My Friends Are Fabulous!

I've been on the receiving end of some great happy mail recently! The reason, I just had my 45th birthday! August 31st is my birthday, and while the day may have been taken up with school related activities (Back to School Night), my friends have been so sweet to remember it with lovely cards and gifties! You all sure know how to make a gal feel special! Thank you so very much!

This happy mail is from Sparkle!

My friend Becky took note when I mentioned wanting this stamp set in passing! 

My sweet friend and blogging buddy, Kim, sent me this lovely card!

Kim and I started blogging together and would help each other out when we first started on this cyber journey! We've become great friends along the way, too.

My fabulous friend, Kathi, sent me this gorgeous bouquet of flowers. 

What a wonderful surprise this was!

The always sweet Alanna sent me this great card and lovely goodies that arrived today. We really do need to find a mutual meet spot, Alanna, so I can give you a great big hug in person!

Dear sweet Erin made this adorable card  

and a one of a kind gift that she made just for me!

It's hard to get a good photo of it, but she sewed around the edges and look at all those gorgeous butterflies!

Fabulous!

I've also received several wonderful emailed birthday wishes!

Thank you all, so much for all the love and generosity you've shared.

I treasure you!

Smooches and hugs!

***

One of the things I did do on my birthday was work on that crochet project

Remember this?

I finished the project yesterday afternoon.

This is the front, which still needs a ribbon threaded thru the front so the gap isn't so revealing.

This is the back.

I intended this for Amy, and I was going to make a second one for Jessica. Even though the gauge was spot on, it's a bit too snug for Amy (and it's a size 12, the largest size offered). Those flowers are 1 1/2 inches in diameter, which is exactly what the gauge is supposed to be. Theoretically, I could make it again with a bulkier yarn, but quite honestly, the thought of making all those flowers again just isn't all that appealing. So, it will go to Jessica. It's a big big for her, but not by much. And she'll wear a shirt under it anyway, which will help. I found the pattern here. Oh my goodness, there sure are some CUTE patterns in her shop. It was a splurge to buy this pattern and I had fun creating it, but buying more at this time just isn't in the budget.

This will have to a one of its kind creation for me. 

*Ü*

Thanks so much for the visit and the birthday wishes. You always brighten my day.

Inspired by Happy Mail!

I received some VERY happy mail the other day, from none other than Sparkle! What made me giggle in addition to putting a huge grin on my face is the fact that I posted a comment on this very card the morning I received the card in the mail! Sparkle was very sweet to include the image of Swimming Lucy with the card too. Thanks SO very much Sparkle! You are so very generous!

I have to confess, I had a teensy, weensy problem with the stamp. It comes unmounted and I didn't have any product to mount it. {hanging head in shame} I went to a couple of stores this morning and only found one item that could work, but it was $10 for a very small sheet of cling stuff. That was more than my budget would allow. Hmmmmmm....I wonder if...well, I got an idea, tried it out and it worked! {for less than $1} I was pretty tickled (although I hope Sparkle doesn't cringe too hard when she reads this). I bought a sheet of sticky  back fun foam at Hobby Lobby for 79 cents. I took it home and cut out two pieces of the foam and stuck one on top of the other and then stuck it to the back of the stamp. Then I used my roll of repositionable adhesive and put it on the foam and stuck the whole piece to my clear block. It clung long enough for me to stamp the image a few times! Yay for me!

And maybe yay for you, because I actually created a card today! hee, hee...hope I did the image justice...

Jessica was watching me get started and told me she thought the bikini should be pink, so pink it became. Then she took off for a bit and would come back from time to time until she got completely distracted to check on my coloring progress. She approves so I called it good. 

As much as I'd love to own Copics, because I see how fabulously one can color with them(just look at what Sparkle can do with them), I have to make do with my Koh-i-noor and Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. But honestly, I really like the look of the pencils so I'd say it is a great compromise. Most of the colors I used are Koh-i-Noor (purchased at Hobby Lobby, in case you wondered). The "flesh" colors are Prismacolor in Peach and Nectar. I really liked the sparkles in Sparkle's card{grin}, so I dug up my glittery pen and added some to my card. I'm glad the camera picked up on the look. I had thought to completely case Sparkle's card, too, but when I found the pink flower button in my newly acquired big huge bag of buttons (including a bunch of vintage ones) from the thrift store, I had to use it! I had already stuck the ribbon on, so I just took some floss and tied the button to the knot. Works for me! The yellow paper is from DCWV (but I can't remember which stack, I was rummaging a lot) and the green paper is from their Nursery pack. The sentiment is from Verve, Fluttering By, I think. I have two sets in one case, the other is Petals & Stems. I'm very happy with how the card turned out. But I've got to admit, I'm so rusty at cardmaking right now, I was spent after creating this one card. Oy! LOL

Actually, this is the second card I've created within the past week! I made one for Kathi, using a gifted stampset (called Out for a Spin by Our Craft Lounge) from my friend Becky, but I was in such a hurry to get it mailed off in time for Kathi's birthday that I forgot to take a picture of the card! Hopefully Kathi will share it, because otherwise you just have to take my word for it that I made one. LOL

Hopefully soon I can work up the stamina to create more than one card at a time so I can start sharing more regularly again. As it is, I sure appreciate your stopping by! I hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend!

Busy Bee...

I thought I'd better check in before you give me up for lost. *Ü*

 Now that the girls are back in school, I have been a whirling dervish cleaning up the house. You know, all the stuff that gets neglected (at least in my house) while the kids are home. Because if you clean this or that, it's just going to get dirty all over again, usually sooner than later, so I put things off. At least while they are gone part of the day, the cleaned stuff feels (& looks) clean for a bit longer (and thus the sense of accomplishment is a little stronger). Although, next week, they go for 2 days, then have one 2 hour window on another day for assessment, and they are off school until the following Tuesday. Sigh...

I'm sure you aren't really all that interested in my cleaning routine, so I thought I'd share:

I don't remember if I ever showed this. I found the container and some of the Gerbera daisy plants at the thrift store. The darker orange flowers are from the Dollar Tree. I've enjoyed this most of the summer.

And, I realized I never showed what I came up with for the hanging pots on my porch after the patriotic holidays were done.

I had a hard time getting what I thought were good pictures, that's probably why I never rushed to post them. And I never seem to have the patience to edit pictures, so these are straight out of the camera.

I tried several times to crochet some flowers for the posts, but nothing I created seemed to fit, so eventually I just gave up. Maybe next year I'll be more inspired.

Now I'm getting antsy to put the fall stuff out. Not that I will be getting anything new, I do like the change of scene, though. 

Steve, Amy and Jessica went to our friend Dave's for lunch last weekend. They were gone an awfully long time and when they got home I found out why...

The city where Dave lives (about 10 minutes from our house) was having some sort of fair and on the spur of the moment they all decided to go. At least 45 minutes of their time there was spent waiting in line with Jessica to get her face painted! I think it was worth the wait as she sure looked cute. I thought for sure she was never going to wash her face again. LOL However, the next day the girls and I went to a pool playdate with Susi and Hattie. Once Susi saw her face, Jessica was fine to go swimming and most of the paint wore off in the water.

And while I haven't been able to get into my crafty spot, I haven't been idle:

I've been working on a new project. Hmmmm....I wonder what it could be???

Time will tell and I'll be sure to share when it's done.

With that, I'll sign off for now and wish you all a great end to your week!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I always laughed at that Staples commercial where they played that song and the parent was all giddy getting school supplies and the kids were totally bah-humbug about it. Yep, it's back to school time. The girls headed back yesterday, their early release day, so today was the first FULL day of school. I tried to take a few pictures, but wasn't all that successful.

See what I mean? The sun was coming in just right and Jessica was over-exposed.

So, I went for individual shots

Don't let Amy's cool facade fool you, she was super excited to go back to school, especially since her best friend is in her class again. And she insists on wearing braids on the first day of school.

I didn't even get a good shot of them once we got to school.

Their classrooms are in two different wings and Amy's is farther away, so when I stopped by Jessica's class, Amy kept on going. Barely even giving me so much as a good-bye kiss. LOL sniff, sniff.

This is what I got:

And then the teacher led them into class.

By the time I hustled over to Amy's class, they were being led into the room.

Shoot.

It's not like we were late, the teachers were eager to get started, too, I guess.

And so it begins.

Ah well, they were happy to go and obviously feeling pretty darn independent, which is a good thing.

And for the past few weeks, we've just been busy and enjoying our time together before school started.

Jessica did finally officially bridge from Daisies to Brownies last week.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese's, had a playdate and a yummy lunch with friends, cleaned out their dressers and closet (more stuff was donated, yes!), had lunch at McD's for a reward and finished swim lessons.

And of course,

had to end the summer 

at the 

pool!

It was a great summer. 

Probably one of our best.

And while I'm sad to see it end, the school year should be full of excitement and fun.

I'm hoping, too, that my creative spark will return and soon I can start sharing projects with you.

Thanks for stopping by!

*Ü*

Great Week With Grandpa!

Hi Friends!

As I type this, my dad's plane should be taking off for Minnesota, the next leg in his trip. Yep, he's been here and gone already, but what a great week we had together!

Dad hadn't had a chance to buy a little prezzie for the girls, so he insisted we go to Target and the girls picked out these teeny tiny Hello Kitty things. Oh my, they play with them constantly! My dad is thrilled to see how well they play, and with such imagination.

We went miniature golfing a couple of times. So fun. The second time we went my dad got THREE holes in one!

Way to go, Dad!

We went to this model train show, only to find out it was closing 10 minutes after we got there. Steve said it didn't close til 5pm, but it closed at 3. Bummer. But we still got to see this great set up for a few minutes.

We took Dad to the girls' swim lessons.

Even though he says he can't see well, he sure enjoyed it!

We went to lunch at the school after lessons. Love those silly girls!

Dad couldn't wait to go to the zoo. Our friends, Dave and Tracy, joined us.

Then we went out to eat (at Gunther Toody's). Yum!

My dad loves to eat at Gunther Toody's (50s Diner) and Cracker Barrel. Here we are at Cracker Barrel. 

He sure loved his meatloaf!

A kind patron allowed me to be included in a photo.

We also went out to a place called Joe's Crab Shack. Oh my, was that ever fun! The waiters wear funky socks and funny t-shirts. They also dance all over the restaurant. Loved it!

The time went by way too fast, but Dad sure was generous.

He asked me what I wanted for my birthday.

I was honest (and joking) and told him I wanted a Wii and a Cricut Expression.

He had no clue what either thing was.

So, I told him.

AND....

he

totally

spoiled 

me!

For my birthday (and Christmas)

he 

got

me

a 

WII!!!!!

(thud)

I honest to goodness NEVER expected him to buy it, but am so thrilled.

Steve just rolled his eyes when we told him.

He has yet to play a game, but maybe we'll get him to try it once.

(Dad bought him the movie Avatar, on blu-ray, though)

The girls and I are having a blast with it.

So did Hattie, who came over to check it (and Pam, the hamster) out.

And speaking of the hamster...who is super cute, and fun to pet...guess who wants one of her very own now?

Yep, Miss Jessica would love to have one.

It remains to be seen if it will happen, though.

So, that's what we've been up to for the past week.

I've been reading blogs, but haven't had time to comment, hope you don't mind, too much.

Hopefully I'll get back on track soon.

Although, school starts on the 18th

and we may have to cram in a bunch of end of summer fun.

Thanks for stopping by!

I sure appreciate the visit.

*Ü*

She Likes It....Hey Mikey!

Name the commercial product that was for (slightly modified).  Hee, hee!

No words necessary, right?

That smile says it all.

I didn't know Amy was going to try to hold Pam today, without gloves. I guess she was just anxious.

Thankfully, no nipping happened.

We had to run a few errands this morning and Amy bought Pam a package of wood sticks flavored with apple. Apparently Pam started gnawing on it right away.

I think the carrots we've been giving her through the cage and all the times the cage has been opened to put in a possible house, or a treat, or a toilet paper tube have sort of acclimated her to us. 

Right now Amy's got her in the ball in the great room.

Methinks someone is in heaven.

*Ü*

She is pretty soft. LOL