More Card Crafting Fun!

Last Thursday was our monthly card crafting day with my sister in law and two friends. it was scheduled for the week before but that was the day it snowed and since many of the schools were closed, we decided it was probably wise to postpone for a week.

We have been having so much fun playing with sketches that we find on Pinterest. The previous two months we chose a sketch and all made our cards from the same sketch. It was interesting to see the different ways we interpreted the sketch. This month we each just selected our own sketch and came up with a card or two to share with the others.

Here are some of the beautiful cards we made.

Not only do we have a great time of laughing, chatting, and fellowshipping we always end up with five or six new cards by the end of the day!

And now we are officially on "baby watch." Our new little granddaughter is scheduled to arrive any day now. This Nana is excited!

Birthday Reflections

Today is my 68th birthday. And while I am not feeling old, birthdays for me are always a time of reflection and anticipation.  Reflection on the past year or years and where I have been and what I have done.  And anticipation of what is ahead and a little bit of goal setting.

We had a great afternoon and evening yesterday celebrating with the family. Hubby made some awesome grilled ribs; the kids all brought side dishes and my son in law Jeff made my favorite pies for dessert - pecan and key lime. Everything was so delicious. Unfortunately, I don't think anybody took any pictures!

But today is my actual birthday. The last year was a good one.  It was the first year of my retirement, of not having to get up and go to work each day.  A time of resting, reading, card crafting, taking care of the house, and enjoying life without the stress and pressures of a job. As I look ahead, I wonder what the coming year will bring. Some days I feel that 68 is old as I am aware of the aches and pains that come with aging; at other times I feel 68 is still young and I have plenty of life to tackle ahead of me.  I struggle with knowing what God wants for me in  the remaining years that He gives me. I continue to look for opportunities to serve Him in whatever way He wants me to. 

For now, I am content to wait on God's timing.  So Happy Birthday to me.  I will enjoy my day.

Painting

We have been busy these past two weeks painting.  Our double wide is a 1991 model and it still has all the original wallboards.  So we have decided that this was the year to update the interior by painting. Previously to this year, I have never done any house painting, so this was a new experience for me. And I have decided that I do not like painting at all.

The house is all tore up, with furniture sitting in the middle of the room so that we can get to the walls to paint. My house looks like someone is getting ready to move!

The quality of the picture is not the greatest and the lighting in the room is dim, but in the living room we did the upper walls in ivory with a deep wine below the chair rail.

In the dining room and the front room we used the same ivory color for the upper walls with an old world blue for the lower half.  All three rooms look fresh and clean after the painting.

The master bedroom and bathroom got very light blue walls with one darker wall in the bedroom.  I am using a lighthouse theme in these two rooms. 

We still have a little bit to finish in the front room - I am waiting for hubby to reach the center peak that I can't quite reach.  And then we have the kitchen and laundry room to paint yet.  Maybe it will get finished this week.

Today I spent redecorating and rehanging the pictures in the rooms that are finished. It's beginning to feel like home again!

Being Nana

Wow!  I can't believe it's been 4 weeks since I blogged.  I'm not sure what happened but time has really slipped away.  I really intended to write a new post at least once a week, preferably twice.  Guess I will have to work on that.

The last several weeks have obviously been busy. Or else my mind was just on too many other things.  Since my last post our family celebrated my oldest sister's 80th birthday with a lunch at Family Cupboard in Lewisburg near her home.  I spent several days making cards either with friends or by myself. But most of all we took care of our youngest grandson for a week (well actually a total of 9 nights due to travel times, etc.) while his parents enjoyed a delayed 10th anniversary trip in Mexico.

Here he is the first day playing with Mr. Potato Head,

He went to Head Start in the mornings, so while he was at school the second day, I found our marble roller and put it out for him. He had so much fun with it.  I think he spent most of the afternoon and evening that first day playing with that toy.  It was fun to see him experiment with the marbles and watch them roll down the track.

Friday afternoon, I also had his cousin Zoë here while her mommy worked. 
The two of them played with the marble roller for a while again. It was reminiscent of his daddy and her mommy playing with the same toy some 30 years ago, even down to the noise and "fighting."

Xayden also enjoyed putting puzzles together and was quite good at it.

A week is a long time for a 3 year old (he'll be 4 in August) to be without his mommy and daddy. By midway through the week he was asking for mommy and daddy on a regular basis!

The day after they returned and he went back home he "graduated" from Head Start - at least for this year. Here he poses with Daddy. I love this picture.

Mothers' Day

After a week of rainy and cold damp weather, it was so exciting to see the sun come out on Sunday, which was Mother's Day.  Each spring we like to take a trip to Jenkins' Arboretum in Devon, PA. It is beautiful with the rhododendrons and azaleas blooming throughout the wooded hillside.  There are lots of other wildflowers emerging and coming into bloom as well.  And so my hubby and I decided it was a perfect place to spend the day.  Even though it was still a little cool, the sun was shining and it was a perfect day for a walk through the woods!

Here are a few of the pictures I took.

The skies were a brilliant blue with light fluffy white clouds.

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More flowers.

In addition to lots of white trillium we saw a few pink ones and this beautiful purple one.

It was a perfect way to spend Mother's Day!

Spring Has Sprung!

This past week we have been enjoying some beautiful weather.  It seems that at least Spring has arrived.  Last Saturday I was able to clean off my porch and finally enjoy some time relaxing on the porch.

The grandchildren enjoyed helping Paw-Paw with some planting in the front of our house.

Aren't these tulips just beautiful?

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The azaleas are almost ready to bloom.

My hubby landscaped the hillside behind our house last summer.  It is looking beautiful and full of life as well, but it is continues to be a work in progress!

Can you tell we like lighthouses?  Here is another very pretty planter.  I love the red and purple together.

Hopefully the hummingbirds will be back soon.  I got ready for them this week as well.  I have two feeders.  One off the front porch and one in the back.  Last year we had several hummingbirds enjoying our neighborhood.

Yes, Spring has returned!  Hubby, who loves to garden, is happy to be outside tinkering in the yard when he gets home in the evenings.  I enjoy watching the yard and gardens come back to life.

This Week's Craftiness!

This week I have been thinking Spring as I was making cards.  I have been playing with some of the pretty designer papers I have in my stash as well as some of the recent fabrics that I purchased.

But first, my hubby surprised with me with some stamps that he found at Goodwill. My first card was made using three of the little stamps that he brought home.




I took a 2 x 5 1/4" piece of perfect plum cardstock from Stampin' Up and using a circle punch, tried to evenly space the three holes. Then I used it as a template to stamp the three images on a piece of white cardstock and colored them with my colored pencils. It took a couple tries to get them lined up the way I wanted them! I used a piece of designer paper for my card front and finished it as seen here. The card front was mounted on a white card base.  I don't often do cards with colored pencil, so this was a nice change.





Here are two similar cards that I made using strips of designer paper in a sunburst pattern.  On the first one I used an image that I had cut from fabric. The second one has a cardstock flower from a pack I had purchased at a yard sale last summer.























And a few more cards made with fabrics.

All in all, it was a productive week. Card crafting is relaxing and something I really enjoy doing. Which is your favorite?

Sibling Weekend

I haven't had time to blog recently.  At the beginning of last week I was serving on an accreditation team for ACSI in Delaware.  While I always enjoy the experience it is an extremely busy time with long days and working into the night as the team looks at every aspect of a school's life and then writes up our report. I returned home on Wednesday and spent most of Thursday catching up, resting, laundry and preparing for the weekend.

The weekend was our annual sibling retreat held at Pine View Retreat in Juniata County.  My oldest brother John and my youngest sister Linda and her husband couldn't be with us and we certainly missed them.  

Friday evening always begins with dinner at Bread of Life Restaurant in McAlisterville.  It's an annual tradition that we look forward to each year. The weekend is filled with lots of laughter, good conversation, telling of family stories, too much food, a little friendly competion with a couple of games, and time to reconnect as siblings.

This year Janet and I decided we would introduce the sisters and sisters-in-law to our favorite hobby of making cards.  Janet and I each prepared two cards that we would make with the ladies.  We had so much fun and the ladies enjoyed the craft time.

While we were busy crafting the "boys" were busy chatting and taking pictures for us.  I think a few of them may have even had a little nap as well.  A wide range of topics is discussed and i am pretty sure that each year they try to solve all the world's problems!

Another favorite pasttime for some of the family is putting together a puzzle or two.  Because of the craft, only one got finished this year and I forgot to take a picture of the finished puzzles. 





After dinner on Saturday night we played a game.  This time we were playing "Scum" which became quite lively as the evening wore on.  

At this point in the game the three brothers were on top with Ken as President and Jim as Vice President and Bob next. It was the only time all evening that the three of them were next to each other.  And of course every round changes so that didn't last long.  

Sunday morning after breakfast we gather for worship and a time of devotions. After Janet led us in singing a few songs, Jim and Donna led in our devotional time. We ended our time together with sharing prayer requests and praying together.  It is such a special time of remembering the spiritual heritage instilled in us by our parents.  After our morning worship time Ken and Arlene had to leave - their great grandson was celebrating his first birthday party and they wanted to be a part of that.

Another tradition is the yearly competition of dominoes.  We play a version called "Do you love your neighbor?" which is a team competition so we play the boys against the girls.  More often than not the boys win. I think there was only one previous year in the ten or so years that we have been doing this that the girls won.  So of course we were doubly excited to beat them this year.

But they are good sports - here they are "high-fiving" themselves on their loss! We had uneven teams this year, so Joyce played a hand for the girls and one for the boys.  Needless to say she both won and lost the game!

It was a great weekend which will linger in our memories.

Scraps and More Scraps

Papercrafting creates lots of little scraps of paper.  Now I don't like to throw them away if I think they can be used in some way.  Besides most of them are just too pretty to throw away. Several weeks ago, my friend Beckie and I took a class on using scraps because we wanted to get some new ideas.  

Once a month I get together with three other ladies to make cards. Usually we each bring a card and technique idea to share with the rest. This way we each go home with at least four newly completely cards.  So this month we decided to share what we had learned about using scraps. Here are some of the cards I made at our get together this week.

And here we are taking a lunch break.  We always have so much fun and being silly is part of the fun!  We had a guest this month as Beckie's daughter-in-law and granddaughter were visiting from Virginia.