Brooklyn arrives, finally.......

After going to hospital with contractions on three different occasions and being sent home; spending the night on one of them, finally on December 3rd, the real deal happened. Induced at 6:12 and she arrived at 11:09 p.m. Beautiful as can be! 7# 10 1/2 oz. and 21 1/2" long. Tons of hair and looks exactly like big brother, AJ. Couldn't be happier with another girl finally, after a five boy streak!

Christmas cards

Here are my cards this year using all Close to My Heart products. I made 74 of them and still had to use a handful of store bought. Keep saying I am cutting down.

Six weeks since I blogged, really! I was very busy this year at the post office during the Christmas rush with Angie on maternity leave and Gene hiding in his office being the only clerk left. We had to borrow the new gal, Terri, from a neighboring office who was brand new so she had to learn to jump right in. Wish I had started my projects earlier as always! Here are the stockings I made this year. One for my brand new granddaughter, Brooklyn Kennedy Mouradian and one for my brand new great-nephew, Jase Mathew Barney. I wanted to get a couple more done for spouses in the family but couldn't find the time this year so hopefully by next year. Maybe on the plane next month to sunny Florida!

Baby shower for Angela

My good friend and co-worker, Nancy insisted that we throw a baby shower for Angie even though it is her third child! After all, it has been 10 years since her son was born and almost 14 since she had Victoria so she certainly didn't have any baby girl things laying around. LOL It was a beautiful day and we had a great turnout! Good food, good people, good times! Here are a few random shots from the day. Nancy was able to book her church to hold it. What a beautiful new church it is and perfect for event holding!

October's monthly stamp club gathering

What fun cards were made for this month. I was totally in love with Jen Rubio's card with the cute little witch that I had to lift it! So adorable! Also loved what Maureen O'Sulllivan did with the SOTM and the snowhaven paper. here's my takes on them both along with a Thanksgiving card that I shared with the club in October. They all made the little witch one for Halloween. So cute! i love this snowhaven paper so much, I think this might be what I use for my cards this year!

Butterfly Journal pages

In our newly-named yahoo group, Altered, tattered, and timeworn, we are doing a 6 x 6 journal apge swap where the theme is butterflies. Decorate front and back and send to hostess and we will all get 11 pages back to make a Butterfly Journal. Must use at least one tim Holtz product. well, that was easy! Almost everything used was Tim's. For my back pages, I used Distress Markers to stamp with and spritzed them with water to create a watercolored effect over my stamped background page. The butterflies were then punched from the paper I use to protect my desk when I am working at it and then randon background stamps over them after I punched them. Hope they all like my pages. looking forward to getting them back!

September gathering- Close To My Heart

Waiting for my brand new cartridge to arrive that was just released exclusively for CTMH called Artfully Sent. It is an amazing cartridge for card-makers. I was the hostess this month, so got to set up at home instead of hauling everything out. Nice! Here are the cards I made for them to see and they all made the Rainy Day set card. I was inspired by Brenda Rose and loved how the boots really look like rubber boots using the Liquid Glass on them. So cool! i used my hostess benefits to order the new cartridge as a half-price deal. Even at full price, it's a steal with almost 700 images on it, 3 sets of stamps, and a full pack of cardstock. The stamps and cardstock are a $75 value, so that makes the cartridge only $24!

New Cartridge Has Arrived

Wait no longer! Close To My Heart has been waiting for ProvoCraft to finalize the newest addition to our exclusive cartridge line and it is now available!!! Close To My Heart has done all the think-work required to make gorgeous cards. The Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge houses 700 images intended to work together to create 400 complete projects. (Yes, I did say 400 projects!!) The collection included the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge, three stamp sets that focus on sentiments, frames, and alphabet, and a package of White Daisy cardstock to get you started! There are 6 functions on the cartridge that contain 25 themes. You will find: Pop-up cards Icon cards Scene cards Sentiment cards Sleeve cards Pocket cards

Savanna graduates Aveida

Congratulations to my baby girl, Savanna for graduating from the Aveida Institute in Minneapolis, Mn. She still has 5 or 6 weeks to go to fulfill her hours needed to take her state boards to get licensed but the school portion is over. She was one of four chosen to speak at the ceremony, two from the morning class and two from the afternoon. It was a nice ceremony and we are so proud of her! Now for her to just get a job at a top-end salon up there!

August stamp club gathering

Deb was our hostess for August and these are the cards we made. Had fun using lots of new stuff. We used the new markers on the owl card that was our make and take.

some cards

Here is Reese's card and envelope along with Jay and Angela's birthday cards on the 8th. And some I made for some very close friends of mine.