GIRL'S ROAD TRIP

Greetings Stampers and Happy Friday!! Hope you have something fun planned for this weekend. We are staying pretty much close to home with the exception of going over my dear friend Michelle's home to play on Saturday.....I'm REALLY looking forward to that!

Had such a busy week having fun that Friday kinda snuck up on me! Monday I had my stamp class, Tuesday was our anniversary and a church activity for the kids in the evening, Wednesday was spent out of town (more about that in a minute :-D), Thursday was my scrapbooking club in the morning and the kids' Tae Kwon Do class and church youth group in the evening....Whew!!! What a week!!! Fun, but BUSY!!!

Yes, Tuesday was our anniversary!! 14 GREAT years!!! While the kids were at their Boys Night Out and Girls Night Out events at church.....Steve and I went to dinner. We are burger lovers and have gone out for burgers almost every anniversary!! Tuesday we went to Farmer Boys.....now they have GOOD burgers!!! Anyways......we are always on the prowl for good burger joints....so if you know of any super burger places, please let me know!!!! Incidentally, we were going to break with our burger tradition and go to the Olive Garden, but the wait was over 30 minutes (and on a Tuesday, who would have thought!!!). We wouldn't have had time to really enjoy it so we left....I guess we'll just have to go another day!!! Which means our burger tradition is still in tact!

Ok, now for Wednesday.....ROAD TRIP TO IKEA!!!!! Karen, Gloria and I got up bright and early and drove 3 HOURS to Ikea!!! (I know...we're NUTS!!) But we also felt that it was our obligation to fulfill a cultural void in my friend Karen's life.....she had never been. Half the fun was watching her and hearing all her "Ooohhh, look at this.", "Ahhhh, I could put a Decor Element on that." and "That would make a great stamping surface." We HAD A BLAST!!! In fact, we are ready to go again......and we've got a couple of more friends that want to join us. We might have to charter a bus :-D (just joking, I think!) Here's a picture of Gloria (on the left) and Karen before we went in.

I should have taken a picture of the car when we were all loaded and ready to go home! We had it loaded up with TREASURE!!!

Well.....I better get going.

Until next time,

Blessings........Cindy

FROSTY THE SNOWMEN

Hello!! Thanks for taking the time to visit!!!

I LOVE Sundays!! They are my FAVORITE days of the week!!! It's the day I get to go to church, see my brothers and sisters in Christ, and just get rejuvenated for the week ahead.

Speaking of the week ahead.....my stamp club meets tomorrow night! I always look forward to seeing the ladies in my club.

This week we are making the Christmas quilt card (from this post) and then we are making this snowman card.

This card isn't very photogenic.....it actually looks way cuter in person!

The card's base is a half sheet of Ballet Blue topped with a piece of vellum that has been run through my Big Shot using a snowflake embossing folder. The snowmen are stamped with Chocolate Chip craft ink, embossed with clear embossing powder, and then colored using a variety of SU markers. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes, stamped in Real Red, punched out using the word window punch and layered on top of a piece of Ballet Blue that was punched using the modern label punch. Both the snowmen and the sentiment are mounted using dimensionals. This is a very cheery looking card!! Makes me want to smile :-)

Well......I am still somewhat recovering from my flu-bug and it is past my bedtime....so I better get to gettin!

Until next time,

Blessings.......Cindy

CHRISTMAS QUILT CARD

Happy Friday!! Hope you are all looking forward to your weekend.

We have had a rough week at our home.....Andy and I have both been sick with the flu pretty much all week, although we are on the mend now. I HATE being sick!!! What makes it worse is that Steve had vacation all this week!!! Poor guy has been having to do everything since I've been down sick.....he hasn't complained, but I feel like it totally wrecked his vacation :-( He's GREAT!!! I will have to work at making it up to him!!

My stamp club meets this coming Monday and since I was feeling ok yesterday, I did get a chance to experiment. I made another quilt card....this time for Christmas......I'm on a quilting kick. I think we will do this card for Monday....

I used Merry Moments DSP for my quilt.....punched with the 1-3/8" square punch. The card's base is Real Red, layered with Old Olive. The scallop square and the embossed square were cut with my nestabilities. The snowflake and small tree are from the SU! Merry Details Sizzlits die that is in the Holiday Mini. The Mistletoe ribbon is also from the Holiday Mini. And I need to add that this card couldn't have been made without my wonderful BIG SHOT!!!

I am also working on making an origami wreath on Monday. I saw one that my friend Karen made and it's pretty cool!!! They will make great tree decorations or you can put them on a gift. I made one out of scraps that turned out pretty good.......but I will wait and show you one after I make it out of Christmas paper. Sorry!

Until next time,

Blessings........Cindy

PPA14 SUBMISSION

Hi! Hope you all had a great Lord's Day!

Well.....this evening was the first time that I used my new space for stamping!!! I'm not completely moved in, but I was just itching to do something.....also, Pals Paper Arts is offering some totally awesome blog candy and to enter you needed to submit a card. Plus, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month....the card had to have pink on it.

Anyway.....I have been wanting to try and make a quilt card for some time now....so I thought I would combine the two. The result isn't one of my best cards, but I was pleased with how the quilting part turned out.

This card is also my submission for the blog candy......I made it out of Riding Hood Red and Pink Pirouette of the retired InColors from 2008-2009 and some retired DSP scraps. The Riding Hood Red ribbon is also retired.....I'm still in mourning for the old InColors :-(

These quilt cards are EXCELLENT for using scraps because you only need a piece big enough to fit into a square punch. I used SU!'s 1-3/8" square punch.

Well.....I think the dust is beginning to settle around here. Today we got rid of the last of the furniture that we had to clear out for the new stuff. .... Steve is off all this week and we are going to work at getting "our world" in tip top shape! Steve is good at helping me stay on task.....I can get distracted very easily!!

Until next time,

Blessings.........Cindy

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

BEWARE!!!! Well, just in case you were wondering....Yes, we survived the Halloween Party last night. There was LOTS of eating, screaming, eating, squealing, eating, and fun! They are so funny to watch......oh to be in Jr. High again........WAIT! What am I thinking!!! No thanks!

Here's a few pictures from last night......First of all.....What would Halloween be without candy ?!

This is all of them eating dinner......there were 15 kids total. Steve and I were definitely outnumbered!!

It was pretty chilly (for us in California that is) last night, so here's a picture of my favorite fire fighter......He kept the fire nice and hot.....just like him :-D

I didn't really get any group shots of the boys.....boys are not ones who stand around in a group and hug one another like girls.....The boys were busy playing volleyball, soccer, wrestling, trying to scare the girls so they would scream (that wasn't very hard), eating, and just generally running around. So here are a couple of pictures of the girls......

They all had a good time last night......in fact, I can't get them to go home :-) Four girls spent the night! Girls are SO FUNNY!!! They LOVE to talk....and talk all at the same time. If you don't have a daughter you should borrow one for awhile......it will make you really appreciate your sons and the sound of silence!!!

Have a great Saturday and Halloween!!! Until next time....

Blessings........Cindy

CLASS CARDS

Happy Friday everyone! It's Halloween's Eve........don't be too scared this weekend! Steve and I are gearing up for a frightful night though. Tonight the kids are having some of their school friends over for a Halloween Party.....oooooo scary!! Not really!!! They are going to eat, eat, eat and eat, play volleyball, eat some more, and then we are planning on having a big bonfire and roasting marshmallows so they can all go home totally sick to their stomachs from all the junk they will have consumed. But, I'm sure they will have a good time gorging themselves :-)

Well....I didn't fulfill my goal of getting all moved into my new space yesterday, but I did make some progress.

I wanted to show you a card that I made on Monday at stamp class. I think it is quite elegant. It is just black and white. We stamped the image with craft black ink and embossed it.....and the DSP is the Night & Day Specialty paper from the Holiday mini catalog.

And as an added bonus.....it even contains a gift! We made a bookmark that is tucked in behind the front panel. We made the bookmark out of the Stampin' Up Two Tags die and then covered it with a window sheet that had also been die cut....the window sheet is included in the Night & Day Specialty DSP from the Holiday mini. We added a rub-on and a bit of ribbon and voila!! you have a fabulous little bookmark!!

I think this card is just so beautiful!!! I know I probably say this a lot.....but.....this is one of my favorites!!!

Well, I better get on my broom and start flying around getting ready for the Halloween Party.

Until next time.

Blessings......Cindy

END OF CONSTRUCTION ZONE!!!!

Well, the end is near!! Yeah! Last night Steve put the last of the drawer units in place. Now it's up to me to get moved in!! I was so excited last night that I started putting things away.....once I actually start stamping I might find that I will have to move some things around, but for right now.....wooohooo.....I'm thrilled!!!

Ok.....here is how my stamping area will look (minus the junk, of course).....

Here are some of the drawers that I organized.....These will be home to embellishments.....

This cubby is now home to my sewing machine and Big Shot....

Next to that, the drawers hold my Big Shot accessories and dies.....Top drawer has pens, camera, and other miscellaneous stuff that I use.....like my chap stick peeking out there on top.

Right next to my work station are drawers that hold my adhesives, markers, cutter, Mat Pack, etc. Look! I even have some EMPTY drawers!!! Probably not for long though :-)

Today my goal is to get moved in. It will be SO NICE to have our home back in order after having it in shambles for almost a month.

Thanks for checking in, reading my blog, and for leaving me sweet comments and emails!!! Sometimes I find it incredible that anybody other than family would even be interested :-) I have truly enjoyed "meeting" new people from across the USA and even in the UK (yes, I mean you..Lesley) who I hope one day I will have the privilege of meeting.

Until next time,

Blessings to you.......Cindy