MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!! The hustle and bustle of the holiday season has kicked in and I have been busy as a bee. My daughter works downtown at a clothing store, and all the young kids who help out during the Christmas rush decided they could not work yesterday or today. The owner is a friend of mine and she was frantic about Carre being the only one there to wrap presents, so I told her I would help out. They were slow yesterday, and I only had to be there about 2 hours, but today will be a different story. I have everything ready to put in the oven today, and hubby will take care of that. I spent Saturday baking and putting together goodie treats for the neighbors. I only have to pick up a few things today at the store downtown, and I am ready.
I participated in a Play it Forward several weeks ago, and I received my "happy" last week. It was these images from Patti
http://hugsnstuff.blogspot.com/
The object of the game is to keep "happies" going all around. It is now my turn to offer a play it forward. If you would like to participate, leave a comment. I will pick 3 names and I will send each of you a "happie". You in turn will offer it on your blog and you will have to send to those wanting to play. It is really fun, and I hope I get some good participation. It can be anything, images, ribbon, paper, embellishments, whatever you would like. Hope to hear from you soon. God bless ya'll.
Merry Christmas!! My little one had his 3rd grade play last night and he was Santa. These are some of the fun pictures from the night. The first one is him in his suit. The school supplied the suit, but it fit me. I had to make it fit him. I made him a bolster out of pillows that he could slide on and off. When he got to school for the morning performance, he could not fit in his desk. Check out those bare feet. It was 70 degrees here that morning and he was so hot, but he was a real trooper and did not fuss. He did wear shoes in the play. He looks like he has been squished in a compactor, and made into a miniature Santa. The next pic is an upclose of his face. I love the glasses. The last is him with his elf ( had several elves at first, but they would not learn their parts, so the music teacher fired them, he said) and his reindeer. It was a great play and the kids did wonderful. The title was "40 Winks for Christmas."
Now I can finish my shopping and start cooking. It has really been a hectic week, but the weekend should be calmer. The big kids are out of school, and everyone did wonderful with their grades. We have 1 semester of nursing school down and boy am I glad. Little buddie gets out Tuesday. Mu oldest is home for the holidays and he and Carre's boyfriend are heavy into hunting. We are going out to eat and celebrate exams being over with my daughter in a little while, so I guess I better go for now. I will see ya tomorrow with some cards I am finishing as gifts sets for teachers and friends. Take care and God bless ya'll!!
This card is the one I submitted to the only challenge I had time to do at the Bella Ball. It was challenge BB-7 given by Gina K. The sketch is great. I have done two other cards with this sketch since then. The card stock is from my stash, but the designer paper is from DaisyD's. The stamp is Huggiebella from Stampin Bella, and I understand Em has some new things on her blog, go see. The sentiment is from one of my MFT stamps, and the crotched flower is from Imaginisce. I love this paper!!! My best friend from highschool has remarried and moved to Atlanta and this weekend she and her new husband came home to her parents. They gave them a wedding reception at the country club and after it was over, we all went out for dinner. It was just the 4 of us and we had a blast. He is really nice and if anyone deserves a nice life, it is her. Get ready for this----he has to travel abroad sometimes with his job, so she went with him to Amsterdam, and on the way home, they stopped in Paris and got married!!!! I made this card to send to her telling her what fun we had!!
I tried Jen del Muro's sketch challenge http://www.iheart2stamp.com/ for the first time and this is my submission. The CS, DP, elements and ribbon are from my monthly kit from Paper Posies http://www.paperposies.com/. The DP is made by 7gypsies. The stamps are from Sweet and Sassy Stamps by Korin Sutherland. These are new and she has some great stuff over there. If you have not visited her new store, then go and try this link: http://sweetnsassystamps.com/. I am fairly new to all these challenges, but I believe I am going to get addicted soon. These are great for ideas and it seems to get my creative juices going. I am on card 4 for this a.m.!!!!
Well, I have not disappeared off the face of the earth. My surgery took a lot more out of me than I thought it would. I spent the rest of last week lying around basically doing nothing. I did make this tag for a friends little girl though. They are getting a surprise trip to Disney World from Santa, and she wanted luggage tags for the kids. This one is for her 3 y/o. All the cs and dp are from Close To My Heart. The little girls clothes are paper pierced, even her bow!! The eyelets are CTMH and the ribbon is from my stash, unknown sources. I cut the initials out with my Sizzix.
Last night was the monthly SIYJ over at Paper Pretties 
I had a wonderful life moment today, and I needed it worse than you can ever imagine. We had a very light day at work today and we only ran the call teams. The house supervisor called for a 2nd tech to come to OB and help with a stat c-section. I did not have one available, so I went upstairs to see what was going on. When I walked in the door, the physician on call said she had a woman in labor and the baby had gotten into distress and we had to go now. She said , you know how to scrub, come on and I did without even thinking. I have not scrubbed a c-section in years, and really only scrubbed to assist a few times in the past 10 years!! We delivered a big, healthy baby boy in about 12 minutes. It was cool!!! Mom was awake and she was great. She was thanking everyone for doing things so fast and helping her. It was a life moment for sure.
In honor of this little one, I posted this card. I did this several weeks ago for a challenge, but was waiting closer to Christmas to post it. I think today is the perfect day for it. The entire card is from the Everlasting paper packet from Close to My Heart. The other item on the card that is not CTMH are the baubles from Stampin Bella. The stamp and sentiments are in the Let Us Adore Him set. The sentiment on the inside of the card that you can barely see in the bottom right corner is the scripture Luke 2:12. The colors used are Cranberry, Ponderosa Pine, and Desert Sand. I hope ya'll have moments like this in your life. Take care and God bless ya'll!!
I would like to wish ya'll a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving. I hope your day is filled with love and happiness with family and friends. I have been cooking all morning and this is my first break. We plan on eating with my sister-in-law at 1 and with my family here at 6 tonight. I am on call, but so far things are quiet. It is a crisp cool day her. The temperature dropped 24 degrees over night after a cold front came through. The ground is wet, but it is a beautiful day.
The card above is one I made for one of my daughter's friends 21st birthday. The inside says Happy 21st Birthday in black glitter letters. The cs and background paper are from my random stock. The bella is presentabella, and she is paper pierced with some of the random paper I have. The ribbon and flower are scraps and left overs from previous creations. Just a quick throw together, and not very Thanksgiving, but I thought you might enjoy. Have a great day and God bless ya'll.
I was in a swap called Bella/Fella with a twist. You were to take a bella or a fella and do a Christmas card. It was supposed to have a twist to it instead of being completely traditional. This is my version. I used CTMH paper packet-More to Adore with pink big brads. I used brown baubles as an accent. The ribbon is also from CTMH. I embossed the brown cs with my snowflake pattern in my Cuttlebug. I received my package this week and all the cards were great. Thanks to Shannon for getting this together, and to Venlanda, Ami, Korin, Cris, and Susan. I love all of the cards. This was a great swap.
It is raining here and pretty yucky. It has rained almost all day. I think the weather is supposed to be better tomorrow. I spent most of the day the cooking things the kids and hubby could snack on the rest of the week. They are all home for the holiday week. I started thawing my turkey in the fridge today. I am going to start cooking Tuesday for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a great week and ya'll are blessed with family and friends for the holiday. I will see ya later on the blog. God bless ya'll!!!!
Here's a little bella I put together the other day. I plan on sending it out Monday as a RAK to someone special. The cardstock and background paper are from some I had here--do not know the manufacturer. The ribbon is from my stash--All of this came from my scrap stash-paper, cardstock and ribbon. The stamp is cosmobella and the brads are the bigger brads from CTMH. I used my corner rounder and removed the guard to scallop the edges on the top of the card. As usual, I paper pierced the clothes. Does she look like she has been designer dressed or not???? 
Well, I am feeling some better, but not great. I did not go to work today and I really think that is why I feel better. I took time to make this card today. Recently got this stamp set from The Cat's Pajamas. The little penguins are one stamp and I cut them seperately for this card. The paper and cardstock are from CTMH. The sentiment is also in this stamp set. I used my circle punch from Stampin Up and pop dotted the penguins to them. The eyelets are Clover Meadow from CTMH that matches the cardstock. The ribbon is some I have had for sometime--no idea where it came from. Love those penguins!! Take care and have a great night. God bless ya'll!!
This is my entry in the Bella Babe Challenge on Bellaholics Anonymous Yahoo group. The cardstock and background paper are from cherryArte. The stamped image and sentiment are from Stampin Bella. The ribbon is some I had and the brads are from CTMH. The flowers are a RAK I received. The button is from S.E. I. and the fibers are from Adornments. I used my CTMH markers to color what I did not paper pierce. The flower brad is from Picture Perfect Scrapbook Co.
I saw this stamp while blogging the other day and fell in love with it. The company is High Hopes http://www.highhopesstamps.com/ and their products are precious. They have some really cute Christmas stamps. 
This is going out in the mail tomorrow as a RAK. The stamp is sockafellabella and it is paper pierced with some random paper scraps I had. The brads are from my stash---have no idea where they came from and so is the ribbon. The leaves in the stocking are covered with green glitter from CTMH and the holly bolls are mini pom poms. The card stock and background paper is from CTMH and the sentiment stamp is something I got this week from The Cat's Pajamas http://www.thecatspajamasrs.com/ Really cute stamps!! Take a look if you haven't been there before. I used my snowflake cuttlebug embossing folder for the cardstock under the stmped image.
I did this card for the weekly challenge on Paper Pretties. This week it was a sew challenge. This card stock and background paper are from a kit I have had for some time. The ribbon is from my stash. The stamps are: the girls are from My Favorite Things--Think Pink; the sentiment is from Celebrate Life from CTMH; and the faux stitchings are from Simple Stitches by CTMH. I took my corner rounder and scalloped the edges of the under layer cardstock. Again as usual the clothes on the girls are paper pierced. I just cannot color lately.
We have had a great week and I hope you have also. Oldest son had a mid term and another huge test this week at Mississippi State--2nd highest grade on both tests. YOU GO BOY!!!! Has just about decided to finish in May instead of graduate in December. This way he will have two degrees--one in marketing and one in real estate. They had a tornado this week right off campus. Thank God I did not know until it was all over. He was at his house and they sent out a code maroon to all students--this means if you are in class stay there; if you are on campus get to a safe shelter, and if you are off campus stay put. No one was hurt, what a blessing!! Daughter had her first real patient in clinical. She really had a great time and apparently did real well. Her mid term grades are good also. Unfortunately over half of her class is on academic probation. Her friends that are in class with her are also doing well, but one is on probation. She has started studying with Carre to hopefully help her understand better. Last, but not least little buddie had straight A's on his report card. I am so proud of all my children!! I have never really had to worry about their grades. Sometimes if they were not good, they would double up and do great the next time.
Wishing all a blessed week and please continue to pray for our troops and there families. Remember all those affected by breast cancer and put them in your prayers also. May God bless ya'll!!!
I thought I would post something a little different tonight. These are some tags I made several years ago for a family swap I was in. This was the Grandmother part. The saying on the small one is "Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting" and the saying on the big one is "It is such a grand thing to be a mother to a mother...that's why the world calls her Grandmother". Found these this weekend while cleaning up.
I got some new stamps this weekend from My Favorite Things and I love them. The card above is for their weekly challenge. This week's challenge was a sketch challenge. This is my card I did. I used the stamp set "How Sweet It Is". The card stock is sunny yellow from Close to My Heart and the background paper is from an old CTMH kit. The brads and ribbons are from my stash. The flower is a chipboard piece with CTMH flowers attached to it. The bling flowers are from CTMH also. This is the first challenge I have ever attempted. It was really fun.
Life is wonderful here. The kids are doing great in school and with their personal lives. Little one is out of school tomorrow for fall break and we have spend the night company. His two best friends are twins, and they are staying over tonight. They are all outside playing football and some of the neighborhood kids are playing also. We just had pizza delivered in and they demolished it!! Hubby has been home this weekend, and he is finally back on his regular schedule. I really relaxed this weekend. I cleaned out some drawers and got rid of extra toys, but that is really all I did. We went to church this am and then out for lunch. It was nice. We have not been able to do that lately because Jack has been out of town so much. Guess I better be going. Time for me to get ready for another week at work. Take care and God bless ya'll!!!!
Been playing this weekend, and came up with these. I think she is so cute!!!! Have you taken advantage of Em's no shipping cost this weekend on any bella/fella stamps or items ordered? Hurry over to Stampin Bella http://www.stampingbella.com/index.php and check it out. It ends tonight at midnight. I got some new stamps this weekend from The Cat's Pajamas and High Hopes Stamps. IF you are not familiar with these stamps you need to go look. http://www.highhopesstamps.com/ and
http://www.thecatspajamasrs.com/
All the family is fine. Hope yours the same. Little buddie's soccer team beat the #1 team Tuesday night!! He has been so excited since and has been practicing every chance he gets to keep on winning. #1 son really into hunting now and daughter doing fine in school. She starts her clinicals next week--she's pretty nervous. Hubby going back on regular work hours this week. He will be back home on Thursday night and off Friday and weekend. These 10 days on the road are not good for him. I don't ever think I have seen him be so down in all the years I have known him. He really perked up this weekend though. Well I better go. God bless ya'll!!!!
Hey ya'll!! I am still here. I have been so busy at work this last week I never had time to get on the computer. I received my swap from Heidi and ladies the cards are beautiful. http://heartfeltblessings.blogspot.com/ This is one of the cards I sent in. I had Wineabella and Causeabella. The basic cardstock is Close to My Heart and the background paper is some random paper I received in a monthly kit I get from Paper Posies. The stamp is CTMH--Delight in Everything--The flowers are also from this stamp set. I stamped the outline flower and then stamped the full flower and cut it out and made it 3-d with a brad. All brads are from CTMH. The ribbons are from my stash. I paperdolled the dress and used CTMH markers for the coloring. I love this stamp.
YOU ARE THE MAN!!!! We got progress reports today and this little man has his stuff together. Straight A's!!! Lowest grade was 95. The others were 97,98, and 2-99's. I was so excited. We went out to eat at his favorite restaurant and he was going to spend the night with his sister at her house, but he fell asleep and she decided to stay here since he was asleep. I am so proud of him and now I know that what ever that teacher said she is not dampening his spirits. Really, he loves her and I think he is learning a lot in this class. I even have not had any problems with her, their homework, or their projects. We still are not doing half as much as I expected. I may not be on much this weekend. Hubby is coming home Friday night--he's been working on the road 10 days. I also am on call all this weekend, so the chances of working are good. I had my yearly evaluation today and I got the best one I have ever had--I was a little worried about this since I up and quit my management postion and sort of left my boss hanging out on her own. This means I get a nice little raise. Yeah!!!
"It's a great day to be alive..." I have been singing this song all day. It has been stuck in my head. The people at work have thought I was crazy. I don't know many more words than that and I keep singing it over and over. Today was really no different than any other. I guess it is just a true saying and I am glad to be alive!! My family is healthy, safe and just great! OH and there is one thing that is really great--Simon's signed papers this week and last were all A's--if you read my ranting several weeks ago about what his teacher said at Open House you will know why I am so happy. Everybody elses grade are great too.
OK, this is my oldest, Doss, with his big catfish. This fish weighed 65 pounds and he dove under water and pulled it out. It is called handgrabbing and they put boxes in the rivers around here and the fish bed up in them. They go down and feel for a fish, then they get someone to stand in front of the box and they dive back down and put their hand in it's mouth and pull it out. Is that crazy or what? I will not go and even watch. Doss is the one holding the fish and the other guy is one of his friends who goes with him a lot. I wish they would find some other fun past time. Anyway they love this. There is a season here in Mississippi every year. After they catch the fish they let him go so they can catch him again another day.
Quiet here on the home front. We had a soccer game tonight and lost, but he loves to play and does not seem to be upset about the loss. They have not won a game yet. They did play this team the other day in a scrimmage, and we played much better today than the other day. This is Simon's first year to play. My older kids were big into soccer when they were younger, but he has played basketball, baseball, and tennis only up until this year. He just loves to play. We are not the best by any means, but he has the best attitude. His coach always talks about his spirit and how he comes to every practice and pumps up the team.
Time to study for tests we have tomorrow and get to bed. Take care ya'll and I will post something hand made tomorrow. TTFN and God bless all!!!!
I hope everyone had a blessed weekend and rested. I have been cleaning, started painting Simon's room and card making. I did this little number yesterday. The paper is from the Stylin CTMH paper packet. The stamp is from the Stampin Up set Friendship Flowers. I did my first attempt at faux stitching---I free handed it. I do not have a template to go by. The flower brads are from Picture Perfect Scrapbook Company. I punched the circles with my small round punch and the pink round brads are from CTMH, the bigger size. I love this pink and black combination.
I am settling in for another week. We have a soccer game tomorrow night. After that it is pretty quiet until the weekend and I am on call again Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We have this new thing starting tomorrow at school. The kids will be given a debit card and we will be given a username and password for our child. This will enable us to see what your child is eating each day, and we will be able to know how much money is on the debit card and when we need to send more. We will be able to handle all of it on line. I am excited because I never know what he is eating, and I just send money each Monday. I think last year at the end of the year we had money left over. I know we did. Needless to say they did not refund me or roll it over to this year. We also are starting this year to be able to go on line and keep up with their grades. They have been doing this for about a year and a half, but we have just gotten old enough to be included.
My oldest came home this weekend. He is getting ready to hunt. You will be hearing a lot about him during this time because we will see a lot more of him. He got 3 packages delivered this week and it was all hunting stuff. He is really neat about this hunting. He is very selective about what he will shoot. He has 3-4 cameras in the woods year round. He knows the deer, names them and almost protects them from crazy hunters. He lives and dreams hunting, always has. He videos some of his trips and does commentary with it. He is a really a neat young man--almost said kid, but he is now 22. He always finds time to spend with his little brother when he is home. Somewhere on this computer, I have a picture of him with a 60 pound catfish he hand grabbed last year. I will have to find it and post it. It is impressive.
Well supper is almost ready and the laundry needs to go in the dryer. Have a blessed week ya'll and stay healthy, happy and safe. Please continue to pray for our troop and their families. GOD BLESS YA"LL!!!!!
I cannot believe I planned ahead on something. I am a very last minute person. I seem to do my best when under pressure. Any of you the same???? I have to do teacher snacks next Friday, so I made this card today to go with them. The first pic is the card and the second is the inside. The cardstock and background paper are from CTMH. This is a very old paper packet I have had for several years. I don't believe they make it anymore. The stamps are Stampin Up. They are also very old and not made anymore. I have always loved this combination. The bella is teacherbella. The ribbon is from some blog candy I won a while back. The letters are Bounce from Sizzix. I got them on sale the other day at Creative Express--like $38.00. They have really had some good deals lately.
I spent the day taking it easy. I made some cards and watched football. I am a REAL football fan, probably like it more than my husband. Late this afternoon, I cut my dad's grass and my daughters. Hubby usually does it but he has been home only a day or two lately, so I did it for him. He is used to his 4 day weekends and when his schedule is like it is now, I try to do some of his chores to help. We have a big riding lawn mower so cutting the grass is like easy. My daughter got her grades last week on her first nursing test. SHE PASSED and she also had her vital signs checkoff and she passed that also. I do not believe I have ever seen her as uptight about something as she was these tests. I also do not believe I have ever seen her study as much as she has been. Could we be growing up???
I have been looking at the cards and things on the bellahollics anonymous group photo page and ladies you girls are good!! They are having a VSBN this weekend. The challenges have been really neat and fun. I was to tired from the week to try and participate, but after seeing how much fun they are having I plan to join in on the next one. Guess I better call it a night. I will see ya'll tomorrow. Take care and God bless ya'll.
I am back!!! It has been a very long and tiring week for me. TGIF!!! Last post I was called out to the hospital while I was posting. I worked all night!!!!!!!!! I came home at 8am the next morning and went to bed. Since I lost a day in this week, I feel like I have been a day behind all week. Finally yesterday I got back to normal, and would you believe I had to work last night until 9:30. Supposed to get off at 3, and went in at 7. I have always loved call, but I am not adjusting to it like I thought I would. Anyway, yesterday morning before work, I put this card together. This is some of my new stamping stuff that came in over the past week and a half. The card is from a Close to My Heart paper packet called Sonata. The stamp is musicbella. The colors used are Hollyhock, Spring Iris, Chocolate, and Buttercup. If you are not familiar with CTMH--pink, lavender, brown and a soft yellow. I really love their scrapbook paper. There are lots of new kits in the new winter catty, that just came out in September. The sentiment is from one of there stamp sets-The Music of Life. My little one loves his school music teacher and he has always wanted me to make her some cards. When I saw this paper and stamp set, I knew I had to have it. It just happened that about the time I saw the paper, Stampin Bella came out with Musicbella. Just worked out perfect for me!! The eyelets are CTMH and the ribbon is some I have collected over the years.
I got a sweet email from Kari, the blog candy winner this week. She received the package and was very excited. I hope we will have some of her artwork to show soon. I asked her to send me some pics when she made some stuff with the goodies. Hubby has to work all weekend, so I plan to play with my papers. I hope to have some more things to show tomorrow. TTFN!! God bless ya'll!!!
Ok, I have a new obsession-Card Candy. They have been doing this on one of the groups I am in. Pat Huntoon started this with our group and they are doing a swap--Here is her site http://patstamps.blogspot.com/ You should go take a look. THe first page is made with Stampin Up's Penguin Pals and GingerBread House. The saying is from another set that I cannot remember the name of, but it is a Stampin Up set also. The packages are from some paper scraps I have and the ribbon is from a swap I was in sometime ago. The second sheet is from Stampin Up's A Merry Little Christmas. The paper is all scraps that I have kept over the years. These are really fun, but addicting.
I received this card in the mail today from Debbie Daniels. It had stamped images of huggybella in it. We are exchanging stamped images of bellas. She needed some different bellas and had a few of what she wanted, so I sent them to her. She in exchange sent me some of what she had that I did not--neat huh?
I have gone all bella lately. I am going to have to get back into my other stamps soon and make things with them. I have an order coming in tomorrow with new paper, stamps, and embellishments--that should get me going in some other direction, but I just love these bellas. ( I also have an order with new bellas on the way also--ha ha ha!) Speaking of orders, Creative Express really has some good sale items on right now if you use Sizzix. Check it out.
I received a comment from Jo on my blog about what the bellas were. Jo I tried to email you directly, but it would not bring up your email addy, so I will talk with you here. These stamps have been out for several months and they are so cute. There is a bella or fella for just about any role in life. They also have sentiments, borders and other stamps, charms, bling items and acrylic bases for your stamps. I am enclosing the addy below. Emily is the bella mom and she is great. http://www.stampingbella.com/index.php Please go look!!Hope you join the bella craze. If you need me to answer any more questions or want to just talk my email is paperblessingstoyou@yahoo.com. Oh yea, thanks for visiting my blog!!!!
The card above is from an old Close to My Heart paper packet. The colors are key lime and amethyst. It was a spring kit from about 4 years ago. The bella is stampinbella. As you all know she is paper dolled--I AM going to color one someday--and so is her rolling bag. The ribbon is some I have had for a while and the eyelets are key lime from CTMH.
I am on call tomorrow and little buddie has his first project due Friday so I may not be back on until Friday or Saturday. We have most of the project done, we just have to put it on the poster board. It is about "My Community". We used the Sizzix to make the letters for the title--he loves to do the lever and cut letters out. We have taken some pics, drawn some pics, and cut some out of magazines. This is always a fun time for us. I thought it was due Monday, but I was wrong. I will post a pic when we finish. Time for me to go. My bed is calling me. I wish ya'll the best and may God bless all.
Happy Labor Day to all!! I hope it has been relaxing for ya'll. I have played with my stamps all day. The two cards above are some of my creations today. I used my Close to My Heart paper packet called Let's Get Together. The colors are Buttercup, Breeze, Cranberry, and Garden Green. I love this combination of colors. The stamps are Flowerbella and Sisterhoodabella. I paperdolled the clothes and the hairbow on one---this is a little more challenging than I thought. The brads are from Making Memories, the fibers are from Adornments, the buttons are from S.E.I., and the eyelets are from CTMH. Usually Monday is RAK day on one of the groups I am in, but since the mail did not go out today, they will go out tomorrow to some lucky people. Hope ya'll enjoy.
