July Stamp Club

These are the cards and pages we did at Stamp Club today, and we had so much fun! Congrats to Debbie who was our "Mystery Hostess" winner. She will receive $35 in free SU merchandise and a level 2 hostess stamp set out of the BRAND NEW CATALOG!! I'm jealous. This is an up close shot of the texture plate images that were on the white cardstock. They are so pretty, and such a bargain since you get 6 sets of images in the texture plates pack! As always, click on the pictures to see a bigger, more detailed picture!

Theses are the scrapbook pages we did, and I have to give credit where it is due -- I expanded these from an 8 1/2 X 11 page my upline Jessica Wilsted made 3 or 4 years ago as a swap for Stampin' Up Convention. She had an extra, and I loved it, so expanded it to what you see now. I "dirtied" up the vanilla cardstock with a sponge and Creamy Caramel classic ink. We stamped the "USA" in craft Night of Navy so it would look like paint. Turned out great!

Here's what we used to make the pages:

Cardstock: Night of Navy, Real Red, Very Vanilla & Real Red Textured (for "God bless the")

Ink: Creamy Caramel, Night of Navy craft

Accessories: Small star punch, silver brads, "Billboard" Sizzlet strip die, Big Shot, 1/16" punch

~~Note: The vanilla CS is cut @ 2" and layered over the real red. Measurements for the "USA" tag are vanilla 4" X 3 1/2" and night of navy 4 1/2" X 4". We "dirtied" the stars before punching.

These are up close pics of the choices my club members got to pick from. I love the new In Colors -- they are so summer-y. This card is cased from TreasureOiler on Splitcoast and you can see her original post here. This such a classy card, and so nice for summer -- of course Megan (our recent HS graduate) loved it and wants a bunch to send out for thank you cards! I think I'll let her help me make them! The card above is in Burmuda Bay, and below is in Melon Mambo -- gotta LOVE the coordinating ribbon!!!

This is the new Crushed Curry In Color:

And this was the most popular at club, Rich Razzleberry.

Aren't they pretty all together? Now I know why I have such a hard time giving them away! You can order these new In Colors NOW (see the catalog link if you don't have a hard copy!). This will be my last post for a while probably, as we are on our way to Utah for 5 weeks day-after-tomorrow. I'm looking SO FORWARD to convention, and hanging out with my cool downline gals. We learn so much, and have fun together. I can't wait!

Cardstock: Mambo Melon, Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry, Burmuda Bay, Basic Black, Whisper White and Vellum Cardstock

Ink: Same as In Colors mentioned above

Accessories: Butterfly Bigz Die, Silver Brads, In Color Ribbon, Eyelet Border Punch, Texture Plates #4, Big Shot, Texturz Impression Pad & Silicon Rubber

4th of July Celebration

Megan came home from her two week Church History Tour, and made her appearance right in the middle of our block party! Talk about a grand entrance. We are all so happy to have her back home, but she says back east was the bomb! She especially loved seeing "Wicked" in New York last week -- something she has been waiting for for a long time. Below, Meg, Mary and Lizzy have a group hug! :)

We had a super-fun 4th of July Horn St. Block Party tonight! 35th Annual (our 9th living here in this great neighborhood), and it was fabuloso! Chuck A. & Doris, Chuck B. & Karol, and Chuck C. & Jan are our across-the-street neighbors, and along with the Daryl & Ann, we have the best "Las Vegas Grandparents" possible. They have been "four-in-a-row" neighbors for 35+ years, and are the catalysts behind this awesome neighborhood. Chuck A. & Doris, along with new neighbor Richard, fire up the grill here: This is me, Will, Cami, Mary A., Nikki and two neighbors, Hailey & our new neighbor. We are standing around Will's homemade rootbeer waiting for it to finish "cooking".

The kids played volleyball at the corner where we blocked off the street with the net. Here is Willie serving up the ball! Also pictured are friends Hailey, Reese & Sky.

Time to eat! A group picture with samples from the Jennings, Smith, Bufalino, Riggs and Tillmond family. We all bring our own meat, and one pot-luck dish. Great food, better visiting.

It's time for the watermelon-eating contest! The younger group goes first:

Then the older group! Except they were joined by a couple of younger ones that didn't want to join in at first, then saw all the fun and jumped in with this group:

The winners: (They couldn't leave ANY red :)

I did it again! I forgot to flip this picture before I posted it! If anyone knows how to flip it once it is posted, please let me know! I'm still relatively new to this blogging, and am just in "basics" stage (hee hee). This is Willie (aka Pyro kid) loving the sparkler. It was the prequel to the next hour and a half of setting off the bigger fireworks. He loved it! (LATER) - OK, I edited this post, but it adds the pictures to the top, so the correct way is up there.

What a great night. We sat out on the street visiting until after 11 p.m. That is what a neighbor-hood should be like, in my humble opinion, and I am so very grateful to live where we do.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day everyone!!! What a fun, exciting day! We started ours at our ward Patriotic Breakfast at our church, which was super delicious and patriotic and fun! We watched a video by Diamond Rio that is called "In God We Still Trust" (I'm pretty sure that is what it is called), and the lady in charge said she found it online -- it was awesome. I love hearing upbeat, positive songs, and this helps us remember that fighting for what is right doesn't need to be done by ourselves. There are many in an influencial position to help us little guys in the fight for right as far as our country goes. So I encourage you to watch it if you haven't already. In fact, when I find the link, I'll post it if I can.
We are on our way to purchase water balloons and watermelon for our 35th Annual Horn St. 4th of July Block Party! Really, this neighborhood has been having a block party on July 4th for that long, and when we moved in to this home, we were told by our neighbors that it is mandatory to be in town on July 4th to be a part of it! So we came home from Utah to enjoy our 9th block party, and we are excited for it tonight. We do a pot luck meal, and everyone brings meat to BBQ, my hubby makes homemade rootbeer, and we have volleyball in the street, a watermelon eating contest, water fights, and of course, fireworks when it gets dark! Makes me realize that this is what this nation is about. Neighborhoods and families sticking together and working to make our community a better place.
Thanks to any and all of you who are veterans, or who are active military now. I appreciate all you do, and have done. Without you, we would not be celebrating today. Thanks, and God bless each and every one of you.
We did just get back a couple days ago from So. Utah (Hatch, to be exact), and spent about 9 days working a bit on the farm, and had some great leisure time as well. I'm posting a few pics from that trip, and we will be returning for the balance of the summer next week. I do have my stamp club this Monday (mystery hostess!!!) and so will be posting what we are doing for that soon. Thanks for all the nice comments -- I'm loving hearing from y'all, and like I said, will post again soon. June 23, '09: The first thing Cami did when we got to the farm was head out picking wildflowers! She was so cute flitting all over the hill, finding different flowers. She actually ended up with quite a variety, and we had a beautitul bouquet for about 3 days!

Willie, Camille and my nephew Jared played a lot up in this tree house. It got a lot of action while we were there.

June 25: We helped load up Grandpa Riggs' new tractor with branches that were broken off the tree house tree during the winter. This is Lizzy and her friend and our neighbor, Kristen posing by the tractor after fillin' 'er up!

June 27: This is the second water snake the kids found in the pond (this one is named Slithers, if I remember right!). This is Lizzy, Nikki and Kristen.

June 27: Saturday night, the Balloon Festival was in Panguitch, so Jared loaded up the lucky winners of "who gets to ride in Jared's cool car", and we headed off to watch the hot air balloons go up and line the streets of Panguitch in what is called "The Glow" -- scroll down to see why!

This is the balloon that we were parked right by, and got to see go up from the get-go. Pretty cool!

Jared, William, Lizzy & Cami, and Kristen in front of the balloon just a few minutes before it is completely blown up.

Way cooler in real life, but this picture sort of shows how pretty the finished product is! It only took about 10 minutes from start to finish.

Here are some of the balloons "glowing". People are walking all up and down the street (there are lots of people!) looking at the balloons, and buying from street vendors. The picture at the top of this post is of Cami eating her cotton candy that we got as a treat (not me -- I can't stand the stuff!).

June 28: This is the view from the top of the hill at the farm -- such a gorgeous view! The kids are playing on the playground, and loving life! CLICK on the picture to see how beautiful it is.

This is my idea of loving life! In my spare time, I love to read, and I hardly ever get to at home. So I relish reading at the farm! I started Fablehaven last year, but this year Book 4 came out, so I started over again to remember what happened -- I HIGHLY recommend this series. Love it!

Book 1 is good, 2 is great, and 3 & 4 are fabulous. I especially love the questions the author has at the end of the books to discuss with kids. A great series.

You can click to make these pics bigger and appreciate the beauty of the farm! This is the kids and Grandma moving water pipes. The kids do it each morning first thing.

Lizzy and Kristen loved to read, write their stories, and visit outside, especially at night under the stars. This time they were reading/writing while it was sprinkling outside.

A very fun trip, and we will be up there like I said, until mid-August. I'll be leaving July 8th, so hopefully more posts before I go! Happy 4th of July and may our hearts turn to God and be grateful for this great nation, remembering always those who made it possible for us to live in freedom.