For now, I need a little "Whine"...

So since Friday my voice has been coming and going...mostly going.  I sounded so bad when I woke up on Friday that when I went out to feed the feral cats, Moe kitty raced down the first flight of steps and hunched down and looked at me when I said "good morning"!  You look like my momma but you sure don't sound like her!  My husband claims he likes my deep, sexy voice and I sure would be singing base if I were in church this morning.  Coughing, hot...best not to make everyone else sick for Easter.  I would be croaking through the praise songs...not sure the praise band would appreciate my "not so joyful noise! Sigh.  I whipped through my fav blogs this morning as there were very few new postings.  EGGS are popping up everywhere, though. 'Tis the (spring) season.  This little bowl sits on my desk year-round.  Those eggs are really a light speckled blue.  (And no, the thing on the left is not an egg-it's a buckeye.  I am originally from Ohio and we had a buckeye tree in our backyard)  This is just one of those things that I see and smile and relax a little by looking at. Not sure why.  Maybe its the whole nesting thing.  If you want to see some really pretty eggs, go to Theresa's site--www.artful-whimsies.blogspot.com  Martha Stewart better watch out! ; ) 

I am off to get some more coffee,  try and get some cards done, kits finished for Tues. night (hopefully I will be recovered by then or may be using sign language to teach along with a mask!)  and a few other things.  Until next time, thanks for letting me whine---and happy stamping and scrapping. Blessings, Sharon

TGIF Day!

Have I mentioned lately I HATE BLOGGER?!  I wanted to show you a photo of the beautiful PAINTED BUNTING that showed up at our feeder this morning--but, as usual, Blogger won't work right.  GRRRR!  Go to this site (so sorry! I tried, really I did!) for a real treat!  God used every color in the paintbox on these little ones!  They are just breathtaking to see in person!  http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Painted_Bunting/id  We  love the aviary (bird pavilion) at the NC Zoo--in fact, that was one of the spots I considered for our wedding! Hmm, with the weather warming that might just be a nice get-away...

I am off today (from work as usual on Friday's) and on my way to Wilmington sans my sidekick, Theresa--

: (   Making the circuit won't be nearly as fun  but I need ribbon and tape for the accordion  books that are coming along quite nicely.  Much faster than I anticipated which is a good thing!  I may take a few minutes and see if I can find a good deal on a new outfit as I will be going with my good friend, Betsy, to visit her son/ my "nephew" Matthew at The Citadel in May.  Haven't seen either of them in quite some time and a girl-trip is much needed! Never been to Charleston so that will be a treat, too!

Well, better hit the road! I will *try* to post some photos of the week-end projects later on. Until next time, happy stamping and scrapping! Blessings, Sharon

Remember these?

These are  the "carrots" that my friend Theresa came up with when she saw the Stampin' Up Petal die.  They are way too cute and have room for a small bag of jelly beans or chocolate eggs nestled in a little grass inside.  I first made 30 of them for the pre-school director at the church I work for.  Then my husband took a few to work and put them in the break room.  I *think* the orders he took rounded out to 40! So that's what I've been busy doing the past few days!  Easter is "late" this year but it is creeping up fast on me all of a sudden. 

Thinking I had this week-end to make the pinwheels for the preschoolers I thought I was in good shape-until I realized yesterday that...this Thursday is their last day as they are off for spring break next week! YIKES! Thank God the dollar store had some small pinwheels 3/$1. (I got it in my head that that's what I wanted to do for them--I always loved (and still do!) pinwheels!  I will "dress them up" by adding a punched flower with a cute bunny stamped center to the stick and a note from me on the back.  Guess that's what I will be doing this afternoon!

Once that's finished, I need to finish prepping the kits for our class next week and then I have orders for 30 wallet accordion books for the preschool as well. I decided to do this as a fundraiser for the school and hopefully to get my name out there as a Close to My Heart consultant.  Did I mention Easter and Mother's Day cards that need to be mass-produced for sale as well?! I think I need to be twins or triplets! Lol.  I sense a shopping trip to Michaels for Theresa and I to get ribbon and more "ammo" for tape gun, though!

I did take time out last Sat. to visit the Azalea Festival and the Cole Brothers Circus with my goddaughter, Maren, her mom, Susan, and Maren's friend, Katie.  The weather was nice and it was a great belated-birthday celebration for me.  Maren made a scrapbook page for me and did an AWESOME job!  Got a Crazy Cat Lady mug and two beautiful pottery bowls with dragonflies on them.  They really outdid themselves! Will have to post pics later on.

Well, the coffee mug is empty and I have a few other blogs to hop on over to so, until next time, happy stamping and scrapping! Blessings, Sharon

BENIGN!

Hello all. No project to post today but rather I wanted to say THANK YOU for the thoughts and prayers.  The answer yesterday on my biopsies was---they are benign!  Breathing a sigh of relief.  While there were "fragments of a polyp" (endometrium) there, the ob/gyn could tell me nothing about the why's, what's and other questions I had. Kinda scary as this is supposed to be her field!?!!  She just looked at me with a blank stare. No clue. No one home!  I'm not even too sure the porch light was on!  At least I have the reports in my hot little hands and have faxed them to a practitioner that I know can--or will find the answers for me if she doesn't know.  I can also say that, today, for the first time in months, thanks to prayer, the new practitioner, added meds and upped doses (mostly homeopathic), I am feeling significantly better. The trick now for me is going to be not to OVER-DO!  Am going to get back to the routine of visiting the hydrotherapy pool (which should help the fibromyalgia, my weight  and the blood pressure that was off the charts (so high they wouldn't tell me or chart it!) ) and biting the bullet and having the ladies come and clean more often (housework hurts even when I pace myself and sets me back with 3+ days of pain...)  The latter will hurt the budget (and ego--"I should be able to do this!" sigh) but maybe it will force me to use some of the stamps that haven't touched an ink pad or paper and that's not a bad thing! I have Easter "carrot" orders, mother's day card orders, anniversary card orders and ---I committed to some wallet accordion albums for a preschool fundraiser--and sold 30+ of those! Theresa and I also have three new women looking for paper project classes so there's  lots to do!  Thankfully, I am slowly getting my life back.  It's been hard for me to live with myself--(hormones/pain/frustration and depression!)--and I thank those close to me who have put up with me all these many months as I've spiraled downward.  I can see some hope finally and look forward to feeling better-MUCH BETTER!

Until next time, happy stamping and scrapping. Blessings, Sharon

Spring is springing...!

Despite our cold temperatures (after our tease with warm weather-followed by a hard frost!), the FIRST purple martin (bird on the left) of the season showed up this morning!  We put up 3 of these houses in our front yard every year and they come and nest.  It's really special to watch them building --oftentimes there's what I've come to call "porch furniture" --the over ambitious (probably first time) nesters will bring branches and vines that are way too big and stick out onto the deck!  We can, with binoculars, see the babies once they start coming to the openings to be fed.  The sparrows are not so nice to the martins--so keeping them away is always a struggle. Hmm...maybe I will suggest hubby put a few different nesting boxes lower..can't hurt.  We also have bluebird houses although it's been a year or two since we've had them nest.  We have painted buntings that visit our back deck feeder and they are quite a treat to see as well.  If you like baby animals, goats in particular, check out http://antiquityoaks.blogspot.com/  There are a lot of cute photos as the "kids" are hatching like crazy!

One more sympathy card for today.  I want to send one to Theresa's parents and this is what I came up with:

Close to My Heart (wings paper, juniper & crystal blue inks) meet Stampin Up (bird image)!  Yep, that's a real piece of branch that bird's perched on!  And no, your eyes are not deceiving you--that is a Martha Stewart border punch you see.  I caved.  I love the look of this and have drooled each time it appears on a blog.  So I bought it. Unfortunately, as usual, there's an issue with it.  I can't get the close up image to load but there's one scallop that's cutting uneven.  At least I purchased it at Michaels so exchange and/or refund shouldn't be too difficult.  From now on, I will open the packages and try them at the check out.  I've had a lot of issues with her punches and typically refuse to buy them.

Well, I want to do some blog hopping and the coffee cup needs refilling! Whatever you do today, enjoy. Until next time, happy stamping and scrapping. Blessings, Sharon

ps/I just visited MS's site...http://www.marthastewart.com/goodthings/container-magnets and saw this cute little project.  Add a pencil and a small note pad and this would make a great little gift! 

With Sympathy...

I think we'd all agree that sympathy cards are not our first choice to make...or even buy.  My good great friend, Theresa, lost her uncle earlier this week.  This is the card that I made for her...that I "cased" from another site and-my apologies--I cannot find the paper that has the name of the blog I got it from...

I love this bird in the tall marsh grasses even though it never photographs well.  In real life it's very pretty.  The paper is from the Close to My Heart Wings packet and is the juniper color.  It is a solid base with the three panels on the left mounted directly to the base as well as the card that opens on the right.  Nifty little tweak to a typical card.  I am off to create one for her parents as well...not sure it if will be the same.

On a closing note, it's been an insane week for me with battles with health care practitioners.  I think I am winning, however. All I can say is...PLEASE do not accept practitioners who simply want to pat you on the back, hand you a prescription, and take your copay-not necessairly in that order! If they don't listen--don't follow through---FIND SOMEONE ELSE! And, if I dare trust the nurse that left a message, my biopsies came back normal so the cancer scare was just that-a scare.  Until I see the actual report with my own eyes, I am remaining cautiously optomistic.  I got that word while having my hair done so at least I was able to exhale a little and enjoy that treat. My hairdresser, David, is a vet and he and his salon are doing the hair for the Wounded Women Warriors tomorrow.  He was excited and said, "It's really an honor to be doing that for them." 

Until next time, happy stamping and scrapping. Blessings, Sharon