Linda's Artful Touch

Happy New Year!

Well hello again, bet you thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth...lol! Nope, just busy, busy, busy with the holiday HOOPLA, we do Christmas BIG time at our house and it takes a lot of time and energy to get it all done, and this year I had a bug right at Christmas time...ugh...so not much time for crafting lately.

Aside from the bug though,  we had a great Christmas, it was the FIRST Christmas for baby Josh and baby Patrick our newest grandsons..and they were so cute, Josh at 7 months and Patrick was 9 months,full of wide eyed WONDER at all the excitement and fun things that were going on, babies are such a blessing!

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you a HAPPY 2010 with lots of blessings , health and happiness! With a new year beginning, it's always such a great time to step back and take stock of everything, our lives, homes, ambitions, bad habits..lol! So did you make any resolutions? I have a few of those, praying that I stick to them, and if you made some, I hope you stick to yours too! It's been really cold and windy here lately, and right now it's snowing and blowing...BRRR!

Until next time,

Linda

And So the Christmas Rush Begins...

I hope you all had a
wonderful Thanksgiving, our family did, we have two new members this year
Patrick David who is 9 months old and Joshua Steven who is now 7 months old,
we're so thrilled to have those new grandbabies!

It was great to have
everyone together, with two policemen in our family, sometimes the schedules are
really hard to work around and I know there are many families who are not
so blessed, that have loved ones far away from them and loved ones in our
military, who are serving their country on the holidays, that has to be so tough
on families. I pray each one of us takes time to remember those families and
pray for them and their loved ones. Well, did you eat too much, I sure did and
it was delicious ...we finished up the last of the smoked turkey and gravy and
dressing and sweet taters a couple days ago. The memories are lingering in my
head...lol! AND...so now the HUGE holiday rush begins...oh my, I already feel
behind!

Isn't it amazing how
before you even get the pumpkins and cornstalks off your doorstep, some people
have their entire houses lit up and their trees lit in their windows?? It seems
to get earlier every year, this year I saw lights and trees up before
Thanksgiving...I don't quite get it..but to each his own, I guess.
I remember when I
was growing up, my Mom always waited until about the 10th of December to
start decorating, I don't know why, but that's how she did it and it seemed we
always had plenty of time before Christmas, of course we always left our
tree up until New Year's Day too.

Maybe it was because we
always had a real tree, that she waited until the 10th and now days
most people have the artificial ones, I've never had an artificial tree, nor do
I want one, I'm not down on those who do have them, I just love the scent of the
real trees and the fun of having a different one each year to take
pictures of and the thrill of the hunt! We are probably going to get ours this
weekend hopefully, I'm a bit under the weather so hoping to feel better by then,
saw the doc today, got some medication, hoping it will kick in by the weekend!
I'm achey and have a really sore throat...ugh, hate this
stuff!

Since all the
Thanksgiving rush, I've not had time to craft much, but that will change this
coming week, when this procrastinating person will start Christmas cards...lol,
yes I know, every year I tell myself I will start them in January and every year
it's December, but oh well...as long as I get them done, it doesn't really
matter now does it?

Take care and God Bless
you



 

 

Meet Mr. Higgins...

While I'm still awake at 3:05am, thought I would take a picture of someone who has NO trouble whatsoever sleeping...lol! Meet Mr. Higgins, our outrageously spoiled Boston Terrier who owns the king sized bed and takes his part out of the middle...ROFL! He truly is a very very sweet and loving dog and has a special place in our hearts for sure, he is just ONE of many pets around here, I'll post more from time to time, we have three more dogs, and a cat name Skittles and eight parrots (did I mention that partidge in the pear tree???? lol lol!

Posting Tom again...lol!

Hmmmm, ok something went wrong with that last post, I posted it from my email and the picture is just NOT right, so here is "Tom the Turkey" again, I pray this one shows the whole card and no jibberish at the top of the post...so SORRY about that!

411 Challenge

 
I cannot believe how wonderful the sketch is for the 411 challenge, this is the first one I have done, and it's so much fun! I love this sketch so much in fact that I may use it for my Christmas cards this year (shock, no I have not done them yet...lol!) I hope you like my rendition of the sketch, I used my favorite SU Christmas stamp  set called "Winter Post"

 All products are SU except the little blue rhinestones, they are just some I had in my stash...

Papers: Winter white, Brushed Silver, and Ballet blue.

Inks: White craft, Ballet blue

Other: Two way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds glitter, and the fabulous SU Flourish texture plate for the Big Shot!

Had to battle the FLU bug...

So sorry for the long delay between postings, we've been battling the flu bug here ,not too much crafting has been going on, except I did have a great workshop at my friend Karma's house on the 26th, I didn't get sick until I got home that night, (thank goodness). It was a great workshop at Karma's brand new home, it was so lovely and we had yummy dip and pretzels, and a wonderful apple crisp with fresh hot coffee...mmmmm! We made two beautiful Christmas cards at the workshop, I'll post at least one of those tonight for you. Halloween was pretty unexciting this year, we always go to my oldest son Ryan's house and trick or treat with my grandsons Kael and Conner, but not this year, didn't want to make them sick! Thank goodness Sunday night the 25th we carved pumpkins with my middle son Jonathan and his wife Tara and our 8 month old grandson Patrick, drank cider and ate pizza, we got to do that much, there were also Jon's good friends Joe and Jen, and the sweet exchange student from Brazil Caroleena, she had never carved a pumpkin (they don't celebrate Halloween in Brazil) but she LOVED it and did quite a good job for her first one.

Jim and I carved one together, here's our masterpiece... 

 
 
 

 
So NOW here we go right into the HOLIDAY season, oh boy, lots to do, I feel behind already do you? Radio stations are already playing CHRISTMAS music, one of them started the day before Halloween, I could NOT believe it! What ever happened to Thanksgiving? I love Thanksgiving, such a warm, friendly holiday without all the gift hassles (dont get me wrong, I love CHRISTMAS) but Thanksgiving is a great day, time to give thanks for our blessings and get together with friends and family and eat a wonderful meal..we always have smoked turkey, can't WAIT for that and the my super mashed potatoes and yummy turkey wing gravy! YUMMMMMM!

Here's one of the holiday cards we  made at Karma's workshop:

We had fun with this one, we used the Big Shot (love that wonderful machine) we used the new embossing folder that is in the holiday mini catalog, it's called "Petals A Plenty" they are tiny pointsettias, and the Big Shot embosses so deeply. Our folders from Stampin' Up are wider than the other embossing folders, they are large enough to do a whole card front, instead of just a layered panel...nice if you're just wanting a fast and simple card! We also used Garden green cardstock and ink, and real red cardsotck and ink, the Baroque motifs stamp set (for that beautiful scrolly) and a greeting from the new  set in the holiday mini, that is so awesome, you get 12 stamps, 3 Halloween, 3 Thanksgiving, 3 Christmas, and 3 Valentine's Day, and they are all very nice , the set is called "Grateful Greetings" you'll find it on page 12 of the holiday mini catalog, if you don't have one, email me and I'll send you one out, or there's one to look at on my website, where you can also order any time day or night at www.lindagilliam.stampinup.net

I will be posting some really cute stuff coming up, so stay tuned and once again, sorry for the delay in posting, that flu bug is a DOOZY!

Blessings to you,

Linda

The verdict is in and it's the PITS...lol!

Well, I finally got out to the pasture to get some ripe wild persimmons off the tree to forecast our winter weather...now in my previous post, I showed you a pic of one of FOUR woolly worms that we've seen this year so far and  are all BLACK this year, not a good sign...most years they have brown bands, according to the old timers, the more brown bands the MILDER the weather, well MY woolly worms have NO brown this year.  Yikes...so on to the persimmon pits, for years my Mom, Dad and I would take treks to the woods in the autumn to check the wild  persimmon pits for the winter forecast,and I started doing the same thing with my three sons years ago, it's a family tradition as ole Hank Jr. says..lol!  Well, this year the news is NO better from the persimmon pits  than from the woolly worms, so I say...Molly put the wood on the fire...the pits have spoken! Now just in case you're not from these parts (as they say) the story of the persimmon pit goes WAYYYYYY  back and goes like this: inside every persimmon pit each  year when you split them open there is either a fork, knife or spoon...the fork means a mild winter, the knife means windy and cold (cuts like a knife) and the SPOON...it means we SHOVEL snow ...and you guessed  it, this year we have a SPOON! I opened about six of them to make sure and yeppers it's a SPOON for sure! Here's a pic of two that I took...so store in the cider Abner and stoke up the stove! ..lol!

The sun has returned...what a beautiful autumn day!

 

 

Well, good ole Sol finally returned to us today, it was gorgeous, in the high 70's and such a beautiful autumn day! After all the cold and damp it was a wonderful sight to see...it's been a busy couple of days, been working diligently in the new craft studio, painting some more furniture and  we've had family things going on AND I bought myself a piano! I took piano lessons for years and always had a piano, a couple years back, I decided I wanted an electronic keyboard with all the bells and whistles..well, I SOLD my piano, but soon after the new wore off the bells and whistles I was wishing for the good old wooden beauty of a REAL piano...to make matters worse, I boarded an antique upright for my son and daughter in law for almost a year, it was SO nice having a big piano to decorate for the holidays...reminded me of my childhood. So when they bought a house and reclaimed their prize, I was a bit forlorn...SOOO this weekend,  I took a look on Craig's list (love that place) and lo and behold..there was an antique upright Werner (Chicago made) piano for a mere $100.00...I called and met the NICEST lady name Jennifer, a retired school teacher who told me, she had planned to take lessons after her retirement but found she's busier than ever (isn't THAT the way it goes?) so she decided someone should have it that would LOVE it and USE it (woohoo...guess who that someone is) ME! It's paid for, now I have to throw myself on the mercy of my grown sons and friends to help move it...Jennifer was kind enough to hold it until I get that accomplished. SOOO I guess I'll be selling the electronic keyboard, don't think I'll get too nostalgic about that! lol..I cannot wait to get that big beautiful hunk of wood, felt, hammers and strings in the house!

On to some crafting,  our fantastic new digital imaging program  "My Digital Studio" from Stampin' Up was launched in our new Holiday Mini catalog...it's been available for you to purchase since the first of October...it's SUCH a fantastic program, it lets you make cards, calendars, scrapbook pages, books, and much more. Stampin' Up even has their own printing services, you just upload your project and they print it and VOILA...instant gifts...how great will that be for the holidays. You can create  your own cards too, like I did below and have them printed as well...this card took me all of ten minutes or so to create, course I didn't put an inside page to it yet but that's a snap also! Don't forget you can order "My Digital Studio" from my online web site 24/7 at www.lindagilliam.stampinup.net  
 

Where Is The Sun???

Hello Again...yesterday was a busy, busy but extremely FUN day here at the house, in the morning our friends Kristi and Mike Van Doren met us at one of our favorite places to chow down, Cracker Barrel ...we had a wonderful breakfast, with a little shopping in the Cracker Barrel gift shop of COURSE! We then bid Mike farewell as he works nights and had to get some sleep, Kristi and I then headed to the Scrap Nook for some GOODIE shopping, actually she was picking up some more items for her classes she is teaching in Topeka, Kansas in a couple weeks.

We then came out here where she graciously helped me put away a BUNCH of crafting stuff, we organized, sorted, laughed, and had a wonderful day just going through stuff and deciding the best home for it, my hubby Jim (he's a jewel you know) got the rod put up for my punches...WOOHOO! So things are rolling quite nicely, still a lot to go, but a LOT further than we were! After working most the day, Jim had to leave for work, Kristi and I headed for La Fiesta, one of our fav mexican eateries...for dinner and then I drove her home. Why is it , work is always MORE fun with friends? Thanks SO much Kristi for the help and the fun day in general!

So here are a couple of pics of the work in progress, let me know what you all think...I'm SO excited that this is finally getting close to being finished!

Crisp Sunny Autumn Days...

Well, when all was said and done, some people in our area had over 10 inches of rain...we had about 8 here, so enough already...lol! Last night it got down to 35 degrees so we had to make a mad rush to get our houseplants in. For now, they are in the garage, we'll try and get them to their winter spots in the house later today sometime.  I guess those wooly worms were right, we're going to have an early and cold winter, I've seen about four of them this year and they are ALL solid black, first time I've ever seen that, they usually have a stripe and you can forecast the winter by how WIDE or NARROW the brown strip is..well this year, there is NO stripe at all...and their fuzz is really long...look at this
So now, I have to check the persimmon pits to see if there's a fork , knife or spoon inside it and our winter forecast will be complete! I love doing this stuff every year, it's a tradition and just plain fun! Today though, was a perfect sunny and crisp October day, just the kind that autumn is known for..clean air from all the rain and just a great day!

The craft studio is moving right along, Jim and I got all figured out today what is going to go where, and that was HALF the battle I think..we're still working on staining woodwork and bolting bookshelves to the walls..the actual moving of all the craft goodies is really going to be a job...lol! But I'm really excited and I will post pictures of my craft studio as soon as I get it in some semblance of order. I am really also looking forward to this project being done, I have SO many great crafting ideas in my head that I want to get started. My good friend Karma is having her Stampin' Up workshop in a couple weeks, so I am getting ideas for that as well. She has a beautiful new house that will be such a fun place to have the workshop, she is diligently working on finishing moving in and getting it all decorated with the prettiest things~!

Speaking of decorating, I made a cute decoration today, picked up a pumpkin shaped basket the other day and put it together with a some autumn goodies, have it on my wooden trunk in the living room...I thought it came out pretty cute, I also was burning my new Yankee candle tonight with the beautiful autumn glass shade that my good friend Gwen got me for my birthday! Here's a pic of both of those things...
Well, that's about it for today...hope you all have a wonderful weekend...God bless,Linda