I've Been a Busy Bee

I've been working on things to send to our cousin to put in her store in Alabama for sale. Since I am testing the waters to see if there is any demand for my things, I am only sending a few items. Here are some that I am sending to her tomorrow.

I made these two purses. I love the pumkin purse. I definitely have to make one for myself.

Sheila said scrapbooking is real big in her area so I did four of my Scrapbooking Diva shirts.

I have the small Scrapbooking Diva tote that I made earlier to include in the box and if I don't run out of steam, I'd like to make some little girl's boutique hairbows.

Luck, love and laughter,

Judy

Soccer Moms Rock!

Robin asked me to do a tee shirt for her to wear to Addie's soccer games. I used a design that I came up with last spring for a shirt for Joy.

Luck, love and laughter,
Judy

Personal Shopper

I have my very own personal shopper!!

I recently received a very nice order for large denim tote bags and the smaller purses like what I made last Spring which will be for Christmas gifts. I mentioned to my hubby Sunday that I needed to keep a lookout at Hancocks, Hobby Lobby and Wal Mart for denim to be on sale. He replied that he had to do a posting in Batesville this week and did I want him to go to the big fabric warehouse that is there. To which I replied, THAT WOULD BE GREAT.

Yesterday he went to Batesville to do his foreclosure sale posting at the courthouse (he is a 3rd party posting provider for a local attorney) armed with samples of denim and a sample of the craft stiffner/interfacing that I use in the bags. The amount of fabric in this store is mind boggling and the prices are fantastic. He bought denim for me but they were out of the stiff interfacing that I need.

When he left Batesville, he went on to Heber Springs to do another posting at the courthouse there. While at the courthouse, he asked to see a telephone directory so he could see if there were any fabric stores. He found Quilter's Corner Fabric and they had the stiff interfacing that I need. He brought me her business card and said she would be happy to mail some to me whenever I needed more.

He is the greatest!!

Judy

For Our Little Cheerleader

Sarabeth is in a beginning cheerleading program with the Future Panthers Football League in Benton. She is cheering for her big brother Jesse's team -- the Titans. I embroidered her a cheerleading shirt and added lots of bling with hot fix crystals.

Luck, love and laughter,

Judy

Embroidered Shirts

I wasn't very creative this week -- did not get any cards or layouts made. I did manage, however, to embellish three shirts with machine embroidery.

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Addie asked for a shirt with a soccer ball on it so here is her shirt.

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Addie is invited to a birthday party today for one of her preschool classmates and Robin asked me to do a couple of shirts for Addie's gift for her. Raygan's daddy is one of the coaches at the high school so with that in mind I did this shirt for her.

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Every little girl is a princess and needs a crown so here is one for Raygan. I added some bling to it with hot fix crystals.

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It seems like I have a million and one things that I need to do this weekend. Time to make a to do list and prioritize it. Then see how much I can get done or not get done as the case may be.

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Have a great weekend.

Judy

Tamara's Card Sketch #61 & Recipe Challenge #14

Here is a card I made using Tamara's Card Sketch #61.

Basic Grey Ambrosia paper pad; Prima flowers; rhinestone brads; Offray ribbon; and Stampabilities stamp for sentiment.

And this card was made using Tamara's Scrapping Recipe Challenge #14.

The challenge was to use lace, flowers, and buttons.

The Paper Studio Basics paper pack; Prima Flowers; lace and button from my stash; Threading Water punch; Swiss Dots embossing folder; and Stampabilities stamp for sentiment.

We were very lucky....Ike moved through our area very quickly overnight. I was so tired that I slept through it. We did loose power during the night but it was back on at 9:00 this morning. And the sun began to shine very shortly after that.

Have a great week everyone.

Luck, love & laughter,

Judy

Scrapbooking Diva Tote

I made a Scrapbooking Diva tote bag today. But this one is smaller than the ones that I made last Spring and not quite as complicated to put together.

I am going to make several tote bags, purses, and tee shirts and send to a cousin in Alabama to put in her store to sell. She was here this week and saw a couple of the purses that I made and told me that I needed to make some for her to put in her store. She has an antique mall/flea market and also carries a lot of handmade items. So I am going to test the waters with a few things and see if they sell.

The outer bands of Ike arrived this afternoon and there was heavy rain in the counties around us and a lot of tornado warnings. It all skirted metropolitan Little Rock. We have had as yet very little rain but it sounds like the wind may be picking up some. We are supposed to get 3 to 6 inches of rain tonight with 20-25+ mph sustained winds and supposedly it will all be moved out of the state by tomorrow afternoon.

I have stuff strewn all over my craft room from sewing so I need to take a few minutes to get things picked up and put away. Then think I'll make a card or two before I call it a night.

Luck, love and laughter,

Judy

Waiting for Ike

It's very cloudy here in Little Rock and we are waiting for Ike to make his presence known.....probably this evening. I am looking out the window and I can see that a little breeze has started up. I know that Ike has now been downgraded to a tropical storm so hopefully by the time he gets this far north he will be a tropical depression or less. Let's just hope that he doesn't stall out over us and hang around here as long as Gustav did.

My thoughts and prayers are with those who were in Hurricane Ike's path in Texas and Louisiana. We have a cousin in Houston who is okay. They do have water damage in their home from water coming in under the doors and of course, no power. My MIL not been able to reach her brother in Houston so hopefully he and his wife are safe.

I am spending the day working on sewing projects and getting laundry finished and have the TV on in the background tuned to The Weather Channel.

Luck, love and laughter,
Judy

Michael's 50% off coupon

Here is a link for a 50% off coupon good thru September 20 at Michaels.

http://www.michaels.com/coupons/1000thstore/coupon.html

With the outrageous spike in gas prices today, we need all the help we can get saving our pennies.

Blog Candy Alert

If you haven't visited Curt's blog before, ya'll should do so. His cards and photography are absolutely gorgeous and he has a fantastic blog candy give-a-way going right now.

Tote Bags

Last Spring when I made Robin a purse and a tote bag, Addie tried to take one and fill it up with her toys. I have been wanting to make both of the GD's a tote of their own and made this my sewing project yesterday. I had an assembly line going working on both of them at the same time.

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Here is Addie's tote.

And here is Sarabeth's.

I raided my stash of fabric, rick rack, and ribbon for the material and trim. Used the 12x12 Cricut mat as a pattern to cut the fabric and went from there. I used Explorations Lettering to set up the embroidery design for each.

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Luck, love and laughter,

Judy

Guest Designer

My hubby, Ronny, has been looking for a hobby to occupy his spare time and keep himself from vegetating so much in front of the TV. He thought at first he would like to work with stain glass but after much research, he determined that we really don't have the space that would be needed to do this type of work.

He has always had an interest in leathercraft (he did some many, many years ago in school) and decided that he would like to pursue it as a hobby. So over the last few weeks, he has been buying some tools and kits on eBay. And visiting our local Tandy store. He finished his first project this evening......this belt buckle.

This was a kit with the design already stamped on it. He painted it and did the lacing. I think it is gorgeous and really wonderful for his first project.

Luck, love and laughter,

Judy

Prayer Request

One of Robin's friends found out this past week that her daughter has a brain tumor that is cancerous. Please say lots of prayers for Peighton and her parents and family. She is 4 years old and only a couple of weeks younger than our Addie. Peighton is having a biopsy this week to find out what kind of cancer it is. But she has three spots on her brain and one on her spine. Thanks for all the prayers!

Girly Girl Shirt

Joy and Sarabeth were in town yesterday afternoon and stopped by for a visit. I had one short sleeve shirt left and I showed Sarabeth an idea I had found for embellishing a shirt. She liked it and we looked at my ribbon stash for ribbon to use on it. So last night I worked on her shirt and here is her girly girl shirt.

Aunt Robin called to see if Sarabeth was still here. Addie wanted to talk to her. So Sarabeth and Addie talked on the phone and Addie asked her to please bring her monster shirt to her. We are talking about four year olds having a phone conversation. There is only eight months age difference in these two cousins with Sarabeth being the oldest. They are extremely close -- best friends. They go to the same preschool but have had to be separated into different classes. They are going to be on the same soccer team this Fall. My son-in-law Danny (Sarabeth's daddy) is their team's coach. It was such a hoot watching Sarabeth play soccer last Spring; Addison was broken hearted that she couldn't play (she wasn't old enough then). I can just imagine the fun it's going to be watching both of them play this Fall. We'll be going to Benton next Saturday to watch their first soccer game.

Luck, love and laughter,

Judy

Monster Shirt

As I have mentioned before, my four year old granddaughter, Addison, is not a girly girl. She likes super heros, pirates, cars, trains...stuff little boys are into. This has made it very difficult for me to make things for her that incorporate what she likes but still be for a little girl. If Addie thinks it is too girly or fussy, she will refuse to wear it which is probably why I have not made hardly anything this summer for my two granddaughters.

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I visited my favorite embroidery machine design site this morning and found a cute set of monster machine embroidery applique designs. So I embroidered this shirt for Addie this afternoon. His body and feet are appliqued and the rest is embroidered.

I think he is just adorable.

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Luck, love and laughter,

Judy

Blog Candy Alert

Jennifer at scrappininmysparetime has a fabulous blog candy giveaway. Ya'll be sure to check out her wonderful blog. I am adding her to my favorites so I can visit her on a regular basis.

We have sunshine again so it's going to be a great Saturday!!!!

Tamara's Scrapping Recipe Challenge #13

One of my co-workers is returning to work from medical leave next Tuesday and I made this card for her using Tamara's Scrapping Recipe Challenge #13. The challenge was to use 3+ patterned paper, chipboard, and circles. I used 5 different patterned papers from Debbie Mumm Baby Girl premium pack with glitter, cut various sizes circles on the Cricut, added chipboard flowers, and some ribbon. The sentiment was done on the computer. And now I have a card for Beth to welcome her back to work.

Tropical Depression Gustav has finally begun to move out of Arkansas. The high winds left us yesterday and we just had light drizzle and fog. We might even see a few breaks of sunshine this afternoon. We were very lucky to only have loss of power at our house for about 6 hours on Tuesday. Some areas within a mile of us have been without power for 3 days. We live in a very hilly section of town so no flooding problems.

Luck, love and laughter,

Judy

Go Away Gustav!!

Tropical Depression Gustav has stalled out over Arkansas...we have had continuous rain and sustained high winds since early yesterday morning. Over 100,000 customers are without power in the state. We lost power at our house for about 6 hours yesterday and now we are in a little pocket that has power. There is no power in the neighborhoods to the east and west of us. We have lost our phone service--just got our DSL back a short time ago but still do not have our voice service.

According to the news, Entergy has called back the lineman crews that were sent to Louisiana and crews passing through Arkansas on their way to Louisiana have been recruited to help restore power. But they are not able to do any work on power lines yet because of the high winds. With sustained winds of 20-25+ mph and gusts up to 40 mph, it is too dangerous for them to go up in the buckets to work on power lines and transformers.

Here in Little Rock, our two day rainfall total is about 5 inches. But there are some parts of the state that have received up to 9 inches. And it is still raining! As you can imagine, there is flooding especially in low lying areas.

There is good news, though. We are supposed to start having some clearing tomorrow afternoon and sunshine on Friday. Yipee!!!!

Judy

Page Plans Card Sketch #20

I used Page Plans card sketch #20 as the inspiration for this card. The paper is from Basic Grey Ambrosia 6x6 paper pack. I just love the paper in this pack. The sentiment was done on the computer and I inked the edges. Added ribbon and a Prima flower fastened with a brad.

Gustav has made his way to Arkansas. It has rained continuously all day with 20 to 25 mile per hour winds, sometimes gusting up to 30 or 35 miles per hour. The 6:00 weather tonight said Gustav is still a tropical depression centered over Texarkana but should downgrade to a low pressure system very soon. The weather forecasters are saying we could get 5 inches or more of rain over the next couple of days. Now, I just heard that there are tornado warnings in the northern part of the state.

My DH said our power was off here at the house for about 6 hours today....there was some kind of problem at the substation that services our area. The bad thing about it was power was also off at a church near us that is housing about 300 evacuees from Louisiana. Robin just called a few minutes ago and said that the power has gone out at her house tonight. Our energy companies have sent crews to Louisiana so they are short staffed to handle local outages.

I am wiped out tonight. Had a very busy day at work and this weather is really dragging me down. So I think I will put on my nightgown, crawl in bed with a book, read and listen to the wind and rain.

Luck, love and laughter,
Judy

Tamara's Layout Sketch 60

I did this layout using Sketches! {by Tamara} Layout Sketch 60.

Addie took gymnastics for two years before she started preschool

and these are pics from a little exhibition her class had.

The paper is The Paper Studio textured cardstock and The Paper Studio The Basics Paper Pack. I used Sandylion gymnastic stickers and a Rusty Pickle journaling block. The dotted ribbon came from my stash of ribbon.

Gustav is starting to make his presence know here in Little Rock. It has really clouded up this afternoon and gotten windy. We have rain in the forecast for the next two or three days.

Luck, love and laughter,

Judy

My Long Holiday Weekend

I have gotten some items checked off my To Do List over my long holiday weekend. On Friday morning I went to Hobby Lobby to take advantage of the 50% off on paper and wood mounted rubber stamps. Then on to the Chiropractor for adjustments on my back and hip. Friday afternoon was pamper myself time with a pedicure appointment at the beauty school. I divided house cleaning between Saturday and Sunday. As I have gotten older, I no longer have the stamina to do the whole house at one time. I have to divide it up between two or three days. This morning DH and I are going to Wal Mart Super Center to shop for groceries and miscellaneous other items that we need...then the rest of the day is mine for whatever I want to do.

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I did manage to get some creative time in on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I made a couple of cards which I posted earlier. And yesterday I did two page layouts...it has been a while since I have done a layout.

I used this weeks sketch 20 from Page Plans for this layout.

These are pictures of my dear mother-in-law and father-in-law. My FIL has been gone from us for well over a decade now and my MIL's health has really deteriorated over the past few years. For this layout I used textured cardstock and the sentiment was done on my computer. I stitched the border around the page on my sewing machine using one of the overcast stitches. For embellishment, I used Prima flowers topped off with a Prima center kiss. I love the simplicity of this layout -- it really focuses on the photos.

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The second layout features a picture of my DH with his father and our oldest grandchild, Matthew, when he was just a toddler.

Once again, I kept this layout simple as I wanted the focus to be on the photo. I used red and blue cardstock, red and white check paper, Prima flowers, brads and a paper clip. The sentiment was done on the computer and I used an Autumn Leaves stamp for the journaling block.

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Have a great Labor Day!

Judy