Stamp Club

I am trying to get ahead for Thanksgiving this year.  I have the table set, several of my casseroles ready to go in the oven, the decorations on the table .....  I hope to be able to enjoy the day and not spend it in the kitchen!  Don't get me wrong - I don't do it all on Thanksgiving.  Sonny deep fries the turkey outside, my sisters bring food, and Ashley makes a few things.  I don't want to have too much down time or I'll be munching on the appetizers!!  I'm trying a couple of new dishes this year.  Instead of my normal mashed potato casserole, I have made a scalloped potato dish and I'm trying out a pear/cranberry chutney dish and a corn casserole.  We'll see if they get a thumbs up!

I had Stamp Club last week.  There weren't many there but we had a nice time visiting and creating.  Here are the cards we made:

I love this snowman and the Designer Paper that goes with it!

I think this was the favorite of the gals this month - and so easy!  We did a lot of sponging and tone on tone stamping with Crumb Cake.  I used the Rooted in Nature stamp set.

I love this one with the colorful butterflies from Butterfly Gala.  I colored them with the Blends.

I punched out the vases from the Mosaic Designer Paper.  Didn't they turn out great?  I love that paper.  I used the Stamparatus to line up the flowers before adhering the vases to the card.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and are able to share it with family and friends.  We'll have 10 at our table this year - the more, the merrier!

Birthday Cards - a little late!

My birthday was in October & I received so many pretty cards.  Thought I'd share the the hand made cards with you!

Isn't this one gorgeous?  My good friend, Judy, made this one.  It is sparkly as she embossed the outline of the image in gold.

I love these tropical flowers!  This one was made by my English friend, Margaret.

Such a fun card from Joyce who has been in my stamp club since I started it!

Another card from one of stamp club members, Anna.  Love this image.

This card is from another Sharon or "Girlfriend" as we refer to her.  Love the Swirly Bird die cut pumpkins.

And another friend from stamp club made this pretty card.

(the front of the card above)

This card was made by my sweet daughter with a little help from her Paper Pumpkin kit.

My sister, Marianne made this card.  I love the vases of flowers.

I got this card from my NC SU Demo friends - such a great group!

Isn't this cow cute?  My upline, Carol, sent me this card.

Getaway pictures from Outer Banks

I just returned from a fun trip with my daughter, Ashley.  I drove to the Outer Banks last Thursday and Friday.  I spent Thursday night in Durham with one of Ashley's friends who was there for work and on Friday I finished the trip (with Claudia in the passenger seat!) and joined Ashley and another of her friends, Debi, in Kill Devil Hills.  We were there for the Alternate Routes Getaway Music Festival which was a lot of fun!  It was sweet of the girls to include an old lady like me and it made me feel young again (that I could hang till after midnight each night with them!)  The music was good and the weather was perfect!  The music started about 6 each night and different groups performed for about 1 1/2 hours each night.  Here are a few of my favorites.

He is with the band, Red Wanting Blue which I had heard when we visited Ashley in DC this summer.
Listen HERE for my favorite song of theirs.

Brendan James was my favorite .... and he is so cute!!

Guitarist for Alternate Routes

On Saturday, we took the wild horses tour and it was super.  I expected to see the horses on the beach but they were mostly off the beach and up where the houses were.  How would you like to have horses grazing in your back yard and going into your carport to leave a ton of poo!!  That's what they do!

Can you see her pregnant stomach?

Another fun thing we did was in Kitty Hawk.  I had read a book a few years ago by Nicholas Sparks, called Every Breath which had a mailbox in the story called Kindred Spirits.  This mailbox is in Sunset Beach, NC and was put there about 35 years ago as a place to stop and share stories.  There is a similar mailbox in Kitty Hawk called The Little Red Mailbox.  The goal for the mailbox is for anyone who comes to the beach to write a message of love and hope, or you can read the messages others have written ... which is what we did.  Inside the mailbox is a bound journal and a pen - an invitation to anyone who wants to share their thoughts.

We visited the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla before doing our horse tour.  We didn't climb to the top though.  I have been having knee problems a little bit and didn't want to chance it.  So instead we wandered around the grounds and in the gift shop.

Claudia, Debi, Ashley and me

View from our hotel balcony - not bad!