no bon voyage!

So our cruise got cancelled after all due to Hurricane Ike. Funny, though, how a completely unplanned week filled up in a matter of minutes once we knew we were going to be home after all! Nothing like trying to get back time you thought you had already lost...

I'm posting this card for Kristina Werner's 23rd color inspiration. I am so in love with this branch image from Eastern Blooms. If you don't already have it, WHAT are you waiting for?? The set is on SALE until the end of the month ($18.66+tax+shipping!). And shopping is so easy now...all you have to do is go to my Stampin' Up! Demo website and click "SHOP NOW" and shop! Of course, you are still more than welcome to shop the old fashioned way by calling me or sending me an email. : )

Anyways, I used markers to color directly onto the stamp. I do not have a marker for bravo burgundy so I used a blender pen to pick up the ink from my ink pad and applied it that way. Easy peasy. I mounted the image on old olive and used some more retired Au Chocolat paper. The ribbon is left over from a project from Neesha's wedding. She and Jeff are about to celebrate their one year anniversary and I still have oodles of that ribbon laying around! Must use it all!!

Gotta run for now. Savi is on a tirade over here. She's looking at one of the pictures from our wedding and is upset because she and Jaya aren't in the picture with us. Um, that's because you guys weren't born yet!! She didn't like hearing that so she's telling me how she's "going to broke your dress so you can never wear it again" (no worries, Sav, it's never going to fit again!) and that "it's too late for you to be married." She's a pistol, this one! And Jaya needs more milk. She's being very loud about it. I think Sach and I are going to try to watch a movie tonight. That is, if neither one falls asleep before the movie starts. Hope you all are having a good night...

Hurricane Ike - Yikes!

Surprised to see another post so soon?? No worries. I am too! The last two days have really been full and crazy...mostly thanks to Hurricane Ike. This beastly storm is about to make land fall and Galveston is pretty much ruined. I am worried for my family and friends in Houston. Hopefully, there will not be too much damage and difficulty for those riding out the storm there. My in-laws drove up this morning so are safe here with us, but my mother, father, brother, older sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and niece are all there. When I last spoke to my mom, she said things were fine. No rain yet, just darkened skies. She actually asked me why I sounded so worried. Seriously??

On a much more selfish note, we're scheduled to take a cruise on Monday that leaves from Galveston. I'm just a little worried about our vacation, but I'm mostly shocked that they haven't cancelled the cruise. We got an automated call today informing us that the cruise is still leaving on Monday. What?? I can't tell you what we were thinking when we booked a cruise during hurricane season, but we were really looking forward to some time off. The girls are super excited about their "boat vacation" and have been practicing their pirate voices because naturally, only pirates take boat vacations. You should hear their "ahoys" and "me hearties"! (Thanks, Wiggles!) So, more stuff up in the air around here. Joy.

The card was one of the fastest ever that I have made. I made it a while ago, but it took about four minutes! I used pumpkin pie prints papers (now retired), die-cut blooms (not retired, yay!), flower fusion felt flowers (also not retired, yay!), and a rhinestone brad on a rose red base. Fun, fun, fun, fast, fast, fast! The sentiment is from Enjoy Every Minute. I think it's one of my all-time favorite "thank you" stamps.

Hope you all are keeping safe tonight. Settle down, Ike!

So much to post, so little time!

I am a complete blogging loser! I know. But I think about blogging all the time. If thoughts count, I post all the time... : ) I am behind in so many aspects of my life right now that I am just trying my best to get through days and consider myself lucky when I cross something off of my mile-long to do list. Anyways, I do have lots of catching up to do here, so I'll give a few quick and dirties about things going on here (with some pictures and cards I've made all in between, just in case you like picture books better than chapter books!):

On my girlies: I am currently sandwiched between these two angels in my bed since neither barely slept this afternoon. We are watching a new Wiggles DVD that Jaya and I checked out from the library this morning while Savi was at her dance class. Savi has started a 3-morning-a-week-3-hour-a-day-ballet-tap-gymnastics-program. This is our third week and things are going well except for the occasional and unexpected drop-off drama in which Savi does not want me to leave. Usually, Jaya is crying about wanting to stay with Savi, but the last few days, Savi has been crying. That, in turn, makes me want to cry. Oh, the insanity!

On Convention: Although it feels like forever ago, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Stampin' Up!'s annual Convention in Salt Lake City. I had such a great time with Jenn and Lydia. They are my stampin' sisters for sure. I really enjoyed the City of Salt Lake and was only asked once how many times I hit the tanning salon to achieve my shade of brown. : ) I ate awesome sushi, learned cool stamping and business techniques, oohed and aahed over the new catalog, met Kristina Werner, and got a break from being a mommy! All good stuff.

On swapping: Since this was my first convention, I thought I'd take a few swaps just to see how the whole thing works. Well, I'm glad I did, but swapping is crazy!! I made 20 of the baby boy card below (see the second picture for how I set up for a mass-production) and 20 3"x3" cards like the one I made in my open house. It's funny though that I think making 40 cards is a mass production (for me it was, though, since it was literally an eleventh hour decision to do so). Some ladies had like 300 cards to swap. CRAZY. I didn't have that kind of time or energy, but I was very happy with my swapping experience. I stayed up until 3:00 am the night before leaving making these, thus the poor lighting in the pictures:

On my job situation: After interviewing for and being offered a teaching job in Houston, I decided that just wasn't the best course of action for my family. I would have had to fully devote myself to work (teaching just isn't a 8-hour-a-day kind of job) and the girls would have been in their school for waaay too many hours a day. I wasn't ready to subject them to that. Also, I got word that I'll have a semi-longterm contract coming up. I still haven't started that work, but had a short contract in August. I so wasn't used to working! It was so hard for me to have the girls at home all day (without naps!) and meet deadlines. I managed by waking up at 5:00 am to get some peaceful work time. That was a feat for a non-morning person as myself.

On moving: Still up in the air! How frustrating!! Well, the move (specifically, the house we move into) depends on the kind of job I have and since I don't know about the contract yet, I don't know about moving yet... That and I believe that when things are meant to happen, they should happen without too many road blocks. All we have had so far on this road to Houston has been road blocks! I've decided to stop pushing and see what happens...

On having a third child: Wow, I know. Sach actually brought this up after I thought it was off the table. I've always wanted a third child...but is it going to be possible??? Will keep you posted!!

On these four cards: This is what we made at my August class. Don't you wish you had come? Email me to find out when my next class will be so you don't miss out!! I used two (of the four!) of the sets that I got at Convention, Inspired by Nature and Eastern Blooms for the three "regular" cards. The popsicle card was an idea I got from a swap and I made it using the Wow Flowers set and scallop punch. These cards were really easy and really fun to make. I used some of the new in colors as well: pirouette pink, kiwi kiss, and baja breeze. Sorry for being sketchy on the card details....the natives are getting restless because the Wiggles DVD just ended! If you want to know any more about the cards, please leave a comment or email me!

Take care!! Leave me a comment to let me know what's been going on with you. : )

back to normal...?

First off, let me apologize for being so absent here. My July has been insane: lots of back and forth between here and Houston, lots of interviews, lots of house hunting, lots of changes, and then not so many changes (I'll try to explain, I promise, but it's still so confusing for me...), and sadly, not lots of card making! The cards here are some that I had made previously but didn't get a chance to share...they are pretty straight-forward. If you have any questions about them, please leave me a comment or shoot me an email!

I am happy to report though that the last two days have been the most normal days we've had around here in a while! We've been at home and have had a chance to do "regular" things. WHY? We've decided to postpone our move to Houston. We were trying get there so that the girls could start their Montessori school on time, but their start date can be flexible and since Sach is still working from home and I'm about 98% sure that I'll still be working from home doing freelance writing (YAY!!), we have some extra time to get things sorted out properly....AHHHHH.

I promise I'll be back soon with new cards to share! I have a whole box full of new goodies that I haven't even touched yet. That will be remedied, be assured...

Thanks for stopping by!

trying to get all caught up...

Tonight is all about trying to get all caught up with stuff around here. Catching up on blogging (posting here and reading my faves), catching up on laundry (which I discovered I actually can't do because we ran out of fabric softener....), and catching up on DVRed shows (The Bachelorette tonight...yes, I admit that I watch!)...... Anyways, we've actually been back from Houston since Wednesday night, but it takes me a while to really get back into my groove again. And plus yesterday was all funky for us. I'm thinking the stress of our situation is starting to catch up with our bodies. Sach slept in and didn't check email almost all day long (which for him, being a work-at-home-aholic is huge!), I went to lay down for a nap at 1:00 when Jaya went down and didn't wake up until past 5:30 (!) - seriously, that hasn't happened around here for a long, long time. Then I woke up to find that Savi had quietly come downstairs and colored red crayon all over the carpet in our bedroom! She's had the hardest time since we've been back home. I think that all the back and forth, not to mention all this change, is very hard for her and when we're in Houston, she's pretty well-behaved (for Savi) and when we're here, she just has to get all of her naughty out. So, by the time I got the red crayon halfway out of the carpet, we had already missed most of the Fourth of July party we were supposed to go to. At that point, I just called it a day. Sach and I were in bed, ready to sleep at 8:00. What are we, preschoolers??

On to the cards: these are a few that I made before our trip to Houston for some friends we were seeing. Above is a get well card that I made with Splitcoast's color challenge 172 in mind. I really like how the taken with teal, wild wasabi, and whisper white all look together. Definitely a color combo that I will use again...especially since I have a great deal of that awesome polka-dotted Making Memories paper still!

Next are two baby cards. This first one is for Splitcoast's color challenge 171 (kraft, basic black, and soft sky). I have to say I wasn't sure about how this card was going to turn out, but I'm really happy with the end result. It's not your typical baby shower card colors and I like how it worked. The second baby card is more traditional as far as color goes. I had some cute Making Memories paper that I wanted to use that matched well with lavendar lace and pretty in pink. I used Nursery Necessities images for both cards as well as the scallop punch. I actually cut the star out, but just ordered the large star punch so no more crooked lines on stars for me!

Back to personal stuff: we found a house that we like that we can build in a neighborhood that we like in Houston. Now, I just need to find a job!! I've been writing for an educational publisher and it would be my dream to continue to work for them, but they have no grant money to continue right now. Any super-rich people out there with money to invest in some pretty cool educational math and science tools for students?? Email me! Also, I've applied to at least a dozen different schools for teaching jobs, but haven't heard anything yet... I'm hoping principals are just on vacation and that my resume doesn't stink. Then, I just read a whole bunch of inspiring articles in On Stage about demonstrators who make a living and support their families off of sales from Stampin' Up!, but I don't know if I'm cut out for that. Again, anyone out there just want to hire me to make cards for them? I can, and I'd love to! Anyways, sorry! I guess I also needed to catch up on my venting...

As always, thanks for looking! Hope you're having a good long weekend...

better late than never...

Here's what I made for Kristina Werner's 13th color challenge. I'm a few minutes late in posting and am holding a naked baby so I'll share details later...


So, now it's later and due to technical difficulties I had with blogger, I wasn't able to post before. Then, add in parenting-related difficulties such as naked Jaya running around the house and Savi climbing up the outside of the banister and here it is, almost 10:00pm...

On to the card: we were to use purely pomegranate, regal rose, river rock, wild wasabi, and whisper white. I opted to make a 3"x3" sized card because I really wanted to focus on the square that I made in an attempt to replicate one of the pillows in the bedding. Let me pause here to say that I didn't get the greatest picture of this card...the colors look weird here, but actually look very pretty in real life. I used two stamps from Baroque Motifs, one of the greatest sets ever! I stamped the little flower stamp in Versamark for the background on river rock. I stamped the medallion stamp on wild wasabi with regal rose. Then I applied dazzling diamonds glitter using a 2-way glue pen. Like I said, the picture is all funky! My real card is very cute...I promise!

Now for some exciting news: after 20-some days of waiting and not knowing about our situation, we finally have a clue!! Man, it feels so good to have direction again. Basically, Sach is keeping his current job, which allows him to work from home and we are moving to Houston, but not for about a month. That gives me plenty of time to organize and pack, I think. We're not sure when we're going to place our house on the as-it-were brutal market, but hopefully we'll be able to figure some things out after another round of house-hunting in Sugar Land/Missouri City this weekend. Wish us luck!!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be posting again soon with another Ann Taylor-inspired card...

kristina werner color inspiration 12

Here's what I made for Kristina Werner's 12th color inspiration. I'm in a big fat rush to meet her deadline so I'll add more later...

OK, so I'm back to add details about my card and give you all a few updates about what's been going on around here. Let me first say that I didn't need to rush my original post. Turns out mountain time is one hour behind central time, not one hour ahead like I thought. Duh. I'm gonna go ahead and play the sleep deprivation card for that one. Why am I sleep deprived? Well, let's see: we don't know if we're moving yet, Sach doesn't know which job he has, I don't know about my job situation either, the housing market in Austin stinks right now so we're getting low listing prices for our house, the market in SugarLand is booming so we're looking at houses that cost an arm and a leg more than what we wanted to pay, the girls are confused by all this moving talk...the list goes on and on and on. I seriously hope that we know what's going on this week. I just have to keep believing that whatever happens is going to happen for the best.

About my card: I really wanted to do the color inspiration because I missed the last one. So I feel like I rushed. I'm not sure that I like what I made. I copied a layout that I used for a thank you card that I have yet to share here. The colors chosen for the inspiration were sahara sand, whisper white, so saffron, and wild wasabi. I have been using a lot of sahara sand lately. It is a great neutral. I found ribbon that's from Making Memories that is the exact same shade as wild wasabi. I actually wanted to reverse the colors and use so saffron ribbon, but I don't have any or anything that matches. Anyways, I used the polka dot stamp from Boho Backgrounds to make the pattern on the whisper white in so saffron ink. I stapled the ribbon onto the card. I have been using staples alot lately too. I used the ABC lower alphabet stamps to spell out "friend" in wild wasabi. It looked much cuter on my grid paper when I did my practice run, but that's life. I wrote "my" above "friend" with the so saffron marker. It's a little hard to see here. Let me know what you think!

I've missed blogging. I'm going to try to keep up as best as I can given what's going on in my life. For now, I'm off to give the girls a bath and then watch "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" on the fuse channel. Seriously, I LOVE that movie. Makes me happy every time. And happy is what I need right now. As always, thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone has a fun-filled Saturday night...

call me a slacker

Go ahead. Call me a slacker. It's true. I am a blogging slacker these days. Please let me explain. Things in my neck of the woods are a little helter skelter right about now. We may be moving to Houston. We may not be. I'm really not sure. That one decision, which is influenced by about a million variables, has got our world around here turned upside down. It's honestly a long story and that's pretty much all I can say about that without getting overly emotional or ranting... I'm just hoping that I will have some definite news to report on SOON.

Anyways, my lack of posting here is in no way a lack of creating things on my end. I did have my class on Saturday and these are the projects that we made:

First up, a little 3"x3" gift card on regal rose with a wild wasabi mat. The elephant from Wild About You is stamped in Basic Gray with a dimensionaled ear detail added. Seriously so easy to do, but makes a big difference to me.

Here is my take on the one sheet box tutorial over at Splitcoast. I actually used a half sheet of paper (8.5"x5.5") scored at 1.5" from either end on the short side and 3.5" from either end on the long side. I used chocolate chip paper for the box. The background is the large scroll stamp from the Baroque Motifs set stamped in Versamark. I corner rounded the corners with the 3/16" corner rounder. The "Enjoy" sentiment is from Lovely Labels and is stamped in soft sky on whisper white. I rounded two opposite corners.

We also made a simple father's day card that I had designed for my father-in-law. The base is sahara sand. (I honestly think this is my new favorite neutral. More on that later...) The designer paper is from Fall Flowers, paired with a strip of 5/8" old olive gosgrain ribbon and a strip of soft sky. These three layers are stapled together. I thought that added a rugged touch. I've been meaning to use staples on my projects and this seemed like a good place to start. The sentiment actually says, "Happy Father's Day, Father" and is from a retired set, All-Around Argyle, that I inherited from Lydia at one of her events. I colored in the part that I wanted in old olive marker and positioned it using the stamp-a-ma-jig. I cannot say enough about that stamp-a-ma-jig...

Last up from class is this monochromatic number in pumpkin pie, sans stamping. I used pumpkin pie prints and the pumpkin pie striped ribbon. The flower is made from the 5-petal punch and the felt flower is from the Flower Fusion Accents & Elements tin. The two flowers are held together by a Making Memories rhinestone brad.

I have also made a few thank you cards, gift cards, father's day cards and a baby card, all of which I will post soon enough. We have a trip to Houston planned for this weekend, wherein which we hope to find a place to live, say that's the direction we're taking...don't get me started on the drama! Definitely more on this to come...

Thanks for stopping by and sorry if you were left waiting for me to post. Let me know if you missed me by leaving a comment... ;)