Done!

This morning was Charlotte's Race for the Cure and I ran my first 5k! Not the greatest time, but I ran it and I'm very proud of myself. It took six months of training, but I did it. I never thought I'd run a mile and now I can run slightly over three!

I didn't get to see GQ's soccer practice today because timing wise it didn't work out with the race, but they brought me home some beautiful flowers as congratulations. Aren't they pretty?! There is a rose from the husband and one from GQ and the mums are from my in-laws.

I never could have run this 5k without motivation and support from family and friends. I probably would have given up my training at week four when I had to start running for 10 mins, I think. So thank you family! Thank you friends! And THANK YOU PAULA for running with me this morning! Love you all!

Sweet Birthday Wishes...

I love to make cards for little girls! It's so much fun to make things using pretty girly colors that I just don't get to use everyday having a little boy.

Have you seen anything cuter than this darling little Elzybell stamp? She goes perfectly with a random Make a wish... stamp I have laying around.

elements:
cardstock: Stampin' Up, Bazzill, CTMH
patterned-paper: Pebbles Inc - Linnie Bell Collection
ink: Ranger
bling: Me & My Big Idea
markers: Copics
ribbon: May Arts

Pay It Forward!

My super-sweet and hella-crafty friend Paula offered a Pay It Forward giveaway on her blog and now I'm doing the same... If you'd like to be entered to win a small stash of scrappy supplies leave a comment below. For a 2nd opportunity to win pay it forward on your blog, be sure to let me know in the comments so I can put you down twice.

Pay It Forward closes at noon on Friday (09.11/09) Winner will be drawn and posted on Friday afternoon.

Facebook anybody?

My sweet friend Paula has an awesome pottery business, Plays With Mud. She has created a Facebook fan page for Plays With Mud but needs 1000 fans to secure that username. I'm a fan, are you? If not, you should be...her work is gorgeous! I have several pieces and love them! So, if you're a Facebooker check out the Plays With Mud page and become a fan! Check it out and spread the word...

In the meantime...

I have some pictures to post, starting tomorrow, I promise! In the meantime, here is a reading by my favorite author, David Sedaris. It's a little over five minutes, but it's completely hilarious and witty...my kind of humor! (Thank you Scheffie for a girls night out several years ago where we listened to and met David!)

Owl Miss You!

I was commissioned to create a good-bye, good luck card for a great friend of mine. She's pretty awesome and a very talented crafter herself, so I feel quite honored when she asks me to create something for her!

I think this little owl is just adorable! I made it w/a die cutter when I had a crafty slumber party on my last visit to Cincinnati to see Karie. We stayed up all night making owls! LOL! I think I'm going to buy that die myself and make some more cards like this.

elements:
cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Archivers, Stampin Up
patterned paper: Basic Grey
ribbon: scrap, so I'm not sure...maybe May Arts

Update: I'm continuing to use scraps of patterned papers and cardstock for my cards. I did cut fresh patterned paper for this one, but I loved it and had to use it. But the cardstock, except for the base, is all from my scraps stash!

One last thing...I jotted a sketch down that I used for this card and for the life of me can't remember where I got the sketch. I'd like to give credit but I need to figure out where it's from first.

I have sweet, wonderful, awesome, generous friends!

I have a great group of friends! We might not all live close-by each other but through email, Facebook and phones we keep in touch. Thank goodness for technology...makes moving away and keeping in touch so much easier!

My sweet friend Karie, who (or would that be whom?) is also very talented and crafty gave me a couple new stamps to add to my stash. Bella Stamps! I love Bella Stamps! They are just darling and so fun to color and paper piece their outfits. I guess they're my version of paper dolls. ;)

Again, loving my pebbles So Tweet Collection paper, I had to use more. The birds and colors worked so well with my Veggiebella image. The Birdies...I just love them and it was perfect as my background and corrdinated so well with the Chirp that I used to paper piece Bella's clothes and basket. Isn't she just darling?

elements:
cardstock: Papertrey Ink - kraft
patterned paper: Pebbles Inc - So Tweet Collection
ribbon: American Crafts
markers: COPIC
ink: Tsukineko Brilliance Graphite Black

Thank you, thank you...

A few more cards I made up using the layout inspiration by Ali Edwards. Again, other than the white base on these cards, they are made up from scraps donated to me from my wonderful friends Paula and Scheffie. Thanks ladies!

Some much needed inspiration...

I check out Ali Edwards blog on a daily basis. She makes the most amazing scrapbook pages; they are clean, simple and gorgeous! I love her style and it's truly an inspiration to my work. The last couple weeks, while sitting in the hospital waiting room reading her blog and others was a bright spot in my day.

Ali posted a layout she had made of her and her sweet baby girl and I LOVED it! I couldn't wait to do something with that piece of inspiration. Today I found something to do with it...



I love this card! Sympathy cards don't usually come so easily for me, but this one did. It's clean and crisp and pretty. Thank you Ali for such a beautiful inspiration piece!

I used PSE to print my sentiment along with a beautiful poem my very talented husband wrote on the inside cover. This is the first time I've used PSE on a card...I think I like it and will continue to use it for cards!

I'm also continuing to use papers from my scraps stash. The butterflies were punched from some small pieces of patterned-paper I had laying. The blue cardstock was donated to me from my wonderful friend Scheffie. I stopped to visit her in Cincinnati and she gave me a large box of all her cardstock and patterned-paper scraps. How awesome is that?

finally...I made a card!

With the holiday travel from Thanksgiving over and our house decorated for Christmas I finally have time to make some more cards and get some scrapbooking done.

Here is a sweet little shower card I made for Paula. She's expecting a little one very soon and was given a surprise baby shower this past weekend. I had so much fun making little girly cards and shopping for baby girl gifts!

a contest...

Hop on over to Paula's blog and offer some ideas to fill her advent calendar. Your brilliant ideas will get you entered into a contest with an adorable prize pack! Click here for details and good luck!

Happy Turkey Day!

"What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?"

-Erma Bombeck, No One Diets on Thanksgiving

Love this quote! For me, it's pretty true. I try not to go overboard, but not being an ace in the kitchen at home, I really do enjoy the holidays when I get to have some of my homemade favorites that I rarely or never make. My favorites: green bean casserole, my dad's turkey stuffing, and pumpkin pie. What are yours?

So the holiday isn't about food, though it's a big part, it's a time to be thankful and I have so many things to be thankful for. If I listed it all, you'd get pretty bored and move on to another blog...so I just want to say thank you to my wonderful family and friends. With out you all the 100's of other little things I'm thankful for would be meaningless.

Happy Turkey Day everybody!

Karie...

this one is for you!

Gorgeous butterfly note card set...

I got these gorgeous three-dimensional butterflies from Kristine at Beach Cottage Studio. I thought they'd make a lovely little note card set and I was right! I just love the simplicity of the butterflies on the kraft cardstock with out much other embellishing. They don't need any; they're beautiful on their own.

If you'd like to get your hands on these note cards, they are for sale in my etsy shop. I think I'll buy some more butterflies and make more of these cards. They'd be perfect little stocking-stuffers or teacher gifts.

Sorry about the lighting on these photos. I really need to get a light box. Paula sent me a great tutorial for making my own but sharing a craft room with a play room doesn't allow me to leave it out with out 4 y/o hands messing with it. I need something that goes up and down quickly and can be hidden away from my curious little guy :D

A holiday tag order...

A friend of mine requested I make a few sets of tags for her to give as a gift. I had some time this morning and afternoon to get them done. I'm still using the gorgeous paper scraps Paula gave me!

A beautiful bread platter...

I bought this gorgeous peace platter from my wonderfully creative and talented friend Paula. I was going to give it as a gift but loved it so much I couldn't give it away! It's just perfect how the word peace is surrounded by all the lovely and calming swirls. I just love it!

I have a yummy loaf of pumpkin bread sitting on it right now. I'd take a picture of it sitting on the platter except I had to wrestle a little with the loaf to get out of the pan and it doesn't look nearly as pretty as the platter. But it still tastes awesome!

If you're in the Charlotte or Fort Mill area on Saturday, November 15th, you should come and check out all the awesome pottery pieces that Paula makes. Her shop, Plays With Mud, will be participating in the Sips & Sweets Holiday Extravaganza along with lots of other artisan and direct sales vendors. Perfect way to start or finish off your holiday shopping list!

woo hoo! happy dance...

I made my first Etsy sale today! I'm so excited! And I have to thank my friend Paula for suggesting I open an account and try to sell my stuff. Now I have to get busy listing some of my cards.

Here is the link for my shop if you ever want to take a peek... www.gqzmommy.etsy.com Don't look right now, it's empty, but I'll restock very soon!

Three things on my holiday WISH list...

I was tagged by my crafty friend Paula in a fun little internet meme. I am to list three things on my holiday wish list. Fun!

Since this is truly a wish list, my wishes are things that most likely would never happen, at least this not this holiday season... I have a hard time anymore coming up with good and interesting things I'd like on my everyday wish lists; mostly my wishes consist of stuff I need but hate buying myself: new bed sheets, towels for the kitchen...boring.

1. I'd love to be on What Not to Wear with Stacy London and Clinton Kelly. I {love} them! I don't want to be on because I'm a total slump and embarrass my family and friends when I'm around them, but I'd love to hear from experts on how to dress this not so perfect body. And the $5k they give you to shop with their help (and not the help of a preschooler) is a nice bonus!

2. I'd love to take a really great digital photography class. One where I get to buy a really great digital camera and learn how to use it to it's full capability.

3. Lastly, I'd love a new car. I'm tired of the gas hog of an SUV that I'm driving; I want a small car. I'm thinking mini Cooper. Not quite sure that a car seat would fit in the back seat, so if that didn't work out I'd take a Prius. Since my big gas hog of an SUV is paid off and I'm not willing to take on a new car payment, I have to rely on somebody giving me a new car. 99.9% sure that's not going to happen, but there is the 0.1% chance that my parents hit the lottery and I get my wish. :D

Now it's your turn...help me continue the fun. Let me know if you play along!

fourth fourth tag...

I noticed on my friend Jenny's blog that she had her eye on me ;) She started a fun little game where you go to your picture file and pull up your 4th folder and then the 4th picture in that folder and post it along w/a little explanation of the photo. So before her eye on me turns into the evil stink eye, I'm posting my picture. LOL!

Luckily I had a 4th folder and 4th picture in that folder to do this tag. I spent last weekend archiving photos on disc and removing them from the computer, but I also uploaded some recent October pictures that are in need of scrapping.

Here is the qualifying picture:


It's a picture of the pumpkins GQ and I painted for Halloween. We picked these pumpkins at a real pumpkin patch, except GQ wanted to pick from the big pile that had already been picked vs. going out into the field and picking our own. We painted the pumpkins as soon as we got home and it took a good 12 hours for GQ's to dry, there were several coats of paint on that pumpkin. He was so proud of it and excited to place it on the front porch for everybody to see. It was such a cute moment to experience his excitement!

Now it's your turn to carry on the game...who's playing? Karie Melissa Kim

Oh what pretty paper scraps...

My awesome friend, Paula, who knows how much I love paper and making pretty things with it, gave me some really great scraps of paper. First of all, the paper is really cool! It's a holiday and winter collection with a really nice weight to it, I believe she told me it was Bazzill. The paper all coordinates so nicely together and it's double-sided paper, so there were tons of great patterns to pick from.

I used some of the paper to make some holiday cards, which I've yet to photograph, but I'll post them soon. (my camera battery died mid photo shoot) I did manage to get photos of the darling holiday gift tags I made. They were too easy...I used the patterned-papers and cardstock from my scrap stash, that's it. I have a tag die-cutter, which made this project super easy; all I had to do was punch the patterned-paper & coordinating cardstock, the glue together. I still have to get ribbon on most of the tags.

I think they're darling and they'll look great on my holiday packages sitting under the tree!