Tuesday, September 25, 2007

I am so tired

For those of you who haven't seen the link yet, here's some photos of the fire:

Fire Photos

DH and I are totally exhausted ~ we are being forced to go through the tedious, heart-wrenching process of attempting to list each and every item we had in our home along with how long we had it, where we purchased it,and what it's replacement value would be. Initially, I had assumed with a total loss such as ours, the insurance would just pay out the max. amount of the policy .....WRONG. Think: how many pairs of shoes did I own, what brand were they and how long have I had them? How many LeapPad books did Kelton have? How many bottles of aftershave for DH? What the heck was in our kitchen drawers? How many photos on the wall? Type and price of their frames? Furniture is the easiest, other than the fact that the store where we bought a lot of our stuff has gone out of business, and I don't know the maker of a lot of things.

Today I am going out there again to sift through the ashes with a shovel and see if I can find things that remind me of what we had. It's a losing battle though, as the chimney collapsed down into the main part of the house and virtually destroyed even pieces of anything that may have been left. Dangerous too ~ I now own my first-ever pair of safety shoes with steel soles....put a nail into my foot the first day we were out there.

Also, we have found that we don't have enough insurance to rebuild. The first (verbal) estimate we have gotten is more than double our policy max.

And what a weird feeling to realize you suddenly don't have clothing....our daughter Briar found 3 pairs of PJ's that might fit Kelton; I'm picking them up today. The other morning it was cold outside and I realize I don't own a single sweater or sweatshirt.....a friend has now given me a hoodie. And we have a meeting to go Oct. 9 where we cant' wear shorts, so I'm going to have to try to find time to go to Goodwill or somewhere and get outfits for all of us.

I can't believe how little support we have from our families. Dh's mother hasn't even called us, and my parents although they have spoken to us about it haven't offered any support.

Anyway, that's my tale of woe for today. Thanks for listening.

Despite it all, we are very grateful....the outcome could have been so much worse. We are all safe and together and that's all that matters.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Our Home

 


This happened Wednesday. I will not be blogging for awhile, but please keep checking back and I will be back asap. I have a couple saved blogs and will post them in the next few weeks just so you don't forget me until I can be back. No one hurt, thank god, but right now my priority is my family.
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Monday, September 10, 2007

Jen's Challenge


A card from a T-shirt? when I saw this picture as an inspiration challenge on a blog I visit, I was intrigued. My first inclination was to do a one-layer card and try to match the pattern exactly with my stamps, but then I started thinking "Cricut" and "embellishments" and using up small scraps of paper ~ here's the result:


BG cardstock is Tempting Turquoise and Positively Pink (I think). I ran the pink through my cuttlebug with the Bloom Dots embossing template, and cut the flowers from my George cartridge set at the smallest size (1"), using the Outline feature. Scalloped circle is from Mini Monograms (Cricut). Stems and leaves are from the Petal Prints stamp set, using Old Olive ink. The plastic flower accents are buttons that I picked up at Jo-Ann's last winter and cut the shanks off the back. Sentiment is from Happy Harmony.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

First Trip to the Dentist



I had a lot of fun doing this sketch challenge! I was really excited when I found the blue paper in my ScrapRack, since it went so perfectly with the BG paper that came with the little boy scrapbook that I planned to put this layout in. Since I only have 1/2" and 1 3/8" circle punches with nothing in between, it didn't look right when I interspersed the larger and smaller circles, so I just used two of the large circles for interest. Initially, I planned to use buttons to form the circle, but then remembered my Typewriter Alpha stamp set, and decided it, along with the Block Alphabet from All Night Media, would be perfect for the title. The Typewriter Alpha is actually square blocks, but I used my 1/2" circle punch to make rounds instead. The accent circles were stamped with 2 Stampin' Up sets ~ Little Pieces and Big Pieces. They are designed to coordinate, so that was easy.



Have you ever used the color combo site at Scraptitude? That's where I got the ideas for the colors I used here....more mustard, really rust, creamy caramel and brocade blue.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Warm Winter Wishes Pop Up Card



When I saw this pop up technique as a challenge on SCS, I knew I had to make one! Although the instructions were 12 pages long (yikes!), it turned out to be an easy card to make, and a lot of fun to pop up. (If you would like a tutorial, please LMK). The greeting is hidden until you pull on the ribbon at the top. My DH got a big kick out of popping it up and hiding it quite a few times....go figure.

This card is made with Always Artichoke, Bliss Blue and Barely Banana cardstock, the same colors of ink plus Cameo Coral, and some ribbon that I colored with an Always Artichoke marker. Honestly, I don't know why people buy all different shades of ribbon when it's so quick and easy to color white ribbon and get the exact shade you want. Stamp set used is called Snowflakes. There is also a matching brass template for this set, so I think I'll try one of these cards using the brass template instead of stamping the background. Then I think I'll substitute Real Red for the cameo coral to make it look more Christmas'y (is that a word...LOL.

What do *you* think?

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Thanksgiving Invite


For the last three years, we have had a potluck Thanksgiving meal at our campsite. Last year it grew to 20 people! Somehow, a rumour got around that we were not having it this year, so IMHO the best way to dispel the rumour was to make written invitations. Any excuse to stamp, right? Anyway, I used this turkey stamp that I won in some blog candy. It's made by Cornish Heritage Farms and, I must say, it's a really nice stamp. I did some very quick watercoloring with garden green, pumpkin pie, more mustard and creamy caramel to make little "Tom" come alive, then added a strip of Always Artichoke stamped with the same color ink. The maple leaf stamp is from some unknown dollar stamps that I picked up a few months ago. Sentiment is also from the dollar store, from a set called "Words of Expression.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Our (Stick People) Family



Recently I had a chance to get together with some friends and share stamps. I used an idea that I saw on Heather Summers' blog to make a sign featuring all of our family as stick people. Heather's used a 5x7 format, but with 9 kids, 2 adults and 2 pets, my sign just looked a bit too cramped, so when I found a 4x12 frame at the dollar store, I decided it would be perfect.

It was so much fun making this sign. Here's a brief tutorial: First, I stamped baby Kelton, and then masked him so that he would fit nicely between mom and dad. Then I stamped the rest of us, starting from the feet up. I cut the lettering on some spare CS with my Cricut, using the Opposites Attract cartridge, then used the cutout as a stencil, masked my entire family and sponged Going Gray ink onto the cutout spaces. Finally, I colored everyone using markers and a blender pen, shaded beneath their feet using the same method, and wrote in the names with my favourite black Zig marker. I'm so happy the way it turned out.