My First Challenge - "Harvest Thank You" & "I Absolutely Love It"

Here are two cards made for a Weekend Challenge offered by Beate on Splitcoaststampers. How you enter is: Create a card according to the given "sketch". Then upload photo of card to your personal blog or on Splitcoaststamper's gallery. This is the WSC#55 challenge. Both cards are 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 scored at 3 3/4. This size will fit into a business size envelope. Both cards' theme is "Thank You" - using a variety of SU stamps Card #1 uses pumpkin pie base color; doubled-dipped designer paper, brads, ribbon, glitter, watercolor crayon, pastels and black Stazon ink; featuring a mitered frame and a cut-out; inside card caption. Card #2 uses SU green galore, pixie pink and chocolate chip papers along with a floral print. Ribbons, brads and buttons embellishments; SU Thank you stamps and "I absolutely love it" stamp. The crop-a-dile was used to create a technique for embossed dots.

This is my first challenge! I've been observing for a long time - today I took the plunge, and joined in. It was fun... didn't hurt one bit! The sketch was an inspiration and I was able to pull out something okay. BUT look at all the other entries - WOW. Check them out here on this link: WSC#55 Gallery Have fun looking - Hey! Try out a challenge yourself and let me know! Promise you, it doesn't hurt! (~:

More of... Baby Grace!

Isn't she the SWEETEST!  This is my grandfather's 18th Great-grandchild!   He will be turning 85 this September!  Grace is such a good baby.  My boys have certainly enjoyed playing with their new cousin this weekend!  

Baby Grace

Meet Elizabeth Grace Cox!  She's BEAUTIFUL!  All Labor Day weekend - I'm going to be hugging on this sweet baby girl.  She is 3 mo. old and full of sweetness!  We finally get to meet and squeeze this baby.  More photos later!

Cards with a Drink card inside!

Made these cards last night for some of our college students away from home - YES! There's one for Andy Hayes!!  It's a project that I "sort of" cased  of Dawn Griffith's Chicken Broth Holder - alternated the size to fit a Sonic card.  Here's the link of the CARD HOLDER CARD  (Aug. 23 post )  This is a neat pattern that was very easy to resize!  You could even make it "MEGA" size to hold documents or 8 1/2 x 11 papers...  let me know how yours turns out!

Paper Photo Album Project

Here's a sweet small photo album that I made for our next-door neighbors. This album was cased from Dawn Griffith. It is a quick and easy project to make. With cardstock, clear SU envelopes and some embellishments - it was done! Kyle had received a new camera for Father's Day and was taking pictures of the neighbors' children and Aric playing outside. Aric has waited to play with the next door little boy since he was born!! So we had all these pictures - so I made this album. Here's a link to the video tutorial for the photo album. PHOTO ALBUM LINK (Look for the July 26th blog post) You can do this! Send me an email and let me know how yours turned out!

HUG the ones you LOVE!

Monday night we had a HUGE scare with Kyle.  Monday as the first day of school and we finally arrived at home around 8 PM that night for the first time that day - and Kyle just HAD to go run and exercise... I was to pooped to do much of anything! WELL, as Kyle finished his run to the gym (he's been running 5 miles easily & often) he almost passed out.  He had heaviness in his chest - pain in his shoulders... dizziness, eyes were totally bloodshot.  Thank goodness we had a couple at the gym that helped and watched Kyle before I got there...  then we took him to our good friend and preacher, who is multi-talented - including an avid runner and a EMT... Kyle wasn't going to let me take him to the ER - but he would go see Trey.  So Trey took his blood pressure and checked Kyle out... he was okay.  Kyle had a rough night and still was not feeling well the next day.  After talking with fellow teachers at school the next day (that had experienced heart attacks with their husband) - Kyle now has an appointment with his doctor for a check up...  MEN!  You gotta love 'em.  Just do yourself a favor and HUG YOUR LOVE ONES - you never know what the next day may bring!  I truly love my husband - 

and he better not leave me to raise these kids on my own!  hahaha!  Hey!  That's why I married a "younger" man... to take care of me when I get old! (~:

1st Day of School

We only have 179 more days of school left!! Here is  Aric going to CES (3rd) and Alex going to CJHS (6th)! It was a great day. Kyle and I are pooped! Being teachers - the 1st day is very tiring for everyone! Kyle did go to the gym tonight - he's awesome! I was too tired to run. Maybe tomorrow. Its baths for everyone, laying out of clothes and going to bed EARLY! Hopy your day was great! (~:

Ready for School?!?!

Are we ready for school? Well, we better be... Monday is the 1st day! Alex will be headed to the junior high for 6th grade and Aric to the 3rd grade. I'll have pictures tomorrow! Andy started the 20th in Alabama! Kyle and I are back at the high school. Wish us luck - we're going to need it! Just getting to three different campus by 7:35 am will be the fun part! Keep us in your prayers! (~:

Flowers/God's Little Gifts Part 2

Okay!  I'm going crazy... going, going, GONE!  Anyways - in the first days of August, I had a bunch of beautiful pinky-blue flowers that I mistakenly called my Naked Ladies (or Hurricane Flower, or Back to School Blooms) and wonder why they weren't red.  NOW at the end of August the REAL flower or the flower that I had thought... bloomed!  So I have two types of bulbed flowers... both very pretty and both that bloom in the late summer!  Enjoy!  And if you know the name of the pinky-blue flower (previous post) email me and let me know!! (~:  

Flowers/ God's Little Gifts

In our backyard, every August we have these beautiful flowers that "POP" up and bloom! They are known by several names: Back To School Blooms, Hurricane Flowers, Naked Ladies... Usually the flower blooms are a vivid red - but this year they are a pinky-blue?? Any one know why? I've looked around our small town - and they are all the same color, not red? I wonder if the summer (tornado damage, lack of rain...) had an impact on our August flowers? Let me know if you have a comment - would love to hear! I'll have to ask Aric to do some "computer research" on the subject (hee, hee) Thanks for listening!

THANK YOU!

Thank you to someone!! I received the cutest, unique "Picasso" pencil & reader eyeglass holder in the mail - no note; and no bill! Just knew it was sent by my mom for the start of school, but she claims 

NO. Hmmm! Kyle thinks it's an ugly thing... so ugly it's cute! ha! But you've got to respect Picasso and his artwork. It's PERFECT! I LOVE IT! I always need a place for my reading glasses. My students love doing impressions of me wearing my reading glasses. (I have reading glasses everywhere in the classroom and at home!) Thought I would be this "cool" art teacher - and in reality I'm this old lady with reading glasses - laughing all the time! I once had a student tell me that she wanted to be an art teacher... I was thrilled, thinking I've inspired someone with all my knowledgeable teaching - right; not... she went on to say... "then I could wear funky clothes like you do and no one would care"!! Great... now I'm a "funky clothed" art teacher with read

ing glasses!! Hahahaha! So here's a great, big THANK YOU for my Picasso holder!  (Two of my advanced art students playing with my photo booth - notice the glasses!  Only Esteban and Allix!)

What's your favorite scent?

All the "C-town" bloggers are making lists of 13 items...(thanks Tucker... you started it!)  SO, we decided to list our favorite 13 scents...

We LOVE candles.  We burn any candle that we find "scentful-licious"!  What's your favorite scent?  

Here's a list of ours:

Yankee Candles

Kyle - Midsummer's Night

Melissa - Butter cream

Andy - MacIntosh

Alex - Clean Cotton

Aric - Creme brulee

Tyler Candles

Kyle - Tyler

Melissa - Lipstick

Andy - Mulberry Moments

Alex - Sugarbaby

Aric - Limelight

White Barn Co. Candle

Bartlette Pear

Capri Blue Candles

Volcano No. 6

Country Candle (Hey! Malissa Felton)

Blueberry Muffin

Our Painted Floors

Here are some pics of our painted floors in our house. I've promised several of you that I would post these - here they are!
Here's the history behind them. When we moved into this house (a little over 4 years now), the floors had grayish-white carpet. Well, ya' know my family - boys, dogs, one cat...did I say
BOYS - we weren't carpet people... after the carpet wasn't so gray anymore... I pulled up the carpet to find hard wood floors - badly smeared with paint. We didn't have the money for carpet (have you priced carpet lately?) SO I painted them.
Realize that this was a gradual process!
Our bedroom came first. I had to talk Kyle into this process. He said that he would design it and then I could paint it. I think, that he thought, that if he made a difficult design that I wouldn't paint it! HA! He and Andy that year went to Mexico in the summer for a mission trip for 10 days - and YES! I painted it! That's the harlequin design with SIX colors AND a border.
Then came the hallways, then Andy's room(which is now Aric's) it's a solid glossy forrest green and last was Alex's room which is a solid matte brown. With lots of polyuerathan coats on top, the floors still have chips and cracks - adding to the "patina" look. Patina is a "natural used look" some classify it as "shabby-chic" - what do you call it?
We find the floors very easy for clean up! I mop them with the wet swifters and edge vacuum for the dust-bunnies! We do have lots of floor rugs; for the cold mornings. Anyways - there's our painted floor story!

Diaper Fold Card

Here's a EASY, fun card holder to do! Yes! Even YOU can do this - quick and easy! I made this one in two minutes flat... it's the versatility of this card project. Here is the tutorial by Jenny DIAPER FOLD CARD - but also check out all these cards done at Splitcoast Stampers. This is a super COOL website... they often have challenges, tutorials, ideas all the time. Its the "uniqueness" of each one's project that I love to see - everyone does it a different, cute way. I like that! Here's that website (this tab is set for the diaper fold cards, but look around... you'll be glad that you did - if you're a stamper)!! Splitcoaststampers DIAPER FOLD Just keep hitting the "next image" to continue looking at all the projects uploaded to this gallery!

Notebook Cover

Over the weekend (LOVED the rain!), it was cool enough to work a LOOOOOONG time in my art studio (aka - the garage; normal temp 100+)! Here's a "usable" project... (I have a friend that commented I say "cute" way too much...) So here is a project that is FUNCTIONAL (and cute!) A small spiral notebook - buy it cheap at the dollar store or WalMart and then cover it with designer paper and embellishments! All ages would love this gift! I have boys that draw constantly - keeps them quiet (maybe)! I always carry a small notebook for lists. As always... here's a video tutorial (these tutorials are GREAT; I'm a visual learner - see then do). Let me know how yours turned out! NOTEBOOK COVER TUTORIAL

Pictures of Melissa

Why would you want pictures of an old, fat woman? FITZ this is for you! Since I'm usually the one "taking" the pictures, there is not too many of me. Besides - the pictures of me, I usually grab and ditch!! Getting old is NOT easy! So! I've fulfilled my promise - I'm posting some pictures of myself - yuk!

Tattoos???

So what do YOU think of tattoos? Tonight, as we watched Michael Phelps win his 8th medal in this summer's olympics - we were so excited. Standing in front of the T.V. screaming, then yelling for victory. It was great! We allowed the boys to stay up late to watch - hey! it's history, right!! Aric made several comments that he wanted an Olympic tattoo. After a looong pause, my comment back was "when you are competing in the Olympics and you win a medal - sure, you can get one! BUT only until then...." (so if he's in the olympics; remind me of this!)

What do you think of tattoos? I have seen some super art work on skin... but your body changes! I've seen some elderly men that I have wondered "what is that" on their arm or leg that has changed "shape" -( I hope! ) from the time that they first got their tattoo.

It's the "IN" thing for young kids to get tattoos... I have also seen the horrible process of a former student going through the removal of a tattoo. It's real easy to say - my kid won't have a tattoo... because in reality (I know too well) once they turn 18 - they're considered an adult and can get a tattoo without your consent.

As a Christian parent, it's a concern that I have for my boys. I have a son that can easily get one now - although he's still trying to get his hair back to its original color from the last "great idea" (life lesson) that he had.

Maybe it's a fad - a permanent reminder of the 2000ish "thing to do". At least I can hide my 80's style Madonna clothes, leg warmers and pet rocks... hmmmm something ELSE to ponder! Would love to hear what you think!

Tic Tac Anyone?

Ever needed a quick gift to say "thank you" or "I'm thinking about you"? This quick & easy project is a box of TIC TACS - "who doesn't love Tic Tacs?" This project really is a quick one to make and very cute - making something simple; special... try it. Let me know how yours turned out! Here's also a link to a video tutorial showing how to make one:

TIC TAC HOLDER

Something to think about...

1 Thess. 5: 18,19..
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

• When are we suppose to be joyful...always.
• How often are we suppose to pray....continually.
• When do I have to be truly thankful....in ALL circumstances.
• Why do I have to do this....it's God's will.

We have "LIGHTS"!

We have lights! We are SO EXCITED! We were so blessed to find and move into this house 4 years ago (in May) - the family that had built the den, had their entertainment center in this area and there was no need for light. We put my grandmother's loooooong table for a dining table in this area - and in the evening and night - this area was DARK! SO! I picked out lights -- 2 years ago!! Today, Tommy Duffield (Duffy Electric - Childress, TX; awesome guy) He and Clyde fixed us up some lights! What do you think! Come see 'em! Their beautiful!