Maddy's Baby Shower Invites

Well I have really slacked off on this blog. My cooking blog seems to have gotten more attention but I'd like to rectify that! Over the last couple of days I made baby shower invites for my daughter-in-law. I think they came out SO cute!! The theme for this baby is owl. I used the Wild Card cartridge for the Cricut to make these invites. Here are the pictures:

I hope you like them. My daughter-in-law loved them so that's all that matters. I hope she saves one for the baby book, but if not, I made one or two extra ;)

Hugs and happy crafting!

Caity Sue

Awesome bloghop!

I know it's been a LONG time since I posted but I wanted to share this with you. There is an awesome bloghop going on with Zutter, Clearsnap, Spellbinders, as well as many other talents ladies. Check it out here: http://clearsnap.blogspot.com/  . They have some great homemade gift ideas and prizes.

Hugs!

Caity Sue

Last Weekend

Well I had a great time last weekend. Friday started out with the Scrapbook Expo right in Sacramento, just over the river from where I live. I showed a great deal of restraint and hardly bought anything. But I DID get a new paper trimmer - It's from Crafter's Companion and it's called Clevercut and it does perforating, wavy cut, straight cut and scoring...and you don't have to swap out a blade!! You just flip a little switch. All the blades are in the housing unit and it's made of German steel. It also has a built in corner rounder, and all the lines and markings, including protractor lines. You can check it out here: http://www.overstock.com/Crafts-Sewing/Clevercut-5-in-1-Paper-Trimmer/4615057/product.html
I paid $45 for mine, but Overstockdotcom has it for $38.49, and I think shipping is currently only $1!!

Onto Saturday....On Saturday I went to Elk Grove to take a workshop from Tim Holtz called "Seasonal Memoirs". As always, it was a great day! He is an amazing instructor and SO very patient. On Sunday I took another workshop from Tim again called "Configurations of you holiday imagination". Another great class!! I haven't taken pictures of my project with my camera yet, but I did take general pictures during class with my camera. Here is one of my favorites of Tim:

When I take pictures of the projects I made I will be sure to put them on here.

Today was a sad day as I had a funeral to attend of a friend's mom...but the mom and I actually became very good friends over the last 25 years and I was closer to her than my friend. Rest in peace, dear Twyla.

Today is also my dear father's birthday, as well as son Kyle's birthday. Happy birthday to 2 of my favorite guys!

Now I'm off to go to wine-tasting with my son and then take him to dinner!

TaTa for now!!

Caity Sue

WOW! Has it really been that long....

since I've posted? What a loser! lol. Actually I've just been incredibly busy, which can be a good thing. Let me start off where I last ended. Jake and Elizabeth had a fabulous wedding on 10/10/09. On 9/22/10 they had their first child - a GORGEOUS baby girl they named Nevaeh. She weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and ws 19" long and just PERFECT!! I was so honored to be there to assist and witness the birth of my first granddaughter. And I can't even begin to describe the feelings that event evoked in me. She's become my whole world in a very short time. I'm head-over-heels in love with this beautiful angel. Here's a picture of her so you know I'm not making up her beauty! lol.

As you can see for yourself, she is just adorable.

All the above photos were taken when she was 10 days old.

We are all doing well. Jake and Iddy bought a home right after getting married and they have it decorated so nicely. Kyle finished Culinary Arts school in late May, but they didn't hold graduation ceremonies until September 11th. I'm very proud of him. Now he just needs to get a job in the cooking field! Dustin is in Iraq again for his 3rd tour. James, my grandson, is living in Arizona now with his Mom, Stepdad, and baby brother, Clayton, who turns 1 on Christmas Day! Kimberly graduates from Law School on January 15th, 2011 and I'm hoping to fly Patrick out for his birthday present, which is January 12th. Doug is currently a Junior at UC Berkeley and working very hard to maintain a nearly perfect GPA.  

In late June one of my dearest friends moved in with us after rather devastating circumstances. My mother-in-law (who has lived with us for 5 1/2 years) just adores Lucille and follows her like a puppy dog! lol. I can't believe the last kid moved out (Doug when he left for Berkeley in August) and now we have Lucille. Sometimes it feels like we'll never be alone in this house! lol. BUT we are happy to help her out and she helps out some with Mom. Lucille will probably be moving into her own place in a few months. She is having major dental work done ($10,000 worth, but insurance is paying for half, thank goodnesS!), and then when that's paid for she has to get her car repaired (about $1200 worth). Then she will be in a position to find her own place to live. In the meantime we've all adjusted to having each other around. Having Lucille here has afforded Patrick and I the opportunity to actually get away on weekend excursions now and again. That's something we haven't had much of a chance to do before.

I have added a few recipes to my cooking blog, so pop on over there to take a look(http://cookingwithcaitysue.blogspot.com/) . I also spent some time today revising the look of my blog. I really don't know what I'm doing and there are more changes I'd like to make. I'd love to hear feedback on what you think of the new look.

Halloween is rapidly approaching and I'm hoping to make my yard look better than ever. I bought the COOLEST mirror today and can't wait to get that put up outside. Every year I add more and more. My "potions" section really should be awesome this year!  I'm really getting excited about decorating but I don't want to start too soon. I always worry someone will steal my decorations. I have cameras outside and hopefully that will be a deterrent to the thieves who feel they are entitled to something they haven't worked for.

I will be posting photos of my yard as I get it decorated so keep checking in.

TaTa for now!

An Update

Wow, I sure miss blogging? Why do I let it get SO far behind??? Where to start?
How about the wedding on October 10th? Jake and Iddy were married that day and everything turned out SO beautiful!! I will share photos with you all.

The church was decorated so beautifully by Iddy's aunt and grandma. They did such an amazing job with everything. Iddy was an absolutely GORGEOUS bride!! Jake had such a look of love on his face when he saw his bride in her gown. She wasn't even nervous! She had been waiting for this day for a long time and she was so ready, as was Jake. I did pretty well until they showed the slide show photos of them through the years. Jake's cousin did a great job with that presentation. That's when I started to cry...and just typing this out makes me tear up too. There was so many people who came to share this special day with them. I want to thank all who showed up to show their love and support for Jake and Iddy. It meant so much to them and their families. It turned out exactly like they had envisioned, which was so cool. I had a gift for Iddy, which I gave her while she was getting ready. It was a diamond necklace in the shape of musical notes. I hope she likes it. It was my "welcome to the family" gift. I had a speech prepared to tell her when I gave it to her, but I was having a hard time saying what I wanted to say, as I was fighting back tears.
Here are some photos of the wedding.

This is my 3 sons and precious grandson - aren't they a handsome bunch? The good-looking one in the middle was the groom, Jake aka JakeBaby ;)


This was the decorated church.


Elizabeth and me prior to the ceremony


Jake and me prior to the ceremony


Jake seeing Iddy for the first time in her dress


Their first dance as husband and wife


Being toasted by Iddy's sister


Running the gauntlet (we all had bubbles to blow for them to run through)


The sign I made for the back of my car they used for their honeymoon

I hope you enjoyed the photos. They spent their first night as husband and wife at the new hotel, Le Rivage, on the Sacramento River. They then spent their 2nd night at their new house for the first time (Jake had moved in about 10 days earlier, but Iddy didn't move her stuff in until the day before the wedding, and didn't stay there until the night after the wedding). On Monday they headed to Monterey for the week. They really had a great time and they both love Monterey. They bought the house they are living in now but escrow didn't close until December 11th (2 days after Jake's 23rd birthday). They had to wait for the people who owned the house to own it for 91 days before they could buy it due to the "No Flip" rule FHA has, so they rented it for 2 months but now they own it. They both lived at home until they got married and then moved into together in their own home! They have sure been blessed by doing everything right. I am so proud of them!

Well, I hope to write more later....maybe finish up the year before the new year gets too far along lol.

Thanks for reading!!

Cindy at stampingscrapping.com is SO generous!

Cindy from www.stampingscrapping.com (my FAVE online store - she also has a storefront but the name escapes me right now). Cindy has the most AMAZING customer service of any store, online or otherwise, that I have ever seen. She truly cares and loves hedr customers and bends over backwards for them. Her husband, Kevin, is equally adorable!! So run, don't walk to her website and get your Christmas shopping done early! ;)

Anyway, she is having great blog candy giveaways! Here is the scoop from Candice of Designed by Candice (http://designedbycandice.blogspot.com):

November 22, 2009
Scent With Love Stamps Giveaway!!!

Fancy Tags



Label Accents




Drink Mini's



Tag Accents



Hey everyone!

Cindy from Stamping Scrapping and Scent With Love Stamps has VERY GENEROUSLY offered to give away ONE of the NEW stamp sets from Scent With Love stamps!!

The BEST part of this giveaway is that the winner gets to pick which ONE of the new stamp sets that they would like!


Want to win? Here's what you need to do:

1. Become a Follower of my blog (via Google reader is fine- just put that in your comment)

2. Leave me a comment letting me know which THREE products from STAMPING SCRAPPING.COM are on your wish list! (One comment per person please)

FOR A BONUS ENTRY - Post this giveaway on your blog, facebook, or a messageboard and then email me with a link to it (cwarnke@sbcglobal.net). I will put one additional entry in for each place that you post and send me the link!


CONTEST CLOSES ON WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 25th
at 9:00am EASTERN TIME!
Winner will be posted
by NOON that same day!



Have a great day!
Thanks for stopping by!

ps. For MORE blog candy check out the Scent My Cards blog HERE (http://scentmycards.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-about-some-holiday-blog-candy.html)! Cindy is feeling VERY generous today!!

Tri Fold Christmas Card

OK...I had so much fun making the Tri Fold card yesterday, I decided to try to design Christmas cards. This is the first one I came up with. I will try to design more tomorrow.

For this card I tried a couple of techniques that I picked up from a Tim Holtz You Tube video. I took a manila folder (the tags weren't big enough so I stole some manila envies from Patrick ;) ) and wiped my non-stick craft sheet with some Distress Ink and sprayed that with some water. I rubbed my manila pieces in that. I dried them with my heat gun and then stamped the images on them using the Distress Ink again. I then took a DRY paint brush and brushed Perfect Pearls on the stamped image while it was still wet so it would set. Then I sprayed the image with water, which brings out the color underneath and "feathers" the edges for a neat look. You can wait as long as you want before setting it again with the heat gun to stop the feathering. I will caution you against spraying TOO much water, which I did with my first image - it just ran together and you lost the lines of the stamped image. Didn't look good at all. Try to resist the "just one more spray" mentality! lol

For the middle part I stamped my image in white Brilliance ink and then heat-embossed it. I wish now I would have used white embossing powder so it would stand out more. The red lines on the portion where I siged the card was not caused by sloppy stamping, but rather me dropping the ink pad lol.

Thanks for stopping and feel free to become one of "Caity's Crowd" by becoming a follower! I will be expanding this blog soon and giving away some great blog candy when I hit 25 followers!

The first photo is the card folded up, the other 2 photos are obviously opened up. One laying down and one standing up. :)

Tri Fold Card Challenge

Well I have not been the best at keeping my blog up...but that might change now that my friend, Tee, is hosting challenges for our Scrapals loop. The first challenge was to make a tri-fold card. SUPER EASY and so much fun to do. I am really happy with how my card turned out! Let me know what you think :)





Here is the link for instructions on how to make this card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/trishuttercard/

Thank you, Tee, for coming up with this challenge. It really got my creative juices flowing. In fact, I'm heading to my room right now to go play some more!

Today has been a GREAT day!

We started out this morning by going to the orientation for Kyle's culinary academy. That went well - short and to the point. Then we headed over to the Men's Wearhouse where Patrick and Kyle were fitted for their tuxes for the wedding. I can't believe the wedding is in 3 weeks!! Where has the time gone??? From there we stopped at Michael's where I got 4 new Cricut cartridges - Winter Woodland, From My Kitchen (but of course!), Sweethearts, and A Child's Year. Add that to the cartridge I bought yesterday (Calligraphy Collection) and it brings my cartridge total to 58, I think. I also pre-ordered the Gypsy (Patrick actually got me this for my birthday, which isn't until October - which comes in handy since it won't ship until Oct or Nov!). Today I started working on a handmade gift for my future DIL...I can't say what it is just in case she reads this blog - which I SERIOUSLY doubt! lol. I just don't want to take the chance. We stopped by the body shop to get the estimate on our car repair (the valet parking people wrecked it on our anniversary) and then grabbed lunch to go. Then we came home and took a nap (something I almost never do!). I woke up and cleaned up my scraproom a bit and then started on Iddy's gift (Iddy is Elizabeth's nickname). I then cooked dinner using a new recipe I recently discovered for Spicy Peanut-Crusted Chicken (I placed the recipe on my cooking blog - feel free to check it out at www.cookingwithcaitysue.blogspot.com) and it turned out FABULOUS! We have nice, fat bellies now :). I could sure use a few more days like today, that's for sure!

Now I'm headed to my dear friends, Jahn and Debra, to have some good, red wine and sit by the fire pit. I am so blessed to have these two as dear friends!

Well, I just wanted to check in since I have promised to be more diligent with my blogging.

Hugs and thanks for reading!

A little update on me

Well, I have been a super-busy girl as of late and am SO sorry I haven't found the time to blog about it. There just aren't enough hours in the day, that's for sure.

My oldest son, Dustin, returned from Iraq safe and sound (praise God!) just after his 30th birthday. I'm SO sorry that he had to spend his 30th birthday in Iraq but was glad he made it home safely. His son, my one and only grandson, turned 4 years old in June. He is just such an adorable child - and SO unlike his daddy at that age. I'm SO looking forward to having them come visit in October, as well as meeting Dustin's girlfriend, Marsha.

My middle son, Kyle, moved back home after getting out of the Air Force. He is starting culinary school at the Kitchen Academy at the end of this month. It is a pretty intense 9 month program. He really wanted me to attend with him and I could do it as they have evening courses as well, but my hubby does not want me away from home any more than I already am.

My youngest son, Jake, is getting married in about 34 days!! I just can't believe it! I truly can't believe it!! Elizabeth is PERFECT for him, as he is for her. They are going to make a wonderful couple and they will make pretty, perfect babies (no pressure kids lol). I really can't wait to have more grandbabies to spoil. Speaking of grandbabies, James is going to be the ring-bearer in their wedding - too precious!!

I haven't gotten a lot of scrapping done, but I did make 225 wedding invitations for Jake and Elizabeth's wedding. I was so honored that Elizabeth and her mom allowed me to do that for them. I am taking a couple weeks off work the beginning of October and can't wait to spend time with Dustin & James & Marsha, and maybe even SCRAP!!

My dear, wonderful friend Lucille is coming back for another visit as well. I know she wouldn't miss Bubba's wedding for anything! I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of where to put everybody!

I am very sorry again for the lack of blogging and truly hope to post much more often....even if it's just a few lines. I also posted on my cooking blog tonight (www.cookingwithcaitysue@blogspot.com) if you feel like taking a trip over there to check it out!

I've missed blogging a log as I find it's very relaxing.

Hugs to all!!!

A little catch up

I'm SO sorry I have been so neglectful of my blog. Life just got so busy and when I did have some free time I just didn't think to blog.

Where to start? April 16th saw me lose another dear friend to that evil bastard, cancer. That was hard to write about at the time it was all happening. My dear friend, Lucille, had come down from Ferndale to be here when Michael passed. She was here for 5 weeks and went home the day after his service. It was such a blessing to have her here....she was amazing with my mother-in-law and my mother-in-law just loved having Lucy here. She followed her around like a puppy dog. Lucy would go outside to smoke and Dottie would be hard on her heels. It was pretty funny.

Lucy is coming back on the 19th or 20th of July to keep an eye on Dottie while Patrick and I get away to Reno. We are going to see Il Divo and just spend some time alone together! Not since our annivesary almost 2 years have we been away together - and that was just for one night!

Martie and her daughter, Corianne, came over last Saturday and helped me start getting all my cardstock sorted. I have thousands of sheets of cardstock and it was not sorted by color. That was a major project that I have been putting off for a long time. We worked that day for just over 2 hours solid. In that 2 hours we got the cardstock sorted into basic colors....blue and greens, reds and pinks, black and whites, grays, browns and creams, and yellow and oranges. AFter Martie and Cori left I got the grays, blues & greens done. They came back Thursday morning and we probably worked about 4 1/2 hours (we went out for lunch). Most of it was done by time they left at 3:30 and I FINISHED IT UP THAT NIGHT! I'm just SO proud of myself for getting it done.

Jake (my baby) and Elizabeth's wedding plans are coming along beautifully. Martie has been a Godsend by helping design digital wedding invitations. I think we MAY have our design picked out. Yeah!!!

Dustin, my oldest, is doing well. My precious grandson, James, turned the big 4 on June 21st. I can't believe how big he's getting and I'm missing most of it :(.I just wish they didn't live so far away!! Dustin bought a new truck and a Harley Davidson recently so he's pretty happy....though he did get a speeding ticket yesterday (14 miles over the limit - oops). Dustin and James will be coming out in October for Jake's wedding...James is a ring-bearer - how precious is that?!!

Kyle (the middle son) got out of the Air Force in April but remained for awhile in New Mexico working at Applebee's Restaurant until he almost starved to death!! The wages in NM are pretty appalling when compared to CA. He came home about a week after Mother's Day and I was SO glad to wrap my arms around him. He spent a month job-hunting and then ended up getting hired by Applebee's not far from our house. While he was out of work he did some chores for us - he scraped and repainted our back porch/patio cover and it looks so much better! It was truly time to be replaced. Here is a picture of his work. I think I forgot to take an after photo! lol. I'll have to take care of that soon.




On June 13th & 14th I was fortunate enough to attend 5 workshops conducted by Tim Holtz. They were great!! He is truly a wonderful teacher - so VERY patient! Each class held 50 students and there were 12 of us who took all 5 workshops. Here are some photos from that event:













Today I got my annual 4th of July manicure and pedicure. I will have to share photos of that soon. I haven't taken the pics yet.

Well, I will write more later and I promise not to wait so long!

Hugs!

Just popping in

I'm just popping in to say hey!... And my youngest became engaged on April the 4th. It was SO amzing! Here are some excerpts I had posted to my Scrapping Yahoo group:

Tonight is the night....that Jake proposes to his girlfriend, Elizabeth. He has it all planned out! Tonight is her senior recital. I made the invitations for this event but can't remember if I shared them with you all or not, so I'll attach them in this email.

Her Senior Recital is composed of a broad spectrum of songs....religious, Broadway, Jazz, Opera, etc. She is giving a 45 minutes concert. Most of her songs will be accompanied by a pianist, but on one song, Father's Legacy, her sister is singing harmony (her sister also wrote the song) and Jake is accompanying her on the guitar. After her last song Jake will come out on the stage with a beautiful bouquet of flowers - a few stargazer lilies, a white coronation lily (lilies are her favorite flower and pink her favorite color), deep pink carnation, some heather, a couple of delicate pink roses and pink and white snapdragons. That was my job - to get the flowers. I think I did ok....the gal who was doing the arranging really did a nice job putting it all together. My other job is to bring the flowers to the performance along with the ring. Jake is going to present her with the flowers....and then drop down to one knee and present her with the ring and ask her to be his wife. I'm very excited!! I am bringing all my digital cameras, SLR camera, Flip Video AND movie camera...and my tripod ... and my gorillapod too! :)

And here is the post I sent AFTER the recital:
The evening went great!! I ended up going alone and that really sucked (Last night Patrick climbed up the "miff" tree and he hasn't come down yet! lol) because I could have used help manning the cameras. I was so worried about my 2 videos that I didn't get any still shots of him proposing :(. She started out singing "I'll Be Seeing You" and then sang "I Have Dreamed". She then moved to classical music ... "Wohin?" and "How Beautiful", then she sang "For Good" as a duet with one of her best friends, Robin, and then she sang "Reflection". Then her sister, Estora, came onto stage to sing harmony with her on the song "Father's Legacy" and Jake was her guitarist. It was his first time playing in public and he rocked it!! Estora wrote the song as well. Just before she sang the song, Elizabeth told how special it was to her because her theme for the Recital was "Identity", her sister had wrote it AND her boyfriend was playing guitar. That was very sweet. After that she sang 2 more classical songs "Duh Bist Vie Eine Blume" and Deh Vieni Non Tardar". Her last song was "Girl in 14G". She did an excellent job on that one!! Jake had told me to be ready to pass off the flowers and the ring after "Girl in 14G". While the pastor was saying the prayer he came over and grabbed the stuff and quietly went on stage. He presented Elizabeth with the flowers (after the prayer of course) and then took the microphone and said how proud he was of her and that he loved her. He then looked at the audience and told them he wanted to invite them all to one more event - their wedding. He then dropped to one knee (And the whole audience went "AHHHHHHHHHHH" lol) and asked her to marry him. She was quite stunned!! AND SHE SAID YES!!! :). Everyone crowded around her and had to see the ring :). It really does sparkly so beautifully!! Her mom really loved it, too. She was telling me how Jake was exactly what she had been praying for her daughter since Elizabeth was a little girl.

The pictures are of Elizabeth singing, and the one with her sister and Jake. There is one of me and Jake, Jake on his knees proposing and one of the 2 of them taken just a bit later that night. Her grandparents, aunt & uncle and their kids an her biological father all drove in from Montana to be there, which I thought was great. she's not had much contact with her biological dad over the years but has been close to her grandparents. Her mom married her stepdad when she was about 3 or 4 years old and she considers Ron to be her real dad, not Chris. Ron is the one Jake asked permission to marry Elizabeth, not Chris.

Pretty Toes

Today I had my new patio furniture delivered.....unassembled and in boxes....but that's okay because I LOVE putting stuff together. I also got to assemble an outdoor fireplace. Lowe's showed up at about 10:00 am and I immediately threw myself into assembling the furniture. The fireplace looked like it might be the most challenging so I began with that....but didn't get far when I realized I was missing a leg to the fireplace! I called Lowe's and their delivery driver was already on his way to his next stop, but would check the boxes (I had them unpack the boxes and haul them away) and stop by on his way back from the Elk Grove delivery. So I began with the loveseat and then the patio table. It was slower going than I would have liked, but I was too lazy to go into the garage and get the ratchet...why, I don't know because it makes it go so much faster than the cheapo alan wrench and aluminum wrench they give you! I then went to put the rocking chairs together only to find there was no bolts or instructions. Well, it only takes 4 bolts per chair so I really didn't need the instructions but I needed the bolts. Soon after Lowe's showed up with my fireplace leg. I let them know I was missing the package of bolts & instructions for the chairs so we went to the truck and searched the boxes....no bolts. So I put the fireplace together with Jake (Jake had up when I started to put the fireplace together so he came out and helped me). After this I headed off to Lowe's and they pulled a package out of another box for me. I head back home and in less than 20 minutes everything is done and in place on the patio. It really looks great!!







After I put the patio together I headed up to my local nail shop for a long overdue pedicure. Mimi is the girl that does my nails and I just love her. She recently spent a month in Vietnam on vacation and I don't like anyone else doing my nails so I had to wait. The last time I had them done was on Valentine's day. She had put the cutest pink hearts on my big toes! So here is what she did today:



Pretty toes - there's few things in life that makes me feel this good! That's my newest toe ring on my 2nd toe. :)

It's Monday

AND I took today off work!! YIPPY!! I'm going to tackle my rubber stamps again and hopefully make a birthday card for my coworker. I will post pictures if I get the darned thing made today. I spent so many hours on paperwork yesterday and it was almost 12:30 before I got in bed. Today I have done a bit more and it will only take me about another 15 minutes before it's all done...until Patrick comes home with more, that is! lol. So I'm off to finish that up so I can tackle my rubber stamps with a clean conscience.

UPDATE:

OK...I lied! lol. I ended up tackling another project. A while back I ordered 10 Scraponizer organizers for the Cricut cartridges. Today I gathered up all of my cartridges (41 currently with 4 more on order) and took them out of their boxes and put them into the Scraponizer. That thin plastic container holds 4 carts along with their overlays and booklets. I also had to go to Cricut.com and get them registered since I had only registered the first 10 or so I bought back in late 2007. 6 of my carts are the Solutions cartidges with don't come with instructions booklets. I bought a separate organizer for them. It is the size of 2 cart boxes and when you open it up it has a spot for 4 carts on one side and 4 on the other, with the overlays underneath. I have room for 2 more! :)....and that works out well since I think 2 of the new carts I ordered are Solutions carts.

It's just past 3:30 p.m. now so I might still start on the rubber stamps...or plan dinner. :)

My Saturday

First off I want to apologize for not blogging in a while. We have had some HUGE computer issues. We had let our virus program lapse a long time ago. Well, those chickens finally came home to roost!! We had a few nasty viruses and spyware, etc, on our computer. I bought the new Norton 360 virus protection and paid the extra to have them install it and do a complete tune-up on the computer. After a few days there were still problems - turns out they hadn't removed the virus before installin the Norton 360. So I placed another call and they spent about 6 hours working on my computer remotely (I LOVE THIS - I don't have to hang on the phone with them - they take over the computer and do all the work while I clean house or cook or whatever. They just call me when they need me). After 2-3 days the computer was locking up again and not working right. So I then had to go to the virus specialist and spend $99 to have them completely remove the virus. They give you a week for that $99. Well, it still wasn't working right. So yesterday I called them back and they spent a couple of hours on it and finally it is working like a champ!! I am really pleased with the turnout but just wish it hadn't taken so long to get fixed. Now on with my story:

Yesterday I decided to make a big pot of Spaghetti sauce. I then decided to invite Jahn and Deb over for dinner. They are such dear friends of mine and I love having them over...plus they always bring a fabulous bottle of red wine to share!! They have a great wine collection and love to share. Jahn is a professional artist - yes, he actually is lucky enough to get paid to do what he loves. I'm so jealous. When they were over for dinner on St. Patrick's day Jahn took his first tour of my scrapping room. He walked in, looked around and said "Why would you ever leave this room?". I just love him for that statement! He truly understands art and the love of crafting. Deb is pretty crafty herself. So last night we made another trek up to the room and ended up spending quite a bit of time up there. Deb discovered my Glimmer Mist collection and I'm going to be sending her to http://www.stampingscrapping.com/ to buy some. This is my new favorite online store. The owner, Cindy, prides herself on her superior customer service. She personally calls her customers and lets them know if there are any problems or issues. She only charges exact shipping...but has recently discovered that she spends so much money in packing supplies and tape that she has finally added $1 to every order to help make up that cost. She truly loves her customers and only wants to make them happy. We have become fast friends now! She is such a busy lady, too. She has a storefront either Wisonsin or Minnesota (I can never keep those 2 states straight in my mind) and that is called Lasting Impressions. Her husband really pitches in to help her pack and ship. She likes to ship packages out immediately upon receiving the items herself so her customers don't have to wait. Couple that with her fabulous customer service and it's no wonder why she is so beloved by her customers. She also has a Yahoo group - stampingscrappingdotcom. Check it out - join her group - you won't be sorry!!

After dinner Pat and Jahn headed to Starbucks and Deb and I headed out to the Streets of London Pub. It was for a going-away party for my dear friend, Helen. She, along with another friend, Sarah, owned my LSS (Local Scrapbook Store), Scrapbook Addict. I LOVED this store. They had moved from Elk Grove, CA, to West Sacramento 2-3years ago. Unfortunately they had to close the store at the beginning of this year and I'm SO sad about that. I loved having their store literally 1 mile from my house! I did my best to try to keep them in business, but to no avail. Anyway, Helen and her husband are moving to Utah. They had talked about moving there over the years but it was never the right time. Well Helen lost the store and her husband was laid off so it became the right time. She got hired on at OhMyCrafts in Utah so now her husband just has to find a job in Utah. OhMyCrafts is another store I shop at online and I'm just tickled that she went to work there...in fact, I think I'm the one who told her about that store as a good source for Cricut cartridges. They are having an Alaskan cruise in May and I'm really wanting to go...but my oldest son, Dustin, (who is currently in Kuwait/Iraq) is wanting to take me on vacation when he gets back from the Mideast. He is hoping to get back the middle of April. He'll have 2 weeks of non-chargeable leave but he can't leave Texas. After that he will put in for vacation and we will head to Disneyland, California Adventure, Legoland and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I'm SO looking forward to spending this time with Dustin and my wonderful, darling, adorable grandson, James.

We also had our taxes done yesterday and I'm still doing the happy dance today. Our tax bill is about half of what we thought it would be! I just can't tell you how happy that makes me since I thought we might owe close to $30k.

Okay...now I'm off to tackle the HUGE mound of paperwork for my auction business. But it's with a much lighter heart :)

Hugs to all of you who took the time to read this!

My haul from the Scrapbook Expo in Pleansanton, CA

On March 21st I headed to the Scrapbook Expo in Pleasanton, CA, with my 2 dear friends, Nicky and Lucy. Lucy is not a scrapbooker but she is a crafter...hand her a glue gun and she can make some amazing Christmas wreaths...she even made me an awesome Halloween wreath one year. I met Nicky online with a Cricut Yahoo group and we have become fast friends...but I digress. I picked up Nicky in Concord and we went together to the Pleasanton Fairgrounds for the Expo. Upon walking into the building it was truly sensory overload...where do you start? What do you look at first? Which direction should we head....we were little lost sheep with no Little Bo Peep to guide us along! lol. We did manage to find our way around but it took a few hours. There was SO much to do and see. I went to the Expo in Sacramento last October but I have always wanted to check out some others. By the time we were done, Nicky and I were loaded down with packages!! I darn near lost the circulation in my arms from the weight of the packages. Below are the photos of most of my purchases.



These are just a variety of lazer-cut pages and dies that I couldn't resist!










This is a great CD program the turns your photos into kaleidoscopes and other shapes. Really cool and user friendly...but I can't use it on my Mac :(. Also in the upper left hand corner of the photo is an empty storage box for my Cricut Solutions cartridges.



These are the goodies I bought at Tattered Angels. There are chipboard alphas and masks and other goodies. I already have all the Glimmer Mist they make - I LOVE that stuff!!



This is a scrapping pad - you put it on your chair and put things in the pockets - very accessible! The blue thing is a fold up bag - you can use it to put in your scrap trash or hold scrapping items.



This is the core-dinations cardstock I bought...and the air canister and air gun for my Copic markers...which should be in any day now!!



These are various epoxy stickers I bought...and some clear glue and, of course, some more Prima flowers because I don't have enough! lol




These are very cute chipboard pieces. I thought $1 a package was a great deal!





Of course I couldn't resist buying more rubber stamps...even though I'm going to have to take the wood off. Most of the stamps I bought were acrylic, but these were too cute!



Here are some of the acrylic stamps I bought...and the laser-cut cheerleader is for a gag card for a co-worker.



And more acrylic stamps



And here is some more acrylic stamps....



And more



more



The last of the acrylic stamps. Also pictured is a rubber stamp cleaner and a lazer-cut die package.



These are stencils to use for etching glass.



These are pencil-like rubber stamps...I won't bother taking these off the wood...and the other block has 4 rubber stamps - one on each side...and it's pretty thin, so it will stay on the wooden block as well.



These are the last of the stamps...the 2 packages contain unmounted rubber stamps. and the other ones are just on thin blocks and they will stay mounted on the wood.



I so lied about that being the last of the acrylic stamps! I love acrylic stamps. Also pictured are a few colors of the Shimmerz I bought. I want to see if I like the Shimmerz before buying more colors.



Here are a couple more Tim Holtz stamps I bought (I have several of his sets already).



Surprise surprise - it's more acrylic stamps! lol



This is truly the last of the acrylic stamps. In fact, a friend was over last night and noticed I already had this stamp (Heide Swapp's Damask stamp) so I gave it to her. :)