Stephanie Earls

Brett's Donutz

2010-12-13T07:09:00.001-08:00

There's a new donut shop in town. My daughter, Brett has opened Brett's Donutz and it seems to be exactly what Gaffney has been waiting for.

Priceless lesson from Abi

2009-12-01T17:50:00.000-08:00

Our sweet little granddaughter, Abi had movie night at school tonight and Brett had to work. So, Barry and I got to take Abi up to meet her friend so they could ride together to the school. The movie, popcorn and a can drink would cost $3 so Barry gave Abi a $5 dollar bill. She was s0 very excited about going to movie night. When the movie night activity was over, Jessie's mom brought Abi back to us. When Abi got in the van with me, she said "Nana, I still have some money left." I said "Well, you can keep it or you can give it back to Papa since he gave it to you." Very quickly Abi added "Oh, I don't have his money anymore. I gave his money to the teacher at school. This is my money that they gave me for buying stuff." So, I told her that she should keep it then and could not wait to tell Papa about it when I got home. What a sweet understanding Abi has about who gets the change. Papa's money is at the school. Grandchildren bring us so much joy.

Abi is 6 today.

2009-09-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

I can not believe that I have a 6 year old granddaughter! She is perfect in every way. We had the greatest birthday party for her yesterday at Chuck E Cheese and had the wonderful opportunity to take her and Jack over to Toys R Us where they both picked out some toys. So what if it wasn't Jack's birthday. We are grandparents and we get to spoil them. We love our grandchildren and they bring us many hours of pride and joy.
So, Happy Birthday to Abi today! Nana and Papa love you beyond measure!

2009-06-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

Here are the boys studying why this sand is so white and clean that it squeaks. Beautiful secluded beach on the Gulf Shores National Shoreline.

I just loved this when I read it. I am so grateful for both!

2009-04-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you;

Jesus Christ and the American Soldier.

One died for your soul; the other for your freedom.

Role call for Happy Grandparents..... HERE

2009-03-07T20:20:00.000-08:00

Jacob and Lindsay are expecting! Journey will be a wonderful big sister. You should see how she loves on her stuffed Curious George and makes sure he gets a front seat in front of the tv to watch tv with her. We are very, very happy!

No More Little Caesar's for us!

2009-01-24T22:53:00.000-08:00

We had a shift manager at the Little Caesar's in Gaffney, SC committ a lewd hand gesture on our family last night as we were leaving from picking up our order from her store. Shocked by her gesture, Barry called her store manager and reported the incident. We have decided that there are other places that, during these poor economic times , might value our business more than Tracy at Little Caesar's does. I will post the entire story as I as typed it to Little Caesar's corporate office sometime tomorrow. I will also update you if we hear anything back from Little Caesar's. Pizza Hut, Pizza Inn, House of Pizza, and any other place except Little Caesar's will be getting our weekly pizza order from this point on.

My new ride!

2009-01-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

Lookie at what my honey got me yesterday. We are taking a big family vacation this summer and will now be traveling in luxury. It has everything a mom could ask for. The remote headphones allow the kids to watch their movie while we talk or listen to the radio. The leather seats are so comfie. Jack (grandson) does not like the sunroof. Today he told Barry "Close it Papa. It's gonna suck me out." This was the easiest purchase of a vehicle either of us have made. The dealership treated us famously and we were done so quickly. The boys just wanna ride around and watch movies. Last night when Barry had to go to Wal-Mart, I sat in the van with the boys while they watched a movie. I could not believe that they did not want to go in and shop the electronics dept or the toys. This van will save us thousands!

An oceanfront New Year's Eve!

2008-12-31T21:31:00.000-08:00

Boys in the (not heated) outdoor lazy river

Boys in the ocean! View from our balcony New Year's Day
The weather has been beautiful at Myrtle Beach this week. We came down to bring in the New Year oceanfront. The Dunes Village Resort is the best place to stay anytime of the year. I have some photos but did not bring my cord to upload from my camera so you will have to wait til I get home and post the photos. (photos posted 01-02-09) Yes, the boys got in the ocean and the outdoor lazy river that is usually heated but not this time for some reason. We spent most of the time in the waterpark under the Dunes which is fabulous and heated! They have put in some new super body slides that are sooo fun. You gotta go!
My honey and I sipped the Sparkling Apple-Grape Juice that my sweet friend Alicia got us for Christmas (along with a truly beautiful cutting board that she and her honey MADE). I bought 2009 champagne flutes and gave them to Barry for Christmas. He packed them and surprised me with them and the juice earlier tonight. So, it was just the 5 of us bringing in the New Year watching the fireworks on the pier from our balcony. Now the boys have crashed on us.
Last year was a scary one for us with Barry going blind in January. We have enjoyed a lot of extras with him being out of work and able to spend more time with me and the rest of our family too. The Lord has been good to us and we are grateful for the blessings we share. We are excited about the upcoming year and more fun changes in our lives. I love being in love with my husband. Happy New Year! Be safe!

Stocking Swap goodies from Ruth

2008-12-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

I got this great package in the mail last week. I was a good girl and gave it to my husband so he could stuff my stocking with all the goodies inside the box. Boy, Ruth really loaded me up with some great stuff. See the one hour photo album, the fragrance diffuser, the penguin slipper socks (who told Ruth that I LOVE penguins) the snowman potholders and the snowflake dishtowel, a 2 year pocket planner and some candy. The stocking swap was arranged by Tara and might become a yearly thing so add her site to your favorites: http://www.thewell-roundedwoman.com/ so you can participate next Christmas.

Service at the Gaffney Soup Kitchen

2008-12-26T09:04:00.000-08:00

My church sponsors The Gaffney Soup Kitchen. Our family serves there once a month. In December we were blessed to be able to serve twice. We heard that they would be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so our Bishop arranged for us to serve lunch on Christmas Eve. The above photo is of some of our youth serving at the buffet (two boys on the left are my sons, Michael and Barron) Below are the youth helping in the kitchen. That's my sweet son, Adam standing on the bucket so he can help wash dishes. A priceless photo for a mom to sneak!

My sons really get a lot out of this service. Their hearts are so big and full of love for the sweet people that we serve. They amaze me when it's our Saturday to serve. They wake up early and keep asking if it's time to go yet. The Lord has truly blessed me. It broke my heart that we ran out of chicken this week before everyone was fed. We continued to serve the final 30 minutes with no meat. There were a couple of us in the kitchen with tear filled eyes. I want to make sure that does not happen to us again somehow! We did have an unually large number of people to come on Christmas Eve so we were not as prepared as I like to be. We fed over 70 people!

Tastefully Simple

2008-12-19T07:52:00.001-08:00

I just signed up to be a Tastefully Simple consultant>>>>see the Logo to the right>>>>>>>
I went to a friend's party and loved the stuff. I went searching info online and found Liz Baxley. She and I had dinner Monday night and she gave me so much information and the great advice to wait until today to sign up. I get some extra goodies for signing up today. So, I will begin to party in January. Hosts get double benefits in January! Call me if you want to book your party before anyone else!
Ooopps letting time get away from me. Gotta go get the kids at school.
Be back later.

Stocking Swap

2008-12-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

I got my package in the mail today from the Stocking Swap. I handed it over to my husband to stuff my stocking on Christmas Eve. It was so hard not to open the box up but I want to get some surprises in my stocking on Christmas morning too. Tara arranged the swap. See her blog here http://www.thewell-roundedwoman.com/2008/12/start-shopping-for-tiny-treasures.html and then bookmark her site so you can participate next year. It is very exciting!
Thanks Ruth for the package. I can hardly wait! Thanks Tara for having such a great idea and doing all the matching for the swap. I will post a photo on Christmas of all of my stocking goodies so check back.
I also went to Asheville, NC again this year to see the Food Network Gingerbread houses from the 2008 competition. They were all awesome. The contest is held at the fabulous Grove Park Inn. You can tour the Inn and see the gingerbread houses and Christmas trees on several floors. It's FREE! We took a group of teens from our church and some adults to help chaperone. I think everyone had a great time. I will post some photos later too.
I have to get to church. We are taking our youth singing to some shut-ins tonight.
Thanks for checking my blog and see ya later.

Family Fun magazine

2008-12-07T18:39:00.000-08:00

The greatest kid crafty magazine will be $4.59 a year tomorrow only at http://bestdealmagazines.com/ . There is a deal a day this week so you can check each day for the deal of the day. Woodcraft is one and so is Daily Walk which looks like a good magazine. I love this website and have been a customer for years. I used to pay full price for Family Fun but I have ordered from here now for about 6 years.
Sorry that I didn't get around to posting the photos yet. I will do it real soon. The camera is in my purse all the way across the room! I am snuggled in bed watching PS I love you with my DH.
Got the boys 2 puppies today. Really cute puppies! I have to take some photos of them to post too.
Lights out the movie is getting good!

Stocking Swap

2008-12-06T19:31:00.001-08:00

http://www.thewell-roundedwoman.com/2008/12/stocking-swap.html
This is such a great idea. It's like the old Secret Sister fun we used to have at church.
I signed up for this. I hope I remember this next year so I can do it locally with some friends.
Are you ready for Christmas?
Jacob and Lindsay are heading to NYC for her audition for Fiddler on the Roof. Y'all keep them in your prayers. This is a call back from the open audition that she went to last month.
Jacob came down this morning to borrow my punch fountain and I got to cook breakfast for Journey. She is talking so good now. I took some photos of her last Wednesday when we all met up at Scrapbook Creations and then went to lunch together. I hope to post them tomorrow. She had on the cute little coat that I got her several months ago and the sweetest little boots I ever saw. She is a total doll.
My cousin's wedding was beautiful today. The reception was awesome too. We had a great time. The band was terrific and Cherokee National was never decorated so elegantly. It's always nice to see a couple start their lives together.

Hobby Hut

2008-11-06T12:51:00.001-08:00

Here is a photo of the new hobby cabin that my sweetheart bought for me last week. I think he may have just wanted all of my stuff out of the house! Barry worked nonstop to insulate, panel and wire my cabin. I have a phone line and satellite tv too! The fall flag was a Christmas gift from my daughter last Christmas. It says "Steph's Hobby Hut" The benches on the front porch were made for me by my friend Shannon's Dad. They fit perfectly. There is a Welcome sign on the front wall (hanging in the shadow beside the front door) that was a gift from my Mom when I got my first apartment in 1986. Yep, I hang on to things! My friend Vicki was here yesterday. She said she would dig up some flowers out of her yard to landscape around my porch. I am so blessed with great friends and family!

Below is the corner for my Revolution station and my embellishment collection (well, some of it)

This is a view of one of my windows. I have 3 windows and each has a fabulous view of the fall colors on the trees outside right now. This summer, I will be able to see the kids in the pool from one of the windows too. The curtains were nearly a steal from Pottery Barn. They were 70% off Saturday! Great since I had to buy 4 to cover 3 windows and the door. Under the window is my collection of Stampin Up ink pads. I have to break down and buy the turnabout thing for those soon! There is quite a collection of Sizzix dies and Stampin Up stamp sets on the shelves to the left. My Cricut, light box, and paper trimmer are on the rolling storage drawers which contain all of my punches and some other goodies within reach. See the beautiful yellow and orange maples out my rear window! I keep this curtain tied up when I am in here!
Below is the other shelf on the other side of the rear window. It has paper blocks, card idea magazines and more embellishments in baskets. In this photo, you can see the cord for the light that I hung over my table this morning. I will have to have an extension cord for the shop light. Then the cord can be hidden in the rafters for the loft. I have 2 loft areas for extra storage. Barry is putting me a small refrigerator in this weekend. Drop by for a cold beverage sometime!
Let me know you are coming! Because I also have an alarm on my building. My silly son said "Mom, nobody wants your craft stuff" Well, I ain't taking no chances! See ya soon.
Thanks for looking. Hope you are having a wonderful day.

Welcome Nancy Lopez!

2008-10-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

Hi Nancy, if you find your way here to look at my cards! See the column to the right and click on cards. That will show all of my entries with cards in them. I plan to contact you soon to set up a Stampin Up class for you. It is a lot of fun. You, your daughters and friends will love it.

1000's of dollars in blog candy!!!!

2008-09-23T06:19:00.000-07:00

Get entered today here: http://myblogbycammie.blogspot.com/2008/09/heart-to-heart-blog-candy.html
There is a GREAT cause and you can make a card that helps. Good luck.

The Water Nazi

2008-09-12T12:07:00.000-07:00

is Draytonville Water Works. A story I gotta tell!
We left home Wednesday morning after taking good, hot showers and spent the day in Spartanburg. As we came home, we passed some fellows working on the water on our road. Now, we were not notified that there would be NO WATER all day Wednesday! So, I cooked dinner, made jam and made quite a mess of dishes. At 5 our water came back on, finally. So, when I got home from church, I had a sink full of dishes and kids to get baths before bed. Guess what? NO HOT WATER! The breaker had shut off the power to the water heater. Barry switched on the breaker and we waited 30 minutes, an hour, two hours and still no hot water. I emptied my closet (cause some idiot thought it would be a good place for a hot water heater )so Barry could hit the reset button on the hot water heater. We thought we would have water in the morning so we did the sponge bath thing with boiled water added to very shallow baths. Thursday morning, still no hot water. Now we thought, Draytonville Water Works while working on the water lines up the road unintentionally drained our HWH tank and caused the elements to burn out. So Barry called them to inform them. Of course, here is what he was told "You must have done something wrong when you got home to blow out your own HWH elements". We, the homeowner, were never notified of any work being done before or after the fact. The only reason we knew about it was because we saw them on the roadside. What could we have done wrong? So, we rode by Draytonville Water Works and was talking to a nice lady at the window when from out of her corner, the Water Nazi appeared with her hands on her hips and in a very nasty tone of voice barked at ME " Our men went down and checked your meter and you have a leak on your side of the meter box so this is your fault". Now, they check our water meter every month so if there was a leak in that box, it should have been reported to us. I know this is how politely the City of Shelby water employees are. I have seen many work orders that have hand written notes by the meter readers that say "Please notify homeowner of a leak on their side of the meter". Instead, they never told us and knowing that could have saved our HWH. I pay my water bill every month to keep water coming into my house. They were aware of the leak. If they knew that cutting our water off would cause our HWH to drain and thus burn out the element. Why are they not responsible? I hate it when people do not take pride in the job that they are holding. Some people just take up space within a company and draw a paycheck. I am glad that I took care of my customers while I was employed. If I am ever employed anywhere else, I will not treat anyone the way I was treated yesterday by the Water Nazi at Draytonville Water Works. Maybe she has corns, maybe she had a migraine or maybe she is just like that all of the time. I hope I never have to deal with her again. We are talking about how nice it would be to have our old well back or even the old pump house that used to feed the best spring water up the hill to my Papa Bo's house long before the Water Nazi ever got her job. And in that time, I remember that people were glad to have the jobs they had and were friendly to folks no matter what. Maybe I was just a kid then and did not see anyone behave like the Water Nazi did yesterday but I would like to think that there was a time when people just really did try to serve one another with a smile. And I pray that someday that time will come back around.
Also, my fabulous BIL came down and helped Barry replace the element in our HWH last night. So we are clean and we smell good. I know that the Lord will bless Chris for his kind deed.
Barry, the boys and I are making and serving lunch at the Soup Kitchen tomorrow. Tonight, it's PMS night for the ladies at the Gaffney Senior Center. We'll have pizza, music and stamping!
Y'all take care and see ya back here soon.

Tanis' 5th challenge

2008-08-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

And Tanis' final challenge this week here: http://paperprincessatplay.blogspot.com/

I used a mixture of Bazill and Stampin Up cardstock to meet the guidelines. The stamp is from Inkadinkadoo and I love to color this stamp with my SU markers. I also like to add google eyes on this image. The grosgrain ribbon is from the Dollar Spot at Target and comes in a color coordinated 6 pack. Sadly, you only get 18 inches of each ribbon so you have to get several packs. This photo turned out great and really shows the bright colors that Tanis challenged us to use for today's challenge. I also found the function on my new camera to photo text. So, my photos might all just improve!
Tanis' daughter, Emma has designed a beanie baby for Ty. It's a contest so she needs your vote to get her beanie baby made. Please click here and go vote.....http://makemybeanie.ty.com/mkmybeanie/mkMyBeanie_vote_indv.php?id=15347 Thanks a bunch. This is the final challenge for the month long birthday party. It's been great.

And challenge #4 from Tanis

2008-08-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

http://paperprincessatplay.blogspot.com/2008/08/challenge-4-gallery-scraplift.html You have to lift a birthday card.
Here is where I lifted this card from: http://www.katstamps.com/gallery1/displayimage.php?album=22&pos=31 And here is my version: I used DP from Autumn Leaves Foof-a-la collection and SU Kraft, SU Very Vanilla and Basic Black cardstock. The happy birthday stamp (SU Ruby Red) is a $1 stamp from Studio G as is the Make a Wish (black Archival Ink) stamp. I used SU Ruby Red ink to stamp the dandelion from the Lucky You set by http://katstamps.com/ and added a black brad to the center. I used a Fiskar's border punch to create the scalloped edges and I used up the last of this ribbon (which is my all time favorite ribbon) for added dimension. Very, very fun challenge! Don't you just love Tanis! Happy Birthday Queen Kat Designs! Partying ALL MONTH LONG!

Check back to see Friday's challenge later tonight. And then to see where the party moves to!

Wednesday challenge- playing catch up now!

2008-08-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

http://paperprincessatplay.blogspot.com/2008/08/challenge-3-birthday-atc.html This is Wednesday's challenge. I am a little behind but you can still play too. Your entry must be posted by August 30. I used the bar code from the Lucky You set to create the background paper from SU Very Vanilla. I stamped one way with SU Soft Sky and the other way with SU So Saffron. I LOVE how that turned out! The happy birthday candle stamp is a Studio G $1 stamp from Michael's. The other stamped image is from the Inkadinkado Humorous Birthday set. I stamped them both with black Archival Ink and used various SU markers to color them. The ribbon is just some olive ribbon also from the $1 selection at Michael's. I have a hard time with ATC cards cause there's just not enough space on them for my imagination. I enjoyed making this one though once the background turned out so great.

Tanis' challenge for Tuesday-a little blurry photo

2008-08-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

I started out with a SU very vanilla base. I added a square of SU Baja Breeze embossed with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots. Then a strip of SU Kiwi Kiss and a strip of 5th Avenue Sophia Geofloral. Then a rectangle of SU Not Quite Navy and a square of SU Kiwi Kiss embossed with Cuttlebug Spots and Dots. I added a flower(unknown source) with a sei pastel blue rhinestone brad. The sentiment is from the Lucky You stamp set from Queen Kat Designs. Details are here http://paperprincessatplay.blogspot.com/ The birthday party is still going on and you can still get in on the prizes all month long!

Still celebrating with the Queen!

2008-08-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

Happy 3rd birthday to Queen Kat Designs! The challenge today is here:http://paperprincessatplay.blogspot.com/ and this is my entry:
My 3 elements are the happy birthday stamp(Studio G) stamped in SU Gable Green, Gelly Roll glitter pen over the stamped image and pale yellow ribbon. I used the Marvy scallop punches and the DP is from a Sophie paper pad(Marcella by K and Co.) The cardstock is Berry Sorbet and Lemon Tart by Papertrey Ink and the blue cardstock is Bazill but I don't know the color name.
Thanks for looking! See ya back here for more challenges cause they are partying all month long at the Castle!

I am trying My Space!

2008-08-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.myspace.com/craftysteph Find me on MySpace and be my friend! I might just flop at My Space. I am hooked on blogs!

This month is Queen Kat Designs 3rd birthday and today's challenge was to add them as a friend. It only took me 30 minutes to set up my page so it's pretty plain so far.

I won the 2nd QKD challenge last week.

2008-08-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

I am getting a surprise set of stamps in the mail! You can shop here http://www.katstamps.com/shop/ and you can check out the challenges here http://qkd.blogspot.com/ You can be a winner too. It's a long birthday party but the days go quick. I have a couple of set of QKD stamps so I am excited about getting another set.

So many contests this week!

2008-08-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

So, Sylvie heard that I entered 12 cards in the Verve Stamp challenges. She was so interested in all the different sketches. She said "They are all so yummy!"
The suspense was torture! Will my Aunt Steph WIN? There were lots of great stamp sets to be given away and nobody needs more stamps MORE than Aunt Steph!

Then the announcements were made. All of the prizes were given away. Aunt Steph did not win anything this time! Sylvie was beside herself!

But Steph will be back with more entries in lots of challenges cause that's the way we roll! We are not quitters! Thanks for checking out my Aunt Steph's blog and we both hope you will come back for more cards and quite possibly, more comments from me, Sylvie. AND if you are lucky, more photos of my sweet face too.

Queen Kat Designs challenge for their 3rd Birthday

2008-08-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

You can find the details here: http://qkd.blogspot.com/ and here is my entry.

There is a sketch to follow. I used Designer Paper from 3 Bugs in a rug and Bazzill cardstock. The stamp is SU Life's Special Moments and SU Chocolate Chip ink. I added a brushed copper brad. This party is going on all month with new challenges every week and they give great stamps as prizes. Hope you get to participate in this party!

My Verve Visual Challenges are complete and posted

2008-08-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

See my SCS gallery here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=78918
Now I can enter to win the grand prize since I completed all 12 sketches. The prize is a boatload of stamps valued at $114 from Verve Stamps! Tomorrow is the last day so if you have not started on your sketches, you are waaaay behind. Here is the main link to the Verve Stamps Splitcoast Stamper threads http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=208
Now I can rest. Well, as much as a woman can with 3 males in my house! Thanks for stopping by.

Some more challenge cards

2008-08-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be easier to send you to my gallery so click on this link below to see them all http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=78918&cat=500

I gotta get to work on my other cards. The challenge is 12 days long so I have a few more cards to make. You can check back at my gallery Tuesday and all 12 cards will be posted by then. Here is the link to the master list of challenges http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=369217 please play along.

Queen Kat Designs celebrates their 3rd Birthday

2008-08-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

With this Color challenge: Use these 3 colors on your card plus white and black or brown and nothing else:(Teal, Green, Yellow or any shades) You can find more details on this challenge at the QKD blog here: http://qkd.blogspot.com/2008/08/challenge-1.html and another QKD challenge here too http://julietds.blogspot.com/ . Juliet has all of the other design team members blog addresses posted so you can check out the other challenges as they are posted on their blogs. The prize is a free stamp set so go check it out!
This is my entry with SU cardstock in Taken with Teal, Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip and Old Olive on a white card base. With SU Tempting Turquoise I stamped on the Taken with Teal cardstock a daisy stamp from the Inkadinkadoo Garden Delight set to make the background paper and lightly stamped a flower from the same set on the white SU scallop punch out. I stamped Happy Birthday(which is a Dollar Tree stamp) in SU Chocolate Chip. I used various punches to create the shapes and added a couple of white brads. Thanks for lookin'.

More Gina K Designs release party challenges

2008-07-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

Here they are! The winners will be announced tonight! I hope I win a stamp set from Gina K Designs. There were 4 really cute sets released this month. I uploaded them to my SCS gallery http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=78918 if you want to see the details. Things are pretty hectic around here with Barry back at work. I barely got these done before the deadline.

Gina K Designs had another online blog release party!

2008-07-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

The first sketch challenge was a great one and this is my card. I used Stampin Up Spring Break designer paper with not quite navy, garden green and pumkin pie cardstock on a bright white base. I stamped a Heidi Grace flourish from the Wild Daisy Rd set in Garden Green then went over that with Gelly Roll Crystal Star glitter pen. For you is from SU Fresh Cuts and is stamped in Night of Navy. Just because is from a dollar set from Michael's and is stamped in SU Only Orange. I used Quickutz Frame die cuts, SU word window, SU small tag punch, 1/4 circle punch and the retired triple flower punch (that I have forgotten the name of). I have 3 more challenges so check back later to see those entries. You have until Monday if you want to play along. The prize is a stamp set of your choice from Gina K Designs. Here is the first sketch challenge http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10660748#post10660748

Creations by Corie post

2008-07-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

www.creationsbycorie.blogspot.com posted this and I loved it.

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting dead?
Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know there is not enough money?
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?
Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?
Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?
Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
Whose idea was it to put an 'S' in the word 'lisp'?
If people evolved from apes, Why are there still apes?
Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?
Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?
Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?
Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?
Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?
How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?
When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, 'It's all right?' Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, 'That really hurt, why don't you watch where you're going?'
Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?
In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?
How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?
And my FAVORITE......The statistics on sanity is that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends - -if they're ok, then it's you!!

2008 LDS Tri-Stake Youth Conference

2008-07-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

This is the Greenville East Stake minus me since I am up on the balcony taking the photo! All of these great teens are choosing the right path. They stand out sometimes as the only teen in their school who does not drink or use drugs or even see R rated movies. It strengthens them when we can get them all together and they can see that they are not alone in their decision to follow Christ. It is awesome to be around them.
Our service project this year was cardmaking for http://www.amillionthanks.org/ . Here is one of the posters for one of the card stations that were set up in a couple of areas on campus. This is the ever so cute Nick Cunningham. Even the guys got into the cardmaking after the intro to the service project which was a video of servicemen and women from the website listed above. These are the Gaffney and Blacksburg teens making their cards. Our original goal was 500 cards. They got real ambitious and increased it to 3000!
Our final tally on the cards was 837! We were a little disappointed but the schedule did not allow us as much time as we thought for the service project. We took the youth white water rafting on Thursday and they had a dance that evening. On Friday, we had 3 very inspirational seminars and then another dance that evening. Saturday morning we had a 2 1/2 hour Testimony meeting which is where the teens got up in front of everyone and bore their testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am now looking forward to the 2009 Conference!

I have other photos and some videos of the dances but my precious grandchildren just got here so I am going to visit with them and post the rest later! Can you blame me?

My sweet son's family photo

2008-07-13T19:48:00.001-07:00

Jacob, Lindsay and little Journey Earls. More joy to our lives!

2008 Family Photo

2008-07-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

Just look at my handsome boys! Posting a family photo to share with some family and friends. You can actually print this out for a nice dart board if I have offended you in any way recently! Hope that I haven't though.

New baby card for Cari

2008-07-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

It's soft pink and brown like her invitations to the shower. The color of this photo is terrible. I used Stampin Up Close to Cocoa ink pad with Autumn Leaves stamp. A Martha Stewart border punch to create the decorative edge.

The inside is also soft pink and brown with Close to Cocoa ink on a Stampin Up stamp from the In My Thoughts stamp set. The brown ribbon really makes it pretty on the inside too. Sorry. I do not know the origin of the pink w/brown polka dot designer paper. Both of the solid cardstock colors are Bazill. I best get over to the shower!

Cow appreciation Day at Chic Fil A!

2008-07-12T06:42:00.001-07:00

We took Barron, Adam and 2 of their friends, Christian and Jayden to Chic Fil A last night for Cow Apreciation Day. If you were dressed like a cow, you got a free combo of your choice and a free stuffed cow. The folks at Chic Fil A made a big deal out of the boys when we came in. They shook a cow bell and all MOOED. They were not the only "cows" in the restaurant so I did not dress them up like this to give them a complex. Chic Fil A does this every year. They had a bounce house out for the kids to play in after they ate. We took the boys to see Hancock at Sunset Drive In since they were such good sports. You see Barry standing by in his black shirt. I had a cow face and spots for us too but as we were taping the cow nose/mouth on the boys, he decided that he would just pay for our food and hurried us into the restaurant before the cow parts fell off of the boys. They had ears, a tail and cow spots as well as the nose/mouth and of course, the EAT MOR CHIKIN billboards taped to them.
Here is a close up of Jayden with his "costume" on. The other boys tore theirs off as soon as they had their free food!

There is lots of free fun to be had in this world! The boys loved it and never saw them laugh so much. Thanks for lookin!
I will post some cards this week. I have a couple of showers to go to so I will be making a wedding card and a baby shower card for 2 different ladies(just clearing that up) Now I have to go craftin!

Kid's challenge-16 and under

2008-07-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

http://hannahzoecraftymonkeys.blogspot.com/ this is the blogspot for a couple of kids who post a new challenge every two weeks. I thought they deserved some publicity so if you have a blog, please share their link there too. The challenge this week is a SUMMERTIME card.

Blog candy notice!

2008-07-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

http://bunny-zoes.blogspot.com/ some great blog candy waiting here!

Girl's camp photos

2008-07-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

Beginning of camp! We raised and gave salute to the flag every morning before breakfast.

The girls sang camp songs everynight. This night we had a storm so we sang in the mess hall. Thank heaven for storms. The mess hall was the only air conditioned place we had! It stopped raining afterwards so we were able to get to our cabins dry. Sweet!

The food was great! Sisters Jackie Yeargin, Susan Byars and April Yeargin worked hard to provide us some fabulous meals and great treats throughout the week. We had to have good food to sustain us for all of the fun!

The girl's had to lash something together as a skill activity. This group made a crown for the Camp Director. She also received a hat rack, a lap desk and some other great crafts by the other groups. The crafty ideas that the girls came up with generated lots of laughter.

This was a mock car accident which the girls did not know about until they heard the car horns and came out to find a car accident and they had to administer first aid to the victims. This was hilarious! We had a victim with a severed arm, a pregant driver throwing up, a pinned accident victim and a delirious passenger. What a hoot!

This is Legend Night. The older girls tell the 1st year girls the camp legend and give them a Legend Stone to wear every year for camp. They make Legend Night shirts too and each year they add more decorations to their shirts to mark each year of camp.

Every morning, lunchtime and evening we gathered around the flagpole for instructions, devotions and some singing too.

Our service project was spreading mulch around Camp York. The girl's were great. They worked hard and had fun doing the service.

I wish that I had taken a photo of the hill down to my cabin. I thought I would die before Saturday. It's a good thing I did not have a heart attack since I broke my cell phone the second night at camp. I must have climbed that hill 45 times. I probably would have lost weight if the food had not been so good! Next year, I must be thinner before Girl's Camp!

Thanks for lookin'. I can now get to craftin some cards for you to look at since I can post photos again. Yippee.

My darling husband reorganized my craft area for me while I was out of town. Does anyone else have such an insane husband? Nothing was were I had it and it needed to be. I could not sit at my table and do anything. I pouted for 12 days and then redid it myself. I got a new camera and a camping trip to Lake James out of the pouting! I bet he won't reorganize anything else of mine!

I also get a new phone today since this is finally our upgrade date. Two weeks with a broken cell phone bites! I have had no lcd screen on my phone since camp. The cameral lcd screen broke on the temple trip. Me and LCD do not get along!

Check back for card photos soon!

I finally got my new camera!

2008-07-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

I got a new camera yesterday. I broke my LCD screen on the youth temple trip a couple of weeks ago and have been trying to get Polaroid to repair it. They say it is not repairable. They will let me trade it in and give me a discount on a new camera if I call them next week after their trade in program begins. I went to Walmart and the phone was on sale for $89.99. I had bought the first one on 5/28/08 and I broke it on 6/18/08. I paid over $100 for the first one and since it was on sale, I just got the same camera. I can now post some photos again! (well, after I load the software for the camera since I had not even gotten around to that before I broke the first camera) I have some great photos from Girl's Camp and the Youth temple trip. Youth conference is the 17th of July so I will have some great photos from that too!

Sylvie at VBS

2008-06-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

I think the word must have gotten out that my sister, Mancy was bald until she was about 3 or 4 years old. She took Sylvie to Vacation Bible School Sunday night and they put a little wig on her! She is so soft and precious! See that little freckle on her arm, she got that from ME!

A great blog spot for you to visit!

2008-06-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

http://dianesdesigns.blogspot.com/ Go quickly and check out the blog candy that Diane is offering. You will surely visit her blog often after you see her designs.

A Patriotic card challenge

2008-06-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.kreationsbykrissy.com/ the details of the challenge can be found there.The details for this card can be found here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/935940?cat=500&ppuser=78918

Yikes, I picked up 4 kids at 11 so I gotta get them some lunch. Sorry such a short post. Thanks for looking!

Gardenia card (cased)

2008-05-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a remake of the card we made Friday night at my Stampin Up workshop. We had a lot of fun once we got the folding of the circles down to make the Gardenia. There were 18 of us there and we stamped, ate and talked from 7 to 10.

You have the opportunity to join the fun in June. Susan has a Girl's Day out planned for Saturday June 21st at the Senior Center in Gaffney. Email me for more info if you are interested.

The boys and I attended the Memorial Day service held in Gaffney today. Barron and Adam handed out flags and programs prior to the event to help out the Ladies Auxilliary. We all enjoyed the speakers and special music provided by the Blacksburg Band. Silly me left my camera but I am sure you can catch some photos in The Gaffney Ledger. WYFF 4 was there filming so watch the news tonight! It really is a touching service and it's a shame that more folks don't attend. It's held every year at the same time and same place. There is usually a flyover by some F16's and a 21 gun salute by the Marines. Barron and Adam rushed to pick up some spent casings at the end and were tickled when a marine (named Rayfield) clicked one out of his rifle for Barron. Adam had already picked one up from the ground! I realized today that we need to explain more to our children about Memorial Day. They just know that they did not have to go to school! Do you and yours know the sacrifices made so that we might celebrate today?

Altered coasters

2008-05-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

We made a couple of these at our Girl's Day Out in May. We had such a fun day (and night too) The next one is June 21st. You can come too!
I came home and made this one with a beach theme. The shells and sea glass are from Big Lots and cost $2 for a pretty nice size mesh bag.
The designer paper is a two-sided paper called Seaside Breeze by Reminisce. This will be cute with a couple of photos of my sweet grandchildren who went to Myrtle Beach with us for Mother's Day this year. I am a very lucky mom and grandma!
I am a MAD MAD poster today (this is my 3rd and final post today)
Gnight!

3rd entry in the Gina K Designs sketch challenge

2008-05-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

It's Stampin Up Porcelain Prints designer paper and In Color cardstock. I used Turtle Crossing stamps for this one too. I had to use my computer to print the sentiment. The flowers were a white bunch that I purchased for 1.99 and I color them with my SU markers or my BIC Mark It Up markers. The rhinestones are pale green. I am pretty pleased with the looks of this card.
I gotta get it in my gallery and link it to the challenge thread which is here http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9888803#post9888803
before 7 pm central time. Thanks again for reading my blog.

Gina K Designs had an online blog release party!

2008-05-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

And I attended Tuesday night! There were 3 sketch challenges and 3 contest questions. Here is the link http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/922024&cat=500&ppuser=78918

to the forum so you can play along if you like. The prize for each sketch challenge is a set of Gina K Designs stamps with a value of $18.95. Here are 2 of my entries and I am working on the third. The deadline is 7 pm central time tonight!

I picked up the cutest set of clear stamps Wednesday at Scrapbook Creations. It is Turtle Crossing by Tricia Santry Studio. It has turtles, flowers, tags. dots, circles and butterfly stamps as well as several sentiments. A total of 15 stamps for $7.99 and I used a 40% off coupon to make it an even better deal. (The Live it Up stamp used below is from a dollar set from Michaels not from the Turtle Crossing set)

Thanks for stopping by!

My new neice is here! All 7 lbs 11 ozs, birthdate May 12th (same as my famous grandson, Jack)

2008-05-14T14:21:00.001-07:00

Sylvie Claire Cook and her daddy, Chris Cook holding hands.

I will post photos of her precious face when I get them. I just had to post this one cause I love it so much.

Happy Mother's Day card

2008-05-09T04:23:00.000-07:00

I've been papercrafting! I made 4 cards yesterday. This is the Mother's Day card that I made.

It is Bazzil cardstock in 2 shades of pink and just basic white. Sorry, I don't know the shade names. They have like a million shades so you can always find a shade to match whatever paper you have. The designer paper is by Basic Grey and the only name I could find on it was Attractive with the Sugared trademark. The stamp was from a huge set of stamps from Village Arts Press that I picked up either at AC Moore, Hobby Lobby or Michael's a few years ago. I used Stampin Up's Regal Rose ink pad. A little white ribbon and a dark pink brad.

Happy Mother's Day to all of my friends who are moms, stepmoms, those who are not moms but want to be someday. Happy Mother's Day especially to those whom God called to be women who can not bear children but are wonderful listeners and surrogate moms to other mom's children--you are priceless!

I still support our troops!

2008-05-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

An American Soldier

2008-04-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.axpdf.com/wake/index.htm

If you have not thanked a soldier, do it today at www.amillionthanks.org This website is our service project for Youth Conference this year. We will be making 3 thank you cards each at our conference in Asheville, NC. If you would like to send cards with ours, get them to me before June 9th. Thanks for remembering OUR TROOPS. I know that they think of us everyday.

I have sold some of the great discount cards that I have! I have only 3 left. Get yours today and save at 31 different places where you spend your money anyway. Email me so I can hold one for you.

Somber weekend. We lost a dear church family member this weekend. Lawrence Byers lost his battle with cancer Friday night. Can I just say that I HATE cancer! Don't you too? Give to Relay for Life and lets find a cure so that nobody else has to lose a loved one to this dreadful disease.

Cards!

2008-04-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

Stampin Up Blue Bayou is the base for this one. Le Jardin designer paper is an added layer behind some off white textured cardstock on which I stamped from an old SU set named Little Inspirations the sentiment in Old Olive. The scallop punch has a Friendly Flower stamped in Soft Sky with a rhinestone added. There are a couple of olive eyelets on the mini book mark. I used So Saffron ink to color in the flowers around the little lamb with an eye shadow applicator and then colored the lamb with a white Souffle marker. A little soft yellow rick rack also added to give another texture. It's a sweet little card for a friend to remind her that she is in God's care.

Bonjour friend!

Le Jardin is the designer paper by Stampin Up and I used SU Friendly Flowers to stamp the flowers in Soft Sky and So Saffron and the "friend" sentiment in Soft sky on the flip side of the same designer paper. I used my circle punches to punch out the flowers and added rhinestones to both.

Rainy weather is good for staying in and creating! Of course, the boys are screaming for Dairy Queen. Oh well, I must suffer through a trip to DQ!
Do you have your discount card for the coming year yet? I have some great kids at my church that are in the Blacksburg Marching Band and they are selling the best cards right now for only $10! Some of the merchants are Dairy Queen, Sonic, Broncos, Taco Bell, Starmax,Cinnabon, Pizza Inn, Aegean, McDonald's, Burger King, Bruster's and many more for a total of 31 merchants! These cards are fantasic! I can hook you up. Let me know asap if you would like to get one. I don't know when the deadline is.

Bakerella on Martha Stewart today!

2008-04-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

This is the best website for the cutest cupcake ideas! www.bakerella.blogspot.com I just watched her on Martha and had to share this with my friends. I have 2 cards to post but I have to take the pictures so I will do that later today. Come on back later. Hint.... I am loving the new SU papers that I got last month.

Monday morning surprise!

2008-03-31T05:50:00.000-07:00

This is my beautiful daughter and her family. Brett (looks a little like me-don't you think?) and DJ (best SIL in the world) and the most precious grands Jack and Abbie! What a great Monday morning surprise for this grandma to get these in my email!

On our way to get Barry's shot in the right eye! Squint!!!!!!!!!!

Longaberger basket for the Cure!

2008-03-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

http://basketsforthecure.blogspot.com/ go here to bid. It's a race to find the cure for breast cancer. We all know someone close to us whose lives have been altered by this disease. Here is your opportunity to help researchers find the cure!
Prayers for Lesa are needed too. So please add her to your prayer list as she battles for her life against breast cancer.
Update on the love of my life: Barry is driving again finally! He goes Monday for the second shot in his right eye. Still no improvement in that one yet but the left eye is doing great. He read the doctors report to me last Wednesday! We will be 4 shots in and 2 more to go after Monday. Our prayers are being answered for his recovery. We know the doctors are putting in the shots but we know Who is doing the healing! Thank you Heavenly Father. Thank you friends for standing in the gap for us with all of your prayers.
I will be making some cards with all the great new goodies I got during Su's Salebration. Come back to see them in a few days. Feel free to subscribe so you can be notified when I make a new post! I have a lot of new papers, inks and stamps!

Cards!

2008-03-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

This is SU Le Jardin designer paper with a Cricut George and the Basic Shapes cutout of Hello in what I believe to be SU Bashful Blue cardstock. An EK Success flower punch that is inked in SU Old Olive and an olive button with pale yellow DMC floss tied on.

This one is SU Le Jardin designer papers and Old Olive Classic Ink. The Happy Easter is a dollar stamp by Studio G that I picked up at Michael's. The pale yellow ribbon was in a Colorbok dollar mini scrapbook kit from Big Lots.

This is the one that was the free make-n-take at Scrapbook Creations. I loved the colors and the layout. I also liked the technique of cutting out the diagonal pattern for the dark lilac paper to show more. I do not know the designer papers we used as they were out of them at SC. I am sure that the solid was Bazzill cardstock.

That should do us for the day! I did get the new Afternoon Tea papers by SU today. They are so pretty! So come on back soon to see some cards made with those.

Another shot in the eye!

2008-03-19T18:24:00.000-07:00

Barry got a second shot in his left eye this past Monday. Today, riding down the road in the car, he was able to read the doctor's report to me! A wonderful improvement in the left eye but the right eye is the same or worse. He is 20/50 in the left eye and 20/300 in the right. He is able to read because of the improvement in the left eye and with the help of glasses. Your prayers are helping, I know! Thanks a ton.
We made a beautiful card today at Scrapbook Creations in Spartanburg. They offer a free make-n-take every Wednesday morning from 10 'til 12. I will post it tomorrow so you can check it out. I also plan to remake it with the great new SU papers that I picked up from http://www.stampinsusan.com/ today.
See ya tomorrow!

Finally, a post with a card!

2008-03-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

I am back to my simple cards. This one is where I have been playing with my new Scor-Pal. It is my new PAL no kidding. I love that you can texture your card fronts with squares or triangles. Soooo cool. I also love how it looks to stamp on the squares. Zoom in! This is an Inkadinkado butterfly from the Garden Delight set that I picked up at AC Moore a few weeks ago. I found the sentiment stamp ( by My Sentiments Exactly)a week later at Hobby Lobby on clearance. Don't you just love it when things happen that way? All stamped on SU Pale Plum with Jet Black Archival Ink. The sentiment is stamped on a piece that is not textured but I did rough up the edges so it would stand out a little. I liked it so much that I have not mailed it yet! I will though. I am hanging out at this house this morning playing good housewife so I can justify how much time I will be gone this evening for Stamp Camp! I have quite a few items on my list for tonight since seeing the new SU mini catalog last weekend.

Prayer request: Lawrence Byars and family. Hospice has been in for 2 weeks now. I lift them up in prayer for comfort and peace.

Thanks for reading. Come back again.

Who really threw the first punch?

2008-03-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

She had been on the scene for over an hour and her camera men were already in the van ready to go. Why didn't she get in the car and just leave? When her camera man gets out and gets in between her and the lady, why does she go around him swinging? Perhaps she was attacked by a racial slur! You watch and let me know what you see. I am really just tired of the media showing us only part of the video. There was no need to hang around for over an hour filming the family in sorrow from the loss of the grandfather at the hand of his own grandson. Funny, they (Channel 7) had stopped filming just before their reporter starts swinging! Lucky for us that Channel 4 was on the scene and able to share their coverage of the fight. http://www.wyff4.com/video/15567746/index.html?taf=gs I really hope you can watch this! And another thing: Aren't these professional camera men? Why are the videos like this so crappy?
Sorry I have been MIA this week. Been down with allergies but I love my blooming Bradford Pear trees! Also been on the go with my hubby. We got his CPAP and it is such a quiet machine. I was amazed after talking to some folks who have older machines. He goes Monday for a recheck of his eyes. He is hoping that they give him permission to drive again. He is seeing a little better with the left eye but still no change in the right eye yet.
He planted a tree for me today, a Northern Catalpa. I have 2 more of those and 6 Red Maples for him to plant too. Northern Catalpa's will draw Catalpa moths which are great for catfishing or so my BIL says. Guess we could open a bait store if my trees survive.
I get my plants/trees from www.directgardening.com . I have had great luck with them in the past. My flowering almonds, peach and apple trees and angel trumpets were doing wonderful at my last house. I also had a Fig that was going to be wonderful but my stepson cut it down along with the others not knowing what they were! I would have dug everything up if I had known that he would do that after buying our house in November. Nothing is blooming in November! It all looked like sticks to him. I also have a yellow Angel trumpet to plant here but have not decided where to put it yet. Love Spring! Hate allergies!
Stampin Up with Susan tomorrow night at the Gaffney Senior Center! Yippee. I have made a couple of cards this week and I will share them tomorrow. Come back then! Gnight.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-03-05T06:53:00.000-08:00

Hosted here: http://www.5minutesformom.com/

My emerging craft studio!

2008-02-28T13:01:00.000-08:00

This is where I am playing these days......

I have taken over the boy's bedroom with all of my cardmaking/rubberstamping supplies. That is a bay window behind the chocolate curtains but the sun comes up on that side of the house and it's like an oven without the thick drapes. I am leaving Spongebob just in case I have to give the room back! I have only been moving into this room 2 days now. I have chairs for 7 at the table but 2 are pretty tight seats against the wall so I think 5 folks could happily play in here for hours with the right snacks (chocolate, of course).

Today is my little one's birthday. Yippee for Adam. He is 7 and he just pulled his first tooth yesterday. Gotta go to Toys R Us!

Barry's recent eye test

2008-02-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

Whoopie! Barry had his first shot in his left eye at which time his vision in that eye was 20/100. He had a shot in the right eye at which time his vision in the left eye was 20/50. He says that he can see a difference but it is not well enough to drive, read or return to work at this point. There has been no change in the right eye but is was the most damaged and it has only been a week since the shot in that eye. He went to the Marriott last night and did a sleep study and he does have sleep apnea so they are setting him up with a CPAP. Anybody else think they have sleep apnea wanna go for a test at the Marriott?
I am sitting at my craft table but not getting in to much since I have to pick up the boys from school in 30 minutes. I will be posting some cards later. I have one done in my head(with all that other stuff).
Thanks for reading my blog. Come back soon!

A romantic Valentines's getaway!

2008-02-18T04:15:00.000-08:00

What could be better than a nice romantic getaway to The Great Smoky Mountains

a wonderful suite with a full kitchen, living room with a fireplace, 2 king size beds and a huge hottub to relax in in your suite?

4 kids to enjoy it with you! Yes, we took our sons, our granddaughter and grandson on our romantic Valentine's Day trip! Don't panic, we all have our swim suits on! Barron and Adam were not in the hottub yet so we had Barron take this photo:

I also got to go to the 2 scrapbook stores in Sevierville while the gang played carpet golf. I took Jack with me and he ooh'd and ahh'd at all the stuff in the scrapbook stores. I got a couple of new toys to play with while there.
Monday, I also got an Embellishment Center from Makin Memories for being such an awesome Valentine!(my own interpretation)
We went yesterday for the shot in Barry's right eye. He says he is noticing some improvement in the left eye from the shot 3 weeks ago! He almost did not let the new doctor give him the shot though. It was $205 and the first one at the other doctor was $65. He questioned the difference in cost and I told him that I would prefer to pay the difference to driving 5 1/2 hours for the less expensive doctor. I know that the cost of the drug itself is $50 from the conversation with Dr. Fekrat and she charged $15 to administer the shot. So the new doctor in Gastonia is getting $155 to administer the same shot! What are you going to do though? Vision or no vision? Insurance does not cover these shots even though they work. Insurance will pay for the laser treatments to the tune of $600 each which does not restore vision, only reduces swelling. Makes no sense to me. Aetna will pay $600 for as many laser treatments as the doctor says are needed but will not pay for the shots of Avastin which dissolve the blood stains in his eyes and restore the vision. Even crazier is that Aetna will pay for the Avastin but not the procedure(giving of the shot) to administer the Avastin. So they cover the drug but not the shot. Can anybody make sense of that? Anyway, Barry may be recovering some of his vision. Y'all do not know how happy I am! Thanks for all of the continued prayers and fasting on Barry's behalf. We love you all so much!
I will get to making some cards to post! Check back for them later!

Isn't she LOVELY?

2008-02-12T11:53:00.000-08:00

This is our granddaughter, Chloe Jade Earls. She was born last night at 9:02 pm to our son, Willie and his wife, Heather via C-section after 14 long hours of labor. She weighed in a 7 lbs and 8 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. A perfect, precious slice of heaven.

This is why my husband's eyes have to heal! No changes in his vision yet. I had so hoped for him to be able to see this sweet angel's face. He is holding her in this photo. I cropped him out 'cause I figured y'all would rather see a larger photo of our little blessing than see another photo of Barry.

I have been tagged again!

2008-02-10T16:19:00.000-08:00

http://pookascrayon.blogspot.com/ The guilty party who tagged me!
Not once but twice!
The Middle Name Game! These are the rules:-You must post the rules before you give your answers. You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details.)
M-Mad about all the tagging-I have cards to make,shopping to do,Oreos to eat.HA HA
C-chunky,yes I am thank you Nabisco!
S-sweet as sugar that's me.
W-wishful,wish I had more cardstock,ink,punches,Cricut cartridges,stamps,TIME!
A-Athletic- NOT! (though I am getting some exercise RITF laughing about this)
I-Intelligent-ha,still rolling in the floor laughing so maybe I am athletic!
N-nosy- said my 10 year old who is now grounded for the rest of elementary school!
Second tag:
The rules are:
(1) Link to the person that tagged you.
(2) List the rules on your blog.
(3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
(4) Tag 5 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
(5) Let each random person know they have been tagged.
6 non-important things/habits/quirks about me:
1) I love Hardee's Big Twin burgers and it bugs me that they have them out for a limited time only. I go to various Hardee' s in neighboring towns and fill out the customer satisfaction slips suggesting they keep the Big Twin year round. (SHHH, I think it's working)
2) I like for everything to be in the same place in my frig all the time. Like don't take my ketchup off the door and put back in on the top shelf. The mustard, ketchup and mayo should be together like a little family. I don't know why other people do not KNOW THIS!
3)I collect cookbooks. I have over 250. (My husband said that it is an addiction)
4)I do not have any tattoos (but I went with my BIL to get his at a real scarry tattoo place when it was illegal to get them in SC). I rarely wear make-up, do not even have pierced ears and I prefer small simple jewelry. Pretty plain Jane!
5) I love to travel back roads. I don't mind getting lost as long as the gas tank is full! I used to carry maps for Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia in the dash of my car then I got married and settled down a bit. Now, we carry only 3 of those state's maps.
6) I plan my appointments around the free make-n-takes on Wednesdays at Scrapbook Creations. And I have gotten my sister, Patty, who never liked crafts into going with me almost every week.
7) A BONUS---I hate tags!
Now who can I tag? You can choose which tag you want to participate in so you don't have to do BOTH like Pooka MADE ME do!
Teri at http://bigideasfromalittlegirl.blogspot.com/
Leslie at http://continuingtocreate.blogspot.com/
Carol at http://carolsheartlikehis.blogspot.com/
Otter at http://iotterbestamping.blogspot.com/
Jacki at http://thecardcastle.blogspot.com/
I better go warn the taggees. Now this was a long post!

You can win this set of stamps!

2008-02-09T16:25:00.000-08:00

Go here http://qkd.blogspot.com/ Find the post from Friday, Feb 8th and leave a comment telling them that I sent you. That gives us both an entry in the giveaway. I have this already and it is a great set.

Like Pancakes? Have a bee stamp?

2008-02-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, Feb 12th is National Pancake Day at IHOP. You can get a FREE short stack from 7am to 10pm. They are doing this to get donations to Children's Miracle Network. Barry and I went last year. The pancakes are soooo good at IHOP. Not at all like those frozen babies I pop out of the microwave! Hope you can make it.
Also, if you have a BEE stamp, buzz on over here http://studiobeecreations.blogspot.com/ to see the opportunity to get some secret blog candy. I won blog candy from Debbie a few months back and I am still using it up. It is also a way to support our Fabulous soldiers.
I took my boys to Lowe's this morning. Not sure how many of you know that Lowe's has a FREE make-n-take every 2 weeks for kids. Today they made a sweet Valentine Mailbox. I should have taken a photo and posted it but I am being lazy today.
I have just layed around watching tv since the early morning trip to Lowe's. I have dinner in the crockpot so I am just blog hopping today looking for inspiration. I may post a card later. I have some things layed out but not assembled yet.

The men in my life

2008-02-07T17:57:00.000-08:00

Here are my men just outside the NC Estuarium in Washington, NC and there are 32 of these crabs all over The Inner Banks. All are painted differently by local artists. We had fun spotting them. I think we saw about half of them.
This one had a map of the Pamlico Sound on it. There was even a little YOU ARE HERE on it so we could see where we were. After a really nice walk on the Boardwalk, we headed to Bath. Bath is where Blackbeard the Pirate lived until he was beheaded. The legend says that his headless body swam around the boat 7 times before it sank just off the Ocracoke Island. After Bath, we drove on out to Swan Quarter and then over to Lake Mattamuskeet. This is a photo of my men standing by the edge of the lake. We were almost to the end and ever so glad to see the other side at this point. CLICK ON THIS PHOTO to enlarge it so that you can see the thousands of swans that were all over this lake. We were amazed to see this. I wish we had stopped and taken pictures when they were closer to us as we were crossing the lake. The weather was awesome for nearly our whole trip. It began to rain on the way home but it was a soothing rain. The boys slept for hours and it made the long ride home so much easier.
No changes yet in Barry's vision. Dr. Fekrat gave him a shot of Avastin in his left eye. We go on the 18th for the shot in the right eye. He can have 3 shots in each eye. Each shot has to be a month apart. This treatment has only been available for 3 years but they have had great success with it. Please remember him in your prayers and me too(for my lack of patience). I want him to see 20/20 in both eyes so he can see the faces of our children and grandchildren.
My apologies for taking so long to post what is going on with him. Our cell phones, our house phone and the email in box has been full of loved one's messages checking on him. We truly appreciate all of the love and concern that everyone has shown for him. He is so precious to me.
Barry had an appointment today and I was able to get a 30 minute nap in the parking lot at the doctor's office while the boys quietly did their homework in the car with me. Amazing, huh? Still wiped out. Forgive me if I have repeated any info in this post. I can not remember what I have posted this past week. I am going to bed earlier than usual so I can catch up on some rest. Gnight.

Amy's 3rd challenge-Fav QKD stamp

2008-02-06T20:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a card made with my favorite Queen Kat Designs stamp set. It is the Lucky You set and can be purchased here http://katstamps.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=213
This marks the end of the Round Robin. It was a boatload of fun. Thanks to all of the Design Team members for all of the creative challenges. Now, what ever will I do tomorrow?

Amy's 2nd challenge-RED

2008-02-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

So this is almost the end of the Round Robin. Only 1 more challenge but I am nearly out of time for the last entry. It's an easy one and you can enter too. See the location below. I have to get going on it myself!

Amy's 1st challenge

2008-02-06T18:44:00.000-08:00

http://lorealle.blogspot.com/ for details on this challenge.
Here is my entry:

It is a white cardstock base with Bazzill cardstock in raspberry and bright pink layers. The Daisy is from Paperbilities with a pastel pink rhinestone brad from SEI in the center. The swirl stamp is a $1 Studio G clear stamp. The I Love You stamp is also a $1 Studio G Katie & Co stamp. Both are stamped with Archival Ink in Jet Black. I stamped the I Love You on shrink plastic, punched a hole with an office hole punch, shrunk the piece and ran a piece of pink ribbon through it. I used the Stampin Up slot punch to create the holes in the raspberry layer for the ribbon to feed through.
I am wiped out from our trip but we got a good report and expect wonderful things from this new treatment. I will post more about that tomorrow. I have to get on to my next challenge since this leg ends tonight.

Pooka's last challenge

2008-02-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

Here are where you can get the details http://pookascrayon.blogspot.com/
I will have to miss this one. I did not pack shrink plastic (don't know why) I was able to stop in a Michael's an hour from here earlier and get some. However, I have tried the microwave, the hairdryer and heated prayer and none of those are shrinking the shrink plastic. I thought about sneaking up to the waffle maker in the continental breakfast area but I am afraid that I might mess up my free waffles in the morning!
Oh, well. I have totally enjoyed the Queen Kat Designs Round Robin these past couple of weeks. I hope that the Queen will do this again. And I was lucky enough to win one of the sets of stamps that were given away. They are fabulous (that word again). You can shop here http://www.katstamps.com/shop/ to see the 15 catagories of acrylic stamps.
I am anxious about Barry's doctor appointment tomorrow. We have come a long way with a great deal of hope resting on this specialist. He says he is not worried or anxious. He is so obedient to GOD. He is not in fear and I know that I should not be. God did not give us hearts of fear. I am weak and in great fear that Barry will not be able to recover any of his vision and that it will continue to worsen. Lord, strengthen me in my weakness.
We were able to take the boys to Bath, NC yesterday which, is where the Pirate Blackbeard lived his last days. We went to the visitor's center and watched a movie about how the town was cursed to never grow to much size! (came true, keep reading) There were no gas stations that took cards, only cash and we were on empty. We had $7 on us and gas was $3.25 a gallon. We bought the gas and left for the next station. We were so hungry and there was NOTHING for miles and miles. We finally crossed Lake Mattamuskeet and found the one and only station within an hour and a half's drive and they took our VISA! We had about 6 miles of gas left according to Durango. We filled up with gas and got some hotdogs for lunch at their deli. Let me tell you, those were the BEST hotdogs. As good as Harold's for those of you reading from Gaffney, SC. Never were we so unprepared for such a trip. It was quite the adventure. Thanks to Hampton Inn, our boys did have 4 apples to eat since we had each taken one with us after breakfast! Barry and I gave ours to Barron and Adam so they could have 2 each. We are not terrible parents, really! We just left the cooler in the hotel room because there is a McDonald's everywhere. NOT. Never go to the Outer Banks via Hwy 264 without a fully stocked cooler and a full tank of gas and CASH. Really, there is nothing but swamp land between the towns and the townspeople say they don't need that (McDonald's) kind of food 'round here. My guess is that they cook up the tourists who happen to get stranded there without cash and gas and food!
Nuff said, I am outta here. Thanks for reading and for your prayers for my family, for the emails with well wishes and the phone calls of support. You all mean so much to me! Those of you who do not blog, you should. It is very good therapy! Gnight!

Shh, I am a little prepared.

2008-02-01T18:50:00.000-08:00

I was all shook up about missing Pooka's challenge tomorrow as I was packing for our trip. Sooo,

I have a question for you scrapaddicts. What do you take with you when you go out of town in the middle of some very important challenges? This is a photo of my emergency scrap tote. My DH did not think I packed anything until I took my laptop tote out just now. Earlier, I opened my suitcase and he commented that he thought it would be full of scrapbook stuff because it was so heavy. He seemed surprised to see clothes in there. ha! ha! Fooled him (for awhile anyway). My rascal son ratted me out! I hid away a few ink pads and a few stamps, some scissors, glue stick, pop dots, various sizes/colors of rhinestones, several colors and sizes of pre-cut cardstock in with my laptop. (It WAS a very good hiding place) I have checked the phonebook here. No Michael's, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby or even JoAnn's. What do these folks do?
We will see some things here in Washington tomorrow. There is an Estuarium that offers river excursions aboard an Aqualab. Sounds fun, huh? Then, we are heading to the Outer Banks. This is a long overdue trip. We tried going the year before they moved the lighthouse but we had van trouble on the way (twice). That is a long story so I won't tell it. Those of you who know me have heard it, I am sure. I will say that I cried (a lot) on that trip which was cut short and I did not get to see the lighthouse in it's original place which was NOT the worst part of the trip.
Being here, comfortable in our hotel with some of my favorite people (DH, DS#9 and DS#10) sure makes life good. We just went swimming and I enjoyed the hottub alone. Barry can not do hottubs as much since his blood pressure became an issue. We have a lot of hope for our visit with Dr. Fekrat. I pray that God will lead her to the proper treatment to restore Barry's vision. The fabulous front desk clerk, Jessica just brought us (she called and asked first if she could) a bowl of chocolate chip cookies that she made today. (Yikes, I ate 3) She is a sweet, young girl with some turmoil going on in her family. She and I talked for awhile at the desk when I checked in. (The Lord sent us to this hotel) Please pray for her family with me. Pray for forgiveness and healing and love between them (peace in their family).
Ok, enough right? Gnight all. I will try to get in on the challenge tomorrow if I have the supplies. Thanks, friends. I love you, every single reader and friend.

Pooka's 2nd challenge

2008-02-01T07:43:00.000-08:00

Details for today's challenge can be found here http://pookascrayon.blogspot.com/
On September 19, 1783, the first hot-air balloon was sent aloft in Versailles, France with animal passengers including a sheep, rooster and a duck. On that same day in 1964, I was born. This is my entry for today's challenge:
There was a lot of cutting involved here. I had to create a hot-air balloon with some shimmery cording and a circle of lilac cardstock cut with a QuicKutz nesting circle die cut and I paper pieced the basket. The stamps are from Technique Tuesday's Dog and Pony Show set and I colored them with Hobby Lobby brush pens after stamping them with Archival Ink. Then I cut them out and glued the rooster and sheep on. The duck is attached with a pop dot. In the background, the trees are a Cricut die cut that I made with my Design Studio software and the Cricut Sampler cartridge. I handwrote the date on the basket with a brown brush marker. It is done(though I wish I had a stamp that says "You lift me UP").
Also, on my birthday, but I cannot remember the year, Steamboat Willie was released. I wanted to use that one but for lack of time, I found another event to create this card for.
Please remember my husband in your prayers as we travel to see a specialist for his loss of 50% of his vision.
Sadly, I may have to miss tomorrow's challenge but I hope you will participate. Be back soon.

Pooka's 1st challenge

2008-02-01T05:52:00.000-08:00

Here's my entry for yesterday's challenge. It is Bazzill cardstock in pink and white with a Delta Music stamp that I got at Big Lots yesterday for $2.00. The sentiment is a Stampin Up stamp from the 1998 Say It With Scriptures set. I used the Stampin Up slot punch to punch two holes for my ribbon to feed through. I also added a gold heart brad near the sentiment to draw your attention to it. I used Archival Ink in Jet Black and Stampin Up's Regal Rose Classic Ink to stamp with.

And here is the very simple back:

The stamp is from a Christmas set from Hobby Lobby. I liked the simple back because it reminded me of the plain backs of the Valentine's that you got when you were a kid. They usually folded over and you had some cute little stickers to close them with. I can not tell you how many times my children folded them the wrong way and put the stickers on. Yikes, those were the toughest stickers to remove without damaging the card!

Now, I must get on to today' s challenge. It is a very cool challenge! I will post my entry shortly.

A little Valentine

2008-01-31T15:06:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for the QKD Round Robin details they are here today: http://pookascrayon.blogspot.com/ This is the location for the next 3 day leg. I will post an entry for that later.
But for now here is a cute little Valentine.

All of the cardstock for this entry is Stampin Up. I used the QuicKutz 2X2 heart die cut to make the scallop, circle and heart on the front of the card. There is crystal glitter on the heart and a clear rhinestone. I used the Stampin Up slit punch to make the closure for this folded card. I cut the Real Red cardstock 3X5 and folded it. Then, I trimed 1/4 of an inch off of the front fold to create the allowance for the closure.

Here's the inside: Be Mine is a Queen Kat Designs stamp and is stamped in Stampin Up's Pretty In Pink Classic ink. The hearts are punch outs from the QuicKutz heart die cut that is also on the card front.

And here's the To: and From: on the back. This stamp is of unknown origin (sorry). It was in one of those Christmas sets from Hobby Lobby that are not marked except for on the package and the package is long gone. This image blurred a little when I cropped the photo but the stamped image is not blurred. I have been very pleased with the Hobby Lobby sets.
See ya later!

Juliet's 3rd challenge

2008-01-30T20:53:00.000-08:00

Details were here http://julietds.blogspot.com/ for today's challenge. I tried to duplicate the colors of the logo and also included a "Kat" and a crown for the Queen of Everything!
The challenges for the next 3 days will be announced here tomorrow. Check back.
All of the cardstock I used were by EK Success. and the stamps are Stampin Up stamps that I have wanted to use ever since these challenges began. No bling on this one--yet!
See ya tomorrow. I have to go link my post!

Juliet's challenge-day 1

2008-01-28T19:36:00.000-08:00

http://julietds.blogspot.com/ here is where you will find the details. This one was a REAL challenge for me since I do not own a crown stamp or thought I did not until late tonight. I searched out clipart and found this lovely queen and printed it out on my printer. The colors are beautiful. My cardstock is Bazzill in an almost cardboard color and pale pink. The clipart has pale pink, flesh tone, soft grape, deep berry and a soft red. You can google closeup of a queen clipart and check it out for yourself if you like. It is truly pretty. I had the pieces but then nothing for a stamped image so I began to dig in my stamp collection and found a stinkin crown stamp with the word Princess under the crown! A Dollar Tree stamp that really could have saved me some scampering had I not buried it so deep. I used Stampin Up's Perfect Plum to stamp the word Princess and a few Paisley images for a background. The Paisley stamp is from Stampabilities. I added some chocolate brads and some chocolate sheer ribbon for shimmer. I will have to make another of these since I teach 2 girls in Young Women on Sunday. They are Daughter's of God and therefore each a Princess.

Well, off to bed for tommorrow brings another Queen Kat Designs challenge!

My DIL sings on Soundclick

2008-01-28T06:48:00.000-08:00

http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=1357921&q=hi

You MUST hear her. The name of the song is For Me Alone. It is beautiful and her voice is amazing. I want you to listen to the music, the sound of Lindsay's voice and the words of the song. She will be pursuing music more when she graduates from college this year. She has so much potential. The song itself will strenghten you. Go now and enjoy! Download it to your MP3 player!

Kelly's challenge

2008-01-27T16:40:00.000-08:00

http://kellyquinn.blogspot.com/ This is Kelly's blog address which you have to go see. She is such a precious person. She has the best recipes and the best links. Well, you just gotta go see for yourself.
The rules are : Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
Open the book to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people.
Funny, the closest book to me was the Ultimate guide to the perfect Card by Linda LaTourelle.
Page 123 is quotes, expressions and sentiments for Son
And the next 3 after the fifth are: My Little Man My Little Prince Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails
Ok, if you read this it means you are tagged. Leave me a comment so I can check your blog for your post, please.
I did learn that the next 3 day leg of the Queen Kat Designs Round Robin of challenges will be here http://julietds.blogspot.com/ starting tomorrow!

Alex's 3rd challenge

2008-01-26T19:10:00.001-08:00

Sew fun! This one took me just a second to decide what I wanted to do. I love the art of using thread on these Marvy punches though I forget what it is called. I believe it's something like Spirelli. Does anyone know? This card is a textured cardstock from Colorbok in pink, white and a dark olive green with a Stampin Up designer paper series that I do not remember the name of. I bet someone knows that! The stamp is from the 6th series of Studio G $1.00 clear stamp sets at Michael's.

Tomorrow is a day of rest but the challenges will continue on Monday. I will post the location as soon as it is final just in case it has to be moved at the last minute again. Thanks for following along and I will be awaiting the challenge details myself. See ya Monday.

Alex's 2nd challenge

2008-01-25T14:31:00.000-08:00

Challenge details here: http://fairyblossoms.typepad.com/ Go get them and create an entry!

Here is my shaker card for today's challenge. It is Stampin Up Real Red cardstock, The Paper Studio's pink polka dot designer paper, a bright pink frame from a mixed media pack from Colorbok and a few punches from Stampin Up, Marvy and even a Cricut bright pink heart die cut. The shaker is filled with crystal glitter and some red, pink, bright pink and white heart punch outs. The fibers are Kat's Style Fibers and you can get them here http://www.katstamps.com/ . The Be Mine stamp can also be found there since it is from a Queen Kat Designs mini stamp set. It is stamped in Stampin Up's Real Red Classic Ink.

I am off to the Souper Stamper Club meeting at Susan's http://www.stampinsusan.com/ Don't be jealous. Get over to her website and find out how you can become a member of our club.

Alex's challenge-day one

2008-01-24T17:45:00.000-08:00

Now this photo came out clear. Why don't they all? I am pleased with this card. It's BRIGHT. I have had my 6 year old reading The Beasty Story on my bed to me as I completed this challenge. 6 year olds bounce while they do everything! (see the blurred sentiment)
The lime cardstock is from a Mixed Media Pack by Colorbok. The lavender (that you can't really tell is lavender) is from a pack of textured cardstock by Crafts Etc. The stamps I used are Butterfly Kisses(a 30 image set) by Papertrey Ink. The inks I used were Stampin Up Lavender Lace and Lovely Lilac. My son told me to add the "purple shiny things". Both of my sons love to make cards for people.
Tomorrow's challenge will be here too http://fairyblossoms.typepad.com/ There's still a lot of fun to be had and stamps to be given away. Join us for the rest of the round robin.

Change in location for the next 3 days of challenges

2008-01-24T12:33:00.000-08:00

There has been a change in the location of the next 3 days of the Queen Kat Designs Round Robin challenges. Details of today's challenge are posted here at Alex's blog http://fairyblossoms.typepad.com/ I just found out about the move myself so I will get to work on my entry and will post it later tonight. Come on join the fun. You could win a great set of stamps.

Bev's Tropical ATC

2008-01-23T18:05:00.000-08:00

Here is my entry for the Tropical ATC card. It's a pale blue cardstock with some brown cardstock "sand". The tree and the flamingo are Jolee's Boutique stickers. Journey is a Delta stamp and it is stamped in black Archival Ink. Kinda fuzzy-my apologies.
The QKD Round Robin moves to a new location tomorrow. Check here for the new challenge http://anamstubbington.typepad.com/ .

Bev's challenge-Day 2

2008-01-22T11:37:00.001-08:00

Use lots of color- I DID. I counted 15 shades of color in the designer paper plus the 2 bright colors of Textured cardstock and 1 more with the Stampin Up Lavender Lace ink. If we are counting the ribbon as another shade then that makes 19 colors on this entry. WOW! The sentiment is a Queen Kat Designs stamp from the Lucky You set. This photo is no where near as bright as this card is. Wish you could hold it in your hands! It is really pretty. The fun challenge details are here today http://sierragrannie.blogspot.com/
If you do not have a Stampin Up design consultant, you can borrow mine. She is fabulous and you can find her here http://www.stampinsusan.com/. We are having a fun, fun, fun Souper Stamper Club meeting this Friday. Listen, a plane ticket, a bus ticket or just a few gallons on gas in your own car would be well spent to come join us. I have honestly been counting down to girl's night out at Susan's. Hope you get in touch with her soon.
See you back here tomorrow with a new entry for tomorrow's Queen Kat design's challenge.

Bev's challenge of the day-use black, white and any shade of grey

2008-01-21T19:39:00.000-08:00

Here's my entry-finally. A mish mash of products that were floating around in my stash. I know that the snowflakes came from Wal-Mart at Christmastime. The Winter Wonder stamp is from a set of Hobby Lobby set and is stamped in Cotton White Staz On Opaque.The ribbon is from the stash of ribbon that Debbie http://studiobeecreations.blogspot.com/ sent me in the blog candy that I won a few months back. The rhinestone brad was in the grab bag that I purchased from Queen Kat Designs store http://www.katstamps.com/shop/. The textured cardstock is from a pack of paper that I bought at Hobby Lobby.
Another fun challenge! Y'all go here http://sierragrannie.blogspot.com/ to participate in the next few days of challenges.
I have new photos of our granddaughter, Journey. I will post them in the morning after I crop them a little. G'night.

Great clearance deal I got at Lowe's

2008-01-21T09:44:00.000-08:00

These great ribbon dispensers were only 2.99. Hubby bought me 2! I have them stacked (they do not lock together but they nest nicely). It did not take me long to fill them up either. Can you see the little slots in the front for the ribbon to feed through. The bottom compartment holds small pieces of ribbon that is not on a spool. So neat!

And these great 6 drawer organizers.He also bought me 2! He got me one for Christmas so I am taking 1 apart and adding 3 drawers to the other 2. I will have 2 9 drawer organizers and they have wheels so they are handy to roll around.

The drawers hold a lot too. I have 13 SU punches in this drawer(yikes, I gotta get more; can't have 13 of anything)

I will be posting my card later tonight for the Queen Kat Designs challenge. Come on back now, you hear!

Queen Kat Designs Round Robin is moving on

2008-01-20T17:38:00.000-08:00

From the 21st to the 23rd you will find the challenge details here: http://sierragrannie.blogspot.com/
I just got them myself so I will be working on an entry for this challenge tonight.
Gotta pull out my black, white and shades of grey(hint, hint)

The Pioneer Woman Cooks and makes me laugh and laugh and laugh

2008-01-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/2007/11/delicious_creamy_mashed_potatoes.html

Y'all have to go read this recipe and more of her other recipes. Her blog is fabulous. Oooops, some people say that I say fabulous a lot. Well, just go check out the recipe and I bet you will be adding The Pioneer Woman to your favorites (like I just did).
Now, I really must go prepare the lesson that I have to teach in the morning at church. Oh my goodness, I have waited until the last minute again but I was REALLY hoping for the 3 inches of promised snow. Darn weather man. It has rained ALL day. I don't know how he sleeps with all the broken promises hanging over his head!

Please watch this and pass this link on for the family of Alex DeVinny

2008-01-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

I happened upon this blog http://rememberingalex.blogspot.com/
I read down to find this video on one of the posts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL7WPylAd5E
I also know a sweet, young girl who suffers from this disease. She has an amazing voice and such a love for God. I pray that He heals her.

Another card for Nancy's challenge---------------the writing's on the fence!

2008-01-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

Challenge details here: http://inkcicles.blogspot.com/
My card is made from the same cardstock paper as my previous entry. The stamps are from Queen Kat Designs Lucky You set and stamped in Stampin Up's Regal Rose ink. I stamped my images and then cut the card to look like fence posts. I attached them to the back slats(you can barely see) with pop dots. The dimension is really nice. This reminded me of some days gone by. Did you ever write on the bathroom walls at school? Shhh. I did! I wrote Steph loves Robin forever and ever. We were boyfriend and girlfriend from 8th grade till just after I graduated high school. Inseparable back then. Well, he is still a friend to my entire family. He finally became a father just over a year ago for the first time. He has a birthday coming(February 7th) So, if you know him... send him a card!

Now that's a BIG television!

2008-01-19T06:49:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have been following my blog awhile or who know me personally, you know my husband has been losing his vision for many months. He struggled to get to work and be successful at hiding just how bad his vision had gotten. Last week, he could not fake it anymore and had to take short-term disability leave. He is having a hard time not doing anything. He can't see to do any of the things he enjoys. Yesterday, we went and got him a 73' television. I just tried to take a photo of it but he and the boys are watching Peter Pan and it glares too bad. It is huge and he still can't see it as good as we can see a normal size tv. He is up wandering the house at all hours of the night because he has not yet gotten used to not being at work on 3rd shift. Somedays I want to sleep in! I don't know what I am going to do with him. He says every morning "What are we doing today?" He will be 55 in September and if the vision loss continues, could be legally blind by then. We are going up to Duke to see a doctor who does some trial things to see if she can help. His appointment is Feb 4th. He has been a hard worker all of his life. His father (former Greenville News Circulation Manager) had him helping with newspaper routes before he was 10 which taught him good work ethics. At times during his first marriage, he worked 3 jobs to support his wife and 6 kids. He is lost without work. Please keep him in your prayers and I promise to update you on the trip to Duke University. Thanks a ton!
I also have an idea for another pink, white and black card for Nancy's challenge so check back later this evening. I will get to work on it and post it later.

Inkcicles challenge-use pink, black and white

2008-01-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

Scroll down for the location of today's challenge in my previous post.
Here is my card for Nancy's challenge for today. It's bright pink cardstock from a Mixed Media Pack by Colorbok. The black cardstock is Textured Cardstock by Crafts etc. The flower is from Queen Kat Designs' Lucky You stamp set. The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set that hopefully someone will recognize and let me know which set to put it back into. The little set of matchbook emery boards were a little something I bought for the attendees of a Mary Kay party that I had a few years ago. I remembered them when I read Nancy's challenge this afternoon and luckily found them under my sink in the bathroom. I knew it would be a perfect attachment to this card. Now, that flower needs a little pink rhinestone but I am all out of pink ones. Sounds like an emergency trip to the new scrapbook store in town in the morning! I know you girls know what I mean. Hope y'all are enjoyin' this round robin with QKD as much as I am. See you back here tomorrow now!

Queen Kat Designs

2008-01-18T12:42:00.000-08:00

********************** My King Cat Adam**************

Here's my King Cat, Boy and my son, Barron. We do not have any Queen Cats. However, the Queen Kat Designs challenge is here today http://inkcicles.blogspot.com/

I will post my entry later today. I just had to share my cute photos.

Do you see my cat's beautiful blue eyes? He is gorgeous and sooo sweet. Unless, of course, you open the door and have food in your hand! He kept trying to eat the strap on my camera because it was hanging down when I took this photo. My granddaughter, Abigail, gave us the cat. She said she would save me a white kitten when her gray momma cat was pregnant. The daddy cat was gray too so we were not worried about having to take a kitten. Boy was the only white kitten with gray markings that she had. Lucky for us, it was a male kitten. We (Nana and Papa) could not say no when she brought Boy to us.

Snow day-view out my back door today.

2008-01-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

I do not even understand why but I had no internet most of the day. Then late this afternoon, I had limited internet. I could not go to my own blogspot and several other hot spots that I visit daily. Funky internet.
The QKD challenges that I have been doing is here http://inkcicles.blogspot.com/ today.
I had a long day. Moved some furniture around. Think I overdid it. My back is achey. See y'all tomorrow.

You Made My Day!

2008-01-16T18:41:00.000-08:00

I want to thank Laura The Stampin' Soldier for giving me the You Make My Day Award. She is so precious. Please visit her blog here... http://www.lauraevangeline.blogspot.com/ And as the rules state, here are my 10 nominations for the "You Make My Day Award"

1. Susan Moore http://www.stampinsusan.com/ (This link has been corrected. Please try again)
2. Joan Wood http://www.joanwood.blogspot.com/
3. Michele Kovack http://chelemom.blogspot.com/
4. Kim Hughes http://paperhugs.typepad.com/paper_hugs/
5. Tracy Durcan http://durcandesigns.typepad.com/
6. Cambria Turnbow http://cambriaturnbow.blogspot.com/
7. Kurtis Amundson http://stampinkub.com/blog/
8. Tanis http://paperprincessatplay.blogspot.com/
9. Bela http://belascreatingplace.blogspot.com/
10. Kendra http://kendrawietstock.blogspot.com/

These are blogs that I have in My Favorites. I visit them almost daily.

Award rules: Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on.