Sharing an RAK with my Loved Ones

I am really busy in my creative space working on some

deadlines for this week, so I don't have anything of my

own to share with you until tomorrow.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this photo, though.

This is my 7 year old grandson, CJ.

So far, of my 3 grandsons, he is the one who really

loves to create.

My dear friend Michele from Studio MSG sent me the

fabby Martha Stewart 'Iron Gate' border punch.

It was on my birthday wish list

(which is not for a couple weeks yet)

and the next thing I know, it shows up in my mailbox!

What a sweetheart!

Anyway...CJ saw it and just had to have a play with it.

I am blessed to have these two sweet men at my house

a couple times a week after school and I can't take

enough photos of them.

Caleb will be 5 in November. 

I cannot believe how the time flies.

Thanks for indulging my little personal stories once in awhile.

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!

How Young are You?

How many times have you read an article about keeping your heart young? It seems that there is always a new discovery on what we can do
to keep from growing old too fast.

I must admit, when I play games with my grandsons (well, even my 25 year old daughter called last weekend wondering if we wanted to have an adult family game night), there are moments that I reflect on those very games I played as a child. I bought an M&M-themed 'Twister' game for CJ and Caleb this week...
and here was CJ's response...
"that game is excercise, Mema!"
Well how about that for fun!

For me, creating with paper and ribbon is a sure-fire way to make me smile, which in turn makes me happy and a 'cheery heart makes good medicine'...don't you agree?

Hope this little vintage look back helps you
to enjoy your day.
What does your Saturday look like?
Will you do something that reflects your love?
What I would love is for you to leave me a comment
and let me know...
I have room for another smile or two!

A Day in the Life and Another Sneaky-Peek!

I am looking forward to a fabulous date with my husband as we are off to a wedding later today and will be gone at the reception most of the evening. I am feverishly working to get the wedding card completed so today I am going to give you another little 'taste' of the brand new, hot-off-the-press sets which will be featured during the next Artful INKables Blog Hop, Monday, Sept 14th. Hope you will join the rest of the design team, and yours truly of course, for all the fun. More details tomorrow!

So what is a very proud 'mema' to do when her oldest grandson comes and says 'Mema...I have a loose tooth and the new one is coming right behind it!'. The answer: Take a picture! We spent the late-morning with our grandson CJ at his school lunch 'picnic'. The weather was spot-on perfect and by request, I made CJ his very favorite 'mema's toasty cheese sandwiches' for our lunch. Paul and I loved the opportunity to go, especially because Mallory just could not get off work from the hospital. I took lots of pictures for her, but I could not resist sharing these with you.

He loved showing off his in-coming tooth, so I just kept snapping until he finally closed his mouth! He loves 'spiking' his own hair every morning...he is very proud!

Excuse the 'glass-glare' but it was so sunny and lovely out and I just love the face on this child, so thought I would end our time together sharing this photo with you. He is our first grandchild and the one who profoundly changed all our lives. I don't know what his future holds, but God does and I know CJ is capable of some pretty awesome things! I hope you will stay tuned!

Thank You For Your Patience...

Thank you for all your kind comments over the past 24 hours. So-called 'technical difficulties' are not my favorite things to deal with, but sometimes it's a matter of just giving in.

So let's get right to it...there's a lot of stuff to cover tonight...I know I usually tell you on Wednesday nights to come with a cup of 'something', so hope you have something to sustain you.

Starting right off with the sweet Friends award at the top...that's from Beedeebabee...a/k/a dear Paulette. I have spoken of Paulette on a number of occasions, most often surrounding how we met. She and I were fairly new to blogging and one day, we both noticed that when we logged on to our blogs, our followers' list was missing. Now for me, that consisted of about 5 people, but they were VIP's...and they still are, by the way. Paulette and I found ourselves in the Help Forum trying to get answers (which eventually consisted of it 'happens every now and then...and it's true, only now we don't panic!) and we have been each other followers and now, friends ever since. So this award has an extra special place for us because we have become wonderful, emailing 5 or 6 times a day, friends! Thank you, Paulette...YOU are my most favorite and only one I know... BEEDEEBABEE!

So here is the finished product of the sneak peak from last night's feeble attempt at a post.
I have said it sooooo many times lately, but I am really into Halloween cards this year and this one is a bit different. I used the new Chandelier & Halloween stamp sets from Inkadinkado as well as the newest 12x12 papers from Martha Stewart's Halloween collections. They are double-sided, so I just used reverse layers and of course, it's not complete without using Martha's spider web corner punch. So hope it was worth the wait for the details.

OH! I am so excited! I won my first ever Blog Candy! Yes indeedio!
My friend Sandi a/k/a Celticwoman offered one of her altered composition books in celebration of meeting a variety of milestones including 10,000 posts and 15,000 hits and I was the very lucky winner. Sandi has a lovely blog and is quite the artist, so I hope you will make a trip over to her blog and say hello.

So here is my smile of the day...I had some babysitting time with Alex, Jr. He is 15 months old, the youngest of my 3 grandchildren. The way I see it, none of my grandsons are ever going to see the inside of a craft store unless 'Mema' takes them, so Alex, Jr and I spent some quality bonding time at Hobby Lobby this morning. As I was checking out, the lady next in line must have overheard me referring to myself as 'grandma'. As Alex and I were laughing our way to the car, she came from behind and said, "you don't look old enough to have a grandchild, I though he was yours!" I responded by saying that I actually have 3 altogether to which, with amazement (that's my interpretation) she replied, "there is just no way...you look so young!" I told her that she had no idea how much that made my day...and I was wearing my glasses at the time! So I figure, if I get to the eye doc, for my long, overdue appointment and get a new set of contacts, I should be able to shave another 4 or 5 years off my look...and with birthday #49 only 3 weeks away, I'd better hurry! Have a great night....it's Friday tomorrow!

Ya Gotta Go With the Ones You Love!

Hey everybody! I have felt so bad that there hasn't been a post from me since Thursday. I have been out of the house a lot the past couple of days gathering new 'goodies' for projects, and then 'crashing' the rest of the time. I know I am not ill, just feeling extremely low of energy.

I finished a birthday card for my mom and that's as creative as I have been. So when you don't have anything new to share, you 'gotta share the ones you love'! So I hope you will indulge me for a moment....then it's off to an early bedtime with the goal of being in my art room bright and early.

I LOVE THESE BOYS! I've said it before, I could just eat them with a spoon. When I was in my 20's, all I did was talk about my own children...now I am gushing about theirs! So here's the scoop. Alex, Jr is 1 and loves my 'very expensive, handmade in Berea, KY crafter's broom'. It usually hangs on the wall, but when one of the older boys can reach it, they are quick to hand it off to the little one! CJ who is 6 and his brother Caleb, 3 1/2 came over one very early morning, fresh out of bed and were enjoying a cartoon together. I love this picture of pure joy. Last but not least (and one day when he about 16 I will pay the price for sharing)....this photo of Caleb was taken while announcing "Mema! I went in the big boy potty all by myself today...I can wear underpants now!" So there you have it...a little bit about the little one's I love.

See you tomorrow with a few new creations and maybe a color challenge accomplished!

Happy Birthday, Mallory!

Starting off my day by wishing my daughter Mallory a very happy 25th birthday! Mal is my first born and we are sorta 'connected at the hip', in a good way, of course. Nowadays, if she has trouble reaching my by phone, she refers to herself as the "orphan child" and that's after the first 4 calls of the day when she has managed to reach me.

Mallory is the mom to my two oldest grandsons, CJ and Caleb(see the archives regarding 'glitter'). She works full time at one of the 3 hospitals in our city and is going to school to become a nurse. Her goal is to get into flight nursing, but everytime she helps out in the neo-natal intensive care, it tugs at her heart strings, so we'll see. Plus our sweet Caleb spent many days there after he was born, so there is a real sense of gratitude for her.

For her 1/4 century birthday(which as the good mom that I am, I have been rubbing in all week), she and 15 friends have decided to go on a 3 day, 2 night camping trip. Now normally, in the dead of July, this would be a great adventure. But I think the main adventure is going to be enduring the unseasonably cool temperatures we are experiencing here in Illinois. If she managed to get to sleep at all last night, then she had the pleasure of waking up to a cool, crisp 50 degree morning this morning....only 1 more night to go, Mal!