A Blog Called Wanda

Taylored Expressions April 2014 Release Day - You Wonderful Thing!

HELLLLOOOOOOO! It's Release Day for Taylored Expressions! All the new April goodies are now available for purchase in the TE Store! GO shopping! (First look at my card, though!)

We have a new illustrator this month here at TE....and she used to be on the design team! How fun is that? Answer - really fun! Danielle Lounds designed some new stamps this month, and I've used two of them to make today's card: You Wonderful Thing and Cherish Every Moment. Fist pump to Danielle!!

For this card I used a technique that I remember from time to time - coloring with my Copic markers on Kraft Cardstock.... First I embossed my images using white embossing powder and Versamark Ink. The Copics on the Kraft give a really soft and natural look, that I thought matched these images...

 

 

 

 

I cut out my images and put them together. Then I used a white gel pen to add some dots for interest and to 'ground' my pictures. 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for sharing another FUN and FABULOUS TE release week with me! Have a wonderful day everyone! 

Taylored Expressions has been celebrating Release Week with fabulous giveaways! Visit the TE Blog to see the WINNERS announced today!

Here are your links for today! 

• Charmaine Ikach
• Courtney Kelley
• Danielle Lounds
• Jami Sibley
• Jeanne Streiff
• Jen Shults
• Joan Ervin
• Kendra Wietstock
• Kerri Michaud
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

 

InLinkz.com

Whew! Let's get caught up!

Hi everyone! It seems like ages since I sat down and wrote a blog post! The things you've been seeing for the past week were all scheduled ahead of my trip to CHA in Anaheim! Well, I'm home now, and trying to get caught up with 'real' life and such. It's good to be home, and my brain is overflowing with crafty ideas...

The trip to CHA was amazing! I worked all four days at the Taylored Expressions booth and they had a great show. It's so fun to spend time with the people I work with online every day. They are such a wonderful group of people and I'm reminded how blessed I am that they are a part of my life. I also got to walk the show and see so many of my favorite bloggy friends. My heart is full!! I think it took three days for my feet to stop aching! LOL. It was a great trip. I tried to facebook as much as I could so I hope you checked out all my 'on to go' photos there. Whew. 

Here are just a few photos that I wanted to share from my trip! First up is a photo of all of us at the TE booth. From left to right - Stephanie, Jami, Taylor, John, Regina, Wanda, Shannon and Linda. XOXO

 

 

 

 

My MOST favorite and unique display from the show - Tim Holtz for Sizzix....

 

 

 

Laguna Beach, Heisel Park...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Creative Retreat classes start next week! Thank you so much to all of you who already signed up! I think it's going to be really fun! My class project is all ready to go and I'm so excited for you guys to see it. There is no time limit on when you can sign up. CLICK HERE FOR THE CLASS INFO PAGE - and to see the sneak peeks of some of the projects. 

And here is my Sneak Peek!

Vintage Paris Valentine is the name of my class! 

I've missed all of you! What have you been up to? I hope your new year is off to a great start! I'm renewed and energized creatively and can't wait to start sharing projects with you. Thanks for popping in! 

FOUR year blogaversary! And, my end of the year wrap-up!

Hi! Happy (almost) New Year! I hope and wish for many good things to come in the year 2014! New Year's is always a time to pause and reflect and take stock. For me, 2013 was a very hard year. Probably one of the hardest years of my entire life. I'm not really sad to see it go. Too much happened. I'm a very even keel sort of gal, and 2013 put me on a roller coaster ride - and I must say that I didn't really care for it. I am very grateful for what I have and the people I love. I am very strong in my faith that God is preparing me for a new chapter or a new phase in my life, and I had to walk through the "work" first. Do you know what I mean? Anyhoo, I digressed...

I am looking forward to making 2014 a wonderful year. My words for 2014 are: Compassion (to seek it and give it), Flawed (recognizing that I am flawed and that's okay), and THRIVE (because that's what I intend to do!). I don't really do resolutions - do you? What's on tap for your new year? I wish you ALL THE BEST! Let's make it a banner year! 

One of the things I love to do here on the blog at the end of the year, is to take a look back on my creative journey! Today is my four year blogaversary! Can you believe it? So many of you have been following along with me the entire four years and it's been so much fun! I continue to be so happily amazed at the love and kindness of the peeps in blog land. Warms my heart and soul. I'm so excited and happy that I get to share with you what I love to do. 

My blog is my journal, in a way, and it keeps a record of my life and my progress. So, on that note, here are some fun stats from the year. At the end of 2012 I had written 560 blog posts, received 5413 comments, had 104,000 visitors, 365 email subscribers and 362,000 total blog hits. At the end of 2013... I have written 722 blog posts, received 7527 kind comments, had 185,000 visitors, 521 email subscribers... and.... drum roll please....506,000 total blog hits! YAY! I had a secret goal to try to make it to half a million blog hits before the end of the year! COOLEST thing ever! 

Last year I started a new tradition of recapping my favorite projects from the year! I got so many nice comments about this! Here are my favorites from 2013!! 

This card from January was my entry into a Hero Arts Contest! The smaller panel on the front is actually an ATC that can come off. That map stamp is a fav, and made other appearances throughout the year! 

 

 

For February I had to choose a Valentine favorite! This card was made in a color combo I love and using Papertrey Ink supplies...

 

 

This card from March just might be one of my favorite cards I've ever made! It took me hours to punch out and glue all those layers together - but I love the result. You guys can tell I love that shade of aqua....

 

 

In April I got the nautical bug! This trend was everywhere and I adore it! This card was made using Taylored Expressions stamps and dies...

 

 

In May, I made this card for my friend May! It was her birthday card and was full of an explosion of flowers. This one was really fun to make! 

 

 

June's favorite card had me keeping it clean and simple, with some awesomely cute stamps from Paper Smooches and my go-to gingham paper! 

 

 

In July I tried out a new color combo for the patriotic holidays! Gold and cream, and a gorgeous TE tamp and die cut of the USA... 

 

 

In August, I was feeling like Summer bikes! I made the daisy out of some die cuts and used some new washi tape and fun dies....Love how this one came out. 

 

 

 

For September I started my Autumn crafting with a gorgeous new stamp and die set from Tim Holtz. This card actually got me a mention on Tim Holtz's blog! WOO HOOOOOO! That was fun! 

 

 

More leaves for October - Fall is my favorite time of year! This time, more leaves and inks from Tim Holtz in a yummy fall palette. 

 

 

For November's choice, here is a card made using some cute apple stamps and dies...

 

 

December had me feeling inky and glittery all over when I made these poinsettia pins from the tattered poinsettia die from Tim Holtz! I made a pink one too. Totally fun project! 

 

 

And now, just a few of my favorite photographs from 2013! First up is a butterfly captured in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco... 

 

 

Some pretty pink dogwood blooms in the foothills of Northern California....

 

 

Summer Farmer's Market time....

 

 

My favorite Instagram of the year, took when we went sailing in October...

 

 

Another favorite Instagram shot of some cupcakes I made this year....

 

 

A beautiful white dogwood bloom in front of church at Easter...

 

 

 

Our anniversary trip to Carmel...where we saw Jonathan! LOL! 

 

 

Our last trip to the beach in San Francisco - just a couple of weeks ago. This is why I love California! My last time to see the sunset over the ocean for the year. This is so peaceful. 

 

I'm still here - saying hello

 

 

Hi my friends. I'm still here - thought I would say hello today. I wasn't sure if I should post something or not, but then I figured I need to keep it real. You guys are like my crafty family - so much love and support you bring me all the time. My father passed away a few days ago and so I sort of checked out from life for a bit. Trying to process a million different emotions. Trying not to cry every ten minutes. I know a lot of you will understand. He was very sick for a long time, and he was a Christian, so I know that he is HOME and at peace.  

The hubs took me out to dinner to get out of the house on Saturday night and we stopped on the way home at this lovely field of sunflowers not too far from where we live. I thought these pictures were scenes from heaven so they seemed right for today. 

I hope all of you have a wonderful day and I'll be back with projects soon. XO 

Happy 4th! Sharing my photos from the ocean....

Hello! Happy 4th of July! Happy Independence Day! I love this patriotic holiday and relish the chance to celebrate the love I have for my beautiful country. What an honor and a priviledge to be an American! I have been so lucky in my life to see much of the USA in my travels. I've been to the 'four corners' as I like to call them: Alaska, Hawaii, Key West FL, and Maine.... and most places in between. BUT, my favorite places are always near the ocean. About a month ago the hubs and I took a trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea to celebrate 20 years together. It was a great trip....no TV, no computers, just us....relaxing, taking photos and being still. I finally got around to choosing my favorite pictures from our trip and thought today would be a good day to share them. I hope you and your families have a great holiday! 

Here is a beautiful home in Pacific Grove - we met the owners - they were outside working in the front yard! What a cool old house. 

 

 

 

 

This is what we came for....

 

 

 

This might be my favorite photo from the trip!!! I followed him with my camera until he was right in front of that rock! I shall call him Jonathon! LOL.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a California Condor! These birds are VERY rare, almost extinct, and we were lucky enough to see about 8-10 of them flying above us in Big Sur. Their wing span is eight feet across! I don't really have a zoom lens - this is how close they were!! CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO  

 

 

 

San Carlos Cathedral...

 

 

 

BIG SUR! Can you see Bixby Bridge in the center of the photo? Also, can you see the cows!? This picture depicts California to me....

 

 

 

The fog is rolling in - what a lovely sight....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

California Poppies in the wild...everywhere! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this photo because it shows how quickly the weather can change... On the left side of the photo it's a bright sunny day... On the right side it's foggy. Perfection if you ask me. This is at Pebble Beach on 17 Mile Drive. 

 

 

 

The world famous Lone Cypress Tree....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 18th hole at Pebble Beach - golfers coming in for the day...

 

 

 

 

 

The La Playa Hotel...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I fell in love with these old fashioned roses. Oh my. They were the prettiest and softest shade of peachy pink. It was hard to capture the feeling of them...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Downtown Camel-by-the-Sea, Ocean Avenue...

 

 

 

I loved this necklace at the J Crew store so much that I bought it! I love this look - the denim jacket with the funky plastic flowers. Awesome. Every trip needs to have a little shopping, right??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carmel Beach the morning we left to come home....until I see you again old friend.... 

Sharing some photos today!

Happy Saturday! This week sort of kicked me in the butt! I slept in today and really just relaxed all day. I just finished re-reading The Great Gatsby on my Kindle....so it would be fresh when we go see the new movie. Really can't wait for that!! Now it's already 8:00 at night and I'm sitting down to write a post and share some photos with you guys! 

About three weeks ago I got a new camera (again!) My other new camera didn't work out and it was sent back in December. It took me this long to decide what to do next. The hubs, and my camera store owning uncle finally convinced me that I needed to get a DSLR. So now I am the proud owner of a Canon Rebel T4i! Yippeeeeee! It really is a big adjustment to get the feel of it and learn all the menus and such. So, we've been out shooting on the weekends. I'm finally getting a chance to post some of the snaps I've taken with it. Hope you enjoy a little taste of my corner of the world. :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Thanks for stopping by to visit me! XO

 

Cupcakes & Pinwheels!

 

 

 

 

Hello my sweet bloggy friends! Today I'm posting about two of my favorite things...cupcakes and paper crafting! Woooot! Up above is my FAVORITE Instagram of today's project! (Maybe my most favorite Instagram ever??) A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make cupcakes for one of my co-workers' birthdays and I really was looking for a new way to jazz 'em up! Don't know where the idea came from but I thought - how about some pinwheels! And before you know it, this project was in the works...

 

 

 

 

MMMMMMMMM....chocolate.....with chocolate!

 

 

 

I used this happy and bright paper pack for my pinwheels (say that three times fast)... Using all these patterns and colors automatically makes the project fun. It doesn't all have to be matchy matchy, it just has to work together. I love it. I used my Pinwheel Die from The Cat's Pajamas to make my cute wheels... Here they are all cut out. Tip: Use double sided paper!!

 

 

 

See how fun that paper is??? These are so simple to assemble with some brads in the centers. To put them on my skewers I used hot glue on the back.

 

 

 

I punched out some layering circles and stamped her name on the centers to make it personal...

 

 

 

Here they are in a row...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last look at the finished project. I used silver foil cupcake liners because they do not get oily when you cook your cupcakes, and they look purty and festive!

 

Wanda!

Reflection upon butterflies....

Hi friends! Happy weekend! Yippeeeeee. Hope you're out in the sun and havin' some fun! TE Release Week was sure great, wasn't it? LOVE this month's new toys.

Today I'm back to share a "modern shabby chic" birthday card with you, and once again, I've featured a butterfly. Hmmmm, do I need a butterfly intervention?  Is it acceptable to want to put a butterfly on EVERY project?  Because I think I probably could do that!!  Every time I think I need just a little something else on a project, that's what I reach for. Is that bad?  Do I need butterfly rehab? Or should I just go with it? What do you guys think? I'd love to hear from you about what you think! What is your crafty obsession? :-)

 

 

 

 

This particular butterfly is a brand new acquisition! It's part of a brand new die set from my stampy Idol Brenda Walton! Remember that I got to meet her at CHA??? YAY! Well, this was one product I really wanted and I found it last weekend at the Scrapbook store and snapped it up. The die set also has a dragonfly and a smaller butterfly. YUM.

 

 

 

I cut my butterfly out of this uber cool paper (no I did not stamp all those letters on there).... Then I used a Cuttlebug folder for my background piece. The sentiments are from two different PTI sets.

 

 

 

This Prima flower has been in my stash for some time - guess it's time to stop hoarding flowers... Everything is edged with corduroy distress ink.

 

 

Taylored Expressions March 2013 Studio Challenge!

 

It's that time again! Time for our super fun Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge! This is our monthly opportunity for the Taylored Expressions Design Team to share what makes our stamping studios run... Each month we have a crafty question so we can share our favorite tips and tricks with you!  I LOVE this every month. I really look forward to getting the challenge from Taylor and then seeing what my amazing DT friends come up with on their blogs. Are you loving it too? I sure hope so!

Our question for March is:  "You ought to be in pictures!" We all love to share our completed projects with others on our blogs, and in various online galleries. So, when the stamping ends, the photography begins.  This is a fun step for some, and a frustrating one for others. How do you take your blog photos?

Boy, where do I start with this topic!? LOL. I have been a photographer since I was 14 years old and I still keep in touch with my high school photography teacher! So, photography is actually my first creative love.  That being said, taking photos of card projects is a whole different ball game. It took me a long time to figure out a system that works for me. I tried a light box for a while (CLICK HERE) and that worked really well. The down side was storing it and getting it out every time I wanted to take a photo. What I have finally landed on (for now) is just taking the photos on my work desk! Here is my SUPER fancy set up!

 

 

 

 

You can see in the above photo that I have an Ott lite there for some extra pop. On the left is a stack of papers I keep handy for backgrounds for my photos. The photo below is what the picture looks like straight from the camera with no cropping. I like to shoot back a ways and then I can crop later however I like.

 

 

 

And here is the cropped version of the photo above: 

 

 

I use a Canon G11 Camera for all my photos. It's small so it fits in my purse or backpack and I always have it with me. It can be automatic or fully manual which I like a lot too. This has been my favorite camera I've ever had (and this girl has owned a lot of cameras!) I am currently in the (OCD) process of trying to choose a new camera because I've worn this poor one out!  

 

 

 

I like to take a couple of extra photos to show the side view and/or the layers in my card. Sometimes I know I want to see how a person made something, and I think this helps. It also helps me remember later!

 

Here are some card photo tricks and tips for you:  1.  For 'funky' indoor lighting: Most cameras nowadays will allow you to adjust the "white balance" on your photos. Read your manual about this! Light is measured in temperatures...from cool to warm...and that is why our photos can have a "cast" on them and look yellow inside. 2.  Try using your flash. Sometimes this is better, sometimes not, but it's worth trying. 3.  Try taking your photos from farther away and then cropping them later. This will give you some latitude with the end product. 4.   Have fun and keep trying!!  

I edit my photos with Photoshop Elements 7, which came with my laptop many years ago. The software takes getting used to (at least it did for me). I add my watermark in Elements and also adjust the color to get my photo to match the 'real life' colors as much as possible. Many of the tips and tricks I learned about Elements came from watching Youtube videos!

SUPPLIES: Moka Wanda Stamp Set, Labels Stacklets 3 Dies, Doodlebug Take Note Collection Papers and brads, Memento Inks and Copic Markers.

NOTE: All the papers and supplies I used today are from Doodlebug's Take Note Collection! Squeeee! We are doing a product partnership this month with our friends at Doodlebug and so you'll be seeing lots of this awesome, colorful paper on my blog in the next couple of weeks. I love it!

Here's your most awesome linky list for CHALLENGE DAY! 

Carole Burrage

Charmaine Ikach

Jen Shults

Kerri Mchaud

Lynnette Kauffman

Sankari Wegman

Shannon White

Shelly Mercado

Stephanie Kraft

Tammie Edgerton

Taylor VanBruggen

Wanda Guess  

A Blog Named Hero Challenge #21 - Make Your Own Embellishments!

Hi Friends! Happy March! Today is challenge day at A Blog Named Hero! Yeah Baby! This one is really fun. Can't wait to see what all the other gals made....and cannot wait to see what you make! The challenge for this time around is making embellishments with stamps. I do this a lot, so this was right up my alley. You can take anything and make it into a dimensional piece for your card or project. I hope you will check out the ABNH Blog and get inspired to put your own entry into the mix! You could win a gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp!

For my challenge card I made flower embellishments using the gorgeous Basic Grey/Hero Arts stamp set called Luscious Bold Flowers! (My link list is at the bottom of my post). I had so much fun stamping and cutting, and distressing... 

 

 

 

 

Here's a side view of my finished flower embellishments. You know I had to add some BLING to it! I hardly ever work with purple, but these flowers reminded me of pretty hibiscus blooms....

 

 

 

This is a Hero Arts sentiment stamp, in brown, to match the backgroung image....

 

 

 

I layered a couple of the flowers together for this one. Did you notice that the leaves are flower petals stamped in green?? You can do this with a lot of flower stamps....and it all matches!

 

 

 
The process is always kind of messy....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really hope you've enjoyed my card....and I REALLY hope you will join us for the fun! Remember, you could win a Simon Says Stamp Gift Certificate for $25 shopping dollars! WOOOT! 

 

InLinkz.com

Blossoms!

Helllllooooooo! It's Monday! Did you have a nice weekend? Did you watch the Oscars? I love spending all day Oscar Sunday in the craft room watching all the pre-show and red carpet stuff. Kitty and I had a very relaxing day yesterday crafting away (or sleeping in his case). Hope you had a very good weekend.

Saturday hubs and I went out for a yummy breakfast and a drive and we were trying to find stuff to take pictures of. It's still too early for most things to be blooming. However, the one thing that is going crazy around here is the fruit trees! We stumbled upon this beautiful bunch of (I think) plum trees and we must have looked crazy standing there with our cameras snapping away! So, I am sharing some photos today, and then a blossom inspired card!

I loooooove the contrast between the dark brown, rough bark and the soft pink of the petals. Makes for an interesting subject.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I liked this one the best! (I made it my Facebook cover photo!)  

 

 

 

So, I got out my blossom stamps because I was so inspired by these beautiful blooms. The main stamp is from Paper Source, as is the gorgeous Asian background paper. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Kept is clean and simple...

 

 

 

I put some glitter on the flower centers. My words are stamped in brown instead of black.

 

 

 

After I stamped my images, I ran the panel through my Big Shot with the Linen Impression Plate from Papertrey Ink. Wanted it to have just a bit of texture.

 

 

 

My envelope maker arrived in the mail this weekend!!! This was one of my favorite things from CHA last month. And, I love it even more now that I've used it. SOOOO easy. It's from We R Memory Keepers. I chose a piece of 12x12 cardstock (with blossoms of course) to make a matching envelope for my card. Took one minute!!!

 

 

 

Here is my finished envelope. :-)

 

Thanks so much for popping in today. I hope you have a great week! XOXO 

The BIG 5-0!

NO! Not me! Hahaha. Today is my wonderful husband's 50th birthday! Wooot Wooot! Hey, how did I get married to an old guy? All kidding aside, I met the hubs when he was 30 and now, here we are, 20 years later! He's a good man and I'm very lucky to have him. For his birthday he got a new laptop and some clothes, which is just what he wanted. And, we spent the day on Saturday in San Francisco shopping and taking pictures. The hubs was born in San Francisco, so it was a perfect place to spend his birthday weekend. I thought I would share his birthday card today. Do you guys remember his 49er card from last year? 

We all know I'm a total girlie girl, so masculine cards are sometimes hard for me! My card for the DH was inspired by this cool camera paper. It's kind of retro and funky and cool...and the hubs loves photography... I went around the craft room picking up things to put together and came up with this!  

 

 

 

The number dies are from PTI, the swirl die is from Lifestyle Crafts and the hearts are dies from Tim Holtz for Ranger. I picked out a nice sage green and used lots of distress ink and black to pop the contrast.

 

 

 

I had to put some hearts on there - to represent us! The birthday sentiment is one I've had for AGES! I used my edger distresser thingee on the papers...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots and lots of layers on this one! Check out that cool camera brad!

 

 

Saturday was my first time trying out my new camera. It was a hard photography kind of day, filled with all sorts of lighting challenges...indoors, flourescent, outside at night....whew. I want to share my favorite shots from the day with you!

Life is like a box of chocolates.... 

 

 

 

San Francisco Centre Mall

 

 

 

Bloomingdales

 

 

 

Dome at San Francisco Centre Mall...They were projecting different colors and snowflakes onto the dome and it was gorgeous! My favorite was this blue/purple combination!

 

 

 

My new camera has some cool creative filters that you can use directly while shooting. Yay! One of them is this neato star filter. This is a Christmas ornament on a tree in Bloomingdales.

 

 

 

Flags on Market Street

 

 

 

Carolers in front of Nieman Marcus

 

 

 

This is truly the contrast between old San Francisco and new San Francisco!

 

 

 

Flowers for sale on the street. I love these fresh bright tulips...pops of color on a foggy day!

 

 

Christmas window beauty!

 

 

 

Look at these delicious clouds! It was foggy all day and then right before sunset the sky cleared. This was taken from the 8th floor of Macy's at the Cheesecake Factory restaurant up there.

 

 

 

Our table for dinner was right by the glass partition. LOVE this reflection of the clouds in the glass!

 

 

 

My absolute favorite time of day is right before it gets dark, when the sky is blue, and the lights come on. Here's a view down onto Union Square, with the ice skating rink, and the giant tree. Can you spot the famous Transamerica pyramid in the background?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Always have to have at least one cable car shot!

 

 

 

Here's the view back towards the City from Treasure Island. GORGEOUS night! The Bay Bridge is to the left. The four lit up buildings are the Embarcadero Center. The Pyramid had a bright blue light on it...

 

 

 

Here's my cool star effect again!

 

Thanks for coming by to check out what's up today! Hope you are enjoying everything great about the season! XO

Hey! It's my Birthday!

Hi Friends! It's my Birthday today! What a very very nice day it was too. And...how nice that the time change is tonight so I even get an extra hour?! LOL. Just got home and put on my sweat pants and snuggled up with Mr. Buddy. I thought I would share my day with you. How lucky that I was born in Autumn, my favorite season. The leaves are in full bloom and we set out this morning to head North and do some leaf peeping in the foothills. We started out by having a wonderful giant breakfast at The Ugly Mug Cafe. Don't you love going out to breakfast? I do! Then we drove up to Grass Valley California, which really isn't too far from home....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we drove around all day taking pictures, we worked up quite an appetite! We went out for some yummy Chinese food at PF Changs. LOVE that place! MMMMMM. Then it was time to head over to the mall to pick out some presents! Yay!

 

 

 This is my favorite Instagram from today...and maybe one of my favorite Instagrams ever!

 

 

This Instagram is from Thursday night when I had dinner with my friend Jane!

 

 

 
Good things come in small packages right?! I have always wanted a Tiffany key necklace and this was my birthday gift! We cruised the mall for a while and I got some makeup and a jean jacket for 75% off too. I'm so spoiled...and grateful...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got home there was a big stack of cards in the mail box! I have the BEST FRIENDS ever. Seriously. I'm so lucky! Thank you to everyone who sent me a card today, or a text, or a facebook message. I feel so loved today and I'm so happy. My amazing husband chauffered me all around today and was a trooper. LOVE. It has been a truly joyful day.  This has been a year filled with so many blessings...beyond what I can put into words. I always get a little emotional and introspective around my birthday and this year is no exception. Thank you Lord for everything!

 

 

 

 How cute is this card from my super sweet pen pal in The Netherlands!!??

 

Thank you so much for stopping by...and sharing a bit of my birthday with me! I hope you're having a fabulous weekend! Be sure to come by next week - the bloggy blog is going to be super busy. I have something new EVERY day for ya since it's Taylored Expressions Release Week! Nighty Night. XO.

 

Crazy for Washi Tape!!!

Hi sweet bloggy friends! Grab a drink and settle in because this is a LONG post! LOL. Lots of pictures and cards and everything to share today. I'm going to talk about my current obsession with Washi Tape! Are you on the washi bandwagon yet? I got it bad! It started with buying just a couple of rolls here and there and then grew into a big bucket full of pretty tapes! Sunday it was a cloudy day perfect for hanging out in the craft room all day. I decided to make it a fun washi project day!

First I got inspired and pinned lots of new pins to my WASHI PINTEREST BOARD. That got my creative juices flowing. I love looking at Pinterest! I found so many pretty pictures of washi tape and decided to take some of my own pictures of the tapes. I love the graphic nature of the circles and all the colors together. This first collage picture I did with my iPhone so I could post it on Instagram! That's a whole other obsession!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's my whole collection...but it seems like there's room in that bucket! (Maybe I need more?)  

 

 

 

After I had fun taking photos, it was time to come up with some projects! I used these tapes for my first card...

 

 

 

Those fun hearts are made from washi tape!

 

 

 

One of the cool things to do with washi tape is to layer them over each other so you can combine the patterns and colors....

 

 

 

Here's a close up of my washi hearts!  

 

 

 

To make the hearts I got out the red and white chevron washi and put down several strips of it on a piece of the back of an old notepad. It was thick like chipboard, and white, which was perfect.

 

 

 

Next I ran the sheet of washi through my Big Shot with some pretty heart dies from Tim Holtz...

 

 

 

Aren't they cute?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't this an adorable little fabric tag from Basic Grey?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my next project, I got out the crazy 80's neon washi tape! And that black and white chevron? ACK! So perfect for bright projects!

 

 

 

I just got this adorable Oh Snap! stamp set from There She Goes. I LOVEEEEE this!! I colored my fun camera in with bright funky Copic colors. Rich black is the perfect touch to ground all this neon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the card base. I snipped the ends with my scissors to make little flag/banners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh Snap!

 

 

 

This last card is a clean and simple washi project. I used a simple manila square tag and some pretty colors. I made the little tape and pearl pennant. I like how the striped washi made gingham when crossed over itself! (an added bonus to any project!). I used some pink ink in my blo-pen to add some spatters. Nice and easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smile! :-)

 

 

 

Okay, hope you haven't given up on me yet...one more project...

 

 

 

Some cool tags! Not sure what to do with these yet...maybe attach them to the front of a card, or tie them on a present. I'll think of something!  

 

Thank you so much for coming by my blog and for sharing in my fondness for the washi. Do you have some tapes? What do you make with them? Do you have a favorite kind of craft you like to make with your tapes? I'd love some more ideas! Best wishes for a blessed day! XOXO

Autumn in Lake Tahoe!

Happy Friday my bloggy friends!! How was your week? I had a really eventful week - whew. It was like a roller coaster up and down and all around! Basically it's all good though. I want time to slow down so I can make more Halloween cards and pumpkin soup and all that good stuff. I don't want the season to pass so quickly! I hope you have a bunch of fun activities planned for your weekend! I got around to picking out my favorite shots from last Saturday and wanted to share them with you.

We live about an hour from Lake Tahoe and we love to just go for a drive and talk and see the lake...especially now. We had such a glorious day! I hope you like the pictures....

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see the moon?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a beautiful sky! We don't really get red leaves here in California....mostly yellow....

 

 

 

Emerald Bay - Lake Tahoe

 

 

 

Cool Parasailing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Tahoe in the distance...

 

 

 

Gorgeous Flowers in Sorenson...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at Apple Hill on the way home for fresh cider and apple donuts! I wish my computer had smell-o-vision, because the orchard smelled like fresh apples. It was amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a show! These bright yellow flowers planted along the road right next to a vineyard. Wow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty Pumpkins....

 

 

 

Apple Orchard at dusk... 

 

 

Sunset with those puffy clouds...sigh.... 

 

 

Here are my favorite iPhone Instagram shots from the day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Have a blessed weekend!

 

Keep Calm and Stamp On!

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a fabulous week! Here it is Wednesday already...and that means only three days until FOOTBALL starts!!! Woo hoooooo! Cannot wait for this weekend and going to the first game of the season and enjoying the start of Fall activities! But, I have to make it through the rest of the week first! LOL. Today I'm sharing a card set I made with this AWESOME stamp set from Stampin' Up...Keep Calm! My dear sweet friend Patty sent this my way and I LOVE it! I have had it sitting on my stamp desk for a couple of weeks waiting for the chance to ink it up. I couldn't pick which image and saying to use...so I used 'em all!

A couple of weekends ago I found these great clear plastic cases for cards at one of the craft stores. They are so nice and I think I'm now inspired to do more of this kind of thing. What a nice little gift for a gal pal! It's also fun to decorate the front of the box!

 

 

 

 

I made six cards in all - two each of three designs. Kept it simple and clean....

 

 

 

Here's the stamp set:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Blings!

 

 

 

Of course, this one is my FAVORITE!

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the rest of your week my bloggy friends!!! Stamp on!!! 

 

Sunflower Stuff!

Hey everyone! Warning....long post ahead....lots to share with you today! How are ya? Hope the week is going along well for you! Here it is, Wednesday already! Today I'm sharing some of the pictures I took of sunflowers on Saturday and a card to match! 

About two weeks ago, we were driving to San Francisco, and along the way we saw this giant field of beautiful sunflowers. We didn't have our cameras, and didn't have time to stop, so we made a mental note to come back and take some pix later. Well, Saturday morning we got up early, grabbed a Starbucks and headed to Davis to see the sunflowers! Last week was over 100+ every single day, and guess what? Those pretty little sunflowers shriveled up and died! I was so bummed out that most of the flowers were brown and sad.... I did manage to take just a few pictures though. Next time we have to be prepared!

When I decided to post the sunflower pictures, I thought....I need to make a sunflower card too! So today I have a card I made with all PTI goodies to match my photos. Hope you like.

 

 

 

 

Can you see all the hot air balloons? It was such a pretty, still morning. Perfect for a balloon ride! Just over those mountains is the world famous Napa Valley!

 

 

 

So much texture in these pretty gals...the petals, the leaves, all of the beauty is there, even though they're dried up!

 

 

 

I found one little clump of fresh and bright flowers....filled with bees!

 

 

 

Does this give you any indication of how hot it was here last week!? EEEK.

 

 

 

So, here is my card for today! All the products, stamps and dies are from Papertrey Ink! Love getting all that stuff out and playing. I just happened to have these big brown buttons in my stash.

 

 

 

 

So fun to make all these layers of flowers. The leaves are cut from a petals die! The little words are a PTI stamp too. I love that Happy Birthday font.

 

 

 

Lots of layers and dimension on this card!  

 

 

 

Here are all my die cut flowers...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so for good measure, why not throw in my favorite Instagram photos from the weekend too?! You know how much I love my iPhone camera! Have you gotten hooked on Instagram yet? You really must try it! It puts cool effects on your iPhone pictures and then you can share them on facebook and Twitter too. Very fun...and addicting!

 

 

 

 

Okay peeps! I think that's enough stuff for one day! Thank you so much for coming by to visit my bloggy blog. Enjoy the rest of the week and I'll see you soon! XOXO 

Longing for a cool breeze....

This weekend the DH and I went in search of a cool breeze and a respite from the heat here in Sac-town. It was going to be 108 degrees at our house on Saturday - so in order to escape, we got in the car, got a Starbucks, and headed west! When we pulled out of the driveway just before 7am it was already 78 degrees here. Oy. We had no plan, nothing to do, no time schedule....just one goal...beat the heat!

At first we headed to Berkeley...still hot there...next on to San Francisco...still hot there too...so we kept on driving west and south. We stopped in Pacifica to visit with one of my dearest friends for a little while and then went on to our end destination - Half Moon Bay! Where, as the afternoon went on, it reached a lovely 55 degrees! Goal achieved! I love the smell and feel of the ocean and the fog. (As a follow up note, when we got home around midnight it was STILL 90 degrees...blah!)

I used to live in Half Moon Bay right after I graduated from college and I love that little town. It has a lot of memories for me. They had built a Ritz Carlton Hotel right on the ocean's edge a few years back and I really wanted to see it. So we pulled in there and walked the grounds for a while. Oh My! That is how the other half (not our half) lives! It was gorgeous and the setting was magnificent! I thought I would share some of my photos with you from Saturday - maybe you need a little cool off too? Hope you enjoy them!

This first picture is looking south on Highway 1 right before Pacifica 

 

 

 

 

This is part of the golf course and grounds that are part of the Ritz Carlton. I think this might be my favorite shot from the day. Those crashing waves never get old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look closely in this photo you can see a flock of pelicans (isn't that a band? LOL)... They kind of freaked me out. They came swooping down right over us! I'd never even seen a pelican fly before! They're huge too.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the pretty flowers on the grounds. 

 

 

 

Some native California iceplant baking in the sun...

 

 

 

The Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay...so majestic up on the bluff like that.

 

 

 

This was so random...a bagpiper! I'm not sure if he was getting ready for a wedding or if he's there every day??? What the heck? The music was so haunting and beautiful though. That was neat!

 

 

 

Nope, that's not Tiger Woods! He was down the road about 20 miles at the Olympic Club that day! Hahaha. The golf course is amazing here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so the sun sets on our beautiful day... 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking! Sometimes it's nice to post some photos instead of a card! Have a wonderful day everyone!

 

 

I'm berry happy it's Friday!

Hello there blog friends! Happy Friday from me to you! I'm berry happy it's Friday and berry happy to share this post with you today! Have you had enough of my berry silly humor yet? Okay, I'll stop. But I was cracking myself up right there! LOL. Summer means strawberries and also cute crafty and tasty treats made with strawberries! I have both a card and a treat to share with you today. 

I made a card using some awesome Papertrey Ink products, and then I'm also sharing my way of making chocolate covered strawberries - I made some this week for a co-worker's birthday.  I hope you have a super fun weekend of Summer stuff planned. Whatever you do, make it memorable!

Here's my card, using Papertrey Ink's Strawberry Patch stamp set and the ultra favorite Quatrefoil Die. All the paper is cream cardstock, not white, for an antique feeling. 

 

 

 

I went through ALL my flower doo dads and couldn't find one I liked for this project, so I made my own out of some gingham paper and a punch. I scrunched it up to make it vintage and then added a brad and a pearl. The brad was colored with my Copics to match exactly to my other coloring. The sentiment is also PTI. 

 

 

Here is a close up of my layers - cream + cream + cream = yummo! I like how this looks and I'll probably do this again.  

 

 

 

Here is my Copic palette:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for the snack section of our blog post today! Yay! I wanted to make my friend KS some strawberries for her birthday on Wednesday. Hadn't made them in a while and it just sounded so good. Strawberries are in season and there were some beauties at the store...Here they are all washed and ready to go.

Tip #1 - make sure the berries are 100% dry before dipping them in chocolate! If there is any moisture, the chocolate won't stick and the chocolate may seize on you.

 

 

 

Here they are after their first dip into some semi-sweet melted chocolate. Tip #2 - use good chocolate and add a smidge of Crisco to the melting chocolate - it makes them shiny!

 

 

And here they are after a little white chocolate drizzle... Tip #3 - let them cool in the fridge completely before adding another layer or a drizzle. Otherwise it all oozes together.

 

 

Yup, they were just as delicious as they look!!! You know I had to eat the ugly ones.... Only the best survived the process! Hee hee. (Kinda like eating the rough edges off the rice krispies treats - yeah, you know what I'm sayin')

 

 

To package them up for work, I used my trusty cupcake carrier. I put the berries into some pretty, small size cupcake liners so people could pick them up and have some way to hold them.... 

 

 

 

 

Thanks berry much for coming by today - you're berry sweet to do so! Okay, I'm done now. Have a great weekend!  

 

Palm Springs Getaway Photos!

Hi there! What's new? How are ya? Hope that your week is going along nicely. We are having rain...again...but I guess it gets the pollen out of the air so I'll take it! I started my new job this week and so far it's going really well. It was nice to have those couple of weeks off, but it also feels nice to be back into a routine. My new commute is wonderful too. It's all good. As promised, I'm here today to share some (well, a lot) of pictures from our vacation in Palm Springs last week.

The hubs and I have never gone on a vacation that wasn't at the ocean! It was weird, to be honest, to be in the desert and no where near the sea. I kinda liked it though. It felt so good to be warm and to be outside at night in just a t-shirt and dipping our toes in the pool at midnight. I got myself a weentsy bit of a tan...but alas that's already gone and I'm back to E000 (a little Copic humor).

The desert has it's own kind of beauty, especially Palm Springs. The variety and sheer volume of plants was staggering and so pretty. Lots of cactus and palm trees and tons of flowers. It's very dry, so you don't feel as warm as if it were humid. There are giant mountains right next to the valley floor with snow on them! There are a bazillion golf courses. All in all a really neat place. We are already talking about returning one day. It is almost exactly 500 miles from our house and the drive took 9 hours including stops. Okay, so enough yammering...here are the pix.

First up - FLOWERS, PLANTS and BUGS:

These photos were taken at our hotel, at the Sunnylands Visitor Center, or at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. Enjoy!  

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't it weird that this soft pretty flower grows out of that hard prickly cactus? It's magical!

 

 

I have no idea what these are, but they were the softest shade of green....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the reflecting pools at Sunnylands...

 

 

 

 

 

 

OUCH!

 

 

Next up - ARCHITECTURE:

Palm Springs has the coolest vibe. There are no tall buildings, no skyscrapers. Everything is low and mod and interesting. Mid Century Modern is the style. Mostly built during the 1950's and early 1960's. Some of the landscapes made me thing of the Flintstones! I wonder if the creater of the cartoon came here and was inspired? We drove all around taking pictures of houses one day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Sunnylands Visitors Center. It's new, but was built in that Mid-Century style... 

 

 

 

 

Next - BIRDS and ANIMALS:

These little doves were at our hotel just hanging out. The rest of the pictures were taken at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens.

 

 

This picture came out cool! That little tiny hummingbird stopped to rest and I was able to capture him quickly before he flew away!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One unhappy Mountain Lion. Yikes.  

 

 

Two Cheetahs chillin' on a hot day. Aren't they gorgeous!?  

 

And Finally - EVERYTHING ELSE!

These first few pics are our hotel! The Miramonte Resort and Spa. OMG. We scored an amazing deal through the website called Snique Away! We never would have been able to afford to stay here in a million years. The place was practically empty! It was absolutely beautiful. Just like a roman villa plopped down in the middle of the desert.

 

 

 

The hotel at night.... 

 

 

 

 

This is the entrance to one of the golf courses... 

 

 

 

 

Shopping on El Paseo. My favorite store was Kate Spade!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the freeway on the way into Palm Springs there are thousands of wind turbines! They are interesting and actually kind of pretty, especially when they are all turning at the same time. It's sort of mesmerizing. Hard to get a good picture of them though...

 

Taking pictures in the desert in the very bright and very harsh light presented a whole new photography challenge for me. There was never a good time to take pictures...it's always full on sun with no clouds there! Normally I would not even try to take pix in this light. But, it tells the story of the place and I tried to test out different things to get the best images. I hope you've enjoyed my photo show! Thanks for looking! Have a fabulous day. XO 

Happy....

Hi everyone! How was your week? I hope it was a good one for you! My week went by in a flash, as weeks off work usually do, but it was a fun and productive week for me. I still have one more week until I start my new job so the hubs and I are going on a road trip to Palm Springs! It is about a nine hour drive from our house so we'll load up the car and head out early on Sunday morning. I can't wait to be warm and to relax and do nothing. This makes me happy...

Today's card is inspired by Palm Springs (at least in my own interpretation!) I always think Frank Sinatra, mid century vibe, lounging around the pool, cool furniture, bright colors, etc. So that's what got this card idea flowing. First I picked out a bright coral paper and then matched it with crisp white and turquoise! Lots of color coming your way right now! :-)

 

 

 

That quatrefoil patter again....I love it! So graphic and crisp. The die cuts for the quatrefoil, the letters and the frame are all from Papertrey Ink (PTI) and the butterfly die is from Memory Box. The paper is from American Crafts' Tropical collection.

 

 

I added some turquoise blings to make it spark-alay!

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some other things that made me happy this week! On Wednesday I got to have a nice four hour lunch with my friend Jane and meet her new puppy. This picture makes me happy.

 

 

The tulips and daffodils are blooming in our front yard...this makes me happy....

 

 

 

 

 

A sweet orange kitty on my stamping table makes me happy....

I hope you have a marvelous weekend! Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks start on Monday next week. Lots of goodies for you, including a stamp set that I designed! (YAY!) Hopefully I will get some cool photos to share next week too, of our road trip. Thank you for stopping by my blog and take care!

 

A San Francisco Getaway...

Hi bloggy friends! I've been away for a long time it seems! It's only been four days but it feels like I haven't blogged in forever! Thanks for waiting for me... The hubs and I had a very nice romantic getaway to San Francisco the past couple of days and I am rested and restored. It was just so great to be away from our cares and to spend time talking and walking and shooting (pictures that is!). I had some free hotel points and the hotel wasn't crowded, so they gave us a HUGE suite and it felt all so decadent. We were really lucky! So, I haven't had time to make a card but I wanted to share some of my favorite photos with you. After I write this post, I'm off to get inky. XOXO

This is the view from Baker Beach and it's one of the iconic shots of the Golden Gate Bridge. I never tire of this... Lots of people will come down here to have their wedding pictures taken, and you can see why!

 

 

 

I thought this shot might look cool in old-fashioned sepia tone....

 

 

This is the view of the City from Dolores Park. It's one of the best vantage points in the entire City. I took a close up of the church with the amazing clouds in the background. I think it looks like a painting. It had stormed the day before we got there and the clouds were magnificent and the City was clean and glowing!

 

 

Also from Dolores Park. I think this picture looks fake!

 

 

 

 

 

The street going down the middle of the shot is the famous Market Street, and if you look closely you can see the Ferry Building at the very end.

 

 

Another great view is from Twin Peaks, the highest point in the City. You can see the windy road you take to get to the top. You can see for miles from up here.

 

 

 

A GIANT billboard in Union Square of my FAVORITE band!!! Are you kidding me with this??!!

 

 

The night street view from our hotel room....I love the contrast of the blue dusk sky with the warm lights of the street.

 

 

Yummy breakfast in our room....

 

 

The famous Bank Of America HQ building on California Street.

 

 

The flags in front of the BofA building looking up California Street towards Chinatown...

 

 

The beloved cable cars!

 

 

Chinatown - Grant Street...

 

 

 

I collect Good Luck cats and I love these little cuties. I bought the red one!

 

 

And a real shop cat!

 

 

 

 

 

I thought this was a cool contrast of architecture styles...the Chintown Lantern, Old St. Mary's Church and a modern office building.

 

 

Bubble Tea! Honeydew is my favorite.

 

 

You can always find lots of flowers in the City...flower stands, shops, and lots of flowers planted in front of the buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

These tulips were breathtaking! Three HUGE circular planters in front of an office building - so much color.

 

 

This is the view looking back at the City from Sausalito. Another beautiful sky - took this one on our way home.

 

 

PHOTOBOMB!!!! hee hee.

 

I want to say thank you to everyone who left a nice comment on my last post about transitions. All your comments helped encourage me! Friday was a difficult and odd sort of day. I am SO blessed that I have two weeks off before starting my new job adventure. I am trying to slow down and enjoy the time off.  I hope you've enjoyed my San Francisco photos! I need to go now, and get my craft on! I hope you have a wonderful week everybody.

 

My newest obsession - hexagons!

Helloooooo! Did you have a great weekend!? I sure hope so. I had a really nice weekend with just the right amount of business and quiet. The hubs and I went to Berkeley on Saturday and spent a very nice day together. I was volunteering - reading scholarship applications - on campus and the DH was nice enough to drop me off where I needed to be (in the rain) and then pick me up later. We also went to Scrapbook Territory and Paper Source, where I got some new crafty goodies. On the way home, we stopped in Davis and had a most lovely Italian dinner - really just such a nice day together. Sunday was spent in the craft cave making some projects for Poppystamps and to post here. A fine rainy day at home...perfect.

My newest crafty obsession is hexagons! Have you noticed? They're everywhere! Such a cool shape and they have an old fashioned vibe. I even started a hexagon Pinterest Board!  People are making the cutest things! I was very inspired and today I'm sharing my first project - I'm sure there will be more to come! I have a million ideas in my head right now...

 

 

 

I went for the shabby-chic-grandmas-quilt look for this card. I picked colors I like for Spring - happy, cheery colors. It's really easy to form the hexagons together - just like quilting - into flowers.

 

 

I sewed around the edges of the cream base to add more home-spun feel. I distressed the edges and also sanded the yellow paper...

 

 

Here is the die set I used to make this card. I found this on eBay - fifteen different sizes in one kit! Perfect! The biggest one is huge - probably won't use that one! I like that there are teeny tiny ones too.

 

 

Here are a couple of the other hexagon things I have on my desk right now....

 

 

So, yeah, I had to cut out each hexagon one at a time...took a while!

 

 

Ready for assembly!

 

 

I used some of my favorite embellies - ribbon, buttons, and pearls, to make a finishing touch on my sentiment.

 

 

 

 

 

I have some Instagram photos to share today too. CLICK here if you want to follow me on Instagram! It's one of my favorite iPhone apps and I use it all the time. If you have an Instagram account let me know, so I can check out your photos too! All these photos were taken and 'processed' directly from my phone. LOVE.  The past two weeks I was on the road for work in the Central Valley and managed to get a few good snaps...

This first one is Lake Kaweah, near where I was working - the rain clouds were rolling in....

 

My co-workers and I had a really nice dinner one evening....

 

This was one of the trees out in front of our work site...with a beautiful blue sky.  

 

 

This next one was taken on campus on Saturday...

 

This was my favorite photo of the day on Saturday - looking back at the main library and the Campanile Tower which is the center of campus... I really like the Instagram effect on this one.

 

 

More beautiful blosssoms we found in Davis...

 

Whew...okay...that was a lot of info for a Monday! I hope you found something you liked here today. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic week! XOXO 

 

Moxie Fab - Cure for the Winter Blues - Challenge!

Hi peeps! Today I'm posting a card I made for the Moxie Fab World Blog! I love their challenges, and it's been too long since I entered one. This month's challenge is Cure for the Winter Blues... The challenge was to make a project using navy blue as the predominant element. Right up my alley!

When I think of navy blue, I automatically thing navy and white, nautical, crisp colors, pops of yellow or red... I adore navy and white together. So that's what I knew I wanted to use. Next to decide what images and embellies. I was having such a hard time deciding....so I went with whatever was sitting on my desk! I rather like the result.

 

 

I had this brand new San Francisco Stamp from Penny Black on my desk and it called to me! I stamped it in navy blue ink and didn't color it. That was hard - to resist the urge to color! The fence die is new from Memory Box and that was sitting on my desk too. In the back of my head was a photograph I took last year in San Francisco....you can see the photo at the end of my post.

 

I wanted a sentiment that referred to leaving my heart in San Francisco. I had this stamp in my stash. I use it all the time. I got out my stamp-a-ma-jig to line up my words. I blocked off part of the stamp and inked it and then blocked off the other parts that I didn't want. Voila...this saying in a line!

 

 

Here's a close up of that teeny tiny fence!

 

 

I popped a bright red heart on the top using my Epiphany Shape Studio Heart 25 tool and some red paper. Added some grey clouds (a Memory Box die) to look like foggy San Francisco clouds and that finished it off!

 

Here is the photo I was referring to! Cool, huh? I took this from the top of Lombard Street looking out at the Bay Bridge and Coit Tower to the East.

Thanks for coming by my blog today! You have until the 11th if you want to enter the Cure for the Winter Blues Challenge! Join me? CLICK here for the deets. Have a wonderful day. 

 

An old fashioned hello!

Let's talk! Today I'm sharing a card I made this weekend using a fun stamp set from Hero Arts! I only had a few more days to get an entry into the February contest! I love entering their blog contests. There's a lot of competition and it's fun to join in the mix. You don't have to have a blog to enter - they do their contests on Flickr - which is free - so I really encourage you to enter! CLICK HERE for the details on the challenge for this month.  This month's theme is Friendship or Hello cards.

 

 

I love this vintage stamp set - cool old phones and a neat font...Just begs for some retro colors and buttons and such. I like combining a bunch of 'stuff' on my shabby chic cards. Here I used a scrap of the patterned paper (Picadilly by Basic Grey) and a pearl pin to make a flag. One trick for putting light colored buttons onto dark cardstock is to put the button on a tiny piece of white paper. That way the color can come through.

 

 

Here are my supplies...The pretty red toile looking paper is the back side of the stripes...perfection! I found just the right shade of aqua blue Bazzil paper to match. These colors make me think of the 50's!

 

Let's talk!  The stamp set is called "Just Saying Hi." I love the sayings in it.

 

 

 

So there you have it for today! Thank you, as always, for coming by to see me! I hope you have a great day! See you soon.

 

Happy Valentine's Day 2012! XOXOXO!

Whew....I have a lot to share today! I had a super fun, busy weekend full of friends and laughter and food and crafting and pictures and oooh boy. I needed to go back to work to rest up! Hahaha. Happy Heart Day to you and your family. It's Valentine's Day! I'm sorry it's here because I feel like I was just getting in my crafty groove with hearts and stuff. I put all the Valentine crafty things away last night...until next year. I have one last card to share with you for the holiday.

As you probably know...I love banners! I'm crazy about 'em actually. Love them on cakes, and cards and hanging up for a party and all that. I even have a Pinterest Board called Banner Madness (click here). I wanted to make a pretty red and cream banner card so I got out some supplies and went to town with it! This card is definitely "more is more!"

 

 

Each little banner is different, but they are all unified by using the same papers, hearts, and butterflies. I adore crisp, bright red with cream.

 

Before I started, I went around the craft room and got out all kinds of yummy things I thought would go together. The pennants were cut from a Papertrey Ink die set and the hearts are also a Papertrey Ink die set. The butterflies were punched from Martha Stewart punches. The beautiful lace ribbon is from my sweet pen pal Holly in The Netherlands! I had to pretty much tear the whole room apart to find those teeny tiny clothespins!!!

 

This is the process of laying everything out first to see what looked best...before gluing it all together. I decided to layer two colors on each pennant.

 

 

Here they are all strung on a pretty piece of lace. I inked the edges of everything with linen distress ink just to make it look more vintage.

 

 

I busted out the sewing machine and made a free form edge around the cream paper. The message was stamped in brown ink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, somewhere along in the process, Mr. Buddy decided to hop onto my stamping table and have a look...and he liked this one the best! Bad kitty!

 

Friday night my friend CJ met me at Paper Garden to take a class from the fabulous Ms. Julie Ebersole! CJ is an amazing baker/cake decorator. She brought me the most adorable (and delicious) little box of truffles she made! Aren't the pretty? They tasted so goooooooood!

 

 

In class, we made five fun fold cards. I think this idea was my favorite. The card lays flat for mailing but then pops up into a little diorama. SO cute! I will be making some more of these - I have some ideas in my head already. Thanks for a great class Julie!

 

Saturday I spent the day with some of my stamping gal pals....all day....eating yummy food and stamping and laughing and being silly and carefree! Sunday the hubs and I decided to do our Valentine's Day celebrating. It's too hard to go out on a Tuesday night with the crowds and such...so we just did it a little early. First we went for a nice long drive in the car just to relax and snap some pics. Then we went for a tasty dinner at PF Chang's! Had great service and a wonderful time. Made it home in time to watch the Grammys. It was a perfect weekend!

Some of you might know that I LOVE my iPhone. No, I mean like I REALLY love my iPhone! hahaha. I have about 20 photography apps and like to try different things with my phone photos. One of my favorite apps is Instagram. I like the different filters and effects and I like the fact that you can "follow" people's feeds and and share your pix. You can CLICK HERE to see my Instagram stuff. I thought I would share some of my favorite photos from Sunday's drive. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last picture...our daffodils have started blooming in our front yard! They are so fresh and bright and perfect right when they bloom. Makes me happy!!! Okay, that's enough of my yammering on for one day.

 HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

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Year of the Dragon - Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy New Year! It's the Year of the Dragon...and guess what, I'm a Dragon! So...it must be my lucky year! I think that 2012 is going to bring good things. Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. Every year I like to make Chinese New Year cards for my friends. Click here for my 2010 Year of the Tiger card and click here for my 2011 Year of the Rabbit card. Do you know what year you are?  

 

For this year's cards I went back to traditional red, black and gold. It was hard to find a Dragon stamp! The one I used is from Judikins. Here is the finished card:

 

 

 

The gold embossed characters are for double happiness. The dragon was stamped in vivid red ink onto a sheet of vellum and layered over another piece of paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this photo you can see the white paper underneath the vellum. On that paper, I stamped a large Chinese character background and then some green bamboo. Both of those stamps are from Hero Arts. It was hard to get it to really show in the photo. But, you get the idea!

 

 

Here is the inside of the card. I wanted to carry the bamboo and green over into the inside to bring it all together. This symbol is for good luck.

 

 

Here are my envelopes....

 

 

I am a complete Starbucks groupie! I couldn't believe it when I found these SUPER cool Starbucks cards and sleeves last month! They were gone so fast! I must have timed it just right to get some. I actually collect Starbucks cards....I need to do a post on that one of these days....I have some good ones! And, these are a great addition to the collection.

 

 

The DH ordered me this amazing Starbucks Bearista bear on eBay from Taiwan! I have a Year of the Tiger one too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took this photo in San Francisco's Chinatown last year,  and I love the color, the movement, and the drama of all those flags and lanterns. It really captures the essence of the place.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's a good one, and best wishes for Health, Happiness and Prosperity in the Year of the Dragon!

Wanda!  

Happy Birthday to the hubs!

Hi! Today is the hubs' birthday and I thought I would share his birthday card and also share our outing to San Francisco yesterday to celebrate his birthday! My husband was born in San Francisco and he is a HUGE 49er football fan. Right now he's in the family room watching the game.  It is so hard to make him cards. But, I got an idea...this is his 49th birthday....so I made him a 49er card! Yeah! He totally flipped out and loved it. That made me really happy. I hope you get a kick out of it too.

 

 

I printed the SF logo off the computer on high print quality on good cardstock and then cut it out. I wrote the sentiment on the computer as well. The rest was inspired by the team colors of red, gold and white.

 

 

 

 

 

I can't remember where these chip board numbers are from...maybe Basic Grey? I painted them with gold craft paint before adding the glitter. I have found that if you don't put something (color) down first then the glitter looks dull. I LOVE making glittery numbers!

 

The stripe accent is based on the team's uniform pants. They have a stripe just like this down each leg. I cut the sentiment into a banner - cuz it just looked sporty!

 

 

Finished off the whole thing with some stars punched out of gold paper...

 

 

 

We got up yesterday morning, stopped at Starbucks, and headed into the city. From our house, we can be in downtown San Francisco in about 90 minutes. Oddly, there was no traffic yesterday! We stopped off on Treasure Island to snap some pics. It was sort of foggy and hazy, so the photo isn't really clear. I never get tired of this view.

 

 

 

First stop...Union Square...for shopping and people watching...and, boy, was there good people watching yesterday!

 

Tiffany's...Ah... I still have the first thing I ever bought there...my first pair of real pearl stud earrings. I think I've had them 25 years and I still wear them all the time. So many memories from shopping downtown.

 

All of a sudden, we heard all these police sirens and bullhorns. Weird, right? Well, turns out the police were clearing the street for the "Occupy San Francisco" protestors to come through.

 

 

On the top floor of Macy's is a Cheesecake Factory restaurant that has outdoor seating. It's really the best view of Union Square, and we like to go hang out there and have a meal when we are shopping. Here's the view from our table down onto the square, with the tree and the ice rink. It was a gorgeous evening!

 

This is a snow princess from the Christmas department at Macy's. This just really caught my eye. I still can't decide if it's beautiful or sort of creepy!!! What do you think?

 

I liked this little guy...so happy and retro just smiling away...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure what was up with the harlequin elephants!

 

 

Mark took this shot with the fish-eye lens on his camera! 

 

 

This shot came from my iPhone at dinner...not the best photo quality, but it captured the moment! Cheers! And...Merry Christmas!

This one is also from my iPhone - with the instagram app. I LOVE that app! You can make your photos look old, or black and white, all kinds of stuff. I really love how this picture came out with the vintage feeling.  

 

One last stop on the way home - back at the same spot on Treasure Island to capture the city with her Christmas lights on! So breathtaking. This picture is better if you click on it and make it bigger.  

 

Okay, friends, let the frenzy continue! Have a wonderful week! 
  

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi everyone! Just a quick post today to extend my heartfelt wishes to you and your families for a lovely Thankgiving! I hope you eat too much, get too many hugs, and don't have enough fingers to count all of your blessings! I love Thanksgiving because the message is pure and simple - be glad and grateful for all that we have. Have a wonderful day! Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Howdy!

Hi everyone! Greetings and salutations on this fine November day! Happy weekend to you all! Well, it's been a busy week here on the blog, what with all of the Taylored Expressions release week festivities and all that good stuff. BUT...we missed a very important day...my birthday! Hahaha. My bday was on Thursday. I'm a gal who loves a birthday, lemme tell ya. I love to get cards in the mail, to go out to dinner with my friends and to generally be spoiled by the hubs. Always have, and always will, love a birthday! In honor of this momentous occasion I have a birthday card to share with you. I also have some snaps to share of our fun-filled day spent in San Francisco.

First off, here's a card inspired by, and made with, the uber cute new Sidewalks Collection from October Afternoon. Do you not love that company? I love the retro colors they use and the happy prints. I made two cards using the same papers, actually. I'll post the other one a different time.

 

 

The pretty red doily is made from the big die from PTI! Nice! I cut out a pretty yellow border to offset the word paper.  

Added a nice big shabby chic rose to the whole thing and then used the stickers that came with the paper collection. No stamping involved! The Happy Birthday wording is a rub on!

 

 

If you're still with me...I have some photos to share too. I didn't really know what I wanted to do on my birthday. The hubs and I both took the day off from work and late Wednesday I decided it would be fun just to go hang out in San Francisco for the day, taking pictures, and shopping, and eating...you know - the good stuff in life. It ended up raining for much of the day, but we got some cool shots before the rain started.

FIrst we stopped off on Treasure Island, which is in the middle of the bay. Best view of the city and the bridges! The clouds were starting to roll in...the sign of things to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to this bakery I love called Miette. I have their cookbook and love it so much. They make yummy cupcakes and macarons.

 

 

 

 

For lunch we had a salami sandwich and cupcakes. Yum, no?

 

 

 

 

We hit up a couple of favorite art stores - Flax and Blick Art. Blick has the GIANT 'tower o' Copics' that I so would love to bring home with me. Unfortunately it would not fit in my purse! Every color in every shape... When I win lotto that baby is mine! Flax has the amazing paper room! Rows and rows of shelves with handmade papers from around the world. You look in a big catalog at the swatches and then go and find the corresponding cabinet. WOW. Been going here for years - it makes me want to be creative.

 

I had some fun with my iPhone photo apps - Instagram and Hipstamatic. I like to experiment with the images. Sometimes they come out neat, and sometimes not. I'm posting a few of those too.

 

 

 

Mark bought me an amazing leopard print cover for my iPad at the Tory Burch boutique. SCORE! It seems classy and cool at the same time. Rawr. LOVE. Thanks honey!

We did not buy these...but, man, aren't they pretty?

Thank you so much for coming by the blog today! I hope your weekend is just fantastic! See you soon!

I've gone batty!

Hi! How's your week going? Mine is going great...but fast! The DH and I spent a lovely and rainy day in Napa on Monday and then yesterday we did some more driving around and photo spotting. Today we've been at home taking care of business and phone calls, etc. Generally taking care of things. Tomorrow I have lunch plans with a gal pal and before you know it...poof...the week will be over. It's been a nice break from the office and lots of sleeping in. Hope you have been having a good week!

Today's card is a CAS Halloween card with a cool Bat cutout made from a EK Success punch. This idea just popped into my head because I kept thinking...what am I going to do with that giant bat punch?? haha.

 

 

I punched a bat out of some crisp, black paper and then layered that piece over some orange and white gingham. I popped that piece up over some orange paper with foam tape.

 

The Happy Halloween sentiment is from Amuse Stamps...don't you love the cheery mix of fonts? I had to add a couple of blings...even though it is CAS!

 

 

 

 

I took a ton of pictures in Napa on Monday but haven't had the chance to decide which ones to post, and haven't had the time to watermark all of them. I really wanted to share just a few today, though. I hope you enjoy the scenes! 
 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for coming by today to see what I'm up to! Have a wonderful day today!

 
 

An October outing in pictures...

Hi friends! How are you? Did you have a good week? I sure hope so! Can't even believe it's Friday already. I swear that time off from work is on a completely different time/space continuum in which time passes at triple speed. Oy. Hubs and I have enjoyed a week off together and have been bizzy bees running around getting things taken care of and having a little fun too. I wanted to share some pictures with you today. I have Halloween projects in the wings...been working on that. But today I thought I would share our day we spent driving around last weekend.

First off, I have to share this wonderful store I found in Nevada City, CA. Nevada City is about a 45 minute drive from where we live and it is a very scenic drive. We like to go there in the Fall. No leaves yet, though, this time around. Anyhoo...back to the great store I found. It's called My Favorite Things! The owner has been featured in Somerset Magazines...she loves all things shabby/chic/vintage. It was so much fun to look around and take pictures...

Here's a cute little Halloween Owl to greet you at the door...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little cutie almost came home with me...Love those red lips!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our way back 'down the hill' to our house, we stopped at Apple Hill, which is a big area full of orchards and wineries and people come and hang out and buy apples, pies and pumpkins. Everything was closed by the time we got there, but we took some nice twilight photos of the wineries... 

 

Almost harvest time!  

 

After Apple Hill, we stopped in Placerville to see what was going on there and to take some night pictures. I loved this scene at this restaurant. There was super cool 60's jazz playing and glasses clinking and it was the most gorgeous evening for a party...sigh... 

 

I liked this scene so much I tried a Sepia version!  

 

Here is the downtown area of Placerville... 

 

And, finally, a shot of Sacramento from a distance. Isn't that moon COOOOOL? This was the best shot of the bunch and seems kind of fun, right?  

 

And we always come home to our kitter cat...waiting patiently for the humans to come home and pay attention to him. Those eyes kill me. Serioulsy.  

Thank you so much for visiting today and watching my little slide show! I hope you have the best weekend ever. I'll see you soon with some Halloween stuff. Are you ready? I'm not! I already bought candy though, does that count? Bye!  
 

Labor Day Weekend 2011

Hi! Are you having a fun Labor Day Weekend!? I sure hope you are having fun in the sun with your friends and loved ones. We have been having a lovely weekend so far...so much so that I wanted to share with you! This post has a ton of pictures and some of this and some of that. I'll put the card pictures first in case that's what you came to see! I have some funny pictures of Buddy too - since I know his fans have been waiting for some new pix of that handsome devil! Thanks for coming by today. Here goes nothin'....

This weekend was the Five Year Anniversary celebration of the Paper Garden Boutique and Dave Brethauer came back to see us in Sac-town to celebrate in style. I never miss a chance to hang out at PG or to take a class with Dave. Dave also designed a line of stamps just for the Paper Garden! That is very cool! I bought them...of course! Hee hee. Beautiful flowers and sayings...

Whenever Dave comes to town,  I like to make him a card using his stamps...you know he is the owner/designer for Memory Box Stamps. His Autumn Collage image is a total favorite so I used that to make him this card:

 

 

I cut out the center of a piece of paper using my Nesties and then later mounted it over the top of a cream piece of cardstock with the stamped image. I think the tone on tone of the kraft helps keep it masculine.  

 

Here is the beautiful stamp. Instead of stamping in black, I used dark brown. I stamped a second image and colored the leaves to cut out to add on the outside of my frame.  

 

Colored pencils did the trick for this card... 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Here are three of the lovely ladies from Paper Garden! Chelsea, Stephanie and Kelly! They make me happy!  Aren't they beautiful?

 

 Here's Dave in the classroom! A full house, as usual...

 

This is one of the cards we made in class... 

 

 And here's another one...This is one of the flower images he designed for the store...

 

Okay...so you thought my day was over??? After the festivites at Paper Garden, we drove to the bay area to watch the opening game of College Football Season! YAYAYAYAYAY! I am a die hard fan for my school and we go to games whenever we can. This year, our stadium is being renovated. The old girl was built in 1921 and she needed retro-fitting and updating. This is how she currently looks:  

 
 

Well, as you can see, ain't no football happening there this year! Yikes! So, all of our games are being played in San Francisco. The game yesterday was played at Candlestick Park (home of the 49ers). It was weird to see the stadium all painted for us instead of the 49ers! I've been to a million games there before, but never like this! Ha. It was a gorgeous day for opening the season!  

 

This made the trip even better! At least for right now, we are undefeated! We win some and we lose more, but I love my Bears no matter what. Great start to the season!

 

We had planned to stop on the way home and take night pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city. It was SOOOO foggy that you couldn't even SEE the bridge! We'll have to save that for another time. We did manage to take a few pix of the Palace of Fine Arts though. It was gorgeous at night!  

 

Today was time for Mr. Buddy to have a bath and a comb-out. Kind of a kitty spa day if you will. He got his nails trimmed and then a lovely warm bath, followed by a warm towel, a style, and a nap in the sun. I thought it would be fun to share some comparison pictures with you guys! Okay, so here's Buddy in 2007 in our kitchen sink.... 

 

And here's Buddy today in our kitchen sink! OMG.  

 

2007..... 

 

Today! I would say he grew just a bit! Um, yeah, like 17 pounds!!!! He's not really mad, just cold. But, we put the towels in the dryer for him so he can be toasty when he gets out.

 
I hope you enjoy the rest of your long weekend! HUGS!  

  
 

What a day yesterday!

Hi friends! I hope you had a fabulous weekend! Mine was jam packed with fun things to do and friends to see and junk food to eat, and everything amazing! I don't have a card to share today since I was too busy to make anything. I wanted to share some pictures with you, though, if that's okay! Saturday I spent all day with some of my stamping friends! I've known most of this group for 16 years now! Wow. We had a fantastic time catching up, stamping and learning. Awesome day.

Sunday the DH and I spent the day in Berkeley and then ended the day by going to see Adele in concert at the Greek Theater! OMG. The concert was postponed from June when we were originally supposed to see her. It was well worth the wait! Her voice is really indescribable. 1000% better in person than on the CD. Truly a gift. I have no words really. It was an intimate show outside under the stars on a beautiful full-moon evening. It was magical. I won't forget it!

First stop yesterday morning was at one of my FAVORITE crafty hangouts - Scrapbook Territory! Yeah! They just got in a truckload of the new My Mind's Eye Lost and Found 2 collection. WOWZA! I think I went overboard and bought some of each color palette. YUM. Here's just a little taste of that goodness:

 

 

And I found this...Stamping Anya! I hadn't seen her before...and I got the last one! She will be fun to color up with my Copics for sure!

  
While I was shopping and talking...I had the best timing, since the Cupkate's Cupcake truck pulled up right outside! Kristen ran out and got us cupcakes...(Thanks Kristen!) and I chose the Salted Caramel version... Now I'm not sure what could be better than having cupcakes AT the paper store???

 
You guys are probably wondering where the DH was during all this? He nicely dropped me off and then went off scouting out some photo opportunities down by the Marina where you have the perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco! He came back for me later.  If you are ever anywhere near Berkeley you HAVE to stop at this store!

This is a super cool display that has every color of the Tim Holtz Distress inks so you can see how the colors look next to each other. I love the graphic-ness of it all...

 
 

There were some ladies working on amazing scrapbooks at the work tables. I had to take a photo of this creation. LOVE the yellow and grey together and all those patterns working together. I am inspired by this...so you may see some yellow coming soon!

 

And....finally....the highlight of the entire weekend! The Adele Concert! It was very hard to take pictures with such low light, but I got a few that capture the essence of the evening. She was wonderful. Her personality is spunky and delightful at the same time...warm and sassy at the same time. LOVE. Didn't think it was possible for me to be enamored more with her, but after this...I am.

 

  

 
  

 

 
  

 

 
 

Here's a video to share too! Keep in mind that videography is NOT my specialty! hahaha. She saved this song until the very very end...just when everyone was about to go crazy from not hearing it!  

 

The concert venue is actually on the campus of my college! It was such a gorgeous evening, so after the concert we walked through campus taking night photos and trying to capture the cool full moon! That's the moon in the right of the photo. I didn't want to go home...I wanted to stay out all night!

 

On our way out of town to drive home we HAD to stop for a snack! I am one hundred percent certain that I am too old to be eating Strawberry Pie and soda at midnight! But I did it anyway! Sometimes you gotta be crazy.  

 
Thank you so much for letting me share this all with you! I hope you like my little story and the pictures. Wednesday is the TE monthly blog hop and I have a card all ready for you! I hope that you have a great week!  

 

Life is Good!

Hi Friends! Happy weekend! Yippeeeeeee! This week was a bit rough - especially at work. Yikes. Lots going on at my job. Isn't that true of everyone's job right now? I was so happy to see this week be over and I had a very nice dinner with a sweet friend last night to start the transition into weekend time. I have a fun card to share with you today...inspired by, of all things, a purse! One of my gal pals at work brought in the most adorable purse and as soon as I saw it I was inspired. My little crafty brain cells started thinking up a card! It was mostly the color - bright and happy and vivid. You'll see...

 

 

 

 

Here is the purse that inspired me! I loved the raw edge on the denim, and the crisp white stitching. Also, that pop of pure white and yellow is perfect in the simplest way. Love.

 

 

 

I wanted to mimic the stitching, so I busted out the sewing machine and stitched a free form double border around the blue paper. The buttons are from Stampin' Up. I love their buttons.

 

The flowers and the words were cut out using my Cricut machine. I tried two different fonts and ended up liking the one that looks like typewriting (Doodletype). The flowers are from the George cartridge. I wanted to incorporate that yellow ribbon...but it didn't work out. I put three flowers on at first, but then I added more later. I couldn't help it.

 

 

 

I hope that LIFE IS GOOD to you this weekend!!!

 

Here's a little tidbit from our dinner last night! Beautiful early evening light in the restaurant on a gorgeous plate of Caprese salad. MMMMM.

 

My sweet friend and her doggies Mezzo and Aria! I went over to her adorable house after dinner and we chatted some more...

 

And, then, when I got home, this is what I found passed out on my work table....HA! What do you suppose this one is dreaming about? Have a wonderful day everyone! Thank you for coming by to visit my blog. Mwah.

 
  

Some Summer Stuff...

Okay...so it looks as if I'm all into butterflies again! (Remember Butterfly week a while back?) I just can't seem to get enough of those pretty creatures! They are literally popping up everywhere! Today's post is full of some Summer stuff - a couple of cards and some photos...stuff. I hope your weekend is a terrific one. We are doing house projects and a mountain of laundry. Hopefully later I can get some stamping in and maybe a movie. Thank you for visiting today! Taylored Expressions sneak peeks start again on Monday - August - wow. How did that happen? Anyhoo...

First up, some butterfly cards. I was inspired recently by a pretty color scheme and wanted to do my take on it. Soft yellow, a pretty coral pink and a light blue. YUM. That's the first card here:

 

 

A simple design - could be used with any sort of punch. Mittens for Winter, Flowers, Leaves... I added a pop of color along the bottom with the yellow scallops. I used light brown ink to put some text on the butterflies with the big Hero Arts Friendship text stamp. They seemed too plain without it. Glue down the middle only - to get them to pop off the page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so I was closing up shop after making the top card and something came into my head...GINGHAM! You guys know that comes into my head very often! hahaha. So I made the exact same card with gingham butterflies and substituted green for blue! Yay! The sentiments on both cards are from PTI.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gingham butterfly card I made as a thank you card for my friend Jane who invited me up to the hills for dinner last night. I brought her a big bunch of sunflowers and that card. As I was driving up to her house I saw these AMAZING clouds in the distance. I had to take a snap out the windshield! Isn't that neat?  

 

 

And this is why Jane is my friend...(not really)...because she had lemon drop fixin's chilling in the freezer awaiting my arrival! Score! She found this cool lemon sugar stuff at BevMo and put it on the rims.

 

 

Um, yes please!!!!!

 

 

Wonderful! Drinks followed by a wonderful dinner and wonderful conversation late into the night. A perfect Friday evening.

 

 

I bought some Ranier cherries earlier in the week and went to eat them this morning and they were so lovely I had to take pictures. Yeah, I take pictures of everything! I think they're so colorful and simply perfect as only nature can do.  

 

 

 

 

 

Life is just a bowl of cherries! Happy Saturday!

 
  

The Ocean....

Hello everybody! I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend full of summer fun! I am on my last day of a four day weekend and just hanging out in the craft studio making a card to share with you. My theme for today is the ocean.... Friday DH and I went for a marvelous, relaxing, wonderful drive to the Point Reyes National Seashore. We spent the entire day driving, talking, exploring and taking pictures. No TV, no internet, and, practically no people.

I love the ocean. Really love the ocean. It is my favorite place to be. Sometimes I even get a physical longing to be near the sea. The fresh air, the fog, the cold, the sand, the smell. All of it. One day when I win lotto I will buy us a home by the sea. Until then, I am very lucky that it is just a short drive away. I took a lot of pictures on Friday (no surprise right?) and the pictures inspired me to make an ocean card this morning!

 

 

 

I found paper in the lightest shade of beach-glass green. I cut out the words with my Cricut and glued them onto my background paper. (This idea was totally inspired by this post from Heather Nichols)  Yes, this did take forever...and required tweezers! I love the end effect though!

 

 

 

I made the coral about five different colors and ultimately ended up using a green ink that matched the paper exactly. I added a few light green blings and mounted the top piece with foam tape. This card matches my mood. :-) 

 

Here are (some of) my ocean pictures from Friday. I hope you enjoy them! This first one is from North Beach.  

 

 

 

This pretty algae is the other inspiration for my card. Not the color, but the shape and texture, made me get out that coral stamp. I loved how everything in this picture was in shades of tan, white, and stone. It was so pretty.  

 

 

 

 

 

This is Point Reyes Lighthouse. You have to walk about 1/2 a mile out and then walk down 300 stairs to get to it. I wasn't feeling up to the trek, but DH went and he took this awesome photo!  

 

This is looking down from the Muir Beach overlook. 
 

Drake's Beach inhabitants!

 

The drive itself is lovely and peaceful...Isn't this a pretty house?  

 

All over the area there are working dairy farms that have been here for hundreds of years.  

 

Happy cows come from California!  

 

The rest of the pictures are my favorite flower pictures from the day.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally...the lovely San Francisco Bay!

 
 

DH makes these great videos of trips for us and he made one for me to share today. It's about three minutes long and has more of the ocean pictures...set to music.   

  

I hope that you have a wonderful week! Thank you for popping by today - you make me happy!

 
Wanda 

Happy Birthday America! Happy 4th of July!

Hello there friends! Happy 4th of July to you! I hope you've been having a great weekend with your friends and families and enjoying this special summer time! I am feeling especially patriotic this year on the 4th, since I was just in Washington DC last weekend. That was my first time to our nation's capitol and I found it very moving and special. I thought I would take the time today to share some of my favorite pictures from my trip. I was very lucky to be able to see so many historical places. I went to Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello as well as Washington DC and Georgetown area. It was even better than I had imagined. So much to see! I wish I had more time....but I bet everyone says that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

  

 
 
I just posted some of my pictures here...trust me there are a lot more! Hahaha...you guys know me better than that! I took 624 photos in all! I chose about 60 as my top favorites to tell the story of my trip and I created a separate page for them. I didn't want to take up like 10 blog pages! If you would like to see all of my favorites...CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY PHOTO ESSAY PAGE...

Thanks for coming by today and God Bless America! Happy 4th of July!

   
Wanda!

Happy Saturday!

Hi everyone! Hope your weekend is off to a great start! I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get organized and packed for my trip that starts Monday. You know how it is...laundry, organizing, trying to remember 500 cords to everything...ugh. I've got it down to a science pretty much but it still is a hassle...no matter how you slice it. Mark is making a video and Buddy is, what else, sleeping...

I was going to wait until July 1st to change my blog banner over...but I really wanted to do it today! I'm feeling in a patriotic mood, what with my impending trip back east to the colonies, and it being so close to 4th of July.  The banner photo is a picture I took on our honeymoon, almost ten years ago. This was a building in Nantucket covered in flags. It really gives that east coast patriotic vibe... Of course, the picture was taken on FILM! What's that? Good thing for scanners!

I don't have a card to share today but I have some (more) pictures to share of my prized hydrangeas! I hope you're not tired of them?! They are GINORMOUS now! I nursed these from baby plants about five years ago. All the wet weather we had made them very happy! I put in a shot of our garage so you get the context! And, yes, that is a full size flag!

 

 

 

 

This is my favorite color on earth...only God could do this...  

 

 

 
 

Now this picture is of some Camellia leaves. The way the light was hitting the leaves made me stop and look. I thought it would be a good image to help with my Copic coloring of leaves?? It's very interesting if you study the play of the light and dark...and then there's the dark leaves in the background too. All the leaves appear to be one color, but when you look closer you see so much more.

 
ENJOY YOUR DAY! DO SOMETHING CREATIVE!  

 

A change in plans...and making the best of it!

Hi everyone! What did you think of all the Taylored Expressions craziness this past week? Whew! Lots of fun and lots of projects to share. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I just have some ramblings for today and some pix to share. You know how I like to do it...this and that. I had been hoping to share with you something different today - but that didn't work out - so I'm sharing how we made the best of it.

The DH and I met on a blind date! 18 years ago yesterday, to be exact! We were set up by a mutual friend and our first date was for lunch. Well, the rest is history as they say. We went out for eight and a half years before we finally tied the knot (our 10 year wedding anniversary is this year), so we always celebrate June 4th as an anniversary too. One of my favorite singers is Adele and we bought tickets to see her in concert at the Berkeley Greek Theater last night. We got a pretty hotel room too and were all set for a very romantic weekend. Unfortunately, Adele ended up cancelling the concert and the rest of her US tour due to illness, and it was POURING rain, and freeeeezing all weekend too. I had hoped to share some cool photos of the concert as well as of the historic Berkeley City Club...but that was not meant to be.

DH and I have fun no matter what we're doing as long as we're together. So...we spent the day shopping and hanging out. We had a very nice lunch at PF Chang's and had some fun at the art store and at the mall. I took a few pictures and some of them came out alright! Today's post is a just a little photo essay. Thanks for coming by to see me!

Out in the front of the art store we saw this cute pink scooter...named Buddy! hahaha. LOVE this. Inside the art store we found 350 colors of Copic Markers! hee hee. (I only bought five)...

 

 Here's part of our yummy lunch...so warm and tasty on a cold rainy day...

 

 

My favorite vignette from Pottery Barn! I could just move right in...just bring my clothes and some snacks and I'd be all set. This store is so gorgeous. I love the red, white and blue beach theme so much.  

 

 

The green in these bottle just called to me...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a fresh little scene from Crate and Barrel... 

 

 

 

 

 

The diffused light from clouds/rain is perfect for flower close-ups... 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

The sun came out for a little whle just at the end of the day. Everything was so fresh and clean and green. Felt good to breathe all the fresh air.   

 

Before driving home we decided to drive up to the top of Mt. Diablo and see the sunset. It did not disappoint...The hills are amazing this time of year. This is looking south from Mt. Diablo towards San Jose.  

 

 

 

Right before the sunset there was this amazing sliver of bright orange. It looked like a fire in the sky. Didn't last long. This is looking west out towards San Francisco.  

 
 

 

 

This morning Office Max was nice enough to put a little fort in the newspaper just for Buddy! He loved it right away! Silly cat. I wonder if he's 20% off, since he fits in the bag?  

 

Why yes, I am quite comfortable. Thanks for asking. Could you please bring me some crunchies?!

See you soon! I have to craft up something to share with you guys this week! What are you working on?  
 
 

It's a first! I have a Guest Blogger today!

Hi there! The hubs is my #1 fan and supporter here at my bloggy blog...he has always encouraged me to blog away and never complains about all that time I spend in the craft cave. For some time, we've been talking about having him be a guest blogger to talk about his favorite place (Yosemite) and share his favorite pasttime (hiking). So...without further ado...my first guest blog! Have a great week!

Greetings! I hope everyone is enjoying the last bit of the weekend. I am fortunate to be the first guest blogger ever here at A Blog Called Wanda! For those that do not know me, I am Wanda's husband Mark, aka "DH." Some of my interests are nature, hiking (especially in Yosemite), collecting Silver Age Marvel Comics, making videos/slideshows....and I share Wanda's passion for Photography. Today I am going to share some Yosemite hiking photos and a video...I hope you enjoy them!

First up, here's a collage I made in Picasa of some of my favorite photos of the Valley floor.

 
 

These next three photos were taken on the Mist Trail along the Merced River on the way to Vernal Fall. It's called Vernal Fall (not Falls) because it only falls one time...straight down. Yosemite Falls, on the other hand, has three separate drops, so it's called Falls. Just a little trivia. Back in the 1800's the Mist Trail had wooden ladders to go all the way up. Now the steps are carved from the granite. Wanda has done this hike with me before. It's on the way to Half Dome.

 

This is the amazing view as you round the corner and see the first full view of the Fall. The trail is on the right side and you can see why it's called the MIST trail. There is a famous photo of John Muir taken on this exact spot.

 

The View looking down on the Fall. Can you see the people looking over the edge? 

 

One year my friend Randy and I hiked to the top of Yosemite Falls in the SNOW. Here is a sign we passed on the way down. The hike is about 4 miles from the Valley floor. I'm not a small guy and I kept falling through the snow. This trip will not be repeated in the snow. We made it to the top though!  

 

Here is a view of Yosemite Falls I took from Glacier Point. Glacier Point is at about 3200 feet up from the Valley floor. I have hiked up the Four Mile Trail which brings you to this amazing view. If you look closely, you can see the switchbacks in the trail on the left side of the Falls.

 

Half Dome is the most challenging hike in the park...and you can see why when you look at these cables. The cables come at the end of an 8 mile hike! There's only one way to the top! For added fun, go on Youtube and search for Half Dome Cable videos. Before I hiked Half Dome I had heard that it would change my life. After I hiked Half Dome, I found that to be true. It's a milestone for me.

 

Here is a photo of me at the TOP looking out over the edge of Half Dome! I'm not the Gilligan dude in the red shirt. I'm the guy in the blue shirt! This is over 4000 feet above the Valley floor. I love this picture. This gave me the priviledge of going to the Yosemite store and buying the shirt that says "I made it to the Top" and I wear it proudly.

 

Winter in Yosemite is a whole different place. No crowds. Different vistas and everything covered in snow and ice. Here is a cool shot of some frozen leaves, and below that another collage, this time of Winter scenes. 

 

 

 
 

The famous Tunnel View! It's named after the tunnel right before it that was carved out of the granite in 1933. This view never gets old. The waterfall you see is Bridal Veil Fall. You can see Half Dome in the middle and El Capitan to the left. El Capitan is the largest piece of granite in the world. People come from all over the world to climb it.  

 

I wanted to share one of my short videos too. This is the first video on Wanda's blog. Let's see if it works like it's supposed to!

 

 

Every blog post needs a picture of BUDDY! Here is my shot of him lounging on the back of Wanda's chair in the family room.  Looking quite debonair.


Thank you so much for letting me bust in on all the stamping and crafting activities and share with you. Wanda will be back soon with more cards. Have a great week. Mark.  

Scenes from a weekend...

Hello everyone! Are you having a lazy-around-the-house kind of Sunday or a run-errands-til-you're-crazy kind of Sunday? We are having the lazy variety... Some laundry is in the dryer and I'm in the craft room mostly cleaning, but hopefully creating soon. I've had a nice weekend so far and thought I would just share some pictures with you today.

Yesterday one of my gal pals hosted us at her house for a girl day. It was fabulous! Relaxing and silly and just a plain old good time! We started out by having a make your own pizza bar. Isn't that the most fab idea ever? We started with Boboli pizza breads and then piled on the goodies. You know I love to take pictures of food - so I couldn't resist. And, trust me, it was just as good as it looks! :-)

 

 

Here's mine before it went into the oven....LOTS of veggies!  

 

And when it came out...

 

Are you hungry yet? I could eat this every single day I think...

 

 

 
 

After pizza we did a little bit of easy stamping and chatting...made some cheery Spring cards with this nice color palette and some favorite Amuse stamps. 

 

 

 

After stamping we had desserts and played Scrabble (otherwise known as the game I lose every time) and had some champagne! Perfection if you ask me! I really must get better at Scrabble. I think I am improving from playing Words with Friends on my iphone. I have some friends who are killers! (You know who you are)!  

 

 

 
 

The next set of pictures are from today in my front yard. This morning we had a full on thunder storm...which is extremeley rare here in Northern California. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever heard thunder that loud around our house. The lights flickered a bit and then it blew through in about an hour. As soon as it stopped raining I grabbed my camera to capture the just-after-the-storm light. It did not disappoint.

 

The hydrangeas are growing like crazy. I think there are probably about 200 blooms on two plants! The blooms are all in various stages. Some are completely green, some are all blue...and most of them are in between.  

 

See what I mean about that glorious light!? I did not photoshop the color on these at all! When the sky is cloudy there are no shadows and no glare...just soft even light...mmmmm.

 

 

 

 

 

This is our front flower bed with all the pretty impatiens the DH planted last weekend. By then end of the Summer they will fill the entire bed and be about a foot tall!  

 

I think maybe the thunder scared Mr. Buddy! He is in his cat camo tent with those giant eyes looking at me...am I okay??  

 

Thanks for popping by today! Have a blessed day.  

 

Hero Arts ATC - and some flower pix!

Helllloooooo! Wow, this was a whirlwind week! Lots of activity on the bloggy blog with all the Taylored Expressions projects! Wasn't that fun? I sure enjoyed my first month on the Design Team. Thank you for all the kind comments and emails! It means so much to me...I read every comment and appreciate them all. Today I have some stuff to share...this n that. A card for a contest, some pictures...ya know.

Before I go on I have to share a milestone with you, my bloggy friends. On Wednesday I got my 100,000th blog hit! OMG. Really? How fantastic! Thank you for stopping by and visiting me! I feel the love! I would never have dreamed this. Thank you!

I won a Hero Arts contest a couple of months ago and I got to choose $50 worth of free stamps! WOOT! So, I decided to use my new stamps to enter the May Hero Arts contest. The themes for May are to make an ATC, use flowers or use colored pencils techniques. I decided to use ALL THREE! I made an ATC with flowers and used my colored pencils! Sometimes I get so stuck with my Copics that I forget to get out the pencils. It was nice to do something different. Sit back and spend a bit of time with me!

Here is my finished ATC. An ATC is an Artist Trading Card and is a little piece of art that is 2.5 by 3.5 inches. The trick is to see how much yumminess you can fit on that tiny size! People make them and then trade them with their friends like baseball cards. Here is my ATC!

 

Here is a close up of the card. I used a big text background stamp in a very light brown first, on cream paper. You can barely see the text. Then I stamped the pretty bird collage stamp off to the side. Lastly I stamped the word "friends" on the right. All stamped in dark brown ink - not black.

 

I stamped the collage again and cut out the main flower and some of the leaves to add later. The flower is popped up with foam tape. The extra leaves are on the left side with the clip. I added a sweet butterfly to finish it off!

 

Here is the collage stamp. One of my fav things to do is to just stamp part of these cool stamps. You don't necessarily have to use the entire image. Isn't this stamp cool??

 

 

 

 

After I made my ATC...I was like...What do I do with it?? I know! I'll make a card for it to fit on! I stamped the same text image onto the mustard paper. You can barely see it. Then I added another sentiment and some twine...kept it simple.

 

 

 

 My finished card!

 

 Here are the stamps I used...all from Hero Arts!

 

 

 

Tuesday night the DH and I met up downtown to have a frappuccino and take some pics! The light finally got nice at about 7:00. Until then it was too bright. There were some gorgeous flowers in a big circle in front of the state Capitol building. I wanted to share the pictures with you before it got to be too long... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally...Mr. Buddy! What do you suppose he sees out of the craft room window? I think I'm pretty sure it was a squirrel! He's on the hunt!

 
Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all you fabulous Moms out there! Thanks for visiting today. Hugs!

 
 

Miami!

Hi there! I'm back from my trip to Miami! Got home super super late Friday night (I guess technically early Saturday morning). That is a long trip and both of my flights home were delayed. It feels good to be home with my DH, my kitty and my stamp room! I had a fantastic trip to Florida. I was there for work and so we worked our normal 9 hour work days. After work, however, I managed to see some sights and enjoy the amazing weather. Since I was there two weeks, I also had a weekend to enjoy,  and I drove all the way down to Key West. It wasn't humid and was about 80 degrees each day. I'm not normally a warm weather person, but it sure felt good. I took almost 400 pictures! It was really hard to choose some to share on the bloggy blog. I hope you have fun looking at the pix! Have a fantastic week! The pictures are from Miami, Key West and Miami Beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now...If you made it this far...thanks! Haha. Back in the day I would have been that annoying, crazy Auntie who showed up at your house with five carousels of slides from her vacation...and made you watch them all on a sheet tacked to the wall! I love to share pictures! Smile. 

Spring has arrived in Northern California!

Just a note before my post: I am going to be in Miami for a couple of weeks for work. I am wondering if anyone has suggestions for me as to places to go, stamp/craft stores, restaurants, whatever?? Please leave me a comment if you would be so kind!  I have planned some blog posts while I'm gone, and when I get back I hope I have cool pictures to share!

Spring has definitely arrived here in my part of the world! My allergies are in full effect but I consider that a minor nuisance compared with all the beauty that surrounds us this time of year. The hills are turning green, the trees are making new leaves, the cherry blossoms are spectacular and, here in Sacramento, it's Camellia time. I took a gander out in my front yard yesterday morning and then grabbed my camera so I could share with you. I know a lot of you are still in the throes of Winter...so I hope this makes you warm inside. Have a wonderful day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These fresh green buds mean that my prized Nikko Blue Hydrangeas made it through another cold Winter. These are my favorite plants in the yard. I can't wait to see their happy pom pom faces!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
From our home to yours...Happy Spring and have a blessed day!

 

New and fun technique!

Hi everyone! Today is the start of a super busy week here on the bloggy blog! I have a post today, Wednesday will be my latest iCopic Blog creation and then Thursday is another Blog Hop for Taylored Expressions! Good times! There is still time to join in on the Taylored Expressions "Going Green" blog hop! Click on the link and check it out!

Today I'm sharing cards I made a week or so ago for the Papertrey Ink facebook contest. I'm so excited that they started doing contests where customers can send in our cards and share with everyone else. There is some hecka talent out there and I've really enjoyed looking at the items posted. The contest series is called Make it Monday and they put a new technique on facebook every Monday...you then have all week to enter for a chance to win some PTI swag.

This first Make it Monday had the technique of taking lots of related word stamps and stamping them in a pattern, combining fonts and styles. It was really fun. I ended up sending in three entries. I didn't get a chance to blog them back then so I'm doing it now. Hope you like them and hope you will try this new way of using your stamps! All supplies, in all three cards are from Papertrey Ink.

Each of those phrases is a different stamp! All combined into a great image! I used a sweet tag and these gorgeous colors...oh my...

 

 

 

 

 

This one was my favorite of the three. I really love all those phrases and I loved combining them all with the cute house stamp. I stamped everything first and then used my oval nesties to cut out the center panel. Those butterflies and ribbon in chartreuse...love that. This is going to be a housewarming card for my bestie who just moved into her dream house. Can't wait to give it to her tomorrow!

 

 
 See you soon!

 

Valentine Goodies...a photo essay...

Hi friends! F-R-I-D-A-Y! Thanks for stopping by today to see me. Well, you know how I love to take pictures of stuff!? Today's post is a photo essay of my Valentine loot from my sweet DH. He is too good to me and always has been a romantic at heart. This year for Valentine's Day he bought me the most gorgeous red roses and some WAY yummy sweets from Sucre in New Orleans. What a treat! It was so hard to stop and take pictures of everything before devouring it! I really just wanted to rip the box open and go for it! I had fun getting all artsy with the colors and textures and had a real full-on photo shoot right here in the craft room. 

UPDATE! The DH sent the company a link to my blog post and they wrote back with an amazing proposition! Sucre has very graciously offered a FREE GIVEAWAY to one of you! Please leave a comment below, any time before midnight PST on Saturday. I will randomly pick a comment/winner and Sucre will directly mail you some goodies! Sa-weet! Be sure to leave me your email address so I can get in touch with you. I will let you know on Sunday if you're the lucky winner!

Even the boxes are so pretty and inviting... 

 

 

These are dark chocolates with a pinch of sea salt on top...They were in the aqua box...
 

 

 

 

 

These are French Macarons. O.M.G. Truly. Seriously. O.M.G. Some of the flavors are pistachio, orange, lemon, almond, and strawberry...The pink strawberry ones are covered in sparkly stuff. Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 
 


 

 

 

 

 

I could have taken about 100 more pictures of these Macarons. I love the graphic nature of them on the glass and the colors are so inviting. I had fun working with the reflections.

 

These are the healthiest roses - hearty and strong and the most vivid shade of deep red. Just how Valentine's Day roses should look. They are still going pretty in the vase five days later. I picked out the best one to shoot some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 
 

Do something creative every day! Have a wonderful weekend! 
 
 
 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! Time for some reflection, and then, a look ahead. It was one year ago exactly that I started this blog. I had no idea what I was doing or where it was going. I only knew that I wanted to blog and share and be part of the online crafty community. I could not have imagined what has happened in the last year here. The experience has been so rewarding and fun, and most of all, positive!

In the past year, I have written 195 blog posts, received 889 comments from readers, and had 30,324 "hits" here at A Blog Called Wanda!

I have met the most wonderful, creative, and kind women in the past year. Perfect strangers who took the time to say something nice. Some of you have ended up being friends who are now part of my day to day life. We share so much in common even though we are all around the country and the world. That is the most meaningful experience of all. I feel really lucky to have met you.

I think that putting my creations out there for all to see has made me become a better stamper. A more intentional stamper...trying to get out of my comfort zone. It's a risk to put your creations out to be judged! But, nothing risked, nothing gained...and I have gained a lot by doing so! Some fantastic opportunities have come my way to be a guest designer or a Design Team Member...and I've won a few contests along the way too. More fun than I could have dreamt.

I could go on and on, but I will spare you! I feel very fortunate that you all take some time out of your day to visit me and see what I'm up to. It makes a huge difference in my life. Thank you! I love blog comments, so please say hi if you're here!

Three weeks ago was the DH's birthday and his wish was to get up early and go on a photo shoot up and around the pretty Gold Country of Northern California near our home. I have to tell ya, I didn't want to get up at 5am on my day off, but the payoff was well worth it! The light that day was spectacular. It had rained the day before and there was a thick layer of gloomy fog burning off. Made for the best pictures I feel I've taken in a long time.

I decided to save them for New Year's because as a group they gave me a "fresh start" sort of feeling. A feeling of quiet and peace and new beginnings. It's hard to explain, but maybe after you look at them you will feel that too. They just seemed right to start the new year. I hope that 2011 brings many blessings to you and your families this year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHEERS TO MAKING 2011 OUR BEST YEAR YET!  

Coffee & Christmas Lights...

Tonight I'm sharing with you one of our favorite holiday time traditions...Coffee and Christmas Lights! For years now, every winter, we go out scouting for the best holiday light displays! It's so much fun and I look forward to it all year. We try to go as many different nights as possible. The evening always starts with a trip to Starbucks for a Peppermint Mocha! (of course, right?) Then we pile in the sleigh, I mean truck, and head out. The DH drives all the time so I can look and relax. It's wonderful time together. We are so lucky that there are several places in Sac-town that go all out for Christmas lights. Last night's destination was downtown... They even put a map in our local paper! So, sit back and put your feet up...and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

THIS is where it all begins....mmmmmm....

 

 

Our beautiful State Capitol building and tree.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 


 

 

 We have a little tiny ice rink right in the middle of downtown....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is one of my favorite places to go....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And again....mmmm....

 
 And to all a GOOD NIGHT!

 

A pause from the Christmas craziness!

Christmas craziness is in full swing now! I have had fun activities and parties and get togethers three days this week already! (Yay!) Combine all that with shopping, wrapping, stamping, addressing, and shopping, and shopping...and a girl just needs a break! Today I am posting some Winter snow pictures I took last week and I'm taking a moment to breathe...a la Oprah Magazine's Breathing Space! Ahhhhhhh. A brief respite from the crazies...

Respite: a reprieve: a (temporary) relief from discomfort; a pause from doing something (as work); suspension: an interruption in the intensity or amount of something; a pause for relaxation. Yes, that is exactly the word I was looking for! Have a great weekend everyone!