I do have one thing to share tonight! Yahoo!

This digi layout had a pattern when I was making it.  It's called Command Z on a Mac.  Or, UNDO! I did a lot of UNDO'n! Partially because it was like Christmas inside my MDS program.  This happens when you own something a long time and you forget what you really have.  Please tell me you do this with your stamp supplies too? I know I'm great for this.  Seriously, I never knew I had the coolest downloads ever in my program.  Let me share…

This past week Stampin' Up! debuted the Candid Frames download and it's a favorite of mine.  I've used the Downtown Grunge frames like no tomorrow and I'm over the moon they gave me something else to work with.  The Candid Frames reminds me of my favorite APP on my iPhone- Instagram.  LOVE it. This layout I used the "Instant" Candid Frames.   Remember those Instant Cameras and how FUN they were? LOVE these!!

The one thing I am learning to love with making a digital page is adding depth and texture.  A simple little slider button makes all the difference.  I use a drop shadow on many of the elements and tweak them all differently as to how much I want to see that "POP" on my page.  I encourage you to play with drop shadows.  You will be surprised at how much depth you can really add.  Below I have a list of the downloads I've used.  You can find all these in my cool DIGITAL store. 

Candid Frames
Vintage Overlays
American Typewriter Font
Attic Boutique-Tickets
Tickets & Tags Label 7
Wild About You Border- Stamp Brush
Stitching
Candid Frames- instant
Summer Smooches Fabric Brads
Simples Snapshots DSP
Tasteful Trim Shape 3
Designer Kit Wild About you- Stamp brush YOU
Bulletin Alphabet & Numbers

I'll pull out the camera tomorrow so I can show you a fun card we made tonight at club. 

Have a GREAT Friday. 

XOXOXO

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Meet the newest, "Mama, When I grow up…"

Brandon the Musician!

Yesterday we went to the music store to rent his violin for school. He was really excited to play strings this year and give it a whirl.  When we walked into the music store Brandon was overwhelmed at all the instruments and came to the grand conclusion he wanted to be a musician.  Mind you the only thing he has played is spoons on pots and pans! I patted his shoulder and told him, "Absolutely!"  Inside I was jumping for joy and excited that we were making progress over the previous ideas he had come up with. For instance, he loves seeing the Wal-mart Greeters and  HE felt like this would be the perfect job for him.  He says to me, "Mama, they don't move very often and they just smile a lot. It has to be the best job ever!"  I just nodded my head.  The last job he was SUPER excited about was being a grocery store bagger.  When you go to the commissary on base you have baggers that work for tips.  You always get a bagger and you better pray you have a few single dollar bills on hand.  Well this particular day I didn't have any single dollar bills so I tipped the man a $5 bill.  We got inside the car and Brandon says to me, "Mama, this is exactly what I'm going to do when I grow up!  He just made a fast $5 for just putting a few groceries in our car!"  I nodded my head but also explained to him I was STUPID to give him that much.  He was exactly right, they barely do anything.  Sigh…

I hope you can tell me your children have these same aspirations or at least similar?  I'm waiting for him to say he wants to be a Vet or Pilot? Maybe a Dr.? Nope, just a grocery store bagger. 

Meanwhile as Brandon becomes a musician I'm on the lookout for ear plugs.  The noise that the Violin makes right now is pretty retched.  It's a very squeaky sound and he moves the bow in a fast motion making the hair stand up on your neck.  I'm usually pretty good about giving him positive feedback but I'm afraid my facial expressions may be telling another story.  

Hope your day is filled with good things. There is always something good here. 

XOXOXO

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Sunday was another beautiful day here for me and the little gems.  Kids were busy playing outside. I was busy cleaning my house. Normally I would not categorize cleaning as fun but I was cleaning and decorating my house with fall accents. That is kinda fun. My domestic goddess activities did not just end here.  I had a roasting chicken in the oven, other fun additions to our dinner and dessert.  WOW.  I was on top of all the laundry… Really? Does a day get any better? UGH!

We sat down at the table to eat dinner and Brandon  spilled his tea on his lap on accident.  No biggie at all. This kinda stuff does not bother me.  I just told him to strip down to his skivvies and put his shorts on top of the washer so he can finish dinner.  He did exactly that.  Once dinner was complete I cleaned the kitchen so it sparkled.  I needed to finish laundry too.  I only had one load left and needed to transfer my load to the dryer.  I did JUST that. 

About an hour later is when I almost fainted for the second time in a three week period.  I needed to transfer the clothes from the washer to the drier again.  Do you know where this is going? Much to my surprise when I opened the washer door I was eye to eye with Brandon's iPod again.  Yes, the one that was just washed two weeks ago and works perfectly. How does this happen twice? I let out the scream that the kids remembered from last time and they ran down the stairs to see what was wrong. When Brandon had taken off his shorts during the spilled tea incident he never took the iPod out of his POCKET! Mind you I had a pile of his treasures on the washer from all day of CHECKING pockets and did NOT check this ONE pair of shorts.  How can I be so STUPID???? 

It's sitting in rice! I'll update you in a week.  If it works, I am buying stock in Apple.

We all cried and then had a good laugh over this.  Again, I had to break the news to Russ.  I was shaking in my boots. How in the world was I going to explain this AGAIN??? He laughed so hard he was crying, literally crying.  He thinks blonde is a good color for my hair and I'm sure his buddies at work think this military wife can barely take care of herself. 

As you can see this just adds more details to our ever growing deployment book of antics that have occurred. Never mind that I'm scared of the washer and I will never EAT white rice again!

Don't laugh too hard!

XOXOXO

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Okay, forgive the picture quality. It comes from my iPhone at a very early hour. (Note: anything before 10am is very early to me).  Remember I told you my kids pulled a little prank on me? This would be the second time.  They are quite funny and have great humor.  Sunday Morning I was super excited to sleep in.  After a week of school and non stop business  I just wanted to sleep.  Alexis comes to my bedside at 930am and says: "Mama, someone is at the door for you and they say it's important!"  Me: "WHAT? Who in the world comes this early on a Sunday morning!  Tell them no thank you, please!" Alexis:"Mama, they say it's really important!"  Me: "Okay, I'll be there in a minute."  I get dressed into decent clothes and throw a hat on my head.  I take a quick glance at myself and thought I looked pretty scary and quite possible this could scare the person at the door.  When I get to the door I see this little gem of a "girl" outside with a clipboard.  She says to me, "Hi Ma'am, would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies? I look down at the box and my eyes are still blurry.  I notice the box is taped up with White paper but in the corner of my eye I see the letters "Stampin' Up!"  I look at the little "girl" again and it finally hit me!  That was NOT a little girl.  That was my BRANDON!!  At that point I started to laugh so hard I couldn't control myself and the kids did too.  They couldn't believe I fell for it at first.  Once we stopped laughing I started looking at the precious little details these two kids went through to pull this prank off. 

Here is what she did to him…

*Eyeshadow

*Blush

*Nail Polish

*Foundation

*He is wearing Lexi's clothing

*Her shoes

*Her purse

*Her Hannah Montana purse

*Her eyeglasses

*Mole on his cheek

*Her Necklace

*Her hat

When you start to factor all this "stuff" this was a lot to pull together. They were having the time of their lives while I was sleeping.  Oh Jeez. 

These are the things that I hold so dear to my heart.  They are so funny and their sense of humor makes me laugh out loud even when they are not around. I only worry that this is the second prank and they are only a ripe age of 8 & 10.  I can't imagine what's in store for me as they get older. 

Do your kids do these things?

Just so you know, Brandon was frantically taking off finger nail polish on Monday morning.  He almost forgot about it.  *giggle*

Have a fantastic weekend and do something fun for yourself and your family. 

XOXOXO

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You are simply WONDERFUL for all the advice that you gave Brandon and I about his iPod.  I was pretty horrified with what I had done and I'm pleased to announce today that the iPod WORKS! There is no trace of a problem either.  I love White Rice.  It's my new friend and Brandon's too.  We were doing high fives in the kitchen as we started it up.  Brandon was doing some type of dance around the kitchen and I sat there sweating bullets prayerfully thanking God that I had not ruined it.  The three of us couldn't believe it and we couldn't wait to tell Russ. Can you believe it? Again, thank you for all your advice.  You are so kind.  This card is for YOU!

It's no secret that the Gently Falling (#123804) stamp set and matching DSP is one of my favorite Fall sets and paper this year. I love how the color Pool Party compliments all the colors in the paper.  It's truly a beautiful color that I think we would typically only use as a Summer color.  Maybe that's just my opinion but I never would have thought to use it in a Fall project. I love how Two Step stamping looks and the beauty of clear stamps make this fun technique even better.  To make this card I used a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock as the base.  Then I cut a piece of Very Vanilla at 4 x 10 1/2 and folded it in half.  I then mounted this onto the Crumb Cake card base.  Super simple and a fun way to make a card.  

I hope you are having a FABULOUS Monday.  I know this is going to be a GREAT week!!

XOXOXO

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I don't have many words today.  It's a day to reflect on what happened to our country 10 years ago today.  It's hard to believe it's been 10 years.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  We had friends visiting us from Iowa.  We were living in Pensacola, Florida at the time and Russ was a flight instructor.  He had gone to work that beautiful morning and I was entertaining our friends at home.  Brandon was just 9 months old and it was time to feed him.  We were all sitting in our living room watching Good Morning America just as I still do today.  We watched the horrific events unravel on the TV from the start. I remember sitting there in disbelief.  I tried to call Russ and I couldn't get through to him.  Once I did he wasn't sure if he would be able to leave the base. It was in lock down. We were glued to the TV the rest of the day. I'm finding myself glued to the TV again today. 

My heart aches for all the innocent people that we lost that day and for those that continue to make sacrifices to protect our freedom.  I'm so proud of my Prince and all of our service men as they make huge sacrifices everyday and sometimes the ultimate sacrifice protecting us. 

This card is for my Prince. I think it's pretty patriotic. 

XOXOXO

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I have a few quick My Digital Studio layouts to share and a quick reminder about Stamps in the Mail. 

First the Layouts:

This was another layout that I literally just plopped the pictures into the template. No thinking, just moving my mouse around.  While I like to create my own layouts the fact is…. I'm behind on my scrapbooking.  Who wouldn't want to do an album in an hour? The pre-made templates are fantastic and I encourage you to try them. You can change them up a bit too.  But these are really fast.

This layout I created on my own:

All I can say is- Addicting.  It's just addicting.  I just watched TV last night and played with this layout.  I changed it a few times and tested new things I haven't tried.  Again, it's quick and EASY!!

Quick reminder: Registration for Stamps in the Mail ends Saturday, September 10th.  That's tomorrow.  If you are looking to stamp in the comfort of your own home and learn a few new techniques using the beautiful Christmas Lodge stamp set, check out the details HERE.

Have a FANTASTIC Friday and a Spectacular weekend. I am hoping our weekend is DRY!

XOXOXO

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As I was reaching into the washing machine I pulled out Brandon's iPod touch.  I screamed.  Not lying. I screamed loud. So loud Alexis ran down the stairs. I had my hands over my eyes and kept saying, "How could I be SO stupid?" Alexis started crying because she thought it was hers.  Brandon came around to see what the commotion was and I looked at him and said, "Buddy, you left your iPod in your shorts pocket!" He started crying.  I felt TERRIBLE. I immediately put it in a bowl of rice and covered it and I am praying every day that it will absorb the water.  I mean it was the FULL washing cycle.  Not even the rapid one.  UGH!! I never even heard the noise from the washer! ??? It really ruined the entire day.  I sat with Brandon and the poor guy was doing the "catch your breath" crying.  Oh my, now I feel REALLY bad.  Of course I talked to him about this being a lesson for both of us!  We both need to check pockets. About an hour later Brandon was looking for things to sell in a garage sale to pay for the repairs or a new one.  Needless to say I went to bed hanging my head lower than it has been in awhile.  I messed up big time!  The fun part of this is going to be telling the Prince.  I wonder if loosing his iPhone a couple weeks back makes this look any less? Say a prayer for me. It could be ugly!

The next day- Dr. Awesome is now Dr. Dead.  We have a new Dr. Awesome. 

Hope you have a FANTASTIC week!!!!

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The day before Irene came to visit the postman delivered this huge box. When my kids opened it they could barely contain themselves.  They couldn't believe Mama's stampin' friend would do this for THEM.  Inside this box are two separate boxes for Brandon and Alexis.  In each box there are 16 wrapped gifts for each kiddo!!!! Each day they can open a gift!!! Not only that but there are little treats all over each of the boxes.  Lollipops and other treats.  The kids were literally jumping up and down.  The best part is each morning at approximately 730am they are by my bedside in my face asking to open a gift.  LOL!  Sue, it doesn't bother me.  Their excited faces are worth it. Each time they open a gift they are occupied for quite awhile. 

Here is a picture of them reading the letter from Sue.  It was the sweetest letter.  *made me cry*

You can see their excited little faces.  You can also tell they are pretty heavy by the way Brandon is holding his.  Just the coolest thing!

Here they are opening their first gift.  Again, excited doesn't begin to explain how they were feeling. 

I've said for years (8 to be exact) that the reason I'm a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is for one MAIN reason.  The friendships and the relationships that we build in this community is priceless.  Every year Stampin' Up! gives a Heart of Stampin' Up! award.  This selfless act of kindness towards my kids is truly what the Heart of Stampin' Up! is all about.  Sue, you have brought true sunshine in our house and you are exactly why Stampin' Up! gives an award like this.  You are exactly what are Statement of the Heart states: To LOVE what we do and SHARE what we love, as we help others enjoy CREATIVITY and worthwhile accomplishments… in this we make a DIFFERENCE. Sue made a difference in our lives.

Ironically it came at such a great time.  With the Prince leaving again and Stormy Irene on her way, this was a great distraction for the kids.  I cannot say thank you enough for your amazing kindness. 

I also had another surprise from when we arrived home from vacation! Another new friend, Cheryl Meynig sent me the book Chicken Soup for the Military Wives Soul. Fantastic book with fantastic stories that make you laugh at times you didn't think you could.  All these acts of kindness sure have warmed my heart and soul.  Life is GOOD. 

These are just a few of the great things going on over here.  Truly, we are grateful!

Another good thing… two of my bestie girlie friends are coming to visit this fall. WOOT!

What are you grateful for today?

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Back to my convention story.  If I had to sum it up in one word… AMAZING! Stampin' Up! really went all out this year.  I think I say this every year because I am a huge fan of Stampin' Up! events.  You have to go to understand but when you see how much time and effort they put into the events you appreciate everything much more.  I love how they made announcements this year and there was tons of free stamps/products given to us this year.  Again, it was amazing.

Awards night was bittersweet. When I left convention last year I walked away knowing this year would be different and there was no way on sweet earth I would retain being the #1 demonstrator with the move and other obstacles that came my way.  In the beginning this was very hard for me to accept.  I think my worry was more of the expectations of others than myself. What would "others" think of me if I did not bounce back from this move? I know, I know! Stupid thinking, but seriously my mind works in a crazy way.  It wasn't until January that I finally came to my senses. More than likely I came to my senses because it was clear this was not going to be an over the top year for me with Russ being deployed.  I knew a few life changes were going to happen and it was going to be okay. While these obstacles have not been easy, I know that in order to be successful you have to endure many obstacles or what I like to call Big Bumps in the road.  I've had so many Big Bumps over the last 8 years and some how I always bounce back.  These Big Bumps have taught me many lessons.  My biggest lesson has been learned this year.  Right now Russ and my kids are the most important piece to my life puzzle and therefore my priority.  Do you ever feel like your life is a puzzle? Ha! Mine is for sure! This doesn't mean I'm not working my business or not playing with the best crafting products known to man… it just means I take a few steps back (or more) and do what I can, when I can.  This brings me to the SWEET part of awards night.  Lucky 21 is where I placed and I am grateful.  I worked hard this year through all the big obstacles and feel like Lucky 21 was PERFECT!  It was NOT luck that got me there.  In fact I think it was years of hard work that paid off during a year I couldn't put 100% of ME into it. 

I'm so grateful for the many friends that I have through Stampin' Up! this year.  From my customers to the many demonstrators that I've talked to, I am truly grateful!! You have been amazing and I am super thankful for your support this year.  It was SO exciting to hug so many of you at convention.  You are special people!!!!

Great things are coming this year with Stampin' Up! It's going to be another amazing year.  I have a team filled with the best personalities and creativity and they are ready to ROCK this Stampin' Up! year.  That is exciting!

Here are a few pictures of my great time at convention. 

These are some of the great ladies on my team.  We are missing a few that were there.  One of my favorite things about convention is watching first time convention attendee's and their faces at the fun craziness that happens there. 

Awards night picture.  Glad to be there!!

Some of the finest ladies I know. On our way to seriously shop!

Cathy and I were VIP's and super excited to make it to the VIP room for the meet and greet with Shelli.  When we finally made it to the room we were about the last in line of 150 people. Cathy and I decided it was best to take a seat and enjoy the donuts they had in the room.  Wow they were yummy.  Two hours and TWO donuts later we finally were able to meet & greet with Shelli.  By this time we were on a massive sugar high and giddy.  Poor Shelli. 

We were ready for awards night. These two ladies made me laugh so hard each night! They are the funniest people I know.  We were almost asleep one night and started laughing hysterically one by one.  Oh my word. 

My sweet friend Maxine! I could write a book on this fine lady. She is the one person that heard it ALL this past year.  The aches and pains of moving.  The tears when Russ left.  The mommy moments I wasn't sure I was going to make it through… she really heard it all and always turned my negative into a positive.  She always had the right thing to say and always ALWAYS recognized the good things going on in my business.  Even if it was a little thing, she made it a big thing. I can't thank her enough for the listening and friendship she provided this year.  Truly priceless!

Last but not least, a little 3 x 3 card I made this week.  Simple and fun!

Again, thank you so much for all your support and friendship.  I read every comment and appreciate every single one of them!!

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