New Member of the Family

About 2 weeks ago, we added another member to the family! We rescued another dog. She's 12 years old and she's a toy poodle. When I got back from my Las Vegas trip with my mom, I had an email from a co-worker that had been forwarded, and forwarded on and on. The email said that this woman's sister-in-law had recently died from cancer and they were looking for a home for her poodle. This woman wasn't married, had no kids and no one in the family wanted the dog. The family had dropped the dog off at a kennel until they could find a home for it. My heart just breaks for dogs like that! We thought 4 dogs is a bit much and we weren't sure how she would fit in, but the thought of her sitting in the kennel was too much. We agreed to initially foster her, to see how things would work out. The woman brought her to us and we instantly fell in love with her, and the other 3 dogs are all very tolerant of her. So we decided to keep her! She broke her foot while in the kennel so now she has this cute little pink cast on her leg. She's getting around fine and adjusting to life with us just perfectly. Her name was Missy, but I think her owner probably had a nickname for her that we don't know of, because she won't respond to Missy at all. We didn't really care for that name anyway and we've renamed her Senna. Isn't she the cutest?

I'm leaving to go away for Easter weekend, but I'll be back and post some more craft projects on Monday! Have a great rest of the week and thanks for stopping by!

Desk Organizer Gift

This is a gift set that I made for my friend Donna that I met in Las Vegas last month. I got the template to make it here. It was quick and easy to make! I made it using Bazzill cardstock and the rest of the paper is by Lasting Impressions. I included a memo pad, a little gift box that holds Hershey Nuggets chocolates, 4 cards and envelopes and a pen. I dry embossed all the daisies. I got the template to make the Hershey Nugget holder on the Splitcoast Stampers site. I added a little loop of paper inside the organizer to hold the pen. Hope you have a great week!

Got your sunglasses?

I made this card for an embossing swap. The theme was Mardi Gras. We didn't have to actually use anything related to Mardi Gras on the card, but one requirement was that you had to use bright colors. I think I succeeded with this! I used some new paper from Lasing Impressions and some bright green brads. The Happy Birthday sentiment was printed from my computer. This was a simple and quick card to make. Hope you have a great weekend!

New House

So I have big news.... We are closing on a new house today! I never would have imagined we would buy a new house this year. We've always wanted to buy some property around Lake Anna (near Richmond/Charlottesville, VA) and we always watch the real estate listings for property for sale there. About 18 months ago, Greg found this house for sale, and it really is the perfect place for us. The home is the style we like (cozy with a big front porch and ceiling fans on the front porch), the property is 18 acres and is wooded and secluded and there is a huge 2500 sq ft detached building where Greg can work on his race car projects. The sellers are also leaving their pontoon boat with the house, and we will have a boat dock deeded with the property. We both did a lot of boating and fishing growing up, and are looking forward to getting back on the water. When he first showed me the listing, I saw the huge price tag and thought it's a nice house but we can never afford it. Well, the economy here took a down turn and the price kept dropping, the interest rates kept dropping, and we can qualify for some of the homebuyer tax credits, so we thought now was the perfect time. We love the area, it's a perfect retreat from the city life we're used to. For now, we'll use it as a second/vacation home and hope in the next several years, we can find jobs in the area and move down there permanently. It's about an hour and a half from where we live now.

I made two sets of these house cards, one for the sellers and one for our real estate agent. I used the sale-a-bration stamp set from Stampin' Up and made an A4 box to hold the cards. I colored the images with my Copic markers. The paper I used is from Basic Grey.

Bee Happy!

I wanted to share one more project I made while in Las Vegas. My friend Donna designed this card and it was part of the class that she gave to Barbara & I. It's a flat card, the base is made from a scalloped piece of square chipboard. She said she found the scalloped chipboard at Michaels. She painted it white for us, and I doodled around the edges with a black pen. Added paper, ribbon, two of her shrinky dink bees, buttons and a sentiment and we were done. The purple background is embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder.

Spring Bunny!

We have had beautiful weather here the past couple days. I hope you've had nice weather too. For the most part, all of our snow has melted! I wanted to share another card that Donna designed for Barbara & I in the mini-class she gave us in Las Vegas. I think this card is so cute. The best part is, I have this template but I've never used it before. Now I'm inspired to use it and make some cards with it! This card opens sort of like a tri-fold card. Hope you have a great week!

Back from Vacation!

I had a wonderful time in Las Vegas, vacationing there with my mom. While I was there, I had planned to meet up with two of my embossing friends from the Yahoo group I belong to. We've all been exchanging/swapping cards for several years but had never met in person. We planned to have a crafting day and it turned out to be so much fun! Donna (Furthest left in the picture) drove with her husband from CA to spend a few days in Vegas. She put together a class for us and we made 4 embossed cards and a tag. I loved being able to get my crafting fix on vacation!! Donna put together some really cute cards and I posted one that we made above. The little bee is a shrinky dink! She printed the bee from the Lasting Impressions Colored Impressions software, (the image is from a Lasting Impressions template), cut him out, and baked it to shrink it. Super cute, and fun springy colors. Barbara is in the middle in the picture, and she is from Las Vegas. At one point we took a break and walked down the strip to get lunch and Barbara mentioned that she thought it was the first time in 30 years that she had walked down the strip! I had to laugh, it's sort of like people who live near DC but never go to museums or monuments (me). I had so much fun crafting with them, they were both very sweet and I enjoyed getting to know them!

I must admit, 8 days on the strip is a long time for someone who doesn't enjoy gambling much. By the last day, I was itching to get away from the strip and see or do something new. I saw an ad for a gun store where you could come and try to shoot guns. I've never done it before and thought why not? We had a rental car and we drove to the shooting range. It was an experience. I shot a handgun and a rifle. Just as I was getting ready to shoot the gun for the first time, the person next to me shot a fully automatic machine gun which put me on edge! I jumped and yelled, not expecting that. I learned that Nevada is one of the few states that allows you to shoot fully automatic weapons, which made this a popular shooting range for tourists. So I shot the guns.... They gave me my target papers to take home as a souvenir. I didn't love shooting but I didn't hate it either. But I am glad I tried something new. And I'd be willing to try it again.