Did ya miss me?

Thought I was in the hospital having the baby, didn't ya? No, I'm still here, although I *am* having a lot of practice contractions the last few days, so maybe soon. But these things have their own sense of timing, so who knows.

These cards are from various shoebox swaps I've attended in the past few months--hope you enjoy them!

Design by Gina Thornton

I spent the morning with a friend and her 2 1/2 year old daughter walking around downtown, letting our children run around in the hot sun and get all tuckered out for afternoon naps (what a great gravy train that is!) and am ready for a bit of a rest myself! Let's hope all that walking did me some good...

Design by Ann-Marie Urban

Men in tights

I don't have anything new to share today, but I didn't want to leave you without eye candy, so here are some cards I made in the last several months at various shoebox swaps/stamp camps with the Philly Inker's group that I'm a part of.

Design by Dana Marston

It is weirdly cold today--I had to go to the post office this morning and, since my beloved Danskos have been a tight fit since before Pascha, had to wear flip flops. Boy did my toes freeze! I'm wearing pants a lot lately because of the chill (tights have bothered my skin a lot this pregnancy and I've been cold from the moment that stick turned pink), much to the chagrin of my hubby, who loves seeing me in skirts and dresses, but what are you going to do when your legs are freezing and you can't wear normal shoes??

Design by Heather Yates

I think men should have to try sporting a 9 month belly with maternity clothing (esp. maternity tights and a maternity skirt; I've yet to find one that really fits well) and see how well they like it. Actually, maternity pants are a pain too--I'm constantly hitching them up like some drug-store cowboy, but at least my legs are warm and my skin doesn't itch in them. I'm generally a skirts and dresses girl normally, so this usually isn't a problem, but sometimes, a pregnant girl has to do what a pregnant girl has to do!

Design by Claire Lawrence

I guess it is supposed to get up near 90 by Friday, so I'll break out the skirts again at the end of the week. I for one am hoping to be making a hospital trek by the end of the week so that I can miss out on the hot weather. (tee-hee!)

Design by Kristin Kortonick

That is the hardest part of the last few weeks of pregnancy, in my opinion: The Waiting Game. The aches and pains and (very frequent, painful) Braxton-Hicks contractions, the indigestion, and sluggishness are annoying, but manageable. It is waiting on the knifeblade of anticipation--is today the day? I've got my baking done, the laundry is caught up, my bag is packed, I got the right memory card for the new camera, the house is (mostly) clean and my husband is diligently grading his finals and has more or less cleared his decks. So I grow impatient to get this show on the road, much in the manner of all pregnant women in weeks 38-40 and beyond.

Design by Claire Lawrence

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming: The Waiting Game

I woke up this morning feeling MUCH better, so I think the stomach bug is behind me, thank the Lord. Spent the morning puttering around the house, doing laundry, making a Whole Foods run (boy was my stroller loaded down--I definitely exceeded the recommended weight limit for the basket underneath) and running after my son. He was so helpful on the way home! I ran out of room under the stroller and I had one big bag I was trying to carry on my shoulder (uphill, with a 25 pounds of stroller, plus 30 pounds of toddler and who knows how many pounds of groceries underneath) and I just couldn't do it, so I put the bag on the foot rest in front of him and asked him to hold tightly onto the handles on the way home. And he did!! He's such a helpful boy that way--he even helped me bring some of the groceries into the kitchen once we got home. Sometimes he is *too* helpful--he will want to carry things that are far too heavy, like gallons of milk and can't quite make it. But it is good training for the future, I say. The other nice thing today is that the rain finally broke and the sun is shining, so the whole day feels good. My son's godfather is coming over this afternoon for a chat and early dinner (he lives about a hour away now so we don't see him as much as we used to) and I think that will be fun for everyone.


I do have a card to share today--when I was putting together yesterday's card, I also stamped one of the trees from Lovely as a Tree, intending to go back to it later and watercolor it, which is what I did last night while my husband was busy with another Supreme Court brief. I'm quite pleased with how the watercoloring came out on this one, and thought it would make for a good masculine card (I'm starting to think about Father's Day, just a little!). I reused Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday sketch from last week for the layout and I'm quite happy with the results.

Supplies:
Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, More Mustard, whisper white cs, retired dsp
Lovely as a Tree, Sanded stamp sets
Jet Black Staz-On, Baja Breeze, Garden Green, Old Olive, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip inks
Aqua painter
Chocolate Chip satin ribbon
non-SU! ribbon slide
Chocolate chip epoxy brad
dimensionals

Sunshine Award!

Today I had a nice e-mail waiting in my inbox--Martie Shea over at From Our Hearts nominated me for a Sunshine Award! I've never gotten this type of blog award before and I'm quite flattered to receive it. So one of the rules of the award is to nominate 12 other blogs for the same award, so here goes:

1. Diana Gibbs: http://www.dianagibbs.typepad.com/

2. Mary Fish: http://www.stampinpretty.com/

3. Mike Funke: http://stampin-style.typepad.com/stampin-style/

4. Illina Crouse: http://ilinacrouse.blogspot.com/

5. Michelle Zindorf: http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

6. Donna at Butternut Sage Designs: http://butternutsagedesigns.blogspot.com/

7. Kerin Sylvester: http://www.kerinstamps.com/stampin_with_kerin/

8. Carrie Gaskin: http://artisticavenger.wordpress.com/

9. Stacey Shafer: http://www.stampinwithstacey.blogspot.com/

10. LeAnne Puglise: http://weeinklings.blogspot.com/

11. Julie Davison: http://juliedavison.blogspot.com/

12. Jen Arkfeld: http://stampedsilly.blogspot.com/

Ladies and gentleman, here are the rules for the Sunshine Award:

1. Put the Sunshine Award on your blog and/or within your post.

2. Pass the award to 12 other bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.

Sunshine is meant to be shared!!! Thanks to Martie for the nomination and I'm always excited to see what the rest of you gals come up with!

Spring showers bring May flowers, or something like that...

I've been messing with some kind of stomach bug since late Saturday afternoon, so I didn't really intend to make a card today, but it is raining outside and I felt like doing some more watercoloring to take my mind off things. I spent several hours up again last night, wandering the house, and so, after I returned from my weekly midwifery visit this morning, I spent the morning sleeping. Thank goodness for babysitters! Unfortunately, this is her last week with us and we've not yet been able to find a replacement, so I'm going to heave a big sigh of sorrow on Friday unless we can find someone before then.

But on to today's card. I liked Stacey's Curtain Call Color Challenge this week--so bright and fresh--and wanted to incorporate it. I combined the color challenge with the Stamping 411 sketch challenge for this week and actually, this card came together pretty quickly! One little watercoloring trick I just learned from Diana Gibbs is to outline your watercolored images with a light blue or light gray (like Sahara Sand) line to make a bit of shadowing. It really makes the image pop off the page and gives it a more finished, professional look. I used Baja Breeze to add just a bit of shadow on the underside of the vine. It should be very subtle and light. Do you like the dsp in the background? I made it using the same floral that I watercolored--I just stamped it tone-on-tone with Certainly Celery ink. Did I mention that I love this stamp set? :)


I got a new camera last week (Nikon Coolpix, reconditioned, so more than half price!) that I'm still getting used to, so I hope the photo quality is good. So far I like it. I've been using a very cheap-o digital camera for the last year or so, and using my big Nikon N-65 35 mm for family shots, but I'm having an increasingly difficult time finding places to get my film developed, and we are starting to have photo storage issues, so I thought it was time to make the switch to digital and get our photos made into books at the end of every calendar year instead. I loved my N-65--it takes fabulous photos--but I also find that I'm reluctant to travel with it because it is bulky and don't take as many photos as I might be inclined to otherwise. Some might say that is a good thing, but I am a photo person, and I want my kids to be able to look through the albums as adults and see some kind of record of their childhoods!!

Supplies:
Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White cs
Elements of Style stamp set
Jet Black Staz-on, Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze inks
Aquapainter
Melon mambo grosgrain ribbon
paper snips
dimensionals

Watercoloring with Elements of Style

Hello friends and Happy Friday! "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, it's a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine? Would you be mine?" That was my favorite show when I was a toddler; I have to say, it was the end of an era when Fred Rogers died 7 years ago. I confess I did shed a little tear when I got the news--I was living in Moscow at the time, so it seemed quite remote to me, but nonetheless, a significant passing somehow.

Random nostalgia for children's television programing aside, it is a beautiful day today and I've been a productive bunny! My son and I went out this morning with our Phil and Ted's stroller to get local milk and eggs from the neighborhood coffee shop that carries them. We came home without any fuss, at which time I decided it was time to deep clean the house from top to bottom. (Nesting, nesting, I know!) After I'd finished (and given myself the reward of a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting from said coffee shop), I remembered I was 9 months pregnant. Oops. I'm feeling a bit loose in the joints now and am moving slowly this afternoon, but I tell you, having a clean house is WORTH it when those nesting urges kick in. Sometimes crazy-clean Dutch genes trump third trimester somnolence. I might even bake cookies this afternoon, how about that?


I made today's card last weekend when I was just playing around with the Elements of Style set. I aspire to be a good watercolorer, but am still working on my technique, so I decided to have a go with the big toile image from that set (available May 1st in the summer mini!). I stamped the flowers in Staz-on on watercolor paper and then got out Rich Razzleberry, Always Artichoke and Baja Breeze inks and my aquapainter and set to work. I'm quite pleased with how it all came out; it gives me motivation to keep at the watercolors. I used a little Apricot appeal in the center of the flowers just for contrast.

Supplies:
Rich Razzleberry, Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke cs, Watercolor paper
Elements of Style stamp set
Rich Razzleberry, Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, Apricot Appeal ink
Aquapainter
Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon
dimensionals

Fox and Friends

Good morning! The sun is shining today and it is supposed to hit 70 this afternoon, which should be nice. I'm a little grumpy this morning after a late night and early morning (again!) but am hoping that a vitamin D infusion will help my mood. I am meeting another mom friend of mine this morning for a playdate, so that should be fun. I also need to get some light reading for my hospital stay, so I hoping to squeeze in a quick side trip to Barnes and Noble on our way there.

I actually have three cards to share today, all of which use Fox and Friends. I love this set! It is so cute and I love the scale of the images--not too small, not too big.


This first card is CASEd from Mary Jo Price-Williams; I loved the bright colors and the layout. It would make a great set of thank you cards or a shower invitation, don't you think?


The second card is CASEd from Sheryl Dickinson. I changed the way the ribbon was wrapped around the card and added More Mustard to the lion's mane and filled in his eyes and nose for additional interest. I had a scrap of the brown ribbon left from something else and it worked perfectly on this card! I'm rediscovering my Animal Stories dsp this past week--I had bought a pack last summer for a customer project and only used about half of it, and then it has been sitting in my dsp file, neglected, since then! I realized a few weeks ago that there is some great So Saffron and Olive Olive patterned dsp in the pack that is not animal-related, and so have started to remember to use that when I need it, but I'm also finding more uses for the animal prints in the pack as well. I love it when I can use up dsp!

I based this last card loosely on one that appeared in an edition of Stampin' Success, the magazine that we demonstrators receive from the home office every month. It is chock full of ideas, samples and other great information!

I changed the orientation of the card and the ribbon, plus a few other details. I only had a little scrap left for the bow, so I took one of the small chocolate chip epoxy brads and created a faux bow by wrapping the prongs around the middle of the scrap and then adhering with a dimensional. I really like the look of it and will probably try it again on another card. It was a great way to use up that last little bit of Rose Red stitched grosgrain I had lying around!


Well, I'd better get going if we are going to hit the bookstore before we meet our friends, so ta-ta for now!