And here it is . . . A Little Joy

So, I'm hoping that you don't hate me too much for my little tease yesterday.  And hopefully it was well worth the wait for here is the finished project.

My tabletop Joy display.

I initially planned on making it all red, black and vanilla.  But once I got started, I really liked the idea of sticking with just black and vanilla with some sparkle added in.  A little bit of ribbon, glitter, silver and pearls.  All the things any crafting girl needs to have on hand.

 I love all the textures here.  From the chunky glitter to the embossed card stock (from the Big Shot - lovin' it!) to the ribbon.

And for the O I just felt like a lot of circles were in order.  The ribbon slide and the 3 black brads were just the perfect items to add on here.

And the Y was a little trickier so I decided on a "dot" at the end, made out of paper flower, button and some pearls for the center of that flower.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Joy project as much as I enjoyed making it.  Happy crafting everyone!

All Neutral

Another day down, another day beginning.  And another day of exercise in.  I love it when you can feel your hard work starting to pay off.  I'm not sure if I've lost anything yet, but like I said yesterday, I do feel better.  On Tuesday when I was doing yoga, I did notice that I could hold the poses longer and a little deeper and that my breathing was much more even.  That's a great sign to me!

Towards the end of the day, I settled down in the couch for a few minutes of down time.  I was looking through some magazines and came across an article showing all brown paints.  Like five different shades.  I think they were getting their inspiration from coffee.  And I got my inspiration from them.  It was interesting to see the different shades of brown together.  I decided to create a card in all neutral colors.

Stamp Set:  Baroque Motifs
Paper:  Sarah Sand, Chocolate Chip, Confetti White, Basic Black
Inks:  Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla craft
Accessories:  Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon

It was fun pulling out only neutral colors and trying to come up with a way to make it not all blend together.  I really wanted to add an accent color, but none of them looked quite right.  Instead I added just a touch of Basic Black as the bottom layer on the word Cherish.  I'm still feeling the neutrals and think I will play with them again to see how very different I can create something from this card.

Middle of the Week

Well good morning all!  At least, I hope it's a good morning.  We are smack in the middle of the week and so far it's been a good one!  Don't forget you have just 3 more days to order saving either 10 or 20% off your order!  Contact me right away to get your order in before it's too late!  mlharper@qwestoffice.net
Read the entry on Sunday August 15:  Special Discount valid through August 21 for more information.

I have forgotten to update you on the health challenge for the past couple of days.  Sorry about that.  On Monday, I was so excited because I got to return back to walking after having to take a few months off.  For a little background...my dad walks every morning (except for Sundays) and has for years.  I couldn't even tell you when he started walking, it's just something that he always does.  If I had to venture a guess it would be in the early 90's.  But it could have been even earlier than that.  He walks for health reasons and we, the family, can see that he has benefited from it over the years.  He walks at the local mall.  It's great, you go in early before the stores open and make a few laps around.  And it's not boring, we are constantly entertained by the ever changing displays in the windows.  One lap around our mall is a quarter mile.  One of my brothers walks with him.  My brother's original goal was to get his endurance back up to be able to start running again.  (I think we have enjoyed walking so much that I'm not sure he is still wanting to run anymore - I can't be a runner so that's not an option).  Last year, when my son started band, he had to be to school an hour early two days a week for it.  So, at last, I was finally able to walk too.

I really wanted to start walking to help with the terrible shin splints that I had gotten from doing karate.  I had the shin splints for almost two years, been to the doctor, had inserts made to retrain my ankles to keep my feet from rolling in.  Wore those, felt better but still wanted to be able to get some good exercise.  I started walking at the mall for two reasons, to get that exercise and to consciously make the effort to retrain my feet to walk properly to avoid shin splints.  Well, it worked great.  I haven't really had any shin pain for a year. 

Once school got out, I had a pretty rough summer and was unable to walk.  Well, band started up again this past Monday and I was at the mall with my dad and my brother ready to walk.  The three of us really enjoy getting together.  I mean the physical exercise is great, but the chance to get together and chat and such is even better.  I'm so glad that I am able to start going again.  And even prouder of the fact that I was able to jump right back in to my old pace again.  Even if I do have three brand new blisters on my feet.  That won't prevent me from going again this morning!

I would like to say long story short, but I guess I can't.  I am a bit of a talker after all.  I have not weighed myself for a few days.  I do however feel better already - more energy and all that good stuff.  I also feel stronger since I've started this challenge so that is a good thing.  I will try to remember to weigh myself today and see how that goes.  I just don't want to see no change and get discouraged you know?

 Okay, so on to stamping.  Here is a card I made a few weeks ago.  I think I wanted to get something going that was using the color Rose Red.  I stuck with colors from within the color family for easy coordination.  I am still getting use to the new color groupings and really am finding some of those colors to be quite fun together.  I hope you enjoy.

Stamp Set:  Priceless
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Naturals White
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Rose Red
Accessories:  Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, dimensional

Thanks for stopping in!  Have a great Wednesday!

Some Stamping Fun of a Different Sort

It is time to get organized, or at least get a start on getting organized. Since, honestly, it seems like getting organized is an ongoing process for me. It has been a couple years since I was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator so I really need to clean house.

First things first, I really need to see what current stamp sets I own.  So, with the new catalog in hand, I turned to the Index page and began pulling out sets that have retires.  There were many that I was sad to see go.  Some that I didn't think I would ever see go - Itty Bitty Backgrounds comes to mind!  I'm thinking that I may start with a garage sale to help me clean house better.

My stack of retired stamp sets.  Wow, over 35 sets that have retired and are in need of a good loving home:

While I was cleaning out my stamp sets, the doorbell rang and a few minutes later, my son came up to my office to inform me that there was a box from Stampin' Up! waiting for me downstairs. Woohoo! My starter info has arrived:

A peak at what was inside the box! Fun times here tonight:

After sorting out my retired stamp sets, I decided it was time to sort through all of my stamp colors. I know that Stampin' Up! did a major color overhaul this year and couldn't believe how many had changed. These are my retired stamp pads. Wow! But, I must say the new colors are beautiful. I can't wait to start working with them!

And you just can't overhaul your stamp pads without updating the paper as well. I went through all of my folders, updated the names and moved them around according to their new color families. There are a few colors that I'm going to have to order so that I can get completely updated.

I think tomorrow will hold some more organizing for me as well.  For tonight, I am ready to call it a day.