Life update

Hi there everyone! I usually don’t share personal things here on my blog but today I thought I would share something big that happened for our family. After being in our house for more than 19 years, we moved and bought a house in the country. We’ve wanted to move to a house with property for a very long time but with three kids we decided years ago to live in a subdivision. Well with our youngest son moving from middle school to high school we decided to make the big move and we couldn’t be happier. This is the reason that I haven’t been creating and sharing here on my blog, since we started house shopping in early spring and the whole process was very stressful.

We’ve been in our new house less than two weeks and love the small town feel and peaceful atmosphere. We’re still unpacking boxes and getting settled and even though it was hard leaving our old house and my craft studio with built in cabinets and counter tops, we’re here to stay. I’ve been having fun creating a crafting space here at our new house and hope to share some pictures and video soon but within the next few days I thought it would be fun to share the video I made of my old crafting space so please stay tuned.

Friend

 Hello!  Sorry I've been missing in action around here, things have been crazy.  Today I have a card that I created a week or so ago for a dear friend of mine, I used the Papertrey Ink stamp set Bitty Bouquets and a bunch of bright colors to create what was hopefully a cheerful thank you card.

I started out with a pure poppy card base then added a layer of summer sun.  I stamped my friend sentiment over to the upper right side of my white card stock and then masked it off with a strip of scrap paper.  Then I randomly stamped each of the flower and stems in different colors.  I used limeade ice and simply chartreuse for the stems and pure poppy, royal velvet, daffodil delight, lavender lace and only orange for the flowers.

One of the reasons I've been so busy is that our daughter graduated from high school this last Friday.  We are so proud of her!  She is such a great kid with a kind and loving heart and we are blessed to have her as our daughter.

 The picture below, on the left is her on her first day of kindergarden and the right graduation day.  As a scrapbooking mom I've taken pictures of each of my kids leaving the door on their first day of school for each year.

This picture is of all three of my kids.  Our oldest son is 20, our daughter 17 and our youngest 8.  They grow up fast, it seems like only yesterday they were all babies.

That's it for me, thanks for stopping by!

SSSC#218 - Hello There

 Hello there!  If you're a follower or subscriber to my blog, you might be wondering where I've been over the last month or more.  It's a long story and I usually don't share my private life here on my blog but here goes...(I'll try and keep this short).  About a year and a half ago my youngest son was diagnosed with scoliosis, the first doctor that we took him to recommended that he wear a back brace to try and correct my son's curvature.  The doctor did think it was odd that 1.) My son was so young to have the curvature he had (5-6 years old) 2.) He was male as most cases of scoliosis are female and 3.) That my son had a lot of muscle stiffness.   After many month's of wearing a back brace with no success in holding his curve or improving his scoliosis, we were recommended to another pediatric orthopedic doctor who was wonderful.  This doctor was not only great with my son and my husband and I but also recommend that my son have an MRI.  Having an MRI literally saved my son's life, because the results showed that my little guy had a three inch tumor within his spinal canal and that he had what is called a sirnix (an abscessed filled with spinal fluid) putting pressure on all his nerve endings within his spine and pressure on the spine it self which in turn caused his scoliosis to become so sever. On March 28th my little guy had extensive back surgery (he's seven years old) to remove the tumor.  I Thank God for giving us the talented pediatric neurosurgeons that operated on my son, they truly are miracle workers. And so thankful to all of our family and friends who were there to help support us and pray for our son. After two weeks of waiting to hear from pathology, we were blessed with the news that the tumor they took out was benign.  But because only 95% of the tumor could be removed during surgery and the chance that the 5% that's left may grow back, he may still require radiation.  As of today he is doing so incredibly well, it's amazing, he's almost back to his old self again. Soooo...that's what I've been up to over the last month.

As far as my card goes for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, I kept it fairly simple.  I used the Papertrey Ink stamp sets Ruby Rose (I just love that set) along with the coordinating dies and the sentiment is from Mini Blooms.  The colors are Raspberry Fizz (PTI), Summer Sun, Pink Pirouette and Kiwi Kiss.  Karen's thrown me off with this tilty top panel sketch, I kept tilting my head to try and make it look right.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Sketch Stampers have created:

• Dana White
• Jackie Pedro
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron 
• Karen Motz
• Lisa Henke
• Lori Tecler  
• Sarah-Jane Kalé
• Tracy Clemente
• Vicki Burdick  
• Barbara Anders
• Jenny Peterson
   

A Cup of Tea...

 Hello!  Today I'm sharing a card that I created for my sister-in-law using two new stamps sets I recently purchased while at a scraping/stamping trade show.  The stamps are by Darcie's Heart & Home and I had never heard of this stamp company before but when I saw the two stamp sets I ended up purchasing with teacups, tea sentiments and birds with fancy vintage hats I knew I need them.  The stamp sets Bird Day and Cup of Tea reminded me of the tea party that my sister-in-law and I threw for the book club we're in and I knew I needed to make her a card using these fun stamps.

For my card I used the two Darcie stamp sets along with some Sky's the Limit My Mind's Eye designer paper, two My Favorite Things rolled roses with pearls which I sponged with ink, some Taylored Expressions stems, lace trim and ribbon.  The little bird was colored using Copic markers and I added some crystal effects to the roses on her hat, once she was completed I added her perched on the edge of the teacup with foam tape.

As I wrote above, I'm in a book club with a group of such wonderful women two of whom are my sister-in-laws.  Each of us share a common bond, which is a love for reading historical fiction.  Our book club meets once a month to discuss the book we've read and to enjoy each others company with laughter, good food and sometimes a glass of wine (or two, lol).

Last year while our book club was reading the Tea Rose trilogy by Jennifer Donnelly (such excellent books) we decided to have a tea party themed book club meeting.  So below I'm sharing a few of the pictures from our tea.

 If you have a chance to read these books, whether you love historical fiction or not you should.  The writing is excellent and you'll fall in love with the characters.

Between my sister-in-law Ann and I we were like gitty little girls preparing for our tea party, it was so much fun.  I know my grandma who has past would be so pleased to know that most of what you see here in these pictures was hers, pieces that I cherish, from the dishes, teacups, silver, right down to her lace gloves and tea strainer.

We had everything, from cucumber sandwiches, fresh strawberries, scones with fresh cream and jam to shortbread cookies and truffles, it was amazing! 

As a little gift for each of the women in our book club, I made pendant necklaces (see photo below) with a quote about reading and wrapped each necklace in tissue and then into a parchment bag which I decorated with a stamped PTI teapot and bakers twine and placed at each setting.  I also had these fun little wire chairs which I thought would be sweet as place markers on the table.  I wrapped up mints inside tulle, added a tag with each woman's name and tied on some roses.

I feel so blessed to have the women in my bookclub in my life and to be a part of our group.

 Thanks for stopping by!  

Sympathy Cards

Happy Thursday everyone!  Today I have a few sympathy cards I had created a while ago for some friends who had lost loved ones.  I used the Papertrey Ink stamp set Blooming Button Bits and kept them clean and simple. 

Supplies: Blooming Button Bits, Nestabilities dies, Ribbon, Buttons, Square Lattice Impressions Folder, Scallop Trim border punch, Corner Rounder, Dimensionals.  Colors: Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze, So Saffron.

Today was also my youngest son's first day of preschool.  He was so excited to go and start his day at school and he did great!  He had a fun morning and can't wait to go again next Tuesday.

Back to School

Well today was the first day back to school for our teenage kids, our oldest is now in 10th grade in high school and our daughter is in 8th grade her last year of middle school.  Our youngest who is three years old starts morning pre-school next week just two days a week and can't wait to go.  On the other hand our teenagers would prefer sleeping in and enjoying their summer more if they could.  I know every parent says it but I can hardly believe how much our kids have grown and changed just even within this last year.

I guess mom is going to have to start getting to bed a little early just like the kids if she plans on making it up at 5:00 AM each morning, ugh!

Mojo Monday - Branch Out

Today's card is for the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #113 and uses the stamp set Branch Out which is on the SU dormant list. I had this card ready to post yesterday but for some reason Blogger was giving me trouble unloading my picture. This card is actually very sparkly in real life because every falling snowflake in the main image has Dazzling Diamonds on it. The Bashful Blue panel was stamped with snowflakes from the Christmas Punch stamp set and the Brocade Blue panel was embossed using the Perfect Details Texturz Plate.

Supplies: Branch Out, Christmas Punch, Best Yet, Large oval punch, Scallop oval punch, Dazzling Diamonds, Ribbon, Brads, Perfect Details Texturz Plate, Sponge. Colors: Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue, Real Red.

This last Sunday was the birthday party for our boys which was lots of fun, its still hard for me to believe how fast their both growing.

Have a great day!

Our New Addition

Meet Charlie the new addition to our family, he's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and is almost 3 months old. He's a sweet, lovable puppy who has a calm disposition and loves to be cuddled.

A Captured Moment

Happy Saturday everyone! I don't often post with pictures about my family but today I wanted to share a cute moment with you.
Over the past few days I've been busy with kids, my two older children (14 & 11) have had half days of school with conferences, baseball practice, dance class and more. In between I've snuck in some creating but just haven't had time to post until today.
Today my youngest had his very first swim class and loved it and afterwards we took all the kids to our local garden center where there were baby ducks, rabbits an egg hunt and a bunch of Easter fun. Connor (2) was so sweet with this duckling who kept peeping and crying for his mother. At first he was afraid of the duckling but once it started crying he started talking to it and saying "it's OK, don't cry", it was so sweet.

Birthday Fun

This last Sunday was the birthday party for our sons so I thought I would post a few pictures. Zach technically turns 14 this coming Saturday the 22nd and Connor turned 2 on the 15th so being that their birthdays are a week apart we celebrated both of them together. I think everyone had a nice time, we had dinner, cake and ice cream and watch the boys open their gifts.

Zach got a kick out of his sister giving him a pretend shaving kit for kids and Connor had a blast playing with his balloons after everyone left.

Our Halloween

These are a few pictures of my kids from Halloween, what a group shot, lol. Our oldest son who is going to be 14 this month didn't really want to go trick-or-treating this year but his friends all talked him into going and of course he had to go as something mom didn't care for. Our youngest son Connor (the little monkey) LOVED Halloween, he was so cute walking up to every ones door saying trick-or-treat and thank you. He would stop to look at all the carved pumpkins and spooky stuff at all the houses, he was really taking it all in and having fun.
It was a beautiful night for trick-or-treating, it was around 50 degrees with a warm breeze. All in all it was a very fun Halloween!