Jingle Belles 41

Our theme this week - "I'm Dreaming of a Pink Christmas" (and a cure) - yes this challenge is hand-in-hand with Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Our cards should have some pink in them - a non-traditional color for Christmas, but I love it. 

The Medallion was stamped in VersaMark and then embossed with Whte EP.   I then took a sponge and sponged on some Regal Rose from the center outward and then Rose Red at the edges of the paper.  The trees from Patterned Pines were stamped in Regal Rose and in Wild Wasabi and cut out.  I torn some Whisper White cs for the hills and added the trees.  The pink ones in the background were completely glued down but the green ones in front were only glued at the bases so the tops come forward a little.  I added some glitter pen to the torn edge of the white cs.  The greeting from Four the Holidays was stamped in Rose Red using my stamp-a-ma-jig for placement.  The final touch was to add the whole thing to a base of Rose Red.

I'll be adding this to Pink Saturday.  You can follow the Jingle Belles contributions here.

Pink Saturday - October 1

As is well known, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the next 31 days I will be wearing my Breast Cancer Awareness bracelet given to me by my daughter.  I wear it to honor those that I have known who have been affected by this disease.  That leaves the field wide-open for I do not believe that there are many people that I know that have not been affected in one way or another.  Whether it has been dealing with the disease itself or knowing and supporting someone who has, or losing someone to it, it hasn't left many untouched. 

I attended a function a couple of years ago - it was a basket bingo - and during one of the breaks we were given information on Breast Cancer Awareness.  The preface to that was the speaker asking anyone who was a survivor to stand.  More than a handful of women stood up.  Then she asked those who had a family member who had breast cancer to stand up.  The number of standing persons greatly increased.  Then she asked anyone to stand up if they had a friend who had breast cancer.  If there was anyone seated after that you could not tell because the room was a sea of silent standing people.  An eye-opener. 

Over the course of this past year the fear of this disease has touched a few of my friends and myself as well.  All of us have done what we are supposed to do - have our yearly check-ups - and in each case something provoked further investigation in the form of more tests and biopsies.  Thankfully, these all proved to be false alarms and minor, but it was scary just the same. 

You see my little pink flying pig also in the picture - my chosen symbol of perserverance.  May we all perservere in taking care of ourselves and staying informed and when necessary, though some day I hope it will not have to be, to be there and be strong.

Linking to Pink Saturday. 

Anniversary

This is the card I made for HWNSNBP for our 34th anniversary today.  It's not easy making cards for men.  I didn't want any flowery stuff and I had already used the birds and cages for his birthday and lighthouses in the past.  Then I thought about these chairs and hearts.  The background is run through the Big Shot with the Herringbone embossing folder and then I used the text stamp from French Foliage very lightly on the raised areas of the embossing to give it some contrast and add to the texture.  The smaller hearts are made using the owl punch.  The sentiment comes from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

These dahlias below came from our garden.  One of the few things that survived the crazy summer weather.  The purple one is about 6 inches across.  The pink ones will be linked to Pink Saturday. 

I was reminded today, when HWNSNBP brought them in the house for me, of the time our son Christopher, then all of four years old, was invited to a birthday party for our neighbors' twin girls down the street.  I took him to the garden and had him help me make two little bouquets for them from my flower border.  He asked why we were doing it - making the bouquets - and I told him that girls like it when they get flowers.  After pondering this for a bit he stated his observation.  "I get it" he said.  "You bring girls flowers until you get married and then you make them grow their own".  Very logical for a four-year-old.

So that was not the only thing that HWNSNBP shared with me today.  He told me that there was something he wanted me to see outside by the shed and to bring my camera. 

They're called stinkhorns and they were about 6 inches tall.  And yes, they look like what you think they look like!  And boy do they smell.  Apparently those white puffs close to the ground will also become, um.... erect in the next day or so.  (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Quilts By The Bay

The weather has turned a bit on the chilly side.  I do love the fall, but today was a little too nippy too soon for me.  We were down in Barnegat overnight and I took in the Historic Society's Quilts By the Bay event.  A quilt would be nice and comfy on a day like today.  Here are a few that I liked.

These first two are done with a block of the month pattern.  This one is done with the fabrics selected by the shop doing the BOTM.  The second one was done with fabric that the quilter had in her stash.  Each one is pretty in it's own way.

I liked this crazy quilt wall hanging.  There were so many interesting little "finds" that the quilter included. 

This piece below reminded me of a quilt top that I have sitting in a box in our closet, though it's not this colorful.  The piece I have was done by my paternal grandmother with triangles cut from the shirts of her five boys.  My mother asked for it when my grandmother passed.  I was one at the time.  Some of the triangles have moth damage as it contained various shirt fabrics including silk.  I really should get someone to finish it properly and get it out of the box. 

I love the oriental theme of this little wall hanging below.  The kimono and chopsticks are so dimensional and the flowers really take my breath away in that color. 

I have some more pictures I'll share in the future. For now I'll be joining these to Pink Saturday.

Double Anniversaries and Pink Saturday with a Little Bit of Rambling Thrown In

My cousin and her husband and our dear friends R&L have anniversaries at this time of September.  I have been so busy with getting ready for school to start that I almost didn't get these done, and really, if I hadn't been able to sleep and gotten up early on Thursday I don't know if I would have them done yet!  More about that in minute, but first to the cards.  They each use the image from Easy Events which I stamped onto Whisper White cs that had been embossed with my Designer Frames embossing folder.  I cut one of them out and tore the other.  As you can see, one of these cards is done shabby and the other sharp.  The pink layer has a motif from Elements of Style stamped in VersaMark ink to give it a subtle impression. 

How did I choose who got what?  I put them in my work folder in my bag and while we were waiting for our buses to arrive (more on that too) I addressed the envelopes in alphabetical order by last name and then reached into my bag and pulled them out one by one, thus determining which one they got.

And since it's Pink Saturday, I thought I share this 97 cent bargain that I got at Wal-Mart - new lunch containers.  Not leak-proof - ask me how I know - but what do you want for 97 cents!

I liked them so much I bought a set in blue too! 

So this week was the start of school here in our town.  The teachers came back on Tuesday and the students on Thursday.  On Tuesday, after the big district meeting, the teachers came back to the school and we had out annual "Hot Dog" luncheon.  This is possible, largely in part to the fact that I can borrow a hot dog roller from a friend.  When HWNSNBP went to pick it up the night before it was determined that it had been borrowed by someone else and not returned so a delivery to the school the next morning was arranged.  Thankfully the person delivering it remembered in the nick of time that it had to get to the school and got there because I was in a little bit of a panic wondering how I was going to cook 50+ hot dogs one at a time in a microwave and set up and serve the rest of the lunch!  But all was well and all enjoyed.

Since we had lost power last week for two days I was so behind on getting my teacher folders ready and there were 25 boxes of school supplies that had to be unpacked and stored in the supply room, so I wound up staying late on Tuesday and Wednesday to get that all done.  (Thankfully, HWNSNBP came in and helped me unload those boxes!)

On Wednesday night it started raining - heavy rain!  So heavy that HWNSNBP was up and down most of the night checking the pump in the basement and again had 2 going at one time.  Which is another reason why I was having a difficult time sleeping.  We got at least 6.5 inches of rain.  And when he went to try and get a cup of coffee in the morning (yes, I have a coffee pot, a Keurig at that, but that's a story for another time) he could not get through.  He came tramping up the stairs and banged on the bathroom door declaring that I had about a 10 minute window of opportunity before I wouldn't be able to get out of the street and get to school.  So I busied myself and thanked my lucky stars that I had had the forethought to pack my lunch the night before! 

I work about 2.2 miles from my house.  On a normal day it takes 8-10 minutes to get there.  It took me 25 minutes on Thursday.  This was due to the fact that there were many streets that were flooded and loads of traffic from people who were trying to find a way to get where they were going. 

Our school bell rings at 8:30 and at 8:30 there were exactly 0 out of 9 buses in the bus lane.  They came in in dribs and drabs along with the phone calls from distraught parents who were still waiting at bus stops or had seen the bus just pass them by and wondering if they should drive their children in to school.  Ring, ring, ring!  The last bus arrived at 10:15!  Not your typical first day of school by any means. 

Well, I was exhausted and actually got in bed well before I usually do hoping to get a good nights' sleep.  That wasn't to be.  I started having terrible pain in my lower abdomen and after trying to deal with it for about an hour and a half I had to wake HWNSNBP and we went to the emergency room. 

I'll spare the details and just say that I am fine now.  It was a case of cystitis and a bladder spasm the likes of what I've never had before.  Hey, but I got the good drugs!  Well, some would say pain killers are the good drugs but I personally hate taking any of them because the side effects are longer lasting than the pain. 

So my second day of school turned out to be a sick day. 

I am taking it easy this weekend - no running around.  The only thing planned is to meet my son's future in-laws for dinner tonight.  I think I'll be eating light!

Odds and Ends

I've been trying to finish up some projects that I've had milling about both in my head and on my worktable.  This first one was headed overseas to my blogging friend Sabrina and since I know that it got there all right I'm going to share it.  

It's made from a domino.  I had previously soaked a set of dominoes in a light bleach solution overnight to take the shiny finish off of them so that I could stamp on the backs.  I used Stazon Ink to stamp the bird image and let it dry overnight so that there wouldn't be any chance of smearing.  The image and the background are colored with Sharpie markers.  For the background color I dabbed on the colors that I wanted to blend and then chose the lightest color to blend them all with.  I let that dry overnight also and then gave the domino several light coats of spray sealer. 

Then I drilled some holes from top to bottom with my little dremel tool that hasn't been used in ages.  If you don't have a drill bit that's as long as the thickness of the domino you have to be very precise when marking the holes to drill one side to the next.  I was lucky enough to get my drilled holes to match at the first try.  I took some silver foil tape - the kind you would use for stained glass - and wrapped the perimeter of the domino to give it a finished look.  You could also use a gold or silver paint pen, but mine had dried out and the tape happened to be handy.  (If you don't have a drill I've seen necklaces like these made by adhering a long thin bead to what would be the top so that you could string a cord or chain through it.)

I got out my beading supplies and found some beads and the bird charm to add to this.  I left the cording long enough so she could either knot it where she wanted or in this case, I think she is going to finish the ends with a clasp herself. 

The second project below went to a co-worker in my school district.  She has been diligently working with a new software package that our district instituted last year and has become the go-to person with our problems and questions.  While I think that she likes doing this kind of thing, I think that at this point she is being taken advantage of as they are not compensating her for all her work (a lot of which has been done after hours).  So this was supposed to show her that I appreciated all her help and to make her laugh, and I think it did.

I had asked our tech guys for a couple of old keyboards that were going to be discarded and they were all too willing to accommodate me, bringing me a box of 10.  Well, that was back in May, at which time I did sit and pop off all those keys and then I promptly put them aside to use for a couple of summer projects.  This necklace is not my original idea - the credit for this goes to Mich L. in L.A.   Check out her post here to see what genius things she's done with keyboard keys. 

Of course the necklace had to be boxed up, so I used the matchbox die and Pool Party cs - almost the shade of a Tiffany box.  I used the new lacy border punch to make a belly band in Whisper White cs.  The flower was made by punching 6 scalloped circles, scrunching them up real good and then using a sparkle brad to hold them all together.  The flower is popped up on the belly band (there's an Island Indigo scalloped circle under the lace).

This card has not been sent yet - no surprise.  I'm perpetually behind on things it seems.  But I included it here tonight for Pink Saturday along with the flower angel below that I finally finished.

I had the pieces for this little darling all ready to be strung together, and after I found the large pearls that I had purchased for "heads" I was able to finish this up.  Of course, I think that this stamp set is now retired like the Fabulous Flower did after I originally put together my first ornament like this.

She will get a bow at her neckline I think.  I plan on trying this with another current set and there might even be a die that I could use.  Something to look forward to!

Hereford Inlet and Pigeon Talk (With a Little Pink Saturday Too)

After our visit to the garden at Leamings Run we ventured into North Wildwood to visit the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse. This has to be one of the more picturesque of the lighthouses we've been to if only for the lovely gardens that surround the lighthouse itself. 

Once you walk around the back of the building there is a lovely garden with many paths that you can take.  We took the path out to the little boardwalk area.  Just before you climb the walkway to the boardwalk they have these two lifeboats strategically placed. 

These pigeons were perched on the roof of the lighthouse and we just so happened to eavesdrop on them.....

I know, pretty sad - so let me leave you with some Pink Saturday pictures.

A crape myrtle in full bloom on the garden visit.

And the sunset from Monday night over the wildlife refuge in Barnegat.  I know it looks nothing like that tonight, but by Monday, hopefully the sky will illuminate it again.

Sister, Dear Sister's Birthday

It was this week - Monday to be exact.  And I made her a card the week before and promptly ....... forgot to send it!  But, I did call her to wish her a Happy Birthday and to tell her that the "card was in the mail." 

Yes, I mailed it, but not before I forgot to photograph it!  So today, when I stopped by to drop something off, I sheepishly asked her if I could take a picture.  She didn't question me, just went to get it and then I found a suitable space to snap a picture of it.  Not such a great picture, but a picture nonetheless.

To make the card I first tore a page from a book that was going in the recycling bin and used that to stamp my first image onto.  The large blossom from Floral Fillers was stamped in Basic Gray and then colored with my Old Olive and Regal Rose markers.  (It looks difficult but I found it fun!) 

Then I stamped the large blossom from Posy Punch in Regal Rose and used a Rose Red Marker for the center and punched it out.  The final flower is in three layers, thus the name Triple Treat Flower.  Again, I used the same three colors.

The card base is the new Lucky Limeade as is the punched accent on the left.  The sentiment comes from Teeny Tiny Wishes.  I added some sticky rhinestones on the punched border and the first flower to finish it off. 

I'm linking this to How Sweet the Sound's Pink Saturday.