Reality Check

This past weekend was a dramatic one to say the least. Marshall and I broke up with a not-so-good friend (it was a very long time coming), and then suddenly lost a very close friend. The breaking-up part is actually a great thing, the guy is a douche; it's the death of a wonderful and caring person that has me feeling a bit depressed this week. Our dear friend Charlie Campbell passed away suddenly Sunday night from an aneurysm at the young age of 55. He leaves behind the love of his life, and two beautiful children Marshall and I have become close with. The funeral is tomorrow, and I'm not sure we'll be able to hold our composure during the services.

This week has been very tough on the two of us, but it's also shown me how lucky I am to have such a wonderful and caring husband. This week Marshall has spent a considerable amount of time setting up a trust fund for Charlie's two children. Something no one asked him to do, but something we're quickly realizing how important it's impact will be on the family. I keep thinking about Charlie's wife this week, and how crushed she must feel to have the love of her life ripped away so suddenly. It just isn't fair. I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around it. It makes me want to hug and kiss and embrace my husband every second of every day, and tell him how much I love and appreciate him. It's a huge reality check, that life is precious and sometimes too short. So, to all of my friends and family, something I should say more often: You all are awesome, and I love you!

Charlie Campbell - you will be missed by many.

Citrus Flowers

Ever had one of those weeks where you were left with zero energy to do anything fun once the weekend came around? Well, this week was one of those weeks. Before I start blabbing about the boring stuff, how about I show off this super cute card I just made for Jen's Sketch for you to try!


I'm finding it easier and easier to participate in these super fun challenges. And the more I participate, the more I love the cards I create!!! This is the second card I created for my sweet friend I mentioned in my previous post. She needed a graduation card for a friend of hers graduating in early education. I'm not sure if this is what she was looking for, so I might end up making another card before I send them her way. I had envisioned a card a little on the juvenile side with some sweet pastel colors and cute ribbon for the occasion. Either way, I love the colors that I ended up using - so bright and summer-ey!

I can't believe I used three, count that, THREE patterned papers with this card!! Un-heard of in my world! I'm lucky if I end up using one patterned paper and a fancy ribbon, but I finally went for it and used three sheets of patterned paper out of my new DCWV Citrus Stack I bought last week. I am in love with this paper and find myself making excuses to use every piece in this pack. The stamp is from my current favorite collection - the $1 bin at Michael's, along with the ribbon. So - what do you think?

Work has been pretty crazy lately. I know I haven't really talked much about work other than that trip the DH and I took to Cali in January. I promise I'll get to it since I really do love my job and dont mind talking about it at all. But with the addition of a few new items at work, the soon approaching move to the new house, and a few random life altering events going on, I've found myself longing for a vacation away from everything these days. But alas - I can't escape my life just quite yet; maybe after we're all settled in the new house. After all, the mark to celebrate 3 years of wedded bliss is quickly approaching and even though we won't be celebrating it on the exact day this year (which will be the day after move-in day), maybe we'll be able to take a vacation of some sort shortly after to celebrate our anniversary along with the addition of our new home.

The Sweetest Thing....

This will be a quick late night post for me. A sweet friend of mine recently 'placed an order' with me for a few cards for some upcoming event's she had going on. The first is a wedding shower card using two of my favorite colors!!! I've linked this one up to The Sweetest Thing blog using the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #65 (SSSC65).


You can't tell very well here, but the green floral paper is oh-so-sparkly!!! I just love the way this turned out. I tried something new on this card too - a 3D paper flower. It didn't turn out just as I had imagined, but I think it's pretty neat-o either way. I used a flower paper punch, and punched out about 10 flowers. After I crinkled them up a bit and then flattened them all out,I stacked them all on top of each other, poked a tiny brad thru the middle of them all, and slapped it right on top of my polka-dot ribbon. Easy as pie! That's it from me for now, I still have one more card to make for my dear friend, and a few other cards to share that I made over the past weekend.

Double Duty

Lately I've been making a ton of baby cards, and I think it's about time I invested in another 'baby' stamp! I haven't quite decided who this one is going to yet, my cousin or one of my best friend's sister. Lucky for me they are both having boys, but either way I'll still have to make a second card! No prob-lem-o!!!
I made this card for the TCP Tuesday blog hop, and Jen's Sketch for you to try. Two birds, one stone. Yay me! This one was pretty easy, except for cutting out my oval (and that horridly crooked bow). Now that 1/2 of our belongings are packed, I can't seem to locate my cutting mat I use to make cards on. I ended up resorting to using the lid to a Rubbermaid container, which hasn't worked in my favor yet. I really like the pattern Jen came up with, and anticipate using it again!

In House News: The closing date for our townhouse has been pushed back a month!!! It makes me a little nervous, but at the same time I'm super happy that we won't be homeless for a month now, but instead only a weekend. There are so many other positives to the later townhouse closing date like more time to pack, and less $$ spent on a storage unit but I feel like I'll be a nervous nelly up until we're officially closed on the townhouse. Well, cross your fingers!

The Thank You Card Parade

I'm not too happy with the way this one turned out, but it is what it is. The DH and I closed on our new house yesterday (YIPPIE!! - more on that later), but I completely forgot to bring a Thank You card to closing to give to our realtor. I've been making a few thank you cards recently in anticipation of giving them out to our friends and family members that help us with the move. I knew I needed to stock up since I probably won't be able to make any cards once I pack all of my crafting supplies up. What I failed to do was make a non-girly thank you card...oops. So after closing yesterday I quickly whipped up this guy to send to our awesome realtor, Brad, which officially marks the beginning of the thank you card parade.

I'm linking this card up to the CardPatterns blog since I used a modified version of Sketch #57. I guess I'm not happy with the way it turned out because I find it so very difficult to make a masculine card. Not using bright and pretty blues, pinks, and purples is very hard so this time I tried to stick with yellows, greens, and browns. I should probably make a few more masculine thank you cards just in case - it's always nice to have a wide variety of cards stashed away for last minute needs.

Back to house news - Closing went well yesterday without any problems. Since we're renting the house to the old owners for two months it doesn't feel as exciting as I thought it would. It was nice to be able to look at the house one last time before we move in yesterday considering I had only seen it once. We got a pretty good idea of how we'll arrange the furniture in the living room and office. It also made me realize I need to go back to the drawing board with some previous decorating ideas. June can't come fast enough.