Happy Halloween

Easel Cards

Hey Lady! have you ever tried the easel cards from SCS? This type of card was one of their challenges last week or so. Making a card, that eventually props up to show the front and the greeting inside. How cool is that?

So, the little 'pop up" on the inside holds the correctly folded card up. I made a few of these and used a button, a flower with a brad, and here just two punched circles on the inside, popped up to be the 'prop'.

The card looks perfectly normal closed, open it and it can be propped up to display.

Annual Fall Family Photo Shoot

Oh, there are tons more, after we got in the swing of things and with the digital camera, how fun is this having everyone smile on a beautiful fall day!

Two weekends ago we trekked out to take some family pictures. It was a little chilly. There were tons of families out at this local park. We even had to re-arrange shots so they didn't get in the pictures.

I wont bore you with the rest.... some time, I'll compare pictures from 12 years ago to now... then we lived in Tennessee and have some pics from a Cival War Battlefield.

Have a great day!

Celebrating Small Victories

Saw this simply adorable layout (I made a few versions of this card and sent them out to special people)and decided I would do it in the 'pink' with the sentiment Celebrating Small Victories.... since it is breast cancer awareness month.... I sent this card out to a friend who has survived breast cancer, or a term I heard recently become a warrior! Think pink!

Although the coverage of different Breast Cancer runs, and events are everywhere during the month of October, since it is very hard for me to relate to this devastating disease, I'm trying to open my eyes to become more aware... yet it is still so distant from me. At this time, all I can say is to those experiencing this horrible disease, with hope and courage and support from the entire world it seems the battle continues to beat the odds and this does not overcome every victim, it is won!

Let's Talk Turkey

Cute little fellow ... whose soon to have his head chopped off and the feathers plucked outta him, his limbs twisted apart and his eyeballs popped out of his head!!! Yikes! Where did that come from... I must be angry or something... or I've seen too many Halloween movies lately!!!

Tom here is part of something really cool this year! I had three friends sign up for the Card of the Month. Each month this past year they received a 'surprise' blank card that they in turn could send to someone of their choice. The cards related to the holiday of the upcoming month or the season. So the last card they received was good ole Tommy boy.... next month is the last month, and they will get something Christmas related or snowy or something like that.

I've been RAK'd

Thank you to whomever sent me a special edition original art 'thing'. you really made this icky rainy day an even better day!!!! Someone RAK'd me! Thank you!

Positive & Negative anniversary cards

Only in the way the cards are viewed, not necessarily how the couple is. Here are two cards made out of the same bits and pieces. Sentiments inside just state Happy Anniversary. Used Cuttlebug die cuts to get the hearts, then realized I had punched them out pretty well and used the used paper to create another card with a similar look. I'll call it today's twofer!

Number 2

It's another dreary day.... but oh boy, there is laundry to fold, dishes to empty, a basement to vacuum, dogs to walk.... I can't wait!!!

Never underestimate human ingenuity. Margaret has spawned an amazing variety of names, some of which you wouldn't connect with the original in a million years. For example: Margot, Marguerita, Rita (!), Greta, Gretel, Gretchen, Marjorie (originally Margery), Margie, Maggie, Madge, May, Maisie, Daisy (!!), Maidie, Meg, and Mog. As for Peg, one historian writes, "the nicknames Mog and Meg later gave rise to the rhymed forms Pog(gy) and Peg(gy)." Can't say as I know a lot of Poggies, and can't say as I want to. But you see how Grandma Margaret wound up with Peg. But I am a true Peggy.

Chick Chick Hurray!!!

A fun card to send to someone who's brightened someone's day.... or actually SHINES at what they do!!

Dell (our computer gal) is almost back to normal. Today I'm trying to clean out pictures and burn CD's with pictures from her hard drive, to be almost up to date. In between listening to the Packer game, doing loads of laundry, yelling at the kids to pick up their rooms, playing in the leaves in the sunshine.... be-U-tiful day! Really, a great day to be alive!!

Do you SHINE today????

Charley Stork

Another new one! Charley is the bearer of good news, welcoming the baby stork like! Charley's 'babysitter' is expecting a child, so Charley's mom thought an exciting way to congratulate them on the news was to have her delivering the baby in a bundle. See the cute little toes hanging out??

Simply Done

She's back! Yay! Dell is back in my kitchen and running much faster, I must admit. But she is missing a few things... I'm going to have to search her hard drive to find my favs!!! And my Kodak picture program seems to be hiding too? Mmmm, where did they go?

Anyhoo! I'm happy she's back and running! Here are two very simple cards, one layer or less. I really like these simple flower, a few lines and a few dots and the sentiment! Done!

The other, a simple punch of hearts and popped up... and through Erin K. she had shown a few of these cards on her blog with the simple outline.... which can meet and look perfect in the corners, or look slightly hand created and run over the end... to be so NOT perfect.

So much to do, so little time! The kids are off school today.... it is horribly depressing outside... rainy, dark and dreary.... the leaves have really fallen off and are in big heapings of wetness.... dentist appointments, v-ball tournament and hockey practice, just to name a few things!

And yet.... still nothing!

Another photo from the archives. That means Dell is not back in the kitchen, she was sicker than we thought, and Dr. PC needed yet another day to fix her!!!

This little out house brought to you by my mom, the creative energy behind little doo dads in my yard. Sad to say, this crapper from 2004 is no longer with us... not even sure it made the move. Although built like a rock, it did not weather as well as other s*** holes... hee hee! Sorry... I've been reading Julie and Julia..... or The Julie/Julia Project and I'm amazed at blogs (This book you might have seen recently made into a movie with Amy Adams and Meryl Streep as Julia Child) ... Why do people write blogs? What happens to them when people stop writing them?

Thank you to my loyal 'bleader' (blog reader... from Julie) Kim.... always making a comment, thank you!!!! Wow, how to get hundreds of people to read your blog every day! Is it possible to get a discussion going by simply leaving a few thoughts? To make your readers want more of what you have to say? Interactive and interaction of people all across the world? Oh, and of course blog candy.... free give aways to get them to come back!!!

Oh what people can do with a little time on their hands!!!

Happy Rainy Day!

Picture Perfect

A few years ago before I had the confidence to draw anything and well.... the time, I took pictures of still life to use on the front of cards. Since my 'main' computer is still not home, I found this cute little 'life' from the past in big ole Dell. I must have been doing a baby card. Combining a few things we had laying around Sissy's doll bin, I created this.... printed it with like an etchy feel, pasted that baby {hee hee} on top of card stock and voila~ a card with a very colorful theme.... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I do remember picking everything because of the bright color combo and it took me a while to get the shoes propped just right. To me, this seems so fun and challenging! Balancing a check book, not so much!!!

And even more painted chairs

Wow! I had no clue that I've even done MORE painted chairs!!! Yes, I know, I did paint them, I just wouldn't be able to tell anyone just how many I actually did, without seeing all these old photos. I was one busy girl in 2005.

How fun are these, I don't even remember who got them all... but I hope they are still being used and enjoyed!

I did this too, when I was basket weaving and before that, when I was doing floral arranging.... made so much you have to give it away!

Wow!, It's fun to go back and see what I made, now I just wish I had documented either how much I got for it, or who it went to! With cards that is too hard to do. Someone will say they loved the scarecrow card I gave them last year, I have no clue what that looks like!

Computer is still in the shop, hopefully I will get a call today that it will be brought home safely!!

Blue Screen of Death

It's true! One computer in the house has a virus. It's in the shop, some PC guy is trying to fix it. Yikes, here's hoping that he doesn't loose everything, well not that 'anything' was that important. More details as they come in.

Well, I am happy that I am working on the old, old computer... I'm finding these pictures of projects I have painted in the past. This first one is a planter. Teachers were giving it to a gardening teacher who was retiring.

The second one is an old piano bench, I believe my parents found on the side of a road. It's just to go in a garden area or a patio. Again, some teachers bought it to give to an enthusiastic parent volunteer they wanted to appreciate.

And finally, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears Toy box. I think I painted this for a charity that had children's book titles as the theme of the sale. I don't remember what happened to it, or how much it brought in.

Go check out www.highlowaha.com today, I'm being featured for a project I instructed at Taste of USA in Louiville in September.

Blast from the past

Looks like these pictures were taken in 2005. Yep! that's right! Aargh, my computer with all of my picture files is on a temporary assignment.... ugh! The dreaded blue screen! Something is going on and I can't use it. I really hate when computers don't work and you don't know how to fix them. So, I moved over to the big Dell computer the kids do homework on, and found I still have some files in this big lug!

Here is an Adirondack chair I painted for a school auction over 4-1/2 years ago. We were living in Wisconsin then.

On the arms of the chair, the kids in this class that donated the chair, put their thumbs in paint and then pressed it into the arms. I made silly bugs out of their print. Then actually copied their signature and used carbon paper to copy it and in gold pen signed their print. If I remember right, the chair raised over $400.

Happy Saturday. Yay! The sun is shining. We plan on taking family pics tomorrow, cross your fingers!

Nerd

Computer problems, I can't figure them out!!! Can I just pound on all the keys, will that work???????

In the midnight hour...

Here's a Zindorf card I made last week. Love, love the creepy tree. So fun!! I have lots of cards for sale. Contact me if you'd like to purchase anything you see on my blog!

Well, I worked up the nerve again this week and went and re-applied at the temporary agency I worked for 3 years ago (when we first moved here.) My networking is not working. There are about 5 jobs listed in our daily newspaper and I'm either not qualified or not interested. I have been rejected 3 times from my applications to the local community college for different positions. What to do? I don't want to work full time, I can't work all day and keep up the house, the 2 dogs, the 2 kids and the hubby.... but I want a job that is flexible, that keeps me busy (but not overwhelmed) IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR??? To go through this again, and again.... what is my purpose???

Altered Frappucino Container

Here's the before ..... (subtract the pink edges, I thought to take a picture while working on it) Happy Birthday!! to someone specialI lie, it's really a 6 pak beverage holder, that I altered to give as a great gift! Inside each 'hole' was a special thought out gift to pamper the birthday girl. Lotions, sprays, candles etc...

Inside the tag.... a Starbucks gift card.

And a final side view. I think ANYTHING can be altered!!!