Country Roads Stamping

Time is running out

Well, the 2011-2012 catalog is just about gone - only today, tomorrow and Thursday to order from it - then it is all gone.  I received this card last week and while I don't have this set - I loved the card from Shelley - I love the colors on the flowers, how she made them two toned.

This set is called Simply soft and is one of the hostess sets that is retiring this week - I've seen a lot of cards made with this the past week and I don't have the set. sigh.  Oh well a little late for me to actually plan anything with it at this point.  Then let me share an MDS card that I received from Jan - this one is quite nice.

I still have not ventured into the MDS land enough to get the hang of this but I do like this one. 

Hopefully you are all recovered from a great Holiday week-end - I know ours was pretty packed and busy and HOT.  We spent quite a bit of time in the mountains and it was a delightful 20 degrees cooler there.  One more share with you - the reason I enjoy the kick off of Summer - it means lots more items fixed on the grill:

Have a great Tuesday!  Check back here on Wednesday for the winners of the guessing contest with Steve and the Railroad.

Happy Memorial Day

This is for those who are actually staying home this week-end and spending time on their computers -

and yes - I know - this main image is not Stampin Up! but I saw these two little ants in the basket and I had to have it - everything else is Stampin UP!  If I managed to pack two ants in our picnic basket - I would imagine they would be popping out and saying - Wow, you're the best!  The card base is wild wasabi - the designer series paper is from Summer Smooches, which will be available on Friday - June 1 and the Starfruit cardstock has the new folder embossing on it (love love that folder, also available on Friday) and the word greeting is also SU!  Just wanted to give you a smile for the Holiday!

Working on the Chain Gang

It will be no surprise for me to say that once again - my husband has found something unusual for me to post for a Saturday with Steve.  This past Wednesday he took off for a day to fish - he had been wanting to do so ever since we returned from Disney but with his mom in the hospital simply did not feel he could take off any day and leave.  So he finally got his much needed relaxation time this past week.  Now he loves to go to the mountains however this time he only went as far as Upshur county and the Buckhannon River:

and he was successful with his favorite - native brown trout

and the brook trout:

Now both of these were released back into the water because he was so far up the stream that he didn't have the heart to keep these to eat and wanted to leave them there.  So while he is way up on this river fishing he comes up on two men working to replace railroad ties on the Beech Mt. Tracks.  So ofcourse, those of you that know him - he stops to "chat" awhile and asks to take pictures - first off removing the ties

Now remember - two men and this machine and that's it - what a load of work.  Well, then when the new tie is put in they have to hammer in the spike to hold it in place:

Now Steve wanted to know how many "strikes" it takes for this guy to get the spike in - and that is going to remain a mystery until someone tries to guess that today - give me your guess at how many times he had to swing this sledge hammer to get the spike in - if you guess it correctly - I'll send you a gift for guessing.  So, once again - Steve also asked if he could take a try at it :

Now - how many times do you think the fella told Steve he had to hit the spike to get it in - remember this may or may not be correct - Steve did not count (I'm betting the number was not correct) but you give me the count that you think it took Steve to get that railroad spike into the tie.  I am curious to see if anyone actually gets this correct.  If you guess correctly, I'll let you know and I have a few retired stamp sets you might want to choose from! 

You also need to know that these two men also run the train, as well as repair it - it is used primarily for a coal mine there, so it seems that these two men are probably pretty busy.  So how about this?  My husband's first time at working on the Chain Gang!!! If only I knew how to put the background music to that old song on here.  Well, be sure to make a guess - first how many times it took the employee to hammer the spike in and then how many times it took Steve to do the same.  That's all for today's Saturday with Steve - have a great Holiday week-end. 

 

 

 

A little something unusual

Last week was my friend, Terri's birthday and just had to send her a special card.  She did my Mother in law's nails for the past year and finally convinced me to come in and have my toe nails done - and I survived it.  Actually, thought it was wonderful.  My poor feet get a lot of abuse with the running and insanity workouts so they really enjoyed that pedicure.  Unfortunately, I managed to send the card to her without taking a picture so I started a second one for my Sister in law - this is one I made - but my husband said it was not really good as the proportions were not correct - so this one stayed at the house.

It is a spinner card - the golf ball goes right behind the "hole" at the golf flag and I'm sure that's not what it is called but Terri will straighten me out on that.  Anyway, it looks as if the ball goes in the hole - but my husband said the hole was way too big for the golf ball. sigh.  Then I saw something really cute on Stampin Connection by one of the demonstrators and I really should have written this name down and saved her website, which I did not - this is sooooo cute:

A chocolate covered strawberry - isn't this super cute?  As I said, I saw this on Stampin Connection and jotted down the instructions to try it - made a few mistakes on this one but learned form those!  I am going to use these somehow at my open house in a few weeks - either make them for the guests or let the guests make one themselves.  They are not hard and what a cute idea for the Strawberry Festival that we have here every year.  this could be filled with chocolate for those of you that are chocolate crazies.  I'd figure out something else as I'm not a big fan of chocolate but there are certainly enough OTHER things that I am crazy about to fill this strawberry with.  That's all for today - you seriously do not want to miss Saturday's post - See you then!  Have a great holiday week-end. 

 

For the Cat Lovers

My friend, Jill, had a birthday yesterday and she is a cat lover.  So I did manage to get her card in the mail and it hopefully made it on time.  Here's the card with some sneak peek of new "stuff".

Isn't he a cutie?  Love this new paper too and the ribbon is some of the sale a bration ribbon that matched nicely with this paper.  The little cat has wiggly eyes.  So a little smile for a birthday today!  Hope your day is a smiley one too!!! 

Lovely as a Tree

Well, I had a post all ready for today but then this card arrived and knew those of you who love Lovely as a Tree will appreciate this one. 

While this was used as a sympathy card - it would also work well as a masculine card too.  Another hard item to make!  I am afraid the Lovely as a Tree stamp is covered with dust here at my house - I have not used it in a very long time, but it is still one of those very popular stamp sets.  This was from Stephanie and she's done some masking to avoid getting all the background stamp on the card front and then used her image to stamp in the open white space.  Nicely done. 

My husband is on one of his "jaunts" today to hopefully get us some pictures for Saturday with Steve.  Be sure to come back the next two days - two cute birthday cards to share.  Enjoy the day - yesterday was great - with just a good shower to finish off the day - but what a great day to get things accomplished!  Took the day off from stamping and did lots of house and yard work yesterday.  See you tomorrow!