Ride 'dem Horses!

Howdy Cowgirls and all you other ladies (and gents, hee hee)!  Hope your week is going swell for ya so far.  Thank you, thank you for all the birthday wishes I received here on my blog, on Facebook and by email---I was quite overwhelmed by it all.  I don't think I have ever had so many birthday wishes, LOL and I so appreciate them all. You are all so sweet to take the time to let me know---love y'all!  I spent the day sitting on the patio (after I got my work done) in the warm sun reading my NEW Karen White book "The Beach Trees".  Which I finished early this morning (don't ask what time I stayed up till hee hee)--it was really, really good and I recommend it for sure!  Then hubby brought me a dozen MD blue crabs (yummers) that we ate on the patio---they were huge and fab.  If you've never had one, you are missing out---come to my house and I'll show you how to pick 'em.  I've been doing it since I was a toddler and I can get thru half a dozen crabs lickety split, LOL.  Drives the kids crazy that I can pick them so fast and hubby won't pick them as he's lazy--he likes his food prepared for him, LMBO.  But if you grew up in MD or around the Chesapeake Bay you know its more of a social event--you pick, you eat, you drink, you eat, you talk and jabber the whole time :)  See a pic of these babies below!

MD Blue Crabs coated in Old Bay and then dipped in a mix of vinegar/old bay--yum!

I've got the very last Maui slideshow for you today (sniff sniff, lol). This one has pics of Alexa's Birthday dinner at the very yummy Basil's Restaurant in Ka'anapali--Italian is her fave.  And then the other pictures are from the night we went to the Luau at the Marriott Resort in Maui---it was FANTASTIC and the sun setting behind the stage was postcard picture perfect (it almost looks fake but its not).  The dancers were fabulous and YES Suzanne DID get up and dance with them (but of course, duh, did you expect less & yes I was invited to) ;)  And hubby even danced a song with me too---the kids were GROANING with their heads in their hands at our front row table, hee hee!  Loved it!  And YES I DID LOVE the poi--no one else did but I was dipping all my food in it, weird you think, nah! LOL!  We also took time to visit the Maui Aquarium which was fun--both of the kids really enjoyed that.  Then we spent one more day in Lahaina walking thru the historic district which is along the west coast of Maui. We had to stop by the oldest and largest Banyan tree---it was HUGE and so pretty.  We ate at Kemo's which looked over the water and it way yummy.  For all those that asked if I ate while I was there--YES I DID! LOL and it was yummy but I stuck with mostly fresh fish, veggies and fruit which is abundant there & so good, and am lucky to say I actually lost 4 lbs on vacation.  All that activity I guess!  We finished it off with some yummy homemade gelato cones (mine was pineapple & chocolate which was the BEST).  And that tops off our dream family vacation of a lifetime---I will treasure that time and our memories forever.  When I get the videos done I will add those on the blog and the underwater pics too at some point!

Maui Slideshow #5

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Ride 'dem Horses!

Today I'm sharing a fun card I did for the House of Gilli--our lovely hostess is Wini Bell and she challenged us with a "Stitches & Layers" challenge.  So the layer part was supremely easy for me (lol) but the sewing.....errr not so much.  I HATE to sew in any form but I stuck it out and added some hand stitching, LOL.  You can find all the challenge details, DT projects and how to win at the House of Gilli Blog HERE!

I used the fabulously cute "Cowgirl Gilli" and I think she has such a cute outfit and spirit about her!  I used papers from BoBunny that I felt looked a bit rustic and country.  I distressed all the layers with my Zutter Distress Tool and then inked them.  The oval was embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder and then rubbed the same brown ink over it with my Inkssentials Blending Tool.  The flowers are by Prima, buttons by PTI and the scrolls are Marianne Designs (thought they resembled ranch brands a bit 'eh?).  The stitching was done by using my Sew Easy tool and then I handstitched rustic twine---to darken the cream twine I just inked it with my SU inkpad :)

She's colored with Copics of course-- E25,E35,E31,E50/E11,E00,R20/E09,E08,E13/YR24,E35,E25,E31.  Then I added some cowgirl bling to her boots, skirt and belt with stickles.  Isn't she a cutie?

Thanks for stopping by today and hope you have a fabulous day!!