Oh, Hello Summer.....FMS88

About this past holiday weekend......we had two days of torrential cold rain followed by one picture perfect Monday with clear skies and sunshine.  It was a delightful day - a parade in the morning and a picnic at the lake in the afternoon.  Oh, hello summer - so nice to have you back!


I received so many wonderful e-mails in support of my going gray - thanks for the encouragement! This photo of Emma and me at the parade shows you my lovely orange-y gray do! 



                                    





            Jen Mitchell designed a delightful sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches.
                            

A Basic Shade of Gray........FMS87

I love the pop of the Calypso Coral against Basic Gray.  Reminds me of my hair these days. After about 10 years of covering the gray I have decided enough is enough - I am going gray!  Letting your hair grow out is not for the faint of heart.  Twelve weeks into this and my brown hair has faded to a unique shade of orange layered over a backdrop of gray.  Oh so attractive!  And so far not much support from friends and family either.  My 88 year old mother has firmly stated she does not want to be the mother of a gray haired woman and my husband asks weekly when I am going to color my hair ...........hmmmm they are both gray.........but I am going to hang tough.....wish me luck!

JenTimko has a wonderful sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches! 

Picnic Season! PPA159

I love the look of Gingham Garden DSP!  This card just reminds me of summer and picnics - I am ready!  Thought you'd like to see someone else who is ready for summer adventures.  Miss Emma is loving the great outdoors these days - so many new things to see!

               Margaret designed a wonderful sketch for us at Pals Paper Arts this week!

                              

Sweet Treats............FMS 86

What's not to love about cupcakes?  I love them - my favorite sweet treat for sure!  And speaking of sweet treats have you heard about the fight between Mr. Ding-a-ling and Sno Kone Joe -  our local ice cream truck owners?  It's a turf war with Sno Kone Joe proclaiming he owns this town and Mr. Ding-a-ling needs to get lost. Mr.Ding-a-ling says he has been harassed for months and is afraid of what Sno Cone Joe may do next. It's been all over the news, internet and even Jay Leno and David Letterman have poked fun at the craziness of it all.  Yep - all taking place right here in Gloversville, NY.  As of today Sno Kone Joe has lost his vendor's license and is fighting to get it back as he proclaims his innocence.  Mr. Ding-a-ling is sticking to his story that Sno Kone Joe stalks him and offers free sno kones if need be to lure the kiddos to his truck.  And of course everyone in town has an opinion..............I am sticking to the bakery.......

Amy's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches is a sweet treat too!

Pals Retirement Hop

                                         



Welcome to the Pals Annual Retirement Hop!  Many of our favorite images and colors from Stampin' Up! will no longer be available after this month so we are showcasing some retirees one more time!

The Just Believe stamp set remains one of my favorite sets so I paired it with one of my favorite colors - Baja Breeze!  The background image is done in Not Quite Navy and Riding Hood Red provides the pop of color.  All of those ink pads are trekking across my craft room to the retirement shelf as well! The color spritzer sprayed some Baja Breeze on the vanilla panel - subtle but effective.  That spritzer will not make the trek across the room even though it is retiring - I just can't part with it! And since this is the last time I will feature this set on my blog I thought I would go back in time - two years ago actually - and show you the first card I made using images from Just Believe.  Two totally different looks - one great stamp set!

You are on track if you came from Nicole Watt's blog - your next stop is Deb's Stampin' Grounds - enjoy hopping with the Pals - it is great fun!  The complete blog list is below:

1. Sherrie Gross at Stampin' Sunshine
2. Kerry Willard Bray at Stampgoodness
3. Amy Williams at Stampin' on the Range
4. Kathleen Law at Craft With Kathleen
5. Susan Itell at Simple Stampin'
6. Kari Linder at Stampin' Essentials
7. nicole watt at Pixel Maven's Retreat
8. Linda Callahan at Stampin' Seasons
9. Debra Simonis at Deb's Stampin' Grounds
10. Lynn Hoyt at Cattail Designs
11. Nancy Gleason at My Stampin Space
12. Nicole Picadura at Scraps & Stamps
13. Dawn Tidd at Tiddbits from Dawn
14. Amy Lazzell at Just a Thought...Cards by Amy
15. Leslie Davis at Life's Moments
16. Kim Czenszak at LiveLoveStamp
17. Maxine Conrad at Stamp to the MAX!
18. Debbie Mageed at Scrappin' and Stampin'
19. Diane Roberts at Score at Four and a Quarter
20. Maggie Mata at Maggie Made Cards
21. Katy McGloin at Just Fun Stamping
22. Penny Nichols at Sierra Stampin!
23. Mary Fish at Stampin' Pretty
24. Rae Harper at Wild West Paper Arts
25. Peggy Noe at prettypapercards.com
26. Shannon Hokanson at Paper Works
27. Julie Trevett-Smith at The Stampin' Affair
28. Shirley Sumption at look at my cute stuff
29. Debbie Crowley at expressivelydeb...
30. Barbara Furlong at The Love of Stamping
31. Elaine Fleming at Studio Elaine

Family Birthdays - FMS85

It's only the first week in May and we have already celebrated 2 family birthdays so this card has already been delivered.  It has a great retro vibe going thanks to the new Gingham Garden DSP which looks wonderful paired with the small floral image from Fruit and Flowers.  Love that retro look - perhaps because I grew up in the 50's!  Everybody's mom was June Cleaver back then  - it was a great decade!  Thought you'd enjoy this snapshot of a real 50's birthday party.  That's me on the left with the braids helping my cousin (right next to me) - celebrate her 6th birthday,  What is with those bangs!?!?! Yes my mother cut them herself - and it looks like a few other moms had mastered the short bang clipping as well!


                             



                          Narelle's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches is terrific in any decade!
                                                   

Simply Fabulous! PPA158

The soft spring palette of colors at Pals Paper Arts and the sketch at Fab Friday are perfect to showcase the images from Established Elegance - another Stampin' Up! set retiring this month. So Established Elegance will be making that long trek across my craft room to join Button, Button on the retired bookshelf.  Someone else I know made the the trek across my craft room today.......at 7 months Emma is not really crawling but can pretty much roll, spin and flip herself wherever she wants to go!

                                  Hey Gram look what I found!

                               Looks like there are plenty more where these came from!



                                   




                             

Button, Button - FMS84

Button, Button is on Stampin' Up's retirement list this year so I thought it deserved another moment in the sun before it moves across the room to my retired stamp set bookcase! These bright little buttons should cheer up anyone feeling a bit under the weather! They cheer me up just stamping them - such a fun set to use! 

              Linda Suarez' sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches is pretty cheerful too!   Enjoy!