That I Would Be Good

Books I've read recently...

I've been reading away on my Kindle. Love that thing. Definitely one of the best gifts for someone like me, who reads like CRAZY.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This is a book about living in Jackson, Mississippi. The book is told from several perspectives, including Skeeter Phelan, a wealthy young woman just back from college, Aibileen and Minny, two African American servants. Together, they tell the story of what it is like to work for white families in the south. The book was good, it was engaging and interesting. I liked Aibileen the best. However, I didn't think it was worth all the 5 stars it got on Amazon. It was good. But not great.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova. Alice is a professor of psychology at Harvard. She starts forgetting things, like where she put her Blackberry or what she is supposed to lecture about. She learns that she has early onset Alzheimer's disease. The book goes in chronological order of Alice's decent into the disease. It is a very good, but very sad book. And of course now every time I can't remember someone's name or what I wore to my school picture in the second grade, I think I have Alzheimers. I know it's not a joke, but that's just me. I really dont' try to remember second grade, but I do sometimes forget people from high school (which was only 13 years ago!). This is definitely an eye opener for someone with no experience with Alzheimers, and I think it would be good for someone who is familiar with it. The entire story is from Alice's perspective, so you see what SHE feels as her family fights over the best way to deal with the situation. Really interesting perspective. I will be interested to see what else comes from this author.

The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner. Strange book. I'm not a big mystery person so much anymore, and this book kind of told me why. Basically a woman disappears from her house, leaving her four year old daughter and husband behind. As the suspects unfold, you learn that her life was not really what it seemed to be. It was good in that I really wanted to find out what happened, but I didn't like it in the fact that the ending was just like "Oh, that's where you were?". It was just an implausible ending, I felt. Again, not worth all the five star reviews on Amazon.  

Another fun set

I made this set using Papertrey Ink's Scattered Showers set. I haven't used this set much since I got it, but once I got my hands on the Hero Arts Cloud stamp, this just came out. I have some ideas to tweak it, but I think it's really cute.
 

Here is a closeup of the one card. The umbrellas have Crystal Effects on them, so they are shiny!

Cute, huh?

Long time, no post...

I'm getting back into the swing of things after a very long, very nice, very air-conditioned three day weekend. Our central A/C has been broken for over a year. And we somehow figured we'd wait to get it fixed. And wait. And wait. Until like the hottest week of the year yet. Thankfully the parts needed came in and it was fixed on Thursday. It makes for MUCH better sleeping, even though Ray had rigged up the fan treatment (18 inch fans on both sides of the bed on high speed). Bailey is much happier.

On the crafty side, I have been really digging the cards lately. I have been having such fun with it. Sometimes I borrow ideas from all the blogs and galleries I visit, but hey, that's the point right? No one I give the cards to knows where the ideas come from, so I happily take the compliments and move on!! lol

I lifted this card from the FAB Nichole Heady. I made this card as a thank you for Ray's boss. She had a bunch of people over from work for a cookout. They have this great house in the woods near Valley Forge Park, complete with their own pond. Their house is beautiful and they have an entire WALL of books. Literally floor to ceiling. Love that.
 
She loved the card. Sent me a thank you for my thank you.

That then led to making a set for my boss for her birthday. She is retiring in a few months and I will miss her a lot. :( My boss is a great lady who has been so nice to me and so understanding in a lot of situations. She is kind and compassionate and just an overall good person. Sorry for the horrible pics of this. I made it all at the last minute (typical) and I was taking these on the kitchen table five minutes before leaving for work.

These cards are all Papertrey Ink products. I used the new Vintage Picnic sets, released in June. I am loving this set (the stamps and the cards I made!). I did a lot of coloring with Copics with this, and I really learned a good bit by trial and error. I think the apples looked the best. I also learned that if I didn't like something, I put it to the side and came back later. It usually looked better when I came back to it after I had some perspective.

Thanks for looking!

Another Sympathy card

While I'm on the subject of making sympathy cards... Ray asked me to make one for an old Sunday school teacher of his. Her husband died after a battle with cancer.

I decided to use the colors from Dawn McVey's Color Challenge #10.

 

Here is my take:

 

Supplies:

Cardstock: PTI vintage cream, dark chocolate and berry sorbet

Patterned paper: Pressed petals

stamps: PTI Fancy Flourishes, Verve verse

Tools: Stampin Up! Bigz Beautiful Butterflies, Fiskars scallop punch

Other: Kaiser Pears, PTI Melon Berry button

Catching up

This weekend was very nice. Saturday night we went to a graduation party with the best food ever!! They had Chinese, Mexican, cheesesteaks, ziti, sausage and peppers, etc etc. Literally it was neverending. And the best part, the margarita machine! I had some from the daiquiri side.
Saturday night we went downtown to the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater and saw 11th Hour Theatre Company's production of Avenue X. It was great! We actually saw Avenue X about 10 years ago at the Wilma Theatre and really liked it. The production of 11th Hour did not disappoint. One of the co-founders is a friend of mine from grade school! We have been friends since fourth grade and recently reconnected on Facebook.

Sunday my parents came over for dinner, my dad seemed to really like his gifts. Especially the alcohol! I love him lots and can't wait for my kids to have him as a grandfather. He's a good one.

Tomorrow I have jury duty in my home county. I know it's a civic duty and a privilege and all, but BLARG. Just having to drive there and pay to park and all that jazz is a PITA. I'm *hoping* I will be able to just sit and read and hopefully will get dismissed early. I'm definitely bringing my Kindle.

And finally, a card to share. Unfortunately, a friend's son-in-law passed away this weekend after a fairly routine procedure. This is a friend that is active in the youth group with Ray. So I thought it would be nice to do a card with scripture.
The card base and the scallop circle are actually cream colored, though they look white. Have I mentioned how impatient I am to get the lighting all figured out down here in the basement? We are going to the lighting store on Thursday night and hopefully it won't be much longer!

Supplies:
Cardstock: PTI cream
Patterned Paper and button: Basic Grey
Stamps: Verve
Ink: Memento London Fog and Tuxedo Black
Ribbon: PTI Plum Pudding
Tools: Fiskars scallop punch and nestabilities

Father's Day card

I swear I have made about five Father's Day cards. And I only have one dad! I never think they are masculine enough. I did send one card to a friend (my bff's husband) since it is his first Father's Day. I just mailed it today, so he'll probably get it Monday.

I sat down tonight to make one more, hopefully one I'd be happy enough with to actually give my dad. I think I did pretty well. This is totally outside my comfort zone, but I went with it.

I started by looking around online for some inspiration. I found this card by Niki Estes in the Papertrey forum. I love kraft cardstock, then I picked out the ocean tides to go with it, then backed it with smokey shadow.

Here's what I came up with:

 

 

Supplies:

Cardstock: PTI kraft, ocean tides, smokey shadow

Stamps: PTI Fancy Flourishes and Backgrounds Text Style, Verve World's Greatest

Ink: Ranger Vintage Photo Distress Ink (maybe another that I can't remember?!)

Flower: Bazzill

Gold pearls from stash

And here is my Dad's gifts: a bottle of Danny DeVito Limoncello and a new cool Leatherman.

 

 

 

And here is my desk in the midst of all that messy stamping stuff. Distress inks are messy!!! I am trying to channel my inner Jennifer McGuire but failing miserably...

Two Congratulations cards

So two more congratulations cards, but these are for completely different reasons than the last one!! A friend graduated from Drexel last month and his party is on Saturday. We are good friends with his parents as well. They are so happy this 5 year adventure is over! He did the Drexel engineering program, which is a five year deal.
I made two cards, I'll let Ray decide which one he wants to take. I tried to make them masculine.

Card #1:

Supplies:
Cardstock: PTI kraft, spring rain and summer sunrise
Stamps: PTI Damask Designs, Scattered Showers and Out on a Limb sentiments
Ink: Versamark and Memento Tuxedo black
Button and ribbon from stash
Tools: Fiskars scallop edge punch and SU! scallop circle punch and SU! Word window punch

Card #2:

Supplies:
Cardstock: PTI Smokey Shadow, Lemon Tart, Guidelines 2 cardstock, Spring Rain
Stamps: PTI Guide Lines 2, Around and About Sentiments, Out on a Limb Sentiments
Ink: Staz On Midnight Blue, Memento Summer Sky, Memento Tuxedo Black
Ribbon, flower, jewel, clip from stash
Tools: corner rounder, Nestabilities

Which would you pick for a college graduate guy?

Congratulations

This card is for some friends who have a baby coming soon. The card is green, but they know they are having a boy.
I know this is really simple, but I actually really like it. And of course I used my new scallop rectangle Nestabilities that I got at Hobby Lobby in Colorado. I NEED a Hobby Lobby here!!! Get on that Hobby Lobby people!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bobunny Mint Dot and PTI kraft
Stamps - all Stampin Up!
Ribbon from stash
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamark
Button - PTI new leaf
Tools - Nestabilities and Making Memories ribbon punch

CPS cards

Based on CPS 75

 

Based on CPS 110

Back to life, back to reality

Anybody remember that song?
Soul II Soul
It's probably just me.

I had a wonderful time in Colorado. Really fun people, really beautiful scenery. My uncle is one of my favorite people ever, and his family is pretty cool too.

Here's one shot from hanging out in Glenwood Springs, where Doc Holliday died.
 

And at Independence Pass, the Continental Divide. We drove from Boulder up to Glenwood Springs, then home again through Aspen/Independence Pass. It was freezing up there!

In Boulder Canyons

Back to crafty stuff tomorrow!