Happy Saturday.. How about a little blog candy..

The sun is shining the birds are chirping and it's a beautiful Saturday... Carter is recovering nicely. He had his stitches out yesterday and Dr. Hartman said everything looks great (but he'll never pee straight again... whoops, guess those stitches were a bit tight). He got his new canned food yesterday and so far so good. For the first time, he's eaten his food right when we put it down. So we'll all keep our fingers crossed that he's had his last bladder surgery.. :)

Tuesday was our cards in motion class... Our first card was our spring waterfall card and I just love how it came out..

The stamp set used was "winged things"..

The card stock is mellow moss, bordering blue and whisper white..

The butterflies and snails were stamped on the whisper white card stock in the mellow moss and bordering blue classic ink and all other images were stamped in the black stazon.


We colored in the images using the bordering blue and mellow moss markers and a blender pen. When using the blender pen or the aqua painter with a black stamped image I prefer to use the stazon because with the water the black doesn't tend to bleed into the image.

Don't forget, you still have a little over 1 week to upload your "Pay it forward" stories for a chance to win an awesome prize. I'm sure somebodies been out there doing something nice for someone else.

And now for today's candy.. Post a comment here telling us all what your favorite flower is and why. The winner will receive each of the 3 card from Tuesday's class.. You'll have to stay tuned to see the other 2.. The winning comment # will be drawn Wednesday at 7 PM.. However, in order to win, you'll have to leave your name on the comment so that I can notify the winner. Good luck..

I'll start by telling you mine.. My A #1 choice is always the Gerber Daisy. I only wish I lived in a warmer climate where I could keep them in my garden all year long. And for that matter keep my garden all year long. Their color choices and just beautiful and they look phenominal in a cut bouquet..

A little touch of Spring

I only have a few minutes before I need to leave for an Adult Continuing Ed class (tonight were making cards with motion... Oh what fun) but before I left I wanted to share my spring vase of clippies. These were so much fun to make. The large 3 1/2" paperclip I purchased at Walmart (15 for .97 cents) and used the extra large and medium cuttlebug diecut flower's for the actual flower's themselves. All were embellished with non-Stampin Up' paper. The cup is just a small metal spice can embellished with paper and prima's. I now have my very own flowers on my desk. Actually almost half are now gone. When people admired them so much, how could I not offer them one. Hi ho, Hi ho it's off to class I go..

A little of the Worlds beauty

It's 5:45 here on Saturday morning. I up, fed the fur babies.. gave the king his antibiotic and pain medication (yippee.. he's doing great, still a little sore but his incision looks wonderful) so I figured I'd check a little email and you know me.. off to the web I go.

Searching through National Geographic I came across a few photo's I thought I would share because of their beauty.. Can you guess what they are?

I know I know, I've complained enough about winter and I'm sooo looking forward to spring. But isn't this just beautiful? This photo was taken of a bush in St John's Newfoundland in 1974.... "A bush in St. John’s wears an icy glaze during what Newfoundlanders call the “silver thaw.” The freezing rain that causes this condition can damage trees and power lines, but is a harbinger of the coming spring."...


This one is of Spissky Stvrtok, Slovakia, 1992.. " A gothic church towers over the town of Spissky Stvrtok at the foot of Slovakia’s High Tatra mountains. The High Tatras, tallest of the Western Carpathian range, straddle the border of Slovakia and Poland and have been declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO."


And finally.. An Ode' to Spring... I so can't wait for all of this dirty snow to go away and for all of the flowers to begin their journey to the sunlight..

This photo is of Petra, Jordan, 1996
"There are many species of poppy, but only one� Papaver somniferum� produces the ingredients for morphine, codeine, heroin, or even the poppy seeds in your spice rack. The red poppies that color this field in Petra, Jordan's ancient city of stone, are intoxicating only in terms of their beauty.


Speaking of spring... please go check out my "Paying it Forward" contest... Theres's going to be a really great prize in a couple weeks... So far there's only a few entries.. I'd love to see the enteries hit 50... Come on ladies.. we can do it.

Carter Update

Thank you everyone for your kind words and well wishes for Carter.. A few of you have sent suggestions for food alternatives and my big sis Debbie actually did some investigating for us with FlintRiver. You all are just the best. :)

Carter came home Tuesday evening and he was looking pretty rough around the edges. They warned me against letting him have too much water and sure enough that was all he wanted. He even tried flipping the toilet seat up so we shut the bathroom door only to have him scratch on the door. He paced and whined quite a bit until he finally passed out. I think we all got about 3 hours sleep the whole night.

Yesterday he was able to rest all day with no one home. My friend who lives a few houses away (who we've given a spare key to our house) stopped in to check on him and both he and Oreo greeted her by the back door with their tails wagging.

Last night we all tucked ourselves into bed early and got a great nights sleep.

Now that Carter's on the road to recovery our next step is to investigate other food options. I can't keep putting him through this so often.

My goal is to do a bunch of stamping this weekend (Carter has some thank you notes he needs to make or should I say his 'people' need to make) so come back and see what we've done..

Carter's Home

YIPEE !!!! the wee~wee king is safe and home. He's looking quite rough around the edges and is still kind of loopy from the anesthesia but he's home. He made it through surgery like the brave boy he is. Thank you to everyone's kind words, prayers and thoughtfulness. Your all a wonderful bunch. I'll keep you posted on his recovery.

Quick Carter update

Hi everyone.. Just a quick update on poor little Carter (aka the wee-wee- king).. As expected, he has a bladder full of stones again and he's going to be operated on first thing this morning. If all goes well he'll be able to come home this evening. I will keep you all posted. Please keep him in your fur baby prayers.

Dr. Hartman (aka the dog whisperer) is going to look into alternatives for us because Carter refuses to eat the UD food. We can't keep operating on the poor little guy every year. Dr. Hartman was also surprised that he built up stones again so quickly.

Help me get back my stamping 'mojo'... :(

This is for all of the dog lovers... If you don't love dogs like their a part of your family, you'll never understand.

Meet Carter.. I've always called him my problem child.

Oreo on the other hand is our little lover. She was beaten and abused as a pup but still loves everyone (we'll almost everyone .. there's 1 person my dh knows who she deeply dislikes to say the least)..

Now Carter he too is a little lover but whereas Oreo chomps down her food, runs right out to go potty and will never leave the yard even if the gate is open Carter is the exact opposite. He's terribly finicky, would rather see if there's something better going on than going potty and if the gate to the drive way is open he's 'free at last'.. Well, a year ago Christmas Carter had what we found out to be was bladder stones. Which we've also found out run in the dalmatian breed. He was put on a special diet after his very pricey surgery but refused to eat the $50 per bag food. Well, starting last night he has wee~wee problems again. When he goes out to potty he just dribbles. He arches his back and you can tell he's trying so hard to go potty but it's just not working. Of course our vet isn't open today so first thing tomorrow morning I have to call and get him in to be seen.. Needless to say I've been quite worried all day and have completely lost my stamping mojo. I sooooo wanted to get upstairs today and do a little something in my happy place but I've been too sad to even go up there. My fear is that I just don't know how many times we can put him through this surgery. It's only been about 14 1/2 months since his last surgery. There's so much to consider.. his well being.. is he in pain.. what could be the serious long term complications from these stones. Then there's also the financial implications to think about. If he's going to need surgery every year. Financially is that feasible? I just don't know. I think I'm going to sign off, go tuck him under the blankees and give him a snuggle. Thanks for listening..

Let's Emboss

On Friday Mother Nature and all of her glory had different plans for our night of embossing. She felt that we should all stay home and watch the snow fall for our 2nd big ol'e storm of the year. Now don't get me wrong, this is not a complaint.. This is an I'M SO READY FOR SPRING ... LOL... Needless to say our stamping night was cancelled but I did want to post the project that we were going to make so that you can all ohh and ahhh over them. All have some sort of embossing on them.


This first one was done on the new so saffron long notes with cool caribbean and whisper white card stock. My intention with the clear embossed circles is to look like bubbles from the fish.


Numero 2 was my not so favorite of the bunch. The only stamp set used was say it folks "Carte Postale".. Yep, I'm still using it and this is one that I will continue to use. My hope is that we'll see this baby in the new IB&C. All of the embossing was done with black embossing powder. The blank on black is a little hard to see here but it gives the card an elegant look.


Anyone who knows me knows that chocolate chip with blue, green or pink are my favorites. The white embossing powder makes the swirls from Doodle this look so dainty and defined. I love this. The pretty in pink flowers have dazzling glitter in the centers, are curled at the edges and are on 3d glue dots to add a little dimension. It's hard to see but the ribbon is a light pink (not white).. and


finally.. OH YES I'm having a Ruff day but that's for later. I like this color combo together.. brocade blue with old mustard and very vanilla. The paw prints are from a stamp I picked up at Wal-mart and are embossed in brown embossing powder.

So what do ya'll think?

2007 Calendar

I kept meaning to post my 2007 calendar but I keep forgetting.. Now I'm 3 months behind.. That's ok.. here goes.. The calendars are 5x7 and are in a black metal stand up frame. I keep the unused months behind the calendar so I don't loose them.. LOL I use a little shear white ribbon to hold them in place. These are going to make great Christmas gifts next year.

For January I used Bundle Up'. That was definitely appropriate this year.. The card stock was real red and the ink I used was real red and basic black.

February is Love Matters from the Winter Mini. The card stock is pretty in pink and the ink is basic black , pixie pink and certainly celery.

And finally March.. which I believe catches me up to date.. No more slacking for me. Well not until tomorrow or the next day or may be even the day after that. This set is Carte Postale' my favorite of all time right now with close to cocoa and chocolate chip ink and au' chocolate designer paper.

Helen's 85th birthday

What do you make for someone's 85th birthday.. A fellow stamping friend asked me to make a lunch box tin... I used Wild Asparagus striped paper for the bottom.. Not quite sure whose paper was used on the top but it coordinates well... The ribbon is Stampin Up's cream grosgrain and the flowers are who else but Prima.. Don't you just love them? The brads are also non-Stampin Up. These were sent to me by one of my past secret sisters.

Have you checked out these awesome templates from theCardLadies ? They work wonders and make making the top of the tin so easy to do. The only thing I do differently is extend the middle tab of one side so that I can overlay it. This makes the seam a little less noticeable.

For the pen I used the same red paper as the top. I ran the paper through my xyron machine to make a sticker out of it. Rolled it around the outside of my pen (leaving enough room for the pen cap on each side). Then I cut a piece of the A4 double sided adhesive big enough to go around the pen. I prefer to buy the adhesive in sheets so that I can cut them down to the size I need them. I find mine in my LSS (local scrapbooking store). I then rolled them in microbeads and Viola'. A sparkly matching pen.. What is better than that?

Happy 85th Birthday Helen !!!

Let's pay it forward...

I don't know about all of you but after the blizzard on Valentines Day I am soooo done with winter. I won't even allow my husband to discuss the 4 letter word that begins with S and ends in OW. To quote the honorable judge Marilyn Milian from the People's Court (giggle :) I do find some humor in it after a hard days work.. Who in their right mind goes on TV to air their dirty laundry.. Whoops.. getting side traced)..

"DONE, DONE DONE, DONE, DONE.. STICK A FORK IN ME I'M DONE".

Then with the temperatures being close to -40 this week with the windchill, I'm really over it. Spring is in exactly 13 days, but whose counting.. I AM !!!

I really should be more grateful, overall we did have a mild winter (our first real snowstorm was that blizzard on Valentines Day) but those few days knocked the wind out of my sail.. Let's see, while plowing the driveway the first time my husband hit the house, the motor on the plow had a short in it which blew the alternator in the truck, when the alternator blew it killed the battery (so he took the brand new never been used battery from my car that we had just purchased the evening before the storm), the plow motor needed to be replaced and we still weren't even plowed out yet. Then the next morning after driving me to work (my car was still in the garage with no battery in it) he drove to his parents to plow them. Yep, as you would have guessed it, with all of the snow drifts completely missed the driveway and nose-dived into the ditch needing to be winched out by a tow truck. Oh, it only gets better. When he was coming to pick me up (after I asked him to come in the big black truck) what does he do.. he drives my car which just happens to be white and parks it up against the big WHITE snowbank.. And oh yeahhhhhh smash, a co-worker backed into my bumper with her pretty little red car. So now you can understand why I'm so over winter this year..

Now don't get me wrong, I really H-A-T-E feeling this way.. So what can I do to make myself and others feel better? Have any of you heard of the pay it forward movement? In a nutshell it's doing something good for someone with out expecting anything from it in return except that they too 'pay it forward' and do something good for someone else. Basically it's a 'good deed'. Please feel free to check out their website for inspirational 'paying it forward' stories.

Allow me to share a small part of 1 story with you now to get us all in the spirit..

"In 98' I found out our furnace was bad. It needed to be replaced. I had already lost my home to a fire in March of 97'. We had just purchased a new home. We had no money for a new furnace. No one would help. No churches no one. One day a man showed up at my door. I have never seen him b4 or after. He gave me a check for the amount of money I need to get the natural gas brought into my home $200.00. All he said was someday I do something for someone else. I met this woman online. We had been chatting for months. She came into hard times. Needed money for her boys for x-mas. I sent her $150.00 (all that I could afford). I just told her someday to do something for someone else. Then this past year a close friend of mine was down on her luck. And needed money to get heat in her home. I went to the fuel place and paid for her to get $100.00 worth of propane. I told her the same thing. Just do something for someone else. So I guess I have one more to go. And I hope I don't stop there. I think it is a great idea. And I hope everyone does it for at least one person.
Thanks, Lisa Hunter, Michigan "

So here's my thought.. In no way am I asking anyone to got out on your nearest street corner and hand $100 bills to people (well, that is unless you want to). But what I am asking is that if each and every one of you who reads this do something no matter how big or how small to pay it forward. It doesn't just need to be you, please get anyone you know to join in, your hubby, parents, children, friends, stamping members anyone you can think of.

Are you ready for the contest ??? I realize the 'principle' behind paying it forward is not to reward people for their good deeds. But this is my personal way of getting the ball rolling.
For the next month (we'll keep the contest going until Easter Sunday April 8th but I hope we all continue to pay it forward afterwards).. each and every time you pay it forward please share your individual story here with us in the comments (please post your comments to this post).
At the end of the month my stampers group will pick 1 individual story and that person will win a fabulous prize. I can't tell you what it is yet, you'll just have to keep coming back to share your stories with us to find out.

My hope is that as spring begins to bloom so too will all of our hearts.

You have got to check this out... And the award goes to..

It's 7:15 and I'm just getting settled from work. Luckily my DH cooked dinner (I called the order in, he picked it up on his way home from work, so technically, yep he cooked)... I love it when he cooks. Just enough time to pick up and get settled in for another night of "AMERICAN IDOL". Are there any guesses for who goes home this week? My vote (or should I say no vote) goes to.. Antonella Barba (she has got to go.. she can NOT sing!!!!), Haley Scarnato, Sanjaya Malakar, and Brandon Rogers... Let's see what happens come Thursday.

Have you all checked out "Twisted Chick Creations"? Michelle's (aka flaxychick on SCS) creations and blog are AWESOME. She has my Tuesday's 'you've got to check this out' award. What I love about her blog is that she has lots and lots of pictures, great descriptions and a fabulous tutorial on making 60 yes I said 60 cards from Just Delightful.

Michelle is also giving away a little blog candy so don't forget to enter to win :)

Congratulations Michelle and thanks for being such an inspiration

OK OK OK

So we all know I won't be stamping for a few days because my tuckered little butt will be stuckered here at work... But that doesn't mean that I still can't amuse you all.. So here is today's amusing fact..

What type of Margarita are YOU? I personally am an Blueberry Margarita.. Honestly, there's no one quite like me. And believe it or not, most people think that's a bad thing! I'm open, wild, friendly, wacky, and tons of fun. I have a big personality... and a big heart.

So tell me.. what are you?

And the Winner is...

My DH picked lucky # 8 which turns out to be...

Dawn Mercedes

Congratulations Dawn.. Please email me your snail mail address and I will get your winnings out to you..

CONGRATULATIONS..

Thank you to everyone who posted comments. I have soaked them all in like a sponge. You all are the greatest :)

Drawing tonight at 6 PM EST

I know, I know.... I've been a slacker bee for the past few days. It seems like every time I turn around I have auditors at work.. What does that mean.. LOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGGG hours. And this week is no different. So I've spent the past few days shopping, cleaning and cooking. We all know what after a 12+ hour day were not in any mood to come home and cook. I have beef soup on the stove, brownies ready to go in the oven, bread in the bread maker and a big ole' chicken dinner ready to go in the oven for today. My goal is to get upstairs and do a little happy stampin' this afternoon..

Don't forget I'm drawing a winner for the blog candy this evening at 6 PM EST.. So get those comments posted.. The winner will be posted here and notified via email.

Happy stamping everybody (and cooking today) !!

More blog Candy..

and this one's a doozy.. Go check out Julie.. She has an awesome blog (I've added her link to mine) and she's offering up one whopper of a piece of 'green' candy. That's the only hint I'll give.. LOL