Life is Too Short

Life is too short to wake up with regrets.
So love the people who treat you right.
Love the ones who don't just because you can.
Believe everything happens for a reason.
If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.
If it changes your life, let it.
Kiss slowly.
Forgive quickly.
God never said life would be easy.
He just promised it would be worth it.


I am only as strong as the chocolate I eat,
the hair spray I use and
the friends I have.
To the cool women that have touched my life. Here's to you!

Super Bowl and Commercials

SAINTS WIN the Super Bowl!  Wow - their first trip to the Super Bowl and they win all the marbles.  What a good game, but also a fast game.  Guess that's due to hardly any penalties and not that many time-outs either.  I really didn't expect the Saints to win although that's who I was pulling for.  I bet the French Quarter is wild tonight!!

OK and the commercials .... some good and a lot bad!  A 30-second Super Bowl commercial is costing companies $3 million!!  Here are a few I liked:

•  Doritos had a commercial where a man is picking up a women for a date, and she introduced him to her son and leaves the room. The son, who is around 4-5 years old hit his mother's date's hand and tells him "Keep your hands off my mom. Keep your hands off my doritos." He is absolutely adorable.
• The Doritos bark collar commercial was clever. Animal commercials are the ones we remember and talk about.
• The VW commercial making fun of the time honored "slug bug" rule was cute, especially with Stevie Wonder and Tracy Morgan at the end.
• Betty White's Snickers commercial was another favorite.
• The Bud Lite commercial that is a spoof on the TV show "Lost" where a plane crashes onto an island and the survivors of the crash are stranded. A man finds a refrigerator of Bud Light in the back of the plane and worry subsides and a party ensues.
• The Motorola commercial:   A woman sitting in a bubble bath taking a photo of herself and then theorizing what would occur if she sent it out. What followed was a series of vignettes in which a gay couple alternatively slap each other, a man falls to the ground while high on a ladder, etc. Does sex still sell?   Motorola thinks so
• 
  Dennys puts chickens on alert. Silly with bad effects but sometimes silly is good. The TruTV commercial with Punxsutawney Polamalu was funny.

What did you like about the game & the commercials?

Super Bowl Sunday

Got your chips, dip, beer, etc. ready for the SUPER BOWL?  Although, I have to say, I'm not as excited about it this year as I was last year.  I couldn't help thinking all weekend that I was in snowy Pittsburgh last year this time feeling the hype of the Steelers being in the Super Bowl.  Oh well, I'm hoping next year we'll be in it again in Dallas!  Ashley has season tickets to the Cowboys games so I assume she would get a chance for Super Bowl tickets since the Super Bowl will be at the Cowboys stadium next year.  Of course, who am I kidding?  She would either sell them to get the big bucks or she and her Dad would be sitting in the stadium while I was watching from home!!

I'll be watching the game tomorrow night from home.  No big plans this year.  I'll be pulling for New Orleans too.  I think it's like a Cinderella story that they are in the Super Bowl (plus, I get a little sick of hearing about Peyton!!)

Marianne and I enjoyed "Dear John" today.  I would recommend it to you chicks out there.  The only drawback was the theatre was filled with teenagers with their cell phones and whispering and snickering during the love scenes.  I was about to make a scene and tell them to SHUT UP!!  I'm used to going to the movies during the week when Sonny & I are about the only ones in the theatre!  Just getting old and crotchety, I know!

American Video

This video makes you feel like an American.  It hits home with me since my daughter is currently in the Army and my son graduated from West Point and wore that gray uniform that the Glee Club has on.

Headed to see Dear John at the movies!

Monday Mailer for Feb and Jan

Sorry I didn't post yesterday.  I left the house at 9 AM and returned at 9:30 PM!!  I played bridge at a friends house most of the day.  Then I had to pick up my mom from her Assc. for the Blind meeting and we went to Target so I could return something.  After that, we met Sonny and Marianne for dinner at Chili's before my class started at Stampers Alley.  I had six ladies in my class and we had a good time!  This was the class that was scheduled for last Saturday but got delayed because of our snow so I was glad to get it done before more bad weather moves in.  We were supposed to get sleet/freezing rain last night.  Don't know what other areas got, but it is just raining here this morning.  Maybe it was freezing during the night but I can't vouch for that and it's only supposed to stay in the 30's today!  More bad weather is being forecast for tomorrow - sleet and snow with temps still in the 30's.  But next Tuesday and Wednesday is supposed to be more snow and sleet!!  I think we have gotten our share of bad weather this winter.  We will definately be ready for SPRING!!

Here are the Monday Mailers I have received this week.  I lucked out and received one from Ashanti from last month and one from Becky for February!

This is the one from Ashanti.  She used the Scallop Circle die cut (SU) to make the card.  The paper is from the Occasions Mini Catalog, Sending Love - isn't it pretty?  The stamped portion hs Shimmerz over it and is so pretty and shiny! 

This is the card from Becky using Vintage Vogue from the Occasions Mini.  I love the ribbon rosettes in the middle of the flowers.  I'll have to find out how she did them and let you know!

A few techniques

Today I actually went out on my own!  I figured the roads were clear enough for a non-snow driver like myself to venture onto.  Although, most of the area schools were still out.  I heard a lot of mothers bemoaning this fact when I was in Michaels!  I had my Newcomers meeting this morning.  We did installation of officers for next year.  I was Corresponding Secretary (in charge of the newsletter) last year and am doing it again next year.  I will sure miss my old board members.  We got along so good!  Hopefully, the upcoming board will work just as well together although I don't know many of them.  But, that's what the club is all about - making new friends!

I want to share some of the cards I've made since I've been stuck in the house for the past few days.  It's actually been a pretty productive few days.

This one uses the Embossing Resist Technique on glossy paper.  After running my Embossing Buddy over the glossy cardstock, I stamped the French Script and Inspired by Nature with Versamark ink.  I then embossed it with clear embossing powder and melted it with the heat gun.  Next, I sponged a few colors on the card - Ruby Red, So Saffron, Old Olive.  Then use a tissue to buff the color off the stamped images.

For this card, I stamped the glossy white paper with Black Staz-On ink and sponged colors over the flowers - Bermuda Bay, Pixie Pink and Green Galore.  I then cut the flowers out and mounted them on a piece of glossy paper that I had stamped with the Canvas Background stamp (stamped in the same colors randomly.) 

This is a square card.  I stamped Riot of Petals on the 5" square card and the 3 1/2" square of Pale Plum.  Then I used my Copics to color in the petals of the flowers.  I put a little yellow Stickles in the middle of the flowers and mounted the smaller piece of Perfect Plum.  I tied a Rich Razzleberry ribbon around.

Oh - I have a little Ashley / Haiti news.  Looks like she will not be going to Haiti any time soon.  After getting her address changed so her mail would be coming to us, getting a Power of Attorney, etc, and waiting for two weeks to find out something, she was told yesterday that the deployment had been pushed back and they don't know when (or if) it is going to happen.  Needless to say, she is very disappointed.

Valentines Sweet Treats Cup with a Slider

I've been on a roll the past couple of days with making cards!  I finally got out of the house yesterday.  We were able to get our car out of the driveway in the afternoon and, with Sonny driving, we went to town!!  We had lunch/dinner out; then headed to the grocery store!  Such fun (ha)!  A new Lowe's grocery opened up last week and I had not gone yet so we checked it out then headed over to BJ's to stock up.  Today, we drove to the YMCA and then had a delicious Italian late lunch at Portofino's!  Yummy!!  Now, I don't have to cook dinner (2 nights in a row!!)

So, I got these Sweet Treat Cups 2-3 months ago and for some reason, I was just intimidated by them.  Don't know why I didn't just sit myself down and just DO IT!!  But, I always found an excuse.  So today, I made this cute little Valentine card using the round Sweet Treat cups.  I didn't buy the heart shaped ones since I had never used the round ones!  I found these little heart shaped candy wafers at Michaels - believe me, they look better than they taste!! 

I made little 3" x 3" cards.  I think tomorrow I'll try a larger card.

So you don't have to tear up the card to get to the goodies inside, I made a little slider door. Here's a picture of the inside with the door partly opened.

Here's the inside with little slider closed.

It was really pretty easy.  If you want to make one of these, check out Becky Roberts' blog HERE.

Bling!

If you love BLING, here is a new blog site that has some beautiful beaded Bling!  Check it out HERE.

Feb Monday Mailer #1

We still have a lot of snow outside.  The sun did come out today but did not do much for melting the snow.  I don't think it got much above freezing and it is supposed to go down to the teens tonight.  So any of the snow that did melt, will freeze over tonight and make the roads treacherous tomorrow.  I am assuming that school will be canceled around here tomorrow.  So even though the snow came over the weekend, the school kids will be happy tomorrow!  We didn't venture out today so I don't know what the roads around here are like. I just enjoyed a lazy day, watched a couple of movies I had taped earlier and made a few cards.  I'm making a few cards to send to some magazines. 

This is the card I made for my Monday Mailer.  We are starting a new month with new partners.  We don't have a theme this month so we can do anything we want.  I used the Big Bird punch that is in the Occasions Mini Catalog and I made him into a cardinal.  The little peak on his head is from a wing that I glued on.  I sponged a little black on him.  The leaves are from the same punch and I found some scraps of Old Olive that had been crimped so that is what I used.  The paper is from the Good Neighbors DSP pack that is FREE in the Saleabration catalog with any $50 order.  It's a great value!!

Snowy Wonderland

Well, we definately got the snow last night!  Probably about 6-8" of the white stuff.  Sonny and I went to the movies yesterday afternoon (Edge of Darkness - pretty good) and it started snowing while we were in the movies.  We met the family for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and it continued to snow.  By the time we got home, the snow had stopped but sometime during the night it started back up with a vengence.  When I woke up this a.m., everywhere was white.  It was so beautiful.  Sonny and I walked over to the boat in the afternoon to clear some of the snow off the cover before it got messed up.  But .... we were too late.  The heavy snow had weighted down the cover and one of the poles had ripped through the canvas cover already.  We worked for about an hour trying to get the snow off the cover with little success.  So we walked back home (about 3 blocks) and Sonny got a shovel and drove back down.  (I had had enough fun for one day!)  He was down there close to 2 hours!!  I was actually getting worried that he'd had a heart attack or somehthing.  But, he was fine and I think actually enjoyed "playing" in the snow!!  Of course, I had camera in hand and snapped a few pictures.

Here's Sonny trudging up the driveway!

I'm pretty bundled up!!

Don't think we'll be grilling today!!

This is my favorite!  I put that mixing bowl out last night before I went to bed to collect snow for snow-cream!  This is what it looked like this morning.  And come to think of it, it is still outside and I haven't made my snow cream.  Guess what I am going to do next????  Yummmm!!  Wonder if it still is good as I remember??

Here is a card I made yesterday.  I really love how it turned out! 

I cut the 2 ovals out of SU Vanilla cardstock with my Oval Nesties.  The base card is Rich Razzleberry (in color).  I wheeled the Vanilla cardstock with the Very Vintage Wheel in Rich Razzleberry.  The Vintage Vogue flowers (from the Occasions mini) are stamped in Rich Razzleberry (some full strength and some stamped off first) and cut out.  The leaves are stamped in Always Artichoke (some full strength & some stamped off).  I put copper brads through the centers of the flowers and glued them down.  A couple of them are popped up with dimensionals.  I'll be sending this card to one of the NC SU demos in Charlotte who lost her husband recently.

What do you think?  Please leave me a comment!