The two little cutie pies

These are the two little cutie pies that I whipped up the butterflies for this morning.  They had a blast with them.  They absolutely loved them, they were a big hit.  We had breakfast at Friendship Cafe and then headed out to Carol's house.  It was a lot of fun visiting with Carol, Erin, Jordy, and playing with the little girls.  It was the longest amount of time that I have ever spent with the little girls, I didn't get home till 8 o' clock tonight.  We hit it off famously.  And Darcy  their cat decided that she adored me too.  She hopped right up on my lap several different times and would lay there for at least an hour at a time.  As soon as I got there she plopped right down.  Campbell had to make sure that I had Hershey kisses to take home with me...ha ha....and she didn't even know that I love them.  Too funny...she must have just sensed that I was a Hershey's kisses girl!  Carol gave me my birthday present today.  She got me a beautiful earrings and necklace set that will look wonderful with all my brown tops.  I just love it.  She said it was fun to pick it out for me as their are so many pretty things to choose from and she never wears stuff like that.  You did a great job buddy...I couldn't have picked out a more beautiful set myself!  Thanks, and thanks for a wonderful day!

Butterflies and Butterfly House

Happy Sunday!  I just thought I would do a quick post before I take off.  It has been a day of many changed plans, but that is okay, I just get more days to spend with the people I care about.  How can a girl beat that!  Soon Carol is going to be here to pick me up.  Erin and her girls, the two cuties in the blue dresses shown in Jenna's wedding pictures are going to meet us at Friendship Cafe for lunch.  Then we are all going out to Carol's house.  Erin has been looking for a piano for some time and they have an appointment to look at one tonight at 7:30 in Mauston.  So I am very excited about spending time with them all.  I thought, what do I have that I can bring for the girls!?!?!  You know I have to keep up my reputation as the best Aunt in the WHOLE world (as Brooke says), and I like to play Auntie &/or Grandma to all the kids I meet.  My philosophy in life is that kids can never have too many people in their life to love and spoil them.  Any who...I only had 2 hours to shower, and get ready, plus come up with an idea.  Well low and behold, what popped into this little head of mine was candy.  Seriously, you aren't surprised are you !?!?  Now any one that knows me well knows that I don't like to share my chocolate, especially my Hershey's kisses.  I will share just about everything else.  I even have been known to hide them.  Ask Diana on this one...as I share them with her.  But I don't have any to share at the moment anyways.  But I had bought these smarties and was planning to make butterflies with them.  So I quick made up these butterflies with my Big Shot and the Butterfly die.  Didn't they turn out sweet!  They would be so cute as table favors for a birthday, Easter, wedding shower, baby shower, you name it.  I kid you not, I had all 6 of these made up in about 15 minutes!  It took me longer to choose my paper's than it did to make them.  That is one thing I love about being a crafter, if you need a quick gift, you have supplies in the house that you can make one up with.  And they could be dolled up further, but I figured that the kids would be playing with them and embellishments would fall off, so why bother.  They are cute as they are.  Then I was thinking about how to get them there with out getting smooshed ?  I was walking by the computer and saw that my tissue box was almost empty so I thought that would be fun to carry them in that and then the kids could use it as a butterfly house!  Hmmmmmm......do you think I might get adopted Auntie of the year award ????  I will give you an update and maybe some pics of the two cuties!!!  Have a great day!  Me

Razzleberry Lemonade

Brr.....it sure is cold outside!  I think that I will just stay in now and hibernate till spring!  LOL  I started my day off early today by going to the Community Center to pick up my Share package.  Not many people must have ordered this month, or they came very early this time as I was in and out of there in about 5 minutes today.  I had sewed 9 pincushion's up last night and finished stuffing them this morning on the bed watching TV, snuggled up with the cats watching Dr. Oz.  I fell asleep and got a short cat nap in before Susie arrived for a visit.  I had lunch after she left and then cut out both of the projects for Sandy's party.  So that is all done now.  Yay!!!!  Diane popped in with some magazine's for me to this afternoon.  I had another little cat nap tonight while I was watching Dr. Oz.  Seriously, the programs are interesting but I must relax during them just like Scrapbook Memories, which I love but usually watch at bed time because I fall asleep watching it!  Here is the recipe for today's card.  Stampin' Up! Stamp Set: Well Scripted,  Rich Razzleberry Ink, Wide Oval Punch, Scalloped Edge Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Rich Razzle Berry Polka Dot Ribbon, Razzle Berry Lemonade Designer Paper, Card Stock: Rich Razzleberry, and Whisper White, Perfect Details Embossing Folder, Big Shot.  Try and stay warm!  Boo

 

Cozy Modern Quilts

I picked this book up yesterday from the library and it is a really cool one.  A great book for people who are just learning how to quilt, with some very simple patterns to do, yet the quilts have a very contemporary modern look to them.  I could very well see these quilts in both of my daughter's homes.  I subscribe to several quilting blogs and these are the type of quilts that these young mother's are sewing.  I just added this book to my book wish list on Amazon and I hope to add it to my collection some day.  Yes, for those of you who don't know, I collect quilting books and patterns, along with colbalt/blue & white items, Hershey chocolate items, fabric, stamps, and sewing decorations for my sewing room,  I also try to collect bags of Hershey's kisses, but they don't seem to stay around here very long.  The cat's must eat them while I am sleeping....ha ha!  Speaking of sleep...I should try to get some zzz's in before I have to pick up Share in the morning.  Have a good one!  Me

It's a great day, in the neighboorhood!

Happy Weekend!  Other than it being way too cold, it is a great day in Mayberry.  And yes, I am writing in the middle of the night.  But I have already had almost 4 hours of good sleep in which is great for me!  I fell asleep watching Dr. Oz.  I highly recommend this program.  I stumbled across it about a month a go (when I was in a flair up) and have been recording it ever since.  He talks about different health issues every day and it is very educational and he makes it so interesting.  Pretty soon I will be hanging out my MD shingle along with my free counseling shingle.  I have several of my friends tease me that they come to me for their therapy sessions, or to get their "Elaine fix".  LOL  Actually, I do more "listening" than counseling.

I ran a bunch of errands yesterday and hit the jackpot at Practical Cents as the whole store was half price!  Now....I know you are dying to know what treasures I found.  But, Miss Dilworth has told me that if she sees a long post here, she will know that I wrote about all my treasures, and she will know not to read it.  LOL  So....if you want to know what I bought...call her at 608-339-8264.  If enough people call and bug her, then maybe next time I will be able to tell you!  Hee...Hee



So finding all those goodies at half price, plus using the $5.00 off, filled punch card, bring my total down even further, to a mere $16.00 for 3 filled trash bags....made me really do the happy dance!  Then on top of all this, I found out that I will be able to put my cards in a new bar/restaurant in Miladore soon!  The bar is open and the restaurant is in the process of being remodeled and will be opening soon.  This also may lead into having some of my other items that I make for sale in there too!  Now where the heck is Miladore you ask!?!?  It is a little town about half way between Stevens Point and Marshfield.  I will give you more information about it when the time comes.

Today's card turned out oh so pretty and I love the color combination.  The base of the card is kraft, then blush blossom, with a layer of designer paper in So saffron, and the flower's are stamped on Very Vanilla with the stamp set Close As A Memory.  This is a sympathy stamp set but just goes to show how versatile a stamp set can be when you take an image from one stamp set and mix it with a stamp from another set, a get well saying from the set Curvy Verses.  I made 2 of this card, one went out in the mail today, and the other one you will be able to see at Sandy's party.  Speaking of Sandy's party, I made the door prizes yesterday, and they turned out so stinkin' cute, that I am sure everyone will be fighting over them...hee hee!  But you will have to wait to see a picture of them till after the party.


I also had a surprise visit from Tammy Renner yesterday after she got off of work.  She had not been in the living room since I put my new retro kitchen table in there and thought it looked so cute in here.  Usually we end up talking by the back door when she stops.  Any whoo....she liked my stamping room and said "You've got your own little store in here" while scanning the room and grinning.  Yes I do....:-D  Have a great weekend, don't forget to call Di!  LOL

Birthday Cards

Today's cards shows the same layout but two different variations on it.  I used the stamp set Well Scripted on both of them.  The designer paper is the new Sending Love Specialty paper.  It is so gorgeous!  The piece on the top card has glitter on it.  The bottom card is the same sheet of paper only the flip side of it.  On both cards I used the Stampin' Up! Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder that is on page 35 of the Occasion Mini to emboss the card with.  If you have a Big Shot, this embossing folder is a must.  It just makes everything go from blah...to blahzay!!!! You will be seeing lots more of it as I have a whole stack of cards sitting on my table that I have just made with it.  These two cards are going out in the mail tomorrow to two people....hmmmm....can you guess who has birthday's this week!?!?

I spent lots of time on the phone today.  I ended up talking with both of the girls today.  Their Uncle Louis gave CD's of photo's to Aunt Anita of the wedding for Jenna, Sarah, and I that he took and that Aunt Mary took.  So that was a very nice surprise.  Anita dropped them off last night.  I loaded them up on Face book this afternoon and the girls have been having fun tagging them, commenting on them, and chit chatting back and forth with people about them.  I talked to Zach tonight on the phone and he gave me an update about his week on the fire department.  He said that one night he didn't get home from the station till 11:30 because he was playing Yeucker with the guys.  I think he was surprised that they played cards after practice.  I told him that I remembered when I was a little girl driving by the Adams Fire Department and seeing the garage door's open and the guys playing cards in there.  He said that they have had 3 calls this week, and he went on two of them, today's call was a false alarm.  He is absolutely loving every minute of it.  He told me that he has 29? brother's now.  That they all are his brother's and that they take care of one another.  So that is pretty cool that he feel's this way about these guys already.  And this is the first time for him to have brother's as he has two sisters in his family.

When I was talking to Jen this afternoon, Antonio was getting ready to go to work.  He comes up to her and she starts laughing.  I guess she was suppose to be looking to see if he had any pimples under his nose.  He says to her that she can never see anything.  I tell her to tell him that I can see a big one under his nose from here!  Jen tells him this and then Antonio says: Tell her to Shut Up and that I love her.....Jen and I were just cracking up.  He can be so funny, and with his cute little accent, I swear everything he says is funny. 


I also had a very pleasant surprise this afternoon.  Nadine called and she stopped over for a while.  I have not seen her for several month's.  When Diane, Beth, and I were having supper at Cat's Down the Road on Monday night, Beth asked if we had seen Nadine.  None of us had seen her for months so it was kind of cool that she "came out of the wood work" or where ever she has been hiding out today!  She is having 4 little girls over to stamp next week so we talked about some idea's, and I sold her some Love Notes and some envelope's.  They all need to make Valentines to exchange with their classmates at school.  I am sure she will come up with something cool and the kids will love it!  When Nadine is old and gray and lives at Villa Pines, with the rest of us....the kids will still be coming to stamp with her!  She is planning on coming to Sandy Renner's party on February 8th so everyone will get to see her!  We miss you buddy! 

I Spy Quilt Square Swap!

Good Evening!  I thought I would show you the 4" quilt squares that I finished cutting for the internet I Spy quilt square exchange I am participating in.  Each participant searches for unusual fabric prints that a child would recognize.  You need to have 10 different fabrics.  Out of each fabric you cut 20 4" squares.  Then we mail them to the gal in charge of the swap and we will receive 200 squares back and each of them will have a different print on them.  Then in turn you can make a quilt and you do not have to purchase 200 different print fabrics.  So it is a real money saver.  After you have made and given your quilt to the child.  Then you can play I Spy with them with it.  This is a great way to keep a baby entertained at the doctor's office, or other place's.  Last night I saw pictures on Care's blog of 5 people's sets of squares that she has received so far.  There are some really cute one's and I am excited to get mine.  I plan on mailing mine out to her tomorrow.  We need to have them there by Feb 3 and are suppose to receive our's back by Valentines Day.  So sometime in the future, I will have an I Spy Quilt to show you.  I have made them for Community Quilting and they are fun to make.

Today, Diane's dog Bernie had a haircut appointment in the Rapids and she asked me to go along.  We went to Walmart and Walgreen's and I got my grocery shopping done for the next month.  I made a yummy salad for supper tonight.  I have been working on my samples for Sandy Renner's party and have 9 of them done so far and boy are they cute!!!  Have a good night!  Elaine

Hoo Hoo Hoo, who loves you?

Good Afternoon!  I have been getting some good sleep the past few days and it sure feels great!  As most of you know, I usually only sleep a couple of hours and then am up, and back down again.  Not a lot of restful sleep.  I was out before 10 last night which is highly unusual for me.  I fell asleep reading a scrap booking magazine.

I have a quick post for you.  Jenna called this morning and while I was talking to her, I was working on this owl card.  The little owls are from the pile of animals on my desk that I made with the Cricut a couple of days ago.  The tree branch, leaves and flowers are from an owl set I picked up last summer, and the saying is from a different owl set.  I love how it all works together!

Are you cured yet ?!?

One thing that is really fun about having large CD changer's is that you never know what music is going to come up next.  I just got a blast from the past.....Bad, Bad, Le Roy Brown.  Do you remember that one?  An oldie but goody.   Now Time in A Bottle is playing by Jim Crocie sang.  A beautiful song but kind of bitter sweet as he died in a plane crash.  I have quite a wide selection of music and it is not always to every one's taste.  I have been known to hear when I am on the telephone, "What is the heck is playing....!?!?!"  LOL  I think Sarah was the last one that said that.  Hee Hee.  I can't remember what she said it sounded like, but I said it sounded  to me like it was from an African tribal dance or something....LOL

This morning when I was looking at blogs, I saw a stamp with this saying with it on it, and I thought that is perfect for the little pigs I cut out last night!  So I decided that I would make this card up next.  Isn't it fun....!?!?!  Come on guys....leave me a little blog love in the comment section!!!

I am nuts about you.

I am playing in the stamping room this afternoon..  I am having trouble with my lap top so was messing around with that this morning.  My friend Kramer in Michigan is trying to help me with it.  We decided the next step is to bring in his computer expert friend, and he will take over the lap top from there and get the virus out.  I have been messing with this on and off since Thursday night when it happened.  Thankfully my desktop is working fine, so I have a computer to use.  I had some people stopped in for some Tastefully Simple this afternoon.  So it has been a busy day.
I am listening to the new Brooke's and Dunn album #1's and then some.  It is excellent of course.  I am so sad that they are breaking up.  They have some fantastic music and I think I have all of their albums.  It always amazes me how music can affect a person, me anyways.  It can take you right back to a happy place or a sad one, and you feel those same emotions you did at the time.  But I have always loved music.  My mom wrote it in my baby book.  I don't remember what age she wrote it at, but I was young.  Maybe 2 !?!?  I will have to look it up sometime when I am upstairs.

Enough chatter...on to the card.  This little squirrel is one of the animals I made last night.  He is popped up to give it a 3 D look.  I free hand cut the grass.  The tree is from a stamp set that I bought last summer or fall that I hadn't had a chance to play with.  I got it to go with my owl stamps so you will be seeing more of it as I have quite a few owl stamps.  The flower's and butterflies are from the same set and I used stickles on the flower centers to give it a little bling.  The ransom note: "I am nuts about you", was made with a little alphabet set that my friend Colleen rak'd me with. It is a fun way to add your own saying to something.  Well I am going to Boot, scoot, and boogie back to my stamping room and do some more playing....maybe you will hear from me again tonight!  Have a good one.  Me

Paper Craft Magazine TShirt give away.

I just saw this T shirt on one of the blogs that I subscribe to Paper Crafts Connections and thought it was such a stitch.  I love retro and this gal is sure a cutie.  If you leave a comment on the Paper Craft Connection blog with what she should be named, you are entered in for a chance to win.  My first thought was that she should be named Sally, Sassy Sally.  I read through the comments and a name that was quite popular was Betty and I have to agree that she does look like a Betty.  And then I came up with the name Dashin' Dottie.  I sure would love to win one of these shirts.  I wonder if they will have them for sale later on.  It sounded like they were going to have them at CHA which is going on in California right now.  All the new crafting products coming out are shown there.  It would be an absolute blast to be there seeing all the new stuff.  A girl can only dream....a lot of people that do go, share a lot of picture's so I will have an arm chair view....lol  Here is the link if you want to enter.  http://papercraftsconnection.com/2010/01/22/freebie-friday-off-to-cha-we-go/  Have a great day!  Elaine

Oh baby...

This afternoon I had a play day in my stamping room.  No agenda...just playing.  My favorite kind of day!  The last time I was out to Diane's house she let me look through her Cricut cartridges and said I could take one home to play with.  I chose the cartridge Animal Kingdom.  The giraffe on this card was cut with that cartridge and I just love it.  I spent the afternoon, cutting, layering, and sponging all sort's of animal's.  I was having so much fun doing it that I worked through the evening on them too.  I have a whole pile on my desk right now, and hopefully Taffy won't decide to play with them during the night.  Sometimes the cats leave things alone, sometimes they knock them off the desk to play with them, and Taffy's favorite trick is to pick up ribbon's or sponges and run off with them.  Sometimes I lay paper on top of projects so that they can't see them it I think they might bother them.  Hee Hee...you have to out smart the cats.  The "sun" on here is from some left over piece's that I had from Stampin' Up!'s daisy die.  I had made some cards for samples for last months party with that die.  I had some that got off track and only cut out half the flower.  Pack rat that I am, I had to save them.  I have been going "Green" for years, way before it got popular.  Any who...one was laying on my desk out of the little basket I had them in as Taffy had been after the ribbon in that container AGAIN...and she knocked one out on the table.  You did not know that she helps me design projects did you !?!?!  LOL  I saw it laying there and thought this would make a perfect sun for my card, so did a few snips, and sponged it with More Mustard and Pumpkin Pie ink to give it some dimension.  And speaking of dimension, I put dimensional's underneath the giraffe.  The circle on top of the sun was in one of my bins I have hanging on the wall with all the punch out's that I make from scraps.  A real time saver when I am putting a project together.  Punching them takes FOREVER...but I hate punching up a new sheet a card stock for a little circle, so I punch up all of my scrap's, nothing get's wasted. I tried a new way of tying my bow on this card, and I think this is the best looking knot that I have ever made.  It is very smooth looking.  I will have to show you this technique at our next party, which is February 8th at 5:30 at the church.  Sandy Renner is the hostess.  Of course I will have some fabulous samples to show you and some more new items from the Occasion Mini. ;-).  Plus whatever projects I dream up for you to do.  With Sale-A-Bration being on right now, with every $50.00 order, you will receive an item of your choice up to $15.95 out of the Sale-A-Bration catalog. It is a great time to stock up on supplies and get those items on your wish list!!  I also want to mention if you are planning a Super Bowl party, now is the time to get your Tastefully Simple order's in so that they arrive on time.  Need a catalog!?!?  Give me a buzz!  Have a great weekend!  Me

Taffy finds a new condo!

I thought you would get a kick out of this picture.  Doesn't Taffy look cute!?!?  I had put my shower towels over the laundry basket where I put my dirty clothes, and I was walking out of the bathroom and saw her sitting in the basket on top of the towels, pleased as punch with herself.  She stayed in the bathroom most of the morning in her new condo.  Yesterday her favorite place was sitting on top of some new makeup bags I had found at the thrift store.  It always amazes me how the cat's will try and make themselves fit on the tiniest piece of fabric.  They think EVERYTHING was put there for them to lay on.  Later in the day, Molly pulled a good one.  I had just come down the steps and walked into the kitchen when I heard this awful crash on the steps.  I thought "That's really weird as I didn't have anything on the steps".  I walked back into the living room to a DISASTER!!!!  There is a dresser at the top of the stairs and I had a box sitting on top of it.  It has been there for weeks.  Molly must have taken a running leap for it, knocked it off the dresser, and it landed on the edge of the top of the steps.  It was a large box and it was full of cards, things I had gotten at swaps, a jar of tiny bows that the lid came off of, all kinds of little stuff.  Well it was scattered from the top of the steps, all the way down the steps, and all over the floor at the bottom of the steps.  One of those things you know is going to take you awhile to clean up, and you don't want too, but you know you have to.  Then when you factor in that my bend ability is bad, and it is real bad due to the cold, the thought of crawling around the floor doesn't sound like fun because you know you are going to hurting after wards worse than you already are.  Oh well, so it goes.  Sometimes they are like having a two year old in the house.  Frustrating...but as you all know, I love them.  KIDS!
In a positive note....  I had taken a jar of button's over to my folk's house on Sunday and asked my dad if he had any tools that would cut the shanks off the back of the button's.  I have ton's of beautiful button's that have been sitting in jars for years and I rarely ever use them because shank button's were really made for clothing and they do not lay right on craft projects, they flop around.  So...I have been thinking that if I could get the shank off, I could glue them on cards and 3 D projects.  I had bought a tool in a craft store years ago that was suppose to be able to do that, and after the 3rd button, it snapped the tool so I knew it needed to be something tough.  Time to get MAN tools....lol  Mom emailed me today and said that Dad had a tool for me and that I could have it.  So I stopped over there and picked it up this afternoon when I was running errands.  I have been trading out some of my retired stamp sets for some new goodies, so had a bunch of packages to mail.  I am pleased to say that I tried it out tonight and it works really slick.  I did about 25 buttons tonight, and can't wait to put them on some cards as I have some beauties!  I am very tired so am going to head to bed.  Have a great day!  Elaine

Get Well

I just finished this card a little while ago to send to a friend of mine that just had surgery.  This is one of the images that I had colored on Saturday but ran out of time to put the card together.  Isn't this guy a cutie!?!

This post is about a blog that I subscribe to.  I thoroughly enjoy it.  Darla was so kind to share it with me several years ago and I immediately subscribed.  Today's passage is one of my favorites and I felt moved to share it with you today.   Make it a great day!  Elaine

Edit: Please click on the words The Desires of His Heart below and it will take you directly to the blog so you can read this.

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The Desires of His Heart 18 Jan 2010 Jennifer Erin Valent, She Reads Featured Author "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 (NIV) When I was young, my girlfriends and I used to play a game where we would choose different ideals we had for our lives, from whom we wanted to marry, to what car we wanted to drive. Life seemed so simple then! In just one short game, I could plan my life out from start to finish. Funny thing is, I never did marry Johnny Depp, I don't live in a mansion, and I don't drive a Porsche. Well, I was young, and it's certainly a blessing that I didn't end up having to live out the life I planned for myself then. But what about now? As an adult, I've had plenty of dreams for my life. I think I'm pretty intuitive about myself, and I've got a good idea how I think things should go. And since Scripture says the Lord will give us the desires of our hearts, shouldn't these things be coming to pass? Maybe not. The Lord knows a whole lot more than we give Him credit for, and maybe what He has planned for our lives doesn't match up with what we have planned. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (NIV). What a promise! In just a few words, this verse tells us how much God loves us and how much He wants to bless our lives. He wants our short walk on this earth to be worth so much! But then, what about those desires of our hearts? Where do they fit in? The Hebrew definition of the word delight in Psalm 37:4 is interesting; it involves the idea of being soft and pliable. Makes me think of clay. I've used small blocks of clay before, and in order to be able to work with one, I need to hold in it my hands and get it warm and soft, ready to be formed into the shape I intend for it to be. Sound familiar? "Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand" (Isaiah 64:8, NIV). As the Potter forms us, we begin to know Him more. His thoughts become our thoughts. That's when God does more than grant us the desires of our hearts; He actually provides us with those very desires. We no longer want what we want, we want what He wants. And it is most certain that whatever the Lord wishes to bring to pass in our lives, He also desires to freely give us. We're so often caught up in our own ideas that we forget to listen to His. What a difference it would make if we had God's best intentions at heart. If we could just step out in faith that our Father wants our very best, and that of all things on this earth, we could never have better than what He gives. What peace that would bring to us all. What delight that would bring to our Lord. And what gifts that would place at our feet when He both provides and fulfills the desires of our hearts! Dear Lord, help me to see how much You love me and how much You want for me. Take my heart in Your hand and fashion it after Your own heart so that I will know the beauty of what You desire for my life. In Jesus Name, Amen. Related Resources: Fireflies in December a novel by Jennifer Erin Valent. This book is a current She Reads selection – visit the site to learn more about the novel and its author. Follow this link to P31's She Reads and enter today's giveaway: One grand prize winner will receive the first two novels in this series by Jennifer Erin Valent – Fireflies in December and Cottonwood Whispers—as well as two beautiful hard-cover devotional books: The Daily God Book: Words of Wisdom, and The Daily God Book: A Year of Listening to God. Plus, a second runner up will win both of Jennifer's novels, and a third runner up will win Fireflies in December, the first book in the series. Shaped with Purpose CD and companion Workbook by Renee Swope What Happens When Women Say Yes to God by Lysa TerKeurst Application Steps: Make a point of counting your blessings daily. When we focus on God's many blessings, we see more and more how much He loves us and how many good things He gives us. Scripture is full of God's promises to us. Search for them and remember them! God's unchanging nature and unfailing love are the cornerstones of faith. If He said it, He meant it, and those promises are a reassuring haven when life seems out of control. Reflections: Which of God's promises will remind me during today's particular challenges that I can trust the Lord with my future? In what ways has the Lord blessed me already today? Power Verses: Ephesians 1:3, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." (NIV) Luke 12:6-7, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (NIV) © 2010 by Jennifer Erin Valent. All rights reserved. You are subscribed as: quilter7@verizon.net Proverbs 31 Ministries 616-G Matthews-Mint Hill Road, Matthews, NC 28105 877-P31-HOME (877-731-4663)

Future Stampin' Up Demonstrators!

My niece and nephew, Brooke and Ben, absolutely love to craft.  Way more than my kids did growing up.  The funny thing is that any kids that visited here were interested in what I was working on, but to my own kids it was old hat and they would tell me they liked things I was making but they were never really interested in learning how to do it.  If they wanted something, which wasn't often, they just asked me to make it.  I think as adults, they appreciate it more and quite often ask me to make things now and are starting to become more interested in crafting.  Sarah does a lot of decorating project's in her home.  They just finished sanding and staining all of their floors down stairs in their home plus she is repainting the rooms.  Any whoo...I am digressing.  Brooke and Ben loved cutting out flowers and circles with the die cutting machine and Brooke went home with a whole pile of them.  You can see the piece of white felt near the machine that Brooke was working on.  She had made a bunch of capes out of felt with one of her friends and I taught her to put a felt flowers on it today and sew a button on top.  That is as far as we got with the sewing.  She liked doing it, but was really having fun cutting them out with the machine so I let her do that.  Learning to thread a needle, and tie knots on the end of the thread were enough to learn for one day and kept her happy, that is the main thing.  Their will be other days to teach her more things.

Zach really liked his cake and card.  He said "Did you make this?" with wonder in his voice when he was looking at the card.  He told me he has wanted to be a fire fighter since he was 5 years old.  He starts schooling this week and is very excited about it.  I am so happy for him and that his dream is coming true.  He is such a cutie pie...don't ya think!!!!  We decided today that we will have Easter at my sister's house, and we are also planning a family get together, probably in the Dells, this summer where we can all stay together for a few night's in a big cabin or condo to celebrate my Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary.  So that should be a lot of fun as we have never done anything like that all together before.  Mike and Lenore took back their stereo equipment  that has been riding around in my van since the wedding.  So now the back is half empty!  Jenna's stuff is still in there, the vases, decorations, and pew bough's.  It sure will be nice when I finally get it empty again, but not sure exactly when that will be but at least  there is room if I need to haul something.  Have a great week!  Elaine

Fire Truck Cake

Man, am I a tired camper....I have had a headache all day long.  I took migraine medicine earlier in the day, but I am feeling pretty nauseated right now.  I didn't go to sleep last night till after 3am so I didn't get enough sleep.  I am headed to bed now, and hopefully will zonk out for the night.  But thought I would quick show you the fire truck cake that I just finished for Zach.  I did not get my board back from them when I made a different version as a groom's cake so had to improvise by putting it on an angle on my little cake board.  It turned out cute, and I am sure he will like it. Sarah said he just loved it when I made it before.  I am going to have to get my sewing stuff ready for Brooke in the morning as I sure am out of steam now!!! Make it a great weekend!   Elaine

Congratulations Zach!

It is definitely a "boy's day" as far as cards are concerned!  My son-in-law Zach has wanted to be a fireman since he was a little boy and his dream is finally coming true.  He was just voted on for the Reedsburg Fire Department.  One of the first things he told me when they bought their home in Reedsburg is that he wanted to get on the fire department.  That was a year ago.  It is not like here in Friendship, where they will take just about everyone as they are so desperate to get volunteer's.  In Reedsburg, you have to wait till a position open's and are put on a waiting list.  I am so happy for him as he is so excited.  We are having a family get together tomorrow and Sarah asked me to make Zach a Fire Truck cake with my fire truck pan.  So I got that baked last night, and put in the freezer.  I just whipped up the frosting and will start decorating it after I am done with this blog post.  This card is a easel card and I took a picture from the side so you can see how it looks.  I also made a pocket in the back and a tab so that the message I wrote to Zach is hidden, he will have to pull out the tab to see it.  I took a picture of it so that you could see it.  One piece of advice I can give about making guy cards is that if you really want to WOW them, add some hardware of some sort on it.  They like brads, eyelets, etc.   I added twill tape as the "ribbon" on it as I think it look's more masculine and reminds me of the hoses that they use to fight fire's with.  If they are still the same as when I was Friendship Fire Department's treasurer, they were a canvas type material.  Zach really appreciates the cards I make him so it will be interesting to see what he has to say about this one!  Sometimes I think men appreciate handmade things more than women.  When I had my store, men loved to watch me stitch.  It would remind them of their Grandma, or someone in their family that they loved.  Not many people embroider any more.  I plan on teaching Brooke some hand sewing tomorrow.  I will give you a report on how that goes!  Well, time to go decorate the cake!  Me

Happy Birthday Antonio!

Tomorrow will be Antonio's 35th birthday.  I just finished making his birthday card so I will be able to mail out his birthday gift on Monday.  I decided to use my digital image with the Sombrero.  Then I was thinking about what I wanted to put for a saying on the front of the card when I ran across this stamp that says "lot's of hugs".  This is so appropriate for Antonio as he is a hugger.  He always gives you a hug when he see's you and  again when he leaves.  He is an affectionate guy and I like that about him, along with a lot of other things.  I know he love's Jenna with his whole heart, spoils her rotten, and would do anything for her.  This card was pretty quick to put together as I took the paper's out of scrap bin, pulled out the photo corner drawer's and picked out some corner's for the card.  It pays to take the time to punch out your scraps.  Then you can quickly put something together when you need it.

A couple of day's ago I mentioned that my friend Debby from Illinois mobile home is for sale, and that I couldn't remember the name of the park.  It is called Castle Rock Lake RV Park.  If you would like to take a look at it.  Leave me a note in the comment's and we can set up a time for you to see it.


Yesterday, Lady Di and I went bumming.  She wanted to make a trip to Mennard's in Plover so we did that.  We had fun looking around in there and I picked up Antonio's birthday present while I was there.  Di's pet's made out really good as she found a lot of stuff for them in the pet department.  They are pretty spoiled, but then she spoils all the people she cares about, me included!  I am a lucky girl!  Then we headed back to Rapids and made a stop at Staples.  Both of us left empty handed.  Next stop was Walmart as I wanted to pick up a few groceries.  I am proud to say that my bill would have been $32.00, and after subtracting $17.00 worth of coupon's, I got it down to $15.00!!!  Good deal!  Our final stop was to Applebee's for a leisurely dinner.  I had my usual, the Cowboy burger and ff's, plus a Strawberry Margarita.  I was in 7th heaven, as in my opinion, nothing is better than a great burger, and Applebee's has one of the best!  I also was selected to do their on line survey and I was put in the drawing for a chance to win $1000.00.  So keep your finger's crossed!  Back to the stamping room....see ya later!

The First Library in Adams, Scrapbook page

Hello!  It has been a nice relaxing day in Mayberry!  I have been working on the scrapbook for the library today.  Here is one of the page's I got done and this will be the opening page of the scrapbook.  This a picture of the inside of the very first library in Adams.  It was in a remodeled railroad coach car.  For those of you who do not know this.  Adams was built here because the railroad was going through.  Actually Friendship was built first and then the railroad didn't go through Friendship as planned, it went through Adams instead.  And my family moved here from Baraboo because of the railroad.  This scrapbook is being done in Stampin' Up! Neutral color card stocks, plain and textured.  It feel's kind of strange for me to be working with all solid color's and no pattern paper!  I am definitely a "color" girl, it is one of the reason I like quilting and stamping so much, all the mixing and matching of beautiful colors.  But this is a professional scrapbook and this is what we decided would be best for it.  So this will "stretch" me as an artist.  This was a little photograph that I enlarged to an 8" x 10".  I think it is the nicest photo that they have so really wanted to show it off.  I scanned and restored some other photo's today and my printer does such a nice job!  Love HP!!!

Tonight I baked up some fish that my neighbor across the street gave me, carrots, and a baked potato.  Yep...that is right, I actually ate a healthy meal!  LOL  Then I just stirred up Chocolate Chip Bars....hee hee.  I just can't ruin my reputation.  :-D  Actually I feel like Susie homemaker tonight....am I ok!?!?!?!  I must be getting sick.  Hee hee.

Well, I think I will take a break and go read the 2 months worth of the Adams Blab, (the newspaper) that I am behind on reading.  Have a great night!  Boo

Snowman Card

This is one of the cards that we made at Doris's Party.  It uses the Stampin' Up! stamp set Two Cool Dudes.  I taught the gals how to make their own flower soft which is what we used for snow at the base of the snow man.  I think it gives it a neat effect.  You just take styro foam balls, which you cut in half, or I used a styro foam wreath that I broke into pieces.  You just rub the piece's together.  It crumbles into a fine powder, almost like grating cheese.  I took Crystal Effects and spread that on the card, sprinkled the styro foam onto it and wahla...you have snow!  It also can be mixed with reinker to make colored flower soft that you can use on flower's etc.  When I was at Practical Cents on Tuesday, I saw a bunch of styro foam in the craft department, very cheap, so hurry on over there and pick up some and experiment.  I would love to see your creations!

I had an email from my friend Debby from Naperville tonight.  She has sad news, for me anyways.  They bought a new place down there and will be selling there place on Castle Rock Lake.  It is at the intersection near F and Z by the motel with the outdoor swimming pool.  I can't think of the name of the hotel right now, it might be Camelot.  Any how, there trailer is very nice, and the way the trailer's are lined up in there, you can watch the sunset from inside it in the living room.  I have watched it many times and it is quite beautiful.  They are 2 trailer's from the lake.  The trailer is very nice.  Here is what she wrote:

Other than taking a few little things, it will be for sale with furniture and kitchen stocked with just about everything.

We put in a new furnace, new windows on east side of porch, new clothes dryer, inside freshly painted, and my favorite, is a high man toilet.

Were asking only 39,000 for all that. 

I am sad that she won't be coming up anymore but understand that the community they will be moving into has all kinds of neat activities in it.  We had many fun stamping sessions in the porch.  But it will make a neat place for someone else.  If you would like more information, please email, and I will give you Deb's email and phone number. 

Deb, if you are reading this...I wish you much happiness in your new place but I will sure will miss you!  I will try and write tomorrow, I am tired now and need to hit the hay.  I don't know where my last email ended up, as I wrote to you before Christmas....so be on the look out for another one!  Hugs to all....good night!  Elaine

 

A Warm Hello!

A Warm Hello!  Even though it is not too warm out!  Susie and Diane were over today and we had a good time.  Susie brought a whole bunch of new stamps she had bought of old ladies.  They are pretty funny and we had fun making up sayings to go with them.  Susie is a natural at it.  She was really on a roll with it for awhile.  I stamped a bunch of her images and then I started coloring some digital images.  Here is one of them.  They were teasing me about how I like to color.  Yeah, I do like too.  It is kind of relaxing to me just to focus on the image and what color's I am going to make things as they all turn out so differently depending on the color's you choose.  I was trying really hard to stay up tonight but just couldn't do it.  I fell asleep around 7 as I was so tired that I could hardly breathe.  The chronic fatigue can just be unbearable at times.  Of course Molly and Taffy did not mind one bit as they curled up right with me.  Molly has taken to sleeping on my shoulder when I work on the lap top in bed and she stayed there tonight the whole time I was sleeping and Taffy was down by my legs.  But after snoozing till around 9, I was ready to get up for awhile and crawled out about 9:30.  I decided I needed to make something to show you so here you go!  And guess what I did...on the way over to the computer, and camera, I dropped the card face first on the floor with the Stickles on her still WET!  Fortunately it really didn't mess it up.  I was very lucky!  The little turquoise felt button is from a package of Doo dad's that Lady Di gave me.  Thanks Di!  It really worked out cute on here!  Until tomorrow...Stamp Your Heart Out!  Elaine

Kisses

Good Evening!  These are some more of the samples that I made for Doris's Party.  These are the new "Kisses" from the Occasion Mini.  They come to 20 to a package and can be used as is with the matching glassine envelopes or they could be used on a scrapbook page or greeting card.  The first one I punched around it with the mat pack and paper piercer.  I love the dainty look to that.  I left the other 2 plain so that the gals could see what they looked like without  pierceing. Quick and fun to make and could be used year round with different stamps.  I love how they keep coming up with these different doo dad's for us to play with! The one on the bottom that says hugs & kisses on it uses our new small heart punch.  That is a great little punch.  I save all my scraps, and I find that sometimes little punches that I have (mainly contraband) do not punch thin pattern paper very well.  The edge's don't come out crisp and sharp.  This little guy punches them like butter and they look great!  I think you will be seeing a lot more hearts in my "free" box with a $50.00 order.  Oh....I am working on some new things for the box.  I ran a whole bag of clear packaging that Lady Di saved for me, through the Big Shot with a flower die and I am stamping the cut out flower's with Stazon.  You are going to love them.  After I get some more done, I will try to take a photo of them.  I am not sure if they will photograph well, but I will give it a shot!  I hope you are all stamping up a storm!!!  I would love to see what you are doing....bring it to Sandy's party Feb 8th for show and tell!

Yes....I am still alive!

Hello!  I am sorry I haven't posted for a few days.  On Wednesday I went to a quilt shop that I had not been to before in Menasha, and boy it was a nice one.  I throughly enjoyed it.  My quilting friends out there...if you want to make a road trip over there, I am game!  It is called Primitive Gatherings Quilt Shop.  When I was wandering around the store, I saw that there were some pattern's and book's with the same name on them so I asked if they designed, and they said that the owner Lisa Bongean does.  They had some beautiful samples made up of her work.  I asked if they were at Quilt Expo and the gal said that they were.  They also have a website and do a mail order business.  The store is two large floors, and I saw a gal doing packaging at one end of  the basement.  They have fabric, quilt books, and patterns, some notions, and novelty things, candles, rug hooking supplies, wool, punch needle, lots of embroidery and embroidery and applique patterns.  A real feast for the eye's for a needle worker like me.  Here is some more information if you are interested in going there or to see the website.  The phone number is 920-722-7233.  The address is 850 Racine St., Menasha, WI 54952.  The website is www.primitivegatherings.us

I have some other news to share too.  If anyone is interested in getting into the ceramic business, you can contact Rick or Diane at American Auto Body, 339-7400.  You could set up a complete ceramic business, as they have a kiln, ton's of mold's and supplies.  For more information, contact them and they would be happy to talk to you about it.

Yesterday was Diane's birthday and I made her a pistachio torte for her birthday.  I spent the afternoon and evening with her.  We were playing down in her stamping room, and having fun coming up with nutty idea's for a birthday card that she is working on for her sister.  I was working on coloring images, and hope to work on putting together some cards with them soon.  We also watched a new DVD she had bought on projects that were made using the Cricut.  There was some pretty cute stuff on it.  We had supper at the restaurant on13 & 21 then went back to her house to play some more.  I blew in here around 9:30 last night after a fun day.  Happy Birthday Di!  Wishing you many more birthday's on the Route 66!!!!

Doris party was lots of fun, and everyone loved the little pincushion, door prizes, and samples that I had made.  This is one of the samples I had done.  The designer paper on this card is all sparkly and glittery and everyone fell in love with that too!  Doris is getting lot's of free stuff and is very happy about that.

We started booking parties for this year and are filled through May right now so that is great!  We always have so much fun.  These are held at the church and everyone is welcome to come.  We would love to have you join us!  It was so good to see all my buddy's again!

Thank you gift for Doris!

I whipped up this pincushion this afternoon for Doris Kolberg as a thank you gift for having a party tonight.  Doris is not only one of my stamping friends, she is one of my sewing buddies.  In fact, I bought this fabric a few years ago when we went to the Sun Prairie quilt show, and fabric shopping after wards.  That day I was in a mood to buy fabric with sewing notion's on it and found a lot of cute stuff that day.  I made this pin cushion with the big shot and the scalloped square die.  You run 2 layers of fabric, 1 layer of batting through the machine first.  Then the batting goes in the center and the fabric is right side out for both pieces.  I used a quarter inch seam allowance and stitched around the square leaving an opening for stuffing.  I tightly stuffed it, and then stitched around it the rest of the way with the sewing machine.  Then I took black carpet thread, a doll needle and tufted the center, adding the heart shaped button.  The finishing touch is a tag stamped with the saying, "In the crazy quilt of life, I am glad you are in my block of friends."  It will be partying time soon!  Off to rest before I leave.  See ya later!

The Three Hour Christmas

Here are a few pictures that I took at our Christmas this year.  If you remember from my previous blog posts, we had Christmas on Saturday due to the bad weather on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We decided that we didn't want anyone traveling on those bad roads so we packed Christmas in on our already packed Saturday.  Everyone started arriving around 11 as planned, and then we ate Christmas Dinner around 11:45, ate and did a quick clean up.  We used paper plates this year so that went pretty fast.  After that we opened gifts and everyone really enjoyed their gifts.  At 2 we headed out to Carlson's to decorate for the wedding so that is why I titled this the 3 hour Christmas as that is what we packed it into.  The shortest Christmas in the Steffen family history, but we enjoyed every minute that we had together.  Plus the wedding the next day was another celebration.  The first picture is of Sarah and my dad.  I had brought along my Elf hat from the Cookie exchange in case any of the kids wanted to wear it.  Well the two BIG kids did, Sarah had it on and then my dad.  When I took that picture, all I could think was is that Di will die laughing at this one!!!!  The next picture is of Antonio opening one of his gifts from me.  A singing dancing Mexican Dog that Di and I found at Walgreens and we decided that I HAD to get this for Antonio as we were about rolling in the aisle laughing at it.  I had it on my kitchen counter for about a week before Christmas and I would press his paw and I would just crack up laughing.  And I usually don't like things like this but this was just too funny and I couldn't wait to see Antonio's face when he opened it.  And he did not disappoint me.  His face was just precious.  He was laughing so hard!!!!  Antonio loved it and everyone laughed so hard.  And he wants this type of dog in real life.  So he got one for Christmas, only it is stuffed.  You see when I go to visit, he is always cooking Mexican food for me and just loves that I will try anything, and that I like it.  I always tease him that he is going to turn me into a Mexican and that one of these days I will be running down the street with a Sombrero!!!  And he will say, Mama, the women don't wear sombrero's!  So it is kind of a joke between us.  And this little dog is wearing a Sombrero and a Poncho.  The other day when Jenna and Antonio called, he got on the phone and was singing the song to me that the dog sings.  Then Jenna was piping in the correct words for the last line as he had those wrong!  Ha Ha!  And I am now officially a Grammy.  My beautiful Diana is on the left, next to her Dad although I have felt like her Grammy since I first met her.  Only now it's official!!!!