Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Here is a simple card to start off the year! I love using the DP paper for backgrounds on cards. Hope you all are having a good start to your year! On this card I used Urban Garden DP, Kiwi Kiss, and Not Quite Navy. Thanks for stopping by!

Festival of Trees Donation

Each year I donate a stack of cards for our area Festival of Trees to benefit Parkview Home Health and Hospice. I like to do non-traditional colors for Christmas cards. This year I decided to do Close to Cocoa and the new Baja Blue. I used the Baja ribbon. The stamp was by pennyblack.com and purchased at Archiver's. I used the Cutterbug embossing folders - snowflakes. I wish the picture showed the glitter I added - they really sparkle!

I hope all my stamping buddies are doing well! I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Pocket Silhouette

Hi friends! I love this little stamp set. Every morning when I head down to the basement to iron my clothes for work I see the silhouettes of my flowers in the basement window against the light of the rising sun. It reminds me of this stamp set! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I stamped for an entire weekend two weeks ago so I have tons of samples to share.

This paper combination is one of my favorites and worked well with this set. Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, and Basic Black. Ink: Black.

Pocket Silhouettes

I blew around a little dust tonight and cracked open some ink pads. I love the new "in-colors". I have to look at the stamp set each time I want to type the word "silhouette" - that's the only bad thing about this set! I like this set because it reminds me of my Mom's garden in the fall when everything is drying out. I hope you are doing well tonight and thank you very much for stopping by my little blog!

Ear and Life Update!

Hi Everyone! I feel like I have neglected this blog for way too long! I just wanted to say hi to all my stamping buddies and to let you know that I am still alive!

First I want to say thank you to all your positive comments and prayers about my ear. I have always felt that everything in life happens for a reason. There are lessons to be learned every single day. For those who don't want to read my last post and still be update here is the long story short - On Aug 2nd got hit hard in the ear with a water balloon, perforated my eardrum, had no pain, didn't know I hurt it so badly, about 3 hours later poured rubbing alcohol in my ear to "open it back" up, within 20 minutes became violently ill and dizzy, went to ER got better. End result - lost hearing and had nerve damage to my tongue.

The good news is that my hearing is nearly restored. I still have no taste on the right side of my tongue and it tingles constantly. There is a sensory nerve that controls part of your tongue that runs through the inner ear. I damaged it with the toxicity of the rubbing alcohol. I saw an inner ear specialist last week and there really isn't anything we can do but wait. It may take up to 6 months to heal. I am very blessed that I can hear again. The lack of taste has not kept me from eating either!!! LOL!

I've had a great summer. I have been playing a lot of golf this summer and working on improving my game. Some days are better than others! My kids are healthy and doing well. This summer we spent every single Wednesday (my day off) doing something extra special.

I can't wait to get back on the stampin wagon again! All the blogs I visit have been inspiring! I just finally got my first order from the new SU catalog. Thanks again for all your well wishes! My readers ROCK! Have a great day!!!!

Cupcake Birthday

Wouldn't you just love a cupcake right now? I sure would. Every time I see stamps of cupcakes I want to eat! I just want to thank you for all the nice emails about my ear. I appreciate your prayers! I hope you are all having a great weekend! It is so nice out, but I'm inside scrapbooking! It's nice to have the laundry done and time to craft! Take care! :) Julie

Birthday Month!

Wow! What a busy birthday month....my mom, mother-in-law, and two sister-in-laws! Three are in one week! :) I had a lot of fun making these cards. I definitely had difficulty stamping the words straight!

I was off last week on vacation and had plans to stamp the entire week. Sometimes God has other plans for us! The Saturday that my vacation started I was nailed in the head by a waterballoon (during a battle - it was accidental) and felt a searing pain that went away quickly and then I could not hear. Felt okay and spent the rest of the day out on the lake. About 3 1/2 hours I was tired of having "water" in my ear and had my sister-in-law pour rubbing alcohol in my ear to evaporate the water. NOT A GOOD SUGGESTION. I didn't know that my eardrum was perforated before I had her pour in the alcohol. Within 20 minutes I was so ill I couldn't stop vomiting and my vertigo was so severe I could get off the bathroom floor. I added too much fluid to my inner ear. I finally got to the ER to get shot for the nausea and anti-vertigo medicine. Needless to say, I didn't feel like stamping very much last week. So....the good news is that my ear drum has already healed. Bad news is that I have moderate hearing loss in my right ear (can't hear unless it is at least 70 decibels) and no taste buds working on the right side of my tongue. My hearing should have improved when the ear drum closed. The alcohol may have permanently damaged the hearing and taste. I saw an ENT yesterday who did not give me any encouragement. So please say a little prayer that my hearing improves! We are doing everything that we can - I took a steroid shot yesterday and start an oral steroid in 6 days and I am on oral antibiotics and ear drop antibiotics. I would appreciate prayers that my hearing improves. I am a speech therapist and I need it to hear the sounds my kids make at work so I can help them. If it doesn't improve I will get a hearing aid! God doesn't give us anything we can't handle....right??? Right!!!!!