home" for a long while! I have been taking a lot of pictures but someone, who will remain nameless but is the only child still living at home with sticky fingers on my camera (okay breathe here...!) has been downloading them and not telling me where they are! So, without furter ado (and for those interested!) here are some more pictures of our house progress;


No, your screen isn't dirty! LOL! Those little white flecks are "SNOW"! Yep, I braved the elements for this shot!



Well, this contraption isn't our new home gym! It's how they get the ceilings done when they're a couple stories high!



I think, in this shot, they're counting down the weeks until I no longer come and bug them for pictures! Or, maybe it's just the drywall primed for painting....



So, I'm wondering, do you think the guy who wrote this on the doorframe, told his Mom that when he grew up he wanted to get paid to write on the wall?! LOL!



Well that was two weeks ago.......

Pink Inspiration

Wooooosh....! Did you feel that?! That big gust of wind would be my week and weekend "flying by"! LOL! Ever wake up and wonder "what happened to my time"?! Sure, you can look back and explain every minute but it seems to go by so fast! With Breanna starting her new routine at school, book club (yeah for book club!), the "Mom, can you......" sort of thing my week was gone in a blink of an eye! This upcoming looks to be more of the same! I'll try not to ignore my blog though!

I did get to squeeze in a few projects though! YEAH! I found myself in need of some thank you cards for my birthday gifts I received. I had recently purchased an SU stamp set from a girl at work called "Winter Roses". I love this set and can't explain why I never got it before! Maybe I was just meant to get it at a good deal! LOL! Anyway, I wanted to use this new set and, since Breanna has been in a great pink mood lately I used that as my "pink inspiration"! I added some SU "kiwi kiss" too since I love the way it matched up to my SU pinks. I also included some of my favorite dew drops and some of the SU "pink pirouette" ribbon to match the cardstock! The checkered paper came from Michael's. I bought about 20 sheets of different pinks for some crazy reason and this checkered pink was one of them! The border punch is a Fiskars punch! If you shopped at Michael's last week you'd have gotten a coupon that you could use and get one at at least 40% off! Love those coupons and I need to as I swear I think that sometimes I'm single handedly keeping that store afloat! LOL! As if! I hope you like it!

Busy Weekend!

Why is it that time off flies by faster then when you're working?! I don't get it! LOL! This weekend just flew by and I have nothing to show for it! We did the typical check out the new house routine and there is a lot of progress but nothing that would really show up in pictures as they did mostly taping and mudding of the dry wall! Brian and I went to Sam's club to get our membership there. Then we spend about 4 hours trying to find the right shoes for Breanna to wear in a certain event. It's special news but I have to wait until I get a picture to tell you! Sunday, between church and running errands it flew by too! Not fair! I wait all week for my weekends! OH well, I have off on Tuesday so that's a nice treat! So, since I got NOTHING done I'll show you some great cards I made at one of Bobbye's classes that I haven't shared yet! I'm not sure of the set but everything in these two pictures is all Stampin Up!





Doesn't she come up with great cards and layouts?! I love the multi coloring of the one branch and flowers! Such a cool marker trick!

Until next time....

Striped Snowflake

I have the coolest snowflake card to show you today! This is another one that I made at the shoebox swap I participated in but I didn't post it with the rest! We used the SU designer paper for this card and it, of course, has two sides! YEAH - right?! Well since my SU demo lady, Bobbye, designed this card I was able to make two of them. I made one on each side! This one just needed "something" and I found that something this weekend! Anyway, without any more chattiness, here's the card!



What was the "something"? It needed the red button! Just in case you're wondering - it's all Stampin Up products and the snowflake is that sparkly felt you can buy at the craft store! Interested in any of it?! Well, contact Bobbye and she can give you details!

Until next time....

Inspiration

Sometimes you look at all the role models that are out there for young girls to follow and it can get depressing! You have this sweet baby girl and you hope for nothing but the best so when an opportunity comes along that you can show her that women can do some amazing things you jump at it right?! Well at my new job I work with some pretty amazing people, some pretty high ranking people too! One person in particular is a 3 star General - and a woman to boot! Not only that but, she's the highest ranking female officer in the USAF! I can just stare and saw "WOW" when I look at her and all she's accomplished! She's very humble to say she didn't get the position due to being a woman but was chosen based on her abilities! That's pretty awesome! So anyway, when Breanna got to meet the 2 star General I work with she was so in "awe" of him and I told her, you know there's a woman upstairs who outranks him - she said "I've got to meet her"! Well, ask no more..... I was able to coordinate that today! Here is a picture of Breanna and the 3 Star General who is a darn good role model, and a fellow half marathoner as well!



Breanna will remember this meeting for a long time and I was happy to make it happen!

Until next time....

Gettin' Krafty!

LOL! Okay I admit it! The title is a little much but sometimes that's the hardest part of a blog moment! LOL! I got that title because two of the cards I am showing you today are made with the Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink! I'm so in love with this good sturdy stuff that I'm seriously thinking I have to buy more...and more...and more....and... okay you get the picture! LOL! Speaking of pictures, here are two cards I made.
The first one is using their new coffe cup set called "Warm Happiness"! If you know me then you know I'm a caffeine junky! Love my coffee! I made this using scraps from my "We Moved" cards I made my sister-in-law! I love this set since it can go for just about anything! I don't know who is going to get this one but, when the need comes, I'm ready!



This one is made with a stamped image that one of the sweetest ladies ever swapped me for some monkey images! I needed a dog for a project and she had some super cute ones! I made this card using more scraps from other projects and added some of my favorite dew drops in there too!



Well I hope you like them!

Until next time....

Words To Remember...

Well, it had to happen sometime! I'm going to be a "Bella" in March or April! Yep, my oldest child is expecting! I prefer to not be called anything starting with the letter "G" - it's just not "me"! I'm excited for her and her partner and hopefully time will fly by quickly! She mentioned recently wanting to keep notes of things to tell the baby and to show the baby so I decided to make her a notebook! I had seen this paper being used for other projects before and I just knew it would be perfect for this one! It almost looks like "Bambi" doesn't it? Here's the notebook!

I covered one of the $1 notebooks from Michaels with the paper. It's called Walk in the Park by October Afternoon! It's double sided so the gridded blue is what you'll find on the other side! I also used some stamps,CTMH "Expecting", I borrowed from one of the AFIT wives here named Alicia! She's the sweetest lady who has the most adorable baby! Anyway, she'll soon have a blog of her own! Back to the card, I also did some random stamping on pages on the inside too! All in SU inks! I chose not to do a lot to it as I see it getting a lot of use!



I also made a card to go with it using all the same supplies as before except the card base is SU Close to Cocoa! The ink on the front is SU Chocolate Chip! The flowers have rhinestones in them that I picked up at Target! I like to get their $1 body rhinestone tattoos as they are cheap and work great on the projects I put them on!



I hope you like them and that Jessica does too! If you're inclined, could you keep Jessica in your thoughts and prayers? She's doing great but being a diabetic (insulin dependent) she has some rough spots at times! We all appreciate it!

Until next time....

3rd Piggy Pic

Huh? Say what? Okay I was trying to come up with a clever post title and all I could think of, to coordinate with this one, was the story of the 3 pigs where the 3rd one had a house of brick! Anywhooooo...... we, obviously, have brick up on our house now! YEAH! We also have dry wall up! YEAH! It seems like it's closer but, there are still many details that need to be done so it's still going to be a while! Here are some recent photos we took on our "Fun Friday" and even include Cameron! LOL!












I'm so excited it's beginning to look like a real house now!!

Until next time....

Friday Fun

"Beep...beep...beep" is how my Friday started out! My first thoughts were "OMG why can't it be Saturday so I can just roll over!" Well the day went along just fine, had lunch with my co-workers for our "Wingman Day" activities (if you're military you know what those are!) anyway just trudging along in my duties and I see this guy at the door wanting to come in. From a distance I can't tell who it is and I'm thinking since it's a secure area and if he had a badge he would let himself in. I tried to walk away but he waved at me to come to the door! Who was it? It was my sweet honey and Breanna! Well I "had" to open the door for him and when I did he says "We have a surprise for you...." and who was sitting there but Cameron! I was just beyond speech! Cameron was one of my friends/co-workers from school where I worked in Virginia! He is also known as my "adopted son"! LOL! I had a couple of "adopted kids" there! OMG! To say the least I was thrilled and almost cried because he had taken the time out of his schedule to come up to see me for my birthday! He had flown up and driven from the airport to our townhouse jus to say "Happy Birthday"! Isn't that the sweetest thing?! Somehow my other "adopted daughter" kept it a secret....explains why she hadn't called in a while! Probably would have leaked it! LOL! So after introducing him around as my "adopted son" to my co-workers we took him to see our house and then he treated US to dinner! He's good since not many people can get the bill past my honey - 19 years and he's only the second one! That's good! LOL! Since the pictures I took when I left didn't turn out I made sure we got good ones this time! Here they are;

Breanna and Cameron



Me and Cameron



Now doesn't that make for one of the BEST Fridays ever?!

Until next time....