Monthly Crop at My House

Last night, I held an open crop at my house. There were 7 of us and we had so much fun! We had more food than we knew what to do with and stuff was spread out everywhere!

Here is Lori trying her hand at our acrylix stamps. She did great! I'm not sure how many pages she got done, but I do believe she may have been the most productive! Yes, right there on the lower left corner of the picture is our new Ink Pad/Marker carousel! New products aren't to be revealed until September 1, but it just kind of slipped into the picture! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!


This is Dorinda, Becky and Judy (my sister and holding Angel) working (looks more like talking) away!


Here is Shirley very involved in her pages. I think she gets the award for bringing the most stuff! (Shirley, you DO give me a run for my money when it comes to volume!)


And there's Rebecca. No, we did not banish her to my scrapbook desk! She chose that spot so she could spread out more (and spill powder EVERYWHERE! - that's another story!)


We really had fun and I can't wait until next month!

Man Makes Card

I found this website this morning and watching it cracked me up! And, I needed that to start my day today! I thought you could use a laugh, too!

I couldn't get it embedded in here, so just copy and paste this address into your browser. You'll need to turn the volume up, it seemed really low to me.

Enjoy!

http://www.livevideo.com/video/537FF9DA20B44560845DEE157D1F9DD6/man-made-card.aspx?m_tkc=7540036

Busy Busy Week

This has been quite a busy week! Since learning on Tuesday I was going to be Grandma again, I learned on Wednesday it is going to be a girl! Here are the ultrasound pictures. The first one is of her precious little face!

And this one is her feet. She had her legs crossed at the ankles and you can see her feet!

Technology amazes me! When I was having my babies, the only time you got an ultrasound was if there was a problem, so you really kind of hoped you never had to have one... which I didn't!

In between spending a lot of time on the phone with both of my girls, I have also been very busy designing 6 cards for our Consultant's retreat in a couple of weeks. Designing is one thing but cutting all of those pieces for 40 sets of 6 cards is a LOT of work! But, I'm almost done. I've got 5 done and cut out and have to start on the 6th one. It's so much more fun when you are working on NEW product, which I am!

I can't wait for my open house on September 6th so I can show everyone all the new and fun goodies from Close to My Heart.

Well, I've gotta run. It's getting late and I was up late last night watching John's band, Wire Road, make their debut performance at the Outback in Branson. They did good but those late hours are NOT for old folks!

I'm Gonna Be a Grandma Again!

Well, I got back from Convention safe and sound. My mind is still whirring with information and ideas! I wasn't sure how long it just might take me to settle down! Yesterday was my first day back to work, so for the morning, I was just taking it easy and tryed to slowly settle back into reality when, a little after lunch, I got a phone call... I'm going to be a Grandma again! The most amazing thing is that we didn't thing Shelly would be able to have children! Woohoo!

I am so excited! It was quite a shock to her as she is right at 5 months along! I know... I know... how in the world would you NOT know! Well, she had her reasons and was truly SHOCKED when that big ole + sign showed up! She has her OB appointment this morning and will get a due date along with what she is having! That may feel like the shortest pregnancy in history!

JR's text to me last night was so cute..."What a pleasant surprise! 5 Months.... WOW!... SO much to do!"

I told Shelly I needed to get home and start knitting! PLUS... another subject to SCRAPBOOK!

2 Cards

While packing for Convention, I felt a need to create hit me! So, I sat down and made these 2 cards. They were very simple and quick! I love that!

The pink circles are punched out of Blush CTMH cardstock. I used Chocolate CTMH grograin ribbon and Chocolate ink for the stamped lined circles (I don't remember what set I found that in!

I stamped the stems and flower centers with Garden Green and the flowers and words with Honey (my new favorite yellow!). The flowers and stems are from June Word Puzzle (I so love the Word Puzzles - you can do SO much with them!) and "Happy everything" is from the June SOTM (stamp of the month) "With Love" (another favorite set!)

OK, so that is out of my system... I can get back to cleaning house! Day after tomorrow I leave!!!! WOOHOO!!! Orlando, here I come!

Only 3 More DAYS!

I am getting so excited about CTMH Convention 2008. My friend Lyla, will be here Tuesday and she and I will be heading to Kansas City to catch our plane early Wednesday morning to Orlando! This will be my first convention and with all the hype that is going on in the Bulletin Boards, I am getting so excited, I can hardly wait.
So, this weekend is my planning time. Cleaning house, doing laundry, getting the last minute errands run, making sure bills are paid... you know the drill. There is just so much to get done to get ready to be gone for 5 days!
Anyway, I gotta get busy. I just wanted to quickly type in an update. I hope to update while I'm there (every room has its' own computer, so I don't have to lug mine through the airports!).
Later...

And the winner is...

www.clearlyinspired.blogspot.com is the winner!

Kim has a great site and fabulous tutorials. Be sure to go check out her site if you haven't. You won't be disappointed!

I Won an AWARD!

WOW! Check this out! My friend and CTMH sister, Tracy http://www.joyinliving.blogspot.com/ blessed me with this WeBlog Award! I was so surprised and honored! How exciting it is to be honored and recognized by my stamping peers!

It's a special award that's given to weblogs that somehow catch your eye! The rules to rules for this award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you've nominated.

I am going to nominate these ladies as their blogs have been an inspiration to me and ones I check on daily.

http://www.simplybeautifulcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.clearlyinspired.blogspot.com/
http://www.stampspaperscissors.typepad.com/
http://www.cindyscreativecrafts.blogspot.com/
http://www.sullyscrapandstamp.blogspot.com/
http://www.createwithtraci.blogspot.com/
http://www.trinkaking.blogspot.com/

So... vote here! Leave a comment or send me an email and I'll announce the winner next Monday! Vote for your favorite!

My Grandkids

I guess I'm like every other Grandma, I think my grandkids are the cutest ones in the entire world! Miss Trella just turned 2 in May. I used Whoops A Daisy B & T paper and Ocean and Kiwi cardstock. I used Home Accents for the scrolls and Stone Script for her name on the Cricut. I am usually the one who wants to get as many pictures on a page as possible, however, when I saw these two pictures, I just had to do the "single picture" page... just once, well, twice! Let me know what you think!

Brenden turned 9 in May. I used It's a Guy Thing B & T paper and New England Ivy, Barn Red and Desert Sand cardstock for the rings, which were all cut on my Cricut. I've been wanting to do something with rings but just didn't have the right layout but this B & T paper just screamed for them! Let me know what you think about this one, too!

I love my grandkids, I just wish I lived closer so I could see them more. In the meantime, I'll just focus on scrapbooking them! Thanks for looking!

4th of July - Scrapbooked!

Well, this is nothing short of a miracle! Only one, count them... ONE short week after the 4th and I have my 3 2-page layouts of the weekend done! I can hardly believe it! My sister and I got up this morning and by 8am, we were printing pictures. And shortly after that, we were on our way to designing pages. I finished my 6 pages about a 1/2 hour ago and she is finishging up her last 2-page layout. That's a total of 12 pages between the 2 of us in one day! WOWSA!

Check them out and let me know what you think! My red didn't show up as well as I'd like for it to have. I used all Close to My Heart product (except for the red stickles on the cut out stars!). I used the stripe and butterflies from Blue Ribbon Paper Pack and I used Cranberry, Outdoor Denim, Indian Corn Blue and Colonial White Cardstock. My Acrylix stamp sets I used were Vintage USA, June and July Word Puzzles and stamp pads to match the cardstock. I typed my journaling and enhanced the journaling blocks with stamps and ink distressing on the edges. I also used Twill and Cranberry ribbon.

All of that with fantastic pictures of a great family finished up these pages. Phew... until next 4th!

4th of July - Lewis Reunion

Everybody converged on my brother's house for the 4th. It has almost become tradition... this is the third year, so I guess it now qualifies! We just hung out, talked, ate, watched the kids have a great time and just enjoyed the day. Here's some random pictures taken of the day.



That's my Grandson, Brenden



That's my son-in-law, David and my brother, Jim Bob.


Taylor, my great niece, Trella, my grandaughter and Shelly, my oldest daughter



Shelly and Brenden



Miss Trella



Sue, my sister-in-law, Liam, her grandson and Trella



Taylor and Shelly



Trella and Lisa (Taylor's mom)





At the pool My bathing beauty!


Of course there were games. Guess How Many M & M's are in the jar was quite interesting. My lame 150 didn't even cover the bottom of the container! I think there ended up being over 700 or some rediculous number. Pamela won! Woohoo! And she shared the M and M's with all of us!

Sue even had personalized M and M's made just for the occasion!

Then, we started playing charades. That's me on the left doing who knows what. Even the kids got into the game. We really had a lot of fun with this.

And here we are just sitting around after playing charades and other games. What a great time we had!

My brother was pretty tired after a long day with family. Poor baby! I'm just not sure how he could sleep with all the people around! I sure don't think I could have! But he had to get his nap in because he would soon be cooking hot dogs and making homemade ice cream for everyone!

It was a fantastic 2008 4th of July! Thanks Jim Bob and Sue for making it a great time!

Stamp Kissing

I am just so dang tired after our big conference at work this past week, I decided to something fairly easy here today. And when I ran across this tutorial and got permission from the fabulous Tressa Black (the author of the tutorial) to put this on our blogs, I thought "Yeah! My job is complete for today's blog!"

Be sure and go visit her on her blog at http://www.fabulouslyartsy.blogspot.com/.

I'll be back tomorrow or Tuesday to catch up! (If it doesn't play when you click on it, it's because there is so much traffic being sent to the site as she just published it. Wait a little while and come back!)

Cousin's Reunion 2008

My mom and her sister's used to get together for a sister's reunion once a year. It was just those 5 girls and no one else was invited! We have pictures to tell us some of the stories, but 4 of the 5 of them are gone now and many of those stories and secrets and private moments have gone with them.
Well, those sister's had lots of kids. And those kids had kids and so on and so on!
Last year, the oldest sister, Aunt Gracie (who by the way is 103 this year!) daughter's (5 of them, too!) all got to talking and decided to have a cousin's reunion. We had the best time. We thought! Well, this year, we did it again! (Sounds like we have started something here!)
We met in Locust Grove Oklahoma at Trixie's house, Saturday. Food was being brought in and people were coming for miles. Oh, my! What an afternoon. After we all got done eating (for the time being), we started catching up. The talking and the laughter could have been heard for miles! I really think we were louder than usual! I suppose when you have something to say and you want to be heard, ya gotta be loud!












Here we are, in the house, just sitting around talking and eating. Our cousing Jenny made it this year. I had never met her before and I could tell immediately she was a Carroll! She was just like the rest of us. She came in with a big box of pictures she had that were her "grannys". My Aunt Beulah. I saw pictures of my grandparent's parents. Until that moment, I had only known of their existence on paper. I had never seen a picture of them. And then, more... my family was all in that box! It was a little overwhelming but absolutely fantastic!
Then, we all started the de-toxing. That will have to be a story for later. Judy has pictures of my feet in the water. You soak your feet in the tub of water charged with electricity (oh, and don't forget the grounding of your body!). All of this junk comes out of your feet. Gross! Pretty amazing stuff.
Saturday night was the big weiner roast. We all sat around the fire and talked and told stories. And a little after dark, we all started getting ready to go to our respective sleeping places. Judy and I were inside helping put stuff away when someone said "Come on girls... let's go swimming!" Most replied... "I don't have a bathing suit!". "Who cares!!!". So, off to find a t-shirt and then to meet at the pool.
But, not before Aunt Gracie makes things a little exciting. As we were standing there discussing the pool, we hear a faint... "help!". It was Aunt Gracie (now, remember, she is the 103 year old). She had fallen out of bed. She was just fine, but she was on the floor! After she got her sense about her, she wanted it made very clear that was the very FIRST time that had happened! With the help of several, we got her back in bed. She quickly said... "I'm ok... you all get out of here!". So we did.
And off to changing clothes. Judy and I headed to the motorhome. We found Sue in bed and almost asleep. With much persuading, we got her out of bed and heading up to the pool with us. She was not happy about it! And, oh my goodness! The water was SO cold!
We didn't swim long, but we did swim... ALL the girls that were there!
Then, off to bed for a wonderful nights sleep filled with happy thoughts of the day.
The morning woke everyone to thunder and lightening and rain! We were fine, but we were sure thinking about those in the tents!
Breakfast at 8:30, more talking and then the saying goodbyes.
Once again, it was a wonderful time and we can't wait until next year!
Thanks so much to the Garoutte Girls! We had a blast!
(I was so busy this year talking, I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wanted! Hopefully, I'll be able to get some from all of those other camera buffs!)

Too Busy!

This is my crazy week. At my job, we are getting ready for a big conference that will be held next week starting Tuesday and finishing up Saturday with a big Golf tournament. As of this morning, we had 312 people registered. They are coming in from 28 different states and it's going to be very busy! This week is crazy because this is the week we are finalizing things and you know, if something is going to go wrong, it will be this week because it will reak panic in everyone! And right in the middle of everything, I am having to interview to try to find a replacement for one of my people.

But, everything is going to be just fine. I had a talk with myself early this week and I made a decision. I decided that if I remain calm, that no matter what happens, it can be dealt with much better. And I have done so... and I think it has been reflected in my unit. Yes, we've had out panic moments, but we've dealt with it and we've gotten through it. And blood pressure has stayed down. (note to self... remain calm... it's contagious)

Anyway, I got home tonight and my brain was just fried. I met my sister on the patio and after chatting for a few minutes, we, of course, decided we were hungry. But, as usual, we didn't know what we wanted. We ate really healthy last night. She fixed these wonderful foil packets of potatoes, onion and chicken on the grill with a side of peas. YUM! So, tonight, we didn't feel like being so good.

Off to Pasta Express we went. Motzarella Sticks and Marinara Sauce and a diet Coke. mmmmm. And then, off to Dairy Queen. Have you seen those crazy new chocolate covered strawberry sundaes in a chocolate dipped waffle cone? All I can say is... OMG! These are heaven on earth! And I really can't believe I ate the whole thing!!! And so did SHE!!!!

If it doesn't cause me to have nightmares, I will probably sleep really well tonight and be ready for more interviews and another day full of surprises tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Hopefully, after the conference next week, I'll be able to get back to being creative and come up with some more projects to post!

Happy Scrapping!

Cards I Made Last Night

I just love these cards. I found them on the CTMH Bulletin Boards and just had to play with the design last night. I like the boldness yet the simplicity of them.

All of the cards are 5" x 4"

On "Great Job", I cut 2 strips (1" x 5") using the stripe from Paper Garden.. "Great" was stamped on White Daisy (2 1/8" x 5") in Sweet Leaf using Rustic Alphabets and "Job" was stamped in Petal using Precious Alphabets.

Thank You was made the same way only I stamped
"Thank" in Petal and "You" in Sweet Leaf.

On "Happy Birthday" I used the Polka Dot from Whoops A Daisy. (I used the same dimensions as above). "Happy" was stamped using Rustic Alphabets in Ocean and "Birthday" in Hydrangea.

I hope you like them as much as I do!

The Eagles in Branson!

Ok, well, it wasn't the REAL Eagles, it was the Eagles Tribute Band. They were so incredible. They sang all of my favorites and by the end of the show, everyone was up and dancing... even John! Being the music critic he is, I wasn't sure what he'd think about them, but he was impressed! If you are ever in Branson, I'd highly recommend seeing this show... actually, it's more of a concert. Nonstop music... no comedian... no talking... just music! And, you better love The Eagles, because that's ALL you get!

I forgot my camera, so this was taken on my cell phone. Not the best, but you get the idea!

Happy Monday!

Most people don't Monday's, but I do... really! It's the start of a whole new week! And lots of time ahead of you to accomplish things. Work was busy today, as it will be over the next couple of weeks. We have a big conference my unit is very involved in that will occur the week after Father's Day. And the weekend of Father's Day is our Cousin's Reunion in Oklahoma. I have a workshop that Friday night, but after that is over with, my sister and I will hop aboard the Lewis bus (my brother's motorhome) and head to Locust Grove Oklahoma! We will drive to Joplin and park it in a Cracker Barrel and spend the night. Yes, that is only 1 hour from home, but it's what we do every year! Then, Saturday morning we will get up and eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then head on down. It will be a lot of fun seeing everyone again. Hopefully the weather will hold for us and the campers won't get wet!

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to share when I get back.

I haven't been too creative here lately. I have been working on more "fabric trashbags" and will need to get lots more made later in the year.

Close to My Heart is having a fantastic special this month. STAMPAGANZA! This only comes along once a year. You can buy 2 sets of stamps and get the 3rd of of equal or lesser value for free! FREE! Stop by my website www.jmpurves.myctmh.com and check it out. If you don't have a new 08 Summer Idea book, click HERE to look at one online. And you can also check out the 08 Spring Idea book by clicking HERE. AND, you can go to the Product Guide by clicking HERE to see any sets that aren't in either of those books. And to make it really handy... you can order right off my website!

I'm off to grab some dinner and then try to get the yard mowed! Later!

June Workshop Pages

For whatever reason, I am so prepared for June workshops! The first one is at my neice's house. We have so much fun and I can hardly wait each month to get together. But, I usually am spending the night before cutting, cutting, cutting getting ready! But not this month! I am done and I also have July's done! But, I won't post those for a while.

In addition to the Mother's Love pages already posted, we will be doing Father's Day pages. I totally lifted this from another talented consultant, but... I can't remember who it was! I try so hard to write down the name in case I do use something, but I couldn't find it when I went to look for it. If it's yours, thank you and I'm sorry I can't give you the proper credit.

I've used Sarsparilla and I have fallen in love with it. And I love the simplicity of these pages. In addition to the B & T from Sarsparilla, I used Twilight, Desert Sand and Barn Red Cardstock along with 3 Black Itty Brads as well as Dimensional Element Flowers (in 2 sizes and stacked). I covered the larger flower with the plaid B & T and ink distressed the smaller one and stamped it with "Father's Day" from the May Stamp of the Month. All products used were Close To My Heart. As usual, let me know what you think.

Getting Back to Normal

It's Tuesday, the day after a long weekend. I think I left my brain somewhere. I can't seem to get it together today! I want it to still be the long weekend!

Anyway, I am playing catch up tonight... can't do much that's too productive because I am too dangerous!

Hopefully, I'll be back to normal tomorrow. Phew. A few more hours and I can go to bed and get up in the morning and start over.

Memorial Day 2008

My friend, Diana, went home today. What a great visit we had. I already miss her and can't wait until our next visit.

I've been working this afternoon on getting workshop projects ready for June. June is quite a busy month for me at my job (the one that actually pays the bills!). We have a big conference near the middle of the month and there are a lot of last minutes projects and finishing touches that have to be tended to. Usually my Close to My Heart business lags a bit this month... by design.

However, this month could be different with new Constant Campaign that will be announced later in the week. Check back! You're going to love it!

I will try to get my new pages posted soon. It's been a rainy cool day and has been perfect for being inside. But, isn't it interesting what humidity can do to paper? Note to self... close up house and turn on a/c next time you work on pages!!!