and the winner is. . . .

Ok, random.org is blocked at work so I used Research Randomizer instead and comment #32 is the winner!!!!

doverdi said...

Happy Birthday to your daughter. I'm sure that she's excited to move into her big girl's bed.

I have many reasons to smile. My DS is #1, my family, friends and my pets.

Thanks for a chance to win a great stamp set.

I loved reading all these comments and they really helped put a smile on my face.

So, doverdi, email me your snail mail address and I'll get your stamp set out in the mail to you.

I've got candy!

Ok, in honor of my baby girl's 3rd birthday (and the fact that I gotta get my stamping room moved so she can sleep in her big girl bed), I've got blog candy.

Up for grabs is a brand new and unmounted retired hostess set called Reason to Smile. To win it, you have to leave a comment here and tell me about one of your reasons to smile. I'll leave this open until Thursday 8/30 at 10 am PST.

Thanks for visiting and good luck!

Hey, I have a little time

This surprises me because I thought I'd be more cynical :-) by the way, I stamped a teeny tiny bit and am gonna take pics before the kiddies rip into their goodies bags --like I said, a teeny tiny bit but they're cute.

It's almost midnight. Dh is asleep on the couch. The 5yo is asleep in his bed. The 8yo is trying so hard to stay awake. Birthday girl is wide awake--gotta love the 3-6pm nap! Hopefully she's not a cranky mess for her party.

You Are 28% Cynical

Generally you give people the benefit of the doubt. But there are exceptions. You buy into many of the things that mainstream society believes, but you're not anybody's fool.

How Cynical Are You?

I'm swamped

I'm here but I'm swamped right now. My dd turns 3 on Sunday and her party is Saturday. She shares a birthday with my brother and we're having dinner tomorrow. School starts next week and work is crazy right now. My parents are moving out of the country mid-September so we're working on their retirement/going away party. My stamping room will become dd's bedroom and I'm moving it downstairs to one of the spare rooms that my parents are vacating.

So, my online and stamping time is really limited right now. I'll try to post some eye candy later but I really have to get some work done :-)

MFT and In Colors

I made this card the other evening. I still cannot get enough of the new In Colors :-) The card base is Soft Sky. The bottom layer is Groovy Guava and I stamped the presents from My Favorite Thing's You Take the Cake set in Groovy Guava on this layer. I stamped the cake stand, flower cake, and candles in Versafine Black Onyx on Shimmery White. I then colored it in with a blender pen and Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, and River Rock inkpads. The sentiment is also on Shimmery white and I punched it out with the Word Window punch and then colored over it a little with Soft Sky and a blender pen. It's popped up on dimensionals. The focal image is matted on Purely Pomegranate and I wrapped soem Wild Wasabi stitched ribbon around the card.

This was a fun card to make and I can tell that at the rate I'm going, I'm going to need to order some card stock soon :-) Thanks for visiting!

Fascinating

I found this article really fascinating and think I'm going to buy this book. This is a subject that is really near and dear to me. Here's some background--I'm one of the many, many women in this world who is "infertile". I cannot and have never gotten pregnant *naturally*.

Definition of Fertility

Fertility: The ability to conceive and have children, the ability to become pregnant through normal sexual activity. Infertility is defined as the failure to conceive after a year of regular intercourse without contraception.

When I was trying to conceive my first child, I went through major drama. Basically, I knew I was going to have issues since I have never regularly had my monthly visitor ever. When I hooked up with my ex, we tried to have kids from the moment we thought we'd be together forever. Fast forward to 18 months of "trying" and we have to start the infertility process through Kaiser. As we start the process, we move from California to Nevada and have to sort of start over. We finally get the insurance ok to start infertility treatments and my clinic that I'm using is in the midst of a summer move. I go through a harrowing summer but discover in August 1998 that I'm pregnant. I'm one of the "lucky" ones because I don't have to go through a lot of different treatments to get pregnant. Clomid, which is a pretty entry level drug, works for me.

All 3 of my kids are Clomid babies and I know how very lucky I am that I've gotten pregnant the first time I *tried* on Clomid with each of them. I know that when I started the process, many of the things that the author went through ran through my mind. I still vividly remember feeling like I'd never had kids and then wondering what I'd do if I had multiples because I was manipulating the system.

Anyway, whatever your feelings, I think this article is worth reading and if you're a mom, kiss your babies tonight for me :-)

Crazy Blog Candy

Wanna have the chance to win $2500?

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

My little stamping buddy

My dd loves to stamp and do other things with me. Just had to show you some pics of her from earlier today. She wanted to stamp something for daddy :-) She'd already taken a bath but since she got her fingers inky, she wanted another bath. I managed to talk her out of it for the moment.

Here's the card I was working on earlier. I'm not 100% thrilled with it. I love these little Stampendous Bees but I do have a hard time working with some of the smaller images. I got the bee image in an order that I received recently from Eclectic Paperie. Joy and Daisy give great service and it was very sweet to get some stamped images to use as well. The card base is Wild Wasabi. I stamped the Sanded background stamp in Real Red on Real Red. I wrapped the big blue ribbon from the Jersey Ribbon originals around the front of the card. I used my scallop circle punch from SU to punch out the More Mustard scalloped circled and also punched out the bee image with my 1 3/8" circle punch and matted it on the scalloped circle. The bee is colored in with More Mustard, Real Red, and Basic Black markers and a blender pen & my Wild Wasabi ink pad. The wings are covered with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The sentiment is from Thoughtful Phrases by Verve Visual and is stamped in Basic Gray on More Mustard then punched out with the Word Window punch. It's popped up on dimensionals as is the Real Red layer. So, I know I'm my own worst critic and I like, but not love this card :-)

Ok, I actually have some work to do but I may procrastinate on it for a little bit longer.

Thanks for visiting!

another fun blogthing and an update

You Have A Type A Personality

You are hyper, energetic, and always on the mood You tend to succeed at everything you attempt And if you don't succeed at first, you quickly climb your way to the top! You could be called a workaholic, but you also make time for fun As long as it's high energy and competitive, you're interested You have the perfect personality for business and atheltic success

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

Hi everyone, this totally does not surprise me at all. I know that I'm pretty driven and goal oriented :-) I have a hard time just enjoying the moment and relaxing which is why I love stamping so much. It's one of the first hobbies I've had that actually makes me sit and relax for a little bit.

We had an incredibly fun but busy weekend. Saturday, we went to a baptism for a friend's daughter. This is a miracle baby and very, very well loved. Our friends had multiple miscarriages prior to Devin's birth so they truly, truly appreciate having her in their lives. She is so adorable and I can safely say that I know without a doubt that I'm done. I don't get that pang of baby lust when I see babies anymore and am completely happy with my 3 hooligans. After the church ceremony,, we had a very fun, long, and leisurely lunch so most of our day was gone but that's ok. We all came home and went to sleep early.

Sunday, we went to a Lexus event so had the opportunity to drive many different new Lexus models and got to eat some yummy food. As we left, we passed by a winery that we like (and dh knows the owner from the gym) and they were having an open house so we decided to stop. There were 51 different wines to taste :-) Mason asked me if I was gonna taste them all but there was no way I'd even attempt that. We did try some that we really liked and ended up buying a case of wine.

I'm at our Administrative retreat today and tomorrow so I don't have a ton of time online for now. I'm trying to finish a card but it's not working for me right now :-( The layout isn't coming out right on paper so I'm giving it a rest for a second.

Finally, Malieta nominated me for the Thinking Blogger award. Thanks, girl! I have to search a little to find 5 blogs that haven't been nominated yet that make me think since I'm so behind on my blog reading.

Choose Your Family Promotion

I know that I'm back and forth on whether or not I want to continue being an SU demo but if you've ever thought about becoming a demo, there's a new promotion going on so now is a great time. If you're interested, feel free to email me or contact your demo. If you contact me, I'm giving a HUGE disclaimer right now that I am not a business minded demo so if you want upline support to develop your business, I'm not the right person to contact.

Choose Your Family Promotion

August 10-September 30, 2007

Promotion Details:
Being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is a fun and rewarding way to share your love of stamping with family and friends. And the Choose Your Family promotion is a great way to share that opportunity.

From August 10-September 30, new demonstrators will get to choose a color family of Classic Stampin' Pads free when they purchase the Starter Kit. That's up to a $57.95 value in addition to the excellent value of the Starter Kit!

New recruits may choose between our four color families (Bold Brights, Earth Elements, Rich Regals, and Soft Subtles) or choose a pack of our 2007 In Color pads. Color family packs include 12 ink pads, and the In Color selection includes six ink pads.

New Rubbah!

My 5 yo wasn't feeling well today so I took the day off of work to be with him. I think the daily swimming got him, especially since it's been much cooler in the morning--it was 63 when he got out of the pool yesterday morning. He was glassy eyed, runny nosed, and warm last night and still a little off this morning so we decided to stay in. He actually took a good nap today as did dd so I got a little stamping done. I got to use my new Stem Silhouettes from the upcoming Holiday Mini collection. . .yeah, I preordered even though I'm on the fence about continuing my SU demoship. I really do like this set and think I'll be using it more and more.

The card base is Basic Gray and there is a row of paper piercing along the side. I stamped one of the flowery images in Soft Sky on Soft Sky and adhered that to the front of the card. The focal image is stamped on Shimmery White with Purely Pomegranate and then I overstamped this with one of the other images in Soft Sky. I sponged the edged but was a little to heavy handed. Then I matted this on Purely Pomegranate and attached to the card. I stamped the sentiment on Soft Sky with Purely Pomegranate and then attached one of the Fire Circle rhinestone brads that I got from my DDSS to it and then edged it with Purely Pomegranate. This strip is mounted on dimensionals to the front of the card.

I really, really, really am in love with the new SU colors. I know I've said it before but they're gorgeous! I really don't miss last years In Colors at all and I'm loving Basic Gray as a new neutral. It's perfect for when Black is just too dark.

Thanks for visiting!

Rubber Romance FMOP

I was going to take the kids to a movie this afternoon while dh played basketball but dd fell asleep and ended up taking a looooooooooong nap. . .so, I got a little stamping done. Since I had already prepped a full sheet of glossy cardstock for Faux Mother of Pearl, this was pretty simple to do.

I brayered over my Lumiered piece with Blush Blossom and stamped Jane from Rubber Romance and the sentiment from Warm Words over it in Versafine Black Onyx. Since this image is so big, I couldn't really figure out what else to do with it but since it's so shimmery and awesome, I decided to keep it relatively simple. I colored her in with my aquapainters and Watercolor Wonder crayons and then went over her jewelry with my Sakura Stardust Clear pen for a bit more sparkle.

The card base is Blush Blossom. I mounted my focal piece of a sheet of BasicGrey paper from the Perhaps collection and then punched 3 holes with my Cropadile and set some Blush Blossom eyelets in it. Then I attached this to the card base. I love this one! This image is so elegant and the Faux Mother of Pearl really adds to it. I like how simple and elegant this one is and how it really doesn't need a lot of extra embellishment.

I have to go back to work tomorrow :-( My one week off went much too quickly! Remind me to not work summer school again. The extra money is nice but I really, really could use some time off.

Thanks for visiting.

Colleen's Thursday Throwdown

I'm infamous for studying stamping techniques, reading about stamping techniques, looking at stamping techniques, etc but I rarely ever use many of them because I get intimidated and also because I feel like I don't have a lot of time. Come on, I pride myself on the quick card :-) sort of like it's my justification for stamping. I can always tell dh "see, I can make a card faster than going out and buying one and it's *handmade* so it's even better"

Colleen over at Distinctive Touches challenged us to use one of the techniques she had showcased over at her blog. We could use any technique as long as it was truly new to use. I've been wanting to try Faux Mother of Pearl for awhile now. I've had a new and unopened bottle of Lumiere for a few years now and broke the seal yesterday. I decided to go ahead and prep a whole sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 glossy cardstock so you'll be seeing more of this technique from me. I cannot believe how easy peasy it was and how much I love this card! The card base is Black Textured cs from SU. I'm loving it!!!! I only got the neutral pack but will definitely be getting more in other colors. I love how it makes a seemingly simple card even more elegant. The focal image is from Summer by the Sea. I love this set but don't use it that often, however when I do use it, I tend to use this image. I stamped her in Palette Hybrid Noir after I'd brayered my Lumiered piece with Soft Sky. I matted this on Soft Sky and Basic Grey which were perfectly layered with my Perfect Layers tool to get a 1/16 inch mat. After I layered it on the grey, I realized that I had forgotten to trim one of the edge of the Soft Sky--whooops! That's what I get for trying to make a card in between other things--you know, stamp an image, fold some laundry, mat an image, help a kid in the bathroom, clean a stamp, throw some more laundry in. . .and so on! So, I trimmed it carefully but couldn't get it to be too neat so I distressed that edge with the edge of my fingernail. I'm glad that I made that mistake because I think it makes it a little better. I tied some Soft Sky double stitched ribbon around the card and then mounted the image on dimensionals. Finally, I stamped the sentiment from Warm Words in White Craft and I'm done! Now, who can I send this card to?

Thanks for the challenge, Colleen!

Sleeping babies

I know I said I'd be stamping but I'm actually in the process of unmounting my stamp sets :-) I did three of them in the last 2 evenings--Pick a Petal, Monkey Business, and Eat Cake. I don't know how many more I'll do. It's not horrible but it's tedious work. I'm sure that I'll be thrilled when I'm done, I'm just tired of sticky, gunky stuff all over the place. So, since I'm not stamping, here's a pic from this weekend taken with my camera phone. Isn't the quality great? NOT!!!!! I rarely get all three of them together and still but fortunately, they're all sleeping like babies which means that the bossy one aka Maya isn't screaming orders at the brothers. I love my kids :-) and I love when they're peaceful like this. I swear, I could just stare at them for hours. Dh is always telling me to not stare at them when they're sleeping but I can't help it. They look so angelic and I forget that they were raising a ruckus at the store and just not listening. I'm sure my coworkers would be rolling on the floor laughing. I can handle hard core teenagers but my three kids give me a run for my money :-) In fact, when I was returning some things this morning right when the store opened, the salesperson made a comment about how much energy Mason and Maya had so early (and she remembered them from our purchase the other day--in fact she had to tell her family about Maya and her comments while we were shopping) Yeah, I'm the woman in the store who people just shake their heads at and wonder why the crazy woman had so many if she can't handle them. Fortunately, they have great manners and behave like angels for others. They're just wild and crazy hooligans with me. Aren't I lucky!