Kindness

Just a quick note to wish everyone a wonderful weekend!

At work today (medical transcriptionist) I came across a report that just filled my heart with gladness. It was a sad report about a terminally ill patient who required transfer to another hospital that was more equipped to help him, and at the end of the report the doctor dictated,
"Good luck John, and God bless you." (name changed).

Wasn't that kind? It is rather unheard of to dictate such a warm and personal message into a patient chart, but it really touched my heart and made me feel good.

I love very small acts of kindness that happen during everyday life. Those are the kinds of things that keep us all going, like a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, a hug, a friendly laugh, someone going out of their way to help you find something you need or get where you are going.

Love it!

Happy Day

Card by Beth of Seaside Dreamer


Today I came home to a good mail day!!! This wonderful card sent to me by my friend Beth! She told me she had a new stamp from Character Constructions and I asked her to make me a card. I forgot about that until today! I love her art so much and this card is just fantastic!!! It really made my day! It got me to thinking how much happiness a card in the mail can bring.

So, I had a BRIGHT IDEA, I am going to send a card to someone whose blog I really love, and so I thought if each one of us did that, just one card to one blogger, how cool would that be!!!! I am going to contact someone I don't know that well, but that will be the fun of it....so, come on, let's all join in! Let me know what happens if you do it!

Then, once I was unwinding from the day, getting ready to eat dinner with Mike, Miss Jane called with the news that the stamps that we were coveting and going ape over from Hero Arts
were in! So, off we went to Archiver's. You know we have to have them tonight even though we won't be stamping with them until this weekend!

So, all in all, quite a lovely day! Now, let's send a card people!

A Light Dusting of Snow

There is a light dusting of snow outside, just the perfect amount to make things look like a Winter Wonderland. Mike and I readying ourselves for night two of 24........we are warm and cozy and lucky to be in our own home and married to each other.......Winter Coziness....flannel pajamas, a good book to read, a freshly poured Tab to drink.......ahhh, life is good.

Above is a card I made and I give all credit for the inspiration to the lovely Donna who has a great blog that you should go visit! She and I have lots in common in the stamping and reading department.....She made a card using this stamp and coloring the little girls all in pink and that is where this card started. I also used German Glitter Glass for the snowflakes. And then the brilliant idea of using my snowflake punch on my scraps of paper suddenly hit!

Also, another new blog that I would like to introduce you to is by my friend Karen! She has joined my friend Jane and I in the obsessiveness of rubber stamping. We are all crazy and currently obsessed with stamps from Stamping Bella. These are completely opposite of my usual vintage style, but if you go to another new blog I discovered, Little Pink Flowers,
I think you will see why we are so inspired. By the way, can I show you another stamp I am currently obessessed with, it is from Art by Moonlight from the Stamp Francisco website. Isn't it totally cool!???

You know what I really need to do? Stamp!!! I have been obsessing over product and magazines, but have not done any stamping! Hope to rectify that tomorrow after work.

Oh, and on the book front.... I finished the first three of my TBR books (To Be Read).....They were all good, but none of them will end up on my best books of the year list....still waiting to crack open a book that sends me into orbit......

The first three that I read are: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (one of the best writers ever!), Blankets by Craig Thompson, and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (very, very good book!).

Favorite Things!

Puppies and Kitties!

Luscious hand cream!

Most fabulous up and coming artist! (with affordable prices! Bonus!)

The best blog banners known to mankind!

Many, many, many stamps that you cannot live without!

Best Grocery store product for dry skin! Smells terrific!

Best product for dry lips!!!! (never buy Chapstick again, only buy this! It is so much better!)

Best book to read if you want to fall in love with the characters and have a delightful time

Musical I could see at least 5 more times!

Documentary I wish more people would see!

Best comedy on TV right now! with the cutest guy on TV right now! (Jim!)

AND

Can't wait for it!!!!!!!!

Please leave your endorsements in the comments!

Stamper's Heaven or The Long, Long, Long Road to Organization

Last week while Mike and I were on vacation we went to IKEA to look for a desk. In addition to that I found this great organizational unit. Please meet.....Antonious!!!! It has baskets and drawers on each side of the tower with shelving in between! I can fit so much in here! It is so much fun!
I took everything off this wall and am streamlining my stamping room. With this system I can see what I have!
Note that there are even racks for hanging ribbons and various "doo dads!"
I separated things in baskets, for example, all of my paints are in one drawer. All inks in another drawer. All things to color with in another drawer.
I am not done yet, but have a very good head start on things. I am also making a "catalog" of my own stamps. Stamping on image of each stamp, noting the maker, and then putting them all in a three ring binder.

I should be up there right now, but am too pooped!!! Hope this inspires others!!!

Some Light Housecleaning

Well tomorrow I return to work after a week off. Mike and I were planning on organizing our lives last week, instead we spent a lot of time relaxing, lunching, reading, and shopping. Oh well, one must restore their soul also.

I have been working on a very cool and exciting organizational project in my stamp room though. Mike and I went browsing at IKEA and I found a totally cool organizational system. Mike spent our anniversary day putting it together. It takes up a whole wall with racks and baskets, and is just perfect. I am slowly getting all my stuff rearranged in the room. My incentive to get it done is a desk that would go along with the organizational unit. Hopefully, within the next couple of weeks I will be done with that. Pictures to come as soon as it is presentable.

Also, in the next week I need to get finished with the FFA (Faux Family Album). That is weighing heavily on my mind as so many cool people participated and I want to get their FF albums returned to them. If you are waiting and thinking what the heck is going on....have no fear, they will be moving soon.
Lastly, a photo of me as we went out to dinner for our anniversary. We went to Le Cirque for dinner and then 21 for drinks!

January 4, 2007 Our Tenth Wedding Anniversary

Today is our tenth wedding anniversary!!! Above is my favorite picture from our wedding! We have had a wonderful ten years with lots of joys and only a few sorrows.....we have really taken good care of each other (actually Mike takes better care of me!) I am very lucky we met and am so thankful that Mike is my husband. We had a whirlwind romance. We met and married within one year.
Let me talk about myself for a minute. Can I just tell you how much I loved this dress, veil, and flowers!!! Gorgeous! and I loved my bell sleeves!
When we got married I was 35 and Mike was 33....since we were "older" I did not want to have a head table with us and our attendants. I wanted to sit with our parents and grandparents and make it really special. Here we are at our table with our dearest loved ones. Our sister and brother sat at tables on either side of us with their family/friends.
I wanted to show you the beautiful church we were married in. It is the church I grew up in.

Thank you Mike for a wonderful ten years......here's to many more years of happiness!

Thank you all for looking at our wedding pictures. As you know, I love wedding pictures of all types. If anyone else posts some please let me know!

surprise!

look who was here...

January 2, 2007

It is the day after my 45th birthday! I had such a wonderful day, one of my very best birthdays ever! Above and below is the beautiful card that Beth made for my birthday!!!!!! It is absolutely one of the most beautiful things I have ver seen. I love it so! The words inside are taken from an old Little House on the Prairie book! Clever!
I had so many phone calls yesterday from friends and family. I felt like the belle of the ball! My Mom, brother, and Jane came over. We went out to lunch at Portillo's (sorry Kim!) and then came home and while the guys watched classic episodes from The Dick Van Dyke show, we gals stamped and had a really great time!

Also, I had surprises on the blogs of my friends!!! I was tickled pink by Kim and Sandy!!! How sweet!! And the previous entry on my blog done by my Banner Fairy AKA Heather! What a wonderful surprise that was!!! (and don't forget people...she is going to start her banner business this year, so all those half-naked blogs can get beautiful!)
Above is the tag that Trish made for my gift! Isn't it cool???
Unrelated to birthday...... the most talented Cris Cunningham sent me this altered cabinet card when she sent in her FFA page!!! Wow! I was so thrilled!!!! This is so gorgeous!
My wonderful friend Karen made the above card for my birthday! I absolutely love it!! It is stamped on a small white card and looks adorable!!!! This stamp is from the vegetable couture line from Lokhart stamps.....check out their flower couture line too! Very innovative and totally cute!
Above is a journal page my Mom did last night!!! Totally gorgeous. You can't see all the glitter sparkle she added with this scan though!
Above is a card that Jane made! Isn't it the cutest!! She is a genius! We were inspired by the gorgeous card that Donna made and posted on her blog. The main image is a retired Stamping Up stamp and the How Jolly is a stamp from Red Lead that we have coveted the entire Christmas season! Look for it on many, many Christmas projects next year as we finally broke down and bought one after Christmas this year! What were we waiting for?
Heavenly Peace. Another journal page that my Mom did last night! So simple and beautiful!

Thank you to all for such a wonderful birthday!

Happy Birthday!

love, the Blog Banner Fairy

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!! This year is so full of promise and I am very excited! On the home front Mike and I hope to get going on making improvements to our home to make it more homey and fun to hang out in. I hope to also get more organized, etc. blah, blah, blah!!!!

On the art front my best gals and I are planning a trip to Red Lead Paperworks in St. Louis for a shopping and art excursion. In October we are going to take a class with the famous Lynne Perrella. In between we hope to get together as often as possible for stamp camps and just plain old stamping, antique shopping, and fun, fun, fun!
2006 was really a banner year for me. I started this blog and from it came all kinds of wonders and moments full of joy! I have made new friends who I treasure so much and learned so many things both technical and artful! Thank you everyone for making me feel so welcome. I love how we have become entwined in each other's lives through the blogging community.

I wish everyone a year full of peace, love, and understanding!!!

Out of Control and Trying to Exert some Order-TBR 2007

I stumbled on the most exciting challenge!!! TBR 2007. For those in the know, TBR stands for To Be Read, as in a pile of books that you have purchased and said books have been unread for quite some time. I have "several" books that fit in this category, Ahem! Above is a picture of my books for the TBR Challenge. The challenge is hosted by the Literary Cache blog. The idea is that you pick 12 books from your TBR challenge and read one a month during 2007! Excellent idea as it got me all motivated to start reading what I have. I have an illness when it comes to books, I could buy 5-10 a week. There are so many great books out there, so many novels that sound interesting, so many works of non-fiction that I should read......I am trying to rein myself in just a bit and start reading what I have! I won't be able to stop buying new books, but at least I hope to slow down.

My 12 books are :

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
We Are All The Same by Jim Wooten
She Got Up off the Couch by Haven Kimel
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
His Brother's Keeper by Jonathan Weiner
King Dork by Frank Portman
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Until I Find You by John Irving
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Blankets by Craig Thompson
The Seamstress by Sara Tuvel Bernstein

Above is my back-up pile. If one of the original 12 books is not to my liking I will substitute it with one of these books.

Those Who Favor Fire by Lauren Wolk
Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanah Clark (note that this book is still in the original shrink wrap! for shame!)
Maise Dobbs by Jaqueline Winspear
The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
The Sad Truth About Happiness by Anne Giardini
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tylane by Kate DiCamillo
Marrying Mozart by Stephanie Cowell

If anyone has read any of these and has comments please leave them for me!
Okay, I am going to be honest. Following are pictures from around the house of places that contain books. This is the guest room.
My nightstand.
Our dresser with my books all over it.
One of our bookcases. This is a relatively new bookcase that has been overun with books.
My family is joining in the fun. They aren't official members, but picked 12 books and will be doing the challenge along with me. Above are Mike's books.
This is my Mom's pile of books.

Below are my brother, Todd's books.

We all kind of have the same problem.

Laura Duet's Best Books of 2006! An annual list.

I don't think it is a coincidence that I read the least amount of books ever (well since adulthood, I guess) in 2006! This is also the year that I started Maude and Mozart and reading everyone else's blogs which I really love to do, but boy it really cut into my reading time! So, reading has kind of taken a back seat to blogging and stamping.....hopefully, I will be able to read more in 2007 while keeping up with everyone's blogs too. Without further ado, here are the best books I read this year!!!!!! The number one book was definitely the best book I read this year and then following that #2 through #10 are in no particular order. 1. Digging To America by Anne Tyler.


2. Girls of Tender Age by Mary-Anne Tirone Smith
3. The World According to Mimi Smartypants by Mimi Smartypants 4. Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg

5. But Enough About Me by Jancee Dunn

6. A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas

7. The Way We Were by Paul Burrell

8. Cancer Vixen by Marissa Marchetto

9. Little Children by Tom Perrotta

10. Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby

Please, I beg of you, leave me the the title of the best book or books you read this year in the comments section! I live for this kind of information!!!!

Vintage Image Books/Stamping Magazines Jackpot

Beautiful Christmas card made by one of the very important people in my life, Miss Trish!
Well, over the past two days I have had a jackp0t of crafty books/vintage image books coming through the doors. Above is a book that Mike gave me for Christmas, and the coolest thing about it is I had never seen it or heard of it before! He found it all on his own and it is totally cool. Chock full of images to be used in artwork!!!
Great book from my Mom! The ultimate collection of Christmas magazine covers from the 20's, 30's, and 40's!! Love the cover!
Another great book from Mom.
And another great book from Mom. She found a store in Michigan that had a ton of Laughing Elephant/Green Tiger stuff!
Then today, when I should have been straightening and organizing, Mike and I instead went out for lunch and then to look for calenders...well, lo and behold I found the new Somerset and new Inspirations!!! Guess what I am doing tonight after I put the laundry away!?????