Christmas 2009

 Well, we have a new grandson, François Louis Michel Leonardi and he weighed 3.480 KG and was 50.5 cm tall which is a little over 7 pounds and about 21 inches long. He was born November 10th in Ajaccio, Corse France. He is a little cutie and his mom says he is such a good baby. He just eats and sleeps and doesn't cry.

We are awaiting the birth of Jack Thomas Spicer who could make his appearance any time now. We just can't wait. I have two of the pages in the picture below for my album. One is for Francois and one is for Jack. I think it will be neat to put them side by side and watch them grow this next year.

 This is what my Christmas cards looked like. I bought the stamp and got the idea from the stamp store in Marietta, Georgia when I went up there this summer. I love Gingerbread Men designs and this is really a nice stamp.

I took a class at Violettes in Lakeland and we made these two beautiful Christmas pages.

 I got a Kindle for Christmas so I have been busy reading the directions and downloading books, magazines, etc. to it. I really like it and can't wait to start reading a book on it. I also got a food processor. I have wanted one for a long time now. I used it to make the mashed potatoes yesterday to go with the delicious Prime Rib we had. If you are ever looking for a fabulous Prime Rib recipe (Click here), this is the best I have ever had. I have used it for 2 years now, and the meat comes out perfect. I used the food processor today to chop up some turkey and shred some lettuce and slice a tomato for a turkey wrap. It is really cool and fun to use. I ordered it off of HSN. I love HSN and QVC for quick shopping.
Santa brought me some new stamps for Christmas. Actually I got them at the Scrapbook Expo in December in Tampa. Several of them were from Stamps by Judith. She is the designer and was actually there selling her product. She has been an artist all her life and sketches all the time and has turned her sketches into stamps. She really had so many beautiful stamps I had to control myself. I did buy a tree stamp from her and several small stamps on dowels to add decorations to the tree. So this year, all my cards for the different holidays will be trees with the appropriate decorations for the holiday. Below are some examples of what they might look like.

I got some other stamps too. I have a couple of these stamps-Love and Thanks-but now I have Get Well and Thinking of You.  They take awhile to color but I really like them, especially with bling and glitter added.

I have finished taking all my technology classes (though I am taking some over just to better understand what I am doing) so hopefully I will have more time to create and more time for my blog. I hope everyone has a wonderful and happy new year.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving-I know we did. Adam and Brooke were home and split their time between our house and the Reid's. We actually had Thanksgiving dinner at their house. It was really nice having both families together for the holiday.
Above are my Thanksgiving cards. I had them ready 6-8 weeks before but, of course, didn't mail them until the Monday before Thanksgiving so most people probably received theirs after the fact. Oh well, I will try to do better with the Christmas cards. Actually they are all done, but I have to write my usual Christmas letter to go inside.
I have made a really cute card to welcome Jack into the family and will post it when he is born. Only one month left-I can't wait.

cards, cards, and baby shower items

Oh, my goodness. I never knew I could be so busy. Wearing the media specialist hat and now the technology hat at school is at times really overwhelming. But, I am managing to learn some things and actually fix some things. I just have to remember to focus on the positive and not worry about those things that don't get fixed by me. I do have an area tech person for the bigger problems. I have been taking classes-7 in all- so they are taking up a lot of my time and I seem to get home later now since I have "2" jobs.
I did my Halloween cards early, because I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time in Oct. and I was right.

I made this diaper cake for Brooke's baby shower on November 14.

Frances, Christophe, and Sasha finally moved into their new home so I made this card for them. I used the new stamp set I bought from Close To My Heart. They had a similiar example in their catalog.

Below are the thank-you notes I made for Brooke. My friend, Lynn, helped me stamp, emboss, and cut them out. We made almost 60 of them, using all different papers. They are held closed at the bottom with velcro but open up for her to write her message.


My Thanksgiving cards are also done. I really like this scarecrow stamp.
Adam and Brooke and Chelsea will hopefully be in town for Thanksgiving. Brooke's mom had invited us for Thanksgiving dinner.

I have been working on redecorating the guest room (Adam's old room). We bought furniture at IKEA and a crib from Craig's list for the baby. I am now trying to find the time to make the bumper pads and dust ruffle. Hopefully Frances, Christophe, Sasha and their new baby will also come for a visit. When we get the room finished, I will post pictures.

Babies, Babies, Babies

Well I guess my friend Teresa was right, once school started I would not have much time to keep up my blog. Oh well, I will do my best.
When I got back to school in August I had a new job waiting for me. Not only am I the Media Specialist and in charge of inventory for the school, but now I am the Technology "Expert." I use that word, "expert" lightly, because what I know about computers could be put in one of the thimbles in my collection. Luckily, or not so luckily-I haven't figured that one out yet- the school district has classes to help me become the resident computer "expert" at my school. Unluckily, most of them are 7 hour classes on Saturdays, but luckily I do get paid $24.50 an hour to take them-so things could be worse. I have now completed 4 of the 7 classes and my head is swimming. I haven't even be able to learn any new phone numbers in the last few years, my head is so full of numbers, and now I have to learn all about computers. So far, I have learned about networking, I can make a local printer a shared printer, I can find the 3 servers at my school, and the switches, and I can install a hard drive, a CD Rom drive, and memory. I can also create a "golden image" and use it to reimage computers. Yesterday I learned about a software program we have called Altiris. It lets me work on computers from my computer without going to the classrooms. We will see how that goes! I have been working on cleaning up some of the mess left by our previous computer person. I have installed some printers, renamed lots of computers so they will work in Altiris, and almost completed my inventory (which is a monumental job). Of course I added to my work load by having a bookfair this week-0h what was I thinking. They sent me a new, high-tech computer cash register which is a pain in the a__. It takes longer and I have to push more buttons than just using my old regular cash register. So much for technology making your life simpler and quicker. I now have to push 8 buttons to sell one book!
On to more interesting things. I have completed 80 baby announcements for Frances. She says they don't do baby showers in France and she wanted these to use as announcements/thank you cards. Everyone knows everyone in her town, so that is why she needs so many. My friend, Lynn helped me with them. Thanks so much.


Here is what 80 announcements look like.


My next project has been making invitations for my daughter-in-law's baby shower. Here are 28 invitations. Jack is due December 30. We can't wait.


My next project is a diaper cake for the shower and some thank you notes for Brooke. Stay tuned!

Cards, Scrapbook pages and clipboards

My most recent project was to create decorative clipboards for all the faculty at my elementary school. That was a major undertaking because, as usual, I underestimated the amount and the cost. I made a total of 68 clipboards-8 brown and white ones for the male faculty members and 60 of the flowered ones for the ladies. I also put a note pad on each of them. The teachers really liked them so it was worth the time and cost. I even had my husband helping with the ribbons.
Clipboards seemed to take over my house-the table, the island, the den, my craft room, etc.

This clipboard I made in a class at Whim-So-Doodle in St. Pete last week. That is where I got the idea.

I have also been working on scrapbooking pages. My grand-dog, Chelsea spent a week with me twice this summer and so, of course, I had to do pages highlighting her vacation.

I also did two pages from the shower that several of us gave Dale and Darla for the twins, Emma and Lily.

I have not let card making slide either in the last few weeks. Above is a sympathy card I made based on a card I saw this summer at the Scrapbook Expo in Atlanta.

The two cards above, I made last week in a card club meeting at Violette's in Lakeland. We did these with alcohol inks and acetate. Pretty neat, but I don't need to start another kind of habit.

Above is a card I made with one of my new stencils. Below is the baby announcement that my "French" daughter, Frances, has decided on. She says she needs at least 60 so I better get busy. I really love them and it is fun to do them.

I have finished my Halloween cards because I wanted to get ahead so I could work on these announcements. I won't post them yet, because some people who will receive them visit this blog and we don't want any peeking. I will post them in late October.
School started today and so I anticipate being very busy for the next few months. Not only am I the media specialist, but this year I am in charge of all technology too. Wish me luck!

Contests

HeroArts stamps has weekly contests. This week you have to design a tag to go on a box, bag, etc. So, I cut this box out with my Silhouette, stamped it with a HeroArts stamp, and then added stickles and jewels. The tag is also made with HeroArts stamps. Check out their new website.

I found a new website (new to me) yesterday called Pagemaps. Check it out at www.pagemaps.com. They have neat layout ideas.

More Experiments With Mosaics

I made these three cards last night using the mosaic technique. It is really fun. The first two pictures I took at a friends wedding. The top one is the Bride's bouquet and the next one is a picture of the flowers on the tables at the reception.

The cards actually look better than the pictures of them do. I guess it is because I am taking a picture of a picture so to speak. They tend to look a little hazy but they aren't in real life. I tried inside, outside, flash, no flash, etc,. Guess I will keep experimenting. The tulip below was one that my son, Adam, and his wife, Brooke gave me. Florals seem to lend themselves well to this mosaic style.

More Scrapbooking

Above is my latest page. At the Scrapbook Expo I bought the supplies to do mosaic pages. The idea and supplies come from Tammi Potter. Check out her website and blog at http://www.tamipotter.com/ I really love her ideas. This is the first page I have done with the mosaic idea but I really love it and am sure I will be doing many more. The pictures I used were taken when I went to Savannah on the scrapbooking train trip. Let me know what you think of the page.
Below you can see why I said I was obsessed with scrapbooking. Brooke, my favorite daughter-in-law, says I really have a problem and that she may be sending the men with the white coats soon.

All of these things are for baby boy pages when Brooke and Frances both have their little boys. I mean, what is a grandma to do but scrap pictures of her two favorite little men! I will certainly need all of these supplies and who knows-maybe more-that is if I can find any I don't already have.

Behold all the stickers, rub-ons, papers, embellishments, brads, ribbons, etc.

I do wish that nice lady, Sharalynn, at Brassworks Embossing, http://www.brassworksembossing.com/ would quit sending me those lovely e-mails about her sales. I guess she knows I can't resist brass stencils. Of course, I didn't have any baby stencils so...... I just had to place an order.

When Lynn & I were at the Expo in Georgia we did a class by Rusty Pickle http://www.rustypickle.com/ We made this cute little accordion album. On the back I put Jack's name so I can fill it with his pictures.



I am babysitting Chelsea, my beautiful chocolate lab grand-dog again this week. We are having fun playing outside and swimming in the pool. Only 3 more weeks and it is back to school. How sad, but I guess I need to work in order to support my scrapbooking habit.

My First Posting

Well, I have finally come into the technology age a little further and created a blog. We will see how it goes and how often I keep it up. My plan is to update it frequently during the rest of the summer, and then at least weekly once school starts back. I also joined Flickr as part of the HeroArts Stamps new website, http://www.heroarts.com/ in order to keep up with new designs in scrapbooking and card making. It is really a neat site and I can get lots of help and ideas from fellow crafters from all over the world. I decided that I needed to branch out and embrace more technology since this year I am slated to become the technology person at our school. We lost our computer/technology teacher so now I have that hat to wear along with being the media specialist and inventory person. It will be quite a challenge but I am sure I can learn to call the right person to get the right answers to the teacher's problems. My friend, Lynn, made me the card and notebook below so I can have a place to record all the problems, solutions, etc.. I will encounter this year as the technology "expert." :)



I guess I will start this blog by describing my crafting life for the last few months. During Spring Break in April, my crafting buddy, Lynn and I went on a train trip to Savannah, Ga. with 34 other crafters. The trip was organized by Whim So Doodle, a crafting store in St. Pete, Fl. http://www.whimsodoodle.com/index.php
We left on a Wednesday by train and returned on Sunday. We really had a great time. Savannah is a wonderful, historical town. If you have never been there, you should really go. This is my second time there, and I love the town.

One really fun activity some of us did was to go to Club One, a drag club. It was a real HOOT!

Lynn and I participated in a scavenger hunt, (which we won) while we were there. One of the things we had to do was form a Congo line in a city square. The more people we got to join us, the more points we got. We got 15 people to join in.
School finally got out June 4 and I went off to Alpharetta, Ga. to rescue my friend Lynn. After we returned to Tampa from Savannah in April she had to take a leave of absence from school and go to take care of her 37 year old daughter, Kim, who is dying of cancer. Lynn has become her daughter's main caretaker. I really admire her and don't know how she does what she has to do. Kim is married with 2 small children. She is confined to a bed and is paralyzed from the chest down due to the tumor on her spine. I went up for the weekend to take Lynn off to a hotel for some rest and relaxation. We went to Marietta, Ga. and visited 4 craft stores, saw two movies, and experienced many good restaurants.
If you don't know already, you will soon know that I am obsessed with scrapbooking. I have been scrapping for over 15 years. I have 22 12x12 Creative Memories albums, each with 30-40 pages. They cover 38 years of marriage and family.
In June my friend, Jody and I went to Orlando for the day to the Scrapbook Expo. It was fun and we really enjoyed it. I had already gone to one in Tampa in December, but this one was larger.
I was inspired to start this blog because my favorite daughter-in-law, Brooke has one. She does such a wonderful job and I love reading all about the adventures of Adam, Brooke and Chelsea, my grand dog. My life is not near as interesting, but I thought maybe some other crafters might be interested in seeing my cards and scrapbook pages. Hopefully we can share ideas.


Chelsea, our grand dog, came to stay with us for a week in July. We had a fabulous time. We went on a field trip to Petsmart one day (see above), played outside every day and

went swimming every day too. Chelsea loooooooooooooooooooves the pool so much that it is very hard to get her to come inside the house.

We went to the 4th of July parade in Temple Terrace and took Chelsea with us. She was a very good girl and even got her own beads. I am planning to do a double-page spread of Chelsea's adventures during the week she was visiting her grandparents. I will post the pages when I complete them.

I took Chelsea back to her parents in Tallahassee and spend several days there helping Brooke make curtains for their kitchen and dining room

Adam made a bench a few months ago for their living room, and I made cushions for it while I was there. By the way, my son, Adam, and Brooke, his wife, are expecting their first child in December. His name will be Jack.

I left Tallahassee on Thursday and headed back to Alpharetta, Ga. to get Lynn and take her off again for a few days. We went to the Scrapbook Expo in Deluth, Ga. on Friday.(I know, that is my 3rd Expo in 6 months-I told you I was obsessed). We are going to plan a field trip to this one next summer with several other friends. It was really the best. We went to Marietta on Saturday and went to a stamping workshop by Amuse Stamps at Rubber Stamp Fantasy http://www.rubberstampfantasy.com/
We made 5 cards and a make and take too. We went to the Marietta Diner again. What a cool restaurant. Just check out their home-made cakes. A huge slice is $7.00 and big enough to feed 3-4 people.

At the Scrapbook Expo I bought this adorable onseie. It came with a miniature one so when Jack wears this, and Brooke sends me a picture of him in it, (hint, hint) then I can scrap a page and use the miniature one on the page.

Speaking of babies, Frances (our French daughter) and Christophe are also expecting a baby boy in November. We are so excited that our lovely granddaughter, Sasha, (below) will have a baby brother. They are thinking of naming him Francois, which is French for Francis, after his great-grandfather. Hopefully they will come back to visit soon so Francois and Jack can play together.

Of course, I had to by Francois some FSU onesies.

It seems that every summer something happens and I don't get to rest and do what I want to do-scrap. So, I decided that this summer is my summer to do exactly what I want to do. I have been taking trips, as you can see, and my favorite other things to do are lay out in the sun in my floating chair in the pool and to work on cards and scrapbook layouts in my craft room.
So, this is more or less my schedule for the day. I stay up late and watch Letterman and Craig Ferguson and then sleep late. I may, or may not, walk on the treadmill (depending on my mood), and then I go out to the pool. After a late lunch I play on the computer reading e-mails and exploring the Internet, and then I go to my craft room and work. Sadly, I only get to live like this for 4 more weeks and then it is back to reality, but I am enjoying it while I can. I haven't even cleaned house or done any laundry all this week-oh well! I did repaint the kitchen when I got back from Georgia in June, so that should count as some work.! Oh, and I did go to a 3 hr. workshop for school.

These are two, two-page spreads that I did this week for Jack and/or Francois. I got the ideas and the papers at the Expo in Georgia. I really did buy a lot of baby blue paper, baby embellishments, etc. at the Expo. As I create more pages and cards, I will post them along with some pictures of my craft room.

Below are some examples of birth announcements I will be making for my grandson-to-be, Francois. Frances will have to decide which one she wants. The bib stamp is by Northwoods Rubber Stamps, http://www.northwoodsrubberstamps.com/default.aspx, and I saw a sample of this announcement at The Rubber Stamp Fantasy in Marietta, Ga. I really do love it.



I will write more as the week goes on, so stay tuned. Post a comment if you want, they will be appreciated.