I think AngelBaby's got an ear infection

Poor AngelBaby is not feeling tip-top. She keeps grabbing her left ear, and she gets low fevers. Ugh, back to the doc tomorrow. In other news...I finally put this colored lighthouse on a card. It took a lot of trials, but here is the final card. The designer paper is from My Mind's Eye, and the dark brown is Playshop Paper.

These next two cards came about from a sketch challenge on SCS. SCS170 asked us to use an oval that is tilted. So I did that with the first card, and then I liked the way the oval framed the sentiment so I did another card with the oval in a more traditional way.

I used a brown and white color scheme for the first card and black and white for the second one. My mom said the second one looked a little sad, like a sympathy card, but then she sorta changed her mind and sent it to my uncle! LOL. This last card I did for a challenge to make our own designer paper, instead of using a store bought piece. I used Old Olive ink to stamp all over some kraft colored paper with Basic Gray's Two Scoops Heart Swirls stamp. It came out ok, again the same general color scheme as the previous two.I really love this stamp set (it's probably obvious) and I plan on using it a lot more. I also love some new sets I got in the mail yesterday and can't wait to get some time to ink them up! Thanks for stopping by and reading my blabber today!

I have a silly 4 year old.

My 4 year old, Ashton, is a silly boy. Last night he decided that he needed a shave. He proceeded get a disposable razor out of the trash, and shave his upper lip. Yes, he is a hairy little man (the hairiest of all my kids) but not nearly hairy enough to need a shave! LOL! Here is a picture of him demonstrating his shaving technique. Unfortunately his technique resulted in knicking his lip! See the little drop of blood? He was ok, just a little scared.

I recently got a wonderful new stamp set from Our Daily Bread Designs. I'll add a link to their store on my side panel. I have been anxious to make something with the set and here it is. I used the MOJO Monday sketch for the layout. I wanted to keep the colors neutral so the verse would stand out. I also have been itching to color the lighthouse, and here is my attempt. Here is an upclose of the colored lighthouse. I love the detail in this stamp, and it was so easy to stamp too! I have a long way to go before my coloring is great, but I think it's ok.

It's another gray day outside, with on and off rain and cool winds. I hope the VOG (volcanic fog) from the big island gets blown away. They went up from a code purple to a code yellow yesterday, which is good, but it's still not great.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I don't know if I'll have a chance to check in; it's going to be a busy one for us.

Here's the project...

Instead of editing the last post, I just decided to do a whole new one!
Angel Baby has officially caught her first cold. I took her to the doctor yesterday and there isn't much we can do for her. I needed to play it safe and get her checked because of her prematurity, and I'm glad I did. Usually doctors tend to make me feel like a worry-wart Mom, overprotective and annoying. But this time they didn't! They acknowledged the fact that I was playing it safe, and they reassured me that they thought I did the right thing! Her temperature was getting a little high (and for preemies, 99 or 100 can be a full blown fever just like 103 is for full term infants), but Tylenol helped that, so I'm just keeping an extra close eye on her today.

So here is the project I was going to upload yesterday...

One of my Bestest Friends Forever isn't a scrappy/card making person, but still knows the impact a handwritten note can make. She sent me a little card with her name printed on the front, and inside commented that she doesn't do the whole card making thing, so this was as good as she had. Well, her birthday and Easter were right around the corner so I made her a set of cards! I was inspired by the Monogrammed notecard set that Melanie Welch did on her blog, http://stampadoodledoo.blogspot.com/. It's just a coincidence that both their names are Melanie! I thought of her (my Melanie-lol) the whole way through it (she was my inspiration!) and knocked this little set out in no time (compared to the time it Usually takes me). Here are some up close shots of the various cards and box to hold them in:I used Very Vanilla Cardstock, Ballet Blue cardstock and ink, glorious green ink, Basic Grey alpha stickers, and DP from Magnolia (I think). The stamps used were SU! both way blossoms, happy harmony, and best friends alphabet.All of the cards coordinate, but I changed them up a little (obviously). The box was made with a template from Splitcoaststampers. Melanie got this set and loved it. I just hope whoever she sends the cards out to is blessed with them.So, happy Wednesday to you all! I completely forgot what day it was, I even forgot to take the BigBoy to baseball practice last night! It compeletely flew out of my brain! LOL!

Tagged & A Project

Kelly tagged me to share 7 random facts. Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and leave a comment on their Blog.
2. Post the rules on your Blog.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself on your Blog
4. Tag 7 random people, linking to their Blog.
I'm not too great with the linking thing, so I'll list them here but you have to check out their links over on my side panel.
Kelly from Kelly's Art Journaling tagged me and I tag
1-Julie-Thoughts for The Day (cuz she needs to blog more)
2-Vivian-Gamboaventures (cuz she too needs to blog more)
3-Nicole-but she doesn't have a blog so she should put it on her MySpace
4-Kristel-but she doesn't have a blog or a MySpace, so just email me!
5-Deb-Check out her blog Turtle Chronicles, it's on my side panel
6-Linsey-Check out her blog Outside the Lines, wait, I think she was already tagged
7-Everyone else already got tagged!!! So, if you feel like sharing 7 random things about yourself, please do! And let me know, I always like to get to know my blogging buddies a little more personally.
Here are my 7 random facts: (I hope they aren't too boring-if they are, just skip down to the project;-p)
1. When I got married my initials didn't change. They used to be AML (pronounced "animal" with a slur) and they are still AML! So I'm still "animal" with a slur.
2. When I was in highschool I tried being a vegetarian. It didn't work out. I watched a video in my History class about how cows are killed for their meat (I won't go into details!) and it traumatized me. I could not eat meat for a long time after that. But, living in a house full of meat eaters, it didn't work out. Besides, I married into a very carniferous family, and being a vegetarian now would be close to impossible! My SIL Kristel knows what I'm talking about, right Kristel? LOL!
3. I have a bad habit of checking my email before I log off my computer. It's really bad. I just can't "x" out of my internet without clicking onto my gmail (and sometimes my yahoo too) first! Yeah, I run late for things...
4. Speaking of running late for things, I run late for things! LOL! It drives my husband INSANE! He's in the Air Force, so if he isn't 20 minutes early for his appointments, he's late! If I'm not at least 5 minutes late, well, I always am...
5. I'm getting my tubes tied soon. That's random, right?
6. I'm runningout of random stuff... My favorite color is blue. I love having blue toe and finger nails.
7. All three of my children have had to go to the NICU directly after birth, hence I will be getting my tubes tied! I don't do the whole pregnancy thing well.
That's it! I did it, 7 random things. Maybe this would have been easier if I'd had 7 questions to answer. Oh well. Ok, I was going to add in my project but Angel Baby is sick and needs me right now, so I'll be back to edit later...

Look what I got!

It's a "Melmel Original"! Melanie Muenchinger had blogged about wanting to send a shower of cards to a very special recipient, and since I love sending out RAKs to people and bringing them a little piece of paper happiness, I signed up! Apparently I was the first person to respond to the "card shower" so Melanie sent me a thank you card, and this is it! I had seen this on her blog and thought it was so neat! The balloon bouquest is just 2 stamps that she stamped over and over and then colored to make the bouquet. The stamps are from the first two stamp sets that she designed "Just so Hippy" and "Just so Hoppy." The card is amazing IRL; Melanie is so talented! I've been wanting to get those two stamp sets for awhile now, but had limited myself on my stamping budget. But I was able to get order them this weekend because I had a yard sale and sold off some of my old stamp sets. I'm so excited to get them so I can start playing! Speaking of playing, when I was reorganizing my stamp stuff the other week, I came across a card that I had done to use up some of my Groovy Guava designer paper from Stampin Up! (it seems like there is no end to that paper!). I used the groovy guava along with white and black and the color combo came out pretty stunning, so I decided to make a couple more with that combo and this is them:
The only difference between the two is the paper piercing I did on the second one. And, Speaking of playing again... Wednesday the 2nd was my Mom's "youngday" (birthday) and she wanted to play hooky from work. So, we all got up just like a normal Wednesday, only instead of going to work and dropping the kids off at school we went to the North Shore! We just drove until we came ot a beach that looked fun (they ALL looked fun, but we actually got parking at Waimea Bay-and that's RARE-so we stopped there) and hung out for a couple hours. It was Angel Baby's first time at the beach! My boys both had their first times at the beach at the Ko Olina resort since there are beautiful, clam lagoons to swim in so all 3 kiddos got to experience the oceans in Hawaii for their firsts. How blessed are we? I decided not to take her into the water this time because the waves were a little too strong, but she enjoyed hanging out nonetheless. Isn't she adorable in her bikini! Her daddy wouldn't have agreed to a bikini for his 6 month old DD at all, but he's in Korea and can't do much about it right now LOL! When we get to the beaches at our next duty station (Italy! WOOHOO!) I'm sure he'll have her in a one-piece with a coverup to boot!

That's all the updates I have for today. I have some new stamps (besides Melmel's) coming in the mail today and I'm really excited to start using them. I'll post pics of some of my creations when I get to play with them.

It's about time for a card.

Or Two, or FIVE! LOL. I decided to send my boys some cards. Yes (Mom), we live in the same house and yes (mom), I am wasting a stamp mailing something right back here, but the boys love getting mail so I figured I'd send them some! Both cards are made using Jen Del Muro's (http://www.iheart2stamp.com/) Saturday Sketch For You To Try. They both used the same Studio G. clear stamps, Not Quite Navy, Ballet Blue and Whisper White SU! cardstock, and Silver Playshop Paper Cardstock. The silver ink is colorbox and the blue is Not Quite Navy. Also, I used my star wheel from SU! I've had that wheel for a long time and hardly ever use it. I'm glad I've found a stamp set that it coordinates with. Oh, and there are Making Memories brads on one of them and I used a variety of circle punches on them (fiskars, SU! and marvy).
This next lovely card came about by using Lauren's sketch challenge (http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/). She wanted us to try to make a one layer card and stamp the image stamp in a corner. I love these new insect stamps I got (they are inkadinkadoo) so I decided to use the biggest butterfly on this one. It's stamped in Brilliance Graphite Black and embossed with clear embossing powder. I still need to practice my embossing, it doesn't come out as nice as I'd like. The sentiment is SU! as is the grey cardstock.

And last, but certainly not least, are 2 wonderful cards I received from 2 of my dearest friends. Julie (http://julesthoughtfortheday.blogspot.com/) sent me this first one for Easter, and Nicole (doesn't have a blog) sent me the second one just cuz. Thank you so much! Getting these brought smiles to my face.
So, happy April Fool's day to you all!

My new title... Thanks Momo!

Back in the day fisherman would work many many hours during the night to catch fish. They never knew how productive their night would turn out, but they went for it anyway. After one particularly hard night, and a crappy turnout, Simon docked his boat and went about cleaning his nets. A man named Jesus saw Simon's boat, stepped into it, and asked Simon to push it off from shore. Simon did as Jesus asked, but after a night like he'd had, I'm sure going back out onto that water was one of the last things Simon wanted to do. Simon let Jesus into his boat. Simon's boat was where he worked and spent many many hours of his time. By bringing Jesus into his boat, Simon was greatly blessed as were the "great crowds" listening to the words of Jesus. Then, after Jesus was done speaking, he told Simon to go into the deeper water and cast out his nets. Of course Simon knew that there would be no fish in the deep water during the day, it was too hot and the fish would dive deep to escape the heat but, even with his doubts and questions, Simon did as he was told. Because he listened to Jesus, and trusted him, he was blessed beyond belief with an abundance of fish. More fish than his nets and boat could hold.
The story goes on from there, but I think you all get the idea. So, welcome to my "boat." I hope it blesses some of you today.