{grateful!}

I will sit on this man's lap until I am too old and feeble to climb up there. LOL!!!!

(We always get a lap photo on our anniversary.)

Us.

11-24-10.

Feeling grateful that I chose him!!!

~~~~~

On this Thanksgiving Day, I want to share this poem ~

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

~Melody Beattie

Grateful for my {life}.

Grateful for a {hobby I love}.

Grateful for my {scrapbooking friends}.

Signing off with a very grateful heart,

your friend, patti

{happy anniversary}

~11-24-84~

26 years ago tomorrow I married the boy next door.

Not really right next door - but really right up the street!!

Only one city block between our families.

Our parents still live in the same houses.

We went to school together.

We went to church together.

We played hide & seek and kick ball as kids.

It's safe to say we go way back.

We never dated until we were in our twenties.

Still happy.

Still in love.

Still goin' strong.

~~~~~~~~

To keep it real ~

Some of my young blog friend followers may be thinking...26 years? wow!

So, let me tell you that it has not always been easy.

There have been days when I have wanted to run away & hide.

It's hard work.

Commitment.

Tolerance.

Forgiveness.

Acceptance.

Listening.

Talking (without bitching).

It's about being a team.

If you have children -- this one is so important!

Once they're teenagers, they will try to divide & conquer.

The hubs and I still seek out privacy and confer with each other on the sly. ;)

I made this card for him tonight.

Tomorrow we will go to Vona's restaurant in town.

It's the place where we had our very first date - and

it's our tradition to go there every anniversary.

~always and forever~

{card materials - bazzill, Adornit! pp, BG curio die cut, K&Co. sparkly sticker piece, green jute, prima sprig (that I cut apart and made smaller), prima crystal hearts and a bit of machine stitching.}

Thanks for stopping by! Hoping my blog friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

hugs, patti

rita's stamping challenge at citrus tree studio!

hi everyone! hope you're all in your crafty little spaces gettin' your scrap on. (who really says that, anyway?? LOL!)

citrus tree studio's fabulous rita's (no really, she is the most nice person & a fab scrapper!) challenge this month is to use some stamps.

confession of a person who checks out target's clearance section - last night i found an unopened, forgotten about, package of making memories flower foam stamps in my foam stamp drawer. i think i may have bought them two years ago, but let's just say it was only one. anyway, cute little flower stamps go great with cute little two year old birthday girl pics, right? right!

{two - my niece lilyanna}

i forgot how much i love foam stamps and paint!!! i love the imperfect look you get (and that it's okay!) when you stamp w/paint. takes the pressure off of trying to get the perfect stamped image. know what i mean?

...and since i believe that being imperfect is perfect, i'll also share the tag i made with the left-over piece of pp & stamped flowers. you may notice that the pp is upside down. :) :) as the blog says...it's all good. :) :)

{materials - bazzill, unsure about the pp - it was a free 6x6" square that came in my blue moon scrapbooking order, MM foam stamps, delta paint, american crafts ribbon, ki memories sparkly sticker frames, thickers, martha stewart baker's twine, misc. buttons and machine stitching.}

thanks for stopping by! happy week-end!! :)

a felt flower video tutorial!!

~scalloped edge~

~straight edge~

My first video.

It's a little bit blurry.

There's a light bulb shining (alright, more like a glare) in the background.

{sorry about that - we're in my craft room and I never have a shade on that light}

Other than that though, I think it's okay. LOL!!!

~~~~~~~~~~

{watch on You Tube}

I was inspired to make these flowers after seeing them on Sassy lil Sketches DT's los. They all got their flowers from this girl ---->
So, if you don't have any felt or time to make your own felt flowers, hop on over to Wendy's blog. She has an Etsy shop. She will hook you up!!! :)

Please let me know if you have any questions about the video.
smiles,

patti

{an easel card!}

Party Time Tuesday's challenge #21 is to make an easel card this week. Check out their inspiration - plus, they've posted a couple of links to the directions for an easel card. {it was easy!}

Here is Cardabilities' sketch #15 ~ I combined the sketch challenge w/the easel card challenge.

I started w/an AC cs base. The pp is the Restoration Collection by Crate. I cut & embossed the sentiment pieces with my Nestabilities dies (that I just got last week). The stamp is Fiskars, chip pieces are 7 Gypsies and the felt flowers are made by me. :) I spritzed a little glimmer mist on the felt flowers, but you really can't tell from the pics. They have a tiny bit of sparkle in real life. Lastly, the pearls are Prima.

Thanks so much for stoppin' by!

aimee's challenge @citrus tree studio!

smilin' pretty.

...my niece, Sara w/her son, Tanner. Is she not the prettiest girl? She is very sweet too!

...and just because I love close-ups, here are a couple of the felt flowers I made last night.

Aimee has the best challenge idea - at Citrus Tree Studio. The girl is genius, I say. :)

She assigned scrapbooking product to food items one would be served for Thanksgiving dinner. You know, like I chose turkey and that was pp as a background. My plate was filled with pp, striped pp, flowers, bling, ribbon and distressing.

My pps are from jillibean soup (so loving jillibean lately!). I also used jillibean journaling spots, jenni bowlin dies, prima bling & letter stickers, thickers, Creative cafe chip, cut in half (I miss CC - used to love their stuff), and some ribbon from the bottom of my stash.

Thanks for lookin'!!

hippity hop blog hop!!!

{there you go}

Two sassy gals at Sassy Lil' Sketches have a blog hop going on - with 4 other fun blogs, this week-end.

You start at Sassy Lil' Sketches, move to Scrap Fit, Crop Suey, Scrap Tiffany and finally the Cuttlebug Spot. It's a recipe challenge - and they have all contributed to making a recipe for a card or a lay-out.

So fun!!!

I chose these pics of the hubs from our September vacation.
I love it when he makes me laugh (and I always say that's why I married him - because he could always make me laugh.)

Anyway....fast forward 26 years. Yeah, I think it's a long time too. ;)

I love the song "Stuck Like Glue" by Sugarland. It hits a nerve with me...

hence the lay-out's title & journaling that are part of this song's lyrics.

"Stuck Like Glue"

Mmmm better...mmm better...
Absolutely no one that knows me better
No one that can make me feel sooo goooood
How did we stay so long together?
When everybody everybody said we never would
And just when I I start to think they're right
That love has died...

[Chorus]
There you go making my heart beat again
Heart beat again
Heart beat again
There you go making me feel like a kid
Won't you do it and do it one time?
There you go pulling me right back in
Right back in
Right back in
And I know-oo I'm never letting this go-ooo

I'm stuck on you
Whutooo whutooo
Stuck like glue
You and me baby we're stuck like glue
Whutooo whutooo
Stuck like glue
You and me baby were stuck like glue

just in case you wanna give it a listen ~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iDPw_qjhtM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sassy Lil' Sketches started us off with the sketch.

Scrap Fit added "use 3 of the same things". I used 3 jenni bowlin journaling spots.

Crop Suey added "paint, ink or mist" - I used MM paint, ink & glossy accents on my BG chip title letters.

Scrap Tiffany added "lace" - I used a tiny bit of eyelet.

Cuttlebug Spot added "some embossing/texture" - I used Coredinations embossed cs.

This was my first time stitching a banner. I found a banner pattern on-line - shrunk it - and it was then so easy to put together! I pop-dotted some of the pennants & used brown jute to string them.

Thanks to Sassy Lil' Sketches!

Thanks to Scrap Fit!

Thanks to Crop Suey!

Thanks to Scrap Tiffany!

and

Thanks to Cuttlebug Spot!

This was a very fun recipe!!! :)

~patti