Paperchase Baby!

DH and I were able to go to London over my break (I always hear Joey from Friends saying "London Baby" when I talk about London). It was a much needed distraction after losing Cad since we got to visit some friends that reside there and, most importantly, our "baby" cousin who is living in London this year. We had planned the trip ages ago so we could visit B. She's spending her Junior year of college at studying at SOAS and doing and internship at Parliament. She's also an awesome enabler of papery goodness fun. :)

Our "must-do" list from B blissfully included the store Paperchase (she is The Best!).  It is a chain over there and is similar to the Paper Source stores we have here in The States.  I took a bazillion pictures, but tried to narrow it down to just a few that inspired me.  I'll have to take pics of what I bought- and then of course make goodies with that stuff too. :)

The ribbon was just sooooo pretty to look at that I had to take pictures.  Well and then that meant I HAD to buy some. ;)

The papers were sooo pretty too!  This one is made of a ton of cut stars.  If I could have gotten it home without ruining it, it would be sitting in front of me right now. LOL!

 Well, I think I'll head to my studio to create something.  I have no excuse not to after all this inspiration!!!

Oooo, I almost forgot!  I won a Grow Your Blog Giveaway over at Amybeads.  Why does this matter you ask? *wink*  As it turns out, Amy and I are neighbors!  Who knew?  We are hoping to meet up next week.  If I remember, I'll try to take pics.  Then I'll have to remember to post them! LOL!

Have a cozy evening!

More Pics from Wolfeboro

This is the second tablescape I made while I was up in Wolfeboro last week.  It was so sunny and the cottage porch was so bright it made it seem like spring was here already. :)

It was beautiful when we were there.  Can you just imagine the warm breezes in the summer.  Love-Lee!

Did you figure out what I forgot to put on the table? LOL!  I was so excited to take the pictures while it was sunny I forgot the silverware and napkins!!!!

Parting shot is a shabby-chic wedding card.  I was all set to post it to Etsy and one of my co-workers needed a wedding card for her nephew.  The wedding is this weekend and luckily this Saturday is supposed to have some sunshine. :)  It's sure to be a gorgeous ceremony 'cause the groom is a Marine so he'll be in his dress uniform.  Keep your fingers crossed for an unseasonably beautiful day for him and his bride.

Don't forget to stop by Top Tip Tuesday for a chance to enter the Favorites challenge.

The table is set for:
Tablescape Thursday

Portable Tablescape

It's not only February vacation week here in much of New England, but it's also Tablescape Thursday!  DH and I took a little time to get away from it all and rented the most darling cottage in Wolfeboro, NH.  The gal who owns the place is an interior decorator, so of course it is beautiful inside AND full of lots of dishes. :)  I played with creating some tablescapes while I was there.  I'll share the others in the next couple of weeks, but today I thought I'd share the portable one we used for breakfast on our last day there.

I know it's not quite as detailed.  Just wait 'til next week. :)

The sticky buns were YUMMY. :)  We enjoyed breakfast on the sun porch which was aglow with sunshine.

Alas, since it is February and we've had close to record breaking snows this year, the view was not of greens outside, but the whites of snow. :)  Made for a cozy feel though, so not too shabby.  More pics to come of NH, so stay tuned!

And the goodies I posted yesterday have been loaded in my Etsy Shop.  Please stop by. :)

Winter Resolutions

Greetings Everyone!  Hope you had a great holiday week, I know my DH and I had a wonderful time in Key West.  Our time there this past week really got us thinking about 2011 and how to incorporate the "Conch Republic" lifestyle into our lives.  Folks are so happy and friendly (it must be why Harry Truman spent so much time there), why not work on having more happy and friendly times?!?

This photo of the "beginning of Route 1" seemed to be a good way to begin the year and mark my (winter) resolutions (the summer ones will be posted some time around June 16th when school gets out. LOL!).

So here goes:
1.  Go to bed by 10:00 each night. I'm really going to try this one, but it'll be tough for me because I am more of a night person.
2.  Walk my dog at least 2 times a week. It's good for me and the dog! :)
3.  Spend at least 30 minutes 2 times a week in my "studio".  I have this stuff I should use it!!!!
4.  Eat fish at least once a week.  It's easy to cook, we both love it, and it's good for you- trifecta right there!

I'll keep y'all posted on how I'm succeeding/failing.  What are your resolutions?  Do you think you will be able to keep them?

Cape Bound!

Hi folks!  Just a quick note to let you know I'll be out of town at The Cape (although this is a pic of Perkins Cove, Maine).  I'm gone until Wednesday afternoon, but I'll have lots of really special and pretty things ready for you to see when I get back! :)

One Park, One Card, and a Lot of Traps

Here's a hint of the card below, but first a few more photos of Northeastern Maine! :)

This is one of the many BEAUTIFUL views at Acadia National Park.  I think we were pretty lucky to come when we did.  From the looks of the park it must be a zoo of tourists in the summer months.  There is an amazing infrastructure of carriage roads for horses and hikers, then other roads for bikers and yet more for cars.

The cool, but also bummer, was that the restrooms weren't open!  Since the restrooms were closed, we did get to see this deer when we tried one of the stops.  It was skittish, but still calm as the few of us who were in the park all snapped shots.

My camera battery died just after I go this shot!  We were able to get wicked close while this little one had a mid-afternoon snack.  It was really awesome.

Good news for Cad's fan club.  Acadia was much better than the day before guys, much better. :) There was some much to smell and investigate while we explored different parts of the park!  We found a beautiful pond just before we left, but of course my battery had died so I didn't get a shot to show.  It was so quiet and picturesque, I totally get why people like to come to Acadia.

Just two more shots before I get to the card.  There are lobster traps everywhere in the town we stayed.  It's very humbling to see some of the fishing towns.  You can tell that everyone's survival depends on good hauls during the season.  My DMIL's family has many farmers in it and I can appreciate where my meat and milk come from.  I really felt an overwhelming urge to hug a fisherman to say thank you for doing this work.

There really are traps and boats everywhere, in yards, by sheds, in driveways, in fields, EVERYWHERE!  I understand that the lobster season hasn't really started yet and that's why we got to see traps on land more than on sea.  They were all sorts of colors which was kinda neat to see, although it looks like this shot doesn't have some of the more colorful traps.

Of course after all the ocean views I would make a card with a lighthouse.  I really did try to make a "boy" card.  Clearly I wasn't very successful since there is a bow and some flowery background paper.  Oh well, I'll get out my little lobsta stamp and try again. :)

Easternmost point in the US

It's spring break for me this week.  Most folks on spring break travel somewhere warm and have drinks with little umbrellas in them.  Not us.  We drove ourselves 6 hours to northern Maine and it snowed on our drive!  Well, we've never been ones for doing what the cool kids do. :)

On our first full day of vaca we headed to Lubec.  Did you see those commercials this winter about the people that see the first sunrise on New Years Day in the US?  This is where they would be.

Actually, this is where many folks come I hear.  This is the West Quoddy Lighthouse.  Kinda funny huh.  West Quoddy is the most east.

It's weird how quiet it is here.  I live in the outskirts of the burbs when I am home.  I thought it was pretty quiet.  I have even lived on a rez in SD, but you quickly forget how quiet the world can be when there aren't a lot of people around.  Even the ocean is quiet right now.

This is the bridge from the US to Canada.  We remembered to bring our passports cause they have gotten pretty strict about that sorta thing since 911.  I remember when I was in college being able to just pop back and forth, but that is no more.  The thing is, we forgot something.

We forgot Cad's papers.  Ugh!  I even made sure he had all the shots and whatnot to be able to wander over with us!  I love the look on his face here.  He is simply saying "I was stuck in the car for hours.  There is no way you are leaving me behind so you can lolly-gag in Canada.  Let's get back in the car and get something to eat."  We ended up scrapping Canada.  We got to see what we wanted to see which was the easternmost point in the US where the first minutes happen in this country every day.  I know.  We're kinda dorks.  Nothin we can do about it, but live up to the moniker. :)

I hope to have a crafty something posted soon.  Maybe something inspired by this trip, or maybe another ABC book.  I'm going to be posting beautiful pictures from Acadia too!

Life IS like a box of chocolates!

***Pictures of cards 'n other crafty stuff way below. Scroll down lots to get there. :) ***

More on our Savannah trip... We've taken to calling something "A Savannah" when we change our plans at the ultimate last minute. :) (Methinks we have been watching too much Leverage and Human Target). We drove back in 2 days and it took us about 17 hours. We were totally exhausted and a little sad that we were so tired. We used to be able to drive from Clemson, SC to Albany, NY without ever having to stop at a hotel. Ah, the idiocy of youth. :)
This is the church the feather comes floating down from in Forrest Gump. The sky was just too beautiful and the steeple looks so stunning! The bench he sat on and the feather scene were filmed in Savannah.
We did make it to Lady and Sons! Of course we had fried green tomatoes, pulled pork, crab cakes, cheese and herb rolls, cornbread pancakes, and then a very long walk because we were so full. :)
One of the "sons" was there and there was a huge line of folks getting their "picture made" with him. I skipped the line and climbed the stairs to get this shot. It seemed only fair that the huge fans get the picture with this fella. Oooh! I got some gossip from our waiter that Paula Deen is supposed to start her own talk show soon. She's filming it in NYC. I'm sure uber fans already know this, but thought I'd pass it along anyhoo. ;)
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I'm sure to post more pic's in the future, but for now- CRAFTY STUFF!

Belli Challenge, The Corrosive Challenge, and Taylored Expressions are all hosting challenges involving things with wings. Taylored Expressions is taking their challenge a step further and making their's a pay-it-forward as well. They gave a sketch and asked folks to make cards with a dragonfly. Their hope is to collect dragonfly themed cards to donate to a neonatal unit. The doctors and nurses give these cards to parents who have suffered the loss of a newborn. You can read more about it on their site. I hope you will consider taking a moment to send some love to others in need.

To make this card I used Memory Box card for the base, Bo Bunny Ella paper for the background layer, a Magenta dragonfly stamp, Dew Drops flame, some scraps of pink punched paper, and no name ribbon I got ages ago from a $1 bin.
I colored the dragonfly with copics and added a golden shine with interference paints. Not sure if you can get the whole effect in this photo, but they are pretty IRL. I made some other "stuff" with this same color scheme that I hope to post tomorrow. We'll see how exhausted I am after the first day back to school since vacation began on the 12th!

Better lucky than good...

There's a LONG tale of adventure here. If you just want to see pickies of the card, scroll down a ways. :)

My husband jokes that it's sometimes better to be lucky than good when things go really well for us. Take this past week for instance. We finished celebrating Curious Cupid at school and I got my Reveal Present! Yummy sweets from one of the first grade teachers. I, of course, gave my gal a little basket of cards. :)Then it was time to pack. Tom proposed to me in a little town outside Asheville 10 years ago. To celebrate the anniversary we were supposed to stay at a beautiful cabin near Asheville. Have you heard about all the snow in the South?!?!? We joked about it and drove down to see friends in DC on our way to NC. (To say that DC's neighborhood roads are a disaster is like saying that a broken leg is just a scratch. It is awful to drive on anything but main roads and I love to drive in all weather, on all roads.) Just before we were supposed to leave DC for Asheville I got an email saying we might not be able to get into the cabin because of snow. Well, we figured we'd start the drive anyway and see what we could do when we got there. In the process of leaving we got stuck in our friends driveway, then as the guys were trying to rock push the car, I got a phone call. The owner of the cabin needed to refund my money because there was no way we could get to the cabin with all the snow. (The poor folks in NC, they never get this kinda weather!) What to do?!? Drive to Savannah of course!
We were already driving a long ways and Savannah would only add an 1 1/2 hours to the trip (the Asheville part was going to be a LOT of backroads). We scrambled and found a fantastic place I had been looking at on HomeAway was available. It usually works that you send emails to the owners, but I bit the bullet and called. Jackpot! The owner said the place was available, but worried about how quickly I needed to get in. No worries, I told him, we were a good 10 hours from Savannah. :) We traded a couple of emails for contract/agreements/rules/check-in/directions and then we were off!
The place is gorgeous, but the cold has come to GA. Highs have been in the mid-40's with a heck of a breeze. Glad I had packed for a cabin and not Savannah or I would be cold right now. It's right on River Walk, so the view is amazing!
This is from the little balcony looking to the right so I could get the cobblestones and ship in the picture. It's too cold to sit outside, so I'm sitting on the sofa right now sipping coffee and looking out at the Savannah River (I think that's the name). Yesterday we got the chance to see two huge (I mean HUGE) cargo ships come down the river. It's amazing to see how big those ships are and how quickly they move! Anyway, this loft is in a great walking location to shops and restaurants. We're hoping to be very touristy and go to Lady and Sons for lunch today. :) I'll post pictures if we make it! So basically we got lucky. We had planned for a totally different vacation and ended up with a fantastic last minute Plan B vacation. Life is good right now and we both know it and completely appreciate it.

Now for the inspiration piece!!!
This is a ridiculously easy card. The image is a Penny Black sticker that I Stickled and then stamped some black swirls around. You should see how it sparkles in the light! Folks love these cards and since there are so many PB stickers the possibilities are endless.

What kind of big or small adventure have you had? What great and easy cards have you made? Tell me, tell me, tell me! I love to hear a good tale. :)