Archive for the ‘Musings & Random Thoughts’ Category

This is what I see every morning when I walk out to water my Boston Ferns and pick-up the paper.  I have a pot of Peach Drift Knock Out roses sitting near my front porch.

My #1 Daughter has asked me to help her make some tags for the women/men who work for her.  I went out to the internet and pulled this picture.  At one time I knew how to make a picture into an SVG file, but at last that brain cell is gone.  I’ll have to try another day.

I really should play outside and get some sunshine, but I’ve been making pillows and practicing the keyboards.

Hopefully, I’ll get the pictures uploaded of what I’ve been working on this next week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Excuse the fuzziness of the photo, but I’m ready to get the Red out of my formal dining room. I’m thinking about a light yellow since my kitchen is a warm color….think of a glazed cinnamon.

First up is Butter.  This is a Restoration Hardware paint color.  Hmm, come to think of it I probably can’t get this anymore.

This is Saffron, also a Restoration Hardware.  I can tell you this is out it is way too yellow.

This is Prismo Dune, my BFF’s color of her kitchen.  I like it but I need to see it in the day light.

This is Champagne Tickle.  It is a nice light buttery cream color.  I’m leaning toward this because it really just has a light hint of yellow to warm it up.

While I’m making up my mind, the paint blotches are hid behind this picture.  Also, it keeps DH from knowing what I’m about to do.  He wants to keep it Maroon, Gig ‘em Aggies!

First excuse the glare on the photo, it’s hard to take pictures at night with an overhead light shining on your table.

I needed more paper like I needed another pound on my hips…lol!  However, I found this pad of Recollections Paper for $9.99 @ M’s and fell in love with some of the paper.

Thought I would give you a preview of the paper and then I’ll show you what I’m doing with it.

This pattern is done several times through the pack in various colors and it looks great in all the colors.

Loving the shades of gray, white and a hint of mustard.

This one just makes me happy every time I see it.  I think this is the paper I’ll us to make Mom’s Mother’s Day card.

This reminds me of something frilly, maybe something Tim Holtz looking.  I’ll have to see what technique of his I can use.

This is actually showing up more purple than it really is.  But this makes me think of Italy.

The pattern is a great pattern for backgrounds on cards or scrap pages.

This one blows me away.  I love Dogwoods and I have to make this one for myself.

This is done in several different colors also through out the pad but this mustard is a hot color this season and when you have something this bold all you need to do is make a simple card and let the paper do the speaking.

So, there is the preview and I’ve already made one Thank you card and I’ll show you tomorrow.  There is a before and after and the difference is dramatic.  Be sure and stop back by!

This was my deck last year and since I haven’t done much crafting lately my internal clock is wanting to get outside and start digging and clean up my flower beds and deck.

Hmm, I bought something at Canton (huge flee-market) at the end of the year that I need to set up.  I’ll take a picture and show it to you when I find it, but it is basically a tiered garden that I plan to put my herbs in this year.

I’m hoping this weekend will allow me to start getting things ready for a fun time outside.

Yes, I’m still working on this organizational project too.  I’ll show you the finish project when I get all of them done.

I love cupcakes!  One reason is they are the perfect size!

These are Devil Food cupcakes for a meeting to start up the Women’s Ministry at our church.  The icing looks pale yellow but it is actually white.

So with a little help from my BFF’s (Phyllis) we took plain cupcakes and made them special.  I whipped up this fluffy frosting and then used Phyllis’ Pampered Chef’s press to get the icing on the cupcakes.

It was a little messy but it worked great.

A cute pedestal dish and some cup cake wrappers and they are so cute!

No, I didn’t cut the cupcake wrappers (although I could have).  I was running out of time for pulling the meeting together and actually found these at Walmart for $1.88.

Exactly, after a long day this is actually a good way to end it………relaxed and ready for a nap.

I know this is a late, but I actually took this on “that” morning when we were only suppose to get 1″ and ended up getting 5-6″.

I couldn’t use the flash because it was so white it wouldn’t take a good picture.  I love the snow on the limbs in the tree and the little snow drift at the base of the tree.  The shrubs looks like a snow cone.

These were the icicles that was created when the front moved through giving us rain first, then sleet and then snow.

Brrrrrrr!

This is the storm that caused us to have rolling black outs and fried our Fios box.  Taking us back to the days of an antenna and actually no phone service.  Thank goodness we had cell phones.  We are all back up and running and the weekend has been great.  Stay tuned I have some things to show you over the next few days.

Happy Valentines Day!

Just kidding, you know those signs that say no shoes, no shirt, no service?  That ‘s what FIOS said when they told us we  do not have phones, TV, or Internet service and will not have any until 2/11.  This is all because of the winter rain, sleet and snow that hit Dallas (and it happened in that order).  They started rolling black outs and those black outs knocked out our Fios Service.  They have had so many calls that we are on the calendar for 2/11 to get it fix.

What does that mean……..for my DH he is going crazy because he watches TV (sports) all the time and you guessed it he is retired.  Too cold to get out and do anything and now no TV sports.

For me it means I will have limited access to internet to be able to post.  I’ll have to hit the local Starbucks to get everything updated.  Hmmmm, that really doesn’t sound too bad.  Nice Peppermint Mocha, a little wi-fi.  I can handle that.

I’ m updating this now from my work (shhh!).  Wanted to let you know my postings will be probably a little more slow in getting up but I now have a lot of time on my hands in the evening to work on things.  I’m working on another Thank you card to my oldest daughter for Christmas and I’m loving the way it is turning out.

So check back now and then and I’ll keep you informed between the Pepperment Mocha Lattes and the scones.  Oh yeah, I could work out too, hmmm, have to think about that.  When there is no TV how do you use up that time?  Maybe I’ll even pick up a book.

I had the privilege to go to a Tim Holtz (this is his blog) workshop when he was in the area a while back. Stamp Asylum (this is their blogspot) in Plano had a great turn out.

It officially started my Tim Holtz fever.  Oh, I liked his stuff before (thanks to my bff, Phyllis) but this workshop really kicked it into high gear.

I officially made myself a Tim Holtz drawer in my Jetmax cube mania.  One reason is because I had accumulated so much of his “stuff” I needed a place to keep it organized.

And it is the first drawer at the top of that set of Jetmax cubes.

It is already stuffed with Tim Holtz “stuff” to create with and of course you just have to have the “stuff”.

Actually, I am so impressed with his line.  It is true quality “stuff”.  No, I don’t get paid to say that or get anything free from them.  Just a good honest opinion.

For me I like the fact that he takes the time to plan the “stuff” out so it works with each other and they can be used with each other in several different ways.  It is also planned that the new works with the old.

I’m loving the grundge paper so much more than the grundge board.

I even have a notebook especially for his stamps, which by the way are great Christmas and Birthday gifts (thank you Phyllis).

Yeah, he is such a nice guy and I love the fact that he takes time to take pictures with people he barely knows.

Thanks Tim for all your inspiration and sharing your gift!

Sometimes you find a lot and sometimes you find nothing.  A recent trip to M’s put me in my “happy place”, I found a lot, a lot!

Click on the picture to see everything that I found. I’ll also take you through a little show case of everything.

First up is Tim Holtz’s grundge paper.  This is different from grundge board (which is thicker) this is a thinner product and I like it a lot, especially in use for making his tags.

Yes, more Tim Holtz.  Love the vintage look of his stuff and the time pieces that helps with the masculine side of cards.

You can actually make the hands of the clocks set at a particular time.  Maybe the time they were born on a birthday card?

These are great pieces from Recollections (which is M’s line).  At the M’s I visit closest to me these were 40% off and so I grab several.  I went to a  couple of other M’s and they were not on sale.  So the lesson here is to visit several.  Just because one doesn’t have it or it is not on sale it doesn’t mean another won’t have them.

You can actually cut these apart and get several cards or pages out of them.  Love the lace trim that is attached.

These are $1 stamps, great for embossing and using as a focal point for thank you notes.

Loving the size of these.  Large enough to make a focal point all by themselves.  I can see these being colored with Copics, some resisting or embossing.

Some more $1 bling, and again you can cut these and use multiple times.

Lot of felt.  I’m planning on doing some felt flowers to both wear and to put on some cards.  Love felt, this was $.29 a sheet and if I mess it up no big loss.

I couldn’t resist these either, yep they are a $1 find too.  Can’t you just see felt flowers, felt bird, felt butterfly, felt leaves.  Oh, inspiration is brewing!

Finally, some cute flowers.  These too were found in the $1 finds.  I’m telling you this is a cheap way to build some accessories for your wardrobe.  Cluster them together (you need 3), vary the size, texture and I try to make two of the grouping similar in color  (i.e. like a black/white polka dot with a solid black then pop with some color.

Love the blue flower with the light blue around the edges….yes, I did I glitters some of the petals.

Whew!  That was a great trip to M’s.  Now that I have gathered all of this stuff I need to get busy and create.

During our girl’s day out we made a quick stop  to Kirkland Home.  Snagged this cute slotted cake stand for about $14.95 (give or take a few cents and taxes).

I needed to make something equally as cute so I did.  Used a decorative bundt cake pan and made a delicious Butter Pound Cake.

Don’t you love the black and white polka dotted ribbon……yes, it came with the cake stand.