Thanks a million...

Hi Everyone. I wanted to extend sincere thanks to EVERYONE who participated in the Thank You Blog Hop for Madeline at The Shabby Vanity . It was a lot of fun hopping around to all of the blogs and reading your comments. I especially loved reading what everyone is so thankful for. Thank you so much for sharing a personal part of yourselves.

I need a little time to read through all of the comments and then I will use the random widget to determine who wins. I hope to have the name posted later today. I will also contact the winner via email and also share the winner's email address with Madeline so that she can reach out to you so that you can discuss your blog makeover.

In the meantime, please take a closer look at the blogs of my sister bloggers who participated in the hop. They are extremely talented and creative.

Please keep your eyes open for more blog hops and challenges at Now Stamp This.

Thank You Blog Hop

Our dear, sweet Madeline deserves a special Thank You. Her dedicated clients have decided to say Thank You in the form of a Blog Hop. Madeline, owner of The Shabby Vanity is a talented blog designer. I contacted Madeline on a Saturday and my blog was complete by the following Saturday. Oh, and did I mention that within that week, Madeline was in the hospital having a baby. That's dedication.

I've decided that, as a special treat to all of you "hoppers" I will give away something absolutely fantastic for those of you who are interested. It is what we in the blog world like to refer to as BLOG CANDY. My blog candy is a custom blog design by, who else, The Shabby Vanity . Yes, some lucky "hopper" will win a custom blog redesign by our dear, sweet Madeline. But, you must follow the rules. They are:

1. You must hop along and post comments on all of my sister blogs listed below.
2. You must be a follower of my blog.
3. You must leave me a comment telling me what you are most thankful for. This part is important. I REALLY want to know what you are most thankful for. It could be a spouse, your kids, this fantastic hobby, anything.

I will select a winner on Sunday, January 30th using the random integer widget on my page. So, the first person to leave a comment is #1, the second is #2, you know how this works. Please leave only one comment. Multiple comments does not increase your chances for winning.

Now, on to the good stuff. My sister bloggers who are also customers of Madeline at The Shabby Vanity have created some fantastic projects for you to review and comment on. Please use the links below to hop around and show my sister bloggers some love. They might have some fabulous blog candy as well. You never know how lucky you might get on this blog hop.

My sister bloggers are:
1. Raven
2. Ruthie
3. Theresa
4. Jennifer
5. Erika
6. Kristin
7. Angela
8. Melissa
9. Michele - YOU ARE HERE RIGHT NOW!!!!

10. Zeni

Oh, yes, one last thing... my project. I wanted to design a card that would blend the essence of my blog design with my favorite Cricut cartridge and my favorite colors. Sassy, Forever Young and the color pink. I really hope you enjoy my project. I've posted the recipe below for your convenience.

Thanks So Much

Recipe:

Forever Young cricut cartridge; Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, Pink Passion Stampin Up Cardstock; White gel pen (for the faux stitching); Pink satin ribbon from Michael's, Designer paper from Hobby Lobby.

Special thanks to Raven for organizing this blog hop. We are lucky to have you as a sister blogger. Please don't forget to visit The Shabby Vanity if you are interested in a custom blog design. You will not regret working with Madeline. She's the best!

Bland, Boring and just plain BLAH!!!!!

Hi Everyone.

Today I wanted to post pictures of my craft room. Last week, I purchased three small storage units from Ikea, and it took me a week to get them assembled. Once they were assembled and put in place and everything organized I realized just how boring my creative space is. So, I'm posting pictures in the hopes that someone can offer suggestions as to how to liven up my crafting space a little. I'm open to paint, art and some funky colorful curtains. Okay, here we go...

OWH - Happy Birthday, girl

Hi Everyone. As some of you may have heard I have committed to sending Operation Write Home (OWH) 10 cards per month. This is such a great organization. They are sending hand stamped cards to the troops for encouragement, or sending them to the troops so that they can in turn mail them back home to family members. One thing that I rarely make are kid-centric cards, so I've committed to sending 10 kid-centric birthday cards to OWH so that our service men and women can send them home to their kids. What better way to start than with a girl card with two of my favorite things: the color pink, and cupcakes.

Happy birthday, baby girl.

Recipe: From My Kitchen Cricut Cartridge; Cricut Expression; Hobby Lobby pink designer paper; Stampin' Up card stock (Pretty in Pink, Pink Passion, Basic Black, Real Red, Green Galore); $1 ribbon from Michaels, card is 5x5 but will be remade to A2 size per OWH requirements.

You like me, you really like me

Karen over at Still Young and Croppin' gave me my very first blog award. Please stop by Karen's blog to check out her fabulous work and show her some love in the comments section.

This is a pay-it-forward style award. Here are the rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this.
2. Share 8 things about yourself
3. Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards.

So here are 8 things about myself:

1.My favorite color is Pink.

2. I could eat seafood every single day and never get tired of it.

3. I like World War I documentaries.

4. I love watching old black and white movies, and will salivate over silent movies.

5. I'm in a wine club for my love of good food and socializing, not so much for the wine.

6. My ideal job is being a writer for a magazine like Essence or In Style.

7. I love to jump in my car and go for long rides.

8. I HATE SNOW AND COLD WEATHER!!!!!

Here are the 8 bloggers I'd like to share this award with.

1. Meredith Scraps

2. Renee

3. P-Kay Sunshine

4. Scrap Innovations

5. Kay Tee Designs

6. Kaleptra Designs

7. From Me to U Paper Crafting

8. Unique Monique

I resolve to...

One recurring theme on lots of crafting blogs over the last 3 days seems to focus on crafting resolutions. As someone who spent 20+ years resolving to loose weight and get healthy every New Years, I no longer make resolutions. But then I saw these crafting resolutions and I thought it might be fun to play along. So, below is my list of 2011 Crafting Resolutions.

1. Perfect my Copics coloring technique. Practice. Practice. Practice.

2. Dive into the world of digi stamps.

3. Remove all newly purchased Cricut cartridges from their plastic casing and use them, at least once.

4. Update my blog more frequently.

5. Keep my craft room organized.

6. Use what I buy and not just collect (hoard).

There you have it. My list in no particular order. In an attempt to get organized, I've even listed project deadlines on a calendar so that when I need to deliver an order to someone, I'm not rushing to get it completed (I am hoping that this also helps me keep the craft room organized).

We'll see how it goes...