Come here, sit down. Let me fill you in!!!

Ok. You are not going to believe this!!! In May, we decided it was time to put our Columbia House on the market. You read all about it! Well it sold crazy, crazy fast. We closed on June 17, 2011. Less than 30 days after I (yes me, we sold it ourselves, no Realtor helped me at all, one stinking bit, it was all me)!!

So... we moved to a rental... no pictures. You wouldn't even believe it!! I think I will just forget now. Because our offer was accepted today for our New Home!!!

Yep, you heard me correct. Pending inspections, we purchased a new (to us) home! Holy cow!!! I can't wait to show all of it too you!


Taken from my iPhone. When we went back for a second peek, the people were home so.... yeah. Anyway, when I was looking on the internet, the house had me at the front porch!
I mean just look at the banister, the hanging pots, our Nation's Pride hanging in the breeze!

Hello, Home, it's me Laura Jones!


And that cute dormer. Eeekkk! I could just spend the night tonight!

I also loved that the garage door had a slight arch at the top...a little hard to see in this picture but... it was my phone afterall.

I should also tell you that the house had me at the mantle, the balcony and then again with the property! I can't wait to show you all about it!

What about your home had you at hello? Or how have you made it have you at hello?

Old Cards...Revealed!

I seem to do this more often than not; I have a blast at an online crop, making tons of cards...and I forget to share them on here. Shame on me!!

These cards were made back in May for CardMaker's CardSwap online crop. Remember, I participated in the Somewhere Over the Rainbow Blog Hop?

Anywho! Here are the cards I made:







I was messing with some of my camera settings and didn't realize that frog one was so, so bad until I had already packaged up the card to be sent...oops...bad! With the palm tree card, I had it focused on the rope part which way, way threw off the rest. Sorry for the blur.

Thanks for stopping by to see us!

Would you get a load of THIS!?!

I took this picture myself. I promise it has not been photo-shopped or otherwise had the content edited!



Get a closer look why don't you?



Yep, that's a compact car with a trunk FULL of scrap metal. I tried to get a closer picture but all I had was my iphone and I was driving. Eek!

Anyway, it made me laugh and I thought I'd share that with you. I guess as long as you are recycling, your methods are acceptable??

Happy Anniversary!

Two years ago today, I married my sweet husband. He truly is my best friend!

I couldn't imagine my life without this sweet little joke-ster!

Here's to many more; I love you Monster!



(PS - these pictures are from my Sister's wedding, May 14, 2011.)

A Serene Christmas

A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Lora and I spent a nice Friday afternoon making cards for my Grandma's Bazaar. Thank you Lora; my Grandma will LOVE them all!!

I made a card pack (of 6) for Grandma's sale. It will be the first weekend in November.


Of course, they are all slightly different...that's how us random girls roll!


I also busted out my Patterned Pines stamp set and made these. I just remember how this set totally had me at hello! But then so did the Serene Snowflakes. Perhaps my "hello"s are pretty easy to have. Well, I do talk to strangers!



Oh Merry Christmas in June!!

Sunny Afternoon!

CardMaker Magazine's CardSwaps forum is holding an online crop and I have a challenge up! WooHOO!!

My challenge is called Sunny Afternoon. Your challenge, should you accept, is to create an outdoor scene; be sure to include a tree! It can small enough for a card, sized just right for a scrapbook or a large wall arrangement but make sure your outdoor scene has a tree.

Here's my sample:

Somewhere Over the Rainbow Blog Hop

I'm the 7th stop on the Somewhere Over the Rainbow blog hop.I hope you have a fabulous time hopping along and seeing the gorgeous creations from our hostesses. You should have arrived here from Meredith's blog. Didn't you just love all her green?!? In case you got lost or would like to start at the beginning, check out my Pal Lora (click on her name) at Crafts Are My Thing.

The theme of the blog hop is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Each blog hostess has been assigned a color {I'm blue!}. At the end of the rainbow is a link to your pot of gold! Be sure to click the link so you can join us in the Card Swaps forum for challenges, games, fun, and prizes!! It's sure to be a lot of fun.

{BLUE BABY}
I don't usually think of not liking blue...but I certainly don't use it much in crafting. Come to think of it, I don't think I own a single article of clothing that is blue...but I do love blue jeans. And I think that counts!! :)

I got the idea for this card in a little shop in my home town called Vintage Daze. It's like an antique, wine, cool stuff and card shop. I go there every chance I get! Anyway, I just dug through my paper piles and found some blues and piled them up!

MY CARD:

I really like the texture this card has

A lot of it came about by accident...I forgot my paper cutter at my Mom's...I used Martha's score thing to "cut" the layers. I like it.

The good and the bad...I was planning to border punch the whole bottom of the top piece. But! Due to the textures of the edges, I couldn't get the paper to go back in the punch.

But it turned out pretty cool I think!

There aren't prizes for the hop this round but make sure to check out CardMaker! There are prizes for the challenges over there! However, even though there aren't prizes here, please do leave me some sugar (AKA a comment).

From here, you are off to see Angelina: Click here!

Here's the map in case you have lost your way.
Lora: http://craftsaremything.blogspot.com/
Susan H. http://lilbitofme-susan.blogspot.com/
Golda http://goldapete.wordpress.com/
Jane http://jane-notsuchaplainjane.blogspot.com/
Ana
Meredith http://whatsnextma.blogspot.com/
Laura http://ljjonescircus.blogspot.com/ <------ YOU ARE HERE!
Angelina http://angel-artdesign.blogspot.com/ -
Ashley http://handstampedbyashley.blogspot.com/ -

Happy Birthday Challenge!

I dreamed this card out of pretty much no where... and you can tell.


I layered the "P" thinking it would look cool. I am thinking that it just looks like I can't spell. Oh well, let us just take the bad with the better right!?!

This card meets a challenge over at CardMaker...check it out!!

It's wedding week!!!

My Crazy Sista is getting married Saturday, May 14, 2011!

WooHoo! When I got ready for work this morning, I decided to bust out bling on my ears (since I wear stupid scrubs...everyday...always black...)

Anyway, got me to thinking about my wedding outfit. Of course Sister will look AMAZING!! But I can't expose her outfit for all the internet to see. BUT! I wanted you to see these shoes! They are TO-DIE-FOR!!

Yes, those are said black scrubs rolled up over them. And I don't really have inverted feet! Stay tuned!

Home for Sale!

Edited to add pictures!

JJ and I have decided to try to sell our home ourselves...what the heck! We've sold tons of stuff over the years...surely we can sell a house too! Well, Craigslist only allows for so many pictures so we decided to post the extras here.

So, if you are a regular follower...thanks for hanging out with me! If you hopped over here from Craigslist, welcome! Please find more pictures of our home posted below. Note, some of them were obviously taken around Christmas...hence our little stockings and the tree. Obviously, that stuff is gone right now. Any how, please do feel free to send me an email! luptergrove 00 {at} hotmail {dot} com. (Note, the round things are zeros.)

Here's the Craigslist post: Here.

From the outside:


The back:


Kitchen:




Master Bathroom:




Hallway Bathroom:




There are two bedrooms, nearly the same size (10'x11' and 10'x11.5') (in addition to the master), here's a picture of one of them:


Downstairs Living Area:



Here's the Upstairs Living area: