Rainy Days

Hi all!  Who's ready for short Autumn days and cooler weather?  It's been raining cats and dogs for the past few days in Kentucky, thanks to Hurricane Lee.  But I've enjoyed the slower pace of life and taking a break from the busy Summer days. 

Have a card and a LO to share tonite.  My supplies are from the August Sampler Kit at Scrapbooking Supplies R Us.  First up is a card for this week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World, take a look:

This chair looks perfect for reading!  The flowers and colors were so inspirational.  Here is my card:

Loving this little card and the fabulous POW!  Glitter Paper from AC!  Next up is another project from the August Sampler Kit.  I was inspired by this week's Sketchy Thursday sketch:

And here is my LO:

My farm life is always a journey!  There's an adventure around every corner, sometimes happy and sometimes sad.  Each moment makes me respect nature more and so thankful for the beautiful world God gave us. 

I got my September Sampler kit in the mail today and OMG it is fabulous!  Can't say enough good things about this kit, here's a little looky:

So excited to get to work using "Come Fly With Me".  There's so many unique pieces to this kit, truly makes it special.  Check out The Sampler's Blog to see some of the fabulous projects the DT have already created with this kit!  I have so many pictures to scrap.  I attended my cousin's wedding this weekend at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington.  It was such a beautiful ceremony (and hot hot hot). 

We had a wonderful time.  The Horse Park was such a great location for an outdoor wedding in Kentucky!  I even convinced Matt to wear a purple shirt so he wouldn't clash with my dress, hehe! 

I also want to share a new adventure I'm starting on.  I found a great women's Bible Study Group called Good Morning Girls.  With my busy life and working, sometimes I let my Bible Study slip, this is something I want to fix.  So starting mid September we begin studying:

Check out the Good Morning Girls website if it's something you might be interested in! 

Ups and Downs

Hi all!  Have a few LO's to share tonite made with goodies from July's Sampler Kit from Scrapbooking Supplies R Us.  The kit will be available any day and it is loaded with fabulous goodies!  So get ready to shop!!!

First up is a LO I made for this week's Sketchy Thursday challenge:

And my LO:

Ahhhh fun in the sun!  Love doing layouts of vacation pictures.  Perfect ways to preserve great memories. 

Up next is a LO made for Sketchy Thursdays Guest Designer for August:

Here's another LO:

Logan, my nephew, loved kite flying at the beach.  Such a fun picture opportunity! 

This week has been full of ups and downs at the barn.  My duck Fredda has ducklings!  Yes, after 2 years of infertility she's finally a Momma!  She had 3 little ducklings hatch and now is down to 2.  Hoping and Praying the 2 remaining make it:

My rooster Quagmire, who I've had for at least 3 years, has had a bad foot for a while now.  Today it finally got so bad he couldn't walk or use the foot so we made the difficult decision to put him down.  It just kills me to decide between life and death and weigh the quality of life he had. Here's a LO I did in 2009 featuring Quagmire:

He was a beauty!  The barnyard always has one rooster that steps up to be the ruler.  Quag was our leader and I'm anxious to see who steps up and takes over.  There will never be another Quag!

Sketchy Thursdays

Hi all.  Made a new LO for this week's Sketchy Thursdays Challenge:

Isn't this a darling sketch?  Here's my LO:

That's my Hubby in his bee suite.  We live on a farm and Hubs plus my FIL have several bee stands that they rob a few times a year and we get wonderful, fresh honey.  Sometimes in early Spring there will be bee swarms...to make a long story short only 1 queen can stay in a bee stand, it's a dominance thing.  So the ousted queen takes a bunch of bees with her and they set off to find there own bee stand/hive if there's more than 1 queen.  When this happens and you actually see where the bees land when they swarm it's possible to catch the bees and put them in an empty stand.  It's all complicated and confusing, but who would have thought a honey bee could be so smart???  The bottom picture is the actual bee swarm in a tree.  It  truly makes me appreciate honey more!

For this LO I used Heidi Grace Designs Papers.  My Chalkboard Sticker, Letters, and Tag are Pink Paislee.  And my flowers are Prima.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Spring so far.  Here's what I "try" to spend my days doing:

Nothing, haha!  But there aren't many days that work out like that!  This is Sophie, a sweet little pound puppy that Matt brought home in 2007.  She decided she'd rather live with my in-laws than us and moved up to their house.  I made these pictures with Picnik.  If you've not checked out that place, it's a must for a scrapbooker!

Now for a few reminders.  Cardabilties & Sketchabilties is having Design Team Calls.  I encourage you to give it a try, I've loved being on the Cardabilties Design Team and working with their amazing sketches.

There is still time for you to win the The Sampler Kit for May from Scrapbooking Supplies R Us.  Visit Holly's Blog at Experience Life Wisely to play along with this month's sketch challenge for your chance to win.  And here's a sneak peek at The Sampler Kit for June.

And now some sad news.  My Papaw passed away earlier today.  It's really hard for me to write about sad things on my blog because this is my "happy place".  Those who follow me know he's been fighting an up hill battle for a while now.  His main wish was to die at home and he did.  I can't praise hospice nurses enough for all they do.  I've been a pediatric nurse for 10 years and have no idea how these ladies face death every day and keep it together.  I know that my Papaw is now walking the streets of Glory with Jesus and he's once again with my Mamaw.  Please continue to remember my family in Prayers.

Fresh From The Garden

Hi all!  Hope you had a wonderful Easter.  My weekend was wonderful.  Had a terrific time with family, friends, and at Church.  I also found a little time for crafting this evening.  Have you seen the Front Porch Kits?  They are a new monthly kit club.  I love the country feel of the kits.  This month's kit is called Fresh From The Garden and includes items that aren't regularly seen in kits, like chicken wire.  I flipped when I saw the wire, you know my love of chickens and all!  So I knew I had to have a kit:

I decided to play along with this week's Sketchy Thursdays challenge:

And I had the perfect pictures for this LO:

My LO focuses on Mr. Kitty.  He is the guardian of the barnyard and my chickens.  If there's a butterfly to be seen, he's ready to attack!  The only problem with Mister is he's not that worried about mice!  He's strictly a butterfly hunter!  So I added butterflies to my LO, perfect touch!

I  have another LO to share:

This is our older Great Pyrenees Boots.  She was just a puppy when Matt and I were dating.  Now she's an old gal who loves her job tending the goats.  She also has the new GP puppy Brisco to raise!  Hopefully that will keep her young at heart! 

Check out the Front Porch Kits, they are fabulous.  Both LO's were made using the Fresh From The Garden Kits.  And I have a Blog Post up at Creative Charms!  Don't forget the upcoming CC Blog Hop this Friday where you will have the chance to win all kinds of goodies!

Sketches & Color

Hi all!  I have a new card and a new sketch to share with you tonite.  I just love the challenges at The Play Date Cafe.  This week's PDCC Challenge 77 is:

Isn't this a lovely picture?  The colors are so calming.  Here's my card:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock and ink.  My patterned paper is Glitz and American Crafts.  I used Kaiser and Teresa Collings bling.  And my stamps are from Unity Stamps.  I love the sentiment "While I breathe, I hope".  It's so true, as long as there is the breath of life in our body, God has given us hope.  This sentiment really hits home since my Papaw has been sick, I know as long as I breathe, I hope and Pray he improves and has comfort.  Hope is a powerful thing! 

Next up is a a challenge from Sketchy Thursdays:

Instead of making it a 2 page LO, I shrunk mine into a 1 pager:

This is my sweet, psychotic duck, Fredda Quackers (brown).  Her "man", Frank Quackers is in white.  She definitely thinks she is the Queen of the Barnyard.  She drags Frank everywhere, it's all the obese duck can do to keep up with his woman.  Sometimes I think she just keeps him on the go purely for meaness.  She wears the pants in the relationship! 

For this LO I used goodies from the April Sampler Kit at Scrapbooking Supplies R Us. 
And "thanks" to all my new followers! 

Crafty Sundays

Don't you just love Sunday's in the Winter?  After Church I snuggled in the house for some nice crafty time.  It's too cold to do anything outside this time of year, the farm animals had been fed, and I had the entire day to myself. 

First up is a card I made for CardPatterns.  Take a look at Sketch 98:

I also made this card for a Moxie Fab World Challenge - "Gray Is The New Black".  Gray is such a fun color to work with and looks so good with pinks, teals, and any other color you can think of!  I'm so happy gray is getting the attention it deserves.

There is something so clean looking about the color gray, love it!  I used KI Memories Letters, Papertrey Ink Ribbon, and Creative Charms flower and jewels. 

Next up is another Moxie Fab World card for the Monochromatic Challenge:

                                    

Ah, darling pinks.  I used 3 different shades of pink to complete this challenge.  My pinks are brighter than the sample colors, but it was too cute not to post:

I used "lots" of Papertrey Ink Cardstock, Stamps, and Button.  My ribbon is American crafts.  And my cute crochet flowers and pink pearls are Creative Charms.

I also made a LO for Sketchy Thursdays "February Guest Designer Challenge". 

And here is my LO:

I used My Mind's Eye and Echo Park goodies for this LO.  Love the bright Springy colors.  My crochet flowers are Creative Charms.  This challenge had 3 other elements to make it more difficult - 1. Journal, 2. use a heart, 3. use red/or pink.  Fun Fun Fun!