Blessings and some Reindeer!!

Hi everyone!  I apologize for my long absence here at my blog!  The first of December is always a bit crazy as I get my holiday decorations up and do some cleaning along the way.  I’ve also been catching up on things that were neglected while I was busy traveling & working—cleaning out closets, washing curtains and bedding and all that fun stuff—NOT LOL!  I have 2 more trees to finish up today and I’m all done—the kids put their trees up in their rooms so we are at a total of 11 trees.  Tree 12 was supposed to be on the patio but the stand is broken and I have yet to find a replacement tree in the stores and tree 13 was to be animal themed but I am not going to get that one done this year.  Riley has come down with viral pneumonia and as most of you know has asthma really bad as well—so he’s been pretty sick and we’ve been tending to him.  And then I have been sick as well so I am just a bit slower this year than normal but that’s ok—I got done what I needed to and I’m happy.  I will share pics of all the trees soon---I have to get greenery from the yard and its been raining/sleeting for 2 days so waiting for it to all dry out before I bring it in the house and then I’ll take the final pics of the house.  We did have a beautiful day to “hunt” 2 of our real Christmas trees, in the mid-50’s and we found 2 extra special ones for our house.  Below are a few pics—the big tree is 13 ft and is in our family room (oh that was fun to decorate, hee hee).

                                 

(Photos: me and Alexa at the tree farm, the kids & I with our 13 ft tree, my dog Casey dressed as “ELF” and 2 of my kitties in one of my decorations boxes)

I’ve also been through the wringer in a bad,bad way I am sorry to say.  I won’t go into too many details though, those of you that know me well are aware of the situation & I thank you for your support.  I have been burned bad by someone that I trusted, put my trust into for others as well and then got slapped in the face after the fact.  I’m still waiting for a resolution at this point and hoping for the best but that remains to be seen.  This has been ongoing for the past few weeks and it has seriously dampened my mood and stressed me beyond comprehension.  I don’t understand how someone can be so manipulative, two-faced and a thief and manage to run a business that caters to people who trust you and rely on you.  To lie to your face over and over again and then look in the mirror and be ok with themselves.  How can someone do that?  My trust was severely broken and my faith in people very shaken and during one of the most special times of the year for me & my family.  I have to say it took a beating on me both mentally & physically and that’s why I haven’t posted much, my spirit was just tired out and I did NOT want to put that out on my blog for you all.  BUT I have seen the good in other people, people willing to help above & beyond the call of duty, people who support me and will go to bat for me, and friends that will listen to me vent and I know that they are there for me no matter what.  That is TRULY the majority of people I know, people I’m lucky to have as friends and that is what the spirit of the season is about—those that love & care about you.   Who want to do good, who want to be a friend, and who want to help.  I am so very, very thankful for everyone that is in my life—I’m a very lucky girl no matter what happens.  I don’t count my success in money, or classes sold, or miles traveled but in the beautiful friendships I’ve collected along the way and the people that I have been lucky enough to teach & meet as well.  So to all of you, a big THANK YOU and I am a lucky girl and I am BLESSED this holiday season with my health, my family and my friends!

NewsBitz:

-All classes at the CMC Classroom are on Holiday Sale thru Jan.5th!  This includes my copic classes AND the Cricut, Distress Inks, Magnolia and Prisma Pencils classes too.  They make great gifts as well!

-I just sent out a Holiday/Decmeber News Blast to everyone who is a member of the CMC Classroom site (all are welcome).  You can find it HERE as well in case you missed it. It explains all upcoming events at CMC that you won’t want to miss!

-Next trip for me will be in January for CHA in Anaheim!  I will be teaching classes there on Saturday before CHA begins and you can sign up at www.cmcroad.com if you are interested—I’d love to see you!

-Starting Dec. 10th the CMC Challenge Group starts a month-long challenge with a HUGE Prize pot!  Prizes include a NEW Cricut Mini, a NEW Kindle and lots of gifts from some awesome craft companies! You can create projects to enter AND/OR donate to a worthy cause for an entry.  Yes once again I am raising money for a worthy organization this holiday season—let’s see what we can do this year!!  Details will be up at the site on the 10th!

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Santa’s Reindeer!!

This is a holiday project I made for a new Brazilian Crafts magazine—they asked me to create a holiday card for their debut issue! You can see more of the issue HERE and on the page next to me is my friend & DT sister Mindy Baxter as well!  This is also a special Mingle card that I sent to my friend Jean Hempel—if you are lucky enough to know Jean, you know what a sweet lady she is.  She has always been so kind to me, sending me lovely messages all the time and sharing a bit of her life with me.  So I wanted to send her something special for the holidays along with a few fun gifts to let her know how appreciative I am to know her!!  So a big thank you Jean for your friendship!!  And of course both of my stamps are from Magnolia-licious –the best place in the world to get Magnolia stamps!





I have used cute little “Reindeer Tilda” from Magnolia-licious along with another Magnolia sentiment stamp—she’s from the Merry Little Christmas collection.  You can see all the holiday stamps from that collection HERE!  The papers are by Bo Bunny “Blitzen” and I used a Sizzix embossing folder for the blue cs and a MS border punch as well.  The die mat behind the main image is by Spellbinders and snowflakes done with MS punches.  And yes some Stickles in a few spots too!

Remember that Magnolia-licious has a fabulous contest called “The Holiday Wrapped Up Challenge”—fun prizes to be had so come on over & join in!

Thanks everyone & see you back here real soon! Holiday hugz to you all!