A Couple of Cards...

Here are a couple of cards I have made lately. Original designs, no less!!Bareback, "For You"All Supplies are Stampin UP!

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Very Vanilla, and Night of Navy

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Night of Navy

Stamps: Bareback, Print Pattern, Starstruck, and Happy Everything

Tools: Cutter Kit, Round Tab Punch

God Bless America

Cardstock: Real Red, Whisper White, Night of Navy, and textured navy CS from Michael's

Ink: Real Red, and Night of Navy

Stamps: God Bless America

Ribbon: Gingham red and navy from Michael's

Tools: Cutter Kit

Happy Birthday, Linda!!

Happy Birthday to Linda, "Redplaid" on this beautiful Sunday morning! I know the scan is blurry, only because I put beads on the centers of the flowers, and then it was hard to scan. We all made Linda ATC's for her birthday this year. Hope today and the coming year is fabulous for you, Linda! You deserve the best! ---Keri

Our Trip to Vermont

We promised Cody MONTHS ago that we would take him to Echo, The Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. It is a lake aquarium/interactive museum. The traveling exhibit for the summer is dinosaurs, so that was a must see for my 11 year old!

It was a beautiful day for a trip to Vermont. We live about an hour and a half from Burlington Vt, and much of the travel is secondary roads before we make it to the interstate for the last leg of the trip. Lake Champlain was just glittering yesterday, the sun made it beautiful. The cows grazing in the fields, all the wildflowers and roadside vegetable stands-everything was wonderful!

Cody loved the Echo center. They had all kinds of wildlife from our area--fish, turtles, snakes, lizards-all set up in really neat habitats. They had all kinds of interactive displays for kids to take part in.

The traveling dinosaur display had an actual dinosaur from Jurassic Park--the selling point in Cody's mind. The skeleton next to the JP Velociraptor is the actual size of the dinosaur...they made then considerable bigger for the movie!! They had some really cool displays...of course they were all in the dark, and under glass--a picture taker's nightmare!! I managed to get a few good shots, though!

The building is on Burlington's waterfront, with 2nd story balcony's facing the water. The sun beating down was wonderful. We watched dozens of sailboats on the water, along with the tour boat "The Spirit of Ethan Allen" and the Lake Champlain Ferry.

After the museum, we had some lunch, and I visited the LSS--only to find it closing it's doors with everything 30% off and half empty shelves...what a bummer!! That was the closest LSS--and now it is closing.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. The days we get to do something like this together are few and far between, and yesterday taught us that we need to take more time to do these things....life is short and there are no do-overs....

Get out and do things--it doesnt' have to cost a lot of money--I realized yesterday that I take for granted what a beautiful area I live in. The best places to visit are close to your home!!

Heritage...

After the tiny rant I had yesterday, if I didn't scare you away, I thought I would share a few heritage pages with you. Nancy has me so inspired! These were done long ago, and are not nearly as well put together as hers, but they are mine, and I love them just the same! I also love the old photographs because it takes me back to a time when things were simpler. Not that they thought they were, my Grandparents thought we were going to hell in a handbasket 30 years ago!! These are my Dad's Parents, Lyle and Bertha Brooks. Pa has been gone for 16 years, Grandma for 22. Seems like yesterday!

This is Lyle and Bertha with my Dad and his brother and sisters when they were kids. I love this photo, my aunts have Nellie Olsen curls! I am so glad when I look at these photos that we have them. So many people don't have access to old family photos, or just don't care. This is another one I did YEARS ago. I have a really hard time with heritage pages, so I try to keep them simple.
This last one is of my Grandfather, Lyle, on the farm. I love the candid-ness of it. I LOVE to remember him this way, even though this was far before I knew him. The only way I knew him was in a house in town after we took over the farm, or in a nursing home. There were no bib overalls, just regular clothes, a baseball game, and a candy dish!

Have a great Wednesday, all! --Kerilou

A Major Vent--

I don't usually post more than once a day, but I really feel like I have to get this out, and it may actually be preventing an anxiety attack!!
Let me begin by saying that I am not looking for any sympathy, and I know we all go through stuff like this. But what the heck is wrong with our customer service industry?? I feel like I am surrounded by idiots. Do these people even care about anything but their paychecks? I am so sick of my family suffering from everyone else's irresponsibility.
Our post office managed to lose three of our bills that were mailed out a month ago. Along with many other people's bills that same day. We had to stop payment on three checks so they could be re issued. Now they don't want take any responsiblitly for their actions. They think that we should not have stopped payment, just waited to see what happened. Meanwhile, along with the 90 dollars of stop payment fees, we incurred late fees on our 2 credit cards, and our auto insurance was cancelled......we did not have an extra 500 dollars to wait and see what happened to the original checks! I think that they should re imburse us for the fees we had to pay! With Peter laid off, that 90 bucks would make a big difference!
We were notified a while ago that our health insurance lapsed, and no one ever told us. Then after days of getting the run around, "OOPS!!, WE MADE A MISTAKE...YOU STILL HAVE INSURANCE!! But is will lapse by mid August if you don't pay x amount.
The kind people at our health insurance company denied our ER claims twice before deciding Peter's infection was in fact a life threatening illness and that they would cover it. He only had to go in every 6 hours for 4 straight days for IV antibiotics!!
I am supposed to have elective surgery in two weeks, and our insurance is going to lapse? Well, that is okay, cause apparently as of June 30th, we had no more rx insurance. Even though I just got a rx filled a week ago....another mistake? Who knows?? NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING ANYMORE, EXCEPT WHEN CLOCK OUT TIME IS, AND WHEN PAY DAY IS. I thank Mary Beth, ext. 197 of Empire state carpenters--the only one who has a kind bone in her body and seems to care about her job and the people she helps...
I guess my point is--why is nothing easy anymore? All I have done for months is fight on the phone with people who point fingers at each other. I am sick to death of the whole stupid deal.
I try to remember how fortunate we are to have our health and a roof over our heads, but I am human, and that does not always work. Please tell me I am not the only one constantly fighting!! The more I think about it, the more I think the Amish have the right idea...--Keri

POD ATC...

In honor of the Anniversary sale that Michele is holding over at Purple Onion Designs,

here is an ATC that I made for a mingle I took part in. The theme was Purple Onion Designs stamps. I used glossy white cardstock, and brayered it with a blue spectrum pad. Then I stamped the POD Blossoms stamps with Jet Black Staz On ink. Mounted it on black cardstock, and stamped the POD Enjoy sentiment on the side! I love how it turned out, the blue looks so cool! --Keri

Toot!!

I am so excited to share some great news! I was approached by Anam a few months ago to do a tattoo themed scrapbook layout for a magazine article she was writing. The magazine is called Skin & Ink-- http://www.skinandink.com/ . We got word the other day that the magazine is publishing the article, and the layouts! The layout I did (which has to be under wraps until the magazine is out) uses the tattoo I have of Cody's baby footprints. Here are the two blogs for Anam, check them out!!

http://www.anamstubbington.typepad.com/

http://www.inkedscrapbookers.com/

The magazine is the March 2008 issue, released in December of 2007.

Have a great Monday, --Keri

Jailbirds and more....

Consider these your cute photo fix of the day!! Cody and Brodie in "jail" together...at least Brodie thinks so!
Here is one I just found from a few weeks ago of my Dad with Brodie. She is definitely a man's dog. So much for her being mine! My Dad really likes her, as if you couldn't tell!!

Harley is not a big one for the camera. The flash reminds her of lightening, and she is terrified of storms. She paces the house, panting and drooling during storms, and when I get the camera out. It is so hard to get photos of her because of this. I did manage to get this one, though. They are few and far between, but I wanted her to get some attention, too!!

I just took this one of Brodie the other day. She still has alot of white in her coat, and it reflects the flash so she looks really bright in all the photos! She is finally big enough to jump up on the old porch couch that Harley sleeps on, and she thinks she is pretty cool now!Have a great weekend, everyone! --Keri

Bridal Shower Invites...

Peter has a cousin who is getting married this fall. Her mom asked me to make her bridal shower invitations, so she could have something fall themed. They had to have brown and burnt orange colors, and they were going to need quite a few, so we wanted to make sure that they weren't "lumpy" so they wouldn't charge extra at the PO. After making some samples and tweeking here and there, this is what we came up with!

I used SU!'s Fall Whimsey stamp set, SU! cardstock and ink in Chocolate Chip, and Really Rust, and Very Vanilly cardstock. I ended up making 70 invitations, complete with a printed piece that was adhered to the inside of the invite with all the pertinent information on it. It is hard to see, but there are leaves and acorns stamped on the brown cardstock background, as well as the rust colored strip. This was my first job making invitations for someone where I was actually hired. It was nice! Here is the finished product:

--Keri

Baby Gift

Peter's cousin is going to be a daddy! I unfortunately missed the baby shower, but wanted to make the new parents something for their baby's room. Their theme was Alphabet Soup, from Babies 'r Us, so I tried to pull colors from the pictures on the website to match my frame. I found a 6 window hinged frame, and spray painted it pure white. Since the theme was alphabets, I used my SU! Tall Tales Alpha and stamped letters on cardstock for each of the six windows in the frame. I mounted them on coordinating cardstock, and gingham patterned paper, which also matched the theme. I think it turned out so cute, and can be displayed on a stand or shelf in baby's room! Congrats to Brad and Erica! --Keri

Altered Notebooks, v. 3

I made a few more altered notebooks/journals for some friends, and I thought I would share them here! Michele got hers a few days ago. I thought purple was the obvious choice given she owns Purple Onion Designs! She is such a sweet and generous friend. I used Doodlebug patterned cardstock and Doodlebug Bazzill for her notebook. Added some POD stamps, and a chipboard monogram that I made myself! I used the SU! Tab Punch and made up some dividers, too. Hugs to you, Michele!!

Next was Lisa Renea. Like Michele's, I had this idea in my head for a while! I *love* this patterned paper, Cosmo Cricket's Wanted line. It is way old news, but I just love the colors and patterns of this paper! I use SU! Chocolate Chip, Cool Caribbean, and Cranberry Crisp cardstock, and the SU! Tab punch to make dividers. On the front, the chipboard sticker says "So many cowboys, so little rope!" Too cute! Of course I distressed everything with vintage photo in, and added a bow for good measure! Love ya, LR!

I also made up a few long narrow notebooks as grocery listers. I did not add dividers or tabs, just lined the covers inside and out, and stamped the word "groceries" in black ink with SU! Tall Tales alpha. The patterned paper is DCWV stack paper, which is great to use on these notebooks, cause many of the patterns coordinate!
Have a great Tuesday, everyone! --Kerilou

A Few ATC's

Well, I am finally feeling creative again, and I had a LOT of work to catch up on! Since I had few ATC's (Altered Trading Cards) to do, that is where I started. They are tiny, fairly quick, and anything goes! Here are a few that I completed:

This one was for a mingle for an online group I belong to...the theme was ribbon--I had the hardest time thinking about what to do! I decided when I found this vintage photo online with all the HUGE bows in their hair, that this is what our group would have looked like way back when. So I did not use any ribbon on my ribbon ATC mingle! Stamp is Purple Onion Designs.

My second one was GOING to be for the ribbon themed mingle, til I got done and realized I used fibers instead of ribbon for the patriotic colors. It is completely different that what I usually do, but fits the times we are going through quite well! All stamps are Purple Onion Designs.
The third one is using Stampin' Up!'s Blossoms Abound stamp set (one of my favorites!!) as well as SU!'s retired Sage Advice stamp set. I used the retired color Cranberry Crisp, and current Always Artichoke. Background paper is a scrap!

Happy Tuesday in flooded Northern NY! --Keri