New chapter in my life

So in June 2012, my home was robbed for the 4th time in 18 months.  Lucky for me I was never home when this happened.  But what if I hadn't?  So I put my house on the market and started the process of finding a new home.  My old home was in Lansing, MI in an area which really was not that high in crime.  Well except for my house apparently.

The house hunting was fun and frustrating.  I put in a few offers which where not accepted.  Had an approved bid on a short sale which fell through.  Finally I found the perfect house for me.  I tell you being an avid crafter and antique collector, I've accumulated a lot of stuff over the years.  Packing was no small feat!  

My new home is in Mason, MI which is a much smaller town.  It's a ranch build in 1977 on almost an acre and a half.  It has a garage, which I've never had before.  A full walk out basement.  3 bedrooms on the main floor.  2 full baths.  And an additional 2 bedrooms in the basement.  Way more room than a single lady needs, but you never know when you might need it.  I am able to have an office, craft room (for my paper crafts), sewing room, my bedroom of course, and a spare room for whatever.  My laundry is now on the first floor...wow never realized how nice that would be.  I have a great big kitchen.

Unfortunately, I'm still trying to sell my old house - pictures below.  I'm really hoping it doesn't end up going back to the bank.  But if it does I see it as a small price to pay for having a home I feel safe in. 

Well I am hoping to post more crafts now that I'm finally moved and somewhat more organized.

In Memory of Sandy

Today I am writing about Sandy, a friend and fellow card maker. I just want to share a couple cards she made and sent to me. I will miss her very much.

Thank you for stopping by,

Valerie

Wow it's 2010

I can't believe it has been 5 days since I posted last. I've been reorgainizing my craft room so I don't have any new cards to post. I bought 4 new storage cubes from Michaels. Yeah they were 50% off. I've been doing enough overtime at work to splerge on some extra stuff. I could not imaging actually spending full price on these. When I'm finished reorganizing, I will post some pics.

Write tomorrow...(hopefully) Valerie

Day after Christmas

So here are the cards I made yesterday. This is the first time I used printed images on my cards. I usually use stamped images or Cricut cuts. I had seen a video where they used vintage images. In the video, they clear embossed the image 5 times, put the image in the freezer for 20 minutes and then after removing the image from the freezer they cracked it to make it have a crazing look to it. Well I printed out my images from http://clearlyvintage.blogspot.com/, heat embossed them, but then did not end up putting in the freezer. I liked the images and was unsure if I would like it with the crazed/distressed look. So I left them as is.



So I went into work today. What a dedicated employee (ha ha). Every year, I say I will be organized so I don't go crazy at year-end. And every year I'm not. Well some day I will get there. I spent 6 hours working and still have that "Oh S****" feeling about getting everything finished before December 31st. The one good thing is that David is on Christmas Break. So I can go into work early and stay late. I'm debating on going into work again tomorrow. My brother has his daughter tomorrow so they are coming over around 5:00pm to exchange Christmas gifts.

Well one thing I will be working on tomorrow are some more cards. I started another one today. I only have to decorate the inside and then I will be done. I am really slow at designing and making cards. Good thing I'm not in a rush and I have enough patience to do it. Well I will post a picture of it tomorrow. I will also post my new goodies I've bought from Michael's the last few days. I love 50% coupons and clearence items (because Michael's coupons will apply to clearence items...woo hoo!!)

Write tomorrow....Valerie

Merry Christmas to All

Wow it's finally Christmas Day. Things have been really slow today. In an effort to sleep in late, I let David open his presents last night. It worked...He didn't wake me up this morning. But I was so exhausted from working 32 hours in 3 days that I fell asleep before 9:30pm and then ended up waking up in the middle of the night. I finally fell back to sleep around 5am and then work up again at 8am. I've been up since then and it's now about 7:30pm.

I spent a few glorious hours in bed watching Mythbusters. I can't wait until tomorrow when I get to watch Dirty Jobs. I've become addicted to these two shows and love it when the Discovery Channel has their marathons. I aslo spent a few hours in my craft room. I did accomplish making 2 1/2 cards. I didn't have the inspiration to finish the 3rd card. Maybe I'll finish it another day weekend. So now I'm off to watch a movie. My son had rented the newest American Pie movie and even though they are usually really stupid I've decided to give it a try. I may not make it to the end though!!

Last night I watched Julie and Julia. This was a really cute movie. I wish I could blog as good as her. I suppose I could try to find a book on card making and try a new and different techinque each week. I don't think I could do it every day. Maybe some day when the teenager is grown up and out of the house...I will need something to keep me from going crazy (more than I already am. Ha Ha)

Well no pictures today. I will try and post tomorrow the pictures of the 2 cards I completed today. So to anyone reading this post, have a wonderful holiday weekend.

With Sympathy - Place Family

A good friend of the family, Richard "Dick" Place, recently passed away. My sympathies go out to his family. He died at the young age of 66 and leaves his loving wife for whom he had celebrated 48 years of weddin bliss. He will missed very much.

Mini Vacation

Well I will be on a mini vacation with my mom for the next few days. Yeah! Every year for the last 5 or six years, my mom and I have taken time to get away. We both love to go to antique malls, stores and shows. The first year we went went to Gatlinburg, TN. We had so much fun leaving the men at home and just spending some girl time. The next few years we went to Ohio to Toledo, Findlay and Springfield. Well last year we changed it up some and went to Atlantic City, NJ. They have an antique show at the convention center there two times a year. We enjoyed ourselves, but decided that we don't want to travel that far again this year. So off to Ohio tomorrow. We are hoping to find some new places to shop. But will be content with the same ones we have visted before. Hey, its only once a year, so we usually find something we just can't live without. My son will be staying with his aunt and uncle (from his fathers side) and my dad will be staying home alone.

So needless to say, I will not be able to post any new cards this week. What a bummer. Hope anyone who reads this has a wonderful 4th of July weekend. Happy crafting.

Wow...so many blogs to see

I've been lucky enough to receive 3 blog awards last week. I'm so new to blogging that I have spent most of my time just trying to remember to post to my own let alone browse through others. But for two awards I needed to pass on the awards to 15 others and the 3rd award required 7. So I did not want to dupicate any so I have been searching for 37 new blogs (well new to me!!). So far I have found 22. So I only have 15 more.

Award Number 2 - Thank you

Wow my second award (on the same day as the first)

I would like to thank MissBliss for giving me this blog award.

The rules for the award are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 thins about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 Kreative Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 you nominate.
7. Leave a commnet on each of the blogs, letting them know they hae been nominated.

And my special nominations are to these 7 sites. Please click on the link in their name to check them out.

Heather
Melissa
Regina
Barabra
Enfys
Shelly
Aymee

Ok so 7 interesting things about myself.

1. I really had a hard time coming up with 7 things (now only 6)
2. I'm a really shy person
3. I am a Twilight fan (not too obsessed though)
4. I'm in love with Harrison Ford
5. I'm a Detroit Tigers Fan - Go Brandon Inge
6. I go to at least one NASCAR race per year - Go Dale Jr.
7. I hoard craft supplies - I have a really hard time using them when I know they are no longer available and I can't buy more. (I think this sounds almost pathetic instead of interesting)

My First Award - Thank You

Wow my first award!! Thank you to Cluadette at Claudette's Craft Corner. You can visit her blog by clicking on the link in her name.

Here are the rules:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you've newly discoved. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

These are the 15 blogs that are new to me and I am passing on the award to:

Donna

Margie

Katie

Kaylou

Chrissy

Sheena

Beta

Selah

Julieh

Jenny

Jessica

Maria

Rosy

Tammy

Jennifer

I really enjoyed visiting everyones sites. There are so many talented people out there and I can't wait to find some more.

How Time Flys

I can't believe its been almost a month since I have posted. I really want to try to keep up with this. So my mid-year resolution is to post at least 3 times a week. Hopefully I can keep a mid-year resolution better than a New Years resolution. So here is an up date to what has been going on for the last month.

June 7th Yeah a Birthday Party.

David had a birthday party to go to for his half sister Ella. She turns 3 on June 13th. This was kind of weird for me as I really have to relationship to Ella. Her mother and I were both in love with the same man, who didn't really feel the same with either of us. I just have to count my blessings that I had almost 14 years with him and David had 12 years with him. Amanda (Ella's mom) only had a few short years with him. I feel the worst for Ella, who will never even meet her father. But enough of this. Here is a picture of the birthday card I made for Ella.

Here is the inside of the card

June 14th NASCAR

Yes I'm a NASCAR Fan. Jason and David started a tradition of going to the Michigan International Speedway Fathers Day race. When ever I could I would join them even though Jason and I had not dated for years and years and years. (I swear we were like best friends as long as we did not try to have any kind of relationship) Well since Jason died a few years ago, I have been taking David each year. This year the race landed on the weekend before Fathers Day. David said he didn't care if we went but I didn't want to brake tradition. So I bought the tickets and we spent the day there.

Kid Rock was the Grand Marshall. David was so excited about that.

June 20th Baseball and Fathers day dinner

I was able to get David into a Baseball clinic in Grand Rapids held by the Major League Baseball Allumni Association. Although David says he did not learn anything new, he did get to meet and work with retired major league players. At least half of them had played with the Detroit Tigers at one point in there careers. At the end the kids were given tee shirts and baseballs. They were able to have an autograph session with the instructors. I think this was Davids favorite part.

Agh... I don't know why I can't get this picture right. Oh well I will leave it here for now but will continue to try to fix it.

At first I was going to take my father out to dinner on Fathers Day. But my brother could not make it so I changed it to Saturday. As it turned out Dear Old Greg couldn't come Saturday either. So David and I took my dad out to dinner on Saturday anyway. (oh I also included mom as well...Love you Mom). I didn't make a card this year. I had bought one last year when I wasn't making cards and forgot to give it to him (hey...he knows that I love him dearly). So I gave the card to him this year.

I also made a couple cards over the weekend. But I've been doing this post for an hour now. So I will post pictures tomorrow.

Blog Candy!!!

A fellow blogger has some excellent blog candy up for grabs. She's giving away Stampin Up Rich Regal markers!! I would love to get those in my craft room... Check out San Manti for your chance to win as well..

Mothers Day

Went out to dinner at Applebee's with my parents, brother and David. After dinner we went to my parents house and just visited.

My Day

Nothing exciting today. I took Monday and Tuesday off from work. For no particular reason, I just needed a few days off. I Went back to work today. But sometimes the time it takes to get caught up from time off doesn't make it worth taking the time off...LOL

David had no baseball games today. They had practice from 5 - 7:30. Weather permitting they have a double header at Grand Ledge tomorrow. Hope they do good. This is one of the best teams in the area.

Wiper Card

I made this wiper card based on a video I watched on youtube. The video was from Dawn5377. I really like her videos. She always gives good dimensions and directions. Thank you for the inspiration.