Sunday, April 26, 2009

RAK


Yesterday I received this beautiful card in the mail from someone I don't know! Her name is Pam Browne and she lives in Virginia. I have never had any contact with her. She belongs to a stamping group that I belong to. Stampers are the most wonderful people I'll tell ya! This is what we call a RAK (Randon Act of Kindness). Here is what it says inside: I hope this RAK brings a smile to your face and joy to your day! Sincerely, Pam. It sure did.....thank you Pam! I love this color combination! I plan on RAKing her back! Get out those stamps stampers.....and RAK someone back! Not a stamper!?!?!.....come and see me.....I'll get you hooked on it! LOL

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Stamping Desk


Quick....take a picture while it is clean! That was my thought this evening while I was working on cleaning my stamping desk tonight! This is a sight you will not see very often as I usually have a project in process all the time!

This morning I met Debby and Ray Bjorseth for breakfast at Spot in the Woods. They treated me to breakfast and we had a wonderful visit. I had not been to Spot in the Woods since I was a little girl. And the area we ate in used to be a dance hall. The wood walls look the same but with the tables, big screen tv, etc. it really looks different. The food was excellent, and the prices were very reasonable. I would highly recommend it! After I returned to town, I went to Pamida and picked up some mini blinds. When I was in there earlier this week, I saw that they had them on clearance. I have some that need replacing right now and got some spare ones as I couldn't beat the price. The cats are hard on the mini blinds. There favorite past time is to look out the windows and if the blinds are down, they will wiggle their way around them or through them. So after awhile some of them get bent or broken. There favorite window to look out is the one right here by the computer desk and it faces the driveway so they are always checking out who is coming and going around here. They will growl if they hear the UPS man coming or if someone is plowing snow, or mowing lawn as they don't like the sound of it and don't like the sound of certain vehicles. Sometimes I swear they think they are dogs!

Ok...now to tell you a little bit about this area of my stamping space. This is my main work area where I usually work while stamping. I try to have as many of my tools and supplies at my finger tips as possible. Wheels and handles are across the top of my desk hanging on drywall screws. On the far left are boxes with Stampin Up ribbon in them that stack. They are made by craft mates and I got them at Walmart. I have one empty one on the bottom. I have found when buying plastic storage containers to buy more than you need at the time to leave room for expansion as they change plastic containers and you won't be able to find them again. If you have to switch to a different type plastic container then they will not stack on top of one another. In the middle of my desk are ink pads stored in a Napa Valley CD box. I love this system as I can readily see all of my ink pads and they are easy to get at. I also have baby wipes on the left of the ink pads and a box a kleenex. I have lots of allergies so I like to have kleenex all over the house where I am working. It saves a lot of time running to go get one. Click on the picture larger so that you can see my tissue box cover.....it is me to a "T"!!!! LOL Jenna found this when we were thrifting shopping about a year ago in Milwaukee. My crop-a-dile and ATG gun are laying there ready to use and my Stampin' Up cutting mat. I usually have white paper on top of that when I am stamping. My Stampin'-ma-jig is handy right in front of the ink pads, also handy are my stamp scrubber and stamp cleaning mist. Then I have a Pampered Chef turn table that I picked up thrift shopping and I keep all kids of tools in there, scizzers, paper piercers, different type glues, pens, erasers, etc. I had my brother-in-law install a under the counter light below the top of the desk when I first got the desk and I love it! I can have every other light in the house off and stamp there....it really lights my work area up. My embossing guns and embossing trays sit on the white set of drawers under the desk top on the right side. I did not like to emboss before as I always felt that it was such a hassle to get it all out. Now that it is right at my finger tips, I emboss a lot more! The more organized that you make your work area, the more time you will want to spend in it and the more you will get done. The drawers above the desk have various other supplies and are all labeled. I have a couple of different sizes that work well for me and they are made by Sterilite. Well...break time is over (my pizza is gone...) and it is time to get back to work! More pictures of the stamping room to come!


I

Friday, April 24, 2009

50th Anniversary Card


Hello! No...I did not die.....just been working too hard! LOL I am still working on the scrapbook room and have been working on the stall on at the flea market. Hopefully soon I will get back to posting on a regular basis! I needed to make a 50th Anniversary card for Ken and Doris Collins. Thier daughter Pam is my age and we were friends all the way through school. We spent a lot of time at each other's houses. Pam's mom Doris is a sewer and a quilter. She made me lots of barbie doll clothes for birthday gifts and also alot of clothes for my Velvet doll. Do you remember the Chrissy doll's where the hair could grow long and then you could make it short again? Well my sister had Chrissy and I had the sister doll named Velvet. Velvet had blonde hair. I have many fond memories of the Collin's. Then there was the time when I was 19 and my friends had a going away party for me at Main Street Station the night before I left for Washington State. I lived there for 6 months, otherwise I have lived here in Mayberry. I missed good ole Mayberry so much that I had to move back, I was so homesick for the people here. I missed walking down the street here and saying "hi" to people. If you did that in Washington, they just didn't say "hi" back and were not as friendly as the people here. Anyway...I digress....(as usual). We got pretty tanked that night and after the dining room closed we were dancing in there. Well Pam and I decided to go dance on the sidewalk in front of bar on Main Street and were doing the polka. Low and behold...what do you know.....Pam's parents drove by and saw us! Now what are the chance of that! I never could get into much trouble as I would get caught for sure! One time when I was a little girl, I didn't look when crossing the street and before I got home my mom new about it. I don't know who ratted me out....but I always looked before crossing the street after that! P.S. The ribbon on this card is really not crooked. I just don't have that part adhered down and it moved on the scanner!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Friendship Shoe Box Swap


Yesterday we held our Friendship Shoe Box Swap at Immanuel Lutheran Church. It was a huge success and we are planning to do it on an annual basis. Everyone had a great time. Here is a picture of the card I had them make at my station. We had lots of new swappers so I wanted to keep it pretty simple. But I think it is a really cute card. Can't wait for next years! Elaine