Happiness Is...

Images copyright Stampin' Up!
card created by Pat -Arkansas

I'm happy tonight because:

(1) The Diocesan Convention in Little Rock is over. Our church was in charge of 'hospitality', meaning coffee, tea, fruit, veggies, cookies and snacks of all sorts.  We didn't have to provide the noon meal; it was a catered box lunch.  I served behind the scenes washing dishes for over five hours. Let me hasten to say that I actually like to wash dishes. The convention had 300 attendees, and I washed about 1,200 glass coffee cups, and sink after sink full of water glasses, silverware, serving utensils, serving trays, bowls, etc. 

(2) Stamp Camp has come and gone.  My stamping partner got the show underway since I was still at the convention, but I arrived in time to do a bit of visiting with the attendees and to help take it down and pack it up.

(3) Gardening Daughter's husband called right after noon and invited me to have supper with the family since he knew I was working at the convention and Stamp Camp most of the day and probably wouldn't feel like preparing a meal. I gratefully accepted. Good supper!

(4) Gardening Daughter rubbed my feet before I came home.

(5) I have already set all my clocks ahead for Daylight Saving Time (which I abhor!) and have set my alarm clock for a reasonable hour.  

Tomorrow is also a day.

Kolorful Koi

It has been a gray day.  Not exactly cold -- but not warm either -- and very gray.  Low-lying clouds brought in by the advancing cold front (or perhaps from the advancing warm front coming up from the Gulf of Mexico) hung in the air, depositing a fine mist upon everything.  Not enough to work the windshield wipers, but enough to be noticed, and felt upon the skin.

I worked this morning in the church office, as I do on every Monday (except when I declare myself a holiday.)  I finished and mailed the year-end required reports to the state withheld tax division and to the Internal Revenue Service, calculated and prepared the January payroll checks, and remitted the withheld federal taxes to the appropriate governmental agency.  It's all done online now, which in someways makes it easier, and in other ways more difficult.  I've worked with payroll, and relevant taxes, for over 40 years, but it takes this old dog a bit longer to learn new tricks.  I frequently have to refer to the several pages of paperwork received from the IRS last fall to be sure I'm doing it properly.

After leaving the church, I made a quick run by Gardening Daughter's home. She, hubby and the youngest child are in Texas visiting their son, who is stationed (oh, so sad...not!) at the Coast Guard Station on South Padre Island, leaving the care of the home in the hands of their daughters, aged 23 and 17.  Older daughter has a job nearby and the 17 yr old is a junior in high school.  Grandma, that would be me, makes  two or three runs to the house during the hours they are both away to allow the dogs (Buddy and Snuggles) to roam the large fenced yard for ten or fifteen minutes.  I don't mind this small duty at all.  I'm just delighted that last year, after seven years of living in the house, they finally fenced the yard. I used to have to walk the dogs on leashes to let them do their business.  That's OK in warm, dry weather, not so thrilling when it's cold and damp.

When I got home, I felt the need for a bit of color. First, I made a flowery greeting card for a far away friend who needs a special hug.  We stampers like to say that "A handmade card is a hug with a fold in the middle."   I got the card in the mail and, still seeking some color, I started looking  through some of my old computer files containing photos I took a couple of years ago. Lots and lots of flowers, but they were not what I wanted.  Then I came across the one above.  It was just what I was looking for.  And, this one:

 

These photos were taken at a local garden nursery which I visited in the company of Gardening Daughter and my then 4 yr old granddaughter. I was captivated by the nursery's beautiful Koi pond, and took several photographs of it that afternoon.  I learned from reading the Wikipedia article (the link provided above) that Koi are among the longest-living vertebrates on Earth, some surviving for over 200 years!

I feel quite uplifted by these splashes of color!

More, later. Tomorrow is also a day.

A Good Day for Cards

(click to enlarge)

(*see note below)

I belong to a rubber stamping group that has been in existence for over 11 years.  Although the group's members are currently all female, we have had talented gentlemen members in years past. Our youngest active member is in her early twenties, the most mature in her mid-80's.  A faithful group of folks, many of them charter members of the group, meet on one Saturday afternoon each month to practice new --or old -- card-making/designing techniques or to demonstrate new tools and materials used in the craft, to swap handmade cards, and to catch up with what's been going on in our lives since the last meeting.   Eighteen of us gathered this afternoon, and it was great fun, as usual.

Since I had cards 'on the brain,' so to speak, when I got home I started looking back through my computer files at the hundreds and hundreds of images of cards I've made and received during the past 11 years. I selected a few (of the cards that I made myself) to create the above collage.   

My taste in rubber stamp images is eclectic, to say the least. I require only an interest in or appreciation of the art.  Some tickle my funny bone: the image in the lower left hand corner of the collage is one of my favorites.  Art?  Maybe. Or Not.  Whimsey? Definitely.  I presently own a great many rubber stamp images of various sorts, having acquired them with the same abandon that I once reserved for the purchase of books.

I must have been behind the door when God passed out creative/artistic abilities.  There seems to be a broken connection between what my eyes see and what I can do with my hands.  I simply cannot transfer what I see to any sort of media. I don't sketch; I don't paint (except walls and woodwork); I once tried sculpting in clay - hahahahahah! All I got was dirty hands!

I truly enjoy my stamps, inks, papers, ribbons and other embellishments, and the physical act of creating cards or other art work using images that I could not have produced through my own abilities.  

* Insofar as I can remember correctly, since some years have passed since I created most of these cards, copyrights to the images shown above are held by: Hero Arts; Stamp It!; Magenta; Red Castle Rubber Stamps; Personal Stamp Exchange; B-Line Designs; Stampamania; and Penny Black, Inc.

That's about it for this (almost) end of the first month of the year.

Tomorrow is also a day.

Bosom Buddy

My morning was spent doing church work.  January is a pretty busy month in the church office, as the year end tax reports,  W-2's, 1099's, and annual contribution reports are tasks that have to be completed.  About 1:30, I came home to work on a swap card for tonight's stamp club meeting. (Results shown above)  

Our stamp club meets on the third Monday evening of each month, and Valentine's Day will be a thing of the past when next we meet, so I made a Valentine card.  The instructions for making these cute (I think) heart-shaped torsos came from the blog of an extremely talented woman who lives in Australia.   If you are interested in seeing how this was done, you can check here.  My torsos are not quite as tidy as Valita's work, but I'm happy to say that they were a bit hit with my stamping group.

Today was cool with clouds that met the ground; not a sunbeam to be seen. The foggy mist hung heavy in the air all day.  Not quite rain, but almost.  A trip of more than a few blocks required the use of windshield wipers.

The next time the sun shines, I'm going to have to air out my car; it smells like the inside of a pizzeria.  I was in charge of picking up the lunch for yesterday's annual church meeting.  Pizza is traditional.  I had a back seat full of boxes of steaming hot pizza for the twelve minutes it took me to drive from the source back to the church.  Fogged up my windows, they did. 

Still no post on my Nebraska trip since I did not do any work on it today.  That's why I'm happy that tomorrow is also a day.

Playing Around

I've been playing around with the Blogger Design templates this evening and rather like this one. The colors are to my liking; I am, at heart, an "earth-toned" person.  Besides, I like this particular header background; it seems appropriate now that the ducks and geese are arriving in our area.

It's easier to make changes to the template than I realized and, as fickle as I am, this may not be the last change. 

I would welcome your comments and opinions of the newly selected design.

Other Stuff

I've been a busy bee. It's time for another rubber stamping group activity sponsored by myself and my stamping partner.  In a week's time, 22 ladies will meet to make four cards each of six separate Christmas designs.  I'm responsible for preparing the materials, sample cards and instructions for three of the designs; my partner will do the same for the other three.  My card designs required that I cut almost 900 separate pieces of card stock, plus 88 pieces of ribbon.  The designing and cutting are done, thank goodness; all that remains is to assemble the pieces for four of each card and put them in "baggies" for distribution to the participants. 

In other stamping activities, I made a fancy-dancy 50th wedding anniverary card (much, much more complicated than my usual designs) for my sister and her husband in Virginia. I putzed around with it for almost 2-1/2 hours trying to make it look like I had envisioned.  I hope they like it; I'm not likely to make another one of the same sort for some time -- if ever.

Also, I'm trying to design a variety of masculine "Thinking of You" cards. My grandson "M" shipped out last week to boot camp at the United States Coast Guard training center in Cape May, NJ.  I think he needs mail from his grandmother every week.  He is 19, is Gardening Daughter's only male child, and bears part of my name.  No, he's not a boy named "Sue." His middle name and mine are the same -- Allen.

[My mother had already decided what my first name would be, if I were a female child, (which I was) but was struggling to find a middle name that she liked for her first born.  She was so relieved to be delivered of me after 48 hours of labor that she chose the last name of her attending physician (Dr. George W. Allen) for my middle name.  It's caused all sorts of confusion over the years, especially among government officials who think the "Allen" in my name is my maiden name. I often have to pull out my birth certificate to assure them that it's part of my given name.]

We haven't heard from "M" except for the obligatory form letter letting us know that he arrived and giving us his mailing address.  I hope we have a newsy letter from him soon; I'm anxious to know how things are going.   The only advice I gave him before he left was to eat the food that was set before him when it was set before him. I suspect that he'll need all the energy he can get. He's tall and very slender and could use a few pounds on his frame.

It's finally turned "chilly." I had to turn on the furnace for a while this morning. When I awoke, the temperature inside the house was below 60 degrees. That's too cold for me and the cats.

I wish you a pleasant weekend, wherever you are.

A good time was had by all - Post 88

Celebrating World Card Making Day

Twelve women gathered at the home of one of my friends at 1 p.m. Saturday to make handmade greeting cards. By 5 p.m., we had created 287 cards (one card got "mis-stamped and had to be scuttled; we'll add another one so as to make an even number.) We created thirty six each of three 'thank you' cards, four Christmas cards, and one 'birthday' card. As I mentioned in my previous post, these will be divided equally between Ronald McDonald House and Cards for the Troops.

A Basket full of Greeting Cards - and a curious cat
(images copyright Stampin' Up!)

Let me hasten to say that I don't bear the entire burden of putting together a stamping project such as this. However, my half was enough to keep me busy for several days (I didn't even participate in any of my normal theme posts this past week, but I will try to get around and visit those who did.) My stamping partner Elaine and I design the cards, provide all the stamps, ink, card stock, specialty papers, ribbons, adhesive, etc., for making the cards. We cut all the card stock and papers, score and fold the base cards, cut any specialty papers to the precise dimensions required by the design, cut and pre-tie the ribbon embellishments and get everything ready for assembling the cards. The actual putting together of the cards is just fun; all the 'work' has already occurred.

Anytime we ladies get together for stamping, there is always something good to eat, and this was no exception. Our good friends Jane and her husband, David, operate a part-time catering business, and love to feed us. They prepared a table full of good things for us to eat, all at least semi-homemade: chicken salad, a wonderful cheese ball, delicious brownies, Carrot-Zucchini-Raisin Muffins (Jane's recipe follows below, along with a photo), and crispy crackers, along with soft drinks and really good coffee. You may well ask how we got 287 cards made with all those yummy things calling to us from the kitchen -- but we did!

Carrot-Zucchini-Raisin Muffins

1 package Duncan Hines Decadent Carrot Cake, mixed as directed
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup crushed pineapple
1 cup grated zucchini
1 T. vanilla

Bake at 350 degrees in a bundt pan or cupcake tins. Can also be baked in loaf pans.
* * * *

Now... it's time for me to be thinking of Hallowe'en cards, Thanksgiving cards, and Christmas cards, along with a few between-now-and-year-end other occasion cards. No rest for the weary!