She's gone

After four days of giving my Shadow girl alot of love and attention (which is nothing new) I made the difficult decision today to take her in and have her put to sleep. I was going to just let her pass naturally but after coming home today and seeing her not be able to walk or even get up I could no longer allow her leave this earth without dignity and respect due to her. I will miss my girl but know she will now go and play with Buddy in the wildflowers. Shadow will always remain in my heart. Sixteen years she has blessed me with and my life has been fuller because of her.

My Baby Girl

This is my baby girl, Shadow. She's 16 years old. And dying. I've been watching her act strangely the last couple of weeks. This girl rarely goes outside. I'm talkin' 2 or 3 times a year. The last two weeks she's gone out every day, multiple times each day. The kids and I thought it strange. But over the last three days I think I know why. It's warm out there. And she's cold. Her little paws are cold and the outdoors warms her up. Today a friend suggested a heating pad. That has worked wonders. She likes it alot.

The last few days I've watched her deteriorate. She hasn't eaten in three days. Not even ice cream or french fries - her two most favorite foods in the whole wide world. She's not in any pain but her eyes are sinking, her body isn't maintaining temperature and today she's not had any water. I'm just trying to keep her comfortable. If she shows any sign of pain I'll do something different but for right now I'll just let nature take it's course. But it's hard to watch her die. I snuggle with her, pet her and hold her close. That's about all I can do.

Scrappin'

It's been SO LONG since I've shared on the blog and since I've put pictures on a page.

A couple of weeks ago I scrapped with a girlfriend and got TWO of these layouts done. I made one for my friend who these cute little goats belong to. She's a infrequent scrapper so I know she'll love it.

Bellas, bellas, bellas!

Love these images from Stamping Bella! I have found myself obsessed with them and have collected "oh, I don't want to count"... yeah, that many! Super fun stuff. These are my most recent creations.

Stampin' Up! Open House

I had an open house last week for my customers to take advantage of Sale-A-Bration. I provided a make & take card for them to go home with. Not only was the open house fairly successful it was alot of fun! I offered a drawing for a free Sale-A-Bration set. Anyone who ordered a minimum of $50 that night went into the drawing and my good friend Alex won! Congrats, Alex!

There was interest expressed in purchasing the SU! patterned paper. It's very impressive with this current catalog. I'm going to be doing a monthly paper club. For $11.60 each month you will choose what designer paper series you want to recieve. It's a great way of getting what paper you want in a moderate time frame.

I should be receiving a swatch of all designer paper available (with the exception of the Prints Designer Series) next week so we can see it in real life, touch and fondle it and drool!

If you want to be a part of this club, let me know! I'll be placing the first club order March 10, 2008.

Valentine's Day

Or shall I say single awareness day? :)

Valentine's day hasn't really been my favorite day. It reminds me of what I don't have. This year I took a different approach. I decided to make it good. I used some of my time to make it special for my daughters.

I paper craft alot. They don't always reap the benefits of my paper crafting with the exception that they know when I die they will inherit my scrapbooks.

I found these cute mailboxes at Target in January and bought four - two for my girls and two to sell. I made little 3x3 matching cards to go with them. My girls LOVED them and I could tell were really happy they were the recipients of at least two of them. While I was making them they asked what I was going to do with them. I told them I was going to sell them :) It wasn't completely a lie... I did sell TWO of them :) I liked the way they turned out and Valentine's Day wasn't a lousy day for me this year because I chose to look at it differently. I even sent money with one of my employees to buy heart-shaped Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the office on his way to work since it was on his way. Yummy!

I scrapped... again!

I gotta tell ya I'm loving scrapping at home. I am changing my priorities and doing what I want with feeling less obligation to other *stuff*! It is so cool.

I started to scrap this two page layout over the last weekend and finished it up early in the week. I love all of the various elements I used and I even used everything in my stash! Even bettah!

So very cute! So very sweet!

Look at this card. Isn't it just the cutest?

I have a dear friend Heather. She is SO CREATIVE and is a great scrapbooker but claims she can't make cards. Does this card look like she doesn't make cards? It's fantastically cute! And I love Bella images!

She wrote me a super sweet letter that she enclosed with it. It was full of kind words. It really lifted my spirits and gave me all kinds of warm fuzzies. She is so great! I just love her.

I scrapped.... for me, even!

I did! I did! Finally for myself. It feels so good. Between assisting with the IdahoScrappers Charity Crop and making Christmas gifts, I haven't scrapped for myself since, hmmmmm, say maybe September? And that's iffy. And wanna know what else? The crazy thing is that the photos are from THIS Christmas! Now that just doesn't happen at my house. I can't even think of the number of Christmas layouts I still need to do so it rocks that I already have two layouts of this Christmas completed!

This first photo is a trimming the tree layout.

The title reads: Our Unusual Christmas. Why, you ask? The journaling reads:

Ordinary: Tree is up just after Thanksgiving
Unordinary: Tree not up until Dec 21st
Ordinary: No white Christmas
Unordinary: Snow on Christmas (eve)
Ordinary: Fake tree
Unordinary: Real Tree
Ordinary: Large Tree
Unordinary: Small, tabletop tree
Ordinary: Colored lights on the tree
Unordinary: White lights on the tree
Ordinary: Savannah strings the lights
Unordinary: Paxton strung the lights

This next layout I finished this evening. It's been on my kitchen table for at least a week.... but it's a special one to me. And get this.... ALL of the photos are of ME! That's something new. Don't know how much I like it but I gotta tell ya I felt a real burning *want* to do this layout:

The journaling to this layout reads:

Touched by an Angel
Lately I’ve been going through what one might call a wounded spirit. While I have not experienced any trauma lately, I’ve not been feeling valued, loved and appreciated; thus I’m impatient, depressed, exhausted and not really liking that these emotions are so powerful. I’m working through it but it’s tough - not only for me but anyone who lives with me. This Christmas Paxton was my angel. She was so thoughtful and generous. Just a few days before Christmas she had sold a collection of "Littlest Pet Shop" toys to a friend of ours. Apparently she saw that as an opportunity to show me ho loved I really am. It worked. Not only do I adore the Willow Tree Angel collection, but the three she picked out for me could not have been any better: Sign for Love "I love you", Friendship "Friendship is the sweetest gift, and With Love "You are Loved. Paxton ‘s sensitivity and generosity was the sweetest gift. This year, past years and always, Paxton will be my angel.

Handmade Christmas Gifts

I usually make at least half my Christmas gifts that I give to friends and family. This year wasn't much different. I thought I'd post these photos before I log my next post.

At the IdahoScrappers charity crop that is held every November, one of the classes offered was these cool magnetic boards. Basically decorated 12x12 sheets of metal and decorated magnets. I loved the idea of this project for gifts so I made a few. I made one more than shown but forgot to take a photo of it :(


For my sis Cheryl.

For my nephew Jan (looking at these from this perspective, the magnets look like Easter eggs! eeekk!)

This one is for my good friend Karen.

A frame for my friend Heather and her family.

A frame for my friend Sandi, and her husband.