AmAzing

I did something amazing today.
Well, at least amazing TO ME. I cleaned out my email 'inbox'.

For the first time in...well, never, I gleaned my emails down from
several hundred to only...drum roll please!

8!
Yes, you read right. I have only 8 emails in my inbox!!!!

Yeah! (I don't know why that makes me so happy,
but it does.)

Wanna know what else is AMAZING?

This little lady:

Her name is Helen, and she is my husband's grandma.

Helen and I share the exact same birthdate!
Except I was born several decades after her, of course.

This August Helen turned a mere 97 years old!
Way to go Helen!
You are an inspiration to us all.
At her age it's cool to state proudly how old you are, but
at my age...well, let's just say I'm 29 and holding. HA!

I hope I make it to 97 years too!!!

Little LOVE-ly Mailboxes

Yesterday I went to Tina's home and learned how to make these cute Valentine mailboxes.

Aren't they ADORABLE??

Here's the lovely Tina and her cutie-pie doggy, Eva. Check out Tina's blog, and all the wonderful things she makes here.

I just couldn't resist...I had to hold Eva too. Smile Eva!

Julia & Judy, the Stampin' Up girls taught us how to make these. Here's my finished products. Check out Julie's blog to see all the cute stuff she makes including these mailboxes.

I L.O.V.E. it!!!
And guess where you can get the undecorated, plain mailboxes? The dollar section at Target! Awesome!

I ran over there and got me a few more mailboxes to decorate. Look what else you can get in the dollar aisle...Valentine paper!

When I got home my daughter and I made more mailboxes.

My mom gave me this cupid punch years ago. I finally got to use it.

Pretty mailboxes all in a row.

Ready to be filled with surprises...

Thanks Tina, Julie and Judy for the inspiration!

These mailboxes were a cinch to make...just cover with scrapbook paper and embellish with ribbon, buttons, stamped images etc...Have fun!

Pumpkin Package!

Yesterday I was so excited!
I got a package in the mail...actually I got 2 packages,
but one was just flea killer for my dog...
but the other was this:

I saw that it was from my friend and fellow blogger Tricia,
so I knew it had to be something GOOD!

It was one of her cute, crepe paper pumpkins!
Isn't it precious?

I think it's loaded with treats, but I didn't want to
open it and mess up its cute-ness.
Visit Tricia's blog here and find out how to make your own!

THANK YOU TRICIA!

Childhood Letters

One of my very first friends in the world was a girl named Kelly.
Kelly and I met in kindergarten and lived in the same neighborhood.
Everyday we walked to school together.
We were both skinny and often got teased for being the tallest girls in the class.

I think that's why we formed a bond so early on.
Throughout our childhood we wrote each other letters and notes.
Guess what?
I still have those letters!

All 30-something of them...

The funniest notes are the ones we wrote in junior high.
Kelly was the Bee Gees #1 fan and quite obsessed
with Barry Gibb, I might add.

The movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band
came that year, and we must have seen it
at least half a dozen times!

Then we started writing each other letters as "Yvonne" (Barry Gibb's wife) and "Linda" (Robin Gibbs wife). Is that a riot or what?!!!

Being the save everything-pack-rat that I am, I found these letters recently and laughed my booty off reading them again!

Thanks to Facebook I recently found Kelly again, and decided to send her a surprise for her birthday. Since she has teenage daughters of her own I thought she might get a kick out of re-living some her junior high memories!

Pumpkin Progress

Look how my spooky pumpkins turned out!
Their "scars" have healed over, and now
they look positively goulish!

Don't they look FABULOUS?!

I LOVE the drippy, GOULISH look of this one.

And how about the SLASHER look of this one?

Here's my FAVORITE one...
A special birthday gift for my 42nd birthday.
I love it!

My Pretty Pumpkins!

Are you growing pumpkins in your backyard?

Does it look like my punkies are growing words on them??

My cousin told me that if you scrape words or designs on a pumpkin while it is still growing, the scraped parts will "heal" over and looked etched in!
Isn't that COOL?

I LOVE IT!

Here's our last name etched in a pumpkin that hasn't turned orange yet.

My daughter plucked this beauty from the garden 2 weeks ago 'cause she was so excited to have a pumpkin. Hopefully he'll last 'til Halloween!

It may be only August...
but never too early to get excited about PUMPKINS!

Love is in the Air!

Love must be in the air...
'cause I noticed that Emilie's hubby brought her home
some beautiful cabbage roses for no reason at all, and
Jen's sweetie whisked her away on a romantic get-a-way here.

Then out of nowhere, my hubby came home with these:

It's not often that this happens so I was quite excited.
I wondered why, but the card just said,
"I love you very much. Thanks for being you."

I guess I'll keep him.

Surprises in the Garden

I'm not really a gardener, but I had to post these photos of our garden as a tribute to my hubby 'cause he works so hard to make it look nice!

This is the BEST our hydrangeas have ever looked! I think this is the 3rd year we've had them, and each year they come back a different color and look better'n better!

This little guy is looking better than ever too! After 4 years it's finally flowering! Amazing what a drip water system can do for your plants!

This is an area in progress. That old-fashioned water pump was left there by the previous home owners. We love it! It originally had an old wine barrel under the spout and it was rigged up to run water thru the pump into the barrel. The barrel eventually rotted away, so we are looking for a new one.

Hey! Look what sprouted up in the vegetable garden from 2 years ago!

A PUNKY! How fun...can't wait to see how big he gets!

Now go here and see some great gardens!

Happiness is a "Lovely" Award

Marci at All Things Wonderful
gave me this award!

Thanks Marci!
I think you deserve to have it given right back to you!
But I'm supposed to pass it on to other
"lovely" blogs that I've discovered.

So here's the rules:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I don't get out much blog-wise due to my minimal computer time...

But there are a few blog peeps who I like to check up on from time to time just to see what they're up to...I apologize that I don't comment much, but I

vow to get better about that!

I would like to pass this award along to these 3 blogs that I enjoy visiting:

1. Jackie at Empty Nest Full Life because her blog has just the right mix of crafts, family, recipes and real life! Thanks for sharing Jackie!

2. Tina at Lemondrops Good Stuff because Tina does not only possess a true crafter's heart, but also writes from her heart! Thanks Tina!

3. Jill at A Pocket Full of Posies because I enjoy all her posts about her lovely home and decorating ideas. Thanks Jill!

Just Dreaming...

Have you seen one of these in person?
It's the Miele Plumbed Coffee System: Built in Coffee Maker and Espresso Machine.
It is AMAZING and I am in LOVE with it!

I had my one and only encounter with this wonderful piece of machinery
at that baby shower I was raving about in my last post.
When I was at the shower I asked the hostess where the coffee carafe was so I could help myself to a cup of coffee. She told me to grab a cup and come in the kitchen.

She lead me to the most beautiful coffee machines I'd ever seen
built into her kitchen cabinets.

The hostess placed the cup under the spout and a minute later I had this fresh-ground frothy, creamy, steaming hot cup of pure ambrosia...
I thought I had died and gone to heaven!!!



I didn't know that fresh-ground and brewed coffee came out
frothy and creamy like that! Who needs cream?!

When I got home, I, of course, decided I needed to have me one of these
machines. It would be my hubby's best friend after all...

Well, I discovered it would only set me back about
$2,950.00 on sale {regularly $3,149.00}.

But, hey we're worth it, right?
The hostess did say it was their favorite thing in their home!

I think I'll just dream about it for now...