Feels like Fall!

This card is for the Penny Black weekly challenge and Our Creative Corner Wonderful Window challenge. The PB image is colored with markers and stamped on the card. The flourish stamp (hero arts) is stamped with shabby shutter and the sentiment is from PB as well.

Things usually don't go smoothly when the weather changes quickly. Yesterday it was 91, and today we are due to have temperatures in the low to mid 70's.  This morning my sweet boy found out he left his shoes outside and it rained, not a good way to start the day. Everyone was scraping to find jackets, and running out the door mumbling about being late to work and school. I hope my DH and Owen have a better rest of the day! I am still waiting on the life insurance company to send me my results, I am running out of patience with them. They sure had no trouble sending me a questionnaire to fill out regarding drug/alcohol use in the past 5 years thought. I feel pretty sure the test is an error. However, I need this fixed for my records as it all goes into a data bank and will forever cause me issues if I don't get it corrected. I have a head cold now and am totally paranoid to get the blood work done until after I feel better as I don't want anything to effect my results.

I wanted to share a sweet photo my Friend Debbie took last month. All of the photo's she took are gorgeous, but this one is special to me. Ever since I stopped swaddling pixie, I put her in a sleep sack every time she goes down for a nap. Once she was able to crawl and grab things she started grabbing her sleep sack and snuggling up with them when she got tired. She hugs it close and sucks on her two fingers and it is the sweetest thing I have ever seen. My DH says we should send a picture/video of this to the makers of these sacks as it is a true testimonial to how much she love them. Happy Friday everyone, have a wonderful weekend!

Thinking of you



This is another Penny Black stamp from the new release. It is colored with copics, and the edges were distressed with ink. I am so ready for the cooler weather we will get in another day or so here! I love summer, but as the days get hotter I long for the crisp cool days that we get too few of here. The kids are all dealing with allergies or a cold of some sort. Nothing too bad, just more of a nuisance than anything. Wyatt is the worst of the three, he sounds so cute stuffed up though. My little guy is becoming quite the singer lately, he know the words to a few Colt Ford songs that his Daddy listens to in his truck and its so cute. I need to record it but every time I start to do it he stops. He love the chicken and biscuits song, it makes me laugh every time I hear those lyrics.  Have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!



One of my favorite photo's from Grandfather Mountain in June



CFC #19

I made this card for the CAS-ual Friday CFC19 challenge. I don't want to fool you into thinking this was really a clean and simple card for me. I struggle making simple cards, but love the look of them. I first stamped the leaves from a Hero Arts clear set on PP from PTI. They were cut out and tied together with some twine. The twig wreath die is from Memory Box, I love the die but did not love removing all the bits that remained. I shimmed it as much as I could with paper but it still had quite a few spots that needed to be cut with an exacto knife. I have seen people use thin sheets of metal to help with these type of dies so I am going to try that next time. I think this die will be very versatile and really want to use it more often if I can get a cleaner cut.

I don't quite know exactly when it happened but my little boy is turning into a big boy! We can now have conversations and he is starting to ask all kinds of questions. His latest one is about babies, he wants to know when Lainey was in my belly, how she got out, was he in there with her, where was she when he was in my belly, and so on. I try to keep things very simple for him, we wanted another baby and God gave us one, then when it was time we went to the hospital to have Lainey. I can see his wheels turning in his head as he tries to process this. Then he wanted to know where and what Lainey was doing before God gave her to us, now I am stumped! The birds and the bees talk is not something I think a 3 year old needs, but he does ask some very good questions!  Thank goodness he moved right on from there to asking what trains he was playing with! Owen had a big weekend, playing at a friends house, and then he finally conquered the diving board! We were so proud of him, it took a few jumps with Daddy, a few gentle nudges at his request, and then he started doing it all by himself. He has come so far this summer swimming I am thrilled. Since he was very little he hated having water near his ears, even in the bath. We took 3 or 4 swim classes, and got nowhere. I decided to just let him be and go at his own rate and this year he has learned to swim, go underwater, and now he is jumping off the diving board, I am a proud momma! I am so glad we chose to not push the issue and let him go at his own pace.

Watercolor in orange

How can it be Thursday already? The past few days I feel like I have been running around in circles, not accomplishing a whole lot! On the card above I used watercolor pencils on watercolor paper, I added twinkling h20's to the background. The image was torn and distressed and added to the PP and background sheet.

Yesterday I got a call from the insurance company I am applying for life insurance. He told me I was did not qualify for the preferred rate instead the rate would be 4 times more than originally thought. He said my blood work showed elevated liver enzymes where normal was under 65 mine was 165. When I asked what could cause that he got quiet and said well let me read you what it says. He went on to say that the most probable cause was someone who was heavy drinker and had caused significant damage to their liver. I was driving so I pulled over and calmly explained that I do not drink, at this point I had the feeling he has heard that line before. I have pretty much been pregnant and/or breastfeeding for the last 4+ years, and I am not a drinker. My mind immediately goes to the worst, I have liver damage, I am dying. You can imagine how much my husband love my dramatic self right now. I called our Family Doctor and he is going to test me again once they send me my entire results, he said the insurance guy thinks I am a closet alcoholic, great! There are other reasons why it could be that high, but I am really hoping it was just an error. Not something I need, or wanted to worry about. I was just trying to plan for my DH to have money for childcare if something did happen. I am not a very patient person, so I am just going to try to put it out of my mind until I get the new result.

Watercolor Cosmos

 I was so excited to see that I love mementos is carrying Northwood Rubber stamps. The Enchanted Cottage in Lewisville had these stamps when Debbie and I would visit. The only problem was they never had the ones we wanted. They have beautiful nature inspired stamps that are so much fun to color. After watching Jill's video I decided to color mine with watercolor pencils. After I finished the coloring I remembered an Ikea frame I had painted last week, just messing around. I the added a memory box catalina border to the bottom to help balance it out. I have decided I need to make more frames like these to put around the house. I spent a good part of the holiday trying to clean out my craft room. There are so many cards, and stuff I don't use! Any ideas of what to do with stuff like that? I want to make more room in the office to make a bigger play area for the kids, so in theory I can craft while they play. Probably not how it will turn out, but it still would be nice for them to have some more space. I still have lots of work to do in there, but it is looking much better. I will post a picture soon when it gets all done, because it will not look like that after I start creating! Enjoy your day!

Floral story

I have a new favorite stamp! I love this Floral Story from Penny Black! When I was younger my Mom would grow Amaryllis inside and have them blooming for the holidays. I have tried several times and just can't seem to get mine to grow well inside. I stamped the image in black ink and colored with copics, R24,27 &29, and YG25, 23 & 21. I tore the image and inked the edges with walnut stain, the PP is from PTI which I also inked with walnut stain. Any big plans for the Holiday? We probably grill some food outside and hopefully get to the pool. Owen was invited to his first official "playdate" (it's probably already not cool to call it that not at the age of 8). He is so excited, it would be nice for him to have some friends to spend time with. We live out in the country and all girls live around us. He doesn' t mind hanging with them, but they aren't into fishing, playing swamp loggers or talking about go karts. Hope everyone has a fun, safe Holiday.

Magnets

I love making magnets for the fridge and these Lockhart images are perfect for this. I stamped the images with Memento ink, and colored with various copics, then I cut and matted the images, very simple but they look so cute.

Yesterday we had an overall party! After Wyatt saw Pixie's overalls he had to find his and put them on. He loves them because his favorite character Max, from Max and Ruby wears overalls.  I love this picture of the two of them checking each other out, so funny. As mush as I love having all three kids home it is a totally different atmosphere when Owen is in school. The house is much quieter, Wyatt fusses a lot less and he and Lainey get to spend time playing together. The age difference between Owen and Watt makes for some problems. There are many disputes that a 3 year old is not able to settle on his own, even an 8 year old has trouble understanding why things can't be a certain way. When they play together lately it usually ends up in someone upset. So for a few hours each day I am enjoying not being the arbitrator.