BAD blogger...

BAD!  I'm a bad blogger for letting almost a MONTH go by without a post.  (You can't see it, but I'm shaking my finger at myself in a "tut-tut" manner.)  I am in total awe of those who can blog daily on top of a regular job and life. 

This month saw computer problems (boo), then a new laptop (yay!) which turned out to be not-so-great, so I returned it (boo again).  I finally decided to get a large monitor (26"!) to hook up to my netbook since this little thing has been so great.  Got the monitor hooked up today.  When/if I do decide to get a new laptop the new monitor will be repurposed as a TV.

Next month (June 20th) I'm having carpal tunnel surgery on my right wrist and will be off of work for 2 weeks to recover.  I'll either be blogging like crazy, out of boredom, or not at all because I can't type.  I wonder if I can get Jim to do my typing?  =)

This card has rattling around in my brain for weeks, today I finally had a chance to get it out and on paper!  The inspiration for the card is the song "Getting to Know You" from The King and I.  It's such a lovely song, and a great sentiment.  So, in honor of new friends and old, here it is:

The teacup and it's decorations are from a file called Hot Cocoa and More, the swirls in the corners are from What Matters Most.  Both files are by the lovely and talented Ileana Russell.  Her designs can be found here.  The text is from my Silhouette, using the pen holder created by Amy Chomas. She has them for the Silhouette and the Cricut.  I used a grey Copics marker to fill in the text.  Then I used Perfect Pearls mist on the steam and the corner decorations.  I took the picture from an angle so you could see the shimmer.

Do you like it?  Should I have dressed it up more?

I'm headed to my recliner to enjoy the rest of my Memorial Day. 

Oooo, that reminded me.  A lady named Beth, that Starla and I met at Archivers once and have been trying to coordinate schedules to meet up again, texted me this afternoon to thank me for my service.  It made me cry!  So sweet.  Thank you, Beth!

Mother's Day is upon us,

and I was almost caught unprepared!  Getting through a computer crash (we gave my laptop last rites a couple of weeks ago) is never easy.  Luckily I had my little netbook to tide me over until I could replace my laptop, which we did yesterday.  YAY!  Anyway, I have two moms to make cards for, mine and Jim's.  Here's the card I made today, which will be going to my mother-in-law tomorrow:

 The flower is a cutfile I have for my Silhouette.  I pieced the inside of the flower and backed the dots with bright pink for contrasts.  The crystals in the upper right corner were added at the last minute because I HAD to have some bling!

I was trying to decide what card to make for my mother when I remembered this card I made in February:

It's PERFECT for my mother!  I know some of you will be SHOCKED (okay, not really), but I was quite the tomboy growing up.  This image could have been me!  So, Mom gets a wonderful card (one of my very favorites), and I get to be DONE!  Win-win!

Last Sunday was ATC swap day.  The theme was May Baskets, however we wanted to interpret that.  May means spring to me, warmth (finally), sun, and flowers.  I completely love this stamp and was happy to have a reason to use it!  The balloon, mouse, and basket were colored with color pencils and Gamsol, for the flowers I used color pencils on some and Spica glitter markers on others.  By the time I finished the 20th card I was ready to NOT color any more itty bitty flowers! I punched out the sun, wrote the sentiment in Spica and used my glitter gel pen to give the sun's rays some sparkle.  The background paper is blue with clouds and the main image is pop-dotted to give the ATC some depth.

As far as the jewelry goes, my friend ended up buying 3 of the 5 sets.  I still have the Kyanite and Turquoise sets which will be put up for sale.

Whew!  Time to get some iced tea and relax.