walking with desert sand beneath my feet........................

It's my boy's 23rd birthday....

2009-01-31T07:47:00.000-08:00

Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday. he turned 23 today. I love him so much, he is the most important thing in my life. He is my bestest friend most of all. He has never given me any grief (unlike myself, I put my mom through the ringer) and has become a fine young man. What more can a mom ask for? I am so blessed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYMIE!!!

AT 11 MONTHS OLD

LAST SUMMER

I GOT A BLOG AWARD!!!

2009-01-28T19:45:00.000-08:00

sooooooooooo I received this award from my friend Rachie! That was just so sweet of her and I feel so honored! Now it is my turn to pick six blogs that I love and fill out these questions! Can I give it back to her? Maybe I will just find a special award for her!

so here goes......

1. Say one nice thing to the man in your life: You are my friend above everything else. You are my calm during my storm..... I love you forever, forever my friend you will be xoxox

2. List at least 6 ways you measure success in your life:

- I have a wonderful family = SUCCESS - not everyone is that blessed

-I have a wonderful son = SUCCESS!

-I have a caring and loving husband of 14 years =SUCCESS

-I have fun with ART = SUCCESS

- I have JESUS in my life = SUCCESS

- I have wonderful friends at home and in the cyber and craft world! = SUCCESS

3. Assign 6 other blogs this award:
http://agirlnamedsweetpete.blogspot.com/ Pete
http://justabeadin.blogspot.com/ Sissy
http://tunibug.typepad.com/my_weblog/ Stacy
http://ikeagoddess.blogspot.com/ Angie - she has 3 blogs check em out!
http://luvn-myfamily.blogspot.com/ Cristen
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/ t!m

Just having fun spreading some love in the land of Blog!!!!

Special Featured Artist....

2009-01-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

As I promised you, I wanted to share a special artist with you! She is my SISSY!!! Her name is Debi and yes she takes orders! She started doing traditional beading a few months ago. Can you believe the talent and patience this girl has?!!! Oh my goodness! I am amazed! Here is a bracelet she made for me that is in the mail!! She named it Raceway Chaos. Just perfect for me!!!!!! I love the colors and everything about it! I cannot wait to get my happy mail!! Please visit her new blog and show some love!! Here is a link: http://justabeadin.blogspot.com/

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2009-01-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

OIU ..... it's been a while! First I want to wish all of you a very Happy and prosperous New year full of fun, laughter, creativity, health, and all around great year. I know many of us had a year full of trials and tribulations in 2008!

I changed my background and lost everything I had put on my blog as far as music, widgets, and links to fun sites on the net. Be patient, I will get them back up :)

Chistmas was a little weird this year. I went camping for 2 weeks from 12/22-1/4, which meant I wasn't with my family for Christmas. My son did come out Christmas night and we experienced a wild 60mph wind/sand storm in the desert. He also cooked for us! what a treat! We celebrated Christmas tho as a family prior to my leaving town which was nice and quiet and simple...but it was just weird. Probably won't do that again, it was the first time ever.

I did have a wonderful time camping with my husband for 2 weeks in the desert tho! I will address the trip another day soon with pictures, but I wanted to upload some projects I worked on before I left. lots of charm swaps, my annual ornament swap, and a few things for my not so secret santa pal Cyndi - (yep we share the same name!!)

So enjoy the pictures of my fun projects and I must get busy on making some clay cupcakes or maybe "Cones" for Dareya's ABC swap!!!

MICKY AND MINNIE CHARM BRACELET SWAP - THIS IS MY ENTRY:

I hosted a vintage Christmas tag and charm swap and these were my entries for that:

My friend Pete and I co-hosted my annual secret stocking swap this year. I was very back-logged and she wanted to get her feet wet in hosting swaps. She did a great job and I had a lot of fun this year because I didn't worry so much about the administrative part of the swap. A very special thanx to you Sweet Pete!! she had us do things for our pal on weekly deadlines and one of them that I wanted to share was the recipe one. I love this salsa and althought it may not always be traditon for christmas the colors went well! also there is the card I gave her and the basket I made. The handles on the basket actually lit up with miniture battery powered lights. My pal Cyndi loved it - I'm so glad - it was fun to see my idea come off without a hitch.

This is a matching braclet and earring set I made for my dear MIL..

This is my entry for Dareya's New Year's bling charm swap

And finally this is my entry for my own annual ornament swap....

stay tuned for vacation pictures and a special featured artist........

vv

Take the snow test..... the result was pretty right on!

2008-12-14T23:12:00.000-08:00

Your Snow Test Says You're Independent

You feel like something good will happen to you in the next few months.

You love to work, especially when work is creative. You have the makings of a successful artist.

You are an independent, individualistic person. You thrive when you're doing your own thing.

Your biggest worry in your life is your health. You tend to be a bit of a hypochondriac.

When it comes time to relax, you have difficulty relaxing. You are a bit high strung.

The Snow Test

Winter Charm swap

2008-11-14T23:14:00.001-08:00

Below you will see the pictures of my charm entry for the winter theme swap. I cannot wait to get all these back! There are lots of pics and shows you the steps sorta. At the end is my mom's beautiful charm she made for the swap as well. I hope the girls like our charms!

Beginning stages of my entry for the winter swap
40 later of just one of the charms that goes on the winter piece

Here is the next style

another 40 of different ones

another shot, notice the little snowflake dangles
also in the next picture you will see another long dangle with a bugle bead and a silver ball and the snowflake spacers used as a spacer instead of a dangle. Yes my fingers were sore after all of these!

"wInTer gOoDnEsS"

Individual charms. I beleive there are 4 different snowflakes.

Here is what each individual charm looks like. Ther are 4 seperate pieces to each charm.
A big pile of wintery goodness! 40 charms
All bagged and sealed and ready to go in the box... Off

to AZ they go!
This is mom's artistic entry for the winter charm swap. I just didn't have as much time as I wanted to to do something more artsey. But I just love her winter bird, don't you! Alot of work mom!

BUSY LIKE A BEE

2008-11-11T09:20:00.001-08:00

Well I have been a busy little bee as usual. Here are some of my Halloween projects, a vintage halloween ornament for a swap of 18 people, then a 50 person Halloween charm swap that I hosted. My mom's dog yoda was helping me as you can see in one of the photos. Here is a pretty sunset in the desert on Halloween weekend!

right now I am busy on all things Christmas! I am hosting an ornament swap, a vintage tag and charm swap. I am also in a winter charm swap, a mickey and minnie charm swap, a new years charm swap and a Twas the night before Christmas tag book swap! I am up to my ears ladies!

i am leaving for Thanksgiving vacation at the end of next week too, so I must hustle! I probably won't post for another month, but I will be back with pictures of all my projects!
love to you all and a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

You're not so traditional Halloween cards for Mandy's swap

Been a long time

2008-10-22T01:22:00.000-07:00

I've been off my blog for awhile. I have just been super busy with lots of different things, lots of projects and I went to Northern Cali to see friends and family. Wish I could share the cute pics of my family and friends but there identity is a secret :)

So here are some of my best pictures from my vacation. I was really pleased with these ones. I have lots more but thought I would share these! I will uploading some of my projects I have been working on too, but for now...

Exhausted......

2008-08-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have been cleaning and purging, cleaning and purging, and cleaning some more. I won't go into the details, but I am exhausted and pretty satisfied all in the same breath.

It is not easy when you have accumulated so much stuff over the years! And where does all the paper and clutter come from? It is just insane! Dust oh my goodness, where does all that come from too? It doesn't help that I have 2 very large dogs and my backyard is half dirt. It is so hard to keep up!

Anyways, amongst all that I have been taking some local day trips and involved in way too many swaps. I have vowed to quit the swaps after Christmas. my last ones will be my annual ornament swap and my annual secret stocking swap. All the girls on two peas are very excited about that and currently we are doing the secret goblin swap which is going pretty well and they are having a ton of fun with it! One of my girls, Wendy made me a handmade paperbag Halloween album. Too cute! I can't wait to gather some Halloween pictures for it!

Oh and let's not forget the whimsey swap - OMG - Stacy went way overboard! She spoiled me rotten and you can see what I got on her blog Minor Details, the link is on the right. I beleive it is the first slide show under whimsey. THANKS AGAIN SO MUCH STACY!!

Ok back to my little day trips. I have had the best time going to San Vicente Resevoir, driving through the mountains chasing thunderstorms and going to Palm Springs this summer. Low budget trips, but the bests times spent with the husband, family and friends. We have taken about 700 pictures I am estimating! Here are a few, but I wont bore you with all 700 hahahhahah.

NO EXCUSE.........

2008-08-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

for not posting. Just kinda wrapped up in a few things. I'm trying to clean things up around my house! I have been busy with a few projects for swaps. I made some women's b-day cards for Mandy's card swap on 2 peas. I am looking forward to getting those back. Also I had Tink and Sulley for a Rachel's disney atc swap on 2 peas. those took forever!

I have also organized the secret goblin swap over there as well with 30 other women. If all goes right, it will be one of the biggest swaps I can remember for a secret sister swap. At least that I have organized. The girls seem to be having lots of fun with it. I will be getting my Halloween supplies in order, so I can make some fun stuff!

Peggy is hosting a vintage Halloween ornament swap and I am so excited about that one too, but I must complete about 3 other projects before I can do that one. One of them is Teri's 8x8 page swap and my theme is Stories of Christmas past. I can't wait to get that started and I better hurry!

Took a drive on Friday to the mountains, where I used to live. Lots of pics. But I will only bore you with a few! I grew up on the other side of that big mountain in the first on a ranch.

So that was the extent of my pics for my projects I was talking about and the land that I love!

My silly beast

2008-07-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

She has those sticky blue plumbego flowers all over her. I went outside and saw her and just had to giggle!

Free digital kit by Chaos Lounge Creations - Thank yOu!

CHARMS GALORE!

2008-07-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

I had 2 spots in the black and white charm swap over on 2peas and these are my entries! I made 46 of each design! I cannot wait to receive them all back! There were 40 different ladies participating! I have seen some of the other charms, and they are fantastic! I will update more tomorrow on g3neral stuff!

I SPLURGED......

2008-07-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

On something new to wear, but only because I found a $20.00 coupon and I only had to spend $40.00 before the coupon was taken off! the shirt was originally 36.99, so I had to get one more thing, found these suede platform pumps, 3 1/2 inch heels in my exact size, (even wide width) for $6.98. Take $20.00 off and 4.95 for shipping, I got these two things for $31.19. YAHOO!

Ok, here is the downside, I don't even wear high heels, but these are so cute, and I am in the need for something a little sexy. I figure I can carry them to the car with me, put them on before I go into the bar or whatever lol, and then take them off. at least I will be carrying sexy shoes!

It is also so hard to find something cute in my size, and I am just sick of Lane Bryant clothes, so I found this coupon in the magazine I bought from Lane Bryant last time I got some pants. I really like the clothes up there, so go check out http://www.fashionbug.com/ if you are a size 14+ or if you want to check the shoes, jewelry, or handbags! Today is the last day for the coupon and I am not sure if it will work for you but I can send you the code! Let me know!

So look below to see what I got!

LADY BUG

2008-07-01T22:01:00.000-07:00

that's it, just something beautiful God gave me one day :)

COMING SOON...........

2008-06-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

something beadalicious! I have been working with this special mixture for a swap on Two Peas!

Stay tuned!

I'm totally lagging

2008-06-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

in posting and everything I need to do! I have been soooooooooo tired and have been sporting a headache for about 3 days. Oh well.

I said I was going to post pics of the wall hanging I made for my great-nephew being born in a couple of months, so without further ado; here it is!

Finally......

2008-06-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

getting around to posting the photo of the Father's Day gift I made for my Dad. Not too sure if he liked it, he didn't say to much. It has come to a point that I just don't know what to get the man! My Mom is so easy to buy for because we like the same things!

Anyways, the photo is from my son's wedding almost 3 years ago, but it is one of the few photos I have with the siblings together. There is a brother missing tho as he he passed years ago, so the picture is not complete in my opinion.

On a lighter note, I went to one of my nieces baby shower this weekend and made a baby wall hanging that I will post tomorrow as I have to download the picture! I'm always a day behind, but it keeps you coming back right???!!!!

Today I have to run a bunch of errands and pay some bills. It is cooler today, but there is humidy and it is sticky!!! Humidy is worse than the blazing heat we experienced for the last 5 days. It reached 113 in some parts of San Diego this weekend, with the highest of 109 where I live. UGGH, can you say lethargic!

Well of to the "Pea Board " for awhile, then get my hiney in gear!

Hugs to all

xoxo

2 Peas blogger Challenge~

2008-06-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

Challenge~ Do you work better under pressure?

I would say that actually get more accomplished under pressure for sure! No matter what it is that I am doing! I am a serious procrastinator! I believe that it is one of my worst flaws as a human being!

However, I have to wonder if I work better under pressure, should I really change at all? What would life be like if I didn't ensue all this stress upon myself hehhehe.

I made a little Father's day plaque for my Dad yesterday (yep right before I saw him). I didn't take pictures as I was in a hurry to leave because um, I was late in finishing my project :) crazy vicious circle I run in. My mom will send me a pivture of it and then I will post it.

I have got to get my but in gear and get dressed and go run a couple of errands. I will leave you a picture of one of my pretty rose bushes tho!

I'll talk with you all soon

XOXOXOXOXO

I Finally made myself somethin!!!!

2008-06-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
I finally have managed to make myself something in between working on swaps. I need to get busy on some cards now for Father's Day and my niece's baby shower!

I received the plain journal from a friend Sue during one of my holiday swaps and this is what I did with it. I may add some ribbon at some point :) Paper is by K & Company (GirlScouts) Lots of bling, and acrylic piece by Cloud Nine, I think.

Oh and last but not least, my Mommy made the wonderful flower center for me!

Well I gotta hurry and post this and finish cooking my Fried chicken salad - YUMMY.

SO THIS IS WHAT I MADE OUT OF THE PAPER.....

2008-06-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

I was busy making 28 recipe cards for the BBQ swap on Two Peas ran by Kim! My category was a drink and it was "Absolut Blue Pearl"
I had a ton of fun working with the red, white and blue. On the edge of the cardstock I used white acrilyic paint put on with my fingers and red acrylic paint on the edges of the Blue Hawaiian shirt paper from Karen Foster (yep finger painting! My mom helped me cut the Hibiscus (qk) flowers from the white glittered Doodlebug paper, and after I cut the stamens I used glitter glue and put a small red confetti star in the center. I tried out my new treading water punch from Fiskers. I must sau I really like the quality of Martha Stewert border punches better. MS punches cut carstock no problem and Fiskers seems to have a harder time with cardstock. Just a personal opinion, but I love the scallop for this particular recipe!

I hope the girls in the swap enjoy them and I cannot wait to get all the recipes and maybe make a cover for the book! I got some paper the other day that i am hoping will be great for a BBQ recipe book cover.

Well stay tuned, next I am going to post pics of a few things that I splured on, you're gonna love them!

take care all and hugs to you all

A little update on the puppies

2008-06-04T20:08:00.001-07:00

Just thought I would update about my girls :) It's been 12 days since their surgeries and they are doing well. They actually played today for the first time since they got spayed. Here are some pics of them while they were resting one day after surgerie. My chevy girl remained asleep when I took her pick, but my wolf Sunshine woke up and her look is priceless! Enjoy! Also here is a pic of some paper I am working with and I will post a pic of the finished project tomorrow.

CHEVY aka "LOVEBUG"

SUNSHINE aka "The Beast"

blue hawaain shirt paper by Karen Foster

As promised... My Mommy's flowers

2008-06-01T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, My Mommy just kills me with her talant!!!! These flowers were inspired by Sue Roddis in the 4th anniversary edition of "Paper Creations" on page 45. They do have a website: http://www.papercreationsmag.com/

Ok so anyways back to my mom's talant..... she has so much. She always adds a flair that makes it her own, always beautiful...like her.

ENJOY!

ATC Swap I have been working on...

2008-05-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

So I finally finished all those buggers! I had three catagoriesX 20 EACH, why do I do this to myself?). I had July, December, and St. Patty's day. My friends over on Two Peas and I did this swap and now we are embarking on a disney ATC swap!!! Ok here are some pics of my cards:

December

St. Patty's

I meant to tell you all that the St. Patty's cards are hybrid. All the pattern paper and graphics anyways. I will update with the artist names when I can open that folder again on my computer, I'm having a little trouble this morning. Anyways they were all free downloads!

July
My very talanted mom did the water color on the suns and shorts of the penguins. Can i just say these make me happy!!!! Just look at them! thanx for all the help mom!
oky doky, stay tuned tomorrow for some wonderful pictures of hand crafted paper flowers made by my mom. You are gonna love them!! SERIOUSLEY!!!!!!

It's been 3 years.......

2008-05-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

since I lost my wolf Duna (Dune - a). I can not begin to express how much I still miss her. She was our baby! She was the most loyal companion and friend that anyone could ever have. Here is a picture of her. stay tuned tomorrow for an update on the stuff that I have been working on, but today is her day. also my pups are recovering nicely from their surgery although my wolf is taking a little longer because of the size of her incision I beleive - it's huge!

MEMORIAL DAY

2008-05-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day! Please take a moment of silence and be thankful.

Today I am still homebound with my puppies. they got spayed on Friday and are moving around much better today, but they want to lick their huge ass incisions and they are not wearing cones so I have to make sure they don't lick. They are sleeping quite a bit still and on pain meds so we plan on hanging out together this week!

today I will be finishing up some swap projects I hope! I am anxious to start on my disney ATC's. My catagories are Monster's Inc and Tink. I can hardly wait to start those! for your viewing pleasure I have posted a picture of me and Sully. Oh and can you believe that I absolutely heart sully and had not seen the movie until yesterday!!!!! What an adorable movie and character that sully portrays! And the little girl calls him "KITTY" in that sweet little innocent voice!

Well I am going to get started on my projects and I will post pictures of the projects either later or tomorrow!

Make it a wonderful day!

Mother's Day

2008-05-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

I've been sorta busy lately making things. I worked on some Mother's day cards and a wall hanging for my swapping pal on Two Peas. I also made a card for my mom, but I have to get the photo from her, then I will post it :) so here are a few things that I worked on last weekend:) the bottom 3 pics were for Mi'chel. she was my swap partner for 2peas Mother's Day swap. the top 2 was a card for My Mom-in-law. I had great fun using my new border punches from Martha Stewart!

I hope you all had a terrific Mother's day! If you're not a Mom, I hope you spent some time with your Mom. It's important to spend time with the best woman in our life! I spent the day scrapbooking with my Mom. It's always so much fun to create with her as she is a far better artist than I, and I can always rely on her to help me get my stuff just right! THANKS MOM! I LOVE YOU!

Time Flies

2008-04-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

I can't beleive how fast time goes by. Here it is already Wednesday and I have so much I need and want to accomplish! I need to scrap and alter a million things. I also need to mail 26 soup recipe books that I hosted for 2peas. I will be glad to get those all out of my living room and on to their proper owners!

I have been at my mom's cleaning out her junk and helping her make a scraproom! I don't even think we have a projected finish date but it is coming together and looking good and organized!

I visited a blog this morning and found a link to another blog that is giving away some blog candy, so if you read this go on over and leave a comment and get entered to win! The blog I'm talking about is All that glitter, go check it out! http://kath-allthatglitter.blogspot.com/2008/04/big-blog-candy-mountain.html

Well I guess I better get my butt in gear and go pay some bills or I'm not gonna have cable, phone, internet, or a cell phone!

I'll try to get back here sooner than later.
Hugs to all

Over the weekend...

2008-04-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

I went to Lake Havasu to see the in-laws :) They were vacationing there for a week from Utah. It was a very long day of driving and fun in the boat, but so worth it. I just wish we had been able to stay over night so that we could have had more time with them. We had to come home as we had no one to take care of the pups. I have posted a picture below of one very small area of the Lake!

the last time I had been there I was a teenager. It sure has changed! It has a population of 45,000 now and is quite a tourist attraction as The London bridge is there. Yes the original London Bridge was bought by the founder of the city and it was moved piece by piece and rebuilt in Lake Havasu. It's quite amazing!

I have been really bad about adding to this blog. I had another one but decided to change over to blogger instead. We'll see if I can try to keep up with this one.

Today, over on two peas there is a link to Dragon flaire Studios blog and if you link her blog in yours there is a chance to win a book. Her link is in my links up at the right hand corner. I would really like to have this hybrid art book with the digital goodies!

Well I hope you all have a great day if you read this!

today...tonight rather.....

2008-04-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight rather wil be a week since my son's best friend committed suicide and my son and a few others found him. I cannot even describe how devasted all of us are. we had no clue he was in trouble and had we known we could have gotten him through this..... or could we have? apparently tho there was a prior attempt and his girlfriend told no one. soooooooooooooooo shame on her and she will have to live with that.

Services are this Saturday and I know this will be the hardest day to get through.

On a more positive not I am trying to still create and have a million things to finish for some swaps!

Hopefully I will get back on here in a few days to load some pictures of some thigs I've done lately.