Today is the day!

I am sitting in our hotel suite with nothing to do. What you say? Nothing to do on moving day? LOL I am saying that too! I have been going every minute for four days now and even though it has been busy everything has gone perfectly thanks be to God! Every thing is moved out of our "old" home and in the trucks waiting, the house is cleaned and ready for the new owner. She is buying it today also, after she closes on the house she has sold. Three closings in a row today! Pray for it all to go smoothly :) Now I am waiting for our house to close at 2:30 and then we move in! Woooo Hooo! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. This picture is the picture of the entry - of the model like our home. I am hoping to use this house for home group, bible studies etc. for my church and I hope to be able to share as the Lord makes known to me. All of course if my husband agrees! It is a beautiful home and because of the economy and housing sales being so down we are able to afford it. I am so grateful, I don't believe that this is something I am entitled to and neither does my husband. He has worked very hard to be where he is and thanks God for the brains He gave him! I know that sounds funny to some but others will understand what I mean :)




These two pictures (of the model again) are of my new kitchen. Come and hang out on one of the barstools while I cook up a gourmet meal! Well ok, I try to cook gourmet meals and on occasion am pretty successful but all in all I really hope since this kitchen is so much bigger I will make a better effort at cooking more often and cooking healthy meals for my family. So come and hang out with me! I think there is actually enough room to have scrapbooking get-togethers in here. Between the island, bar/counter area and breakfast table we can sit about 12 people! So lot's of thoughts in my mind while I wait. OK enough said - thanks for reading!

Final week for the move!

This is our moving week! It is so exciting but so chaotic! I cant even begin to tell you my schedule and lists of things to do. Crazy! We are moving out Thursday, staying in a hotel Thursday night and then closing on the new house at 2:30 on Friday and moving in shortly thereafter! I have bought over 60 boxes and have to go get more. We are almost done packing, a few rooms left and then the odds and ends we need to live this week. Seems like a long process and at the same time seems like this week got here fast.

Just wanted to let everyone know I will probably not blog much this week and really don't have anything creative to post. I will get internet connection back hopefully on Saturday but we will see how that goes because the security people have tied in their system with cable and such and we aren't having a security system so they have to come out and connect or disconnect or something LOL! So once I get settled, internet back up and all, I will be back here :) For now I might try to give a progress report. Anyway pray for this to all go smoothly and the closings go well etc. Thanks!!!

Is it May?

I must say it has been a cool May. The pool opening was yesterday and it was too chilly for us to go! I am sure my little swimmer would have swam anyway but I didn't want him to turn blue and then argue with him about getting out of the pool to go home! It's usually well on it's way to hot and humid and miserable by the end of April and here we are in the middle of May and it is still around 70. Last year yesterday was 85 and last year we broke the all time record of most consecutive days of 90+ degree weather. I need to not complain! It has been gorgeous to go outside and walk, sit on the screened porch for lunch (too cold in the morning) and lovely in the evening after dinner and my husband has actually sat out on the porch with me and talked. He never leaves the AC. This is rare in NC. So my only concern is my little swimmer who is so excited :) It will be hot and miserable in due time and then I will wonder why I said this. I was reading a blog of someone who lives in the Chicago area saying her kids wanted her to set up the pool because it was so warm. I think it might have been a high of 60. I guess it is all relative LOL!

I have no idea what happened to the picture of the second card on my last blog. I checked back for the original and do not have it. I must have been half asleep when I worked on that image! Ugh! Well today's image is intact and I am going to post it even though I have not sent these out yet and it is way early... here is my June SOTM for HM! Stamp of the Month for House Mouse. I saw the little wooden pencils in AC Moore a month ago and though they would be perfect for this card! Then I couldn't figure out how to incorporate them but in the end I am happy with how it turned out. I love seeing what everyone does with these cards, they all come out different. I used the color challenge of soft sky, pumpkin pie and purely pomegranate. Although I think the third color may be some other red, I kind of liked this and went with it. I used the pumpkin designer paper, it perks this up nicely :)

Final Survivor Cards

These are my two final cards to send. One os for Amanda who I thought was going to win and the other for Erik who has now won the most stupid move in the entire Survivor series. Seriously, he let the girls talk him into giving one of them the immunity necklace thereby they voted him out. He took it very well though, he is a good kid. Shame on those girls! I won 20 cards for having the winner and 8 cards for having second place and 1 card each for Erik and I believe James. So if anyone needs a card, let me know I got 30 coming to me LOL! This was a lot of fun and I am so bummed it is over. This was the best season in the latter half. Next season is in Gabon in Africa - maybe they are staying away from the Southern Pacific, floods, cyclones, Volcanoes, earthquakes.... Might not be a bad idea! That's all for today- went to a stamping class tonight at Artist Oasis on using the Stampscapes stamps. Way cool, will show that later.

I just love this card. It is nothing crazy with a ton of layers or some difficult technique, just the white swiss dots cuttlebug folder and the colors look so pretty together. I am trying to do this more often, stamp an open stamp onto designer patterned paper. It gives a neat effect - like the faux cloissone' technique but easier. That's all, the card is mostly a case with a few changes I end up making :) What do you think of the white brads in the center of the flowers? I gave it to the gal at my church who sends out cards, she buys them and I wanted to brighten her day with a couple cards to use, she is a sweet lady.

Mother's Day Dinner

I just had to take pictures of this place! I was a little disappointed, well in a strange way. They just redid the building! Put on new siding, new roof and pine straw. Looks brand new and beautiful! Which is good... but I wanted to show you how old and country looking this place was but alas it is renewed.



The signs are kind of old looking still.




This is the sign on the country road - blink and you will miss it! All you see is this sign on the left and you have to "know" to turn right at the road there and go down it just a bit. But with all of the trees you would never know it is there!



The inside is covered in John Deere, Nascar and other "country folk" type items. These are as you can see, on the ceiling. This is in the entrance.


It was as awesome as last year, the food was great and we all enjoyed every bite. The fried squash this time was zucchini which I love. No pickled watermelon rinds though! Boo Hoo. My youngest was thrilled they had Goldfish on the salad bar. The crackers that is, not the fish :)



Just a cool looking old farmhouse along the road to go there.



Same thing, just along the road, pretty countryside. There is a lot of rural countryside in NC. We live in the city area so all we see is tons and tons of houses and stores etc. but when we leave just 1/2 hour out of our area there are hundreds of miles of this. It really amazes me we all congregate in just a few areas in the state. Ok hope you enjoyed the tour!

Happy Mother's Day!

I just want to say to all of the mothers reading this a quick Happy Mother's Day! I hope that you have a nice day! I am starting my day the way I like it. Coffee on my screened in porch :) Our new house doesn't have a screened in porch but it will have a sunroom and I am going to get a comfortable chair to have my coffee in.

Here is a card I cased to make for Mother's Day. I started with the background being the same but changed the rest of it. It kind of morphed as I made it and I am very happy with the results. I just felt like the butterfly was a nice addition :) You can't tell from the picture but I made a second set of wings and put them up on pop-dots to make the butterfly two layers and dimensional.

We are taking my mother-in-law to a country restaurant, yes it is a restaurant in the country and it is only open certain times. All it serves is country food like fried okra, fried squash, pickled watermelon rind, collard greens, biscuits, pulled pork, etc. one HUGE buffet full of everything that could possibly clog your arteries. I think going here once a year is about the most a body can handle! The food is awesome, to die for (ok not literally!) and can you believe it is all-you-can-eat? It is all home cooking and it tastes like it. A rare find. My husband is in heaven - it is what he grew up on and loves the fried squash. I cringe at most of it - I grew up on nothing fried or cooked in fat (real lard - crisco!) (other than french fries at McDonald's) so I have to get over that and just enjoy the food because it really does taste good. Anyway she loves this food as it is what she grew up with and this place does it right.

Enjoy your day!

Survivor cards

Just some new cards for Survivor, Jason got voted off two weeks ago and these are what I made for him. After I put them in the envelope I found out I only needed to send two and I have won one card! I also lost James last week so I made two for him which I will post next. But I won one card for him too! I just love the blueberries one! Right now I am in search of a really nice Mother's Day card to make.

My son's birthday card

It is hard to make a card in all black so my son will have to just put up with the little bit of brown I had to use. Oh and the slightest bit of blue to symbolize water. He actually enjoys fishing so I went ahead and used this set for him too. The trout has crystal effects covering it so it looks like glass. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder on the black part. The fishing lures were hard to punch holes in for the "fishing line" so I ended up putting them and the trout on dimensionals (pop-up dots). He liked it and that's all that counts :)

Another CASE

I love this card! I CASEd a card by Cambria, she makes such awesome cards! Also all kind of boxes and purses and such, she is so creative :) Anyway she had this on her blog and I had to make it, I did use different designer paper and my colors are a bit different (and I used ribbon) but all else is the same. I like how the bright colors look on the white paper. I don't like how the black ink smeared and got into the apricot color when I used the markers, I thought it shouldn't do that. I used the SU products, I wonder why. I am giving this to one of my birthday fairy recipients this month.

Fishing card

This is a card I made for my brother-in-law who shares a birthday with my oldest son. What is so funny is his son and my other son also share a birthday! This is my sister's husband. I just think it is so cool. Anyway he loves to fish and just got a new fishing boat so even though I have used this stamp set before I wanted to make a real nice card for him. I had to look up the trout to color it right! I used a picture of a rainbow trout :) The paper is the western themed one from SU, forgot the name. I love that set but do not have a lot of use for it. The trout is on pop-up dots too.

My oldest son is going to be 16 Tuesday. Ack! At this point he doesn't want to drive so at least I don't have to worry about that. I just can't believe he is that old, I still some days remember being 16 as if I almost still am! I tell you what, I had my driver's license by 8:15 a.m. the day I turned 16. I had a car when I was 15 1/2! I don't get it but I am not complaining. He says there isn't anywhere he needs to drive. Hmmmm perhaps he should get a job this Summer! I will have to work on him for that :)

House Mouse SOTM May

This is my card for the stamp of the month. I struggled with what to do with it but decided to keep it simple. I did put Stickles glitter on the confetti - had to do something! The top image shows the sparkle a little. The little mice are alway so cute. The colors are lavender lace and barely banana. Not much else to say today!