Feeling Floridian

I'm sure that this blog is suffering from abandonment issues by now. I can only say that I'll try to do better, but I know better than to make any promises beyond that.

We recently returned from a trip to Florida . . . I know . . . hurricane season isn't the best time of year to be visiting that part of the United States, but you do get cheaper lodgings at Disney World. We didn't spend our entire trip at Disney World, dividing our time between the St. Francis Inn in St. Augustine and my father-in-law's house in the middle of nowhere thirty minutes outside of Gainesville. While we were in St. Augustine my sister-in-law and I couldn't resist checking out the local stamping store, Claire's Collectibles. Holy Moly! I've never seen so many stamps crammed into such a small space. SIL and I had a great time combing through the store's inventory and one of the stamps I came home with is this palm tree border stamp made by Custer's Last Stamp. On the plane ride home, I decided I needed to make a card using these palm trees and our ladybug, Edna. After all, Edna is one road tripping ladybug and she probably loves spending time drinking margaritas in Key West. You can see the "recipe" for this card in my gallery on SplitCoastStampers.

So here's another hot topic at my house right now . . . Christmas. Now that Target has prematurely moved out the school supplies to make room for Halloween costumes, many American children are fantasizing about how they're going to dress up. Not my girls though . . . No, Oblivianna and Miss Moo have decided that it's time to get ready for Christmas. I told them that I wouldn't be pulling out the Christmas decorations for at least another three months, but my lack of participation hasn't cooled their enthusiasm in the least. There is a quote in one of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary that says something along the lines that "Ramona believed that if she just had some paper, scissors, and tape, she could create anything in the world." This quote describes Oblivianna perfectly and she is putting her scissor and taping skills to work making Christmas decorations for the play room. She's made garlands, trees, signs, red scarves for her stuffed animals . . . the list goes on . . . all while playing the Wee Sing for Christmas album on repeat for hours at a time. I'm trying to grin and bear it for just a few more days until school starts on Tuesday while praying that the teachers in our district don't strike as they are threatening to do. The teachers need to work, not only for the sake of our children's education, but for the sake of parents' sanity.

We have a rather "boring" Labor Day weekend planned. DH will be finishing up the installation of baseboards and crown moulding upstairs and I will be doing laundry, and hopefully making cards. I've spent this week cleaning out my office and I feel as though I can move on to something else. Even though I may not have an exciting weekend planned, I hope that some of you out there do.

Happy Stamping

-Molly

Seeing Spots

Okay, so I promised Oblivianna and Miss Moo that we could redecorate their rooms this summer and they finally hounded me into actually doing it. Miss Moo wanted a 101 Dalmatian themed room, or a "spotty-dog room," as she calls it. This is about the only paper-crafting I've done the entire summer due to travels, home improvement projects, and my #1MIL's death. (This really hasn't been the best summer.) Anyway, I found good use for the myriad of circle punches I own. (I think I've got everything from 1/8" up to 2" in 1/8" increments.) Luckily, Miss Moo already had white furniture, so we punched out tons of black circles in various sizes and glued them to the furniture. I made the blanket on her bed out of a white duvet that I had, some stencils, and some fabric paint. Miss Moo's room used to be purple, so the butter yellow on the walls is a refreshing, and brightening change. The great thing about this "spotty-dog" room is that I accomplished the dalmatian theme without actually using any dalmatians at all! For someone like me who doesn't like her house and children to be Disney's own personal billboard, this was an ideal way to decorate the room. Also, the spots are completely removable so that when Miss Moo tires of spotty dogs (probably somewhere around the age eight), we can pull the spots off, clean up the glue and have nice white furniture again.

In spite of all my personal issues getting in the way of my hobby and business, I have made one card, a Queens Rock card that I'll post later when I can find a flat surface on which to set up my light box and camera.