Father's Day card

Thought I would share a photo of the card I made for my dad for Father's Day. The journaling block, important message and original stamps are all from the Stampin' Up Office Accoutrements set. Love that set! I used the Doodle Alphabet to stamp Daddy, and "best" was from the Everyday Flexible Phrases set. Oh, and I used the spiral punch that I just got last week... I can tell that one is going to get a lot of use. :)

Shane

My friend Danni posted a great Friday Night Challenge at our Scrap101 group last week but unfortunately I wasn't able to get to it. The challenge was to create a layout using a pocket (or envelope). I still wanted to do it so I did this layout Sunday night. The photo is my nephew Shane when he had just turned a year old. Hard to believe he is now 11! Most patterned papers are by Crate Paper but there's some Foofala in there, too. The chipboard "X" is by Lil Davis, the white rub-on's are Making Memories, the flower is Heidi Swapp, the polka dot brad is either Making Memories or Bazzill (can't remember which), and the stamps are from Ma Vinci. Really happy with this one. :-)

Tuesday, June 12

I just walked into my boss's office (where there is a wall of windows) and it is pitch black outside. I do believe it is about to POUR. I just went and checked the local weather and radar and there is a severe thunderstorm warning in effect. The National Weather Service is reporting that hail up to 2" in diameter and wind gusts up to 70 mph are possible. Sheesh. Wish I was at home with a good book.

Friday thru Sunday

A little weekend recap...

I did some scrap shopping Friday night and had fun doing it. My Yahoo scrapbooking group, Scrap101, has a monthly "Diva" and everyone sends her gifts throughout the month. This month the Diva is none other than Danni! I had so much fun picking out what I wanted to get for her... and of course I couldn't help getting some goodies for me, too. LOL I still have one other item to find before I can box it all up and ship it to her but I plan on looking for that during my lunch hour today.

After shopping, Robert and I stopped at The Loop for a late dinner. Oh my goodness, was that ever tasty. I'm not much of a burger fan (not like Robert... he could live off of them) but once in a great while nothing beats a good burger. And that's just what I had Friday night. A Loop n' Bleu with fries and a side salad. So, so good.

Saturday morning I met my mom and my two sisters for breakfast at Village Inn. We usually meet for dinner the first Wednesday of every month but we decided to do breakfast this month instead. It worked out really well. I love our Wednesday dinners but it does make for a very long day. I get up at 5:45am, at the office by 8:00, rush out at 5:00 to make it to dinner, and I don't get home until after 8:00 that evening. Long day. We all had a good time Saturday morning and spent two hours chatting, laughing, and catching up. I love our monthly get-togethers.

After breakfast my younger sister, Terri, asked if I wanted to stop by the scrapbook store on that side of town... and of course I couldn't resist. I ended up spending $60 (ouch!) but I got most everything I will need to put together my London album. I'm going to use the Love Elsie Toby Collection for the London album... I love the colors. Can't wait to get started on it.

While I was out Saturday morning, Robert took my car to the dealership to have the oil changed and then took it to a car wash for a thorough inside and out cleaning... $35 later it looks wonderful. He's such a sweetie. Later in the day he took his car back for the same treatment (not the oil change... just the wash and cleaning). Saturday evening we went to an early dinner (I had skipped lunch since I'd had a big breakfast) at Smokey Bones. We started with some barbecue chicken nachos and oh my goodness were they ever tasty! Even better than my dinner, I think. LOL

Sunday was more low-key. We left the house once to go by Wal-Mart for a couple items and then stopped by my parent's house to help them. They were changing ISP's and needed some help getting set up. Other than that we stuck close to home. I did one layout Sunday night. Used a photo of my nephew Shane when he was a year old (he's now 11). Love the way it turned out... I'll have to get it scanned tonight so I can share it. Then I watched Music & Lyrics (again!) and called it a night.

It was a good weekend... just HOT. Sunday it hit 95 degrees and was humid... just miserable. I think we're in for a long hot summer!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

It Could Be You

I just recently finished this one. I had high hopes for it as I really enjoyed everything else I've read by Josie Lloyd. For the last several years she has co-written with Emlyn Rees (now her husband) but this was her very first novel (from 1997) and she was still writing on her own then. It was pretty good... although not as good as the later books. I really got into it about two-thirds through the book when all kinds of things started happening and had high expectations for the rest of the book. But then it reverted to sappy romanticism in the last two pages and that left me disappointed. Not that I don't like a happy ending... I do. And not that I don't like romance... I do. But this wasn't a romance novel. And to have everything end up all neat and tidy and sappy there at the very end was something of a disappointment. I'm so glad this wasn't the first thing I'd ever read by her... I might not have given her a second try. LOL The novels Come Together, Come Again, The Boy Next Door and We Are Family were much better and just really great reads.

Next up is Breathing Room by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I've never read anything by her before so we shall see.

Do I Need This?

According to Google this is what I need...

Tanya needs anti-nausea drug Zofran - actually I'm feeling quite nicely today, but thank you all the same

Tanya needs a new battery - well, I never!

Tanya needs a new home - um, no, not really... I love my home

Tanya needs to be the one to reassure Whitney she does not want to take her daddy away from her - hey, I don't even know Whitney... and I certainly don't want her daddy

Tanya needs to be a critical thinker - yeah, I'll work on that

Tanya needs a way to get rid of her fat - okay, now you're just being mean

Tanya needs the money - well, who doesn't?

Tanya needs to be created - uh, hello? I'm right here

Tanya needs to get her ass across to the UK and rock the house - um, I was just there but I did not rock the house... sorry about that... maybe next time

Tanya needs this information - that's right... so spill it

Tanya needs to be at the table to smooth things over - well, if I don't have my Zofran you probably don't want me at the table

Thanks for a good laugh, Google! :-)

Cards

I must preface this post by saying I am not much of a card maker. I scrap myself silly as often as possible, but cards... not so much. I've made maybe... 5 total. LOL So keep that in mind as I share the two that I made this past weekend. For the past week every time I went into a store I looked for cards for my two nephews but nothing seemed to be appropriate. I finally decided that I would just make my own. The reason for the cards:

Jackson (age 8) - Jackson ended the school year (second grade) with straight A's. Also, he is a real star player on his baseball team (they won the Atlantic Beach championship) and he was chosen to be part of an All Star team (for the second year in a row). Jackson is such a reserved little guy and to see him excel both academically and at sports is so great.

Shane (age 11) - Shane also ended the school year (fifth grade) with straight A's. He is such an exceptional student and has been in the gifted program since he was in first grade. He was honored week before last at a ceremony at the University of North Florida for being in the top 5% of all fifth graders in the city. (To give you an idea of how many kids we're talking about, there are 105 elementary schools in Jacksonville.) To be in the top 5% of all fifth graders in the city is just incredible and I am so proud of Shane!

So, I just wasn't able to find appropriate cards for Jackson and Shane so these are the cards I made for them. Robert and I also included $20 in each card so they can do a little something fun with their money. :-)