Honoring the Llama Mama!

Wow! I actually got two cards made today! This week's featured stamper is Dawn. I love her creativity with stamping and coloring scenes. She's a scene queen! She also loves her llamas and is creative with their wool as well, making beautiful hats, gloves and scarves from home-spun llama yarn! Did I mention she enjoys making jam, too?! I tell ya...she is one talented lady!

So, in honor of Dawn, the llama mama, I made this card, cased from her card. I don't have any llama stamps, but I found a cute one at Kritters in the Mailbox to look at while I hand-drew the llama. (They're currently out of stock.) I'm hoping to send this to her soon. :)

Happy stamping! Hope your week is festive & fun!

A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA Ribbon Challenge

A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA's Challenge No. 2 is to be inspired by ribbon. I'm cutting the deadline pretty close tonight, but my mojo has been needing a jump-start today! I finally settled on this green "puffy" ribbon as my Mountain Man calls it! The soft, puffy rectangles reminded me of peas AND I just happened to make it over to the A Muse store this Saturday (despite a car show that closed off the street) and picked up a few little things including the Baby Wishes set (which includes the pea and sentiment) that was on clearance. Whew, if you made it through that last sentence, you deserve a cookie!

Stamps: A Muse Baby Wishes set

Paper: SU Always Artichoke, Cosmo Cricket DP (Honey Pie: Ella) - used front & back

Ink: Black Staz-On, E00 Copic (for face), Pretty in Pink (for cheeks), Always Artichoke

Accessories: Ribbon (I had it cut at Ben Franklin - should have written down the name!), A Muse Creative Candy, Making Memories Sticky Squares (for dimension)

Card details: I had a difficult time (to say the least) getting a decent photograph of this card. It's possible I spent more time photographing it than actually making it! I gave the pea some dimension with foam tape squares (just on the left side) to give it that snap-pea look. I also made a tendril by cutting a very thin piece of cardstock and wrapping it around my paper-piercing tool.

Enough chit-chat. Thanks for visiting and I hope you can join in the next challenge!

Lime Kiln State Park

A couple of weekends ago, Sharon & David Ziegler celebrated their 40th Anniversary while they were visiting Seattle (from Nashville). Liessa and I went with them for a fun day of whale watching over onSan Juan Island. See our gallery in the San Juan Island album.

We took the ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor and drove over to Lime Kiln State Park, which is the best land spot for viewing the whales. We saw some porpoises and a seal, but no whales. :(

A heron fishing for lunch

Porpoises as seen from Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse

Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse

Mt. Baker and Cascades from ferry

It's all about the bling!

What can I say?! Liessa's boot needed a little bling!

Front: I hand-sewed the pink polka dots onto the inside liner (in case she needed to wash it).

Outside: Pink rhinestones were added to the shell and velcro tabs with hot glue.

Inside: Nothing really on the inside except the butterfly on the top. Butterflies were iron-on transfers that I taped on with ultra-sticky tape.

Back: Found some cute crown brads with pink rhinestones and tied on some ribbon through the holes in the back.

All in all, we loved it and thought it turned out pretty cute...much cuter than the plain-ol' black!

Rock Beans A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA

Stamps: A Muse Coffee Break Set (coffee beans

Whipped this quick little number up last night. I made the coffee bean trio into a rock band because "with caffeine anything is possible!"

Inside reads: "It's bean lonely here without our lead singer."

Here's our sad little story:

While Princess (Liessa) was laid up on the couch with her broken ankle, Mountain Man bought an X-Box and surprised me with Rock Band World Tour (which I've wanted for a long time). We created a band called "Princess Rock," lovingly named for our lead singer, Princess. Mountain Man found his calling on the guitar, but is also a fabulous back-up singer. I got stuck with the drums, but I love them! Well...Princess left for Tennessee on Friday, so "Princess Rock" has officially disbanded until she returns. {Fingers crossed, breaths held, and praying without ceasing!} Now we're just a sad little two-some, so this card is for her.

Come see what A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA is all about on the A Muse Blog. You can also click the badge on the left side.

Happy stamping!

A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA

Our nest feels so empty right now with Papa & Liessa gone. It's just too quiet around here! However, quiet time means personal time and that means stamping! A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA is starting up and the challenges have already begun over at the Amuse Blog. The first challenge is to use "SQUARE" as your inspiration. I didn't get very creative with the square part, but I turned little birdie into a chicken to make some chicken soup!

Stamps: A Muse birdie from Animal Wishes set, and A Muse cup, spoon & sentiment from Coffee Break set

Hope you're having a happy summer!

Memorial Day Road Trip

I finally uploaded our photos from our Memorial Day Excursion. Liessa and I went on a girls' only road trip around the Olympic Peninsula. We had such a wonderful time together and had plenty of time to catch up on our 650-mile journey. They were three wonderful days full of fun and photos! I'm looking forward to the next road trip, whenever that might be! Here are a few photos to whet your appetite:

Dungeness Spit, Washington

Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park, Washington

Sunset in La Push, Washington

A Busy May

Well, it continues to stay busy around here and May seemed a little more hectic than the other 4 previous months. After our PRIDE training weekend, we've still been busy with the following:

• Papa came for 2 weeks, and arrived Saturday, May 23rd. He was SO helpful around here and really worked hard to help us around the house. He weeded all of the flower beds, completely revamped the pond with Mountain Man, installed my new dishwasher, replaced the kitchen faucet, replaced the front door handle and lock, cleaned up the garage, washed dishes, ran errands, and helped nurse Liessa when we were gone. I'm sure I left out some things - he was wonderful! We are so thankful for his visit and glad we had the time with him.
• We finally broke down and bought a hammock for Mountain Man. It looks more like a cocoon! :)

• We began our Post-PRIDE classes on May 26th and have had them every Tuesday and Thursday evening since then. Our last one was last night!

• Early Thursday morning, May 28th, at 3am, I received a call from Liessa's phone. It was her nurse friend, Lara, saying that Liessa had broken her ankle and they were in the ER. She said that Liessa wouldn't stop asking for me, so she wanted to know if I could come. Of course, I said yes. Thus began the broken ankle saga. I could just about write a book about this, but she's been at our house ever since the 28th and I've loved it! She had surgery on Friday, June 5th, and is healing nicely. She's one tough cookie and has been pretty easy to take care of. She does not like depending on other people for everything, so she's had to learn that! Of course, she is "The Princess", so I think that she may start getting used to being waited on hand & foot. :) She really is pleasant to be around. There's never a dull moment around here!
• June 6th was Antioch Adoption's fundraising banquet and our friends - Holly & Jeff, Rochelle & Jim, Anne & Josh, and Papa - joined us at our table. I spent very little time at the table, as Mountain Man and I ended up being the unofficial photographers at the banquet.For a few weeks prior to the banquet, I was very busy organizing a special event that took place during the banquet, honoring Pastor Hutcherson, who had the vision for taking care of widows and orphans through an adoption ministry. As a result, we now have Antioch Adoptions, who ministers to birth moms and places children in Christian families - completely financed by donations!
  
• I've had my Accounting class every Tuesday and Thursday evening, also, but finished last night with a 3.8 average. I'm happy with that considering everything that has been going on!
• In between all of these events has been doctor appointments, moving Liessa out of her apartment, and trying to cook and clean!
  

Funny thing about all of this is that I've loved it all! I've enjoyed being busy - seems I've been more productive! I hope to get our Memorial Day road trip photos uploaded soon!

Happy Friday!