Weekend Highlights

Uh, Natalie....I thought you said you were going to do a step-by-step on the one yellow card?!?...Well, instead this is what I did this weekend. I promise that the step-by-step is coming soon! Thanks for being patient and thanks for letting me share my wonderful family fun times with you. They are quite priceless to me!

Various AHS soccer team alumni played the current team in a fun game on Friday night. They had alumni from as far back as 1994. My niece Julie graduated in 2003. The weather was outstanding. Here's my sweet Julie on the field. Her legs are about 8 feet long it seems...LOL...and she's so athletic. The score was 1 to 0 in favor of the current team. Oh well...still a fun time!

Kevin just laughed because as soon as Julie would get closer to us Mom and I would whip out our cameras. I just said "Beware of scrapbookers!" LOL I took about four times as many pics as needed, because you just never know when you'll get the perfect shot. Now I have several to choose from and can easily delete the rest. Kevin asked "What would we have done if the camera was never invented?" I just shudder to imagine. LOL

Oh and the socks....they were the only striped ones on the alumni team so it was easy to find her on the field. Cute!

The sky was breathtaking. What a wonderful day for a soccer game!

You could even see the outline of the moon in the sunlit sky. Kinda neat, huh? Well, it is to me as I find a lot in life and nature to be intriguing. I am always in awe every day about something.

After the game we headed to dinner at Jake's. It's the best restaurant in town! Then, I went home to get Macy and we visited at my parents' house with Julie and Josh. They spent the night and enjoyed dad's yummy breakfast, went to the farmers' market and visited with other family and friends. Such a nice weekend for them! I've now seen them two weekends in a row! I feel so spoiled! :)

Ok, fast forward to Saturday morning. I received a call from my sweet friend Tammy. We caught up and talked about when we'd scrapbook together again. I then headed to the local farmers' market and got these goodies. Can you believe that those gorgeous green peppers were only 5 for $1? What a steal! Of course, I had to get some Amish pickles, fresh corn and a few sweets. The raspberry treat is long gone as I type this. We've also already sampled the homemade iced cookies. Oh my sweet tooth gets me in trouble all the time.

We also hauled the old entertainment center to a friend's daughter's apartment. I was so glad to get it out of the basement and to share it with someone. Mom and Dad had shared it with us years ago when we first moved into our house. It's still in excellent shape and will have a happy new home. Kevin just headed to see his friend Kent. Macy and I have the house to ourselves so I think I'll do some laundry and other misc. here and I hope to end up at my craft table. OH, yeah I gotta go print some pics for a crop I'm attending Friday. So much to do and the whole rest of the day to enjoy doing it. Ahhhhhhhhh.....I love Saturdays!

Hope your weekend is full of blessings, too!

Simply Scrappin' Card

I used the Just 4 You Simply Scrappin' Kit to make this card. It is already in the envelope to be sent to my dear friend Karin. You can't really tell, but the tiny yellow circles spell the word friend. *click for a closer look* You'll then be able to see that the butterfly border and the small blue scalloped strip are on the edge of the card front flap. It opens at that point. You wanna know a funny? Well, I had what looked like a full sheet of chocolate chip cardstock on my craft table so I just grabbed it for this card. I put the cardstock in my cutter, sliced it at 4 1/4" for the width, then took that same piece, flipped it in the cutter and scored it at 5 1/2" so it would fold in half. So that's right, huh? haha Uh, no....when my card was folded it had a "short side". LOL Well, I guess it wasn't a full sheet of cardstock to begin with, huh? Thus, my card has a shorter front flap. I love happy accidents! Yeah, yeah...*wink* I did it on purpose...NOT! It still worked out which is what is so hilarious.

I added some patterned paper, one sticker and some words to complete the inside. I simply put "I love you-Natalie" after the stamped greeting inside. It will totally get the point across when Karin opens it. She has been my friend since high school and now lives 6 hours away. I hope this card is the best mail she gets all week!

Starting this week, I will have Wednesday afternoons off. This Wednesday was very productive here at home: two loads of laundry (put away), dishwasher unloaded and loaded, main floor vacuumed, bathroom scrubbed/cleaned, errands, hot dinner on table when Kevin got home (!), and even time to sit outside with Macy and read the newspaper. I can get really used to this extra time for much-needed catching up. Now, some Wednesdays will be all play, but today was all about the chores. Hmm...maybe next week I'll do the weeds in the flowerbed by the garage....or not. Perhaps I'll stamp...or not. It's kinda nice that I can "do what I want" for one half day. Yeah, Wednesdays! *doing the happy dance*

Sweet Sisters

Excuse the not-so-focused pics in this post, but I was frantic about getting something posted before I went to bed Tuesday night. You'll get the jist of it I think even though my photography is shabby. LOL

I did this 12x12 layout Tuesday night using the Just 4 You Simply Scrappin' Kit from Stampin' Up! These precious girls are my nieces Brooke and Julie. This picture was taken at Easter. The one word title sums them up perfectly. They had their years of not getting along and I'm so grateful they are now sweet sisters and sweet friends. :)

Here are the goodies from the kit, plus a couple of chipboard hearts I wanted to cover. Check out that yummy wide ribbon that comes in the hostess-only kit. There is solid, textured cardstock, patterned paper and a whopping six sheets of stickers, too. Yum!

This is one sheet of the cardstock stickers from the kit. I laid my chipboard on there and sort of eyeballed where I might want to cut out. (Is eyeballed a word? It looks funny. LOL)

Lay the sheet of cardstock stickers face down and trace the chipboard piece onto the back.

Cut out the shape and carefully peel off a portion of the backing. These stickers are in strips so you really have to be careful to only expose one area at a time.

Lay the exposed area onto the chipboard piece and carefully peel off the backing while adhering the stickers into place. Once they were attached, I sanded the edges really well and inked them with Certainly Celery craft ink. This helps give the edge a finished look. (Or should I say....peel off backing while holding camera and carefully adhering stickers...that's more like it here! LOL Now you know why my photography was shabby. I need three hands for this! Eek, look at that glare from the flash! Eek!)

Here's a closer look at the chipboard hearts. The smaller one is covered with a piece of the patterned paper from the kit. You do the same thing (lay paper face down, trace, cut out and adhere) to get your "patterned chipboard" look. I love the Mono Multi glue for adhering paper to chipboard. After sanding the edges well (left this one uninked), I added some girly ribbon from my stash. The smaller heart is adhered with Stampin' Dimensionals to make it stand out a bit. You can also see in this photo that I added that yummy wide ribbon from the kit as well as one scalloped sticker.

You can really get good mileage from one of SU!'s Simply Scrappin' kits. Just lay it all out and let your creative wheels start turning. Better yet, try covering your chipboard piece with some of the sticker strips for a fun new look! I made a card using the same kit and will post those pics soon. I also haven't forgotten about the step-by-step on yesterday's card. That's coming soon. If I could just grow a third arm for taking these types of pics. LOL

Thanks for stopping by...

Heartfelt Thanks

While browsing the many blogs with highlights from last week's Stampin' Up! convention, I saw a card on one of the display boards that inspired me to create this card. I had never made a card like this and without instructions or measurements I just had to wing it. Later this week, I will prepare a step-by-step tutorial with my own version of instructions, etc. Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by...

Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks, Canvas
Cardstock: Barely Banana, Whisper White, Certainly Celery
Inks: Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Barely Banana
Accessories: Stampin' Write markers (pumpkin pie, so saffron, certainly celery, regal rose), paper piercer tool/template, sponge dauber, pumpkin and rose grosgrain ribbons, coluzzle, stampin' dimensionals

Celebrating Vickie

In the central hall of our office is a counter near a desk. All day long, tons of workers and patients pass by as they go to the scales or the exam rooms. Vickie placed this cute little crock filled with roses and status. It just sort of whispered "hi" as everyone walked by. You'd be amazed how many people stop and comment. It's just one way Vickie gives back to others with all the beautiful plants and flowers she grows at her country home.

These pictures don't really do them justice, but some of the roses are a soft yellow and others are a buttery creamy yellow. They smelled so wonderful!

This is Vickie! At first, she didn't want me to take her picture so I got THIS! LOL

She's the receptionist at our office. She checks in patients, updates their insurance and demographic info and gets the charts ready for the nurses. She has a great sense of humor and a tender heart. She and I tease that we can't look at another person who is crying or we're next to cry. We all call her Becca Boone. She and her husband live in the country and do so many things! She raises chickens and has an organic garden. Her husband raises and trains Beagles and is a beekeeper. They have eggs, veggies, honey, etc. They do all this while both working full-time. Their little Chihuahua Gizmo melts my heart. She has such a gift for making others feel special by cooking wonderful food, creating handmade gifts and even decorating her home in a way that says "welcome". She is also a massage therapist and gives the BEST massages. I'm about due for another one! On top of that, she is also a mom! Wow! Her son is in college at Ohio University.

Here's to you, Vickie! Thanks for all you do for others! May God bless you in return! :)

Sunflowers

My co-worker has a green thumb and grows so many wonderful things. She blesses my day each time she brings in her beautiful flowers and places them around the office in such a thoughtful way. It brought tears to my eyes to tell her how much I appreciate it. I told her I felt like God used her to bless so many others with just the flowers alone. It's not the only thing she does for others. She is quite special. I'll have a special post on her tomorrow along with more flower pictures from last week. :)

I have always loved sunflowers, but never really looked at them as closely as I did last week when Vickie brought these in. The petals grow in a straight line, but half of them lay forward and half lay toward the bottom to create that "double petal" look. How beautiful!

OH, and then the back of a sunflower is just as gorgeous! The spiky leafy base is made up of scrunchy-looking leaves and there is the softest little fuzz on the underside. Neat!

How can you not look at this and see God smiling at you? He makes the most extraordinary things for us to enjoy! Wow! This one looked like it had a sponging of rust color over the golden yellow color. The yellow ring around the center just glows behind the intricate center! A double wow! See, isn't nature gorgeous! Doesn't it bless you, too? Wow!

The flower in the retired set Looks Like Spring reminds me of either black-eyed susans or a sunflower in a lot of ways. It can be a daisy, too. It just depends on how you ink it. After seeing these gorgeous sunflowers from Vickie, I was inspired to create this card. It will go to my dear friend Merrill in Kentucky. I inked the petals in Summer Sun craft ink and stamped it. Then, I inked the flower again with Summer Sun, Really Rust and Chocolate Chip craft inks. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to get the right rotation of the flower so that it had the "double petal" appearance of the real sunflower. The card isn't as bright as the real ones, but it was directly inspired by the flowers. I count my blessings twice in regards to the sunflowers. Once with Vickie's generosity and being able to really look at them. Second by being inspired to create this card that gives me a chance to be creative. The blessing will keep going all the way to Merrill. I hope it blesses her heart when she receives it.

Thanks for stopping by....Happy Sunday!

Whew! What a weekend!

It's now Saturday night and I feel like my head is spinning....in a good way! After working all week, then enjoying a family dinner Friday night to celebrate my uncle Richard's birthday....I went to my niece's in Columbus for the night! The plan started taking place about 10:30pm Thursday. My niece (aka major procrastinator...lol) has been preparing for a baby shower to honor Josh's sister Megan. She wanted my help with a frame that had the baby's name and an ultrasound picture. She took a pic of the supplies she purchased and I was going to give her an idea of how to finish the layout (she isn't a scrapper and doesn't really do crafty things). She also mentioned that she was wrapping personalized candy bars and making chocolate-covered pretzels. Hmmm...it was Thursday and the shower is in Zanesville on Sunday. tick tock tick tock Mom called and asked if I'd like to go down with her and help Julie. Of course I said yes! I haven't really gotten to visit much with Julie since she lives in Columbus now. Since Kevin wasn't working Saturday and would be with Macy, then I decided to spend the night. He and Macy decided not to go as Kevin was so utterly exhausted from his work week. My nephew Charles joined us. We had a blast! By the way, Julie's spare bed had a feather mattress pad and feather pillows....oh, I felt like I was on a marshmallow all night! Luxury!!!!!!!!!! It is always so fun to visit and catch up. Here are few highlights:

Megan's colors are baby blue and chocolate brown. Here's the cute little personalized candy bars and the "baby boy Ayden" frame she can put in the nursery. That is a pic from her 21-week ultrasound. *click for a closer look* I worked on these and wrapped gifts while Julie and Mom dipped pretzels.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...chocolate!!! All melted and ready for the pretzels! I didn't help with these. Mom and Julie were the pretzel crew! They did two kinds...one with baby-themed sprinkles and one with drizzled blue chocolate *see below*. One of each kind was placed in a cellophane bag and closed with an "it's a boy" twist tie....cute!

All lined up and ready for bagging!!!! Yum! I got a few broken ones and they were yummy!

Charles and Josh weren't on the shower crew, but the Guitar Hero crew...lol....they didn't get into all the girly preparations! LOL Charles (on the left) is actually a very good guitar player so he was great at the game!

Ah....the ride home today! Charles said "hey Nanny" and I turned around to see this face. He used to do this all the time when he was younger so I had to take a picture. All of us shared a lot of laughs this weekend!

Now that I am home (I was happily greeted by Kevin and Macy) it's back to laundry, cooking, groceries, bills, etc. LOL I am joyfully exhausted tonight, but I still have lots of weekend blessings to look forward to tomorrow.

I will prepare my posts for the next few days tomorrow to try and catch up on blogging. Thanks for stopping by...