Greetings from San Diego

I guess you've notice my lack of posts this week.  That is because we met Ashley in San Diego on Tuesday and have been on the go ever since!  She just took the shuttle over to the airport to fly back to Texas.  We will be leaving in the morning.  

This morning we took a cab over to the U.S. Grant Hotel and explored it a bit.  Wow!  How opulent it is.  It was built by Ulysses S Grant's son and opened in 1910.  The chandeliers were just beautiful as well as the orchids and flowers everywhere. 

 

Last night we wandered around Seaport Village and discovered this huge tree growing almost sideways!

 

We had a beautiful view at dinner of the Coronado Bridge that takes you over to the quaint little town of Coronado.  The bridge is over 25 stories high and spans a little over 2 miles! 

 

 We toured the USS Midway, a Naval aircraft carrier which was commissioned towards the end of WW II.  Until 1955, it was the largest ship in the world.  I can believe it.  We were going all over that ship most of the day - about 5 hours!! 

 

This statue is the famous one of a sailor kissinga nurse in the middle of Times Square at the end of the war.  It stands 25 feet tall!!  That is the USS Midway in the background.  

Don't Ashley and Sonny look like midgets??

 

 

These are some of the flowers (orchids) on a table at the US Grant Hotel.

   

We went to this restaurant in Little Italy twice .... it was so delicious!!  

 

More of the flowers in bloom at the US Grant Hotel.  Anyone know what they are???

 

 

I'll be heading home tomorrow and opening up my box of goodies from the new Stampin' Up Catalog!!  Can't wait!

Sonny was supposed to have his hip surgery on Wednesday but it was canceled until he can get the "go ahead" from his cardiologist.  Grrrr!!  Now it looks like it will be early June before he can be scheduled.

 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.  I hope your day is special.

I'm sad that I am not with either of my children but I know I will be talking to at least one of them plus we will be seeing Ashley on Tuesday.  I am going to my sister's house in the afternoon and we will be celebrating our mom with a cook out.  I have made potato salad and coleslaw and some fresh salsa - yum!

Here is the card I made for my mom using Indescribable Gift from the Occasions Catalog:

My mom is the best.  She has always been there for me, no matter what.  She believes in me wholeheartedly and thinks I can do no wrong.  I haven't always been the best daughter, I know.  Over the years, I have learned, with my own children, that being a mom is sometimes a thankless job but one I would not give up for all the tea in China.  My mom has always been the one I turn to when things go wrong.  I know she always has my back.  She wiped my bottom, wiped away my tears, and was always my biggest cheerleader.  I want to take this opportunity to thank my mom for always being there for me.

I have loved being a mother too.  I have two kids that I love with all my heart.  We may not always see eye-to-eye, but I hope they know I always love them and would do anything for them. I have many fond memories - as I hope they do - of them growing up and all the things we did as a family.  I will worry about my children for the rest of my life - they are my treasures and will always be on my mind no matter how old they are.

 Being estranged from my son on Mother's Day makes it a little tough.  I have recently read that estrangements between adult children and their parents these days is a silent epidemic.  I believe this. It's amazing how many people I have talked to that are estranged from some member of their family. When it is your own child, it really hurts but I always have hope that a resolution is in my future.

Mother's Day should not just be one day of the year.  It takes so little to show your appreciation on a more frequent basis and I am going to make an effort to do just that.  Whether it's a quick cup of tea, a movie, going shopping or simply telling your Mother how much you love, appreciate and treasure her, consider doing this often.  Simply say .... Mom, I love you!  My daughter does this for me.  I always know she is there and she loves me unconditionally.  We never hang up the phone without saying "I love you."  It's the little things.

Thanks Mom for making me the woman I am today.  I thank you, love you and am sending you a big hug!

And thanks to my daughter for being my best friend and the greatest daughter in the world.

MDS Monday Sketch

This is my submission this week for MDS Monday.  The instructions were to keep the page simple and concentrate on the photo.  I love these two pictures of my grandson, Jayce, taken last year. 

We had such a good visit with Jayce and his parents.  I had not seen Jayce since he was 18 months old so it took a little time for him to warm up to us but once he did, it was great.  We took him to a park in Austin and he loved climbing a big tree and racing down the hill.  I thought the Project Life cards were appropriate for this page because to all little boy, Life Is An Adventure!



 

Fun With Friends

My friend, Margaret, is visiting me this week from Texas.  We have been quite busy as you can tell my lack of blog posts!  We picked them up from the airport Monday night and had dinner before we came home and visited for a while.  Early Tuesday morning, we said good-bye to the guys as they went to SC for the week skeet shooting.  They are returning today.  Tuesday Margaret and I spent most of the day in my stamp room.  She was able to make the cards from my March Stamp Club while I prepared the materials for this month's stamp club.  Wednesday we went to the Newcomers Coffee where we enjoyed a fashion show put on by Give Back Boutique in Mooresville.  The Boutique is really nice.  They sell gently used high end clothing - like Chico's, Gap, etc. as well as purses, jewelry and shoes.  I have bought several items there and Ashley always like to visit there when she is in town.  I left this time with a pair of slacks and a bracelet for $12! and Margaret purchased a pair of Merrills sandals and a bracelet.  My friend Judy was with us also and scored a pair of "never worn" white leather Keds.  If you live in the area, you should stop in the store and see what you can find!

Here are a couple of cards that Margaret made this week.  She fell in love with this great fun fold.

On this card, she used the DSP (it's on Stampin' Up's Clearance Rack right now!)

Sneak Peeks

Last week was the Stampin' Up Convention for New Zealand and Australia and they got the new catalog.  I can't wait to get my hands on it but for now, I can view it on-line.  Here is one of the gals holding her new catalog - pretty exciting!

Want another Sneak Peek?  How about the new In-colors?  We are not allowed to show you items in the catalog, but we can show you items made with product from the catalog, so check out these pretty cards!…




The colors are:

Mint Macaron (big conversation going on about the spelling of that one)

Tip Top Taupe

Watermelon Wonder

Cucumber Crush

Delightful Dijon

Don't you wonder about the people who come up with the names of these colors?!!  Tip Top Taupe - say that 5 times fast!  I think my favorites will be the Mint Macron and Watermelon Wonder but I'm also loving that Cucumber Crush too.  The Delightful Dijon looks like a good replacement for More Mustard that we had a few years back.

If you look closely at the picture, you'll see a few other sneak peeks - like the butterfly, ribbon, embellishment in the center of the butterfly ....

We can put in our pre-order on a few select items and I've been busy making my list! 

Marianne and I took boxes of our retired stamps to the big sale at Stamper's Alley on Saturday.  We had some great prices on them along with punches and dies.  I really didn't want to take all that stuff back home this time.  The sale wasn't supposed to start until 9 a.m. but it was in the parking lot so there was no stopping the early birds.  When I arrived about 8:30, there were already people shopping in our booth.  Marianne and I were busy trying to arrange our things on the table and pricing a few last minutes items.  I'm not complaining though because we did better than we ever have before and walked away with over $700 between us!  That will buy a lot of new stamps!!  Of course we went out to dinner last night after the sale and both ended up buying dinner for our spouses!

MDS Monday 111

I decided late tonight to submit a page for MDS Monday.  (Can't skip a week!)  So I threw this together pretty fast.  I used Project Life embellishments and stamps mostly on the page.  These are pictures from a trip we took to the Outer Banks several years ago.  I love, love, love the beach .... Sonny not so much!  But he does like the Outer Banks (mainly one bar he discovered on Hatteras Island!)  As long as I don't make him sit in the sand with me, he tolerates it!  Guess after 42 years of marriage, there is a lot of compromises!

I did something a little different on this page.  In the background, I cut and pasted several watercolor washes from Beautiful Today in a muted blue.

Make sure you check out the other submissions over at MDS Monday.

Just Sayin' .... Woo Hoo!

I was busy today pricing my stamps that I will be selling on Saturday at the Used Stamp Sale at Stamper's Alley in Mooresville.  There are going to be some great deal!  I have several boxes of stamps - all priced under $10 - most of them at $3 and $5!  I hope to get rid of them and have a little cash to buy some new stamps.  I got to look at the 2015-16 catalog today and found several things I want!  Can't wait to share it with you.  I don't think you will be disappointed in the new In Colors!

I also had a little time today to make a couple of cards.

I'm so sad to see these sets go away - Four Feathers and Just Sayin'.  (Although they won't be included in the stamp sale!  I'll still be using them from time to time.)

I used several stamp sets (as you can see from the list below).  I don't usually use so many but I was on a roll and just kept adding little elements here and there.  The birdie is from a hostess set that hasn't seen too much ink so guess I'll be holding on to it a little longer.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Mixed Bunch of Flowers

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog!  I don't have much of an excuse except I get involved in doing other things at night and just forget!

We went to South Carolina this weekend with a group of friends and saw a "Doo Wop" concert.  It was really good and had me singing right along with the oldies (but goodies).  On our way home on Sunday, we stopped off at the Front Porch Restaurant and had a delicious lunch - fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, limas, cornbread .... yum!!

I have made a few cards with some of the retiring stamps that I will be sharing.  Trying to see which ones I'll make for my Stamp Club.  I am moving my Thursday Stamp Club up to next week due to Sonny's surgery the 3rd week of May.  It works out because my friend, Margaret, will be here next week and she can be the hostess!  Sonny and Graham are going with the Golden Boys on their annual Skeet Shooting outing to South Carolina.

I have been consolidating My Digital Studio files also.  I have the program on my laptop, an external hard drive and also on my computer.  A lot of the files that I have on my computer & hard drive are not on my laptop so I have been going through and comparing the files and moving them.  I also set up several files labeled, Frames, Birthday, Holidays, Christmas, Tags, etc. and have been going through all the files and moving files into the proper category.  This is something I should have done a long time ago.  It will help me so I don't have to search for things.  There are a lot of files that get hidden away in the Designer Kits.

I pulled out the Mixed Bunch (retiring) set the other day and made this bouquet of flowers (CASE-d).

You will never guess what the container is!  I used an empty plastic button box (Stampin' Up).  I punched holes in the top of the button container and wrapped the top and bottom of the box individually with Red Line Tape. I wrapped a tube of white card stock around them (separating the top and bottom so the middle is actually hollow).  Then I covered the white cs with DSP.  Each flower is three layers.  I adhered the flowers onto a wooden dowel and poked each one into the plastic box top.  I shredded some card stock and glued it to the bottom to cover up the container.  What do you think?


Here are this week's Weekly Deals:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

MDS Monday Challenge #2

This is another page I did for the MDS Monday challenge this week.  I had a hard time deciding between the two so I think I will submit them both!

When we visited Ireland a few years ago, we went to the Aran Islands on the west coast.   We took the ferry to the largest island, Inishmore, which is only 9 miles of land but the island has such a weather beaten charm to it that it captured my heart.  The tiny island consists of a maze of stone fences. There are only about 1,200 people on all three of the islands. What fascinated me the most was listening to them speak.  Most of them speak Irish Gaelic and it is impossible to understand!  There is a ferry system to get you to and from the mainland but it is passenger only.  This view from a bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean shows remnants of crosses and chapels dating from the 8th to the 11th centuries.

The elements I used for this page are:

Background Paper - DSP Distressed Crushed Curty

Embellishments - Burlap Ribbon recolored, Top Notch Woodcuts

Stamps - Natural Composition Overlay #9

Punches:  1.25 Square punch filled w/DSP Etcetera #6, Smitten Alphabet Punches

Photo Box filled w/Amped Up Ampersands #2 DSP

MDS Monday Sketch

I've been working on my page for this week's MDS Monday challenge.  For some reason, I was really stumped this time!  In fact, I made three pages trying to decide.  But I think I like the last one I did the best so that is what I am submitting for the challenge.

I love the greens in the picture.  I made my background color to match the green in the flowers.  I used an overlay (love overlays!!) from Decorative Overlays - actually, I used two of them - one colored in white and one in green.  I really like the hazy look of the background.  I purchased about $65 in MDS downloads yesterday with my club order and had to use some of them on this page.

Embellishments used -

• Hello World Chalk Dots Overlay (recolored Pear Pizzaz)
• Everyday Enchantment Ribbon - Lucky Limeade (recolored to match)

Stamps used

• Decorative Overlays Flowers 
• Simple Snapshots - "the beauty of life" colored in white and green

Paper used:

• Whisper White background
• Hi There DSP #2

The font is a new one I just discovered also called EPIDEMIA.



There were new items added to the Clearance List today.  There are a couple of cute stamps from the Holiday Catalog that you might like!

If you decide to order from the Clearance .... or even some of the retired items, please use my Hostess Code 4CFDVMMK.

I also want to let you know that if you are tired of trying to read the teeny tiny print of the Retiring Stamps and Accessories List, if you will click above "SHOP ONLINE" and click on "SHOP NOW" button and then RETIRING PRODUCTS, the list will open with a picture, price, item code, etc. - everything you need to make your choice.

Have fun shopping and don't forget to use the Hostess Code please!