Just a quick note to let you know I am still alive and kicking... it's been a busy week ofWomen's Healthe event, wedding showers, Bible School, work, pickiking Travis up, card club, and my CMC's crop. More on all that later! Take care!

The Aroma of Brownies Baking.... MMMMM!

It is just cool enough outside that I could fire up the oven today and bake a little bit. Brownies with chocolate chips and caramel cups. I can barely wait to get them out of the oven! Yummmmmmmmmm-O!

A page I did a while back, just getting around to sharing it with you all. I still need to journal on it, but sometimes it is hard to find the right words. It is for Melanie's graduation book. Still plugging along at it. Here is a Mel newsflash! She is now a licensed driver, the proud owner of a PA Jr Driver's License... I haven't experienced being a passenger with her yet, can't wait for the opportunity!

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Anyone watching the Starter Wife on USA network? I got hooked right off the bat from all of the cute little commercials for the show. It is funny and touching and a wee bit sarcastic, romantic and dramatic, too! Pretty good chick TV. I have been staying up late every Thursday to watch it since I am still at work during its normal time slot. Last night was the next to last episode. I am hoping to read the book that the show was based on, because they always say the book is better!

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My other new TV show is Army Wives on Lifetime. Another good chick show about 4 army wives and 1 army husband and their lives and friendship. They have covered some really good issues in just the first 3 shows.

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Last thing and then I am pulling those brownies out of the oven... Anyone thinking of Christmas yet? In a few short days we will be just 6 months from December 25th!

Take care!

How about a PURPLE LLAMA (or is it a camel?) to brighten your day?

Last week when I was having the really bad couple of days at work Kenny and Travis came to pick me up after a particularly horrible day. Kenny asked if I needed to do some shopping after work, and even though there was a ton of stuff that we needed I told him that I wasn't staying at the store one minute longer than I had to, so no shopping that night, I was going home. Travis at that point informed me that he had just the thing to cheer me up... They had gone for wings for dinner before coming for me and while they were waiting he played the claw machine until he won the above pictured just for me. He told me knew I would just love it, since it was purple....Um, Ok. Sooooo anywho, I named her Violet, and she is sitting on my scrap-desk to keep me company and remind me that a very special little guy spent more quarters than she is worth with the thought of making me happy, and you know what, every time I look at her she makes me smile! Great kid!

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A couple of things... I got a flyer about a weekend crop at Camp Harmony for September 7,8, & 9. This is a Cherish*Crop*Cure event hosted by the ladies who did the crop at the Quality Inn, Somerset earlier this year. If you would like more information let a comment and I will put you in contact with the coordinator. I am planning to attend and do a few make and takes.

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Since we no longer have a rubber stamp show in Pittsburgh, I have been checking to see if there are any ones near enough to make the trip worthwhile. There is one in Westminster, MD on Sept 22 & 23 (StampScrapArt Tour) and another one in York, PA on October 6 & 7 (Heirloom Productions) Just throwing out the idea of a road trip... any one interested?

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If you are at your local Wal-mart this Saturday be sure to pick up your FREE "Speaking of Women's Health" book. It is a neat little book of stories and recipes and health related information. Also take advantage of all the FREE health screenings that are going to be available from 10 AM to 4 PM. If you are at my Wal-mart be sure to stop back and see me at my Scrapbook demo table!

Take care!

New stamp!

Picked this new stamp up last week on our little field trip to Art Tech. I have wanted an outline stamp for a very long time, but I was looking for a rather "generic" one that I could use for anytime of the year. I would always find ones that were kind of theme-y, like Christmas or autumn. I was so happy to find this little gem and it was under $10! WOOHHHOOO!

Outlines Rubber Stamp Company is the maker of it. I just looked up their site today and wow could I spend some money there!

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I was happy to learn that it really isn't hard to make these for cards. I stamped and heat embossed it several times on a few different shades of pink cardstock. After that it was just cutting them apart and stacking them together with layers of pop up foam tape. I can't wait to make some more of them!

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Take care, have a good week!

Wedding Cake

Made this wedding cake last night/today for a good friend from work. Wishing Lois and Robert many years of happiness! They had one of the nicest wedding receptions I have been to in a long time. All delicious homemade (by family) traditional Pennsylvania wedding food... pigs in the blanket, chicken, ham, rigatoni, corn, parsley potatoes, rolls, salad, wedding cake and TONS of cookies. Lois looked so pretty and I am very happy for her and Robert! I also have to say that they were very nice to each other when they cut the cake. It is so hard to watch couples smash the cake that you worked for two days to make. I just hate to see the bride's hair and make up get all messed up. Enough rambling of the cake decorator. Thanks to them for being so nice to each other.
Wedding cake days are so busy. I am glad that we are strictly a friends and family operation because I could not do this every weekend. Thank goodness, too that it is me and Mom working together to do this, wouldn't do it alone! Fresh cake is the best, one of the things that we always tell people is that their cake is fresh, never frozen, and rarely more than 24 hours old. This was my first "beach" theme cake and I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

Random Thoughts

A graduation card, my first attempt at a tent topper card. Not bad. I love that scallops are back "in." I have several scalloped edge punches that I used for doing spirelli so I am glad to be able to use them for another purpose!

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Donna Downey designed Trendy Travel Log. Got this in my Simple Scrapbooks e-newsletter today and thought it was cute and I love it when they come with PRINTED INSTRUCTIONS! (wink, wink!)

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I love fonts and this was also in the SS newsletter today. scrapNfonts has lots of neat fonts on sale in their $1 bin.

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Sorry for not so much blog this week, crazy work hours, goats, housework... you know the drill!

Plus it has been so awful at work this past week, if you could only imagine the ways that dishonest people try to steal from Wal-mart it would boggle your mind. I always tease that I have job security because no one wants my job, this past week has really reinforced that thought. I just have to keep reminding myself that one day they will answer for all that they have done. (Hoping to have good seats for that show!)

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Have a great day, we are doing a campfire tonight and I can't wait!

City Kid or Country Boy?

Travis seems to have adjusted to country life very quickly this summer. He is having a great time with the baby goats. These are some pictures of feeding time. All of three pregnant does have given birth and the final count is 7 baby goats total. (4 bucks, 3 does.... 2 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets.)
Trav was quite proud of himself, he was the first to find one of the babies after it was born. We are bottle feeding them, which is alot of work, but they are so much tamer when you do that. Trav also got his first pair of barn boots (black rubber boots) that you wear only to the barn, and never never ever bring into the house. You take them off on the porch and they stay outside. Like most of his other boy stuff they are covered in mud and manure..how pleasant! LOL!!
So, in my humble opinion we have a genuine country boy on our hands.

New Papers!

I picked these up yesterday on our little field trip in

Greensburg. I have several pages in mind. The Winnie the Pooh is for a baby album. Spiderman is for my nephew Tyler. The pink, orange, purple CS is really nice 8.5 x 11 CS that has a faux suede finish to it. The

ladies at Art Tech recommended it for punching little

flowers. The brown is called Pizazzil, a combo of
bazzill CS and printing on it, lots of colors and patterns!

Of course, cousins, since they play together so much and are always in pictures together.

Art Tech Field Trip

Wow! What a great day I had yesterday! I spent the day with some wonderful ladies making cards, having lunch and scrapbook shopping.

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We started the day at Art Tech in Greensburg where we made the two cards in the first picture. The Dad card was made using Perfect Pearls to make a faux hammered metal look embellishment. Let me tell you, making faux metal is fun! We glued, inked, powdered, brushed, watered, and pounded the crap out of those letters! The card on the end is my friend Sharon's (AKA BS#2), she and some of the other ladies made seashells on their card fronts instead of letters and wow did they come out super nice! Although they have been around for a while, perfect pearls are a great new product/technique for me! I have wanted to learn how to use them for a long time and now I know!

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The second card in that photo is a neat paper weaving technique that is great for using up scraps! Gotta love that, who doesn't have a ton of those? It also uses the "leftovers" from a die cut as well! Bonus!! I like the cute quilty look of it as well. After I got it home here I added some glittery pen stitching to it and I think I may add a ribbon as well. It is definitely a card that I will make again.

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Thanks Luan, our teacher and Celelia, the store owner. We had a great time!

Art Tech Supplies, Inc. is located at 135 S. Pennsylvania Ave. Greensburgh, Pa

(724)-832-1770

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Deanna, Sharon, Mary Agnes, Joan and Jean and Mickey and I had a delicious lunch at a little diner two doors away from Art Tech. I can't remember the name of the place unfortunately. I had the Hawaiian Ham sammie, thin sliced grilled ham, with melted provolone and a pineapple slice on grilled sourdough with honey mustard. The food was yummy and inexpensive and the company was very good as well! After refueling or bodies and resting up a bit, we were off to do some more scrapbook shopping.

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Next on the list was the Crop Shop, a new scrapbook store in Greensburg, located near the new Sam's Club. I encourage you to check out their website. The store is brand new, beautiful and has lots of new product. I like how it is organized by theme. They have a quite impressive class/crop area with many die cutting tools and a Cricut! I will be going back to shop some more I am sure, since they have 4-H theme product and some other goodies that I am interested in!

More Baby Goats, finally some girls!

Meet Snowball and Magic!

Snowball above (obviously!) and Magic below are two baby goats born on Monday at my Dad and Mom's 4-H project farm. They were named by my nephew Tyler who is 3. Naming them is always interesting, the last two were named Bo and Luke. Go figure! We have a couple more pregnant mama goats and hopefully we will get some baby girl goats from them.
We also call Magic Tiny and Peanut since he is only half the size of Snowball.

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Fun day with the girls tomorrow, can't wait!

A Designer's Eye...

A Designer's Eye for scrapbooking with patterned paper, by Ali Edwards

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I picked this book up and have been reading it page by page for several days now. Really I have been studying it, not looking ahead or skimming over it. I have sticky notes with comments on several pages for various reasons and hope to try out some of the sketches very soon. It is a great book about how to use pattern paper (of which I own a ton!) It is part of my initiative to use of some of what I have been collecting for quite a while now. I have been trying to be super selective about new purchases because I have so much already.

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I also got the book because Ali's blog is one that I read faithfully and she has some really creative project ideas and kits and classes.

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By the way, have you noticed? Look over there on the right side of the blog, mixed in with my profile and archives are some links to some of the other blogs I read regularly and also links to some of my favorite sites! They updated how to add them and it si soooo much easier, so I added them over the weekend. Hope you enjoy them!

Take care!

I picked up some new things this weekend...

I am really loving all of the scalloped edge papers that are so popular right now and so while at Michaels I picked up this DCWV mini scalloped cardstock stack. It has some nice basic colors and it is textured with the white core. I used a sheet of it on a layout this weekend for the semi-secret project. I can tell now since it has been presented to the recipient. It was an album for the Western PA District Church of the Brethren's Associate Minister who is leaving her postition after fifteen years of dedicated service. I figured that I have logged over 5,000 bus miles on differerent youth trips with Linda and she is trully a wonderful lady and I wish her well on her new vocation. She is to be a Chaplain at the Hershey Medical Center and I know that they are going to be so blessed by her presence there. She is kind, compassionate and caring all the things you would want in a Chaplain.

Next new toy is really an old one, but for a new purpose... My corner rounder is on it's last leg, I have sharpened it, lubricated it and pretty much worn it out by punching through multiple layers of CS to the point that it is now crooked. Only I could do that I guess! I decided to get this one to replace it since I talked Chicksa into buying one at my last visit with her. It is an EK Success corner punch, but presto! take the little plastic foot off of it and you can make your own scalloped edges! It is super simple and I like the nice pretty scallop that it makes. Lining it up is a snap if you punch upside down. Punch is available at Wal-mart and is less than $5.

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I must say that I am enjoying these rainy days, even though they have kept me from planting the two flats of flowers and 3 flats of veggies that we picked up on Friday. I am looking for some inspiration for a few little projects that are in the works. I need to make some graduation cards and I also am working on a shower gift of a baby book for Kenny's cousin. Wish me luck and have a great week!

Travis, Skinned Knee

It's Quiet Here....

Travis went home on Monday, it's been quiet here. He won't be up this weekend, since after this week he will be here for the whole summer. I love it when he is here, the house is always a mess and there is always a ton of laundry to do, shoes to find, and a bike on the sidewalk.

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He decided that this summer he and my nephew Mark would go to Canoe camp at Camp Harmony. That should be quite fun! I imagine packing his things in nice little ziploc bags and I figure half will come home in those same bags unworn and the rest of his clothes will not be fit for anything but the trash can. LOL!! All in the name of fun! Hopefully this year his glasses won't be at the bottom of the dam, like they did last year. He is sooooo hard on glasses, about 2 pairs a year since he got his first pair.

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Nothing much else going on here. I have stopped the reorganization of my scrap space, since I am working on a special secret project at the moment and need to be able to work at my desk. I also halted the process until I get my paper racks from my Chicksa. I am not sure how I am going to use them yet, so I have to wait until I get them.

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Looking forward to a little scrapbook field trip in about a week as well! I can't wait to get together with the ladies again and also do a little retail therapy!

Take care my friends!

What a crazy busy weekend!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I had a pretty busy one! We got to pick Travis up early, so I got him on Thursday evening, instead of the usual Friday and because of the holiday he got to stay until Monday as well. It is always so nice to have that extra time with him. Hard to believe that in less than two weeks the school year will be over and he will be here for the summer!

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Friday was cropping at my CMC's crop and we had a great time. I guess because of the holiday weekend there weren't as many in attendance, but that was ok with me! If you did not know it, I am not a fan of noise, crowds, and all that. My husband is in no way a homebody like me and it is funny sometimes, because he will suggest going somewhere and I will wrinkle my nose like a little kid about it. Compromise in all things. I do go sometimes, but I usually get my fill of it rather quickly.

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Saturday was EMS stuff in town. They had the Med-Star helicopter from Conemaugh Hospital land at the ball field and let the kids check it all out and then they had hot dogs, chips and soda. We took Travis and my nephew Tyler(3) to see it. Travis was unimpressed, he has seen it before, and Tyler got all quiet and bashful. I did manage a few pictures though! I always like to see the helicopter, since I got to ride in it once! Thankfully it wasn't a life threatening thing and I am here to tell about it! In the afternoon, Ken and Travis went to pick up the bike that he won. That is a whole blog post of its own, with pictures that I will get to later this week. Needless to say, that was a huge hit with Trav. Saturday evening the EMS sponsored a rollerskating party for the community at the skating rink. They really do have alot of nice kids activities for EMS week in Hooversville.

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Sunday Kenny power washed the porch and sidewalk, worked on the yard and I did some house work. We were going to have our first campfire of the year, however my brother beat us to it, so Kenny went to hang out at his fire pit.

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Monday, Memorial Day there were parades and services that kids needed to be at, fire engines that went to three different ones as well. A visit to the cemetary. Travis wouldn't even get out of the car there. Then we picnicked at my Mom and Dad's place. Then on the road to take Travis home.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

Hope you all had a great long weekend!

Remember Someone Today

Today I will remember by Grandfather, L.C. Kinney, Veteran. Hopefully among the parades, cookouts and family events you will take some time to remember the brave men and women who have given their lives for our freedom. It doesn't matter what political party you belong to, how you feel about our President or the current war in Iraq. Our Veterans have earned and deserve our support and respect for doing their duty and protecting our freedom.

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Below are some links for excellent places to learn about how Memorial Day began and how you can participate in remembering our heroes. Go to your local parade and service held by your VFW or American Legion, visit a cemetary and honor the memory of someone you love who gave their life for our country.

http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

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http://www.vfw.org/

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http://www.legion.org/

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http://uso.org/

Ask not what your country can do for you,

but what you can do for your country.

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

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I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.

~Nathan Hale

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God bless America, my home sweet home.

~Irving Berlin

Take care and have a blessed Memorial Day.

Crop Time and Blog Stalkers....

I got to crop with my BS #2 last evening and we had a great time catching up... She wants to keep her identity a secret, so she is hiding behind her happy journal! I haven't heard from stalker #1 for a while here, wonder where she disappeared to?

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We made some simple page borders last evening using some really pretty CM stickers, papers and the Cuttlebug embossing folders. Thanks ladies, you were great makentakers!

Remember, Attitude is EVERYTHING!

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of Melanie. She is at times so deep and brooding, stubborn as the day is long... and you work for every smile that you get from her. When the photographer suggested this particular pose I immediately thought how well it conveyed her personality at that age. The photo of this layout really doesn't show the better details like the tiny square green metallic brads and the silver metallic gloss paper that is behind the photo. The title was done with MM letter rub ons. I really like the look of rub ons versus stickers, but boy what a pain they can be to get put in place!

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Mel and I talked briefly today, she did not pass her driver's test yesterday. She was a bit nervous, she said. That is ok, it was good practice and next time she will know what to expect.

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I picked Travis up today and he will be here for the long Memorial Day weekend. I do not have to go back to Wal-mart until Tuesday! YIPPPPPEEEE!!! We got new cash registers and oh dear are they a pain to get used to, been giving me a headache every day! The plan for the weekend is to crop tomorrow, do EMS week activities on Saturday, decorate a cake on Sunday and have our first back yard campfire on Sunday! Monday is the Memorial Day parades in Hooversville and Central City.

Take care!

Life is a reat big canvas and you should throw all the paint on it you can.

~Danny Kaye

She is a little older in this picture, and she really looks so much like her mother. This was my first try at a new technique... painting on my scrapbook page. I am normally a neat and pretty scrapbooker. I like things lined up and straight and orderly. My painting here was nothing extravagant...just got the old sponge brush out and started smearing the paint on to the paper. I also used some chipboard letters, an M for Melanie and the L for the first letter of the quote. Page accents also included three black eyelets and 3 spiral paper clips.

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My dear husband buys raffle tickets from his buddies at work. He doesn't usually win anything, but we always have a raffle ticket for something clipped to the calendar or stuck to the fridge. We got a message on the answering machine Monday evening... If this is Ken Holbrook and you bought a raffle ticket from the Hyndman High Senior Class, you are the proud winner of the top ticket item, a brand new bike. Not just any bike, mind you...look at this.... Chase 4. All I can say is the first time Travis lets it lay in the yard or takes a wrench to it to tear it apart I am going to scream bloody murder!

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That said... have a great day!