The next generation...

Hmmmm...how in the world could my friends kids be so grown up that they are having kids? I am only 23 myself! Yes, I will snap out of it. Last week I went to my second shower this summer, this time the mom-to-be is the daughter-in-law of one of my bestest and dearest friends.

The shower was a delightful summer luncheon filled with friends, laughter and many, many good memories.Again I made a diaper cake; this time the color pallette was blue because we all know that Liam is a boy! I promise that this is my last one for a while. While the design is similar to the previous one, this cake is simpler. I topped it with a sweet stuffed giraffe that plays a lullaby and turns his little head. Hopefully Liam will like him. I also included a gift card for anything that Mom and Dad might need after his homecoming.

My God-daughter, hostess of the event, really worked hard on the decor.She made the most wonderful entrance to the home with a bower of simple tissue flowers, but the effect was so charming. I had to share this photo.

Amongst other things...I am really behind in my scrapping and cardmaking. Hopefully I will have something to share next week.

Hope your weekend is great!

Best,

Tee

Happy Birthday!

A good friend (who wants to remain anonymous) just passed a significant birthday and I made her a card. She did say that I could post the card.

So, thanks to a new member of the over 50 crowd, here is my most recent creation! I used a stamp set from CTMH that can't be purchased (it was a special promo, more's the pity) for the flower and center The only other significant things about this card is that I popped some of the images for interest, and used a rhinestone from Michael's dollar bin.


Thanks for looking!
Tee

The Shower!

Cindy is the sister my mom never delivered. Since that first Saturday over 25 years ago that we drank a pot of coffee together, we have been kindred spirits. Ben, Cindy's son, married Melanie in April, 2007. They have recently purchased a new home and are expecting their first child, a little girl.

Well, I couldn't let that grand event go without having a shower for them! I called our mutual cohort-in-crime, Rhonda, and the shower was a go-go-go since Ben and Melanie live about 8 hours away and she is due in September. We scrambled to get the date and then the preparations started.

First of all we found out that Melanie had picked out "Animal Crackers" by Lambs 'n' Ivy as a design for the nursery. I based the invitation on those colors and prints. The photo of the invite is poor, I know. I am working on learning more about taking photos for this blog. As usual I used Close To My Heart cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon and buttons. The embossing was done with my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder.

I matched the colors from the Animal Crackers patterns which were Baby Pink, Key Lime, Bubblegum, and Buttercup. I used my Cricut to cut out the hobby horse with the Joys of Christmas cartridge. Such versatility; I just changed the colors! The button is attached with Bubblegum waxy flax, also from CTMH. Here is another view so that you can see the layers.

All of the preparations were based on these colors and were mostly pink, pink, pink!!! Rhonda and I had a wonderful time planning all of the festivities. The special day went off without a hitch and here is a photo of the mom-to-be and the grandmom (Cindy)-to-be!

Again I leaned heavily on my Cricut. I used the New Arrivals cartridge to cut cute, whimiscal animals for embellishments for the cupcakes. I also delved into another craft and made a diaper cake for Melanie. Believe me when I say that diaper cakes aren't as easy as they look! Mine was the smooth, swirled kind and I could have used another pair of hands but with enough ribbon and adhesive, I got it done. I really had a great time playing with all the special little things that I found for babies!

I must also pay homage to the creativity of my buddy, Rhonda. She found a photo of this melon fashioned into a baby carraige and with many giggles,

she pulled it off! It was a wonderful creation and much admired by all the ladies attending.

Since I was in the other room, I didn't watch the process so I cannot tell you how it was done. If I get emails I will pass them along to Chef Rhonda!

Both of us had a great time celebrating the coming of this special little girl! We are all looking forward to meeting her in late September!

This is a long post but just wanted to share what I have been working on. Hopefully my next post will have some scrapbooking as I am visiting one of my bestest scrappin buddies next week for a weekend scrapathon!

Ta-Ta,

Tee

Catching up

Whew. I knew it had been a while since I posted but did not realize how long. My apologies.

I have a card to share that I made for my mentor and boss, Hazel Farmer, who, this month, celebrated her 40th anniversary where we work. What an achievement in a time that a job is just a stepping stone to another. I have become fascinated with the last couple of years' worth of images of chandeliers. This one is from my newest Cricut cartridge: Home Decor. All of the papers and cardstock came from the Life Delights set from Close To My Heart. I added some inking and bling and voila! The stamps are from Inkadinkado and Heidi Grace.

I used bronze Stickles for the "flames" and broke apart little rhinestone flowers from CTMH for the crystal accents. The green mat was cut from a die with my BigShot.

I am presently planning a baby shower for my good friend Cindy Pittman's daughter-in-law, Melanie. So I am up to my neck in everything pink and precious! I will share some photos of the invite and preparations after the shower on Saturday next. In the meantime, stay cool!

Best,

Tee

Almost a winner...

I entered the Crafty Brides' contest at Createforless.com with the things I made for Nikki's wedding. Though I didn't win, I made the website. This is the closest that I have ever come to being published and I was proud to see my name and her work on the computer. (blushing!)

Since I couldn't get the link to work, ( and it is not easy to get to) here is the verbiage of the winning entries:

Congratulations to Nancy T. from Menomonee Falls, WI, who was randomly chosen as the winner of our Crafty Brides Drawing and a $100 CreateForLess shopping spree! The craft tip she sent us was... "My son's new bride loves black and pink. We couldn't find something suitable for the table decorations, so I made 22 small quilts to fit the bill. The quilts are made using 4 strips (these are 2", but they can be made in a variety of sizes) into a strip set, then cutting 60% triangles, alternating the placement of the ruler. Combine the six triangles from each strip set to make one small quilt (sew three together twice, then join the halves). Layer with batting on the bottom, right side of quilt up, with backing right sides together with quilt top. Sew around the outside edges, leaving enough of the edge open to turn. Trim corners, turn right side out, press. Using a decorative stitch from your machine, stitch around the outside edge, then along each "round" until you get to the center. Everyone wanted one!" Here are more of our favorite crafty bride ideas submitted by customers. Thanks to everyone who entered!

They showed the photo of the table frames. I was proud of the effort.

Thanks,

Tee

Just for fun...

http://This has got to be the funniest pet video I have ever seen! It made me laugh and I hope it gives you happiness today.

Happy 4th!

Tee

Different Personalities

My sign is Gemini so I definitely have 2 different personalities; those that know me well have adapted. The reason I am sharing this is that the 3 cards I am showing today are totally different and, if I didn't know better, would have assumed they would have been done by 3 different people.

It just goes to show you that I am influenced by whatever mood I may be in; the stamps or paper I may be using; or, even why I am making the card.

The first is a Thank You to a dear family friend for leaving me various vegetables from her garden. It is such a delight to come home and a bag of squash, green beans, or corn are left hanging on our front door knob. I simply used scraps of a set from Close To My Heart called Let's Get Together, some pop dots, and a bit of ribbon.

The white card is a sympathy card to some friends who just lost their parents very closely together. I just ran white textured cardstock through the Cuttlebug on the Damask folder, stamped the greeting and tied a bit of grey ribbon around the card. I did line the front of the card with grey cardstock to match the ribbon and ink. This card is a regular 4.25" x 5.5" card turned sideways with an off center fold.

The final card is one to send to a friend that is having a difficult time healthwise and could use some lifting up. The inspiration was a new stamp set from Our Daily Bread called "Ask, Seek, Knock." It is one of my favorite verses of the Bible and I was thrilled to find it in rubber!

For this card I stamped the door and the verse with chocolate ink on kraft cardstock and mounted it on cream then on Twilight cardstock. All my cardstock and most patterned papers come from Close To My Heart. I inked the outer edges with chocolate and colored in the door with markers, again from Close To My Heart. The ribbon is chocolate and the buttons are vintage from my stash.

Someday I may have a certain "style" that will be recognizeable but for now, you never know how things will turn out.

Have a great week!

Tee

Father's Day Cupcakes

I have to share one more photo with you from my real life. My husband, Rannie, is an avid golfer. Usually on Saturdays and Sundays he is out with his buddies getting his serving of "greens." I love it 'cause I am usually in my studio or on adventures with Cody, the wonderdog.

Anyway, our anniversary and Father's Day fell on the same weekend so, I decided to make Rannie some cupcakes. I kinda went overboard with the creativity because 18 cupcakes became 18 holes of golf. I used green frosting for the greens, graham cracker crumbs for the sand traps, tinted some frosting blue for water features, and used green sugar for the "rough."

Now, I am not Martha Stewart, but I have to say they were fun. I even tried to make some of them really hard 5 pars and I used toothpicks with cardstock triangles for flags. Add a sign "Ransoneville Public Golf Course" and my project was complete.

Rannie really had fun with the treats! He even told some of his buddies that had played through 12 but the last 6 were killer.

Here is a picture of Rannie with the "course." Hope you have fun this weekend!

Tee

The Wedding and other stuff

So, so sorry for being such a bad blogger but my topic is life and that comes first. SO, what has been going on....

You have been hearing about my young friend Nikki's wedding. The glorious day finally came and, of course, she was a beautiful, glowing bride. Nikki's wedding was as she is: simply elegant, heartfelt, and happy. She had a beautiful red and white theme which made the event "glow!"

I offered to host a shower for her but she meekly asked me instead if I could help her with some creative ideas for her reception. She and her new husband, Ryan, have lost family recently to cancer and made a donation in honor and memory of those loved ones to the American Cancer Society in lieu of "wedding favors." She asked me to do a table card to let all of their guests know of it AND she and her mom were making cookies (such a sweet, homey treat!) for the guests to take away as a thank-you so she needed thank you tags for them.



Of course I plowed into the challenge with a loving heart. I have to say that if not for my trusty Cricut die-cutting machine, these items would not have happened. I renamed my studio, the Nikki wedding garden, for the 3 weeks leading up to the event.


The photos show the examples. There were 28 acrylic 4" x 6" frames for the tables and 135 Thank you tags for the cookies.

The stamp used on the tag was from the Simply Senitiments set from Close To Your Heart as was the textured white cardstock. The die used was from the BIG SHOT from Sizzix. I used 2 different red cardstocks from Close To My Heart and red/white rhinestones for the centers. The 2 greens for the leaves were also CTMH cardstock.

Here is a photo of the whole wedding party. Our daughter Emory was the Matron of Honor, third from the left, bottom row.


Thanks Nikki and Ryan for letting me help. We all wish you many, many years of happiness!!!

Tee

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there. I have had lots of "Moms" in my life but the ones that truly matter right now are Anne and Margaret. My mom, Anne McClintock, is an incredible woman. I joke about "hearing my mother's words coming out of my mouth" but I know my innate sense of right and wrong, wearing black pants to cover a multitude of sins, and knowing how to navigate a formal dinner party is all from my mother.

Margaret Ransone, my mother-in-law, is my other mom. Margaret was a home economics teacher in the local high school for 31 years and is a model cook and housekeeper. She is a very busy lady and I have grown to love and respect her over the 25 years I have known her. She loves her family fiercely and I can always count on her help if I need it. When Rannie and I met, I was very different from what she and Ralph, Rannie's Dad, had in mind for their youngest son. However, we have grown to understand each other and celebrate our differences as all successful families do.

Since this is a papercrafting site, I thought you would enjoy seeing the cards that I made for each of our Mothers. My focus for the past few months has been cleaning out my studio and making use of what I have. I will be helping a young friend with her wedding "favors" soon and wanted to try my hand at paper flowers. SO, I pulled out several scraps of each color family and got to work with my trusty Cricut. I did enjoy making these cards and for both Mama and Margaret. Anne got the yellow flowers at top and Margaret was the recipient of the red. Both were very appreciative of my time and talents!

I would love to hear your comments. Please take a moment and let me know what you are working on. Soon I will be showing my ideas for Nikki's wedding and a graduation card or two. 'Tis the season!

Best,

Tee

Travel

Ni Hao! My most recent adventure to China is now over and I have over 1,700 photos to review. Digital photography has really induced shutterbugs like me to go overboard!

China is a study in contrasts and I hope to share some of China seen through my eyes as soon as I can get over my jet-lag. Speaking of, here is one that I snapped taken over northern Alaska about a third of the way to Beijing. Such beautiful, pristine, frozen mountains!

I promise I will post more....later!

Tee

Easter

Blessings to you! My Easter was everything it should be; Family, good food, spiritual renewal.

Our daughter and son-in-law, Emmy and Michael, arrived Friday evening along with our grand-dog Spartacus which doubled our household and filled the house with lots of good feelings. It is so wonderful when they can come home!

I have included a photo of my Mom with her Easter Lily after Church. I love Easter at Irvington Baptist because the flowers highlight the stained glass window of the bapistry. So beautiful. Amoungst other activities we went to our church Sunday and then lunch at my Aunt Ella's.

I have also included a photo of my Easter cards for the family. I love this little peep with his bunny ears! It is a stamp from Impress that I hand-colored with Prisma pencils. The stamped sentiment inside (also from Impress Stamps) says "Happy Easter to you." The ribbon is from Close To My Heart and the card was from a boxed set from Michaels.

It will be a while until my next post. I will be leading a group trip to China! I know I will have lots to share when I return. In the meantime enjoy this beautiful Spring season!

Zai Jian! (So long! in Mandarin)

Tee

Family

More and more these days the word
"Family" has different meanings. Over the years I have had "brothers" and "sisters" that my Mama never delivered. I think that comes from being an only child; I have, however, been the beneficiary of lots of aunts and uncles. Which also means many wonderful cousins. I happen to be the oldest.

Since my youngest aunt is only 5 years older than me, I have been an unofficial little sister to my Mother's sisters and brother. I have always treasured my times with the "aunts," especially since I have gotten older. They are all delightful, beautiful, talented southern Ladies, as is my Mom, and we all share that kinship of WOMEN. The photo shows (l-r) Aunt Frances, Aunt Ella, Beautiful Sutton, Bernie, Mama Anne, and me.

Yesterday several of us gathered at a lunch table in a local family restaurant. The main purpose was to bid farewell to my cousin Sutton. Sutton's dad, my Uncle Jack, died in January. Sutton and Stuart, (Sutton's brother, my cousin) had come back to Virginia to be with Uncle Jack in his last days and Sutton had stayed to settle matters here. Sutton and Stuart have made their lives on the West Coast and are very successful individuals.

I realized, during the brief times that I had shared with them, that I truly loved being with my cousins, and also that I wished we lived closer so that we could enjoy each other as friends. Alas, the time has come for Sutton to resume her life after this tragic interruption. She will be taking the long way home, stopping along the way to visit friends in different parts of the country. As I mentioned to her yesterday, sometimes a commute helps ease the transition. She said that she agreed and that is the main reason she is doing it; a 4 hour flight would be too quick.

Sutton's maternal Grandmother, Bernie, (whom she affectionately calls "Boo") was also there to thank all of us for our tenderness towards Sutton during this time. We all knew that "thanks" was unnecessary as we love her, Stuart and Uncle Jack. We were all appreciative of this last opportunity to be together. Bernie plus Sutton's mom and step-dad will also be traveling to the coast later this summer in a major move of household to be near their children.

So, bonne chance mon cher cousin! I do hope we will be together again someday. Remember, tho' you now live on the west coast, you are a southern girl at heart (remember those ham biscuits) and we all stick together! I will miss you.

Tee

Bad Blogger...

Well, life has been hectic but just wanted to share a few words. Tomorrow I will be teaching a class -- "De-stressing with Distressing!" If my students are amendable, I will post a photo. This is a paper distressing class to show the great effects you can get with white core cardstock, which is offered by Close To My Heart, amongst other good companies. Did I ever tell you that I am a consultant with Close To My Heart?

Anyway, still working on cleaning and rearranging my studio. I have heard from a very good source that my Williamsburg buddy, Lizzy's, studio is now finished. I hope to get some pics from her soon.

Spring is here in Virginia by the calendar but you wouldn't know it by the temp. I will leave you with a pic I snapped at Historic Stratford Hall (home of the Lees of Virginia) last weekend at a Leadership retreat.

Happy Creating!

Tee

Scrappin' Happenin'

Saturday I had the honor of participating as a vendor for the 2nd Rice's Hotel, Hughlett's Tavern Scrappin' Happenin'! My friend Susan again asked me to help these wonderful ladies with their fund-raiser and I was happy to help. RHHT is a historic location in Heathsville, Virginia and was an Inn and Tavern in the late 1700's. Volunteers have labored long and hard to bring this group of buildings back to life and are MANIC fundraisers. They also have lots of FUN while working hard! If you are interested, here is the link to their website... http://www.rhhtfoundation.org/ .

So, approx. 40 ladies gathered for a 12 hr crop and here are a couple of photos of the event...They all had lots of fun and did lots of pages. Most did my St. Patty's Day make-n-take and Vickie was the lucky winner of my doorprize.

Amongst other news, the redo of my studio is at a halt for a time. The sad thing is that I get going on sorting and tossing and then I have an event. I have to mess everything up to plan for the event and it takes me a couple of days to get back where I was before the interruption! Two steps forward...etc. I hope to work on it again this weekend.

One of my good friends, Lizzy, is also redoing her studio so I am eagerly waiting for the finalized photos. Lizzy and Betsy, my best scrappin' pals, are VERY organized; they are neat scrappers and when we get together, it is obvious that I am their complete opposite. I am lucky if I do not have an AVALANCHE of stuff at least once falling off of my table. They are good role models but I am afraid this old dog is hard to change. Maybe I will have some pics to share when we both are done.

Have a great week and if you don't have time to scrap...make some memories!

Tee

Finally...some papercrafting!

OK folks, this blog is supposed to be about papercrafting but you've only heard my ramblings...up to now! The photos featured here are of a make-n-take card and a centerpiece door prize I am offering as a vendor in a local Scrapathon tomorrow. I chose St. Patrick's Day as a theme 'cause it is always fun to feature holidays. All of my cardstock and patterned papers are Close To My Heart. I ran the darker green mat through my cuttlebug for the paisley emboss and sanded it. The shamrock is three hearts cut from the Cricut with a ribbon stem.

The little hat is the inner roll from used ribbon and a circle cut from cs. The buckle

was cut from the Cricut. This idea was lifted from someone (sorry, cannot remember) on the Two Peas site. So cute!

So, hope you have a great weekend and I will share some photos of the Scrapathon with my next post.

Tee

SNOW!

I know that most of the U. S. (I mean that is used to the stuff) got a lot of it this winter. I have been complaining that we never get the big snows that we used to have here when I was a kid.

We'd get 10 inches easy that would close school for a week! It was a fun time of sledding, making snow cream, snow angels, and snow men. It was also usually time when the local pond froze over and we could ice skate and warm up by the bonfire. Truly a child's memory.

Well, I can stop complaining because on March 1, 2009 here in the eastern part of Virginia, we got at least 6 inches. The only problem with snow here is that ice usually comes along with it, downing power lines and taking out phone and cable services. However, during our last big re-do of our 105+ year-old Albatross, I mean home, we installed gas logs. So when the power went off at 10 p.m. last night, I was ready.

Dear husband Rannie had already bundled up and gone out to help move snow for VDOT. He was not happy. We have differing views on lots of things.

It was nice and cozy infront of the fire. Both cats were like round lumps of fur warming themselves near the grate. BUT, Cody, the wonderdog, was cowering under the covers in our bed. Why? He is scared to death of the fire! That is another long blog entry.

The cold did not stop me from snapping a few photos on the way to work. Here is one from my back door. All of them are fuzzy and white but hey, it was snowing!

Hope you are warm, safe, and dry!

Tee

What I see

Yesterday I was coming home after taking Cody for a ride (what dog doesn't like riding in a truck?) and was overcome by this beautiful sunset over Carter's Creek.

This is from a small bridge before you get to my town. Poor Cody almost got whiplash when I did a u-do-it and parked on the side of the road so I could capture this stunning photo. Remember I am a rank amateur but always carry my camera so I can be ready, just in case!

This is another reason why I love winter...the colors are so much more intense.

Hope you find some beauty in your world this weekend!

Tee

Hmmmm....

Now that I have officially designed and committed to this blog, I guess it is time for my first post.

Why did I want a blog? Well, I can't really answer that except that I really like glimpsing into the worlds of several cool people. Now, I am not cool but I thought I would share some of my thoughts, occasionally I may post something creative, and generally keep this as a type of journal.

I doubt seriously that anyone other than my dear mother will read this on a regular basis so I say now, don't expect for me to post everyday. I have a real job and like many, many people, time is a precious commodity.

I do hope to make some friends, share some insight and creativity, and most of all hope not to tick anyone off. BUT, if I do, just don't come back!

Cool. Later on I will explain the title for whomever cares.

If you want to, leave me a message.

Best,

The Rabbit...Tee