LIM 108; LRW 174 ~ Vellum Piecing or Piercing?

Tarantulas and Taradiddles, it's already Thursday!

I simply HAD to play in this week's Less Is More (Week 108) challenge.  The challenge is to use paper piercing.

 

ETA:  My friend Jessi from One Crafty Mama suggested I also link my card to the current  Little Red Wagon where challenge #174 is to use vellum.  Thanks, Jessi!

So here is another light and springy card, made especially for those of you under gray skies:

I think you can tell by the slight puffiness that the top layer is vellum.  It is so hard to photograph vellum.  I heat-embossed the flower in white and pierced around the flower and up to the butterfly.

 

~~~

 

A Tribute

 

It's that word thing again.  How the addition or substraction of just one letter can change the whole meaning of a word.

 

You might be amused to know that as of just last June, I had never paper-piEced a card before.  I had done a little pieRcing around a border, but never piecing (which I now LOVE!).  My first one was here.  And the first time I had even heard of it was from a Less Is More challenge.  I believe I entered a card with paper-pieRcing and Chrissie or Mandi set me straight.  Do you remember, Chrissie? 

 

One of you said at the time that now that I mentioned it, a paper pieRcing challenge would be fun to do sometime and now here we are!

 

My goodness those two ladies were so nice to me, a fairly new bee, just trying to get my feeties wet with challenges and figuring out the lingo.  It's a confusing world out there when you first start out. 

 

I also recently came across an email  that I sent to them last summer to clarify what "back-linking" was!  I had even Googled it.  As near as I could tell it meant to link-back (back-link) to your blog and I was having a heck of a time figuring out why this was not allowed, since the whole point of a blog, I thought, was drawing people TO your blog.  C & M gently explained it all to me and brought me back in from out in left field.

sweetclipart.com

(Backlinking means you can't take a card that you posted once before, say, last November and "repost" it in a new current challenge. Why the heck we don't just say "no reposting," I don't know.  Please, someone, correct me if I still have the meaning wrong!)

~~~

 

I've come a long way in these last few months and feel like an old-timie blogger now, but I would so still be out-to-sea-without-a-paddle if it weren't for their help and the help of other challenge owners and design team members.  Now the fabulous Jen has taken over for Mandy at LIM, and she is equally a doll.

 

 If you are new to this crazy world, feel free to ask questions of ANY of us.  I'm sure my story is the same for all the other established bloggers in our crafting community; when they started, they were helped by those who blogged before.  I think by the very nature of our craft, we are a very nice group of people.  You don't make cards to bring joy to others without being a very nice person.  I mean, right?!  There are, however, some bloggers who don't leave comments or reply, but that is extremely rare.  If that should happen, don't be discouraged, just ask someone else.

 

Thank you for indulging me in my tribute to the ladies who made me feel at home and educated me SO much!  Mwah!!

 

A pretty for you until your own spring comes around the corner!

 

~~~

 

Just in time to help me pot some fresh flowers around the Playhouse, please help me give a warm welcome to our new friend, Kay, from 505 Whimsy Girl!  Kay is one of those multi-talented crafters who's a paint-on-canvas artist, a card maker, a knitter, a photographer, a mixed-media participator, and a truly friendly and fun person.  You'll enjoy meeting her!  Thank you, Kay, and welcome!!

 

~~~

 

I hope you enjoy your day, even if you're still up to your knee crackers in snow!  No, seriously enjoy your day!  LITS*!

*Life Is Too Short!

 

Paper:  SU! textured pink; vellum

Stamp:  SU! Every Moment

Ink:  Hero Arts white EP

Hat pin and SU! mat pack

Butterfly: K & Company

Brads from stash

CASology Circles, Pixie Snips, and a MUSE CASE

Happy, happy day!

A realy quicky post today as I find myself acting like a headless chicken.  It's an unusual state for my normal slothy existence.

I made a card for these challenges:

CASology Week 33 where the cue card is "Circles."

 

 

Pixie's Crafty Snippets Week 61 because I used snips of scraps.  Now how easy can a challenge be?! 

MUSE Card Club Challenge 6, where our Muse for this week is the extraordinary Deanna Jean from Kloset Kreations.  Here is Deanna's beautiful card for us to CASE:

 

 

I loved using her colors to make my own background paper using various circle and flower-center stamps I have.  I CASEd her boxed-in sentiment by using a stitched mat die from Lil' Inkers and drawing a line over the stitches to connect them.  So my card looks like this:

 

 

 

I know backgrounds can be distracting, but I had to include the full shot of my card with these adorable little flowers.  They are the only living flowers in all my pots because we had so many frostful nights for our area so everything else died.  If you know the name of this flower, please let me know.  I want to remember them for next fall in order to have color throughout the winter.

 

(Don't hate on me if you live in those parts of the country ~Kansas City~ where you are breaking snowfall records.  Heavy, wet snowfall records.  Spring will be here soon, I promise!)

 

~~~

 

It is my enormous pleasure today to welcome a new friend to the Playhouse!  Please take some time to visit Erin at CreatErin.  You will be happy you did!  Erin has been blogging for almost a year and she is an excellent card crafter.  Thank you, Erin, and welcome!!

 

~~~

 

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day. LITS*!

*Life Is Too Short!

 

 

Paper:  SU! lucky limeaid; PTI white; unknown white

Stamps:  PTI "Think Big Favorites #2;" SU! "Mixed

  Bunch" and "Posy Punch;" RS Tapestry

Inks:  SU! regal rose, rose red, real red, and cherry

  cobbler; PTI black

Die:  Lil' Inker "Stitched Mat Collections Rectangle"

Copics Outliner pen

Bling from stash

 

WOYWW #195 ~ Clear Sort ~ Sorta Fini

Hey There!

You guys, it's the end of Febberary!  Holy knees and butterscotch.

It's time once again for What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday (WOYWW), a mahoosive blog hop brought to us by the invigorating Ms. Julia.   I hope you check it out if you don't know about it!

 

My desk today is actually Part Two of my desk last week where I showed you that since I now have too many clear stamps to keep filed up in my head, I need to sort them like I have sorted my woodens for years and a decade. 

 

Listen, if you even THINK you might like to do a similar system, start now.  It's so much easier to start from the beginning or early on, than to go back and create order out of old chaos.  It's like organizing photos.  I see you nodding.

 

So it's taken me the whole week and I've still got more to do, but I've done enough to share with you before you lose complete interest, and who could blame you?  Some of you mentioned that I made it clear (ha ha) what my concept was, but not my execution and you were interested in seeing that part.  This is that part.

 

Here are my finished clear stamp cases, ready for the shelves:

You can see that there are two types of cases.  There are Stampin' Up plastic cases and CD cases.  I'd love to have all the cases be the same size, but some "themes" require the bigger SU cases, some don't, and because the bigger SU cases are more expensive, I use CD cases for the smaller themes.  I have to say I do love those SU cases, which you can buy empty.  I believe they are basically DVD cases.

 

Here they all are back up in their cup board.  (That's one cupboard, zoomed, not three cupboards full!)

Notice that not only are my cases not all the same, but my labels are not font identical.  So there.  That means that despite coming up with the name, and despite outward appearances, I don't have "clinical" Organized Crafting Disorder.  I just have garden-variety OCD.

 

Here is a close-up of both types of cases which shows what I mean by my "themes."

I hope this has helped to give you the completed picture of my style of organization.  For me, there is just no way I could remember that I had all those sweet little "hello" stamps in different stamp sets if I didn't give them their own case.

 

~~~

 

And finally, here's the next installment. Not for you, I think you now get the idea, but for me. This is my "birthday" drawer of woodens. I just tossed in my clear birthday sediments, but I think they will be cased and shelved soon. 

I thought about keeping them together in the drawer, but I think I will do better putting those clear birthdays up on the shelf and looking in both places if I want a birthday sediment.  Not only does it get my bass up and out of the chair, but I'm one of those people who can't see the forest for the trees.  Once it's layered, I only see the stuff on top, KWIM?  I have to hang my clothes up for the same reason. 

 

It was very interesting reading your thoughts last week about your individual preferences.  I  know I'm fortunate to be blessed with enough space to organize in a way that works most efficiently for me, and not in a way forced on me by space men.  Wait, no.  I mean limits, space limits.  I'm always amazed by folks who can function with lots of layers with great skill, knowing where everything is.  A lot of you WOYWW folks can do just that!

 

Thank you, friends, for hopping to my blog.  Enjoy the rest of the WOYWW hippy hop and thanks for letting me know you were here so I can return the flavor!

 

In fact, enjoy your entire day, wherever you hop to!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  LITS*!

 

*Life Is Too Short!

 

 

ATCAS #7; CFC91; CTS #16 ~ Vintage Man

Happy Tweezeday!

 

I made a masculine card per the code word at the fun Addicted to CAS (ATCAS) challenge.  (BTW, I'd like to thank ATCAS for picking my card as a Top Three last week!!)

 

I used the sketch designed by the talented Karolyn Loncon for the current CAS(E) This Sketch challenge.

 

 

And I added silver which is the "Hi Ho Silver" theme at this week's CAS-ual Fridays (CFC91) challenge.

 

 

And I made this birthday card:

 

I just want to say, up front, that I know this is an outdated "man" card.  To avoid any imp priority, we use the term "vintage" when we make such cards.  The images on my card are strips of washi tape, "vintage" washi tape. 

 

My card could certainly be sent to a female.  But this "vintage" grandmother still vividly remembers when all her bosses were men, with briefcases and telephones just like that.

 

Now, however, I'm so old that, well that:

 

 

 

Oh, sorry, somehow the bottom of this old sign got cut off.  I'm sure you know, of course, that it reads, "Mr. Anderson."  I wonder what the story is with that guy?

 

~~~

 

So naughty.  Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  LITS*!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 

*Life Is Too Short!

Papertrey February 2013 Blog Hop Challenge; Dynamic Duos #41 ~ Teals

And we're blessed with another new week!  Happy Monday!

 

Being the 25th, it's time for the monthly {capture the moment} Papertrey Ink February 2013 blog hop.  This month the challenge is to use a monogram in some way.  I bought a "d" monogram in the $1 bin at our local craft store way last summer and have never used it, so it was fun to finally ink it up!  

  

 

My monogram reminds me of a big fat flower, so I combined it with the fantastic flower stem from PTI's "Rosie Posie" set.

And since I love making cards with only two colors, especially when it's mono chrome, I used this week's colors from the dynamic Dynamic Duos in shades of teal:  island indigo and pool party. 

For added character and more tealy goodness, I stacked the two colors to make a stripey background paper and then, with a child's Fiskars sciskors, I scalloped the edges on the right- and left-hand sides to mimic the scalloped rim of the flower, except not perfectly like Mother Nature would have done it.  That's the endearing qualitivity between handmade cards and computermade or store-bought cards, though, right?  Well, that's my excusoning.

Finally, I added some sparkly pen highlights to the flower, stem, and leaves. 
 

Wouldn't it be amazing to see a whole hillside of alphabet flowers, all in different hues?!

~~~

 

I am thrilled to introduce you to three new friends who came by over the weekend!  Please visit and introduce yourselves to these talented crafters who have lots of inspiration to share!

 

Anita from Neet & Crafty

Kate from Just Kate Crafting

Nina from Notes by Nina

 

Thank you so much, ladies, for joining in the impish ant inks at the Playhouse!!

 

~~~

 

Just for more fun:

 

 

~~~
 

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  LITS*!

 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

*Life Is Too Short!
 

Paper:  PTI white; SU! pool party and island indigo

Stamps:  Monograms by Studio G; PTI Rosie Posie

Inks:  SU! pool party and island indigo

Fiskars scallop scissors

Sakura Gelly Roll "Clear Star"

Corner Chomper

 

RIC#30; LCS Day 4 ~ New To Me

And we're back around to Saturday ~ Whoosh!

We're going to have to completely forget the Friday whoosh this week.  It whooshed by so fast, I missed it, although I did make today's card at the end of the yesterday.  Usually we say we did something at the end of the day yesterday, but I'm thinking maybe we can just cut out the redundant day before yesterday. 

 

So a lot of you know that I don't do well stopping one thing and doing another, preferring to finish the task at hand.  But I missed making cards and talking to you, so I took another break from organizing.  The problem is, up in my head half of me isn't really paying attention, so I had more "nojo" than mojo.  That means I sat there and stared at my monitor.  And ate Thin Mints.

 

Just to make things more difficult, once I got going, I decided to play in two brand new (to me) challenges!

 

The first is a sketch challenge from Lucy Abrams at Lucy's Cards.  A few of my friends are joining in and I wanted to support Lucy and join in, too.  I hope you click over and play along.  I am doing Sketch Day 4:

 

I put my imagivation to work trying to figure out if I could use Lucy's sketch and play in the current challenge #30 at Runway Inspired Challenge.  (This time the Design Team is fortunate to have Jennifer McGuire joining in as guest designer!)  I'll be honest, usually these Runway Inspired Challenges are too difficult for me, especially when I see some of the unbelievably creative work submitted by the Design Team and the participants.  But, hey, what do I always say?  That's right, "LITS!"  Life is too short, so I took the plunge and tried it "on."

 

Here is the current challenge photo:

 

 

source: style.com 

Isn't it fun that the RIC gave us twin models to inspire us?!

 

And here is my make and take, using the outfit on the left:

 

 

Looking at the photo, I saw deep blues and pretty flowers with a lovely vellum overlay.  Since the cape in the inspiration photo seems to have a hue to it, I did a slip n' slide with my PTI Enchanted Evening ink cube over a piece of clear vellum to color it and mimic that element.  I didn't add a sentiment because I thought it would be too busy.

 

I hope you'll also join in the fun at the Runway Inspired Challenge!

 

~~~

 

I wanted to share a couple of things:

• There are two talented card makers who have recently written excellent posts about the basics of blogging and branding and challenges and being on design teams.  For those of you who are interested, especially in the business and branding aspects of blogging, here are their website links:  Emily Branch of Emily Branch Designs and Jackie Rockwell of Jackie Rockwell.  Thank you, ladies!
 
• With regard to commingling words, my friend Samantha Elliott of Hettiecraft provided me with a new one that I think a lot of us can relate to:  "procraftination."  Excellent, Sam!

 

~~~

 

We are off later today to watch the twins play in their basketball game and have dinner out.  Enjoy all the inspiratonal linkies, my friends, and enjoy your day!   No, seriously, enjoy your day.   LITS! 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 

Paper:  PTI vintage cream; DCWV

  patterned paper; Grafix vellum;

  PTI enchanted evening

Ink:  PTI enchanted evening

Die:  PTI Frilly Flowers

Flower centers:  SU!

Sew Easy Stitch Piercer by

  We R Memory Keepers

 

 

MUSE #5 ~ Hello, Dear Friend

A Rootin' Tootin' Hello Thursday!

I had to take a break from my stamp reorganization and make a card.  Reorganizing is really tiring and really boring, but it will be so worth it when I'm done.  A while back I learned a new word from my friend Kim S., a word that has made it's way into the Urban Dictionary.  It's "exhaustipated."  It means "being so tired you no longer give a shizz."  I love it and wish I'd thought of it.  Oh, wait. 

 

Another comingled word I like is confuzzled.  I mean, I don't know if that's in the Urban Dictionary, but it's in my dictionary.

 

So if we could just focus back on the card blog for a minute ... I made a quick card for challenge #5 over at the MUSE Card Club.  This week we are fortunate to have Design Team member Marion Vagg as our Muse!  Marion made this bright and colorful card for our CASEing pleasure:

 

 

It's so cheerful, my goodness.  You would smile with your whole face if you got that in the mail!  I am still a newbie at using washi tape, although I did make a similar banded card using washi-tape and an elephant not too long ago.  It was a fun technique I was looking forward to doing again and I got my wish in no time.  I don't have tapes in the sunny colors that Marion used, but I flipped my card and CASEd her design idea with some tapes I do have and I used a similar "hello" sentiment.

 

I hope you like my interpretation:

 

The sentiment is one I happened to mention just yesterday when talking about cutting up stamps, so it's funny how that worked out!  Both washi tapes are from Freckled Fawn; as you can see from the slight glare, the pretty silver one has a glossy finish.

~~~

 

Okay, short and sweet for me today.  I'm off to visit Verna, followed by a ladies luncheon, and then I'll be back to tackling the mess in the Playhouse.  It occurs to me that you might wonder what I'm doing at a ladies luncheon.  Oh, very funny.

Here's a real funny I saw on Facebook:

 

~~~

 

Enjoy your day!   No, seriously, enjoy your day.   LITS*!  Don't exhaustipate yourself!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

*Life Is Too Short!

 

Paper:  PTI white

Stamp:  SU! Moving Forward

Washi tape from Freckled Fawn

Bling from Hero Arts

WOYWW #194 ~ Clear Stamp Up Heave All

Happy Wednesday to WOYWWers and All!

My desk is big ol' pile of piles.

 

I mentioned earlier this week that I had begun the process of organizing my clear stamps by theme.  It just works better for me and the way my brain works (or doesn't!).  For instance, here is my cabinet of older wooden stamps, organized by theme:  birthday in one drawer; thank yous in one drawer; hearts and anniversarys and get wells in a drawer; backgrounds in a drawer; trees and leaves ... you get the idea.

 

 

 

When I first ventured into the world of clear stamps, I left them alone in their packaging, or transferred them to CD cases or SU! cases, but kept them in tact, so as to be diplomatic.  Now, however, my collection of clear stamps has grown to the point where I can no longer keep track of all the little bits and pieces the manufacturers so generously "toss in" as part of the deal. 

For instance, here is a set from SU! calling Moving Forward:

It's a perfectly nice set and I like it a lot.  But several things make me batty about it.  I think the crow and the frog and the wee flowers and the bee-line are "moving forward" stretches of the imaginarium.  I would never think to look for a crow in my "moving forward" set.  But I would look for it in my "Birds" container.  You know what I mean?  Also, in this set, the words are stuck there under the pictures, all-in-one.  That's a patootie pain if I want to use that sweet "hello, dear friend" sediment with a different image, which is very likely.

 

So I cut this whole set up.  NO!  Yup, I did.  I put the sail boats with other sailing images, I put the tricycle with other biking images, I put the blimp with hot air balloons, the frogs with frogs, etc., and I put the sentiments with like sentiments.

 

Ah, yes, the sentiments.  Lots of the clear sentiment packages contain birthday and anniversary and get well and sympathy and love-life wishes all together. 

There is no way I'm going to remember which sediment is in which package.  So say I want to make a card, I'm rather old and the memory, she ain't what she used to be, and generally life is too short.  I can't afford to spend 25 minutes every time I want to make a card flipping through, or pulling out, case after case to see whether it might contain "just" the bird, or the dog, or the sediment I want for my card.  In the end, the only flipping is me (out) and the only pulling is me (hair).  SO not good.

 

In preblog days, with my woodens, I didn't care who the manufacturer was.  Now with this blog, I realize that it is nice to be able to give out that information so I'm taking the time to include it with the image.

 

It's time-consuming and it's going to take me until next Wednesday's WOYWW to finish it up.  My "system" might make you  flip out and pull out your hair (in fact, most likely!), but that's what happening at Zee Playhouse this week.  I'd love your thoughts and would enjoy seeing what system works for you.

To join in the fun and see more desks, and to show us yours, click over to Ms. Julia Dunnit's What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday.  I'll visit as many desks as I can and if you stopped by, please let me know, so I can return the flavor.

~~~

Finally, our granddog Duke, warmly dressed for the car ride back to his own home, wanted to say goodbye!

"I'll miss you!"

 

~~~

Enjoy your day!   No, seriously, enjoy your day.   LITS!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 

STB#6 and Pixie's #60 ~ The Manly Seahorse

Greetings, cardlings!

You'd think, if you remembered that I made a fishy card for the feminine version of this week's Seize the Birthday sketch, that I made my masculine version at the same time.  Alas, I'm not that thoughtful, as in well-planning, and I only just finished my card in the late hours last night.

If you are new to the concept of Seize the Birthday, it is the brainchild (one of many) of the talented Lesley Croghan.  She provides us with a sketch every two weeks.  The first week, we are to make a "feminine" birthday card, followed the next week by the same sketch, but we are to make a "masculine" birthday card, thereby amassing our stash of bday cards.  So smart!

So this is the sketch:

Last week my feminine card was a googly-eyed fish.  This week it is a purple seahorse, keeping with the whole oceanic thing.

In truth, both my STB cards could be gender-neutral and age-neutral.  But since the fascinating male seahorse carries the offspring to birth, to me he's The Dude and he gets to grace the cover of my man card.

The challenge time is almost up for this sketch at STB, but I hope you will check out the next sketch and play along.  The Design Team is superb!  That's super with a B so you can make a popping noise with your lips at the end, which you wouldn't do with any ordinary super!

~~~

I used some of my burgeoning supply of white card stock snippets for the circle, so I am also playing in week 60 of the delightful Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground.  We always have such fun on the playground under the watchful eye of our esteemed and beloved head, Miss Di!  Especially when she averts her watchful eye.

~~~

The prodigal son, DDIL, and the twins returneth this evening to retrieve the Dukester.  We've enjoyed having him and he's been no trouble at all.  Today he scared the carp out of a squirrel who is a frequent and fearless visitor to the backyard.  Really fun for Duke, but a total surprise for the squirrel!

Which reminds me:

***

An old dog starts chasing rabbits and before long, discovers that he’s lost. Wandering about, he notices a panther heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.  The old dog thinks, “Oh, oh! I’m in deep shizz now!”

Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the panther is about to leap, the old dog exclaims loudly, “Boy, that was one delicious panther! I wonder if there are any more around here?”

Hearing this, the young panther halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees.  “Whew!,” says the panther, “That was close! That old dog nearly had me!”

Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the panther. So, off he goes.  The squirrel soon catches up with the panther, spills the beans, and strikes a deal for himself with the panther.

The young panther is furious at being made a fool of and says, “Here, squirrel, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine!”

Now, the old dog sees the panther coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, “What am I going to do now?,” but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn’t seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old dog says ...

“Where’s that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another panther!”

Moral of this story:  Don’t mess with the old dogs!  Age and skill will always overcome youth and treachery!

Photo and joke from Motley Dogs.

~~~

Enjoy your day!   No, seriously, enjoy your day.   LITS!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

Paper:  Unknown lavender,
  PTI white
Stamps:  Mostly Animals
Ink:  Marvy lilac and SU!
  ballet blue
Die:  Spellbinders Circle

CFC#90; DD#40; LIM#107 ~ Up, Up and Away!

Happy Monday!

I'm looking forward to a fresh new week.  Last week wasn't so the best, it was more valleys than peaks, but today we start anew.

 

I spent some time yesterday taggling the project of reorganizing my clear stamps by theme, as I've done all along with my woodens.  Enough clears have been purchased now to make it necessary for me to organize them according to the mash ignations of my brain.  Otherwise, I can't find or remember all the parts and pieces of most of the sets.  More on that in a later post with toast.

 

But first, the stars lined up at some of my favorite challenges, so I was able to make one card do the work of three.  Yippee!

 

In alpharrangement, I have for your viewing pleasure:

 

CAS-ual Fridays ~ Black and White Plus One

 Dynamic Duos ~ Tempting Turquoise and Basic Black

Less Is More ~ Up In The Air

And the result:

 

 

I die-cut the balloons from some cool dotted acrylic paper that I believe came from SU! back aways.  The Dynamic Duos challenge gives extra credit if you also use clouds.  I tried, especially since it's all up in the air and all, but it got too messy and too busy and to unCAS, so I went back to a cloudless sky.

 

The sediment is from Wilson Designs.  I placed a PTI Framed stamp around the words to stimulate a hot air balloon basket.  Of course, you'd really need about 10,389 more balloons to lift off IRL, but this is CASL, where we make believe it can be done with only three.

 

~~~

 

I have our newest friend for you to meet!  The Ava Tar is "mmcgarry5."  Unfortunately, I can't find any other information other than that for now.  I'll edit this if I get more information.  Welcome, "mmcgarry5," and thank you for joining us!!

 

~~~

 

The latest valley in my week came with the news that my dear friend Verna, who I've talked about before, fell and broke her back.  Verna is an inspiration to me and still a working girl at age 89.  Yup!  It breaks my heart to see her in so much pain, but on the flip side, if anyone at that age can bounce back from this sort of thing, it will be Verna!

 

I met Verna 34 years ago when I was hired as a young legal secretary in the same office.  Not only my office mentor and dear friend, she filled the role of mother to me many times when I needed one.  She has helped me in ways she doesn't even know about and it will be my great pleasure to return her past kindnesses in the weeks to come.

 

~~~

 

OTOH, the latest peak in my week came with the arrival of the sweet little Girl Scouts selling Thin Mints cookies!  Naturally, I only eat them (frozen, half a box at a sitting) because it's for a good cause.  Naturally.

 

~~~

 

Stay on your feet and enjoy your day!   No, seriously, enjoy your day.   LITS!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 

Paper:  SU! basic black and

  tempting turquoise; PTI white

Stamps:  Sent.: Wison Designs;

  PTI Framed Vol. 4, No. 77;
  Strings: SU! Moving Forward

Ink:  Ancient Page black

Die:  Simon Says Stamp Balloons

Bling from stash
Corner Chomper