I Love My Auzzy Buddy

My friend Tracy Down Under had a friend come to US on vacation and she delivered a package of goodies to our St. Louis friend Dee. My package came from Dee Friday and I had to share what Tracy made and what I'm going to do with it.

First up, here's the journal Tracy made me along with some Purely Pomegranate ribbon that is retired in the US and a darling little Owly she crocheted. He now sits on my monitor stand, staring at me with his big brown eyes!

Here's a close up of the owlies Tracy made for Dee and I. A matched set! Sooooo cute!

Here's the open first page of the journal, along with my other two little "pressies" from Tracy - some deep purple pearls and a tiny little book that has 8 pages. I love my journal, especially my plans for it, the idea of which I also got from Tracy!

This morning, Tracy shared with me a link to Angie Juda's blog where she has made a You Tube video tutorial of a darling little hippo made out of punches. Check out Angie's blog at http://www.chicnscratch.typepad.com/. Angie has been making a punch book with all kinds of cool critters in it made with SU's punches. Can you guess what I'm going to be doing with Tracy's present? Perfect use for my little journal, doncha think? Thanks so much! Love you, Tracy!

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Agave Update, Etc.

I've been busy making samples and make and take kits for a workshop next Sunday, but I can't share those with you until after workshop. Don't want to ruin surprise! Until then, here's some new pics of the Agave plant just down the street. The first one is from May 17th, it's starting to show more branches for the flowers.

This second pic is from May 21st, looking like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree on top. As you can tell from the sky, it's been really gloomy down here, with tons of rain. I've been by a couple times since this pic, but it's been pouring! Still no flowers, though.

Speaking of pouring, there's a Drainage Retention Area (DRA) on the street I take to get downtown, a mile or so from our house. Ever since Fay last summer, we've been in a drought and the DRA has been just a big open field, no water in it all. I'd look at it after we'd get rain, but nada. Then we had a low pressure system in the Gulf, sending rain bands over Florida for a week. Record rain for May. Lots of flooding on Atlantic Coast side around Daytona. Here in Ocala, starting last week, it rained almost a foot, off and on for days. The DRA started to fill up, a bit at a time. First, some puddles in the grass on the bottom. Then more grass than puddles, then more puddles than grass, then this! A couple feet deep. Room for a few more feet, but looks like rain will be more normal this week. Our lawn has greened up and the drought is officially over.

Thanks for stopping by!

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Stamp Club Exchange Cards and Project

Holy cow! Three posts in one day!

What a turn out for our first meeting in our new venue at Priceless Scrapbooking. A big thanks to Tricia (who's last name just happens to be "Price!") for letting us have our meetings in her classroom and staying open past closing time to do it. I think it's a change for the better, now that Griffins will be a thing of the past. Check out Priceless at http://pricelessscrapbooks.com/ and sign up for their newsletter. Tricia is keeping up the Griffins' tradition, too, and giving us a discount on the night of the meetings. Thanks, Trish!

This first pic is my favorite Co-Prez, Miss Jeannie, being officorial (is that a word?). Being the photog, I don't have to be in the picture!

Here's another pic of our ladies. Lots of room for us all.

Lona did this month's project, a cute little treat bag turned into a white dinner jacket, complete with cummerbund, bow tie and a boutenniere. Here's a picture of Holly's finished project. Makes a great Father's Day gift or birthday or whatever. Thanks, Lona for a great project.

Here's my exchange card. This month's theme got mixed up with last month's theme, which was "Stamper's Choice," because we had to cancel last month's meeting due to Griffin's being closed. I made this CASE with brushed gold CS and shimmery gold vellum. See Lynda's blog at: http://stampingdoc.blogspot.com/ to see how I did it. I used SU's new Manhattan Flower embossing folder on the two front flaps and cut around them. Lynda used 12x12 CS and it went all the way across the front, but I didn't have that size in brushed gold.Wish I knew someone having a golden anniversary!

Here's the inside of my card. The vellum is a little wavy as I didn't have any vellum tape. Embossed the SU Fifth Avenue rose on the vellum and stamped sentiment from Sincere Salutations.

Pam couldn't come last night, but she had given me her dues and this exchange card for last month's meeting and I actually managed to keep track of it! Her "choice" was to use punches. I love the little pearl bodies, too. I think she used Martha Stewart's butterfly punch.

Lona made this card using a Kokopelli stamp. No one remembered what this little guy was, except he is from Arizona, but I managed to pull it out of my memory banks. Checked the spelling online and got one more fact. The fluteplayer is from Anasazi Indians. If you want to learn more, go to http://kokopelli.com/. Russel and I went to Cliff House many moons ago and saw Kachina dolls and Kokopellis in the museum at the visitor center.

Theresa W. (not sure Theresa Y. is still a member), was unable to attend, but sent her exchange card via Lona. Theresa used SU's scalloped edge punch, a wheel and her sentiment from Heard from the Heart.

Next is Jeannie's Queen Bee card. She used an interesting textured paper to echo the chicken wire stamp she used to evoke honeycomb. I love the little bee brads!

Therese made this cute little classic pick up truck card. Except for the color, it could be the Chevy truck I found my Russel under 31+ years ago! He was rebuilding the engine out behind our barracks. Will have to borrow that stamp from Therese!

Ella made this cute tiered platter of cupcakes. She used Cuttlebugged dotted swiss embossing folder and after coloring the cupcakes, she fussy cut one to pop it up. Yummo! Any day is a cupcake kinda day.

Linda did this bright little card. Colors in the pic don't do it justice. She used the Happy Birthday CB embossing folder and a bunch of punches to make the cake. Someone having a first birthday?

Linda's friend Ursula joined our club last night. She's a new stamper and made this gorgeous eggplant and yellow birthday card.

Tange made this tangerine card, using a couple of background stamps, punches and SU stamps. Tange - Tangerine! Gotta love it!

Another new member, Holly, made this popped-up bumblebee with glittery flowers and shimmery wings. Clever use of green ribbon for the stems!

Neva made this cute Spring Time card, applying glitter to the daffodils. Neva also decorated her envelope. I miss daffodils and tulips down here. Not really Spring without them. sniff

Rosie made this purple, pink, white and black Delight birthday card. Lovely layout and pretty pearl in center of flower she fussy cut and popped up.

Last, but not least, here's this cute birthday card from our new in March member, Gale. I love the sentiment. Here's hoping all my wrinkles are from smiles, too.

We lost some of our members from Citrus County, but have added five in the last few months, including Rosie and Theresa. I think we're gonna keep on keepin' on. New members, new ideas, lots of fun. Forgot to mention last night that we want to think about a new name. "Creative You and Images, Too" is such a handful. Put your thinking caps on and we will talk about it next month.

Thanks for stopping by. Also, you don't have to be signed up with Blogger to leave a comment. You can leave an anonymous comment, just sign your name in the body of your comment so I know who you are.

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Stamp Club ATC's

Last night's stamp meeting was very busy, with lots of exchange cards and ATC swaps from six ladies. There were so many pics, I divided them up into two posts. Here's the ATC's.

First up, the black and yellow and white daisies I made with SU's Flower, Daisies 2 die. I got inspiration for these from a lady's black blouse with yellow and white daisies all over it. An ah ha moment! LOL Next is Tange's purple Live, Laugh and Love ATC. This is almost Tange's mantra that she signs off all her e-mails, Live, Love, Laugh.

Therese did this next one. She also did one in pink. I like the Cuttlebugged base and the details of the lacy strip and the clip with the pearl.

Neva did this lacy collage using as main ingredient a paper doily.

Eleanor, who now wants to be called "Ella" instead of "Elle," made this cute little primping lady. She cuttlebugged the base and added some glitter to the mirror. "Ooh la la," indeed!

Jeannie, bless her little heart, brought in 10 different ATC's, all gorgeous, all using same colors, but still . . . 10! No room for all of them, so here's my two favorites. She used a very interesting gold trim and a couple of ladies that would work well on inchies for this first one.

This second one of Jeannie's uses gold mesh, and gold embossed gingko leaves, with gold edging on everything.

That's it for the ATC's. Maybe we can get more ladies interested in doing them next time.

Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Agave Plant

Just down the road from my house is this huge agave plant. We've lived here almost 4 years and this year is the first time it did this! Looks like a giant asparagus spear! Took this picture on May 3.

The giant spear started putting out little feelers a couple days ago and I took this picture last night. Will definitely be keeping my eye on it. I looked up the plant in a reference book at library and it said "spiny green plant, sharp tips, blooms occasionally." Yeah, like every few years.

Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)