Good Tuesday morning. Last week our issue of AARP the Magazine hit our mailbox. I scanned through it when it came in, but didn’t take the time to actually read it. Yesterday I did. There is a wonderful interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, Getting Back to Basics at 50. Not only did the interview hit me like a ton of bricks, but so did the picture of Jamie Lee Curtis on the front cover. Her hair is short, she’s let it go gray, very little makeup and she looks spectacular. When you read the interview, there is no doubt that she knows who she is and is comfortable in her own skin.

 

A month or so ago, another stamper told me I intimidated them. I was actually stunned! I have heard this before, along with any number of things (i.e., the site of you makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, you ain’t right – you just ain’t right, and the one that I’ve never understood, you have more pull and power than you realize). Most of these things were said to me when I was volunteering at my girls’ elementary school, but they have stuck with me. Why? Perhaps because I have struggled with coming into my own. I’ve said before that every 5 years, things change. A little at a time, but things change. Whether it be more independence, more self-confidence or the toll that time takes on the body. For the most part, the change for me has been for the better.

 

Anyhoo, I asked this person “why, why do I intimidate you? You really don’t know me that well.” She told me, “you know who you are, you know what you want and you aren’t afraid to speak out.” So I thought about this for a minute, then replied to her, “That comes with age. The older I get, the more assured I am of myself and the more I realize what I want and need.” Now, I’ve struggled with this. I’ve pared things out of my life that have caused me stress and let go of things that I don’t need or want. I am who I am, like it or not. I have short hair, very short hair – boy cut hair, because it is easy to care for and I can wash, towel dry and go. I no longer spend 30 minutes making sure this or that hair is in the right place and that there are no dents or holes. AND, it’s gray, no more worrying about it, that gray hair is just there!!!! I quit wearing makeup years ago, and if I wear any, it’s very little. I don’t like the feel of it on my skin, and it actually makes my skin worse. I’m comfortable in my shorts and/or flannel pants and jeans. I’ve quit groups and activities that do not bring me pleasure or fun. I’ve learned to say no and mean it. Perhaps I need to quit worrying so much myself and just come to terms with the fact that I am here, I am me, I’m in my own skin, and hopefully, as I age, I will continue to learn and grow! Granted, I still need to loose a few pounds (well maybe more than a few pounds) to feel healthy, and I need to realize that I can’t do today what I did at 30, let alone 16. But I’m working on it!

 

I have to say that my rambling and babble above, have nothing to do with the rest of my post. I just got carried away on a self-realization tangent. However, before I leave you today, let me remind you that today is Treasure Hunt Tuesday at Rubbernecker. You’ll find the first clue on Shelly’s blog, and both Kittie and Broni have Rubbernecker Blog Candy today. If you are new to the Treasure Hunt, you can find all the details on the Rubbernecker Home Page.

 

I will more than likely be back a little later with my Color Challenge card! Until then, have a great day, I know I’m planning on it!

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Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed your weekend and you didn’t get into any trouble. I enjoyed myself yesterday while sleeping through the race. I hadn’t planned on napping, it just happened – . I did get to see the start and the finish of the race, just missed the middle. Speaking of racing, look at what I found in a file of pictures I scanned a few years ago.

Dad and Bobby Allison

All you fans of old-time stockcar racing, when racing was racing, will appreciate this picture. That’s my dad on the left and that’s Bobby Allison on the right. This picture was taken sometime in the mid-70’s when my dad was Race Director for ASA, and was taken at Salem Speedway in Salem, Indiana. The best part of the picture is the word bubble at the top. One of my dad’s employees typed up the word bubble, framed it and this picture hung in my dad’s office. The word bubble says: “Ok, Bobby, the doors have to be welded or chained shut, you’ve got to knock out all the glass except the windshield and it if ain’t got a center door post you gotta have a rollbar . . .” The funny part, my dad would never have said “ain’t” and Bobby Allison was driving NASCAR – like he needed to be told how to set up a car!

Can you tell I’ve had fun going through old photos the last few days? What memories . . . good times!

Today’s card is for the Rubbernecker Blogger Challenge, RBC04. This week’s colors are light blue, dark blue and a neutral.

RBC04

The flower is made up of 3 different sizes of a solid KK Originals flower stamp. For each layer, I inked the stamp with VersaMagic Sea Breeze and then tapped VersaMagic Night Sky around the edges. I cut each individual layer out, added Lemon Yellow Liquid Pearls to the center, and then layered each section. To the give flowers dimension, there is mounting tape between each layer. A yellow Rain Dot was added to the center of each flower.

RBC04 closeup

The background panel is a piece of Prism Baby Blue Medium that I painted with Old Paper Distress Crackle Paint, and then sponged with Night Sky ink. The sentiment was stamped in Night Sky and the flowers were then layered on the sentiment panel.

RBC04 Product

Stamps: KK Originals Flowers Collection 03-31 KK Poppy Large, 03-30 KK Poppy Medium, and 03-29 KK Poppy Small; KK Originals Sentiment Collection Thank You from Rubbernecker Stamp Company

Paper: Georgia Pacific White, Prism Baby Blue Medium and Twilight Dark

Ink: VersaMagic Sea Breeze and Night Sky

Accessories: Ranger Old Paper Distress Crackle Paint and Lemon Yellow Liquid Pearls; Cloud 9 Designs Rain Dots; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Ribbon; Brads

You can find the main Rubbernecker Blogger Challenge on Jeanne’s blog, and more samples at Kitty’s, Candy’s, Broni’s and Shelly’s.

Here’s hoping you have a fabulous day today!

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PS: Don’t forget to check out all the Stampin’ UP! Sets I have for sale!

Apr 062008

Good Sunday morning! Yesterday was my sister’s birthday and we had planned to go to lunch on Friday, but the weather was so nasty and time was very limited. I think we are going this coming week instead. I have her gift and card ready, but of course I can’t show you, because she hasn’t received it yet. She reads my blog and I hate to ruin the surprise!

What I would like to do and of course, I’m a day late, is poke a little fun. She’s been poking at me since we were little. She is 2-1/2 years younger than me actually. If any of you have younger siblings, you’ll understand. Carrie (oh yes my mother named us those similar sounding names) would pick at me, until I would break and go after her. Then she would run to mom and whine “Sherry’s picking on me.” Well guess who always got into trouble – it sure wasn’t Carrie! Still, to this day, I have pencil lead in my thigh and scares from scissors being jabbed at me. I can vividly remember her chasing me around a table wielding a hammer in her hand. She wanted to crack my head open and see what was inside.

All kidding aside, I have a wonderful sister. She always steps up when someone in the family needs anything, and is a doting daughter and aunt. Her heart is big and her family ties strong. She helps my aunt on a daily basis and keeps track of mom’s comings and goings. We don’t spend as much time together as we should, but when we do – there are always laughs to be had. There have been many times when I’ve had medical emergencies with either my husband or the girls, and it was always Carrie that I called. She has helped me get my husband to the hospital, watched the girls when I needed help and has even puppy sat.

Just recently I ran a picture of her with Katie, and I think it deserves a rerun today.

Kate and Carre

It was taken at a banquet that we attended with Katie.

AND here’s a picture of both of us together. Carrie is on the left. I really don’t remember how old we were, but notice how our mother always dressed us alike. The same outfits, even down to our black patent leather shoes. Tell me honestly, who would take a child to a race track in black patent leather shoes – well our mother, of course! It even looks like I have one of those Toni Home Perms.

Me with Carrie

When we were kids, we had a pedal car. It was always painted with the number of our uncle’s race car. This picture always cracks me up! My cousin, Billy, is driving the car and there is Carrie all poised on the front like she is the Race Queen, ya know the trophy girl! Carrie is actually 6 weeks than Billy.

Carrie and Billy

This next photo is all four of us kids. I say all four of us, because we grew up with our cousins, Billy and Shannon. We were always together when we were kids and over time have drifted apart. However, even though the years have changed us all, we still have one tie that binds us all – we are family!

4 Kids

This picture was taken Christmas morning and we are all sitting with our great-grandmother. To my knowledge, this is the only picture that exists of us with her, and it was a rare occasion that she was with us that morning. Going left to right, Billy, Grandma, Shannon, Carrie and me. I don’t know why I was always rolling my eyes to the other side. Someone probably said something to me!

Well Carrie, I hope you had a fabulous day yesterday and I love ya, Sis! Happy Birthday!!!

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Apr 042008

While I am waiting for the stamp room to dry and get things back in order, I decided to go through my retired SU stamps sets. When I moved into the new stamp room, I boxed them all up and just stuck them in the closet. I knew that one day I would have time to go through them and see what I wanted to keep or get rid of. Well, today was the day. So far I’ve only gone through the stamp sets, but will have an accessories/tool list in the next day or so. If you, or anyone you know, are interested in modestly priced SU sets, you can find them on my new blog page, Stampin’ UP! FOR SALE.

Edited to add:  I have posted more sets and tools.

More tomorrow!

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Apr 042008

What do you think of my new banner? The one I’ve been using was my first banner made by Beth Silaika at Freckled Fun Designs. I’ve made a couple myself and then had another made around December. None of them seemed to reflect my style any longer and I felt an update was in order. I was talking to Beth the other day, when I mentioned to her that I would love to have a new banner. Well! Within a day, Beth had a new sample for me to look at, we dinked around with the fonts and this is what she came up with. I LOVE IT! Even better, I sent it onto Mallory, my eyes, to see what she thought, and she loved it. As I told Beth, it’s quite hard to find something a 19-year-old likes.

Anyhoo, if you are looking to update your blog’s look, I would suggest you take a look at some of the samples Beth has made. I had a little problem trying to get to her site the other day. I typed in the wrong web address and was redirected to another banner site. I thought it was odd, and tried again a different way. I was typing in freckledfundesigns, but each time I typed it in I was still redirected to another banner site. Here’s the link you will need when you go check out Beth’s other samples: https://freckledfundesigns.blogspot.com/. I forgot to add the blogspot!

If you are wondering where my stamping is today – under water. Once again I have had to take the carpet up out of my stamp room and pull out the carpet cleaner to suck up the water. I had a faint thought today of just pulling up all the carpet squares and leaving it the concrete floor. Nope, too cold on the bare feet. Luckily, when we built the room for Kate, instead of putting carpet in, we used carpet squares. A few weeks ago I only had to pull up about 8 squares, today maybe 12. But at least the floor is dry and I have the squares all propped up to dry. I think I’ll wait until tomorrow to try and get things back to normal, it’s supposed to rain more tonight.

Tomorrow is my sister’s birthday, and since she reads my blog every morning, I think I’ll have a special surprise for her tomorrow.

I hope that the rest of you have a pleasant day and start your weekend off just right.

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