Baby Girl Album and "BABY" Boy Banner

So I was off to the second of my to B&B scrapping weekends that I go on every year. This is the first time in 5 years I did not take any pictures with me at all to scrap. Instead O got crafty and I worked on one Silver Bella Swap and the two items below. I should have been making a denim and teddy bear baby boy album but instead I found myself using up my stash and making a baby girl 6x6 chipboard album. I used vintage bit and pieces as well as old papers, stickers and rub ons. It i snot finished yet but hopefully it won't take me a year to finish it off. It is on hold now until I can get through some Silver Bella swaps.

A "BABY" boy banner I made this wekend. I used bit and pieces fom my stash. I still have to string it together with ribbon and trim to finish it off. I made it for my soon to be new nephew but ralized after I made it that his nursery is more denim, than pastel blue. UGHH!! Now what do iI do with it? I guess I will save it for a gift for someone one day.

Paper Cowgirl Retreat 2008

Last weekend I attended the first Paper Cowgirl Retreat held in the beautiful historic downtown Waxahachie. Shannon and I drove down early on Friday so we could spend some time shopping in downtown Waxahachie,little did we know we would spend 2 hours at one store and 1/4 of that time was spent having the girl cut the trim we were buying and 1full hour was spent waiting for her to ring us up. Next time we know better, but the trim was fabulous and at 75% off the decorator trim prices it was worth the wait of course later we realized we could have snuck off to the store next door while she rang us up and have her call us when she was done, but oh well if we had done that we would have never met the sweet lady buying vintage jewelry who ended up giving us a mini lesson on how to buy,clean and what to look for in quality vintage jewelry. Boy did we feel dumb when we realized many great pieces of vintage jewelry can still be bright and shiny and it not be made in China! We met the sweet lady at Grans antiques and I think we both ended up buying great vintage jewelry pieces because of her. I know I did. I later checked out some of the vintage pieces I bought to see if any had signatures on them and low and behold what I thought was a cheap piece of jewelry was a designer piece and there is no way now I can break it up and add it to any collage piece. See the square rhinestone piece, she said it was great piece from the 20's and was probably worn on a dress. it has all of it's stones. The butterfly is also a Liz Claiborne piece from the 70's I think she said.

Later we headed on over to vendor night held at the cutest Pink Cottage in town. I wish I had a picture of this sweet house. Vendor night was so much fun! The pieces below are all from Sea Dream Studio by Dale. her work is fabulous! I fell in love with all of her pieces. So much detail in her work. Shannon and I made a packed that we were only going to buy supply type items, boy did that go out the door when I got a load of Dale's work and all of the other ladies work for that matter, Dale just had something I could buy for my home. For some reason the piece I bought is it not in any of the pics below, but it was one of her bird in a nest pieces like the on below but in olive green and it is now sitting on my bar/counter area until I can find the perfect home for it. Ok it is getting late and more pics of Paper Cowgirl to follow tomorrow.

Pretty In Pink & Long Week

So first off it was a long week for me. Work was different. Our company announced an acquisition, which I think is a great move. Hopefully one that will lead us to go IPO next year. At least I can hope right, but who knows. I enjoy working for the company and that is what matters to me. if I am going to spend 40 hours week at a place I need to enjoy it and I do.

This week we have our first annual Wellness fair, so I guess it is seriously time for me to lose some weight instead of continuing to gain it as I have done this year. I mean I can't really be on a Wellness Committee if I don't work on my fitness right? And I want to get into better shape so maybe this is the kick in the but I needed. I do have to admit having foot surgery this year really set me back. After all these months I am still in the recovery stage. I had the surgery in Jan then had to stay off of it for 8 to 12 weeks, still had issues with it after being on it all day at work so I came home and did nothing by the time I was feeling better and ready to work it was the long hot Texas summer. Now that it is almost Fall and cooling off I am going to get off my tuff and start losing weight and getting into shape. I have to! As the song goes I am too young to feel this d%$&M old! LOL.

On another note my company went through a small lay off. It was not fun to say the least. My group lost two great guys and I was very sad to see them go. I will miss them a lot. They kept us all laughing. Then later in the week we lost two more people in our dept who worked on the back dock. That one was a shock for all us but one that was needed. Let's just say they won't be getting a good reference from their manager, my Director after what they pulled. I like to think what goes around comes around and sometimes nice people do really stupid stuff. I am hoping my job will be easier now and maybe we won't have some of the issues we have had for years once we get some new people hired. I have a strong feeling more changes are coming. It's just a hunch.

This is a picture of a pretty pink rose I picked from my garden. I planted this rose bush last summer and this is the first bloom on it of this size and I love it! And the smell! Ahhh. It is an heirloom rose bush and I bought it for it large fragrant repeat blooms. The red roses in the pic are also from my garden.

End of Summer & Silver Bella Swap - sneek peak

The End of Summer.

My sign of the end of a long hot dry Texas summer, a fresh picked watermelon from my garden! Yes, my garden! I picked it today and boy is it good. I never would have thought just tossing some wet seeds into the flower garden in late Spring would result in 3 of these babies this summer especially after the long hot dry summer we had this year. This one weighed between 5 and 10 pounds. I just let the plant grow and would every so often look only to be disappointed by seeing so many brown shriveled baby melons on my plant. Then one day I walk around to the back of this small garden and it would grow into something I could pick and eat with e luck I had been having in the garden. Of course I have no idea when to actually pick a watermelon, but when I noticed the vine turning brown around this baby I knew I had to pick it and take a chance. See how pink it is? Just perfect and sweet. I have one more to watch over the next few weeks and then it will really be the end of summer around here.

So I have started working on one of my Silver Bella swaps. I can't believe I signed up for 6! Geez! What was I thinking. Oh well some are one on one swaps so that makes it easy. I just have to start finding and gathering items for those swaps.

Below is the beginning of my Twinchie. I have never worked in this size before so I knew I needed an early start and a few test runs. What do you think so far? Do I keep the silver at the top or change it out to a Dresden silver border, or no silver at all? hmmm??? I just adore this little girl. I found her on an old Christmas postcard and I knew I had to use her on this swap. The hat was originally a dunce's cap, yes I know why would a cute little doll like her be wearing a dunce's cap on a vintage Christmas postcard? Who knows, but I sure do like her.

Hurricane Ike

My heart just break for everyone that was in the path of IKE. I know I was concerned since most of my mom's family was in the path. I have an Aunt and Uncle in Houston, who are ok I am told. I am not sure if they are out of electricty of not but they are safe. My Aunt, Uncle and cousins in Beaumont rode Ike out in their home after boarding up. They are safe but without electricty. They left for Gustav but got the word to evacuate to late to get out before Ike. They didn't want to be stuck on the highway last night like what happened to them for Rita.
My family is southwerstern Louisiana is ok, but we know one cousin's house flooded. She lost nearly everything in Rita a few years ago, and had just received money from the government so they could raise their home to not have to go through a flood again, but the money came to late. They have the money now, but will also have to replace everything in their home again. Hopefully the items they placed up high survived but right now they can't get back to their home until the water supbsides.

We are still waiting to hear from a cousin and her family who lives in Jennings, Louisiana. I pray they are safe first and foremost.

This was a horible event to happen to our states. My heart breaks for all of those affected by Ike and its aftermath.