~^*HAPPY NEW YEAR!!*^~

~ this posts brings many happy thoughts for a wonderful New Year for everybody.

I know that I am about an hour and a half early, but after a nearly 12 hour drive
to get back to North Carolina.. after spending a great week and a half in Tennessee..
and spending an hour grocery shopping and using up all those coupons that expired
today.. I am going to indulge in a hot shower and a warm bed to rest my weary bones!

Tomorrow I have a bunch of things to put away.. but I don't have any thing to really
do because my house is already clean and Steve offered to make some chicken wings,
potato salad and I said I'd make some of the cream cheese, chili and cheese dip.. yummy
with tortilla chips.

It's ball games.. and some Wii game playing with the kids tomorrow ~ I seen jammies as the dress code tomorrow.

Have a blessed, safe and happy New Year!!

thanks for looking ~



have a great airborne day!


God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Christmas Card ~ and ~ some Valentine Day Cards

We are in TN for Christmas and last night and this morning I was busy making some cards. I made the Santa Claus card using a Inkadinkado stamp set that Steve bought me last week. The Valentine's Day cards are made using a retired Stampin' UP! stamp set. It was bitter cold here today and is even colder tonight. We are waiting for our son to get here, he is coming up from Louisiana. Hope all has a warm and safe holiday week.








thanks for looking ~



have a great airborne day!


God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Blueberry Muffins ~ and a Christmas Trip!!

We are getting ready for a little road trip to spend Christmas in Tennessee with ALL my family.. my husband, all four children (my oldest is coming up from Louisiana), my mom, my dad, both of my brothers and their children.. what a glorious holiday it will be.

Tonight as I am finishing up laundry.. it never seems to end around here... and I was out in the shed with Steve while he is gathering up hunting clothes, tree stands, etc.. I was thinking of making something to take to TN with me.. and I decided to make some blueberry muffins..

I made these two dozen and then had some left so leftover and have a batch of minis in the oven right now.

I am hoping to do some stamping in TN, I really need to get busy making Valentine's Day cards for deployed troops.. I am going to toss a bunch of stuff in a tote and take it with me.. what comes of it we'll see.

I hope everybody has a wonderfully Merry Christmas!

God Bless everyone this holiday season.

thanks for looking ~



have a great airborne day!


God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Snowmen Candy Canes for Christmas parties

I seen a week or two ago on someone's blog (sorry I can't find my piece of paper that was laying here with the blog name on it) and they had made some cute pieces to decorate some candy canes. Yesterday Jackson came home and asked if for his "winter celebration" party on Thursday if he could bring in some candy for his class. I had already gone the night before to Walmart and got 10 boxes of cherry candy canes to decorate for the kids classmates and also to hand out at the Battalion Christmas party on Thursday night. The first picture is the group of 20 something I made for Jackson's class.. and the second is the batch I worked on till nearly 10 last night. I have either one or two boxes left to decorate and they will all be done. I have the Snowman Soup baggies to fill as well, we made a trip specific this afternoon for marshmallows and somehow forgot them again!

We found out yesterday, that this past weekend one of Taylor's school classmates died. She was only 11 years old and I understand she had respiratory problems. Please remember her family in prayer.

thanks for looking ~



have a great airborne day!


God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Christmas Tree ~ and ~ Friend in Iraq Candy for Kids

We finally got our Christmas tree up and decorated ~ yeah! Steve put it up yesterday and we had planned on decorating it then.. however we were without lights... they were no where to be found. I looked in all the boxes that were still packed in the house and out in the garage.. no such luck. Steve went and looked in his shed out back to see if they were in some of the tubs out there.. again, no such luck. So he and the kids went to Wally World today to buy some lights. Then tonight as we go to put the lights on.. I realize we have no garland either.. and the stockings were no where to be found! ugh! even though all our boxes were checked off on our moving inventory.. I think someone must've thought they were deserving of our belongings. The Christmas stuff is probably where my rectangle PC stoneware piece is and my warm and snugly robe is! oh well. It's not the end of the world, so I won't be loosing any sleep over it.

Our tree is up, decrated with our traditional Red, White and Blue lights and lots and lots of ornaments.. we have so many ornaments that half a box is still packed with them.. We could decorate two trees.. and our living room is so big that we have room for another one.

Our tree isn't against the wall.. you can actually walk around it.. leaving it out made it easier for the kiddos to hang the ornaments.. which really ended up being me and my oldest daughter.

Here is it ~

About a month and a half ago Steve got a call from one of his Army buddies that we were stationed with back at Fort Leonard Wood. He asked him if there was anything that he needed and he mentioned about some bags of candy to hand out to the Iraqi children. Since I had bought so much for Halloween and we ended up at the Army Soldier show that night (only giving out candy to five kids).. and I always buy extras for the kids to take to school to hand out to their classes.. I had plenty. I filled one of the big flat rate priority mail boxes.. that sucker was packed full of candy, we emptied the bags so that we could get more in the box.. a card to say "hi" and a bottle of Monkey Butt Powder for Alan! ha ha.. the box weighed nearly 15 lbs. A few days ago he had emailed us some pictures and I asked him if he minded if I posted them here.. he said sure. Hi Alan ~ hope that the kids enjoyed the candy!!

thanks for looking ~



have a great airborne day!


God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Bag Toppers using Nestabilities Labels 1

I got the Nestabilities Labels 1 set last week.. I had ordered them back in September and they took the slow boat from China to get here... but they got here. Right after I had ordered them, I had realized I could cut out the same shape using my Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge.. the one that looks like the Stampin' UP! Top Note Bigz Die. I wanted to see how they would work out to make some bag toppers, so I thought I'd cut out a couple real quick tonight and gave it a whirl... while enjoying listening to a Detroit Red Wings hockey game via internet radio.. Go Wings!! (just a shout out to all my fellow Wings fans!) I cut out the blue ones and then cut out one in white in one size smaller.. I used the Scor Pal to score the blue ones and then cut the white one in half.. stamped some images, did a quick color in with Copics and a glitter pen and glued them on. I have all the stuff to make some snowman soup, and just need to put them together.. I am going to let my kids do because they love to do things like that.. and they can give them out to teachers at school.

thanks for looking ~



have a great airborne day!


God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Christmas ~ Season's Greetings Penguin Card

We went on sort of a road trip this past weekend and went to Charlotte/Concord, NC. to the Concord Mills Mall. While the guys were in Bass Pro Shop, us girls went browsing the mall. We stopped into an A.C. Moore store and picked up an adorable Inkadinkado stamp set that has Penguins and Christmas sayings.. it is so cute!

This card started out using the sketch challenge on SCS, but my main image was too big and I had to add to it and the only thing left of the sketch was the three panels and scallop.. it's okay.. I ended up with this card that is going in the card box.

I used Basic Grey Figgy Pudding paper scraps that were laying on the desk leftover from another card.. Kiwi Kiss, Red Riding Hood and Always Artichoke, I can't remember the blue cardstock name.. it's one of the In Colors.. goodness, drawing a blank isn't any fun! I used the scallop circle punch, a 1 1/2" circle punch, paper piercer and mat with template.. some nestabilities snowflakes and a rhinestone brad.

thanks for looking ~



have a great airborne day!


God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them