Yes, I'm still alive

Hi legionnaires. Took a little unannounced hiatus there. My dd decided she was rather exhausted by me & dh moving into her home and took off to house-sit somebody apartment for 2 weeks, leaving her poor dh and me to take care of the kids and house. Have you ever heard of such a thing. She said her counselor (marriage) said it would be wise. Well, he should know, I suppose.

Sooo, along with that came 4 birthdays (including mine), one anniversary to celebrate, and what appeared to have been some kind of pinched nerve in my neck, not to mention putting the finishing touches (for now) on my craftroom, and you have one heck of a busy month.

Now and then, I squeezed in a card, but was too lazy to take a picture and I still haven't found the perfect location outdoors for taking photos. We get plenty of sun so that's not the problem, just the background has me puzzled. So here's one I did snap, but the colors are not true and no amount of fiddlin' with Picassa's "feelin lucky" button would get it right. Suffice it to say, it did start out with a muted monotone sorta look. I was determined to use this recently purchased piece of crochet and so I have.

Here's some other stuff I've been doing.
- saw Eclipse on opening night...best of the series IMO
- re-joined Stampin' Up as a demo...couldn't resist the $35 invite
- re-organized my new craft space twice...had to make room for all the new
SU stuff I plan on getting.
- read over 1,000 stamping blogs in one week....WHEW, I really do subscribe
to that many. Is it any wonder I neglect mine?

Soooo, summer is half-over and I hope everyone is enjoying what's left of it. I know I plan to.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

I accepted the challenge

Evenin' legionnaires.
First up...I gotta apologize for not following with the contest posted last month.
Well, of course I had very few respondees and they must trust my mug, 'cause they thought I was tellin' the truth. Actually, all but one was a lie or in some cases, barely a half truth. The truth was I didn't learn to drive until I was 43. As a bonafide inner-city New Yorker, I took public transportation or just walked.
So, today, I was determined to find a challenge that I could use my new Hero Arts stamp set on. This sweet little girl is from the new How Does Your Garden Grow? Isn't she the sweetest? I'm not much for "people" stamps, but this one caught my eye. You may have read my stance on Magnolias....the mouthless tots...and Bellas never did if for me. This little gal, however, won my heart.
She was colored completely with Copics. I have taken one basic (non-cert) class, and I own about 40 pens, but I'm so scared to try them on large images. I went for it this time in response to  Verve's 100th Color Throwdown. To give myself a headstart, (a.k.a. a kick in the butt, I visited several of the hop blogs and got my mojo working with this card from Wanda at Cullen-ary Creations.
I've read that people have difficulty coloring black toned skins, Well, let tell me you, all white folks don't have the same skintones either. I forgot to give her a little cheek rosiness. I'm not sure wheather she's Italian, Yugoslavian, or Scandinavian, but I sure was happy when I was done and I know practice makes perfect. Well, I hope you like her, 'cause you're gonna see her around my blog now & then. The punches I used are Quilt from MS and an EK Success big scallop punch. The butterflies are MS too and the dots is a BG stamp from Inkadinkadoo, I have been wanting forever. Did I mention that I love the color combo? It's a keeper. Oh, and I'm really happy that I didn't feel compelled to use ribbon and I even plunged into stamping the sentiment sideways...a rarity for moi. Now, go and check out the challenge. They're giving away lots of prizes.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

Still Here...really

Hello legionnaires. Contrary to popular belief, I haven't fallen off the earth. I have, however, been busy adjusting to my new way of living and a bit under the weather with a UTI. I now believe this latter inconvenience is brought on by stress. I am attacking it with cranberry pills, Vitamin D, and a slew of other vitamins. I hope to also get more rest, but so far, that has alluded me.
My craftroom is not complete. Those dang cabinets proved to be rather expensive, so I only have one wall done and the rest of the room is my menagerie of carts and more carts. I may show a photo one day, but I'm not in a rush. The good thing is that I'm set-up for stamping and have been doing quite a bit of CASEing, since I saved ginormous numbers of cards while blog-hopping when I couldn't stamp.
This one is a bookmark. See this week's SSC Newsletter for a tutorial. I have been wanting to make these forever. Beatte's video finally got me going. I was aiming for masculinity here and I made another femme that my dd loved so much she took it before I could snap it. I'll see if I can get it back.
I think that this bookmark may also satisfy Sharon Johnson's No Time To Stamp  challenge this week, as it uses stars. I used SU real red for my base, Paper Studio ds, non-SU other colors, EK punches, and the stars are done with an inked Star embossing folder from Cuttlebug. The words are from a Fiskars clear stamp set, and the ribbon is from my stash. These really work best on hard-covered books with sturdy pages, They're a bit clumsy-looking on paperbacks I think.
I will be back tomorrow with a card. I'll bet your are saying, "Yeah right." I do have a poor track record.
Alas, give me grace. If God can, so can you. :D.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

Here We Go....

So, here is one of the three empty walls...the room is a bit odd-shaped with no closets, so we will have to maximize all the wall space. One of the walls has a window facing east that has lots of bright sun coming in for the first half day. This is perfect since I usually stamp in the morning and then again late at night.

This is my SIL, hard at work. He's my master cabinet installer, plumber and overall  fixer upper and he is going to install stereo/video system  for our suite. My DH is so excited. It's gonna be gojus when it's through. 

Now, on to other fun stuff. Janice here has asked me to play a cute game that's quite different from others you may have seen. We are to tell truths or lies and you are to guess which they are. I'm giving you six statements. One group of statements are lies with one truth and the other group of statements are truths with one lie. Get it? You have to decide which I am telling. If you guess correctly, you get an RAK from me. My deadline is June 20th. Here I go.

1. I was a breeder of Japanese Akitas.

2. I was employed as a producer at ABC Network News.

3. I didn't learn to drive until I was 43 years old.

4. I am the only member of my family who can't sit in the "criss cross applesauce" position.

    (In my day, this was known as indian fashion...I think it's politically incorrect now)

5. I read the "One Year Bible" in four months.

6. I won first place in 6th grade for the annual Spelling Bee.

OK, so I'll be checking back here for responses in a few days. I'll also add some pics of the "almost finished" craftroom.

Hugs & Blessings,

Erica

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I'm back...sorta'

Hello legionnaires. I have been so busy it's surreal! And at the end of the day, I'm famished and exhausted. My room is not ready yet. Remember those great plans my dd and sil had for me. Well, they kinda' forgot that these things cost money. My sil is an excellent carpenter, but like most of us has limited time on his hands. Sooo, we resorted to Ikea, which has a variety of crafty good furniture/cabinetry to choose from.He will put them together and tweek to suit.  Sooo, we were able to afford one short wall of upper cabinets and that's it for now. I will add as the good Lord gives me the OK to spend. I had no cabinets at all back in my own home, using iris carts, cubes and whatever else struck my fancy for storage. Sometimes, it was awkward or cumbersome, but I got used to it and rarely misplaced anything. I will share pics of the mess tomorrow and then with the first installment of installs the following day. In the meantime, I've been surfing the web whenever I have had a spare moment. Today, I found an app for the iphone that scrapbookers will love. Previously, I provided a link for an app for cardmakers. Here's a direct link to a video about this latest app.
Scrapbooker app for iphone

Enjoy.
Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

Moving Day

I'm betting by now that my legionnaires have concluded that I am moving and haven't a minute to spare to do what I enjoy most for fun. Today is the day and I'm still not quite ready. I need to pack 10 more boxes at least and I've run out of tape. My SIL isn't ready for us either. The floors are done and the bathroom's been renovated, but my craftroom hasn't been started. I will probably not be stamping for most of the summer. I have mixed feelings about this. If you read my posts, you'll know that I have now and then, lamented about the hold that stamping has on me. I wouldn't say it's addictive, but darned close. As I have been preparing for this move, I've discovered just how many things went un-done. I'm a bit ashamed. Not to mention my prayer life which always took second place to stamping. So, this is a chance to change that, or at least re-arrange priorities. Since I will only have two rooms to keep in order and will be sharing KP duties, I  will have more time, so I know that stamping will continue to be part of my life. It truly does de-stress me. In the next few months, I will be reading blogposts, but won't be keeping up with mine, unless it's to use it as a journal only. That seems to help me too. I may also post a recipe now and again too. Before stamping, I was an enthusiastic cook and loved it...especially the compliments. I may also recoommend a book as I have always enjoyed reading and finally am doing more. I wish there were enough hours in the day to do it all, but alas, it's not to be.

So take care my legionnaires and check back if you want to just see what I'm up to, but if it's cards you will be looking for, you'll have to check the other 2,000 or so other blogs for your inspiration. Of course, my sidebar contains the ones I will check most.  I doubt I'll be missed. Thanks for your input and appreciative comments. I so enjoyed them.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

So Happy!

Well, I guess you could say that this happy frog reflects my mood. The biopsy came back benign, negative, etc. The procedure sure has come a long way since I had one 18 years ago. It was dang uncomfortable, but not exactly painful either and over in 45 minutes. I was back to my old self by noon, except I didn't run out and play a couple of rounds...teasin'. I don't do golf. But had I some margarita mix, I sure woulda' tossed a couple.
I have been very busy with getting organized and trying to find buyers for much of my furniture as the move gets nearer. Looks like we're saying goodbye to my town (now called a city...having increased its population from 18,000 to 33,000 in 14 years). We've been approved for the short-sale, and are awaiting the date. Once I have it, it will be good-bye to blogging for 10 to 15 days. That's a bummer for me, but I get so wrapped up in checking blogs that I go hours on end and not one box packed. So today, I put 10 boxes in my room, strategically placed so I will trip over them if I try to get to my PC or stamping table. I have no choice but to pack.
Sooo, this is a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 card, white base, CTMH ds paper, ribbon, and teeny wax floss bow. The other papers are a mixed bag. I used my Nesties and an EK Success border punch. the sentiment is a clear stamp....don't make me look....and I used the "out of the box" technique to get the flower above the "fray" so to speak. The flower center flower soft on it. The button is from my stash. S/He is a Penny Black stamp and colored with Copics.
Hugs & Blessings,
Erica