Today is my birthday! I'm not big into celebrating it but it's so nice to have family and friends who like to! My parents and Aunt Sue gave me some money and I know what I'm going to buy with it...something to do with crafting and I'll show you when I get it. Might be a couple of weeks or so before I get it, though. Tuesday, Magnolia Sun took me to lunch out at the beach to Surf Burger. I had the fish sandwich again. It was so good. I really like it there but since it is warming up outside, I might not be going back to enjoy the outside seating until it cools off again later this year. I have to say Magnolia Sun's new haircut is great! MS gave me a new key chain/money/card holder. It's a Coach! Matches the new purse I bought myself for my birthday. Thank you MS for the lunch and the present! MS got the same purse for her birthday. They are not the same style but they are the same material. I don't think you can tell in this picture that they are different. She waited to post her picture today so we could show them together:) View at lunch today....smiley boat. Water is so pretty these days. Palm trees....my favorite. Monday a package arrived at the door. It's from Alfred's Mom. I love it! She does a great job on her beading jewelry. This is my favorite color. I am looking forward to wearing it soon. I need to find something new to wear it with. Thank you, AM! The lady that cleans the house stopped by this afternoon and had these pretty flowers for me. She is so sweet. She loves the pugs and I never have to worry about them while she's hear with them and I'm out doing something. Here is a little something that I bought for myself. More stamps! I hope to get time try these soon. I have ideas! I love the way the company wraps these. This company is local and I was able to go by their place of business and pick them up instead of paying for shipping. This business is run out of their house and they are so nice. They give classes so I'm looking forward to taking some classes in the future. I told the husband that I wanted a grill for my birthday...I already spent too much on a new purse and all the crafting/stamping things I have been buying...so he said he is looking for the right grill. We'll see how long that takes! I think we must be the only people in Florida that don't have a grill. I am planning on having a steak for dinner but it will have to come from the restaurant since we don't have a grill.

deja vu

Thank you all for the sweet comments about the cards. I'd rather do them than work...but no can do! My mama has come down with an infection in her foot/leg and so she is off her feet and taking antibiotics and I hope they don't put her in the hospital today. Waiting to hear from her. Daddy is still off his feet for the most part...Aunt Sue is on her way over there to stay for a few days while they try to get better. I wanted to show you this picture of a groom's cake that the husband's cousin made. It's cheesecake and has chocolate fish on them! Looks great. Notice the picture on the left-hand side of the boy holding the fish. He has on a football jersey...looks like the number 84 or 64..I can't see that well. And looks like he's standing in front of an old concrete wall that's popular here in Florida in the '50s and '60s. Then I put the picture of my brother in the football jersey with number 84 and holding a fish in front of an old Florida-style wall the same color. It's amazing to see a picture that similar. I do see that the wall cutouts are different so I know it wasn't the same beach house we were staying in that year. I just thought this was neat. Magnolia Sun and I are going to lunch today!!! I'm looking forward to that so much. There will be pictures!

more cards

Saturday evening we had the husband's mother and his brother and his wife over for dinner. I didn't even cook. I made a salad and went to get BBQ chicken from the local BBQ restaurant. I like their chicken but not their pork. Picked a some beans and slaw and potato salad, too. My sister-in-law and I came back here to the computer and I was showing her ideas for wedding favors for their daughter's wedding next spring. I think I'll be making some things for the favors and goodies bags for out-of-town guests. I'm excited to have a project. I'm going to try to make some samples whenever I get the supplies I need and see if Niece C likes them. After church yesterday, Aunt Sue and I headed over to mama and daddy's. Daddy is getting better but he is still staying off his feet for a while. We got lunch from Olive Garden and took it over there. Yummy. We also got Dairy Queen later in the afternoon. Here are some cards that Aunt Sue and I have worked on last week. It's so fun. I find myself wanting to not do my work and work on cards.

BBQ Chimp

Hello Friday! Yesterday, Aunt Sue and I went to Ft. Walton to a scrapbook store. They had so much stuff. Best store I've seen yet. They have classes, too, so I think we'll be taking a class soon. We stopped at the BBQ place in Navarre for lunch and this greets you at the door! It's not real...but looks pretty close. I bet it looks around and talks after everyone goes home at night. Thank you again for the nice comments about the cards. Sure makes me feel good...you should see the stuff I don't take a picture of because it didn't turn out very well. I'm going to try to set a goal to work on one card a day...we'll see how that goes. It will probably be one every other day. I guess it will get easier as I do more...I just am not creative and I need classes or books with ideas.

I took pictures of a few cards, but they turned out blurry. I will have to take pictures again and post later. Aunt Sue made this card for someone at church. The butterfly was made by using the Martha Stewart butterfly punch. Ribbon from Michael's and card stock from Joann's. Happy Birthday stamp from Papertreyink.com. Swiss dot cuttlebug folder to make the raised pattern. Sugar and Emma and Stevie resting while we work on cards. So much stuff on the table ... can't hardly find a good place to work. I need a stamp that says Happy Mother's Day and I bet nobody has one. But Aunt Sue and I are going over to a scrapbook store in Ft. Walton to see if they have it or I'll have to see if I can borrow one if the store owns one. We're taking our cards with us in case they have a stamp we can use while there. Otherwise, I'll need to buy a an alphabet set. I just got one yesterday in the mail, but it was too small and would not look good on the card. I'll post the Mother's Day cards next week.

bourbon and beads

I managed to save two bourbon balls for Aunt Sue to sample. That was so hard for me because they are so good. I forced Aunt Sue to let me take these pictures and share them. Here is Aunt Sue showing the complete bourbon ball. Here she is having eating one bite and showing the center. And here is a closeup of the goodness of the bourbon ball. Yummy! Aunt Sue and I met Magnolia Sun on Saturday at the bead show. That's MS's feet walking to her car. We went to lunch after we left the bead show..no pictures of the food because it turned out too dark. But when we left the restaurant we got soak in the rain. My feet were completely underwater trying to get to the car. Glad I had on my Wal-Mart sandals. The bead show was in a building that is part of a church downtown. I bought this glass fish bead and plan to have something made with it. Thank you all for the sweet comments about the cards I've made recently. Aunt Sue has been over here two days in a row working on some...and I found a few minutes to make a couple, too. I'll show some pictures of some tomorrow. I can't show the mother's day cards we made until next week. I love making the cards...and it's so fun to have Aunt Sue over here making them too. I just need a few more hours in my day! I can see why it would be fun to have a get-together scrapbooking party. I'm not doing scrapbooking but I guess making cards is kind of the same process. I'm going to have to get Magnolia Sun involved. If we ever had a bloggy meet-up at the beach and rented a big house, we could all bring our crafts!!

Yesterday a package arrived at the door and it was from Bismarck and his mom who live in Kentucky. They wanted to show me what all goes on up in Kentucky and boy what a nice package of things! And just in time for the Kentucky Derby this weekend! Here is everything, Kentucky Derby commemorative glasses, a recipe for mint julep drink, some bourbon samples, Kentucky basketball toys for the girls, a CUTE horsey that when you press it, it makes a galloping sound and then neighs (so cute), and some wonderful bourbon balls (Hello Aunt Sue), and she included a very nice letter with pictures and descriptions of everything! Very creative and nice to get a picture of what Kentucky is all about. I bet it is beautiful scenery there. Thank you Bismarck's mama and Bismarck! This little horsey is so cute. I showed it Sugar and she was all ready to take off with it. These are SO GOOD. I told Aunt Sue they were here and she was delighted and hopes that I don't eat them all before she can get over here and have one. True bourbon! I know that Aunt Sue will be using this to make her version of bourbon balls. We had an aunt that made bourbon balls and would freeze them. When we were little, we stayed with this aunt and uncle up in Atlanta for a week one time and we'd sneak in her freezer and eat them and she didn't know (we think.) Here are two cards I made this week. It was so fun. I hope that soon, I will get more time to really just sit down and be creative (something I'm not) and put more details into the cards. I was happy with the way these turned out. This one is on the way to my daddy right now. The little flowers on here, I used a tiny punch and punched some printed papers and then glued two different patterned flowers together. Then I glued them on the card. I stamped the butterflies with two different stamps that coordinate with each other. The patterned paper and the ink and stamps all from Papertreyink. This is my favorite place so far to buy stamping paper and stamps. I love the way they coordinate their papers and inks. I have to work all weekend besides going to church. There is a bead society show Saturday that I am thinking of going to early in the day just to check out the glass and polymer clay beads...then back to work. Palm tree was cut down yesterday and I didn't get out there to take a picture...but I'll show you how they cleaned up the little palm by the mail box....I didn't get a before and after but it does look much better. They are coming back this morning to clean up the big palm tree in the back yard.