Wow – It’s Been a While!

I just realized that it’s been several weeks since I last posted – yikes!!!! Just goes to show how quickly time flies when you’re a busy mom of 3 kids and a new puppy!

Things have been so hectic here and I have been so over-scheduled that I haven’t been able to sleep. I get up in the morning with a knot in my stomach because I’m afraid I’m going to forget something on my list.

Tonight I thought I was scheduled to work at the baseball concession stands but I found out that I had the wrong month – I have to work it the first Monday in June, not in May. I was SO happy that I had a night off with nothing scheduled, I started giggling and dancing around the kitchen – my kids thought I was nuts, I’m sure (and they may be right). So…I finally have some time to post to my blog – imagine that!

Instead of overwhelming you with one long post, I decided to break up my latest stuff into several new categories:

• “Family Stuff” where I’ll have news about my family, camping adventures and home
• “Yardsale Junk” where I can show you my latest acquisitions from the world of other people’s castoffs
• “Watch Daisy Grow!” where I’ll post new photos of my sweet goldendoodle puppy, Daisy

Of course, I’ll continue to share my newest crafts, techniques and tutorials in the various “Crafts” categories. 🙂

Read on, if you’d like…

Is It Spring Yet?

It’s been a while since I posted – so sorry! But it’s been crazy around here!

The kids were on spring break the first week of April – we had about one nice weather day that week. Some friends and I managed to slip in a trip with the kids to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA:

It was nice to see some signs of spring! Of course, then the weather went downhill…

So I took advantage of the yucky days to clean out the closets. I ended up donating 16 bags of stuff to Purple Heart – I found some T-shirts that I’ve had since 1994! Time to let them go…

As far as crafts go, we also managed a trip to the Stamp Scrap Art Tour when it came to NJ. Taking me there was like taking an alcoholic to an open bar! I spent WAY too much money but bought some FABULOUS stamps from lots of different vendors. That’s right – I cheated on Stampin’ Up! – but it felt really good! 🙂

I’ve also been doing quite a bit of yardsale-ing with my friends. I managed to pick up some real bargains last week like some vintage teddy bears, a desk for my daughter and a stack of vintage suitcases that I’m using for an end table. Going to yardsales is like going on a treasure hunt – plus, it satisfies my shopping addiction while spending very little actual cash (unlike my trip to the stamp show!).

But the most exciting news of the month is the newest addition to our family. Let me introduce you to Daisy:

Daisy is a 10-week-old goldendoodle puppy. What is a goldendoodle, you ask? A goldendoodle is a cross between a golden retriever and a standard poodle. They were originally bred to act as service dogs for those who need a dog, but have allergies. They are supposed to pick up the wonderful temperament of the golden retriever, the intelligence of the poodle and – the best part – they shed very little, if at all.

These dogs (as well as their counterparts – labradoodles) have become very popular – we have actually been researching the breed for over a year now. We wanted to get a puppy last fall, but decided that housebreaking in the fall/winter would be too difficult, so we thought we’d wait until the spring.

After losing Maggie a few weeks ago, I was so upset – I cried for days and started all over again after I picked up her ashes from the vet. I thought about it and decided that for my birthday this year, I would like to have a puppy as my present. So my wonderful husband found a goldendoodle breeder online and we drove up to get her last weekend.

It was a LONG ride – 3 1/2 hours each way! And we actually came back with 2 puppies – we brought one back for one of Mike’s co-workers. It was an interesting ride, that’s for sure! Here are both puppies climbing on my son and daughter in the car…

And here’s Daisy with the little guys on Easter morning:

Having a new puppy is like having a baby – I’m exhausted! But she is so sweet and so adorable…she’s just also very….hmmm….ornery is the word that comes to mind! Here’s a photo of her trying to get under the fence to play with the neighbor’s basset hound:

She actually fit through that hole and ran into their yard!

She’s also already climbed the baby gate:

But is learning to get along with our cat, Jingles. Here they are actually co-existing on the couch with me (notice…Daisy is sleeping):

She is so sweet, soft, cuddly and adorable – it’s really helping to keep me occupied (as if I didn’t already have enough to do that!).

Along with everything else going on, yesterday was opening day for Pitman Little League. Mike coaches TWO teams – one with my son Andrew and one with my son Matt. Here’s Andrew’s team:

Mike is the second from the left (number 16) and Andrew is the second from the right). It turned out to be a nice day, but it’s still VERY cold!

Speaking of which…we’re in the middle of a nor’easter today and the puppy refuses to go outside….it’s going to be a LONG day….maybe I can sneak into my craft room at some point while the puppy is sleeping.  I want to try out some of my new stamps!!!!

Good Night, Sweet Maggie Mae…

This post is dedicated to the “best dog ever in the deep blue sea”  as my son Andrew always called her.

Maggie is on her way to doggie heaven tonight where she’ll get all the bones she wants, will go on a walk each and every day and will forever be able to hold her head out the car window while the wind flaps her ears in the breeze.

Love you, Maggie…

Stamping Therapy

It’s been a tough couple of days around here – my dog Maggie is very sick and had to be taken to the emergency vet last night. They are not sure exactly what’s wrong, but she has a high fever, is unable to walk and is having seizures.

She’s still at the vet today – I had to transport her from the ER vet to our regular vet this morning where they are trying to keep her comfortable and figure out exactly what’s going on. The house seems very empty without her.

We’re not sure if she’ll recover or not and I’ve been very upset. She’s my sidekick and co-pilot – I take her everywhere with me. She has her own dog bed in the back of my truck and comes along to take the kids to school, run my errands and pick the kids up again. Just the other day, I was able to open up the car window for the first time of the season and she was right there, sticking her head out the window, tongue and ears flapping in the wind – such a happy dog. She always goes camping with us and absolutely LOVES it – she is a great hiker and joins us every night by the campfire, eating all the marshmallows that end up too charred for the kids to eat.

So what have I been doing for therapy? Stamping, of course. I’ve been hiding out in my craft room doing several different projects so that I don’t just sit here and think about the situation. If you’ve never tried stamping as therapy, I highly recommend it – I first got really into stamping and scrapbooking right after 9/11 – it helped to give me something on which to focus.

Here’s a photo I took of Maggie just last week – sleeping under the table – her usual spot while we’re at the dinner table.

And another of Maggie and Emily while we were camping in Hershey, PA last summer. In this photo, you can see Maggie actually smiling (if dogs are able to smile).

Hopefully, she’ll be okay, but it doesn’t look good right now…

Have I Mentioned That I Love What I Do?

I spent most of the day yesterday stamping samples for Take Ten magazine – they requested more submissions using several techniques on other samples I sent them a few weeks ago.

I’m not going to post photos of them here right now (just in case there’s any publishing conflict), but I am SO happy with how they came out! 

I realized as I was working on them that THIS is what I enjoy doing!  Give me some request for a specific color combination, technique, stamp set or accessory and I have so much fun just sitting down and creating something new.  I really think I would enjoy being on a design team for that very reason.  Now just to convince some team to take me on… 🙂

Stamping, Stamping and More Stamping!

If you could see how inky my hands are right now, you’d know what I’ve been doing all day – stamping!

I’m trying to get together some pieces to enter into Stampin’ Up!’s Artisan Award contest. I realize that I have no chance of actually winning, but I’m having fun creating anyway. I can’t post photos of my creations here, but I’m sure I’ll be able to show them to you once the contest is over (and I don’t win!).

For the contest, we have to create two 3-D projects (done!), three scrapbook layouts (done!) and 5 cards (not even started). But now I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow – more stamping!

Just Having One of Those Days…

Did you every just have one of those days where you doubted yourself and your abilities? I had one of those days today.

Don’t know why, but I get into these funks every once in a while. I just feel like I’m kidding myself by thinking I have some sort of artistic talent. I look at my most recent work and I just don’t think it’s that good – everyone else’s just looks so much better than mine lately.

Now this may come as a shock to those of you who know me (said with extreme sarcasm), but I have very little self-confidence – it doesn’t take much to shake me up sometimes.

So…instead of working on any new projects today, I spent the afternoon cataloging all of my non-Stampin’ Up! stamps. I’ve been really bad about that for the last year or so.

I’ve been keeping up with my SU! stamps, though – stamping each set on a sheet of paper once the set arrives. Then I note the name of the set, which catalog it was in and the price of the set. I punch holes in the sheet and put it into a 3-ring binder in alphabetical order by the name of the set. As they retire, I also note that on the page.

So today I went through each of my single stamps (made by other companies) and put them into categories by subject (Christmas, floral, sentiments, etc). Then I stamped them according to category and filed them in the binder. This way, I can see all the images I have to choose from when I’m making a project.

I found a few stamps I forgot I even had – it’s easy to do that once they’re all put away.

I hope I feel better tomorrow…looking at all my stamps today should help to inspire me. I hope so – I have quite a few projects on my to-do list…

Existing in Cyberspace

I’m sitting here in front of the computer playing around – did you ever ‘Google’ your own name? It’s amazing how many hits come back. Here’s one about me that I had forgotten about – I can’t believe it’s still floating around out there in cyberspace!

I won a makeover with Ladies’ Home Journal 4 years ago – the story is STILL on their website! Don’t you just love my ‘Before’ picture? I look like I’m in a police lineup!

Bargains Galore!

Don’t you just love when you find a really good deal?  I went to Target (my all-time favorite store EVER!) this morning to pick up a few things and while I was there, I just HAD to cruise the clearance isles – especially the scrapbooking aisle, of course!

Look at this deal I found…I bought this foam stamp and paint set:

Which is normally about $20 or so on clearance…

For – that’s right – $1.48!  I thought it was a mismarked item, so I took it to the register and when they entered the number, it really was just $1.48 – what a deal!

I also picked up some other clearance items – white gel pens, some Making Memories patterned paper, ribbon and stickers – and I got my daughter a wood-mounted alphabet stamp set that came with little ink pads for $6.48 – it’s been keeping her busy all afternoon (and she’s not ruining my good stamps!).

Gotta love Target (pronounced “tar – ZHEY” for those upscale shoppers)!

Still No Stove…

Our new stove was scheduled to be delivered today, so I called the delivery guy this morning and this was pretty much our conversation:

Me: Hi, this is Kathy Torrence – my husband Mike ordered a stove that you are supposed to deliver today. Can you tell me what time to expect you?
Him: Where do you live?
Me: Pitman, New Jersey
Him: Pitman? What county is that in?
Me: Gloucester.
Him: Where?
Me: Gloucester.
Him: Where?
Me: GLOUCESTER COUNTY!!!!
Him: Where is that?
Me: Southern New Jersey.
Him: Southern New York?
Me: NO, SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.
Him: Oh. What is that near?
Me: Rowan University – have you heard of that?
Him: Um…yeah, I think so. Wait – is this Mrs. Torrence? So is it Pitman, New Jersey or Pitman, New York then?
Me: NEW JERSEY!!!!!!!!!!!
Him: I’ll have to call you back…

Sigh…

Two hours later, I call him back and he says he took a look at the stove and it’s damaged – and there are no more in stock – so I’ll have to wait for another one.

By the time I get my new stove, I will have forgotten how to cook.  At least all of my pots and pans are staying clean…