happy happy birthday!

Back again with the rest of the birthday card creation craziness! You may notice that there are not twenty-five different cards posted on these two posts. That is because a couple of these I ended up doing doubles of since I liked them so much. But yes I did do all twenty-five cards!!

Added some stitching and ribbon to this card.

Cut my DCWV stripe paper at an angle to change things up a bit.

This one is created with washi tape. I loved the dots and the rainbow colors at the store so they had to come home with me. I heat embossed the sentiment in gold and added gold thread to create a rainbow with a pot of gold feel.

Pretty straight forward celebrate card.

Love my Fiskars hexagon punch!!

Letting the pattern paper do the work on this card. Also added three Fastenater birthday themed staples to the card.

These staples are holding down a piece of baker's twine.

Cutting out candles from the pattern paper. Silver heat embossing. Sewing and pop dots.

Again making the pattern paper do the work as the sentiment! Added a bit of white twine under a Fastenater staple. Foam dots under the candles. Sewing.

Now I have birthday cards for a bit which is good since my Disney pictures are screaming at me to play with them!! I have been totally ignoring them for a few weeks here. oh the shame!!

you say it's your birthday

I have been severely lacking in the making of birthday cards. I don't know why, but I have. Then comes a request to see my birthday cards and I have none to show. I mean... major eeek!!

I grabbed a package of prefolds with envies and went to work. I would like to say I whipped out the following twenty-five cards in a few days but it took more like weeks to get them all done. I did manage to get about twelve done to show and sell. The rest I finally completed last night. Next time don't try to create so many cards all at once!

New stamp set in action here (new as in sitting around forever and finally managed to drag it into the light of day) I stamped the honeycomb on the yellow hexagons with versamark ink to give the tone on tone look. The bee and the sentiment are both heat embossed with detail embossing powder. I added some glossy accents to the bees wings. The sentiment is raised with some foam squares.

Used one of my Spellbinder dies for the label to house the sentiment. Paper from a DCWV summer pack and a few blings for good measure.

Heat embossed sentiment. Fiskars border punch. Celebrate ribbon and foam squares.

Embossing folder (swiss dots) Spellbinders scallop circles, Studio G $1 stamps from Michaels, paper from DCWV and bling.

Pretty simple one here. I let the pattern paper be my sentiment.

Used a fiskars border punch to create this notebook look. White twine, bling and DCWV paper stack.

Stamp from a set I have had forever and have no clue who the manufacturer is. I didn't keep the backing paper.

Used silver detail embossing powder on this one.

This sketch/ layout was on the Operation Write Home FB page. I left off one of the elements as I didn't need a sentiment spot with this pattern paper. But I loved the look of the black matting on the next two cards.

Off to get the next group photographed for your viewing pleasure.

field day 2014

Time once again for the elementary school's annual field day. It was supposed to be last Friday but a HUGE storm system was parked over New Hamsphire so field day was rescheduled for today which turned out to be a most perfect day for it!! Beautiful sunny weather. Hoping I put enough sunscreen on Alex for the day.

Here is my guy walking with his teacher. As soon as he saw me, he started waving like mad- so cute!

Here is his class with their banner. The last topic they were studying was rocks and minerals and being as we are the Granite State.... they went with it!! Cute kids.

And I cannot forget my kindergarten loves! Here is their sign. All three classes walked together wearing penguin masks. They looked absolutely priceless. At this point when I was taking this picture, they all had taken their masks off since they were hot. It is a rather long parade. It starts from the end of the school that is farthest away from their classroom, and heads to the assisted living facility that is across the street from the school, and THEN down the school's driveway to the field for the calling and cheers from all classes.

Anywho... it is a lovely day for fun in the sun. And hard as it is to believe, Field day is the one school event I do not volunteer for. I will go in and help with costumes and take pictures during the parade, but then I am done. I don't need to be a lobster.

party for a thirteen year old

Yup. Somehow I have managed to raise myself a female human being to the ripe old age of thirteen!! Amazing!

We are having a sleepover this Friday to celebrate this achievement. I dug out some new stamps and went to work.

The top and bottom purple swirl is from a Studio G $1 stamp set in my stash, and the party information is a stamp I picked up at Michaels by Delta/ Rubber Stampede. Perfection!

I used my new Paper Smooches Spectrum stamps and dies for the unicorn and cloud as well as the small hearts I stamped. The shadow under the unicorn is from the Paper Smooches Shadows stamp set. I didn't have any gray ink so I stamped off the image once and then stamped it on the front of the card. The party! sentiment is from a Studio G $1 stamp set from my stash.

Kira colored in each unicorn in different colors using her colored pencils. Sorry for the blurry images I have no idea what happened! They all looked so crisp when I was taking the pictures!!

I added two different clear glitters from my Stickles collection. I have thought about getting a Wink of Stella glitter pen but with my LARGE Stickles collection I have a hard time justifying that purchase at this time. I placed some Stickles on one of my acrylic blocks and used a paint brush to apply the Stickles. Tried to keep the glitter from being too thick and lumpy that way.

The cute smile face comes in the Spectrum stamp set and I love how it looks on the cloud!! I popped the cloud up with some foam tape. I used some purple spray ink from Recollections- purple shimmer on the background which came out so cool!!

All of these invitations were handed out and we are going to a FULL house of teenagers this Friday. Hoping Kira's room can handle that much estrogen for the night. Gonna be a great night.

pinterest is my friend

Why yes it is. Especially on those days when I really don't feel like doing anything productive. Those are the days that I reorganize my boards, I currently have 159 of them. Or I change the cover picture on those boards- keeps things fresh. Or there is the old stand by of actually pinning other pins and commenting on the really good ones!!

I found this recipe for a cucumber salad on Pinterest and knew I had to try it. Not because it was tagged with only having 50 calories in it, but because it was cucumber!! Love me some cucumber. Especially in the summer- yum yum delish.

Anywho- I got the ingredients for the salad and then found some time (had to stop pinning for a bit) to make this delicious salad! 

OMG!!

Seriously it is incredibly wonderful.

When I make it again I will use less salt as the two teaspoons were a bit much for me. Of course if you like that much salt, you will be all set. I would say start with one teaspoon and then add to taste when you finish. I also had to use dry dill as the dill plants at the store were quite sad looking and I didn't want to have to wait for them to grow a bit after taking them home. I wanted the satisfaction of eating the salad. I should probably invest in a dill plant for the summer!! 

On the second day it starts to take on a dill pickle kind of flavor which made me even happier with this salad. You need to check out the link above and get yourself some of this salad. Yes you do.

Why are you still here?? I told you to go get some.

yes i did and am not ashamed to say so

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, along comes a famished shark and chomps your leg off.

At least that is how I feel right about now.

The new year came in with a much debated warrant article concerning the building of a Junior Senior High School for our fair town. I wrote here on my blog concerning my position of wanting the school to be built. I posted status updates on Facebook my desire as well as added pictures telling everyone what I wanted. I put signs on my lawn. I walked in a family event march in support of a new school. I was more than forthcoming. For all of that, I am proud to say I did everything I could to try to get the town's children a new building in which to receive an education. I am not ashamed of any of it. And I still believe that the only individuals who lost out on March 11, 2014 were the students of Newmarket. 

During that time, many households in Newmarket received two letters from a group calling themselves Newmarket Citizens for Responsible School Solutions (NCFRSS). These letters were full of misinformation. I wrote blog entries concerning their errors which you can read here, and here.

I am posting both of the mailings below.

What is missing from these letters is an actual real live persons name who will take responsibility for sending these out to the voters of Newmarket. That is the law. If you send something to voters telling them how to vote in an election, the name of the responsible person must be included. Not a made up group name which played off of the real live Newmarket Solutions group name, but an actual real live registered voter in town. Both of the letters sent out did not include such information.

When it was made public that this law was being violated with these mailings, concerned residents in town sent in complaints to the Attorney General's office. I am not ashamed to say that I was one that complained about the NCFRSS mailings. I did receive a letter back from the Attorney General letting me know that the complaint was being looked into and I would be hearing again at the close of the investigation.

Fast forward to earlier this week when I received the letter below.

It is addressed to the responsible party Amy M. Thompson. Those of us who made complaints are listed in the CC at the bottom of the second page. I am proud to have my name attached to this cease and desist order addressed to Ms. Thompson. 

Now for the fun part-- Ms. Thompson is the chairperson of the town's Budget Committee. The talk in town is that she should be forced to resign from that board for her actions during the 2014 voting season. Once again I will put myself and my opinion out there and will agree that Ms. Amy Thompson should not be allowed to be a member of the Budget Committee going forward. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking it and as an elected official, the standards of ethics need to be upheld. As of right now, nothing has been decided but we shall see.

Of course the few outspoken NO voters that do all of their talking via the internet have tried to crucify those of us who complained. I have not read any of their complaints because my life does not revolve around what they say or think about me or the March 11th vote and am basing the above statement on what I have been told. I proudly stand behind my actions and statements. If I wouldn't say it to your face or in a public forum/ place, I would not put it on the internet. I ask the NO voters to do the same or keep their mouths shut. 

Proud that I voted YES for a new school and will continue to fight for the education of Newmarket's students.

where have i been?

I have been thrust into the world of all things puppy! Gizmo has been keeping me on my toes since we picked him up on April 18th. He is a smart one and is learning things pretty quickly. The potty training is going well. And the kids love him to pieces.

I need to find time for me and get some things posted here. Crossing fingers he lets me do it soon. The breeder said we would be hitting the separation anxiety phase between weeks 12 and 14. Guess who is 12 weeks today?? Yup my Gizmo. He loves us all but I seem to be his favorite. Which during waking hours I do not mind in the least. But in the middle of the night.... not so much.

Anywho... here are some pictures I am sharing. He is an Alaskan Klee Kai and will probably be between 25-30 pounds when he finishes growing. He is considered imperfect for his breed because he is completely white. I consider him perfect because of his whiteness and blue eyes. 

Enjoy and hope to post more soon!!