Note Card Swap at Quarterly

Another Quarterly meeting for the NC SU Demos is in the books and I think it was a success!  Marianne, Debbie and I met at the Wingate Hotel about noon on Friday and after making numerous trips back and forth from our car to the meeting room, we got everything set up and arranged the way we wanted it.  We were surprised that we were done by 2:00!!  The room was just perfect for our needs.  We ended up with 33 people so we weren't too crowded and were able to leave a large table in the center of the room where we based our demonstrations from.  There was a large closet in the room so we could store our excess in it and pull them out as needed.  After setting up, we headed over to Joe Fish to relax for a bit and have lunch before the crowd started coming.  And then the fun began!  We got everyone signed in and gave out goodie bags and started working on our shoebox cards.  We headed to bed a little after midnight, leaving a few still working on their projects.  Saturday was filled with more fun projects.  I started out the morning with a box card which everyone seemed to enjoy.  Here are a few samples that I had made to show everyone.  The ones that everyone made were kept simple.  The idea was to get the basic idea of how to make the box card and then your imagination can take over when you get home.

If you would like to make a Box Card, let me know and I will email the instructions to you.

One of the swaps that we did on Saturday was a Note Card Swap.  We only had 14 participants but I think it was a great swap!  Now I have several Christmas presents ready to go!!  Here is one of mine:

When it opens, there are two clear pockets on either side to slide the note cards in.  I used the clear envelopes and cut one side open to slide the cards and envelopes in.
 

Clearance!

 

I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that the Stampin' UP! Clearance Rack and Special Offers have been updated.  You are sure to find something you need on sale.  Check it out HERE.  And please make sure you are shopping with me and that you add in the Hostess Code AGVSDKCG.


I got some great news yesterday!  When I was in Hawaii, I went to a Weight Watchers meeting every week.  I wanted to make sure I was accountable while I was on vacation.  It was ok if I didn't lose weight (which I didn't figure I would!) but I didn't want to gain too much either.  As it turned out, I gained a little the first week; lost a little the second and third week and ended up coming home the same weight as I left which was great.  Last night was my first Weight Watchers meeting since I got home and I had lost a couple of pounds, getting me to my GOAL weight!!  I am so happy.  Now I just have to maintain.  I think I have learned a new way of eating in these past few months.  The only problem is going to be on Football Sundays when we go to a bar and have fried stuff and beer.  

These are Banyan Trees

The path to the beach

This is the Kailua Bird Man.  The birds just flocked to him as he walked down the beach.  He has names for all the birds and just walks out into the ocean with about a dozen birds on his shoulders, arms, head, etc.  It was fascinating!   You can read more about him HERE.

Waikiki Beach

RAK and Football Season!

When I returned from Hawaii, I found the card below waiting for me.  I love getting happy mail!  This was a RAK card (Random Act of Kindness) from a demo friend, Sharon Guarino.  Another demo started the RAK program in our NC Demo group.  Isn't it fun to get a card just for fun?!!  I love the pleated technique that Sharon used.  I have made an RAK card and it should arrive at the lucky person's house tomorrow or Wednesday.

I'm happy this week because football season has started!  I didn't do too well with my football picks yesterday in the pool, but it's only the first week!  I'm watching the Steelers tonight killing the Washington Redskins.  Now if the fall weather will just arrive!

Home Sweet Home!

Well, I made it back home safe and sound.  I hated to leave but it sure was good to sleep in my own bed last night!  I almost slept around the clock last night!  I only slept about an 1 1/2 hours total on the plane coming home.  Sonny picked me up at the airport and we went to breakfast.  After a quick stop at the grocery store, I unpacked and took a nap for a couple of hours.  That helped me to stay awake until about 10 pm when I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer!  I showered and went to bed about 10:30 and woke up at 9:30 this morning.  Surprisingly, it didn't take me long for my body to adjust to the time difference when I was in Hawaii.  Let's see if the same is true for being back home.  I'll be getting ready for the Quarterly that Debbie, Marianne and I are hosting next week.  I did all my swaps before I left so just need to concentrate on getting everything ready.

I downloaded my photos to my computer this morning so I have a few more to share.  Ashley and I went snorkeling and kayaking last week.  I didn't do so good with the snorkeling.  I have done it before and really enjoyed it but the water and currents were too rough due to the tropical storms.  I ended up losing my snorkel tube when the waves knocked me down.  Ashley was able to get out further and had a good time looking at the turtles and fish.  The kayaking turned out much better.  We rented the kayak for two hours because we thought it would take us an hour to figure it out but it didn't.  We ended up kayaking for about an hour until my back was killing me from sitting in the seat with no support.  We thought our arms would be sore from paddling but they weren't.  This time, I didn't lose any of the equipment but Ashley broke one of the oars!  We were bringing the kayak in and trying to ride the waves in until a big one knocked the kayak over and dumped both of us in the water snapping her oar in half!  It was a lot of fun!  We are going to try and get Sonny to join us in December.

I'm going to miss seeing these beauties everywhere!

I didn't do it this time!

Ashley on our kayak

This is where the kiss scene of From Here to Eternity was filmed.

This is a blow hole - water comes up through a hole in the rock in the middle

Our snorkeling day - when I gave up!

What will $6 Million get you?

I just have to share this house with you!  For the two Sundays that I have been here, Ashley and I have gone to Open Houses for places that are on the market.  We are just being "looky-loos" but we also thought we could get some decorating tips from some of them.  The first Sunday we went to a lot of the properties that she had looked at so she could show me what she was seeing and how you don't get much for your money here!  Last Sunday, we decided to limit ourselves to million dollar homes!  A gal can dream can't she!  Well, some of them, believe me, you wouldn't pay half that for!  This house below is one of them.  It is for sale for $6.9 MILLION!!  It is on the beach although you can't see the beach unless you are standing on the roof because the sand dune is in front.  It was built in 1934 and I don't think anything has been done to it since then!  The selling point is that it is right next to Kailua Beach.  I would think you would just tear it down and build something in it's place but the realtor said because of permits, the smart thing to do would be to build on top of the house and let the house be the garage.  Remember - you have already spent almost $7 million - how much more are you willing to spend?

The "front door" is just to the right.

View of the back yard - the ocean is back there over the dirt.

This is your front entrance!

Master Bedroom!

The bedroom closet!

Great Kitchen, don't you think?  HA!

Lovely shower!

Can you just imagine living there????  Beach or no beach - not me!  If you want to go online and look at the pictures or put an offer in, go to www.cliffshafer.hawaiimoves.com, MLS #201620001.  They definitely had a good camera and did some powerful staging to make it look as good as they did.  Except for that old bed in the picture above, there was no furniture in it on Sunday.

Ashley's condo is much better!!  Not even close to $6 million but much better!

Ashley on the lanai - both her bedroom and the den have sliding glass doors to the lanai.

backyard tropical plants

backyard - not much grass to mow - think she is going to put concrete steppers down.

Her bedroom - it is upstairs with a bath and there are 2 more bedrooms, bath and laundry room downstairs.

More from Hawaii

I'm still loving Hawaii!  Last week was pretty humid until about Thursday when the trade winds started blowing that humidity away.  Ashley and I did a little bit of packing along with a fair amount of sight seeing and beach time. 

This week's forecast is not good.  Tropical Story Madeline is headed this way on Wednesday (coinciding with Pres. Obama's visit on that day) and over Labor Day weekend, they are expecting Tropical Cyclone Lester.  So, doesn't look like there will be a lot of beach time in the next week.

Thought I'd share some random pictures I took last week.



This is Ashley's dining room / living room and out the sliding doors to the lanai.  I am standing at the front door taking the snapshot

We stopped off at the Macadamia Store to try a few samples!!

This was a cool rock formation we found while driving to the North Shore.

Every meal you get here has rice - even as a side at breakfast.  We stopped at Giovanni's Shrimp Truck on the North Shore and it was yummy!

Another yummy stop - Matsumoto's Shave Ice!!

Saturday morning - AFTER I weighed in at Weight Watchers, we went to Cinnamon's Restaurant.  One of Ashley's friends had told her we needed to go.  It was so good!  By the way, we shared this!!

Not sure what this flower is but it's pretty.

This is called  "shower tree"

This is my favorite!  It's a plumeria tree and the flowers are beautiful!

YUCK!  This was in Ashley's suitcase!!  Think he made the trip from Texas to Hawaii?  Hope he has found a new home outside! We believe it is a centipede.
 

My Hawaii Vaca!

I'm having so much fun here that I forgot I had a blog!!  Thought I would share some pictures of my visit.  I arrived a week ago and Ashley greeted me at the airport with a beautiful plumeria (my fav flower) lei.  Only thing is we forgot to take a picture!  Since I arrived mid afternoon (which was actually about 9 pm NC time), we headed over to Ashley's empty condo.  She had closed on it the week before and had been sleeping on an air mattress for a couple of days.  I was at first surprised at how small it was (for the $$.)  But after being here a while, think it is a great size for her (if we can figure out where to put all her stuff!)  After catching up a bit, we headed to Kailua (the next town over) to eat dinner and I had my first mai tai!  The waitress told me they were so strong they would only serve me 3.  I told her not to worry - after flying for 12 hours and knowing I was sleeping on an air mattress that night, one would be fine!  After dinner, we walked across the street to the beach.  It was a beautiful sight!

 

When we got back to the condo, we saw our first rainbow of the trip.  The view above is taken from her lanai.

 

I actually ended up staying awake until about 8 or 9:00 (2-3 am for NC).  It was not a great night though!  Ashley had put air in the mattress earlier.  Well, when I was ready to go to bed, most of the air was gone and by the end of the night ALL the air was gone.  She had hardwood floors so we were basically sleeping on the hard floor!  Not good for these old bones!  Guess there was a leak somewhere.  Ashley really felt bad about it but it was a good thing I was super tired!  We were up really early the next morning waiting for the movers who didn't arrive until almost 1 pm!!  But what a beautiful view to awaken to (below).  Every morning the clouds sit in the mountains and you can watch them rise while sitting on the lanai having breakfast.  This is another view from the lanai with a coconut tree just outside and further to the right a plumeria tree.

 

Then the fun started!  These are the steps going down to her condo (on the left).  The movers were here until after 6 pm and I know they were glad when they were done!

We had the unpack the kitchen.  Of course all they did was put things on the counter.  Ashley had to work on Wednesday so I spent the whole day in the kitchen getting it in some kind of order.

We've made a lot of progress.  We have all the boxes unpacked and now need the movers to come get them out of our way.   I spent Saturday unpacking her craft supplies and setting up her "craft closet."

We went out yesterday and bought a desk for her so that is next on my "to do" list.  The hardest part is finding a new home for all the decorative items. 

But it hasn't been all work and no fun.  We went to the North Shore one day last week and have gone out to eat several times.  We took a trip one day last week to Costco and the PX which were closer to Waikiki.  Yesterday I went to work with Ashley since she only had a morning meeting.  Our plan was to either go on a hike to Diamond Head or snorkeling but the weather did not cooperate.  It was overcast and raining off and on all day and boy, was the humidity getting to me!  So we ended up going to Waikiki and eating lunch at a restaurant close to the beach and walking through the shops and on the boardwalk before going furniture shopping.

Well, I better get back to work!!  I'll post more pictures later!!

Painters Palette

Not to rub it in - but I am in Hawaii!!  

This is another card we made at Stamp Club last week.  It is such a simple card but I love it!

The stamp set is Painters Palette and can be found on page 119 of the Annual Catalog.  I love the little watercolor "swishes."  You can change up the colors of the "swooshes" and the DSP and totally change the look of the card.  The easel is stamped in Tip Top Taupe on the white card stock and then stamped a second time onto scrap white card stock.  The second one is cut out (just the square).  It coordinates with the Layering Squares Framelits but I don't have those (yet) and it is not that hard to cut out the square.  I used a post-it-note for the sides of the square when I stamped the "swishes" so they would not get onto the frame.  The DSP is from Blooms & Bliss (pg. 173) with the twine (retired) wrapped around twice and tied in a bow.

Flourishing Phrases

This is another Stamp Club card - one you hope you do not need but you know you will.  I love the combination of Daffodil and Basic Black.  I used the Flourishing Phrases thinlits and stamp set to make this card.  If you haven't looked at this bundle in the Annual Catalog, you need to check it out on page 49.  The stamp set is a really good one when you are looking for sentiments.  Not only does it have some really good sympathy ones, but also many others from "Just a Note" to "I love you."   And the thinlits are so pretty - you get leaves, flowers and borders.

I found that the Die Brush (page 190) really came in handy with getting all the little bits out of the dies.  I have not been a fan of the Die Brush and did not encourage my customers to purchase it but I am changing my tune now!  You can do a Google search and see some tutorials for using the Die Brush.  But basically, you just run your card stock with the die through your Big Shot and when you take it out, put it on a foam mat without removing the piece from the die.  Next  just run the Die Brush back and forth over the top of the die and most of the bits will come out and the die piece will come out of the die easier.  Try it - you'll like it!!