HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL

Thanksgiving Blessing
Lord, today I am so truly
thankful for so many things.
You have blessed me in so many ways.
I thank You for the wonderful country
I live in...and for all its many heroes.
I thank You Lord for my wonderful family
and friends. They are my greatest blessing.
Thank You Lord for the creatures you have put
on earth for us all. They teach us so much,
unconditional love, loyalty, and understanding.
I ask You Lord that all who suffer with illness
have this day free from pain.
Thank You Lord for all who have tables filled
with food and someone to share it with.
And for those that have no family or food,
Lord, I ask that You comfort them.
I thank You Lord for the time I had with my
loved ones that have gone on to be with You.
They shall always be loved and greatly missed.
Thank You Lord for allowing me to have love
and understanding in my heart.
It is these many blessings that make my
humble life happy and fulfilled.
Thank You Lord…..Amen
~Charlotte Anselmo ~
May your Thanksgiving
be blessed with love and peace.

HOMECOMING DANCE

It was homecoming night at Mullen and the boys decided to wear all black with white ties. I don't know what happened to Weston but it appears he decided to wear a blue tie.  They were thrilled to have Weston's uncle as chauffeur in their grandmother's Mercedes.   They had a wonderful evening - I asked Sean what was the most fun of the evening and he said "riding in the Mercedes".  He is such a car person.  He knows every type of car made on the road.  He is so handsome.  That's my boy or rather my grandson.

BELIEVE IN SANTA

This weeks challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show is for distressed and sanded.  Hmmm - me had to think a bit on the sanded part.  I don't do a lot of sanding although I do have Tim's sander.  This is my fabulous new stamp set I purchased last weekend by Tim Holtz.  I'm in the mood for Christmas - okay okay, well at least I haven't started as early as Hobby Lobby - tee hee - they have Christmas trees out in July.  I just couldn't wait to use this set.  I took at class at Archivers a couple weeks ago and we used this stamp and I just fell in love with it. How many more Santas can one person have I ask?  Anywho, after distressing  the edges along with Vintage Photo distress ink, I colored a bit with my prisma pens the suit since I wanted it to stand out more.  Then I went back and sponged over it with vintage photo to tone it down.  I sanded the fragment for the frosted look and stamped a tiny sprig of evergreen to the back.  I love my fragments. Used a little twine and stamped a ticket, added some red berry bling and voila.  You rock my world Santa.

Witchie Woman - Simon Says Grunge

This is my entry for Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  This week it's Grunge - grunge I can do.  This card is actually cuter in person or at least I think so.  I don't know if my camera needs new batteries or what but I couldn't get it to cooperate.  Although it's pretty close because it is a dark grunged card.  I had fun making this. I love halloween and I love making halloween  cards.  Don't know what I'll do with them because I never send out halloween cards but maybe I'll start.  I used my spellbinders for the fence because I couldn't find my fence punch and I know I have one.  That's a sign that I have too much stuff when you can't find what you know you have.  tee hee.  The church is from Delicious Doodles digis.  The witch is a digi from Digital Pencil Too.  Mo has some of the cutest digis.  I used a Tim Holtz stamp for the bramble bush.  The bats are just clipart.  I did a lot of sponging on this one to make it dark and creepy and then distressed the edges.  It is grundgy and spooky - watch out for hallows eve !  Someone has been bending the iron fence to get in - EEKS.

A Weekend Trip

My younger brother and I took a little trip to Loveland, Co this past weekend.  I had remembered a flea market/antique store there that I wanted to revisit.  We had a good time browsing all the goodies. Here are a few pics from the trip.  Loveland is only about an hour and a half from us.

These are some old butter churns that I just love - would
have purchased one but they were quite pricey.

Mike - a little fuzzy - my arm was shakey.

  These are old oil cans - I remember these so vividly.

This old buggy has seen better days

Vintage Recipe Book

This is the front

This is the inside covers front and back






I have taken on a project of making a recipe book.  I think these are so cute.  I've seen many people making them and I just adore them.  I started this today so I don't have any pages in it yet but thought it would qualify for the Layers challenge on Simon Says Stamp and Show.  Jump on over there and play along - it's a lot of fun.  
I had an old book that I purchased from a used item store - I cut the front and the back hard covers off and used Graphics 45 paper to line the front and back and inside.  I just love this paper.  I put some Tim Holtz metal corners on the front of the cover as well as the back.  The letter were die cut from Tim Holtz alphabet die using Kraft paper and I colored them with Red Barn distress ink.  The sunflower is from Spellbinders and the book rings are 7 Gypsies.  The sweet stickers are from Crafty Secrets.  I can't wait to start decorating the rest of the book.  I just need to get the holes professionally punched.  I'll have to find out where I can get that done.  Have a great day and happy cooking!

Wishes

My entry for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week. What a great challenge this one was. To make something in the style of Tim Holtz. Well we all know no one can do it like Tim but it sure was fun to try.  I had purchased these rather large tags in Longmont, CO when I was at a stamp store last summer and never used them so decided to use one for this challenge - it gives you a lot of surface to work with and I seem to need that.  I made the little charm by using the tinted vision fragment technique from Tim's book "A Compendium of Curiosities".  This is a great book to learn his techniques.  I made the flower out of grungepaper.  I have so many of his products - I just need to start using them.  This challenge was a great way to get going with it.

Dream, Hope, Love

This is for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  This is their second challenge week and Wendy Vecchi is providing 2 great prizes.  I don't know why I seem to be so fond of these colors.  I start out with something different and end up with these colors.  Go figure.  Anywho -- I used chipboard from Sizzix and a lot of distress ink by Tim Holtz.  7 Gypsies paper was used for the flower and the alpahbet is Tim Holtz spellbinder die.  I cut out a bunch of alphabet letters and keep them in an envelope for use later.  The bird is also a die from Tim Holtz as well as the ornate frame holding "Hope".   The right side edge is also a stamp by Tim Holtz.   Added the buttefly and voila.   Next week I am going totally with a different color as I have a million of them but for some reason I am drawn to these colors.   I had fun making this and hope you like also.

Simple Elegance

I love this card.  It was made for the Shabby Tea Room challenge.  Nothing like the last minute to post eh?  Hope I'm not too late.  This stamp is an Inkadinkado clear stamp.  I use these stamps a lot. The set contains a few chandeliers and I love them all.  I used my Spellbinders to make the border and added some bling, embossed the background CS with a SU plate.  I put lots of stickles on to make it pop as the inspiration picture just reminded me of shiny elegance.  It's kind of hard to see but the bg behind the light is silver.   Hope you like.

FLUTTERBYS

I'm a last minute entry to the Winged Things challenge on Simon Says Stamp.  I had this piece of inked glossy cardstock that I had practiced on for the card below this one and seeing how I hate to waste paper -- I decided it would be great for another scene.  I used one of the stamps from the Tim Holtz set Spring Sprung and the butterfly is a stamp from the SU set Touch of Nature.  I put some gold dots on the wings of the butterfly but my Zip wanted to run on me.  Should have left well enough alone.  The background of course was made with alcohol inks.  I just love using my inks.  I like it and hope you do too.  Enjoy your day.

Daydreams of a Young Lad

I was very pleased with the way this turned out.  For some reason I seem to have better luck in designing landscapes.  I guess it's because I love doing them so much.  I just love working with alcohol inks.  The background in this one was created with alcohol inks.  I just adore this young lad.  I know he was a freebie from Digital Two for Tuesday.  The picture was actually larger but I cropped it out because it looks like he's sitting on the end of a pier looking out - actually I think he's sitting on the end of a boat.  I did color him just a tad with my watercolor pencils.  The ship is from the SU set called Winds of Grace.  I love this set of stamps.  I use them quite often.  I used my white gel pen to sketch in the waves and the birds.  Touched up the sail just a tiny bit so it wouldn't fade into the sunset.  Added the little ships stern ( I think that's what it is)  and voila.  Hope you like as much as I do.

Heat Wave and Tags

Is everyone in the world having a heat wave?  Wow it has been hot here in Denver.  Well, I should say we did get a mild reprieve for the past few days but today it was 91 and climbing to 100 all this week.  We are just cooking in the heat.  Oh well, fall will be here soon and then we can complain about how cold it is getting. :)

I made a few tags awhile back and decided to post them since I have been so slow to post for awhile.  This first one actually has an inside like a card.  I really like it.  Used some images I had purchased from different vendors. Wish I could remember where I get all these things but I buy so many on Etsy that I can't remember them all.  Guess I really should file them better to give credit.

Here is the outside and the inside of the first tag. As always, just click on them to enlarge.

Just fun with this one

Inside

Day at the circus or in my house it would be day at the zoo.

Talk About Lazy

This is the position my cat is usually in all the time.  Taz is a big fella - hairy ball of fur but I love him.  He is usually wherever I am.

LAZY DAZEY

Here is a card I whipped together this past Monday.  I just love this spellbinders Daisy 2.  The leaves are just great and I enjoy working with the different configurations you can make.  I used a paper that I purchased form Michaels that I just love.  I can't remember the name of it since I only bought 2 sheets but it's real thick, front and back sides are dp and I love the feel of it.  Almost like leather.  Had to make something with it so this is what came out of the thought process.  The verse I just love.  I found it on A Year From Oak Cottage.  I love reading Marie's  blog so check it out.  Marie is an outstanding artist and lots of yummy recipes on her other blog site The English Kitchen.  She's always putting little tidbits of wisdom and poetry into her blog and I just love them all.

The picture is a little yellow since I took it on the desk in my bedroom and my lamp is pinkish so it made it a tint more yellow than it really is.  I sewed around the edge just because I like that shabby look.  Enjoy and have a wonderful week.

Am I Obsessed??

Yes I do think I am obsessed with my patio garden this year.  I have enjoyed it so much and the summer has just begun.  How can such little things bring such joy I don't know but they really do.  Somehow I can sit for hours and stare at these flowers and just feel nothing but peace and contentment - lost in my thoughts and embraced by the beauty.  I watch and preen these little beauties like babies.  Watching them grow into adulthood is my greatest joy.  Such a short time and we are in full bloom and still growing.

Just click on the picture to enlarge.

Happy Spring Planting

Here are a few pictures of my new plants.  Some are about a week old and have doubled in size already.  I like to take pictures of how much they grow every month to see the difference.  That's most of the fun is watching them grow.  On vacation this week and enjoying every second.  Just plan to sit on my patio and enjoy the sun and beauty now that the wind has stopped blowing.  Whish - thought I would blow away yesterday.

FINALLY - Yes I'm Going to Add Some Content...

Here are some pictures I have made over the past week of my tree out front.  I always look forward to this time of year when my tree flowers out.  It doesn't last long so I have to enjoy it fast - tee hee.  Especially when the weather changes on us which it could do almost anything this time of year.  Today it is gray and rainy looking so when I got out of the car this evening from work I made a quick picture to show the difference a week can make.  The blooms are almost fully extended now.

This was the first one I made from inside the house earlier in the week and I took the picture through the window.  It hasn't quite filled out yet.

Here is another one to compare a few days later.

Here is the pictures I took today 5/6/10

Here's another card I made this week.   The BG paper is from 7 Gypsies.  Oh how I love my pad of 7 Gypsies paper.  The flourish is a rub-on.   The border punch is EK Success.  The rest are vintage pics that I have downloaded from the free internet sites.  I think the stick pin is from Eclectic Paperie. 

What a week....

This has been a busy week.  Weather has not cooperated very much but I still love it.  We need all the moisture we can get this time of year to get those flowers blooming and blooming they are.  Tomorrow I am going to try to get some pictures posted.  The tulips are actually blooming and almost ready to go back to sleep.  My beautiful tree out front is full of blossoms just beginning to open.  I'm praying the cool weather doesn't kill them off.

I have some new cards to post as well - I just need to get the pictures made.  Check back for updates.

A New Order From 7 Gypsies

Here are a couple vintage cards I made this week.  I ordered some beautiful things from 7 Gypsies and I just love it all.  Their paper is absolutely to die for.  I love sewing on lace and adding all the bling and little attachments.  I have so much I don't know what to do with it all but I will figure it out today.   Such fun and beautiful things to work with make the day go so fast unfortunately.  Tim Holtz has come out with some lovely things to work with.  I have a preorder in for some of his new faded embossing items. Can't wait to get those.

Listen For The Bell

A friend sent me this in email today and it was just so beautiful I just had to share.

Two Horses  
There is a place in the countryside with a field that has two horses in it. 

From a distance, each horse looks like any other horse. But if you  stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing...

Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind.   His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him.  

This alone is amazing.
If you stand nearby and listen, you will hear the sound of a bell. 

Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it  comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to the horse's halter is a small bell.  It lets the blind friend know where the other horse is, so he can follow. 

As you stand and watch these two friends, You'll see that the horse with the bell is always checking on the blind horse and that the blind horse will listen for the bell and then  slowly walk to where the other horse is, trusting that he will not be led astray.

When the horse with the bell returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, it stops occasionally and looks back, making sure that the  blind friend isn't too far behind to hear the bell.

Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges.

He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need...sometimes we are the blind horse being guided 
by the little ringing bell of those who God places in our lives.

Other times we are the guide horse, helping others to find their way...

Good friends are like that. You may not always see them, but you know 
they are always there. 

Please listen for my bell and I'll listen for yours.  And remember... 
Be kinder than necessary - Everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle. 

Live simply,
Love generously,
Care deeply,
Speak kindly...and leave the rest to God.