CASE'D Card

Pinterest is an amazing resource!  AMAZING!

I see so many things I want to make - food, cards, crafts, school ideas for my classroom.... the list is endless!  Yes, really endless.  I have almost 2,000 pins on 115 boards.  I kept hearing about it from friends, and didn't get on it until I knew I'd have some time - and WOW!  just like the internet, anything you can think of is there!

This is a card I saw, and wanted to play around with it.

The background is the swirl from Everything Eleanor, and the flowers are stamped in Perfect Plum, and Coastal Cabana.

Glue dots for placement and some rhinestones.... voila!  A quick, cute card.  I can't decide which sentiment to put on the front yet.  Something will present itself eventually.

Flowers from my Favorite Uncle!

This past month, I hit a milestone birthday.  I received a beautiful bouquet of a dozen roses from Uncle Paul, Aunt Nancy, and Jeff for my birthday to celebrate it.  They were spectacular!

 I always photograph the flowers so they will last forever!

 Each one of the flowers opened up so nicely, I shared a couple of them.

Here you have a picture of the entire dozen.  They lasted a good long while and I enjoyed every moment!

Student Alliterations

Walking past one of the classrooms the other day, these MOST adorable creations really caught my eye!  Our 3rd graders were working on alliterations in their Language Arts class.  I remember so clearly doing this with my 4th graders!

Just wanted to show you some of their awesome work!  Please enjoy.

Bill Engvall - Here's Your Sign!

I bought surprise tickets for my husband and me to go to see Bill Engvall while he was in town.

If you ever get the chance to see him live, GO! 

My throat hurt from laughing, my chest hurt from laughing, I had to take off my glasses I don't know how many times to wipe my eyes..... AND my left ear hurt - my husband was laughing so hard!

We've loved his shows for a very long time, and I was thrilled to have the chance to see him in person.

Where, Oh Where?

Yes!  I'm still here!  It's about a month since I put up some craft work - but it's not that my mojo has gone, or because I'm not doing any crafts - I've been in such a flurry of crafting to get things done for Christmas, and my yearly project, I'm simply not on our computer at the house!

I've taken lots of pictures of my creations of late, and they'll start showing up again soon.  I still have 4 or 5 days of some serious work to do before I can come up for air!

Posting will commence shortly!  Promise! 

Thank You So Much!

Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the comments I've received on the Christmas cards and other goodies this week.

I really appreciate them, and thanks for taking the time!

Witchy Poo Pics Selection of 2010 to 2012

Yesterday, while at our latest New Catalog Stamp Event, I had a request from two of the girls to show more pictures of Witchy Poo (Poopie) here....  they thought he was under represented.. SO, here goes! :)

This a pic from the day I got Witchy Poo from Sandra's niece - Hankie is used to seeing new kitties around, but he doesn't always like it!  I love this picture!  Shows such a difference between a 6 week old kitten, and an 11 year old Hankie!

Here's the other kitty Sandy getting introduced to Witchy Poo for the first time...  Sandy ran away from him for the first week!  It was pretty funny.  He's such a scaredy cat!

This pic shows how teeny-tiny he was!!  Just fit in the palm of my hand. 

Since I spend so much time in my craft room, I introduced the new baby to my work desk.  He still likes to explore and isn't too hard on my crafts, but every once in awhile, I find a stray sponge on the floor....  guess he found a toy. :) 

This pic is from our first Christmas putting up the tree.  He was 2 at this time... and as far as we know, he didn't climb in the tree.  You can see the other two sitting under the tree - he likes to join them too... all kitties under the tree!

This is one of Poopie's favorite perches - loves to sit on top of my paper rack!  He's pretty good at NOT knocking things off.... which is a little surprising.

Here they are.... 3 kitties hangin' out - and my husband's feet too! 

Sometimes, Sandy and Poopie will share the top perch on the kitty tower.  Sometimes.  The box of Kleenex was put up there to discourage him from perching there.  It works sometimes. :)

This is one of his favorite perches - on the back of my recliner.  Have to watch out though... he gets out that whippy tail, and will smack you HARD upside the head!  That's not so much fun! :)

Witchy Poo - quite a study in contrasts this kitty is... he's just about to turn 3.  He's so sweet and affectionate and loves to cuddle... BUT he'll chase the other two relentlessly and sometimes we find tufts of fur on the carpet from some of their "play" encounters. 

He also wags his tail like a dog!  It's really unusual, and freaks out my friend Dee a little - most kitties are angry when they wag their tails as a sign to leave them alone, but he does it when he's happy!  He doesn't growl much, and makes all kinds of cute meow-y noises.

My husband says he's too smart for his own good, and we are sure he's smarter than my other two kitties.

OK Sandra and Robin!!  Here are some Poopie pictures!!  Leave a comment or two! :) :)

Talk to you soon.

Flip-Flop Wreath!

Saw this wreath on Pinterest, and I just HAD to make it!!  It's so cute, and is the perfect combination of tropical colors!!!


Added the other "flip" tonight to make the wreath complete!  My neighbors stopped by, and the little girl (about 7) looked up at it and said, "WOWWWWW!"  Her Mom and I got a good laugh because it was SO cute!! :)

 Materials sources:  Patterned flip-flops - Target, solid flips, flowers, and all 'bling' jewels from Michael's.

 Hot Glue gun, Glue dots, and E-6000 adhesive on a sturdy white-foam wreath.

It was really fun to make, and my 2 crafting friends were over, so we had lots of fun, and as always, 3 opinions work well to make a project GREAT!!!

Thanks Melissa and Dee!

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!

One of my co-workers mentioned it was her birthday 'tomorrow', and I just happened to have the embossed cloud background waiting for a card!  I saw a card like this, and made many changes to come up with this design.  I punched out the bird from vellum, the Happy Birthday is stamped on a tag, and I used DSP from Valentine's Day as the flower backgrounds with pink flowers in front for dimension.

Lots of people from work stopped by to sign it, and Ms. Clarice loved the card!

I saw this card originally as a "Thinking of You" card.  Since I already had the stamp set out and available, I used the sentiment and small butterfly.  The large butterfly image is punched from vellum and inked in pink. Before mounting the center oval, I made cuts in the pink scallop oval, inked them and separated them a little.  TIP:  Use sharpie on the rhinestones to give the flower centers some color.  This also works on the pearls.

Please leave a comment. Thanks so much!

Happy 2013 to All!

 Here are some pictures I took of the Christmas candy and cookies I made for our house and as gifts for some of our neighbors.  If I haven't already said it, we have wonderful neighbors, and even though it's very busy, and we don't get to chat as much as we like, I like to show them a little appreciation at the end of each year.

In early December, I took a class on how to use fondant.  What an eye-opener!  There are a few more things to learn, but the class was so overloaded, I left pretty angry.  BUT I did learn quite a few things, so I was able to make my cookies prettier than last year. :)  One thing I realized, I didn't take any pictures of the Christmas tree cut-outs.  They turned out so cute, too.  Next year for sure!

These are the Butterscotch Gingerbread men I make, I also use this dough to cut out Gingerbread houses to decorate with the Royal Icing and sugar candy.

Even though the candy canes are sugar cookies, I used some mint extract to attach the fondant, so they have a nice minty, candy-cane flavor.

I thought some of these mittens turned out really cute.  These are the delicious sugar cookies I make with the orange oil and orange zest.  My husband asked me, "So you bought the oranges just to use the outside?"  We actually did eat the oranges.

One of the girls from work gave me some spritz cookies, so I decided if I had the time, I would make a batch and get out my Pampered Chef cookie press.  I got the dough recipe off Food Network, and it worked like a dream!

Here is the candy I made in addition to the cookies - Haystacks (my all-time absolute favorite next to Mom's angelfood), meringue cookies, and fudge.

 Here you can see a Poopie!  He's a good kitchen helper - he sits and watches to make sure everything turns out right, and is a good companion.  He does love to sit on the chairs while we're in here!

These are a small sample of the cookies and candy selection I made for Christmas 2012.


Please leave a comment. Thanks so much!

Still Here! So Busy!!

Good Sunday Morning!

WHEW it's been busy around here!
Mom and I got the calendars done earlier in December, and I'm getting the pictures ready to post on the blog.

I'm getting the Christmas Card Challenge going again for 2013.  I was so happy to be unstressed in getting my Christmas cards out this year!  What a wonderful thing!

I've been wondering if you'd be interested in a Birthday Card Challenge for 2013!  It would run on different dates, but I sure could use a good supply of differently themed Birthday cards!  If I do a few every month, it's nice to have a supply!

SO, if you would, take a moment to vote ( on the right) on doing a B-day card challenge, I'd really appreciate it!

I'm off to bake more cookies!  I took a class on how to use fondant, so I'm going to have beautiful Christmas cookies this year!

Pics coming! :)

Your comments are treasured!

Cookin' with Mom!

My parents were here visiting for a few days, and of course, Mom and I had to get into the kitchen to do a little cooking.

My husband LOVES LOVES LOVES coconut cream pie, and though I'm quite a good cook, I've never made one.  I thought this would be the time to get one made.

I found 3 recipes, and after some discussion, we made the one out of the Taste of Home Baking cookbook.  I added more coconut in the custard base and topping the meringue than the recipe called for - because I knew Bennie would love that.

It turned out GREAT!!

Good quality time with Mom in the kitchen, and we all had some fantastic pie.

Winner, Winner, Coconut Pie after Dinner!

LOL  Sorry, couldn't resist.



Your comments are treasured!

Opening Day of the XXX Olympics in London!

 After seeing the rings on TV, I thought I'd give them a try from my crafting supplies.

I'm not usually the patriotic one in the family... that's Mom - she's the Red White and Blue Queen!!!  This top card with the rhinestone additions will go to her for sure!  I know she's going to love it - we always watched the Olympics - summer, winter - didn't matter!

 The hardest part of making these was actually gluing them together.  Making the rings was a cinch!  Use the 1" circle punch, cut out a circle leaving enough room to punch around it... you need just a little space.  Then use your 1 1/4" punch lining it up so there's an equal amount of cardstock border showing and punch! 

Cut through the yellow and green circles once, and link the rings... glue 'em up, and have fun!

I admired this font set from the CardMaker magazine, and since I'm no good at anything freehand, I traced them on Vellum, and colored the backs.  It's a stained glass technique, just used a little differently.

I hope everyone enjoys the Olympics as much as I do!  I'm especially looking forward to all the little interest pieces they'll do on the UK.  AND the opening ceremonies, of course!!

Your comments are always appreciated!

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THANK YOU!

I just wanted to send out this BIG THANK YOU to all of my blog readers and people that have left wonderful comments on my blog this past year.

I have a new project coming in which I hope you will join, and we have Lime Light Design Team news coming tomorrow!!!!!

Lots of things planned in 2012!

Again, Thank you so much for your comments and stopping by the blog to take a look at my work. I appreciate it more than you can possibly imagine!

Your comments are always appreciated!
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A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Absent Lately???

YES, it's absolutely true - I've been so busy working on my newest project, I have been neglecting the blog.

Will this last? NO NO NO!

1. New projects will be overwhelming Sue's Cricut and Crafts soon!

2. There is a new year-long project starting on this blog in January!! (Stay tuned for participation information!!)

3. Crafts are taking place - just not ready for their debut!


Your comments are always appreciated!

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A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Such FANTASTIC News! **Updated

What a week this has been!!! I'm so thrilled to announce two wonderful things!
1. My purple card took a first at the State Fair. AND I found out the Advent Calendar did too!! Two firsts!!! (Unlike previous fair's I've entered, this one gives only ONE first, second, third per category, and a sweepstakes prize for the division.) I'm THRILLED!!!!!

2. I have been chosen as a Semi-Finalist in the Heartfelt Creations Design Team search!! There's still another round to work through... but even this is SO exciting! I'm THRILLED!!!!!!
Wish me luck on this one... I REALLY would love to join this team of amazing crafters!

Such good news....
AND a dear friend of mine is in labor at this minute!
Quite a day!!

Thanks so much for letting me share!

Your comments are always appreciated!

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Teacher of the Week April 18 - 22, 2011

I generally don't talk much about my job/career here on my craft blog, but I wanted to share this. It's a great pat on the back we really need... especially since we found out just yesterday that our school is one of 14 that is being closed in the district I work in. What will happen to us?? I don't know. Ya veremos, like my husband always says. :)

Teacher of the Week is something our principal began this year... it's been really GREAT! Each week, the TOW gets their name on the MB in our lounge, and we get to write comments about that particular colleague.

This week was my week as Teacher of the Week. I loved all the comments so much! They mean very much to me - I really try to be a resource of ideas and materials for the teachers on my campus... and help the kids as much as I possibly can.

Click the picture for a screen-sized view.


Your comments are always appreciated!

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A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Our Christmas Mantle

I just wanted to show the mantle in our living room all decorated for Christmas!

I love Christmas so much! It is far and away my very favorite time of the year.



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A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Five Question Friday!!

This is a new feature I found on a blog through the SITS site! I thought it was so SO cute, so I decided to play along. Here goes!!

1. What is one food you could eat everyday?
I never get tired of peaches. I could eat them always.

2. Are you working in the career you thought you would be when you were 18?
Actually, yes I am. I've thought of changing it recently, but I know I never could.

3. What is something that you wish you would have done when you were younger and you didn't?
I wish I would have gotten over things faster and not worry about what people thought.

4. What color are your kitchen walls? My kitchen walls have a very light brick wallpaper with green leaves along the top border. It works perfectly with my Strawberry theme.

5. Do you remember what your very first favorite song was?
I have so many favorite songs, I can't pick one even now.

So there is my very first Five Question Friday!!

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What a Difference a Week Makes!

I kept telling my husband we were having more snow this year.... of course, he wouldn't believe me - and he works for the weather service! I was cheering when I heard we were having snow - but the timing was a little off. It was the 2 last days of our Spring Break!!! I had to take the opportunity to take some pictures of my spring flowers having to deal with the snow. We ended up with 4 1/2 inches of snow on Saturday, and by Sunday afternoon, the majority of it was gone! I would have liked it to stay a little longer even though spring is my very favorite season.

Please enjoy!!
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A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.