October Birthdays

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted. To tell the truth, I'm not much of a writer so that probably accounts for not blogging very often. I was so busy with my son's wedding that I hardly had time to breath. Now that things have calmed down, my schedule is back to normal,  my house decorated for fall, I can get back to what I was working on in my craft room!

I have a birthday card to share with you. I made it for a very good friend of mine who I also work with. She works out of our Massachusetts office. Although I don't get to see her but maybe twice a year, we talk and email each other on a daily basis. She is like a sister to me.

Her birthday is the same day as my baby sister's birthday which is this Sunday, Oct 13. I liked how the card turned out so I duplicated it and made a 2nd one which I will give to my sister!

My sister loves her flowers and plants in her gardens, so she'll be sure to love the pattern paper I used. It's from the Graphic 45 line "Secret Garden"

The white and purple cardstock is from Michael's craft store, the lace, ribbon, flower and purple gems are from my stash, stick pin from Prima, the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

 One of my favorite holidays, Halloween, is right around the corner so I plan to be holed up all weekend making cards and treat bags for all the little ghosts and goblins that will be coming up the walkway, ringing my doorbell, and doing tricks for treats!
Good night!
N~

Wedding pics

Happy Sunday!
The big day has come and gone already. But what a beautiful day it was. Sun was shining, rained while we were in church and by the time we left the church, the sun was back out! Is it true when they say rain brings good luck on your wedding day?!
I have a ton of pictures but will only bore you with just a few. These are from my smart phone. Can't wait to see the professional pictures taken by the photographer!

They are not married yet! The polish have a custom where the parents bless the couple before leaving for the church. In this picture, they are leaving for the church after the blessing. The bridesmaid to the far right in background is my daughter Dana.

 

 

My godson Aiden was their ring bearer. The flower girls dresses were handmade in Poland and shipped over to the states.

The whole wedding party - all 29 of them!

And here I am, the happy mother of the groom. My sister took this picture before the guests started arriving.

And that is it from me today. I am spending the afternoon cleaning and organizing my craft room. I am hoping to get motivated to start making cards again! My workspace is a disaster! Have a great week and hopefully I'll be back next weekend with some new cards to share.
Until then -
Nancy

Bridal shower pics

My word - planning a wedding- or should I revise that and say planning a wedding for over 350 people is a lot of work! And I am only the mother of the groom - I can't imagine what the bride and bride's mother are going through...well, yes I can! The big day is coming up - 6 days and counting..

The bridal shower was a huge success. And I would say 97% of all whom were invited came. I am sharing just a couple pictures that someone took with my inexpensive camera. Most of the pictures were taken with my cell phone. And I have to be honest with you - these high tech smart phones can be very confusing. So as soon as I find time to go on their website and figure out how to download the pictures off my phone and onto my computer, I should have more pictures to share.

This picture is of the groom-to-be and his little sister! Quite a few people chose to wear the color coral to the shower - even the bride-to-be!

I'm not sure who took this picture, sorry for the blurriness! This picture is of the moms and the soon to be Mr. & Mrs.

Monica, our Maid of Honor has been a huge help - she helped with the planning of the bridal shower. She also acted as a translator since polish is the dominant language on the bride-to-be's side of the family! In addition, she planned all the festivities for the bachelorette party, and is now planning a few little events for the morning of the big day as the girls are getting ready!  One of the 'events' is asking the moms, close girlfriends and the groom to write a letter to the bride. She will collect these letters at the rehearsal dinner. The morning of the wedding, as the bride is getting ready, she will read the letters. Such a sweet and loving gesture! So I made a card and will plan to write my thoughts and sentiments inside. I took this layout off the back of a Melissa Frances sticker sheet!

All papers and stickers are from Melissa Frances, metal heart is from Blue Moon, heart stick pin is from Maya Road. Ribbon, flower and pearls are from my stash.

I'm off to write my letter to the bride. Enjoy the rest of your week!
N~

I'm still here...

Yes, believe it or not, I'm still around. I've been very busy with preparations for the upcoming bridal shower for my son Jake and future DIL Joanna.
But first of all I want to extend a belated happy 4th of July to everyone! For once, in a long time, we saw the sun and the temps here were mid 70's to low 80's.

As I mentioned earlier, the bridal shower is in a few weeks. Joanna had asked if I would make the invitations. I was honored but started to panic! I lack self-confidence when it comes to stuff like this. And I knew the invitation list would be lengthy. As it turned out, I mailed 66 invitations - yikes! I knew I had to keep it simple since I would be making so many.

 
First I printed on white card stock the information for the shower along with the couple's engagement picture. I inserted from Google Images the double hearts and printed in purple ink. After sizing and cutting them out, I trimmed the bottom using a lacy punch by Martha Stewart. I layered the white card stock on top of pansy card stock on top of silver card stock which was purchased at Michaels. I added the purple and silver bow with a glue dot as the finishing touch.
Between shopping for my dress, shoes and jewelry for the wedding, I've also been helping plan the shower. Having so much fun doing it, but miss being able to putz around in my craft room making cards and mini albums etc.
That is it from me for awhile. I'll be sure to share some pictures from the shower!
N~

Celebrate today

Hello! Just popping in to share a birthday card I made for a friend that I work with. Her real birthday is Thursday, 5/30, but she has had all of us celebrating it all month!

I used pattern papers and a card stock image from the Authentique "Grace" collection. Doily die cut and stamped sentiment are from Papertrey Ink and heat embossed using Ranger Seafoam white embossing powder, self adhesive pearls are from Hero Arts, pearl stick pin is Prima, ribbon and flower are from Michaels. The coral colored cardstock is from Stampin Up and lacey punch is Martha Stewart.

I had a landscaper come during the week to cut down a tree that was dying, pulled out some dead bushes, trimmed and shaped the boxwoods, added garden soil, mulch, edged, trimmed trees - front and back yards - the whole package! It looks so manicured!
Here are a couple of pictures of the front and side:

 

And the back:

 

 

 

Now I have lots of bare spots that need to be filled in. So I am on my way out to visit some local nurseries to get ideas and see what is available out there.

Have a wonderful week ahead!
N~

Graduation

It's been quite some time since I've posted thanks to my computer problems! My BIL looked at my laptop for me and thought he had fixed it. But no, nothing is ever that simple! So my daughter took it to work with her and the IT person had it for a few days. Long story short, he got it up and running but advised me to start looking for a new one. I'm sure you heard of the saying: "when it rains, it pours"!  I have encountered a few other roadblocks in the last couple weeks but I'll save that for another post-heehee!

My great niece and nephew have graduated 8th grade this year. They are my late sister's grandchildren. My, how the years fly by! So in honor of their happy day, I pulled out my Graphic 45 "ABC Primer" collection. Both cards are CAS.



For Cameryn:

 

And for Brendon:

 

 

 

Lastly, a quick picture of Jake & his fiancé Joanna outside of the church after making his confirmation a few Sundays ago:

 

 

And no, that limo in the background was not for them; although it makes a nice background - lol!

 

Thanks for taking a peek. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

N~

 

 

1st Communion

What a beautiful Sunday it is! Temps should get to the low 70's today. This weather really puts one in
a happy mood!
I'd rather be outdoors today, however, my son who is getting married in August is making his Confirmation today. If you are catholic, you know what that is. Which means we will be in church for most of the afternoon.
But before I start getting ready for this blessed occasion, I want to share with you a card I made for a friend who asked me to make a card for a special little lady who is making her First Communion today. Again, if you are Catholic, you know what that is too!

I took a piece of white cardstock and embossed it using Hero Arts Textured Impressions embossing folder and adhered it to a white card. I glued a strip of gray ribbon and added a bow and silver cord and topped it off with a white pearl. I had a sheet of stickers of different style crosses from another project I had worked on a few years ago so I stuck a cross sticker onto a Spellbinder's Lacy Oval die cut. Added a couple of pop-up glue dots and this is the finished card.

That is it for this Sunday - enjoy your week!
N~