Downline Appreciation Lunch

Last Saturday, I had my first annual "1st Downline" Appreciation lunch and it was such a nice time. We started the day with light refreshments and a short meeting. The ladies were greeted by this sign when the came in. Here's a close-up of Tess - isn't she cute! I had it sitting up on an easel - and can use it for all my upcoming event.

After our meeting - the Ladies each got to make their own as a project that they can use in their own businesses. They got to pick the color of DSP they wanted to accent it with - perfect use for those tiny patterns in our DSP packets. Here are Heidi and Julie working on theirs -

Sandy and Maria working on theirs - and a close-up of Lisa's Tess. This is such a great group of ladies - I hope they know how much they mean to me. I think it was a fun and useful project - and I hope they enjoyed it!

My "Gramma" Day with Makai

So recently I had my "Gramma" day with Makai - we had such a good time. We started out with breakfast with Makai, me and "Papa". My hubby is always jealous of me having a day with the kids, as he as to work, but this time he was off work and joined us for part of it. And because Kamili really wanted time with Papa too - we started the day at "Eggs and Things", all four of us, but of course - I forgot to get a picture :( Then we dropped Kamili off at her home, and Papa off at ours and Kai and I headed to the Mall. Here she is riding in the little toy rides. Next we headed over to the Paint A Dream store - she wanted to paint a puppy dog to go with Kamili's kitty from last month.

Here she is with her puppy "Clyde" just like her real puppy -

After painting we headed to ths store for a little shopping, then lunch at McDonald's. (her choice of course.) Then to our house where we watched Pocohontas (her fav), and sat and cuddled and played.

Finally we stopped by the Frozen Yougurt place to pick up yougurt and Gummy Bears for her and brother and sis. So very much fun!! Kai is a bundle of energy and a ton of laughs - she had me in stitches most of the day. Love you Kai, Kai!!

June Christmas Card Stamp Camp

The Sunday of each month is my Christmas Card Making Stamp Camp - I am well on my way to my cards being done - woo hoo!! So June was no different - we got together and stamped - one of the guests wanted Chanukah, so I came up with these two designs - This one has dreidels made using the two sizes of SU's tag punch - I think they turned out cute.

And here is the Christmas card versions - the first uses "Cardinal Christmas" that is now retired -but such a beautiful set. The berries on the plant have mini gems in red attached (hard to see in the photo) -

I also love the second card - this silhouette just gives me a wonderful feeling of nostalgia and Christmas's past.

Our next Christmas Card Stamp camp is July 31st - come join us and make 10 cards of your own (5 each of 2 designs) using two brand new sets from the new 2011-12 Idea Book and Catalog. Watch for details to come!

4th of JULY!

On the fourth we had a wonderful backyard BBQ and watched fireworks from Aaron and Heidi's backyard. Here Aaron and his Mom are keeping a close watch on the grill.

Kai and Kamili are swinging - People are cooling off in the pool (it was toasty out) - The Joneses (or most of them) enjoying the swing set - Heidi, Zav and Makai - getting ready for the fireworks.

What a fun day - good food, good company, lovely fireworks - and living in America - WE ARE SO BLESSED!!

Milk Can Tables

I just had to share this post - these three milk cans came with us to California from Wisconsin in 1983. They were actual milk cans used on my husband's family's dairy farm while he was growing up. They' just been sitting around in different parts of the yard, and we decided to make good use of them. My hubby is amazing. I mentioned that I would like to use them as tables for guests when we have get-togethers here. But they needed table tops - and immediately he got to work and made these.

Because the cans are truly antiques he didn't want to damage them by hammering or drilling into them, so he made removable tops for them. They fit very snug, but can be removed whenever we want to take them off. Isn't he the best!!

Convention 2011 Cards

So I've been busy, busy getting ready for my downline appreciation luncheon this weekend, and for Convention next week - woo, hoo!! There are some things I don't want to share yet, but I did want to share these. They are my cards for an organized swap I entered in for Convention. I used the new Hostess set "Faith in Nature" which I absolutely love. It's perfect for watercoloring - very "artsy" look to it - Here's a close up of the card - using Pear Pizzaz, Blushing Bride, Soft Suede, Basic Black and Vanilla. Each one was watercolored so they vary a bit - but I think they all came out great. And an even closer close-up of the water-coloring - isn't it pretty. I used watercolor paper, and found if you bend the corner a bit it will split and you can seperate it in two pieces - it makes it go twice as long, but even better, it is lighter and thinner then and adds less weight to your cards. Let me know what you think.

Lake Tahoe Vacation

Hi All - this last week has been so busy - I'll be catching you up with personal posts and some Stamping posts over the next few days. First of all Paul and I took a week off work to take a vacation to celebrate our 35th anniversary. I can hardly believe that we have been married that long - lots of good times - some not so good - but through everything we have grown closer and happier and more secure in each other's love. What could be better. God has richly blessed us. So we headed off to Lake Tahoe for a few days - what amazing beauty! Here is what greeted us behind our hotel room.We spent a day driving around the Lake and taking in all the beautiful sites, while learning a little of the history of the area. We spent part of the day in the Olympic Village at Squaw Valley - here's my sweetie posing on the giant chair there. Reminds me of the skits with Lilly Tomlin on Laugh-in. I know - I'm dating myself there.One evening we took a dinner cruise around the Lake. It was amazingly beautiful. Storms were rolling in, and the sky was gray. Here is the sun peeking through and sending down beautiful rays of light. It was absolutely lovely. There was live music, and the food was delish.Then we were coming around the corner from our hotel room when I got a whiff on the wind of my favorite smell in all the world - LILACS!! And here they are in all their glory. Besides my family, I think they are the one this I miss the most from living in the mid-west. We've been thinking about retiring in Prescott, AZ some day, and hubby told me we can grow lilacs there - SOLD :)

God Bless America.....

Land that I LOVE! Please say a prayer of thanks today for being able to enjoy the freedoms that have been hard fought for, for us; and that God will continue to protect our great nation. "It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you." ~Author unknown, sometimes attributed to M. Grundler

New Kitchen Counters

After 13 years in our home we've decided to upgrade a bit from the tile counter tops we had in the kitchen. So after they demolished the tile counter top this is how my counters looked - we lived with this a week or so. But then - here's our new stove top -the back splash will come soon :) Our new sink - Our Island with the new granite - my daughter Heidi is an interior designer and was able to help us pick up the perfect stone - it is soooo beautiful. Full of character and movement. and here's the new overhang where we'll be able to push up some stools for counter seating.
I love it - what a change it made in our kitchen.

Paisley's Bday Scrapped :)

So I did it - I scrapped Paisley's birthday on the pages we made here - http://crazystampinglady.blogspot.com/2011/06/first-scrappy-scrapbook-stamp-camp.html
and I think they turned out great. I am not a scrapbooker -so it was a lot of fun for me putting this together. Hopefully this will be the first of many more scrapbook pages to come.

Thanks for stopping by!!