Floral Surprise

 

The other day as I came walking up to my front door, I decided to take a peek at the side of the house to see if we had any more roses blooming. I was pleasantly surprised- but not by roses- by these beauties! Aren't they gorgeous? My dear friend Claudia's husband Joe planted some bulbs for us last year and I totally forgot about them. OMW- what a lovely surprise.!

Thanks, Joe! I am so glad your green thumb touched my yard. I love these!

Happy Birthday To ME!

Well, I guess turning the "Big Five- Oh!" is not so bad after all! :-) At least it wasn't for me. I admit, I have had a couple of birthdays that bothered me a bit: and it's funny to look back and remember that 30 was one of them! Yet, I had no trouble at all with 40. But approaching 50 was kind of giving me the creeps, until the day actually came. That's when all the good things happened to remind me of just how very blessed I am and to be thankful that I am the age I am. (After all, think of the alternative!)

First I received two dozen long stemmed roses from my wonderful hubby. They are gorgeous!
And just a short time later, the doorbell rang and it was the florist delivering this absolutely beautiful arrangement of flowers from our dear friends Gail and Bill (who just happen to be our daughter Katie's in-laws). These are so, so pretty and so unusual. The colors are lovely! I was so touched by their thoughtfulness! They are surrounded by some of the many gorgeous birthday cards I received- almost ALL hand made! This little nook in my kitchen is such a bright spot now!
And I was totally spoiled by receiving way too many awesome, fun, thoughtful and wonderful presents! Here I am opening an autographed CD by Mandisa, from my son John. Sitting next to me is my dear, precious friend Sue chatting with my hubby. Don't know why he looks so serious, lol- we had an awesome, super fun night!
And would you check this out! This is the amazing card that Sue made me. It is so cool in real life. She is SO talented! I cherish every card she has ever made me. They are all so beautiful!

And finally, my beautiful cake: made by my favorite bakery, of course. I was just going to have flowers on it, but they came up with the Easter Egg idea since my birthday was just the day before Easter. It turned out really pretty, too. It was soooooo yummy. I won't even tell you how much I had of it today ;-)

Anyway- I did have a great birthday. I was surrounded by "most" of my family- my hubby and all of our kids were here, except poor Bobby was up in bed. He came home from work early due to being sick :-( That was a bummer, but I knew he would have been down with us if he could have been. Katie and William were here- tired as ever (they work too hard!) but they were so sweet to spend the evening with us. And having Sue and her hubby Ron here really made it special. You can not ask for more wonderful friends then them! 

And to top it off, when I came downstairs this morning sweet Caroline announced to me that I am not old. She said that I will not officially be old until I am 80. At 75, she said, I will start getting kind of old, but won't really be old for another five years after that. So, I have 30 years to go! Whew! I guess I was sweating it for nothin'! :-)

 

HAPPY EASTER!

Remember when I showed you my "Red Bread"? Well, I told to then to wait until Easter... and this was why! Isn't this just too much? Challah is my favorite bread, and what my bakery does to it is hilarious. But you don't really get the "full effect" until you actually cut into it. Until then you can not really appreciate the artistry here:
So what do you think? Have you ever seen anything like this? I think this is so silly, but so fun! 

My dear friend Debbi said just today that "Easter challah is an oxymoron" and of course, she's right. But whatever.... I still can't resist it. Now, I have to admit- last month when they had green challah bread for St. Patrick's Day, it was just a bit too much for me. I think it made me think too much of mold. Kinda gross. But, this I love. 

Anyway, I just wanted to post this before Easter day was actually over. I hope all of you who are celebrating His resurrection had a wonderful and truly blessed holy day! He is risen! He is risen indeed! 

Having Our Cake And Eating It, Too!

 

So what cold be better than chocolate cake? How about chocolate cake and stamping?!

I am sorry I have not posted in far too long, but life has been a bit on the hectic side. I've had a lot more on my plate (and I don't just mean the cake plate!) than I care to deal with, but sprinkled in between lots of "life's garbage" has also been lots of wonderful fun! I hope that I will soon find some time to share with you some pics and stories of recent trips to Disneyland- where we experienced some honest to goodness "Disney Magic" and good times! 

As many of you know, I have a major addiction to one of the local bakeries near here and spend a great deal of time there. It has gotten to the point where I am not only on a first name basis with the employees, but to where I think they plan what they will bake around my eating habits. They reach for my favorites before I even ask. I suspect they will start slicing my bread as soon as they see me parking my car in the lot before long, lol. 

Anyway, on the morning of a recent Stampin' Up! workshop I was to have, I decided to buy a cake for our get together. I knew the "hostess" would be bringing something (as they always do) but I figured "what the heck?"- I'm in the mood for cake and I'm sure they'll like it, too. It doesn't have to be a birthday celebration to eat cake right? Besides- it's always someone's birthday, haha! So, I got this yummy chocolate cake with cream cheese filling for our workshop. Well, can you believe the hostess forgot to bring something for us to eat? Hahaha- now I  will never second guess my instincts- buying a cake on a whim can never be a bad idea!

Anyway, I just thought this picture would be appreciated by all others like me who like to "have thier cake and stamp while eating it" too! :-)

GRACE

 

I did another Scripture challenge. This time the study was on "Grace". It was interesting that I found these very words in the Bible in more than one place, and reading the verses they were surrounded by gave these words new meaning. 

Here is what my study Bible says about 1 Corinthians 1:3: 

Grace is God's free gift of salvation given to us in Christ. Receiving it brings us peace (see Romans 5:1). In a world of noise, confusion, and relentless pressures, people long for peace. Many give up the search, thinking it impossible to find, but true peace of heart and mind is available to us through faith in Jesus Christ.

What an awesome message of Grace for this week! I have been blessed by these words, and hope you will be, too!

Thanks for visiting :-)

Items used for my 6x6 "Grace" page:

Card Stock: SU! Chocolate Chip; Bordering Blue; So Saffron

Designer series paper: SU! Bella Birds

Accessories: SU! Chocolate wide satin ribbon; Bazzill Wings Bitty Blossoms flowers in Brown and French Vanilla; Dress It Up Swarovski crystals by Jesse James; Martha Stewart scallop lace edge punch

Finding Beauty In The Word

 

After doing the "His Holy Name" challenge on SCS, I decided I might like to do Patter's Scripture challenge as well. I picked "Beauty" (the word for week three) and although the intention was to look at our own beauty as well as the beauty of our heart, I ended up going off the path a bit. I came upon this verse from Hosea 14:6 

"His branches shall spread;

His beauty shall be like an olive tree,

And his fragrance like Lebanon."

(NKJV)

So I went to my other Bible that I use a lot ( life application study Bible, NIV) and looked up that passage, and here is what it said about it:

"When our will is weak, when our thinking is confused, and when our conscience is burdened with a load of guilt, we must remember that God cares for us continually; his compassion never fails. When friends and family desert us, when co-workers don't understand us, and when we are tired of being good, God's compassion never fails. When we can't see the way or seem to hear God's voice, and we lack courage to go on, God's compassion never fails. When our shortcomings and our awareness of our sins overcome us, God's compassion never fails." 

So, although I did not end up reflecting on  "my own beauty",  I certainly found beauty in The Word. I was truly blessed by this study, as I feel God spoke to me the words He wanted me to hear. And that alone, is beautiful!

I hope you may see the beauty in this verse as well, and be blessed by God's word.

Thanks for stopping by!

Items I used for this 6x6 page:

Paper: SU! Always Artichoke: SU! Brushed Gold c/s; designer papers by K&Company; handmade paper by Darice

Accessories: Pearl ribbon strand; brass corner findings; Cross sticker by Jolee's Boutique

Parisian Bluebird

I LOVE the new Parisian Specialty textured paper from Stampin' Up! The colors are so very pretty and the texture and thickness are so great for layering. I also love the Friends 24~7 stamp set. Together, this is what I came up with. I had wanted to make these for the SCS DORK/PSF Spring swap I am doing, but I didn't have enough of the paper :-( I did come up with a similar card using other papers and colors which I will post at swap time.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what I have been doing. Hopefully there will be more stamping going on in my studio later today!

Items used to make this card:

Stamps: SU! Friends 24~7

Ink: Chocolate Chip; Close To Cocoa; Baja Breeze

Paper: Baja Breeze; Kraft; PTI White c/s; Parisian Breeze specialty papers

Accessories: Marvy circle and scallop circle punches; Baja Breeze double stitched ribbon; paper piercing tool and mat pack; Aqua painter; Watercolor Wonder crayons; Accents & Elements Flower Fusion Too; brads (unknown); Robin's nest dew drops; lots of dimensionals and glue dots!