It's All About The Journey

Thinking Of You

And I am thinking of you but that's not what the post is about. :)

I made a Thinking of You card today for a woman who has been ill and in pain for quite some time. She is on the road to recovery and I thought that a card just might brighten up her day a bit and maybe make her smile.

 

Making this card brought me a good deal of joy. It has been awhile since I made a card and I have missed it. I am finding that if I do not have a good reason to make a card then I don't.  Not sure why that is but for now I am going with the flow.  More about that later. To make this card I used one my very favorite Gina K Design stamp sets. It is called Comfort & Peace. First of all I love silhouette stamps. When I saw how lovely this set  was I *knew* I had to have it. I love the flowers and the sentiments are beautiful. The sentiment that I used on the front of my card is from the Autumn Leaves set also from Gina K Designs. To stamp my images I used Chestnut Roan Chalk ink.I used Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla card-stock from Stampin'UP!I also used the new Bigz Top note from SU. Wow! I love this die. There are so many ways to use this die and I intend to get a lot of use from it. I used the window punch to put my pink satin ribbon through. Last but not least I added buttons that I thought would look cheerful.

Here is the inside of my card.

  

It is simple I know but I felt that it gave my card a warm finished look.  Now all I have left to do is my envelope. Yes, I am going to stamp that too. :) But not until later tonight after I am finished doing all of the things that I need to do.

It is so hard to believe that this is the last day of 2008!Where in the world did the year go? Will you be celebrating with family and friends to bring in the new year? Wayne and I will be doing what we do every year. We stay at home where it is safe and we eat lots of junk food and watch Dick Clark at Times Square. I love watching the ball dropping down and  before you know it  the lights come on and announce to all of us that a new year has begun. Silly I know but seeing a new year come in makes feel happy. Anyway, after that Wayne and I continue to eat junk food and then we watch a movie. Our partying days have been long gone. So we have our own little party. Tonight I am going to make Peanut Butter Blossom cookies. I have never made them so tonight is the night! I got the recipe from Donna of Spatulas,Corkscrews, & Suitcases . They look and sound delicious. I think you have the idea of how my my night will be. :) I f I can get a decent photo of my cookies later tonight then I will post it on my personal blog, My Life's Journey .

Brr. It is 6 degrees here in NH and the wind-chill is going down to-20 degrees. So staying in for tonight sure sounds good to me. If your going out tonight I hope that it is lots warmer where you are

Happy New Year Everyone. I hope that no matter what you do tonight and tomorrow that you have a wonderful time. Stay warm, be safe and keep smiling. :)

A Christmas Smile Box

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas Day. We did. It was  a quiet day and it was wonderful to  spend time with most of our family. I made a Smile Box to share some photos with you. I hope you enjoy it. But first, I had to share a photo of cookies that Caleb our grandson made for Wayne and I.. He is only 4 years old and he did a beautiful job decorating them. They were delicious too.

 

They really were very good.:)I hope that all of you have a fantastic week. Smile.:)

Okay here is the Smile Box.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Snowman Soup & Nail Polish

I know that is a strange title but that is what I have to share with you tonight. Can you believe that it is Christmas Eve? In just 3 more hours it will be Christmas and this year I am more excited about it then I have been since I was a very little girl .Those were the days when I believed in the baby Jesus being born on that day and  the magic of Santa Clause. Wow!That was a very long time ago. This year it was all about the giving to others then it was about my receiving. It has also been about the true meaning of Christ.I like the feeling so much that I intend to have the rest of my Christmas seasons repeat this one.

Last night, I learned that a friend of someone I know who is a single parent with 4 children would not be able to  buy his 4 children gifts for Christmas. All I could think of was how the children, who all believe in Santa would not have any thing from him and how very sad they would feel. So when Wayne got home at 8 PM last night I asked him to take me to the stores so that I could pick up some toys for the children and also pick up some of the items that I needed to make Snowman Soup.  Wayne and I did not get home until 11PM due to the crowds of people shopping and my taking the time I needed to figure out what to buy 4 children I do not know. Anyway, as soon as I got home I began making the Snowman Soup. It was my first time making these adorable little gifts I  had a lot of fun making them and plan to make this a part of my yearly tradition. With all of that being said here is a photo of my Snowman Soup and a photo of the nail polish sets that I put together for Molly and Darcy.

 

I made 4 of these awesome little soups. I did not know how to make these little gifts so my friend Gail told me to do a search on Google. I did and here  is where I found the recipe and the tags that I could print out. I hope the children like them.:)

Earlier this week I made little nail polish kits for Molly and Darcy.

   

As most of you  know I do not make my own boxes. So once again I used a gusset cello bag. In each bag there are 6 bottles of nail polish and 2 decorated nail file boards. I could not fit the nail Polish remover in them so I put that in their stockings that I made up for them. I used the red Real and White ribbon that I purchased from Stampin Up! this past summer to tie around the bag and tie it into a bow. To make my tags I used Punchy Words from Gina K. Designs.  To make them all I did was use the 1 3/4 " SU scallop stamp and an EK success stamp that is 2 " and matches the SUstamp perfectly. I used Real Red and Glorious Green Card-stock also from SU. As you can see I used Real Red ink. I attached the tag to my bow by punching a small round hole and then put gold cord through it. Voila! The tag is on securely.

Here is a close up of the tag.

 

I made many of my gift tags this year and had a blast doing it. It was not only fun but very cost effective too. :)

I have one more photo to share with you. Last weekend Wayne and I went to Hillary's for a Christmas get together. Here is a photo of all of us. Hillary's boyfriend, Nate took it and I think he did a great job!

 

From the left, Aubrey, Hilary, Juliette, Wayne, Me, Caleb and Colleen. I will be very busy making Christmas dinner for Molly, her boyfriend Brian and Darcy. I am hoping to get lots of photos and if I have time  I will make a smile box to share with all of you.  In case I do not get the opportunity to do so , I want to wish each and every one of you who stops by my blog a Very Happy and very blessed Christmas. I hope that you will be able to share your day with loved ones and rejoice in the true meaning of Christmas.

Merry Christmas from both Wayne and I. Smile. :)

Mary