Spring! Wait, no. SUMMER!

Somehow, I missed Spring. Or that one week of nice, comfortable temps was it. It's suddenly Summer! And it's only April 6th! What happened? Not that I'm complaining but the pollen is so bad because of the unusually wet winter and short spring.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a few pictures mostly for my family and friends who live outside of NC. You are missing some beautiful trees and flowers.

Busy, busy, busy!!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been busy teaching classes at my lss and with some up-coming stuff at church. But I did get to spend lots of time in my studio today (Easter Sunday!) and have made more cards from scraps. Hope you enjoy!!

I think this is my favorite. The background is white embossing over a very pale purple (looks blue for some reason). The white panel is from a class I taught months ago. The ribbon I've had for ages and the bird is from a new Tim Holtz die covered in paper that I've had forever. Just one of those times where everthing came together to make a lovely card. Oh, and the bling is just pearls colored with a Copic! Love it!

Once again, just bits and pieces I've had laying around. The flowers are punched from paper embossed with white Zing powder.

More bits and pieces....

what's left of the previous card's bits and pieces....

This is actually for last Sunday's OWH challenge. But again, just using stuff I have had for quite a while.

This one I actually did on St. Patrick's Day. I've never really done cards for St. Patrick's Day but I had these pieces of cardstock and they went really well with this bit of pp and once again, poof! Beautifuf card! Love using up my scraps!!

Now, go create something today!! And I challenge you to do it with nothing but SCRAPS!

Hoppy Easter!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! And remember the Lord has risen!

Our Easter started off at 6:30am when the boys woke up and wanted to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them. I didn't get a picture of it this year but the boys each got a chocolate bunny, Drew got a Nerf football and Gabe got 2 Star Wars action figures. Both were very happy.

Then we were off to church. Jeff and the boys attended the service while I help set up for a special "children's church" program. When the kids came to us, they heard the story of "The Box", made tissue paper flowers for the cross and wrote in Thank You cards for our heroes serving overseas. It was lots of fun.

Then we came home, had lunch - then the EASTER EGG HUNT! The boys couldn't wait! Jeff went outside and hid 20 candy-filled eggs for each of them. Actually, two eggs contained $5 each and were labeled with their names. They had a blast running all over the front and back yard looking for the eggs.

We had perfect weather and the trees and flowers were absolutely beautiful. Later, Drew went to a friend's house for a sleepover and Gabe played outside. He has always loved to swing.

Hope your Easter was a blessing, too! 

April Fools!!

I really don't like April Fool's Day. Never have. I always fall for the joke. I have never been good at playing the jokes on someone else. But I have to tell you that Gabe got me today and it was really funny!

(Just some background for those of you without kids, if he gets a letter below a line on a weekly chart, he wasn't following directions, or something along those lines in class. "F" for not following directions; "H" for not having homework, etc. Conversely, if he gets all letters above the line, it's a good thing. Gabe has gotten a couple of letters below the line lately.)

As he hops in the car after school I ask him how his day was. He tells me (very serious-like) that he got a letter below the line today.  I said "Aww, Gabe. What happened?" and of course he yells "April Fools!" He was so proud of himself because he came up with that all on his own! He was so funny! He then got Jeff and Drew with that same joke.

Hope you had a wonderful April Fools Day!
Amy

Sport Cat

For those of you that don't know, I have a horse. Well, I own a horse meaning I still hold the papers on him but he resides at a farm in Mint Hill now and has wonderful family who love and care for him. I first got Sport Cat in 1987 when I was 17. We had a wonderful 16 years before having children made it too difficult to give Sport Cat the attention he deserved. So for the past 6 years he has been loved by a now 17 year old girl who has taken fabulous care of him. He turned 30 years old last week. Jeff, the boys and I went out to see him last weekend. It was wonderful! It has been way too long since I stopped by to see him. The boys and I each took turns riding him. It felt so good to ride again!! Here are a few pictures from our afternoon. (sorry for the quality of the pictures. I took my camera only to discover that I didn't have an SD card in it! So I had to use the camera in my phone.)

Jeff and Sport Cat.

Gabe and Sport Cat.

Doesn't he look good to be 30 years old!

Drew riding Sport Cat.

Here is a final picture of Catman (as we use to call him!) taken at a horse show a few years ago.

 

Thank you, Graves Family for all the love and care you have shown Catman!!!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY!

Actually, it was even wilder creatures - three 11 year old boys! Yikes!!! I went to the Asheboro Zoo with Drew's 5th grade class. I was one of many chaperones. I was in charge of 3 boys - Drew, Ben and Sebastian. We had lots of fun. It was perfect weather - low 70's and partly cloudy. Here are a few pictures of our fun.

Here are 3 monkeys er, uh, boys headed into the zoo.

Look closely and you can see a seal about to swim past Drew's head.

The Black Bear paced. Just paced.

One of the boys, er, uh monkeys was sitting right by the glass looking at us! He looked very old and just sat there touching his fingers like he was counting.

I managed to come home with the right monkey - I mean BOY! That was Thursday. Friday the boys had a half day of school. Saturday Drew had a soccer game. After the soccer game, the boys and I (plus a friend of Drew's) headed for the river. That's currently where I am posting from. Jeff couldn't come because he had to work and we aren't staying long as the boys have to be back at school on Tuesday but we are having fun.

My new Studio!!

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine decided to get a new desk for her home office. She gave me her old desk which was in an "L" shape - which is what I've always wanted!! It's taken me a while to get it just like I want it but I think it's finally right.

Believe it or not, it's cleaned up right now! There are a couple of bookshelves to the left of the desk but they look even messier so I didn't take a picture of them.

Here are a couple of projects I have made as well. The card is one of a dozen or so for OWH. The notebook is just a Dollar Store book I bought a while back. I took the spiral out and covered the front and back with paper and a few embellishments. It was a quick project and now I have a handy notebook to carry with me!