O Christmas Tree 2014

I love Christmas. Love wreaths (does it show?! LOL!) - we have two that match - one over the garage and one on our front door. I prefer white lights and have those over the garage, my DH prefers multi-color lights and has those on the door with ornaments I'd hung. Love the tree, admit I keep it up WAY too long. I promise my DH that we'll have it down by my eldest son's b'day (early Feb) and there have been years it's been close! I keep thinking that one of these years we'll get it put up soon after Thanksgiving and take it down soon after Christmas, but we often put it up Christmas week and this year was no exception.

This year's tree is almost all red ornaments ... there are a few Christmas sentiments (iron word stampings I'd picked up at a craft show years ago which the artist painted white and frosted w glitter ... so pretty, and this year I put up the believe, joy, Merry Christmas, noel, and peace sentiments), my fav of the needlework ornaments (most I made, some are from friends in my needlework guilds), some crystal snowflakes (I'd picked up a few in recent years and my family got me the latest Swarovski one for Christmas this year. They're BEAUTIFUL and reflect SO much light ... awesomeness!), a set of metal curly-q twirled ribbon-look ornaments, and just a couple of my favs ... a great rocking horse and a great bird's nest one. Then we tossed on only our red ornaments. We have mixed ones, then a set of ivory, and a set of red ones. This year I found a couple deals at dollar stores so picked up more red ones ... some tiny ones I put on the kitchen table tree that you can spot on the mantle in the pic, and some more different-shaped reds - in assorted ornament shapes, different finishes - some mat, some sparkly, some dusted w glitter.

We broke down in 2002 and went with a pre-lit fake tree for our great room, then when lots of the lights quit on us replaced it in 2010 ... and I'm noticing that some of its lights are now quitting on us. I'd picked up multiples of cranberry/peppermint candy strands years ago that I strung together and that goes on first, followed by lots of glass icicles (thanx, Bronner's, as we've picked up multiple packages of various sized ones over the years from our main supplier), then the sentiments, and lastly, ornaments. Ta da! OK, so I just wrote a whole post about our tree!

Besides the main and kitchen trees, we have another one that's only about 4' tall that's by the entry to the kitchen that we leave up year-round. It's decorated in acorns, ribbons, berries, and assorted tiny kitchen-y ornaments - whisks, baskets, milk cans, flour sifters, strainers, muffin tins, aprons - thanx to Hallmark for this tree! I remember I'd originally ordered it for the kitchen table, but hadn't realized the proportion would be way too large for the space ... so it got relegated to the entry which is about 4' wide as well.

Other than that, we have a few wall hangings here and there, and a pre-lit holly-look vine across the mantle, small cranberry/twig wreath, wicked cool stained glass cardinal (my Mom and I have collected cardinals over the years), and some candles and metal snowflakes on the mantle.

So, how'd YOU decorate this year? Thanx for stopping by! We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm channeling my Dad today. He used to almost always end his phone conversations with "Peace!" - especially so this time of year - and every time I pick up this die it makes me think of him. Gone 10 years last month ... hard to believe but true! Love you, Dad!

I tend to make more cards than needed; then the last couple years even participated in a class where we made 4 cards of 4-5 designs! I don't send out all that many cards these days, so I've got a supply to last me ... but then, what holiday do you suppose I can't seem to stop myself from purchasing additional supplies for??! You guessed it! Christmas! I've got stamps and dies I haven't even used yet!

stamps: unsure of the inside sentiment's origin; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; paper: Bazzill Palo Verde and Neenah Solar White card stocks; accessories: white string; tools: Cuttlebug w PTI holiday word die, Sizzix Tim Holtz Festive Greenery die and Holly Swirls embossing folder, unknown crochet thread

CASe it simple!

I'm addicted to Pinterest! There! I admitted it; I admit it freely! I ended up reviewing my Papercrafts Pinterest posts (in that folder alone I'v amassed 3,558 posts to date ... see what I mean?!) to gather some inspiration, and found it from the lovely and talented Linda Callahan of Stampin' Seasons blog fame.

I Googled "free Christmas music" and downloaded this ivory sheet, then used one of my word dies in the same color as the background ... and voila! It'd make a quick to reproduce card in case you mass-produced them, but I typically don't. Thanx for stopping by!

stamps: SU's Holiday Home (inside sentiment); paper: Neenah solar white, HPC's Dark Red, and downloaded freebie music sheet; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; accessories: Technique Tuesday's Say It - Noel die

SYSC#4 merry Christmas!

I seem to be on a red and white kick lately! I recently got together with a few friends for dinner where we exchanged cards; the first one to open one of my cards received one that was a white background with red ornaments ... and my stamping buddy kimR, who sat across from me, commented, "I like cards that are all white with pops of red!" Well, good thing, 'cuz that was the theme for the evening! And it appears I'm still on it! I'm playing with the folkes at the SYSC#4 showCASe your style blog challenge. Thanx for stopping by!

stamps: SU's Holiday Home; paper: Neenah solar white, and HPC's Dark Red; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; accessories: Spellbinders' layered poinsettia, SEI's Chalet sundries' bling, and unknown red/white washi tapes which are a very glisten-y red IRL. 

Pantone announces Color of the Year for 2015

I'm lovin' this year's color, a rich earthy wine red named Marsala. How 'bout you?! Now I'm off to find the closest card stock to it in my stash ... hope to stop by with a Christmas card post later! Thanx for stopping by and hope you have a t'riffic weekend!

SCT Winter 2014 Issue Is Out!

Just a quick "heads up" to note that the Winter issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today is available!

Brimming with inspiration, the Winter 2014 issue includes:
    scrapbook your holiday memories
    love is in the air
    seasonal cards
    hello 2015
    watercolour 101
    stunning, simple layouts
    bonus cutting files
    ... and a reader’s gallery full of stunning inspiration!

You can either order a print subscription, view it online, or download it to your desktop. See you soon, as I'm off to check it out now! Thanx for stopping by! Enjoy!

S&CT's fall mag is available ... AARGH!!

hi folkes! just a quick note to let you know that the fall edition of Scrapbook & Cards Today mag is now available. You can EITHER download the digi version OR view the entire mag online - thanx, S&CT!

It's one of my fav scrapbook mags and Canada’s first FREE magazine dedicated to scrapbooking and card making. It showcases the latest techniques and products, presents interesting and easy-to-follow ideas and instructions, and displays beautiful photography and inspiring design. Try it, if you haven't already ~ you'll like it!

I quickly perused it this a.m. but will revisit again at my leisure soon! (oh ... and a quick nod to remember to celebrate Int'l Talk Like A Pirate Day)

happy b'day SueB

I have a couple of friends, both named Sue (like me!), who I first met when I transferred to a former job in the Flint area more than 30 years ago! It amazes me how time flies when you're having fun! We've crafted, bowled, and golfed together, and more often in recent years get together for eats and sometimes to catch a movie... which reminds me, we're past due! Anywho, one of my Sue pals is celebrating her birthday next week and we made plans to get together for dinner and to catch up with some other friends, one who's visiting from out of town. I hope to remember to hand Sue's card to her then!

My crafty crew of Pat, Kim, and Kathleen and I got together at Kim's house recently and I ended up making a couple of birthday cards for Sue and another upcoming b'day rather than scrapbooking (tho I have plenty to get caught up on in that respect also) as I'd originally planned! Even though I have plenty of cards on hand, I always seem to make new cards for friends and family.

This one's from a card kit from Simon Says Stamp that I'd subscribed to a couple months ago. I'm a sucker for Creamsicles and hope she likes it! Thanx for stopping by!

stamps: SSS' Ice Cream Dream; paper: Neenah solar white, and SSS card stock, BoBunny 6x6 DP; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink, Ranger's peacock feathers and squeezed lemonade markers, SU's creamy caramel, crumb cake, pumpkin pie, and tangelo twist markers; accessories: asst'd Pretty Pink sequins, unknown orange/white washi tape

Wowzer! A Sherron Allen mug rug original!

Wowzer! I'm now the proud owner of a Sherron Allen original mug rug! It measures 9x9" square. KimR showed us a couple mug rugs her Mom had made for her and her DH just a week or so ago, and now Pat and I have our own! Thanx SO MUCH, Sherron and KimR! I LOVE purples and greens, and my lady comes complete w auburn hair and mugs and is awesome as is Sherron! Don't you LOVE how she picked up the polka dots in my lady's dress to carry on thru the quilting?! It's beautious!

This was a treat presented to me at dinner before our "spa day" girls day outing w my stampin' buddies Pat and Kim, and Kim's sister Tami. I supped on yummy deluxe lasagna at Ruggero's before heading to the spa, and then we checked out the new Fro Yo in Grand Blanc where I had tiramisu frozen yogurt topped w brownie bits and choco chips and maraschino cherries! YUM!

T'riffic day w t'riffic friends!

happy (belated) bday Kathleen

one of my scrappin' and work buddies recently celebrated her birthday while on vacation and I was out of the office on her return, so this card will get to her on Monday finally. there are now 7 of us at my work place who get together regularly, some more frequently than others, for field trips, scrapbooking or stamping classes or crops, etc.

I'm participating in online card classes' Stretch Your Stamps class and this is one of the cards I made from day 1 of the class. I did a "stamp off" and used the 2nd stamping of this background stamp for my first card, then used this original stamping to make Kathleen's card (so hey, I can pretty much copy and paste the supplies list from my previous card!). I die cut from close to the center of the stamped background, then die cut maybe 4 more from the watercolor stock, glued and stacked them. thanx for stopping by!

stamps: Hero Arts' Antique Brocade, Reverse Confetti's Beautiful Banners; paper: Canson's 90-lb watercolor card stock; ink: Ranger's frayed burlap, peacock feathers, peeled paint, seedless preserves, spiced marmalade, and spun sugar distress inks; tools: Cuttlebug w Avery Elle's Simply Said Hello die

you are my sunshine

I like to sometimes give "no reason" cards, and today's is one of those; we've no birthday or anniversary, but it's intention is to make sure my DH is aware that he's my sunshine! I've been reading more often than stamping or stitching lately, and really want to create some samples from this uber cool card class I've been taking, occ's Stretch Your Stamps 2.

day 3 and 4 are regarding alphabet and sentiment stamps. I'd picked up the sun and sunshine word dies to create our anniversary card last month, and love the dies and related stamp set. for today's card I first used distress inks on the sun die, then included the "you are my" of the "you are my sunshine" stamp to add it to a popped up 1-1/8" circle. I popped both of those up on the base which I popped up on the top-fold card base, then added the "sunshine" die cut from the same white card stock. it's almost hanging on by a thread, as I only glued the s and u letters ... but it's not going in the mail, just getting placed on the end table next to where my DH usually sits, so it's not in much danger of being damaged. I'm a sucker for embossing folders and love the clouds.

stamps: Simon Says Stamp's Bring The Sunshine; paper: Neenah's Solar White; ink: Ranger's mustard seed and spiced marmalade distress inks; tools: Cuttlebug w Simon's Sun & Sunshine dies and Darice's cloudy day embossing folder, 1-1/8" circle punch

Lucky me!

I'm one of the lucky recipients to have won a "seat" as a result of a comment I posted on a post on one of the class instructors - for me, it was from the lovely and talented Donna Mikasa of three umbrellas blog fame - to participate in the latest Online Card Class' installment, Stretch Your Stamps 2! Thanks, Donna!

I've used direct-to-stamp inking with distress stains on this image in the past, and like both results. Which technique do you prefer?

Here's my first card from Day One, working with background stamps. Following Shari's lead, I pulled out my craft sheet and blotted multiple distress inks on it, then misted them, and made two impressions. I put aside the first more vivid inked impression at a later date, and used the softer 2nd impression to cut into squares and pop up on today's card. The background stamp I used was a smaller one, measuring about 4-1/2" square, so I used a 1-1/8" square punch, distressed the edges of each square, and used a word die in two colors to create a shadow effect so that they would pop up from the card. I'm incredibly thankful today not only to have the opportunity to participate in class, but in celebrating that one of my stamping buddies pulled through a back surgery this week and is on the road to recovery, so this card is heading her way!

stamps: Hero Arts' Antique Brocade, PTI's Counting My Blessings ; paper: Canson's 90-lb watercolor, SU's Close to Cocoa; ink: Ranger's frayed burlap, peacock feathers, peeled paint, seedless preserves, spiced marmalade, and spun sugar distress inks; tools: Cuttlebug w PTI's Counting My Blessings word dies, and 1-1/8" square punch

happy anniversary PB!

This weekend my DH and I celebrated our wedding anniversary, and we ended up extending the celebration over two days. We went to the Detroit Zoo on Friday with our boys, and on impulse mutually agreed we'd wait 'til Saturday to go to dinner. I think my calves are STILL recuperating from all the walking we did, AND we only walked to the back of the zoo, then caught the mini train back to the front! I wear a pedometer and figured we'd already walked 8,000 steps, and tho' I try to work in a few days of 10,000 steps each week, we were SO ready to sit! Maybe it was the fact that it was non-stop walking, where I normally break up my 10K steps into 2-3 manageable sessions? Whatever, I'm glad we went during the cool spell as the temps were only in the mid 70's. One of my sons decided to walk back as we'd not seen the lions and tigers and apes along the east end of the park, and he actually beat us as we had to wait for the 2nd train back. That's okay ... he just waited for us by the gift shop, which we hit on our way out. We'll have to make a return trip in early spring or late fall to catch the polar bears out in their exhibit, 'cuz they stayed inside this trip enjoying their air conditioning! I'd not been to the Detroit Zoo since they built the new polar bear exhibit, and a volunteer there I spoke with told me that was 2001! Did you know that polar bears overheat in temps as low as 4 degrees Fahrenheit?! Yowza!

Saturday we went to one of my fav restaurants, Red Lobster, where I feasted on crab linguini alfredo topped off with a side of broccoli. We headed over around 3 p.m. and we walked in and were immediately seated; that was a first for us so we'll have to plan on doing more "luppers" there - a cross between lunch and supper, for the uninitiated!

Anywho, I'd picked up two die sets and a stamp set especially for my anniversary card to my DH and here's the card. The inside uses another die, the word "sunshine," as part of the inside sentiment, "happy anniversary, sunshine!" and has a couple of the clouds cut out from the outline die on the front of the card. Don't you just love K Werner's handwriting font?

stamps: Simon Says Stamp's Bring The Sunshine; paper: Neenah's Solar White, Simon's Sea Glass; ink: Ranger's black soot; tools: Cuttlebug w Simon's Sun & Sunshine, and Cloud Bank dies, unknown circle punch (methinks 1-1/8" but I already put it away and I'm too lazy to go look it up)

congrats to Jessy & David!

My niece Jessy and her beau David were wed this past weekend. It was SO nice to see the extended family together! My youngest son and I got our crafty on for part of their gift; he'd originally worked with Jessy to design the invites so we framed ours; I'd used some software to blow up and switch her wedding announcement from color to a soft charcoal pencil and we put them in matching frames. Voila!

The reception theme was "under the stars" and they'd strung white mini lights all across the yard. It was SO cool looking! Their colors were a deep blue and white so I kept to that for the card too, and HAD to include some star-shaped bling. The blue sequins were from the table decorations from their wedding shower; they'd put blue and white flowers in canning jars with small white sparkly rocks and these blue sequins. I was lucky enough to take a table decoration home w me so got to use that on the card as well.

Here's wishing them the happily ever after they both deserve!

stamps: SU's Gorgeous Grunge; paper: Neenah's Solar White, SU's Night of Navy; ink: Ranger's faded jeans, SU's Night of Navy; tools: Cuttlebug w QuicKutz's Moonlight alphabet and gingerbread dies; accessories: asst'd Hero Arts' rhinestones and wedding shower sequins

happy b'day kimR!

We celebrated one of my scrappin' buddies' birthdays recently, and as she's very into polka dots I knew I just HAD to use dots on my card, don't you know?! And when I spotted this beauty by Nichole Heady of papertreyink, I knew it was perfect for my Kim! A CASE in point, it looks like a party waiting to happen; don't you agree?

stamps: Reverse Confetti's Beautiful Banners; paper: Neenah's Solar White, assorted SU's brights collection; ink: Ranger's black soot; tools: circle punch

the longest day

hmmnn ... what's on my mind this weekend?! sue-cubed, open houses, Flint Farmer's Market grand opening, caring for Mom/relief for her caretaker, my bro' Mark, and ... oh yeah ... the 2014 Flint Art Fair!! 

there wasn't enough time to make it to everything ... but I always seem to find something for my other half at the art fair, so that was a given! no exception this year, and I picked up a Christmas gift for my bro' Jack and his other half. now if I can only remember where I ditch it for safekeeping 'til then, LOL!

happy summer solstice (for the northern hemisphere), all!

have you checked out the SCT summer issue?

One of my fav Canadian mags has released its summer issue ... and it offers both a subscription or free viewable version! Isn't that sweet of them?!

Head to their site - you can subscribe, view online, or download the latest edition there! Enjoy!

in remembrance of D Day ... free donuts?!

I don't quite know what donuts have to do with D Day, but that didn't keep us from enjoying some, compliments of my coworker Anthony!

Among the national chains participating in the free donut promotion include Krispy Kreme (no strings attached), Dunkin' Donuts (free w purchase of beverage), and Tim Horton's (free w any purchase). The lines at these places were long, so Anthony opted to pick up donuts from Donna's Donuts, a local fav! Thanx again, Anthony!

Do you like vintage signage? I do, and I'd pinned the following from the Cheltenham Road blog and wanted to share the love ... inspired by the orange sign, above. Thanx for stopping by!

Angelina shines as Maleficent

I had a half day vacation and took my eldest to see Maleficent, which opened Friday. On Wednesday afternoon I figured it wouldn't be too crowded, and I was right. Lots of folkes there, but seating was plentiful and we were able to sit center of the aisle we'd selected. It's a prequel of sorts, telling the story of what made Maleficent cross over to the fairy dark side in the first place! And tho' the story doesn't stray too far from the Disney animated story, I was genuinely surprised at the changes in the treatment of King Steffan and the three fairies. I can't be twisted to say any more; don't want to post a spoiler report! Enjoy!

happy birthday, 'sis!

Totally CASE'd from the lovely and talented Jan Tink, I'd picked up some bling birthday words recently and intended to use my "make a wish" stamp as a banner for a card for my sister's upcoming birthday, and then spotted Jan's card and it became my inspiration go-to card for this week!

My stamping buddy Kim and I made a field trip to Saginaw MI this past spring ... or was it winter? It was winter - in early March ... and we went to two stores. The first one, Scrapbook Peddler, is where I purchased the "make a WISH" stamp. Then we went about a mile further to another (sadly, now closed) store, A Place to Crop Scrapbook Shoppe, and I spotted the self adhesive rhinestone word embellishments! Strange, eh?! If they weren't meant to be used together, I dunno what is more meant to be! (aside from Sue: there's another match made in heaven ... the stamp set has the word "dream," and the bling set includes the word "BIG," so that sounds like another birthday card in the making, doesn't it?!) I'd thought that I'd use the grunge stamp set and whatever green inks I had on hand but Jan's card inspired me to add the washi tape and star too! Green's probably my 2nd fav color after purple ... can you tell from my blog background? Grins!

stamps: pebbles' Ever After Phrase Stamps, SU's Gorgeous Grunge, Off The Grid; paper: Neenah's Solar White, SU's Green Galore and Sahara Sand; ink: Ranger's peeled paint, SU's Garden Green, Pear Pizazz, Sahara Sand; tools: Cuttlebug w Spellbinders' Stars Five; accessories: asst'd green washi tapes, M&MBI's birthday rhinestones

The new SU catty is here!

The new catty is live now; click HERE to view online!

Have you created your wish list yet? I have, and here's my first draft (some new with the 2014-15 catty, others I've had on my wish list but haven't yet purchased):

p13 - Fabulous Four
p16 - Perfect Pennants
p35 - What's Up?
p37 - Tape It
p111 - Banner Banter
p146 - Six-Sided Sampler 
p149 - Too Kind
p160 - What's Your Type?
p168 - For the Birds
p186 - Confetti Celebration
p212 - Stampin' Blendabilities Markers
p223 - Banner punch 

I'm SO looking forward to scoping out the Blendabilities - love, Love, LOVE my Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, and Smoky Slate colors so will probably at least pick those color families up ... not to mention the skin tone assortment. How 'bout you?!

enabler alert - create mag, from Scrapbook Generation

New to me, since January 2014 the kind folkes at Scrapbook Generation have published create, their online free mag, and if you haven't checked it out yet, block out some time to get acquainted! They focus on sketches and each month feature a leading manufacturer's design team creating scrapbook (mainly) and cards based on sketches created by SG's lovely and talented Allison Davis and Debbie Sanders. This month's issue - all 245 pages (yes, you read that right!) - features Simple Stories ... which is my fav DP line! I just figured I'd take a short break to share ... now I'm heading back to read more! Join me, won't you?!

Let me know if you have other fav freebie online mags that I may be missing!

Happy Easter!

 

Happy Easter from the Blondin household!

Whoo hoo! I woke early, couldn't get back to sleep, but had charged my nook so I downloaded a book and read for a while, then tried to sleep when I felt tired again ... but alas, it's just not happening. I decided to give up and get my Quicken updates posted early as my youngest "claimed" the desktop computer was his this weekend as a new game he's interested in is offered in beta mode this weekend ...

Anywho, the long and short of this post is to announce that I heard my first robin at 6:51 a.m. EST! Whoo hoo indeed, right?! I ALMOST went to wake my DH to have him confirm what I was hearing, but fought that temptation. He got up 10 minutes later and heard it for himself, though! And made coffee for us both, bless him. Had I mentioned that he's my personal brew master, and it's much appreciated? For whatever reason, his coffee always tastes better than mine.

Enjoy the day folkes, and thanx for stopping by! I wonder how many will be watching the Oscars tonight?

happy valentine's day!

Happy Valentine's Day! My DH and I are celebrating Valentine's Day at home this evening. We're planning on watching a romantic comedy - my favorite movie genre - and he's picking up dinner as I'm uploading the card I made for him!

I'm crazy for gray and yellow color combinations, so picked out some of Authentique's Blissful collection for the heart, and used a solid for the base which I embossed and popped up. I had some Prima hearts in gray, yellow, and ivory put aside to go with that DP collection, and pulled some gray card stock from SU's neutral collection to cut out the die. It became a CAS card that he thought was super elegant... and still was easy peasy, right?!

stamps: n/a; paper: Neenah's Solar White , SU's (unknown gray); ink: SU's Going Gray; tools: Cuttlebug w Lifestyle Crafts' Sweetheart embossing folder, Marvy extra jumbo heart; accessories: Prima hearts and Technique Tuesday's Say It - Love You die

happy b'day Geoff!

We celebrated my eldest's birthday this week by taking in The Lego Movie, then picking up cheesecake and food from Taco Bell and heading home. The movie had some cute funny parts but I found myself thinking that perhaps if you had ADHD it would keep your attention; it just seemed a little TOO busy for me. Geoff liked it though! And he picked out both the birthday outing, eats, and cake of choice - a cheesecake sampler that we'll be finishing off by week's end!

For his card I used one of my latest stamp sets from a new company, winnie & walter (it came with a free cutting file that I'm sure I'll be using in my Silhouette soon)! I like the font of the handwritten words - which include happy, hello, and love, with lots of combinations of phrases in a simple typewriter-looking font. I repeated the same handwritten font in multiple colors and popped up the images on a white background. The inside has a similar "happy birthday to you" where I used all three ink colors on the word "happy" in a random variegated pattern; it's a CAS card but I'm liking CAS lately.

stamps: winnie & walter's The Big, the Bold, and the Happy; paper: Neenah's Solar White; ink: Ranger's black soot, faded jeans, peeled paint, and seedless preserves distress inks

The Night That Changed America – A Grammy Salute to The Beatles

Did you happen to catch it live on Sunday, or, like me, record it on your DVR and watch it later? I wasn't going to be home Sunday evening so I'm glad I remembered to program the DVR, as it cut a 2-1/2 hour production down to 90 minutes, yeah! The show itself was great! There were moments my youngest son watched with me (he became interested in the Beatles' music about 10+ years ago), and he knew the more contemporary bands that I'd not heard of, but all in all, I think everyone performed great interpretations of the Beatles' songs. I tried to not embarrass my son by singing aloud, and recalled with him how miffed we were with so many of the girls in the audience that night on the Ed Sullivan show who were screaming so much while my sister and I were sitting in front of the TV trying to hear the boys!

It was interesting watching the old taped segments, some interlaced with contemporary artists who'd finish playing the pieces. Nice bit of biographies on the individual Beatles; I even learned some new factoids. I'd no idea that Ringo had TB as a youngster. He used to be my fav; they interviewed some of the gals who'd been in the Ed Sullivan audience and asked who their favorite was. Eventually I couldn't tell you who my fav was; I just liked the whole group. And they sure didn't disappoint when it came time for the remaining Beatles to do their solos and songs together at the end of the program! It was a great trip down Memory Lane and I'll watch the program again!

Thanx for stopping by!

can you believe 6 more weeks of winter?!

Well, the majority of the crowd stationed in Gobbler's Knob was surely disappointed this morning when Punxsutawney Phi made the following announcement (via his translator):

A Super Bowl winner I will not predict,
But my weather forecast, you cannot contradict,
That's not a football lying beside me
It's my shadow you see
So, six more weeks of winter it shall be!

The Washington Post covered the event. And what, you ask, about Michigan's own Woody's prediction? Well, snipped from the Howell Conference & Nature Center, which she calls home, came the following announcement:

This year’s prognostication, her sixteenth, was made crystal clear by her outright refusal to even leave her home. With temperatures at the Nature Center hovering in the low 20′s and several inches of snow on the ground, the clairvoyant chuck’s behavior was interpreted as just another sign of her wisdom.

In an interview on local radio station WHMI, Woody chose the Denver Broncos to win the Super Bowl, a prediction she has called correctly six out of the eight years that she has served in this capacity.

I'll try to catch snippets of the game later today, but I've gotta admit, I'm more interested in the commercials, and can catch them on YouTube afterward. For me, I'm more interested in watching Groundhog Day - the movie - to ring in the day! Enjoy your day, folkes, and thanx for stopping by!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, all!

A couple things about this time of year to share ...

1) you may not know this, but I'm a list junkie from WAY back! So, I'm lovin' this time of year, and checking out all sorts of "year in review" posts on blogs and on TV. And ...

2) I love a parade! Always have been and always will! We're watching the 125th Tournament of Roses parade as I post today, and the Harlem Globetrotters just passed by. They weren't on a float but walking, and doing basketball tricks as they passed by. I went with my family to see them when I was a kid (well, maybe not THIS version of the Globetrotters ... ) and loved 'em! And ...

3) I made today's card this morning from some Jolee's paper tape I purchased this past fall on an crafty outing w my stamping buddies Pat and Kim, and the EK Success stickers that I received free with a recent online order. I was pretty surprised they matched so well! The star that the new year is posted on is popped up, and it's a present from my buddy Kim this past Christmas! I'm just now breaking it in (thanx, Kim!). And ...

4) One of my New Year Resolutions is to return to posting ... something I've been remiss about recently. Dunno why ... I CERTAINLY keep purchasing new product so should try to at least post on a weekly basis! So, if you have a blog, how often do YOU post? And ...

5) I added a "follow me on Feedly" button on the right hand side of my blog this morning. Isn't modern technology wonderful?! And ... that's it! Here's the card's deets:

stamps: n/a; paper: Neenah's Solar White , SU's Tempting Turquoise; ink: n/a; tools: Cuttlebug; accessories: Jolee's Cool Blues paper tape set, QuicKutz's No. 73 number set and Spellbinders Stars Five dies