I'm Home

and boy was it a fabulous day in NYC on Saturday.............. Freezing COLD most of the day..... but fabulous none the less.

Here we are on the bus almost to NYC.. YIPEE..

We started out our day in Chinatown, picking up a little jewelry, perfume, purses... HAHAHAHHA.. I was so unprepared.

From there we headed to Little Italy & East Houston Street for a little lunch at Katz's Deli. OMGosh this was the best Ruben I have ever had. Katz's was seen in When Harry Met Sally & Law & Order.

We then headed uptown to where... Where else would 6 gal's go? SEPHORA of course. By now it's 1:30 and we were all a little chilly and tired from walking. How about a cocktail at the View Marriott Marquis? A revolving rooftop restaurant on the 48th floor.. How fun? Can you say Winter Peach Cosmo? YUMMY.... A little pricey but definitely worth it.

So where do we go from here? Well to Central Park. While heading back down to Bryant Park stopping at most of the street vendors look who we found right out side Radio City Music Hall???? The Tin Man.. He was cool...

We ended our day with dinner at Simply Pasta.. YUMMY.. While waiting for the bus we wandered through the vendors at Byrant Park and sat under the heat lamps at the Glacier watching the ice skaters sipping hot cocoa.

Thanks NY for an awesome day.. SEE YOU NEXT YEAR !!!

This has to be one of my favorite photo's from the day. This picture was taken right next to Central Park. Please enlarge it to get a good look. Each window has a beautiful wreath on it.

Just how tiny does this make you feel?

So how many of us are feeling over whelmed, exhausted and like there's just not enough hours in the day to get everything done? MEE TOO.... Christmas is always so exhausting. Shopping, wrapping, gift making, card mailing, tree decorating, parties. PHEW.. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. For the next few weeks I will be around but just not as much as normal. I have so much to get done that that's where I need to focus my energy right now. So keep watching for all of the gifts I have left to make. :)

Happy stamping and...

Happy Holiday's

Happy Everything

Hi there everyone. Happy belated Thanksgiving & Black Friday. Yep, I was up today at 6 and at the mall at 6:30.. Unfortunately all of the stores I wanted to hit were not open yet, so I didn't do as much damage as I could have. I did pick up an Ipod (Merry Christmas to ME) a few BNBW's Wall flowers, did my grocery shopping and I was home by 8:30... YIPEE... I spent the remainder of the day cleaning and getting ready for
NEW YORK CITY...

I'm off to the big city at 6 tomorrow but I wanted to share with you all my favorite moment from yesterday. My uncle kicked my gram's walker up a notch... What do you think of this...
Yes.... Those are deer antlers on grams walker.. We've now named her.. The Maplewood Maniac.. Here's Mom, Gram and my Aunt showcasing her new wheels... (do these 3 look alike or what... that's scary)..
PS... yes, we did take them off before she went home.. But it was a great belly laugh. I hope you all enjoyed your Turkey day just as much...

I'm off to the city tomorrow so I should have some fabulous pictures to share next week. Enjoy your day..

Happy Stamping :)

1 More

... Webster's pages... With a little Elzybell thrown in for good measure.. :)

Happy Wednesday or should I say HUMP day everyone. I can't wait for the weekend. I have finally finished my Christmas list.. That would be making my list and checking it twice.. I've done very little shopping on that list... Oh well, so much for being done by Black Friday. This year I too will be adding to the nation's economy and will be one of those fools out early Friday morning.. YACK.. Or hmmmm... may be I can do most of my shopping online. HMMMMM... I'll have to investigate that one.. :)

So I did it. Straight lines, no distressing, no spritzing, no misting.. Just straight lines with a clean look.. I don't know.. I'll admit, this was a hard one for me. For this card I used...

Stamp Sets.. Ellzybell, PTI Snowflake Serenade, Riveting, Snowflake Spot

Cardstock.. Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla and Webster's pages.

Ink.. Black Stazon, Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Grey, Blush

Accessories.. Large circle punch, Soft Sky double stitched ribbon, pewter hodgepodge hardware, ticket punch, frosted lace stickles.

I may go MIA for the next few days. I have 4 advent calendars to make and they'll take a few nights. But when I get back, watch out .. these are going to be gorgeous..

Happy Stamping.. :)

I'm Back

Thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes over the weekend. Your all so sweet. Yes I'm back and I'm stamping... YIPEE :)

Here's how my weekend went..

Thursday.. oral surgery with IV sedation.. Get home.. Get a drink and my new best friends the 'ice pack' and 'pain' medication... Sleep.. Wake up, try to eat because I'm now STARVING.. Fall back to sleep... pain medication.. sleep...

Friday.. Oh I feel better.. Grocery shopping, pack away Halloween decorations... SLEEP for the entire afternoon.. Wake up.. more pain medication.. more sleep

Saturday.. Where the heck did Thursday and Friday go.. run a few errands, OH how I want to sleep.. Can't sleep now I'll never get anything done.. Clean stamp room... Oh the pain.. More pain medication... Back to sleep

Sunday.. OMGosh it's 10:30.. Thank goodness Mom's cooking.. Lay around, shower, head to Mom's for dinner.. Get home... do a little stamping in my clean stamp room.. but now I need more pain killers... and sleep... and then guess what Monday was.. Back to work.. By noon can you guess what I wanted... Hopefully today will be better... :)

Sunday evening I did do a little stamping and I'm pretty pleased with how they came out. I was inspired by Lindsey's Product Spotlight #2.. Webster's pages.. I'm still practicing with my new camera (thanks MOM your da' bomb).. so please forgive the lighting until I figure this out..

Stamps... Whipper Snapper Designs tall & short snowman, PTI Green Thumb

Card Stock... Cranberry Crisp, True Thyme, Very Vanilla, Webster's pages "I love presents... it's a wonderful world"

Ink.. Black Stazon, Mellow Moss, Baroque Burgundy, Grey, Pumpkin Pie, Always Artichoke

Accessories.. Tag punch, antique button, wide vanilla grosgrain ribbon, olive grosgrain ribbon, pearl jewels, pop up dots, a little hemp twine, frosted lace stickles and coffee shop glimmer mist..

Can you tell I'm working on my layering? I still love these primitive/ antique looking cards. When I try clean lines... It just doesn't seem to look right.. Oh well, I guess I've found my groove...

Happy Stamping :)

12 Days of Christmas with Terri Conrad

HO HO HO, Jingle Bells and a Happy Birthday (that is what Frosty said when he came alive ... wasn't it)... Anyone want to play along with the 12 days of Christmas with Terri Conrad (the designer of Webster pages????)... Here's how it goes.. Head on over to Terri Conrad's Blog...
or to Terri Conrad Designs and you too can enjoy the fun :)

Going MIA...

Just for a few days. I wanted to let you know that this morning is finally my oral surgery. I'll be so happy to get this done and over with... See you all in a few days :)

Elyzabelle

I caved.. I caved. OK, caved is a very strong work. I succumbed to my inner most voice but it was SCREAMING at me.. Look how cute she is.. And my little Elzybell is absolutely adorable.. I have to say, shipping was speedy. I ordered them late on Sunday night and I had them on Friday. Not bad if I do say so myself.

I really like how the notes from the singing fish coordinate with the Figgy Pudding circles.

For this card I used.. Going grey, whisper white and Buckaroo Blue SUP card stock with a layer of Basic Grey Figgy Pudding.. Thanks Lindsey. I love this paper..

Elzy was stamped in black stazon and I colored her using buckaroo blue, going grey and close to cocoa. It's hard to see but the snowflake that is embossed in iridescent ice on the buckaroo blue is also embossed on the whisper white. To add a little dimension I sponged a little going grey around the edges of the whisper white. I've also a little frosted lace stickles to the snow and trim on her coat and hat. OMG I love these. It really looks like fluffy snow.. The ribbon is MS twill ribbon and the tag was made using buckaroo blue and whisper white card stock. Happy Holiday's was stamped again in the buckaroo blue and then the entire tag was embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder. The pewter hardware is all hodgepode harware. To finish it off, I added more frosted lace stickles to the circles on the figgy pudding paper. I love the buckaroo blue, grey and white together. I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this color combination..

Well, I better get ready for work... Happy Stamping :)

Do you Believe?

Happy Monday. I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed your weekend and for those of us who "Fell Back" with Daylight Savings time.. That extra hour of yesterday. I personally chose to use mine as ... sleep.. something I haven't had enough of lately.. It felt sooooooo good...

Yesterday was my sister's birthday (She and Allie Edwards share that special day... Happy Birthday to both of you :) ... so I spent my morning making her a 'name frame'... to go along with her birthday gift. I like how they came out.

I apologize for the glare on this one from the sun.. But I prefer to use natural lighting when using my camera. It helps the pictures to come out better...

The frames I picked up in Walmart for $2 or $3 each. I used Cosmo Cricket DS paper and Fancy Pants DS papers.. (I will double check later today to make sure I have them correct).. All tags were punched using by Sizzlet tag punch on my Cuttlebug. The blue tags are Buckaroo Blue and the red are Cranberry Crisp.

All lettering was done with rub-on's. I specifically used different fonts to give it an eclectic look... I then stamped snowflakes on the tags and DS paper's using my snowflake serenade stamp set in brown stazon, close to cocoa and buckaroo blue. I aged the tags using a little of my 'coffee shop' glimmer mist and Tim Holtz walnut stain. It's a little hard to see but I embossed snowflakes on the buckaroo blue paper with iridescent ice embossing powder. My intent was to add a little shimmer. The hardware is either hodge podge hardware, large pewter brads or from MM.. Ribbons include Martha Stewart chocolate sheer ribbon, SUP blue double stitched, vanilla wide grosgrain, chocolate wide grosgrain, burgundy grosgrain and gold sheer ribbons.

I have to give a quick shout out.. I'm so thrilled this morning. I am awed by the talent I am surrounded by on a daily basis. I soak up all of the fabulous inspiration from each and every one of you. On almost a daily basis I quickly check out the blogs on my blogroll... So when one of these all inspiring women comment on my blog.. I feel deeply honored. Debbie Olson (Thinking Inking) commented on my fall cards. Thank you Debbie.. You made my day... :)

Teresa's walking 60 miles

For what you may ask? The Breast Cancer 3 day (60 mile) walk in Phoenix Arizona benefiting Susan B Komen for the Cure...

Please head on over to Teresa's blog... to give her a shout out of encouragement. She's going to need it. She's hoping to check her blog daily if her blackberry holds out... :)

You can let her know I sent ya...

I love Fall

On Tuesday a little 'DDSS' happy mail came with my name on it from my Bis Sis... There were some Karen Foster fall flowers, fall wood signs and a package of Bo-Bunny clips.. I knew immediately what I would do with the wood signs.. I guess you could call it... a little mojo.

I made 3 cards to use each of the 3 signs each one has the same basic design... I just love FALL...

They are each made using a 5 1/2" x 11 " piece of Pumpkin Pie card stock. This makes a nice 5 1/2" square card. I like this size.

The images from Autumn Harvest are stamped in brown stazon on very vanilla so that the colors didn't bleed when I colored them with my Stampin' Up and Copic marker in various fall colors. I then stamped the leaves on the background of the pumpkin pie in pumpkin pie and distressed the edges with my favorite Tim Holtz walnut distressing ink. The layering is in chocolate chip & true thyme. To add a little dimension I stamped my canvas in creamy caramel on the very vanilla and then with close to cocoa distressed the edges.


The only differences in the cards was how I applied the signs.

Card #1 was applied using Martha Stewart chocolate stain ribbon...
Card #2 uses Cosmo Cricket ribbon with a large pewter SUP eyelet.
Card #3 uses rust Martha Stewart Ribbon..
I used my crop a dile to punch all of the holes in the wood signs and it was a breeze...

Can you believe that November is here.. Christmas is just 8 weeks (may be even less) away and soon it'll be a New Year. Boy how this year has flown by.

Happy Stampin'