Challenge: Day 19

Five of my favorite Blogs and what I love about them

Tim Holtz: If you are crafty at all, you've probably heard of this amazingly talented guy!
You can find his blog Here
and you can see his touch on the crafting community almost everywhere you look!
I love that he is just the normal guy next door, he's easy to follow in tutorials, and you can see that he loves what he does, and he loves sharing it with others!

Saturated Canary: When I first started papercrafting about a year ago my friend Mary mentioned this amazing digital stamp artist! I was pretty much hooked at the first stop on her blog here.
Her artwork is amazing, and even better her blog is fun to read, and you can feel her love of Christ oozing out of all her words!  It's so inspirational, and her digi's are so fun to color!

Donna Downey: If you recall I made a little stop at her studios a month or so ago.  Talk about loving someone's work! You can find her blog here and her Wednesday Inspiration pieces are much anticipated for me!

Jim the Gentleman Crafter: Not only do I follow his blog, but also his Tuesday night Ustream as well! He's a hoot!  He reminds me so very much of my best friend Joe in Orlando, and I just love when he says "hey y'all!" you can find his blog here.

I hope you check some of these fab blogs out! Honestly they are lots of fun, and so inspirational!

Challenge: Day 18

Tell a story from your childhood.

Oh no!
Ok, so if this gets long I'm sorry in advance!
When I was little we lived out in the country.
We rode bikes, and we played in the back yard!
We climbed trees, we made forts, and we threw balls!
We also had a garden every year.  If I remember correctly it was a pretty big garden some years!
(maybe that's cause I was small)
I remember in the summers when my mom would go to work
she would leave us a list of things that needed to be done.
It seemed that my list always included weeding the garden, I'm sure there was some sort of
rotation as to who had to weed, but it seemed it was always my turn.
I liked when I got to water the garden much better! The watering part was lots of fun
like making chocolate milk, I would watch the water fill up the rows, and turn a fun brown!
Plus I would put leaves and grass in the water and watch them float down each row.
But the weeding part was never fun, the weeds hurt my fingers, and the dirt would stain my hands.

There were a few times where I could talk my brother into helping me out when it was my turn to do weeds,
but usually I'd wait until the last possible minute before the job absolutely had to be done
before I would rush out and pull the weeds.

What is the best part of pulling weeds though you ask??  or maybe why is this story still going on??
Well at the end of the growing season one year we had an excess of tomatoes.
I don't know how we did... maybe mom planted only tomatoes that year, maybe there was a bug
epidemic that left us with so many, but the 6 of us went out into the grass field, and we did what every
little kids always wants to do...
We had a Rotten Tomato Fight!
Yep, we got to smash mom and dad, and eachother with gobs and gobs of rotten tomatoes!
Ahhh it was sheer bliss, and a memory that I will never ever forget!

By the way, I'm the little girl in the middle of the picture above!
This was not taken after the tomato fight, but at a camping trip!
I also remember wearing that jacket A LOT!! 
My dad used to tell me I looked like Savanah Smiles (look it up!)

Hope you're enjoying my blog every day in may! 

Matthew 13:30
Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.' "

Challenge: Day 17

A favorite Photo of yourself and why

I love this pic!

It's from our wedding day (duh right?)

I love the plant in the background, and that we are both all dressed up!

I won't tell you that we were sitting on an extremely uncomfortable rock!  (oops)

No, it was a fabulous day!  It's so extremely stressful to plan your own wedding, and then

to execute it can be tricky..

I was lucky that I got to share the day with my family (from out of town) and friends.

Lucky for me you don't see any of this stress in the picture!

Remember I'm joining in the blog every day in may challenge!

Proverbs 30:18-19

"There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand:  the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.

Challenge: Day 16

Something difficule about your "lot" in life and how you are working to overcome it

Well, I've said this on at least one previous post, but this one is a real toughy!
After all, some of us aren't really complainers, we just get through what we have to get through..
There are tough times, sure, like a few years ago when my husband got a dui on Christmas Eve,
you ask yourself what could I have done differently?
I try not to dwell on the past too much, there is too much possibility for the future!

There are difficult things that we all go through, for me probably the hardest is being so far away from
my family.  I've always been close with my parents and sisters and brother,
and it's HARD to be so far away.
I tend to treat my friends as my family now.
I talk to my mom a few times a week, which includes at least one time on the way to work
and one time on the way home from work.
It helps make things feel more normal.

I think otherwise I try just to make it through each day, I try my
hardest to put my trust in the Lord, and I pray.
I PRAY!  I used to think about something and I'd literally think I need to put that on my prayer list.
Now, when I think of something I pray right then.
It's sort of an instant gratifictation sort of thing.

John 14:13-14
"And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

Blingy bugaboo

Ok, so apparently I lied about not posting any more cards!

Last night I worked some overtime, and I put this card together in some of my down time.

The image is from bugaboo, Stella in a glass....

I just love it!!

I've had that blingy picture frame for ages (no seriously! AGES)

I found the sketch from the Catch the bug challenge here

And here's a close up of Stella!

Plus I made this really cool embellishment!

It's a button with twine pieces glued to the back so it's a twine flower.

Pretty??  I think it's pretty!

Linking up with:

The Twinery: May Flowers

Alphabet Challenges: glitter or gems

The Corrosive Challenge: My Sentiments Exactly

Challenge: Day 15

A Day in the Life

(inclue photos from throughout your typical day)

Koa searching for ANYTHING outside

Crafting!

Morning Bingo

Morning Coffee

Blooming flowers along my walk

(I just brought these bulbs back from Florida and North Carolina last month!)

Running shoes?? 

It's getting too hot to run much now (on my schedule)

but I love my vintage Puma's

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Linking up with blog every day in May! 

Octopode card

It's hard to believe that I've made so many cards this week!

After finishing this one I said to myself...

I gotta play in my journal!

So here she is...

the image is from Ocotopode, I colored her up weeks (maybe months) ago!

then I die cut her out and distressed along the edges.

All the papers I used were from my crap pile

(well except for the music book one)

But I ripped that out of the music book, and it's my card base!

I colored up the music washi tape with my distress stain (peeled paint)

added the flowers, and

then I punched out a couple of flowers along the top of the card,

and I made some paper for the new Hi stamp that I got from Unity Stamps

and I punched that out too!

Then added glossy accents to the top.

wanna see a close up??

Pretty huh?? 

Ok, so hopefully something other than cards for tomorrow!!

(Oh wait, I will have another birthday card for my sister to post!)

Then no more cards!!!!

Linking up with: 

Octopode Factory: Inspired by music

Tuesday Morning: Sketch: #198

Shopping our stash: Scrap attack

Card Makin Mama's: Punches

Kinsale Creations: Link up Party

Love to Create: Flowers

Oozak: Earth Tones

**I'll also be linking this up with the unity friends with flair on friday!