Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday season, and now that the kids are back to school, everything will get back to normal (whatever that is).  It seems like everyone I know is sick with the flu,  and most of them are going back to school still sick, including some of our teachers.  I know that every time I go north to visit relatives for the holidays, I come back sick, and usually spend my New Years in bed.  I didn’t travel this year, and I’m not sick, and have not gotten this flu yet (knock on wood), so things are good!  I hope those of you that are feeling ill, will quickly feel better.

Well, with a New Year, comes evaluation and resolutions to make changes to improve your life.  I have one that has been on my list for the last two years, which was to find an attorney and take care of living wills and trusts and add my kids to my deeds and such.  Another repeated one is to relax more, and I’m not talking lifestyle, because my husband affords me a great one.  I’ve read and reread "Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff" and it makes sense when I read it, but I don’t put it into practice, and I worry and preoccupy myself with every little detail you can imagine. 

I also want to get back into shape, toning and exercising more often. I was doing well from last year’s NY list, which was to work out and get healthy for the April cruise we took.  After that, I went on a leave of absence from my gym. So I started running around the lake again, and I also finally broke down and paid more for my WII FIT than it’s worth, but I can tell you that I’m unable to walk or sit down on the potty (its kind of like falling onto it) today because I did too many lunges yesterday for my thighs to handle.   

I also put reading more often on my list, although the past year I’ve become a more frequent reader, especially with my Kindle. Anyway, I read three more books since Christmas, two of which I purchased with a gift card to Barnes and Noble, and one on my Kindle.  I just love spending 8.99 for a book!  I’ve opted for more books and less card and scrapbook magazines.  Ok, so not really.  I’m just reading more books. 

I’ve got some on my list about improving my relationships, especially with my immediate family members.  And lastly, I think that now more than ever with the current state of the economy,  creating a budget, paying off my credit cards from last year’s IRS tax bill, and putting more of my money into retirement has become a higher priority.   With this comes a lot of groundwork which I’ve never done the homework for.  I never shop with lists, never had a budget before, and we pretty much buy what we want, eat out whenever we want, and go wherever we want.  Yes, I’m very grateful.  But I’ve got MORE than a latte factor going on here.  lol  

So, this process has led me to a very difficult  and painful decision.  I’m not one to throw in the towel especially when there is passion involved!  And believe me, there is a lot of happiness and passion involved.  I have decided to stop being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator effective January 15th.  My website at Stampin’ Up! will go away at that time.  I really tried from the onset, and in so many ways to make this a business for myself.  I created classes, demonstrations, open houses, hostess parties and attended craft fairs.  I spent a lot of time and even more money on my projects, both websites, supplies, tools, the products for classes, tons of marketing materials, catalogs, bags, etc.  You name it, I have given it a try.   I definitely applied my optimism and took the "If you build it, they will come" approach, and made sure that I had all the latest and greatest and remained creative at all times showing off the stuff I love.  I see people doing it successfully so I know it can be done, but personally, I’m not willing to wait 5-7 or more years to make it happen. Anyway, it turns out that this just isn’t the right business for me, no matter how much I love it. 

I haven’t decided what to do with Paper Charms yet.  I have some more ground work to do about changing it from a LLC to a sole proprietorship, and if that can be done with ease, I may keep it.  I’d like to use my stash of products, and see if I can make a go of selling finished product in an online store. I own the company name and all the domains as well, so we’ll see. 

I’m happy to report that at least I will be going to the beaches in Maui, Hawaii in September with my husband by using one of our Marriott timeshares!  I’ve wanted to go my whole life, and can’t wait.  I hope it’s as romantic as it is in my head!  

Well, romance is just around the corner, isn’t it?  Valentine’s Day is our next big holiday to celebrate.  We have a tradtion of having an entirely RED day, with our clothes, our decorations and candles, and everything we eat!  It’s kind of fun, and my son still doesn’t know how in the world I can make heart-shaped pancakes in the morning with Strawberry syrup!  lol  Anyway,  here’s a card using the new "Love You Much Bundle", which you can download the flyer to here.  Enjoy!

Love Card

	Stamps *  Love You Much Bundle Paper * Old Olive card stock * Riding Hood Red card stock * Very Vanilla card stock Ink * Riding Hood Red Classic   Stampin’ Pad * Old Olive Stampin’ Write marker Accessories * Stampin’ Dimensionals * Scallop Edge punch * Sewing machine and thread

Technorati Tags: Candy Lane dsp, Love You Much Bundle

Tags: Candy Lane dsp, Love You Much Bundle

Here’s a simple card for today.  It’s a remake of a card in December’s Card magazine.  I knew that I could easily remake it using Stampin’ Up! products. 

I also used a winter snowflake embossing folder (CB) done with the Big Shot on Baja Breeze cardstock.  Since SU cardstock does not have a white core, I’m not able to sand over the raised embossed areas.  To achieve the same look, I inked over the raised embossed areas with whisper white craft ink instead.  The dsp is from Holiday Treasures and felt snowflakes from Felt Flurries, the smaller collection.  Sentiment from Merry Messages, sponged in Real Red and raised with stampin’ dimensionals.

I hope you are all enjoying this amazing weather while you do your Christmas Shopping.  I got mine done weeks before Thanksgiving so that I could avoid driving in the Brandon area if I possibly could!  I did make it to Hyde Park last week after a fire alarm at the International Mall kept me from checking out at William Sonoma.  It took all my might to stay clear away from the Peppermint Bark!  Our oldest dog Oreo kept me up all night just a few weeks ago, after eating a half bucket of Costco’s Peppermint Bark.  Nick had left the candy opened on the dining room table and his chair pulled clear away so she jumped up and helped herself.  Wow, was she sick, and she’s so considerate, she goes outside to throw and go!  But we were very lucky, considering she’s only 21 lbs.   Well, flash forward to last Friday night, and I had  (5)-12 year old boys here all weekend for a Nerf Gun Territory War.  They got my 56 oz bag of M&M’s and brought it outside with them.  They left it opened in a pile of guns on the patio, which they periodically traded out, and in doing so, dumped the bag upside down on the ground and took off.  Snickers was the beneficiary this time, and she is not as considerate as Oreo. Then again, she’s half the size too.  So, I think she got sick a couple dozen times.  Again, we were pretty lucky she didn’t die too, but both dogs experienced terrible whole body tremors, and demanded pulling an all nighter for me twice in one month!  We’ve managed to avoid these kinds of issues for years while we’ve had the dogs and kids, usually I guess because we just don’t eat the stuff.  This year, I thought I would sell a number of altered containers filled with asst. candies at the Christmas Bizzarre, so I had a lot on hand.  Lesson Learned:  Don’t buy it, don’t bring it home, and don’t let your kids know where it is if you do. 

Enjoy the season!

Technorati Tags: Big Shot, embossing techniques, Felt Flurries, felt snowflakes, Holiday Treasures

Tags: Big Shot, embossing techniques, Felt Flurries, felt snowflakes, Holiday Treasures

WOW!  it’s been a MONTH and a HALF since i posted….. a record.  I’ve been BUSY, but not with my blog!  lol 

Ok, catch up.  My eldest son of 23, moved back down to FL for couple of months.  I haven’t even completely finished packing the Halloween stuff up in attic.  I have tried learning Photoshop Premiere Elements 7.0 in order to combine 5 home videos of Halloween night and decorations as promised to some of my friends,  in order to put on you tube and post a link to my blog.  That hasn’t happened  yet.  Did a craft fair, which tooks weeks of shopping and preparation including a trip to IKEA and two all nighters without sleep.  It was a bomb.  Did i mention that one of my dogs ate a bucket of peppermint bark and almost died?  Nicholas had double and triple auditions with a talent agency in Orlando, and got picked to be represented.  I spent two days shopping for the clothes he needed.  The following weekend he had a 4 hour photoshoot.  My husband hasn’t been home since September (sometimes on the weekends he makes it home).  I finished my Christmas shopping 3 weeks ago.  I adopted  two orphaned boys from the Brandon Womens’ League for Christmas present adoption and shopped for them this past week.  I drove to Atlanta for 6 days for an awesome Thanksgiving with Dan’s brothers.  I booked and then didn’t get to go to Grease on Broadway; my idea for hubby’s 42nd birthday, which came and went this week.  My hubby was actually HOME for the first time this week, and yet he wasn’t.  He had to drive to Tampa by the airport every day instead of working from home, and was on call 24/7 for two weeks, including thanksgiving in Atlanta.  Hence we didn’t get to take our trip to NY yesterday through tomorrow.  I’m still upset.  He bought me flowers.  I informed him it’s gonna take a lot more sucking up than that to make it up to me, and that if i ever go to NY in December again, it will be with girls I love.  :-)  We assembled our tree  yesterday but it’s not decorated, and my boys started the outdoor lights tonight.  We’re on our way to see Madagascar 2 at Channelside (as I type).

OK, so that’s it.  You’re caught up.

I’ve got a picture, but it’s not of a card or paper project.  I’ve got my 3 girls dressed up for the holidays.  Here they are:

Aren’t they the cutest?   Oreo (on the right) is very embarrassed at her Mrs Clause outfit. 

ok boys are waiting in car now!  bye!  hopefully, I will talk to you soon.

Technorati Tags: Add new tag, Christmas

Tags: Add new tag, Christmas

Wow, look what I found today when I cleaned my office!  I’ve had this kit for almost 2 months I think and forgot all about it!  This would make a great gift for someone, a nice homemade touch over the hang on the wall calendar from Barnes & Noble.  

This Create a Calendar Kit found in our Winter mini-catalog comes with the calendar pages for the year 2009, some stickers and tabs for the cards and month, the outer pocket and sticker borders, and a large piece of chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon.  It requires that you purchase the triple clipboard separately, and the paper you’d like to cover the clipboard with. 

I covered left and right sides using the Old Olive dsp grid paper using a template that I made originally with our single clipboards awhile back.  I traced the template onto a new piece of sturdy confetti cream and shortened the length to 7.5" and trimmed a sliver 1/16 off each side.  With this new template created for the triple clipboard, I needed 3 sections, and traced it onto the backside of the dsp I chose.  The middle section is a piece of striped Hawaii Papaya dsp.  I added two pieces of Pumpkin Pie grosgrain over the seams and tied at the top of clipboard.  I used Chocolate Chip stitched ribbon, Riding Hood Red striped ribbon, and Old Olive 5/8” grosgrain ribbon for the tops.  I used Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie felt flowers from accents kit, with an aged build a brad in the center.  I punched the red flower with our 5 point flower punch, and placed a smaller pumpkin pie flower from the collection of die cut blooms.

On the packing, they used two sets of number stickers:  one on the clipboard, which you don’t see adhered yet, and the other on the outer calendar pouch.  Since there was only ONE set of “2009” stickers inside the kit,  I took a “2” and “9” from on board chipboard letters, and two solid circles from our other chipboard collection, on board essentials.  On the two solid circles, which were the same size as the numbers, I used the crop-a-dile to cut away at the center a little at a time. 

I used a chipboard label, also from the on board essentials, covered with Old Olive cs on the outside packing and attached the “calendar” sticker.  I covered square chipboard with dsp, attached Riding Hood Red mat, then Whisper White mat, and then “2 0 0 9” numbers sponged in Pumpkin Pie.

For my display, I included a small bag stamped with punches of flowers, and lots of arrows in coordinating colors, punched with My Way arrow punch.  I also included lots of stamped images from Calendar Cues and Fundamental Phrases (nice and small).  Calendar cues and Cute Cues would work especially nice in this project (I think). 

This may or may not be an upcoming “gift” class, because I have TOO DARN ideas already for others that I want to do!

I hope you think of the teachers and the HS and college students on your list, or make it for yourself to coordinate with your office or craft room!  Of course, everyone needs a new calendar at the beginning of the year, and this is just a really unique and special one.

See you soon!  Thanks for looking!

Technorati Tags: 3D items, 3D Projects, Calendar Cues stamp set, Calendar projects, crop-a-dile, Cute Cues stamp set, desk accessories, Hawaii Papaya dsp, My Way Arrow Punch, Old Olive designer series paper, On Board Essentials, On Board Letters, Triple Clipboard

Tags: 3D items, 3D Projects, Calendar Cues stamp set, Calendar projects, crop-a-dile, Cute Cues stamp set, desk accessories, Hawaii Papaya dsp, My Way Arrow Punch, Old Olive designer series paper, On Board Essentials, On Board Letters, Triple Clipboard