Showing posts with label Ramblings.... Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ramblings.... Show all posts

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Embrace Life...and all that comes with it.


So where have I been and am I OK? Yes thank you so much for those who emailed me to check in to see that I was OK :) I love that you guys care so much that you will send a quick note to check in...it means a lot to me!

Last week we had to put our very old, sweet dog to sleep because she had lost most of her faculties and it just wasn't fair to watch her suffer any more :( Olivia, had been one of my mother in law's dogs who we have had for the last 10 years, and when we got her Bill and I figured that she was about 7 years old. When my husband took her to the vet that his mom used to, she was registered there and we found out that she would have been 21 years old this year...

Bill's mom has since passed away almost 3 years ago now and on the same day that our sweet dog went to heaven, my step father in law called to say that he had sold the house that he lived in with my mother in law. I didn't expect to feel strange because Linda has been gone for almost 3 years now but it just seemed so final...it was a tough week for sure.

In this past week there have also been a few passings of some people around me with both a cousin's husband from a short battle with cancer and someone that all of us stampers know through the web - Shannan Tuebner's husband rather unexpectedly. I have been kind of in a void and putting life into perspective. With life we have to take the good and the bad with it no matter who it affects. We have to appreciate all the wonderful things that it brings and be thankful for it, as well as cope with the the rest that nobody wants to deal with including the finalness of death - I sometimes have to remind myself of this.

My heart goes out the Maureen and her family and Shannan and her family who are laying to rest the loves of their lives this week. I can't pretend to know what you both are going through but please know that I shed tears for your heartaches and that my thoughts are with you always.

I have to admit that I have also been stalling on making any cards lately as I know the ones that I will be making are for these families and sympathy cards are not easy to make. Yes, life...the good and the bad...it's a force to behold. It has been a tough week for sure.



The card that I made to show you today is the first that I have made in almost 2 weeks. I needed to make a thank you card and I was hoping that this would jump start my creativity to pour myself out on paper to make those sympathy cards.

This card one was made with a set that I actually traded recently. I had actually water coloured this flower 2 weeks ago and it was the last time that I will get to use this stamp. The title of the set (Embrace Life) I found was kind of appropriate for this posting.

The flower was water coloured using my tombow markers. I coloured 2 flowers and them cut the out to layer them on top of each other to create a more "full" looking flower. I then added the little metal floral embellie with the gemstone brad to hold it all together. This card is 4 1/4" square I and finished it off with one of my newer Spellbinders Dies and some scraps of paper.

Card Recipe:

Stamps - Embrace Life
Paper: Black, Turquoise, Gina K, SU, Basic Grey DP, Watercolour
Ink: Black, Navy, Mustard, Olive
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Cuttlebug and Embossing Folders, Spellbinder's Fleur de Lis Pendant Die, Square and Scallop Square Nestabilities, Tombow Multi Adhesive, Tombow Markers, Water Brush, Pop Dots, Sponges, Metal Flower (Clear Dollar Stamps), Gemstone Brad, Sizzix Leaf Die

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Saturday, August 22, 2009

While I procrastinate...


Hi everybody! Yes, it's me...the ghost blogger. You know, the one who takes forever to post and in the mean time you have forgotten that I ever existed...yeah, that one. *wink*

August has been one incredibly insane month for me so I'm actually on holidays right now :) Yesterday I was dragged out of the bush where we were camping without an Internet connection to come home while Bill works 2 shifts and then he's dragging me back there, so in the mean time I come to you with this card that I made about 6 months ago! lol

On Monday we are heading back to the bush so I will be MIA but have 2 scheduled blog posts for you. As I sit here typing this, I really should be working on my next 2 stamp releases and a top secret project...but I'm not really into working at the moment, so instead, I will stall for awhile on here...then maybe on Facebook...then some Splitcoast....then, um maybe some blog surfing :)





But while I'm here I should really tell you a little bit about this card. It's been sitting in a box and forgotten about for the last 6 months and as I was taking some pictures of it tonight I realized that I made a really ugly boo boo on it. Upon closer inspection I noticed that my sewing is a little less than top notch and that brings me to a lesson learned and a couple of tips for you.

Lesson #1 If your thread ever looks like the one in this picture, please remember to tighten your bobbin threads!

Lesson #2 Sewing Machines really don't think that sandpaper should be stitched on (at least this card is a reminder that mine doesn't!)

Seems to me that the reason this card got tossed aside was the messy stitching - oh well, another day another embellishment opportunity! lol



Card Recipe:

Stamps: DMD Beach
Paper: PTI White, Basic Black, Watercolour, Basic Grey DP, Sandpaper
Ink: Basic Black, Versa Mark, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Taken with Teal, Not Quite, Navy, Bashful Blue, Soft Sky, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Sponges, Dimensionals, Crystal Effects, Aqua, Painter, Re-Inkers, Cuttlebug and Embossing Folders, Clear Embossing Powder


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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

And just what have I been up to?


Boy has this past week ever been a busy one! I thought that I would give a little peek into our last week with some quickly edited photos. Both of my kids attend the same preschool and it being the end of the year for the kids, of course there is a mini "graduation" ceremony to attend! Taiton is onto bigger things in September - Kindergarden and he can't wait to attend "the big school" now :)


Ashylnn will get to come back for another year of preschool and is so happy because she gets to take Taiton's spot in the Kinderprep Program because she will be 4 soon enough. She has been telling me all week that she is a big girl now and that she loves her teachers - SO cute!




After the ceremony we quickly packed up and headed up to my parent's vacation property on Quadra Island. The weather was wonderful with only one day of rain and when we got there Grandpa was waiting with his new toy. The kids practically ran me over to get a ride on the quad with Grandpa! Can you see the satellite dish in the background? Oh yes...we were definitely roughing it! lol


This is our home away from home :) - After many years of camping, I realized that me and tents don't get along too well! lol I even brought my craft stuff so that I could get ahead on some pending deadlines...if I only remembered to bring my inkpads...



Here is a photo taken from the beach. I have probably taken this exact photo 10 times and I never get tired of looking at this view! This is Granite Bay on a remote part of Quadra Island. They are working now to put through some power lines and this time next year I should have all the amenities needed to function in my world :)



This is one of my favourite photos of the trip! I love looking at the boat launch from the beach and I really have no idea why! lol I probably took over 100 photos while we were there of different things but I keep coming back to this one. Maybe because I have edited it and the others are still untouched? Could be...probably is *wink* I still have to edit the photos of the old Lucky Jim Gold Mine, Abandoned Fish Hatchery and Cabin, the 15lb Spring Salmon my Dad caught, a shipwreck and so many other goodies! It's amazing what you can see when you are off roading on overgrown parts of the island!




We had so much fun and plan to do a lot of camping this summer because the smiles above is really what summer is all about :)


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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Look who I ran into....


As a few of you already know, I'm at CHA in California and I got the privilege to attend the Cupcake Reception for Splitcoaststampers :D I ran into a few people that you might recognize...



Tosha Leyendekker (stamps4funinCA) and Laurie Schmidlin (Lauraly) - Two of my biggest stamping hero's!



And Shannan Teubner (steubner)...



And THE beautiful Jenn Balcer (jbalcer)... :D




And some of the crew from Our Daily Bread Designs! (Jane Wetzel, Kelley Holland, Lorelie Kim, Amy Sheffer, Laurie Schmidlin, and Judy Rozema)




And some storm troopers... (I have no idea why they were there!)



I did a make and take with Debbie Olsen at the Just Rite Stampers booth :) She is such a sweetie!!

I really didn't remember to take alot of photos while wandering the many booths at CHA but here are a few that I did remember to take....



These are some of the BEAUTIFUL new lines of designer paper from K&Co. and some of the gorgeous samples that were make with these luscious papers :D



Oh and I can't forget about these gorgeous flowers from Prima!




I have to end this post now...I'm staying in a condo with 5 other extremely chatty women and we all are armed with our laptops. However, nobody else but me is trying to concentrate on what they are doing! *grin* I have to stay plugged into the dinning room table where are ethernet connections are and with everyone else and they are sooo distracting with telling silly stories and trying to get me involved in the conversations! So I am off to join the animated surroundings that I'm in :D

I will be back tomorrow with more pictures and hopefully a better post that tonight :)


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Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!



Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you all are feeling well enough to welcome 2009 ;P I'm just writing up a quick post to announce a little secret that I have had for awhile now :) I was asked to stick around at Clear Dollar Stamps and to be on their Senior Design Team :D Yay!!

CD Stamps and their Design Team are so wonderful to work with and I was positively delighted when they called me at home to ask me! Please help me welcome the new CD Stamps Design Team. You will notice that some of the other girls were asked to stick around too and some got promoted with me. Without further adieu, here is the Clear Dollar Stamps DT for 2009:

Senior Design Team Members:

Lori McCroskey - Head Goddess, Owner and Stamp Designer

Laurie Wilson - Our Fearless Leader and Stamp Designer

Linda Borneman
Me :)
Katie Renz
Nancy Grant
Candy Fosta

Continuing Design Team Members:

Linsey Rickett
Tori Wild
Alexandra Maldonado

New Additions to the Design Team:

Design Team Challenge Guru's:

Cathy B
Gloria D
Joan Ervin


I would love it if you had a minute to welcome all of the new ladies and congratulate the ones who are staying on by popping by their blogs if you have a minute :D

Starting today all the wonderful sneak peeks that you have been seeing around you will now be able to purchase! AND Clear Dollar Stamps has a new gallery for all of the goodies that we make and you can see it here.

Take Care, Celebrate and Be Safe! Oh and get out those credit cards, 'cause you're gonna need them when you see all those new releases!!! lol

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Just a little holiday note



I'm just popping in to write a little note to all of you to wish you a very happy holiday season spent with your loved ones. No matter what holiday you celebrate, please make it a safe one filled with great memories, family and good friends!

From my family to yours, Happy Holidays everyone :)


Hugs from Bill, Taiton, Ashlynn and myself :)

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Sunday, October 26, 2008

Miss me yet?


I don't know how I got caught up in the moment and never told all you ladies...I'm currently in Maui for my brother's wedding festivities! A group of 18 of us arrived in Maui on Tuesday, Oct 21 to witness the nuptials of my older brother, Derek and his longtime girlfriend, Erin.



This is what I got to witness on Oct 23rd - love is in the air. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Derek & Erin Warner! They could not have picked a better location or day for it! They got married at Makena beach just outside of the Maui Prince Hotel at 9 am and it was perfect!



After the ceremony we went to the Luau at the Maui Prince Hotel and I managed to catch the amazing sunset just before it disappeared! What a sight :)


Since the wedding is over, Bill and I have had the opportunity to relax and have some fun :) We took a sunset dinner cruise the night before last and a drive to Lahaina to do some sight seeing.


We had to stop and take a look at the largest Banyan Tree in North America. It certainly is a sight to behold! It was planted in the late 1800's and has 16 trunks...and takes up a city block! This tree is HUGE! - This is just a tiny view of it!



These are some of the sights that we saw on our drive to Lahaina. The island of Maui is stunning and has changed so much since the last time I was here 13 years ago! Tomorrow, ourselves ad the newlyweds rented a private helicopter tour of the island for some wonderful photo opportunities and fun!



We get to vacation here until the 29th and then it's back home to the cold, the kids and reality! Until then....Aloha :)


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Saturday, September 20, 2008

I've been tagged!

Oh my, I've been tagged and now what to do! Rosette over at Craftingmagic's Crafting World and Michelle at Mommy Time have both tagged me with the 7 things that you may or may not already know about me. Here are the rules, and at the end of my post I will tag my victims...er...friends that I would like to know more about ;) lol


Tagging Game Rules:

1. Link your tagger and list the rules on your blog
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs
4. Let them know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog


Here is my 7 things...

1. I have always been crafty and ready to jump into anything craft related with both feet first. Some of the things that I like to do besides paper crafting is: Embroidery, Quilting, Stained Glass, Tole Painting, Children's Mural Painting and Watercolour Painting

2. When I first met Bill (my husband) I thought that he was somebody that I already knew and it took him half of the evening to convince me otherwise!! lol

3. I secretly want to be Martha Stewart but fail miserably at the good housekeeping and would prefer to be her without the jail time!

4. My full name is Kimberly Ann and I had never met another Kimberly Ann until I moved to the city where I now live. The day I moved here as a child, I made friends with another Kimberly Ann and the street where I now reside, there are 3 Kimberly Ann's, 2 Ian's, 2 Bills and 2 Kelly's all within 6 houses of each other and most of our last name's all start with the letter" T (my poor mailman doesn't know if he is coming or going some days!!! lol)

5. My favourite colour is green

6. I grew up in a zoo...well, not really, but it's sounds good doesn't it? lol - The most animals we have ever had in my mom's house at one time was 32!!! We had 1 turtle, 3 birds (Cockatiel, Mustache Parakeet & Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot), 1 dog (Sheltie) 20 fish and 6 bunnies. My mom called our house "Lil's Zoo"

7. I only failed one class in High School and that was math...so if the above addition doesn't add up right then you know why!!!! lol

So, now that you know some useless information about me, I know cordially invite these lovely group of ladies to share somethings about themselves:

  1. Tosha
  2. Laurie
  3. Kelley
  4. Jami
  5. Cindy
  6. Judy
  7. Lorelie

That's it for now and stay tuned for some lovely creations coming your way...that's what I have been busy working on :)


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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

It's my birthday and I'll share if I want to... :)



Yep, it's my birthday and I am now officially into my 30's...not sure how I feel about that just yet! I turned 31 today and I layed awake all night thinking about all the wonderful things that I have accomplished in my 1st 30 years of life (and hopefully many more will follow) lol

I thought that I would share some of my experiences with you and how I came to be who I am today :)

1. I have lived to have fallen madly in love with someone and had the joy of feeling the love returned 10 fold and with that said, was lucky enough to marry and vow to spend the rest of my life with that love :)

2. I have lived to have my heart broken which has made me appreciate all the more the love that I receive everyday from my husband and longtime love.

3. I have lived to have the opportunity to experience 2 little lives growing inside of me and now growing up around me filling my days with laughter, tears of frustration, the endless need to clean my house, and be proud to have been a part of every part of it.

4. I have lived to have had the opportunity to appreciate that my parents have valuable insights into what my lay ahead for me and my family because of their life experiences or their 20/20 hindsight.

5. I have lived to have made many friendships in my life, some that have gone their separate ways, some that flutter in and out of your life at various points in time, and some that through thick and thin, will always stay true to you and be the ones that you can count on - in return make you a better friend because of it :)

6. I have lived to work hard for the things that I want and not have to rely on others to make my future the way I dream it to be.

7. I have lived to experience the heart sorrow of losing a loved one and feel the emptiness left around you because no one can fill the places that were theirs in you memories.

8. I have lived to feel compassion, tolerance, bliss, depression, envy, guilt, patience, anger, pride, self indulgence, love, and all of the other feelings humanly possible to make up every molecule of who I am.

9. I have lived to know that I have touched other's lives and will continue to do so as long as they allow me to be a part of them.

10. I have lived to know that I respect who I am, and that I have no regrets for any feelings, things that I have done or had happen to me. I live to experience all that life has in store for myself and my family whether it be good, bad or ugly and will always have the opportunity to learn from my decisions.

11. I have lived to know that I would like to have many more life experiences ahead of me and that I am prepared for anything!

Thank you for letting me share a little piece of me, with you :)


I made these using the Peace on Earth set to create this beautiful card and coordinating 2-5-7 gift box. You can find Beate's tutorial for the gift box here. I love the details in this set and I thought that since it is my birthday...that I can't be the only one getting presents!!! (Blog candy is coming...)

Box Recipe:

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs - Peace on Earth, SU Linen
Paper: Papertrey White, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Watercolour, SU Haiku DP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, SU Markers, Versa Mark
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Sponges, Cross Charm, Hodgepodge Hardware, Twine, Organdy Ribbon, Embossing Powder, Dimensionals

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs - Peace on Earth

Paper: Papertrey White, Chocolate Chip, Watercolour, Haiku DP

Ink: Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, SU Markers, Versa Mark

Accessories: Sewing Machine, Hodgepodge Hardware, Twine, Organdy Ribbon, Aqua Painter, Embossing Powder, Mat Pack, Piercing Tool, Dimensionals, Sponges, Cloud Stencil

Blog Candy


And now after kindly listening to all of my babble I am offering a gift to you! I have another Our Daily Bread Designs, Peace on Earth Set give away to share some of my birthday with you!

All you have to do is:

1. Leave me a comment sharing something about yourself that you have lived to experience .
2. Post a link to this blog candy on your blog if you have one because I would like to share the opportunity to win this beautiful set with everyone :)

I will use the random comment generator to draw a winner on Sept. 6th (my baby girl Ashlynn's 3rd birthday:) Please leave you comment for the blog candy on this post only to make it easy to draw a winner!

PS. Cindy, I still need you to contact me so that I can mail off your Peace on Earth set from my very first Blog Candy :)


Good luck everyone!

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Friday, May 30, 2008

I would like to take a moment...

I would like to take a moment to thank the academy....oops! That would be the wrong fantasy ;) lol
Now seriously! I really just wanted to write a quick little note on how appreciative I am of every one's wonderful comments here on my blog and on Splitcoast. I would also love to thank everyone at Cards of the Week for making me feel so special! It's been awesome to be posted with SO MANY talented ladies!!!!!

An extra little thank you to Barefootstamper who keeps me informed of these things as I don't know where my mind is most of the time! I'm guessing that everyone has those kind of days...I just have one of those kind of lives! lol

Thanks again ladies! You sure know how to make a girl feel special :)

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Back to the Beginning...

I often get asked how I learned to make such beautiful cards (what a huge complient that is!). Usually, I don't quite know what to say in return, other than lots of trial and error as well as practice! I have always been interested in practically anything home made as I grew up in a family where there was not many crafters.

It all started by being introduced to Stampin' Up! at a home party that I was tagging along to. I had alot of fun doing the make and takes and I only purchased a catalogue mostly to see more of why people were so fascinated by rubber stamping. The next party I was invited to, I ended up purchasing card stock to make my best friend's bridal shower invitations (I was hesitant to purchase any stamps because I would also have to buy inks and everything else in which I didn't have any money to do so at the time) When I got my card stock home, I went to work on making the bridal shower invites by doing most of the designing on the computer and printing out pre-fabricated clip art for the flowers on the project that I was making. The bridal invites turned out really cute, but it probably took me 3 times longer to make them using technology!

Below is one of the cards that started this new hobby! My, my, how times have changed!!! This card used some Stampin' Up! card stock, Ribbon and DP from Micheals and a computer scrapbooking program that I received as a gift. Every time I look at this card it gives me a good chuckle and reminds me that everybody starts somewhere!



It was probably 2 or three parties later that I finally convinced myself to throw a party and buy some stamps! That was November of 2006 and I haven't looked back! For the last 2 years I have been buying different colouring tools, and accessories from the back of the catalogue to make my crafting easier and to give me more options. I seem to be the type of person that requires everything out there so that it should take me less time to make a card. Problem is that it just gives me more options and then it takes me longer to decided on how to make my card!!! Go figure! lol

To make a long story short, I have become very addicted to stamping and making my creations as it really serves as therapy for me. It is a little escape from all of the craziness of child rearing 2 busy little kids and it gives me some instant (or relatively anyway) gratification more so than any of my other crafts (tole painting, stained glass, embroidery, cross stitch & quilting) I became an Stampin' Up! Demonstrator to afford my craft supplies and to be able to learn more...I'm a bit of sponge and love to absorb all the crafting info that I can! I started researching projects on Splitcoast Stampers and following along with some of the tutorials that they have. It has become my paper crafting bible!

So there you have it! My humble beginnings in paper crafting and hopefully a good laugh at my first handmade card :) Oh, and before I forget... I must also acknowledge my biggest enabler and the friend that started it all...Angela (jellybean74 on SCS) - My husband still curses her for introducing my to all of this!!!! LOL Poor guy - he didn't even see it coming :)