Lots of Pictures to Share...

Here we are at J. Alexander's on our anniversary. We usually have the typical "sitting at the table" picture. But we asked them to take it in front of the cool wine rack! Dinner was SOOOOOOO yummy. WOOHOO 8 years!

These next two pictures are of some things I embroidered to donate to my mom's church for a fundraiser they are having. They are making up baskets. I sent more than this, but the only things I made/embroidered were the onsies and of course I made the bows. :O)


This first card is from Sue on my stamp group - so sweet of her to remember me on my wedding anniversary!!! I love the bicycle!!!

And one more card from Tisha on my stamp group. LOVE is so cool b/c it is a piece of wood!!! Thanks for thinking of us Tisha!

Ok now it is 2am, and I have to go to bed, I have to be up at 5am, well Ia m supposed to be - to get the yard sale ready. YIKES!!!

Keith's new Ride

It is a 1994 Eagle Summit/Mitsubishi Gallant. Yes, I know sounds weird, but it is one of those where they made it and put an American name on it so they could sell it here. It has a Mitsubishi key. So funny! It is 2 door, gets 40 miles to the gallon, has GREAT A/C!!! So great - our insurance has dropped 1/2 the price, and We will save over $800.00 a month in gas. WOWOWOWOOWOWOWOOWOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW! The Excursion is FOR SALE! WOOHOO! We've named him "Stealth" b/c he is SOOOOOOOOO stealth. We got some mats and seat covers last night b/c the seats are a little banged up, but it rides good - it looks good. I mean we TOTALLY got a great deal on this car, and are so thankful to have it!!!

Here is a picture of my HAPPY PLACE! Keith bought me this swing when we poured the patio. He got it all put together, now it is MY place. I love to swing. I have ALWAYS wanted a swing, but never liked the styles we saw, until this one. I LOVE IT! And with all the stress of the ID fraud and stuff, I have been SWINGING A LOT at night while the girls play in the yard. And today is the PERFECT day to chill in the swing and relax while Keith is at work.

So here's to saving money and relaxing!!!

My altered dresses

These dresses started as little sheets from a notepad that Kathie (from TS) sent to me for a swap. I made three: sent one to Kathie, one to another TS'er, and kept one for myself. As soon as I opened the envelope I knew these had to be COVERED in flowers. So I went straight for my flower basket. It was so fun to dump them all over my desk and "paw" through them to find co-ordinating flowers. I got them sent off last Wednesday with my row houses & they seem to be arriving at their new homes. I also received an altered dress from Connie - very pretty! Another long day in the people like to hack into my private information life, and forgot to add that Thursday night as we were leaving our favorite Mexican restaurant (where we go on Thursdays to play Trivia) Keith's truck would not start. So since Friday I have not be able to go anywhere. Thank goodness for my MIL who picked me up on Friday and took me around to get all this mess straigtened out. Truck is off to the shop tomorrow, I am off to therapy (I am going to get my money's worth tomorrow b/c I have A LOT to say about a A LOT of things and I might need an extra hour to get through all my anger and hurt I am feeling from a lot of different places right now). And hopefully we'll get to the new PetSmart with our free $5.00 coupon with Mazie & Marlie to show them off.

it's sunday...

and I am tired. Friday morning I realized that about $2500.00 was about to be deducted from our account, that I had NOT asked to be deducted. I froze the account and started the journey of people stealing your id. Then Bank of America ticked me off, so now all my money from checking and savings is in my wallet - local bank here we come. I have changed email. closed accounts, changed passwords and usernames and so much more I cannot even think about right now. I am nervous, I am anxious, I am TIRED.
"Sometimes life is hard to bear when a friend is just not there."
---William Franc

Unity Stamp Company

I discovered this new company on Patter Cross' blog a few months ago. Click on today's title to go to their site. Their stamps are awesome, and SOOOOOOO reasonable. I also get their Kit of the Month. July was my first kit, and WOW - what awesome stamps and what a DEAL. Plus they are EXCLUSIVE to kit members only. Here are two awesome things I have made lately with their stamps.
This kit is Delectable Delights. I stamped the three images with Momento Tuxedo Black Ink. Then I colored each image with Copic Markers. The bow on the Lollipop is colored with a silver Prisma Pencil. And then the Sprinkles on the Cone are Glittler Glue. I inked the edges of the white cardstock with Distress Ink, mounted it onto pink, then onto a brown Card. The ribbon is Heidi Grace, and I doodled around the edge of the Ribbon with the White Signo Pen. I stamped "Have a Sweet Day" in Brilliance Moonlight White Ink.

This is an altered Row House I made for a swap on Tennessee Stampers. I made 24 of them. I cut the blanks with my Klic-N-Kut, which was nice, b/c the machine did ALL the work for me!!! I layered three patterned papers by The Paper Studio, and then a cream cardstock stamped with a Stampendous Paisley cube. Black Cardstock (unknown) was scalloped with a corner rounder. Trim is from Hobby Lobby in the fabric department. Finally I used the tree from the Unity July KOTM, stamped in Chestnut Brown Chalk Ink on the top of the house for dimension.

I am really pleased with how both of these turned out! And it was fun to use the unmounted Unity Stamps from Delectable Delights, and then a wood mounted cassette from the July KOTM.

Spent the afternoon at Maw's house. Keith goes over to trim the weeds every week when he mows our yard. By the time it got cool enough for us to go over there, it was about to rain again. But he did the weed-eater, and I used the blower to blow off the sidewalk. MAN that made my hand sting - LOL! And he planned to come back home and mow our lawn, but it was too wet. Oh well...

Tonight we used our gift card to La Fuente (we won it 2 weeks ago playing trivia), and went to eat dinner tonight. Of course they play trivia on Thursday nights, and we were hoping to win another gift card, but we missed out. We had a couple of HARD questions (for us) tonight. But it was so much fun. We like spending the time together, and it is a cheap date night - dinner and trivia - when Keith actually has a Thursday night off (which is rare!!!)

The Dark Knight & I made cards!!!

We went to see The Dark Knight tonight. It was really good, plus it was a freebie - gotta love that! WOOHOO! It was easy to see how this disturbed Heath Ledger to play the "Joker" but WOW what a performance. He was the perfect mad-man. And the story was just good anyway. I am usually not into Spiderman, Superman type movies. But we saw Batman Begins with Christian Bale when it came out a few years ago, and I liked him as Batman - so this was a must see (especially FREE!)

Then tonight when we go home Keith had a movie he wanted to watch and I could CARE less about, so I made about 12 or so cards. I used up some card fronts I'd been saving from swaps I'd been in and had left-over of what I made, cool postcards people had sent me in swaps, and some serendipity squares left from Nancy Walker's class at last year's Tennessee Stampers retreat. But goofy me didn't get a single picture! I was so excited to make them and get them WRITTEN IN and AdDRESSED that I almost cried! I mean WOW! Maybe Keith should watch movies I don't like more often???

Mazie is sleeping under my scrapbook table, Marlie is on the couch, and Missie Moo is probably behind the couch. So I think it might be time for bed, b/c it IS 2:12AM and Keith is snoring in the recliner. Will post pictures tomorrow of two swaps I completed this week, and of one card I did with Unity Stamp Company Stamps - LOVE 'EM!

TGIF!

Well it is Friday, and I did a run to Cool Springs. Actually I rode to work with Keith. And ran errands and then came to Panera for dinner and web surfing. :o)

I just have to rave about my new favorite thing. THERAPY SYSTEMS!

BACKSTORY: Since I was 11 or so I have had trouble with my skin. It is VERY SENSITIVE, and I break out easily. I remember my brother being home from college and we went down to the local mall when we lived in Kennesaw Georgia. My mom got Joey & I both set up on the CLinique 3 step-system. I used it RELIGIOUSLY all through my early teens, and then life happens, you don't get to the mall, etc. By this time, my pores were HUGE as well. So from high school, my wedding, up until a couple of months ago I have tried the following: Proactiv, Neutrogena, Oxy Clean, Noxema, Mary Kay, Avon, Beauty Control, etc. And I did go back to Clinique a couple of times, but that stuff is NOT what it used to be, or my skin needs more help than it used too! LOL! But NONE of the prodcuts I tried ever really did any out of this WORLD for my skin. I mean it was clean, but it wasn't CLEAN. And they always smelled so medicinal - YUCK! Not to mention I have tried every kind of make-up to COVER this horrid skin up.

NOW back to THERAPY SYSTEMS!!! A couple of months ago, I went into "The Cosmetics Market" in Cool Springs. I was on the hunt for a new skin care regime. Now remember I have OCD, and going into new places IS NOT my thing, but I was desperate, and I think my anxiety over my skin won out over the worry about a new place. When I walked into "The Cosmetics Market" I was blown away. They were so helpful, and after talking with me about my skin and conditions I have, they decided my best bet was THERAPY SOLUTIONS. It is made here in Nashville, and let me tell you it is a DREAM! I get an OCCASSIONAL pimple, but nothing like I used to, and they go away almost overnight. But I was still having pore issues, and make-up issues.

Can we just say three different brands of make-up ordered from QVC in the past month, and all have been RETURNED!!!

So today I went back to The Cosmetics Market for a consultation; and once again, I am blown away. Their people are SO KNOWLEDGABLE about their products. And since I was already using Therapy Systems with such great results, she just added to my regime. I added a microderabrasion 2x's a week, a new toner to help exfoliate; and THE bEST EVER - THERAPY SYSTEMS HAS MAKEUP!!! So she got me all made-over and then I was just amazed. She used a primer on me, which I have used before, but this one is OUT OF THIS WORLD, plus it is made for lighter skin, and has an SPF. It is ALL NATURAL too! I am so excited!

Now don't get me wrong, it isn't cheap, but neither is most of the things I have tried in the past 10 years. Even if you buy stuff at Wal-Mart, by the time you buy the whole set it is HIGH. But this stuff is worth EVERY PENNY I have paid for it and MORE. I am SO AMAZED.

The primer is by Sue Devitt. Called MICROQUATIC BLUE Anti-aging SPE 30 Protection Primer. First off, I need the anti-aging primer (when did that happen???) But it made my pores appear smaller, got rid of the redness in my complexion, and got my face ready for the mineral makeup. WOW. Now girls - RUN OUT and get some of this. It is made for light skin tones b/c of the SPF 30, but I am sure it cannot be bad for any skin tone. It feels so good when you put it on.

And all MINERAL make-ups are not the same. I have used Bare, Everyday, Revlon, Loreal. Therapy Solutions did not make my face itch or tingle once!!! So nice to be excited to put on makeup and go out with hubby, so I don't feel like I look like a frump-a-lump.

Ok, time to go ask Keith to make me a latte, it is FREEZING in here, b/c their air WORKS! LOL!