Warm fuzzies

I am so not into winter right now (as it is about 87 degrees) but I really LOVE this particular Magnolia image. I don’t know their names, as Im not a huge Magnolia buff-but if you do, please chime in.

 I get mine from here –> magnolia.us@shaw.ca Just email Diana and she can email you the catalog. She ships to US and Ca if you are wondering.

 She is just so gosh darn cute. PLUS I got some of these felt snowflakes, so I had to use them before I forgot and they lost their flare with me. No idea where I got them, but I love them. All in shades of purple! My most favorite of colors.

They went perfect with my Papertrey Ink Guidelines paper.

Here is a close up

You cannot tell by the photo but I did my shadowing using the Pebbles Pearlescent chalks. Its just so pretty and shimmery.

Don’t think of this as a winter card! Think of this as something that gives you warm fuzzies! That is exactly what I get when I read peoples comments (and while I almost always forget to link them) blog awards, and tags. I also love when people email me to tell me in what way I may have helped inspire them to do something. Can I get a great big AWE!!! Seriously!! You are all just so amazing.

 Some recent awards come from Suzanne, and Kristy! Thank you.

I also have to give a shout out to my BFF Tracey who started a blog! FINALLY!!! You can see her here. Make sure you say HI!! Speaking of which I need to take a moment and comment myself. YIKES. I have hardly been home since last week.

Ok I better run. Taking the kids to Discovery Zone today. Fun stuff.

Later.

Happy Birthday Amber!!

After 11 days over due, a long induction, and 3 days of labor ………..

Amber Elaine Meader arrived into the world.

Wednesday August 13 2004 2:23 pm

8lbs. 9 oz

 Amber means-

 The name Amber, pronounced as Am-ber means a fossilized resin, honey-yellow in color and generally translucent in nature that is highly valued as a precious stone and used in ornaments as pendants or sometimes as a ring stone. The word is of Arabic origin (Anbar). The name is also found in Hindi and the ancient Sanskrit language (Ambar); it signifies the sky. The name became popular after Kathleen Winsor’s romantic novel Forever Amber featuring the story of Amber ST Clair which was later made in to a film of the same name.

We chose Amber on a whim, she was suppose to be Rebecca. When we saw her that was the name that came to Jason. I told this story a long time ago here. Turns out Jasons mom was going to name him Amber if he was a girl! No one ever knew that.

Elaine

Origin: Old French

Meaning: bright, shinning light

The Elaine was after Jason’s grandmother. Alexa has my grandmothers middle name, so I gave Amber his grandmothers name.

I cannot believe my “BABY” is four today. Unreal. Seems like just yesterday………….

I will hope to share b-day photos later. I figured I’d share some birthday photos for every year thus far.

This was Amber’s Birth Announcement photo!

I took it in the yard. She was 3 days old, and in my opinion one the most beautiful babies I have ever seen

Amber turns 1!

Oh no you didn’t!

Oh yes I did! I dressed her up like a fairy. It was so cute! She loved her wings and wand

She had a family party and just had a blast. The theme was fairy butterflies of course!

Amber turns 2!

I didn’t even get a good photo of her at her birthday party.

This was an awful time. Alexa was really sick and in the hospital. I had to leave to get ready for Amber’s party to keep life “normal”. I missed her actual birthday and felt so sad over the entire thing. I still tear up remembering that awful year of hospitalizations, and my kids constantly being put last to their sister. I had no choice. I did what I had to, but it was still so hard on everyone. She looked so cute though. She had 2 little ponytails in.

Amber turns 3!

She pulled out her super cute ponytails! I swear she looked really cute before that! LOL!

 AND of course my camera batteries died before all the good stuff. The funniest thing about this birthday was her Aunt Sue gave her a card with $5 in it! You should have seen her light up. I swear she still has that $5 in one of her pocketbooks. She would carry it around and  put it under her pillow every-night! She just loved that $5! LOL!

Now today

She is such a beautiful, intelligent, strong willed, knows what she wants, and takes no crap kind of girl. She is sweet and very feminine, but likes to get dirty too! One minute she is doing arts and crafts, the next she is watching football with daddy.

She bat’s her eyelashes and smiles, and its all over!!

She is sensitive and smart. She is just so grown up for now 4.

I am so proud of her and everything she does. I am certain she has a bright future.

She is just growing so fast. Anyone know how I can freeze her, in this moment? That would be great!

Off to enjoy Amber’s day of doing whatever she wants!!

I just got an email special from Kim @ My Favorite Things Stamps!
Here it is! 

Vacation News for www.mftstamps.com

We will be out of town on August 12th through August 18th, so orders will not be processed during this time.  All current orders have been packed and will shipped when we return.

*How about a $3.00 shipping discount on all orders, US and International!  Enter the coupon code VACATION when checking out to receive this discount.  You MUST enter the coupon code to receive the discount!

How’s that for some summer time fun??

Thanks,
Kim

Did you miss the MFT party this past week?

Well if you did I figured I would share a card that  I linked in the MFT forums during the release party.

Now I do have some Halloween samples with the new MFT sets, but those are TOP SECRET until my classes at The Paper Tree next weekend. I am doing 3 classes that day, and I hope you can join me! Check out the class schedule. I am also gathering my things for my Class Kits!!! Those seem to be pretty hot-so thank you for your interest in them

ABOUT THE KITS : They are a mail order kit. You can add items on as you wish. Each kit lists items it comes with and has detailed directions for you to follow. Fun stuff. The feedback from the first kits are awesome, so I am happy to begin round 2. I hear most people want ALL 3 classes in a kit. We will have to see.

I will keep you posted OK!

 Take a hike

This is from the NEW! Nature calls  set, and also uses the Whats your sign? set.

Now it is important to note just how much I girlied this up. Love the colors, and yes the layout is pretty cute too. How can you not LOVE that racoon? He is my favorite image in the set.

Miss Lauren here is NOT a nature person, at all. You would not catch me ever going camping of hiking or anything like that-ever! Jason talks about going with the kids, and how much fun it would be………and blah, blah, blah, and that is great. He can have a fun kids weekend in the forrest,  while I stay home. If there were an RV then I MIGHT think about it.

I’m not a big fan of wilderness. Unless its at a zoo or something like that. CONTAINED wildlife! I need my coffee pot, make-up, running water, a toilet -not a hole in the ground, and of course my nice hot shower. Oh and my computer is a big bonus.

That all being said when I got this set I will admit it had me totally stumped. But once I got over the WILDERNESS thing I was able to get some stuff done with it. So I ditched my hang-up of nature colors and gave it my own spin. I love how my samples actually turned out.

Next up a Pink Moose

 I moose you

I told you Im not a wilderness person, but I can certainly create with a PINK moose! LOL! I think she turned out mighty purty! LOL! Love the antlers

I love the “patchwork” of this patterned paper by Inque Boutique. Gave it a bit of rustic-girly style. This paper is the Isn’t it Romantic collection. I love my Sweet blush cardstock SO much.

 The sign set is just totally adorable, and can be mixed with so many others. Pretty fun idea.

Now don’t slam me here because Im not a nature lover OK.

Hope you are enjoyed the weekend. I know I have TONS to do. I live for a long to do list I think.

Till tomorrow-

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed reading all your birthday memories and comments! Each one was fabuloius, and even made me remember some other great times I had!

I read every comment always, and so appreciate each of you who stop by and visit

 Now the winner from the Its my party stamp set- post by www.random.org

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

183

Timestamp: 2008-08-07 16:07:19 UTC

———————————————————-

Eileen McClean August 6th, 2008 at 9:10 am  # 183

Congrats Eileen!!

Ill be in touch for your address.

Lauren

Did you notice?

How could you not right?

I got a new blog make-over!! I’m talking a total over-haul. I love it and am just over the moon excited!

Sara Williams  from Tweaks and Designs did the make over for me, and tailored it to my exact wants/needs!! I cannot thank her enough for her talent and hard work. She was an absolute JOY to work with (no she didn’t pay me to say any of this! I paid her! LOL!) and made sure I was 100% happy with every detail.

She got my vision. I contacted her and said Listen I want a clock and butterflies, and I have to have the colors celery, pink and purple in there with some flowers. . Now I have a site that I think reflects me and my style/personality better. I just want to sit and stare at it.

NOTICE-in my banner-see the little clock? “MY TIME”! I love it. My ime is a huge thing for me, and important for my sanity. I was excited it was incorporated into my look.

This has all my favorite colors, and has a clean and whimsical style that I just love to pieces.

Thanks for letting me gush. This was a long time coming, and Ms. Williams is quite popular so she was in demand!! Well worth the wait.

Through this process I feel like I also made another cyber friend. She is like my cyber twin only her obsession is this whole graphics world (no idea what its called).

I wish I had her make me some more watermarks! LOL!! She designed all our MFT ones.

Well thanks for letting me gush! Im just so happy.

Also my super cyber friend Dawn made my day by sending me PHOTOS and instructions on how to make better sketches using my Photoshop!! Must have taken her forever to do that for me and I just appreciate that so much. She knows how challenged I am and took the time to help me. The directions were so easy, it took just a few minutes, my first time!!  They are like a total professional sketch!! Thank you Dawn! I love ya!!

OK finishing up my samples for the MFT party-so better run.

Sara Im sending you HUGE cyber smooches, and you better stay in touch!

I think this is my 5th post for today! WOW! So SCROLL down! You don’t want to miss anything right?

Storage Units, Ink & More  is sponsoring a Give-away!! ALL WEEK!!

Don’t mis the candy from these people on the following days (mine here is tomorrow!!)

Monday…Dawn http://www.treasureoilerdesignz.blogspot.com/

Tuesday…Lauren http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

Tuesday… Bethany  www.bethanypaull.blogspot.com

Wednesday…Kimberly www.itssoprettyitssocute.blogspot.com

Wednesday…Leigh http://sunflowerstudio.typepad.com/sunflower_studio/

Thursday…Debbie http://debbiedee.blogspot.com/

Thursday…Kathie www.justaninkling.blogspot.com

Friday…Susan www.susiestampalot.blogspot.com

Best of luck!

stamping…..stamping………..just keep stamping (till your fingers fall off). This has been sung to the tune of Finding Nemo.

I have done more stamping in the last few days than I ever have. INSANE! I whipped out more projects than I ever thought possible. My husband is in shock at my projects SO You know they must be good! LOL!!! He just said “I cannot believe you did it.” then I said “ ME EITHER! ” Well sort of. Once I set my mind to it, there is no stopping me. OK now I need to stop blabbering.

So I got a delivery today! So I made this little card

 Mom’s Best

I HARDLY got to play with this set Recipes, but am so in love with the images. Very different than most of what I own, and I love that. I am really liking getting out of the “comfort” zone.

 The girl was made to look like a vintage postcard image (kind of).I stamped the canisters in sweet blush (my all time favorite pink-ever!! I just got the huge pack of it from Papertrey Ink LOVE IT! Oh and the chocolate-yum!)

This is sort of a shabby/clean card! LOL! I dirtied it up a little bit. Not too over the top. LOVE that Basic Grey paper.

This reminds me of my mom. She is always cooking and baking. A trait my husband wishes I inherited (hehehe). I HATE to cook. Don’t get me wrong I CAN cook, I just despise it. I’d rather do take out in a heart beat.

If you don’t know I ADORE 1950’s images. Not sure why, I just do. I’m drawn to the whole era. Not the women stay home, and have to be like Donna Reed (hair done, dress on, cooking and cleaning all day) Just the colors and style of things. I love the women images. The whole retro sort of thing.

When we were in Maine we went to an Antique shop and I found the prettiest vintage tissue paper! OMG! It was a woman and man on it, and a birthday greeting. Similar style to this stamp. The woman at the store almost fell over when I told her I planned on actually using it! So I hope to do that sometime soon

Anyway just a fun card to share today. I need to go play with my new goodies, before taking the kids to the dentist and swim lessons tonight.

Thanks for checking in here.

PS-I’d LOVE to hear some images that you are drawn to Like a style or era. OR like me any flowers, butterflies & penguins!

Till tomorrow

Well I had NO idea what was going on yesterday. Got extremely dark with whipping winds and pouring rain. Weird noises. My pets going a bit wonky (guess they knew??) Living in New Hampshire/Massachusetts all my life a Tornado is something I (thankfully) never had to deal with, let alone worry about, except for the unfortunate people you see on the news.

Well wouldn’t you know it yesterday one whipped through the very next town over, and passed its way through to the other town over. Basically where I live is SMACK in the middle. We were totally missed. Some not so fortunate. I can’t get in touch with one of my friends who lives in where the damage was-but it is summer and she travels a lot to her mom’s in NY. Hopefully they are OK.

So here I am in my basement, with the kids (in my stamp room of course!Thank goodness that is in the basement huh?) they have their little table, coloring books, markers and what not, and Daisy gated in there (with the cats too! LOL! Who came down cause I think they were freaked out too). My space is small. It was crampped and the kids were scared. It was scary out. I don’t blame them one bit. I WAS SCARED! The news did, but didn’t help. Anyway-that is where we spent the afternoon till 6pm. I was nervous about Jay coming home since it was headed his way to where he works. He works in Portsmouth and that and the Maine area were under watch till 7pm. He thought I was being a little dramatic till he saw all the roads closed, trees broken off, and the news footage of just down the road when he got home.

Not till THEN did he realize why I was begging him to come home.  Anyway, we are thankful that we are safe now.

Is it just me, or is this world just going crazy? Talk about the weather rebelling the last few years. I mean really!! WHAT is going on. This is just awful. So many people losing their lives to treacherous weather. Weather like we have never had. Having this tornado hit down the street made me realize I’m really NOT safe. The worst part was I had no idea WHAT to do in that situation! No alarm sounded. NOTHING-till it was over. Would there have been a warning? Or would my roof getting blown off have been my warning? Just so scary and sad.

Is this really the effect of Global Warming? Awful.

My point-I had no Internet and it is still on & off! TRUST ME, as much as I LOVE my Internet I am NOT complaining. I missed it but I was thankful to be in one piece. Just know that I am around but my service keeps getting interrupted.

Anyway-here is my sample for today.

 Purple peppermint

Stamp is by Annie LaPoint from MFT and is called Peppermint

OK Im going to be honest and say I have NO IDEA what color this “peppermint” should have been. Nor did I feel like GOOGLING it. I wanted it this color so I took creative liberty and did it. I like not using the expected colors. If it is suppose to be this color then YEAH! LOL!

I used the faux fabric technique I shared HERE

I used Plum Pudding cardstock and ribbon. The paper is from the Guidelines collection.

Lastly Feel Better

 Feel Better

I LOVE this set. Sorry it took so long to share this. You would not believe how much stuff I make. Seriously! Much of it before a release, and I have to wait till after X date to share it. In the meantime I am still stamping, so sometimes I forget to share all of my other creations! LOL! This is yet another one. Coming up on another release always reminds me that OOPS!! I have more to share!

Anyway-I actually had the concept for this set Bunny Slippers a while ago. I asked Kim about it and here it is. I realized MFT had real no get well sets, in their signature style, when I had to send a friend a card, and wanted an MFT set. Now I am one happy girl!!!

Bunny slippers and a  pink fuzzy bath robe (this one is covered with CUPCAKE velvet flock )were so MY MOM!!! When she wore those bunny slippers till they were ragged, and then I’d hunt to get her another pair. Nothin was better than seeing my mom in her bathrobe, coffee in hand and those bunny ears hopping up & down as she would start the day. It was like a movie really. EVERY time I see bunny slippers I think of my mom. Makes me wonder what my kids will be reminded of for me when they grow up? Probably coffee-anything! LOL!

So the cardstock is sweet blush. I have to say It is my absolute FAVORITE color right now!! I am in LOVE! The flowers are by Maya Road (also velvet) and the little flower centers are the Bella Dots. LOVE THOSE!! I cannot for the LIFE of me remember the paper name :C SORRY!!

Well that is all for today everyone. Blog land has been QUIET!!

I hope you are checking out the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges!!

Tomorrow I’ll be here with my Sat. Sketch!! Hope you can join in. Maybe I should cancel it?? I’m sure everyone is busy with summer. I’ll think about it.

Later and stay safe.

Even God rested on Sunday!

I had pre-posted all my posts (since Wednesday)before going on our mini vacation.

THAT was exhausting. I needed a vacation from blogging and typing. So I am not posting today.

GASP! I know! I know! I just need a BREAK! My hand hurts from typing and my brain is now SLUDGE

So no blabbering today…………….unless I get home and NEED my fix!

Although Im sure the kids will want to spend time with us and I will ahve a nice amount of laundry to do.

Anyway-thank you so much for checking in here.

I want to thank all of you who visit and comment. I get some of the best comments! You all take the time to stop and say some of the most wonderful things a person could ever want to hear. I so enjoy reading every comment and the thought so many put into it is just amazing. You all warm my heart, and brighten my day like you would NOT believe.

There are no words to share my appreciation.

Cyber hugs to all of you