Traveling again!

I was traveling again.  Last week we loaded up Sonny's truck and drove to Maryland.  We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies with the truck loaded with things we were taking to Ashley's house - bed, mattress, bicycle, armoire, our suitcases and my cat and her stuff!!  It's not too bad a drive to Silver Spring until you get to the DC area where the traffic is awful.  I would not want to fight that traffic every day!!  Sammie (my cat) had never gone on a long trip before and she did really well.  But she was very happy at Ashley's for the first 3-4 days.  She didn't want Bogart (Ashley's cat) anywhere near her and she let him know it by hissing.  She found a little cupboard at the floor level in one of the bedrooms and that is where she stayed for several days.  When the movers delivered the stuff, we didn't have to lock either cats up.  Bogart stayed under one of the beds and Sammie stayed in her little hidey hole cupboard and wouldn't come out!  

Sammie liked looking out the window.

This was taken after we were there for a week and they were tolerating each other!

Her Hawaii things arrived bright and early Monday morning and were there until about 4:00.  Most everything arrived in good shape ... except they could not get her queen box springs upstairs!  The house was built in 1930 and the upstairs were added in the 60s I think.  The stairs going upstairs and to the basement are really narrow going up (or down) and also narrow from side to side.  There are 3 levels to the house with three bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms on the main level which she is using as an office and a small den.  Downstairs is the basement with half of it finished (kitchen, den, bathroom.)  She has ordered a split queen mattress and should be able to get it upstairs.  On Thursday, her things she had in storage in Texas arrived.  It wasn't much at all except - her couch was not in the shipment!!  Who knows where it is?!  Ashley has had problems with the company who handled that part of the move since Day 1.  Now they are doing a search for her couch!  By the time we left on Sunday, we had emptied all of the boxes and Sonny had made several trips to the dump to get rid of the boxes.  But there still is much to be done.  Now it is up to Ashley to figure out where everything goes!

Sonny was in charge of checking off the boxes as they were unloaded from the truck.

The front living room - all the boxes were moved from this room - hurray!!

Empty boxes waiting to be loaded in Sonny's truck for a trip to the dump!

Stained Glass Pizza restaurant - relaxing before the crazy begins!

More Feathers!

I'm back from my trip to the DC area.  I had fun house hunting with Ashley.  Sonny was supposed to take his golf clubs and play golf while we were house hunting but he thought it would be raining while we were there so didn't take his clubs.  As it turned out, he could have played golf every day.  The rain we got usually started in the late afternoon/early evening.  Oh well - his loss!  He explored the area while we were gone during the day.  We looked at about 30+ houses in the Bethesda and Silver Spring area and that's not counting the few Ashley looked at on Tuesday when we were on our way.  On Thursday, the first house we looked at that day was the one that called to her.  It is a really cute house in Silver Spring that was built in 1936 that has been remodeled but still has that old house feeling.  She put an offer in over the weekend and we have our fingers crossed!!  All contracts are due to the sellers by today at 4 pm.  Ashley is flying home right now and should know something when she lands in Hawaii later.  If she doesn't get this house, she will wait until she moves and start her search over.  Luckily, she has friends to stay with there and is not in a hurry.  But I hope she gets this house!!!

In the meantime, I will share a few more Paper Pumpkin cards that I made from last October's kit.

I inked the leaves with VersaMark and embossed them in copper, silver and gold

I sponged Crump Cake onto the leaf and did a watercolor background of Crumb Cake.

I tied the 3 feathers up with the twine that came in the kit and layered the white card onto Cajun Craze and Coastal Cabana cardstock.

I layered the 3 feathers onto Wood Textures 6x6 DSP.

I used the Pinwood Planks embossing folder to emboss the Bermuda Bay cardstock.

If you would like to check out Paper Pumpkin, now is the best time!  I think the kit designs are really good now and next month's kit will be a favorite of mine.  I like Shelli's style when she presents at Stampin' Up events and this kit looks just as expected with pretty colors, natural designs and fantastic details.

The kit is $19.00 and can be purchased online in my store.   You need to purchase or subscribe by May 10 in order to receive the kit Shelli has designed.  You can just click the one month link to get this kit with no further commitment or consider going month to month with a subscription.  

Vermont Vacation

We were on vacation last week in Vermont.  Why Vermont you ask?  Well, it's a state we had never been to so now we can check Vermont off our list!  Ashley was in Chicago for work and met up with us for the week.  We rented an apartment (AirBnB) in Montpelier and made day trips each day to different parts of Vermont - Stowe, Burlington, etc.  If I was to do it again, I would not recommend doing it that way.  It was a lot of driving every day.  It would be better to stay in 2-3 areas of the state.  Vermont was much more rural than we anticipated but it was a very pretty state.  The leaves were just starting to change.  I think in another week or two they will be at their peak.  The weather caught us all by surprise - it was much warmer than we had thought it would be - in the 80s every day, even reaching 90 on the weekend!!  

We stayed busy the whole time visiting museums .... and breweries.  Who knew Vermont had so many micro breweries???!!  They have a program that you can get a brewery passport and visit the different breweries and get your passport stamped.  After six stamps, you can get a bottle opener; twenty stamps and you get a tee shirt; and up to forty breweries for other prizes.  Well, you know we weren't going with just six and we weren't there long enough to do forty, so we decided to do 20!  It was fun to try all the different beers - even for me and I'm not a big beer drinker.  I prefer cider and most places had that so we all found something we liked.

Thought I'd share a few pictures from the trip with you.  Unfortunately, something happened to a lot of my pictures.  When I downloaded them from my phone to my computer, I was missing 3-4 days of my pictures.  Haven't figured out what happened.  I'm hoping Ashley's pictures can fill in my gaps.

We took a tour of Ben and Jerry's.  Believe it or not, I don't think I have ever had their ice cream!  It was good and an interesting tour watching them make the ice cream.

I 

This mural of famous Vermont peopl was painted on the side of several buildings in Burlington just off Church Street and was fascinating.  Church St Marketplace was a fun and interesting experience.  Lots of restaurants, stores, galleries, bars, breweries and lots of fun people watching.  

Ashley and I walked down to Citizen Cider Brewery while Sonny was at another brewery in Burlington.  Another stamp on our passport and the cider was good.

This was the best tree I saw - in the parking lot of ..... another brewery!

Idletyme Brewing Company - we actually came here twice - once just for the beer and a few days later for dinner.  It is located in Stowe and was one of the larger breweries we visited.

This was also at Idyletyme.  They had a nice garden - growing vegetables, flowers like this large sunflower and hops!

Magic Hat was one of our first stops on our tour and was located in South Burlington.  We were able to take a tour here of their beer being made.

Ashley and Sonny at Magic Hat.

We took a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain and then went on a hike.  This is Ashley and I at the top (or as far to the top as I was going!)  Note Sonny is not with us!  He turned back about half way up.

This was when Sonny turned around and went back down.  It was much more difficult that we thought - just rocks all the way.

This was the look-out when we got out of the gondola.

Think I added a few pounds on the trip!  Although I did not order this Poutine (a Canadian dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with brown gravy), I had to sample it!   Sonny ordered this one the day we arrived and on the day we left!

This is the Von Trapp Lodge - a 2,400 acre 5 star resort which is managed by one of the Von Trapp descendants.  The original home of the Von Trapps burned down in 1980 and this lodge was built.  They also have a brewery that we visited and had lunch.

Christmas Cards plus more traveling pics!

I'm on a roll this week with  keeping my blog updated!  I have been working on Christmas cards all week getting ready for my annual Christmas Card Stamp a Stack.  I am still working on the date - late November I know for sure but I am surveying my regulars to see what works best for them.  I always have room for new people though (as long as I know in advance!)  I design 10-15 cards and the gals each pick which ones they want to make (in groups of 5).  When they come to my house on the designated day, I have everything ready to go with a lot of things cut out and embossed.  All you have to bring with you is your basic supplies - adhesive, bone folder, scissors, etc.  The cost is

$35 for 20 cards   /   $65 for 40 cards   /   $95 for 60 cards.  (amounts will be pro-rated for other quantities), including envelopes.  Contact me if you are interested in attending!

This is such a cute set but it is a hostess set called Cozy Critters.

I love this using the Jars framelits and Jar of Cheer.

I think I am obsessed with the Christmas Pines thinlits and stamps!  Love, love, love this set!

I don't know that you will see these 3 in the finals mainly because they are too time consuming.  I try to do great cards but without a lot of time having to be spent on them!  That is sometimes tricky to do!

OK - now a few more pictures - this time from Sonoma and our wine tasting!

This was one of our last stops and it was a good thing for me!  The winery was in a cave.

We got pretty good at taking selfies!

Yum - I got chocolate with this tasting!

Taking a break on a beautiful day.

Help yourself to a bottle!

Stitched From the Heart

Keep your fingers crossed that my computer doesn't crash.  It has been running so sloooow lately.  I've taken it apart today and cleaned inside and I am hoping that will help.  Guess I need to back it up - just in case!

How do like my new blog heading?  Those are some pictures I took last week in Sonoma.  

Anyway .... I wanted to share with you a new product that Stampin' Up just released yesterday - a fabulous new framelit called Stitched Shapes.   I already have them on my wish list and will be ordering soon!  I think they are going to add a lot to our cards.  I like to do piercing around my layers but don't usually do it because it is too time consuming.  This set includes 12 dies - 4 circles, 4 squares and 4 ovals with stitching around the edges.  And to add to the fun, the coordinating stamp sets are also on sale for 25% off for the whole month of November!!




And here is a sweet video featuring the Stitched from the Heart framelits.  Notice that JOY on the mantle!  I am going to M's and look for those and decorate the letters with the stitched red circles!!

Here are a few pictures from my San Francisco trip.  Of course, most of the pictures with me in them are on Ashley's camera!

Hanging on the cable car!

Panoramic view of Golden Gate taken from the Presidio right before we drove across the bridge.

These hearts were in a park across from our hotel.  This one was painted by Tony Bennett - I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

She may ride forever above the streets of San Francisco!

Where have I been you are asking!  A little bit of everywhere!  I left NC on Oct. 24 headed to San Francisco.  What a day that was!  I had a short (I thought) layover in Detroit (arrived at 11:30 for noon departure) but when I landed, I had a message that my plane was delayed a bit.  When I got to the gate, they were offering $500 in vouchers for volunteering to take the 5:30 flight to San Francisco.  No, I didn't want to leave that late.  Ha, ha!  Should have taken them up on the offer.  Was able to get on the plane around 2 p.m. - taxied away from the gate a bit only to have Traffic Control call the plane back to the gate and we all departed!  There were bad winds from the south for San Fran and some of the runways were shut down.  We ended up being able to leave around 4!  When I arrived in San Francisco and collected my luggage, I took the airport train over to the BART station which is their rapid transit system.  I had decided to take this route to the hotel instead of a $60 taxi.  Got to BART, bought my ticket ($8) and boarded the subway.  After getting seated, they announced there was a train ahead blocking the tracks so we had to get off the train and go to another one on a different set of tracks!  Finally I'm on my way on the second BART train and when I arrived at the station, I could not find my ticket (that I needed to get out of the station!)  Think I put it in my pocket and it must have dropped out when I pulled my phone out!  Thought I was going to be like the old Kingston Trio song, "Charlie on the MTA" - instead it would be - Sharon on the BART!  The song's lyrics tell of Charlie, a man who boards an MTA subway car, but then cannot get off because he does not have enough money for the exit fare.

When he got there the conductor told him,

"One more nickel."

Charlie could not get off that train.

The song goes on to say that every day Charlie's wife hands him a sandwich "as the train comes rumbling through" because he is stranded on the train. 

He may ride forever

'neath the streets of Boston

He's the man who never returned.

 

I ended up going to the Security Office and they let me through the gate!  Ashley was waiting for me - with a sandwich (not really! but she was waiting.)

We headed off to the Marriott, Union Square, just a short 2-3 blocks away and then on to have dinner and a well deserved cocktail!

Notice the bags under my eyes!!

Before I started on my little adventure, we met the family at a restaurant in Huntersville on Saturday (10/22) night (my birthday) to celebrate mine, Sonny's and Greg's birthdays.  Sonny and I had just picked up my brother-in-law (Jack) from the airport and he was able to join us too.  Fun!

Marianne and Kim

Sonny and I

Mom and Angela

The boys - Greg, Jack and Sonny

I'll be sharing more pictures of my trip in the next few days!

April Club Cards

I haven't had time to share my Stamp Club cards for this month.  We met last week and made these cards.  I had designed the cards before the Retiring List came out and I was trying to predict which stamps were retiring.  I guessed correctly on some of them.

This first one uses Blooms for You which is retiring.  It is a single stamp.  Other stamp sets used were:  Hardwood Background Stamp; Tin of Cards; Papillion Potpourri; and Something to Say (retiring).  I used Early Espresso on everything except the middle of the flower which is Soft Sky.

The only things retiring on this card is the DSP - both the Botanical and the Color Me Irresistible which is a resist paper that I sponged with Mint Macaron.  Thank goodness this stamp and die set will carry over.

I will be sad to see The Open Sea leave.  It was such a great set for masculine cards.  I did my first - successful - Reflection Technique on this card.  I stamped the water on the bottom with Pool Party using one of the stamps from Timeless Textures.  Don't overlook this stamp set - it is a good one for lots of different backgrounds.  Next I stamped the ship in Early Espresso on the card AND on a piece of acrylic transparency.  I turned the transparency over, line it up with the ship and rubbed the ink onto the card.  Easy, peasy!!  The sun is from Kinda Eclectic stamped and embossed in white.  I sponged Soft Sky on the top.

This card was a fun one to make.  I stamped the flower from Watercolor Words with Versamark and used Clear powder to heat emboss them.  Next I spritzed the card with water or you can just use your Aqua Brush to brush on clear water.  Make sure you are using either Watercolor Paper OR Shimmery White Paper.  I used the Shimmery White.  After the paper is damp, brush on three different colors from top to bottom letting each one blend into the next.  I used:  Calypso Coral, Pink Pirouette and Rich Razzleberry on the pink one and Bermuda Bay, Soft Sky and Tempting Turquoise for the blue one.  I am sad to see the Corner Punch leaving us but that is the only retiring item on these cards (oh - also the thick twine.)

My postings may be a little sporadic for the next week (aren't they always???)  I am "leaving on a jet plane" tomorrow for Texas - my final trip for a few years.  I am taking my Mom to spend a little time with Ashley before she moves to Hawaii.  I have been doing really good on Weight Watchers but don't think I will be counting points next week as I enjoy Mexican, BBQ, and steaks at Josephines!!

Smithsonian Museum Photographs

We are having fun here in D.C. but it is freezing cold!!  The temps have not been out of the 40s since we have been here and the wind has been brutal - even Sonny agrees!  So it is not good weather to be walking around DC and exploring!  The drive here was not great either.  We were trying to outrun the storms and tornados but about every half hour we would run into the storms and could barely see the car in front of us for the rain pouring down.  I was a nervous wreck when we finally got here and Sonny was pretty wiped out too.  We had planned on eating at a favorite Italian restaurant of ours in Bethesda after we picked Ashley up from the airport but decided instead to head over to the hotel (at the National Harbor) and find a restaurant within walking distance.  Ashley was lucky to make it in. She was delayed a little bit but it was better than spending the night in another city.  They announced on her flight that they were going to have to divert to Pittsburgh but ended up being able to turn back and do an instrument landing in DC. 

Thursday she had most of the day free so we took the metro into DC and walked around a little bit.  I had on long johns, gloves, a hat, and a coat but was still really cold!  We went to the Natural History Museum and saw a fabulous photographic display of the "Best of the Best" of 20 years of Nature's finest moments.  The collection was of dramatic landscapes, wildlife behavior and pictures of Earth's ice peaks to the oceans.  There were more than 100 large format prints on the walls and I was snapping photographs like crazy. I want to use them to make a calendar or a date book!

Here are just a few of them.  I just can't imagine how many shots the photographer had to take to get the final and best one! 

PORCUPINE

THIRSTY LION

NORTHEN LIGHTS

LONG EARED OWL

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Gotta run - they are waiting for me.  We are driving over to Alexandria tonight for dinner.  There is a water taxi from here to there but we have all decided it's too cold for that!!