Boot Mini Album

Every year at the Close To My Heart convention, my upline, Tina Sutton, has a project available to work on during the team meeting. Last year we did a mini album shaped like a castle (we were at Disneyland).  This year, the chipboard album was shaped like a cowboy boot - spurs included! 

I didn't get much done on it during the meeting (a bit sleep deprived).  I mentioned to my boss, Lisa, that I was trying to finish up my convention projects.  As I was describing  the boot album, her face lit up!  Seems she has a wedding next week and it will be held in the country and the bride and groom will be wearing boots.  She thought the album would make a perfect gift.  So instead of making the album about convention, I designed it for the wedding.

I showed it to her today and she was thrilled with the results!  My first paid scrapbook job!
Here it is!

Cover

Back Cover

I used "Stella" paper, which is still available in the new Autumn/Winter Idea Book.  Most of the embellishments are current product also, with a few exceptions.  The chipboard album is NOT a CTMH product.

I hope the recipients of this album are pleased!

Convention News!

I've just returned from Dallas, Texas where I attended the annual Close To My Heart Convention!  Well, I really got back at 12:30am on Monday, July 16.  It's taken a couple of recovery days plus I have been working.

The convention was fabulous!  I reconnected with many sister CTMH'ers and met new friends, too.  Of course, the highlight was learning about all the new products and changes for the new catalog (goes live August 1)!  So much fun to be among "the first to know"!!  I will be adding posts over the next few days, outlining all the "what's new" and "what's changed".

While covention was a blast, getting to and from was a NIGHTMARE!  I had a travel voucher for United from the bump I took coming home from convention last year.  I flew out of Seattle with connections in Houston.  Unfortunately, both travel days had bad weather in Houston, so it was delays and miss connections all the way.  Not fun!

The first thing I want to inform you about is the colors that are retiring as of July 31.  You still have time to buy stamp pads, re-inkers and cardstock color packs to go with the papers you already own.  Here's the list:

Grey Wool 
Grey Flannel
Vanilla Cream
Parchment
Brown Bag
Baby Pink
Taffy
Sunkiss Yellow
Key Lime
Heavenly Blue
Lilac Mist
Amethyst
Holiday Red
Sunflower
Sunny Yellow
Dutch Blue
Moonstruck
Vineyard Berry
Tulip
Garden Green
Spring Iris
Petal
Garnet
Pansy Purple

See any of your favorites?  Stock up now!  There are 6 new colors coming August 1. Stay tuned!

I'll have more updates soon and photos of convention,  but for now, Glenn and I are headed out to do some sightseeing around Moses Lake, Washington (our current location).  See ya soon!

Cruisin' Layout 3/23/12

As promised, I'm FINALLY posting something creative!  I have a lot more to show you, but just need to get photos of the projects.

I made this single page layout for the first page of my 2012 scrapbook.  I used the Cruisin' Workshop on the Go (G1039 - $29.95) from the Spring/Summer Close To My Heart Idea Book. I love these kits! In them you get a full paper pack, an exclusive stamp set and embellishments. Easy to put together a layout or some cards with everything in one kit.

I started with some random stamping on a sheet of Grey Wool cardstock. I used the included stamp set and also the Adventure USA stamp set (D1503 - $17.95). For the "scrabble" part, I cut apart one of the sheets of B&T paper. It's a nice cardstock weight patterned paper. I arranged these to spell out some of the state we were/will be in in 2012.

I stamped the outline of the US on the map B&T paper with Black Exclusive Ink (Z2105) and cut it out. Along the side of the layout, I placed a strip of another B&T paper and two of the "zip strips" that are found on the edge of each piece of paper.

The numbers are from the Dimensional Elements (chipboard) included in the kit. These correspond with the numbers on the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge (Z1686). The great part about this is, I could just cut the numbers out of a piece of B&T and glue them on the chipboard numbers. So easy! No more trimming around and filing! I then covered the numbers with Liquid Glass (Z679) to give them some shine.

I finished off with an arrow cut with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge in Juniper and Twilight cardstock and one of the Bottle Caps also included in the kit. The red strips were also one of the "zip strips".

This layout will be featured in the first "Celebrate Your Creativity" newsletter. This will be a monthly newsletter I will be sending out (thanks, Close To My Heart for making it easy!). If you would like a copy, just send me your email or leave it in a comment.

Thanks for visiting!

          

     

OH, NO! It's the big 6-0!!

Yep, it finally caught up to me!  But they must have moved the hill, 'cause I certainly don't feel over it!

March 8 is my birthday and to celebrate, I wanted to go tour the Blue Bell Creamery where they produce one of my favorite brands.  (Well, when it comes to ice cream almost every brand is my favorite! lol)  I first tasted Blue Bell ice cream while trucking across the country with my late husband.  At that time, I think you could only find this brand in Texas.  Anyway, we were within an hour's drive from the creamery in Brenham.  Our plan was to go after lunch, take the tour, have some ice cream and then go to Applebee's for dinner.

I called ahead to make sure they were doing tours that day.  They were, but we were told to come as soon as possible because the was a baseball tournament in town and it was going to get really busy.  We quickly got ready and hit the road.  On the way there, we saw the first of the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush bloom.

We arrived just after the start of the 12:30 tour, so we bought our tickets for the 1:00 tour and wandered around the shop and grounds.

Always the joker, Glenn had me act like I was trying to break into the ice cream truck!  Now I'll admit there have been days.......

We had a scoop of ice cream then went on our tour.  We had a small group, so it was easy to see the production floor.  Our tour guide was great!  She grew up in Brenham and remembered visiting family at work and getting ice cream right off the production line!  This day they were making Cherry Vanilla flavor and ice cream sandwiches.  We love to see how things are made! 

After the tour, guess what?  We got a scoop of ice cream as part of the tour!  And then our guide brought us a small scoop of Birthday Cake ice cream.  Okay, no need for lunch now and there were too many hours before we'd be hungry enough for dinner, so we returned to the campground.

Loved this t-shirt!

When we did finally feel the need to eat, we drove into Columbus and had dinner at Schoebel's restaurant.  Good homestyle cooking!

Instead of birthday cake, I made myself a Peanut Butter Hot Fudge pie.  I found the recipe on Pinterest (that site is not helping my diet!).  This pie is soooo good!  Really rich but very yummy!

Colorado River, cont'd.

There were a couple more pictures I wanted to post of our stay in Colorado River campground. This first on is a "long shot" of the area we camped in. You can see the nice size of the sites and how large those pecan trees are.

This campground has a large deer population. Whenever you drove through the park or took a walk, you would be sure to see some. I think they allowed feeding deer in years past because they are fairly tame. They discourage feeding them now.

Moving On

Tomorrow morning we will be pulling out of the Colorado River Thousand Trails campground.  We've really enjoyed our stay here!  For the most part, the weather has been wonderful.  We did have a string of rainy days that really caused the river to rise dramatically, but it is back down to where it was when we arrived.  This first photo is of our campsite.  You can see how large the pecan trees are.  I worry that they haven't budded out yet.  I certainly hope the drought last year didn't kill them!

This is the great view we had from our campsite.  Just at the edge of the beautiful, green grass is the river.  The bank drops about 10-15 feet to the river.

Yesterday, I took a walk around the park to photograph some of the wildflowers blooming now.  Of course, the field of bluebonnets stole the show!

Crow Poison? with Monarch Butterfly

Bull Nettle

Field of Blue Bonnets





Blue Eyes

Our next stop will be Medina Lakes Thousand Trails in Lakehills, TX.  This is just northwest of San Antonio in the Hill Country.  We look forward to driving around the countryside and seeing the River Walk in San Antonio and maybe even the Alamo!  I'm hoping to also spend some time with Rochelle Crawford, a sister Close To My Heart consultant and convention roommate.

The weather forecast is looking a bit ominous tomorrow and tomorrow night.  Hopefully, we'll get set up at our campsite before the major storm hits.

Convention, here I come!

Thursday I booked my flight for the annual Close To My Heart Convention!  That makes it more definite.  This year, it's in Dallas and it runs July 12 - 15.  I can't wait!  I'll be rooming with Rochelle Crawford and Lori Miller.  Rochelle I know, Lori is a new friend I haven't met yet!

      Two years ago was my first convention.  It was held in Washington, D.C. and I was flying in from Seattle (we were visiting Trevor that summer).  I asked on the CTMH bulletin boards if anyone was arriving about the same time as I so we could share a ride to the hotel.  Rochelle responded and she waited 2 hours for me to arrive so I could share the car she had hired!  Wasn't that sweet of a stranger?  She turned out to be just as sweet when I got to know her.  We didn't room together that year, but we did last year when the convention was at Disneyland.

      That's the nice thing about Close To My Heart!  Everyone is so friendly and nice!  I've also roomed with Teri Carter (2 yrs.), Sherry Davis, Amy Shellhaus, and Lori Brown.  I know we'll remain in touch, at least through Facebook.

       CTMH just announced there will be 13 hours of creative time this year!  I'm excited!  That's my favorite part.  I always take away something from the business classes, but you just can't beat crafting and learning from the best!  Plus, we get to "play" with the new product not yet released.
        Speaking of new product, I'm not sure how they can beat the release of the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge last year, but they are retiring our wonderful how-to books and the markers.  That means they will be replaced with something EVEN BETTER!  The suspense is killing us all!

        Here's a few pictures from last year's convention.

The convention was held at the Disneyland Hotel.

Because it was mostly women in attendance, they opened the men's room for the ladies.  I thought is was funny how they "dressed up" the urinals for us!

My roomies on our first trip into Disneyland.  Sherry, Davis, Teri Carter, Rochelle Crawford. 

Left to right, that's me, Teri Carter, and Rochelle Crawford.

      

Paradise Pier at night.

By the way, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tale of Two Kitties, Part 2

One of the biggest decisions we had to make when we adopted Iris and Mickey was "Where will the litter box go?".   Now we're talking about a 38' motorhome that is about 10' wide with the slides out.  Not a lot of space and living in it full-time, every bit of space is spoken for.  Keeping it in the shower was an option, but then we would have to move it each time we needed a shower.  Plus we'd need to leave the door open and that would be a nuisance as it would block the entrance to the bathroom.  Also, when we are traveling, the shower is where my plants ride.  Hmmm.  Leave it to Glenn to come up with a solution!  We have 4 drawers under a pantry-type cupboard in the dining/kitchen area.  He suggested we remove the bottom drawer and put the litter box in the "hole" left by the drawer.  Perfect!  The litter box just fits and the space is tall enough for the cats.  Problem solved!

The cats are really enjoying the "kitty balcony" we made for them.  Here's Iris checking things out.  The cage now sports a cover that has vinyl on top and screening all around so we can leave the kitchen window open for them to come and go with out the mosquitoes doing the same!  Of course, I had to torment my fur babies by putting a bird feeder within their line of site!  Got to keep them entertained!

Speaking of entertainment, Mickey actually plays fetch!  He has a favorite toy that I can throw down the aisle way and he will run after it and ususally bring it back for me to throw again.  Of course, sometimes it's me doing the fetching since he will leave it just far enough away that I have to get up off the couch to reach it.

Look how big they are getting!  Iris is still a lot smaller than Mickey, he's up to 6 pounds now.

One more little story, then I'll give you a break from hearing about the cats.  One night after we had gone to bed and were sleeping, a loud racket woke us up.  We had no idea what was going on!  Turns out, Mr. Curious Mickey was snooping in a WalMart bag, walked through the handle and got tangled up in it.  Now we're talking the white plastic bag.  When he moved, it made noise.  That scared him so he took off running.  Now the noise it louder and following him!  He ended up squeezed in between the bed and the nightstand.  Of course, when we tried to untangle him, the bag made more noise and off he ran!  We eventually got it off and everyone settled back down.  Sad part is, he's done it again!

Colorado River Thousand Trails Preserve

We left Lake Conroe Thousand Trails Preserve and moved to Colorado River Thousand Trails Preserve on February 27th.  It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive.  We had planned to stay about a week here and then 3 weeks at Medina Lakes TT.  We had never visited the Colorado River site before.  Once we saw the beautiful surroundings, we changed our reservations and we will be here until March 19th.

This campground is very spacious, with lots of green grass and huge pecan trees.  Some of the trees are over 200 years old.  We picked a site along the river.  When we arrived, you had to walk to the bank to see the water in the river.  That would soon change!  Texas experienced an "exceptional drought" last year which is worse than an "extreme drought".  They lost a lot of livestock and millions of trees due to the lack of water.

It started to rain last week and didn't stop until over 5 inches fell.  The following pictures were taken just 24 hours apart each.  It was amazing to watch the water rise to almost cover the sandbar and then recede to reveal it again.  In the last picture, you can see a lighter area on the far bank.  That is how much the water rose.  And most of the grassy area in front of it was under water (as you can see in the previous photos).

In spite of the rainy days, we've had some beautiful weather here.  Today is should reach 81!  But it does make for some humid days after all the rain.  The bird watching here has been great since we are in a major "flyway" for the spring migration.  I have been able to add several new sightings to my life list.

Glenn has been diligently working on his software programming trying to get caught up before we start our new job on May 1.

I have also been doing some scrapbooking and cardmaking lately.  I was in the middle of printing some photos and my printer died!!  Not good!  Especially since I recently invested in a set of ink cartridges.  Now, what are the chances of those cartridges working in a new printer?  Not good, I'm afraid.  Plan B - I will work on layouts without pictures until we get to Trevor's.  His printer uses the same inks as mine.  I have been making a detailed list of the photos I need so I can print them from his and use up the inks I have.  Once we start getting paychecks again, I will shop for a new printer.  I promise to post some of my creations soon.

Lunch in Houston

Yesterday, Glenn and I drove in a steady rain into Houston to have lunch with one of his online clients.  We met at Olive Garden and ended up talking for 2 1/2 hours!  Most of the time, I was pretty clueless, as the conversation was about computer programming.   But it was an enjoyable lunch, endless soup and salad, yum!
After lunch, we sought out the nearest JoAnn's Fabric store.  I bought the vinyl and velcro I need to make the cover for the kitty balcony.  It will be vinyl on top with screening on the sides so we can leave the window open for them to come and go without the bugs coming in.  I saw a similar cover online, but they wanted over $100 for it!!  If I can get it made, I will do it for about $15 (glad I had a 40% coupon).  I would have spent a lot longer in the store looking around (and probably more money) since I haven't been in any craft stores for awhile.  But I knew Glenn was getting anxious to get back to his computer.  There's a Michael's and Hobby Lobby not too far from the campground, so I'll get my "fix" another day by myself!   I also picked up some fleece to make a chair cover.  The cats have not been to kind to the fake leather seats we have!  Not so much scratching at it, but as kittens, climbing up and down.
It's really foggy this morning but the weatherman is promising near 75 today.  If it weren't so wet and muddy,  I'd set up my sewing machine outside to work on my projects.

Happy Valentine's Day!!  Although this is also the anniversary of our engagement 8 years ago, we've made no plans to celebrate.  Maybe we'll grill some steaks for supper.

Tale of Two Kitties - Part 1

As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, Glenn and I are now proudly owned by 2 cats.  We have been pet-less for a few years now and often discuss the pros and cons of traveling with pets.  Cats would definitely be easier was the conclusion we came to, but had no plans of adopting any in the near future.

I was working at the Arts and Crafts store at our summer job at Mammoth Cave Jellystone Park.  I believe it August 21, a Sunday.  A little girl about 10 or 11 years old came up to me with a box.  She told me they had tamed two kittens found under one of the cabins during their camping trip.  The family was leaving and did not live in Kentucky, could I please take them to a shelter or find them a home?  I told her I could.  I found a bigger box, so they couldn't climb out and of course, called Glenn to come see them!  Since it was a Sunday, I HAD to take them back to our campsite until our next day off.  Then I could take them to the local shelter.  They were SO tiny, especially the white one.  She must have been the runt.

I just knew it would take a bit of time to convince Glenn to keep them.  We were sitting at our campfire enjoying the evening and watching the kittens explore the campsite.  I hadn't even brought up the subject of keeping the kittens yet, when out of the blue, Glenn says " Heaven knows you do enough around here, Marcie.  If you want kittens, you should be able to have them."  Enough said!  Off to the dollar store for food, litter box, litter, scratching post and of course, a few toys!

Glenn named the boy "M2" after his favorite (and only cat he admits to liking) cat, Mickey, my uncle's cat.  (We learned recently the Mickey passed away :(  )  I named the female "Iris" because of her blue eyes.

I was working the following day and got a call from Glenn. "You've got to come and take a picture of this!" So I ran down and this is what I saw. Glenn's Geek Squad! He called me twice more that day to rescue him. The kittens would get under his rocker/recliner and he couldn't get up because he was afraid they would get squished! I finally convinced him they would quickly learn how to stay out of the way.

You can see just how tiny they were!  That's my hand Iris is sleeping in.

We weren't sure how they would react to actually traveling, so it was good we only had to drive an hour to our next job.  I followed Glenn in the truck, so he was on his own with the kittens in the motorhome.  At one point, he called to say he had to pull over because one of the kittens were pinched under the chair.  But as he braked the motorhome, the chair rocked and released the poor thing.  The rest of the trip was uneventful.

 I plan to tell more tales of our lives with Mickey and Iris, but I will say now that I can't imagine our lives without them!  They definitely keep us entertained (and aggravated, in Glenn's case, sometimes!).  I'm so glad we adopted 2, they keep each other company and double the entertainment!

Wow! That was a LONG shower!

Ok, so another 4 months have passed without a post, my bad!  Glenn and I are currently not working and we have a decent connection, so I guess I've run out of excuses.  I will start with the present and try to keep up, adding in posts about all the months in between.

We are now in Willis, Texas at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails Preserve.  Willis is about 1/2 hour or so north of Houston off I-45.  Our weather has been in the sixties with rain every couple of days.  The rain is very welcome here in Texas as they are coming out of an exceptional drought.  But it makes for a soggy campground!  However, the trees are beginning to bud and I woke up to a bluebird singing.  Wouldn't have that at home in February!

Our plan (subject to change) is to stay here until the 27th then move on to two other Thousand Trails in Texas before heading towards Washington for our summer job.

Glenn has been busy working on his computer updating his programming site.  He has not had the time to devote to it over the past months, so he is taking advantage of his time off.

It was time to do laundry, so today I drove into Willis to the laundromat.  The campground has a laundry, but I get frustrated trying to time it so there are washers available.  I'd rather go to town and get it all done at once.  This laundromat was large, not the cleanest, but the prices were much lower than what I paid at the one in Kentucky.  While out, I also found the local Kroger.  It is a Marketplace so it is very large with a great selection.  Both are just 3 miles or so from the campground.

As you can see from these two pictures, we experienced a beautiful sunset last night!

I have so much to post to bring my readers up to date!  We worked this summer in Cave City, KY at the Jellystone Campground, adopted two kittens, worked another peak season at Amazon.com, made a quick trip home for Christmas, back to Amazon, visited friends in Alabama and Louisiana before coming here.  I've even done a little scrapbooking!  I will be adding posts here and there about our past adventures and the ones to come.

Thanks for reading!  Please follow me and comments are always welcome!