Here's the newest addition to our Home!

My Pretty Mom refinished this for our wedding gift. She and Steve delivered it last weekend. JJ and I couldn't decide where we were going to put it so they couldn't install the shelves (hence the year delay)...

Like Miss Irene, this beauty was nearly black when my Mom rescued her and saved her just for us. JJ and I truly are blessed with wonderful family that love us very much as well as provide for us an example of how wonderful marriage can be. I agree Mom, may God watch over us and help us to remember to keep Him at the center of our marriage and our marriage at the center of our lives.

Just look at that detail!!

We finally made a decision.... this pretty girl resides in my Cavern and holds some of my favorite things... PAPER!!

Psssttt-- looks like I need more doesn't it!?! There are two whole drawers at the bottom that are empty... EMPTY I say. Oh my stars!

~LJ

Vintage Birthdays

I must say, I like this card!

Supplies:

Paper: Life's Journey by K & Company

Stamp: Vintage Labels (2010 Sale-a-bration from Stampin Up)

Ink: Chocolate Chip Stampin Write marker (I went with the marker so I didn't have to mess with goopy Craft ink. Works wonderful!

AND..... the Stamp-a-ma-jig to get "Happy Birthday" perfectly centered inside the vintage label stamp.

Challenges: CardMaker Card Swaps: Use blue, green and brown

Unscripted Sketches #64: Sketch

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Tonight, I did much better job cropping my card pictures than normal. While I was taking a picture of this card, I thought maybe I should show you where I place my cards for the photo shoot lest you think it's a dirty, grimy window sill.

Nope, just a pile of wash boards and a mirror right next to an old lamp. The light is decent here, even at night, so I don't generally have to use the flash! (Don't look too close in the mirror or you will see the hose to my vacuum and the toe of my house shoe... oops.

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Due to my love of auctions and Kwikswap, I can link up with Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures. I got the wash boards at an estate sale and the mirror and lamp from an old guy on Kwik-swap! Thanks for a great party Rhoda!

I just thought I should say...

Look out!! I am feeling kinda creative. I have lots of ideas running around in my head! Should I paper craft or paint mid-century furniture or try to repurpose some antique sewing cabinet drawers???

I can't decide!! I am starting to wish I was a stay-at-home-Wife; bet that won't happen until I retire.

OK, off to create! Please stay tuned!

Sketch Challenge...Vintage Christmas

I am the Sketch hostess this week at CardMaker. They have two challenges each week. Check it out, it's a great site!! I guess I loaded these backwards...oops. Well anyway, above is my card. The background paper (dark red) is a little shiny and was incredibly hard to photograph... it came out looking like cheap plastic in the picture. I inked the edges of the background paper using a used dryer sheet and SU Craft ink; It worked well but was messy!!

I really like this stamp set. It's cute, has a bit of nostalgia to it and gives me a great reason to use my Stamp-a-ma-jig!

Obviously not a graphic design guru here! Actually, I was going to just draw the sketch in Word but after two clicks decided that it wasn't really that big of a deal!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Sweetest Card

My card making friend, Lori, sent this adorable card to me to let me know she's thinking about us while we miss our Sweet Baby, Lucy. What a sweet lady!! Click on Lori's name above to visit her blog. Click here and here to read about Lucy.

Thank you Lori, you are very kind!

Happy First Anniversary!

Today is our anniversary. Here JJ and I are, one year ago today! Seems like yesterday and I'd do it all over again! Ok, well, I would wear the same dress except on a beach but I'd marry him all over again. I guess that's the point right?? I am the hostess this week at CardMaker. My challenge is to make a card for your favorite person. I made this card for JJ in honor of our first year of marriage. You can find the challenge here. You have until midnight CST on 7/4 to upload your creation. Come on and play!!

Did you notice my new Martha Steward border punch-- I snagged the doily punch (the one on the lighter paper) on clearance at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago!

Oh and, I challenged everyone to use sparkles too!!

And, I wanted to show this new "handmade" stamp. It's made my Indadinkado and pretty stinking cute, if you ask me!

I also found some challenges where my card also works:

*Practical Scrappers: Flowers

*Crafty Creations: Sparkle

*Pile it On: Do something intersting with paper (the red is dry embossed)

*Edited to include some info on the supplies used:

-Paper: My Mind's Eye "Out & About"

-Stamp- "All in a Word" from Stampin Up!

A new 'do'!

Disclaimer: Please don't think that I am arrogant or narcissistic. Well, I guess you can, just refrain from telling me about it. :)


It's so hard to get the same "cut" again so I decided, after loving this haircut, that I was going to have JJ take some pictures of me and my new do for future reference. I had to post them on here because how else am I going to show Kim?? (Note: Shiny brows = freshly waxed. yeah!!) Well, the above cheese-ball grin is because JJ was making fun of me hard core and I was just dying laughing.

After a few gut busters, he went outside and I embarked on a self-portrait shoot:

Yep, I love this hair cut.


I know, dork!

Dork, 2x big!! But it's all worth it for a stellar 'do'!

More Sweet Baby Lucy

I did mention she's a snuggler, right? If you missed my previous post, look here.

JJ snapped this of Lucy and I taking a little snooze on the couch one evening. In the last year or so, she was pretty much cold all the time. She has several sweatshirts, sweaters (which she hated... I guess they were itchy) and a Mizzou fleece... has to have a Mizzou fleece!

Above, Lucy is in "her favorite" sweat shirt according to her sweet Daddy.


Here's another nap captured on film! Lucy loved to lay across your chest (this is where her and I took Sunday naps) snuggle and nap with your or have you rock her (I know, spoiled right?? Well, we wouldn't have it any other way!) Lately, when I got home from work, JJ would be rocking Lucy and she'd be snoring. Man! For something so little and so cute, she could saw some serious logs!!

One evening, JJ and Lucy beat me to our bedroom. I walked in, the light was on (hence the hat down low) and this is what I found. My two most precious babies taking a little snooze. (I married a wonderful man! If he spoiles our real children as much as he has our 4-legged daughter, they will be simply rotten but extremely well loved.)

She was such a little weasel. Lucy usually slept closest to me because JJ is a wild sleeper. This is what I woke up to pretty much every morning... sharing my pillow and my heart with this sweet baby girl.

Last August, Lucy had to have her right eye removed. This is JJ and her around Christmas showing off their Pirate faces. I love this picture because it looks like Lucy is smiling... just how I want to remember her.

...A little wiser!

I just made this card using a stack from DCWV called "The Green Stack". It has cute little prints that are slightly hippy-ish and a bit 60-ish (there are a couple of pages that have little striped mushrooms all over them) but I like them! I apologize that the pictures aren't the greatest. It is after 10 PM here so given the pitch blackness of night, I had to use the flash... uugh! The cute little owl is from a new Stampin Up set that I got at last months Stamp Club called "It's the Thought".

Here's the inside. I felt it was too mean to put something about being 'old' on the front of this card.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

1. CardMaker Magazine: Birthday Toon (to use a cartoon figure for a birthday card and add polka dots... I took a few liberties on the polka dot part).

2. Papertake Weekly #43: It's a sketch challenge.

3. ColourQ Challenge: The challenge was to use Riding Hood Red, Pumpkin Pie, Kiwi Kiss, Bordering Blue (all SU colors) and white. You don't have to use these exact colors, just something close... good thing because I don't have any of them... well except for white of course! **I think I am suppose to have the image of the colors from the color challenge but I don't really know how to do that short of saving it as a picture then loading... I guess I will see how this works out for me.

Sweet baby Lucy

She was the absolute sweetest puppy ever! JJ and I got her (after I begged like crazy!) in October of 2004; she wasn't in our lives for long but I think she will spend quite some time in our hearts. Christmas 2009: Lucy was pretty much blind by this time but she was so amazed with our Christmas tree. I guess she could probably notice the stark contrast between the dark room and the lights.

This was Christmas 2008: JJ and Lucy sleeping on the couch by the light of our Christmas tree. Technically, she wasn't sleeping but she would never get up, even if she was awake, if you were still sleeping. She would just hang out and wait for you to wake up... such a snuggler!

Side Note: Eventhough she was originally my dog, she certainly had both of us wrapped tightly around her little paw. We wouldn't have it any other way!

See what I mean? I am sacked out taking a nap, she's just chilling. I took my first Sunday nap without Lucy this past Sunday. It was really weird to wake up without her weight sprawled across me.

I had stripped our bed but not got the linens to the laundry room yet. When I went back to our bedroom to get the sheets, this is what I found. She had just crawled under there and was taking a nap. So stinking cute!!

Lucy was a hider. Just like a child, if you didn't hear from her it was probably best to go find her. She just wasn't very sneaky! :) Her normal spots were under our bed and under blankets. Usually, you could find her by locating her back legs like above.

Christmas 2009: Just hanging out under our Christmas tree. I love this picture!! She really liked it under there! Before Christmas, when our tree was full of presents, she'd get under there and get stuck. One of us would have to crawl under and pull her out; I am surprised that she didn't tip over the tree!

I will post more pictures of her soon. We have tons of really cute ones (of course I am biased)! We miss her so much but I know she's healthy now and able to play again and there's no doubt that after she became a Jones, she was certainly pampered! I just tell myself that she's Cooper's puppy now.

My heart goes out to all the Mommy's and Daddy's that have lost real babies; I truly can't imagine!