Being Creative

I joined a group on Yahoo that is all about stampin and you can join in on SWAPs to make for other people and in return they make you stuff. Here is a picture of one of these swaps. These are called Inchies. They are exactly what they sound like. 1 inch x 1 inch creativity. Oops, I guess I didn't take a picture of the ones I made before I mailed them out. Here's a picture of some I found on the web that I borrowed the idea from. These are a 10+1, where you make 11 of them and you get 10 back. You make 11 because one of them goes to the person hosting the swap as a gift/thank you for hosting.Here is the other one I am involved in. It's called Card Candy. These are embellishment type things that you can put on your cards or scrapbooking pages. I had alot of fun with these. Once again, I didn't make myself any, but I did write down all of the colors/stamp sets I used and I have this wonderful picture so I should be able to recreate them. The Card Candy is a 5+1. You make sheets that are half pages and have a minimum of 6 different things on them. Again, the +1 is the same thing as above as a gift/thank you for the hostess.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Well, it's not the way I pictured my 3-day weekend! Yesterday was raining on and off all day and today has been raining for the majority of the morning and it doesn't look like it will let up any time soon. Maybe it will rain itself out and we will see some sun tomorrow.

To answer a question in my comments the other day from Karen, I use both clear acrylic stamps and the red rubber wood mounted ones. I've been really getting into Stampin' Up lately, so I have quite a few things from there. I find that I can't use just one brand though. There are so many cool things out there that I want to use them all. And speaking of stamping, I will probably play around this afternoon. I've signed up for a group on Yahoo! that is a Virtual Stampin' Up Convention. I have a few swaps to participate in that I need to make things for.

Signing off for now!

Blanket for Brady and other stuff

Well, now that I have the official word that Alethea has gotten the gift for Brady, I can post a picture for the rest of you to see. I originally had a different design in mind, but I wasn't feeling it. I searched around for a long time to find the perfect design and I findally found it. Now, here it is for your viewing pleasure.

And here is the card I made.

There were a couple of ladies at work that had birthdays yesterday, so I made them the following cards. I just love this background stamp.

Shout out to Cody

This one goes out to a little boy out there named Cody Caraway. He had a request to see pictures of the fat kitty (Chubbs for the rest of us). So here you go Cody, pictures of the fat kitty.

I'll try to do a bigger update tomorrow!

Snow?????

Woke up this morning, looked out they window and couldn't believe my eyes. It was snowing! Yes, you heard me right, snowing! It has since changed to rain because it is now 37 outside (11:00 am). I'm suppose to start my camps in 3 weeks. How can it be snowing? Okay - back to work.

Right day, wrong time

Well, just like last year, I guessed the right day of the river break up but the wrong time. Last year I was 5 hours too early, this year I was about 5 hours too late. The jackpot was around $6,000. Guess this means I just have to try again next year. There's a big Break Up Bash tomorrow night down by the river. They usually have a band playing, but this year there are currently no bands in Bethel. They are also giving away free hotdogs. I doubt we will go down to it. There is usually alot of people, especially kids, running around at things like this without parental control.

Champagne Wishes and Cavier Dreams

Well, not exactly. Bethel is not the type of place where you can celebrate a birthday like that. Oh yeah, by the way, it's my birthday today so that's why I titled the post this way. I did spend the day relaxing, doing a little crocheting and some internet surfing for stamping stuff. This afternoon Eric and I were lucky enough to see a really Spotted Seal. One of Eric's co-workers parents were given a seal and he called to let us know so we could come over. Not too many seals come up the river this far so we never would have seen a live one in Bethel. Granted this one wasn't alive, but it was still cool to see a real seal. I took the camera over with the intent to take a few pictures, but they were already in the process of skinning the seal by the time we got there. It wasn't looking too pretty by then. Eric was lucky enough to help out with some of the skinning. Seal is a pretty big thing around here. Natives will actually save the fat and render it to oil to use for dipping fish and other things in. You would not believe the fat on a seal. I bet it was almost 2 inches thick. What they do is cut it up into strips and then put it in a 5 gallon bucket and let it render. It basically sits in the bucket and the oils come out of the fat and float to the top. This one seal will probably make 3-4 gallons of oil. Once the fat is done rendering, they will eat the remainder of the fat. Now seal oil is something I have yet to try. Just the smell alone is very strong. I have actually tried seal though. Seal can have a very fishy taste to it and can leave a greasy film in your mouth. Maybe if it was cooked different it might be better.

Back to the birthday, we did go out to eat tonight at one of the local eating establishments. VIP is a Japanese/American restaurant which does sushi, different type of rolls (california rolls, etc) and of course burgers. I usually get the 007 Rolls. They are like california rolls, but are topped with shrimp (cooked), avocado and a little spicy sauce. Very good! Eric had the shrimp basket with fries. Not too much of a variety from restaurant to restaurant. On the way home we stopped at the movie place and picked up the movie Juno. Can't wait to see it. I've heard good things about it and I love the previews.

Well, it's about time to put the movie in, so I will chat with you all later.

Sad News

I just wanted to let you all know that after a 6 month battle with cancer, Rachael passed away earlier this week. Condolensces go out to the Bloom and Grover families. She will be missed, but lives on through her daughter Makayla.

crafts

Well, here is the latest version of my crafts. The first few pictures will be of the cards I made at our latest Stampin Up group meeting. The last picture will be of my latest afghan that I made for a co-worker of Eric's.



Here is the blanket along with the card i made for the co-worker.

In My Thoughts

This is just going to be a quick post for a few of my friends out there. Some with good news and some with not so good news. First let me start out by asking everyone to pray for my friend Rachael. I went to grade school with Rachael before she moved away. We got back into touch in college and have stayed in touch since. About 10 years ago Rachael struggled with melanoma. She had remained cancer free until this past November. She was again diagnosed with melanoma right after she had her daughter Makayla. Unfortunately the past 6 months have been a battle and it isn't looking good. Rachael's husband Isaac has been updating a blog about her struggles and it's to a point where they are making her comfortable. The melanoma got into her blood stream and spread throughout her body. They are only giving her a couple of weeks. This is so sad. She is so young and has so much to live for. It's really not fair. She's only 31 and shouldn't have to be going through this. So, everyone, please pray for Rachael, Isaac and Makayla.

Also, my friend Karen has been struggling through IVF treatments for the past few weeks and just found out that it did not take. Rich (her husband) and her have been trying so hard and this is devastating news. Please pray for them.

Now, for some happy news. A big congrats to my friend Alethea. She and her husband Corey welcome Brady William into the world yesterday morning. He is joining big brother Cody. I wish you all the best and I cannot wait to see the little guy!

My Trip to Anchorage

Well, I finally got to see something other than the airport in Anchorage. I headed in on a Thursday morning and got to Anchorage about 11:00am. Eric still had his conference going on until 5:00pm so I ended up sitting through some of the talks. Good thing my friend Letty was there. She's a wildlife biologist for the state. Thursday night we went to eat at Applebees. What a change of pace of restaurants then we are used to. After eating supper, we did a little exploring. The mountain views were beautiful and I thought that I would take pictures on Friday or Saturday.

Friday, April 25
I wake up and I hear what I think is rain coming down outside. So, I get up and look outside. To my horror, it is snowing big, heavy, wet snowflakes. I'm thinking that it will let up later in the day and I'll be able to get a few pictures. Yeah, right. It snow constantly all day long. By the end of the day, we had almost 2 feet of snow on the ground. We did get a bunch of errands done. We also got to see our first movie at a movie theater in a long time. We saw Harold and Kumar - Escape from Guatanamo Bay. NOT RECOMMENDED! It was definitely not what we expected.

Saturday, April 26
The snow finally decided to quit, but it was overcast the whole day. So no mountain pictures. More running around was done today.

Sunday, April 27
Time to head back to Bethel. Of course the sun was out today. I wasn't able to get any pictures before we had to leave. Bummer!

That was my Anchorage trip in a few paragraphs. We are hoping to plan more trips to do more fun things in the future.