Yeah! I got my first award!

As you can see... its been a while since I've posted on here. But I was encouraged today to discover that I have been given a blog award from Judy (check out her blog- shes got some great stuff) !

I will complete the process and pass it on soon- there are many many blogs out there that I love and that inspire me in my crafting, it will just take me a little more time than I have right now (Hubby will be home soon and coonhound is harrassing me for a walk! :o) I will post some more later this week- including some crafty gifts I made!

Sweetest Candy

I am in awe of how giving some many in the crafting/blogging/MB community are- especially with blog candy. Enfys has some amazing blog candy out there right now. Personally I love her blog and get excited everytime she posts something on the Cricut MB- all of her work is awesome! You should check it out too!

Hooray for Dad!

Despite my lack of blogging lately I actually have been pretty busy making cards (and 1 layout)... it's just that the cards keep creeping to the mailbox before I get a chance to take pictures! Before this whole card making thing started for me... I really don't remember buying that many cards. I would think I'd remember too- I never just stopped by the store to grab a card real quick. No, I practically pulled up a chair in the card aisle and camped out the whole day as I read through each and every card to make sure that the on I picked was the perfect card made just for that person for that occassion. Maybe that's what it was... I was avoiding giving people cards before and now I'm just using every possible excuse to make a card. Now every little event has become card worthy. But it is at the expense of my other two hobbies- scrapbooking and beading, which have fallen to the wayside since I am always needing to make a card for someone. Not that I mind too much. I am enjoying making cards and getting better at it too. And maybe it's kind of nice to be thinking about others more often (I don't know... this could be a stretch). But, I am getting a lot faster at it & finding those small morsels of time that I can work on them. So hopefully I will find more and more time for scrapbooking and beading to creep back in- I hope so!

I've always wanted to try a crop or scrapping with a friend. Living in Tally does not make this a likely prospect. But, finally I got a chance to do this with my friend Laura. She loves scrapbooking but had never heard of a Cricut (gasp! I know- I'll give you a minute to recover

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she cut everything with an exacto knife
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sorry, that didn't help, more time?okay
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alright, resuming), so I did the only thing a responsible Cricuter could do and I took mine over to share. It was great! My husband got to borrow their garage to start on his first woodworking project (I can't wait for my Adirondack chair!), our dogs got to play *read: "My dog terrorized her dog"*, and so did Laura and I (I tried not to terrorize Laura)! I used the time to make my Father’s Day cards. Now normally this is a project that would have taken 2 weeks for me to accomplish- but I actually finished them (YAY!)… well sorta. I kind of glued my FIL’s on backwards- it looked great except that he would have had to open the card from the wrong side! Soooo… I did have to go back and fix that (as I did not want to admit what I at the time!) :oP

Anyway, here they are… the finished product of that day.

This one is for my Dad- I used LL and paper from DCWV Stack 6:

This one is for my FIL (he's from SoCal and this car paper is sooo him). I used LL for "DAD" and DC for the palm tree:

I had an extra palm tree that I was going to add to the inside, but it didn't quite look right... so I added it to the back.
Okay... well that's enough for today! Thanks for looking I hope you enjoy!

Mother's Day 2

While I should be working on my Father's Day cards (which I'm not)- I still haven't posted the rest of my Mother's Day Cards. I made both of them from the Diagonal Double Pocket Fold tutorial at SplitcoastStampers. The first one is for my Mom- she loves turtles. The turtle was from SYI amd the phrase and "{2U}" are from LL. This one was for my MIL. The flower is from JOTS and on the bigger tag I put a poem posted on the cricut message board by TonyaGibbs. They were a pretty big hit- my 10 year old sister-in-law commented that my cards look professional. Knowing how brutally honest 10 year olds can be... that made me feel good! TFL!

Graduation Bouquet

Before we went on our trip to TN & KY (see post below) I finally got to give my sister her graduation gift for getting her Master's- YAY! We wanted to give her some money to get a double diploma frame (one that holds her BA and MA diplomas together). My parents went in on it with us and I used the bouquet to display the cash. This was my first time making one- and I definitely learned some lessons for next time- but I'm kind of proud of (especially after seeing my sister's face when I gave it to her!). I should have used a bigger basket and planned my placement better (I kept ripping the styrofame in the base so the pencils would keep falling over). Oh well.... here are the pictures. Let me know what you think! TFL and Go Bulls!

Hillbilly Pilgrimage

So it has been almost 2 weeks since our pilgrimage to Kentucky and I think I'm still in recovery. We had a great time- but it was a whirlwind of a trip- especially for us. We live in Tallahassee, so we had to drive down to St. Pete Friday morning to fly to Knoxville that afternoon (Tallahassee does its best to be a black hole- sucking you in with ungodly high airfare). This means that when we came back- we didn't get to Tallahassee until 2am. Tuesday morning- ugh! Anyway, when we got there we took a quick tour of the UT campus (finally my hubby could see the most glorious stadium in all of college football). After eating at Calhoun's on the river we only had a little time to explore before bed.

Saturday we got up bright and early, spent the morning visiting family (they are a hoot!) and then off to Richmond,Ky for a wedding. The wedding was very nice, we all had fun seeing some of our old family friends. The guys got a little bit more of a glimps of Harlan as the Bride and her parents were from there. One of my dad's friends flew out from California to be at the wedding- poor guy missed the ceremony due to bad directions. It was great to see him though- for us he was the life of the party (when my brother-in-law wasn't dancing) and he may have taken more posed pictures than the wedding photographer (I think he even had her smile for the camera)!

Sunday we got up really early so that we could drive to Harlan (or the "Homeland") for church- which was great! After church we did some visiting and then some exploring. The exploring part was the main point of the trip for me. I *cough* miss going to Harlan and really wanted my hubby to see what it is like there. Even though I didn't grow up there, it is a huge part of my family and who I am. A couple of our favorite sites along the way (just to clarify, these do not reflect my family or who I am :o):

We then got to "go across the mountain" and see my mom's family. Whoa boy- this was truly the highlight! When I say backwoods- I mean backwoods! But I love it! And it was great to go back, especially because Jesse (hubby) got to meet my Aunt Rock and Tom Jack. He has heard so much about them and with names like those, who wouldn't want to meet them!? Unfortunatly our visit was short, but we really enjoyed it. Here is a picture of my Aunt's store (not exactly in operation now, just a gathering place for people to chat).
Monday we headed back to Knoxville but we got to stop in at Cumberland Gap on the way. Did I meantion that the whole trip was freezing?! It was kind of a fluke thing- but it was in the 40's a lot of the weekend- coming from FL, I was not prepared for that! But the GAP was beautiful and it was kind of a nice way to end the trip. I love going there. Well I know that was long and has lots of pics but trust me- I could have said A LOT more! I'll just have to save that for my scrapbook!

Mother's Day- Part 1

As soon as I saw the "I Believe Note Box" created by Rachel on her blog :http://wonderfullywhimsy.blogspot.com/ I knew that it would be perfect for my mother-in-law. So for Mother's Day, hubby and I made a similar box for quotes and Bible verses about God's grace. I tried so hard to get this done early so there would be no rushing- but of course Hubby couldn't decide on a title. Eventually we decided on "God's Heart"- I'm not sure the title is obvious because after many frustrating trials with cut outs, I ended up having to stamp the hearts. Oh well. We got it out on time and my MIL loved it! Whew!
Here are a couple pics (butterfly paper is DCWV, CS is from walmart):

This shows one of the cards that are in the box- I think we had 16 total.

Thanks for looking- I'll post my Mother's Day cards and graduation gifts when I get back from Kentucky!

Signed, Sealed and Delivered... It's Diploma Time!

This past weekend my friend Stef graduated with her teaching degree and my sister finished her master's in teaching. Both graduated from USF and I'm very excited for both! It has been a long road for Stef- just in the last couple years she got married in the middle of one semester (teachers were not so kind about it) and this last year she moved up here to Tally- yay!- and back down to Tampa- sad - in a matter of months. It's hard enough moving back and forth but trying to transfer between three equally uncooperative schools was quite the challange! But Stef took it all in stride and we are so happy for her that she's done!

My sister, Errin (yes, 2 r's), has been working on her Master's while teaching for the past few years. She is an amazing teacher and has a special gift for dealing with her students- which are usually those that other teachers can't handle. Not only do they respect her but so do their parents and the other teachers at her school. As cheesy as it sounds- I am so proud of my big sis! I know she enjoyed taking classes but I'm happy for her that she won't have so much stuff on her plate!

I made these cards for Stef and Errin to celebrate their graduations. We didn't get to go down there and celebrate with them and are really bummed about that. They both have more goodies coming to them... but I'm not finished, grrr!

The flowers and green & black paper are from the Michael's dollar aisle. I've had the black grad paper since my HS graduation... so that'd be 6 years! The grad cap is from Locker Talk and the Hooray cut is from Lyrical Letters. I put non-stickles stickles & a gem on the firework thing.

Wedding Time

It's getting to be that time again! In May we have 2 weddings to go to, one is in Kentucky and the other in Jacksonville. I'm really excited about the KY wedding- this will be the first time hubby gets to see where I was born and the rest of the family! He and my brother-in-law have heard lots of stories about Harlan, Ky- I think it will be a culture shock, but a lot of fun! Anyway, this card is for that wedding. I got the inspriation for it after looking at Bunnylover's star card on the Cricut mb- thanks!

I used the Wedding Solutions cart for the bride and groom & banner (I think) and Lyrical Letters for the background which is blue vellum. I had to trim the border off of the background because after 2 cuts I couldn't get the size just right... ! I was frustrated at the time but I think it turned out fine. Besides, hubby really likes it and thats all that matters :o) I'll post one for the next wedding as soon as I do it!

Have you ever seen a Coonhound surf?

... Well now you have! Here are a couple pictures of Roxy surfing. We had soooo much fun at the beach with her. I knew for sure that she'd be scared of the waves- they were pretty big for St. George Island. But she went right for them (when she wasn't chasing the birds). She would run out until she was chest deep and then as soon as a wave would break she'd ride it in- it was hysterical! Part of the reason Roxy got her name was because of the brand name (for surfing gear, clothes etc.). Hubby is so proud that she lives up to her name!

And now.... for a real post!

So I was very proud of myself for making a blog to post my craft projects on, but I can already tell it is going to be a struggle. I can never seem to have myself, a computer, pictures of my projects and time together all at the same time- I'll get better though! Anyway, I finally have some pictures of the cards I've been making. Somehow I have managed to send out the best one without taking a picture- but these are some of my first attempts.

The top picture is a card I made for my friend's birthday. I think the cut is from Cuttin Up. The picture doesn't really show the details, I used vellum for the martini glass & glittered on the pink paper (I would say stickled, but I used the knock-off brand... or "knock-down" as my mom would say :o)

This first one was an anniversary card for my parents. I used Accent Essentials and the paper is DCWV Old World.

I made this card using Paper Pups- I love the little "Yappy Easter" bunny :) The flower on the inside is a crystal I got from the $ bin at Joann's & the stem is some MM green wire I've had forever. I thought it added a nice little touch.
For this Easter card I used AE and Doodlecharms- for the basket. It wasn't quite my vision but I think it turned out ok... maybe a little funky, but ok!

I'm working on my picture taking... I think I've gotten better but I can't post my new ones yet until I send them out! I hope to work on some layouts this weekend. My sister gave me an album for my puppy and I got some great pictures at the beach that I want to scrap!

Test... Test One... Test 2

I've never done a blog before- so far it seems fairly easy. This first post is just me testing the waters to make sure I'm doing it right. I'll be back later to actually post something interesting!