A Surprise for Rita - FMS 37

We are celebrating Freshly Made Sketches' very own Rita Wright this week with a surprise blog hop - in honor of Rita and her soon-to-arrive baby girl Laila! Laila's nursery is done in yellow and gray and giraffes abound. I stayed with the theme and made Rita a set of thank you cards for baby gifts.

Now let's chat about oh-so-talented Rita!  Last year at Convention in Salt Lake City I kept running into Rita - literally!  We had never met before and out of zillions of demos we often seemed to be in the same place at the same time.  We even sat together at a Make 'n Take Session!

Weeks later Lesley called me about being on the DT for Freshly Made Sketches.  She was still putting the team together but already had a commitment from Rita and asked if I knew her. Amazing! Out of a zillion demos Lesley from Canada called Rita in Texas and me in New York!  

Rita will be taking a family leave soon - me too.  My daughter is also expecting a baby girl and I will take a break from DT duties for a while.  Hey Rita what will we be doing next?

If you arrived here from Lesley's blog you are right on track.  Nance Leedy is next.  I am sure she has something wonderful waiting there under the canopy! Rita designed our sweet sketch this week and Nance put an extra "spin" on it. Don't forget to stop by Rita's blog as well!  She is a terrific gal - and we are all so excited to meet baby Laila!

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful creations made for Rita by these fabulous designers:

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Hall

Erna Logtenberg

Jen Mitchell

Jennifer Timko

Kathy Tanner

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Nance Leedy

Tui Nathan

Tara Murphy Bourgoin

Summer Friends - FMS36

Early summer weather here has put me in the mood for Summer Smooches Designer Paper and some Bright Blossoms.  (Gotta love these new bright graphic designs!)   Early summer weather also means we've already been able to spend time at the lake with the summer people!  It's fun to reconnect every year with our warm weather friends.  And only in the summer does there seem to be time to play Scrabble on the porch in the middle of the afternoon or to sit and chat by the fire in the evening.  Hmm maybe that's because I have turned the cooking over to the grillmaster.............I think he's cooking.........

                              Tui designed a great sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.
                                                        

Showing Off..........PPA135

I am showing off today - showing off the new in colors from Stampin' Up that is!  Midnight Muse, Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green and Primrose Petals - such rich pretty colors!  And the new inks are just as rich!  I even snuck in one of the classy new wooden buttons.  All of this richness is going to leave me broke :)
  
                             Pals Paper Arts has a sweet sketch to play with this week!


                                                   

Baby Thanks - FMS 35

My daughter is expecting a baby girl in September and has already received some sweet baby gifts. She asked me to make some thank you cards that weren't too baby-ish or pink. I am delighted to report this passed inspection.  Next up -  designing the shower invites.  Her request for those went something like this: 

Hmmm how about bunnies? I love bunnies. (I dug out all my bunny images.) No wait I think lambs - yes let's do lambs. (I borrowed some lamb images.) Oh buttons are cute too.  (I started sorting buttons into baby colors)  No pink - I like purple - and bedazzlers.

I don't know where to start! But if you get an invite with a bedazzled purple lamb leaping over a buttoned down bunny you know the party's at my house!

                        I followed this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches for my card.

                                                    

Fabulous Friends - FMS34

Upsy Daisy and Inspired by Nature are two of my favorite SU stamp sets ever!  They both made the retirement list this year but I won't be parting with them for sure.  They get a permanent place on the shelf marked "retired but still fabulous!"  Now that I think of it I have a lot of friends like that - retired but still fabulous!




                   And there is a fabulous sketch this week to try at Freshly Made Sketches!


                                         
                                                     

Happy Birthday - to Me!

No it's not really my birthday but it felt like it this week when I received an e-mail saying I was the Featured Stamper for Splitcoaststampers'  Featured Stamper Challenge!  Me? Really? I was stunned!  It was a wonderful surprise - and certainly made me want to celebrate!  Any excuse for cake and ice cream :)  Stampers participating in the challenge are asked to case (while changing 2 or more elements) one of the cards from my gallery on Splitcoast. It has been wonderful seeing all of the creations and I thought I'd enter the challenge as well.  My festive birthday card today was made casing the Halloween card below and using colors from the challenge at PPA this week.  


                                               


                                                         

Welcome - to the 21st Century!

I used the Freshly Made Sketch  to create this card for my mother who just returned from wintering in Florida.  Closing up one apartment and opening another requires a lot of planning and attention to detail.  My mother still handles all of her own affairs and does really well but we had one minor glitch - the phone in her apartment here wasn't turned back on.  She called me tonight and said:


 "You have to call the phone company in the morning.  My phone still doesn't work.  I'm 87 years old and anything could happen.  I shouldn't be here alone without a telephone!"


I totally agreed and told my daughter that I was going to worry all night because Gram had no phone.  To which she replied:  "Well what did Gram just call you on?"


Yep - Gram called me on my cell phone from her cell phone and it never dawned on either one of us that she certainly did have a phone.  I called her right back to tell her - "Hey you do have a phone!"  She replied "I do?"  I'll be calling the phone company in the morning.........