New Furniture

YEAH! Today FINALLY arrived!! I thought it would NEVER get here! All week I have been so excited I can't even sleep... waiting and waiting for the new furniture to arrive. Well, it's here! So you get to see it!

Yes, that is my Cocker Spaniel, Hobie. As you can see, he's not overly excited about the new furniture...hehe But I am! One thing I have wanted for a long time is a sofa table. My view from the kitchen sink is staring at the back of my couch. But now... I see this instead:

This is a much nicer view, don't you think? It's hard to see the details of the wood carving, so here is a close-up shot of the end table:

Can you see the little spots on the chair fabric, and on the center pillow on the couch? Well, they're not really spots (DUHHHH! hehe), they are DRAGONFLIES!! Can you believe it?!?! I have dragonflies on my furniture!! How cool is that?!?!

Well, I think I'll go stare at my furniture some more... hehe I know I promised some scrapbook pages, but that will have to wait until later this weekend. They're all done! Really they are! I just have to upload the photos! See you later alligator... hehe Hmmmm, I wonder... what rhymes with dragonflies? LOL

Easter News

We had a wonderful Easter this year! Our 4-year old grandson, Zion, had lots of fun running around finding the brightly colored plastic eggs filled with chocolate (that had melted in the hot Florida sun).

10-month old Declan enjoyed his first Easter, but didn't really get to eat any of the candy that he wanted to shove into his mouth.

And my DD Shannon prepared a PERFECT meal complete with turkey and all the trimmings. I know, I know... you're supposed to have ham for Easter. But I really do NOT like ham, so Shannon graciously agreed to prepare turkey just to make me happy. Isn't she the GREATEST?!?!

Well, the photo list wouldn't be complete without a pic of DH and my son-in-law so here are the family shots:

I'll have some scrapbook pages for tomorrow. Have a great day!

Alice

My Mentor

I want to share something with you. My friend, Jill, has been such an inspiration to me. Go check out her blog http://jillstampingwithink.typepad.com/signedwithink/ and you'll see why I think she is an absolute fountain of creative ideas. This card is just one of a series made with the Die-Cut Blooms (Item #111376, $8.95, p. 14) from the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Mini Collection 2oo8. Jill was selected by my upline, Lisa Curcio, to be my "mentor" last year, while I acted as one of a group of coordinators who planned and demonstrated Make & Takes at the quarterly meetings of our Hawaii Ink group. Jill is always reminding me to "K.I.S.S.", Keep It Simple, Stupid... hehe

Thanks for your influence and help, Jill. I hope you're feeling better soon! This year's flu bug is a tough one to recuperate from, isn't it?

And thanks to all of you for stopping by! See you next time...

Alice

An Easter Gift

I love making 3-dimensional pieces of art using Stampin' Up! DSP and whatever embellishments I can find on my desktop or stored away in one of a gazillion containers (that really should be labeled so that I can find embellishments with greater ease). But I digress... Here is a little something I made for my DH for Easter. Yes, I did give him some candy, too. But since I'm the one who usually ends up eating most of the candy, I thought it might be nice to give him something I couldn't take back... hehe

As you can see, I had lots of fun using different embellishments, including some Vintage Brads (Item #109109, $8.95, p.189 SSC), Pewter Jumbo Eyelets (Item #108432, $9.95, p.189 SSC), and pearls from the Pretties Kit (Item #109114, $29.95, p.188 SSC). The gorgeous one inch wide brown satin ribbon can be found on the Theater Ribbon Originals (Item #109186, $12.95, p.190 SSC). I even used some of the Love & Happiness Rub-Ons that I earned for FREE during the recent Sale-A-Bration. The list of punches that I used is almost as long as the list of punches available on pages 180-181 in the Stampin' Up! catalog.

Next, I need to start working on the designs for the next meeting of my monthly Scrapbook class. The group meets at my home in the Covington Park sub-division in Apollo Beach (near Tampa, FL). Just contact me to reserve your seat! I know you're going to love the new pages! I hope to see you soon...

Alice

I'm here!

Hello everyone. I have finally given up just thinking about it and have decided to take the first step into blogging. I would like to be able to post pictures, photos of cards and scrapbook pages I've designed, and just about whatever I want to share :-). So this is my first post. I look forward to many more.

I wanted to try and add a card, so below is a sample of a recent card I made for a Swap with some other Stampin' Up! demonstrators. We each chose a stamp set from the Occasions Mini catalog, made 30 identical cards, and received in exchange about 30 cards, 2 each of the 15 featured stamp sets. I have been perusing www.SplitCoastStampers.com to get inspiration and ideas for what to make, but it sure is nice to have lots of samples from different stamp sets to display for customers to see when they come to my house for classes. When they see awesome cards using new and fun techniques, then they usually want to purchase new stamp sets so they can make beautiful cards like they saw displayed here. So think about it the next time you have an opportunity to sign up for a swap! It's fun to swap, meet new friends, and have fun sharing what you love to do with others.

That's all for tonight. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter with your families and friends. 'Til next time...

Alice