Happy Retirement

Hi everyone:

I'm doing this post during my lunch break, so it's going to be a quick one. Hope everyone is enjoying this day - it's cloudy here making the temperature not so hot today.

As some of you may know, I work in a law firm that does real estate and I work in the title services section, which handles title searches, title policies, etc. We had a lady from one of the title companies I work with frequently retire yesterday and I made her this card for us to sign and take with me to her retirement party last night. I am very happy for her, but will miss her terribly (Kathy, make sure you call me when you can). I was hoping to find a "retirement" stamp in my stash at home, but didn't find anything so I just used the congratulations sentiment - I was going to say "best wishes" but Jim said that didn't fit the occasion :) Since I failed to take a photo of the card, I scanned it in here at work, squishing the bow, but all in all it turned out okay.

I hope you are all having a great day and are excited about the weekend coming up.

I'll see you soon.

Janet

Guess What?

We're almost halfway to the weekend :) Sorry about that, I just had to be silly today.

Today, I'm posting a birthday card I gave to a girl in my office yesterday whose birthday isn't until October - someone had posted her birthday incorrectly on the office list and since I didn't confirm that with my calendar here at home, she received an early birthday card from me - can we say "egg on my face". I followed this week's Fall-to Layout #39 sketch by Natasha at clean & simple - she is AWESOME !!!!

I received some great news from my "More The Merrier Card Challenge Group" today - Jill & I tied for first place in this month's challenge given by Karen. I was so honored and just love each of the ladies who are a part of it (I have placed their blog information on the sidebar of my blog, so please go by and say hello to them and see how great they are). I am in the process of getting with Jill to discuss who will be doing next month's challenge and will let you know once we get it together.

I'm off to study the Westward Expansion and the Louisiana Purchase - Patrick has a test on it this week and since he likes to give me the test first, I am going to revert back to the 4th grade all over again :)

Have a great evening everyone

Janet

3x3 cards - what do you think?

Happy late night everyone:

I know, I'm running really late in getting these posted, but I've been so busy today trying to come up with some 3x3 card samples for an abstractor at work who asked me to make "little" cards for her 4 granddaughters who range in age from 12-7 (she has also asked that I make gift tags, but haven't made it that far yet). I am not too happy with what I came up with and have struggled all day because I'm not used to making these sized cards; therefore, I would like to get your help in providing me with your thoughts on how I can improve upon these.

Well, I'm tired so I'm going to say goodnight and hope you have a great Monday. I appreciate your help on these.

Janet

The More the Merrier Challenge

Hey everyone:

Well, I seem to be getting back to where I was before and I want to thank each of you for the kind thoughts and concerns - it is so appreciated and I am truly blessed to have wonderful friends.

A while back, I found my way to Karen's blog and as I was looking at her wonderful cards, I saw she was talking about rock cakes she and her friends had at one of their gatherings. I was intrigued by what a rock cake was and had to ask about them. She was very kind in forwarding me the recipe and even though I have attempted to make them 3 times now, they are not turning out that well and I'm usually a good cook - I'm going to keep trying until I get them though. Well, rock cakes brought us together and have become fast friends. - we talk often and I look forward to it each time. During one of our conversations, I found out that she and some of her friends in the UK were part of a monthly challenge group and even though I'm in the US, they invited me to join along. Of course, I couldn't pass up this fun opportunity. After some discussion between us, we decided to start our own challenge group and Karen came up with the perfect name - "The More The Merrier Card Challenge Group". I have put the names and blog information of everyone in this group so far on my left sidebar. Please go by and say hello to everyone - they are so very talented and I am enjoying getting to know them better.

The challenge requirements are that on the first of the month one of us has to post the challenge and by the 24th of the month, the challenge needs to be completed and up on our blog. The rules are that you have to stipulate three things in the challenge with an optional fourth (being layout). We are to pick out our favorite and the winner of that month's challenge will come up with the next challenge.

Karen started off our first challenge: it had to be a birthday card with a maximum of four colors, one stamp used and an embellishment except ribbon (UGH - I'm a huge ribbon fan) - there was no layout stipulation for this challenge. Well, even though it was extremely hard :) for me not to use ribbon, I thought what I came up worked pretty good. I hope you enjoy it.

I have rambled enough (can you tell I'm feeling better). I hope everyone is doing well and have a great evening.

Janet

A very big thank you to Jo

Hey everyone:

I hope this post finds everyone doing well. I am sorry it's been a while since I've posted, but ever since I came back from our trip, I just haven't been myself and even though I have been taking the medication given by the doctor, it is taking a bit longer than I had hoped to get back into my creating mode. I have been visiting everyone as much as I can , but haven't been coming by to give you hellos like I should and hope to get back to that soon. I must say, though, you are all so amazing - everyone is so talented.

I did, however, want to say thank you again to Jo. If you will recall, Patrick was sick a while back and as Jo and I were talking to each other one day, she inquired on how he was and then offered to send him a card to cheer him up. I was so excited about her doing this and surprisingly I, for once, was quiet and didn't spill the beans :) On the day we received it, I wasn't expecting it because Jo lives in the UK and we figured it would take a week or two, so I was surprised myself when it came so soon. When Patrick started to read the card, he saw that Jo called me "Mum" and just loved it. He said mommie, this is so sweet and I am glad you know Ms. Jo. As you can see by the picture, the card is so wonderful and made Patrick perk up tremendously. (I tried to get a better picture of the card with Patrick holding it, but couldn't get it any clearer) She also sent him Easter candy, which of course, was gone within one day. I am so very blessed to have such wonderful friends from all over the world and am so glad we are able to communicate the way we do.

Jo, thank you again for brightening our day and for sending Patrick a special something - you are a true blessing.

Talk to everyone soon.

Janet

Weekend of fun and beauty - Part Two

Well, here's part two of our weekend trip. These are pictures from when we visited Dupont State Park, which is located on the border of North and South Carolina. I really wanted to visit several waterfalls while we were in the area. While visiting Ceaser's Head, which is near Brevard, North Carolina, we asked the park rangers where to go and they directed us to Dupont State Park, which has 6 waterfalls in the park. The three we chose are within 1 1/2 miles of each other, so we thought it best to go there. The rangers stated that we should be able to see some great falls because the weekend before, they had received heavy rainfall.

The first of the falls we visited was Hooker Falls and on the trail to see it, Jim and Patrick stopped a minute to take in the beauty of the creek - I just love this picture of them - there's just something so sweet and special about it. I also took another one when I was behind them and caught them walking together. Notice how it appears they are in sink with one another as they walk - isn't it wonderful?

Below is Hooker Falls - isn't this waterfall just beautiful? I was not expecting the fullness of it even though the rangers had told us they would be - it was not only flowing but it was very loud.

The second and third of the falls were Triple Falls and High Falls, which are about 3/4 of a mile from each other and just across the street from Hooker Falls; however, you have to walk the steepest mountain I have ever encountered (I grew up in the mountains of NC so this is saying a lot), but it was well worth the aching calves :)

I think out of all these falls, High Falls was my favorite because it was the tallest one I have ever seen and there were so many different ways of seeing it.

I had to put a picture in here showing off my wonderful husband looking up at the top of High Falls and then I had to show you what type of trail we had to walk on in order to get to High Falls - isn't it neat? I have never seen roots like that before.

Well, if I don't stop now, I'll keep going. I hope you enjoy these - thanks for coming by.

Have a great rest of the week and I hope to get some cards uploaded in the next day or two.

Janet

Weekend of fun and beauty - Part One

Well, I couldn't resist, I had to post some pictures from our trip this past weekend and since there is so much I want to share, I'm going to break it down in two parts. This first part is when we visited Cherokee. It was so much fun and had a blast.

We went to the museum and as we were listening to the small film shown at the beginning of our visit, Patrick kept telling us the stories before the narrator did (he had studied the Cherokee Indians at the beginning of the school year) and it was fun hearing him tell us - he was so excited that he knew it already. The next one is spooky because it is a picture of wax figures from the museum - these guys look so real, I just had to share them. It was amazing to see - I just kept waiting for one of them to start talking to me :)

This picture I just had to put up because it shows a tradition Jim started many years ago when we would took our two older kids on vacation and, of course, it needs to be carried on with Patrick - that tradition is to find a rock from the place we have not visited before (yes, I have oodles of rocks in my house and they all sit on a shelf in Patrick's room) and wouldn't you know it, he picked he largest rock he could find :) I'll have to take a picture of it and upload it tomorrow.

After finding his rock, Patrick decided to head over to a tepee and have himself a seat - he told us that looking for the rock was very tiring and he needed to rest :) - if you haven't figured it out already, he's a mess :) I couldn't resist taking this picture because seeing him sitting in the tepee and slouching like he had just run a marathon was too funny. The last one from Cherokee taken with a native Indian - Patrick thought it was "cool" to get this picture and plans on taking it back to school when it starts back up next week to show everyone.

I'm going to post the other part of our trip tomorrow - these are the "beauty" pictures.

Have a good evening.

Janet

Blog Candy Alert

Hey everyone:

Look at what you could win over at Samantha's blog? Isn't it great? She has these giveaways every month - she's wonderful. While there, please take a look at the rest of her blog. She is truly talented and a wonderful person to get to know. I am very lucky to call her my friend.

Good luck and have fun.

Janet

Have a great weekend

Hey everyone:

I just wanted to stop by and say that I'm going to be MIA over the next few days. Patrick began spring break today, so we are heading up to Cherokee, NC early (Jim says 5:30 a.m. - UGH!) tomorrow morning for a long weekend, so I won't be coming by to say hello until late Monday. We are so looking forward to this - we are going to hike, visit the Cherokee museum and see how the Indians live, ride a train, stop by waterfalls (my favorite thing), etc.; also, there will not be cleaning to do, eating out, swimming in the hotel ... ohhh ... fun, fun, fun :) I will, I'm sure, take oodles of pictures and will post them once we get back. I am a huge nature buff and am always in awe by God's creations and with spring now here, all the flowers and trees are going to be in bloom it's going to be beautiful. Okay, I'm going to stop now :)

I hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you when we get back.

Janet

Passing it on

Hey everyone:

I had said yesterday I would pass on this wonderful award Rose presented me with last week, but I got home yesterday and was so tired I just couldn't do it. Patrick is on spring break next week and since I have been trying to get things ready.
We were to pass this on to five others, but I have been visiting the below 6 over the past few months and always look forward to what they are up to, so I wanted to pass this on to them:

Linda - she is always stopping by and leaving me such encouraging comments;
Jo - she is so sweet and I always look forward to talking with her;
Lou - she is Karen's sister and is so very nice;
Karen - Karen has become such a wonderful friend to me and I am very thankful we found one another. She and the other ladies mentioned above have started a "More the Merrier Challenge" and they have been so kind in letting me be a part of it even though we are thousand of miles away from each other - they live in the UK. I am looking forward to being a part of this because I have had a great time getting to know them all and know it is going to be fun continuing to do so;
Samantha - Samantha is always coming by and making me smile - she is so upbeat and always emails me with the kindest words - she is also so super talented; and
Jennifer - Jennifer and I have worked together for 7 years now and we get together almost everyday to look at what we did the night before and/or bounce ideas of each other. She also took the blog plunge not too long ago and seems to be enjoying it so far.

Please go visit these wonderful gals when you can and see how awesome they all are. Well, I had better get supper ready. I hope to be back tomorrow.

Janet