Sweet Sentiments Tag Swap

I love SwapDex!!! It lead me to this oh-so-cute tag book swap hosted by Mary Ann. I am so excited to be a part of this.

Pay It Forward

I signed up to do the Pay It Forward swap on Wanda's blog today.

Here are the rules in case you haven't seen this:

The first 3 people who leave me a comment on this post only saying you want to play by "paying it forward" will receive a handmade item from me sometime in the next 3 months. Just one day, out of the blue, at no cost to you, a special something will arrive in your mailbox. Won't this be a great way to make your day?!!

FOR FREE!!!

The catch is that you must choose to participate in this round robin of giving... by giving yourself and posting the "Pay It Forward Challenge" on your blog. (But, make sure to leave some type of contact info-email so I can get a hold of you for the address...)

I was Tagged...

So Wanda tagged me with this little task to do. I have to go to my sixth photo folder and post the sixth picture in that folder. Let's see....

Oh boy...I took this picture back in January because I was trying to get a shot of my new highlights and new haircut to send to my boyfriend. This pic looks like it belongs on MySpace...lol.

Thanks for tagging me Wanda! I tag Jenny, Heidi, Megan, Sandy, Karla, and Robin.

OWOH Giveaway Winner!

Much to my surprise I won two giveaways from the One World, One Heart blog giveaway event. My first prize was this darling little house ornament from Carla of http://collagecat.typepad.com.

And from Mary Kadry I won a great box full of supplies that I am soooo excited about!!!
Look how pretty!




Thank you both so much for your generosity. I can not wait to participate again next year and find even more great blogs to explore.

Puppy Love Tag Book

I was invited by Karla Nathan to participate in her Puppy Love tag swap awhile back and recently received the finished product back from her. Every tag I got was so beautifully done and I am very honored to have such great work in my collection now. Thank you all so much for the hard work you put into each tag



This is how my package arrived. It was very pretty and had great goodies on top that I can't wait to use in my projects.

Karla bound all the tag books together and added cute little extras like flowers and a red plastic Scottie.

Karla handmade about 60 covers for the tag books. Look how gorgeous! All those little tiny hearts are hand drawn and hand painted!!!



This amazing 3-D tag was made by Andrea Tarling of vintagebellastudio


.
The back is just as pretty and detailed as the front.

Karoline Simmons also made a 3-D tag. Aren't these kids the most darling!


Mahala made her tag so texturally interesting and the colors are my favorite combination.

OOOH! When I saw Cheryl post about these tags on her blog, I started wishing very hard that I would be one of the lucky 6 to get one and I WAS!!!

Kana used the prettiest flocked paper for her background.

She also used one of my favorite pictures on the backside. How romantic!

Look at these details: she glued confetti sized dog bones to the baker's twine. How delicate!

And last but not least was this beauty made by Debe Leone. That stamp on the back is very pretty; I would love to find it somewhere.



Thank you all so much once again! I love this book so much I can't bear to hide it away until next Valentine's season...

I Am So Sorry!!!

I know, I know...I said I would pick a winner on Friday night but I didn't. I was so wrapped up in all the awesome things my BF had planned for us and didn't have access to a computer. Please accept my apologies and to help convey them I also drew a number for a second, smaller giftie!

First Giveaway Box goes to:

"Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

5

Timestamp: 2009-02-18 03:07:19 UTC"

That would be....Robin of ThriftyMissPriss!

2nd Giveaway goes to:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

6 

Timestamp: 2009-02-18 03:12:35 UTC

Jenny Fowler of Fated Follies!!!


I swear that next time I do a giveaway I will stick to my schedule better! Oh well, it was a learning experience....

Alrighty! That's all folks! I will be picking a giveaway winner randomly tomm. evening. Most likely have my bf put the comments in his brand new firefighter helmet (that he would love to marry, in fact) and I will post the winner on Sat. morn.

Since there were so few comments, ya'll have a great chance in winning. 1 in 7, woohoo! Lol.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Puppy Love #2 and a Giveaway!

So, I know I said that I would post pictures of the last 3 tags for Karla's Puppy Love Tag Swap but I forgot to take pics. I was in such a hurry to get them done and out the door that it didn't even cross my mind. Oh well, maybe I will find out who has them in their tag book and I can snag a pic from them.

Also, I just realized that I have been blogging (not very well) for a year as of yesterday! Therefore, I feel a giveaway is in order. I don't have pics just yet but I will pull together a great assortment of ephemera, buttons, papers, trinkets, bits, baubles, etc. Spread the word!!!

All you have to do is leave a comment on THIS post and I will close comments on Thursday night at 10:00 EST. On Friday, I am flying down to Virginia to spend Valentine's Day with my BF and I will have him pick a number for me Sat. morn. I will post to let the winner know. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you. Haha, I just realized that this is my first giveaway ever! Too funny.

Puppy Love #1

I am participating in the fabulous Karla Nathan's Puppy love tag swap! She is such a sweetheart. Can't wait to see the great tags that everyone will be turning out.


These are the 3 tags (out of 6) that I have done so far. Gotta get on it and crank out the last 3 to make sure I meet the deadline.

And in other news...I am also taking part in Emily's 52Q art journal challenge. I have never really done any art journaling before so this is a great start for me. So far, I LOVE it!

Ice Ice Baby

Last Thursday night we had the most awful ice storm here in MA. So many people lost power and many don't have it back yet. Tree limbs were falling everywhere and power lines and poles snapped left and right. Driving to Target on Saturday I saw a car parked in a driveway with a huge tree smashed through its roof. :(

I think it's weird that something so pretty can be so insanely destructive.







Hopefully everyone will get their lights and heat back soon!

Twilight and Thanksgiving Plans

Okay, I admit that I saw Twilight. :) Most people love it just because of the books (and I did read the 1st one about 4 years ago), but I LOVED this movie because it was so great. The storyline was awesome, the actors were superb, and the whole thing was just so romantic. It was the 1st movie I have seen in awhile that didn't have to stoop down to sophomoric vulgarity just to amuse the audience. I was pleasantly surprised. The music was beautiful and I plan on buying the soundtrack for once.

Okay, enough ranting about this super hyped up movie. :)

I am leaving to go back to Nebraska (land of Silver Bella) on Wednesday to visit family for Thanksgiving. Should be a fun time at the airport! I expect that this adventure will be interesting because I have not spent a holiday with this side of the family since I was in 2nd grade (12 years ago) and I don't really know what to expect. Oh well, I'm always up for excitement. I promise to take lots of pictures (of what, I don't know, since I will be in the Boonies) to make up for the lack of Silver Bella photos (even though they are not comparable).

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig...

I’m back from Silver Bella in Omaha and it was by far the most amazing time of my life so far. I felt so at home with everyone; especially my roommates, Heidi and Jenny. Spending time with those two was by far the best part of the trip. They both were so sweet and fun.

I dragged my camera all the way there and back but I did not take a single picture of anything so I am snagging 1 of Heidi’s.

My roomies- Jenny Fowler and Heidi Gordon with awesome Karla Nathan

Vendor Night was fabulous! I spent an arm and a leg but it was well worth it since stuff like that is hard to come by out here. As annoying as I may have been I couldn’t pass up Karla Nathan’s booth and Wanda Clark’s booth and had to hit them up multiple times. Thank goodness they were so patient with me!

I took some great classes with top notch teachers. Carolyn Peeler was awesome and her projects were simple to do yet really, really pretty. Jenni Bowlin was a sweetheart and really personable. Kim Kwan was the loudest person ever but so incredibly hilarious and generous. And last but not least, Charlotte Lyons was great as a teacher and entertaining as she regaled us with stories of Mary Engelbreit and herself. (I’ll post pictures of my projects later.)

Thanks to all the great instructors for the wonderful classes. Thanks to Teresa McFayden for organizing this great event (and to all her helpers).

Silver Sister Stash Swap

So I am just going to be lazy and not write too much but these are the Silver Sister Stash Swap packages. These 9 women were so amazing and they put in such hard work to make this a great success. Thank you all!

Heather Ales
Julie Baxley
Natalea Kandefer
Michele Witchell
Marian Ballog
Stephanie G. Hirschberg
Michele Geller
Stephanie Oyler
Jana Perenchio

New Additions

Since my last post I have bought a new computer, which I LOVE! It is so great to just stick my memory card of pictures directly into my comp instead of plugging in cables and such. It is so much faster than my old one.
Also, we got a puppy! Her name is Chloe and she is a 5 month old Pekingese. Yes, those are her teeth (she has an underbite)!

I saw alot of my blogging pals had participated in the Sweet Six Studio thingie and their pictures inspired me to try my hand at lanterns. I like the way it came out! Although my sister says that it looks like a jellyfish. Lol.
Michaels has these paper mache houses on clearance for 99 cents so I snagged a few. It was a great way to use up a good deal of the white buttons I have. Didn't make a dent in them at all though! Oh well!

Stay tuned for pictures of my Silver Sister Stash Swap that I hosted for Silver Bellas. I took pics tonight but still have more to take and I wouldn't want to ruin any surprises for the other Bellas.