Be aware of what your gifts are.

I was bummed  today!  Today is Ashley's birthday and Skype wasn't working!!  So, we couldn't talk to her on her birthday.  When we both figured it out, we at least were able to "IM" via Yahoo.  Hopefully, Skype will be and running tomorrow and Christmas. 

There was a really good article in Sunday's Charlotte Observer that I would like to share with you.  It kind of hit home with me and maybe it will give you some food for thought.

"No going back:  Winter is Here" by Barbara Thiede
Snow is falling outside.  Though it is not likely to last, it is a sign:  There is no going back.  Winter has arrived.  It is too late to replace the bushes I had wanted to pull out this fall.  It is too late to plant more daffodil bulbs.  I have faced "too late" other times this year.  When my beloved mother-in-law ... died unexpectedly last summer, it was too late for things I had had to postpone. .... To be with her was to know the essence of the word "homey."  I would have liked to have that sort of feeling another time, a last time.  Her death has made me especially conscious of my own life as a mother, and the way it, too, has sped by.  ... Days after she died, her sister told me my mother in law often said how she missed her son, my husband.  Only then did I realize, with a clutch in my heart, what her generosity must have cost her.  He had left home at 23 to come to me in America.  In the next 30 years, she would see him less than once a year.  She never complained about how far away we were.  (My son) is 19.  I imagine him living far away ... The pain hits right in my sternum.  I would not have her strength to bear the loss with grace and patience.  I would complain and cry.  ... It is too late for one last meeting.  But it is never too late to acknowledge, again, how we loved her.  So we do.  Every night we say a prayer for her.  May we all be aware of the time we have now, what our gifts are, how we love now.

If you would like to read the entire article, you can find it HERE.

I am going to try and be aware of what my gifts are and look at the glass half full and not half empty.  Instead of being so upset that I wasn't able to skype with Ashley, I am thankful I was at least able to "IM" with her.  When my son, Jeff was in Korea and also in Baghdad, we didn't have all this technology to be able to talk to each other.  I was so thankful when he was able to get to a telephone and make a call home.   When he was in Korea at Christmas, I was a basket case!  That was the first time our family had not been together at Christmas.  I guess I'm getting used to it now but I don't like it!!

What about you?  Are you thankful for the gifts you have?

Gift Card Holder

I needed a gift card holder for a SU Gift Certificate.  My gift certificate is about 4" x 8" and fits in a business envelope.  So, I designed a holder that would fit in the business envelope.  I looked around on Splitcoast and got a few ideas and this is what I made:

 The "ribbon" on the top started out as a bow - I punched 3 ovals (with large oval) out of Real Red and 3 out of Baja Breeze cardtock.  Then using the negative part of the punch, I punched ovals using the extra-large oval punch.  But, they wouldn't fit in the envelope, so I had to trim it.  Oh well - it looks cute anyway.

So what do you think??

Getting down to Crunch Time!

Wahhhh - my Steelers lost today.  I thought they were going to pull out the win but time ran away from them and they didn't get the win.  They played the Jets and both teams were fighting for playoff berths.  We play Carolina on Thursday who should be an easy team to beat considering they have only won 2 games all season, but you just never know with football!  Anything can happen - and usually does!

We're entering the final stretch for Christmas.  This is the last week to get your shopping done, bake those cookies, wrap the presents and get your singing voice ready for Christmas carolling!  I only have a couple more presents to buy; haven't made any cookies yet; haven't wrapped the first present; and don't have a singing voice!  I did make some tags tonight so I can do my wrapping tomorrow and finally put something under the tree besides dust.  What about you?  Are you ready for Santa?

I had a great time this weekend making digital calendars!  I am just so proud of them.  I subscribe to a monthly on-line magazine, Paper and Pixels.  It is fairly new and is free.  They have some really good articles and ideas.  If you are interested, here is a link to them - ( http://www.papersandpixels.com/).  Saturday, I was reading the magazine and they had information about a CD calendar.  There was a download of the calendar template and several other links to the calendar.  I downloaded all of their information and opened up My Digital Studio and that's all it took.  I created three different calendars using parts of their download and a lot of the paper, stamps and embellishments from Stampin' Up.  What fun I had!!  Here is a peek at a couple of the pages.

January - everything came downloaded on the page except - the snowflake at the top, the brads in the middle of the snowflake, the skaters (which I colored after printing it out), and the big snowman.

 February - Again, everything printed out as is.  I just added from MDS, the items in the 3 boxes and the heart stamp on the calendar.  After I printed it out, I added a real pink corduroy button where the rhinestone is.

The more I use My Digital Studio, the more I really love it!!  It really got a work out this weekend!!  I ended up printing the calendar pages on some glossy white paper that I had and they turned out super.

Oh - by the way, I didn't wake up yesterday to snow!  I never saw any snow at my house although a few areas around us got snow - just no accumulation.  My mom called in the afternoon to say she had seen some really big flakes at her house.  Oh well - maybe for Christmas!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow morning to a snow filled yard!  That's what is being predicted although not much accumulation.  It'll just be nice to see some snow - especially this time of year!  It has been bone chilling cold all week.  Today was the first day I dared to venture out without my long-johns on!  I was out most of the day and it was a very nice day weather wise - got up to the mid 40's and was not bad.  I got my hair cut this morning and then met a friend at Panera Bread for lunch.  After that, I stopped by Stampers Alley to visit with my stamping friends there and check out their sales.  A few more stops - Dollar Store, Best Buy, Staples, and Winkler Bakery where I had to buy some yummy Moravian cookies!  This store (where I bought the cookies) is just in town for the holidays.  They are from Winston Salem where we went last year to Salem Village and had the most wonderful Sugar Cake - hot from the oven.  I think Sonny has decided we may have to drive down to Salem next week!  

He made sausage balls tonight and put them in a tin to send to Ashley.  That is his and Ashley's Christmas tradition - to make the sausage balls together.  I helped a little bit but he did most of it.  I doubt she'll get them by Christmas but she'll have something to look forward to after Christmas.  It is not taking our packages very long to get to her at all.  She received a box from us yesterday that we sent Priority Mail on Dec. 10.  I have to take my hats off to the Post Office for their speedy service as well as to UPS.  I received a UPS package Tuesday but when I tracked it earlier in the week, it was due to be delivered on Thursday!  I was impressed.

I've made a few more Christmas cards in the last day or two.  Every time I think I'm through, I discover someone I left off the list.  Plus, when I was at Stampers Alley today, I bought a new Just Rite set and I had to use it.  A friend sent me a Christmas card using this set (hi, Vicki!) and it was such a pretty card, I had to have the stamp.

 This is the new set I just bought - isn't it nice?  Also, I love this ribbon trim.  Another friend was the enabler on it (you, Judy!)  I saw a card she made with it and I had to have it too!  Doesn't take much to persuade me to part with my money.

I love this Santa!  This is from a set in the Holiday Mini.  If you hurry, you still have time to get him.  The Holiday Mini expires at the end of December.

 These are a couple of stamps that I bought several months ago but hadn't inked them yet.  I used Versacolor Bamboo and Celadon for the trees.  Isn't the bear the cutest?  He has Stickles on him.
 

 Another darling snowman!  He comes in the same set that Santa is in - Jolly Old Saint Nick.  The paper is from the Candy Cane Christmas DSP that is now sold out.

This set is an older Just Rite set that I had.  I was trying to color the ornaments to match the Candy Cane DSP using my Copics.  I also dyed the ribbon to match.  I love this ribbon!

Coaster Calendar 2011

Every year I give my hair dresser a little calendar for her work station.  Friday, I am going to get my hair trimmed and shaped up so I had to get going with making her calendar.  I also made one of these yesterday to include in my Christmas gift for my Bunco Yankee Swap but I didn't have time to take pictures of it.  I finished the calendar about 5:30 and still had to take a shower, wash and dry hair, get ready for the party and get my snack together by 7 PM!  So glad my hair is shorter now - it is so much easier to  fix!!

January uses the DSP from SU's Holiday Mini and Spellbinders Nested Mittens.  After I took the picture, I decided to glitter the mittens!

February - I got to use some SU rub-ons that were a gift from Stampin Up to me!

March - I cut up a card Sonny sent me - it is just beautiful - like Monet waterlilies.  I added a flower from God's Beauty stamp set (retired) and glitter.

April - This is some retired DSP from Stampin' Up.  The stamp set is from My Favorite Things.

May - more retired DSP paper from SU and the bird punch!

June - retired DSP.  The stamp set is called Bugs & Blooms but I don't know who makes it.

July - pretty simple just using bits and pieces of different papers.

August - another simple one.  I found this tag and stamped the saying from SU's Peace Within

September - a great place for the children from Greeting Card Kids (SU).  I colored them with my Copics.

October - another great use of Greeting Card Kids and the spider web from Wicked Cool.

November - isn't he cute?  This is Gobble, Gobble - a retired single stamp that I love!  I used different colors of markers to color directly on the stamp.

December - I had this "Merry Christmas" already colored in my stash so I adhered it to the page and I was done!  

Hope this gives you inspiration to make your own calendar!

Christmas Eating Tips

With all the Christmas parties we are going to, I thought these tips on over eating would help!!

These 10 steps have helped people lose at least 20 lbs in six months. Amazing how much changing how we do things changes the results.

1. Include a fruit and a vegetable with your lunch and dinner
2. Don't eat white foods at dinner.
3. Use the half-plate rule (fill half your plate with salad or veggies).
4. Have a sweet or salty afternoon snack only if you first eat a piece of fresh fruit.
5. Drink one glass of water before every meal or snack.
6. Use the Restaurant Rule of Two: Limit yourself to two items other than your entree.
7. Never eat in front of the TV.
8. Eat a piece of fruit on the way to work every day.
9. Save desserts for weekends.
10. Freeze half of what you make, and serve the other half.

Figure out where your diet danger zones are and rein it in and get it under control or avoid that zone completely until you can.

Meal Stuffing - Stuffers overeat at mealtimes, filling and refilling their plates, perhaps because they haven't eaten much earlier in the day.

Party Binging - Receptions and celebrations are distracting environments for party bingers, who can lose track - or control - of how much they've eaten or drunk.

Desktop/Dashboard Dining - Both desktop diners and dashboard diners are speed eaters. They eat at work or on the go to save time - yet often don't realize how much they've eaten, since they're eating quickly.

Restaurant Indulging - The restaurant indulger eats out often, having dinner away from home at least three nights a week. Research shows that if you're served more (as you usually are at restaurants) you'll automatically eat more.

Snack Grazing - Grazers typically reach for food more from habit than hunger. Maybe it's that 3 p.m. slump, when the offerings in the office vending machine actually look good.

So, where is your diet danger zone? Maybe it's not even on this list.

~~~Latest AARP Magazine 2010

Christmas Cards .... Almost Done!

I had a very productive weekend.  I got a lot of Christmas cards made.  I'll start addressing them tomorrow and maybe I'll have enough!!  Things have started to slow down for me and I don't feel so stressed about getting everything done.  I put a few decorations up last week and decorated my tree.  Now to get some shopping done!  Tomorrow is my bridge Christmas party and I have all my gifts ready to go.  Saturday night my sisters, my mom and my friend, Margaret attended a Singing Christmas Tree at a local church.  It was awesome .... in fact, I think that is what has finally put me in the Christmas spirit.  Margaret had never been to a Singing Christmas Tree before and I think she really enjoyed it.  Even my Steelers cooperated today by winning by a good margin and not stressing me out at the last minute. 

I received a couple of pretty hand-made Christmas cards this weekend and they are what inspired me also.  Margaret had given me a few sheets of designer paper from a 6x6 book that she had and they got my creative juices going.  Here are a couple of the cards I made with that paper:

 For this one I dug out Flowers for All Occasions (SU) that I bought last year and don't think I've even used it.  I colored it in Cherry Cobbler because it most matched the paper.

 This poinsetta is watercolored using SU watercolor crayons (they are available to order now!!) and my aqua pen.  They look pink but it is actually Ruby Red.  Couldn't get a good picture of it.

This card uses SU's DSP from the Holiday Mini.  The sentiment is from Best Yet (retired). 

Hope your week is wonderful.  It is going to be COLD here all week with highs in the 30's and lows in the teens.  Ashley has been getting a little cold weather over in Iraq also.  The highs for the past few days have just been in the 50's and even getting down to high 30's or low 40's at night. 

How to Achieve Inner Peace

Dr Phil proclaimed recently on his show, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished." 

So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos,  a box of chocolates, and a half bottle of rum .

You have no idea how good I feel right now!!

Seriously ... I did finish up some Christmas cards that were on my desk in bits and pieces and I do feel good about that.  Hope you feel good about them too!

 This is a stamp that I have had 6-7 years and probably only used it once or twice.  I bought it when we still lived in Washington - before I became a Stampin' Up demonstrator.  I decided to blow off the dust and use it tonight.  Also - how long has it been since you used your deckle scissors????  I can't believe I could still find mine, but they look ok on this card I think.  You can't tell from the picture but I stamped the image twice - once in Garden Green ink and a second time in black ink.  I cut out the trees and snowman (black ink) and glued them on the larger green stamped piece.

 These cards are left over bits I found from a class I taught at Stampers Alley last year.  It was a One Sheet Wonder class but I didn't have the bits of paper from the One Sheet Wonder so I found these scraps of DSP on my cutting table and used them instead.

 More cards left over from the One Sheet Wonder class.  I cut these vintage pieces out of some DSP that I found in my closet.  Use up your scraps and see what you can create!

 

Another from the One Sheet Wonder bunch.  Those are some bright green trees, don't you think?

So I hope these give you some inspiration to look around at what you have sitting in your scrap pile or even on your desk that you can put to good use on a card and bring yourself "inner peace."

The Whirlwind of the Christmas Season

It's that time of the year - when the faster I go, the behinder I get!!  I have been furiously working trying to get everything made and my Christmas cards done.  The past two days I have made 8 Christmas Planners.  I wanted to put them in the bags for my Stamp Club ladies.  Unfortunately, I have already put them in the bags and they are ready to be delivered.  I forgot to take pictures!!  Take my word for it - they are really cute! 

My bridge Christmas party is Monday.  I wanted to decorate some of those calendar planners that you can get at M's.  But, when I went to buy them on Monday, they only had 1 calendar left!  I can't believe it!  Usually you can find those calendars all year long.  My friend, Margaret, is coming this week to visit so I asked her to check with her "M" store there in Texas but they were sold out too.  So, when I couldn't find the planners, I bought all the little 3" square tins that they had which were 14.  I am in the process of making little note cards to put inside of them.  Of course, wouldn't you know it, all I bought were 14 and there will be 15 at bridge (16 counting me).  Luckily, I happened to have a larger rectangle Christmas tin that I will fix up for the hostess.  She always has our Christmas party at her house so she deserves a little treat. 

Tomorrow is my Mahjong Christmas party.  I decided not to do anything for everyone there - just not enough time.  Plus, there is an overlap of people at Southern Living Luncheon (last week) and bridge and mahjong.

Margaret and Graham are arriving here tomorrow.  They are visiting their daughter and grandson today.  So, hopefully we will have a little time to make a few Christmas cards.  We are going to the Singing Christmas Tree in Mooresville (Berea Baptist Church) on Saturday with my mom and sisters.  Then we'll be headed to Big Al's on Sunday for the football game. 

I probably won't have a chance to post anything until Sunday or Monday.  Don't give up on me! 

Over the Top Decorating

Sunday a couple of friends and I went on a Christmas Tour of Homes in my neighborhood.  Wow! is all I can say.  The four houses were decorated to the max.  They were all done in different styles - Traditional, Eclectric, Lodge, and Tuscany.  I was in awe and hated to come back home and think about decorating my home for Christmas. 

The Tuscany home was just too much to me though - not necessarily the decorations but the home itself.  Sonny and I had gone through the home a few times when it was under construction a couple of years ago.  Keep in mind there are just two people living in the home.  It was three stories.  Downstairs there was a den, two bedrooms, huge "mudroom", full bar, wine cellar, and a media room with copper ceiling.  All the doors downstairs were at least 8 feet tall - maybe even 10 feet - I'm not good with that and made of cypress wood.  They were gorgeous but $$$.  Everything in the home was massive and just over the top - probably at least a two million dollar home.  The home next door to them has been for sale for over a year - it started out at 1.9 million - don't know what they are asking now though.

These art pieces were in two of the homes.  They used old pieces of jewelry to create a Christmas tree.  I'm going to start searching through my family's old jewelry pieces and make one of my own!

 

This was a centerpiece in the dining room at the tradional home.  The "presents" are styrofoam blocks covered in moss and wrapped with beautiful ribbon.  So easy!

This Christmas tree was upstairs in the traditional home (my favorite).  The toys were a step back in time.

I thought this snowman collections was really cute.