Wow, where does the time go?

Okay, okay, I know it has been almost a month since I last blogged. I didn't think anyone even read this thing, then I started to get the harassing text messages from my sister..... usually I don't have anything to say about not blogging except I have been busy, or nothing exciting is going on; however, that is not the case this time.

Yes, I have been busy and sure there have been some exciting things (both good and bad)- Getaway was awesome this year, already counting down the days until next year, BBoy was in the hospital (he is better now, I think the doctors gave him an attitude adjustment while he was there and not for the better, the boy has been a full blow brat lately but that is okay I love him anyway!!!) Kimberly's beloved dog, Daisey passed away (no wonder BBoy has been a brat he lost his best friend), I went to a weekend crop in Hershey with Kimmie, Dawn and Misty and had tons of fun. As I type this, D and I are in Miami getting ready for our cruise, I can't wait to be on vacation, I know it is going to be a blast. I have to keep my eyes peeled for Monkeys in Honduras for BBoy. D got me a new camera lens and I love it!! Great zoom so I hope to be posting some really great pictures when I get back.

See I have had things to blog about; however, I have a new addiction that is keeping me from posting blog and reading them too (which is insane I can only imagine what my bloglines looks like right now!!!) That addiction is better known as Facebook I swore I wouldn't get sucked into yet another online craze, I had a MySpace page and deleted it about a year ago, I was sure Facebook would be more of the same and I just didn't need to be bothered with it. Then I started getting those "view my profile" emails, it was all over after that. I created a profile and was off and running. It has been awesome connecting with people I haven't talked to since college. Hell someone from my girl scout troop even found me and I haven't been a girl scout for more than 20 years, how cool is that?

I know Facebook is not an acceptable excuse for ignoring my blog but it is the best one I got right now (and it's true!!) so if you are wondering where I am and if I have fallen off the face of the earth, know I am okay, just spending way too much time on Facebook these days, don't worry though, I will be back!!

Playing from the Beach

1. Follow the Leader, Leader..... (said in my best Caribbean accent, getting ready to be on the cruise ship.
2. Camera is something I always take with me on vacation.
3. To achieve your goals, you must work really hard.
4. I have a love Math, but not a fan of accounting or things related to finance is something I'd like you to know about me.
5. I have a tattoo of a shamrock.
6. "Hope" floats. To quote two of my favorite lines.... "You stink Justin Mattice, you stink." "If you marry Justine would my name be Bernice Mattice?"
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to enjoying day 2 of Getaway, tomorrow my plans include more getaway and Sunday, I want to enjoy more time with the girls, but instead I will have to go home!

Friday Fill-ins

1. One of the best concerts/plays/movies I ever saw that I really didn't think I'd like was The Police (could it be because we were in the 3rd row?).
2. _________ is a recipe I recently made (or meal I recently ordered) that was delicious! (I don't cook)
3. It's time for getaway (going to the beach with some scrapping ladies in less than a week).
4. A good fountain soda is quite refreshing.
5. If I never hear the word "dang right" again, it'll be too soon.
6. To one side of the curving road was a ________, and on the other was a ________. (no clue)
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting out of work on time, tomorrow my plans include work and Sunday, I want to watch football but instead I will be working!

Bon Voyage

So excited, D and I have been talking about going away for awhile and tonight it became official, we are taking another cruise!! This time we are leaving from Miami, going to Grand Caymen, Isla Roatan, Hondoras, Belize City, Belize and Cozumel, Mexico. I know Cozumel won't be as much fun as it was last time I was there because Kimmie and I did Cozumel right, can you say Carlos and Charlies and Fat Tuesdays? None the less it is going to be fun, I am looking forward to getting away and relaxing before the insane holiday season begins.

Where does the time go?

I really can't belive it is Friday already. I have been off since Monday, got next to nothing done that I needed to but that is okayh because I didn't have to work for a week and let me tell you I needed the break.

I didn't post my Friday Fillins last week because to be honest I forgot, I will do my best to make sure these are really good. (wow talk about pressure)

1. October means warm days and cool nights, love sleeping with the windows open!!!
2. Frogs scare me!
3. Leaves are falling all around, it's time to go apple picking.
4. My favorite horror movie doesn't exist because I don't like horror movies, they freak me out.
5. College = good memories.
6. It was a dark and stormy night and I ran outside to watch the lightening.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to chilling with D, tomorrow my plans include watching the boy (stay tuned for some great stories) and Sunday, I want to watch football but I can't I am going back to work!

Card Club

I attended my first card club on Thursday, we had such a great time. Made 2 cards, an adorable box and a banner. We were only supposed to make 1 card but Dawn had to run upstairs to do something with her children leaving the rest of us unattended with the brand new "Stampin' Success" in front of us........... of course the ink on the magazine was barely dry and we wanted to try every project featured in it. We thought the turkey card was too cute not to try it. Of course we had to change what we saw in the magazine just a little and add googlie eyes to it, how stinking cute is he? Funny how the idea came out of "Stampin' Success" magazine yet there isn't one bit of stamping on the entire card! Everything was created with punches and the sentiment is from the holiday rub-ons.


Nothing says Halloween like Frankenstein- this card was super easy to make and again very little stamping. Only the Sentiment and the background are stamped, everything else was created with punches or the big shot- gotta love that!!!

Scrappy Stuff

Creative juices have been flowing a bit more than usual lately could be because of all of the blogs I read and get inspiration from, or it could be all of the pictures I have been taking lately just waiting to get on paper. Regardless of why, I am excited to be getting pictures out of the envelopes they were shipped in and onto paper and into albums.

Had a great time with my family in the Outer Banks of NC this summer. One of the nice things about being part of a big family is there are always little kids around- I can't think of a better subject to photograph than little kids. I had almost as much fun creating this layout as the girls did at the beach.

Like many scrappers when I started scrapping, stickers were the one and only embellishment I used. I quickly realized there was a whole other world of embellishments out there and abandoned stickers; however, I have tons of them in my stash and need to get rid of them. I saw a layout recently that used an entire sheet of Making Memories WordFetti and thought "I could do that" and I did....... Felt pretty accomplished, I finished yet another layout and I got rid of an entire sheet of stickers, go me!!!

Happy Birthday Kimberly

As I mentioned in my Friday fill-ins this past weekend was my sister's birthday party. I think she had a great time. Her birthday was actually September 14th but because of her school schedule she couldn't really celebrate so her party was the following weekend. I didn't get to see on her on her actual birthday which means her gift from me was a week late, unfortunately so were all of her other gifts. She was convinced her husband didn't get her anything and was really hurt/pissed about it. I knew differently and had fun playing her game. She asked me often if her husband got her anything and I kept saying I didn't know and various other things. At one point I even said to her "Don't you think if I knew he got you something I would tell you instead of sitting here watching you be upset?" I decided it would be fun to display the gifts I got her Friday night and not her open them until Saturday afternoon. When it was finally time to open gifts I could tell she was nervous.... what if her husband didn't get her anything, or worse what if he got her something she hated? Her husband and I decided to drag it out a little long by making her open my gift first it was hard to tell if she was excited about her camera or not because after opening it her husband handed her a box, she was very confused at to what was in it, speechless has a matter of fact, Her husband got her EXACTLY what she wanted, a sapphire ring with no diamonds that she could wear with her wedding band.

All in all, I think/hope Kimberly had a great birthday, she deserves it!!

What color are you?

I am .................

AQUA

You enjoy life, humor, and being exuberant. Wherever you go you usually find yourself stealing the spotlight without even trying. You love to let go and have fun.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

Anna had this on her blog, thought I would copy it.

Hooray for Friday

1. There is no need for drama.

2. Where in the heck did the the time go.

3. Get further behind is all I managed to do.

4. Prospects for gold?

5. __________ is the message. (not sure about this one.... Grease is the word?)

6. Simplicity and tranquility are ideal but not reality.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to hanging out with my sister and the boy getting ready for her birthday party, tomorrow my plans include the party, where I know she is going to be super surprised about the gifts she is getting and Sunday, I want to win my fantasy football game!

Deck the Halls

Diana Gibbs is hosting a Holiday Mini Swap, 29 demonstrators are participating. The stamp set I selected was "Deck the Halls" when I first saw it I thought it was adorable and welcomed the opportunity to work with it, then it arrived at my house and I had no clue what to do with it. Being the avid blog reader I am I found tons of samples I thought I liked and would be able to CASE, Heather Summers had this adorable card on her blog and thought for sure it would be my inspiration I sat down with my stamp set and various combinations of colored paper and just couldn't get it to look anything like what Heather created. As I was moving things around on the page, Doris said something that got my creative juices flowing (too bad I don't remember what it was- I know it has something to do with a fireplace) with Doris' mystery statement, I was off and running. I remembered reading a blog about how to create a camp fire using punches. Kathy from Texas did a great job sharing the step by step instructions. As a result of Kathy's post I came up with

Funny how I sat down at the table with one design in mind and ended up creating something totally different. I am really happy with the way the card turned out and hope everyone else in the swap will be happy with it too.

Recipe:
Stamp: Deck the Halls
Paper: Chocolate Chip (base) Real Red (fireplace) Very Vanilla (ornaments), More Mustard and Old Olive (ornament hangers)Only Orange (flames) Close to Cocoa (fire logs)
Ink: Real Red, More Mustard, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip (for the logs) and Real Red (to shade the stars)
Punches: Word Window, Large Tag, Large Star, Small Star
Accessories: Twine ribbon from the Holiday Mini, sponge daubers to ink the flames and the fire logs.

I can never have enough chocolate chips in my life

Especially when it is 1" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon!! D's bosses' wife had a baby about a month ago and of course we are just now getting around to sending a gift. No gift is complete without a hand stamped card, so I sat down and played around a little until I came up with something I thought was acceptable.

I have tons of stamps but none that are really baby themed so I decided to go a little generic and just do a congrats card. I never use ribbon on my cards because I don't know how to tie a nice looking bow. At least I didn't know how to until I attended convention.... tie your ribbon around anything that is at least as wide as your card, cut the ribbon off the spool and get your bow exactly the way you want it. Once you are happy with the way it looks (if you are like me you will have to tie and untie a few times)cut the back of the ribbon so the bow comes off whatever object you tied it around. Now you have a perfect bow that you can just adhere to your card, no muss, no fuss. (by no means am I saying the bow on my card is perfect, I just know it is one of the better bows I have tied)

(one of these days I will post a clear crisp scan, just not tonight, I am tired.)


Recipe:
Stamp Sets: Say it with Scallops
Paper: Pink Pirouette,Bella Rose DSP and Kiwi Kiss
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: 1" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch, Circle Punch (not sure what size)

I am almost finished with my holiday mini swaps, hope they will be going postal tomorrow which means I should be posting a pic of them soon. D said "I think that is the best thing you have ever done" Not really sure they are all that but I do know I am really happy with the way the came out and hope the other stampers in the swap will be too. Off to get some sleep so I can finish them in the AM.

What did he say now?

I absolutely love my nephew, not just because he is mine but because he is adorable, funny and a great reminder to me why I don't want to ever want to be a mother.

My sister worked all last weekend and since her husband is on location she had no one to watch the boy, of course I jumped at the opportunity because of all the reasons listed above.

I met my sister at work on Saturday, we typically just switch cars since the boy is usually sleeping. This time was not unlike other times, I got in the car and the boy was asleep. When he woke up he started talking to me about school and everything else going on in his life. There is a little girl at school who I will call "Miss N" since her first name begins with N and I want to protect all parties involved...... apparently Miss N is a little bit of a bully and picks on a lot of the kids in the class. So I asked the boy how school was going and he said "I don't want to talk about 'Miss N' anymore, EVER"

While at my house, we watched several episodes of "Little Bear" I told him as soon as the WVU football game started "Little Bear" was off, he seemed to be okay with that..... until he realized I meant he couldn't watch what he wanted to watch (not that the WVU game was worth watching, they lost to ECU for God Sake) anyway the entire time the game is on he kept pulling out DVD from his bag tell me he wants to watch this one or that one and every time a DVD game out of the bag I heard "Come on Aunt Kelly it is really fun" So I finally responded "So is watching football, no movies now" we then practiced saying "Let's Go Mountaineers" which paid off well when he and his parents when to Champs to watch the Notre Dame game and Rich Rodriguez (coach of Michigan, former coach of WVU) was on TV being the first Michigan coach to lose the first 2 games of the season in forever and the boy started yelling "Let's Go Mountaineers".... of course he had no clue of the humor in that since Rich left WVU for what he thought was a better program and is doing nothing for them!!

Anyway, moving on. At one point I see the boy sitting under my kitchen table so I say to him "BBoy what are you doing?" He comes out from under the table so he can put his hand on his hip and shake his head a little and respond to me "Can't you see I am using my imagination?" Because I wasn't sure how to respond I said to him "No I couldn't thanks for clearing that up for me."

Several times I asked him if he was hungry or wanted anything to eat and he kept telling me no, finally he says to me, again with hands on his hips "Aunt Kelly I need food" so I name all the food we have, trying to find out what he wants and he said to me "Not that food, the food in the closet" I tell him "I don't know what you are tlaking about, I have no food in the closet." I guess that is not the answer he was looking for because he shook his head at me and said "I wish you would stop being so ridiculous" ........ are you kidding me the child is not even 3, seriously where does he come up with this stuff?

Finally we were at my parents on Sunday and my father was serving corn on the cob, I didn't know if the boy was allowed to eat it or not so I said to my father "Does BBoy get any" and before my father could respond BBoy says "only one because of my poopies" I about died, the kid knows about corn poops already, I love it!!!

Do you believe?

I was at a meeting yesterday, one of the things we talked about was our holiday floor sets and the theme for holiday this year. The theme is going to be "Do you believe?" When I first heard that all I could think of was that song "Do you believe in Magic....." As an icebreaker we had to introduce ourselves and tell the group 3 things we believe in. What I believe in is nothing something I think about often, it is just kind of who I am, but when asked to list them I had a hard time at first, then I realized I believed in a lot of things and had a hard time limiting my list to just 3 things.

I Believe in...................

1. Myself
2. Family
3. True Love
4. God
5. Everything happening for a reason
6. You get out of things what you put into them
7. The Golden Rule, I treat people the way I want to be treated
8. Hard work pays off
9. Teamwork
10. Paying it forward, when someone does something good for me, I want to do something good for someone else
11. A woman's right to choose
12. Destiny
13. You are only as old as you feel
14. The power of positive thinking
15. Santa and the magic of Christmas

So what do you believe in?

Seeing Double....

Is it me or were these two woman separated at birth?




















I can see the SNL skits now..............

A day late and a dollar short

Oh well better late than never with my Friday Fill-Ins

And...here we go!

1. I enjoy spending time with friends, just wish I got to do it more often.

2. Money is something I wonder about often lately.

3. In your heart, you knew I was making the right decision.

4. Take a lot of stuff to do without a lot of time, add a little sleep and you end up with the story of my life.

5. Life has gifted me with love from friends and family.

6. Hanging out with Kimmie is an instant vacation.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to getting some sleep, tomorrow my plans include working and Sunday, I want to wish my sister a very happy birthday (welcome to yuor 30's)!

Remembering and Reflecting

On my way home tonight I got to see something similar to this I couldn't help but get a little emotional thinking about how many lives were changed forever 7 years ago today. I keep the families who lost loved ones in my prayers today and everyday.

Sing, Sing a Song

This week I'm going to use rather obscure song lyrics; you can fill them in with the correct words if you know 'em...but wouldn't it be more fun to do it a bit differently?

And...here we go!

1. If I was to walk into your life, would you open the door or slam it in my face?

2. Catch a bright star and place it in your pocket.

3. And you can send me on a vacation (I so need one!!).

4. I want to move on but I'm dealing with a memory that never forgets.

5. I'm the innocent bystander / Somehow I got stuck taking all the blame.

6. What's keeping us apart isn't selfishness, it's life and all the stuff that gets in the way.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to hanging with my husband, I am off all weekend!!!!, tomorrow my plans include hanging with D, watching the boy and trying to get some scrapping done and Sunday, I want to watch football!

I love new rubber.......

The past 2 days have been great mail days for me the UPS man came not once, not even twice but 3 times- how exciting! I got tons of goodies from the new Holiday mini I can't wait to start playing with. I am in a swap run by Diana Gibbs that should be awesome. I have heard nothing but great things about her and her swaps, I can't wait to see what everyone creates; at the same time I am a little nervous, I need to make sure I produce a card everyone wants and would be proud to demonstrate, talk about pressure!!

Every month my upline coordinates a swap with the girls in our group, this one the requirements were you had to use the new InColors and "Say it with Scallops" stamp set. Since I am a major blog hopper I have seen tons of great cards made with this set (after all about 6000 demonstrators got it free at convention) one of my favorites was created by Sherri Barron I loved her card so much I made one very similar........(again excuse the scan, one of these days I will get it right)
The base is Baja Breeze, followed by a layer of Whisper White and some new 1" Double Stitched Grosgrain ribbon in my favorite Chocolate Chip. Stamped "Hi" with Chocolate chip onto Pink Pirouette and punched it out with the 1 3/8 square then used a pop up glue dot to adhere that to a Pink Pirouette scallop square punched out with the new scallop square punch (I have no idea how we made cards without that punch, it is awesome!!!) I then added scallop squares in Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango (who thinks of these names?!?) and Chocolate Chip to complete the look. Pretty simple card yet pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Did I mention my Big Shot arrived today?!?! So exciting and well worth the 2 day shipping fees. Since I am off for the next 3 days I plan on doing nothing but scrapping and card making, looking forward to posting tons of new creations this weekend.

MSM-We're Having A Party....

So I am a total loser, I started "Make Something Monday" last week and I didn't even participate in my own challenge. I know, I know, shame on me. I have an excuse though...... I am waiting on pictures to arrive, as soon as they do I am going to scrap them and post the layout. I even thought about creating the layout without the picture and just insert it when it gets here but I am not very good at scrapping without the picture.

Okay that being said it is time for another "Make Something Monday" challenge, this week "We are having a party" the project can be anything party related: an invitation, a birthday card, or gift wrap. When I think about tributes to parties I always think about the layout I did of my nephew celebrating his first birthday..........

If you decide to partake in the challenge I would love to see what you create, please be sure to comment and leave a link.

Friday Fill-Ins

This week my friend Michelle provided most of the questions; thank you, Michelle!

And...here we go!

1. When I'm sick I'm good for nothing.

2. When I take a walk, I think about nothing, when I take a walk I want a clear head.
3. Money can't buy happiness but it can buy great handbags.

4. Cotton makes me warm and cozy and leather makes me confident and sexy.

5. The strangest person/character I've had lewd thoughts about was ____. (no clue)

6. My favorite color these days is Kelly Green because it is named after me.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to hanging out with my husband after work, tomorrow my plans include working and Sunday, I want to sleep in but I can't because I have to work!

Pick a Petal, Any Petal

I am still trying to figure out how I am going to organize all of the swaps I got at convention, almost a month after being home! So far I have gotten as far as grouping them together by stamp set, I guess that is a step in the right direction. One of the classes I attended at convention was about investing in your business and buying stamp sets that are going to "pay you back" one of the key features to such a set is one that is versatile, I can't think of a more versatile set than "Pick A Petal" I loved all of the swaps I received at convention but these have to be my favorite. I love that you can create all of these different things with just one stamp set, how cool is that?

First you can create a dragon fly like Cheryl Parker did.
Mara Bates created a dragon fly too.
Of course you can create flowers and that is just what Jenni Hogan did Nichole Nelson made a flower too Tracy Belvens said "Thank you" with a flower

Pick a Petal is a great stamp set for all holidays, you can wish someone a Happy Mother's Day with this card created by an unknown artist Ann Leek came up with this adorable Thanksgiving card. And if you just want to say Thank you, there is always this card made by Suzanne Lawrence.

Make Something Monday

My Upline Dawn is amazing, she is always coming up with new things to keep us connected and motivated. Her latest idea is to post a creative challenge on our website weekly. Some how I was appointed to be the one running the challenge so here goes nothing.........

I want you all to “Light me Up” it doesn’t matter what you create: a card, a scrapbook page, an altered album, anything you want, as long as it “Lights me Up.”

They could contain stamps that have beams on light; it can be a birthday cake with candles that light up, what about a scrapbook layout including pictures taken around the camp fire? When all else fails, there is always bling!!

So you've been given the guidelines, you've got your supplies gathered, you're warmed up and ready to go...your assignment is simply this:
1. Be Inspired.
2. Create something you love.
3. Have fun!

There is no deadline to create this; however I will be posting new challenges every Monday!! Of course, I want to see what you come up with so be sure to post a comment with the link to your creation so I can check it out.

Hope this challenge lights your fire!

Friday Fillins

This week Amy provided the questions; thank you, Amy! And...here we go!

1. Dancing in the living room while looking into D's eyes makes me feel like the luckiest woman on the planet.

2. The last time I watched football I nearly had a heart attack (after all the Giants were in the Super Bowl).

3. When I drive I enjoy having the moon roof open.

4. I saw the almost full moon standing alone in the sky on my way home from work.

5. Give me love, give me loyalty, give me friendship.

6. Next week I am looking forward to enjoying my 1 day off.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to going to D's cousins wedding, tomorrow my plans include driving home from Rhode Island with enough time to be at work by 2pm and Sunday, I want to work on my Fantasy Football team!

To Have or To Have Not......

I was off yesterday and was lucky enough to spend the day with my friend and upline Dawn and her family. The day started with swimming lessons for 2 of her 3 kids to swimming lessons, then we grabbed lunch and went back to the pool to enjoy the sunshine. Whenever I spend time with people who have kids it amazes me how they do it, Dawn is no exception. Her oldest daughter is in 3rd grade (I think she is 8) her other two children are 5 year old twins. Talk about having your hands full.... Dawn makes it look so easy, it I had to do what she does every day I am sure I would have lost my mind by now and if not my minds, at least one of the kids. I always say days like this are really good birth control, they remind me what the life of a parent is like and why I have decided to NOT have children.

After spending the day at the pool we got to spend some time stamping and hanging out with some other people from our group. It just so happens one of the other ladies (Doris) has to go to a wedding this weekend. (so do D and I) so the first priority for Doris and I was making wedding cards. After looking through what felt like thousands of samples (Dawn has millions!!) we came up with our inspiration. We decided we wanted different colors, changed some other elements and this is what we came up with (as always it isn't the best scan but in person the card looks great if I do say so myself)
Recipe:
Stamps: Always and Wonderful Words
Card Stock: Whisper White and Brushed Silver
Accessories: Silver Embossing Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals, Retired Ribbon and Ribbons slider.
It really felt good to stamp and paper craft with friends. I need to do more of that, based on my work schedule it is hard to go to crops and other things because they are almost always on the weekends so when I get the chance to craft with other people I jump on it. After making the wedding cards we worked on some projects Dawn needed to complete, then we played around with the BigShot (can't wait to order mine, kind of impressed I haven't ordered it yet) and planned some activities for the rest of the year. All I have to say is watch out because it is going to keep getting better and better as the year goes on!!!

Playing with Paper

I am a huge blog reader. My Bloglines has about 120blogs that I try to read every day.... crazy I know. One of the blogs I read often is Anne from Canada Anne and I met because our SU! up lines are friendly. I have never met Anne because she didn't go to convention (she promises me she will go next year!!) but that hasn't stopped me from reading her blog. The other day she had this card on her blog.

I fell in love with the colors and knew when I got the change to craft I would be doing something similar. My card is a little larger than usual, not sure what the heck I will do with a 6x6 card but that is something for me to figure out later. I couldn't wait to use the new "Say it with Scallops" stamp that we got at convention from UPS and of course I wanted to use the new In Colors.
I was able to kill two birds with one stone. I used Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss and Pink Pirouette paper. I stamped the sentiment with Chocolate Chip. I am thinking of adding buttons to the center of the flowers, but like I said I don't know when I am going to need to give this card to anyone so I have a little while to perfect it.

Am I missing something?

There is a new stamp set in the Stampin' Up! catalog called "Sock Monkey" everyone loves. I don't, as a matter of fact I am going on record here and now saying it freaks me out a little. It is definitely not a stamp set you will ever see on my wish list. That being said I received tons of really cute swaps made with the sock monkey that I just had to share.....(as with all of the pics I post I apologize for the clarity or lack there of of the pictures, blame it on my scanner)

Created by Barb Coblentz of Marshfield, WI

This one is from Krista Jensen of Corona, CA

Then we Megan Verhoeven of Parker, CO creation which really got attacked by my scanner. In real life the card is straight and even!

This was created by Susan Miller (not sure where Susan is from)

Jill George created this one, again I am not sure where Jill is from.

Finally I received from an unknown stamper.

I think all of these cards are adorable (obviously, I shared them with you) but I just don't see the big deal about the Sock Monkey..... oh well it must be me!

I'm Lovin' It.....

It isn't every day you get to have your picture taken with a celebrity, especially one who is world famous. I had no idea when I get on the plane for Salt Lake City I would be meeting someone was well known and reconizable as.......
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Ronald McDonald!!!! How lucky am I? I am sure you are wondering what the heck was Ronald McDonald doing at the Stampin' Up! convention? "Stampin' Up! designs an exclusive stamp set every year to help raise money for Ronald McDonald House Charities" (RMHC) Ronald was there to accept the check from Shelli and visit with demonstrators.

As if that wasn't cool enough, the last day of convention looked liked because donated this (sorry for the crappy picture, my hands were shaking with excitement while I was taking it) to every demonstrator who attended to convention. I thought I got excited when the UPS man showed up at my house, you should have seen how we all acted when he showed up at convention, it was unreal. What is even more exciting is there were about 5600 people there and since UPS purchased the stamp sets from SU to give to everyone attending convention that means RMHC received more than $11,000 from Stampin' Up! Now that is something to cheer about!!!

Janet for President

As usual Janet from Friday Fillins does a great job!

1. The last meal I had at a restaurant was if take out counts, last night when I got Chipolte, if it doesn't that would be Convention when we went to Bucca De Pepi (I know I spelt that wrong).

2. Frogs are something I intensely dislike. (actually I am afraid of them, crazy I know!)

3. The full moon always makes me think of the night I met my husband.

4. "How you Doin?" (think of Joey from Friends) is one of my favorite local expressions.

5. Sometimes it's best to keep your mouth shut!!

6. Sex and the City is the best movie I've seen so far this year!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to watching the Olympics after work, tomorrow my plans include laundry and work and Sunday, I want to hang with my husband after work!

Music to my Ears.....

My sister "Bboy" and I have a bit of a tradition. Almost every night he calls me to say goodnight. Honestly I think it is the little stinkers way of getting to stay awake for 5 more minutes, I don't care thought I love when he calls! It started with my sister doing all the talking and at the end she would say "Give Aunt Kelly a kiss" and I would hear "Muwah" (not sure how to spell the sound a kiss makes) and I would say "muwah right back at you peanut" and blow a kiss into the phone. Now that he can talk more our bedtime conversations are a little different, I usually say "BBoy what are you doing?" and he tells me "reading a book" or "singing a song" or any number of other things he says (not all of which are 100% clear to me) and of course before we get off the phone I always say "Good night peanut, I love you." The other day he said "I love you too Aunt Kelly" I swear I got tears in my eyes and goose bumps up and down my arms. It was so cute hearing his little voice say "I love you" as I sit here typing this I am looking at a blurry screen because the tears have surfaced again. It is hard for me to believe the big boy in this picture wearing "Grandpa's" glasses is the same little boy who entered the world and my heart almost 3 years ago. Damn I love that little brat!!!

DNA vs. Delete

I was listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about what to your cell phone when you break up with someone. Of course the response was just delete their name/phone number from your phone and let it rest in peace. Which is something I have done a time or two. On of the girls on the show suggested not deleting the number instead edit the name to read "DNA-name" that way if they should call you know not to answer it. Let's face it in this day and age we don't memorize numbers the way we used to adn we whouldn't want to accidently answer a call from one of those "DNA" people would we? More importantly we wouldn't want to drunk dial any of those "DNA" people. I had a couple of names in my phone that I really didn't want to have to talk to and I pray all the time they don't call so you better believe after listening to that show I went through and added "IGNORE" do their name, I chose "IGNORE" because I felt that strongly about ignoring these people (honestly it is only 1 person), they are just not worthy of my time! Anyone in your phone worthy of "DNA" or "IGNORE"

Simply Sent

I am so in love with the new Simply Sent Card Elements Kits. Using the kit I was able to make this adorable card (At least in person it is adorable, I don't think the scan did it justice, oh well) I did alter it a little. I was supposed to use a button in the middle of the flower but in true Kelly fashion, I lost the button so I used a pearl from the "pretties kit." The cool thing about the kit is you get everything you need to make 9 cards, including step by step instructions which is exactly what I need.

The card is for my DM, after a little more than 2 years working together we have been realigned and are no longer working together. She is coming to my store tomorrow to "hand over" the store, I know it is going to be an emotional day,thankfully I am not working the business so I won't scare any customers away with my "I have been crying face"

Swapping was fun.......

All of this talk and pressure around swapping at convention had me on pins and needles, I wondered was my swap good enough? would people want to swap with me? how would people know I had swaps? and tons of other things ran through my head as I entered the Salt Palace for the first time with my Ziploc bag full of swaps. It didn't take me very long to figure out how the whole swapping thing worked. Basically everyone in the building was swapping, it made waiting in line for Memento Mall seem not so bad. People were basically walking up and down the line swapping. I very quickly learned the easiest way to do it without dropping everything on the floor was to give with one hand and take with the other (remember high school graduation, you shook with the right and received your diploma with your left, same concept) I started putting all the swaps I received in the back of my very cool new bag from SU and the one I was giving stayed in the front of the back so not to mix them up. I would be lying if I said I went through all of the ones I received. Making 150+ cards was over whelming; however they were all the same design so it wasn't that bad; however, I received 150+ cards all of which are different designs, it is amazing to me the time and effort that went into alot of them. I really need to figure out a way of sorting through all of them and filing them for future use/inspiration. In addition to giving me some really great gifts (including an adorable picture of her dog "Snowball"- that is for you Judy if you are reading this) my roommate gave me several cards and card designs to use in the future. The two cards posted are from her. I am going to my cousins' birthday party tomorrow and these cards are perfect for them, they are turning 6 and 4. I am sure they are going to love them and hope you do too. I hope to post pics of the swaps I received as I sort through them, not committing to any specific time frame though, sorting through them could take awhile.

Friday Fillins Times 2!!

No wonder I can't figure out what day of the week it is, I didn't do my Friday Fillins last week. So this week I will be doing this weeks and lasts to make up for it.


1. You know you're old when you need to use the calculator to figure out how old you are (serious business I do that all the time 2008-1975 okay so I just turned 33).

2. My heart is divided between my friends and my family.

3. Money and sleep is what I need RIGHT NOW!

4. I have felt the pain, I have known the depths of love (or is it the other way around- felt the love and known the depths of pain?)

5. Gah, won't these people leave me alone.

6. Fall in love as soon as you can!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to catching the highlights from the opening ceremonies of the Olympics (since I will be working when they air the first time)tomorrow my plans include working and going to my cousin's birthday party and Sunday, I want to enjoy my day off!


And now for last week's (not filling out the weekend stuff since it will be the same as the one above)

1. If I could travel back in time, I'd go to Joannie's house before she died even though my mother told me not to!!!
2. Give me chocolate or give me space.
3. I am listening to Run DMC "It's Tricky" (thanks Kimmie).
4. Somewhere, someone is thinking what the hell am I doing?
5. I'll always be myself.
6. My idea of a good time includes friends and comfy clothes.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to _____, tomorrow my plans include _____ and Sunday, I want to _____!

It keeps getting better and better

Stampin' Up! has done it again. They are running an amzing recruiting special lstarting on Monday, I am so excited about it, I couldn't wait until then to share the news. For $99 you can sign up to be a demonstrator and get amazing discounts on every order you place. One of the things that makes this promotion so special is there are 3 different starter kits to pick from and as usual all of the kits are 100% customizable... how cool is that?



When I placed my first Stampin' Up order I never thought I would become a demonstrator but because I had an amazing demonstrator who was so motivated and passionate about what she does I became to think more and more about it. I was going to place the order anyway, why not get a discount? I have never hosted a workshop, or taught a class yet I get a great discount with EVERY order I place. I LOVE IT!! After attending convention I realized there was a lot more I could be doing with "my business" and I promised myself I would work a little harder at it than I had been. I still don't plan on hosting workshops or teaching classes and that is okay because I don't have to!

One of the things that is so inspiring about convention is watching demonstrators walk across stage for their accomplishments in various different categories. Like me, many of my "sideline sisters" signed up as hobby demonstrators after being at convention and seeing people get rewards and walk across the stage we are committed as a team to walk across the stage next year. I am so excited to be feeding off their energy and motivation I just know this is going to be an amazing year!!!

Another exciting convention announcement......

Stampin' Up! has announced a partnership with Sizzix!!! Please join me in welcoming the newest member of the SU family.........The Big Shot. How exciting!! There are so many amazing things you can create with it, I can't wait to get my hands on it.

When Shelli announced the partnership all 5500+ woman in the convention center went crazy, it was unreal. I am sure you are wondering what is the Big Shot and when/where can you get one? I have the answers to those questions and more....... The Big Shot is a sturdy manual die cutting machine used to die cut materials for use on crafts, home décor projects, and even clothing--it's a big deal! Starting September 2nd you will be able to order the Big Shot along with Exclusive Stampin' Up! Dies how cool is that? I am so excited I can barely control myself!

Convention was amazing............

If I talked about all of the great new products and announcements made at Convention I would be typing for days! It was awesome. The new catalog is amazing, be sure to contact me today for your free copy!!!

Stampin' Up! has sweetened the deal a little more by putting some of the new stamps sets on promotion.....

Never Before Seen Promotion

From August 11 through September 30, Stampin' Up! is providing never-before-seen savings on brand-new stamp sets: 15% off select new, die-cut stamp sets from the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog--no additional purchase necessary. Select items are listed in the table below:

Item Code Pg. # Description Regular Price 15% off Price
111690 32 Snow Swirled $24.95 $21.21
111586 55 It's a Stretch $23.95 $20.36
111544 81 Putt Putt $24.95 $21.21
111626 91 Eastern Blooms $21.95 $18.66
111672 98 Pocket Silhouettes $18.95 $16.11
111710 101 Upsy Daisy $18.95 $16.11
111556 109 Under the Stars $29.95 $25.46
111644 145 Heard from the Heart $22.95 $19.51
111570 157 Contempo Alphabet $40.95 $34.81
109381 23 Felicidades Siempre* $17.95 $15.26

*From Celebrando Creatividad

Pictures of these stamp sets and more are int he new idea book and catalog, be sure to contact me to request your copy!

Step by Step

Ever since I started working in retail I often wondered how much I walk in a day the other day while in the store buying trouser socks (as if I don't have a thousand pair at home already) I saw what looked like a decent pedometer for a decent price so being the impulse shopper that I am, I picked it up. "They" say you should strive for 10,000 footsteps a day and I am proud to say I did it today!!! To be honest I wasn't really paying attention during the day then when I went to take my work clothes off and put on my PJs the damn thing fell off my belt, and wouldn't you know I did 10543, that breaks down to over 4.5 miles, kind of impressive considering most of it was done in heels. Gotta love Easy Spirit!

Tomorrow I leave for convention, (my birthday present to myself) I am really looking forward to it, it will be nice to finally meet my roommate, we have been communicating via email for months now. Stampin'UP! has already made some pretty amazing announcements, I can't wait to hear what they are going to announce at convention especially since this is the 20th Anniversary year. Looking forward to getting my hands on the new catalog (if you want one just email me with your address and I will be happy to send you one.) Basically what I am trying to say is I have heard so much abaout convention, I can't wait to experience it for myself.

And the Legacy continues......

Look what I found on MSN

Top 10 Biggest Party Schools
Article provided by The Princeton Review

Some colleges are famed for their academics, some for their location and some, well, are legends for their party scene. The Princeton Review's survey of 120,000 college students for "The Best 368 Colleges: 2009 Edition" revealed the top 10 party schools in the nation. Read excerpts from the students' responses to the survey below.

4. West Virginia University (Morgantown, W. Va.)
When it comes to socializing, West Virginia students are keen to mention "exceptional partying," "some of the best NCAA football" and "amazing" tailgates as some of the school's many opportunities for fun. Of course, while there are plenty of high-octane parties, there's also an alcohol-free program each weekend called WV Up All Night. Here students can enjoy "movies and comedy shows and games and free food at the student center." Hometown Morgantown also earns high marks. Students praise its "refreshing, slower pace of life" as well as "the 15 bars downtown that are no more than 80 feet from each other."

Students who considered West Virginia University also looked at Penn State -- University Park, University of Pittsburgh -- Pittsburgh Campus, James Madison University, Marshall University and Virginia Tech.

Nice to know my home away from home for 4 years isn't letting me down!!!

And time keeps on ticking....

I leave for Utah 7:00pm on Tuesday and in true Kelly fashion, my swaps for convention are not done yet!

I did however make major progress today. My POTD today is 165 swaps that are about 90% done. All I need to do is punch the holes in the center of the flower and attach the flower to the card. I am feeling pretty good. My goal was to have them done before I went to bed on Monday and I am beginning to think that is a possibility! I am pretty impressed, I thought for sure I would end up drastically reducing the number of cards I made but so far I have only lowered it by less than 30. You never know I might end up making those 30 after all, I guess we shall see what tomorrow brings.

And it didn't even fill it up.......

Since I did such a great job ranting and raving about my dumb car the other day I thought I would continue the theme today with my POTD

My sister called me today and says "Oh my God, I am so excited" so of course I asked her why and she said "I am sitting at the Shell station paying $3.75 a gallon."

How pathetic is that? We no celebrate when we get gas that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. What on earth is this world coming do?