My 4th Canvas!!

I started this canvas on Sunday and just finished it up earlier today. I so love this picture of Dominick. I got the inspiration for this canvas from my friend Toni (2 dogs) from sb.com. She created a fabulous layout named "Snow Day" and when I saw it, I just knew I had to lift it! She is a fantastic artist, thanks Toni for always inspiring me!

My 3rd Canvas!

Happy Sunday!! I got up early this morning and finished this canvas that I started yesterday. I had so much fun making it. This is a 9 x 12 canvas that I bought at Michael's. I painted the background using 3 different colors. Then I adhered the circle paper using Royal Coat. Yes, I got bubbles (those darned things) but after it dried I used a small pin and poked holes in the air bubbles and they flattened out!! I got this tip over at my favorite place sb.com!!! It worked great, there were only a couple of small places that didn't flatten out. I was a happy camper!! Then I got out my rub-ons and went to town!! I just had fun with this one! I've got a wall in my scrap studio that will be displaying all my canvas'. I can't wait to start hanging them. I want to get a few more done before I do that. I'm off to play some more. And the rub-ons are all from Fancy Pants!!

Havin' A Kick Back Saturday!!

I am having the most wonderful Saturday!! I'm doggie sitting Boo-Bear, while Lisa, Steve and the kids are gone for the weekend. He likes visiting his gramma....hehehe!!

I've just been playing around in my scrap studio, doing a little organizing, and I also made 3 simple birthday cards. I've been paying so much extra postage on some of the cards that I have been making, I thought I'd keep these 3 very simple and pay normal postage for a change. I went through my scraps and made up these cards very fast.

Now I'm going to start on a canvas that I have been wanting to do for some time. With Christmas behind me, I now have time for creating....other than cards for a change!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas to all of my

FAMILY & FRIENDS!!

I'm wishing you all

A WONDERFUL 2009!!



LOVE & HUGS!! xoxo

I'm Running Out of Time!!

Where is the time going? Why did I wait until the last minute to do things? I can't believe I'm just now printing photo's of the year as a gift for my mother-in-law. I bought a really nice album over a month ago......tell me why I wait until the 23rd of December to start printing the photo's? And to top it off, my printer has decided to have a mind of its own. All of the sudden it has decided that it likes to jam up the photo paper! I guess you might say I'm a little frustrated at this point. I still have to wrap all my gifts. I've had all of these gifts for over a month!! Gee.....lets wait until the last second to wrap them! Well......I'm going to go back to printing!

Christmas Cards 2008

I had so much fun making all my cards this year. I made more than one of some of the designs. I think I will start much earlier making my cards for 2009!!

Christmas is right around the corner!

Can you believe it, Christmas is in 6 days!! I've got all my presents bought, but not wrapped. I guess that will be my project for Sunday, along with laundry and housecleaning....whoo-hoo!

We are spending Christmas Day at Lisa and Steve's house. I will be doing the cooking, while they spend some time at Steve's dad's house in the early afternoon. Our dinner is planned for 6pm. That's a little late for a holiday dinner for us, but with Lisa and Steve trying to fit both families into one day, we are going to enjoy our dinner a little later this year.

Our Christmas dinner: Lasagna, pork tenderloin, tater's, fresh green beans, salad and garlic bread. Boy, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Here's a few cards that I made last week for a couple of good friends.

The Youngest New York Yankee's Fan!!

Have you ever seen a cuter little fan? Just look at that precious little face!! And that beanie is just too cute for words!!

Daddy Steve was one happy camper when he saw this photo! As I have said before, Steve wants Dominick in Yankee gear all the time! Well, he got his wish in this photo! I have to say it comes in right behind the cowboy photo!!! Of course we all know that gramma deedee bought the cowboy hat!! I've got to shop for another one soon. Maybe this time I will have to buy boots to go with it....hehehe!!! And every little boy needs his own pony!!!

Dominick @ 9 weeks

OUR LITTLE COWBOY!


Just how cute is this little cowboy!
I bought Dominick this hat before he was even born. Unfortunately it barely fits him now. He did get to wear it to his first professional photo shoot, but thats probably the last time it will be on his head. I guess Gramma deedee will have to go shopping to find a bigger one.

You won't find these in your local Hallmark store!

I'm still at it!! Yep....I'm still making Christmas cards! I thought I would be all finished by now, but nope, I've still got a few more to make!! After making 16 of the same cards for my critique group, I couldn't even think about making more duplicate cards. So each of the cards that I am sending to my family are different. I'm really taxing my brain trying to come up with different designs. I am liking the hearts and I really like this star. I had a bunch of hearts and stars already cut out from another project, so I added Stickles to them and I love the look! All that I know is that "You won't find these in your local Hallmark Store"!

I just thought that I would share my Christmas tree from last year with ya all!! I decided that I just don't have the time or energy this year to deal with a tree! That sounds really sad, doesn't it? I fully intended on pulling everything out of the closet, which takes forever, as all my Christmas stuff is stored all the way in the back of the closet. I have a small walk-in closet, but boy-oh-boy can I fill it up with junk. So I had a big debate with myself about pulling the tons of stuff that I have stacked in front of the Christmas stuff all year and well......I decided "NO TREE" for 2008!! If I put up a tree it would look just like this photo on the left!! I bought all those decorations 2 years ago and I still love 'em!

We will all be at Lisa and Steve's house for Christmas, so nobody would see my tree anyway, except for me and Jake. So far Jake hasn't even asked me when I was putting up the tree....so I'm kind of glad that I made that decision for this year. Maybe if he asks about it, I'll ask him to help me and that will be the end of that!!! He's a very busy 20 year old ya know!!!

Mia's 1st Birthday Party!

Michael and Sally hosted the most wonderful Birthday party for Mia's 1st Birthday. It was just lovely. They had a lot of help from their best friends, Joe and Bree. The four of them did an awesome job. Sally is Korean, so Mia was dressed in a Traditional Korean Birthday dress at the beginning of the party. She looked so, so cute! The dress was a little long, so she kept falling down while she was trying to walk. She would fall and get right back up and keep going. She's just too cute! Sally's mom and aunt made lots of Korean food, which was very good. Sally also had a deli table set up with lots of yummy sandwich goodies. So there was food for every one's taste buds. I think there were about 50 or so guests. I uploaded a slideshow of some of the party photo's. Take a peek!!

Happy Saturday!!

This is the birthday card I made for Mia's 1st birthday. The kids are hosting a party for her tomorrow.

and then.........these are the Christmas cards that I have been working on the last few days. I was up until 2am last night making cards!! I couldn't believe it when I looked up at the clock. I had been up 22 hours at that point! And after a long work week, WHAT WAS I THINKING!!! I really need to retire, because my job is getting in the way of my scrapping and card making time! Sorry to tell myself, that retirement isn't in my future anytime soon!

My work week is almost over!!

It's Thursday evening, I just got home from work. It's been a long work week. But.....tomorrow is Friday and I'm doing the Friday Happy Dance!! I love Friday's!! I don't even mind going to work on Friday's as I know the weekend is right around the corner! I'm sure most of you feel the same way.

I put the finishing touches on this birthday card for my friend Karen from sb.com and it will go into the mail in the morning. I love this paper from Basic Grey. I have made serveral cards using it. I cut out the butterfly and added Stickles to it. It really looks pretty in real life. The Happy Birthday is a clear sticker. And Karen deserved some bling added to her card too!! I sure hope she doesn't come snoopin' around my blog before she receives this card......hehehe!!

It's December!!

I can't believe its December already. Where did the year go? I've been busy making Christmas cards for my critique group "Memories to Last". I made 16 of these cards to send to the girls. We are also doing a recipe swap. I sent everyone my Chicken & White Bean Soup recipe. It's delicious!!

I kept the cards on the simple side as I had to make so many. I just printed these images and added some Stickles to the leaves and berries and then tied on the fibers.

Now I must start making cards to send to my family. I actually have 4 made so far. Gee.....I remember the days of just going to the store and buying a box of cards to send!!! I can't bring myself to buy cards anymore. I just love handmade cards.

The Day After Turkey Day!

We had a marvelous time yesterday. The food was wonderful. We all ate too much as always.

Before dinner my brother Mike and his wife Patty stopped by before they went to have dinner with Patty's daughter. Mike came walking in with a "Grandpa Ralph" hat on his head! We all laughed, but he actually looked good in it! ( I didn't get a pic of it. That doesn't happen often!) My grandpa Ralph always wore a hat and usually just a certain type....well, Mike found one just like he always wore. He also said he wore it in honor of our brother Steve, who isn't with us any longer, but he always wore some goofy hat almost daily! It brought back good family memories. We also had a visit from Lisa's dad and his wife, they were having dinner at her daughter's, but stopped by to say hi. It was nice seeing them.

I always love Thanksgiving, because we get two days off work!!! A 4 day holiday....thank you!!! I did get up early and worked on finishing a scrap layout that I started a few days ago. I'm almost done with an album that I have been commissioned to make for Jacob's friend Matt. It's a surprise for his girlfriend. Matt and Jake have been friends since grade school and Matt will be leaving for his second term in Iraq right after Christmas. He's our hero!

Enjoy our Thanksgiving slideshow below!

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!!

I will be spending the day at Lisa and Steve's. I'm picking up Noni on the way. It's nice having someone to talk to on the ride there. I'm bringing the veggies this year. I'm making a Broccoli Cheese dish (a Paula Dean recipe......I love that woman!) and fresh steamed green beans with a little olive oil and black pepper!! I'm also bringing the Champagne and OJ for Mamosas!!! We aren't really drinkers, but we each have one or two, they taste so good while we are getting the food ready. Jack (Steve's dad) is our official Turkey cooker!! This will be the third year Jack has been in charge of the turkey......he has the magic touch!! He also makes a mean stuffing and a delicious gravy. Melissa (Jack's wife) makes awesome homemade rolls! If she doesn't hide them before dinner, Steve can eat them all....hehehe!! Lisa is charge of the mashed taters and all the snackies before dinner. Lisa set her table yesterday, she made beaded napkin rings, I can't wait to see them. Maybe some of my craftyness has rubbed off on her!!! She told me her and the kids made the rings, and I said, "oh out of construction paper"........no mom she said.......I went to Michael's and bought glass beads!! I was so impressed!! I can't wait to see her table. She always puts a lot of work into setting a nice table.

The only sad part of this day is that Michael, Sally and the kids are not going to be with us. They drove to Arizona yesterday to be with some of Sally's family. We are going to miss them. But.......I know I've got to share them.....right?

Again.......HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!!! I'll be back with photo's later!!!!

Time with Mia!

This gramma got to have some Mia time yesterday. Mommy was working and Daddy had a surprise birthday party to go to......so gramma got her Mia time!

She is now 11 months old and is on the go! Daddy brought her over sportin' the cutest jeans and hooded top! She was wearing her new Nike's too!! I know Daddy had to have picked those out. He has always been a Nike guy! I so remember the cost of those Jordan's he used to have to wear!! I must have been nuts to buy those shoes!!

Thanks kids for the Mia time!

What Puts a Big Smile on Gramma's Face?

The answer......is checking my e-mail after work to find the cutest little photograph of my darling little grandson DOMINICK!!

Lisa had a little photo shoot today posing Dominick in his Thanksgiving outfit. Well, she had to stuff him into it. It barely fit him!! She said thankfully she still had the tags attached and she also had the receipt. So she took a few photo's and is taking the outfit back to the store. He is growing so darned fast. He's already over 13 lbs at 10 weeks old. He's such a doll!! PS......I better get him posted here with a Yankee's outfit on soon or I'll be in a heap of trouble with daddy Steve!!!

Recent Family Photo's

My thrift store purchase!!!

I bought this chubby little chipboard children's book at a thrift shop near my work for 60 cents last week. I was not sure what I was going to do with it! I brought it home and tossed it on my scrap table and then remembered I had a bunch of Halloween pic's from carving night that I needed to scrap. So I made a mini album out of it.

First I painted it black....making sure to let each page dry before painting the next. I tore pieces of Halloween paper and added it to each page using Royal Coat....also making sure to let each page dry. I also added little stickers of owls, pumpkins and cats. I also used Royal Coat on each one of those. Before I added the photo's I Royal Coated strips of ribbon and ric-rak to each page. I used lots of Royal Coat on this little album!!! The last thing I did was to tie a strip of ribbon through the book binding and then I tied different ribbons and ric-rak to that strip of ribbon. That just fancied up the album binding edge a bit. To keep the album closed I tied a piece of ribbon around it.

This was my first time altering a little book like this and it won't be my last. I bought 6 of them!! I gave this one to Michael and Sally yesterday and they really loved it. Lisa and Steve asked where their little album was???? I told them they will get one of our Thanksgiving together. Steve said, he wanted their little album to be made from a bigger book!!!!