Vintage Sunday

Whew! I thought I'd never have a chance to craft this weekend. We had a powerful storm come through on Friday afternoon. Our power was knocked out from the storm, and wasn't restored until Saturday morning. We are one of the lucky ones. There are neighborhoods around Omaha that are not going to have their power restored until next Saturday. I took a shower early, yesterday, so I could run out and grab a rod, hooks and shower curtain. My office at work has a private shower and bathroom, so I was preparing to take my husband and son to shower at work. By the time I was at the store, my husband called to tell me the electricity was back on at our house, Whew! After showering, we all went down to the Old Market Area for the 34th Annual Summer Arts Festival. I wish I brough my camera with me, but I forgot. We saw some of the most awesome art. One vendor was selling dulcimers. He makes some of them out of willow. It produces the most amazing sounds. There were so many vendors selling so many beautiful fine art items, from pottery, jewelry, photographs and paintings, to delicious food items and music. This was no ordinary arts and crafts festival. Of course, everything was very pricey. I wanted to buy a nantucket lightship basket, but the smallest one (the size of a pen/pencil cup) was $68. It was BEAUTIFUL, but I knew I couldn't afford it. It was so nice to browse and check out what everyone had to offer.

This morning, I decided to knock out a couple of cards. We are on our way out the door, in a few minutes, to have some dim-sum. These are cards for friends. One is celebrating a birthday this week, and the other card is for a swap. I thought I'd create a little "vintage" this morning, rather than stamping and coloring. I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday, and are finding time to smell the roses!

Sweet Hummingbird

This morning, I thought I'd try to watercolor, once again. I'm not very good at this at all. I do try but I'm not sure I like the results. At least I am trying. The image is by Inkadinkdao. The sentiment stamp is by Impression Obsession.

A quick Sugar Nellie card while I fix dinner this evening.

While I was letting my dinner simmer on the stove, I decided to knock out a quick "thank you" card. The image is from the Sugar Nellies line; and the artist is Elisabeth Bell. Isn't she cute? The sentiment is by Stampin Up. I am hoping to carve out more time this weekend to create, since I haven't stamped anything in two weeks. Ciao for now!

Oh beautiful for spacious skies....

Road trip!

Saturday morning, we slept in until 10 AM. Then, as we all rolled out of bed, we collectively decided, "Hey! Let's go to West Des Moines for the day!" Sean asks me if I wanted to stay there overnight. I agreed it would be fun to do that since that would mean we wouldn't be rushed to do a bunch of stuff, and then rush to get home soon after dark. We made reservations at the Marriott Residence Inn, showered, packed a bag, and took off. On the way to West Des Moines, which is about 120 miles east of Omaha, we decided to take a detour.


We passed quite a number of interesting sights, such as this spotted horse:

Eventually, we arrived at our first stop:


Hogback Bridge is one of the world-famous covered bridges of Madison County, Iowa. As you walk through the bridge, you'll notice knife carvings of initials as well as handwritten messages and names on the interior walls of the bridge. We decided to add our names to the bridge, also.





We got back on the road, and arrived at West Des Moines at around 3:30 PM. Of course, if you knew me, you'd agree that I would have already marked on a map all of the rubber stamping and scrapbook stores in the area, before leaving our house. LOL! We made a pit stop at Outstamping. Surprisingly, I didn't really find anything in there that I wanted to buy. We shopped at the store next door to Oustamping and bought some homemade fudge. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Joe's Crab Shack before going to Archiver's.


Check this out! At the hotel, they had my name in the lobby, just because I'm a Marriott Rewards Elite Member! LOL! That's funny!

A trip to Jordan Creek Town Center is always interesting. We ended up shoe-shopping and then relaxed at Barnes and Noble. I found the Just Cards magazine where my card made it on the front cover. It's the card with the House Mouse stamp. Too cool!



We woke up this morning wanting to visit at least one, if not two more covered bridges. But, when we turned on the TV, we saw several announcements of Thunderstorm watches throughout Madison and Pottawatamie County. We didn't want to take the chance of being caught, given this past week's deadly storms and tornadoes. So, we just decided to head home soon after breakfast. As you can see, the skies were pretty ominous. But, overall, we had a terrific time, and my husband got to enjoy this Father's Day weekend! I'd bet a lot of folks who live out here don't realize how beautiful this country truly is. We are very blessed that we have the opportunity to explore the country, as we live in various cities around the United States. We hope to visit the other bridges, someday, before the Air Force moves us once more.

The storm's aftermath

Last night, we had some 40 funnel clouds and about nine confirmed tornadoes over a 12-county area, in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota. Here, in the Omaha-metro area (city of Papillion), and specifically in my neighborhood, there is definitely evidence of the storm's wrath. Fences have fallen down, gazebo roofs caved in, but the worse damage were the trees that were uprooted. Someone said they had spotted a funnel cloud over our subdivision. I wouldn't be surprised. On our street, alone, eight trees had fallen. The strange thing is the trees that fell were all across the street, and none of them were on our side of the street. One tree fell over our neighbor's car and truck. In one of the pictures, you'll see our house. It's the one that has the least amount of debris on the front yard. Just a couple of large tree branches snapped off our tree and that of our next door neighbor's. Thank God! We're very lucky we were spared from severe damage. It could've been a lot worse. Please say a prayer for the families of the Boy Scouts who were in the Leadership Training at the Little Sioux Boy Scouts Camp in Iowa. They lost four boy scouts last night. I feel so awful over this. There were three 13-year olds (same age as our son, Lucas); and one 14-year old. This has been a tragic week for the Omaha-metro area.

This is the oak tree that was once standing on our neighbor's front yard. They live kitty-corner from us. Sorry the pics are dark. I took these pics at 5:30 AM.

This is the house that's across the street from my son's old elementary school, It lost most of its fence on one side of the yard.

And here is another neighbor's treesthat had fallen, also:

Our house didn't really have any damage. Our tree lost a large branch, but that was it:


Here are pictures from today's cleanup effort on our street:

Hanglar and Stanglar team up with Funkykits and Sugar Nellies

I read on the Sugar Nellies blog that Hanglar and Stanglar have agreed to selling their images outside of Sweden and Norway. The images will be brand new and sold exclusively on the Funkykits.com website. A friend of mine sent me these cuties several months ago. I was so happy to hear that the stamps will soon be available for purchase. I took some time out this weekend to color in and create these cards.

We lost a hero, today

Today, we lost a patriot. Jack Lucas was 13 years old when he forged his mother's signature and joined the US Marines just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Soon after, he found himself on the shores of Iwo Jima, where he threw his body on two Japanese-lobbed grenades to save the lives of his comrades. At age 17, he was the youngest recipient of the Medal of Honor for his courage and bravey from the battle on the shores of Iwo Jima. He lost his battle today, to leukemia. We lost a hero and a patriot.

It's not just the fact that he did the unthinkable (his willingness to die for his comrades) that places a lump in my throat. It's also the fact that there was something that drove this man at age thirteen to want to fight for his country so badly. My son is thirteen years old, and I don't think he is any more or less of a patriot than I am, or Jack Lucas, for that matter. But, I wonder if he, or I would honestly be willing to bear arms for our country, if push came to shove? If a battle was fought on our soil, would you allow your 13-year old son to pick up a weapon to help protect this country? I can speak only for myself, and I would bear arms for my family at a moment's notice. But does it make me less of a patriot because I choose not to join in the military? My husband has been an active duty Air Force officer for 15 years. He loves serving his country. He finds purpose in protecting everything we hold dear and the freedom we enjoy. He would willingly sacrifice his life for this country, without reservation.

So, again, does it make me less of a patriot, because I am not in the military nor have any inclination to want to serve in that capacity?

What are your thoughts on this? What do you think makes a patriot? When you stand up and place your hand over your heart as the national anthem is played, or when the colors are posted in a room, do you still get gooesbumps, like I do? Living on military bases, I've have passed Old Glory at sunrise and when she is retired at sun-down. I can't explain the emotions I have inside, but the flag is definitely a constant reminder of how fortunate I am for the freedoms I enjoy. Please share with me, as we approach the anniversary of the United States' independence your thoughts on patriotism, and what it means to you.

Playing Scattergories

My friend, Dawn, the Chatty Stamper, is playing Scattergories on her blog. I thought I'd do the same. You take the first letter of your first name. Erase all of the answers you see on my post, and then answer the questions using the first letter of your first name to come up with your answers. Then, post your answers on your blog, and please link it back this post on my blog. Are you read to play? Here we go:

WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Ethel
FOUR LETTER WORD: Ever
VEHICLE: Eclipse
TV SHOW: ER
GIRL'S NAME: Emily
BOY'S NAME: Edward
CITY: Eugene
OCCUPATION: Endocrinologist
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Ear Muff
FOOD: Eclair
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Eye drops
REASON FOR BEING LATE: Elevator malfunction
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: DUDE! **** and it shall remain this way! My friend Sandy pointed out that Dude doesn't start with "E" but I don't ever yell "Egads!" or "Eek!" Or anything else starting with "E!" So.....Dude! it shall be! :) ..........

edited to add (again)......my husband said to use the word "EEEWWWWWW!" OK....so we'll add "EEEEWWWW!" to DUDE! I do say "Ewwwww!" once in a while.

Boyds Bears Double Pocket Cards

I learned how to make the quarter-fold double-pocket cards using the tutorial on Stamperdog.com. Stamperdog has some of the best easy-to-follow and FUN stamping and cardmaking tutorials on the internet. I recently acquired these three Boyds Bears rubber stamps. My friend, Joanie, introduced me to them. She and I are very good at 'enabling' each other when it comes to rubber stamp purchases. As you can see, with the first card I made, there are two pockets inside. One holds a tag, and the second (larger) pocket will hold a piece of paper with a handwritten note to the recipient. I hpoe you will pay a visit to Stamperdog's website and take a moment to try your hand at making a double-pocket card, also.