I'm HOME !!!

Hey everyone.. Just a quick update..

I'M HOME !!!!

Quite sore and extremely tired.. But home. Goodness when they say you don't get any rest in the hospital they sure aren't fooling around. There's nothing worse then when you finally fall asleep to have the stupid IV pump beeping, or they come in to check your vitals, or even worse, they come in & turn the lights on to take blood at 5:30 in the morning. Isn't that something better done mid morning? YACK... But the good news is I'm home. I was very tired yesterday so I slept most of the day so may be today will be a better day. I absolutely can't wait to get up stairs and putter around. I want to make a couple thank you gifts for 3 outstanding nurses who are over worked and under appreciated and hopefully drop them off this weekend. That'll give me a reason to slowly get up those stairs... LOL I just keep telling my DH that slow and steady wins the race. Well I've had nothing in my stomach since 3 AM so I think it's time for a little broth.. 3 oz. may not seem like a lot you you but it's a whole lot for me... LOL

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. :)
Hugs,

One last project

before tomorrow.... Hey everyone... Just checking in 1 last time before the big day.. It's so funny. This surgery is something I've contemplated for about 5 years and have given serious energy since the middle of last year. So now to think that it's tomorrow afternoon.. Is just mind blowing. Thank you to each and everyone of you who have sent me well wishes. Tomorrow is the start of a whole new life for me.. and anyone who has struggled with weight issues for as long as I have knows where I'm coming from...

On a lighter note... I was able to make 1 last project.. in my squeaky clean and organized stamp room.. Let's just say that now my desk isn't as organized and clean as it was... LOL If you were to ask my sister she'd tell you.. I was never clean and organized when we were growing up so why start now? LOL

I apologize for the lighting. I guess I didn't use the best lighting when I was snapping this photo on Sunday. This card was for a very close friend of the family who lost her husband on Friday. Bill had been sick for many years and he was called home to be with the angels. When we paid our final respects on Tuesday and said Good-bye their was such a look of peace in his face. It's comforting to know.. He's definitely no longer in pain.. Bill, you've left a smile on all of our hearts..

Here's my recipe for this card.. Cardstock... River Rock, Buckaroo Blue, Wild Asparagus DS paper, Very Vanilla... Stamps... Out on a limb (PTI)... Ink.. Soft Sky, River Rock and Close to Cocoa... Accessories... Hodgepodge Hardware

And on a final note... I'm not sure if you're aware but there's a brandy spankin new stamp company opening it's doors tomorrow (Friday)... I love the sneak peaks they've had so far and this company seems to be right up my alley.. It's called Saltbox Studio.. I've added a link to their store and to their blog off to the left... Head on over and check them out.. You won't be disappointed... :)

So, I'll now be away for a few days.. but I promise.. I'll be back next week to let you all know how I'm doing.. Thanks again for all of your support...

Hugs,

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Morning everyone... Happy Tuesday. :) Here's a little something I came up with (thanks to our pal SweetMissDaisy and her awesome jar idea).. I needed 2 jars. 1 as a reveal gift for my little sister.. And the other for Maria who was my Winter Blues Partner. Since one of my most favorite color combinations are brown and pink I thought.... hmmm.. what better than chocolate and the new strawberry milkshake Whoppers?

For this project I found the jars at Wal-mart. I wish they had the next size smaller but these worked well (and I'm sure it gave Debbie & Maria a chocolate over haul when they dug into the malted milk balls. If these were mine I wouldn't have stopped until my stomach was churning... LOL) I then used pretty in pink, one of the DS paper's from my stash and very vanilla card stock. I stamped the sentiment from Time well spent in timber stazon and colored them with my copic markers.. Then came the embossing. I embossed the flowers from again Time Well spent in pink (on very vanilla) and brown (on pretty in pink) and then started cutting them out. Once they were all cut out I applied yellow and pink eyelets to the centered and then adhered them to the lid. I tied a light pink grosgrain ribbon to the lid and a wide grosgrain ribbon was tied to the jar. And finally I filled them with the whoppers... This would be a really neat idea for someone who doesn't get out much during the winter.. There should be enough chocolate here to hold them for at least a day or two.. Especially if the jar was in my house.. LOL

Here was my inspiration jar... This jar was filled with friendship tea from one of my favorite bloggers Michelle Wooderson (oh how I wish were neighbors... ). I've attached the link so that you can all pick up her recipe. She's sooo awesome !!! Thanks Michelle for your daily inspiration..

Well everyone. I'll have 1 more project to post before my surgery on Friday. So please stop back to check 'er out. Then I'll be away for a few days.. But I promise. I'll be back..

Happy stamping :)

I'm finally organized

Happy Sunday everyone. Well, like I promised my stamp room is finally cleaned and organized. I couldn't bear the thought of being in the hospital for a few days and coming home to that mess... So YIPEE !!! I can stamp again. Ok, Ok, I'll fess up. Before it was finished I did have to sneak in and make 1 project. That's only because I had to get it in the mail before the deadline... Stop back this week and I'll show it to ya...

So here goes... Here's a look at my desk, paper holders and new Making Memories Embellishment holder... I'm pretty impressed with how I did... :)







And here's a look at all of my shelves and supplies. My favorite is the wicker basket holding my punches (my large punches are standing up on the basket so their easily accessible). All of the stamps stacked on the top shelf by the ribbon jars.. They'd be my new stamps from the spring/ summer catty that just came last week. I need to mount them. That'll give me something to do when I get home from the hospital next weekend.

Speaking of hospital. Thank you all for your well wishes for my FIL.. The good news is he's home.. The bad news is he's not out of the woods yet. But he is making progress and on his way to recovery.

Happy Stamping everyone :)

My never ending quest to be.... "organized"...

Do you ever feel like you're completely un-organize? I absolutely hate that feeling. Between work, overtime, dr appointments, stamping projects, your never ending to-do lists.. the list just goes on and on and on....

Many of you have asked where I get my inspiration. Honestly I get it from many of you. Especially you bloggers out there. In the fall I came across this post from one of my favorite bloggers Julie Brooks... It was her dh's (darling hubby's) labor of love. I just knew I needed one of these for me.. At the time she had links to the pages so that we could print them. I'm not sure what happened to them on her blog...

Here was my attempt at my 2008 planners... I made 3. 1 for myself, 1 for my BFF Colleen (she is the 'queen' of post-it-notes... I figured having everything in 1 place would be really good for her.. And I made 1 for a friend at work...

First let me tell you.. these binder's were not easy to find. I was able to locate them online at OfficeMax (I went into 3 and none had this smaller size). They are 9X6.. and were approximately $5.50 each...

This is the cover of my planner.... I used Wild Asparagus DS paper, MayArt chipboard, rub-ons, dew drops, spellbinders tag punch, and whimsical #'s..

Ink... Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Sahara Sand

Colleen loves the color purple.. So I used my Melissa Francis paper's for her cover. The roses were diecuts that came with the paper that I embossed with clear embossing powder to give them a little added dimension. The letter's were rub-on's I purchased at Wal-mart.

And finally, this was the cover to Jenn's planer. For this cover I used Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl DS paper, MS twill ribbon, rub-ons, Whimsical Numbers stamp set and Mellow Moss ink.

Here's a look at the divider tabs... For each I've used coordinating DS papers.. My personal planner has 7 tabs... Calendar, Budget, Birthdays, Directory, Weight Loss Tracker, Notes & Projects.. The tabs were punched out using the Round Tab punch and stamped with Totally Tabs in Blue Bayou.

The calendars were so much fun to make.. I found the 'month' stamps in Michael's the day after Christmas. They were on sale for less than $5.00.. I alternated the colors of the months. In my particular calendar I used Sahara Sand & Blue Bayou. Each calendar page was stamped with coordinating images. For my calendar I choose spiral bouquet.. For an extra added touch, I used the HB stamp from by birthday stamp set... to stamp each calendar day that had a birthday on it...

Please click on the images to enlarge them...

If you would like any of the templates for the planner pages, please email me and I will happily email them to you...

And, before I sign off... My FIL is still in ICU.. Yesterday we thought he was making progress when really he was taking 2 steps back.. Please keep him in your prayers...

Enjoy...

Happy Stamping :)

Can I have a piece of paper?

Here's another little project I made for the holidays... Their altered memo cubes. This first set were covered in ...

Card Stock... Sahara Sand, Blue Bayou, Very Vanilla & Cosmo Cricket DS paper.

Stamps... Baroque Motifs

Ink.. True Thyme, Really Rust & Blue Bayou

Accessories... A little bling bling jewel dots, Kraft taffeta ribbon & blue double stitched ribbon..

This 2nd set utilized..
Card Stock... Real Red, True Thyme, Very Vanilla & Dasher DS paper..

Stamps.. Snowflake Serenade
Ink.. True Thyme, Real Red
Accessories... Icicle stickles, Red grosgrain ribbon

So is anyone wondering where I get such awesome memo cubes? The best place to purchase these for the most economical price is from a printing store.. Yep, a printing store. They will charge you based on the number of cuts they have to make. Therefore the larger the cube the cheaper it will be... Therefore using an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper.. If they cut it in 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (therefore making 1 cut) would be cheaper than if you went with a 2.06" x 2" (therefore making 4 cuts)... Also, using an entire ream of paper (500 sheets) is cheaper than if you say only wanted 200 sheets. I had the paper cut into 6 equal portions therefore it was 3 cuts. I believe it cost me about $18 for 12 cubes which comes out to be approximately $1.50 a cube.

A brief update on my FIL.... Still a very sick guy.. Please keep him in your prayers..

Happy Stamping :)

Treat bags

Hello... I'm sooo sorry. I know I promised you another project last week but... I have some bad news.. My FIL has been in the hospital since Thursday and in ICU since Friday afternoon.. So, that has put me a little behind schedule. I apologize. So I got up early today, went to work, came home to do a couple things and now I'll be off to the hospital for the rest of the day.. Please keep him in your prayers. He's a pretty sick fella...

So quickly.. Here was a fun holiday project. I made 2 different treat containers... 1 was an origami box (thank you Kristina for this awesome Tutorial)... and the other was a treat bag. Both were filled with Hershey nuggets.

For the treat bags I uses....

Card Stock.. Real Red & Whisper White

Bags... Small frosted tin tie bags (purchased from PTI)...

Ink... Real Red, Canvas stazon

Stamps... Holiday Treats, Holiday tags (SUP_

Accessories... Sheer white ribbon

For the boxes I used...

Card Stock.. Cosmo Cricket holiday DS Paper.. Mello Moss & Very Vanilla..

Ink.. Cranberry Crisp

Accessories... Burgundy Grosgrain ribbon..

Sorry this post is so short.. But I really want to get off to the hospital... Whoops... and before I forget.. For those of you who are keeping track.... as of Wednesday (32 days on plan) I had lost another 4.1 lbs.. So I'm at 24.2 lbs... and feeling good.. Surgery is in 12 days.. YIPEE..

Hugs,
Lisa

And the winner is....

thump ditty thump thump (that's my drum roll... HAHAHAHA)... Are you ready???? First let me say, you are all so wonderful with all of your kind words of encouragement. And you all have such fantastic goal's for '08... Luckily the random number generator took all of the hard work of having to decide on a winner away from me... Thank goodness.... So here goes...

CONGRATULATIONS......

Amy AKA.. Silly Stamper...

Here's what Amy had to say... "I am so proud of you! Wishing you the VERY BEST in 2008 and hope you find the support and encouragement you need to reach your goal. It is hard work and you should be commended for it! My hope is to get more organized...both in the craft room and home in general."

Please go check out her blog.. It's awesome.. Amy I have emailed you for your snail mail address..

Please watch next week for another fun give-away...

Christmas Birthday

What do you make an 8 year old boy who.... LOVES and I mean LOVES baseball and football and who has an Aunt with 2 dalmatians? A Dalmatian baseball birthday card of course... For this card I used..

Stamp set... Stampin Up Dog-gone it

Card Stock.. Real Red, Black and Whisper white

The H & B are American Crafts... Tickers..black foam letters the remaining letters are rub-ons

Ink... Red, Grey, Black and Green copic markers

Inside it says..Dog-gone it .. Have a great day...

My nephew's birthday is December 23rd so this year we actually celebrated it on his birthday which is a real big deal when your birthday's 2 day's before Christmas.. This year when Grandpa Frank went Christmas shopping for Grandma he went into the sports store to pick out a few Yankee gifts for Michael. So when Michael opened the 'Yankee Jacket' Grandpa picked out for him (which may I add fit him perfectly... Great job Grandpa !!) he fell on the floor making pretend he passed out. The funny thing was... He didn't get up right away he just laid there hugging his coat.. We actually thought he passed out. Too funny...

I'm lost amongst the MESS !!!

Ok, I'll admit.. Besides having the nickname... Becky Homecky... I think Hurricane Lisa or Messy Marvin would also be appropriate. This is what my stamp room looks like after making all of my projects for the holidays... What a MESS !!!! I'm somewhere buried amongst all of the boxes, scrap papers and just plain ole' garbage..

Even Carter doesn't know what to think of the mess !!!

So, with that being said... I WILL NOT allow myself to make so much as an paperclip until this mess is clean.. The good news is.. I started last night and made a pretty good dent in it. Soooo... until I'm allowed to stamp again don't forget to go check out this post to enter to win some awesome blog candy... Wish me luck !!!!

Tomorrow I will post more of my holiday projects so don't forget to stop by and check them out... :)

Happy Stamping

2008 To Do List w/ a little CANDY !!!!

I've waited to post my thoughts on my New Year's Resolution until I had adequate time to contemplate what my resolution would be (if any)..... As a New Year comes and we sit back and reminisce on the year gone past many of us make our New Year Resolution (which usually lasts for about 28 minutes...) This year I really want to make it stick and have my resolutions be things that would I could do to change me for the better. So rather than calling them resolutions I've decided to call it my 2008 TO DO list. I've kept my list short and 'hopefully' attainable..

The first thing I plan to do is loose over 100 lbs. Unless you've ever had a weight problem you will never know how it feels trapped inside your own body. To attain this goal I have a plan in place which includes a wonderful support group of friends, family, a fabulous dr. and his support staff. So keep watching for a smaller me..

The 2nd thing I plan to do may seem like a little thing but I think it will have a BIG impact... It is to say "HELLO" to at least 1 stranger every day. How often do we walk through our office, through the mall, grocery store, airport ect. and the people you pass are in their own little bubble. Occasionally we catch someones eye and quickly look away. Check out the expressions on their face when rather than looking away and continuing on your way you look them right in the eye and say HELLO without expecting anything in return.

And finally, along the same lines as my 2nd to do is to pay it forward on a regular basis. This may be as simple as paying for the person's coffee behind me in line at Starbucks, sending out a few of those extra cards I continually make or simply handing the homeless man on the corner a few dollars when he's standing there with his 'will work for food' sign.. To me these are just 3 ways to make me a better person..

So now that it's in writing and I'm accountable to myself how about a little blog candy... To win is very easy.... simply do something to make yourself a better person. Please post a comment here with something you've done or plan to do to better yourself (and by the way.. you won't be tested so there is no wrong or stupid answers).... :) You have until Wednesday 1/9/08 at NOON to post your comment. I will then use the random # generator to select a winner... What will you win... Well, how about... a

~ 5x7 calendar (handmade by me)
~ Friends Memo Cube (handmade by me) and a
~ Memories Made Easy 4x4 Scrapbook Kit containing over 300 pieces (not made by me... LOL)....

To check out all of the pages from the 2008 calendar please check out this post.. Good luck everyone..

Happy Stamping :)

What's in a frame?

Hi all.... Today's project was for a special friend, my niece and a friend's mother. Their all name frames... (but they weren't really names... LOL)...


This first frame is for my niece... Her room was just re-decorated in yellow with dark furniture. What goes better with yellow than red? Her word is "imagine".. At 13 we all need our imagination... I apologize I'm not sure who made the designer papers. I purchase them so often and from so many different places that I tend to loose track.. LOL I can tell you that the letters are Cosmo Cricket stickers picked up at my LSS. I stamped Baroque Motifs in Close to Cocoa and distressed all of the edges with my Tim Holtz walnut distressing ink. And finally I added a few pearls for a little extra bling.

This 2nd frame was for a friend's mom's birthday (which is actually tomorrow)... Again.. can't tell you who makes the designer paper. The letter's were rub-on's from Walmart (they had them on sale so I grabbed a bunch).. This time I stamped baroque motifs in close to cocoa and really rust. I added a little lace, a few buttons with hemp twine.. The word 'cherish' is stamped in chocolate chip and embellished with a little pewter hardware.. Again, I've added a few pearls to the flowers for a little bling..

And finally... Because friends are the most wonderful blessings... This frame was made with Wild Asparagus DS paper. I love the weight of their papers. The tags were made with Sahara Sand, Blue Bayou and Kraft card stock. The letters were rub-ons in different fonts for a little originality. Instead of stamping the letters this time I embellished each with ribbons and pewter hardware. The 'my wonderful friend' rub-on is again from Cosmo Cricket. Can you tell they are one of my favorite designers?

All frames were from Walmart for $3 on sale..

Please stop back tomorrow for.... A little New Year's inspired blog candy... :) You won't want to miss this one :)

Oh... and before I forget.. Another 4 lbs gone.. So just over 20 lbs in only 25 days... YIPEE !!!!

Happy Stamping

Holiday Project #1

This holiday season I decided to make gifts for everyone in my department... All 22 people... For my Manager, Director and the other 2 level II Auditors I made Personalized Memo books...

These books I picked up at Odd-Lot for a pretty reasonable price. I then covered each of them with designer papers. Some with Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl and other's with Daisy D's. To fit the pages to the cover I used my spiral punch to fit the paper under the wires... Because these books will be used often, I use double sided sticky tape that I purchase from Tayor @ Taylored Expressions... I highly recommend this tape. The price is extremely reasonable and boy does it hold tight. I then embellished... The letter J and the letter T were both from the Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl collection. To add a little body to them and to make them a little stronger I covered them with versamark and clear embossing powder. This adds strength to them. The remaining letters were all rub-ons from different manufactures. The ribbons are either Stampin Up Chocolate Satin, Blue double stitched (or) Martha Stewart twill ribbon. The flowers are all by Prima.

These were a hit...

They dug me out from under my stamp pile

Hello everyone and Happy New Year.. Yes, I'm back amongst the stamping and boy have I been busy these past few weeks.

I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas and New Years. Today is my brother's 48th birthday.. Hew was the first New Year's baby in Saratoga County in 1960. How spectacular is that? I can never forget his birthday..

So where do I begin... Oh.. the snow. Last year we had 2 real snow storms. 1 on Valentine's Day and the other on St. Partick's Day. Other than that.. dry.. This year already we've been blasted a few times. This is what we woke to yesterday morning. Now, please keep in mind, the weathermen reported that we should receive 2-4" by the time the storm ended... LOL Guess they goofed on this one. I love it when the trees are covered in snow. So here's a few of my favorite pictures from yesterday.. This first picture is of our deck and Lilac tree... My poor grill is covered...


Next is the trees behind our house. Aren't they beautiful?








And finally.. This is the tree in our front yard.


So did we all receive fun stamping gifts this holiday season? I received my Bind-it-All and supplies... The Making Memories Embellishment Cabinet... A huge box of goodies from my bestest friend Alex (She has some exciting news on her blog.. please check it out).. a few Basic Grey stamp sets and cash to spend tomorrow when the New Spring/ Summer Catalog goes live at noon CST. (just as soon as the catty is online I will post a link to my blog)... Don't get me wrong, I got lots of non-stamping gifts too... My favorite is my IPOD.. Which I still have yet to play with.

Over the next week I will be posting lots of pictures of all of my holiday projects from this year. So please stop back often.. And be sure to come back on Friday for some New Years Resolution blog candy..

Now before I sign off for today I know some of you have been looking for an update as to my weight loss... Well, I officially started on Saturday December 8th and when I was weighed last Wednesday the 26th (2 1/2 weeks later) I had lost 16.4 lbs ... I weigh in tomorrow after work so I'll post my new stats then.. I've added a ticker to the bottom of my blog so that over the next year you can watch my progress...

Happy Stamping everyone :)