As Promised

As Promised, here are the 2 projects that we made at Stamp Club the other night! (And a shout-out to Theresa....YES! Lets get together next time I'm in Preston! I'd love to stamp with you!)

I'm calling it the Little Box O' Love

and the

"Glitterfied Chunky Love" Card!

First: The Deets on the Glitterfied Chunky Love Card:

Paper: Basic Grey, Pink Passion, Textured Black & Glossy White CS

Inks: Basic Grey, Purely Pomegranate (retired)

Accessories: Chunky Glitter (Silver), Dazzling Diamonds, 2 way Glue Pen, Daubers, Sheer White Ribbon, Silver Cording, Heart to Heart Punch

Stamp Sets: Love You Much, Priceless

And now, the "Little Box o' Love Deets:
(my apologies for the blurry picture, I had the hardest time with this one...Kelly don't shoot me!)
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Glossy White Card Stock
Inks: Red Riding Hood Red, Rose Red (SA Jumbo Cartridge)
Accessories: Red Riding Hood Red 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, RHR Taffeta Ribbon, Brad, Dazzling Diamonds, 2 way Glue Pen, Daubers, Crop-a-dile, Scalloped Edge Punch
Stamp Sets: A Happy Heart, Lots of Hearts SA Jumbo Wheel (retired)

Edited to add: Inside is a small cello bag filled with some chocolate candies and then tied with the 1/4" chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon. It's the perfect size for a little gift.\!

Both of these projects are so full of shimmer and sparkle....wish you could see it. We really did have a magnificent time. I hope you can join us sometime!

If you would like to order any of the current products used to make these projects, this would be the perfect time to do so. Stampin Up!'s Sale-A-Bration Sale is in full swing! Contact me for details or go to http://www.melaniefox.stampinup.net/ to order now!

Happy Stampin!

Happy Valentines Day!

HaPpY VaLeNtiNeS DaY!!!



ps Have you signed up and done your 5 gifts blogpost yet? I'd love you send you something! Let me know when you do! And in the meantime....go love your sweet ones!

Friday Five!

A Challenge from one of my favorite bloggers: Sophia Corbridge
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on proper procrastination. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you,that's for sure! (From me, it will more than likely a paper creation, because That's what I do best! ha ha)
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. (I would have to add that I reserve the right to take six extra months in getting to the post office to get it mailed. But, you will get it eventually.)

What's The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same prize to the first 5 people who post on your blog. The first 5 people to repost and leave a comment telling me they did win an AWESOME homemade gift by yours truly!

Glitterfied and Giggled

Tonight I will sleep like a happy baby! The reason is because I have been glitterfied and giggled. Yes, I am using the word properly, you just need to be edu-ma-kated! ha ha

Tonight was stamp club night and as usual, we laughed until we snorted, and then we giggled some more. I love watching grown women giggle like teenagers. Tonight there was a wide range of women, ranging from late teens to early sixties, and do you know what I realized? That we all giggle the same.

One thing that I have noticed with this wonderful group of women is their great desire to socialize and include others into this little group. Every month we have someone new come and we hope that they'll be back. Tonight, we had 2 gals that we have missed so very much rejoin our little group! They giggled right along with us as if they'd never left and it was wonderful.

We created some really fun cards that included a lot of glitter....and we became "glitterfied".....poor little Amanda got BATHED in it! I'm not sure what happened, but all at once she was DAZZLING in Dazzling Diamonds!

I love these women and every month I come home with a big ol' grin on my mug and a happier, lighter heart. I'll try and take pictures of our cute little projects tomorrow. Be patient with me, remember that my camera has moved on to greener pastures, so I'll try and get Darren's. You'll love them, I promise!

More Holiness Give Me, More Strength From Within...

I'm thinking and that's usually a scary thing.....but it's late at night and I've just read another blog post and it's stirred up thoughts and feelings deep inside of me.

I think we've all been in that place when we want to stomp up some mythical staircase and pound on that door that opens the secret cloud door that leads to the magical yet ominous pearly gates...have the guard ring us in, toss our hair back, thrust out our defiant chins and march right up to the "man on his high and mighty throne" and shout an edgy threatening shout:"Why Father Why?! Tell me now, tell me EVERYTHING, don't leave anything out!" And in our mind we stand there, arms folded, leaning back on one foot, other foot tapping, eyes a rolling and heart slammed shut!! The truth is, I don't think we really want to hear as much as we want to be heard.

Many years ago (approximately 16 1/2) I was right in the middle of unsuccessful medical treatments which I was hoping would result in a pregnancy. I was frustrated and sad, angry and confused. I tried so hard to be completely supportive and excited when, one by one each and every one of my friends announced their pregnancies. But the final straw was finding out that, instead of having a son or a daughter, I would be gaining a brother or a sister. Oh, how it hurt, it cut to the very core of my heart and I couldn't understand it at all. With each tear that fell, I took one of those defiant stomping step towards that "mean guy up there" that wouldn't answer my prayers the way I wanted. But that didn't work out the way I anticipated either. The journey there took a lot longer than I thought it would. My huffs and puffs began to loose their umph and my puffed out pride began to soften and as I trudged along my brain and my heart began to communicate. And pretty soon my knees buckled into a humbled heap. Nearly 3 years later my answer came in the form of a little girl dressed in blue to match her deep soulful eyes.

I don't know the whole plan, and I don't claim to have all of the answers. But I have learned to trust in Him. That little answer of mine (and the other one that came 4 1/2 years after her!) has grown up to teach me things that I cannot even begin to describe. They are their own people with their own questions. I can tell you that with all of my heart I know that God does hear our prayers, I know he hears our heart, and I know that he does have the answers for us. But I must admit, I don't always pray, I don't always let him into my heart and I don't listen to his answers nearly as often as I ought to. I think the answers scare us a bit. While He sees the whole picture of our possibilities and potential, we tend to look at our current state of weakness and misery. We can't imagine doing anything different or more. We like familiar and the unknown scares us.

Yesterday was the anniversary of something really awful. For 25 years I have sobbed and sobbed. Tonight it hit me. I survived to tell the tale. I have cried and walked and shouted "why did you let that happen?" and I've beat myself to a pulp for the choices and mistakes that I made. Right now, in this moment, I am stepping onto a new path. I honestly believe that in all the bad that happened so long ago, a story was chiseled into the walls of my broken heart. I believe that the lessons I learned are to be shared and as I feel prompted to, I will.

I believe that when we can move past the anger and change our words from "WHY!" to "Help me understand" we get a lot further. Tonight I am asking for my Heavenly Daddys hand to make the leap of faith from the tear stained ledge of fear. And do you know what? I think He already has! In giddy little girl giggles I feel my heart sing "Thanks Pops!" ♥

FINALLY PHOTOS!

For those of you wondering where the heck this bad blogger disapeared to, here's the explanation.....

My camera took a dive, my mojo went with it and my nasty need for perfectionism went along as a chaperone!

But.....friends are amazing little creatures.....sweet and spicy, kind and bossy and sometimes downright Nag-a-licious!

So, this ones for Kelly......a sweet little friend who loaned me a lens and an opportunity to have some fun with my sweet kiddos!

Karlee & I had so much fun on our little photo shoot! I can't wait to show you a really fun one on Valentines Day! (See, Kelly, I do have plans to blog again! hee hee).

Sorry again for the extra long hiatus! Love to you all!

~Melanie

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Did ya'll have a Happy Thanksgiving? We sure did. It was so nice to spend time in Idaho with my family. The kids loved being with their cousins & played so nice. We stayed with my brother Kelly & his family that was THE BEST! Such a warm and welcoming home. Wonderful hospitality & we were so grateful to them. Carson & Marquessa just hung out all day & played games & sang along to their music. Not a single argument in 5 days! VERY NICE!

Black Friday started at 3:30AM for Celeste, Natalie, Annie & I! My dad was gracious enough to clean out his "Biggs Rig" for us so we had a big ol' truck with a locked shell on it so all of our goodies were safely tucked away as we went from store to store! I saw 2 fist fights over toys & gadgets which just left me shaking my head. Maybe those people should sleep in next year!

Arriving back to Kelly & Celeste's after shopping I was greeted with some of the scariest bit of news a mother will ever hear. "Karlee is on a run-away horse!" Apparently she was going to go for a ride with Kelly & she must've spurred the horse a little hard or something. Anyway, the horse saw an open gate and made a run for it. She jumped a fence which launched Karlee forward causing her to lose the reins. She grabbed ahold of the horses neck and held on for dear life. I don't know if it was after the first fence-jump or not, but at some point she slid UNDERNEATH the horses neck and held on with her arms and legs wrapped TIGHTLY around the neck. The horse jumped a total of THREE fences, ran through fields, up and down a gully & hills and down a dirt road! A LONG WAYS!!! All with Karlee holding on for dear life!!! When she reached the top of a hill she noticed that she was closer to the ground so she decided to let go and drop to the ground. I guess you could say that she "stopped, dropped and rolled" into a ball, covered her head and held her breath. She ended up with a horseshoe shaped scrape on the lower right side of her back but she said that didn't hurt.

What WAS painful was her leg and arm muscles as well as her stomach and back. She wasn't bruised and there wasn't anything more serious than the scrape on her back. No blood (other than from a cut on her finger that reopened.), No Broken Bones, just sore muscles and there was plenty of that. She had a hard time moving until Monday night after dancing. I think the stretching and movement from dance loosened up those tight muscles because she was feeling TONZ better after that.

So, while I didn't quite meet my goal for posting my gratitude entry every day, I will end with this note of how very, very, grateful I am that #1 My daughter is still alive. I shudder at the possibilities that could've resulted in an entirely different ending. #2 That she is strong and in shape and has an iron will. I honestly believe that it was through sheer will and by the grace of God that she held on for so long. She was so stubborn about the whole thing that when someone asked her about getting BUCKED OFF the horse she quickly corrected them saying "I LET GO! and I Didn't Cry!" Well, she is braver than most people I know, cause I would've been bawling from the get go!

Oh, in the spirit of finding joy in the midst of a bad situation, here's Carson's take on this whole thing.
Darren: Carson, did you see Karlee on that horse?
(after receiving an affirmative answer)
Darren: What was Karlee doing?
Carson does a loud impression of a screaming girl!
Darren: What were YOU doing?
Carson: I was thinking "WOW! IMPRESSIVE!!!"

Yup, impressive is right, but what impresses me the most, is the protection that was clearly in play here. I'm so grateful to our Father in Heaven for protecting my daughter on her wild ride. Someday I'd really like to know how many angels were on that ride with her.