Twelve days??

Thanks to my niece, Heather, for pointing out that I leave for Japan in TWELVE days! I didn't believe it until I used all my fingers and toes....yep, 12 days! Tomorrow we get our rail passes for the JR trains--love the bullet trains!--and our yen and cell phone which can only be used in Japan. If we use our iPhone in Japan, it's $1.69 per minute so the cost of renting the cell phone is well worth the $30.

I'm finishing up my cards for Kate and her family and will send them off to Jennifer this week. I made the surfer card for her brother, Will, and will probably put some stickers inside, and the round card is for her older sister, Olivia.

I decided to give the buttony one to her parents. I love the sentiment and it's my first card that I took to the sewing machine! Stitching was fun and I may do it more often and some zigzag stitching when I get a bit braver....

Thanks for visiting! Have a great rest of the week....

Phew!

Well, the desk is finally done and I'm sitting at it, typing on my laptop which seems to be really happy here. We finally finished all the details--putting on the glass doors, assembling the drawers, deciding how high I want the shelves.

Initially, my hubby was going to assemble it all by himself. But whenever I popped in for a look, he would ask, "You wanna screw these in?...." or "Can you put some glue on the pegs and pass it to me?..." I didn't mind helping him and it did go by faster with an extra pair of hands.

The desk and hutch were assembled separately and then we had to put the hutch on top of the desk. IT WEIGHED A TON!! We looked at each other and there was NO WAY I could help him lift it and line up the holes and pegs and screws! So we waited for my daughter's big, strong boyfriend to come over the following evening.

Here's a photo of how it looks one day after it was completely finished. Only my Copics have found a spot on the top and I did some stamping on it last night. I have to decide where my "go to" supplies will go and be accessible. I still found myself going to the den to use my paper trimmer......Will post a pic later when it's "pretty"!

Cleaning has its rewards

In the midst of getting ready for the delivery of my desk tomorrow, it sort of feels like Christmas! I'm finding tons of goodies that I ordered and set aside. I found my Papertrey Ink Everyday Button Bits stamp set! I loved them when I first saw Dawn McVey use them on her blog, and naturally they sold out really fast. I knew they were back in stock when Kelly used them to make some really cute cards.

I made these last night as I caught glimpses of Jerry Lewis' MDA telethon. There are a lot of cute designs--a bicycle, balloons, birdies--and all you have to do is stamp and add your own buttons. So glad that I found it. Sets of notecards would make great last minute gifts and the hardest part about making them is choosing the buttons.

It WILL be a Labor Day weekend!

My sweet hubby was intent on getting me a desk to do my crafting on. Something practical with drawers and cabinets and even if I won't be actually crafting on it, I think he just wants me to move out of the den and have it be a den again. Subtle hint. So we went to Office Max and we settled on this:

He was really determined to get it and even got me a new chair that can be raised to the highest level because I'm so un-tall. Can you see me using this?

Scheduled delivery is on Tuesday so I've been cleaning up and trying to organize and decide what exactly is going into the drawers and it's not going well. I'm getting distracted by things-I-put-away-and-forgot-that-I-have ("Oh! Here's my Ali Edwards word stamps!") and I'm trying to toss some things and then rescue them from the wastebasket 5 minutes later.

So, Happy Labor Day to all and think about me laboring this weekend! I'll probably be dripping with sweat as I go from clutter to clean in just 3 days. I hope.

Woo hoo!

Today announcements were made on the Greeting Farm and Club Anya blogs and two of my friends made the design team! Congrats to Kelly Booth and Lysa Rohrer for being chosen for Club Anya! So exciting to actually "know" them through the Hero Arts Flickr group! Kelly couldn't contain herself and let me know the day before so that I could share in her excitement! I'm happy for all who made DTs for both blogs. I've been lurking Amy's blog and she does amazing altering of Greeting Farm and Anya images with a light box and a Copic multiliner pen. Please visit their blogs for more amazing and inspirational work. Way to go, ladies!

Is it really September?

This week's challenge on the Hero Arts blog is all about men. There was a masculine challenge a while ago and this week's is a little different in that the man in your life can enter, too. I asked my hubby if he wanted to stamp a card and he gave me a look that needed no words. It was a definite "no, thank you"...

I'm planning to send this card to Kathy and her hubby as a get well card. He had a pretty scary ordeal (his car that he was working on slipped and fell on him) and luckily came away with just some bumps and bruises. Hope he's on his way to a speedy recovery with Kathy's TLC.

A great week

Whenever Friday creeps up, I'm always amazed at how fast the week went by. I found out yesterday that my colorful bird-on-a-hill scallop card received an Honorable Mention for Hero Arts' mail it challenge. I hope the card found its way to Judy in Alabama.

And I'm still celebrating my birthday as a few cards and gifts arrived this week. Just sharing a photo of a beautiful BROWN clutch that a sweet friend from Indonesia sent me. The batik print is so pretty and reminiscent of her country. Love the browns!

And another sweet (and sneaky) friend sent me this stuffed felt owl keychain. The embroidery work is really amazing and I dubbed her "Owlice" after her designer. Big Owl looks happy...

This year brought the most number of hand stamped birthday cards that I've ever received. It's all thanks to the Hero Arts Flickr group and the many friendships I've made. I am blessed.

Cards and hugs for Kate

Followers of Jennifer McGuire's blog are all aware of her generous and kind heart. She is once again sponsoring a card drive for Kate, a little girl with an aggressive form of brain cancer, and for her family as well. As a parent of a cancer survivor, I wanted to join in and flood Kate and her family with tons of cards and good wishes. If you would like to participate, check out Jennifer's blog here and be inspired to bring some hope and sunshine to Kate and her family. This Greeting Farm pig always makes me smile and I hope that Kate will, too.

Happy Anniversary, Hawaii!

Today marks the 50th Anniversary of our state's admission to the United States. Pretty cool to be the 50th state instead of the 49th. Sorry, Alaska! And "50" has a nice ring to it. It's a state holiday which means schools are out of session and a lot of businesses are on a half day schedule. This Greeting Farm Hope image pays homage to our statehood. Gave her a grass skirt, courtesy of a Prima flower, and she has a yellow hibiscus which is our state flower. Happy Aloha Friday!

A card for Judy

Made this card for the "mail it" challenge over at the Hero Arts blog. It was going to be sent (secretly) to cheer up Judy whose computer crashed over the weekend.

I'm happy to report that Judy got her computer repaired and is back online and even though she'll probably see it on my Flickr photostream, I'm going to follow through with the challenge and mail it out to her today. Glad you're back in cyberspace, Judy!