My Favorite Things

Sweet Mail....and other random musings

 

I told you all not long ago that I recently got a Post Office box so that I'd have an address that I could share with you all, because I frequently get requests for my address.  So far, in my post office box, I've received 2 pieces of junk mail, 1 coupon for a free Chipotle burrito (yay!), this beautiful card by Heather Ruwe and the gifts and card in the photo below, from Rachel Sztonyk!  SO sweet of these girls to send me cards and treats.  I wanted them both to know how much I appreciated them and how much fun I had trying to figure out what to do with the key that showed up in my post office box, telling me that I had a package in one of the post office lockers!  (Who knew the post office had lockers?!)  LOL!  Thank you both, Rachel and Heather!

 

I also wanted to tell you to check out THIS CARD and THIS CARD by Mary Vogel.  She made both using my new Vintage Ornaments stamp set.  WOWWWWW!  SO pretty!

I also wanted to thank each of you (including my dear neighbor -- thanks, Pam!) that have let me know that a version of (the Australian cookie....er....biscuit!) Tim Tams are distributed by Pepperidge Farms in the US and are sold at Target.  Bart brought home a package of the Classic Dark variety and I now say that there's no need to bother with any of the other varieties of Tim Tams.  Classic Dark are the only way to go.  :)  They are delish!  And for the record, what we call cookies here in the US, the Aussies call biscuits.  But Aussies....if cookies are biscuits, then what do you call the 'biscuits' that we eat for breakfast with gravy???  :)

Next topic.....(I told you this was a random post!).....I mentioned awhile back that my sweet, hottie hubs bought me a Pandora bracelet for my birthday back in June.  He got me a beautiful purple Murano glass bead (his favorite sports team wears purple!  HAHA!!) and a few silver beads (I'm a total silver girl.  No gold here unless it's white gold.) and my sis & bil gave me a dark green bead too.  Well, since then, I've been a good little girl and haven't bought myself any additional beads for my bracelet.  That's all about to change though!!!  Check out THESE BEAUTIES!!!

 

They're wood beads!!  OH, aren't they just gorgeous??  You KNOW how much I love brown.  I wear it.  I use it on cards.  Brown is my black, I always say, so these beads would go with so much that I wear!  Bartley and I were at the mall the other day so we popped in to the Pandora store and saw these for the first time.  They're SO pretty in real life and that soft yellow one.......perfection.  In real life, it's soft and buttery enough to be fairly neutral.  It looks awesome paired with a couple of the browns.  I'm sorry to ramble on and on about jewelry but goodness, these were just too fun to not chat about!  :)

And lastly today in this long list of randomness, I wanted to let you International readers know that I have lowered the international shipping charges in my Etsy Shop by quite a bit.  I was under the impression that my packages would be heavier than they are, so I was pleasantly surprised when shipping a package to Italy last week, that the shipping was much lower than I thought it would be!  SO, if my earlier shipping charges scared you away, you might check them out again. 

And stay tuned to my Etsy Shop because I've got lots more fun embellies coming soon!!  :)  

Toodles!
 

More Happy Mail!

Ok, so remember the other day when I showed you the box of goodies that my secret friend sent me for the Secret Friendship Swap over at Splitcoast?  Well, I was actually nominated twice in this round and the second nominator sent me goodies this week!  However, they came in THREE BOXES!  AND, as I started pulling things out of the box, I realized that the goodies aren't just from one of my PSF's (pretend stamping friends!) but rather, are from LOTS of them!  They all chipped in and sent me goodies!!  I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it feels to get so much 'love in a box' from so many sweet friends!  They not only sent me fun goodies to create with myself, but they sent me lots of hand-made items too.  Thank you girls SOOOO much!!  You made my day!!!

This post is gonna be kind of long because of all the pictures of the goodies they sent but bear with me....I wanted to post individual pics of the items so come Friday, they can fess up and tell me who sent what so I can send proper thank you cards!

As for you sweet PSF's, please, please let me know who sent what!  I really want to be able to send thank you notes to each of you and I'd love to make the notes personal.  KWIM?  Not sure if I can get this all done before we leave on vacation, but we'll see!  :) 

Also, if I mixed up any of the items or if I missed anything, don't be afraid to let me know!!  I did the best I could to keep everything straight but it's possible that some things could have gotten mixed up!

I love you Girlies....thank you again so much!!

^from Jenn

^from Nicky

^from Staci

^from Mellie

^from Bonnie

^from Sarah

^from Tracey

^from Renee

^from Teresa

^from Debbi

^from Paulette

^from Teresa

^from Sandy

^from Karyn

^from Sally

^from Julie

^from Sammy

^from Laura

A Few Random Ramblings...

Hi Friends....sorry, no mojo today.  Nada!  Zip!  Zilch!  LOL!  I'm just too darn tired so for today, here's a card I made awhile back.  The thing to note about this card is that I used the ginger blossom patterned paper but I lined all of those branches with diamond stickles.  It's a fun, easy little thing to do to spice up a single piece of patterned paper and give it some pizzazz.  (Click on the photo to see it a little more close-up.  It really sparkles IRL!)

OK, can I just say that I'm now convinced that I have the best blog readers out there?!  You girls are soooo fun -- I have loved reading all the comments about the quirky things from your childhood that you still love!  And I have to give a special shout out to Mary Dawn and Maureen!!!  You girls get the 'You Actually Made Me Laugh Out Loud Award' of the day!  Heehee!  (Note: this is a completely made up award; there are no real prizes given. LOL!)  Here's why these two get my made-up award of the day.  At the end of my post last night, do you remember what I said?  I said "Sweet Dreams and remember......'her name was Lola, she was a showgirl'!!!"  Want to know what comment Mary Dawn left for me?  She said, "with yellow feathers in her hair, and her dress cut down to there....she would merengue"!!!  And THEN, Maureen left me this comment: "...and do the Cha, Cha and while she tried to be a star, Tony always tended bar..."

Hahahahaha!!  You girls cracked me up!  I love it!  Thanks for playing along...I really did laugh out loud!  Too funny!  So you see....I do have the most fun blog readers out there!  LOL!

In other news, I'm starting a new book today or tomorrow.  It's called "The Guy I'm Not Dating" by Trish Perry.  Looks cute so we'll see!

   

I also wanted to give a shout out to another sweet girl, Shona, for giving me an award over on her blog!  Thank you sooo much!  I really appreciate it!

And lastly, I got a super special box of goodies in the mail this weekend from a sweet PSF of mine, who shall remain nameless at the moment mostly because....well.....I'm not sure who she is yet!  LOL!  But don't worry - I'll find out on May 1 cause that's the big reveal day!  This secret friend nominated me for the Secret Friendship Swap (round 3) over on SCS!  Here's a pic of all my goodies!  Lots of pink and orange....bling, ribbon, brads, etc.  Is this a clue?  Hmmm.....not sure yet.  The little sneaker used phony handwriting to throw me off her trail and she 'says' that the package wasn't mailed from her home so I guess I'm not supposed to assume that the postmark is a clue.  Sneaky, sneaky!  Never-the-less, I love ya, sneaky friend!  Thank you so much for your generosity and for making me feel so special with your thoughtful gifts!

{Happy Birthday to You Ingredients}
Paper: river rock, groovy guava, DS-ginger blossom
Stamps: hero arts
Ink: regal rose
Accessories: diamond stickles, river rock double stitched ribbon

A Gift I'll Treasure

I have said before that I am continually amazed that God has brought so many wonderful friends into my life thru this crazy paper-crafting hobby of mine.  :)  I have a group of friends that I became acquainted with as a result of following a thread on SCS about Lauren's little girl, Alexa, who was very sick with cancer at the time.  (Read Alexa's story here)  Thru praying for Alexa and Lauren and the rest of the family and thru 'talking' with one another on this thread and trying to encourage Lauren, this amazing group of ladies became a very tight-knit group of friends that have come to mean so much to me.  Lauren said one day that Alexa thought we were all her momma's "pretend stamping friends" because she couldn't see us -- we were imaginary people on the computer to her.  How cute is that?!  So that day, the PSF's were born and for probably a year and a half or so now, we've been getting closer every day.  We've laughed together and cried together and joined one another in prayer over and over again.  Our little 'family' has lost loved ones together and have welcomed new little bundles into the world as well.  I can't tell you how blessed I've been by these ladies.

Fast forward to last week.....I received a package in the mail from Jenn in Canada and I couldn't imagine what she would have been sending me.  Turns out, she made me a mini scrapbook containing everyone's 'address book info' PLUS a picture of each PSF AND as if that wasn't sweet enough, she asked each one to send her a sentance about me.  She wrote each one's comments by their picture.  I was so, SO touched that someone would make me such a special gift but then to have such sweet things said about me from each of the PSF's was just soooo moving.  I cried.  Then I read it all again and cried some more.  :)

Thank you SO much to each of you girls for the sweet things you said.  And Jenn, I can't thank you enough.  You are so kind and thoughtful and caring.  I can't imagine how much time and energy and LOVE you poured into this scrapbook.....You are such a dear and I just want you to know how much this means to me. 

This is a gift I'll treasure.

EEEEEEEE!!! It CAME!!!!

My first issue of Cards Magazine that has MY CARDS in it, came today!!!!  WHOOHOO!!!!  This is the first time I've ever seen any of my cards "in print" and it is SO exciting!!!  Did you hear me squealing like a giddy little schoolgirl??  LOL!! 

I have 4 cards in this issue -- the March issue.  My friends Lauren, Ali and Susan all have cards in this issue as well!  Check it out!!!

HAPPY MAIL GALORE!!!!!

OH.  MY.  WORD!!!!!  Can I just say that I have the most awesome 'pretend friends' ev-ah!!!  I am completely humbled and SOOO touched by the gifts I received in the mail today!  THREE BOXES!!!!  I can't even explain to you how blessed I feel right now.  I'm getting emotional just thinking about it!  We picked up my Grandma right after work today so that we could take her to dinner this evening.  Then we came home after picking her up so that we could let Riley out of his kennel and so he could eat some dinner before we left again.  We stopped at the mailbox on the way in and my husband just kept pulling more and more boxes out of the mailbox!  I couldn't believe it!!  I have to tell you that it was so fun to open all these boxes with Grandma!  She couldn't believe that girls that I've never even met, from all over the country, sent me presents in the mail!  I think she had almost as much fun as I did seeing what was in all these boxes!!

Just look at all these goodies!  I just had to take pictures of all these awesome gifts so you could see how amazing these boxes are! 

This first box was a complete surprise!!  It came from my new friend Denise Hinton who I just LOVE!  She's become so dear to me.  She sent me an 'Elf' package at Christmas time and NOW she took the time to bake me cookies because I've been sick (which are de-lish, BTW!!!  SO thoughtful, you are!) AND as if that wasn't sweet enough, she sent me a sweet card and lots of other stamping goodies too!!  Denise, you are far too good to me.  I'm so shocked!!  Thank you so much, dear friend.  You have blown me away.

THEN, remember a couple months ago when I told you that I had been nominated in the Secret Friendship Appreciation Swap -- twice???  Well, both my nominators managed to get their boxes here on the SAME DAY!  How funny!  Just look at everything that came in this box! 

• Adorable altered mailbox filled with candy
• Package of natural stationary
• 6x6 stack of Making Memories Embellishment Paper ('Funky Vintage' -- doesn't that just SOUND like me?!)
• Bag of Prima flowers
• Jar of Stampin' Glitter-Shocking Punch (SUCH a bright pink!!  Yippee!)
• Sakura glaze pen (so excited to try this out!!)
• 4 rolls of ribbon
• Small pack of special Prima flowers
• 3 pack of Aqua-Flo Painters (how did you know I've wanted these for ages?!)
• Set of Stampendous Clear Stamps
• Pack of Adhesive Gems
• Bottle of Cinnamon Stickles (I LOVE stickles and am sooo excited to have a new color to try!)
• Adorable hand made card that coordinates with my altered mailbox

Sweet friend, I don't know who you are yet (can't wait till the reveal on Feb. 1) but I am SOOOO thankful for you and for your generosity.  I'm sooo incredibly touched that you would send me such a wonderful box of goodies.  That you would spend so much of your time and resources on me, is such a blessing.  I can't wait to find out who you are, Dear One.

Last but certainly not least, is this box from my sweet friend Amy!!  Even if she hadn't written her name on the return addy and the sweet card, I would have known immediately that it was from her because she sent me a Karen Kingsbury book!  She knows how much I love to read Christian fiction and she's asked me before if I've ever read any of Karen's books.  I know Amy loves these books!  Heehee!  Look at everything that my sweet friend sent me....Amy, you know me so well!!

• Karen Kingsbury book
• Autumn Leaves Clear Stamp Set-Love With A Flourish by Rhonna Farrer (are you kidding me???  I LOVE these!)
• 6x6 stack of Memory Box papers
• Sugar Coated Brads by Doodlebug Designs
• Felt Fusion by Queen & Co.
• Gemstones by the Paper Studio
• Flower Rain Dots by Cloud9 Design
• Jumbo Eyelets by Karen Foster Designs
• 5 spools of ribbon
• Felt hearts by Valentine Crafts
• Clear stamp set by Studio G
• Tin of hand stamped nugget candies
• Bottle of Lime Green Stickles (this color is SO pretty!)
• 2 jars of Prima flowers (I didn't miss the fact that you got me a jar of PINK and a jar of ORANGE!!)
• Altered paint can (green and brown?  Again....you know me so well!  This is adorable and I just love that you traced over the monogrammed 'D' with a stardust gelpen - it looks awesome!)
• Adorable hand stamped card

Seriously Girls.....you've overwhelmed me with your kindness, your generosity and your love.  I am abundantly blessed and I just can't thank each of you enough.  I love you all!!