Friends' Cards

Good evening & I hope if you're in the path of this monster storm buffeting the north-eastern states, you are inside, cozy & warm and that you don't lose electric power. Our Upstate SC area had a high today of 35 & felt colder. That's quite chilly for us this early in the year..but not totally unexpected. I think Monday night is predicted to be 12, so tomorrow we shall make sure that all our outside faucet hookups are covered and the birdfeeders filled. They were empty when we got back home.

I want to extend a big welcome to a new follower, Lis of Paper Maker. Lis found my blog sorta by mistake through a misdirected email or comment. Anyway, I checked out her blog, and found some lovely work, so I think you would enjoy it as well. When you have time, please treat yourself to a visit to Lis.

As promised I'm sharing a few lovely cards we had waiting in the mail when we arrived home. Haven't done anything much since we've been back...still haven't unpacked the bed of the pickup. I have 2 plastic bins that have some new goodies. DH is having a back & hip problem so I didn't want to push to get this done, and didn't want to try to do it alone. (Had other stuff to handle anyway!)



Candee's Card 

 Candee has a blog post on this dryer sheet technique, explaining exactly how she created this lovely card.

Gloria's Card

Anne's Card

These are just a few of the wonderful cards we enjoyed. I was bowled over at receiving these beautiful creations from blog friends far away, many that I've only met online. I'm including the link to the cardmaker's blog where possible. Please visit & enjoy more of their gorgeous work. Truly, stampers and cardmakers are among the most generous & kind people. It made my heart glad to find these among all the bills that had come in over 2 wks...not to mention all the junk mail!!! I didn't want to have a real picture heavy post, so I'll share more later. My photographs in no way do justice to the beauty of these cards. Thanks for your visit, I'll try to have a card of my own to share soon. Hugs from me to you.

Home Again

Good evening, and I hope that you had a marvelous New Year's Day, ready to start 2014 off with many wonderful things. I wish for each of you who visit here, good health & happiness to you & those you love. A little prosperity wouldn't come amiss either, but the health & happiness are definitely more important. I'd wish for World Peace, an end to hunger and all the awfulness we read about happening all over the world. Unfortunately, I doubt that will come true...but I can still hope for it!

We left So. Fla about 6am, stopped nearby for a good (and pleasantly inexpensive!) breakfast at this little local diner that has a retro '50-s motif. It was very tasty too. We have a place about an hour away (Cracker Barrel for those in the USA who know this chain) that we usually stop. However when we're visiting, we've been going to this little family style diner ever since DD moved to this area. DH saw that it would be open early on New Year's Day so decided we'd eat there. It was a bit too early for me, but I did my part. Then got in the pkup, set the GPS to get us out of the city and once we got to the Interstate, kicked my seat back and napped. We had some fog & heavy rain up until we got into North Fla. The fog eased up but we still had rain or sprinkles most of the way home. Thankfully, we didn't have a lot of traffic, and no slowdowns in the areas of this particular interstate where we are usually in a stop & go (or just stop & sit!) mode.

Collected our mail & just went through for a fast check of bills that need sorting. Oh, my, I had so many lovely handmade Christmas cards from so many of my blog buddies. I want to say a very heartfelt Thank You to each of you. As you know I get a bit down when we have to leave the daughter, so it perked me up immensely to see all these beautiful cards. I will share each one over the days ahead, so everyone can enjoy them along with me. I always have collected cards - got a big trunk full up in the attic. But handmade cards go into a special box to be enjoyed over & over. I also get a lot of inspiration from these too!

OK, that's it for me tonight. Got the house temp warming up, as we set the thermostat to 60 when we go away. Takes a while for it to warm up to suit me. DH has gone to get his shower, and I'm off to do the same. Will be nice to be in my own bed again tonight!!! Hugs & many, many thanks to all who remembered us with the gorgeous cards!

3 Twenty Crafts Blog Hop

Hello, and we are on the final stretch of Year 2013. Over at 3 Twenty Crafts there is a year end Blog Hop going on to get ready to celebrate the coming 2014 with our DT members, and we hope you'll join in for a bit of year-end fun.

Here's my card using some of the 3 Twenty Crafts stamps that were released in November.

 

- The 3 Twenty Crafts sets used on this card were: Tags and Trimmings (ribbon swirls & top & bottom flourishes); Happy Harvest (glasses).

-Die cut with S/B Labels 2, edged with Delicata gold, then overlined with the Sakura Clear Star gel pen for more glitz.

- Paper Studio vanilla c/s from a postcard pack was stamped with the 3 Twenty Crafts elements in Versa Mark, then embossed with Silver Pearl EP;  die cut and colored in with copics. On this vanilla c/s, the colors looked much too flat so I used Spica pens to enhance the ribbons, flourishes - liked the effect much better..

- used the negative of the vanilla die cut as a cover over the card base. Lined the aperture with a patterned dark brown, popped up the die cut focal piece. Used the same paper to punch out the bottom border trims from MS & Recollection punches.

- Snippet of green glitter paper to die cut the year with Memory Box letter die. Tried using the dark brown, but the green seemed better to my eye.

So please join along with us over at Jo's Scrap Shack in the blog hop and have some fun.

Happy New Year, and thanks for joining me and visiting throughout the year. Your visits & comments make my day! Hugs.

Family, Dogs & Boats

Welcome to my world on a lazy Saturday afternoon. I am here with just the granddogs, as the family  deserted me. DH decided he was bored with watching football & went for a long walk. DD & SIL went off to do some errands. I didn't feel like getting gussied up to go out in public, and was finishing up some laundry, so here I am - dogsitting.

I would like to say a warm welcome to 2 new followers: Debbie of Life Refreshed and Princess Judy Palmer of Blog This. Whooee, just a few more new followers to reach my next goal level of 200 followers, and there's gonna be BLOG CANDY! When I get home, I'll take some pictures & post as some added enticements.  Thanks for joining me here, and I hope you'll like what I babble on about. Let me encourage my other visitors to check out each of these blogs...not only some beautiful work to feast yer peepers on, but get a few good giggles too.

Since I haven't any cards to share, I thought I would share a couple of photos of the family..those I could get to cooperate with the camera & me. SIL refuses to join in when I'm taking pictures, and the one I finally captured of DH & DD is not all that great. But still, will give you an idea of what they look like in 'at home attire'. (I can already hear both of them saying "You DIDN'T really POST that, did you?"



DH-DD-Breakfast_12-25-13  

Ossie_Charlie_12-28-13
 

Ossie is the oldest of the 3 greys (13 yrs), and he's lived here since he was about 4 & retired from racing. He is the 3rd grey that DD adopted. She lost the 1st two dogs to cancer, and Ossie has survived the longest. He has arthritis, and is being helped with acupuncture. He has lovely manners, is definitely the daughter's child - if she is around - and only suffers the rest of us if he has to.

Dallas(standing)-Reilly(relaxing)-12-28-13
 



Dallas was adopted as a 3-4mo old puppy. When she was 2 yrs, DD discovered the folks who had adopted her sister, Reilly, didn't want the dog. So you can guess what happened next. Reilly is the one I'm allergic to, and I have difficulty in telling them apart. I don't pet either one because of that. I only pet Ossie if the other 2 are not where they can see it. (Yes, it does hurt their feelings!). Dallas was extremely rambunctious at first; she loved to chew toes. Now that she's 7, she is better behaved. Reilly basically follows her sister's lead and whatever Dallas is doing, Reilly does too. When you see one, you know the other is right behind.





Optimist Charlie-12-28-13

Charles joined the group about 2 months ago. This is his face when he is absolutely positive that he's going to join you for whatever it is that you may be eating. Doesn't matter, he wants some of it. He has diabetes, so treats are forbidden and he has to eat special food. He much prefers to sneak in & gobble up the greys' food & really snarfs it down. He's also quite a Hoover when food & crumbs are dropped from your plate. He doesn't beg, he just sits at your feet, looking up with this very hopeful expression. 

 

 

The last picture is of a PT boat that we saw pass by on Christmas morning. This is the first of these boats we've seen on the water. These boats were used in WWII, just in case you didn't already know this!  Hope that you've enjoyed the pictures and seeing a bit of my family. Hugs & come again soon.