Time to Relax and Take Time for Me

Do you ever get selfish with your time? Sometimes I do when I really need time to unwind. Tonight was that kind of night. I needed to get off the hamster wheel for a while. It's a very busy time for me at work and I needed to recharge. There's no better way to do that than to stamp cards!
This is a card I had fun with by adding this and that to it. I started with whisper white card stock and ran it through my cuttlebug to emboss it. Then I used my daubers to color the leaves, dots and flowers in. Then I added the stamped image with the eyelet frame and ribbon.


I sat here looking out the window before the sun went down and two robins were sitting in the small tree. What a wonderful sight to see. I love watching nature.....we have lots of different kinds of birds flying through the area. I love hearing them sing in the morning. It's so loud you can hear it behind closed windows. There's nothing like birds singing in the morning to remind you of the One who made them and us too.
Take time for yourself. It's important for you and those around you too.
Bless you for stopping by.

What a Busy Day

Well today was a busy day for me. I had to take kids to school early so DS could practice in the ensemble he's competing with this Saturday. Then I had to go to work to drop off things needed for today since I wouldn't be there. Next I worked on Individualized Education Plans for students here at home. I can't believe even though they are computerized how long they take to do! They can be 8-10 pages or more to fill in. When I started making mistakes I shut that down and got some time for lunch and watched a movie. That gave me enough time away from paperwork so I went back to the paperwork until it was time to go to my meeting. It was an interesting meeting. I am the technology person in our building so I'm interested in working with the new things that come into the building. I am also interested in helping people feel more comfortable with technology so they will use it more. We have a chance to develop and teach a course to do just that. We'll see if I find time to do that.
After that I went out to eat with a friend. It was so nice to catch up with her. Italian is one of my favorite restaurants so that's where we met. There's nothing like good food and friends together.
The card I've posted was made two days ago. You were to make a ribbon frame. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I ended up using glue dots to keep it in place while I taped the ribbon to the back of the frame.
Thanks for looking and checking in today.
Tomorrow night I will be at work late to decorate showcases. Saturday I'll be helping out at Angel Food Ministry then Sunday will be church and an evening with the youth pastor and workers.
Take care and hold those you love near to you.
Blessings,

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! As you can see from this photo this was taken in 2005. I was making items for sale at a small shop nearby. I love making these mugs and filling them with little things that would make a cute, pick me up kind of gift. I enjoyed making chocolate and had lots of chocolate molds. It's interesting to look back at some of my earlier designs and see how far I've come! LOL We've all gotta start somewhere!


This was one of my favorite cards made way back when. I think I liked the layers, the crimping and the beautiful design on the cup and saucer.


I'm hoping that your day is wonderful and you continue to look for ways to serve others.
Bless you for stopping by.

What a Beauty!

We have temps of 60 today and the sun is shining! My kind of day.....Spring is in the air! The birds are chirping and I can hear them with the windows closed! I also got to eat out on our screened in porch. Oh my what a wonderful time.
DD was out there with her laptop! Kids were out playing in the driveway and the sound was fun to listen to. Basketball bouncing, kids yelling and having the best time using up their energy.
Look what landed in our pool! It's our Springtime duck pair. It's not Spring until they land on the pool cover!

I can't believe that this beauty is really mine. One of my friends at work does BEAUTIFUL quilts and over the years I've oohed and aaaahed over the ones she's shown me for others. Guess what THIS one is MINE! I couldn't believe it. I received the Special Education Teacher of the Year Award this past Friday and this quilt was given to me by my colleage/friend with a note telling me she's in awe of what I do and is proud to be my colleage. Made me cry I tell you! Kathy, Thank you for your friendship and your beautiful quilt.
I have ordered a quilt hanger so when it arrives my beauty will have a place of honor in our foyer for all to see when they enter.


Here's another beauty of a gift I received from my DD Sarah. She amazes me with her talent. I can't draw a straight line so I stamp! LOL
I love the different fish in this scene. I have it hanging on my office door.

I have finallly gotten my office in shape and organized. It feels like I've had it this way forever. I'm glad to have things finally organized and easily within reach. We got the kids desks in the summer with the idea we'd save up for one for me. Finally we were able to purchase mine. This beats working at folding tables to grade papers and do lesson plans.


Thank you for visiting on this sunny, warm day. May God bless you and keep you until we meet again.

Where I've Been

So, I know you've been wondering where I've been lately. Well I'll tell you, I've been making scrapbook pages for work. These will go in three showcases to display the activities we've done throughout the year. We are having an Open House in a few weeks for new students coming to our school next year. Their school is closing and 130 students will begin school in August with us.




This is the cute Valentine bag I got from my upline. Isn't it just darling! I wondered what size bag she used in it. I'll have to ask her. It's a bag cut down to the top note size and attached to the top note cut out.

I think this is just so cute! I can't wait to try it on my own. There are just so many creative people out there. They just keep me so busy trying their ideas and using them.

Here is the sticky note holder I got from my upline as well. Look at the cute border and brads. Can you see the words? They are embossed in white and look lovely on the pink paper.

Here is the inside of the post-it note holder. She knows Raspberry tart is one of my favorite papers so she used it for this.

This is one of the 55 cards we made for our widows and widowers for Easter. We made over 100 cards for them between this month and last month. I love how these came out. We cuttlebugged the card base so it would look like wood. Then we watercolored the cross with water color wonder crayons and an aqua painter. The ladies at Card Ministry are so experienced now that I have to have more elaborate projects or they finish within a half-hour! LOL

This is the card we made for the shut-ins for Easter. I love how this came out. The beginners in the Card Ministry were wowed by the use of the stamp-a-ma-jig. They thought I made that name up! They were a fun mix of beginners, first timers and experienced friends this month.

I praise God for allowing me to do the card ministry. I thank Him for allowing me to use my talents to bring a smile to others and glory to Him.
Bless you for stopping by today.

You'll Never Guess What Happened Today!

So, I'm minding my own business sitting in an assembly we're having to give us new information on bullying from the state. I'm told this anyway in a memo.......to get me there.
I was awarded the Special Education Teacher of the Year award.
I had a family picture taken as well as the one with the PTA mom who nominated me and the Chapter PTA president and my boss.
Well my family was there too. They had an assembly to announce it and they gave me these beautiful balloons and roses. I cried I was so touched. I was in shock for most of the time though. There was a luncheon after it with pizza and cake. There will be an official dinner April 8th. What a wonderful surprise!!
Ya know what the bummer of the day was though? My family got the rest of the day off and I had to work! LOL Can you believe that? My son stayed with me and helped me teach in the afternoon. It was so nice.


Here are some more of the scrapbook pages I made for our Open House.

So I think I'm caught up here and now can go stamp some things that came Wednesday in a shipment that I haven't had time to play with. I've been playing with the Cricut trying to get all of these pages done.
Enjoy your week and each and every day God gives you.

I'm Here, I'm Here!

This is a card done with my favorite SU set right now. I used markers to draw in the tree and leaves with rust and celery. Behind and around the tree I used a cotton ball with bashful blue and dabbed and rubbed the color on. The background is the smoosh resist technique from technique junkies. I love how it came out with my favorite sunflowers. I mounted the tree with dimensionals and the tree panel to the card with dimensionals.

There seems to be so much sickness going on around us. Colds, flu and influenza are all around. I'm praying that spring arrives soon. Saturday was so nice we opened the windows and aired out the house. What a pleasant feeling...............hearing kids voices playing outside. Yup my two kids were outside playing. They couldn't wait to get outside.
I'm anxious to have spring break. That's not until April just before and after Easter.
So glad we're at this point in the school year. Daylight savings time came early this year. I hate getting up in the dark, but love that it is light longer in the evening.
Gotta get some other things done. Thanks for checkin' in with me tonight.
Blessings,

My Saturday Project

Here's my Saturday project which took most of Saturday to put together. DH and I put it together with only a few minor problems. He calls me BOSS now since I have a boss's desk.
I'm wondering what you think? I purposely got an L desk so I could use the computer and have plenty of room to spread out my lesson plans and graded papers.
I have been working on two tables put into an L and my grandfather's old desk. We started saving after the kids got their desks to complete their rooms in the summer. Feels like home already.
Time to get some rest.....something happens when you lose that one hour for daylight savings time. You wouldn't think an hour could make that much difference, but it does. It takes me a few weeks to adjust.
Bless you for stopping by.

Will the Influenza Virus Ever Leave Our House?

Oh my, it's amazing how badly Ben feels today with this nasty influenza virus! I can see why people used to die from this illness years and years ago. It has Ben sleeping a lot and feeling sick and tired and tired and sick. Poor guy it's hard to sleep with the coughing and soreness he feels.
Wish I could take it all away.
I am slowly getting some cards made. I signed up for the Technique Junkies membership to see what I can learn. Here's one of the things I learned.

This is another card I made with the smoosh resist technique from technique junkies. I stamped in artichoke then added the flowers with my 1/4" punch. I used the friend wheel for the yellow paper and used pumpkin.

I just love the sunflower background used on this card. I made another card from this background and am happier with it than this because you can see more of the flowers. I hope you and yours are healthy. We're working on that.....LOL
Bless you for stopping by to see how we're doing.

Into the Deep Freeze The Flu Continues

So, it's freezing here in Ohio, but fortunately we didn't get the snow they did on the East Coast! Here in our household though we have the Influenza virus B and it isn't fun! The doctor told us what we general say is the flu is really a stomach virus. What we have at our house now IS the flu. It's a lot like a bad cold with a high fever, which is hard to watch kids go through ya know what I mean? Sarah had it last week, Ben has it now. Tim and I are taking medicine so we don't get it as a precaution.
So after a trip to the doctor's office and two pharmacies(this must be all over this area since I couldn't find a Walgreens close to me with the medication I needed. Fortunately the pharmacist found some for us and it was only a 15 minute drive away. I got to stamp this morning before we left for the doctor's office and here's the challenge on SCS today, a crimped envelope card holder.

This is the crimped envelope I made for today's challenge. I have usually made these for gift cards so it was fun to make a card to go inside of this.
I used Simple Friendship and Ever After to make this. I stamped the flowers in celery then colored them in pretty in pink. I stamped in black and colored with celery and pretty in pink then used a dauber to sponge on brocade blue. I added ribbon and flowers with pearls in the center. I've never added ribbon to the top part of this envelope. I love how this came out. Thanks for another great tutorial.

This is an envelope I made without my crimper. Some of the gals on Splitcoast said they didn't have a crimper and couldn't do the challenge today. I was sure that I could come up with something that would work for them, and I did!
I cut the envelope as described in the tutorial then decorated the top and bottom. The bottom was scored every 1/4" then fan-folded. I opened it up and smoothed it out almost all the way and it fit into the top easily! So all you ladies who don't have a crimper can play today!
Have fun! Here's mine with my new favorite set, Thoughts and Prayers. I love punching out those flowers with my 1/4" punch and gluing them to the branch.

You're in my Heart, is the name of the card that's next. Makes me think of that Rod Stewart song....I know that dates me a bit, but just had to tell you where I was for a bit....now I can't get that song out of me head! LOL This is a card I made with the set Ever After. I love the victorian feel to this. I added two rows of lace because I liked the way the brocade blue looked behind the apricot. The heart is stamped in Regal Rose. I used the romance wheel with brocade blue on the apricot. The blue design paper is from SU Patterns Pack II which is a level I hostess gift. The squares are punched out and I used the perfect layers to add the black layer. Dimensionals were used to attach the heart and squares.

Thanks for stopping by today. I am so happy that you take time out of your day to visit. If you're able to do so, please let me know you've stopped by.
Blessings,

Spring, Where Are You?

We're having a windy, cold day here in Cleveland so instead of whining about it I chose to find a picture from my archives that makes me happy. This is a picture of my twin and I. We're fraternal twins, but without knowing it we had very similar hair styles and glasses! My twin bought us the same sweater for a birthday present so we could wear it when we went out to celebrate and everyone would know we were twins.
I am on the left and my twin, who lives in Milwaukee is on the right.
I am going to stamp so I may have something more to share in a bit!


Playing around with new stamp set called Simple Friendship that I just got. I've been loving the design paper that comes as a level 1 hostess gift from SU. That's what I used here in brocade blue. I used the pretty, new eyelet punch on the border. I stamped on the pretty design paper then cut things out. I added pearls from the pretties kit. I also stamped in apricot on the cuttlebug background.

Ben's got a fever tonight which is what Sarah had that started her whole influenza virus B last week. We'll check him in the morning to see how he's doing.
Thank you for visiting today.