Homespun Hills!

Happy Friday everyone!  Are you ready for the weekend? I know I sure am, I still feel like I need some sleep and a bit of down time this weekend doing not much of anything LOL. Although on Sunday we are headed to Redskin Training camp for a fan-event…hoping to meet some of the Redskins…cuz if there is a will, I WILL FIND A WAY LOL!  I had a blast up in Canada as I always do…I love the ladies up there and they are always so much fun and so kind.  Sheila is the owner of Scrappin’ Great Deals in Ontario and she’s such a lovely lady…a bit crazy tho like me..so we get along REAL good hahahaha!  And Sarah for always being so sweet and helping me during class and before and after…I appreciate her help and friendship!  And to my friend Andi Murdock who took me to dinner when I got in Friday night and then had me to her house the next night…her hubby fixed us an awesome dinner (yum to the coconut shrimp and choc ganache cake).  I so appreciated it and just being able to hang out, chat and laugh a lot with her, Sarah and her family in the evenings.  I have to say there is NOTHING better (well your family of course) than having GOOD friends….to me if I didn’t have such awesome friends I truly don’t know what I’d do.  I don’t know how I’d get thru some days without my friends…I can text them, email them (cuz I don’t do phone calls lol) anytime and I know they are listening…helping…commiserating..angered for me/happy for me/sad for me/…making me laugh and more…just basically being there.  I appreciate that more than anything…cuz let’s face it…your friends sometimes just know you better than anyone else…even your hubby or family…or its just easier to say things to them sometimes cuz you know they’ll understand.  It would be a sad day indeed if I didn’t have my close buddies…I love em, I root for them, I laugh with them (ok sometimes at them hahahaha), I yell with them, act crazy dumb with them and I’d do anything for ‘em!!  And I’m a Taurus…so I’m loyal and trustworthy to a fault..I really value my friends, their lives and families, their secrets and their fears and I know they do the same for me.  And hey a girl has gotta have some friends to get their CRAZY-ON with KWIM LOL!!!

Were you an Olympic watcher?  The Dean’s are HUGE Olympic fans and we pretty much saw them everyday and enjoyed each event and the athlete’s stories.  I’m kinda sad now that they aren’t on…I feel lost without rooting on or biting my lip as each race starts hahahaha!  And as always I’m amazed by these athlete’s total commitment to their sport, their poise and grace and maturity…blows me away!  Now as for the US’s Ralph Lauren outfits…don’t get me started hahaha…I hated ‘em.  To me if you are representing the USofA then you should be wearing a baseball cap, not a FRENCH BERET.  And I’ll stop there heehee!

I stopped at my Gram’s house on the way to Canada for a few days…Alexa came up with me this time too.  My Gram is 91 and shoot she still does more than me some days…that’s scary huh!?  Its always fun to hang out and spend time…I always learn new family stories when I’m up there…she’s like a time capsule of memories ya know.  One day I took Alexa up to Niagara Falls since she’d never been…it was a beautiful day and we had a blast!  We donned our ponchos and did The Cave of the Winds, had some snacks and walked around enjoying the park.  Below is a slideshow of pics from my trip…enjoy!!  I’ll save my trip back over the border to the US for another time….if you follow me on Facebook then you already know about that whole catastrophe LOL!

Slideshow:





NewsBitz:

-The Summer Sale at the CMC Classroom ends Aug 24th….so go stock up now at great prices.  Also the “All About Hair” Class online is up for pre-registration if that interests you!

-My next CMC travel classes will be in Stafford Springs, CT so if you live in the Mass, NYC or CT area…its pretty close so come on and take a class!  All details are at www.cmcroad.com!

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Hills of Memories!

So I’m a bit behind on my Gina K projects since I was traveling so I’m going to share a few over the next couple weeks as I get them all done with the newest sets.  If you haven’t seen the NEW Gina K releases go HERE…they are fabulous and so much fun to use in different ways.  I’m using “Country Roads” illustrated by Theresa Momber (it makes me wanna sing some John Denver ya know)  I love the vintage images in this set AND REMEMBER you can now buy the sets in clear or red rubber (mmmm me luvs clear stamps)!  I love that Gina’s sets lends themselves to coloring or other stamping techniques so you can use them in so many different ways.

I'm entering this into the following fab challenges:

Delightful Challenges (dies & punches)

DYSU Challenge (buttons)

Papercrafting Journey (anything goes)

Fresh Brewed Challenges (rubber stamps only)

Cards & More Challenges (anything goes)

Flourishes (kraft cs)

I used papers from Glitz called “Yours Truly” (10% off too)…I loved the patterns and colors in this pack!  I cut some half circles in different sizes with my CB and dies then distressed the edges with my Zutter Distress tool.  I stamped the images on kraft cs with different inks…the clouds is an old stamp that I inked in cream ink, stamped it off and then lightly stamped onto my cs for a softer look.  The mini pearls were made with Liquid Pearls in platinum, ribbon from PTI.  I liked the homespun, quilt feeling of the mix of papers this gives.

That’s it for me today!  I sure hope you have a fabulous weekend ahead of you…school starts soon here in VA so I’m gonna have to resign myself to some shoppin’ with the teens soon…ugh…not any fun…LOL!  See ya on Monday!