A Touch of Grace

Hi girls, I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July holiday weekend! We were at the beach and while it rained the entire trip, it was still very nice to get away and relax. 

I’ve placed all Spellbinders dies on sale for $16.25 and Cuttlebug dies on sale for $9.99.  All of your favorite nestibilities are marked down for one week only, supplies are limited, no rain checks, when they’re gone, they’re gone.  I have all JustRite on sale for one week as well, prices vary, discounts are 25-to-35% off. 

I now have several sets of these adorable clear stamps, Pergamano stamps, Prima flowers, as well as Kaisercraft pearls in stock.  All orders that come in while I’m away will be shipped on Friday as soon as I return. 

I will be travelling to Nashville with my youngest son, Daniel, this week and will be back Friday.  Daniel will be a senior in high school this coming year, we’re traveling this summer visiting college campuses. 

I’d like to share some photos of Daniel.  His high school years are flying by and soon, he to will be going to college and my nest will be empty.  Oh, how the years have flown by much faster than I have wanted them to!

Daniel is the boy on the left.  This picture was taken at one of his homecoming activities, October 2008, he’s 15 in this photo.

A little later in the evening Daniel changed his clothes.  He’s part of his class skit, he’s in the 10th grade.

The sophomore skit was a 1950’s themed skit, they were bruisers meeting up with the team’s rivals.

Their homecoming game was three days later.  Daniel has played football since 3rd grade.  He’s 6′, 195 lbs. at 15 years old. I have a telephoto lens that allows me to zoom in and get some great action shots.

Daniel was voted class prince his sophomore year.  No time to put on a suit, he escorted his princess in his football attire.

We’re skipping ahead to the following year, October 2009.  Daniel is now 16 and a junior in high school.  He decided to take a year off from football.  He took 3 AP classes, as well as 3 honors classes, and wanted to focus on his studies. Daniel was elected class president, inducted into the National Honor Society and was a Christian Ambassador, tutoring and mentoring other students, as well as performing community services in the Tampa Bay community.  He’s with his brother, Stephen, in the photo above.  We flew to Nashville for parents’ weekend at Vanderbilt.  I drug the boys to a cultural festival at Centennial Park, across the street from Vanderbilt’s campus.  The brothers are eyeing the food, I tell you these boys can put away the food. 

After much begging, I was able to get the boys to let me take some pictures, albeit grudgingly. The park has a gorgeous lake that is landscaped beautifully.

Oops, so hard to get their attention when a pretty girl walks by.

I love this photo of Stephen, he’s so happy and was teasing me terribly!  Stephen is 19, 5′ 10 1/2,” he wrestled in high school and participated in track and field. Stephen was also a member of the National Honor Society in high school, graduating at the top of his class with Honors.

This is one of my favorite photographs.  I can’t believe my guys are grown.  I ran way ahead of them and used a telephoto lens to get candid shots of them without their posing.  They’re walking across a lawn on Vanderbilt’s campus.  I wonder what Stephen’s saying to Daniel, they both look so intent.  The weekend was so sunny and gorgeous! The leaves were turning colors and dropping, I think Fall is my favorite time of the year. 

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree .  .  . LOL.  This photo was taken outside of Stephen’s dorm while we were waiting for him to return from class.  I was flitting about all over the place taking photos and couldn’t resist this shot of my husband and Daniel.

This picture was taken of Daniel walking on Vanderbilt’s campus.  Daniel is thinking about Vanderbilt as one of his choices, we’re flying up Wednesday morning and he’s touring the campus with a guide on Thursday.  He’s already visited U/Miami and U/Florida.  We will also be visiting Emory, Wake Forest, and Davidson.  What a busy summer I’m having!  Daniel is taking another 3 AP classes and 3 Honors classes again this year, and has decided to play football his senior year. He has a tough schedule ahead of him!  His senior year is going to fly by much faster than I want it to. 

Stephen will be returning to Nashville in mid-August and starts his junior year at Vanderbilt.  He’s studying civil engineering and plans to go on to architecture school. We’re so proud of him, he’s working hard and has maintained Dean’s List every semester.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I promise once things slow down, I’ll be back to posting some designs!

Paper Hugs,

Hi girls, I’m taking some time off to enjoy these summer days with my family while everyone is here. 

My son and I were looking at photos today that I have taken and he suggested I blog them to share with you a part of our tropical life here in Tampa. 

Above is a photo of our backyard.  We live in the northeasterly corner of Hillsborough County in a subdivision called Tampa Palms.  We literally live in a swamp.  Our neighborhood was a swamp 20 years ago.  Fill dirt was brought in and the houses are elevated above the level you’re looking at by about eight feet.  Our backyard gently slopes down to what you see here.  It’s very tropical and beautiful with water oaks and native palms.  A few of our neighbors thinned out the undergrowth on their lots, but most of us chose to leave the property in its natural state.  I’m a native Floridian and have lived here my entire life (with the exception of four years in New Orleans while my husband was in school).  As a child, my backyard was very similar to the backyard I now have.  I have many memories of playing in the woods with my brother.  My childhood woods were not a swamp and were safer (I think .  .  . LOL!).  I did not allow my boys to play in these woods, they’re filled with alligators, water moccasins, snapping turtles, wild boar, deer, wild turkey, raccoons, opossums, owls, etc., all of which have made their way into our yard at one time or another.  I think we have just about everything in our swamp, except Shrek.

This is Georgia, she’s my pride and joy.  Georgia is an English Rose, a David Austin variety.  Her official name is Teasing Georgia, I just call her Georgia.  She’s massive!  This Spring she had over 500 blooms.  She just started blooming when I took this picture.  She’s well over 8 feet across and at least 6 feet in height, if not more.

This is one of Georgia’s babies, isn’t it gorgeous!  Her color is a creamy apricot and her fragrance is divine!

A mature bloom; it’s absolutely stunning in its perfection!

There was a bee inside this rose.  After taking a picture I noticed it moving around and shook it out and then shot this photo.  I love the small bud hugging the mature bloom, so sweet!

This is a sweetly fragrant rose that grows at the front of my house.  I have nine bushes that grow directly adjacent to the portico.  It’s a yellow version of Knockout and I can’t for the life of me remember the name of it.  I was told it wouldn’t have a fragrance, but it does.  When all nine are blooming, the front entrance of my home is engulfed with the sweet fragrance. They bloom continually, some weeks with more blooms than others. 

We have beautiful Azaleas as well.  This year’s crop was profusely spectacular!

I love this photo, another one I wanted to share.  Doesn’t it took like the stamens are floating in thin air!

I couldn’t not provide photos of my Bird of Paradise, I mean how tropical is this!!!  They don’t have a scent, but their beauty more than makes up for it.  I have three plants surrounding a Foxtail Palm.  We had many blooms on this plant as well. 

A close up to show you the vibrant beauty of this tropical flower.

The Father’s Day cards I made were inspired by our tropical plants.  This year our coconut trees are abundantly providing us with fruit .   .   . did I mention that I cannot stand the taste of coconuts .   .   . LOL!  When one of those babies drop:  look out below, they’ll crack your skull!  Fully mature they’re about 9/10 inches in height and 6/8 inches in width.  They are hard and heavy.  The outer shell turns brown, nearly the color of Almost Cocoa.  When cracked open, you see the coconut that you see in grocery stores.  That shell has to be cracked upen as well.  Way too much work for me .   .   . LOL!  My hubby drills holes in them and they (he and his mother) drink the milk.

Our tropical hibiscus is a favorite of mine.  This beauty is a double ruffle.  The mature blooms span 5/6 inches across and are quite bold in color.  It’s hard to see the stamen in this photo, it blends in with the bloom.  It’s thick, the tips are a velvety red. 

I’ve grown up with Lantana.  We keep it planted because it stinks and keeps some of the bugs at bay.  It comes in several colors, as well as multi-colors.  I like the bright yellow.

Another plant that I use as a hedge is Plumbago.  It flowers profusely throughout the Spring and Summer, creating a beautiful hedge when pruned properly.  It’s gorgeous planted beside bright fucshia Bougainvilla.  My Bougainvilla was hit hard with the winter freezes this year, I don’t have any pictures to show you of it. I lost my orchids this year.  I had several beautiful plants on my patio that were attached to Christmas palms.  We also lost six of the Christmas palms.  We had several nights of below freezing temps this winter and no amount of covering saved them.  We’re in the process of replanting those palms and will be looking for orchids as well.  Once it’s finished, I’ll provide poolside pictures.  I now realize I forgot to take pictures of my Crepe Myrtles.  I’ll include those when I get the patio finished.

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t gardening.  My brother and I had a lawn mowing business when we were kids. My mom loaded our lawnmower in the back of our old station wagon and drove us to our customers’ homes. We mowed two lawns a day, five days a week all during the summer.  Back then we mowed lawns for the retirees that came to Florida for the summer months.  As we grew into our teen years, my brother moved on and worked with my dad in his auto repair business.  I then had the care of our lawn and started tending my first roses at the age of 14.  I can’t remember a time I didn’t have a passion for flowers and for gardening.  My love for all things floral spills over into my creative designs. 

Well, that’s it for now.  I’ll try to get up to my stamping room soon to start work on new designs.

I hope you’re enjoying the warm days of summer with your families. Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit.

Paper Hugs,

Hi Girls, I have a Father’s Day card I made for my dad to share with you.  I’ll be traveling up to spend the day with him today; he and my mom live three hours north of me.  I also made cards for my hubby, brother, and two nephews.  This year I went tropical with SU’s retired Balmy Breezes.  To make it simple (mainly, I ran out of time), I stayed with the same design for all the cards and changed the charms.  I used pineapple, seahorse and palm tree charms on the window shades.  

I was blog surfing the other day when I came across this totally adorable card designed by the super talented Amy Sheffer of Pickled Paper Designs.  I love Amy’s card and thought her sketch would be perfect for the stamp I chose to use.  I redesigned the window shade to match one I have in my home.  I used K & Co Blue Awning DP, which I think is perfect for masculine cards (and it’s a perfect color match for my banana leaves).

I embossed leaves that I punched from a MS leaf punch to resemble banana leaves.  I matched the brown with a Tommy Bahama tropical fan that I have in my Florida room.  I love the rich tobacco brown color I achieved.  The seahorse charms were were used on my nephews’ cards.

The palm tree charms were placed on my hubby and brother’s cards. Tim Holtz distress inks, PergaKit3D, Perga Glue and Zip Dry adhesives were used throughout the project.

The leaf spray is on the left side, I reversed them on some of the cards.  Embossing paper was used for the background papers and leaves.  I grouped a bunch of leaves together and embellished the leaf spray with linen thread and a small flower that I made with the smallest of the Dahlia nestie dies.  The stamens were made by clipping cardstock with paper snips into tiny strips and then rolling into a cylinder.  SU markers were used DTR on the stamps.  A Really Rust marker was used to color the stamens to match ink on the stamped image.

That’s it for today.  Wishing you all a wonderful Father’s day with your familes! 

Thanks so much for stopping by.