Little Treats

Thought I'd quickly post a picture of the cute little Christmas treat boxes I made yesterday. Two of them are made using, our little 2" clear boxes, the larger one our new 3" white boxes with clear sleeves. The penguin is made using part of our curvy treat box. This little guy was Rae's design. Isn't he cute?

I also used the little 2" clear boxes to make this box of "Bugs and Kisses"

I'll take the kisses....you can keep the bugs. LOL

Three Alarm Cuteness

Well, yesterday held another example of Megan's fabulous Halloween costumes. As I showed in an earlier post, the two boys were firefighters. They were special enough, but in addition Megan became a dalmatian and Mike a fire hydrant. I cracked up when he came walking out in his costume. He's such a good sport. But even that was not enough for my Megan. To top it all off, Landon's wagon became a firetruck. She works so hard to make things wonderful for those boys!

For me, the best part of the evening was before the trick or treating. There is a fire station near their house and we stopped by there to take pictures of the boys by the sign. Turned out they had some candy to hand out, so the boys went up. When the fire fighters saw them they insisted we needed pictures. They opened the doors, took pictures of the boys on the truck, and were sure to give them stickers before we left. Landon was over the moon and I was so impressed by them being so kind. 

Spell Check

Well, obviously I'm still doing poorly at keeping up with my postings, but a dopey thing happened to me just now and I thought I'd pop a quick note here about it.

The doggone spell check on my phone is constantly correcting me to say something I didn't intend to say.

This morning I sent an email to a customer about a replacement of her SU trimmer and instead of SU trimmer, I suggested a SUPERANTISPYWARE trimmer. Good grief!

Anyway, I sent her another email with a correction and told her that I'm sure a Deluxe SUPERANTISPYWARE Cutter would be much more costly.

I really need to start proof reading everything I send.
            HKGRRHGG....LOL!!!

Build-A-Tag

Today I attended Rae's Build-A-Tag event. For the first part of the day I got a few things of my own done and then made all of these great Christmas tags.

If I Only Had a Brain

My darling, do everything right, perfectionist of a daughter, Megan gets an extra gold mommy star today.
Today was the Fall Festival at Landon's preschool, and bless her heart she put her nose to the grind stone and made it happen.
Here is my adorable grandson as a scarecrow. Incredible!

She got this all together, even making the hat herself, and stopping at Walmart on the way to school to get the stuff to color his face with. (Which was done in the Walmart parking lot) When Landon fussed about standing still for this whole costume thing she told him all the other kids are going to be dressed up, don't you want to be dressed up like your friends?  She arrives at school, takes Landon in, and no one else, not even one child dressed up as a scarecrow at all. The closest thing was a child sporting a bandana. Unbelievable! Happily, Landon didn't seem to mind a bit.

She then brought Levi to me for babysitting and went back to school as a volunteer for the day. Where she says she spent a lot of time following Landon around picking up pieces of straw.
My sweet girl. I'm so glad she got a good laugh out of it.

PS...I got one too :)

I'm in Stitches

Remember the super cute, stitched “look” we used to draw on our cards?  Well, look out! Starting November 1, 2016, Stampin’ Up! is giving us a peek into next year’s annual catalog.

Introducing Stitched Shapes Framelits!

How about a special to celebrate this new, soon to be favorite, tool?  Stampin’ Up! has put a few stamp sets on special.  They work perfectly with these Framelits and at 25% off, what’s not to love?

This “Stitched from the Heart” special runs from November 1 through November 30, 2016.  I predict these new Framelits will go on backorder quickly so don’t wait too long to order.

Firemen Are Such Hunks!

Hi All

I have a few minutes to kill before I head out to bible study so I thought I'd add a quick post about my adorable grandsons.

They are going to be Firefighters for Halloween and we took them to the Fall Festival at Grace Church in costume the other day. They had a firetruck there for the kids to check out, so we got some cute pictures.

Don't you just love the red suspenders?

After working hard those firefighters have to kick back and relax a bit. 

Megan and I turned around and Landon was sitting in the middle of this bush like it was a lounge chair. 

Then before we could get a picture taken, it became a recliner.  

Sorry Grace. It looked like a pretty sturdy bush, so I think it will survive. 

Itsy Bitsy Spider

No....unfortunately this is not a blog post about Halloween, or even a children's nursery rhyme. 

Yesterday afternoon I put on a shirt to run up to the church, stuck my arm in the sleeve, and got a very painful bite from a spider. Darn! Right?

By evening it was getting worse and by bedtime my arm looked like it had a balloon inflated inside. I thought, NO! Enough! I am not going to the ER for a spider bite. I got little sleep cause I was up and down all night keeping ice on my arm, which was the only thing that gave me any relief and kept me from clawing the skin right off of my arm.
This morning I considered not going to bible study, but went anyway. (So glad I did! It was awesome!)  By the time it was over I was desperate for what to do, so I drove straight to Walgreens to ask a pharmacist for a recommendation. She took one look at me and said..."Go to urgent care"  Ugh! (By the way, my eyes have now joined in the fun with an allergic reaction)
      Shoot me now!

So, instead of going to Worship Team practice and tonight's bible study,

Here I am on the couch, wishing I could go to sleep till this over, and dosing myself with benadryl, steroids, and antibiotic. 

Like I said....Shoot me now.

Do you think I could add Nyquil to the mix?

If you discover my body in a few days with the skin clawed off of my right arm, and my eyeballs gone, it is not a serial killer. 

Just a crazy old woman who could not stand the horrible itching any longer. :(

Spared

Here I am again, tired and with nothing interesting to write about...at least not that I want to take the time to write about tonight, so....

Consider yourself spared another post full of answers to boring, silly questions.

You're welcome.

Boring Questions

Today I am asked...
"What does Fall feel like where you live?"
Wet, that's how it feels, Wet. Could we please have a few days of beautiful, sunny, Fall weather before winter is upon us?

Next question...
What are you watching?
Rosewood. Just kind of paying attention to it in the background while I write this. When I'm finished, I'm going to watch something I want to really pay attention to.

And finally...
What's on your Fall bucket list?
To go to Apple Hill with Megan, Mike and the boys and buy some yummy Apple donuts.......and eat them.

I know this is an impossibly boring post and that none of you care in the least about the answers, but I just wanted to write SOMETHING before the day was over.

Weighty Questions

I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing regularly, but I sit here tonight with no idea what to write about.
So.....
I thought I'd just answer a few of the questions asked of me on one of the idea lists that I check and also share a picture of a couple of the items that the ladies got to make at the Card Buffet.
Here goes.....
1/what was the last thing you read?
My bible...no big surprise there. I was actually reading from an Exodus commentary this morning in preparation. We are going to begin a study of Exodus at Wednesday night bible study. I'm looking forward to it.

2/How can you be helpful today?
I think I actually was helpful today. I am in charge of the Operation Christmas Child program for our church. It's a program where you fill boxes with things that become Christmas presents for children in countries overseas.  I made the announcement in church tonight and watched the boxes begin to disappear after church, so I think we'll have a bunch to send off.
Anyone interested in helping?

3/What do you want to give up?
Soda. I'm trying so hard!
I used to drink iced tea, a lot of iced tea. Not so bad except for I used a lot of Splenda sweetener in it. I was told that it can be cancer causing, so after my last year, I thought I'd better stop it. That's where the soda came in.
Why oh why can't I love drinking water?

Here are two of the things the girls made at the Buffet.
What do you think?

Lastly I will answer this question and call it a night.

What do you think about this election?

I don't read all the stuff online or pay attention to the posts on social media for either candidate. I did happen to notice this one the other day though, and it pretty much sums up how I feel, so I'll share it here.

Good Night

Card Buffet Report

Well, I'm going to try and get back in the daily writing groove..
 I don't have time to do anything lengthy tonight, so I thought I'd post some pictures from the Card Buffett.

Here was the room..set up and ready.
I wish I had thought to take a close up pic of a table. Each one had an example card and a box which had all the necessary supplies to make it. Also there for each table was a mini trash can and a pack of baby wipes. I set up two work spots at each table where a bottle of water, a thank you bag, and a little thank you treat for coming.
Just like a buffett, the ladies moved around the room and made each card.

In the adjoining room we had plenty of yummy treats to enjoy.

Soon the rooms were full of ladies spending an afternoon visiting, relaxing and playing with paper. 

I'm ruling it a success. 

I got some lovely comments and a few votes that it needs to be a quarterly event. 

I'm considering it. We'll just have to see. 

She Lives!

We'll doggone it!
I was doing so well keeping up with my postings. Then My First big event happened  (It was a success by the way, and I will share more later), life got hectic and I got sick. Apparently I somehow contracted the nurovirus. It was absolutely awful, but I'm on the mend now.
I have several things I want to post about, but for now I will just post this wonderful story that Stampin Up recently shared with us.  I found it quite heartwarming. Maybe you will too.

Paper Pumpkin in Unexpected Places Several years ago, demonstrator Cheryl Hamilton brought some stamping supplies over to her mother-in-law’s house so the family could have some fun crafting. Her mother-in-law wasn’t interested and the supplies sat on the table for a few days until her nephew came to visit. Cheryl asked Abe, who has Down syndrome, if he’d like to make a card from her Paper Pumpkin kit. He dove right in and he didn’t stop until the entire kit was complete! He’s been hooked on Paper Pumpkin ever since. His mom, Vicki, shares that, “Abe loves art and has always liked art classes. Because he is challenged in the area of fine motor skills, he would often get discouraged with his results. But when he started getting Paper Pumpkin, he was so proud of the great cards and crafts he could turn out! Paper Pumpkin is so foolproof and the results are guaranteed to be beautiful. So, he feels so successful and can't wait to get the next box!” Cheryl says an unexpected bonus is she’s grown closer to her nephew because of Paper Pumpkin even though she lives in Hawaii and he in New Mexico. They send pictures and comments to each other on Facebook every month after the new kit comes out. She’s had some of her fellow demonstrators send him cards for his birthday, as well. What did he have to say about that? Pretty much what we all think: “It does make my heart feel so happy to get cards in the mail.”

Pretty cool, right?

Those of us who are part of Paper Pumpkin have so much fun with it, but with the great instructions and the supplies all included it makes a great box full of monthly fun for everyone, from beginners to experienced paper crafters. 

One of the things I love about this company is their efforts to support charities and it is a bonus to know that the little Paper Pumpkin boxes are reaching out to people all on their own. 

1st Annual Card Buffet

 To pay for the Card Buffet, just click on the link at the top of the page.

Where is he anyway?

Here I am at another birthday party.
This time for Levi. We celebrated him turning two. Megan put on a fabulous party, as usual, this one with a Mickey Mouse theme. She goes all out and always does such a great job.  The decorations are fabulous and even the food always matches the theme. For this party for instance, we had things like Hot Diggity Dogs, "Club" Sandwiches, Goofy's Grapes, etc. She made cupcakes that had Oreo cookie ears, Oreo cookies dipped halfway in red and with added white buttons, and my personal favorite, Rice Krispy treats cut out with a Mickey cookie cutter. I could go on and on and will be posting a few pictures later. I told her today that I hope she knows that she is giving those boys an awesome childhood. They are truly blessed to have her as a mom.

Anyway, once again I thought I'd take a moment while I'm here to write my post for the day.

My prompt asks me what I need, and I will tell you.....I need my new rich boyfriend to hurry up and find me.
Some of you may have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, whenever I really want something (something that is pretty much a pipe dream for me) I have a habit of telling everyone that my new rich boyfriend is going to get it for me. I have been saying it for years now, and he still hasn't shown his face. :(  I'm tellin you, his list is very long and it just keeps on growing, so he really needs to get a move on! If any of you run into him out there, please send him my way. Im getting rather impatient!

I was at a scrapbooking weekend with my friend Tamra a while back and she made this little guy for me.

Since I figure that realistically, he's probably going to be the only one I get, I'd better hang on to him. He now sits on my desk and keeps me company while I work, but I can't say he's done too well at fulfilling my wish list. I really do need him to start emptying those pockets!

Hmmmm

Well, I know this will probably make you all really, really jealous, but I have the pleasure of being at my grand daughter's 10th birthday party. There are 40, yes I said 40, kids of that age here for the event, most of whom are screaming girls. Shoot me, shoot me now! Why don't I exit the mayhem you might ask? I have to give Mike and Landon a ride home. I'm seriously thinking about going home and having them call me when they're ready. If that's not pretty soon, I think I may.

Anyway, I thought I'd take this down time (Down time?) to write a post.

So what prompt do I come up with?
I'm told to describe my best qualities.

Are you kidding me? If you know me at all you might know that this is not an easy task for me. Now my failings or worst qualities...I could write a small novel. Well, at least a short story.
I'm thinking....Hmmmm...
Insert the Jeopardy sound here. You know. The one they play while they're writing their final answers. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just insert some snoring.

1/I guess I'm mildly creative.
2/I can often figure out how to recreate something by looking at the picture.
3/I think I'm a pretty good grandma.
4/I have a decent decorating sense. I worked as an assistant to a very talented interior designer once, and she thought I was pretty good. She said I had a great sense of balance.
5/Do I really have to do anymore?
   This is really hard!
Let's say this is enough.
   Maybe you should ask someone else.

I'll tell you something that does not go on this list.
Patience with vast amounts of running, screaming, yelling girls.

Is it time to go home yet?  Pleeeease

And yes...it is a slumber party.

You couldn't pay me to stay here tonight. 

Well, it would have to be a lot...a whole lot. 

Let's try a million. 

A million dollars. 

The Most Frightening Thing

Well, I'm finally sitting down to relax after a very long day and I find I'm actually in the mood to write a little something.

The prompt for this post tells me to write about something that frightened me.

I think one of the most frightening things of all is when you can't find your kids.
I've gotten a little jolt a few times when you turn around and they just aren't there briefly, but I was truly in a panic once when Megan was in grade school. I had my business at the time and it was right up the street from her school, so she would just walk there. I was always aware of the time and when she should be there. Once though, I was trying to wait on a customer, and getting more nervous by the minute cause it was past time. Eventually I just told her I had to go, completely abandoned my store and took off down the street to search. No Megan. There was a house on the way of someone she knew, so I knocked to see if she were there. No Megan. I was in a panic. Finally in the end when I got back to the little mall where my store was, I heard someone say there was a little girl crying in the bathroom. I was so relieved. There she was. She'd been there all along, but believe me she was told to never do that again. Come to mommy first. No matter what.

Megan has since had a fright of her own. We were on a camping trip. Landon always sleeps in my tent with me. One morning quite early I woke up and no Landon. I stuck my head out of the tent and hollered over to their tent asking if he were in there. He was not. Begin frantic search. All of us were heading in different directions calling out his name. It wasn't too long thank goodness, before I found him walking along down the middle of one of the campground roads in his footie pajamas. He was gathering sticks and having a marvelous time. He had just unzipped the tent and went on his way. Megan was in tears and hugged him so tightly.

He really wasn't quite sure why she was so upset.

He was able to come along with me on my church's camping trip this year and we for sure had a talk with him about waking grandma up before leaving the tent. I even joked that I was going to attach a leash to him and hold on to the other end. The very first morning I was awakened by "Grandma, I'm awake!" It was so cute.
I love him to pieces!

Okay, time for a little TV and some relaxation. 

Ready for fall

I'm ready for fall. How about all of you?

I'm welcoming it in with this scarecrow card. It was originally designed by Rae Harper-Burnet, but many, many of us have borrowed the idea.

Isn't he too cute? Thanks Rae!

Two-year Cuteness

Okay, I know I haven't been keeping up very well with daily blog posts.
I have a lot in my plate at the moment.

I had to take a quick moment though and share the cutest two year old in the whole wide world. Yes, that's right, the whole wide world. Just ask his grandma.
Levi turned two yesterday and is at the doc for his two year check up this morning.

Adorable....Absolutely Adoreable!!

Dream Job

Today I am challenged to write about my dream job.

Well I've already had mine. I've mentioned it before, but for a little over 2 years I owned my own business. It was in Arlington Gardens Mall. I loved it and it broke my heart to close it. I guess I was really supposed to make a profit and bring some money home as if I had a job with a paycheck. Who knew?

 After closing the store I had my own bookkeeping service called Pencil Pusher Bookkeeping. Later I was the manager of a scrapbook store, and now I'm a Stampin Up demonstrator and so far have two girls under me.
 (Anyone else interested?)
Something tells me I like to be in charge. Good heavens! When I had jury duty, I was even the jury foreman! Sometimes writing things down like this can give you insights into your own personality.

Okay then. Follow me and let's charge on over to my first annual Card Buffet.
The flyer will be posted later today. I've got to charge on over to Staples and get some printed.

I hope you'll join us!

Momisms

Another day that I find myself too tired to write a long post.
I got the flyer designed for the upcoming Card Buffet. Tomorrow I just have to get it out of my computer, onto the page and get them out to all of you. I've already added the event to my Facebook page and you can sign up and pay there if you're really anxious.

So...being too tired to write made me think of something my mom used to say.
"Let's don't and say we did."
So I'm just going to say I've accomplished my posting goal for today, but really I  haven't.

That's just one of the funny things my mom used to say. For instance, when I was told I couldn't do something that my friends were doing I would of course whine and say that
so-and-so got to do it. That was answered with..."If Marlene Haney jumped off a bridge, would you jump in after her?"

What are some of the momisms you got growing up? I know you have to have some.

Rollin in it!

It's been a long day for me and I'm just too tired to do a writing prompt, so here's my silly post for the day.

I found  $5 in my laundry today. 

It makes me feel rich. 

Am I the only one that feels that way when this happens?

Goals

Today I am to write about a step I have taken toward my goals.

A goal of mine is to become a better Stampin Up demonstrator. Especially now that I have 2 downlines. That's right two! How about that?

So....together with them, I am planning my first event. I hope for it to be the first annual "Card Buffet."

It should be a lot of fun and I will be posting all the info here very soon, but for now just save the date of October 1st. 

Fall

Fall's on its way!

I'm so ready for it. 

How about you. 

Card Buffet

I had a meeting tonight with my girls and hammered out a few things in preparation for celebrating World Card Making Day with a Card buffet. I will be making a flyer and will be adding an invite on Facebook, but I can give a few details here.

It is being held on October 1st from 12pm till 4pmat Hubbard Way . The fee will be $20 and at least eight cards will be available to make. There will also be prizes and snacks. This will be a drop in event so you can come anytime, but the goal is to have everyone finished as near four as possible so that we can get cleaned up and head home. I will have better info soon, but you may sign up anytime. You may pay me by cash, check, charge or on PayPal.

Should be fun!!

25 Things

My friend Rae posted this on Facebook and I thought it would do nicely for my challenge today. 

Twenty five things about me

1/Age: 65

2/Biggest Fear: Drowning/Not being able to breathe

3/Current Time: 11:51am

4/Drink you had last : Mr Pibb :(

5/Everyday starts with: Bible Study

6/Favorite song right now:  I can't pick just one.(That was Rae's answer and I can't pick just one either.) 

7/Ghosts, are they real?: No

8/Hometown: Downey, California 

9/Love someone?: yes

10/Jealous of people: I must admit that I sometimes have a problem with envy. 

11/Killed someone: No, of course not, and if I had, why would I say so here?

12/Last time I cried: Watching "Passion of the Christ." Anything about the crucifixion reduses me to tears. 

13/Middle Name: Rae...How funny is that?

14/Number of siblings: 2

15/One wish: The salvation of my family

16/Person you last called: My daughter Megan 

17/Question you are always asked: "Why?" 

My grandson is four. It's the age for that. 

18/Reason to smile: Landon & Levi. 

Never fails. 

19/Song last sang: "Twistin the Night Away"

I have Pandora on playing oldies. 

20/Time you woke up: 7:14....Darn dogs!

21/Worst habit: Snacking 

22/Clothing Color: Black

23/X-rays you had: Teeth 

24/Your favorite food: Mexican & Pizza

25/Zodiac sign: Aries 

That's my answers. More than you ever wanted to know about me. 

Copy and paste and post yours too. 

Three Good Things

My challenge today?

Three Good Things....

1/The salvation, grace, and pure joy given me by Jesus, my Lord and Savior, and my very best thing.

2/The Ortega family which includes two rough and tumble little boys that have stolen  my heart.

And 3/ Branches, my church family. 

I could name so many more, but those were the first things that came to mind. 

I'd love to hear your 3 good things.