A Joyful Kleenex Box

Hello my blogging friends. I hope this post finds you all well and happy.
I had a wonderful visit with my friend Rose (Hi Rosie). It was like we had not missed a beat over the past 20 years. We chatted like old friends and it was wonderful to reminisce over our youth lolol. We were talking about her nephew and I said I remember him the little guy right (I did the old hand gesture of height) she said "Patti he is 6 ft 3" now and he is 20 plus years old". Yikes!!! That made me feel old lololol.
Our children have grown and she is even a grandmother now, but life remains the same we had a bond once and it appears that time may have passed but, we remain good friends.
Funny thing or maybe not so funny, she is very allergic to animals! I have 5 Yikes! Thank goodness we got the porch finished because we sat outside for hours and chatted,  it even rained while we were out side and no leaks :)
It made me happy that she was able to see my DD Jeanne' all grown up and to meet my Honey and to see The little Patch of Dirt. Winter is no time to come and visit My Little Patch of Dirt more like My Little Patch of Mud :)! Maybe she will come again in the spring (Do you hear that Rosie) Chat soon and I hope your drive back to San Francisco is a safe and pleasant one.

One of my New Years resolutions is to enter more challenges. I found a challenge on The Stamp-a-holics http://stamp-a-holics.blogspot.com  blog for Kleenex Boxes. I made this one for Christmas.  You can make others for Valentines or any holiday with a simple pattern. They are fairly easy to put together and all of them come out really beautifully. Why not give one a try. Carol'Anne at http://www.stampinstressaway.com/2011/01/stamp-a-holics-3d-challenge-a-kleenex-box.html has a great tutorial on her blog today, go check it out.
Have a great day and create something fun. Come back soon Rosie!

Yippee Rosie is coming!

Hello my blogging friends, I hope this post finds you all well and happy! Well today is a super special day. A friend from my Jr. High and High School days is coming to visit My Little Patch of Dirt  I haven't seen Rosie in many years but we hooked up on Facebook last summer and have been chatting on and off since then. She will be here sometime this afternoon and I am so excited. I will see if we can manage pictures that I can post. I'll chat more about that in my next post. But I just wanted to share that wonderful new with you.
I have to get cleaning the house up some. The Christmas Tree is down and all the extras have been boxed and put away. The one good thing about only putting up a few things around the house is that clean up is a snap!!!!

In the mean time I made this card yesterday and wanted to show it to you all. I even did a little bit to the inside of the card. (On 1-11-11, I added 4 brads to the corners of the tree image, I thought it needed a little more of something!)
Enjoy your day  and create something fun today!

Happy New Year!!!

Hello to all my blogging friends. I hope this post finds you all well and happy! I can't believe it is the 4th of January  already. My how time flies when you are having fun. Jeff's vacation is over and he is back to work :(.  I really lose track of time when he is around. I love having him home but, he really messes up my housework / blogging schedule. I so much rather spend precious time with him then clean the house lololol.
  He is a lot of fun and a great companion, we have a good time just being together  we have the whole weekend booked so it will be a good thing I won't miss him too much. We just celebrated six years of being together on Dec.11th . Time has flown by so quickly. He continues to tell me that he is IN LOVE with me. Isn't that cute :) Can you tell I love him too. Enough of this mushy stuff lololo.
 
Now for new business
 The new Occasions Mini is out and the Filled with Love Bundle is still avail. I have  PDF files for both on the left hand side of this blog so that you can just click on picture and check them out.  Sale-A-Bration begins on January 24th. That is Stampin' Ups big event for the year (For every $50.00 you spend you will receive a free stamp set to choose from the SAB brochure). I am gearing up for that event and have some great class/workshop projects in the works. Book your class/ workshop early to take advantage of this special event. I will add a PDF file as soon as one is avail. I think that covers all the January business. Now on to creating!


I mentioned I got the MDS for Christmas and I have made my first Calendar. Here are a few pictures of it. (Don't laugh ok, I am not a scrapbooker) I have got to get a hold of Ellen K to help me out with some scrap-booking techniques. She is always trying to convert me hahahah. Let me know what you think I could use a few pointers.
Have a great day and create something fun!

Out with the old (Not Yet!!!!) Tomorrows post will be in with the new

Hello my blogging friends. I hope this post finds you well and happy. Happy New Year to everyone. Play safe this evening OK & watch out for the other guy. If they are swerving on the road PLEASE CALL 911 you could save someones' life!
My daughter and I were talking last night and she asked me why I hadn't taken any pictures of the house while it is deck out for Christmas???? I couldn't answer that one so I whipped out the camera and took a few shots of my favorite things. As I said before, I really didn't do too much this year in the way of decorating so here you have it in all it's glory... photos of my Christmas house before I take it all down next week .

This is a picture of the tree with out the flash on. I love the look of a Christmas tree at night. A house would not be a home at Christmas with out reminding us about the reason for the season and the first thing everyone see's when they walk into the house is the Nativity Scene. The rest of the photos are some of my Big Santa Clauses ans nic nacks.

I love my tree it is filled with TOYS, airplanes, trucks, blocks, kites, ballet slippers, drums, bicycles, puppets, jack in the boxes, metal and wooden pull toys, hot air balloons, balls & porcelain dolls. I may have missed something I am sure. Then I have quite the collection of all sorts of Santa's, blown glass, metal, wood, woodland, traditional and hand made Santa's. You can never have too many Santa's. Then to top it all off I have jewel toned round ornaments. I have a really beautiful Santa for the tree topper too.

This ones for you Carey xoxo

Hello to all my blogging friends. I hope this post finds you all well and happy!
Well I spent the entire day and most of last night on the computer! Can you say FLAT BUTT on the internet lololol. Boy, did I ever learn a lot today!!!! I completed all the Webnards and most of the additional training videos and took the tests. I'm not compulsive :) or anything. It is really fun to see how each presenter has their own tricks of the trade so to speak in operating their MDS. Thanks to Patty Bennett I even took  her advise and downloaded the newest version. I was running the older version of MDS as that is what it comes with. (Look under HELP on the MDS tool bar click Check for updates and it will take you through the steps to update your MDS. I somehow found a ton more free downloads on my personal SU web page yesterday too. Carey I called SU and the customer service gal directed me to a screen that had them. I think there were 4 or 5 of them. So have Vicki call SU for help in finding them OK      (I don't know how I got them or if I earned them this year but they were free). I know one was a gift from Shelli last year. I chose the calendar. I can not wait to play with that option.

I made this card especially for my BFF as she is the one who hooked me on rubber stamping :) This is supposed to be a Tri-Fold card Carey. It has been about 10 years now that she taught me to stamp. I said I wanted to learn to make cards like she did and it was love at first stamp. She took me to my first convention in Riverside Calif and as we were leaving I said "That was a blast! I gotta do some more of that". Her friend tuned around and said to me "YOU GOT $1000.00?" Because that will only get you started. Well she was right ") I won't say what my total investment in rubber is, but I know I am a better person because of it. That is why I am so grateful for my BFF. Happy New Year Friend. Enjoy your card.

My Digital Studio Oh My!!!

Hello to all my blogging friends (& My BFF Carey). I hope this post finds you all well and happy!
My DH gave me the My Digital Studio  (MDS) for Christmas and I am just so happy with it. I called SU and got all the free downloads and updates today so it is really super jammed packed with loads of fun, cool stuff. I even got to download the free Calendar program Shelli gave us 2 years ago lolol. I am so overwhelmed and excited I can't even see streight.
Jeff said I am in la la land because all he hears is oooh, ahhhh, oooh, ahhhh. He said he is going to start his own blog for  the "Widows of a Paper Crafter" hahahah. He said he is going to starve because he will never get me off this thing. He thought VC_Rocks during the summer was bad "now this"!!!!
I am really going to have to pull myself away from this new toy from time to time and cook a meal for him hahahahah.

I'm going to try and down load my first card  so you can see what I made last night (before all the new cool downloads). You know there is sooooo much I need to learn to be able to use this Software adequately.  I had to call SU  again to help me figure out how to turn my project into a JPG  document so I could get over here. YIKES, can we say learning curve.
  I really love Stampin Up's customer service line, they are always so very helpful and patient when I call them. Well this is going to be loads of fun I am sure. I'll have to ask  my BFF if she can help me make a recipe card to share with you :). Maybe if I ask real nice like she will show me how :)
Well there you have it my first attempt at a My Digital Studio greeting card "Oh My)! Hope you like it!
I'm going back for more fun and adventure in MDS. Stay safe my friends! We will chat soon!

Hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas!

Hello to all my blogging friends. I hope this post finds you all well and happy! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, that was shared with family and friends, and that Santa was extra nice to you!
Well we had a great time but I am glad it is over! I spent the day on the couch yesterday I WAS SPENT!!! and very sore.
The 23rd was my Moms birthday. We went to my sisters and had a nice time. With the exception of my sisters new Chihuahua dog kept nipping at my ankles- 4 x's was enough????
Christmas Eve was real small and very relaxing :). I cooked a nice Rib Eye Roast for Jeff, Jeanne' my Mom and I. We  watched old westerns and laughed and chatted it was fun. Then we opened presents. Santa was really good to us this year. Jeff just loves his Robe and puts it on every second he can. I was so excited because I knew he would love it. I got cloths, the SU MDS, a Cricut Cartridge (Elegant Cakes) Perfume. Then Jeff brought in a big surprise- a 32 inch flat screen LCD TV for the bedroom what happiness!!!! Our old one's color has been going out since last year so it was time :). Then my DD agave me an apron she had made custom just for me.
I'll have to show you a picture of it, it's amazing. She made 7 total all different for friends and family. What is so cool about it is that she just bought a sewing machine the day after Thanksgiving and learned to sew 2 weeks before Christmas. I can see that machine coming in really handy :). I believe my daughter is starting to get crafty :).
Christmas Morning we went back to my sisters and had breakfast and opened more presents.  First thing I did when I walked in the door I scolded the nipper dog and kept on her all morning just not to get near me and it worked! She didn't bother me from then on.  :)
(She is a rescue dog so you can't really get too upset with her, but I have boundaries with animals and she doesn't want me to bit her, cuz I would lolololol. I have 2 hundred pound dogs with great human manners. I don't take bad manners from dogs/ animals of any size or any back ground. Princess and I will just have to get used to each other :)  Heck I baby set 3 Hybrid wolfs and 2 very large Dobermans and they don't give me any grief.So this little 4 pound Princess has met her match with me lololol.
We left there and headed home because we were serving dinner at 2:30 pm. for 12 people. We always have a bunch of friends over for dinner and a movie on Christmas  it is always a lot of fun.
Well enough of this random Christmas ramblings, lets get to some art OK.
I made this Kleenex holder  for a gift but I liked it so much I kept it for myself  (hahahah) and made my friend something else. (The idea was found on Split Coast Stampers) I hope you like it just let me know. Chat soon stay safe, warm and dry! I'll post again before New Years, signing off me P. Love you Carey