RAINY, DREARY DAYS

First I must say that I am very thankful all this rain is not snow. But having said that, I am so sick of winter and gray dreary days. It is raining again today and very windy. Not typical southern North Carolina weather.
And with that in mind, I made this card. Not for anyone in particular, but for my dwindling stash of cards. When I was browsing in my stamp collection, I came across this rainy day girl in one of the monthly kits from Unity Stamp Co. and knew she was the one. She knows what its like to live around here these days.
The sweet sentiment is also from the same kit. The stamps from Unity always give a nice clean image.
Her umbrella is paper pieced from some scrap paper. The base of the card is an older Stampin Up color, and the patterned paper is Chloes Closet by Making Memories. She is colored in with Copics and cut with Nestabilities. This pretty butterfly is from Close to My Heart and is in one of their new sets.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope its sunny where you are! (or at least not snowing!)

A SAD POST

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that Madison, our beloved Yellow Lab became our "furry angel" and got her wings on Friday, January 21, 2011. She was 13 1/2 years old. We got her as an 8 week old puppy~ a gift from some dear friends only ten days after my first Husband passed. His best friends thought she would be protection for me (all of the sudden a single Mom), a new companion for my 3 small children, and some comfort and solace during a time of intense sorrow.
Boy were they right. She became an instant family member and kept us all on our toes. In typical Lab fashion, she was quite the handful, staying a naughty puppy for at least 2 or 3 years. Chewing, jumping, barking and causing mayhem whever she was. But we loved her to pieces.
Family members would come bearing gifts of chewies, new beds ( as she tore up several of those!), rubber toys, (and lots of pig ears from her Nana Carol.)
Thru all her naughty times, she was always an extremely loving and friendly dog. Very trustworthy with kids and an instant friend to anyone who wanted to play with her. She was, and always will be a big part of our family.
We have buried her in our backyard, next to her sister "Missy" who was a Toy Fox Terrier. I purchased a St. Francis statue and we are planning an Angel garden in that special corner of our yard.
Here are some of my favorite (although there must be hundreds!) photos of Madison from the last 2 years.

Madison~ we love you and miss you, but will never forget you!!!!!

xoxoxoxox

BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Hello everyone!!! Sorry I have been such a bad blogger the last month. Hope you all had a great holiday season! We had a wonderful time, as my parents flew down for 3 weeks to spend the Christmas season with us.
We also had Michael home from college for a month. It all goes by so very quickly though. My poor negleted blog took a far backseat, as did much of my crafting, although I did get to finish 2 layouts this past week. Im waiting for a sunny day to take photos of them.
I will be back at once to do some regular posts. Below is one of my favorite ornaments. It is a Christopher Radko and is now 10 years old!!! Wow~ where did that time go. So much has changed, two of the biggest things being I got married and moved to a brand new state. And this little guy hangs in a prominent spot on my Radko tree ( I set up many trees each year) so I can remember the good times of the past years, and look forward to whats to come. We are in the process of redoing our kitchen and it is taking forever!!!! Ughhh~
And I am really liking all the felt food I have been seeing all over the internet. I need to try and make some of that. ( Like I need another thing on my plate- no pun intended).
Be back soon~
Many thanks for stopping by...

A DIFFERENT KIND OF SYMPATHY CARD...

Hi all~ Today I have a sympathy card to show you~ one for a four legged friend. Often times the grief can be heartbeaking when we lose this type of family member. And for that, there is a special kind of sympathy card.
My Mother in Law called me to tell me that a cousin of hers had recently lost a beloved member of the family. Although she was 15, it was still very hard for them to say goodbye. My Lab is 13 now, and in poor health, and I am dreading this day.
But, I made them a "pet sympathy" card which I think came out pretty cute. It uses the SU set "D Is For Dogs". I have a feeling that this set was recently discountinued, but please correct me if I am wrong. The card is made with a pull out insert to give it a bit more interest. I used a yellow from DCWV paper pad, and scraps for the designer paper.
Everything has been cut out with Spellbinders and the dog is adhered with foam tape for extra dimension.

Acroos the top of the yellow cardstock, I stamped the dog bone in Versamark ink, and then clear embossed it. I like this look, as it adds interest while remaining subtle. I dont think I have used this technique before, but will certainly add it to the list. Its easy and adds a big impact.

This photo shows the inside of the card, where I again used nesties, and then stamped the dog paw in Memento Black ink. I stapled 2 small pieces of ribbon to the top as a pull out device. Easy peasy~

For the ribboon slider, I used Tags Trio from Spellbinders, running a ribbon thru the back and finishing it off on the back of the card.

Another view of the entire card. Colors are a bit off, its a really pretty banana type of yellow, and a celery green.

Many thanks for stopping by...

TU TU CUTE!

Here is a card I made last week for the sweet little girl in the previous post.
I thought the adorable mouse and matching sentiment was perfect for an almost 2 year old~
The card was a "welcome to the family" greeting. She arrived from China in May, and this was the first time we got to meet her.
Cardstock is SU, designer paper is from my scrap bin. I used SU Top Note die to cut the white cardstock and then ran it thru my Big Shot with the swiss dot embossing folder.
The oh-so-cute mouse is from My Favorite Things. What I like about their stamps, is that they always give a crisp clean image. Thats especially important when the image has so few lines and details.
She is colored with Copics, and mounted with foam tape.
The sentiment was also perfect!!!
Many thanks for stopping by...

THANKSGIVING PART 2

We had such a great Thanksgiving weekend, that it could'nt be contained in one post!
Time goes by so quickly, and we should all try to make sure that we can enjoy friends and family as much as possible.
Here is my niece Jacqueline, making her signature cranberry sauce turkeys for our feast. Matthew is keeping a close eye! Another photo of him in his "turkey leg hat". Isnt this the cutest?

My newest little cousin~ Noelle.

All the cousins, except my 2 boys enjoying the beach house on Seans birthday.

Sean, me and Jackie.

Jackie and Sean. They are only 4 months apart.

Many thanks for stopping by...

OUR THANKSGIVING FEAST!

Hi! Hope by now everyone has recovered from their holiday of eating , shopping and enjoying family. I thought I would share some photos of our day.
We had the largest crowd ever at our present home. 18 people. It was originally going to be more like 22, but a few didnt make it. We were very lucky this year to share our day with some special cousins from Florida. We had not had Thanksgiving together since we were kids, so it was extra special. My cousin Gene, his wife Katy, and their 4 children, including their newly adopted daughter from China drove around 12 hours to spend a few days with us.

Watching our kids all play together made us think back to when that was us. Wow, time really flies, doesnt it??

Here is my cousin Gene, and my brother in law John waiting for the turkey to be served.

We had sunny, warm weather, which was great, as I dont have a large enough table in my dining room to seat so many. Next best thing is my screened porch. Its large, and we set up 2 folding tables. That, combined with all the other seating in there made for plenty of room.

We also had the pleasure of welcoming my husbands Aunt, Uncle and family to our neck of the woods this past July.

So they also joined us. Everyone brought something, and it was great!

Here is my nephew Matt wearing his turkey leg hat he made in preschool last year. I should have taken a side view photo. He is way too cute wearing this.

And although this picture is blurry, I wanted to introduce you all to the newest member of our family, celebrating her very first Thanksgiving here in America~ Noelle.

Shes a little doll.

Many thanks for stopping by...