Fill your Day with Happy!

I have always loved this stamp set from SU...the little critters with their banner...and today is Teapot Tuesday's challenge to make a card that is easy to make and flat to mail. I had already colored this image, so it didn't take any time at all to assemble this. It is for a fellow SCS'er who mails cards to kids who need some cheering up due to illness.

I am happy to make this card that will be mailed to children in a locall burn center to hopefully bring some cheer for them!! For the Teapot tuesday thread, click on the polka dotted teapot in my sidebar.

Thanks for looking, and make your day happy today by cheering someone else up. That is the best kind of happy there is!!

Two Challenge Cards

Today's cards are two that are combined challenges. Why do I do this? I want to "play along," but with the time it takes me to decide on a layout, stamps, colors, accessories...the only way to participate is to combine!!

So the first one here is this pretty little SnowLady whom I love, this time with gold buttons and white puffy sleeves...she is for this week's Stamping Sisters in Christ challenge. This week is hosted by the gracious Grace, and her devotional regarding the verse along with the challenge can be found on the SSIC blog here. The challenge was to use a stamp as your focal point that requires some thought to construction. I thought of quilts, cabins, houses...etc...then decided what I really needed was an early start to Christmas cards. And this lil lady, just like me, needs some work everyday to look good!! Which reminds me I need to go find my blush...

And both cards are submissions for "Dare to Get Dirty" challenges hosted by the Dirty dozen design team on SCS...which I am not allowed to share specific challenges here, but you can look them up on the home page of SCS if you're a Fan Club member!!

The challenges were:

DTGD10CraftyCaro

DTGD10notimetostamp

DTGD10flowergal36

DTGD10sketch '

and one more I forget...

And last, but not least by any means....Mothermark's Teapot Tuesday challenge this week was to bring hearts to a little girl in need of a bit of cheer. The little girl has one heart to add to the collection this week~~You can see this week's Teapot Tuesday challenge by clicking on the button on my sidebar!! Such a wonderful group of teapotters and lots of fun too!

Whew, I think I did it...

Bless you for reading through this!! I so enjoy your comments and hope you are having a great day!!

Chocolate~Dipped Strawberry Recipe

This month the Flourishes blog issued a recipe challenge. I made my 6x6 recipe card using a variety of designer papers, paper-pieced my Strawberry Tilda image by Magnolia and added another stamped Heading perfect for recipe cards.



You can view the challenge here on the Flourishes blog:
http://www.flourishes.org/blog/page/2/
I have really enjoyed seeing the variety of recipes and even tried one for dinner last night...it was delish!
Please remember you can click on the picture to see it in more detail and also view the recipe. I find chocolate dipped strawberries are easy to make with just a couple of helpful tips...make sure your berries are cleaned and totally dry before beginning...and use a wooden skewer through the top of the stem (leaves attached for pretty contrast)...to dip. Dip and twirl to keep the chocolate on, and lay on waxed paper lined cookie sheet to set. The coating stays on better if you don't refrigerate for too long. Serve same day. You can also drizzle white chocolate over the semisweet chocolate for a fancier look. Just melt a few chips in a freezer ziplock bag in the microwave. (About 45-60 seconds for 1/2 cup) and then snip the corner of the bag with scissors. A perfect little tool to drizzle the chocolate!!
Thanks for coming by , hope this Tilda gives you a smile and happy cooking!!

A Place of Rest

First off I just want to thank you who visited my blog and left such encouraging comments last week!! I do not like to "complain" on my blog, but I have to be my authentic self, even if that means at times sharing the burdens of my heart...so thanks for understanding and the uplifting comments.
I value my friends so much!!
An update on our daughter's surgery and a little bit of "history" which might explain my anxiety over it. Our youngest daughter had a ruptured appendix about 7 years ago that due to the displacement of the appendix and her symptoms which came and went for SEVERAL weeks...was left undiagnosed and treated as an ulcer by our doctor even after repeated visits. By the time I took her to the emergency room, she had an infection raging in her system that was affecting all her organs. The surgeon informed us she had only hours left to live had we not brought her in when we did, she would not have survived. The result was a 10 day hospital stay and another 3 months of very slow recovery.
Now, I am so grateful to say, our daughter is the picture of health. She takes good care of herself, exercises, watches her diet...but she was left with a very unsightly scar that she had wanted to have "revised." While I am not a fan of her going in for another surgery, I could understand her desire to have a cleaner scar and hopefully little reminder of what was left from this difficult time in her life. She went in Friday and even though it was a more traumatic surgery than she had thought it would be, the scar looks clean and it should heal very well. She is recovering very nicely and I've enjoyed the past 4 days of taking care of her.

This card was made for the Stamping Sisters in Chirst challenge this week. The verse is from Matthew 11:28: "Come to me you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

For me this week, the ease of my burdens, the rest in my soul, has come primarily through seeing my daughter's invigorated health and seeing her rest easily inspite of the pain. I have much comfort in just seeing her, having her here on this Earth, as in not losing her at an early age...I am grateful to God for giving her life and extending her days, and thus my joy!
This image reminds me of her in our garden. One year she planted sunflowers and they grew taller than her. And the sunflowers remind me of the sunshine she brings to my life!!

Hope you are enjoying your summer, and thanks again for your friendship!

Teapot Tuesday and Patented Bird Feeders

Have you ever had a week/day/month/year that just seemed to be discombobulated? Definition: to throw into a state of confusion, upset.

My week has definitely been that way...I can not explain all the variables and factors that have entered in to make my normal world tilt off it's axis, but it is discomforting to me. So today, because I was home, because I had 2 dogs instead of one, because I had no car because my daughter was in a car accident and needed mine, because I am taking my other daughter into a surgery that I am not even sure is a good idea tomorrow, and because she is coming in on a plane this afternoon from a 3 day Las Vegas stint that I don't approve of for a girl her age, and because the exterminator called at the last minute and was in the area and could he spray the house, and because my tummy still hurts...I decided to stamp.

I wish I could say I feel all better now, but if nothing else, this card made me smile. It reminded me of simpler times when I could control at least a few of the circumstances life threw my way, and I could laugh at our kid's humor.

My card was made for my wonderful friend, Cindy's 101 Teapot Tuesday cards celebration. The assignment was to bring dots or spots...and so in an effort to add to this dotty card, I ran the sweet puppy image through the CB swiss dots folder. After I looked at this dog, now all covered with what looked to be a bad rash, I was reminded of my oldest daughter's run-in with a moderate case of chicken pox. She was covered in those dots, and her little sister, always the mischievous one...giggled with glee and demanded some "chicken pops" of her own. It made me laugh, and still makes me smile to think of it.

If you click on the first picture, you can see the hummingbird "in flight." I received this patented "Best Hummingbird Feeder" from a family member from Virginia as a hostess gift. We had talked a lot about our love of bird-watching, and living in Virginia, she has a wider variety of colorful songbirds than we do here in Colorado. I was so delighted to receive this in the mail, and hung it up immediately when we got to our mountain condo this past weekend. I must say, it is pretty cool to watch the hummers, they can actually "perch" on the lips edge which is flatter and wider than most hummingbird feeders. I just took this with my little Kodak camera, so was happy it came out so well.

So tomorrow I will be helping with my daughter's convalescing and hoping that the surgery goes well..

I wish you a happy, even though possibly, discombobulated day~~