Ladystamper

I know that several of you are wondering what the heck is going on at my house right now. Me too....:o) After much deliberation and schedule balancing and soul searching and prayer, I have decided to relocate my family to Arizona. My family is all there so it only makes sense that we go there. It is a bittersweet thing for me because I really love it here! I have made such wonderful friends! If it weren't for my children, I would stay. But, I am a mom, first and fore most and must do what is best for the kids. Don't get me wrong, I will love being close to my family as well. They are wonderful! Our estimated date of departure is June 18th. That is not written in stone, but more of a goal. The kids have music and scout camps so we are planning to stay for those and then take off. We will hurry to Arizona and try to get our home set up a bit before my oldest daughter comes home. She has been at an adventure camp in Utah for two weeks, trying to work through some of her issues. I...

I miss Brad most every day, but really miss him on Sunday. That is kind of funny because he was usually gone most of the day at the church. But, I really liked being able to look up on the stand and see him there. He loved being bishop so very much. His favorite part was counseling with people and helping them. He had a lot of hard times in his own life and felt like he could really understand people because of that. We have a new bishop now, finally. Bishop Bandy is going to do a fantastic job. He reminds me a lot of my dad. Just a wonderful, loving guy. This beautiful card came to me from Beth Daniels. I love the soft, serene feel of it. She did an amazing job. I think I may have to wallpaper my walls with all these great cards so I can enjoy them every day!

My goal is to get everything cleaned up and all the books packed today. I figure that is something relatively easy and the books won't be missed for a week or two. We have a LOT of books. I actually went through and got rid of a lot of them....the SPCA will have to add another bookshelf just for my donation! This sweet card is from my 'sista-from-another-mother' Karen Giron. We share a birthday. She is an amazingly creative person. I would love to be a fly on the wall of her stamp room to see how she comes up with stuff and .....if it is as easy as she makes it look. Probably is!

This beautiful card was made by Stephanie. I am horrible.....I can't remember which Stephanie it came from! Tell me guys! Which ever one made it, I love it. If you know me, you know I love purple and green together. Yummy! That love affair began back when Stampin' Up! had the big DD Hydrangea set. Old olive and Eggplant envy were the colors, paired with Almost amethyst and Mellow moss. I must have made a million cards with that combo! I still love those colors together, although SU has tweaked the colors just a bit....they are still good! Today should be my last day with my current organizing client. I hope we get everything done. I just have to be home after this to get my house packed. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Everything has just fallen into place so well.....it just must be meant to be! I think part of the reason time has flown is because I am in denial about leaving all my wonderful friends here in Florida. I have become more attached here than an...

I just loved this card by Michelle. It is so very pretty! I'm not sure how she got it so soft and multi colored, but I'm thinking she might have done the poppin pastel technique here. Just lovely. After having four different moving companies come and give me quotes on moving my family to Arizona, I think I have decided to do it the UHaul way. It will save me SOOO much money. Did you know Uhaul has load and unload companies lined up for super cheap? Sounds like a deal to me! Besides...I'm thinking, the more money I save on the move, the more I have to spend on new furniture! Right? It is still raining here in Florida, and I'm loving it. I wish I could bottle it up and take it to the desert with me. I am going to miss it sooo much! Off to clean house! maybe....

As most of all of you know, my husband passed away recently. I have received so many beautiful cards! I am going to take the next several days and share some of the great cards I received. I love them all and am so grateful for so many wonderful friends that have shared their thoughts and prayers with me during this hard time. They have truly helped sustain me through! This first card came all the way from Norway from my friend Bibbi. She teaches card classes over there and does just amazing things! In January, I received notification that I had won a sweepstakes at scrapbooks etc. What I won was a photo organizer/editor. I am playing with it today, adding names to cards to give credit to these awesome artists. I am so computer challenged...I will make a file and then lose it! I'm liking this program so far, it is called ACDSee. Not sure who makes it....but it is pretty easy to use! I'm off to pay for my new house! yay! Very exciting! have a great day!

This stamp set is one that I just had to have and then it just sat on my shelf for weeks. Okay, I have been a bit more busy than usual, I admit, but I started feeling guilty for not using it the other day. I love this background paper and decided I could combine the two to make a fairly masculine card. The base it chocolate chip with a strip of Baja Breeze paper and ribbon layered over the DSP. I stamped the clock face in chocolate chip, cut it out free-hand and sponged the edges to cover up my less than perfect cutting. I added one of our new large chocolate brads to the center and layered it all together with dimensionals. You may notice my new watermark? It is from Karen Giron at www.kgiron.blogspot.com. She only charges $2 for a custom job. She also has an amazing blog, so check it out! Speaking of "time", I am running out of it! The movers come today to give me estimates and we could be moving as early as June 1st. aah! Wish me luck!

In honor of National Scrapbooking month I decided to do a bit of scrappin this month. Any excuse to scrap is a good one! A friend of mine returned several scrappin magazines she had borrowed the other day and as I flipped through them, I came across a layout I just had to case. I took it to a new level by making my own background. I love how this turned out! This is an awesome way to use up some of those scraps of patterned paper I know you all have lying about. I just grabbed several pieces and used a big circle punch to punch out random circles. I cut squares just a bit bigger than the circles and sponged the edges of both with chocolate chip ink. I think that if you sponge the edges... you can put pretty much anything together. It makes it all 'work.' I just made sure that I didn't have the same color next to itself anywhere and glued them all down. The title is stamped with chocolate chip ink and colored in with markers in colors I picked up from the patterned papers. ...

I bought a new car a few weeks ago. I love it! For those of you that don't know, I had been driving a real lemon. I believe we were the main contributors to the mechanics new interior decorating this year. So glad we could help. Cars can be a real trick to keep neat and tidy. We tend to jump in and out and drop stuff here and there and sometimes the junk takes on a life of it's own. Here are some tips for keeping your car in order: Plan ahead. There are some things that you are going to need in your car. Make them a home. Decide on definite homes for the things you want to keep in your car. Some basic items may be your registration and insurance card, jumper cables, phone charger, e-pass or other toll device, and car manual. Other not so common or easily thought of items might include; plastic resealable bags for wet clothes from the pool or beach, trash sacks to refill those trash cans I know you all have, barf bags ( know, that is not something we like to think about but......

Several of you have asked about the organizing job I just completed. I have permission from the room's owner to share pictures so, here they are! Doing craft rooms is one of my favorite jobs. Here are some before and after pictures. These first pictures are the view from the doorway into the room. One of our challenges was the hubby had to keep his eliptical machine in this room. We had to climb over it while we were working. I hope that counts as excercise.. Before & After: This crafty lady had lots of projects stored in this room. This is a view of a gathering place of different things. We were able to switch where her 'catch all' table and plastic drawers were to give the room a better flow and also to position her where she could keep an eye on events in the tv room while she crafted. Before & ...

I am trying to get my schedule back together. It is amazing to me how hard it is! Part of it may have to do with the sun being up til around 8pm here. What is up with that? LOL My baby turned 8 this weekend. How did that happen? He is so adorable. We have such a fun time with him. He just does the most unexpected things! We decided to go to WonderWorks to celebrate his birthday. ( I just wasn't up for a party...sorry!) Ben said his favorite part was the spinning bridge/tunnel you have to go through to get to the fun stuff. (It made me sick!) WonderWorks is a place we had seen and wanted to go to but just never could afford. For those of you that don't know what WonderWorks is, it is an interactive science playground. I guess. It has things like a huge bubble making room, earthquake rooms, laser tag, mind games, build-your-own-rollercoaster simulators, flight simulators,....even a bed of nails you can try out. It was a total blast! We all have fun. And, if you must know, I die...