Really? 72 Degrees!

I just looked at the weather forecast for today and see that it's supposed to be 72 degrees and sunny today at home.  Wow!  Is spring finally here?!

So I thought it was only appropriate to post this photo card from last spring.  I don't think I've posted it here before??  The picture is of a Wake Robin flower we found on a hike to Morrell Falls - one of the very first hikes Cricut Man went on when he started travelling to Missoula.  The flower is supposedly one of the first to appear in the forest in spring.  Isn't it beautiful?!

Enjoy the weather! 12 days and counting before we'll be back home.

Planning Ahead

You know I'm not much of a "collage"-y card maker but this card from a past Paper Crafts blog post really caught my eye.  Says just what's in my heart this year.  I've given my Mom several hearts in the past few years as a symbol of how she's always in my heart no matter how far apart we are.  

Mother's day is the weekend after we leave Jax and I'll need to have the card ready for her before we leave.  With all the other things going on, I probably need to make to within the next few days.  I brought a few things back with me but I'm sure a trip to Hobby Lobby will yield some embellies that will be just the finishing touch I might need. 

A Look Back

By the time you all are reading this post I'll be in the air heading back to Jacksonville.  It will then be exactly 2 weeks away from coming back home for good.  Can't wait!  

Looking back on this trip home, it was much more restorative in some ways than the last trip.  Had lots of alone time to just breathe which was good.  But kept fighting a few restless feelings which I think were more about just being ready to have Allan home with me and back to our routine.  Soon I know.  As folk singer Dave Wilcox says in one of his songs. . . 

"Someday Soon made a promise I will follow

Someday Soon is why I try"

So while I was at home and piddling in the craft room I saw these cute little friends that Mona gave me last trip sitting and smiling at me.  Aren't they adorable?!  Thanks Mona for including me and Val as part of the "kids" in your life and making these for us.  You're the best!

Circles and Lines

This post goes out to Debbie.  Sharing how I used my new Penny Black "Circles and Lines" stamp.  Did I do good, Deb?  You are so right. . .the ways you can use this stamp seem endless.  Can't wait to play some more.

I used it for this week's family card.  I searched my paper stash for things that had circles somewhere on it.  Found the Stampin' Up Elegant Soiree designer paper and just loved the colors.  They found this cute little singing birdy from the SU set "Swirls & Curls" which fit well with the swirls of the blue paper.  When combined it all with the Circles and Lines stamp it made me think of birds singing on a wire.  I added some dazzle stickers in a few of the dots to give it a little more zing.

Hope you enjoy.

Soaking Up Love

Isn't this stamp the cutest?!  It's an Art Impressions stamp called "Edna Soaking".  Staci had it at the shop on Saturday and graciously allowed me to stamp it a few times.  It is so perfect for my Mom - who had a birthday this weekend by the way.

Happy Birthday Mom!  I hope this year is full of good health and mobility.

Ever since Mom's decline with mobility and especially during rehab, she's talked often about really missing being able to take a bath.  I wish I could give her the Calgon bath pictured here as her birthday present.  But for now it will have to just be in the form of a funny card.

I lucked out and got to see both Debbie and Staci at the shop this weekend.  They certainly had a full shop of wonderful crafty women and were trying to do inventory on top of it all.  I helped them out a little by snapping up some new arrivals and eliminating some product off the shelves :-).  It was great fun!

I've got another card I'll be sharing tomorrow featuring some of my new stash.  See you back here then.

Great Quote - Not So Great Card

"Do your little bit of good where you are.  

It's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."

~ Desmond Tutu

I love that quote.  I used it on a card to the family one week last summer as I was telling them about the man who took it upon himself (at his own expense) to landscape a flower garden on one of the downtown corners.  Do you remember the story?  What a wonderful gift of a "little bit of good".

I can't remember where I CASE'd the card design from but this was one of those times when I was frustrated by my Essential Tremors.  I loved the stamp (it's from SU-Mixed Bunch), the colors and the use of the border.  But I didn't have a stem/leave stamp that was proportional so I attempted to draw it freehand.  Eeesh!  It looks like a 2nd grader did it.  Sure glad the family loves me and forgives my shortcomings when it comes to cardmaking.

Here's wishing you a Happy Friday with hopes of spring flowers right around the corner.

Brads and Eyelets

Susan, over on the Simplicity blog, did some cool postings a few days earlier trying to use up some of her brads which she bought when they were more of a craze.  Check it out if you have the time.

I thought it would cool to do something similar with eyelets.  I don't know about you but I've got a TON of those still hanging around.

This card is from an old Card Maker magazine.  Thought it would make a nice one for Noah and maybe Bryton.  

I'm still perusing through those online archives of that magazine.  I've been taking screenshots of the cards and ideas I like and then pinning them to my Pinterest boards in hopes of being able to recycle all the paper versions of the magazines.  That would give me two more shelves on my bookcase for more craft supplies! 

Flying home tonight.  Looking forward to seeing my little guy but sad to leave my big guy.  I'm growing increasingly ready for all of us to be back in the same place for good.  Soon! 

Wood Stamp Storage

Got this little preview video from one of the head HuHa's at StampinUp.  Thought it was really interesting and I've been thinking how it might improve my organization of all my wood stamp sets.

And if you need some other ideas, here's a link to a Pinterest search and a YouTube search.  Take part of your lunch break to settle in with a cool glass of sweet tea (can you tell I've been too long in the South?) and peruse these fun ideas.

Lonely Leaf

I love this card - or more precisely, I love this picture.  It's one Allan took a couple of years ago during a Fall  walk along Old Grant Creek Road.  We stopped to watch the creek and he snapped a shot of a lone aspen leaf floating by.  After the weekend we just had, that time and space feels very far away.  

We got home Monday shortly before noon from our North Carolina trip.  We had a wonderful time with Allan's family.  I have lots of stories to share when I see you next week.  Maybe I'll bring a little sunshine with me!

Hope you're staying warm.

Lots of Family

Made it to the end of another week.  Maybe not as gracefully as I would of liked but oh well, I keep trying.

We're off to see lots of family this weekend.  Heading north up the Carolina coasts to see Allan's daughter and her family, his parents and his sisters and their families.  It should be a great time.  And I think a change of scenery will be just what the doctor ordered.

This is a card I made last fall.  I used a sketch from one of the clean and simple challenge blogs I follow but it's been so long I can't remember which one.  I loved the chipboard embellishment.  It was part of a Bo Bunny pack I picked up at Memory Lane along with the cute acorn ribbon.

Hope you all have a great weekend.  See you back here on Monday.

Unlock the Birthday Fun

Update:  I ended up giving this card to Mom.  She's so silly about her birthday that I thought the "birthday fun" message suited her more.  Sorry Aunt Shirl'.  But hope you enjoyed the "Happy B'day" card from this post just as much.

Aunt Shirley - the aunt who makes the crochet flowers - is having a birthday next Thursday.  I need to get her card in the mail soon so I used one of the patterns out of the Paper Wishes kit I have with me.  The kit featured collage papers.  Aren't they kind of cool?

I followed the pattern exactly this time and even did the inside of the card. . .

Sorry the photography is so bad.  The lighting in the apartment at night is really bad.  Cricut Man was even making fun of me as I had to use wine bottle to prop up my backdrop and use the microwave light for the spot light.  Sure do wish I was home in the craft room :-(

Had a rough day yesterday.  Just really restless and out of sorts.  Nothing major and I shouldn't even complain as things are going so well with Allan and with Mom.  But it just seemed so hard to feel "normal" or feel comfortable.  We haven't been sleeping too well and I haven't been able to focus fully on work.  I can't even seem to find any mojo for any of the "special projects" I brought with me or calm my mind enough to read a good book.  Okay - enough of that!  I need to just get over myself and start today fresh!

Here's to "fresh starts"!!.  Hope you have a good one today.

Homesick

This photo card from last fall makes me a little homesick.  We took a walk in the woods at the Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge one Sunday afternoon.  Can you see our shadows waving "Hello"?

Spent the afternoon and evening with Mom.  No craft day for us though.  Instead I cleaned out and reorganized the frig and pantry.  We're trying to arrange the kitchen so that she can safely reach most everything and get back to cooking and doing more things on her own.  We made good progress but there's a little more to do so we'll finish up on Thursday.  

We're also going to make a trip over to the rehab hospital Thursday afternoon to see some of the nurses and staff that took care of her back in January.  She's really looking forward to that and so am I.  Can't believe how far we've all come in just the first 100 days of 2013.

April Snow?

Is it true Gal Pals?  Did you have snow yesterday?  Leave a comment on the blog to let me know.

If so, I thought posting this card might be appropriate.  It's one of the Gina K. Design stamps I ordered this winter.  I just loved how sweet and simple the snowman was and also loved the sentiment that came with it.  I ordered the winter 6x6 paper pack so it all coordinated.  I like the patterns and colors on the Gina K. Design papers but they have a little bit of a gloss on them that I still can't decide if I really like or not.

One other little design note . . .  since I have to be so careful to avoid any kind of bulk on the cards I send to the family, I used my Sissix button die to create the cute little button.  I edged it in white to match the base of the card.  Kind of liked how it turned out.

Halfway to a Long Life

Good morning Gal Pals!

Boy! Am I tired today.  It was a busy, busy weekend.  Saturday I took my Mom shopping - a combination of errands for her and errands for the 50% party for Allan.  Mom did really great.  She refused to let me take the wheelchair saying that she needed to build endurance.  How could I argue with that.  I couldn't believe how much she walked.  So very proud of her.

And then Sunday was the big party.  A family celebration of Allan reaching the halfway point in his treatment.  Hard to believe we only have 4 more weeks left.  It was a good party - full of fun, laughter, music, good food and well wishes.  We played games - accompanied by very loud groans from the guys - had some trivia questions about proton therapy and I even wrote him a silly song.  I think he was very done with me by the end of the day.  And I have to say I'm pretty done with my ownself too :-)

So back to work this morning with much gratitude in my heart and hopes and dreams for a long and wonderful life with Cricut Man.

This card is one of the family cards from awhile back.  Used one of the $1 stamps Staci has in the bin along with a stamp from an SU set I can't think of the name now.  I also used one of the Tim Holtz embossing folders - the one that looks like part of a brick wall.  It's kind of hard to tell in this picture but it really looked good with the theme of the card.

Hope you had a good weekend too and that your work week gets off to a good start.

One More "Happy Hello"

One more post for today.  It's a rainy day here and I decided to take an "extended lunch hour" :-) and play around with My Digital Studio and get the weekly card made a little early.

I used this sketch from the Clean and Simple blog with a little color inspiration from the University of Florida.  Actually the color suggestion was from Cricut Man who saw his UFPTI (University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute) wristband laying on the table where we've been playing on our computers most of the day.    He even took the time to look up the RGB color codes on the university's web site so that really is Gator Blue and Orange!

I think it turned out nice and bright and cheery.  Just what's needed for a rainy day.

Plus I learned a heck of a lot about how to get it to print properly - and let me tell you between the "bleed area" in the software and the minimum margin settings for the printer that was no easy task to get it to print nicely on standard size paper folded into a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card.  Whew!  I may actually order this one from the Stampin' Up print shop just to see how that process works, what kind of turnaround they have and what kind of quality it is.  I'll keep you posted on the results.

The digital stamps I used were "Together Forever" (the flowers) and "Define Your Life" (the borders), both of which I think are part of the baseline application.  The font was a freebie (CK Message) from the "Free Font Friday" web site.

I swear! - Today has been more FUN than a Gal Pal may deserve! :-)

Happy Weekend!!

50%

Here's the party invitation I made yesterday on My Digital Studio for Allan's celebration this weekend.  We're celebrating the completion of 50% of his treatments.  Can you believe it?!  We're at the halfway mark.

Even though I think he's looking forward to the celebrating and the burgers & dogs, he's threatening me to be very, very careful with the games.  He's definitely not a party games kind of guy.  In fact he still hasn't forgiven my neighbor for attempting to force charades on him 2 Christmas' ago.

So I'll be a good girl and try and contain myself.  Just a few harmless balloons and some darts.  Now how bad can that be?!

Hope you all have a great weekend.

More Family Cards

Here's another card I made last month for the weekly family newsletter.  I loved the color combination.  Can't take the credit for it though as it was a combo I found where else. . . .Pinterest!  Here's the inspiration card..

It was too late in the year to do a snowflake like the inspiration card so I used a medallion stamp from another Stampin' Up set, which for the life of me I can't remember the name of.  I thought it was Mixed Bunch but I just checked Splitcoast and that wasn't it.  Since I'm posting from Florida I'll have to let you know later.

I used the same design pattern in a different color combination for Sandy's birthday card.  Her favorite color is yellow so I paired Daffodil Delight with Night of Navy.  I really liked that one too!

What a nice clean and simple go to design to have handy when the creative juices are running low.

Flight back to Florida was good but very, very long.  I treated myself again and bought wifi access on the plane so I surfed card sites most of the way.  What fun!

Have a good one today.  See ya' back here tomorrow.

Sunshine State

I off to the Sunshine State again.  Had a good time catching up with you, Staci and Betty at the shop last night.  Sorry to hear you both are feeling a little on the puny side.  I hope it all passes soon.  I'll be sure to keeping sending you sunshine vibes while I'm gone.

This is a card I made for the family right before we left last month.  I was in a hurry with no time for stamping or playing with paper so I turned to my stash of Doodlebat fonts and found this really cute one.  It's called CK Summer Day.  Check out the other fun images. . . .

  

If you don't already, check out the Free Font Friday link on the Creating Keepsake web site.  That's where I got this one and many others.  They really come in handy!  

Have a sunshiny day today :-)

Family

What's Brewin' Gal Pals?  Can't wait to catch up with you tonight.

This is the card I made for the family this week.  I was inspired by this post on Pinterest.  I bought the "Take A Sip" wheel stamp from Stampin' Up years ago and surprise had never used it.  So when I saw the card on Pinterest I knew the theme would be just perfect.  But I can't for the life of me get a good impression from those wheel stamps so I unmounted it and put it on a long acrylic block and just stamped the image panels that way.  

I couldn't figure out how to get the sketch in the Pinterest card to work so I used one from this post.  I just loved the idea of using the scraps from my coordinating paper packs for this.  Plus embossing the entire panel gives it a cool look.  I thought the swirls kind of matched the theme of the steam from the coffee and tea.

I loved how it turned out so much that I made a few notepads to take with me to Easter dinner for my neighbor family.

Aren't they cute?!  Wish I would have kept one for myself.

A Full Heart

Had a good weekend at home.  My heart is very full. 

This is the clean and simple Valentines card I made the family this year.  Used the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set from Stampin' Up.  Love that set!