Shimelle - doing good

The incredibly talented Shimelle is doing something good on her blog today - for 24 hours -

and it's a win-win -- get a great class from Shimelle and contribute to her cause

that's Shimelle below dressed as Wonder woman ... and she IS!!  I'm in awe of her work, her blog, and her classes.   Here's the link!

A Paper Lovers Adventure

I saw this ad in the paper this morning:

It was a local number and I got excited.

The interesting thing however, was that I was the only "non-dealer" there.  Guys that had been in the business for years it seems were climbing all over each other rummaging through crates and crates of this gigantic collection.  There was so much, and it was so stuffed into one garage, that I'd say we were only able to see 5% of the stuff.

When the owner asked what I was looking for I felt a little dorky saying "Sweet little graphics for projects I'm working on ..."

And pickin' through this stuff is hard work.

Guys were asking other guys to pass boxes to them and some guys would pretend not to hear and just continue their searching mumbling "leave me alone".

One guy found his treasures by taking them right out of my box.   Ya', I nicely asked for them back.

It's hard to find your little treasures in this kind of situation I think.  I think I'm more of a flea market girl, where the stuff is usually neatly displayed. Or a tag sale girl, where it's so much easier to look around.  I think I should leave this kind of pickin' to the experts like Jenni at the Mercantile.

But look what I managed to pick up:

I would have totally passed over vintage checks if I didn't see how the Mercantile design team has used them in their monthly kits.  You know, they have gorgeous graphics on them!  The pages of the Winston Readers has great graphics and sweet child-like text.  There's old sheet music in great condition there and a sweet little book.

So that's my adventure for today.  I need a rest. 

and then I'll scrapbook - the new Haven line by JBS is so much fun to scrap with.  It goes with everything and there is true genius behind these product lines, I swear!

A new kit reveal is coming on the 31st and I created my favorite mini to date with it:

Have a wonderful weekend!

circa 1999

Creatures from our Mud Hole and a Sweet 'n Easy Gift

We have a mud hole on our property - most people call it a pond - but really, i think its a glorified mud hole.

It's not really large, it occasionally dries out, it doesn't have a good inlet and outlet, but it has wildlife neverless.

Tadpoles, frogs, turtles, salamanders, ducks, snakes, and one lone white heron are just some of the inhabitants we find.

One duck couple comes every spring and we like to think the female is the one we saved and that she comes back to visit us every year:

Last year, I was looking out my bedroom window and saw something strange swimming in it.  I ran outside, eyes opened wide, and saw ... well ... something I can't really describe.  To this day, I'm not really sure what it was, but it was interesting and strange enough that I felt it necessary to leave my boys this note:

and yesterday, a neighbor knocked on our door to let us know that one of our mud hole inhabitants was in the street, vulnerable to the next car driving by ... and she knew we liked saving things like this ...

This snapper was BIG ...

and get a load of that spiked tail!

just a shovel and a wheelbarrow and gentle handling ...

and the snapper was returned to his home and promptly sank into the mud ...

The Sweet 'n Easy Gift

Did you ever want to get someone a little something - not spend a lot of money, but want it to be a little bit special.

I wanted to do just that - I wanted to give a coworker something, but knew if I spent $$, he would feel uncomfortable.  So I bought a cute little Kolo album and personalized it with his grandson's name:

Those are older Doodlebug rub-ons that I applied straight to the album.  Aren't they cute?  Add a couple of tags on bakers twine and there you go.  Easy, not expensive, but sweet, right?

I hope you have a wonderful, creative day!

Life Right Now ...

has been full of this:

and this:

and heart attack producing moments like this:

Any hints for a center fielder's mom on how to get a good photo from the fence?  The best I can do:

But a dear friend got great shots of ds' all important home run for which I made a little trophy:

Supplies used: Seal Stamp, Sport Mini Bingo Cards, Vintage Black Line Mini Patterned Paper, Die Cut circle label, Black/Red Flag Banners, twine, and vintage stamping blocks.

Aren't those old number stamping blocks great?!  Read more about this here!

Other goings on?

Check out this wonderful JBS challenge here: Four Ingredients Challenge

have a great and creative day!

Mercantile May!

Working with the May Mercantile kit is a breeze with all the bits and pieces of lovely lovely stuff contained within!

Here's a shot of the bits and pieces:

and you can see the full kit and the add-ons here:  May Mercantile Papercrafting Kit.


Here's what I've done so far with 2 more in the works right now. A wall hanging for dear nieces:

Look what happens to the sweet yellow butterfly beads when they catch the sun . . .

And speaking of breeze - there was such a lovely breeze yesterday and I flung every window open.  My papers were flying around, but I didn't care.  And the breeze allowed me to work on my little garden, and I think I have a piece of paradise right here.  As I sit and scrap, and look to my right, I see heaven and the hard work is definitely worth it.  Hope to post photos later.