Random Weekend Photos

It was a great family weekend.  Out of town guest, kids all home, and a family wedding.  Congrats to Jamie and Dave.

It was a beautiful wedding and a fun family time.   Jamie and her sister-in-law put together a little photo album with pictures of Jamie and Dave throughout their childhood.  They did a great job and there were so many similar photos but.....

this was the cutest!  They had matching pajamas!   Love it!   And we had to have some family craziness too.

The cousins doing their trademark "Eee-aww!"  with their donkey ears.  The photographer took one of the whole family (well, almost the whole family) doing that - some were not able to make it to the wedding and some choose not to participate in the silliness.     We just enjoy life!

My part of the family - daughters Katie and Bekah, son-in-law Jake and hubby Tom.

We clean up pretty good.

Other weekend fun included meeting Katie and Jake's new puppy, Trip.  He is a red heeler mix and quite the puppy.  Buddy did not care too much for him but the rest of us loved him. Glad he is their puppy though - they can have the whining during the night and the 'oops' on the floor.

And remember this photo of the fuchsia from last week - all the buds waiting to bloom.

Well......

This is how it looks this week.  Beautiful!

Today, back to normal.  Tom and Bekah go back to work. (I go back to work tomorrow.)  My sister is at the airport waiting to board her flight home and I have tons to do to get ready for my Stampin Up Open House this weekend.  Hope to see some of you there.  Friday June 1 - 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. - no purchase necessary - just some enjoy the fun.  RSVP that you are coming and get a second chance at the attendance prizes.

Distressed Hearts

I liked the distressed paper flowers I made yesterday so much I tried some distressed hearts tonight.

Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red and Daffodil Delight make a nice combination.  I love the seam binding and was so glad to see they have it in Daffodil Delight with the new catalog.  It was available in April with the Summer Smooches.

Very Vanilla, Rose Red and Lucky Limeade.  I took one of the hat pins that were available in the Mini Occasions catalog and adhered the pearl jewels to the tip. I was afraid the pointed tip might pierce the recipient so I hid it behind the circles.   This card is a little too frilly for me but I like the colors and overall affect.

Distressing will be one of the techniques for Technique Thursday this summer. 

Paper Roses

I don't know if the flowers on the cards I made today are roses but they could be.  This is a new technique I was testing while making some cards to show off the new IN colors at my Open House on June 1.  

The flowers are pretty easy and can be so versatile.  The new IN colors are combined with Rich Razzleberry, Calypso Coral, and Pumpkin Pie.

 Pumpkin pie card stock and flower brad are paired with the IN colors Summer Starfruit and Gumball Green.  I tried to distress the card stock and then the ribbon looked too new and shiny so sponged some ink on it too. 

This card uses all the new IN Colors.   The friend stamp is from the Perfect Punches stamp set.

And here I combined Calypso Coral and Rich Razzleberry with Gumball Green and Summer Starfruit.  The Summer Afternoon hostess stamp set is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.

While I was playing I got a visit from one of my favorite people :-)   She has no idea how excited I am to get that envelope in her hand.

 Inside the envelope - 15 spools of 1/4 grograin ribbon.  These are being retired so I stocked up and offered to share with my customers.  It will be great having all these colors for my cards, scrapbooking and whatever else comes my way.  I so enjoyed measuring, cutting and bagging all that ribbon :-)

Speaking of flowers,  I am also watching this bud on the fuchsia hanging on the front porch.    In another day or two it will look like this....

The plant is loaded with buds.  About 5 or 6 are open.  Hoping a bunch of them are all open at the same time - it will be stunning if they are.

Graduation card tutorial and more kites

I learned the technique for this graudation card here.   These were fun to make and one of my club members helped me enhance it.  Thanks Brenda!

The slit is great for inserting a some money or a gift card.  To see how I made my cards and how to do the slit enhancement, check out my tutorial.


The Send Me Soaring stamp set goes back to my sister this weekend, so thought I better make the most of my time with it.   These cards are cased from other demos.

This was CASED (Copied) from Cassie.   I used the new IN Colors, Gumball Green, Midnight Muse, and Summer Starfruit.  The 'argyle' stripe uses two of the kite stamps. I don't know if it is the new ink formula, the better coverage with the foam pads or just me - but I kept smearing the Midnight Muse.  The ink seems to stay 'wet' longer than the old formula.  Anyone else noticed that?

And this was my design using the argyle strip. Same colors as above.  The green background is card stock that was crimped in one direction then turned and crimped again perpendicularly.  

This is cased from Catherine.  She used a brighter colored DSP and multiple colors for the kite tails. I was a little subdued today. I like the kite outline stamped on the DSP. This is one of the new designs in the Flower District collection.

The star design is from a card by Deb.   I stamped 5 kites and cut them out, then put them together to form the star.   The colors are Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit and Baja Breeze.

Julie's card inspired me to make this one.   The colors are Tempting Turquoise, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit, and Island Indigo.  The DSP is from the Summer Smooches collection.

This card is CASED from one by Michelle.  The colors are Tempting Turquoise, Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral and Rich Razzleberry.   The chevron patterned paper is part of the Summer Smooches DSP collection.

This card is a combination of two cards by Mindy.   The colors are Island Indigo, Gumball Green, Calypso Coral, and Summer Starfruit.  I like them together so you will probably see more of this color combo.

I think I tried everything I wanted to using the Send Me Soaring stamp set.  Unfortunately it is no longer available from Stampin Up.  Thanks Jane for letting me borrow it :-)

This one's for Rhonda

My friend Rhonda always posts such beautiful photos of her flower gardens and while my gardens are no where as spectacular and hers and Russell's (nor are my photos as professional as hers) I wanted to share some of our beauties.

This is our little sitting area on the east side of the house.  The retaining wall provides shade most of the day for the hostas and the one behind the bench is really taking off.  The coral bells in the foreground were a 'share' from a co-worker about 15 years ago.  I have taken them through 2 moves and still have one that has survived.  
At the home we lived in when I got them I had a row of these along the north flower bed.  When they were blooming it looked like a pink cloud hovering about the flower bed.  It was so sad to drive by recently and see that they had not only torn out the coral bells but the whole flower bed!  :-(

Here is a closer look at the hostas.  Sorry Rhonda - have no idea what their names are.  There is also a fern hidden behind it - had to have a couple ferns in the garden :-)

This is another coral bell - it has cream colored flowers.   I had a couple other varieties but they did not make it.   This one has not bloomed yet this year.  My google search found that they bloom from June to August.   Guess the pink one doesn't realize it is still May.

Another hosta - I like the variety of colors we have.  They are all in a row along the retaining wall.

And another hosta.  This one gets more sun so surprised it is doing so well.   

The weeping willow was one of the first things we planted - probably in the spring of 2007.  It was just a small spindly tree at that time. It has certainly done well.  Kids like to run through it's branches or sit under it.

We have a couple roses blooming.  They are pretty care free.  I just trim them occasionally and cut off the dead blooms.  When I remember I give them some food.   (It was hard to tell in the sun if my photo was clear - I may have to try again when the sun has moved behind the trees.

 We also have some salmon colored roses.   The yellow and pink did not have any blooms this morning.  Maybe soon.

Our newest addition is a hanging fuschia on the front porch.   I got this huge plant from the produce co-op :-)   It is full of buds and now has two huge blooms. 

 See all the buds. It is fun watching them - seems like they just suddenly pop open and .....

a lovely purple flower is revealed.    Can't wait to see it when it is in full bloom.

So Rhonda- there is a tour of our gardens (and that is almost all of them).  Nothing compared to yours but pretty good since neither Tom nor I put much time into them.

Frittata Friday

I think that sounds like a good idea - some sort of frittata on Friday evenings.  They are easy to make and you can use up leftovers or odds and ends of veggies that need to be eaten.  Tonight it was a zucchini, tomato and onion frittata.

I had thawed some freezer meal steaks to grill on the George Foreman (don't do the outside grill any more) and cooked up some apples with cinnamon and sugar to go with the meal.

I used this recipe  with just a few minor changes.  You can see my version here.  DH doesn't really care for zucchini but he said this was good.  The tomato, zucchini, onions, eggs and apples were all from the produce Co-Op  If you live in the St Louis area, you really should check it out. 

Well, off to look for more zucchini recipes.  I have a few more to eat up.  :-) .

30 years - and random musings

This year marks my 30th year of employment at Memorial Hospital. The anniversary date is actually 1/4 but the hospital honors employees for the 5 year increments during National Hospital Week which was last week. Tom got his 20 year pin and I got my 30 year pin - plus a gift -

a watch with the Memorial logo on the face. It is a nice watch and even though I have not worn a watch in years (don't like the tan line and I had to put on my readers to tell the time ) I will probably wear this one for a while at least. Probably long enough to get a tan line :-)
I was excited about the wrapping also ....

It was wrapped and tied with at least a yard of bright orange satin ribbon - which of course, I saved and put in my craft room. I doubt the person who prepared the packages realized what a treasure they were giving me.

And speaking of ribbon- I am doing a ribbon share for the 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon that is all retiring June 1. I am using the last of my Real Red for the club cards this weekend and need to get some more before it is gone so am going to share all the colors with my customers. You just let me know what colors you want and we will split the rolls accordingly. Cost is $0.35 per yard.
Colors available at this time:

Bashful Blue

Basic Black

Certainly Celery

Daffodil Delight

Early Espresso

Garden Green

Marina Mist

Night Of Navy

Old Olive

Pretty in Pink

Pumpkin Pie

Real Red

Rich Razzleberry

Rose Red

Tempting Turquoise

Very Vanilla

Whisper White

This is the 1/4 inch grosgrain. There will be a similar ribbon in the new catalog but it has a white stitching down the center.

The card is one I found on another demo's website from last year. It is a simple fold but looks impressive. The Celebrate stamp is from a retired set but there are many current stamp sets that could be used to stamp Congratulations or Celebrate on the card.

The inside is lined and I did the ovals because when I stamped the 'enjoy' stamp I smeared it a little. The red oval around the sentiment looks better than just the sentiment stamped on the white card stock. Wish I had found this card before my daughter's college graduation last weekend.

Here is our happy family with the summa cum laude graduate. So proud of her for all her hard work.

And here she is with her hubby. They are hard working adults now - they have supported themselves the past 2 years while full time students.

And totally random here - this is a potato in the bag I got tonight. What an odd shape. We thought it looked like ALF, the alien. Any other ideas? 

New Technique - Open House

I have found the new technique that I will teach at my open house on June 1.  It is called waxed paper resist and is so easy, no special tools and versatile.  (sorry I won't tell you how until June 1).
This is the card we will make at the open house.  The scalloped circle is the piece that was done with the technique.

 The stamp set is Language of Friendship and I got mine free during Sale-a-bration.  The stamp coordinates with the Bird and Boho Blossom punches.

 Here is a close look at the sentiment and you can see more detail of the scallop circle in the lower right hand corner. 

 I tried to get a  closeup of the scallop circle but it is not that good.  Hard to take photos of glossy paper :-)

 These are samples of the waxed paper technique using the new IN colors,  From Left to Right:
Gumball Green
Midnight Muse
Summer Starfruit
Raspberry Ripple
Primrose Petals

 Each time you do the waxed paper technique, your result is unique.  The design on this sheet is different than .....

the design on this sheet.  It will be so much fun to see all the different 'patterns' on June 1 - won't you join us?   Refreshments, a take-home card that you made, and attendance prizes - and it's free :-) Anyone who RSVP's will get a double chance at the attendance prizes.
You can find all the details about my open house on my Calendar Blog.