What a beautiful day!! Who would guess it could be sunny and 70 degrees here on the East Coast just before Halloween?!

My beautiful daughter, Carrie, and boyfriend Matt are working at the World Series in Philadelphia until (or IF) it heads back to Tampa next week. They are broke and sold off season tickets on eBay for $1500! Yay!

Matt is the only guy I know who has such luck to reluctantly sell off the prized tickets then fall into an opportunity to work for Major League Baseball at the games now so he gets to go to all 3 games in Philly! Today, they are filming something for TV with an unknown TV star and this mom is dying to find who the star might be. Only Carrie would forget! Here's a sweet photo of the cutie taken with Matt's IPhone...

Carrie has quite an interesting list of life experiences for a single gal who's 26! She's an alumni Katrina volunteer who worked in St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans with her university and Habit for Humanity dismantling the insides of houses. Hopefully, she'll finish college on time in the 10 year plan we've chuckled about! Her youngest cousin, Gabrielle, has just gone off to college so I'm just wondering who'll finish first???

Scrap-A-Latte Design Cafe & Alaska

Whew! The newly revamped selling group I belong to have finally finished all the changes though I am still madly making logos when time permits! It was difficult to complete thanks to a lax graphic designer for hire who only finished part of the work and no longer answers email nor completed logo 2. The one here is one I made and actually taught myself the html and figured out to add movement which you see on the steaming acronym "SALDC."

More than 3 months have passed since my last post! I am so sorry for anyone stopping by since our vacation to AK. What a hoot to come home to the big news from AK...I can't bring myself to repeat it here...I know you all know too!

It was a tremendous cruise. The temps. were fairly normal for AK running in the high 40s & 50s with few sunny days but completely enjoyable. Fran & I opted for a 2 week cruise up the Inside Passage and back and were thrilled that everyone we met on the 2nd legged said they wished they had done the same. Getting into Denali was difficult and tedious and not worth the 6 hr. drive in a school bus per the other folks so we felt pretty good considering our dear friends, George & Gina had done just that and both more or less agreed.

I highly recommend Holland America for AK and especially our little ship the Zaandam. Food and service were wonderful though I can't believe I was tired of eating by the end of the cruise!

College Fjord & Glacier Bay were awesome. Ketchikan was our favorite port with the quaint shops on Creek Street and the incredible Aleutian Ballad fishing boat we were set for both stops. The Aleutian Ballad is the fishing boat made famous on the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch". The crew took us to see seals, eagles, octopus, starfish, etc. George & Gina were right, it was the best part of our journey. We loved it so much we bought our son, Justin, a beautiful jacket for his birthday and hopefully one day he'll get to ride it too since he has just returned from his first cruise this weekend!

Please be sure to check out the links for great paper crafts on eBay and visit the new blog for Scrap-A-Latte Design Cafe (SALDC).

More soon, promise!!

Time to Think Pink (click here for more info.)

The Pink Charm exchange has come to a close and I got them in just under deadline! Watch for a photo soon. I literally finished them the day I got back from Vancouver & Alaska. It gave me ample time to ponder the completion of the design and I was happy with the results because I wanted something cheerie and with our hostess, Amber's input in mind...I tried to give them some bling.

Here's a fun little summer layout.

Its hard to believe the time has arrived for our departure for Vancouver, BC tomorrow. I did get airfare, finally, and great rates too. Our good friends from CA, George & Gina, will meet us tomorrow night with embarkation on the Zaandaam on Sunday 7/20. It should be a blast!

The extended weather forecasts say we will have rain and weather in the 40s - 50s the entire trip. That's a bummer and caused me to unpack and regroup. Hopefully, we will be blessed with a couple nice days somewhere. Thankfully, the ship has a retractable roof over the pool so we can have some fun no matter the weather. The wonderful spa overlooks the ocean and I'm planning to be found there as often as possible.

Bonnie...if you look in on this keep checking back. Now that I know someone interested in papercrafts will be looking in...I'll be sure to post some patterns and photos related to scrapbooking and altered arts real soon.

!!!**Happy Fourth of July**!!!

Happy Fourth of July everyone! DH & I just returned from a fun day with two of our kids and one pretty special grandgal. It was lots of fun.

Sunday, July 6th kicks off "Christmas in July" with the PBSTR Design Team so be sure to click the link to the right to check out all the cool stuff! This will be my last few days of listing before a little summer hiatus so be sure to return to see what's up early in August.

Greetings from Fenwick Island

The off-season is quickly slipping away...this is our time to paint, refresh, etc. for the short season of rentals which begins in earnest Memorial Day weekend. This year, our first renters are Carrie & Co. with a heavier than normal June to follow.

It is hard to believe that this is our 7th season. Heavens! Where have the years gone? Thanks to the gasoline crisis our summer has been difficult to fill and as of today, there are still 2 prime weeks open. Thankfully, June has been better than normal and will help offset the vacancies in July & August.

In July we head off to Vancouver, BC for 2 days before a 14-day Alaskan cruise. AND I still don't have airfare booked! We are worried about leaving the 2 dogs but our neighbor has promised to take good care of them. Our 2 princesses are very spoiled and will be pretty depressed without us.

Mother's Day last Sunday was divine! The kids took Fran & I to Deerfield Country Club for brunch. What a treat! The food was great and the company even better. Little Miss Robin was dressed to kill and sweet as ever. We love and cherish every minute spent with she and the kids. Big Daddy Mike has a new job and is traveling most of the time so it was extra special that he was able to be with us all.

<- This was a real "Kodak" moment for Gramma! Robin doesn't like me to take her photo because of the red-eye light on my camera but thankfully, the restaurant was so sunny I was able to turn off my flash to get this great shot of her.

March 21, 2008

HELLO SPRING!

Heavens! Nearly a month has passed since I last logged anything on this page. All is going well and believe it or not, the desk has not been assembled yet. It is Good Friday and my Christmas present is still boxed and sitting in various locations around the county. Hopefully, April will not pass before it is up and functional!

The last I.C.E. charms and pendants have arrived and are fabulous! My favorites are always from fellow EN'er Sheela in New Zealand. They are as clever as she is cool! I'll soon post a few photos.

Next Saturday my sister and I are off for a week in Las Vegas! Yahoo!! The DH was not interested in joining us so its just us two gals and my friends George & Gina from San Diego will pop over for a couple days to visit and celebrate their anniversary. I can't wait to see "Love" Cirque du Soliel...it should be a blast!

Mission Accomplished!

My kids gave me this wonderful craft table for my studio this past Christmas. However, they did not provide assembly so it has been sitting in the foyer for over 2 months now as I sit daily taking over the dining room and kitchen tables. There is hope on the horizon! I called on a wonderful service in my area www.snapzingo.org to have them pick up the remaining parts from Carrie's home in Middletown and to assemble. Hopefully, it will be together in the next couple weeks. I can't wait!!

February 2008 I.C.E. Art Charm

It's such a relief to be finished at last. I'm not so good with juggling deadlines now that I'm out of the design field and I have 3 items to complete by February 28th. Yay, two down one to go!

I created this out of shrink film which I sanded on the shiny side, stamped in black, antiqued edges, then baked. A Swarovski crystal in a silvertone bezel were glued in place after baking and both sides of the charm & edges were coated with Diamond Glaze to finish.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I always laugh at those memorials in the newspaper and find myself thinking about them as I write now, but here goes anyhow...Today you would be 80...its hard to imagine but Carol & I think you wouldn't have changed much. You sure looked young and got around better than the 2 of us. Thinking of you always...with love.

Greetings and Thank You!

Hello friends and fellow enthusiasts! I hope you will stop by frequently to leave a comment or check to see what's new at eBay and ETSY for myself and fellow members of PBSTR.

PBSTR is a wonderful design group of artists who share wonderful scrapbook layouts, paper piecings and other paper crafts on eBay. Be sure to click on the link to check out what's new. I feel fortunate to be part of this terrifically talented group of friendly artists.

Enjoy the slide show of some of my artwork from the last year...

I am also a member of I.C.E. (International Charm Exchange) and Ephemeral Notions. These are groups I belong to exercise the fun side of my creativity. We are also kindred spirits who love to make art of all sorts but especially handcrafted art charms, and all sorts of altered and ephemeral arts. Here's a photo of a charm I made recently for a swap with ICE: