Inspired....

Wow ~ pretty much sums up how I feel right now! It's August 1st ~ just can't believe it... Summers nearly over & it's time to start the back to school shopping... Yes, I know I've not been the best blogger ~ but frankly, I haven't had anything to blog about... my oldest daughter decided she {loves} Twilight & being the good mother that I am ~ I was forced to read the books before I let her at 'em. Took me about a week to go thru the series... they were pretty good ~ kinda pradictable, but since they are aimed at the teen (tween) set, that's to be expected. As a reward for being so brave at the dentist, the girls were allowed to pick a prize... can you guess what the oldest wanted? ~ well, if you guessed the Twilight movie ~ you're absolutely correct! And she's been driving her little sister crazy ~ wanting to watch it every day this week... I just have to *giggle* ~ I remember (ok this will age me but) my first Shaun Cassidy record ~ OMG ~ I listened to it while daydreaming every day for I don't remember how long... OK, OK, OK... so I'm not concerned about her little Edward crush... Yep, she's Team Edward... I've learned quite abit in just a short time... and she's really looking forward to the New Moon movie in Nov....

Now, while I was feverishly finishing up my reading ~ I did nothing card wise... but as my youngest announced that she was indeed leaving home if she had to suffer thru watching Twilight one more time... I decided it was time to enlist her help as my personal crafting assistant. So, with really no idea of what to do ~ I headed to SCS & brought up my Favs from the gallery & had her pick out a few for us to CASE. And here are what we came up with...

Embrace Each Moment: is inspired by the wonderfully talented Unity DT member Jimmi (jpmayo on SCS) her cards are unbelievable! I'll try to link her card here (hope it works). My assistant picked out the colors that we used ~ from a packet of Memento Dew Drops. She also picked the yummy Papertrey Ink ribbon & the Stampin Up paper. Stamps from Unity ~ Bevy of Butterflies.

Friend to Friend: is inspired by the uber-talented Paula (mrslaird on SCS). Her card is just so beautiful that it caught our eyes immediately! I didn't have the same colors that she used ~ and again

my sweet little assistant picked the colors we used ~ she used the SU color coach ~ I'm so proud!!! We used Taken with Teal & Tempting Turquoise cardstock & Taken with Teal Classic ink. My little assitant even ran the Cuttlebug to make the Swiss Dot background paper. I changed the card a bit by making panels instead of the layers ~ I'm just not a layering type of gal... And we cut the sentiment out using Label 4 Nestibilities. Also, used were Stickles for the faux rhinestones and an unknown ribbon. The stamps used were from Unity ~ Bevy of Butterflies & June KOM (sentiment)

Remember the Moments: And finally, here is another CASEd card based on the awesomely talented Ashley (HeartHugsDesigns on SCS) ~ she is such a sweetheart! My assistant and I were scoping out some of the Unity cards on SCS when this card caught my daughters eye ~ so much so she insisted we make one just like it!!! I gave her a stack of Basic Grey 6x6 papers & she picked out June Bug, and with the help of the SU Color Coach ~ she picked SU Summer Sun & Night of Navy cs & Night of Navy ink. I had to alter the design just a smedge ~ as I don't make square cards ~ call it a character flaw... Oh, I got to use Sahara Sand as the base ~ it's got to be one of my favorites, don't know why?!?! And yep, we used Smooch Gold Lame on some of the owl's feathers & CTMH Liquid Glass on the eyes. Stamps by Unity ~ June KOM.

And now we're back...

So have you missed me? Yes, well then you probably would like to see why I've been MIA. I have had no time to do any crafting ~ I know ~ very sad isn't it? Every so often our little family does what I call the whirlwind tour of North Carolina ~ to visit both sides of the family. Visiting the central NC area for awhile & then the mountain area. We always stay in a hotel in Boone, NC to visit with my parents. This year we visited Blowing Rock... as you can see the girls (aka my assistants) loved climbing all over the rocks ~ not necessarily meaning to scare their poor Oma to death. Although I lived in the area for many, many, many years ~ I never visited the attraction before. Now that I no longer live there ~ I'm trying to visit as many of the 'fun' tourist~y places with the girls as possible. Another thing I love to do when visiting Boone is to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. A couple of years ago, we drove the Parkway from Boone north thru VA to Skyline Drive ~ it was magnificent! We stopped at almost all of the Overlook areas ~ looking at the amazing views & log cabins & sawmills... country stores... we saw animals & even had to stop for awhile to wait for the raccoons to cross the road...

This time we went

South & stopped at the Lin Cove Viaduct... from this pic you can not only see the Viaduct (see the bridge like structure wrapping around the mountain), but also in the distance you can see the Grandfather Mountain which has lots of 'wild' animals ~ bears, otters, deer, etc. & a swinging bridge that is quite a challenge to get children across. We visited it several years ago & the girls can't wait to go back ~ we just didn't have the time on this trip.

There is a wonderful trail that leads under the

Viaduct & thru the woods ~ unfortunately we did not have enough time to do much hiking ~ the girls loved going up ~ not so much coming back down. But as we were leaving the area they asked if we could go back & finish the trail. Maybe next time...

Another fun stop is the Moses Cone Park ~ the girls got to pick fresh raspberries ~ saw horses & the amazing house with the stunning views....

And now we're back ~ to continue on with what's left of summer ~ it's amazes me that July is almost half over... I feel like I better start thinking about making my Christmas lists.... Oh, and I went to pick up some more Smooch at my LSS {heart} & the owner wants me to make a sample card for her! So totally exciting ~ I hope to make something that will be somewhat CAS ~ & to use Unity, Smooch & BG papers ~ these are the items she carries & if my card can help encourage more shopping ~ that would be FANTASTIC!!!

This is NOT our house...

.... but it's cleaner..... LOL.... I woke up this morning at around 7:15 & decided to start to clean.... of course, it'll take a miracle to actually get it done. I'm not the queen of clean ~ sadly not in my blood... I wish it was... one major thing is organization... I'm not too good at that either...

Ok ~ enough of that ~ a little about the picture ~ a couple of years ago, we decided to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway from Boone NC to Skyline Drive in VA. It was early spring ~ so there was very little traffic & it was a little chilly. We stopped at every overlook and each log cabin. It was so much fun ~ if you ever get a chance to take this drive ~ you really should. The girls had so much fun exploring the cabins & I loved the views!

Well, I've rambled enough & I still have more stuff to do ~laundry seems to take forever!!! AND I really want to work on some SCS challenges using my new Unity Goodness!!!

I'll Be Working Up a Storm...

YES!!! My scheduled post worked!!! Now I'm working on tweaking things here & there. I'm hoping to make a list of Blogs that I :LUV: ... but I want to get permission before I add them. I'm not too sure of the whole Blog Etiquette concerning that type of thing ~

Of course, working on my new blog is not the only thing I'm wanting to do (or having to do) today... I really want to play with my new Unity Goodness... my assistants insist on going to the pool today (not a pool person myself ~ so I just hang-out listening to my iPod & doing SuDoKu)... and for some reason the place just refuses to clean itself....