Riley Visits Again

The next card in the Riley Moose series for my nephew Nate is on it's way to his mailbox!

This time Riley was in the Thanksgiving play dressed as a pilgrim holding a turkey.

I try to find designer papers to match the theme of the card page I'm working on. This piece just seemed to fit.








A Thanksgiving tradition in my daughter's family is to go get their Christmas tree a day or two after Thanksgiving. Then it stands in the den or living room for a few days to warm up and let the branches relax. Decorating it is sometimes done all at once; sometimes the lights are put on and the rest of the ornaments are added at a different time.

The snowflake paper was perfect for cutting the Christmas tree! After I took this picture, I added some iridescent snowflakes to the background.





Here's Riley going home after the "Great Christmas Tree Hunt Adventure"!

His scarf is a piece of very narrow ribbon tied around his neck and held in place with tine glue dots. The white lines from a piece of designer paper look pretty much like a road.









When my daughter was shopping last week, she found a stuffed Riley that looks very much like the stamp Riley. Of course she had to get it for me to send to Nate!



"Teddy Riley" will be going out in the mail in a couple days. I want time for the card to get there first!



I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Blessings,

Cards for Co-Workers

My co-workers are all fabulous ladies!

Barb is our receptionist, typist, mail lady, billing gal - anything she is asked to do she does without complaint.

This is the card I made for her - House Mouse Little Nibbler. Inside says "Don't Ask! It's been one of those days!" She has "those days" nearly every week.

The pencil pieces are popped up on dimensionals.

Jean handles hundreds of pieces of paper in her daily routine of posting ticklers, typing letters, keeping up with investment transactions for clients,and anything needed to be done to help keep the office running smoothly.

Her card is Gruffies "Bear-ied in Paperwork". I took home a couple sheets of paper in the colors she sees most often on her desk to use on her card.

She loved it!

Terri is a super mom to 2 darling little ladies and a super shopper. She finds bargains everywhere she shops. I wish she would do my shopping.

Her desk is also covered in papers as she does data entry, bookkeeping and taxes for her clients, but I had already used the Bear-ied in Paperwork stamp.

So to honor her super shopping abilities, I used Sarah Kay's stamp "The Joy of Giving".

I decorated some of the envelopes with this cute Santa's Mail stamp from the $1.00 bin at AC Moore. It really livens up a plain envie. Don't know how the post office feels about decorated envelopes, but so far they haven't refused to take any of them.

Tomorrow I'll give Barb and Terri their cards.

Until next time,

Blessings,

Riley Moose Goes Calling

Riley Moose has become one of my favorite stamp charactors. He is just so darn cute no matter what he is up too. I made a card for my 15-year old nephew, Nate, with Riley coming to call.
Nate has an old red tractor he loves to drive all over the acreage his parents own and across a field to his friends' Fred & Pam's house.

Nate was diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoma in July, 2008. His parents keep everyone up to date on Nate's progress on a website called Caring Bridge. Hence Riley's reference to a bridge that cares!

He has been undergoing very rigorous chemo therapy and has responded miraculously to the treatments, all the while without complaining. He has been a real trooper through it all.

Of course Riley does all the fun things that kids do including Nate!

Here is Riley in his pirate halloween costume.

Riley had to help pick pumpkins for Thanksgiving dinner pumpkin pies!

The orange printing doesn't show up very well. It says

"Here I am in the pumpkin patch. Bet you couldn't guess that - HA! I have to go now and help get ready for Thanksgiving Dinner. I'm glad I'm not a turkey (Smiley face). Nobody has stuffed moose."

I hope to continue the Riley "visits" throughout the year with each one representing seasonal activities. Maybe I will be really ambitious and make a second card each time and put them into book form later.

Blessings,

Thanksgiving and My Workspace!

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone! Hope all had a fantastic feast and great time with family and friends. One of my daughter lives next door to us, so even in the worst of weather, we have dinner together! There is always more food than we can possibly eat! My older daughter lives in Virginia and my son in Georgia, so we rarely spend holidays together.

A couple weeks ago Anne posted a play along to show our work space at our jobs. The girls I work with thought I was losing it when I started taking pictures of my desk and work space!
Here it is!!

I normally work only Mondays and Tuesdays. I hate starting the week or the morning with a messy desk!

So when I leave for the day or on Tuesday when I'm done for the week, I clean up and put away everything on my desk.

Yes, I am obsessive about a neat work area!



This is how my desk generally looks while I'm working. Each of those files on the desk is a payroll I have to do. One week there are 16 and the next week 13. The majority are weekly, but there are 7 or 8 that are bi-weekly and one monthly. There are also 3 seasonal.

I really enjoy my job and talking to the payroll clients. After all, everyone likes the payroll preparer. And---all of my phone calls are promptly returned!

The windows above my desk open to a short hallway going to the waiting area and are one-way mirrored glass so I can see out but no one can see me. I can open the window and assist clients if the receptionist is busy. All in all it is a great place to work.

Thanksgiving blessings to one and all,

Thursday Night Classes

Last Thursday night several ladies from my church met for the first week of a 6-week study using Leslie Parrott's book You Matter More Than You Think. All of us need encouragement and praise and to find our place in God's plan for our lives. When I got home and checked my emails there was a "chain email" there from my friend Ruth. Here it is:

Prayer

Leave yesterday alone (it's gone)

Live today (count your blessings)

Don't worry about tomorrow (it may not come)

Dear God,

The lady reading this is beautiful,

classy & strong and I love her.

Help her live her life to the fullest.

Please promote her and cause her to excel

above expectations.

Help her to shine in darkest places

and love where it is impossible to love.

Protect her at all times, lift her up

when she needs you the most and let her

know that when she walks with You,

she will always be safe.

This is just what we were discussing at class. I had been working on some more Thanksgiving cards, so I copied this Prayer and put it inside the cards and will distribute them this week.

I named this one Thanksgiving Encouragement.









Have a wonderful, blessed week,

Thanksgiving Cards and More!

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking here in western New York!

The clean-out/clean-up of my sewing/stamping room has begun. A friend of mine who does sewing for local charities came and picked up all the fabric I had ready that was in my sewing room closet. YES! ! ! ! I still have more to gather up, but didn't have enough space to get it all out at once :-( I didn't take any before/after pics though. Some of my stamping stuff has been put in the closet so I can at least move in my room :-)

Our weather here has been beautiful with the exception of a couple days. That is about to all change. The weather reports say s--- is on it's way. We had a dusting a couple weeks ago, but it was all gone by afternoon. I am not a snow person at all and winter here in New York seems to go on forever.

Thanksgiving is just 12 days away! Where has 2008 gone?? I have been making some fall and Thanksgiving cards and stamping out wishes for Splitcoast Stampers WishRAK, which I joined about the same time I started my blog.

A couple Sundays ago our Assistant Pastor Matt did a short ventriloquist presentation to announce the Thanksgiving To Go event the area churches do for shut-ins. We deliver a traditional Thanksgiving dinner to any person who calls in and requests one. Last year we served nearly 300 dinners. Pastor Matt had a turkey puppet named "Tom" of course. So I made a turkey card and sent it to Pastor Matt anonymously. Just a word of advise - "Pastor Matt, do NOT quit your day job!"




















On the front I stamped the image centered, then masked it off and stamped the lighter images without re-inking the stamp. The inside was colored using the bouncing brayer technique. The turkey is popped up with dimensionals.

I finally did get my Christmas Toppers done for the October SBS card swap. I realized that I had not taken a picture after the envie was addressed, sealed and stamped. So I sure hope that DebMeg posts a pic of them!

While Becky and I were making the toppers, I also dug out some of my embellishments from last year. We could have saved ourselves a lot of time if I had thought of them a couple hours sooner :-(
I stamped a snowman card using a TAC snowman trio stamp from Bunch of Flakes set.
Then I cut apart a snowman head trio and attached them to my card. The hats are from the SU Crab & Company stamp set. The card went to DebMeg with her toppers. It turned out to be really cute! I hope she likes it.


Then last but not least, are the cards I made for all of my SBS 22 sisters!! I found this gorgeous fall ribbon on one of Becky's and my shopping trips. It's sheer with the design printed and the glitter already on it!

The sentiment is from SU's set Give Thanks. It's stamped in Chocolate Chip on Naturals Ivory, mounted on Chocolate Chip and popped up on dimensionals.

I didn't really like the ribbon ends showing on the inside of the card, so I asked my friend Kim for suggestions to hide them.

Following her suggest to line the inside of the card with designer papers, I did just that using a different paper on each card.


Here are a few of my favorites. The inside sentiment was computer printed in brown ink. The edges were inked with either Chocolate Chip or Pumpkin Pie.

The cards were really simple to make using the ribbon and are stunning!

Thanks for looking!
Thanksgiving blessings to all!

Birthday and Friendship cards!

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday and today was my granddaughter's birthday! What a joy both of them have been (most of the time)!

Here are the cards I made for them.

This card is for Becky. She has found some of the most incredible cards and stamps on the web and this Sarah Kay is one of them - Fanny's Cuddle.

This was colored with Copic Sketch markers. I used Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip and white cardstock. The pink flower is a Prima and the brown is from the Pretties Kit and colored with Chocolate Chip marker. The brown satin ribbon is probably from AC Moore.

This one is for Megan, my granddaughter. She loves purple! This is another Sarah Kay stamp - My Sweet Lili.

The image was colored with Copic Sketch markers and cut with a scalloped oval Nestibilities die. I glued a tiny purple gem on her ear and a tiny flower on her teddy bear's bow. The ribbon is from AC Moore. The cardstock is from DCWV Nana's Kids mat stack and is mounted on SU Lovely Lilac.

My SBS22 sister Norma spoils me with the most beautiful cards.

This one is breathtaking! It is all glittered up. The picture does not do justice to the beautiful work Norma did on this card.

Thank you so much, Norma.

This last card for tonight is the Round Robin

card that was sent me after it was finished.

The bees' wings are colored with a gold glitter pen, which does not show in the picture. My friend Kim did a great job finishing it.

That's all, folks!!

Blessings,

How Many of Me Are There?

Amy has this neat little thing on her blog, so I just had to try it.

There are 647,329 Kathleen's in the US, the 75th most popular female name. There are 2,565 people with the last name Gerace. There are only 5 Kathleen Gerace's in the US. Lucky for all the rest of the people!

There are 11 people with my DH's name.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 5 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Until then,

Blessings,

Secret Sister Gift!

A couple of days ago I got some Happy Mail!! A very thick card from my secret sister.

The center panel swings out to reveal a message on the back as well as the Thanks and butterflies on the front. That is very clever! Thank you, secret sister for thinking of me!

Also in the card were the cute Bellas with a stack of gifts and 5 long pieces of sheer ribbon which were between 2 heavy coasters. Now I also have 2 coasters to embellish. Nothing in this package will go to waste!

The ribbon on the far right that barely shows is gray.


Since giving up the bridal/formal alterations, I have been some better about getting things done in a timely manner. I have done more blog hopping to see all of my SBS22 sisters' blogs and got a couple posts done. More WishRAK packets have gone out. Housework is still a major hangup :O( I have managed to get the laundry washed, dried, folded AND put away in the same day - major fete! Progress is being slowly made.

I have a Lipstick plant that I have had since 1984. Each year I would only see 6 to 8 flower sets and was really disappointed because I really tried to care properly for it. This year the plant has been loaded with flowers twice - once in the spring and now. I can't believe it! Here are some pictures of it as it appears today.




This is the gorgeous plant in full bloom (sounds like a great name for a stamp set)!!









Here's a close up of the fully opened flowers.












These are the flowers just beginning to "open up". The flower at the top shows the "lipstick" just coming up.

There are several stems that 2 sets of flowers and one even has 3!

The colors in these pictures are very true to the plant.

Time to go color images, put some cards together and stamp, stamp, stamp! :O)

Until next time,
Blessings,

What a Fun Day!

Yesterday a new friend, Angie and I spent 3+ hours playing with my Cuttlebug, Nesties and Scor-Pal. Whoo Hooo - what a fun day!

I first met Angie in July at a Stampin' Up workshop (where else?) A couple weeks later she recognized me at the grocery store (where else?) and spoke to me. Then last week she came to an SU workshop my daughter and I had. We used the Cuttlebug in one of our cards. Angie was so intrigued with it she went and immediately bought one, then sent all of us an email telling us! I asked if she would like some help learning about it and some of the things she could do with it. Of course, she agreed that it would be fun.

That's us - Angie on the right, me on the left.



Sooooo we embossed every folder I have, the border folders, small corner folders each of us have and the fun set of a die and mini folders she got with her CB. Then we cut some shapes with the Nestibilities and played with them. The we did some scoring with the Scor-Pal and embossed portions of the cardstock with the folders. She left with a bag of goodies embossed, cut and a mind brimming over with ideas!

Be sure to check out Angie's blog here http://pinkroomponderings.blogspot.com/.

She has some really special things that she shares.

Until next time,
Blessings,

September Blog Hop Challenge Card

This is my first attempt at a 6x6 card. I really liked the larger area to play with. I may do more of these larger cards if I can find envelopes for them.

The images are from Cornish Heritage Farms Kim Hughes Let's Get Stuffed. SU cardstocks were True Thyme, Always Artichoke and More Mustard. The images were colored with SU markers. The background paper and ribbon came from JoAnne's. The leaf brads were purchased online. This was a really fun card to do.

Happy Blog Hopping and Happy Thanksgiving!

Aaaahhh! A Short Time to Relax

We plant a fairly large garden with Roma and beefsteak type tomatoes, bell peppers, Hungarian Wax and sweet banana peppers, and zucchini. This year we also grew butternut squash. My DH thinks it is fun to start the plants from seed. So---beginning early March he plants his babies and tends them until early June when we put them in the garden.

This week I finished up with canning spaghetti sauce and chunk tomatoes and got the peppers chopped and in the freezer. The butternut squash aren't quite ready yet - probably another week.

Aaaaaahhhhhh!! A short time to rest!

Harvest time is a major project around our house, but it provides our provision for much of the next year. My DH is Italian thus the spaghetti sauce. He has few rules for our home, but the most important one is that Sunday dinner has to be red. It's usually spaghetti, but lasagna, stuffed shells, manicotti, stuffed zucchini are all acceptable. I need to change the subject - this is making me very hungry.

I've been making a few cards between batches of sauce.

This is Tina's anniversary card. The background is cuttlebugged with the Stylized Flower and Swiss Dots. The main image was colored with markers, stamped once, the stamp moved slightly and stamped again without reinking.

The sentiment ovals were cut with Nestibilities. I like the way it turned out. How about you?





This is my friendship card to Norma. I love the blue on white. It is so crisp and clean.

I used Friendship Blooms and stamped in Brilliant Blue ink. After stamping, the main image was outlined with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The centers of the tiny flowers also are glittered.












This card was for Norma - thinking of her during and after her surgery. Gray is not a color cardstock I use very often, but it was perfect for this card.



I also did a card for my secret sister and will post it after the "Big Reveal"!!


Now I just have to get a birthday card done for Julanne. That's a project for another day.

Blessings,

An Award and A Change of Direction

My SBS22 sister Jhet sent me the Javablu award! It is so cool! She likes my blog - YIPPEE!

I have received so many beautiful cards from my SBS22 sisters and SCS WishRAK gals that I feel a little ashamed that I have not been more active in posting to my blog and granting wishes at WishRAK. SO - About a month ago I did some very serious thinking about all the things I do. Then I made a mental list of the things I really enjoy doing and things I did out of duty or obligation or just not being able to say "No" to people.

The one thing that took the most time and produced the least enjoyment and most frustration and stress was the alterations on bridals and formals I had been doing for about 5 years, so it was a really tough call to totally give it up. Once the mental decision was made, I went to the bridal shop that sent me most of my work and told them I was finished, but I gave them 2 names of ladies willing to take over the sewing I was doing.

I will be still sewing, but I will pick and choose carefully what I want to do. The first time I told someone over the phone that I wasn't doing the sewing anymore was difficult but at the same time so liberating. It was REALLY over at that point and I could move on to do the fun things I like.

Having said all that, I am going to make a real effort to visit everyone's blog every week, leave comments and get cards posted on mine every week.



Here is the card Sarah sent me for our anniversary. It is gorgeous. Thank you, Sarah. You are the best!

Those little owls have the cutest eyes!





That's all for this time.


Have a wonderful rest of the week!


Blessings,

Young Friends, Young Christian Family

Several years ago my DH and I became involved as volunteers at Freedom Village, USA, a Christian residential campus for troubled teens. We go there for Sunday morning service and then have lunch with our "gang" - several girls who have been our Adopt-A-Teens.

In 1999 our church backed us with a missions project to make new curtains for the boys' dorm. When the curtains were ready to be installed, a couple young men in the program and a young man in the maintenance department helped my DH get the old window coverings down and put the new curtains up. We became very good friends with two of the helpers, Rod and Mark.

A couple years or so later, one beautiful young lady named Rachel came to the Village as an unwed teen. She was required to attend school, do chores, clean her room just like every other girl there. Just before her baby was due, she moved into the Gift of Life Home where she had a room for herself and her baby. After she had her baby, she was required to care for him - feeding, changing, bathing, etc. - AND still attend school, do her chores, clean her room, etc. There was child care available for the baby while she was in school. At all other times she had her baby with her just like you and I would have to do.

This is Rachel and baby Ryan.

Rachel continued her schooling and everything she was required to do and eventually went back home to her family. We didn't see her for a couple years.


Then she came to the graduation ceremony in 2007 with Ryan. Look how he has grown!

She told us she was engaged to a wonderful young man that we also knew from his time at the Village - Rod!

They were married later in 2007 and are now serving the Lord together on staff at Freedom Village.



Don't they look happy?

We are so happy for them to have each other, the Lord and Ryan.

It has been our joy to see them both mature in the Lord and seek His will for their lives.

They both are on staff as a way to give back to the Village the chance they were given to change their lives and give other troubled teens a place to go for help changing their lives.



Until next time, Blessings,