Stuff and stuff and a card (that I don't like)

Hi everyone!  Ever get into a great card making groove and then, POOF!  Gone?  Where did my mojo go?  I have a card to share, but I really don't like it.  The sad thing is it took me TWO DAYS to make.  Yep.  I kept coming back to it and tinkering.  In the end, it's "not all that and a bag of chips", but I thought I would share one of my, "I don't like it, and it will go straight into the birthday card stash" cards.  lol.

It's got good bones.  Good colors.  Just OFF.  Oh well.  The balloons are from Verve's Birthday Bash, the sentiment is from Big Wish and the frame is from PTI's Framed set.

I also have a couple of random pics to share.  This is what happens when Oregon GETS NO SUN OVER THE SUMMER!  What up with that?  The carrots in my garden TRIED.  Yes, they did.  I put the "larger" ones to the right, we ate those.  Still pretty tasty, and my boys got a kick out of eating them with the greenage on the bottom, "just like a bunny"!!  Don't these look like carrots for Barbie dolls?

Remember my garage remodel?  Here is a reminder picture of my favorite part.

Well, the final touch was to get a large piece of carpet!!  You see, my little tootsies are spoiled and don't want to touch concrete in the winter (yikes) on the way to and from the laundry.  So, I went to my local carpet store and bought this large remnant for $25 dollars (it's a high quality residential carpet, not commercial grade).  I cut out around the washer and dryer (with a utility knife) to make a perfect fit.  LOVE this carpet.  I have been asked and YES, I will vacuum it!  And when it gets all goobered up over the winter, it can easily be replaced with another in the spring!

See that laundry hamper to the left of the washer?  LOVE it!  It was $13 at IKEA, the Antonius.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

OK, I should have been making cards, but...

...look what I did this morning!!! I picked blackberries with my friend and boys. I was born and raised in Oregon and let me tell ya, I can pick me some blackberries! August is THE month around these parts!


For those of you who are new to pickin' blackberries, here are some tips:

1. Bring a 2x8 board at least 4 feet long, this allows you to reach the berries at the top of the bush. You lay it down and climb up on it!
2. Wear long sleeves and long pants -even in HOT weather. There are so many thorns on these bushes you will tear your arms and legs apart otherwise.
3. When you see a bunch of berries on a branch, grab the greenest berry and use that to pull the branch to your container. There are no thorns on it and since it's green it won't come off easily and it will give you time to clear out all the black ones off the bunch.
4. Pick your berries into containers that are relatively flat. That way the weight of the berries on top won't crush the bottom ones too badly.
5. Bring a toy of some sort for the youngest to play with. After the novelty of "helping mom" wears off they will get bored and WHINE until you get back to the car.

and last but not least...
6. DON'T put your full berry container on an ANT HILL! Those little buggars are hard to shake off in the middle of nowhere!

Now on to what I should have been doing today!!



Anni-VERVE-sary Sketch Challenges
Julee designed five brand new sketches for this release. Play along by this Friday, August 14 at 6PM Eastern for your chance to win our ENTIRE release! Check out all the sketches and the deets on this thread in our SCS forum.

Diva Giveaways
Throughout the week, the Divas will be posting giveaway threads in our SCS forum. Participate along with them (it might be a challenge, a game, a question or some other activity) and you might win $25 in Verve Bucks, good for anything in the Verve Store. A few Divas are scheduled to post each day Monday - Thursday, so there's 13 chances to win! I will be posting mine tomorrow!!

Sneak Previews
Sneak previews officially start right here on the Verve blog tomorrow. Each day this week, the Divas will be bringing you some Verve-alicious peeks at the sets releasing this weekend! Plus there'll be more chances to win some stamps!

Anni-VERVE-sary Release Party
Last, but not least, our release party will be this Friday night (August 14) at 8PM Eastern. We'll be revealing the 7 new sets and 2 plain jane singles, as well as chatting and announcing all of our release week winners. Be there or be square! Oh, WHERE you ask? Over on the Release Party thread in our forum!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Non-stamping related post -some vacation pics!

Hi everyone! I am back from my short vacation. What a blast we had! Oh, the Great Wolf Lodge does it right. The waterpark is amazing. Lots of stuff for every age to enjoy. And super safe -lots of staff, lifeguards and first aid stations for those slips and scraped knees (yep, we had a visit there before we left). So, before I get back to reality (clean the house, grocery shopping, checking emails and making cards), I thought I would share some pictures.

Here is a pic of my 3 boys in one of the kiddie pool areas. Daniel (left), Bill (center) and Ryan (right).

Here is a pic of me and Ryan (my fearless 3 year old) after going down the "yellow" slide -one of the big boy/adult slides!

Here is a pic of Daniel (5 yo) in the wave pool -this pool has waves generated all day long and was Daniel's favorite place!

Here is a pic of Ryan going down the "purple" slide -one of the kiddie slides.

Here is a pic of me and Ryan in the wave pool.

Thanks for stopping by. And before I forget, there are only 2 more days for the fabulous Pre-sale of the crochetted flowers at the Jacksonbelle Embellishments store! A pack of 8 sells for $8 and they are made by the fabulous stamper, Melody (lacyquilter on SCS). You can see the deets and a card sample on this post!

Limelight post and a little R and R

Hi everyone! I am on a mini family vacation! Yep, right now I am on my way to getting in my swimsuit (gasp!) and going down a water slide with a screaming 3 year old!! LOL!! Bill and I are taking the boys to Great Wolf Lodge in WA! Woohoo, we are soooo excited, it's the first time we've done anything like this with the boys (now that Ryan is 3 1/2 we can start doing these things). Great Wolf Lodge is a "northwoods-themed resort featuring an eight-story waterslide and is one of the largest indoor waterparks in America". It's basically Heaven for kids!! Everyday for the last week Daniel has asked if it's the day we are leaving :-)

In case you are curious, here is the link: Great Wolf Lodge

AND today is my first post as the Flourishes Limelight Designer!! Here is a little peek of one of my projects. You'll have to hop on over to the Flourishes Blog to see everything.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back on Wednesday!

Some scrap pages to share

OK, I am not sure how to post these pictures, so bear with me. I scrap 12x12 side by side pages. So, I will try to load them that way. They look side by side on my screen, then when I post them, the right page drops -sigh...


I will share 2 sets of pages. Both are of my boys (the subject of 99% of my pages!), Daniel and Ryan. If you click on the picture, it will get larger.

These first pages are of them playing in the mud in our backyard:
























These pages are of the Airport Museum in Tillamook, Oregon.

Some supplies used:
Backyard pages: Creative Memories DP and stickers
Airport pages: MME DP and frames, SU star and corner punches

Back to reality and a NEW blog banner!

Hi everyone! Whew, what a whirlwind week. I Spent the majority of it reading the Twilight books -made it thru Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and 1/2 way thru Breaking Dawn and saw the movie 2 times!! Ahhh, Edward...

Yesterday, I spend 11 hours at the Portland Expo for a Creative Memories Celebrate! which is an all day CROP from 9am to 8pm! Oh, it was fun, this is my 3rd year going. There are over 1000 women all in one giant room working on scrapbooks. I finished 10 pages (with about 6 I am happy with). My GF did 30!! She scraps a bit different than me, so I am happy to have completed 10.

To give you an idea of size, here is a picture taken from the isle looking to the left. There another section of seating to my right too!! I told you it was BIG!!

So, I am off to pick up the boys from my mom's and have several cards I have to get made, so back to reality for me. But, what a lovely break! Thanks Stephanie Meyer!! And THANKS to Jodi for finally convincing me to read these books and now she has another person to share her Edward obsession with.

And lastly..... did you notice my NEW BLOG BANNER AND SIGGY? For those of you with the Google Reader, click in and check it out. I LOVE it!! The talented Jami (sgtStamper) made it for me. I soooo love it! I saw what she did with Amy and Tosh's banner and HAD to contact her about doing one for me. She is fast, amazingly talented and SUPER sweet! Thanks Jami, hugs to you!

Be back later. I may be coarsed into posting a pic or two of some scrapbook pages I did yesterday!

Twilight progress

OK, I am now almost finished with Eclipse (have less than 50 pages to go). I to go grocery shopping (why do we have to eat?) yesterday and that cut into my reading time -LOL! I also saw the movie and am embarassed to say this 40 year old woman is IN LOVE with a 19 year old FICTIONAL vampire!! Ahhh, Edward...

My friend is coming over for an all day of making cards (scheduled this before my Twilight decision), so I won't get a good dent into Breaking Dawn until tomorrow.

Thank you everyone for the comments and emails! For those of you who have asked, YES reading the series is worth it. I also read all the Anne Rice vampire chronicles and actually (gasp) like them a bit more. Two very different styles of writing and story telling. The Twilight series is definitely a fast paced easy read and very compelling. So, if you want a great compelling set of stories to sink your teeth into (pun INtended), definitely start Twilight!!

Check in later!

Taking a "Twilight" break

Ok, it was only a matter of time. EVERYTHING it seems is all about Twilight!! My GF Jodi (Kharmagirl) and the entire Unity Stamps DT rave about this series of books, the movie, and have you TRIED to get FaceBook Flair without it being something Twilight related?!?

Anyway, at the last Verve Stamps release party, I was chatting and shyly admitted I had never read the books... well, the girls informed me I simply MUST make the time! So, my mom has the boys staying at her house this entire week, and I thought this is it!

Yesterday, I read Twilight (LOVED it, fabulous, just as everyone said!!). I couldn't help myself, last night around 9PM, I drove to my sister's house and borrowed New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn (the rest of the Twilight saga). I figure, what the heck? I will spend the next several days doing NOTHING but reading -no stamping!! Make up for lost time. Oh, I will be back tomorrow to post a card for the Jacksonbelle Tuesday challenge, but that's it!!

Have a great day -I will!

Typical day for me

This is a typical day at my house...
Daniel: "mom, can you help me with the alligator?"

Me: "uhhh... what happened?" (almost too afraid to ask)

Daniel: "HE ATE FOUR FROGS and I CAN'T GET THEM OUT!!!"

Me: "FOUR?!?! Uh, OK, let me try to get them out..."

Here are some pictues to illustrate!

OK, WHO invented HOLLOW toy animals?????

Have a great day! I will be back later to post my sketch card!!