I am extremely pleased with this...

On Saturday, Cindy and Nicole came over and worked on some projects - everyone was doing something different. After they left, I was determined to organize all of my greeting cards, which is what you see above. I made dividers by covering pieces of chipboard with scrap paper, then attached metal-rimmed tabs with eyelets to each piece. I divided them by theme, and here they are - much easier to find! Before this I kept them in baggies, in boxes, on my desk, wherever. This is better. All I need now is a piece of shelf liner to keep them from sliding all over the place.

I totally forgot to share these with you!

For my birthday, the end of March, I wanted to go to Matt's Big Breakfast in Phoenix. It was featured on Guy Fieri/Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives show. So we went on a Sunday morning and I think we got there kind of early (8:30 or before). Here's the front door and this is the crowd already in line...

This is Guy Fieri's "mark."Our meal...

This was the special of the day - a scrambled egg dish with peppers and sausage. Mmmm good!

Myah and Kylee were there.

And when we left, I noticed that someone had written "Jean" in the concrete. I just couldn't pass up this photo op. They even spelled it correctly!

July's Card Exchange

The theme for July's card exchange at Paper Vineyard (where? in Chandler, AZ) is "summer." I'm not sure how summery this is, but I decided to use glitter flakes, Stampendous dragon fly stickers (originally silver, which I then used with alcohol inks), and micro glitter. The blue background is dry embossed with my Cuttlebug. I love it! I am very happy with how it turned out. Thanks to Lois and Adriana for all of their input and suggestions! After Sunday, I will post the other cards exchanged.

Souvenirs from my trip

It used to be that I could never figure out what to bring home as a souvenir from my trips. I mean you can only have so many knick knacks, coffee mugs, ceramic plates, shot glasses, or whatever. So, several years back I started buying Christmas ornaments (because my thought is that you can never have too many Christmas ornaments) and tea towels (something practical). This idea has worked well for me. So below is actually a key chain that my sister bought me, but I plan to hang it on my Christmas tree to remind me of my trip.
And here is the tea towel - it is of Rainbow Row in Charleston.

I would love to hear what your traditions are when it comes to vacation souvenirs. Better yet, give me your best and worst souvenirs ever purchased!

Here's how I spent my Thursday night...

As most of you know, I am re-doing my craft room. Slowly, but surely, it is coming together. It is 90% set up, which is good, but also bad. Bad - because I am at a point where I can actually play in there rather than continue sorting and organizing. Last night I finally took the time to sort ALL of my solid colored paper. I used to keep them in bins, but decided to stand them up in paper trays. I think they look marvelous! Since I make cards more than anything else, I have a lot of 8.5 x 11" paper. I should be set for awhile, don't you think?

This is the card holder made by my friend, Krista. Can you believe it is a block of wood and wire coat hangers? My plan is to sand the wood block, then Glimmer Mist and stamp it. The picture of the baby on the left is Kimmy. The photo block is Katie's high school graduation. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Our Trip to Ocean Drive Beach in North Myrtle Beach

In no particular order...

We spent an afternoon at Ripley's Aquarium. This is a seahorse fish. Very unique.

Rachel trying to catch a fish - okay, not really.

Kate, Kim and I went to Charleston for a day. This is part of Rainbow Row.

We took a horse carriage tour and saw so many beautiful homes. I just love the architecture. So amazing!

This is part of the old Market - now a shopping area.

My niece, Rachel, and her two boys - she makes motherhood look effortless in this picture.

The view from our balcony. We were on the 11th floor. At first my stomach actually felt queasy from being that high up, but I got used to it by the end of the week.

Calgon, take me away. I love it!

Another peaceful moment.

One of the reasons we chose Ocean Drive Beach is because when we were kids, our uncle rented this house on the beach. It has been 30+ years since we've been there, but we just had to go look up the house where we stayed. This is it - the Fran Ma-Ray. It's been upgraded quite a bit. I guess it was hit hard by one of the hurricanes that came through. It now has air conditioning and more rooms, better parking. We also did not have golf carts at our disposal. It sits right on the beach and it is gorgeous!

A view from the pier in Myrtle Beach.

Lunch at Boardwalk Bill's.

Katie fixed homemade chicken quesadillas the first night. Very good, Kate!

We drove from Raleigh-Durham to the beach, so we spent the first night in Fayetteville and Kimmy found this cupcake shop called The Cupcake Gallery. We stopped there on the way back, too. Very cute and yummy!

This is the view from the walk way on our floor of the resort - Ocean Drive Resort.

A quick walk on the beach.

We had a wonderful time even though it was extremely hot and HUMID! I believe it rained every day, but we still had a great time catching up with family.

Hmmmm... you might be a redneck if...

Look close - REAL close - at the cab on both sides of this truck. On our very recent trip to North Myrtle Beach, we were driving from the airport through North Carolina on some back roads. We really enjoyed the drive because you see so much. Traffic was moving slow and we ended up behind this guy. I don't know about you, but it's not everyday that I see a truck with antlers. So I just had to have Kimmy take a picture for my blog. I would love to know what his license plate stands for ("SKLLNGTN"). Stay tuned for pictures of our days at the beach.

Tu Tu Cute!

They're back - Kylee (on the left) and Myah (obviously on the right). This time they are modeling the tutus I made. They both are dancers and I thought they would like really full, big tutus. That sounds funny. I apologize for the dark picture, but the girls are smiling and having fun, which makes my day. I don't think they were excited about them at first, but you can never tell what kids like and what they don't like. The tutus were so simple to make, essentially just tying strips of ribbon and tulle onto elastic. And they are very cute - the girls and the tutus. FYI - Since, I don't have my own, these two are my surrogate grandchildren.

Can you picture yourself in this garden?

This is the backyard of Joyce who is Geri's sister. She lives in Salem, Oregon and right now it is a cool 61 degrees (@ 7:53 a.m.) It sure beats 95 in Phoenix (with a high of 110). It's definitely inviting, wouldn't you say? Geri wants to be there right now. I'm sure it's also about visiting with Joyce and her 9 other siblings who live in the area. There's nothing like family, is there? No, nothing like it.

How sweet is Freak 'n Sweet?

I have "spies" all over the city and my friend was driving down the road and snapped this picture - probably the same day I was snapping the "SMILE" photo. These melons aren't just sweet - they are FREAK 'N SWEET watermelons! It makes me want to drive all the way to the west side just to prove them right.

More from Nicole..

Nicole is actually into making jewelry - as some of you may know. I think that someday she may be famous and I can say that "I knew her when..." kind of thing. I think the top necklace is very cool and made out of things you might have around the house - some of the items anyway: bolts, a washer maybe. I know she also used grunge board which gives it the leather look. She also used eyelets, paper, and what appears to be a brad.
The second picture of the beaded flower ring is one that she gets a lot of comments on. I think she basically placed beads on wire, then mounted it on a ring base. I make it sound so simple, but I'm sure there is a whole lot more to it. Keep it moving, Nicole.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mother's birthday - how GREAT is that! She's 85 and what a life she's had. I often wonder how she feels about everything she has seen in her life - so many changes, it is hard to imagine. Happy birthday, Mom! I am proud to say you're mine!

Meet Jack #3

Okay, this is actually #1 Jack to my friend, Sheridan, but to me he is the third dog I know named Jack. First is my niece's dog, Jack, who you've not met yet. Second, is MY dog, Jack, the little parti-pomeranian, and now this Jack! His real name is Cherokee Jack Strongeagle. And by looking at this picture, he loves his green ball (and the leather sofa). He is a relatively new addition to Sheridan's home but I think he has already taken over. Welcome home, Jack!

Christmas in July

I wonder who had the idea of celebrating "Christmas in July." Anyone know how that started? Who came up with that phrase? Probably a marketing/sale thing. It IS my favorite holiday - no doubt about that. This is not my Christmas tree, but I love looking at trees and everyone's ornaments. I think we pick certain ornaments for a reason. I know I put a lot of thought into mine. I love being in the snow - actually being INSIDE looking OUT at the freshly fallen snow. I will say, one of the prettiest things I have ever seen is a well-lit saguaro cactus - if done right, they are gorgeous!

I did it!

I did it! Those of you who know how I anguished over this, you will be proud. I have been working on an altered book of our Washington D.C. trip which we took last July. I started off with the Bo Bunny bare naked book and when I finally got all of my pictures in the right order, the pages covered... well, it didn't fit. I had too many pages. So I put it down and I haven't touched it for months. You see I had to cover the book and was extremely happy with how it turned out - very patriotic with stars, flags/red, white and blue! It made no difference because the pictures didn't fit. I finally picked it up again today determined to do something about the cover. It took a lot of courage, but I ended up cutting off the binding, as you can see in the second photo. It was so slick and it turned out so well. All I had to do was "glue/fray check" the edges and then replace the rings with really big ones. Thanks to my friend, Lois, I had those, too. Next on my "to do" list - embellish the inside and finish the project.

Just remembering my birthday...

... which was March 27. It fell on a Friday night and so my idea of celebrating was getting together and crafting. I know, I have no life. My oldest daughter, Kate, came by the store and hung out for awhile. Kim was working the store that night. Kate actually stayed longer than I anticipated and stated "hey, this is kind of fun, just hangin' out here." I just HAD to get a picture of her "hangin' out" with her me on my birthday. My youngest daughter, Kimberly, is in the back on the right. The other one? That's Nicole - some people have mistaken her for my oldest daughter, but she's not. I would have been 13 - the math just doesn't work.

5 girls and how many apples?

and why they laying on them? That can't be comfortable. I wouldn't want to eat them after someone had been laying on them.

Can you find me?

I made this metal picture frame; I covered a piece of sheet metal that was bent at the bottom to make it stand up. I used Graphic 45 Le' Romantique line and I love how it turned out. I actually used vintage buttons that were given to me, and they really added a nice finish. The word FAMILY and photo are held on with magnets. So you can see it would be easy to change out the word. Can you pick me out of the crowd? This is one of my favorite pictures of my family. In fact, I remember very few family portraits taken while I was a child - a lot of pictures because my dad enjoyed photography, but very few formal photos.

SMILE

I ended up going to work on July 4 - I dropped one daughter off at the airport and decided to drive on in and work on getting some things done at the office. My latest treat is to drive through McDonald's and get a $1 iced tea, so that's exactly what I did. When I pulled back out onto Lynwood, just west of 7th Street, the house on the corner had this big homemade sign in the front yard. I just had to stop, pull over, and take a picture. I wasn't really wanting to go to work, but in spite of that, this sign actually did make me smile. I don't know the intent of the owner, but he obviously accomplished what he set out to do! Have a great week.

I finished my Donna Downey book...

and I am really proud of it. I think it is absolutely beautiful (if I do say so myself)! I titled it "You and Me" and I made the book about my two daughters - and no one else. I took pictures of every page so that you could see them, too. I think what I enjoyed the most about this book was that each page was different. It was all hodge-podge, so it didn't have to flow. Yet, that is exactly why the pages did flow. I was able to use all kinds of embellishments and it all looked good. See what you think. I made a video clip of the book and I'm working on getting this on the blog. The pictures are much easier to see. Keep your fingers crossed.

Upcoming Class

Here's a preview of an upcoming technique card class. In this class we will be working with In Stitchz' by Bazzill, which means we will be stitching on cards. As you can see, they are simple designs, but it will give you an idea of how using In Stitchz' can add to the emblishment of your projects. I don't yet know the date or time of this class, but I will definitely keep you posted! It will be held at Paper Vineyard Scrapbook Store in Chandler located on Alma School Road, 1/2 mile south of Ray Road. Look us up on line - we're a great store!

Another journal...

one with a whimsical feel to it. You might remember that I made a personal thoughts/journal for Ruby who works at my firm. Well, our good friend, Diana, wanted one, too. I recently finished it - had forgotten I took a picture for my blog, and ... well, here it is. I am not a cat lover, but I think this cat stamp is so very cute - I love the hearts on the bloomers. I covered the book with the flower paper, stamped the image, then water colored the cat, put stickles on the bloomers, and then ended with ribbon on the wire rings. Quite different from Ruby's, but still very cute.