May 19th Weekly Post

 Hello again!

It has been a while since I've posted. In my defense, I guess I needed the break and I didn't realize it's been almost 4 weeks! They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit, which I may have done. I will confess I forced myself to create this post, lol. 

I hope everyone who celebrated had a good Mother's Day. I used the Artist Postcard I made for Sunday Postcard Art a few weeks back to make this card for my 96 y.o. mother-in-law. We took it to her, along with a pretty flowery plant and some chocolates. Had a great visit and she loved her pressies.

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I received another orchid for my Mother's Day. This is the third one Dear Daughter has given me. I'd told her last year I wanted multiple plants, so now I have 3 and I'm good for now. Love my sweet girl!

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Since I last posted, I've been deep into trying to eat 90 grams or more of protein every day. I'm now old enough that I need to eat more of it because old farts can lose half their muscle mass and this is the only way to keep or regain some. If you have ever tried to do this, you know that it's pretty hard to do without ingesting 4,000 calories a day or spending a fortune on protein drinks or powders. It's taken a lot of my spare time to research and source items when we aren't working on the new house. But for 6 weeks now I've been drinking an Ensure Max Protein drink (Cafe' Mocha flavor) within the first 30 minutes after waking up. And I definitely feel a positive difference in multiple ways. Some days I can go for 3 hours before remembering to fix a cup of coffee!

So here are a few protein bowl meals I made and eaten that I remembered to snap.

This one adds onto a regular meal. I think this was 23 grams. I had to also eat a string cheese to get up to 30 grams.

Next up, this one gave me 36 grams protein.

This meal is about 35 grams of protein.

And this salad with egg, ham and grated cheese hits at exactly 30 grams.

As you can see, I sometimes have to combine foods I might not think go together, lol.

My weirdest yet was a snack of cottage cheese as a dip for buffalo protein chips, but it tasted pretty good!

I also plan to experiment adding protein-inclusive powders to my bread maker recipes. This one is a faux sourdough loaf I made using my last yeast packet right before packing the machine up to move it. (I'd already cut off the rounded top and sliced a few slices, then thought oh I better take a photo lol.) It was delicious, I ate every slice myself (ok, Honey was able to grab a few haha). But making more will have to wait a few months until we get completely moved.

Anyway, I'm also doing weight-bearing exercises so that the added protein doesn't go to waste in my body. Combined with climbing up and down stairs every day, I'm getting a good workout. At first I was exhausted, but with the protein and extra workout, it has very much helped my stamina and as a bonus I am continuing to lose weight. Right now, we are retrofitting the kitchen pantry and a few other closets. The wire racks that are in the pantry are not nearly enough storage space, so we are adding wood shelving. We are also making some adjustments to our master bedroom closet. This is all in addition to moving boxes and large items from old house to new. It seems like an endless task right now. And this will be the same thing I will be doing in a month or two, so I thought I'd update so far, but the scenery won't be changing really until the Fall.

I know some of you are thinking, what is the hold up? Why aren't you moved yet? And please let me say this with love: you have no idea how much stuff we have to move or what it feels like to live in our bodies, so please don't be worried about it, we aren't. We'll get there. I did warn you it would be several months and trust me, no need to keep asking if we are done yet, I will for sure announce it!

I apologize in advance if I sound rude. I do not mean it to be, it's just that I'm getting a bit tired of folks in real life and online thinking I need to be done with moving.

That's all.

✌💗💪

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I'll end this post by sharing a card I made a girlfriend who is a fellow coffee lover.

The coffee pot and cup, as well as the Java sentiment die are Stamplorations. The patterned paper is Echo Park. The Happy Birthday die is HunkyDory. The balloon dies are various brands. I colored the pot and cup with Promarkers.

And the sketch I used.

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Hopefully, I'll be successful in posting more often from now on.

I will definitely be posting on May 31st, as that's my next time to guest host at Sunday Postcard Art.

Until next time,

XXXO

April 22nd Weekly Post

 Happy Humpday!

Michele hosts this week's Sunday Postcard Art with a FACES theme.

I took a pre-cut 4x6 piece of white card stock and I stenciled a background with A Colorful Life's Cracked stencil and Uncharted Mariner, Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord Distress Inks. Next, I got out some DCWV Gold Foiled Cardstock and cut the Jane Davenport Tousled die, leaving all the bits in place and adhered it. Then I stamped a Paper Artsy quote with I/O black hybrid ink. If you cannot make out the words, it's a quote from Helen Keller: "Keep your face to the sun, and you will never see the shadows."

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I made this for a UK friend whose birthday was yesterday.

White Recollections card base, Pink Paislee designer papers, Spellbinders mat dies, Stamplorations cupcake dies, Avery Elle sentiment stamp, Promarkers.

The sketch I used.

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And here's a photo-dump of sorts -- just recent miscellaneous moments:

It's been Texas Ruby Red grapefruit season and it's my favorite fruit, with apples a close second.

We had strawberries again this year. This is the last one.

A recent avocado burger night with some yummy air-fried potato crown tots.

File this one under What A Difference A Year Makes. 

The orchid plant on the left is this year's gift from Dear Daughter.

The one on the right that is blooming was last year's gift.

It really amazed and pleasantly surprised us with its prolific blossoms!

And I finally got out for lunch with two of my closest girlfriends.

We had so much fun visiting over delicious Tex-Mex for over 3 hours!

Well, that's all from me this time.

Hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend!

XOX

April 14th Weekly Post HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my HONEY!

 Hey there!

Hope your weekend was good and your week is going well.

Marion is hosting this week's Sunday Postcard Art with a SHAKESPEARE theme.

I looked in my stamps for anything appropriate and came up with Cornish Heritage Farms castles/buildings and a Scrollswork Elizabethan couple embracing. So I stamped the buildings on a 4x6 precut torn-edge watercolor card, sketched a scene around them and then stamped the couple on another piece of card and fussy cut it. I colored my scene with watercolors, added the couple and the sentiment which was created in PSE and printed out. Since my sentiment is from a Shakespearean play set in Medina, Sicily, I searched images of it online and tried to make my sketched scene look like that area. 

Don't know how close I came but I tried!

Heehee

All's well that ends well!

😎
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And speaking of couples, my better half turns 74 today!

  H A P P Y   B I R T H D A Y    H O N E Y  !!!

I got out Creative Stamping Issue 99's Sentimentally Yours stamps, my Amazon bee wreath die, a Momenta small bee die and Pink Paislee's Queen Bee designer papers to make this card for him. I needed something round to put behind the wreath and found this Webster's Pages round die cut. I stamped the bee balm on the vertical strip element and colored with Promarkers, as I did the center die cut bee. I made his wings blue to blend with the round paper piece. I stamped the sentiment on some yellow vellum, heat-embossed it, outlined the top line with a white gel pen, die cut it with Clear Dollar Stamp label dies and some brown scrap card, and popped it onto the card with foam tape.

Used this sketch, stretching it to 6x6.

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Well, that's what I have this time.

Hope your week goes well.

Thanks for the visit!

XOXO

April 5th Post - Happy Easter!

 Good Blessings to all this Easter weekend!

We are having another mini cool front right now. Any time that the temperature barely reaches 70F in the daytime is cause for calling it a cool front this time of year, lolol.

Thanks for all the health well wishes! My shoulder blade pain is taking its ever-loving time recovering, but it is getting better slowly. I alternate Bengay cream and Aspercreme spray on it. Bio Freeze did nothing, but I noticed after applying that it was expired. I actually ended up throwing out multiple expired products. I bought them to have on hand, but since I only reach for Bengay and Aspercreme, I won't be buying anything else anymore. I did have some patches, but they really do not work on me for a long enough time to justify the gymnastics necessary for application, HA! If anyone has a go-to for topical pain relief, please let me know what it is in the comments! I am always on the lookout!

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This week's theme at Sunday Postcard Art is HARES/RABBITS and is hosted by Sabine. I used Our Craft Lounge's Hoppy Anna Mae stamp set to stamp and heat-emboss this little scene with Nocturne VF-Clair ink and clear embossing powder. I also added the Posh bunnies stamp to the foreground. The sky and grass are watercolored. The rest is colored with Promarkers.

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Last week's theme at SPA was DRAGONFLIES. I made this for it but didn't finish in time so I'm sharing now anyway. I colored the base watercolor paper with an aqua watercolor. Then I die cut some greenery for the background out of green card using a Spellbinders 4x6 Botanical Swirls die. After I cut it, I stamped it with a Hero Arts Lattice cling stamp and Brilliance Pearlescent Thyme ink before layering onto the base. I outlined the edge of the card with a black Promarker and added a Pronty Crafts quote. The Technique Tuesday dragonflies were stamped with Versamark and heat-embossed with Ranger Fine Detail Gold powder on light gold vellum, then fussy cut and added to finish.

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And I made this Easter card for Honey's mom. I had The Paper Shelter's Funny Bunny already printed out in my Easter box, along with the die cut Impression Obsession sentiment and Sizzix Sizzlit strip eggs border. I used a white Recollections card base and Simple Stories designer papers. I cut the designer papers using stitched dies by The Stamps of Life and MFT. I colored the bunny with Promarkers and accented with a gold Sakura gel pen.

And here's the sketch I used.

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That's it for me this time.

I plan to catch up reading blogs later today.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week ahead.

Thanks for visiting!

XXO

March 27th Weekly Post

 Helloooo! (Or, should I say Hellurrrr, for any Madea/Tyler Perry fans? heehee)

Oy!

This week has been somewhat brutal for me physically. Wrapping china and glass within an inch of their lives, filling and labelling into boxes, taking boxes to the new house (thankfully downstairs), unwrapping and filling shelves in the butler pantry, up and down a rickety ladder. Again and again. Flattening out the used wrapping paper and bubble wrap and rinse and repeat.

Well, I have apparently 'pulled something' in my back Wednesday, right inside my left shoulder blade between that and my spine. The pain has settled there and on up to my neck. So we took yesterday off and I relaxed by making a postcard for this week's SPA. But this morning I woke with my fumble fingers on both hands swollen to the hilt. My ankles and feet are fine, just my fingers. I remembered that one of my rheumatologists told me that a pinched nerve can cause finger/hand swelling, so that talked me down off the crazy ledge, because I was starting to get worried. I can still type, so I decided to make a post while waiting for Honey to wake up so he can Ben-Gay my back.

The theme at Sunday Postcard Art this week is Spring and is hosted by Sarah. 

I used one of my 4x6 pre-cut torn-edge watercolor cards, got out some very old Fontwerks alpha stamps designed by Elsie Flannigan (anyone remember her from like 2009?) called Happy Corina:

Anyway, I stamped Happy Spring using these alpha stamps, heat-embossed and then I also stamped and heat-embossed a Kimberly Poloson for Fiskars border at top and bottom. I used green VF-Clair ink and clear powder for that. Then, I got out my watercolors, painted the background bright yellow. I found two big and little flower stamps and with VF-Clair pink and purple ink I stamped them all around the card. I got out my Posca paint pens, made little blue blossoms on the border and filled in the letters with various paint colors. I added some glittery centers with a Sakura gel pen and then used a fat chisel point turquoise Posca around the perimeter to color the outside edge of the card. And done! Not really complicated or hard at all, just made it to play and participate.

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My online friend Alyson had her birthday on the 21st and this is what I sent her.

I used Avery Elle's Red and Goldie stamp set for the Red Riding Hood characters and the sentiment, stamping with Nocturne VF-Clair ink and heat-embossing with clear powder. I fussy cut Red and Fox then colored with Promarkers. I created a background for them with DOX ink and a Memory Box stencil after cutting the pieces out of white card and green dotted Lawn Fawn card using a Lawn Fawn polaroid frame die. The rest of the designer papers are Pink Paislee Old School collection. I die cut them using The Stamps of Life stitched rectangle dies (and the plaid strip was cut using an LDRS stitched strip die). White Recollections card base. I really liked how this came out. Using coordinated dies for the stitching effect helped the look, I think. 

Happy Birthday, Dear Friend!

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Well, that does it for me this time.

Off to stretch real good and back to work packing boxes!

😝💩😛

Thanks so much for the visit and your patience during these moving months!

Seeya next time!

XOXOX