Ladystamper

Today our lesson in Relief Society was on gratitude. Not only gratitude for our blessings, but also gratitude for our trials and tribulations. Some of you may be thinking...why in the world would I be grateful for trials?! The hard times in our lives are the times when we are actually learning. When we are growing. If we never had things to suffer through, we would never grow. I know this to be true. Now, I'm not saying that I start each day with a prayer asking for trials and much suffering, on the contrary! I do, however, start each day asking for the strength and ability to overcome and endure all that may come my way. I have had my fair share of hard times, but I've made it this far! I guess I am just feeling very grateful today for my life. For the good, the bad and the ugly. I would not want anyone else's life. Mine is a perfect fit for me. I went on a date with my sweetie Saturday night...we hadn't had a real date in almost a month! Those of you that know me will

I have to say that I have totally enjoyed each and every comment on here! Most of you said your family and children bring you the greatest delight in life. That is so wonderful! That is true for me as well. I am so very blessed to have six healthy happy children that get along with each other...now and then. The winner of the blog candy is.... CALI! Congrats! I hope everyone will take a minute and read the comment Cali left. She works with abused children and is a truly wonderful person. Her comment is worth a read. Cali, please send me your address so I can get your goodies out to you. I had so much fun with this, I just may make the candy a weekly thing...stay tuned! :o))

I know I said I would post some blog candy yesterday but I didn't even get near my computer! What a crazy day! I had planned on doing it the night before but...I was in the kitchen doing the dishes and I was so dog tired that I laid my head down on the counter for a minute. My son came into the room and said, "go to bed mom, dad and I will do the dishes." Now, who in thier right mind would turn down that offer? My boys HATE to do anything in the kitchen that doesn't involve eating. I immediately turned off my water(boiling for herb tea) and skedaddled upstairs and went to bed. I'm no dummy! The kitchen was not cleaned to my standards, but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth! Speaking of gifts, I have a little blog candy offer today. In honor of my 8000 hits, I am offering the following: A simply scrappin kit "Just Delightful", a stamp set "Delight in Life", three mini spools of ribbon, some acrylic tiles AND a copy of the latest

I decided to update the look of my blog. Yeah, like I have a clue how to do that! I have spent over two hours now trying to change it to how I want it and I'm giving up! If I asked him to, Ethan could probably fix it for me. My 8 year old. Why is it so hard for me to figure out this computer? My kids are way better at computer stuff than I am. I can usually figure stuff out, but it takes a lot of trial and error. I try to read the instructions and it feels like I am reading another language! It is very aggravating! So, after much trial and loads of error, I am going with what you see here. It isn't bad, but isn't what I had in mind. The bad news is that all the awesome blogs I had links to here are lost in cyberspace somehow. darn! If you have an awesome blog, let me know! I'll add it here! I guess I will have to start over. sigh... I wanted to update for two reasons. One, I saw a link on someone else's blog for new blogger templates. Yeah, I obviously can't fig

Do you have something that just makes you happy? Something you do that just relaxes you and makes you feel good? My friend Jessie called me Saturday from Texas. She had the nerve to move away. I tell ya! Anyway, she called to tell me that she was feeling better than she had in months. Why? Because she went to a stamp party and stamped! She hadn't realized how much she had been missing it. Now, she has moved clear across the country and has had quite a few things on her mind. But, how many of us 'forget' to do the things that make us happy? Or maybe, we don't forget so much as we just get too busy to do those things? I know I do. I have been so busy lately that I don't know what I have been doing! I took time last week to scrapbook a bit. True, I kind of HAD to because I had a crop and needed a page project, but I decided to take the whole day and just scrapbook. Kim came over and we had a ball! I had forgotten how much I love to scrap! (I also love to be with Kim, s

So...my sister sent me this diet. Not that SHE needs, it but she thinks she does. Let's not go there. Anyway, it is this magic diet that makes you lose 10-17 pounds in 7 days. No pills, no drugs, no knives,....just this all veggie soup that you eat every day along with other certain things. You can find the diet here . So far, I am at day 4 and although I had lost 2 pounds this morning, it is back. I just don't think that is fair. I have not cheated at all! My DH says it is just because I am getting older and I should accept it. He is not bothered by my extra fluff....grrr...I guess that is good, but I am bothered by it! I am not going to give up on the diet. I will see it through to the end and report back. Maybe I will get lucky and it will actually work. Maybe I will just end up buying bigger clothes. Maybe I will try an all chocolate diet next to make up for all the dadgum tomatoes I've eaten this week! I do like tomatoes, but after four days of a highly tomatoey fla

A sure sign that autumn is in the air is when the apples are ready for canning! Yes, I canned again today. It is a funny story, kind of....I went to the library to return my books...why did I get them there? Of course they were late, of course I want to buy them now, sheesh....anyway, on my way home I innocently drove past my favorite veggie stand. I think they were thinking of me when they made today's sign. It said "we have boxes." I never can seem to leave that place lately without a box full of something! I wanted pears, but the Bartlett pears were not very pretty and not very cheap. They had red pears ,which I had never seen before, that smelled Wonderful! So, I bought a box(of course) of them. Then I called mom to ask what kind of apples we usually can. She couldn't remember. sigh, by this time, I was getting TOO HOT. Do you know what I mean? Florida, humidity, black clothes...yeah, too hot. So, I just decided to get Rome apples. They looked good and were cheap.

I was asked to share a workshop wow at the Orlando regional last week. It was one of the funnest things I've done! I absolutely loved it! Shari was kind enough to get some pictures of me. When SU called and asked me to present, they told me I could do whatever I wanted and I had 5 minutes. Not a whole lot of time! I asked a few of my customers what they had seen me demo that was WOW to them. They seemed to like this craft schooshing technique, so that is what I showed. It is a super easy technique that I kind of morphed from other techniques over the ages. The way I do it is to take a sheet protector and split the seams so it is only attached, front to back, on the side with the ring holes. Open it up and schmoosh craft ink, I used the spots, randomly on one side. Using another color, do the same on the other side. I try and use colors that will look pleasant when they are combines. Like, red and blue, pink and yellow, any color and silver, etc. This card uses red and blue. When b