Sweet Friendships

Offering a very quick post today.

I was playing around with my new favorite 'branch' punch
from Martha Stewart and a wonderful new stamp I
picked up a couple weeks ago, and here is the result...

I have been creating with a lot of kraft cardstock lately
and I really like how these blues
work with the simple background.
The sentiment is a great $1 Studio G find.
Some lovely Prima flowers in a variety of shades...
The birds are just a tiny portion of the actual stamp
from a company I have come to love, Memory Box
who by the way, will be  
next week's fabby sponsor
over at The Play Date Cafe!.

Now...speaking of sweet friendships...

These are my 3 yummy grandsons.
(even yummier than that Pop-Tart Caleb is eating!)
That's Alex, jr on the left, he's 2.
Alex is cousin to Caleb, 4 1/2 and CJ, who is 7.

I had the blessing of having all 3 boys over this past week,
trying to keep up with them playing catch and a little soccer.

The brothers sometimes don't display friendship to
one another as often as they should
(as brothers tend to do)
but I love watching them display friendship to their little cousin.
It would be nice to keep this crew as young as possible...
just for a little longer...

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharing a Lovely Christmas with You

I think this photo tells the story...a very tuckered out pussy cat after a very lovely Christmas Day!

As the Christmas holiday winds down, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some photos of the day with you.  I think it's one of the few days in the year that you can actually get family photos taken, don't you?  I thank you in advance for indulging me.

I managed to get 4 trees up total this year.  This is one of my little vintage ornament trees.  I love anything in miniature, especially Christmas ornaments, so this is one of my favorite trees.  I also have another with miniature Santas.  The tree in the background is a tree that I leave up all year and decorate with the seasons.

For Christmas, it's all done in greens, blues and golds
in a nature theme.

I used a bit of creativity for my table this year.  I used fun Christmas paper from Paper Studio for placemats.  With the candy cane napkins and acrylic plates, it was very festive.

With all the little ones at the table, paper and plastic
was the 'safest' way to go!

The glow from the mosaic candle centerpiece was so beautiful,
but I just couldn't capture that on my camera.

You may recognize these two little ones because
I speak of them often.

This is my daughter Mallory and her boys, Caleb and CJ.

This is my son Alex and his fiance, Jayme
with my grandson, Alex Jr.

The little one was so tired out but beforehand,
he was a bundle of energy as he

opened his presents and then helped his mommy and daddy too!

I absolutely LOVE this photo of all of them together.

I am so proud to have had a part in creating this lovely crew!

I don't share my own photos often, but I had to show you
the 3 loves of my life...

Before I close, I wanted to share a couple more photos...this is what we awoke to this morning.  After nearly 2 inches of freezing rain between Christmas eve and Christmas evening, this was a welcome sight.
Make sure you click on the photo to get the full effect!

The flakes were just lovely.

As of this posting, we accumulated over 5" of this lovely white stuff and tomorrow promises 3"-4" more.  Brrrrrr......

Last but not least, it was such a lovely coincidence today that I had planned to post this photo.  The sweet fuchsia elephant at the top left was a gift sent to me several years ago from the UK by my dear friend Sarah.  You know Sarah as one of our designers over at The Play Date Cafe and as the host of her own blog, The Art of Moodling.  If you have been following me for very long, you also know that Sarah and I have been friends for nearly 10 years.  The coincidence comes by way of a phone call I received today from dear Sarah.  We spoke for nearly 90 minutes, but the time sure flew by!  I love having a friend who, even though we don't speak by phone very often, we can just pick up where life has left off and never miss a beat.

I love putting that ornament on my tree each year.  Of course it reminds of me Sarah...but more importantly, it reminds me of a friendship that has flourished over the years.  Some would find the distance to be an excuse not to try...Sarah and I find the distance a reason to try harder to stay connected.

Funny thing is, we don't have to try all that hard..... 
love you, my friend....

Go Out and Have Fun....Today!

I spent some time with a wonderful group of women today...saw some familiar faces and hopefully, made some new friends. That's what's great about the hobby of rubber stamping.

I made 2 cards at the 'Stampin' Up' get-together. The first card we made was quite fun to do. I love working with ribbon, so to add a quick little dimensional touch was nice.

The second card was an elegant tri-fold. Although it's not seen in it's entirety in this photo, it's very lovely.

Dr. Judy opened up her beautiful home for us today and with assistance of Marilyn, who by the way, I have asked to share some of her beautiful work on my blog, gave us some fun techniques to take home.

Dr. Judy and I go way back to the early days of my store and it's been so nice to reconnect with her. The sentiments on these cards say it all....Thanks Dr. Judy...I truly needed that!