Friday, May 30, 2008

Zipping through them....

I zipped through some cards last night because my time is short these days. I will post two I made for my mom but I made those a week ago. I always give her one from us and one from the boys. She likes blue - can you tell?! I used SU cs on both & SU designer papers on one. You can't really see the glittery flowers on the first one but ...
















I also cheated a bit. I copied the owl card I made a while back and made two other versions for upcoming birthdays - my brother and my dad (the owl and the moose).



Thursday, May 29, 2008

Updates...

Well, I haven't been a very good blogger these days. I am just tired of repeating myself.

My house was shown a ton of times last weekend but I haven't had a phone call this week. It's really stressful each morning though. I have to make sure everything looks perfect and hope that when my son gets up, he makes the bed and doesn't leave stuff around. I'm wondering if it's weekend traffic only or there aren't many people out there that match my product. We'll see. Last Thurs. was the first day on the market and we had 4 showings.

I made a couple of cards last night. It's tough when the band is in the room next to me, now that I'm in the basement. Things were rolling off shelves in the closet due to the vibration.

Here's one I made for a new cyber friend. I don't want to post the other until the recipient receives it (sent to a fellow blogger/poster).


Sunday, May 25, 2008

Ah, yuh....

We're back from Maine. It was a nice relaxing trip. We stayed at a nice Inn in a small village. We had a delicious meal in their dining room the first night. I had a macadamia nut encrusted scallop dish with apricot/mango salsa and it came with their yummy salad - field greens with red grapes, walnuts, bleu cheese and a maple vinegarette dressing. I was really bad and got their cheesecake. It had fresh raspberries on top. The second night we went down to the pub and enjoyed the entertainment and another great meal. Well..I got an app as a meal. It was a lobster artichoke cream cheese dip served with toast points. DELISH! The band was great!

Anyway, we drove around to see the sites. It's amazing how different Evans Notch looked. The last time we were there it was snowy and the roads were icy. This time it was all green with big puffy clouds.












We did see snow. First was the worlds tallest snow woman, Olympia. She was 122 feet tall but she's meellllltting....... and she's pretty ugly. Here's a photo.














Here's a view of Sunday River ski area:













Here's a suspension bridge we found. It's actually a snowmobile trail that goes from Maine on one side to New Hampshire on the other. It was kind of scary as it was windy and swaying but I made myself go across.
















Friday, May 23, 2008

Heading up north.....

Just saying that makes me laugh. DH used to call our land "the Property" and I did a layout with the same title. He now refers to it as "Up North." When we are going through things in the house and are trying to decide whether or not to keep it, dh says, "We could always take it up north." I think I'll be hearing that a lot when we actually pack up for the move. We better build a huge place to fit all the junk!!LOL

So we are going up to Maine for an association meeting and to relax. We finally got into the Inn we've been wanting to stay at. It should be fun. I'll try to take some photos at Evan's Notch since my ds asked me to, and post when we get back. I took fall and winter photos and posted way back and maybe even some summer ones.

Hope everyone has a fun & safe Memorial Weekend!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Mixed emotions...

I was excited and nervous when I got two phone calls for showings on our first day. Got home and saw the For Sale sign and nearly cried. My dh said he was heartbroken when he got home and saw the sign and felt we may be doing the wrong thing. Then my oldest came for band practice and said it was really weird to see the sign when he drove up. Dh told him he was feeling bad about it and ds told him that new beginnings are good too. He can be so sweet!

Anyway, the house is sparkling for our showing this morning. Maybe we're counting our chickens before they hatch but I am really nervous about selling without a place to go. I want a full offer, but then again, I don't! I want to move so we can do our thing up north, but then again...I don't! We'll see what today brings.

** UPDATED: We are now up to 4 showings!!!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Ahhhhhh...

I'm petrified. My house went on the market yesterday afternoon with showings beginning tomorrow. Just got the first phone call...I have a showing tomorrow morning!! I'm so scared, I don't know why. I have to make sure my ds is up and his bed is made and tell my mom she may have to leave for work early.

I am so afraid we'll sell it too fast. I know most people want this but we still have not found a place that works for us and we've been through most of the inventory out there!! I really do not want to end up in temporary quarters. We can't even look this weekend because we're going to Maine. I want to say wish me luck but I'm not at all sure I want it!! LOL

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr......

Sorry but I have to gripe again. I ran around last night making sure every crumb was off the floor, every door wiped down, etc. The house looked perfect (well, to me it did). I had the realtors tour scheduled for today. My son is home sleeping so I asked my dh to call the realtor to confirm 10 a.m. so that I didn't wake ds up for nothing.

Guess what? It's scheduled for NEXT week. Now I know I didn't get it wrong. I wrote it on my calendar while he was at my house. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......

So I will go through the same thing next Tuesday. It's so frustrating. The lawn looked good, the house was clean, etc.

My other big frustration is I have NO idea what my mom and son will do after I leave. Will everything get wiped down (sinks)? will the toilet seat get left up? will my son shave or cut his hair and leave the hair behind?!!! I don't know how I'm going to make it through this without ending up in the looney bin.

Monday, May 19, 2008

On cheating....

Ok, so I'm cheating. I had a limited amount of time to finish a couple of cards so I used the same basic design from the owl one in my previous post for a birthday card for my cousin. This cousin is from NYC and he's a twin to the SF cousin. I love them both dearly. They keep me laughing.

The second is for a baby shower for another cousin. Did I tell you I have a lot of cousins and we're all pretty close?!!

I used SU cs in Kraft & CTMH pp for the owl (Hero Arts). For the baby shower I used SU in Bashful Blue (one of my favs), Barely Banana & Certainly Celery. I used the SU scallop punch and So Many Scallops stamp (ink was Apricot Appeal). The background stars are Mike's $1. The photo isn't great.












Sunday, May 18, 2008

No crafting time...

I made two quick cards this weekend because I had to. The first is for my funny/crazy cousin in San Fran and the second is for my card group Father's Day challenge. I bought the cute little owl set at lss last week (Hero Arts).

I used almost all SU cs except the sanded wavy section. That's CTMH in Ocean. Love the fact that you can sand their papers.














Woe is me....

I know you're probably all sick and tired of hearing about our failed house hunting missions but that's what's going on in my life right now.

Saw 3 or 4 houses today and one worked. And that's stretching it. It is a big house (3,000 sf) but the two extra bedrooms were small. It's an odd house with a humongous great room and a big inground pool. It has a two car garage under the house and a detached. My dh was thinking man town, I'm sure. He needs a place to jam.

The master bedroom was huge for a change but the other bedrooms were small and I hate to stick my mom & son in a small room. There was a nice smaller room downstairs that was just perfect for a scraproom and a nice big bar area with a pool table and another family room.

I don't know what we'll do at this point. We've moved up in price and further away than we wanted to and still can't find anything.

Anyhoo, I'll try to stop the whining.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

What does your taste in music say about you?

Ok, you know me and my music. I never seem to shut up about it. I just saw this in Blogthings and had to post. The outcome isn't really true about me (not physical - I'm not athletic at all, don't take that many risks unless I'm under the influence! LOL jk).





What Your Taste in Music Says About You



Your musical tastes are intense and rebellious.

You are intelligent... but in a very unconventional way.



You are curious about the world. You love doing something new.

In fact, you enjoy taking risks and doing things most people would shy away from.



You are very physical. It's likely that you're athletic, but not into team sports.

You have the soul of an artist. Beauty and harmony are important to you.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Bad blogger.....

I've been so busy in my personal and business life that I haven't had time to update. I haven't done a thing in my scrap space for at least a few days, maybe more. It's all a blur at this point.

My house is as ready as it's ever going to be. Tomorrow will be the photos/video and I'll be at work. I worked like a dog last night because tonight I won't get home until late from work. I have a big event here this afternoon and that's kept me busy too.

Next on the menu is my son's graduation party. I still haven't done invitations and I know I won't be making them. I just don't have the time. :-( I'm sure everyone is expecting a homemade invitation. OH well...not this time. I also have to do a photo board for him since I did that for my oldest. You know you have to keep things equal! Later.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day....

Hope everyone was treated nice on Mother's Day.

We started out at my cousin's for a First Communion cookout. I had a great time catching up with cousins I haven't seen for a while (one in from San Fran, one from NY, one who just moved up from FL). It was fun.

Then we got home to spend time with the boys. We were supposed to cook but were too full so my cousin sent me home with food for the boys (one came with us). So...NO cooking. I was very happy about that.

So we celebrated dh's birthday with a Carvel cake. DH gave me $$ to spend on stamp supplies!

I got the cutest gift from my oldest son and his wonderful gf. My favorite animal is a giraffe and they got me a cool giraffe tote and filled it with a kit from the Button Farm (my favorite). It's a beach album so that'll be fun to put together.












Hope you all had a great weekend!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Sat. update....

We didn't have any success house hunting today. I'm starting to think we are doing the wrong thing by putting our house on the market because I know it will sell fast and then we'll have no place to go. I'm getting nervous....

DH and I went out for his birthday lunch at Smokey Bones. Yum! I semi stuck with my diet. Then we went to the mall shopping. I haven't shopped in so long. I ended up with a couple of tops and white capris for tomorrow.

Anyway, here are a couple of mother's day cards I made. I had to keep them semi simple for my sanity. I hope all of you mother's (that does not sound good) have a wonderful day tomorrow!!!!!!!!
























For Diana....

Here's the retirement card I made. You probably thought it was for a man? It was just your basic floral with a nice retirement saying inside. I found a few good ones so email me if you need them.
(oops, forgot to crop and edit my photo).

Friday, May 09, 2008

No Friday Feast for me...

I'm just too busy this weekend. I spent my day off cleaning out closets, doing laundry and food shopping. Also had lunch with dh at Panera.

Tomorrow morning we head out again looking at houses. There aren't many on our list because there aren't many out there that fit our criteria (2 car garage, parking enough for 4 cars, min. 2 full baths and bedrooms bigger than a postage stamp). It is NOT easy. Oh yeah, gas heat and central air, and in our price range. We are getting very discouraged. We started looking in MA today just to widen the possibilities.

Anyway, we may go to the IMax theatre tomorrow night to see the Rolling Stones movie. my dh is a big fan and it's his birthday on Mother's Day. I also have to make a dessert for the First Communion party on Sunday.

The boys will be coming for dinner after the party and I have no idea what we'll have because we won't be that hungry after the party. Ok, I am rambling....over and out!!

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Amazing...

It's truly amazing what you can do when you know you only have a small amount of time.

Last night I was bound and determined to get a couple of cards done and NOT work on closets. My mom was out for dinner and dh was on the phone when I got there (Wed. is my night off from cooking). So.....I ran down to my new space in the dungeon and started making a card for my ds' teacher (today is his last day). I zipped through that and made another penguin card for someone who bought one. I ended up making a third for a retirement at work. I could not have done that on a normal night. I was so happy!!


Here's the teacher thanks. And thanks to you, Becky, for the rub-ons!!


Wednesday, May 07, 2008

No time last night...

My dh and I met with a realtor and my house will be on the market in two short weeks! I will be a maniac going through closets and cleaning windows, etc.

So I sat down to make a teacher thank you last night for someone who has spent a lot of time with my ds over the last four years of high school. We couldn't have done it without him. Anyway, got an idea in my head for a gift card holder. Asked ds' opinion if it should be manly or cute (penguin-ish). He said he didn't have a clue (no surprise). So....I decided on manly. Pulled out cs and printed papers, sat down, and my dh called me into the other room. He wanted to show me more properties - none were good. By the time we were done, it was way too late to start my card. Went upstairs to read for a few minutes and watch the 10:00 news....

I don't know how much I'll get done tonight but I really need to make that card for tomorrow.

I made this one last week but haven't decided what to use it for. It was a back up Mother's Day card and I didn't need it. Maybe a get well?


Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Night off....

Yay, my dh and I were both exhausted and we decided to take the night off from decluttering.

I went down to my new space in the basement and tried to organize a bit. I finished a few mom's day cards and made a graduation congrats.

I have a question.....am I the only person who sends mother's day cards to godmothers? I have four godmoms to send to (mine, dh's and the two boys).

Here's my mess:










Monday, May 05, 2008

NSD?

What is NSD? I didn't even get a chance to think about doing anything. I recently posted about how I'm so lucky to have an easy schedule with no young kids, etc. and I'm able to stamp and scrap whenever I want. NOT.

This weekend we saw six houses with not even one possibility. There were a couple that were absolutely disgusting. I started to feel guilty though - I could tell which ones were foreclosures and homeowners just didn't care any more. It's so sad that there are so many out there who have lost their homes.

Anyway, we went through dh's office yesterday and it took most of the day. He cleared out two bookshelves and gave me space for two tables. I relocated my scrap stuff down to the basement again. I miss my armoire already. I still have to organize it tonight if I have time. Everything is just piled up at this point. The realtor comes Tues. night to put the house on the market so I still have several closets to declutter. Woe is me. :-(

p.s. I know, the design is very familiar. I've used the same design a few times to get through all the cards! I used SU designer papers, cardstock, stamps, ribbon, ink (purely pomegranate, bashful blue, wild wasabi).

Here's one from last week. I can pretend that I had five minutes to make a card.



Friday, May 02, 2008

Cute little penguin...

Got this image as part of a swap in my card group. I made a quick card last night with it. I used orange stickles, SU Kraft, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive cs & SU designer paper & inks. The metal embellishment is CTMH. The teal background was made with a cuttlebug folder. When did I become such an orange fan? I can't seem to make a card without it! LOL

Friday's Feast One Hundred Eighty Nine

Appetizer

What was your favorite cartoon when you were a child? I'm not sure, probably Scooby Doo

Soup

Pretend you are about to get a new pet. Which animal would you pick, and what would you name it? I would call her Greta the Giraffe. It's my favorite animal and I'm not a house pet person!!

Salad

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy getting all dressed up for a special occasion? I don't enjoy dressing up that much - maybe a 4?

Main Course

What kind of music do you listen to while you drive? I listen to a variety of music and I can't ever get the right genre. I guess it's sort of light alternative? I love Jack Johnson, KT Tunstall, Sara Borelis, etc.

Dessert

When was the last time you bought a clock? And in which room did you put it?

Oh boy, I can't honestly remember. It's been a while - like YEARS!

Thursday, May 01, 2008

More updates.....

I know it's getting boring but I have nothing else going on in my life! LOL
After dinner last night I quickly headed to my room and started a card for my swap. My dh came in and asked if I wanted to tackle the attic. UGH....I relented....it wasn't really bad. We worked for a few hours and got a lot done.

I headed back to my scrap room to finish the card around 9-ish. I wasn't in there for 5 min. and dh came in and asked if I wanted to see the houses he found online. UGH again....I went to see them and gave up on the cardmaking for the night.

I made this one a while ago. It's not great but I just have no clue what to do with these scalloped cards I bought. They are Memory Box, I believe. The stamp is CTMH - Feb. SOM. I thought they were so cool and then I sat down to use one. I didn't add a sentiment or anything because I wasn't sure if I even liked it. I cut the other scallops with my cricut. It's hard to tie ribbon on these because of the shape. I had to glue it down with a glue dot.