Arrgh Matey!

Nathan had a blast during his 5th Birthday Party yesterday and somehow I managed NOT to cry even once about my baby growing up so fast.  My dad really came through for me and helped me get a huge refrigerator box (stores won't give them to you anymore) that I morphed into a pirate ship that Nathan named, "The Dirty Barnacle".  LOL   My dad also brought over 2 HUGE 6 foot parrots and a ships wheel that I was able to use for props.  Yay Dad!!!  xoxo

The kids all "Walked the Plank", dug for buried treasure and had sword fights with anyone who walked by!!  Everyone enjoyed Shipwreck Sandwiches, "Kracken's Water" (Captain Nathan's Special Blend) and other party foods to make any pirate happy.  I have a friend who makes the BEST cakes....every year she blows me with her mad decorating skills!!

I've created a little slideshow with some of my favorite photos from the party.  I hope you enjoy them!!

(If you subscribe to my blog via E-mail.....click HERE to be taken to my blog to view the photos)

Arrggh,

Opps!

I can't believe that I completely forgot to post my Sweet Stop Sketch card yesterday!!

It's another awesome sketch by the always fabulous Korin.  

And speaking of forgetting...this Runaway Cake stamp by Your Next Stamp would make a PERFECT image for a belated birthday card.

I have to admit that this summer, my usual organized self has been tucked away and my more carefree side has emerged. Some of my best and favorite memories as a kid are the vacations my family took together.  And now that I have a family of my own I get a big kick out of taking my kids to some of those treasured vacation spots.  So... I invited my sister and her family along with my Mom to revisit a place that I we stopped at during our 1980 family Florida vacation...Weechi Wachi - Home to the World Famous Mermaids.  I remember how much my sister and I loved watching the magic of the mermaids and knew that Brooke would love it too!!  They've now added a small water park where we swam in the natural fresh water springs.  That was without a doubt the clearest water (you can see 30+ feet to the bottom) and the coldest water (68 degrees) that I've ever swam in before in all my life!!  It was so cold that it felt like you were swimming in a glass of ice water and actually stung a little when you first got in.  But with the heat index being 113 degrees it was positively refreshing!

Here are a few photos from yesterday  :)

The other Sugar Babies created (and posted on time) gorgeous sketch samples to inspire you with.  I hope you will stop by and check them out if you haven't already.

Shelby Goolsby

Janice Melton

Jennipher Lowery

Monika Davis

   Korin Sutherland

    Shannon White

                                                      Cathy McCauley

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I hope you're having a fabulous summer!!

Copic Creations - Pastels

When I saw that this weeks Copic Creations challenge was coloring Pastels, I immediately started to freak out.  If you've followed my blog for even a short period of time, then you know that I DON'T do pastels...especially when it comes to coloring.  I guess you could say pastels are my Copic Kryptonite.  ROTFL!!  But I DID IT!!  :)  Well, as close as I will ever get to pastels anyway.   I still had to go and add lots of dark shadows but I think I successfully completed the challenge and I'm so proud of myself.

Our sponsor this week is Sparkle Creations who generously provided Shopping Emily for me to create with and I have to tell you that I truly enjoyed every second of coloring her!!   

To balance all the frilly and softness of the card, I thought it would be fun to give the pink background a "harder" edge by embossing it with a brick wall folder.  I paper pieced a few of her bags, added a green rhinestone to the clear acrylic flower brad, a little bit of lace, a few dots of white paint on her headband to mimic the ribbon and it's done!!   I love this card!!  :)  :) 

I hope you will take a few moments to check out the dazzling pastel designs by my Copic Creation DT teammies. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

I'm still on a bit of a blogging hiatus (until August) and I've really been enjoying my summer with the kids.   For those of you interested I thought I'd share a little of what we've been up to.  :)

* Last week I took the kids to the coast to watch the last Shuttle launch (one word...AMAZING!!)

* We had a fabulous July 4th at the St. Augustine Fort (a tradition we look forward to every year)

* Went to the Daytona 400 Nascar race (Compliments of Nana & Grandpa - Thanks Mom!!)

* Playing in the pool

* Going to the movies

* Visiting with family

I've also been teaching Nathan (4 years old) and Brooke (3 years old) "life skills" and giving them a "badge" that they stick on their bedroom door for every skill they master.  So far they have earned badges for:

* Knowing their address

* Knowing Mommy's cell phone number

* Knowing their birthday's

* Knowing Mommy & Daddy's full name

* Learning how to making a bed

* Learning how to fold towels and blankets

* What to do if they are ever lost

* Learning to whistle - that one was Nathan's idea!!  LOL

* Learning how to hang their clothes

Here's a little slideshow of some of the summer fun so far :)  

(Email subscribers...You'll need to come directly to my blog in order to view the photos)

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!

Brooke's Birthday Banner

Well, I know it is long over due, but today I want to share with you a banner that I made for my daughter Brooke's 3rd birthday and at the end of my post are photos from her party.  (If you subscribe to my blog via email you will have to come to my blog to view the photos)

My sweet blogging friend Deborah had made a beautiful banner a while back and I thought it was the prettiest banner I had seen out there in blog land.  Well she was kind enough to share with me how she made it so that I could make one for Brooke's party.  (Thank you Deborah!!)

I made mine very close in design to Deborah's (hey, when it's a good design why mess with it right?) but used the same paper's (DCWV - Nana's Nursery) that I had made her card with.  See her birthday card HERE in case you missed it.

Now when people say it's difficult to photograph a banner, they aren't kidding!!  LOL It was near impossible, but these aren't too bad.  I was standing in a bar stool taking these photos while my husband begged me to let him just do it!!  Pu-lease...he takes horrible pictures!!  LOL

I made the paper medallions and then used Spellbinder's Lacey circles for the centers.  The letters were cut using my Cricuit.  I hardly ever use my Cricuit so I forgot to make note as to which font I used, sorry.  The top of the banner was decorated using Martha Stewarts lace doily punch and I popped them up using foam tape to hide the fact that I stapled the banner to the ribbon.  

Oh and here's a little secret...the banner is not really tied together with the ribbon as it shows.  It's one long continuous ribbon, however I cut small pieces of ribbon and tied them on between the banner panels to make it look as it it were tied together.

Brooke's party has ton's of fun.  I wasn't too thrilled with how her cake came out (I tried someone new) but it tasted great.  You might remember me saying before, I still have all of my Strawberry Shortcake dolls from the 80's.  I pulled them down from the attic and used them for decorations throughout the party.  I was surprised to see that I still had every pet, hair comb, shoe, etc that came with each doll.  I set up a little Strawberry Shortcake spa in my bathroom and "bathed" them all with baby shampoo.  (After 30 years they were a little dirty, LOL)  They all cleaned up beautifully, however Strawberry Shortcakes red clothing bleed onto her white apron a little.  :(  Now Brooke loves playing with the dolls and the little houses that belonged to Mommy when she was a little girl.   Mommy however is freaking out...she keeps taking their shoes off...I just know she's gonna lose them!!  LOL

  But more excitingly... I got, oops I mean Brooke got the MOST adorable doll house I have EVER seen.  It's called the Critter Cottage townhome (I wanted the Mansion, but Daddy made me be reasonable) and instead of people they have the ca-utest little animal families.  I saw this dollhouse for the first time when we were in New York (FAO Schwarz) and told my husband that she WOULD have that house on her 3rd birthday...she was 9 months old at the time, LOL  It's beautifully detailed and comes with lots of tiny pieces (which I've put away) and even has real lights!!  Can you tell how much I LOVE this thing?!  LOL   All the ladies at the party wanted me to open it right away so WE could all play with it!!  :)

My mom and sister forgot their camera that day so these pictures are for them too!!

Enjoy Mom & Brandie!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Strawberries & Cinderella

Wow!!  I hadn't intended to take almost a week off from blogging but I sure have enjoyed my little break.  I've been spending a lot of time this week playing with the kids and getting ready for my daughter's 3rd birthday party tomorrow.  

Tomorrow I'll have a card to share with you but today I wanted to share a few photo's from last weekend.   We visited a local farm to pick fresh strawberries for Brooke's Strawberry Shortcake birthday party.  She had fallen asleep in the car so she was still sleepy and groggy when we got to the farm.  After about 5 minutes she told her daddy, "my legs are broken" which is code for "I don't want to walk".  Smart girl...at least she knows exactly what to say to get her way, I mean who can walk with broken legs?  LOL   Nathan however loved every minute of it and was on a mission to pick the biggest strawberries he could find.  We now have more strawberries than I know what to do with!!  Most I'm dipping in chocolate for Brooke's birthday party tomorrow, but the rest I'm going to have to freeze and use in pancakes, muffins and cakes.

The next morning we headed over to the Magic Kingdom and enjoyed a few rides before it was time to have lunch with Cinderella in her castle along with the other Disney Princesses.  Brooke was so excited to meet them all in person.  Cinderella greeted us in the castle's foyer and had a sweet chat with little Princess Brooke and gave her a magical wand and a Wishing Star.  Being that Nathan was a prince he was given a sword...which he later tried to slay us all with and it had to be taken away.   LOL  While we were eating, each of the princesses came over to our table and had conversations with Brooke and had their pictures taken with her.  Poor Brookie was stuck completely mute!!!  Two seconds before they would arrive at our table she would be squealing and bouncing in her seat..."here comes Belle, here comes Belle!!" but once they arrived at our table all she could manage was to shake her head yes or no.  LOL  After lunch we hopped over to Epcot where we spend the rest of the day enjoying their Flower and Garden festival.  It was a one of my most favorite family weekends EVER!!  :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Wendy

Monster Jam Birthday

I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everyone for the sweet comments and congratulations on my being published.  Your comments mean the world to me and I cannot tell you enough just how happy they make me!!  :)  You guys are the BESTEST!!! :)

Like most boys my son LOVES fast cars, and big loud trucks.  And as soon as his party was over last year (Disney's Cars) he immediately put in his request for a Monster Truck party for his next birthday.  

Since I have made the children's birthday party invitations since they were born, I started searching for ideas for Monster trucks.  There's not much out there and what is...I didn't like.  :(  I did however find this super cute image that was actually just a coloring book page online.  So I just used it like you would any digital image; resized it, printed it out and colored it with my Copics.   

It took a heck of a lot longer than I had expected to color, so with over 15 invitations to make I just gave up!!  LOL  So I decided to buy (shhhh, don't tell the card making police) pre-made invitations and use this as his birthday card instead.

This card is loaded with texture!!  I used my paper crimper for the very first time in 8 years!!  Don't know what took me so long, 'cause it's actually pretty cool!!  The front panel is popped up with foam tape. The back blue panel is embossed with the Cuttlebug, Diamond plate.  The border punch is Martha Stewarts, Zig Zag and braided jute wrapped around for even more texture.  If I could have found some sand I would have put that on the dirt too!!

Challenges:

Craft Us Crazy Anything Goes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

 I can't believe my little son is four....he was JUST born!!!  But four years old he is.  :(   

He wanted two things for his birthday...a bike and a hamster.  Well my husband has a strict NO pet policy so I though convincing him to get Nathan a hamster was going to prove to be impossible.  But he surprised me and said YES!!  (He said he knew that the fish were gateway pets!  ROFL!!!)    Somehow my sister decided to sneak in a almost life size red Dragon that growls and walks on it's own as a gift too!!!  LOL  The whole family also went to Monster Jam later that night after the party and we all had a blast!!

 Here's a few photo's from Nathan's Birthday Party!!

(You can click on the slideshow to view it larger)

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Wendy

Supplies:

*  Image: Online coloring book Link HERE

*  Paper: Basic Grey (Max & Whiskers)

*  Punch: Martha Stewart (Zig Zag)

*  Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Diamond Plate)

*  Misc: Paper Crimper

*  Misc: Foam Dots

*  Copics: 

Sharing Christmas Photo's & Awards

Good Morning!! Sorry, no card today but sit back and get ready for a really long post.

I'm a little late doing this but wanted to share some of my favorite photo's from Christmas. The babies are at that perfect age that brings the magic of Christmas alive!! I want to always remember that Brooke says, "Kwiss Kwiss" instead of "Christmas" and that Nathan holding up two little fingers asked on the way to see Santa if it would be rude to ask for two things? (So sweet that remembering it makes my heart so happy I want to cry!!)

I also started a new tradition this year that made everyday so exciting for them...and me too!! :) I bought chair backers from Pottery Barn that have their names embroidered on them. They look like old fashioned mailboxes. Starting Dec. 1st I would but little coupons and candy inside for each of them. The coupons would be for a hot chocolate with extra marshmallows or for and extra bedtime story...stuff like that. The second they woke up each morning they would run to their chairs to "check their mail" and see what Santa's elves had delivered.   I don't have a picture of ours handy to show you what they look like but here are the one's I bought from Pottery Barn.

I plan to do the same thing for Valentines this year.   

Here's a little slideshow of a few of my favorite Christmas photos

If you click on the picture, it will take you to an album that will allow you to see them better along with captions telling you what is happening in the photo. :)

I also have been given a few awards!!

I received not one but TWO of these!!  :)

One from my friend Jeri and the other from Jules.  Thanks so much to both of you for thinking of me!!

I told Jeri yesterday that my husband tells me all the time that I have an attitude and now I can tell him that it has earned me an award!!  LOL

I have to list 3 things about me: 

• I throw the best Children birthday parties...if I do say so myself.  LOL

• I CANNOT eat anything with bones in it.  Not chicken, fish or beef...it's just gross!!  Boneless only for me.  I love to eat meat, just can't "see" the bones.  LOL 

• I taught my son sign language when he was an infant because I thought he was a "late talker" at 12 months old.  LOL   

Now I have to pass this along to 5 bloggers.  (This is the hardest part but I'm going to pick some teamies from Paper Sundae's )

Crystal

Shana

Christine

Alica

Fiona

Lastly I have to post this on my sidebar with a link to the Digi's with Attitude Challenge Blog.  Thanks again Jeri and Jules for choosing my blog and to Digi's with Attitude Blog too!!

The next award was from Lou

Thanks so much Lou.

I'm required to list 8 things about myself

Pass it on to 8 bloggers and let them know.

•  I have a serious addiction to recipe magazines.  I find it very difficult to pass one up.  My resolution this year is to organize them and make recipe cards.

• And playing off the last one... I LOVE organizing everything!!  

• I don't drink coffee ~ a soda in the morning is my jolt of caffeine.

• I'm a morning person and don't understand why everyone isn't happy when they wake up.  LOL

• My dream vacation is a tour of Europe.  We're putting it off until the kids are a little older so hopefully we can do this in about 5 years.

• I have a weakness for designer purses.  I just got a new one from Dooney & Bourke and it's giraffe print!!  It's super AWESOME!!

• I just fed my son Mac n' Cheese for breakfast.  He said that's what he wanted and I couldn't come up with a good reason not to.  LOL

• I LOVE Indian food.  My husband is Indian.  He was born in Guyana, South America but has lived in the states since he was 10 years old.  Everyone in this house goes crazy when Daddy makes Rotti and Dal for us.  So Yummy!

I'd like to pass this along to 

Anita

Caroline

Nicolet

Kristel

Pattie

Deborah

Tracy 

Vicki

Thanks for stopping by!!  

Now go enjoy the rest of your day!!  LOL

Wendy

Happy Anniversary Eddie!

My Wedding Anniversary is early next month so I thought it would be wise to get a card done for my husband a little bit early so that I wouldn't feel so rushed.  And as luck would have it, I'm able to use it for my Paper Sundae's DT card for this week.  Our sponsor is Belle's n' Whistles and our challenge is to use 3 or more embellishments.  I had to keep the embellishments scaled down to just the 3 items since this will be going to my husband. I didn't think he'd like glitter, lace and all things sparkly all over his card!!  LOL

Challenges:

Paper Romance = #15 Clean & Simple

Creative Cottage = #22 Celebrations

Copic Creations = #34 Pleats or Folds

Color me Copic = Straight hair tutorial by Amy

**I'll come back tomorrow and list the Copic's and the recipe - It's late and I'm ready to go to bed!!***

Copic's Used:

GIRL

Pants: E43, E42, E41

Top: R85, R83, R81, RV000

Shirt: E25, E35, E31, E50

Shoes: E25, E35, E31

Hair: E29, E47, E57, E35, E31

Heart: R89, R59, R46, R14

Skin: E11, E00, E50, R00

BOY

Pants: E25, E35, E31

Vest: YR24, YR23, Y21, E50, Colorless Blender

Shirt: E34, E31, E30, E50

Shoes: C3, E42, E41

Hair: E57, E25, E35, Y21, E31, E50

Bouquet: G99, YG95, YG00

Thanks for stopping by!!

Wendy

Recipe: Stamp: Belle's n Whistles (Sweet Love)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper: PTI (White & Vintage Cream) October Afternoon (Thrift Shop)

Pearls: Recollections

Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Heart Blocks)

Sewing Machine

Ric Rak: Unknown

Ticket: Tim Holtz

Nestibilities: Circle

Cricut: Accent Essentials Cartridge (Circle 3 3/4")

Take Note!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE notebooks!! It is a strange school supply attraction/obsession that I have. (I also have this same obsession with recipe books, day planners, and address books too, but we won't go into that right now.  LOL)   But, I really enjoy making my own.  Here's a peek at the inside.  I used sheets of chipboard and cut them to make my notebook a 5x7.  The papers are October Afternoon (Fly a Kite) and the ribbon, buttons, and chipboard shapes are all from American Crafts (Dear Lizzy).  I sanded the edges and then used Tim Holtz Distressing Ink (Vintage Photo) to give it that vintage/shabby look.  I LOVE IT!!!!  I used 7/8" O-Wire for my Bind-It-All and put it all together.  The inside sheets are just notebook paper that I cut down.

I like having a little notebook nearby when I'm making my cards so that I can quickly jot down the supplies and Copic markers that I've used. Then when I'm ready to make a post on my blog, I just grab my notebook and I have all my info right there.  This little notebook will be so fun to look at and use everyday!!  Most of the supplies came from my friend Nana, who sent me some really yummy blog candy last week.  When I opened the package I knew right away what I wanted to do with it.  She has made some really cute notebooks recently and looking at her stuff inspired this little creation.  (Not near as good as hers'....she does beautiful stitching on her projects - but I think she would like it.)  Go take a look at her blog.  You'll love it!!

Okay, I promised to share some vacation photo's from last week so here they are!! 

Thanks for stopping by today!!  :)

Wendy