Birthday Card

I made this card for a very special lady that is celebrating a birthday this week.  I waited to post it on my blog, until I knew that she received it in the mail...
Happy Birthday, Carol of  http://ourlittleinspirations.blogspot.com/

My husband colored the Iris's for me, and I told him to color them in Carol's favorite color, Purple.

I was so happy with the way the bow turned out on the card for me, and it's because of Carol, that I could finally make a bow that I was happy with on one of my cards.  I used a bow easy, and Carol is the one who showed me how to use it.  It took me a long time to finally get it down to where it looked like one of her pretty bows.  Thanks again, Carol...

The stamp is from Northwoods Rubber Stamps, and colored with copics by my husband.  The sentiment was heat embossed with white embossing powder.  The lattice frame in the background was die cut with a die I borrowed from a friend.

"Friends are special Treasures of the heart!"

Thanks for stopping by my blog today,
Blessings,
Jill

Beautiful Autumn Days...

 Autumn at Longwood Gardens...this year we managed to get down winter, summer, spring and now during Autumn.  Here is the link for Longwood...http://longwoodgardens.org/
Our daughter and son-in-law purchased a one year membership for us as their Christmas gift to us this year.  We have definitely enjoyed our Christmas gift.

 This is something new at Longwood...Furry Ambassadors...They have four kitties...
 they are there as greeters and for pest control.  They are cared for by the Longwood workers...but allowed to roam around the grounds outdoors.  I like cats, but sometimes I have a problem with my allergies with cats...
The strange thing is...It's not with all cats...just some of them...

 I like their outside train set up...This probably reminds me of my childhood when my Mother would always set up a miniature village scene under our Christmas tree.

 I enjoy the formal gardens...but I think the paths are still my favorite...

 This September they had a Dahlia Show.  Lots of winners there!  And I do mean winners!  Beautiful Dahlias of just about very color and size.

 My husband spent so much time taking pictures of the flowers.  I thought he was taking a picture of every flower!

The weather was beautiful and the gardens were pretty full, so it was difficult to get pics without people in the picture.  But I'll excuse these two since it's my daughter and son-in-law.

"Thy bounty shines in autumn unconfined.  
And spreads a common feat for all that live.  "`James Thomson

Thank you for visiting my blog today...
Blessings,
Jill

Card for Dynamic Duos and Twisted Sister Challenge

I made this card for two challenges.  The Dynamic Duos Challenge which is to use two colors.  This week's colors are yellow and soft green.  

The challenge can be found here...

http://thedynamicduoschallenge.blogspot.ca/2013/09/dd70-yellow-and-soft-green.html

Also for the Twisted Sister challenge at Split Coast Stampers...the challenge this week is to use Inchies on our cards.

My card looks crooked but it's honestly NOT crooked!  It's my bad photography again, and after many tries for a good photo.  This was the best.  The colors also honestly match better in real life than the photo shows.  I hope one of these days I can get some good photo hints or lessons.

My card has inchies under the flower but I think it's difficult to see that.  My background was dry embossed using my a Stampin' Up embossing folder. (Square Lattice)  My sentiment was stamped with a stamp from Justrite Stamps..With Gratitude, Labels One.  My Designer paper is from Stampin' Up.

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be

and you help them to become what they are capable of being."

~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Thank you for stopping by my blog...

Blessings,

Jill

My Hubby's birthday Card

I made this card for my husband's birthday (which was yesterday!)  Yes I gave him his card late!  What should have taken me just a few minutes to make...took me hours!!!  As I said before, I am out of practice!

My card uses JustRite Clear stamps.  Called Anchors Away,  My Designer paper is from Stampin' Up, I used Tim Holtz distress inks to  color the background and lined my image with a gold pen.
My image was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Black embossing powder.

Had a nice day today,  My husband and I traveled to one of our favorite restaurants where he was able to get a free meal for his birthday.  Then we went to one of my favorite places...my favorite stamp store!
(Where I purchased the above stamp)  It was also a nice place for him too, because, believe it or not, he likes to go there!  He purchased some more copics

"There is always a lot to be thankful for,
if you take the time to look.
For example, I'm sitting here thinking how
 nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt." ~Author Unknown.

The above quote popped out at me, because today I do hurt!!!

I'm such a Klutz!!!
two days ago, I went to get up from my computer, and my foot got tangled up in a cord hanging down from my computer...and bang down I went face down on my hardwood floor!  I honestly thought I broke my knee it hurt so bad, and I was afraid to get up.  I broke my fall with my arms so
the last two days, besides being black and blue, (on my arms and knees)   I'm a bit sore..all over!

.But my wrinkles don't hurt!

Thank you for stopping by my blog today,
Blessings,
Jill

Too Hot to even think...

Today it is so hot and sticky where I live.  I feel like I have consumed a couple of gallons of cold water.    Have my fan on me full blast, but it feels like just hot air blowing on me...
Needless to say, I have not been sitting at the computer quite as much today...Too hot!
But, I have this cute card to post that I received in today's mail.  My Stamin' Up Demo, Staci sent it to us with Happy Anniversary wishes inside.   Thanks Stacie.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.
Blessings,
Jill

Dream Weaver Autumn Challenge

Click picture to enlarge

It's been a while since I've made a card.  I almost forgot how to make one.  This card would almost prove that to me.  It took me so much longer to make this card than it should have.  I need to get back into practice. 
It's also been a while since I managed to enter a Dreamweaver challenge.  I was determined to enter this month.  Since I have so many birthday cards to make for the September birthdays....I thought this would be a good time to use the challenge for one of my cards.  I used Dreamweaver stencil LJ885.  I paste embossed my stencil with Matte black embossing paste, and after it dried, and I cleaned the stencil.  I put the stencil back over top again...and used Perfect Medium to put perfect pearls on top of the black paste, I then used my mini mister to set the Perfect pearls.


The link to the challenge is here
 http://dreamweaverstencils.blogspot.com/2013/09/dreamweaver-stencils-and-art-glitter.html

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~  Albert Camus

Thank you for visiting my blog.
Blessings,
Jill

More Vacation pictures

Click on photos to enlarge

I had hoped to get some crafting done today, but that didn't happen.  

I did go craft shopping...Now I just have to find time to use the things I bought.

So I'm again posting Vacation pics.  I like to look at the vacation pictures other people post...but

I know that not everyone does.  I also like to look at decorating sites.  So I'm also fascinated the way Inns and Bed and Breakfasts are decorated.

This was our room at the Bed and Breakfast.  I found it to be quite comfortable, Not too small for us, or too large.  I really liked the view from our window.  Believe me, it's not the kind of view that I see from our windows at home.   smile...    The Inn keeper gave me permission to post pics of her Inn.

Thank you for stopping by my blog

Blessings,

Jill

Going Down Memory Lane

 Click on picures to enlarge

Today, I'm going down Memory Lane, as I was trying to figure out which wall we were going to hang up our Anniversary gift from our Inn Keeper...  I found myself remembering the day that my In laws celebrated their 50th Anniversary, and the Scherenschnitte wall hanging was given to them by a friend of my Mother-in-laws.  After we lost my in laws, I asked the lady who gave them the gift if she wanted it back, she said no, and asked me if I would like to have it.  It now hangs in our bed room as nice memory of my husband's wonderful parents.

It's an absolutely gorgeous day in our area...I have most of windows open and I can feel a nice breeze coming through as I type this.  It made me think back to last week when we were sitting outside on the screened porch at the Bed and breakfast.  While we were eating our breakfast we were looking out into the back yard seeing the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background.  It would nice to have that every day...

Hopefully, I will get some crafting done today.  It would be especially nice if I could do of that outside.

Hope everyone is having a nice day.
Thank you for visiting my blog
Blessings,
Jill

For the Bird Lovers...

 Click on photos to enlarge

The Bed and Breakfast (that we stayed at) has the theme of "Birds"  Bird Houses all over the place outside, and Bird pictures, etc...inside  Thought you might like to see a few.

I'm too tired to make a card...or go through my other vacation pics...so I thought I would post these for right now.

"My favorite weather is bird-chirping weather."  ~ Loire Hartwould

Today would have to  be considered to be bird chirping weather...It was just so lovely outside.

I hated having a week's worth of laundry to do, but it gave me an excuse to be outside since I
hung everything outside on my wash line instead of my dryer.

It wasn't a good day for two drivers though.  I just getting ready to sit down and read my email
around noon time, when I heard brakes squeal, and then a big bang!

When I Looked outside my window I saw an  accident right up the road from me.  Fortunately, I don't think anyone was hurt, because I never heard an ambulance, but the one car had to be towed away.  Since this has happened to us several times through the years, (accidents) I could feel for them...I know just how that feels...not a good way to go through the day.

We spent more than 14+ hours on the road, getting back and forth to our vacation spot, and this is one time that we did NOT have to detour for an accident...or see one by the side of the road, etc.

Hope everyone is having a good week
Thank you for stopping by my blog...
Blessings,
Jill

I am super tired as I type this...so please any typos etc...LOL

I need a vacation!

I need a vacation!  Actually, we just returned from being five days away from home...so now I need a vacation from my vacation.  We had a nice time but we are exhausted!

I have lots of vacation pics...
Here's the first two...The top one is the gift that the Inn Keeper made for us.  She took 50 pennies and put it into a shadow box for us.  The pennies are in date order from the first penny being the date that we were married until this years penny.  On the back there is a pocket with a journaling page where we are to write something from  each year that we are married...Boy will I have to put my thinking cap on with that one.

The second pic is the gift from our daughter.  She really surprised us with a beautifully done photo album with photos that some I have never seen before, and never knew they even exsisted.  Alot of work went into that gift.

Our daughter and son in law joined us on our vacation.  We have not been on vacation with our daughter since she was in grade school.  So that was a real treat to have her with us. 

I have a lot of catching up to do...at home...and on my blog, and on visiting other people's blogs...
Which I will try to do this week...

Thank you for visiting my blog...
Blessings,
Jill