Last Saturday my Mom came over and we made cards! We had a great time just hanging out all day together. Above is a totally cute card my Mom made with this adorable Inky Antics stamp. 
I made the above card with a new stamp from Hampton Arts (I think). I found some text in an old book which talked about serving tea and I put that on the inside of the card.
My Mom made this gorgeous number with different papers. Quite lovely!
Here are the entries into Dina's Alphabetica Journal from Jane. Dina's theme was poetry. Jane found this dear little rhyming verse in a children's book and did the pages you see above and below. Genius as usual!
Here are Trish's pages for Dina's journal. I love the little illustrations she included above. The poem she selected is very odd and the lines from grammar textbooks just go perfectly, as does the picture of the boys below!
I found a poem on line about music. It expresses my exact feelings on the subject!!!
Hope Dina likes our pages! Beth of Seaside Dreamer is working on this journal now.
I was given this very cool and lovely award by the very cool and lovely Nan at Letters from a Hill Farm. 
At the last minute (after a nice Thai food dinner with Mike), Jane and I rushed off to Cherish, a scrapbook store in Naperville. We had such a fun time, especially because the owner, Diane, took time with us to show us lots of new products and catalogs from the recent CHA show held in Chicago. It was so nice of her to take so much time with us. If you go to the store, and you really should if you can!, ask to see the book she made about her shoes! It is totally great! She also asked our opinions on a couple of stamps lines, and you know I love to give my opinion on stamps!!! One of stamp lines was my all-time fave, B-Line designs! I said to bring all their stamps to the store! ( I could really get into some trouble then!)
CHA stands for Craft and Hobby Association. Twice yearly they have a show and introduce all kinds of new products. It is the time of year when there are new lines of scrapbook paper and stamps, which is so exciting for "new stuff" junkies!
Above is a picture of the products I purchased at Cherish last night. All of the paper you see here is from Anna Griffin! I love her stuff! Check out those rub-ons from her!!! I could not resist the beautiful Christmas stamp from Inkadinkadoo. Just gorgeous!
Love this paper which was found in the "baby/child"section of the store!
This paper will just be so much fun to use with everything! Cut out each individual flower square and add them willy-nilly to projects. 
Mike and I took Friday off from work. We finally got on the road about 11:00 a.m. We had to get money, gas, and get the car washed. 
We went through all of our CDs and filled a case full of good stuff to listen to on the way down to St. Louis.
I had about 100 pages to go in Harry Potter so I made Mike drive after our lunch at Cracker Barrel. If you know me, then you know what I ordered there (Eggs in a Basket!!!!)
On Friday night we went to a bar near the new stadium where the Cardinals play. We saw The Blasters. There were only about 50 people in the place, so it was real up close and personal. Great music!
The next morning we were off to Red Lead. Mike came in and met Chris and Sharon and then left me there for an hour. I had a great time talking with the gals and shopping! Looking at their samples is so inspiring. Right after Red Lead Mike and I went to this grocery store to get some Fitz's root beer to take home. Who did we run into there??? Chris from Red Lead!! She was getting supplies for the store. I wonder if she thought we were total dweebs being in a grocery store on our weekend getaway??? Actually, I hate going to the grocery store at home, but I love going to out of town grocery stores. 
I got a new camera for this weekend! A small digital camera that fits in my purse. I see I have a few things to learn about picture composition and blurriness. Doesn't all that Fitz's root beer look divine though? It is a locally brewed root beer. We had to go to the grocery store to get some to bring home. 
I love this t-shirt of Mike's. I got it for him from the Natalie Dee website. See the link on my sidebar for her site. 
Here is Mike in the car with our gas station pop. It was so hot in St. Louis!!! We went to the zoo on Saturday, but I could only stand an hour of that. I suggested we take refuge in a book store. I asked Mike to find a cool independent book store and he navigated us to Left Bank Books. He is the King of Navigation!
MMmmmmmmm! A wall of new books!!! 
Cool Harry Potter window at the bookstore!
Here is Mike with the books we bought. We each got one book in an attempt to be reasonable. 
However, we then faced the option of running around some more before our concert on Saturday night or going to the hotel to relax. I opted for running around and we found a Borders....oops! We got about 6 books all told while in there! So much for reason....it was a TOOOTTTTT!
I don't have any pictures from the concert Saturday night, but let me tell you it was one of the top 3 concerts I have ever seen. We saw The Polyphonic Spree. It was breathtaking and amazing. I want to see them again STAT!!!!!! If you get the chance, see them. They are so great!!!!
Our last stop on Sunday morning was the science museum. They had a special Marvel comics exhibit which was very interesting and my comic book geek husband wanted to check it out. 
Aren't I a lucky gal? Mike and I are going to St. Louis for the weekend!!! We leave tomorrow morning. Mike made reservations at a very cool looking hotel. The Chesire Lodge which is right in the heart of Forest Park. We can walk to the zoo and the art museum. The reason we are going is because two of our favorite bands are playing in St. Louis this weekend! On Friday night we will go see The Blasters. On Saturday we will see The Polyphonic Spree. Raise your hands if you have heard of these bands! If you have not, please try to check them out as they are both totally top notch!!! We will be lunching at Fitz's Root Beer factory one day. Yum! Also...........guess what???? I will be squeezing in a trip to my dream store, Red Lead!!!!!!!! I guess that is when Mike will be waiting in the car with the air conditioning on and reading a book. I am looking forward to hanging out with my sweetheart this weekend. I have been running all over creation with my gal pals and have neglected my guy. So, I will see you back in this space on Monday night!0643.jpg)
Our Alphabetica journal project continues!!! I believe it started around March 2006. I think we are about halfway through. Here are the entries from myself and Trish for Marilyn's journal. Marilyn is the leader of the project, and we are so thankful for her patience and guidance! We have met so many talented and lovely women through this project! 0644.jpg)
Trish picked the word "Wings." See her very cool interpretation below in the next two photos. I love her use of images of flowers and butterfly wings interspersed with photos!!!
Aren't these pages totally lovely???? 
Well, I am off to try and finish Harry Potter tonight! I want to be able to talk to two of my friends who have finished it already! (Hi Noreen in California!! Hi Kim in Ohio!!!)
Hey blog buddies, sorry I have been absent for so long! I have been having so much fun lately that I have been overwhelmed and didn't know what to post! I always feel like I have to "go in order" and tell my stories exactly how each thing happened. Well, I can't do it this time. After Tootfest I was so overloaded by all the fun we had that I couldn't make myself post anything. So, here is a willy-nilly post of different stuff. Who says that chronological order has to rule the day!??? First up, is a darling book I found when we went to the antique mall in Crown Point, Indiana. I found tons of treasures in that town (as always!). If someone made me move to Indiana I would not mind at all. I love that state. Of course, that is where my Grandma is from so we have lots of family history there.
The ladies at the antique shop threw this card in for free with my order! Isn't it unique and cool?
Another find in Crown Point. The scan does not do it justice, what a cute baby!
Yesterday my Mom gave me this card she found when antique shopping in Michigan City, Indiana. It is exactly what I have been looking for. I am totally into "juvenile" cards from the 50's, 60's and 70's. Jane and I found the mother lode when we were in St. Charles, Missouri. 
Today at work the building engineer brought in the above and below photos to see if Jane and I wanted to buy them. He goes "junking" and keeps his eye out for cool stuff for us. We got each picture for $3. I love this bridal picture! Can't wait to do something with it.
Here is the other photo from today. A bridesmaid photo which is lovely.
I have been heavily into tag making lately. I want to make tag books people!!! So, I asked each person at Tootfest to make me a tag. Above is Julie's extremely cool tag that will be the front of my tag book. She used "rebar" to make the letters!
Here is Kim's tag. She used an illustration of a tulip in a flower book I got at a used book sale for #1. She turned the tulip into the little girl's skirt! Genius!
As always, Jane blows me away with her cute design! Note: She cut into her new Basic Grey Infuse paper!!! Wow! How the times have changed. We are all trying not to hoard our favorite papers anymore.
Trish made a beautiful tag using lots of birdies (everyone's current favorite image!). This is the front of the tag.
Here is the back of the tag! Sheer perfection!
Kim made this awesomely cool ATC for me!!!!
Well, this picture about sums up our four days of Tootfest 2 - 2007. Here we are leaving the hotel on Saturday morning to go shopping. You can see from the left, Jane, me, Trish, and Kim. Julie was our photographer for most of the trip and she took some really great shots. I would call this one an action shot! We had a fab time creating art, eating too much, not getting enough sleep, shopping for beads, antiques, and art supplies. Truth be told, I am still recovering from all the fun we had! We really needed a week! I will be posting more tidbits over the next few days.
I will be taking a small blog break to make way for Tootfest Part Two, 2007. Kim, Julie, Trish, Jane, and I will be getting together and spending the weekend at Embassy Suites in a complete art, antique, laughing, girlfriend time haze! Oh, and we will be eating all the wrong foods too! Beth is unable to join us unfortunately. She is an original tootfest member and will be missed dearly.
Isn't this card just gorgeous!!!!! My friend Trish made it and sent it to me!! I love the use of piecework pieces of paper!!! Love the sentiment, the colors, the image of the girl!! The ribbon, the button!!! Love it!
As the title of this entry indicates I have been madly reading books over the last four days. When I have not been at work, I have been reading!!! I am addicted. I am reading about 3 books at one time! Above is a new artsy book I ran across at Barnes and Noble when Mike and I were there tooting. It is totally worth getting. I love it! I put it in the same league as Alphabetica and True Colors for those of you who are familiar with those books. 
Mike and I took two huge boxes of books to Half-Price books. We got $55 for them. I, of course, turned around and bought some more books. I took a chance on the above novel as I read Anna Maxted's first novel some years ago and loved it. She is in the "chick lit" genre, but probably shouldn't be cause her books are a step above that tired stuff. So far, this book is a really good read. Funny too.
