Elegant Thank You

Good Evening! I bet you didn't think that I would post again tonight! I have been working on some sample cards for Beth's party tonight and I am going to give you a sneak peek of one of them. In the stamping world...there are lots of blogs that have card sketches or challenges on them. Some are just for fun, some are for prizes. I have thought about doing some of them and never quite get around to it. But I actually did one tonight! This is the sketch we are suppose to use and here is my creation using the sketch. Let me know what you think!

Homemade Cleaning Products and Baby Wipes

Homemade Cleaners
by Tawra Kellam
Just as clean...for less!

Here are some tips for using and making your own household
cleaners from "Dining On A Dime Cookbook"
ebook.htm>. Most are simple and only take a few minutes to
mix.

Never mix ammonia and bleach! Mixing these chemicals creates a
harmful gas that can be fatal!

If you don't want to make your own cleaning supplies, either
purchase the store brands at your dollar store or in bulk at a
janitor supply.

Buy one gallon of bubble bath and use instead of liquid hand
soap. It is much cheaper and smells better than regular hand
soap.

Read the labels on any cleaning product you buy, even on
common products that you, your mom and grandmother have used
for years. For example, for generations, women have used
ammonia to disinfect their kitchens, but ammonia is not a
disinfectant. It is a de-greaser. It works great for that
greasy grimy build-up on floors, but it isn't actually
disinfecting anything.

Mark your cleaning pail with fingernail polish to indicate the
levels of water you usually use for your jobs (i.e. 1/2 gallon
or 1 gallon). That way you don't waste water.

When using cleansers, tear the tab back only part way. Then
you only get half as much cleanser so that you don't wash as
much unused cleanser down the drain.

Save on spray cleaners. Spray the solution on a rag and then
wipe. This way the extra spray cleaner is not wasted and you
save time by not having to rinse off the over spray.

Use fabric softener sheets to dust furniture and television
screens. The sheets make your furniture smell good, but more
importantly, eliminate static so dust won't be attracted to
these surfaces.

All Purpose/Window Cleaner

1/2 cup ammonia
2 cups rubbing alcohol
water
1 tsp. dishwashing liquid

In a one-gallon container, mix ammonia and rubbing alcohol.
Fill almost to the top with water. Add dishwashing liquid and
mix. Top off with water. Rated by Consumer Reports Magazine to
work much better (and much cheaper) than most commercial
window and kitchen sprays. Alcohol is the secret ingredient;
it's what commercial window washers use. This is safe on most,
but not all, household surfaces. I use this to clean almost
everything from the bathroom to the window. This is the main
cleaner that I use in my house.

Ready Mop Cleaner Refill

1 gallon water
1 cup ammonia
1/2 cup vinegar

Mix ingredients and use instead of buying commercial cleaner.
Use a piece of scrap fleece, scrap flannel or micro-fiber
towels (purchased at automotive stores) to replace your
Swiffer(tm) or Clorox Ready Mop(tm) disposable pads. Cut
several to size to have on hand. When soiled, throw in the
wash and launder as usual. Note: Don't use ammonia on wood
floors. Just use vinegar and water or water and Murphy's Oil
soap.

Daily Shower Cleaner

1/4 cup concentrated cleaner (Lysol is a good brand)
1/2 cup isopropyl alcohol
water

Pour cleaner and alcohol into quart spray bottle. Add enough
water to fill. Thoroughly clean shower before using. Spray on
shower daily. Use daily to prevent water deposits and soap
scum.

Homemade Cleaning Wipes

1 round baby wipe container*
1 roll of paper towels**
2-4 cups cleaning solution (homemade is fine)

Recycle a used round baby wipe container. Cut a roll of paper
towel in half (an electric or serrated knife works best for
this). Remove the center cardboard. Place 1/2 of the paper
towels in the baby wipe container. Pour cleaning solution into
the container. (The amount will depend of the absorbency of
your paper towels.) This can be used for window cleaner, all
purpose cleaner, or disinfectant cleaner. Pull the first paper
towel out of the center of the roll, through the hole in the
container lid. If the paper towels dry out before they are all
used, add more solution or some water.

* If you don't have a baby wipe container, you can use a round
plastic container and just drill or punch a large hole in the
center of the lid.

** It is best to use expensive, thick paper towels. The cheap
ones won't hold up to scrubbing.

Face/Hand Wipes

2 tablespoons liquid baby bath
2 cups water

Bathroom Wipes

1/2 cup pine cleaner
2 cups water

Window Wipes

1 cup glass cleaner
1 1/2 cups water

Outdoor Window Washer

3 Tbsp. liquid dishwashing soap
1 Tbsp. anti-spotting agent (Jet Dry(tm))

Put soap and anti-spotting agent into a spray bottle
attachment for your garden hose. Spray upper windows and let
them dry. This is for cleaning the higher windows on your
house that you can't reach except with a ladder.

Tough Hand Cleaner

1/4 cup Fels Naptha*, grated
2 Tbsp. mason's sand or pumice
1 cup water
2 cup plastic container (16 oz. cottage cheese container works
great)

Place soap and water in a saucepan. Place over low heat; stir
until soap is melted. After mixture cools, add mason's sand or
pumice. Store in a cottage cheese container or margarine tub.
Dip fingers into soap mixture and lather hands. Rinse well.

* Any grated bar of soap will work but Fels Naptha removes the
stains better.

Skunk Smell Remover

1 qt. hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp. dish detergent

Sponge on and let dry. Safe for use on cats and dogs.
________________________

Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam are frugal living experts and the
editors of http://www.LivingOnADime.com/ . As a single mother
of two, Jill Cooper started her own business without any
capital and paid off $35,000 debt in 5 years on $1,000 a month
income. Tawra and her husband paid off $20,000 debt in 5 years
on $22,000 a year income.

Take the Next Step:
- For more recipes for homemade cleaners, please visit

Many Mowers

Good Evening! I just thought I would pop in and say "hi" before I go down for the night. I had to get up early AGAIN this morning to go pick up my SHARE package of food this morning. If you are trying to save money, using SHARE is a really good deal. You can now order it on line at http://www.sharewi.org/. Take a look at it and see all the good deals!!! The money you save can be used on fun stuff...like stamps! Tee Hee! The weather was gorgeous today and it was the first day that I have not had to have a sweatshirt or jacket on at the flea market and I loved it. Now if the pollen and wind would go away it would be perfect!

Today's card feature's the stamp set Many Mower's which has some really fun images in it to make things for the men in your life. I used the Good Morning Sun Shine paper's on this card. I had a lot of cards go out today, and met some new people who want to come to stamp camp. I love talking to the people down there, and making new friends! When we went to Janesville to the quilt show, I saw a sign I really liked that I thought would be cool to have. It said: Friends Are Like Fabric, You Can Never Have To Many! My philosophy for sure! Have a good night! Me

Fifth Ave Floral & Elegant Thank You

Today's card uses the stamp sets Fifth Ave Floral & Elegant Thank You. When Jenna was here last weekend she bought some cards from me (I gave her the family discount!) and this is one of the cards that she chose so it is a good thing I have a picture of it in case I want to make some more! It also uses the Top Note Die and pearls from the pretties kit.
Today was a busy day. I drove Lady Di to La Crosse for her doctor's appointment. I got one towel stitched while she was doing the appointment, the rest of the time I kept falling asleep & waking up every time someone walked by me. I am definitely not an early morning person. LOL We went for Chinese afterwards, thank you Di, it was yummy! Then we headed over to Michael's to use the 40% off coupons they gave us last week and we went to Hobby Lobby, ran thru the Culver's driveway at Tomah and came home. I arrived home to find 5 Tastefully Simple boxes on the doorstep so I was very happy to get home when I did. I don't think they were there very long as Fed Ex usually doesn't come till late afternoon. So I will be busy marking tomorrow at the flea market. I was happy to discover that my internet and telephone were working when I returned home. I had discover at 6:00 this morning that neither were working and had tried every trick that I knew to try and get things back up before I left but nothing had worked. I have had Vonage go down many times before and I know what to do to get that back up and running. So...I think Verizon must have been having trouble as that is my dry loop for the internet, and my Vonage, the phone, runs through that. I was doing the happy dance that everything was working again tonight. I got down around 5 as I just couldn't function any more and zonked out about 30 minutes into All My Children and had a nice nap and I feel much better! I found some cute long pearlized pins and I plan on putting a couple in each of my pin cushions along with a stamped tag that says "Friendship is sewn with love and measured by kindness". I think that will finish them off and that people will like these for themselves and for little gifts for their friends. Maybe I will shoot you another picture when I get the pins and tags on and show you tomorrow. Stop down and see me...the weather is suppose to be good!

Pin cushions

Hello! As I told you yesterday, I was working on a pin cushion. I finished the pink one last night and made 3 more today. They are fun to do and I plan on making some more. The day flew by fast today with phone calls and a lot of computer work. We are working on things for the design team and if you click on the Owl on the right you can see a few cards I have made. I got a third set today that we will be releasing on the 8th so I will be busy creating some more things. You can go to http://owlwhimsy.blogspot.com and download the free image from each set if you would like to try them out and you can also purchase the sets if you are interested.
I had a pleasant surprise tonight. My friend Carol popped in out of the blue to visit and to see if I would like to go to Antler's Ridge with her. We had cheese curds, Ha wain Pizza and I discovered that I like Captain Morgan's Pina Colada's, Pineapple Coconut! I usually don't drink, just a wine cooler or Strawberry Daiquiri occasionally. But boy...that was yummy, and strong! I wanted a second one but they only had the one so was stuck with Mike's Lime. It was ok but after the Pineapple Coconut, there was no comparison! Any hoo...it all was a very nice treat and so good to spend time with Carol!

The Complete Practical Guide To Card-Making

I have checked out many books on card making or looked at them in book stores and I finally found one that I would recommend. This one is called The Complete Practical Guide to Card-Making by Cheryl Owen. It has 200 step-by-step techniques and projects with 1100 photographs - a comprehensive course in making cards, envelopes, invitations, tags and papers in a host of different styles. This is a really good basic book on card making. The best books out there for ideas I believe are the Stampin' Up catalogs. You can not beat them for beautiful card ideas and if you were to purchase a book like them at retail, it would cost a minimum of $30.00. I have an extensive crafting book and pattern collection so I know what good books costs. So keep your old catalogs for idea books and if you are looking for some older one's let me know, I may have them. The only down fall is that they don't tell you how to make the cards...but that is what demonstrator's are for! If you are looking for a basic book, the one above is for you!

Star Flower Towel and Sunflower Towel

Good Evening! Today I took Diane to her dentist appointment and while I was in the waiting room, I finished stitching these two towels while listening to an audio book on my Nano. When Di came out...she wanted to know how many hundred towels I got stitched while I was in there..or something to that effect. She thinks I work so fast...I don't think so and she does not like to do things over and over so it amazes her how I always make multiples of things. I rarely make just one of something. Any hoo...we zoomed over to Mauston after her appointment to pick up my new glasses and then headed back to town. Di wanted some soda so we stopped at Pamida and I was looking around while waiting for her (then she ended up waiting for me..lol) and I found a few more packages of towels like these so I was tickled about that. I had high hopes of getting a lot done this afternoon but couldn't get motivated so after doing some piddly stuff, I laid down and looked at some magazines. I zonked out for awhile till the phone rang at 5 and now I have been pretty productive since I have been up. I enlarged some patterns to stitch on towels on the computer and started a felt pin cushion which I plan on finishing tonight. So looking at the magazines was a good thing...plus the nap. Energy, and Inspiration, works every time!!!

Memorial Day Weekend 2009

Wow is all I can say about the weekend! The flea market was packed! Jenna came home and brought her 2 future nephews, Roberto and Dusty. We had a wonderful weekend and the boys were so good. They loved the flea market and loved it up here. Roberto, the older one, asked me on the way to the flea market if there was a school near by my house on Monday morning. You see, they only live a couple of blocks from their school and I have walked with Jenna there to pick up the kids after school and we went one time to watch Diana's and Roberto's chorus concert also. So I knew where this was heading...and I had to chuckle inside to myself. So I took them past the school's and showed them which one they would go to if they lived here and which one Diana would go to. And...I warned Jenna about this so I don't get into trouble when they ask there parents to move up here...LOL Too funny! Anyways, it was a great fun weekend and I thought I would put some picture's on here so you could see the boys, Jenna, and Breezy. Breezy is the guy that has been helping me with my home improvements and is quite the character. Every time he came by my stall this weekend, he would say to the boys, "You are bored, aren't you." He can be a little trouble maker. We would all laugh. Any ways I had asked him to go see if this guy had any more magnetic clips as I use them to hang the Tastefully Simple banner on the building and I was having trouble keeping it up because of the wind. He took the little boys with him and when they came back they had sucker's and soda's. Breezy likes to spoil kids too, probably because he is like me, and we never really want to grow up! LOL So here are some pictures of everyone! These were taken on Monday afternoon when it was pretty quiet around the flea market as everyone was headed back home. I had bought the boys a basketball to play with and to keep at my house when they visit. They had fun shooting buckets in my hoop at home and playing catch at the flea market. They were already scheming that they would have lots of time off from school soon and could come back! Miss you all already! Love Mom...aka known as Aunt Elaine

5 Minute Chocolate Cake for one person!

THE 5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR ONE PERSON.......HOW NEAT













5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well..
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT ! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

Wouldn't this make a neat gift for someone. Put the ingredients in a coffee mug. Wrap it in a cello bag, tie a ribbon around the top of the bag, and make a cute gift tag for it!

Sheep and Sunflower Towel

These are the two towels that I finished yesterday during Diane's doctor's appointment. The sheep pattern I found in a quilting magazine that Diane lent me and the sunflower is from the new pattern I got when we went to Janesville last weekend. I am resting up for the weekend and paid bills, etc.....all that fun stuff :-( I talked to Jenna this afternoon and she will be bringing Roberto and Dusty with her tomorrow and I can't wait to see them all. It seems like FOREVER! Enjoy the weekend! Elaine

Flower Towel

I am a tired camper. Today Diane and I went to her doctor's appointment in La Crosse. I took this tote bag I have had for a couple of months but couldn't quite decide what to do with it and boy did I come up with the perfect idea. I rolled up the towels I need to stitch and filled up 3 out of 4 of the center pockets. The 4th pocket I put my water bottle in and all the outer pockets I used to put my needles, floss, drugs, nano, stamping magazines, wallet, cell phone, etc. It really worked slick. While Diane was at her appointment, I embroidered two towels out of the 12 that I prepped yesterday. Afterwards we had Chinese...our favorite, headed over to Michaels, and then I ran into Target to look at towels but they were to pricey but I did find some in Good Will in the new section. We stopped at my house for Diane's stamping order when we got back, said hi to the Yackette's as tonight was the monthly get together but we were to beat to go. Then I took Diane home, picked up the van, and headed back home to pack up the stamping order, make a salad and crash by the computer! The towel I have to show you today is one of two that I stitched on the way to Janesville and back on Saturday when we went to the quilt show. I also have some exciting news! I am going to be on the design team for Owl Whimsy's digital stamps! Stephanie thought the work that I did with "Sweetie", the little girl was awesome so you shall be seeing more of Stephanie's digital stamps on here! Wooooo HOOOOO!!!!

Manhattan Texturz Embossing Folder

Today's card was made with the Manhattan Texturz Embossing Folder. After you have run a piece of shimmery white card stock through the embossing folder, you lay the raised embossed side down on your work surface and brayer a couple of colors of ink on the back side (or debossed side) of your card stock. Blend until you get it how you like it. Then flip it over and cut out your roses and attach the back or debossed side face up to your card front! Before I attached mine, I stamped leaves from the set A Rose is A Rose. Easy Peasy....and looks oh so hard!

It is hard to believe but it is that time a year again. Today I ordered 3 cases of catalog's. The current catalog will end on June 30th and the new catalog will start on July 1st! We are going back to a one catalog per year system starting with this catalog. I also ordered the clips assortment, and craft and paper scissors with my Great Rewards points today. We can earn Great Reward points if your sales are over $1000.00 per quarter and you get a point for each dollar. I have been saving my points for the past 3 quarters and redeemed some of them today. The new scissors will be for cutting ribbon only!!! I have heard that they cut it like butter so I am excited about trying them out.

Party Hearty and Tea Party Designer Paper

One more to show you tonight and then I am headed to bed. This cat is tired. This uses the girl from Owl Whimsy, Party Hearty, and the Tea Party Designer paper. I am having fun playing. It is nice just to create and not have to keep track of measurements for stamp camp!

Digital Stamp from Owl Whimsy

Hello! Today I went with Lady Di to Tomah to her doctor's appointment. Then we headed over to Walmart to do some grocery shopping and I think I now have enough stuff so I shouldn't have to go for another month. Grocery shopping is not one of my favorite things to do so I stock up when I do go. I did pick up a pack of coffee towels that I am going to alter and make into hanging towels. I got a new pattern to do this at the quilt show. We had lunch at the Chinese buffet there. I enjoyed the ride there and back. You can see so much more when you are not the one driving and everything is so nice and green right now. After getting my groceries put away, I laid down and watched TV for awhile. I am not like most people who relax and watch TV in the evening, I watch it when I need to rest, or when I wind down to go to bed, or in the middle of the night when every one else is sleeping! Early this morning I discovered that Owl Whimsy's Blog that is Stephanie Sullins (another SU demonstrator) is going to start creating digital stamps to sell. For those of you that don't know what a digital stamp is, it is an image or words that someone creates on the computer, usually with a drawing pad. They make it into a file that can be emailed or into a compressed zip folder (if it is a large file) that can be downloaded on to your computer after you pay for the image. Then you in turn can make the image any size you want and print it. Then you just color in the image like you would a rubber stamped image. Her first set will be for sale on Monday and she is offering a free image to try out. If you post your creations on your blog and then put the link to your blog on her website, you are in the drawing for the set for free. So I printed out 9 images and colored 3 of them tonight and here are the first two projects I made with the image. Hope you like them! Me

Isabelle's Dance Recital

I promised you some pictures from Isabelle's Dance Recital so here goes. They do not allow any picture taking or camcording during the performances so you have to get your pictures before and after the show or during intermission. Let me tell you...this is considerably hard to do. I took a lot more pictures than this but deleted them as they were blurry. The kids are just so wound up...that every thing is just a sea of movement. I met Isabelle and Melissa in the parking lot before the show and snapped a few pictures of her in her first costume. She did her first performance to the song "I want candy" so this costume was so very fitting for that song and they all looked so very cute! Her second routine was to Music Box Dancer. She does such a good job. I am so proud of her! The costumes for this recital are out of this world, great music and lighting, and I have to say that going to this dance recital is a highlight of my year! Melissa got me what I call, the best seat in the house. They wanted me to come up and sit with them during the second half of the show, way up on top. I thanked them for the offer but said no way was I giving up my best seat in the house! We bought the ticket months ago. They allow the dance students parents to purchase in the reserved seating and I guess there is quite a line up when this happens. My seat was 6 rows from the stage and on a aisle and it was absolutely perfect as I could see all the expressions on the kids faces, and I didn't have to look through a bunch of heads. Great Job Melissa!!! She chaperone's the kids in the back during the performance and helps do there hair, etc. What a job!

The little ones...the 3 and 4 year old's were my favorite. There costumes were so cute and it was so funny to watch them try and do there dances. They would get out of line and have to run to catch up, or they would do a twirl and then just continue to twirl and twirl...or then there was the one that was suppose to be tapping her foot with her leg extended and she was pounding it...absolutely adorable and I was dieing laughing along with the audience. And it amazed me how large the teen age group was but they had really fun music and awesome routines so I understand why they want to be a part of it all. It was so neat to see the joy on there faces and some of them you could tell just loved every minute of it. It was a wonderful evening.

Today I have been resting...unfortunately, but that goes with the territory. A million things I would rather be doing but I have forced myself to behave today. If you get the opportunity...go to this dance recital next year. You won't regret it!

Pocket Silhouetttes

Hi! This is going to be a quick post as Cinderelli is about to turn into a pumpkin. The weather was great and I worked my tail off at the flea market marking stuff for the big weekend that is coming up in between customers. I closed around 3 as there weren't a lot of people around at that time and I knew that I had to get a nap in before I took a shower. Tonight was Isabelle's dance recital and it was FANTASTIC!!!! I will tell you more about it later and post some pictures. Tonight you just get a quick picture of the card made with Pocket Silhouettes. This one turned out very pretty, and also uses the Urban Oasis designer paper. Sweet Dreams!

Garden Greetings

Good Morning....a very early good morning! I am up in the middle of the night, as usual and will be heading back to bed shortly so I thought I would post a card. No...I am not up stamping, I only go on the computer in the middle of the night for an hour or two, otherwise I would never go back to sleep. This seems to do the trick for me. But...I do have a bunch of pictures on my computer of card samples that I made for Nadine's party, just waiting on here to be posted so here is another one. Today's card is made with the stamp set Garden Greetings. I really like the shape of these flower's. They are so modern and cool looking and the color combination's, and layout's you could do with this set are endless. I chose a real simple card to do and then stamped one of the flower's (the blue one, in the middle on the left side of the card) 3 times and popped it up with dimensional's. That kind of gives it a neat effect. I also used the oval punches and the new scalloped oval punch to mat the greeting. Well, I am going to see what is new on Stampin' Up's website and then off to bed for me! Make it a great day! Elaine

Janesville Quilt Show

Today I had the pleasure of going to a small quilt show at Janesville. Doris Kolberg was our chauffeur today, with Mary Raschke, Lady Di, and I riding along. I should have been at the flea market today, but both Mom and Di said it was suppose to be cold and windy today and that I probably wouldn't be able to stand it. It didn't take much to convince me of that when the alternative would be a road trip to a quilt show and I would be nice and warm! When we arrived at the show, we looked at the quilts first. I saw a couple of embroidered quilts that I have the patterns for and when I had my store, I had embroidered the individual squares and made into pillow's and had sold lots of them. So it was fun to see them made up. One was of snowman's all through the year and the other was of different flower baskets. Jenna has one of them with the baskets. I decided today that I would just pick a few quilts to show you. The one with all the little square's is a postage stamp quilt and it has 3000 different fabric square's in it. Di and I joked that we would have to show the picture of this one to Arlene at Community Quilting as she saves ALL of the scrap's and they get made into scrappy quilts. Those are my favorite to work on....to take all the scraps and make them into something cool looking. My favorite quilt at this show was the Northwoods quilt. It was very pretty and I really liked and appreciated all the applique in it to create the scenes. Lots of work in this quilt and I love needlework myself so this one ranked number one in my book today. Then I had to show you the large quilt that the kids from the Janesville school made. I have seen projects done like this on Simply Quilts TV show but I haven't seen one in person. AND...you all know how I like kids so this one was quite fascinating to look at and to see how kids view the world. After we viewed the quilts we looked at what the vendor's had to offer. Then we drove to Milton to see where Doris lived with Harlan, ate at the restaurant, now turned into a coffee shop where she was a waitress, made a quick stop at her daughter Connie's house, saw the farm where she milked cows on with her first husband, and then we went to a quilt shop in Milton. We stopped at Dairy Queen in the Dell's and by this time we were all pretty silly (over tired probably) but we had a lot of fun and a lot of laugh's. There was a car show in the Dell's today and there were TONS of cool cars parked and driving around in the Dell's and that was fun to see, although it was bumper to bumper traffic in the Dells, and that was not fun. I hit the hay as soon as I walked in the door and had a little snooze before the phone rang with Jenna calling around 7. I decided that I would get up and post this but I am headed back to bed. I have a headache and that is always a sign that I have done too much and am over tired but it was a very fun day.

Tea Party Flower Tag

My friend Carol stopped into today and wanted to borrow a Thank You stamp as she was going to make tags to put on the flower's that the Board of Education at Immanuel are giving to the Sunday school teacher's as thank you gifts for teaching Sunday School this year. I showed her some different stamp sets and then we came up with this idea. We made 12 of these tags and they were really fast to do! I cut the tag itself with the Big Shot and a tag die. While I was doing that, Carol cut the flower's out from the Tea Party designer paper. I popped them up on dimensionals and stamped Thank You with Pixie Pink ink. Carol is going to tie them on the flower pots with yellow curling ribbon. We had these done in about a half hour!!!

I also got one of the projects for Beth's party in June all cut out today so I am happy about that. And, I made one sample for it too. Now I am eating a salad and I think I will go watch Grey's Anatomy. Lady Di is dieing to talk to me about it as she watched it last night. So I better go watch it...gotta keep Di happy! LOL

Great Friend #2

This is another card made with the Great Friend stamp set and the Top Note Die. I used some half pearls from the Pretties Kit on the butterfly and the designer paper is from Urban Oasis.

Community Quilting

I went to Community Quilting today and thought I would share a picture of the gals that were there today and the projects they are working on. For those of you that don't know, Community Quilting is a volunteer group that makes quilts that go to the needy. We help many organizations. Nursing homes, hospitals, social services, emergency rescue, sheriff department squad cards, domestic abuse, parenting class for new mother's, tornado and fire victims, etc. We work with so many different agencies to provide quilts to help those in there time of need. Last year the group produced and gave away over 200 quilts! The volunteer's donate there time and all materials are donated. If you can help us in any way, we would sure appreciate it. You do not need to know how to sew to help. We need people to do pressing and tieing, and at the moment we could really use donations of the following things: quilt batting, mattress pads, blankets, thread, fabric, new flat sheets (we use these for backing quilts). If you are not sure what to purchase, donations of money are always appreciated. Please help us to continue this worthy cause!

I was telling the gals that I was going to put this on the blog today and Pat Monroe started goofing around and put the piece of red fabric around her head and made this serious face...and said "I am a little old lady who needs a quilt". I was laughing so hard when I snapped the picture that it is a little blurry. Anywhoo...if you would like to contribute in any way, you can contact me at quilter7@verizon.net, 606-403-4398, or Elaine Wilson, 508 West Street, Friendship, WI 53934

I came home around 1 today and did a few things before taking a nap. After I got up..I had a chocolate craving and decided to go to Pamida. It was my lucky day as I found some on sale and found some great 4 packs of towels on clearance. The really cool thing is that they had them all bundled up with pieces of twill and I will be able to use that for making cards too! I always like to joke that I was a depression baby...as I can't throw anything away and am always recycling things! Well I am off to make a salad (gotta counter act those chocolate calories...tee hee) and then I plan on prepping some towels to applique! Have a good one! Me

Great Friends #2

I forgot to mention in the previous post that not only do I have 1 coffee pot now...I have 2. Mom brought me over a 4 cup and a 12 cup this morning. So head on over all you coffee clutcher's! I drink decaf so if you like regular....BYO Coffee! Thanks MOM!

This card is made with the stamp set Great Friend and I used the felt fusions and one of our new brad's on it.

Snowman Star Towels

Good Evening. I am sitting here eating left over pizza and listening to John Denver play on my stereo. Some of you may know that I have an extensive music collection. I have 2 - 300 CD disc changers. One is full and the other one is over half full. In the first one that I bought I put them in there in random order, mixed them up with all sorts of different kinds of music. The second one has a big section of just Christmas, and another section of 50, 60, and 70's and then a section with my latest music. I added the latest Rascal Flatt's CD today so Lady Di could listen to it while she was here. We are big Rascal Flatt's fans. Right now I have the 1st one on and it is always a surprise when the next CD comes up and I like that. Otherwise I would probably only play certain one's a lot and I really enjoy the mix. Annie's song is playing and when I got married, I had Kris Schaetzka play it on the guitar and sing it. She was set up on my folks front lawn under the Pines and I can still see her singing it. Do I remember anything else she sang. NO! LOL.. John Denver was always a favorite of my sister's and I. We spent a zillion hours singing and listening to him on 8 track on our family vacations to Montana and back. I remember Mom and Dad throwing us in the back of the truck one time under a topper, on the interstate. We always had to take a 4 wheel drive out there so we could go up in the mountains mining, and we would be crammed in the truck like sardines and it would be hot going across the Dakota's. I imagine you would get arrested if your kids were in the back of the truck now. And we sang on top of our lungs....good times. Now Di and I do it in my van singing Rascal Flatt's on road trips. Ask her sometime to do the "Rain" song....LOL. I am going to be in the dog house again! :D

Today while Di was here I was finishing up some towels that I had started stitching. I finished 4 of them today. They are all a little bit different but decided that I would only shoot a picture of 2 of them as I didn't want to bore you to tears! "You light up my life", sang by LeAnn Rimes is on right now. Another good song. You all light up mine...have a good night! Me

Fifth Ave Floral and Top Note Quilt Card

It was a busy day today. Breezy was here at 9 am to mow my lawn and trim it. It looks wonderful and I can tell already that he is going to be the best person I have ever had to mow my lawn. It looks really nice. I went to library to pick up some books that came in and took the Community Quilters the Thrivent grant check. I then popped into Practical Cents to see if I could find a coffee pot as mine went capootz but no such luck, today they didn't have any. But in the 15 minutes I was in there, I found a brand new, oblong, fabric lined basket that I immediately put by my paper cutter to hold paper when I got home, a really nice picture frame, and a great deal on fabric. Yes...I did buy some more...it was too good of deal to pass up and I hope to be sewing soon. I popped on out to Susie's and picked her up and we headed to Mauston for my eye doctor appointment. After much discussion, I decided that I would try again to get use to bifocals and we are hoping that this pair will work better than the last ones. We stopped at the other eye doctor's office and I picked out frames and I should have the new glasses in a week and a half. Then we were off to Festival Foods and we did some grocery shopping and then headed home. By the time I got home, I wasn't feeling so hot and after supper, chit chat with Lady Di, and iming with Colleen, I layed down, looked at one of my library books and fell asleep with Molly laying on my shoulder. Mom called at 7 and woke me up which was a good thing so that I am not up all night! I started working on 4 of these cards and some body....that we will leave nameless....but lives in another state....... and could that state be Oregon??????...was begging and wanting to know WHEN she would get to see the quilt card. I told her that I would post it tomorrow as I had already posted today, but I just finished one of the four so thought I would surprise her and post it tonight. I may get rewarded with chocolate for doing this...time will tell! Ha Ha! I absolutely love this card and some lucky person is going to get this one in the mail who has a birthday...but we shall keep that a surprise too! The rose on it is from Fifth Ave Floral. My favorite stamp set at the moment, and uses the textured Parisian Breeze designer papers, top note die, and the chocolate background is textured with the embossing plates. Everything on this card I love...all my favorite things and colors. Let me know what you think! Click on the comments and leave me a note! I am headed to bed as I am NOT feeling good again. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Nadine's Party

Last night was Nadine's party and we had a wonderful turnout. The pictures above this are of the hostess gift I made for Nadine. We were teasing her that these were pictures of her and John. These "old people" are available in the current mini catalog and are fun cards to make. I used the Good Morning Sunshine paper on them. The box for them was made with the scalloped envelope die and was decorated with the Tea Party paper.



We made these projects. The red, black, and white card uses the stamp sets, Pick A Petal, Polka Dot Backgrounds, and Upsey Daisy. The other card uses Playful Petals and the Tea Party Designer paper. A great time was had by all and we all enjoyed the fantastic food that Nadine had for us. I want that recipe for the M&M mix Nadine! The next party will be Monday, June 8th at 5:30pm for supper and Beth Griffith will be the hostess. Come and join us for a barrel of fun!